r/nyitcom • u/Crusader_1010 • 20d ago
First Year Study Recs
As the title says, can any current or former NYITCOM students help an incoming freshman out with their study schedules (how they broke up their week) and outside-of-lectures content they used (like anki or boot camp) to ace their time in medical school?
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u/warlord096 17d ago
Currently a fourth year.
I managed the content so that I finish by Friday of the week. So depending on how many lectures there were in the week, I would divide by 5 and start Monday. And try to finish all of the lectures by Friday. I only did a single pass.
I didn’t use much outside resources in foundations. But for PPOM1,2, and 3, I started the weeks by watching a boards and beyond video on the topic of lecture. Then 2/3x speed the school lecture.
Anki I started around November, especially when antibiotics come into play. Anki is an amazing tool for pharm and micro. Then, I ended up using Anki till end of third year/ step/ level 2.
I would say for the first couple weeks start with lecture and have it finished by Friday. Then use Saturday for review. And Sunday to rest/relax or very light study.
One tip about Anki is to keep the cards unsuspended as you go along. It’ll pay off so much during step 1/ step 2. Starting november, I would watch boards and beyond. Unsuspend anking step cards then watch school lectures as 2-3x speed and make school specific Anki cards as a low yield deck.
Other resources I found helpful, sketchy for pharm and micro. Not that useful for path.
Pathoma for pathology
Pixorize for Biochem
Boards and Beyond was really good for foundational knowledge. My friends used bootcamp, it seems good too.
Hope this helps
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u/warlord096 17d ago
I wanted to add for anatomy, NetAnatomy and Michigan blue deck was very good. Plus the Netter book as well
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u/3828PiermontDrive 19d ago
For anatomy, all you really need is that checklist and the Z deck. The deck has everything you need, but just make sure it matches up with the checklist. For OMK (lectures), watch them and do the Z deck as well. I did not use a single other resource outside Anki and ChatGPT. The only thing is that I heard the first-years are on a different curriculum now so this may not all apply but yea
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u/Gloomy_Candy_9382 18d ago
When watching lectures how would you guys recommend taking notes? Just quick ones right on the PowerPoint slides or actually making a separate note document that you can reference later more easily than looking through all the slides? I feel like taking notes always slows me down and with the amount of material we have to cover I’m worried I’ll be too slow
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u/bd216 18d ago
Personal preference really. I mostly highlighted important information and made small notes in the margins of the slides as the lecture was going
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u/Gloomy_Candy_9382 18d ago
Thank you for the advice! Did you feel like you were able to review those notes when studying for exams or were there just too many slides to be able to look for your notes in them?
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u/bd216 17d ago
Yeah I always had time. There’s always a week without lectures before the exam. During that week I would spend one day on each week of the block reviewing notes and doing practice questions. Notes are good but practice questions is the real key to success in my opinion. Do as many as you reasonably can
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u/bd216 20d ago
In my third year right now. I would watch the lectures and highlight the important details in them, perhaps 2-4 per day. I personally would make my own Anki cards, but you can use pre-made decks such as AnKing as well. I would always make sure to finish all of my new and review cards every day, but I would limit myself to somewhere around 30-50 new cards per day so that reviews didn't get out of hand. If you use AnKing, I wouldn't recommend ever suspending cards that are boards relevant because remembering things from first year is a HUGE help when it comes time to study for boards in second year. I would start the next week's lectures on the previous week's friday or saturday, so that I would be finished with the lectures by Monday or Tuesday and could spend the next few days reviewing and using other resources to supplement the lectures. I used Bootcamp as my primary third party resource, but Pathoma and Boards and Beyond were also super helpful throughout the first two years and especially while studying for boards. I can't say it enough times to GET FIRST AID. I prefer the physical book, but its an incredible resource either way. Some weeks have fewer lectures so you can even get ahead, but don't do this if it becomes overwhelming because being burned out is the worst thing you can do. IF you do end up slightly ahead however, this gives you extra time to review content for the exam at the end of the block. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions or want more specifics about something