so we'll go ahead and get started thank

you everyone who has shown up sorry for

the five minute late start we were
dealing with some types of technical
difficulties and making sure we are able
to get all our slides up here so my name
is Jill Ramirez I'm the director of
USMLE tutoring here at medical coach
which means it's my goal to connect you
with excellent tutors to help you reach
your goals when it comes to step one
step two and all your coursework so we
went ahead and put this together this
short webinar today to kind of give you
guys some information from people who
have a lot of experience doing this and
so we went ahead and invited James Fox
teen and then myself here to talk and
then dr. Mehta was also is also be
joining us and given us the perspective
from a program director so we'll go
ahead and get started here you're going
to be our host either the host that I
just mentioned that me on the left has
screening dr. Mehta in the middle
phosphene who is a fourth-year medical
student at UCSF on the right and then
James Farah who is a third-year medical
team at GE all right so we're gonna go
ahead and start off with just a question
there is a little QA there you go we're
gonna go ahead and throw off of the
question what year in medical school are
you and where are you in medical school
I threw in that where if we have some
internationals some US med students and
in the group so we just want to get a
mix of where everybody is okay so it
looks like most students are u.s.
medical students and then some
international medical students and
clearly no graduated medical school
students excellent so this is just gonna
be a brief introduction to the webinars
some things that we're gonna go over
here so we'll give you a little bit of
overview we'll briefly talk about the
exam what the exam is and this webinar
we're specifically gotta focus on step
one although we also commonly provide
tutoring for step two and also just for
your coursework during medical school if
you're having troubles with a particular
subject or multiple subjects we can help
you with that as well we'll go over to
dr. Mehta who will give us a program
directors
spective and then we'll have both James
and phosphine talk about creating a
study schedule choosing resources
utilizing resources and then I'll talk a
little bit about common pitfalls in
preparing for step 1
and then talk about what we can do to
help you be successful and then we'll
end with a question answering which will
be able to answer your guys's questions
so as we move along if you have
questions about anything feel free to
drop a note and the little question and
answer tab with and zoom and then we'll
make sure we get to them by the end so a
little bit about the exam this is
probably the easiest information to get
but it is a it is a a long exam a very
grueling exam there's seven one-hour
blocks about 40 questions per block
which leaves you about 90 seconds per
question it usually makes for about an
eight-hour day
so out of those seven at one hour blocks
you then get an additional 15 minutes
for a tutorial at the beginning and then
an additional 45 minutes of break time
most students choose to skip through the
tutorial because it's nothing most of
the information presented in this
tutorial you can find elsewhere and that
way you're able to give yourself about
about an hour of break all questions are
worth the same number of points and
there's absolutely no penalty of
forgetting so often times when working
with students we focus on strategies
that not only help you find the right
answer but help you rule out the wrong
answers sometimes being lucky is better
than being marked on the bottom a
passing score is giving you 194 and then
you see our strategies about one
standard deviation out will be a little
bit about under a 250 and the two
standard deviations would be
approximately above 270 so we have
another question for you what and how
important do you think step one is for
residency selection the big question
I change the question up a little bit
here and said we you know what factor is
a single most important in residency
selection let's see what let's see what
people say and then I'll share my
experience on that awesome
so it looks like most people think step
one is the most important factor for
residency selection so you know there
are multiple important factors but I
think you know step one plays a very
important part and we'll go ahead and
turn it over now to dr. Mehta who will
give you his experience perspective on
the you know residency selection and the
importance of step one yeah thanks Joel
so um you know unfortunately I can't
give you guys too much advice on taking
step one anymore because it's been about
15 years since I took step one myself so
I remember very little of the actual
content and that tells you a little bit
about the importance of step one and
day-to-day clinical medicine but I can
talk a little bit about the importance
of step one from a residency perspective
and and obviously at the end of the day
everybody's goal in here is to guess
their residency that they want whether
that's to get any residency whether
that's to get into the specialty of
their choice whether that's to get into
the program of their choice and location
of the choice obviously all of you guys
out there are really trying to get the
best residency you can at the end of the
day so residency may be three years away
for a lot of you because you're still in
your first year of medical school in
your second year of medical school but I
can't stress the importance of step one
enough in residency selection I've read
thousands of residency applications
thousands of fellowship applications at
this point and the reason that step one
is so important is because all the other
things that go into a program are a
application of arash are what I call non
filterable so you have the personal
statement you have your Dean's letter
you have letters of recommendation you
have honors and awards research and
publications every one of those things
is important don't get me wrong but none
of those things from a program directors
perspective on arrest
so we log into a system where we can
actually see everybody score and
everybody's application it looks
like this I can't sort by anything other
than step one score and step two score
and so you can see how easy it is for me
to sit there and just short by step one
score and kind of look at the top
applicants first and unfortunately the
people who don't have a great steps
group one score get looked at left so
what I caught what I call step one is
just a filterable result right it's the
only thing that I can filter one of the
very few things that I can filter when I
look at people's applications and when I
have 200 applications to review in a day
it's very easy for me to filter and kind
of pick out the ones that I want to look
at and exclude the ones I don't want to
look at so that step one score is just a
more enormous ly important in the entire
process you can see again up here we
havea kind of the sort by step one again
this is like that this is actually a
screenshot of what a what it looks like
from a program directors perspective
when they're reviewing applicants so
without a doubt step one score is it's
not the most important thing one of the
most important things that you will do
for your residency so really maximizing
your score is just so important and I
tell you know I work with a lot of med
students I look at a lot of pre-med and
of all then I tell them that's the most
important test of your life is you're
suddenly step one you should take the
MCAT multiple time you can get into you
know a lot of people think they've got
twice three times to get into med school
obviously a huge step but step one as
long as you pass you only take it once
if you don't pass you have other issues
but you know you only take step one once
and that score really determines what
you can do it determines if you can be
an orthopedic surgeon if you want to be
one it determines if you're going to
have to you know go into a
non-competitive specialty that you may
not want to go into or it determines if
you where you're going to go maybe you
end up not desirable location for you
so the difference of a great step one
score and a low step one score is just
enormous for you as an applicant I mean
I can't stress enough how important it
is at the end of the day so you know I
will turn it over to now some of the
experts in step one because as I said
I've been a long time since I've taken
it and resources have certainly changed
believe it or not we we barely had too
many we didn't have too many electronic
resources when I don't know is going
through now you guys have a plethora of
things and now I'm gonna turn it over to
these guys I just wanted to encourage
you guys again to use that question and
answer a function so that we can answer
questions I'm happy to answer questions
on residency selection fellowship
selection all those kind of things as
time goes on and we go through the
webinar as well so use that question and
answer session Joel I'll turn it back to
you
great thank you dr. Mecca so we're going
to go to our next question is have you
started studying yes so it is now
towards the end of October and
traditionally people take the exam you
know it's a little variable per school
but usually around March or April the
question is have you started setting it
or when do you plan on step so download
many people have kind of started
studying so maybe dabbled in some
resources maybe looked at some videos
the smaller portion has not started
studying and the smallest portion has
started studying so we're going to go
ahead and then delve into talking about
when to start studying and then more
importantly how to start studying so I'm
now going to turn it over to Faustina
Ramirez who is a fourth-year medical
student at UCSF has done exceptionally
well on step one and step two and then
has tutored several students and helps
them really achieve the sores that they
were interested in she's gonna be
talking to you about daily study
schedule how to use a cue bank examples
of a study guide and how to use and
beneath that great things Stoll can you
guys hear me okay so I think there are
different study schedules for different
time periods and I'm gonna talk about
creating a study schedule for your
dedicated study time and every student
has a different amount of weeks
depending on you know where what medical
school you're at and where you're at in
your training but generally people have
between four to six weeks and so and
that's typically what we would recommend
for kind of a dedicated study period so
this is what I recommend to students
that I work with and a strategy that was
really effective for me I always
recommend starting out your day with
some sort of exercise it can be light
moderate intense but just something to
get your heart pumping get your brain
working and I found that my studying was
more effective after some sort of
exercise even if it was just you know a
walk for 20 or 30 minutes in the morning
I first start with a review of some new
world notes and then I jump into
two-year old blocks and I recommend
doing blocks timed and random subjects
and I'll do those two blocks
back-to-back because you're always
wanting to work on stamina and then in
the afternoon for a you know four to six
hour period I would review those e-world
blocks and people always ask you know
how long should I spend
how long does it take me to review one
block and I think that first step one it
should usually take around two to three
hours per block so it takes a
significant amount of time but even more
so than doing the blocks the questions
themselves reviewing them is really
where you're going to get the most bang
for your buck and so that should be the
bulk of your studying for the day it's
going to be reviewing those year old
blocks people also ask you know how long
should my study baby
and during the dedicated period we
typically recommend 10 to 14 hours so
it's a really intense period but that's
why it's usually no longer than 4 to 6
weeks is because you know burnout is
real and you want to make sure that you
build in some time you know whether it's
a half day off a week to kind of
rejuvenate yourself but it is a really
intense period so this is this schedule
right here is about 12 hour days and
that can you know range depending on
your day between 10 and 14 hours in the
evening and this is when I would
recommend reviewing flashcards and
typically subjects that I recommend
using flashcards score are micro biochem
and then medications
you know mechanism of action and
toxicities and then reviewing you all
notes that you've taken when you review
those blocks which I'll talk about more
so this puts you at about a 12 hour a
day and gives you about six and a half
seven seven and a half hours of sleep
and I think that's what I would
recommend during this really intense
period next I'll talk about how to use
the cue Bank you all does a golden
resource but if it's not used in correct
if it's used incorrectly it's not the
most efficient so one of the ways to be
the most efficient with you worlds and
with any cue bank is to triage the
questions and the answers because
everyone is going to have different
strengths and weaknesses and if you
spend the same amount of time on all the
questions you're not using your time
most efficiently you know you want to
spend more time on your weak areas and
less time on things are already strong
at so I teach kind of a three point
system or sometimes I call it like red
orange and greens
some where red question or this first
one would be you know it was the hardest
thing I had no idea what was going on
I really couldn't figure it out
somewhere in the middle so maybe a
moderate or an orange would be you know
I got the point of the question I knew
what they were asking me but I narrowed
it down to two and I really couldn't
figure out I couldn't choose between the
two or it was 50/50 chance and then a
green would be I really had the hang of
this topic I knew what they were asking
me but I made a really silly mistake
that I'm not going to make again and the
goal of this ranking system is to be
more efficient to spend more time
reviewing those red and orange topics
and less time reviewing the green topics
and while you're reviewing you'll be
making a study guide based on the wrong
answers and we recommend organizing this
by subject so for example having a study
guide on GI and on cardio on poem based
on questions you got wrong and you know
some people want to type it some people
recommend writing it by hand for me I'm
the kind of person that really learns by
writing things down so I recommend
writing this by hand and this will be a
really golden resource so I want to talk
a little bit more about this study guide
so this is one example of you know what
the study guide would look at the point
of this is not for you to you know it
you know to copy exactly what's written
here but is to realize that the more
concise you are the more efficient
you'll be with your studying because
it'll take you less time to write down a
bullet point than to write down a whole
paragraph on what you got wrong and
it'll be more quick to review more
efficient to review so I recommend using
bullet points being very concise and
really focusing on the high yield
material and gaps in your knowledge and
that's why everyone study guide is going
to look different it might be really
long for GI if that's a weak area and
really short for poem or it might have a
lot on one topic say you've been
ignoring you know studying pleural
effusions because you really don't like
those lights criteria well you might
have several bullet points on that but
then less so on COPD or something else
because your bed
that already or you learned it better in
your preclinical years so this is just
an example to show you what that study
guide could look at and then I recommend
a strategy that I use during both my
preclinical years and step studying
about how to use these the study guide
to review your weak areas and so next
I'll talk about how to use a study guide
so if we could switch to the next slide
are you able to switch to the next slide
can you still hear me I can't hear you
anymore so it looks like joel may have
gotten frozen there so I'm gonna take
over and share my screen looks like he's
back maybe back but still a little
frozen there okay let me go ahead and
share my screen and we'll see if that
that takes us through it should work
just fine there we go can you see my
screen oh no I can't
well I can talk about it and then we can
once don't get back on so the way I
teach this strategy is the key here is
repetition repetition repetition
repetition so I recommend using a
different color pen for each day of the
week so you know blue for Monday red for
Tuesday green for Wednesday etc and then
the idea is that you'll review these
notes a total of four times so the first
time I want you to review them is the
evening of before you go to bed so say
you're reviewing your notes on a on a
Monday so and this slide might not be in
in your slide deck Documenta because I
had added it but the idea is that Monday
night you would review Monday's notes
then you would review those same notes
the next day so you would also review
them the Tuesday afternoon
afternoon or evening periods and you
would review them again on Wednesday and
then you would review them at the end of
the week so say on Sunday afternoon and
then you repeat that cycle the next day
so then on Tuesday you would be
reviewing Tuesday's notes in the evening
as well as the notes from the day before
so as well as Mondays and then the cycle
kind of repeats so you're gonna see each
set of notes on three consecutive days
Monday evening the next day and the day
after and then you would see all the
notes from that week on one day at the
end of the week so say Sunday afternoon
and you would review the entire week's
notes so this allows you to see these
notes for a total of four times each
week and then you repeat the cycle the
next week and so here it's really
repetition repetition and that's key
because these are the high yields points
that were your weak areas and you're
able the more times you see them the
more they'll get ingrained and then
finally I'd like to talk about practice
tests and enbe emmys so these are both
you know a way to evaluate your
performance and a learning tool so in
general for step one we say that NB
Emmys are gonna be a little bit closer
to your predicted score than the URL
self-assessments plus or minus five to
ten points and what I recommend is
simulating the entire test experience so
that taking the practice test at the
exact same time as your test is
scheduled to start and planning out when
you're going to take your breaks what
snacks and food you're gonna eat so
simulate the exact day test day
experience and that helps you build
stamina it also builds confidence
because you know what to expect you know
exactly when you're gonna take those
breaks you know when you're gonna have a
time to have a bite to eat or a sip of
coffee and you know for me it's a way of
controlling the controllables because
there's a lot of things on test day that
are not going to be controllable what
shows up on your test who's sitting next
to you you know how loud they're using
their clicker but you can control these
controllables and that helps you build
confidence and reduces test day anxiety
and so the last point is that I would
recommend taking one nbme right before
your dedicated time and then anywhere
from you know two to three depending on
how much you how much time you have
during your dedicated time and using
those scores to kind of guide your
studying subsequently great thank you
phosphine so now we'll go ahead and
switch over to Jane who will be talking
to you guys next he's gonna be talking
about dick creating a daily study
schedule content planning and how you
use practice tests as well as things he
wish he had known hi guys I hope you can
hear me all right so mr. Mehra's did say
a lot of good advice I'm gonna be
reiterating a lot of stuff she said but
I'm also to give my take on something so
I like to first talk about how to
approach a cue Bank so like mr. Muir
said you know you world is a very
daunting question Bank to start tackling
it's about what twenty three hundred
questions um but you know you've heard
it multiple times that I'm gonna say to
you again that you world really is the
gold standard my advice to you is
everyone who is gonna be taking someone
soon should get through that question
Bank twice once during the final term or
the final semester of their of their
year to and then another time during
during the dedicated study time so like
I said there's a ton of information in
new world a lot of stuff is a little bit
more than you probably need to know but
like I said the best thing to go about
with you world for me it is going over
the wrong answers and like I said is not
spending too much time over the right
answers and what I did was I made an
excel sheet gone by subject and what I
did was every wrong answer that I put I
would make a little factoid and I called
it my smart book and then I would review
it every every weekend every single
thing that I've gotten wrong through
your world and I can tell you that
probably ten or fifteen just straight
factoids that I memorize doing that
showed up on my test so if you're
finding yourself struggling to finish
your old or staying on schedule you know
we like to say we had to sacrifice a low
yield
low yield you real question so you know
if you really really know cardio it
really isn't too much to do good for you
do cardio questions right you should
definitely focus on topics that are your
weakest on another thing I wanted to say
is for you world a lot of people try to
focus on the right answer but like what
how US team said you know one of the
main strategies that you can do in step
one is eliminating the wrong answer
because they love throwing distractors
they love throwing answers that look
like the right answer and it's your job
and it's your skill that you're going to
sharpen in order to pick out those wrong
answers and know which ones right um can
you go to the next slide please
so like mr. mayor says she kind of
showed like a basic schedule so 5:00
a.m. is pretty early but I like to be
done really early so I like to be in bed
by 9:30 so typically I wake up at 5:00
go to library or Starbucks you know you
start with an hour of on keys I really
like on key just how they keep the
information that you get wrong coming
back frequently so just kind of builds
that memory you have to get hours of
dedicated first aid review the problem
with first aid is you have to be on top
of yourself and make sure that you're
not passively reading you need to make
sure that you're actively reading it and
actively trying to retain the
information also I use some doctors and
training videos I did two or three
blocks and you rolled on tutor mode I
personally like Twitter mode because I
never really had a problem with time but
if you're the type of person who's going
to the last second on your test
definitely do the timed
questions because you need to build up
that stamina and you need to build up
that practice in order to finish your
tests on time and um like I said I took
my exam on a Sunday so not really the
normal exam or exam day to take it on
but I just wanted to take you on a
Sunday um like phosphene said you take
your exert a q practice exams every
single Sunday at the exact same time I'm
in the exact same setting as much as you
can simulate that setting that's what
you need to do whatever you're gonna eat
whatever you're gonna drink you need to
make it familiarity there's comfort and
familiarity and honestly you world makes
it really they do a really good job of
making it look exactly like the step one
software so by the time I got to step
one I was already tired of the software
so to me that was just that kind of got
rid of the nerves in the anxiety for me
just to see that sort of familiarity um
also it's kind of like a little early
for this but when you
the day before the test you know you
always got to exercise no prep rest
definitely don't study the day before
the test that's definitely one of the
biggest things but during your dedicated
study time definitely make sure that you
have some mindfulness have some time to
yourself because you know I ended up
moving my tests up a week because like
phosphene said the burnout is real
I definitely felt those signs and
symptoms of burnout and I ended up
having to move my tests up because I was
just so tired of studying so definitely
know what kind of person you are in
terms of studying and how much energy
you have during the day definitely plan
for if you're going to get burnt out
what you're going to do about that and
how you're going to change it up and if
we can go to the next slide please I
will jump in there and say just for a
second and the burnt house thing was
it's one of the few things I remember
from step one was how burnt out I was at
the end of step on studying and how when
I got when I was done with it and then
came back to the world it was almost
like wow welcome back world like I
haven't seen people I hadn't been out
for so long and you know even I went
outside to prayer study but that was it
it was huge to be done with it and it's
funny you know twelve years later the
only thing you remember is how burned
out you were studying for that test
definitely and like you said like once
you come out of the test you like well
what do I do now cuz you spent so much
time studying for this test one of the
most important things is getting a
content plan I want to spend a little
bit of time on this first aid is also
deaf one of the gold standards for study
for this test you know along with you
rolled so for the prefer however kind of
studying person you are what I recommend
is seeing what your weakest at and
making those first eight sections a
priority but you have a certain number
of pages and a certain number of
questions you need to get do in a
certain amount of time so well you need
to do is you see take the amount of days
you have the study and the amount of
questions you have and the amount of
pages you have and just break it up day
by day and then just set in some break
days how every minute you feel that you
need you can divide the number of
questions you have per day I typically
did two or three blocks a day so a block
is 40 questions so you know you do the
math one of the things that I highly
highly recommend is do not sleep on
micro do not sleep on biochem and
especially especially do not sleep on
ethics and
I have stats if you started if you
learned bio stats a little early in your
medical career maybe in like your one or
your two I would start right now and
start going back and looking at your bio
statistics
all those equations getting familiar
with it and all those ethics questions
that you know no one really takes the
time to look at but there's a really
good section and first-aid for that I
can't tell you how high old
biostatistics and ethics were there is
so many questions on my test about that
that you know thankfully I prepared for
them but a lot of people you know kind
of overlook that um another thing with
biochemistry is about chemistry is also
really high yield but it's also strictly
pure memorization so I'd recommend
hitting at first and then last so doing
it really early on you're dedicated and
then doing it really late and dedicated
so just to make sure that you have it
all down another thing I recommend is
trying to get a specific pathway whether
it be like glycolysis or the TCA cycle
or anything like that what I would do
during my dedicated is I would every two
or three days I would just draw out one
pathway on a whiteboard so there's just
little things that you can do to help
you remember and really um it's the
little things that really make that
score and can I switch to the next slide
please
um and like phosphines that she's
talking about the practice tests but in
reality your MVA means your nvme is are
your best predictor your score at one
point one of the last NBA NBA means I
took was the exact score I got on step
one also if you do end up purchasing the
full euro subscription it does come with
two tests I find those tests to be very
very helpful and very very accurate of a
particular score like Faustine said
about side the ten points give or take
um but you should definitely use them as
a baseline so the first thing you should
do before you even start your dedicated
is to take an nvme just to see where
you're at and when I did med school
coach I actually did do the program and
I'm very thankful for that but you know
my tutor had me do a MBA me third under
me my very first day of dedicated um and
from the first day to the last day once
a week I did them and I could just see
the progress happening and it's really
good to see that so you know if you're
seeing yourself progress you know it's a
good confidence Blissett music you're
doing things right and if you're not
seeing yourself progress you know that
what you're doing needs to change and
then it gives you some leeway to change
up your study schedule
basically I call what's called 220 and
230 and 240 and then 250 information a
lot of people kind of have their own
their own idea of what kind of
information they need to know but the
250 kind of information are those little
are those little sentences in first aid
that you don't really think you need to
know but trust me if you're trying to
get that 250 year plus those kind of
things are the things you need to make a
note card out of and if they show up on
our package sets it's something that you
really need to make a note of I'm gonna
go to the next side please
so this is a really important slide what
I wish I had known you know studying
should feel like work you know it kind
of sounds really repetitive but that
really is the thing studying should feel
like work you should be going in doing
what you're supposed to do and then
finishing and then not worrying about it
once you're done I'm having a go to
relaxation technique is really important
you know fussing talked about walking in
the morning on there's relaxation
techniques for me I love video games or
just watching football another big thing
this is huge turning off social media
was a huge time saver for me when I woke
up in the morning you know at first I
would scroll through Facebook or
Instagram for like you know 10 or 15
minutes and then a night right before I
went to bed I would scroll through
Facebook Instagram snapchat I found that
to be really time-wasting it kind of
affected my sleep in my morning I really
really recommend turning off social
media during your dedicated I think
that's gonna be a huge help on your
studying um definitely communicate with
your friends and family you know if some
nights you have to go out for dinner you
know and you need to take off a couple
hours like it's not going to kill you
that's definitely just as important for
your mental health and fur to avoid
burnout and if I could do the test again
the DI T videos that I used weren't
really as great as I thought they'd be
I definitely like Bohr's and beyond more
and like I said doing you world x twice
or another question bank if you do end
up exhausting your you world which I
really hope you don't but if you do you
can switch to another question Bank by
Kaplan or USMLE rx and I think with that
we're gonna go back to Joel right
you
yeah we're gonna head back to jewel in a
second here so quick question for those
you guys are out there I mean we've gone
over a couple of things and in terms of
studying so we want to know what
resources are you planning on utilizing
for for your study time and obviously
you know there everybody's gonna utilize
some combination of resources but I want
to kind of hear what you guys are
thinking about there's a lot of
resources out there and Joel's gonna I
think may be home in and talked a little
bit about what some of the best ones are
how to figure it out I'll definitely
tell you that I've seen a lot of
students that struggle the most with
figuring out what to use and end up
using too many things so they they won
there okay what is the best best
pathology book I can use the goalie
honors diploma is it this or is it that
and they spend so much time worrying
about exactly which book to use that
they don't actually read either book
though the reality is that most of the
resources out there are pretty good and
and will get you where you need to be
but I see just a lot of people who sit
around and and basically don't get the
material that they don't get the
information that they need because they
are actually spending so much time
utilizing and thinking about what
resource to use rather than using
whatever resource that they have and and
this is interesting I mean a lot of you
guys out there or think about taking a
course and I presume that beats
ribboning class of course a lot of
people are saying okay I'm gonna use
some video series which I think are
think are great again when I took that
when I took the boards there's actually
no video series didn't exist and there
are others with books and private
tutoring so Joe maybe I'll turn it over
to you to talk a little bit about
counted ball great great thank you thank
you dr. Matta so I'll go ahead and talk
about comments in Vault pitfalls of
preparing for step one so if we go ahead
and go to the next screen we still often
see that didn't come to us using too
many resources so students will come to
us saying you know I have you world I
have USMLE rx I have first aid goalie on
doctors and training you know now list
this big long list of resources and so
it actually at that point becomes
counterproductive you have this long
list of resources but you don't have
enough time to really delve
any of those resources so that leads to
what we call dabbling so people dabble
in each resource but not spending enough
quality time each one willing you dabble
in each resource you're really harming
yourself you're not able to maximize the
resources that you're using and so we
are would really help you hone in on the
handful resources that work for you
that's not to say that there's anything
wrong with using multiple resources or
doctors and training or structures of
training and first-aid but different
people learn in different ways and it's
important to figure out what way in what
way you learn choose a handful of
resources that are going to complement
that and then really maximize them and
most importantly do not be influenced by
others so I can't remember how often
people tell me well I was in the library
and I saw this person using this book or
using this book and then they like go
out on Amazon they'll buy that book
maybe spend an hour to reading it and
they aren't really able to benefit from
that resource so the next come pitfalls
getting distracted so all too common
people veer off their study plan so
there's a reason you create a study plan
and you want to make sure you stick that
study plan you're sticking to that study
plan is really going to help you make
sure that you cover what you need to
cover and then it's also going to
prevent you from missing things so if
you stay true to your study plan and
your study plan includes all these
resources that you want to cover and
that's going to make sure that sticking
to that study plan day to day is going
to get you through all those resources
poor study fund study environment you
want to make sure that you're in a place
where you can concentrate that's
different from everybody sometimes
that's at home where you know Mom and
Dad can cook for you and provide for you
sometimes that's at your home
institution sometimes that's with your
partner you really take some time to
reflect on where you study the book the
best and make sure you put yourself in
that environment and then poor time
management that is actually really
similar to the veering off the study
plan you want to be realistic with your
study plan and make sure that you have
actually the time the adequate amount of
time to to finish that study plan and
then not being realistic
so attempting to use too many resources
if you think some people come in saying
I'm gonna get through you rolled five
times in those two weeks you
make sure you don't do that you want to
make sure - I know
Faustina and James had mentioned this
you want to make sure you remain you
keep time your build time in your
schedule for family friends and rest
burnout is real
studying for 12 to 14 hours a day it's
very challenging doing that for four
plus two four to six weeks is very
challenging just a little bit of time
every day a little bit of time every
week and it might seem like an upfront
investment of your time but in the long
run this is very beneficial to your
success and then not enough forethought
so you don't want to come you don't want
to be a week before your exam and
realize that you need help
the sooner you reach out for help
whether that is to us whether that is to
knowledge will friend or whether that's
just self reflection the sooner you'll
be able to identify weaknesses and the
sooner you'll be able to act on those
weaknesses so I think that we already
spent some time talking about best
resources so we'll go ahead and skip the
slide I think James frosty and I had a
chance to talk about what we thought was
important next I want to briefly talk
about how just one on one tutoring today
and I want to make sure that we have at
least 15 minutes for question answer in
order get your questions but I would
like to talk about what role might
one-on-one tutoring play so we have
extensive experience not only taking
this exam and doing well but helping
others do well and so we really focus on
the individual student and one of the
benefits of one-on-one tutoring is you
get completely personalized tutoring so
I don't think in a once there's one time
that I can recall medical school in
which I had one-on-one attention you
know and it the best it goes into a
small group of 10 to 12 people with
one-on-one tutoring you are getting
personalized attention someone who can
choose helped build a study plan and
help choose resources that are going to
be tailored just for you we also
specialize in approaching question so
have do you have challenges approaching
question there are systematic ways to
approach these questions and we have a
lot of experience battling doing it but
teaching it
we provide a completely personalized
experience from day one
so we can provide a step we can help
create a study plan with you we helped
create a scientific foundation so just
covering the basics of physiology we
also can help you with practice craft
key questions we help with repetition
and then finally we help of actually
taking the test so how do I take the
test when do I take my breaks should I
eat should I take off E when should I
take the test should be out of my home
institution should it be at my
university and these are all things that
we have a lot of experience with and it
can help guide you through so these are
a few ways that we do that again most
importantly is we personalize everything
everything is personalized completely to
you there's no one size fit all those
note cookie cutters we recruit tutors
who have not only excelled on the exam
but our wonderful teachers they're kind
empathetic compassionate people who are
committed to your success and committed
to your execute that in your education
they have a lot of experience on how to
learn how yield material on how to
retain high yield material so instead of
dabbling in a bunch of resources we're
going to be able to help you identify
important resources identify the most
important information and identify his
ways in which you can learn that most
important information and the goal of
this is for you to score higher and for
you to get a better score and for you to
be able to pursue the specialty that you
want to pursue the way it works is you
get would get paired with a tutor
usually we pair you with one tutor but
depending on your needs you might be
paired with another with multiple tutors
you then work with your tutor one-on-one
to find out times that work for you so
you can meet with your tutor whenever
wherever based upon your availability
and his or her availability our tutors
utilize multiple kinds of sessions they
use content based sessions these
question based lessons and then most
importantly is they will utilize a
education strategy and a session that's
going to work for you this is all
personalized we focus on you and so as
you get to know your tutor another tutor
get to know get to know you we will be
able to adapt
your needs and provide you with what you
need and again the goal of this is for
you to score higher that is our goal we
have the same goal we have a few
guarantees if you get paired to the
tutor and for some reason you think that
you would work better with a different
teaching style you can switch tutors at
any time although this very rarely
happens you it is an option if you would
like if you're not satisfied with the
package that you've gotten most the
tutoring that you've gotten you can get
the rest of your hours refunded again
very rarely happens we also have a score
increase guarantee depending on the
package you get if you're a pre 2 Turing
mdme score does not increase by greater
than 10 points at the end of your
session we'll give you 10 hours for free
so this is a sign of our commitment to
you and our commitment to the goal of
you improving more score and so we have
information if you're more interested in
hearing more information you can email
info at med school coach comm will also
send a fall email to this webinar which
you can reach out to us to get all your
answers all your questions answered
great well thank you everybody we're
going to go ahead and switch now to the
question answer I see multiple question
answers here our questions here so let
me go ahead and we can pull the few
let's try
so let's try this questions this is a
question by Nina says I've been told by
some people that you world should be
used to test your knowledge so using
only once during the dedicated study
time but I've also heard that doing the
whole Bank twice is better so I'm not
sure how to decide I'm gonna go ahead
and send that question over to James
because I know he had mentioned doing
the Q Bank twice so James you see any
benefit in doing at Q bank twice yes I
definitely definitely see a benefit of
doing year-old twice a lot of people say
that you know you're gonna memorize the
answers but to me I never found that to
be the case I memorized the concepts
which is more important than memorizing
the answers so you know if I didn't know
a concept about cardiology you know I
would have gotten that wrong I would
have went over it and then the next time
around you know I would have memorized I
would have remembered the concept and
understood the concept and I would have
having more efficiently get to the right
answer there's a huge benefit in doing
your role twice I really think that
everyone should do it twice the first
time you know if your percentages aren't
too high don't worry about it you should
really start worrying about percentages
more into your dedicated sometime great
thanks James here's a question we'll
start with Jim said the ones who got
high scores did they do one-on-one
tutoring so I'll actually take that
question myself so what we have
excellent feedback with with our
students students are very happy with
their tutoring experience they're very
happy with the scores they've gotten we
work with a range of students some
students have some students with
different goals some students have a
goal just passing and some students have
a goal of getting a 250 or 260 we have a
98% positive feedback rating on our
online rating so I think the answer to
that question is a little challenging in
which it it's since we offer
personalized tutoring everyone situation
is different but what I can say is by
far the majority of students who work
with us are very happy with their out
and I can jump in there Joel for a
second and say that listen not everybody
out there needs one-on-one tutoring
right I mean there most people will do
fine actually by themselves and but
there's a there's a large portion of
students out there who either are
struggling with the pest or need to get
that to 40 to 50 or above and that's
where I think that one-on-one attention
can really make that huge difference
people don't understand it until they
get it right and there's a lot of great
resources as Joel hustling and James
already mentioned out there for people
to score really high on the boards and
and if you are you know taking nvme test
and you're getting a 250 all power to
you
you're gonna do fine and you're gonna be
okay and but if you're getting a 220 or
210 and you want to match in 200 or so
or IR or something you know you gotta
you gotta you know you gotta get your
score higher or if you want to match
into you know MGH for internal medicine
you know you gotta get your score Eyre
and it's those people who I think can
really benefit and and often don't see
the benefits until that they that they
actually participate in it use all the
resources that are out there your
there's a ton but if you're struggling
if you're stuck if you're plateauing if
you're having trouble with a particular
subject or you haven't even having
trouble just getting and getting at what
a question is answering or asking that's
when somebody sitting down with you who
knows the test knows the material has
gone through it and aced it can really
help you take it to the next level and
honestly take it to the next level far
quicker then then you otherwise may be
able to without that help right so you
may be struggling for hours and hours
and hours just trying to figure out some
concept when honestly forty five minutes
with somebody who can really teach it
well would transform you and so those
are think if you're not everybody needs
this but if if you're struggling if
you're plateauing
if you want to maximize your score
that's when the one-on-one help can
really come in great thank you dr. Metz
a quick question that I can't the right
now will this webinar viewer
or did the answer to that is yes this
will be recorded here's a question from
Elvis how much time should I spend
studying per day how can I find a
healthy balanced ounce of studying
medicine and doing my hobbies and then
what is the best strategy to make a
review so I think I'll I'll put it over
to phosphine so again the question is
how much time should I spend studying
per day how can I find a healthy balance
of studying and doing hobbies and then
what is the best strategy to make review
yeah so I think those are really great
and really important questions so
earlier we mentioned I think during
dedicated time you know a reasonable
expectation is going to be a minimum of
10 hours a day and we recommend even
closer to 12 to 14 depending on the day
now obviously you're not going to study
14 hours every single day for 4 to 6
weeks it's going to be important for you
to build in gaps in that day so if we
were thinking back to the to study
schedules that we saw both of those had
time built in for some sort of exercise
or mindfulness activity something
completely separate from medicine that's
important to you that could be having
breakfast every day with your loved ones
that could be you know stepping outside
after lunch and going to walk around the
block that could be having coffee with
your parents you know once in once a
week whatever it is that brings you joy
outside of medicine do not stop doing
those things during your board study and
I would say it's that is I'm gonna
repeat that whatever it is that brings
you joy outside of medicine
do not stop it in fact I would try to do
more of it during board study because
those are gonna be the things that you
know prevent you from burning out and
that can help you with your stamina for
the dedicated study time because it is
incredibly hard so I would recommend
building in to your study plan at least
at minimum a half day off a week
if you are getting to the end of the
week and you feel like you know this
week you might need to take a full day
off that is totally fine you taking that
extra half day off is going to be more
beneficial to your long-term studying
and your long
from score then you powering through
grinding it out for a few more hours not
retaining much and then not being fresh
for the next day so you know key things
whether it's reading exercising whatever
makes you happy outside of medicine keep
doing it build in you know 30 minutes an
hour of it a day taking completely off
at least a half day off a week and then
building a schedule that incorporates
those things and you know I think doing
it an hour-by-hour schedule is great I
did that I had an Excel spreadsheet I
would recommend you know the same way
that James talked about counting out how
many questions and how many pages you
want to cover in first aid and creating
like a Google spreadsheet with you know
this is Monday the 20th and I'm going to
do this many hours of first this many
pages of first aid this many hours on
blocks and repeating the blocks this
many questions I'm gonna spend two hours
reviewing my flashcards two hours
reviewing my notes from New Worlds 30
minutes here exercising really like an
hour-by-hour schedule and I think that
helps make all these goals more
attainable by creating that type of
detailed plan does that answer that was
kind of a three-part question great so
next question is there an option for you
to provide us or help us create a
day-to-day calendar of what we should
government cover and how many questions
do etc or any recommendations on who can
help to put that and I'll go ahead and
put that over to Jing all right thank
you so that was a Mariam o'seas question
so the answer is yes we can definitely
help with that when I did the tutoring
with med school coach he basically sat
me down and made an excel sheet with
day-by-day what subject to cover and
what to do and you know it kind of
depends on what you want if you want
someone to plan out every single minute
of your day we can help you with that if
you want someone to kind of give you a
general guidance of every day to day we
can also help you with that
and as far as recommendations or for how
much we should cover and how many
questions do yeah like I said we can
definitely help you with anything that
you need in that sense
great so we have a few minutes left I
think we'll try squeezing a few more
questions here's another question
directed for you James how should one
study for step during term 5 @ SG you so
great question
so as an su Brad it's turn fives very
tough basically turn fighters cotton
actually was really tough it is really
the whole income Pike just encompassing
of all of Medicine you know without the
physiology and pharmacology basically
what I recommend to do is day to day do
some do euro blocks do them randomly
throwing the day try to supplement your
lectures with all the outside resources
I really like boards and beyond to help
supplement what the lecturers wouldn't
really cover or didn't explain well
enough to me and then at night I would
do another question Bank probably like
USMLE rx in or questions on a specific
topic that they were covering in lecture
so I followed that lecture schedule and
then every weekend some friends now
would get together and we draw outs and
chemistry pathways would we go over you
know all the gram-positive bugs or where
you go over all the biostatistical
questions or all the we did some ethics
cases it really depends on your
weaknesses um you know coming from SVU
we have we kind of have a different
curriculum than other people so like I
said you world Wilson beyond us Emily rx
and on the weekends definitely look over
some biochemistry look over some bio
stats and look over some micro so it's
kind of the gist if it's a lot we don't
think we have enough time to go into
more detail that if you have any other
questions you can always find me an
email me James really quickly since
you're already on the line what is an
example on the resources that encourages
passing what passive learning one to
avoid so you had mentioned earlier
avoiding passive learning I think the
answer the question is could you clarify
so I might offend some people with this
but I personally sounds sketchy micro to
be a little bit of passive learning I
just thought that I was just kind of
watching it it might be different for
some people I also found that a lot of
the doctors and training videos we're
kind of just passive learning you're
kind of is listening they're not really
engaged with it like I said sketchy
wasn't really for me I found it to be
very
just simply because I can't do the whole
you know image to information
correlation
I found bourse and Beyond to be really
good because all the information is so
well put so well presented and it's just
so applicable to the test that it really
had me engaged and also to the opposite
of that more engagement resources of
like I said on key question banks boards
and beyond Pat DOMA but for me passive
learning is something where you're kind
of listening to and if I ask you a
question five minutes later you probably
wouldn't be able to answer it and for me
that was sketchy and others and training
right great thanks James
to piggyback off that another question
is do you recommend watching the u.s.
Emily our Express videos instead of
reading the first aid book so I'll go
ahead and take that one I think that is
an example of passive learned that James
kind of identified I think it is
important to recognize that everyone
learns differently I know some people
swear by videos and swear by sketchy
micro I think the important thing is to
figure out what works for you
to be very honest with yourself do you
actually learn from videos are you
actually learning from sketchy micro if
the answer is that is yes and do it if
the answer to that is no then don't do
it I think the majority people would
agree that using first aid as a book is
probably the best resource you can give
the video to try but the videos are
gonna be very similar to the book and
you might find yourself in a place where
you're just sitting watching videos and
you're not actually learning the
material a quick question is it okay to
use a book that isn't the most recent
edition I think the answer to this is
yes I think in most cases it's
beneficial to have the most recent
edition and if you're able to afford you
know purchasing another textbook it
likely is worth your money but if you're
using last year first aid it's probably
not going to harm you another question
how many cards did you do a day for unki
I use donkey so I guess I'll take this
one as well I don't know if James the
jianci I did use on key if you wanted me
yeah sure I it really depends on the
subject like
cardio or 4G I I would probably use like
30 to 40 a day but I can get to them
pretty quickly but a woman came to stuff
that I really knew I would do probably
like 10 and 15 a day and like I said
that was mostly at the end of the night
or right before I started my day just it
kind of gave me as a warmup but some
people will have to learn slowly through
Anki and you know that's the case if
that works for you then you go ahead and
do that and you can do as many cards as
you want great all quickly finished one
more we'll finish with one more question
how would you recommend implementing
Anki and board prep and did you make
your own court cards or use a premade
study Bank so I think that unki can play
a very important role in your study
Anki is very good at learning small
details of which step one is a lot of
small challenging details I think that
if you use on key right it could be a
great resource when I say right I think
we're talking about a few things I think
there is a lot of value to making your
own on key deck I think the process of
making those cards although will take a
long time is itself an active process so
when you are making these cards you're
highlighting and you're identifying what
is important and what do I not
understand and I think that process in
itself is an important process and then
to piggyback off what James said it's
really important to make sure that you
regularly study these cards if you're
someone who can sit down for one to four
hours every day and do a key card and
can commit to doing that every day or at
least six days a week then do it if you
know yourself and know that you cannot
do that then you probably would then be
best on your time doing something else
so I think that takes some introspection
and some reflection on essentially your
own ability to utilize flashcards and if
you use flashcards in the past and found
it beneficial there's one last question
that we would like to address this one
is for dr. Mehta and it's been asked on
our QA and our chat so we'll get that
answered but the question is does
undergraduate study play any meaningful
role in residency selection or step 1
so does
graduate study play any meaningful role
I assume this is referencing sort of
where you went to undergrad what your
activities were etc and the answers
really no doesn't play any role
whatsoever unless you were you know
let's say did a whole bunch of research
and undergrad an orthopedic surgery and
we're applying for seek surgery um
otherwise really the residency selection
process is very limited to what you've
done in medical school and it's not like
the med school application process where
we're looking for activities and
volunteer work and shadowing and all
that it's really sort of focused in on a
few things the few things I mentioned
obviously step one Square step two score
letters of recommendation research and
and maybe sort of your clinical interest
in this particular field or what you've
done that's those are really what goes
into the selection criteria and not so
much activities or what you did in
undergrad excellent thank you so I think
that pretty much wraps up how much time
we have for the question but I'm sorry
we weren't able to get to all of them I
think we got to about 80% of them we are
available and we are always looking to
take on new students so if you're one of
those students to dr. Meza had mentioned
we think they might benefit from this or
if you would like to spend some time
one-on-one with one of our tutors
creating a study plan or talking more
about resources then you can are welcome
to email us we'll also send an email out
after this with all the information that
you would need to contact us other than
that thank you so much for joining us
tonight we hope that it was valuable for
you we hope that you are able to take
out some really concrete useful
information and then we really hope that
you are able to do as well as you'd like
on this exam and we wish you that we
wish you the best of luck
never good night everybody thanks for
joining us