Time spent Studying for Step1

[sjg123]

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Hi guys. I am just wanting to take a poll on how many weeks did you/are you spending dedicated to solely just studying or Step 1? For those who already take it, was it enough or do you wish you spent more time studying? Thanks 🙂

 

[TBV]

You're going to take a pole? Don't forget the lube.

Anyways 6 weeks for me, roughly 10 hour days. We shall see how it goes in mid June.

 

[pacman2018]

You're going to take a pole? Don't forget the lube.

Anyways 6 weeks for me, roughly 10 hour days. We shall see how it goes in mid June.

If you took after May 9, you may have to wait until July 13th

 

[TBV]

If you took after May 9, you may have to wait until July 13th

Nah I take it mid june

 

[pacman2018]

Nah I take it mid june

ah, my bad. i thought you meant you'd see when you got your results in mid June. good luck!

 

[sjg123]

Whoops. Hey I'm tired from all the studying. But thanks for the reply. I'm doing 8-12 hour days for about 7weeks, hopes that's enough.

 

[jds112]

IMG & 4 months.

 

[13132]

6 weeks dedicated but I started UW in January.

 

[Tajima]

First pass FA (heavy note taking and leaving no stone unturned) October to January. This was more studying-for-knowledge. February to mid-March UW (annotating my notes). Last few weeks note review and brute-force memorization, with NBME 16, 17 and 18.

I spent a long time studying but this is analogous to doubling down during M2 and really learning the material. If you wait until dedicated to take it seriously, you'll sell yourself short. The more you put into preparation, the better you'll do.

 

[lymphocyte]

I spent two years. Started on the first day of medical school, when I went to lecture with a binder containing a hole-punched chapter from First Aid and some paper for notes. Took notes during lecture and correlated with First Aid. Did USMLERx along the way. Dedicated study took a month, and it was a pretty relaxed month. Nothing beats early preparation. Ended up with a 252 (~90th percentile at the time), which was fine for my purposes. I was happily married, had a good social life, and never spent more than 8 hours a day studying or in lecture (like a normal job).

Below is what I wrote just after I took it.

I'm only sharing this experience for first years perusing these boards. START STUDYING NOW. Doesn't matter that you're only get 40% on the QBanks. You'll do better eventually. JUST START NOW.

I just took Step 1 and would like to share my experience.

I’m an IMG at a non-Caribbean school. I had one month dedicated prep time, but I’ve been studying with Step 1 in mind since Day 1 of medical school. Since our curriculum was entirely systems based (Immunology -> MSK -> Resp -> etc.), I would spend the entire block reading the corresponding sections of First Aid, Pathoma, and Papa Robbins (the big one). I would supplement with Kaplan as needed for biochemistry and pharm, and I would aggressively seek out primary literature and other resources to fill in any gaps. (I actually spent a lot of time on Amazon looking for the best books on any given topic so I could grab a copy from the library. I also heavily abused UpToDate’s 30-day free trial policy.) My goal was to be an expert in everything related to the week’s PBL, such that I could explain from first principles the relevant pathophysiology and management. I would then finish each system with USMLERx to make sure I nailed the nitty-gritty details of First Aid. This worked pretty well for me, and I feel like I got a well-rounded education from a basic sciences as well as a clinical point of view. Yes, I knew the urea cycle but I could also read a CXR competently a la Felson's Principles of Chest Roentgenology. This ended up being a tremendous boon, as Step 1 turned out to be very clinically oriented.

My dedicated prep started in mid-January--

UWorld: 81% timed, random, first pass over three weeks. I felt pretty solid from a conceptual point of view, so I didn’t need to spend much time with Uworld, though it was a tremendous resource. I realized my biggest weaknesses were memorizing factoids and poor test-taking strategy. I blazed through questions. Blazed. I would finish NBMEs in less than two hours. Not ideal when you’re making dumb mistakes! I had some fine-tuning to do…

February 5th UWSA 2: 256
February 7th NBME 11: 247
February 12th UWSA 1: 262
February 18th NBME 12: 258
February 21st NBME 13: 242 (ouch)
February 23rd NBME 15: 252
Exam February 26th

 

[TBV]

I spent two years. Started on the first day of medical school, when I went to lecture with a binder containing a hole-punched chapter from First Aid and some paper for notes. Took notes during lecture and correlated with First Aid. Did USMLERx along the way. Dedicated study took a month, and it was a pretty relaxed month. Nothing beats early preparation. Ended up with a 252 (~90th percentile at the time), which was fine for my purposes. I was happily married, had a good social life, and never spent more than 8 hours a day studying or in lecture (like a normal job).

Below is what I wrote just after I took it.

I'm only sharing this experience for first years perusing these boards. START STUDYING NOW. Doesn't matter that you're only get 40% on the QBanks. You'll do better eventually. JUST START NOW.

So not worth it. I got a 230 prededicated and hit 250s after just two weeks of studying. Just focus on doing well in classes, you don't need uworld in first year or a copy of FA before second year.

 

[lymphocyte]

So not worth it. I got a 230 prededicated and hit 250s after just two weeks of studying. Just focus on doing well in classes, you don't need uworld in first year or a copy of FA before second year.

Fair enough. But 230 to 250+ in two weeks? Not at all typical. I suspect your baseline was much higher than you tested. To put that in perspective, you achieved a percentile jump of 30+ among American test-takers. If that were normal... well, it definitely isn't.

I've now tutored about 2 dozen students and most people simply don't have the intellectual horsepower to do what you did. I certainly don't. I'm fairly dumb, need to work at understanding things, and have bad test-taking skills (walked out of Step 1 an hour early). At least with my technique, I was also able to cruise through clinicals, Step 2, etc. Foundation matters and, in my experience, slow and steady gets great results for most people. Again, this is advice for first years perusing these boards for advice (as I used to).

In essence, I'm agreeing with you: do well in classes. I'm just going further in suggesting that people do well in a focused way.

 

[TBV]

Fair enough. But 230 to 250+ in two weeks? Not at all typical. I suspect your baseline was much higher than you tested. To put that in perspective, you achieved a percentile jump of 30+ among American test-takers. If that were normal... well, it definitely isn't.

I've now tutored about 2 dozen students and most people simply don't have the intellectual horsepower to do what you did. I certainly don't. I'm fairly dumb, need to work at understanding things, and have bad test-taking skills (walked out of Step 1 an hour early). At least with my technique, I was also able to cruise through clinicals, Step 2, etc. Foundation matters and, in my experience, slow and steady gets great results for most people. Again, this is advice for first years perusing these boards for advice (as I used to).

In essence, I'm agreeing with you: do well in classes. I'm just going further in suggesting that people do well in a focused way.

alright I feel ya on that