Boards vs school lectures and ego/uncertainty questions

[medicineman1234]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey everyone, did any of you guys honor all classes m1 then switch to a boards focused approach and feel uncertainty and disappointment at your new performance in school lecture exams? At my school all the lectures we're like 1/4 ufaps/pathoma at most, and when I grinded only obscure phd lecture details only, I was honoring classes. I knew these lectures were very different from first aid, so I decided to switch to boards only. However, now that I'm doing zanki, boards and beyond, etc I've dropped to the average or at best 1 sd above the mean because I can't get the details locked in while still doing hours of board prep. Our school is ranked and I used to be top 10%, and I fear I'll fall to 20% or worse. For those who experienced this, how did you deal with that hit to your ego?

Secondly, how did you "trust the process" and feel confident that boards prep would be worth it? I always fear an exam that somehow will drop me 20 points from practice exams and having the hit to my rank all be for naught. It's just so far out and the detrimental effects are short term so it's harder to believe in the boards prep, but with my schools mediocre average and low performance by high ranking students in classes above me, I feel I have to do this.

 

[Goro]

I've found that one of the greatest dangers to a medical student's success is the obsequious and slavish devotion to FA. FA is the bare bones minimum you need. You should be using as many resources as possible, but your lectures are also board prep, except when you have fools teaching you thier research. Those Faculty you should burn at the stake.

I have read posts by SDNers who blew off pre-clinical performance to focus solely on Boards prep, and it's a two edged sword. It works for some, but not all.

IF your school have NBME shelf exams, these are a very good predictor of how you'll do in Boards.

Also keep in mind that some PDs place importance in class rank, but this will vary as to the entire four years vs the last two.

Also keep in mind that your medical education doesn't end with Step I. You should be prepared for your clinical years, because you WILL be pimped.

 

[medicineman1234]

I've found that one of the greatest dangers to a medical student's success is the obsequious and slavish devotion to FA. FA is the bare bones minimum you need. You should be using as many resources as possible, but your lectures are also board prep, except when you have fools teaching you thier research. Those Faculty you should burn at the stake.

I have read posts by SDNers who blew off pre-clinical performance to focus solely on Boards prep, and it's a two edged sword. It works for some, but not all.

IF your school have NBME shelf exams, these are a very good predictor of how you'll do in Boards.

Also keep in mind that some PDs place importance in class rank, but this will vary as to the entire four years vs the last two.

Also keep in mind that your medical education doesn't end with Step I. You should be prepared for your clinical years, because you WILL be pimped.

Oh, of course I agree. But upper class men told me how horrible our curriculum is (high ranking students who don't boards prep regularly score <235 which is fine but not for a top 5-10% med student I'm).

I don't mind being pimped if it's the factor between our lectures or not, since if I'm not ready for it I'm sure the people memorizing PhD research only aren't gonna be nailing them either.

I'm just curious how big 10 vs 20% is it the step score difference is by 20-30 points.

 

[Goro]

Oh, of course I agree. But upper class men told me how horrible our curriculum is (high ranking students who don't boards prep regularly score <235 which is fine but not for a top 5-10% med student I'm).

I don't mind being pimped if it's the factor between our lectures or not, since if I'm not ready for it I'm sure the people memorizing PhD research only aren't gonna be nailing them either.

I'm just curious how big 10 vs 20% is it the step score difference is by 20-30 points.

As long as your GPA is 80th %ile or better, you'll be fine overall. But keep in mind that multiple med schools have found that there's a direct correlation between your preclinical GPA and your board scores.

 

[medicineman1234]

As long as your GPA is 80th %ile or better, you'll be fine overall. But keep in mind that multiple med schools have found that there's a direct correlation between your preclinical GPA and your board scores.

Yea I definitely did my due research and understand. I just pray I don't lose rank and then get a subpar step 1 score at the same time with the nonexistent dedicated we get.

 

[Mad Jack]

I've found that one of the greatest dangers to a medical student's success is the obsequious and slavish devotion to FA. FA is the bare bones minimum you need. You should be using as many resources as possible, but your lectures are also board prep, except when you have fools teaching you thier research. Those Faculty you should burn at the stake.

I have read posts by SDNers who blew off pre-clinical performance to focus solely on Boards prep, and it's a two edged sword. It works for some, but not all.

IF your school have NBME shelf exams, these are a very good predictor of how you'll do in Boards.

Also keep in mind that some PDs place importance in class rank, but this will vary as to the entire four years vs the last two.

Also keep in mind that your medical education doesn't end with Step I. You should be prepared for your clinical years, because you WILL be pimped.

You should use a diverse selection of resources, but not as many as possible. Too many resources and people get distracted and bogged down. UFAP, sketchy, MTB, and a handful of other resources should be the focus for most students.

 

[medicineman1234]

You should use a diverse selection of resources, but not as many as possible. Too many resources and people get distracted and bogged down. UFAP, sketchy, MTB, and a handful of other resources should be the focus for most students.

I'll be doing sketchy+pathoma and continuing zanki which has FA pathoma sketchy and costanzo and then using qbanks to solidify my knowledge. With 10 months, not sure if I should get Rx or Kaplan as my preuworld bank. Aiming for a 240 and no idea how hard that is to get

 

[Mad Jack]

I'll be doing sketchy+pathoma and continuing zanki which has FA pathoma sketchy and costanzo and then using qbanks to solidify my knowledge. With 10 months, not sure if I should get Rx or Kaplan as my preuworld bank. Aiming for a 240 and no idea how hard that is to get

It's a challenging score to get tbph, but definitely doable with a good plan

 

[el_duderino]

I disagree strongly that you need to use as many resources as possible.

You need FA. You need something else that goes into more narrative explanation. You need Uworld. Another micro or pharm supplement is good. Know those well and you will succeed. There isn't enough time in the day to learn more sources thoroughly.

 

[medicineman1234]

It's a challenging score to get tbph, but definitely doable with a good plan

Yea I'm trying to do 3 hrs of prep in weekdays keeping up with reviews and like 5 weekends. It's not much but I literally will get cs or fail certain classes if I don't spend a few hours on the details. I know second years don't know Jack about medicine but when our step scores aren't high I know something's up

 

[medicineman1234]

I disagree strongly that you need to use as many resources as possible.

You need FA. You need something else that goes into more narrative explanation. You need Uworld. Another micro or pharm supplement is good. Know those well and you will succeed. There isn't enough time in the day to learn more sources thoroughly.

Yea zanki is my way of knowing fa just wanted to understand concepts and make sure I'm not just memorizing lines of first aid using a nonuworld qb before step 1. Sketchy is my micro pharm supp.

 

[Oso]

No.

I did not honor all classes M1 year.