Step 1 Studying in College

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TheDappGoesWild

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Hey guys,

I finished my MCAT and have been pretty bored since, so I decided to dabble with Boards and Beyond (video lectures) out of curiosity. I watched several lectures from various modules and to my surprise, most of the information made sense. Obviously, a lot of the material was new but I understood everything pretty well. I believe the upper level bio science classes I've taken (biochem, physiology, embryology, immunology etc.) have given me a good framework for comprehending the material in a critical manner.

According to my plans I'll start med school in exactly 2 years. Of those 2 years, 1.5 years will be out of school. I've done the math and if I watch only 30 minutes of lectures per day, I will be able to go over all of the B&B lectures 3-4 times over (maybe I could expand to Pathoma if all goes well?). Realistically I'll probably want to make Anki cards to retain the information a little better (so I'll probably end up spending around 1 hour a day on step 1 prep).

I know this forum is pretty adamant about not pre-studying med school, but I see some med students commenting how they use these B&B lectures in place of their med school powerpoints to study. I don't see why I can't do the same. At the very least, this would allow me to stay academically active during the 1.5 year gap.

Do you guys think this is a plausible plan, or am I just throwing $250 away (for the B&B subscription)
 
Lol don't be a gunner. You might be able to watch the basic science stuff and understand most of it but it gets harder once you get into the pathophys of things and actually have to know mechanisms and treatment paradigms. Best to save that stuff for med school. Probably no harm in going over basic science stuff you've learned but you probably won't remember it when you take Step. Think about it - you're gonna go to med school in 2 years which means that you're taking step in 4 years or so, depending on what kind of a school you go to. It might even be longer than that. You're not going to remember this stuff in 4 years and will have to review it all again anyway.
 
Not a waste of time, but not the best use either.

Before medical school, you should only focus on what to do to get into medical school, even if you think everything looks fine, you never know until you have that acceptance letter.
 
Imho, BnB helps a lot alongside with class. But, at the end of the day, med school lecture slides will be 10x more in depth. Also, Dr. R doesn’t teach an iota of embryo....which sucks. And histo definitely doesn’t fare any better...so keep that in mind when you go through Boards and Beyond. If anyone told you it was a one stop all-inclusive resource, they lied.

Also, while I do think it’s a good idea to work ahead, you should also think about this plan for the long run. When will you take breaks? How will you keep the information exciting? What preventative measures you have put in place to prevent burn out? Case overload won’t be a problem, but prolonged stimuli to the same-o same-o will. You’re essentially prolonging 4 years of medical school into 6....
 
gonnif said:
Perhaps during those 1.5 years you are out school, you should be adding and enhancing to your record in case your plans to be in medical in two years doesnt happen and you get rejected like 60% of all applicants. Additionally, just under 20% get a single acceptance. If they apply to the average of 15 schools that gives a 6.67% chance of being accepted. You can say that 80% of applicants of a 6.67% or less chance of being accepted. Check your Hubris
Click to expand...

I don’t want to sound cocky but I do have a 3.95+ gpa and 524+ MCAT with pretty good EC’s (multiple pubs).

And I completely understand med school is very difficult to get into, but I’d like to think I have a pretty good shot at my state school (and even if I don’t get in there I would be very happy with DO).

I greatly attribute my high MCAT to preparing ahead of time (back in high school after finishing my AP Sciences), so I’d really like to do the same with Step 1, knowing that it’s even more challenging than MCAT.


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MedicineN'Jazz said:
Imho, BnB helps a lot alongside with class. But, at the end of the day, med school lecture slides will be 10x more in depth. Also, Dr. R doesn’t teach an iota of embryo....which sucks. And histo definitely doesn’t fare any better...so keep that in mind when you go through Boards and Beyond. If anyone told you it was a one stop all-inclusive resource, they lied.

Also, while I do think it’s a good idea to work ahead, you should also think about this plan for the long run. When will you take breaks? How will you keep the information exciting? What preventative measures you have put in place to prevent burn out? Case overload won’t be a problem, but prolonged stimuli to the same-o same-o will. You’re essentially prolonging 4 years of medical school into 6....
Click to expand...

Well I wouldn’t be doing more than 1 hour per day so I can’t imagine getting burnt out (in fact I’m doing this largely to keep my mind fresh). Also, there really isn’t any pressure so I could take breaks whenever I wanted. I think that’s what I like the most about this plan, I can set my pace.

Also aren’t doctors life time learners? I can’t imagine 2 years of studying material that’ll eventually help save patient lives to be an issue for would-be doctors (especially since I’ve spent the past 6 years learning science that has nothing to do with medicine- it’s exciting to finally learn something that’s relevant to what I’ll be doing)


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TheDappGoesWild said:
Well I wouldn’t be doing more than 1 hour per day so I can’t imagine getting burnt out (in fact I’m doing this largely to keep my mind fresh). Also, there really isn’t any pressure so I could take breaks whenever I wanted. I think that’s what I like the most about this plan, I can set my pace.

Also aren’t doctors life time learners? I can’t imagine 2 years of studying material that’ll eventually help save patient lives to be an issue for would-be doctors (especially since I’ve spent the past 6 years learning science that has nothing to do with medicine- it’s exciting to finally learn something that’s relevant to what I’ll be doing)


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Click to expand...

yah but instead of studying for step 1 have you considered reading a book? or going to a museum with your friends?
 
Lucca said:
yah but instead of studying for step 1 have you considered reading a book? or going to a museum with your friends?
Click to expand...

Again, it’ll only be an hour per day :/

I’ll still have plenty of time to do other things.

And as odd as it sounds I really enjoy studying; probably as much as other people enjoy reading books.


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gonnif said:
Great metrics, almost as good as two reapplicants I am working with this year. put your hubris aside
Click to expand...

Sorry if I came off as overconfident. I will for sure be dedicating the vast majority of my time to volunteering and improving other aspects of my application.

But again, I can't see how an hour of studying each day would be a major hindrance to my application (30 minutes when I wake up, 30 minutes before I go to bed).
 
I also enjoy studying, and I don't understand why some people are being a little mean to you ITT.

I think you will develop into a better person overall if you spent that extra 1 hour a day doing something else, like exercise or a different hobby. If one of your passions is learning, then by all means, do what you want to do. Not all learning has to be for medicine, though.
 
"According to my plans I'll start med school in exactly 2 years. Of those 2 years, 1.5 years will be out of school."

What do you mean by this?

I'm all for you studying your interests but I don't think you should post about it on a premed forum... It doesn't look well. You know everyone's going to slam on you for that...

EDIT: You mentioned you prepared for the MCAT in HS after AP classes - how did that play out?
 
Feels like a waste of time to me tbh. I can't see myself doing that before starting medical school. A lot of the med students I've spoken to have said to enjoy your breaks and relax before Med school because it gets crazy once you start. But too each their own
 
Pathoma and BnB are REVIEW resources. If you use them as primary learning you will be wasting your time.

Just because you understand the material that you read, doesn’t mean you’re actually getting what you’re supposed to out of it. Huge mistake. Board review stuff = SUPPLEMENTARY to school.

If you’re dead set on pre-studying, don’t.

If you’re just trying to be productive, get good at using anki, read a book, Purdue new hobbies, but don’t pre-study.

If you’re still going to do it anyway:
-do costanzo physiology and mature all the zanki physio cards
-do all the sketchy micro videos and mature all the zanki/pepper anki cards

Honestly that’s it. Everything else really requires a much higher level of detail for your first pass and you can only get that from real lectures or a primary textbook.
 
Sophist said:
"According to my plans I'll start med school in exactly 2 years. Of those 2 years, 1.5 years will be out of school."

What do you mean by this?

I'm all for you studying your interests but I don't think you should post about it on a premed forum... It doesn't look well. You know everyone's going to slam on you for that...

EDIT: You mentioned you prepared for the MCAT in HS after AP classes - how did that play out?
Click to expand...

So I took AP Chem, AP Physics (mechanics & EM), AP Statistics, AP Bio, AP Psych in high school and did very well in all of them.

Tbh, those courses cover essentially everything on the MCAT apart from orgo and sociology.

So my high school senior year I would review the information sparingly to keep in fresh in my brain. By the time the MCAT rolled around, I had seen all the material 3-4 times already since high school (whereas most people see it only once through pre-reqs). This let me spend more time on practice and strategy as opposed to content review.

This not only helped me with the MCAT, but made all my pre-req courses super easy (since I was essentially just reviewing the material as opposed to learning it for the first time).

Not really sure why pre-studying is looked down upon so much on these forums. I can say it had tremendous value going from high school to pre-med. Not sure if the same can be said going from premed to med school (hence this thread).
 
TheDappGoesWild said:
Sorry if I came off as overconfident. I will for sure be dedicating the vast majority of my time to volunteering and improving other aspects of my application.

But again, I can't see how an hour of studying each day would be a major hindrance to my application (30 minutes when I wake up, 30 minutes before I go to bed).
Click to expand...

So then just do it. If you were dead set on it though then why ask?
 
Please don't. Seriously Go get drunk with your friends or whatever you like to do for fun instead. That will be much better use of your time.

You have plenty of time to learn that **** in med school. You will forget everything you studied.

One of the most important things I learned the first year of med school is that there is a point of diminishing returns with studying. I can almost assure you that you studying right now for med school will likely return you 0% of what you think. Go enjoy your life, make friends, develop hobbies, learn a new skill, take a finance class, learn to cook, watch netflix, literally anything besides that will be more useful
 
TheDappGoesWild said:
You know what you’re right.

Can we get a mod to close this thread?


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Click to expand...

No offense and not meant to be extreme. Just you asked, everyone said don’t do it, and then you said you still wanted to. Which is okay. You are autonomous and can choose to do this.
 
sunshinefl said:
No offense and not meant to be extreme. Just you asked, everyone said don’t do it, and then you said you still wanted to. Which is okay. You are autonomous and can choose to do this.
Click to expand...

I was looking for technical advice as to whether this would be worthwhile.

Most of the advice I’ve been getting seems to be geared towards my emotional wellbeing which isn’t my concern.

I probably came across too arrogantly but regardless, I see this thread devolving so probably be best if we shut it down.


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If you must, study ONLY one hour a day. The rest please go out or something because it only gets harder to have friends.
 
gonnif said:
-Perhaps this time would be much better spent in looking over the 10-15-25 secondaries that you will be filling out in order to gain acceptance and start working on them.
-Or reading indepth the websites of the schools, particularly on the phrase “admission committee” “selection criteria” and “mission statement.” That way you can interweave and focus your application appropriately
-looking at depth at the mounds of AMCAS tutorial, tools, and artcles about applying to medical school particularly the free applicant guide.
-researching schools for curriculum, rotation sites and living conditions figuring out which may be best for you.
-looking at the slew of potential scholarships to pay for school and researching them to see how to apply.

You can be ahead of the curve in applying to school but assuming items for after you have been accepted is focusing on the wrong priority. As a physician you need to be able to analyze and prioritize and should do so as a premed. You are thinking like a simple student prepping for exam 4 years hence. Think outside of the academic box
Click to expand...

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. You’ll have to forgive me I recently went from studying 10-12 hours per day (MCAT) to little to no studying at all.

I’ve been itching at finding something new to study for haha.


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gonnif said:
Great metrics, almost as good as two reapplicants I am working with this year. put your hubris aside
Click to expand...
Did those applicants apply to DO too?

OP would legit have to say he was a serial killer on his app to not get into a DO school with those stats
 
TheDappGoesWild said:
So I took AP Chem, AP Physics (mechanics & EM), AP Statistics, AP Bio, AP Psych in high school and did very well in all of them.

Tbh, those courses cover essentially everything on the MCAT apart from orgo and sociology.

So my high school senior year I would review the information sparingly to keep in fresh in my brain. By the time the MCAT rolled around, I had seen all the material 3-4 times already since high school (whereas most people see it only once through pre-reqs). This let me spend more time on practice and strategy as opposed to content review.

This not only helped me with the MCAT, but made all my pre-req courses super easy (since I was essentially just reviewing the material as opposed to learning it for the first time).

Not really sure why pre-studying is looked down upon so much on these forums. I can say it had tremendous value going from high school to pre-med. Not sure if the same can be said going from premed to med school (hence this thread).
Click to expand...

It is nowhere near the same as going from high school to pre-med. My UG courses gave me some foundation, but not even in the same ballpark.
 
TheDappGoesWild said:
Hey guys,

I finished my MCAT and have been pretty bored since, so I decided to dabble with Boards and Beyond (video lectures) out of curiosity. I watched several lectures from various modules and to my surprise, most of the information made sense. Obviously, a lot of the material was new but I understood everything pretty well. I believe the upper level bio science classes I've taken (biochem, physiology, embryology, immunology etc.) have given me a good framework for comprehending the material in a critical manner.

According to my plans I'll start med school in exactly 2 years. Of those 2 years, 1.5 years will be out of school. I've done the math and if I watch only 30 minutes of lectures per day, I will be able to go over all of the B&B lectures 3-4 times over (maybe I could expand to Pathoma if all goes well?). Realistically I'll probably want to make Anki cards to retain the information a little better (so I'll probably end up spending around 1 hour a day on step 1 prep).

I know this forum is pretty adamant about not pre-studying med school, but I see some med students commenting how they use these B&B lectures in place of their med school powerpoints to study. I don't see why I can't do the same. At the very least, this would allow me to stay academically active during the 1.5 year gap.

Do you guys think this is a plausible plan, or am I just throwing $250 away (for the B&B subscription)
Click to expand...
I'm going to be blunt; you are being a fool by preparing for Step I while still in college.

You're not even IN medical school yet.
 
Oh dear god please no. This is a huge waste of time. If you’re as well prepared academically as you profess to be you will have very little trouble studying for and doing well on boards with the time allotted in medical school.

Doing literally anything else with your time will be more valuable.

If you’re not a great student and spend extra time studying like this, you’ll get burnt out (bad) and won’t remember anything (useless).

If you’re a great student and spend extra time studying like this, you’lol be able to use the time allotted to you to do just as well, and the best this will do is take you from 97th percentile to 98th percentile which is 100th percentile meaningless and thus a waste of time.

No matter how you look at it, you are not being efficient and you are not improving your situation, and you’re possibly (probably) doing yourself harm.

If you’re looking to learn, other posters have suggested numerous endeavors that you can busy yourself which, all of which will be better than what you’ve suggested.
 
Hit the gym, get ripped, get laid, travel, work and get money, get a girlfriend. Literally, I mean literally, like deadass tho, do anything else. You’ll get your ass handed to you soon enough.
 
TheDappGoesWild said:
Hey guys,

I finished my MCAT and have been pretty bored since, so I decided to dabble with Boards and Beyond (video lectures) out of curiosity. I watched several lectures from various modules and to my surprise, most of the information made sense. Obviously, a lot of the material was new but I understood everything pretty well. I believe the upper level bio science classes I've taken (biochem, physiology, embryology, immunology etc.) have given me a good framework for comprehending the material in a critical manner.

According to my plans I'll start med school in exactly 2 years. Of those 2 years, 1.5 years will be out of school. I've done the math and if I watch only 30 minutes of lectures per day, I will be able to go over all of the B&B lectures 3-4 times over (maybe I could expand to Pathoma if all goes well?). Realistically I'll probably want to make Anki cards to retain the information a little better (so I'll probably end up spending around 1 hour a day on step 1 prep).

I know this forum is pretty adamant about not pre-studying med school, but I see some med students commenting how they use these B&B lectures in place of their med school powerpoints to study. I don't see why I can't do the same. At the very least, this would allow me to stay academically active during the 1.5 year gap.

Do you guys think this is a plausible plan, or am I just throwing $250 away (for the B&B subscription)
Click to expand...
Go get a hobby & become an interesting person before starting school. Ripped, laid and traveled is a solid start.…
 
Medic741 said:
Go get a hobby & become an interesting person before starting school. Ripped, laid and traveled is a solid start.…
Click to expand...

In your signature you said you wish you went the PA route. sarcasm?
 
cj_cregg said:
My only regret from college is that I wish I would have spent less time taking advanced science courses like physiology and parasitology to prepare for med school,
Click to expand...

Be thankful you took them. I have almost no biology courses before I went to medical school, and first semester has been a hail storm of new biology information where most of my classmates see it as review. I probably study twice as hard to play catch up. But after first year hopefully it wont matter.
 
cj_cregg said:
I took them, still felt like I was drowning first semester, barely passed several courses, and studied from the time I got home from class to the time I went to bed. My entire semester of that parasitology course was covered in about 4 hours of lecture. My super challenging college physio course was covered in less than a week. My classmates who majored in non-sciences did better than I did. I truly feel having taken the courses previously was not that helpful. I'm guessing your classmates are working just as hard as you are, but not willing to admit it to you.
Click to expand...

I'm doing really well in my classes right. However, its still early in the semester. I've had to easily give up all my free time to study. No seeing gf this entire month, etc.

I don't know how non-science majors could do that much better. I don't know very many non-science majors at my school so I cant compare.

I do agree though, the anatomy type courses in medical school are just overbearing. In fact, I'm looking over that tonight after I finish up other assignments.
 
WedgeDawg said:
If you’re a great student and spend extra time studying like this, you’lol be able to use the time allotted to you to do just as well, and the best this will do is take you from 97th percentile to 98th percentile which is 100th percentile meaningless and thus a waste of time.
Click to expand...

We all know you're just mad that you didn't hit 280 bro. If you just would of watched BnB before even filling out applications you would have had it in the bag. H8ers gonna H8
 
aldol16 said:
Lol don't be a gunner. You might be able to watch the basic science stuff and understand most of it but it gets harder once you get into the pathophys of things and actually have to know mechanisms and treatment paradigms. Best to save that stuff for med school. Probably no harm in going over basic science stuff you've learned but you probably won't remember it when you take Step. Think about it - you're gonna go to med school in 2 years which means that you're taking step in 4 years or so, depending on what kind of a school you go to. It might even be longer than that. You're not going to remember this stuff in 4 years and will have to review it all again anyway.
Click to expand...

Is it really being a gunner watching videos that interest him/her? And you don't know dude, maybe his/her classes were really thorough. I knew a few people double majoring in chemistry and biology who were borderline obsessed with learning all about the nitty gritty.
 
inismeain said:
Is it really being a gunner watching videos that interest him/her? And you don't know dude, maybe his/her classes were really thorough. I knew a few people double majoring in chemistry and biology who were borderline obsessed with learning all about the nitty gritty.
Click to expand...

Yes. Med school isn't about the nitty gritty details. It's about breadth more than depth.
 
TheDappGoesWild said:
I was looking for technical advice as to whether this would be worthwhile.

Most of the advice I’ve been getting seems to be geared towards my emotional wellbeing which isn’t my concern.

I probably came across too arrogantly but regardless, I see this thread devolving so probably be best if we shut it down.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...



Before this thread gets closed down by a mod, I want to say something.

No, I mean, No. Don't down play your emotional well-being.

Being a physician is way more than your scores on the board exam. Yes, we know you got great stats, and have multiple pubs, We know you study hard, and want to work harder toward your goals - get in a med school, and pass the board as high as possible.

But, your two goals are NOT, and should not, be the end of your journey in becoming an effective physician. You know that they are just the beginning, right? In the years following the exams, you will practice as a physician, working with your patients, your patients' families, your physician colleagues, you colleagues from other professions, your enemies (ugh, I mean, admins and insurance companies), and even your communities and local politicians. For those years to come, it is not your scores that will define you, but who you are, as a person. A 95th percentile on your board will not get you far when it is your 10th year of practice, but your emotional strengths, your resilience, and your social support. You don't want to burn out quick once you finish your medical education, and then leave medical profession for good, correct?
 
RangerBob said:
Instead of using that hour per day to study for boards (which I agree is a waste of time-you will learn what you need to know in medical school), use that time to learn Spanish.
Click to expand...

I use Spanish almost every day in residency and I don't live in an area that is known as having a large Spanish speaking population. There are translators available which you should use for formal conversations (H&P, consent for procedure, giving bad news, etc), but for short, informal ones, having a little knowledge to convey information quickly is invaluable.
 
This is, and I don't say this lightly, the most absurd question I've ever read on SDN. And I recently read a thread where someone was surprised they got in trouble after bringing a gun into a hospital. Please don't even think about Step 1 until you are very firmly in medical school, let alone not even having been accepted yet, yet alone not even having applied yet.
 
Robin-jay said:
In your signature you said you wish you went the PA route. sarcasm?
Click to expand...

Nope. We choose medicine because of some combination of ego/greed (if we can be honest with ourselves).

If younger me had realized the value of 100k/yr, flexibility to change specialties at whim and only paying for an education with 3 years of my soul... would’ve chosen PA and never looked back.

Ego: I want to be in Charge
Greed: 100k/yr isn’t enough

Hindsight is when you realize that you have no problem *not* taking lead, and that you’re perfectly happy driving a beater Toyota.
 
inismeain said:
Regardless, doing something he likes doing doesn't make him a gunner. He's more...plucky.
Click to expand...

Plucky or stupid?

If OP doesn't get in what then? All that information that he "learned" is just wasted. Not to mention the level of information you need to do well in the actual STEP is very detailed and details you'll likely forget 4 years after you've been reading the material. You might remember general broad concepts but the details of the Maple Syrup Disease? Furthermore, there's a way and technique/strategy to take STEP1 which you would learn by doing practice exams from UWorld. Knowing the information is not the same as knowing how to take the exam. This is why pre-studying if ****ing stupid.

I always tell this story of a HMS graduate who couldn't make it through my residency program and was asked to move on to a different field. I remember talking to him and asked what he did over the weekend. His answer? He studied for fun. Doing well on a single exam does not equate to being a good doctor. I'm sure his grades/exam scores were great and he actually tried hard but just couldn't perform clinically.
 
getdown said:
Plucky or stupid?
I always tell this story of a HMS graduate who couldn't make it through my residency program and was asked to move on to a different field. I remember talking to him and asked what he did over the weekend. His answer? He studied for fun. Doing well on a single exam does not equate to being a good doctor. I'm sure his grades/exam scores were great and he actually tried hard but just couldn't perform clinically.
Click to expand...

Was he weird or did he have a really strange affect? Curious what kind of person would be asked to leave.
 
inismeain said:
Was he weird or did he have a really strange affect? Curious what kind of person would be asked to leave.
Click to expand...

He did not have a strange affect but he was timid. The kicker was that he was overly timid, indecisive, slow, somewhat poor technically and not very aware of his surroundings. The last one may sound odd but as an Anesthesiologist you can't be unaware of what's going on with your monitors, the surgery, etc. Another odd thing to say but he was too cerebral. In Anesthesia you have to be able to quickly react, temporize and then try to figure out what's going on. The worst thing to do is to freeze as the pt's bleeding out, hypoxic or blood pressure is tanking. Probably more suited for IM, psych, neuro where you have time to just ponder stuff hence he was "encouraged" to move to a different field.
 
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