How long to study for boards?

[bigeyedfish]

How long do most people take to study for Step 1 and Step 2? At my school we get about 5 weeks. But I have heard about other students taking upwards of 3 months.

What is every else's experience?

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[omarsaleh66]

Man i had 5 weeks to take it. Not enough time for me baby, start earlier in the year and knock out a crap load of questions. Before u start anything u need to take your punk ass to Blockbuster video and rent that movie with Kirsten Dunst when she is a cheerleader, I think its called Bring It On. --> this movie should pump u up and inspire u to hit the books and when step 1 comes around u need to Bring it bitch!!

EDIT: please dont be offended by my harsh language, Im just showing u some tough love and trying to get u hype!!!

 

[pillowhead]

How long do most people take to study for Step 1 and Step 2? At my school we get about 5 weeks. But I have heard about other students taking upwards of 3 months.

What is every else's experience?

I studied for six weeks and felt like it was too long. Five weeks seems like plenty. Of course, this is assuming you went to a school that prepares you moderately well for the boards and that your performed moderately well in the first two years.

 

[opus03]

I thought 4 weeks was perfect. I wanted to postpone my test to have 5 but am so glad that I didn't....having a vacation was much more important to me.

 

[RLMD]

I studied for 6 weeks, for an average of 12 hours a day, every day, no days off. I usually can feel when Im ready, and I didnt feel ready until about 5 days before my exam so I think I planned well. But my school left me with various deficiencies (pharm!) that I felt I needed to get straight before I was ready to get the score that I wanted. Its hard to guage how much time you need/how much you can take before you completely burnout, but taking a practice exam like the NBME before you start studying can give you an idea where your deficiencies are and how much work you have to do to get the score you want.

 

[klubguts]

I studied about 3 1/2 weeks for step 1 and a little less than 2 weeks for step 2. It just depends on your study habits (ie, 6 vs. 12 hr days), background knowledge base, and stamina....i HIT the wall at about three weeks of intense prep for step 1. Studying for step 2 was not as bad for me. good luck.

 

[Pox in a box]

I'm embarrassed to even say how long I studied...you can find my thoughts on this deep in the archives.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Man i had 5 weeks to take it. Not enough time for me baby, start earlier in the year and knock out a crap load of questions. Before u start anything u need to take your punk ass to Blockbuster video and rent that movie with Kirsten Dunst when she is a cheerleader, I think its called Bring It On. --> this movie should pump u up and inspire u to hit the books and when step 1 comes around u need to Bring it bitch!!

EDIT: please dont be offended by my harsh language, Im just showing u some tough love and trying to get u hype!!!

I took step 1 last year, could've used the inspiration then. I'm studying for step 2 right now though, so I may go rent it. Bring it bitch!

It sounds like 4-6 weeks is the general consensus. The reason I asked is I've talked to several students from the caribbean rotating at my school who said they took 2-3 months for step one. I was just wondering of this was the norm, or if we were getting screwed on time. To be honest thought, I don't know if I could've studied longer, although I surely needed to. My pharm knowledge sucked. (and still does somewhat.)

 

[Ramoray]

I think it is impossible to advise on this. It really comes down to how well you learned things the first 2 years. If you LEARNED everything the first 2 years then id say 5 weeks to read through things once and refresh yourself is more than enough. Myself however was weak in numerous topics becasue i never had the time to learn them. Many pharm drugs, some path topics, etc i had to actually LEARN and i needed more than 5 weeks. I also know myself when i feel ready.. most people know when they feel ready. I mean nobody ever knows everything but you know when you have reviewed everything you know and feel good about what YOU know.. it may not be everything someone else knows but what im saying is you feel ready when you know what you know if ya know what i mean

 

[DoctorDoogie4]

How long do most people take to study for Step 1 and Step 2? At my school we get about 5 weeks. But I have heard about other students taking upwards of 3 months.

What is every else's experience?

I thought 5 weeks was enough. Anything past 5 weeks, the likelihood to get burned out increases. Just do well in your academic courses and study hard core for 5 weeks, you should be fine.

 

[HiddenTruth]

I think it is impossible to advise on this. It really comes down to how well you learned things the first 2 years. If you LEARNED everything the first 2 years then id say 5 weeks to read through things once and refresh yourself is more than enough. Myself however was weak in numerous topics becasue i never had the time to learn them. Many pharm drugs, some path topics, etc i had to actually LEARN and i needed more than 5 weeks. I also know myself when i feel ready.. most people know when they feel ready. I mean nobody ever knows everything but you know when you have reviewed everything you know and feel good about what YOU know.. it may not be everything someone else knows but what im saying is you feel ready when you know what you know if ya know what i mean

Agree 100% with all of this. I think it's a bunch of horsecrap when people say, you only need 3 or 4 weeks. That only holds true under certain cicumstances, and if you really look at it, these people had been studying all along their 2nd year, doign q's or some sort of studying (at least those that claim the "3-4 week title" and actually did well) or have had some clinical exposure. All I am saying is that, there are very few people who probably did not work hard during the first 2 years, or had a sucky curric. and did nothing to compensate, and only studied 3-4 weeks literally, and did well. This is very unlikely. Take the time period with a BIG grain of salt--it's very subjective, and it really depends on your innate ability to read, comprehend, and retain the material. While, it may take someone multiple reads to retain something, it may take others only once. It really depends on your fundamental baseline knowledge. If you had a crappy curriculum and/or you were a lazy/poor student, then you have to put in more time. Albeit, if it's the latter, then those habbits will likely carry over. So, be a good judge of yourself, and see how much you know, and how much you need to refresh yourself on. Plus, I think those that have a P/F curric can really benefit by studying board worthy material from the get go, rather than studyin all the crap you have to for classes at the expense of getting a pass. Just my two cents.

 

[samyjay]

25 days is good

 

[LaughingGiraffe]

I studied for three weeks. Some of those days I only studied a couple of hours, and some I was able to buckle down and study all day - I probably averaged 6-8 hours/day.

I took the exam in early June, so I suppose I'll hear around 7/20 - we'll see how it went...