Anyone else's class completely freaking out about boards yet?

[docnotsopc]

This whole week has been complete chaos and stress at my school. haha i've never seen so many overly anxious people. Everyone claims to be studying each night for at least a few hours.

Just wondering what the scene is at other schools? Have most people started yet?

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[normtheniner]

This whole week has been complete chaos and stress at my school. haha i've never seen so many overly anxious people. Everyone claims to be studying each night for at least a few hours.

Just wondering what the scene is at other schools? Have most people started yet?

Our school just gave us all a copy of First Aid... so that kind of got people a little wound up. No one is really talking about it though. We're so bogged down with classes that there isn't really much time for board studying... Its supposed to slow down next block so we'll see...

 

[piviti]

People here are talking about doing uworld and FA and DIT but I don't know how much they're actually doing

 

[Ironheme]

People here are talking about doing uworld and FA and DIT but I don't know how much they're actually doing

People in my class were talking about having bought a subscription to these back in September and asked me why I hadn't gotten mine yet. They seemed shocked that I wanted to wait a few months...

I'm curious as well how much of it is just talking the talk but not walking the walk.

Personally, currently I'm doing about an hour per day just light reading on subjects. The plan was to do reading, Anki cards, Pathoma and Goljan. Then in March start with the qbank subscriptions. I'd rather spread it out and do a little bit every day rather than the 6-8 week 8 hours+ a day that most people prefer.

 

[OneMoreRound]

This whole week has been complete chaos and stress at my school. haha i've never seen so many overly anxious people. Everyone claims to be studying each night for at least a few hours.

Just wondering what the scene is at other schools? Have most people started yet?

Why not just do your best? Then you don't have to worry because you can't perform any better.

Stop concentrating on what others are doing to figure out how hard you want to work. Some began 6 months ago and others will start 3-4 months from now.... what does that have to do with you?

 

[Work]

Why not just do your best? Then you don't have to worry because you can't perform any better.

Stop concentrating on what others are doing to figure out how hard you want to work. Some began 6 months ago and others will start 3-4 months from now.... what does that have to do with you?

agreed. i have a classmate that had already finished his first pass of uworld before christmas. a few other classmates have begun buckling down and have started on uworld questions this block (and letting everyone else know that they have done so). doesn't bother me one bit. i have my plan, and i'm sticking to it. i don't need to flex.

 

[normtheniner]

agreed. i have a classmate that had already finished his first pass of uworld before christmas. a few other classmates have begun buckling down and have started on uworld questions this block (and letting everyone else know that they have done so). doesn't bother me one bit. i have my plan, and i'm sticking to it. i don't need to flex.

I've almost considered studying for boards in a different town because of this. I'll at least find another building to study in for it. I just need to be away from my classmates when the time comes to start my 6 week review...

 

[Work]

I've almost considered studying for boards in a different town because of this. I'll at least find another building to study in for it. I just need to be away from my classmates when the time comes to start my 6 week review...

i feel ya. like the OP, a few of my friends have been freaking out because of said people. it's kind of funny to see the gunners come out the woodwork this year, and i don't mean "gunner" in the hardworking sense. true gunners. it'll be a thousand times worse in third year, i'm sure.

 

[gravitywave]

This whole week has been complete chaos and stress at my school. haha i've never seen so many overly anxious people. Everyone claims to be studying each night for at least a few hours.

Just wondering what the scene is at other schools? Have most people started yet?

it happened to my class at the start of the final preclinical semester as well. I bet it's pretty common to have the first real round of anxiety push through around this time.

Why not just do your best? Then you don't have to worry because you can't perform any better.

Stop concentrating on what others are doing to figure out how hard you want to work. Some began 6 months ago and others will start 3-4 months from now.... what does that have to do with you?

i have to disagree with this whole 'why not just do your best' business, as though it's the most obvious solution. certainly try very hard, but you can easily end up in a corner with this mentality, always worried about finding more time to 'try your hardest.' i found this was the road to burnout and misery.

find balance. it's the only way not to have boards time totally suck.

I've almost considered studying for boards in a different town because of this. I'll at least find another building to study in for it. I just need to be away from my classmates when the time comes to start my 6 week review...

this is a very, very good idea if you know that somewhere else will be a productive place for you. anxiety is contagious, as you guys have already discovered.

 

[OneMoreRound]

Unfortunately, emotions are contagious. I avoid these neurotic anxiety freaks.

i have to disagree with this whole 'why not just do your best' business, as though it's the most obvious solution. certainly try very hard, but you can easily end up in a corner with this mentality, always worried about finding more time to 'try your hardest.' i found this was the road to burnout and misery.

find balance. it's the only way not to have boards time totally suck.

Hmm, obviously since this is medicine the advice of "do your best" will be misconstrued. Doing your best has nothing to do with working too much, stressing out, or not being balanced. It just means, when you decide to work, you work your hardest.

Of course, this is medicine where everything is warped. Do your best now means work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, don't exercise or have friends, lose sleep... as if "doing your best" is some external result instead of what it really is - giving 100% effort (independent of test scores / multiple choice questions correct).

Maybe "Do your best" means work really hard in the allotted time for work. You don't need to find more time, decide the amount of time you want to work, then work as hard as you can for that time period. For some that's 30 hrs a week, for others it's 60 hrs a week - but it really doesn't matter because it's each man's decision to make.

Medical people do crack me up though, only in medicine can the advice "do your best" have a negative connotation - meaning burn out + worry + misery. Any other field in America, I don't think this would be the case.

 

[gravitywave]

Unfortunately, emotions are contagious. I avoid these neurotic anxiety freaks.



Hmm, obviously since this is medicine the advice of "do your best" will be misconstrued. Doing your best has nothing to do with working too much, stressing out, or not being balanced. It just means, when you decide to work, you work your hardest.

Of course, this is medicine where everything is warped. Do your best now means work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, don't exercise or have friends, lose sleep... as if "doing your best" is some external result instead of what it really is - giving 100% effort (independent of test scores / multiple choice questions correct).

Maybe "Do your best" means work really hard in the allotted time for work. You don't need to find more time, decide the amount of time you want to work, then work as hard as you can for that time period. For some that's 30 hrs a week, for others it's 60 hrs a week - but it really doesn't matter because it's each man's decision to make.

Medical people do crack me up though, only in medicine can the advice "do your best" have a negative connotation - meaning burn out + worry + misery. Any other field in America, I don't think this would be the case.

i don't think i misconstrued you, but maybe others will. different folks hear different things from the same sentence. boards time is one of those times in med school when everything you are talking about is that much worse. perspective can be hard to come by.

medicine deserves props for acknowledging the possibility of burnout and how it can affect the health of both providers and patients. plenty of other fields in America have the same issues and aren't confronting them head-on the way medicine is.

 

[normtheniner]

Unfortunately, emotions are contagious. I avoid these neurotic anxiety freaks.



Hmm, obviously since this is medicine the advice of "do your best" will be misconstrued. Doing your best has nothing to do with working too much, stressing out, or not being balanced. It just means, when you decide to work, you work your hardest.

Of course, this is medicine where everything is warped. Do your best now means work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, don't exercise or have friends, lose sleep... as if "doing your best" is some external result instead of what it really is - giving 100% effort (independent of test scores / multiple choice questions correct).

Maybe "Do your best" means work really hard in the allotted time for work. You don't need to find more time, decide the amount of time you want to work, then work as hard as you can for that time period. For some that's 30 hrs a week, for others it's 60 hrs a week - but it really doesn't matter because it's each man's decision to make.

Medical people do crack me up though, only in medicine can the advice "do your best" have a negative connotation - meaning burn out + worry + misery. Any other field in America, I don't think this would be the case.

I've always thought "just keep your head above water" more than "do my best". I know many people hold the opinion that 3rd year is a lot of work and in some ways worse than M1/M2 year, but its times like these that I just tell myself that "it'll never be like this again". Sure I'll still study a good deal, but it'll never be 9-12 hours every day just trying to stay caught up.

 

[OneMoreRound]

i don't think i misconstrued you, but maybe others will. different folks hear different things from the same sentence. boards time is one of those times in med school when everything you are talking about is that much worse. perspective can be hard to come by.

medicine deserves props for acknowledging the possibility of burnout and how it can affect the health of both providers and patients. plenty of other fields in America have the same issues and aren't confronting them head-on the way medicine is.

Medicine puts the pressure on their own with the schedules, expectations, pimping, etc. Giving props to medicine for this is like giving props to Chris Brown for saying, "I can get crazy at times" to Rihanna.

I've always thought "just keep your head above water" more than "do my best". I know many people hold the opinion that 3rd year is a lot of work and in some ways worse than M1/M2 year, but its times like these that I just tell myself that "it'll never be like this again". Sure I'll still study a good deal, but it'll never be 9-12 hours every day just trying to stay caught up.

Here's how I see it: 99% make it through and if I work hard, I"ll be just fine. I rarely stress and I don't care much about the outcome. It's about the process for me.

Anyway, good luck to everyone.

 

[Alby]

We just took our mandatory diagnostic exam... Followed by a lot of anxiety. But as a whole, our class is highly supportive of each other and varying learning strategies, we just want out class to have a 100% pass rate (love my class!)

 

[fahimaz7]

Do well in class and dedicate 5-6 weeks to prep at the end = best score. First aid + uworld = win.

 

[docnotsopc]

Do well in class and dedicate 5-6 weeks to prep at the end = best score. First aid + uworld = win.

This is something our school tries to really push on us and i've never understood it. Im not sure about other schools, but my schools curriculum is incredibly inefficient with board related stuff. We get tested on some board relevant stuff but the majority is oscure treatment/management algorithms. (ie if patient has HR over this, use this branch of the algorithm tree...then check their % O2 sat and choose another branch of the algorithm etc etc)...

soo I dont understand how memorizing these flow charts help with boards if they arent on the Step1

 

[OneMoreRound]

This is something our school tries to really push on us and i've never understood it. Im not sure about other schools, but my schools curriculum is incredibly inefficient with board related stuff. We get tested on some board relevant stuff but the majority is oscure treatment/management algorithms. (ie if patient has HR over this, use this branch of the algorithm tree...then check their % O2 sat and choose another branch of the algorithm etc etc)...

soo I dont understand how memorizing these flow charts help with boards if they arent on the Step1

It's simple. Some schools curriculums are better for boards than others. Then other schools have mandatory 8-5pm lectures, teach lots of research or 3rd year material, or have 5 small groups / problem based learning groups.

I didn't realize how much time we wasted M1/M2 until I started reviewing some board material + did questions.

Unless you go to the same school, it's hard to have this discussion.

 

[e30ftw]

ya'll are crazy. it's january.......

the more you freak out now the less beneficial stress response you'll be able to mount in april/may when studying is key.

chill.. take days off.. don't go to class.. it's ms2, you can relax...

then in april/may start your 100 uworld q's a day and goljan/first aid push through to step 1

 

[235009]

second semester of second year is around the time you should start studying for step 1.
suggestions:
-review topics you struggled with during first and second year.
-get the kaplan qbank (or some other non-UWorld qbank) with the goal of finishing it by the time your dedicated study period starts.
-do some passive studying by watching kaplan videos
-definitely go through every chapter in first aid at least once by the time your dedicated study period starts

i'm not suggesting you freak out but you should definitely start studying. step 1 is a marathon not a sprint.

 

[GalenAgas]

When is everyone taking Step1?

We have it between march and april

 

[NickNaylor]

When is everyone taking Step1?

We have it between march and april

May 3rd.

 

[NickNaylor]

I didn't realize how much time we wasted M1/M2 until I started reviewing some board material + did questions.

Unless you go to the same school, it's hard to have this discussion.

Yup, same here. A not insignificant portion of the M1 curriculum and even part of M2 could probably be removed without any impact on boards performance. Kinda frustrating looking back that I spent time learning that stuff. I'm sure it has its place, but I'm not really too interested in unimportant stuff when the information volume is already as high as it is.

 

[normtheniner]

second semester of second year is around the time you should start studying for step 1.
suggestions:
-review topics you struggled with during first and second year.
-get the kaplan qbank (or some other non-UWorld qbank) with the goal of finishing it by the time your dedicated study period starts.
-do some passive studying by watching kaplan videos
-definitely go through every chapter in first aid at least once by the time your dedicated study period starts

i'm not suggesting you freak out but you should definitely start studying. step 1 is a marathon not a sprint.

Its hard to do this at some schools. I'm so bogged down with school work that I have little time. At this point the most I can do is the 15 question sets that give us 3 days a week from DIT. My test date is June 10th and I have exactly five weeks dedicated time to study for boards.

Luckily our last pharm test is cumulative for everything we learned from August to May and our path test is cumulative for everything since January. I guess thats technically geared toward the boards even though I'd rather just have more time to read first aid and do Uworld questions.

 

[loveoforganic2]

Yup, same here. A not insignificant portion of the M1 curriculum and even part of M2 could probably be removed without any impact on boards performance. Kinda frustrating looking back that I spent time learning that stuff. I'm sure it has its place, but I'm not really too interested in unimportant stuff when the information volume is already as high as it is.

I have some interest in later trying to reform medical education to make it more efficient, but I don't think tailoring it to the boards is the way to go or decide if something is important. I mean, you could learn boards relevant anatomy in a 2-3 weeks without spending any time in cadaver lab, but I'm sure that would cut into useful knowledge in some shape or form. I don't think it's too productive thinking about it as a med student though bc we lack the real world clinical perspective

 

[OneMoreRound]

.

 

[Cinclus]

I've seen a bunch of my classmates walking around with a fresh copy of FA 2013. I just picked one up, too, since upperclassmen have recommended that we start going through it at this point. My class is about 2 years out from when most of us will take step 1, though (we take it later than almost every other school), so nobody really seems to be freaking out yet.

 

[docnotsopc]

When is everyone taking Step1?

We have it between march and april

Most people in my class are taking it in June as we start rotations end of June, including myself haha

 

[FIREitUP]

I've seen a bunch of my classmates walking around with a fresh copy of FA 2013. I just picked one up, too, since upperclassmen have recommended that we start going through it at this point. My class is about 2 years out from when most of us will take step 1, though (we take it later than almost every other school), so nobody really seems to be freaking out yet.

huh? first aid as a first year is essentially useless, why are you even wasting your time carrying that around?

 

[NickNaylor]

I've seen a bunch of my classmates walking around with a fresh copy of FA 2013. I just picked one up, too, since upperclassmen have recommended that we start going through it at this point. My class is about 2 years out from when most of us will take step 1, though (we take it later than almost every other school), so nobody really seems to be freaking out yet.

With Baylor's curriculum I'm assuming you guys take step 1 after your "third year." If that's the case, then I don't think you have anything to worry about. You will obviously have to do studying regardless, but I'd bet your familiarity with the clinical side of things would be a huge asset.

 

[gravitywave]

huh? first aid as a first year is essentially useless, why are you even wasting your time carrying that around?

first year isn't the same everywhere. here the MS1s start micro, immuno, path, and pharm in January. it's not too early for FA with that kind of schedule.

 

[OneMoreRound]

first year isn't the same everywhere. here the MS1s start micro, immuno, path, and pharm in January. it's not too early for FA with that kind of schedule.

Let alone a systems curriculum... which FA could be incredibly helpful with.

 

[FIREitUP]

first year isn't the same everywhere. here the MS1s start micro, immuno, path, and pharm in January. it's not too early for FA with that kind of schedule.

true, true.

 

[The Beyonder]

Not trying to threadjack, but is there anything your schools are doing to help prepare you for the step 1 that you find particularly helpful. Anything that is advertised, but not very helpful? Anything people deciding which school to chose should know?

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

Not trying to threadjack, but is there anything your schools are doing to help prepare you for the step 1 that you find particularly helpful. Anything that is advertised, but not very helpful? Anything people who are deciding which school to go to should keep in mind?

You'll probably get more specific information regarding this if you ask in the school threads for whatever schools you're considering.

 

[FIREitUP]

Not trying to threadjack, but is there anything your schools are doing to help prepare you for the step 1 that you find particularly helpful. Anything that is advertised, but not very helpful? Anything people deciding which school to chose should know?

yeah leaving you alone by not forcing you to go to required sessions is the most helpful thing a school can do.

 

[235009]

Not trying to threadjack, but is there anything your schools are doing to help prepare you for the step 1 that you find particularly helpful. Anything that is advertised, but not very helpful? Anything people deciding which school to chose should know?

if you want to ask about something during interviews ask about how much dedicated study time you get. i would say around 6 weeks is optimal.

 

[OneMoreRound]

.

 

[Hotei]

Nope, not yet. Most people are just gonna take 4-6 weeks to study for it.

 

[JP2740]

Not gonna start studying until the 6 week dedicated time or spring break

 

[normtheniner]

Not gonna start studying until the 6 week dedicated time or spring break

Looking that way for me too. Several people in the class above me didn't really start until the dedicated time and still managed to rock scores in the 250's... I think it has a lot to do with how hard they worked throughout M2 year.

 

[fahimaz7]

With Baylor's curriculum I'm assuming you guys take step 1 after your "third year." If that's the case, then I don't think you have anything to worry about. You will obviously have to do studying regardless, but I'd bet your familiarity with the clinical side of things would be a huge asset.

On the trail a 4th year said they average a 250 at Baylor. Would make since since they have 12 months of clinical rotations before that test.

 

[fahimaz7]

Not trying to threadjack, but is there anything your schools are doing to help prepare you for the step 1 that you find particularly helpful. Anything that is advertised, but not very helpful? Anything people deciding which school to chose should know?

DIT isnt helpful if you want a stellar score.

 

[DreamingTheLive]

Do well in class and dedicate 5-6 weeks to prep at the end = best score. First aid + uworld = win.

Exactly.

Don't stress about what everyone else is doing. Learn the material in class as well as possible so it'll be cake to refresh it later. Then take 4-5 weeks and purely dedicate them to FA + World. If you don't think this is enough, fine, read like 10 pages of FA/day starting now. But don't neglect new material for FA.

 

[The Beyonder]

dit isnt helpful if you want a stellar score.

dit?

 

[FIREitUP]

dit?

doctors in training. basically you pay 800 bucks for some guy to read first aid to you

 

[The Beyonder]

doctors in training. basically you pay 800 bucks for some guy to read first aid to you

k. thanks.

 

[docnotsopc]

doctors in training. basically you pay 800 bucks for some guy to read first aid to you

Or torrent it for free

 

[DreamingTheLive]

Didn't use DIT for Step 1 or 2. They managed to scare most of my class into laying down a little less than a grand into purchasing it for Step 1. The reviews were underwhelming at best.

FA + uWorld = Winning. Know them both inside and out. Time spent on other resources is time that could have been spent further cementing these two resources, i.e. time wasted. If you haven't mastered FA and World, then you'd be wasting time with other books, qbanks, etc....its really that simple.

 

[OneMoreRound]

Didn't use DIT for Step 1 or 2. They managed to scare most of my class into laying down a little less than a grand into purchasing it for Step 1. The reviews were underwhelming at best.

FA + uWorld = Winning. Know them both inside and out. Time spent on other resources is time that could have been spent further cementing these two resources, i.e. time wasted. If you haven't mastered FA and World, then you'd be wasting time with other books, qbanks, etc....its really that simple.

I think people want a magic formula.

If you read enough advice, everyone says basically what you've said.

I don't know why people keep searching for something new. (I.e. paying $1000 for DIT).

 

[DreamingTheLive]

I think people want a magic formula.

If you read enough advice, everyone says basically what you've said.

I don't know why people keep searching for something new. (I.e. paying $1000 for DIT).

Agree. And this IS the magic formula. But hey, I'm just one of thousands of people who've succeeded using this tried and true formula. What do we know?