How can avg students do amazing on step 1?

  • Thread starter Thread starter deleted604914
  • Start date Start date
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
D

deleted604914

Members don't see this ad.
So I'm an MS1 at a low-ish tier allopathic medical school. I am currently doing alright in school, but I am getting a bit worried that I am not going to be able to do well enough on step one to get into a competitive specialty if I wanted to. I feel like I'm not the smartest person nor the best standardized test taker, but I would really like to do well on step 1 and am willing to put in the effort to get there.

To give you a perspective of where I stand, I would say that if my school's average test scores are 80%, I'm getting 85% (with one standard deviation above being 90%). I spend a decent amount of time studying, but it takes me a lot longer to memorize material and I have difficulty retaining it. I feel that unless I can improve my ability to learn material and retain it, I am going to struggle on Step 1 and be unable to get a score that makes me a strong candidate for these specialties. What can I do now to improve and what should I do over the summer/during MS2 to help me do great on Step 1? Are there a lot of students who are an average in class but kill Step 1? Thanks for your help.
 
futmeddoc said:
So I'm an MS1 at a low-ish tier allopathic medical school. I am currently doing alright in school, but I am getting a bit worried that I am not going to be able to do well enough on step one to get into a competitive specialty if I wanted to. I feel like I'm not the smartest person nor the best standardized test taker, but I would really like to do well on step 1 and am willing to put in the effort to get there.

To give you a perspective of where I stand, I would say that if my school's average test scores are 80%, I'm getting 85% (with one standard deviation above being 90%). I spend a decent amount of time studying, but it takes me a lot longer to memorize material and I have difficulty retaining it. I feel that unless I can improve my ability to learn material and retain it, I am going to struggle on Step 1 and be unable to get a score that makes me a strong candidate for these specialties. What can I do now to improve and what should I do over the summer/during MS2 to help me do great on Step 1? Are there a lot of students who are an average in class but kill Step 1? Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

What competitive specialties are you aiming for? What is the grading scheme for the first 2 years?
 
Accept that you're average and lower your expectations to reflect that. The lower your expectations, the more likely you are to get an "amazing" score.
 
dyspareunia said:
Accept that you're average and lower your expectations to reflect that. The lower your expectations, the more likely you are to get an "amazing" score.
Click to expand...
Loll how is that going to help him get into a competitive speciality?? Aim for a solid 200, if you get anything above that, consider yourself a genius!


Posted using SDN Mobile
 
futmeddoc said:
I'm talking about things like Ophtho, Ortho, etc. Our school is fail, pass, honors.
Click to expand...


Study study study , you do t have to be a genius to do well in med school. You need to be familiar with the information and know how to apply it.


Posted using SDN Mobile
 
I can tell you.

Buy Uworld from day 1 of MS2. Do 10-20 questions everyday, take notes on them and learn from even the wrong answer choices.

Also buy pathoma and work through that.

Complete Uworld by end of 1st semester or shortly after. If you end up working ahead, don't worry about it - just take notes and move on.

Next, start UsmleRx and do the same, 10-20 questions a day, the complete that. Just take notes on major concepts, not like Uworld.

Then in the final few months you will want to repeat Uworld again.

Using First Aid alongside in the last 3-6 months is a good idea too.

1. Focus on Uworld early on, finish it completely before 3 months out. Then do UsmleRx and completely finish before 3 months out. Rx is just to practice reps, don't worry about remembering everything from it or taking copious notes.

2. Do pathoma as many times as you can. Preferably 2 passes before 3 months out. The more the better

3. With 3 months out, now just focus on repeating Uworld and memorizing First Aid. If you did #1 and #2, this should be high yield time to begin to memorize Uworld and First Aid with Pathoma. You don't want to approach concepts you've never thought through or that you don't understand in the final 3 months. It's time to memorize.

That's it.

Don't worry about saving Uworld. If you are an average student, you probably won't remember Uworld if you completed it 3-6 months before you do another pass. Whenever you study, try to think of ways to remember the material if you only had a chance to review it one more time (how can I make this stick or remember it?).
 
PhysioMD said:
Out of curiosity, is the school GPA taken into account when applying for residency or just the Step1/2 test scores?
Click to expand...
Well I believe we have a class rank, which would help for AOA. I think the main thing is step scores which is why I want to figure out what I can do now to get those as high as possible. I am sure that there are people who aren't geniuses (those people who can ace classes and do amazing on standardized tests) who have worked hard and smart to do well on step 1, so I am just trying to see if there are any people out there like that who could give some advice.
 
@JackShephard said:
I can tell you.

Buy Uworld from day 1 of MS2. Do 10-20 questions everyday, take notes on them and learn from even the wrong answer choices.

Also buy pathoma and work through that.

Complete Uworld by end of 1st semester or shortly after. If you end up working ahead, don't worry about it - just take notes and move on.

Next, start UsmleRx and do the same, 10-20 questions a day, the complete that. Just take notes on major concepts, not like Uworld.

Then in the final few months you will want to repeat Uworld again.

Using First Aid alongside in the last 3-6 months is a good idea too.

1. Focus on Uworld early on, finish it completely before 3 months out. Then do UsmleRx and completely finish before 3 months out. Rx is just to practice reps, don't worry about remembering everything from it or taking copious notes.

2. Do pathoma as many times as you can. Preferably 2 passes before 3 months out. The more the better

3. With 3 months out, now just focus on repeating Uworld and memorizing First Aid. If you did #1 and #2, this should be high yield time to begin to memorize Uworld and First Aid with Pathoma. You don't want to approach concepts you've never thought through or that you don't understand in the final 3 months. It's time to memorize.

That's it.

Don't worry about saving Uworld. If you are an average student, you probably won't remember Uworld if you completed it 3-6 months before you do another pass. Whenever you study, try to think of ways to remember the material if you only had a chance to review it one more time (how can I make this stick or remember it?).
Click to expand...
This is a great reply, thank you! I have been going through first aid/brs, and watching Kaplan videos so far for the relevant areas we are learning in class and I think that has helped me improve on tests. I actually just started doing a bit of pathoma (videos) for a couple relevant topics we have gotten to so far. I definitely plan to start doing Uworld at the start. What would you say I could do during the summer? I will be doing research so I should have plenty of time to start some prep. Thanks again for the help.
 
futmeddoc said:
I'm talking about things like Ophtho, Ortho, etc. Our school is fail, pass, honors.
Click to expand...

So according to this http://b83c73bcf0e7ca356c80-e8560f4...tent/uploads/2013/08/chartingoutcomes2011.pdf
the average USMLE Step 1 score of a U.S. Senior who matched into Ortho was 240. Optho is in the SF match (not the NRMP match) so it's not in that pdf.

I'm guessing that you have to be 1 standard deviation about the average to get Honors or is it just 90% and higher gets you Honors? You'll have to kick it into the Honors range (not necessarily for Step 1 purposes, but for higher class rank purposes) esp. for Optho.
 
DermViser said:
So according to this http://b83c73bcf0e7ca356c80-e8560f4...tent/uploads/2013/08/chartingoutcomes2011.pdf
the average USMLE Step 1 score of a U.S. Senior who matched into Ortho was 240. Optho is in the SF match (not the NRMP match) so it's not in that pdf.

I'm guessing that you have to be 1 standard deviation about the average to get Honors or is it just 90% and higher gets you Honors? You'll have to kick it into the Honors range (not necessarily for Step 1 purposes, but for higher class rank purposes) esp. for Optho.
Click to expand...
For us it's just 90% or higher is Honors. It depends on the class, but the people getting honors are well above 1 st dev. From what I've been told from our upperclassmen, MS1/2 grades do not make much of an impact in rank (mainly 3rd and 4th year matters) so I am just trying to focus on how I can learn the material well and improve test taking in order to do well on Step 1.
 
futmeddoc said:
This is a great reply, thank you! I have been going through first aid/brs, and watching Kaplan videos so far for the relevant areas we are learning in class and I think that has helped me improve on tests. I actually just started doing a bit of pathoma (videos) for a couple relevant topics we have gotten to so far. I definitely plan to start doing Uworld at the start. What would you say I could do during the summer? I will be doing research so I should have plenty of time to start some prep. Thanks again for the help.
Click to expand...

Honestly, the summer time is low yield time. Part of Step 1 is a little bit of cramming, in that you need to be able to really peak in the last 4-6 weeks. You will truly understand this when those weeks arrive.

With all that said, if someone was a total gunner and wanted to gun all summer, I could think of no better advice than to just watch Pathoma as many times as they wanted. If something doesn't make sense in pathoma, then use Wikipedia to figure it out. What else? nothing. If you memorize pathoma really well you're probably already hitting 230+.

If I had nothing to do in life and just wanted to learn medical things, I guess I could spend the summer watching Pathoma 4 times. I honestly think that would help you for your career. Going through First Aid and all that other stuff? There's a lot of memorizing in there and not a lot of understanding. If you are working ahead, at least work on thought process stuff (i.e. Pathoma), and not memorizing the branches of the brachial plexus.

On the other hand, medical school is a marathon. If you study all summer you could begin to hate your existence and burn yourself out. The people enjoying themselves, going on vacation, and living life will be much better rested, especially when it comes time to those last 4-6 weeks - which like I said, are the critical weeks of Step 1 prep. Think of them like the 4th quarter of a football game. If you fall apart then, it doesn't matter what your prep before hand was.

I wouldn't advise this for 99% of people BUT if you want to be a hermit, I might as well give you good advice.
 
futmeddoc said:
For us it's just 90% or higher is Honors. It depends on the class, but the people getting honors are well above 1 st dev. From what I've been told from our upperclassmen, MS1/2 grades do not make much of an impact in rank (mainly 3rd and 4th year matters) so I am just trying to focus on how I can learn the material well and improve test taking in order to do well on Step 1.
Click to expand...

Ok, so in other words, you're not affected by OTHER people's perforamance. 90 or Higher is Honors, period.

They do matter more for competitive specialties when it comes to rank. The MS-1/MS-2 grades "don't count" crowd are usually crowed by people who aren't gunning for competitive specialties.
 
@JackShephard said:
Honestly, the summer time is low yield time. Part of Step 1 is a little bit of cramming, in that you need to be able to really peak in the last 4-6 weeks. You will truly understand this when those weeks arrive.

With all that said, if someone was a total gunner and wanted to gun all summer, I could think of no better advice than to just watch Pathoma as many times as they wanted. If something doesn't make sense in pathoma, then use Wikipedia to figure it out. What else? nothing. If you memorize pathoma really well you're probably already hitting 230+.

If I had nothing to do in life and just wanted to learn medical things, I guess I could spend the summer watching Pathoma 4 times. I honestly think that would help you for your career. Going through First Aid and all that other stuff? There's a lot of memorizing in there and not a lot of understanding. If you are working ahead, at least work on thought process stuff (i.e. Pathoma), and not memorizing the branches of the brachial plexus.

On the other hand, medical school is a marathon. If you study all summer you could begin to hate your existence and burn yourself out. The people enjoying themselves, going on vacation, and living life will be much better rested, especially when it comes time to those last 4-6 weeks - which like I said, are the critical weeks of Step 1 prep. Think of them like the 4th quarter of a football game. If you fall apart then, it doesn't matter what your prep before hand was.

I wouldn't advise this for 99% of people BUT if you want to be a hermit, I might as well give you good advice.
Click to expand...
I completely understand what you are saying. I am definitely going to relax a good amount because I know I will burnout. I think I will take your advice with Pathoma, though, because if I can learn it once early on, it will come to me a lot faster during the year going over it again. I think I will just maybe set aside even just an hour or two a day (at most) to watch a bit of Pathoma and see how far I can get. I definitely don't plan on gunning hardcore by any means because I know I won't retain much anyways. Thanks for the advice.
 
DermViser said:
Ok, so in other words, you're not affected by OTHER people's perforamance. 90 or Higher is Honors, period.

They do matter more for competitive specialties when it comes to rank. The MS-1/MS-2 grades "don't count" crowd are usually crowed by people who aren't gunning for competitive specialties.
Click to expand...
It depends on the class, but for the most part you're right, others' performances do not matter. When I said don't count, I mean the weighting for the Ms1/2 courses are so minimal that 1 clerkship basically equals the whole year (AOA wise, at least). What I've been told (by the way, I tried to ask people who matched into competitive specialities like Radio/Ophtho/Derm/Ortho) is that honoring your rotations are the most important thing for rank.
 
futmeddoc said:
It depends on the class, but for the most part you're right, others' performances do not matter. When I said don't count, I mean the weighting for the Ms1/2 courses are so minimal that 1 clerkship basically equals the whole year (AOA wise, at least). What I've been told (by the way, I tried to ask people who matched into competitive specialities like Radio/Ophtho/Derm/Ortho) is that honoring your rotations are the most important thing for rank.
Click to expand...

That being said, clerkship grades are MUCH more subjective, and slightly out of your control than grades in the first 2 years.
 
Buy First aid and use it with your classes. Make sure before taking your class exam for a section you know everything in first aid for that specific section.
Buy Pathoma and go over it till you know every single word in it.
Get Uworld and get 2-3 passes before taking step 1.
 
DermViser said:
That being said, clerkship grades are MUCH more subjective, and slightly out of your control than grades in the first 2 years.
Click to expand...
Good point. I can't do much now to change what has already passed but that being said I am still trying to do the best that I can in my classes!
 
As an MS2, First AID would have been useless to ME in MS1. I borrowed a PDF copy and used it to study the RNA and DNA viruses and that was it. I honestly don't recommend using First AID is MS1. I could see how doing Pathoma or Goljan could be helpful but I think it is overkill. I used my free time in MS1 to do lots of research.

We are doing neuropath now and I quickly re-memorized the lysosomal storage disorders, and it came back fast.

PS: at the end of the day, you do what works for you.
 
@JackShephard said:
Buy Uworld from day 1 of MS2. Do 10-20 questions everyday, take notes on them and learn from even the wrong answer choices.
Click to expand...

Out of morbid curiosity, about how long does it take, on average, to get through 10-20 questions?
 
futmeddoc said:
Good point. I can't do much now to change what has already passed but that being said I am still trying to do the best that I can in my classes!
Click to expand...

The key in medical school is to pivot when you realize you're going in the wrong direction and try your best to correct. No one (not even the competitive specialties) expect a perfect transcript with not even one Pass or High Pass.
 
I'm done with this.
 
Last edited:
futmeddoc said:
So I'm an MS1 at a low-ish tier allopathic medical school. I am currently doing alright in school, but I am getting a bit worried that I am not going to be able to do well enough on step one to get into a competitive specialty if I wanted to. I feel like I'm not the smartest person nor the best standardized test taker, but I would really like to do well on step 1 and am willing to put in the effort to get there.

To give you a perspective of where I stand, I would say that if my school's average test scores are 80%, I'm getting 85% (with one standard deviation above being 90%). I spend a decent amount of time studying, but it takes me a lot longer to memorize material and I have difficulty retaining it. I feel that unless I can improve my ability to learn material and retain it, I am going to struggle on Step 1 and be unable to get a score that makes me a strong candidate for these specialties. What can I do now to improve and what should I do over the summer/during MS2 to help me do great on Step 1? Are there a lot of students who are an average in class but kill Step 1? Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Listen class scores dont mean jack. Most m1 tests are written for memorizers and one-step reasoners. At least that has been my experience.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile
 
If you struggle during the first couple of years (obviously you haven't) then that might be a sign that step 1 won't go all that great. But since you've kept up with at least average in your class I think it becomes more difficult to extrapolate to your step 1 score. I was a pretty average student my first two years, studied really hard for step 1 and did better than I ever hoped. So I think you should just focus hard on step 1 when the time comes and not worry about your previous performance which by the way looks pretty solid
 
dyspareunia said:
Accept that you're average and lower your expectations to reflect that. The lower your expectations, the more likely you are to get an "amazing" score.
Click to expand...
In a taunting mood, I assume?
 
So, I get that Pathoma is technically a review source, but people seem to keep saying that Dr. Sattar does a great job of explaining the material you need to know. Would it be reasonable to just watch/read the corresponding sections throughout pathology second year and then just maybe glance over glance notes to fill in any details he might not have mentioned? Or is it not really good as a semi-substitute for lectures?
 
cbrons said:
Listen class scores dont mean jack. Most m1 tests are written for memorizers and one-step reasoners. At least that has been my experience.
Click to expand...

It's always fun to see the student who get full of themselves and think by acing rote memorization questions (one step) on professor-based exams and think that this is indicative of how they'll do on boards. Questions are no longer like this and are retired for good reason:

http://www.geocities.ws/copticmedical/nbme2.pdf
http://usmleweb.com/downloads/NBME_01.pdf

Medical students are getting smarter and smarter, with much better resources, which is why the USMLE Step 1 average keeps going up higher and higher every year (with increase in the score needed to pass). They've even added media clips such as heart sounds, something that never ever existed before, and sequential-item sets.

That being said, PhD professors continue to use rote memorization, one-step questions bc they don't take much effort to write, and don't care how well you do on USMLE Step 1, bc it doesn't affect their paycheck.

NBME test writers entire job and what they get paid well for writing good, standardized test questions to test whether you really know and understand the material OR just wrote memorized it. There will be wrote factoid questions which are gimmes, but they definitely won't be a majority of the questions, and neither will they be basic science subject-restricted.
 
Last edited:
eefen said:
So, I get that Pathoma is technically a review source, but people seem to keep saying that Dr. Sattar does a great job of explaining the material you need to know. Would it be reasonable to just watch/read the corresponding sections throughout pathology second year and then just maybe glance over glance notes to fill in any details he might not have mentioned? Or is it not really good as a semi-substitute for lectures?
Click to expand...

he's a primary source. I haven't even seen our school's path lecturs since October and I've crushed every exam. Like, I've missed 4 questions the entire year.
 
notbobtrustme said:
he's a primary source. I haven't even seen our school's path lecturs since October and I've crushed every exam. Like, I've missed 4 questions the entire year.
Click to expand...

Hmmm....interesting. So it's pretty easy to match up what's going on in class with the pathoma content?
 
First Aid and Pathoma...keep it simple.
 
eefen said:
Hmmm....interesting. So it's pretty easy to match up what's going on in class with the pathoma content?
Click to expand...

My friends and I are convinced that our school's curriculum was developed based on Pathoma and FA.
 
Daodejing said:
i'd definitely say this depends on your school...some are on a completely different wavelength.
Click to expand...

yes, this is true. We generally cover ~60-70% of what's in FA for pathology and some stuff that's not in FA/Pathoma. I use Pathoma as my primary path source and then I'll read the class notes once before the exam in order to pick up what they want us to know.
 
SurgeDO said:
My friends and I are convinced that our school's curriculum was developed based on Pathoma and FA.
Click to expand...

And you should be ecstatic and thanking your stars if that is the case, that your basic science classes are in line with what is important for Step 1.
 
eefen said:
So, I get that Pathoma is technically a review source, but people seem to keep saying that Dr. Sattar does a great job of explaining the material you need to know. Would it be reasonable to just watch/read the corresponding sections throughout pathology second year and then just maybe glance over glance notes to fill in any details he might not have mentioned? Or is it not really good as a semi-substitute for lectures?
Click to expand...

Depends on much of your class exam questions are professor-lecture-powerpoint dependent. That being said, use Step 1 review resources, IN CONJUNCTION, as you're learning about the topic in the course. It will click better that way.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

cerebellar
Step 1 advice!
Replies
0
Views
500
cerebellar
cerebellar
E
Uworld step 1 qbank
Replies
0
Views
152
ellebelle_8
E
S
M1 Step 1 Advice
Replies
4
Views
577
Goro
Goro
C
the state of step 1
2 3
Replies
103
Views
9K
Med Ed
Med Ed
B
Step 1 Advice Needed
Replies
7
Views
2K
BeeBoo420
B
Top