Starting second year, Boards and Beyond, and correlated STEP score

[sonofababinski]

Hi everyone, I hope the Fall semester is treating you well. I just have a question that I hope can be answered. My question is directed towards people who have experiences with Boards and Beyond and have taken STEP 1.

Since the start of second year, I have been using Boards and Beyond for learning and STEP 1 studying. I make my own flashcards which I constantly review throughout the day, which have the info from B&B (as well as added information from other resources and class lectures). I was wondering if there was anyone here who can share their STEP 1 experiences after they memorized everything from Boards and Beyond/used B&B heavily? I understand that I also have to utilize other resources, which I am doing (UWorld, Pathoma, Sketchy).

Thank you for all your help 🙂
Happy Friday!

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[21Rush12]

I used Boards and Beyond all through second year and it was by far the best prep tool to use in my opinion. Building your knowledge base on B&B and adding in class material will take you far.

For step 1, the test will be months after you’ve seen this material for the first time and you’ll only remember the more fundamental parts of what you learned. If you take the strategy of letting your basic knowledge of a subject be board material, odds are that the facts you’ll be able to recall will be the thing that Step 1 is asking.

My personal plan was boards and beyond all year along with classes coupled with the first aid chapters of a subject (huge overlap between the two sources) and during dedicated I watched Pathoma and did UWorld. I started using UWorld a couple months before the test after we had covered some of the topics to make it useful, and during the year for questions I used USMLERx (Kaplan works fine too, just picked one).

In classes I got all pass and one high pass, but on Step 1 I scored >250. I felt very prepared for it with 5 weeks dedicated.

I hope this helps! Find a plan and stick to it, and don’t be afraid to change it up if you’re not really seeing results. One big mistake is to try to do alllll the resources and end up so scattered that you have no central focus. Notice I didn’t list Anki, Sketchy, Goljian, or anything else. I didn’t use these (with exception of sketchy micro during some of micro), and I think it was a good choice and obviously it worked out well for Step 1.

If you have any other questions please feel free to comment or PM! Good luck!

 

[sonofababinski]

I used Boards and Beyond all through second year and it was by far the best prep tool to use in my opinion. Building your knowledge base on B&B and adding in class material will take you far.

For step 1, the test will be months after you’ve seen this material for the first time and you’ll only remember the more fundamental parts of what you learned. If you take the strategy of letting your basic knowledge of a subject be board material, odds are that the facts you’ll be able to recall will be the thing that Step 1 is asking.

My personal plan was boards and beyond all year along with classes coupled with the first aid chapters of a subject (huge overlap between the two sources) and during dedicated I watched Pathoma and did UWorld. I started using UWorld a couple months before the test after we had covered some of the topics to make it useful, and during the year for questions I used USMLERx (Kaplan works fine too, just picked one).

In classes I got all pass and one high pass, but on Step 1 I scored >250. I felt very prepared for it with 5 weeks dedicated.

I hope this helps! Find a plan and stick to it, and don’t be afraid to change it up if you’re not really seeing results. One big mistake is to try to do alllll the resources and end up so scattered that you have no central focus. Notice I didn’t list Anki, Sketchy, Goljian, or anything else. I didn’t use these (with exception of sketchy micro during some of micro), and I think it was a good choice and obviously it worked out well for Step 1.

If you have any other questions please feel free to comment or PM! Good luck!

Wow, this is such great advice. I have the exact mindset that you do in terms of preparing and resource use. I hope that can land me such a good score, like yours! I will definitely stay in contact with you if I have any more questions. Thank you so so much for taking the time out to write this to me!

 

[21Rush12]

Happy to help! There’s no one right way to do things, just keep pushing forward!

 

[21Rush12]

My entire school and class used Boards and Beyond. Scores ranged from just passing to 260s. Everyone can use the exact same resources and get completely different scores. That being said, I loved Boards and Beyond. I have many questions that aren't answered in B&B, but the videos helped me tremendously in learning how to think through problems

Agree completely — there’s no one size fits all. You have to be honest with yourself if something is helping and regardless there’s no substitute for hard work.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Used it

250+

 

[7331poas]

My entire school and class used Boards and Beyond. Scores ranged from just passing to 260s. Everyone can use the exact same resources and get completely different scores. That being said, I loved Boards and Beyond. I have many questions that aren't answered in B&B, but the videos helped me tremendously in learning how to think through problems

The range is that some people didnt do anki as well if I was guessing

 

[sonofababinski]

My entire school and class used Boards and Beyond. Scores ranged from just passing to 260s. Everyone can use the exact same resources and get completely different scores. That being said, I loved Boards and Beyond. I have many questions that aren't answered in B&B, but the videos helped me tremendously in learning how to think through problems

Wow, that is useful to know. I was just wondering if you got any feedback from people who used it and barely passed? I understand we are all different in terms of the way we use resources, what we use/how we use them, how we take tests, etc.. but I was just curious to know if someone who used it told you/anyone what the shortcomings were in it or themselves during prep? I just wanted all takes on the resource which is why I asked!

 

[7331poas]

Wow, that is useful to know. I was just wondering if you got any feedback from people who used it and barely passed? I understand we are all different in terms of the way we use resources, what we use/how we use them, how we take tests, etc.. but I was just curious to know if someone who used it told you/anyone what the shortcomings were in it or themselves during prep? I just wanted all takes on the resource which is why I asked!

You have to do anki + Boards and beyond otherwise you forget everything in less than a week.

 

[fantasticman221]

You have to do anki + Boards and beyond otherwise you forget everything in less than a week.

But how do you know this is true? Have you taken step 1 already?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

You have to do anki + Boards and beyond otherwise you forget everything in less than a week.

Not true. I never did Anki.

 

[7331poas]

But how do you know this is true? Have you taken step 1 already?

No, i have watched a boards and beyond video and have lived for over 1 week since that time.

 

[21Rush12]

I didn't use anki and I did well on Step. From personal observation, people who didn't do well were only trying to memorize. You need to understand the why behind everything in order to think through questions. This is especially true when you get to exams in 3rd year and beyond when the tests ask random questions and you need to think through each answer to figure out which one is right.

There are other people who didn't put in as much time as everyone else. Others naturally struggle more than others.

I also didn’t use Anki as I said above, and I totally agree with your point about memorization. If Anki is used as practice to answer the question and test understanding it’s great, but straight up memorization is also what led some people I know to mediocre or poor scores.

To each their own, there’s no one method and we all learn a bit differently.

 

[sonofababinski]

You have to do anki + Boards and beyond otherwise you forget everything in less than a week.

haha that is me for sure! I make my own flashcards from boards and beyond, pathoma, and class lectures, otherwise i'll forget it . But, I think some people can get away without making flashcards.

 

[sonofababinski]

I also didn’t use Anki as I said above, and I totally agree with your point about memorization. If Anki is used as practice to answer the question and test understanding it’s great, but straight up memorization is also what led some people I know to mediocre or poor scores.

To each their own, there’s no one method and we all learn a bit differently.

I agree! I kind of stick to rote memorization for some of the pathology and pharm, because there's just some things in those disciplines that I can't help but memorize. But.. I think for things like biochem and physio, rote memorization would be a nightmare.

 

[7331poas]

haha that is me for sure! I make my own flashcards from boards and beyond, pathoma, and class lectures, otherwise i'll forget it . But, I think some people can get away without making flashcards.

gotta do lightyear/zanki. Making cards takes so long.

 

[DiscusKeeper]

You have to do anki + Boards and beyond otherwise you forget everything in less than a week.

Alternatively, you can do a ton of question bank questions to reinforce the content in the same way you would with flash cards on Anki. I personally have found this to be more engaging.

I've used USMLE-RX and do 1 pass through, a second pass through the marked questions, and then I start doing UWorld questions on the related topics.

For example, this is what my studying looks like during second year.
1) I'm currently in the endocrine block, so I started by reviewing all videos on boards and beyond.
2) 1 pass through all related questions on USMLE-RX in tutor mode. I review B&B videos a second time or other information as it comes up in each question. If I see a medication in an answer choice, I make sure I can list the class of drug it is, if not, I will look it up. I will rewatch the sketchy micro video on an organism that comes up in a question stem or answer chocie if I'm unfamiliar, etc.
3) A second pass through my marked questions on USMLE-RX
4) UWorld questions on all topics I have covered to date + the system I just finished. For example, I just finished the second pass through my endocrine questions in USMLE-RX, so I will now do UWorld questions that cover endocrine + cardio, renal, respiratory & biochem, the 4 topics I reviewed prior to endocrine.

This system works well for me because all of my exams in medical school are cumulative, and we do things in a system based approach. I've found that using B&B as my primary resource with supplements from pathoma, google/wikipedia, uptodate, and etc. as things come up in my tutor mode qbank questions to be sufficient. I have not felt like I was missing information when taking in-class exams despite not watching a single lecture.

I switched to this system after using Anki last year because I found that I was not gaining a significant benefit from flash cards based on my learning style. Using questions in place of flash cards has created a more engaging way for me to study.