thoughts on study plan

[giguerex35]

hey all i wanted to get some thoughts on my plan of studying for step 1. I am currently a second year in endocrine block and yet to cover heme/onc (after december break)

currently going through B&B and pathoma by organ system and taking detailed notes for each video for the system we are currently learning AND one other system already covered in year 1( i did neuro last block and am doing cardio now)

I am doing Zanki for systems already covered to keep at the forefront of my memory (currently 50 NEW cards for GI & renal daily)

doing 5-15 questions a day from AMBOSS and Kaplan on the subjects already covered (already about 600 Q deep, maybe more and hope to hit about 5K)

over december break i plan to review all of the notes i made from these videos and school notes and really memorize them while continuing Zanki and Qs

I will also probably take a full length sometime at the end of the break (and take it with a grain of salt for the material not learned yet)

I then plan to start UWorld after break and get through 2 passes of it before the actual exam

thoughts on this, anything else i should add or change. I have been periodically doing some studying just for micro and pharm but i very much do not like sketchy so I have been studying micro as I go

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[Deecee2DO]

hey all i wanted to get some thoughts on my plan of studying for step 1. I am currently a second year in endocrine block and yet to cover heme/onc (after december break)

currently going through B&B and pathoma by organ system and taking detailed notes for each video for the system we are currently learning AND one other system already covered in year 1( i did neuro last block and am doing cardio now)

I am doing Zanki for systems already covered to keep at the forefront of my memory (currently 50 NEW cards for GI & renal daily)

doing 5-15 questions a day from AMBOSS and Kaplan on the subjects already covered (already about 600 Q deep, maybe more and hope to hit about 5K)

over december break i plan to review all of the notes i made from these videos and school notes and really memorize them while continuing Zanki and Qs

I will also probably take a full length sometime at the end of the break (and take it with a grain of salt for the material not learned yet)

I then plan to start UWorld after break and get through 2 passes of it before the actual exam

thoughts on this, anything else i should add or change. I have been periodically doing some studying just for micro and pharm but i very much do not like sketchy so I have been studying micro as I go

save UWorld for dedicated if you have 10+ weeks. Finish another qbank beforehand (Amboss preferrably)

 

[giguerex35]

Please contact me for Pharmacology
[email protected]

appreciate it - i did

 

[4thtimeretaker]

Currently doing the same study plan as you, would you be able to comment on what percent correct you are getting on AMBOSS and Kaplan, respectively after doing the Zanki? Also how much of Zanki you have matured so far? Thank you!

 

[giguerex35]

Currently doing the same study plan as you, would you be able to comment on what percent correct you are getting on AMBOSS and Kaplan, respectively after doing the Zanki? Also how much of Zanki you have matured so far? Thank you!

im done with 3/4 of zanki in for the 2 decks ive used (GI and Renal). I started neuro but thought it was like trying to piece together a puzzle with never seeing the whole thing at once (basically just memeorizing useless facts and not learning) so i stopped and decided to just use my materials. I am going to have to re-do soem of AMBOSS becasue i finished GI and renal while i was taking the classes during the block and not while i was doing zanki. For kaplan i am averaging somewhere in the range of 70-80% right (usually never lower than 50% per any given block of questions). For AMBOSS i am currently running through endocrine and some reproductive and am averaging about the same but I am yet to start Zanki for any of those either. Feel free to DM if you have other questions

 

[mm5869]

i dont get it, is your plan to finish zanki? it sounds like you're 10% in?

 

[giguerex35]

i dont get it, is your plan to finish zanki? it sounds like you're 10% in?

ya my plan is to finish zanki before my test date, I am doing cards by system in zanki, 2 at a time, not all at once so I pretty much finished the first 2 i started and and on my third & fourth now

 

[mm5869]

gotcha. it seems like a lot to do, but i guess that depends on goals and when your test date is. starting zanki in october of year 2 (with plans to finish) seems like a beast. best of luck!

 

[Franco_Imperator]

Hello!
How exactly did you come up with your plan?

I mean, it looks very intense, but, did you end up dedicating a specific amount of time each day to studying each lesson ? I ask because it just looks very intriguing to follow such a hard routine.


Good luck by the way,
Frank

 

[giguerex35]

Hello!
How exactly did you come up with your plan?

I mean, it looks very intense, but, did you end up dedicating a specific amount of time each day to studying each lesson ? I ask because it just looks very intriguing to follow such a hard routine.


Good luck by the way,
Frank

well to be honest i want to match something competitive and i know that step is basically do or die to matching something competitive so I didn't want to leave any cards on the table. I started by saying i need to review all content and basically put things in my own words. I had a professor that said the first step in understanding a concept or memorizing something is to make the information yours, and by this he meant organize/phrase the information in a way that you benefit from. For example when i first started studying i would realize that i memorized the terms but had an issue identifying when they were in front of me, so for horner syndrome i memorized the triad of ptosis, meiosis and anhydrosis but when a question described small pupils and droop i didn't immediately think of horner syndrome. so it became clear that i needed a full review in my own words of the material which is why i go through all of the B&B and pathoma videos (this also helps reinforce the material a second time since i planned to do it after we finished the block on that material so that it was like a second wave of review)

I then knew that i needed to find a way to keep the material at the forefront of my memory which is why i do anki for 2 subjects that were already covered so that after i finish doing it, the material is still at the forefront of my memory and not fading away. anki also helps convert to long term memory which is clearly helpful

I also realized that when i took the mcat i spent too much time looking at material and committing things to memory which i why i plan to use the majority of my christmas break to just review and memorize/learn the material I have already completed from the review videos (which i took notes on in my own words so it should come back faster than just re-watching the videos and having to decipher all the material again)

finally questions are king so i make time for 10-20 before i go to bed each night and before you know it you have already finished 100 in a week if you do it every day and roughly 400 in a month

when you break it down it ends up being the following daily
- 300 or so anki cards (an hour but usually less - youd be surpised how many cards you get done while procrastinating on the phone app)
- 2 board review videos (1-2 hours depending on how long the videos are)
- 20 questions (hour to take and brief review)
- i personally do not think this is alot but you have to stick with it because one bad week and youll be behind but the way i see it is the only thing i can really control is how much work in so i am hoping it will pay off

I do not personally set a specific amount of time per day to accomplish the tasks becasue some weeks my school work is much harder and time intensive than normal so i wanted to be able to be flexible and not worry if i did not complete something one day, rather I use cramfighter to set all the tasks i want to complete by the end of the alotted time (i use one school block as my time)

sorry if this was more than you were looking for but this is how i went about making this plan

 

[4thtimeretaker]

well to be honest i want to match something competitive and i know that step is basically do or die to matching something competitive so I didn't want to leave any cards on the table. I started by saying i need to review all content and basically put things in my own words. I had a professor that said the first step in understanding a concept or memorizing something is to make the information yours, and by this he meant organize/phrase the information in a way that you benefit from. For example when i first started studying i would realize that i memorized the terms but had an issue identifying when they were in front of me, so for horner syndrome i memorized the triad of ptosis, meiosis and anhydrosis but when a question described small pupils and droop i didn't immediately think of horner syndrome. so it became clear that i needed a full review in my own words of the material which is why i go through all of the B&B and pathoma videos (this also helps reinforce the material a second time since i planned to do it after we finished the block on that material so that it was like a second wave of review)

I then knew that i needed to find a way to keep the material at the forefront of my memory which is why i do anki for 2 subjects that were already covered so that after i finish doing it, the material is still at the forefront of my memory and not fading away. anki also helps convert to long term memory which is clearly helpful

I also realized that when i took the mcat i spent too much time looking at material and committing things to memory which i why i plan to use the majority of my christmas break to just review and memorize/learn the material I have already completed from the review videos (which i took notes on in my own words so it should come back faster than just re-watching the videos and having to decipher all the material again)

finally questions are king so i make time for 10-20 before i go to bed each night and before you know it you have already finished 100 in a week if you do it every day and roughly 400 in a month

when you break it down it ends up being the following daily
- 300 or so anki cards (an hour but usually less - youd be surpised how many cards you get done while procrastinating on the phone app)
- 2 board review videos (1-2 hours depending on how long the videos are)
- 20 questions (hour to take and brief review)
- i personally do not think this is alot but you have to stick with it because one bad week and youll be behind but the way i see it is the only thing i can really control is how much work in so i am hoping it will pay off

I do not personally set a specific amount of time per day to accomplish the tasks becasue some weeks my school work is much harder and time intensive than normal so i wanted to be able to be flexible and not worry if i did not complete something one day, rather I use cramfighter to set all the tasks i want to complete by the end of the alotted time (i use one school block as my time)

sorry if this was more than you were looking for but this is how i went about making this plan

How many hours would you say you dedicate to board studying with everything combined, and then how many hours for regular school studying (or have you basically stopped studying for school at this point)?

 

[Franco_Imperator]

well to be honest i want to match something competitive and i know that step is basically do or die to matching something competitive so I didn't want to leave any cards on the table. I started by saying i need to review all content and basically put things in my own words. I had a professor that said the first step in understanding a concept or memorizing something is to make the information yours, and by this he meant organize/phrase the information in a way that you benefit from. For example when i first started studying i would realize that i memorized the terms but had an issue identifying when they were in front of me, so for horner syndrome i memorized the triad of ptosis, meiosis and anhydrosis but when a question described small pupils and droop i didn't immediately think of horner syndrome. so it became clear that i needed a full review in my own words of the material which is why i go through all of the B&B and pathoma videos (this also helps reinforce the material a second time since i planned to do it after we finished the block on that material so that it was like a second wave of review)

I then knew that i needed to find a way to keep the material at the forefront of my memory which is why i do anki for 2 subjects that were already covered so that after i finish doing it, the material is still at the forefront of my memory and not fading away. anki also helps convert to long term memory which is clearly helpful

I also realized that when i took the mcat i spent too much time looking at material and committing things to memory which i why i plan to use the majority of my christmas break to just review and memorize/learn the material I have already completed from the review videos (which i took notes on in my own words so it should come back faster than just re-watching the videos and having to decipher all the material again)

finally questions are king so i make time for 10-20 before i go to bed each night and before you know it you have already finished 100 in a week if you do it every day and roughly 400 in a month

when you break it down it ends up being the following daily
- 300 or so anki cards (an hour but usually less - youd be surpised how many cards you get done while procrastinating on the phone app)
- 2 board review videos (1-2 hours depending on how long the videos are)
- 20 questions (hour to take and brief review)
- i personally do not think this is alot but you have to stick with it because one bad week and youll be behind but the way i see it is the only thing i can really control is how much work in so i am hoping it will pay off

I do not personally set a specific amount of time per day to accomplish the tasks becasue some weeks my school work is much harder and time intensive than normal so i wanted to be able to be flexible and not worry if i did not complete something one day, rather I use cramfighter to set all the tasks i want to complete by the end of the alotted time (i use one school block as my time)

sorry if this was more than you were looking for but this is how i went about making this plan

It looks awesome! I am sure you will nail the exam!
I will also look up the study techniques you just mentioned; I totally agree with your professor.
Thanks a lot!

 

[giguerex35]

How many hours would you say you dedicate to board studying with everything combined, and then how many hours for regular school studying (or have you basically stopped studying for school at this point)?

just to be clear i have not taken board exams yet - i will be taking them this upcoming summer

up to this point I would say i have spent in the ballpark of 350 - 450 hours so far
- how i cam to this number = total hours of B&B videos I have done = 75 and it typically takes me double the length of the video to complete it (example a 10 minute video takes me 20 minutes to get through with notes and thinking through it) = total of 150 hours give or take
- I did not tally all the pathoma video hours becasue its not listed as easy a B&B which has total time per section but a few hours spent here
- roughly 2 hours a day for both questions and anki review since august = roughly 180 hours

As far as school goes I use the B&B and pathoma with the content going forward (so we are covering reproductive rn so I did all he videos in the reproductive section for B&B and pathoma) - i did not do this in year 1 for cardio and neuro becasue well i didnt think of it and i thought it might be a good idea to review everything again in year 2 which is what i am doing so typically i do whatevere B&B videos are on my exams and then cram all the low yield details and nonsense the day before the exam