Hi there,
Second year is where you build upon the foundation that you set during first your. Do not worry about how much you think that you forgot of the first year stuff. That stuff will be up for review during your review for USMLE/COMLEX. It is easy to review what you have learned in the first place so don't worry, you will recall this stuff.
You will have plenty of time to study for your boards. You do not need to take any time away from your coursework to do board study. The best thing that you can do is master your coursework in the first place. Pharm is a good review of neuroscience/biochemistry and path is a good review of histology. If you have been on a systems based curriculum, you just keep going through your systems and start your review at the end.
Second year is a good time to start reading journals like New England Journal of Medicine if you have not been doing so. Spend some time reading the Case Reports and look carefully at the manner in which the cases are presented and discussed. Present the cases to each other as this is good practice for presenting patients to attending physicians.
When you get your new diagnostic tools, use the othalmoscope and look into every patient's eyes. Dim the light in the room and turn your light down a bit. At first you will only see a vessel. Then you will learn to follow that vessel to the disc and then you will learn to observe pathology. You will never acquire this skill unless you practice. Look at everyone and get this done.
Learn to listen to patients and glean the information that you need to get a good history. Once you become facile at doing the physical exam, you can do a review of systems while you do the exam starting at the head and working down.
At this point, you should be pretty familiar with study skills that bring success in medicine. Now, you start to develop the style that will enable you to become a good physician. Take a medical Spanish course if you get a chance and enjoy this year.
njbmd
