How am I going to remember all this for boards?!

[Jinxapotato]

Hey all,

I'm a first year who is about to become a 2nd year! I am happy that we're almost 50% done with didactic, but what worries me is that how am I supposed to retain all this huge amount of info (and I am not even counting 2nd year yet!) for board?! I am currently doing well, but our schedule is overloaded with exams (~2/week, every week) that I feel I am constantly purging-craming-purging-craming. Today I found out that to my surprise, I totally blank out when people talk about stuff that we learned in first quarter, in a class that I did really well in....

So my question to all the upperclassmen and residents: how do you recoup all this information for board? I am planning to do a condensed review (using board material, not our slides) during the Summer, on the subjects that we learned already. Would this be helpful in preparing for 2nd year/board?

Thank you so much for your input!

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[Postictal Raiden]

Don't kill your summer. Get a USMLE Rx flash facts (10k flash cards straight out of First Aid) and do 100/day until you start hardcore studying for the boards. This shouldn't take more than an hour of your day. Perhaps you could supplement that with 1-2 hrs a week of pathoma for the topics you covered. That's a little investment of time and energy but the payback will be abundant, I promise.

I wish I had done that instead of listening to those who say "don't worry about it until spring of second year".

 

[Goro]

Repetition and practice questions.

Hey all,

I'm a first year who is about to become a 2nd year! I am happy that we're almost 50% done with didactic, but what worries me is that how am I supposed to retain all this huge amount of info (and I am not even counting 2nd year yet!) for board?! I am currently doing well, but our schedule is overloaded with exams (~2/week, every week) that I feel I am constantly purging-craming-purging-craming. Today I found out that to my surprise, I totally blank out when people talk about stuff that we learned in first quarter, in a class that I did really well in....

So my question to all the upperclassmen and residents: how do you recoup all this information for board? I am planning to do a condensed review (using board material, not our slides) during the Summer, on the subjects that we learned already. Would this be helpful in preparing for 2nd year/board?

Thank you so much for your input!

 

[Rekt]

Don't kill your summer. Get a USMLE Rx flash facts (10k flash cards straight out of First Aid) and do 100/day until you start hardcore studying for the boards. This shouldn't take more than an hour of your day. Perhaps you could supplement that with 1-2 hrs a week of pathoma for the topics you covered. That's a little investment of time and energy but the payback will be abundant, I promise.

I wish I had done that instead of listening to those who say "don't worry about it until spring of second year".

Does Flashfacts have spaced repetition? If not, do you think Bro's would suffice? I planned on doing that Summer of MS1.

 

[SLC]

Practice questions. I think you'll be surprised how well things come back to you as you start studying it all simultaneously.

If you're doing well, you'll most likely do OK on the boards. You can't slack, but with appropriate effort you'll get a good score.

 

[uworldrelay]

If you can go through uworld enough to be getting 90-100% you will be good. Start uworld doing like 10-20q per day and take notes. If u can thoughtfully finish uworld 3+ times you will be good. In order to do this you must start early. Other qbanks will mislead you, uworld should be your foundation. I would also finish ch1-6 or 7 pathoma slow and thoughtfully taking notes.

 

[Jinxapotato]

If you can go through uworld enough to be getting 90-100% you will be good. Start uworld doing like 10-20q per day and take notes. If u can thoughtfully finish uworld 3+ times you will be good. In order to do this you must start early. Other qbanks will mislead you, uworld should be your foundation. I would also finish ch1-6 or 7 pathoma slow and thoughtfully taking notes.

I was told to save U-World for the "last stretch" before the board. Do you suggest starting to bite on the U-World early?

 

[uworldrelay]

Yes, why would you "save" your greatest resource? Doesn't make sense

 

[Jinxapotato]

Practice questions. I think you'll be surprised how well things come back to you as you start studying it all simultaneously.

If you're doing well, you'll most likely do OK on the boards. You can't slack, but with appropriate effort you'll get a good score.

What practice question set would you recommend? Except U-World as we all know that's probably the best available.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I was told to save U-World for the "last stretch" before the board. Do you suggest starting to bite on the U-World early?

Try looking at the USMLE step I thread and see the responses. Some of the high scorers have used U-world during the start of 2nd year and some use during the few months before the step. It may give a better idea of when to start.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

Does Flashfacts have spaced repetition? If not, do you think Bro's would suffice? I planned on doing that Summer of MS1.

I don't think it does. Flashfacts isn't as elaborate and advanced as FC. However, it's a great resource to help you actively memorize First Aid.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

If you can go through uworld enough to be getting 90-100% you will be good. Start uworld doing like 10-20q per day and take notes. If u can thoughtfully finish uworld 3+ times you will be good. In order to do this you must start early. Other qbanks will mislead you, uworld should be your foundation. I would also finish ch1-6 or 7 pathoma slow and thoughtfully taking notes.

Scoring 90-100% on UWorld in the first pass would probably put you in the 99th percentile. Even those who scored 260+ on this forum weren't performing in that range.

With that said, I do agree with you that one must go through UW multiple times. The Qbank is very rich in information, and doing one pass will only scratch the surface.