Retaining First Year Material....as a First Year

[mdeast]

I was just wondering how much can you expect to forget first year material after you sit for an exam for it. Is this normal/expected?

The written portion of our second quarter anatomy final is partially cumulative (25% of questions come from the non-head/neck section of anatomy that we did last quarter). While everything is familiar to me, specific questions (some nerve innervations, spatial relationships of arteries to muscles/etc.) aren't coming through perfectly...and the whole pelvis seems to have slipped my mind.

I was just wondering how normal it is to forget a lot of your first year material. And how difficult it is to remember it for Step 1? I was thinking I should go back and maybe review some of it this summer so I feel as though I don't forget everything. The other half of me is saying..."review? during summer? just enjoy it while you have it." I'll most likely follow my "social" voice because I always do. But just curious?

Also, any general advice for the timeline to start studying for USMLE Step 1? My advisor told me to do one question a day this summer just to get an understanding of what a Step 1 question is like.

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[fleetgoddess]

I don't think you'll really gain much from reviewing. First year courses aren't as high yield as things like path on the step exam and you'll need to know less detail than you did for your course. If you really wanted to do something I'd get a step 1 q bank and just do sections for the first year courses. Get one of the qbanks your not planning on using during the actual study bank since there are three you can just do that with one and save the other two if you want to use those.

I didn't do anything like this but if you have to study during the summer I'd do that. Or spend the time exploring some specialties.

 

[mddoc1]

If you have really studied it well, you will feel that you do remember the hi-yield stuff when you start preparing for Step 1. It's good to skim through it once in a while but yeah, i dont think it will help much either.