Need help with how to start step 1 prepration

[leftandright]

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First Congrat to who recently took the step1 and good luck to who are taking it in near future. I am taking step 1 in march/april next year. I looking for advise on how to start studying for it. I have first aid, goljan rr, all BRS series (heard physio brs is good), and all high yield series. I am planning to buy uworld subscription soon. My question is how you guys used FA. I don't have anything written in it but every one suggested me taking notes in FA extensively. What did you guys write in FA, and where you got the information that you added in. I am also reading RR, and will start using audio soon. wanted to know if you guys took notes in RR and if you transferred infomration from RR to FA.
Also, Should i go over lecture notes from my classes when studying for step. If any did it was it helpful? Any suggestion on unbinding FA as well?
Sorry I am asking alot of questions in one post but I am little nervous and lost about the whole thing.
Thank you in advance.

 

[neuromaniac]

I'm taking it in 2012 as well! So we'll be speaking a lot through this process. I'm taking the exam in May/June and you're taking it very early which is cool. Yes, i plan on unbinding FA. I plan on writing everything in FA. FA will be a part of me from aug to May/June. If it's in RR and not FA, I will transfer information to FA. Now, the questions is which qbank to use? My preference is using both kaplan and u-world. Get the best of both worlds by doing practice questions from 2 banks. i'm also doing gunner training (look it up!) over the fall to help me reinforce my knowledge. Hope that helps

 

[leftandright]

Thanks for the reply. Are you planning to read FA first and then quiz banks??

 

[neuromaniac]

Exactly. FA is the gold standard of course and GT is a way for me to figure out if I'm actually learning or just "glossing" over the material. It seems like a practical approach for me to use both GT and FA. In the fall, on saturday mornings, I will wake up and take 46 practice questions from U-World. I will then read each explanation to each question and answer. I will pay close attention to whether or not I got the right answer by luck or actual knowledge bc nothing is more dangerous than thinking you know the answer when in fact it was all luck...hope that makes sense. I'm on the fence about using DIT come spring or just continuing through U-World and FA. What you will come to find out is that these prep courses read off FA, well, maybe they don't literally read FA, but everything they teach you in prep courses seems to be in FA as well so why pay someone to tell you something when you could read it .. hope this helps!!

 

[xlr8]

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[islandCrazy]

Also taking it in May 2012. I plan on using the Taus method from this forum. Well of course I'm going to change it a bit by spending a lot of time on the first round.
I won't unbind my FA as I'm not the most organized person or neat person when it comes to notes. I be using a coil notebook to write my notes in.
I like the suggestion from Taus of paper based subject questions first. The only problem is other than pretest and Kaplan Qbook I have no idea where I should be getting these paper based questions from.

 

[neuromaniac]

i would NOT start annotating my first aid early on. you are going end up writing tons of stuff in it making it harder to read. i do recommend you remove the binding, put it in a binder, and add in pages to the relevant sections with notes of your own.

you should really reserve the margins for notes on the actual book pages for the last 2-3 months when you are doing uworld.

Thanks for that advice. That's something I would never have thought of on my own. 🙂

 

[Phlame217]

I am not going to "unbind" my FA per say, rather take it to the local copier store and have them put it into a Spiral format.

Also, I am NOT going to annotate in the fall, but rather pick up a large college ruled spiral and take notes in that and use tabs to keep everything organized. Reason being is I plan to move the FA 2012 in the Spring when its released and it would be a waste to annotate in the fall. I too also believe in waiting to annotate until you hit the qbanks and other stuff.

 

[neuromaniac]

Yeah annotating in the fall would be overkill. Plus, you might not remember what the heck you were trying to explain in FA by the time spring roles around. I've contemplated all of the different ways to study for this beast but I think I will stay light with it. FA 2012, RR Path, RR Biochem, and BRS Physiology. I agree with phlame in that I too will annotate in a spiral to keep things organized and succinct. Too much info will overwhelm us all so keeping fewer books might help. I keep wondering how different FA 2011 could be to FA 2012...