My holiday break USMLE study plans..yay or nay

[Blondnuttyboy]

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Hey all,

I've 3 weeks of holiday break and obviously I'm going to step 1 study - should've been indicated by my use of this site 🙄

Anyway, my game plan was a first run-through of first aid, while annotating esoteric concepts and reinforcing weakpoints with use of books like goljan path and brs psio.

I'm an MSII -- and I wanted to do a run through of first-aid before the start of the next semester to have a general look at the highlights of exam content.

yay or nay?

 

[go lakers]

are you an ms1 or ms2?

 

[Blondnuttyboy]

Ms2 - any ideas?

 

[ACSurgeon]

Hey all,

I've 3 weeks of holiday break and obviously I'm going to step 1 study - should've been indicated by my use of this site 🙄.......

Then, obviously you're an idiot. j/k

...
I'm an MSII ...

on a more serious note, you should enjoy your break. It makes ZERO sense to do any step 1 studying over winter break. You'll forget it anyways. Also, you'll burn out... you have one hell of a semester coming up followed by intense steo 1 studying. Believe, you need whatever study-free time you can get to, well, NOT STUDY!

 

[Blondnuttyboy]

damn...I appreciate the reply and I HAVE heard that. It just seems so counterintuitive to me.

I figured reinforcement+repetition would help.

I.e. if I went through cardio now, when i revisited it in april or whatever, it would be a pinch more fresh.

why am I flawed in my thinking? 😕

 

[VoiceofReason]

i say do whatever you feel like doing

i mean, if you get bored and you actually feel like casually reading some review material then why not?

just put it down whenever you feel like, it won't be wasted time

 

[ChimpanzeeMinky]

Then, obviously you're an idiot. j/k


on a more serious note, you should enjoy your break. It makes ZERO sense to do any step 1 studying over winter break. You'll forget it anyways. Also, you'll burn out... you have one hell of a semester coming up followed by intense steo 1 studying. Believe, you need whatever study-free time you can get to, well, NOT STUDY!

And what evidence to you have to support this assertion? I suppose that you also think that the step 1 reviews provided by the school in the spring semester are also a complete waste of time? Where do you draw the line as to when one should start studying?

To the OP: I plan to do the same this break. I'm going to try to get through the goljan material that I wasn't able to review during classes in the fall semester. There is only going to be so much spare time for review in the spring and during crunch month, so any sources you're interested in reviewing, including review of material from first year that is further in depth than what is found in first aid, would be reasonable material to tackle over the break.

 

[ChiDO]

i can plan on going over some goljan and biochem over christmas break...maybe like an hour or two in the morning when I'm bored.

Probably be better then aimlessly arguing with idiot pre-meds in the pre-med forum!

 

[coldweatherblue]

sounds plausible now when it's exam week and i've been studying non-stop for as long as I can remember.. but after break begins I'll be home, hanging out with my friends every day, back to normal life and probably won't pick up a book 'til mid-january. lol. definitely taking first-aid home to review but honestly doubt I'll look at it more than an hour the whole time.

 

[Blondnuttyboy]

Yeah I just realized that my test date will represent one of the most influential days for my entire professional career.

So friends, family, extra-currics, holidays, trips, whatever can take a back seat for 6 months. I will still find balance but honestly, if i don't score what I can, none of the "breaks" will matter anyway. The vacations will not seem poignant and all the parties will seem useless.

SO - GOLJANS, FIRST-AID, and reinforcement of tough concepts with high yield/brs/kaplan it is.

P.s. are ppl just straight reading goljan's path book? or breaking it up?

 

[ChimpanzeeMinky]

Yeah I just realized that my test date will represent one of the most influential days for my entire professional career.

So friends, family, extra-currics, holidays, trips, whatever can take a back seat for 6 months. I will still find balance but honestly, if i don't score what I can, none of the "breaks" will matter anyway. The vacations will not seem poignant and all the parties will seem useless.

SO - GOLJANS, FIRST-AID, and reinforcement of tough concepts with high yield/brs/kaplan it is.

P.s. are ppl just straight reading goljan's path book? or breaking it up?

I can't read it because it's in outline form. I listen to his lectures and review his book concurrently.

 

[AggieSean]

i can plan on going over some goljan and biochem over christmas break...maybe like an hour or two in the morning when I'm bored.

Probably be better then aimlessly arguing with idiot pre-meds in the pre-med forum!

This. I'd like to wrap up biochem and embryo in Gunner Training and then review the organ system we've covered this semester with Goljan, BRS Physio, and CMMRS. I'm definitely not gonna be hardcore, but it certainly can't hurt to look over the material again. I don't think that, come May and June, you'll regret doing it.

 

[ZagDoc]

The three things I'd make sure you get done:
1. Get registered to take Step 1
2. Get a rough timeline of what you want to cover and when in the 2-4 months leading up to your intensive study period
3. Get your preliminary day-to-day hour-to-hour study schedule for your intensive study period hammered out

A couple other things if you want to do more:
1. Research some supplemental books and come up with a prelim list of what books you want to buy. Buy a few if you have the funds currently.
2. 3 hole punch your First Aid and get it into a binder
3. Listen to some Goljan and annotate the useful stuff into RR Path

Wouldn't recommend starting to 'study' yet. I agree with those above that you won't likely remember much if any of what you cover; it'll get displaced by your classwork. The most useful thing you can do is get organized so you have a clear cut plan of attack when the time comes that you DO need to start studying.

 

[njbmd]

I would not waste the holiday break doing anything that involved studying. It's going to wind up being pretty low yield. If you can't enjoy yourself without studying, then look over FA but anything more than that is a total waste of good vacation time.

You will have plenty of time at the end of year II to saturate yourself with review. If you have passed your coursework then take a well-earned break. If you need to remediate something during the summer, then study that material but otherwise, enjoy the down-time.

 

[VincentAdultman]

Hey all,

I've 3 weeks of holiday break and obviously I'm going to step 1 study - should've been indicated by my use of this site 🙄

Anyway, my game plan was a first run-through of first aid, while annotating esoteric concepts and reinforcing weakpoints with use of books like goljan path and brs psio.

I'm an MSII -- and I wanted to do a run through of first-aid before the start of the next semester to have a general look at the highlights of exam content.

yay or nay?

You do realize you haven't even learned a large chunk of what's going to be tested right?

 

[greg1184]

The three things I'd make sure you get done:
1. Get registered to take Step 1
2. Get a rough timeline of what you want to cover and when in the 2-4 months leading up to your intensive study period
3. Get your preliminary day-to-day hour-to-hour study schedule for your intensive study period hammered out

A couple other things if you want to do more:
1. Research some supplemental books and come up with a prelim list of what books you want to buy. Buy a few if you have the funds currently.
2. 3 hole punch your First Aid and get it into a binder
3. Listen to some Goljan and annotate the useful stuff into RR Path

Wouldn't recommend starting to 'study' yet. I agree with those above that you won't likely remember much if any of what you cover; it'll get displaced by your classwork. The most useful thing you can do is get organized so you have a clear cut plan of attack when the time comes that you DO need to start studying.

+1
This is basically my thoughts of what I am going to do in the break. Register for Step 1, start planning what I will be doing next semester for step 1, take the Kaplan diagnostic test to see what I am going to prioritize. However overall: RELAX and enjoy the 2 week break.

I believe that half the battle in preparing for this exam is figuring out HOW you can study best for this exam. By starting relatively early, I can experiment to see how I study best without compromising my most important crunch-time studying.

Every 3rd year I have talked to have told me they wished they would have started studying earlier, and that there is no such thing as starting "too early". They wished they would have done some boards stuff throughout their modules. I know many people on this site take 6-10 weeks of studying and that's it, but I don't plan on doing that.

 

[Blondnuttyboy]

You do realize you haven't even learned a large chunk of what's going to be tested right?

Actually I've learned everything exc. repro, cancer bio, and some things here/there with hemotology. Been through all organ systems and then some - so I would be able to get through some review and at least some work through kaplan's q-bank.

 

[student89]

I think you should take your time to think things clearly before you get started... In my case, I always study DAYS before tests in general, it helps me learn easily specially in vacation without classes and less stuff to catch up..
good luck

 

[ZagDoc]

I believe that half the battle in preparing for this exam is figuring out HOW you can study best for this exam.

I'd argue it's way more than half the battle.

 

[Perrotfish]

on a more serious note, you should enjoy your break. It makes ZERO sense to do any step 1 studying over winter break. You'll forget it anyways. Also, you'll burn out... you have one hell of a semester coming up followed by intense steo 1 studying. Believe, you need whatever study-free time you can get to, well, NOT STUDY!

I don't see how studying 4 months before the test equals forgetting everything but studying for 6-8 weeks before the test equals remembering everything. I think it makes sense to study over Christmas break, and most of the MS3s I've listened to have advised me to do so.

You do realize you haven't even learned a large chunk of what's going to be tested right?

I'm not sure how your school works but all we have left is a third of pathology and pharm. About 80% of the testable material is behind us, more than enough to work through over the break.

sounds plausible now when it's exam week and i've been studying non-stop for as long as I can remember.. but after break begins I'll be home, hanging out with my friends every day, back to normal life and probably won't pick up a book 'til mid-january. lol. definitely taking first-aid home to review but honestly doubt I'll look at it more than an hour the whole time.

We have very different holiday breaks. My friends are all either here or in the town I went to college. Home is the most distraction free enviornment I'm going to have this side of residency.

 

[ACSurgeon]

The three things I'd make sure you get done:
1. Get registered to take Step 1
2. Get a rough timeline of what you want to cover and when in the 2-4 months leading up to your intensive study period
3. Get your preliminary day-to-day hour-to-hour study schedule for your intensive study period hammered out

A couple other things if you want to do more:
1. Research some supplemental books and come up with a prelim list of what books you want to buy. Buy a few if you have the funds currently.
2. 3 hole punch your First Aid and get it into a binder
3. Listen to some Goljan and annotate the useful stuff into RR Path

Wouldn't recommend starting to 'study' yet. I agree with those above that you won't likely remember much if any of what you cover; it'll get displaced by your classwork. The most useful thing you can do is get organized so you have a clear cut plan of attack when the time comes that you DO need to start studying.

this is good advice. 👍

 

[ACSurgeon]

You do realize you haven't even learned a large chunk of what's going to be tested right?

I'll echo that. Do not spend a lot of time on first year material as it is very low yield. You will spend ~2/3 or more of your review time on pathophys/pharm, half of which you haven't seen yet.

 

[Deferoxamine]

The three things I'd make sure you get done:
1. Get registered to take Step 1
2. Get a rough timeline of what you want to cover and when in the 2-4 months leading up to your intensive study period
3. Get your preliminary day-to-day hour-to-hour study schedule for your intensive study period hammered out

A couple other things if you want to do more:
1. Research some supplemental books and come up with a prelim list of what books you want to buy. Buy a few if you have the funds currently.
2. 3 hole punch your First Aid and get it into a binder
3. Listen to some Goljan and annotate the useful stuff into RR Path

Wouldn't recommend starting to 'study' yet. I agree with those above that you won't likely remember much if any of what you cover; it'll get displaced by your classwork. The most useful thing you can do is get organized so you have a clear cut plan of attack when the time comes that you DO need to start studying.

As always, Zag says it in one of the best ways possible. And I agree.

 

[Texas4508]

I am also a MS2 and plan on studying a little over break. I know everything keeps saying "you wont remember it in May", but what if there are some subjects you dont feel confident about to begin with? I feel that I never fully understand biochemistry and plan on reading RR Biochem over the break.

 

[Concubine]

I pretty much plan on making a plan to study. I need to do a comprehensive review of what I know best and what I don't know before I hit the books. I'll probably hammer out a time line & review goals for each week up until I take the test, then do a little research into which books will be most useful. Start with lots of studying, and hopefully taper into doing more and more questions by the time the test rolls around.

 

[badasshairday]

I'll echo that. Do not spend a lot of time on first year material as it is very low yield. You will spend ~2/3 or more of your review time on pathophys/pharm, half of which you haven't seen yet.

So what would be useful to study? I'm telling myself I should do at least something. We'll see how it goes.... But I was thinking about brushing up on Renal Physio, cardio physio, and maybe respiratory phys (to help for path/pharm next semester)from BRS Physio. Would that be useful? I think that could be done over several days 1-2 hours a day.

Also plan on starting hematology from Rapid Review path the weekend before the semester starts, just so that I can hit the ground running for second semester.

 

[ACSurgeon]

So what would be useful to study? I'm telling myself I should do at least something. We'll see how it goes.... But I was thinking about brushing up on Renal Physio, cardio physio, and maybe respiratory phys (to help for path/pharm next semester)from BRS Physio. Would that be useful? I think that could be done over several days 1-2 hours a day.

Also plan on starting hematology from Rapid Review path the weekend before the semester starts, just so that I can hit the ground running for second semester.

It's really hard to say what would and wouldn't be useful. The reality of it is, whatever physiology you need to get by in pathophys is most (or all) the physiology that you need for the boards and beyond. If you feel shaky in a certain area and want to review it, fine. I think it's hard for anyone who hasn't studied for step 1 to realize this: you will not "master" all the material walking into step 1, so in the 3-5 weeks that you review for step 1, you try to refresh your memory on what you should have internalized.

If you wanna get through BRS phys just so its one less thing to feel like you have to do in the summer fine. If you wanna do it because you think it will directly benefit you, then don't.

If you normally look ahead at upcoming pathophys notes to get a head start, do it for heme as you describe. If you normally don't, yet still pass, then don't.

I think I may have been too aggressive with my initial response about how horrible of an idea it is to waste precious break time studying, but I think once you spend 6 months of your life waking up at 5 and running around all day + forcing yourself to study after you come home, you'll understand where I'm coming from. As long as you really refresh yourself enough over break, then do whatever you want otherwise...

 

[premeddick]

It's really hard to say what would and wouldn't be useful. The reality of it is, whatever physiology you need to get by in pathophys is most (or all) the physiology that you need for the boards and beyond. If you feel shaky in a certain area and want to review it, fine. I think it's hard for anyone who hasn't studied for step 1 to realize this: you will not "master" all the material walking into step 1, so in the 3-5 weeks that you review for step 1, you try to refresh your memory on what you should have internalized.

If you wanna get through BRS phys just so its one less thing to feel like you have to do in the summer fine. If you wanna do it because you think it will directly benefit you, then don't.

If you normally look ahead at upcoming pathophys notes to get a head start, do it for heme as you describe. If you normally don't, yet still pass, then don't.

I think I may have been too aggressive with my initial response about how horrible of an idea it is to waste precious break time studying, but I think once you spend 6 months of your life waking up at 5 and running around all day + forcing yourself to study after you come home, you'll understand where I'm coming from. As long as you really refresh yourself enough over break, then do whatever you want otherwise...

I am planning on listening to some audio that I have that goes over pathology and some important board concepts (if you catch my drift). I can do this while I hang around the house, do laundry, play video games... This is my osmosis, passive board prep.

 

[sweetpotato]

the way I see it, if we're going to be stuck in our parent's houses or whatever doesn't involve a nice vacation involving traveling, why not get in some light studying?

I mean, more studying = more repetition = greater absorption of material, right?

 

[ACSurgeon]

the way I see it, if we're going to be stuck in our parent's houses or whatever doesn't involve a nice vacation involving traveling, why not get in some light studying?

I mean, more studying = more repetition = greater absorption of material, right?

I personally felt like the concepts that I understood helped my a ton more than the concepts that I memorized. Thus, repetition = memorize stuff =low yield. If, on the other hand, there are any concepts you weren't able to understand the first time around, then it might help to read up on these concepts.

If you really have nothing better to do and you listen to audio stuff while working out or driving etc, then I think that's ok. Just do not put a schedule and put a goal, as that will likely add stress to your last vacation/break before Christmas break of 3rd year

Good luck to you all!

 

[HPSPpayissues]

Hey all,

I've 3 weeks of holiday break and obviously I'm going to step 1 study - should've been indicated by my use of this site 🙄

Anyway, my game plan was a first run-through of first aid, while annotating esoteric concepts and reinforcing weakpoints with use of books like goljan path and brs psio.

I'm an MSII -- and I wanted to do a run through of first-aid before the start of the next semester to have a general look at the highlights of exam content.

yay or nay?

Just review some stuffs from last year, such as Biochem, Neuro and Gross

 

[penguin24]

I used X-mas holidays during M2 to study Anatomy & Embryo, two subjects that are low-yield for Step 1. That way, when M2 was finished, I focused on the high yield stuff (everything else).

Everybody told me not to study during breaks, but then you get a great Step 1 score and everybody says, 'oh, you're so lucky, you must have a good memory'. As is hard work doesn't pay off

 

[45408]

I don't see how studying 4 months before the test equals forgetting everything but studying for 6-8 weeks before the test equals remembering everything. I think it makes sense to study over Christmas break, and most of the MS3s I've listened to have advised me to do so.

6-8 weeks is pretty gratuitous for Step 1 as well. I plateaued around 3 weeks, but I studied for 4 weeks. I could tell that I was forgetting some details of stuff I had reviewed at the beginning of that time span as well.

 

[vicinihil]

I'm planning on studying over my two week plan.

Do I plan on spending the WHOLE time studying? no....If something comes up I WILL go do it...eat with friends, movies, workout, etc.

However, I will plan my day around studying and set up a goal...eg: Tuesday- General Path/Neoplasm, Wed- Endocrine, Thursday- Reproductive, etc.

My strategy is to go over FA, Goljan, and do Kaplan Q bank questions for the relevant chapters. It's not intense, in depth studying but to echo a poster above, it's all about repetition and familiarity. I plan on taking my Step I in mid-April and during my 4 weeks of alloted studying time, I think I will be happy that it's not my first pass through Goljan/FA and this way I can focus on doing UW questions rather than reading.

So yay for studying!!

 

[coldweatherblue]

almost a week into Christmas vacation.. right now I'm about a third of the way through Crime and Punishment and in the process of learning some Beethoven on my mom's wonderful piano which I miss dearly.. microcards and first aid can kiss my ass!

 

[VincentAdultman]

I used X-mas holidays during M2 to study Anatomy & Embryo, two subjects that are low-yield for Step 1. That way, when M2 was finished, I focused on the high yield stuff (everything else).

Everybody told me not to study during breaks, but then you get a great Step 1 score and everybody says, 'oh, you're so lucky, you must have a good memory'. As is hard work doesn't pay off

I got a great Step One score too, and used my X-mas holiday to study bowl games and binge drinking.



ANECDOTED'!!!!

 

[ZagDoc]

I got a great Step One score too, and used my X-mas holiday to study bowl games and binge drinking.



ANECDOTED'!!!!

Same here. n=2.

 

[illixir]

I'm doing some light studying for me. Going through some biochem and pharm since those are weak areas, and also doing a set of 48 qbank every day or two. Just a few hours overall. I don't even feel like it's work since i enjoy doing questions. Just don't put any stress to learn anything over christmas, but doing a few things here and there is fine. Repetition always helps especially if you're building understanding. Trying to memorize anything now would be useless.

We've also gone through almost everything at my school though since we finish M2 at the end of feb. all we have left is psych and finishing some last bits of neuro.

 

[badasshairday]

almost a week into Christmas vacation.. right now I'm about a third of the way through Crime and Punishment and in the process of learning some Beethoven on my mom's wonderful piano which I miss dearly.. microcards and first aid can kiss my ass!

Totally agree with you!

Ditched the BRS Physio review of cardio, renal, resp... Probably not gonna study at all. Vacation... Is.... TOO... SWEET!

 

[mq123]

We've also gone through almost everything at my school though since we finish M2 at the end of feb. all we have left is psych and finishing some last bits of neuro.

Lucky... 😛 we have a 6 month long systems-based pathology course, and we end that in March. We still have a few big ones to go through -- cardio, reproductive, etc.

 

[username456789]

I've got a week left before I start back up again, anyone have any ideas for good things I could make flashcards for during this time? I'm not planning on any type of intense time-consuming studying, but I figure if I can mindlessly make a bunch of flashcards (I tend to be a big flashcard person) that'd save me a lot of time down the line when studying for boards.

Any suggestions welcome.

 

[45408]

I've got a week left before I start back up again, anyone have any ideas for good things I could make flashcards for during this time? I'm not planning on any type of intense time-consuming studying, but I figure if I can mindlessly make a bunch of flashcards (I tend to be a big flashcard person) that'd save me a lot of time down the line when studying for boards.

Any suggestions welcome.

side effects for drugs. that was very high yield for me, especially the rare ones, like agranulocytosis from clozapine.

 

[EBI831]

6-8 weeks of boards studying is pretty generous and pretty unnecessary. We got 5 weeks max. for those who havent done all of pathophys yet, its more high yield, IMO, to focus hardcore on organ systems (i liked the first aid organ systems books) and brush up on anatomy/the section in BRS physio/ and the first aid part on embryo as you go through studying Rapid Review and Robbins. I did this and found that once I was done with path...i only seriously needed about 2 weeks of studying (to brush up on biochem and other first year stuff) and that i got the exact same score (a great one IMO) 2 weeks into studying that i got on the final thing after 4 weeks of studying. Plus, now as a 3rd year I found the medicine rotation wasnt difficult at all b/c it was all just based on a solid pathophys foundation.

 

[mq123]

6-8 weeks of boards studying is pretty generous and pretty unnecessary. We got 5 weeks max. for those who havent done all of pathophys yet, its more high yield, IMO, to focus hardcore on organ systems (i liked the first aid organ systems books) and brush up on anatomy/the section in BRS physio/ and the first aid part on embryo as you go through studying Rapid Review and Robbins. I did this and found that once I was done with path...i only seriously needed about 2 weeks of studying (to brush up on biochem and other first year stuff) and that i got the exact same score (a great one IMO) 2 weeks into studying that i got on the final thing after 4 weeks of studying. Plus, now as a 3rd year I found the medicine rotation wasnt difficult at all b/c it was all just based on a solid pathophys foundation.

Thanks for sharing! This seems like really good advice 👍

 

[MDpride]

It is good to go through CONCEPTS that u didn't understood or had hard time first time thru.


Also, what r u going to do if u don't remember well concept/s that u understood well before few weeks before BOARDS?

So from my opinion, it is a good idea to go thru all concepts once before 5 weeks marathon.

 

[Krazykyle]

I spent this break to read...

1) Lippincott Biochem - Majored in it, and the book took about two days of reading.
2) BRS Physio and questions - Short and easy book.
3) High Yield Embryology - Very low yield for me, we hardly cover any of it, so I will need to hit it again.
4) Have reviewed the basic sciences all semester throughout first aid so when I look at them throughout the spring semester it is review and memorization only.
5) Will use the next week to review this semester's pharm and First Aid basics.

Also throughout the last semester have tried to complete all the USMLERX and USMLEWORLD questions for all the basic sciences, and have spent this break doing embryology, biochem, microbio, pharm questions from them.

Reviewing path you just learned is a waste of time IMO. I assume most people here used Goljan's Rapid Review path throughout the semester so reading it again is pretty low yield.

Just need to use your time judiciously.