Third Party Resources for M1 - Which to get and how to use?? (2024)

I'm an incoming med student and just wondering how you incorporate 3rd party resources into your studying.

For context, my school has a 1.5 year pre-clinical, it's pass/fail, and they apparently switched to NBME style-exams recently (my class has the new curriculum). The first block includes about 6 weeks of Molecular, Genetic, and Genomic foundations, then 6 weeks of Anatomy, then about 4 weeks of Micro and Immuno, and lastly 3 weeks of Path.

Say for the first course (molecular, genetic, and genomic foundations), what 3rd party resources should I be using them and how do l incorporate them?

I got the Anking deck but aside from that not sure where to start. Would appreciate any input

And to be clear, I am NOT pre-studying lol I just want to have an idea of how to study so I don't flounder for too long once I start.

Pathoma, BnB and Sketchy were my go to 3rd party resources during preclinical. If you’re doing board style exams, then these would be great.

ANKing too if you’re planning on using Anki to study.

DOcSto said:

Pathoma, BnB and Sketchy were my go to 3rd party resources during preclinical. If you’re doing board style exams, then these would be great.

ANKing too if you’re planning on using Anki to study.

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Awesome- and for example with BnB, should I be watching both my lecture videos and the BnB videos? And when it comes to AnKing, I guess I would unsuspend questions as I go that pair with the BnB videos and maybe also keyword search relevant cards? Sorry if these are dumb questions

biscuit28 said:

Awesome- and for example with BnB, should I be watching both my lecture videos and the BnB videos? And when it comes to AnKing, I guess I would unsuspend questions as I go that pair with the BnB videos and maybe also keyword search relevant cards? Sorry if these are dumb questions

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Not dumb at all. I go to a DO school, so we didn’t have board style exams. I study for boards simultaneously with class. In your case (p/f and nbme exams) you might be able to get away with just doing 3rd party resources and pass just fine.

Although, if they specifically pull questions with low yield concepts for exams, it might be worth going over lectures.

Then again, it’s pass/fail and the nbme’s I did for step prep were more fair than any question I got on an in house exam during preclinical.

DOcSto said:

Not dumb at all. I go to a DO school, so we didn’t have board style exams. I study for boards simultaneously with class. In your case (p/f and nbme exams) you might be able to get away with just doing 3rd party resources and pass just fine.

Although, if they specifically pull questions with low yield concepts for exams, it might be worth going over lectures.

Then again, it’s pass/fail and the nbme’s I did for step prep were more fair than any question I got on an in house exam during preclinical.

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Thank you so much for the info, I appreciate it

biscuit28 said:

Thank you so much for the info, I appreciate it

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best of luck and enjoy the ride 🤘🏻

Hey you should DM me. Don't want to dox myself on SDN but I might have unique insights into your med school (maybe).

But to answer your question-

Pathoma for pathology (you literally have to do this or you'll fail step 1), Sketchy pharm for pharmacology (you have to), sketchy micro for microbiology (you literally have to). Even if you hate Sketchy, you have to know the material it covers or you WILL fail step 1. And your school probably won't teach that stuff.

For everything else- Boards and Beyond. Or maybe Bootcamp (although I'm not sure if it's tagged in AnKing?)

The process is like this- you see you have a class that covers mitochondrial storage diseases. Go watch that Pathoma video. Then go to AnKing and unsuspend the flashcards from the tag for that video. Repeat for all of med school.

Basically everyone I know who didn't do the above (including me) FREAKED OUT about step 1 and barely passed (or failed). Everyone I know who did the above skipped dedicated (they passed their practice exams by 20 points before we got out to study), and they're running circles around everyone in M3. This is true for places like VCOM, UAB, Vanderbilt, and Hopkins (at least for my buddies at these schools, I obviously know my school best)

You will run into professors and administrators who discourage anki use (I literally cant think of a single legitimate reason, but these people exist). You will run into med students who say "Yeah OK but I never used Anki and got a 300 on Step 2 and matched orthopedics." Sure, those people exist, but for the VAST majority of med students, anki is the way. At least try it. It's literally evidence-based. If you hate it you can always rewrite your notes or whatever people who don't use Anki do

thetimehascome21 said:

did you purchase anking already to mess around with it or did you find a free version? i thought the newest decks required monthly fees

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I purchased it to mess around with it but Im pretty sure you can purchase, download, then unsubscribe. I guess you wouldn’t get live updates but I doubt the material changes significantly. But I also dont really know so perhaps someone else can give you a better answer

Hollow Knight said:

For everything else- Boards and Beyond. Or maybe Bootcamp (although I'm not sure if it's tagged in AnKing?)

The process is like this- you see you have a class that covers mitochondrial storage diseases. Go watch that Pathoma video. Then go to AnKing and unsuspend the flashcards from the tag for that video. Repeat for all of med school.

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Chiming in because I'm also starting this fall, but how does BnB fit into this? Do you watch the related videos and still go to lecture or is it a replacement? Doing both seems like it would take up way too much time, but then again I don't really have any experience to say that.

sky1786 said:

Chiming in because I'm also starting this fall, but how does BnB fit into this? Do you watch the related videos and still go to lecture or is it a replacement? Doing both seems like it would take up way too much time, but then again I don't really have any experience to say that.

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From talking to Hollow and doing more reading seems like it will depend on your exams. So say your school has straight NBME exams, you might be able to get away with just doing BnB/Pathoma/Sketchy (depending on the subject), anki, and practice Qs without watching lecture. So you’d skim the lecture to know what to review but not actually study it. If your school does a combination of in house and NBME, you might still be able to do this, but might have to also ask upperclassmen how much random lecture stuff is tested. Bc seems like some schools will test random stuff from lecture, while others will keep it relatively high-yield. But even still you might be able to pass with 3rd party stuff. Just depends? but this is just from what Ive read and been told so take it with a grain of salt🤣

sky1786 said:

Chiming in because I'm also starting this fall, but how does BnB fit into this? Do you watch the related videos and still go to lecture or is it a replacement? Doing both seems like it would take up way too much time, but then again I don't really have any experience to say that.

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I had mandatory class. So yeah, I did both. But I would have been much better off not going to class and just doing Anki and UWorld. Personally. It’s just my personality, some people love TBLs and it works for them. It was indeed a lot (80+ hour weeks)

I didn’t finish all of BnB, I just covered what my school covered and replaced my professor’s PowerPoints with the videos