Step1 prep or school grades

[lovehate]

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Hey! So I finished my first year of med school and honored all my classes and it was awesome. But now that I am starting second year I'm starting to worry (more like panic) about my step prep. My school's exams are so lecture specific and so detailed. They don't prepare us for step well enough.
So I started working on Anki (zanki, lolnotacop, and pepper) last month and it's just taking so much of my class study time (2-3 hrs). Should I just forget about my classes and stop worrying about grades (I can definitely pass, but getting honors will be hard) and focus on step prep? Or just wait for dedicated and hope my school prepared me enough?
I know it's hard to give advice on this but like do school grades mean anything? It's even harder to make this decision with all the controversy going on about a p/f step1!

Thanks

 

[Chibucks15]

1) do a search on here as it’s come up a billion times. Your case isn’t different
2) work in step prep with courses. It’s not like they’re teaching vastly different material.
3) relax

 

[lovehate]

1) do a search on here as it’s come up a billion times. Your case isn’t different
2) work in step prep with courses. It’s not like they’re teaching vastly different material.
3) relax

Thank you! I know people have asked this before, but in the old threads people didn't have to worry about the possibility of NOT getting a step score after all the prep. I was just wondering if people have a different more recent advice. Thank you so much tho

 

[Chibucks15]

Thank you! I know people have asked this before, but in the old threads people didn't have to worry about the possibility of NOT getting a step score after all the prep. I was just wondering if people have a different more recent advice. Thank you so much tho

There’s new ones about it too. Also there’s no way in hell that passes

 

[efle]

Step1 > preclinical grades. No contest.

Nothing, whether it's school exams or research or other ECs, is more important than step1 in our current (****ed up) match system.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Agree with the above, but would add that it isn’t a dichotomy. It is, in fact, possible to do both.

 

[Goro]

Studying for your classes IS studying for boards. Life also doesn't end at step one, you need to be prepared for Ward's as well

 

[Johnny Utah 93]

Step 1 anki everyday (either beginning or end of the day) and than study your current block of material. Hopefully the two should line up well and you’ll crush both. Ultimately step 1 is more important but doing well in class sets you up well to score high.

 

[KeikoTanaka]

Just curious. Obviously it's super school dependent, but I see a lot of statistics showing the direct correlation between GPA and Board Scores. So like technically, studying for grades should be preparing for Step 1, as Goro stated earlier. If my curriculum dives deeper than Board knowledge, shouldn't mastering this material be enough? Idk

 

[Sterling_Archer]

Hey! So I finished my first year of med school and honored all my classes and it was awesome. But now that I am starting second year I'm starting to worry (more like panic) about my step prep. My school's exams are so lecture specific and so detailed. They don't prepare us for step well enough.
So I started working on Anki (zanki, lolnotacop, and pepper) last month and it's just taking so much of my class study time (2-3 hrs). Should I just forget about my classes and stop worrying about grades (I can definitely pass, but getting honors will be hard) and focus on step prep? Or just wait for dedicated and hope my school prepared me enough?
I know it's hard to give advice on this but like do school grades mean anything? It's even harder to make this decision with all the controversy going on about a p/f step1!

Thanks

I only used class materials until dedicated time and did fine. You should find that there is significant overlap when you reach dedicated, and there may be less esoteric details as you move away from basic sciences to organ systems.

As some previous posters stated, school GPA often correlates with step scores. This is actually one of the largest predicting factors at my school.

And just to add in both sides, I know people who did zero "step prep" before dedicated who did well & people who religiously scribbled in their FA books or used zanki who did well. Do what works for you.