Need help - Took some time off, and will be taking step1 many years after M2 yr

[chef]

Hi guys,

I finished my M2 year 3 years ago and I've been doing basic science research. I'll be going back to medschool next year (2008), and I'll need to take my Step1 sometime in April-May of next year. That gives me about 11-12 months.

Obviously I'd like to do as well as possible on this exam, but also I really want to learn as much as possible to make my M3+M4 yrs as productive and rewarding as possible.

However being out of school for this long, I've forgotten almost everything about USMLE prep and I thought this would be a nice place to ask for some help. I'd especially love to hear from those who were in similar situations as myself, out of school for a while and having about 12 months to prepare (not 24/7 though).

Is Kaplan recommended? Their homestudy package was $499. I'm thinking I need to start slowly and ramp it up slowly. I'm not a believer in reading tons of different books, but I do believe in doing tons of practice problems.

I'd appreciate any help you guys can provide. Thanks!

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[lord_jeebus]

I think that you'll be better off at first doing a lot of reading (Kaplan or a bunch of review books or whatever) and putting off extensive questions until later. I would suggest using questions to review topics as you go over them (Particularly the Robbins Review of Pathology question book as you review path).

There's a lot of information lurking in your head that needs refreshing and I think that reading is a more efficient and comprehensive way to accomplish that. With questions you can cover maybe 50 facts an hour but reading you can do much more than that.