I am a lurker but I guess I will chime in,
A little background, I am by no mean a Outstanding student... all my grades in M1 M2 were mediocre. I followed the four P's of Step 1 : pathology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, physiology, and Bugs. here is what I did
- started studying in December to lay the knowledge foundation
- first, read BRS pathology, underlie, took note and make sure I understand everything,
took me 4 weeks
- then I reread the BRS pathology took me another 3 weeks, then I did Robin Review of
Pathology, every single questions of it. took another three weeks. As you can see I spend
about two and half months really really laying foundation of pathology
- After path, I moved onto Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple, read it, underlie it,
and took notes, took another three weeks. I reread the book. It was now in March- April
- Then I started reading Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, only took me two weeks,
read it only once
- re-review BRS physiology from M1, took 2 weeks ( 1st semester of M2, I read BRS physio little by little, I also read RR histology)
- with M2 getting busy I wasn't getting much done, but I was getting heavy weights down and started tackling "lightweights" like High Yield Embryology, BRS Behavioral Science, etc.
- By this time it was already August and I was freaking out because haven't touch FA in
anyway plus have done very little pharmacology
- with about 6 weeks left, I did FA and spent 2.5 wks doing FA slowly and down to every detail, concurrently, I read BRS immunology (not a great book)
- then I did DIT lectures, DIT is really good because I really slow you down and make sure you take in the stuff and also extra repetition is a plus for getting things in.
- I did U World question bank at the same time as FA, only did subjects that I have studied, so subjects list grew at the end of my study schedule. 70% in beginning and 73% at the end. Not much of an increase. So i used it as measure of my comprehension and not a learning tool. I feel that learning through questions is a very inefficient way because you are inadvertently forced to memorized disjointed subjects or facts.
- Time was running out (as it always does) I did a fast two day review of FA again, then was forced to chose which subjects to do for DIT lectures so I didn't finished all DIT lectures. Also I hadn't done any UWorld pharmacology questions at that point. I also wanted more time to read Clinical anatomy MRS and Pharmacology recall but didn't have time. Panic set in and was tempted to take a year off (yeah really).
- with 5 days left and still haven't finish studying plus not haven't taken any sample test, I took NBME 2 (i think) got 240. relief in a way but put more pressure on my mentally also because i wasn't sure if it's a fluke.
- test day, couldn't really sleep the night before. Got to the test center late. Weather was raining and gloomy. Day wasn't going my way. On top of it, I kicked the computer and it black out on me, totally freaked out during that event. Came out of the test feeling like ****. Nothing was going my way. Drank that night by myself and cried in the bathroom.
- took off medicine rotation for family reason went back to Burma for a funeral. Really really depressed. Then found out my score in Burma. Got 256. I guess I must have lucked out.
A few words of advice is that
1. make a plan and stick to it. One long term plan (laying foundation) and one short term plan (1 month before real test for review).
2. you will run out of time, everybody does
3. go easy on NBME practice test, taking them every other day ain't gonna raise your score, use that time to study instead.
4. start early and review every subjects systematically.
5. books i used: FA, BRS pathology, Robbin review of pathology, Pathophysi MRS, BRS physiology, HY embryology, HY immunology, DIT (didn't pay for it get a bootleg version), a bank of online pictures that I saved as i study, UWorld question bank, NBME practice test.
Good Luck
Han Lin
PS. I want to stress that you can be an average student and still do well. Again, I wasn't by any mean an honor student during my M1 and M2, just your average Joe.
