Step 1 Advice Needed

[BeeBoo420]

Hi everyone,

I'm an M2 that's just about to enter dedicated. I've just gotten my CBSE score from my school, and I got a 57% (not good). I haven't received my detailed breakdown yet, but I'm pretty surprised at my score considering I've gotten high 60s before on the customized NBME exams our school gives us.

I knew on the exam that I struggled with neuro, psych, and especially the biostats and ethics questions. However, I've also not reviewed Pathoma chapters 1-4 or gone through Sketchy pharm. I've also not unsuspended a lot of the neuro and psych decks on Anki. As you can tell, my preparation has been minimal so far so maybe I shouldn't be too surprised at my score, haha.

Over these next 6 weeks, should I focus on watching Pathoma and Sketchy or focus on ethics and biostats? Should I prioritize the content review or focus on questions? What resources do people recommend for ethics and biostats? Today with my score, I got a bit of a wake up call so I'm just looking for any helpful advice. Trying not to panic too much. Thank you so much!

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[Hollow Knight]

Don’t panic. It’s counterproductive. And honestly, there are tons of med students in your position.

There’s a guy on YouTube who does biostats videos named Randy Neil, MD. Two videos, one is called “Biostatistics SUMMARY Step 1 - The Basics USMLE” and the other video is called “Biostatistics SUMMARY Step 1 - The Extra Stuff.” Those two videos will get you most questions. Yes, you need to memorize the formulas.

6 weeks is a little late for tons of content review. You need to do questions. Do UWord, if you like Anki do it off your incorrects.

I do think it’s worth it to do Pathoma 1-4 because that’s so high yield.

Do sketchy vids off stuff you miss as it comes up.

I mean obviously if you have time to do sketchy and Pathoma, great, but don’t do those if you’re not gonna finish UWorld.

Good luck soldier.

 

[BeeBoo420]

Don’t panic. It’s counterproductive. And honestly, there are tons of med students in your position.

There’s a guy on YouTube who does biostats videos named Randy Neil, MD. Two videos, one is called “Biostatistics SUMMARY Step 1 - The Basics USMLE” and the other video is called “Biostatistics SUMMARY Step 1 - The Extra Stuff.” Those two videos will get you most questions. Yes, you need to memorize the formulas.

6 weeks is a little late for tons of content review. You need to do questions. Do UWord, if you like Anki do it off your incorrects.

I do think it’s worth it to do Pathoma 1-4 because that’s so high yield.

Do sketchy vids off stuff you miss as it comes up.

I mean obviously if you have time to do sketchy and Pathoma, great, but don’t do those if you’re not gonna finish UWorld.

Good luck soldier.

Thanks so much for your advice! How many blocks of questions should I do per day? How much of UWorld should I aim to finish? Should I just do Anki based off of my incorrects at this point? Also, what should I do about neuro and psych at this point? Sorry for the barrage of questions, haha.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Thanks so much for your advice! How many blocks of questions should I do per day? How much of UWorld should I aim to finish? Should I just do Anki based off of my incorrects at this point? Also, what should I do about neuro and psych at this point? Sorry for the barrage of questions, haha.

Do as many as possible. If you can finish UWorld, finish UWorld. But you know that might not be feasible in 6 weeks.

Boards and Beyond had some good neuro videos- I like the one on rules of four. For psych you can honesty learn it all from UWorld. Psych isn’t super hard. And then sketch pharm for the meds obviously.

If you’re super worried about psych just do UWorld questions off that system.

Also, obviously, go talk to the academic office at your school that helps students if your school has one of those.

 

[Hollow Knight]

And yeah, Anki off incorrects, you don’t have time to be raw dogging cards right now with no context

 

[BeeBoo420]

Hey guys, just wanted to make a follow up to my original post. Got my P today. If I had any advice to give to other people in my position, I would say the following:

1) Lock in and trust the process. UWorld is awesome. Pathoma is awesome. Sketchy is a must (I used the PepperDeck for pharm and it was great!). Make Anki cards off your incorrects or use a plugin to pull relevant cards from Anking to remember your mistakes.
2) Do content review only on the parts where you're the weakest. I was absolute garbage on neuro and paid for a month of bootcamp to get me up to speed.
3) Take at least 3 or more practice NBME exams under test conditions and make sure to do the free 120 before your exam. Save that one for last.
4) Aim for a 70% or above on your practice exams. It's ok if the first few are way underneath that goal.
5) Take the time when needed to relax and celebrate small wins in your prep. When I'd do well on an NBME, I'd usually reward myself with a good dinner and a lighter evening afterwards.
6) Get your head space right. I usually don't at all get test anxiety, but Step 1 got to me. So much hinges on this exam, for sure. But don't blow it out of proportion either. It's just a test at the end of the day, and I really think most people who don't pass usually underestimate the exam or are under super tough conditions (like death in the family and such). If you take the time to study, you will pass!

Also, if I had any advice to give to any younger med students who came upon this post, I'd say this. Take board prep seriously! Do questions as early and as often as you can! The Anki cards stick so much better when you have context for how they actually ask these questions! Moreover, the step style of questions is not straightforward, so you need time to acclimate to the question style as well. I'm not saying start doing 20-40 questions a day right at the start of M1, but incorporate Step questions into your study habits for your in house exams, for example. Maybe do 3-5 questions a day starting the summer before M2, for a goal of at least 20-30 questions a week. Trust me, it won't take that long and the gains will be worth it.

Overall, I think I had a pretty tough dedicated. I took 5 weeks out of the 6 I had, though I could've probably taken it in 4 weeks, but scheduling was tough (and that's another part, schedule way in advance and really be honest with how much time you need!) and I just had so much anxiety. If you don't want to experience the same dedicated I had, take my advice. I know people who only took 2 weeks, passed, and then chilled hard for 4 weeks. I'm always open to questions. Thanks everyone!

 

[type1doc]

Hey guys, just wanted to make a follow up to my original post. Got my P today. If I had any advice to give to other people in my position, I would say the following:

1) Lock in and trust the process. UWorld is awesome. Pathoma is awesome. Sketchy is a must (I used the PepperDeck for pharm and it was great!). Make Anki cards off your incorrects or use a plugin to pull relevant cards from Anking to remember your mistakes.
2) Do content review only on the parts where you're the weakest. I was absolute garbage on neuro and paid for a month of bootcamp to get me up to speed.
3) Take at least 3 or more practice NBME exams under test conditions and make sure to do the free 120 before your exam. Save that one for last.
4) Aim for a 70% or above on your practice exams. It's ok if the first few are way underneath that goal.
5) Take the time when needed to relax and celebrate small wins in your prep. When I'd do well on an NBME, I'd usually reward myself with a good dinner and a lighter evening afterwards.
6) Get your head space right. I usually don't at all get test anxiety, but Step 1 got to me. So much hinges on this exam, for sure. But don't blow it out of proportion either. It's just a test at the end of the day, and I really think most people who don't pass usually underestimate the exam or are under super tough conditions (like death in the family and such). If you take the time to study, you will pass!

Also, if I had any advice to give to any younger med students who came upon this post, I'd say this. Take board prep seriously! Do questions as early and as often as you can! The Anki cards stick so much better when you have context for how they actually ask these questions! Moreover, the step style of questions is not straightforward, so you need time to acclimate to the question style as well. I'm not saying start doing 20-40 questions a day right at the start of M1, but incorporate Step questions into your study habits for your in house exams, for example. Maybe do 3-5 questions a day starting the summer before M2, for a goal of at least 20-30 questions a week. Trust me, it won't take that long and the gains will be worth it.

Overall, I think I had a pretty tough dedicated. I took 5 weeks out of the 6 I had, though I could've probably taken it in 4 weeks, but scheduling was tough (and that's another part, schedule way in advance and really be honest with how much time you need!) and I just had so much anxiety. If you don't want to experience the same dedicated I had, take my advice. I know people who only took 2 weeks, passed, and then chilled hard for 4 weeks. I'm always open to questions. Thanks everyone!

Starting M1: where do you suggest getting practice questions? Don’t want to use all UWorld or Amboss quality questions prior to dedicated prep period.

 

[BeeBoo420]

Starting M1: where do you suggest getting practice questions? Don’t want to use all UWorld or Amboss quality questions prior to dedicated prep period.

I would say at the beginning of M1, you should try and focus on content review first. However, if you really want to do questions, I suggest the AMBOSS ones for sure. You can/should save the UWorld ones for dedicated, those are the gold standard.