What to do during m1 to ensure 250+

[Merely]

Any tips on how to approach M1 year (histo, anatomy, cell bio, embryo, biochem, physio) to do well on step 1 down the line? Do i seriously have to remember the brachiul plexus and the nerves that come off it during step 1? Thanks.

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[Psai]

I think there's nothing you really can do. The people who score that high are smart and hard working. There's no secret formula to medical school. But having the attitude of do i really have to know this won't get you very far. For step one you have to know nerve function, position and possible pathologies. You don't have to be able to draw it from memory

 

[Tenk]

Study.

 

[padfoot777]

depends on what courses you have first year. Learn physio, micro, and biochem (check out the micro and biochem sections in FA while you're going through your classes) really well now, but things like histo and super detailed anatomy are definitely not things to stress out over. 2nd year (path, pharm, etc) is where you're going to actually learn the material that's on the usmle, that's the stuff that really counts.

 

[Jabbed]

Go the extra mile with physio. It's one of those topics that you truly want to master.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Too early for you to worry about it. Ms2 start reading FA and pathoma along with class as well as do usmlerx

 

[Merely]

Too early for you to worry about it. Ms2 start reading FA and pathoma along with class as well as do usmlerx

Yeah see this is the kind of advice I was wondering would appear. Is M1 not that important for step1? Why am I killing myself to honor anatomy if just a basic understanding/pass would suffice?

 

[URMD]

Yeah see this is the kind of advice I was wondering would appear. Is M1 not that important for step1? Why am I killing myself to honor anatomy if just a basic understanding/pass would suffice?

For AoA, if your school has it

 

[Psai]

Yeah see this is the kind of advice I was wondering would appear. Is M1 not that important for step1? Why am I killing myself to honor anatomy if just a basic understanding/pass would suffice?

Because being a doctor is more than passing step 1 and you don't want to look like an idiot when another doctor talks to you about anatomy

 

[jdh71]

Any tips on how to approach M1 year (histo, anatomy, cell bio, embryo, biochem, physio) to do well on step 1 down the line? Do i seriously have to remember the brachiul plexus and the nerves that come off it during step 1? Thanks.

Do you like cocaine and hookers??

 

[sliceofbread136]

Yeah see this is the kind of advice I was wondering would appear. Is M1 not that important for step1? Why am I killing myself to honor anatomy if just a basic understanding/pass would suffice?

Some of the stuff is kind of important, but all the good sources (mainly thinking FA here) will have the ms1 info intermixed with ms2 info. Since you will have no clue with the ms2 info you will have alot of info to wade through that you will be learning for the first time. This will make your studying time very inefficient and mostly a waste. You are better served just waiting

If you are really insistent on putting in some study time, maybe do the anatomy and physio sections of firecracker

 

[Merely]

Do you like cocaine and hookers??

wtf?

 

[jdh71]

wtf?

Do you?

 

[muleta4]

.

 

[Donald Juan]

Yeah see this is the kind of advice I was wondering would appear. Is M1 not that important for step1? Why am I killing myself to honor anatomy if just a basic understanding/pass would suffice?

M1 isn't that important if you just want to pass step 1. If you want to make a 250+ it's pretty important to know all the "low yield" subjects like anatomy, physiology, histo, and biochem. I'm step 2 studying right now and I'm still getting brachial plexus questions. They aren't quite as detailed as I needed to know for my M1 tests, but if I hadn't learned it so in depth then I sure as hell wouldn't have retained a basic understanding 3 years later.

 

[Elevencents]

Do well in classes. People are always looking for the secret formula. There isn't one.

 

[Jabbed]

Brachial plexus IS high yield btw.

 

[SpacemanSpifff]

Study.

This is really all you can do. There were definitely some questions I got correct just because I spent a little bit more time on some bull**** biochem minutiae that didn't pertain much to clinical practice - or anything beyond biochem, really. The problem is you can't predict which pieces of minutiae will be on there, so the only way to cover your bases is to try to learn it all.

And the brachial plexus is definitely something you need to know...

 

[PL198]

Basic brachial plexus like upper and lower injuries and how they occur and present is high yield.

Remembering how the branches combine and all that isn't at all.

 

[chichi52]

Learn things well the first time. Especially physio and anatomy. There isn't much anatomy of USMLE, but the stuff that does show up are easy pickings and good points. For step 1 you want to get the questions you SHOULD be getting right. Theres a ton of hard questions on the test, but make sure you know you're basics so you can get those gimmes

 

[Jabbed]

Basic brachial plexus like upper and lower injuries and how they occur and present is high yield.

Remembering how the branches combine and all that isn't at all.

I disagree, know your cords.

 

[Dave89]

Apart from general advice to study well, I'd suggest getting in the habit of doing questions every day - e.g., do 15 Qs per day from BRS Anatomy/Biochemistry*/etc.

It would also be a good idea to run through BRS Anatomy and focus on the pink boxes (clinical correlations), tables, and pictures.


*IIRC, this book is terribly written, but I may be wrong.

 

[ajh1983]

>250 MS3 student here. Took USMLE this past June.

My advice mirrors some of the above as well as some of my own:
1) Understand physiology from every angle you possibly can, not just the angle/table/mnemonic your PhD teaches. I emphasize understand physio, don't "learn it." By the time you take step 1, every body system should read like a story in your head, not a table of values. Physio is the basis for pathology (basically physio gone wrong), pharmacology (how does drug X affect normal physio), toxicology/micro (protein toxin X affects normal gut physio by reversing Cl- ion pumps, etc). Rapid, accurate recall of phys/mechanisms during the exam make answering higher order questions so much easier.

2) (personal advice) Don't cram for step 1, treat studying for it like a marathon, long and steady. There will surely be conflicting advice on timelines, but this is mine and it worked. I was extremely comfortable approaching my exam date compared to my peers. I was regularly taking time to have a beer/relax with family up until 2 days before my exam.
I started doing UW questions at a comfortable daily rate 6 months before my exam date. I slowly increased the daily intensity up until ~10 days before my exam.

3) Resources: Don't get carried away, and prepare to stop listening to your panicked peers about their studying. Set a plan and stick to it. You'll be surprised how many people are still experimenting with resources 1 month before their exam. Foolish, imo.
Here is what worked for me. If you invest time in these resources, I guarantee they contain all you need for a 250+ step 1.
1) UWorld Qbank: Use it early as a learning guide, not an assessment tool at the end (many people "save" it until later, I don't agree). Do a consistent amount of questions per day, and start early. Use tutor mode, untimed. Understand every answer explanation equally, correct or not. Each question has 4-7 small paragraph explanations, they are golden. If you study them all, each question is like studying 5 questions. The biggest correlation to a student scoring well is by far # of questions completed. Try to get through UW twice. (I made it through UW 1.6x, plus I completed ~1000 Rx qbank questions = >4K questions completed)
2) Step Journal: Made this up myself, worked great. Create a running .doc file containing a few bulletpoints of every weak topic you come across. At the end of your study period you'll have a concise list of all your problem topics, that's golden. For me - I used it alongside questions, with any answer (right or wrong) I didn't fully understand got an entry in the journal along with a few bullet point HY words about that topic. If you're reading all the explanations right & wrong, you'll come up with a ton of entries. (My final journal file was 11pt font, >100 pages long) Towards the end of your study period with a couple weeks left, print this sucker out and browse through it every night as you fall asleep. You just rehashed all your weak points.
3) FA: Don't read it, reference it. Use it like wikipedia, every time you come across a subject you don't fully understand in a different resource, make it a point to reference every instance of that word in FA (using .pdf version is very nice for this, just Ctrl-F search for every instance of the word within minutes). I used two screens for studying. One was my FA pdf, one was questions / step journal. The last 6 days of my study period, I stopped all other activity and just read through FA. I picked up a few pointers, but mostly I already knew everything written. It was a warm blanket of reassurance. Also I find "annotating FA" to be a worthless endeavor. Wasted time that you could be doing more questions.
FWIW: I had many classmates who made it their goal to "read 20 pages per day" - meanwhile I was doing questions, sketching out physio charts, learning sketchy medical. I think my idea was better.
4) Sketchy Medical: If you want to know answers to bacteria, parasites, etc - Use sketchy medical. It's a visual mnemonic library with narrated videos talking you through every important feature of every bug. It's smart, it flows really well, it's extremely high yield, and it's reasonably priced compared to other resources. It requires some repetition, so start early. If I was doing it again, I would use SM alongside micro class during MS2.(I'm not kidding when I say that I felt like I was cheating every time I had a practice/real questions about bugs. I destroyed micro questions. It made micro for USMLE a joke).
5) Goljan Audio Files: Put these ~37 audio files on a portable device with headphones, and go for a long walk outside with this guy. He has a way of integrating topics together in ways you haven't thought of yet. Goljan time became my exercise during step studying. I converted his files to 1.5x speed, and would go for 3 hours walks in the country listening to him and sweating it out. 10/10 would do again. He's funny, it's good info, and I found it really enjoyable contrasted against all of my other resources.
6) NBME Practice Exams: I completed 5 of these during the last 8 weeks of study, mostly 10-25 days prior to exam. Great predictor of score. Confidence booster if you've studied correctly.

Gotta run - PM me if that didn't make sense.

EDIT: ALSO USE PATHOMA! I was tired this am and forgot. Use it from the start of path class until end of step studying. Great resource! I probably forgot another one too, I'll update if I did lol.

 

[Merely]

>250 MS3 student here. Took USMLE this past June.

My advice mirrors some of the above as well as some of my own:
1) Understand physiology from every angle you possibly can, not just the angle/table/mnemonic your PhD teaches. I emphasize understand physio, don't "learn it." By the time you take step 1, every body system should read like a story in your head, not a table of values. Physio is the basis for pathology (basically physio gone wrong), pharmacology (how does drug X affect normal physio), toxicology/micro (protein toxin X affects normal gut physio by reversing Cl- ion pumps, etc). Rapid, accurate recall of phys/mechanisms during the exam make answering higher order questions so much easier.

2) (personal advice) Don't cram for step 1, treat studying for it like a marathon, long and steady. There will surely be conflicting advice on timelines, but this is mine and it worked. I was extremely comfortable approaching my exam date compared to my peers. I was regularly taking time to have a beer/relax with family up until 2 days before my exam.
I started doing UW questions at a comfortable daily rate 6 months before my exam date. I slowly increased the daily intensity up until ~10 days before my exam.

3) Resources: Don't get carried away, and prepare to stop listening to your panicked peers about their studying. Set a plan and stick to it. You'll be surprised how many people are still experimenting with resources 1 month before their exam. Foolish, imo.
Here is what worked for me. If you invest time in these resources, I guarantee they contain all you need for a 250+ step 1.
1) UWorld Qbank: Use it early as a learning guide, not an assessment tool at the end (many people "save" it until later, I don't agree). Do a consistent amount of questions per day, and start early. Use tutor mode, untimed. Understand every answer explanation equally, correct or not. Each question has 4-7 small paragraph explanations, they are golden. If you study them all, each question is like studying 5 questions. The biggest correlation to a student scoring well is by far # of questions completed. Try to get through UW twice. (I made it through UW 1.6x, plus I completed ~1000 Rx qbank questions = >4K questions completed)
2) Step Journal: Made this up myself, worked great. Create a running .doc file containing a few bulletpoints of every weak topic you come across. At the end of your study period you'll have a concise list of all your problem topics, that's golden. For me - I used it alongside questions, with any answer (right or wrong) I didn't fully understand got an entry in the journal along with a few bullet point HY words about that topic. If you're reading all the explanations right & wrong, you'll come up with a ton of entries. (My final journal file was 11pt font, >100 pages long) Towards the end of your study period with a couple weeks left, print this sucker out and browse through it every night as you fall asleep. You just rehashed all your weak points.
3) FA: Don't read it, reference it. Use it like wikipedia, every time you come across a subject you don't fully understand in a different resource, make it a point to reference every instance of that word in FA (using .pdf version is very nice for this, just Ctrl-F search for every instance of the word within minutes). I used two screens for studying. One was my FA pdf, one was questions / step journal. The last 6 days of my study period, I stopped all other activity and just read through FA. I picked up a few pointers, but mostly I already knew everything written. It was a warm blanket of reassurance. Also I find "annotating FA" to be a worthless endeavor. Wasted time that you could be doing more questions.
FWIW: I had many classmates who made it their goal to "read 20 pages per day" - meanwhile I was doing questions, sketching out physio charts, learning sketchy medical. I think my idea was better.
4) Sketchy Medical: If you want to know answers to bacteria, parasites, etc - Use sketchy medical. It's a visual mnemonic library with narrated videos talking you through every important feature of every bug. It's smart, it flows really well, it's extremely high yield, and it's reasonably priced compared to other resources. It requires some repetition, so start early. If I was doing it again, I would use SM alongside micro class during MS2.(I'm not kidding when I say that I felt like I was cheating every time I had a practice/real questions about bugs. I destroyed micro questions. It made micro for USMLE a joke).
5) Goljan Audio Files: Put these ~37 audio files on a portable device with headphones, and go for a long walk outside with this guy. He has a way of integrating topics together in ways you haven't thought of yet. Goljan time became my exercise during step studying. I converted his files to 1.5x speed, and would go for 3 hours walks in the country listening to him and sweating it out. 10/10 would do again. He's funny, it's good info, and I found it really enjoyable contrasted against all of my other resources.
6) NBME Practice Exams: I completed 5 of these during the last 8 weeks of study, mostly 10-25 days prior to exam. Great predictor of score. Confidence booster if you've studied correctly.

Gotta run - PM me if that didn't make sense.

This is beautiful, but just to be clear I don't actually have to do anything (aside from step 1 journal) until I start physio so for the first semester of anatomy, histo, cell bio I just should focus on studying very hard and looking at clinical correlates?

 

[ajh1983]

I might not have been clear. The "journal" is for step 1 studying, not class studying. To me, they are two separate things.

The only thing I'd worry about during classes related to the above resources is: FA and SketchyMedical. Use SM alongside micro class to hammer in the essential imagery, I could see it helping on exams to a small extent. And for FA, gently browse FA until your dedicated window (my "window" was 6mo prior). Other than those, I wouldn't do resources alongside class early MS2. Just focus on getting grades, and maintaining sanity. Trust me, you don't need to stretch this beast longer than it already is.

For MS1, just relax and try to retain as much as you can. MS1 isn't going to affect your step 1 score for the positive much, but bombing MS1 could hurt your step score. Just focus on being a happy well balanced student during MS1, leave step worries for winter of MS2 (halfway).

My apologies, I read this as though you were entering MS2, not MS1. Have fun MS1 was 50% student, 50% time off.

 

[PL198]

I might not have been clear. The "journal" is for step 1 studying, not class studying. To me, they are two separate things.

The only thing I'd worry about during classes related to the above resources is: FA and SketchyMedical. Use SM alongside micro class to hammer in the essential imagery, I could see it helping on exams to a small extent. And for FA, gently browse FA until your dedicated window (my "window" was 6mo prior). Other than those, I wouldn't do resources alongside class early MS2. Just focus on getting grades, and maintaining sanity. Trust me, you don't need to stretch this beast longer than it already is.

For MS1, just relax and try to retain as much as you can. MS1 isn't going to affect your step 1 score for the positive much, but bombing MS1 could hurt your step score. Just focus on being a happy well balanced student during MS1, leave step worries for winter of MS2 (halfway).

My apologies, I read this as though you were entering MS2, not MS1. Have fun MS1 was 50% student, 50% time off.

having a 6 month dedicated period is probably 100x more significant than everything you said before.

 

[ajh1983]

having a 6 month dedicated period is probably 100x more significant than everything you said before.

I didn't say that, as I didn't have a 6 month dedicated period. I had a 22 day dedicated period.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

methylphenidate for the brains and metoprolol for the nerves

 

[AugustMCAT]

274 here. My best advice is DO NOT buy into all these online threads with people listing off insane regimens, 5+ different study resources, etc. I spent so much extra time going through all this more "in depth" info in books outside of first aid and the yield on the actual nbme was like 2-3 total Qs. First aid sucks for uworld, but the nbme is almost always classic cases, and the exam is almost a clone of first aid. If you know FA inside and out, and you studied hard 1st and 2nd year, you will get 250+.

Everyone says uworld is a great learning tool. It's not. It's great for getting a feel for the vignettes. But ask someone to retain one non-FA concept in Uworld from the 2000+ Qs and they just blank. Finishing uworld is not even close to a "big deal" or beneficial. Do as many uworld Qs as it takes to master the test format. Anything more is just diminishing returns for low yield stuff. Instead, master FA and your own knowledge from pre-clinicals. Anything unclear in FA deserves a quick pathoma read. That's all.

1st year very much impacts your step 1 score. There's only a few anatomy or imaging Qs, a respectable amount of biochem, but understanding physio/neuro will build a foundation that won't require mindless memorization when the time comes.

 

[Merely]

274 here. My best advice is DO NOT buy into all these online threads with people listing off insane regimens, 5+ different study resources, etc. I spent so much extra time going through all this more "in depth" info in books outside of first aid and the yield on the actual nbme was like 2-3 total Qs. First aid sucks for uworld, but the nbme is almost always classic cases, and the exam is almost a clone of first aid. If you know FA inside and out, and you studied hard 1st and 2nd year, you will get 250+.

Everyone says uworld is a great learning tool. It's not. It's great for getting a feel for the vignettes. But ask someone to retain one non-FA concept in Uworld from the 2000+ Qs and they just blank. Finishing uworld is not even close to a "big deal" or beneficial. Do as many uworld Qs as it takes to master the test format. Anything more is just diminishing returns for low yield stuff. Instead, master FA and your own knowledge from pre-clinicals. Anything unclear in FA deserves a quick pathoma read. That's all.

1st year very much impacts your step 1 score. There's only a few anatomy or imaging Qs, a respectable amount of biochem, but understanding physio/neuro will build a foundation that won't require mindless memorization when the time comes.

274!? holy **** holy **** holy ****!

 

[sliceofbread136]

274 here. My best advice is DO NOT buy into all these online threads with people listing off insane regimens, 5+ different study resources, etc. I spent so much extra time going through all this more "in depth" info in books outside of first aid and the yield on the actual nbme was like 2-3 total Qs. First aid sucks for uworld, but the nbme is almost always classic cases, and the exam is almost a clone of first aid. If you know FA inside and out, and you studied hard 1st and 2nd year, you will get 250+.

Everyone says uworld is a great learning tool. It's not. It's great for getting a feel for the vignettes. But ask someone to retain one non-FA concept in Uworld from the 2000+ Qs and they just blank. Finishing uworld is not even close to a "big deal" or beneficial. Do as many uworld Qs as it takes to master the test format. Anything more is just diminishing returns for low yield stuff. Instead, master FA and your own knowledge from pre-clinicals. Anything unclear in FA deserves a quick pathoma read. That's all.

1st year very much impacts your step 1 score. There's only a few anatomy or imaging Qs, a respectable amount of biochem, but understanding physio/neuro will build a foundation that won't require mindless memorization when the time comes.

I'm not sure I entirely agree, there are a few high yield concepts that are in uworld but not FA, like the different types of incontinence and various anatomical subjects. Personally I had an anatomy heavy test and I don't think I would have done as well had I just known the stuff in FA.

 

[DoctorLacrosse]

as soon as I see "274" I immediately start to think hmmm, is this real? lol

 

[cs24]

274 here. My best advice is DO NOT buy into all these online threads with people listing off insane regimens, 5+ different study resources, etc. I spent so much extra time going through all this more "in depth" info in books outside of first aid and the yield on the actual nbme was like 2-3 total Qs. First aid sucks for uworld, but the nbme is almost always classic cases, and the exam is almost a clone of first aid. If you know FA inside and out, and you studied hard 1st and 2nd year, you will get 250+.

Everyone says uworld is a great learning tool. It's not. It's great for getting a feel for the vignettes. But ask someone to retain one non-FA concept in Uworld from the 2000+ Qs and they just blank. Finishing uworld is not even close to a "big deal" or beneficial. Do as many uworld Qs as it takes to master the test format. Anything more is just diminishing returns for low yield stuff. Instead, master FA and your own knowledge from pre-clinicals. Anything unclear in FA deserves a quick pathoma read. That's all.

1st year very much impacts your step 1 score. There's only a few anatomy or imaging Qs, a respectable amount of biochem, but understanding physio/neuro will build a foundation that won't require mindless memorization when the time comes.

meh disagree. Uworld is a great learning tool. Both for getting a feel for how you might be tested on the info (the vignettes as you put it), and for fleshing out concepts in first aid. Sure FA might have the info in there, but Uworld has some of the best diagrams, charts, and images out there for numerous diseases, and the way they ask questions helps you hone in on the important details that separate diseases so you don't have to worry about memorizing all 11 findings in each. Not doing all of Uworld at least once + doing your incorrects is doing a huge disservice to yourself IMO.

I agree that buying into insane study regimens and using excessive and low yield resources are bad ideas and wrote a lot about that in the step 1 subforum, which, as I mentioned in another allo thread the other day, is a much better place to find step 1 info than here. Anyone really interested in step stuff needs to go read those experiences and scores threads. That said, one of my other most important pieces of advice is that stressing/focusing on step early in first year is probably a terrible idea and will burn you out.

 

[AugustMCAT]

I will say the uworld charts were useful. And yes, it fleshes out concepts, but one would hope you already know all of this stuff from 1st/2nd year and first aid is just serving to remind you of how it all fits in. I did half of uworld and reviewed all Qs, not just incorrects. The day before my exam I went through my notes on it and realized I hadn't retained much because there was so much extraneous info. To me, mastery of simple concepts > plugging your brain full of knowledge

My exam had essentially zero anatomy, and most of my classmates felt the same. But I guess some people here had more of it. For me, musculoskeletal in FA was more than enough.

I vividly remember all the Qs I got wrong and they related to hospital procedures. Stuff that's easy to answer in 3rd year but you never learn pre-clinically. Like sterile technique, techniques to minimize infections of central lines, exactly what type of precautions to use with a TB patient, etc.

The 274 is real, but I'm not overly intelligent or overly hardworking. I think anyone can get this score by prioritizing prep and having the pieces fall into place. We all study hard, but what I did for step 1 was something else. I knew I'd have to live with the ramifications of this score for the rest of my life, so in my mind, life could wait for 6 weeks while I prepped, and nothing would stop me, not lack of sleep, lack of drive, frustration etc. Just go hard every day, get some exercise, and if you start to burn out (as we all do, including myself), remind yourself that you don't want to look back down the road and realize things could have been different if you hadn't stopped caring or slowed down before the exam. Go hard from day 1 until the exam, don't waste time, and study smart. Most people who "study" are really just going into a semi-autopilot, reading words and taking notes but not really straining their brains to retain it or comprehend it. Learn the right way: don't do this "pseudo-studying" that eats up time and then kick it into real study mode right before the exam. Be in that mode from day 1 and you'll do fine. It's a long climb, but it's worth it

 

[Psai]

Uworld was hands down the best. It did seem to start getting repetitive after i finished about half of the questions. But most people cannot score 274. I studied just as hard and long as you and scored lower even though i am a good test taker. Everyone knows how important step is and everyone works hard but the average is 230. The reality is that if you're scoring that high, you are extremely intelligent and hard working even if you don't think so.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Many people could study day and night for a millennia and not break 260.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

Develop good study habits.

 

[seminoma]

Yeah see this is the kind of advice I was wondering would appear. Is M1 not that important for step1? Why am I killing myself to honor anatomy if just a basic understanding/pass would suffice?

Because if you have a basic understanding/pass you won't remember anything at the end of MS2. If you study hard and learn everything you'll retain the basic stuff that you need later on.

 

[seminoma]

274 here. My best advice is DO NOT buy into all these online threads with people listing off insane regimens, 5+ different study resources, etc. I spent so much extra time going through all this more "in depth" info in books outside of first aid and the yield on the actual nbme was like 2-3 total Qs. First aid sucks for uworld, but the nbme is almost always classic cases, and the exam is almost a clone of first aid. If you know FA inside and out, and you studied hard 1st and 2nd year, you will get 250+.

Everyone says uworld is a great learning tool. It's not. It's great for getting a feel for the vignettes. But ask someone to retain one non-FA concept in Uworld from the 2000+ Qs and they just blank. Finishing uworld is not even close to a "big deal" or beneficial. Do as many uworld Qs as it takes to master the test format. Anything more is just diminishing returns for low yield stuff. Instead, master FA and your own knowledge from pre-clinicals. Anything unclear in FA deserves a quick pathoma read. That's all.

1st year very much impacts your step 1 score. There's only a few anatomy or imaging Qs, a respectable amount of biochem, but understanding physio/neuro will build a foundation that won't require mindless memorization when the time comes.

Not true, I retained lots of non-FA concepts from UW. Those were actually easier to retain because I was like "wtf this isn't even in FA". Bam, memorized forever.

Plus, you got a 274 by doing what you did, but that doesn't mean you need to do what you did to get a 274.

 

[Merely]

Has anyone on this board ever gotten higher than 274? I dont even think so..

 

[cs24]

And yes, it fleshes out concepts, but one would hope you already know all of this stuff from 1st/2nd year and first aid is just serving to remind you of how it all fits in.

If you had professors in medical school who were actually good enough to teach you ALL the important concepts for step 1, you are exceptionally lucky.

I did half of uworld and reviewed all Qs, not just incorrects.

Really curious why you did 1/2 of uworld twice instead of the whole thing once?

To me, mastery of simple concepts > plugging your brain full of knowledge

duh. Uworld is great for concepts though.

I'm not overly intelligent or overly hardworking.

what I did for step 1 was something else. I knew I'd have to live with the ramifications of this score for the rest of my life, so in my mind, life could wait for 6 weeks while I prepped, and nothing would stop me, not lack of sleep, lack of drive, frustration etc. Just go hard every day,

You may be smarter and more hard working than you think

Most people who "study" are really just going into a semi-autopilot

I used to think this, but be real, almost everyone goes all out for step 1 and studies as hard as they can for weeks on end. If just anyone could pull a 270+ if they only studied properly the average would be 255. I realize its hard to look at your own life experience as exceptional because your own experience is all you know, but the reality is you are probably well up on the top end of the bell curve in terms of test taking ability and intelligence. You may think you're coming across as humble when you say anyone can get your score if they just studied properly, but the reality is that accusing everyone who didn't get a 274 of "pseudo-studying" just undermines and insults all the hard work they put in trying to succeed at the biggest test of their lives. "Oh no you may THINK you busted your a$$ for 2 years of medical school and pushed yourself to your limit during your 6 week dedicated study period, but if you were really dedicated and focused like me you would have gotten that 270." I mean come on.

 

[cs24]

Has anyone on this board ever gotten higher than 274? I dont even think so..

and your point?

 

[masaraksh]

Any tips on how to approach M1 year (histo, anatomy, cell bio, embryo, biochem, physio) to do well on step 1 down the line? Do i seriously have to remember the brachiul plexus and the nerves that come off it during step 1? Thanks.

... its not that hard, but as an M2 I doubt I remember all of it and I doubt ALL of it is necessary for boards.

I'd say the ones that go the arm/shoulder are important + long thoracic ... but I doubt the boards give too many shyts about what innervates pec minor or subclavius

 

[dgu334]

... its not that hard, but as an M2 I doubt I remember all of it and I doubt ALL of it is necessary for boards.

I'd say the ones that go the arm/shoulder are important + long thoracic ... but I doubt the boards give too many shyts about what innervates pec minor or subclavius

Lol

 

[Merely]

and your point?

Damn thats a high score is my point

 

[seminoma]

Damn thats a high score is my point

Pretty sure @cs24 scored >274. I'm at least 90% sure s/he scored >270.. and 100% sure s/he scored >265.

Do i seriously have to remember the brachiul plexus and the nerves that come off it during step 1? Thanks.

Read this carefully because I think this is overlooked and/or misunderstood by many M1s and M2s (myself included).

Do you have to remember all of the brachial plexus for step 1? Depends how you look at it. Will you have a question about every brachial plexus nerve on step 1? Definitely not. Will you have at least 1 question? Pretty likely. 2-3 questions? I wouldn't be surprised. You can know nothing about the brachial plexus and still safely pass step 1... probably safely get a really good (240s) score too. But once you get up in the 260s (maybe even 250s) every question matters.

What's my point? You don't know what you're going to get tested on and the best chance you have at getting the question right is by knowing as much as possible about that topic. There is more to the brachial plexus than what's in FA/UW and accordingly there is more that can be tested on step 1 than what is in FA/UW. If you only study the basic or "high-yield" brachial plexus as an M1 you'll never learn the minutiae that might show up on step 1. However, if you study your lecture notes, netters, etc as an M1 and see the minutiae once or twice or a few times you at least have a chance of getting it right if it shows up on step 1.

Edit: I'm not saying it's minutiae that separates the 250s from the 240s, but it certainly doesn't hurt to get a few questions right just because of some BS you recalled from your M1 anatomy class.

 

[Merely]

Wait so would I be correct in saying that an M1 that just took anatomy and did well would own the anatomy step 1 questions but the reason people dont do as well is cause theres so much more stuff to be learned and anatomy gets forgotten by the time we take step 1? Am i understanding how this work through that perspective? Like step 1 is basically an easy anatomy test that you would take during your anatomy course but since theres so much stuff and youve forgotten a lot it becomes kind of hard to know it all.

 

[ajh1983]

274 here. My best advice is DO NOT buy into all these online threads with people listing off insane regimens, 5+ different study resources, etc. I spent so much extra time going through all this more "in depth" info in books outside of first aid and the yield on the actual nbme was like 2-3 total Qs. First aid sucks for uworld, but the nbme is almost always classic cases, and the exam is almost a clone of first aid. If you know FA inside and out, and you studied hard 1st and 2nd year, you will get 250+.

Everyone says uworld is a great learning tool. It's not. It's great for getting a feel for the vignettes. But ask someone to retain one non-FA concept in Uworld from the 2000+ Qs and they just blank. Finishing uworld is not even close to a "big deal" or beneficial. Do as many uworld Qs as it takes to master the test format. Anything more is just diminishing returns for low yield stuff. Instead, master FA and your own knowledge from pre-clinicals. Anything unclear in FA deserves a quick pathoma read. That's all.

1st year very much impacts your step 1 score. There's only a few anatomy or imaging Qs, a respectable amount of biochem, but understanding physio/neuro will build a foundation that won't require mindless memorization when the time comes.

Largely disagree. Doing well on step 1 isn't "knowing" the material, it's understanding the material from multiple angles and being able to answer a variety of differently styled questions about the same topic. Knowing first aid only is a rather 1 sided view of the material, especially considering it's a bulletpoint style listing of facts. More in depth understanding and comfort with the material is required to answer some of the more in depth and higher order questions.

Also, the difference between scoring 250, 260, or 270 is minimal compared to scoring >250 vs 230. It's largely luck of the draw and anxiety at the highest scoring levels, not knowledge base or preparation.

 

[MattSmith45]

Any tips on how to approach M1 year (histo, anatomy, cell bio, embryo, biochem, physio) to do well on step 1 down the line? Do i seriously have to remember the brachiul plexus and the nerves that come off it during step 1? Thanks.

Once you learn the brachial plexus, you won't forget it.

 

[seminoma]

Wait so would I be correct in saying that an M1 that just took anatomy and did well would own the anatomy step 1 questions but the reason people dont do as well is cause theres so much more stuff to be learned and anatomy gets forgotten by the time we take step 1? Am i understanding how this work through that perspective? Like step 1 is basically an easy anatomy test that you would take during your anatomy course but since theres so much stuff and youve forgotten a lot it becomes kind of hard to know it all.

Yes and no. A 45 year old woman presents with acute abdominal pain and diarrhea with bright red blood that started a few hours after eating lunch. She denies previous episodes. Past medical history significant for 5 years ESRD, HTN, and DM2. She had uneventful dialysis earlier this morning. Pregnancy test negative. What anatomical structure is most likely involved?

A. Stomach
B. Small intestine
C. Cecum
D. Hepatic flexure
E. Splenic flexure
F. Rectum

You might know this as an M1 if it was covered as a clinical correlation in your anatomy course, but I definitely didn't know the answer as an M1. Majority of M2s who have taken GI will know this immediately. Answer is E - mesenteric ischemia secondary to volume depletion from dialysis in a patient who also happens to have multiple vascular risk factors. Splenic flexure and sigmoid colon are the most commonly affected because they are watershed areas.

Now if there was a question about which vagus nerve supplies the anterior esophagus then obviously an M1 right out of anatomy would have a better chance than most M2s. The mnemonic is LARP, correct?

Once you learn the brachial plexus, you won't forget it.

I forgot it. All I know is ulnar goes on the bottom and axillary/radial in the middle... I think.