How early should I start prepping for Step 1?

[reedgw]

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Hope all you expert med students can give me a little advice...

I just graduated college and I'm going to start medschool in the fall as a MS1 and I heard it might be useful to start looking over USMLE Step 1 books AS I learn the material next year. Is this a good idea? Would anyone recommend getting a First Aid book or an anatomy book to go over little by little this summer, or is this too early to start studying for this beast? Any advice from you pros would be much appreciated. I've got some time on my hands this summer and thought it might be useful to start prepping at my leasure, or at the least have a head start and a plan on how to approach the test from day 1 of medschool.

Thanks for any help!
Grant

 

[missbonnie]

Yo, you are wayyyyyyy to early. Dont even think about till 2nd yr.. seriously.
Best prep is to study hard when u get to med school.

 

[dara678]

before you go to med school, if you have time on your hands, please GO OUT AND PLAY!!!! i cannot emphasize this enough. once you step into the classroom, believe me you are going to wish you did something fun with all that free time -- cuz that's going to be far and few between from then on.

besides, you're going to have PLENTY of time to prepare for step 1, and reading first aid would be worthless without the appropriate medical/clinical context.

so GO OUT AND ENJOY THE SUNSHINE ... and don't worry about med school until you get there.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Review books are called review books for a reason.

Enjoy your summer

 

[chillypalmer]

thanks ,
Its all clear now, my stupid proffessors told me, Chilly , you are stupid, better prep from now, or else you will need 5 attempts at Step 1.
But after reading these posts, I am going to chill out.
Thanks a bunch,... 😀 👍

 

[mlw03]

Yo, you are wayyyyyyy to early. Dont even think about till 2nd yr.. seriously.
Best prep is to study hard when u get to med school.

i'll second this idea. until about 2 months before the actual exam, the best way to study is to just work hard during your courses and try to learn the material. if you spend 2+ years thinking about one test, you're gonna have such a freak-out when it comes.

yes, step I is important, but i think what's more important is learning the material so you're ready for the clinical years of medical school and then your residency. something that worked for me when i was studying and wanted to gouge my eyes out was to think that somewhere in the world is a patient who needs a doctor that knows what i'm studying right now.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

I pretty much agree with the idea that it won't do you much good to study this early on. But, I don't think its a bad idea to get first aid and review books and work through them as you go through first and second year courses, making notes and organizing stuff that'll be useful for review later. I'm spending some time while I prep for step 1 getting things together that I probably could have done better during the classes. Plus, the review books that I did use in certain classes helped me get the "big picture" better than the class work did a lot of times.

Anyway, if I could go back and do it over again, I'd have tried to keep a binder with copies of good summary tables/diagrams that aren't in first aid in as complete a form. That would be helpful now.

Summer before med school I didn't really study, but I did go on and get Netter's anatomy cards and looked them over casually. Won't help you much, but if you are looking for something to do before falling asleep or something, then find out what sections your anatomy class begins with (we started with the back) and learn a few of the cards a night. Could make the hectic first few weeks a little less hectic. But, I really wouldn't lose your summer on it, cause it will make very little difference.

 

[Dunce]

I pretty much agree with the idea that it won't do you much good to study this early on. But, I don't think its a bad idea to get first aid and review books and work through them as you go through first and second year courses, making notes and organizing stuff that'll be useful for review later. I'm spending some time while I prep for step 1 getting things together that I probably could have done better during the classes. Plus, the review books that I did use in certain classes helped me get the "big picture" better than the class work did a lot of times.

This is good advice, and in my opinion is all a first or second year student needs to do until about 1-2 months before they take step 1. I used the key review books along with each class as a supplement to learning and a way to bring everything together to distill what might actually be considered important out of all the minutiae that we are supposed to memorize. I used the BRS books during gross, biochem, phys, and path. I also used some other things like Micro Ridiculously Simple.
One regret I have is not getting a copy of First Aid when I started med school. It is not a great way to teach yourself. In fact I think it is pretty pathetic at that, but it does a good job of laying out what is condsidered important for the boards. It also becomes a good review once you have seen and learned the material.

One other suggestion might be to get a book that is a guide to getting into a residency (Iserson's is apprently not too bad). Personally, I haven't used one and feel like I have learned enough off of SDN and some other key websites. I don't think there is much more that I could learn from a book. However, I didn't have a solid understanding of the residency application process, match, specialty choosing, etc until just a few months ago (and I am at the end of my 2nd year now). A book like that would be great to just spell things out for someone who is new to the medical school game.

this post got really long.