deja_vu
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(I have written everything in muchdetail (sometimes unnecessary and boring). You may not want to read what stages you have already passed by. You may want to start from the stage where you are right now. I prepared for 7-8 months for my exam. So it goes accordingly. )
Hi Friends, Its been 2 months since my exam. Sorry for the delay in posting.
Sources:
Kaplan Notes, Goljan for patho, BRS for Beh. In addition to Kaplan. Standard text books for references, UW, First aid.
Did not do Kaplan Qbank, Lect dvds.[I would still recommend them for special cases]
I started first read slow and steadily with kaplan notes with aim of getting above 90.[I was not a brilliant student of my med school.]. When I started, I was completely a newbie in the world of usmle (as most of us are). There were doubts regarding the future, regarding my ability to face and overcome all the obstacle that I was supposed to encounter by deciding to do residency in US. I had no idea what to expect from myself so I started with the Arithmetic Mean (90) kept in my mind.
I started with kaplan notes. In the beginning, I felt that it's too much concise and might not be adequate. One more doubt in mind  .Most of us have felt that right? I went through notes at a very fast pace. Trying to get the concepts right and not taking care what is being retained. One good thing I feel I did was I never felt lazy opening any textbook. I used to refer to Robbins, Harrison, KDT(pharmac), BDC & IBS(anat, histo, embryo), Chatterji, lippincot (biochem), Guyton quite often. A part of the reason for doing all that was that I was in doubt that kaplan notes might not be sufficient.
What not to do and what to do, while first read:
- Do not stay in doubt. You decide once whether you are going to go with kaplan notes solely or whether you want to use other sources like texts too. (Both are extremely good ideas with their own adv and disadv. Only bad idea is to make doubts on notes while reading them.)
- Do not doubt your memory. This is the most common very hard to change tendency felt by most. You'll come across Qs many a times and get them wrong even if you have read the stuff the last week only and you'll start worrying that i am not able to retain things for long. Do not bother what is being retained and what is lost. We are not supposed to remember everything by reading them just once.
- Do not neglect any Q of any kind at time during your whole preparation. Get yourself used to thinking how to approach Qs. What things are asked and how they are asked. Make mental notes what else can be asked regarding this topic. Each Q you face will lead to 5 more Qs in mind. Do Qbook Qs if possible. Apply above rules to them. Feel good if you get >70% correct but do not worry even if its <50%. Don't judge yourself with Qbook.It's not a good predictor. Do it as learning tool. To get comfortable with questions.
- Stay motivated. Whatever way it may be. (By successes and failures of others.this forum would be a good means of doing that.).Get connected if possible. Ask friends and tell friends your plans and where you have reached in that.
One reading over. Started feeling better.  Confidence level increasing gradually. Goals raised. Aiming more now..I started revising with the aim to retain everything. The worst part of our preparation. (with all those doubts about memory in mind). But I decided not to worry even if I forget things in 24 hours only. I tried to concentrate on what is to be done not on what will happen if I forget this and that. We are not supposed to remember EVERYTHING by reading just two times.
This took longer than first read. No wonder.
I had some idea how and what can be asked because I did Qbook with first read. So I tried to find out those points consciously and gave more attention to it.
Second reading over. (with some doubts that I have forgotten many things). But don’t worry we are made to forget them. Confidence increasing steadily. Started hearing about a lot of people getting 99s. Took NBME self-assessment. Scored well. Targets now set even higher.
Most important breakthrough comes now. I subscribed to USMLEWORLD. The Qs in UW are real gems. Each of them is highly selected and with extremely useful explanations. Initially I didn’t do well on UW but as I went through it, performance got better. Give your maximum possible attention to each Q and its explanation. At times you get so many Qs wrong in UW and start feeling depressed. You start hating Qs, avoiding them and just force yourself to complete them because you have heard that UW is essential part of prep. Be careful here. UW Qs are tough. They are made to be answered incorrectly. They are those Qs that experts have felt that you are likely to get wrong if asked in exam. Do not under rate yourself if you score less in UW. This is the best LEARNING TOOL you can get for USMLE.(even better than kaplan notes, I felt this while preparing for step2). but not so good an assessment tool. DO REVISE ALL THE Qs or atleast the confusing ones (not only incorrect ones. because you got confused over those qs that you got correct eventually). Mark those Qs that you were not sure of answer while doing it first time only. Those are the real ones that need to be revised. Make a good concise notes when you find something notable. I used to do 100-200 Qs daily and revised all the Qs very well keeping in mind what more can be asked by analyzing Qs and answers. Make conscious efforts to do that. May sound little boring or redundant but extremely important part. You won't believe but I think I had more than 50% Qs in real exams which asked the same facts that were asked in UW or were in explanations and I could answer them in reflex.
As I was going through UW, I was feeling something really good happening to me. Now confidence level was boosting up. Doubts were getting resolved. Started feeling that I know far more things than I have forgotten. I was ready for the real hunt now. 99 was no more the aim now. Wanted to get more than just 99. Took 2NBMEs. Scored up to the expectations. Feeling great. Till then I had learnt reading question setters’ minds. How they think. What is “askable” in which topic. By doing those Qs, I learnt where I made mistakes. What my weakness and strengths were. For example I performed consistently worse in Genetics, Hemat, behavioral and Musculoskeletal-connective-skin in UW, and all NBMEs compared to Cardiovascular, Nervous and Nephro. I specially worked on them till I was confident in those things.
Now I needed one good revision and was ready to write the step. I had no doubts regarding anything. I knew that i had done all I could do. I had done it well from my part. So I was destined to get rewarded.
During the final revision, I read first aid (really good book to revise the facts on the last few days). For all subjects, I concentrated only on those things that I thought I might have forgotten. No meaning of wasting even a second on things that you already know and you are sure that you will not forget.
Exam day:
No matter what happens, do not sleep less than 6 hours. There is absolutely nothing to do that is worth compromising your sleep the night before the exam. No matter how important things you are still to read, its not more important than your sleep. Taking a short duration pill is not a bad idea. Remind those final year exams days. If you couldn’t sleep well because of exam anxiety, take a zolpidem. Do not risk your sleep.
Bring a lot of caffeine with you. I didn’t felt tired in 8 hours.Two reasons.1. I had trained myself for sitting 4-8 hours stretch during UW and NBMEs. 2. High dose caffeine running in my cerebral vessels.
Be confident. You are not going to get anything less than you deserve. And you obviously don’t want what you don’t deserve.
8 Hours:
Started off really well. Finished all Qs before 50 minutes in each block. Thanks to those reflex answers . Questions were longer but easier than expectations.. Get yourself used to it. Marked those with “not sure” feeling. Had a good look on those Qs second time. Had 5-10 “not-sure” Qs in each block. A lot of graphs and photos . They were easy though. There were only 3-4 Qs which were absolutely unknown to me. I hadn’t heard of them anywhere. They are the best ones. You can’t do much about them so take a good guess and go ahead. No worries. Everyone gets those a few. The wise men go ahead. Less wise think and worry for that.
Overall difficulty level was comparable to NBMEs. Style of Qs was more like UW.
I have some suggestions for you to consider.
Though I hadn’t done Kaplan Q bank. I would advise doing that if you have time. Please don’t look at the trivial amount of money when you are already spending a lot more. It would be really helpful to do as many Qs as possible. Second read is a good time to do that.
Try listening to DVDs on trial base. If you feel that it’s helping you, then listen to them all. If not, don’t waste time just because your friends have done that and advised you to do. Make notes while doing DVDs. First read would be the best time to listen to them.
NBMEs are good predictors of your preparation (please don’t attack me with examples in which many people got far less or more than their NBME scores). This is my opinion that real exam score is very unpredictable but NBMEs are the best assessment tools available. I had taken all 4 of them. Last 2, just to boost up my confidence before exam.
UW and Kaplan are the best preparation tools. Qbank is potentially helpful if you have time. About kaplan notes, don't waste your time doing anything else unles you have mastered kaplan notes.
High yield facts are high yield in fact.
We can't remember everything no matter how many times you read. Just accept this fact. you'll feel better. End result will be better. You might end up retaining almost everything.
Score Report: Feels wonderful to see 266 on score card. I knew I could get that. I had aimed high and worked for that. Thanks a lot to everyone who has helped me through the journey. Forum friends have been good mentors for me.
All the very best to all of you.
Edited by deja_vu on 11/24/07 - 02:57 AM
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| darkhorse
Forum Elite
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very nice score deja_vu...well done..Congratulations!
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| hope4dabest
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Great score..Congratulations
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| angel^Doctor
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yeah great score and experience .. congratulations
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| motivation
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great score gr8 explanation! congrates
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| avishkar1984
Forum Junior
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congrats!!!
1 ques
wat was ur avg cumulative score and percentile in UW??
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| deja_vu
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thanks darkhors, hope, angel,motivation and avi..
my UW score was 79.xx rounding to 80. I dont remember the percentile. Percentile in uw doesnt mean much in uw because many people solve it twice and their answers are counted as correct in UW database. So don't look at percentile value of your uw score. It is underestimation for scores above mean and overestimation for scores below mean.
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| tompat
Forum Elite
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congrats deja vu,
please tell us about ur NBME scores.
thank u
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| deja_vu
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thanks tompat
I took nbme1 before uw:249
the rest of 3 after uw: 258,259,250.
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| tompat
Forum Elite
Topics: 39
Posts: 368
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thanks man, gr8 scores
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| angel^Doctor
Forum Guru
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deja_vu,
now i'm curious to know more about you.. i assume you are a student .. if not, please correct me and let us know what were u doing along with ur preparation
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| vwilldoit
Forum Senior
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thanks for your post, its very encouraging, words selected are great and I am sure it will help all people aspiring to pass and ace the Step. Wish you best for next step!!
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just do it .....
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| deja_vu
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Angel,
Right now I am doing MPH in us. and I was doing internship while preparing for the step. Did you mean medical student when you said 'I assume you are a student'?
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| falcon
Forum Guru
Topics: 27
Posts: 478
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Hi, deja_vu
Great score , one can dream. Congratulation
Could u please advise me how to study in the last month. when one has less grip on Kaplan notes. I just finished UW with 62%. My exam is on the last day of this month.
Thanks & GL for ur dream residency
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| deja_vu
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Falcon,
If i had been in your place, I would take NBME and see whether I get what i am expecting. If I score good, will do a good fast revision of UW marked/incorrect Qs , First aid and Kaplan notes in next 25 days. If i get less in NBME, I would postpone the date for a week or two. Then I would do good slow revision of all UW Qs, FA and kaplan notes and assess myself again with NBME. (if I fail again to get upto what I expexted, I would change my expectations).
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| medocuk
IM-RES
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Wow, well done Congratulations.
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| kmle1
Forum Newbie
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incredible.........i have no words.not only for the score but the way you have put the whole thing in words is simply great.one quick ques you have mentioned about the dvds,is it a must do?as i did ok in ck without doing dvds.is it recomended for step1.please advise
wish you all the best!
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| deja_vu
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kmle1, As I wrote, I didn't do DVDs. So have no idea whether they are worth the time it takes. But again, I have seen many people saying that DVDs have been extremely helpful to them to understand concepts right. It is not a must to do. As you've already done well without them, I see not much of a benefit for you. All the very best for step1.
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| dr ruman
Forum Elite
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Posts: 371
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big congrsts and well done
i really owe u thanks 4 such nice deatiled study plan and exm exprerience
wish u all best 4 ur residency match and step 2
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| angel^Doctor
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Posts: 493
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yeah i meant med student  wrong guess
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