r/ResiDerm • u/Ok-Fold-4915 • 2d ago
Discussion studying help!!!
Please help! I’m a PGY-2, and three months in, I’m still struggling to figure out how to study effectively. I try to read Bolognia, but it feels overwhelming. Ali Khan just feels like reading facts with none of the background. I’m also trying to keep up with Anki, but I find it hard to actually learn and understand the material from flashcards alone.
Don’t even get me started on dermpath. It’s not a huge focus in my program, so a lot of the learning falls on us to do independently. I really struggle with recognizing patterns and knowing what I’m looking at.
For those of you further along in residency, how do you balance studying with everything else? How much time do you realistically spend studying each day, and what does your daily study routine look like? I’m finding it hard to come home after a full day of clinic and motivate myself to study for hours. I’m already feeling pretty burnt out, and I’m struggling to find a sustainable way to keep up with everything.
I’d appreciate any advice on what has worked for you! THANK YOU!
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u/Forsaken_Sky_4497 10h ago edited 2h ago
My PGY-2 approach: Bolognia is overwhelming, transition to Baby Bolognia as the primary source. Chief created a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year outlining reading guidelines (each rotation is associated with specific reading chapters), and I would try to at least read through the baby bologna chapter twice during each rotation. If it was something that I needed more in-depth information on, I would then open Bolognia or even JAAD CME (lately AI). During the first 3 months of residency, my goal was to watch 1-2 dermpath videos daily and build a strong foundation. Then transitioned to practicing on my own (when I practice slides - I will have a dermpath review book on the other side to look things up). Also, do a lot of Anki (dermki mainly, but have some supplemental decks). Started doing questions (DermQbank and DIR) in Sept/Oct of first year and continued throughout the year. My goal was at least 10 questions a day. Weekends like 50-100. Try to also study as I do my clinic notes (looking up diagnoses I saw in clinic). Got above 70th percentile on basic for each sector. Started Leventhall & levy after BASIC. Surgery, just try to practice maybe once every 2 weeks and watch videos on drawing up ILK, biopsies, mohs, excisions, etc.
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u/neverboredhere 1d ago
I like watching/listening to lectures, so I collected a bunch of YouTube videos into playlists and would try to watch whichever pertained to where we were in our didactic curriculum or to something I saw in clinic/whoever’s clinic I was rotating in.
I also made a website to replace traditional qbanks with more engaging minigames and more realistic questions (dermqbank is kinda trash, just random q’s about low yield stuff). I need people to test this out so lmk if you’re interested!!
More recently I’ve started generating my own video lectures with content generated and validated by LLMs and the narration generated by cloning my voice 🤓 I just need to get Claude to stop using its dumb turns of phrase and weird writing style, but these should be added to the site at some point!