Advice for Long-Term Retention and High Achievement
Follow this advice for long-term retention and high achievement on both module and board exams:
- Do not sacrifice the learning experiences you are privy to within the integrated, clinically-correlated, Feinberg curriculum in (false) service to standardized test performance.
- Completing each of the remaining system-based modules to the best of your ability will nicely prepare you to embark on dedicated (and exclusive) Step prep (in March) that results in best personal achievement.
Until then:
- Use vignette-based practice questions as summative practice one to two times aweek based on the system you are currently working to master (Head & Neck now, Neuro next, etc.).
- As you transition from Head & Neck to Neuro, etc., in order to maintain facility with the content from this year, set aside time weekly (60 to 90 minutes) to complete one maintenance block of 25 to 40 questions (quality over quantity) that includes all subjects from the 1b systems to date.
Until March, if you have specific concerns about content from Phase 1a:
- Plan to devote time to Foundations 1-2-3, subject-oriented basic science activation and practice during the Fall Break (Sept. 25-29). Read, annotate, practice, make mistakes, correct thinking and practice some more.
- Dedicate some time during the Winter Break for activation and practice of CV, Pulm and Renal content (Dec. 22 - Jan. 5). Read, annotate, practice, make mistakes, correct thinking and practice some more.
- Do not execute random blocks of UWorld questions over the course of the next three to four months. It is a waste of valuable time and resources and is not likely to result in any better achievement than what you might achieve without any additional practice before the February Feinberg-hosted CBSSA (Step 1 practice exam).
- If you feel you must start your Step 1 prep early and you continue to perform at or above the mean on your module exams, target topics in the order in which you learned them — CV, Pulm, Renal, Ortho/Rheum, Derm — giving each system one week of dedicated reading, annotation (First Aid/Pathoma) and practice (UWorld) within very limited time boundaries of no more than two hours a week (a little, a lot promotes consolidation).
- Better to do smaller blocks of dedicated topics than full blocks of randomly activated material (deep and connected learning).
- Work to achieve 70 percent accuracy within a Uworld block of 10 or more topic questions, then "move on" knowing that you'll be cycling back to that topic in the future (spaced repetition).
- As you achieve the 70 percent accuracy, include that 1a system in your weekly maintenance block of 25 to 40 questions (see above).