sachida
Forum Guru
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Hello people!!
I have a mixed feeling posting this. Like many people I am not sure how it went and how will I do scorewise, but the fact is it is over.
I seriously wish that I had read carvadilol post earlier then today...
My exam experience in terms of content was SAME.
I think kaplan qbank is overblown and to extent not useful. I spent lot of time trying to finish it but honestly that time would have been better spent reading BASICS that are ignored totally on the qbank.
I am talking about VERY VERY basics. Mechanisms of actions and ADR, simple drawings of cell and orgenalles. definations, examples of those definations etc.
If you have ten days make sure you know FA inside out.
FA is insufficient for pathology. Read BRS thoroughly, I have been good with it for long time and skipped reading it in revision and actually struggled a lot in the exam.
50% of qestions were logic and pathology.
Do genetics and mol bio thoroughly, I may be biased but it was tested heavily for my exam
Other subjects were barely tested. Few questions got repeated- exact same content was worded differently, I imagine they were reasearch questions
My exam started fine, I had difficulty in concentrating as I did not sleep enough.
Guys, whatever happen make sure you had enough sleep.
I got comfortable after first block and had about 5 min in each block to review marked questions. I had atleast 10 questions marked in each block. I wasnt happy about it. Some questions sounded very ambigous for two closest choices. I had to move on. Few questions had straight answers.
Most importantly, READ the WHOLE question. A small detail changes your answer choice.
Marking the unsure answers and moving on was largely helpful as when I went back I did find answers that I was fine selecting. I just had missed little details due to time pressure earlier. Reasearch shows that altering your answer is not worth it as stastically your probability of selecting wrong answer is high. Well for me, i know i changed answer in three marked questions every block and majority of them, I had arrived to right answer (I checked FA afterward), so basically when I had doubts they were sincere....
After 4th block two blocks were really tough. I had more then 16 marked questions in one of them. I did not have time to think twice so probably many that I did not mark could be wrong -therefore, I am not sure of possible outcome.
So best advice from me, if you are not shooting for very high 90's make sure you have read FA thoroughly and basics are strong. Read BRS and you will be fine with the exam
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Past is a history. Tomorrow is a mystery. What you have today is gift of God- that is why it is called present. Enjoy it...
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| robin082006
Forum Hero
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Congratulations, you finished step 1.
Thanks for sharing your exam experience.
Good luck.
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The Key to Succeed is Patience.
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| ing
Forum Guru
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Thanks and good luck to you!
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Never give up!!
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| qwert6
Forum Junior
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can you please give some examples of the type of questions on the test..
my exam is near by so your advise might be helpful
thanks
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| sachida
Forum Guru
Topics: 62
Posts: 624
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they vary in difficulty for eg. some asked mechanism of action straight forward, difficult one asked same question by giving discription of the disease and asked most common drug used for it works by which mechanism...
Obesity/DM/Gout/Arthritis/Connective tissue disorders/Hematology was heavily tested. Beh Science had lot of patient-doctor relationship questions and some questions that were out of FA. the advice question were relatively easy compared to kaplan qbank. choices were mostly clear.
my initial blocks did not required any formula based answers. My last two blocks had 5 questions each based on formulas. they were not straight forward but still answerable if you calm down and think. I found it helpful to scrabble relavent info on the pad they give and think it out looking at pad rather then computer screen. that way you can blank out irrelevant info.
I am too tired to remember anything specific right now and it also is prohibited so I am sorry not to give specifics
Edited by sachida on 05/08/06 - 07:12 PM
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Past is a history. Tomorrow is a mystery. What you have today is gift of God- that is why it is called present. Enjoy it...
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| qwert6
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thanks
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| general malaise
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congradulations on finishing the exam. i'm sure you'll do well. u deserve a good break
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"El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" Benito Juarez
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| tolito
Forum Fanatic
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good job sacchida. i wish you a great score. take time to relax and prepare for the next step.
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| suma
Forum Junior
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tanx for th post sachida
GOOD LUCK FOR THE SCORE
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| 2006?Maybe...
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Congratulations on writing the exam and good luck with your score! Thanks a lot for sharing, it is so helpful.
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| samdoc
Forum Senior
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Thank you for sharing you experience sachida,
pray you score in 90s, good luck
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| qwert6
Forum Junior
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wish you a great score.. enjoy yourself.. thanks for all your help again
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| dipti
Forum Elite
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congrats on finishing step 1!i wish you a good score.good luck.
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| sachida
Forum Guru
Topics: 62
Posts: 624
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Thanks everyone for your wishes....I felt pretty bad this morning as I had all questions coming to my mind....
Well, I guess I just need to move on and hopefully want have to look back.
I welcome all who are planning their exams to ask questions...I will try my utmost to answer. Just dont ask what exactly I was asked...
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Past is a history. Tomorrow is a mystery. What you have today is gift of God- that is why it is called present. Enjoy it...
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| surgery
Forum Junior
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Good Lcuk sachita u will definitely get good score
And best luck for Step2
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| img05
Forum Junior
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how long did you prepare for the exam?how many times could you revise?
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| 26malik
Forum Guru
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GOOD LUCK sachida .
thanks for good advise.
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There is always hope
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| macrolide
Forum Newbie
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well done friend ! good luck for the scores . i have 1 n half month to go but it seems so less i m revising micro n everything looks new to me , i did it from kaplan so again i m revising from there i m not good with fungi n viruses what do u think can i do these topics from first aid r these enough . n can u tell me how to mange these weeks in terms of geetting good revision of everything thanks alot .
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| sachida
Forum Guru
Topics: 62
Posts: 624
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img05-I prepared for around 7 months total while working full time and publishing two papers-meaning hardly 4-5 hrs a day for almost 5 months. I worked hard in last month. My issues were different then many of others-some personal difficulties as well as being out of medical school for almost 5 yrs. I had trouble concentrating and reading for 1-2 hrs at stretch. So if you are in good reading shape-I think 5 months are enough to do one reading and one revision. I did my qbank at the end of each subject revision..scored in 70s but when I took comprehensive exam I dropped to 65%. I tried to go over everything very quickly in last 3 days- could not do it completely. I think even if you are just going to glance over stuff you need 5 days-that is what I will do if unfortunately I have to take the exam again.
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Past is a history. Tomorrow is a mystery. What you have today is gift of God- that is why it is called present. Enjoy it...
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| sachida
Forum Guru
Topics: 62
Posts: 624
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macrolide-focus on pathology-physiology. Know all disease and their menifestations. Know all drugs mechanism of action and ADR. I cant emphasize this enough. Majority of exam tests basic concepts that dont follow qbank. Kaplan qbank tend to test little known concepts sometimes and furstrates people. I am not saying it is useless but one should do it atleast month in advance. and stop using it in last month. make notes of things you could not answer and emphasize that in last revision-I think that is the best way to use the qbank.
Use last week to revise everything at once- if you are anything like me, you will start forgetting stuff (it seems you have the same tendency as you mentioned you found microbiology all new). Make sure to go over BRS. Make sure to look at all CT-MRI and identify organs/muscles-I had many questions using them. I have to admit I am poor in anatomy and had hard time answering those questions even though I knew answers in terms of what muscle has problem but then pointing it on mri was difficult for me.
Do one or two blocks of questions daily just to keep practice of reading and answering questions. Try to do that from some other topic that you are not reading at that moment. That way you can quickly assess if you had forgotten a lot from some particular subject.
For fungus/parasites/viruses- use charts one in FA are good. May be viruses you need mrs but other stuff FA is sufficient.
good luck with your prep
To me step 1 getting more and more like step 2. Lots of question started with age,sex,enthinicity,weight,height,bmi and had tons of lab findings but answer hardly required any of them to be read. My advise-when you see a long question read the last line first. Make it a habit-I found 15-20% questions had unnecessary detail that need not be read. you save time and can look at the marked question to resolve your confusion.
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Past is a history. Tomorrow is a mystery. What you have today is gift of God- that is why it is called present. Enjoy it...
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