What did you do in your pre clinical years that allowed you to get good grades and a great step 1 score?
I & II years success
- Thread starter owilson
- Start date
It seems that everyone wants to know a secret formula for success, and I was no exception. The best advice I can give will be what you already know is true. Study hard, and find what particular method works for YOU! Some people in my class never went to lectures, and honored their courses. Others were at ever lecture, some doing fine and some not. You need to take your coursework seriously and develop your own formula for success. The best thing you can do to score well on step I is to learn the material the FIRST time around. It definitely makes it easier to review. Also, have an organized study plan and stick to it. I spent 4 wks study for step 1, mainly focusing on content and supplemented with Kaplan Q bank questions. The last week I went through an all inclusive power review with first aid and Q bank. If you want more specific details, I'd be happy to share them with you. As far as # of courses honored, I only honored about half of my first and second year courses. Hope that helps.
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2003
- Messages
- 186
- Reaction score
- 1
I agree with idoc. The best thing you can do is bust your butt during your first 2 years. I personally was one of those people who eventually found that I could do just as well, if not better, by not going to class. I was able to honor every class, though there were a few very close calls.
As far as step 1 goes, I tried choosing my review books early in my second year. I read the material in those books that corresponded to what we were doing in class, adding notes to them along the way. I think having studied the books before made the material somewhat easier to recall while studying for step 1.
I studied for 8 weeks (too much) and setup a schedule to study the various areas. I spent the last week mostly doing First Aid, which I found to be the most helpful. I also used Qbank, which helped me get used to doing questions, but really didn't teach me specific info that helped me on the test that wasn't in the books I read (I'm sure many would disagree) . In the end, it seemed like many (if not most) of the questions dealt with things that I had not specifically studied during my review period, though I was able to answer them due to the work I had put in over the previous 2 years.
Good luck!
As far as step 1 goes, I tried choosing my review books early in my second year. I read the material in those books that corresponded to what we were doing in class, adding notes to them along the way. I think having studied the books before made the material somewhat easier to recall while studying for step 1.
I studied for 8 weeks (too much) and setup a schedule to study the various areas. I spent the last week mostly doing First Aid, which I found to be the most helpful. I also used Qbank, which helped me get used to doing questions, but really didn't teach me specific info that helped me on the test that wasn't in the books I read (I'm sure many would disagree) . In the end, it seemed like many (if not most) of the questions dealt with things that I had not specifically studied during my review period, though I was able to answer them due to the work I had put in over the previous 2 years.
Good luck!
- Joined
- May 8, 2003
- Messages
- 7,527
- Reaction score
- 24
This is a very important point, buy your step 1 books early! Things really do come back easier when you're using the same source.
- Joined
- May 8, 2003
- Messages
- 7,527
- Reaction score
- 24
P/F is kind of a myth at many medical schools. The possible grades are fail, pass, high pass, and honors. So, it's very similar to the grading system w/ F, C, B, A, and honors (except that nobody get's C's). Some p/f schools don't have high pass, but then that screws the students going for honors b/c they don't get any better of a grade than people just trying to pass if they don't make the cut off.
Wow redhawk! 257 is stellar. I didn't score quite that high, but I can in strong with a 98 2 digit score. I'll would rather give that than a specific score, especially since redhawk blew the doors off step 1 and now has made me feel like a podiatry school flunkie. Just kidding. I'll take step 2 in January so that I will have no chance to screw myself by going down in score before the match
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2003
- Messages
- 186
- Reaction score
- 1
Board scores aren't everthing. There are certainly other things that are important to be competitive such as research, which I did, or even publications, which I do not currently have. I come from a school whose optho dept consists of one doc. There is no residency program. I did not get a letter from some optho superstar attending. I won't have an MD/PhD.
Baylor rejected me and I haven't heard from some schools that have apparently already offered interviews to others in this forum, so board scores aren't a guarantee. I'm just waiting for offers with the rest of you....
Baylor rejected me and I haven't heard from some schools that have apparently already offered interviews to others in this forum, so board scores aren't a guarantee. I'm just waiting for offers with the rest of you....
Similar threads
