I’m so glad its finally here…and unfortunately, the biggest reason for my joy is that I will be able to study more and possibly catch up. Such is the life of a 2nd year medical student.
You know, last night it really hit me that I will be taking Step 1 very very soon. I started to get a little anxious just thinking about it, and of course I had to look into the matter more to calm my anxiety. Here is what my end of the year schedule looks like:
May 25-29: In House Final Exams
June 1-5: NBME Subject Exams and Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE)
June 8-26: Study for Step 1 and take whatever little vacation is left
June 29: Start 3rd year
As you can see that period of time will be a whirlwind. What is most scary to me is that I spent almost all summer studying for the MCAT, and for Step 1, they only give us 3 weeks, or really 1.5 weeks if you want to have any type of vacation before you start 3rd year. I guess I realize the logic behind this; its been said, and I think studies have shown that the closer you take Step 1 to the end of your 2nd year (when everything is fresh) the better you do. They say that you normally don’t increase your chances of scoring higher by studying for 3 weeks. So the biggest take home message from all of this is that by the time that finals come around, I should be READY to take Step 1. This means that I really need to be paying attention in class and reading the necessary Step 1 review books to get ready.
Personally, I’ve been getting ready by basing most of my study around First Aid for Step 1. I did this by taking the book to Kinkos so they could unbind it and 3-hole punch it; so now my First Aid book looks like this:
Doing this allows me to add important graphs and pages to the book. What I’ve been trying to do throughout the year (which hasn’t been so successful due to lack of time) is go through the questions in USMLE World Qbank in tutor mode. For every question I do I see their explanations, and if there is a concept or fact that I don’t know, and that is not in First Aid, then I add a sheet to my First Aid book and write it in. I’ve been kind of slacking on this method up until know, but I think I’m really going to pick it up, because I’m not the kind of person that remembers what he was just tested on…even if I got an A on the test, so going through this stuff often is integral for me.
I really want to use at least 1 week of the alloted 3 weeks for vacation, so I will probably take Step 1 between June 15 and June 19. Until then, I’m going to really dig in and try to do well this year.
Leave a Reply