drcounsel
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 30
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Hey folks.
I want to thank all the people who visit /post messages in this forum(and other forums too). I benifited a lot from reading and gleaning from others’ experiences.
And it is my turn to say thank you in a practical way
I took the test yesterday. It was tough, but doable.
I would like to share the following points regarding this “interesting” experience:
1. in general, Qbank is very well the most similar to the real test, the other question banks out there are not colse, in fact very different in many ways.
2. NBME is a must(I believe) for many reasons: 2-3 questions will appear on the real test taken verbatim from NBME./ feedback is very accurate, they pointed to my weakest areas(that I knew they would be) as the weakest and my strongest as such. / format is very very similar to the test, even closer than Qbank. For those who are short on money put the NBME as a priority over Qbank.
3. you should take enough night sleep before the test. I took only 5 hours because of anxiety and I paid the price of being exhausted at the end.
4. the test: some questions(about 40% were alright), which means, I knew the answer& was very familiar with the content. Some other 40% are very twisted format of concepts I knew. And took more than a minute (up to 3 minutes) to figure out what the heck they are asking here. And there is te remaining 20% that are very very frustrating. Things that makes you think and think and finally you give up!! I may have had alittle more than 20% ( maybe 10-12 questions per block
5. the content of the test: Oh My Goodness!! Immunology!! Now, I thought I studied immuno well.. but, waooow!! I had plenty, plenty of immuno questions and most of them were not the usual questions we see in questions sources!! Very strange. Ok! Enough, you got the point. I went to the test with sincere love for immuno and now, I hate it!!! (splitting!!)(maybe I had some 30+ Immuno Qs)
6. lots of PharmacoKINETICS, another frustrating thing.. lots of drug metabolism in the form of graphs and research-type of questions. But to be honest with , the other half of pharma were nice questions, not too tough and the FA was enough to answer them, I just hated the pharmacokinetics and dynamics(it was too much I think, no equations at all). Anti-virals… almost about everything!!! Easy ones but I was weak in this area
7. Micro: mainly VIROLOGY, few Pneumonias , few weird questions in ths section.,ohhh… and GENERAL bacteriology: very well tested, and tough ones , again the transgenic and knockout mice!!! About 10 questions.
8. Anatomy: straight, familiar questions, lots of CT, MRI,Gross, nerves and stuff like that. Embryo is easy, Histo is very very scant!! Thank God!
9. Physiology: lots of experiment-type questions, graphs are twisted, you MUST think beyond the obvious to get the question right, I made a mistake of neglecting GIT physio, focused more on Resp, CVS, renal, guess what!!? The majority were from GIT phsyio.. about ½ physio was GIT hormones.
10. Biochem: I think the easiest (but In disguise!!) NO pathways at all…. Few questions about the most important enzymes. The rest were IBEM (inborn errors) and some of them were hard for me to figure out.
11. Molecular Biology(average difficulty) and Nutrition –Nutrition-Nutrition… you got the point??/ second messengers(about 4-5 Qs)/ Genetics (many many questions but no Hardy Weinberg)
12. Behavioral: that was my strongest area in Kaplan Qbank and NBME, and I think I did well here, regular Doc.Pt relationships, very few were hard. No child develop./ lots of substance abuse!
13. Patholgy: the most rampant.. mainly CVS and Renal, and Neoplasm and Oncogenes… here is my sincere advice, and it is one word: USMLE step 1 = GOLJAN. I WISH I had given more attention to his lectures, every word and every concept in goljan is extra High Yield for the test. This guy has Unlocked the mystry of USMLE step 1.. I am willing to challenge anyone who seriously studied and listened and absorped Goljan Lectures and Notes (and the 100 pages HY)who doesn’t do extremely well on the test..
14. ok, system-wise and topics-wise: those where the heavily tested ones, I am not gonna mention here anything that appeared in only one question,
Alcohol /Smoking / Heart Murmurs(a lot a lot!!)/ Oncogenes and tumor suppresors/ DM everything about it/ Pneumonia and physical examination of Chest/ nerve damages/ pre,post and renal azotemias/ COPDs/ HIV / Fungi/ Bleeding disorders/ Nutrition/Tanner scale(do not ask me what is it, I saw that about5-6 times on my test- NO CLUE)!!
I welcome any inputs/comments/questions
i wish you guys all the best. it is tough but not impossible to get great scores if we just know the rules and play the game.
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| suvi21
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 81
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Thank you very much for your detailed citings. And congratulations and good wishes for your score. Tanner scale is used to measure sexual development to acess stage and onset of puberty, because age doesn't predict it well across different races and population. It is measured in a scle of 1-5. In girls, it uses breast dev (thelarce) and pubic hair growth ( and some other stuff... can't recollect ) whereas in boys it measures genital growth and pubic hair growth predominantly (again some other stuff too...).
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| PsychDr2B
Forum Elite
Topics: 35
Posts: 197
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Wow. Again drcounsel Thank you! I had to re-read your exam experience twice, mostly because I did a double take on almost everything you wrote. I am using some of the sources you mentioned. I am inspired to step up my Goljan notes studying now. All the best to you and your future.
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| drcounsel
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 30
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thanks PsychDr2B
all the best to you..
now is the waiting for the results.
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| SilatK
Forum Guru
Topics: 42
Posts: 585
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I guess this means I should get Goljan's Rapid Review Series book. His notes are great, HY stuff is also important, lecture notes are also good so I guess the review for Step 1 must be good also.
any input from anyone?
___________________
To know is to not know..
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| Idiopathic
Forum Guru
Topics: 19
Posts: 641
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He is my professor. His book is brilliant.
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| SilatK
Forum Guru
Topics: 42
Posts: 585
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I guess he has broken the mistery of the USMLE.
___________________
To know is to not know..
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| sk
Forum Senior
Topics: 23
Posts: 122
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Thanks for writing your exam exp. in detail....People often complain about how long the questions are on the exam....I wanted to ask...how do the length of the questions on the practice exam sent by ecfmg compare with the real exam? thanks
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| drcounsel
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 30
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the real exam's qs are alittle longer, i didnt have lots of time to look at my marked questions, i had time to do that in 4 blocks only,
so, read fast and read the qs only once if u can.
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| tasneembanu
Forum Guru
Topics: 96
Posts: 545
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dr.counsel,
thanks a lot, for sharing ur exam experience it detail,it really gives and insight and confidence who r yet to take the exam.
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| fetus
Forum Senior
Topics: 13
Posts: 128
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Hi ,
I'm currently reading Kaplan's step-1 lecture notes and i 'm wondering if to buy BSS.If it's worth,how many parts these series include?Some people say-3,some say-5 .Which year is the last edition?Is it 97'? ..strange ..
Anyway,if you know someone is interested to sell,or you recommend other MCQs series,please inform me.
thanks,
Leon
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