Please assess my Step1 study plan

[WilliamsEph]

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I'm an IMG (US Citizen at Caribbean med school) about to start my Step1 study. Basic science subjects were taught well except Neuro, Pharm, and Path. Neuro was taught just ok, but Pharm and Path were atrocious. Accordingly, I plan to devote 1 month of intense study for each of those subjects by: reading a Neuro textbook (Neuroanatomy through cases by Hal Blumenfeld), Pharm textbook (Katzung & Trevor's Pharmacology Examination & Board Review), and Pathoma.

Then, do Kaplan videos + uworld questions for 3 months and write the exam. Maybe do DIT2012 during the last month too.

6 months of total prep. Is this a reasonable plan? Is it necessary for me to actually read the Neuro and Pharm textbooks if I feel my foundation is flimsy or would Kaplan videos be enough for those subjects? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Ronin786]

I'm an IMG (US Citizen at Caribbean med school) about to start my Step1 study. Basic science subjects were taught well except Neuro, Pharm, and Path. Neuro was taught just ok, but Pharm and Path were atrocious. Accordingly, I plan to devote 1 month of intense study for each of those subjects by: reading a Neuro textbook (Neuroanatomy through cases by Hal Blumenfeld), Pharm textbook (Katzung & Trevor's Pharmacology Examination & Board Review), and Pathoma.

Then, do Kaplan videos + uworld questions for 3 months and write the exam. Maybe do DIT2012 during the last month too.

6 months of total prep. Is this a reasonable plan? Is it necessary for me to actually read the Neuro and Pharm textbooks if I feel my foundation is flimsy or would Kaplan videos be enough for those subjects? Thanks for any advice.

A month of dedicated study for each topic seems like a waste to me. You're going to end up learning some unimportant minutiae that aren't really relevant for Step 1.

I'd recommend getting started on FA and I guess Kaplan Videos to help you understand FA. Then take an NBME and see where you stand and try to use concise review books to bolster your weak points. Couple that with a couple solid QBanks and you should be good to go. Something like USMLERx during the early phases and then UWorld towards the end. The more times you can do FA, the more you're going to remember out of it and the better you're going to do.

Fragmenting yourself between a bunch of resources is only going to make it harder for you to remember things. Plus the pharmacology in First Aid and UWorld is really all you'll need for Step 1. You don't need to go into in-depth mechanisms of action and receptors, all you need is to memorize the drug and some high yield points about it. 1 month of time on that is extremely wasteful.