In medical school, half the battle is learning how to study and, more specifically, what to study. As a med student, you’re likely trying to make sense of all the wealth of information thrown at you.
One solution to help with overwhelm is the Boards and Beyond video subscription service. It’s a comprehensive resource that covers nearly every topic on a medical school curriculum.
Fortunately, there are pre-made Boards and Beyond Anki decks to help you retain information and pass the USMLE step 1 or 2.
We’ll cover the best decks that review Boards and Beyond material.
Best Boards and Beyond Anki Decks
Every deck is unique and designed for a specific goal. Some are suited for studying for Step 1, while others are for Step 2. Also, some decks are focused on specific subjects, while others are more all-encompassing.
We’ll be reviewing the following boards and beyond Anki decks:
- Lightyear: Step 1 Anki Deck
- Soze Step 1 Master Anki Deck
- Cheesy Lightyear Boards and Beyond Anki Deck
- Boards and Beyond Cardio Anki Deck
- Boards and Beyond Pathology Anki Deck
- Lightyear Infinity for Step 2
1. Lightyear: Step 1 Anki Deck
| Deck Name | Lightyear Step 1 |
| Cards | 22,500 cards |
| Card Format | Basic |
| Year of Upload | 2018 |
| Required Plugins | None |
| Download Size | 701 MB |
| Download Link | Lightyear Step 1 |
The Lightyear deck step 1 deck is consists of 22,5000 cards and one of the most comprehensive Board and Beyond decks out there. Of the total deck, 18.7k cards are from Boards and Beyond videos, 1.8k from the First Aid book, 1k from Pathoma, and another 1.1k from UworldRX.
Most cards feature snapshots of the associated section from Boards and Beyond, First Aid, or a helpful diagram.
This deck is neatly organized using hierarchical tags to find topics from the 400+ videos sourced.
The cards are mostly delivered in a cloze format with a fill-in-the-blank term. Some images with texts are blurred, requiring you to recall the keyword.
In the latest update of the deck, Redditor u/Infinity2k has offered supplementary options. You can also choose to download decks from Lolnotacop and Zanki pharm cards.
Overall, the deck gives a good grasp of everything to prepare you for the USMLE Step 1.
2. Soze Step 1 Master Anki Deck
| Deck Name | Soze’s Step 1 Master |
| Cards | 3494 cards |
| Card Format | Basic |
| Year of Upload | 2017 |
| Required Plugins | None |
| Download Size | 94.2 MB |
| Download Link | Soze’s Step 1 Master |
Soze Step 1 Master Anki deck is another popular deck to prepare for Step 1. 90% of the cards are sourced from Boards and Beyond. The remainder of the cards come from First Aid, USMLE-Rx, and various class lectures.
This deck covers a variety of topics from Boards and Beyond, such as:
- Endocrinology
- Cardiovascular
- Hematology
- Renal
- Reproductive
- Pulmonary
- Biochemistry
- Psychiatry
- Musculoskeletal
- Gastrointestinal
Additionally, a small portion of the deck consists of basic science subjects. This includes pharmacology, behavioral science, cell biology, biostatistics, and infectious disease.
Many cards are a little longer, requiring more initial effort. However, the payoff is that you won’t be scattered with unrelated information in the deck.
If you’re trying to recall thiazide diuretics’ side effects, all of the information will be on one card rather than adding many cards.
Typically, remembering one or two side effects gives you a better chance to remember the other effects.
What’s also great about the deck is that the creator added a mnemonic to people students remember certain concepts.
3. Cheesy Lightyear Boards and Beyond Anki Deck
| Deck Name | Cheesy Lightyear |
| Cards | 23126 |
| Card Format | Basic |
| Year of Upload | 2019 |
| Required Plugins | None |
| Download Size | 1.5 GB |
| Download Link | Cheesy Lightyear |
A Redditor with the name u/Cheesy_Doritos decided to update the Lightyear Boards and Beyond deck.
The primary difference is that there are more images from varied sources, such as First Aid 2019, Pixorize, Picmonic, and DirtyUSMLE.
This deck also organizes the cards by modules into subdecks. You can choose to review by subdeck or do all the cards mixed.
The cards are formatted similarly to the original Lightyear in that there are fill-in-the-blank words. However, screenshots from the associated source are also attached to give you more in-depth information on the topic.
In the cardiology section, built-in sound effects correspond to the heartbeat based on the condition.
4. Boards and Beyond – Cardio Anki Deck
| Deck Name | Boards and Beyond Cardio |
| Cards | 132 |
| Card Format | Basic |
| Year of Upload | 2020 |
| Required Plugins | None |
| Download Size | 7.8 MB |
| Download Link | Boards and Beyond Cardio |
If you’re searching for a quick review of cardiology, consider the Boards and Beyond Cardio deck. It’s only 132 cards, so you can easily run through the entire deck within a few hours or less.
The cards are formatted in a few different ways. Some are fill-in-the-blank words, while others are Q&A.
Some answers even force you to draw a diagram to explain the term more thoroughly. This forces you to understand the concept rather than memorize information.
5. Boards and Beyond Lightyear Pathology Anki Deck
| Deck Name | Boards and Beyond Lightyear Pathology |
| Cards | 302 |
| Card Format | Basic |
| Year of Upload | 2019 |
| Required Plugins | Basic |
| Download Size | 0.87 MB |
| Download Link | Boards and Beyond Lightyear Pathology |
One Redditor decided to add to the Lightyear deck by creating a Pathology deck. He believes the Boards and Beyond pathology portion doesn’t thoroughly cover certain topics. Therefore, there are sections from Pathoma, specifically chapter 3, covering these gaps.
We recommend adding it to your Lightyear deck as a bonus to beef up the Pathology portion.
6. Boards and Beyond Lightyear Infinity for Step 2
| Deck Name | Lightyear Infinity for Step 2 |
| Cards | 33590 |
| Card Format | Basic |
| Year of Upload | 2021 |
| Required Plugins | None |
| Download Size | 1.6 GB |
| Download Link | Lightyear Infinity for Step 2 |
Until recently, there hasn’t been a deck geared toward Step 2. The Lightyear Infinity for Step 2 is a comprehensive deck that covers Boards and Beyond and UWorld for Step 2 videos.
Some cards come from other resources like AMBOSS, Online Med Ed, the free AAFP questions, and others.
According to the creator of this deck, u/dan-yul-sun, the best ways to use this deck are as follows:
1. Watch the Boards and Beyond videos fully.
2. Download the cards and go through them.
3. Complete the UWorld practice questions.
4. Search relevant terms and keywords in the deck to retain the information as you go along with the questions.
5. Continue to review the deck and make more cards to fill your unique knowledge gaps.
While the deck is comprehensive, it’s suited for the original creator’s particular knowledge gaps. You’ll want to add cards to help you fix any sticking points you have.
Additional Study Resources For Medical Students
There are many study resources available for board exams. Check out our recommendations page for a guide to the best of them.
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