Step 1 After MS1?

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OrgoCoop said:
^ elaborate please?
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Not worth it. You can search for threads that cover this subject, but the fact is you won't have enough knowledge base to really put all the pieces together, may learn things incorrectly, and you'll forget things by the time dedicated study comes around.

Take a vacation or get some research in, but save the Step studying for spring semester.
 
OrgoCoop said:
^ elaborate please?
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Its not worth it and won't help you on test day. You will just forget it again during second year. The best thing you can do for Step1 is ace your classes. After winter break in 2nd yr start doing Uworld Q's on random to refresh your memory on the old topics.
 
Would it be a good idea to at least review what you learn in M1? I feel like there are a lot of random details I haven't seen in months, for example the different tracts in the nervous system. Does this stuff get re-covered in M2?
 
No. It will all come back to you when you start studying during second year. That summer is your last-- it's meant for sleep, Netflix, beaches, margaritas, and more sleep. Relax for awhile. Your books will be waiting for you when second year starts.


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I did. I'd agree with most people saying you don't need to, but for me it was helpful although mainly in an anxiety manner. I hammered in pathoma chapters 1-4 which really helps understand pathology of anything you've covered or will cover. I also was able to get the basic science portion of First Aid down really well, which includes all the esoteric genetic diseases.
My school has 1.5 year curriculum so I wanted to get a head start for an early Step1 date. That said, 3 weeks in to my dedicated time I was ready to take the test. I think if I hadn't studied over the summer I would've been fine and just needed more of my dedicated time, but I'm an anxious individual and getting prepared far in advance was comforting. I don't think it detracted from my summer.
 
My school (as well as another member in this post though I don't think we know each other) run the style of one class at time. X weeks anatomy, X weeks BCT, X weeks physio, etc. If you didn't visit the areas of FA that correspond to those subjects during the school year, I would consider doing that. Example: review embryology, anatomy, physiology of the organ systems in FA as well as looking at the Biochemistry stuff. That's not intensive or time-consuming and will help you when dedicated comes along.
 
Chillbo Baggins said:
Not worth it. You can search for threads that cover this subject, but the fact is you won't have enough knowledge base to really put all the pieces together, may learn things incorrectly, and you'll forget things by the time dedicated study comes around.

Take a vacation or get some research in, but save the Step studying for spring semester.
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The bolded always confused me as a blanket statement...isn't this less universal now that so many schools do normal+path throughout years 1 and 2? For example, I'm doing both normal and diseased cards right now, and I'm not going to see that again in M2. So hopefully my knowledge base will be sufficient in that subject by this summer, or I'm screwed, long term.

Note: not planning on studying for Step this summer, I'm travelling instead!
 
mehc012 said:
The bolded always confused me as a blanket statement...isn't this less universal now that so many schools do normal+path throughout years 1 and 2? For example, I'm doing both normal and diseased cards right now, and I'm not going to see that again in M2. So hopefully my knowledge base will be sufficient in that subject by this summer, or I'm screwed, long term.

Note: not planning on studying for Step this summer, I'm travelling instead!
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Fair enough. In that case, perhaps you can review that material, though I'm happy to see that you're not, lol. My curriculum is essentially normal year 1, abnormal year 2, so many Step topics for an organ system aren't covered by the end of MS1, but clearly some schools have a different set up.
 
I recommend that during your year, you keep up with First Aid, annotating and filling in any spots that may be missing from your school lectures. That way as a MS2, you're reviewing material, instead of learning.

But for SUMMER? Enjoy your break.
 
I recommend doing a first pass of pathoma, first aid, u-world, and taking NBME 15 as a baseline prior to M2.
 
One day, you'll grow up and value your free time.

It always sounds rude/condescending, and I'm sorry for that.

But, everyone's obsession for studying during their breaks is ridiculous.

The 1st 2 years are a full-time Job. You show up, listen to lecture, go to lab, go to the library and review it all, rinse and repeat. That's your life. You Will put in hundreds of hours a month. You will effectively learn the material. You'll have allotted time to study for Step 1, and you will be ok.

But your free time will slowly continue to wane, and sanity will follow closely behind. Fight the good fight. Remember that you're a human and not some medical robot.
 
There are as many different answers to this question as there are med students. It depends highly on your study methods.

I'm an anki guy and I highly depend on doing little chunks of review everyday to handle the sheer volume of information. I fully intend to continue doing anki over the summer. Nothing crazy, but doing a few cards most days will keep information available and prevent me the stress from having to relearn everything next year.

Since New Years I've watched too many second years at my school tumble into panic mode as they try to keep up with all their systems blocks and relearn things from first year. I don't want to put myself into that position.

Remember: Eating one pancake a day is way easier and less painful than eating 30 pancakes once a month.
 
drdking said:
There are as many different answers to this question as there are med students. It depends highly on your study methods.

I'm an anki guy and I highly depend on doing little chunks of review everyday to handle the sheer volume of information. I fully intend to continue doing anki over the summer. Nothing crazy, but doing a few cards most days will keep information available and prevent me the stress from having to relearn everything next year.

Since New Years I've watched too many second years at my school tumble into panic mode as they try to keep up with all their systems blocks and relearn things from first year. I don't want to put myself into that position.

Remember: Eating one pancake a day is way easier and less painful than eating 30 pancakes once a month.
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This is pretty much the only thing I did over the summer in MS1 studying wise. Spaced repetition is an awesome concept and it makes no sense to let all that work go to waste over the summer. It took about 10 minutes out of my day. Piece of cake.
 
drdking said:
There are as many different answers to this question as there are med students. It depends highly on your study methods.

I'm an anki guy and I highly depend on doing little chunks of review everyday to handle the sheer volume of information. I fully intend to continue doing anki over the summer. Nothing crazy, but doing a few cards most days will keep information available and prevent me the stress from having to relearn everything next year.

Since New Years I've watched too many second years at my school tumble into panic mode as they try to keep up with all their systems blocks and relearn things from first year. I don't want to put myself into that position.

Remember: Eating one pancake a day is way easier and less painful than eating 30 pancakes once a month.
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Could you direct me to some good anki stacks?
 
If you really struggled with a topic during MS1, you should absolutely take the summer to review it.

If you didn't have any major weaknesses, enjoy your last summer of freedom.
 
Don't. Enjoy your time off. You will forget like 95 percent of it anyway until before the test. Do yourself a favor and don't. I tried and regretted it.
 
I'm probably in the minority on this, but I found going over MS1 stuff over my summer to be invaluable. I'm more of a spaced learner though, as I suck at cramming (effectively, at least). It really helped hammer home the foundations of MS1 material into my "life long" memory and let me focus more on MS2 material vs reviewing MS1 material when I began studying for the step.

But you definitely shouldn't be going all out as during the school year. Set up a schedule where you devote 1-2 hours...max...to reviewing MS1 material. Or say "I'll only review 10 pages of FA today" and spend the rest of the day relaxing/ doing research/extracurriculars/etc. And then stick with the schedule so as the days go by you feel its more of a daily habit as opposed to "studying." Previewing MS2 material was much less useful. I wouldn't do it again.


It's said that your summer after MS1 is the last summer you'll get for the foreseeable future and you should enjoy it. That's probably true. But it doesn't mean you have to completely become a potatoe.
 
One thing I would recommend is to keep up with biochemistry. It has been a pain in the a** to relearn all the pathways since it's a particularly dry subject (for me anyway..).
 
The three arguments I see made constantly are: (1) M1 traditionally doesn't cover most of what you need for step 1, (2) you'll have lots of time to study during spring of M2, and (3) you should enjoy your "last summer off." If your school follows a traditional curriculum instead of a systems-based one, you don't have to take Step 1 until late spring/early summer, and you're still young and/or well off enough that you don't need to work and can afford to travel, then definitely enjoy that time off. But if you're working to support yourself anyway, have already learned half of what you need for Step 1 and can reinforce it by doing Qbank questions/Anki/FC, and your school requires you to take Step 1 in early-mid spring, I don't think reviewing (not "hardcore" studying) is a waste of time.
 
xffan624 said:
This is pretty much the only thing I did over the summer in MS1 studying wise. Spaced repetition is an awesome concept and it makes no sense to let all that work go to waste over the summer. It took about 10 minutes out of my day. Piece of cake.
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How did it only take 10 minutes??
 
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that you should do some studying. I am currently in my summer between MS1/2, and I am making time to study everyday, just 3 hours/day after I come home from my research. Will it make any difference in the end? That remains to be seen. Do I feel like I'm learning a ton? Yes. Will I retain it? Yes, there's no reason for me not to since I study via Anki and keep up with my reviews daily.

In the end, do you. But don't not study just because that's what everyone else did.
 
Foot Fetish said:
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that you should do some studying. I am currently in my summer between MS1/2, and I am making time to study everyday, just 3 hours/day after I come home from my research. Will it make any difference in the end? That remains to be seen. Do I feel like I'm learning a ton? Yes. Will I retain it? Yes, there's no reason for me not to since I study via Anki and keep up with my reviews daily.

In the end, do you. But don't not study just because that's what everyone else did.
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You say "just 3 hours/day" like it's nothing lol.
 
wdoc said:
You say "just 3 hours/day" like it's nothing lol.
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Lol. When you're used to putting in 12+ hours/day during the school year, a 3 hour study sesh seems like a refreshing break.
 
MSTP18 said:
You guys are all wimps. Just take Step 1 after MS1. Boom, problem solved.
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Why stop there, let just tell all the accepted pre-meds to pre-study and take the USMLE/COMLEX before they matriculate.
 
jaguar33 said:
Its not worth it and won't help you on test day. You will just forget it again during second year. The best thing you can do for Step1 is ace your classes. After winter break in 2nd yr start doing Uworld Q's on random to refresh your memory on the old topics.
Click to expand...
What is anki
 
I gunned back in college and eventually learned from those older and wiser than me that that's a massive waste of time and yields few benefits. That's why this summer for me will see basically nothing med school related. I'll be fine for boards. It's not as if thousands of others haven't successfully taken them in the past without being so obsessive as to give up the only me time I'll have for the next few years.

That said, I may watch some Dr. Najeeb lectures as a primer for the first week of cardio/pulm/renal but that's about all I could effectively do.
 
Everyone is always talking about Anki, which are the most useful decks to use?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
J Senpai said:
I gunned back in college and eventually learned from those older and wiser than me that that's a massive waste of time and yields few benefits. That's why this summer for me will see basically nothing med school related. I'll be fine for boards. It's not as if thousands of others haven't successfully taken them in the past without being so obsessive as to give up the only me time I'll have for the next few years.

That said, I may watch some Dr. Najeeb lectures as a primer for the first week of cardio/pulm/renal but that's about all I could effectively do.
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>gunned back in college
>is a DO student

nick-young-confused-face-300x256_nqlyaa.jpg


jaguar33 said:
Thanks pal, why don't you check back in once you take step 1 & 2 and get good scores.
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Appeal to accomplishment - Wikipedia
 
dr.Breezy said:
Everyone is always talking about Anki, which are the most useful decks to use?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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Foot Fetish said:
Brosencephalon
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Brosencephalon is definitely the best pre-made deck. However, I'd argue that if you're able to put the time in, the most useful deck is one that you make yourself based on your own school's curriculum and your individual strengths and weaknesses.
 
J Senpai said:
Huh? Looks like you're not even a med student, so idk why you're here.
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I actually am an MD student. Looks like you're not even an MD student so idk why you're in the MD forum. You're not a part of this club.

For the record I don't have anything against DOs, just arrogant DOs such as yourself.

Lmao I still can't believe your post though. "I'm a DO who was a gunner in undergrad." What kind of gunning did ou do to end up at an osteo school? Gunning for dat 3.5 GPA??? Tell me more

creepy-willy-wonka.jpg
 
hungrybox said:
I actually am an MD student. Looks like you're not even an MD student so idk why you're in the MD forum. You're not a part of this club.

For the record I don't have anything against DOs, just arrogant DOs such as yourself.

Lmao I still can't believe your post though. "I'm a DO who was a gunner in undergrad." What kind of gunning did ou do to end up at an osteo school? Gunning for dat 3.5 GPA??? Tell me more
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I actually don't buy that. Stop trolling the med student forums, premed
 
J Senpai said:
I actually don't buy that. Stop trolling the med student forums, premed
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You can believe what you want. I'm not about to prove my credentials to you on an anonymous med student forum. All I'm saying is I know where I belong. In the MD forum. Clearly you don't. Stay in your lane.
 
Foot Fetish said:
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that you should do some studying. I am currently in my summer between MS1/2, and I am making time to study everyday, just 3 hours/day after I come home from my research. Will it make any difference in the end? That remains to be seen. Do I feel like I'm learning a ton? Yes. Will I retain it? Yes, there's no reason for me not to since I study via Anki and keep up with my reviews daily.

In the end, do you. But don't not study just because that's what everyone else did.
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Terrific advice for how to not have a life during your last summer
 
J Senpai said:
You're in a forum moderated by a DO student, genius :laugh:
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And who would that be?

Btw I don't consider myself a genius but relative to you I'd say it's probably appropriate
 
J Senpai said:
Probably the same mod who's about to reprimand you for breaking the TOS 😆
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That's hilarious. Almost as funny as a DO student claiming to be a gunner in undergrad.
 
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