Please Critique my Step 1 Study Schedule (If you like it, free 5 week plan!)

[Carpe-Noctem]

Hey everyone, planning on starting tomorrow and studying for step 1 for 5 weeks. Basically broken down into first pass (~3 weeks) and second pass (~ 2 weeks). I will have had 2 passes of first aid, 3 passes of pathoma, and 1 pass of uworld + another pass of the questions I missed.

I'm looking for your thoughts regarding the feasibility of my plan and any additional thoughts. For reference my goal is 240 + and my nbme two weeks ago was a 220 (during school). Thanks!

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[jqueb29]

I'm stealing this for myself lol I also have 5 weeks of dedicated time starting tomorrow evening. I will say though, the First Aid aspect may be pretty tough. I've done a full first pass of FA and Pathoma so far, and while Pathoma is pretty easy to get through, FA took me a loooong time. Granted I was doing it while still in class, but just know that FA is going to be a beast if this is your first pass and you haven't looked at it for a while.

 

[Carpe-Noctem]

Yeah that was my main concern, I have skimmed through FA with classes so its not like i've never seen it, but this is the first time i am sitting down to actively memorize it. I'm using flash facts with it and it seems to help a lot with retention. 60 pages a day second pass isnt bad, because at that point you are just keeping things fresh. the 28 pages a day first pass in 3 hours is what i'm concerned about. everything else seems pretty manageable.

since you are considering using it, does the fact that there are no "true" days off bother you?

 

[aspiringmd1015]

so how are you goign to read FA with it? as in when you do the UW blocks, youre not going to be reading FA according to the questoin you see? just learning from the UW questions and then reading FA from page 1-28 and so on every day?

 

[Carpe-Noctem]

As I go through the questions in Uworld, if i know it i know it, if not, i'll read the corresponding passage in FA and see if there is anything in Uworld i want to annotate into FA. In addition, I'll be memorizing pg 1-28, 29- 57, and so on.

 

[Carpe-Noctem]

sorry just to add, thats why i'm allotting 4 hours for each uworld block, so i can compare and contrast with FA (so i guess by the time i get through all of uworld, thats basically another pass of fa)

 

[jqueb29]

Yeah that was my main concern, I have skimmed through FA with classes so its not like i've never seen it, but this is the first time i am sitting down to actively memorize it. I'm using flash facts with it and it seems to help a lot with retention. 60 pages a day second pass isnt bad, because at that point you are just keeping things fresh. the 28 pages a day first pass in 3 hours is what i'm concerned about. everything else seems pretty manageable.

since you are considering using it, does the fact that there are no "true" days off bother you?

Yeah everything after the first pass is significantly easier, you could probably speed up your second pass if necessary if the first pass takes longer than you're expecting. As far as no true off days, that personally doesn't bother me much, but you would probably get a variety of answers on that. I personally have just said screw it, I'm going all out until this is over, and haven't had a day where I didn't do at least 4 hours of Step studying since the beginning of March. It's working great for me, but I'm sure a lot of people would tell you it's crazy and that it doesn't work for them. You'll find out soon enough if it's going to work for you or not, just listen to how your brain feels. If you're groggy/not retaining much, take a break for as long as you need, and then make up for it by working harder when you feel refreshed again. I've definitely been noticing that 5 hours of intense, focused study is much better than 14 hours of forcing yourself to just sit there reading if your brain isn't cooperating.

 

[Carpe-Noctem]

Yeah everything after the first pass is significantly easier, you could probably speed up your second pass if necessary if the first pass takes longer than you're expecting. As far as no true off days, that personally doesn't bother me much, but you would probably get a variety of answers on that. I personally have just said screw it, I'm going all out until this is over, and haven't had a day where I didn't do at least 4 hours of Step studying since the beginning of March. It's working great for me, but I'm sure a lot of people would tell you it's crazy and that it doesn't work for them. You'll find out soon enough if it's going to work for you or not, just listen to how your brain feels. If you're groggy/not retaining much, take a break for as long as you need, and then make up for it by working harder when you feel refreshed again. I've definitely been noticing that 5 hours of intense, focused study is much better than 14 hours of forcing yourself to just sit there reading if your brain isn't cooperating.

yeah that makes a lot of sense, do you think its realistic to go from 220 to 240+? (the 220 is basically just school, no step studying)

 

[jqueb29]

yeah that makes a lot of sense, do you think its realistic to go from 220 to 240+? (the 220 is basically just school, no step studying)

Assuming you can stick to this schedule, I absolutely think so. The fact that you're sitting at 220 without any real Step studying suggests your score can greatly improve. I'm not sure what their baseline score was and what score they ended up with, but I know people at my school typically take Step 1 after 4-5 weeks of dedicated study and all of the 3rd years I talked to said their score improved anywhere from 20-40 points compared to their CBSE predicted score.

 

[Carpe-Noctem]

thanks! If you really plan on using my schedule, let me know how you are doing/what you think occasionally, I'll do the same! A little encouragement can go a long way.

 

[jqueb29]

thanks! If you really plan on using my schedule, let me know how you are doing/what you think occasionally, I'll do the same! A little encouragement can go a long way.

will do!

 

[TheShaker]

Dang, yall are fast as hell. 28 pages in 3 hours? It takes me a day to get through like 15 pages. :|

 

[yanks26dmb]

What are you guys doing when you're making that first pass through FA? Are you taking notes on what you're reading? How do you actually commit this stuff to memory?

When you go back to make a second pass, do you find you've forgotten large chunks of it? I'm just an M1 finishing up first year, but was thinking about doing 6 pages per day now through beginning of next fall and making that my "first pass". Thoughts?

 

[ninjaman22]

You eat dinner at 5 pm? Dang!