failed - study schedule?

[kellysmith]

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alright - so i failed the boards by a point or two. i have seven weeks to study and take it again. i would love some realistic ideas of what to cover, what books to use, what exam questions to use, etc...

my first time studying, i pretty much used FA and kaplan books. NO brs books and no high yield books. i did all of qbank but did questions at night in random orders. how do i go about being an "active learner" and make sure things stick. i'd love to read all of brs pathology but i feel like it won't all stick in my brain. the same with the others. and while seven weeks is a long time, it doesn't feel like a long enough time to read a few brs books, micro made ridiculously simple, and get through FA again.
help?

 

[doc05]

which kaplan books did you use? the lecture notes (good) or the home-study set (weak). the kaplan set is all-inclusive, so you really don't need anything else.

as far as being an "active learner," you should have done that over the last 2 years. right now is the time for review, not learning. do lots of questions and review all the answers. best of luck.

 

[wook]

Kelly:

Have you tried reading a section in one of the review books on a certain topic (e.g Pulmonary), and then doing a section in QBank on the same material? It may help reinforce what you've just read.

Just a thought.

Wook

 

[Hercules]

alright - so i failed the boards by a point or two. i have seven weeks to study and take it again. i would love some realistic ideas of what to cover, what books to use, what exam questions to use, etc...

my first time studying, i pretty much used FA and kaplan books. NO brs books and no high yield books. i did all of qbank but did questions at night in random orders. how do i go about being an "active learner" and make sure things stick. i'd love to read all of brs pathology but i feel like it won't all stick in my brain. the same with the others. and while seven weeks is a long time, it doesn't feel like a long enough time to read a few brs books, micro made ridiculously simple, and get through FA again.
help?

Here is a very detailed 3 week study plan that worked well for me and several others that I've handed it down to.

 

[pxz]

Hercules, I used your schedule and it is great. Thanks a lot.

To OP, if I were you, I would only focus on first aid, BRS path and PRS phys. Kaplan Biochem is great but I found out it is not very high-yield (at least for my exam). Do not go crazy over other review books just because you have seven weeks. There is no need to repeat Qbank either. Webpath, Robbins, BSS are all plenty and excellent.

 

[TommyGunn04]

The above study schedule posted by Hercules seems to be corrupted...most of it just comes up as nonsensical characters when I open it with Word. Does anyone have another copy of this that they could upload?

 

[daria]

which kaplan books did you use? the lecture notes (good) or the home-study set (weak). the kaplan set is all-inclusive, so you really don't need anything else.

When you say the "home-study set", do you mean the organ system based books? Just trying to understand what all Kaplan printed materials are out there....

 

[Dreamin]

Hercules, I used your schedule and it is great. Thanks a lot.

To OP, if I were you, I would only focus on first aid, BRS path and PRS phys. Kaplan Biochem is great but I found out it is not very high-yield (at least for my exam). Do not go crazy over other review books just because you have seven weeks. There is no need to repeat Qbank either. Webpath, Robbins, BSS are all plenty and excellent.

What is BSS? Did you mean the BRS questions?

 

[andwhat]

What is BSS? Did you mean the BRS questions?

BSS = Board Simulator Series, available on CDRom or a series of I believe 5 books, very picky questions, but worth it, I dont know, since you finished up Kaplan Qbank, not a bad idea to maybe do BSS now, in conjunction with youre current studies, and remember that the SCORES ARE MEANINGLESS on these practice examinations, its the topic learned thats the most important thing to obtain, in other words the explanations, and you are not expected to learn each and every question presented in BSS, but it most definitely will improve youre knowledge base...
good luck.

 

[Hercules]

The above study schedule posted by Hercules seems to be corrupted...most of it just comes up as nonsensical characters when I open it with Word. Does anyone have another copy of this that they could upload?

I reposted in under the sticky Step 1 Study guides thread.

 

[slickrikk]

alright - so i failed the boards by a point or two. i have seven weeks to study and take it again. i would love some realistic ideas of what to cover, what books to use, what exam questions to use, etc...

my first time studying, i pretty much used FA and kaplan books. NO brs books and no high yield books. i did all of qbank but did questions at night in random orders. how do i go about being an "active learner" and make sure things stick. i'd love to read all of brs pathology but i feel like it won't all stick in my brain. the same with the others. and while seven weeks is a long time, it doesn't feel like a long enough time to read a few brs books, micro made ridiculously simple, and get through FA again.
help?

so your first go didn't work; now get pissed and say to yourself that your going to rock it this time around

memorize BRS path (sit down and do it--don't ask questions) and do every q bank question and READ EVERY EXPLANATION EVEN IF YOU GET THE QUESTION RIGHT. Take q bank seriously and not as a nightcap before bed. If your correct answer percentage isn't above 60% then you're not doing something right.

high yields help out to... i did neuroanatomy, anatomy, biochem, embryo.................not using hy and brs is dangerous

not bragging but as a reference; i finished q bank at 80 % and got a 257. Other friends of mine who dicked around with q bank barely passed and barely beat the mean. trust me

 

[scootad.]

aint that the truth! 2nd years you can take the above post as gospel. if there is one book to memorize for step 1 it aint FA (as that isnt really possible). its BRS path.

high 70s on qbank and you are GOLDEN

good luck kiddos!