Step 1 Study: Prologue

So, on Monday (or maybe tomorrow, if I really feel motivated) I start my official studying for Step 1 of the USMLE (aka the Board exams). To kick things of, tonight I took a practice exam--basically an accumulation of former test questions put out by the boards people which gives you a guesstimated score that you'd get if you took the test today, and then tells you which sections/subjects you did well (and not so well) on. We actually took one of these earlier in the year as a requirement for school, and at that time I got a predicted score that I would quite honestly be perfectly happy with as an actual score come test day. Knowing that I took that one without having taken psych or 1/3 of pharm yet, I figured I could only go up. Today I took another one (having just finished pharm and psych last week) and it predicted a pretty high score. Part of me is psyched about that--knowing that I'm doing well going in is obviously an ego boost--but part of me feels like it's really just a reflection of guessing well, since some of the areas where I supposedly did really well were ones where I felt like I was guessing a LOT. So, take it with a grain of salt, I suppose.

The good things that I did take away from this one were the areas that I really need to hit hard throughout my next month of preparation--namely, kidney (I apparently forgot everything to do with the stupid thing), biostats (surprise, surprise--this was probably the least-taught subject in my curriculum), micro (not a shock, I knew I had forgotten a lot of this since we learned it), and biochem (same basic idea). This basically confirms my idea from earlier in the week that I should save biochem and micro stuff for closer to the end of studying, since those tend to be short-term memory subjects that I'll just need to cram in before the exam (as opposed to pathology, which is much longer-term and easier to remember with tons of questions throughout studying).

So for those who are interested (who am I kidding--for those who are still reading, despite lack of interest), here's how I plan on tackling the next month or so. Wish me luck!

May 3-6: Physiology

May 7-8: Anatomy/Embryology

May 9: Catch up day, questions

May 10-14: Path (maybe only til the 13th, then treat the 14th as a review day and some pharm and/or biostats)

May 15: Behavioral science and Biostats

May 16: Catch up day, mock exam, then the rest of the day off

May 17-20: Micro

May 20-21: Immuno, go back over some more biostats if needed

May 22: Neuro

May 23: Day off/questions

May 24-25: Neuro

May 26-28: Biochem

May 29: Mock exam, rest of the day off

May 30: Catch up day, start massive review of First Aid (the Bible of Board Review)

May 31-June 2: First Aid, do tons of practice questions

June 3: Day off/last minute cramming of high-yield topics

June 4: Test.