M1 At New School Has Q's For You Seasoned Folks

[ramona223]

Hi There,
I'm an M1 at TouroCOM NY...Being that we have no upper-classmen to turn to, I had a few Q's about the USMLE/COMPLEX situation. If anyone could help out, I'd appreciate it:

1) What is the basic timeline for taking the COMPLEX and USMLE tests (I know this may vary by each school's curriculum, and also, for what it's worth, we are using the block system)... but in general, when do most people take each step of each test?

2)When do you start studying for each step of either test? (moreover, did you start studying alongside your regular courses as M1's?)

3) Did you take a prep course ? Some people have recommended studying on my own using the High Yield series for certain topics such as anatomy or another series call BRP (?), was wondering which to get, a general book for all? Or subject-specific?

To my knowledge, so far we don't have any school-sponsored COMPLEX or USMLE prep courses on the horizon...

I have the 4th edition of Moore's Clinically Oriented anatomy and I heard the blue boxes help with both the COMPLEX and USMLE.

Any info or advice would be MUCH appreciated! I feel somewhat on shakey ground not only being an M1, but not having M2's, 3's or 4's to get advice from!

Thanks.

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[medhacker]

Hi There,
I'm an M1 at TouroCOM NY...Being that we have no upper-classmen to turn to, I had a few Q's about the USMLE/COMPLEX situation. If anyone could help out, I'd appreciate it:

Hi Ramona, say hello to your new big sisters and brothers

1) What is the basic timeline for taking the COMPLEX and USMLE tests (I know this may vary by each school's curriculum, and also, for what it's worth, we are using the block system)... but in general, when do most people take each step of each test?

Ramona, most students take the COMLEX at the end of second year

2)When do you start studying for each step of either test? (moreover, did you start studying alongside your regular courses as M1's?)

I started during 2nd year. Just Learn well your 1st year classes.

3) Did you take a prep course ? Some people have recommended studying on my own using the High Yield series for certain topics such as anatomy or another series call BRP (?), was wondering which to get, a general book for all? Or subject-specific?

Lots of people don't take a course. Most people purchase First aid, BRS pathology or Rapid review pathology or both, savarese and other books.

To my knowledge, so far we don't have any school-sponsored COMPLEX or USMLE prep courses on the horizon...

I have the 4th edition of Moore's Clinically Oriented anatomy and I heard the blue boxes help with both the COMPLEX and USMLE.

They help with the Anatomy portion, word has it Anatomy is not high yield in the USMLE and higher in the COMLEX

Any info or advice would be MUCH appreciated! I feel somewhat on shakey ground not only being an M1, but not having M2's, 3's or 4's to get advice from!

Thanks.

You may want to look at the Step 1 forum, it has a bunch of experiences from people who took it in the past. If you have more questions ask away - best wishes!

 

[ramona223]

Thanks Medhacker!
So, does that mean that if we take both the COMPLEX and USMLE that step 1 of BOTH is at the end of second year?

 

[ShyRem]

ramona, it's COMLEX, without the P. Although i'm sure the concepts may seem to be so to the MSIs... i know they were to me when I started!

And yes, you take step 1 of both the comlex and the usmle at the end of your MSII year.

 

[MDmiracle]

Hi There,
I'm an M1 at TouroCOM NY...Being that we have no upper-classmen to turn to, I had a few Q's about the USMLE/COMPLEX situation. If anyone could help out, I'd appreciate it:

1) What is the basic timeline for taking the COMPLEX and USMLE tests (I know this may vary by each school's curriculum, and also, for what it's worth, we are using the block system)... but in general, when do most people take each step of each test?

2)When do you start studying for each step of either test? (moreover, did you start studying alongside your regular courses as M1's?)

3) Did you take a prep course ? Some people have recommended studying on my own using the High Yield series for certain topics such as anatomy or another series call BRP (?), was wondering which to get, a general book for all? Or subject-specific?

To my knowledge, so far we don't have any school-sponsored COMPLEX or USMLE prep courses on the horizon...

I have the 4th edition of Moore's Clinically Oriented anatomy and I heard the blue boxes help with both the COMPLEX and USMLE.

Any info or advice would be MUCH appreciated! I feel somewhat on shakey ground not only being an M1, but not having M2's, 3's or 4's to get advice from!

Thanks.

I am a 4th year at AZCOM, so I'll give you that perspective. As previously stated you will take COMLEX step 1 at the end of your second year, and you will only take the USMLE IF 1. you are going into a competitive MD specialty, and/or 2. you don't want any questions regarding your academic abilities, when compared with your MD colleagues. I would wait to see what kind of specialties you are considering before deciding on whether to take the USMLE or not, however, if in doubt take it.

You will take the Second step sometime in your fourth year, this one is much more dependent on whether you want residencies to have this score when deciding on taking you for their program. Generally, people will take it in the middle of their 4th year.

Study hard for class in your first year, this will help you prepare for step 1. It will be hard enough just getting used to the pace of school, so I wouldn't try studying for the boards at this time. And it won't help you much anyway, to many concepts rely on your second year classes to be of much help.

As far as material, when the time comes I would pick a question bank, Kaplan, USMLEworld, etc... and try and do all of the questions in there. I am OCD and started studying very hard for boards around november of my 2nd year. I used Kaplan Qbank, with their study course, and then purchased 1 board review book for each of the major subjects to read. I think I did around 8-10K ?'s before the test. I took both steps because I was considering Med/Peds. I did very well with that strategy.

At this point try to figure out your study, and test taking style. The COMLEX and the USMLE are simply an over glorified test like any other. Sure they have alot of content, but if you know what works for you and approach it that way then you will do OK. The people that get into trouble are those that try and develop a completely different way to study because they look at this test differently. Give yourself time maybe 3-4 months to study for it, make a schedule and stick to it, come up with a list of no more than 1-2 books per subject and stick to those. Everyone will tell you this book is great or that one is terrible, but the book that is great is the one that fits your study habits.

Hope this helps, Good luck and feel free to ask more questions or email me,