Professor Emphasis vs FA/Pathoma/Sketchy/Board Emphasis???

[68PGunner]

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So, if you happened to be taught and tested by stuff that are not found by these high yield material sources, what do you do? I'm specifically talking about pharm. In our class lectures, these professors don't even bother emphasizing stuff outlined by Sketchy and FA. Are these guys setting the students up for failure? I don't mind learning the extra stuff. However, I do get annoyed if I'm being taught to remember nonclinical essential junks only to learn the necessary stuff by myself.

In my case, do I just tell myself to say screw these guys, take the 5-8 quests hit per exam and focus on my board materials in order to rock Step 1 later?

 

[raiderette]

Plenty of stuff you learn in med school will not be on Step 1. Are you at a school with grades, AOA, ranking? For me, it is better to go for good grades. Low yield isn't necessary worthless.

Sent from my XT1254 using SDN mobile

 

[RunawayGrape]

Even if your school doesn't use a P/F system, your Step 1 score matters way than preclinical grades. If preclinical grades are considered for the purposes of AOA, however, that's something for you to consider.

 

[libertyyne]

Is it wrong to assume that doing well in classes sets one up to do well on step or is that a gross oversimplification?

 

[68PGunner]

I'm comfortably passing my classes. It's more of an ego bruise thing considering my % performance in Kaplan and USMLERx Qbanks (super above average) vs in-class exams (average).

 

[68PGunner]

Plenty of stuff you learn in med school will not be on Step 1. Are you at a school with grades, AOA, ranking? For me, it is better to go for good grades. Low yield isn't necessary worthless.

Sent from my XT1254 using SDN mobile

I actually don't mind learning the low yield stuff for Step 1 that will become super high yield for Step 2, as in clinical management procedures for certain diseases. However, I actually cross-check these guys' teachings w/ stuff in UpToDate bc of the discrepancy bet their slides/primers vs board prep stuff. I can say for certain that the stuff they emphasize are literally nonessential garbage with accordance to UpToDate.

 

[libertyyne]

I'm comfortably passing my classes. It's more of an ego bruise thing considering my % performance in Kaplan and USMLERx Qbanks (super above average) vs in-class exams (average).

isnt Uworld the gold standard for being representative of actual performance. What you are basically asking is should I just do board review and screw class vs board review and + class. My school is a p/f but internal ranks plus AOA ,and exceptional designation on MSPE requires year end honors in first three years.

 

[68PGunner]

isnt Uworld the gold standard for being representative of actual performance. What you are basically asking is should I just do board review and screw class vs board review and + class. My school is a p/f but internal ranks plus AOA ,and exceptional designation on MSPE requires year end honors in first three years.

No, the correlation goes like this:
Kaplan + USMLERx Banks --> Uworld --> NBME --> actual performance

Honestly, I don't even care about AOA or anything of that stuff. I've already made up my mind on my actual course of action for these professors. If you read my msgs, I'm not telling people to blow class in favor of board review. I actually augment board prep with class materials. The problem is that the professors are mainly teaching or emphasizing stuff that are not found in UpToDate and other relevant sources while IGNORING key side effects that are very relevant in clinical situations with accordance to UpToDate, Sketchy, and FA. I'm just wondering why these guys do that. Is it intentional or are these professors just incompetent?

 

[username456789]

In my case, do I just tell myself to say screw these guys, take the 5-8 quests hit per exam and focus on my board materials in order to rock Step 1 later?

What’s stopping you from learning and excelling in both?

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

No, the correlation goes like this:
Kaplan + USMLERx Banks --> Uworld --> NBME --> actual performance

Honestly, I don't even care about AOA or anything of that stuff. I've already made up my mind on my actual course of action for these professors. If you read my msgs, I'm not telling people to blow class in favor of board review. I actually augment board prep with class materials. The problem is that the professors are mainly teaching or emphasizing stuff that are not found in UpToDate and other relevant sources while IGNORING key side effects that are very relevant in clinical situations with accordance to UpToDate, Sketchy, and FA. I'm just wondering why these guys do that. Is it intentional or are these professors just incompetent?

lol..

 

[Mad Jack]

So, if you happened to be taught and tested by stuff that are not found by these high yield material sources, what do you do? I'm specifically talking about pharm. In our class lectures, these professors don't even bother emphasizing stuff outlined by Sketchy and FA. Are these guys setting the students up for failure? I don't mind learning the extra stuff. However, I do get annoyed if I'm being taught to remember nonclinical essential junks only to learn the necessary stuff by myself.

In my case, do I just tell myself to say screw these guys, take the 5-8 quests hit per exam and focus on my board materials in order to rock Step 1 later?

If it's first year, just do what the professors want. If it's second year, focus on the board materials, unless you really want that AOA, in which case just do everything all the time forever.

 

[Goro]

So, if you happened to be taught and tested by stuff that are not found by these high yield material sources, what do you do? I'm specifically talking about pharm. In our class lectures, these professors don't even bother emphasizing stuff outlined by Sketchy and FA. Are these guys setting the students up for failure? I don't mind learning the extra stuff. However, I do get annoyed if I'm being taught to remember nonclinical essential junks only to learn the necessary stuff by myself.

In my case, do I just tell myself to say screw these guys, take the 5-8 quests hit per exam and focus on my board materials in order to rock Step 1 later?

FA represents the bare bones minimum of what you should know. And just because it's not in FA, it doesn't mean it won't be on Boards.

If your professor is emphasizing it, then s/he's telling you with a bullhorn that "this is what I'll test you on."

Cue the FA True Believers.

 

[Gorne]

This has been discussed ad nauseum on this site. There is a careful balance between school and boards, and pre-clinical grades are the closest predictor to step 1 performance, # of questions done is probably second, with FA passes probably being somewhere around dead last.

 

[Azete]

After taking Step 1, I can confidently say if I never opened FA in my entire life I would have gotten more or less the same score. It's a decent outline at best, but the latest iterations of the exam are veering more towards critical thinking over memorizing buzz words.

As far as classes, I think it's pretty simple. If you have a good teacher then take advantage of it and study their stuff. If you don't then learn it elsewhere and don't worry about missing minutiae on class exams. FA is literally the last resource I would recommend as a primary learning tool, so I'd find another source if you decide to go that route.

 

[GodComplex]

Take the 5 question hit. When dealing with minute details that aren't even near clinically relevant, just skip it. I took the 5 question each exam and still stayed above 90% on almost all class exams. I spent the extra time gained going through extra sources (eg, UTD, Robbin's, etc). Additionally, I used FA as a guide for what I hadn't been exposed to and would then look up that topic on UTD, etc.

I was more than happy with a 99th percentile step 1 score despite not having 95+% on every class exam.