Originally posted by kornphan
Just started 2nd year ;-)... talk about getting over that hump of a 1st year !.. for the seniors out here.. what should I be doing now to prepare for my boards next year ?.. any gotcha ?.... anything I should watch for in 2nd year ?.. Where should I concentrate my efforts ?.... Thanks in advance... appreciate it...
korn...
Congratulations.
Hey, the best way to prepare for Step 1 is, as obvious as it sounds, to study effectively and learn the material as it is presented and not wait to the end to cram like I did.
I passed with a decent but not fantastic score but only after four weeks of intense, sometimes frantic, studying. If I had paid closer attention when the material was presented I probably could have studied on a more civilized schedule.
Somebody back me up here: Step 1 subject content is about 20% first year and 80% second year. So if you slacked off during first year you can still recover.
Also, and this might be controversial, buy "First Aid for Step 1" and start reading through it. Nothing drastic. Take it in small sips. There are only about 300 pages in the entire book. you might look at it for fifteen minutes a day or something like that.
I am not one of those people who thinks that all you need to do well on Step 1 is First Aid and kaplan Qbank. But browsing First aid will put you in the Step 1 mindset. As you are exposed to new material, you will say, "Aha! I saw that in First Aid." (Or, "Gee, that chick in the front has nice knockers.") I wish I had done this.
Some more advice: Ditch the ****ing textbooks and study for your exams strictly from the Grid Books (and your notes of course) or any other suitable review book that you will use for Step prep. Nothing cements things in your mind like becoming familiar with them and then looking at them at a later date.
I have found most text-book reading assignments to be superfluous. At best good for a few extra points on an insignificant exam. At worst the waste of perfectly good study time.
Also, don't get cocky and try to slime through second year. We had some people try this with disasterous consequences.
Also, as a second year you will be "top of the heap" in a little world composed of you and the freshmen. Remember that in third year you will be back down at the bottom. Theoretically even lower then the freshmen who will be insulated in their lecture halls and will hardly ever be seen on the wards.
Don't forget to have fun in second year, especially with your classmates. Third year is like a real job, the hours are horrendous, and on some rotations you will be almost too tired to do anything but drag yourself to bed. Plus you will never see most of your classmates again as you will all be on different rotation schedules. You will be broken up into eight to ten groups and you will pass through first year with these people, only having close contact with the two or three people above and below you in the alphabet.
