Preparing for Step I During 1st year (1.5 yr pre-clinical curriculum)

[StilgarMD]

As the title suggests, I'm looking to understand how to keep the Step 1 exam in mind as I go through the remaining 2 semesters of my 3 semesters of pr-clinical curriculum. The topic doesn't seem to have been seriously discussed in the last few years. I've heard from many people where I go that our school doesn't teach with the exam in mind, so I figure I should try to have some idea of what should be focused on vs. what should be learned and understood, but not worried about.

I've purchased FA 2015 and started reading the Intro section, along with the recommended sites/books/apps at the back of the book, but I'm still confused as to how to adapt this to our curriculum. In the old curriculum, the first semester was largely seen as a waste of time. During the new curriculum's first semester, we did all of Anatomy and all of what seems to be the basic sciences. What remains (as far as I can tell from the syllabus we have on hand) is organ system level stuff (Cardio, Pulm, GI, Renal), though I felt like we barely covered many of the topics of Microbio or Biochem.

So, succinctly put, I've done 1 semester of basic sciences, and am moving on to physiology and pathology for 2 semesters, with the expectation to take Step 1 sometime during Spring of 2016 (in a year). I dread memorizing bugs and drugs, so I'd rather spread the detail heavy topics as much as I can. I'm not looking to sit down and "Study for Step 1" right now - I want to build reference materials as I go through the remaining semesters that will make content review later on as painless as possible.

Also, I've made use of the search function and this topic doesn't seem to have been seriously discussed in at least the last 4 years, and I haven't seen anything on preping in the context of a 1.5 year pre-clinical curriculum.

Any advice/links/text suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

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[Psai]

if you're doing organ systems in a year i don't see how your system is any different from most schools except that you're going to take step 1 one semester earlier

 

[StilgarMD]

So should I just prepare as though I am an MS2? though it seems like that is the way the schedule is laid out, I'm not sure how to proceed for my classes. What is the typical protocol? Which books are purchased for studying along with Systems? Path + Physio review books?

 

[dextor2003]

So should I just prepare as though I am an MS2? though it seems like that is the way the schedule is laid out, I'm not sure how to proceed for my classes. What is the typical protocol? Which books are purchased for studying along with Systems? Path + Physio review books?

If you have a systems-based curriculum, I'd review the corresponding sections in FA alongside classes. Then review some more (possibly w/ RR if you want a different perspective) and/or reinforce with questions (qbanks/robbins path/webpath).

EDIT: I'd do pathoma first before reviewing from FA in case you want to annotate into FA to review those points again later.

 

[dextor2003]

When should all of this be happening? When you say review more, do you mean later on? In conjunction with classwork materials?

I just meant do more repetition during classwork. For example, for our last exam, I went over the relevant sections in FA/RR/pathoma like 6-8x total. Of course, you can choose to do less repetitions and more questions.

 

[StilgarMD]

I'm definitely more of a question based learning, but I don't want to exhaust the best resources before the dedicated study time. Do you recommend using the "lower ranked" materials (Kaplan) in first aid and saving stuff like Rx and UWorld for later?

 

[dextor2003]

I'm definitely more of a question based learning, but I don't want to exhaust the best resources before the dedicated study time. Do you recommend using the "lower ranked" materials (Kaplan) in first aid and saving stuff like Rx and UWorld for later?

just an fyi, I'm a 2nd year myself, so I'm not really speaking from any personal experience here. but honestly, from everything I've heard/read here, I feel like every combination of resources has been used for step 1. some people do uworld during the year, some during dedicated. some people from both groups do well. some people from both groups don't do so well. it seems like the only thing that matters is to finish uworld no matter what. whether you do it during the school year or during dedicated makes no difference. just make sure that whenever you do start, you finish it.

so if you don't use uworld during the school year, then sure, do kaplan qbank or rx alongside classes. there have been mixed reviews for both, but I think rx seems to be slightly more favored just because it helps hammer in exactly what's in FA and nothing else.

 

[dextor2003]

Yeah I'm wondering this too. What resources to get when? I've heard Rx is a good choice at this point, but what do you do with it? Buy a year's subscription?

And maybe this is overkill, but what other review resources are a good idea? I know Pathoma and FA at this point, but when people say RR, Goljian I have no idea when is the right time to get this stuff (If at all).

I'd say pathoma is awesome, so definitely use it if you can before jumping to any other resources like RR. but if you want even more exposure to the material with a different perspective (and you have the time for it), then yea, go over RR too. though I think if you already feel fairly comfortable with the material, then testing yourself with practice questions (ie kaplan/rx/etc) is probably more worthwhile than doing more passive readings

 

[dextor2003]

You've been really helpful, thanks so much.

One last question then I'll leave you alone; What is the deal with Goljan audio? Is this something that is good to use as well? Where do you get it? Thanks again for answering these questions, very new to the game

no problem at all. the goljan audio was when he used to give step 1 path lectures while working for kaplan I think. he doesn't do this anymore, but one of his lectures were recorded by a student all those years ago and uploaded online. so now if you just do a simple google search you can find them. even though they're over a decade old, most everything still applies so listening to them actually ends up being VERY helpful. I remember reading someone's description of them somewhere. "pathoma teaches you to do well on step 1, whereas goljan teaches you to become a good doctor," or something like that. but after having gone through several of his audios, I completely agree. goljan doesn't just talk about and explain the "why" behind all the path; he also tells you how you should approach different conditions/pathologies as a physician, and so obviously his audios apparently end up being helpful for step 2/3 as well. but because his lectures are fairly long (each is ~50min), most people just listen to them during down time, long drives, working out, etc and don't really use them as primary study sources