Taking step 1 in 3 months, am I chillin?

[paveldatsyuk]

I realize that this topic has been beaten to death but it seems like most people are sh**ing on the anking deck since step 1 went p/f. Despite this, I've decided to keep up with reviews without suspending cards from previous blocks. I've used solely sketchy + anking and robbins (for practice questions) to study for in-house exams and I'm averaging ~92%.

I've matured 11k cards (maybe like 500 of those are also tagged for step 2), anki simulator says I'll have about 16500 out of the 32000 cards mature before I take the exam. True retention rate is ~90%. Besides AnKing I'm just planning on doing 1 pass through uworld during dedicated. I'm only taking half of my dedicated time to study though because I wanna have a small vacation before I start clerkships.

Basically, my question is, am I in good shape or should I be as equally stressed as the majority of the people in my class?

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[eteshoe]

I think that should be fine. Intersperce some NBME's during dedicated to polish the test taking skills.

I always advice students to just use Anking from the beginning if they are going to use Anki since it's completely comprehensive and p/f or not, you're still responsible for knowing a good deal of the stuff covered in that deck AND the topics will continue to be built upon during Step 2.

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

3 months from what? When does your coursework end, how much of your dedicated is half?

I and others who did well on our house exams were able to take and pass Step 1 within 2-3 weeks. This is for our school, can't say how that translates to others. We all took an NBME when dedicated started that said we'd have a 99% chance of passing if we took the exam within a week or so.

When dedicated comes around take a full-length and see how it goes, adjust from there.

 

[Billiam95]

I realize that this topic has been beaten to death but it seems like most people are sh**ing on the anking deck since step 1 went p/f. Despite this, I've decided to keep up with reviews without suspending cards from previous blocks. I've used solely sketchy + anking and robbins (for practice questions) to study for in-house exams and I'm averaging ~92%.

I've matured 11k cards (maybe like 500 of those are also tagged for step 2), anki simulator says I'll have about 16500 out of the 32000 cards mature before I take the exam. True retention rate is ~90%. Besides AnKing I'm just planning on doing 1 pass through uworld during dedicated. I'm only taking half of my dedicated time to study though because I wanna have a small vacation before I start clerkships.

Basically, my question is, am I in good shape or should I be as equally stressed as the majority of the people in my class?

Probably in a better position than most due to keeping up with anki and doing well on your exams. Only thing that would give me pause is that you've been taking in-house exams - would be important to see how similar those are to NBME-style questions. I think Amboss offered a free step1 practice exam around February last year - might be worthwhile taking that to see where you stand.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

it seems like most people are sh**ing on the anking deck since step 1 went p/f

Literally, who?

And we don;t know how well off you are until you take some practice exams. Anki knowledge does not necessarily = Step performance.

 

[paveldatsyuk]

Literally, who?

And we don;t know how well off you are until you take some practice exams. Anki knowledge does not necessarily = Step performance.

I didn’t memorize specific usernames, sorry. Search for threads for anking for p/f step and you’ll see.
Also there are a lot of threads that talk about correlation bt AnKing maturity and performance on step so maybe check those out too…they’re literally everywhere

Probably in a better position than most due to keeping up with anki and doing well on your exams. Only thing that would give me pause is that you've been taking in-house exams - would be important to see how similar those are to NBME-style questions. I think Amboss offered a free step1 practice exam around February last year - might be worthwhile taking that to see where you stand.

Yup I’m planning on taking some practice exams during dedicated, at least 3 or 4. Our in house exams are 50% faculty written questions and 50% nbme questions curated by faculty

3 months from what? When does your coursework end, how much of your dedicated is half?

I and others who did well on our house exams were able to take and pass Step 1 within 2-3 weeks. This is for our school, can't say how that translates to others. We all took an NBME when dedicated started that said we'd have a 99% chance of passing if we took the exam within a week or so.

When dedicated comes around take a full-length and see how it goes, adjust from there.

3 months from now. Our dedicated starts April 1st. My exam is scheduled for early May. I believe we also have that exam that tells us our chance of passing sometime during dedicated. The point of my post is to figure out if I should change what I’m doing rn before I get to dedicated or if I should keep doing what I’m doing

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

3 months from now. Our dedicated starts April 1st. My exam is scheduled for early May. I believe we also have that exam that tells us our chance of passing sometime during dedicated. The point of my post is to figure out if I should change what I’m doing rn before I get to dedicated or if I should keep doing what I’m doing

Well the only way you'll really know is taking a FL NBME

All we have to work off of is how you're doing on your house exams but who is to say how representative your house exams are to Step 1, and where your grades on house exams compare ya know?

 

[deleted1139416]

Study just as hard for Step 1 as you would if it were graded. The people I know who lacked in depth review for Step 1 are now struggling in 3rd year. The process of prepping for Step 1 is crucial to do well on shelves and Step 2 because it makes you review and analyze all the material from Year 1 and 2.

 

[Billiam95]

Echo above. Entered dedicated with scores well above passing but still studied hard and used nearly all of my dedicated period - glad I did in retrospect. I think I'm doing better in 3rd year for it, and and my shelf exams scores now are better relative to the average than they ever were in preclinical.

 

[aldol16]

Step 1 is P/F. The vast majority of people won't have an issue with it. Take the opportunity now to improve your quality of life and trust that you have the knowledge to pass the exam and use the extra time for other things more worth pursuing.

 

[Esmolol]

Step 1 is P/F. The vast majority of people won't have an issue with it. Take the opportunity now to improve your quality of life and trust that you have the knowledge to pass the exam and use the extra time for other things more worth pursuing.

Step 1 went P/F last year (we were the first year to have to deal with it that way) and tbh the above got many people in trouble on exam day. There are threads here that the number of people who failed at first attempt is higher than before d/t the above.

In other words - yes, it is P/F - but it still is a big and difficult exam and not as easy to pass as sometimes depicted. You still have to do your work in the months leading up to it. I can't speak for Anki - never really used it. You still have to go through UWorld, etc. Just study as if it still was scored and you needed your XYZ points to later match to ZYX. If anything - it will pay off on rounds/Step 2 in MS3.

 

[aldol16]

In other words - yes, it is P/F - but it still is a big and difficult exam and not as easy to pass as sometimes depicted. You still have to do your work in the months leading up to it. I can't speak for Anki - never really used it. You still have to go through UWorld, etc. Just study as if it still was scored and you needed your XYZ points to later match to ZYX. If anything - it will pay off on rounds/Step 2 in MS3.

Studying for Step 1 won't necessarily pay off in Step 2. Step 2 is more clinical and people make that assumption and then they bomb Step 2. Step 3 is even more different than the other two. The point is, sure, there will be people who fail Step 1. I suspect that the increase in failure rate is people who were borderline to begin with who studied less hard since it went pass fail and then it came back and bit them in the butt. The vast majority of people will still pass Step 1. Take a practice NBME or a free AMBOSS test or whatever. If you're passing with a comfortable margin, you're probably not at risk of failing it.

 

[RapidEyeMovementLearning]

If you finish most of Anki (and are not a terrible test taker) you will be well within passing. I was getting 210 on NBME before starting M2, and 230s on the Amboss practice in December of M2, without knowing any cardio or psych. I did like 200 total of UW before realizing I wanted to chill instead. I did an NBME exam every month or so to make sure I didn't fall off. And Anki until exam day. I'm in M3 right now and I don't think finishing UW matters. For step 2 it's a different story and will be very important.

 

[imidazzle92]

UW takes a long time. It's ~3700 questions and it's probably unrealistic to do more than 80 per day while thoroughly reviewing them and keeping up with Anki. Start UW now.

 

[Styrene]

UW takes a long time. It's ~3700 questions and it's probably unrealistic to do more than 80 per day while thoroughly reviewing them and keeping up with Anki. Start UW now.

Yes, it's a ton of work. During my dedicated, I did 80-120 uworld q per day and made anki cards of all incorrect and some other facts, sometimes multiple cards per question. Reviewed cards at start of day and did new cards at end of day. Skipped biostats questions. Also did all nbmes. That took me about 10-12 hours per day 5-6 days per week for about 5 weeks. Did this before pass/fail change. Knowing myself, I would have the done the same thing if it was pass/fail, though I probably could have passed without any dedicated studying is my guess. I assume that's the case for many people.