Focus on Passing and Step 1 or Shoot for Best Grades Possible

[weezynation]

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This is not your typical...how to study for med school classes thread. I will be starting medical school next fall and am wondering what the best approach to studying while keeping Step 1 in mind. I am currently in a SMP and doing very well so I know I can excel at the classes; however, I am wondering when I start med school next fall if I should focus more on passing, spending a little less time on the minutiae, and supplementing with First Aid just to make sure I am focusing more on what will be tested on Step 1. Considering I have taken most of the first year classes and took an intense graduate anatomy course this past spring, I feel I will have the time to supplement with First Aid since I am already learning a great deal of the material I will be learning during first year. I understand that they change First Aid every year, but I am assuming the vast majority of the material is the same, right? And if using First Aid to supplement is a bad idea, is there another approach I can take to cater my studying throughout the course of M1/M2 to help me prepare for Step 1 better. Anyways, I am curious because there is someone who is very well-known on SDN who has mentioned he is focusing on the boards and not trying to be the top of his class. I could care less about gunning, my class rank, getting As on exams, etc. if it means I would get a great Step 1 score by catering my studying to it. Thanks for your help.

 

[Josh7]

This is not your typical...how to study for med school classes thread. I will be starting medical school next fall and am wondering what the best approach to studying while keeping Step 1 in mind. I am currently in a SMP and doing very well so I know I can excel at the classes; however, I am wondering when I start med school next fall if I should focus more on passing, spending a little less time on the minutiae, and supplementing with First Aid just to make sure I am focusing more on what will be tested on Step 1. Considering I have taken most of the first year classes and took an intense graduate anatomy course this past spring, I feel I will have the time to supplement with First Aid since I am already learning a great deal of the material I will be learning during first year. I understand that they change First Aid every year, but I am assuming the vast majority of the material is the same, right? And if using First Aid to supplement is a bad idea, is there another approach I can take to cater my studying throughout the course of M1/M2 to help me prepare for Step 1 better. Anyways, I am curious because there is someone who is very well-known on SDN who has mentioned he is focusing on the boards and not trying to be the top of his class. I could care less about gunning, my class rank, getting As on exams, etc. if it means I would get a great Step 1 score by catering my studying to it. Thanks for your help.

 

[Geebeejay]

This is not your typical...how to study for med school classes thread. I will be starting medical school next fall and am wondering what the best approach to studying while keeping Step 1 in mind. I am currently in a SMP and doing very well so I know I can excel at the classes; however, I am wondering when I start med school next fall if I should focus more on passing, spending a little less time on the minutiae, and supplementing with First Aid just to make sure I am focusing more on what will be tested on Step 1. Considering I have taken most of the first year classes and took an intense graduate anatomy course this past spring, I feel I will have the time to supplement with First Aid since I am already learning a great deal of the material I will be learning during first year. I understand that they change First Aid every year, but I am assuming the vast majority of the material is the same, right? And if using First Aid to supplement is a bad idea, is there another approach I can take to cater my studying throughout the course of M1/M2 to help me prepare for Step 1 better. Anyways, I am curious because there is someone who is very well-known on SDN who has mentioned he is focusing on the boards and not trying to be the top of his class. I could care less about gunning, my class rank, getting As on exams, etc. if it means I would get a great Step 1 score by catering my studying to it. Thanks for your help.

Most schools are widely judged on their students step 1 scores, so I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. But I think it is fair to say that if you exhaust all of your energy turning that P into a HP, or the 90% in to a 99%, then med school is going to be a lot more stressful and you are going to miss out on opportunities.

I've also been told not to worry about Step 1 until well into MS2

 

[swamprat]

This is not your typical...how to study for med school classes thread. I will be starting medical school next fall and am wondering what the best approach to studying while keeping Step 1 in mind. I am currently in a SMP and doing very well so I know I can excel at the classes; however, I am wondering when I start med school next fall if I should focus more on passing, spending a little less time on the minutiae, and supplementing with First Aid just to make sure I am focusing more on what will be tested on Step 1. Considering I have taken most of the first year classes and took an intense graduate anatomy course this past spring, I feel I will have the time to supplement with First Aid since I am already learning a great deal of the material I will be learning during first year. I understand that they change First Aid every year, but I am assuming the vast majority of the material is the same, right? And if using First Aid to supplement is a bad idea, is there another approach I can take to cater my studying throughout the course of M1/M2 to help me prepare for Step 1 better. Anyways, I am curious because there is someone who is very well-known on SDN who has mentioned he is focusing on the boards and not trying to be the top of his class. I could care less about gunning, my class rank, getting As on exams, etc. if it means I would get a great Step 1 score by catering my studying to it. Thanks for your help.

Well first off, grades do matter in a sense that you prob will want to be in the top of ur class if your interested in a competitive specialty or top programs in "non-competitive" specialties. Yes you def need the step 1 score but applicants have both. IMO you should not worry at all about step 1 next year, reason being that most of MS1 is not that high yield for step 1. It is necessary information to understand MS2 material but the concepts tested etc you will relearn again during dedicated step 1 study time. You should focus on learning the material and committing as much of it to long term memory as you possibly can for the entire first 2 years of medical school. I did not pick up first aid and start annotating until spring semester of MS2 and I did extremely well on step 1. When you start MS2 I would say get a qbank like kaplan and before every test kinda go through some of the questions here and there, no annotations or anything but just getting used to answer the caliber of questions they will ask. Then save usmle world for dedicated study time. In summary, don't worry about it now the best prep is learning the material as best as you can for your classes.

 

[H Y F R]

Dude, I guarantee as soon as you start that Step 1 will be the last thing on your mind. Worry about at least passing first, and then improving from there. If you maintain at least an 85 average in all your courses (which isn't easy, no matter how qualified you think you may be) then you will be inherently preparing for Step 1 in the process.

BTW, don't float the First Aid/Step 1 nonsense with the M2/3/4s when you start school. They're all gonna laugh at you.

 

[235009]

Well first off, grades do matter in a sense that you prob will want to be in the top of ur class if your interested in a competitive specialty or top programs in "non-competitive" specialties.

👍 👍 👍

i completely agree with all of doxycycline's advice, and the above in particular. try to do your best and take it one step at a time. depending on your school's curriculum it might be wise to supplement your studying with first aid and qbank (not uworld, save that for your dedicated study time) throughout second year. however doing well in your classes and doing well on step 1 are not mutually exclusive and the goal should be to do the best you can in both. if you study hard, learn the material, and honor the classes you'll be in a very good position for step 1. also you have a huge leg up by having gone through the SMP.

 

[weezynation]

Ok thanks so much for all the responses. I will just continue to work hard in my classes as I am doing now and worry about Step 1 during my second year. It does make sense that if you do well in your classes, the higher probability you will do well on Step 1.

 

[NickNaylor]

We've been having this discussion in a thread in allo. My opinion is in the minority, but I don't think grades and boards performance are that strongly linked. If you get good grades I will agree that you are likely to do well on boards. However, I'm not convinced that doing poorly in classes makes you more likely to do poorly on boards. I've heard from too many people (at our school at least) who didn't do well in class but then completely crushed the boards.

I agree that you should work hard and learn as much as you can, but not doing well doesn't mean you're screwed. I have consistently gotten below the average on exams yet I'm doing pretty well on the Kaplan Qbank. I focused on material that was covered in board review books and learned enough of the other stuff to get by.

I'm not saying it's a strategy for everyone, and I'll never really know until I get my board scores back, but don't let people suck you into the philosophy that you have to honor courses to do well on the boards. I just find it very hard to believe based on my experience. The reality is that no matter how well you do you will have to learn the minutiae again. That's why I think emphasizing broad principles and basic concepts and using that extra time for "you" is a good strategy. Just my opinion, but there it is.

(sent from my phone)

 

[mimelim]

We've been having this discussion in a thread in allo. My opinion is in the minority, but I don't think grades and boards performance are that strongly linked. If you get good grades I will agree that you are likely to do well on boards. However, I'm not convinced that doing poorly in classes makes you more likely to do poorly on boards. I've heard from too many people (at our school at least) who didn't do well in class but then completely crushed the boards.

I agree that you should work hard and learn as much as you can, but not doing well doesn't mean you're screwed. I have consistently gotten below the average on exams yet I'm doing pretty well on the Kaplan Qbank. I focused on material that was covered in board review books and learned enough of the other stuff to get by.

I'm not saying it's a strategy for everyone, and I'll never really know until I get my board scores back, but don't let people suck you into the philosophy that you have to honor courses to do well on the boards. I just find it very hard to believe based on my experience. The reality is that no matter how well you do you will have to learn the minutiae again. That's why I think emphasizing broad principles and basic concepts and using that extra time for "you" is a good strategy. Just my opinion, but there it is.

(sent from my phone)

++ agree 100% and I already have my scores back 😉

 

[45408]

I've heard from too many people (at our school at least) who didn't do well in class but then completely crushed the boards.

I don't know anyone who did that.

I think you need to do at least average in your classes if you want to be set up to "crush" the boards. I agree that the minutiae some professors want is completely irrelevant to the boards, so you don't need to be at the top of your class, and it might be better to focus on the big picture than that minutiae.

 

[NickNaylor]

I don't know anyone who did that.

I think you need to do at least average in your classes if you want to be set up to "crush" the boards. I agree that the minutiae some professors want is completely irrelevant to the boards, so you don't need to be at the top of your class, and it might be better to focus on the big picture than that minutiae.

Fair, but I think this is where differences in schools make this discussion sprinkled with huge amounts of salt from one person to the next. In our case, I felt like we were taught a LOT of unimportant minutia. I don't think you would've been able to pass our exams studying only boards-relevant material. That means more than 40% of what is being tested is probably not going to be on the boards.

 

[alpinism]

This is not your typical...how to study for med school classes thread. I will be starting medical school next fall and am wondering what the best approach to studying while keeping Step 1 in mind. I am currently in a SMP and doing very well so I know I can excel at the classes; however, I am wondering when I start med school next fall if I should focus more on passing, spending a little less time on the minutiae, and supplementing with First Aid just to make sure I am focusing more on what will be tested on Step 1. Considering I have taken most of the first year classes and took an intense graduate anatomy course this past spring, I feel I will have the time to supplement with First Aid since I am already learning a great deal of the material I will be learning during first year. I understand that they change First Aid every year, but I am assuming the vast majority of the material is the same, right? And if using First Aid to supplement is a bad idea, is there another approach I can take to cater my studying throughout the course of M1/M2 to help me prepare for Step 1 better. Anyways, I am curious because there is someone who is very well-known on SDN who has mentioned he is focusing on the boards and not trying to be the top of his class. I could care less about gunning, my class rank, getting As on exams, etc. if it means I would get a great Step 1 score by catering my studying to it. Thanks for your help.

If you did a SMP and did very well (mostly As or >90%). You should have no trouble getting at least Bs (>80%) as long as you watch all the lectures and study at least a few hrs before the exam.

You'll still have to study to re-memorize all the stuff you've forgotten and learn some new minutiae (esp. if you want all As). But honestly, you'll probably be bored most of the time.

The issue w FA is that it's a review book that just focuses on high yield material, not a long term training program for maximizing retention and understanding of M1/M2 material. A program like GT (gunner training) would be more suited to start prepping for the boards early.

You could also spend some of the extra free time next year doing research, which definitely helps w residency apps.