step 1-where to start?

[strawberry06]

Been browsing the step 1 threads to kind of start organizing, and get books to go along with M2 courses for next year, but I still feel lost as to how to even approach studying for boards.

When people say they study for boards for 4-6 weeks, does this mean dedicated, intense studying? Do students usually start looking at first year material, and/or reviewing earlier? I can't wrap my head around how I can study/remember everything from first year in about a month. I'm not a crammer, and usually need short bursts of going over material over a period of a few days to get the pure memorization stuff into my head.

Also, for boards studying, do you just go over FA as the main source, and use other books to supplement, and hammer down concepts? I plan on using FA, Pathoma, and BRS Physiology, and then Qbank and UWorld for questions. I also don't know how to tackle FA...I feel like I should do DIT because I tend to skip around when studying and doing the subjects I hate last and think that for boards I should have someone force me to go through everything.

Anyway, sorry for the extremely long post, but any comments would be appreciated!

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[mimelim]

2 words for you: Tao method

 

[link2swim06]

Just don't underestimate the amount of material needed to review. 4-6 weeks is great...assuming you remember the majority of the past two years.

I didn't remember all the details of the past few years and wayy underestimated the amount of material. If you kill M2 year and get awesome grades this will not be a problem for you.

I'd supplement M2 year with pathoma + FA + kaplan qbank. Save uworld for the last month. Avoid using too many resources...you only have so much time.

That being said, passing is not hard....but the amount of work between a 200 and 260 is vast.

 

[LisaFrank]

Just don't underestimate the amount of material needed to review. 4-6 weeks is great...assuming you remember the majority of the past two years.

I didn't remember all the details of the past few years and wayy underestimated the amount of material. If you kill M2 year and get awesome grades this will not be a problem for you.

I'd supplement M2 year with pathoma + FA + kaplan qbank. Save uworld for the last month. Avoid using too many resources...you only have so much time.

That being said, passing is not hard....but the amount of work between a 200 and 260 is vast.

Damn, this poster nailed this one on the head

/thread

 

[Aclamity]

where to start? the step 1 forum would be a good place

 

[235009]

you should start reviewing your weakest subjects ~6 months before your test. by the time you reach the 4-6 weeks of dedicated study time (which is intense studying of 10-12 hours per day) you should have gone through FA cover to cover at least once. I would suggest also doing most of a qbank other than uworld before your dedicated study time. Definitely don't use BRS physio...it's an extremely low yield topic. BRS path might have some utility for subjects you are struggling in. you might be surprised how much you actually remember from first year. during second year your goal should be to learn the materials for long term use.

 

[strawberry06]

you should start reviewing your weakest subjects ~6 months before your test. by the time you reach the 4-6 weeks of dedicated study time (which is intense studying of 10-12 hours per day) you should have gone through FA cover to cover at least once. I would suggest also doing most of a qbank other than uworld before your dedicated study time. Definitely don't use BRS physio...it's an extremely low yield topic. BRS path might have some utility for subjects you are struggling in. you might be surprised how much you actually remember from first year. during second year your goal should be to learn the materials for long term use.

Is BRS phys low yield? I remember reading a long time ago about how you need to know BRS phys in order to do well on boards. Is that not the case anymore, and it's more of a reference?

 

[san2]

you should start reviewing your weakest subjects ~6 months before your test. by the time you reach the 4-6 weeks of dedicated study time (which is intense studying of 10-12 hours per day) you should have gone through FA cover to cover at least once. I would suggest also doing most of a qbank other than uworld before your dedicated study time. Definitely don't use BRS physio...it's an extremely low yield topic. BRS path might have some utility for subjects you are struggling in. you might be surprised how much you actually remember from first year. during second year your goal should be to learn the materials for long term use.

I agree with not using BRS physio. Its too much detail for the boards. I would def look into getting Kaplan Medessentials. Their physio is excellent. more detailed than first aid, and less detailed than BRS physio.

i basically did the same method as one of the above posts, of using first aid and kaplan medessentials and kaplan qbank, and then did uworld 6 weeks before my exam. with the limited time, this I think is the best approach

 

[235009]

where to start? the step 1 forum would be a good place

i would suggest staying away from the step 1 forum. don't get too bogged down with other peoples' advice and experiences. those won't help. You need to find what works for you.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

Been browsing the step 1 threads to kind of start organizing, and get books to go along with M2 courses for next year, but I still feel lost as to how to even approach studying for boards.

When people say they study for boards for 4-6 weeks, does this mean dedicated, intense studying? Do students usually start looking at first year material, and/or reviewing earlier? I can't wrap my head around how I can study/remember everything from first year in about a month. I'm not a crammer, and usually need short bursts of going over material over a period of a few days to get the pure memorization stuff into my head.

Also, for boards studying, do you just go over FA as the main source, and use other books to supplement, and hammer down concepts? I plan on using FA, Pathoma, and BRS Physiology, and then Qbank and UWorld for questions. I also don't know how to tackle FA...I feel like I should do DIT because I tend to skip around when studying and doing the subjects I hate last and think that for boards I should have someone force me to go through everything.

Anyway, sorry for the extremely long post, but any comments would be appreciated!

Understanding the big picture in the materials presented in your class is imo key to doing well on the boards. I used pathoma/ BRS physio along with my classes to get a solid grasp of the material and hopefully that paid off. I will know in 2 days when my results come back.

The rest of the resources for your studies can be picked up by reading the step 1 thread. FA is great, but you have to understand what you are reading. It is really condensed.

 

[bomgd3]

Truth is, it's super difficult to explain how to prep for Step I before you've started MS2. I didn't even understand the meaning of pathophysiology before MS2, and it's totally wild that at this time last year, I had never heard of strep pneumoniae or pseudomonas.

So just pay attention during MS2, take each unit seriously, do well, and use the supplemental resources suggested above.

 

[rocketbooster]

Just bust your butt with your normal classes during the 2nd year. If you want do a brief path review during the 2nd semester of 2nd year that'd be helpful. I did Goljan audio because it's just ~35 hours. Do it on the computer, speed it up and follow along with the slides.

Also, you don't need to go through FA once before your intense study period, despite what everyone on here claims. You do not need to go over FA 3x+ either. A very thorough read of FA and then review of weaker areas toward the end is plenty, which you all do during your 4-6 intense study weeks.

Books: FA, Pathoma, BRS physio
Qbank: at least UWorld

If you want to do a qbank during the year, do Kaplan. UW is only for the last month. UW is harder than the Step 1, so it's the best practice.

I would highly recommend BRS physio (the review one that's about 200 pgs, not that super long one). I'm not sure how recently these ppl took their test, but I just took mine last month. Did well enough to basically be competitive for any field (not a 260 if that's what you're looking for). My test and my friends tests were full of physio questions. Most of them were more pathophys, but there were tons of arrow questions. Example: some question on hypothyroidism and then have arrows for increase/decrease for TSH, T4, T3, radioactive iodine, etc. etc. There will be like 5 different arrows and 10 different answer choices, so you can't guess. BRS Physio is definitely not too detailed for Step 1. In fact, it has many graphs not in FA/UW that do come up in Step 1 questions. Those conceptual questions are a lot easier when you've seen that concept before. And BRS physio really is a pretty fast read compared to Pathoma or FA.

Anyways, if you use those basic sources and just do a some review in the 2nd semester (I would do either Goljan audio or Pathoma), you should get around a 240, which is good enough to keep all your options open for residency. After 240, I don't think residencies care too much about 240-270. Sure it makes some difference, but the score is mainly used to screen applicants. A 240 should get you passed nearly every screen. After that, from what I've been told, it's less about numbers and more about your extracurriculars, letters, interview, etc.

So, just keep in mind, ppl on SDN tend to be obsessive and excessive when it comes to Step 1 studying. If you work as hard as possible during your 1st 2 years, your knowledge in each topic should be much more in depth than FA anyway. That's why you don't need to review FA 5x like a lot of ppl on here do. 1 very thorough read and review of weak areas should be enough. Supplement with Pathoma + BRS Physio + UW + a few practice tests and you'll be good.

 

[strawberry06]

Just bust your butt with your normal classes during the 2nd year. If you want do a brief path review during the 2nd semester of 2nd year that'd be helpful. I did Goljan audio because it's just ~35 hours. Do it on the computer, speed it up and follow along with the slides.

Also, you don't need to go through FA once before your intense study period, despite what everyone on here claims. You do not need to go over FA 3x+ either. A very thorough read of FA and then review of weaker areas toward the end is plenty, which you all do during your 4-6 intense study weeks.

Books: FA, Pathoma, BRS physio
Qbank: at least UWorld

If you want to do a qbank during the year, do Kaplan. UW is only for the last month. UW is harder than the Step 1, so it's the best practice.

I would highly recommend BRS physio (the review one that's about 200 pgs, not that super long one). I'm not sure how recently these ppl took their test, but I just took mine last month. Did well enough to basically be competitive for any field (not a 260 if that's what you're looking for). My test and my friends tests were full of physio questions. Most of them were more pathophys, but there were tons of arrow questions. Example: some question on hypothyroidism and then have arrows for increase/decrease for TSH, T4, T3, radioactive iodine, etc. etc. There will be like 5 different arrows and 10 different answer choices, so you can't guess. BRS Physio is definitely not too detailed for Step 1. In fact, it has many graphs not in FA/UW that do come up in Step 1 questions. Those conceptual questions are a lot easier when you've seen that concept before. And BRS physio really is a pretty fast read compared to Pathoma or FA.

Anyways, if you use those basic sources and just do a some review in the 2nd semester (I would do either Goljan audio or Pathoma), you should get around a 240, which is good enough to keep all your options open for residency. After 240, I don't think residencies care too much about 240-270. Sure it makes some difference, but the score is mainly used to screen applicants. A 240 should get you passed nearly every screen. After that, from what I've been told, it's less about numbers and more about your extracurriculars, letters, interview, etc.

So, just keep in mind, ppl on SDN tend to be obsessive and excessive when it comes to Step 1 studying. If you work as hard as possible during your 1st 2 years, your knowledge in each topic should be much more in depth than FA anyway. That's why you don't need to review FA 5x like a lot of ppl on here do. 1 very thorough read and review of weak areas should be enough. Supplement with Pathoma + BRS Physio + UW + a few practice tests and you'll be good.

Thank you! That was a very helpful post

 

[Magillicutty]

Here's what I did, and got >260:

M1 and M2 (my school is mostly systems based): BRS physiology (costanza) + Robbins path question book for the relevant system.

Edit: I had 4 months of study time, 2 uninterrupted.

4 months from Step1: First Aid + Kaplan Qbank + BRS physiology + Pathoma w/ videos. I finished all of the kaplan qbank except the general principles section, annotating all answers heavily in FA. I did between 2 and 3 full 46 question blocks within systems as I moved through FA systems. By the end of these 2 months, I had made it once thru organ systems using the above mentioned resources together. It was slow going but it really laid the foundations for my next two months.
2 months from Step1, continuing on to the test: Uworld + FA + kaplan qbank missed/marked
3 weeks out: NBME form 11 (247)
2 weeks out: UWorld Self Assessment 1 (260)
1 week out: NBME form 7 (252) and UWSA2 (265) back to back
Last week I crammed up until the night before (decent idea in my case) using FA and pathoma and continuing to do marked/missed uworld and kaplan.

I had a bunch of other books I looked at intermittently, such as the Fisk HY Neuroanatomy (kinda useful but definitely overkill), BRS biochem, FA Cases,

TL;DR: buy FA, BRS physiology, Robbins Review of Pathology questions, at least uworld, several NBME practice tests

I should also mention the resources I wasted money and time on: microcards, lange pharm cards