APMLE Part 1 - 2012

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Done. Terribly written exam but it's testing minimal competency so they don't expect much from you, at least.

Congrats! I hope when scores come out (or even beforehand) you guys can all post about whether your preparation matched up to the real test and what recommendations/advice you'd have in hindsight.

That felt like double penetration in the rear....nah just kidding. It was halfway decent. Lot of muscle physiology that I overlooked.

Originally Posted by dtrack22

Done. Terribly written exam but it's testing minimal competency so they don't expect much from you, at least.

I always wondered how many times somebody could use the word "via" in a single sentence and get away with it. I now have my answer!

Originally Posted by dtrack22

Done. Terribly written exam but it's testing minimal competency so they don't expect much from you, at least.

Might as well get used to it. Part 2 isn't written any better imho, but at least it's material that's relevant.

Just got in. A lot of questions were poorly written and overall I thought the exam was very challenging. I felt my materials were sufficient, I just wish I had more time to study them. Actually I felt the study materials I used were right on the money but there is just too much to know and keep organized in my brain.

Please read and know BRS physiology inside and out. It goes into more detail than what you will get from First Aid. Speaking of detail, I felt a lot of minutia was asked about on this exam. Stuff that I had been tested on during lecture exams but is not necessarily emphasized in First Aid.

Another complaint I have is the different terminology that is used to describe some of the osteology of the LE. There was one term on this exam used to describe the shape of a facet which is not taught here at Scholl. The only reason I knew what it meant was because I had read through an osteology study document created by students from that school. So I got that question right but a lot of my fellow classmates did not. Why can't questions be written using universal terminology? It seriously made me laugh during the exam.

It was a hard test and I don't think it tests minimal competency.

EDIT: On second thought I do think I had enough time to prepare but again there is just so much to know and I kind of got blindsided by some of the minutia they wanted us to know.

The minimal competency part is really all about how it is graded. I'm on a plane, otherwise I'd explain it, but basically a lot of the questions arent "minimal competency" and therefore don't really affect you when you miss them. I actually tallied up the questions and put them into 3 groups. Questions I was almost positive I got right, questions I could narrow down to about 50/50, and then questions I made a complete guess on. It doesn't tell you much of anything since you don't know which ones "count" or what the passing score is. But it was interesting none the less.

So would you guys say that for example annotating FA with BRS Physiology and BRS Path, and going through it a few times should cover most bases (well and LEA notes).

Ankle Breaker did you find doing Kap Qbank questions to be beneficial at all (despite the difference in question format)? Or was it a total waste of time?

Originally Posted by jellybean2020

So would you guys say that for example annotating FA with BRS Physiology and BRS Path, and going through it a few times should cover most bases (well and LEA notes).

Ankle Breaker did you find doing Kap Qbank questions to be beneficial at all (despite the difference in question format)? Or was it a total waste of time?

To be honest I didn't think the pathology was that difficult. I feel BRS physio is a must though. A lot of the physio questions were minutia (in my opinion).

I did some Kaplan qbank questions but again the questions developed for the USMLE are a lot different from what you get tested on for the APMLE. They combine a lot of different topics and concepts where APMLE I felt like if I had gone back in my notes and read that exact line of information I would have gotten the question right. Some questions were very specific in nature. Just my opinion.

Originally Posted by Ankle Breaker

Just got in. A lot of questions were poorly written and overall I thought the exam was very challenging. I felt my materials were sufficient, I just wish I had more time to study them. Actually I felt the study materials I used were right on the money but there is just too much to know and keep organized in my brain.

Please read and know BRS physiology inside and out. It goes into more detail than what you will get from First Aid. Speaking of detail, I felt a lot of minutia was asked about on this exam. Stuff that I had been tested on during lecture exams but is not necessarily emphasized in First Aid.

Another complaint I have is the different terminology that is used to describe some of the osteology of the LE. There was one term on this exam used to describe the shape of a facet which is not taught here at Scholl. The only reason I knew what it meant was because I had read through an osteology study document created by students from that school. So I got that question right but a lot of my fellow classmates did not. Why can't questions be written using universal terminology? It seriously made me laugh during the exam.

It was a hard test and I don't think it tests minimal competency.

EDIT: On second thought I do think I had enough time to prepare but again there is just so much to know and I kind of got blindsided by some of the minutia they wanted us to know.

I agree with you. I know exactly what question you are talking about too. I have never heard it referred to as that but I finally figured it out.

I too thought there was a lot of small detail questions. I think it was more challenging than I was expecting (I'm basing that off of the APMLE practice questions).

EDIT: while i still do think that First Aid, BRS, a Gen anatomy and an LEA source would be helpful, I'm thinking those would better as good base material. (AB - as per your post below, i do think i agree more with you on this) However, I feel like I need to think through this a bit more, before just posting off the top of my head, because i'm starting to recall more and more questions that I think required more than just those sources. For now, I'm beat and have gen surg bright and early. Good night all... and good job DPM 2014, regardless!

Wait how long do we have to wait to get our board scores? I thought it was two weeks.

And yes I definitely agree we prob shouldn't be giving advice since we don't know if we passed or not. I figured posting now would be best since the exam was still fresh in my head.

I think it's kind of funny you stated you could trace most of the questions back to FA. I felt quite the opposite and I've talked to several Scholl students who felt FA was not detailed enough for the kinds of questions being asked. Maybe it was the particular version of the test you took.

Originally Posted by Ankle Breaker

Wait how long do we have to wait to get our board scores? I thought it was two weeks.

And yes I definitely agree we prob shouldn't be giving advice since we don't know if we passed or not. I figured posting now would be best since the exam was still fresh in my head.

I think it's kind of funny you stated you could trace most of the questions back to FA. I felt quite the opposite and I've talked to several Scholl students who felt FA was not detailed enough for the kinds of questions being asked. Maybe it was the particular version of the test you took.

2 weeks would be awesome, but im just basing it off around when the 2013ers got it last year. but hopefully sooner... ill ask the APMLE liaison to see what he knows, and get back to you.

AB--for a new P1 student, do you recommend any particular type of mindset or study methodology for the first two years in order to feel maximally prepared for the boards (i realize you just took it and haven't received your score, but having read your posts, you seem to have a solid handle on things)?

Probably the most poorly worded exam I have ever paid $900 to take.

Originally Posted by jehjr

Probably the most poorly worded exam I have ever paid $900 to take.

Amen.

Scores historically take 3 weeks to process.

The ONLY way to do well on this exam is to study hard and do well in your first two years of school...there are too many questions that are so random and specific that FA doesn't help with. That being said, if you have done well and know the material it was my experience that FA joggd my memory enough for me to recall some of those details that I thought I'd forgotten.

Originally Posted by dtrack22

The ONLY way to do well on this exam is to study hard and do well in your first two years of school...there are too many questions that are so random and specific that FA doesn't help with. That being said, if you have done well and know the material it was my experience that FA joggd my memory enough for me to recall some of those details that I thought I'd forgotten.

I agree. There really is not a way one can "learn it all" in the however many weeks leading up to the test.

All one can really do is dust off the cobwebs per se. The knowledge was in there somewhere ... just had to find it!

Originally Posted by dtrack22

The minimal competency part is really all about how it is graded. I'm on a plane, otherwise I'd explain it, but basically a lot of the questions arent "minimal competency" and therefore don't really affect you when you miss them. I actually tallied up the questions and put them into 3 groups. Questions I was almost positive I got right, questions I could narrow down to about 50/50, and then questions I made a complete guess on. It doesn't tell you much of anything since you don't know which ones "count" or what the passing score is. But it was interesting none the less.

Haha, I did the same thing with the 3 tally groups. It actually made me feel better about hopefully passing after I looked at the possible statistical scenarios adding up the for sure questions with different percentages of of the maybes and guesses correct.

I felt the test was heading in the right direction and was fair, but was very unprofessional. There were a couple questions with poor wording and a typo, and there was one simple muscle insertion question that literally didn't have an correct answer listed. How do they let that happen on a $900 professional board exam with only 205 questions? I could also tell when a few LEA questions were from other schools like others have said.

With study materials, I read FA once and then went through the important parts of it again with DIT, and feel like it helped me a lot even though I can't think back to a ton of questions specifically derived from it. Just like i've read in years past, the most important and high yield parts in my opinion were LEA/Micro/Pharm. Micro made simple helped me out so much, and the DIT videos on autonomic pharm helped out a lot too.

Sounds like NZT-48 would be helpful...

And to be honest, it's just a multiple choice test. Contrary to what everyone likes to say, you could easily learn enough to pass it from scratch by cramming for a couple months before the test.

It was very difficult and I agree that the test was terribly written. I too had a question with no right answer. I talked to an attending today about a lower limb anatomy question and she said that what they asked didn't exist. It also seemed that about 40-50% of my exam was microbiology.

Review books... they are great to refresh your mind but I maybe got 10 questions right because of them. This exam tests whether or not you put the time in during your first 2 years. But you still need to read them for the refresher.

I had maybe 10-20 questions that were detailed questions. I wouldnt spend all the time memorizing picky details if I had to take it again. I know its against the grain of what everyone else is saying, but I felt it was more or less a generalized broad knowledge exam. Most of the picky detail questions were from pharm or lower limb anatomy.

With all that said, I agree with Ankle Breaker though in that BRS physiology is a great great book. I'm mad I didnt use it to study for physio when I was taking the course! I would also recommend clinical micro made ridiculously simple. I didnt look at the USMLE book so I have no comment on that.

Oh memories....I love this thread.

I think somebody already said this, but 3 weeks is what is being told to me by the student liaison to the APMLE board. No exact date as of yet.

Originally Posted by dyk343

It was very difficult and I agree that the test was terribly written. I too had a question with no right answer. I talked to an attending today about a lower limb anatomy question and she said that what they asked didn't exist. It also seemed that about 40-50% of my exam was microbiology.

.

Thats quite a lot. Any idea how much general anatomy, neuro or histo you had?

it seems like the test breakdown on apmle website is somewhat misleading.

Originally Posted by hematosis

Thats quite a lot. Any idea how much general anatomy, neuro or histo you had?

it seems like the test breakdown on apmle website is somewhat misleading.

I didnt have any histology pictures. Maybe one question that was technically histology. I had about 10% anatomy questions. I also felt like there was a lot of neuro on there which falls under anatomy so maybe it was more than 10%.

I think the microbiology questions were also pathology questions which is why it was so high.

Now that results have come out, anyone with retrospective advice about what they wish they should have done differently to prepare? (Or what they did do that turned out be a great idea?)

I wish I had studied muscle physiology and physiology in general. No histology whatsoever. Memorizing first aid seemed very inefficient way of studying for this exam. Pharm and Micro from First Aid is great.

Just study. Pick up some books, some class notes and study. Then hope for the best. Until they get a study guide specifically for this test nothing will be great so you just have to do the best you can with whatever you've got. I pretty much just used first aid and supplemented with class notes. Did I feel well prepared... no. Would I do anything differently... no. I don't think the test is done well at all.

About 50% of the exam is regurgitation, the other 50% of the exam tests your ability to make educated guesses based on what you know from courses.

Review books don't really help all that much but you still have to read them. The best way to do well on this exam is to work hard 1st and 2nd year. The way the questions are structured, if you paid attention, you should have an idea of what is right and what is wrong. I didnt feel like I remembered anything from courses like biochemistry going into the exam. But when taking it I was able to scrounge up some distant memories and make an educated guess. Apparently I was able to guess right most of the time as I passed.

For review I recommend medical micro made ridiculously simply, BRS physiology, BRS pathology, and class lower limb anatomy notes.

I used pharmacology class notes although I recommend finding another source as it was a lot to sort through.

I didnt look at anatomy or biochemistry.

I studied First Aid, BRS Physiology, and Lower Notes. I also watched some DIT lectures on top of it.

I didn't do any boards studying AT ALL until the end of May and I passed.

Originally Posted by dyk343

The best way to do well on this exam is to work hard 1st and 2nd year. The way the questions are structured, if you paid attention, you should have an idea of what is right and what is wrong.

What dyk said. This is the best way to increase your chances of passing. First Aid was helpful as a refresher of topics we learned in our science courses. But the chances of you getting a question that "came out of" FA is unlikely.

If I was going to do it again I would still read FA, Micro made simple, LEA, and pharm class notes (only because my pharm notes were very condensed to the point I could read through them in a day). I did a bunch of practice questions and would do those over since a couple of my questions were very similar to what I saw on the practice tests I had. I would ADD BRS phys, but nothing else.

I really didn't start studying (putting in full days, 5-6 days a week) until a week into June. Starting earlier would not have helped me any.

We had a very full schedule of class up until June 27th, so I studied from June 28 to July 10th for about 10-12 hours a day. I went through FA once rather slowly (7 days) and then a second time just looking at my notes/highlights (2 days). I also went through my LEA notes twice (3 days) and used my pharmacology notes from our comprehensive final once (1 day).

While FA by no means covers everything, it hits the high points from your basic science classes. A "refresher" as Dtrack said is a great way to describe it. I 100% agree that by working hard your first two years you will have a much better idea of what is right vs. wrong. Additionally, you'll be much more likely to correctly answer the questions that aren't covered in FA.

If I had to do it over again I don't think I'd change anything. I had a pretty good idea where I was weak and spent more time on those topics than others. I created a study plan, stuck to it, and believed in myself that 2 years of hard work and diligence would pay off in the end. Trust me, you know more than you think you do.

Originally Posted by Royal Rooters

Trust me, you know more than you think you do.

One more thing for next years takers. DONT get bogged down in minute detail. There will be 10-20 questions (closer to 10) that will be somewhat detailed questions.And even then they are pretty pertinent questions so you should have heard of them a few times in class.

Dont worry about memorizing XZYII3A because it wont be on there.

Apparently we can request the break down of our scores for $35? I thought we only know whether we passed or not. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

If you are referring to the "Request for APMLE Scores" form in the candidate bulletin, I'm pretty certain that is only used to send your Pass/Fail status reports to whoever needs an official, sealed paper copy.

If you fail I'm told you get a breakdown so you can improve on your weak subjects for the next time around. I've never heard of someone who passed and getting a score report.