When to start Step 1 practice questions?

[USFOptho]

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Hey guys,


Would it be helpful to use our step 1 practice questions during the year to study for our classes? With the MCAT, I didn't start any practice questions until february of the year I was taking the test, but, then again, I didn't finish all of the questions in my MCAT hoard, either.

Opinions of when to start would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[ttumed]

I didn't do one practice question until 3 weeks before my exam. I finished all my studying then started q bank. I did 100 questions a day for 21 days before my exam. Funny thing is I don't think studying help me. My best advice is study hard the first two years because that's what bailed me out time after time on the test.

 

[USFOptho]

Thanks for the reply.

My only concern with your advice is that I have always been told that studying for the MCAT and Step 1 are basically the same; Just studying your school notes may get you a good score, but hardcore studying combined with many many practice questions is what will really help you out.

Is this screwed up thinking or am I on track?

If on track, then I would think I would want to do questions a little earlier than 3 weeks before the test.

Thanks!

 

[Row Jimmy]

I'm entering 2nd year as well and plan on doing a lot of questions throughout the year targeted at the current topics discussed in class. I have done this all along and I tend to learn a tremondous amount from questions. I only do ones that provide detailed explanations as they help me to make correlations I may have overlooked while studying.

I have no idea what type of schedule I will use for Step 1 but it will contain thousands of questions for sure.

RJ

 

[USFOptho]

I'm entering 2nd year as well and plan on doing a lot of questions throughout the year targeted at the current topics discussed in class. I have done this all along and I tend to learn a tremondous amount from questions. I only do ones that provide detailed explanations as they help me to make correlations I may have overlooked while studying.

I have no idea what type of schedule I will use for Step 1 but it will contain thousands of questions for sure.

RJ

RJ,

doing questions during 1st year helped me out alot, and it did as well for the MCAT.

I have so many resources, it seems that I won't be at a loss for questions; Still, strategy is what it's all about. I used USMLEasy.com while it was free, but it definitely seemed a little too EASY, but I thought it was decent prep for my physiology and anatomy shelfs (both of which I aced).

PM me and we'll discuss our resources.

 

[ttumed]

I didn't say all I did was practice questions, it's just studying hard my 1st 2 years helped the most. I read all the kaplan lecture notes as a review before doing q-bank. I made a 248 and although it's not 260-270 like many we've seen around here, that score along with AOA will get me anything I want. The reason I waited to do questions was to have a real idea of where I stood after studying. I ended up with an 80% on q-bank so I felt I was in a good position to well on the test. People have done well using both study methods. Just do what feels right to you and you'll ace the exam also. Best of luck.

 

[Rom]

Questions are good... I find out now that I could have had the answers to many of my path tests if I would have done the board practice questions. You forget the questions anyway, but the material stays. In this way, study with them as they will provide pointers as to what is important (all through 2 years I was figuring out what's important like a month after the test 🙄 ). And then you can do them again at the beginning of your board prep schedule (scores maybe invalid, but there's plenty of questions out there to have enough for all stats)... Good luck...

 

[bigfrank]

I think questions too early is a waste: questions are generally most useful when you reinforce the material as opposed to learning it the first time.

I started doing QBank about 4-5 months before the Step I, and this worked well.

On the other hand, people who wait until it's too late to effectively learn/review questions are also up a dark creek w/o a paddle.

In my opinion, the best questions to do "early" are the path questions the second year, from both BRS Path and Robbins QBook. This will help integrate concepts as well as pathophysiologic concepts.

 

[analu]

I started with BSS about 6 months before test day, and continued with NMS, Rapid Review, and Pretest. I tried to do at least 1-2 timed 50-question blocks per day until 1 month prior to the exam, when I did Kaplan Qbank, in high gear.

I've never been comfortable with multiple-choice exams, so I thought this strategy was key to getting used to the format and time constraints. And a big part of Step 1 is feeling comfortable with the clinical vignette...therefore, make sure that a lot of your questions are presented this way.

Good luck in your studies...

 

[azzarah]

I plan to do Robbins review book and BRS questions and try to understand them all during the year and then one more time quickly before Step 1 in addition to other question sources. For the MCAT I made sure I knew everything before I started taking practice questions and I am going to try to do the same for Step I so that I don't waste precious questions. 😀

 

[Methyldopa]

I started doing QBank about 4-5 months before the Step I, and this worked well.

That's exactly when I started. I finished up Qbank about 2 weeks before Step 1 and just reviewed FA for that fortnight.

I wanted to do Robbins Questions, but never got around to it.