What is wrong with my strategy?

[Mushysalad]

I am an IMG and I've been studying for step1 for more than month now. It has basically been kaplan biochem. And did some physiology before that.

My problem is my speed is very slow, I have collegues, who manage to get subjects covered with in a few days and here I am taking a more or more to cover a single subject.

I've always been kind of slow with my reading. I can get through anki decks just fine, but the problem is, since I'm an IMG I kind of have to start from stratch and hence kaplan. Otherwise I was okay with anki.
Another thing I do is I basically turn kaplan videos into very elaborate notes. I feel like if I don't write it down, I'll forget it.
Is there a way around this, an effective strategy or something.
It is so frustrating I was supposed to do 3 chapters of carb metabolism in a day and it turned into a week.
I've personal problems here and there but I don't want to waste so much time because at this rate, it'll take forever to take step 1 and I want to take it in march 2019.

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[Ven0m]

I don't think there's any around it, just gotta learn basic sciences as best you can, it will pay off later

 

[HY Guru]

You have to focus on the questions more than anything - think about it!
You do not get extra points on your USMLE for making pretty notes or annotations
You do get points if you focus on answering questions correctly, so practice like you play!
At times, I have gone thru the arduous of making notes and actually havent been able to come back and even use them!
All in all, though notes help, I think questions help more, and repeating questions again and again creating mental models in your mind can help get higher scores and help with test taking!

 

[hardpecs]

All in all, though notes help, I think questions help more, and repeating questions again and again creating mental models in your mind can help get higher scores and help with test taking!

I would definitely agree with this

I have a personal issue with the Kaplan materials - videos and books - as I feel generally they seem to always fluctuate between focusing on minutiae OR being way too superficial. Second to that, their clinical tie in's are often much weaker than other resources. Biochem by Turco was the only well taught topic, where he focused on whats important.

Since it sounds like you are reviewing basic sciences, I think the biggest change you can do to your study strategy is incorporate Boards and Beyond. I havent taken Step yet, but I see more and more that B&B is a primary resource, and Kaplan - at best - tertiary.

 

[hardpecs]

I just came here to see the chest on hardpecs

Pics ?

i would, but i dont want to break your laptop screen

 

[hardpecs]

gynecomastia is prevented by Arimidex

Ok ill admit I laughed. Nice.

 

[Redbarron21]

It sounds like a lot of the time is spent annotating / rewriting notes from kaplan videos. I used to do something similar and I NEVER looked at all those notes I wrote. I always thought that doing things like taking notes, highlighting, and underlining helped keep me focus and maybe it did to some degree, but it is a huge waste of time. I would recommend only annotating or taking notes on things that you are struggling with and I would annotate in something you will look at again (such as First Aid).

Evidence based research shows that the best exam results are obtained from doing practice questions because this simulates the actual testing environment and encourages you to look at information in a new way (other than rereading First Aid / Anki decks).