M2 Year - How to make it not totally suck

M2 year is finally here. Kind of. Technically it doesn't start until you're done with summer classes, but it's basically here. Whatever. Anyway, now that I'm looking back on my M2 year full of regrets, here's some advice and resources that I wish I'd had when I went into it.

The final is I think probably the hardest test I took at Nova. The way they teach it, they basically just list off a ton of drugs and tell you what they're used for and when they're contraindicated, without ever really telling you why. Then the test is full of insane questions. What drug can a pregnant woman take for her leukemia if she's in both liver and kidney failure, and she's allergic to a million things? I don't know. Nobody knows. But the test doesn't care. Study your ass off, but prepare to leave the exam and want to cry.

Radiology is awesome. Dr. Ditchek is the man. He's a really nice guy and he's a good teacher too. You should physically go to class, even if you don't normally. He uses the laser pointer a lot, and the camera in Morris is basically a webcam from the early 2000s, so there will be times when you go to watch a lecture and can't tell what you're supposed to be looking at. The final isn't bad. He makes it very clear that he isn't expecting you to be a radiologist at the end of the class. Don't go insane. If you pay attention in class, you'll be fine.

The rest of M2 year

This is when things get interesting. Each block has its own challenges. There are some professors who are amazing, and some that leave something to be desired. The same issue I mentioned earlier with professors not giving you context about a disease applies here as well. It's like they all assume that someone else told you, but nobody ever did. Because of that, I'd recommend using outside resources to help you. Boards and Beyond is really popular. Dr. Ryan teaches you everything you need to know. He gives you a lot of extra info that you don't necessarily need, but it helps to explain a concept. If you can manage to follow along as you go through class, you'll be in good shape.

What I wish I'd done differently

I went through M2 year and played the game the whole time. I learned what I needed to know to pass the classes. But as soon as dedicated started, I realized that I knew pretty much nothing. There are a ton of great resources out there to help with boards studying. I've spent far, far more time on Reddit than I care to admit. I've sorted through a lot of stuff. Much of it isn't super helpful. An anki deck is always good, but if it's not tagged well, you may as well not bother using it for class, because you'd have to go through 300 cards to cover the ones that were actually relevant. When you're taking 3 or 4 systems at a time, that will kill your time. Personally, I'd really recommend this anki deck. It's tagged SUPER aggressively, and it includes a ton of information from UWorld that isn't in first aid, which should really help you when you go to start studying for boards.

Here's how I'd manage my class load:

1. Watch a lecture on whatever it may be
2. Open up a PDF of First Aid (available through the library here - Scroll down and look on the right side), hit CTRL+F, type in whatever the lecture was on (it may take a few tries), and find the relevant sections in the book
3. Fire up anki, and study the boards cards for that specific lecture (more on how to use anki coming up later)

That will keep your studying as focused and class relevant as possible, which should help you manage your time and learn the material for class, as well as for boards. I can't stress enough how much I wish I'd been studying efficiently as I went. I didn't find that anki deck until it was far too late, but it's not too late for you.

If you decide to use anki, make sure to add notes to the cards as you go. Screenshot a lecture slide and put it in there. Make sure you're actively learning and putting enough context in there so that you'll actually retain it.

When it comes time for tests, there will inevitably be stuff that you don't know and feel like you need to cram. One of the guys in the M4 class, Jared Konner (a real legend) made this anki deck as he went through class. He shared it with us last year, and it saved many, many of us in the last few days before an exam. It's some really good stuff. That I HIGHLY recommend you look at going in to exam weeks.

If you don't like the anki deck I posted up above, there are lots of other options. I won't post them all here, but here's one from Reddit that is based on Boards and Beyond, and is tagged by the video it was in, which should really help you not get totally lost (those videos are dense)

If you have questions, your M3 mentors are a good place to go. Hell, you can send me a message if you want. A lot of stuff you'll figure out as you go, but if you need some guidance, don't be afraid to ask for it.

Lastly, try to avoid going insane. Take some time to sit outside and get some sun. M2 year is rough, but in a totally different way than M1 year. You don't have to be on campus as often, but you'll also find yourself feeling super behind like....all the time. It can get rough. Don't let it break you.

Anki Stuff

OK, I said I'd have more Anki info later. If you don't believe in Anki, go ahead and close this window right now, and then come back when you realize that you might hate anki, but you also love it.

Lets begin by addressing some common issues:

WTF Alex, why does this look like it was made in 1996?

Okay, that's a fair point. I mean, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, odds are pretty good it was made in the 90s. It's a basic program, but it works, and we're going to modify it to make it suck less in the very near future. Okay? Okay.

Anki needs some addons to be reliably useful. So lets add some. To add a tag in Anki, you go up to the top, tools → Add-ons → browse & install.

Hierarchical Tags: Download code 1089921461

This is a really important one for the deck I sent you. Basically it makes it possible to navigate through the mess of cards to find exactly what you're looking for. Here's an example of how things will look

Create Filtered Deck From Browser: Download code 861263371

This one works with the last one. It lets you find that section from First Aid that you need to study, and study just that, without also having a million subdecks (that's how things get lost guys). It's super easy to use, and it makes studying very efficient. Anki can get really frustrating if you don't know how to make it work well for you. Like...super frustrating. This is a great start to having it actually work.

Progress Bar: Download code 2091361802

This one is pretty simple. It just puts a progress bar at the top of the window to help you see how much longer you have to go. It's a small thing, but it helps with the monotonous studying.

That's a pretty good start for now. I could go on all day. Really. There's a lot more that can be done, but most of it you don't really need or probably want.

Visual feedback: Download code 1749604199

This one is a much smaller thing. Every time you hit good on a card, a little green circle flashes as you transition to the next card. Seems dumb, but it's one of those little things that helps with the feeling of super intense boredom that comes with studying a million cards. I don't have a screenshot from it. I tried, but it flashes for like a tenth of a second and, while I'm quick, almost nobody is that quick

Puppy Reinforcement: Download code 1722658993

This one is dumb. That being said, it DOES make a puppy show up to encourage you every now and then. So...do with that what you will. I personally like puppies.

Okay, I posted a deck that I like (though I barely got any of it done because it took so long to find a good one....), so I should probably show you how to make it work for you. Basically, it's as simple as using add-ones (at least hierarchical tags), and knowing what not to click ok. I've made you a handy guide. TL;DR: Only click on things that seem like they're a subject you studied, not some random ass name.

Edit 6/20/2018 9:47 PM

Hey everyone, I've now had 11 people message me about various other anki decks that they've found online, so I figured it might be best to go ahead and address all of those questions now, so that if anyone else has the same question, the answer is there. I've tried most of them (I mentioned I spend a lot of time procrastinating on reddit, right?) So here we go:

Zanki:

It's a great deck. It's the gold standard if you ask most of the internet. I tried to make it work well for me for like a solid 6 months. I have a few issues with it. A few long-winded, kind of pedantic, totally not spite-laden issues.

1) It has like 8,000 more cards than the deck I posted. That's a ton of cards, guys.

2) While it is tagged, it was clearly an afterthought when making the deck. There are a lot of cards that aren't in the right section, and a lot of sections that got molded together. That's really common in boards decks you'll find online. They're mainly made by people going to a pass/fail school where they only take 1 system at a time, and their exams are all made up of old boards questions, so it doesn't so much matter when they learn the material, as long as they learn it. Nova's M2 year is WAY more intense than that, and your grades will get absolutely wrecked if you can't follow along with what the professors are covering. I like the deck I posted because it will let you work right along with class, while also studying for boards. Zanki will also kind of let you, but you may have to study 100 extra cards just to get to the ones you actually need to see on a given day.

3) Zanki doesn't cover UWorld. When you start doing UWorld, you'll read the answer explanations and your mind will be absolutely blown by all the stuff you didn't know. Its a ton of material to take in all at once. The deck I posted covers UWorld. I personally would have liked to know a lot of this stuff before I started boards studying, and I think I would have been much better prepared in that case. When you start boards studying, you really want it to be more about things coming together, refining your knowledge, and working on how you take the test, rather than relearning huge amounts of material. Some of the professors you'll have next year....let's just say their presentations leave a lot to the imagination, so you'll already have to do a lot of relearning. Better to incorporate that knowledge early on, rather than trying to cram it all later (I say this as someone who is still learning the lesson the hard way, wishing I'd made better use of my study time).

4) Zanki is 100% type-1 cards. There is no extra info included. What you're prompted to know is all the info that is provided. Now, if you're only taking one system at a time, whatever. But if one exam will cover Councilman bodies and Mallory-Weiss bodies, and who knows what else, it's nice to have a card that also included UWorld screenshots, and most of the time a typed explanation based on the UWorld question on it. It really helps to give context to whatever you're learning so that you can keep things straight.

5) Zanki doesn't cover micro. There are like...10 cards. Which...isn't enough.

There was a large addendum/expansion to it posted on reddit a few months ago that attempted to fix most of the issues I listed above. The reviews of it are mixed at best. The micro cards are often confusing and badly written. The same can be said for the cards they added to cover UWorld, which don't really do it very well. Also, like 100 people contributed, so the style of card varies A LOT and it becomes hard to know what they want sometimes. I personally really didn't like it. Your mileage may vary.

Broencephalon:

That's what the deck I posted is based off of. Open the card browser and you'll see the name all over the place.

The other random ones your friends from other schools sent that were based on their curriculum:

I honestly don't know what to make of them. My hard drive already hates me enough as it is, so I can't download them and check. But I'd wager that if it's based off of another schools curriculum, it's not the best bet for ours. Just my two cents.

That's my rant.

Alex out