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For IMGs on Step 1 whose NBME scores won't move, whatever they add.
By Dr. Marish Asudani · Published
2 decks. FA Foundation Anki revises First Aid, page by page. The NBME Booster Anki revises every NBME from form 20 to 34 and the Free 120, system by system. Run the Foundation deck per system and before your first NBME, and the Booster in the final 1 to 2 weeks before a form. Students who came in at 45% were scoring 69 to 75% within 6 weeks using these 2 decks.
The whole idea in 1 lineThe exam tests 2 things: First Aid, and the way the NBME asks it. That is all the exam is about.
That's why I tell every student to do both, FA Foundation Anki and the NBME Booster Anki. Not 1. Not "whichever I have time for".
That's the 30 points. The Foundation deck teaches you the book. The Booster teaches you the exam. Here's each one, then how they fit together.
No matter how many times you read First Aid passively, it doesn't stick. The Foundation deck is a page-by-page aggregation of the whole of First Aid: the actual high-yield lines of every page, asked actively. It revises the book.
Keep First Aid open. If a card makes you hesitate even slightly, open that page and read a couple of lines above and below. How to read First Aid itself: the First Aid Guide →
Open FA Foundation AnkiAll 17 systems in First Aid order, with the First Aid page on every card. Start with renal, the way the plan does.
Open renal →
The NBME retires forms. It doesn't retire logic. The concepts tested on forms 30 and 31 already appeared on 20 to 25, with new vignettes. It revises every NBME.
A real Booster card: the form it came from, the one-liner, the explanation, and the First Aid page it maps to.
Open the NBME Booster AnkiEvery form from 20 up to the last one you took. Pick & Mix filters by form, so you only get the forms you need.
Open NBME Booster Anki →Foundation alone, and you know the book but keep getting surprised by how the NBME asks it. Booster alone, and you're drilling exam patterns on top of a book you haven't revised. Together, they cover both halves.
And there's a reason Anki works where re-reading doesn't. Anki forces you to think of the answer yourself, every time. You're never given options. That's exactly the habit the NBME rewards: your answer before the options →
They don't compete. They belong at different points, and your schedule puts each one on the right day. On the Vault schedule, every Anki task opens its deck directly.
2 modes on every card. Tutored: no clock. Timed: 60 seconds a side, 2 minutes at most, so your reviews stop eating your evening. And for the cards you keep failing, Pick & Mix builds a session from only your flagged and missed cards. Timed mode and the First Aid links →
Want a day-by-day schedule that tells you exactly what to study next? The Vault builds it around your exam date.
Get both decks on my schedule →Not because they learned new medicine in 3 weeks. Because they stopped being surprised.
Want 10 more points on top? 2 PDFs = a 10-point jump → · Running the whole Booster before a form: all the NBMEs in 6 days → · Stuck at 62 to 65%: the 3 moves →
▶USMLE Vault videosMy playlist of USMLE Vault videos.How to use my Anki decks the right way — Foundation vs Booster.
The NBME Booster — why forms 20 to 34 are the syllabus.
Anki, rebuilt — Timed mode and First Aid on every card.
The NBME Images Anki — the final-week deck.