Idiopathic: post your Step1/COMLEX strategy

[daelroy]

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I have read Big Frank's blurb and it was helpful. But it would be nice to get another perspective from someone who excelled on both exams. How much time did you take to prepare for the exams? How did you study during basic sciences to improve your score? What is your best advice in your opinion

 

[GiJoe]

I have read Big Frank's blurb and it was helpful. But it would be nice to get another perspective from someone who excelled on both exams. How much time did you take to prepare for the exams? How did you study during basic sciences to improve your score? What is your best advice in your opinion

why don't you just PM him instead of starting a whole new thread for a question directed to just him?

 

[Cowboy DO]

I'd like to know too.

 

[Idiopathic]

Ive told several people in PM's, but I would be happy to share here.

As far as studying, I pretty much split my time between reading and doing questions. Studying the right and wrong answers and gathering in-depth detail about even the trivial stuff helped. My question sources were (in order of importance)

QBank
NBME practice exams
Robbins Review of Path
Goljan questions for path
Goljan RR for USMLE
BSS
BRS
Appleton and Lange Review
Path for Boards and Wards

I probably did 10K-11K questions in about 6 months.

As far as reading, I got a large prep book (i.e. Princetone Review for USMLE Step 1) and went through each section (Cardio, Respiratory, etc)...try to get one that is in systems-based format, after reading the 50-100 pages on each subject, I would then go through my other sources (FA, Goljan pathology, Katzung's pharm, Micro made ridiculous, etc.) and study only that segment of the info. For instance, I would read the cardio section, then go through and re-read Costanzo's phys of cardio, Goljan's cardio path, autonomic/antiarrythmic meds, any micro that might affect the heart...in this way I really felt like I consolidated everything into more workable packets of info. I really spent a lot of time in the library, and I used other weird sources like webpath and Ed Friedlander's site from UHS-KC (cant remember the name) when I wanted to read about something obscure. Ultimately, I would say I read 35 books in part, 15 completely and FA about 5 times. I would say that FA is reasonably helpful for USMLE and pretty much a waste for COMLEX.

It is very difficult to prepare for the pics on either exam, so if you just expose yourself to many different sources, you have done as well as you can.

I think that an excellent working knowledge of pathology can give you an advantage in 75-80% of USMLE questions, whereas pharmacology, micro and OMM (especially peripheral anatomy) seemed to be the big players in COMLEX.

To put it all in perspective, I didnt kill myself studying during year 1, but I did put the time in in year 2 and I did reasonably well both years. I think that just focusing on all things clinical (micro, phys, pharm, path, OMM,) is the best way to guarantee success and if you have budgeted time well, you will have the time to gear up for the assorted biochem or statistics question.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[daelroy]

Idiopathic

Thank you for comprehensive answer. I really appreciate it. I will PM you if I have more questions but you helped a lot. I just posted this as a thread because I'm sure others can benefit from this information as well

 

[streetdoc]

that's a lot of effort.
I'm curious WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET 6 MONTHS TO STUDY!!???
we get maybe 6 weeks and that's if you include time to study for finals and have NO summer break. i think i might have a chance at passing (or even doing well) if we got 6 months. it all goes along with our suspicion that our school wants to keep us in the primary care fields...
streetdoc

 

[joshua_msu]

Just curious, why is FA useless for the COMLEX, and what should you substitute it with?

 

[daelroy]

that's a lot of effort.
I'm curious WHERE IN THE WORLD DO YOU GET 6 MONTHS TO STUDY!!???
we get maybe 6 weeks and that's if you include time to study for finals and have NO summer break. i think i might have a chance at passing (or even doing well) if we got 6 months. it all goes along with our suspicion that our school wants to keep us in the primary care fields...
streetdoc

Many students take additional time to study for Step I during the 6 months prior to the exam. If I recall what Big Frank said, he studied 3-4 hours in addition to all the hours spent on normal MSII class work.

 

[berkeleyboy]

I studied for about 11 weeks because I go to school in the caribbean and my particular situation allowed me to have a little more time than the average US student to study for the usmel step1. I also used a site which was very helpful called prep4usmle.com
most of the people on this site are fmgs but most of the fmgs here have ridiculous scores. Almost everyone on this site gets high 90s to 99s. Its great to have a compilation of high scorers post their prep strategies and exam experiences. You would def. be at an advantage to check out the web site if you are starting to prep for your exam.

That being said, I just want to add a few thoughts since I have already recieved my score.
I got a 240/97. A good score that I am def. happy with. But there's always the thoughts that I could have done better.
If I could do it over I would use:

1) Kaplan lecture notes.
2) Rapid review for pathology by Edward Goljan
3) Qbank
4) NBME 1/2
5) Board Simulator Series
6) Qbook
7) Goljan audio
Micro made ridiculously simple (helped me memorize the micro- my worst subject in med school)

The way I would study would be:

Read kaplan lecture notes 1X thru and work thru the books doing all the problems. Don't memorize yet, just read for complete understanding.

After each subject read the corresponding section in First Aid

After each subject do the Qs in Qbook. Qbook is easier than Qbank.

When doing path, you should read Goljan's book before going thru the audio. This will save you time when going thru the audio. I only got thru 12 lectures of audio but did remember about 5 Qs from them. I think if you have time, go thru the audio. If not, Rapid review is fine if your path foundation is strong.

Read thru kaplan notes again for the second time. Start memorizing. You never know when your going to run out of time and you won't see this material again. Don't forget to read the corresponding sections in First Aid after each read thru the kaplan notes.

Start Qbank. Do them subject wise after you finish each subject. I did subject wise cuz my personality can't handle sporadic randomness. I trip out. If you want to do the entire Qbank in a week randomly, go for it.
but after your 3rd revision of the subjects, you should be done with Qbank.

Take nbme 1 some time like 2 weeks before your exam. If you like your score....your final prep days are coming up. If you don't like your score, your going to need to repeat the above process again. Since you've already done qbank, your going to need to do another Q source. I suggest BSS or USMLE rapid review Qs. NMS is also okay.

Read thru the notes again a third time or possibly your 4th time. Do BSS Qs. Read corresponding sections in FA before or after you read the section in kaplan or for goljan in path.

Do NBME 2.
and take the exam.

Basically the point is, do as many revisions as you can using kaplan and goljan for path. Use Goljan audio if you want but start early or you won't finish it b/c of time constraint (like me). Read FA as you go thru the kaplan books. Don't put FA off, or you won't use it (like me)
You should do Qs towards the end of your prep. Like in the last 2 months.
Use qbook first, the Qs are easier, than use Qbank, and when these two sources are done, than use BSS or whatever Qs you like.
Do nbme to gage where you are at, during the final 2 weeks of prep. Do not care about what you are scoring on any of these Qs except for NBME. NBME is the only legit correlation. Do the nbme in the timed mode and pretend its the real exam, your score will hover close to the nbme score.

I did about 3-4 revisions for most subjects. but anatomy and physio I only did 2X and a real shady 3rd time using just jotted down notes. For path, micro, and pharm I did like 4-6 revisions. Had I done five revisions for all the subjects and did not neglect embryo and histology (which I really didn't study) I didn't even do any practice Qs thu out my prep for anatomy. I basically sacraficed the entire subject by just reading thru HY gross and neuro a couple of times. Had I just stuck to the above plan, I'm sure I would have gotten the 99.
I wish someone would of told me this earlier before I started my prep. I would have saved about 2-3 weeks of prep time.

Good luck to you all who are taking this exam!!!
BErk

 

[daelroy]

I studied for about 11 weeks because I go to school in the caribbean and my particular situation allowed me to have a little more time than the average US student to study for the usmel step1. I also used a site which was very helpful called prep4usmle.com
most of the people on this site are fmgs but most of the fmgs here have ridiculous scores. Almost everyone on this site gets high 90s to 99s. Its great to have a compilation of high scorers post their prep strategies and exam experiences. You would def. be at an advantage to check out the web site if you are starting to prep for your exam.

That being said, I just want to add a few thoughts since I have already recieved my score.
I got a 240/97. A good score that I am def. happy with. But there's always the thoughts that I could have done better.
If I could do it over I would use:

1) Kaplan lecture notes.
2) Rapid review for pathology by Edward Goljan
3) Qbank
4) NBME 1/2
5) Board Simulator Series
6) Qbook
7) Goljan audio
Micro made ridiculously simple (helped me memorize the micro- my worst subject in med school)

The way I would study would be:

Read kaplan lecture notes 1X thru and work thru the books doing all the problems. Don't memorize yet, just read for complete understanding.

After each subject read the corresponding section in First Aid

After each subject do the Qs in Qbook. Qbook is easier than Qbank.

When doing path, you should read Goljan's book before going thru the audio. This will save you time when going thru the audio. I only got thru 12 lectures of audio but did remember about 5 Qs from them. I think if you have time, go thru the audio. If not, Rapid review is fine if your path foundation is strong.

Read thru kaplan notes again for the second time. Start memorizing. You never know when your going to run out of time and you won't see this material again. Don't forget to read the corresponding sections in First Aid after each read thru the kaplan notes.

Start Qbank. Do them subject wise after you finish each subject. I did subject wise cuz my personality can't handle sporadic randomness. I trip out. If you want to do the entire Qbank in a week randomly, go for it.
but after your 3rd revision of the subjects, you should be done with Qbank.

Take nbme 1 some time like 2 weeks before your exam. If you like your score....your final prep days are coming up. If you don't like your score, your going to need to repeat the above process again. Since you've already done qbank, your going to need to do another Q source. I suggest BSS or USMLE rapid review Qs. NMS is also okay.

Read thru the notes again a third time or possibly your 4th time. Do BSS Qs. Read corresponding sections in FA before or after you read the section in kaplan or for goljan in path.

Do NBME 2.
and take the exam.

Basically the point is, do as many revisions as you can using kaplan and goljan for path. Use Goljan audio if you want but start early or you won't finish it b/c of time constraint (like me). Read FA as you go thru the kaplan books. Don't put FA off, or you won't use it (like me)
You should do Qs towards the end of your prep. Like in the last 2 months.
Use qbook first, the Qs are easier, than use Qbank, and when these two sources are done, than use BSS or whatever Qs you like.
Do nbme to gage where you are at, during the final 2 weeks of prep. Do not care about what you are scoring on any of these Qs except for NBME. NBME is the only legit correlation. Do the nbme in the timed mode and pretend its the real exam, your score will hover close to the nbme score.

I did about 3-4 revisions for most subjects. but anatomy and physio I only did 2X and a real shady 3rd time using just jotted down notes. For path, micro, and pharm I did like 4-6 revisions. Had I done five revisions for all the subjects and did not neglect embryo and histology (which I really didn't study) I didn't even do any practice Qs thu out my prep for anatomy. I basically sacraficed the entire subject by just reading thru HY gross and neuro a couple of times. Had I just stuck to the above plan, I'm sure I would have gotten the 99.
I wish someone would of told me this earlier before I started my prep. I would have saved about 2-3 weeks of prep time.

Good luck to you all who are taking this exam!!!
BErk

BUMP...great post Berk and thanks for the link. I checked it out and it has some excellent advice. My only problem is the people giving the advice are IMG's and many of them admitted they took 3-6 months outside of class time just to study Step I alone. U.S. grads like myself don't have that luxury. Most of us get 6 weeks if we are lucky.

 

[berkeleyboy]

BUMP...great post Berk and thanks for the link. I checked it out and it has some excellent advice. My only problem is the people giving the advice are IMG's and many of them admitted they took 3-6 months outside of class time just to study Step I alone. U.S. grads like myself don't have that luxury. Most of us get 6 weeks if we are lucky.

I know you guys get less time. I studied for 11 weeks but I think I was off track for a bit and was reading random sources and doing low yield material. I def. took a day off every week so I really only studied for 10weeks. I think in total I wasted about 2-3 weeks of prep time doing random things like reading trevor and katzung, pharm cards, micro flash cards, doing webpath Qs, and doing Qs from NMS, and random sites online. I finally came to the realization that 8 weeks of pure studying could be achieved by the above plan, which is why I wrote it, to keep people focused. I think in 6 weeks, if you started a couple of the kaplan books during your final semester before you take the boards, you could read thru the kaplan notes 3X, do Qbank and nbme and get a high 90 on the exam. I honestly felt during my last 2 weeks of prep, I didn't really learn anything new. I was jut constantly reading and re-reading so I didn't forget anything I had learned a few weeks before.
1.5-2 months is def. enough to get a high 90 if you just finished taking these classes.
GL to you and all those taking the exam this semester,
Berk

 

[Ruban]

Hi BB,
Thanks for the info. I'm curious, though, why you suggest putting off NBME 'til 2 weeks before the test. Doesn't it give you a performance analysis, which would be useful for structuring your study so that you emphasize your weak areas? I'm asking since I had planned to take my NBME I a month prior to my test date....
Thanks!

I know you guys get less time. I studied for 11 weeks but I think I was off track for a bit and was reading random sources and doing low yield material. I def. took a day off every week so I really only studied for 10weeks. I think in total I wasted about 2-3 weeks of prep time doing random things like reading trevor and katzung, pharm cards, micro flash cards, doing webpath Qs, and doing Qs from NMS, and random sites online. I finally came to the realization that 8 weeks of pure studying could be achieved by the above plan, which is why I wrote it, to keep people focused. I think in 6 weeks, if you started a couple of the kaplan books during your final semester before you take the boards, you could read thru the kaplan notes 3X, do Qbank and nbme and get a high 90 on the exam. I honestly felt during my last 2 weeks of prep, I didn't really learn anything new. I was jut constantly reading and re-reading so I didn't forget anything I had learned a few weeks before.
1.5-2 months is def. enough to get a high 90 if you just finished taking these classes.
GL to you and all those taking the exam this semester,
Berk

 

[SammyK]

One piece of advice for those who may not get to have a decent amount of time off before taking Step 1 would be to plan in advance and set up a schedule that you can manage while accounting for your other course work. I am ridiculously crazy and seem to have better success with a structured attack (especially since I get nothing done without a pretty regulated regimen and tend to procrastinate if I get the chance). I say that as a disclaimer because not everyone enjoys participating in OCD patterns of behavior like I do
In January before taking Step 1, I decided I wanted to have spent X number of hours studying total before I took the exam and broke it down into weekly chunks, and counting the 3 weeks we were given between the end of our classroom work and step 1. This equated itself to around 6-8 hours a week while still studying for the other coursework, only an hour or so a day of board review. If you start early enough, this approach may work well for some. This allows you to spend any free time you might have prior to test day to review any weak areas you feel you have. I found this gave me plenty of time to get through all the review materials I had in addition to all the Qbank questions twice. I would also advise against trying to study primarily for boards in your first year, or even early in 2nd year. It is much more to your advantage to learn the coursework really well in the window it is covered, allowing for your board study to serve as a refresher rather than having to learn information for the first time a month before you take the exam.

 

[berkeleyboy]

Hi BB,
Thanks for the info. I'm curious, though, why you suggest putting off NBME 'til 2 weeks before the test. Doesn't it give you a performance analysis, which would be useful for structuring your study so that you emphasize your weak areas? I'm asking since I had planned to take my NBME I a month prior to my test date....
Thanks!

It really doesn't matter when you take nbme. If you like the score you get on nbme than you should take ur test soon. If you don't like it, study hard and take the 2nd one too see where you stand from there. There are two versions of the nbme anyways, so in ur case you can do the first one a month before your exam and the second one right before you take ur exam. I just suggested 2 weeks before because I think 2 weeks is just enough time to go thru all the kaplan books again and do 100Q a day. Its a personal preference. I only did nbme1 about a week before my exam so I didn't even bother to do nbme2. Bottom line is, use nbme to gage where you are. the correlation is legit and you will score fairly close either a bit higher or a bit lower than ur nbme score.
And the nbme does give you a breakdown of ur overall performance.
Good luck!
berk

 

[Long Dong]

I probably did 10K-11K questions in about 6 months.

Man that is a lot a questions. 😱 Most of the people getting 250+ seem to have started at least 6 months out, on top of studying for M2 stuff.

 

[berkeleyboy]

Man that is a lot a questions. 😱 Most of the people getting 250+ seem to have started at least 6 months out, on top of studying for M2 stuff.

That seems to be the trend LD. I mean how can the average student who studies for 4-6 weeks and just does Qbank even compare to someone who's been preparing for 6 months and does anyhere from 6-12 thousand Qs!?! Its just impossible unless ur have a photographic memory and ur a genious on top of that.

 

[mfrederi]

the website refrenced above as Ed Friedlander's is www.pathguy.com. He has a long word doc that is a USMLE path review. Pretty good and high yield.

 

[dukeblue01]

As a US medical student and fortunate to have a good boards score (260s) I can tell you that it is possible to just study for 6 weeks after 2nd year ends and rock the boards. I only studied for my school's exams during 2nd year, but we have all multiple choice exams and grades (A,B,C) so there is heavy incentive to study and crush all exams. That said, I studied many of the same books already mentioned in other threads, in a subject oriented manner (Biochem, Anatomy...) and did around 2000 questions and was able to succeed on the boards. It honestly is a matter of really understanding the first 2 years of medical school, brushing up on it for 6 weeks and practicing test taking . It is hard work (8-10 hrs studying every day for 6 weeks with an occasional day off) but definitely possible. Good luck to everyone. You will be so happy when its done.

 

[berkeleyboy]

As a US medical student and fortunate to have a good boards score (260s) I can tell you that it is possible to just study for 6 weeks after 2nd year ends and rock the boards. I only studied for my school's exams during 2nd year, but we have all multiple choice exams and grades (A,B,C) so there is heavy incentive to study and crush all exams. That said, I studied many of the same books already mentioned in other threads, in a subject oriented manner (Biochem, Anatomy...) and did around 2000 questions and was able to succeed on the boards. It honestly is a matter of really understanding the first 2 years of medical school, brushing up on it for 6 weeks and practicing test taking . It is hard work (8-10 hrs studying every day for 6 weeks with an occasional day off) but definitely possible. Good luck to everyone. You will be so happy when its done.

like I said, one of the genious'. great score buddy!
Berk

 

[BigBadBix]

Man that is a lot a questions. 😱 Most of the people getting 250+ seem to have started at least 6 months out, on top of studying for M2 stuff.

Based on what I've heard from my classmates (the majority of whom do not visit SDN) there are a number of people who don't study for that length of time who do get awesome scores on the USMLE. In fact, all the people I knew who took 3+ months to study actually did worse than they'd hoped because they lost motivation during the last few weeks. Also, they found that they started to forget the things they studied at the beginning and had to go back and review them again. And these were smart people--all MD/PhD's since those are the only ones at my school with that much time to study. I would guess the reason it worked out well for berkeleyboy is because he was very dilligent at reviewing and doing questions throughout the entire time period--if you aren't the kind of person who can do that, it may not work for you.

Personally, my med school is P/F and the material covered in the first 2 years did not prepare me well for the USMLE. In addition, I only had time to do about 2100 questions. Even so, I found that exactly one month of hard-core studying was plenty and I ended up with a score in the 250's. I know of 2 people who studied less than I did and did just as well, and I'm sure there are others. (To be fair, I did half-heartedly review micro cards for about four weeks before I started my month of studying, but in retrospect I don't think that helped much anyway.)

I'm not saying this to discount the experiences of people here who succeeded by spending a longer period of time studying. Everyone needs to figure out what will work for them. I just wanted to point out that there are many different ways to succeed at this test.

-BBB

 

[Stinger86]

I think the big point here is that how much you should study is totally up to the individual and his/her comfort level. Just because Joe Doe killed the boards by studying for X amount of weeks/months, doesn't mean that if you study that much, you'll improve your chances of killing them as well. There are people who study for 6 months, those who study for 6 weeks, those who study for a few weeks, and those who hardly study at all, who will all kill the boards. Likewise, there are people who study for the same varying amounts of time, but don't do well on the boards.

Again, the take home message is to listen to yourself, understand your limitations, and work within your means. SDN is a great source for review material recommendations and hints/tips on board subject matter and structure, but I really think modeling a study schedule after someone else is useless and distracting (even if you really think it's helpful).

 

[berkeleyboy]

I would guess the reason it worked out well for berkeleyboy is because he was very dilligent at reviewing and doing questions throughout the entire time period--if you aren't the kind of person who can do that, it may not work for you.

I'm not saying this to discount the experiences of people here who succeeded by spending a longer period of time studying. Everyone needs to figure out what will work for them. I just wanted to point out that there are many different ways to succeed at this test.

-BBB

Thats actually very true. I'm def. not a genious. And my understanding at the conceptual level is average at most. And my memory is well, lets just say I don't feel like I've read something unless I've read it at least 3-4X.
But I know myself, and I can sit and study for 10-12 hours for weeks to months at a time without feeling a burn. You have to know yourself, and what works best for you. I hear a lot of people ace this exam using only first aid and Qbank. I could never do this. I would of just barely passed this way. I can't just blindly memorize as I would of been doing if I only had used FA, I needed the kaplan books and goljan to give me some kind of explaination and read that over and over again and just hoped that it goes in somehow. Do what works best for you. you should know your study habits by now after 2 years of basic sciences. My post is based on what I would have done over if I had to study for the exam again. Good luck everyone taking the exam at the end of this semester!!

BERk

 

[novacek88]

I think the big point here is that how much you should study is totally up to the individual and his/her comfort level. Just because Joe Doe killed the boards by studying for X amount of weeks/months, doesn't mean that if you study that much, you'll improve your chances of killing them as well. There are people who study for 6 months, those who study for 6 weeks, those who study for a few weeks, and those who hardly study at all, who will all kill the boards. Likewise, there are people who study for the same varying amounts of time, but don't do well on the boards.

Again, the take home message is to listen to yourself, understand your limitations, and work within your means. SDN is a great source for review material recommendations and hints/tips on board subject matter and structure, but I really think modeling a study schedule after someone else is useless and distracting (even if you really think it's helpful).

This is one of the best posts I have read here in a long time. Be weary of SDN. The problem is you don't know the medical school, reading speed, IQ and experience of the person giving advice. Case in point, a Duke medical student did well studying only 6 weeks after MS II. I'm not trying to discout his experience but DUH! He is a Duke medical student so I think it's fair to say he is more intelligent than the average medical student. And on top of that, it sounded like he didn't just coast through pre-clinicals. He applied himself and studied hard so I'm sure that certainly helped when it came time to reviewing.

The key is to know thyself and more importantly to accept your limitations and abilities for what they are. If it takes you longer to understand something or memorize something then you know you will need more time than people are advising on here. For some people,4- 6 weeks of preparation was adequate time to prepare for Step I. On the other hand, it took me 6 months of preparation to score a 240+. I know that I'm not a genius and I have no trouble admitting that. I'm a slow reader relatively speaking whereas my roommate could read quickly and absorb the information without much review. I had to constantly refer to sources and ask others to clarify concepts for me. Yeah, i guess I was that rare dumb medical student who actually had to seek help. 🙂

The point is there is no formula to succeeding on Step I. It really depends on how much you remember and how well you understand concepts. If you are shaky in physiology then you know you will have to spend more time in that area. I found out pretty quickly that i wasn't a genius like some of my classmates. It was hard to accept that at first but once I did, it didn't bother me when I had to take extra prep time. I was just being honest with myself. If I wanted to score over 240+ then i would need much more time than some of my classmates who required only 5-8 weeks after MS II.

 

[novacek88]

Thats actually very true. I'm def. not a genious. And my understanding at the conceptual level is average at most. And my memory is well, lets just say I don't feel like I've read something unless I've read it at least 3-4X.
But I know myself, and I can sit and study for 10-12 hours for weeks to months at a time without feeling a burn. You have to know yourself, and what works best for you. I hear a lot of people ace this exam using only first aid and Qbank. I could never do this. I would of just barely passed this way. I can't just blindly memorize as I would of been doing if I only had used FA, I needed the kaplan books and goljan to give me some kind of explaination and read that over and over again and just hoped that it goes in somehow. Do what works best for you. you should know your study habits by now after 2 years of basic sciences. My post is based on what I would have done over if I had to study for the exam again. Good luck everyone taking the exam at the end of this semester!!

BERk

You and me both my friend! 🙂 I'm no genius either