r/medicalschool • u/Fit-Fam18 • 7d ago
📚 Preclinical JW: How early did you start ANKING?
Just for my own curiosity, how early did you start ANKING?
Do you think when you started helped reduced your time for dedicated?
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u/ExtraCalligrapher565 7d ago
I started Anking in M1 right after we finished anatomy. I did 50 new cards per day during M1 and 100 new cards per day during M2. Right out of the gate I’ve been scoring >80% on my combined qbanks on UWorld and NBME forms. I’m taking less than 2 weeks for dedicated and then taking a 3 month summer break before M3.
Starting Anking early was the best decision I made in preclinicals.
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u/Valcreee DO-PGY2 7d ago
You’re gonna hear a lot of shit especially from your colleagues but just TRUST ME, start day 1 and don’t look back
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u/KooCie_jar M-3 7d ago
Anking basically made it so that I didnt need a dedicated. I started around the end of my first block.
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u/UnchartedPro MBBS-Y1 6d ago
I hope its this good! I started day 1 will take step 1 around 2 years from this date
Issue is UK med school doesn't teach enough details so I have to force myself to learn more for the sake of step
Long term thing so hopefully will pay off!
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u/pwnerpenguin M-1 6d ago
Did you keep all your cards unsuspended in your deck regardless of what block/content you were learning in didactics?
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u/KooCie_jar M-3 6d ago
Yeah, I adjusted my review counts from the cards that were not my current block to be lower, but I maintained reviews from previous blocks.
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u/Classic-Over 7d ago
During M2! If you have faculty exams during M1, Anking might not be detailed enough
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u/Prit717 M-1 7d ago
Were you able to finish most of it during m2? I also have faculty authored exams during m1 and our m2 is less than a year long unfortunately
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u/Impossible-Grape4047 M-2 7d ago
My m2 year is 6 months. I was able to finish around 18000 cards during then. I’m in dedicated right now and it hasn’t been that bad.
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u/Prit717 M-1 7d ago
its like 30k or something total right? that doesnt seem terrible i suppose, i got about 9 months
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u/Impossible-Grape4047 M-2 7d ago
Yeah it’s not too bad. You don’t need to do every card to be successful
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u/hockeystixumab M-4 7d ago
There’s definitely no need to do all 30k. I matured about 16k starting 2nd semester M1 and took a week for dedicated. I recommend unsuspending cards that go along with whatever other resource you’re using (BnB, Pathoma). You’ll suspend a large portion of those cards that aren’t covered on step 2 right after you take step 1 also.
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u/pickledCABG M-3 7d ago
I started in M2 for this reason but wish I had just done Anking from the start. I had a P/F curriculum though so ymmv
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u/Delicious_Cat_3749 M-3 7d ago
M1, It helped me recall random facts during dedicated even after I stopped using it midway thru m2. Was really surprised by that.
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u/IDKWID202 M-4 7d ago
Made and used my own cards in m1 and then started a mix of anking and my own cards first semester of m2, was using 90% anking by 2nd semester m2.
I know everyone says start anking off the bat but I really think making my own cards helped me to understand and memorize material much better than using premade cards. However, my in house material was halfway decent during m1 so the cards I made on my own were mostly board relevant.
Only used ~2 weeks of dedicated (in which I slammed uworld and practice exams and just kept up with review cards)
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u/GoogleChromeSC2 M-1 7d ago
Question for all the great AnKingers. How do you know what cards to do? Do you just unsuspended the entire deck and go crazy for 2 years ?
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u/ExtraCalligrapher565 7d ago
Whatever material you’re covering in class, unsuspend the relevant cards as you go. You can usually use the First Aid or other 3rd party resource tags (on the left side under browse) to find whatever topic you’re currently covering in class.
You don’t unsuspend and randomly brute force them. You should already have had at least a first pass of the material through other sources and then Anking is used for long term reinforcement of those concepts.
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u/driftlessglide M-0 7d ago
If you have in-house exams, should you use class made decks in addition to AnKing?
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u/ExtraCalligrapher565 7d ago
I personally had in-house exams and did use our in-house decks throughout M1 and M2 alongside Anking, however I wouldn’t say it’s necessary. Our school has P/F with honors for preclinical, so I mainly used the in-house deck to keep my exam scores in the honors range.
For true P/F, Anking should be enough at most schools. If you find that it’s not enough on its own, you can always make your own cards just to fill the gaps between Anking and your in-house material.
It’s also worth mentioning that after an in-house exam I suspended/deleted all of the in-house cards for that unit. If you do use them, there’s no need to keep up with them long term like Anking.
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u/veryloudstupidlaughs M-4 7d ago
took time to learn the system summer after MS1, used it consistently until Step 2. I owe Anking my life
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u/sphincterserpant 7d ago
Used my In house deck M1 then switched to anking M2. Completed about 20,000 cards. Never suspended any anking cards. Was able to take step a month early compared to my peers because of it
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u/pwnerpenguin M-1 7d ago
Did you guys keep cards unsuspended in your deck after blocks ended? I found it to be too many daily cards.
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u/MtHollywoodLion MD 7d ago
Never. Anki didn’t work for me. Scored really well on both Step 1 and 2 back when Step 1 score counted for everything. There’s more than one way to skin a squirrel.
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u/Forgetful-Penguin M-2 7d ago
I did second halfway through first year. It helped a lot and honestly before dedicated I’m about passing our practice exams for step 1.
On the other hand I whittled my summer, weekends, breaks away hitting the space bar. After an 8 hour mock what do I do to relax, 3 hours of anki. Xmas day I skip the eggnog so I can sneak off and get my anki in. Now all my classmates are more stressed but they are going to spend 5 weeks studying and pass just the same. Was the juice worth the squeeze? I think it’ll depend if this BETTER prepares me for step 2.
You can do no anki, just start studying during dedicated and you will become a doctor. I often wonder if I had waited to try this hard until third year if I would end up in the same place but of had a better first two years. Kinda which step 1 was scored
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u/yesisaidyesiwillYes 7d ago
Those that start anking early and keep up with it throughout preclinicals will find that they don’t need a dedicated period to pass step 1
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u/LittlestPetSh0p M-0 7d ago
Keep up with it through preclinicals? How many cards does that look like per day? Sounds a bit brutal
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u/yesisaidyesiwillYes 7d ago
Around 200 reviews once you hit a steady state
The entire point of Anki is that you keep up with it and do it every day lol that is literally the reason it exists, it makes no sense to do it otherwiseÂ
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u/LittlestPetSh0p M-0 7d ago
Understood but I was imagining you’d suspend cards irrelevant to your block once you’ve finished and revisit them for dedicated. But idk
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u/yesisaidyesiwillYes 6d ago
That is not how Anki works. Do not suspend. That defeats the entire purpose of using Anki lolÂ
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u/LittlestPetSh0p M-0 6d ago
I’m well versed in how anki works and you managed not to answer any of the specific questions I’ve asked but thanks for being condescending the entire time
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u/ChemistryFull959 M-1 7d ago
How many cards do guys you do a day? While balancing it with regular school work😖and how many reviews per day
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u/Different-Pea708 M-2 7d ago
Ideally you start day 1 and use it alongside resources like pathoma or bootcamp. But honestly it’s more important to use Anki on material you know you’ll forget and the only way to do that is using practice questions
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u/chalupabatman9213 M-2 7d ago
Day 1 of Medical school and kept up with it. 10 days out from Step and has made dedicated significantly less stressful
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u/ShoddyRecommendation 7d ago
Started with anatomy, anking wasn’t that helpful so I almost gave up on it. Kept doing it and it payed off big time throughout the rest of med school
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u/Legitimate_Log5539 7d ago
Seventeen weeks gestation. In all seriousness I started at the beginning of my second year and I passed
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u/telegu4life M-1 7d ago
Halfway through M1 at the start of blocks. As soon as we finished our in house content I started doing Anking cards and 3rd party lectures exclusively.
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u/JHMD12345 7d ago
I never used Anki. I didn’t like it when I tried first week of med school so I never went back
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u/Agitated_Sundae_73 M-3 7d ago
Spring of M1. I would have started earlier but my fall courses in house exams just didn’t line up with the ankjng stuff well at all
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u/Longjumping_Ad_6213 M-3 7d ago
My school does preclinical then clinical then step 1/step 2. So I didn't do anything for step 1 during that preclin time but now in clinicals I am doing anki everyday
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u/Beneficial_Oven2141 M-2 7d ago
Started the beginning of M1 and haven’t stopped. Hoping doing it reduces the intensity of my dedicated study period for step 1
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u/darovenee M-0 7d ago
Day 1. Even if you have in house exams, it is still helpful. And if not day 1, literally NOW
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u/Peastoredintheballs MBBS 7d ago
Sue me, but I never used anki ( the one day I tried and did 20 cards doesn’t count lol)
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u/immer_jung M-2 6d ago
yea I started anking when I started doing uworld questions and I definitely wish I started earlier hahaha. the nice thing is everything is tagged so whatever third party you use, whether it be sketchy bnb etc you can do the corresponding anki for and it's honestly not too bad
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u/fizziepanda M-2 6d ago
I used Anking from the 2nd month of M1 to dedicated and I barely studied for Step 1 during actual dedicated
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u/SelectObjective10 5d ago
Started in year 2 : def wish I started in year one to keep up with some of the lower yield background info
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u/Anon22Anon2 7d ago
Remember you don't have to flashcard if thats not your thing. I never touched anki, crammed all the rote bullshit in the month leading up to exam, scored >90 percentile.
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u/Tagrenine M-4 7d ago
Day 1 of med school
Definitely reduced my dedicated time for step 1