arlete
Intern in 2009!!!!!
Topics: 41
Posts: 2,900
|
DaddyO:
I agree with you, our tests were totally different, according to what you describe. I was tested for many things that any good student/doctor is supposed to know, and now I feel a moral obligation to have passed. I don't know my results yet, but I will tell you, I couldn't get any luckier than I got, when I compare to what you had. I don't know the color of the tick for Lyme disease (though I am able to recognize the one for Chagas' and dengue, for obvious reasons). And I don't care, I don't think that's a reasonable thing to ask.
I feel bad about your experience, and I hope you'll not give up, apparently you know so much about Medicine and is already able to help hundreds of people with what you've learned so far! So I am rooting for you, that your next step 2CK will be more like mine, and less like one for specialists of so many different subjects.
___________________
My creds are good enough. 
|
| ihab shenouda
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 34
|
oooh i finally finished the exam yesterday and it was really hard and tough exam as i was not expecting and even harder than the uw. most of the qs were very long and you make a new diagnosis every few words. the hardest was the pychiatry it was very hard and lot of confusing data i really dont know what is these people want from doctors. a lot was vague cases especially respiratoy and neurology, very minimal git , i also got around 6 EKGs and lot of what is the mechanism of the underlying etiology!!! also i dont want to scare any one but take it very seriously good luck for you all and pry 4 me for a good score
|
| werther
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 110
|
Guys, this is a very intense post...
I was thinking about posting my own experience... but young_doc couldn't make it better...
I've just came back from Prometrics, TODAY, July 21st... and the whole exam was INSANE. It makes you feel people behind the desk designing the questions are not trying to test your knowledge but to put you off the race.
Vage, endless vignettes, suspiciously similar possible answers... I AM REALLY CONCERNED.
I studied so much, it was just such an effort... you know guys. UW 57%, not great, but I made up to 67% in one, and most of the time was 60%... And I thought that was good! (since UW is known to be tough). NBME 210, and the USMLE CD 87%. One week before the test, everything...
TODAY,I CAN SAY... I'M REALLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE RESULTS.
I'm upset, I don't feel is fair... but that is the game we choosed to play, right?
|
| alr
Forum Junior
Topics: 4
Posts: 71
|
this post is really scaring me. Now what other sources should i use to study, or how should I study?
|
| tongsaa
Forum Junior
Topics: 15
Posts: 52
|
OMG..u guys r really scaring me out of it!! BIG TIME!!!
|
| C5a
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 139
|
yea, this is great, i take mine in 3 days. is it cyclical? the one strategy i will impose is to skip over all questions that require a damn scroll bar, and finish those off last. maybe they DON'T COUNT ANYWAY. and if i have 15 minutes left at the end for 10 really long questions, i might be able to finish breezing through the questions. otherwise, i will stress over time, and miss the easy ones because i am flustered.
this test is a mind game people!!! how else can a person who got 66% on UW fail this exam, while the next guy gets a 99/255 with a 64% on UW. play their game, it's their game, not ours, we have to play by their rules. they want us to get pissed off, they want us to flip out, and loose our cool. why else would they make an exam of this style? they know what it does to us. keep cool.
i promise i will, and with a 57% average on UW (first time), and 87% on the USMLE CD, i will pass this exam.
good luck fellas. don't mean to downplay your experience, those who had it rough, but think about everyone else who prepared just as much as you did, and how they feel when they see an exam like you did.
just consider for a second, that if you kept absolutely calm the entire time when seeing 4 questions in a row that were 35 lines long, with 12 lab values, and A-V answer choices, how you might have done? maybe there was a flaw in the system that day that you took it, where a guy who should have scored a 99 actually failed. but it is also possible that you lost your cool, and that 99 kept dropping and dropping until it fell below 75.
have confidence, have faith in yourself. i admit that i kinda freaked when reading these posts, but we have to approach this exam tactically.
|
| tongsaa
Forum Junior
Topics: 15
Posts: 52
|
Toally agreed, we have to be calm during the exam...
|
| ihab shenouda
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 34
|
hi werthey
i totally agree with u about how much tough the exam was i have the same experieance and now i am concerned about my score i am IMG and graduated 1997 and had a master degree in general surgery and 7 years experieance in a university hospitals and i find all the surgery qs in the exam were difficult and confusing i want to know how they are calculating the score really i cant sleep i was dreaming of a 99 but now all the possibilities can happened . also this was my first step i am preparing to have step 1 next december
|
| Hotobhaga
Forum Elite
Topics: 41
Posts: 180
|
Yes.. Guys Keep Calm.. Experiences on this forum varies greatly. But visualize the patient when you read the question. The age sex and some other small informations will narrow your options down. CONCENTRATE.
I had 8-10 minutes left after completing all my blocks except the 5th block. I could go over all my answers at the end.
I scored around 50-55% only in the UW. I dont remember exactly. While going through the exam experiences of people on this forum I found that the slightly older guys did better. I think the exams are structured in a way that actual clinical experience and not only what you read is tested, which is the opposite of step 1, where what and how much you read is importatnt. That may explain the varied exam exp.
So cheer up guys.. If so many people have done it so will you all.
I only hope I dont have to join you again after I get my score.
___________________
USMLE preparation is all about discovery. Discovery of your own capabilities....Julia Perch MD (iprep)
|
| dr.samar
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 21
|
hiii everyone:
exam experience from one person to other varies so no one should worry and be calm only pray to God that it will be logical one.
i want to ask if someone got low score ,can they do the exam again or it is one time exam if u pass?
GOOD LUCK for everyone 
|
| Hotobhaga
Forum Elite
Topics: 41
Posts: 180
|
Dr. samar,
You can reappear only after 7 years. So make sure you are ready before you plunge
___________________
USMLE preparation is all about discovery. Discovery of your own capabilities....Julia Perch MD (iprep)
|
| arlete
Intern in 2009!!!!!
Topics: 41
Posts: 2,900
|
___________________
My creds are good enough.
|
| werther
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 110
|
Hey C5a, you are totally my case, I think i made those same scores...
But, please come back after your test... and tell your impression.
Ihab... there is nothing we can do... i am freaking out all the time i even think about it... my fellowship in harvard can mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING if I fail... I FREAK OUT BADLY. I was deaming of a complete and shine application... and now... i dont know...
SO, lets hope for the best... nothing to do.
|
| DaddyO
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 27
|
Hey my friend,
Just want to warn you not to skip questions that have a scroll bar because you will be skipping over half the questions if you have an exam similar to mine. I started to do that in the beginning and I noticed I had skipped about 8 of the first 12 or so questions, I kept going to the next question and almost every single one of them had a scroll bar. I would estimate about 75% of them had a scroll bar.
Good luck!
|
| ihab shenouda
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 34
|
hi guys
when me and daddyo say our expieriance is to warn you to take seriously and to be well prepared not because we were not prepared. for me i find a lot of vague and long qs but i was able to think and choose an answer just because i was calm and confident and this what i want you to do not to get panic from the the qs and pls dont be judging me or doddy0 till you take the exam and waiting till we get our scores. finally i think all doctors are well prepared for challenges and whatever the people of exam try to make hard for us we will keep passing their exams with good scores because we love challenges its part of our jobs. god with us all
|
| veroni14
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 133
|
Hi everydody,
just want to say thanks for posting your experiences with a tough exam....it shouldn't discourage us, but remind us that this is a very hard exam in which our future depend on and we should be prepare for the worse always, never take it for granted, study as hard as we can, cause like everything since we decided to study medicine: it is a challenge.
|
| ihab shenouda
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 34
|
hi veroni14
yes this response is what i meant to have when i post my experiance about the exam and to believe me you will find around 50 new qs posted at the UW last few days. i mean there are new qs for the exam trying to confuse us but as i said we doctors and ready for a challenges whatever they did. just my advice is confidence that we deserve our jobs . be confident it will help a lot of you
|
| DaddyO
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 27
|
Thanks veroni and ihab, both of you gave good advice and offer an excellent and wise perspective. Best of luck to you both.
|
| C5a
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 139
|
well i must say that this thread almost made me postpone my exam. i was really freaking me out. i almost postponed it until the end of september, but i'm very glad that i did not. i took it today, and just had faith and confidence in myself. i finished every block with around 10-12 minutes left to revise. when i did, i found a few mistakes that i corrected. i didn't know everything, but i feel good right now. i'm dizzy, i gave it everything i have. wow!
i did the same thing as i did in step 1... bring tab energy drinks, kit kat bars, and a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. i had to pee after every block, but that was okay, i still finished my exam with time left over. evenly distributed exam, what else can i say, i'm gunna be a real doc now. now the wait to see what i got, but i passed.
good luck guys, take this thing if you feel you are ready, don't be afraid, and get sleep the night before (i got 6 hours with some ambien).
|
| C5a
Forum Senior
Topics: 8
Posts: 139
|
C5a wrote:
well i must say that this thread almost made me postpone my exam. it was really freaking me out. i almost postponed it until the end of september, but i'm very glad that i did not. i took it today, and just had faith and confidence in myself. i finished every block with around 10-12 minutes left to revise. when i did, i found a few mistakes that i corrected. i didn't know everything, but i feel good right now. i'm dizzy, i gave it everything i have. wow!
i did the same thing as i did in step 1... bring tab energy drinks, kit kat bars, and a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. i had to pee after every block, but that was okay, i still finished my exam with time left over. evenly distributed exam, what else can i say, i'm gunna be a real doc now. now the wait to see what i got, but i passed.
good luck guys, take this thing if you feel you are ready, don't be afraid, and get sleep the night before (i got 6 hours with some ambien).
|
| jaydoc
Forum Senior
Topics: 17
Posts: 100
|
Without wishing to hurt anyone, let me just say....
i made the terrible error of coming on to get an idea of other's opinions of how the mood was one week before the exam.....
and all i found was a nice way to get depressed....!!
no, i'm not going to get depressed, i'm going to fight this beast and come out flying....
in the end its me and what I KNOW out there in the jungle....
sorry, just was doing some badly-needed self-catharsis.....!!!
___________________
A conclusion is simply the place where you become tired of thinking.
|
| arlete
Intern in 2009!!!!!
Topics: 41
Posts: 2,900
|
jaydoc
___________________
My creds are good enough.
|
| motorola
Forum Guru
Topics: 66
Posts: 446
|
hey young doc...i remember ur post in my topic of how difficult my exam was and how i got too much of psychiatry which was difficult.
( see this... http://www.prep4usmle.com/forum/thread/56852 )
sounds like u had a similar experience. i dont have anything more than that to offer right now as i am still awaiting my scores ! lets both pray 4 each other.
___________________
Weekly Pediatric Image Quiz http://pedsquiz.blogspot.com
|
| ihab shenouda
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 34
|
motorolla
good luck for your score. your experiance seems to be like mine a
about the exam difficulty my exam was july 20. best of luck for us all.
dr.samar, i agree with you so i think the best advice will be after we had our scores good luck for you. are you egyptian?
|
| ihab shenouda
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 34
|
hi werther
be optimistic man after your score plus your fellowship i think your resume will be super. just look forword we will be a good doctors some day soon after passing the tough exams god be with us all
|
|
| |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
