How to Study for the Boards

Pass usmle

This report has been prepared by Nicole Hindman, Class President ’2001

This is the updated version of this informative packet. It now includes the opinions of the third years present at the 2/16/99 Class of 2001 Dinner. These remarks are listed at the end of the handout, in part VI.

Sample Study Schedule
Student X
Note: This is a 31-day schedule. This schedule is from a who scored in the 97th percentile on the Boards. It incorporates one day off, on day 15 or 16, to do nothing except 2 tests. The day before the this did the that the USMLE sends out with the application, since this is notoriously easier than the actual and it should be a confidence builder before the .

Books
Buy: First Aid for the Boards, JNS, Appleton and Lange, and NMS Question to use for tests.
Pharmacology: Lippincott and Big Katzung (for reference). Mainly used Pharm Cards. Look at Psychotropic drugs first, strange drugs that we didn’t concentrate on in our classes. Then finish up with Cardiac drugs.
Anatomy and Embryology: Minimal for these subjects. Crammed for 5 full days. Used JNS (?) with combined Anatomy and Embryology. This wasn’t great, but it served the purpose.
Cell Biology/ Histology: Used BRS . This would these subjects half and hour before studying Pathology in order to get bearings.
Physiology: BRS Costanzo.
Microbiology: Used Levinson/Jawetz ( for ) and his own notes, taken during the Microbiology course (i.e., the flash cards).
Biochemistry: Lippincott. Biochemistry was a strength of this , so he concentrated less on this area. Lots of on pH, pKa’s etc. were on the Boards.
Pathology: Even though lots of people didn’t do this, because of informational overload, he used Medicine Seminar notes and Pathology course to from. These were helpful because of their familiarity. Also used BRS Pathology as a .
Behavioral Science: Used BRS Behavioral Science , but didn’t really like it.

Rough Daily Schedule
7:30 am – Wake up, eat breakfast.8:00 am – Arrive at cubicle. Do review for the subjects covered the day before. (Don’t agonize over these !) Begin the subject for the half-day. Study until lunch. Right before lunch tie up loose ends.12:00 pm – Lunch1:00 pm – Begin studying the subject for the second part of the day. Study until dinner.6:30 pm – Dinner7:30 pm – After Dinner, Pharmacology and tie up loose ends. 12-12:30 am – Go to sleep.
Please note: This person did take off to work out, go to the restroom, etc. This is just a ROUGH schedule!!
Also, this system divides subjects into half-days, so that in the morning this might be studying Pathology and Medicine, while in the evening he may be studying Behavioral Science.

31 Day Study Schedule

First 2 weeks:The goal of the first two weeks of studying is to UNDERSTAND the material that you are studying. Thus, these first two weeks will focus on Pathology, Medicine, Physiology, Cell Biology and Histology.
14 half-days of Pathology and Medicine (Medicine was studied concomitantly with Pathology in order to reinforce Pathology and emphasize KEY words)
9 half-days of Physiology, with a half-hour devoted to Cell Biology/Histology for Orientation
4-5 half-days of Behavioral Science
For the entire 31 days, this reviewed PharmCards for 2 hours before going to sleep.
Right before beginning the second two weeks, this took one day off, where he just did 2 tests. For a source of tests use NMS , Princeton Questions, etc.

Second 2 weeks:The goal of the second two weeks of studying is to MEMORIZE material. Thus, the subjects studied here are Microbiology, Biochemistry, Anatomy and Embryology.
14 half-days of Microbiology
9-11 half days of Biochemistry
5 FULL days of Anatomy and Embryology (can mix these into “loose ends” )

Two Days Prior to Exam:In the two days left before the , schedule days as follows:DAY 30:
Morning: Take Practice Test (JNS: one is 2 ½ hours long)
Afternoon: Read 3-4 Clinical Vignettes (Cover up the title of the Cases, see if can guess what the /disorder is.).Practice Test (Appleton and Lange: one is 2 ½ hours long)
Evening: Practice Test (NMS Question )DAY 31:
Do the USMLE Step 1 Practice Test included in the Application Packet.
Take the rest of the day off.

Further details
This studied by organ systems. Thus, for the 14 half-days that he studied Pathology and Medicine, the following systems were allocated different amounts of :
Heart: 2 half-days
Lung: 1 half-day
GI: 2 half-days
Renal: 1 half-day
Neuro: 1 half-day
Reproductive: 1 half-day
Immunologic Disorders: 1 half-day
Dermatology/Muscular Disorders: 1 half-day
Loose Ends: 4 half-days
On these days, if the evening “half-days” were devoted to Pathology, the morning “half-days” would cover the same organ system, but a different subject, like Physiology or Histology. It was useful to review the Physiology and Histology in the morning, and then the Pathology of the organ system in the afternoon.

Last Remarks
This system is just a sample system that was tailored to this particular ‘s strengths. Since this was strong in Biochemistry, he could do well by neglecting this subject (he confessed that he did not adhere as tightly to this schedule where Biochemistry was concerned). Other students may decide they need to devote more to this subject. Also, this was an early-morning riser, so he went to bed relatively early and rose early. In addition, not every studies by Organ Systems, and there are many different techniques of studying that could suit your style better. Whatever method you choose to adopt, luck! I will end with the cheery and inspiring words of Student X:

“This was the worst of my life.”
Added Comments from the February 16, 1999 Class of 2001 Dinner

Books:First Aid for the Boards:Watch out for mistakes, like “the IVC is on the left of the aorta.” Otherwise, this was the KEY REFERENCE BOOK used by everyone.Pharmacology:Use Orange Katzung and First Aid for the Boards. Two third years suggested avoiding PharmCards altogether. Warned that Boards concentrates on names and categories of drugs, with like: “What do you use for hypertension?”, and giving a range of from anti-arrhythmics and digitalis to B-blockers. If they want us to know side-effects of drugs, it will be rare, and those drugs will be emphasized in First Aid for the Boards.Anatomy and Embryology: J and S was used. Steve Katz said “Anatomy is something you either know or you don’t and there is no point spending too much on this.” However, Neuroanatomy was pretty much agreed to be important, and the of choice to review for this was High Yield by Fix. Third years said there were a lot of MRI’s, Angiograms and X-rays, so look through old Jenning’s Atlas before the . (Other that were recommended were the High Yield series on Histo, Gross Anatomy, and Embryology.) One person said he just stuck with First Aid ONLY.Cell Biology/Histology: Only additional comment was to use First Aid ONLY. Physiology: BRS Costanzo.Microbiology: In addition to using Levinson and Jawetz, several third-years recommended Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, stating that it was a , with pneumonics, and charts. Biochemistry: Two third years vehemently suggested BRS Biochemistry instead of Lippincott, saying that Lippincott was too much. They did suggest using Lippincott as a reference for the BRS Biochem, when the BRS was too succinct.Pathology: BRS Pathology. Did not recommend using notes from classes. Said to look at the 1999 Big Robbins for PICTURES before the . One said to save the Comprehensive at the end of the BRS Book until the end of the month of studying, saying that it was “really representative of the actual Boards , and a gauge for well you will do.”Behavioral Science: BRS Beh. Sci. and High Yield were recommended. Said that a lot of these were not you could for. For example: ” A walks into your office crying. What is the first thing you would say to her?” Lots of management . Also, said not to focus TOO much on statistics, but to know general stats, like the suicide rate, common cause of cancers, etc. Said to focus on the ethics , since those have less ambiguous .Regarding Underground Clinical Vignettes: One third said to get the 2 and review them. Some said to go over all the with a friend and see if you could guess the diagnoses.

Recommendations on Test Books available:NMS: Very intimidating , but a motivator. All said it was much more difficult than actual Boards . Also, it had lots of extended matching , and these are NOT representative of Boards type . There were only 4/180 extended matching on the Boards last , per given section. One said the Test Simulator Series was preparation.Pre-: Too detailed. Said this was for Clerkships, but not for the Boards. (Medicine Pre- was particularly recommended for the Third Year Medicine Clerkship, F.Y.I.)Appleton and Lange: This was recommended for Physiology. It has 673 in ranging levels of difficulty. However, explanations for wrong are not given.J and S/JNS (?): Has ‘teaching ‘, i.e. it teaches you the material well. However, these are not representative of the actual Boards .Kaplan Sample Test Questions: These were heavily recommended by one third as being VERY SIMILAR to the USMLE .
I spoke with one fourth-, and he mentioned that the number of our will be much less than in previous years. In fact, the number of overall offered on the USMLE Step One has been declining steadily over the years as follows:
1997: 720 questions1998: 680 questions1999: 350
This means that each on our will mean a lot more, percentage-wise, so there will be a steeper curve on the Boards this . Hope this helps!

This report has been prepared by Nicole Hindman, Class President ’2001


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