busy_mom
Forum Senior
Topics: 4
Posts: 100
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Hi All,
it took a bit longer to post this than I thought - but I had to do some serious and long-overdo things. (Like finally playing that new game with my oldest daughter or tackling the huge pile of laundry !) And before I start, Iīd like to thank everyone that has wished me well so far ! But now to my experience...
I took my exam on the same day as Rasul (2 days ago). And like most people have mentioned in their exam experience, the main part of mine was Internal Medicine. I actually had to think of everyone on this forum on 2 occasions: the first time was when I found a q on my exam, that had been discussed on this forum before - and as it appeared on my screen, I wished I had had the time to participate in the discussion of qs. And the other time was somewhere in block 4 or 5, when I was really tired and answering my qs sort of through a fog. As I was pondering about my 9th or 10th Immuno q, I thought I would really have to give you guys a heads up...
And here it is: my exam was all about the lung - whether Peds, Surgery, or plain IM. Do yourselves a favor, and go over the UW Lung-qs again. Know when to use which Anti-Asthma medication, how to spot and treat the diff. types of pneumonias, and the differences between restrictive and obstructive lung diseases !
The other "biggy" on my exam was Immuno (oh, how I hate it !) : I had lots and lots of kids with recurrent infections. If the qs were fair, they would just ask for the diagnosis. But for most of them, they wanted to know what was wrong. I missed every single one of those qs !
Ob/Gyn was hardly tested on my exam. And most of those qs were cancers, treatment of STDs (of course those were 2-step qs - so you had to come up w/ the diagnosis and then know the appropriate treatment), and bleeding during pregnancy.
Psych was mainly child/adolesc.-problems and mood-disorders. Of course, be prepared to know what drugs to use for what disorder.
And of course: know your screening !
The qs were very similar to UW and the NBME - so def. do those ! I would even recommend going through them twice. Also, I really had a hard time with my timing. Starting w/ block 4, I had to re-read alot of qs, and it took me forever to come up w/ an answer. And it didnīt help that I took a long break after this started. I canīt even say, whether the qs actually became harder, or whether my brain was just fried. But I would be at q 30, and realize that I only had 1 min per q left. So in the end, I would have to race through the last qs, and have to just click on something for the last 3qs - not good !!! My suggestion here would be to practice this setting, by doing timed blocks of 46 late at night, when youīre really not concentrated anymore. I had always stopped doing qs at home when I noticed that I was getting too tired. But that was the exact same feeling I had for those last blocks of my exam. I really should have simulated this better ! Oh, and one more thing: the answers for the "matching" qs were listed in alphabetical order - there were about 2-4 pairs of qs per block.
You really have to be sure about your treatment, that is what I learned that day. If you think you know how to treat something, they will be sure to get you confused by presenting you with very similiar alternatives. So those are my impressions of this exam. All in all it seemed like just another UW-day - except more tiring !!! I can not say how it went - I had to guess on many, many qs, and have remembered quite a number of qs that I have answered wrong. All I know, is that it didnīt go as well as I had hoped and planned ! I just hope it was enough to pass, because I really need this !!! It would be great, if some of you would include me in your prayers...
Iīll be happy to answer any qs you might have, but for now Iīll have to sign off. Good Luck to all of you !
Edited by busy_mom on 05/26/06 - 06:39 AM. Reason: too many details !
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| drk1980
Forum Guru
Topics: 147
Posts: 1,038
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wish u the best for getting a great pass. hv fun playing wth ur kids!
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| doctor81
Forum Elite
Topics: 34
Posts: 240
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good luck
thanks for ur feedback
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| jmn
Forum Junior
Topics: 4
Posts: 31
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Hi Busymom
Thanks for taking time posting the exp. This gave me a closer look of CK, yes, very detailed things 's asked ;-(
Could u pls tell me how many time did u read the kaplan CK book, should we reread books or redo Qs in last month.
Thanks. & Good luck to your score.Have a good time.
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| aimhigh
Forum Elite
Topics: 22
Posts: 148
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Hi Busy_mom, so nice to see you posted your experience. I will pray for you and I am sure that you will get a great score!
Honestly, I felt quite scared after reading the posts about the tough exam experience. Oh, my...what should I do?! I guess what I can do is to do my best and try to improve as much as I can. Busy-mom, can you suggest me what I should do in the last couple weeks: options: a) review kaplan notes b) do UW again...or any other options? Thanks a lot!!!
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| catmd04
Forum Elite
Topics: 25
Posts: 384
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Hi Busy_mom
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Could you please tell me how long it took you for the preparation of your CK and Kaplan Notes alone + qbank + USMLEworld are sufficient? Thanks.
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| cyra
Moderator
Topics: 29
Posts: 844
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Way to go busy_mom!!Thankyou for the detailed insight.I've included you in the list of people I pray for.I hope you get a great score because you so deserve it.Have fun now and good luck with the score!
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| asifcv
Forum Newbie
Topics: 5
Posts: 14
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Hi Busy Mom
I too had the same experience. My Q's full of geriatrics and most of them just coming for annual chkup and this B...dy physician does some blood tests and ................. my advice would be to lot of timed MCQs. believe me there are so many distractors and they take up lot of ur time. i will do an analysis of my mistakes and will post later. i would like to if anyone else has felt the same after exams like me, anyone in this forum came out of the testcentre confidently?
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| infliximab
Forum Guru
Topics: 22
Posts: 320
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I BUSY MOM,
THANKS FOR POSTING UR EXPERIENCE. I M SURE U LL DO REAL GREAT OK?DID U DO NBME? AND WHAT IS A GOOD UW SCORE? THANKS
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| busy_mom
Forum Senior
Topics: 4
Posts: 100
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Hey drk, doctor81, jmn, aimhigh, catmd, cyra, asifcv, and infliximab ! Thank you so much for your kind words and wishes !
Drk and doctor: thanks - I wish both of you good luck too. And drk: I honestly wonīt be able to really enjoy playing w/ my kids until I passed my CK - but Iīll certainly try !
Jmn and aimhigh: I am certainly in no position to give any advice on how to score high on the USMLEs, unless I refer to my husbandīs experience. I am a better advice-giver on how to try to take the USMLEs in a relatively short time-period. But since I have no idea whether I passed the CK, I couldnīt even do that at this time ! Anyway, I donīt have the Kaplan notes - so I canīt say anything about those either. What I can tell you, though, is that I wouldnīt wait too long to take the NBMEs. I waited until about 2 weeks before my step to take the first one, and that didnīt leave too much time to adjust my studying schedule. Also, I would definately go through your notes again in those last weeks. As youīre taking the exam, alot of things will seem very familiar to you due to the good job UW does in preparing you for the real thing. But if you werenīt able to go through your notes again, you will likely forget facts like that Tra-zo-done causes E-rec-tion(e) (=priapism), or that Bu-spi-rone causes E-rect-ion(e) as well (= the doc for depressed patients that are complaining of not getting erections anymore), or that Bu-spir (one) sounds kind of like "perspire" (=sweating), and that itīs a drug for gen. anxiety (= and you sweat when youīre anxious - hey, thatīs how I tried to remember it !). So familiarize yourself with all these really great facts from UW, FA or Kaplan, and then do more qs. Thatīs my opinion. (But I had to learn it the hard way last Tuesday !)
Catmd: I took my CS the last week of Feb, so officially I was able to study from the beginning of March until now. But of course it didnīt work out that way... Up until April, I was hardly getting any studying done per day. Thatīs when I picked up my pace... I scraped all of our money together, and put my little one in day care, and the older one in after-school care - of course it was frustrating, because that meant I could study from 8:30 - 5:00, and then another hour or two after they had gone to bed. And since my husband is an intern with a crazy intern-schedule, I would also have to watch them on the weekends. But hey, I am priviledged to even be an MD, and have great kids, and be "allowed" to study for my US-license - so I really shouldnīt complain ! So all in all, I would guess that I studied for about 6 weeks. I used UW as a study-tool (I took 80% in study-mode, the rest timed), plus FA (though not as much as for Step 1 - I donīt think itīs as good !), and at the end "Boards and Wards" (now thatīs a good book once you get used to it !). But like I said before: I donīt even know if I passed this one !
Cyra: I was really touched when I read your post - thank you so much ! Iīll include you in mine as well, of course !
Asifcv: Good luck for your result - Iīm looking forward to your exam-post ! I really hope we passed this !
Infliximab: I would know what a good UW score is, but I certainly didnīt get it ;-) I ended up with 60 % in UW, and approx. 70 % in Kaplan. My NBME scores were: NBME 1 (2 weeks before): 440, NBME 2 (1 week before): 510, and NBME 3 (few days before): 530. They certainly werenīt great, but left me confident enough to be able to go to the exam on Tuesday (after all, I had scored in the low 400s for Step 1 !). But of course the USMLE guys donīt know about my NBME scores, and wouldnīt care if they did...
I wish you all the best of luck for your preparations, and your exams ! Good night.
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| seri
Forum Senior
Topics: 4
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thanks for the post. you've done an amazing job balancing home and studies. you are in my prayers.
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| intern_doc
Forum Guru
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Posts: 433
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Excellent experiences...I will pray for you for a GOOD SCORE...
I felt exactly like you after mine exam...so YOU WILL BE JUST FINE..
A 99 WILL COME YOUR WAY
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Please call me by my first name on March 17 - Dr.
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| busy_mom
Forum Senior
Topics: 4
Posts: 100
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Hey Seri and Intern_Doc, thank you so much for your nice words and wishes ! Iīll include both of you in my prayers - I hope and wish youīll do great in your remaining exams !!! And Seri: I try to do a good job of balancing family and studying, but Iīm not as good as I would like to be in either one ! For some reason, one of them always has to suffer (e.g. the dishes piling up when Iīm studying, or "parking" the kids in front of the tv so I can get 20 minutes of qs done)... So thank you for your praise - it sure feels good !
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| catmd04
Forum Elite
Topics: 25
Posts: 384
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Hi Busy_mom
You are really a BUSY MOM! Admire you so much.
Thanks for the info
Wish you a 99+.
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| acemle
Forum Junior
Topics: 3
Posts: 68
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u r an inspiration busy mom-balancing so many things .
may u get a wonderful score.good luck for everything.
once ur done with the exams u can give all your time to ur kids and make up for now.
i'm sitting for the exam in 3 days.and i'm revising kaplan,uw notes and b&w in parts.
any advice for this last minute prep?thanks
best of luck
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| ansate
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 3
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Congrats on taking your test!! I'm very inspired by your story, and know that you'll do great. I'll say prayers for you, too!
May I ask one question of advice, are the matching questions, always at the end of a block? or do they sometimes, mix them in the middle in addition to being at the end?
Thank you so much!
Best of luck
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| busy_mom
Forum Senior
Topics: 4
Posts: 100
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Thanks, Catmd - you made me blush ! GL again to you ! Acemle: I sent you a PM. GL to you too ! And Ansate: thank you so much - I really need every prayer I can get !!! Iīll include you in mine as well.
The matching qs were never at the end in my exam. Sometimes there would be 2 right after one another at the beginning (Q 8-11, for example), then some more "normal" qs, followed by another set of matching qs (Q 18 & 19), and some more towards the end (Q 38-39). If I remember correctly, 2 or 3 of them had 3 parts, instead of just 2. The q-stem was almost always identical (e.g. both patients would have the same symptoms, the same bloodpressure and vital signs, but something would be different - quite tricky sometimes !).
Btw: maybe it was just me, but I actually had the feeling, that they deliberately put really easy qs at the very end of each block, for people (like myself !) that were running out of time. That way, they wouldnīt be able to read through the easy ones, but just have to guess. (Am I making sense ?) Thatīs what I thought in Step 1, and thatīs the feeling I had during Step 2. But maybe it was just me... Hope this answered your q regarding the matching qs ! GL for your prep and exam !
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| aimhigh
Forum Elite
Topics: 22
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Thanks, Busy_mom! Your advice is very helpful!! Good luck with your score!!
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| srf
Forum Guru
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Hi,
you deserve a great score, you will surely get it.
___________________
life is reality without an eraser
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| busy_mom
Forum Senior
Topics: 4
Posts: 100
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GL to you, Aimhigh ! And let us know how things are going / went ! srf: thank you so much - Iīm so glad to see you get that great score ! Keep at it for your CS (which Iīm sure you will !) !
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| usmle_exam2005
Forum Newbie
Topics: 8
Posts: 33
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Hi busy_mom:
How are you..I am just wondering did you get your score??you all scores were so good..I am sure you did pretty good..
Anyway good luck for your future..
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| docnikki
Forum Guru
Topics: 93
Posts: 680
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Thank you Busy mom for taking the time out. I will pray for you too, you deserve the best!
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