 All right, so you're studying for step one. You're looking for a resource to help you quiz, learn and test yourself. Well, that's a lot to ask, but that's exactly what we'll cover in this video. Let's get to it. All right, guys, welcome to the MD journey channel, completely dedicated to helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. My name is Lakshman, internal medicine physician and resident in training. And in this video, we will be talking about how to use PicMonic specifically to help you study better and get a higher score on step one. Now, whenever you bring up step one, the main two questions are, how do I study and what do I use to study? And there's plenty of options out there. There are made videos on all of these and I'll link them down below, but today specifically we'll talk about how PicMonic can potentially be the resource that you choose to use that just makes your step one studying so simplified, but also effective. Now, anytime I'm looking into a step one resource to share with you guys, it really has to fit three categories for me to kind of get the stamp of approval from the MD journey. One, it has to be high yield. Two, it has to be easy to stick to. And three, it has to be able to give you the ability to learn the topic as well as quiz yourself. And PicMonic fits all of those three. And today we'll talk about specifically how you can use the different features and how I would kind of arrange a step one study plan, whether you're studying with your classes or you're studying during your dedicated. So let's first evaluate how well PicMonic does at checking the first checkbox, which is it has to be high yield. And really it pans down, it does extremely well. Now, as you guys can see, I'm logged into the dashboard and there's two kind of main things that stuck out to me, which make PicMonic extremely high yield for step one. One is that they literally have a playlist if you go into the browse section that's dedicated to the first date book and specifically to the edition that you're reading. So if you have an old copy, maybe you're waiting to buy the new one but you have something that's been handed down, you can go into that and not only can you click on the chapter that you're reading or your step one or the topic, but you can go to the specific page that you're kind of reviewing and then watch the video on that specific page. Now for me, this is just absolutely phenomenal. I know when I was using first date as a med student and med students who've come to me always have a gripe that using first date is really difficult because it's just so hard to process and learn, but now you can use first date in addition to PicMonic or just use PicMonic by itself and go page by page and essentially just be able to get the high yield material in a very well-conciled video. So here as you guys can see, we're looking at the code on video itself so it's something you could just use and watch instead of actually having to read first date or after you go to those pages that you do during your prep, you can then go ahead and watch those videos to make sure that that topic actually stuck. And PicMonic doesn't just stop at first date itself actually if you go back into the browse section and look at all of the books that they cover, they include not only first date, but they actually include Patelma, which is a resource I extremely recommend you use during your stuff one prep. So similar to the first date resource, you can actually go to the chapter in the Patelma book or the videos that you're watching and then find related videos like vitamin A deficiency that will correspond to something that you're learning through the Patelma course. So easily PicMonic checks that high yield box, but next we have to move on. It has to be very easy to use. So for me, whenever I have to review how easy a resource is to stick to, it really all comes down to schedule. How easily as a med student, could you incorporate this into your schedule? Or if you're on your step one prep, how easy is it to kind of adapt into your study plan? So let's potentially talk about the group of you guys that may be using PicMonic in addition to your classes to study for step one. Well, in those situations, it's actually pretty easy to stick to because PicMonic itself has a USMLE step one kind of course breakdown. So if you were on your biochemistry course early into your med school career, then you could simply go to the topics you're about to learn or half learn and watch those respective videos. So it makes it very easy to stick to because if you know what lectures you're gonna have the next day, go into your PicMonic dashboard and go ahead and actually end up watching those lectures before you ever go to class. And in a similar fashion for the group of you guys that maybe choose to use it during your dedicated, all you really have to do is once you have your study plan, you know what topics you may cover on day one or day 20, then you can say, well, today it's gonna be a cardiology day and I'm gonna go ahead and go into my cardiovascular system and go ahead, you know, top to bottom until I can go through all of the videos in PicMonic. So in terms of the ease that PicMonic allows you to use to be able to stick to the schedule, it also gets another check. Now the last checkbox that we're gonna address which you can argue is probably the most important and that goes to teaching as well as quizzing you on the various topics that you need to know for step one. So to be able to get that first half of the checkbox you have to do extremely good job of teaching step one topics. And in my own personal opinion, I do find that stories and kind of funny illustrations as well as a visual and a text and audio representation all in one do the best job for you to have long-term retention. PicMonic is completely designed around videos that include funny images and stories but then also include quizzes and stuff that we'll talk about in a second to help you learn information. So here if we go to a topic that's the bane of existence for most med students and that being the Krebs cycle, you can see that you can go through this video and have a very entertaining story that is presented to you to also be able to teach you something that is very important and is very high yield when it comes to step one. So in terms of teaching, it basically applies to all of your senses. So if you like to read a text, it's there for me. If you like to listen to somebody in your auditory learner, it's there. And finally, if you like to have that visual component or all of them in one, like me, then it's designed specifically and perfectly for you. But to get that final kind of little bit of the checkbox, you have to really do a good job of quizzing and reviewing to make sure that what I learned today is also with me when I actually take the test. And here again, I feel like PicMonic does a really good job of giving you kind of the ability to quiz yourself amicially as well as long into the future. So here for the example, if you were gonna go ahead and watch the CrapCycle video and you wanted to make sure that you actually understood everything, you can then just go into the quiz section and actually quiz yourself on the different parts of the video that correspond to the different elements of the CrapCycle itself. But obviously your learning and your long-term retention does not in here. In fact, what you can do now is you can go through those videos that you've already watched or already had a quiz on and then you can go ahead and actually add them to a playlist. So here in this situation, I'm just gonna add it to something called a new playlist as you guys can see, I have a step two in a cardiology block but you can create a step one playlist specifically for you. Then you can use those playlists that you've created to basically have a review of all the material that you've seen in terms of a video format. Then you can also go into the daily quiz section and find yourself getting quiz on images and specific questions from topics of videos you've seen in the past. And personally, if I was studying for step one and I was using Picmonic, if I was studying with my classes, then I would look a day ahead and see what classes and topics will I be learning about. And I would watch those videos the night before and do the quizzes. And the next day I would go to class or if I was on my dedicated, I would look ahead to what topics I'm planning on learning the next day. And again, same thing, I would watch the videos and I would do the quizzes. But now I have a growing library of daily quizzes and things that can be added to my daily quiz to make sure that my step one knowledge is extremely kind of strong. But every time that I get asked a question, I can basically kind of get a little bit of a clue. I get this image and I get to, again, remember long term, okay, this whale, Nordic with agitation. What should it mean? Is it diastolic, systolic, murmur in this situation? But if you want to make yourself a little bit harder, you can hide the image too to make sure you're actually quizzing yourself without the image and making sure that long-term retention has stuck with you. And so again, that checkbox of being able to teach and quiz you effectively, Picmonic does a great job. So as you guys can see, if you're studying for step one, you're looking for a resource that could be kind of a step one prep in a box, Picmonic probably checks most of those boxes for you. So I definitely consider you guys to check it out. You guys can check out our free trial or if you're interested in joining, there'll also be a discount link for you down below. And if you guys do choose to go ahead and sign up with the link down below, then go ahead and send me an email and I'll send you a free copy of Master of the Boards, basically telling you the different tips that I've used as well as my classmates use to get a 250 or higher on step one. And so if you guys have enjoyed the content that you've seen on the YouTube channel, on the podcast, on the blog, and you want more step-by-step advice for wherever you are on your medical journey, through courses, through guides, through Q and A interactions with me, as well as interactions with other members who have the same goal of doing well on their medical journey, but doing it with less stress, then I highly recommend you check out the completely revamped Meadowlit Academy. You guys can check out a link down below. And at the making of this video, there'll be a link down below. If you're interested in trying it out, then you can go ahead and get a whole week access just for a dollar. And so hopefully for those of you that are interested, I'll see you in the Meadowlit Academy. Hopefully I've been able to shed a little bit of light of how to use Pekmonik effectively to study for step one. That's been concluded for this video guys. Thank you so much for watching. Before you go ahead and click off, make sure you hit that like button if you haven't done so already. Hit that subscribe button if you are not. Subscribe to the channel and drop your questions about Pekmonik, step one, Meadowlit Academy, med school in general in the comment section down below. I love you guys. Thank you so much for supporting me on my journey. Hopefully I've been a little helped to you on yours. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.