Yulia
Forum Elite
Topics: 19
Posts: 240
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Hello everyone!
I took step 1 on August 28th and just received the results. I scored 244/99. Still can't believe it, too good to be true.
I want to thank everyone for all the help and support. Our discussions here on forums helped me a lot.
I wish everyone the best of luck. And I thank you again my friends.
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| prep4usmle
Administrator
Topics: 288
Posts: 1,184
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That's a great score!
CONGRATS YULIA :!:
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| smitha
Forum Elite
Topics: 53
Posts: 236
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hey yulia............ 
THAT'S AN EXCELLENT SCORE!!!!!!!!!!NOTHING CUD BE BETTER AND HIGHER!!!!!!!!!!!
CONGRATULATIONS AND ALL THE BEST FOR OTHER STEPS TOO!!!!!!!!!!
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| doc4life
Forum Guru
Topics: 131
Posts: 240
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CONGRATULATIONS YULIA
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Privet Yulia,
Congratulations on your exam and I wish you good luck in step 2. Are you from St Petersburg? I went to med school there.
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| Guest
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Yulia
I'm so happy for you ,congratulations :icon_thumb:
I sure would like to know how you studied and which books you used, again Good for you
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| no more a loser
Forum Guru
Topics: 140
Posts: 580
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hey congrats, thats the best u can do on 2 point scale, amazing score, good luck to u in future. when i read the title of topic 'my score is back' it sounded a bit down, didnt know it was such good news anyways congrats n good luck.
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| cprax
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 54
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hi yulia,
congratulations!!!.Any advice for studying would be welcome.
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| Anno Domini
Moderator
Topics: 293
Posts: 727
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Congratulations Yulia.I expected that high score from you.Good luck with step 2.
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| guest
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CONGRATULATIONS............
hey julia great,no one can do better than this,congratulation 4 such a good score,can u tell me hw did u studied to achieve such a great score,wht were u scoring on Q bank.all the best for step2.one thing, i cud nt understand the system of 2 digit scoring..u got 24499....& there ws an another gurl who got 23791...thts the difference of only 7 Qs & 2 digit score is 91 & 99...big difference :?:
CONGRATES ONCE AGAIN ON THIS GREAT ACHIEVEMENT :icon_salut:
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| XRayDoc
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 3
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CONGRATULATIONS !!! GOOOD JOB!!!
MOLODEC !!! TAK DERJAT' !!!!!!!!!
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| Yulia
Forum Elite
Topics: 19
Posts: 240
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Thanks a lot everyone for the good word 
This result came a bit of a surprise, so i am still in shock... this also means i have to think about step 2 now. and i could do with some advice here
As for step 1 preparation, i did the same thing that many of us do. Read bunch of books, took kaplan webprep and q-bank. And of course questions here on forums
the books i read - almost everything that people here talk about . the only exception - goljan. i have not read anything by this guy. and was quite embarrassed to even ask who he was, because everybody seemed to know, so had to wait till someone mentioned
I think very highly of kaplan webprep, it helped me to sort of put everything i knew together for the exam.
the whole thing took me a while, mainly, because i had to work before. i quit my last job in june to speed up the process. that sure has helped .
I hope this helps someone. i know it was not too specific, and everybody posts lists of books, (and i don't mind doing it either), but there's only one advice that is universal - study. what books you read is not of a first importance, brs physiology or nms physiology - it doesn't matter so much, but what matters is the end result - you have a knowledge of the subject.
also, couple of words about the test content. lots of physiology, pathophysiology. biochem - i had mostly molecular biology and genetics ?s and a few on inherited enzymes deficiencies and major pathways. pharm (my weakness as i thought ) - mechanisms of action and side effects, wasn't too bad. behavioral - diseases, statistical stuff is worth remembering, ethical - i did have many of them, but...still not sure about how i should have handled those. micro - nothing exotic, most of the time they give you pt description and ask about some characteristics of causative agent. i didn't expect to see as many pictures as i did: x-ray, ct, mri, gross, histo/patho slides... you name it - they got it. i had two ?s with photos of karyotypes, of horrible quality, and no pt hx, that was truly upsetting.
overall, i'd say it was difficult, but reasonable...
So, i just wanted to wish everyone here GOOD LUCK :!: :!: :!:
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| vas
Forum Junior
Topics: 10
Posts: 49
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Hi
Congratulations on the great score.How long did you take to prepare for it?Best wishes in the other steps.
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Thanks for all this information and good luck for Step 2
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| IMGPK
Forum Junior
Topics: 9
Posts: 49
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Congrats Yulia!
Well, can you tell us how many errors on the average did you make per block ... <5 or <10???
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We need God, He doesnt need US
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| ceci
Forum Junior
Topics: 8
Posts: 60
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Congratulation Yulia!!!
And thank you for the advice.
Good luck for Step 2
Ceci
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| Yulia
Forum Elite
Topics: 19
Posts: 240
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It took me about a year after I switched to part time job.
For the errors, it's going to sound like advertisement now, but it's all true. Before web prep and Q-bank, i did 68% on diagnostic CD (average 16 errors per block), couple days before the exam I took another diagnostic test and got about 90% of questions correctly ( average about 5 wrong answers per block).
Dear guest, I don't know what to tell about my 3 digit score, it is sort of on the lower side and I can't explain why they still gave me 99, but I am going to have to live with that
I tried to find some explanation, no luck.
If someone has an idea, please let me know. Just curious
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| Ouli Maty
Forum Elite
Topics: 33
Posts: 275
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Yulia, you have shown us how ready one can be in the forum, before you took the exam. Again congratulations.
The score is yours, don't even try to explain the 2 or 3 digit or I am going to steel it and keep it in a secret place. Just kidding. :lol:
But I am happy that your are in this forum because now more than ever, your are a reference in step 1.
You do not need a good luck thing, just do it again for step2.
May God assist you for the rest.
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deep breathing...
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| guest
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hello yulia,
first of all i want to congratulate u.i want to know ur experience abt Q bank,were the Qs u got in exams very similar to tht Q bank Qs or different? as somrbody here is saying nt to trust on Q bank,also wht were u scoring on Q bank.
best of luck for step2.
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| bluestar
Forum Guru
Topics: 236
Posts: 724
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First of all, congrations! Yulia. That's really a huge accomplishment! I feel glad for you and hope I can get a high score as well. I am preparing for step1 and I've got a couple dumb questions here.
1, What's the difference of Q bank and Q book? I have a CD of Qbank of 2002, do I need to buy a 2003 version now? I mean is there big difference over years?
2, Ppl are talking about Kaplan notes, what's it and do you think it's valuable to have?
3,I have NMS, Compass and A&LERT questions on CD as well, do you think I should try doing them as well?
4, What review books/CDs you used in addition to Kaplan's webprep and Qbank? where did you purchase them? Can you please email me back at beccali_99@yahoo.com?
Thank you very much!
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| Yulia
Forum Elite
Topics: 19
Posts: 240
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Hello guest and Bluestar,
firstly, let me thank you for the good words and wish you good luck.
To the guest's question about Q-bank: it is my personal opinion, that Q-bank was as close to exam as you can get. Of course, there's a stress factor on the exam and it looks much more difficult, but in reality i believe they are comparable in difficulty.
Really similar - no. something like it - yes. but again, everyone gets different set of questions. It's up to you to decide if you are going to trust q-bank. I did.
Dear Bluestar, your questions are completely reasonable for someone who just starting.
1. Q-bank is something that you are doing on the computer, which gives you more exam-like experience, and q-book - same style questions on the paper, 50 per block organized in subjects. i used it for the review right after i read the text.
the difference between 2002 and 2003 - i honestly don't know. i only had 2003 set, which i bought from kaplan. if you already have 2002 - i wouldn't bother buying 2003. but if you still need to buy, i'd go with 2003
2. kaplan notes - i believe those are very good to have, excellent review source.
3. you should try and do as many questions as you can find, if you have time. i did nms cd and it was good for learning purposes.
4. i used many other books in addition to kaplan. actually before i started webprep i had everything read twice. the list... ok, you asked for it
Anatomy - HY and MRS (made ridiculously simple)
Neuroanatomy - HY and MRS
Embryology - HY
Histology - HY plus Cell biology and histology BRS
Physiology - BRS, NMS, MRS
Biochemistry - LIPPINCOTT, HY, and Metabolism
Microbiology - Levinson, and for immunology I read HY as well
Pharmacology - Lippincott
Pathology - BRS
Behavioral - HY
First Aid and Crushing the boards for last minute review
Some of it i bought, and some i got from friends and relatives.
So I hope this helps and wish you all the best of luck and if i can be of any more help just let me know. GOOD LUCK
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| bluestar
Forum Guru
Topics: 236
Posts: 724
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Dear Yulia, Thank you so much for being so responsive. This is only the third day I found this forum and I begin to love it now. Anyway, if I understand it correctly from what you said, Qbook and Qbank are of same content and style, just that one is paper and the other is online or CD. It seems you have two or more books for each discipline, but did you find time to read them all twice? Amazing. How long did you spend on reading text and how longer did you spend on review? Well, actually timing is a big question I want to ask you about. I'll take the exam on May-July 2004 and now I have read the books once. Now I am doing the Qbank while reading the book twice. Then I plan to review Kaplan's Webprep as you recommended, and try doing other CDs if time permits. Then maybe Kaplan's notes. Is this reasonable? Should I plan ahead for reading the books for the third time? I know it's always better to plan ahead but I really don't know if I still have time to do these all. Time flies so quickly when it comes to preparing for such an exam. Last question, how do you think of "Crushing the boards", does it closely correlate to the exam? Thank you very much!!!
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I leave no trace of wings in the air, but I am glad I have had my flight
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| Yulia
Forum Elite
Topics: 19
Posts: 240
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hello bluestar,
crushing the boards...are we talking about same book? it is very superficial, one could use it only as last minute review i would say.
timing issue... everyone is reading at different pace. i spent about 8 months on reading "big" books, and about 3 months on the review (webprep, kaplan notes and q-bank). i did webprep and kaplan notes at the same time. last month before my exam i did questions mostly (q-bank).
your plan sounds reasonable, i can't tell if you need to read everything third time, it depends on how you deal with questions... if you're good, then why waste time? if there's something you want to improve while doing questions, just review the topic again...
the important thing, you have the plan, stick to it, no matter what they say. if it's working for you, then it's good, you don't need to change it
best of luck to you and all wonderful people on these forums!!!
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| rafik
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congratulation +++++++
can you give me your mmethode, books readiring and whowlong you study
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| guest
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hi yulia,
thanks 4 the information u gave me abt the Q bank,in fact i have full trust on Q bank,i always used to heard the Qs in exam r very similar to Q bank of course nt same...but someone here ws saying nt to trust Q bank & also he/she used to score 75-80% on Q bank,i think thts very big score i can never think of scoring this much on Q bank.i want to ask u one thing tht wht were u scoring on Q bank,same as this or higher score?
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