I’ve read a lot of different ideas on this, and nearly everyone seems to think their own study method was great (but there are big variations among people!). All the senior students I talked to at my school said to not start studying until second semester, which was a little nerve-wracking but turned out to be a good idea because first semester was so busy with classes.
I’m headed for Step 1 in June; I had hoped to be further along in review by now, but our Jan/Feb classes have been brutal (ugh, pathophys).
At this point I have 13.5 weeks left, which is unpleasantly finite; we have a 5-week period between the end of classes and the time we start 3rd year, so we don’t have much choice in when to take the boards.
I’ve been trying to use First Aid, the Goljan audio lectures, and Goljan Rapid Review Path throughout this year to guide my studying. I also use the Kaplan QBank in reviewing for exams. I’m planning to do my first NBME basic sciences test within a week or two (I don’t expect to do fantastically well on it, but it should help give me a sense of problem areas).