COMLEX Step 1 Prep Materials

[Musiclover07]

Hi guys,
I just finished my first year of Med school and I am gathering some resources so I can start prepping for boards soon.
I currently have:
First Aid
Kaplan Resources/Q bank
True learn Q bank
I plan to get:
Uworld
Boards and Beyond
Are there any other resources that you guys would recommend? Also what do you guys recommend I focus on since I just finished my first year- we haven't covered pathology or pharmacology at my school yet.

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[Blueprint Med School]

Hi Musiclover07
This early on, I would recommend going through Sketchy Pharm and Sketchy Micro videos. Make sure you also have a PDF or paper copy of the annotated images so that you only have to go through the videos once and then can reference the annotated images later on to save time. I think Sketchy provides them or you can make your own. These two resources are extremely time consuming, however, they are excellent resources and are 100% worth the time investment. They will not only help you crush the pharm and micro questions on Step 1, but will also be extremely useful when studying for your basic science coursework during M2. Additionally, I would invest in Pathoma. This is the best pathology resource out there in my opinion. Since all three of these resources are time consuming, the most efficient and effective way to utilize them during M2 is to do them along with your basic science course work. For example, if you are going through Heme/Onc this week, then watch all the Heme/Onc videos in Pathoma, go through the chemo drugs in Sketchy pharm, and watch the fungus videos in Sketchy micro (fungus = think immunocompromised). It will not always line up perfectly but you can do your best to try.
One last thing, UWorld is an amazing resource, but I wouldn't start it too early into your second year. UWorld is better to go through when you are closer to your designated study period. For example, if you plan on taking Step 1 next summer, I wouldn't recommend starting UWorld before December. In fact, some tutors recommend not doing any UWorld Questions before starting your designated Step 1 study period.

Hope this helped. Best of luck with everything!

- Annette G, MD, MPH - USMLE Tutor and Residency Advisor at Med School Tutors

 

[SomewhereinNY]

In terms of boards resources- Sketchy is 100% worth it, all of it- micro, path, and pharm, in my opinion. I still use it in my clinical years.
I didn't think Pathoma was helpful- sort of boring, and for that amount of boredom I could just read First Aid.
In terms of Qbanks, I did Kaplan, TrueLearn, and UWorld.
People swear by UWorld, but honestly I hated it- way too specific and wasn't at all like the boards. I really liked TrueLearn Qbank- they don't burden you with excessively lengthy explanations, and the questions are similar to what I had on the exams. They cover bread and butter topics really well (better than UWorld IMO), as well as the rarer stuff. I think people fail the boards when they don't know the core stuff really well- which is why I really liked TrueLearn. If a q bank isn't representative of the actual content of the boards, it isn't helpful. Good luck!