If you could start over, would you have started Step 1 prep earlier?

[318038]

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As in the summer after MS1, throughout MS1, or throughout MS1/MS2. Or do you feel that the amount of time you set aside for studying is ample?

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm good. Even if I wasn't, studying after M1 wouldn't have helped anything. The only thing I would do differently is buying a year-long question bank subscription. Knowing what I know now, I probably would've picked USMLERx for study during the year.

 

[badasshairday]

Hell NO! I would not change anything. Definitely would NOT study during the summer. Freakin' have to live life sometimes. Second year of medical school was no life. Really sucks, sometimes you have to smell the roses. I am glad I had a fun summer, that is the only thing that kept me going through second year.

 

[DocDanny]

Definately.

I wish my school had gotten out sooner during the year. We were in school all day every day until the very end of May. I hardly had time to do anything other than Read some Pathology.

 

[PokerDoc]

I only wish I started UWorld earlier.. not anything else.

As it stands now, i wont have much time to go through it again. ill have barely completed it by the time im ready to take the test.

 

[mordounhas]

I wish I would have done Qbank or USMLERx during the year (at least the sections that went along with coursework). I probably would have scored slightly higher on some of the tests I took during the year and it would have been a change of pace from the normal way I was studying. I've done Rx and like it, but haven't played around with QBank and can't really comment on which one is better. I did listen to most of Goljan during 2nd year and thought that was helpful.

I don't think there's any real reason to worry about it between 1st and 2nd year. Enjoy your research/experience in random 3rd world country/break (granted, looking back, one of those options sounds much more fun than the other ones).

 

[LurkerDO]

No. I started in February with pharm and all that got me was having to REDO pharm in June (and bump my damn test back by 10 days to do it).

You'll never feel ready (I don't think) so I mean, what's the point in torturing yourself longer?

 

[PediatricsRocks]

Do as much as you can as soon as you can! I'm about to take mine soon and I don't even know if I can make it through all of UWorld 🙁.

 

[ClockworkDoc]

I would have not done anything different

Summertime - No
During M2 Yest - Study along with courses (no questions)
Start Q banks and supplemental studying from spring break onward.

 

[badasshairday]

Burn out is real. I have a feeling that 5 weeks at the max is the best Step 1 study time. You just start to burn out and forget stuff from before anyways. Optimal for me would have been 4.5 weeks, I just got screwed in the middle with some unecessary drama/stress that ruined 2.5 full days of study. Wish I could have relaxed those days.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I gave myself a touch over 6 weeks and that has turned out to be pretty much perfect. I'm starting to wear down a bit, but it's mostly physical, strangely enough. My shoulders are starting to ache from sitting in this stupid chair for so long. While reading, I had to constantly shift positions to redistribute my weight. That'll be a little more complex now that I'm doing questions down the final stretch, but we'll make it work. Only 10 more days!

 

[C6789]

In terms of timeline, I would definitely do the same thing again. Starting in January, I read about 5 pages of FA a night and annotated BRS Physio & Kaplan Biochem into FA, so I'd been through everything once leisurely before my 6-week study period.

What I would do differently, I let people talk me out of making flash cards initially (which I had planned to do gradually starting in January as I went through FA). I tried to do it without them, but ultimately, I ended up spending the last 5 weeks making well over a thousand flash cards. Know how you study best and trust your instincts.

 

[rem6775]

I think I probably started earlier than most and did more during the early periods, and I think it just changes how things end up. I studied neuro (because I like it mostly), anatomy (because I wanted to pretend to keep some of it there) and micro (because I enjoyed it) during summer after M1. I studied micro early on in M2 because I enjoyed it enough to stick with it. I worked extremely hard learning pharm and pathology well (memorizing Robbins basically) and working with BRS Path and RR path all the way throughout M2. I started QBank early on second semester, ran through FA sections multiple times during the second semester (I had gone through pretty much all of FA multiple times before the end of classes). Read Lippincot's pharm and RR biochem during second semester and overall studied like a maniac. I score a 255 on an NBME before classes were even over and was pretty much prepared at that time. My studying during my 4 actual dedicated weeks was more lackadaisical than my studying had been during probably any time in the first 2 years. I just front-loaded and avoided a lot of the stress of the final push.

 

[mq123]

In terms of timeline, I would definitely do the same thing again. Starting in January, I read about 5 pages of FA a night and annotated BRS Physio & Kaplan Biochem into FA, so I'd been through everything once leisurely before my 6-week study period.

What I would do differently, I let people talk me out of making flash cards initially (which I had planned to do gradually starting in January as I went through FA). I tried to do it without them, but ultimately, I ended up spending the last 5 weeks making well over a thousand flash cards. Know how you study best and trust your instincts.

I'm not a big flashcard maker, and any that I have are the already made Micro cards. However, I do wish that I had made fllashcards of all the pharm in FA, chapter-wise, throughout second semester of 2nd year. Pharm is my weakest area and I think the constant review would have helped. I tend to want to become familiar with my resources and so, in the 5 weeks before the test, I don't really want to make/write out any 'new' material, though it may seem like a lot of time to others.....

 

[oreosmilk]

Does anyone have any advice on how to crank up a 214 to a 240. I have 6 weeks. Went through most of Uworld and some of the Kaplan set and First aid...but clearly not doing enough.

 

[cartoondoc]

I did QBank throughout MS2 year, but really, the best studying for Step 1 is to learn the material in the first two years really well.