Hi,
How should one efficiently prepare for the step 1 anatomy questions ?
How should one efficiently prepare for the step 1 anatomy questions ?
USMLE How to best prepare for anatomy question in step 1
- Thread starter Prince090
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First and and do well in years 1 & 2 in gross anatomy. My anatomy was straight forward, but really the plethora of questions they CAN ask, it is hard to prepare for. For example I had 0 stuff that I spent a lot of time studying, major muscles, brachial/sacral/lumbar plexus, but had several questions on pelvic anatomy. I had maybe 4 anatomy questions and you will spend a ton of time learning low yield stuff.
Note, some of my classmates had "anatomy" heavy exams whatever that means. Fwiw those students did exceptionally well and did not overly study anatomy.
Note, some of my classmates had "anatomy" heavy exams whatever that means. Fwiw those students did exceptionally well and did not overly study anatomy.
After taking it yesterday, I'd agree with above and say the best thing you can do is just hope you took away a lot from your anatomy course. The amount of different things they can ask or ask it from is really too much to say that any 1 resource would have made a difference.
I always thought people were exaggerating when they said they had a heavy anatomy or whatever else. I'm pretty level headed and try to be unbiased about what's on an exam and my performance, but I probably had between 30 to 46 straight anatomy questions. Not like oh if you know the disease you can figure this out, just straight anatomy recall, could have been on your anatomy shelf type questions. Some were joke easy, most you could figure out, but there were definitely some that I was a little stumped on.
The only way to prepare, would be to read BRS during your course first year and find websites that have extensive amounts of abdominal coronal/axial CT scans showing both the normal and pathological. MRIs were also present, as were x-rays. I had seen people talk about brachial plexus heavy exams, I didn't have even 1, just something dealing with the ulnar nerve.
I always thought people were exaggerating when they said they had a heavy anatomy or whatever else. I'm pretty level headed and try to be unbiased about what's on an exam and my performance, but I probably had between 30 to 46 straight anatomy questions. Not like oh if you know the disease you can figure this out, just straight anatomy recall, could have been on your anatomy shelf type questions. Some were joke easy, most you could figure out, but there were definitely some that I was a little stumped on.
The only way to prepare, would be to read BRS during your course first year and find websites that have extensive amounts of abdominal coronal/axial CT scans showing both the normal and pathological. MRIs were also present, as were x-rays. I had seen people talk about brachial plexus heavy exams, I didn't have even 1, just something dealing with the ulnar nerve.
Like the posters above, anatomy review for me was mostly recalling old concepts I had learned before. Thankfully I didn't feel my exam was anatomy-heavy. But I felt that the questions I had were in general easy to figure out if you've put in the time and formed a good mental picture of what thing are where and what they do. I didn't bother with the level of detail in my anatomy course. If you need a dedicated resource then BRS or maybe High-Yield Gross Anatomy.
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Just stick to FA for Anatomy, go to a website and look up some basic CT, MRI and X-rays. Reading an outside book for Anatomy is just NOT efficient. You could spend your time more wisely by going over all of Pathoma or something else, stuff that is actually much more high yield.
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Good post. I only passed anatomy and still did reasonably well on step 1 anatomy. Pay attention in class then do FA/uworld.
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Reading an outside anatomy book is only inefficient when you are doing dedicated step 1 studying. If the OP was someone who was heading into MS2 year, then reading a book throughout the year to brush up is totally reasonable, especially if someone didn't do well in actual anatomy class. And I have to disagree that FA/UW is sufficient for anatomy. It covers maybe 70-80% of what you may encounter. For the average test-taker who did reasonably well in med school, that may be sufficient but it isn't categorically so for everyone. Bottom line, reading too many extra books isn't recommended for crunch time, but it's reasonable for the motivated ones who study throughout the year.
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FA is the best book to go through anatomy. The real deal is 85-90% FA and 10% left-field. Even if you read Netters' back to front a 100 times, you still wouldn't get these questions because you have no idea of knowing what's high yield and what's not. I had a question that asked me to identify a particular segment of an artery from an arteriogram. I had a question that needed me to recognize the precise location of a lymph node in the arm. Even if I knew the questions beforehand, I don't think I could find the answer to them.
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Its good during the year but during any dedicated time. There are too many nitty gritty details that will get lost.
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UWorld, FA and paying attention in class for most of it. Some ridiculous questions out of nowhere but you can narrow it down to at least 2 usually. Don't read Netter's, super low yield imo. Had BRS, looked at it during the year but didn't like it so I didn't use.
Thanks for all the comments folks. Just want to tell few things.
I have recently started MS-2. The thing is, I did pretty well in almost every course except anatomy. It was very difficult for me to actually sit down and memorize the anatomy textbook. It just didn't make sense. Coupled with that, my seniors told me that there isn't much anatomy on steps and you could score 250+ if you are good in other components but recently, it seems that there have been an increase in anatomy questions on step 1 as evidenced in the experience thread. I just fear that maybe I could get an anatomy heavy exam and that would probably jeopardize my future plans.
I am thinking to start review of anatomy early on inorder to remove the deficiencies .I have also bought few qbooks such as lippin anatomy, gray's review.
