Question about Step studying

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extremophile

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I'll be starting med school this august, so I'm still a pre-med, but I think this question is in the right place. Anyway, I was wondering how most med students approach Step 1...do you guys use review material alongside your coursework (is there even time for that?), or is it best to just focus on learning material for your classes and then do comprehensive review in the weeks before the exam?

Thanks for the help guys.
 
I'll be starting med school this august, so I'm still a pre-med, but I think this question is in the right place. Anyway, I was wondering how most med students approach Step 1...do you guys use review material alongside your coursework (is there even time for that?), or is it best to just focus on learning material for your classes and then do comprehensive review in the weeks before the exam?

Thanks for the help guys.

Yes to both.

Now don't even think about step again for two years 😉
 
I'd say that I really approached first year of school not studying for step at all and I think most all of my classmates similarly. In second year, a chunk has probably begun to do some studying on the side(by that I mean either going through the basic comprehensive books(First Aid/Rapid Review) or doing questions). in first year, I kind of kept an eye on step material, maybe having looked through the sections like once or something but most of the studying was done straight out of the textbooks/research needed for the class.
If I were to say what'd I think would be a good approach out of the gate, I'd say focus on classes and if you want use review sources VERY lightly so you get a feeling but mainly use textbooks and learn it properly. At some point, probably not right away but when you've learned a fair amount, start doing questions if you feel that will help to get used to boards format. But aside from maybe using rapid review along the way to cover path, much attention probably doesn't need to be paid towards the review sources when you'll have everything you need and more in your curriculum to spend time on.
 
I'd say that I really approached first year of school not studying for step at all and I think most all of my classmates similarly. In second year, a chunk has probably begun to do some studying on the side(by that I mean either going through the basic comprehensive books(First Aid/Rapid Review) or doing questions). in first year, I kind of kept an eye on step material, maybe having looked through the sections like once or something but most of the studying was done straight out of the textbooks/research needed for the class.
If I were to say what'd I think would be a good approach out of the gate, I'd say focus on classes and if you want use review sources VERY lightly so you get a feeling but mainly use textbooks and learn it properly. At some point, probably not right away but when you've learned a fair amount, start doing questions if you feel that will help to get used to boards format. But aside from maybe using rapid review along the way to cover path, much attention probably doesn't need to be paid towards the review sources when you'll have everything you need and more in your curriculum to spend time on.

Thanks, that was helpful.

Quick follow up--on the allopathic forum, I often see students talking about using certain books like Lippincott for biochem review...are students using a book like that to supplement their lecture notes/textbook or do their schools actually use it as a primary text?
 
Our school had Lippincott as a recommended text to supplement our class notes. I personally thought Rapid Review Biochem was fantastic. The charts were great for cramming and the diagrams were easy to follow. Lippincott has nice colorful pictures as well, but the full page diagrams were alot more intimidating to me than the smaller ones that RR has.

Anyway yeah just enjoy being a first year. I remember being just like you trying to start studying for boards right when I got to med school. But unless you're just a freak of nature and you can teach yourself 2nd year stuff you won't get much done. The meat of boards comes from 2nd year classes (but physio is also a good chunk). Use 1st year to get your study techniques down and get to know your classmates.
 
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