First vs. Second Year Material and Boards

[yanks26dmb]

I often see people say the real bulk of board material comes in second year. At our school, we spent first semester largely going over basic science fundamentals. Second semester starts with systems and begins with cardiovascular and pulmonary...

I'm guessing when people say second year is much more high yield than first, they're assuming a full first year of basic sciences?

Given we're getting right into systems during second semester, would it be wise to concurrently study related board material right now too? A lot of people, including faculty at the school, tell us not to start board studying til second year...but I don't see why we should be waiting if what we're covering now is in fact just as high-yield as what will be taught next year.

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I imagine the difference between starting to study for the boards now versus the first year summer is close to minimal. Likewise if you're only now beginning to get into systems then chances are you'll find yourself occupied enough that the notion of studying for boards ludicrous, especially with Cardiopulm.

Anyways, at least at KCU our curriculum makes it illogical to study for the boards first year.

 

[docbsb2015]

Hey man I am in the exact same situation as you... Except we started systems after Thanksgiving. I bought Pathoma and First Aid and are using them along with class material. During the week I concentrate only on class material. Then on weekends I spend just a few hours watching the relevant videos on Pathoma and glance at FA. Then I will run through lecture slides from the week if I have a good chunk of time left. Basically, I want to maintain good grades first and foremost. But also I at least want to be familiar with Pathoma and FA by the time Feb/March rolls around second year. So basically I use them as supplemental materials, but I wouldn't say I'm "board studying."

 

[Elevencents]

Use Pathoma/FA to help with the material. No need to think about boards until 2nd year.

Basically what the previous post said now that saw it.

 

[Psai]

I did a little usmlerx which I think helped a little but I don't know if it was worth the time

 

[deleted564680]

Rapid Review Goljan > Pathoma since it covers everything in more detail and sets you up well for Step 2. Pathoma has become popular because it's the "easier" of the two.

During 2nd year, you should save your USMLEWorld qbank until 4-8 weeks before your exam and test yourself just like the exam - random, timed, 46 question blocks. This bank is the closest to the real deal and you don't want to "waste" it. That being said, keeping USMLERx and/or Kaplan qbank around as your "trash" bank that you can do whatever with and not care about the score is valuable as well. For COMLEX, take COMBANK ~8-12 weeks before boards and fit those questions in when you can while focusing on the ethics/OMM portions since you won't find those covered in the USMLE banks. Using the USMLE banks in general works out fine for COMLEX.

Agree with above that you shouldn't worry about boards until 2nd year. Never hurts to skim a FA though and see if your school covered the relevant topics - especially if you're at a PBL school.

 

[Goro]

This is certainly true at our school, and definitely for all those that still use the classic Flexner-style curriculum. Your first year is about the basic, the second year about what can go wrong with those basics. That's the majority of Boards.

I advise my own students to start doing some initial Board prep towards the end of first year, basically so they can see how much they've retained.

Don't fret too much about board prep right now. I swear, I've had classes that started Board prep the week after orientation!

If you have access to COMSAE/COMBANK, etc, utilize those...they're good assets. You can never do enough practice questions.

So how did your first semester go, yanks??

I often see people say the real bulk of board material comes in second year. At our school, we spent first semester largely going over basic science fundamentals. Second semester starts with systems and begins with cardiovascular and pulmonary...

I'm guessing when people say second year is much more high yield than first, they're assuming a full first year of basic sciences?

Given we're getting right into systems during second semester, would it be wise to concurrently study related board material right now too? A lot of people, including faculty at the school, tell us not to start board studying til second year...but I don't see why we should be waiting if what we're covering now is in fact just as high-yield as what will be taught next year.

 

[yanks26dmb]

This is certainly true at our school, and definitely for all those that still use the classic Flexner-style curriculum. Your first year is about the basic, the second year about what can go wrong with those basics. That's the majority of Boards.

I advise my own students to start doing some initial Board prep towards the end of first year, basically so they can see how much they've retained.

Don't fret too much about board prep right now. I swear, I've had classes that started Board prep the week after orientation!

If you have access to COMSAE/COMBANK, etc, utilize those...they're good assets. You can never do enough practice questions.

So how did your first semester go, yanks??

Gotcha, thanks for the advice. Right now we're doing the normal physiology, etc...but later in the block we'll be doing what can go wrong with the basics. So I guess I can assume we're doing HY board material 1st year at my school.

Classes went well..somewhere around top quartile to top third right now. Can't complain... mainly trying to figure out how to best retain all these details moving forward..