Home, Studying, and Moving

We are coming up on being home for 50 days. Let me tell you it's so nice to be home. Surrounded by family, food, and the knowledge of knowing if I need something, chances are if I can't get it at the store (slim to no chance of it here) that I can order it on good ole Amazon and have it here in 2 days. Thanks to Amazon Prime. LOVE IT! Here's a perk for you, if you have access to your .edu email address still click RIGHT HERE for my referral link to Amazon Prime Student. That way you don't have to pay to join Amazon Prime. It's what I used to buy my BRS books, First Aid, you know the deal.

Also, my mom's birthday just past, so here's a picture of cupcakes from my favorite cupcake place. 

Studying for the Step at home was harder than I bargained for. The motivation to get on my laptop and watch videos can be easily trumped by the announcer guy on Bravo TV telling me that there's a marathon of this season's Top Chef (which by the way took place mostly in Seattle, I was stuck on that island when I could have tried to stalk the likes of Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi, HELLLOOOOO!!!!). However, as easy as it is to be distracted by frivolous things, I get a pit in my stomach thinking about the Step and the score I require myself to obtain. 

I'm not saying that SJSM doesn't prep you for it, but you get what you put in. If you decide that you're just going to memorize what they give you on review day, that's great, you'll get outstanding marks, but you're hurting yourself in the long run. The USMLE doesn't run on that kind of a mindset. My personal philosophy was that I have to learn this sooner or later, why not actually spend the time with my textbook and review videos and actually learn the stuff along with class. It makes reviewing all 16 months a LOT easier on you. I started my USMLE prep in MD3, for anyone who wants to know when they should start studying, but that was what I thought I needed for myself.

What have I been using to study? Here's my list of materials (if you're reading this and you're not a medical student, I'm so sorry for an extremely boring blog, but if you've read all my previous posts, I'm sure you know what you're getting into *wink, wink*)

Videos:

1. Kaplan

2. Kaplan High Yield

3. Dr. Najeeb

4. Pathoma

5. Doctors in Training

6. PASS

Books:

1. BRS for physio, neuro, biochem, genetics 

2. Lippincott --> Pharm

3. Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple

4. Clinically Oriented Anatomy

5. USMLE Step 1 First Aid (DUH!)

6. Robbins Pathology

Hopefully, that helps you guys out.

In my downtime, when I'm not watching Top Chef or my Step prep videos, I'm looking for apartments. Moving to Chi-city next month! I'm actually not as excited as I thought I was going to be. I really love the West Coast, I mean I was born and raised on the Best Coast. I'm really reluctant to leave behind the lushness of the PNW (Pacific Northwest for those not in the know) and move to the land of skyscrapers and a giant metal bean in the middle of a park. Meh, I suppose I can't judge we have naked people sculptures in Gene Coulon Park.

I'm really looking forward to getting some time in the hospital, it's been so long since I've been behind the scenes in clinic, I'm so excited for that leg of my journey.

In other news, I'm training for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Chicago, so stoked. I haven't run in that kind of race in quite some time. Looking to not embarrass myself too much. Alrighty, back to the books we go!