Best Strategy to Study for Step I?

There are so many ways to study for step 1...difficult to describe one best strategy.

you can do questions on your own from BSS. Do questions from BRS path, and know First Aid for Step 1. i found the questions in BRS physiology to be helpful too. But BSS is the key to acing step 1.

I made a schedule for myself ... had 5 weeks to study for step 1...my goal was to finish the last 3 BSS books (3,4 and 5) and do 3/4 of the first 2. Every night i would spend 1 hour memorizing First Aid. BSS covers every topic...i would do 10-15 questions, then review the answers and look up the topics and spend time reading up on them...so i didn't do a whole test at a time. It took me the entire 5 weeks to meet my goal of finishing this series.

That's just how i approached it...there's no magic formula. If you study hard and use the right sources (see above), you'll do well.

I took 5 weeks to do a systems based approach, primarily using the BRS series and First Aid. I wrote anything that I thought was important from the BRS books into First Aid and used only First Aid and my notes the last week.

I also did thousands of questions. The BSS questions are hard and much mroe detailed than Step I questions, but you learn by doing poorly. I thought kaplan's QBank and NMS questions were the best representation of the actual exam.

If you don't mind me asking, what were your scores with those study regimens? What were your grades like in the first 2 years? How would you describe your methods for preparing for a regular test? I only ask because you might have scored well no matter what you did. I am probably not one of those people.

My step I score was 237 using the above method. I typically scored in the mid 80's to low 90's on my exams over the first two years with cramming the weekend before every exam. I studied much harder for step I than any exam in my life.

Once again, I just want to stress the importance of doing as many questions as possible. Everyone that I know that did well did many questions.

Scored 242.

My first 2 years i had 7 honors, 3 high passes and 1 pass. I studied very hard my first 2 years (no cramming) as well as for step 1.

Your goal should be to score > 230...it makes life less stressful 4th year because you'll get plenty of interviews if you apply broadly enough and you'll have a very good shot at matching...but no guarantees.

Another good resource is the Q bank internet questions from Kaplan. I think it cost about $100 or so for 1 month.