2nd year looking for advice

[drkube]

Hi all, our winter break is almost over and the consensus is that now would be a great time to begin prepping for boards. I currently don't use any study materials outside of sketchymicro & the class lectures/labs, and my grades are pretty consistent with the class average. Our school gives us about 8 weeks of dedicated for boards. What should I be doing / what study materials should I start using to study for boards?

Thanks.

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[jk441]

Hi all, our winter break is almost over and the consensus is that now would be a great time to begin prepping for boards. I currently don't use any study materials outside of sketchymicro & the class lectures/labs, and my grades are pretty consistent with the class average. Our school gives us about 8 weeks of dedicated for boards. What should I be doing / what study materials should I start using to study for boards?

Thanks.

UFAPS (U World, FA, Pathoma, Sketchy) + I also like Boards and Beyond (basically First Aid in video form). We are heading into our dedicated period soon too, best of luck!

 

[Lannister]

Do most people go in order when they go through FA/sketchy/path (either the order that first aid goes in, or the order that their school covered the blocks)? Or do people jump around from topic to topic every day/week?

Also, what's a realistic amount of time per day to be dedicating to step 1 studying during the regular semester, before dedicated starts?

Edit: sorry OP, I hijacked your thread without answering your question. In terms of resources, I'm planning on using the Kaplan Qbank to study for the blocks I'm taking this semester. Since I've already done Kaplan for a lot of my past blocks I'm going to use Rx to review for those, in addition to First Aid, Pathoma, and Sketchy. I don't think I'm going to start Uworld until dedicated. I'm a huge fan of practice questions, I honestly just wish I could ditch every other resource and only do practice questions.

 

[ryanr]

Honestly UFAP (Uworld, First Aid, Pathoma) is all you need for Step 1 to do well. It is totally sufficient by itself. These should be your core resources. However, Sketchy Micro is a nice addition, it definitely did help me out on test day recalling obscure details. I wouldn't bother with Sketchy Pharm, the Pharm in First Aid is enough. Goljian audio files are good to listen to while commuting or working out if you want, but not necessary. Anything more than the above and you are going to resource overloaded.

Here's what I would do if I were you: I would get some of the annoying "pre-work" out of the way to make your dedicated course smoother. Start watching Pathoma lectures and writing notes into your Pathoma book. He says lots of valuable info that is not written in the text. This way, during dedicated you can just re-watch the lectures as a refresher and study the notes you already have. Similarly, with Sketchy Micro I printed the photos and made a binder with them that I annotated because while the online versions are best for quickly testing yourself, I did find it helpful to take my own notes (they also sometimes say things or elaborate on details that are not written down). So you may or may not want to do that, but I would go ahead and make your first pass on watching the videos at least. Again, during dedicated you can cruise your way through the videos on your second pass then just study off the images. This will save you time and stress being already familiar with these resources. Also I would start using First Aid along with your organ system blocks but I wouldn't stress it too much. A quick read through of the relevant organ system for the block you're on can be a great review the week of your exams.
You can chug through this stuff at a gradual pace on the side, definitely keep classes your top priority between now and dedicated.
Save UWorld for dedicated. Try to get through 2x.
I wouldn't bother with the other Qbanks but that's just me

 

[drkube]

Honestly UFAP (Uworld, First Aid, Pathoma) is all you need for Step 1 to do well. It is totally sufficient by itself. These should be your core resources. However, Sketchy Micro is a nice addition, it definitely did help me out on test day recalling obscure details. I wouldn't bother with Sketchy Pharm, the Pharm in First Aid is enough. Goljian audio files are good to listen to while commuting or working out if you want, but not necessary. Anything more than the above and you are going to resource overloaded.

Here's what I would do if I were you: I would get some of the annoying "pre-work" out of the way to make your dedicated course smoother. Start watching Pathoma lectures and writing notes into your Pathoma book. He says lots of valuable info that is not written in the text. This way, during dedicated you can just re-watch the lectures as a refresher and study the notes you already have. Similarly, with Sketchy Micro I printed the photos and made a binder with them that I annotated because while the online versions are best for quickly testing yourself, I did find it helpful to take my own notes (they also sometimes say things or elaborate on details that are not written down). So you may or may not want to do that, but I would go ahead and make your first pass on watching the videos at least. Again, during dedicated you can cruise your way through the videos on your second pass then just study off the images. This will save you time and stress being already familiar with these resources. Also I would start using First Aid along with your organ system blocks but I wouldn't stress it too much. A quick read through of the relevant organ system for the block you're on can be a great review the week of your exams.
You can chug through this stuff at a gradual pace on the side, definitely keep classes your top priority between now and dedicated.
Save UWorld for dedicated. Try to get through 2x.
I wouldn't bother with the other Qbanks but that's just me

Thanks for the input!

 

[DBV]

Pathoma and first aid along with class and also reviewing sections you've already covered in lecture. When you get to dedicated start with uworld and recover topics in FA and pathoma.

I would also recommend reading costanzos brs physiology. It's a quick read with a lot of useful stuff

 

[mekimchiie]

I don't know how you study but from my experience and many of my friends, the bulk of your learning will be during dedicated. And you will probably peak at 4 weeks during dedicated. Most of what you study now (assuming you do it in small chunks so that you can keep up with your current classes) will be forgotten by the time you get to dedicated. That said, it is still nice to start reviewing now because some of it you will retain. So I would say now is perfect to start reviewing and making notes that are specific to you (not some holy Grail that could be used for anyone). Make charts of things you always forget or mix up. Use first aid and pathoma for that. You could start UWorld now if you want but that can be very time consuming while you have classes.