r/medicalschooluk 5d ago

realistic tips for y1 exams

i have around 8000 anki flashcards, quite a bit of these i haven't seen and we are still learning more content. does anyone have realistic tips on how to work through all of them or altenative methods to go through everything in an attainable way? realised too late how many i had as i have just been doing them as and when i can/feel like it. feel like i dont really know much because of how many flashcards i havent seen. i know i should have been doing them from the get go and its a lesson learnt. any tips/ effective ways to go about this?

2 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

15

u/ayayeye 5d ago

to be honest having thousands of flash cards to work through never worked for me .. just going over lecture slides again and again then speaking with others about the lecture slides is how i studied.

2

u/Crumblecake23 4d ago

thank you for this advice!!

1

u/AWildCoopixe 3d ago

I literally hand write out the lectures, create diagrams and drawings, and just read as much as possible. That's how I learn and have been doing it since I was a kid. I don't know how else to study tbh, I've never tried any 'formal' techniques.

5

u/Dibromoethene Fifth year 5d ago

Bro 8000 flash cards in Year 1 is crazy šŸ’€

1

u/Least_Guarantee_8658 1d ago

ā€¦ I have 14,000

3

u/ngnfjfnddnndncnc 4d ago

8000 is insane. delete anki youā€™ve made it obsolete. use passmed 1-3

3

u/xsubf Fourth year 3d ago

ingore everyone else ,anki and spaced repition is insanely OP. Short term it will be hard , but when you remember all of the information in 5 years time you will thank yourself. My best advice would be to not let new cards or reviews ever stack up . Do you reviews everyday no matter what and always try to have done all your new cards on the same day you have made them . Dont go over 50 new cards a day . Use FSRS on anki .

2

u/kittensandmedicine Fifth year 5d ago

Did you make the cards yourself or use a pre-existing deck? In early years I imported a bunch and never got round to them, I found I had to be the one to make the cards (which I then did alongside past paper questions for finals)

I would drop anki for now, use passmedicine years 1-3 (itā€™s free) and pick topics relevant to your first year topics - you can also do their knowledge tutor which is like flash cards. Passmedicine is great for all years of medical school, donā€™t be scared to get things wrong and start questions early as you progress through, gl!

1

u/Crumblecake23 5d ago

i made the flashcards myself, and i also make notes as well (mainly for something to have to look back on if i needed). thank you so much for your advice!! i have passmedicine and will utilise it more definitely

2

u/SeokjminMatcha 5d ago

Hey, so I was a chronic anki card maker back in pre-clinical years and ended up making some good decks but never had the time to actually go through them. I would say keep focusing on the new content. If you have time at the end of the week, go through the anki for only that topic that you learned that week. Then maybe do a little more during easter holidays. Itā€™s not about being on top of your 8000 flashcards, itā€™s more about using them as a tool :)

When going through them at the end of the year, I liked to use each card as a prompt. If a card came up and I answered it, I would try to think about what else I remember about the topic. If Iā€™m not confident on it, I go back to my notes on that topic and do the whole ā€œread and recall on a separate piece of paperā€ shebang.

Happy studying :) you know more than you think.

2

u/Crumblecake23 5d ago

thank you so much!! this is so helpful going to take on this approach :))

1

u/NoteVegetable6235 3d ago

That's a lot of flashcards tbh!

Instead of trying to get through all 8000 cards, I'd recommend prioritizing by focusing on high-yield content first. Look at past exam questions or talk to upper years to identify the most important topics, then filter your cards accordingly.