First Year and Boards

[kate0834tkjn]

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Hi everyone-

This is a bit of a long post, I apologize in advance.

So, I am planning to take step 1 on June 18th and just started studying today (5/8). I have a full set of Kaplan books, Goljan Rapid Review and lectures, BRS Physiology, BRS Behavioral Science, High Yield Cell/Molecular Biology (read it today), HY Neuro, HY Histo and First Aid. I was planning on starting each subject with a pass through First Aid, then review it using other sources, then finish with a pass through first aid, then do nothing but review First Aid the week before my test and do questions.

As I'm trying to budget time for everything, i'm wondering how much time I should be dedicating to first year stuff and the "smaller" topics. Specifically, the way it looks now in looking at my sources and my reading speed, I'm going to be spending about 2 days each on gross/embryo (kaplan book), histo (HY), and biochem (kaplan again), a day on immuno (kaplan), and probably 2 reading the BRS behavioral science book, and I spent today reading HY Cell/Molec bio. That's already 10 days (almost 1/4 of my time) before even looking at pharm/path/phys/micro...too much?

Second, is it worth the time to go through BRS or Kaplan physio, or should that be primarily phys as it relates to path? I feel like a lot of it comes up again, with the exception of possibly GI phys and cellular phys.

Third, I know Clinical Microbio Made Ridiculously Simple is supposed to be...well, simple. But, there are TONS of bugs in there, and that's at least a 3 day undertaking, especially to learn the drugs too.

Fourth (and finally, I promise), is First Aid REALLY enough for pharm? It just seems kind of skimpy going though, although I suppose there is a lot of information contained in a small area. Is a pass through Kaplan pharm worth it? (I just have trouble relying on only First Aid for one of the "three P's."

OK, I lied, one last thing......is First Aid alone sufficient for anything else? Perhaps gross/histo/embryo? (I'm a little hesitant not to do a good embryo review b/c it essentially wasn't taught at my school....heck, I'm hesitant not to give anything a thorough reveiw, given our history on boards).

Thanks for making it to the end and for your help!!!!

PS-If it matters, I did learn this material well the first time through, but my school has a history of just average board scores. I'd really like to do at least a little better than average.....

 

[N-Surge]

First Year? I am confused... You mean, what should you do to review M1 having just finished M2?

Supposedly doing problems is key. You need that in the mix somehow, imo. Kaplan or USMLEWorld (what I am probably going with) is a must I would think. I really want feedback on USMLERx (which goes with FIRST AID) but no one seems to know much about it, so it seems.

Anyhow, for Embryo I suggest HY.

 

[ginger60]

Here's a few things that I would recommend:
For the "small" stuff: 2 days on embryo/anatomy is fine although I would recommend using HY embryo (its reeeally small and quick) and focusing on the anatomy stuff in FA as it was mostly sufficient for my test, although I didn't use Kaplan's book so I can't comment on it. 2 days for biochem (which really isn't that "small" of a topic) and 1 for immuno would be okay too. However, behavioral science shouldn't take 2 days--FA plus questions are almost completely sufficient for behavioral sciences, and although a quick look through a review book of biostats and/or behavioral sciences is fine it shouldn't take more than a day or half a day. As for histo, unless you are really weak in it it almost isn't worth looking at, and if you are going to use HY histo, its actually more of an integrated book and would be most useful to look at after you have reviewed most of everything else and especially path.

Second: for phys, I found it most helpful to review it at the same time as the relevant path, especially considering that the questions on the actual exam rarely test path or phys concepts separately but integrate them instead. A note on phys--although FA was helpful, it wasn't enough for what my exam tested and I am definitely glad I looked at a review book (BRS).

Third: I chose not to use micro MRS during board study because it is simply not high yield enough (3 days is too long to spend on one book). If you've used it before, then considering skimming through it in half a day for useful mnemonics, but otherwise just use FA or add on another source such as the summaries at the back of Lange micro and immunobiology or micro cards. There is a ton of micro information in FA that really encompassed everything asked on my exam, so you could also just read FA micro and refer to micro MRS for clarification.

Fourth: I think FA is enough for pharm, but I didn't learn it that well the first time and so I needed another source to help me relearn/memorize it. Its up to you for how comfortable you feel with pharm, all of the information you need is in FA but I find it very difficult to memorize the drug info as it is presented in FA.

Finally: are you doing any questions? Questions not only help you simulate the actual exam experience, but can help you review and reinforce what you have already learned, and are the best way to study for behavioral science questions. I would highly recommend integrating some questions (50 - 100 a day) during your reading, if nothing else than to break up the boredom of reading all those books.

Good luck.

 

[kate0834tkjn]

Hi! Thank you so much for replying. So, I've sort of thought things through a little more and here's what I've come up with:

Biochem/genetics/molecular bio: 3 days using Kaplan Biochem and HY
Immuno: 1 day using HY (is this enough? maybe kaplan too?)
Gross/Embryo: 2 days using Kaplan and HY Embryo (our school had a TERRIBLE embryo class, so I feel like I need to give this one some attention)
Pharm: 2-3 days using First Aid and Kaplan as needed
Micro: 2 days using First Aid (maybe MRS as needed)
Behavioral Sciences: First Aid for sure, probably HY Biostats or BRS...we didn't really have biostats here so am a little concerned. Any opinion on HY vs BRS?

As I finish each topic, I am going to do Qbank on that topic....so far, I've found that doing Qbank on random isn't that helpful at this point since I don't know anything. I feel that after I finish reviewing the above, I'll move into random since now there are just so many I guess randomly on.

After finishing these subjects, I was thinking of doing one NBME test?

Then, I plan on spending 1-2 days on each system reading BRS phys, HY histo, and Goljan RR/lectures. I would also like to do as much of the Robbins Review as I go through each system. The total time spent on systems based review=2.5 weeks. Too little?

After that review, which will hopefully be about 9-10 days before my test, I want to do another NBME. Then the last week read my annotated First Aid as much as possible and do lots of questions in 50 question random blocks?

My school has a history of average performances on this test, but I'd really like to do better than average. Not sure how realistic my goals are but I'd really like to get in the 230-240s if possible.