Step 1 prep courses

Just changed my signature from M1 to M2. Felt a bit surreal. It has been an absolute blur - the first year literally flew by. I can hardly believe it when I see the new M1’s walking by looking for different classrooms.


Nevertheless, med2 starts next week and I have to concentrate and get my motor running again. I wanted to start asking around about preps for Step 1. Given that it’s given so much weight when assessing a student’s academic abilities I wanted to make sure that I am prepared for it when the time rolls around next summer.


So to those who have gone down this path before me, chime in - Kaplan? Other QBanks? What did you guys use?

Dazed - yeah I know what you mean! I loved changing it in my sig. We started back last week.


Our school was paying for a Kaplan course but the students gave them feedback that was somewhat negative so they are switching to something else…stay tuned. Meanwhile I started with First Aid for the Basic Sciences (year 1) - bought over the summer with great resolutions but did not start much. Also BLS review for neuroanatomy as I did not feel I got a good grasp of that first time thru.


Kate

Suggestion:


It seems like there are an increasing # of OPM’ers successfully making the transition to med school. With this latest app cycle, it seems a new bumper crop will be making that transition soon enough. Therefore, the national board exams - USMLE/COMLEX - are going to be gaining importance to many more OPM’ers now than in years past.


Do any of you think it might be a good idea to finally start a dedicated board exam forum (instead of using the general discussion forum) in the OPM med student section, analogous to the MCAT forum for the pre-med students?


Like Dazed & Kate429, I too will be facing Step 1 next summer and “the boards” will be an increasingly important focus of attention.

  • TicDocDoh Said:
Suggestion:

It seems like there are an increasing # of OPM'ers successfully making the transition to med school. With this latest app cycle, it seems a new bumper crop will be making that transition soon enough. Therefore, the national board exams - USMLE/COMLEX - are going to be gaining importance to many more OPM'ers now than in years past.

Do any of you think it might be a good idea to finally start a dedicated board exam forum (instead of using the general discussion forum) in the OPM med student section, analogous to the MCAT forum for the pre-med students?

Like Dazed & Kate429, I too will be facing Step 1 next summer and "the boards" will be an increasingly important focus of attention.



Yes to the dedicated forum suggestion.

As for OPM'ers I think it is also an increasing awareness amongst adcoms that age is a positive factor and not a negative one. At least that's what one of the adcom members at my College told me.

If I had Step 1 to do over again, I would focus on First Aid during the academic year, making sure I knew those facts, then in the 4 weeks we had between the end of the M2 year and Step 1, I would have focused more on Q-bank questions. Did this for Step 2 and id much better and felt more comfortable. Had to accept the fact that I study best by active methods, including questions. Looking at random facts does nothing for me.

Ditto what Tara said. I also did much better on Step 2 by concentrating on QBank. Use First Aid and other similar review books to stay sharp during the academic year, and Q&A resources in the weeks leading up to test time. Not sure if the current versions are still the same, but I recall QBank having a feature where you could customize the number of questions and content in the blocks. That was helpful toward the end, to prepare for the timed test.

I highly recommend a QBank. For Step 1 I think either USMLE World or Kaplan if fine. I used Kaplan for Step 1 and USMLE World for Step 2. I preferred USMLE world a little better. I DON’T think it’s necessary to buy the 6/12 month subscription to a Qbank. Odds are, you won’t use it hardly at all beyond when you are doing your actual board prep.


During the year, use First Aid as much as possible, make sure you know that material as well as you can. When you get to your actual dedicated board study, try to limit your materials. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with materials and not do a good job studying any one subject area. For me, it was most useful to do all of the Qbank questions, making sure to read and understand all the answers and to spend a small amount each day doing additional reading on a topic that I was struggling with. Don’t waste a lot of time on low-yield areas (anatomy and embryology come to mind). Maybe take one pass through the corresponding “high yield” book.


If you’ve done relatively well disciplining yourself for ISP studies, you probably don’t need to take a formal Kaplan exam prep course. Very few of the ISPers take a formal course and the ISP average tends to be higher than the traditional pathway.



Hey Emergency!,


That’s encouraging news. Many of my upperclassmen who did very well on USMLE Step 1 also highly recommended USMLE World.


I think I may have asked this question of Dazed once before but I can’t remember the answer. Is ISP just another term for PBL and does traditional pathway = SBL? If so, that’s also encouraging news since the curriculum for my upcoming year is PBL format.

Actually, ISP is the Independent Study Program. Ohio State is fairly unique in having a program where you work at (more or less) your own pace on the assigned modules and take the test when you are ready (within certain limits). Many people who do the ISP program treat it as a job and study M-F 7-5 or so, sometimes longer or on weekends if they are pushing to get ready for a test.


At OSU, the ISPers tend to do slightly better on Step 1 than those in the other pathway, which is a mixture of lecture, small groups, PBL, etc. My theory is that they do better just because they are used to studying independently for 8-10 hour a day (or more) and pacing their study habits to their set test date. Many of the students in the traditional pathway are not used to deciding on their own what to study each day and being disciplined to study so many hours a day.


In any case, the key to doing well on Step 1 is learning the M1/M2 material well and getting through as many practice questions as you can. Study styles vary, but for me, I found it the most helpful to do the questions and then read through the explanations.

The new OSU COM 2012 curricula is a mix of IP/ISP. That is students can decide to study independently (ISP) or attend class based lectures (IP) for each module (system).


Currently, you have to choose one or the other at the end of anatomy and can not switch in the middle of the two basic sciences year.


Also, like Case they are planning on stretching out Anatomy over one year or more.

ugh…going to start prep this week.


who is with me??


we should form a study group/online support network


we CAN do this!!!

I’m with you!


Have a friend who has started with pathoma and is really happy with that —bearing in mind that although it focuses on pathology it covers a bit broader. Some nice resources she showed me on Blood and Lymph system.


We started with Skin and Musculoskeletal systems, so I thought about beginning with one of those. What do you think?


Kate

Good luck with it all, Dazed (et al)!


To answer the initial question, I’ve never quite trusted Kaplan, for a number of reasons. I had reasonable success with USMLEWorld; while I don’t trust em entirely, they seem a mite better in the long run. Not familiar with pathoma.


Dazed, we should catch up sometime in the next few months, before I head out of town. Drop me a line sometime.


Incidentally, I think the new OSU curriculum is going to make for some fantastic docs. There will, of course, be some kinks to work out initially, but I think it’ll be a really good thing.

Dazed -


Our school ended up buying the Ultra program for “Boards Boot Camp”. I’m less than enthused so far. Seems comprehensive but far, far, too time consuming. And irritating. But it has the advantage (for me) of having a version designed for COMLEX as well as one for USMLE.


Kate

I bought First Aid, and probably read a total of three chapters; hated it, as I learn best from tests. Knowing this about myself, I started USMLEWorld at the beginning of January, and went through it twice; I also bought USMLERx, though I found the questions weren’t nearly as good.


As an aside, I took the USMLE practice test #7, and did HORRIBLY (196)… scared the crap out of me. Then, four weeks of intense study later, took Step 1 and got a 241. My previous scores were right in the middle of my medical school class. I attribute my good score solely to USMLEWorld.

I finally read extensively in First Aid on the plane trip back from Guatemala and really like it. I learn much better from comprehensive summaries than from questions. I save the questions for review.


Talked to a friend who used Doctors in Training, which has online lectures and uses the FirstAid book - two weeks of 14 hour days - and did really well. This may be my fall-back strategy.


Kate

I’ll answer this based on advice I received from my dean.


The preparation that you need to do for the USMLE Step 1 will be based on how well you did the first two years of medical school. If you did well, understand the material and tested well, then a simple review with something like First Aid may be beneficial in combination with a qbank.


IF you didn’t do exceptionally well, then a test prep course may be best. It will cover the basics more in-depth, so you get a second exposure to them, preparing you much better for Step 1. This combined with a qbank will ensure your success.

I used First Aid way back when as well as QBank, but spent more time trying to memorize first aid than questions. If I had to do it again, would have spent more time on questions (which is what I did forbteps 2 & 3). I think a better role for First aide or me would have been to use it as a foundation for understanding of the “important” or “central” material during my coursework as med school courses are skewed towards what a particular professor researches.


In an ideal world, I would have taken a step 1 prep course because I am very uncomfortable at my core with standardized exams. There are people who are great at setting a study plan for themselves and grasping the material, but I have never had the talent of being able to pick out what was important from a boards perspective.


Just my 2 cents.

  • tec Said:
...I have never had the talent of being able to pick out what was important from a boards perspective.



That makes two of us! That's a HUGE relief knowing that I'm not the only one. I think I'll look into a prep course. How many weeks do you think is enough? I have heard 6 weeks but am not so sure. Seems like I have forgotten everything from M1 and the beginning of M2!

We had 5 weeks (I think) after the end of our M2 year. It was enough. One thing I remember was that Kaplan had a 1 week review course during that time. The only thing that kept me from doing it was that it was in Chicago. If I had it to do again, I would bite the bullet and do it. I always felt I was floundering in the sea of facts studying for Step 1.


It was very different for Steps 2 and 3. QBank was more than sufficient.


If I had spent the majority of my Step 1 study time doing questions, then I may feel differently. But it was similar for my neuro boards, feeling like swimming in a sea of facts- very overwhelming. The board review course for my neuro boards helped focus my studying.


Good luck!