Ending M1 year..please advise

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Spathi

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Anyone have any advise as to what I should study for USMLE if I start early next year on it? I have a little time this summer to start too. Kaplan? USMLE world? Princeton? I don't know much about this test. please advise.
 
First of all, don't do any Step1 studying this summer unless you feel like you didn't learn any biochem and you might take a look at that a few times. My suggestion is to use First Aid along with your classes in the second year. If you do that you will be studying for boards while you study for your classes and you will be very familiar with the book when it comes board study time. If you can know most everything in FA you will be solid.

Also do World over Kaplan when it come time to do a q-bank. I suggest starting it about 2 months before your test date.

Everyone has an opinion, that is just my take on it.👍
 
I suggest you review the subjects you covered in your first year of medical school with review books and annotate any important information into First Aid. When you're done with that get a head start and read Big Robbins for Pathology and take notes from that into First Aid as well. I also recommend trying to get thru all of Kaplan Qbank at least once before 2nd year begins. Forget the beach and relaxing.


On a serious note, don't do anything. RELAX!! Enjoy your time off. You'll be busting your butt during 2nd year so go hang out with friends, see your family, sleep...do anything other then study.
 
Sorry to bump the thread but I just wanted to clarity on this issue.

Should I only annotate from information I learn from review books through my second year, or should I also annoate from stuff I learn in class during second year? I want to make sure that I get this annotation process down.
 
People do that different ways. I'd suggest NOT trying to add everything from class notes into FA that isn't already there... class is way more in depth than both FA and the boards. Definitely don't add anything from class that isn't found in a relevant board review book unless you are just certain that it is something that might be tested. Yeah, everything is fair game, but you can't deal with a copy of FA that becomes 3000 pages thick.

Use class notes and other sources to add annotations to FA primarily to clarify stuff that is already in FA but not explained well or in a way that you'll remember easily or lacking in details that you think are important. For example, while people say the pharm in FA is enough it bugs me that in many cases there are mechanisms that aren't explained or even mentioned for a couple of drugs, lots of side effects and interactions are left out, and some primary uses even are neglected. So I don't plan on learning a lot of drugs that aren't in FA, but I'd like to know a few of them better than what FA covers.

Past that, there are certainly places where FA is lacking in concepts covered and depth of coverage. Neuroanatomy, cellular and molecular biology, lots of path, etc. It's up to you whether you want to try to annotate all of the extra into FA or just keep separate review sources for those areas. I'm following some good advice and have had the back cut off of my copy of FA and punched to put in a 3-ring binder. Now I can makes notes in FA, add a sheet of my own notes and/or diagrams if I need more room, or just copy a couple of pages/charts/etc. out of another source and add to the appropriate spot.
 
Do every question in Robbins Review of Path during 2nd year. Go through it with each organ system you study in class. This WILL help.
 
This summer, consider buying First Aid. Then don't actually do it, go to the beach, and relax with tall glasses of sangria as you laugh about how you almost ruined your vacation.

When classes start, the above advice is all good. Study hard.
 
In retrospect I was thankful I decided to really take the time to learn micro over the summer. My school does it in systems and I had no prior experience to tie it all together. Although micro amount varies from exam to exam FA has a huge chunk devoted to it and I feel really comfortable with the topic.

Best advice is to just really understand as you go through your courses, and maybe pick one topic (in my case micro) that you consistently work on. If you try and keep up with everything you may become innundated and not pay enough attn to your classes.

On a side note, I did not spend all summer working on micro. I did have a fellowship and I did see friends - you probably shouldn't spend all summer consumed with board prep, but it doesn't sound like you are.
 
I was in ure same position as a 1st year last year, and was wondering what can i do over the summmer? I collected opinions from lots of people, people who did extraordinarily well on the step 1-and they all said to take the summer off. I'm studying for step 1 right now, and believe me I would do anything to have another summer, completely off. If you really have to do something, get a hold of the goljan audio and listen to him maybe 1 or 2 hours a day just passively while you're working out cookin dinner whatever. go out, get drunk as **** every night, deplete your thiamine levels and get wernicke's encephalopathy. just remember to take some thiamine supplements befoer you start second year
 
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