Honest question-Pathology on Step1

[tripwm]

Okay, so I haven't quite looked at the literature, but I've noticed that every study plan seems to incorporate Goljan audio/Pathoma + WorldBank + First Aid.

What is the ball-park percentage of Pathology on Step1? I love both Goljan and Pathoma, but I feel like I'm neglecting my other classes by focusing on pseudo-Step-1 prep purely on one subject (basic strategy:class study, supplement with Goljan while I work out, Pathoma, and First Aid for all other subjects). Is pathology very high-yield, or does it simply incorporate many of the other disciplines leading to a better review?

Note: I've only seen the data corresponding to organ systems.

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[da Vincis World]

Okay, so I haven't quite looked at the literature, but I've noticed that every study plan seems to incorporate Goljan audio/Pathoma + WorldBank + First Aid.

What is the ball-park percentage of Pathology on Step1? I love both Goljan and Pathoma, but I feel like I'm neglecting my other classes by focusing on pseudo-Step-1 prep purely on one subject (basic strategy:class study, supplement with Goljan while I work out, Pathoma, and First Aid for all other subjects). Is pathology very high-yield, or does it simply incorporate many of the other disciplines leading to a better review?

Note: I've only seen the data corresponding to organ systems.

These should definitely be in your plan....FA, uWorld, Pathoma+Goljan audio is exactly what you need. There is lots of path on the exam so it is certainly high yield but to be honest it is not that difficult if you study the resources above. As for percentage of step 1 I have no idea but you should certainly know it well. And yes path does incorporate many other disciplines and should not really be considered one subject. Even with the questions that are not specifically path questions, a strong path background can help immensely.

I don't know when you take your test but you should probably start questions from uWorld(or another good bank) about 6-8mos out. I did my best to get through a block of 46 everyday and I was able to get through uWorld ~3.5x. This was key to getting a great score....at least for me. I usually did the questions at night right before bed, I then would wake a about and hour and half before class and start reading the explanations(read ALL of them, uWorld is just like another text and it is the BEST text for Step 1) and annotating into FA. I would continue this into lecture until I was finished with those 46 and then start over again that evening.

 

[tripwm]

Thanks homes. I had planned a similar study strategy, with additionally focusing on questions pertinent to the block/class that I was currently in (essentially to throw information that I was not aware of into these notes).

I just had never heard why pathology was such a big deal. I just knew that everyone pretty much did it, so I would too. Follower here....

 

[use your eyes]

Yeah man I was wondering the same thing. Looked up the Step 1 info pdf (it's somewhere on the official site if you google it) and it's somewhere around 40-50%. So a decent chunk for sure. Definitely time well spent, and that's been supported by people who have taken the test and killed it.

 

[loveoforganic2]

The way I've been told/read is somewhere around 50% of the questions involve pathology, but they aren't necessarily path question. In other words, some path background needed to answer what's really a phys question or a biochem question, etc.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Okay, so I haven't quite looked at the literature, but I've noticed that every study plan seems to incorporate Goljan audio/Pathoma + WorldBank + First Aid.

What is the ball-park percentage of Pathology on Step1? I love both Goljan and Pathoma, but I feel like I'm neglecting my other classes by focusing on pseudo-Step-1 prep purely on one subject (basic strategy:class study, supplement with Goljan while I work out, Pathoma, and First Aid for all other subjects). Is pathology very high-yield, or does it simply incorporate many of the other disciplines leading to a better review?

Note: I've only seen the data corresponding to organ systems.

Think about what path is. Is how things break. "Path," the medical school course, is not actually "Pathology," the medical discipline. Pathology is staining tissue and looking at it under slides. Its basically histology. Only its what you think of as histology for bad things, knowing stains and the like.

"Path" as a second year medical school course, "Path" on the USMLE Step 1, and "Path" in Pathoma and goljan, are really "Mechanism of Disease," i.e. Pathophysiology. To get "path" you have to understand anatomy, histology, and physiology. How things work. Then, to get REALLY get path, you finish it off with "how things break." Thus "Path" as medical students know it is really the culmination of everything you have learned thus far, and is more aptly named "pathophysiology"

Both Goljan and Pathoma cover "pathophysiology" while engaging you in the "pathology."

Confusing terminology, I know, since they all sound the same and most people would say its just semantics. Just recognize that YOU are studying more than just bad histology slides when you study path, and what a pathologist does is look at slides under a microscope.