USMLE Best online Step 1 course for students who did not attend medical school?

[DentistScientist]

Hello,

I am a DDS (dental) + PhD student and I would like to go into the 6 year long MD+Oral Surgery residency because I would like to become an oral surgeon scientist and a professor with NIH grants in dental school, medical school, and teaching hospital.

To get in to the MD+OMFS residency program, I need to take the NBME CBSE exam, which is shorter but covers the same material as the USMLE Step 1 exam. Many second year medical students take this exam to see where they stand about 6 months before the real Step 1 exam. According to the First AID Step 1 book, I need to score like 70~80 on CBSE which is about 210~220 on real Step1 or higher to be competitive for the OMFS. After I get into the OMFS residency program, I start with 2nd year medical students and take the real USMLE step 1 exam.

Some dental schools make students to take the same basic science courses as medical schools during the first two years and therefore scoring 210 or more is not that difficult as long as they are doing well in these schools. However, my school is focused on general dentistry so the basic science was much lighter and we focus much more on general dentistry hand skills aka "filling and drilling." Many of my school's "Elite" students were not able to score high enough to get into the OMFS so they are doing the internships.

I am in the middle of my second year and am entering my third year dental school. Then there will be several years of PhD. From this third year year, I have much more time than my first two years so I can allow about 4 hours every weekday and about 8~10 hours during weekends for the next 3~4 years.

I believe that these Elite students at my school could not score high cause they tried to memorize everything in the First Aid book and the UWorld like once. They did not have enough time to build the strong foundation that many medical students build during the first two years.

Therefore, I am thinking that I should build this foundation and then start tackling the concise book like First AID and test banks like UWorld, USMLERX and Kaplan. I learn better through lecture videos than just reading BRS books.

What online course material would be the best for someone like me who need to start from scratch? I found the Najeeb videos understandable cause these really start from the basics. But it was hard for me to understand pathoma after first few chapters cause they were too concise.

Thank you in advance and best wishes for your test preparation and career aspirations!

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[USMLE_Pro]

Even for those who didn't do med school, I still recommend starting with UWorld on random, timed blocks and making your own Anki flashcards based on the questions you answer incorrectly, cross-referencing first aid as you make these cards. All the info you need to know for Step 1 is contained in UWorld + Pathoma + the NBME practice tests (Comprehensive Basic Science Self-Assessments).

 

[DentistScientist]

Even for those who didn't do med school, I still recommend starting with UWorld on random, timed blocks and making your own Anki flashcards based on the questions you answer incorrectly, cross-referencing first aid as you make these cards. All the info you need to know for Step 1 is contained in UWorld + Pathoma + the NBME practice tests (Comprehensive Basic Science Self-Assessments).

I see. I worked on couple of questions from the Uworld but i was only able to get like 10% of questions correct. This was before starting dental school though. So even if i am in this situation again, you recommend me to go over all answer choices, cross reference first aid and make anki decks?




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[USMLE_Pro]

I see. I worked on couple of questions from the Uworld but i was only able to get like 10% of questions correct. This was before starting dental school though. So even if i am in this situation again, you recommend me to go over all answer choices, cross reference first aid and make anki decks?




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If you are scoring this low I recommend doing Pathoma first. You can watch the videos while annotating in the book, just to lay a foundation.

You basically need to treat the UWorld explanations like a textbook and learn from each one. It will be painful at first and your % correct will be low, but it will improve over time.

 

[medicineman1234]

Hello,

I am a DDS (dental) + PhD student and I would like to go into the 6 year long MD+Oral Surgery residency because I would like to become an oral surgeon scientist and a professor with NIH grants in dental school, medical school, and teaching hospital.

To get in to the MD+OMFS residency program, I need to take the NBME CBSE exam, which is shorter but covers the same material as the USMLE Step 1 exam. Many second year medical students take this exam to see where they stand about 6 months before the real Step 1 exam. According to the First AID Step 1 book, I need to score like 70~80 on CBSE which is about 210~220 on real Step1 or higher to be competitive for the OMFS. After I get into the OMFS residency program, I start with 2nd year medical students and take the real USMLE step 1 exam.

Some dental schools make students to take the same basic science courses as medical schools during the first two years and therefore scoring 210 or more is not that difficult as long as they are doing well in these schools. However, my school is focused on general dentistry so the basic science was much lighter and we focus much more on general dentistry hand skills aka "filling and drilling." Many of my school's "Elite" students were not able to score high enough to get into the OMFS so they are doing the internships.

I am in the middle of my second year and am entering my third year dental school. Then there will be several years of PhD. From this third year year, I have much more time than my first two years so I can allow about 4 hours every weekday and about 8~10 hours during weekends for the next 3~4 years.

I believe that these Elite students at my school could not score high cause they tried to memorize everything in the First Aid book and the UWorld like once. They did not have enough time to build the strong foundation that many medical students build during the first two years.

Therefore, I am thinking that I should build this foundation and then start tackling the concise book like First AID and test banks like UWorld, USMLERX and Kaplan. I learn better through lecture videos than just reading BRS books.

What online course material would be the best for someone like me who need to start from scratch? I found the Najeeb videos understandable cause these really start from the basics. But it was hard for me to understand pathoma after first few chapters cause they were too concise.

Thank you in advance and best wishes for your test preparation and career aspirations!

What do you consider high? The average med student doesn't even memorize all of first aid. Your elite students probably didn't do so either. Also many medical schools don't give an insanely good foundation for step 1 many have baselines below 190.

 

[DentistScientist]

What do you consider high? The average med student doesn't even memorize all of first aid. Your elite students probably didn't do so either. Also many medical schools don't give an insanely good foundation for step 1 many have baselines below 190.

I am seriously thinking about studying part time during PhD years and aim for 240. 240 would be an extremely high score for omfs applicants. i am going straight back to the lab i worked for a year. I would like to aim for programs with research heavy medical schools and hospitals. These programs are clinically weaker than the most popular omfs programs that teach the most lucrative and least risky procedures. However, because of their research heavy, oral cancer, craniofacial abnormality focused omfs program, and their prestigious med schools, they want high scores.

But i am not sure whether studying more for several yrs is gonna increase my scores. Many foreign medical school grads who have weaker basic science background than american med school study for step1 like a year or two.


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[medicineman1234]

I am seriously thinking about studying part time during PhD years and aim for 240. 240 would be an extremely high score for omfs applicants. i am going straight back to the lab i worked for a year. I would like to aim for programs with research heavy medical schools and hospitals. These programs are clinically weaker than the most popular omfs programs that teach the most lucrative and least risky procedures. However, because of their research heavy, prestigious med schools, they want high scores.

But i am not sure whether studying more for several yrs is gonna increase my scores. Many foreign medical school grads who have weaker basic science background than american med school study for step1 like a year or two.


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I hope you get it then. Good luck

 

[Medic741]

Also, a lot of students use Zanki (fewer use firecracker, what I use). You can review a set of information, then mark that information as 'current' and have a systematic way to test yourself on how much of the information you absorbed by your first pass. great way to make sure you're getting all the content as you go through learning it before you start taking practice questions, which will be straight discouraging if you don't have the knowledge foundation to even be able to guess well. GL!

Beyond First Aid, I'd *highly* recommend picking up a copy of Robbins pathology. It's excellent for filling in knowledge gaps and getting a full picture as a reference guide if you need to look something up. Their online textbook is just awesome to be able to pop over to a tab, search something and find an answer you can trust in seconds. @EighteenstreetloungePUA

 

[Medic741]

@EighteenstreetloungePUA also! This just popped into my head. Besides pathoma, I'd *highly highly highly* recommend investing in SKETCHY. That bundle has saved me in medical school, and especially as an indpependent learner stacking the deck in your favor will really help. Sketchy uses cartoon images to provide mental anchors to difficult to remember topics with meaningless words.

Eg... Paramyxovirus... paramyxo sounds like paranormal... which will remind you of the 'paranormal' halloween party sketch in which measles virus is a weasle, mumps is a mummy, and adds details that refer to pathologies, clinical presentation and treatment. Have found I remember stuff from first year if it was in sketchy. Weird stuff too, like hematuria can be caused by adenovirus or arenavirus, or that reovirus has 11 segments. Sketchy works and will get you really far really fast on this content. GL!

Sketchy path: Awesome pathology lectures that will get you probably 60% of UWORLD path questions right. To nail the 40% you'll have to supplement a little with Robins, FA and Sketchy Pharm.

Sketchy Pharm: If a drug's not in Sketchy Pharm, with a few exceptions it'll probably be low yield. Couldn't have learned pharm nearly as well if it weren't for S. pharm

Sketchy Micro: The GOLD STANDARD for learning microbiology.

They don't have many on youtube, but wanted to share something so you can get an idea of what they're like. Usually you'll watch at >1x speed (lol) listening to it at 1x feels blasphemous

 

[DentistScientist]

@EighteenstreetloungePUA also! This just popped into my head. Besides pathoma, I'd *highly highly highly* recommend investing in SKETCHY. That bundle has saved me in medical school, and especially as an indpependent learner stacking the deck in your favor will really help. Sketchy uses cartoon images to provide mental anchors to difficult to remember topics with meaningless words.

Eg... Paramyxovirus... paramyxo sounds like paranormal... which will remind you of the 'paranormal' halloween party sketch in which measles virus is a weasle, mumps is a mummy, and adds details that refer to pathologies, clinical presentation and treatment. Have found I remember stuff from first year if it was in sketchy. Weird stuff too, like hematuria can be caused by adenovirus or arenavirus, or that reovirus has 11 segments. Sketchy works and will get you really far really fast on this content. GL!

Sketchy path: Awesome pathology lectures that will get you probably 60% of UWORLD path questions right. To nail the 40% you'll have to supplement a little with Robins, FA and Sketchy Pharm.

Sketchy Pharm: If a drug's not in Sketchy Pharm, with a few exceptions it'll probably be low yield. Couldn't have learned pharm nearly as well if it weren't for S. pharm

Sketchy Micro: The GOLD STANDARD for learning microbiology.

They don't have many on youtube, but wanted to share something so you can get an idea of what they're like. Usually you'll watch at >1x speed (lol) listening to it at 1x feels blasphemous

Oh yeah. I loved the sketchy micro. I will probably use the sketch pharm for the upcoming pharm course too though it would be an overkill for dental pharm course lol.

I will use all 3 sketchy for the NBME exam then. Thanks a lot!!




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