help! how to study for step 1

[ComicBookHero20]

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I am really at a loss when it comes to how to study for Step 1. I am supposed to take it this summer and I am not sure what to do.

In school what I do is listen to the lecture, take copious notes on what the lecturer said on the powerpoints. From both of these, I'd make notecards based on the material (for instance, like one side of a card would say "what is direct bilirubin value?" and the other side would say "represents diglucuronide from of bilirubin"). This helps me a lot with trying to get major concepts and little details into my head. And if I don't know something then, I go to outside sources to research it.

I listened to the goljan audio last summer but I really didn't take anything away from it. I tried watching some kaplan videos along with the books but I am not getting anything out of it.

I acquired notecards for First Aid from a friend of mine, and I am considering using them and doing Q-Bank or USMLE World questions after i learn a chapter in First Aid. Then if I don't know a subject, research it and take notes on what I learned to fill in any gaps in my knowledge.

However, in the Introduction to First Aid they mention how it's unwise to solely use First Aid.

I'm really confused about what I should do.

Help!

 

[NDsUltimateJugg]

I'm in the same boat as you and here's my preliminary plans.

I got my FA for Christmas and when studying for tests now, I go back and forth annotating back and forth between my notes, FA and whatever study aid I might have. So when I was studying for Path this week I was writing in FA what pages in BRS Path to look at and I'd write in BRS Path what FA pages to look at. I'd add a little from my class notes as well if that helped clear something up or seemed important but left out from the study guides.

However, I didn't start doing this until this month, so I've gotta start going over old notes and do all the back and forth for other classes and old units. Hopefully when our new quarter starts next month with a lighter schedule, I'll be able to start going back and forth and start going over at least 2-3 units a week for starters.

It sounds like questions are basically a requirement, one question bank if not 2 appear to be rather necessary. Soon enough I'm gonna start going over a few questions a day so I don't have to be doing 50 questions a day for the last 2 months; I can work up to that if I start doing a little bit every day early on.

There's no right answer though, everyone's gonna have a totally different way to study, that's why I'm emailing all my friends who are a year or 2 ahead of me trying to collect all their experiences and figure out what worked for each of them.

 

[ComicBookHero20]

Anyone else?

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

You're rockin' the Green Lantern emblem, so I'm going to be generous 🙂.

First thing's first, take an inventory of how you're doing and where you need to be. How was your first two year's performance. Did you struggle? Did you do about class average? Are you at the top of your class? Preclinical performance DOES correlate with Step 1 scores somewhat, so that can be useful to gauge how much work you need to do.

The second part of the story is where do you want to end up? A highly competitive residency like Derm or Surgical subspecialties? Or are you interested in less competitive things like Family Medicine and Peds? The study schedule for a future AOA candidate who wants to go into Pediatrics is probably going to be different than someone who struggled first two years but wants Derm.

Third part is to start marshaling your resources. Sounds like you've got a good hang on it (Goljan audio, looked into question databanks, first aid, etc.) Start thinking about how you're going to cover all the areas you need to study and working to beg, borrow, steal (or even buy) books you'll need. There are plenty of book recommendation and experiences threads on here where people tell you what books they liked for what subjects.

Basically, all that there is to do is do it. The big debate is whether you want to study during the school year or wait until summer. I personaly didn't do any focused USMLE study during the second year, as I considered studying for my second year exams my "Step 1" prep. However, if you're at a school where courses are "low yield" on boards prep stuff, your mileage may vary. Both are legit strategies.


As for my personal advice? I'd suggest trying to learn a subject, while simultaneously measuring your progress in it by using a Qbank. Measure your progress during your study schedule using NBME exams to gauge if you're improving and where you score should reasonably end up. First AID should serve as your "I must know everything inside this book cold. Backwards and forwards" because it's such high yield stuff. I honestly believe knowing First Aid well will make it so you PASS, but not give you a high score. All the extra reading in Path, Biochem, Physio, Micro, ethics etc. is where you're going to change a low 200's into a 240 plus.

If you're a big flashcards type guy, that's not the worst way to study. Just make sure you're not making a lot of flashcards that you'll never get to really use. Wasting your time on making them and not testing yourself is a bad use of time. I personally used question banks like "flashcards' (Btw, make sure you read all explanations on practice questions, even if you get the question right. You may have gotten it right for the wrong reason, which gives you a false sense of security. The question explanation may also contain other high yield tips).

Regardless of what you do, the main thing is to simply "do the work". If you put in your time, even if your sources aren't the most "high yield" and "recommended" you'll probably end up doing great. So don't spend days worrying if you used the wrong book for Biochem, that's time that could be spent actually learning biochem.

Sorry this response is so general, but you asked a very general question. Just know there are plenty of people on this forum who scored extremely competitively who like to help future test takers (since we received such tremendous help here ourselves). We don't always agree (there's really no best way to study, only what's best for you) but we can sure give you the range of opinions.

 

[ComicBookHero20]

You're rockin' the Green Lantern emblem, so I'm going to be generous 🙂.

First thing's first, take an inventory of how you're doing and where you need to be. How was your first two year's performance. Did you struggle? Did you do about class average? Are you at the top of your class? Preclinical performance DOES correlate with Step 1 scores somewhat, so that can be useful to gauge how much work you need to do.

The second part of the story is where do you want to end up? A highly competitive residency like Derm or Surgical subspecialties? Or are you interested in less competitive things like Family Medicine and Peds? The study schedule for a future AOA candidate who wants to go into Pediatrics is probably going to be different than someone who struggled first two years but wants Derm.

Third part is to start marshaling your resources. Sounds like you've got a good hang on it (Goljan audio, looked into question databanks, first aid, etc.) Start thinking about how you're going to cover all the areas you need to study and working to beg, borrow, steal (or even buy) books you'll need. There are plenty of book recommendation and experiences threads on here where people tell you what books they liked for what subjects.

Basically, all that there is to do is do it. The big debate is whether you want to study during the school year or wait until summer. I personaly didn't do any focused USMLE study during the second year, as I considered studying for my second year exams my "Step 1" prep. However, if you're at a school where courses are "low yield" on boards prep stuff, your mileage may vary. Both are legit strategies.


As for my personal advice? I'd suggest trying to learn a subject, while simultaneously measuring your progress in it by using a Qbank. Measure your progress during your study schedule using NBME exams to gauge if you're improving and where you score should reasonably end up. First AID should serve as your "I must know everything inside this book cold. Backwards and forwards" because it's such high yield stuff. I honestly believe knowing First Aid well will make it so you PASS, but not give you a high score. All the extra reading in Path, Biochem, Physio, Micro, ethics etc. is where you're going to change a low 200's into a 240 plus.

If you're a big flashcards type guy, that's not the worst way to study. Just make sure you're not making a lot of flashcards that you'll never get to really use. Wasting your time on making them and not testing yourself is a bad use of time. I personally used question banks like "flashcards' (Btw, make sure you read all explanations on practice questions, even if you get the question right. You may have gotten it right for the wrong reason, which gives you a false sense of security. The question explanation may also contain other high yield tips).

Regardless of what you do, the main thing is to simply "do the work". If you put in your time, even if your sources aren't the most "high yield" and "recommended" you'll probably end up doing great. So don't spend days worrying if you used the wrong book for Biochem, that's time that could be spent actually learning biochem.

Sorry this response is so general, but you asked a very general question. Just know there are plenty of people on this forum who scored extremely competitively who like to help future test takers (since we received such tremendous help here ourselves). We don't always agree (there's really no best way to study, only what's best for you) but we can sure give you the range of opinions.

Thank you first off, for taking the time to write back

Right now I am split between IM and EM as future fields

and I have been doing mostly at the Average, sometimes high, sometimes below--i am usually at the mean but my school tends to cover low yield subjects, not things that are important for boards

I am not planning on making any flashcards because i feel the ones i have that cover all of First Aid should suffice--my plan was to memorize a chapter of first aid via flashcards, get the core concepts down, do a qbank on the subject and see what material that wasn't covered in FA that i should know

I plan to do this during the year mixed in with class studies and when the academic year ends, just do the flashcards and qbank and exams

Again thank you again for taking the time out to write a response