Studying for Step 1: Go home or stay at school?

[AK_MD2BE]

Disclaimer: Nobody that has taken Step 1 (i.e. current 3rd and 4th years) no longer visit the Step 1 forum, so I am posting this here. In the 6 or so weeks (varies depending on the school) students have to study for Step 1, do most people go home (i.e. where parents live/where they were raised/went to undergrad, etc.) or do they stay in the location of their medical school? I realize that it will vary tremendously from person to person, but I just wanted to throw it out there to get some pros/cons of each location.
Lets hear it...Thanks. 🙂

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[Blade28]

I rotated my location - hit almost every Starbucks in the city, along with Barnes & Noble, Borders, home, and my med school library.

 

[-Goose-]

I am debating back and forth between the two. I'll probably stay at school.

 

[docnaan]

.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I stayed near school, but would have gone home if it wasn't 6000 miles away. I could have saved an extra hour a day that I spent cooking.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

My parents were excited when I told them I'd be home this summer for some of my step 1 studying. Of course, their enthusiasm faded when they'd only see me in the morning, at meals, and in the evening when my studying was done.

 

[yadayadadude]

I did 10 hours/d, 6 days/w at my neighborhood Starbucks. I figured at the end of my study period, I'd hate it there ... but just the opposite happened. Now it feels like home and on mellow weekends, I really enjoy reading there for a couple of hours.

 

[njbmd]

Moving to the Step I forum.

 

[mm3781]

I'd say go home, unless your family is a total zoo. Even then I'd still consider it because you'll have all your laundry done and meals cooked. Plus it is just a lot less stressful. I also took my Step 1 back home. It was in a smaller city in IN where I knew it would be a smaller quiet testing center (as opposed to NY, of which I have since transferred out of because I hated the city).

 

[Medikit]

This really depends on how you feel. It worked out really well most of the time for me but for some people it would be extremely easy to get distracted. I think it helped that I went to college in my hometown so I already had a system in place.

 

[SoCuteMD]

I went home and it was a good choice. Laundry, food, cleaning were all covered. My responsibility was to study. It worked out well.

 

[DOctorJay]

if you can go home, go home, it is best to study far away from your crazy classmates

 

[UCLAstudent]

I stayed at school, but I could have just as easily gone home. I probably would have gone home except that I didn't want to abandon my roommate (an MS1 at the time).

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I would stay at school, the atmosphere is more condusive to studying.

 

[txguy]

I'd say go home, unless your family is a total zoo. Even then I'd still consider it because you'll have all your laundry done and meals cooked. Plus it is just a lot less stressful. I also took my Step 1 back home. It was in a smaller city in IN where I knew it would be a smaller quiet testing center (as opposed to NY, of which I have since transferred out of because I hated the city).

Ditto to everything.

I went home to study because:

-Not only was the food free, it was prepared for me
-Family environment helped ease the nerves
-I wanted to get away from school for once!

 

[snowhite]

Yes, I agree...I think it totally depends. I stayed at school, but then again I wondered if there were times that it would have been better to stay home.

 

[MikeyLu2010]

it all depends for you..i cannot study at home to save my life...so im gonna opt for school lib + starbux come next semester

 

[blz]

I would stay at school, the atmosphere is more condusive to studying.

👍

 

[FrogE7]

Stay at school. I think it's good to study in a place you are already trained to studying in. I don't know about most people, but I never wake up early at home and just lounge around and watch tv when I'm there. Something wierd about the atmosphere that just throws me off.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

Although I realize there is a lot of variation, how many hours do most (i.e. normal) people per day for Step 1 once they have their dedicated studying time? I hear all of these crazy stories about people studying 12-14 hours/day...is that possible?

 

[CanIMakeIt]

Although I realize there is a lot of variation, how many hours do most (i.e. normal) people per day for Step 1 once they have their dedicated studying time? I hear all of these crazy stories about people studying 12-14 hours/day...is that possible?

I think that would totally be up to your comfort level with the material, your goal, plus how much time you have.
Comfort level with material high + goal = 218 + lots of time --> 6 hrs should be enough

Comfort level low + goal > 260 + 4 weeks to study --> 12-15 hrs/day

We had people in our school that took it like a job and studied from 8-5 or 8-6 and take some weekend off.....did that for 5-6 weeks and thy all turned out ok...most of them 240+ (but these were good students to begin with i.e. their comfort level was high with the material and they had time)

 

[UCLAstudent]

We had people in our school that took it like a job and studied from 8-5 or 8-6 and take some weekend off.....did that for 5-6 weeks and thy all turned out ok...most of them 240+ (but these were good students to begin with i.e. their comfort level was high with the material and they had time)

I agree with this --- make it like a job. Plan a schedule and stick to it. I studied for 10 hours/day, 6 days a week. I took Sundays off.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Although I realize there is a lot of variation, how many hours do most (i.e. normal) people per day for Step 1 once they have their dedicated studying time? I hear all of these crazy stories about people studying 12-14 hours/day...is that possible?

I think the trick is to mix things up in your daily routine.

Do some questions

Read something

Review some flash cards

Do something fun, briefly

Read about other people's Step 1 experiences

Do more questions

Get enough sleep and you should be able to put in a surprising number of productive hours each day.

 

[Cirrus83]

It really depends on your parents...my own parents would probably slowly drive me crazy. Yeah, it's be nice that my mom would do my laundry and cook dinner, but then there'd be the times when she'll go on a reorganization rampage and randomly reorganize my stuff so I don't know where anything is, and then I'll spend like 3 hours of my day trying to find some random document I need.

And I won't even get started on my dad. Point is, no way in hell I would ever even consider going home for such an endeavor.

Funny thing is that my mom actually offered to come up and help me with laundry and food by taking vacation time, just for regular exams, lol...and I had to explain to her that we don't really have finals weeks so unless she plans to just come up for the next year...

 

[OnMyWayThere]

I studied at my undergrad library everyday.... it was nice to study there and for some reason, I had more motivation to study when I study there