How long did you study for Step 1?

[Acoustic]

How long did you study for Step 1 after your regular classes had ended (i.e. completely dedicated Step 1 studying)? I'm only in my first year but am thinking about planning some events for that small break between taking Step 1 and starting clinical rotations. Thanks!

This was also posted in the allopathic forum but someone suggested it'd be better asked here.

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[chiefMD]

You could go either way on this. Some people think time off is more important and some think studying is more important. I'd say just concentrate on learning everything now and you won't have to worry about studying as much before. I started studying in January with the addition of regular classes and will have about 4 weeks dedicated time before my test. This includes doing first aid 3x's, world 2x's and DIT.

Planning something between second and third year seems a little premature if you haven't even had the summer after first year off yet.

 

[Acoustic]

You could go either way on this. Some people think time off is more important and some think studying is more important. I'd say just concentrate on learning everything now and you won't have to worry about studying as much before. I started studying in January with the addition of regular classes and will have about 4 weeks dedicated time before my test. This includes doing first aid 3x's, world 2x's and DIT.

Planning something between second and third year seems a little premature if you haven't even had the summer after first year off yet.

Thanks for the breakdown, def looking for info of this type. To be clear, the something I'm planning has nothing to do with school at all - purely "vacation", of the "necessary to plan months to years ahead" type.

 

[Valvool]

Our school gave us four weeks, and I used four weeks of vacation for a total of eight weeks prep time for Step 1. In retrospect the last 2 weeks were probably not necessary. Although I wanted to study, was mentally and emotionally motivated and showed up at the library every morning with my stack of books, the text would swim before my eyes and I would have trouble focusing on and absorbing any more information.

 

[XRanger]

I think 4 weeks of dedicated studying is enough if you have been studying during your 2nd year classes. I only took 4 weeks of dedicated studying but I started end of january. By the end of my 4 week, I already went through uworld x3, FAx4, goljanx3, half of usmlerx, and the last day or two I didn't even study cause I was just sick of looking at the text