tash
Forum Junior
Topics: 7
Posts: 17
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Got up at 6:00 am, and strangely I did not have the anxiety I had the day before.. Fortunately!!
The exam was do-able, well representation of all the subjects. Pathology and Pathophysiology was the bulk, and luckily I did not have much of mol. biology or immunology. Questions are mostly on basic but important concepts and of details which are significant in medical science. I wound say the questions were really very similar to Kaplan Qbank, but with a little twist. The twist in a sense that very common concepts asked in a very complicated manner.
Much have already been said of the tests by all those who have taken it before, and I don't have anything new, but only re-emphasise that you should know your basic concepts well and be able to apply them. Know your endocrine physiology well. There were many questions with arrows going up and down of various hormones after some manipulation or some disease states. Know how to read a CT or an MRI and identify organs. Hematologic smears are a must. Derivatives of ecto, meso and endoderms are well tested. Cancer drugs and their mechanisms, antipsychotics and antidepressents and thier side effects, substance abuse and withdrawal symptoms, identify a beta-lactamase bond in a chemical structure...these are some points you cannot afford to neglect. Know your cell cycle inside-out. Classification of bacteria and various ways to identify them, viral nucleic acids, immunodeficiency diseases... Well, these are all the basic materials that we usually cover and it is well tested. Behaviour science, expecially the ethical situations, I got a whole bunch of them and some of these questions were tough, and often left me scratching my head after I zoomed in the answer to the last two choices.
And the most important thing, the more practice questions u do, the better you are. Qbank is excellent...do it in "timed" , "random" and "unused questions" mode for 50 questions each time. It really helps you orient your brain towards the real exam. And when doing your practice questions, DO NOT rely on looking at the answer choices and striking out and guessing the answer... By the time you've read the question, you should have some tentative answer in your mind and then sceintifically deduce the answer and the look for the answer among the choices given, NOT the other way round.
I don't know how I fared yesterday, but the worst part is I can only remember the wrong questions, and now the more I think, the more I feel bad and down. Sometimes I doubt I even passed!! You all know the post-exam anxiety..!!! During my preparation, my kaplan qbank cumulative was 76% (all "timed""random and "unused" mode; scores very consistent, with a narrow range of 72-86), and NBME (1.5 months before) was 580 and 550. I am just praying now and hoping that I just passed.
If u have any questions, feel free to ask. I know everyone coming out of the exam hall, feels they are never going to make it and messed-up the exam... and only think of the questions you got wrong.... and after my exam yesterday, now it is my turn... what u guys say?
Edited by tash on 10/12/05 - 09:06 PM
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| karusmle
Forum Guru
Topics: 296
Posts: 1,001
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the assesment test of ur nbme shows that u r really worth 95+,none of the guys have gone wrong with nbme..........so i would suggest u to have fun and forget ur worries ...plz enjoy , once u start step 2 ck again u have to become stressful,so this time is so valuable to enjoy ........so just have fun..............
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| ravi_online
Forum Senior
Topics: 10
Posts: 92
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thanks for sharing your exam. experiences..it seems you have done well in exam. Will pass the exam. with decent score. best of luck for the result. now time to relax& chill out.
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| sag16
Forum Newbie
Topics: 4
Posts: 34
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I gave my Step 1 on Monday, October 17. I came out quite angry and frustrated for the following reasons:
1. The average number of choices for questions on my exam were somewhere near 6. Now that is a ton of choices!! For PHYSIO, I would say the average no. of choices was 7 or above. For example, serum values for ACTH, Cortisol, Aldosterone etc - whether they increase, decrease or stay normal based on the question asked in the stem. My math isn't great, but you can easily come up with 9 choices for this. For ANAT, they would show the brainstem and label 7-8 things, and do the same with CT scans.
Having more choices per se should not deter you if you are conceptually sound, but it can surely consume extra time. And time is quite a luxury in the exam.
2. I gave NBME 1 (Oct. 3)=520 (224/300), NBME 2 (Oct 10)=570 (234/300). The questions on the exam were longer and in some ways tougher than NBME. I felt pretty ok when pressing the submit button after finishing the 4 blocks of NBME forms each time, and as you can see I did fairly ok. After I came out of the exam center, I was pissed to say the least - at the exam guys because I felt I got the exam tougher than the average, and also at NBME for having set easier expectations.
In short, I am convinced for now that the NBME forms I and II need updating. I fair judgment can only be made after I get my score and I will post it here if it's respectable. According to NBME, I should score anywhere between 90-95 percentile. I had taken off from work for the first two weeks of October and thought I was getting better as I was heading toward October 17. In short, I felt better about my preparation the night before the exam than any of the preceeding 6-8 months. Back to work for now and plan to watch football for the rest of the season - STEELERS and COLTS!!
sag16
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| eira
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 12
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Congrats.....tash and sag16,and don't fell bad sag16,God is with you and everything is goig to be all right.I wihs I can be in your sitacion with step1 took,I am just begining,but you guys will see every thing is going to be ok,with you two score I guess the score in the exam will be very good...
Star study for step 2
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| njemt369
Forum Junior
Topics: 8
Posts: 48
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I took my step 1 on Oct 26th, I found it very fair, most of the things were answerable however there were some little embryology, anatomy, and behavioral stats Qs that I think I messed up on... some of the embryo was random facts but if you study Kaplan I would definately memorize the list of what structures derive from where (not just the neural crest!!!!)
I took the NBME form 1 and form 2 I scored 790 on form 1 and 710 on form 2... That correlates to a 260+ on the USMLE, but I am worried now because there were alot of Qs that I did not know and also some that I just plain forgot (probably because of stress who knows)... Do you all know how well the NBME correlates to the actual score? is it a reliable predictor? What is the most variability that you have ever heard of with those exams and the actual score? The worst part is those field test Qs and that we don't know which ones they are LOL.
Best of luck to you all on the Step 1 and future Steps!!!
njemt369
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