tolito
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hi guys, first i want to thank you all for your support and your prayers. it has been a long and hard journey.
the exam is 'doable' and 'passable' like everyone says. there is a but, that is you have to study hard. no wishy washy prep. i arrived at the centre 15mins before scheduled time. that gave me time to calm down and also be familiar with the environment. then there was the paperwork ( dont forget to take along your picture id and orange slip). then the exam started. the format is very similar to NBME so if you have done nbme you can actually skim thro the tutorial. i woudl advise doing the tutorial cos you buy time that way in cooling your nerves. i will grade the blocks in this manneer: += easiest ++= easy +++not bad ++++difficult +++++horrid.
block 1,+. block 2,+. block 3 , ++, block 4 ++, block 5 +++, block 6 +++++, block 7 +.
was there a pattern? YES. i had pharma mainly in block 1, physiol in 2, bioch in 3, anat, path in 4, behav, in 5, mol biol, genetics, behav in 6, path and pharm in 7. it was a mix of questions in all blocks but these were the q that predominated in these blocks. very little micro and emb.
content. i cannot tell you the questions i had cos it is forbidden. i can tell you tho that most of the questions are similar to the kind that we post on the forum. a lot of similar questions came. a lot. so i will advise folks to pay attention to the questions that people post. someone had mentioned earlier the importance of acyclovir. and i promised myself i would not go do the exam if i did nto know it. you betcha, it came!!! 50% of the questions were way way simple. one or two step thinking and bam. you know the answer even without scanning the options. eg. a 56yr old man who is diabetic and is poorly controlled on oral hypoglycemic. his blood profile shows.. pcv..., mcv..., hb...., wbc....ser glu...., . he complains of pins and needles in both feet. a picture of his feet may be shown. concerning the nerve affected a, pathol is from glycosylation of proteins. b. nerve is compressed by popliteal ln from a previous infection he had. c. nerve is the sural nerve d,... you can immediately see it is option a. of the 50% that was difficult, i must tell you that only those who read in depth would be able to answer confidently 25% correct. these questions were detailed. the answers are not in FA. they are in kaplan and the reference texts.
style of the exam. a lot of 2 liner questions. a lot of lengthy questions where just one phrase is important ( eg pins and needles above) but they give you so much stuff just to confuse a student who is not well versed in the area. a lot of pictures. half of the time, you do not need to know what the picture is about cos you can work out the answer from the mainstem of the question. the pictures are sometimes good and sometimes poor. the worst pictures were from the kidneys. difficult to make out the structures. a lot of 'stupid' questions. a lot of confusing questions. for these ones, go to the last 2 lines and think abouit what the question is asking then read the answer options and then go back to read the whole question before choosing an answer. this will take you 2mins to answer!!! so you leave this kind of questions till the end and answer if you have the time or just guess!!!
timing. the time was adequate except in block 6 where i had the most difficult questions. basically, focus on the question. if it is short, read it from the beginning. if it is lengthy, read the last line and the options then go to the beginnig. you will save time this way. if you cannot immediately pick an answer, MOVE ON. i did not choose an option for such questions. for questions where i doubted my choice, i chose one and then marked it. i usually finished with 22 min left. i would then go over the incomplete and after do the marked ones. i still had ranging from 5 to 10 mins left over except in block 6 where i did not have any chance to go over the marked ones. ( i probably had 10 marked ones in that block). you need to concentrate a lot. the ear plugs are good. cos they muffle out all sounds and all you hear is your own breath sound ( and maybe your heart too ).
stategies.
if you are a believer, pray to your God.
relax. you studied hard for this exam and this is your chance to prove to the examiners that you know your salt.
if you come across a difficult question, relax. you know the answer but cos you are panicky, you dont see it. ( this happened to me a lot). just remind yourself once again that you studied hard for the exam and so the answer is filed away somewhere in your brain. maybe you have a problem with your 'processor' or maybe you need to 'defragment' your brain so it can function faster. leave that question and move on. when you go back to it. bam!! the answer is so simple.
take along chewing gum.. when stressed, chew one.
take along tylenol. take it before starting the exam. believe me. you dont want a headache to start.
drink water during breaks. it keeps the circulation going. remember you are likely to be dehydrated from all the caffeine you have been ingesting before the exam.
always go to the bathroom during breaks. a full bladder will affect your concentration when it matters most.
if you are lucky and you notice a pattern to the questions, take a break and look throu your notes for those small details we tend to forget like mode of action of diptheria toxin. mech of resistance to ciprofloxacin
finally, look at the exam as a means to an end. try and have fun and answer the questions like it is a game between you and the computer and you want to beat it.
i am happy it is over. i do not know what i will score. the exam felt to me like i will score an 80 but i dont care anymore. i am just happy to be done with it. i am still waiting for my miracle 99 and i still believe and i know i will receive.
i will be happy to assist anyone. remember though that i do not have my scores yet and so i may not be in the best position yet.
Edited by tolito on 07/27/06 - 03:18 PM
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| robin082006
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Thanks for sharing your experience, good luck for your score.
My exam is in 4 days.
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| pocas
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good luck tolito , we pray for your 99 
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| Cedrick
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Good luck
rest for a week like I did
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| Cedrick
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sleep
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| zzzz
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thanks for sharing GOOD LUCK.
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| mitty
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Thank you tolito.You will definitely get 99.
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| coolsuch
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Hi tolito,
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I am sure you will score good.We are all praying for you.
GL. Keep advicing.
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| ing
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Wow, you did it. I'm happy for you. Wish you 99!
What book do you use for BS? I keep getting arround 55%. Don't know how to improve it. Another question, how do you improve your microbiology? I went through your journal, you mentioned mrs. Is that Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple?
Thanks.
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| general malaise
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thanks for the experience friend. i think you will get an awsome score.
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| aisha2
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wow congrats ur done , i hope soon ill be where ur right now , we all r prayin for ur 99 ....... good luck .
well i have some Qs for u although right now im dieing to give this exam and get done with it , i think i still need to study as im not gettin more then 50% on my Q bank occasionaly i might get likw 56% or 60%, really dont know what to do except to go back to my kaplan and go over every thing. im plannin to give the NBME 1 around 1st -3rd august and see for sure where im , what and how should i manage things from there on till my exam which im thinkin 15-18th august.
good luck
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| vanshita
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thank you so much for sharing your experince with us
you will get 99
GOOD LUCK for your score
we miss you in this forum
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| epica
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Congratul!!!
you will get 99
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| vallia
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thanks tolito, and good luck
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| Diego Casali
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Than you for sharing your experience.
Good luck!
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| mano
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lucky you. now u can put your feet up & relax. i will keep my fingers crossed for your 99. best of luck. i take mine aug first week.
where did u do the brain mris/ cts from? where there a lot of those? how abt biostats and gene freq calculations. they are my weakest area. did u get many? was the time adequate? someone who took the test recently told me the questions were too long and they were finishing the blocks just in time.
finally what abt nbme? did u take any? is the real test closer to qbank or nbme? a lot of questions ..i am getting all worked up as the exam gets closer. any tips on how to relax?
thanks and good luck with scores & step 2
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| DanVitor
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Best wishes for your score, tolito!!!
I'm sure your be great when it comes to open an envelope, because you had trust in His Grace and you did your part properly!
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| tolito
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robin, pocas, cedrick, zzz, mitty, coolsuch, genmalaise,vanshita, epica, vallia,diego casali, danvitor, thanks for your well wishes.
ing, i used micro made ridiculously simple. it is not an essential read for a recent grad cos it will take too much of your time. kaplan will suffice for micro. if you need a little more detail then mmrs or jawetz. i remembered some stuff cos of the presentation of mmrs so i like the book. BS is a 'difficult' subject esp in the drpt relationship. they always have every scenario possble that can occur. BRS is excellent. i particularly like the 'rules'. learn them. they will guide you. i had a question on how to assess a patient on first visit with limited time. i chose what was likely to be a wrong answer but when i remembered that the rule says patient first, so i changed to the 'correct' answer ( who really knows the answer). kaplan is also good but is not sufficient for drpt. also try theis website that someone showed me. http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/index..... i read every section. do all qbank q on behav over and over again till you score 100%. i got 96% the third time. dwell on the answers cos i tell you in up to 75% of the questions, i had seen a similar one in qbank ( not that i remembered the answers all the time ). micro is plain simple memorisation. no other way. just go over it many times. put emphasis on virulence factors and mode of resistance. also be able to identify organisms from culture and micro. cos i had mostly q that were 3 level thinking. first id the org, then its virulence factor and then the q is how does it cause....
aisha, just read kaplan alone now. you have been preparing and you have done a lot of studying. kaplan will help you to tie everything together. kaplan is sufficient. go over any knotty areas in the main references. FA will help to direct you to areas that you glossed over. if you can know in detail all the stuff in FA, you will be fine. dont waste time on the big books now.
mano, i had up to 10 brain ct. i was not sure of just one. i wished i had paid more attention to my neuro made ridiculously simple. i just did not have enough time to read anatomy. i just picked a few topics here and there like brachial plexus, nerve ss to hand, recognising sections of brain and cr nerves in the area, psoas major ( 2 questions on this muscle. i just wonder why they like this muscle). i did not worry much about all other clinically important anatomy cos truth be told, i am an orthopedic surgeon so i kinda know limb anatomy to an extent. stuff like slipped disc at l5 will cause loss of..., injury to the nerve in the popliteal fossa will cause..., these are stuff that i taught med students. so think about clinical scenarios like intracranial hemorrhage ( i had 2 q here). i think neuroanat made simple and HY neuro are sufficient. those ct are so standard. dont waste time looking thro too many. you may end up being confused. just learn important sections. i had a list of ct i wanted to learn like recognising caudate nucl in case i had a q on huntington's and the usual style would be to ask a long wordy q and then be asked to id the nucleus. i also wanted to learn a few other nucl. lucky, they did not come out. these are all in hy and neuro made ridi.simple.
i had enough time in all the blocks except in 6. i probably took about 80mins break time. try my hints above when you do any kind of q, be it from qbook or qbank. and see if it works for you. i always did good time in qbank and NBME so i never had problem with time management.
guys, i will beg you to do NBME. i got a lot of questions as repeat, ie, some were the exact same questions, some had a few words changed but they were basically the same q. NBME will also show you areas you need to pay attention to.
WE CAN DO IT. WE CAN BEAT THE USMLE.
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| star1
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THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR EXAM............
MAY YOU HAVE GOOD SCORE........
MY EXAM IS AFTER 23 DAYS ... FEELING a bit nervous..
give some advises
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| ing
Forum Guru
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Thanks tolito for your detailed suggestions. I'm very very old grad. Just postponed my exam to Nov. mainly use Kaplan notes. my micro qbank is about 67%. I plan to revise two more times. Do you think it worth to spend time going through mmrs? I postponed my exam 3 times. I really want to be done with it in Nov. Thank you so much for your time.
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| keepgoing
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Thank you sooo much a very brief and a very educated post!
Good luck and wish u get really wonderful scores  .....i read your journal u did hardwork and remember God does justice always!be positive !
regards,
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| plastic_girl
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 Good Luck with youre score tolito, and have fun resting!! You deserve it!!!
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| MHP
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I wish you a good score tolito, good luck
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| laura81
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Congratulation!!! You are great..and im sure u will get a great score...I know uve posted your preparation..but want to ask you..how much did u study per day..i dont mean how many hours...but more how much volume(pages, questions..ectc)..how much did it take you for the first reading..then ..second reading..how many times you reviewed...and how did u organized your time...when u started second reading did u start doing questions also?..I know that might be many questions..some maybe stupid..but im aiming for a 99..and i have exam in oct-dec..but didnt finish yet my first reading...and feel that i forgot everything i read so far..(i only have BS and half patho to read)..do u think im still in the books?any advices of how i should manage the time till exam?
Thanks a lot and GOOD LUCK with your score
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| mjl1717
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congratulations and good luck buddy!
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