Preparing for Step 1

[mymembernames]

I was wondering what peoples thoughts are about preparing for step 1 by starting by doing questions? I have not studied/reviewed all topics but have realized I learn more and better by doing questions and then going back and learning that material. It seems more active and I tend to retain it better since its usually involves a clinical vignette / patient. Thoughts please? Is this a wrong way of studying? I have 5 months and was going to go through three qbanks. TIA!

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[Shipping News]

I'm a crotchety old man by SDN standards, but I adhere to the tried and true method of "learning the material before you start quizzing yourself on it". If you're a question-addict, feel free to burn through a worthless question bank like Kaplan or USMLE Rx, but leave the gorgeous USMLE World qbank alone until you've actually spent some brain power in each department, because USMLE World is the master integration tool. When you go through USMLE World questions, you get to synthesize the knowledge you already have and morph it into usable concepts you'll employ on gameday. Burning through USMLE World before you even know what congestive heart failure is all about is going to squander a wonderful resource (you will remember the question stems, and it makes a question less useful the second time around).

Just my grandpa advice. Feel free to ignore it.

 

[TBV]

I'm a crotchety old man by SDN standards, but I adhere to the tried and true method of "learning the material before you start quizzing yourself on it". If you're a question-addict, feel free to burn through a worthless question bank like Kaplan or USMLE Rx, but leave the gorgeous USMLE World qbank alone until you've actually spent some brain power in each department, because USMLE World is the master integration tool. When you go through USMLE World questions, you get to synthesize the knowledge you already have and morph it into usable concepts you'll employ on gameday. Burning through USMLE World before you even know what congestive heart failure is all about is going to squander a wonderful resource (you will remember the question stems, and it makes a question less useful the second time around).

Just my grandpa advice. Feel free to ignore it.

Could always get a uworld reset when it's time to integrate

 

[Shipping News]

Could always get a uworld reset when it's time to integrate

Nah. A question's maximum value is the first time you see it. It's like watching the Sixth Sense for the first time without knowing the spoiler. The second time you watch, you know the spoiler already. The best questions in the qbank, the tricky ones that stretch your knowledge and make you think on the fly, are questions you don't want spoiled.

This happened to me on Step 2. I went through the Step 2 qbank during third year (which I still recommend, because shelf grades/clerkship grades are more important than Step 2 CK) and reset it for CK prep. The first pass during 3rd year I was rocking 70-80%. After the reset, a few months later, I was doing ~95% correct...simply because I remembered the twist for all the tough questions. It was not that great of a learning experience because it wasn't challenging my knowledge.

So do yourself a favor and save the Step 1 UWorld qbank until you're completely done with M2. Work through it during your time off to study, and take the exam at your peak preparedness.

 

[mymembernames]

I'm a crotchety old man by SDN standards, but I adhere to the tried and true method of "learning the material before you start quizzing yourself on it". If you're a question-addict, feel free to burn through a worthless question bank like Kaplan or USMLE Rx, but leave the gorgeous USMLE World qbank alone until you've actually spent some brain power in each department, because USMLE World is the master integration tool. When you go through USMLE World questions, you get to synthesize the knowledge you already have and morph it into usable concepts you'll employ on gameday. Burning through USMLE World before you even know what congestive heart failure is all about is going to squander a wonderful resource (you will remember the question stems, and it makes a question less useful the second time around).

Just my grandpa advice. Feel free to ignore it.

Thanks for the response and advice! I agree, I think this is good advice because even thought I like doing questions and learning from them I still need to establish a stronger knowledge base. I think I am going to review material by organ systems and then do questions related to that topic using Kaplan and save UWorld for after. Thanks again!

 

[intheworkings]

For Step 1 using Uworld Qbank, I made about 10,000 flashcards and scored above 250. The flashcards are in Mental Case files Format (mac/iphone) and are organized according to subject. To purchase, send $99 to Venmo to Kimberley D. Add a note to the payment with your Dropbox account or Gmail address where I can transfer the files.

Lol



Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[TBV]

For Step 1 using Uworld Qbank, I made about 10,000 flashcards and scored above 250. The flashcards are in Mental Case files Format (mac/iphone) and are organized according to subject. To purchase, send $99 to Venmo to Kimberley D. Add a note to the payment with your Dropbox account or Gmail address where I can transfer the files.

Haha perfect thanks just what I need 10k flash cards.

 

[sloop]

I did very well on step 1 (according to me, but I scored above 250 if you wanna make your own mind up about that), so here's my n=1.

I started doing UWorld questions on timed-random just after the halfway point of second year for my test date in mid to late June. Looking back, I can certainly recommend this strategy though I recognize that different strategies have worked just as well for different people. If you're going to do this, however, I will make a few points:

1) It will make you feel like **** at the beginning. No matter how many people tell you not to worry about percentage correct and to just use the questions to study, this is basically impossible to do. It's a very important test that's been 2 years in the making and UWorld bombards you with info about what percentage of people got each question right. I hadn't even had half of the second year material when I started this, so I naturally did not do well at first and it freaked me out.

2) That being said, you do learn from questions and you will start to become familiar with a lot of material before you even learn it elsewhere. UWorld is like 75% just a fancy textbook. People get too wrapped up in "saving" their review questions and ****. Just get through the questions and read the answers. Actually doing them and having time to actually utilize them well is far more important than when you do them, imho.

Just get through the questions and then reset them and do them again. Trust me, there is no paucity of places to find more questions to do for step 1.

 

[notcool]

I did very well on step 1 (according to me, but I scored above 250 if you wanna make your own mind up about that), so here's my n=1.

I started doing UWorld questions on timed-random just after the halfway point of second year for my test date in mid to late June. Looking back, I can certainly recommend this strategy though I recognize that different strategies have worked just as well for different people. If you're going to do this, however, I will make a few points:

1) It will make you feel like **** at the beginning. No matter how many people tell you not to worry about percentage correct and to just use the questions to study, this is basically impossible to do. It's a very important test that's been 2 years in the making and UWorld bombards you with info about what percentage of people got each question right. I hadn't even had half of the second year material when I started this, so I naturally did not do well at first and it freaked me out.

2) That being said, you do learn from questions and you will start to become familiar with a lot of material before you even learn it elsewhere. UWorld is like 75% just a fancy textbook. People get too wrapped up in "saving" their review questions and ****. Just get through the questions and read the answers. Actually doing them and having time to actually utilize them well is far more important than when you do them, imho.

Just get through the questions and then reset them and do them again. Trust me, there is no paucity of places to find more questions to do for step 1.

Thanks dude, pretty interesting! And congrats! If it's a textbook, does that mean you can learn from it for the first time? Like if you do it by system and go through cardiology, you'll learn cards? Then GI to learn GI anatomy, physio, pharm, etc.? I hadnt thought of it that way before.

 

[midwestm2]

Nah. A question's maximum value is the first time you see it. It's like watching the Sixth Sense for the first time without knowing the spoiler. The second time you watch, you know the spoiler already. The best questions in the qbank, the tricky ones that stretch your knowledge and make you think on the fly, are questions you don't want spoiled.

This happened to me on Step 2. I went through the Step 2 qbank during third year (which I still recommend, because shelf grades/clerkship grades are more important than Step 2 CK) and reset it for CK prep. The first pass during 3rd year I was rocking 70-80%. After the reset, a few months later, I was doing ~95% correct...simply because I remembered the twist for all the tough questions. It was not that great of a learning experience because it wasn't challenging my knowledge.

So do yourself a favor and save the Step 1 UWorld qbank until you're completely done with M2. Work through it during your time off to study, and take the exam at your peak preparedness.

Out of curiosity @Shipping News did you crush Step 2? I.e. was that a good study strategy for you? Or would you have preferred saving the Qbank for the end of third year?

 

[sloop]

Thanks dude, pretty interesting! And congrats! If it's a textbook, does that mean you can learn from it for the first time? Like if you do it by system and go through cardiology, you'll learn cards? Then GI to learn GI anatomy, physio, pharm, etc.? I hadnt thought of it that way before.

I mean, obviously it's a question bank. What I meant is that the value of it is mostly in the explanations of the answers. It's good to do the questions to get in the habit of pacing and to know what you got wrong and where you went wrong, but ultimately it comes down to reading their explanations and knowing them. There is a ton of content in UWorld to learn from.

I would say you should also at some point be studying from FA and pathoma, but treat UWorld as another thing to read and learn from. You'll be surprised how much you will get from it. I would say there are about 1/4-1/2 as many concepts taught in UWorld as there are questions. Many questions test the same concepts (as with the real deal, btw), just from different angles. If you spend the time figuring out why you got the question you had never learned about before wrong, you might not get the next question testing that concept wrong.

So yes, you will learn a lot of things the first time from UWorld. You will also learn a lot of things for the first time from UWorld even if you save it until after you've already read everything else, just less.

 

[mymembernames]

Bros deck all the way, Brah.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

For Step 1 using Uworld Qbank, I made about 10,000 flashcards and scored above 250. The flashcards are in Mental Case files Format (mac/iphone) and are organized according to subject. To purchase, send $99 to Venmo to Kimberley D. Add a note to the payment with your Dropbox account or Gmail address where I can transfer the files.

You don't happen to be from Nigeria do you?

 

[chem29]

You don't happen to be from Nigeria do you?

Uh....no. Nice. Feel sorry for your future patients.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

Uh....no. Nice. Feel sorry for your future patients.