USMLE IMG prepping for STEP 1 (help a bro out)

[walar92]

你好! Hi all, this is my first post on SDN!

I've been lurking on this site for ages, and I wanted to finally go ahead and make a post for once!

I'm a US-IMG, studied in China 6 years, and graduated recently. (it was very affordable and in English)

Problem is, my school didn't really hammer anything home when it comes to USMLE level medicine. Our curriculum was very didactic , a bit random, and relied on just copy pasting knowledge from PowerPoints into your brain and studying on your own time (faculty did very little besides prepping PPTs for every lecture), which I have already forgotten 80% of. I was also a very average student to start with and just focused on my material for the end of semester exams to pass and move along (which is what I'm regretting a bit). Although, I did learn Chinese so that was pretty big accomplishment for me 😀!

Anyways, I have been following the UFAP method doing 40 UWorld Q's, and annotating FA for the past month, but I am having a very hard time getting these points to stick, and the UWorld questions, most of them, I can't even answer. It feels like it would take a year or something if I tried to really learn every little point, and doing a review on 40 questions takes me an exceptionally long time to understand. Also, I would also blame my own study habits as I don't like sitting in once place for too long, and I lose focus really easily. I get my work done, but it feels like a chore every time because It takes so much time to review and understand the topics. Feels bad man... (doing like 4 hrs on average daily)

That being said, do you guys think I should:
1. Wear my big boy pants and plow through, maybe I'll see some results on a second pass?
2. Change something up like adding Kaplan or some basic science review into the mix?
3. Maybe not doing UWorld for now, and doing something less intense as I build up my knowledge to tackle it properly?
4. Honestly Anything recommended for weak basic sciences would help out a lot. (doesn't have to be just these 3 options)

Looking forward to hearing from this community! Thanks!

TLDR: IMG doubts himself 80% of the time, and studies about 20%, how can he switch things up and get results?

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[Jojos]

hey man so also IMG that prepped for this.

I started with annotation of the FA but then realized i was better off using it as a reference material for the questions i got wrong from the Qbanks. this is because FA isn't really written like a book, it doesn't have continuity. it is more just facts about each topic assembled together.

As for resources. I used UFAP (Uworld, First aid, pathoma) and lecturio. like you i prepped for it way after i was done with the pre clinical sciences and needed an lot of time to review everything to have it down. This is where lecturio came in and helped a lot, really concise and understandable. When i felt it wasn't enough, which was rare, i used najeeb to go into further detail. These are definitely not the only resources, you can kaplan, boards and beyond, DIT, osmosis, amboss, sketchy, becker, etc. there a so many out there, you should really look at some videos of each to make a better-educated decision.

I took a year for prep, it is just what happens when you study in a different country that emphasizes different things in comparison to the US and you need to make up a lot of info. I, for example have been looking at step II and feel very confident that i will do well with little study but for step I i really had to go back and review a lot. It all depends on your school.

in summary, i feel your pain and the situation sucks but plow through and take it when you feel ready. You should do fine.

 

[073116]

I agree with above ^

First Aid is a dry book, it's IMHO a bad choice for IMG.
Kaplan Step 1 books are very well written and are suited for IMG because unlike First Aid they go over core material and explain things (I think there are 7 books total in Kaplan Step 1). What you can do is combine Kaplan books with Kaplan Qbank: when you read Pharmacology Kaplan book take Kaplan Qbank Pharm questions accordingly. You can plan around 1 month or at least 3 weeks per subject ( 7 subjects total) - so it should take you 6-7 months, but this will be the core of your study
After you'll be done with Kaplan - then you can go into "finish line mode": First Aid + UWorld. Things will make sense this time and you'll see that material sticks better. That finish line phase can be around 2 months of dedicated time to go through all 2400+ UWorld questions along with First Aid.
After that take NBOME test and check where you stand and either go for Step 1 exam or hone done a bit more.
How limited you are in time?

 

[IMG69]

你好! Hi all, this is my first post on SDN!

I've been lurking on this site for ages, and I wanted to finally go ahead and make a post for once!

I'm a US-IMG, studied in China 6 years, and graduated recently. (it was very affordable and in English)

Problem is, my school didn't really hammer anything home when it comes to USMLE level medicine. Our curriculum was very didactic , a bit random, and relied on just copy pasting knowledge from PowerPoints into your brain and studying on your own time (faculty did very little besides prepping PPTs for every lecture), which I have already forgotten 80% of. I was also a very average student to start with and just focused on my material for the end of semester exams to pass and move along (which is what I'm regretting a bit). Although, I did learn Chinese so that was pretty big accomplishment for me 😀!

Anyways, I have been following the UFAP method doing 40 UWorld Q's, and annotating FA for the past month, but I am having a very hard time getting these points to stick, and the UWorld questions, most of them, I can't even answer. It feels like it would take a year or something if I tried to really learn every little point, and doing a review on 40 questions takes me an exceptionally long time to understand. Also, I would also blame my own study habits as I don't like sitting in once place for too long, and I lose focus really easily. I get my work done, but it feels like a chore every time because It takes so much time to review and understand the topics. Feels bad man... (doing like 4 hrs on average daily)

That being said, do you guys think I should:
1. Wear my big boy pants and plow through, maybe I'll see some results on a second pass?
2. Change something up like adding Kaplan or some basic science review into the mix?
3. Maybe not doing UWorld for now, and doing something less intense as I build up my knowledge to tackle it properly?
4. Honestly Anything recommended for weak basic sciences would help out a lot. (doesn't have to be just these 3 options)

Looking forward to hearing from this community! Thanks!

TLDR: IMG doubts himself 80% of the time, and studies about 20%, how can he switch things up and get results?

Can I ask which medical school you went to? I just started at a chinese med school.

 

[itsgoingtotibiaok]

你好! Hi all, this is my first post on SDN!

I've been lurking on this site for ages, and I wanted to finally go ahead and make a post for once!

I'm a US-IMG, studied in China 6 years, and graduated recently. (it was very affordable and in English)

Problem is, my school didn't really hammer anything home when it comes to USMLE level medicine. Our curriculum was very didactic , a bit random, and relied on just copy pasting knowledge from PowerPoints into your brain and studying on your own time (faculty did very little besides prepping PPTs for every lecture), which I have already forgotten 80% of. I was also a very average student to start with and just focused on my material for the end of semester exams to pass and move along (which is what I'm regretting a bit). Although, I did learn Chinese so that was pretty big accomplishment for me 😀!

Anyways, I have been following the UFAP method doing 40 UWorld Q's, and annotating FA for the past month, but I am having a very hard time getting these points to stick, and the UWorld questions, most of them, I can't even answer. It feels like it would take a year or something if I tried to really learn every little point, and doing a review on 40 questions takes me an exceptionally long time to understand. Also, I would also blame my own study habits as I don't like sitting in once place for too long, and I lose focus really easily. I get my work done, but it feels like a chore every time because It takes so much time to review and understand the topics. Feels bad man... (doing like 4 hrs on average daily)

That being said, do you guys think I should:
1. Wear my big boy pants and plow through, maybe I'll see some results on a second pass?
2. Change something up like adding Kaplan or some basic science review into the mix?
3. Maybe not doing UWorld for now, and doing something less intense as I build up my knowledge to tackle it properly?
4. Honestly Anything recommended for weak basic sciences would help out a lot. (doesn't have to be just these 3 options)

Looking forward to hearing from this community! Thanks!

TLDR: IMG doubts himself 80% of the time, and studies about 20%, how can he switch things up and get results?

I am pretty much exactly in this routine of " IMG doubts herself 80% of the time, and studies about 20%, how can she switch things up and get results?", only in my case the percentage tends to be 99% being terrified and 1% being semi productive.
so, if anyone is in the same boat I would love to team up and find a way to get through this. 🙂

 

[Ven0m]

If your basics are weak, I'd say Kaplan lecture notes + accompanying videos (except for pathology) are the best choice because you can't really study FA/UW if you don't understand. Yeah sure you can try to brute force memorize FA/UW but it's gonna be extremely tedious, easy to forget, and since you don't understand the core concepts you won't be able to apply them very well (answering USMLE questions requires application, not regurgitation). When most people talk about KLN, they say they go through each subject in like a month or less; personally I think if your basics are pretty weak it's gonna take you longer to go through each (maybe 2-3 months with full-time studying). Don't memorize KLN notes the first time around - just understand (you'll automatically passively memorize stuff by doing this). Use FA + UW to understand how to use KLN's information in an step 1 applicable way, and during that time you should be actively memorizing.

This method may differ from other peoples but from my own mistakes (i'm still studying) this is what I think is best for people with weak backgrounds. Make the effort to understand everything because I've heard once you start residency you won't have any time to go back to the basics - this the only time to do so

If what's holding yourself back is doubt, the best thing is to do some research and get opinions (like the one I wrote above), make a plan for yourself, and start chipping away at the iceberg that is USMLE. If you think you're never going to be able to remember everything, you'll be demotivated; make it a goal each day to understand a subtopic(s) in a particular subject - the iceberg doesn't get bigger - it's finite so you'll eventually get there.