Question for those who took Step 1 early

[7abiby]

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Hi guys,

I was looking for advice from those of you who studied during your 2nd year and took Step 1 fairly early (1-4 wks) after 2nd year.
My school gives me 6 weeks for Step 1 in the summer. I'm in a pass/fail program so I can afford to spend some time studying for boards during the school year. I feel I'll be prepared more than I intended to be (I know it sounds stupid) which is why I'm debating if I should really take the whole 6 weeks like I had intended to. My big worry is that I'll burn out if I take 6 weeks or "peak too early". For those of you who studied more than the usual during your 2nd year, how much time after your 2nd year was enough? Thanks in advance !

 

[lord_jeebus]

I combined a long but light review schedule during school (about 8 hrs/week from January to May) with a brief and intense post-finals review regimen (13 days). This worked very well for me. I don't have the strength to study all-out for 4-6 weeks!

 

[predodoc]

I did the same thing. Started sometime in January and took it June 1. Some days I would study 3-4 hours of board stuff. other days none. Probably avg of about 10 hours/wk on top of my school study. I had 18 days from my last final till the exam and didnt do any boards for about 10 days during finals. Did well on the exam.
Bigest thing is to study smart and have an overall plan of what you decided to definatly cover( ex. first Aid, Goljan, Brs phys, uW, ect). Then have some extra stuff that you want to cover if you have time(Qbank, other question sources,embryo book, ect, ). Modify as you go.
Even though I only had 18 days of hard core studying I probably would have only droped 3-4 points if I took it a week sooner.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I took 3 weeks after 2nd year and didn't do any extra boards studying during classes. That worked out very well for me, but I knew that I wouldn't have the stamina for 6 weeks of intense studying (plus I was on a deadline that gave me only 4 weeks, and I really wanted a week off after the exam). I think it completely depends on your learning style - you should draw on your experiences thus far. If you are the type of person who can study for hours every day, far in advance of the exam, a longer period of review might work well.

For me, I would go to class every day but didn't study aside from that until a few days before the exam, and I knew that 8 hours of studying every day would be very taxing for me. So, for my 3 weeks I studied for 8 hours a day...no more, plus I took 1 weekend day off each week. This worked out very well for me -- it was enough that I felt prepared and could really push through til the end, but not so much that I burned out towards the end and not so long that I started forgetting things. But, like I said, this very much depends on the person.