Hi friends,

🎯 My goal for you with this post is simple:

I will teach you how to outsource your USMLE study schedule for free and within minutes so all you have to do is just show up each day and follow the plan.

🤓 Some assumptions:

1. You are like me and like to have an organized, structured approach to your goals.
2. You have an internet connection.

📚 Resources:

We will be using my own custom models of ChatGPT for this, one that I made for myself while studying for Step 2, and the other I made for my friends who used it to pass Step 1. These are specifically designed to narrow down on what is essential for Step 1, Step 2, and Shelf Exams.

These Bots Will:

1. Generate a schedule based on your preferences, events, resources, and goals.
2. Analyze your performance and target your weaknesses.
3. Dynamically adapt as you provide more information.

Here are the two separate bots we'll talk about in this post:

1. Step 1 Trainer
2. Step 2CK/Shelf Exam Trainer

👨🏻‍💻 General Tips for the Scheduler Bots:

1. The more detailed information you give your bot, the better it will be able to compile a personalized routine for you. None of this information is visible to anyone but you and OpenAI. Think of these bots as the same as your Google Calendar but in text format.
2. You don't need a paid plan, but you will be capped out at how many interactions you can have daily if using a free ChatGPT account. Having said that, the majority of people should be fine on the free account.
3. Talk to it as if you were talking to someone new at their job. They will need context, reasoning behind things, and for you to explain things in detail for them to give their best work.
4. Update and engage with your bot daily for the best and most satisfactory results.

🧰 Step 1: Prep

Make sure you have a list of all calendar events you can think of before starting. You can add events to the bot later, but it helps starting off with an ideal schedule.

Specifically Have These Ready:

• Step 1 or Step 2CK Date
• Shelf Exam Dates (specify which Shelf Exam)
• School Exam Dates (specify which exam)
• OSCE Dates

Also Include Things Like:

• School Lectures (if mandatory)
• Rotation Schedules (to prioritize content associated with it)
• Birthdays (if attending)
• Trips
• Appointments
• Rest Days
• Gym Time
• Spouse Time

🎬 Step 2: Set Things Up

I've embedded 3 prompts into the AI bots to make things easier:

1. Help me plan out my Step 1/2 study schedule. - this will walk you through setting everything up
2. What can you help me with? - use this if you want an overview of the capabilities
3. FAQ on how this scheduler works? - provides a good breakdown of likely questions

You are not limited to these obviously, you can always make your own initial prompt, but I recommend starting out with #1 as the scheduler will ask you exactly what it needs from you and design a schedule based on that.

🌟 Step 3: Engage With Your A.I. Scheduler

The beauty of using this A.I. model is that it is dynamic and will adapt to your routine, performance, and goals. Meaning that even if you fail to complete tasks one day, it will simply rearrange things for you within a minute.

Take these words to heart:

Your schedule's adjustment is only limited by how much data you give it.

❓What does this mean?

• Didn't finish your daily goals? Just tell it what you did or didn't do every day, it will adjust accordingly.
• Completed a practice exam? Let it know what your overall score was, in addition to individual scores on different sections. The more detailed the data, the better. It will process this and tell you if you need to increase or decrease intensity in certain topic areas.
• Feel burnt out? Tell it exactly that so it can decrease intensity or give you a small break.

💁🏻‍♂️ Do I have any specific engagement recommendations for you? Yes.

• Tell it what you did every day in relation to your daily tasks, this is very important.
• If it's a new day, make sure to mention the date so it knows it's a new day and can adjust accordingly.
• Give it your practice exam scores in text format in a way that is clear and easy to understand, this way it can track your scores and performance.

⚠️ Step 4: Beware Known Pitfalls

1️⃣ ChatGPT has a limited amount of "memory."

• If the chat gets several pages long, it will start to show some signs that it's forgetting information which is not good. This may not be a problem in future iterations of ChatGPT, but is something to consider for now.
  • Fix: Tell it to "Summarize everything you know about me in detail so I can copy and paste it into another scheduler exactly like you" and just start a new chat with the same bot.

2️⃣ Be careful with uploading images, docs, or screenshots.

• Yes, images, documents, and screenshots can be pasted into the bot. The issue is that the accuracy at which it can interpret this type of data format is not 100%. I experimented a lot with pasting in uWorld and NBME images into it but ultimately ran into issues sporadically which was not ideal as any misinterpretation can throw off it's understanding of your performance.
  • Fix: Type in all information to make certain it is understanding data accurately, this takes longer but is 100% reliable if you present the information in an organized manner.

3️⃣ It may not know what day it is.

• This is why I mentioned that you should always double check it knows the date. If you simply continue the chat where you left off, ChatGPT currently has a hard time knowing if it's a different day. This may change in future, but for now just mention the date so we have full clarity of where we are in the schedule.
  • Fix: New day? Mention day/month always. Include hour if you want even more detail.

4️⃣ Ultimately, your performance is up to you.

• The scheduler is really really good at scheduling and organizing your study plan, but it can't magically boost your scores. While following it's routine can improve your chances of success, the final outcome depends on your effort and consistency. I did add safeguards, such as it suggesting you reschedule your exam if the outcome is predicted to be poor, but you make your own decisions. This is just a tool in the end, there is no guarantee.

Hope this helps you as much as it helped me - Frank.