Part of medical school is finding out what works for you.
It's almost like describing how different surgeons are in their approach to examining a patient to IM or FM. DDX approaches are different as well, EM docs used to tell me to avoid the long list of ddx that IM does, i.e. 'its not a competition to make lists.." But I would have never said that to IM as a student, that their ddx's are pointless lists. What works for one field of medicine, will not always work for another. what works for one medical student, may not work for another. eventually you can use that feeling to choose what to specialize in. Unfortunately, as pre-clinical students, you're pretty much viewed as one undifferentiated, huge glob. it's much more streamlined (ish) once you get to rotations, then residency and beyond. But until then, you can feel a bit rudderless.
Try to use MS1/2 to constantly try new methods and then adjust accordingly until it hits the sweet spot. The underlying idea is efficiency - not how much time spent, but quality of time, to avoid burn out. Sometimes it's about using other materials to understand the basics then go through the class lectures to absorb the things that add to your foundation (the rest of the house, the muscles/flesh on the bones). Everyone has different approaches to this. Consider what your classmates or upperclassmen are doing if you need inspiration. Try it. But give it a limited time - if it's clearly not working, drop it like a hot potato and move on. No second chances.
The real test in the long term, is how well you do and how confident you are once you're out practicing medicine. But you won't have a real feel for this until you're out on the wards seeing real patients for long periods of time. In the short term, it's your understanding of materials within short time frames. i.e. did you understand the material and concepts and did it cost you the least amount of time? are you doing better on test questions (i.e. your schools or UWORLD etc.).
If you can find a great method that is efficient, is tried and true for you, that stays with you forever. It makes life so much easier in residency if there's something that requires you to learn something new or relearn something. Additionally, you'll already have tried the different resources out there - you know which ones were helpful to you during medical school.
If there's one thing that can be distilled from this thread is to use a variety of resources. An analogy to variety would be like - variety in your diet to be healthy. same with your medical knowledge diet.
You'll find the same on rotations (as if life couldn't be anymore confusing) - one attending will have different opinions to another or different 'favorite' presentation style/structure or brands of medications. there is a standard, but there's a degree of variation as well. We all eat food, but we have different preferences or tastes. But you wouldn't abandon protein or greens in your diet entirely. similarly, there are things you probably shouldn't cut out in your repertoire of materials.
I would never say, 'don't use textbooks they're useless' they are important too. But that said, by the time they're published, some of the materials may already be out of date (research is always expanding). And textbooks tend to be either quite general, or a bit slanted in the editor's or author's pov. however, good textbooks are often widely accepted or reflect some widely accepted opinions and approaches. to find out what is common practice or what quirks are done in your particular medical school and it's attached hospitals (that you will be part of during rotations and possibly as a resident if you stay with them) you need the lectures.
to clarify, a cardiologist giving a lecture will provide additional information to a textbook written by a physician. to put it into perspective, you could be an IM resident later. You'll need to get used to making referrals to cardiology, you'll have to be at least a little familiar with what's commonly accepted by cardiologists where you're working to make a proper referral or execute their plans before they review your patient. if they need to. Those referral or consults are often incredibly short too. Obviously, there's some learning you can do on the job and do better referrals over time (which is part of the point to residency in the early years), but it helps you a lot if you have good core knowledge begin with. Or some familiarity.
with talking to upperclassman, you'd probably get a different opinion depending on who you talk to, from every single one (it can be annoying). that said, if there's a notes god or goddess that made strong notes or anki's tailored to the class, I would use that. If there's tricks and tips to doing better in a particular exam or course - do that. your classmates and those above you are also an important 'resource'. It's no different to helping each other out and work as a team with your colleagues in the future.
As Goro stated earlier - you're adult learners. there's freedom in how you approach the resources. It could be that you do board materials first (like pathoma or FA) then do lectures, or the opposite, lectures first than that stuff after. You could use textbooks and grill in the basics, then listen/watch lectures at top speed. Try a few methods, within reason, and see what works better. then abandon one and go for the other. Again, experiment.
TL;DR: everyone's a different colored crayon in the box. it can be too early to tell in the preclinical years which one you are. it's more evident later when you pick a specialty.
For now, efficiency is the goal (least amount of time spent to learn something and do well on questions as a preclinical year). Experiment to find out what works best for you in terms of study habits and resources. Everyone will give you different advice - but what worked for them, may not work for you. Still, try to maintain a healthy variety your diet of medical resources. it does the body good over the long term. There's no easy way outs, if there was, we wouldn't have long threads debating it.
Edit: edited for grammar (or tried to)
