USMLE Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Originally Posted by shan564

Well, I realize that they're there because they've been on tests in the past, but I just want to know how many people actually saw them on their tests. The USMLE insists that they're trying to make Step I questions more and more clinical, and facts might make it into FA/Kaplan/UW just because they've showed up on somebody's test in the past. I'm sure the question is still in their bank, but if there's a 25% chance that I'll see it, then I probably won't invest too much time making sure that I can tell the difference between a calicivirus and a picornavirus...

Those types of questions were definitely appearing on the test a couple of years ago. As far as lists of facts for memorization go, that's probably one of the higher yield ones.

Originally Posted by Tatastrophy

The hardest question, period, was an immuno/deficiency one. It had what seemed like 2 conditions superimposed and the answer choices they gave didn't seem to make sense, perhaps I just didn't study enough immuno. There were a couple more questions that were really trying to sell you hard on multiple diagnoses, one of them very long, 2 paragraphs and lab values (and a ton of concomitant meds), but I eventually reasoned my way through.
Anatomy: knowing nerves and vessels is not enough, I was asked insertion points of muscles, spinal fracture questions. Had maybe 4 stroke questions, nothing particularly intense.
It felt like all my patients were women or children with something itching, hardly any cardio but when it did come up it was HARD! I don't remember a single pelvic question but like people say...each test is different, so know it as well as you know arms/legs/brachial plexus.
Timing: some questions take longer to read, some longer to read and think about, some are a breeze through. On the breeze ones, just trust that you know what you are talking about and move on as soon as you pick the answer. There were plenty where I spent 15 seconds on, and I am not a native speaker :P. I ended up finishing a couple blocks 5 minutes or so early and I never do that, so it just depends on your mix.
I found that the biostats questions were more involved than anything uworld showed but not out of my reach, the ethical questions made me really think when they are usually are a breeze for me.
Last word of caution: I don't know if that was a coincidence or what but me and like 3 of my friends felt our very last section was significantly harder than the rest, like marking one question after another and taking way too long to move through. The hardest questions on my exam were largely here. Be aware and ready for it if it happens to you.


wow, this is a novel. anyways, hope this helps.

Thanks a ton! Anatomy Off to study more
Btw, what about embryo?

Originally Posted by auburnO5

Edit: And wow, a 10+ year member and just now taking Step 1??

How does that question pertain to the topic of this thread?
Also how does it even remotely affect you?

How does that question pertain to the topic of this thread?
Also how does it even remotely affect you?

++++++++


^^^ U mad.


It's mind boggling, did he join SDN in 5th grade?

Some people don't go straight to med school after undergrad. There's also a high school section in SDN.

Ok I talked to more of my friends who took it today. I kinda feel like the curve on my exam will be rough because while it was hard. Especially block 3 (I marked every 3rd question) I didn't feel that bad after I left. Some of my friends were discussing that they were asked about insertion points for muscles and weird ambiguous questions also one of them had a lot of questions on the knee. I had about 6 questions about lysosomal storage disorders.

Muscle insertion points is about as low yield of a topic that I can think of.

Originally Posted by Brigade4Radiant

Ok I talked to more of my friends who took it today. I kinda feel like the curve on my exam will be rough because while it was hard. Especially block 3 (I marked every 3rd question) I didn't feel that bad after I left. Some of my friends were discussing that they were asked about insertion points for muscles and weird ambiguous questions also one of them had a lot of questions on the knee. I had about 6 questions about lysosomal storage disorders.

Wow. 6 questions on lysosomal storage diseases. That must officially qualify as the test from heck (can we curse on here?). Those would almost immediately be incorrect for me haha.

Originally Posted by auburnO5

How does that question pertain to the topic of this thread?
Also how does it even remotely affect you?

++++++++


^^^ U mad.


It's mind boggling, did he join SDN in 5th grade?

Nah bro, I'm not mad.

I simply wanted to point out what a sweet combination of irrelevance, arrogance and ignorance your statement had. That killer combo truly exemplifies what every program in the nation is waiting for. Bravo my man.

You sure put that old doogie in his place. Did it make you feel better?

Why is everyone worried about peripheral questions? If you have the majority of it covered, who cares about a few silly questions?

Originally Posted by auburnO5

How does that question pertain to the topic of this thread?
Also how does it even remotely affect you?

++++++++


^^^ U mad.


It's mind boggling, did he join SDN in 5th grade?

I couldn't go to med school right after college due to circumstances that were out of my control. So I got a job, had a career, got married and finally got a chance to go 2 years ago.

Glad I didn't give up, besides I am not the oldest one in my class we have a 38 year old, I am only 30

Originally Posted by Lioness12

Nah bro, I'm not mad.

I simply wanted to point out what a sweet combination of irrelevance, arrogance and ignorance your statement had. That killer combo truly exemplifies what every program in the nation is waiting for. Bravo my man.

You sure put that old doogie in his place. Did it make you feel better?

Calm down, the poor guy was just pointing out an interesting fact. I think it was meant to be respectful if anything (i.e. wow, you've been using this site for a long time)... I don't think he meant anything deragatory. And even if he did, you could have given him the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping to a negative conclusion.

Why is everyone worried about peripheral questions? If you have the majority of it covered, who cares about a few silly questions?

Everybody. Everybody cares about a few silly questions after the exam. And the rest of us care about what somebody else's experience after the exam was like. That's the entire purpose of this thread. No need to get annoyed about people sharing their experiences.

Originally Posted by shan564

Calm down, the poor guy was just pointing out an interesting fact. I think it was meant to be respectful if anything (i.e. wow, you've been using this site for a long time)... I don't think he meant anything deragatory. And even if he did, you could have given him the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping to a negative conclusion.

I honestly did give him a chance the first time, when I asked him how those questions pertained to this thread. He chose to answer in a manner that someone might take offence. He didn't seem to be particularly worried about offending anyone by the way. If he did his reply might have been: Hey I was just curious; I didn't mean anything by it etc. I also think that humility is crucial to this field. You may disagree.

Originally Posted by shan564

Everybody. Everybody cares about a few silly questions after the exam. And the rest of us care about what somebody else's experience after the exam was like. That's the entire purpose of this thread. No need to get annoyed about people sharing their experiences.

Ah ok, I guess I'm not everybody then because I don't care about a few random questions. I think people freak out over news that one rare question was asked. That was all I meant by peripheral questions. And to clear the air, I care about someone's experience. I'm not getting annoyed. I think you are painting a false picture of me. I wrote my statement just in case someone thought it was HY and crucial to the exam.

Anyway, I have no idea why I'm butting heads with you today....

I'm sorry if I got a false picture of you. I think I was probably more aggressive than I needed to be earlier today. Probably from all of the talk about amphetamines in the first DIT lecture...

Originally Posted by WonderBoy

I couldn't go to med school right after college due to circumstances that were out of my control. So I got a job, had a career, got married and finally got a chance to go 2 years ago.

Glad I didn't give up, besides I am not the oldest one in my class we have a 38 year old, I am only 30

Medical school is for suckers. Oh wait, FML!!

.

Thanks for posting. Good score, don't let all the superstars on here fool you. My exam is very soon, and I can't decide if I want to take NBME 13 or not.

I've taken three others (scored 224, 235, 254 in that order) with about 12 days in between each.

I'm afraid if I take 13 and bomb it that it will kill my confidence. What do you think?

Originally Posted by Itachi888

Took my exam 4 weeks ago and I just got my score last week and decided to write about it.

I was an average and at times below average student during basic sciences. It was during the last semester of basic sciences that I took things more seriously.

dedicated study period: 3 months

Materials Used
- First Aid 2011 (used this a lot, read 4-5 times)
- DIT 2011( only used this in the last semester of basic sciences, not during dedicated study period)
- BRS Path( I like this book because i don't like reading and this book was easy to read, annotated into FA)
- BRS Physio( annotated certain parts into FA)
- BRS Behavioral( my weakest subject)
- Hy Neuro(only for the pictures)
- Hy MolecularBio( fast read, takes one day, didn't help as much as i thought it would)
- CMMRS (only the HIV section, annotated into FA)

Qbanks
- Kaplan Qbank (did this during 2nd year basic sciences, started off bad in 40s and 50s, ended up with around a 60 average)
- UWorld Qbank (did this in 3 weeks, 3 blocks a day, 3 months before exam, first run, random, timed unused 66%, annotated mistakes into FA)

Practice Exams
School Kaplan simulated - 228 (>3 months out)
School sponsored nbme - 230+ (>3 months out)
NBME 6- 219 (~3 months out)
NBME 7 - 224( one week later)
UWSA1- 238
NBME 11 - 231
NBME 12- 228 ( ~ 2 months out)
NBME 13 - 214 ( freaked out!, so stupid, ~ 2 weeks out)
UWSA 2 - 245 (1 week out)
Free 150 - 240 (few days out)

Actual Step 1 Score - 233

I was kinda disappointed in my score. As you can see from my test scores, i plateued soooooo early so stupid. I guess i was lucky my platuea was higher than a 220. I would have liked to get above a 240 consistant with my last 2 practice tests and my uworld percetage.

Thanks for posting and CONGRATS on a great score!!
233 is a respectable score, even tho the rarefied scores that dominate this thread may suggest otherwise.

I hope we get more people with diverse scores to share their experiences...

You only used HY Neuro for pictures? Did you find it low yield? Also, did you use all the pictures or just some, as I've heard some say to only use the first ~70 pages of HY Neuro.

Originally Posted by auburnO5

Thanks for posting. Good score, don't let all the superstars on here fool you. My exam is very soon, and I can't decide if I want to take NBME 13 or not.

I've taken three others (scored 224, 235, 254 in that order) with about 12 days in between each.

I'm afraid if I take 13 and bomb it that it will kill my confidence. What do you think?

Which one did you get 254 on? Nice progress.

Originally Posted by kaleerkalut

Which one did you get 254 on? Nice progress.

12. I hope it's good progress, and not just a random distribution with a big spread.

Originally Posted by Lioness12

Why is everyone worried about peripheral questions? If you have the majority of it covered, who cares about a few silly questions?

Because everyone on this board is applying into interventional dermatoneurosurgical radiology.

Originally Posted by auburnO5

12. I hope it's good progress, and not just a random distribution with a big spread.

I thought 13 was pretty straight forward. 7 made me feel nauseated.

Took the Step yesterday. I also saw a ton of crazy anatomy. Weird.

Tore my ACL in the fall. Started studying after reconstruction was done in October, as I literally couldn't do much else.

I read the First Aid Organ Systems and Basic Sciences books. Did Organ Systems with our classes (organ curriculum) and used Basic Sciences to review first year material. Also used Kaplan QBank with each block to consolidate before each block's exams.

Supplemental Sources:
Pathoma - This man is fantastic
Micro Made Ridic Simple
Deja Review Pharm
MedEssentials for the Behavioral Sciences Questions
Kaplan Pharm Cards
Vijay's Underground Biochemistry

QBanks:
Kaplan - Went over it about 2x.
World - Finished and then did incorrects
USMLERx - Did about 30-40% of it in total. I stopped doing it when they started testing on diseases that literally less than 15 people have ever had in the history of medicine.

Practice Tests:
Kaplan Diagnostic (After finishing all first time studying) - 79%
NBME 11 - 242
NBME 12 - 250
NBME 13 - 264
UW Self Asssessment 1 - 266

Hoping for a score that lines up with what those tests predicted.

I'll report back in a month. PM me if you have questions.

Originally Posted by maxxor

Took the Step yesterday. I also saw a ton of crazy anatomy. Weird.

Tore my ACL in the fall. Started studying after reconstruction was done in October, as I literally couldn't do much else.

I read the First Aid Organ Systems and Basic Sciences books. Did Organ Systems with our classes (organ curriculum) and used Basic Sciences to review first year material. Also used Kaplan QBank with each block to consolidate before each block's exams.

Supplemental Sources:
Pathoma - This man is fantastic
Micro Made Ridic Simple
Deja Review Pharm
MedEssentials for the Behavioral Sciences Questions
Kaplan Pharm Cards
Vijay's Underground Biochemistry

QBanks:
Kaplan - Went ever it about 2x.
World - Finished and then did incorrects
USMLERx - Did about 30-40% of it in total. I stopped doing it when they started testing on diseases that literally less than 15 people have ever had in the history of medicine.

Practice Tests:
Kaplan Diagnostic (After finishing all first time studying) - 79%
NBME 11 - 242
NBME 12 - 250
NBME 13 - 264
UW Self Asssessment 1 - 266

Hoping for a score that lines up with what those tests predicted.

I'll report back in a month. PM me if you have questions.

There hasn't been a lot of feedback with these books (FA organ systems and basic sciences), did you like them? Did you find there were lots of errors? (people on this site have been complaining about errors in them)

Thanks

It would make me feel much better if someone posted on here that their test had no anatomy. I think anatomy could be my downfall, and at this point there's really nothing I can do about it.

Originally Posted by auburnO5

It would make me feel much better if someone posted on here that their test had no anatomy. I think anatomy could be my downfall, and at this point there's really nothing I can do about it.

I think, just like many histo pictures aren't necessary for answering the questions, a number of these reported anatomy questions don't require extensive remembrance.

Originally Posted by mmmcdowe

Because everyone on this board is applying into interventional dermatoneurosurgical radiology.

LOL....
Oh yeah I forgot that. Sorry. Periperal questions for the win!

I feel like everyone on here has 4 months to study for this thing. Even though I'll have done all of USMLErx by the time I start UWorld, y'all are freaking me out since I only have 34 days.

Originally Posted by shan564

I'm sorry if I got a false picture of you. I think I was probably more aggressive than I needed to be earlier today. Probably from all of the talk about amphetamines in the first DIT lecture...

LOl....ok np.

Originally Posted by metallica81788

I feel like everyone on here has 4 months to study for this thing. Even though I'll have done all of USMLErx by the time I start UWorld, y'all are freaking me out since I only have 34 days.

Didn't you go through kaplan and use qbanks throughout your classes?

Originally Posted by WonderBoy

I couldn't go to med school right after college due to circumstances that were out of my control. So I got a job, had a career, got married and finally got a chance to go 2 years ago.

Glad I didn't give up, besides I am not the oldest one in my class we have a 38 year old, I am only 30

Well it wouldn't matter if you were 38 or even 50.

It takes a lot of persistence and courage to do what you've done. I think, the fact that you are not a run-of-the-mill traditional med, student makes what you have done all the more praise worthy. It's quite easy to get into med school, when you have little responsibilites or distractions on hand. I personally don't know if I would be able to be as motivated.

Well, meet you on the other side. lol

Originally Posted by maxxor

USMLERx - Did about 30-40% of it in total. I stopped doing it when they started testing on diseases that literally less than 15 people have ever had in the history of medicine.

Man, I wish you finished Rx. I've been trying to gain a better idea of final cumulative % correlating with an actual Step score.

On the other hand, I find it interesting that you'd stop doing Rx for that reason. I've completed >80% of the QBank so far, and although there's obviously a lot of unique information that's not in FA, I've only encountered a few actual syndromes/diseases that I had never heard of before (e.g. tropical spastic paraparesis, Gerstmann syndrome, Liddle syndrome, hypokalaemic periodic paralysis [the ones I can think of offhand]). I'm actually not here to debate Rx, but I'm just surprised if you didn't find it helpful, that's all. However, I'm glad to see you've taken the question approach to score augmentation. I do really hope that you've done well!

Originally Posted by Brigade4Radiant

I had about 6 questions about lysosomal storage disorders.

Honestly, these diseases are in a LIST in FA. Unlike a lot of the abstruse 4-step questions out there, these are actually as straight-forward as they come, and anyone would be blessed to get questions on these.

Originally Posted by auburnO5

Muscle insertion points is about as low yield of a topic that I can think of.

In contrast, I agree that this would be the babysitter's worst nightmare.

Originally Posted by rashy

Ok guys, thought I would share my experience with you. A few days after my exam and I STILL FEEL LIKE CRAP. Why? Because my exam was so fç%"ing easy, probably the easiest exam there can be! But I just couldn't remember everything that I had learned. I knew that I did learn it, I knew which book, which page, but I simply didn't remember.

Background: IMG, started to study in october for 2-3months because I had planned to go the US. There were a few difficulties from my school and my trip was cancelled. I wasn't done studying anyway and I needed a good score, so I cancelled my exam. After that, my rotations began and I was really exhausted in the evening, but I kept studying for 1-2h a day. And then BAM, suddenly my school got everything right and I was set to go in 4 weeks!!! Problem: I wasn't even done going through all the stuff ONCE. So I started turbo mode and finished everything with 2 weeks out. Then I started repeating everything. But I couldn't finish... I tried everything, slept for 5h/day, drank every legal stimulant drink there is on the market for nearly 2 weeks, but still.. way to much stuff. I got to finish repeating everything except Biochemistry, Pharm and Pathology. I had a good night sleep before the exam (who wouldn't after 2 weeks of 5h/d), but of course I still felt very tired the next morning.

Exam: Very easy, very straightforward. 80% of the questions were just "what's the diagnosis, what's the mechanism". Rarely you would have to think more than 1 Step. The mix of questions was quite balanced. There was 1 WTF question on my exam and maybe a few that took me long to figure out.

Pathology: Of course the most important topic. I had learned a lot of the stuff 3-4 months ago, therefore it took me quite a while to remember and put the stuff together during the exam. Because of that I got into time trouble, but I looked a few thing up after the exam and they were the very classic presentation (e.g. I had forgotten that you get splenomegaly in ET, but still got it right, yay ). Goljan + FA = 100% of the questions.

Physiology: Not a lot, in my exam quite underrepresented. BRS will do the thing.

Pharm: Straight forward, except for 1 questions where I hadn't heard of the drug that was asked about. Really, FA is the ONLY thing you need for that. Unfortunately I didn't get to repeat everything, so I got only 50% of the questions right. I'm still mad about that.

Behav.Science: Very very easy. BRS will do the thing.

Biochemistry: A few vitamins here and a few pathways there. There were 2-3 questions about storage diseases, but nothing too fancy. FA is the way to go.

Anatomy: Got quite a lot here, good mix of Ana/Neuro/Embryo. But the neuro questions were quite hard. They asked for a specific region that was lettered, but the letters were all next to eachother and I couldn't really remember the pinpoint exact locations of them. FA definitely comes up short here. HY neuro helped a bit, but there were still a few weeeiird questions.

Microbiology: Quite a lot there, FA + UW will do the thing. Nothing fancy. In fact, I could swear I had seen a few questions in UW.

So all in all, a really fair exam. I swear to God, if I had finished repeating everything I would have gotten a 290 in this exam. No kidding. My original goal was to get 260+ because I wanted to apply for a surgery residency, but now I think I can be happy if I get 230. It's just so depressing... (No offense to you guys, but an IMG needs a higher score)

A few hints for you guys:

1. Once you have gone through the stuff and Uworld, you will see that FA has 90% of the content that's on the exam. If you can "feel" what FA wants to tell you and you can tie in the connections (instead of just studying useless facts), then you're more than ready to go. For the rest use Goljan RR and a few supplements for your weaknesses.

2. I had the Goljan audio, but rarely listened to it. Mainly when I was bored. I listened to 4-5 lectures, but honestly, there were about 5 questions that I remembered straight out of the audio file!! Asked exactly the way he presented it! I would listen to it guys... That stuff isn't outdated.

3. Take a break after each block. Go to the toilet even if you don't have to necessarily. It sucks when it's urgent and you are in the middle of a block.

So the message is: FA + UW = 95% of the stuff. I didn't believe it either... but it's very true. I went through UW (100%). End% was 80+. In the last few weeks I was hitting between 85 and 95%. If I didn't have to keep a deadline I would have postponed the exam for 1-2 weeks. DON'T TAKE THE EXAM WHEN YOU ARE NOT READY. It sucks to realize that you you've learned everything but can't recall it. Take 1 more week and revise if necessary. I hope you guys do well, you can take Step1 only once in your life.... (And btw if this was a question stem in your exam, it would be time to assess whether I'm delusional or suicidal )

257/88

Was gunning for 265+, but still good enough to keep me in the game

Originally Posted by rashy

257/88

Was gunning for 265+, but still good enough too keep me in the game

Solid score.

However, cutting to the chase now that you've had a few weeks to digest the exam: what could you have done better, particularly with respect to FA or the QBanks? Were there any particular questions that come to mind that held you up?

Originally Posted by Lioness12

Didn't you go through kaplan and use qbanks throughout your classes?

I started Rx in January when our semester started and I'll be finishing it about 3 weeks before my dedicated Step time starts. We were taking Pharm the entire semester, though, so I still haven't even gone over everything Pharm even once yet.

I guess I just read all this stuff and feel like my school does it wrong by not giving us enough dedicated Step time (max of 6 weeks really) when some schools have up to 3 or 4 months.

Originally Posted by metallica81788

I feel like everyone on here has 4 months to study for this thing. Even though I'll have done all of USMLErx by the time I start UWorld, y'all are freaking me out since I only have 34 days.

Maybe this will make you feel better, I have 16 days between my last final and my test. That's after 6 straight days of finals, so that basically cuts an entire week out of my studying. As far as I've heard, there is not a school out there with a worse schedule than that.

Originally Posted by rashy

257/88

Was gunning for 265+, but still good enough to keep me in the game

My friend took exam yesterday, his experience is similar to yours. Congrats on good score

Originally Posted by rashy

257/88

Was gunning for 265+, but still good enough to keep me in the game

OWNED!!

strong work!

Originally Posted by JackShephard MD

There hasn't been a lot of feedback with these books (FA organ systems and basic sciences), did you like them? Did you find there were lots of errors? (people on this site have been complaining about errors in them)

Thanks

I think it really depends on how much time you have to study. I thought the books were great overviews and would read them when we started a new block, using the organ systems book to know what parts of class to pay particular attention to. Our blocks are Neuro, Derm, Ortho, Rheum, Pulm, Cardio, Heme, Renal, Endo/Repro, GI. I think the trend on this board seems to be "study for usmle in a confined block of time around 30-45 days in total"; if that is your strategy, then the FA OS and BS books will not be a good part of that strategy. They simply take too long to read.

For me, it was much easier to read organ systems along with classes than FA2012 was. I mostly used FA2012 as a summative review book during the months of Feb and March. There are errors, but I bought the updated ones (2nd editions) and used the errata as necessary. The funny thing for me, is that as I'm reading a book, it's like my mind fills in the errors, because later when I find an error, I'm always so surprised I never noticed it.

Originally Posted by rashy

257/88

Was gunning for 265+, but still good enough to keep me in the game

Congrats on the great score. If you don't mind me asking, when did you take the test (to see if score reporting is running on time/late).

Originally Posted by Phloston

Man, I wish you finished Rx. I've been trying to gain a better idea of final cumulative % correlating with an actual Step score.

On the other hand, I find it interesting that you'd stop doing Rx for that reason. I've completed >80% of the QBank so far, and although there's obviously a lot of unique information that's not in FA, I've only encountered a few actual syndromes/diseases that I had never heard of before (e.g. tropical spastic paraparesis, Gerstmann syndrome, Liddle syndrome, hypokalaemic periodic paralysis [the ones I can think of offhand]). I'm actually not here to debate Rx, but I'm just surprised if you didn't find it helpful, that's all. However, I'm glad to see you've taken the question approach to score augmentation. I do really hope that you've done well!



Honestly, these diseases are in a LIST in FA. Unlike a lot of the abstruse 4-step questions out there, these are actually as straight-forward as they come, and anyone would be blessed to get questions on these.



In contrast, I agree that this would be the babysitter's worst nightmare.

I was bummed that I DIDN'T get any. I even drew out the little diagram in FA complete with enzyme names at the start of my test.

@ Phloston: Actually I was pretty satisfied with my preparation. The only thing I think I could have done better is allowing enough time to quickly repeat all of the stuff because it goes much faster the second time, i.e. if you have studied for 2 months and gone through FA once, don't say in the last 2 weeks "Ok I'm going through FA 5 more times", but rather try to quickly review ALL of the things you've had a look at and just go through FA once. Because although everything is mentioned in FA, you will have studied everything prior to your revision and so, when you have another look at a review book you will be able to integrate and understand MUCH more than when you went through it the first time.

@DocTwoB: No it's running on schedule. Good luck!

Originally Posted by rashy

@ Phloston: Actually I was pretty satisfied with my preparation. The only thing I think I could have done better is allowing enough time to quickly repeat all of the stuff because it goes much faster the second time, i.e. if you have studied for 2 months and gone through FA once, don't say in the last 2 weeks "Ok I'm going through FA 5 more times", but rather try to quickly review ALL of the things you've had a look at and just go through FA once. Because although everything is mentioned in FA, you will have studied everything prior to your revision and so, when you have another look at a review book you will be able to integrate and understand MUCH more than when you went through it the first time.

That helps a lot. Thanks. And once again, congrats on your outcome.

Originally Posted by metallica81788

I started Rx in January when our semester started and I'll be finishing it about 3 weeks before my dedicated Step time starts. We were taking Pharm the entire semester, though, so I still haven't even gone over everything Pharm even once yet.

I guess I just read all this stuff and feel like my school does it wrong by not giving us enough dedicated Step time (max of 6 weeks really) when some schools have up to 3 or 4 months.

Yeah that does suck. I'm sure you went through Kaplan for pharm. Lippincotts is great too, but I wouldn't use it as a review. My school did a horrible job with pharm, so it's pretty much a self study area for me.

Originally Posted by chet

Maybe this will make you feel better, I have 16 days between my last final and my test. That's after 6 straight days of finals, so that basically cuts an entire week out of my studying. As far as I've heard, there is not a school out there with a worse schedule than that.

Yikes! I don't understand why that's the case though. Maybe you should talk to someone about how ridiculous that schedule is.

Originally Posted by metallica81788

I started Rx in January when our semester started and I'll be finishing it about 3 weeks before my dedicated Step time starts. We were taking Pharm the entire semester, though, so I still haven't even gone over everything Pharm even once yet.

I guess I just read all this stuff and feel like my school does it wrong by not giving us enough dedicated Step time (max of 6 weeks really) when some schools have up to 3 or 4 months.

No LCME programs have that long, do they? Three months sounds like offshore.

Originally Posted by gravitywave

No LCME programs have that long, do they? Three months sounds like offshore.

Definitely. The only way to study for 3-4 months is (A) you're an IMG or (B) you're an AMG but the first 2-3 months you're only studying like 1-2 hours per day along with your classes.

I think the AMG dedicated study period tends to be around 4-6 weeks on average.

Originally Posted by chet

Maybe this will make you feel better, I have 16 days between my last final and my test. That's after 6 straight days of finals, so that basically cuts an entire week out of my studying. As far as I've heard, there is not a school out there with a worse schedule than that.

my situation is similar with yours. how do you prepare for board? preparing along year 2?