Hey just saw this. I used the tried and true UFAP (UWorld, Pathoma, First Aid) and also Savarese for OMT. I would say that 90-95% of the step 1 form I got could have been answered from content within those resources, and the others were things you could partially reason through using general principles (first half of FA, first few chapters of Pathoma). The issue for me was I could recognize that I’d seen the material before but hadn’t mastered the topic enough to differentiate between 2-3 answers. If I could go back, I would focus less on lecture material and more on board prep material throughout the academic year (assuming you can still pass class tests doing so), because now that I’m on my own for 3rd year I am only using UWorld and OnlineMedEd and am doing above the NBME average on shelf exams. From this I’ve learned that my problem wasn’t cognitive, but rather that I didn’t study the relevant material enough (alot of our curriculum is board-irrelevant, and ward-irrelevant tbh). This is why when I got to dedicated, I felt like I was learning UWorld material for the first time. Further evidence to support this idea is that half of my class scored below a 210. I think UWorld is a great teacher if you enjoy learning independently, and I think the didactic years of medical school should become a standardized digital curriculum.
I believe that if administration had simply had their students sit down and memorize UFAP all of second year while going to a clinic once a week, that we would be better prepared for 3rd year. I also like what Baylor does, which is that they have their students take step 1 and step 2 back to back after third year. I feel like the material clicks better in the context of rotations for me. Baylor has the highest step 1 average in the country from what I last saw.
Good luck moving forward. Study hard.
