SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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hi all
i gave step1 yesterday ,april 7.
my exam was okay overall.... not very tough i guess,except for a few wierdos.
i had a lot of pharmac on my test,
many drug graphs and experimental questions
i got too many ethics questions and it comes without saying that they were to wierd.... i had never ever seen questions like this.i got almost 2-3 ethics questons per block,a couple of block had even 4.
statistics was okay,doable.... just know your formulas well
physio,biochem,micro was okay for me.
had a couple of wierd one in embryology....
got 1-2 genetics questions per block..... and i made a fool of myself by not being able to do the math in the HW equation. so do practice a lot of them.
i took breaks after every block... time management was not a problem.... i even saved a few minutes in 3 blocks
i tried not to but ended up marking 15 -20 questions in each block... which is not a good thing... but i refrained from changing answers .... so kinda just gave them a second look and may be changed 1 os 2 answers if i felt that i got some better idea.
i spent max time on genetics and pharmac questions.
a question on physio.. autoregulation was directly form NBME with smae options... in fact there were many... maybe 7-8 questions similar to NBME but this one was ditto.
how i felt right after the exam?
answer is NUMB.... i just knew that it was over ... my mind was blank and i just came back home... i am not saying that my exam was bad but what i really really feel is one day and its all over.... i personally feel its unfair. when i reached home i felt like checking answers but i stopped myself,coz it would only add to my anxiety.already i remember three questions that i have got wrong.. i am trying not to think about it now.
friends please pray for me.... i am very anxious about the result... i m more stressed now than i was before the exam,coz then i could do something to make things better,now its beyond that.
Edited by SOS on 04/18/08 - 10:12 AM
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| jean robert
Forum Guru
Topics: 161
Posts: 663
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Best of luck on your score.
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| Ali 200736
Forum Junior
Topics: 3
Posts: 48
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U sure will do great..so pharma was heavy pretty heavy on the exam thatr has got me worried coz its my weak subject approximately how many questions were there from pharma like 50 - 60 or more than that?
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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can't tell the exact count... maybe upto 10 per block,even more in some.
do the pharmac part in FA very well.it should help you.i couldn't do it before my exam coz i was held up with other things.... i kept fretting about neuro and cts and mris and stuff.... and ironically it wasn't tested too heavily for me. i feel i goofed up a lot in the last few days of exam,but i realized i only after i gave the exam... but that;s life.
please feel free to ask any questions.i will try my best.
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| lakshya_0_7
Forum Elite
Topics: 23
Posts: 280
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all the best for the scores....thanks a lot for your review...
how do u compare the real exam with UW qs, over all? same level, or tougher?
how important was anatomy n neuroanat ? and pathology ?
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| vasorum
Forum Junior
Topics: 3
Posts: 24
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Thanx for sharing your experience with us...
wish you a 99...
did you find the exam easier than usmleworld?
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| match2010
Forum Senior
Topics: 3
Posts: 178
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good luck with your scores SOS . do you think that FA was helpful in a lot of questions ?
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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if i have to make comparison overall... i'l rather say that NBME is more representative of the real exam than UW.... on exam the questions were not all the same.
some of them were pretty straightforward and simple.i mean if you remember the stuff you can answer them... my greatest weakness was here,i couldn't remember a few things that i knew otherwise.
some were really twisted and more like UW questions.infact many of them.
a few conceptual questions were even one step ahead than UW... .i don't remember them now but i really was impressed by those.but nothing to be scared,you can answer those if you know your concepts.
some were just too smart... i feel none of the available material or q banks have questions on ethics like they have on exam... so they were beyond comparison.for all other subjects UW gives you a good insight into exam....
each block had 3-4 very very wierd questions.... the kind where you can't even make educated guesses coz i couldn't make head or tail out of them.
i didn't have much anatomy .neuro was mostly doable though there were two or three real bad ones. pathology of course was all over the place.... it was more of and integration... like pathology and parmacology...
they give you a presantation and you mske the diagnosis first,then they ask treatment.... things like that... or they give a presentation and ask some histological feature.... on;y a few pharmac questions were direct... majority were integrated with path or micro or biochem.
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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match 2010
i strongly say FA was helpful in a lot of questions.
i was stupid.... in the last few days .when i should have concentrated on only FA i kept shifting between books and by the time i came to FA i hardly had any time left,so i did only a bit of it.but can't tell you how i regret doing that.... even during my exam i realized what a blunder it was... especially for pharmac .. and in pharmac the thing is you know it or you don't know it.... so better know it all cold.
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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thanks everyone for the wishes.
i got so busy answering your querries that forgot to say thanks  
so thank you all,and i wish you all good luck.
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| 5fluorouracil
Forum Senior
Topics: 3
Posts: 117
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thanks for your insight... good luck for the 99!!!
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| basophilia
Forum Senior
Topics: 7
Posts: 206
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good luck sos , i read you prejournal sometimes and you work very good , so just be patient everything will be excellent.
sos did you take nbme , which one is near to your exam?. did you take q bank ?.
good luck and ill pray for you
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| sidiyaa
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 39
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good luck .you will be 99er
did u use any goljan materials?
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| bianca99
Forum Junior
Topics: 2
Posts: 79
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Hi sos..
Good luck with your scores.
Is gross anatomy,embryology enough in FA?
Where did you do histology from?
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| akm
Forum Junior
Topics: 12
Posts: 53
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Thanks alot for posting your experience. My exam is on Monday and I've kind of hit a road block in terms of studying in these last few days......I'll make sure to brush up on some of the topics you mentioned.....
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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thanks sidiyaa,i did use goljan.i listened to his lectures two times,but could read the book only once,but i suggest you read it as many times as it takes to grasp each of the point coz its a very good book.covers a lot of other stuff in addition to pathlogy.i also did goljan slides.
thanks bianca, anatomy was my big dread.so i never found it enough in FA.i had done kaplan book and also HY gross and neuro, but in the end i didn't get time to revise HY.day before exam i just saw pictures in HY neuro,which are really good.for histology i did only kaplan.if you do it thoroughly its enough.moreover dr goljan gives you some good histology points in his lectures so that helped too.
akm,wish you good luck for exam.do make sure you read FA... i think its an absolute must for the last few days before exam...though i goofed it up in my own case,and i missed FA all thrugh the exam. you will do well.all the best.
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| luck08
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 61
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Good luck! I will pray that you will get the result/score you aimed for.
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| bianca99
Forum Junior
Topics: 2
Posts: 79
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Thanks sos..
May God bless you with great scores.
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| skamran
Forum Junior
Topics: 7
Posts: 59
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hi sos ,
good luck for ur scores!!
my eam is on 30 th may 08 .
7 weeks to go . i m still getting 50-56% on uworld.
i m doin kpl notes these days .
i m really freaking out now .wat shuld i do ??
any suggestions ??
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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thanks luck08,bianca and skamran
skamran,you need you find out why you make mistakes on the UW questions and then work on that thing.in 7 weeks you can improve a lot,but you need to know what you have to pay attention to.one more thing about UW is the way you do questions.... never be in a rush to just finish off a set number of questions,rather make it a habit of learning as you do them.... i mean if you do them timed,review each question right after you solve them and try to think why you got the wrong ones wrong,if you do in tutor mode you can do it right along.try to learn from UW.... learn the matter they have in explanations and also learn why you chose the wrong answers and what mistakes you make.
here is what i have learnt about the exam.... ...
two basic requirements for acing this exam are: CONCEPTS + FACTS
both go hand in hand,one is incomplete without the other.... i suggest you first give the Concepts part as much as time you need to get them absolutely cold.... ie get the big picture...... after you are done and you can tell yourself that you know them well enough,move on to the facts part..... learn the rules,remember all there is to remember and by heart it so that you can recall it whenever the need be..
now comes the most important leg of your prep: INTEGRATION and APPLICATION of all the concepts and facts you have learnt so far..... if you have been honest with yourself until this time,this should rather be fun............ so actually its no big deal after that.... you will start to enjoy the questions......
in my case i have the concepts but my facts are weak so i am working on that now.... got a lot to remember..... good things about concepts is once you have it its there,you will not lose it,but facts are volatile....
one more thing is try to make your reading less painful and more fun.... forget the exam..... read as if you want to learn about the wonders of human body,the marvelous work of god,the cleverness of those little bugs,our ever so smart immune systems,the wonderful job of drugs and how they work,....... etc etc...... make curiosity and sense of wonder an integral part of your studies and you will soon see the results...
i had written it on my friend's journal long before my own exam,so instead of writing the same again i copy pasted it coz i still feel the same way.
AD i hope you don't mind me pasting it here.
well in my case ,on my exam as well it was the facts which troubled me.in other words i forgot a lot of things i shouldn't have.
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| drmaye
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 15
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hi SOS,
thanks for all ur advices,they're very helpful to me,
Iwish u 99, i'm just start prep for step 1, i have listened about goljan book do u know where can i get it? i found pathology goljan in amazon, but this is the book are u talking? or there are another goljan books with all the basic sciences like FA, any sugguestions about books? thanks i really appreciate ur time.
good luck
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| Kalyann
Forum Elite
Topics: 4
Posts: 525
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SOS living up to the name...Saving our souls.... Thats one helluva advice..Good Job buddy ..
one more thing is try to make your reading less painful and more fun.... forget the exam..... read as if you want to learn about the wonders of human body,the marvelous work of god,the cleverness of those little bugs,our ever so smart immune systems,the wonderful job of drugs and how they work,....... etc etc...... make curiosity and sense of wonder an integral part of your studies and you will soon see the results...
Cool stuff
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| GhostSurgeon
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 19
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Hi SOS ;
I m planning to take mine in the 2nd half of May. Doing UW ( about 70-80% correct) and trying to read every single explanation.. I read Goljan RR 2nd ed. 2 twice and now I am doinn it again. I did BRS physio and Lipp. pharm by adding notes from Katzung Exam rev..ı did microb and biochem as well.. But my weakest point is anatomy whish I read it from HY..I dont think I ll have enough time to memorize it so planning not to do it..what I wonder is ; is it possible gettin > 95 without doin anatomy and Behav. sicence well??
thanks for your advices ang wisihing u the best A.K.A. 99
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| GhostSurgeon
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
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I forgot...is it really enough to cram the pharm. and biochem. form FA ( 2007 ) ?
thnx again
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| SOS
Forum Guru
Topics: 17
Posts: 527
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drmaye wrote:hi SOS, thanks for all ur advices,they're very helpful to me, Iwish u 99 , i'm just start prep for step 1, i have listened about goljan book do u know where can i get it? i found pathology goljan in amazon, but this is the book are u talking? or there are another goljan books with all the basic sciences like FA, any sugguestions about books? thanks i really appreciate ur time. good luck
thanks drmaye
Goljan pathology is what i meant.just that one book supplemented with his audio lectures and slides is the best combo i know for pathology. i have no idea if there are any other books by him,he did mention about being in the process of writing one for biochem but dn't know about it,
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