Step one Study Guides

[Jalby]

I've seen a lot of step one study guides out there, and I thought it would be cool to post them all on one thread so that people can browse them and make a guide that works for themselves. If you have any detailed scheduals, just post them here. Thank you very much.

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[BlondeCookie]

OMG! Have you seen these peoples' study schedules?! I can't believe there are people out there that 1) have the time to do all that work and 2) have the discipline to sit down and complete an entire book in a matter of days, even if it is a review book!

 

[kito]

Hi everybody,
I am absolutely new here..just planning to get ready to start for USMLE step 1.Anyone out there can you help me ,with this burning question(!!) is it okay to study Kaplan material,listen to the lecture at home..or actually should I go for Kaplam coaching?I mean which one will be more effective?I am really really distressed....need help.......

I think the books are all that you really need. The lectures may be too time consuming, and may be unecessary since they are going to tell you what you're reading anyway. Coaching may be overkill.

It makes sense to find a few sources that you like and trust, and to stick with them for the long haul. If you really want to start studying this early for a test that you're not likely to take until the summer, go and get yourself a copy of BRS Pathology and read it from cover to cover once.

 

[kito]

OMG! Have you seen these peoples' study schedules?! I can't believe there are people out there that 1) have the time to do all that work and 2) have the discipline to sit down and complete an entire book in a matter of days, even if it is a review book!

You would be suprised at what a person can do under duress. I'm so not the "read all the time" type, but when it came to Step 1, more so than at any other time in my life, I actually found a way to plaster my rear to a chair for 8 to 12 hours every single day to study.

Contrary to common sense the time will fly despite painful horror of studying, because there will be so much to do and so little time that you'll never notice the 5 weeks zoom by. You'll be left wondering where the time went.

 

[PreMedAdAG]

Does anyone have a gradual study plan (one that starts in January) and builds up to the month before boards? Thanks!

Hey I'm a second year and I've been having the boards on my mind a lot too.

I have just started to realize that I want to just get through First Aid and my High Yield books right about now and through X-mas. I started a week ago trying to just do some questions out of Q Bank without reviewing, that was a total disaster (avg. 50%) and those were on questions I thought I could handle

Anyway, I'm trying to get through First Aid as I go through my courses and get through High Yield books before January. Then I plan on starting with Qbank at 50 q/day untimed for the first couple of weeks, then move onto 50 q/timed per day and then slowly work my way up to 100 q/day. I want to get through Q bank twice and take all the NMBE tests and the Kaplan full length
We have a Kaplan diagnostic scheduled on Monday which should be a good chuckle.. i'm shooting for a 22%

Anyway, so maybe that gives you some insight, I'm not sure. But I intended on reviewing a subject for about an hour and then doing questions regarding teh subject while I'm still in school.

I'm also listening to Goljan audio and will start looking at his notes very soon as well as I listen. For now, I listen to Goljan at the gym in my car when i go home to visit my parents or when I'm cooking dinner. I really like how he lectures because he leads you into the correct answer which gives you the opportunity to actively participate (helps make things stick) while also boosting your confidence.

Once school is out in May, then I have about 6-7 weeks to go hardcore so my study schedule will completely change. Well, my .02 g'luck

Oh, in case you're interested in a group of books, here is what I have so far

2006 First Aid
Q Bank
IV Q Bank (have no idea when I'll get to this- i don't think it's as helpful thought)
Mini Q book - from Kaplan
H-Y Embryo, Micro, cell/mol bio, anatomy, Immuno, behavioral sciences, etc.
BRS Path, Physio
Micro Made Ridiculously Simple, micro cards
Pharm - Lippincott's, Trevor Katzung Exam and Board Review, Pharm Cards
Path Robbins Review (these questions are hard as hell, but really good practice)
Biochem - Lippincott's
Goljan Audio/Notes

I think that just about resources me out, let me know if you have any suggestions as well.

Christine

 

[Twitch]

Great thread!

 

[PreMedAdAG]

Do you think it'd help to follow along the review books starting MS1? I like your review book collection. Do most people not use Kaplan notes? FA doesn't talk about it much other than saying it's useful if started early with coursework.

From what I have been told by several older classmates, you don't need to start studying for the boards until your second year. On that note, feel free to mark up your FA as you go along, but honestly, you won't make very many marks except for in biochem and embryo - the rest of the stuff you get in your second year.

I don't know about Kaplan notes. I think I have too many resources at this point and I didn't buy them. I've been told that if you buy Med Essentials for Kaplan, it's better to start them in your first year, but I never did that. It's kind of up to you when you want to start reviewing, but the first year for me was all about just studying for my classes because they're pretty hard in the beginning. I hope that helps.

 

[Twitch]

Duplicate post

 

[Cholinergic]

Hey I'm a second year and I've been having the boards on my mind a lot too.

I have just started to realize that I want to just get through First Aid and my High Yield books right about now and through X-mas. I started a week ago trying to just do some questions out of Q Bank without reviewing, that was a total disaster (avg. 50%) and those were on questions I thought I could handle

Anyway, I'm trying to get through First Aid as I go through my courses and get through High Yield books before January. Then I plan on starting with Qbank at 50 q/day untimed for the first couple of weeks, then move onto 50 q/timed per day and then slowly work my way up to 100 q/day. I want to get through Q bank twice and take all the NMBE tests and the Kaplan full length
We have a Kaplan diagnostic scheduled on Monday which should be a good chuckle.. i'm shooting for a 22%

Anyway, so maybe that gives you some insight, I'm not sure. But I intended on reviewing a subject for about an hour and then doing questions regarding teh subject while I'm still in school.

I'm also listening to Goljan audio and will start looking at his notes very soon as well as I listen. For now, I listen to Goljan at the gym in my car when i go home to visit my parents or when I'm cooking dinner. I really like how he lectures because he leads you into the correct answer which gives you the opportunity to actively participate (helps make things stick) while also boosting your confidence.

Once school is out in May, then I have about 6-7 weeks to go hardcore so my study schedule will completely change. Well, my .02 g'luck

Oh, in case you're interested in a group of books, here is what I have so far

2006 First Aid
Q Bank
IV Q Bank (have no idea when I'll get to this- i don't think it's as helpful thought)
Mini Q book - from Kaplan
H-Y Embryo, Micro, cell/mol bio, anatomy, Immuno, behavioral sciences, etc.
BRS Path, Physio
Micro Made Ridiculously Simple, micro cards
Pharm - Lippincott's, Trevor Katzung Exam and Board Review, Pharm Cards
Path Robbins Review (these questions are hard as hell, but really good practice)
Biochem - Lippincott's
Goljan Audio/Notes

I think that just about resources me out, let me know if you have any suggestions as well.

Christine

Thanks Christine.

I downloaded a bunch of stuff for the boards over Thanksgiving break (1//2 of Goljan audio, NBME exams, q bank questions). I also have a ton of books.

I made a tentative plan to start with 50Q every weekend in January and February and 100Q every weekend in March and start with 50Q a day in April and 100Q a day in May. I want to start listening to Goljan in January too. February will be for Micro, March will be for Biochem and April will be for Immuno the big 3 that I'm fuzzier on. We got a list of 100 drugs to know for boards so I'd like to start flashing my pharm cards in January as well. Of course May will be the hardcore month. I will follow a "study plan" for May.

 

[redjack2k]

My two cents on finding info:

Search for like "USMLE" and "rapidshare" in Google, and there will be hundreds (literally) of materials free to download off the net. They're a few years old, but why bother with buying outrageously priced printed material. Good luck!

 

[lord_jeebus]

why bother with buying outrageously priced printed material.

Fewer errors, content more relevant to the real test.

 

[shivasHeroLike]

thats straight, i'm sure you did really well. best of luck.

thanks for the insights

 

[megswinter82]

So our classes run until the end of May. I was wondering if anyone started studying for COMLEX around Thanksgiving and if so what sort of schedule you followed and how it changed the closer you got to exam time.

Thanks!

 

[Taus]

I created this schedule/guide last year for the COMLEX & USMLE and a lot of my classmates and other SDN'ers seemed to think it was helpful. I recently edited it and added a FAQ section at the end that should clarify most of the common q's people asked me about it. Go kick some a$$ on the boards.

 

[audramill]

These posts are pretty old (2005) and because many of the review books are updated each year I'm curious whether people have adapted new schedules and posted them. I'm trying to set-up my study schedule now.... and am looking for ideas.

I plan (ideally) to do at least 3 of the NBME forms and also a practice exam at Prometrix. Most of the study schedules I've seen do not include practice tests. Why not?

Also, my school is hosting the Kaplan review course, so I'll be attending them. Has anyone run across study schedules made by people who also did Kaplan review?

Thanks!

 

[morriske]

bump

My finals end May 22 and I'll be taking Step 1 around June 5th. I want to start studying now and basically do a high yield review/tons of questions in the 2 weeks between finals and the exam. Anyone in a similar situation?

 

[Dr.B-Almostme]

That is like no time at all to study. Is this your choice or the way your school does things? Either way good luck!

 

[TheNobleNoir]

I was also curious if there were any new study guides... Also, Dr. B, I think you misread the other person's post. They said they wanted to start studying now, which is in january...

 

[quietude]

I was also curious if there were any new study guides... Also, Dr. B, I think you misread the other person's post. They said they wanted to start studying now, which is in january...

Holy thread resurrection, batman.

But the point was that morriske's school only gives THREE WEEKS to study for Step 1 (or that's how much time he/she was planning). If that's all the time that's given, that's insane. You can (theoretically) study for the boards and for your finals simultaneously, but that's not as good as having dedicated time.

 

[jdmd1student]

OMG! Have you seen these peoples' study schedules?! I can't believe there are people out there that 1) have the time to do all that work and 2) have the discipline to sit down and complete an entire book in a matter of days, even if it is a review book!

Amphetamines...

 

[HTxFrog]

wow this thread goes back to 2004 haha definitely disregard most of that old stuff but anyways:
I used the Taus method as have many sdn'ers with good results in the past. My test is in 4 days so don't know how well it worked yet, but I feel pretty good about how prepared I am from it. View attachment TausMethod.doc

 

[Msizzle]

I just finished my USMLE and I wrote a little on my blog about how I accomplished my goal starting from day 1 of first year. Additionally I included a study schedule of one of the former co-authors of the USMLE First Aid. I hope this helps ya'll out check out the article.

http://streetmd.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-prepare-for-usmle-step-1.html

 

[GabriellaV]

Nice Work! The blog's an excellent read!

 

[johnniewalker11]

My studying started in 2nd year. I used Goljan path and audio as well as 1st aid throughout 2nd year.

My school got us the Kaplan Q bank in January so I started using it then to quiz myself through the different systems from January to May.

When I really started studying in May (~1 month before my test), I downloaded Cram Fighter for my iPhone and told it I wanted to use First Aid and that my test was in a week (it was in a month).

I Just tried to get through the scheduled reading in 1st Aid and do 2 sets of 46Qs in Uworld every day. I figured I could get through 1st aid 4 times before the test if I stuck to this schedule. I obviously couldn't keep that kind of pace, but I did my best. I ended up getting through 1st aid about 2.5 times, but the 0.5 was the day before the test just skimming.

The most important thing is to do Uworld everyday and read the explanations. Get through the whole Q bank at least once. Do the question sets timed. This is important to keep your pace. Even if you don't have pacing problems, do the questions timed. You should be able to look at the clock on test day and know where you should be in the block.

 

[BlackTalon]

Hi everyone, I'm an MS3 taking step 1 in April/May and have been reading through the forum, but wanted to ask for advice anyway because I'm in a rather unique situation. My med school is following the Duke curriculum, which compresses basic sciences into MS1 and as a result things have been too hectic to actually do what many recommend: starting right from first year. In short, I have 7 months to prepare (part time while doing research) and MS1 knowledge is a distant memory. Clearly I'm in a world of hurt and I'm panicking a little.

From what I got from this forum, I came up with the following plan:

Phase 1: use FA as a base (I figured I needed to understand FA well, so I plan to read FA, FA Q&A and FA cases for each chapter) and read selected review books, correlating with the specific FA chapter. I'm also using goljan audio and his notes (as a sidenote, he keep referring to high yields. What are those?). I plan to do 50 qn per day on UWorld.
Path: RR
Physio: BRS
Pharm: FA and flashcards
Biochem: Kaplan notes
Behavioral: BRS
Cell bio, genetics: RR pathology
Embryology: FA only

I plan to use a systems based study with FA and RR path. Also going to use RR anatomy (skim through) and HY neuroanat for Neuro.


Phase 2 (2 months, part-time): review FA and RR path only. Do 100 UWorld qn per day.

Phase 3 (1 month, full-time): Review FA and RR path quickly. Do full length tests and NBME.


Specific questions:
1. is FA a gd base or should I be reading Kaplan notes in its entirety?
2. I have access to Duke's USMLE prep lectures. Are those worth the time?

I'd love any comments and suggestions. Thanks in advance!

 

[jfgavina]

I agree with your study plan, I'd change only the readings in RR. One read seems perfectly enough for me. take notes of concepts in UW that you didn't understand instead. In the last few weeks you should be focusing on your weak areas and reading too much that you already know isn't good for your scores.

 

[BlackTalon]

jfgavina: Thanks for your advice! I guess I should be more clear... I'm planning to read the notes I made of RR path. Your suggestion of taking notes from UW is a great one!

Any suggestions about Duke's USMLE prep?

 

[SoulinNeed]

Hey guys, I'm really lost as to what books I should get for studying for Step 1. Right now, I just have FA, USMLE Step 1 secrets, and I'm planning on getting BRS patho. Besides that (and question banks), what should I get for study prep for step 1? Any help would be appreciated.

Also, is Cram Fighter any good? Thanks.