My preparation for Step 1 started on Day 1 of medical school. Omg Kelly, are you a gunner? I’m not, I swear! But standardized exams are my kryptonite. I’m also a poor test taker. TERRIBLE combination! Even if I know the material, I over-think, second-guess, and change my answers. I also performed the WORST on my CARS (critical analysis and reading skills) section of the MCAT. It’s been said that your CARS score correlates with how well you perform on Step 1 (myth, btw). So I was terrified that I’d fail Step 1 and have to drop out of medical school…But even without this background, there is no such thing as starting “too early” for the most important exam of your life!
Because pre-clinical curriculum is shorter, our school had us take Step 1 earlier. My test date was February 25th, 2020. That’s also another reason why I started Step 1 prep early!
Notes:
For your reference, my Step 1 Score fell between 245-250 and I generally performed above the class average on most of my exams.
For context, I was an under-average pre-med and consider myself an “average” medical student. I’m the type that needs more time to absorb and digest material, so most of my study strategies are based on repetition and EARLY preparation. At the end of the day, you know yourself best. Stick to what is working for you! You can also consult with as many upper medical students as you can to see what methods might work for you.
Most of my prep started BEFORE dedicated.
1. Used Anking Deck and KEPT UP WITH REVIEWS.
- Anki
- For those of you unfamiliar with it, Anki is a FREE electronic flashcard program that uses a spaced-repetition algorithm available Android, Windows and Mac. Apple app is $25, smh.
- You can make your own cards (I do not recommend this) or use pre-made decks (see below).
- Anki shows you flashcards and then you assign the card a level of difficulty by hitting “again”, “hard”, “good”, or “easy”.
- The next day, the algorithm will then show you the cards that it thinks you will forget based on how the level of difficulty for you.
- Many people give up on Anki too early because of the steep learning curve, but I promise it is a 100% worth it! I highly recommend checking out the Anking. They create easy to follow video tutorials on how to use Anki and how to use the decks.
- How do you study for Step 1 AND CLASS? I used Med Shamim’s method. More details about how I integrated Step 1 studying during school here.
- Zanki
- Zanki is a pre-made deck that many medical students use. The guy is a god to the Anki community. I used this deck throughout my first year and most of my second year before I discovered the Anking deck.
- The cards are made from FA, UWorld, Pathoma, and Costanzo’s BRS Physiology.
- The Anking Deck = GOLD and I highly recommend this over all decks.
- This deck is actually based off of Zanki’s, but it is organized beautifully with tags and includes extra images/references in the cards. I used this deck during dedicated, but I would have used it from Day 1 had I known about it!
- To be clear, Anking did not create these decks himself, he just reorganized it so that it is 9238923 times easier to use.
- Another thing I LOVE about Anking’s deck is that he added images of First Aid, Pathology, and other resources to the cards. This means that for each tested concept on the card, if you want to see more information on it, you can pull up the related resource for your reference.
- You can find the decks on Anking’s Reddit Page. They continuously update them and release it there. I’m NOT being paid to say this btw lol; it’s just that Anking single-handedly became the most useful resource for me in medical school. Therefore, 10/10 recommend. I even became a Patreon subscriber to support them because I didn’t want to keep feeling like a leech LOL.
- If you have any questions, the team is very friendly and will answer them. But please consider the time they put into their videos and FAQ. Only reach out to them after you can’t find the answer to your questions in these two places. If you are SUPER new to Anki, you can pay for a higher tier Patreon membership to receive personalized assistance for anything you might need.
- General notes on Anki
- You will most likely NOT benefit from Anki if you do not do your cards every day!
- See my post on how I integrated Step 1 studying during school.
- The purpose of using Anki is to FREE UP TIME for the other areas of your life, like spending time with friends, family, self-care, etc., especially during dedicated.
- If you struggle with stress management or anxiety, using Anki during the school year will significantly reduce it when dedicated period comes around because Anki keeps your knowledge of the material FRESH. The 11-14 hour study days during your 1-2 months of dedicated becomes much more manageable!
2. Annotated and/or read First Aid (FA) as I progressed through each block.
- If you do this, you can have a SECOND, quicker pass of it during dedicated.
- I know this can be challenging when you have to focus on class material that may not always correlate with Step 1 material. I’ve heard of other schools having USMLE style questions for the class exam. But at some schools, like mine, class material can tend to be more clinically oriented rather than Step 1 oriented. Luckily, our classes were Pass/Fail, which meant we could study just enough to comfortably pass our exams and study lightly for Step 1 at the same time. But priority is passing your classes over Step 1 studying.
- If time is an issue, read instead of annotate FA throughout your blocks.
- If that isn’t manageable either, then you can read the relevant organ system 1-2 days before the exam (this is what I did). It serves as a great review for high yield facts.
- Same applies to Pathoma! Except it is more time consuming because Dr. Satar’s text has accompanying videos.
3. Watched Sketchy Micro during Micro block and re-watched during the summer between year 1 and 2.
- Since I was caught up on all videos, all I had to do during dedicated was consolidate the info with Anki.
- The Anking deck includes the Lolnotacop deck, which are cards based on Sketchy Micro!
4. Watched correlating Sketchy Pharm videos during organ system block.
- I didn’t start doing this until 2nd year, but if you can, start once you are on organ systems!
- E.g. If you are starting GI, watch all the Sketchy Pharm videos related to GI.
5. Started UWorld During 2nd Year and finished by dedicated.
- I started doing 20-30 questions a day starting from the summer after year 1. You can calculate how many you need to complete per day from the time you start to your test date.
- It’s best to go through 1 pass of UWorld before dedicated! Our counselors recommended three passes, which I felt was a little over-kill so I managed to do 2 passes.
6. Read relevant BRS Physiology chapters throughout organ system blocks.
- I did this for the blocks with heavy physiology (Cardiology, Pulmonology, and Renal), which was 2nd year.
7. I listened to my Deans/Step 1 advisers!
- They have experience with guiding students to perform well on Step 1, so they DO know a thing or two!
- My adviser suggested (she was the associate dean of curriculum) to:
- Finish 1st pass of UW before dedicated
- Write out the top 20 biochemistry pathways before dedicated
- Watch all of Sketchy Micro and Pharm before dedicated
Summary of Step 1 Prep Pre-Dedicated
- Start EARLY!
- Use Anki/Anking Deck from day 1.
- Go through FA throughout your blocks.
- Start Sketchy Micro during your Micro block and re-watch the summer before 2nd year (time permitting).
- Start Sketchy Pharm during organ system blocks and re-watch the summer before 2nd year (time permitting).
- Go through related Pathoma chapters throughout your blocks.
- Finish first pass of UW before dedicated by doing questions every day starting your 2nd year.
Boards Resources Used
- Anking Deck
- B&B for Immunology and prn
- BRS Physiology
- BRS Behavioral Sciences
- First Aid
- Pathoma
- Sketchy Micro
- Sketchy Pharm
- UWorld
- 100 Concepts of Gross Anatomy Deck
Again, most of my prep started BEFORE dedicated while I still had classes. During dedicated, I didn’t need to re-learn anything and only carried out content review.
Let me know if you have any questions! Happy studying <3
With lobe,
Kelly
