4 years to study for step I, how would you study?

[lawrencewellsbourne]

my med school is a total of 6 years.
2 years basic
4 years of rotations
+1 year optional rural medicine

If you want to get over 260 on STEP I
How would you study in the next 4 years to accomplish that.
flash cards every day?
read Robbin's one time through every year for 4 years?
do U world 10 times?

since you have the time, how would you improve on those low yield questions?

lets try to keep this civil and focused
thanks in advance

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[GodComplex]

Make high quality anki cards, which means making cards that allow you to recognize a disease pattern and then being able to explain the pathophysiology behind the disease rather than simply memorizing a fact about the disease. Do the cards daily with spaced repetition. For my decks, I put a limit on the maximum interval since I didn't trust myself to retain knowledge as well after not seeing it for 1+ year and having to take step1 before that particular card came up again.

This means doing the cards consistently, not only for the block/test you are trying to study for. Yes, it takes an extra 15-60 minutes per day to do old cards (the more cards in your entire deck the more time it will take, obviously), but it also let me take the days off before a test after finishing making cards for new material since I had been reviewing for the test the entire block by keeping up on the anki cards. Additionally, it allowed my to not stress about step1 as much since I had a 250+ baseline NBME before starting dedicated prep time.

Of course I have friends who scored above a 260 without studying as consistent throughout the first 2 years. I just did it this way since I wanted as close to a "sure thing" as I could possibly get and it ended up working well for me.

 

[Rekt]

I wouldn't.

Scoring as high as 260s+ is a large component of luck along with test taking skill and a knowledge ceiling that some people cannot reach.

 

[lawrencewellsbourne]

ok,

let me rephrase that then, how would you get the highest score that you can personally achieve, if you had 4 years to study

 

[GodComplex]

Scoring as high as 260s+ is a large component of luck along with test taking skill and a knowledge ceiling that some people cannot reach.

Most of me agrees with this also.

My opinion is that a lot of medical students (those that I know) have a ceiling high enough to reach a 260 or close to it if they really wanted to and put forth the effort in the preclinical years. But there definitely is a luck component to it as well, meaning that I think a very well prepared student will usually be able to reliably score ~250. But for those that could score a 260+, they need to avoid getting an exam that emphasizes their weakest points in even a couple of extra questions. An unlucky or even just neutral (not lucky) exam and they may drop below the 260.

Then again, is all of the work required to get such a score even worth it for most? Probably not.

 

[Osteoth]

Make high quality anki cards, which means making cards that allow you to recognize a disease pattern and then being able to explain the pathophysiology behind the disease rather than simply memorizing a fact about the disease. Do the cards daily with spaced repetition. For my decks, I put a limit on the maximum interval since I didn't trust myself to retain knowledge as well after not seeing it for 1+ year and having to take step1 before that particular card came up again.

This means doing the cards consistently, not only for the block/test you are trying to study for. Yes, it takes an extra 15-60 minutes per day to do old cards (the more cards in your entire deck the more time it will take, obviously), but it also let me take the days off before a test after finishing making cards for new material since I had been reviewing for the test the entire block by keeping up on the anki cards. Additionally, it allowed my to not stress about step1 as much since I had a 250+ baseline NBME before starting dedicated prep time.

Of course I have friends who scored above a 260 without studying as consistent throughout the first 2 years. I just did it this way since I wanted as close to a "sure thing" as I could possibly get and it ended up working well for me.

Agree with this, but I wouldn't make my own cards if I could do this again. I did it during preclinicals and burned probably 100+ hours refining my cards over time.

There are so many high-quality decks online, just download one of them and as you run into things in class add them to your master deck.

 

[Michanel]

I totally agree with you.

 

[anbuitachi]

I noticed that about 5 weeks into step studying i started to forget a lot of information. So i think if you want to do well make sure you are able to review your materials. Most people in regular med school probably dont have time to review much since you only get a few weeks of dedicated time to study and theres a lot of memorization involved. Seems like wont be an issue for you. Uworld, FA, pathoma, alone is enough for 250+. For 260+ like people said you need some luck , guess some questions right, a strong basic knowledge would help too.

I know i wouldve done better and gotten a few questions right if i just reviewed certain sections. I missed a few EASY questions, straight out of FA questions b/c i simply forgot.

 

[LyMed]

My class was on a 1.5 year curriculum. I just took those 1.5 years to make concise notes, and then a 5 week dedicated time to review them. That was it. I don't think I found any extra time helpful (in fact, burnout can quickly be detrimental).

 

[SpartanWolverine]

Uworld over and over and over on tutor mode.

 

[Psych_hopeful]

Make high quality anki cards, which means making cards that allow you to recognize a disease pattern and then being able to explain the pathophysiology behind the disease rather than simply memorizing a fact about the disease. Do the cards daily with spaced repetition. For my decks, I put a limit on the maximum interval since I didn't trust myself to retain knowledge as well after not seeing it for 1+ year and having to take step1 before that particular card came up again.

This means doing the cards consistently, not only for the block/test you are trying to study for. Yes, it takes an extra 15-60 minutes per day to do old cards (the more cards in your entire deck the more time it will take, obviously), but it also let me take the days off before a test after finishing making cards for new material since I had been reviewing for the test the entire block by keeping up on the anki cards. Additionally, it allowed my to not stress about step1 as much since I had a 250+ baseline NBME before starting dedicated prep time.

Of course I have friends who scored above a 260 without studying as consistent throughout the first 2 years. I just did it this way since I wanted as close to a "sure thing" as I could possibly get and it ended up working well for me.

Listen to this guy.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

Make high quality anki cards, which means making cards that allow you to recognize a disease pattern and then being able to explain the pathophysiology behind the disease rather than simply memorizing a fact about the disease. Do the cards daily with spaced repetition. For my decks, I put a limit on the maximum interval since I didn't trust myself to retain knowledge as well after not seeing it for 1+ year and having to take step1 before that particular card came up again.

This means doing the cards consistently, not only for the block/test you are trying to study for. Yes, it takes an extra 15-60 minutes per day to do old cards (the more cards in your entire deck the more time it will take, obviously), but it also let me take the days off before a test after finishing making cards for new material since I had been reviewing for the test the entire block by keeping up on the anki cards. Additionally, it allowed my to not stress about step1 as much since I had a 250+ baseline NBME before starting dedicated prep time.

Of course I have friends who scored above a 260 without studying as consistent throughout the first 2 years. I just did it this way since I wanted as close to a "sure thing" as I could possibly get and it ended up working well for me.

what did you set your max interval to?

 

[Redpancreas]

I won't answer your questions but share a few of my beliefs which are important to your overall question. Your Step 1 score is only correlated to your "fund" of knowledge. I would venture that everyone has a solid fund of knowledge, but the ability to apply that knowledge to interpret each sentence as relevant vs. distractor and then apply the right knowledge nugget (Learning Objective) to the stem is what will maximize your score. This takes a high level of alertness come test day. Additionally, I'd imagine that another way to maximize your score that has nothing to do with your fund is how much material you expose yourself to again in the last 1-2 weeks before the exam. Having everything fresh in that final period is critical.

 

[GodComplex]

what did you set your max interval to?

I had my maximum interval set to 4 months for the higher yield systems and 6 months for the basic sciences (micro, biochem, etc.). I feel like I definitely could have gotten away with 6 months though for all decks, but part of this is going to be user dependent. Also, my cards were on the more complex side and required me to know the pathophysiology of a disease and why it presents with the symptoms/signs that it does. If you have more simple, straight forward cards then you may not need to lower your max interval as much.

Additionally, you may want to start to prolong your intervals once you start to approach the second half of second year so you avoid having excessive amounts of cards due while in dedicated prep time since you'll be plenty busy doing practice questions (and possibly making new cards on these as well).

 

[Chromium Surfer]

I had my maximum interval set to 4 months for the higher yield systems and 6 months for the basic sciences (micro, biochem, etc.). I feel like I definitely could have gotten away with 6 months though for all decks, but part of this is going to be user dependent. Also, my cards were on the more complex side and required me to know the pathophysiology of a disease and why it presents with the symptoms/signs that it does. If you have more simple, straight forward cards then you may not need to lower your max interval as much.

Additionally, you may want to start to prolong your intervals once you start to approach the second half of second year so you avoid having excessive amounts of cards due while in dedicated prep time since you'll be plenty busy doing practice questions (and possibly making new cards on these as well).

I'm just a premed haha but I was curious because I will be using anki as I study for the MCAT and will be using conceptual cards so I figured this would be helpful, thanks so much for the great insight!

If I may ask when you prolonged your intervals what did you prolong it too?

 

[GodComplex]

I'm just a premed haha but I was curious because I will be using anki as I study for the MCAT and will be using conceptual cards so I figured this would be helpful, thanks so much for the great insight!

If I may ask when you prolonged your intervals what did you prolong it too?

Sorry, by prolonging intervals I meant prolonging the max interval. Regarding interval modifiers, I did adjust the percentages from the default for older cards but I can't remember what I changed it to. I always kept newer card decks at default or even less since its easier to forget information in the long-run if you never learned it properly to begin with.