Tips on actively utilizing First Aid throughout second year

[rcdamania]

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Hi everyone

I am an upcoming 2nd year medical student and was wondering how I can efficiently utilize this year in preparing for Step 1. I have read many forums regarding annotating First Aid throughout the year and wanted to gain more insight as to how to do this.
How do I know what will be important/how should I go about condensing my lecture notes into First Aid? I am a big fan of making 1 page study guides for each lecture so I was wondering how I can utilize First Aid and keep this type of study habit. Further, wanted to know what everyones experience was unbinding the First Aid book and putting it into 3 hole binder.

Finally, wanted to see how you can actively read First Aid throughout the year so come independent study time, you will have great familiarity with it.

I know this may be a hodge podge of information/questions but would love to get anyone's insight.

Thanks in advance

 

[Transformers]

Honestly....just annotate Pathoma onto FA and do the respective UWorld section ( and annotate) and honestly this>>> lecture notes....at the end of the day if your med school really tests you on minutia, then a.) its not worth it or b.) just make flashcards separately

Point being, if you care more about Step I and in the interest of time, just do the grunt work (pathoma and UWorld) during the year with courses so you can just cruise through a second pass of pathoma/UWorld and take as many NBMEs during dedicated study time

 

[rcdamania]

Thanks for the help

Should I have two books that I will keep my final notes in:
1. being First Aid
2. Being RR Pathology (Goljan) (what do you think of putting Pathoma notes into this one vs. First Aid)

Is Pathoma organized by systems? So I can correlate specific sections to how my modules are set up.

I am definitely thinking of getting USMLE Rx (and do corresponding questions throughout year) and then start USMLE World in January because we get it free.
What are your thoughts about that?

Also if I were to use DIT when is the best time I should do this (I hear some people utilize it too late and it messes up the fact that they have a lot of questions to get thru)

Thanks so much, you're very helpful and insightful

 

[rcdamania]

Honestly....just annotate Pathoma onto FA and do the respective UWorld section ( and annotate) and honestly this>>> lecture notes....at the end of the day if your med school really tests you on minutia, then a.) its not worth it or b.) just make flashcards separately

Point being, if you care more about Step I and in the interest of time, just do the grunt work (pathoma and UWorld) during the year with courses so you can just cruise through a second pass of pathoma/UWorld and take as many NBMEs during dedicated study time

Thanks for the help

Should I have two books that I will keep my final notes in:
1. being First Aid
2. Being RR Pathology (Goljan) (what do you think of putting Pathoma notes into this one vs. First Aid)

Is Pathoma organized by systems? So I can correlate specific sections to how my modules are set up.

I am definitely thinking of getting USMLE Rx (and do corresponding questions throughout year) and then start USMLE World in January because we get it free.
What are your thoughts about that?

Also if I were to use DIT when is the best time I should do this (I hear some people utilize it too late and it messes up the fact that they have a lot of questions to get thru)

Thanks so much, you're very helpful and insightful

 

[HoboCommander]

First Aid is an outdated book for the current exam (I took it a few weeks ago). I don't know if memorizing all those tables got me a single question right that I would not have gotten from going through Kaplan lectures, UWorld, or Pathoma. I spent so much of my study time memorizing First Aid and it was such a waste of time.

The current exam uses very long stems and you can figure most of them out without much outside knowledge. There's usually some keywords somewhere in there that clue you in. Remember MCAT? It's becoming more like that now. Reasoning skills.

 

[Kal EI]

First Aid is an outdated book for the current exam (I took it a few weeks ago). I don't know if memorizing all those tables got me a single question right that I would not have gotten from going through Kaplan lectures, UWorld, or Pathoma. I spent so much of my study time memorizing First Aid and it was such a waste of time.

The current exam uses very long stems and you can figure most of them out without much outside knowledge. There's usually some keywords somewhere in there that clue you in. Remember MCAT? It's becoming more like that now. Reasoning skills.

I would advocate ignoring boards until 6 months out. Then buy the new 2014 and do Uworld alongside. Until then, you can use pathoma and lectures. If you honestly learn pathoma and lectures as well as anyone at your school you will do very well.

Leave the boards until the final 2-6 months. If you dominated in everything until 2 months out, then picked up Uworld and First Aid - you would likely do as well or better than someone who started with First Aid early on in 2nd year and memorized every word. The test relies a lot on how well you know M2 path - which often goes beyond First Aid. It's not a fact recall test from First Aid.

First Aid should be used to pull everything you already know together at the end - it's not a launching point nor is it sufficient knowledge perform at a high level (which obviously you want to do if you're asking about prep 1 year in advance).

I wish I ignored boards until 4 months out. I advise you all to do the same.

 

[skyblue2000]

First Aid is an outdated book for the current exam (I took it a few weeks ago). I don't know if memorizing all those tables got me a single question right that I would not have gotten from going through Kaplan lectures, UWorld, or Pathoma. I spent so much of my study time memorizing First Aid and it was such a waste of time.

The current exam uses very long stems and you can figure most of them out without much outside knowledge. There's usually some keywords somewhere in there that clue you in. Remember MCAT? It's becoming more like that now. Reasoning skills.

So Hobo what would you recommend for someone who has 6 weeks?

 

[rodmichael82]

So Hobo what would you recommend for someone who has 6 weeks?

A medical encyclopedia lol

 

[Barcu]

Don't annotate FA with lecture material.

I read the FA chapter for each system (our curriculum was systems) the day before each of my tests, just to use a high yield resource to remember the big points. There was some stuff in lectures that weren't in FA and vice-versa, but it gave me an idea what was more important for shelves and what wasn't. So during the year, I did make one pass through FA, though I didn't annotate or take many notes.

During the study period, I annotated with FA while doing UWorld. Worked out well for me.

 

[johnisles2011]

What is pathoma?

 

[Renaissance Man]

What is pathoma?

Really?

 

[redjack]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=816105

multiple page forum topic on it

 

[Cmaster]

Honestly....just annotate Pathoma onto FA and do the respective UWorld section ( and annotate) and honestly this>>> lecture notes....at the end of the day if your med school really tests you on minutia, then a.) its not worth it or b.) just make flashcards separately

Point being, if you care more about Step I and in the interest of time, just do the grunt work (pathoma and UWorld) during the year with courses so you can just cruise through a second pass of pathoma/UWorld and take as many NBMEs during dedicated study time

👍 I agree.

I also annotated firecracker along with Uworld and pathoma