How does your school prepare you for boards?

[Step2017]

I am wondering if your school does anything interesting to prepare you for boards?

I know that doing well in classes is number 1, but do you have any special Q/A sessions dedicated to doing well on boards etc? Specific lectures by Kaplan etc?

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[OnePunchBiopsy]

I am wondering if your school does anything interesting to prepare you for boards?

I know that doing well in classes is number 1, but do you have any special Q/A sessions dedicated to doing well on boards etc? Specific lectures by Kaplan etc?

After first year, doing well on Step should become number 1. If your school is like mine, they will try their best to cater second-year lectures toward content they believe is "high-yield." This is hard for schools to do, because Step 1 is kind of like a moving target. Stuff that was high-yield 3-4 years ago may not be anymore. My school also gave us Kaplan Qbank and access to their high-yield lecture series.

All the board prep me and my classmates did was outside of our lectures. Success on the boards is 100% dependent on the work you put into it. To the right we had our laptops open to a lecture playing a 2x speed, and to the left we had a copy of FA or pathoma.

 

[WheezyBaby]

I am wondering if your school does anything interesting to prepare you for boards?

I know that doing well in classes is number 1, but do you have any special Q/A sessions dedicated to doing well on boards etc? Specific lectures by Kaplan etc?

"These are the resources students have used in the past. Students who do well typically do xyz. Students who do poorly typically fail to do xyz. Good luck"

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Our school makes us take "comprehensive basic science exams" (nbme questions) in January and March to ensure we're on track or something. I think they also give the opportunity to continue taking these in April to track progress. It might be more of an official "we need to make sure you're going to pass before you take the exam so you don't screw your self over" type deal rather than a personal measuring stick considering the availability of practice NBME exams to students. I think they also do like a 1-2 week boot camp right after courses are done and before dedicated period; kind of a rapid review, here's how you study for step type thing. Then we get 8 or 9 weeks after that for dedicated. They also gave us a lecture at the beginning of the year with stats on the people from last years class i.e. who did well on step and how they prepared. Easily the highest correlation was grades during 2nd year, then number of qbank questions completed. Number of hours spent board studying per week was a weak correlation iirc. Not very surprising results there. So they implored us to try to learn for class, do a qbank alongside class, and supplement with FA and pathoma and sketchy. Pretty standard stuff.


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[Ace Khalifa]

Our school makes us take "comprehensive basic science exams" (nbme questions) in January and March to ensure we're on track or something. I think they also give the opportunity to continue taking these in April to track progress. It might be more of an official "we need to make sure you're going to pass before you take the exam so you don't screw your self over" type deal rather than a personal measuring stick considering the availability of practice NBME exams to students. I think they also do like a 1-2 week boot camp right after courses are done and before dedicated period; kind of a rapid review, here's how you study for step type thing. Then we get 8 or 9 weeks after that for dedicated. They also gave us a lecture at the beginning of the year with stats on the people from last years class i.e. who did well on step and how they prepared. Easily the highest correlation was grades during 2nd year, then number of qbank questions completed. Number of hours spent board studying per week was a weak correlation iirc. Not very surprising results there. So they implored us to try to learn for class, do a qbank alongside class, and supplement with FA and pathoma and sketchy. Pretty standard stuff.


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Bro we only get 6 weeks for dedicated, you're so lucky lol. But yeah I agree with everyone so far. My school will have step 1 advice sessions eventually, I think.

 

[coldcase331]

Bro we only get 6 weeks for dedicated, you're so lucky lol. But yeah I agree with everyone so far. My school will have step 1 advice sessions eventually, I think.

My school gives 4 weeks.....

 

[Taddy Mason]

My school gives 4 weeks.....

Same here, and that's only if you start studying the day after the last exams of 2nd year and take Step the day before 3rd year orientation. Plus ~85% of the class has to move between 2nd and 3rd year which is more lost time, so most people at my school usually end-up with more like 2.5-3 weeks of true dedicated time.

 

[LaurenMD]

They have us do clerkship year before taking step 1. And then they give us virtually unlimited dedicated study time.

 

[Goro]

This is an outstanding question and one that should be asked by anyone interviewing at a medical school!

I believe that all schools should do the following:

Have board style questions for exams. These should be well written and vetted by fellow faculty for content, veracity, format and historical performance. To my amazement, there are schools, like LizzyM's that have staff that do nothing but this!
Have subject reviews at set times during the curriculum, with emphasis on explaining why the right answers are correct, and the wrong answers aren't
Have enough time prior to Boards for self study (my kids get about 3-5 weeks)
Have lecture content that is geared to both Boards and wards (yes, you need to know things for your preceptors). personally, I have no problem teaching to the Boards.
Keep state of the art, scientific findings to a minimum
Never, ever should a lecturer discuss their research as part of coursework
Encourage active learning
Reinforce concepts throughout the two years of pre-clinical study
Have exams that mimic Boards.total content. ie, Your exams should be of mixed content, not, say Anatomy on Monday, Physiology on Tuesday during exam block week. No silos for content!
Not allow students to take Boards until they ready. If you have to burn an elective for more study time, all the better.

I am wondering if your school does anything interesting to prepare you for boards?

I know that doing well in classes is number 1, but do you have any special Q/A sessions dedicated to doing well on boards etc? Specific lectures by Kaplan etc?

 

[takeurmeds02]

This is an outstanding question and one that should be asked by anyone interviewing at a medical school!

I believe that all schools should do the following:

Have board style questions for exams. These should be well written and vetted by fellow faculty for content, veracity, format and historical performance. To my amazement, there are schools, like LizzyM's that have staff that do nothing but this!
Have subject reviews at set times during the curriculum, with emphasis on explaining why the right answers are correct, and the wrong answers aren't
Have enough time prior to Boards for self study (my kids get about 3-5 weeks)
Have lecture content that is geared to both Boards and wards (yes, you need to know things for your preceptors). personally, I have no problem teaching to the Boards.
Keep state of the art, scientific findings to a minimum
Never, ever should a lecturer discuss their research as part of coursework
Encourage active learning
Reinforce concepts throughout the two years of pre-clinical study
Have exams that mimic Boards.total content. ie, Your exams should be of mixed content, not, say Anatomy on Monday, Physiology on Tuesday during exam block week. No silos for content!
Not allow students to take Boards until they ready. If you have to burn an elective for more study time, all the better.

Omg the bold. I think it's really cool what some of theses professionals are pumping out but just not during lecture hour. Research is such a dynamic thing that it's not worth spending so much time on when you're still learning fundamentals.

 

[username456789]

I don't know why but it amuses me that students now use the solo term "dedicated" by itself to refer to the period of dedicated Step I study.

 

[Blob229]

Our school makes us take "comprehensive basic science exams" (nbme questions) in January and March to ensure we're on track or something. I think they also give the opportunity to continue taking these in April to track progress. It might be more of an official "we need to make sure you're going to pass before you take the exam so you don't screw your self over" type deal rather than a personal measuring stick considering the availability of practice NBME exams to students. I think they also do like a 1-2 week boot camp right after courses are done and before dedicated period; kind of a rapid review, here's how you study for step type thing. Then we get 8 or 9 weeks after that for dedicated. They also gave us a lecture at the beginning of the year with stats on the people from last years class i.e. who did well on step and how they prepared. Easily the highest correlation was grades during 2nd year, then number of qbank questions completed. Number of hours spent board studying per week was a weak correlation iirc. Not very surprising results there. So they implored us to try to learn for class, do a qbank alongside class, and supplement with FA and pathoma and sketchy. Pretty standard stuff.


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My school provides two CBSEs as well. The first in March, the second in May.

I tend to agree with your school, if you learn your stuff well in class, you've built a solid foundation for boards. That's not to say that additional board specific studying on top of that won't help. (More studying almost always leads to better performance.) In my opinion, it's a lot easier to relearn stuff and remind yourself of high yield associations than it is to remember what you learned from bullet points (board review materials) in the first place. I'm a big fan of "why" and the "big picture/story."