M R
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 13
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Hey,
I have been visiting this forum regularly and have been a passive participant. This forum has been extremely helpful to me, especially the exam experiences posted by many people. Am extremely thankful to all of them like meg, robokosh, etc... who have been helping us glide our way thru' Step 1.
My exam is over!!!!  Am glad it is. However, studying for Step 1 has been interesting in its own way.
I took my exam about 15 days back. Although, I might have forgotten a few details, I shall try my best to recollect as much as possible so that my exam experience may prove helpful to those preparing for Step 1 as of now. I shall be more than happy if it does.
I went to the center at eight in the morning and was allowed to start the exam asap.
Let me go subjectwise now,
Pathology: Quite a lot of questions were from Pathology. Had got a histo slide of pancreas and was asked what disease is caused by one group of cells which was pointed.The group of cells was islets and one of the choices was DM. I personally felt that reading Goljan Pathology was very helpful for most of the questions.
Anatomy: I had a CT and was asked to name Pancreas. 2 questions on Pituitary (Brain CTs) Otherwise, most of the other ones were ok. A subject not tested in great detail.
Behavioural Sciences: I had a lot of questions on doctor-patient relationships, the ones like "What would be most appropriate for the physician to say?" About 15 questions in the whole exam. I found them confusing. There were quite a few difficult questions in Statistics. The questions on defence mechanisms and Diagnostic and Statistical manual were not very tough. I didnt have a single question on Child Development.
Pharmacology: Most of the questions in Pharmacology were based on graphs or poisons as far as I can remember. There was a graph on Atropine. Questions on Benzodiazepines, Acetaminophen, one each. Pharmacology overall was o.k.
Microbiology: Most of the questions were Math type. Either know them or not. But some of the questions were confusing. I had a question on Myco. tuberculosis and there were some weird choices like shigella and yersinia. I just hope it is one of those experiment questions!!!
Physiology: One question was on Length-Tension curve. I dont remember most of the q's in Physiology coz they were kinda "doable"
Biochemistry: Most of the questions were concentrated in molecular biology and genetics. Some of the questions were based on very fine details of molecular biology.
As far as the breaks were concerned, I took a 5 minute break after 2 blocks, a 25 min break after the 4th block and then two 15 minute breaks after the 5th and the 6th block each. It was such a relief when I came to the 7th block, and lo and behold, it was all over before I realised.
I havent been able to recollect all the minute details bcoz of the time lapse but I have done my best.
The books I studied were:
Kaplan notes-All subjects
Goljan Pathology
High Yield Embryology
Did questions from
!. Q Bank.
2. Q. Book.
3. Kaplan Simulated
4. USMLE CBT Practice test questions from ECFMG 
5. Compass.
Before I take your leave, I felt that a few other things were as important as studying for the exam:
Sitting in front of a computer and taking a whole simulated test(atleast one to two times) before facing the real exam.
Not trying to cram things just before going to the exam. Believe me, most of the questions you are going to face in the exam require some thinking to be done as opposed to direct from the memory kind of questions. So, it is futile to try to squeeze in information on the day before the exam or on the day of the exam. On the other hand, this may leave a few people anxious.
Not being intimidated by the exam and keeping calm.
And last but not the least, do take food stuff which can give u lots of glucose for that will keep you going.(Ofcourse, glucose is the main source of energy for the brain!!!!)
Ok then, shall take your leave now. Am as of now waiting for the results....and keeping my fingers crossed!!! If any of you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Wishing you all the very best,
MR
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M R
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| ceci
Forum Junior
Topics: 8
Posts: 60
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Hi MR:
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I am a little frightened about the graphs in pharm that I 've heard.
Thank you again.
Ceci
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| M R
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 13
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Hi Ceci,
I know the graphs in Pharmac can be intimidating. But dont worry, if you closely analyse a few of them, you will get a hang of them. Anyways, they dont comprise a very heavy percentage of the questions(at least I didnt get lots of them). So, you should be fine.
All the very best to you,
M R.
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M R
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