Usmle step 1 study tips

The first exam in the series is always the most extensive to prepare, even a marathon needs some strategy so with that in mind here’s a list of tips to make your preparation easier:

1- Pick a date.

Things just got serious, when you pick a date for your exam even if it’s not definitive (but still within your eligibility period, preferably pick your date at the start of your eligibility period) will get you in the “it’s on” attitude, picking a date and sticking to it will make you more focused and will give you an idea of how much you have to cover and the effort it will need.

It’s not masochism, instead think of it as a way to make you aware of the volume of material ahead; psychologically this will give you the right kind of pressure to start working towards your goal. So go ahead and give it a date, try to stick to it for your preparation but remember to be flexible if needed.

2-Make a Schedule.

First thing about making a schedule, be real. Adjust a studying schedule that will work for you, don’t try to imitate other people, some may need more time, others may need less. Only you know how much time and how many effective hours a day you can study. Also remember to think about you own way to prepare, if you use flashcards, music etc. adapt to prepare at your own habits.

Once you have a schedule that works for you, stick to it and be strict about following your own schedule. No one is going to be pushing you to study. You must have your goals clear all the time if needed place a post it somewhere visible to remind you why you are doing all of this.

3-Follow a guide.

Either you make a guide or follow a study guide, having a set course for your studies will make your studies more focused on the important facts and topics, don’t forget to also take into account your strong and weak topics to improve your performance.

Following a study guide or having a personal tutor will help you by taking advantage of others experience, for more on tutoring take a look to our blog USMLE tutoring: http://usmleprepguide.blogspot.com/2014/09/usmle-tutoring.html

 

4-Use question banks.

Question banks are by far one of the best ways to improve your preparation, having a constant test of your retention and developing the kind of logic needed for most questions is as important as memorizing important facts and the only way to develop your answering skills is to keep practicing.

As part of your preparation you should include questioning sessions during your schedule, don’t leave it for last, start as soon as you can, often you will find information in the explanations that will help you understand better a topic. 

You can find more about question banks and USMLE preparation in our blog about question banks, http://usmleprepguide.blogspot.com/2014/11/usmle-question-banks.html

 

5-Make your notes.

Notice I didn’t say take your notes, which means you should take important information and write it down in your own words, preferably as side notes in your review book, but also you can make a full review of a topic with your own words.

When taking quick reviews having information in your own way will make it easier to remember and to keep for the exam. Also don’t forget to relate important information from one topic to the other, in the case of pathologies and metabolic pathways for example.

6-Make morning reviews.

Every morning you should make a quick review of what you studied the day before, this will increase your retention and will let you find the things you miss or have already forgotten, also sometimes helps you understand better a topic.

Your reviews should be quick don’t take more than an hour; having your own notes will make this process quicker. 

7-Take your time.

This is important, take your time, this is not a sprint is a marathon, you should prepare as such. Don’t try to make things faster there is a right amount of time to prepare for each person and only you will know how much is enough, for step 1 people suggest to take 8 months for preparation that is a suggestion, you should take as long as you need, take off the pressure of fitting into someone else´s time frame, less time or more time doesn’t make a difference in your score, the really important part is to make a conscious preparation not to make it faster.

For more on time and your preparation take a look at our blog “when to take a step “ there are some good tips there too, http://usmleprepguide.blogspot.com/2014/10/when-to-take-step.html

 

Hopefully this tips will help you during your preparation, for more about our study guides check out our website at www.usmleprepguide.com , as always if you have more tips or any comments leave them below.

USMLE QUESTION BANKS

Question banks are surely one of the most helpful and used methods to prepare for USMLE examinations, it is a great way to test yourself while preparing as well as finding out those subjects you missed or for those where you are having a hard time remembering, using a question bank is surely a great way to increase your understanding and retention of all that material that needs to be covered.

The following tips are meant to improve the results you will get from using question banks:

Get used to the format:

It’s important to get used to the format in which questions are made, using question banks will help you understand how the software works, and this will give you at least 10 mins. More during the real exam since you can skip the tutorial, also is important to learn to use the lab data tab to be able to find quickly reference values.

End of session questions:

The best way to review and increase your retention of a given topic is making questions at the end of the day, at least one hour a day you should take questions of the material revised that day, and this practice will increase your understanding and retention of the material for that day. Taking questions at the end of the day will make your last review of all the material faster and more thorough.

Questions all the way:

There is no reason to wait for the last month to start using question banks, in fact you should start as early as possible, in many question banks you can select the topic you want to review making it easier to test the areas you have reviewed during the day. You should start doing question in the first month of your preparation, this practice will help to increase both your knowledge as well as the way some material will be used in questions, it is important to remember that the way topics are used in a question needs practice as well. 

Take 46 question blocks:

Most question banks can be set to emulate real blocks of 46 questions, this setting will help you in getting used to answer each question within a minute of time and leave the rest of the time to review the questions you leave in blank, also it will help you asses the time you are taking for the whole block. If you practice this way the exam will feel easier and you will have more resilience to long periods of questions.

Read the answers carefully:

Most question banks have their answers with detailed explanations including images, cycles, etc. Explanations are an important part of using question banks, it’s not just about doing a lot of questions, it is better to do less questions and read their answers because this is the way you learn new information, explanations are as important as having the questions wrong, read carefully each answer and their explanation, don’t assume you knew it and skip their answer, sometimes many new information lies in their explanations some may be helpful for the real exam.

Take your own notes:

Once you know what an answer was about, it’s important to do your own notes, also remember to write it down in your own words, explaining something increases your understanding and your retention of that subject, so explaining it to yourself is a really great way to remember important details as well as cycles and mechanisms.

 Follow a study guide:

Using a study guide can help you in organizing your study and keeping track of the questions you have to take for a given week, also it can help to focus on important subjects and high yield contents.

Test your weaknesses:

A great way to increase your retention of confusing or hard to remember material is to test yourself against question banks, it doesn’t matter that you have them all wrong, the fact that you tried will make pay more attention to the answers and will increase your retention of that subject, and also many explanations are detailed and easy to understand.

Your final month:

During your last month before your exam, try to take as many 8 hour question sessions as possible including all subjects, and making it as real as possible to get used to the long hours sessions, during this month you should review your notes as well as answers you are getting wrong.

Hopefully these ideas will help you improve your use of question banks to start tackling all those facts and improve your knowledge, remember that the sooner you start the better your odds will be, as always check our tutoring guides at www.usmleprepguide.com  for detailed guides on every step, Our tutoring guides will provide you with guidance during your preparation, helping you keep track of important topics, it has a design from the most important to least asked topics and also includes tips and hints of how some topics may be asked and when you should memorize formulas, diagrams and images.

if you have other experiences and ideas, please share them with us in the comments,