I'm a M2...I've made all B's and C's...and I want a 200-210 on Step 1...What do I do?

[hihihi]

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I am a firm believer that if you stick to ONE plan...you can do well on the Step 1. I have the Kaplan books and the First Aid and access to lots of questions. So, reply and give me a plan starting today. I am hopefully going to take the test at the end of June.

Please only reply with serious advice. Also, take into account my GPA (below a 2.5). Advice from a 4.0 is nice, but not relevant to someone like me....I don't think.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Idiopathic]

Do all the questions, and study the right and wrong answers, supplementing this with first aid. I believe that every practice question is designed to be a learning experience, so that you can familiarize yourself with 1-5 topics. Often, the wrong answers are more valuabke than the right ones. This is advice from Ed Goljan, so it is the way that I work, regardless of what my grades are.

There is also a 28-day USMLE study session floating around here somewhere. It is seriously intensive.

 

[hihihi]

Thanks for the reply.

Should I read through a comprehensive book first and then start questions, while taking notes in the margin as I look up the answers? Or something else? Specific plans are much appreciated....especially things to do right now during the semester (besides working hard on my current classes, since a great GPA this semester is not going to greatly improve my overall GPA). Keep the advice coming!

 

[drmommy1]

I'd say read the topic in the book , whatever book, say ....cvs of physio....then do the corresponding q's if you have qbank you can specify the organ-system ......if you don't then just do any type of q's from physio. I don't think you should make notes from the questions...it would be too tedious if you're aimed at doing thousands of them....just try to understand the concept..

 

[Idiopathic]

You will find that intensely doing questions and recognizing patterns of symptoms and "buzzwords" will amount to quite a bit of studying. When it was explained to me, it seemed lik ethe easy way out, and a really superficial way to study, but it really works.

 

[MedGeek42]

I've thought about this conundrum (the surprising utility of MCQs) and have come to one conclusion.
Doing lots of case-based Qs is about the closest you can come to gaining clinical experience from a book. You can memorize all the fine points of the theory, but when you get down to it, it'll be your ability to diagnose and treat the disease from clues that'll be important. So when you see 'broad-based budding yeast' and 'Blastomyces' pops into your head, that's exactly what SHOULD happen...if the report comes back 'broad-based budding yeast' from the lab, think Blasto.

 

[Idiopathic]

couldnt agree more.

 

[DrQuinn]

Agree with everyone else here. I did well in class (top quintile), but scored even better on my boards. I don't belive I'm THAT good a testtaker, as I only scored a 28 on MCAT.

Lots and lots of questions. That's one thing that set me apart from my peers in studying I believe. Get the sample download USMLE from NBME. Take it once. Wait a week or so. Take it again. Wait until a few days before the real test. Take it again.
Its not only the questions that you learn from, but why you got it wrong that's important as well. And you'll learn vignettes somewhere in your brain as you read these questions multiple times.

Find the NMS questions on CD. I had them for Step 2. Very useful, to say the least.

Keep your reading succinct. First Aid for Step X, I also used Step Up but it was too "ADHD."

Q, DO

 

[hihihi]

Thanks everyone. So, it sounds like most everyone is putting more value on doing questions than actually sitting down and hammering in the information.

Let's get more specific about a study plan because I NEED ORGANIZATION. Let's use a 5-6 week schedule, for example.

Should I use the first two weeks for getting through the Kaplan books once (2 books-General Principles and Organ Systems), and then the final three weeks as doing questions?

Or, should I split up everyday into 5-6 hours reading...2-3 hours questions related to that day's material?

Or, should I start out with questions, and read the sections out of the Kaplan books as I am trying to figure out the answer?

Keep the advice coming! Thanks.

 

[Homunculus]

Originally posted by Idiopathic
You will find that intensely doing questions and recognizing patterns of symptoms and "buzzwords" will amount to quite a bit of studying. When it was explained to me, it seemed lik ethe easy way out, and a really superficial way to study, but it really works.

i bought a book "buzzwords" from the recall series that i used with much success. it's a book you can pick up and start about anywhere and read for 10-20 minutes at a time and pick up a lot of information. good quick hitter to leave lying around the house (or tha bathroom, lol).

definitely high yield IMO.

as for the OP's question. 5-6 WEEKS? good lord man. trim that down to like 4-- you'll forget everything from the first week if you study that long 😀 first you need to identify the areas you need work on-- so do some questions right off the bat. whatever you struggle with, study and do more questions. although idiopathic's worship of Goljan weirds me out, he does have a good point with studying the *wrong* answers. knowing why an answer is wrong is often more useful than knowing why an answer is right. it's strange, but it's something i *did* pick up from goljan that has been quite helpful in standardized testing. when done like this, "doing questions" becomes much much more involved but it saves you from having to sit and read without really knowing how what you are reading is going to be applied in a test format.

and remember, you remember the first and last things you study the best, so take lots of breaks. 🙂

-your friendly neighborhood caveman

 

[Idiopathic]

Originally posted by hihihi
Let's get more specific about a study plan because I NEED ORGANIZATION. Let's use a 5-6 week schedule, for example.

Should I use the first two weeks for getting through the Kaplan books once (2 books-General Principles and Organ Systems), and then the final three weeks as doing questions?

Or, should I split up everyday into 5-6 hours reading...2-3 hours questions related to that day's material?

Or, should I start out with questions, and read the sections out of the Kaplan books as I am trying to figure out the answer?

Keep the advice coming! Thanks.

I really think it depends on how much of the material is going to be learned and how much is going to be reviewed. If you dont feel that your basic science prep was great (grades notwithstanding...you could have a great grasp of the material and not test well), you may need to devote more time to reading the thick books and absorbing facts about pathways, disease sysmptoms, pharm classes etc. BUT, if you have retained a decent amount, I would jump into questions. Take as many as you can and fill in the gaps. I try to do 50-100 every time I sit down. If I can explain the disease state/process or whatever and why the wrong answers are wrong, I dont need to review it. Otherwise, a solid 5-10 minutes and I learn a new topic. I think that is the best method. Take a week and see what works best for you. Odds are, it will be A LOT easier to just start working questions. If you feel swamped though, go back to the books.

 

[Homunculus]

Originally posted by Idiopathic
I really think it depends on how much of the material is going to be learned and how much is going to be reviewed. If you dont feel that your basic science prep was great (grades notwithstanding...you could have a great grasp of the material and not test well), you may need to devote more time to reading the thick books and absorbing facts about pathways, disease sysmptoms, pharm classes etc. BUT, if you have retained a decent amount, I would jump into questions. Take as many as you can and fill in the gaps. I try to do 50-100 every time I sit down. If I can explain the disease state/process or whatever and why the wrong answers are wrong, I dont need to review it. Otherwise, a solid 5-10 minutes and I learn a new topic. I think that is the best method. Take a week and see what works best for you. Odds are, it will be A LOT easier to just start working questions. If you feel swamped though, go back to the books.

totally off topic here, but do you think that Goljan's success and popularity don't come from his lecturing or notes, but from his technique we learn to study and answer multiple choice questions? have we "cracked the code" to standardized testing?? 😎

what idiopathic just described is exactly how i would do it as well. you can be our first test subject. 😀

 

[Idiopathic]

I think you are right on...i enjoy his lecture style, but it certainly cant be for everyone. I never thought that I could learn as much as I do through questions, but they are my prime study aid, with the notes and lectures as secondary references.

 

[jed2023]

Originally posted by hihihi

Should I use the first two weeks for getting through the Kaplan books once (2 books-General Principles and Organ Systems), and then the final three weeks as doing questions?

Unless you are an unbelievably fast reader and have a photographic memory, there's no realistic way for you to get through Kaplan's General Principles and Organ Systems books in two weeks (and remember much of anything). I have the books myself and they total around 2500 pages of dense reading.

A better way would be to spread it out over a longer period of time. Although people here are recommending 4 weeks or so of intensive studying, I know people that studied for about 6-7 hours a week (about an hour a day or 3 hours on each weekend day) for 3 or 4 months. And, then added in a 2 or 3 week spurt at the end and took an extended vacation, when their peers were still studying for the boards. Without exception most of these people did well, scoring in 240's or 250's. Slow and steady is often better than quick and shallow.

As far as using questions as your PRIMARY studying method, that's debatable. Some people have lots of success with this method, but others don't. It probably comes down to how strong your knowledge base is and what point you are at in your preparation. Personally, I find it frustrating to do question after question, when I haven't already covered the "theory" upon which the questions are based. Seems like a waste to me, but to each his own.

Doing tons of questions is recommended, however, by most people that end up doing really well on Step I. The real issue is how this is integrated with your subject review and what your ratio is between "book studying" and "doing questions." It's probably best to alternate the two in an A, B pattern (as opposed to your plan of 2 weeks books and 3 weeks questions). Study a section, do questions for it, etc.

 

[neilc]

for god's sake, use questions as often as you can. i have pretty good grades, i was comfortable with the subjects (except biochem) and i felt i could do well with prep. i hit the review books and alternated between them and questions. mistake. unless you have poor understanding of a subject, don't spend too much time reviewing it from a book. practice what you will be tested, which is clinical style MCQ's. i got a crappy score (192/78) and i really feel it was simply due to my study methods. i just wasn't as exposed to all the different ways a question could be asked about a topic. this is a timed test, and you don't have a lot of time to figure out what the question is asking and then decide on an answer. if you use the questions that are out there (q-bank, BSS, etc...) and review all the right and wrong answers on every single one, you will be exposed to a huge percentage of what you will be asked. not everything, but enough to do very well.

if i could go back, i would do all the damn questions i could get my hands on, i would only go to the books when i was not understanding the explanation on a question. but, thank god, i never have to take that stupid exam again!

your goal (200-210) is very doable. i studied the wrong way and i was still only 8 off of your mark. if you kill the questions, review what you are having trouble with and work hard, you will likely do even better than you are hoping. good luck!

 

[hihihi]

Great replies...thanks again.

Ok, so everyone (besides one or two people) that has replied has put a high priority on questions. I would consider myself one that might benefit from that type of study method, so I will definitely give it a try initially to see if I feel comfortable with it.

So, my next questions is this. I actually bought a CD online with something like 10,000 questions. It includes the Kaplan Qbank, BSS, and NMS question banks and some other less popular ones. I also have several books with questions in them (BRS, Pretest, Lippincott's, etc..), which would add another couple thousand questions. My question is...does it matter what kind of questions they are? Obviously, the Kaplan Qbank and BSS are very well respected because they are closely related to the actual Step 1. The others are just simple "factoid" type questions....should I bother with these? In other words, should I only do questions that are similar to the one's that I will encounter on the actual exam? Thanks again, everyone. I think this is really helping!

 

[Idiopathic]

I think the BRS and NMS questions are good, just because they prompt your recall. They may be nothing like the test, but you need to try and think 'big-picture' as far as that is concerned. Get used to the material presented in the questions, and then hammer the USMLE-type stuff and the practice materials. Like, for instance, Robbins Review of Path (by Klatt, et al) is a great book for this type of questions, whether it parallels the USMLE or not is a different question.

 

[Homunculus]

Originally posted by Idiopathic
I think the BRS and NMS questions are good, just because they prompt your recall. They may be nothing like the test, but you need to try and think 'big-picture' as far as that is concerned. Get used to the material presented in the questions, and then hammer the USMLE-type stuff and the practice materials. Like, for instance, Robbins Review of Path (by Klatt, et al) is a great book for this type of questions, whether it parallels the USMLE or not is a different question.

i used NMS

 

[jed2023]

As I tried to communicate in my post (perhaps not successfully), the issue is not whether doing lots of questions is important. Everyone pretty much already agrees on that. The issue is how dominant questions will be in your study approach (the ratio of books to questions) and how you schedule in these questions.

The alternating approach is the one I have seen my successful classmates use. I have yet to meet anyone that blew the test away that did straight "theory" and then straight "questions." (Yes, I know your goal is not to blow the test away, but some of the same strategies may apply.)

In response to your question about whether question sources matter, the answer is "Yes, absolutely." The best ones are probably those that most closely simulate "the real thing." (1) The closest is the NBME self assessment, which you can take online at their website. (2) The second closest is probably Q-bank (although even some people disagree about this). (3) NMS also has a book that is fairly good. You can check First Aid for the complete title.

The Board Simulator Series (which has really tough questions, which aren't all that representative of Step I) probably isn't a good source if you are only spending 4 weeks and your goal is around 200. To get through these books would take much longer (assuming you are using other question sources too) and most of the people that use BSS are hard core and aiming to score 230+. My three and a half cents.

 

[DrQuinn]

Agreed. The Board Simulator Series are definately hard-core... and depressing if you take them. I was scoring 50-60% on them I think. However, I only did 1-2 tests in each of the books, I think there are four. There are way too many questions, just do a few tests in each subject and yer done baby with BSS.

Q, DO

 

[Idiopathic]

If you can get BSS on CD, get it. It should be cheap on eBay. The books are a drag, yes, but the questions really make you think, and when you are doing it on computer, you can really get a feel for test conditions, etc, and the explanations are still very detailed. It has 3850 questions, which is a good start (more than QBank, I believe). Yeah, they are hard, but so is QBank. Just because you 'only' want to score 200-210 doesnt mean you cant do better, right?

 

[neilc]

agreed on BSS CD. i had it, should have used it more intensely. it was tough, and discouraging when compared to q-bank, but it could have been very helpful.

basically, there are tons of realistic questions out there. q-bank online and the BSS Cd are something over 5000 questions combined. so, you don't need to spend much time doing questions that are not USMLE style questions...if you use a review book, use the questions in it to reinforce stuff. if you use the questions as a primary study tool (highly reccomended, if you can learn this way), then use the usmle style questions with the detialed answers.

 

[hihihi]

Alright...Again, thanks for all the advice so quickly.

So, if I was to develop a study plan with Qbank/BSS/NMS type questions as my primary learning tool, how do I go about doing this?

Should I use a review book (I have Kaplan, First Aid, BRS stuff, etc..) while working the questions? Or, should I just use the explanations as my "text"?

In other words, now that you all have given me a overall plan...I am asking for a little more detail now...Please!

Thanks.

 

[Starflyr]

ROFL!!!

My GPA is 2.131, or something like that, from the 1st 2 years. I score 212 on the USMLE. It is definitely do-able. Its not so much about your GPA (my school uses one screwed up grading system - its based on what percent of the class you fall into and not what GRADE you got - for example, If I got a 93 in a class overall and the average grade was a 94, I still get a 2.0 for that class) as how much you have learned and how well you do on standardized tests (yes, this DOES matter).

if you have a history of screwing up the SAT/PSAT/ACT/MCAT b/c you're a poor test taker and you had to take it over and over, your study technique should be a LOT different than if you blew through those exams.

If you're a poor test-taker, take Kaplan or something that gives you LOTS of opportunities to take practice exams and teaches you how to spot wrong answers and how to break down questions and how to guess intelligently. If you can do this already, I would concentrate on Q-bank and studying the material in First Aid. (MEMORIZE that book and you'll do fine).

Star

 

[DireWolf]

How many questions are on the NMS CD?

 

[24858]

quinn I pm'd you

 

[hihihi]

Another question from me....the original poster.

As the thread emphasizes...doing lots of questions is key. So, now that I am making a rough weekly schedule...how many questions per hour can someone average? I know it depends on whether a person knows 70% vs. 20% of the questions right away, but I am just looking for an average. The reason why I am asking is because I have access to lots of questions, and I am trying to figure out a reasonable way to go through the most important ones (mainly Qbank and BSS).

 

[24858]

quinn I pm'd you again

 

[BiggMann79]

Hihihi,

I don't know who you are, and your profile gives me absolutely no clues, but from your posts I think I know you. So if this is Lloyd let me know if my hunch is correct. If you are I didn't realize you checked out the SDN forums.

If you are not you have a lot in common with a friend of mine:
1. M2
2. Did an anesthesiology rotation last Summer
3. Political views to the far right
4. Realistic views about medicine as a profession
5. Convinced you are going to study for the Step 1 with a lot of questions.

 

[Goofyone]

Originally posted by hihihi
So, my next questions is this. I actually bought a CD online with something like 10,000 questions. It includes the Kaplan Qbank, BSS, and NMS question banks and some other less popular ones.

Where did you find that treasure?! 😍

Anyone!

 

[Idiopathic]

I have it. PM me.