The recent pandemic and its consequent lockdown disrupted learning. The education system however moved quickly to include digital learning tools ensuring a seamlessly integration of online tools to ensure knowledge continuity. The use of technologies in colleges since then has significantly increased.

However, for us students, learning online has always been integrated especially in our self-study. In the first year, the preformed notion was to read through the textbooks to learn. However, that was monotonous for me. I struggled to stay focused and retained limited content during self-study. As I progressed further, I explored more studying methods like reading through PowerPoint slides, making notes from textbooks, and studying with a friend. All this did help but it still was not what I felt comfortable with. More research landed me with a few online resources that were getting popular among students in India and abroad. 

What got me interested in these online resources was its information delivery. It is interactive in the form of recorded lectures, flashcards, quizzes, and progress mapping. This reduced my ‘lag phase’ of getting started with a topic because I had a clear idea of the topic after going through these resources.

Online study resources available today have revolutionised how one can learn medicine now, but textbooks and practical hands-on learning remain the gold standard. By the end of my 1st year, my method of studying has transformed into a blended approach with all three, college lectures, practical, and online learning resources. This supplemented by doing a few flashcards, reading the topic by the recommended textbook, and practising questions banks.