Qbank = 67%
Goljan (audio, notes, high yield)
Kaplan lecture notes
First Aid
Netter
NBME (free = 83% first test = 602)
Back in January I took a friend's advice and bought a used set of Kaplan Step 1 lecture notes (the books they give out during the prep class) from 2005, and I used the pathology and pharmacology book to study for block exams. I found this pretty helpful at the time because our notes were often pretty awful and kaplan helped teach me the material without some of the irrelevant details that our school notes featured. It also helped me get acclimated with the books and made them far less unfamiliar and intimidating during Step 1 study. In hindsight I'd say that the Kaplan pathology book is pretty substandard with respect to level of detail and completeness of explanations, but is fine as an outline of important concepts. The pharmacology is excellent in every way, and helped me out tremendously during the year.
I bought Qreview at about the same time through a Kaplan promotion that was marketed on campus and began using it right away to study for block exams. Our teachers don't give us many practice questions to work on in preparation for exams so I used Qbank's pathology, pathophysiology, microbiology and pharmacology questions to practice. The questions were mildly helpful to me as far as school exams go, but again I kept in mind the ultimate purpose.
After my last final exam I went to our school's academic development office and asked for advice. I didn't ask about books or resources or scheduling, I just asked for general direction, about how to get started. I got some good answers: I determined that my weakest single subject was microbiology, and so I spent the first week of studying reading the Kaplan microbiology and immunology book, and their biochemistry book from cover to cover. I did this during the day and during the evening I did something lighter and more enjoyable, which for me was perusing Kaplan's anatomy book and staring at Frank Netter's marvellous anatomy plates. I thought of it as a nice break and somewhat of a reward after a hard day at work.
After the first week I got down to a studying regimen that was guided by some basic principles. I realized early that I would never be able to dedicate entire days to a single subject. I would never be able to spend an entire day on just histology, or just pathology or just pharmacology. So what I did was organize my daily agenda by "major" and "minor" subjects. I classified pathology and pathophysiology as major subjects. I classified pharmacology, anatomy, histology, microbiology, immunology, physiology and epidemiology as minor subjects.
So everyday I tried very hard to spend at least half of my time on a major subject, and to spend the rest of the time on one or two minor subjects. I would be sure to never repeat the same regimen more than two days in a row, that way no one subject gets ignored. So I might do neuropathology, anatomy and physiology on Monday, and then finish neuropathology, while doing some pharmacology and epidemiology on Tuesday. This strategy kept the bag mixed, which did wonders for keeping things from getting stale. It also worked well because I got to doing pathology/pathophysiology everyday, which for me helped organize the rest of the relevant information related to the various systems.
All of the material, much like the exam itself, is amazingly integrated, so I found it very difficult to study one subject (say pathology) properly without simultaneously studying the bugs, drugs, biochemistry and physiology of the system. I never understood how someone could get by studying just the pathology (in BRS pathology) for a whole day without studying the other stuff that is related and relevant to that pathology. The man who brought it all together for me was Edward Goljan. His audio is a fully integrated experience that brings together the major principles of all of the relevant subjects with the clinical acumen that Step 1 really tests.
By the beginning of week three I had been through all of the Kaplan books once and at this point took a good friend's advice and turned to Goljan. I went through all of his audio within two weeks while simultaneously going through the corresponding sections in first aid for the first time. At the end of my first week of audio use I began to go through his notes from the beginning, that way I was a week behind in my reading than I was with the audio. Within another two weeks (the one month point of studying) I was done with the audio, and nearing the end of his voluminous set of notes. Through it all I made sure to understand every big idea and concept in both the lectures and the notes. This involved extensive use of Google images to fill in for lecture slides he refers to, Utah's wonderful WebPath site, answers.com and wikipedia. I continued to slowly make my way through first aid, so that at the end of that first month of studying I had finished one round of first aid.
Week five consisted of Goljan's high yield notes, which are lists consisting of words and ideas that have showed up on Step 1. I went through all of the subject based high yields including pathology, physiology, microbiology, pharmacology, anatomy, and biochemistry. The high yields are wonderful to read after hearing the lectures and reading the notes because they are a culmination of all of the little clinical vignettes, trivia nuggets and pathologic pearls that he drops throughout. If you studied the audio and the notes properly the high yields will leave you slapping your forehead the entire time because you will totally remember all of these tidbits from your earlier study. I supplemented the high yields by looking up anything that I didn't already understand using the online sources I listed and Kaplan's books.
The final week was about finishing Qbank, which I had used at a clip of about 100 questions a day since week two, attempting IVQbank (which I thought sucked), going through First Aid one more time, and doing NBME questions. I did the free questions on a Monday and spent the afternoon reviewing them. I did the free Kaplan diagnostic that Wednesday, and NBME1 on Thursday before my Friday test day. NBMEs are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but you should only use them to gauge where you are. None of the scored tests have answers but you can select a self paced administration that allows you three hours per 50 question block, that way you can spend an hour doing the block and two hours looking up the answers. Again, there are better ways to spend your studying time, but definitely do one or two NBMEs to get used to the question structure to give yourself a realistic expectation of how the real thing goes.
As for Qbank, I realize that it gets a lot of flak for being too minutiae drive, too nit picky, and too unlike the real thing. I will agree that it is much harder, more specific, and not written with the same prose or style as Step 1, but I will say that with the level of difficulty Qbank brings, and the depth of the answer explanations, it is the single best resource you will find to study for this test. If you do and understand each of the 2100 questions in Qbank, you will do well; there is no other way to say it, and I know of no other resource that can assure you those kinds of results.
As important as all of this studying was, there were two other things that were actually more important than any book or any question bank. The first was that despite the crazy schedule we all kept I most proud of the fact that I didn't stop living life. I kept my exercise schedule 100% intact without ever missing a day. I also made a point to watch "24" and "House" every week, while watching a little bit of the NBA playoffs at night. It made me feel good and made me feel more human and less like a reading machine.
And finally, the single most important contributing factor to my six weeks of Step 1 work was the company I kept; I studied with a close friend. My friend pushed me and kept me going, she answered my questions and listened to my frustrations. We did our work together and it made it all much less painful. If you really want to do well on Step 1 and not sacrifice your sanity, I recommend that you find someone you like and trust. If that person is smarter than you, then you've found your copilot.
Brace yourselves, it's a rough flight.
