Blueprint Med School Blog (formerly Cram Fighter & Med School Tutors)

The blog for Blueprint Medical, supporting your MedEd journey with our exam study planner, tutoring, residency consulting, and advanced boards.

Essential Elements of a Good USMLE Step 1 Study Plan

From making a schedule to the test day itself, this Cram Fighter user tells us six crucial steps to prepare for USMLE Step 1. Joel Harding, a medical student at The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, shares his formula for success on board exams. Below you’ll find Joel’s favorite resources, and strategies to best

Aug 04, 2016

How to Get the Most Out of Your Rotations and Choose the Right Specialty

Joel Harding, a medical student at Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, who is currently at the David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, shares some tips from his rotations and tells us how he fell in love with vascular surgery. Joel says that during rotations is when you really start to

Jul 21, 2016

How to Optimize Your Resources for Shelf and Step 2 Studying

Rebecca Halvorsen, from Eastern Virginia Medical School, shares her secret to manage time and resources to study for Shelf and Step 2 exams. Rebecca, who is in the early phases of her dedicated study period for Step 2, shares her strategy on how to best transition from studying for Shelf exams to studying for Step

Jul 12, 2016

Three Reasons Why Osteopathic Students Should Take the USMLE

We asked some Cram Fighter users from osteopathic schools to share with us why they found important to take the USMLE. There is a staggering number of osteopathic students taking the USMLE. We asked three of them why? Kill two birds with one stone According to Melvin Thomas, a medical student at the Chicago College

Jul 07, 2016

Why You Need a Schedule to Study for the USMLE Step 2

We asked our users to share why they thought that having a study plan was essential to succeed on their board exams. Below are three reasons to use a study schedule in order to stay on top of your studies while preparing for the USMLE. You become more efficient Burk Schaible, a medical student at

Jun 30, 2016

The Importance of a Study Schedule When Studying for the USMLE Step 1

Our users share their tips on why they found it especially helpful to use Cram Fighter to allow for customization and flexibility in their study plan. According to one of our users, “the sheer amount of information needed to study for these exams requires there to be structured, so as to cover the materials at

Jun 16, 2016

How to Manage Studying for the USMLE Step 2 and Shelf During Rotations

We asked Rocky Vista University-COM medical student Alexandra how Cram Fighter helped her study, organize, and succeed on her board exams during rotations. Why was a study plan important to you and what made your plan unique? Cram Fighter took the stress out of creating a schedule for such daunting exams. It has nearly every

Jun 12, 2016

How This Cram Fighter User Scored 260+ on USMLE Step 1

We asked Denis Balaban, a medical student at University of Florida, to share some tips on how he studied for his exam. What advice do you have for students who want to score in the range you did? I recommend engaging actively with the material from Day 1 of medical school. During the first 2

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