USMLE Step 1 Study Tips

Sharon Vocino, UIC–Chicago, Class of 2005

I took Kaplan’s Intense Prep course in the spring, and supplemented with Kaplan’s Qbank of questions. Together, it cost less than $1000 and was well spent! If Kaplan had a medical school, I would have gone. Excellent teachers!!

I learned more in the few weeks of classes than I did through the first 2 years of med school, or so it seemed. This is what I did…

Fall: register for Kaplan Intense Prep and Qbank because if you register early, you get a discount. They will come to school sometime in the fall to tell you how to sign up. Then, I did nothing until…

Spring Break: start reading the books that come with the Intense Prep course.

I had 7 weeks and I read through one subject each week. Push yourself.

Kaplan: the Intense Prep course in the spring is intense. They cover each subject in three days, then you have a day off. The classes even run on Sunday!

USMLE: Take one to two weeks after the Kaplan class ends and spend that time flipping through the Kaplan books.

I used the Qbank throughout my studies. It is a computer-based question pool.

Some people work through the entire pool of questions. I only worked through about 25% but it’s great because it gets you used to taking tests on computer. Plus, the set up is almost identical to the actual exam.