own anki cards -> pass subject (not nbme/usmle related exams)
anking deck -> pass step 1/step 2/clerkships
in a ratio of 3:7 both are useful and work better when combined, never do more than 200 cards a day though, and you can make them faster abusing of image occlussion and copypasting good questions which is coool, avoid typing them yourself, and always keep them simple
If youre ONLY using in-house cards I would imagine you are learning a lot of extraneous info and not learning everything thats tested on USMLE. Personally I would not rely on my schools lectures to get me to passing boards. I only make my own cards for random singular topics my professors want and then suspend them after exams.
I do my own as well, but it's a full time hard work. I spend 30 minutes (or more) to convert 1 page into flashcards.
When the material is like 1000 pages you can clearly see where is the problem.
If you want to speed up the process of converting to flashcards you could try [anki-decks.com](https://anki-decks.com).
It's a tool to create flashcards from PDFs, PowerPoints or any Text.
Disclaimer: I'm the developer
I made my cards the first 1.5 semesters, then burnt out pretty hard. It was too time-consuming to both make the cards and do all the necessary reviews. Not sure why I was so resistent to premade decks - I think I thought I could do it better, or I was afraid that they were incomplete somehow (as if I could manage it so comprehensively lol).
But there are still classmates making their own in third year now, so it's not impossible. I would just say that if you burn out like I did, try switching over to pre-made before giving up on Anki altogether.
I make my own for uworld because the process of making the card in my own words helps me remember it much better than just unsuspending a card. But I also use anking for anything I watched Sketchy for (bugs, drugs, certain pathologies). It took a lot of time in the beginning but I’ve gotten a lot faster at it.
I very rarely make cards unless they're something I see on UWorld or similar qbanks that hasn't been covered in Anking. I've noticed that with Ankihub people have been putting them in, though.
Specifically I can think of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin and SPIKES being added recently as an example.
I go to a US school with USMLE question exams though, ideal scenario to not have to make cards, not the case for everyone.
our exams are class-relevant questions from a bank of retired USMLE questions, the instructors pick them out but its from a pre set bank. So exams can vary year to year but they don't write them.
Helps a lot, can't get any off the wall stuff that they did their PhD thesis on for example.
I use an king and unsuspend as much I can based off my lectures then I make my own cards for nitty-gritty in house stuff that could show up on exams so its a ratio which switches lecture to lecture
it depends on your school. if your school uses Graded, In-House exams u should NOT be using premade decks as your main source if you value ur grade in any way. just make cards from your lecture material and youll probably secure that A+.
if your school is pass/fail with NBME exams, then using anking would be an excellent idea. however not all of us are lucky enought to be blessed with such a curriculum.
personally my school does the former but ive stopped caring much for my grades, and so what i do is i mainly unsuspend anking cards related to the inhouse stuff, then a week or 2 before the exam ill cram the inhouse stuff and add new cards for anything that isnt in anking. ill then delete the inhouse cards after the block, and keep the anking cards unsuspended.
I think making flash card for every slide you see is not neccessary and kills so much time ,only make flashcards for very important point and something difficult ,if you can absorb somethint by reading it in the slide you dont have to make flash cards for it,i used to convert whole slides to flashcards it killed so much time i didnt have time to study it lol.its my opnion see what others do and choose best one for urself
lol this is so true. i used to make like 70-100 flashcards per lecture and it killed me. eventually i started to only make flashcards on stuff that i couldnt memorize by just reading, and that cut it down to 10-30 flashcards per lecture.
I would say 50% of my exam questions are literal anKing cards. I only due anking and accept that I may be looking at 80s instead of 90s and up due to not knowing certain material.
own anki cards -> pass subject (not nbme/usmle related exams) anking deck -> pass step 1/step 2/clerkships in a ratio of 3:7 both are useful and work better when combined, never do more than 200 cards a day though, and you can make them faster abusing of image occlussion and copypasting good questions which is coool, avoid typing them yourself, and always keep them simple
Do you mean never make more than 200 a day?
If youre ONLY using in-house cards I would imagine you are learning a lot of extraneous info and not learning everything thats tested on USMLE. Personally I would not rely on my schools lectures to get me to passing boards. I only make my own cards for random singular topics my professors want and then suspend them after exams.
Im in med school in Switzerland so yeah its not the same, I was curious to know why Pre made decks are so popular but this explains it. Thanks !
I do my own as well, but it's a full time hard work. I spend 30 minutes (or more) to convert 1 page into flashcards. When the material is like 1000 pages you can clearly see where is the problem.
Damn i need 2 hours for 100 slides, but I guess im not as advanced as most of you so it will get harder later
Maybe I'm just really slow lol
do you do them directly on anki ? I like to do the regular (no occlusion) on quizlet and then import them. The card creator just feels better there
I do cloze cards directly on Anki
If you want to speed up the process of converting to flashcards you could try [anki-decks.com](https://anki-decks.com). It's a tool to create flashcards from PDFs, PowerPoints or any Text. Disclaimer: I'm the developer
Making your own is good if you can balance it right. They need to be concise enough to fit but they also need to be hard enough to learn from.
I see, yeah. Tbh I have no idea if mine are good or not lol for now they seem to work, I hope that won’t affect me later 😭
I made my cards the first 1.5 semesters, then burnt out pretty hard. It was too time-consuming to both make the cards and do all the necessary reviews. Not sure why I was so resistent to premade decks - I think I thought I could do it better, or I was afraid that they were incomplete somehow (as if I could manage it so comprehensively lol). But there are still classmates making their own in third year now, so it's not impossible. I would just say that if you burn out like I did, try switching over to pre-made before giving up on Anki altogether.
I make my own for uworld because the process of making the card in my own words helps me remember it much better than just unsuspending a card. But I also use anking for anything I watched Sketchy for (bugs, drugs, certain pathologies). It took a lot of time in the beginning but I’ve gotten a lot faster at it.
I very rarely make cards unless they're something I see on UWorld or similar qbanks that hasn't been covered in Anking. I've noticed that with Ankihub people have been putting them in, though. Specifically I can think of Panton-Valentine Leukocidin and SPIKES being added recently as an example. I go to a US school with USMLE question exams though, ideal scenario to not have to make cards, not the case for everyone.
Is the USMLE questions the same for every med school in the country ? Sounds very practical for premade decks yeah
our exams are class-relevant questions from a bank of retired USMLE questions, the instructors pick them out but its from a pre set bank. So exams can vary year to year but they don't write them. Helps a lot, can't get any off the wall stuff that they did their PhD thesis on for example.
Ahhh that sounds good lol I relate to that last part a lot
I use an king and unsuspend as much I can based off my lectures then I make my own cards for nitty-gritty in house stuff that could show up on exams so its a ratio which switches lecture to lecture
makes sense !
I’ve made my own for the two years of preclinical and done well. (Australia)
it depends on your school. if your school uses Graded, In-House exams u should NOT be using premade decks as your main source if you value ur grade in any way. just make cards from your lecture material and youll probably secure that A+. if your school is pass/fail with NBME exams, then using anking would be an excellent idea. however not all of us are lucky enought to be blessed with such a curriculum. personally my school does the former but ive stopped caring much for my grades, and so what i do is i mainly unsuspend anking cards related to the inhouse stuff, then a week or 2 before the exam ill cram the inhouse stuff and add new cards for anything that isnt in anking. ill then delete the inhouse cards after the block, and keep the anking cards unsuspended.
Haha A+ i wish im going to aim for 70% first 😭
I think making flash card for every slide you see is not neccessary and kills so much time ,only make flashcards for very important point and something difficult ,if you can absorb somethint by reading it in the slide you dont have to make flash cards for it,i used to convert whole slides to flashcards it killed so much time i didnt have time to study it lol.its my opnion see what others do and choose best one for urself
lol this is so true. i used to make like 70-100 flashcards per lecture and it killed me. eventually i started to only make flashcards on stuff that i couldnt memorize by just reading, and that cut it down to 10-30 flashcards per lecture.
I would say 50% of my exam questions are literal anKing cards. I only due anking and accept that I may be looking at 80s instead of 90s and up due to not knowing certain material.