u/MrYouniverse

Dabbled with Anki barely M1/M2. Started using it in clerkships for shelf exams, doing UWorld incorrects and those AnKing no_dupe decks.

It takes up so. much. time. After 6 months I'm still not convinced it's the best use of time, but I can't stop. It's like a drug. I need to get those reviews down to zero or else my brain implodes. It's like an inescapable subconscious pressure knowing that so many of my peers are using it, that means I probably should too right?

A large chunk of these cards make feel like a moron for even doing a card for it cause their either so simple or so obscure. Seeing so many honestly makes things even more confusing in my head. I really wonder if I'd be better off just getting Amboss and doing more questions or maybe even, I don't know, reading a textbook? *gasp*

I believe Anki is study slop and a may even be a hindrance to my critical thinking and comprehension of medicine. Anyway, gotta get back to cranking through these reviews!

M3 here. I have a list of pros and cons for each, but I don't want to steer the conversation in any particular direction. I would love to hear which specific thing(s) personally led you to pursue psych over neuro? Thanks!

I am an M3 on rotations right now and can honestly say I've enjoyed all of them. Surgery has surprisingly been great, except for one major thing. The idea of performing the same few procedures over and over the rest of my life does not sit well at all. I understand mastery, efficiency, and simplicity become valued as life progresses, but a big reason I went into medicine was to be able to immerse myself in a career that remains interesting and allows me to continuously develop as a human being. Even most of the cognitive specialties seem to be more repetitive and rote than I'd prefer.

While psychiatry has a handful of diagnoses that you treat in perpetuity, at least the focus is largely on the details of what makes that person who they are and their own life circumstances unique. Right? I'd like to believe that inherently keeps things novel and engaging.

I have many reasons for which I am interested in psychiatry, but this is one of the most prominent. Am I thinking about this correctly? Thank you!

Edit: Wow, so many incredible answers so quickly. I think I'm about ready to hang up my stethoscope. Thank you docs, very much appreciated!

Basically title. Rising MS3 here rapidly approaching specialty decision time. Went to medical school with psychiatry in mind. The brain remains my true academic interest and psychiatry is the field I solely see fitting what I want out of my life & career most reliably (patient connection, flexibility, job variation, entrepreneurial potential, interesting work longterm, etc).

Nevertheless, the sky is nothing short of falling on the psych subreddit & SDN recently regarding the impact of psych midlevels (PMHNPs). TLDR, there are now as many PMHNPs as psychiatrists in the US, and this number increased roughly 10 fold over the past decade. The consequences are already being felt by graduating residents. Fewer job opportunities, deflated salaries, liability-spongey roles overseeing 10 midlevels, etc. Not to mention people using AI as their therapist these days.. but that's a whole other convo. In essence, the corporatization of healthcare and psychiatry in recent years leaves much to be wary about.

I'll be 30 soon, am engaged, and am thinking about the financial stability of my future family far more than I did just a few years ago. Given the current landscape, would it be incredibly short-sighted to pick this specialty at this point? I'll have a bunch of loans and hope to have 3 kids.

Should I suck it up and gun for a surgical specialty or anesthesia, prioritizing financial security over all else? I could see myself enjoying ophtho, ENT, or even general surgery, but to say they excite me as much as psychiatry or neurology would just be wrong.

Thank you!

edit: We have 1.5 year pre-clinical, I am halfway done clerkships and shadowed all the specialties I mentioned during M1/2. I already know I like these specialties just not as much as psych.

Med student here. We all know this stereotype. I hear it every other time I mention I'm interested in neurology. What gives!? Will I not fit in unless I'm a hyper-analytical, introverted, strange ol' fella?

Again kidding, but also... not?

https://preview.redd.it/w2jvm072mq1h1.png?width=852&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5f19cbfd15e9b030a78fbef4c5cdb61fd1ac144

Maybe it is getting to be a bit much lol.. sigh!

There are many many posts about all different sorts of resources you should do to pass. I only had 4 weeks of dedicated and was overwhelmed with the amount of options, I didn’t get through most of it. Figured I’d share what I didn’t do for others to see it’s possible to pass without going overboard.

Didn’t do:

- Early morning wake-ups & pomadoro & all that discipline stuff. That was never me, why would I force it?

- Much of UWorld at all (25% complete). Don’t let people convince you content review is secondary.

- Any Mehlmann docs aside from Arrows & Risk Factors

- Amboss Q bank (** however I did do the 200 concepts thing they have at the beginning of dedicated, it was great, highly recommend)

- Boards n Beyond or Bootcamp

- Consistent Anki-ing (just watched a sketchy video, did the cards twice in a row, then reviewed a master deck I found online the last week of dedicated. I also used the updated mnemosyne deck to review First Aid’s biochemistry, immunology, & pathology chapters, but just once, not continuously through dedicated)

Oh also, I didnt Anki at all during preclinical lol, not sure why people commit so much time to it with Step 1 P/F now. If you’re doing it for genuine learning and knowledge, you are better than me doctor!

My NBMEs were mid 60s to low 70s.

Happy to share what I did do but figured that has been beaten into oblivion.

Best of luck!!!

edit: okay fine what I did:

1st week - Amboss 200 concepts on every Step1 exam (just google it you’ll see it), took a while because every single answer choice is teaching you something) + a lot of Sketchy Micro (did updated Pepper deck cards twice after watching video), Pathoma 1-3, skimmed First Aid rapid review, first NBME

2nd week - Finished most of Sketchy Micro, continued Pathoma (did chapter then did targeted 40 Uworld questions), started Dirty Medicine Biochem (Google Free Step Stuff Reddit, someone made a pdf for each video), watched targeted videos on this YouTube channel: Med Student Success, skimmed FA Rapid Review again, 2nd NBME

3rd week - Much of the same. Pathoma, Sketchy Pharm for that chapters organ system, targeted UWorld questions, Dirty Medicine biochem + random topics, Med Student Success YouTube channel, started random UWorld blocks after finishing Pathoma (could never do more than 80 questions in a day), read Anatomy 100 concepts PDF, skimmed FA Rapid Review, 3rd NBME

4th week - Mehlman Arrows + Risk Factors, More Sketchy pharm (got through 50%), Updated Mnemosyne anki deck for First Aid Biochem, Immunology, & Pathology chapters (check my post history I posted about it), NBME HY Images documents, skimmed FA Rapid Review, 4th NBME, Sketchy Micro master sheet (drive.google.com/file/d/1zMDJaM5da3eHdIx3Oulf5gZo7X3lpn0v/view), Randy Niel biostats videos, Free 120 (2024 & 2026 versions)

Last 2 days - reviewed Dirty Med pdfs mentioned above, skimmed through all of First Aid focusing on images and tables, went through my UWorld notebook (all the photos and tables I saved from my question sets, highly recommend this feature), wanted to review my Pathoma book that I annotated while watching videos but didn’t have time

Crammed the day before. Again this is what I always do for exams, why would I reinvent the wheel?
Slept absolutely horribly, adrenaline did its thing.

Hope that helps! you got this.

PS was 4.5 weeks actually

With regards to the plethora of discussion about midlevels and changes in the field of psychiatry recently, I've seen many comments about the imperative to establish a niche and to expect to work harder than years prior to make a name for yourself.

From what I understand, historically it rarely mattered what institutions you trained at to attain consistent job security (and great jobs at that). Do we think that this could have a greater role to play in career success as the field continues to evolve? Or... still irrelevant?

Based on all the posts I’ve seen recently, it really felt like the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

The exam isn’t so crazy that there aren’t some easy ones and that you can’t make educated guesses overall. But I’m also not sure it’s something you can just bank on your NBME performance.

They ask random things I didn’t see anywhere before, and usually avoid buzzwords by describing pathology or treatments in ways you’ve never heard. Without truly understanding how diseases, drugs, anatomy, etc all work & interact, I don’t see how you can see the forest for the trees in some of the answer choices they give you.

I think Mehlman Arrows is a great example of what this test is really going for. True understanding of how things influences other things. That plus First Aid rapid review knowledge, you’re in a good spot!

Thank you everyone for the advice you’ve shared, wishing you all the best of luck!

Go us for even attempting to do this! This is truly a diabolical amount of information. We should be proud of ourselves for even trying :)

Rising M3 here that finds themselves really enjoying learning about all things tangential to the endocrine system. I'm pretty set on psych but wondering if there is any potential to establish a niche for yourself at the juncture of both fields? (aside from diabetes management)

Since hormones are directly related to brain function, could you imagine a psychiatrist who manages thyroid, adrenal, sex hormone function alongside and maybe even to the benefit of their patients' mental health?

Thanks!