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When I was studying for boards, I dreaded practice questions because I found them to be so long, tedious, and demoralizing. You couldn’t easily figure out your strengths and weaknesses until you completed the entire question bank. While looking at your incorrect and correct answers in different subjects can help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses, I wish I could access more specific feedback. For these reasons, I would just breeze through the questions as quickly as I could just so I could get through it. This is why I’m excited about using TrueLearn to study for my specialty board exam (internal medicine) in the future! Even though I’m a couple years away, I’m looking forward to using this resource and seeing how it will grow and improve over the years. There were many resources that I wish I had used earlier when I was studying for the USMLE. I’m hoping to hop on the TrueLearn train early so I don’t regret it later!
TrueLearn is the new kid on the block! It is a “smart bank”, a question bank that is driven by data and an algorithm that aims to personalize the questions to focus on concepts that you may be struggling with. Let’s dive into reasons why TrueLearn is a good way to prep for your board/specialty exams!
Multipurpose
TrueLearn isn’t just for internal medicine, or even specialty exams! I first learned about TrueLearn when they released their question bank for USMLE. I’ve heard positive feedback from my colleagues using it to study for the COMLEX as well. While they’re still working on their Step 3 question bank (which I’m keeping an eye on), many have used it to study for USMLE/COMLEX (medical licensure board exams).
In addition to internal medicine, TrueLearn also creates question banks for specialties like anesthesiology, OBGYN, General Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Psychiatry, just to name a few!
SmartText and Spaced Repetition
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know my favorite resource in medical school: Anki! In other words, I love spaced repetition. It works. Research shows it works, particularly for long-term retention. Another layer to this is the algorithm that TrueLearn employs. Remember how I mentioned that I struggled with teasing out my strengths and weaknesses because I would have to finish the entire question bank to identify them? The nice thing about TrueLearn is it’s dynamic. If you keep getting a question on a certain concept wrong, TrueLearn will push questions on that specific topic to turn that weakness into a strength.
Similarly, SmartText is a feature where you can receive messages about concepts that are your weak areas (based on your answers to questions). What’s cooler is that these messages are concise and give you the “bottom line”. As a rising intern/resident who is starting to read more literature and preparing to teach medical students, the bottom line is CRUCIAL! Understanding the bigger picture and high yield pearls is ideal when you are on a time crunch and may not have time to read through elaborate explanations (though those are helpful in certain situations).
Bottom Line
This feature deserves its own mention and header because it’s my favorite aspect of TrueLearn. Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the details of a disease, pathophysiology or treatment. The bottom line is a helpful way to alert your brain, “Hey! All these details are important, but pay special attention to this concept that you should not miss!”
Study Strategies
Test anxiety, oh boy. I still have it, always will. You can thank the MCAT for that. The other day on my dashboard, I saw some study strategies pop up in the form of flashcards. What surprised me was how evidence-based and non-cliche the strategies/pointers were. Let me share some of my favorites below!
Interleaving works. Testing in “Random” mode across multiple categories is highly effective. Research shows that when students interleave their practice so that they are constantly switching between different types of problems, they learn more effectively than if they block types of problems together.
Hindsight bias (e.g. I knew it all along) can give you a false sense of having more knowledge than you really do. Research has shown that learners are often bad at judging how much they really know. Reading notes can give a false sense of familiarity with subject matter, where it is easily recognized but cannot be recalled or used to problem solve effectively.
More affordable
Something to consider. I spent thousands of dollars on past question banks. It definitely widens disparities for those coming from lower-income households. TrueLearn is much more affordable and reasonably priced!
I hope that you learned something new in preparing for your board exams! For my fellow interns/residents, hopefully this can become part of your arsenal for studying for our specialty exams!
You can use my code “KELLYMED25” for $25 off your subscription 🙂 Head here to check it out!
Much lobe,
Kelly
