Matched yesterday - 266 step 1 and 273 step 2ck Here are my two pennies if it helps anyone - 1. Make your foundation strong - USMLE is more about linking information rather than memorising all information - but even for that you need to memorize (or 'understand' or 'have concept of') the fundamentals first - hence do Uworld always in random mode from D1 irrespective of your percentile score 2. Do first pass of Uworld with annotations of the topic (i annotated - you might choose not to) in First aid - didn't use B and B personally as I was too deep into my prep - but B and B is wonderful material to supplement First Aid 3. Repeat Uworld second pass - only read education objective of all questions (and full explanation of all questions you got wrong) 4. If you have time you can do third pass of uworld as well - trick is to flag all questions in first pass - then do flagged question as second pass then only reset and do it all over again as third pass 5. For Step 2 its only Uworld and up-to-date really - u might choose to use Amboss library as 'First Aid'ish resource 6. At the end of the day - as you prepare further you will realise that there are so many advices on the correct strategy for preparation - you tend to get confused - its more about finding your niche rather than following someone else's preparation plan completely - if your Uworld percentile is increasing and u r doing better in NBME forms then you are golden no matter your preparation strategy 7. I find Santiago's strategy really good (i guess on par with dirty usmle minus the cuss words 😉) - give it a try but don't get disheartened if it doesn't work for you - i guess mle is journey into discovering yourself and your ways to deal with stress, handling job and study together (most IMGs are already doctors in their country), finding out your perfect method to study 8. Have a study partner to talk to - who is going through the same journey as you are - the worst part about USMLE for us VISA requiring IMGs is the uncertainty of the process 9. There is life beyond MLE and there are always things to be grateful for - remember this is just an optional road we chose to walk upon - there are many more other roads in life - it tends to get so overwhelming sometimes that we tend to think this exam and the journey to residency in US is all that there is to life
Hey Shailesh congrats on your match! And also, thanks for taking the time to share your tips with the community. As you said there is no "Single correct strategy", and I do believe that at some point we just have to try things for ourselves and find out what works for us. Best of luck in residency!!
Referring to your point 2, your saying I do uworld 1st pass at random straight away or first review whole first aid? because with random questions would be from any topic? Im starting my prep ( for Step1)
wow so deep,meaningful and relatable perspective at so many levels.Please come with your own channel for everyday motivation.I am sure you will inspire so many IMGs especially Doctors who have been working else where.It is rare to find such topics discussed for older IMGs.Thank you for the motivational and honest advises!
You know what I love about you? You're relatable. You explain the topics in such a way that a large number of people can relate. It's never fancy or elaborate from top to bottom. You ease us into it and then we decide how we customise. Brilliant!
Just wanted to let you know that I changed my strategy and started doing mainly questions (inspired by your previous videos) and hey it's working! I still have a long way to go but I feel I have a better grasp on the subjects. Thank you so much Santiago
Hola Santiago ! Another great video ! As I said before The First Aid is just a bunch of bullets points with info and mnemonics. You learn by doing questions ! Dont wait to know more before you get to them. Amazing content.
I see where you're coming from with this approach but I think there's a problem there. For example, if my cardio background was very weak and I don't know the dynamics of heart failure and the compensatory mechanisms. I then come across questions about that topic I think I would be missing the benefits knowledge application. The only thing I'd be getting out of that is that I really need to go and learn this. Wouldn't it be better if you learn the topic first and follow up with doing questions to reinforce the high yield points through applying them in a question and through repetition through multiple questions on that topic?
That's a valid point, and to some extent you do lose the "first-hand knowledge application benefits" of reading a topic and then having the chance to practice with that knowledge. However, a couple of points have to be considered. First of all, there is the issue that to truly create a background on everything that comes up as a clinical case, you'd have to spend a ridiculous amount of time reading and watching videos before you even dare to jump into a question. And I think we can all agree that's unpractical (And almost impossible as well). In a sense, I reckon everyone of us at some point starts doing questions accepting the fact that there'll be a ton of concepts to which we know nothing of (Renouncing our "first knowledge application benefits"). So is it a matter of quantity? Is it okay to start questions when we have foundations on 50% of the topics? 70%? 90%? ... I myself cannot find a way to answer that. On top of this, we have to consider the implications of prioritizing the "first-hand knowledge application benefits" over everything else. Because again, in order to get them with every single topic we would have to spend endless months reading and watching videos. And we know that by doing this we run into the problem of beginning to forget the things we read through input alone. We also have the issue of learning with a "theoretical lens" in which you learn the content in the way the book portrays it, which at least in my experience tends to have quite a gap with the way questions actually show it. So are we really creating a solid background? Is it complete? Or are we actually just "familiarizing" ourselves with the content and then complementing it with the qbank?... The more I think about this the more I lean for the latter than for the former. And with that in mind, I cannot help but see that the key to a great score is the complementation process, the tailoring of knowledge. Not the familiarization. Finally, we have to consider that although we lose these benefits with the first question of an unfamiliar topic, more often than not we get a dozen more opportunities to apply that knowledge. And in this way at least we get to set foundations with the proper perspective and in the right proportion relative to their importance.
I agree, I wonder what the world record is? What's the world record for number of novel USMLE Step 1 practice questions in one day? Since the exam is 7 blocks of 40 Qs shouldn't we be able to do that many questions during prep.
Well, I thought exactly that during my step 1 prep. But as it turns out, drowning yourself in 200+ questions a day is a very bad long term strategy. It burns you out very quickly... As cliche as it may sound, the best strategy is the one that allows you to work SUSTAINABLY over time. So in a way, decreasing the day to day work is the best way to keep the month to month work going. Having said that I do encourage people to practice "mock" exams in the month prior to the exam to build their stamina up
I could realise the thing when I am done wasting a lot of time Did psiach that way tho n I’d extremely recommend it no matter how low you score don’t give a damn you r just learning You learn better from wrongs for sure!!
Hey Genet! I don't have a specific video on UWORLD but I do think the videos on "How to study USMLE questions FAST" and all the test taking techniques videos (Ex. "How to get inside the mind of the examiner") target directly the tips I used to answer and review UWORLD. Hope it helps!
Hey Gunel I got a couple of videos that give a broad overview of my learning approach. I'll be posting some shorter vlogs in the following weeks that complement these videos and detail my specific strategies to study all of the specific subjects
@@SantiagoAQ thank you so much. I always try new ways but i seem to cant find the right way. That is why i am a bit struggling. I am so happy to here that🤩
I am in my 3rd year of medical school and doing my rotations I plan on taking steps next year .am trying to divide my day into 50 percent questions and the rest for studying the topics from the questions. What resources do you suggest I use.
Hard to answer, it depends on a lot of factors (Schedule, how fast you can review the content etc...) generally I'd say that 6 months are appropriate for most.
I am a 3rd year medical student. This semester my step 1 subjects would be over. I am a beginner and haven’t stared anything. My classes go from 5:30 am to 6:00 pm with 2 1 hr breaks in between. Can you help me set up a timetable. Please? I want to match neurosurgery . I have been studying hard but I keep forgetting. Please help me make a schedule so I can work and match neurosurgery.
Hi Santiago please for the other qbanks aside Uworld... I means Amboss, Kaplan, rx and others.. did you read the other options or just the correct options? Thank You
for example if one is doing vasculitis first time ever in life and having no basic pathophysio in mind having solved Qs getting them wrong and trynna review the the explanation how can one get through that having to see many diff QQs on diff type of vasculitis amd diff cram type pimpoint explanations how can that then work???? I know going through first aid is even worse what should such a person do go through entire thing or what??? how to get concepts for a topic one has never even read????
Hey Travel Freak, it is called the generation effect. Trying to come up with a hypothesis before reading the material improves the retention once you get to read the topic. It’s okey if you make mistakes, in fact making them has been shown to improve retention more than acing the hypothesis right away. If you’re interested I discuss this more in depth in my masterclass on the science of effective learning santiagoaq.notion.site/The-Science-of-Effective-Learning-9bcc7684c07348d68a41a5fa692ac7c2
Hey thanks for your advice! What would you do if you had 1.5 years to prep before having a 6 month dedicated period for step 1? I’m inclined to try this method but paying for qbanks this early in my prep schedule is quite expensive.
Try out Medbullets. It has 1000 free questions. Complement the questions with materials you can get for free (there are a TON of books and videos for free on Facebook if you dig up a little)
I loved doing my lecturio Q bank, and I went through it twice over the past 2 years, and I have this nasty teacher whos mistreating me over using lecturio as opposed to other "better" Q banks, lecturo worked for me becuase it was more straightfoward and more accessible for me at the time, is that ok in you view? please let me know.
Hey Rouzbeh! I haven’t tried Lecturio so I really don’t have an opinion on the matter but I’d say that if you’re learning and your assessments show it well then keep at it!
6 months is average! 12 if your basics are weak or you want an exceptional score. Less if your basics are strong and you’re fine with a more average score. But it really depends on the specifics that was just rules of thumb
Yes I did! I think that IT IS a great tool to memorize stuff but it tends to be abused. For instance I certainly did way to many cards for my Step 1, and ended up not being able to review them because of this. Being a lot more selective with what I chose to make a card actually helped me to use this tool to my advantage (I ended up with about 500 cards for Step 2CK - And that was way, WAYY better than the 12.000 for Step 1)
Hola. Quería hacer una pregunta sobre la residencia en Estados Unidos. Es posible hacer o empezar un estudio doctoral durante la residencia? O es obligatorio terminar la residencia para eso? Si depende de la Universidad, me podría recomendar en cuáles se podría?
Hola Sebastian, si es posible, he escuchado de algunos aplicantes que les financian el doctorado o masters mientras hacen su residencia. Pero no tengo información sobre cuales programas lo ofrecen (Se que Brigham Harvard ha ofrecido, no se de más). Lo otro que tengo entendido es que no los ofrecen de manera regular sino como una "negociación", si averiguó más al respecto lo comparto en un video
Are you saying this for USMLE step 1 or 2? bcz you did this for USMLE 2ck and you read reviewed videos for step1 , i am asking bcz im starting step1 prep?
Well I'll just say this: If I were to go back and re-do my step 1 prep I'd definitely start by doing questions and reviewing the material in an as needed basis. Maybe I would end up watching all the same videos I did, but the order in which to review them would be radically different (Instead of "learning" everything and then trying to apply the concepts I'd first realize the "objectives" and read as I see fit to learn them). That argument (as far as I can tell) applies to literally every test. The thing is that not in every exam we have the fortune to count with resources that reflect so well the content of the exam as in the USMLE
ONE THING IS FOR SURE, I SAY ALMOST 70/100 PEOPLE WHO SCORE MORE THAN 260 PLUS IN USMLE GETS A PAST QUESTION EXACTLY AT HIS/HER EXAM. 30 PEOPLE THEY ARE SUPERTALENT, WORK HARD, SMART ETC.
Matched yesterday - 266 step 1 and 273 step 2ck
Here are my two pennies if it helps anyone -
1. Make your foundation strong - USMLE is more about linking information rather than memorising all information - but even for that you need to memorize (or 'understand' or 'have concept of') the fundamentals first - hence do Uworld always in random mode from D1 irrespective of your percentile score
2. Do first pass of Uworld with annotations of the topic (i annotated - you might choose not to) in First aid - didn't use B and B personally as I was too deep into my prep - but B and B is wonderful material to supplement First Aid
3. Repeat Uworld second pass - only read education objective of all questions (and full explanation of all questions you got wrong)
4. If you have time you can do third pass of uworld as well - trick is to flag all questions in first pass - then do flagged question as second pass then only reset and do it all over again as third pass
5. For Step 2 its only Uworld and up-to-date really - u might choose to use Amboss library as 'First Aid'ish resource
6. At the end of the day - as you prepare further you will realise that there are so many advices on the correct strategy for preparation - you tend to get confused - its more about finding your niche rather than following someone else's preparation plan completely - if your Uworld percentile is increasing and u r doing better in NBME forms then you are golden no matter your preparation strategy
7. I find Santiago's strategy really good (i guess on par with dirty usmle minus the cuss words 😉) - give it a try but don't get disheartened if it doesn't work for you - i guess mle is journey into discovering yourself and your ways to deal with stress, handling job and study together (most IMGs are already doctors in their country), finding out your perfect method to study
8. Have a study partner to talk to - who is going through the same journey as you are - the worst part about USMLE for us VISA requiring IMGs is the uncertainty of the process
9. There is life beyond MLE and there are always things to be grateful for - remember this is just an optional road we chose to walk upon - there are many more other roads in life - it tends to get so overwhelming sometimes that we tend to think this exam and the journey to residency in US is all that there is to life
Congratulations on matching and thank you for the advice. What specialty did you match into?
Hey Shailesh congrats on your match! And also, thanks for taking the time to share your tips with the community. As you said there is no "Single correct strategy", and I do believe that at some point we just have to try things for ourselves and find out what works for us. Best of luck in residency!!
Referring to your point 2, your saying I do uworld 1st pass at random straight away or first review whole first aid? because with random questions would be from any topic? Im starting my prep ( for Step1)
Warm congratulations❤Thank you for this. This was very very helpful for me as an IMG.
wow so deep,meaningful and relatable perspective at so many levels.Please come with your own channel for everyday motivation.I am sure you will inspire so many IMGs especially Doctors who have been working else where.It is rare to find such topics discussed for older IMGs.Thank you for the motivational and honest advises!
Santiago’s breaking dogmas left and right 💪🏻
He is fucking Genius 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
You know what I love about you? You're relatable. You explain the topics in such a way that a large number of people can relate. It's never fancy or elaborate from top to bottom. You ease us into it and then we decide how we customise. Brilliant!
Just wanted to let you know that I changed my strategy and started doing mainly questions (inspired by your previous videos) and hey it's working! I still have a long way to go but I feel I have a better grasp on the subjects. Thank you so much Santiago
That’s what I’m doing too 💪
Hi can u tell from where to do questions? Thnx
Hola Santiago ! Another great video ! As I said before The First Aid is just a bunch of bullets points with info and mnemonics. You learn by doing questions ! Dont wait to know more before you get to them. Amazing content.
You're "The Best." I appreciate you and the time you take to give us encouragement.
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It's great man and it's cool I'm using that technique from your previous videos
love you Sir! Thank you very much for the valuable advice.
Loved the video! Keep “popping” more gems like this.
Thank you Santiago for this video! I was actually thinking about asking you about this, and you read my mind!!
Santiago l can't tell you how this help me l wana just say thank you for your effort and l really appreciate your work
You are golden indeed. You are doing God's work with this video. Thank you so much for helping me out with my studying.
thanks my guy!!! super helpful and very grateful for you and your advice!
I see where you're coming from with this approach but I think there's a problem there. For example, if my cardio background was very weak and I don't know the dynamics of heart failure and the compensatory mechanisms. I then come across questions about that topic I think I would be missing the benefits knowledge application. The only thing I'd be getting out of that is that I really need to go and learn this. Wouldn't it be better if you learn the topic first and follow up with doing questions to reinforce the high yield points through applying them in a question and through repetition through multiple questions on that topic?
That's a valid point, and to some extent you do lose the "first-hand knowledge application benefits" of reading a topic and then having the chance to practice with that knowledge. However, a couple of points have to be considered. First of all, there is the issue that to truly create a background on everything that comes up as a clinical case, you'd have to spend a ridiculous amount of time reading and watching videos before you even dare to jump into a question. And I think we can all agree that's unpractical (And almost impossible as well). In a sense, I reckon everyone of us at some point starts doing questions accepting the fact that there'll be a ton of concepts to which we know nothing of (Renouncing our "first knowledge application benefits"). So is it a matter of quantity? Is it okay to start questions when we have foundations on 50% of the topics? 70%? 90%? ... I myself cannot find a way to answer that. On top of this, we have to consider the implications of prioritizing the "first-hand knowledge application benefits" over everything else. Because again, in order to get them with every single topic we would have to spend endless months reading and watching videos. And we know that by doing this we run into the problem of beginning to forget the things we read through input alone. We also have the issue of learning with a "theoretical lens" in which you learn the content in the way the book portrays it, which at least in my experience tends to have quite a gap with the way questions actually show it. So are we really creating a solid background? Is it complete? Or are we actually just "familiarizing" ourselves with the content and then complementing it with the qbank?... The more I think about this the more I lean for the latter than for the former. And with that in mind, I cannot help but see that the key to a great score is the complementation process, the tailoring of knowledge. Not the familiarization. Finally, we have to consider that although we lose these benefits with the first question of an unfamiliar topic, more often than not we get a dozen more opportunities to apply that knowledge. And in this way at least we get to set foundations with the proper perspective and in the right proportion relative to their importance.
@@SantiagoAQ That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Keep up the great work!
Love this video! Thank you!
Awesome brother, keep the tips coming
I agree, I wonder what the world record is? What's the world record for number of novel USMLE Step 1 practice questions in one day? Since the exam is 7 blocks of 40 Qs shouldn't we be able to do that many questions during prep.
Well, I thought exactly that during my step 1 prep. But as it turns out, drowning yourself in 200+ questions a day is a very bad long term strategy. It burns you out very quickly... As cliche as it may sound, the best strategy is the one that allows you to work SUSTAINABLY over time. So in a way, decreasing the day to day work is the best way to keep the month to month work going. Having said that I do encourage people to practice "mock" exams in the month prior to the exam to build their stamina up
Young man, Have an online course how to take USMLE course and charge it.
Great work man!!🤜🏻🤛🏻
succinct and useful as always! Great work!
I could realise the thing when I am done wasting a lot of time
Did psiach that way tho n I’d extremely recommend it no matter how low you score don’t give a damn you r just learning
You learn better from wrongs for sure!!
Thanks. Thought I was wrong doing the Qbanks first. It was really hard for me.
Love your videos, and appreciate your advice !!
Keep going bro....!!! Great content
I love this man!
Amazing content !!!
An excellent video thank you !
Great content! 🙌🏼
Makes so much sense🔥🔥
amazing video
I wish I found your channel earlier.... your advice are different and interesting
Can you do a separate video oh how to do uworld?
Hey Genet! I don't have a specific video on UWORLD but I do think the videos on "How to study USMLE questions FAST" and all the test taking techniques videos (Ex. "How to get inside the mind of the examiner") target directly the tips I used to answer and review UWORLD. Hope it helps!
I wish this was the first vodeo I could see while starting the journey 😢
Could you make a video specifically on how you used Qbanks as notes? Did you just add to Qbanks? Did you use Onenote? Thanks!!
Can you please talk about how you normally studied in med school because i am suffering to find the right way
Hey Gunel I got a couple of videos that give a broad overview of my learning approach. I'll be posting some shorter vlogs in the following weeks that complement these videos and detail my specific strategies to study all of the specific subjects
@@SantiagoAQ thank you so much. I always try new ways but i seem to cant find the right way. That is why i am a bit struggling. I am so happy to here that🤩
Thanks
thankes alot
A question - you did the qbank by system or by random?
Thanks!
95% random
I am in my 3rd year of medical school and doing my rotations I plan on taking steps next year .am trying to divide my day into 50 percent questions and the rest for studying the topics from the questions. What resources do you suggest I use.
Links to Q-banks would be really helpful plz.
Another great videos mate ! I have a question , how long should one have a minimum of uworld purchased to appropriately use this technique ?
Hard to answer, it depends on a lot of factors (Schedule, how fast you can review the content etc...) generally I'd say that 6 months are appropriate for most.
I am a 3rd year medical student. This semester my step 1 subjects would be over. I am a beginner and haven’t stared anything. My classes go from 5:30 am to 6:00 pm with 2 1 hr breaks in between. Can you help me set up a timetable. Please? I want to match neurosurgery . I have been studying hard but I keep forgetting. Please help me make a schedule so I can work and match neurosurgery.
great!!!
Hi Santiago please for the other qbanks aside Uworld... I means Amboss, Kaplan, rx and others.. did you read the other options or just the correct options? Thank You
What are the changes made for usmle exam 2022??
for example if one is doing vasculitis first time ever in life and having no basic pathophysio in mind having solved Qs getting them wrong and trynna review the the explanation how can one get through that having to see many diff QQs on diff type of vasculitis amd diff cram type pimpoint explanations how can that then work???? I know going through first aid is even worse what should such a person do go through entire thing or what??? how to get concepts for a topic one has never even read????
Hey Travel Freak, it is called the generation effect. Trying to come up with a hypothesis before reading the material improves the retention once you get to read the topic. It’s okey if you make mistakes, in fact making them has been shown to improve retention more than acing the hypothesis right away. If you’re interested I discuss this more in depth in my masterclass on the science of effective learning santiagoaq.notion.site/The-Science-of-Effective-Learning-9bcc7684c07348d68a41a5fa692ac7c2
Hey thanks for your advice! What would you do if you had 1.5 years to prep before having a 6 month dedicated period for step 1? I’m inclined to try this method but paying for qbanks this early in my prep schedule is quite expensive.
Try out Medbullets. It has 1000 free questions. Complement the questions with materials you can get for free (there are a TON of books and videos for free on Facebook if you dig up a little)
I loved doing my lecturio Q bank, and I went through it twice over the past 2 years, and I have this nasty teacher whos mistreating me over using lecturio as opposed to other "better" Q banks, lecturo worked for me becuase it was more straightfoward and more accessible for me at the time, is that ok in you view? please let me know.
Hey Rouzbeh! I haven’t tried Lecturio so I really don’t have an opinion on the matter but I’d say that if you’re learning and your assessments show it well then keep at it!
Hello Santiago,
I do hope you get to reply this...Pls how long do you think it’s ok to prepare for usmle step 1? (I study 10hours a day)
6 months is average! 12 if your basics are weak or you want an exceptional score. Less if your basics are strong and you’re fine with a more average score. But it really depends on the specifics that was just rules of thumb
what do you think about Anki ? do you use it ?
Yes I did! I think that IT IS a great tool to memorize stuff but it tends to be abused. For instance I certainly did way to many cards for my Step 1, and ended up not being able to review them because of this. Being a lot more selective with what I chose to make a card actually helped me to use this tool to my advantage (I ended up with about 500 cards for Step 2CK - And that was way, WAYY better than the 12.000 for Step 1)
Hola. Quería hacer una pregunta sobre la residencia en Estados Unidos. Es posible hacer o empezar un estudio doctoral durante la residencia? O es obligatorio terminar la residencia para eso? Si depende de la Universidad, me podría recomendar en cuáles se podría?
Hola Sebastian, si es posible, he escuchado de algunos aplicantes que les financian el doctorado o masters mientras hacen su residencia. Pero no tengo información sobre cuales programas lo ofrecen (Se que Brigham Harvard ha ofrecido, no se de más). Lo otro que tengo entendido es que no los ofrecen de manera regular sino como una "negociación", si averiguó más al respecto lo comparto en un video
6 months before the exam, is it a suitable time to start the uworld qbank?
Yes!
Are you saying this for USMLE step 1 or 2? bcz you did this for USMLE 2ck and you read reviewed videos for step1 , i am asking bcz im starting step1 prep?
Well I'll just say this: If I were to go back and re-do my step 1 prep I'd definitely start by doing questions and reviewing the material in an as needed basis. Maybe I would end up watching all the same videos I did, but the order in which to review them would be radically different (Instead of "learning" everything and then trying to apply the concepts I'd first realize the "objectives" and read as I see fit to learn them). That argument (as far as I can tell) applies to literally every test. The thing is that not in every exam we have the fortune to count with resources that reflect so well the content of the exam as in the USMLE
@@SantiagoAQ Thank you for clearing my mind and replying in detail *hearts*
❤️❤️❤️
is it what you did?
👍🏽
😍😍
Dude!! u r letting out secrets!!! shush bro...
ONE THING IS FOR SURE, I SAY ALMOST 70/100 PEOPLE WHO SCORE MORE THAN 260 PLUS IN USMLE GETS A PAST QUESTION EXACTLY AT HIS/HER EXAM. 30 PEOPLE THEY ARE SUPERTALENT, WORK HARD, SMART ETC.
past question from qbanks?
you mean repeated question?
How do one get past questions
Santiago l can't tell you how this help me l wana just say thank you for your effort and l appreciate your work