Rate My Study Plan

[Cliff Huxtable]

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Ok so I have 49 days till the big day and was looking for some insight into my proposed study materials.

These are the resources I plan on using:

First Aid 2009
Rapid Review Pathology
BRS Physiology
USMLEWorld

What kind of score can I expect from these 4 resources if I learn them well? Let's assume I remember NOTHING from school just for the sake of argument.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

How good are you at test taking? Did decent on the MCAT?

 

[Elfy]

Duplicate post- deleted.

 

[Elfy]

Hi. I was drawn to your post because I too have 49 days (ok, 63, but will be gone for 14- theoretically I'd cover biochem then, which I detest as much as this trip, but I'm not getting my hopes up).

Not sure about your plan, depends how deep an understanding of the material you had during classes therefore how quickly you're able to gloss over FA which is quite formulaic. I'd add BRS for behavioral for sure, maybe Lange for Pharm and Micro. Depends what your goals are. Do you need to pass this thing or ace it?

BTW I understand what you mean (starting small, I guess) but let me assure you nobody remembers nothing from med school. I've been out for quite a while and I started at 45-55% consistently in self-assessments, so I'd score roughly half without reading anything. It's like riding a bike. It does come back to you.

I've been studying for a week now and had no problem getting my average up to 67% but I've plateaued there for the past few days. The journey from half to two-thirds was pleasant and painless, but it's the last third that's going to be an uphill battle. Oh well, I'll be happy with gaining 3 percentage points every week, if I could only last for all 9 weeks

 

[confuse]

Elfy, Cliff;
I think we are taking Step 1 on the same day. 🙂 Class has just ended for us so I will start studying this coming Monday, but I'm already kind of freaked out after taking the Shelf.

 

[Elfy]

Elfy, Cliff;
I think we are taking Step 1 on the same day.

I've got one of those awful calendar motivators running days minutes seconds on my desktop.

That would be nice. But I think he's taking it earlier than me since I will have a gap in the middle. Not counting that, we have the same study base in terms of available days.

Anyway, July 11 here.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Thanks for the posts. I'm taking the test at the end of June.

I do remember things from school, but I feel as though the things that the professors thought were important are not necessarily the same things the Step 1 thinks are important.

Know what I mean?

I was also thinking of adding a Behavioral Science book and HY Neuro if you saw some of my other posts but I don't know if I should know a few books well or try to read some more subjects?

I am trying to do as well as possible to keep my options open.

 

[ucsfstudents]

I say your plan is good. Studies show that the physical sciences or biological sciences score on the MCAT correlate well with your USMLE score. Also, students who score highly in Anatomy class tend to do well too. If you need additional help, try Levinson's micro cards, and pharm cards. Now that you have the books, you might want to think about creating a schedule.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

I say your plan is good. Studies show that the physical sciences or biological sciences score on the MCAT correlate well with your USMLE score. Also, students who score highly in Anatomy class tend to do well too. If you need additional help, try Levinson's micro cards, and pharm cards. Now that you have the books, you might want to think about creating a schedule.

My tentative "schedule" so far is to read RR Path, FA, BRS Physio, FA, Biochem/Immuno Notes from school, FA . . and try to do 100 or so UWorld questions each night.

What do you think?

By the way, as a mentor, would you happent to know what books/resources students seem to have the most success with?

 

[confuse]

Hey Cliff,
How is your study coming along? I think we are taking the test at the same time. My original goal was to read through FA in 1 week, but with the pace I'm going now, I probably won't finish FA until very late next week. I plan to read more materials such as HY Neuro and Kaplan Pharm but I don't think I have time since so far I haven't been very productive.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Hey Cliff,
How is your study coming along? I think we are taking the test at the same time. My original goal was to read through FA in 1 week, but with the pace I'm going now, I probably won't finish FA until very late next week. I plan to read more materials such as HY Neuro and Kaplan Pharm but I don't think I have time since so far I haven't been very productive.

I am in the same mentality as you. I just finished a read-though of RR Path and am now starting FA. My goal is to read through FA the most since I think it will be most high-yield and people on this forum keep saying how they check their answers after the test and they are all in FA.

Everyone says the Pharm in FA is sufficient so I don't know.

I don't want to fall into the trap of reading too many books and not knowing things too well.

I haven't started UWorld but look to in the next few days. I want to at least get a brief read-through of FA first so then I can jot down notes into the book from the question explanations.

My thinking right now is know RR Path, FA, BRS Physio, and UWorld as well as possible than if I have extra time left over, study other topics.

As for productivity, some days are better than others for me as well.

 

[confuse]

I think FA and UWord should be enough for Pharm. I took the Pharm Shelf recently; I just used FA and did very well on it. I might look over Kaplan Pharm on the cholinergic/adrenergic stuffs because they have a few good diagrams. I agree with you about knowing FA really well. That's why even though I'm going slower on FA than I had planned, I'm not too worried about it. I did 48 UW questions every night on the subject that I read on FA and it really helps clarify what I learn and put it into clinical context. When I first started out this Monday, productivity was terrible but it's getting better every day. I think I am getting accustomed to the study mode. Good luck studying Cliff.