DrVoodoo
Forum Senior
Topics: 25
Posts: 66
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After three times I finally passed. I want to think everybody on the forum. I wish I would have know about this web site a long time ago. This test is doable, you just have to sacrifice some things and stick to the books. Hopefully what I type here will help someone get thru this.
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First time I took Step 1:
Ok I had not been home form the island for that long. I got home from Statia in April. I took the test Sep. 1st. I was partying and acting like a crazy man. I took the Falcon course in Dallas and really didn’t put my all into it. When I got back home from that the only thing I studied was First Aid. I read it like 2 or 3 times. As you can see this was not near enough to even think about passing the USMLE. I got my score of a 163 and was crushed. So I picked my self back up and started studying again.
Second time I took Step 1:
This time was going to have a plan. I got all of my BRS’s and other books out and made a schedule. I started reading at 9:00am and would read an hour on each book I had. I would get done at about 1:00pm, then go to the gym. One of my classmates told me about Q-bank. So I ordered it with about two weeks to go before my exam. I didn’t get much of it done. When I took the real test again, January 12 2005, there were questions almost word for word form Q-bank. I was kicking myself because I wish I had done all of it. Anyway, I still did not prepare enough, but I felt pretty good when I came out of the testing center. I set down at the bar, had a few drinks and wrote out all the questions I could remember. I went home and look most of them up. Things were looking good, till the mail came. I ended up getting a 174 on that test, so close yet so far away. Feeling like a loser I once again picked myself up and started studying again.
Third time I took Step 1:
This time I wasn’t going to play around. I started looking on the web for anything that could help me, anything. I was looking for the magic bullet that would get me thru this thing. That’s when I came across Prep4Usmle.com. I took a whole day and read every page every forum; I mean I read the whole thing. I found out that there are people in the same boat I’m in. Once I got a little encouragement from some folks on the forum I told myself no more drinking for 6 months. That was a big thing to passing this thing. Next, I set another schedule. It included study time, gym time, and family time. I also did as many questions I could get my hands on. One big source of knowledge I found was other doctors. I’m in the military, on Sunday’s two doctors and a Physicians Assistant would pimp the hell out of me. I learned a lot from those guys. I retook my exam on 23 June 2005. I’ll put the schedule down that I used. I hope this helps. Good luck and study hard.
Monday thru Thursday
0730 Wake up, get kids ready for day care.
0830 Check my e-mail
0900 I would do 50 questions on Q-bank
1000 start reading
I would read a page from God’s Promise (great book for spiritual help)
Medical Boards Step1 Made Rid. Simple (good book, rapid review)
Pathology BRS (if you know this book inside out, Path will be a breeze)
Physiology BRS (good fast read, I read this book 3 times.)
Biochem BRS (long boring book, I hate Biochem)
Biochem Lippincott (after reading BRS Biochem, this book made sense of it all)
Micro Made Rid Simple (I love this book, this is a must have, its Pharm and Micro rolled into one)
1230 Lunch time
1300 Do 50 more questions from Q-bank
1400 Gym time, while I was at the gym I would listen to Goljan audios.
1730 Pick the kids up from daycare
1900 Watch video segments from the Kaplan DVD’s
2200 In bed
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
This time I would relax. My son was playing soccer at the time so he had games. On Friday I would clean the house and do laundry. Some weekends I would do 50 questions on Q-bank.
I also took supplements:
Creatine
Vasopro
Fish Oil
Brain Prep
Multi Vitiman
Protien Shake
Flax Seeds
Glutamine
About a month out I took all the practice test I could. I did the Blackwell’s test, Kaplan sim. CD, I even went to the Kaplan center and took their practice test. I took the NBME test about a week out. I also bought the First Aid 2005 a week before and read most of it. About three days before my test, I read the Goljan HY notes and also some of Tommy’s HY notes.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions I’ll try to answer them. Good Luck everybody.
___________________
Need a pick me up? Try these!!!http://www.trueessentials.net/index.asp?repid=2096710
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| KEROCHI
Forum Guru
Topics: 60
Posts: 971
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Congratulations !! Your hard work paid off. GL on your next step!!
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| karusmle
Forum Guru
Topics: 296
Posts: 1,001
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congradulations !well i would like to know about kaplan Q bank,is it worth so much of money?how many questions r there in Q bank for 1 month and for 3 months?was ur quesitons on the exam were simillar to Q bank????which subjects were tested heavily in ur exam?
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| DrVoodoo
Forum Senior
Topics: 25
Posts: 66
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karusmle
Qbank is almost just like the real exam. The styles of the questions are just like the exam. There are about 2100 questions. Depends on how long your going to study, I should have bought the 6 month question bank. I went thru them about two to three times. My test was a pretty good mix of everything. You have to understand, the questions on the test are 2 part questions. You will start reading the question and think its Path question and it will turn out to be a Genetics question. If you have any other questions let me know. Good luck.
___________________
Need a pick me up? Try these!!!http://www.trueessentials.net/index.asp?repid=2096710
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| SilatK
Forum Guru
Topics: 42
Posts: 587
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Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck on Step 2 and study hard!!!!!!!!!!!!
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To know is to not know..
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