Winging Step 1

[pharmer]

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Just curious if anyone knows or has heard of someone that went to take step 1 with basically no preperation for it other that the first 2 years of class, ie finishing second year and then taking it the next day or so? I imagine if anyone did this it would obviously be someone going after a non-competitive residency.

 

[lattimer13]

try it and let us know how ya did.

seriously, never heard of anyone doing it.

 

[musicman1991]

I know many people that did this and they ended up near the mean. You should be fine, but how do you know you don't want to do a competitive speciality or that your speciality may become competitive (PM&R, Anesthesia are on the rise).

Don't rule out anything. Always try your best and never look back.

 

[pharmer]

I have no intention of winging step1 (plus I'm just a newly minted MSII). Just wondering if anyone has stories of the wicked smart people out there that showed up to the testing center with little more than 8 hours sleep on their side and walked out with a 240.

 

[musicman1991]

Honestly, I don't even know my best friends scores. It's not something people talk about in med school. Yeah there are rumors about this and that but nothing factual

 

[fourthyear]

Even the biggest slackers in med school are anal enough that they could not possibly walk into a test without some sort of preparation. Anyone who says they didn't do some sort of review - practice questions, a skim through First Aid, something - is flat out lying. Some people like to let you think they're so smart they don't need to study, but you just can't make it this far without a little bit of work ethic that won't let you show up for a test that means so much without looking over the stuff a little bit.

Please stop making the rest of us feel stupid, musicman, by saying you know people who didnt' study and hit the mean - I can't beleive that is possilbe knowing that plenty of people actually study a lot and fail.

 

[musicman1991]

listen didn't mean to make you feel stupid,

i just meant they didn't study, as in "study hardcore" they would read first aid for 1 hour a day and so 1 hour of questions. I guess that is studying. I studied 8 hours a day so I thought it was kinda slacking.

 

[Hercules]

There was a guy a few classes above me with pretyy good grades who had been told that he'd be fine on Step 1 if he had done well the first 2 years, so he just looked over first aid for a day. He failed. I wouldn't recommend that strategy.

Musicman:
Do you really not know your friends' scores? My friends and I have been completely open about grades and scores ever since med school started.

 

[musicman1991]

Well I definitely did not bring it up with several of my friends because the one time they got jealous of my higher scores and we were all applying to the same speciality. Yeah it was BS, but i decided to not bring it up.

 

[annushka]

i never heard of that...seriously.

the only thing that comes close was a guy that was my roommate in undergrad--constantly stoned and i don't think he ever went to class. ended up being the class valedictorian and winning a fellowship in Oxford after graduation.

but i think medical students are way too competitive to be this laid-back. meaning, even if they are really smart they're always worried about someone being smarter than them. i was a relative slacker these past two years--especially second year, when I studied for some block exams two hours before the actual thing (and passed!)...but now, I try to put in a lot of my time to study well, because I really, really don't want to retake the boards.

Besides, you'll be surprised how many things you forget. Even if you do well in your first 2 years.

 

[optiplex]

don't study and do well...hahaha...okay, if you think you are a genius then do that. but frankly, I don't think there are too many genius out there. And if you are, then medicine is the wrong field for you.