I am sure by now you have heard about how much I love studying with Sketchy! If you get tired of studying the traditional way by reading textbooks, listening to lectures, and writing notes, then SketchyMedical is for you!
What is SketchyMedical?
SketchyMedical is a program of videos that teach medical topics. Each video has someone drawing out a sketch that is telling a story. The story then relates to facts about a certain topic and uses word associations and visual cues to help students more easily remember those specific facts. The videos also use recurrent symbols and themes for associated topics to make them even easier to remember because you keep seeing them over and over. For example, in the sketch about Staph aureus, we are first introduced to the “vancomycin van” which shows up in some form in every microbiology video where the antibiotic vancomycin would be used as a treatment. Cool, right?
I know this is a bit hard to explain. It is so much easier to get the idea behind Sketchy by just watching one of their videos. Click on the image below to go to the SketchyMedical homepage where you can watch a sample sketch about Legionella. Just click the play button on the laptop to watch the video.
Currently, they have SketchyMicro, which is a curriculum of videos covering microbiology topics, and SketchyPharm, which covers pharmacology. And, from what I hear, there are plans to expand to other subjects in the future. 🙌🏻 Below is a list of all of the courses that are available right now.
-SketchyMicro-
- Bacteria
- Viruses
- Fungi
- Parasites
-SketchyPharm-
- Autonomic Drugs
- Cardiovascular & Renal
- Blood & Inflammation
- Smooth Muscle
- GI & Endocrine
- Neuro/Psych
- Antimicrobials
- Antineoplastics
How I studied with Sketchy?
I used SketchyMicro as my sole microbiology resource when studying for Step1. At this point, SketchyPharm was not available, but I so wish it had been. Fortunately, I was able to use SketchyPharm during Step2 CK studying and also a ton during my fourth year Pediatric Infectious Disease rotation. I focused mainly on the antibiotic videos, but they helped me so much to be able to keep all of those drugs straight.
For Step1, when I used Sketchy the most, I created a study schedule of watching 3 to 5 videos a day, depending on the length. While watching each video, I would make a flashcard with all of the high yield information covered and even include some of the memory tools used in the sketch. Each morning, my study group would each take a video that we had watched and try to recite everything we remembered about that topic. Then, we would look at the flashcards to cover any information we might have missed. At night, I would go over all of the flashcards I had made along with the questions in my Smart Book. (You can read all about what a Smart Book is and how I set mine up here.)
While taking the Step1 exam, I found myself able to picture the videos in my head when approaching questions about micro topics and then could remember the related facts about that organism that were outlined in the sketch that helped me answer the question.
Once you know how long your study period is going to be, I would suggest planning out how many videos you would need to watch each day in order to get through them all at least once, if not a couple of times. Then you can keep yourself on track with a good pace and not fall behind since there are quite a few videos to get through. In SketchyMicro there are 104 videos and 99 videos in SketchyPharm. The videos are about 5 to 15 minutes long, depending on the complexity of the topic. The videos can be watched at 1.5x or 2x speed if you’re needing just a quick review.
How much does it cost?
The complete SketchyMedical program, which currently includes SketchyMicro and SketchyPharm is $169 for a 6-month plan and $249 for a 12-month plan. Each can be bought separately, though, if you don’t need both micro and pharm together.
I understand that there are so many great study resources out there, all which chip away at our precious budgets, which are also trying to pay for expensive school tuition. However, this is one resource that, in my opinion, you can’t live without!
Want to try out Sketchy for yourself? Click the button below to get your own 15-day free trial.
Have you used SketchyMedical before? What did you think about it? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
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