Comprehensive
JLim's Med School Notes
Multi-component note set covering pre-clerkship blocks. One of the most widely circulated note collections in recent UofT cohorts.
Open Google Drive folderA working library of notes, decks, and guides shared by upper-year UofT MD students — plus a year-one calendar, testimonials on what worked, and a practical guide to shadowing in the first two years.
Personal study notes from UofT MD students who shared them forward. Treat them as a starting framework, not a substitute for engaging with primary material — every cohort's curriculum drifts year to year.
Multi-component note set covering pre-clerkship blocks. One of the most widely circulated note collections in recent UofT cohorts.
Open Google Drive folderNotes for the Introduction to Medicine block by Omar Elbardisy (2T5). Often paired with Bhadra's ITM Anki deck below.
Link to be added — request from cohort Discord or via Feedback page.
Cohort-shared histology notes covering the core image identification and clinical correlations needed across pre-clerkship.
Open Google Drive folderCohort-compiled answer banks for WFQs, organized by week. Two parallel sources circulate — both linked here. Cross-reference rather than trust either alone.
Spaced repetition is divisive — some students live in Anki, others find it inefficient relative to active retrieval through CBL prep. If you use it, these are the decks UofT students have built and shared.
Full anatomy deck covering pre-clerkship anatomy. Built by Bhadra Pandya (2T5).
Download .apkgEarlier-cohort anatomy deck by Akachukwu Nwakoby (2T4). Some students prefer this style; others prefer Bhadra's. Worth opening both before committing.
Note: original shared link appears malformed — request a working link via the cohort Discord or Feedback page before relying on this resource.
Full pre-clerkship Anki coverage by block. Most comprehensive UofT-specific deck collection currently circulating.
Link distributed in cohort channels. Search "BP Years 1+2 Anki" or request via Feedback.
Cohort-shared deck collection. Mixed coverage — best treated as a supplemental layer alongside Bhadra's blocks.
Open Google Drive folderHigh-leverage guides written by upper-year students who'd been through the block recently. These tend to age better than personal notes because they emphasize structure over content.
Walkthrough of the Integrated Clinical Experience block — what to expect, how it's structured, and how to get the most out of preceptor pairings. Updated each year.
Open the ICE GuideIf you've written a study guide for a specific block (Foundations, Brain & Behaviour, Life Cycle, etc.) and want it surfaced for future cohorts, submit it via Feedback.
Submit a guideThe OSCE is the year-end practical assessment. These resources cover the building blocks — physical exam maneuvers, history-taking templates, and rubric-style checklists.
Organized Notion workspace covering the major OSCE stations, common pitfalls, and structured approaches.
Open NotionLong-form Google Doc covering OSCE rubrics and clinical skills, originally compiled by FitzGerald academy students. Heavily used across all academies.
Open Google DocCompiled by 2T6 MAM students. Covers similar territory to the FitzGerald doc with a different organizational style — worth comparing.
Open PDFA standalone site organizing ICE / clinical-skills content — physical exam approaches, history-taking templates, and structured station prep. Good for browsing by station or system rather than scrolling a long doc.
Open the siteCohort-shared Google Drive folder with assorted OSCE prep materials — station notes, rubric breakdowns, and practice cases. Use as a supplement to the FitzGerald and MAM clinical-skills documents above.
Open Google Drive folderiOS app with rubric-style checklists for physical exams and histories. Useful for self-quizzing or simulating an OSCE rubric while practicing with a partner.
Available on the App Store. Search "OSCEr".
Most students arrive with a study method that worked for undergrad and discover it doesn't scale. The volume of material in pre-clerkship is genuinely different — closer to "how do I efficiently encode and retrieve thousands of facts" than "how do I understand this concept deeply once." Here's a primer on the main approaches you'll hear classmates talking about. Most people end up combining two or three.
The technique with the strongest evidence base for long-term retention. Instead of re-reading notes, you force your brain to retrieve the answer cold — through flashcards, blank-page summaries, or self-quizzing. Recall failures are where the actual learning happens.
An algorithmic version of active recall. You review material at increasing intervals, with the spacing tuned to your forgetting curve for that specific card. Anki is the dominant tool for this in medical school — the Anki section above covers cohort-shared decks.
UofT's curriculum is built around CBL, so this isn't optional — but how you engage with cases is. The students who get the most out of CBL prep treat each case as a self-contained learning unit, building a one-page summary of the differential, the workup, and the management before they walk into the session.
For some students, mind maps and diagrams beat text every time. Pathways, cycles, and anatomical relationships especially benefit from being drawn rather than read. Tools like Notability, GoodNotes, or even paper work — the medium matters less than whether you generate the diagram yourself.
Small groups (3–5 people) studying the same case or topic catch each other's blind spots, surface different mental models, and provide social accountability. The trade-off is time — bad group study can be 90 minutes of socializing with 30 minutes of learning. Set an agenda before you sit down.
Often called the Feynman technique. You explain a topic out loud — to a study partner, a non-medical friend, or your wall — at the level a smart non-expert could follow. The gaps in your explanation are exactly the gaps in your understanding, and they surface fast.
Short reflections from upper-year UofT MD students on how they approached pre-clerkship. There is no single right method — read across them and pick what resonates.
Treat CBL prep as the spine. Everything else — Anki, lecture, notes — wraps around the cases. Going to a CBL underprepared once was enough to convince me.
I used Anki religiously in M1 and burned out by November. In M2 I switched to active retrieval through past WFQs and felt better and learned more. Anki is a tool, not a religion.
The biggest unlock was studying with a small group on the same case. We'd each prep individually, then meet for an hour to compare answers. We caught each other's blind spots.
Don't overspend on textbooks. Costanzo for physiology, BRS Anatomy, and the FitzGerald clinical skills doc carried me. Everything else was free or in the library.
Show up to lectures live for the first month, then decide. I assumed I'd be a 2x-recorded-lectures person and learned I retained way more in person.
Block one is the easiest one to over-study. The exam is pass/fail and the bar is reasonable. Save your peak intensity for ICE, OSCE, and clerkship prep.
The shape of your first year. Three sequential blocks bridging the science of disease to clinical reasoning, with weekly CBLs and an end-of-year OSCE. Exact dates vary year to year — confirm against the current Faculty academic calendar.
The on-ramp. Introduces the language of medicine, foundational anatomy, histology, biochemistry, immunology, and pharmacology principles. Pairs with the first wave of CBLs and the start of clinical skills sessions in ICE.
Topics covered
The first organ-systems block. Cardiology, respirology, hematology, and renal — taught through cases. Anatomy and physiology integrate with pathology and pharmacology around shared clinical presentations.
Topics covered
The second organ-systems block. Continues the case-based approach across additional systems (typically GI, endocrine, MSK, derm, and reproductive). Closes out M1 with the Year 1 OSCE.
Topics covered
The skeleton is the same most weeks: lectures Monday, anatomy Tuesday, Wednesday off, ethics/research + CBL Thursday, clinical skills Friday. The example below is the actual first week of classes from a recent cohort — fuller than most weeks, but the pattern holds.
Mon
Block lectures
+ Portfolio occasional
Tue
Anatomy
(MAPS lecture + lab)
Wed
Off
self-study, shadowing
Thu
AM: ethics / research
PM: CBL at hospital
Fri
Clinical skills
+ ISAL pre-ME weeks
Example: Week 1 of M1, recent cohort
Monday
Aug 25
Tuesday
Aug 26
Wednesday
Aug 27
Thursday
Aug 28
Friday
Aug 29
Intro to Mastery Exercise
Mandatory · 8:00 – 12:00
Clinical Skills
Gametogenesis & Fertilization
Assessment Orientation
Mandatory
Intro to UME Ethics & Professionalism
Implantation & Early Development
OLA & Accessibility Services
Placentation & Extra-embryonic Development
Intro to Skeletal System
Mandatory
CanMEDS Leader: Working in Teams
Mandatory
Intro to CBL
Mandatory
Anatomy Lab Orientation / Cadaveric
Mandatory
CBL: Faculty-Led
Mandatory · 1:30 – 4:00
ISAL
Mandatory
CBL: Student-Led
ME Weeks
A Mastery Exercise lands every other week or so within each block. ME weeks add an 8–9 AM exam slot Monday morning; the rest of the week looks normal. ISAL sessions tend to run on the Friday before an ME week, after morning clinical skills — so you're seeing this week-on, week-off rhythm of pre-ME prep + ME execution layered on top of the regular schedule.
Quieter weeks
Week 1 is unusually full — orientation content compressed alongside regular block sessions. By week 3–4 most days have meaningful gaps for self-study. Wednesday remains off most weeks; CBL Thursdays and clinical-skills Fridays are the most consistent fixed points.
Portfolio
When Portfolio is scheduled, it slots into a Monday morning block in place of (or alongside) lectures. Pass/fail, but treat as priority — the reflective writing component takes more time than people expect.
Pre-clerkship students can shadow physicians beyond the formal ICE preceptorships. It's optional and not a requirement, but it's one of the most efficient ways to explore specialties before clerkship rotations narrow the field.
Any pre-clerkship student in good academic standing. You shadow physicians (staff, residents, or fellows) in any specialty you're curious about — you do not need to be in clerkship or to have completed any specific block first. Your TCard, MIN, and current immunization records are your credential package; bring them to the first day.
You observe — you do not deliver care. Depending on the specialty: clinic visits, OR observation, ward rounds, or procedure suites. Some preceptors will involve you (taking a focused history, reading a chart) but you have no clinical responsibilities and you're not graded. Most shadowing days run a half-day to a full clinic.
After you've settled into M1 (typically post-ITM). Avoid the weeks immediately before a CEE or the OSCE. Many students aim for 1–2 days per block and increase frequency in M2. Don't burn through shadowing days at the cost of class learning — the OSCE rewards depth over breadth.
At any UofT-affiliated hospital site (UHN, Mount Sinai, St. Mike's, Sunnybrook, Toronto Western, SickKids, Trillium, Credit Valley) or community clinic. Your academy network is the easiest starting point — academy faculty often arrange shadowing or know who to email. The MD Program also runs structured "specialty exposure" sessions for hard-to-access specialties.
Three reasons that students who've done it consistently raise. First, specialty exploration — the gap between "I think I'd like surgery" and "I've spent a day in an OR" is large; shadowing closes it cheaply. Second, mentorship — a single staff who knows you can become a research supervisor, reference letter writer, and CaRMS strategist. Third, clinical context — material in CBL hits differently after you've watched a real case unfold. The flip side: shadowing is unstructured, and it's easy to coast through a day without learning much. Bring a question or two prepared.
Beyond the day-to-day study material, a few official UofT pages cover curriculum scaffolding (IPE), career planning, and summer research. Worth knowing they exist — most M1s don't touch them until M2.
The Interprofessional Education curriculum site — mandatory IPE sessions pair MD students with nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, social work, and other health-profession students. Schedule, learning objectives, and attendance requirements live here.
Central UofT career planning page for MD students — specialty exploration, advising contacts, and planning timelines for M1 through M4.
Undergraduate medicine career services hub: advising, workshops, and CaRMS guidance run by the Temerty Faculty's UME office.
Broader resource list with summer research opportunities — useful if you want to line up lab or clinical research between M1 and M2.
Student-maintained tracker of research positions open to M1s for the summer between M1 and M2. Updated annually by upper-year students.
