MSTPs studying for boards...

[solitude]

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I sort of ventured into the other forums but people aren't as friendly and I don't trust them. So I hope it's alright if I ask something slightly off-topic. I want to get a more global perspective than just the older MSTPs at my school.

I am wondering how you guys went about studying for Step I. I am a second-year about 6 months away from taking it. I.e., when did you start (after Christmas seems to be a good consensus)? What materials did you use (First Aid, Goljan, BRS, etc.)? Are practice tests as paramount as for the MCAT? How many weeks did you spend purely studying after classes ended before taking the test? How successful was your regimen?

On a related note, how many weeks did you take off after you took the exam before you came back to do a research rotation, or a clinical rotation, or joined your thesis lab?

Thanks for the wisdom!

 

[URHere]

As another MD/PhD taking the boards in 2010, I have an add-on question.

Is it better to schedule the exam early (April, May, June) or late (June, July, August)? I still have one rotation left to complete next summer, and that rotation may determine which graduate program I join at my school, so I'm hesitant to start the 10 week rotation in July and make a decision before finishing. Understandably, I'm also hesitant to take step 1 too soon, especially since second year classes at my school finish notoriously late (mid May).

Any advice?

 

[Neuronix]

I took a month of dedicated study time and didn't really prepare for the exam before then. Now it seems common to study for 6 weeks. This is probably why my score went from being a good score to a mediocre score for competitive specialties in the span of a few years. I never anticipated GUNNERS... FROM THE FUTURE!!!!! Future... future... future

Just make sure you give yourself a good solid chunk of time when you aren't doing anything else to study for it. It seems like 6-8 weeks has become the norm? I took a vacation before I started Step I prepping, and then had a long weekend between Step I exam and lab rotation. I'd say it's worth it to do QBank and some of the official USMLE practice exams, and these should give you enough prep on exam-like questions.

If you PM me your e-mail address I will send you our school's method, which is what I followed. PS: Please don't everyone start PMing me now. This offer is only valid for long time SDN posters who are currently in a MD/PhD program.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

I sort of ventured into the other forums but people aren't as friendly and I don't trust them. So I hope it's alright if I ask something slightly off-topic. I want to get a more global perspective than just the older MSTPs at my school.

I am wondering how you guys went about studying for Step I. I am a second-year about 6 months away from taking it. I.e., when did you start (after Christmas seems to be a good consensus)? What materials did you use (First Aid, Goljan, BRS, etc.)? Are practice tests as paramount as for the MCAT? How many weeks did you spend purely studying after classes ended before taking the test? How successful was your regimen?

On a related note, how many weeks did you take off after you took the exam before you came back to do a research rotation, or a clinical rotation, or joined your thesis lab?

Thanks for the wisdom!

I did not study at all during classes. I took 8 weeks to study and studied 12-16 hrs a day. I studied First Aid, BRS path and phys and behavioral sci, HY molec bio, neuroanatomy, and gross anatomy, Lange's immuno, and Medical Microbio made Ridiculously Simple.

I did not use Kaplan QBank, but did use USMLE World and did maybe 2/3. I got really stressed out with not getting 70%+ consistently on this, rather than using it as a study tool, as I should have. Read the explanations at least of those questions you get wrong.

Do the USMLE exams. USMLE World is practically the same as the USMLE, maybe even slightly tougher questions, so it will prepare you well.

My greatest regret is not reading Goljan path, which many high scorers seem to have. I scored decently high but not a 260 or a 270. I think the exam has shifted away from BRS path and Kaplan QBank, to Goljan path and USMLE World being better preparation. Remember, your score is based on the competition: if Goljan has twice as much detail info as BRS path, and 60% of your competition knows it, even if you know the other subjects just as well or better, you will suffer for it (as path is the heaviest subject, generally, on the exam). Carefully peruse both BRS path and Goljan path and decide which is best.

There's also a website by University of Utah I believe where they have path images which might help. Be sure to study derm, which is not a subject I had in MS1/2, but showed up A LOT on my exam (at least 2-3 photos of derm conditions). Maybe Goljan covers it, with photos? I don't remember BRS path doing a very good job with it.

I started a pre-clerkship course the day after I took the exam and clerkships a week later. I.e. I had no vacation. I did feel a bit burned out, but the clerkship was psychiatry, and the resident was very nice and generous with letting me out early, so that gave me time to recuperate.

 

[solitude]

thanks for the info guys. Very helpful. Neuronix I think I will get back to you when I have some money to splurge on review books 🙂.

I did not study at all during classes. I took 8 weeks to study and studied 12-16 hrs a day. I studied First Aid, BRS path and phys and behavioral sci, HY molec bio, neuroanatomy, and gross anatomy, Lange's immuno, and Medical Microbio made Ridiculously Simple.

I did not use Kaplan QBank, but did use USMLE World and did maybe 2/3. I got really stressed out with not getting 70%+ consistently on this, rather than using it as a study tool, as I should have. Read the explanations at least of those questions you get wrong.

Do the USMLE exams. USMLE World is practically the same as the USMLE, maybe even slightly tougher questions, so it will prepare you well.

My greatest regret is not reading Goljan path, which many high scorers seem to have. I scored decently high but not a 260 or a 270. I think the exam has shifted away from BRS path and Kaplan QBank, to Goljan path and USMLE World being better preparation. Remember, your score is based on the competition: if Goljan has twice as much detail info as BRS path, and 60% of your competition knows it, even if you know the other subjects just as well or better, you will suffer for it (as path is the heaviest subject, generally, on the exam). Carefully peruse both BRS path and Goljan path and decide which is best.

There's also a website by University of Utah I believe where they have path images which might help. Be sure to study derm, which is not a subject I had in MS1/2, but showed up A LOT on my exam (at least 2-3 photos of derm conditions). Maybe Goljan covers it, with photos? I don't remember BRS path doing a very good job with it.

I started a pre-clerkship course the day after I took the exam and clerkships a week later. I.e. I had no vacation. I did feel a bit burned out, but the clerkship was psychiatry, and the resident was very nice and generous with letting me out early, so that gave me time to recuperate.

 

[QofQuimica]

thanks for the info guys. Very helpful. Neuronix I think I will get back to you when I have some money to splurge on review books 🙂.

You might want to look into whether your school library has some review books. At my school at least, they had a bunch of them, which we had to use in the library. But still, free is free. I did buy a few review books, but mostly I just used theirs for all the more minor subjects like anatomy, immunology, etc.

I'm kind of not sure what additional advice you're looking for here that you wouldn't get from the regular Step 1 forum. It's not like MD/PhD students take a different Step 1 than everyone else! But, FWIW:

What I did was study for about five weeks, focusing most heavily on path, pharm, micro, and physio, which make up the majority of the test. I also reviewed embryo, which is the highest yield part of anatomy, and a couple of other subjects like immunology. Make sure that you get a good question bank and spend time working through it. A lot of people like USMLEWorld, and others use Kaplan. There are a few more out there, but those are the two that I used, so I can only comment about them. I started out using Kaplan, which I thought was better for reviewing the subjects covered on Step 1. In the last few weeks, I switched to UW, which I think is better for seeing what the actual test questions will be like. But honestly, I don't think it matters which Qbank you use as long as you use it!

You will probably also want to take a couple of NBMEs. I managed to secure a couple of vouchers from the school, so you might want to see if you can get some from your program. Other than that, the only advice I can give you is to focus on your weak areas. People have a tendency to want to study what they're good at, but that won't help your score improve. Whatever you suck at, that's what you should study the most! Best of luck. 🙂

 

[solitude]

thanks Q! I remember reading your advice about the MCAT 4 years ago. Oh how the time flies.

You might want to look into whether your school library has some review books. At my school at least, they had a bunch of them, which we had to use in the library. But still, free is free. I did buy a few review books, but mostly I just used theirs for all the more minor subjects like anatomy, immunology, etc.

I'm kind of not sure what additional advice you're looking for here that you wouldn't get from the regular Step 1 forum. It's not like MD/PhD students take a different Step 1 than everyone else! But, FWIW:

What I did was study for about five weeks, focusing most heavily on path, pharm, micro, and physio, which make up the majority of the test. I also reviewed embryo, which is the highest yield part of anatomy, and a couple of other subjects like immunology. Make sure that you get a good question bank and spend time working through it. A lot of people like USMLEWorld, and others use Kaplan. There are a few more out there, but those are the two that I used, so I can only comment about them. I started out using Kaplan, which I thought was better for reviewing the subjects covered on Step 1. In the last few weeks, I switched to UW, which I think is better for seeing what the actual test questions will be like. But honestly, I don't think it matters which Qbank you use as long as you use it!

You will probably also want to take a couple of NBMEs. I managed to secure a couple of vouchers from the school, so you might want to see if you can get some from your program. Other than that, the only advice I can give you is to focus on your weak areas. People have a tendency to want to study what they're good at, but that won't help your score improve. Whatever you suck at, that's what you should study the most! Best of luck. 🙂

 

[JAWSCIENCE]

I was a 4-6 week studier. A lot of classmates who were 8 week people were very jealous and said they felt the last two weeks was psyching them out, tiring them out mentally etc. One even rescheduled to take it sooner. Plus I got t take a nice vacation before doing my last rotation. Everyone else was studying and I was in Greece.

Questions are definitely of paramount importance. I used USMLE World and USMLE RX. I avoided Kaplan like the plague. Their questions are esoteric and really make you feel bad about yourself. Plus they stressed details that you really did not need to know over concepts that show up again and again. There's usually a small free trial you can sign up for that will let you test it out and realize this for yourself. Wiki test prep is also a great free resource you can use. Man people took the NBME's that are supposed to be the best predictors of your core. However my score was way better than the scores I got on those exams. Plus since you cannot review and learn from your answers I felt they were a waste of money.

Stick with what works for you - If you have always been a question based learner don't suddenly buy and try to read an entire set of Kaplan USMLE notes.