MD & DO When is the best time to start studying boards?

[Robin-jay]

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I'm a first year medical school student. Between classes, research, interest clubs, etc. I don't see any solid times to practice, so I was wondering when the best time to start that would be.

 

[theonlytycrane]

It depends if your pre-clinical curriculum is 1-1.5 years or 2+. Usually it's after the summer of m1 though.

For now just scope out some cuties and pass anatomy.

 

[WedgeDawg]

During dedicated

 

[Peach Newport]

Depends how much dedicated time you have.

I think about 11-12 weeks is the perfect amount of dedicated time to study. If your dedicated is less than that, you’re gonna need to start studying during M2 year. However, you’re also going to be learning M2 material, so 1 week of board study time during M2 is not nearly equal to a week of dedicated study.

Studying for boards during M1 is pretty dumb.

People always say to “learn high yield stuff,” but IMO there’s no substitute for simply paying attention to your lectures and truly learning.

 

[Nucleophile1]

The best thing you can do now to prepare for boards is ace your classes.

 

[Treebeard]

Current M2 - my strategy at the moment is to focus 90% of my stusyist on my current block with just a bit of review of older stuff in Sunday morning. Just like 2-3 hours max to remind myself that biochemistry, immunology, microbiology, etc are things. On some level that probably helps with my organ blocks anyway.

 

[Dona Nobis Pacem]

For now just scope out some cuties and pass anatomy.

This may sound crazy, but what if there are no cuties in my class? Should I resort to dating undergrads instead?

 

[theonlytycrane]

This may sound crazy, but what if there are no cuties in my class? Should I resort to dating undergrads instead?

There can't be none... Is your class super small?

 

[aymar]

I think about 11-12 weeks is the perfect amount of dedicated time to study. If your dedicated is less than that, you’re gonna need to start studying during M2 year.

Are there schools that actually give 3 months for dedicated?????

 

[BurntFlower]

Are there schools that actually give 3 months for dedicated?????

My school, Wayne State.

 

[ciestar]

My school, Wayne State.

We got about 6-7 weeks. If you needed more time, they would let you postpone your block one rotation.

Either way, studying for step during first year isn’t worth it.

 

[jurisburger]

I also support studying during dedicated/slightly before dedicated assuming you have ~2 months of dedicated time. There is no need to study summer after M1...you'll just make yourself frustrated/hate the material/burn out

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Our students have about 6 weeks of dedicated time before step 1. We encourage them to start the summer after M1. However, all must present their board prep procedure to advisors around thanksgivivg

 

[PickleRick19]

Like someone said above, studying for step 1 after first year is probably premature. And if you get a summer, that's your last real break until 4th year/graduation, so I would use it for something meaningful to you (whether that's research, travel, or something else).

My school gives about 6-7 weeks of dedicated after 2nd year, so that's when I did the bulk of my studying. During 2nd year I focused on classes, because by studying and understanding that material you're essentially studying for step 1 anyways.

 

[aldol16]

This may sound crazy, but what if there are no cuties in my class? Should I resort to dating undergrads instead?

Yep.

 

[intubesteak]

Learn stuff well, don't just memorize for your tests. You will never have this much free time to study for the rest of your life. Things I learned and read about during preclinicals comes up on a daily basis on the wards. Studying medicine to learn=studying for boards.

 

[Goro]

I'm a first year medical school student. Between classes, research, interest clubs, etc. I don't see any solid times to practice, so I was wondering when the best time to start that would be.

I recommend Xmas of MS2. I swear, I've had some kids start fussing about oard a week after matriculation!

Focus on med school now.

 

[intubesteak]

I recommend Xmas of MS2. I swear, I've had some kids start fussing about oard a week after matriculation!

Focus on med school now.

I felt like boards and curriculum actually overlap way more than people realize. Sometimes lectures are a little too detailed or poorly presented, but if those details help you remember the disease process better then that's great. Learn things well, do well on class tests, boards, wards, all of the above. Focus on learning medicine. That's what i'm telling M1s who ask me (and when I give unsolicited advice...).

 

[Peach Newport]

The best thing you can do now to prepare for boards is ace your classes.

This.

People have this ludicrous idea that you can just coast and get Bs and Cs and then crush your boards with UFAP + sketchy. Nah. Step 1 doesn’t test UFAP and sketchy. It tests what you learned during the first two years of med school. UFAP/S are great for training your mind to apply that info to the test, but they will not teach you the medicine that you should have learned, and that will be tested.

I pretty much poured my soul into years 1+2. I put my faith in the curriculum. I obsessively hoarded the contents of my lectures in my head. I thought about concepts critically and talked about it with friends. I didn’t always get As, but I did get them more often than not. I actually didn’t touch UFAP until dedicated. When test time came, I had a ton of questions that were nowhere in UFAP... but which I remembered learning in class. I ended up with a score I’m pretty proud of.

 

[puahate]

There can't be none... Is your class super small?

You are also assuming most the girls in your class are single.

 

[theonlytycrane]

This.

People have this ludicrous idea that you can just coast and get Bs and Cs and then crush your boards with UFAP + sketchy. Nah. Step 1 doesn’t test UFAP and sketchy. It tests what you learned during the first two years of med school. UFAP/S are great for training your mind to apply that info to the test, but they will not teach you the medicine that you should have learned, and that will be tested.

I pretty much poured my soul into years 1+2. I put my faith in the curriculum. I obsessively hoarded the contents of my lectures in my head. I thought about concepts critically and talked about it with friends. I didn’t always get As, but I did get them more often than not. I actually didn’t touch UFAP until dedicated. When test time came, I had a ton of questions that were nowhere in UFAP... but which I remembered learning in class. I ended up with a score I’m pretty proud of.

Ideally this is how pre-clinical medical education should be and your curriculum must be solid. UFAP life does have merit for those of us that don't have a great pre-clinical curriculum so it's really a judgement call that we each have to make to prepare best during m1/m2.

 

[Peach Newport]

Ideally this is how pre-clinical medical education should be and your curriculum must be solid. UFAP life does have merit for those of us that don't have a great pre-clinical curriculum so it's really a judgement call that we each have to make to prepare best during m1/m2.

True, but I think people tend to underestimate the strength of their school’s curriculum. Take this for how you will:

I’m at a 10 year old DO school. Our curriculum is known to be pretty “buggy,” a work in progress. People bad mouth our curriculum all the time. And yet there was not a single question on my step 1 that we didn’t cover in class.

 

[Save a life]

I'm a first year medical school student. Between classes, research, interest clubs, etc. I don't see any solid times to practice, so I was wondering when the best time to start that would be.

Don’t start as an M1, even if you’re in a 1.5 year preclinical, wait until the end of first year to start reviewing. Once you start organ blocks I’d start incorporating board material in with class material but don’t waste time reviewing old blocks, focus on the test at hand.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

K5

 

[libertyyne]

My school, Wayne State.

Yeah, ask the class above you. They only have a month.

 

[BurntFlower]

Yeah, ask the class above you. They only have a month.

I know that. But we also have a new curriculum, and they told us during orientation that we'd be getting 3 months for boards. We'll see what happens.

 

[libertyyne]

I know that. But we also have a new curriculum, and they told us during orientation that we'd be getting 3 months for boards. We'll see what happens.

I would take everything they say with a grain of salt.

 

[BurntFlower]

I would take everything they say with a grain of salt.

Please don't dash my hopes like this.

 

[Dona Nobis Pacem]

There can't be none... Is your class super small?

Believe me, there are no cuties in my class 🙁

 

[intubesteak]

Please don't dash my hopes like this.

You don't need or want 3 months to study. 2 months is really pushing it. One month with some pre-dedicated work is plenty. Dedicated is a sprint and its very important to finish strong.

 

[Peach Newport]

You are also assuming most the girls in your class are single.

Peach’s law: as a med school class reaches boards time, the proportion of single classmates reaches 1.

 

[deleted645092]

Starting any earlier than 6 months out I think is pretty much useless. My school schedules us for boards from June-July. I started doing an hour a day in January-March, 2 hours a day April-May, and then ramped it up full-time for dedicated and it worked pretty well for me. Those hours don’t have to be hitting the books hard like you’re studying for class, it can be glancing over something like immunology, biochem, etc. just to get the concepts fresh in your mind again. I tended to do a system during the week and then one of the “special” classes like the above plus social sciences/ ethics on the weekends.