UsmleHQ

Free Practice questions

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Some people are asking about the 150 free USMLE questions i think this is what you guyz are looking for

http://www.usmle.org/practice-materials/index.html

I scored 99/252

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:20:00 +0000

Its 99/252
sooooo happyyyy.

PREP SCHEDULE: 7 months

PREP MATERIALS:
Kaplan lecture notes (2002 edition), FA 2010, Goljan book, slides & audios, Conrad Fischer 100 Cases
BRS physiology, Kaplan Qbook, UW (online) and Kaplan qbanks (offline).

ROUND 1:
Anatomy: Kaplan lecture notes followed by videos and FA, then kaplan qbook and qbank subject-wise, timed.
Physiology: kaplan LN followed by BRS, then kaplan videos and FA then Kaplan qbook and qbank.
Biochemistry: Kaplan LN then videos (lionel raymon) and FA then kaplan qbook and qbank.
pathology:Goljan book and audios, then FA and kaplan videos, then kaplan qbank.
Micro& immuno: kaplan LN, then FA , then videos, kaplan qbank.
Pharmacology: Kaplan LN, then FA, then kaplan videos, then kaplan qbank.
Behavioral sci: Kapaln LN, conrad fischer 100 cases, then FA, then Kaplan vids, then kaplan qbank.

ROUND 2 (10wks to exam)
i did a quick revision of all the materials, using the kaplan videos, and jotted notes, with goljan slides and did 2nd read of FA.

UWORLD (5wks to exam)
random,timed,unused,online. 2blocks per day. average= 76%. reviewed wrong questions in the last week.
UWorld exam day simulation (3wks to exam): 7 random, timed, unused, sequential UW blocks: averaged 78%.

LAST 1 WK:
FA review cover to cover(16hrs per day)

NBME 7 (5 days to exam) : 258/660

Free 150 official USMLE questions(2days to exam):41,41,40

I am soooo happy to have 99/252. Glory be to God.

I thank the forum staff, and fellow forumites for their awesome support.

TO THOSE STILL PREPARING: GOD IS YOUR STRENGTH, YOU CAN DO IT.

Exam day Experience 1

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:06:00 +0000

Exam is Over..yeah

Finally I am done with the exam
Such a relief..
Impressions about the exam: Was not as difficult as I had expected it to be. It was between NBME and Uworld's level of difficulty.
Breaking it questions wise.
About 40 - 50 % Questions were really straight forward.
About 25 to 30 % were of average difficulty.
I found only 5-10 % of the questions extremely difficult.

Subject wise
Anatomy; Kaplan and FA are definitely not enough. Some weird questions which I had no clue about.
Biochem: all question were straight forward. FA is enough.
Genetics: Mostly family trees with questions asking to identify the type or disease with similar inheritance.
Physiology: Almost all questions were somewhat related to hormones, their actions and secondary messengers. Kaplan does a good job for physiology.
Pathology: FA is enough. I had read Goljan but I think most of the question which I had on the exams could be answered even if I had skipped Goljan.
Pharmacology: Very easy. Uworld pharmac questions are harder then the real stuff.
Microbiology: Kaplan does a good job. Most questions had a slide or a picture along with it.
Behavioral science and Bio-stats: This was the most difficult part. Best response type questions had options which were very close and difficult to choose from. Kaplan Qbank represented these questions quite well. I had 2 or 3 questions from Biostats which I had no idea about.
Lots of CT scans and Images..All were easy to identify..

In all the exam is easy.Will post my detailed experience after I get my results..

My Step 1 experience 258/89

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:03:00 +0000

Hi,
I got my score 258/89 (the 89 is not a mistake  ) and i would like to share my experience with you all
First of all I would like to thank all the forum members who helped me by posting important questions and answers. It help me increase my knowledge many fold.

I will start by describing about myself.
I am a International medical student from India and will be graduating in 2012.

Time it took me to study for step 1: 7 months

Books used( subject wise )
Anatomy : KLN with videos, Langmans embryology (not required) and FA
Biochemistry : KLN ( watched videos only for genetics) and FA
Physiology : KLN with videos and FA
Microbiology : KLN , clinical microbiology made simple and FA
Immunology : KLN and FA
Pathology : Goljans RR + Goljan audio and FA
Pharmacology : KLN with videos and FA
Behavioral sciences and Biostats : KLN with videos , Conrad Fischer 100 cases (only questions) and FA

Question Banks used in order ( with scores )
Kaplan Step 1 qbank (70 %)
Uworld (79 %)
Free questions along with Goljan (87 %)

NBME given in order ( with scores )
NBME 7 : 6 weeks before (580 "240")
NBME 11 : 20 days before ( 590 "242")
NBME 12 : 3 days before ( 640 " 254")

Preparation
Started in march with a plan to read all subject except patho from KLN along with videos. Planned to complete first reading of every subject from KLN within 15 days.
Started of well finishing Anatomy with videos in 15 days.
Biochemistry: lecture videos where very boring so I skipped videos and
finished the subject in around 16 to 17 days. Watched Genetics
videos along with KLN.
Physiology : Took me around 22 days to read KLN and videos all together.
Immunolology : Finished in 8 days without videos from KLN
Microbiology : Read CMMRS instead of KLN. It took me 15 days
Pathology : Read goljan RR instead of KLN along with goljan audio.Took me 30
days
Pharmacology : Read KLN along with videos. Completed in 13 days.
Behavioral sciences : Read KLN and watched videos. Completed in 15 days

So in all it took me approximately 4 and half months to finish my first reading. It took me so long cause I did take lots of days off in between plus had my internship going on. You can definately finish off earlier

I had started Kaplan qbank after completing immunology. Did FA while reviewing questions. Did kaplan qbank subject wise timed (i.e started off with anat+bio+phy+immuno) and added each subject as I completed them

Planned to read second time from KLN (no videos) throughout with each subject only for 7 days.
Anatomy : Completed as planned
Biochem : Completed as planned
Physiology : Completed as planned
Immuno and microbiology : Completed as planned
Pharmacology : Completed as planned plus read extra points from FA
Pathology : Read only general pathology. Was very bored to read RR again
read only hematology from RR ( my favorite part).
Behavioral science : Read from FA instead and read some missing chapter from
KLN ( eg human developement)

I didn't feel the need to go through patho again as I had read FA numerous times while solving questions from QBank.

Had started Uworld after this.My graph in Uworld kept on rising with some falls in between ( attached my graph  )
I used to keep on visiting this forum for questions. I was weak in behavioral science so made it a point to see all questions from the forum.

In the last month went through FA twice from cover to cover with images.
Completed Fischers 100 cases and used webpath for images.
8 Days before I started with the free questions with Goljan RR.
Gave form 12 3 days before exam

I tried to match my body clock for the exam 7 days before. Used to go to bed at 9 pm  and wake up by 6am. This helped me a lot during the exam day.

I ended the exam with 35 minutes of break time remaining and was not at all stressed during the exam. Its an easy exam all you need is
CONFIDENCE !!

Expert opinions of Meg on reaching Step 1 257/99 !

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:38:00 +0000

Phew!!! finally it is over!!!
I gave step 1 today, finished just an hour back. It was not bad. Not too terrific, but not terrible either.
Basically, I found my exam very similar to Kaplan online qbank and NMS qbank.

I studied for about 5 and half months. The materials I used:-
Kaplan notes
First aid 2004 (the recent one is really good- I had used 2000 and 2003 but I found 2004 really stand out esp with HLA information, some additional concepts in physio, biochem(genetics), behavioral. If you already have an older FA, try getting the new one at some bookstore and add the new concepts into the book you already have )
Step Up (by Samir Mehta)- real good system based approach. Great for neuro.
BRS Patho, Physio, Behavioral, Cell bio
NMS Genetics
HY Anat, but Kaplan anat and FA anat are more than enough
Online Kaplan qbank (I had few questions so much directly from it! I must say, take the current online version, it will help)
NMS qbank (though the questions are tough, they help you understand key concepts)
Goljan 100 pages (I got from a friend, real good)
Goljan audio lectures (terrific one, he is a great teacher)

I also did Blackwell online (blackwellmedstudent.com) score:81%, Kaplan simulated CD was 79%. Kaplan qbank I was getting about 75-78% initially. I will know how reflective they are of USMLE scores only after 4 weeks

Though there are so many materials /books, finally, I had to use First Aid as the main book and added all extra concepts into it and used it and Step up finally for the last month.

I want to thank alll the contributors of this forum (asmi, mjl1717, maty, yulia, mahendra, kalibonite, alice8 and so many others ) because I found a lot of questions similar to what we had discussed. One major recommendation I would give is to be active in the subjects-questions forums( I mean like anatomy, patho, behavioral etc..). It really helps in knowing what to focus on. And best of all, you will remember what you discuss.

Thanks to all and wish you all the very best. Take lots of eats (esp bananas I took breaks after every block). Now I am mentally exhausted and am going to chill out and keep praying for the scores
Take care all,

meg

I studied from Sept '03 to mid Feb'04(5 and half months). I felt the last 3 weeks was just a time pass, I mean I think probably 5 months is more than enough. You have adequate time, but it really depends on each person's way of studying. Some people can get 99 percentile with a few weeks , while some study for a year and get lesser. So just select a plan that suits your way of studying and STICK TO IT!
I was all the time behind step 1 preparation, world revolved around it almost all the time. If I had the motivation to study, I would sit with a study book, else would come to the forum and try fishing answers for the so many questions that would be posted. BAsically , stay in the boat. Also I used to take sundays off. But the rest of the week was devoted to step 1.

I have tried putting my best for step 1, so from my part, I am not feeling disappointed with the test, but you never know how the test will be graded but whatever score I get, I will take it and move on in life.

all the best,
meg

Praise God!
I got my score today. It was quite a joy to get it. It was 257/99
I cannot tell you how much I have to thank all in this forum, esp the folks with whom I used to regularly study/share/discuss. Honestly guys, I got a lot of questions just similar to the ones we had discussed.

Also I want to thank the authors and contributors to FA, Kaplan(notes and qbank), NMS, and last but never the least Dr. Goljan! And above all, God Almighty for His abundant love and Grace and guidance.

Some advice to share set your mind and keep it set. Be disciplined. study as much as you can. If you have a choice between studying and playing, STUDY. Many like to know how to organise time. It totally depends on your schedule of things. But just to sketch a bit of how my days were during those preparation.... My day began at about 5:30 AM and ended 11PM. I made it a point to get at least 6 hours sleep as it helps us register in our memory the facts we learnt that day (Kaplan advice). Initially I started studying by sitting at my school library( I am doing masters). Then I studied more at home. I kept adjusting schedule according to whether I had classes that day or work, but basically my number 1 priority was to study. I was also determined and enjoyed being active on several usmle forums. If I was walking on the road(on the way to school or morning walk sometimes), then I would be listening to goljan audio( I bought an MP3 player just for this). If I were at home, I would be reading. If I am cooking, then I am listening to goljan audio or webprep audio. And also I had taken print outs of the exam experiences and advice mentioned by those who had scored in high 90s and would read them whenever I needed some encouragement or motivation. Basically, I think it helps to remain focussed and set the distractions behind your mind.
all the best to all the others. Step 1 is not difficult as long as we remain on track.
God bless you all,
Meg

? Beh.Sc. & Cell Biology

I did BRS, Kaplan and FA. That is one subject that really gets you how much ever you study! The best thing is to do is to do 3-4 times and just try your best.
Some useful sites are:-
http://eduserv.hscer.washington.edu/bioethics/
http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/aap/aap-car/videos.htm#Somatoform%20Disorders

Hi Meg
you mentioned that you did kaplan, BRS books for phsyiology
do you mean that whenever you read a chapter from kaplan you go to brs and read only the information that kaplan mentioned and which existed in BRS or you read all the BRS book ?
i know that you added info from brs to kaplan ...but is it related to kaplan info only ?
because i noticed that there are too many extra info in BRS which kaplan did not mention.
regards

ANS:

hi UMASS,
good question. I did Kaplan physio first. Then after a few weeks I got BRS physio from a library, and I read through it for important things and yes, you are right about some topics/facts that are in BRS and not in Kaplan.. for eg. the receptors there is a good list in BRS (but FA also has it), then the Cardiac output- Venous Return and Right Atrial Pressure curve, then the intercalated cells in renal, so what I did was add these to my little book that I carried. But I had found these topics being covered in online qbank, so kaplan is sort of upto date esp in qbank. A couple of days before exam, I went to Barnes and nobles and rushed through the concepts that I new were new in BRS.
Basically keep your mind open and alert and realise if a concept is not there in a book you follow and be sure to add it to some book and refer it later. The more you sit with books, the better.

? Kaplan & other review books

good question nadeshda, there are so many books and materials, it can be quite a challenge to merge all of them. I had kaplan notes and I had borrowed some books like BRS Patho. After reading kaplan notes patho, as I read BRS patho, when I found something new in brs, I added it to kaplan. I carried with me another small notebook into which I added any new concept I learnt, maybe through this forum or elsewhere. Then when I bought FA 2004, I read through it and then added to it whatever I knew kaplan had extra. But finally it is adding on to your brain. Concepts should start seeming familiar and known. Because on the day of exam we cannot take in any of the books!
all the best.

?patho

I had read all three but added brs to kaplan and then kaplan to FA and goljan separately towards the end I read a couple of times. Finally add everything to your memory. only that you can take into the exam center!
All the best UMASS,
Meg

WEBFORUMS : for 100 pgs,36 pgs, CLASSIFIEDS

usmle.net, usmleforum.com are some I know. You could try subscribing to some usmle yahoo groups as well.
all the best,
Meg

IV vignettes are not mandatory or that important for step 1. Focussing on qbank is better.
Dont forget FA 2004!!

? Genetics

Hi ELM,
for Genetics, Kaplan notes are the best. To help you understand some concepts and get more confidence in the subject, you could try any book from the libraries and do only the topics that Kaplan already has. For example the Hardy Weinberg, or the tranlocation , alternate and adjacent segregations etc. I used NMS genetics from the Inter library loan feature in my Masters school. I dont recommend buying a book, maybe you can use from some library or at some book store. Or best look up the topics on several websites. but Kaplan is the best.

I know it is so difficult to trust people over classifieds. So I suggest that you take their phone number and address as you interact and call them and once you have peace about them, go ahead and buy, done hesitate to trust. Goljan has several books for step 1, or you might want to attend his live teaching sessions(I am not sure how to register.. look it up online).
All the best,
Meg

Q :

hi meg,
really nice of u to keep answering everybodys doubts even now.
am giving my exam on the 30 this month
just doing up with my last part of q bank
will then later review the topics for 15 days then exam
i am confused u know
if u cld just encourage me
am doing q bank subjectwise,that way i think ill review better
is it ok?
am scoring around 88-68 with average of 72-73%
is it usually ok enough for that score i want to get above 90 atleast
i tried my best&trying too,but some tests just too tough dont score well
was planing on doing my simulated&balckwell some 5 days before exam is it ok?any other tips,about dealing with the exam day
&how to go through the blocks
i just need lil motivation
know u have been helping alot
pls help me too,besides i need serious prayers
i tried my best had lil 3 mths only to give for this exam now just going to give it,pls pray

Ans :

Hi liby,
I think you are doing very fine at qbank. You have potential to get in 90s for sure. Just keep doing the qbank and review the answers(explanations real well). The simulated and blackwell are good ideas and do them. The last few days(maybe 4-5 days) before exam, I suggest you slow down. I remember I was aversive to questions. I was really saying 'NO' to any more MCQs, all I wanted was just get over with the exam, infact I was half the mind to advance the date, but resisted finally. My original plan was to stop doing anything on the day before exam, but even like 4 days before exam, I started slowing down and just looked up some topics here and there in FA. Also make a list of 'have to see the night before exam' topics, like the viruses( postive, negative , enveloped etc), oncogenes list from Kaplan notes, any others you get easily confused. I looked them up the night before exam. Dont forget to get goodies to eat on that day, take a lunch that you enjoy. I found bananas easy to eat and quick to give energy after every block, take restroom breaks after every block (some say do two blocks and then take break), but I feel taking a break after every block is the best. When you do the simulated exams, you will be able to discern which is better for you. Dont forget to pack your orange permit and valid ID. And start cheering up more often during the last week, keep your spirit light hearted. Avoid quarrels and physical exertion. Get a good sleep. I took 7 hours of sleep the night before exam. That was a regular habit since I started step 1 preparation.
All the best liby,
let us know how your exam went,
Meg

? Neuro Anat , Embryo

Rida,
from my experience, whatever is in FA is the most important ones for Neuro and Embryo, but if you want you can give a reading of the Neuro and embryo in Kaplan notes. But knowing FA is the safest ground.
all the best,
Meg

? No Kaplan

Hi ELM,
all the Kaplan books are important and useful to do. You can do without them too if you are doing some other books, whatever material you have do it well and cover all subjects whether you do Kaplan or not.
all the best,
Meg

? Goljan Audio

Hi salehhero,
the Goljan audio is not available on Amazon or other booksellers, one of my friends had got it from some classifieds (usmle.net, usmleforum.com,others). It is apparently recorded from his live teaching sessions. He is a terrific teacher and I think about 40 hours teaching I had. It is excellent for preparation. I advice you to go for it.
All the best,
Meg

Hello meg ,
What do you think about these resources ?

FA
Kaplan Lecture Notes
BRS Path
Lipincott Pharm
BSS Beh Sciences
HY Neuroanatomy
Kaplan Q-Bank
Kaplan Audio Cd

ARE THESE SOURCES ENOUGH ? IS IT NECSSARY TO USE GOLJAN AUDIO?

ANS:

Hi salehhero,
I think your resources are excellent and adequate. I would advise Goljan audio, he gives a great approach and will help you integrate all these books.
All the best,
Meg

hi meg,
congratulations for ur great score.i would want to know whether it is really worth hearing goljan audio because i did patho from kaplan and brs.is general pathology really high yield which is better for that kaplan or brs .i personally think kaplan is better.i have only one month left .
could u please guide regarding pathology .i aim in 90s
thankyou

ANS:

Since you are aiming for 90s, I think you should listen to Goljan. I think it was about 40 hours of teaching and very interesting, he will put all that you learnt from Kaplan together and will simplify everything. I think it is worth it.
all the best,
Meg

241/99

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:28:00 +0000

I want you to keep in mind that everyone's testing experience is different, so this is just my personal story. I started really studying the beginning of April, but I had been doing gunnertraining and Kaplan Qbank since January. I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to studying, so did daily flashcards and questions and made notes in my First Aid.
Final Stats:
Gunnertraining: 92% complete
Kaplan Qbank: 95% complete, average 58%
UWorld: 70% complete, average 63%
April 11- NBME 6: 191
June 5- NBME 5: 210
June 24- UWSA: 230
June 27- NBME 11: 226
July 9- UWSA2: 252
July 12- NBME 12: 233
July 13- Free 150: 251
Read FA about 2-3 times

I didn't do much in the month of May because we had our clinical orientation during that month. My advice would be not to take long breaks like that during your prep, because I forgot a lot during that time.

Test Day
I woke up early, felt refreshed because I had a good night's sleep. I started going to bed early and waking up early for a whole week before my test, and 2 days before my test I started trying to relax my mind and not do anything new.
I had breakfast (a Starbucks breakfast wrap), and packed lunch- 2 Cliffbars in case I was too on edge to eat a full meal, a bottle of Gatorade, and a Starbucks protein lunch box (had apple, grapes, boiled egg, a wheat roll and peanut butter).
I got to the center before it opened, but with all the checking in procedures I still didn't start until about 20 minutes after my appointment time.
With regards to breaks, I decided to take a break whenever I needed to and skip lunch if needed. I took a short break after the first block, then 2 blocks in a row and break. This worked really well, I had a bite of cliffbar and Gatorade during my breaks, so I wasn't really hungry. I took a longer break after the 4th block, and still had lots of time. Also, I used the break time to look in my FA for little things I may have forgotten (good to do because they some of the same questions were asked twice, just in a slightly different way, I wonder if those are experimental ?)

Test
The test was different from what I expected. The question stems were longer, a lot more lab values presented in the stem. Sometimes you don't really need the lab values to answer the question, but a lot of the times you have to go through them. Most of the questions were concepts I knew, but presented differently. Not much straightforward pathology or physiology, but instead lots of pathophysiology that required you to know a lot of variables. Most of my questions were like that. Also, pretty much every question had a clinical stem, the only ones with 1 or two lines would be ones with pictures. If I had to pick one practice test that it was most similar to, it would have been NBME 12. Kaplan Qbank pathophysiology section also does a good job. UWSA is a good confidence booster and it does test your knowledge of concepts, but the questions are structured differently. Also, definitely take the Free 150. Of course I can't tell you the details of the exam, but here are some general study guidelines:

Anatomy-
FA is not enough! Not a lot of questions, but definitely more detailed than FA
Embryology
Not a lot of questions. Very straightforward and FA is enough.
Neuroanatomy
Not a lot of questions, but FA is not enough.
Behavioral Science
These questions can be tricky and you never really know if you're right, FA definitely not enough. The behavioral sciences section in Kaplan Qbank does a great job.
Biostats
FA enough. Need to understand basic calculations and concepts.
Immunology
Not bad at all, very straightforward. FA enough, just know that chapter really well and you're gold.
Biochem
This was one of my weakest subjects coming in, and I went through the FA chapter a few times and all the UWorld biochem questions and it was more than enough.

The rest was very integrated. For instance, you would need to recognize an infection from the stem, and know the drug to treat it for the answer. Or know the infection, what to treat it with, and how it would interact with another drug that the patient is taking. Side effects are also big. It's not simply enough to be able to recognize a blood smear, you also need to know the associated translocations, associated pathophysiololgy such as effects on serum calcium, PTH or any other relevant value.

That said, if you work hard I think the test is doable. When you study, try to integrate as much as possible. Know the presentation, pathophysiology, and treatment of common diseases such as HIV/AIDS, heart disease, renal disease, obesity, diabetes and HTN.

238/99 my experience

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Background:
British IMG graduated July 2010. Let me start off by saying I was not the most brilliant medical student, was in 3rd/4th quartile in most of med school and literally just about floated through med school. I went into Step 1 doubting my ability to score a 99 and it scared the pants off me because EVERYONE seemed to be getting 99 and scoring in the 250's. It was like you had to sit at home and cry if you got a 98.

I know 238 is not a brilliant score for this forum but you know I'm not complaining! I just want to remind people that you don't have to be an amazing genius to do well in Step 1 and it does boil down to hard work. I started off thinking I'd struggle to pass and ended up here so anyone can!

Started studying mid August 2010, took the exam January 20th 2011 (last Thursday)! Total prep time: 4-5 months

- NBME 1 (after watching Kaplan videos): 185
- NBME 6 (late Oct): 197
- NBME 7 (Dec 31st): 240
- UWSA 2 (Dec 31st): 252
- NBME 3 (two weeks to go): 231
- USMLE Rx simulation (1 week to go): 266

Final score: 238/99. Yes I did score within two marks off my NBME 7. Sadly my UWSA2 and Rx were waay off.

Materials used:

Pathology: BRS pathology, RR pathology, Kaplan Pathology
I would recommend reading BRS path once then listening to Goljan audio along with the RR pathology. I tried to read RR pathology but found the format difficult to deal with although I loved Goljan audio. Kaplan pathology was okay for pictures and I mainly used it while attending live lectures where I had Dr. Barone as a lecturer and he was pretty awesome.

Microbiology: First Aid, Clinical Microbiology made Ridiculously Simple (better than Kaplan micro)
Wasted a whole week watching Kaplan microbiology videos which were really not necessary. If I could start over, I would read CMMRS and supplement with First Aid.

Physiology: BRS physiology (highly recommend this), Kaplan Physiology
Kaplan physiology along with the videos were pretty decent. I only 'discovered' BRS physiology a month before my exam and although everyone says not to read new material so close to the exam, I gave it a quick read and really liked it. I think if you know BRS physiology cold it's sufficient for the exam.

Biochemistry: Kaplan biochemistry, First Aid
I watched the videos but didn't know the material really well until I attended the Live Lectures and had Dr. Hansen as a lecturer. She is pretty amazing and I went from Biochemisty being my weakest subject to one of my strongest. First Aid has a few conditions that weren't covered in the Kaplan textbook which is why I'm mentioning it.

Pharmacology: First Aid, Kaplan
I had a pretty good pharmacology lecturer during Live Lectures as well. I annotated Kaplan pharm into First Aid and I think that was enough.

Behavioral Sciences: Kaplan, First Aid
I read the Kaplan behavioral sciences book once and didn't touch it again. Reviewed First Aid before my exam. I had Dr. Fadem (she writes the high yield behavioral book) for live lectures and I've heard good things about her book but I didn't end up using it. My med school was pretty keen on Behavioral so I felt like I had a good starting foundation and it was my strongest subject in all my NBMEs.

Anatomy: Kaplan anatomy, HY neuroanatomy, First Aid
Anatomy was my weakest subject in all NBMEs and the actual exam. I kinda wish I had given more time to it. I felt the Kaplan anatomy book was over-detailed so I read it once but didn't really go back to it. I didn't read all of HY neuroanatomy just the bits on brainstem and spinal cord and some pictures. My neuroanatomy was pretty solid towards the end because I spent some time going through the pathways, pictures etc but I still really sucked at overall anatomy. I did get a lot of random anatomy questions on my exam (not just brachial plexus!) so yeah contrary to what you may have heard First Aid is NOT enough for anatomy.

Question Banks:

Finished U World once and then did incorrect questions again. The No 1 thing I would recommend is to annotate into First Aid concepts from UWorld as you go along. If 50 questions sounds too much, start off by doing 10-20 questions a day just make sure you annotate. The difficult questions in the actual exam are UWorld style so this is really helpful. I managed to annotate maybe 40-50% of UWorld into First Aid as I was pretty lazy in the beginning. My average was 56% first round and 80's towards end of second round.

I also did Kaplan Qbank, finished around 60%. I think I was on 65-70% towards the end. I don't know if I would do the Kaplan Qbank if I had to start over, I didn't find it extremely useful.

USMLE Rx. Finished 30%. Averaged 77%
I bought this about two weeks before my exam because I kinda run out of questions to review on UWorld and wanted to consolidate First Aid. I really liked it. It makes you notice the small details you skimmed over in First Aid. It was also good for doing a full 8 hour simulation test a week before the exam. It predicted me 266 though but I think it has a +/- 20 error margin. I almost prefer this as a second Qbank over Kaplan but Kaplan seems to be more popular and my scores haven't come out so maybe I'm wrong.

August to October: I started off watching Kaplan videos for Biochemistry, Microbiology and Physiology. My studying during the first few months was kinda on-off and I maybe did 4-5 hours a day. I found the videos good but a little slow and most of the time I was nodding off. I also listened to Goljan audio once (using RR pathology along with it) during this time but again it was a bit slow for me and I didn't really appreciate Goljan at this point

October to first week of December: Kaplan 6 week live lecture course. Lectures were amazing for pathology (Barone!), pharmacology and biochem. Others were decent but not anything to be over the moon about. The only downside of the lectures was that it didn't give me a lot of time to study in the evenings and I was lucky if I finished a block of UWorld questions at the end of each day. I guess it depends on how focused you can be. I also spent some of the time there socializing ( yes you do meet some decent people on the course) so I wasn't really pushing myself 100%.

December to exam: Crunch time. Ended up studying maybe 12 hours a day minimum, barely left the house etc. I was never an amazing student at med school but once I made a timetable and realized how much I needed to get through I just sucked it up and starting working my a** off. My score bumped up from 197 to 240-250 after three weeks of intense studying. I didn't really want to move my Jan 20th exam date because I had holiday plans end of January.

Things that really worked for me:

1. I went through First Aid using the DIT videos. This really forced me to buckle down and get through First Aid instead of just skimming over it. You may not need it if you are a focused person but if you are slightly attnetion deficit like I am, this really helps as Dr Jenkins kinda drills all the facts into your head. I watched them 1.7x times speed.

2. Listening to Goljan pathology again. I appreciated Goljan so much more second time round after I had a better pathology foundation. I also listened to this at 1.7x times speed as he was going too slow on normal speed.

3. Making connections. Annotate, annotate, annotate. If you read about a disease in First Aid, that is maybe mentioned in another section, make the connection and write it down. The actual exam is all about concepts and making connections. E.g. Paget's disease may cause high output cardiac failure (mentioned in the musk section of First Aid). Write this down in the cardiology section also. Add to it what kind of physiological values you would expect in high output cardiac failure. So this way you end up connecting musk +cardiac path+ cardiac physiology.

Actual exam:
More tiring than any of the 8 hour simulations I took. Maybe it's the stress bubbling away underneath. Make sure to get a good nights sleep before I know a lot of people who couldn't sleep the night prior and this really affected their performance. Avoid caffeine after midday the day before, go out for a movie or dinner with a friend.

I got to the Prometric Center around 7:15 am and I think ended up starting my exam at 7:30 am or something. Did the first two blocks back to back, took a break after 3rd and 4th, did blocks 5 and 6 back to back, took another break then did my last block. I had a massive headache during my 4th block which I think was due to caffeine withdrawal so I took a break after that and had my lunch and some coffee.

Question-wise: some of it was really really easy. There were definitely quite a few 'free' questions where you were kinda like 'come on are you serious?'
Then there were the mid-range questions where you kinda felt good about yourself because you were like 'this would be difficult if I hadn't studied my ass off but I did'.
Then there were the horrible ones. Most questions I could narrow down to two choices then I'd be stuck between them for ages. Some questions were so bizarre that I felt like shouting at my computer screen. There were questions I felt like even if I had spent another year preparing for Step1 I wouldn't have known the answer.

Time wise I was surprised by how I didn't have 20 minutes extra like I normally did for my practice tests. I had three minutes left after going through my marked questions in Block 1 ( I did spend a considerable amount of time going back and forth between choices) so I cranked it up and sped up a bit for the blocks after. But yeah as I said I'm normally a fast test-taker and I didn't have lots of extra time in the real thing.

Looking back, I felt really bad coming out of the exam and was worried I'd score a 220 or worst..fail. I didn't come out thinking I'd aced it and I know there were a lot of holes in my anatomy knowledge that pulled my score down in the exam. I have always disliked anatomy, my school never taught it well and I tried to avoid it as much as possible in my revision. My advice would be...if you truly suck at one subject do more of it! If you hate anatomy do more of it! If you hate biochem do more of it! (Biochem was actually my worst subject at the start of studying and I ended up getting a higher performance star thing on the actual exam). I think for me personally I would have done a lot better if I'd studied more anatomy instead of being lazy and telling myself things like "they don't ask that much detailed anatomy in Step 1". Whatever your Achilles heel is it WILL kill you in your exam.

I hope that was useful for you guys.

230/99

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:19:00 +0000

I started studying since August 2010 but for the first two months my average was 6 to 8 hrs per day then gradually increased to 10 hrs
I finished all Kaplan books plus BRS physiology and Goljan by the beginning of January 2011 then I enrolled to at Kaplan live lectures for 7 weeks....through that I read the book for the second time in a fast reading

Started Kaplan qbank after that with 2 to 3 blocks per day....I finished it within one month..
Did NBME 5 online and I got 440/ 85....it was like a shock for me at that time but i realized it was very important to show me my weak points
then i started reading FA with USMLE world at the same time ....it took me 2 months to finish them
Kaplan qbank 100% 63
NBME 5 440/ 85 3 months before my exam
USMLE world 100% 70 timed mixed unused
then i read FA for a second time ( fast reading ) + listening to Goljan audio and reviewing few topics in the book
read Kaplan pathology and pharmacology 3 times and the rest 2 times.
NBME 12 550 4 weeks before ma exam
NBME 7 600 ( found it the easiest one ) 2 weeks before ma exam
UWSA 1 245 10 days before the exam
UWSA 2 255 5 days before the exam
150 free questions 88 2 days before the exam
also i did NMBE 1,2,3,4,and 6 offline

My Real Score is 230/99

My USMLE Step 1 Experience: 261/99 (WOW)

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:00:00 +0000

Status: 6th year medical student at a university in Romania
Target score:250+
Final score: 261/99

Exam date: 12.1 received score: 12.22
Total prep time: 1 year 1/2 - effective prep 9 months

I have to explain this part a bit. My still being a student, and hence with recent contact (well not THAT recent) with basic sciences might have helped me out a bit. But the lack of clinical experience is also to be taken into consideration. My total prep time was that long, atypical for most exam takers, for a few reasons. I started in March 2009 reading around in forums about materials used and general guidelines regarding prep (while I was in my 4th year). I gathered books (downloading a few, buying others) step wise. This means I first used Kaplan lecture notes and FA, read through a subject (see description below) and then decided if I needed any extra material. Looked up ratings on these forums and Amazon and bought it. This was not a classical first read, it was more of a recon mission...I also color code and underline everything that I read so yeah it took abnormally long to gather everything, orient myself and really start my prep: almost a year. Thus I hope my experience may help a bit in shortening this process. At the end of my 4th year I only had cards, respiratory, gastro as major rotations. I felt the need to go through hematology and neurology and I was right, that helped out a lot. I don't think it's a must to have had clinical rotations since AMGs have this exam at the end of their first two years without any clinical contact...but it certainly does make your life easier, know how to read faster through questions, what to look for, how to judge in a certain context...you know, just allow you to focus to answer the question without getting tangled up in details which is very important and I'll explain later.

One more thing...I do not think that the time allotted for your prep is essential. I only got to study for the step 2-3 hours per day weekdays and about 9-10 hours weekends, had quite a few breaks because of school exams (like peds-very long) and started real study in my summer vacation. Those 9 months (March 2010 - December 2010) are more like 6 months total.
So it's really difficult to answer questions of how much time is need...depends on many factors, your prep style, your background (since I took my classes really serious even during my step prep) etc.

Materials used:
0. First Aid (FA) - 2009
1. Pathology: Goljan RR(Rapid Review)(2nd edition), Goljan Audios and Slides, Webpath (free internet pathology slides)
2. Biochemistry: Kaplan lecture notes(2007), videos:Lionel Raymond(2002)
3. Cell and molecular biology/genetics: Kaplan lecture notes(2007), videos:Lionel Raymond(2002), High Yield Cell and molecular biology (Ronald Dudek-2nd edition)
4. Microbiology: Microbiology made ridiculously simple (MMRS), Kaplan lecture notes, no videos
5. Immunology: Kaplan lecture notes, no videos
6. Physiology: BRS Physiology (Linda S.Costanzo), Kaplan lecture notes(2008), no videos
7. Anatomy: Kaplan lecture notes(2007), USMLE Road map Gross Anatomy (White), High Yield Neuroanatomy (Fix), Netter atlas
8. Behavioral and biostatistics: Kaplan lecture notes(2008), BRS Behavioral (Barbara Fadem), Conrad Fischer Ethics
9. Heart sounds:http://www.blaufuss.org/ ;
10. CTs: http://www.med.wayne.edu/diagRadiology/Anatomy_Modules/Page1.html ;
11. Angiograms: http://www.upstate.edu/practice/neurosurgery/education/med_students/...angiograms/

Question banks and self assessments:
1. Kaplan Qbank (8 months before exam-2 months time to finish): 70%
2. USMLE World (UW)(5 months before exam – 4 months time to finish): 80%

3. NBMEs
NBME 1 (7 weeks out):630/251
NBME 2 (6 weeks out):610/247
NBME 3 (5 weeks out):640/253
NBME 4 (4 weeks out):670/260
NBME 5 (3 weeks out):630/251
NBME 6 extended feedback(12 days out):680/262-11 mistakes
NBME 7 extended feedback(11 days out):670/260-13 mistakes
4. UWSA (self assessment)1:800/265; UWSA2:800/265 – did these two 10 days before my exam back to back in an 8h session to see if my performance drops in time because of fatigue, see how breaks work for me etc(even had a quick lunch). It went up, because UWSA 2 is easier actually.

Timetable:
After gathering materials and going through them once, as described above, I really started my prep. I listened to Goljan audios in the summer of 2009 to have an idea of what lectures mean (since Goljan is the gold standard). Awesome indeed, a must must must, even just for fun. Gave it to all my med school friends who aren’t even preparing for this exam. Gives you insight, teaches you how to learn. I did not have time to listen to him again, but i still remember 70% of it.

The order of subjects and books listed above is the order I used to study.

Started with pathology, the biggest and most important subject as most people say...so I needed to really have a firm grasp here. Starting early meant I could go through path a couple of times. Read Rapid Review in a month or so (March to mid April), an easy task, since I find path easy, and I knew many (most?) stuff in the book from my clinical rotations. Path was actually easiest for me to learn. Why 2nd edition? because I had bought it before the 3rd came out, I guess the best is always the newest but I did not have time/money for that, already color coded it (imp to me and time consuming). Looked sporadically at webpath slides since I did not have much time due to school work. Read a chapter or two twice each evening. Again I must stress the fact that the number of readings isn’t all that important, just focus on what you are reading. Slides are really important, many images in the exam (yep,mostly gross)...so I looked at Goljan slides a day before my exam too.

In mid April I started reading biochem, a subject I loved in med school. I already knew from my scouting for books that much information (if not all) had vanished since my first year, so I was ready for a rough patch. I believe that multiple readings here, during different prep times are the way to go, info is really volatile and if you integrate it with pharm and path it will help a lot. That is why I started biochem so early. (word of caution here: be ready to have a general view on all pathways and know how to link one to the other...I had two questions that needed integration of all three major pathways: protein, lipid and glucose).

Biochemistry includes the really difficult part of molecular biology. I knew it might be heavily tested (Oh boy and it was) so I read High Yield Cell and Molecular...first time it was really difficult, since it has a lot of info that you needn't (and cannot) memorize, but it helps, a lot, trust me... read it again 3 weaks before my exam after going through everything at least once to try and integrate info. I suggest reading this book (had the 2nd edition, dunno about the first seemed a bit to old) and try to understand stuff in there ...questions in my exam were near to impossible in this section, info nowhere to be found (trust me), so I had to make educated guesses to the best of my knowledge...here is where this book steps up. After going through biochem once I knew that all the pathways will vanish into thin air, so I used this first time to understand, make a few correlations. Cell biology mainly sticks with you after the first time, but you really have to have a general view on all processes here.

During these two months (March-April) I also read FA cover to cover...see how much in that book is familiar (about 70% ), know where everything is etc. While studying any subject (except path) I had FA open next to me and looked up the info there after I read (and understood) something in the lecture notes.

Mid April I started Kaplan Qbank...I do suggest you do this qbank, I really think it is really useful in two aspects (and difficult ones at that) :1. Molecular biology and genetics, really difficult questions here with much labwork (RFLPs, DNA sequencing etc.), well explained in the videos; 2.Microbiology – maybe not that similar to the real exam,but huge help in learning stuff, mainly bacteria and virus descriptions (lactase positive, oxidase positive, dsDNA enveloped, helical etc.). Behavioral is really good also (even better than UW I suppose). Took me two months to finish (also read in parallel and much school work to be done also...my peds rotation started, a long one, so I decided this was the time to squeeze in a qbank). This qbank has references to FA so that was really useful, was like reading selectively from FA. I also made my own notes, round 120 pages that will prove useful in the end.
One more detail...did both qbanks the same way...tutor,random,unused. Why tutor? because once you choose an answer in tutor you cannot change it. I wanted to be this certain of an answer in my real exam: when I choose something, to be my best idea for that question (I’ll explain why later). I timed myself every time so that it did not take me more than 35-40 min for a 48 question block. And yeah, I started a qbank before I went through most of the subjects...because this is what I believe means to „use as a learning tool”(love this phrase ). See how your learning gauges up (or not) the performance in that particular subject, and taking notes of what seems extra and important info.

The same time I started reading Micro from MMRS. It was neat seeing how my performance in the qbank went up as I advanced in micro readings. (from around 60% to nearly 75% , low, mainly because of physio). MMRS is fun to read, useful as a start, really gives a great foundation. Do use FA in parallel with the best mnemonics ever. (yes I suppose most of the info you really need to know is in FA...most). Finished MMRS (it is quite big, round 400 pages, even with the funny pictures and all) in 3 weeks and started immuno (really important subject!). Went fast, 1 ½ weeks, Kaplan seemed enough. what does enough mean? to me it means I understand most of it and I can answer around 80-90% of questions in any qbank (doing kaplan at that time).

Did not mention a few breaks in this schedule because of school exams. After another study break (1 ½ months) summer break came (mid July). I was on track. Subscribed to UW for 3 months (got an extension later), started doing questions, really slow progress, a max of 30 questions per day (well 48 answered in the same way, tutor, random, unused / 30 by going through all the answered, right and wrong). Wrote a lot of extra info that i considered to be important in two notebooks (about 160 pages) which what seemed to me to be VERY important as I jotted down in my FA. I know I know, how does one decide what is important or not. What I believed is info that can be forgotten I it wrote down in my FA, pathophysiology (like heart sounds and details about the OS) and smaller details in the notebook. You should get the hang of it in time, see what works for you.

I had the 2009 version of FA. After finishing UW and with quite a few new details written down in it i compared it to the 2010 version, everything (and I mean everything) they added in the 2010 FA (and even on the same pages) I had already written down.

Mid July started Pharmacology which was kind of easy for me, remembered many details from my courses in school and I paid attention to mode of action (MOA) and adverse effects and It took me 2 weeks, only Kaplan. FA in parallel, cancer drugs and immuno drugs are vicious to remember and high yield (did they throw a weird drug at me in my exam? yes they did, asked MOA, did not recognize the name, recognized the type by looking at its suffix). UW helps with details here, especially CNS pharm.

August meant BRS and Kaplan Physiology easy to learn, easy to remember, important to understand. Yes, do use both books, they really complement each other nicely. Kaplan has many weird graphs you do not need to learn but really help in learning how to read graphs in general (had a really weird never before seen graph in my exam aswell). took 2 weeks off...vacation and a trip (really needed!) .good performance (along with path and pharm and cell and molecular) in my exam here.

In September I started Anatomy. First Road Map (I know, lots of info, not all needed but do read it at least once), since I knew Kaplan is shallow in gross anatomy (embryo is enough trust me!). I also tore up my Netter atlas and selected some images there...learn anatomy (pathology as well!) by seeing things, take advantage of this fact (unlike immuno or biochem). Look up CTs/MRIs. Neuroanatomy is excellent in Kaplan, helps you really understand the processes (not just memorize them) and it is way easier to learn than the gross part. Love neuroanatomy, and it is also a vital topic which went easy and fast. I read High Yield neuro to brush up on small details. Total time for anatomy was 3 weeks.

Because I was on my summer vacation I had all the time in the world now (finally). I used to put in round 10 h study time per day. Subject of the day, UW questions and reading answers (painfully slow tho!), and some vids: July-mid August biochem (LIONEL RAYMON...Google him! awesome awesome awesome, really useful!), mid August- end October pharm (LIONEL RAYMON same same same).I did vids separately from reading that particular subject because I tried to have as little gaps as possible for subjects; i tried to constantly read something from every subject in a week. That is why I decided to start a recap before I finished anatomy and behavioral. So I added up to my daily plan, starting august, a recap of biochem (only Kaplan), path and micro (Kaplan notes- had not read this before, and it is useful in bacterial genetics!!)=+ 2h study time/day. Wanted to go through them one more time before school started (October) and I did.

Behavioral; last but oh so not least 3 weeks. Read Kaplan (no time for vids unfortunately). Still had trouble doing questions. I did not have time for an extra book in statistics, so i used Kaplan and UW (really imp-my FA section doubled in statistics). I also did Fischer Ethics in 2 days (easy read) but still with trouble in questions. This infuriated me, decided to buy BRS...yep, this kind of solved my problem and I read it later on in my final prep time (November), but it helped a lot. I could finally see my NBME behavioral moving away from borderline (my only borderline). Truth been told there is no secret book for this! Ssee what works for you. Questions can be really twisted here and I struggled with many in my exam.

Finished first read of all subjects in October. Decided to go through everything again in 5 weeks. school started so things were crowded again. Everyday I revised a particular subject-round 80 pages per day (Monday-Sunday): Biochem, Physio, Micro, Anatomy, Behavioral, Path, Immuno+Pharm. As i read these I had my FA open...I jotted down some extra info from Kaplan and the other books (info that i did not remember or was fuzzy from my previous read/s) In addition, every Saturday I took an NBME (scores increased gradually as one can see above). This recap drained me.

I decided to take three weeks (last three weeks) off from school (don’t ask how) for my final prep. Read FA and my 3 ½ UW+Qbank notebooks. Last three weeks were a 14h deal. Also looked up CTs MRIs and some webpath along the way. Had to travel to Holland for my exam, this helped with the anxiety a bit. Last three days i.e after finishing FA, I decided there was simply not enough time or energy to go through FA again. So I read my UW notesagain, and, while reading, looked up stuff in FA. This helped a lot. It was mainly because I simply could not decide even after all the NBMEs what my specific weaknesses or strenghts were. Why? because of this integrative style...while my biochem, cell, physio, path, pharm, micro had stars, cardio or resp or general principles were a bit lower.

Final word for prep...I do not know if you HAVE to use ALL of these books. Most people suggest you stick to one set. I felt the need to fill some gaps so I bought the extra books, and that made a difference to me. See what works for you...if you are unsure of a subject search alternatives (before it is too late), these were the best alternatives I found by reading posts like this. It was hard work but I loved, literally, every minute of my prep, cause I felt things becoming clear and adding up. And started diagnosing rare disease in school during rotations..Awesome... And I did have a life (some at least) went out Friday nights and Saturday nights (not very fresh for my NBME's huh?), played football etc. Do those, keep a balance or you'll go mad (like I felt during those last 3 weeks).

Exam:
Really REALLY hard. No, not because it was THE exam, not even because it was MY exam. Wasn’t nervous at all, had a 7h night sleep, breakfast etc. It is just that, while reading around in forums I found out that some people have a slightly atypical exam: way tougher, with recent research, long questions etc. (the ones that get a 99 with 229 I suppose-just a wild guess not something certain of course) Hoped it won’t be mine, but was prepared for that (no, actually, not really). Cannot disclose particular questions but I'll give you a few examples.

Don’t want to scare people, or complain, or find excuses, just be sure you are ready for this. Most people say they have one hard block with long questions. Many easy questions alongside, a few difficult ones, 5% impossible questions. NBME style exactly. Not this one.

I had a slightly different system in solving questions that worked really well in all NBME’s and UWSA. I finished all 46 questions (well 50 in NBME) in 30 -35 mins. left 2-3 unanswered if I really had no clue and I tackled those after finishing the block (decide on an answer in max 5 mins). Did so, in order not to lose focus, think too much about one, and get tired for the others. Marked around 20 questions that seemed tricky or needed further attention and reviewed those till the end of the time for that block. During my exam I succeeded in answering in that 30-35 mins self imposed time gap. No random choosing but many many questions, maybe 80%, even more, had huge question stems. Never had an issue with reading stems but they slowly add up in a 7h exam. Really drains one out.

About the difficulty...lemme put it this way: I marked 35 questions give or take for further reviewing. No, again, not because it was the real deal and I wanted to be sure but because questions were incredibly difficult and twisted. Many details, like side effects of antimalarials (really?), dengue fever...yeah micro, the subject I used to be really sure of (had 90% in UW) was unbelievably hard. Not to mention the always present cell and molecular...things never ever seen before (guess my guesses were mostly correct since my profile shows a star here huh). Yeah, in behavioral you always always ended up with two equally good choices (BRS did wonders, got a star here too), couple of twisted graphs in phys. Biostat with few calculations, but many many conceptual questions. Neuroanatomy was big (look up CT’s, know even the slightest detail on them-High Yield Neuro). All in all pathology seemed to be prevalent but I actually believe they were evenly distributed or sure seemed like it (even behavioral), maybe a bit lower on pharm questions. Truth is I could not classify many of the questions as being simply this or that subject. 2 heart sounds (one answer using the stem, the other could be answered only by listening), no sequence questions at all.

Breaks...use them! Did first two blocks in a row, took a 10 min break to recover. I knew what was to follow so I decided to overcome the initial panic and just do my best. Washed my eyes during every break, drank a coke (diuretic, use with caution!) and some water, ate some chocolate. Took a break after every block (5-10 mins), not necessarily because I was tired but I forced myself too in order to recover focus. Managed not to think about previous questions during breaks (too much).

Moral of the story...I am not exaggerating here (certainly do not believe so at least) but you can be the unlucky one that gets this type of exam (or worse?)...be prepared to read long stems (many if not most!), be prepared to improvise (answer without really knowing details of that-giving examples would explain this better but as you know I cannot do that), be prepared to face questions from recent research (no, this does NOT mean you HAVE to read recent articles), be prepared not to be able to answer questions fast like in the NBME’s (i.e based solely on knowledge)...be prepared means morally prepared (don’t panic!!!) because I do not think there is a way (or enough time) to be ready for these exams. I do not know if in a different exam I could have broken the 265, but it would have been certainly more possible. Needless to say how I felt coming out of the test center.

Take everything I say (and everyone else for that matter) with a pinch of salt. For me it was a difficult exam, for which I couldn’t have prepared much more better in this 9 month time frame. Just be ready for everything, expect the worst and you will be more than fine. Again, I do not know how much time one needs to be prepared, or which books are best or how many readings are necessary. Different people, different ways. The exam is hard but with hard work and wits anyone can do it.

thoughts on Step 1

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:37:00 +0000

Here are my initial thoughts ):

The difficulty level on the actual exam is quite similar to the Qbanks, Kaplan and UWorld. The only thing that is different is that the question stems tend to be a bit longer on the actual test than what we see on the Qbanks. I generally read the question first on a long stem and that really helped because there were a handful of questions that only required you to read the last one or two lines. For example, I had one long stem that ended with a question asking about cytokines and class switching that had nothing to do with the patient. Saved some time and mental energy.

I had maybe 2 or 3 interactive questions, all were cardiac auscultation. Very similar to the ones on the Qbanks. Nothing too difficult. I had 2 CXR's, but I was able to make the diagnosis without really using the x-rays in both questions. Had a couple Had about 4-5 bacterial stains and 5-6 gross images. I also had a 2-3 radiographs of bones.

Surprisingly I had 2 questions on Scabies and one on Lice. Nothing too difficult but I hadn't really paid much attention to those.

I thought the anatomy was pretty doable for the most part, but there were definitely a few that were really tough. Make sure to know neuroanatomy!! I had about 3-4 questions with either CT scans or angiography of cerebral vessels.

Most of the physiology questions had tables with arrows asking what is increased/decreased (15-20 of these questions at least). These questions are tricky because they give you A-H usually so all possible combinations are covered most of the time. They are very comparable to the qbanks though.

I actually had one exact question on my test that was on NBME 7 (I even asked about it on this forum because I had originally gotten it wrong but thanks to this forum I got it right on the real deal!!)

I also had another question from NBME 12 that had the same picture, but different question. (also got that one wrong first time around but got it right this time

Overall, I think the only real advice I can give is to know your concepts!! Be a very curious student when it comes to the material. Dive into the pathogenesis, always be asking "why" rather than simply "what." It really pays off come test day!

99/246!! !!

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sat, 21 May 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Books:
Kaplan except for pathology for which I used Goljan and Microbiology for which I read CMMRS once and then FA+uworld notes.
Also read Conrad Fischer's hundred cases.

Kaplan Qbank:
Average 68%
Personally I don't think its that high yield. Yes it helps a lot but I feel that I could have done without it. If you want to save up money than do this one offline. But then again, I did it in the beginning of my prep, didn't do it that well so maybe that's why.

USMLE world:
Average 73%
This is the real thing!!! Some questions are actually tougher than the real deal. The interface is EXACTLY the same as the exam so when I was doing the exam, I felt that I was doing uworld. I did all questions once, used the notes utility that comes with the interface as I am really good at typing which saved alot of time. Then I got those notes printed and would read then again and again. Probably the best qbank available!!!

NBMEs:
NBME form 3: A month before the exam- 540/231
NBME form 5: 2 weeks before the exam- 580/240

I found NBME 5 more difficult than the NBME 3 for some strange reason. I wanted to do 7 but my seniors told me its really difficult and I'll get scared, but now I think I should have, after all we have to face the real exam. Wanted to go through all the other NBMEs offline but didn't get the time. I think one should do that as I had a slide on the exam which was exactly the same as one that I saw on NBME 5.

Other stuff:
USMLE Consult Qbank: I won this one on this wonderful forum. I did all of biostats questions but other subjects were just weird! I did it after uworld yet I was scoring below the average user score!!! It gave me nightmares!!! Then I stopped using it and did an NBME to boast my confidence. I would say it wasted a whole week that I spent in depression!!!

Free 150:
87%
Good for practice, I didn't look up explanations for its questions.

Questions of this forum:
MUST DO!! Believe me or not, I actually had a question on the exam that I saw on this forum just a few days before my exam and I could answer it only because I had read the discussion here.

Actual exam:
Honestly speaking I found it easier than I was expecting. Very few recall. There were repeats, as in questions on the same topic, or I thought so. Micro and Pharma, very straight forward and easy! Physiology very tricky, specially graphs and all those isolated preparations questions. There were very few questions if any that I thought were about something that I didn't know at all.

Best of luck to all you test takers!!! Have faith in yourself and the working formula which is kaplan notes+FA+uworld!

ZumZum Method for USMLE Step 1 Preparation Schedule and Plan

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:10:00 +0000

Hi everybody.

I've been asked by one of the USMLE Forums Staff to post my experience in Step 1 Preparation Schedule and Plan. He also insisted to call it the ZumZum method! So here I am writing ...

I am originally from Iran. Moved to USA in the year 2008. Then Started preparing for the USMLE in 2009. My graduation date is 2006. My Step 1 score is 99/256 First Attempt.

Before I tell you the details please remember that this USMLE Step 1 Schedule and Plan may not work for everybody. Because it needs at least 8 months of full time reading which is something not available for everyone (medical students for example).

I also want to mention that this post has also received input from StepTaker before and after it was posted.

Now let's get into it ...

Daily Schedule:
Wake up @ 6 AM. Take good breakfast. Start reading @ 6:30 AM. Take a lunch break @ 12:30. Start again @ 2:00 and work yourself until 7 PM. No reading after 7 PM (you will not retain much when you are tired).
Take one day off each week for example Saturday. Spend time with your family and friends. This is very important, otherwise, you will wear out soon.
Down times and emergencies are expected in everybody's life. If for any reason you miss one day then you have to compensate for it the next days.

General Notes:
A study partner is a good stimulus. But he/she should not interrupt you lots of times. Interaction with others such as your class mates or in this website is very useful.
If you find something that you can't understand or memorize then post about it here in this website or any other forum. Interaction with others tremendously help you retain and grasp the concept.

Materials Needed:
kaplan Lecture Notes + DVDs
First Aid for the USMLE
Goljan Rapid Review of Pathology
Kaplan Qbook
Conrad Fischer Ethics Book
BRS Physiology
Kaplan Step 1 Qbank online three months subscription
USMLEWorld Step 1 Online two months subscription

Now the scedule ...

Week No.1 (Promotor Gene Activated!)
Get your materials. But leave the online subscription for now.
Register with ECFMG if you have not done so.
Do not plan for anything within the next 30 weeks. Your time should be totally devoted for Step 1 prep.
During this week, talk to your family and friends and tell them that you are about to embark on the most important step in your career life. Make arrangement on the study location such as your home or a nearby library. The location must be a quiet place and Internet connection and a computer is needed.
Also talk yourself and perhaps in front of a mirror; Tell yourself that you are going to ace this exam and convince yourself you are able to do it and nothing will stop you.
Your aim should be 99 and nothing but 99. You have to believe that any score below 99 is a complete failure.

Week No. 2 and 3 (Anatomy)
Grab your Kaplan Anatomy Book and start reading. Quick reading first then watch DVD and write notes as you watch and then a third reading to fixate the information. Do the questions at the end of chapters.
The reason why I gave two weeks for Kaplan Anatomy is that in the beginning your will be pacing slow and you need sometime before you can pick up on your maximum potential and speed.
When you finish the Kaplan Book. Go and open First Aid. In the undercover against the first page there's a table that show's you where Anatomy is mentioned.
Read all the Anatomy notes in FA and add to them notes from what you have read in Kaplan. (if there's no space put your small sticky and yellow paper notes). Try to write notes in different colors and make your hand writing small to optimize space.
It's important to understand at this point is that whatever you read in Kaplan Notes you'll not go back to it. FA is your final resource and it's the FA page that should be imprinted in your visual memory before the exam. So take care of your FA book and write your notes neatly.
Once you are finished with FA-Anatomy. Grab your Kaplan Qbook. Do the two chapters dedicated to Anatomy. This will help consolidate the matter even more.

Week No. 3, 4, and 5 (Physiology)
Exactly like what we have done with Anatomy but instead of the Kaplan Notes we this time read BRS Physiology. Similarly follow that by incorporating your BRS notes into FA and then do the physiology chapters from Kaplan Qbook.
In my opinion BRS physiology is way better than Kaplan Physiology book. It presents the facts in a very readable way and it's highly exam focused.

Week No. 6, 7, and 8 (Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Genetics)
Follow the same Anatomy scheme. Kaplan notes + DVDs, FA, Kaplan Qbook (biochem questions only).

Week 9 (Kaplan Qbank)
Start your Kaplan Qbank three months subscription. Do 5 blocks of (Anatomy+Physiology+Biochemistry). Each block is a combination of the three and not one block anatomy one block physio ...etc. If you notice new information in the Kaplan Qbank that you did not read before then add them in small notes to your FA book.

Week No. 10 and 12 (Microbiology & Immunology)
Follow the same Anatomy scheme. The only omission here is the DVDs, you don't need to watch Kaplan microbiology lectures. The book is more than enough and no need for the lectures.

Week No. 13, 14, and 15 (Pathology)
Follow the same scheme but instead of Kaplan's Pathology book we use Goljan Rapid Review book. Listening to Goljan audio lectures is an option but not mandatory. Remember, incorporate your notes into FA and do Kaplan Qbook's (5 pathophysiology chapters).

Week 16 (Kaplan Qbank)
Just like what we have done in week 9 but this time your blocks are (Microbiology and Pathophysiology only) Do 10 blocks in these two weeks. Whenever, you see something that you have forgotten, go back to your FA and retain the info more in your brain.

Week No. 17, and 18 (Pharmacology)
Follow the same Anatomy scheme.

Week No. 19 (Behavioral Sciences)
Again, the same thing. But also in addition to the Kaplan Behavioral sciences book read Conrad Fischer Book. It will not take more than one day to read. Don't memorize anything, just read it as a nice story. Ethics questions are the biggest reason why IMGs fall behind their fellow AMGs.

Week No. 20, 21, 22 (Kaplan Qbank)
Do 30 blocks (Random all topics and unanswered questions). Two blocks each day. Reviewing FA whenever you think it's needed. Your target is to finish Kaplan 2500 questions before the end of your three months subscriptions that you started in week 9. Do not worry if you are left with a couple of hundreds of questions that you did not answer, leave them and do not extend your subscription.
Your Kaplan Qbank score is not important do not let it bother you.
Do not do Kaplan simulation test. We don't have time for it.

Week No. 23, 24, 25, 26 (USMLEWorld)
Start your two months UW subscription. Do two 46 questions block each day. Again going back to FA whenever you feel it's needed. You score should be above 67%. Do random blocks always.

Week No. 37 and 28 (USMLEWorld)
Do the wrongly answered UW questions. Look back to FA always.

Week No. 29 (NBME)
Do NBME Form 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7. Look back into FA always. If your NBME score prediction is not telling you 99 then you have to stop and think seriously to extend your reading for another one or two months. The reason why I chose to do more than one NBME form is that the questions are very exam styled and it will get you ready. Each NBME is a four blocks exam. Do them in one sitting without interruptions. This is kins of warming up for the big day.

Week No. 30 (Final Week)
Push all the books and materials aside and grab your FA. Kiss it if you want. Keep looking at FA throughout this week. Do not go back to any other book (important). Do not go back to UW or Kaplan Qbank.

Last Day
Do not read, Do not read, Do not read.
Spend time with family and friends, Pray if this soothing for you, Go for a walk or a swim, Watch a movie, ....etc.
Get your scheduling permit and photo ID ready for tomorrow. Make sure you know your way to the exam.

262/99

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:08:00 +0000

Summary of My USMLE Step 1 Journey
First off, I would like to thanks all USMLE forum staffs for their great effort answering my questions and maintaining this great forum. I have come acrossed many similar forums in the past, yet I end up becoming a loyal member here.

My Background
Few lines to describe myself, I am an IMG from Indonesia, graduated 2 years ago. I finished one year pediatric residency training in my country before I decided to embark on this new journey.

USMLE Step 1 Preparation
Total time : 20 weeks (5 months)
Average study hours per day : 8-10 hours

Study Materials
For study materials, I try to keep it very simple. I avoid using many books during my preparation mainly because I simply didnt have lots of time to prepare for this exam plus to avoid confusion. I personally believe that Kaplan Lectures Notes are enough for comprehensive review.
Kaplan Lecture Notes and Videos
Goljan Audio
First Aid 2009 + DIT video (only for General Principles Section)
Kaplan MedEssentials

Question bank
Kaplan Qbank (40 % completed)
USMLE World (100 % completed)

This is a brief review of my step 1 prep :
Week 1-5 : Building your foundation
During this first 5 weeks, I reviewed all Kaplan Videos side by side with the Lecture Notes. I started the day by reviewing the videos from morning till afternoon, then quick review of the corresponding topics on lecture notes at the evening. I took the quizzes after each chapter to test how much I absorbed during the day.

Week 6-13 : Consolidating the knowledge
I attended Kaplan Live Lecture for 7 weeks. The schedule was pretty dense, class started at 8 am and finished at 4 or 5 pm. I revised all my lecture notes from that day in the evening. If I had a day off, I usually used it to do questions from Kaplan Qbook. I did all the subject assessment exams after each lecture series and usually I scored 80%-90%, except for Behavioral Science (60%).

Week 14-15 : Kaplan Qbank
For two weeks I did Kaplan Qbank but I only managed to finish 40 % of it then I switched to USMLE World. I did this because I didnt have much time left. I started listening to Goljan Audio this time, usually at the evening when I didnt have much energy to read books and did more questions.

Week 16-19 : USMLE World Qbank
During this 4 weeks period, UW was my primary learning tools. I can't stress enough how important UW for my step 1 preparation. Initially I did 1-2 blocks per day, reviewed all the answers and wrote down some important concept and high yield materials on to my personal notes, then I increased my speed to 3 blocks per day. UW is a great tool to strengthen you concept and I really recommend you to review it twice. I did all blocks under timed-mixed-unused mode only to simulate the real exam and get accustomed to the time constraint. I also reviewed First Aid using the DIT video, but only the General Section and some chapters from Organ System Section that I was weak on based on my UW performance. For behavioral science, biochemistry , molecular biology, genetics and physiology, I also used Kaplan MedEssentials to supplement FA.

Week 20 : Final Revision
I did a very quick revision of my UW notes, Kaplan Neuroanatomy, some chapters of Behavioral Science, List of Forgettables and of course my personal notes from Kaplan Live Lectures. I reviewed the Free 150 USMLE sample again two days before the exam as many people suggested that they appear on the real exam, and I must agree with it

Self assessment exam
Free 150 USMLE sample (5 weeks out) : 87%
NBME 6 online (4 weeks out) : 238
NBME 3 online (3 weeks out) : 258
UWSA 1 online (2 weeks out) : 252
NBME 7 and UWSA 2 online on the same day (1 week out) : 250 and 262

Qbanks (all taken under timed-mixed-unused mode):
Kaplan (40% completed) : 72 %
UW (100% completed) : 81 %

Exam Day
I arrived one hour earlier than my appointment time, I had no idea how bad the traffic was going to be that day, so I didnt want to ruin the day by coming late . I packed my stuff lightly, I just brought some snacks and orange juice. The check in procedure was easy and quick, the exam proctors were very friendly as if they knew I was quite nervous when entering the exam room.

Overall the exam is doable. I can not disclose any content of my exam but one thing for sure, clear your concept very well before appearing on this exam. Except for anatomy, which requires straight recall, all questions test your basic concept. If you used UW very well during your prep, I can guarantee that you can get most of the question correctly. Not to mention, somehow I feel like I have some questions come straight from UW and NBME or at least similar if they are not exactly the same. Having said that, I still have no idea how well I perfomed on this exam. I think that's the "beauty" of USMLE. I can't predict how I will score on my exam, I might fail this exam or ace it with high score, really no idea. I just gave my best to all questions. For now, I just want to enjoy this momment, worrying too much for the result is not gonna change anything rite ? So I will wait peacefully for the next 3 weeks. Let's God do the rest.

For all future test takers, good luck with your preparation.

My Step 1 Experience: 269/99 {WOW}

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:27:00 +0000

Took Step 1 about a month and a half ago, got my score back about a month ago. Followed this forum sometimes so figured I would contribute. These are basically my posts from SDN, but figure I would post them on here as well for the people who don't follow the SDN forum. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

Overal-not bad at all. Thought it was actually WAY easier than any of the NBME exams as well as usmleworld. Maybe 2-3 questions each block I was unsure about-the rest I felt were gimme's. Had plenty of time each block-usually finished with about 5 minutes to spare. I'd say maybe 2 of the blocks I continued to check over my answers until the last second. My advice: just know first aid. There were only 1-2 questions total that were on step that could be found in Goljan and not in first aid. Just know first aid and DO QUESTION BANKS. I ended up doing usmleworld, all 7 NBME's, Kaplan, usmlerx, and robbins rapid review questions. Here are my stats:

NBME 1 7 weeks out: 260
NBME 2 6 weeks out 260
NBME 3 5 weeks out 260
NBME 4 1 month out 271
NBME 5 3 weeks out 260
NBME 6/7 same day 2 weeks out 264/266 2 weeks out
USMLE WORLD self assessments 2 weeks out 265

USMLEWORLD stats 100% completed random, timed 85%
Kaplan random timed (did this one first)-~78%
UsmleRx and robbins rapid review were around 83%

My goal for what I would be okay with is 250. But my hope is to get above a 260.

Again-focus on first aid. Goljan for me was incredibly low yield. You are better knowing every single detail in first aid instead of learning things in Goljan. Do questions banks!!! And having a year of clinical rotations helps too =)

Ok so here is my advice for step: My usmle score was 269/99. Main advice is DO MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF QUESTIONS!! Not once did I read/study Goljan rapid review, Goljan audio or BRS physiology. I spent the vast majority of my time doing questions. I know its hard to tell on forums which people are just geniuses but let me tell you I am NOT one of those people. In terms of intrinsic IQ/memorization skills I am very average for a medical student. I have to study much harder to get the same grades as those “genius” people in my med school class.'

Refer to my previous posts for what I was scoring on NBME's, uworld percentage etc.

More Hx-I have had about a year of clinical experience before taking the step.Yes it helped a little bit. When I first started clinics I studied my ass off
but still performed very average on shelf exams (70’s range). But my last clinic (medicine) I switched to a new system where I only did questions to study and I did NO reading whatsoever-only questions. My shelf score for medicine=99. So, I continued this method for step and as you can see it paid off immensely.

No only do questions, but whenever you miss a question or learn something from a question write it down on a separate sheet of paper. This is SO important and valuable and high yield-because later on you can read over these notes (write maybe a sentence max for each question short notes-they add up quickly) and remember what you learned from a question a month or two ago.

Now yes you should still go through first aid because this is the most high yield of any source. But go through it fast-limit yourself to ONE WEEK going through first aid. No you are not going to learn even 50% of it in that week but you will learn a little bit and reinforce and learn more by doing questions. I used goljan/brs only to look up things I was unsure about from questions I did-I repeat-use these only as a reference! Question banks (except for uworld) are notorious for having errors so if you aren’t sure about something yes look it up in goljan/first aid/brs or Wikipedia (my personal favorite).
After the first week of going through first aid my advice is the following: do 200 questions a day. This is very doable and you will still have time to write
short notes for the questions you do. I would do the following question banks in this order

1st: UsmleRx-an easier question bank, has some errors but relatively fewish compared to other qbanks. In the explanation for the question it has the first aid page image to view. Good for learning more from first aid

2nd: Kaplan. Also fewish errors compared to other banks. Questions more picky but overall a good qbank.

3rd: robbins rapid review qbank. Would recommend purchasing online subscription so you can go back and do the questions you missed. DON’T purchase subscription to usmleconsult. This qbank is SO INCREDIBLY ERROR FILLED. I started doing this qbank and got frustrated after 1 day because of the incorrect questions and massive amounts of errors. I don’t care that goljan approved it, he has obviously never done a single question from this bank. It is a horrible question bank I repeat don’t waste your money. If anything your score will decrease by doing these questions because the answers are incorrect and the explanations are WRONG.

4th: Uworld. Do this one last so it is fresh. MARK the questions you got right but only because you guessed or weren’t really sure about the answer. Go back and do these in addition to the ones you missed.

While doing qbanks do ALL of the nbme’s, the free 150 as well as the two uworld assessments. In the beginning I did these tests every two weeks. Towards the end I did a couple of week including two full length test simulations

Ok that is my advice. Not saying this will work for everyone, but for me as a student who has a hard time memorizing information this is finally the system that worked for me. As you can tell I’m not one of those superstars that has always done amazing on shelf exams etc that test knowledge. (if anyone wants to know my MCAT score was 34). After doing average on shelf exams I took a risk and changed the way I study and it has paid off. Please let me know if you have any questions about this method-but I think many people would benefit from studying this way.

Seriously almost every question I had on my actual exam I felt like I had encountered a question testing similar concepts before. I had very few WTF questions but had I not done so many questions I would have had many many more WTF questions. A theme I saw on usmle forums is people who
were scoring around 270ish all did at least 3 or 4 question banks-not just
uworld.

Good luck to everyone!

Got my score- 99/241

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sun, 08 May 2011 19:24:00 +0000

Got my score a couple of days back, feel really happy

I haven't been a regular user on this forum, but have always read the exam experiences of other users, and found them really helpful and motivating. And so I thought that I should share my own experience as well.

First of all, I would like to tell you that the exam isn't as difficult as most of us think. The pressure of the exam is really huge, but the exam itself isn't quite as monstrous .

I am an IMG from Pakistan, graduate of 2009.

My duration of study--almost 7 months

STUDY MATERIALS I USED:

PHYSIOLOGY- Kaplan
BIOCHEMISTRY- Lippincott (great book)
ANATOMY- Read Kaplan once, then just did First Aid and UWorld explanations. Also did HY Neuroanatomy (highly recommended!!).
PATHOLOGY- Read Kaplan once. After that, I listened to Goljan's audio lectures and read his transcribed lecture notes twice. Also did Goljan's slides. That was more than enough for me.
PHARMACOLOGY- Kaplan
MICROBIOLOGY- First Aid and the summaries of important organisms given at the end of Levinson.
IMMUNOLOGY- First Aid,plus some topics from Levinson.
BEHAVIOR- Kaplan and Conrad Fischer's Medical Ethics book.

Kaplan video lectures- just used them for behavioral sciences and genetics.

I did all of UWorld twice and about 70% of Kaplan Qbank.

NBME 7, 10 days before the exam - 244

The actual exam is very much doable, seemed much easier than UWorld and even Qbank at times. I felt confused after the exam for a while, this definitely wasn't the exam that had been giving me nightmares for the past few weeks, lol. 50-60% of the questions were pretty straight-forward, and the remaining were mostly of moderate difficulty. Around 5-10% were tough, especially a few questions related to various molecular/laboratory techniques. Also got 3 multi-media questions.

The exam pattern itself is quite similar to the NBMEs and the Step 1 practice questions. There is sufficient time for all the blocks. I was able to complete most of them in about 50 minutes, and used the remaining time to revise the questions i had marked.

The main issue that i want to emphasize upon is the length of the exam. The exam is more a test of your nerves and stamina than anything else. The most important piece of advice i can give is to practice as many questions as you can while simulating the exam environment. Even more important is to get a good night's sleep before the exam. For those who study at nite like me,start adjusting your sleep cycle a couple of weeks before the exams. I used Zolpidem during the last week when i couldn't sleep,and also on the nite before the exam. Don't eat much during the exam. Also take along some energy drinks or coffee,whichever suits you, as one really tires out after the 4th or 5th block.

USMLE Exam taker Experience (2)

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:25:00 +0000

Tips from USMLE

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:55:00 +0000

Here Are Tips From My Friends Who Got Respective Scores of 97, 90, and 91... Enjoy!

Success of the exam is made up of 3 components, studies according to Dr. Daugherty show how students score is comprised of these components.
Knowledge base is 60-70%
Test Strategy is 25-30%
Personal is 5-10%
These are the variables that individually make up the score, for most people Personal can have no effect and thus be 0%, examples of personal can be financial, family, or what not.
Study method is the most important, and the trick is to maintain a perfect balance. Methods my vary depending on the person, but again according to Dr. Daugherty, his analysis shows that for majority of test takers
Study method
Highlight – select what your going to learn, the most important points
Repetition – set the material into memory ( 2 to 3 times)
Recall – create a mental index, do something with the material that will reinforce the information, ex write an outline, make a game, compare and contrast, make a chart
Practice- Put information into use, Questions will not replace studying, but rather it will lead you back to more studying. Its better to make those mistakes now then on the exam.

The mental process of studying. We are used to memorization and understanding and that’s what got us threw med school. But in order to take on the exam, we need take it to the level of innovation. Use Memorization, Understanding and also Innovation.
What is the point of know everything about COPD, the exam doesn’t demonstrate that you know everything, its multiple choice. If it were essay then we can demonstrate everything we know. So Innovate.
By that I mean, know the key differences between COPD and Obstruvtive, or Nephrotic and Nephritic. The only way you instill items into memory is when you know how to pick it out. Ex. If I ask you what are the Tx for Asthma, we can easily name 6 drugs, and they are all right. But each one has a specific reason to be used, so which is one is the best, why do we use it, why not the other one, what about if the pt has a different conditions, so then we use another drug.

By know the keys, we have setup a systematic method of now knowing, understanding and recalling all the dif types of tx. You may argue why not just know everything about each drug, granted you will be able to differentiate, but is it using your time wisely, answer is no. But by knowing what makes each one stand out in comparison to the other, on the exam you will be able to Identify the correct answer.
Of course nothing replaces your base knowledge, it’s a given, and at this point you have established it. Now Innovate and start the smart study, and things will stand out in your mind, not be blended away. We have our base knowledge, but can we recall all on the exam day, this is why we are doing the smart study, to be able to recall it.
Our minds are built in a way to remember, by constant repetition. Our brain will say, I see Joe everyday, so you will remember. But if you see tom once, later on you will vaquely remember him and not know him as well as you know Joe. You know joe like his coffee black, at lunch he only
eats salads, and when he is sad he doesn’t look you in the eye. You know this because you see him everyday at work.
Another example: don’t know everything about one virus, know the differences about all the viruses, and you will know how to identify which one the exam question is asking about. By understanding them, you wont have to memorize, because it will stick in your head and you can reason threw.
Lets talk about test taking strategy, you have only about 1 min 20 sec to answer a question. Read the question right the first time, read it in a good pace, and understand what your just read after every sentence. You should be able pull out the imp points at the end of a sentence. Now half way threw you probably already know the pt in the question has Diabetes, that’s the first step, don’t jump the gun, finish off the entire question because you have to this the second level. What is the disease pathology, or tx, or whatever. By the time your done reading it you know exactly what they want, and you should have an answer in your head.
Look at this way…let me read a question to you…48 year old male with history of hypertension and smoking (think what do clues above raise in your head), Now move on the next part, Pt presents with chest pain (okay so now what does that make you think of)..and so forth. You are intelligently processing the question, and developing your answer.
Now look for your answer, okay so its not there, look for the best answer, k you don’t know…then do process of elimination.
Now that we have established these keys, lets more forward and talk about you and where you stand now.
You have gone threw the material plenty of times, the best thing to do now is to know where you stand. Where are you weak, and where are you strong. You need to spend time on what your weak, and statistically it’s the subjects you don’t like. Statisically you have a better success rate at raising the levels of what your weak in, and bringing them up to your strong levels, vs. spending time on your strong subj and raising them up only by a little bit. Your better off having all your subjects up together across the board.
Assuming you have gone threw your books now, take a diagnostic exam and lets analyze.
What your weak in you want to spend time in, so start your day like this
Review your list of Pharm drugs, Micro, or whatever rapid review points you need memorize like general principles, neuro, or immuno.
50 questions and review
Spend time reading, and analyzing your weak subject, recall and put it into practice.
Review what you just covered
Start your general review of all other subjects in a systematic manner ( my example is the first aid from page 1 to 50, then tom 51 to 100 and so forth)
50 questions and review
review the material you covered today
review your list of things to memorize (see above)
get full 8hrs of sleep so your brain and can register the days work.
Next day start over.
By doing so we maintain and a good spread, and balance between study and questions.
Ultimately the process of passing the exam is like this
Study then questions---40% score
Study then questions---50% score
Study then questions---60% score
And so forth till your ready to take the exam.
By the time your have done this a few times, you will have seen all the material over and over (practice and repitition), you will have reviewed your material ( recall, lol some people like me have to keep rewriting outlines to recall, some make a song), and you will have studied your material (esp your weak subjects.
NOW KEEP THIS CYCLE GOING TILL YOU REACH YOUR SATISFACTORY SCORE.
I promise you that doing this for 3 months str8 12 hrs a day will make you pass with flying colors.
In this entire cycle over and over and over, you have improved your knowledge base, you have improved your test taking methods.
You have now become a machine that lives and breaths the exam. Its no longer painful, (remember in the beginning how slow you were going), its fast and simple. You know everything, nothing is new to you, but now you can recall it and apply it.
This is a road map to success.
Remember to also discuss 2 or 3 times a week, because you need someone to tell you don’t know what your talking about and that your weak in a certain area, sitting at home alone you may think you know everything there is to know…no one is there to hammer out a subject and argue with you.
And Remember, the challenge and the goal, be dedicated to it, nothing can come in the way of it.

The exam prep is a huge balancing act. Questions are very very very important. So you need to be doing it all the time and everyday. I understand in that in the begining its hard to get the ball rolling. So i suggest that you start with kaplan qbank, and end with USMLE world.
q bank is good because it will go hand in hand with your kaplan step 1 books.

So start your first pass of reading the step 1 books..you want to do a couple of subjects and then start the hardcore questions. so in the begining as day 1 start doing 20 questions of q book a day ( you can do random or subject based). This is just to get you used to the questions and question style..gets in you gear.

after you finish about 3 subjects of the kaplan books...start with qbank..and make sure you do 50 questions a day no matter what. This will go to reinforce what ever you have read in kaplan. in the begining we all start off at low scores but you build it up and you see it and it motivates you. Have a notebook for wrong questions...right the question and the answer explanation..you will never get this question or anything related wrong...so long as you review that notebook once a week for 30 to 45mins.

Eventually you can build up to 100 questions a day...50 inthe morning and 50 at night.

No matter what you need to read your kaplan books atleast 2 times front to back.. and have completed your qbank at least 2 times. And you have prolly filled your first aid with notes. and have finished golgian.

Take an NBME to see where you stand...and structure you plan off that...you worked on building up your knowledge base...now work on rapid review to recall it all.

Now you will start USMLE world and 3 time reading your kaplan books. But your gonna do it more smarter..for instane dont bother with micro and immno...do it out of the first aid , its all you need...if your really really weak then do the kaplan. Same with pharm..its pure memorization of every drug, se, and moa from teh first aid.( thats all you need)

cont doing at least 100 questions a day...start with 50 in the morning, then work on a subject for the next few hours, take break, study a little more, or memoze your pharm or micro, study some more of your subject , then read your first aid (because you want to review other subjects, and not forget it..while your time on your subjects in the morning). and do 50 more and go to bed.

After your 3 time...and pherhaps finishing USMLE world and golgian again take your nbme and see where you stand....

now you want to start doing rapid reviews out of your first aid..you must read it over and over front to back...if your weak in a certian subkect..then spend some time on it with golgian or kaplanbook..i which ever works best depending on the subject. (use ur nbme as an indicator to where you stand. and continure doing your questions.

by the time your done...you will be a machine reviewing easily 4 subjects in a day on clockwork. take your nbme...revew for 2 more weeks and say bissmillah and take teh exam.

innshallh you will do great...make sure you pray everyday, eat healthy and get some physical activity. I usually took longer breaks on friday after juma to relax a lil.

this is what worked for me..so this is all i can tell you....i did make notes as i was studying and the end i was able to study from my notes and the first aid only.

take care salaamz

I'm done! The truth about step 1!

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:50:00 +0000

Okay so last night I got great sleep cuz I have been practicing for about 1-2 weeks! got up at 6am...had oatmeal and red bull = )

Packed all my things last night, had my clothes out!

Was happy this morning cuz I hung out all day yesterday and had tonz of fun!!! didnt even realize today was the exam :P

Didnt really care or feel nervous today, I knew I tried my best in studying!!

Took tonz of stuff with me to eat, even though people say that you wont wanna eat! WELL GUESS WHAT!! I ATE EVERY BREAK, every hour!!! = )

Got there earlier than I was suppose to...which was suppose to be at 8am to start at 830 am...but got there at 730am! so I started pretty early.

Now for the truth about the exam...UM ITS NOT HARD AT ALL. I dont get why people say its hard...Maybe I over studied? but really? umm it was not hard...so for those of you planning to take the exam...if you studied your butt off...ITS NOT HARD AT ALL. So please do not listen to those people that say its hard. Cuz its NOT.

I wore comfy clothes...pjs and flip flops...just chillaxed...sat back n relaxed like I was at home doing UWorld...

Nothing on the exam was unfamiliar..I had seen each and every question as a topic before..nothing at all was new to me..even the experiment questions were do able.

I can't believe people say this exam is hard LOL I was pretty shocked...

I studied for 4 months...a gazillion hours a day...Kaplan videos, Goljan audio, UWorld, DIT..everything was put into my FA. I must have done FA about 7 times...

I didnt do any NBMEs even though I really wanted to ...and I myself advise people to do NBME 7 ... but I only took one NBME which was in medical school in December in my last term. People have asked me in the past what score I would be happy with on an NBME and I answered 240, doesn't mean I took an NBME. I just don't think its necessary. My theory about exams are, either you know it or you don't. In order to take any exam, you need the knowledge. UWorld prepared me on how to answer and think about questions. But thats about it. I didn't need something to predict my score and to practice with more questions. I needed the knowledge to answer them. Everyone is different though.

Hmm what else..I always had like 5-10 minutes left in each block...depends usually 5.

I had I think 2 audios, not that many images. And everything was equally distributed. I think I had very less pharm. Everything else was pretty equally panned out on my exam.

DO NOT get discouraged by those people who say its hard !! ITS NOT HARD AT ALL. Its actually easier than any med school exam Ive taken lol

So Im done! Any questions! feel free to ask. I will let you guys know my score once it comes!!! = ) otherwise WOOHOOO!!!

And yeah I never once felt tired, not even towards the end. I was always feeling the same, happy n normal.

Good luck!!

226/97 on usmle

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:22:00 +0000

A disclaimer: none of these are my study method its information that was shared online which im sharing here with everyone
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got my score: 226/97
So, I got my score today..., exactly on the 3rd Wednesday after taking the test: it's 226/97!
I personally think I could have done better but I'm an "old" IMG and I'm pretty excited that I passed in the first attempt as I had some major drawbacks here and there.

My background:
Graduated over 10 yrs ago..., yeah 'old', even if I don't feel that old. Completed residency in Europe and have been working in Europe for over 10 years in a University setting hospital, so I'm used to study, keep up with the newest stuff and so on, just not used to preclinical material AT ALL.

Studying:
Started in October 2010 - March 2011 (6 months).
Average 6 hours/day - 5 days a week. I have a family to take care of, husband, kid, etc. so no weekend study or afternoon study for me. Plus, I've been pregnant the whole time, did the test being in my 8th month (Shock..., yeah, it's doable!) Some major drawbacks because of personal issues which resulted in less studying hours than wanted.

Materials:
Kaplan lecture notes. Went through them twice. For Pathology I did Goljan, although I'm not a big fan of this book actually (I know everybody seems to be, just not the right format for me I guess); for micro did CMMRS (love that book!).
Did FA the last 3 weeks (had been taken notes in them during my second Kaplan LN review).
Last day before the test I did review some histology slides online and some radiology images for Anatomy. Easy stuff that I wanted to keep in mind and I didn't want to 'study' that day but take it easy and give my brain a bit of rest before the big day.

UW Q bank: self paced, tutor mode. 61% first time pass. Afterwards reviewed again some of the Q I got wrong but not too many because of time issues.

UWSE1: 490/216 (3 weeks before)
UWSE2: 520/224 (1.5 weeks before)

Did not do NMBE or anything else.
Didn't sleep the day before the test..., I wanted to badly but just couldn't. I didn't feel nervous but I guess I must have been. Got like 3 hours of sleep that night, tops.

Day of the test:
arrived like an hour early, I had a longer drive with rush hour being around that time so I decided to be on the safe side and leave earlier.
Staff at Prometric was fantastic; easy check in, just as explained here and on their site. Very professional. No issues with the equipment (PC, headphones).
My plan was to take 3 blocks and then the first break but I couldn't, so I took 2, took a break and had a fruit, took 2, had lunch break, took 2, went to stretch my legs, took 2, snack and then 1 block + the questionnaire. Had enough time for my breaks, usually short except for my 'lunch break' (ate some sandwiches and fruit and drank a bit of water). I have to say, the time after lunch is the worst..., and no caffeine for me (and there's no vendors machine close to the site I went)..., got really tired but then it got better after the next break.

Taus Method

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sun, 01 May 2011 18:52:00 +0000

This is one of the popularly used method to study for USMLE step 1 and is very helpful for anyone starting to study for USMLE step 1.TAUS Method

USMLE Exam taker Experience (1)

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:08:00 +0000

Got my score yesterday, exactly the third Wednesday after the Wednesday that followed my exam date (03/22/11), at 10:36 am Easter Time.

I'm very happy with the results 99 (261) , and just wanted to passed by and thank everyone in this forum and contribute by posting my study plan and impressions.

My Study Plan was as follows:
I studied 8-12 hours everyday (only 4-6 on Sundays) very consistently. My suggestion is take some breaks, including some weekends off when you feel burned out (did this one or twice during my prep).
In my opinion, you should stop working if possible. I did overnight shifts two or three times per week which I think possibly affected my performance due to chronic sleep deprivation. But in my case, I was able to study and do a few blocks of questions during work because I worked as a polysomnography technician.

1. Kaplan Lecture Notes and Videos: my recommendation with this is do it as fast as you can. Understand every concept, but in my opinion you do not need to memorize everything (I didn't), but definitively understand it. Also read Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple (good images that will stick in your head) at that time along with Kaplan Micro.

2. Kaplan Qbank: did about 25% of it when I was finishing reading Kaplan. In my opinion, not essential but overall good.

3. FA: in my opinion, the highest yield book that I used. 1st read. Also kind of reviewed Kaplan Lecture Notes again at the same time, to annotate everything I thought was important and lacking in FA (use tiny handwriting, as you will need more space for notes later). The idea is to make FA your primary book. Never opened Kaplan books again.

4. DIT: very good program overall. Great if you need to reinforce your pharmacology and they definitively make you memorize a lot of HY concepts and topics. They make you go through FA entirely, so this counted as the 2nd read.

5. FA: Quickly read first aid again before entering UWorld.

6. USMLE World: best learning tool ever. This must be done in random, timed, non-specific subjects, non-tutorial and with complete 46-Q blocks. Do NOT make the mistake of doing it by subject or tutorial. This is important because the final score is a good predictor of your performance in the real deal. Very similar questions to real test, but way harder. The idea is to get over prepared.

---- Now here is when everything went wrong for me.... I was supposed to take the exam end of January this year, just after finishing UWorld. Well guess what? I got my Form 186 rejected twice!!! I had to wait 1 month every time it got rejected and ended up receiving my permit in March. Terrible experience. So my recommendation: apply EARLY, at least 5 months.
So I had about two months added to my prep and I used them to review a few additional sources such as High Yield Molecular Biology(just a few topics) and Goljan audios (in my opinion, not that high yield, but if you are deficient in path go ahead and do it).
----
Once I received my permit, I took online NBME 7 and booked my test 10 days later. DO NOT take offline NBME. The key answers are totally wrong. I don't know who did that but they are wrong, so don't make that mistake or you will get confused.

This allowed me time to:

7. FA: last read before exam. Probably what helped me the most as I had all my Kaplan, DIT and Uworld annotations in it. At the same time I annotated every piece of information that I wans't familiar with in a sheet of paper and reviewed it the day before the exam.

8. Webpath: also very high yield before the exam. Went through all neuroanatomy slides and some electron-microscopy slides.

Summarizing Scores:
Qbank: 66%, in random, timed, not subject-wise, only 25% of it.
UWorld: 77% in random, timed, not subject-wise, did 100% and reviewed some of the incorrect.
UWorld SA1: 254, did it at 50% of the qbank.
UWorld SA1: 264, did it at 100% of the qbank.
NBME 7: 258 (660)

Day before the test:
Reviewed some of my notes. Couldn't stop reading until 8:00 pm. Had a light dinner, watch a movie and took a relaxing tea which I knew would help me relieve the anxiety. Had some trouble falling asleep but eventually did at ~11:00 pm.

Test day:
Got there really early to avoid traffic and get a parking space. People at Prometric center were really nice. Blocks went smoothly. Took breaks between every block. If you are addicted to coffee like me, beware that there might not be a coffee machine available. In my case it was broken, so not getting my boost after lunch REALLY affected me in the 5th block. I was very sleepy.
Overall, I felt confident. It was NOT EASY, but I felt well prepared. About 80% were easy for me. I marked between 5-8 questions per block that either I wanted to read again or I had no clue (1-3 per block). Fortunately, I had between 10-20 minutes left in every block. I trained myself during UW for this. It's what I like to call the "30-30" rule: be at question 30 by minute 30. This allowed me plenty of time in the test to not only review those marked questions, but even all questions.

FINAL SCORE: 99 (261)

Final words: exam is very doable. If you follow a similar study plan, which is a working formula, you will get over-prepared for 80% of the exam content, and will feel confident during the test. Get a great study partner (thanks dude!) and be consistent. This has been a life-changing journey for me and I'm sure will be the same for you. GOOD LUCK!

Lets do this!

noreply@blogger.com (medstulife) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Well im a Caribbean student, currently doing my 4th semester, will be writing the USMLE soon, im just going to keep a blog to track my progress and also provide a guidelines to everyone who is aiming for the same goal :)

Im starting by posting Different Study Methods that people have used in the past and done well, so its something to help everyone then i will start writing how my experience was the post wont be many but keep in touch and any ideas/suggestions/ words of encouragement are more than appreciated :)