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Hey guys, I wrote this for my schools survival guide which is being mailed out soon and I thought you guys might be interested in it. Now, knowing SDN I know people will immidiately say "that's not how you should do it", etc, etc. You people are wrong.
Hi. My name is Jalby, I?m an MS II (almost MSIII) and currently 37 days away from my board exams. By the time you get this you will have about 747 days til your board exams, so you might want to start studying. I?m just kidding. Sort of.
As you know, this is the most important test you have taken in your life. I?m sure you have heard that one before (SAT, MCAT, etc, etc) but this time we mean it. But don?t stress out about it now. You will have plenty of time to do that later. What I wanted to do is provide you with some tips of what you should and shouldn?t do over the next two years in order to prepare yourself.
Over the next two years, you will have three types of main tests. System tests, Year End Cumulative tests, and the USMLE test. You will have the systems test every 5-10 weeks, yearly tests every year (duh) and one board exam at the end of two years. These tests are obviously in increasing order of importance. What has happened to some of my classmates is that they only worry about the next test, without looking towards the future. So at the end of the year, they only remember the last system. And right now they haven?t touched first year since first year.
Here is some things that myself and others have done to make our lives easier and be more efficient. There are two books that most people use to study for the boards. First Aid for the Boards, and Step-Up for the boards. I would recommend buying both of these books when you start medical school. They contain the most useful information for the boards and you should get used to them. The differences between the two is that First Aid is set up by disciplines (Path, Pharm, etc, etc) while Step up is systems (like our curriculum. Heme, Nuero, etc, etc) As you go through each system, you should be studying from these books along with your notes (or in some cases instead of your notes) and whenever you see something you think is important, write it in the sidelines of these books.
The importance of doing this will be shown at the end of the year and when you start studying for boards. You have one week to study for the year one comprehensive, and a lot of people didn?t have time to look through all of their class notes. Having one source to read through makes life a lot easier. And when you get to the board exam, you will have to know everything in these books, so it makes more sense to memorize that as you go along (this also will help you figure out what is the most important things for the system tests, too)
Three other books that are absolutely must haves for the boards and books you should buy now and use every chance you get is BRS Pathology, BRS Physiology, and Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple. Ask any current third or fourth year and every single person bought and used this books extensively. (In the back of first aid, they have every review book and ratings that students give the book. These are by far the best rated in their fields)
There also is some other books that I would recommend, but not everybody uses for board studying. Again, these are books you should buy and use along with class so that you know them quite well by the time it rolls around to studying for the boards. About half of my class purchased High Yield Nueroanatomy, a book that isn?t as in depth as what you need to know for school, but only what is needed for the boards. I would also recommend BRS Behavioral Science. This is the only subject that our school scored under the national average, in part because it isn?t taught to much in our curriculum, so study this book well and know that it is the place where you can get the most points.
For Pharmacology and Biochemistry, there isn?t any really good books out there that you should definitely use. The Lippincotts Biochem and Lippencotts Pharm are very good books, but also very long and you need to put a lot of effort into them during the year.
Now, for those of you flash card lovers out there, there is a bunch of good flash cards that contain all the information you need to know, and then a whole lot more. These cards are MircoCrads, PharmCards, and PathCards. DO NOT BUY THE BRS CARDS!!!! These cards are great in that they contain all of the information you need to know on every drug, etc that they cover. I especially love the path cards. I?m not very artistic, so having these cards pre-made for me helped me a ton. I just highlighted the most important things, and read away.
Now that you have been completely bored to death (or maybe scared) with my books/cards selection, I have some great news for you guys. You have a TON of time to study for all of this. Even if you don?t start worry about the boards at all, you finish with all new material in Mid March, and don?t have to start third year until early July. This gives you 100+ days to study for the boards. (integrated cases is about 60-70% board review. Heck, the required book is First Aid) This is a whole lot more time than any other school normally gives (and probably the biggest reason our board scores jumped 5 points with the new curriculum)
So my last piece of advice is review old stuff when you can. Over summer, Christmas, etc, etc, take a day or two and read through your First Aid or Step Up, just to refresh your brain on all of the stuff that has been pushed out. If you do all of this it will make your life a lot easier 730 days from now when you are really studying hard for the boards.
Jalby, MS III
Hi. My name is Jalby, I?m an MS II (almost MSIII) and currently 37 days away from my board exams. By the time you get this you will have about 747 days til your board exams, so you might want to start studying. I?m just kidding. Sort of.
As you know, this is the most important test you have taken in your life. I?m sure you have heard that one before (SAT, MCAT, etc, etc) but this time we mean it. But don?t stress out about it now. You will have plenty of time to do that later. What I wanted to do is provide you with some tips of what you should and shouldn?t do over the next two years in order to prepare yourself.
Over the next two years, you will have three types of main tests. System tests, Year End Cumulative tests, and the USMLE test. You will have the systems test every 5-10 weeks, yearly tests every year (duh) and one board exam at the end of two years. These tests are obviously in increasing order of importance. What has happened to some of my classmates is that they only worry about the next test, without looking towards the future. So at the end of the year, they only remember the last system. And right now they haven?t touched first year since first year.
Here is some things that myself and others have done to make our lives easier and be more efficient. There are two books that most people use to study for the boards. First Aid for the Boards, and Step-Up for the boards. I would recommend buying both of these books when you start medical school. They contain the most useful information for the boards and you should get used to them. The differences between the two is that First Aid is set up by disciplines (Path, Pharm, etc, etc) while Step up is systems (like our curriculum. Heme, Nuero, etc, etc) As you go through each system, you should be studying from these books along with your notes (or in some cases instead of your notes) and whenever you see something you think is important, write it in the sidelines of these books.
The importance of doing this will be shown at the end of the year and when you start studying for boards. You have one week to study for the year one comprehensive, and a lot of people didn?t have time to look through all of their class notes. Having one source to read through makes life a lot easier. And when you get to the board exam, you will have to know everything in these books, so it makes more sense to memorize that as you go along (this also will help you figure out what is the most important things for the system tests, too)
Three other books that are absolutely must haves for the boards and books you should buy now and use every chance you get is BRS Pathology, BRS Physiology, and Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple. Ask any current third or fourth year and every single person bought and used this books extensively. (In the back of first aid, they have every review book and ratings that students give the book. These are by far the best rated in their fields)
There also is some other books that I would recommend, but not everybody uses for board studying. Again, these are books you should buy and use along with class so that you know them quite well by the time it rolls around to studying for the boards. About half of my class purchased High Yield Nueroanatomy, a book that isn?t as in depth as what you need to know for school, but only what is needed for the boards. I would also recommend BRS Behavioral Science. This is the only subject that our school scored under the national average, in part because it isn?t taught to much in our curriculum, so study this book well and know that it is the place where you can get the most points.
For Pharmacology and Biochemistry, there isn?t any really good books out there that you should definitely use. The Lippincotts Biochem and Lippencotts Pharm are very good books, but also very long and you need to put a lot of effort into them during the year.
Now, for those of you flash card lovers out there, there is a bunch of good flash cards that contain all the information you need to know, and then a whole lot more. These cards are MircoCrads, PharmCards, and PathCards. DO NOT BUY THE BRS CARDS!!!! These cards are great in that they contain all of the information you need to know on every drug, etc that they cover. I especially love the path cards. I?m not very artistic, so having these cards pre-made for me helped me a ton. I just highlighted the most important things, and read away.
Now that you have been completely bored to death (or maybe scared) with my books/cards selection, I have some great news for you guys. You have a TON of time to study for all of this. Even if you don?t start worry about the boards at all, you finish with all new material in Mid March, and don?t have to start third year until early July. This gives you 100+ days to study for the boards. (integrated cases is about 60-70% board review. Heck, the required book is First Aid) This is a whole lot more time than any other school normally gives (and probably the biggest reason our board scores jumped 5 points with the new curriculum)
So my last piece of advice is review old stuff when you can. Over summer, Christmas, etc, etc, take a day or two and read through your First Aid or Step Up, just to refresh your brain on all of the stuff that has been pushed out. If you do all of this it will make your life a lot easier 730 days from now when you are really studying hard for the boards.
Jalby, MS III
