malinda wrote:
All praise to God,my oasis was updated today and I have passed the exam.

Right now I am just so over whelmed with humility towards God.What am I without Him?This day,these red letters,I have waited for 3 years.I am in tears and my heart is thanking God with every heart beat.I am so blank and so amazed as He loves all of us so much and still we never thank Him enough..I feel so small and so blessed.God is GREAT.

First of all,I want to thank one person who stood by my side in each and every trial..MY HUSBAND.If I am here today,its bcz of his support and motivation all the time.He helped me work hard smoothly,helped me with our son,helped me so much that I had no other head ache than to study.and without His support,I had never seen this day.My motivation"I CAN DO IT"are his words which he made me say again and again.I am so blessed and again its God's love and blessing to have such a partner by my side.

I want to thank my little son,who had to go to the day care when he was 4 months old.Now he is turning almost a year old.I remember the days when I had to send him to the day care and he will look at me with the eyes as if telling me that I am a bad mother leaving him with strangers.Every one says it is a norm in US to send kids to the day care.But for me coming from a culture where mothers stay with kids and take care of them,I had this guilt trip all the time..I think he was my motivation too as I knew I had to get my son out of there soon.

I am so blessed to have all of you.I am so thankful to prep 4 usmle for being there on the internet.I am so thankful to all my friends especially reet and sarika for an unknown strength and motivation.

I dont know what are my scores yet,but this success means SO MUCH to me and if God has blessed me with a pass,He had something good for me in His mind.I really dont care that much.

For me,I graduated from a very prestigious college in Pakistan,people dream about that institution,and I got in.I was an average student in medical college but God helped me through.Got married,came to US,started preparation and took almost a year in just planning.I read kaplan one time in one year...YES ONE YEAR.WHY?bcz I didnot know how to study.I had no body to guide me.I just knew that to pass step 1 ,u read kaplan.I read kaplan and I had no direction.I didnot even know that u r supposed to do questions.I didnot know there are forums,I didnot know there are people preparing for the same exam.I would read one page of kaplan each day and I got nothing out of it...especially physio graphs as I never had seen those graphs in my text books ever.All lost,I went to the library everyday and spent the whole day in the library trying to figure out one graph in the whole day..

Then I got pregnant and at the same time when I got pregnant my husband got sick.I took a break from studies.But when God did another miracle and my husband was healthy again,I started all over again.8 months pregnant,I attempted step 1 with a nbme score of 300.YES 300.I had no clue how accurate nbme is.I was having a miserable pregnancy and I wanted to give it a shot.I failed with eaxctly the same score as nbme..I was devastated.For a girl with a very low self esteem ,I wanted to quit right away as usual.But it was my husband who wont let me quit.He told me over and over again that I CAN DO IT.

I had my son born and in just 5 weeks I picked my books again to study..My son had colic and he would cry day in and day out..and I still tried to study..when I could clearly see that with a small infant at home,I cannot study..we decided to send him to the day care..a totall emotional disaster for me.I was so guilty conscious that I started to have depression bouts.For me my family,my kids are everything and I am not a very career oriented person.For me family is more important than anything.So it was devastating to leave my kid every day and see him getting closer to strangers and I had just 2 or 3 hours to spend with him in the whole day.Honestly he started to forget that I was his mother.He was attached with everyone except me.So that gave me the motivation to get it over with soon.

In my second attempt I collected every information on the internet.I came to know that people liten to goljan lectures for pathology.I came to know that there are kaplan dvds available and people watch them to understand kaplan notes.I came to know that there is q bank available and I should be doing q bank religiously.I came to know that nbme is an excellent predictor.I listened to all kaplan dvds,I listened to goljan.and after that I made a plan.I gave kaplan notes almost 6 readings over all.So much so that I could finish a chapter in half an hour.I knew I had time problem last time,so this time I concentrated on time managment.I made small targets for everything and tried to finish that target in the alloted time.I divided my preparation in 4 parts in the last 2 months.I planned to take 4 nbmes ,one every 15 days.I made my schedule one entire reading of kaplan notes in 15 days and then take an nbme..I kept improving except form 3 where I got a 360.My son was badly ill before that form and I had to take care of him..Cutting long story short,preparing for nbme helped me be on time.and helped me finish the netire course on 2 months 4 times.

goljan is the boss.Its not enough to admire his lectures in just one line.If u r not doing goljan,believe me u r missing a lot.My patho scores jumped from a 40-50 range to 70 range after goljan audios.

My exam was not an easy one.I thought every one is exaggerating when they say exam was tough,but mine was.There was lots and lots of immunology.last 2blocks were a total mess with so many experimental qs.and anatomy was my weakest subject and neuroanatomy was heavily tested on my exam.I am still expecting a low score on these two subjects..patho was obviously the bulk but very twisted.there are easy qs too,but we tend to remember the difficult qs usually.

last but not the least,keeping a prep journal was the key.It was like doing a group study where u know where u stand..

I am so thankful to all ofyou.I am living example as if i can do it,everyone can do it.i KNOW i have a second sttempt label with me,but that is the lesson....DONOT LET IT BE A SECOND ATTEMPT WHEN U CAN DO IT IN THE FIRST ATTEMPT..PREPARE WISELY,PLAN FOR THIS EXAM,AND DONT COMPROMISE ON NBME..I did only 1000 qs may be from q bank,as I took online 370 dollars q bank and wasted it..ANOTHER LESSON I LEARNED VERY LATE.q bank doesnot mean that u do it for scoring.it is meant to learn from.do q bank when u know u are familiar with the subjects and while doing q bank,just do q bank.My mistake was that I got discouraged with q bank scores,and went back to my books,thinking I needed more reading.

I cleared this exam in second attempt,and these are life lessons.I wish all of you make it in the first attempt with God's will and those who have not...if i can do it,u can do it too..JUST DONOT GIVE UP.LIFE IS MUCH BIGGER THAN THIS EXAM.and look in your lives.God must have compensated some where for this trial of doing it all over again..

All thanks to Allah.

malinda wrote:
All praise to God,my oasis was updated today and I have passed the exam.

Right now I am just so over whelmed with humility towards God.What am I without Him?This day,these red letters,I have waited for 3 years.I am in tears and my heart is thanking God with every heart beat.I am so blank and so amazed as He loves all of us so much and still we never thank Him enough..I feel so small and so blessed.God is GREAT.

First of all,I want to thank one person who stood by my side in each and every trial..MY HUSBAND.If I am here today,its bcz of his support and motivation all the time.He helped me work hard smoothly,helped me with our son,helped me so much that I had no other head ache than to study.and without His support,I had never seen this day.My motivation"I CAN DO IT"are his words which he made me say again and again.I am so blessed and again its God's love and blessing to have such a partner by my side.

I want to thank my little son,who had to go to the day care when he was 4 months old.Now he is turning almost a year old.I remember the days when I had to send him to the day care and he will look at me with the eyes as if telling me that I am a bad mother leaving him with strangers.Every one says it is a norm in US to send kids to the day care.But for me coming from a culture where mothers stay with kids and take care of them,I had this guilt trip all the time..I think he was my motivation too as I knew I had to get my son out of there soon.

I am so blessed to have all of you.I am so thankful to prep 4 usmle for being there on the internet.I am so thankful to all my friends especially reet and sarika for an unknown strength and motivation.

I dont know what are my scores yet,but this success means SO MUCH to me and if God has blessed me with a pass,He had something good for me in His mind.I really dont care that much.

For me,I graduated from a very prestigious college in Pakistan,people dream about that institution,and I got in.I was an average student in medical college but God helped me through.Got married,came to US,started preparation and took almost a year in just planning.I read kaplan one time in one year...YES ONE YEAR.WHY?bcz I didnot know how to study.I had no body to guide me.I just knew that to pass step 1 ,u read kaplan.I read kaplan and I had no direction.I didnot even know that u r supposed to do questions.I didnot know there are forums,I didnot know there are people preparing for the same exam.I would read one page of kaplan each day and I got nothing out of it...especially physio graphs as I never had seen those graphs in my text books ever.All lost,I went to the library everyday and spent the whole day in the library trying to figure out one graph in the whole day..

Then I got pregnant and at the same time when I got pregnant my husband got sick.I took a break from studies.But when God did another miracle and my husband was healthy again,I started all over again.8 months pregnant,I attempted step 1 with a nbme score of 300.YES 300.I had no clue how accurate nbme is.I was having a miserable pregnancy and I wanted to give it a shot.I failed with eaxctly the same score as nbme..I was devastated.For a girl with a very low self esteem ,I wanted to quit right away as usual.But it was my husband who wont let me quit.He told me over and over again that I CAN DO IT.

I had my son born and in just 5 weeks I picked my books again to study..My son had colic and he would cry day in and day out..and I still tried to study..when I could clearly see that with a small infant at home,I cannot study..we decided to send him to the day care..a totall emotional disaster for me.I was so guilty conscious that I started to have depression bouts.For me my family,my kids are everything and I am not a very career oriented person.For me family is more important than anything.So it was devastating to leave my kid every day and see him getting closer to strangers and I had just 2 or 3 hours to spend with him in the whole day.Honestly he started to forget that I was his mother.He was attached with everyone except me.So that gave me the motivation to get it over with soon.

In my second attempt I collected every information on the internet.I came to know that people liten to goljan lectures for pathology.I came to know that there are kaplan dvds available and people watch them to understand kaplan notes.I came to know that there is q bank available and I should be doing q bank religiously.I came to know that nbme is an excellent predictor.I listened to all kaplan dvds,I listened to goljan.and after that I made a plan.I gave kaplan notes almost 6 readings over all.So much so that I could finish a chapter in half an hour.I knew I had time problem last time,so this time I concentrated on time managment.I made small targets for everything and tried to finish that target in the alloted time.I divided my preparation in 4 parts in the last 2 months.I planned to take 4 nbmes ,one every 15 days.I made my schedule one entire reading of kaplan notes in 15 days and then take an nbme..I kept improving except form 3 where I got a 360.My son was badly ill before that form and I had to take care of him..Cutting long story short,preparing for nbme helped me be on time.and helped me finish the netire course on 2 months 4 times.

goljan is the boss.Its not enough to admire his lectures in just one line.If u r not doing goljan,believe me u r missing a lot.My patho scores jumped from a 40-50 range to 70 range after goljan audios.

My exam was not an easy one.I thought every one is exaggerating when they say exam was tough,but mine was.There was lots and lots of immunology.last 2blocks were a total mess with so many experimental qs.and anatomy was my weakest subject and neuroanatomy was heavily tested on my exam.I am still expecting a low score on these two subjects..patho was obviously the bulk but very twisted.there are easy qs too,but we tend to remember the difficult qs usually.

last but not the least,keeping a prep journal was the key.It was like doing a group study where u know where u stand..

I am so thankful to all ofyou.I am living example as if i can do it,everyone can do it.i KNOW i have a second sttempt label with me,but that is the lesson....DONOT LET IT BE A SECOND ATTEMPT WHEN U CAN DO IT IN THE FIRST ATTEMPT..PREPARE WISELY,PLAN FOR THIS EXAM,AND DONT COMPROMISE ON NBME..I did only 1000 qs may be from q bank,as I took online 370 dollars q bank and wasted it..ANOTHER LESSON I LEARNED VERY LATE.q bank doesnot mean that u do it for scoring.it is meant to learn from.do q bank when u know u are familiar with the subjects and while doing q bank,just do q bank.My mistake was that I got discouraged with q bank scores,and went back to my books,thinking I needed more reading.

I cleared this exam in second attempt,and these are life lessons.I wish all of you make it in the first attempt with God's will and those who have not...if i can do it,u can do it too..JUST DONOT GIVE UP.LIFE IS MUCH BIGGER THAN THIS EXAM.and look in your lives.God must have compensated some where for this trial of doing it all over again..

All thanks to Allah.