A few people have been asking me for this, and it’s still a work in progress, but I wanted to share my Step 1 study schedule. There are so many different study schedules out there, I wanted to share a few caveats first:
- Your step schedule is uniquely yours. There are so many types, and if you’re like me, you probably want to combine the best qualities of each schedule out there into a mega-ultra-amazing-perfect-score study schedule. There is no such thing, so accept that your schedule will not be the same as others out there.
- Do not compare schedules! My roommates and I share success stories about tricky Q-bank questions, and also commiserate when we are exhausted from content. But we never try to ask what each others’ schedules are like or to one-up each other. It’s not healthy. We also have very different learning styles.
- Your schedule will/may change. The Step 1 study period is long and draining. You will have days when you just can’t focus, and a 5-hour block is awash. There will be days when you wake up 2 hours early and get an extra block of questions in. Both of these have already happened to me, 2 weeks in. That’s okay.
- A caveat–I have about 3 months devoted to exclusively Step 1 studying, so compared to my roommates (who have less time), I have the capacity to go through more content. Not everyone has this much time.
So for the first month, my schedule is:
9am-12pm: 1-40 block questions and review/teach the questions I got wrong. I will spend a few hours watching videos on Osmosis, as well as using other resources to re-teach myself topics that I missed. I spend more time than others on this because I don’t want to miss similar questions on those topics again.
12-1pm: Lunch and flashcards. Very low yield so it requires very little attention.
1-5pm: Review specific content for the day. This isn’t based on Q-Banks, but it’s based on a combination of First Aid, Sketchy Medical, and Pathoma. This will be my second pass through First Aid (the first pass happened throughout the year).
5-7pm: Dinner and flashcards.
8-10pm: Gym, and low yield flashcards.
As I get closer to my test, the schedule will shift, and I’ll have more time devoted to questions. But for the time being, this is what I work with.
P.S. These 4-hour blocks are ripe with small 10-min do nothing breaks. No computer, no medicine breaks that require a simple reset. Otherwise, this would be impossible.
What other resources do you all use?
