Sleepygirl
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 1
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Hi guys,
I am planning on taking my Step 1 for boards in the middle of May of '05. I know this is not for some time, but I am thinking of how to best prepare for this exam so as to do well on it. I am taking the 6 week Kaplan course so I have all those books...and I bought the new first aid for step 1...how should I start my preparation? I have been told to read all the Kaplan books before the class, but how much in depth should I go into? I have a tendency to get bogged down with details and I don't read incredibly fast...so how do I accomplish this task? And how many times do you need to read those books to do well?? When should one do QBank questions? Any advice you guys may have would be greatly appreciated! 
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| dollios
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 27
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hi sleepy girl,
i just got my step1 results: 253/99. it's not too early to ask around and prepare a strategy. i studied for 4.5 months. my main goal was to have a single book on which to concentrate all my studying. So i read 11 books mostly high yield series in paralel with the first aid. and i wrote down any information i found interesting on the first aid in the appropriate section. after 2.5 months i had a first aid that was ready to be memorized from cover to cover. then i spent 2 months doing exactly that.
during those last 2 months, i did the kaplan qbank online in parallele and also wrote down extra info on the first aid.
i found that the most important thing to do in preparing was not to go into detail. the books are not very important, they just help u memorize the first aid. the qbank is extremely important.
good luck
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| bed_side
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 4
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hi sleepygirl , i am having the same problem of making a strategy that will work for me the best ,i have started 15 days back my prep and i feel that my speed will take me a year to give a read,i wake up every morning with aim of taking out max of the day but ...........dont know what happens ,one reason is that i sleep alot may be coz im studying in home so thinking to start going to the library,i have also enrolled in kaplan for delux.where do u live ?n what have u planned ,do let me know ,i also intend to take step one near May or june.my email is kids_4_fun@hotmail.com
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| retroviridae
Forum Guru
Topics: 29
Posts: 871
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I'm going to give different advice than dollios, but you need to do whatever works for you. Some people like studying from questions and some people like the books. I read Kaplan notes 4 times before the exam. And I tired my best to learn every fact they had in them. Of course, I didn't succeed, but I knew enough to do well on the exam. I think for step I, knowing the little facts is more important than it was for step II, but you should stick to the facts in the major review books. They are more than enough. People get great scores reading from any number of review books. But I think most people who don't have endless time on their hands do well by focusing on what set of notes/books. Do FA and know it all. But then pick and stick to something else. I used Kaplan, others used BRS or High Yield. Whatever you can do. I didn't do questions, but I wished I had. I would advise against reading FA first. Just read through Kaplan once before the course. Then study properly during and after the course and start FA half way through. I wasted a lot of time trying to learn FA first. It was just too hard though, all it contains is big lists of info. But after you have learned thr stuff from the books, FA becomes a breeze. I didn't really study from questions, but I used them as a measure of how well I was doing. Again, just do whatever works for you. The test is not that hard and it tends to focus on concepts rather than little facts (but it does test little facts too). And it does tend to focus on major important topics as opposed to rare stuff (but of course, there will be a few questions on that too). Good luck!
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