Where do I start for step 1 studying?

[taeyeonlover]

My MS2 year will end in couple days and I feel like I am still quite lost on how I should approach my step 1 studying. I won’t be taking the exam until late June due to some remediation work I have to do for a class.

I talked with the academic advisor at my school and she set up a daily study schedule for my 6 weeks dedicated that outlines what I will be studying on each day and when I will be taking a break day etc.

I guess I’m still lost on how my study flow in general should be. Should I study areas that I am certain that I am weak on and then do uworld as much as I can? What are some tips for succeeding in this exam? Should I have a tutor to keep me on track?

I would like to use UFAPS, boards and beyond, and anki. Unfortunately, I didn’t do too much of anking or uworld during preclinical years. I actually didn’t really realize how good anki is until around end of second year.

I wasn’t the best student at my school and had a lot of trouble finding a good study method so even though it’s pf, I still would like to study hard to redeem myself.

Any advice would be appreciated.

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[Captain_Falcon]

It's probably too late to use Anki on the whole. It may be easier to simply use it for Sketchy micro/pharm and Pathoma cards. That still might end up being too many to get through in only 3 months depending on how the rest of your schedule is. I still highly recommend Sketchy micro and pharm though.

Always review things you are weak in. It is easier for us students to review things we are comfortable in and have a good base for - it makes us feel good getting things right. You need to hit the areas you suck in. Find out what those are. In the pass/fail world, the biggest thing is (1) making sure you pass and (2) getting a solid foundation for M3 year and step 2. This means, if you are getting > 220s230s on practice exams (UWx2, NBMEs) you should be solid. If you are already crunched for time but know you suck at one field, then make sure you study a little bit of that every day.

Use UW questions every day. If you have 3 months = ~90 days, and there are 4000 UW questions you could easily do 1-2 blocks a day on top of your other studies (that gets you 40-80 questions a day). You can schedule 1 day off a week to relax and reset your brain. And then when you get a little closer to test day (say early May) you can take a full-length practice test and see what your score is. If it's failing, you'll realize you still have lots of time to improve and it will light a fire under your ass to start hitting concepts harder

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I am at the end of my step studying now. If I had 6 weeks to do it all over again it would have went something like this...

First day, practice test NBME 26 for baseline.
First 2 weeks - 80 Uworld questions daily + review (thoroughly) + make anki on uworld (mostly wrongs or things you don't know don't just make hundreds of cards daily be selective) + pathoma 1 hour daily 2-3x speed. By the end of the 2 weeks you should finished pathoma and done 1120 questions which is roughly 30ish percent of the UWORLD deck.

This would be a good time to take a follow up NBME test to see how you improved. The NBME will tell you your weak areas. You can correlate that with the results from your first NBME to see if you improved at all. Uworld will also give you details on what areas you are weak in and what areas you are strong in. This is the time where you need to figure out your strengths and weaknesses and adjust the remaining 4 weeks according to this.

weeks 3-4. More uworld questions... Obviously... but start addressing your weaknesses with pathoma (2nd pass on specific chapter), first aid, dirty medicine, ninja nerd, boards and beyond, sketchy, whatever. Start throwing in SPECIFIC content review.

End of week 4 - practice test again to see how you are improving.

Weeks 4+. More uworld questions, practice tests, specific content review.

3-4 days before test take NBME 30 for "qualifier". Really answers the question, "Am I ready?"

Test day - kill it



This is how I would've approached it if I was starting over.

 

[Redpancreas]

I am at the end of my step studying now. If I had 6 weeks to do it all over again it would have went something like this...

First day, practice test NBME 26 for baseline.
First 2 weeks - 80 Uworld questions daily + review (thoroughly) + make anki on uworld (mostly wrongs or things you don't know don't just make hundreds of cards daily be selective) + pathoma 1 hour daily 2-3x speed. By the end of the 2 weeks you should finished pathoma and done 1120 questions which is roughly 30ish percent of the UWORLD deck.

This would be a good time to take a follow up NBME test to see how you improved. The NBME will tell you your weak areas. You can correlate that with the results from your first NBME to see if you improved at all. Uworld will also give you details on what areas you are weak in and what areas you are strong in. This is the time where you need to figure out your strengths and weaknesses and adjust the remaining 4 weeks according to this.

weeks 3-4. More uworld questions... Obviously... but start addressing your weaknesses with pathoma (2nd pass on specific chapter), first aid, dirty medicine, ninja nerd, boards and beyond, sketchy, whatever. Start throwing in SPECIFIC content review.

End of week 4 - practice test again to see how you are improving.

Weeks 4+. More uworld questions, practice tests, specific content review.

3-4 days before test take NBME 30 for "qualifier". Really answers the question, "Am I ready?"

Test day - kill it



This is how I would've approached it if I was starting over.

This is the general template most use. Really like the bolded parts.

 

[aldol16]

Start with UWorld and end with UWorld. Supplement with First Aid and Pathoma. Everything else is ancillary. Make sure you do a baseline NBME and then do some sort of assessment every week to make sure you're making progress, which can be an NBME or a UWSA or another third-party self assessment (can usually find an Amboss one for free).

 

[IR3A4]

My MS2 year will end in couple days and I feel like I am still quite lost on how I should approach my step 1 studying. I won’t be taking the exam until late June due to some remediation work I have to do for a class.

I talked with the academic advisor at my school and she set up a daily study schedule for my 6 weeks dedicated that outlines what I will be studying on each day and when I will be taking a break day etc.

I guess I’m still lost on how my study flow in general should be. Should I study areas that I am certain that I am weak on and then do uworld as much as I can? What are some tips for succeeding in this exam? Should I have a tutor to keep me on track?

I would like to use UFAPS, boards and beyond, and anki. Unfortunately, I didn’t do too much of anking or uworld during preclinical years. I actually didn’t really realize how good anki is until around end of second year.

I wasn’t the best student at my school and had a lot of trouble finding a good study method so even though it’s pf, I still would like to study hard to redeem myself.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I kept it chill. Some people make these minute-by-minute rigorous schedules, and they seem like a recipe for burnout.

I started with 2 blocks of UWorld every day with a heavy review of those questions. If there is something that you're getting wrong because you truly don't know it then reference First aid and/or use a tertiary source (Pathology question wrong? Check Pathoma. Issue with Glycogen Storage Diseases, try Pixorize if that's your jam, etc.

After 2 weeks I moved up to 3 blocks of UWorld a day.

Every 2 weeks I would do a full length. Our school gave us two NBME FLs so I did that plus the second UWorld Sim.

Starting Anki at this stage is useless. Would only be useful for targeted review of concepts that just arent sticking, but don't let anki boggle up too much of your time a day.


I'll say I averaged 4hrs of studying a day, which was relaxing, never felt burned out, and every hour felt productive. Mind you I got a "99% chance of passing" on the first assessment I did so I felt pretty secure. Definitely adjust according to that.

If you used Sketchy some folks find it useful to review the Sketchy images / reference back to them when you had a question about a bug or drug you got wrong.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I kept it chill. Some people make these minute-by-minute rigorous schedules, and they seem like a recipe for burnout.

I started with 2 blocks of UWorld every day with a heavy review of those questions. If there is something that you're getting wrong because you truly don't know it then reference First aid and/or use a tertiary source (Pathology question wrong? Check Pathoma. Issue with Glycogen Storage Diseases, try Pixorize if that's your jam, etc.

After 2 weeks I moved up to 3 blocks of UWorld a day.

Every 2 weeks I would do a full length. Our school gave us two NBME FLs so I did that plus the second UWorld Sim.

Starting Anki at this stage is useless. Would only be useful for targeted review of concepts that just arent sticking, but don't let anki boggle up too much of your time a day.


I'll say I averaged 4hrs of studying a day, which was relaxing, never felt burned out, and every hour felt productive. Mind you I got a "99% chance of passing" on the first assessment I did so I felt pretty secure. Definitely adjust according to that.

If you used Sketchy some folks find it useful to review the Sketchy images / reference back to them when you had a question about a bug or drug you got wrong.

You did 4 hours total studying per day for dedicated???

 

[Gilakend]

Blocks of UWorld with a thorough review.

 

[IR3A4]

You did 4 hours total studying per day for dedicated???

I averaged about 20-25hrs a week. Mind you, I took an NBME assessment during my first week of dedicated and scored high so I saw no need to kill myself with studying. I also don't have the attention span to study as much in a day as many other folks in med school seem to have.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I averaged about 20-25hrs a week. Mind you, I took an NBME assessment during my first week of dedicated and scored high so I saw no need to kill myself with studying. I also don't have the attention span to study as much in a day as many other folks in med school seem to have.

I am just trying to figure out how you say you did 3 blocks of UWORLD + heavy review as you put it, in 4 hours.

 

[IR3A4]

I am just trying to figure out how you say you did 3 blocks of UWORLD + heavy review as you put it, in 4 hours.

I was suggesting heavy review, and it's how I started off but that tapered quickly given the correct to incorrect ratio and I didn't want to spend so much time reviewing stuff I felt I knew down cold. Eventually I went to just doing 3 blocks and quickly review, only focusing on content I didn't know.

Typically finish 3 blocks in about 1.5-2hrs, the rest reviewing the questions. Usually a large focus on the graphics & tables