Retention

[MDpride]

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Hii

how much is one supposed to retain after two years of basic science?
is it equal to what needed to excel boards?

is there any standards on that?

I score good in tests but can't recall anything from material few days after ?

 

[bodonid]

Hii

how much is one supposed to retain after two years of basic science?
is it equal to what needed to excel boards?

is there any standards on that?

I score good in tests but can't recall anything from material few days after ?

You recall more than you think you do. We were given only a weekend to study for NBMEs, but I knew the stuff from the beginning of class almost as well as the end. If you do pretty well in class, you'll probably be fine. Plus, what else could you do? Worry more?

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I've gotten A's on exams that I took in the morning, where I was pretty sure that if I took the same exam that evening, I'd get a 12.

 

[bodonid]

I've gotten A's on exams that I took in the morning, where I was pretty sure that if I took the same exam that evening, I'd get a 12.

I hear there will be a lot of repitition next year. But I do wonder... they always say that the people that score better on exams do better on the step... is that more to do with retention, or just the fact that the people who studied more the first time are more likely to do so for the step? Obviously both, but...

 

[cpants]

I think it depends on how you are studying. If you truly learn the material you will be able to retain a lot. If you are cramming for the tests, not so much.

 

[HPSPpayissues]

yes, a lot of repetition throughout med school. However, if you CAN retain almost everything that you learned 1st year, your 2nd year will be SO MUCH easier. 1st and 2nd year --> pretty easy 3rd year too! Those that usually say that 2nd year are hard are those that slacked off and barely passed the first year. Don't get yourself into that hole!

 

[TMP-SMX]

Repetition. Then when you do your 5 week cram for step 1 plus practice questions you remember everything.

And first year is not that important. The lowest yield stuff are biochemistry and anatomy and that is what you lose pretty quickly. You will review all the relevant things in those disciplines for pathophysiology.

 

[bodonid]

Repetition. Then when you do your 5 week cram for step 1 plus practice questions you remember everything.

And first year is not that important. The lowest yield stuff are biochemistry and anatomy and that is what you lose pretty quickly. You will review all the relevant things in those disciplines for pathophysiology.

embryology and histology are pretty useless too, right?

which leaves physiology, neuro, and psych. Doesn't seem like any of these would be all that high-yield.

Which of the 1st year subjects do people actually spend a considerable amount of review time on? If you had an extra month to review just 1st year, what would you review?

 

[Impromptu]

If you take the time to truly understand the difficult and complex material, then even if you forget some of it, it is easier to relearn the second time. The more you relearn those concepts in different contexts, the more permament associations your brain is going to make. You'll start getting exponential growth of your ability to remember important, useful things. It starts slowly (like language), but eventually expands rapidly.

 

[TMP-SMX]

I had psych in second year. The pharm is high yield for the drugs.

None of the courses in M1 are really that high yield and you can wait until the end of your board prep time to study them. However, that isn't to say that good chunks of them are not important. There are a lot of high yield concepts in anatomy, histology becomes important in recognizing something that is necrotic, inflamed, neoplastic, and other changes in path, crazy congenital defects from embryo that you learn about again in the organ system pathophys, biochemistry that is mixed in with pharmacology and all of the metabolism of pathophys, and neuro which there are a lot of high yield concepts to understand like eye movements, artery distribution to the cortex, and classic neuro lesions.

Since these are high yield concepts, they don't take that much time to go over. Biochemistry is just a pain though as you can't straight memorize all of the pathways in such a short time for board prep. Well you can, but it would require straight memorizing for two days to get the pathways down and would require nothing else which like I said is not the best use of your time.

 

[HPSPpayissues]

It depends on what score you want too. Some people, surprisingly, still retained A LOT from their first year classes like nuero, biochem and anatomy. Although many questions from the first year are not going to be heavily represented on the step 1, if you can get all those right, in addition to all the things that you learned second year, you should definitely score high.
Recalling more facts from the first year can be the difference between 250+ and 230. Like I said, if your goal is just to get around 220, it won't be a huge problem. However, if you want 250+ you must know almost everything, because some people actually do remember those stuff from their first year!

 

[montessori2md]

Our school collects feedback after step I to see what students felt they should have studied more/less. They rate review materials for their usefulness, and can comment on how their own study plan worked for them. Start talking to M4s at your school to see what they have to say -likely, they'll reassure you that it makes no difference what you do now, as long as you work hard during M2 and review as you go. It's always possible they'll have a specific tip about a certain set of lectures that were perfect to go back and review, or something they wished they had known.

I agree w/ the above poster about retention mattering more if you're trying to distinguish yourself w/ a crazy high score. In that case, knowing every obscure anatomical term could help you.

 

[TMP-SMX]

In the time you take memorizing the obscure anatomy it could be better spent studying something slightly more important, but yes I agree with your premise. Everything in First Aid is fair game, but honestly anatomy isn't even in there. (Some interspersed).

 

[HPSPpayissues]

Anatomy is the LEAST yield of all, and then embryology. Although i guess embryology does fall under anatomy. However, getting that 15 question on Anatomy right would certainly be a big boost.

 

[MDpride]

Somethings may not be HIGH YIELD on boards

i want value out of my education.

For me, i should be able to pick up nature review article or research paper and able to understand based on what i learned during first year in neuro and cellular and molecular medicine classes.

 

[sprinkibrio]

Pharm and micro are not conceptual fields... do you guys actually believe that the side-effects and even mechanism of most pharm drugs are on the top of your head or ss vs. ds viruses? People may retain more than they realize (at least recognize and relearn quickly), but you have to admit, there is a reason for the multitude of pneumonics in step books.

For the person who asked about reviewing first year material... you have to realize that all the things you learn first year are worthless without the context of disease you will get second year. Try reading first aid and you'll see what I'm talking about. What is important first year are the concepts that relate to disease. Since you know nothing about disease yet, you can't know what is important to focus on for review.