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StepTube

StepTube

507
videos
17,576
Reddit links read
30
topics
69
channels

Why

YouTube recommends what keeps you watching. Before an exam you need the opposite: the twenty minutes that make a topic click. Students on Reddit have been pointing each other at exactly those videos for years. StepTube collects them in one place, modeled on HackerTube.

How it was built

  1. 1

    Read the USMLE subreddits. Every post and comment in r/step1, r/Step2, r/Step3, r/usmle, r/IMGreddit and r/medicalschool from 2010 to 2024, about 5.3 million, was scanned for YouTube links.

  2. 2

    Keep what different people keep linking. A video needs at least two different people. Bots, deleted accounts and English-only checks come next, using YouTube's own data.

  3. 3

    Read each video with an AI model. Claude read every video's details and the threads it was linked in. It wrote a one-line summary, the exam, the type and the topics, flagged dated videos, and removed pirated uploads of paid courses.

  4. 4

    Rank by lasting recommendations. Standing comes from how many separate months people recommended a video, then how many people. Being recommended again and again across cohorts counts for more than one busy thread.

  5. 5

    Add the channels students name. Most students write “watch Dirty Medicine” instead of pasting a link. The channels named most often are listed with all their videos, sorted into topics.

What you can do

  • Home mixes the most recommended videos, recent ones, hidden gems and short ones. Like a few and it adds what the same people also recommended.
  • Filter by exam, length, type, topic and when it was recommended. Any list can be played on YouTube in one go.
  • Every video page shows the actual Reddit comments, with links back to the threads.
  • Like, Watch later and History work without an account. Keyboard: ? lists the shortcuts.

Limits

  • Reddit leans toward high scorers (WestJEM).
  • Popular is not proof of correct; much medical YouTube is unreliable (Osman 2022). Check facts against your qbank.
  • Step 1 has been pass/fail since 2022; older score advice is marked Dated.

Privacy

No accounts. Likes, history and saved videos stay in this browser. Videos play through YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed. StepTube is independent and not affiliated with YouTube, Reddit, the NBME or the FSMB.