Official 2015 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[KushWeedNuggetsStankyLeg]

M2 here. Starting today, I am just going to be reviewing for Step 1 which I am taking next May, and nothing else. Here is my plan:

Oct 23-Dec 31: Memorize FA2014, Watch all of Pathoma
Jan 1-Jan 31: FA2015, Pathoma (pass 2), Kaplan QBank
Feb 1-Feb 28: FA2015 (pass 2), Pathoma (pass 3), USMLERX
March 1- March 31: FA2015 (pass 3), Pathoma (pass 4): UWorld
April 1- Mid May: FA2015 (pass 4), Pathoma (selective topics), UWorld (pass 2), all practice tests

Goal: High number

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[stepone2015]

Picmonic is a godsend for micro. Be careful not to rely too heavily on it because while it may get you through the M2 exams, it won't get you through Step 1. There's no way you can remember hundreds of cards for Step 1. It's just not efficient enough.

I use Picmonic after several passes through notes to solidify what I learned and make sure I don't make dumb mistakes. I also add stuff to the cards based off what they emphasized in class.

I use straight Anki for Pharm. Picmonic pharm is pretty weak, and I've only been using a couple pharm cards in Picmonic per exam. Just not necessary.

 

[ALUCSD18]

Stepone2015, so you're saying use Picmonic as an additional resource, not as a primary one for classes or step 1?

 

[ALUCSD18]

Also, a lot of people wondered this, not only at my school, but different forums I've been on. Will Pathoma branch out to other areas? I sent an email to Pathoma maybe a month and a half ago, and they said that they are sticking with only Pathology for the time being. They said for the next year, they are not thinking about anything else. So the earliest you might hear something about Pathoma in other areas is Fall 2015.

 

[stepone2015]

Stepone2015, so you're saying use Picmonic as an additional resource, not as a primary one for classes or step 1?

Yeah, it's like using lots of mnemonics to learn material. It will get you points on exams, but it's hard to remember for step 1, and you don't get depth of understanding with it. It's a bandaid in case you blank out on an exam or mix something up. It can also help organize different diseases in your head. I think it's best used as a supplement, but it's definitely worth it, at least for me.

 

[Girly X]

I can't believe we're up for step 1 next. I feel like I was just submitting secondaries :/

 

[QualityProcess]

they are sticking with only Pathology for the time being

as much as I would love for them to expand, I think this is a better strategy. Dr. Sattar is very skilled in teaching but the market for broad products is huge. Pathoma should keep focusing on making their path second to none.

 

[QualityProcess]

Oh, and I'll be joining y'all this year. DO student, above average grades (intentionally vague). My school has a 4 week winter break and about 8 weeks between last final exam and first rotation.

Winter break will be exclusively my weak points, micro and pharm (with Firecracker/BRS), and Anki of the Rapid Review section at the end of FA 2014. Will obviously carry FC/Anki through to the end of dedicated.

Does anyone recommend Picmonic if I'm trying to nail micro/pharm really hard in that month? I tend to do well with concepts and poorly with memorization, but I think the images would be great for me.

Dedicated will be FA/Pathoma/Uworld. I really want to keep my study limited to a few time-tested sources during dedicated.

 

[ALUCSD18]

Hey Quality,

I think for Picmonic, it's best if you try a free trial, because everyone has differing opinions on it. Some love it, others say the pictures get jumbled up. I would follow Stepone2015's advice. If you're going to use it, use it as a supplement. If it's your foundation, you might have trouble. What I decided to do, since like pharm, micro is mostly memorization, is use Anki (Micro lectures at school are surprisingly good), First Aid, and I started on the Lip MicroCards. They help. But the best thing for you to do in regards to Picmonic, is do a free trial and see for yourself, because it's not cheap, relatively speaking. 24.99 a month, unless they are doing a promotion. Good luck.

 

[Mattinthehat250]

Just curious, do most people only use one qbank throughout M2 or multiple? I have kaplan but was wondering if it would be wise to also go through Rx. I'm also using firecracker so I don't know how feasible this would be.

 

[dextor2003]

Just curious, do most people only use one qbank throughout M2 or multiple? I have kaplan but was wondering if it would be wise to also go through Rx. I'm also using firecracker so I don't know how feasible this would be.

I have both rx and kaplan but am just sticking to kaplan for now. Don't really get time to also do rx. But I figure doing rx closer to dedicated time would at least give me a more active way of reviewing FA then than just reading it.

 

[Apoplexy__]

Just curious, do most people only use one qbank throughout M2 or multiple? I have kaplan but was wondering if it would be wise to also go through Rx. I'm also using firecracker so I don't know how feasible this would be.

Most people I've talked to only use one QBank, if they use one at all.

I think a QBank + Firecracker would be very difficult. Choose one, I'd say.

 

[seminoma]

Just curious, do most people only use one qbank throughout M2 or multiple? I have kaplan but was wondering if it would be wise to also go through Rx. I'm also using firecracker so I don't know how feasible this would be.

Most people I've talked to only use one QBank, if they use one at all.

I think a QBank + Firecracker would be very difficult. Choose one, I'd say.

Personally I've been able to do Rx, Kaplan, and FC during MS2. ~6 hours of studying 7 days per week.

 

[dextor2003]

Personally I've been able to do Rx, Kaplan, and FC during MS2. ~6 hours of studying 7 days per week.

You must have a genius memory or something haha. I'm studying 12 hrs a day and even then have trouble just getting the class material to stick. Can't even think of adding another qbank on top of that =\

 

[Apoplexy__]

Personally I've been able to do Rx, Kaplan, and FC during MS2. ~6 hours of studying 7 days per week.

Crazy. I did about the same amount of studying and struggled to even do FC along with classes in MS2. No mandatory lectures either. Our semester 4 schedule was lighter with classes, so I did do UFaP concurrently then, but that was a unique situation.

 

[Vexare]

Those that are able to hit qbanks along with classes should obviously do as much as they have time to. For most people though, learning the material properly the first time would be a much better use of your time. Dedicated step 1 time shouldn't be about going back to re-learn everything. It should primarily be about refining what you've learned into knowledge that's accessible and will allow you to think through questions. For me the best way to do that was to hit resources like Pathoma hard during the year, then focus on FA+questions only during dedicated.

Obviously everyone will have different approaches but I don't think anyone would disagree with the bottom line here: quality > quantity, and understanding > memorization.

 

[seminoma]

You must have a genius memory or something haha. I'm studying 12 hrs a day and even then have trouble just getting the class material to stick. Can't even think of adding another qbank on top of that =\

Crazy. I did about the same amount of studying and struggled to even do FC along with classes in MS2. No mandatory lectures either. Our semester 4 schedule was lighter with classes, so I did do UFaP concurrently then, but that was a unique situation.

We had a few hours of mandatory PBL type stuff every day, but no actual lectures. Since I only do qbank blocks with questions from the current class (i.e. neuro questions during neuro class) the information is really fresh and it doesn't take me the full hour to go through a 46 question block. I usually take ~35-40 minutes to do a 46 question block.

 

[Dr Dazzle]

It doesn't seem like it's necessary to go through Kaplan, RX and uworld to do well. Perhaps it's better to just focus on Uworld?

 

[seminoma]

It doesn't seem like it's necessary to go through Kaplan, RX and uworld to do well. Perhaps it's better to just focus on Uworld?

Whatever works for you. I don't know why you would want to spend 7 months on a single qbank though.

 

[mcloaf]

It doesn't seem like it's necessary to go through Kaplan, RX and uworld to do well. Perhaps it's better to just focus on Uworld?

Necessary isn't really an appropriate word for anything related to step 1 prep in my opinion. It's mostly about how you feel you learn best and using the tools that allow you to do that. I enjoy doing questions to learn/practice and so fully plan on doing all three if possible. I know others who scored extremely well not using Rx or Kaplan and not even coming close to finishing Uworld.

 

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

Count me in on this boat. Best of luck to everyone.

 

[Dr Dazzle]

Necessary isn't really an appropriate word for anything related to step 1 prep in my opinion. It's mostly about how you feel you learn best and using the tools that allow you to do that. I enjoy doing questions to learn/practice and so fully plan on doing all three if possible. I know others who scored extremely well not using Rx or Kaplan and not even coming close to finishing Uworld.

A classmate worked on RX, FA and pathoma vids over the m1 summer. Thinking it would've been helpful to have had that first pass.

 

[Dr Dazzle]

...

 

[seminoma]

A classmate worked on RX, FA and pathoma vids over the m1 summer. Thinking it would've been helpful to have had that first pass.

It probably did help. Some of us like to do more than what's "necessary".

 

[doc10487]

Picmonic is a godsend for micro. Be careful not to rely too heavily on it because while it may get you through the M2 exams, it won't get you through Step 1. There's no way you can remember hundreds of cards for Step 1. It's just not efficient enough.

I use Picmonic after several passes through notes to solidify what I learned and make sure I don't make dumb mistakes. I also add stuff to the cards based off what they emphasized in class.

I use straight Anki for Pharm. Picmonic pharm is pretty weak, and I've only been using a couple pharm cards in Picmonic per exam. Just not necessary.

Hey I am in the same boat as everyone. Can you share your pharma Anki cards. Thanks a million.

 

[stepone2015]

Hey I am in the same boat as everyone. Can you share your pharma Anki cards. Thanks a million.

I don't know what the point would be. My cards are just to do well on our exams. I go through our notes and condense down all the details as much as I can using my own abbreviations/symbols. It has more details than are useful for Step 1. If you want cards for step 1, they are freely available from the Anki website.

 

[stepone2015]

It doesn't seem like it's necessary to go through Kaplan, RX and uworld to do well. Perhaps it's better to just focus on Uworld?

Everyone learns differently, but as long as you can learn from question banks, doing as many as you can is so helpful for exams and, very likely, for Step 1 in the future.

After doing hundreds of questions for our exams, I can read quite a few questions on our exams and know the answer before I get half way through the stem. You get good at picking out details and knowing what they are trying to test you on.

RX and Kaplan are nice because they will have crazy questions every once in a while that keep you on your toes.

 

[dextor2003]

Everyone learns differently, but as long as you can learn from question banks, doing as many as you can is so helpful for exams and, very likely, for Step 1 in the future.

After doing hundreds of questions for our exams, I can read quite a few questions on our exams and know the answer before I get half way through the stem. You get good at picking out details and knowing what they are trying to test you on.

RX and Kaplan are nice because they will have crazy questions every once in a while that keep you on your toes.

Do you do all those questions the weekend before a test or something? I don't get how you're able to do questions on a system for example if you haven't even covered everything for it yet. I feel like doing questions on material we haven't learned yet wouldn't be too productive and way too time consuming..

 

[stepone2015]

Do you do all those questions the weekend before a test or something? I don't get how you're able to do questions on a system for example if you haven't even covered everything for it yet. I feel like doing questions on material we haven't learned yet wouldn't be too productive and way too time consuming..

I read ahead. By half way through the module, I will have read the lecture notes for everything the tests covers. Then I go back and do another pass, plus ~2 pathoma passes. I'll also watch lectures at 2 speed. By ~2 weeks before the test, I'll have all that done as well as a few passes of Picmonic and Anki pharm, so I then dedicate a few days to doing nothing but practice questions. I got nearly 1000 practice questions done for our last set of exams (RX and UW, planning on adding Kaplan at some point, plus practice questions from professors and from random books like Robbins/Rubins/Katzung/some micro textbook).

I don't do questions until I've gone through all the material at least 3-4 times.

 

[dextor2003]

I read ahead. By half way through the module, I will have read the lecture notes for everything the tests covers. Then I go back and do another pass, plus ~2 pathoma passes. I'll also watch lectures at 2 speed. By ~2 weeks before the test, I'll have all that done as well as a few passes of Picmonic and Anki pharm, so I then dedicate a few days to doing nothing but practice questions. I got nearly 1000 practice questions done for our last set of exams (RX and UW, planning on adding Kaplan at some point, plus practice questions from professors and from random books like Robbins/Rubins/Katzung/some micro textbook).

I don't do questions until I've gone through all the material at least 3-4 times.

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/56022434.jpg

 

[stepone2015]

http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/56022434.jpg

How long does it take you to get through a single day's lecture notes and videos? I read through them and 2 speed the videos. That's usually 5-6 hours. I still have another 4-5 where I can read tomorrow's and the next day's lectures. The following day, I'll two speed the lectures for that day and keep reading ahead. Over the weekend, you can drink and do research - you don't even need to study much if at all. If your module/exam schedule is 1 month of lectures then 5th week is exams, you should easily be done with 1 pass of lecture notes by the end of the 2nd week.

I get through 1 hour of lecture notes in 30-45 unless I am highly demotivated.

 

[DrEnderW]

**** just got real, wasn't expecting this thread yet.

Currently reading FA 2014 along with class, pathoma 1-2x, FC, and dabbling in a free Qbank I get through school. I've been unsure about when to start Uworld, what are ya'll thinking?

 

[stepone2015]

**** just got real, wasn't expecting this thread yet.

Currently reading FA 2014 along with class, pathoma 1-2x, FC, and dabbling in a free Qbank I get through school. I've been unsure about when to start Uworld, what are ya'll thinking?

Do it to it. Only helps.

 

[pathologyDO]

**** just got real, wasn't expecting this thread yet.

Currently reading FA 2014 along with class, pathoma 1-2x, FC, and dabbling in a free Qbank I get through school. I've been unsure about when to start Uworld, what are ya'll thinking?

I plan to start UWorld right around the beginning of my dedicated study period (we are given ~ 9 weeks to study). Thinking I may get it about 3 months out or so from the test, to be precise.

 

[D4C]

**** just got real, wasn't expecting this thread yet.

Currently reading FA 2014 along with class, pathoma 1-2x, FC, and dabbling in a free Qbank I get through school. I've been unsure about when to start Uworld, what are ya'll thinking?

I'm feeling December/January area for Uworld.

 

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

**** just got real, wasn't expecting this thread yet.

Currently reading FA 2014 along with class, pathoma 1-2x, FC, and dabbling in a free Qbank I get through school. I've been unsure about when to start Uworld, what are ya'll thinking?

Hopefully February. Working through FA/Pathoma/Rx at the moment.

 

[dextor2003]

How long does it take you to get through a single day's lecture notes and videos? I read through them and 2 speed the videos. That's usually 5-6 hours. I still have another 4-5 where I can read tomorrow's and the next day's lectures. The following day, I'll two speed the lectures for that day and keep reading ahead. Over the weekend, you can drink and do research - you don't even need to study much if at all. If your module/exam schedule is 1 month of lectures then 5th week is exams, you should easily be done with 1 pass of lecture notes by the end of the 2nd week.

I get through 1 hour of lecture notes in 30-45 unless I am highly demotivated.

We have weekly tests plus a single final for each module, and we have grades, so I'm not really sure your strategy would be feasible for me. Plus we usually don't even have access to the lecture material until a few days before it's scheduled =\ Otherwise your plan is exactly what I would've liked to do

 

[Silo004]

I read ahead. By half way through the module, I will have read the lecture notes for everything the tests covers. Then I go back and do another pass, plus ~2 pathoma passes. I'll also watch lectures at 2 speed. By ~2 weeks before the test, I'll have all that done as well as a few passes of Picmonic and Anki pharm, so I then dedicate a few days to doing nothing but practice questions. I got nearly 1000 practice questions done for our last set of exams (RX and UW, planning on adding Kaplan at some point, plus practice questions from professors and from random books like Robbins/Rubins/Katzung/some micro textbook).

I don't do questions until I've gone through all the material at least 3-4 times.

 

[aspiringdoc09]

I read ahead. By half way through the module, I will have read the lecture notes for everything the tests covers. Then I go back and do another pass, plus ~2 pathoma passes. I'll also watch lectures at 2 speed. By ~2 weeks before the test, I'll have all that done as well as a few passes of Picmonic and Anki pharm, so I then dedicate a few days to doing nothing but practice questions. I got nearly 1000 practice questions done for our last set of exams (RX and UW, planning on adding Kaplan at some point, plus practice questions from professors and from random books like Robbins/Rubins/Katzung/some micro textbook).

I don't do questions until I've gone through all the material at least 3-4 times.

This is what I call efficiency. If only my school gave us access to everything for the entire block, then it would save time. This is a perfect world.

 

[NekoBeats]

I read ahead. By half way through the module, I will have read the lecture notes for everything the tests covers. Then I go back and do another pass, plus ~2 pathoma passes. I'll also watch lectures at 2 speed. By ~2 weeks before the test, I'll have all that done as well as a few passes of Picmonic and Anki pharm, so I then dedicate a few days to doing nothing but practice questions. I got nearly 1000 practice questions done for our last set of exams (RX and UW, planning on adding Kaplan at some point, plus practice questions from professors and from random books like Robbins/Rubins/Katzung/some micro textbook).

I don't do questions until I've gone through all the material at least 3-4 times.

That's a solid plan to have. We get the lecture material for my school ahead of time but I don't know how feasible it is to constantly be ahead, at least for me. I feel like I fall behind just with the lectures we have for that day. It could be that I'm just inefficient though :/

In other news, I gathered the courage to resume Rx. I was doing cardio pharm before but decided I needed some serious review before I touch questions on that so I decided to start off with cardio path. It's still kicking my butt. My school exams are professor written and there aren't really any board-style questions, so I feel like that's all coming back to get me now. I'm not used to these secondary questions and I think it also shows how little I actually mastered the material throughout the past year and a half. It's a shame, but at least I know now I guess.

 

[stepone2015]

I know many people will look at my schedule and scoff thinking I must be a machine or something silly like that. I thought a schedule like that would be insane too until a third year friend recommended it to me. It was honestly really scary to do at first because it was so dramatically different from how I studied before.

I don't think what I am doing requires anything other than hard work. I probably average 8 hours per day throughout the most of the module. I tend to take half days or even full days off a couple weeks before the exam because I start getting a bit overconfident and honestly bored with the material since I've seen it so many times.

I think a great majority of people can do this, curriculum permitting, or at the very least, do something similar to this. If you only get your lectures at most a week ahead of time, you can still work your ass off rereading lectures over and over. The idea being, by the time you get to the final week of lectures, you can easily pound out 3-4 passes of that week's notes and be in total review mode for the final week before exams.

 

[CR7MedStudent]

I'm getting all motivated after reading these posts. I've just been using pathoma, u world, and kaplan while studying for my MS-2 courses., with success. But does anybody have any tips on reviewing bio chem? I've been using firecracker and memorang, which help for subjects like anatomy and micro. But those bio-chem pathways......

 

[caps1219]

Hey all,

Haven't been on the forums since being a Pre-Med and I saw this thread to join in on some Step 1 discussion. Currently an M2 on Fall Break (finally). Here's my spiel:

Goal: 250+
Date: June 5th, 2015

Pre-Winter Break:
What's been going well: Class material, really focusing on just learning the Path, Pharm, and Micro
What I need to work on: I've been inconsistent with following along with Pathoma, FA, and my other Micro/Path Step 1 Review materials. Will really get on that when classes get going again
What hasn't been going well: Firecracker, free sub from school. Had to stop it in early September because it was taking too much time away from the new material. Was able to get through a lot of M1 material over the Summer.

Winter Break: 12/20
Plan in descending priority:
1. Jump start on the course material for the time between when classes resume up until my Spring break (1/5/15-2/22/15) with detailed passes in Pathoma, FA, and other board materials. Most likely take that Kaplan Diagnostic Test 1/4/15
2. Review material from Pre-winter Break using Review materials (FA/DIT, Pathoma, other materials)

Still working on what I'll be doing afterwards. Reading up on stuff to make a concrete, preliminary study schedule for Jan-Feb. I have most of my materials but still waiting to grab UWorld.

 

[stepone2015]

So I asked my upperclassmen friends, and they seem to agree studying over break is a waste. I was planning on studying a lot, but it may just risk a burn out.

I'm thinking now about just doing blocks from old modules as a review, but not very much.

What are you guys thinking of doing?

 

[NekoBeats]

So I asked my upperclassmen friends, and they seem to agree studying over break is a waste. I was planning on studying a lot, but it may just risk a burn out.

I'm thinking now about just doing blocks from old modules as a review, but not very much.

What are you guys thinking of doing?

Some of the upperclassmen I've talked to said the same thing, but I'm planning on studying over break. I'm just going to make sure to take breaks and have days off so I don't burn out. I just know I won't have free time like that when classes re-start in January.

 

[ALUCSD18]

Hey Caps1219, What resources work best for you in regards to Micro and Pharm? Are they really helpful? Thanks.

 

[Girly X]

So I asked my upperclassmen friends, and they seem to agree studying over break is a waste. I was planning on studying a lot, but it may just risk a burn out.

I'm thinking now about just doing blocks from old modules as a review, but not very much.

What are you guys thinking of doing?

I'm not really planning on studying. Just some light youtube-ing to shore up some concept weaknesses in genetics, autonomics and stats. If I can get those down, I'll be very happy

 

[Mattinthehat250]

Personally I've been able to do Rx, Kaplan, and FC during MS2. ~6 hours of studying 7 days per week.

Have you found that there's a lot of material in the Qbanks that's not in firecracker?

 

[caps1219]

Hey Caps1219, What resources work best for you in regards to Micro and Pharm? Are they really helpful? Thanks.

I got my list of books and materials from two M3 friends that did very well on their tests.

For Micro, I started following along my school's curriculum with Clinical Micro Made RS. Really like it a lot with good mnemonics and they try to be funny every now and then. I also grabbed Lippincott's Micro Flash Cards but won't really touch those until January. I'll use my school notes as a last reference if I really need to do so. My friends also suggested Picmonic, but I'm still on the fence because I don't want to overload on resources.

For Pharm, I'm focusing primarily on my school's notes to put into FA even though they can be really detailed. I also grabbed Lange Pharm flashcards that won't be used til January as well.

 

[ALUCSD18]

Thanks for the reply caps1219. I tried Picmonic as a suggestion and it didn't really work for me. I feel like it added an unnecessary step, which caused me to have to learn more. For example, in the Salmonella sketch, it had a skeleton signifying osteomyelitis. Instead of just knowing about Salmonella and osteo, I have to remember what the skeleton means. However, to each his own. I'm using FA, and MicroCards for the micro section. I've heard those to be enough since Micro is mostly memorization and doesn't require a deep understanding like other subjects. Good luck on Step 1.

 

[CR7MedStudent]

I got my list of books and materials from two M3 friends that did very well on their tests.

For Micro, I started following along my school's curriculum with Clinical Micro Made RS. Really like it a lot with good mnemonics and they try to be funny every now and then. I also grabbed Lippincott's Micro Flash Cards but won't really touch those until January. I'll use my school notes as a last reference if I really need to do so. My friends also suggested Picmonic, but I'm still on the fence because I don't want to overload on resources.

For Pharm, I'm focusing primarily on my school's notes to put into FA even though they can be really detailed. I also grabbed Lange Pharm flashcards that won't be used til January as well.

I used the same thing for micro plus Kaplan videos. I highly recommend those micro flashcards!! It has all the high yield information for each bug on each card! Good results for me at least in my class and the shelf.