DIP Episode 447 - How to use The Divine Intervention Podcasts in 2023

All right, welcome. My name is Divine. This is episode 447 of the Divine Intervention Podcasts. And into these podcasts, I'm going to be discussing how to use the Divine Intervention Podcasts in 2023. So periodically, I like to make updates to these podcasts just to tell people, okay, these are the things, you know, just kind of based on what has been mattering more and more on the USML exams. These are things you should be listening to. So I'm going to run through these and really into these podcasts, I have certain key things I want to get at. So the first question I want to get at is, what should everyone taking the exam listen to? Like you're walking into your exam, what should you for sure be listening to? We're going to talk about it. And then secondly, I'm going to talk about, okay, if you're okay, Divine, I want to listen to the basics, but I want a little extra. What do you recommend? Then we're going to talk about that as well. And then the third thing I'm going to talk about is if you have a weakness in a given area, how do you address it? So see, for example, you take a practice exam and you notice that, wow, I feel I did not do very well in internal medicine or surgery or OB-GYN. How do you fix it? And then we will then talk about how you should actually engage with the podcast so that you can learn as much as it's possible from those. And then I'll probably end with some kind of life lesson as well.

Then I'll discuss some of your friends I have that will be helpful to you. The life lesson, I think is probably especially relevant with the events of today, obviously today is much day for many people. Okay, so let's just jump right into it. So how do you use what are the podcasts that everyone taking step two or step three should for sure listen to? The very first podcast you need to listen to is episode 446. It's called the Divine Patch. Honestly, maybe like what do you mean by Divine Patch? It's basically an update podcast because I figured if I were to go back, you know, there are certain podcasts that I know that in the future, I'll probably have to go back and remake. And that's fine. There is no issue with that. But if, for example, in my previous podcast, I have a podcast that is like 99.9% accurate. What is like this 0.1% that, you know, is now outdated. I figured that it will just make sense periodically, just like, you know, Microsoft or Google or whatever, issues or any software maker, issues, updates to their software. I kind of think of this as an update to the Divine Intervention Podcast. So every now and then I call it a series of things that I deem, okay, these things have been changes, you know, in 2018, these were the roles, but not so in 2023, or in 2020, these were the roles, but things have kind of changed in 2023. So listen to Divine Patch. So, you know, people that say, oh, wow, Divine, but you talked about this, you said this in episode 150.

And I don't think that's the case anymore. I pretty much address all those things in episode 446. That is the most recent Divine Update. So listen to that podcast, and it will pretty much clarify things that have changed since I made some original podcasts on something. And again, the fact that while Divine issue an update, it doesn't issue, don't go back and listen to those old podcasts. I will tell you this, about 99% of what I've said in prior podcasts are accurate. That's just the truth. So don't say, oh, I only listen to this two hour podcast because there's five minutes snippets. Divine said something that's no longer true. You're pretty much going to be short-changing yourself. Also, I will encourage you, listen to episode 446 first, and then go on start listening to the other things. It will just basically, so that when you listen to other things that you're like, you hear something that you're like, oh, wait, Divine said this thing, something different, it means Divine Patch Podcast, then you're able to compare and contrast. And again, it's not a lot of things. It's not a lot of things. To be honest with you, there is actually a fairly large number of things out there that resources say are correct. But they actually just flat out wrong on a USML exam. The fact that the USPSTF says that a certain guideline is true, those in necessarily mean that that's the right thing you're supposed to do on your USML exam.

Again, remember, making these podcasts, I'm not making it for you to answer QBAN questions right. I mean, many people that listen to these podcasts do better on their Q Banks, but that's not the goal. The MBA is in some situations. They have a somewhat different focus than what even the USPSTF agrees with. So I'm just going to leave that out there. Okay. So after listening to Divine Patch episode 446, what are some other things that everyone should listen to? You should listen to episodes 29 to 32. Those are my four internal medicine videos on You Tube. They will help you lay very solid foundation for your exams. The thing is internal medicine is the bedrock of step two and of step three. What should you listen to next? Listen to episode 100 is called the Clutch Micro Podcast. A little of the high-yield micro concepts that are tested on the exams, I discussed them in that podcast. What else should you listen to? Episode 360 on secondary hypertension. The MBA is, you know, they love testing essential hypertension, but they also love testing secondary hypertension, things like con syndrome, things like syndrome of, you know, like same. I'm not going to spend time discussing every single concept and discussing those podcasts, but there are many things like renal arteries, stenosis, fibromuscular dysplasia, a person taking certain drugs, people taking those C Ps that can all cause you to have hypertension, I discussed many of those things in that podcast.

Now next podcast you should consider listening to is episode 445. They are the complications of myocardial infarctions. They love to test these things on exams. You should listen to that. And then you should also listen to episodes 221 and episode 304 on trauma. They love love love love love to test those things. Trauma, you know, pressing is an accident, all these contusions, blah blah blah blah blah. Listen to that podcast, the hotel, exactly what you need to know. Next you should listen to episode 377 on GI bleeds. They love testing GI bleeds. Many people, to be honest with you, many resources do not discuss, you know, they give the correct algorithm for the real world, but some of those algorithms make absolutely no sense for the USMLE exams, for NVME exams. So again, listen to episode 377 for that. And then you should also listen to the risk factors podcasts, episode 37, 97 and 184. Those podcasts are a floridly high yield to know for your exam. And then you also want to make sure you listen to episode 164 on toxicology. All these drugs of abuse toxic exposures, that podcast is going to tell you exactly what you need to know. And then you also want to listen to episode 349 on psych pharmacology. For whatever bizarre reason, psych pharmacology is one of those things that you're like, man, this is pharmacology for one specific discipline, but this is like 10 questions on my exam, right?

So they love love love farm like many farm questions you're going to see on your test, actually centered around psych. So strongly encourage you listen to episode 349. And then also listen to episode 371 and 374 on the spinal cord and spinal cord lesions. Again, those are things that they love to test on on exams. Ceringo maelia blah blah blah blah, you can get all those things in those podcasts. And then for sure, you should listen to episode 143. That's the bio statistics podcast. It's a podcast, but it's super, super helpful. And it's not just a podcast, it actually has slides with it. You should certainly listen to it and follow along with the slides. I'm telling you, again, many, many resources cover bio stats from the perspective of let me show you the formula. Let me show you how to use the formula. That's not a smart way to learn bio stats. Bio starts are based on principles. If I you're going to notice, many of the more recent USML exams, most of the bio stats that they test is not based on math is based on reasoning. So I'll encourage you. Don't just be learning the formulas. You know, many people can anyone can pull up 10 practice questions and show you, okay, this is how you plug and chugging the numbers. But then you notice that, man, okay, I know the formulas. I know how to plug and chugging the numbers. I know how to set up the two by two table. But man, I keep getting all these bio stats questions wrong. Well, guess what? The understanding is not there.

So episode 143 will really help you. Also, listen to episode 337 on drug ads on drug ads on drug ads. Again, drug ads, nebulous for many people, I discuss principles for answering those questions correctly in that podcast. And then also listen to episode 204 and 231 on the military, episode 204 and 231 on the military. So the thing is, many military questions are going to be straight up, you know, regular disease processes, but just slap a military person on it. That's fine. But again, the MDM Es also have some very specific things that they test that are pertinent to the military that you don't find in most individuals. I discuss those things in that in that podcast. Some will say, oh, they don't test those things anymore. I wish you all the best. All the very best on your exam. I'm telling you, those things, because the thing is sometimes you may be surprised that the difference between you getting in the 240s and you getting the 250s on your exam is just two or three extra questions you could have gotten right. You may say, like, oh, this is minutia, but if is that extra minutia that can get you over the hump, then why not spend the 30 minutes or 45 minutes that you can invest to learn that extra material? Okay. And then episode 208 is also when you should listen to on transfusion reactions, transfusion reactions, very, very high yield. They show up on pretty much every year, semi-exam.

And then 244 popular disorders, all these eiotic problems, mitral problems, try to cause big problems, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I discuss them in that podcast. And I also discuss the physiology. The thing you will notice with many of my podcasts, we were like, oh, divine, your podcasts are very long. The thing is, again, I try to keep the time reasonable, but to be honest with you, there is no point in me making podcasts. And then you listen to that podcast and not understand the material. Then I'm not helping you because that's the thing I feel like sometimes people want to have great understanding in just two minutes. The thing is that they are just certain things in life, we actually just have to like literally buckle down and put in effort. The thing is ultimately you want to become a physician and your goal is to literally tend to human lives. You don't want to be the kind of person that just does not have understanding. So that's why some of my podcasts are along. People are like, man, this thing is really long. To be honest, we feel sometimes it's just long because I truly, truly want to help you understand this stuff. Because again, in the short run, it may seem tough, but in the long run, you'll benefit from it. Not just you, but the patients you're going to be taking care of. Although, again, obviously, I'll put a disclaimer. My podcasts are not meant for clinical decision-making. They are meant mostly for example, and again, your mileage may vary.

But again, I truly try to help people understand things with these podcasts. If you just really give the podcasts a chance, you can really, really get what I'm trying to teach you. And then also, you should listen to episode 251 on the thyroid. You're going to see thyroid questions on your exam. And then episode 289 on alcoholism. That's actually one of the highest-year podcasts I have ever met. It's like one of these underrated podcasts, but it actually covers a lot of very high-yield stuff. You'd likely see on your test. And then episode 315 on the Circle of Willis. Many MBME questions on neurology for step 2, step 3 center on the Circle of Willis on the spinal cord. I've talked about the spinal cord podcast 315 Circle of Willis. And then episode 404 on chest x-rays. And then, in terms of quality, safety, and ethics and whatnot, you want to listen to this battery of podcasts. I'm just going to mention that episode 228, episode 230, episode 234, episode 268, episode 275, episode 123, episode 276, episode 277, and episode 325. And also episode 250. 250 is on vaccines. 325 is on screening guidelines. Again, that's screening guidelines. That's probably one of the podcasts that many people will pick up on with. There may be, there are like two or three things that I may have mentioned back then that are no longer true. Again, I discussed them in that divine patch podcast in episode 446. So I'm going to read those podcasts. I'm going to read this.

Oh, everyone should listen to it list again. 446 29 to 32, 136, 445, 221 and 304, 3797 and 184, 164, 349, 371 and 374, 143, 337, 204 and 231, 208, 244, 251, 289, 315, 404 and the quality and safety series 228, 250, 230, 234, 268, 275, 123, 276, 277 and 325. And also you can also add in episode 173 on immunodeficiency diseases. So 173 on immunodeficiency diseases. Okay. So now let's answer the second question. What you're like, divine, you know, I have a very poor foundation in pretty much everything. So what should I do in addition to these podcasts you've mentioned that everyone should listen to? Well, the thing you should do is start off first with my shelf review videos on my You Tube channel. The You Tube channel is called Divine Intervention, USMLE podcasts and videos. Divine Intervention, USMLE podcasts and videos. Go there, watch the shelf review videos. I literally have shelf review videos for internal medicine. That's when 9 to 32. I have for surgery. That's episode 24. I have for big eye. That's episode 22. I have for psych. That's a episode 23. I have for peeds. That's a episode 21. I have for neuro. Neur is actually a series of audio podcasts. Just go and listen to those. Go and listen to those. It's really, really going to help you. Start there first. If you have a horrible foundation, start there first and then graduate to the podcast that everyone is supposed to listen to. Okay. Now, part three, or question three, I want to answer today.

What if you have a weakness in a defined subject area? So let's say you're like, well, the vine I took in the end of the year, and I noticed that man. That place where he says, low middle or high. Man, I really had low for like internal medicine. I really had low for surgery or whatever. What should you do? Go on the website, divineinterventionpodcasts.com. And then you'll see a header that says exam topics list. Click on it. And then you'll see a Google, a Google sheets link. Click on that. And then you're going to see this spreadsheet that looks overwhelming, but it's really not. You're going to see at the bottom, you're going to see step one, step two, see key step three, click on step two, see key step three. And then look at by discipline. Like for example, I have like, oh, internal medicine, these are the suggested podcasts, surgery, suggested podcasts, oh my god, suggested podcasts. So if you notice that you're weak, you notice that man. I scored like in the 10th percentile on your world one on OB guy, then go to that OB guy part of that spreadsheet, listen to everything that is suggested there. Okay. Now question number four, how do I use the divine intervention podcast? Well, here's what you're supposed to do. Or I feel for most people make sense. One, listen to the podcast first to gain understanding. And as you're listening, you can follow along with the transcriptions.

If you go under episode notes on my website, divineinterventionpodcast.com, you'll see links to transcriptions that many people have done that many people also vet of many of my podcasts. So listen and then be following along in the transcriptions. So you can just listen first. And then after that immediately go and read the transcriptions just to reinforce. So some people say, oh, let me just, you know, divine. Can I just not, is a common thing I see online? Oh, divine. Can I just not just, I don't have the time. Can I just not just read the notes and get the information? Again, you're pretty much short-changing yourself. The thing is learning is better. In fact, I actually have podcasts on this stuff, you know, from back in the day. Like if you're very poor at studying, literally go back and listen to a podcast I have on the central dogma of studying. But again, that's a different conversation. But the thing is you'll learn more effectively if you engage in more senses as you're learning. If you're listening to something or watching a video and getting that understanding and then following along with notes and reading through, reading through, reading through that material is going to stick in your mind a lot better. So I'll just encourage you. Don't just read the notes. You're you're kind of short-changing yourself. Listen and then read. Listen and then read. He will help you reinforce the material. Those connections you're establishing your brain will be much stronger.

Alternatively, you can also use a DIP deck. It's called a DIP deck and shout out to the person that made that. I believe the person is a resident now. But this person has made very good quality flashcards on many of my podcasts. So again, listen, get the understanding and then use those flashcards to rehash the material. And the thing is people are like, oh, divine, why do I need to do something for the first time listening to your podcast? No. The thing is many of my podcasts are built for primary learning. Again, I try to actually explain things like, oh, wow, I've never heard of this concept before. I try to show you first how it's tested. And then second, I explain the concept. The thing is again, many times you see many resources just like, oh, okay, we're going to talk about the coagulation cascade. Yeah, it's good to know about the coagulation cascade. But it's also good to know. Hmm, how are you going to test the coagulation cascade on my exam? That's why if you notice for most of my podcasts, I love to start most concepts with some kind of vignette. I love to meet these integrations across disciplines. And then the next thing I want to say is, so if you're like, oh, divine, I hear you, here you offer a lot of courses. So which one should I take? Well, it depends on the exam you're taking. So the courses I offer for every assembly exam. So these courses apply to step one all the way to step three. The first one is the NV Me test against strategy scores.

It focuses on process. It focuses on processes. Because again, sometimes you can have all the small edge. Well, you notice you're still getting questions wrong. If you want to get good at taking tests, you want to consider the NV Me test against strategy scores. It's for step one all the way to step three. And all the course for step one all the way to step three is my biostatistics course. So it's a four hour course. But again, it really helps you truly understand bio stats. Because again, many bio stats questions these days are not plug and chock. There's still some that are, but many of the ones you're going to see on your exam are not, especially on step two, step three. Many of the questions are more reasoning based. So if you want to deeply understand bio stats and not just like, ooh, memorize it. If you're looking for a course that will teach you formulas, then you're coming to the wrong course. If you're looking for a course that will help you to critically reason and think through bio statistics, the four hour bio stats course is exactly what you need. Actually, have one taking place tomorrow. Have a test taking strategy score sticking place today. And then the third course I offer that applies to step one all the way to step three is my social sciences and ethics review.

The thing is many of you know this, but about 15% of the USMEL exams these days across the board step one, step two, step three cover ethics, quality and safety, quality improvement, communications, professionalism, healthcare systems, and things of that nature. And again, many things you're going to see out there are going to say, okay, let's discuss this topic. Let's discuss lean technique. Let's discuss the DMAIC model. Let's discuss medication errors. That's great. That's wonderful. But again, on your exam, they're not going to put headers for these things. You need to know how to know, you need to first understand these concepts, but you need to know how to apply them to exam scenarios. Apply them to like, well, they tell you about a hospital that is losing money or a hospital that is not getting properly reimbursed. Or a nice CEO where many people are dying from a particular disease. How do you solve those problems? If you want to learn how to do those, you want to attend a five hour social sciences and ethics review. It's a very high level course, but again, it's a very deep dive is really, really going to help you truly understand the concepts, but also see them in exam terms. And we go over like a very large number of ethics scenarios. You'll be, there's literally someone that took the bio stats and the ethics course courses recently. And they said that there's not a single bio stats or ethics or QI question.

They saw the exams that did not feel very comfortable attacking. And then if you're taking step one, I have a 25 hour step one review that I host from time to time. If you're taking step one, then obviously that applies only to step one. Although if you're taking step two or step three, you have an awful foundation. That step one course is also going to be very, very helpful. The step one course focuses a lot on critical thinking. So I use a lot of graphs, a lot of experiments, a lot of tables to just show you how to money delete USMLE questions. Because again, you can know the concepts, but if you're not a critical thinker, you're going to get in trouble. So again, I use many different modalities to really help you learn the material. And then if you're taking step two or step three or you're taking your shelf exams, the 20 hour step two step three course is something I suspect you're going to find to be very, very helpful. I actually have a course just for that first step two step three. And people that are like, wow, I want a very solid review of most of what I'm going to see on my shelf exams, then that course is for you. And then the final thing I want to discuss. So if you're interested in any of these courses, they are all held over Zoom. Most of them take place in the evenings. So they should work with most people's rotation schedules, shoot me an email through the website, and I'll give you some more information.

And then the final thing I want to say is kind of a life lesson. So what's your worth as a medical student? Because the thing is, again, many people define their worth on their USMLE scores. Like, wow, if you score poorly on the USMLE's, you're worthless. Then the present as scores to 70s. Or if you go to this top three named residency program, then your worthless than a person that goes to a bottom 20 program. Let me tell you this. Your worth in life is you, not is who you are, not where you are. That's one thing that is kind of lost on many people. You see some people and, you know, maybe they did not match where they wanted to go, or maybe they didn't get the highest scores possible. And they look at themselves as failures. I'm telling you this, one of the biggest naysayers that many people have is themselves. So really, don't let the world define who you are. That's just the truth. Don't let the world define who you are. The thing is, even if you are at a bottom 20 year-round program, you can still become an excellent physician if you intrinsically motivated. I tell people this, it's not where you are that matters. It's the kind of person you are that matters after all is said and done. Because one thing I've found, especially, and it's not just amongst medical students, but in many of these high-power professions, you see people that are very driven by stuff that really doesn't matter after all is said and done.

And some of these things, you may not believe me now, being a medical student or being like a resident listening to this. But the thing is, when you go on the other side, and you actually see how life is, you're going to see that many of these pursuits and many of these things that people chase, chase, chase, chase, chase, chase, so hard. It's not not mattering in the end. Because you see some people, like literally their happiness is how popular they are on social media, or and really, honestly, it doesn't just apply to USMLE scores or whatever. But people define their lives by popularity like, wow, okay, do I know everyone in this department? How popular am I on social media? How popular am I on this and on that and on this and on that? I'm telling you, a man's life does not consist of the abundance of the things that he poses as. That's a Bible verse right there. But it's actually a truce for many people. So just be careful of how you're literally defining your life, how you're literally defining who you are. Because again, I've seen many people, because really, like if squaring in the 270s is what gives people lasting happiness in life, then everyone that's causing 270s will be completely adjusted to life. They'll be very happy. They'll have like no personal problems and that's not true. I'm telling you, the fact that a person is at a top three rank program, again, obviously, I'm not going to mention in specific hospitals. That makes no sense.

But the fact that the presence of a top three rank program or a person is got a 270, it doesn't mean that they cannot go through personal challenges. That's one thing many people don't understand. So you're just going to be careful because I just feel like every year you hear this, people just keep chasing, chasing, chasing, all these trails that don't really matter. Instead, work on becoming a better person yourself. If you're a good person, it doesn't matter where you go, you will succeed. You'll succeed in California or you'll succeed in any other place. So just going to be mindful of that. As I wrap this podcast up, again, I do offer tutoring for all the USML exams, the point to three, come next one to three, preclinical medical exams, 30-ish-off exams, and I also offer help with advising for residency and applications and ER As and NRMP and personal statements and rec letters. And again, I have these podcasts on the Measio apps, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify. I have a You Tube channel, as I've said earlier on Divine Intervention, USML Podcasts and videos. And then I also have a website called Divine Intervention Lifelesses.com. Many people said, oh, Divine, I love your life lessons. So I started a new website about a year ago, Divine Intervention Lifelesses.com. There's actually an Apple Podcast associated with it called the Divine Intervention Life Lessons Podcast.

And basically, what I do there is, from a biblical perspective, I put out two podcasts every week that I address like a common problem faced by humanity. Many of you listening to this podcast know that I'm a Christian. So I decided to just make a separate website for that. I usually make podcasts on Fridays and on Sundays. Usually, put out about right now, I think we have about 166 podcasts. And again, I'm going to keep adding like two every every week. So again, you can check that out, Divine Intervention Lifelesses.com. I think you're going to find that to be helpful. So for all the people that are going to be here and where they're going to today, I wish you all the best and have a wonderful weekend and I wish you success in all your life endeavors. And bye for now. Thank you.

Episode 446 (The Divine Patch), which clarifies changes in guidelines since previous podcasts were recorded.

The shelf review videos on the You Tube channel for their respective disciplines (Internal Medicine, Surgery, OBGYN, etc.).

USMLE bio-stats questions are often based on reasoning and principles rather than just formula application.

Episode 164 (Toxicology).

Listen first to gain understanding, then immediately follow along by reading the transcriptions to reinforce the material.

The series of podcasts (e.g., 228, 230, 234, etc.) covering Quality, Safety, and Ethics.

Episode 446 (The Divine Patch), as it provides the most current updates and corrections to previously taught material.

Episode 349.

Active engagement by listening (auditory) and then reading/following along with transcriptions (visual).

Trauma (Ep 221, 304); GI Bleeds (Ep 377); or Secondary Hypertension (Ep 360).

Focus on understanding the underlying principles and reasoning rather than just memorizing formulas.

Episode 208.

Episode 446 (The Divine Patch), as it provides the most current updates and corrections to previously taught material.

Episode 349.

Active engagement by listening (auditory) and then reading/following along with transcriptions (visual).

Trauma (Ep 221, 304); GI Bleeds (Ep 377); or Secondary Hypertension (Ep 360).

Focus on understanding the underlying principles and reasoning rather than just memorizing formulas.

Episode 208.