all right how are you feeling today hi
my name is Rishi Desai and I'm here to
give you a few high-yield tips for USMLE
step 1 first off doing well takes a lot
of hard work and a lot of confidence and
with that in mind I've seen students
score in the two 60s to 70s and and you
can too let's get into the nitty-gritty
of USMLE step 1 and I've come up with
kind of a five-step strategy to doing
really well on the test I'm gonna walk
you through it I'm gonna talk about
osmosis because that's the the platform
I know best
but we're going to talk about other you
know platforms and content as well so
you kind of see how to fit it in and how
it all makes sense together so so let's
start with step 1
this is early on kind of 5 to 20 months
before you take the test so really early
first year format at school may be kind
of first part of second year and at this
point just be a good medical student you
know just enjoy your classes enjoy your
life you know don't stress out people
start talking about you know suddenly
you know immediately after white coat
ceremony and and try not to do that if
you are the closet gunner if I'm talking
to you I would say try to stay in the
closet don't freak people out you know
no need for that
in the old days people used to buy first
day to take the book and they would rip
the binding off or patho might do the
same thing in three-hole punch it and
kind of open it up and highlight and
annotate and that was good you know 20
years ago today it really is a much
better system to just do it all
electronically it allows you to kind of
automatically search for key words in
your notes so later down the road when
you're searching through your notes you
can find them much more easily so I
recommend you do that early on when
you're in med school it may seem trivial
but when you've jotted something down
and choose later you're looking forward
you can't find it it wastes a lot of
time trying to decipher words and your
notes from from who knows back when so
just searching automatically is really
great for this bit of time also early on
you should also consider using a system
that allows you to automatically search
your notes osmosis handles this by
automatically tagging your personal
notes to your coursework so that so
that's huge right you can just quickly
find it and find the exact PowerPoint
where you learn that particular concept
the other thing is spaced repetition and
and you want to make sure you use some
sort of platform that allows you
do free space repetition ideally and it
helps with long-term retention that the
research points that out very clearly
and if you do that through med school
you're gonna be in good shape so that
the data shows this is the way to go you
know you don't wanna be highlighting and
annotating you want spaced repetition so
you're focusing on there is that you you
are struggling with rather than just
kind of doing this stuff that you know
really well over and over again so Anki
Quizlet osmosis basic all free of charge
they're all free of charge of the three
I know osmosis is basic the best it
allows you to create flashcards along
with your course documents so it right
alongside of what you're doing in school
it also lets you kind of crowdsource
questions really easily so you can kind
of answer questions that other people in
your class have written now once you get
in the habit for a few reasons one is
that it's easy to answer questions
you've written but you want to start
seeing how other people would phrase
something just kind of get your mind
thinking about that and it really does
become much more challenging so so force
yourself to do that if you can and and
it sets you up really well for when
you're studying for USMLE step one
you're kind of ready to go you've
already practiced a lot of this kind of
skill building so step two starting to
study this is three to five months
before the test it right at this point
you're starting to figure out what
question banks did you use the two that
I would recommend or you world and NBA
means the together is about four
thousand questions you want to do a
couple nvm e's figure out where your
strengths are your weaknesses are so you
know what to focus on this part of the
exam you also want to do additional
practice boards question so you don't
want to use up all your you world
questions at this point so I recommend
you look at one of the other question
banks for example osmosis has a question
Bank of three thousand-plus questions q
max Kaplan Q Bank both have about two
thousand questions doesn't matter which
one you choose choose one of them and
the good thing is you want to use these
for learning primarily now one thing
that I've I've come to really enjoy
about osmosis questions that I think is
really neat is that the osmosis
questions allow you to figure out your
confidence level before you answer the
question so it asks you how confer are
you and then you click whatever the
answer is and the other ones are gonna
ask you that after so it's important to
answer the confidence question before
because then you can focus on the stuff
you're not confident about as well as
this stuff you're getting wrong and
there's those two buckets of questions I
really want you to kind of drill into
and say why was I not confident about
that why was I getting that wrong
go and find learning resources that can
help you figure those things out and the
classic learning resources that do
you're familiar with Costanzo for
physiology pathology is di t high-yield
books lying flashcards whatever you need
now let's go fast for a little bit to
step three the ramp up pace this is one
to two months out of the exam so at this
point you have to think about your goals
and first off average you Assembly
scores are 229 and if you're thinking
about something especially for my
international or for medical graduate
students if you're thinking about
something competitive you should be
thinking four to six that get around 265
so if you can aim for that if you're
thinking about something less
competitive like keys or family medicine
235 so just figure out where are you on
that spectrum of 235 to 265 and what's
your personal goal what do you really
kind of want to aim for you also want to
set a time deadline my best students the
ones that set a time deadline know
exactly the date they're hanging USMLE
step on and really just focus in on that
rather than saying I'll take it when I'm
ready so you just want to kind of circle
a date on the calendar and just move
towards that date and then you're a
mental ninja you want to just get into
the mindset of a mental ninja 10 to 12
hours studying every single day that
means being disciplined with your social
lights with with eating with healthy
exercising with sleeping well with
making everything about your day about
preparation for that test and leading up
to the test you want to figure out what
resources do you want to use and you
want to create a daily schedule osmosis
allows you do that really easily just
you know you can look at the interface
type in what you you know when you want
to start studying how long you want to
study for when your exam date is and
then check out the resources you want to
use the popular ones include ufap oh
that's a fun acronym you world first aid
path oma and osmosis so you fap oh and
it automatically generates a day-by-day
schedule for you so you can change the
schedule based on how many days you want
to allocate each topic that's up to you
you can mix that up you can include
breaks for yourself you can assign
yourself full-length exams on the nvme
or you world and as you go through
everything remember it's best to
actively think rather than passively
reading or watching something so this
point spend most of your time doing
questions and then going back over your
answers because that's where you get
a good sense of why you're getting
things right or wrong also helps you get
practice during questions and kind of
build endurance so at this point you
want to squeeze every bit of information
or knowledge out of each question right
so here's some tricks on how to do that
really well
well the way I like to approach
questions so first I basically cover up
the answer options on a question and I
say okay what what do I think the answer
would be so just don't allow myself to
queue my answer by just looking at
something but just try to recall it and
you can do that with your laptop screen
just like literally covering it up or
don't scroll all the way down on your
phone and then after you've kind of come
up with an answer
you want to verbalize why the right
answer is the right answer you know put
into words and why are the wrong answer
is the wrong answer and then say okay
what would change about that question
that would make one of these wrong
answers correct what would have to
change so really kind of really
interrogating that question and then
finally saying okay what didn't I get
right you know what what didn't I
understand about the right honest
answers or wrong answers let me go look
that up so sometimes you spend ten
minutes going and looking things up you
know again going to those primary
resources the the the the books the
high-yield books the flashcards or the
videos and it can take ten minutes or so
but it's well well worth it okay all
right so it's a step for crunch time
this is one week before the exam you're
still doing a lot of the same things but
in the final week I want to make sure
you pack in information that's going to
be heavy on memorization and kind of
light on the concepts and and this is
kind of things like biochemistry you
know microbiology and I'm an infectious
disease doctor I'll be the first to
admit that microbiology is in this
category
pharmacology embryology genetics stuff
where you know there's lots of questions
you don't wanna get them wrong just
because you didn't memorize some fact or
something that you're supposed to
remember
so really spend that last week really
focusing on this stuff make sure you
nail it and all this stuff it's it's
hard to keep straight so this is why
that last week you want to kind of
devote to those topics and by this point
if you haven't already done it finish
off those nbme exams all the other ones
you want to make sure you nail those
many as you can and and they're gonna
predict kind of where your real score is
gonna end up I've seen that time and
time again so they're gonna tell you
what you can probably expect on exam day
within let's say five or ten points now
at this point you're in the homestretch
right so step five final day 24 hours
before the exam now in test day you're
not gonna have anything with you no
books no online resources no flashcards
you're gonna walk into the test by
yourself so the day before the test I
would suggest spending the day the same
way you've studied hard just go on relax
you know try to get yourself in a good
frame of mind this is day you want to
prepare for logistics you know make sure
you know where to go how to get there
bring snacks for the day sleep well the
night before bring layered clothing
light jacket in case it rains an
umbrella all that kind of stuff you also
want to make sure you don't drink too
much coffee the day of the test because
you're gonna have adrenaline flowing so
you don't be all shaky and jittery and
you want to pump yourself up right this
is where a confidence really matters you
want to pump yourself up a couple ways
to do that that are scientifically
proven we're gonna go over there right
now together two ways first power poses
so this is where you just raise your
arms you go yes just real loud yes and
you can do the double fist pump just
that yeah yeah yeah just pump it and
then the other way is just force
laughter right force yourself to laugh
even if you don't feel like laughing
just a ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and by the
end of it and I hope you'll I think as
little eyes I feel like I'm just a crazy
person on YouTube laughing but by the
end of it you're gonna start feeling
really good so if you've stayed this
long a couple of bonus tips I'm gonna
give you some just extra things first
off it's a marathon
studying is hard it's really tough and
so some some software you can get to
block out you know websites you don't
want to go to for me that would be like
nba.com or social media just block that
stuff out so you don't have to go to it
it's also good to divide up your work
and they're like 25-minute kind of real
power sessions you're just working hard
and then 2 minutes or just like stretch
out your back stretch out your neck and
just allow yourself to just breathe
deeply just relax your mind
I'm also an infectious disease doctors
so that part of me has to come through
and say look in your final week and make
sure you wash your hands make sure you
don't stay around people that are sick
you don't last thing you want is to wake
up the day of the test and then someone
someone got you sick and you're feeling
terrible or a sore throat or something
you don't want that right and then if
there's one thing one thing you get out
of this video let it be this that you
want
to make sure you do little things to
make yourself feel good you know all
this is about going and taking care of
patients eventually right this is just
one hurdle you have to cross along the
way and keep that in mind
don't lose that perspective and keep
your spirits up by doing things that are
good for you right so go out and if it
makes you happy
drink a smoothie you know if it makes
you happy go to the garden if you if you
like you know animals play with your dog
you know do the things that make you
happy and and on that note I'm gonna
give you something that hopefully makes
you happy it's a little cartoon from
awkward Yeti it always makes me smile so
enjoy the cartoon and I wish you the
best of luck
[Music]
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