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.

My Success Story: Passing Step 1 and Shelf Exams During Third Year with Med School Tutors

The following post is a guest blog from a Blueprint tutoring student, Katerina, who successfully passed her Step 1 and shelf exams at the same time with the help of her Blueprint tutor. Hear her story below! The summer before my third year of medical school, I still felt like I wasn’t ready to take

Feb 22, 2024

Which Are the Hardest Shelf Exams?

Clinical rotations are an exciting time that most medical students look forward to. With them comes the exhilaration of hands-on learning, patient interactions, and teamwork alongside residents and faculty. Another, perhaps less enjoyable aspect of clinical rotations are the shelf exams that come at the end of each one. They can be particularly difficult for

Oct 30, 2023

How to Use Deliberate Practice to Prep for Your Medical School Exams

The equation is simple: solid preparation = successful exam performance. Whether you’re getting ready to take the USMLE or COMLEX, dedicating a large chunk of time exclusively to test prep is how to ensure you’ll crush it on exam day. If you don’t put the time in, you’re going to be disappointed—period. So do yourself

Oct 23, 2023

How We Made the New Step 2 & Shelf Exams Qbank from Blueprint Test Prep

Updated January 2024 As a third-year medical student, you no doubt spend a lot of time going through your Step 2 & Shelf Exams Qbank getting ready for your M3 exams. At some point during your study period, you’ve probably asked yourself how your Qbank provider came up with the questions. Who is making sure

Oct 05, 2023

How I Balanced My Clinical Rotations with Shelf Exam Studying

During my third year of medical school, the first half of my general surgery clerkship was spent on the hepatobiliary and transplant surgery service. One day, as we were completing the running subcuticular stitch on skin after a Whipple procedure, the fellow looked up at me and asked, “Are you interested in going on a

Aug 29, 2023

How to Use Blueprint’s Med School Study Planner to Prep for All Your Med School Exams

Finally, you’re done! You spent hours on Excel creating a study plan, and you’re letting out a sigh of relief. But your joy is short-lived: your professor adds another suggested book to your reviewing list, a friend insists a lecture series is a must-have based on their experiences prepping for Step, or you get an

Apr 20, 2023

5 Note-Taking Methods to Keep You Organized During Medical School

As a medical student, staying organized and retaining vast amounts of information is crucial for success in exams and clinical practice. Memorization and improved understanding of so much information can only come through repetition, and doing this in an effective way will require some serious organization skills. In this post, we’ll dive into five note-taking

Feb 23, 2023

3 Tips to Help You Study For Your Internal Medicine Shelf Exam

As a med student, shelf exams serve as important milestones for you to measure your learning progress and identify areas where you need improvement before Step 2. Shelf exams are often seen as a dry-run for the USMLEs and provide you with valuable experience in taking standardized exams. By evaluating your understanding of the material,

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