7 question banks + zanki strategy

[Medical_studies]

I went to a Caribbean med school so we have to take an exit CBSE before we take step 1. The CBSE was postponed because of covid, which was selfishly an opportunity for me, because I don't think I would have passed. We will probably take CBSE in August so will take step 2nd week of Sept hopefully. I finished zanki a couple days ago after a year and a half and will keep up with reviews. Just started uworld after 500 Pastest questions. After 550 uworld questions am in the low 60's for the last few blocks which have been my best. My plan is to finish uworld then do all the online qbanks listed in FA: truelearn boardvital pastest Kaplan RX boards&beyond amboss and then uworld again slowly. I am able to do the Qbank questions fast by using an app called floating timer which gives me 3 to 4 minutes to read question, answer and read explanation. My question is, considering that I am extremely dumb (2.5 undergrad GPA, liberal arts major, 477 MCAT) can this zanki + 7 Qbank strategy get me to 250? I don't really do anything else except will try to start watching some double speed videos like pathoma. Thanks for your time in reading!

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[Pinocytosis]

Just my two cents:

From experience, I will say it is better to not rush reviewing Qbanks. I remember in the beginning of dedicated I always felt like I was "wasting so much time" because of how long my reviews were. I would read the explanation, read the question again to see what could have 'tipped' me off to the right answer, and then review the incorrect answers to determine why they are wrong and what scenario they would be correct. For 40 questions, it would easily take 2+ hours. Devoting this time to truly understand the content, and not simply just seeing/doing a question, will pay off.

I also worry that having a timer will actually hinder you. While it might seem it will keep you on track, I feel that you may rush or overlook a question and/or explanation and/or teaching point that you truly do not know. For instance, if you get one of those obnoxious diseases that rely on a biochemical pathway incorrect, there is not a single medical student that can read, think about the question, read the explanation(s), review a resource (Pathoma, FA, etc.), and then critically summate the answer with the explanation.

If you were to reduce the amount of Qbanks you're doing (ie 3; but that may even be overkill), you would have more than enough time to deeply review and learn content. It is a very natural instinct, especially as a second year, to want to use every resource ever created for Step 1. I fell into this trap early on in the year but realized it was not the best thing to do. You sacrifice quality for quantity.

At times, more is not better.

 

[Medical_studies]

Thank you for these wise words, that's exactly what I was wondering, good luck in your studies!