Alright, let’s dive a bit into resources and studying during third year. You really don’t have as much dedicated free time to study compared to the preclinical years of medical school. You really have to learn what works for you and how to squeeze studying into your days while working in the hospital. By the end of the day, you will most likely be exhausted and want to go home and relax. On some rotations, you definitely are able to study during the day a bit, while on others you may not be able to at all. Let’s discuss some of the resources out there and try to prevent resource overload for you!
This is an online video platform that contains videos of high-yield content for each clerkship during the third year. It’s a great resource for visual learners who really enjoyed Boards & Beyond during the preclinical years. The videos were filmed a while ago, but the content provides good background rotations topics. There is an accompanying high-yield PDF textbook for those that would rather read than watch videos. This resource is completely free. You can pay for a subscription which may provide you with more benefits but it is not necessary. You can either pre-watch the content before a rotation starts if you have the time, or you can watch along as you go through the rotation. Click here for full table of contents of all online med ed videos and times.
Many of you may have heard of Osmosis from the preclinical years. They also have a playlist of videos for all clerkship rotations and for USMLE Step 2 Review. The videos are high-yield and decent length that feels manageable to cover. Again you can pre-watch them before the rotation to get a solid background or you can watch as the rotations go. This resource does require you to have a paid subscription. But you can typically get a good flash sale deal or share it with classmates to make it less expensive.
Emma Holliday High Yield Lectures
Emma Holliday’s high-yield lectures have been a study staple of U.S. medical students in the know for several years. They cover high-yield points for shelf exams in pediatrics, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry. The total running time of all lecture videos is just over 8 hours. PDF slides are available for each. It is recommended to watch them at 1.25X or 1.5X speed and do multiple passes if you can (possibly before and at the end of each rotation). This resource is completely free.
You can obviously continue using Sketchy Pharm and Micro as needed. They are great refreshers for certain blocks like Neurology or Psychiatry drugs. Use as you see fit. Sketchy is now expanding and includes new videos relevant to each rotation but this would require you to purchase a subscription.
Anki
You should know all about Anki at this point. If you have been using Anki for the preclinical years you can continue with the Step 2 decks from Anking. Some students have found that Anki worked for them during preclinical but simply don’t have enough time during rotations and stop using it. For those that did not like Anki and did not use it during preclinical this is not the time to start using it. If you have been passing preclinical without the use of Anki then you should not do Anki during rotations. Use prior strategies that have worked for you.
You are probably familiar with Amboss as well. It is a great question bank with explanations and also has high-yield pages for different topics. They have specific question banks and articles that are catered to each clerkship. You can use Amboss as a supplemental question bank if you run out of UWorld questions or you can use Amboss as a primer question bank to do before your pass of UWorld. It is also a super fantastic resource for quick look-up of topics and it outlines neatly clinical features, diagnostics, and treatment plans. It’s nice to have the Amboss app on your phone so you can search on the go if you are on hospital rounds or need quick information about a disease. This resource does require a paid subscription.
This is the question bank of all question banks. It has questions relevant to each shelf exam. As you go through each rotation your goal should be to complete the question bank for the clerkship at least once. If you have extra time you can try to re-do the questions you missed or try to pass through the entire bank twice. You should have UWorld Step 2 access through the medical school.
NBME Exams
There are practice NBME exams online that you can do in the last few weeks coming up to your shelf exam. They are each 50 questions long and are a good representation of the shelf exam and some questions on the practice NBME exams actually end up on the shelf exam. It's good to do them when you have covered more than 50% of the content for your rotation to see where you stand, what your weak points may be, and to build up your stamina for the shelf exam.
This is a clinical search engine used by residents and physicians. It isn’t a primary resource to study for the shelf exam. This is used by students to determine diagnostic steps, criteria, treatment plans, and more when involved with direct patient care. You will use this when in the hospital taking care of patients as your primary resource.
So now that you have been introduced to the core resources during third year we want to simplify things a bit. These core shelf resources can be categorized into three ways: LEARN, APPLY, REMEMBER.
LEARN - all of the resources that you can use to learn new content
OnlineMedEd, Osmosis, Emma Holliday, Sketchy
APPLY - all of the resources that you can use to apply your knowledge of the learned content
UWorld, Amboss, NBME Exams
REMEMBER - all of the resources that you can use to help you recall information in the long-term
Anki, Question Banks (UWorld, Amboss), Spaced review of content on your own
For most rotations, you will find that you can be successful by picking 1-2 sources from each category and using them together. For example, you can use Osmosis videos as your core to LEARN, then you can use UWorld to APPLY your knowledge, and if you choose one method to REMEMBER whether that be Anki or question banks. Question banks are a staple during the third year. If you do nothing but the UWorld question bank for a rotation you should still be able to pass the shelf comfortably but you should complete the entire bank for the clerkship. The question banks revisit a topic multiple times so it serves as spaced repetition. No matter what new rotation you enter, if you pick your core resources to learn, apply, and remember, then this should reduce your stress from all the options that exist out there. Stick to the basics and supplement as needed.