How to Study for the Boards

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 study schedule. This schedule is from a student who scored in the 97th percentile on the Boards. It incorporates one day off, on day 15 or 16, to do nothing except 2 practice tests. The day before the exam this student did the practice test that the USMLE sends out with the application, since this test is notoriously easier than the actual exam and it should be a confidence builder before the test.

Books
Buy: First Aid for the Boards, JNS, Appleton and Lange, and NMS Question books to use for practice 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 study time for these subjects. Crammed for 5 full days. Used JNS (?) book with combined Anatomy and Embryology. This book wasn't great, but it served the purpose.
Cell Biology/ Histology: Used BRS book. This student would study these subjects half and hour before studying Pathology in order to get bearings.
Physiology: BRS Costanzo.
Microbiology: Used Levinson/Jawetz (good for questions) and his own notes, taken during the Microbiology course (i.e., the flash cards).
Biochemistry: Lippincott. Biochemistry was a strength of this student, so he concentrated less on this area. Lots of questions 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 books to study from. These books were helpful because of their familiarity. Also used BRS Pathology as a guide.
Behavioral Science: Used BRS Behavioral Science book, but didn't really like it.

Rough Daily Schedule
7:30 am - Wake up, eat breakfast.8:00 am - Arrive at study cubicle. Do review questions for the subjects covered the day before. (Don't agonize over these questions!) 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, study Pharmacology and tie up loose ends. 12-12:30 am - Go to sleep.
Please note: This person did take time 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 student 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 clinical KEY words)
9 half-days of Physiology, with a half-hour devoted to Cell Biology/Histology Review for Orientation
4-5 half-days of Behavioral Science
For the entire 31 days, this student reviewed PharmCards for 2 hours before going to sleep.
Right before beginning the second two weeks, this student took one day off, where he just did 2 practice tests. For a good source of practice tests use NMS question books, Princeton Review 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" time)

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

Further details
This student studied by organ systems. Thus, for the 14 half-days that he studied Pathology and Medicine, the following systems were allocated different amounts of time:
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 study the Pathology of the organ system in the afternoon.

Last Remarks
This system is just a sample system that was tailored to this particular student's strengths. Since this student 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 time to this subject. Also, this student was an early-morning riser, so he went to bed relatively early and rose early. In addition, not every student studies by Organ Systems, and there are many different techniques of studying that could suit your study style better. Whatever method you choose to adopt, good luck! I will end with the cheery and inspiring words of Student X:

"This was the worst time 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 questions like: "What do you use for hypertension?", and giving a range of answers 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 book was used. Steve Katz said "Anatomy is something you either know or you don't and there is no point spending too much time on this." However, Neuroanatomy was pretty much agreed to be important, and the book 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 exam. (Other books 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 good book, with good pneumonics, and good 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 exam. One student said to save the Comprehensive exam 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 questions, and a good gauge for how well you will do."Behavioral Science: BRS Beh. Sci. and High Yield were recommended. Said that a lot of these questions were not questions you could study for. For example: " A patient walks into your office crying. What is the first thing you would say to her?" Lots of management questions. 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 questions, since those have less ambiguous answers.Regarding Underground Clinical Vignettes: One third year said to get the 2 pathology books and review them. Some said to go over all the books with a friend and see if you could guess the diagnoses.

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

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