missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
This is for those of you who prefer a low-key study style with fewer study materials. This is assumes a solid background in most of the topics on the boards (from your prior years of medical school). Your mileage may vary.
Score: 240/97
QBank: 66% (complete)
NBME 1 (6/4): 450 (206)
NBME 2 (6/11): 510 (221)
NBME 3 (6/14): 520 (224)
NBME 4 (6/14): 490 (216)
1. I gave myself 5 weeks to study. I studied most of those days, though I did take one full day off and didn't work as much on the weekends. On most other days I studied probably around 8 hours a day. My main study materials were First Aid, BRS Path, and QBank. My auxiliary study materials were High Yield Behavioral Sciences, Neuroanatomy, Anatomy, and Embryology, Goljan's Biochemistry, and the NBME practice exams.
2. My first week, I worked through BRS Path. After that, I went one by one through each First Aid section, concentrating on the ones that I felt weaker on first (micro, biochem, cardio). I spent 1/2-3 days on each section, depending on volume (pulmonary would be a 1/2 day, while micro would be 3 days). Once I had worked through a section, I would try to go back and rememorize things that night. It worked out that I finished ~2 cumulative readings of FA in 3 weeks. The last week was spent reading FA again and doing a ton of QBank questions.
4. It IS possible to get a good score studying almost exclusively from First Aid. I know of others who did the same. It may feel a bit incomplete but almost all the MOST IMPORTANT topics are covered sufficiently. Basically, I went through each section, and if there were areas that I felt weren't clear, I would consult one of my auxiliary materials (or Google).
All the notes I had (from BRS, QBank, etc) were written in the margins of FA so that I had one exclusive source for studying. If there were charts that I liked not in FA, I would copy them and tape them into the appropriate section of FA.
5. I felt that BRS Path was less useful than hyped. Still a good reference.
6. I felt like Goljan's biochem and the High Yield Anatomy and Embryology weren't very useful, and therefore I didn't use them very much. HY Behavioral Sciences and Micro for Dummies were a decent supplement, and HY Neuroanatomy was ok for the pictures.
7. You must make a calendar at the beginning of the study period and stick with it, or else you face increasing pressure as you go on.
8. The NBMEs are solid indicators of the difficulty of the exam. However, I feel like the scores aren't necessarily indicative of your final performance. (See my NBME scores above.)
9. The released USMLE questions are good to do just to get a feel for the testing format. The questions themselves are too easy.
10. While I hated some of the QBank questions, I felt like some of the others were similar in style and topic to the NBME questions, so I made it a point to work through all 2174 questions. In general, QBank is pickier and more all-or-none than the real exam, so don't kill yourself if you don't know what a certain penile lesion is or can't distinguish between specific species of Rickettsia.
Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck to those studying for the exam.
|
| vanshita
Forum Guru
Topics: 31
Posts: 933
|
Congratulation
Great score
GOOD LUCK for other Exam
|
| burdenbeat
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 8
|
I have a couple of questions:
1. When did you take your exam (date)
2. Was this your first time taking the exam
3. How good at least for STEP I purposes did you find the Micro and Pharm on FA? Useful or not so much?
4. Can you recommend any subjects to focus our attention towards that you experienced were more heavily weighted on your exam???
5. As far as Pharm is concerened what do you feel they tested you on more, was it more of a certain type of drug(s), or did they ask more Side Effects, or MOA??? Were most of the pharm questions straight forward, or 2 and 3 step style questions??
Im sorry I have so many questoins, I guess I'm nervous as all hell. I do appreciate if you can answer any of the above. I have about 2 weeks left to go, I'm focusing all attention towards FA right now. I got 64% Qbank (100% completed), and 410 NBME 2. Still really doubtful if I'll pass. Any recommendations to help me boost my score in these last 2 weeks???
Thanks soo much for even hearing me out. Really appreicate it. Thanks and GL.
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
Hey burdenbeat... here are some answers.
1. I took it on 6/21.
2. First time.
3. I thought FA parts for micro and pharm were very sufficient. Micro and antibiotics was the first section I memorized, and I made sure to know them WELL. If pharm was part of another section, I would study it with that section. I would avoid studying pharm as its own block.
4. Hard to say, as it's all randomized. For example, I saw a lot of those behavioral science ethics questions in the first 2 sections. That's really thing only thing that jumped out at me. Oh, and I didn't see many bizarre anatomy or histo questions.
I agree with your strategy... if you feel like you're running out of time, and you can only study one thing, FA is the way to go in my opinion. If you can know (and I mean know) FA forwards and backwards, up and down, then you should be confident that you can pass. I would do more NBME also if you have time for that. It will be a good measure of how well you are progressing these last two weeks. I took two NBMEs one week before the test to simulate the real thing.
Finally, keep in mind that if you are efficient, 2 weeks is a lot of time.
Hope this helps...
|
| sam27
Forum Senior
Topics: 3
Posts: 118
|
Hi missed tackle a hearty congratulatio for such a high score in short time .if u dont mind can u give me your email id, or if u r not confortable to give i this forum pls put in my email id
shibusoren@yahoo.com
thanks god bless
sam27
|
| masterdrx2006
Forum Junior
Topics: 2
Posts: 16
|
Hi doc
1st congratulation for your excellent score
iwant to ask about the difficulty of the anatomy Q ...and neuroanatomy Q .....ist amust to study pure anatomy or just stic to H.Y topics that are frequently asked....
also is the Q are very long or the long Q isnt so many
also the emebryology Q ...is famous or difficult
and do u think the kaplan Q bank is really like the Real usmle Q bank
thank you very much
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
I don't think either the embryology or anatomy Qs on my exam were hard. To me, anatomy was along the lines of all-or-none questions.
I distinctly remember a difficult neuroanatomy Q that required several minutes to work through, but I got it right eventually.
I didn't really pay attention to how long the Qs were. I think Kaplan/NBME are good indicators of that.
As I mentioned above, Kaplan's QBank has many questions that aren't like the real exam, but there were enough of them that covered stuff that I saw on NBMEs that I decided to work through them all.
|
| masterdrx2006
Forum Junior
Topics: 2
Posts: 16
|
Thank you for Ur fast and nice replay...
1st u look smart cuz u prep in 4-5 weeks only and get this score..thats mean u are smart in ur medical school and u didnt suffer alot like other IMG which need to study from the start cuz step1 is need basic information which is we actually miss alot of the basic..
i have couple of Q
1-is there is alot of C-T scans in ur test ....also MRI ..and the section was cronal section or sagital section...
2-the pathology pic is famous or diffcult to interrupt
3-did u find the time to think and answer the Q is fair for step1 ..just 70 sec for each Q (as u mention that this diffcult neuroanatomy takes several minutes from you)
4-is there is alot of calculation in the exam and if there is ??how u compare it with kaplan Calculation(especially gentics-physiology-biostatiscs calucation)
5-i finsh reading my 1st time and answer about 1500 Q from Q bank and i have now 4 moths left.....how can u advise me to do in this 4 months from ur experinece ....
6-also did u answer Q rather than kaplan Q bank like usmlerx or usmle123 or usmleasy Q or exammaster Q
thank you very much and sorry for these long Q
have nice day
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
1. They'd never ask you if it's a sagittal section or not... they'll always tell you that. There are definitely some CT scans/MRI on the test, so I'd be familiar with those esp in neuro and the abdominal areas.
2. Pathology pictures are usually pretty evident. QBank is a decent indicator for this.
3. Well, I never have a problem with time on the exam, but I do know many who do struggle with time. The best bet is, if you think a question will take more than 30 sec or so to answer, you should skip it and keep on going until you reach the end before going back and trying to answer the longer ones. I generally had enough time at the end to solve the complex questions later.
4. Maybe basic biostatistics calculations, but usually they just make you give the correct formula without actually having to do the calculation.
5. I'm not really sure what to say for that, to tell you the truth... to me, I wouldn't be able to study that long on anything.
6. I only did QBank and NBME.
|
| masterdrx2006
Forum Junior
Topics: 2
Posts: 16
|
Thank you for ur nice replay
ur really the best
i hope to you all good luck in ur residency and sucess always...
thank you agian
sorry one last important Q
-----------------------------
to get 240 score ...in ur mind how many false answers in each block ??
around 40/50 for each block or lower than that ......do u was imgaine ur score to be round that before the results appear...
Edited by masterdrx2006 on 07/22/06 - 08:46 PM
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
There's no way of knowing... anywhere from 30s-40s I'm sure. Average in the 35-40 range maybe?
|
| sam27
Forum Senior
Topics: 3
Posts: 118
|
Hi missed tackle a hearty congratulatio for such a high score in short time .if u dont mind can u give me your email id, or if u r not confortable to give i this forum pls put in my email id
shibusoren@yahoo.com.
thanks god bless
sam27
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
Hey sam, you can PM me or post any questions on this thread.
|
| robin082006
Forum Hero
Topics: 471
Posts: 5,123
|
Hi missedtackle,
Congratulations for good score.
I have a question.
With only FA study, how many percent of questions in the real exam can we answer? (provided that we understand and memorize FA)
Thanks
___________________
The Key to Succeed is Patience.
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
Quite honestly, most of them. There will certainly be questions that you may not be able to answer, but the most important concepts are all in FA. I would not have felt comfortable using only FA, hence QBank, BRS Path, NBME, and all my auxiliary study materials. I liked using the question banks because they helped me identify areas of weakness that I could focus on. However, I do know people who relied on FA even more than I did, and they did fine.
|
| mjl1717
Forum Hero
Topics: 959
Posts: 5,467
|
missed tackle, I would not say you missed an open field tackle. Because with step 1 Id say you gave it an all out BLITX!--Congratulations!
___________________
Smell the coffee! "Is That an Osler move??"
|
| zenith
|
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
by the way, which year FA did u use?
|
| sam27
Forum Senior
Topics: 3
Posts: 118
|
hI missed tackle i put a message in your personal message column in prep4usmle
thanks
sam27
|
| missedtackle
Forum Senior
Topics: 1
Posts: 21
|
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
zenith -- I used the latest (2006) but I doubt it's much different from, say, 2004.
|
| mann81
Forum Senior
Topics: 16
Posts: 151
|
hi missed tackle
Congratulations for such a superb score.
I Have a question...
21 Days are left for my exams...gone through FA once and Kaplan once..can't recall majority of Kaplan as i know 1 read is never sufficient...but as have no time as got to do qbank still.But whenever opened kaplan while doing FA it's such a demoralizing thing.
Can u pls guide as to what should i concentrate more on......going to start Q bank 2morrow...Any advice u can give will really help me.Cant get exam postponed as this is the end of my extended eligibilty period.Pls help....Thanks a lot
|
|
| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
