 So studying for step one has a load of information, but what if I could show you a way to get a higher score in just 20 minutes a day? Let's get into it. All right guys, welcome to the MD Journey channel completely dedicated to helping students succeed on their medical journey with last stress. My name is Lakshman, internal medicine resident. I've been making videos just like this one on studying, productivity, and step one tips. So if you're new here, definitely consider hitting that subscribe button to get two videos just like this one each and every week. Today I want to give you an effective strategy that you can use regardless of step one is far into the future. Or if you're just about to take it in a few weeks, that can really help you increase your score, but just with a minimal amount of time each and every day. And if you stay till the very end of the episode, I'll also let you know how you can get a free step one resource that I've created just for you. So 20 minutes a day, what can you really get done during that time to actually make a meaningful increase in your step one score? And it really starts by understanding what is on the test and how much of different topics are included. And USMLE and step one actually tells you they give you nice breakdown. I'll put a table here. You can find on their website, but what percentages of various different subjects are included on the final thing, roughly. And if you look at the topics that most med students hate to cover, that includes microbiology, pharmacology, and biochemistry, those three by themselves cover anywhere from 40 to about 60% of the exam. That means a question that you're going to have on the actual thing is going to have those topics related somehow to the final question. And all of these three topics have a common theme that they're very memorization heavy, there's a lot of information to understand and wrap our minds around. And for that, most med students never really feel comfortable going into test day, feeling confident in their micro, farm, and biochem skills. And then when you add on the layer of stress that comes with knowing that step one is going to have these three topics layered throughout multiple questions that you're going to see on the real thing, it produces the anxiety that most of us have when prepping for the actual exam. The simple thing that you can do 20 minutes a day, something that I call low hanging food sessions during your step one studying, to really understand this concept, imagine if you were going to go to a nearby fruit tree and grab some apples, not that any of us really do that, although kind of sounds fun. Naturally, all of us are going to look for the apples that are easiest to pick the ones that are at the lowest branches, we're not going to force yourselves to climb up the tree and look for the apples higher into the tree with higher branches and require us to do more work for the same quality of an apple. And this analogy can be applied to step one because most med students actually do the climbing up the tree phase where they're reading huge chapters of first aid on neurology, cardiology, and hoping that that information is going to help them on test day, but they're skipping out on information that they know they're uncomfortable with, first of all, and they also know is going to show up on the test. They don't dedicate enough time to the microbiology farm and biochem sections. And so the purpose of the low hanging fruit sessions are essentially 20 minutes a day during your dedicated or if you're several months and years away from step one studying, it's just something you can do a few times a week where you force yourself to do some kind of activity related in these two topics. And it's important to note that it's more about actually doing something during these 20 minutes to gradually improve our mastery of farm, micro, and biochem, and less about what you actually do. So you may be asking what resources or what strategies should I be using to boost my knowledge. Well, honestly, just the ability to do some kind of active learning, whether it be flashcards made by somebody or, you know, using the resources from a company like Sketchy, Pekmonic, or Physio now linked a few of those down below. It doesn't really matter what you do is more about actually doing a little bit each day because the end result is by the time test day comes around, or if you're studying way ahead of dedicated, you're going to feel a little bit more confident on the topics that most students struggle with. So you're going to be able to approach a lot of the micro questions, the farm questions with confidence, and then ideally be able to increase your confidence on other topics that you otherwise wouldn't have time for. And as a bonus tip to help you really increase your confidence and understanding that you're mastering these topics over time, I encourage you to create a list. You can do this on Google Doc, you can do this on a Word Doc or OneNote, and just create a list as you start learning about these topics. So if it's microbiology, keep a list of every time you add or learn a new organism. And then as you're spending your 20 minutes a day, you'll find that I'm really good at staph orias because a lot of questions have staph orias. And over time, you're going to find that this huge list of topics in microbiology, which initially stressed you out, are now going to have more and more topics that you're like, okay, I definitely know how to do that. I know this and I know this and you're going to just have a sensation of momentum of confidence, which is really what you need going into test day. So to round the episode off, if you are a preclinical student and you are far away from studying for step one, I encourage you to go ahead and just spend maybe once or twice a week spending 20 minutes a day on one of these topics and just doing it in an active form of learning where you can understand what you know and don't know. And if you're watching or listening to this and you're on your dedicated, then I encourage you to find a 20 minute session each day that you can focus on these low hanging fruits. And simply doing these low hanging fruits definitely helped my step one score. And it's definitely helped a lot of the readers and visitors of the MD journey who have given this advice to before. Now if you want more information on how to apply these low hanging fruit sessions in your specific scenario, as well as other strategies that can help build both your confidence as well as boost your final step one score. We do have a program on the MD journey called the step one Academy, which is kind of a blueprint from A to Z on how to study for step one, build the confidence, get the highest score possible, but do it with the least amount of stress. So you guys can check that down below as well as students who've gone through the program and the results that they've been able to get. Now I did promise that if you get to the end of the video, I'll have a really cool step one resource that I created for you. So in the link down below, you also find a link to a free step one calendar that you can use for six weeks to really help boost your score. You guys can check that out down below. Before you click off the video, make sure you comment down below with any questions you have about step one. Be happy to make a video or at least point you to other videos that I have on this channel. Also link down below, a playlist fully that we have on the channel on tips just like this one to do well on your USM. But with that being said guys, thank you so much for watching this video. If you did make it to the end and you still haven't hit that like button and you enjoy this piece of content, first of all, just let me know by hitting that like button. It tells me that you guys enjoy these pieces of videos and podcast episodes. It also helps the YouTube channel and the podcast do better in the long run. But thank you guys so much for watching. Hopefully I've been a little help to you on your journey. Thank you so much as always for being a part of mine. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.