Supplementing Course Syllabi

[ulikedaggers]

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The majority (70-80%+) of our test questions come directly from the syllabus. In the beginning I would go through the syllabus 4-5 times before taking the test. Towards the end of last semester I realized how dumb that was and started to spend less time studying and more time doing things I enjoyed. At the beginning of this semester I started doing even less and my test scores have actually gone up.

Instead of repeatedly reading over the syllabus I now only go through it once and spend the rest of my studying time on board material and question books (Pretest, BRS, etc), but I'm still not so sure what the best way is to make sure I learn all the MS1 stuff well so that I don't have to relearn it during MS2 or before Step 1.

tldr;
School has super easy exams (pass = 70%, mean/median both routinely >85%, almost always at least one person gets 100%)
Want to spend time being productive for boards than memorizing random minutiae.
Is there anything you MS2s or older wish you had done more of during MS1 to better prepare?

 

[sanj238]

wish i started with kaplan comprehensive lecture notes sooner and wish I did all the basic sciences. i recommend kaplan qbook not just qbank, and step up usmle step 1 qbank and robbins qbank and rx. do these during ms2 and then uworld few months before exam. anotate FC into FA and memorize FA front to back with pathoma. read goljan if you have time and make sure you know its blue boxes. new goljan. old goljan = fail

The majority (70-80%+) of our test questions come directly from the syllabus. In the beginning I would go through the syllabus 4-5 times before taking the test. Towards the end of last semester I realized how dumb that was and started to spend less time studying and more time doing things I enjoyed. At the beginning of this semester I started doing even less and my test scores have actually gone up.

Instead of repeatedly reading over the syllabus I now only go through it once and spend the rest of my studying time on board material and question books (Pretest, BRS, etc), but I'm still not so sure what the best way is to make sure I learn all the MS1 stuff well so that I don't have to relearn it during MS2 or before Step 1.

tldr;
School has super easy exams (pass = 70%, mean/median both routinely >85%, almost always at least one person gets 100%)
Want to spend time being productive for boards than memorizing random minutiae.
Is there anything you MS2s or older wish you had done more of during MS1 to better prepare?

 

[sanj238]

wish i started with kaplan comprehensive lecture notes sooner and wish I did all the basic sciences. i recommend kaplan qbook not just qbank, and step up usmle step 1 qbank and robbins qbank and rx. do these during ms2 and then uworld few months before exam. anotate FC into FA and memorize FA front to back with pathoma. read goljan if you have time and make sure you know its blue boxes. new goljan. old goljan = fail

sorry thats for MS2 lol.

if youre MS1 then do high yield anatomy book and kaplan lecture series comprehensive with your school material...its very high yield.

 

[ulikedaggers]

sorry thats for MS2 lol.

if youre MS1 then do high yield anatomy book and kaplan lecture series comprehensive with your school material...its very high yield.

Why HY anatomy in particular and not other HY books, or even other basic sciences?

 

[Brain Bucket]

You're doing fine. Know BRS anatomy, RR (or Lip) Biochem, Lip Micro by the time you're done with MS1. The most important subject will be physio, the harder you can hit it now, the easier MS2 will be. I wish I'd done more pathophys in MS1; juggling the minutae of Path and Pathophys in MS2 isn't easy.

 

[sanj238]

Why HY anatomy in particular and not other HY books, or even other basic sciences?

its very concise and very high yield. It has variety of images drawn and imaging for understanding. Havent used the other HY. Kaplan was suff for rest along w RR