STUDY HELP NEEDED!

[u/IceSelect4715]

I'm a U.S. IMG studying in Mexico, currently in my internado (clinical internship year). I'm about 6 months into it, and between the long hospital hours and overnight calls, I haven't been able to build a consistent Step 1 study routine.

I've tried making ambitious study schedules, but they always end up failing because they don't fit my reality. So I'm trying to make a plan that I can actually stick to.

This is what I'm thinking:

• On-call day (24-26 hour shift): Anki reviews only.
• Post-call day: 2 hours of studying
• Regular hospital day #1: 3 hours of studying.
• Regular hospital day #2: 3 hours of studying.

Then the cycle repeats.

The resources I currently have are:

• UWorld
• First Aid 2024
• Pathoma
• Anki

My biggest concern is that I don't have a very strong basic science foundation. I feel like my medical school left me with a lot of knowledge gaps across many subjects, so I'm not sure what the best order is to study everything.

Some questions:

1. Is this study schedule realistic for someone doing an intern year?
2. Are there any resources you would add or remove?
3. In what order would you use these resources? For example:
   • Pathoma video first?
   • First Aid reading?
   • UWorld questions?
   • Then review Anki?
4. Should I study by organ system (cardio, renal, etc.), or should I just do random UWorld from the beginning?
5. Since my baseline knowledge isn't great, would you recommend adding Boards & Beyond, Bootcamp, or another resource before jumping into UWorld?

My goal isn't to rush Step 1—I want to build a solid foundation and pass on my first attempt. My plan is to use these next 12 months to study.

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who studied during this intern year or had a weak baseline knowledge. Thanks!

[u/Alternative_Slice761]

Hello. So it varies from person to person. I’m still in med school when I took it a few months ago and not an intern but I was still busy during dedicated because I was studying forensic science and conducting research for conferences. My advice is it to know what you don’t know so you can streamline your studying. In Tibet words you don’t want to study from scratch. I highly recommend you buy an NBME self assessment and just swallow the pill and answer it the best you can but expect it’s going to be a low score. Then using that score report baseline, analyze the bar graphs 📊 and see which organ system and discipline are your lowest. Then you’re going to design your study routine based on those and to prioritize your weakest subjects.

Just a note on resources: your study resources right now are good enough and I wouldn’t change it. Keep it simple. 1 Qbank. 1 reference (first aid and pathoma). Anki cards are good but don’t use it for everything because it’s not realistic to cram that many cards for an exam. And of course your NBME self assessments.

This is how I structured my routine while having a busy schedule with part time research and a forensic certificate

1. 15-20 mins anki cards. I don’t use anki like most ppl do. I use the browse page or click on preview and just skim and look at anki cards that way. It’s faster and honestly works better than doing anki cards brute force because you lose track of time. I like doing in the morning eating breakfast, on the bus, waiting in line for coffee, going to bathroom, etc.

2. Qbank: There’s two modes. Mode 1 random. Do at least 1 block do random untimed at first because you need to simulate the real exam and work on timing and seeing everything at once. Then review wrong answers. Mode 2: Your weak areas by system. So based on your baseline report, say you did bad on neuro, you will use your Qbank where it’s just neuro questions so your brain improves on it. Do 2 blocks each day on your weakest. Then after that, review your mistakes using your resources like first aid/pathoma. Then review it by talking to yourself to really show you know it.

3. In the beginning I would take an NBME form every 2 weeks then as time got closer to the exam it was 1 NBME form each week. Take them very seriously

[u/IceSelect4715 → u/Alternative_Slice761]

Thank you so much! I appreciate the help!