Most of the students who come to us at Med School Tutors for help with USMLE Step 1 exam preparation have already been studying for the exam on their own for some time before they reach out to us. When I first meet new students, I start by asking them what they’ve been doing to prepare for the exam so far. In addition to asking them what kind of resources they’ve been using, I also ask them to give me an example of an ordinary study day from when they wake up in the morning until the time they go to sleep. The Typical Response “It all depends how I’m feeling on a given day. Some days, I read from First Aid for 6 hours and then I do some questions. Other days, I’ll watch videos all day, and some days I’ll just do questions all day.” This type of approach is doomed to fail. As we’ve mentioned before, planning is everything. Just as it’s important to have a detailed study timeline, it’s also crucial to have a detailed study schedule for each day of your USMLE Step 1 preparation. Planning in Advance Saves Time People often fail to realize that planning out your study schedule for each day at the beginning of your exam preparation actually saves valuable study time. If you wake up each morning having to decide what your game plan will be for that particular day, you will end up wasting a lot of precious time. Time is also lost when transitioning between different activities. Since studying for USMLE Step 1 requires multiple activities (reading, doing questions, reviewing the answers, making flash cards, taking practice tests), it makes sense to minimize the time lost when shifting gears by making those transitions more predictable. For these reasons, we always recommend making a detailed study schedule for each day of preparation leading up to USMLE Step 1. These schedules include reading assignments—including page numbers, the number and type of questions to do—and an approximate length of time for each task. This takes all unnecessary use of brainpower that would otherwise be used figuring out the day’s activities, and puts it back where it belongs: into learning and retaining information. Below, you'll find a sample daily study schedule for the first six days of USMLE Step 1 preparation. This is meant to coincide with the first week of the timeline in this post. In the example below, the student has less time to study for Step 1 and pulmonology happens to be a strong subject so it has been condensed into two days. [Note: The page references made to First Aid in these sample PDF's are taken from the 2014 Edition.] Sample USMLE Step 1 Study Schedule PDF [Days 1 - 3] Sample USMLE Step 1 Study Schedule PDF [Days 4 - 6] As you can see, the schedule is very detailed and complete and leaves nothing to chance. It is arranged in such a way as to minimize fatigue. After working with thousands of students, we have found that most are not capable of doing one task (reading, doing question blocks, etc.) for more than about 2 hours at a time before fatigue sets in and the activity becomes less efficacious. Your Schedule is for You The schedule that is laid out above is an example and will not be appropriate for many students who are preparing for the USMLE Step 1 exam. Every student has different strengths and weaknesses, as well as time constraints, and these must be taken into account when making an individualized study schedule. In addition, study schedules must be flexible enough to accommodate new information gained from assessments along the way and other things that may come up. It is not as easy to make an appropriate schedule as it may seem. Source
