Studying for the boards instead of for class

[Dr Gerrard]

So I hear grades in preclinical years dont matter.

What do you guys think of just studying for the boards throughout the first two years instead if directly studying for class? I feel like this would give you enough knowledge to just pass the exams, plus it would give you a huge start on studying.

I don't know if this is reasonable yet. I am just a premed, home from going out on a saturday night.

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[clinicallabguy]

So I hear grades in preclinical years dont matter.

What do you guys think of just studying for the boards throughout the first two years instead if directly studying for class? I feel like this would give you enough knowledge to just pass the exams, plus it would give you a huge start on studying.

I don't know if this is reasonable yet. I am just a premed, home from going out on a saturday night.

Generally, studying well for a given class is a good way to prepare for the boards. There are some ridiculous classes that may be exceptions and are different at every school, but I wouldn't blow off class learning objectives because you think you're studying for things that are more important for the boards. That said, there are people that follow along in First Aid to know what the vital skeleton for a subject is for the boards. I didn't do it, so I don't know. Maybe it would've helped, but I'm not kicking myself over it.

People claim everywhere that pre-clinical grades don't matter. I think that's an overstatement. They carry less significance than clinical years or boards, for sure. However, you'll never regret performing well in your pre-clinical years. There's no reason not to try and do as well as you can in pre-clinical courses. If it turns out that straight honors in pre-clinical courses is not feasible, then the sentiment to not let it ruin your life is a good one. You'll be okay. But if it is, then I think it will be to your advantage. So they do matter, just less than boards and clinical grades. I must be tired because I'm repeating myself....repeating myself... tired... must....sleep. Or maybe I'll post more stuff.

 

[Law2Doc]

... I feel like this would give you enough knowledge to just pass the exams,...

This is the big if here. Competition to do well in med school is tight. Some lecturers are going to test on what they said and on the note-sets they prepared, not because this is information that the boards consider important, but because this is the information THEY personally feel is important (sometimes they are right -- no one ever accused the boards, which is full of zebras you will never see, of being well tuned to what is actually useful in day to day clinical practice). So you can read First Aid cover to cover and do all the World problems, but if it doesn't emphasize the same things your lecturers do, you may find yourself in big trouble in the exams.

Second, although the grades themselves for the preclinical years are not all that important (they do factor into your class rank and matter for AOA, so they aren't totally irrelevant, just mostly) the first two years of med school are not only important insofar as learning the material for the boards, but also in terms of learning the material you will be pimped on during your clinical years. The dude who lectured you in your second year could very well be the same clinician who is your supervising attending during your IM rotation in 3rd year, and he's going to be unimpressed by you if you can't answer something he feels like he hammered on in his lecture just a few months back. And 3rd year evals do matter.

I think the best option is to do a mix of course and boards studying. Spend most of your time with the note-sets and lecture material, but squeeze in a little board review on the side. Bear in mind that first year is extraordinarily low yield for the boards compared to second year, so you want to spend more time on the coursework first year and perhaps increase the amount of board related stuff second year.

No matter how you slice it, though, it's a lot of work. Most people find it's a lot just to stay abreast of the course material and don't have ample time to squeeze in board review on top. And that's fine -- if you are disciplined, the coursework serves as a nice foundation on which during about 6 weeks of your second year summer you can learn what you need for Step 1. Most do it this way. I wouldn't substitute board review for med school coursework, but if you can squeeze some in on top, go for it.

 

[sanityonleave]

First off, I agree with what others have said re: preclinical years may not be the most important thing on your residency application, but they still play a significant role. I wouldn't piss first and second year grades down the drain because they "don't matter" -- that's a good way to end up in a world of hurt when you absolutely love your rad-onc rotation in 3rd year but don't stand a chance of matching into that field.

As far as board studying... I do a mix of both. I actually think I usually study more than the material covered by the class in my studying, but then before the test I go back and double check lecture material to make sure that I cover anything that was not emphasized in Robbins or equivalent.

Suffice it to say I think it's a good idea to keep boards in the back of your mind, because a lot of classes/lectures will be piss poor preparation for the board exams -- but you can't necessarily just write off your preclinical grades.

 

[Law2Doc]

... when you absolutely love your rad-onc rotation in 3rd year ...

Just for the sake of premeds reading this thread, I am going to nitpic. At very very very few med schools are you going to have a "rad-onc rotation in 3rd year". It's usually a 4th year elective kind of thing, and even then you may have to do it as an away rotation because not every med school is affiliated with a decent rad onc department. At most med schools, you are going to spend 3rd year rotations taking the core rotations (Surgery, IM, Psych, Peds, OBGYN, etc). Depending on your program you often won't have any free electives during 3rd year outside of the cores to play with things like rad onc.

I again would suggest that even for rad onc, your preclinical grades take a very far back seat to things like board scores, clinical year evals, research, audition/away rotations, etc. Class rank, however, may be important to some of these uber competitive fields and so while they won't really care if you were getting high passes or honors during first year, they might be unhappy that at the end of the road you are graduating in the bottom third of your class, largely because you skated by in the preclinical years.

 

[drizzt3117]

Med school is not that easy... Just because a class is p/f doesn't mean you don't have to study to pass it... I think that plan is good if your ultimate goal is remediation.

So I hear grades in preclinical years dont matter.

What do you guys think of just studying for the boards throughout the first two years instead if directly studying for class? I feel like this would give you enough knowledge to just pass the exams, plus it would give you a huge start on studying.

I don't know if this is reasonable yet. I am just a premed, home from going out on a saturday night.

 

[RapplixGmed]

If you're getting mostly high passes and honors by skipping class and focusing on boards, you are doing fine since the points you are missing are mostly the nitpicky stuff and epidemiology stuff that rarely comes up again unless you want to look it up. Make sure you go back over your class tests when you get a chance to see if there are gaps in your knowledge.

If you are barely passing by defocusing on class, then you are missing key concepts and should rethink your strategy.

 

[Daedra22]

#1 - Pass years one and two
#2 - Worry about boards

This really echoes what others have said, but first and foremost, you need to get by in your classes. At my school I've had some classes that test pretty much exclusively boards material - when I notice that, I focus in on materials I have saved up for step 1 so I can get familiar with those resources. However, there are many classes where what is tested is way beyond what is needed for step 1, so studying from boards material would actually be detrimental. You have to look at each class on a case-by-case basis.

 

[Law2Doc]

If you're getting mostly high passes and honors by skipping class and focusing on boards, you are doing fine since the points you are missing are mostly the nitpicky stuff and epidemiology stuff that rarely comes up again unless you want to look it up. Make sure you go back over your class tests when you get a chance to see if there are gaps in your knowledge.

If you are barely passing by defocusing on class, then you are missing key concepts and should rethink your strategy.

Totally agree with this, but would suggest that unless a course has a ton of tests rather than a couple per block, by the time you find you are barely passing, you may have dug yourself too deep a hole to ever get back to a solid class rank. So I probably would suggest the reverse -- focus on coursework, and if you find you are doing great, then consider diverting some additional time to board review. If not, keep plugging at the course material.

 

[Mr hawkings]

Totally agree with this, but would suggest that unless a course has a ton of tests rather than a couple per block, by the time you find you are barely passing, you may have dug yourself too deep a hole to ever get back to a solid class rank. So I probably would suggest the reverse -- focus on coursework, and if you find you are doing great, then consider diverting some additional time to board review. If not, keep plugging at the course material.

And dont forget that barely passing is one illness/family emergency away from barely failing

 

[Law2Doc]

And dont forget that barely passing is one illness/family emergency away from barely failing

No question. Or one bad break-up. Like altitude to a pilot, having some comfort room above the mean on prior exams going into each subsequent one is money in the bank. You never know when you are going to need it to bail you out from having to retake something.

 

[bruinhd]

Med school is not that easy... Just because a class is p/f doesn't mean you don't have to study to pass it... I think that plan is good if your ultimate goal is remediation.

agree.

i wanna see you try and not pay attn to the minutia being presented and tested in class. if all they tested in med school was First Aid, then there wouldn't be remediating students or dismissals.

 

[mvenus929]

Our school tests in boards style format, so we essentially do both at the same time. I use First Aid (and a handful of other study guides) to make sure I understand the overreaching concept, but I always use my notes to study for the exam itself. If I was just studying for the boards, I'd probably miss a lot of questions, because First Aid doesn't cover everything we need to know for class.

 

[Encephalectomy]

If you're getting mostly high passes and honors by skipping class and focusing on boards, you are doing fine since the points you are missing are mostly the nitpicky stuff and epidemiology stuff that rarely comes up again unless you want to look it up. Make sure you go back over your class tests when you get a chance to see if there are gaps in your knowledge.

If you are barely passing by defocusing on class, then you are missing key concepts and should rethink your strategy.

This is great advice.

Another important thing to find out is whether your pass/fail school internally tracks class scores for ranking. There are pass fail schools that have a full on class rank (i.e. sure you all passed your classes, but the gunner who aced each test is #1 in the class and this is reflected in his deans letter, while the kid who barely passed gets whatever code word the deans use for bottom of the class) and pass/fail schools where the only time anything gets into your file is if you fail.

Also, I would advise first years not to worry about the boards at all and focus on getting a good foundation, adjusting to medical school, and if you have free time and want to make yourself more competitive so that you can match in dermoplastic radiation neurosurgery, do research.

 

[Lokhtar]

Dermoplastic Radiation Neurosurgery sounds like an epic field.

 

[RapplixGmed]

Dermoplastic Radiation Neurosurgery sounds like an epic field.

Best field ever! You use radiation to modify their brain into thinking their skin is beautiful.

 

[sanityonleave]

Just for the sake of premeds reading this thread, I am going to nitpic. At very very very few med schools are you going to have a "rad-onc rotation in 3rd year". It's usually a 4th year elective kind of thing, and even then you may have to do it as an away rotation because not every med school is affiliated with a decent rad onc department. At most med schools, you are going to spend 3rd year rotations taking the core rotations (Surgery, IM, Psych, Peds, OBGYN, etc). Depending on your program you often won't have any free electives during 3rd year outside of the cores to play with things like rad onc.

I again would suggest that even for rad onc, your preclinical grades take a very far back seat to things like board scores, clinical year evals, research, audition/away rotations, etc. Class rank, however, may be important to some of these uber competitive fields and so while they won't really care if you were getting high passes or honors during first year, they might be unhappy that at the end of the road you are graduating in the bottom third of your class, largely because you skated by in the preclinical years.

Fair point. I agree that preclinical grades are not nearly as important from what I understand (and from the 2010 NRMP program director survey tells me), but they do factor into things like AOA for most schools (albeit not as much as boards/clinicals). As far as the rads-onc thing -- it was just a bit of hyperbole, but you're right, I should have said 4th year. My apologies.

Anyway, others in this thread have said far more eloquently what I tried to: study hard and do your best and, while it's not a bad idea to keep the boards in mind when you're deciding what to study, don't do that to the exclusion of doing well in your classes.

As an aside, while I'm sure it's (hopefully) stickied somewhere in this forum, the 2010 NRMP program director survey is an excellent resource for seeing what is prioritized in terms of matching: http://www.nrmp.org/data/programresultsbyspecialty2010v3.pdf

Anyway, back to GI studying... 🙁

 

[UAAWolf]

I tried to do this. Epic fail.

Pro's- I know BRS books inside and out and tons of high yield board stuff we never got in MS1

Cons- MS1 tests are all nonclinical, low yield minutia for the most part. You can't pass MS1 classes here just using BRS/HY/FA.....

Pass classes first, then study boards.

 

[Encephalectomy]

You can't pass MS1 classes here just using BRS/HY/FA.....

I'm sure it is that way most places (definitely at my school) with the exception of physiology.

2nd year is a different beast though and you can get away with it a lot more.

 

[UAAWolf]

2nd year is a different beast though and you can get away with it a lot more.

Well hot damn, sounds great!

 

[RapplixGmed]

I tried to do this. Epic fail.

Pro's- I know BRS books inside and out and tons of high yield board stuff we never got in MS1

Cons- MS1 tests are all nonclinical, low yield minutia for the most part. You can't pass MS1 classes here just using BRS/HY/FA.....

Pass classes first, then study boards.

I'd have to echo the statement that 2nd year material matches up with review books much better than 1st year stuff. I'd also suggest focusing on remembering biochem, immunology, anatomy, and embryology from 1st year because, with rare exceptions, you won't be going over it again in 2nd year.

 

[JokerMD]

sdf

 

[Law2Doc]

im only a first year, but ive been told by MANY 2nd/3rd/4th years, residents, and attendings that if you do really well your first two years (by studying hard), then boards studying will not be hard when the time comes second year.

This is almost universally the case. There is really no better foundation on which to do your board review studying than doing well your first two years (second year being more important than first). Which in and of itself is probably a good reason to study hard during the first two years of med school, notwithstanding that the grades themselves won't have significant impact.

 

[jult24er]

So I hear grades in preclinical years dont matter.

What do you guys think of just studying for the boards throughout the first two years instead if directly studying for class? I feel like this would give you enough knowledge to just pass the exams, plus it would give you a huge start on studying.

I don't know if this is reasonable yet. I am just a premed, home from going out on a saturday night.

I realize I only have experience with my own learning experience at my own medical school. But ...

I recently started studying for boards. Before that, I had concentrated pretty much exclusively on passing my classes. Studying now, for the boards, I am coming to believe that I would have learned a lot more over the last two years, and prepared myself for boards a lot better, had I been studying on my own, rather then for the classes. On the other hand, I would have failed many of my classes.

I could be wrong, and be over-estimating my ability to have learned on my own without classes, so I wonder; does anyone else feel this way?

 

[dienekes88]

Study for your classes and read board review books to supplement. For first year, that'll mean BRS physio, HY: Anatomy, HY: Biochemistry/Lippincott Biochemistry, HY: Neuroanatomy, etc.

 

[Suncrusher]

Excuse my ignorance, but what does HY stand for

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Excuse my ignorance, but what does HY stand for

High Yield, I believe. It's a series of books for the boards, like BRS (Board Review Series) and RR (Rapid Review).

 

[dienekes88]

High Yield, I believe. It's a series of books for the boards, like BRS (Board Review Series) and RR (Rapid Review).

Correct.