M2 Grades

[seminoma]

So far this year my grades have been falling about 0.2-0.3SD lower in my class than they were last year. I'm still in the same quartile and not in any danger of failing, but I'm a little worried that this might be an indication of not learning things as well as I did last year (serious thread.. Not talking about being +2SD MS1 and now only +1.8SD). And obviously that's a problem since MS2 is way more important for boards than MS1. I've been spending more time on qbanks and FA this year (at the expense of reviewing lecture notes more than one time), which might be the explanation.

I realize MS2 is harder than MS1, but if that were the true issue then I would expect my position in the class to stay relatively the same (since everyone would be doing a little worse). Looking for opinion, advice, and experience of you MS3 and older people and also other MS2s... Probably mostly looking for reassurance that qbank performance is a better indicator than school exam performance of Step 1 knowledge.

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[DermViser]

Is your school H/P/F or some other iteration of that? Your fall in your grades could very well be bc your studying is less class/professor centric than in 1st year, with you using FA, a Qbank (I'm assuming USMLERx for right now), and review books? I don't recommend only using FA and Qbank only personally, but that's just me. MS-2 is harder in terms of content, but it's also more interesting for medical students (in theory) and allows you to integrate information across basic science disciplines. Obviously the best indicator of your Step 1 performance are Qbank scores (under actual testing conditions), although preclinical grades can be correlated with Step 1 scores - but I think this varies a lot by school.

 

[seminoma]

Is your school H/P/F or some other iteration of that? Your fall in your grades could very well be bc your studying is less class/professor centric than in 1st year, with you using FA, a Qbank (I'm assuming USMLERx for right now), and review books? I don't recommend only using FA and Qbank only personally, but that's just me. MS-2 is harder in terms of content, but it's also more interesting for medical students (in theory) and allows you to integrate information across basic science disciplines. Obviously the best indicator of your Step 1 performance are Qbank scores (under actual testing conditions), although preclinical grades can be correlated with Step 1 scores - but I think this varies a lot by school.

P/F with grades, quartiles, and class rank reported on MSPE. I'm using Rx and Kaplan qbank. FA is just a supplement, but I make sure I learn everything in it even if it isn't covered in class (didn't really do that last year).

 

[DermViser]

P/F with grades, quartiles, and class rank reported on MSPE. I'm using Rx and Kaplan qbank. FA is just a supplement, but I make sure I learn everything in it even if it isn't covered in class (didn't really do that last year).

So you're ranked in the first 2 years in quartiles based on test averages?

 

[ChEMD]

It's not at all surprising that you're not performing as well this year since you're not spending as much time studying the materials that the people writing your tests are giving you. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as long as you're okay with having a somewhat lower exam average. Hopefully all of the extra time spent studying for step 1 will pay off, although I'm not a believer in the idea that someone can't do very well on school-written exams and the boards. Although step 1 score is obviously more important that preclinical grades, I just don't want you to regret not scoring as well on your school exams if you don't end up achieving whatever step 1 score you're shooting for (since you might feel like all of the extra board prep time was maybe wasted, although I doubt that'll be the case).

 

[Psai]

My grades were better in year one than year two. If I were you, I would do more lectures because the foundations are important. You will have time to do qbanks later in the dedicated period. I'm not saying that you shouldn't look at usmlerx or something like that but the focus should be your school lectures. You need to understand concepts and ideas while trying to pick up the small details, then consolidate and fill in the rest of the details later with question banks. Just like you, I was worried about my grade drop, I think I was somewhere in the first quartile in my class in first year and the second quartile in second year but I still rocked step 1.

 

[DermViser]

My grades were better in year one than year two. If I were you, I would do more lectures because the foundations are important. You will have time to do qbanks later in the dedicated period. I'm not saying that you shouldn't look at usmlerx or something like that but the focus should be your school lectures. You need to understand concepts and ideas while trying to pick up the small details, then consolidate and fill in the rest of the details later with question banks. Just like you, I was worried about my grade drop, I think I was somewhere in the first quartile in my class in first year and the second quartile in second year but I still rocked step 1.

Depends on how good the materials and the lecturer is in explaining stuff, though. Some schools just have really ****ty lecturers for certain organ system blocks. Sucks that OP has to sacrifice one for the other.

 

[Freddie Mercury]

IMO you should spend a bit more time with the lectures as stated by other users above. Sounds like you are doing reasonably well with just one pass, but I think a second pass would be extremely beneficial (especially getting that second pass close to exam time, to score some quick recall points for esoteric stuff). To compensate for time, I'd recommend continuing with USMLE-Rx and at most, maybe a skim through the relevant First Aid section for whatever unit you're on. Don't need to overdo it with too many other resources/QBanks at this time IMO.

FWIW, I do specifically remember several questions on my STEP 1 that I remember covering in classes, that were absolutely not discussed in UFAP. So don't discount class entirely.

Good luck

 

[operaman]

Tough call with too many variables to give really well tailored advice. My gut says to balance your study a little more in favor of your classes at this point with more Qbank usage as the year goes on. Much of the beginning of M2 covers general principles that will be very helpful going forward, and it sounds like you're doing pretty well with only 1 pass through the material.

There is also the issue of reviewing without actually learning. You may not be doing this, but it's something to watch out for. I used a number of ancillary resources throughout M2, but I used them to help me learn the class material better, not for their supposed high-yield board relevance. It may sound like a distinction without a difference, but it's important. There was quite a bit on my Step 1 that I got because of what I learned in classes.