What would you do differently to study for Step I ?

[Paws]

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I am going to be a second year and alot of my classmates are all over the "pre-studying" thing for the boards in a YEAR. We have people walking around with their FA and we all talk about studying over the summer to cover first year material, so that we can focus on second year material as we get closer to the start of spring studying.

Are we being insane? Alot of our second years have told us: start studying earlier! because they feel that they would do that if they could go back and do it again.

Anyone have any thoughts? I feel sort of rediculous trying to memorize FA when in reality, I can hardly focus on the funny pages now that school is out. 🙂

 

[Long Dong]

I haven't take step 1 yet but if I had to do it over again I would've used FA from the first day of school, to follow along with class. I thought I was smart waiting for the 2005 one to come out in Jan. After having it for the past 6 months and countless times threw it, I still find myself finding a new factiod in it that I haven't learned yet, and my test is on Monday. 😱
Every single word in that book is important.

 

[HiddenTruth]

I haven't take step 1 yet but if I had to do it over again I would've used FA from the first day of school, to follow along with class. I thought I was smart waiting for the 2005 one to come out in Jan. After having it for the past 6 months and countless times threw it, I still find myself finding a new factiod in it that I haven't learned yet, and my test is on Monday. 😱
Every single word in that book is important.

bro, u don't need the FA after your 710 on nbme 2...i say u ditch the FA and party it up 'till sat...and then blow that baby away!

 

[cocoabutter]

We had 6 weeks off to study for Step 1, and I didnt begin to "study" until we were finished with 2nd year classes and I had taken a few days off. I didn't open First Aid until then (the new edition) because I like to make notes as I go and not reread my own notes and I dont think it hurt me. As others have said, learning the material really well during 1st and 2nd year is key so that you are only reviewing during your study time. There were some topics that I had to learn for the first time or go over in a little more depth because I never really understood it the first time, but overall, everything that I had learned came back rather quickly while I was studying. I made a schedule for my 6 weeks and stuck to it more or less. I am satisfied with my score and wouldn't change anything about the way i studied.

One thing that helped me was to do my own thing and not worry about what other people in my class were doing.

 

[Pox in a box]

bro, u don't need the FA after your 710 on nbme 2...i say u ditch the FA and party it up 'till sat...and then blow that baby away!

First Aid is only as good as you make it. If you put a lot of time in annotating and making it an all-inclusive roadmap, then it's golden. For the exam, a lot of the topics are not even close to being from FA. That's where your annotating and studying should come in and save you.

 

[guitarguy]

To answer the originial question, with all due respect, it is insane to study for step 1 during the summer after M1. If you are a traditional student taking the exam affer M2 year, a month or so is more than enough time to devote to studying/reviewing. On a practical note, most of the content of the step 1 exam is M2 material (pathology). This is your last summer! As for your classmates, every school has that crowd. My best advice: stay away from them.

 

[mfrederi]

don't study this summer!!! Starting next year I would make it a goal to go through 1 first year subject per month (e.g. anatomy, histo, biochem, physio, etc). Start with the ones that you found easiest, that way you are reviewing the more difficult areas nearer the test date. At least half of FA is stuff you will pick up second year, and it will be a piece of cake for you to review. The stuff that really sucks reviewing is the first year stuff. If you could review that little by little over the course of a month it would really relieve some stress during board study because you wouldn't have to relearn anatomy in 2 days.

 

[Ramoray]

bro, u don't need the FA after your 710 on nbme 2...i say u ditch the FA and party it up 'till sat...and then blow that baby away!

i know seroiusly long, i have been reading this forum for probably a year now and i have never seen a sole break 700, not that i really ever knew what that meant or know now other than it is like a 1 in a 1000000 score. Iwould waltz in to prometric and laugh at the test before you start, then laugh at it after, and then wait for youru 285 in the mail. Use your FA to kindle a fire tonite and read about all the cool stuff youll be able to buy with your salary after landing any residency you want... hmm i wish that was me but if was that is what iw ould do!

 

[xaelia]

I could see myself studying a little less. I started about two months before my test date with a couple half-days a week during our school's second-year review block, and then started studying full-time the last month. About a week before the exam, I'd covered everything and it was fresh in my mind - but was starting to forget details I'd once learned. I had to throw together a schedule for another week of refresh cramming. As far as first impressions go, it worked out....but we'll see for sure in a couple weeks.

 

[Paws]

We had 6 weeks off to study for Step 1, and I didnt begin to "study" until we were finished with 2nd year classes and I had taken a few days off. ... I made a schedule for my 6 weeks and stuck to it more or less. I am satisfied with my score and wouldn't change anything about the way i studied.

One thing that helped me was to do my own thing and not worry about what other people in my class were doing.

Ah, a really wise voice. I am with you cocoaB. Yep, I agree that it is sort of insane to be trying to work through FA when it is 85 degrees out and I want to go swimming or lie in the grass and watch the clouds drift by. 🙂

I also agree that it seems you would begin to forget this stuff as it is way hard to memorize the rediculous minutiae and still have a year to go. I was able to look at the QBank questions when a friend lent me her password to go and check it out. So I have a pretty good sense of what is ahead. I got a 40% on the first 50 minute set when I pretty much guessed, and then I got 10% on the second 50 minute when I was actually trying to do my best. Yea, so that made me feel really good.

Ouch! what a hard exam ... good luck to everyone taking it right about now. And thanks for the feedback.

👍

 

[omarsaleh66]

I would have done more questions. Like add BSS, NMS, and finish qbank (did 30%).

I did all of webpath, 80% of robbins review, appleton and lange, the path section of qbook, and the micro, path, immuno section of bootleg qbank. Prolly close 3000-5000q over 2nd year i think. But adding those 3 question sources above in addition would have made me feel better b4 i took step one. It's alot of questions so start early. Maybe u can knock out all the first year stuff now or during the summer? knock out NMS in the winter? i dont know; do what u gotta do. U should read long dong's, idiopathic's, p53's or bigfrank's preperation for inspiration.

later hater