We asked a Tulane University medical student how Cram Fighter helped her study for her exams throughout the year.

How did Cram Fighter help you with studying for your classes?

I have actually been using Cram Fighter all year to help me keep on track as I studied for each of my third year shelf exams. I am just now beginning to use it to study for Step 2. I made a study block in my schedule for each rotation, and then a few blocks for customized Step 2 review time over this summer.

How did you balance studying for USMLE Step 2 and your shelf exams?

I have always used to-do lists to track my responsibilities for school, but the busy schedule of third year made it especially important. With changing work hours on rotations every day, it was critical to have a system that was organized, efficient, and flexible. I loved the ability to plan for each of my individual rotations using Cram Fighter. Each block, I would decide what resources I wanted to use to study and how many practice questions I felt I’d need to do, and put it all in Cram Fighter. It broke it down into daily tasks for me, which really helped. Cram Fighter was really great because I could schedule customized catch-up days as often as necessary, build in vacation time, and rebalance my schedule if I got behind.

I have actually been using Cram Fighter all year to help me keep on track as I studied for each of my third year shelf exams.

How did Cram Fighter help you reach your goal?

I think I did better on my shelf exams this year because of Cram Fighter. Seeing all the material I’d chosen to study presented as small, discrete tasks I could check off every day made it feel much more feasible to get through, and gave me a clear picture of what I’d need to accomplish each day to reach my goal. I think I ended up covering more material before each shelf exam than I would have if I hadn’t used Cram Fighter.