Hi Zelda,
I had a bunch of questions about UTMB and wanted to pick your brain if you have a moment to spare
Do you find UTMB to be much more stressful than undergrad? I found subjects like orgo stressful and most of undergrad was not interesting yet easy to me but I enjoyed physiology, neuroscience, etc. So maybe med. school is more work but more interesting?
How often are exams given? Like every week or 2 weeks? Are they on a certain day of the week and time typically?
With GAR how many total hours a week are you in class and studying? Is it just PBL, lab, POM, any other required campus duties, and studying? It sounds like anatomy lab is: an average of 2.5x a week @ 2 hrs/session = 5 hours/week + PBL is 4 hrs/week + POM 2 hrs/week, and then another 43 hours/week of studying at home. So 55 hours/week which sounds tough. Did you have to be on campus every day of the week during GAR and is GAR 8 or 9 weeks long? After GAR, you said PBL is 6 hrs/week + 32.5 hours/week studying at home + POM 2 hrs/week? So something like 42 hours/week? Were/are there labs too and did you have to be on campus everyday? In general, after GAR, how many days do you have to be on campus? It seems that med school is like a full time job but harder because with a regular office job you get breaks and most people aren't actively working 37.5-40 hours a week (and commute of say 5 hrs a week so 45 hours total), but in med school you're just studying with focus the whole time which is harder.
Since UTMB has a Step 1-curriculum, do they give you practice exams for each block exam? Also, you mentioned Anking and Frankendeck. I've heard of Anking but not Frankendeck. I know Anking is the most popular so is it worth using Frankendeck or just stick with Anking? I've never used Anki before and don't know how to use it really but do you have any recommendations on how to best use it including any plugins?
Does UTMB go over Anki during Meta or how to study well for GAR and other modules? Is META serious and hard? It's 6 weeks long but doesn't seem to teach anything Step 1 related and is there PBL during META for that? How many hours/week is META including class time and study time? And does the actual curriculum start with Module 2 GAR? If GAR is the real curriculum, is it true it started on 8/23/2021 and ended on 10/22/201 for your class? In other words, can we expect that things are easy until GAR starts?
I've heard that studying for anatomy is very different than the later modules and I worry about GAR the most. Subjects where there are logical reasoning like physiology and neuroscience are easier to remember versus anatomy which is mostly rote memorization which is my weak point. I think you said you don't read powerpoints or watch professor lectures so how did you study for GAR to pass? Do you mind giving a breakdown on what review materials you used, what Anki deck you used, and so on for GAR vs the later modules? Do the professor videos or powerpoints tip you on what will be on the exam or are the board review materials enough? Do you frequently watch professor videos at like 1.5 or 2x speed or did you ignore professor videos entirely? I really hate watching lectures and would rather just use review books, anki, and see what could be tested on the powerpoints if that's how it works at UTMB. I've heard that sometimes the professors will clue you in on what to focus for exams in lectures but not sure if I want to slog through so much video in a week even at 1.5-2x speed. Since you mentioned using board review materials to study exclusively how exactly do you know what topics to study and in what detail? For instance, maybe a review book may go enough detail for the Step 1 but maybe not the block exam if you know what I mean.
Also, if I wanted to get a headstart on GAR how would I use Anking and other review materials to do that? Like what topic do you start GAR with and how would one go about studying that from Anking? I'm not going to study before school starts, but I just want to familiarize myself with using Anki, Anking, etc perhaps during META or something.
What happens if you fail an exam, lab practical, or quiz, and how do you remediate if that happens? What grade do you need to generally pass? Do a decent number of people run into that situation? Are there any specific exams, topics, units, or modules that people fail out a lot on? At other schools, I've heard as much as 10% of the class can fail exams or repeat the year. What does it take to fail a course and also be forced to take the year off like you fail one or 2 exams and that's it? You have to repeat the year or you're possibly out? Is there like any foolproof way to passing with confidence like knowing what to expect on the exams, any provided practice exams, or does UTMB do a good job of letting you know what you need to know to pass with a decent margin.
