Life

I can’t believe it! First it was getting my own insurance. Now it’s really sinking in that life is happening. It’s interesting how easy it is to get swept up with the journey of a pursuing a long career.

Furniture Flipping

As a medical student, I feel like every day I’m accruing more debt. And it’s true. Prior to starting at SGU, I took several years to pay off my undergraduate school loans. I know how it feels to have that weight hanging around my neck. So I’m always trying to find little ways to make a little cash. Recently, I’ve been going through a furniture flipping phase.

I deleted all the “before” pictures, but this was a cherry wood dresser with old black mesh inserts. I spent around $40 for all the new hardware and materials excluding the paint spray gun of course. The dresser was free! So I’m hoping to turn a profit.

My boyfriend and I have been picking up free furniture and literally wiping it down to clean it. Then we post and have made some decent money from free furniture.

Step on my mind

I can’t believe I’m finally at a point where STEP is becoming reality. I heard after MNI, it’s STEP review but of course with SGU stuff.

I’ve tried to get into the habit of reviewing my practice questions with a “journal”. Basically, I write what I learned in the question explanations in my own words without looking at notes. To study how I study, I added a column to figure out where my weaknesses are like is it more of a gap in knowledge or a strategy thing. I’ve also tried to track questions, I use my gut to see if I’ve got a trustable intuition. So far it’s been 50/50.

I went on a hunt to collect as many step spreadsheets and you can find them here! Disclaimer, I didn’t make them. I found them on Reddit or through people I follow.

SGU TERM 5 MNI:

Mni in general

The Musculoskeletal, Nervous, and Infection (MNI) module was 5 weeks of content with surprisingly almost a full week off to study because of the OCEX scheduling. Even with that extra time, somehow this module was super tough for me. My guess is my resistance to anything neuro.

I used Grace/Firehouse Prep’s schedule to get me through MNI. However, the order of topics was changed compared to the last term. What’s very different about this schedule is the extra suggestions for Step Prep (AKA watching all of the neuro Boards & Beyond), practice questions, and FTM review for BSCE prep. And yes, I highly agree to start watching the antibiotics sketchy pharm videos starting in the first week. There are a lot of things to know about antibiotics before being able to answer questions about how to use them. Grace did note that by including more preparation for STEP and the BSCE’s coming up, the focus is taken off the MNI module. I feel that’s true. I did spend most of the afternoons focusing on things not on the module exam, but hopefully, that pays off since that’s where the points are.

Mni Schedule

My schedule didn’t feel as chaotic as my Term 4 schedule, but I don’t know if that’s because the MNI exam is only worth 72 points or 8% of my grade. I plan my days by putting the most important things first in the day. Normally I wake up around 7 AM to work out and take care of the dogs. Then by 9 AM, I do my first round of Anki. I had a lot of cards to do so I often needed to do about 200 in the morning and 200 at the end of the day. Then I would do about 10-15 practice questions on my qbanks and review them in my spreadsheet.

At 10:30 AM I had a small group most days. It definitely wasn’t as much as Term 4, but it was enough to be a hassle. A large portion of the small groups were patient simulations, so at least my small group was there to share the burden.

We only got a small break 30-minute break between small group and lecture. During lectures, I would do STEP prep based on Grace’s schedule. It usually involved 1-2 videos watched at double speed while I annotated First Aid. This would take 15-30 minutes.

For the rest of the lecture, I would do the post-reads for the lectures. Post-reads are my first run on the content through watching Pathoma, or Sketchy Pharm/Path, or Boards & Beyond. Then my next pass, I’ll integrate the information through Anki, practice questions, or USMLE-rx workbooks.

Then to cap the day off, I’ll do my FTM reviews which are Boards & Beyonds or Pixorize videos, and finish my Anki reviews.

A note on productivity in med school

I wanted to mention a few tools I use to keep me going. I feel like after Term 4, I’m still a little burnt out and need to be deliberate about how I spent my energy. I like to work Pomodoro style. Which is like HIIT exercise for your brain. So I work for 25 minutes without distraction and then 5 minutes of whatever I want. Currently, I use this website, but I’ve also followed some Pomodoro youtube with people who filmed in cafes. That used to be my study spot!

I also love to-do lists! I used to write them, but then it got too wild to have all these random post-its flooding my desk. I’ve been loving the app Todoist. The best thing is that it integrates with my google calendar. I can schedule a certain amount of time for each task. For a visual learner, seeing it all on my calender helps me determine if it’s actually feasible.

Mni content

Though it’s called Musculoskeletal, Nervous, and Infection, we did Neuro then MSK and Infections overlapping. It ramps up so fast and it’s such a long module. I always feel like around week 4, I look back and think wasn’t that stuff in week 1 like last term?? Some notable overall review videos can be found from Nic, a SGU student for all subjects, and CK med reviews for micro.

Pharm

There is sooooo much pharm. And so many pharm DLA’s with no videos, just lots of reading. Anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, anti-seizures, antibiotics classes, antivirals, HIV meds, toxins, even naturopathic herbs. Even with watching Sketchy Pharm and doing the Anki, it was hard to get all the mechanisms of actions, side effects, contraindications, drug interactions into my brain and then be able to use it! There was definitely absolutely no time for writing my own notes. I used the Ninja on fleek charts to get me through pharm.

Dirty medicine pharm reviews were helpful as well!

We had a pharm small group which was so poorly timed and intimidating. The day we started penicillins, after learning only one class of antibiotics we had to do a small group talking about all the other antibiotics. That took a lot of prep work.

I had time to attend one of the pharm office hours - chef’s kiss! We did practice questions while going over the thought process behind the practice questions which was so helpful. The questions given by SGU often didn’t have explanations so it was a little bit of the blind (me) leading the blind (also me).

Path

For path, we’re talking many MSK and Neuro. Oh and some random pediatric pathology tacked onto the end of the module. Of course, Pathoma comes to save the day again. Going into MNI, I wasn’t a huge fan of Boards and Beyond but it really grew on me as a supplement for Pathoma. I also used Sketchy path which was particularly helpful for bone tumors and neuro tumors.

Micro/Multisystem

This was a lot. It felt like every micro bug we’ve learned all resurfacing at the last minute. Like I really don’t remember all the (+) coagulase/oxidase what-have-you markers for these bugs. But I do remember the three bears dancing around a campfire for Campylobacter. Everything was hazy and there was definitely not enough time to rewatch the sketches. Though there was mention of past bugs, there was a lot more emphasis on the vector/animal/mosquito bugs and parasites. Sketchy doesn’t follow as well here and they honestly all sound the same after a while. We did have a micro small group which was painful because we did it before we learned everything.

Clinicals & Sim lab

We had a lot of patient encounters for neuro, MSK, and psych. I was lucky to get one facilitator who actually walked us through the indications of doing these exams instead of us reading off the rubric.

I appreciate the practice, but there’s never enough time to do these encounters. We only get 7-8 minutes to interview. Then 5 minutes to tell the patients what they have, the plan, and check their understanding, and now they want us to ask about social/mental support and the patient’s finances. That is awesome, I support practicing care for humans but 5 minutes to do all that really isn’t humane.

We started the whole hospital visit/sim lab thing. We were scheduled to have 10 sessions this term. We had one session where half my lab group was paired with a handful of students on-site. The camera was awkwardly placed so we could see the expensive mannequin and the shoes of the facilitator. It sounds like every facilitator ran their sessions differently though we all had the same case. Our facilitator had the online students pretty much dictate the physical exam so the on-site students could perform it on the mannequin. Allegedly, the mannequin was breathing, had a pulse and heartbeat! I definitely saw her freaking blinking! Haunting.

Well, this is didn’t last long. COVID struck again and before anyone could do hospital rounds, all the sessions were canceled. Feels like the wet lab situation all over again. Even so, it was also exciting to be questioned by the facilitator because that’s how I imagine my clinical years will be. No tears shed here though, I’m grateful I won’t have to wake up at 5 AM for this anymore.

Exams

Mni final

It was rough. Maybe not CPR traumatizing, but it kicked my butt. Even with the extra time to study, there was an incredible amount to cover. I know I’ll have to hit these areas again for BSCE prep. It was more specific than I anticipated. On the bright side, I heart MNI is usually the lowest grade for the whole term. At least that is the rumor from the last term.

OCEX

Our OCEX (the online version) dates were scheduled for Tuesday-Saturday before the MNI final. The onsite students were scheduled for the week of the MNI exam (on Monday). I wasn’t sure and maybe I’m still not sure, but most of the complaints were supposed to be physical exams we covered during MNI. It felt more independent from the last OCEX because there was more of an expectation of clinical understanding than word vomiting things I’ve stuffed in my brain.

Outside Resources for Mni

Anki

I use the premade M1M2 deck. I’ve found it super helpful because it’s tagged by SGU lecture and by resource. Here’s how I usually set my decks up. I learned most of my Anki knowledge from the Anking on YT and this SGU student’s video!

SKETCHY
PATHOMA
BOARDS AND BEYOND
QUESTIONS BANKS
- PASTEST
  - We got the pastest qbank courtesy of SGU. It’s got 2300+ questions. It feels like a baby question bank. Still getting its features and little wonky. Like why can’t I highlight in tutor mode, but I can in test mode? My first question session had a content mistake. I only opted for 6 questions so it was concerning that there was already a mistake when randomly selecting 6 questions out of 2300. It’s okay and there’s app to use on your phone. So positives!
- USMLE-RX
  - We got access to USMLE-rx in the middle of MNI and were told that assigned quizzes would start after the module. I had already purchased USMLE, but they were able to use my remaining time towards the Step 2 qbank. Of note, if you want to clear your history. You have to do it before you approve the merging of your personal and SGU USMLE-rx accounts. Both claimed they didn’t have the authority to make any changes on the account. So I guess we’re stuck with it!
- KAPLAN
  - I think it’s better than Pastest.
- AMBOSS
  - I love love love this qbank. I love their articles which have great concise information, perfect for making those pathology small group slides.

What I would do differently

5 weeks of content and 3 “systems” is a lot! I think I would add more cumulative reviews. Even though I kept up with Grace’s schedule which suggested multiple passes of Sketchy + Anki. Things would get lost with that last week scramble. I would have also made more of an effort to learn the multi-system infections. I think I ran out of steam when all started sounding the same.
More practice questions! I have no idea what I could have cut out, but I should have utilized more questions.
Be mentally prepared that this is a tough module. Many T5’s struggle with this exam the most! Don’t let it get you down, it’s only worth 8%! No wasted tears here.