Context:
I’m a dental student aiming for OMFS/Dental Anesthesia, which means I need to take the CBSE (essentially the USMLE Step 1). To be efficient, I’ve swapped my school’s lectures for Bootcamp as my primary foundation for our systems-based curriculum.
My Current Workflow:
Alignment: I use AI to map my dental school’s weekly lecture PDFs to the corresponding Bootcamp videos.
Learning: I watch the Bootcamp modules and ignore school lectures.
Anki: I unsuspend the "High Yield" and "Relatively High Yield" cards under the Bootcamp tag. I use a filtered deck to cram for that week's exam.
Gap Sweep: The day before the exam, I skim school PowerPoints to catch any dental-specific details Bootcamp missed.
Problem: Because we have exams every single week, I’m overwhelmed. Once I finish a system, I suspend everything because I don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with reviews while learning the next system.
My timeline is incredibly tight. For example, if I finish the Biliary section on a Sunday for a Tuesday exam, I only have one day to actually hit the Anki reviews. Immediately after the exam on Wednesday, we move to a new topic. To keep up with the new material, I suspend the entire previous unit the day after the test. I’m essentially using Anki as a short-term cramming tool rather than a long-term retention system because the weekly exam pace is so relentless.
Goal:
I plan to take the CBSE in February 2027. I’m currently planning to restart anki (from the beg of spring semester’s systems) + UWorld + leftover Bootcamp + sketchy micro/pharm over the summer and D2 fall. But I know I’m wasting the power of spaced repetition by suspending my cards now. If I transition to med school after or just for CBSE retention, I need a better way to handle the volume.
I kinda just wanted to ask the medical students on this method of tackling the CBSE and if I’m missing something or should be doing something to ensure I can use anking efficiently.
TL;DR
I’m using Bootcamp and Anki to study for the CBSE while in dental school, but weekly exams are forcing me to suspend my cards after every unit to stay afloat. I'm worried about losing all my progress. Looking for advice on how to manage Anki reviews sustainably without falling behind on dental school or my February 2027 exam date.