Studying for Step for a Full Year

[AllDay24]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey guys, I'm going to be an MS2 next month. I'm a bit frustrated today because I planned to take a research year halfway through MS3 (January of MS3) when students take 2 months off to study for step 1 (yes, our school is different in that we take step 1 very late). My plan to was to study for Step a few hours everyday and do full-time research because I am interested in a competitive surgical specialty.

However, today I found out from an administrator that I must take Step 1 before the research year, unless I am part of the school's research track (which I can join but then I have to do basic research instead of clinical research for my research yr, and I prefer clinical research).

My school is one of the top scorers on Step traditionally, and I realize a full year of studying is probably overkill, especially since we take it after one year of clinical rotations that reinforce everything. But I originally planned to study for a whole year while doing research because I haven't opened FirstAid/done Firecracker/done UWorld (I've been studying EXCLUSIVELY from our course material, which I prefer and I feel is the reason for by decent performance---top 1/3 of the class so far).

Do you think I should give up on studying for Step for a whole year and just study for 2 months which is the standard? There are built-in breaks during clinical rotations to study for Step that I guess would be sufficient. I do still plan to do the research yr halfway through MS3.

 

[DermViser]

There's a reason your school is mandating you take Step 1 before doing your research year. You will forget information. I'm sure the school has also had people in the past try to "game" the system to try to get more study time as well. Why not study thruout MS-2? There's your year.

 

[AllDay24]

I prefer to study everything from our classes thoroughly instead to have a broad and solid knowledge base before hitting the review books and resources. I guess I could do it during MS2 and MS3 though.

You mentioned that I'd forget information. I've heard that happening as well even over a 2-month study period. Is studying for a full year a total waste of time in your opinion? I feel that so much of residency applications is Step so I honestly can't imagine just studying for 2 months when I spent more time on the MCAT.

 

[DermViser]

I prefer to study everything from our classes thoroughly instead to have a broad and solid knowledge base before hitting the review books and resources. I guess I could do it during MS2 and MS3 though.

You mentioned that I'd forget information. I've heard that happening as well even over a 2-month study period. Is studying for a full year a total waste of time in your opinion? I feel that so much of residency applications is Step so I honestly can't imagine just studying for 2 months when I spent more time on the MCAT.

Yes, but the longer away from basic science that you are, the more chances you have of forgetting minutiae. If you think studying for a year is what you need to crystallize the info, then do it. People use board review books with their classes all the time.

 

[evilbooyaa]

If you decide to study for Step 1 for a full year, you are ignoring tons of people's advice that they get immensely burned out after doing 6-8 weeks of dedicated study time. I would recommend you finish MS2 (including the 2 month period to step 1) then do your research year. Taking off in the middle of MS2 is a very inopportune time to take a research year, generally.

 

[AllDay24]

Just to clarify, it'd be halfway through MS3 (not MS2), after 1.5 years of pre-clinicals and 1 full year of core rotations. But thank you for your comment!

 

[Petypet]

6-8 weeks is too much for an american graduate. Studying for a year is a waste of a year and totally unnecessary. Take your test before research and dedicate research time for research so that you can get a publication or two. Your school should give you enough of a foundation to not need more than 6 weeks. There's a difference between 8-12 hour days for 6-8 weeks than 3 months of mcat studying.

 

[redpanda]

Having to retain all the Step 1 minutiae for a year while doing clerkships sounds like a nightmare. I suppose studying for shelf exams for Step 2 was like studying for a year, but then again, a lot of the same material was tested throughout the year...

 

[operaman]

Absolute waste of time. Just learn the stuff the first time. Two weeks of review is plenty; a month is pushing it; six weeks or more is nuts. That's assuming you learned the info well during classes and didn't just memorize and forget.

 

[starstarie]

Dude med school is like a giant 2 yr step 1 course. Obviously its not completely in line with the exact content of step 1 but from everything I've heard doing well in class = doing well on step 1. (Of course there are outliers) Why would you take a year off from your intensive step prep to do something completely different (research) and browse your material to review? Doesn't make sense to me.

Who knows, maybe it'd be right for you, but it doesn't seem like it would be a good idea to lose all the momentum you've built up, in my opinion.

 

[Psai]

I think operaman is an exception and unnaturally smart while being hard working. I thought six weeks was perfect for me. I would have done well with four. A year is unnecessary and a few hours a week won't cut it

 

[DermViser]

Absolute waste of time. Just learn the stuff the first time. Two weeks of review is plenty; a month is pushing it; six weeks or more is nuts. That's assuming you learned the info well during classes and didn't just memorize and forget.

🙄

 

[AllDay24]

Thanks for all the input! Very helpful in helping me come to a decision. I understand all of your points and agree with many of them. But I think about how 3-4 months was the standard for MCAT studying...so how can a higher-stakes exam like Step 1 be conquered in only 2 months when there is 100x more material? I also think about how people are often so stressed cramming for Step, so why not just give yourself more time to study?

Also my school take Step a full year after the pre-clinical curriculum ends...so I figure I would have already forgotten pre-clinical minutiae.

 

[Psai]

Because mcat is simpler. Step1 requires you to know so many facts and be able to apply them. By the time I got to week six I noticed that my uworld score was staying the same and I felt as though I was treading water. For everything I picked up, I got the sense that I was losing something else

 

[Petypet]

Thanks for all the input! Very helpful in helping me come to a decision. I understand all of your points and agree with many of them. But I think about how 3-4 months was the standard for MCAT studying...so how can a higher-stakes exam like Step 1 be conquered in only 2 months when there is 100x more material? I also think about how people are often so stressed cramming for Step, so why not just give yourself more time to study?

Also my school take Step a full year after the pre-clinical curriculum ends...so I figure I would have already forgotten pre-clinical minutiae.

Because you spend 2 years learning the material for step 1, and 4-5 weeks reviewing and applying the material. If you do well in the first 2 years of medical school you don't need more time. Its hard to explain unless you've gone through it. More doesn't equate better. Its how you study, not how much you study. I recall MCAT being a longer study period but not nearly as intense, but that was me personally.

Further the MCAT is most people's real swift kick in the butt standardized exam and it is completely over done. Think about it, if you take the MCAT in jr or sr year of college, and you are testing over freshman level course work, you may need more time to study because its been that long since you learned the silly equations. Also, you are studying (a few hours at most a day) in undergrad while partying, taking 12-18 credit hours, and other misc activities. In med school the general consensus is learn the material well during years 1-2 and when dedicated prep hits you are reviewing 8-12 hours a day, exercising, eating, and sleeping. Big difference between the two.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Absolute waste of time. Just learn the stuff the first time. Two weeks of review is plenty; a month is pushing it; six weeks or more is nuts. That's assuming you learned the info well during classes and didn't just memorize and forget.

I'm not sure how recently you took Step 1, but studying for only 2 weeks (with hopes of scoring well) is definitely an outlier.

 

[GadRads]

I'm not sure how recently you took Step 1, but studying for only 2 weeks (with hopes of scoring well) is definitely an outlier.

People like this have been studying much earlier. I remember around Jan/February some people in my class had already started reviewing, had finished one Q-bank, etc. It made me feel like a slacker. So I began my review in late March by doing Micro questions, but I couldn't do much in April due to research duties and current block exams. I was also an M1 TA. In retrospect, I shouldn't have even tried to do anything and just focused on my 7 week review. My 5th and 6th weeks were also quite unproductive. I feel my general background over the first two years and those 7 weeks determined my score (245-250). Could've possibly broken 250 if I didn't take that test half asleep, but I'm thankful to God for the score. But there is no way I could've done it with 2 weeks review, just no way. I needed 5-6 efficient weeks, or 7-8 weeks with some wiggle room for slacking.

 

[Kaustikos]

I'm not sure how recently you took Step 1, but studying for only 2 weeks (with hopes of scoring well) is definitely an outlier.

If they mean 2 weeks after 2nd year, I can understand. If it's just two weeks - I agree. I took Step 1 a month after 2nd year and I honestly felt like I could've taken it 2 weeks after MS2. After taking the Path, Pharm and Clin Med final/shelf, I was more than comfortable with the material. I think it actually hurt me prolonging it more than 2 weeks... in a joking way. But the idea is to get it out of the away as soon as possible after 2nd year. People don't realize it until after they finish second year.

 

[Petypet]

I think it actually hurt me prolonging it more than 2 weeks... in a joking way.

I would agree with this but not in a joking way. I studied for 6 months total, but only 3-4 really hard core weeks. 6 months was incorporating DIT/pathoma/qbank into my normal block studying. Thus, I had 6 weeks planned for dedicated time and by weeks 4 and 5 I was burned out, only looking at stuff I knew I didn't understand. In the end that stuff wasn't on my exam anyway and so it didn't matter.

 

[DermViser]

I would agree with this but not in a joking way. I studied for 6 months total, but only 3-4 really hard core weeks. 6 months was incorporating DIT/pathoma/qbank into my normal block studying. Thus, I had 6 weeks planned for dedicated time and by weeks 4 and 5 I was burned out, only looking at stuff I knew I didn't understand. In the end that stuff wasn't on my exam anyway and so it didn't matter.

It's nice to see honesty on SDN. So many times I swear it's I only studied x number of weeks. Either they're ridiculously smart or they are wildly exaggerating, which does people who are trying to get a good ballpark figure on how long to study a disservice.

 

[Petypet]

It's nice to see honesty on SDN. So many times I swear it's I only studied x number of weeks. Either they're ridiculously smart or they are wildly exaggerating, which does people who are trying to get a good ballpark figure on how long to study a disservice.

Or they're gunners throwing off the competition.

I will say this, those of us that did well 240+ started 6 months out. I don't know if its because I went to DO school but we had a lot of stuff we had to make up for, biochem/micro/pharm. My study schedule during the 6 months prep was honestly 46-92 questions in the AM, a little dit/fa/pathoma for 1-2 hours after lunch/exercise, and listen to 3-4 hours of lecture at 2x speed (thus 1.5-2 hours). Do this 5-6 times a week for 6 months and it made my dedicated time immensely easier. At the end of the day, I really just sacrificed my grades in 3 blocks (average instead of 10%) for board prep. I didn't study anymore during the year than I did previously, just substituted board stuff for block stuff.

Lastly, Some of my classmates were thrown off by the "i'll start 6 weeks to go method" and while some were pleasantly surprised by their scores, I have heard and seen more disappointment. It really takes a solid foundation to not suck on step 1.

 

[DermViser]

Or they're gunners throwing off the competition.

I will say this, those of us that did well 240+ started 6 months out. I don't know if its because I went to DO school but we had a lot of stuff we had to make up for, biochem/micro/pharm. My study schedule during the 6 months prep was honestly 46-92 questions in the AM, a little dit/fa/pathoma for 1-2 hours after lunch/exercise, and listen to 3-4 hours of lecture at 2x speed (thus 1.5-2 hours). Do this 5-6 times a week for 6 months and it made my dedicated time immensely easier. At the end of the day, I really just sacrificed my grades in 3 blocks (average instead of 10%) for board prep. I didn't study anymore during the year than I did previously, just substituted board stuff for block stuff.

Lastly, Some of my classmates were thrown off by the "i'll start 6 weeks to go method" and while some were pleasantly surprised by their scores, I have heard and seen more disappointment. It really takes a solid foundation to not suck on step 1.

And that's mainly bc regardless of which school you go to, most schools' professors cover so much stuff that isn't tested (anymore) on Step 1 or skip topics that they should be covering on Step 1, hence the need to start much earlier so you can actually cover the stuff and teach it to yourself. Your school isn't alone in this. That being said there are schools in the U.S. that more avidly keep up with changes and topics on Step 1 and tailor lectures to include those things accordingly.

 

[Psai]

It's nice to see honesty on SDN. So many times I swear it's I only studied x number of weeks. Either they're ridiculously smart or they are wildly exaggerating, which does people who are trying to get a good ballpark figure on how long to study a disservice.

Mine was very honest and thorough but I have no idea if anyone read it. I only got a few pms after I posted my score

 

[DermViser]

Mine was very honest and thorough but I have no idea if anyone read it. I only got a few pms after I posted my score

I think SDN sometimes, unfortunately suffers from advice overload to where you don't know if it's hard work and smarts or just MENSA like ability. The Step 1 experiences thread although understandable is alot to go thru and one can get lost. Heck if someone told me they only studied 2 weeks, I'd go to a corner and cry.

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Dude med school is like a giant 2 yr step 1 course. Obviously its not completely in line with the exact content of step 1 but from everything I've heard doing well in class = doing well on step 1. (Of course there are outliers) Why would you take a year off from your intensive step prep to do something completely different (research) and browse your material to review? Doesn't make sense to me.

Who knows, maybe it'd be right for you, but it doesn't seem like it would be a good idea to lose all the momentum you've built up, in my opinion.

I agree but I think it really depends on the school. There are many people who feel they have really good GPAs because they rocked Anatomy and the "clinical medicine classes" or their schools equivalent, but this doesn't really translate to good board scores. In general doing well in class = good board scores I would assume but you do have to make certain choices as to what is important I think.

 

[AllDay24]

Thanks for all the discussion! There was actually a misunderstanding with my school, I am definitely allowed to take Step 1 after 1 full year of research (they said just not during the research year).

Still leaning toward taking a whole year, so I can learn everything extremely well from classes and rotations and then focus on Step specifically during the year off, when I can watch Pathoma multiple times, read First Aid multiple times, and go through Kaplan QBank and UWorld multiple times.

 

[Shjanzey]

I think @Golf med student posted a marvelous write up over in the Step 1 Experiences thread. He took a more long term approach as well and scored very high. I have kept a log of all the 270+ scorers starting in 2013, and the vast majority of them started their prep long before the 6 week dedicated study period. You can get a great score by working hard during the first 2 years and finalizing your Step prep during the six week study period, however I think you can realize a greater potential if you start preparing for the Step much earlier.

 

[GadRads]

It's nice to see honesty on SDN. So many times I swear it's I only studied x number of weeks. Either they're ridiculously smart or they are wildly exaggerating, which does people who are trying to get a good ballpark figure on how long to study a disservice.

It is true that several people have used a long-term approach to score 240+, but I personally know a handful who studied for 6-8 weeks and scored 240-260+, of course the 260+'s are rare. A cousin who graduated from a Russian med school studied First Aid for ~2 months while doing minimal questions (if any) and just broke 240.

 

[Shjanzey]

A cousin who graduated from a Russian med school studied First Aid for ~2 months while doing minimal questions (if any) and just broke 240.

Yet I am sure you wouldn't advocate this approach for someone who is serious about scoring high on the Step

 

[GadRads]

Yet I am sure you wouldn't advocate this approach for someone who is serious about scoring high on the Step

Of course not, I just wanted to dispel the myth that all 240+ scorers have been studying for 10 years.

 

[Golf med student]

I definitely think you can do well on the exam (240+) by studying for less than a year. The individuals at my school who scored 260+ (we had about 8-10) spent at least a part of the fall semester studying. As I stated in my write up when I started I was just going for above a 240 but I kept pushing it as my practice scores went up (specifically during my dedicated step study period). I think it just depends on what score your looking for. My fall semester wasn't too much work and I still had plenty of time to relax. Just reading a HY book a week or taking a few weeks to read some of the bigger books (RR path) isn't too bad. I would say don't go crazy during the fall but still be thinking about STEP by reading a bit because you will get burnt out if your not careful. I do agree that you should learn it correctly the first time when you see it in class but you might not cover all of the things that STEP covers. I know our school was weak on porphyria and when we were supposed to cover it during our fall of first year when you don't really know what you are supposed to know. The 6 month study plan allows you to do just a little over a test a day (56 questions) to get to the 10,000 question mark.

 

[AllDay24]

Thanks for the amazing guide Golf Med student! I'm definitely going to use a similar strategy over an entire year (with full-time research)

 

[Golf med student]

I'm glad that my write up helped! I was finishing up my MBA internship at the time so it's definitely a possible schedule with outside commitments. Good luck and feel free to message me if you have any questions!