Getting Started

Congratulations on getting into medical school! This page has general advice and major study tools that many students use during their first two years. This wikispace was heavily inspired by CU SOM wikispace. Check it out, especially the Step 1 section!

Additionally, reddit's /r/medicalschool community has a getting started wiki with a fair amount of information on getting started in medical school.

Spaced Repetition

Spaced Repetition is "Evidenced Based Studying". These programs rely on "spaced repetition", which ensures that you see facts you do not know more often than the facts you do know. There are two main camps in spaced repetition: large cards with many facts or small cards with discrete facts.


Anki- Anki is a digital note card platform that relies on spaced repetition for committing facts to memory. Able to know exactly when cards will show again and customizable. Free computer app, Android app, and $25 iOS app.

  • Make your own cards (see Anki Tips), use previous class's decks (see Organ Specific Study Tools), or premade decks (see below)
    • Zanki Step 1 Deck (Physio/Path and Pharm)- This is a 2017 deck made by reddit user Zanki. Includes First Aid, Pathoma, Kaplan and other resources. Click here for an entire list of contents.
    • Brosencephalon- This is a deck made by reddit user Brosencephalon that includes all of First Aid, Pathoma, and Pharmacology from many sources. Clocking in at just under 15,000 cards, it is an excellent source of longitudinal review. Current deck as of 4/28/2017 is Errata 4.
    • SketchyMedical- Made by c/o 2019, this deck has every red dot in SketchyMedical as clozed deletions. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.


Firecracker- Premade cards from First Aid by professionals. Not as customizable as Anki (you have less control over when you see cards again) but it has built in practice tests and longitudinal data to see what your weak spots are. Computer and phone app.


Visual Learning Tools

SketchyMedical- Learning tool that uses pictures and stories to help tie seemingly arbitrary bug and drug facts together. See above for accompanying Anki deck.

Picmonic- Less popular than SketchyMedical, but still good for certain diseases. I memorized the glycogen and lysosomal storage diseases with this program, and there is NO way I could have gotten them down without it.


Supplemental Lecture Material

Dr. Najeeb- A series of lectures in which Dr. Najeeb uses a whiteboard to explain concepts. This resource is for getting the deepest cut of learning material possible. Hours of lectures on every subject. Not the most efficient use of time, but if used correctly, can greatly augment learning.

Pathoma- The go to for high yield pathology review. Series of videos broken into 19 Chapters and a book. "This is high yield, especially for the purposes of board examinations"

Boards and Beyond- Like Pathoma but for everything (physio, path, pharm, stats, etc). Hundreds of videos.

Armando Hasudungan- Excellent youtube videos for a variety of topics

Osmosis- Youtube video series from the people who used to make Kahn Academy medical videos. I personally found this resource too late but it seems solid

Microbe Invader- Flash game where you must collect (kill) them (microbes) all! Actually helped me get a question right on Step 1.


Question Banks

Note that these are best used once you get into systems.


USMLERx Qmax- Question bank from the makers of First Aid. My personal choice of question bank for the first two years.

Kaplan- Another Qbank

UWorld- The go to question bank for step 1. Usually saved for dedicated as the other question banks are good enough for class but people have done well using it throughout the first two years.

Confidence- Free. I didn't find this question bank in time to use it but free is free!


Audio

Goljan- Classic lecture series from Dr.Goljan. See dropbox.