please help me....

[docmd2010]

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Hey guys,

I'd appreciate if all of you could really help me. I'm a second year med student looking to start preparing for the step 1. I've decided not to take kaplan but i did purchase the kaplan qbank.

Here's my booklist that I plan on using for the 5 main subjects:

1) Pathology: Goljan
2) Micro: Clinicial Micro Made R. Simple
3) Phys: BRS Phys + Kaplan Phys
4) Biochem/genetics: Kaplan
5) Pharm: Kaplan + BRS Pharm

for the rest, embryo/anat/behavioral/molecular biology i plan on studying that stuff over the summer, since i think it might be low yield, and I plan on buying the high yield series for each.

I need some serious guidance on when to start preparing for this beast. I'm weak in Micro, pharm, and biochem and will indeed need to spend some extra time with these subjects. I was going to start studying in the next week or so, but we're starting our toughest section (hematology/derm/oncology (we're system's based)), and from what i understand this is pretty high yield for the step 1, so i was thinking of maybe holding off on the usmle studying at this point and attempt to learn school material as well as i possibly can. the only problem is that this section won't finish until the end of january, and I feel if i start my studying that late into the game i'll be quite a bit behind.
I do have like 2 weeks in christmas where i can do some reviewing. What subject should i start with? I was maybe thinking that I should read something like biochemistry or physiology over christmas (so that i have my basics down before I start studying pathology/microbiology and then pharm).

So i guess maybe start out with phys, then do biochem, (finish biochem by march, then do path and micro, and finally pharm last). What do you guys think of that schedule?


I've done about 300 kaplan qbank random questions (on the stuff we've covered so far) and have been averagng around ~55-60% so far without any studying. I've been annotating as well in first aid from the answers i get wrong. I would like to complete qbank then start usmleworld as i heard those are the best questions out there.

So i guess, in summary, what subjects should i start with? When should i start studying, and how should i approach doing practice questions?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really lost. I know everyone on this forum crushed the exam so i'd like to follow in ure footsteps.

I'd really appreciate your feedback.

thanks in advance.

 

[Terpskins99]

Hey guys,

I'd appreciate if all of you could really help me. I'm a second year med student looking to start preparing for the step 1. I've decided not to take kaplan but i did purchase the kaplan qbank.

Here's my booklist that I plan on using for the 5 main subjects:

1) Pathology: Goljan
2) Micro: Clinicial Micro Made R. Simple
3) Phys: BRS Phys + Kaplan Phys
4) Biochem/genetics: Kaplan
5) Pharm: Kaplan + BRS Pharm

for the rest, embryo/anat/behavioral/molecular biology i plan on studying that stuff over the summer, since i think it might be low yield, and I plan on buying the high yield series for each.

I need some serious guidance on when to start preparing for this beast. I'm weak in Micro, pharm, and biochem and will indeed need to spend some extra time with these subjects. I was going to start studying in the next week or so, but we're starting our toughest section (hematology/derm/oncology (we're system's based)), and from what i understand this is pretty high yield for the step 1, so i was thinking of maybe holding off on the usmle studying at this point and attempt to learn school material as well as i possibly can. the only problem is that this section won't finish until the end of january, and I feel if i start my studying that late into the game i'll be quite a bit behind.
I do have like 2 weeks in christmas where i can do some reviewing. What subject should i start with? I was maybe thinking that I should read something like biochemistry or physiology over christmas (so that i have my basics down before I start studying pathology/microbiology and then pharm).

So i guess maybe start out with phys, then do biochem, (finish biochem by march, then do path and micro, and finally pharm last). What do you guys think of that schedule?


I've done about 300 kaplan qbank random questions (on the stuff we've covered so far) and have been averagng around ~55-60% so far without any studying. I've been annotating as well in first aid from the answers i get wrong. I would like to complete qbank then start usmleworld as i heard those are the best questions out there.

So i guess, in summary, what subjects should i start with? When should i start studying, and how should i approach doing practice questions?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm really lost. I know everyone on this forum crushed the exam so i'd like to follow in ure footsteps.

I'd really appreciate your feedback.

thanks in advance.

Most people top out at about 2 1/2-3 months of intense prep. Any longer than that, they tend to have diminishing returns (partly because of information that they start to forget, but mostly because they burn out from doing so many questions/studying). Speaking of which, a lot of people in here will give negative feedback on Kaplan Qbank (probably a bit unfairly, I think its ok), but you should really consider signing up for USMLE World sometime within 2 months of the test date.

Like you mentioned, in general its a good idea to start with the more conceptual topics first (physiology, biochemistry, path in particular). Then work towards the more detail intensive subjects later (micro, pharm). But more importantly, I'm a firm believer that you should address your weakest subject as soon as possible. The longer you delay it, the more anxious you will be about getting it down in time.

Of course, check in here regularly to see trends in the exam. For example, I would be careful to label behavioral and molecular (especially research lab techniques) as low yield. Both of them seemed to pop up with considerable frequency during the 2007 testing period. And DO NOT forget neuroanatomy. Very high yield for boards. G'luck.

 

[Law2Doc]

Most people top out at about 2 1/2-3 months of intense prep. Any longer than that, they tend to have diminishing returns (partly because of information that they start to forget, but mostly because they burn out from doing so many questions/studying).

Strongly agree with this. Nothing wrong with doing some light refresher reading further out than this (the CMMRS micro book is good for this), but don't try to do intense prep/qbanking so far out from the test and expect it to stick when you need it.