How did YOU study for boards throughout the school year

[dr.sartorius]

Judging by my MCAT, I am not the strongest standardized test taker (is there a correlation between MCAT & USMLE?). Anyhow, I want to make sure I don't F up, and get a decent score (230's, or higher if i'm lucky). My school allows us 1 month for board studying, but we can use our 1 month 3rd vacation whenever we want, so I could technically have 2 months (many students in the school don't advise this as its too long for studying?). I'm wondering how i can make time throughout the school year to lightly board study and around what time should I start getting more and more focused on boards ( we take them early june) I should also mention my schools takes up a lot of our free time with random classes What strategies and study materials worked for you? The start of 2nd year is only a few weeks away and I want to go in with a plan Thanks in advance!

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[mubaby]

Listen to goljan in the car on the way to and from school.

If your school is normal first year, abnormal second year, then you probably haven't looked at pathoma yet - get it. I still use the book as a reference on the wards.

Our school was organized by system, and we generally had tests on Fridays. So say we are starting GI - I would glance through BRS phys GI the weekend after the test. I didn't do this often, but it was a good refresher for systems I wasn't good at first year.

Starting in January, read through FA and ask yourself "does this statement make sense?" If it doesn't, look up the answer and write it down. Your goal isn't to remember what you read - you won't. Read it to see if you can explain what's in it and look up the answer if you can't (ie, can you explain the pathophysiology behind the clinical and pathological features?).

I did get USMLE Rx for the year and UWorld starting in January. Not really sure if I ended up using much of either before dedicated step studying time.

I also got sketchymicro about the middle of 2nd semester and started watching them in the mornings. Maybe you'll be lucky and by then, they'll have videos for all of micro. But they're great if you're a visual learner. I think you can view a few of them for free to see if you like it.

Trust your school and learn the material well the first time they teach it to you - that's probably the best piece of advice I can give you. I also struggled with the MCAT (took it 3 times) but ended up doing fairly well on step (7 weeks of studying...probably could've done it in 6, and 1 of those weeks we still technically had class). I think a lot of it was the hard work I put in throughout the year. I had a good foundation of knowledge going into step. You want to minimize the amount of relearning you have to do during step studying.

Also, since you have a short time for studying, I would think about how you want to study for pharm. I ended up using Anki for that, but maybe it would be wise to start reviewing pharm before the end of the year. Step pharm are gimme question if you know the basic MOA, indications, and SE.

 

[dr.sartorius]

Listen to goljan in the car on the way to and from school.

If your school is normal first year, abnormal second year, then you probably haven't looked at pathoma yet - get it. I still use the book as a reference on the wards.

Our school was organized by system, and we generally had tests on Fridays. So say we are starting GI - I would glance through BRS phys GI the weekend after the test. I didn't do this often, but it was a good refresher for systems I wasn't good at first year.

Starting in January, read through FA and ask yourself "does this statement make sense?" If it doesn't, look up the answer and write it down. Your goal isn't to remember what you read - you won't. Read it to see if you can explain what's in it and look up the answer if you can't (ie, can you explain the pathophysiology behind the clinical and pathological features?).

I did get USMLE Rx for the year and UWorld starting in January. Not really sure if I ended up using much of either before dedicated step studying time.

I also got sketchymicro about the middle of 2nd semester and started watching them in the mornings. Maybe you'll be lucky and by then, they'll have videos for all of micro. But they're great if you're a visual learner. I think you can view a few of them for free to see if you like it.

Trust your school and learn the material well the first time they teach it to you - that's probably the best piece of advice I can give you. I also struggled with the MCAT (took it 3 times) but ended up doing fairly well on step (7 weeks of studying...probably could've done it in 6, and 1 of those weeks we still technically had class). I think a lot of it was the hard work I put in throughout the year. I had a good foundation of knowledge going into step. You want to minimize the amount of relearning you have to do during step studying.

Also, since you have a short time for studying, I would think about how you want to study for pharm. I ended up using Anki for that, but maybe it would be wise to start reviewing pharm before the end of the year. Step pharm are gimme question if you know the basic MOA, indications, and SE.

Thanks for the reply, this is good stuff! I will definitely try and maximize what I'm learning during each class.

If anyone has any other advice I would truly appreciate it!

 

[Sea Otter]

Bump

 

[Arkangeloid]

Is it possible to load this Goljan ish onto an mp3? What about Pathoma?

Furthermore, is it possible to do so if you row beneath the black flag?

 

[DermViser]

Is it possible to load this Goljan ish onto an mp3? What about Pathoma?

Furthermore, is it possible to do so if you row beneath the black flag?

Goljan are already MP3s. Pathoma is ridiculously cheap and is worth the buy.

 

[Dave89]

Do Pathoma throughout the year with each block (a couple of times during the block), with highlighting. You don't want to have to "read" Pathoma during dedicated period; far easier to jump from highlight to highlight.

Buy UWorld right away, and do 20+ questions a day. Take notes on all the details in the explanations, and annotate them into FA (which you should buy now if you don't already have the 2014 edition). I would also recommend doing Rx (I did not).

Read BRS Physiology before each organ system. Physio is a huge component of NBMEs and Step 1.

I suggest that you also read RR Path (Goljan).

I only started listening to Goljan audio ~5 weeks before Step 1, on my way to/from and at the gym. Was pretty helpful - try to use that as well.

 

[DrEnderW]

Buy UWorld right away, and do 20+ questions a day. Take notes on all the details in the explanations, and annotate them into FA (which you should buy now if you don't already have the 2014 edition). I would also recommend doing Rx (I did not).

I'm on the fence about whether or not do get after UWorld from the beginning of M2 or waiting until the spring. My plan was to start Rx now and continue Firecracker questions daily and I am wondering if it is better to save UWorld more towards the spring?

Can yourself or anyone else weigh in on the pros/cons of doing UWorld early? I've heard some conflicting opinions... some say it's the best and to use it early and others say save it to closer to review period to keep it as a new source/diagnostic/highest yield.

 

[DermViser]

I'm on the fence about whether or not do get after UWorld from the beginning of M2 or waiting until the spring. My plan was to start Rx now and continue Firecracker questions daily and I am wondering if it is better to save UWorld more towards the spring?

Can yourself or anyone else weigh in on the pros/cons of doing UWorld early? I've heard some conflicting opinions... some say it's the best and to use it early and others say save it to closer to review period to keep it as a new source/diagnostic/highest yield.

I'd buy it at the beginning of M2, so you have a way to test yourself throughout and don't freak out. Do the NBMEs much later.

 

[Dave89]

I'm on the fence about whether or not do get after UWorld from the beginning of M2 or waiting until the spring. My plan was to start Rx now and continue Firecracker questions daily and I am wondering if it is better to save UWorld more towards the spring?

Can yourself or anyone else weigh in on the pros/cons of doing UWorld early? I've heard some conflicting opinions... some say it's the best and to use it early and others say save it to closer to review period to keep it as a new source/diagnostic/highest yield.

If you're doing Firecracker, it's kind of a different ballgame. Someone posted the other day that (s)he did Firecracker (and not FA) and absolutely destroyed the test.

I see no reason whatsoever to wait until the spring to buy UWorld. The explanations are chock-full of useful information - they're practically mini-lectures. I learned a lot from it, and would not recommend delaying the purchase.

 

[Smokemont]

First aid + Pathoma + Goljan + Kaplan qbank along with course packs.

Same but with UWorld qbank for dedicated period.

Consistency is key.

 

[DermViser]

First aid + Pathoma + Goljan + Kaplan qbank along with course packs.

 

[Ismet]

I would hold off on doing UWorld until you're closer to your dedicated period. Maybe start it about a month before the dedicated month. I do agree with @DermViser that you should do practice questions throughout M2 to start getting used to it, but IMO you should start with either Kaplan or USMLERx. They're all boards style, but personally I wouldn't waste UWorld questions when you're just starting to learn the material during the school year.

 

[DermViser]

I would hold off on doing UWorld until you're closer to your dedicated period. Maybe start it about a month before the dedicated month. I do agree with @DermViser that you should do practice questions throughout M2 to start getting used to it, but IMO you should start with either Kaplan or USMLERx. They're all boards style, but personally I wouldn't waste UWorld questions when you're just starting to learn the material during the school year.

I thought Kaplan Qbank questions were too rote memorization like. Funny enough, a lot of the questions you could only answer by buying their programs that had the Lecture Notes - although there are some subjects that are excellent and are all you need.

 

[Ismet]

I thought Kaplan Qbank questions were too rote memorization like. Funny enough, a lot of the questions you could only answer by buying their programs that had the Lecture Notes - although there are some subjects that are excellent and are all you need.

Honestly never used Kaplan. Did their MCAT course and never wanted anything to do with them again, but I know people used it and liked it. I highly recommend USMLERx during MS2 because it's more rote memorization than UWorld and the questions are generally easier, but I think that's fine to start getting in the swing of things while you're learning the material. The questions also show you what page of First Aid the info can be found, so that was helpful for studying.

 

[DermViser]

Honestly never used Kaplan. Did their MCAT course and never wanted anything to do with them again, but I know people used it and liked it. I highly recommend USMLERx during MS2 because it's more rote memorization than UWorld and the questions are generally easier, but I think that's fine to start getting in the swing of things while you're learning the material. The questions also show you what page of First Aid the info can be found, so that was helpful for studying.

Yeah, it's probably good to use the USMLERx questions to train your brain to hold onto little details. Don't know how reflective they are of actual USMLE Step 1 questions that usually go beyond rote memorization.

 

[Dave89]

The few Rx questions that I did were not pure memorization. That said, doing UWorld throughout the year will do a better job of teaching you how to think, IMO.

Plus, there's just so much info in UW that I think you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you put yourself in the position of needing to speed-read through all 2000 qs for 2 months. I mean, if you go to lectures and learn everything with no shortcuts, that's one thing. But for people using just board-prep materials throughout second year (as I did), UWorld is crucial.

 

[dermaway]

To each his own, I used UWorld during the year, thought it was super important and helpful to do so, and used NBMEs to judge my progress during dedicated time.

So much information in UWorld, getting a good grasp of as much as possible before dedicated study time was essential for me.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

Yeah, it's probably good to use the USMLERx questions to train your brain to hold onto little details. Don't know how reflective they are of actual USMLE Step 1 questions that usually go beyond rote memorization.

Is there anything you'd recommend to MS-1 as far as using these resources to get As in their classes?

 

[dermaway]

Is there anything you'd recommend to MS-1 as far as using these resources to get As in their classes?

If all you want is to do well in your classes the best is to just use the materials provided by your school.

 

[DermViser]

Is there anything you'd recommend to MS-1 as far as using these resources to get As in their classes?

Well if your goal is to get an A in your classes, then you're probably better off using the materials (textbooks, lecture notes, etc.) that your school wants you to use.

 

[mubaby]

I'm on the fence about whether or not do get after UWorld from the beginning of M2 or waiting until the spring. My plan was to start Rx now and continue Firecracker questions daily and I am wondering if it is better to save UWorld more towards the spring?

Can yourself or anyone else weigh in on the pros/cons of doing UWorld early? I've heard some conflicting opinions... some say it's the best and to use it early and others say save it to closer to review period to keep it as a new source/diagnostic/highest yield.

The problem I see with doing Uworld throughout the year - step studying is really a time when you synthesize what you learn and UWorld helps you do that. However, if you haven't even been taught all of the material, how would you synthesize it? I think your time is better spent learning the material that they're teaching you so that you are able to synthesize later.

If anything, get Rx for the year and Uworld for the second half.

 

[DrEnderW]

The problem I see with doing Uworld throughout the year - step studying is really a time when you synthesize what you learn and UWorld helps you do that. However, if you haven't even been taught all of the material, how would you synthesize it? I think your time is better spent learning the material that they're teaching you so that you are able to synthesize later.

If anything, get Rx for the year and Uworld for the second half.

That was my original plan.

Thanks for the varying insights everyone.

 

[GadRads]

The few Rx questions that I did were not pure memorization. That said, doing UWorld throughout the year will do a better job of teaching you how to think, IMO.

Plus, there's just so much info in UW that I think you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you put yourself in the position of needing to speed-read through all 2000 qs for 2 months. I mean, if you go to lectures and learn everything with no shortcuts, that's one thing. But for people using just board-prep materials throughout second year (as I did), UWorld is crucial.

I completed U-World in 7 weeks and read nearly everything. I discovered that, for some questions, the answers were too wordy. In most cases, the educational objective was sufficient to get the point.

 

[dermaway]

I completed U-World in 7 weeks and read nearly everything. I discovered that, for some questions, the answers were too wordy. In most cases, the educational objective was sufficient to get the point.

Yeah but if you had time, its helpful to see why the wrong answers were wrong.

You want to get to a point where you can do a practice question and not only know why the right answer is right but also be able to point out exactly what makes every other answer wrong.

I feel like doing UWorld all throughout the year, annotating into first aid as I went along, really helped me get to this point.

But really, you do you. You know how you study at this point and what is necessary, and that is what will work best for you. I know this answer doesn't help, but it is honestly true.

With my method, I had a great step 1 score and was junior aoa. But literally every single other person who was junior aoa at my school, all with step 1 scores of greater than 250 (and ~75% with scores greater than 260) had a different study method. Thats the most frustrating part. There is no right answer. There aren't even 5-10 right answers. It almost feels like there are infinite ways you can do well, all depending on what works best for you.

 

[FutureOncologist]

The navy put me on active duty for 45 days. The only responsibility was to study and go to class. I just used that money to pay for rent and groceries for the next few months.

 

[pathologylover]

Right now, I'm using Pathoma and FA. Have a ton of postits on my walls.

 

[Psai]

I've been noticing that what I previously thought were bs lectures tend to be the most useful ones in real life. For example we had an asthma lecture where the professor taught about how you classify as mild moderate and severe. I didn't think it was very important and I pump and dumped the info after the test. Turns out a ton of the patients I see have asthma and the classification makes a difference in the treatment. Patients don't seem to be impressed with my ability to recite the pathophysiology of asthma. Instead, for some reason they appear to care more about quality of life and their ability to breathe

 

[operaman]

I'm a big advocate of focusing mostly on your classes for M1/M2 as the best possible long-term boards prep plan. That said, I used a number of resources along with my classes, mostly to help me understand things better for class exams, but also with an eye toward long-term retention and understanding. My big ones:

1) Firecracker -- started this day 1 of M1 (well, it was called "Gunnertraining" at the time until they realized that was a stupid name) and just banked along with classes. In the beginning, this was helpful in figuring out what material was most likely to be tested on class exams. Never used FA because I found this so much better for my way of studying even though it basically covers the same material. The hardest part is keeping up with reviews while doing new cards; this can easily add to a few hours of work each day. By the second half of M2 I was mainly using it for class learning and not keeping up with reviews at all. During dedicated study I used it frequently by doing all the questions for a given subject area I felt weaker in. I would do all the cards for that area, then redo all the 1s and mark the ones I got right as 2s. Then I'd redo all the 2s until they were all 3s. Nice way to review everything and then triage what you need to review most.

2) World -- Started doing this early in M2 but stopped because I wasn't finding it that helpful. The problem with World is that many of the questions are beatable simply with good strategy and general concepts -- so is Step 1 -- and I was doing really well on blocks even though I didn't know the actual material that well. That said, I used World exclusively closer to the exam and basically did nothing but blocks of 46 random timed. Re did incorrects but never actually finished the bank.

3) Kaplan -- I ended up using this for study during the year. Questions are more minutiae, poorly written, and expect you to get the answer based on one tiny piece of information. In other words, they were a lot like class exams. My blocks scores here were 20-30% lower than blocks of World questions had been, so I stuck with this during the year. Finished about 75% of the bank by dedicated study time when I dropped it for UWorld.

4) Pathoma -- The best. Used all through M2 and again during dedicated study. You really can't watch these too many times. Great for classes and wonderful for boards.

Those were the main ones. Again, class study was priority #1 and these were used as supplements for that.

 

[pathologyDO]

How do you guys recommend studying FA and then doing a qbank? Like should I go over an entire system, for instance musculoskeletal, then after completing the section in FA do qbank questions? How do you setup FA studying vs Qbank studying?

 

[Knocked Up]

Summer before M1: Ackland Anatomy + Kaplan Biochem + no summer
During M1: Study ass off + Firecracker + USMLERX + start research + no life + no girlfriend
Summer of M2: research + Pathoma + USMLERX + 1x through FA relevant material + no summer + no gf
During M2: Study ass off + research + Pathoma + Firecracker + USMLERX + Kaplan test bank + no life + no gf
7 week study period: DIT 2x + 2x through FA + Gojan + finish Kaplan + UWorld 2x + all NMBE exams

Warning; you must be willing to have no life, no gf, and no fun. You will come out happy with the results otherwise. Buy a subscription to a high quality adult entertainment website and use google maps to prevent like you traveled the world during the little spare time you will have.

 

[DermViser]

I've been noticing that what I previously thought were bs lectures tend to be the most useful ones in real life. For example we had an asthma lecture where the professor taught about how you classify as mild moderate and severe. I didn't think it was very important and I pump and dumped the info after the test. Turns out a ton of the patients I see have asthma and the classification makes a difference in the treatment. Patients don't seem to be impressed with my ability to recite the pathophysiology of asthma. Instead, for some reason they appear to care more about quality of life and their ability to breathe

And you'll have med students who can memorizing the pathophysiology like Rainman but can't do what you just did. Go figure, that a multiple choice exam doesn't actually test what you need to know to be a good doctor.

 

[dr.sartorius]

Thank you for your input guys! Looks like i'm going to be spending a lot of money this year on study materials

 

[PL198]

What are everyone's thoughts on using separate subject books to go over each topic first? Additionally, did you annotate thing into FA you thought were important? My initial plan was to go over the subject books and make very light notes on important things that might be confusing. I would then turn first aid into a binder and add these pages of notes where applicable into first aid. In terms of directly annotating into FA, I planned on only doing so for Uworld explanations.

I understand a lot of this is personal preference but I'm curious to hear how others utilized subject books(or didn't at all). My basic plan is subject books + pathoma + FA + UWorld. I'd like to only go over the subject books once, but basically do as many passes as possible over FA and Uworld for sure and maybe pathoma.

 

[PL198]

@DermViser @Psai don't let me down now.

 

[DermViser]

What are everyone's thoughts on using separate subject books to go over each topic first? Additionally, did you annotate thing into FA you thought were important? My initial plan was to go over the subject books and make very light notes on important things that might be confusing. I would then turn first aid into a binder and add these pages of notes where applicable into first aid. In terms of directly annotating into FA, I planned on only doing so for Uworld explanations.

I understand a lot of this is personal preference but I'm curious to hear how others utilized subject books(or didn't at all). My basic plan is subject books + pathoma + FA + UWorld. I'd like to only go over the subject books once, but basically do as many passes as possible over FA and Uworld for sure and maybe pathoma.

You'll need separate subject books for each subject - regardless of whether you use a company's: Kaplan, Becker's, or the usual ones that are recommended. They're meant to be used along with classes. Pathoma is a relatively new resource. I used Goljan Rapid Review with his audios. Key is to do tons of questions and get in the zone.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

As a MS1, should also I start using USMLE-RX or should I stick to FA? The text books have so much info and I am lost after reading them... Should I read them a couple of times and then do practice questions? Any suggestions? @DermViser

 

[PL198]

You'll need separate subject books for each subject - regardless of whether you use a company's: Kaplan, Becker's, or the usual ones that are recommended. They're meant to be used along with classes. Pathoma is a relatively new resource. I used Goljan Rapid Review with his audios. Key is to do tons of questions and get in the zone.

How did you utilize those books though? Like just read through them, takes notes from them or what?

 

[DermViser]

How did you utilize those books though? Like just read through them, takes notes from them or what?

Correlated the review book with what was covered in class. So if you're studying Fungi in Micro - then you read the specific blurb in the review book on it. Some people used CMMRS, some used Lange's Med Micro/Immuno Review. It cements the information in your brain since you're seeing it in a different way.

 

[apr27]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but did anyone use UWorld throughout the year and have success with it? Thanks!

 

[DancingDoggie]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but did anyone use UWorld throughout the year and have success with it? Thanks!

I wouldn't do it. You want all the questions to be fresh when you actually start studying at the end of the school year. The worst thing that can happen is for you to look at a question, and automatically recognize the answer without thinking because you already saw the question a few months ago.

 

[synecdoche]

Sorry to bump this old thread, but did anyone use UWorld throughout the year and have success with it? Thanks!

I used it by subject it before each shelf but those were all toward the end of the school year except one. So I didn't feel like I was "wasting" questions too early.

edit - forgot a word