But simply passing isnt good enough.

If you have any hopes of going into a competitive specialty or the field of
your choice, then you need to pass with flying colors. The first time.
Because you cant retake the step component to simply improve your score.
Once its done its done. So you have to make the most of your one
opportunity.

Merely passing isnt good enough. A low passing score can be just as
damaging as failing outright.

And unfortunately in most cases, students are their own worst enemy.
Because the most common reasons for poor performance and low memory
recall on exam day are self-inflicted.

Heres what you might be doing, and what you should be doing instead.

The Most Common Reasons for Low Step 1 Scores

________________________________________

The goal of USMLE Step 1 is to evaluate a students ability to apply key

concepts and fundamentals to practice medicine.
By the time you take it, the material isnt necessarily new. Theres just a lot of
it.

The difficulty of the test comes down to the sheer breadth and volume of
information. And the prospect of regurgitating everything during a single, 8hour day is daunting. Especially because you only get about one minute per
question.

Preparing to master so many different areas, and being forced to recall and

apply them quickly under pressure is challenging.

But its even more challenging when your preparation is misspent. Poor study
habits like multitasking, social studying, and a distracting environment
sabotage your memory faster than you can improve it.
Many of are familiar with the 10,000-hour rule (made infamous by Malcolm
Gladwell). However everyone has lives. You cant simply lock yourself away
for a few years to focus on a single test.

The number of hours you study can only get you so far. To succeed with a
limited time frame and numerous other extra curricular commitments, we
need to focus, prioritize, and use that time wisely.

And we need to kill passive studying.

How to Study Like a Chess Grandmaster

_______________________________

Grandmaster is the highest attainable title in the chess world, and rightfully
so.
Very few people make it to this status in their lifetime, but heres the most
surprising thing.
Studies have shown that chess grandmasters dont necessarily spend more
time studying the game than their counterparts. They just make better use of
that time.

Outside of chess, their memory recall is just like your average person. The
reason they excel at chess is because of (among other things) their deep
understanding of how the pieces fit together.
They chunk their domain expertise down like how different individual
pieces fit together to form patterns and strategies and can quickly
recognize, recall, and apply that information.

And they develop this ability cumulatively, over time, through countless
hours of deliberate practice.

Improve Memory Recall by Making Studying More Active

______________________________________________

Passive techniques like copying notes as written, sticking to one studying

method, and relying on rote memorization can only get you so far.
But presented with too much information and a short time frame, it quickly
starts to break down. Theres no engagement with the material, theres no
context for how it fits together. Your application and recall of the information
is limited at best.

The key to mastering information recall is to add context and improve

engagement with the material. Active studying techniques like writing in your
own words, rewriting, creating flowcharts of related concepts, self-testing,
and using multiple approaches like audio and visual can significantly improve
retention.

Underneath most active studying approaches is deliberate practice, a

concept coined by Anders Ericsson and his colleagues.Whereas the mere
number of years of experience with relevant activities in a domain is typically
related to performance, deliberate practice is a more focused approach to
quickly improve how we learn.And deliberate practice has some unique
characteristics that set it apart from most other techniques:

The information is specifically designed by a mentor, coach, or expert

The format is highly structured and is easily repeatable
Feedback on your results is consistently available
Studying requires complete immersion, is highly demanding and typically
painful to sustain

Unlike sitting in a coffee shop, casually discussing Step 1 principles with your
friends. Deliberate practice is not fun. Its strenuous and mentally draining.
And its usually solitary, focused work.
It can typically only be practiced for a few hours a day, for only 60-90
minutes at a time. But if youre doing it correctly, then that should be all the
time you can handle.

How to Apply Deliberate Practice to Studying for the Step 1

The goal of deliberate practice is to stretch and focus on improving areas
youre not very good at.

And theres an old saying about how memory relates to engagement. For
example, you may only remember 10% of something you read, but that
number goes up significantly when you can hear it, see it, say it, and do it.

So lets take a look at the steps of studying processes (pun intended) that
incorporate deliberate practice characteristics and as much interaction with
the information as possible.

Step #1. Overview: Get a big picture overview of all the material and
concepts. This information should be administered by an expert, tutor, or
teacher to prioritize what to include and what to leave out.
Step #2. Outline: Begin delineating where certain topics begin and end so
youre able to create more structure and get a quick understanding of how it
all works together.
Step #3. Organize: Now start to deconstruct each topic and dive deeper
into the specifics of each subject. Carefully prepare all of the material so its
concise, prioritized, and repeatable.
Step #4. Memorize: Rigorously go through each topic or subject, one at a
time. This step is all about repetition, repetition, repetition. Make sure youre
also getting instant feedback to know where and when you make mistakes.

 Step #5. Apply: Finally, reconstruct all of the information back together to
make connections between how everything relates and fits together. Again,
repeat the process while benchmarking against external feedback like a timer
or coach to improve your speed and accuracy.

A strategic approach to studying like this will help you get a better return on
your studying efforts. But the application is difficult because there are
different solutions which address one or two steps, but not the others.
Mind mapping or diagrams help you outline and structure information. But
not memorize it. While flash cards may help you organize and memorize, but
not apply it.

GIMS can help you every step of the way.

The content is hand-picked by former students with first-hand exam

experience. The information is organized in a way that cuts down your
studying time by only presenting the most relevant content you need while
leaving everything else out. Its structured so its easily repeatable, and
provides constant feedback along the way.

The use of audio and visual mnemonics to master difficult subjects has been
proven to be one of the most effective forms of memorization and recall.

And most importantly, mnemonics have been proven to aid the application of
information because your memory can retrieve accurate information in less
time.

So youre not just cramming information to regurgitate one day and forget
forever. Youre improving neural pathways to acquire expert performance.

And youre drastically improving your odds on excelling at the USMLE Step 1,
and life afterwards.

www.usmle.org.in