1.5 days of active reading of First Aid pp. 570–594 on the First Aid Guide, watching every video on those pages. Then 1 day of the Neil Randy psychiatry playlist, which replaces Mehlman for psych. Then half a day of FA Foundation Anki. Then UWorld psychiatry for the last 2 days, in 20-question tutor blocks with the RPSR method, aiming for 65% or above.
Read this first. This plan is only for you if you have roughly 10–12 hours a day for studying, and you're either an intern or a graduate. Working, with 5–8 hours a day? Keep the same order and stretch the days: Step 1 while working →
Psych is the system people either rush in 2 days or drag out for 2 weeks. Neither works. Psych is doable in 5 days, and it's one of the few systems where I change the method.
2 things are different from every other system:
In active reading, you watch all the videos on each First Aid Guide page. In other systems the videos are there when a page won't click. In psych, you watch every one.
Active application is Neil Randy, not Mehlman. Everyone watches Neil Randy for biostats. His psychiatry playlist is what brings the real difference.
Psychiatry has no organisms, so there is no Micro list. Its pharm is 4 drug groups, all from Osmosis: SSRIs, SNRIs and atypical antidepressants, antipsychotics, lithium and TCAs. If you did pharmacology up front, they are done; if not, do them before Day 1. These are the full guides.
Psychiatry is the 9th system, right after MSK and derm (MSK → psychiatry is a fixed order). Genetics and ANS come next, then neuro, and cardio comes last. Tap a system to open its guide.
Biochem is never a block of its own: each piece sits right before the system that needs it. The whole method, once: how to study any system →
Psychiatry in 5 days, hour by hour
Clock times assume an 11-hour day: 9 AM–1 PM, 2–6 PM and 7–10 PM, with lunch and dinner in the gaps. Shift the clock to your day. Keep the order. Didn't front-load pharm? Do the 4 psych drug groups the day before Day 1.
Day 1 · Active reading, with every videoFirst Aid Guide, page by page, MCQs on every page
7–10 PMpp. 583–586 · malingering, somatic symptom disorders, eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, sleep, substance use, stages of change
Day 2 · Reading, then Neil Randy
9 AM–1 PMpp. 587–594 · psychiatric emergencies, intoxication and withdrawal, alcohol, psychotherapy, the psych drugs. Watch Dirty Medicine · Drugs of Abuse with pp. 588–589.
4 drug groups, all from Osmosis. SSRIs, SNRIs and atypical antidepressants · antipsychotics · lithium · TCAs. If you did pharmacology up front, these are already done: they're inside the neuro-psych pharm block of the pharm foundation on the Vault schedule. If you didn't, watch these 4 before Day 1 with the FWRT method: Find the resource (already done, all Osmosis) → Watch each video twice → Read the High-Yield Pharmacology PDF and highlight what didn't survive → Test in First Aid Guide → Psychiatry → Pharmacology.
Open Psych Pharm → · All of pharm in 48 hours →▶How to Complete PharmacologyThe FWRT method on video.
Day 1 → first half of Day 2
Active reading: First Aid pp. 570–594, with every video
Same 4 moves on every page as any system, plus 1: in psych, you watch all the videos on the page.
Open Psychiatry in the First Aid GuideFirst Aid pp. 570–594, page by page: Focus On, ELI5 and the MCQs on every page. Opens straight into psychiatry.
Read Focus On. Now you know what matters on this page.
2
Watch every video on the page. The First Aid Guide puts the best video for the topic on the pages that need one. Psych is a subject of stories and patients, and the videos give you the patient before the definition.
3
Run the Concept Walkthrough and the ELI5s, then read the actual First Aid page. Explain each heading out loud.
4
Solve the Test Yourself MCQs. Any miss → back to that heading before you turn the page.
First Aid p. 582 (Personality disorders) in the First Aid Guide: Focus On, the ELI5s, the video guide, Concept walkthrough, Key takeaways, How is this tested? and Test yourself.
In every other system, this step is Mehlman. In psych, it's the Neil Randy psychiatry playlist. Everyone knows Neil Randy for biostats. Almost nobody works through his psychiatry, and that is exactly why it's an edge.
1
Get the Neil Randy PDF first. It breaks his whole video library down system by system, so you run only the psych videos that matter. It's free in the PDFs on the University section of usmlevault.com.
2
Watch the psych playlist in order, in 1 day. Pause before he gives the answer and answer it yourself.
3
Any gap → the First Aid Guide page for that topic, the same day.
The FA Foundation Anki psych deck is 145 cards (as of October 2026), First Aid page by page, with the page number on every card. Answer before you flip. Hesitate → open that page, read the line and a couple above and below, then go back to the card.
A FA Foundation Anki card (renal shown), flipped: First Aid p. 597 on the card, and “Study this in First Aid” under the answer. The psychiatry deck works the same way.
Run the FA Foundation Anki · Psychiatry deck145 cards (as of October 2026), First Aid page by page, with the page number on every card. Opens straight into the deck.
Unused · All subjects · Psychiatric/Behavioral only · Tutor, untimed · 20 questions. 2 blocks, then review every bookmark (wrong, or right by guessing) back in its First Aid line, 5–6 minutes a question at most. Then the next 2 blocks. Never random mode while you're learning a system.
Target:65% or above. Last 2 blocks under 60%? Go back to the Neil Randy videos for those topics, then the First Aid pages behind them.
Psych is finished when every psych question is attempted, every miss is traced to its First Aid page, and your last 2 blocks held above 65%. Psych has about 200 UWorld questions on the Vault schedule: 10 blocks, 5 a day on Days 4–5. When is a system actually finished? → · The full RPSR method →
Later, for your NBMEs: NBME Booster Anki · PsychiatryThe psychiatry questions from retired NBME forms 20 to 34 and the Free 120, as cards. Not for now: open it when your NBME phase starts. What the Booster is →
Psych sits inside the neuro block: MSK → psychiatry → genetics → ANS → neurology. MSK before psych is a fixed order. Psych before neuro matters because neuro questions lean on behavioural symptoms and on the same drugs.
What not to do
Do not skip the page videos in psych. This is the one system where they're part of the method, not a backup.
Do not swap Neil Randy for Mehlman here. Mehlman is a fixed step in every other system. In psych it's Neil Randy.
Do not stretch psych to 2 weeks. 5 days. Then move on.
Build my schedule →
