ANKI for USMLE Step 1?

Question

-Decks with 30,000 cards?

-What to memorize and how much do you understand?

-Who are all these crazy people doing hundreds of cards a day?

Answer 1

Use Anki as a tool, not as a comprehensive resource. The key to Anki is to be SELECTIVE with what cards you include in your deck. The goal is to only include cards on topics that you actually need reinforcement on; otherwise, you will be stuck reviewing hundreds of cards that you probably don't even need to review in the first place.

My approach would be the following: download as many premade decks as possible. Suspend all cards. Go about your studying as you normally would - Pathoma, Boards and Beyond, lectures, Sketchy, UW, etc. As you find topics that you don't know, selectively UNSUSPEND cards from Anki using the "browse" feature. Because you will have downloaded lots of decks, you'll have lots of cards to choose from. Pick the card that you like the best.

Don't be afraid to CHANGE the cards as well. I frequently added pictures/diagrams to the extra sections, or expanded the Cloze deletion. Use the cards as a skeleton, not as a holy grail that cannot be changed. Mold them to how you want to learn.

Increase your interval timing as well. Instead of making "Good" at 5 minutes, you could make it 1 whole day (which would be 1440 minutes). Only use this tip if you feel like you are seeing cards too frequently.

Answer 2

ANKI and other memorization based rapid review resources are best used as a supplement to a major review source (First Aid, Kaplan, Board and Beyond, Lecturio, etc.) and a question bank. The bulk of your time should be spent working through the major resource and doing questions with some daily rapid review for an hour or two to recall topics you have reviewed recently. Rapid review sources also have little utility if you do not understand the material before using them. USMLE exams are moving away from pure memorization and are asking students to understand and apply the information that is memorized.

Answer 3

Unfortunately there is no one correct answer for ANKI. There is no question that ANKI is an extremely powerful tool if used correctly, but it can also become a crutch for students who don't take the time to actually understand the material, and who suffer as a result. As a general rule subjects that are very detail oriented and not tested in an interconnected way --Biochemistry, pharmacology, ID-- lend themselves to memorization, but the fine balance of transitioning on/off ANKI during Step 1 studying is a continual challenge that students may require some extra assistance to hone-in for the best score!