m & k
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 38
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Although we have never written on this forum before, we used it often to gain information about the exam. Now we would like to share our experience. We are married and we are both IMGs from Europe. On May 17th we took the exam and just a couple days ago we got our results in the mail. It was good news :lol: . We got 247/99 and 232/94. We both studied for about 6 months for 4-8 hour per day, but we worked full time during most of this time. Sometimes we would take a day off from studying, but not too often.
Some questions seemed very tough for both of us: a lot of weird hypothetical questions :shock: , but generally the exam was doable.
Behavioral science: tough questions, mostly ethics and patient doctor relations
Pathology: Most of the exam, not too hard
Physiology: Not too many questions- mainly cardiology
Anatomy and neuroanatomy: almost non existant on both of our exams
(about 10 questions total), very few CT scans or X-rays
Biochemistry and molecular biology: A lot of questions on topics we have not seen before especially from molecular biology
Microbiology: One of us had straight forward questions on microbes, the other harder questions about pathogenesis of bacterial and viral diseases, two or three questions on fungi and parasites
Immunology: a lot of questions, some tricky questions not available in any referances we have seen, but some were still doable
Pharmacology: Mainly pharmacokinetics and ANS drugs, but others not too bad.
We studied from the following books:
First Aid: very helpful and important - we relied on it for the last two weeks of studying- but definately not enough to get a very good score
Step Up: A good review, we recommend it
Anatomy: Mosby's Rapid Review and High Yield (more than enough)
Embryology: BRS
Biochemistry: Lippincott's
Pharmacology: Lippincott's and Katzung, but Katzung is much better
Physiology: BRS - enough for the exam
Pathology: BRS- probably the best book available for path.
Micro and immunology: Levinson and Jawetz: An excellent review
Behavioral science: BRS - does not really prepare you for this exam
Cell and molecular biology: High Yield
Neuroanatomy: High Yield- more than enough
We find that the most important part of preparation was doing a lot of questions. We did about 4000 questions each. We used the following question sources:
Kaplan q-bank: very important, good questions- doing these questions lets you learn how to pace yourself well during the exam- we did not have any problems with doing the sections on the actual exam in the time allowed.
NMS, Appleton, Pretest: Good for practice, but the questions are not exactly like on the actual exam
NBME: Excellent practice exam and assessment- the most similar to the real exam- a very important part of exam preparation.
Our results on the practice exams were:
for 247/99:
Kaplan q-bank mean- 77%
Kaplan on-line simulated exam- 79%
NBME 1- 600
NBME 2- 680
for 232/94
Kaplan q-bank mean- 73%
Kaplan on-line- 72%
NBME 1- 560
NBME 2- 600
If you have more questions we will be happy to answer them as soon as possible. Good luck on your exams everybody! <:flag:>
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| Ahdy2000
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 203
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First, CONGRATS to you both! That's fantastic news that a husband and a wife can do so well together. It's very uplifting. Best of luck with Step 2.
Second, my question is, did the person with the harder micro get the 94? I'm just looking for a correlation.
Thanks, and again, Congrats!.
ahdy2000
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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when in your studies did you guys take the NBMEs and Kaplan simulated exams?
congratulations and thanks for the info!
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| Toroloco
Forum Senior
Topics: 19
Posts: 74
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Congrats! How did you scored in USMLE CD 3 blocks sample?
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| bims
Forum Senior
Topics: 26
Posts: 118
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congratulations to u both on ur great score.very well done.
what part of europe are u in?i am in the london and did my exam on 18th may.i know my result was sent the same day as yours was sent which was 9th june but i am yet to get my score in the mail and i am finding it quite upsetting.i expected to have gotten it this week.
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BIMBOLA
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| m & k
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 38
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"Ahdy2000" wrote:
First, CONGRATS to you both! That's fantastic news that a husband and a wife can do so well together. It's very uplifting. Best of luck with Step 2.
Second, my question is, did the person with the harder micro get the 94? I'm just looking for a correlation.
Thanks, and again, Congrats!.
ahdy2000
Hi Ahdy,
Thanks a lot for your congrats!
As to your question, person with the harder micro got 99 and overall did better on this part of the exam (microbiology and immunology)
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| m & k
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 38
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"nuprin" wrote:
when in your studies did you guys take the NBMEs and Kaplan simulated exams?
congratulations and thanks for the info!
Dear Nuprin,
Thanks for your congratulations!
We took our simulated exams in the following order:
NBME 1: 3 weeks before the exam
Kaplan simulated: 2 weeks before the exam
NBME 2: 1 week before the exam
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| mash
Forum Fanatic
Topics: 147
Posts: 1,326
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wow! dats awsome...
congrats to both of u......
___________________
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
--Confucius
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| m & k
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 38
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"bims" wrote:
congratulations to u both on ur great score.very well done.
what part of europe are u in?i am in the london and did my exam on 18th may.i know my result was sent the same day as yours was sent which was 9th june but i am yet to get my score in the mail and i am finding it quite upsetting.i expected to have gotten it this week.
Hi Bims,
Thanks for congratulations!
Now we live in the United States and we received our results on Tuesday. We understand, that you are upset, but don't worry! You will receive yours in a couple of days or maybe even today. :wink:
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| tasneembanu
Forum Guru
Topics: 96
Posts: 545
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congragulations to both of u,well,its very good that u get double happiness on getting ur scores,u can feel proud of urself and ab't ur partner,thanks a lot for ur advices,hope we all do well in our exams,all the best for step 2.
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| Toroloco
Forum Senior
Topics: 19
Posts: 74
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Congrats! How did you scored in USMLE CD 3 blocks sample?
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| m & k
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 38
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"Toroloco" wrote:
Congrats! How did you scored in USMLE CD 3 blocks sample?
Hi Toroloco,
In fact we did USMLE CD two times:
First time before beginning of the preparation, in September last year and we scored about 55%, and second time 2 weeks before the exam and our scores were 48/47/48 and 46/47/44 respectively for 99 and 94
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| Toroloco
Forum Senior
Topics: 19
Posts: 74
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Did you check your answers the first time you did the sample?
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| m & k
Forum Junior
Topics: 6
Posts: 38
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"Toroloco" wrote:
Did you check your answers the first time you did the sample?
Yes we did, but it was long time ago.
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| bm
Forum Elite
Topics: 37
Posts: 421
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that's awesome!
i'm married too, but my husband is not in the medical field, and the good thing is, he's 100% supportive. i'm glad i have him supporting me emotionally. no kids yet, and we don't plan to have one until i passed step 1 and step2.
thanks for the encouragement. you worked hard, and you deserve the scores you got! congratulations!
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| usmleasr
Forum Guru
Topics: 105
Posts: 970
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that is great m&k..... :icon_salut: ....all the best for step 2 ...
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| docface
Forum Senior
Topics: 23
Posts: 56
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WE DERIVE INSPIRATION FROM YOUR STORY, ALL THE BEST, AND CONGRATS,  ,ALL THE BEST FOR STEP-2, THANKS FOR POSTING YOUR VIEWS AND EXPERIENCE.
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| dr1978
Forum Newbie
Topics: 4
Posts: 24
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hey m&k
GREEEEAAATT JOB !!!!!!!!!!
one que -from where did u get sooo many mcq's?
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hi
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| doctorusmle
Forum Elite
Topics: 79
Posts: 168
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hi m&k please tell me how did you do in the kaplan q bank initially and then finally at the end?
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| docarjun
Forum Elite
Topics: 11
Posts: 334
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congratulations!
great job!
will you advise me how you planned ur kaplan q bank and q book..that is how many days or month before exam.was it after one revision or at the end ?How u use to score in the qbank?
Were the questions same as kaplan qbank?
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