How much time do you have to study?

[lilmisssunshine]

I am just curious how much time students at different schools have to study. At my school we are given 4 week. And the students who are doing poorly or requested more time for various reasons are given almost 8 weeks.

After finding this out, I am really worried that I may not have enough time...

..and was hoping for someone to tell me the reality of how much time is ACTUALLY needed before over-killing the study process. I get that the more you study the better you do, but how much on average is alloted for USMLE studying?

Thanks guys and good luck to you all!

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[nogolfinsnow]

I am just curious how much time students at different schools have to study. At my school we are given 4 week. And the students who are doing poorly or requested more time for various reasons are given almost 8 weeks.

After finding this out, I am really worried that I may not have enough time...

..and was hoping for someone to tell me the reality of how much time is ACTUALLY needed before over-killing the study process. I get that the more you study the better you do, but how much on average is alloted for USMLE studying?

Thanks guys and good luck to you all!

This is only true up to a point. There is a significant burn-out factor with Step I studying. I was toasted after about 2.5 weeks. Fortunately, I was able to take two days off, regroup, and put in 1.5 more good weeks of studying before the test. But I got virtually the same score on the actual test that I got on two practice tests I did the week before. So I could have taken the test then, got the same score, and had an extra week of vacation.

Not all, but most of my friends said they gave themselves too much time to study. Most gave themselves 6 and wished they had taken 5 max. We all know this is a very important test, especially if we desire certain specialties or geographic locations for residency, so everyone wants to take the maximum amount of time to study. But I guarantee you will burn out at some point and your score may suffer because of this. I think 4-6 weeks should be plenty of time for most students. You will make the largest score gains in the first 2 weeks, then it will slow down, peak, plateau, and fall after that. The trick is figuring out where your peak/plateau are. If you've done reasonably well in the first two years you should be able to score well with 4 solid weeks of focused studying.

 

[vicinihil]

.

 

[TheExcalibur]

see post below!

 

[TheExcalibur]

bump.

I'm a OMS-II taking both USMLE and COMLEX.

I only have 4 weeks until my first board exam (May 10th - June 9th).

I have kept up with a good amt of boards studying throughout the semester and have finished reading several review books here and there on certain subjects (Biochem, Genetics, Micro, Pharm, Path).

Is it possible that after a good first run thru while in school and the 4 weeks after the semester ends seem reasonable to "get everything in"? This post is geared more towards those who have used 4 FREE weeks to study for the exam.....most people say 5 weeks is perfect and ideal, but any recent/other thoughts on this topic is beneficial.

 

[badasshairday]

At my school people study for 3.5 to 4.5 weeks max.

I have friends at Carib schools who have a whole semester called a 5th semester, which I think they take some kind of qualifying exam for the boards. Then they take a few months to study for it afterwards. That sounds like torture. I'd want to just study hard for a few weeks and get it over with.

I guess it just depends on where you are at personally. There is an Indian doctor who has been studying for Step 1 for over a year now. yikes!

 

[turkeyjerky]

my school gives us 3 weeks between end of 2nd year and the beginning of 3rd, it seems like maybe a quarter of the people i've talked to are just using those 3 weeks for it and most people are taking the first period off and studying for 5-6 weeks.

 

[illixir]

We are given 8 completely free weeks. Most people take it in 6 or 7 and have a break at the end as a reward. But not everyone uses their 8 weeks right when we finish preclinical(we finished preclinical march 6). So some will study right away and can also use spring break as an extra week since that is not included in the 8, others start their rotations or their research block and will have their 8 weeks budgeted in somewhere else like in june, july or even august-sept. I am choosing to get it out of the way now and then start rotations in May.

 

[1nycdoc8]

I have 6 weeks, but I've started reviewing for the boards w/ FA and Goljan and my exam is a few mos. away.

 

[mq123]

We get 7 weeks off between 2nd and 3rd year. I'm taking 5.5 weeks to study, and a week-and-a-half for vacation.

 

[Phur]

At my school people study for 3.5 to 4.5 weeks max.

I have friends at Carib schools who have a whole semester called a 5th semester, which I think they take some kind of qualifying exam for the boards. Then they take a few months to study for it afterwards. That sounds like torture. I'd want to just study hard for a few weeks and get it over with.

I guess it just depends on where you are at personally. There is an Indian doctor who has been studying for Step 1 for over a year now. yikes!

I can't speak for other Carib schools, but at AUC we're on a trimester system. In our 5th semester, we have class for the 1st half the semester plus our clinical course, which is the entire semester. After our classes end they tack on another clinical class, that I guess is supposed to prepare us for entering the hospital setting. We also got 1 week of live review from Kaplan. [Dr. Raymon (the guy from the Kaplan pharm videos) is amazing.] Then we have two exit exams, which you mentioned- the NBME comprehensive basic science exam and a Kaplan full length exit. Our 5th semester (may or may not be different than other schools) allows only a limited amount of Step study time. Not sure what the point of me bringing all this up except for the fact that our 5th semester was far from just a Step study semester. However, I'm pretty sure you're right that some schools do dedicate a lot more time than others to helping students prep for the exam.

Now for the actual question, our school forces us to take a leave of absence to take the exam. The only way to circumvent that is to take it really quickly so you can get 8 weeks of clinical work in, which is what's required to be a full time student. Very few actually do that, so people take anywhere from 1-4 months to study, with the average being right around 2 months. While it might sound great to have the luxury of that much time, there is the breaking point where you start losing more info than you put in. I took just under 2 months, but ideally should have taken it a week or two earlier.

 

[vicinihil]

We get max 5 weeks between the end of the 2nd year until the beginning of the 3rd year. We have to take it before starting rotations. Most people take it in 3 weeks because we have cumulative pharm and path finals and people usually feel adequately prepared for those two subjects coming out of intensely studying for them.

 

[badasshairday]

We get max 5 weeks between the end of the 2nd year until the beginning of the 3rd year. We have to take it before starting rotations. Most people take it in 3 weeks because we have cumulative pharm and path finals and people usually feel adequately prepared for those two subjects coming out of intensely studying for them.

This is exactly what folks at my school do. Cumulative pharm and path finals do have there benefit, lol.

 

[badasshairday]

I can't speak for other Carib schools, but at AUC we're on a trimester system. In our 5th semester, we have class for the 1st half the semester plus our clinical course, which is the entire semester. After our classes end they tack on another clinical class, that I guess is supposed to prepare us for entering the hospital setting. We also got 1 week of live review from Kaplan. [Dr. Raymon (the guy from the Kaplan pharm videos) is amazing.] Then we have two exit exams, which you mentioned- the NBME comprehensive basic science exam and a Kaplan full length exit. Our 5th semester (may or may not be different than other schools) allows only a limited amount of Step study time. Not sure what the point of me bringing all this up except for the fact that our 5th semester was far from just a Step study semester. However, I'm pretty sure you're right that some schools do dedicate a lot more time than others to helping students prep for the exam.

Now for the actual question, our school forces us to take a leave of absence to take the exam. The only way to circumvent that is to take it really quickly so you can get 8 weeks of clinical work in, which is what's required to be a full time student. Very few actually do that, so people take anywhere from 1-4 months to study, with the average being right around 2 months. While it might sound great to have the luxury of that much time, there is the breaking point where you start losing more info than you put in. I took just under 2 months, but ideally should have taken it a week or two earlier.

Interesting. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[kunfu]

We have four weeks off between last day of 2nd year and 3rd year. The bad part about that is most people are going to take the full 4 weeks and that leaves us without anytime to relax before the start of third year....

 

[starkcrazy]

Plenty of time... I skip or do unrelated work in most of my lectures.