USMLE Step 1 prep

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Iceman08

Ohio against the world
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Hey all,
So I havent posted on here a while cause the first year of medical school is pretty hectic as you all know. Anyway, I have some down time and was planning how to get ready for this beast next summer. I realize some people think its stupid I even think about it now, but that is just how I am wired. I have started skimming through First Aid and used some Anki decks my friends recommended, but outside of that haven't done much. I tutor medical students in the summer so that has also kept me up to date on some of the first year curriculum. I wanted to get your opinions on choosing supplementary materials outside First Aid and UWorld. I know there is Kaplan, Rx, and Firecracker, anyone have experiences with them they would like to share? Consensus on which is "better"? My goal is very ambitious for this exam, as I'm sure many rising M2 have. I did really well in my first year so that's where the precedence comes from for it.

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Here's my post from another thread about this exact question. Light review if anything is best. Studying heavily or really at all isn't going to help you much. I did really well in M1 classes and most material came back fairly easily during step review even if I hadn't looked at it since that class. Just take it easy and enjoy your summer. There's much more to life than studying or doing well on step 1.
I just took Step 1 earlier this summer and my advice to you is to do very little review over the MS1 summer. For one, you likely aren't going to remember any of what you study when dedicated comes around and a break can be really refreshing. Also you really will need a prolonged break before MS2. It was the most challenging year of school I've ever had and it really wears you down mentally and emotionally. You don't want to be in constant study mode from first year, throughout the summer, into second year, and then into Step 1 studying. You'll burnout and your score will reflect it.

If I were you, I would lightly review this summer. Maybe casually read through sections of firstaid and pathoma you all covered first year (our school did organ system blocks so first year we covered GI, biochem, micro, blood, endocrine, and pharmacology). Other than that you really won't be improving your step 1 score by studying this summer. It's too far out to really retain detail and integration needed for step 1/nbme questions.

The absolute best study plan for step 1 is to take your classes seriously first and second year. If you have a solid foundation and really know that material cold throughout those two years, step studying is a breeze. I have a lot of classmates that have yet to take the exam, but they're all stressing because they can't retain the mountains of information tested on step 1. The reality is you can't really alter your score that much in a few weeks of dedicated. You'll hit a peak that is indicative of the effort and time you spent learning the material the first time around. I mean seriously, does anybody really expect to alter their score by 20-30 points in a couple of weeks on material accumulated over 2+ years? It isn't really possible. Sure you can improve a score from 200 to 230 from the beginning of studying until you take the exam, but that was due to being unfamiliar with the information in the beginning and relearning what you already knew at the end of dedicated. That person was always going to max out at 230 which reflects the time they put in over years of learning.

If you have to cave in to a type A personality (I would know), your best bet is to start studying for step in January of your second year with light review and once classes end move over to dedicated. Don't push classes to the side and only study for Step, that's foolish at best. Supplement what your school is teaching you with first aid and pathoma/brs physiology, especially if they administer nbme unit exams for your finals.

Other than that just relax and enjoy a break.
 
Definitely don't know about the consensus, and I don't think you should care about that either (definitely check out what people say but don't go for one thing just because the majority says so). Go for the resource that works best for you.

As for the possibilities you have many, my personal favorite have always been najeeb and lecturio, however I have stopped with najeeb simply because of how long the video lectures are (I would have loved to continue and I don't think that the length of the videos is a disadvantage, I just personally cannot take that time). As for lecturio, it's like having the best profs teaching you almost every topic without fluff. It gave me the opportunity to review basic science concepts that were not so well understood and it has accompanied me all the way into the rotations. It has a bookmatching app which is nuts, review questions, review topics and clinical cases. Is it the best resoruce? I have no clue, I don't have the time nor the time to find that out. For me it has been magic.

So like mentioned before, try out the resources and see which one works for YOU and which one gives you more bang for you buck.

Lecturio Medical Videos
Check these out, the first two vid lecs will be visible once you create a free account. I'm sending these to you so you can try them out and see if it is for you, as you should do with every single resource.

cheers
 
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