rmarchi
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Hey everyone....ive been around the forums for the past 4 weeks. Some of you im sure have seen me and some of you maybe not. Either way....im happy to finally be able to post my experience to help all those who are now preparing or, in my opinion, the worst of all, waiting for their score.
To introduce myself...im going to be a 3rd year medical student. I went to med school in the Caribbean at American University of Antigua. I finished down there in December 06, did 5th semester in Baltimore at Harbour Hospital until April 28 07, and then went home to Chicago to begin my Preparation.
I took the Kaplan retreat in chicago from April 30th until June 10. Pretty intense.....took a lot out of me in those 6 weeks. But imediately after, on June 11...i started the last part of my preparation. I did 5 weeks on my own to review everything i had learned during Kaplan, as well as questions, and first aid.
All i used during those 5 weeks are my Kaplan books for the subjects i felt i needed to review. Besides that i did UW...finished 75% of the qbank...reason being is bc i made a note card on EVERY question i got wrong. It took forever, but was a great review before the exam. I did those two things for 4 weeks and then in my final week, i did review of questions, first aid, and high yield Gojlan notes. I also used Goljan audio throughout my entire review. I got through his lectures twice before the exam...and in my weaker organ systems, three times. However, i only did general path audio once.
Before i post my exam experience, let me just post some background info about myself.
Undergrad GPA...3.1...bio major @ Stonehill College
MCAT....16
applied to 31 med schools in the states....31 rejections. Some told me i would never get through Step 1 or med school bc of my MCAT score and GPA.
Med school GPA....3.3
USMLE Step 1.....225/94
NBME form 2....5 weeks out...right after Kaplan....450
NBME form 1.....1 week out..............................500
UW...75% completed.....cum 57%
NBME practice test at center.....78%
NBME practice test 1 week before at my house......85%
AS you can see...i have always been an average student...maybe a bit above average. All i can say is HARD WORK.
My preparation was intenste, very tiring, and something i am glad i never have to do again...at least not for step 1. Im sure many others feel the same.
From what i remember from my exam...i had a lot of Endocrine physio and endocrine path. A lot of people say you remember most of what you had trouble with...and that could be very true here. I dont remeber much of anythign else. I wish i did to help you guys out more. I can tell you that UW is amazing. I had a lot of questions that were worded similar to UW, i even had one of the same pictures as UW. It really helped a lot to prepare me because UW was harder at times....and other times it was right on the money.
The 7 hours went pretty quick...however i do remeber block 4 and 7 were nightmares for me. Those blocks really stick out to me and haunted me while i waited for my score. I have no idea why....but those were my hardset blocks. The questions were long, some of them had to be experimental questions...bc i got so frustrated with some of those questions...i had no idea what they were talking about. Besides that...i recall the others being challenging, but nothing like 4 and 7.
After my exam...as i said before, i had those blocks stuck in my head....i could not get them out. I was so worried. I was not even happy it was over....all i could think about is how i did...and was it possibe that i failed. That night, all i kept thinking about is what i did wrong and how hard those blocks were. To be honest... i was miserable. Being a doctor is all i ever wanted and because of my past experiences with MCAT, applying, etc, i had this bad feeling hovering over me and i could not get rid of it. So for that night and the following 3 and 1/2 weeks, i was miserable....unfortunately i did not enjopy my break as mnuch i would have liked. Keep in mind, i am only 24 with no family or anything like that, and i do enjoy time off....but this was not my idea of enjoying time off.
When i received my score...i was in shell shock. In fact i still have not seen the score sheet. I am out of town and my mom had to call me to tell me what i got. I am still wondering if she read it right....although i am sure she did. I could not believe it....especially after my post-exam experiences. All i can tell those who are waiting is....RELAX....MOST LIKELY YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU DID! I was really thinking of a new career after that exam...it was horrible. But as you can see.....God works in wierd ways. I could not have done it without my family, friends, GF, and My faith. They kept me sane during my waiting period.
Well i guess thats it for now. Moral of the story is......you can do this!!! Hard work pays off.....and thats for sure.
Im sure you all have heard this before...and yes its a bit cheesy...but "Shoot for the moon, becasue even if you miss you will still land among the stars". My mom has told me this all my life. I have been through a lot with many people telling me i could not do it and i should think of a career as a physicians assistant, but i was just not ready to settle for anything less. This score is proof to me that i have what it takes to become a physician.
Well thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions...please feel free to ask me. I would love to help in any way that i can.
Rafe
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| propanalol
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congrats..u give me hope 
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| angel^Doctor
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congulations 4 ur score
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| hope4dabest
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congratulations...
i was feeling vey low but now i ll work all the more hard...
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| angel^Doctor
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did u use the goljan 100 pages?
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| ShweHope99.9998
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Topics: 12
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How many hr a day u study as solid hr ??
I have so many carib friends all almost prep whole yr or 2 yr more etc by kap , not know even sit exm or not .But those friends said their school are no good, do not send friends or relatives to that one .
Also other friends from International Med Students even from good one, cannot, did not manage to sit exm even intense prep with kap .
Which carib if you do not mind mention ?? so future MCAT ter will be able to choose good carib like yours that must have give good st 1 mle at school med, premed .
GL in future 
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| rmarchi
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Angel Doc....i wish i knew exactly what it was. I had two printed packets. One was 34 or so pages of high yield questions....split up into different subjects. There had to be over 1,000 high yield questions that he explained and answered. The other packet was his supplemental notes that i had. Im guessing they were supplemental to his lectures...although im not really sure. It was just a bunch of facts, that seemed to repeat what he said in lecture. I really did not use this one. I mainly used his lecture notes along with his lectures and the questions i read through twice during the week of the test.
Ive heard a lot about the 100 page thing, but i didnt have anything that was 100 pages from him. I had his lecture notes which was 56 or so pages, but it was only the important things he said, not all the fill-in. I had the 15 page supp. notes and the 34 pages of questions. I hope that helps, but as far as my experience goes...anything Goljan is definitely good....he really brings it all together.
And thank you for the congrats. Im glad to help and give hope in any way i can.
Rafe
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| rmarchi
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shoehope....im sorry i didnt respond before...i did not see your post. During Kaplan...i did not study that much. My main focus was to get a lot of sleep before the lectures so i could pay attn throughout the full 8 hours of lecture. The more i got direclty from the lecture...the les i had to study at night and i was able to go to bed early. So during Kaplan....maybe 1-2 hours a night of either questions or just reading up on some stuff i might have missed during lecture.
After Kaplan i lived in the library 7 days a week for 5 weeks. Now i am not recommending this....bt this is how i studied in Med school....so i was use to it and it is what works for me. My test was scheduled for noon....so i planned around that. Every morning i would get up at 9 or so.....get to the library by 10:30/11 and study until between 6-8 pm depending on what i got done that day. After that i would go to the gym for an hour or so, then go home and review questions i did thayt day or do some more questions (usually did 50-100 per day incluiding reviewing the wrong asnwers). Then beforei go to bed i would listen to Goljan. So i would say i studided on averge 8-10 hours a day of actual hardcore studying for 5 weeks strait. I took one or two days off total during the 5 weeks. Again...i know it seems a bit crazy..and it might be, but thats what works for me. If i where to do it again...i would do 6-8 hours for the first 4 weeks, then bump it up to 10-12 hours during the last week....with maybe 1 day off every week. That seems a little less insane when i look back at it.
I went to American University of Antigua College of Medicine in the west indies on the lsland of Antigua. Its a newer school now owned by the former president of Ross Univ., Neil Simon. There are other great schools down there....Saba, AUC, St George, Ross, and im sure there are others that i did not mention...but those are the ones that come to mind. I picked AUA based on the fact that it was new......kinda wierd, i know..but i did and i guess i got lucky. It was a great experience and i had teachers that actually wanted to be there and had a passion to teach. Not to mention, good at it. If you want more info i will post the website below....or you can contact me through e-mail or personal message. I hope this answered your questions Shwehope.
http://www.auamed.org/
Thanks for the replies.
Rafe
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| ShweHope99.9998
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Thanks, it seems you took kaplan as in med school good one lecture days while in med school, like we all did when med yr, that makes you absorbed all while in class without needing to study hardmore or alot or repeatrs .
Did you follow live lecture while listening the lecture , also write the teachers lecture in your own note ??
Also did u get to read ahead the next day lecture or , just scan ahead or non at all, just open the book OR just follow the lecture & write all out what the teacher said??
Did you try to understand what the content, lecture is while in class or after class by re-read , scan fast the day lecture at night .
Any repeat of read, review of kap LN & how many ?
Pl emphasize Q s you use , like after live there is daily Qs for live or chpt end Q from kap Ln or , small class or small group as kap said there would be for study , discussion for day's lecture ??
since few yrs ago have friend attend it in chicago with even Papi/Dr. Goljan is there . But seems , prep is not that good like now adays as Qs , small group daily after day lecture .
How to request to start exm at noon or late , is that only in Chicago or where??
I am a late study , not early bird person, so very interested to get late exm start in all steps, even CS, so you had to request or they assigned you ??
As a summary... you did kap LN along with live lecture & Qs from there .
When did you do FA , UW & how??
Any Kap Med Essential , kap Q bank , IV Q bank have you used too ??
Also any HY, BRS in anatomy, neuro, histo , embryo as references or co read with kap LN ??
How many pic, MRI , angio etc you had got in ur exm ?
Any need to supplement foe all the oic, anatomy too, if yes, which ?... if not, why, like the live kap has show more than center dvd study at center or same ??
Sorry to ask so detail , cause have friends, relative to like to attend live & also to carib school .
You can pm me if you like re; my Qs .
With your permission, will like to ask more Qs when ever pop up by pm or mail , thank you for your kindness. I will like to ask more re ; live prep & the school too .
Thanks for carib school info & ur study style . Keep it up .
CONGRATULATION , you did it with good concentration at lecture & intense study right away there after .
GL in your clinical , guess all will be in USA as , you already did few
GL in your next steps
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| rmarchi
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 10
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Shwehope....first off, i dont mind the questions at all. You can keep them coming all you want. I am going to do my best to answer everything you asked right now, but if i miss anything please let me know.
During the live lecture...all i did was follow along in the lecture book and i tried to do as little writing as possible, mainly bc i did not want to miss anything the professor said. It was very important to me to get EVERYTHING out of lecture that i can to minimize my night studying during Kaplan. AS it is you were in class from 8-4 or 5 or 6. The LAST thing you want to do at night is study. So i tried to listen very intently, take good notes, not necessarily a lot, but good notes, and get a lot of sleep.
As far as reading ahead, browsing over that days work or nothing.......i usually did nothing, unless i missed something that day. I never got the chance to read ahead. They go soo fast, as it is, i had trouble just keeping up. So i would reccomment if you are going to do something, go over what you did that day....dont try to read ahead. Just my two cents.
For questions.....i did the respective Q book section during the week of that subject. So for example...during biochem, i did all the Q book questions that week for Biochem. I did not alwasy successfully complete al the questions for that section, but i tried. It was nice to be able to go along with the notes and answer questions in that area of study. I also took all of Kaplans 50 q tests they give at the end of a subject. It was good bc they would collect it and give you your score in a few days. So by the end you had complied scores in every subject they taught. Then you were able to compare it to how you performed on the diagnostic test you take on the very first day,
In my retreat...there were no small gps to study in...or atleast not set up by kaplan. From what i understand that is mainly in the 2 mo kaplan course. If you wanted to do gp study you had to set it up on your own with other students in the couse...which is very do-able.
As far as the exam start time goes...i was shocked as well. I called to schedule and the lady says to me, all we have avaiable on that day is noon...is that ok with you....i was thrilled. So all i can tell you is ask.
After Kaplan i did my 5 weeks of study. During that 5 weeks only my last week was dedicated to FA. The UW questions i did throughout the entire 5 weeks. Usually 50-100 per day. Most of the time i would do questions on everything, only very few times did i do questions on a subject. This is mainly bc i did subject test in Kaplan and in the Q book. I only completed 75% of the Q bank and ended with a 57% cum.
The book i used in my 5 weeks are as follows...
Kaplan lecture books for biochem, anatomy/histo/embryo, neuro, path (plus Goljan), Behav, immuno/micro, and pharm...i did not re-read all these books except for Biochem. The rest i used as references in areas i needed to touch up on.
BRS physio...read it all
FA, Goljan...through first aid once.
I did not use Kaplan Med essentials, any other BRS except physio, no Kaplan q bank, no IV Q bank, or anything like that. Just Kaplan lecture books, BRS physio, FA, UW, Goljan.
I can remember for sure.....1 angiogram, 1 MRI, 2 Xrays, and a bunch of pictures...prob around 5 or 6...this is not couting graphs or charts. I got another 3 or 4 graphs and charts....this is from what i remember out of 350 questions.
Fr supplemental resources...honestly...i would use AS FEW resources as possible. I would say 1 per subject plus FA. Kaplan will tell you the same thing. Reason being is some sources will start to clash in what they say and you will end up being confused...not to mention, as it is you cant know it all. If you start trying to master subjects by using all these different sources, you might end up loosing your mind. Stick to one source per subject. Pick the best source you can...pick one that is conducive to your style of learning and one that is geared towards the boards. Look in the back of FA for a list of good books in each subject.
Well i think that is it for what you asked. Like i said if i miss anything please let me know. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me via email, PM, or here in the forum. Thanks again for the congrats, and i wish you luck as well.
Rafe
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