time to study

[Direct Laryngoscopy]

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I'm curious how much each school gives their students time to study for step 1. For those with "less" time, would extra time have made a difference in your studying and would it have changed your mind about attending that school?

I guess I'll start: My school gives us a little under 8 weeks to take the test. I'm glad that they do cause I pushed my test back 1 1/2 weeks, cause I didn't feel ready enough.

 

[blz]

I'm curious how much each school gives their students time to study for step 1. For those with "less" time, would extra time have made a difference in your studying and would it have changed your mind about attending that school?

I guess I'll start: My school gives us a little under 8 weeks to take the test. I'm glad that they do cause I pushed my test back 1 1/2 weeks, cause I didn't feel ready enough.

6 weeks here. i got through everything i wanted to get through except i didn't finish kaplan (70% done), usmleworld (75% done), and robbins review of path (only three chapters done, lol). in the end, i don't think finishing any of those question sources would have made a difference for me, so the time was adequate for me. most students at my school actually took it a week before me, so i guess the time problem was fine for them (although everyone is crying about how hard the exam was). however, i was only one of a few students who was attempting to get through two 2000+ question banks.

 

[discreet44]

We were given 4 weeks. While this was definitely sufficient time to study and prepare for the exam, we now have very little vacation time before starting 3rd year. I think schools should give roughly 6 weeks off between 2nd and 3rd year - 4 weeks to study, and then 2 weeks for vacation. If you studied in moderate amounts during 1st and 2nd year, more than 4 weeks of studying is probably overkill.

 

[OddNath]

I had 4.5 weeks to study, 1.5 weeks for vacation (though the people who scheduled the test earlier got a full 2 weeks of vacation). I thought this was sufficient time.

 

[cubsrule4e]

We scheduled whenever we wanted anywhere between 6-9 weeks after the semester ended. I took a week off and then studied 5 weeks and took it the first day we could schedule. I think 4 weeks of studying would have been optimal for me

 

[UCLAstudent]

We were given 10 weeks, but were "highly encouraged" to take at least a two-week break before starting third year. So, I had exactly 8 weeks to study. To be honest, it was too much time. Looking back, 6 weeks would have been plenty, especially since my practice test scores didn't change much in the last few weeks.

 

[SeventhSon]

we get 4 weeks between end of 2nd year and beginning of 3rd year, and we are recommended to take 1 week off before 3rd year.

probably 1/3 that I talked to said 3 weeks is plenty, 2/3 said they wish they had more time. To reiterate what uclastudent said, i have never talked to anybody that said there was a point in having more than 6 weeks.

If you're trying to use this as a way to choose schools, keep in mind that 2nd year studying is like studying for boards anyway, but it would be good to get a little longer to synthesize everything than what we get probably, but who am i to say at this point.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Most students at our school had 6 weeks between finals and the "deadline" of June 30 (although you could push that back if you had a good reason), but I think most people took 4-5 weeks of that time to study. I had to take it a bit earlier because I'm MD/PhD and we started a mini medicine rotation on June 18 -- I took 3 weeks to study and didn't take any time off after finals so I could have a week off before the rotation. That was really plenty of study time for me. I was completely stir crazy by the end, and it was a short enough time that I didn't really have to worry about forgetting things I had studied in the beginning. But that's just me -- I wasn't aiming for a super high score, just aiming to do the best I could (and hopefully pass!), plus I just don't have a whole lot of stamina for studying.

 

[Miami_med]

6 weeks here. I studied about 4 weeks. It was plenty. I enjoyed the break.

 

[MrBurns10]

I'm wondering how it's possible to get through all the material, practice questions, and then review/remember everything in 4 weeks. How many hours per day did you guys actually study and do practice?

 

[cubsrule4e]

I'm wondering how it's possible to get through all the material, practice questions, and then review/remember everything in 4 weeks. How many hours per day did you guys actually study and do practice?

6-8 hours for me. others did 8-10 or 10-12

 

[Taus]

I'm wondering how it's possible to get through all the material, practice questions, and then review/remember everything in 4 weeks. How many hours per day did you guys actually study and do practice?

I had to slowly build up the stamina.....but for my last month I was doing 10-12 hours a day....the keys for me were taking frequent and planned breaks (usually hourly) and taking a couple longer breaks throughout the day to workout, cook dinner, etc

oh..and I almost forgot....caffeine.....

 

[Arctic Char]

nice. good to hear this stuff.

myself i have 8 weeks (i'm 10 days in at this point). i'm trying to spend as much time studying as i can, but at this point it seems to vary like the weather, and depends a lot on whether i'm doing questions or just reading review materials.

when i'm reading/reviewing, it is almost inevitable that i will take hourly 5-10-minute breaks. and, like taus did, i take about 2 longer breaks for working out and meals.

as far as questions, i have had a very consistent rate of 50 questions + detail review in 3 hours. which is nice. finish 50 Q's, go to the bathroom, walk around a bit, stare at squirrels and birds etc, then review the answers for 2 hours. and at that rate, i find its not so impossible to finish 200 Q's in a day. but i'm usually good at this stage with 150/day. that way i can review a little more if i need to before bed.

 

[discreet44]

If you combine reading, questions, and Goljan audio, 12-14 hours a day really isn't that bad and is sufficient if you have 4 weeks to study (I would not attempt this routine for more than 4 weeks unless you really have good stamina, cuz it does get tiring by the end). I started around 7 AM with Goljan for an hour while I ate breakfast and showered and got dressed, then reading for 4 hours, lunch break, 2 hours of questions (50 q's + explanations), 2 hours reading, Goljan while eating dinner and gym, 2 more hours of q's, then maybe 1 more hour of reading, and then Goljan before bed, that took me up to around 11-11:30 PM, so I got roughly 8 hours of sleep (definitely good to sleep sufficiently during boards studying). I did that for about 3 weeks, then tapered off the last week (started burning out) and did relatively more reading and practice questions with less audio, but shorter days (prob. closer to 8-10 hrs).

 

[MrBurns10]

Thanks for the responses...sorry, but what's Goljan? does everyone use it?

 

[N-Surge]

This...

http://www.healthsciences.okstate.edu/college/biomedical/pathology/goljan.cfm

...is Goljan.