son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Hello friends!
I just got my results back...259/99.I coudnt believe it! I am breathing fast(tachypneic) out of happiness now. Dont know how to share my experiance,but will try.
First I would like to thank prep4usmle.Had it not been for the presence of this forum,my score would have been much lower.Yeah,sure! I knew about usmleworld from this forum which was the key for my good score.
My second thanks goes to all members of this forum.
Well,I studied for 5 monthes ,alone in a country out of USA.I was putting in an average of may be 6hours a day.I some times read up to 12 hours a day and sometimes none.I was working a full time job(here in canada) for the first 3 and half monthes and the took off and started working for only 16hours a week for the rest 1.5 monthes.That means I was working and studying.But by virtue of the nature of my jobe,I was able to study while working too.
I did the 5 kaplan books,the q book and the kaplan q bank.I also did the NMS review book(900 questions) but I didnt read the explanations of those questions of NMS.I read the explanations of all those questions on kaplan q book and q bank.All those I got right and wrong.I read the explanations for my wrong questions twice.BTW,I read each kaplan book 6 to seven times.And the internal medicine 8 times I think.
The I did the USMLEWORLD(more than 2000Qs)....I took one month to do this q bank.It was very helpful as a summury and to fill gaps.
My scores on different q banks:
q book=76
q bank=81
NMS=75
usmle world=74
NBME 1 and 2 =700 and 650 respectively
Folks.... it time to go to work now.....I will write the rest of my experiance later after comingback from work....Any qeustions are wellcomed.Will write about exam day and my fellings after the exam later.
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| tasneembanu
Forum Guru
Topics: 96
Posts: 545
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wow,thats a great score,thanks for the experience,all the best for ur residency.
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 936
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That's so awesome 
Well done!........ just curious....... are you working on a research? :?
Tha's cool....... i just have been studying about month or so....but allready tired of it  .......hehehhe finishing up IM in these days and gearing into ped now.
Hard to beleive that someone reads same book 8 times in a row.....that's amazing...but i am affraid that i can't do that...... my problem is i hate to read things over even twice......what am i gonna do? :?: :?: :?: :?:
Anyway good luck with the residency
Thank you for taking time and helping us with your experience!!!
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ELM
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| ELM
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Hi again.....
Will you tell me what did you think about NMS q book? How is it comparible to Kaplan q book? Which one would you recomend?????
I just did q book's IM section....and thought it was ok....... just wondering about NMS q book? Is it better than kaplan q book?
Thanks for your input!
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ELM
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Thanks ELM and tasneembanu!
ELM ....Believe it or not I read the books 7-8 times.The reason is I got no other books to read.Everybody learns differently.I hardly remember things after reading only once and even twice.After reading the book twice I can finish it within very short period of time during my subsequent readings.If you can recall everything after reading it twice,you dont need to read it again and again.I wish I were that type of learner!
I am not working on research.My job is totaly unrelated to medicine(It is nonprofessional job).
Regarding the NMS,it is by no means better than kaplan.If you have ample time you can go ahead and do it but give priority to kaplan q bank and usmleworld.Kaplan q bank and usmleworld are must but NMS is optional.
I am going to step 1 now.I did step 2 first because I was scared with step 1.I am planning to match for 2006.
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| lucky
Forum Guru
Topics: 23
Posts: 505
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congrats son64 on such a wonderful score.
my study pattern is quite similar to u. i stick to the same book. i have read kaplan twice including int med which i found very difficult to retain. but seeing u have gone thru them 8 times i 'll try to do them again.
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 936
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Thanks son64 for the reply! That was helpful!
But can i ask again...... i meant how would you compare Kaplan's q book with NMS q book.......not with Kaplan's online q bank! I mentioned earlier I did Q book's IM section.....and was wondering how was NMS q book! I obliged to do Kaplan q bank and UW anyway!
Thank you in advance for your input!
Oohh good luck with stpe 1! You will be just fine with stpe 1 since you got the idea about these tests now! :?
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ELM
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Hey ELM...Kaplan q book is far more better than the NMS review book.But If you have time do the NMS review book too.Although the qeustions are not similar to the real ones ,reading the explanations might be helpful.I only read the explanations of 50 NMS qs or something like that....but I remember the explanations were good.But by no means comparable to kaplan.If you dont have time,kaplan q bank and usmleworld will be good enough.And dont forget the NBME tests.BTW,I did them based on your advice(if you remember) and my real score was very close to my NBME score.
Hi lucky...yeah do them again....specially internal medicine....you should know everything in that book and even more than that(You will learn a lot of new stuff from the q bank and usmleworld).
Best of luck to everybody!
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| ELM
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Thank you son64!
Good luck with the step 1!
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ELM
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| usmleasr
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congrats..great score
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| lucky
Forum Guru
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thanks son64.
what else do i have to know about int. med, as i wont be able to do usmle world.
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Thanks everybody!
Lucky...I dont really know other resources other than those I went through.But I think you should sacrifice some more money and time and do the USMLEWORLD.I would have passed even without doing the usmleworld but if you are planning for a good score...it is wise to do this q bank. Or you can asses your self using the NBME and if you get in the high 500s or in the 600s....you will defnitely get in the 90s in your exam.
Good luck lucky!
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
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Hey son64....again a q.....did you get any type of calculations on your test.....like fluid replacement from PEd or statistics ect???....... please tell me if you got any kind of calculations at all????????
Thanks in advance!
Good day!
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ELM
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Hey ELM:
I got few (about 5-6) easy calculations on my exam.All of them were about biostatstics....senitivity,specifity,ppv,npv and stuff.Also know the p value and confidence interval well.They will give you the 2 by 2 table and ask you to calculate the sensitivity,ppv and etc....But they will not ask you directly like "what is the sensitivity?".So you should know the concept very well....what ppv means and etc....
I didnt have any fluid calculations and I dont think they will ask that.Because that needs time.
Hope this helps!
Good luck!
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| Rehoboth
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Please what exactly do you mean by the 5 kaplan books.
I would like to get them
R
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Let us encourage ourselves always :To men it might be impossible but with God all things are possible
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Hi, Rehoboth!
The five kaplan books for step 2 are:
1-Kaplan internal medicine
2-kaplan surgery
3-kaplan pediatrics
4-kaplan gynecology and obstetrics
5-kaplan epidemiology,biostat,psychiatry and ethics.
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
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Thanks son 64!
Can you tell what's 2 by 2 table...i am sorry if this was silly!
Yes your answers helped me...thanks.
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ELM
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| tuesday
Forum Senior
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hey elm, 2x2 table is very helpful in calculating sensitivity, specificity,NPV,PPV. etc. U'll learn that in Biostat. It has a pretty good explanation in Kaplan books.
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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ELM:
Yeah, you will get it in the kaplan biostat section.It is a table showing diseased and nondiseased on the column and lab test results(positive or negative) on the raw.You can then easily figure out the fp,tp,tn and fn.
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| ELM
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I appretiated the repleis guys!
Good luck to all of us!
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ELM
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| jil
Forum Elite
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Posts: 185
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hi son64,
i was wondering if u read any book out of kaplan notes especially for im like crush the board,CMDT,or blueprint
also i only cld use the kaplan q book for internal medicine dont have time for naything else
is it ok?
plslet me know ur opinion
thanks and congrats on ur good score :icon_thumb:
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| tuesday
Forum Senior
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son64, got a q too. ur score in UW is that from the very 1st moment u answered the q's? Bec. I had a bad score & twas giving me anxiety wi the degree of difficulty..for me. u got 74 .. wow. can u share ur approach to it. thanks in advance.
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| lucky
Forum Guru
Topics: 23
Posts: 505
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thanks son 64,
ur answers help. can u tell us while using the UW which topics were high yield?
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Hey Jil! The only review book I read for IM was the kaplan.I didnt read any of the other review books you mentioned.But I learned a lot of new things from the kaplan and usmleworld q banks.Many people say the kaplan IM is not enough,but as long as you do a lot of questions to cover the holes I would say it is pretty enough.You will get all the topics missing in the kaplan Im book from the usmleworld and kaplan q banks.I would advice you to do as much qeustions as you can.kaplan q book alone,in my opinion is not enough.You should do thousands of Qs.
Hey teusday!
Yeah,my score in UW had no special pattern.I remember the first block on which I got 80%.Then second block 78%.Then my score was fluctuating with no special pattern.My lowest score was 61% and the highest 87%.I was mostly getting in the 70s.But please please dont worry about your scores.Try to retain as much as you can from the explanations.After you digest this q bank well, you will know almost everything you need for your exam.You can asses youself using the NBME.My real score was very close to my NBME score.And if you see the exam score thread for step 1 in this forum,you will conclude that the NBME self assesment test is the best predictor of your real score.
GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!!
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| son64
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 245
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Hey lucky!
The UW has everything in it.....from common stuff like MI,DM and HTN to very rare diseases like gitelmans syndrome and rare thromboasthenias.At the bottom of the page for the explanation,they tell you the educational objective for each Q and it also tells which Qs are highyield.I was reading every explanation once except for those Qs marked "high yield" which I re-read them.There were many Qs which require interpretation of hemodynamic parameters.....know that well.There are 3 Qs about benign intracranial HTN in the UW and I had one in my exam.I wouldnt have answered that Q if I had not done the UW(and the samething for many other Qs).I even had more than ten Qs almost directly from this Q bank.Bottomline is it is advisable to do that Qbank.Also how to differentiate the causes of morning hypoglycemia in a DM patient(I learned that from UW and I applied it in my exam).There were a lot of things I learned from the UW and applied them on my exam(I cant go further detail as per rule).
Lucky....try to do the UW if time allows you....a lot of things for $90.00.Dont think that I am advertizing.I am just a lonely IMG!
GOODLUCK!!
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