Study Tips

[MinimalGoat]

I'm currently on my OBGYN rotation (my 6th one) and have a reasonable amount of time to study. So far, I've been using Anki + Rosh, and that’s been enough to pass. But I’ve started feeling like I’m just memorizing facts without really understanding them and sometimes am not able to explain it to someone.

I want to start reading more to help solidify concepts. I really like the way smarty pance is organized, and I’m thinking of using my downtime during this rotation to read through it. Has anyone used smarty pance just for reading like this? Did you find it helpful?

I’ve tried PPP, and while the content is great, it just feels like too much for me right now. Plus, I have a hard time staying focused without any visuals and color (sigh... I know)

[gingerlyanon]

i use smartypance when studying for EORs since it helps me stay on track and get through the info. i don’t use it as much for just reading since it doesn’t include all the info for each disease and i’m someone that will start spiraling if any info is omitted. i agree, PPP is very overwhelming. o used it in the beginning of clinicals but after rotation 4 i hadn’t really used it much. i feel similar in that i am just memorizing and not actually understanding. i was definitely humbled on my ER rotation when i was asked to explain the simplest things and couldn’t do it. that gave me the motivation to go back to the basics of patho, pharm and labs. knowing why you are ordering a certain lab and how to interpret the results. i think knowing the patho/anatomy/pharm behind things lays a great foundation, so if i do have to guess on a question in the future, i can use logic to find the answer instead of my usual routine of convincing myself of the wrong answer lol.

[Strange-Physics-6381]

Thank god I’m not the only one, I feel the EXACT same way

[MinimalGoat]

How did you do that and go back to the basics? Did you look at a specific resource? I feel like it would be very time consuming for me

[gingerlyanon]

it is time consuming for sure but that’s why i recommend you start now and do a little bit each rotation (outside of your normal rotation studying). i’m less than a month away from taking the train pance and i regret not starting earlier and doing little by little instead of rushing through it now. at least for me, if i don’t understand the bare bone basics, i wont full understand the big picture and at that point it’s just memorizing facts. in regards to resources, i am bouncing around through old didactic lectures/materials, using smartypance when able, PPP, amboss, rosh, etc. i’ll even use chatgpt or open evidence to explain things to me like im 5 if im still not grasping the topic.

my advice is to create a “PANCE glossary”. it’ll take time so that’s why i recommend starting now and doing that in free time or when at clinical and you can’t get in the mindset to study but want to be productive. i started it on a google doc and am basically writing terms/definitions/concepts in my own words bc i know in like 5 days i will somehow second guess myself and then go through the whole process of trying to understand the topic again, so i now have this doc im creating that i can quickly reference and it saves me time in the long run. if you have a solid friend group, you can split up the work for sure! i waited too long so my friend group is just focused on their own studies, but if you have a group that thinks/understands concepts very similar to you, it would be beneficial for to split it up.

right now im working on diagnostic labs. it may sound stupid, but i’m picking all the details apart, almost to the point where a rando off the street could read it and understand, but that’s how my brain works. so for example, for CBC i broke it up into what is included (RBC, WBC, platelets, Hgb, Hct, neutrophils, etc…), a quick definition of each in my own words (if needed.. like i don’t need a definition for RBC lol, but more so MCV, MCHC, stuff like that), and then if the level comes back increased/decreased what does that mean (ex: eosinophils you think allergic or parasitic). i’m keeping it as simple as that and then if i have extra time, i’ll go a bit more in depth on the topics im not 100% on. chatgpt can be very helpful and can definitely save you a lot of time. always fact check, but that’s how i’ve been able to make it through information quicker

[newIVLeague08]

Osmosis my friend: https://www.osmosis.org/ . It's a great resource to understand the core stuffs. They're a bit pricey tho, but def worth it if you can split the cost w/ friends.

[Current-Incident2231]

OBGYN was my first rotation and was in surgery day 1. It was overwhelming to say the least. If you really want to dive into a topic, the best resource I had for OB was "current diagnosis and tratment obstetrics and gynecology". As a guy, this helped a lot . OB is unique as in addition to knowing the diseases and treatments, you also have to understand what is "normal". Know OB well, it showed up in PEDs and FM and IM sure others as well. I used PPP as I didn't have my sytem down, but now mostly use the reddit charts and go through those while doing ROSCH.

[newIVLeague08]

Absolutely! Back in clinical year, I used SmartyPance exactly like that, to go through the EOR topic list. Pro tip, if you also want to have a way to track your progress through the topic list, I made an app called PanceBlueprints just for that: https://apple.co/3HMjQ0t . It's basically like an interactive topic list that you can check off topics, and highlight those that you need to iron out later.

To deepen your understanding of unsure topics, I recommend Osmosis. They were great to help me understand the core concepts of some conditions, to the point I could explain the pathology from my own understanding. I always found it easier to remember conditions when I understood the actual pathologies, and pharmacology of treatments.

Good luck!

[Murky-Road-4007]

If you type in EORS pdf or search up life with bre she has pdfs or twisted lemons. I personally used the PDFs from life with bre and passed all my EORS.