ditch doctor
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 43
| | 06/29/05 - 08:57 PM
5 of 5 forum leaders found this post helpful
| #1 |
Just took step one on Monday. Here is my decompress for my form; things I wish I had done etc....
First, make sure you know all the *basic*-basics. What I mean by that is there were a lot of questions where they asked such a basic question that you might have overlooked it in studying. For those of you that took the shelf examinations, you know that question on the instructions, "The heart is part of what biological system" and the answer is "cardiovascular"-- well there were about 40 or so questions that basic on my form. Some so damn basic I hadn't seen since biology 101 class... Stuff like, "how many sacral vertebra are there?" or "what's tRNA wobble?" or "Which DNA is left handed?" or "What color are gram - bacteria, red or purple?" You know the type of question that just makes you go, "Awwwwwwwww damn... Are you kidding me????? Dammit..... what the heck was that???? Dammit... Craaaaaap....." Also, these questions are very unsettling becuase you either find yourself spending extra time looking for the "trick" or beating yourself up because you can't freaking remember which chromosome Fragile X is on.
You will probably take so MUCH longer to take this exam. I was taking 50 question blocks in about 25-30min on average on Qbank. But on Monday I almost ran out of time twice. I was so slow. So, my advice to you is learn how to get your 50 question blocks done in about 30-45 minutes while still taking them seriously, because you will run out of time if you don't learn to go fast.
Before I say anything about the stuff I used, I honestly believe that, on my form, if I were to have simply memorized word-for-word First-aid, listen to Goljan and kept doing Q-bank over and over until I was at >90% (this of course meaning that I was repeating questions and probably had them memorized, but I knew "why" the memorized questions were right), I would have probably gotten a 240+. Seriously. I only remember a handfull questions that couldn't have been answered with First-Aid. And they were really random, esoteric crap like the pattern of injuries seen in someone that is hit by a car. I had to go look that up: waddel's triad- ipsilateral femur fractur and contralateral tib-fib fracture, abdominal injury and head injury. Which is really a "quatrad" but I think the LE fractures are counted at one. Luckily, I guessed right on that one.
Ok, I believe this will raise your score about 20-40 points and if I fail I will go back and do this: Go to ref='"' http://www.stepprep.com/" http://www.stepprep.com/ and do the all First Aid quizzes. For each one you don't answer 100% correctly make a note card, even the "oh-yeah-that's-right-I-knew-that" ones. If you missed it, make a note card. Yes, you will probably end up with about 300-400 note cards, if not more. Drill yourself over and over and over until you memorize those bad boys cold. Keep going back to them over and over.
For pharm, I highly recommend the BRS pharm cards. I had those cards memorized cold (not just the answer, also the little factoids, too) and I would run through them about once every other day. This was my only resource for pharm, except for the formulas in FA. There was not a single question on the boards I did not know about pharm. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of pharm on my exam. Believe it or not, the questions weren't like qBank at all, there were a lot of stupid ass, random graphs.
For micro, I highly recommend the MICROCARDS by lippincott williams. Just like pharm I had these memorized cold and because of it, all of my micro questions were pretty easy, I felt. Oh, yeah, memorize every diagnosis decision tree for micro. There were a lot of those 'clinical picture of Influenza' and the answer is "helical, enveloped, - sense, segmented, ssRNA virus" type of questions. Also, know all the toxins and how they work. There were a few 'clinical picture of tetanus' questions and the answer is something like "bacteria whose toxin prevents GABA from being released" or something like that. You will have to use another source, like FA, for bacterial genetics, though.
The "High-yield molecular biology" book is beyond badass, almost required reading. I highly recommend memorizing the last chapter which is on second messengers. There were a lot of "NO exerts it's activity by activating which of the following: " then you would have one of the following: Cyclic GMP or cGMP or PKG or some crap like that as one of the answers. You need to know every second messenger and whether they are cAMP or cGMP, IP3, TK, TK associated, serine threonine, steroid or TK Phosphatase and how each of those pathways work down to the nitty gritty. They are all in FA, but I like the way they were presented in HY better. That just might be me. I even had a random question on insulin and the son-of-sevenless protein. Come to think of it, I had a lot of molecular biology.... lotsa biochemical tests and stuff. Not, a lot of "biochem" per se, however (like enzymes and pathways).
As for physio, in the same vein of the last paragraph, know every hormone's function. My exam seemed like the physio was 90% endocrine and renal. I can't really remember a lot of respiratory or cardio. Maybe it's just that I suck in renal and endocrine, I don't know. Get to know all those physiology graphs well, with the arrows and crap. Those are my worst; I freaking hate those. If I fail this bastard, it will be because of these type of questions. They are everywhere on my exam. Maybe like every 8th or 9th question. It was almost comical, but not really.
Finally, listen to the Goljan lectures until they are just about memorized. **AT LEAST** 3 times. I would say I got at least 30-40% of the path questions right simply because of those lectures. The Lange path cards are awesome, too. I would say another 30-40% were straight from them. Either Goljan's notes or BRS are more than sufficient as a review text, almost overkill. To be honest you could skip probably BRS path and Goljan's text--- FA, Lange cards and Goljan audio is more than enough *if* well memorized and understood.
Anatomy was mostly a joke, but I did have a 2 really picky questions on random muscle insertions.
I wouldn't worry about any images that much at all. Maybe like about 2 or 3 days on webpath right before the exam. Seriously, I had maybe 20-30 pictures total and 2/3 of them you didn't even need the picture. Only one picture was a "What in the heck is that?" picture. Also, the pictures tend to be really small.
Also, the CD that they send you, make sure you know those 150 questions cold. Someone posted that on one of the bulletin boards, so I really studied them. I swear I think 3 or 4 questions were the exact same questions. They say on the CD that they are not so maybe I'm imagining things. But I swear....
Which questions were closest to the exam???? I would have to go with the NBME. I only took one of them and got a 510, I would recommend taking both of them if you want to afford it. My Qbank scores started out at about 55% (50-60%) and were about 70% (65-75%) towards test time. I made a note card for every missed question and drilled myself over and over until I knew them. I studied lightly for about 4 months (0-3hrs day) during my classes and hard for about 1 month (8-12 hrs/day). Hopefully I didn't fail.
K... tired.... going to bed... if you have any questions just ask. Oh, yeah, yes, before I get flamed, I do know that Fragile X is on the X chromosome.
John
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| rubyedward
Forum Elite
Topics: 12
Posts: 197
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good luck with yr score. i'm still waiting my score i did last 3 weeks ago. so nervous. but what to do....live must go on and i'm up to sitting step 2. u've done the real contribution for this forum. God bless.
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| Sufentanyl
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 8
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Thank you very much !!!
Your post is one of the most complete, and helpful posts I have read in a while.
CONGRATULATIONS. Im sure you you aced it.
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| drworm
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 138
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excellent post ditch doctor! I think it is going to help a whole lot of people. It's definitely going to help me a great deal. Thanks a ton!
I'm sure you did really well....good luck with the score!
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| kaira
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 128
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thnx a million for such an amazing post!!
All the best for ur score
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| mltrmltr
Forum Newbie
Topics: 9
Posts: 17
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Clap and save!
GL!
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| drhouston
Forum Senior
Topics: 22
Posts: 63
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It is an amazing post
Thanks a lot for putting in your of time and effort.
All the bast for ur score. i am sure it will be amazing too
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| 99doc
Forum Elite
Topics: 52
Posts: 370
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so,it's sort of over for the time being.
Best Wishes for ur result.
ur post was really helpful.
Thanx alot for taking time out.
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| jpriya
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 5
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that was a good reading.......thanks
priya
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| alpha12
Forum Senior
Topics: 6
Posts: 70
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thanks, John! this is an awesome exam experience... you're tha man!
___________________
Flex
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| nico
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 37
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I wolud like to congratulate you, form your written experience Iam sure you will get a high score. I would like to ask you a question about your exam, you said anatomy was a joke could you give me a basic idea what kind of subject you got. Iam having a terrible time getting a better a score in anatomy questions. Thankyou
___________________
SULLY
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| karusmle
Forum Guru
Topics: 296
Posts: 1,001
| | 07/03/05 - 12:24 AM
1 of 1 forum leaders found this post helpful
| #12 |
thank u so much for this information
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| LisaM
Forum Guru
Topics: 16
Posts: 321
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Thank you for your honest take on the exam and your experience. All the best with your scores!
___________________
lisa
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| cyra
Moderator
Topics: 29
Posts: 844
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This was the most valuable exam experiences out of the trillions that i have browsed through!!Thnakyou!!
Good luck for the result!
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| hgheith
Forum Elite
Topics: 39
Posts: 268
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Honestly I hope you get the score you want! This is the most helpful and to the point experience I have read,
Thank you for taking the time to help us all out, may the Lord bless you and help you with the highest scores!!
Thanks again
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| akhan18
Forum Junior
Topics: 9
Posts: 32
|
congrats
u will pass with flying colors
could u please tell me exactly the tile & isbn no. of patho & micro cards
i will really appreciate
thanx a lot
khan.
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| akhan18
Forum Junior
Topics: 9
Posts: 32
|
congrats
u will pass with flying colors
could u please tell me exactly the tile & isbn no. of patho & micro cards
i will really appreciate
thanx a lot
khan.
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| ditch doctor
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 43
|
Sorry it has taken so long to write back, I've been taking some time off... As far as anatomy goes, there were so few questions that discussing specific subjects would be futile. However, the first step is going to the stepprep website and doing the FA anatomy quizzes and making flash cards for questions you don't know then drilling yourself with those flash cards until every fact from FA is memorized. Seriously, nothing else should be done for anatomy until that is done. You have to crawl before you can walk.
Here you go for path and micro cards.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/007...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/078...
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| mavis
Forum Senior
Topics: 0
Posts: 84
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Hi Ditch
Just one question. So you mean to say that if I do the usmle prep first aid quizes online I'll have all the basics down to get the 40 questions that were so basic on your form, for example. I know that all the exams are different. However, just am just curious and seriously contemplating doing all those quizzes. All the best with your score. Thanx
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| unfortunate
Forum Senior
Topics: 17
Posts: 56
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hi d.d
i failed ...help me,,,cry
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| ditch doctor
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 43
|
mavis wrote:
Hi Ditch
Just one question. So you mean to say that if I do the usmle prep first aid quizes online I'll have all the basics down to get the 40 questions that were so basic on your form, for example. I know that all the exams are different. However, just am just curious and seriously contemplating doing all those quizzes. All the best with your score. Thanx
More than enough. Those quizzes are basically all the facts (no diagrams, I don't think) from first aid. It's pretty much what you should do anyway, ie memorize first aid. So, if I could go back in time that is what I would do; memorize all those quizzes.
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| ditch doctor
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 43
|
unfortunate wrote:
hi d.d
i failed ...help me,,,cry
I would have to say step one (no pun intended) is to get a copy of first aid, then go to the quiz web page I posted at the beginning of the post and do all of them, making note cards for the ones you missed.
Step 2 would be to do 5000-10000 questions and "understand" (not just gloss over) the wrong and right answers.
Check out this webpage for methods of study... perhaps you are studying wrong:
http://www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/Success/default.htm
Perhaps consider enrolling in a course such as falcon or Kaplan and do one that has one on one instruction if you can.
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| ditch doctor
Forum Junior
Topics: 13
Posts: 43
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Did Oasis!!!! Passed!!!!!
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| boston34
Forum Junior
Topics: 9
Posts: 44
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CONGRATULATIONS!!! THANKS FOR YOUR STUDY TIPS TOO!!
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| KEROCHI
Forum Guru
Topics: 60
Posts: 971
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Congratulations!
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