Is this enough for step 1????

[512TA]

---

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hey!!!!!!!!!!!
could any kind soul guide me through the material i have. well i am due for my 1st step in 2009.

i got

kaplan 2004video series with corrosponding notes
kaplan IV q bank
LWW stimulated q bank
kaplan stimulated CD
Goljan Audio Lectures
Goljan HY notes
kaplan 2006 q bank
NMS Q-bank
Orbit Q-bank

will this help me get a score of 250 above?????????????

thanx........

 

[Pinkertinkle]

The information in those will be enough, but it's up to you to apply it and earn your score.

 

[KECKington]

The information in those will be enough, but it's up to you to apply it and earn your score.

Listen to tinkle, she got a 225 I think. So Op you are golden sir.

 

[lankysudanese]

Listen to tinkle, she got a 225 I think. So Op you are golden sir.

first things first: i think that Pinkertinkle is a guy. Secondly, he smashed Step 1 with a 262. But you are correct, Pinkertinkle mainly relied on Kaplan videos + lecture notes and Goljan. I would just suggest that you do the NBMEs and USMLEWorld (instead of the Kaplan IV qbank).

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Listen to tinkle, she got a 225 I think. So Op you are golden sir.

Jeeze, don't be generous. Pinkertinkle got a 218, he schooled my 210.

 

[512TA]

thanx a lot folks...........
i will plan a UW subscription a month or two before my exam.
appretiate your kind help.......

🙂

 

[KECKington]

first things first: i think that Pinkertinkle is a guy. Secondly, he smashed Step 1 with a 262. But you are correct, Pinkertinkle mainly relied on Kaplan videos + lecture notes and Goljan. I would just suggest that you do the NBMEs and USMLEWorld (instead of the Kaplan IV qbank).

...........are you Sh--ing me? Wow I guess kaplan gets it done good! Now I know what I want to be when I grow up...not a doctor...but a pinkertinkle!

 

[PamIsHorny]

OP,
You have more than enough information in your resources. If you can get through all of that, you'll kill step I. I would never have gone through that much. There is enough info in First Aid and Kaplan q bank to get above 240. I took FA to be a guide as to what I needed to learn. I would never be able to learn from FA. The phrases and figures are too skimpy. For step I, you'll have to understand a disease, not just memorize the two lines that FA gives you. I'll give you the advice that I got from a friend that was two years ahead of me.

He was determined to destroy step I. He had always been great on standardized tests. He bit off more than he could chew with his study plan and resources. He was even using Big Robbins for a reference. What he found was that he had a great amount of knowledge, but couldn't access it quickly enough and was unsure about some things that he knew he was supposed to know. He was dissappointed with his result. His advice to me was to first know the main topics. And know them quickly off the top of your head. If you are confident with the topics in FA (not just memorizing their lines, but understanding the topic) and you do q bank, 240 + will happen. There will always be questions that the NBME digs up that you can't answer. Don't sweat those. Guess and move on. You can miss plenty and still get to your goal. Don't reread big robbins in hopes of picking up those rare ones.

With that advice, I started annotating FA in my first year. Biochem had a bunch of stuff that I knew would not stay in my head for long. I'd advise any first year to annotate FA early. First year is easy (I know it might not seem like it now) and you have time. These notes will save you big time when you start Step I studying. In areas that I didn't annotate, it seemed like I was starting from square one. So use your texts, review books, and lectures to annotate your study bible, FA. Use enough detail so that you can make sense of a complicated disease in a couple minutes when you come back to it a year later.

Since step I is still far off for you, you should have plenty of time to get through kaplan q bank and some of your other resources. You might need some of the others to get to 250. I suppose usmle world is now recommended over q bank. My problem with q bank was the ridiculous little details. I wasted time trying to learn about things that would never show on the acutal test. Apparently usmle world has the appropriate level of detail.

Based on my experience and from my classmates' experiences, it does not take a genius to score 240+. It takes a good study plan and early dedication. Work smarter not harder. I am sure there are much more inteligent med students out there that worked harder than me and still scored lower. I was lucky to follow what I consider to be a great and simple study plan.

1. Get first aid now. Put your contact info inside.
2. Annotate as you go through 1st and 2nd year.
3. start a question bank early.
4. Get through your annotated FA more than once in the weeks leading up to the test.
5. ONCE the above is completed, start using the more detailed resources. These will be lower yield, but probably necessary to get to 250.
6. Find time to exercise.

You will see loads of study plans on SDN. I would have had great difficulty with many of them. In particular, the plans in which people go through a BRS in 2 days and then move on to another subject or the plans that involve a huge amount of review in the last two weeks. I just don't have the kind of mind that can retain the info from a BRS if I only spend 2 days on it. I wish that I could study like that, but I have a much more average speed of learning. I also wouldn't have dealt well with the stress of packing loads of info into my brain near the end. Some folks spend an incredible amount of money on 20 different review books. Many end up reading very few pages in some of them. All those books can be a distraction. When a q bank question caused me to go back and review, I always knew where to look. I was glad to not be searching 20 different books just to find the piece of info that I couldn't quite remember.

Good luck to all.
PamIsHorny

 

[PamIsHorny]

one more thing...I used goljan's rapid reivew of pathology quite a lot during my pathology class. I always had that book handy when my annotation in FA did not quite make enough sense.

 

[PamIsHorny]

OP,
You have more than enough information in your resources. If you can get through all of that, you'll kill step I. I would never have gone through that much. There is enough info in First Aid and Kaplan q bank to get above 240. I took FA to be a guide as to what I needed to learn. I would never be able to learn from FA. The phrases and figures are too skimpy. For step I, you'll have to understand a disease, not just memorize the two lines that FA gives you. I'll give you the advice that I got from a friend that was two years ahead of me.

He was determined to destroy step I. He had always been great on standardized tests. He bit off more than he could chew with his study plan and resources. He was even using Big Robbins for a reference. What he found was that he had a great amount of knowledge, but couldn't access it quickly enough and was unsure about some things that he knew he was supposed to know. He was dissappointed with his result. His advice to me was to first know the main topics. And know them quickly off the top of your head. If you are confident with the topics in FA (not just memorizing their lines, but understanding the topic) and you do q bank, 240 + will happen. There will always be questions that the NBME digs up that you can't answer. Don't sweat those. Guess and move on. You can miss plenty and still get to your goal. Don't reread big robbins in hopes of picking up those rare ones.

With that advice, I started annotating FA in my first year. Biochem had a bunch of stuff that I knew would not stay in my head for long. I'd advise any first year to annotate FA early. First year is easy (I know it might not seem like it now) and you have time. These notes will save you big time when you start Step I studying. In areas that I didn't annotate, it seemed like I was starting from square one. So use your texts, review books, and lectures to annotate your study bible, FA. Use enough detail so that you can make sense of a complicated disease in a couple minutes when you come back to it a year later.

Since step I is still far off for you, you should have plenty of time to get through kaplan q bank and some of your other resources. You might need some of the others to get to 250. I suppose usmle world is now recommended over q bank. My problem with q bank was the ridiculous little details. I wasted time trying to learn about things that would never show on the acutal test. Apparently usmle world has the appropriate level of detail.

Based on my experience and from my classmates' experiences, it does not take a genius to score 240+. It takes a good study plan and early dedication. Work smarter not harder. I am sure there are much more inteligent med students out there that worked harder than me and still scored lower. I was lucky to follow what I consider to be a great and simple study plan.

1. Get first aid now. Put your contact info inside.
2. Annotate as you go through 1st and 2nd year.
3. start a question bank early.
4. Get through your annotated FA more than once in the weeks leading up to the test.
5. ONCE the above is completed, start using the more detailed resources. These will be lower yield, but probably necessary to get to 250.
6. Find time to exercise.

You will see loads of study plans on SDN. I would have had great difficulty with many of them. In particular, the plans in which people go through a BRS in 2 days and then move on to another subject or the plans that involve a huge amount of review in the last two weeks. I just don't have the kind of mind that can retain the info from a BRS if I only spend 2 days on it. I wish that I could study like that, but I have a much more average speed of learning. I also wouldn't have dealt well with the stress of packing loads of info into my brain near the end. Some folks spend an incredible amount of money on 20 different review books. Many end up reading very few pages in some of them. All those books can be a distraction. When a q bank question caused me to go back and review, I always knew where to look. I was glad to not be searching 20 different books just to find the piece of info that I couldn't quite remember.

Good luck to all.
PamIsHorny

 

[512TA]

OP,
You have more than enough information in your resources. If you can get through all of that, you'll kill step I. I would never have gone through that much. There is enough info in First Aid and Kaplan q bank to get above 240. I took FA to be a guide as to what I needed to learn. I would never be able to learn from FA. The phrases and figures are too skimpy. For step I, you'll have to understand a disease, not just memorize the two lines that FA gives you. I'll give you the advice that I got from a friend that was two years ahead of me.

He was determined to destroy step I. He had always been great on standardized tests. He bit off more than he could chew with his study plan and resources. He was even using Big Robbins for a reference. What he found was that he had a great amount of knowledge, but couldn't access it quickly enough and was unsure about some things that he knew he was supposed to know. He was dissappointed with his result. His advice to me was to first know the main topics. And know them quickly off the top of your head. If you are confident with the topics in FA (not just memorizing their lines, but understanding the topic) and you do q bank, 240 + will happen. There will always be questions that the NBME digs up that you can't answer. Don't sweat those. Guess and move on. You can miss plenty and still get to your goal. Don't reread big robbins in hopes of picking up those rare ones.

With that advice, I started annotating FA in my first year. Biochem had a bunch of stuff that I knew would not stay in my head for long. I'd advise any first year to annotate FA early. First year is easy (I know it might not seem like it now) and you have time. These notes will save you big time when you start Step I studying. In areas that I didn't annotate, it seemed like I was starting from square one. So use your texts, review books, and lectures to annotate your study bible, FA. Use enough detail so that you can make sense of a complicated disease in a couple minutes when you come back to it a year later.

Since step I is still far off for you, you should have plenty of time to get through kaplan q bank and some of your other resources. You might need some of the others to get to 250. I suppose usmle world is now recommended over q bank. My problem with q bank was the ridiculous little details. I wasted time trying to learn about things that would never show on the acutal test. Apparently usmle world has the appropriate level of detail.

Based on my experience and from my classmates' experiences, it does not take a genius to score 240+. It takes a good study plan and early dedication. Work smarter not harder. I am sure there are much more inteligent med students out there that worked harder than me and still scored lower. I was lucky to follow what I consider to be a great and simple study plan.

1. Get first aid now. Put your contact info inside.
2. Annotate as you go through 1st and 2nd year.
3. start a question bank early.
4. Get through your annotated FA more than once in the weeks leading up to the test.
5. ONCE the above is completed, start using the more detailed resources. These will be lower yield, but probably necessary to get to 250.
6. Find time to exercise.

You will see loads of study plans on SDN. I would have had great difficulty with many of them. In particular, the plans in which people go through a BRS in 2 days and then move on to another subject or the plans that involve a huge amount of review in the last two weeks. I just don't have the kind of mind that can retain the info from a BRS if I only spend 2 days on it. I wish that I could study like that, but I have a much more average speed of learning. I also wouldn't have dealt well with the stress of packing loads of info into my brain near the end. Some folks spend an incredible amount of money on 20 different review books. Many end up reading very few pages in some of them. All those books can be a distraction. When a q bank question caused me to go back and review, I always knew where to look. I was glad to not be searching 20 different books just to find the piece of info that I couldn't quite remember.

Good luck to all.
PamIsHorny

i finished off with my 1st year and am on vacation. i am doing kaplan videos and its notes. By the end of this month i plan to finish off with biochem, physio, anat, neuro and genetics along with questions in kaplan handouts.
I kind of plan to go along with kaplan videos and handouts + goljan audios with my second year subjects. do you think this will be a good deal to crack the monster over 260.
I am really goin for it............


😕

 

[osli]

You will see loads of study plans on SDN. I would have had great difficulty with many of them. In particular, the plans in which people go through a BRS in 2 days and then move on to another subject...

I think that most people doing something like that are reading a book like HY Immuno or BRS phys for understanding, and annotating details into FA for later review. They don't expect to memorize all of the details in a 2-day read through, but they (we?) do expect to identify any topics where there were/are gaps in our understanding so that we can address them adequately. And details that we don't find in FA, think are important, and think we are likely to forget we just annotate into FA.

My hunch is that there are a lot of people out there using FA, a question bank, and a couple of other review books, that spend maybe two weeks with those other review books and then all remaining time with just FA and the question bank (and maybe RR path).

But I like your advice... I've argued here before that it doesn't hurt to start early if you are reading for comprehension and understanding instead of memorization. And it probably never hurts to annotate FA during classes if you have the time - only downside is that a lot of details that are relevant for classes might not be particularly high yield for boards, but when shooting for a high score I guess every detail is potentially important.

And I see nothing wrong with starting a question bank fairly early either... I started in early January, and I've improved my performance from upper 40's to low 60's in under a thousand questions without any real study effort. I feel much more comfortable now that when starting my serious board study I'll know where I need to concentrate the bulk of my time, and I have a good idea of how much further I need to improve to reach my goal.

 

[PamIsHorny]

. And it probably never hurts to annotate FA during classes if you have the time - only downside is that a lot of details that are relevant for classes might not be particularly high yield for boards, but when shooting for a high score I guess every detail is potentially important.

Osli, I absolutely agree with you that much of the class material is not high yield for the boards. Probably the majority of class material is in too much depth. I should have been more clear. I was trying to say that students should use classes and text books just enough to make FA material more clear when you come back to it later. Please...everyone out there... do not go overboard with class material.

I never annotated FA while in class. I would have ended up with loads of useless material in there. I carefully decided what seemed absolutely necessary for understanding the FA topic and put it in during evening study.

 

[nevercold]

I liked BRS physiology and pathology as review books to read through, but I would say that I preferred First Aid to really study from in crunch time. First Aid does outline a lot of stuff but without a lot of explanation, so it is important to understand the stuff in First Aid conceptually before using it exclusively as a review tool.

I went through First Aid once with BRS phys and path and good old google in the couple of months before my exam, then I spent the last two weeks memorizing First Aid and doing a few practice questions from QBank. I read entirely through First Aid just shy of 7 times. When I took the exam, I felt that First Aid covered at least 80% of the questions and 90% of the study-able material. I only did about 25% or less of QBank and I knew I had forgotten a small handful of things that were in First Aid and my score was a 245.

For some people, the question format is key to learning and so Qbank or whatever works well. I found that I was taking 1.5-2 hrs at least to do a question bank and read through all the answers/explanations. I was NOT learning enough for that 2 hrs of effort to make it worthwhile, so I ended up only using Qbank as a benchmark and a familiarity tool. If you get all through Qbank, perhaps more than once, I'm sure you will learn stuff from it. That being said, there is a tremendous amount of detail in Qbank that you don't have to know for Step 1. With all you have to know, I wasn't interested in spending hours trying to fit even more stuff into my brain.

I found that First Aid was weakest relative to the actual exam content on the biochem and the microbiology. If I had to retake Step 1, besides paying someone to kidnap me, I would have used an additional study guide for those sections while reviewing them in First Aid.

If you can cover a good biochem review guide, a good micro review guide, and BRS phys and path, all twice through and then make sure you know the stuff in First Aid, I would think you would stand an excellent chance of passing that 260.

 

[osli]

Osli, I absolutely agree with you that much of the class material is not high yield for the boards. Probably the majority of class material is in too much depth. I should have been more clear. I was trying to say that students should use classes and text books just enough to make FA material more clear when you come back to it later. Please...everyone out there... do not go overboard with class material.

I never annotated FA while in class. I would have ended up with loads of useless material in there. I carefully decided what seemed absolutely necessary for understanding the FA topic and put it in during evening study.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. You used class material to clarify sketchy concepts and explanations in FA... not to "add whatever was missing". 👍

 

[g6pddfishnc]

.

 

[darkmansaad]

if everyone says FA is the bible and everyone else says that Kaplan is completely comprehensive and yet people are failing using both then i dont think its a question of resources, its a question of application of resources. only you know when you are truly reading and when you are just staring at words but imagining yourself drinking a pina colada in the bahamas on a yacht out in the ocean as the cool sea breeze whips through your hair.....ok im getting carried away but you get the point. all the resources work if you use them correctly

 

[g6pddfishnc]

.

 

[512TA]

you guys chill out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
basically take kaplan, FA and UW and rock the xam.....................