USMLE Why can't I start studying early?

[MattSmith45]

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I just realized that if I had tailored my efforts more towards the MCAT in undergrad (since freshman year), I would have done extremely well. I would have annotated in the MCAT review books WHILE I was taking the required pre-reqs. I would have basically started studying very early.

But people say that you shouldn't really touch first aid during M1. You should start annotating at the start of M2. I wanted to know why it's foolish to begin Step1 prep during M1? It would have been beneficial for the MCAT

 

[Jabbed]

I just realized that if I had tailored my efforts more towards the MCAT in undergrad (since freshman year), I would have done extremely well. I would have annotated in the MCAT review books WHILE I was taking the required pre-reqs. I would have basically started studying very early.

But people say that you shouldn't really touch first aid during M1. You should start annotating at the start of M2. I wanted to know why it's foolish to begin Step1 prep during M1? It would have been beneficial for the MCAT

Do what you want. Seriously. Other people's advice is just that: advice. I would personally recommend using step sources alongside your classroom material from day 1.

The conventional wisdom on annotating FA is that you'll have no idea what is/is not important during your M1 year such that any annotations that you do make will likely be wrong/exceedingly low yield.

 

[pd1112]

Do what you want. Seriously. Other people's advice is just that: advice. I would personally recommend using step sources alongside your classroom material from day 1.

The conventional wisdom on annotating FA is that you'll have no idea what is/is not important during your M1 year such that any annotations that you do make will likely be wrong/exceedingly low yield.

This x1000. Until you start doing question banks, you have no idea how questions are asked and what information they go after, and by the time you did get to question banks, there'd be no room to annotate. Also, the majority of information (80%+) covers topics that most curriculums don't touch until M2 - micro, path, pathophys, pharm. IMO you'd be much better off spending any time you think you have for this during M1 either a) chillin' or b) exploring fields you're interested in i.e. shadowing, research or c) getting involved in meaningful ECs that you enjoy. There is minimal time for a/b/c during M2 and even less (I'm assuming) during M3.

 

[IniestaDeMiVida]

I'm not sure when you take micro, but having a good set of micro notes is something I wish I had now that I'm studying.

There's a few reasons I wouldn't start during M1: You'll be annotating an older version of FA than you'll be using for you dedicated study time, you'll get way more information than you need, very few M1 concepts are presented without the context of M2 material, and it'll probably just get pushed aside as you get a lot more busy.

Looking back, I wish I had made an effort to do well in every class. As it gets close to the end of classes, you may feel like you don't want to study for some classes because you can't "honor" them. You probably need to make sure you get a really good foundation so that later when you're pulling every ounce of information out of your brain for Step, it'll be there to find.

That said, do what you want and see how it feels. Good luck.

 

[seminoma]

I just realized that if I had tailored my efforts more towards the MCAT in undergrad (since freshman year), I would have done extremely well. I would have annotated in the MCAT review books WHILE I was taking the required pre-reqs. I would have basically started studying very early.

But people say that you shouldn't really touch first aid during M1. You should start annotating at the start of M2. I wanted to know why it's foolish to begin Step1 prep during M1? It would have been beneficial for the MCAT

1. MCAT is nothing like step 1.
2. Tons of extra time in undergrad. Not so much in med school.
3. MCAT tests science. Step 1 tests application of science.
4. Definitely should not start annotating at the start of M2.

At the end of the day you just don't know what's important for step 1. Even at the end of M2 you don't really know what's important for step 1. That's why you spend 6 weeks stuffing your brain with Uworld and FA and Pathoma.