IM residents: what resources do you use for studying?

[IM_student_111]

Thinking ahead of my possible IM residency and trying to plan ahead in terms of studying.

I did not take the USMLEs so never bothered with uWorld and similar question bank resources or Anki stuff. I look at my American friends and they just seem to know so much more from having been forced to go through that process. I have no centralized or organized way of studying. I kinda just read random stuff here and there and read around my cases, hope that I remember something, forget 90% of it, and keep going. Just doesn't seem a super solid or reliable method of studying and going into residency I really want to be more structured in my studying.

What do IM residents use to make sure they're ready for the Royal College exam and for practice? Like learning on the job is essential, yes, but I feel like I need a "centralized" resource to make sure I learn everything I need to know.

Is there a uWorld equivalent for residency? Is it just textbooks like Harrison's? Recommendations appreciated! Thanks!

[bearded frog]

For most specialties you don't do royal college style studying until the year prior to your exam, you need to focus on practical learning stuff in your first few years so that you can get through the day to day and how do deal with on-call situations etc. which is much more important at the start. If you want a head start for exam prep then start a evernote/onenote/etc. and if you take notes on something or summarize a guideline put it in there and then refer to it next time you come across it, and then the foundations will be there when it comes time for actual studying

[trimethoprim]

I find NEJM knowledge +, or MKSAP are good resources for IM - been using it in R1 for studying purposes

[ACHQ]

GIM staff here.

For residency and even medical school the following resources will be very helpful to help organize your learning:

- Approach to Internal Medicine by Hui

- Pocket Medicine by Sabatine (the Mass General handbook for internal medicine)

I personally use Approach to Internal Medicine much more than pocket medicine, I found it a bit more organized and liked that it was geared towards Canadians in terms of units etc...

 

[futureGP]

On-call resources: as above, approach to by Hui and pocket medicine / mass gen book. The mass gen book is annoying though - they use lots of acronyms.

otherwise on the job learning (i.e. learning around your patients), uptodate is king.

if you’re more of textbook learning, Cecil’s essential is nice to the point. Harrison’s chapters are very thorough but great overview of the specialty.

NEJM Review Articles are gem for staying on-topic.

Weekly NEJM on the latest trials make you ahead of a lot of people.

 

MKSAP or NEJM Review questions are also great for rotation-specific exam-type questions for your morning coffee breaks.

 

For RC studying, you’ll just be going to IMR course and reading around / memorizing practise questions from prior years.