Tip 1

Take a couple of days off. Pencil in one day a week. It might be that you'll probably actually work for about half of those days because you took another half day off somewhere else, but planning these sort of days gives you a little leeway in your schedule.

Tip 2

When you do Qbank or BSS don't just do the questions and half-assedly go through the answers. Read all the explanations, even the ones you get right. It drills it into your head and, let's be honest, tells you why the answer you guessed is actually the right one.

 

Tip 3

Don't dick around when you're studying. Or dick around if you know it makes you more productive. Don't make yourself sit around and not really concentrate just to put in time, it's much more efficient to focus rather than go through the motions. There's nothing worse than flying through a subject on a given day, and then realize later that you've just been turning pages. Sure it's common sense but I know it happened to me unless I particularly watched out for it. If you get the feeling you're not working well, just stop. Be honest about it.

 

Tip 4

Make a schedule and stick to it.

Spend the majority of your time on pathology, physiology, and their bastard stepchild pathophysiology. That'll be about 70% of the exam. This is not to say it is safe to ignore the rest, but if need be you have a better chance of guessing on the brain-and-behavior questions (and you WILL get about one ethics/professionalism question per block) than you will on actual questions about basic sciences. Pharm and micro would be next on my list.

 

Tip 5

Pick one review book for each subject or buy a set of Kaplan books.

 

Tip 6

Know yourself. Studying for the boards is just like studying for any other test. You will just have to study longer and harder. Don't get fooled into thinking that there is a right way to study for the boards. The right way is whatever way will help you get the best score possible. If you normally study in a group-do it. If you normally find a place by yourself with no noise-find it. If you study great at home-go, if not-don't. Be honest with yourself. If you know that if you go home, you will spend all hours with your friends, stay here, Peoria is infamous for having absolutely nothing to do!

Tip 7

Set your goals high. You hold your future in your own hands. Don't let anyone else dictate for you how high you can go. Step 1 scores are important for residency selection (but certainly not the only criteria) so don't miss your dream position because you were distracted or lazy while studying for Step 1.

Tip 8

Stick to a few resources, memorize the answers to the questions and do at least 50 questions a day.

Have a tip that you want to share?

send it to usmlestep@gmail.com with Tips in the subject line