Study Guide for Step 1 Study Starting Day 1 of MS1

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Tobirama

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I'm enrolled for MS1 next year and have been gathering information to come up with a plan to start studying for Step1 beginning on the first day of class. Does anyone have any experience doing this and how did it work out?

My plan is to focus on my preclinical studies and gain a strong understanding of the concepts while supplementing the material with first aid, pathoma, and making cards. My hope is that by the time the dedicated study period comes around, I'll have all the content down and I can just focus on practice questions and practice exams.

But I'm unsure of what resources to use, how feasible this approach is, and if I should alter my methods slightly to take into consideration the reality of what MS1 is going to look like. Any advice would be much appreciated!

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Don't make your own cards, use Zanki. Start first day of M1 with whatever system you're in (if you have a systems-based curriculum). Doing 40-50 new cards/day and your reviews that are due every single day should set you up for success. Don't use Pathoma till second year, assuming you're not learning path in M1...use BnB if you want a video resource in M1.
 
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Don't make your own cards, use Zanki. Start first day of M1 with whatever system you're in (if you have a systems-based curriculum). Doing 40-50 new cards/day and your reviews that are due every single day should set you up for success. Don't use Pathoma till second year, assuming you're not learning path in M1...use BnB if you want a video resource in M1.

What would be the best way to utilize zanki if you are in a traditional curriculum rather than a systems curriculum?
 
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I’d like to start a petition to make the Search Bar larger on this site.
 
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What would be the best way to utilize zanki if you are in a traditional curriculum rather than a systems curriculum?
You could dig through the cards and try to find ones relevant to whatever you're learning, or just use Zanki completely separate from your class and just start going through the cards. Not really sure as I had a systems-based curriculum that was normal anatomy/phys M1 and path/pharm/etc M2, which works out perfectly with how the Zanki decks are split up.
 
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Don't make your own cards, use Zanki. Start first day of M1 with whatever system you're in (if you have a systems-based curriculum). Doing 40-50 new cards/day and your reviews that are due every single day should set you up for success. Don't use Pathoma till second year, assuming you're not learning path in M1...use BnB if you want a video resource in M1.



My curriculum is semi organ system based as follows https://www.uwmedicine.org/sites/co.../School-of-Medicine-Foundations-Schematic.pdf

Do you think this aligns well with the pre-made Zanki decks? If not would it be feasible for me to make my own deck as I go along with my studies? Thanks!
 
My curriculum is semi organ system based as follows https://www.uwmedicine.org/sites/co.../School-of-Medicine-Foundations-Schematic.pdf

Do you think this aligns well with the pre-made Zanki decks? If not would it be feasible for me to make my own deck as I go along with my studies? Thanks!
Yes, just seems like you start with path and pharm etc from M1 since you only go through each system once. You can just use the Zanki cards as they are, un-suspending the phys, path, and relevant pharm deck for whatever system you're in that goes along with what you're covering in class.
 
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I'm enrolled for MS1 next year and have been gathering information to come up with a plan to start studying for Step1 beginning on the first day of class.
This is a foolish endeavor. The time will be better spent figuring out med school, because i guarantee you that what worked in college work won't at the med school level. Drinking from the firehose and all that.
 
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I’d like to start a petition to make the Search Bar larger on this site.
just make the site a search bar, and once you have demonstrated proficiency it unlocks the posting function.
 
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This ‘my recommendation is not to study’ does not apply to all incoming students.

The original poster is a long time working RN, had more clinical acumen than most living the life to the fullest recent college grads.

It is many hard years of working in hospital that got him/her here. Don’t be so pedantic as to say ‘i am telling you, don’t study’.
 
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This ‘my recommendation is not to study’ does not apply to all incoming students.

The original poster is a long time working RN, had more clinical acumen than most living the life to the fullest recent college grads.

It is many hard years of working in hospital that got him/her here. Don’t be so pedantic as to say ‘i am telling you, don’t study’.
Except it does. It doesnt matter if you were the head of NIH or a McDonalds employee. Part of medical school is learning how to learn. memorizing first aid instead of learning how to learn at medical school pace is a recipe for failing in house exams and being less prepared for step 1. OP should focus on school first, and once they have their bearing then start thinking about boards probably closer to m2.
 
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You do know less than 15% of your classmates go to class now a day. Most, for better or worse, learn from their bedroom. I think there are some ‘unpublishable‘ AAMC study that show students who learn from their bedroom , did just as well as students who ‘learn at medical school’.

There is some wisdom that selected students, who does not have to relax at the end of the earth prior to medical school, can benefit from some selective medical knowledge aggrandizement . No pontification please.
 
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You do know less than 15% of your classmates go to class now a day. Most, for better or worse, learn from their bedroom. I think there are some ‘unpublishable‘ AAMC study that show students who learn from their bedroom , did just as well as students who ‘learn at medical school’.

There is some wisdom that selected students, who does not have to relax at the end of the earth prior to medical school, can benefit from some selective medical knowledge aggrandizement . No pontification please.
what are you smoking? We never told OP to go to class, we told op to study for school exams. And OPs question is not about pre-studying before medical school, it is about studying for boards in M1. So please, read before you pontificate on things you have no understanding about considering you have not even started classes yet.
 
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For those who understand, no further explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no amount of explanation is sufficient.
 
This is a foolish endeavor. The time will be better spent figuring out med school, because i guarantee you that what worked in college work won't at the med school level. Drinking from the firehose and all that.
Thank you lmao starting to study for boards first day of M1smh some of these rising M1s need to chill
 
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This ‘my recommendation is not to study’ does not apply to all incoming students.

The original poster is a long time working RN, had more clinical acumen than most living the life to the fullest recent college grads.

It is many hard years of working in hospital that got him/her here. Don’t be so pedantic as to say ‘i am telling you, don’t study’.
Idc who you were before med school unless you were an MD in another country or something coming in as an M1 you still wont have a clue of half the crap you need to learn and know in med school. A nursing degree with any experience in a hospital as a non-physician doesnt give you even the slightest edge in knowing most of the crap for Step 1. its a completely different level. I had a doctorate degree before coming to med school and thought I was hot **** until I got thrown on my ass the first week then I realized how little I knew and how little I still know
 
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This ‘my recommendation is not to study’ does not apply to all incoming students.

The original poster is a long time working RN, had more clinical acumen than most living the life to the fullest recent college grads.

It is many hard years of working in hospital that got him/her here. Don’t be so pedantic as to say ‘i am telling you, don’t study’.
You're awfully opinionated about board studying for someone who posted this a week ago:
Accepted to Med school one year ago (BS-MD), but took a GAP year and delayed start to next fall.

After reading romantic novels and traveling for the past half a year, I guess it is time to prepare and get into the mood for joining this medical school pirate ship.

i am wondering what material will give me most bang for the time/effort.

Not too gun-ho, LOL I took a gap year, should I buy Board and Beyond and watch those video? Not all topics, but just watch some high yield ones. And. by the way, what are those high yield topics?

Or should I buy Sketchymedical, and just go through micro, pharmacology, and pathology via those cartoons?

Or something else, for the best bang of the time/effort?
 
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You do know less than 15% of your classmates go to class now a day. Most, for better or worse, learn from their bedroom. I think there are some ‘unpublishable‘ AAMC study that show students who learn from their bedroom , did just as well as students who ‘learn at medical school’.

There is some wisdom that selected students, who does not have to relax at the end of the earth prior to medical school, can benefit from some selective medical knowledge aggrandizement . No pontification please.
This has nothing to do with the OP's question. And we also know that active learning is better than passive, hence we medical educators are OK with adults learners finding thier best study modalities, even if it means they spend 3/4s of the pre-clinical years in their jammies.

but do double down on the cognitive dissonance. Being unteachable gets people kicked out of residencies.
 
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This ‘my recommendation is not to study’ does not apply to all incoming students.

The original poster is a long time working RN, had more clinical acumen than most living the life to the fullest recent college grads.

It is many hard years of working in hospital that got him/her here. Don’t be so pedantic as to say ‘i am telling you, don’t study’.
You do know less than 15% of your classmates go to class now a day. Most, for better or worse, learn from their bedroom. I think there are some ‘unpublishable‘ AAMC study that show students who learn from their bedroom , did just as well as students who ‘learn at medical school’.

There is some wisdom that selected students, who does not have to relax at the end of the earth prior to medical school, can benefit from some selective medical knowledge aggrandizement . No pontification please.
For those who understand, no further explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no amount of explanation is sufficient.

Just so everyone is aware this poster is essentially a high school student arguing with medical students.

You haven’t even started your BS-MD program yet so I suggest arguing less and listening more. There is a reason we say what we say. Many posters here have accomplished all the things pre-meds only dream of.
 
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This is a foolish endeavor. The time will be better spent figuring out med school, because i guarantee you that what worked in college work won't at the med school level. Drinking from the firehose and all that.

I had the same thought as the OP so what do you recommend instead?
 
In retrospect I think the whole "understand > memorize" thing is overhyped. I was a subscriber to that belief system and it left me with abysmal starting Step practice scores. Then, all I did during dedicated was memorize and it moved my score up 40 points (210s --> 250s). I didn't become any smarter, better at standardized test-taking, or better at learning in those months, I just rote memorized non-stop and it jumped me from bottom quartile to top decile.

I wasn't alone in this phenomenon either - one of my buddies who is off the charts on standardized exams studied the school curriculum and ended up with starting scores like mine too. Meanwhile our friends who had been on the UFAPS/Anki grind for 12-18 months were already all at 240s-250s on their very first practice test at the start of dedicated.

It's unfortunate because it's largely useless on the wards, but if you already know you want a 250+ to match a competitive specialty, it absolutely does make sense to eschew your school curriculum from the very beginning. Boards & Beyond and Pathoma are both great for teaching you everything you need to know for the first time or two. First Aid, Qbanks, and Anki (for those that can stand it) are then great for reviewing. As long as you're still passing your school exams, which you easily should, sticking entirely to boards resources from early MS1 is the new way to play the game.
 
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In retrospect I think the whole "understand > memorize" thing is overhyped. I was a subscriber to that belief system and it left me with abysmal starting Step practice scores. Then, all I did during dedicated was memorize and it moved my score up 40 points (210s --> 250s). I didn't become any smarter, better at standardized test-taking, or better at learning in those months, I just rote memorized non-stop and it jumped me from bottom quartile to top decile.

I wasn't alone in this phenomenon either - one of my buddies who is off the charts on standardized exams studied the school curriculum and ended up with starting scores like mine too. Meanwhile our friends who had been on the UFAPS/Anki grind for 12-18 months were already all at 240s-250s on their very first practice test at the start of dedicated.

It's unfortunate because it's largely useless on the wards, but if you already know you want a 250+ to match a competitive specialty, it absolutely does make sense to eschew your school curriculum from the very beginning. Boards & Beyond and Pathoma are both great for teaching you everything you need to know for the first time or two. First Aid, Qbanks, and Anki (for those that can stand it) are then great for reviewing. As long as you're still passing your school exams, which you easily should, sticking entirely to boards resources from early MS1 is the new way to play the game.

Wait, so do you agree it's better if every school follows a 1 year preclinical/3 year clinical model?
 
Wait, so do you agree it's better if every school follows a 1 year preclinical/3 year clinical model?
I think the 1.5-year or 1-year preclinical model is great, but for different reasons. It opens up a lot more time for you to do electives, research, aways/auditions before your ERAS. I don't think it'll significantly change your step 1 score. Most of the learning on the wards is about step 2 material/treatment guidelines.
 
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The problem with these types of endless threads is that we continuously discuss (and sometimes argue about) something that literally doesn't have an unequivocal "right" answer. The only data that we have about doing well on Boards is that number of unique questions correlates with higher scores, and that preclinical performance weakly does as well--but now that there is such a plethora of outside resources and such a large proportion of Pass/Fail curricula in medical schools, even the preclinical performance data could be outdated and arguable. Otherwise, everything else is, by definition, just anecdotal because there literally cannot be any type of controlled, randomized study to prove anything else. For example, efle's example above doesn't really tell us anything about which way is "better"; we all know the "understanding" component has to be involved at some point of the Step I process, so all we can really infer from that example is just how the order of "understanding" vs "rote memorization" plays into baseline scores at the start. Without knowing what the end scores were, it doesn't and shouldn't mean anything to us. (And even if we did, there is still always too much variability to deduce any type of causation.) For every person that scored a 250+ using a certain approach (like completely ignoring school lectures), there is probably at least one other person who scored 250+ using a different one (like using some board resources in conjunction with their school lectures because maybe their school's curriculum teaches well to boards). There are always too many different ways to answer questions like OP's, so at this point these threads are getting dumb and those of us that continue to answer them as if there is a one way to do it should probably stop indulging them.

There are already a bajillion threads everywhere on this site about the most used/helpful outside board resources . The only thing M1s should do is become familiar with what those resources are, and pick and choose how and when to use them as they see fit and/or as it fits with the type of curricula they have, the grading system their school has, the learning style they prefer, their career goals, etc.
 
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The problem with these types of endless threads is that we continuously discuss (and sometimes argue about) something that literally doesn't have an unequivocal "right" answer. The only data that we have about doing well on Boards is that number of unique questions correlates with higher scores, and that preclinical performance weakly does as well--but now that there is such a plethora of outside resources and such a large proportion of Pass/Fail curricula in medical schools, even the preclinical performance data could be outdated and arguable. Otherwise, everything else is, by definition, just anecdotal because there literally cannot be any type of controlled, randomized study to prove anything else. For example, efle's example above doesn't really tell us anything about which way is "better"; we all know the "understanding" component has to be involved at some point of the Step I process, so all we can really infer from that example is just how the order of "understanding" vs "rote memorization" plays into baseline scores at the start. Without knowing what the end scores were, it doesn't and shouldn't mean anything to us. (And even if we did, there is still always too much variability to deduce any type of causation.) For every person that scored a 250+ using a certain approach (like completely ignoring school lectures), there is probably at least one other person who scored 250+ using a different one (like using some board resources in conjunction with their school lectures because maybe their school's curriculum teaches well to boards). There are always too many different ways to answer questions like OP's, so at this point these threads are getting dumb and those of us that continue to answer them as if there is a one way to do it should probably stop indulging them.

There are already a bajillion threads everywhere on this site about the most used/helpful outside board resources . The only thing M1s should do is become familiar with what those resources are, and pick and choose how and when to use them as they see fit and/or as it fits with the type of curricula they have, the grading system their school has, the learning style they prefer, their career goals, etc.
Nobody studies their curriculum materials during dedicated, and that's for a reason. Using anything other than boards-specific materials to prep for boards is a huge opportunity cost. Regardless of what you prefer, what you'll actually do is memorize as much UFAPS as you can just like everyone else. Starting that arduous process as early as possible is the new arms race.
 
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My curriculum is semi organ system based as follows https://www.uwmedicine.org/sites/co.../School-of-Medicine-Foundations-Schematic.pdf

Do you think this aligns well with the pre-made Zanki decks? If not would it be feasible for me to make my own deck as I go along with my studies? Thanks!

Hey. I notice you're considering UW. I'm a current MS2 there and we just finished our lifecycles block. To answer your question, I used Zanki from day 1 of MS1. Long story short, it's a bit of a mess to use at the start of MCBD, but once you get to organ systems the workflow generally becomes the physiology deck, then pathology, then pharm. For IND you can use lolnotacop's micro deck and Zanki Immuno as is. I personally think you should save a lot of Zanki micro for the summer due to the way the information is laid out. For the HFF threads, everyone just makes their own anatomy deck and shares them on group chat or other social media, but a lot of the high yield anatomy stuff is already in Zanki and if you add the 100 concepts deck you should be set to pass anatomy (with a little bit of studying from the in-class syllabi but not too much tbh, I did just fine relying on Zanki and 100 concepts; made zero extra Anki cards).

Interestingly, Lightyear is actually the most popular deck at our school due to how easy it is to use with Boards and Beyond, so you might hear that deck's name thrown around as well. If you do end up using lightyear, search for Cheesy's version which will be the most updated one (atm).

I can count the number of people who make their own cards but don't rely on a premade deck on one hand, so it's possible to make your own deck in our curriculum but I don't have any solid advice on how to be successful using that technique so you may have to search around for someone.
 
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Hey. I notice you're considering UW. I'm a current MS2 there and we just finished our lifecycles block. To answer your question, I used Zanki from day 1 of MS1. Long story short, it's a bit of a mess to use at the start of MCBD, but once you get to organ systems the workflow generally becomes the physiology deck, then pathology, then pharm. For IND you can use lolnotacop's micro deck and Zanki Immuno as is. I personally think you should save a lot of Zanki micro for the summer due to the way the information is laid out. For the HFF threads, everyone just makes their own anatomy deck and shares them on group chat or other social media, but a lot of the high yield anatomy stuff is already in Zanki and if you add the 100 concepts deck you should be set to pass anatomy (with a little bit of studying from the in-class syllabi but not too much tbh, I did just fine relying on Zanki and 100 concepts; made zero extra Anki cards).

Interestingly, Lightyear is actually the most popular deck at our school due to how easy it is to use with Boards and Beyond, so you might hear that deck's name thrown around as well. If you do end up using lightyear, search for Cheesy's version which will be the most updated one (atm).

I can count the number of people who make their own cards but don't rely on a premade deck on one hand, so it's possible to make your own deck in our curriculum but I don't have any solid advice on how to be successful using that technique so you may have to search around for someone.
Does your school release your internal Step 1 averages to you guys? I know that here, our average went from 235 --> 245 immediately after the Zanki zeitgeist took over like wildfire. If I recall UW had some rough average numbers too in the past like in the high 220s, has that improved?
 
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Does your school release your internal Step 1 averages to you guys? I know that here, our average went from 235 --> 245 immediately after the Zanki zeitgeist took over like wildfire. If I recall UW had some rough average numbers too in the past like in the high 220s, has that improved?

Yea, last I heard the numbers for last year’s e-17 class had an average of ~233, which is great for a class of our size. Though I will say that studying with Anki didn’t really become the norm until the e-19s came in this year (and I can only speak to the Seattle Cohort, as I have no idea about Anki usage at other sites). And even then, I imagine the effect size will be modest given how large the UW class is, and how much time and dedication it takes to use Anki optimally.


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Thanks for sharing your thoughts! A follow up to your point if I may, what would you recommend as Step 1 Study material to go along with MCBD if using Zanki for that is too messy?



Hey. I notice you're considering UW. I'm a current MS2 there and we just finished our lifecycles block. To answer your question, I used Zanki from day 1 of MS1. Long story short, it's a bit of a mess to use at the start of MCBD, but once you get to organ systems the workflow generally becomes the physiology deck, then pathology, then pharm. For IND you can use lolnotacop's micro deck and Zanki Immuno as is. I personally think you should save a lot of Zanki micro for the summer due to the way the information is laid out. For the HFF threads, everyone just makes their own anatomy deck and shares them on group chat or other social media, but a lot of the high yield anatomy stuff is already in Zanki and if you add the 100 concepts deck you should be set to pass anatomy (with a little bit of studying from the in-class syllabi but not too much tbh, I did just fine relying on Zanki and 100 concepts; made zero extra Anki cards).

Interestingly, Lightyear is actually the most popular deck at our school due to how easy it is to use with Boards and Beyond, so you might hear that deck's name thrown around as well. If you do end up using lightyear, search for Cheesy's version which will be the most updated one (atm).

I can count the number of people who make their own cards but don't rely on a premade deck on one hand, so it's possible to make your own deck in our curriculum but I don't have any solid advice on how to be successful using that technique so you may have to search around for someone.
 
I wouldn't go so far as to say Zanki is too messy, and now there's a new tag overhaul of Zanki (the Anking overhaul) that matches the Boards and Beyond videos to different sets of Zanki Cards so you might find it is easier compared to how I did it when there was no tag overhaul. If you are looking for alternatives, I've heard good things about Lightyear's, Brosencephelon's, and Physeo's respective biochem sections.
 
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AnKing’s overhaul Zanki deck is great. I believe he said there will be an update to the deck around Christmas break and it will be 80% Boards and Beyond tagged.

I suspended all the cards in the deck (30,000) and then just unsuspend as needed to go along with what we are currently learning in class.
 
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