nuprin
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hey ahdy! seriously don't worry. you're in great shape. there's no way i would have done that well 2.5 wks into my studying! if i could do it again, i would have gotten to that and done the nbme earlier so i could have used the results as a study guide. just lemme know if you want it, and i'll tell you how to save the qs for later review.
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| Ahdy2000
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DocArjun, thanks for your encouragement. It always helps to have somebody sharing the misery with you (it loves company, that damn misery). GOod luck to you too with your studying.
Nuprin, You just sweetened the pot. It's a deal. I'll take that test off your hands (I'll make myself find time to do it). Thanks again for your positive attitude; it goes a long way. I'm actually in my 7th week of studying...soo...eh...whatever comes, comes. I feel like I'm banging early 90's, and i'd LOVE to hit that 99 that evreybody always talks about. I wish you the same. Let me know how you want this to go down...you got Paypal?
ahdy2000
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| Ahdy2000
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Read HY Bichem 2 chs
25 Qs Qbank
and a whola lotta chess playing
Plan today (sat)
Pretest Pharm + Micro MRS. We'll see how it goes. A friend just got his score back (216/88). The average on his report was 217 with a sd of 24. I wonder if they change it for every test....that's a really wide spread. He did decent on anatomy, which he said things looked familiar, but he wasn't sure. He did not so good on Cardio and Resp, even though those were his strong subjects. This tells me I need more pathphys cardio and resp (his phys was also a little under). So I'm hoping to finish pharm and micro this weekend, and do all pharm and path next weekend. Screw embryology. I'm just going to memorize first aid for that, and Buzzwords for the Boards for Anatomy. That should be enough. I've made a deal with a friend to go over a ch of Buzzwords everyday for the next week. Hopefully, I can go through it twice in 2 weeks.
It starts today. Here we go.
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| Ahdy2000
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100 Q of Pretest Pharm today. they're alright, not much mechs and side effects as treatments.
Pharm Recall though is excellent, don't think i'll have time to go through it. I think i'll just do buzzwords.
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| Ahdy2000
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bought a cd-rw, cause mine died. took 3 hours to install it. did 50Qs of kaplan, had dinner with my lovely girlfriend, listened to goljan for an 1.5 hours.
taking the simulated Kaplan test this morning. wish me luck.
14 days.
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| docarjun
Forum Elite
Topics: 11
Posts: 334
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Good luck Ahdy!
We are sailing in the same boat.Me and ELM also taking the kaplan simulated today only.
Good luck to all of us!!! :icon_thumb:
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| Ahdy2000
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good luck to you too....p.s. do you know what version of kaptest you're doing? my version is 2001..i'm thinking maybe i shouldn't do it, and just do 350 regular Qs instead.
good luck!
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| Ahdy2000
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about the oh-so-feared molBio and transgenic mice
"Molecular Biology I hate molecular biology the most and I got quit a few of them on each block. One hard one that I have not idea what they were asking. Others require some thinking and implementation of basic knowledge. Polymerase, hnRNA, homeobox, promoter, DNA mutation, Southern blot, PCR, gene expression, tRNA structure & change of a.a. within it, etc.
Trangenic Mouse I had 4-5 qs on transgenic/knock-out mouse. It wasn?t as bad as I thought. I was a little nervous about it, but all I had to know as background information was that in transgenic mouse, their DNA has been manipulated or altered by humans to produce a certain disease in them. If you know that, then just answer the questions in based on what you know about the disease as though it was in human. At least that?s how it was on my exam. I didn?t have to know the step in producing a transgenic mouse, but if you have time, it can?t hurt to read about it."
doesn't seem that bad at all...i think i just got a scare for nothing.
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| docarjun
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Even i am wondering about it.My seller told me this is 2003 version.
Though,I didnt get any details on the cd.
do u know how to confirm about the version?
Anyway Ahdy ,it will give us very good practise,right?
We will sit or 7 hrs and give the full length exam.I think anyway will work.You can just randomly select the blocks which u never did,and take it as exm style.
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
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buzzwords good, though a little outdated.
if pretest focuses on tx and not side effects and mechs, i'd skip it.
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| Ahdy2000
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DocA, it should say on the version at the bottom. mine says copyright2001. but good luck; i've decided to do 7 blocks of Qbank instead so i can finish them.
Nuprin i got the 2005 version ). Thanks for the advice about pretest, i think i'll take it.
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| Ahdy2000
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2005 buzzwords. (sent you an email)
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| Ahdy2000
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Posts: 203
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Wow, I can't believe it's already the end of June. What craziness!
Today
88Qs Qbank
200 Qs of Kaplan simulated did terribly (57% avg so far)
--->1st block 68%
--->2nd block 46% (ouch!! that one hurt!)
--->3rd block 58%
--->4th block 56%
I'm really sucking it up on these, and my girlfriend was sitting with me on a few of them and said they were pretty much like the real test (she already took it). Kinda freaked me out! And the weird thing my avg is like 80something on path, and everything else is under 60 or 50 or 40 even.
I also went through anatomy/embryo with a friend in Buzzwords. Took about 4 hours...didn't think it was going to take so long, but it turns out neither of us have any clue about anatomy
But I have not lost hope yet. There are 13 days left. I plan to do 100Q qbank a night for 12 of them, plus the other 3 blocks of Kaplan, plus the 2 NBME, plus the 350 Goljan Qs (from his book).
This week I'm attempting to do things system wise
BRS Phys in the morn + FA phys
BRS Path afternoon + FA path
FA Pharm in the evening
if I can actually get all this done this week, i think i'll have better footing. i'm starting to get nervous...
Thanks Nuprin for all your help! Thanks DocA for your encouragement.
-me
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| nuprin
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no sweat. and don't get nervous. if anyone will be prepared by test day it will be you. 
kaplan sim is much pickier. you won't get many on usmle that you have no clue about. you'll understand once you take it: "doable" and all that.
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| Ahdy2000
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Nuprin, you're the bomb! thanks for the positivity ++++. So now that you're done and all, you just stay up and browse the net and respond to everybody's comments?  I thought I saw your name on the first 10 entries on the forum...hehehehe. hope you have a good night. am
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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i've always been a night person... and i'd like to contribute what i can as long as i've got the time. i really like this little forum family.
of course, once i get my scores back we'll see how seriously people take my advice.
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 936
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Hey Ahdy!
I have been peeping your daily lately if i had a chance.... it's just soo appealing even to know that there are other out there doing same thing as me and trying hard! So thanks for this post! :lol:
I got online silulated Kaplan yesterday it's just like their test center ones. I did bad and i was very dissappionted .... over the night i thought... and ask myself that what can i do now? leave the whole thing???? and found out that there are no any other way ... except nomatter what i have to go all the way till the end :| :| :| ! So ia m ready to do more.
Now would you tell me what is this bussword thing you and Nuprin talking about? it it helpfull? if yes where can i get it?
Also how are you doing on Pharmo? i am just sucked with it..... it seems that i can't possibly memorise all these drugs..... it's all mixed in my head.... what can i do? any advice???? Anyway Ahdy..... thanks agian for just being here and doing same thing as me :P :P :P .Please answer my Qs 
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ELM
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| namf
Forum Elite
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Ahdy2000--you must be the smartest 4 year old I have ever heard of...
But seriously, your diary idea is outstandig. I'm going to keep one from now on too. Hang tough--and just eat this junk up for now: it'll be over v soon and you'll have no regrets.
peace & g'luck!
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| Ahdy2000
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 203
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Namf: i can use "bomb"! plus, i think that with more step1 info that's cramming into my head, i'm losing all my other skills, including the ability to hold an adult conversation not about the test. thx for the little note, and good luck with your diary. i think you'll like doing it.
ELM: stay motivated. like nuprin said, don't worry about the kaplan thing. do what you can do, learn as much as you can, and the rest is in God's hands. (hard to listen to that, i know, but there's nothing truer)
now for your questions:
"Now would you tell me what is this bussword thing you and Nuprin talking about? it it helpfull? if yes where can i get it? "
Buzzwords for the Boards, copyright 2005, 2nd edition, by Brent Reinheimer. You can get anywhere that sells review books for step1, or online. check amazon, or you can even go to www.lww.com, the publisher's website.
It's basically just quick question/answer formate, somehwat like Rapid Review section in the back of first aid. Questions on teh elft, answers on the rihgt. I like it personally for memorization, and also it has a lot of details that i don't know, which i like. you don't REALLY need it, but it's just another way to study. It's hard for me just to memorize first aid unless I have a background, and this book gives me that. but it's not necessarily amenable to every person's studying style. if you can take a look at it before you buy, i'd suggest that first. it also really helps to do it with somebody, even if it's somebody not realted to the test, like family member/friend. just have them read the q's, and you answer. but anyway, those are my 2cents on it.
"Also how are you doing on Pharmo? i am just sucked with it..... it seems that i can't possibly memorise all these drugs..... it's all mixed in my head.... what can i do? any advice????"
I'm terrible at pharm. I juts don't know anything. I'm going to use Buzzwords for that, then read first aid. i think, personally, the best way to do pharm is start by 1. memorizing all the drug classes, mch of action. that way, at least if you don't know the drug on the test, you might be able to classify it and figure it out. 2. memorize that list in first aid 2004 of all the toxicities and intereactions of the drugs (i think it's only 2 pgs). 3. then you can start with the individual drugs, and if you have a solid idea of the classes, it might be easier to classify them as you learn them, so they don't get mixed up. but the problem is this takes time. i'm just going to try to mem FA, buzzwords, and eh..i don't know what else. iv'e heard carbamazepine about 1,340,443 times but i still can't tell you what it does for the life of me. it's just one of those htings.
study hard and good luck. i hope today is a good day for us.
a2
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
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Thanks Ahdy for your time and help!
Ok that Buzzword thing is sounds really fun to me, because i like that kind a short stuff! So the one book has buzzwords for every subject if i'm right? I can't look it up on the bookstore becuase there are no stores around here that sell med.books...... i am in the Vermont which is real country! :wink: Anyway i'll think about buying it!
Yaeh Pharm is really getting me..... just like you said i am gonna try to get classes and mechs first and then the names and side effects! yeah that's it!
Thanks agian! Hope you doing a lot today.... i'm not feeling so good today so gonna take it easy :wink: ! Will hit hard tomorrow!....Later!
___________________
ELM
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| nuprin
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hey guys! ahdy, your pharm attack sounds perfect. don'tcha hate those drugs you have a total block against? mine is the generic name for demerol... i still don't know it! and everytime i see the name i'm like, what the heck does that drug do?? still can't assoc it with demerol.
RESERPINE! right? argh.
i thought buzzwords was great before bedtime for pharm and path. there were a couple of things i learned from it. a friend of mine loved it for those two subjects. i started it with biochem and it made me hate it bc it's wayyyyyy too detailed in that subject.
oh, this might help: for pharm i just recopied FA (drugs and concepts both) into notecards. never looked at them again but i found i knew most of it by recopying. if i'd had more time the notecards woulda come in handy. it was useful to put the cards in piles depending on what class they were. oh wait, i lied. i looked at my side effects notecards a bunch of times bc it was kinda fun, and that helped a bunch.
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| Ahdy2000
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5th block 60% eh...
Elm yea, buzzword's got all the subjects, which is nice.
I think i'll try your notecards thing, Nuprin. I've been doing it for other stuff, but FA pharm is a good idea. (although, i've got almost 1g of notecards by now, idon't think i'll have time to look over any of them).
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| docarjun
Forum Elite
Topics: 11
Posts: 334
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Ur way to do Pharmac is good... if i sort it by this way ,it will be a lot easier for me also.
Anyway is first aid enough for the anatomy?I have done kaplan once.Its quiet a big to revise it again from kaplan.If first aid is enough ,i will just take this shortcut.
What do u say Nuprin?
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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yeah, first aid was enough for anatomy on my test. the anatomy was very basic, but there are some crucial facts to memorize, most of which are in first aid. in addition to first aid, though, make sure you flip through MRIs, CTs, and angiograms and that you're familiar with histo (particularly special features about different cells and lining epithelia and embryo origins). if you've got the time, everytime you miss an anatomy q, make sure you look in your netter's and be familiar with where everything is.
don't worry about looking over your notecards. it's the copying part and the inherent organizing that goes along with fitting info on one card that makes the difference. it'll probably help a lot with side effects. if i'd had more time i would have carried those side effect notecards with me and flipped through them while waiting in line for things. i had some "macro" cards, too, which grouped drugs and side effects together, e.g. different anemias, -penias.
oh, do you guys have that small embryo program that quizzes you on ecto/endo/mesoderms? i did that program while i was procrastinating or on the phone and it really drilled important things in my head. try to think about things like "clefts" are "ectoderm," etc. while doing it.
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| docarjun
Forum Elite
Topics: 11
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hey can u please tell me ...from where u did ur psycho pharmacology?Psychiatric medications?
It seems i am poor in them.....will appreciate any help!
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