nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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first of all, thanks everyone for all your support! you got me through the hard times and your advice was very sound. yes, i think the most important thing is to remain calm and confident in your last days. i was freaking out again last night and the night before bc there was so much i wanted to get done that i didn't have time for, but honestly, getting through all those things wouldn't have made much of a difference. if you've studied hard and consistently, those small details won't matter.
okay, so the second thing i want to say is that if you don't have goljan audio, go get it now!!! the man is an amazing instructor. as i squeezed in 1000 qbank qs the last three days i could hear his voice with many questions, and i'm really not an auditory learner. as you know, i had many things i wanted to do at the end, and i finally decided to prioritize goljan audio and 100pp at the expense of a complete review of first aid (only did anatomy, biochem, humbeh and micro). and i'm glad i did! there's nothing better i could have done for this exam bc he truly teaches you how to think like the usmle. i suggest you start with goljan and end with him, though listening to him once might be enough. the 100pp are really just a very condensed summary of all the important facts he says in his lectures. (btw, i hear you can get the 100pp at valuemd.org.) i actually had one lecture left to finish today that i think i'm still gonna listen to later bc i enjoy his lectures so much.
i'm not kidding; i listened to him as i was getting ready, and as i was driving to the center, and as i was waiting for my name to be called. i was trying to finish up the second to last lecture during my lunch break today, and he explained *two exact questions* that were on my next block! how lucky! it's funny bc i was thinking the exact same thing when i saw that question as the student he was making fun of in the lecture.
okay, the test. i know everyone says the same thing: it's doable, and you don't really understand what "doable" means until you do it. that's true. it's all very doable. i only had maybe one or two things on the whole thing that i was like "huh?!" about. it was mostly a test of concepts and understanding. it's all info you're familiar with but they will present it to you in a way you've never seen it before. so unless you really understand the material, you won't be able to figure out the answer. as for level of detail, i do think that first aid is enough. however, i don't think it's enough to study from. it's got all the important facts in it, but if you use that as your sole study guide you won't understand everything. watch your timing on the test bc every question requires about 3-4 steps in thinking and every question is "doable," so be careful not to spend 5 minutes on one question as i did a couple of times. i never had a problem finishing, but a couple of blocks i didn't have time to do a thorough review of the ones i'd marked. for me, the best strategy was to go with my gut quickly, and come back at the end and review. most of the time with more thorough review i agreed with my gut.
it's almost a fun test, bc there's so much logic involved. it's like a game. i mentally patted myself on the back a couple of times for figuring some things out. but at the same time, it's frustrating bc you don't know if your thoughts were correct. contrary to what other people have said, i thought it was *much* easier than nbme and about equal to the conceptually harder (though not pickier) kaplan qbank questions. there seemed to be two to three very similar but easier qs to the nbme test 1, and several that were very much like kaplan qbank qs.
humbeh: at least 5 per block. don't skip this in your review! be able to do the calculations quickly so they won't take up your time. even the epi qs they mess with a bit so you have to think through them. as for the situational/ethics qs, they were much easier than the kaplan qbank ones, but qbank questions are very similar and a great way to review concepts. there was only one ethics q that i was unsure about. of course, i could be wrong.  we'll see, i guess. do they give you your performance evaluation with your scores?
anatomy: this is my least favorite subject, but i didn't think it was too terrible. overall there wasn't much, and the gross they had was pretty easy. i had to guess on a few. don't forget to review cts and angiograms. i had just two histo pics, and a couple of neuro. i wonder if they randomize the questions they give you according to some algorithm bc i got like 5 qs on the same concept! this happened in gross, biochem, and path. i guess i would have been outta luck if i hadn't known that one fact... first aid is enough as long as you have a good understanding of where everything is (going to lab was actually quite beneficial!) and you flip through some cts, mris, and angiograms.
biochem: much easier than i thought it would be. a couple of times they even gave me the entire pathway and all i had to do was say what was deficient! the answer was soo obvious bc they told me what substrate was building up! i wonder if that was experimental... the important things to know are clinically oriented (of course) and rate limiting enzymes. first aid is definitely enough.
micro: with immuno, probably my weakest subject. i had to guess (after narrowing it down) on a couple. if i asked a vague question to the group would that get me in trouble? overall, not too bad, though. first aid and goljan audio is enough for this.
immuno: first aid is not enough. go get a bigger better book. it's not terribly hard, but the qs require some depth and thought. i had no depth to my knowledge of immuno.
mol.bio: i guess i see why people say that their tests had a lot of molbio and immuno. there did seem to be a lot, but all in all, it was really about 20-30 total. not too many. the mol bio part was logic--doesn't require too much studying, but some of it was integrated with some biochem and path facts.
path: most of this was pathophys. again, do goljan audio. goljan will be your guide through the exam and he integrates path with micro and biochem and genetics for you. a couple qs per block i could get right away without all the multistep thinking bc i'd already been through it with goljan. brs is not enough. it's not enough to know the facts. you must understand it very, very well. even at the expense of some facts, you should try to focus on understanding bc most of the qs you can figure out.
pharm: first aid is definitely enough. make sure you learn interactions and side effects like the back of your hand. Drugs of Choice are also important. all in all, there weren't many questions. in the goljan 100pp there's a section on pharm. (interactions, side effects, and DOCs) that's very useful, too. believe it or not, these qs made you think, too. couldn't get away with rote memorization anywhere, not even pharm!
lessee... what else.... oh yeah, phys. learn graphs and charts very well. many of the graphs i'd never seen before. again, they try and give you the info you know in a way you've never seen it before to try and test your understanding rather than your memorization skills. most of the rest of the phys was integrated with the other subjects.
okay, that's it! i'm going to go enjoy my evening. thanks again, everyone, and let me know if you have any questions. now, please pray for my good score! good luck to those of you who are taking it soon!
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| docface
Forum Senior
Topics: 23
Posts: 56
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Thanks Nuprin,  you have compleated the most important step, all the best for your score, now that i have about just more than 1 month for my exam, what do u think i should focuss more on, goljan again and again ??, please let me know,
ENJOY U HAVE DONE WELL U DESERVE IT, MY PRAYERS FOR YOUR GOOD SCORES. :lol:
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| Ahdy2000
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 203
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YOu're a beautiful beautiful person!!!! God, everytime I read one of these experiences, I freak the f*** out, because people don't know how to describe it properly enough. AHHHH..but you...YOU, Nuprin, told me everything I wanted to hear!!! Beee---u--tee--full!! Tons of molbio and immuno, huh??? I think now I'm finally relieved about that...thanks for the breakdown of everything. I feel like I know how to study for things better now.
God bless you, and I hope you ace the heebgibbis out of this thing!!
=D>
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| krampus
Forum Senior
Topics: 25
Posts: 107
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Hello Nuprin
That was an amazing exam description, I could see you working consciously on every question throughout the exam, and I hope you’ll have the highest score because you deserve it. Thank you again for describing your experience.
What I ‘d like to ask you, do you think, that the questions were more Q-banks like or nbme-like? What would you say it would be the qbank dificulty compared to the exam?
thank you again
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| Ahdy2000
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 203
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If you feel so inclined to say so, I'd like to know what you got on your NBME form 1 (and when you took it).
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| tasneembanu
Forum Guru
Topics: 96
Posts: 545
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Hi nuprin,
wow,that was a good description of ur experience,step by step,subject by subject,it really helped a lot,gives us a lot of confidence,be cool,relax,all the best for ur score.
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| ELM
Forum Guru
Topics: 28
Posts: 936
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Hi Nuprin,
Thank you very much for the post which is one of the best post ever!
I know you will do good and am very happy for your accomplishment!
I just can't wait my relaxing day to come! :P
Thanks agian! You will get high score don't you worry! :P :P :P
Huurray for Nuprin!!!
___________________
ELM
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| rida
Forum Guru
Topics: 109
Posts: 721
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CONGRATULATIONS nuprin, and thanx for a great description of your exam. My exam is also in a week, so thisl last week will be very hard. I only have goljan path audio, did that a little, but after reading your post, i think i'll keep doing qbank questions and will finish up listening to his audio. Neways, again, GOOD LUCK AND ALL THE BEST FOR A GREAT GREAT SCORE.
___________________
"If He takes you to it, He'll take you through it."
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| microphage
Forum Newbie
Topics: 0
Posts: 7
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Congrats nuprin!! it's finally over! Get some sleep and party party party!!!
Thanks again btw!!! I owe ya big!!! :wink:
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| jay1
Forum Junior
Topics: 18
Posts: 53
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hi nuprin,
your exam experience really helped me a lot....in fact i was waiting for this!! Good Luck for the result..I know you are going to accomplish highest score possible.
Cheers!!
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| Ahdy2000
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 203
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if you did the 150 NBME practice Qs (the cd I think, or a download), and what your score was, how long before, etc.
Thx.
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| kalsam
Forum Elite
Topics: 31
Posts: 361
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Thanks nuprin for ur advice....
I continue to stick with my goljon then..
All teh best for ur score!!!!
___________________
"Read Repeat Recall Remember Recognise & Reproduce"
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| docarjun
Forum Elite
Topics: 11
Posts: 334
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Hi Nuprin!
The best post about exam experience i ever read.Thanks for such a descriptive post.It will really help us.
I started with Goljan vey late..but i will stick to it,no matter how much time i spend on it.Even i like the lectures a lot.
God luck for ur scores!!!
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| hiwa
Forum Senior
Topics: 15
Posts: 185
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Thanx nuprin u explained your exam experience in a very conceptual, organized and confident way,
I wish you u must be aiming for very high score
good luck
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| bm
Forum Elite
Topics: 37
Posts: 421
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well constructed and very descriptive, thank you! (it's like going through the exam with you )
God speed with your score!
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| bm
Forum Elite
Topics: 37
Posts: 421
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nuprin, what is goljan audio like? is it questions and answers with lectures? coz what i do with my studying is: first, i read first aid, then read the corresponding subject in kaplan, then do the questions in qbook, then record my voice while reading first aid again on the subject. i do the same sequence with the rest of the subjects (physio, ana, etc). the voice memo i make (i use tungsten 3 voice memo), i just play them wherever i am, and hope that it sticks. would it be the same if i get a goljan audio, or is goljan entirely different, coz it goes with questions, instead of mere lectures from first aid? any input is appreciated.
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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thanks everyone! i'm glad you enjoyed the experience and that it helped you out a little bit. just wanted to give back a little of what i've gotten over the past month.
is anyone going to the family medicine student conference in kansas city at the end of july? just wondering, bc i'll be there.
okay, lemme reply to everyone...
bm, goljan audio is just him explaining almost every concept you have to know for step 1 (and he includes some step 2 stuff, too). he also has a set of questions that usu comes with the audio that are supposed to be a lot like the real thing. alas, i never got to them past the first couple of pages. what i saw, though, i liked. i think it's a great idea to record your own voice speaking. you know, they did this study where they played stuff at night while people slept and people actually remembered info if it was there own voice speaking. goljan is different in a way bc everytime he explains a concept, he relates it to 10 other topics in other subjects. he explains it so well that i only had to hear the stuff once i remembered almost everything he said, and like i said, i'm more of a visual learner (speaking of which, i found it better to just sit and listen rather than looks at notes while he spoke. from time to time, i'd write a small fact down on a notecard to review later, but i never got to it and it didn't matter bc i remembered). plus, he taught me how to think like the boards--everytime i learned something new i related it to something else and thought about how and what they might ask me about that topic. you really get depth with his lectures, not mere facts, which is why it helps you on the boards.
ahdy2000, i did the first nbme but ran out of time before i could do the second one. if you wanted to buy the second one from me it would be much appreciated bc now i'm out forty-five bucks. it has to be completed by july 18 (i think). i got a 590, which i thought was really low, but it was really hard and after corresponding it with the usmle, it was almost one SD over the avg, which (hopefully) will correspond with a score in the high 90s. the mol bio was a piece of cake--like i said, mostly common sense with a few facts thrown in about biochem and path. considering i didn't even know what molecular biology was a few days ago, that's saying something. the immuno (as in all subjects) required depth of knowledge which you can't get from first aid. i wish i had had the time to review kaplan's immuno section, which seemed very helpful. there really wasn't *that* much, but enough so that you shouldn't dismiss it or just read first aid. i only spent a day on immuno, using fa and the nejm articles about it, which i didn't really focus on but should have.
rida, best of luck to you!!! you'll do great! listening to goljan at the end will help tremendously bc you will integrate all the topics you've learned. the qbank was great, too, bc i learned timing and how to read the questions to my max benefit. also, many questions were very similar to the real exam. make sure you review all the answers, even the ones you missed, and repeat the questions that you did miss so you make sure you get the topics that just aren't getting through your head. like for me, i just had this mental block against tuberous sclerosis, von Hippel-Lindau, and Sturge-Weber. repeating really helped.
krampus, i answered your question in someone else's exam experience but i'll say it again. i thought it was more like the conceptually difficult questions of qbank, and a little easier than nbme (although i was a little better prepared by exam time, having almost finished goljan and reviewed some topics i studied early on). i'd say about 40% of qbank is composed of super easy "gimme" questions on qbank with 1 step reasoning, but there were only a couple per block on the real thing. there were also some really really picky questions on qbank that i didn't really find on the real thing. the human behavior questions were easier than qbank's, i think, but then again, i could have gotten them wrong. conceptually, they tested the same things on humbeh as qbank. there were some as difficult conceptually as nbme, but not as many. all in all, i'd say doing both all of qbank and the nbme is a good idea, but qbank is more useful bc they give you explanations.
docface, one month is plenty of time! you will do quite well. goljan i think is only necessary once as long as you pay good attention to it and truly understand what he is saying. he gives you many "pearls" which are quite useful. he has over 25 years of usmle teaching experience, and it's apparent--he knows how to teach the exam. do the 100pp as well, since he puts all the important facts he taught in the audio in it. when i reviewed the 100pp i found i remembered quite a bit of it bc i understood it when i listened. the other subjects (pharm, anatomy, phys, and biochem) are quite helpful, too. so i'd recommend spending your final days listening to goljan and doing questions. i'd even say that anyone with a brain could skip the first two years of med school and really focus on the goljan audio and pass step 1.
okay, lemme know if there's anything else you want to know! of couse, i went home and looked up all this stuff i didn't know and realized i guessed about 60-70% of the ones i remembered correctly. but i also know of some things i know i got wrong.  i need to stop, bc that's kinda discouraging! what percentage of qs do they say you have to answer correctly in order to score high 90s? i know 55-65% is passing...
good luck to everyone!
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
Posts: 338
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i listened to goljan at 1.25x and 1.50x speed without voice distortion, which was very helpful in letting me listening to the audio in less time. plus, i could listen in the car, as i got ready in the morning, as i was packing up my stuff to go home, when my vision got too blurry to read anymore on the computer screen, when i was getting ready for bed, and before i fell asleep... consider getting an mp3 player! if you use winamp to listen on your computer, there are plugins (i used chronotron) to speed up the lectures.
also, i wanted to post what they said the topics were from the usmle website, which i found to be quite accurate. notice they say "principles of therapeutics," which is exactly right, since they do less of "what drug do you use to treat this," than "if they have this problem, what are we capable of treating," and "what kinds of things do you have to fix with drugs."
Table 1: USMLE Step 1 Specifications*
System**
40%–50% General principles
50%–60% Individual organ systems
hematopoietic/lymphoreticular
nervous/special senses
skin/connective tissue
musculoskeletal
respiratory
cardiovascular
gastrointestinal
renal/urinary
reproductive
endocrine
Process
30%–50% Normal structure and function
30%–50% Abnormal processes
15%–25% Principles of therapeutics
10%–20% Psychosocial, cultural, occupational and environmental considerations
* Percentages may be changed without notice.
** The general principles category includes test items concerning those normal and abnormal processes that are not limited to specific organ systems. Categories for individual organ systems include test items concerning those normal and abnormal processes that are system specific.
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| tonguo
Forum Senior
Topics: 29
Posts: 125
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Dear Nuprin,
Many thanks for sharing ur experience in such a comprehensive way! I noticed that u used goljan 100-page notes as u was listening to the audio. so do u think the audio plus 100p notes are enough? it seems that the 300-page notes (in 2 volumes) is not necessary, am I right?
I'm most grateful to ur help with this question!
tong
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| ddd
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
Posts: 19
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Thanks a lot for a great review!!! Can you please tell me if the Goljan lectures I have are same as yours? I have the lectures which only cover--
neoplasia, Hemato,Cell Injury, Cardio, Respiratory, Gastro, Hepato and pancreas,Inflammation, Renal , musculoskeletal, Skin, CNS,Fluid and hemodynamic, Nutrition Endocrine, gyn.
Thanks again, and wish you the best for your scores.
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