Lightyear — Step 1 Coverage Audit

Coverage by area

Two different axes. Coverage is how much of the area the deck touches (comprehensive / solid / lightly covered). Depth is how hard it drills what it covers — cards per concept, a study-style signal, not a quality score. A small area can be fully covered yet lightly drilled, so the two columns move independently. Shapes rather than precise figures — the mapping is probabilistic.

Coming from another deck?

Most Step 1 decks overlap heavily — they cover the same exam — so switching rarely changes which concepts you see. What actually differs is how hard each deck drills a concept (depth) and, occasionally, how much ground it covers (area level). Both, per deck:

Depth is cards per concept (study style, not quality); coverage differences are reported at the area level — the card-to-concept mapping is reliable in aggregate but not precise enough to call out individual missing topics. Compare any two Step 1 decks →

Coverage by official USMLE system

The same coverage, re-grouped against the official NBME content outline (organ systems) rather than our study-resource areas. Every subtopic is mapped to its NBME system.

Omitted (too few mapped subtopics to characterize): Human Development.

Compare all Step 1 decks by system →

Where Lightyear runs lighter

Concepts our outline flags as lightly covered here — ranked by how heavily Step 1 tests them, so what's worth supplementing sits at the top. Lighter coverage isn't a defect; a focused deck deliberately spends its cards elsewhere.

• high-yieldConfidentiality and HIPAAPublic Health Sciences
• Social Determinants of HealthPublic Health Sciences
• Error Taxonomy, Swiss Cheese, and Just CulturePublic Health Sciences
• high-yieldConfoundingPublic Health Sciences
• high-yieldLead-Time and Length-Time BiasPublic Health Sciences
• high-yieldRandomized Controlled TrialsPublic Health Sciences
• Systematic Review and Meta-AnalysisPublic Health Sciences
• Evidence-Based MedicinePublic Health Sciences
• Hardy-Weinberg PrincipleBiochemistry
• high-yieldRight Ventricular InfarctionCardiovascular
• high-yieldACS Antiplatelet and Anticoagulant TherapyCardiovascular
• high-yieldFrank-Starling RelationshipCardiovascular
• high-yieldNSTEMI Risk Stratification and TimingCardiovascular
• high-yieldCocaine-Induced Chest Pain / MICardiovascular
• high-yieldCardiac AmyloidosisCardiovascular
• plus others lower on the priority list

How to pair Lightyear with other resources

Lightyear is designed from the ground up to run alongside Boards & Beyond — watch the lecture, do the corresponding Lightyear cards the same day. That pairing is tight and intentional, and for most of the curriculum it is self-sufficient. First Aid works best as a reference layer rather than a second read-through: use it to cross-check facts and catch phrasing that appears directly on test questions, especially in areas where the deck runs lighter.

For the Public Health Sciences subtopics where Lightyear runs lighter — Confidentiality and HIPAA, Confounding, Lead-Time and Length-Time Bias, Randomized Controlled Trials, and the biostatistics surrounding Evidence-Based Medicine and Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis — a dedicated Boards & Beyond Biostats and Epidemiology session paired with the corresponding First Aid chapter is the most efficient patch. Hardy-Weinberg Principle and Right Ventricular Infarction are narrow enough that a focused First Aid review and a handful of UWorld questions will close the loop. Students in r/medicalschoolanki frequently discuss these exact pairings, and the consensus is consistent: Lightyear plus Boards & Beyond is the backbone, with First Aid as the fill-in tool.

Frequently asked questions