- Joined
- Feb 3, 2008
- Messages
- 166
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Hey everyone,
I'm going to be starting Step 1 Prep pretty soon, but I'm a little down in the dumps. I took an NBME form to see where I'm at, and I scored a 172. Granted I haven't reviewed any material, but that's definitely not a good score.
I took the Path shelf, and after only reviewing 1/2 of Path, I scored what would equate to a 220 (500). So I feel confident that when I finish the second half of Path, and go over it another two times, I should be solid for Path.
My biggest area of weakness lies in Biochem, and somewhat in Physio (even though I scored ~500 on the Physio shelf) - not because I found the material difficult, but just in relation to events in my life I couldn't control.
So I've tried to be realistic in planning out a schedule - one that allows me to see everything at least 3 times - and it's going to take me about 2 1/2 to 3 months to complete (needing about 45 days to get through everything well the first time).
When I study something well - I do fine with questions. I just know I have to go much slower to build up a base.
I just see everyone around me studying, but they do it so poorly. If they don't "get" something, they just move on, claiming its "low yield" - well if you do that enough, that's a LOT of questions you're going to miss out on.
I know taking that long to study may seem extreme (or not?)....but I feel like I need to. I guess I'm just looking for a confidence boost. It's stressful when you see people just "memorizing First Aid" - when they don't even have a knowledge base to do that. Slow and steady wins the race right?
(fyi - I'm aiming for at least a 220. I really want a higher score than that, but I'll re-evaluate once I hit a 220 on a practice test.)
How would you guys plan to study? Would you do each subject once and keep cycling through...or would you stick on a subject until you felt comfortable with it (maybe that means doing it 2x), and then cycle through everything again?
I'm going to be starting Step 1 Prep pretty soon, but I'm a little down in the dumps. I took an NBME form to see where I'm at, and I scored a 172. Granted I haven't reviewed any material, but that's definitely not a good score.
I took the Path shelf, and after only reviewing 1/2 of Path, I scored what would equate to a 220 (500). So I feel confident that when I finish the second half of Path, and go over it another two times, I should be solid for Path.
My biggest area of weakness lies in Biochem, and somewhat in Physio (even though I scored ~500 on the Physio shelf) - not because I found the material difficult, but just in relation to events in my life I couldn't control.
So I've tried to be realistic in planning out a schedule - one that allows me to see everything at least 3 times - and it's going to take me about 2 1/2 to 3 months to complete (needing about 45 days to get through everything well the first time).
When I study something well - I do fine with questions. I just know I have to go much slower to build up a base.
I just see everyone around me studying, but they do it so poorly. If they don't "get" something, they just move on, claiming its "low yield" - well if you do that enough, that's a LOT of questions you're going to miss out on.
I know taking that long to study may seem extreme (or not?)....but I feel like I need to. I guess I'm just looking for a confidence boost. It's stressful when you see people just "memorizing First Aid" - when they don't even have a knowledge base to do that. Slow and steady wins the race right?
(fyi - I'm aiming for at least a 220. I really want a higher score than that, but I'll re-evaluate once I hit a 220 on a practice test.)
How would you guys plan to study? Would you do each subject once and keep cycling through...or would you stick on a subject until you felt comfortable with it (maybe that means doing it 2x), and then cycle through everything again?