Content Review for STEP 1: How to Review Forgotten Concepts from First Year

[secondyearohmy]

I'm a second year, and I'm doing UWORLD. I really like it, and I find it is very helpful. The problem is that I realize that I have forgotten a lot of things from first year. For example, I am familiar with the concepts in the question, but not enough to pick the final answer-- I am lacking a little bit of information that is needed to answer the question correctly. I have tried to go to First Aid to read the relevant chapter, but it has seemed a it inefficient and I don't seem to retain too much of it, especially for the time spent.

Does anyone have any tips about how to review things, e.g., Micro, etc?

I don't mind putting in the time, but I am really just trying to find out how to get the most bang for my buck in terms of time spent. Anyone have any advice here?

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[ajh1983]

Background: I love to learn conceptually and I need repetition. Therefore the idea of reading "x pages" per day of FA made me vomit. So, since December I've been using Uworld and USMLERx qbanks in tutor mode. I use every question, correct or not, as a prompt for learning old concepts. Therefore, I read through the explanations to every answer, both correct and incorrect. Each topic mentioned warrants a read through FA about it, and hand drawing out any pathways that might be involved. Usually a question will refer to 3+ different topics through these answers. Soo... I end up spending like 10 minutes per question reading up on, and drawing out pictures for every potential topic they hint at. There are certain concepts I have already seen like 7 times, and I know them cold. And I'm only ~35% through each qbank.

Results so far? It's frustrating, humiliating, exhausting, time consuming, etc. But.... I'm now scoring 65-70% consistantly on qbank questions, and my test isn't until June 22. We just took a 150q pre-board "diagnostic exam" at our school to establish baselines for everyone - it's expected people do horribly. I scored 65% which was high compared to my peers. Also, I feel like I actually know the topics instead of relying on mnemonics or tricks. This has been really rewarding.

 

[operaman]

While specifics vary based on your curriculum (ie. my school had micro during m2 whereas yours apparently did it during m1), some general advice would be to triage what you need to review. I would try and group M1 material into 2 categories:

1) Concepts and ideas that you were/are weak on that can integrate easily into most other subjects/systems.

2) Stuff that doesn't really integrate well and you can memorize at the last minute (ie. inborn errors of metabolism, etc)

I would focus my efforts on the first one right now while obviously making M2 material the bulk of your study time. There may be some differences between people -- I would put all of biochem in #2, but it was a strong subject for me and needed minimal review just to keep the pathways and names of enzymes fresh; others may need to give it a little more time. I think you may find that most of the stuff you're missing probably falls into the second category, so I would not worry about it until later. Memorize it again the week before your exam and then forget it until step 2 ck.

For micro, I really liked Picmonic's product. They debuted during January or so of my M2 year and I loved it; would have bought it earlier had it existed at the time. I think they still have a free trial pack so you can see what they're about before spending money. Worked great for me.