Firecracker vs brosencephalon

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I tried FC and Bros. My conclusion is that Bros is better.

FC Pros:
1) Organized and thorough. You can easily do it alongside M1 and it will help with classes. Gives the specific page in all recent versions of FA, which allows for more context.
2) Questions are more involved and require linking together whole topics, unlike bros.
3) There's not cheating FC. Unlike Bros, you won't be memorizing the "look" of the cards or know the answer due to cloze deletions.

Bros Pros:
1) Anki algorithm (transparent, and it just works). Biggest advantage by far.
2) Manageable time investment. Can be completed in 1-2 hours/day easily if you start in M1/summer and you're loose with the "easy" button.
3) More pictures and more relevant pictures, which are huge memory hooks and help tremendously.

FC Cons:
1) The algorithm is horrible. You cannot reasonably expect to "learn" through FC. Rarely will you see a card soon enough after getting it wrong to nail it the second time, third time, etc... Lots of lapsing.
2) You jump from subject to subject randomly. Subject review is hard because you can't really use the algorithm.
3) Relevant pictures are rare, and you need to click through to them.
4) It is a greater time commitment, and mostly because the algorithm is bad, not because you learn more.

Bros Cons:
1) Lacking context on each card. We often remember things in chunks. Bros might ask about symptom A in disease X. Answering this without also considering symptoms B-E of disease X makes applying that information to board questions difficult. So you need to have good study habits outside of Bros to get the bigger picture.
2) You can memorize the card and not the concept if you're not careful.
3) Harder to use during M1.

What it really comes down to for me is the anki algorithm and the smaller time commitment. Spaced repetition is a *supplement* to your learning, not the real deal. It's supposed to hammer your brain with details without taking away from your real study time too much. Big picture studying allows you to understand what each step question is asking by allowing you to diagnose the patient, see where they are leading you, and rule out the obvious wrong answers. Spaced repetition allows you to choose the correct answer from the 1-2 other bait options. FC tries to be everything all at once. It's too much imo. Wish I had spent that $200 on alcohol instead.

Some nice points. Although I've never used FC much, I especially agree with what you allude to in terms of using flashcards/Anki/spaced rep as a supplement, or essentially, not the sole resource you rely on. As comprehensive as my cards are, students seem to forget that I didn't make these to be a 'be-all-end-all' resource for myself. It's a bit odd how they've begun to get perceived that way here and there.

Also, I hear you on the lack of context in the bigger scheme of things. As I learned how to write better cards, I tried to mitigate for this by including short clauses and memory cues here and there in the question stems. But it always remained a trade-off between writing the card to include everything (which gets overwhelming during reviews quickly, imo) and keeping the card succinct enough to be digested and remembered efficiently (i.e. 1-3 facts tested). Nevertheless, I hope my work was helpful for you in some way.
 
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Some nice points. Although I've never used FC much, I especially agree with what you allude to in terms of using flashcards/Anki/spaced rep as a supplement, or essentially, not the sole resource you rely on. As comprehensive as my cards are, students seem to forget that I didn't make these to be a 'be-all-end-all' resource for myself. It's a bit odd how they've begun to get perceived that way here and there.

Just curious...what other studying methods did you use?
 
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Just curious...what other studying methods did you use?

I mostly just read textbooks/articles/webpages, tbh. Pretty old fashioned, but reading prose text is what's always worked best for me.

That + Anki + UWorld/other practice questions + a sketchy/pathoma video here and there was my toolkit in MS1-MS2. Nothing too elaborate - I just stuck to what worked best for me.
 
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I love the Firecracker concept but HATE the product. I just make my own cards.
 
I mostly just read textbooks/articles/webpages, tbh. Pretty old fashioned, but reading prose text is what's always worked best for me.

That + Anki + UWorld/other practice questions + a sketchy/pathoma video here and there was my toolkit in MS1-MS2. Nothing too elaborate - I just stuck to what worked best for me.

From my understanding - the deck that you created is essentially just a tool to memorize first aid right? Meaning that it's basically first aid + pathoma transcribed into flashcards? Assuming someone somehow memorized every single card in the deck, how well do you think a person could reasonably do? I ask because Goljan brought up what I thought was a very valid point that unlike most other exams, step 1 isn't so much interested in answering the question of "what," but much more interested in answering the "why" hence you end up with a lot of questions that will straight up give you the diagnosis.
 
From my understanding - the deck that you created is essentially just a tool to memorize first aid right? Meaning that it's basically first aid + pathoma transcribed into flashcards? Assuming someone somehow memorized every single card in the deck, how well do you think a person could reasonably do? I ask because Goljan brought up what I thought was a very valid point that unlike most other exams, step 1 isn't so much interested in answering the question of "what," but much more interested in answering the "why" hence you end up with a lot of questions that will straight up give you the diagnosis.

Well i didn't literally transcribe it word for word. I tried to write cloze (FITB) and short answer questions in my own words in parallel with suggestions from literature as best as I could. I learned this as I went along, so some cards are better than others, but to answer your question: essentially, yes.

While flashcards and active retrieval are a strong memorization tool, there's also research indicating they help with conceptual learning and overall understanding. That said, I don't think that solely memorizing FA/Pathoma/etc back to front will be enough to comfortably hit 240+ though. You probably could, but your best shot is to likely round out your studying smartly. Imo, the Steps involve a huge mental component and getting enough practice is a big part of establishing the mindset, stamina, and good habits needed to ace the exam.
 
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Well i didn't literally transcribe it word for word. I tried to write cloze (FITB) and short answer questions in my own words in parallel with suggestions from literature as best as I could. I learned this as I went along, so some cards are better than others, but to answer your question: essentially, yes.

While flashcards and active retrieval are a strong memorization tool, there's also research indicating they help with conceptual learning and overall understanding. That said, I don't think that solely memorizing FA/Pathoma/etc back to front will be enough to comfortably hit 240+ though. You probably could, but your best shot is to likely round out your studying smartly. Imo, the Steps involve a huge mental component and getting enough practice is a big part of establishing the mindset, stamina, and good habits needed to ace the exam.

Not sure how I'll do yet considering I've got a little under a year until exam day, but I will say that I've been at the deck for about 6 weeks now doing about 500 reviews/200 news a day, and it's seriously been a tremendous help for understanding my attending's train of thought while he sees his patients. I think it's the part that I've found most fascinating about using your deck is that I'm starting to see the real life scenarios and applications of the information. I suppose you could get that same kind of feeling from any resource that's helping you learn though lol.
 
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Not sure how I'll do yet considering I've got a little under a year until exam day, but I will say that I've been at the deck for about 6 weeks now doing about 500 reviews/200 news a day, and it's seriously been a tremendous help for understanding my attending's train of thought while he sees his patients. I think it's the part that I've found most fascinating about using your deck is that I'm starting to see the real life scenarios and applications of the information. I suppose you could get that same kind of feeling from any resource that's helping you learn though lol.

I also just started using it a few weeks ago just to review the stuff we learned MS1 (traditional curriculum so anatomy, biochem, etc.) and it's been helpful in helping me to finally learn or reinforce some basic relationships I didn't always have straight (like, what inhibits X enzyme - and why). It's been helpful to review the hard facts that I just need to know and start to look at some practice questions that cover similar material. Bros won't give you all the answers, but it seems like (for me, at least) it will be the factual basis to support the critical thinking skills needed for the USMLE-style questions. Excited to pair it up with MS2 courses.

Edited for clarity
 
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Hey guys.

So I downloaded a premade deck and I'm trying to just figure out how to use anki. The deck is broken down into a bunch of sub sections. I don't know how to see how many total cards are in a subsection. Also, say I move on from one subsection to the next, will my review for the day include cards from the old section or just the new one?

I've watched a few videos, but this interface is not very user friendly and I'm definitely not very tech savvy.
 
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I watched some YouTube videos and it seems the FC format is excellent and well organized. I will be starting FC during my M1 year and hopefully it pays dividends for step 1. I'll let you guys know in two years
 
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I mostly just read textbooks/articles/webpages, tbh. Pretty old fashioned, but reading prose text is what's always worked best for me.

That + Anki + UWorld/other practice questions + a sketchy/pathoma video here and there was my toolkit in MS1-MS2. Nothing too elaborate - I just stuck to what worked best for me.

So you're the one, eh? You're the "Bros" that I keep seeing on these pages. I don't know if I should genuflect or shake my head at all of those who swear by your name. If I rub your tummy will it bring me good luck?

FWIW I never used Anki, didn't bother to explore it and, as much as I've been cursed on these forums, used textbooks, pen and paper, and journal articles. Well, I'm shattered that the One used the old fashioned reading prose texts, as you stated

You really should be charging for your methods and famous decks. You have a target audience, name recognition, already made tools and resources, now you just need a business plan.

I'm serious. You could stand to make a ton of money with your very famous "Bros deck"

Congrats on your success. Really extraordinary. Thanks for revealing your methods.....i knew it
 
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So for M1 I will make my own cards with anki and then starting summer before M2 I'll use bros deck for step 1 prep? Has anybody else done this?
 
So for M1 I will make my own cards with anki and then starting summer before M2 I'll use bros deck for step 1 prep? Has anybody else done this?
I'm going to use Firecracker for MS1 and MS2. I've heard its a great resource for classes. Zanki will be used for USMLE.
 
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I'm going to use Firecracker for MS1 and MS2. I've heard its a great resource for classes. Zanki will be used for USMLE.

The amount of mixed reviews for FC concerns me though
 
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I started to use Bros and then moved to Zanki.... Liked it a lot more! I highly recommend Zanki.
I currently have FC, stopped using it when they advised that I study 500+ flashcards a day and the FC website is pretty bad in terms of functionality...lots of problems and glitches.
 
I started to use Bros and then moved to Zanki.... Liked it a lot more! I highly recommend Zanki.
I currently have FC, stopped using it when they advised that I study 500+ flashcards a day and the FC website is pretty bad in terms of functionality...lots of problems and glitches.

Did you start MS1 using Bros? Would you recommend using Zanki from day 1?
 
I second this question
Did you start MS1 using Bros? Would you recommend using Zanki from day 1?
Like y'all I was a motivated and rambunctious incoming M1 and bought FC with the intent of supplementing my education and long term retention. I stopped using it 2 months in. I used bros the beginning of this summer (June 2017) to start studying for step 1, but a buddy of mine recommended Zanki and I liked it a lot better. I would recommend using Zanki during your M1 blocks in medical school...i.e when studying cardio do the Zanki cardio cards....thats what I wish I did and that is what I will do next year.
 
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@Allam002 are you using zanki v3 as linked above?


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I don't think it's done yet, in the comments the author said they would post the deck as a single download for people to download in one go. It should keep done soon.
 
I mostly just read textbooks/articles/webpages, tbh. Pretty old fashioned, but reading prose text is what's always worked best for me.

That + Anki + UWorld/other practice questions + a sketchy/pathoma video here and there was my toolkit in MS1-MS2. Nothing too elaborate - I just stuck to what worked best for me.

No way! It's the legend himself! I wanna thank you for taking the time to construct that Anki deck! Really set the framework for an amazing community on Reddit to make your cards even better. You're a legend.
 
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The amount of mixed reviews for FC concerns me though
I'm not using it for board prep though. I've read multiple reviews from users saying how helpful it was for MS1/MS2 courses ONLY.

EDIT: Is Zanki v2 even out there? I can't find it, and v3 isn't ready yet.
 
Like y'all I was a motivated and rambunctious incoming M1 and bought FC with the intent of supplementing my education and long term retention. I stopped using it 2 months in. I used bros the beginning of this summer (June 2017) to start studying for step 1, but a buddy of mine recommended Zanki and I liked it a lot better. I would recommend using Zanki during your M1 blocks in medical school...i.e when studying cardio do the Zanki cardio cards....thats what I wish I did and that is what I will do next year.

My school has professor written exams, not NBME. I was thinking of making anki decks with my own custom cards. Is this too inefficient? I feel like I would be learning while making the cards
 
So you're the one, eh? You're the "Bros" that I keep seeing on these pages. I don't know if I should genuflect or shake my head at all of those who swear by your name. If I rub your tummy will it bring me good luck?

FWIW I never used Anki, didn't bother to explore it and, as much as I've been cursed on these forums, used textbooks, pen and paper, and journal articles. Well, I'm shattered that the One used the old fashioned reading prose texts, as you stated

You really should be charging for your methods and famous decks. You have a target audience, name recognition, already made tools and resources, now you just need a business plan.

I'm serious. You could stand to make a ton of money with your very famous "Bros deck"

Congrats on your success. Really extraordinary. Thanks for revealing your methods.....i knew it

Lol, this was a rollercoaster of a comment. Thanks for your kind words though.

Re: what you mention about using Anki. I'll respond with what I've been telling people endlessly: go with what works for you, formulate a workflow around that, optimize it, and stick to it. Sucks to hear you've been called out lol. But that's all I ever did - I stuck to plain old reading and used Anki to supplement/reinforce. Kudos to you sticking to your guns.

Re: charging. Monetizing my work was never something I intended to do, and doing it retrospectively on my existing work doesn't sit well with me as the community has taken my original work and made it into something both more accessible and up to date. The same is now being done with Zanki's collection, who formulated his stuff around mine. These Anki resources have seemingly come together as a community movement, and my plans right now are bigger picture than just charging for and monetizing a flashcard resource. I'm hoping to translate the momentum this trend has into something bigger. Idk whether or not these ideas will come to fruition at all, but we'll see.
 
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No way! It's the legend himself! I wanna thank you for taking the time to construct that Anki deck! Really set the framework for an amazing community on Reddit to make your cards even better. You're a legend.

Thanks for the kind words, man. My pleasure. I hope the cards helped you in some way.

You allude to exactly what I'm starting to write about. I'm hoping to share my ideas on all of that very soon. Stay tuned!
 
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I'm not using it for board prep though. I've read multiple reviews from users saying how helpful it was for MS1/MS2 courses ONLY.

EDIT: Is Zanki v2 even out there? I can't find it, and v3 isn't ready yet.

Also looking for Zanki v2.

My school has professor written exams, not NBME. I was thinking of making anki decks with my own custom cards. Is this too inefficient? I feel like I would be learning while making the cards

I think what I'm going to do is make an Anki deck based on my school lectures. Then I'll reference either bros or zanki for cards related to what I'm learning. That way I'm preparing for my school tests, but also getting exposure to board material that my school may not cover. I might not have time for all of this though, but it's my naive plan as of now.
 
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Also looking for Zanki v2.



I think what I'm going to do is make an Anki deck based on my school lectures. Then I'll reference either bros or zanki for cards related to what I'm learning. That way I'm preparing for my school tests, but also getting exposure to board material that my school may not cover. I might not have time for all of this though, but it's my naive plan as of now.

Sounds reasonable depending on how fast you get through your school specific anki decks. I'll try the same
 
Also looking for Zanki v2.



I think what I'm going to do is make an Anki deck based on my school lectures. Then I'll reference either bros or zanki for cards related to what I'm learning. That way I'm preparing for my school tests, but also getting exposure to board material that my school may not cover. I might not have time for all of this though, but it's my naive plan as of now.

Don't forget to write in the margins of your First Aid text as well (if you're using it)
 
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^ very helpful post. Thanks @ChordaEpiphany. Thinking ahead, I completely follow your train of thought. Do you use bros/Zanki currently?

@Brosencephalon I downloaded the deck from your website and I was wondering if I'm supposed to download any add-ons to get the images as well? In browse mode I don't see the images coming up (the blue ? box shown below). I may just be a noobie Anki user...

Screen Shot 2017-07-26 at 7.11.20 PM.png
 
FWIW, I tried Firecracker for MS1 and ultimately found that it was the worst of all worlds. Ideally you're trying to accomplish a few things

1) Learn the major concepts and how they tie into clinical medicine
2) Learn the minutiae from class
3) Learn the minutiae you need to know for the boards (that wasn't taught in class, and there will be plenty starting MS2)
4) Retain as much of it as you can long-term

Firecracker tries to be your source for long-term memorization of minutiae while also trying to tie in the major concepts. The result is pretty awful honestly. You end doing flashcards with paragraph long answers, and they're in the same category as flashcards asking you which interleukin does X, which means these wildly different cards are plugged into the same spaced repetition algorithm. The algorithm is also pretty bad. On top of that, you're going to have to independently study from your professor's notes anyway, because the topics and concepts won't line up perfectly, certainly not well enough to pass without at least running through the professor's notes.

If nothing else, you simply won't have time for Zanki, FC, and class material. You definitely won't have time for Zanki, FC, class material, and Qbanks on top of that in M2. Med school is unfortunately not like college in that you can simply work harder, add more resources, etc... You eventually will simply run out of time or energy. I'd advise sticking with a quick and dirty anki deck to punch out the nitty gritty details and using classwork and the internet to help you get a bird's eye view of each disease and concept. Aim for true understanding. When second year comes, then worry about the USMLE stuff, and guaranteed Firecracker will not be something you want to spend your time on when things really start to get tight.

Sorry for the rant. I just wish someone would have explained this to me earlier and saved me $200.
Thanks for the info!
 
Thanks for the kind words, man. My pleasure. I hope the cards helped you in some way.

You allude to exactly what I'm starting to write about. I'm hoping to share my ideas on all of that very soon. Stay tuned!

It's the truth! I actually have been using a "BrosWorld" deck as well which was wonderful!
 
FWIW, I tried Firecracker for MS1 and ultimately found that it was the worst of all worlds. Ideally you're trying to accomplish a few things

1) Learn the major concepts and how they tie into clinical medicine
2) Learn the minutiae from class
3) Learn the minutiae you need to know for the boards (that wasn't taught in class, and there will be plenty starting MS2)
4) Retain as much of it as you can long-term

Firecracker tries to be your source for long-term memorization of minutiae while also trying to tie in the major concepts. The result is pretty awful honestly. You end doing flashcards with paragraph long answers, and they're in the same category as flashcards asking you which interleukin does X, which means these wildly different cards are plugged into the same spaced repetition algorithm. The algorithm is also pretty bad. On top of that, you're going to have to independently study from your professor's notes anyway, because the topics and concepts won't line up perfectly, certainly not well enough to pass without at least running through the professor's notes.

If nothing else, you simply won't have time for Zanki, FC, and class material. You definitely won't have time for Zanki, FC, class material, and Qbanks on top of that in M2. Med school is unfortunately not like college in that you can simply work harder, add more resources, etc... You eventually will simply run out of time or energy. I'd advise sticking with a quick and dirty anki deck to punch out the nitty gritty details and using classwork and the internet to help you get a bird's eye view of each disease and concept. Aim for true understanding. When second year comes, then worry about the USMLE stuff, and guaranteed Firecracker will not be something you want to spend your time on when things really start to get tight.

Sorry for the rant. I just wish someone would have explained this to me earlier and saved me $200.
Just wanted to weigh in here as I've been using flash cards extensively for the past year and wanted to echo a lot of what @ChordaEpiphany said. For starters my curriculum is a traditional model of two years of systems. First year focusing on anatomy, physiology, biochem, embryo; second year focusing on path, pharm, micro. Curriculum isn't terribly important as all of these resources have the ability to sort the cards anyway you'd like.

So this is what I did. I got an exhaustive anki deck from an upperclassman. These decks were huge (roughly ~5K for a 4-5 week block) but doing those cards plus some practice questions guaranteed honors on professor written exams (if you have NBME exams things may be a little different). I can't say this is the most efficient method as it involves a lot of hours but it definitely works. Then for long term retention I started doing FC. First semester I wasn't quite as dedicated to this, but I increased the time I spent on it as the year went on (used it probably 1.5-2 hours daily during 2nd semester). FC definitely helped put things in a better context clinically and reinforced the ideas that were most important from class. However I second all of @ChordaEpiphany's complaints with firecracker. It's a good comprehensive resource but it has a lot of issues. One of the most annoying is the images. One of the best things about the anki decks is that they illegal use images from FA, pathoma, UW, and Sketchy whereas FC can only use images it has the rights to / are public.

So going forward I've decided to go with Zanki. I started it this summer and am only about 4k cards in but as everyone else has said it's really well done. For any incoming M1 Zanki is definitely what I would recommend. The only caveat to this is that you have to commit to doing your reviews for a couple hours every day for the next 1.5-2 years. You can switch around the settings etc. but unless you have an extremely good memory that kind of dedication is what it takes to use a long term retention system.

Also, I wouldn't recommend trying to do FC and Zanki. It would take a ton of time and they cover basically the same information (mainly FA and pathoma).
 
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Just wanted to weigh in here as I've been using flash cards extensively for the past year and wanted to echo a lot of what @ChordaEpiphany said. For starters my curriculum is a traditional model of two years of systems. First year focusing on anatomy, physiology, biochem, embryo; second year focusing on path, pharm, micro. Curriculum isn't terribly important as all of these resources have the ability to sort the cards anyway you'd like.

So this is what I did. I got an exhaustive anki deck from an upperclassman. These decks were huge (roughly ~5K for a 4-5 week block) but doing those cards plus some practice questions guaranteed honors on professor written exams (if you have NBME exams things may be a little different). I can't say this is the most efficient method as it involves a lot of hours but it definitely works. Then for long term retention I started doing FC. First semester I wasn't quite as dedicated to this, but I increased the time I spent on it as the year went on (used it probably 1.5-2 hours daily during 2nd semester). FC definitely helped put things in a better context clinically and reinforced the ideas that were most important from class. However I second all of @ChordaEpiphany's complaints with firecracker. It's a good comprehensive resource but it has a lot of issues. One of the most annoying is the images. One of the best things about the anki decks is that they illegal use images from FA, pathoma, UW, and Sketchy whereas FC can only use images it has the rights to / are public.

So going forward I've decided to go with Zanki. I started it this summer and am only about 4k cards in but as everyone else has said it's really well done. For any incoming M1 Zanki is definitely what I would recommend. The only caveat to this is that you have to commit to doing your reviews for a couple hours every day for the next 1.5-2 years. You can switch around the settings etc. but unless you have an extremely good memory that kind of dedication is what it takes to use a long term retention system.

Also, I wouldn't recommend trying to do FC and Zanki. It would take a ton of time and they cover basically the same information (mainly FA and pathoma).

Would you recommend an M1 at a school with prof written exams to use zanki? Or make our own cards as an M1?
 
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Would you recommend an M1 at a school with prof written exams to use zanki? Or make our own cards as an M1?
The best answer depends on a few other factors. What is the grading scale? If strictly P/F then class grades are significantly less important. What do you think you might want to do? If you're trying to keep doors open for surgical subs or competitive academic residencies in any specialty then Step 1 is even more important. Do you have mandatory class? If so it'll be way harder to make your own cards since it's more time consuming. How often do you have tests? If every week or 2 it'll be harder to use anki effectively for class. If longer like every 4-6 weeks that's where anki shines because by week 5 you already know the first few weeks cold.

Regardless I'd say:
1. prioritize Zanki. Do it first thing in the morning and knock out a couple hours. Maybe you back off right before a test but that's stuff you'll figure out as you go along. One way to organize this is one deck with all review cards so all stuff you previously covered then one deck for current block. You could potentially cap / limit reviews for the old material but not for current stuff. Zanki will probably have heavy overlap with things that are emphasized in class but that isn't guaranteed.

2. Class stuff. Best option I'd recommend is try to get cards from an older student who did well. Depending on your school / connections you may or may not be able to pull this off, but I think it's worth a shot asking around. Making your own cards is great. I think it helps you learn the material and you'll do well if you do it. But it takes a lot of time.
 
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The best answer depends on a few other factors. What is the grading scale? If strictly P/F then class grades are significantly less important. What do you think you might want to do? If you're trying to keep doors open for surgical subs or competitive academic residencies in any specialty then Step 1 is even more important. Do you have mandatory class? If so it'll be way harder to make your own cards since it's more time consuming. How often do you have tests? If every week or 2 it'll be harder to use anki effectively for class. If longer like every 4-6 weeks that's where anki shines because by week 5 you already know the first few weeks cold.

Regardless I'd say:
1. prioritize Zanki. Do it first thing in the morning and knock out a couple hours. Maybe you back off right before a test but that's stuff you'll figure out as you go along. One way to organize this is one deck with all review cards so all stuff you previously covered then one deck for current block. You could potentially cap / limit reviews for the old material but not for current stuff. Zanki will probably have heavy overlap with things that are emphasized in class but that isn't guaranteed.

2. Class stuff. Best option I'd recommend is try to get cards from an older student who did well. Depending on your school / connections you may or may not be able to pull this off, but I think it's worth a shot asking around. Making your own cards is great. I think it helps you learn the material and you'll do well if you do it. But it takes a lot of time.

Thanks so much for this. I'll see how often the exams will be for my classes. But my school is P/F. I'll try zanki first and see how much it overlaps with the course content
 
As an incoming M1 I am planning on using Zanki. For someone who has professor made test once a week with an NBME final at the end of the block, does anyone have recommendations on how they would do this??

I am thinking of doing ~2 hours of Zanki a day in the morning and then making my own flash cards from lecture for professor made exams... Once the NBME test is approaching I will switch to the Zanki deck. How does this sound?
 
Would you recommend an M1 at a school with prof written exams to use zanki? Or make our own cards as an M1?

My advice would counter the one above. Make your own cards and get used to this first. Don't depend on Bros or Zanki initially, because you could have a professors who test a lot of material outside of the deck. I myself have noticed multiple differences between what the Bros/Firecracker/etc. deck emphasized and what my professors emphasized.

Play it safe and concentrate on making cards from their powerpoints. If you have time, then look at the Zanki deck.
 
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@Brosencephalon I downloaded your deck from the website but only 7081 cards imported compared to the 13k+ of the old deck you had...just wondering if you had condensed it on purpose? Thanks!
 
Can anyone send me most up to date Zanki Decks please?
 
How do you make sure that Firecracker is repeating the cards at the rate you need to prepare for block exams? Some schools have like 3 weeks between blocks and I've heard others having anywhere from 1 - 6 weeks. How do you know that the cards will be all be repeated enough times for you to learn before your exam?
Lol, try 10-14wks, not including vacation weeks. A 14wk block with the 3 holiday vacation weeks looped in means 17wks from one set of block exams to the next for us :nailbiting:
 
Is the newest Zanki deck available for download now?

This question is probably better asked in the medicalschoolanki subreddit, might as well go right to the horse's mouth. But, as far as I can tell, the updated complete deck itself is not available for download yet. If you look at the subreddit, it says that you should download the original deck and add the new addendums to it - most of the addendums have been released by now, but there's still a few that we're waiting on.
 
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