DIP Episode 200 - How To Make Anki Flashcards and Use UWorld Correctly/Study Recommendations and Course Offerings

Okay, good morning. Welcome. My name is Devine, I'm a resident. This is episode 200. Thank God for that. Of the Divine Intervention Podcasts. And in this podcast, I'm actually not going to be teaching anything, but I'm going to be going over a question that I've gotten from many med students. So this should be a relatively short podcast. And my focus into this podcast is to talk about how to make anti-cards. Anky cards based on doing you work, for example, or doing like questions from the NBA, mean like clinical mastery series questions, or doing like the full length practice exams and things of that sort. So I will just talk about some general guidelines. I will actually try to make this podcast as practical as possible. So I will give you very specific like, oh, okay, this is an example of a question like an NBA me style question. These are the answer choices like options A through E. I'll use an answer. I'll use a question from one of my videos, my OB-GYN video. And then these are this is a way I would put, I mean, I would intentionally get the question wrong. And then I will teach you how to make flashcards based on that. So just be attention. Hopefully you find this to be helpful. And then I'll also give you just some general thoughts on again, the process of studying for step to CK. Because a lot of people study for these US Emily exams and they use relatively inefficient methods.

The truth is you can actually use, in fact, you know, let me let me hold my courses a little. I will talk about that towards the end. So let me just jump right into it. So making on key cards. The thing is, if you've listened to my podcast for any length of time, you'll see that personally for me I don't use on key. But to be perfectly honest, I actually recommend on key to certain groups of people, the asserting people that on key works really well for. I feel like at the end of the day as a medical student as a healthcare professional, if you're studying for an exam. The big thing, there are some just big general principles you need to keep in mind, right? And again, I promise I will get to this on key business. When you're studying for an exam, the first thing you want to do is you want to be comprehensive in your coverage of the material. So one mistake, classic mistake that's made by a lot of people and also fear unfortunately, unfortunately some international medical graduates is, they start off studying for an exam and the user resource that is not very comprehensive, right? A resource that does not cover the breadth of what they expect on an exam. I mean, don't get me wrong, the asserting people were using a super comprehensive resource, but you not necessarily be, say for example, for step two CK, you not necessarily be the smartest and for them of the most efficient thing for them.

But I will say for the vast majority of people, starting out like the very first time you make contact with a given piece of material, try to learn it from a comprehensive resource because that will help you with not having gaps in your knowledge, right? You see people, they want to learn something for the first time and they are learning it from like a monkey deck. That is not smart, that is not prudent because yes, you may think you're learning, yes, you may think you're committing things to memory. But many times there is little, if any context behind that information. And as you'll see when you're taking an MBA exams, you'll see that as you're reading, like, I mean, this is something that happens a lot of the time when I'm tutoring people. They tell me when I encounter people for the first time when they, you know, reach out to me for tutoring, I say, they say, but define, I've done this, Zunky deck, I've memorized all 20,000 cards, but my UR percentage is still like 30, 40% or I've done this awesome deck. And again, don't get nearer of the Zunky deck is an amazing deck. I mean, that whoever did that stuff is like super dedicated, super, super dedicated. In fact, I hope to be as dedicated as that going forward. But the thing is, when you're learning information, you need to learn in context because the MBA me does not ask recall questions. They do. Even your work, you know, does it occasionally.

But for the most part, the MBA me, they give you questions in a certain context. So say, for example, if you memorize statins, statins are HNG query reductives inhibitors. Yes, that is good information to know. That is a factoid and that is a classic Anki card you will see out there. But the thing is, ask yourself, how many times have you truly seen the MBA me just straight up test that factoid at all? Statins are inhibitors of HNG query reductives, no, right? They are many other ways they can test that. So they will still test that core knowledge, but they will test it in the like in other contexts that will still drop that knowledge, but it's not like a direct asking of the question. For example, they could give you a question, talk about a person that has like hyperlipidemia or something or give it in the context of a person that has one of those familial hyperlipidemias. And then say a drug is administered, right? That inhibits HNG query reductives blah, blah, blah, blah. So they are literally telling, like, you're like, oh man, this thing already memorized, they are literally telling the question, the drug works by inhibiting HNG query reductives. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for why the patient is responding to this therapy? And then they will put different answers. And obviously the right one will be like an increase in the number of LDL receptors on the surfaces of hepatocytes.

So the thing is, if all you've memorized is, or are starting in HNG query reductives, great. But the thing is, if you see a different context on an MB, then you are not able to approach those kinds of questions. So that is one thing you need to be careful about. If, for example, you have an Anki card that has context with it, great. That is awesome. Well, there are very few cards that have those kinds of contexts, right? Because again, it's kind of like fragmented information. And the power of Anki is in helping you with recall. It's not necessarily in helping you with understanding things, right? I see some people erroneously on, again, an MB wrong. Again, I don't know everything, right? I'm just speaking based on my experience just teaching and tutoring people for four years, like for a really long time. So that's what I will say with that. So whenever you're learning, try to learn from a comprehensive, the first time you're learning something, right? Learn from a comprehensive resource, learn in context, right? In fact, if you're using someone else's Anki cards, don't just ask yourself, okay, go beyond, okay, this is the factoid on this card. Ask yourself. What? What contexts can this knowledge I'm staring at right in front of me on my computer screen? What context could this? Concept or piece of knowledge be tested? I think that's probably a, it's again, it will be much slower, right?

But it's probably a more powerful way to learn than just saying, okay, I'll just work memorize these 100 Anki cards that I have due for the day. So when you get to your world or like an MBA exam or whatever, are you trying to make flashcards on that stuff? How do you approach that process? So let me give you an example. I'll read this question twice and then I will talk about how I will make flashcards and I will intentionally get the question wrong. So that I model the process of teaching again, showing you how to make flashcards and the thing is if you're not a flashcard person, you don't necessarily need to employ this method in making flashcards. Like for me, I'm more of like a notes person. So again, I'm not saying notes work well for everyone. There are people that Anki works better for. There are people that notes work better for and one of those people that writing notes works better for. So the thing is if you are taking notes on your world or whatever, this is also a strategy you can use. And one common problem I see amongst people is you see them, they have notes from your world that is like a 200 page word document or something, right? And then they never have the time to go back and review that stuff. Again, that is not prudent, okay? That is not prudent.

The thing is it's better to have something manageable, maybe like I don't know what 20 pages long, they can read multiple multiple multiple times than to have a 200 or 300 page term that you can only get through once, right? Because at the end of the day, after you learn information well the first time, you also need to repeat that information over and over again so that it goes into a long term start. Okay, so I read the question. So a 22 year old G1 P1 female visits Harp's nutrition one week after she delivered a boy that weighed 6 pounds and 4 ounces. The delivery was on a remarkable with up-gar scores of 8 and 9 at 1 and 5 minutes respectively. The patient plans to have her next baby when she graduates from school, two years from now. In addition to a routine screening for postpartum depression, what is the next best step in the management of this patient? I'll read the question again. A 22 year old G1 P1 female visits her obstetrician one week after she delivered a boy that weighs 6 pounds and 4 ounces. The delivery was on a remarkable with up-gar scores of 8 and 9 at 1 and 5 minutes respectively. The patient plans to have her next baby when she graduates from school, two years from now. In addition to a routine screening for postpartum depression, what is the next best step in the management of this patient? I'll read the answers twice. Option A. The discussion of the benefits of breastfeeding as an excellent long-term form of birth control. Option B.

Servicone swabs for an iseria gonorrhea and chlamydia trocometis. Option C. Prescription for a combined oral contraceptive pill. Option D. Profilactic citralline for postpartum depression. And then option E. Obtaining consent for the administration of depot medruxy progesterone acetate during this visit. Okay. So let me read the options again. Option A. Discussion of the benefits of breastfeeding as an excellent long-term form of birth control. Option B. Servicone swabs for an iseria gonorrhea and chlamydia trocometis. Option C. Prescription for a combined oral contraceptive pill. Option D. Profilactic citralline for postpartum depression. Option E. Obtaining consent for the administration of depot medruxy progesterone acetate during this visit. Okay. So I will go ahead and pick option C here. I promise you option C is wrong. The right answer here is actually option E. Okay. But let's say I choose option C. Prescription for a combined oral contraceptive pill. But the right answer is option E. Obtaining consent for the administration of depot medruxy progesterone acetate during this visit. And I know some people listen to the spot cast the only one, divide to drop some knowledge on them. So I guess let me explain. So the thing is this person is postpartum. Right. When a person is postpartum, at least for the first like six weeks or there about postpartum, you cannot give any kind of contraceptive option that contains estrogen.

If you give an estrogen containing contraceptive option, the thing that's going to happen is that you will effectively decrease the woman's milk supply. So like the protein content of the milk that she's given the child will not be adequate. Right. That is why if you again visit any like an actual like repeatable OB game doctor, you will not give you any estrogen containing contraceptive option. Right. So that's why option C is wrong because the oral the combined oral contraceptive pill, right, gives contains estrogen and progestin. Right. Would option E is correct because the depot medruxy progesterone acetate, right, is just progestin. So that doesn't mess mess up the milk supply. And obviously option D will be wrong. You cannot give prophylactic sexually because this woman, we've not diagnosed her with postpartum depression yet. Right. And there are no indications in the question that she has postpartum depression. So it would not make sense to just prophylactically give someone an SSRI for depression. Again, remember every drug you give has side effects. Regardless of how people tell you, even vitamins have side effects, right. You just need to compare the risk benefit ratio. The benefits of obviously of taking vitamins outweighs the risk. I mean, that's why tickable, T-vitamin every day. So this is all like a risk benefit thing, right.

So if you don't have depression, you should really shouldn't be on an SSRI or any, I guess, psych disorder that demands using a SSRI, you don't get yourself on those, right. And then cervical swaps when I see her going to re-inclamidiatric comedis is not indicated here. There's nothing in the question to support it. This is not like some young person that is sexually active and not using contraception or anything like that. That's not the setting. This is not a person that is having like risky sexual behaviors. At least I don't give you any evidence of that in the question. So you should not pick that answer as well. And then discussion of the benefits of breastfeeding as an excellent long term form of birth control. No, that's wrong. Again, breastfeeding is great, but if you don't want to get pregnant, don't depend on breastfeeding. It is very accurate. Your chances of becoming pregnant while breastfeeding, if you're having sex with your husband, is very minimal, but or almost nonexistent, but there is always the one person that is an exception. So I will encourage you, if you know you don't want to get pregnant, be smart, right. Be smart. So let's assume I go with option C, which is wrong, and I know that option E is correct. And notice, I've just explained why option C is wrong and why option E is correct. So let's say all these things I just said, where I walked through it, because this is essentially what your world does, right.

All the answer choices they will explain why this is right, this is wrong. They will give you an educational objective at the end. They will give you a discussion on the correct answer, right. The thing is, if I wanted to make flashcards or notes on this, my flashcard will be like this. So the first process I will go through is I will keep my notes away, and carefully read the answer explanation, read it from beginning to end, right. So this whole thing of, I will do your world questions and review the questions I got right, the ones I, I mean, sorry, the ones I got wrong, and then let go of the ones I got right. That is not a smart principle, okay. You've spent probably almost 400 or 500 dollars on your world. You might as well get your money's worth. And the thing is, you can learn a lot from your world questions, even if it's a question you get right. So you may not spend copious amounts of time reviewing the question you got right, but you really should still review that question you got right. So I've explained you read the world explanation and all that stuff. Unfortunately, this does not apply to the MBMS, the MBMS provides zero explanations. That's where my role as a tutor comes in. I usually do this process of go through each option with students I work with. But basically, how do you make your world a your flashcard on this, right. So let's ask ourselves, how do I write the question for the Anki flashcard?

Well, the world, right, this question, if I were you, is 22 year old female, comma, recently postpartum, comma, inquiring about the best means of birth control. So notice it is a paradigm question. You don't need to write down the entire thing. You want to be efficient with your studying, right. So writing out the whole question is probably not the smartest thing in the world. And the thing is, you've read that question, you've read the explanation. The thing is, most people say, oh, divine, I have a terrible memory. The truth is, when people say, oh, I have a photographic memory, blah, blah, blah. To be honest with you, I really don't believe in that. I know some people may say, oh, divine, come on, you do all this teaching. Of course, you have a photographic memory. No, I don't. I promise you, I don't. The thing that happens is, I've just worked in my strengths. And again, I'm very thankful for this. I'm not saying this to be proud of anything. But you essentially use your strengths to your advantage. I've found ways that work for me to commit large amounts of information to memory, right. And those ways require some effort, right. So you cannot work for five minutes at the end, commit everything to memory. No, it's not possible, right. So when people tell you that when you see people get these high scores on exams, and they tell you that, oh, they only invested an hour, they don't work. That's not true, right.

People that have great success, they also put in some great levels of hard work. So there is always a story behind the glory, right. So just kind of keep that at the back of your mind. So notice the first thing. It's a breakdown question, right. To enter your old G1 P1 female, recently postpartum, requesting the best means of contraception. That's it. So that's your question, right. And then, or you can see, what is the best means of contraception, right. You can put like a small vignette to an interior old G1 P1 female, recently postpartum. New line. What is the best means of contraception, right. And then when you're writing the answers in the back, right. Your answers, you really should try to keep them down to no more than three sentences, right. You see people when they're writing, you will know when they're making on key cards, they need these long, super long things. Again, that is not prudent. That wears you out, right. And again, I feel about for a med student, because especially medical education in this country, med students already, at least most med students, I have seen some truly lazy med students, but most med students work pretty hard, right. But there's no point like doing on foot for work, right. No point wearing yourself out. So, where should those three sentences come from. The first sentence should be, what is true. Okay. The second sentence should be, what is false, what you got wrong.

And then the third sentence should be relevant pathophysiology, if any. Sometimes I even tell people that they should mix up sentence one and three together. So, for example, let me give you two potential formats for answers here. One answer could, what my sentence one could be, progesterone based contraception. That sentence one, sentence two is, estrogen based contraceptive options are wrong, because they decrease milk supply in the female. The thing is, if you noticed, or I could also do like, progestin based, so, a sentence one could be, progestin based contraceptive options, because they do not interfere with milk production. Period. Sentence two. Estrogen based contraceptive options are wrong, because they decrease the protein content of the woman's milk. Period. That's it, right. So, notice what I did here. I talked about the right thing, and I talked about why. I talked about the wrong thing, and I talked about why it was wrong, right. The thing is, when you're, and that's pretty much it, you don't need to do anything beyond that. So, some of you may be saying, okay, so divine white, what's the reason behind that? The reason behind that is first, we've written a question that gives you context. Second, we've written answer choices that don't just give you what is right and what is wrong, but it actually helps you compare and contrast.

The thing is, whenever you can make your notes able to compare closely related pathologies, those notes are a lot more powerful and a lot more useful on exams. Because again, at the end of the day, the way the NV Me sets up questions is, at least this is the way in vision, that is set up questions. And it's not just a matter of me envisioning, this is something that if you read between the lines, again, I do a ton of questions, and I've done tons of questions analysis in my lifetime, right. So, it's fairly obvious that this is a potential mechanism behind the way the NV Me writes questions. When the NV Me is writing a question, the way they usually set it up is, there is a concept that they want to go after. There is usually one central concept they want to go after, right. So, that's the first step. And the next step is they ask themselves, okay, well, what is a clinical context that botrasses this point? They come up with that clinical context, right. And then they also consider, is there any close clinical scenario that looks fairly similar to this clinical context that we really want to test, but you know, it's not really it. And then they write the question, like, you know, most of the question will support the right thing. But then they will maybe throw in a sentence or two that may make you think of something else that is not right. And then they will put a bunch of answer choices, right. You know, they'll obviously be the right answer.

They'll be the answer that is wrong, but is in a closely related pathology. And then they'll put some answers that just don't make sense. They just don't fit with the timeline, right. So, say, for example, let's say a person has like 12 hours on set of severe edible cauldron pain. You put like, colandu carcinoma as an answer doesn't make any sense, right. You cannot get colandu carcinoma in 12 hours, right. It's more likely to be an acute and acute answer, right. So, that's the way the NBME sets up these questions, right. So, that is the reasoning behind me saying that when you're writing out answers to an Anki card, or you're writing out notes for a question, it makes sense to write the right answer and the wrong answer. And why the right answer is right and why the wrong answer is wrong. And again, force yourself to pair down each of these things to a sentence. What is the right answer and why? What is the wrong answer and why? That process of thinking so hard that you force yourself to pay the information down to one sentence also helps with solidifying that knowledge you've gone through in your head. So, again, notice what I did here. So, let me just summarize. You read the question, you read the answers, right. You read the answers and again, read it slowly. Without notes, you're meaning thin by your sight, right. You see people, they're like, they read one sentence, they make a card. They read the next sentence, the make a card.

They read the next sentence, the make a card. That's one of the things that we're met students out, right. Read the whole explanation and then face the computer away from you or the answer choices away from you. And then make your pay down question and then write out the maximum three sentences you need to capture these thoughts I just conveyed. What is the right answer and why? What is the wrong answer and why? And any relevant path of physiological tick up a third sentence. If you've not already incorporated it in sentence one and sentence two. So, what is a common question I get when I say this? People may say, oh, but divine. How about all the other valuable pieces of information in a your question? Well, I would give you two responses to that. One is remember that you spent time reading and understanding that answer explanation. The thing is you will very likely remember that context if you see it in the future. Again, you may not believe that your brain is able to do this. But I promise you, if you are going about the process of learning and studying the right way, your brain will register that. That's what. The second point with that is when you make flashcards and the sentences you make in your answer choices, relate to just what you got right and why. I mean, what the right answer is and why and the wrong answer you chose and why. The thing is you essentially cling to your brain's strength. What do I mean by that?

The thing is the fact that you did not pick those other answers means that your brain subconsciously knows that they don't work for the context that was thrown in front of you. So, yes, there may be some valuable information that you miss out on doing this. But the thing is one, you'll be a lot more efficient. And two, those other pieces of information that you are not necessarily making, a flashcard for, usually ends up not being as important as you think in the end. Again, in making notes, this mantra that I'm expressing to you, I have used that mantra pretty extensively for years. And thankfully, I have done very well on exams doing that. Again, I will talk about kind of like a pre-process that may play into my results. But the thing is at the end of the day, when you try to make flashcards on everything, because the thing is when you're studying again, you want to, I just kind of think of this as almost like the Pareto principle. You want to use them, you want to use your time to get the biggest bank for your buck. So, it's almost like I spend one hour and I get 30 of benefit from it. And I spend three hours and I get 40 of benefit from it. Yes, you know, I am losing out on 10, but that one hour of work that I did for 30, if I do it another day, like another one hour, 30, and that one at 30. For three hours, I end up making 90 versus three hours end of making 40, kind of deal.

Usually, the pieces of information that end up being the most relevant for you to take away with you, to an exam, ends up being what is convened in the wrong answer you select, and what is convened in the right answer you select, and what is convened in the relevant path of physiology, behind the context that the question is trying to push out. The other stuff may be valuable, but I promise you, and again, you, I guess this may require you to just have some, I guess, element of faith in what I'm saying. When I promise you in the long run, those extracted bits of information you're making flashcards on don't end up being at least the vast majority of them, don't end up being as important as you think. That's one. Now, you may see, okay, so divine. What is your own process of study, right? Like, do you start on questions first or whatever? Well, I will tell you this, and you've probably heard this from, and I will encourage you, if you're a med student, especially studying out med school or studying out 30 or if you're any kind of learner, I will encourage you to go ahead and listen to my podcast on the central dogma of study. It's probably one of the best podcasts I have ever made on how to study. It's almost like philosophical, in a sense, but I feel like you will help someone tremendously if the, again, take what they hear and carefully consider. And again, I'm not saying I have all the answers. In fact, there may be some stuff I'm seeing right now that is wrong, right?

And that's why, especially in the world we live in today, where you know, you can be fed with information from anywhere. It's also important for you to think in terms of your values, think for yourself, and then select that thing that is good from whatever information that is put out there. Even if something is bad, they may actually be some good you can extract from a bad piece of information. You could learn how to not do something, for example. So what is my process? So the thing is personally for me, I don't believe in jumping into questions. I've just never found any benefit from doing that. So personally, and I've also noticed that it's very enough, at least for me, again, I'm saying for me. But I feel like this also applies for a decent number of people. Jumping into questions I found out to not be very efficient because when you jump straight into questions, you don't have any basis, you don't have any background, right? And you're just reading a question, maybe because you've just never seen the information before, you get it wrong. You know, you get it wrong, it sucks. One that kind of knocks you down from a psychological perspective. Although there is nothing wrong in getting things wrong. In fact, failure is actually good. Failure is good. Because the thing is, I mean, again, I'm maybe I guess people may think at some point during this podcast that, oh, the vine is a motivational speaker of some sort.

I guess I actually try to motivate students, but failure is good, right? Obviously not on an exam, right? But the process before an exam, having failures in that process is not about them. Because when you fail, you find out what you're doing wrong, and then you work on those areas, right? Because many of us have strengths, but if you work on your weaknesses, you end up living a more high old life. You just get more from life when you're spending time really showing up, like, you know, really working on your weaknesses, and then every now and then showing up your strengths. So the thing is personally, I believe in learning first before approaching questions. Because I've noticed that when I learn first, you know, I read a book or I listen to a video or something. And then, so when I learn, and then I go into questions after that, if I get something wrong, then that tells me that my process of learning the bit of information behind that question was flawed. And then I go back and fix that error. I go back and fix that error, right? And then, as I keep going through more and more questions, like, I learn, I do questions, I get something wrong, I go back, or was the error in my thinking, was the error in my thought process, I go fix that. If I keep going through that iterative process, I may start my learning with like 10 errors that I, like, oh, like just unconscious errors or conscious errors that I have.

And then, as I keep erasing them, erasing them, erasing them, I get to a point where I'm almost like at 100%. When I'm like, okay, I know everything, or I know why I got this right, I know I got this wrong, I understand it from different angles, right? Like, if you notice, when I give podcasts, you see me, I take this bit of knowledge and I just start integrating with different disciplines. That process is, again, I'm thankful for being able to do that. But that process is born from just being able to compare and contrast things, right? And it's from going through this iterative process of learning first. After I learn, I go, I do questions, because the thing is, it's just a lot more, I almost think of it this way, right? If, for example, you lose money on something, let's say, like, you go to a casino, and you lose money, right? You lost money, you're like, man, I lost money, that sucks. But you know, it's like a random event. You know, you had very little control over it, right? You know, so, you know, it sucked for a few minutes, a few moments, well, I guess depending on the amount you lost. But after a while, you kind of put it out of your mind, you're like, yeah, this is a chance, I don't know what's going on here, screw that. But let's say, for example, you lose money because a friend you know cheated you, right? You feel terrible. You're less likely to forget that event because you're like, man, I knew this is my friend. This is my close buddy.

I still got cheated, right? So the thing is, it's almost like the same way for me. If I've read something well, I've learned it the best I can. And then I notice I get a question wrong. Like, those questions, and even reading the answer explanation is just a lot more memorable in my mind, because essentially forces me to say, okay, so the divine you read this thing, but you know, you're still making this error, right? So there's some error in the way you're thinking about this thing. And then when I go and fix it, I notice that I'm more likely to remember that thing even better, right? So again, that is, I guess I'm trying to explain because again, I don't just want you to accept what I'm saying based on faith. I also want you to see the reasoning behind why I'm recommending this method for making notes on questions or for making anarchy cards based on Europe or, or like the NBM exams. Now, the next major question I get from people is divine. What? What kinds of questions should I make flashcards on every question I do? And the answer to that is no. You should not make flashcards on every question you do. You should only make flashcards on questions you get wrong or questions you get right because you guessed. I'll say that again. You should only make flashcards over questions you get wrong or questions you get right for the wrong reasons because you guessed because you were like, oh, I stare at the sun.

If the sun is shining through this part of my window, then you should be option A. You know, that's probably not a smart way to take exams. So you should make flashcards for those purposes. And again, use the method I have prescribed early. Now, in terms of studying, what should you do? Right? The thing is, for like step one, step two, see, step three, whatever it doesn't matter what it whatever exam you take. Again, I always advocate start with a comprehensive resource. Start with a comprehensive resource you can get through in a reasonable amount of time. So say, for example, if you're studying for step two, see, and you know, there's like a 500 page book you can read and capture most of the high-yield information tested. And that's a smart play, right? It would not make sense to go and pick out like a 2000 page tone to read for step two, see, that's just not possible, right? It's just not, right? So the thing I tell people is find a good relatively manageable high-yield resource. If it's online-medit, if it's first date for step two, see, if it's step up to medicine, if it's whatever resource that whatever floats your boot use, just make sure it's comprehensive, right? And the thing is when you're going through that first time, really try to make sure you're understanding what is going on. Like really try, really try to make sure you understand what in the world is going on with this resource.

Because again, if the understanding is there, then you'll be more apt to using that information well using it the right way on exams. I mean, obviously, I would recommend my podcasts and my videos. I feel like I have comprehensive material pretty much for step two, see, K. I have comprehensive material for internal medicine, for psych, for neuro, for OB-GYN, for surgery, for PEEDS. So I'm type biotics, microbiology, pharmacology, even for step one, right? I have pretty comprehensive, but I won't say my step one material is all comprehensive, but I will say I probably have covered like 40 to 50% of the material tested on the exam in my step one relevant podcasts. So find a comprehensive resource like for me, the way I go about things is like I don't mind watching a video and you know making notes on the video. The thing is when you're going through this comprehensive resource, you want to find a way to pair that resource down if it's like keeping note of like even like a topic header, like topic headers, like, oh, on this speech, these are the three key topics, right? Just find a way that, so for example, let me, okay, let me use my videos as an example. So let's say you watch my videos, let's you're preparing for like your medicine shelf, you watch my four medicine videos, you make notes on it, right? That first contact with the material will take you a lot of time.

My medicine videos come to work like 11 hours, I think, of material, but again, you're very comprehensive, right? So you watch those 11 hours, you know, you kind of space it out. That's again, why it's important to start early, right? Don't wait till the last week of your clerkship to start going through resources. That's probably not smart, right? So you'll watch the videos over like three, four weeks or thereabouts, you make notes on them. And then those notes, you go back and review them over and over again. The thing is watching the videos and making the notes may take you like 20 hours total of work. But the thing is when you go through those notes that you've generated the second time, it may take you like six or seven hours to go through them. When you go through the third time, it may take you like three or four hours to go through them. When you go through it the fourth time, it may take you like just two hours to go through the whole thing. So the thing is you go through the comprehensive resource the first time, you make good notes on it, right? So like, it probably doesn't make sense to, although you know what I'm saying, although you know what actually I shouldn't say that. But let me say that and then maybe recount my statement with some context. So it probably doesn't make sense to go back and keep watching a video over and over and over and over again for most people, right?

It probably because the thing is the process of note writing is a little more active, right? So you tend to get a lot more from that. But there are some people like myself for some exams. What I do because again, I'm a very big time audio visual person, right? Like for step one, I remember back in the day, I would watch a video. So I would learn the material really well the first time, right? So I will find like a super lengthy video or something, right? Learn this material, learn it from every angle. And then after that, I would find a video that gives me like the facts, what gives it to me straight and gives it to me quick and dirty, right? So I would watch those videos over and over again, over and over again, over and over again, right? That is just my means of repetition. And another means of repetition, I guess for me is also just teaching other people, right? If you're teaching until you're another people, you're going to be reviewing this is almost like teaching on key in a sense, right? So it's like I'm doing my own space repetition, but I'm doing it either by watching videos and the thing is videos I watch them on a schedule, right? So I can again just planning, right? So good planning and then just teaching and all those things is almost like when you teach people have to explain things to them, do your own question analysis and all that stuff. That's just another good way of reviewing the material, at least for me, right?

Obviously I know it's not something everyone can do. So yeah, so that's my process with things, right? So that's the way I typically recommend that people learn a given piece of information. And again, if you follow and when I do your world personally, I usually do your world in time to remote by subject. So again, that's what works for me. It may not necessarily work for everyone, but let me explain my reasoning why I do that. The reason I do your world in time to remote by subject is I feel that my study sessions end up being more efficient one and the end of being more useful when I study with focus, right? So for example, I'd rather spend three hours studying just OB-GYN, then spend three hours going on doing questions random, and then I'm reviewing OB-GYN, and psych, and peeds, and neuro, and medicine. That's great. The thing is, when you're doing things like that, it feels great in the moment, but the thing is there is a time and a place for that. Again, that is not actually not a bad means of doing questions, like doing questions random. It's actually not bad at all to be perfectly honest. But I feel like with the time restrictions that many students have, you don't necessarily have time to keep jumping from K-8 to pot B to pot C to frame PAN-D. When you study with focus, because the good thing with these MBME exams are randomized, right?

So because they have questions that test, like the full-end practice exams, they test every which concept, that will give you that experience with encountering different types of information. So the thing is, don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that doing questions random is bad. It's not bad, but it's inefficient. The only situation, and this is because for me, for example, we like to tell you that, oh, I've never done questions random before. No, come on, that'll be a lot. I have no reason to like to you. I've done questions random before. But I do questions random when I feel like I've completed most of the high-yod knowledge, and I understand different exams. Then at that point, when I'm doing random questions, it makes sense, because I have information from different angles. So if I'm reading a site question that has like OB-GYN on their tones, or I'm seeing questions of different kinds, it's almost like learning with focus, just because I know so much. So I'm able to like make all these integrations from question one to question five to question seven to question nine. So the thing is, if for example, you know that your knowledge base is bad for starters, and again, everyone starts somewhere. You need to embrace that, I guess this is something that's also kind of like important for residency. Or any transition you're making in life, you need to embrace that new beginner mindset. Like you know, everyone starts somewhere.

So the thing is, when you're starting out, and your knowledge base is not great, and you don't know much, it makes sense to do something timed, tutor by subject. That's just the truth. But as your knowledge grows and you're getting better, you can then begin to mix and match things. You can begin to go random. It makes more sense then. But if you're like, I'm going to do random from the very beginning, usually for most people, again, it's a great method to study. But most people don't have this as part of the residency, people say, oh, it took me a whole day just to reveal when you were blocked. Well, that's why. I promise you, if you spend time learning the material from a resource first, let's say like, oh, you're watching an OB-GYN video. And then you do like 40 OB-GYN questions, and then you review them. It's not going to take you a day if you go through that process. So personally, the method of, again, I found just to kind of summarize everything I've said in this podcast. I found it best to first go through a comprehensive resource to learn information. Second, paired out that information into a mechanism that I can review repeatedly on a scheduled basis. That's essentially space repetition. Do questions in Twitter mode by subject? Review those questions. Make flashcards or notes for me, I'm a notes guy, but flashcards work great as well. Make flashcards or notes.

And when I'm making those flashcards or notes, I make them based on questions I get wrong, or I get right for the wrong reasons, like guessing. When I'm making notes, slash flashcards, I keep, I read the answer explanation completely first, not taking notes as I'm doing that. And then, as I do that, in my own words, if I'm making a note, I make a one sentence clinic over in yet that gives context. And then, for my answers or my flashcards, I have no more than three sentences. Sentence one. What is the right answer and why? That's the question I try to answer in my first sentence. Sentence two. What is the wrong answer choice I went with and why? And then sentence three. Is there any relevant pathophysiology? I try to convert those things in two or three sentences. And that's it. So that's the process of studying. If you have any questions or you have any podcasts you want me to make, let me know. Again, I take requests. Believe it or not, I do take requests from people. So as long as your request is reasonable, and I have the time for it, because again, remember, I have many other responsibilities in my life. I'll be willing to own. I mean, like there are many podcasts that I've made, they just based on the vine. I don't see any podcast you have on this. I have a lot of trouble with this concept. Can you make this podcast for me? And even this podcast I'm making right now is based on a bunch of questions of God in front people, right? That use the website.

And then as I do at the end of every podcast, first off, please, you'll be great if you could subscribe to the podcast. You can subscribe to the website, divineinterventionpodcasts.com. And I also have this podcast on Apple podcasts. I have it on Spotify, I have it on Google Play. So please subscribe, leave feedback, whether good or bad, it will help me improve. And then I also have a You Tube channel. It's called Divine Intervention Podcasts and Videos. If you could again, subscribe and leave good feedback. That would be very helpful. And one other thing I will say is I'd offer one on one tutoring and also like large group tutoring for the USML Step 1. In fact, maybe let me talk about my course offerings because many people have asked me like, divine what kinds of tutoring do you offer? Right? So pardon me, let me spend because this is again not an educational podcast. Let me spend like three minutes talking about my course offerings. Right? So I offer many things. Basically, let me maybe start with defining the exams I tutor for. Right? So I tutor for Step 1, Step 2 CK, Step 2 CS, Step 3. I also tutor for the internal medicine, in training exam. So if you're a medicine resident, I tutor for the internal medicine, in training exam, I tutor for the IBI, in internal medicine, board exam. And then I also tutor for like pre-clinical med school exams. So the exams you take, like your basic science exams in med school. And then the shelf exams, I also tutor for those. Right?

So I tutor for every shelf exam essentially. Now, so watch, okay, what shelves do I tutor for? Again, let me be a little more specific. I tutor for the Pete shelf, the surgery shelf, the OBGYN shelf, the internal medicine shelf, the family medicine shelf, the neurology shelf, the psych shelf, the emergency medicine shelf. I tutor for all those shelf exams. And also if you're taking a critical care shelf exam, I also tutor for those. Those are not very common. That's probably like the least in I tutor. But yes, critical care shelf exams, I tutor for those. And then if you have brothers, sisters, relatives, cousins, whatever in college, I tutor for the MCAT, I tutor mainly like general chemistry, and also just college courses, I tutor general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, histology, and physiology. I tutor for those. So what kinds of tutoring do I offer? Right? Probably the most common kind of tutoring I do with people, probably the bulk of the tutoring I do actually is one on one tutoring. Right? So I meet people online, right? And I tutor them one on one. Right? So I do a lot of tutoring one on one. And then another thing I do is I do large group tutoring as well. So if you have a group of five or six people, again, just reach out to me. Again, I have tutor groups. I mean, I've thought lectures to classes of almost 400 people believe it or not. So I tutor people one on one. I also do large group tutoring.

And then I offer these things I call booster courses. Right? So it's 20 hours for step one. It's 10 hours for step two, CK or step three. And you can arrange them as single one sessions for X number of days or two R sessions for X number of days. And in those sessions, there are ideal for people that are preparing for any of those exams. And essentially what I do is I review the most knows for those tests. Right? So like, oh, things that are very high, you know that you do need to know, I review them like in a clinical vignette format. And one thing I've noticed, one weird outgrowth of that process is I've noticed that many people I do those with within end of identifying like actual weaknesses that they have with the exam. And then we work on them and then they get better and then they're happy. Right? So the vast majority of people have done that with it has worked out very successfully for them. And then another thing I offer, I offer these. Let's call them like error cleaning courses. Right? So what do I mean by that? Right? So say this is something again, I do it people all the time. Right? So let's say you take a practice exam. And usually they'll give you those confidence bars as to how well you did on something. If your bar is really off to the right, you know that you did well in that area. If your bar is really off to the left, you know, you're not very great in that area. Right?

So the thing is people can make me and say divine for step two, CK, I feel awful about cardiology. Help me here. Right? It depends on the subject depends on how vast it is. But this ends up being no more than four hours at the maximum. Most times the vast majority of the time it's a one time to our session. We meet and I basically will erase all those deficiencies you have in that subject. That is the truth. Again, I've done this with tons of people. And again, it has worked really well with people I've worked with. Now the other thing I offer and this is large group only is US semi comprehensive course. So you can be for step one, can be for step two, CK can be for step three. If you have a group of between five to seven people and you all agree together. Right? And you say, okay, divine. Can we all meet at this physical location? Although there is also an online option, but I feel like these large group things work better when you do it with people. You're like physically present. If you all agree, you can provide a location. Right? Reach out to me. And then I can give you more details. The course ends up being about a hundred hours worth, but we go over pretty much everything you will need for for a given exam. So it usually makes sense because again, people schedules are different. Usually makes sense. Find a group of people that you want to do this together with and then reach out to me. And then we can set things up. Right?

At least I know I'm going to be offering a couple of those studying like from the middle of this month till about the end of till about the end of, you know, a couple of times before the end of like June. So if you're interested in any of those things, please do feel free to reach out. And then I have admissions committee experience. So I've been on the admissions committee of a top two med school for over a year. Right? So I reviewed thousands of high quality applications. And I've also worked one on one with people that are like med students applying for residency. So like an era's application or college students applying for med school. So like an anchor's application. I'd offer like one on one advice. You know, you can call it coaching for like, you know, like rec letters, editing personal statements, doing more interviews, editing applications. This is a service I offer. And again, the vast majority of people have worked with. They've actually much that their first choice. Right? So I think in general, you would find this to be really helpful. So again, just reach out to me. You can either reach out to me through the website or you can send me an email at divine intervention podcasts. Right? With an S ad in so DIVI NE I N T E R V E N T I O N P O D C A S T S at Gmail.com. So if you need any of these things, reach out to me. I guess one other thing I forgot to mention that I offer is longitudinal tutoring.

So if you're like your first year med students at a med school or your second year med students that in our second year or your 30 year med students that in our rotations. I can essentially tutor you like for your longitudinally throughout the year for like whatever. Let's say like if you're first or second year med student, I tutor for like your block exams in med school. But as I'm doing that, I'm also integrating step one knowledge along the way. And then I tutor you doing your dedicated period. If you're a 30 year med student, for example, I tutor you for all your shelf exams. And then you get your dedicated period until you're first step two. But if it is again, as I'm tutoring for your shelf exams, I'm setting you up from a mindset perspective for your upcoming board exam. Again, I integrate concepts, tissue test, taking strategies and all those things. So if you're interested in any of these things, again, use the email I send divine intervention podcasts with an S at the end at Gmail.com or reach out to me through the website. And again, I've made a lot of recent changes on the website like I mentioned often, right? So if you go to the exam topics list. So if you go to divine intervention podcasts.com, if you go to the exam topics list, I updated regularly, but basically there is a Google doc you can you cannot edit it because I know people do like weird stuff online. So you cannot edit the Google doc what I edit it myself. But it's publicly accessible.

And I basically for step one step to see key step three by each by every subject on those exams. I list out podcasts that I suggest for those things. So you just go, if it's step to see Kate internal medicine, you just go to the step to see Kate tap click on internal medicine. You see all the podcasts I recommend. So so use that I updated every time I add a new episode. I mean, I'm going to update it when I add this episode 200. So there is that. I think that's probably the best means and it even lists the episode numbers and everything so that you're not, you know, like going all over the place. So what are the things that I've covered on my website that I'm like, okay, I can say with confidence that I've covered covered really well, right? I feel like if you use my website solely as your study resource for step two CK. You'll be a master with step two CK knowledge, right? I feel like the vast majority again, there is no resource that covers 100%. But I feel like I'm very closely approaching that 100% for step two CK. There's lots of people that have used my website resources as they are so source of content for the exam and they have done extremely well on the test. Not one person, not two people. These are people in the tens in the hundreds, right? So take that forward. You will now for step one. I would say that I have probably covered about 40%. This is just me being very conservative. I probably covered about 40% of the material that's tested on step one.

That is why in this new year, right? I mean, this new decade, I guess. But yeah, in this new year, that is one area I'm going to be investing very, very heavily on over the next few weeks. Trying to get my step one content to that close to 100% number. And also step three, step three and the internal medicine exams. I will say that I've maybe covered like less than 5%. Those are areas I want to work. Although actually, let me take that back. So the internal medicine residents specific content, I feel like I'm probably at around like 5% for step three actually. I will say I'm actually maybe more than 50% of the way because I have some dedicated step three podcasts. But the thing is step three has a lot of throwbacks to step two CK. So many of the step two CK material I have is very applicable to step three. So I would say that I probably have covered about 50 to 60%. Actually, I think that should actually have thought about that. Yes, I about 50, 60% of what is tested on step three. I do think I have podcasts on those steps, right? So those are kind of like the percentages and for step one, because I know my step one audience is growing by the dates. It's becoming a bigger and bigger audience. What are the things I feel like I've covered real well for step one? The things I've covered real well for step one pharmacology. Basically, if you're going through first aid, like 99.99% of the pharmacology that's tested in first aid, I have amply covered them in my podcast.

I mean, I used to run a pharmacology course at Hopkins at Johns Hopkins back in the day. Really successful. Ton of people found it to be really helpful. So pharmacology, I've covered essentially in its entirety. Biochemistry and metabolism like genetic diseases and all those biochemical pathways and everything. I've covered those in its entirety. Himatology and oncology. I've covered those in its entirety. Reno covered that in its entirety. And then I have covered fairly not comprehensively, but fairly well things like cardiology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, endocrinology, MSK, rheumatology. So I've covered many of those subjects. Bio stats, I have podcasts on bio stats. So just pick out what works best for you. And then again, if there is any specific podcast you want me to make, feel free to reach out and I'll be happy to help. So have a wonderful rest of your day. God bless you. I will see you in episode 201. Thank you.

Start with a comprehensive resource first to ensure broad coverage and minimize knowledge gaps before moving to question practice.

Focus on context-based questions that require comparison and contrast between related pathologies, rather than isolated factoids.

Limit it to three sentences: 1) The correct answer and why; 2) A common wrong answer choice and why it is incorrect; 3) Relevant pathophysiology or mechanism (if not covered above).

Use a "timed, tutor by subject" approach. This allows for focused learning and building foundational knowledge before attempting random questions.

Create an Anki card for it. The goal is to solidify the correct answer and understand why the incorrect options are wrong.

Iterative review, which involves repeatedly going over notes/material (e.g., 1st pass $\rightarrow$ 2nd pass $\rightarrow$ 3rd pass) to move information into long-term memory.

A comprehensive, manageable high-yield resource that covers the breadth of expected exam content.

Factoids lack context; board exams test core knowledge in complex clinical scenarios, requiring understanding beyond simple recall.

Estrogen-containing contraceptives should be avoided because they can decrease milk supply by negatively affecting the protein content of breast milk.

The correct answer and its rationale; a common incorrect answer choice and why it is wrong; and any relevant pathophysiology.

Study by subject/topic focus, rather than doing random questions across multiple systems.

The iterative process of learning $\rightarrow$ testing (questions) $\rightarrow$ identifying errors $\rightarrow$ fixing the error.

A comprehensive, manageable high-yield resource that covers the breadth of expected exam content.

Factoids lack context; board exams test core knowledge in complex clinical scenarios, requiring understanding beyond simple recall.

Estrogen-containing contraceptives should be avoided because they can decrease milk supply by negatively affecting the protein content of breast milk.

The correct answer and its rationale; a common incorrect answer choice and why it is wrong; and any relevant pathophysiology.

Study by subject/topic focus, rather than doing random questions across multiple systems.

The iterative process of learning $\rightarrow$ testing (questions) $\rightarrow$ identifying errors $\rightarrow$ fixing the error.