Studying during first two years

[orion1978]

Among those of you who did excellent on the boards, how did you study during your first two years? Did you use books or board review books to study? Right now I am reading books, rewriting notes, and annotating board review books. The textbook reading is getting very tedious (biochem)...not to mention I hate it. Advice please.

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[Fermi]

Originally posted by gator2886
I mostly used review books to supplement my lecture notes all through the first year.

This is absolutely, positively the way I'd do it if I could go back 2 years. Studying with board review books will ensure that you're adequately prepared for your school exams, and will give you a huge head start on for your boards. A win-win situation.

Since I didn't study very much or very well my first 2 years, I took extra time (~8 dedicated weeks) to study for Step 1, but still only managed a 235/95. I don't think there's any way around having a solid foundation from years 1-2.

 

[doc05]

I used textbooks, course notes, and occasional review books. Occasionally I'd supplement with journal articles.

The completeness of your course notes really depends on the school. You need a very solid foundation for step-1 because so many questions are multi-step, integrated type, and require more than simple recall. Remember that 2nd year is way more important for the boards (at least it was for me).

I studied for about 5 weeks with the Kaplan books, managed a 257/99.

p.s. My opinion is that using the Kaplan books during ms1/ms2 will help so long as they are a supplement. Texts are usually better as a primary source.

p.p.s. You probably don't need a textbook for things like biochem, cell bio, molecular, etc., esp. if you covered that in college. But they are essential for path, physio, pathophys.

best of luck