Official 2008 Usmle Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

lion

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2008
Messages
28
Reaction score
0
Greetings my brothers and sisters ,

I am new member here and will be taking my boards in another few months .
I thought I would start a thread devoted to a compilation of 2008 usmle experiences . I don't have anything to report as yet since my test is in a few month but anyone who has taken the test in 2008 please share with us your experience and feedback so we can keep the SDN tradition alive !

Good Luck :luck:

"Never , never , never , never Give up ! "

Members don't see this ad.
 
Somehow I am not able to edit the title so it says 2008 thread .
Can the moderators edit the title ?
 
I guess the earilest date this year was in mid January, so it may take another 2 weeks to get the results of January.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I took it on 1/24 (1 week ago!). I studied for ~5 wks, taking days off here and there.

I prepared almost entirely by using FA 2008 and UW. I finished 94% of the UW questions and ended up at about 68% overall correct. I found that at the end, I could answer close to 95% of the questions I'd seen before correctly, but when I took new tests over unused questions I would still be lucky to get 70%.

I read through FA about 2x, hitting some of the harder stuff more. I also read a little of BRS Physio because I felt weak (esp. with Renal). I also had an Appleton and Lange practice question book which I did, so that's another 500 or so practice questions and going over the answers.

Finally, I'm at a school with an accelerated basic science curriculum, so I'd finished 1 year of rotations before taking the test. Whatever that was worth...

DAY OF EXAM:

I had a fantastic prometric experience. I got there ~30min before the start time and was allowed to begin early. I took the first section and really had to get my voiding on, so I took a break. It went well (the first section, not referring to the bathroom break). Then I popped in a peppermint and did 3 straight sections. One of these (I think it was #3 or 4) had quite a few VERY hard questions in it. Hopefully it was an experiment. One that sticks out in memory was related to tRNA, and I just had no clue what they were trying to ask.

Other than that, the test was pretty well balanced. I felt like Biochem was covered at less depth than UW made me think it would be...i.e. although there were some pathways I didn't know cold, I don't think it hurt me too bad.

Anatomy wasn't a big topic...there weren't that many imaging questions for me.

Overall, I felt that UW prepared me very well for the Step. I was impressed with how the interface looked exactly like (not resembled, EXACTLY matched) the real thing. And the questions that they asked were spot-on. For example, UW might ask you 2 questions about juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. So this should prompt you to know the key facts about the disorder and its treatment, etc. Then on the real thing, you'll get a question about JME...it probably won't be the same exact concept you were asked in UW, but having read the answers/explanations will allow you to get it right.

Well, hope that helps. Overall, it's probably a doable task with FA and a good Qbank by your side. Just have to put the nose to the grindstone and practice practice practice.

Oh yes, time wasn't a factor for me. I finished the whole test in 5 hours or so. I took about 3 breaks, and in one of them I wolfed down a clif bar (didn't want too many calories so I could avoid the ole food coma).

Best of luck! To you, and to me...hope I get some good news in 2-3 weeks!
 
Aug 9th!

FA 2008
Qbank
UW
USMLERx lined up

Reading Constanza physiology and FA till school's end (May 31st) and then real studying begins.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Hopefully people will come back after their exam and update us on how it was, or just edit their post as they progress in their studying.
 
Why are people posting the date that they are going to take the exam? Who cares?


maybe they want you to know when you need to PM them this message.........."At least you tried....Its the effort that counts".....:laugh:
 
When I say, "who cares?" I don't mean it in an angry way. I just think that the date that someone is going to take the exam is irrelevant, that's all. :)
 
When I say, "who cares?" I don't mean it in an angry way. I just think that the date that someone is going to take the exam is irrelevant, that's all. :)

Agreed. Everyone please post the day that you are going to "write" about your experience, cuz THAT will be way more useful.
 
USMLE July 9th
COMLEX June 30th


Preparation:

Started December 2007

Reviewed

Microbiology (BacT, Para, Viro)

General Pharm (Nervous, autonomics, antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral, pharmkinentics, pharmdynamics)

reviewed half of physiology (Nervous, Cardio, Hema, MSK, Resp, Renal)

Reviewed anatomy


going to review:

Immunology, Biochem, the other half of physiology

system based pharmacology

system based pathology

behavior science

pschiatry

epidemiology



Books for board prep

The red Book: BRS Path
The blue book: BRS Phys
FA 2008
Webpath
USMLE World QBank
kaplan QBank
Kaplan Course LEcture notes
Goljan Pathology
Underground Clinical Vingnette for Biochemistry cases

:).. been getting 60 to 70% on the Qbanks... people say that is generally good sign

Going to do NBME forms over 1 per month in the 4 month leading up to the exam date.

I need to score 230+ ON USMLE HEHE god help me.

:eek:
 
P.S.


Definitely get a study partner, do the questions in tutor mode..

going over everything thoroughly make sure you know why you get wrong and why you get right (not just random guesstimate)

This way you'll never get the similar questions wrong again :).. nobody is god nobody can remamber all this ****..

you have to start early and digest slowly and surely.

:) anyone interested in studying partner using Skype. PM me..
 
That looks like a ton of books. I know some of them are qbooks, but still. I'm taking comlex in may, so I'm not the veteran here. But I've got FA, BRS Phys and Path, a Lippincotts Pharm (but I dunno how much that'll get used), and I'm probly gonna end up getting HY Neuro and CellBio. I posted in the book thread about other suggestions to round everything out. But you've got 9 books, 3 maybes, plus qbooks. More power to you if you can get through it all, but it seems like we don't even really need much straight anatomy and/or embryo.

Then again, I've barely started doing anything as far as studying so what do I know.
 
ok look seriously...on a "scores and experience" thread there are like 24 posts and only TWO EXPERIENCES AND NO SCORES. now while scores we have no control over, this is not a study journal thread or like random stuff to talk about. if you want i would like to debate how the nfl is grimey for deleting the spygate tapes and why no one is mad at belicheck for leaving the game early, that was very unsportsmanlike. but ....seriously this isnt the place, my score should be in about 2 weeks and then i will post about my score and my experience. please everyone do the same
 
ok look seriously...on a "scores and experience" thread there are like 24 posts and only TWO EXPERIENCES AND NO SCORES. now while scores we have no control over, this is not a study journal thread or like random stuff to talk about. if you want i would like to debate how the nfl is grimey for deleting the spygate tapes and why no one is mad at belicheck for leaving the game early, that was very unsportsmanlike. but ....seriously this isnt the place, my score should be in about 2 weeks and then i will post about my score and my experience. please everyone do the same

Well said DarkManSaad , MODERATORS is it possible that you can expunge all the NON USMLE EXPERIENCES posts ? This thread is devoted to the USMLE EXAM EXPERIENCE ...ie for those who actually took the test and would like to give back to this very useful forum .
 
I know some people are frustrated that this thread is going off topic, but it would be hard to keep it ON topic at this point in the year. There are no scores because no one has ANY scores from 2008 yet! There will be very few "Scores/How I studied" posts in this thread until August of 2008.

I ask that people make a good faith effort to stay on topic, but I think the 2007 thread is a good example of how this thread can be useful throughout the studying process even if there aren't many scores being psoted until much later in the year.
 
Well said DarkManSaad , MODERATORS is it possible that you can expunge all the NON USMLE EXPERIENCES posts ? This thread is devoted to the USMLE EXAM EXPERIENCE ...ie for those who actually took the test and would like to give back to this very useful forum .
If the OP would like, we can change this thread's title to something along the lines of "Official 2008 Usmle Step 1 Pre-Test Experiences and Goal Score Thread."
 
How about I go ahead and start a thread for those of us wanting to talk about our study plans who aren't going to take the boards soon. I'll delete my post here and put it there, and others can join my thread if they like. :)

OK, here's the new thread. It's for all of us who haven't taken the exam yet.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=6188430#post6188430
 
I know some people are frustrated that this thread is going off topic, but it would be hard to keep it ON topic at this point in the year. There are no scores because no one has ANY scores from 2008 yet! There will be very few "Scores/How I studied" posts in this thread until August of 2008.

I ask that people make a good faith effort to stay on topic, but I think the 2007 thread is a good example of how this thread can be useful throughout the studying process even if there aren't many scores being psoted until much later in the year.


There are foreign grads from europe , asia , africa who take this test year round . I know they read this board , it just seems like they are usually less inclined to share their experiences :mad:
 
so during second year is there actually enough time to study for step 1 throughout the spring semester... or are you guys making time..
 
so during second year is there actually enough time to study for step 1 throughout the spring semester... or are you guys making time..

Since Doctor Bagel was kind (and brilliant) enough to make a thread for "Step 1 study plans and discussion" please post this kind of thing in there. Please save this thread for Step 1 experiences. Thanks!
 
99/238

Exam date: Jan, 16
result on Feb, 6

I took the exam after passing the core clerkships. The clinical background I had helped me a lot.

Here's the books I used:
BRS physio
BRS Patho
Kaplan Biochem & genetics
Micro MRS
HY Gross, Neuro, Embyo
HY behavioral science
HY Immunity
HY Biostat
FA for pharma

Kaplan Qbook
Kaplan Qbank
UW(30%)
NBME free sample

I wouldn't recommend such an extensive list of books after taking the real one.

Good luck everybody :)
 
99/238

Exam date: Jan, 16
result on Feb, 6

I took the exam after passing the core clerkships. The clinical background I had helped me a lot.

Here's the books I used:
BRS physio
BRS Patho
Kaplan Biochem & genetics
Micro MRS
HY Gross, Neuro, Embyo
HY behavioral science
HY Immunity
HY Biostat
FA for pharma

Kaplan Qbook
Kaplan Qbank
UW(30%)
NBME free sample

I wouldn't recommend such an extensive list of books after taking the real one.

Good luck everybody :)

Hey congrats on the score . Can you please elaborate when you say you won't reccomend so much books ??
Thanks in advance ...and great job :thumbup::hardy::hardy::hardy:
 
99/245 (back in May 2007)

Like a previous poster, I'm in a school with an accelerated basic sciences program, so I had a year of clinicals before taking step 1.

--2 months going through BRS physiology and BRS pathology along with First Aid (reading through corresponding chapters), no more than 2 hrs per day and not even every day.

--2.5 weeks memorizing First Aid cover to cover

Spent a little time with Qbank, maybe 25%? I don't learn from those questions, just get frustrated by their writing (someone didn't take an English course...) or the level of detail, both of which are not representative of the actual exam.

One thing I found to be important to me was to really have one core reference to study from--hence memorizing First Aid (literally I could have recited about 95% of it). I found that First Aid covered no less than 85% of the material on my exam. Of the remaining 15%, one half was thinking questions without "coverable" material. Then there were the oddballs, but what can you do about that? If you want a 270, maybe you need to study to prepare for *everything* but First Aid can make you competitive.

My exam was appropriately distributed between the subjects. Probably 20% biochem and micro, 40% physiology, 35% pathology. I had some weird pelvic anatomy questions and a little bit of pretty straight forward embryology (5%) thrown in there, too. Biochem and micro were probably the topics that were undercovered by First Aid the most. I had two easy blocks, one block I had to race to finish, and the rest were sort of in between, but for all but one I definitely had time to finish.

I recommend peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (you can grab one at Panera if you're too lazy to make it) as mid-exam brain fuel.
 
99/245 (back in May 2007)

Like a previous poster, I'm in a school with an accelerated basic sciences program, so I had a year of clinicals before taking step 1.

--2 months going through BRS physiology and BRS pathology along with First Aid (reading through corresponding chapters), no more than 2 hrs per day and not even every day.

--2.5 weeks memorizing First Aid cover to cover

Spent a little time with Qbank, maybe 25%? I don't learn from those questions, just get frustrated by their writing (someone didn't take an English course...) or the level of detail, both of which are not representative of the actual exam.

One thing I found to be important to me was to really have one core reference to study from--hence memorizing First Aid (literally I could have recited about 95% of it). I found that First Aid covered no less than 85% of the material on my exam. Of the remaining 15%, one half was thinking questions without "coverable" material. Then there were the oddballs, but what can you do about that? If you want a 270, maybe you need to study to prepare for *everything* but First Aid can make you competitive.

My exam was appropriately distributed between the subjects. Probably 20% biochem and micro, 40% physiology, 35% pathology. I had some weird pelvic anatomy questions and a little bit of pretty straight forward embryology (5%) thrown in there, too. Biochem and micro were probably the topics that were undercovered by First Aid the most. I had two easy blocks, one block I had to race to finish, and the rest were sort of in between, but for all but one I definitely had time to finish.

I recommend peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (you can grab one at Panera if you're too lazy to make it) as mid-exam brain fuel.

congrats - seems like first aid , brs phys , rr/brs path and a question bank are good enough to do well ...
great post :hardy::hardy::hardy:
 
Well, most of the questions that depend on pure basic science knowledge are superficial and stright forward. So, depending on my real exam, I would recommend FA, BRS physio, BRS patho, HY neuroanatomy, and probably Kaplan Biochem & genetics.

I wouldn't recommend HY gross anatomy and HY embryo.
 
Since there is no thread for 2008 here are my planning and results (248/99)
PS thanks to people on this forum that actually respond to posts like lankysudanese, blz, and others i cant remember.

NBME exams = These exams are a double edged sword. I planned on doing 1 a week leading up to the step and managed to do the first 3. The first 2 were very representative, I got the equivalent of a 219 the first day of studying after I got back from a weeks vacation on st marten; got the equivalent of a 232 8 days later; but NBME 3 is ridiculous, all molecular biochem and I dropped to a 224 so I got freaked out as this was 2 weeks before the test. As a result I didn’t take any more NBMEs but I think 1 and 2 are worth taking as you get closer to the test. Also something you should do is open up a word document while you take the test, and copy and paste all the questions you have trouble with so you can look up answers and explanations as none are provided. All in all the NBME are most like the exam so if you are having trouble with questions and concepts THEY WILL BE REPEATED on the real exam. Take them on your own discretion but definitely pay attention to 1 and 2.



UsmleWorld = Great resource that are duplicative of what the hard questions on the Step look like. A lot of the step is rapid recall but the hard questions are very hard and UW is like that. I started out with a few tests at 58 or 62%. I raised my overall average to 70% with a score consistently between 74 and 78% in the last 10-15 practice tests. All my practice tests were 50q, unused, timed, random. I was told online that 70% correlates to 245 score and I guess I hit that pretty close haha.



Books used = Here is a list of the books I used with emphasis on the ones I found most important and helpful for that subject. Number one is goljan rapid review, I never did the tapes but if you drive a lot at home then its worth popping in trouble subjects while you drive like respiratory for me. But goljan rapid review is the #1 book for step 1 prep hands down, you can probably answer biochem, genetics and physio questions after reading it haha. Second off is BRS Physio. The Kaplan guy is ******ed and goes on side stories for hours and spends 30 mins on the equation for free water clearance, I found him useless. BRS physio is readable within 2 days and makes sense of all the equations and concepts in a concise manner. For Kaplan, the behavioral book is amazing, Immuno is great and the pharmacology lectures are GOLD. The hardest pharm questions involve cardiac drugs and the antiarrhythmics with the graphs and stuff and that guy knocks them out cold. Plus it recaps physio a lot so it really cements a lot of concepts in your head. The only Kaplan books I didn’t use were the Qbook and pathology after the shelf as it is horribly inadequate.



First aid = First aid is a book but its more than that. The only thing I wish I did different was memorize first aid for another week which I feel would have added 5 points to my score easily. Honestly the test is 85% from first aid or at least felt that way. Numerous times I remember the exact page the answer was on first aid but could not recall the answer. Very key to finish off with.



Here is how I studied on a week to week basis when I got home. I spent a week in St Maarten after the Kaplan final to relax and unwind before 4-5 weeks of hellish studying which was a great time and a great idea. I think the key to staying sane is to regularly do something that takes your mind off the test which is something I feel everyone neglects. I worked out during the week religiously and I believe that was one of the key things that helped me stay focused. I also took about 2 days off in the middle randomly when I was burning out and my scores dipped.



Week 1 (Do 50 kaplan q bank questions upon waking and 50 question before bed, and read over explanations for those questions I got wrong and/or flagged)

Monday – Take NBME 1. Read Kaplan Histo/Anatomy

Tuesday – Read Kaplan Biochem

Wednesday – Finish Biochem

Thursday – Read Kaplan Genetics

Friday – Read Kaplan Neuro (in anatomy book)

Saturday – Finish Neuro

Sunday – Read Kaplan Immuno



Week 2 (purchased UsmleWorld, start out each day with 50 q and finish day with 50 questions, however read explanations for ALL QUESTIONS, this takes a while but is key)



Monday – Kaplan Micro

Tues – Start Kaplan Pharm

Wed – Finish Kaplan Pharm

Thurs - Read Kaplan Behavioral (emphasis on psychology, ethics, biostats, less emphasis on the random other stuff in there)

Fri - Took NBME 2 and then took rest of weekend off to relax with friends



Week 3 (continue UsmleWorld as week 2)



Monday – Begin Goljan Rapid Review….took the entire week up til the following Monday night to finish along with UsmleWorld questions

Saturday – Took NBME 3 and suffered consequent heart attack due to difficulty level and score drop



Week 4



Monday – Finished up Goljan and quickly reread through trouble sections like respiratory, derm, neoplasia

Tuesday – Took off

Wednesday – First Aid, Do 150 UsmleWorld questions

Thursday – First Aid, Do 150 UsmleWorld questions

Friday – First Aid, Do 150 UW questions

Saturday – same as Friday

Sunday – Same as Saturday

- I finished usmle world the Sunday before the test, thought that was appropriate. I read first aid in following manner. Behavioral and neoplasia first as they are the most “buzz word” or just rapid fact memorization such as genes, metastases locations, or other random stuff like sensitivity, specificity etc. Then I did stronger subjects of mine and left my weakest subjects along with super high yield for the week before the test. Overall I finished First Aid by late Sunday night.



Week 5 (Game time!!)

Monday – do the 150 question USMLE cd from the site, scored 41, 44, 45 on the three 50 q sections and 4 questions out of the set repeated including 3 I got wrong and read the explanations for on the kaplan site (Kaplan has explanations and answers). After test, read embryo, anatomy, and behavioral First Aid again as they are SO HIGH YIELD out of first aid. Embryo especially.



Tuesday – Memorized First Aid Microbio ….this was a big key to my score, most of microbio in FA was on the exam and I felt that I absolutely murdered it minus 2 questions on parasites and fungus but cmon who understands that stuff anyway? Memorizing this so close to the test along with it being so small was very important. I also memorized immuno right after as it is also small and full of random facts such as interleukins and CD markers that can be easily memorized that are relatively high yield



Wed – Went over GI and respiratory, my 2 biggest systemic path problem subjects along with last minute biochem. Stopped studying at 1-2 pm. Went for a good workout and then drove to test center, it was an hour away so I decided to make the morning easier I would stay at a motel. This is probably unnecessary detail but that night I relaxed by going to watch cloverfield and I had horrible nightmares cuz I am from NYC and that movie involves it. Moral of the story, watch a funny movie.



Thursday – STEP 1



Step 1 Experience

First off I only slept 3 hours the night before so im amazed I didn’t bomb the test. For eating, I packed 2 gatorades, a packet of trail mix and granola bar. In short, the food you have should not spike your blood sugar and make you crash and Gatorade is good for hydration, small details I feel affect test performance. I stayed away from caffeine until the last section. Before that section I pounded a coke zero and used the caffeine to push me over the finish line, a great idea. I took the first 2 sections back to back, then took a 10 min break after the third section, took a 30 min lunch break after the 4th, took 10 min breaks after the 5th and 6th. I thought it worked out well as I was always rested and never had issues with time. With lunch I actually called a quiznos across the street after my 3rd block and paid for food to be picked up in an hour so that way I didn’t spend any of my 30 min lunch break on line…simply ate it and relaxed. These are small details which again I feel helped the overall day by keeping stress at bay, something I know a lot of people have serious problems with so I included it. Now for the test breakdown =



60% Path = most stressed was Cardio path, then Neuro, Renal, and GI, a huge surprise. GI I got murdered in usmleworld but they prepared me really well for step 1. Example of tricky question = they showed a liver with a crapload of cancer everywhere and they ask you what is the disease process. Instead of hepatocellular carcinoma you had to realize that with so much cancer it was definitely metastases and the highest organ rate of liver metases is the colon so answer is colon adenocarcinoma. It was only a one sentence question but that’s how they ask for path, very tricky.

Pharm and Physio were equally emphasized but they were integrated with pathology or micro (especially pharm) every time. In fact a lot of pharm questions were 2 or 3 discipline questions often mixing micro and biochem, making pharm very tortuous.

Micro was very well represented with about 5-8 questions per block but also very integrated with immuno and pharm.

Immuno was surprisingly well represented but almost every immuno question opened with a micro question stem which made you know the mechanism of infectious pathology before thinking about the immunological response, probably the trickiest part of the test.

Biochem was either ridiculous molecular bio or disease process with missing enzyme but between Kaplan and First aid I happened to get most of them right according to my score report. Usmleworld also prepared me very well for this.

Genetics had like 2 or 3 questions, one was Hardy Weinberg, Kaplan was great for it including their practice questions and that is the only 10 mins on the genetics lecture video worth paying attention to on normal speed.

Nutrition is also a subtype of genetics that is very well represented on usmle world and the step, definitely pay attention to the pathology of it and how it affects the body, the questions were very in depth.

Behavioral was biostats which you just had to memorize or ethics which was about 1 or 2 questions per block. Not too high yield but not worth losing points on so put a little extra effort in



Final Grade = 248/99, not the highest grade but something im very proud of.



Any questions feel free to hit me up, I hated how I never got help even from my class peers while I was studying cept a few people who still supported. Hope this helps…..btw the most important score was the breathalyzer test the night of my Step 1 = approximately 0.19
 
Since there is no thread for 2008 here are my planning and results (248/99)
PS thanks to people on this forum that actually respond to posts like lankysudanese, blz, and others i cant remember.

NBME exams = These exams are a double edged sword. I planned on doing 1 a week leading up to the step and managed to do the first 3. The first 2 were very representative, I got the equivalent of a 219 the first day of studying after I got back from a weeks vacation on st marten; got the equivalent of a 232 8 days later; but NBME 3 is ridiculous, all molecular biochem and I dropped to a 224 so I got freaked out as this was 2 weeks before the test. As a result I didn’t take any more NBMEs but I think 1 and 2 are worth taking as you get closer to the test. Also something you should do is open up a word document while you take the test, and copy and paste all the questions you have trouble with so you can look up answers and explanations as none are provided. All in all the NBME are most like the exam so if you are having trouble with questions and concepts THEY WILL BE REPEATED on the real exam. Take them on your own discretion but definitely pay attention to 1 and 2.



UsmleWorld = Great resource that are duplicative of what the hard questions on the Step look like. A lot of the step is rapid recall but the hard questions are very hard and UW is like that. I started out with a few tests at 58 or 62%. I raised my overall average to 70% with a score consistently between 74 and 78% in the last 10-15 practice tests. All my practice tests were 50q, unused, timed, random. I was told online that 70% correlates to 245 score and I guess I hit that pretty close haha.



Books used = Here is a list of the books I used with emphasis on the ones I found most important and helpful for that subject. Number one is goljan rapid review, I never did the tapes but if you drive a lot at home then its worth popping in trouble subjects while you drive like respiratory for me. But goljan rapid review is the #1 book for step 1 prep hands down, you can probably answer biochem, genetics and physio questions after reading it haha. Second off is BRS Physio. The Kaplan guy is ******ed and goes on side stories for hours and spends 30 mins on the equation for free water clearance, I found him useless. BRS physio is readable within 2 days and makes sense of all the equations and concepts in a concise manner. For Kaplan, the behavioral book is amazing, Immuno is great and the pharmacology lectures are GOLD. The hardest pharm questions involve cardiac drugs and the antiarrhythmics with the graphs and stuff and that guy knocks them out cold. Plus it recaps physio a lot so it really cements a lot of concepts in your head. The only Kaplan books I didn’t use were the Qbook and pathology after the shelf as it is horribly inadequate.



First aid = First aid is a book but its more than that. The only thing I wish I did different was memorize first aid for another week which I feel would have added 5 points to my score easily. Honestly the test is 85% from first aid or at least felt that way. Numerous times I remember the exact page the answer was on first aid but could not recall the answer. Very key to finish off with.



Here is how I studied on a week to week basis when I got home. I spent a week in St Maarten after the Kaplan final to relax and unwind before 4-5 weeks of hellish studying which was a great time and a great idea. I think the key to staying sane is to regularly do something that takes your mind off the test which is something I feel everyone neglects. I worked out during the week religiously and I believe that was one of the key things that helped me stay focused. I also took about 2 days off in the middle randomly when I was burning out and my scores dipped.



Week 1 (Do 50 kaplan q bank questions upon waking and 50 question before bed, and read over explanations for those questions I got wrong and/or flagged)

Monday – Take NBME 1. Read Kaplan Histo/Anatomy

Tuesday – Read Kaplan Biochem

Wednesday – Finish Biochem

Thursday – Read Kaplan Genetics

Friday – Read Kaplan Neuro (in anatomy book)

Saturday – Finish Neuro

Sunday – Read Kaplan Immuno



Week 2 (purchased UsmleWorld, start out each day with 50 q and finish day with 50 questions, however read explanations for ALL QUESTIONS, this takes a while but is key)



Monday – Kaplan Micro

Tues – Start Kaplan Pharm

Wed – Finish Kaplan Pharm

Thurs - Read Kaplan Behavioral (emphasis on psychology, ethics, biostats, less emphasis on the random other stuff in there)

Fri - Took NBME 2 and then took rest of weekend off to relax with friends



Week 3 (continue UsmleWorld as week 2)



Monday – Begin Goljan Rapid Review….took the entire week up til the following Monday night to finish along with UsmleWorld questions

Saturday – Took NBME 3 and suffered consequent heart attack due to difficulty level and score drop



Week 4



Monday – Finished up Goljan and quickly reread through trouble sections like respiratory, derm, neoplasia

Tuesday – Took off

Wednesday – First Aid, Do 150 UsmleWorld questions

Thursday – First Aid, Do 150 UsmleWorld questions

Friday – First Aid, Do 150 UW questions

Saturday – same as Friday

Sunday – Same as Saturday

- I finished usmle world the Sunday before the test, thought that was appropriate. I read first aid in following manner. Behavioral and neoplasia first as they are the most “buzz word” or just rapid fact memorization such as genes, metastases locations, or other random stuff like sensitivity, specificity etc. Then I did stronger subjects of mine and left my weakest subjects along with super high yield for the week before the test. Overall I finished First Aid by late Sunday night.



Week 5 (Game time!!)

Monday – do the 150 question USMLE cd from the site, scored 41, 44, 45 on the three 50 q sections and 4 questions out of the set repeated including 3 I got wrong and read the explanations for on the kaplan site (Kaplan has explanations and answers). After test, read embryo, anatomy, and behavioral First Aid again as they are SO HIGH YIELD out of first aid. Embryo especially.



Tuesday – Memorized First Aid Microbio ….this was a big key to my score, most of microbio in FA was on the exam and I felt that I absolutely murdered it minus 2 questions on parasites and fungus but cmon who understands that stuff anyway? Memorizing this so close to the test along with it being so small was very important. I also memorized immuno right after as it is also small and full of random facts such as interleukins and CD markers that can be easily memorized that are relatively high yield



Wed – Went over GI and respiratory, my 2 biggest systemic path problem subjects along with last minute biochem. Stopped studying at 1-2 pm. Went for a good workout and then drove to test center, it was an hour away so I decided to make the morning easier I would stay at a motel. This is probably unnecessary detail but that night I relaxed by going to watch cloverfield and I had horrible nightmares cuz I am from NYC and that movie involves it. Moral of the story, watch a funny movie.



Thursday – STEP 1



Step 1 Experience

First off I only slept 3 hours the night before so im amazed I didn’t bomb the test. For eating, I packed 2 gatorades, a packet of trail mix and granola bar. In short, the food you have should not spike your blood sugar and make you crash and Gatorade is good for hydration, small details I feel affect test performance. I stayed away from caffeine until the last section. Before that section I pounded a coke zero and used the caffeine to push me over the finish line, a great idea. I took the first 2 sections back to back, then took a 10 min break after the third section, took a 30 min lunch break after the 4th, took 10 min breaks after the 5th and 6th. I thought it worked out well as I was always rested and never had issues with time. With lunch I actually called a quiznos across the street after my 3rd block and paid for food to be picked up in an hour so that way I didn’t spend any of my 30 min lunch break on line…simply ate it and relaxed. These are small details which again I feel helped the overall day by keeping stress at bay, something I know a lot of people have serious problems with so I included it. Now for the test breakdown =



60% Path = most stressed was Cardio path, then Neuro, Renal, and GI, a huge surprise. GI I got murdered in usmleworld but they prepared me really well for step 1. Example of tricky question = they showed a liver with a crapload of cancer everywhere and they ask you what is the disease process. Instead of hepatocellular carcinoma you had to realize that with so much cancer it was definitely metastases and the highest organ rate of liver metases is the colon so answer is colon adenocarcinoma. It was only a one sentence question but that’s how they ask for path, very tricky.

Pharm and Physio were equally emphasized but they were integrated with pathology or micro (especially pharm) every time. In fact a lot of pharm questions were 2 or 3 discipline questions often mixing micro and biochem, making pharm very tortuous.

Micro was very well represented with about 5-8 questions per block but also very integrated with immuno and pharm.

Immuno was surprisingly well represented but almost every immuno question opened with a micro question stem which made you know the mechanism of infectious pathology before thinking about the immunological response, probably the trickiest part of the test.

Biochem was either ridiculous molecular bio or disease process with missing enzyme but between Kaplan and First aid I happened to get most of them right according to my score report. Usmleworld also prepared me very well for this.

Genetics had like 2 or 3 questions, one was Hardy Weinberg, Kaplan was great for it including their practice questions and that is the only 10 mins on the genetics lecture video worth paying attention to on normal speed.

Nutrition is also a subtype of genetics that is very well represented on usmle world and the step, definitely pay attention to the pathology of it and how it affects the body, the questions were very in depth.

Behavioral was biostats which you just had to memorize or ethics which was about 1 or 2 questions per block. Not too high yield but not worth losing points on so put a little extra effort in



Final Grade = 248/99, not the highest grade but something im very proud of.



Any questions feel free to hit me up, I hated how I never got help even from my class peers while I was studying cept a few people who still supported. Hope this helps…..btw the most important score was the breathalyzer test the night of my Step 1 = approximately 0.19


very very nicely done . You sound like one sincere guy . Thanks so much for sharing your experience . Good luck with the rest of your journey !!

again - well done :hardy::hardy::hardy::hardy::hardy::hardy::hardy::hardy::hardy:
 
taking it Saturday.....

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa



p.s. how much trouble am I in for studying First Aid 2005?
 
hey everyone,

My experiences are in post #11 above.

Quick summary: FA 2008 + USMLE World = great stuff.

My score: 251/99

Thanks to everyone who shared advice, and good luck!


btw, I don't think FA 2005 is a big problem...just has less info. I had 2004, but noticed that 2008 seemed 3 times bigger, so I gave in and got the newer one. Don't stress!
 
Took the beast today.

Took off about 7 weeks to study and spent most of it at home in my PJs, only emerging to workout at the gym and on weekends to eat dinner out. Sure, the internet and TV distracted me, but I used them as frequent breaks since I have the attention span of a fruitfly anyway. I got very well-versed in the latest CNN newsbreaks and the newest Bravo reality show episodes. :p And I kept up with the primaries! Plus having the convenience of all my books and the contents of my fridge within reach was very comfortable. :) And no, I did not gain weight from the aforementioned. ;)

Schedule - Tried fitting myself into the 8-5 schedule, but my nocturnal tendencies prevailed. Would wake up around 11am, study till 4 with a lunch break in the middle, workout/eat dinner/watch TV, resume studying at 8pm and go on till 3am or so. Saturday was supposed to be rest and catch-up day, but I would do an NBME every 2 Saturdays or so.
I used this and this to help me plan a schedule. Mapped it in Google Calendar.

I used FA 2005. My school taught systems-based; I thought I would benefit from using a different approach to review. Plus I think my ADD brain just focuses better in a subject-oriented manner without having to switch topics within an organ system. Annotate into FA from your other books! I started off diligently then slacked off after physio. Hehe.

Started with biochem and mole bio - 6 days total. Man, just be aware that by the time 6 weeks goes by, you will have forgotten 90% of what lovely metabolic pathways you crammed into your head in the beginning. I realized this little gem when I tried doing biochem questions a week before my exam. Definitely need a refresher closer to the day. Books RR Biochem and HY Mole Bio (1999 edition -- I think I should sell my copy on ebay for $500 ;) ) RR was a little overkill, but I was so rusty I think it helped me get my basics back. HY Mole bio was very basic; I'm not sure what the hype is about. I didn't get too much mole bio on my exam, mainly basics about transcription and translation and usually integrated with micro or pathology.

Then Phys - 5 days, using only BRS Physio. Not much to say, just understand the graphs -- high yield stuff to know: cardiac nodal cells and myocyte membrane potentials, ventricular pressure-volume curves, GI hormones, renal electrolyte balance and endocrine functions.

Path took a huge chunk of time - 10 days. Started Goljan audio from day 1. Supplemented with RR Path after each lecture. This formula was great for integrating multiple subjects and solidifying many high yield path concepts. Highly recommended.

Pharm - 2 days I didn't spend as much time on this as I should have; USMLE Roadmap Pharm lulled me into a false sense of security. It was way too basic and didn't explain concepts or mechanisms in enough detail for me to remember anything.HY Pharm was better, but I think FA is enough. Did antimicrobials last then jumped to..

Micro/Immuno 2 days bacteria, 1 day viruses, 1 day parasites. Used HY Micro to get basics down, but think FA is more than enough for quick and dirty review. I am really weak in micro -- cannot for the life of me remember what bug stains what in what medium and oxidises what. WHO.THE.F.CARES??? Rant aside, FA had more gems that HY didn't and I was able to answer some questions because of that. I only used FA for Immuno, but I had a pretty good background in undergrad.

Anatomy - 2 days HY Gross anat helped with clinical scenarios, but their preamble in each chapter is pure fluff. I skipped through all that. In hindsight, FA was wonderful and I should have just focused on that. However, HY is better for upper and lower extremity, which is very key. They love to ask about innervation there. Also, know your CT cross sectional brains and functional correlations. Pretty much every anatomy question I had could be traced to FA, sometimes with some regretful slapping of the thigh during the exam (quietly!)

Neuro - 1 day This was the exception to the system-based rule. Also neuro was my strong point, so I left it to the end. Neuro phys in BRS is quite overkill (especially the eye and ear stuff.) Learn ANS phys and pharm cold though -- they love that stuff. I had 10 questions just on autonomic agonists and blockers. As said before, know neuroanatomy as relates to pathology cold. Neuropath questions were pretty straightforward. HY Neuroanat was good for brain slices but don't stress out about minutiae in there, it won't be tested. It was a good book to skim through, for me, and good review for neuropath.

Embryo Err I think I had maybe 2 WHOLE questions in the entire exam and straightforward. Low Low yield -- just use FA. I skimmed through HY Embryo, but nothing was on there that FA didn't have, and in a more concise manner.

Histo+FA pictures - 1 day Blood smears, cancers... Know what different cell layer types epithelial/adeno/myo look like as you will be asked to apply these to pathology.

Behavior - 1 day HY Behavior is great. They have a small section on biostats, which tells you all you need to know; don't get HY Biostats. Psych is big; they like schizophrenia, defense mechanisms and drug side effects. Ethics is also fave -- most of my "quote" questions, i.e. "what will you do if your patient freaks out on you?" were pretty obvious.

Last 5 days -- focused on FA, especially the short-term memory topics Biochem, Pharm and Micro. I only skimmed Anatomy, thus leading to aforementioned thigh-slapping. Relax as much as you can the last day. Light review, no new material. Go to bed early. And try not to let nightbird in you thwart your efforts by waking you up at 1.22am after 10pm lights out and keeping you up till 445am. Sigh. I did ok though. hehe

Day of - Took every break I could. 5 min after 1st block, 10 after 2nd, 15 after third. Break got longer as I got more tired. 20 min lunch break. Went to the bathroom each break. 10 min after 5th, whopping 20 min break after 6th because I was getting very fatigued and sat down for some pseudo shuteye. Then 7th (my hardest block!) and survey yay!! Bring snacks, water and a protein-rich lunch. Try not to talk to fellow step-takers during breaks about test-related material; stresses you out and may get you in trouble! They video and audiotape the public areas of my test center. :scared: They also videotape you as you're taking the exam and warn you not to take your jacket off, change your hairstyle (verbatim!), put your hands in your pockets or perform any other "irregularity" while you are at the computer.

Qbank USMLEWorld -- most of the questions were way harder. You'll maybe get 5-10 of those :confused: questions on each block in the real thing. I got so frustrated doing uW towards the end of my review that I just did them in tutor format and skimmed the answers, blowing off those that only 17% of people got correct. :thumbdown: However, I have to say that a lot of questions I wouldn't have otherwise been able to answer were thanks to uW. Even some of the pictures were exactly the same!

All in all, uW gives you a great idea of what kind of questions to expect, as well as what is high yield to know (except those annoying 17% answered correct questions, which were too ridiculous for me.) Start doing the questions from day 1 as you will not only retain concepts learned, but will focus your mind when studying to help you take note of concepts you would otherwise have ignored.

I started off with 52% and moved towards 64-74% towards the end, completing ~75% of the questions. My absolute highest was 78% 2 weeks before the test. I freaked out and thought I'd reached my peak too early when my scores started plummeting after. :p

NBMEs
CBSE 228
#1 - before studying 228 (ha, did I not learn anything new in 1 yr of clinics?)
#4 - 5 weeks before 234
#3 - 2 weeks before 245
free 150 (CBT version) 2 weeks before 87% or 253
#2 - 1 week before 241
#5 and #6 came in right as I was entering my last week of studying, I think I must have seen them when I was buying #2 but plain ignored them (unconsciously... repression?) I thought 2 and 4 were the hardest. 3 was fair and I hope it's representative. :p the free 150 were way easier than the real thing.

Overall I probably used too many books and could have studied in a shorter period of time, but I'm done!

Update: 245/99. Exactly the same as NBME #3!
 
Here's my little STEP story.

I have about 1 year of Clinics experience, which might have helped but also had me feeling sheepish a few times when there were things I knew I'd seen in real life but couldn't quite recall the details.

Like Riverie, I took about 7 weeks off to study. Originally it was 6 but I freaked out early on and pushed it back a week... Not sure in the end that the extra week helped because I was just tired of studying at that point, but it probably was important to seal the rapid review memorizable facts.

I had an overly ambitious schedule to start with but didn't let myself get too disappointed when I got behind, as long as I wrote down something I'd done that day in my little log I felt accomplished. Didn't have too many planned days off, so I could flexibly add them when I just couldn't take anymore, but even then I would guilt myself into doing at least a qbank section to not waste my free questions. Did my best studying when I was locked away from every distraction (surprisingly 13 hour plane rides were really productive) and tried to keep an early bird schedule so I'd be adjusted when the exam came. Would basically wake up and study til I was tired of it, tricking myself by switching subjects or taking a Qbank to keep me going, exercising or getting outside every few days. Also helped that I was staying with my family for half of it, so my meals and laundry were taken care of, and by using the "studying for step" excuse to get out of chores, I guilted myself into studying a lot longer to really show them how hard I was working.

First Aid 2005 Read through at the beginning, and once in the last week (because my brain hates to do things it's already done). Was really good as an intro and then a recap after I'd studied everything in depth but I definitely would not have used it as an only source. Am not the kind of person who writes in books so it was fairly unannotated until the end when I started underlining like crazy. Freaked out in the last week that maybe it might be outdated, but it didn't really seem like a problem on the test, and the new qbank filled in a few of the gaps. I can't compare to the newer "systems-based" First Aids, but next time I'll just suck it up and buy new.

Q bank Used almost daily (93% completed, all done on random) and started by reading every (in-depth) explanation for both right and wrong answers until I realized it was taking too much time and started only hitting the reKaps toward the end. Was nice to have something to do when I was tired of reading, and get used to taking tests on computers when I am strictly a pen and paper sort of thinker. Aside from freezing quite often and highlighter malfunctions, the program itself was pretty comparable in style to the test but the questions stems were much longer (and had much more tertiary question-asking) than the real thing. And it had me believe I needed to know more pharm and biochem than I actually did (First Aid was enough). As a gage of how I was doing, Qbank was quite distressing because it did not correlate with amount of time spent studying and even fluctuated 30% in the last 2 weeks. It only reiterated how impossible it is to know everything and how it would be the luck of the draw on test day as to what I got.
Finished with an average of 68% which just wouldn't budge in the last week when I was more consistently averaging 75%. Probably could have finished but scored my highest ever (82%) the day before the test and wanted to leave on a high note. :)

BRS Phys 2 days. Nice to start with, especially to fill in the gaps on some First Aid pictures/graphs. The outline format does start to get annoying.

HY Gross Anatomy 4 half days. Did this too early, but Q bank reinforced the high yield topics enough to keep them fresh later (brachial plexus, limb musculature, gut blood supply). Didn't study any embryology outside of Qbank and FA and then got three ridiculous questions....

Lange Micro & Immuno 2 days. Old (and fairly large) textbook I'd bought during Infectious Disease. Since I was fairly comfortable with my Micro I only read the Immunology and the AIDS section in depth and went over rapid review Micro at the end. Outdated on monoclonal antibodies and newer therapeutics, but again FA and Qbank caught me up.

HY Neuroanatomy 3 days. Definitely good for pics of CTs and gross slices. Cranial nerves and optic pathways are always tested, so this was an important refresher. Def High Yield.

BRS Cell Bio/Histo 2.5 days. Felt guilty for never reading it during basic sciences. Wasted time. A few ok histo diagrams, but mostly outline descriptions in way too much detail about the specific cell types in each layer... so hard to read. FA for histo/path pictures, which I should have looked at more than once.

Rapid Review Biochemistry 2.5 days. Too early as well, forgot all the pathways and then relearned with First Aid. Good resource though, relatively easy to read.

Goljan Audio Rapid Review Path Interspersed but crammed to finish in the 2nd to last week. Should have done earlier and saved more crammable subjects for the end but was nice to have his mini-connections racing through my head, and was the only thing that kept me studying toward the end when I just wanted to get out of the house and walk around... However I am not an audio learner so 90% just slipped away if I wasn't diligently taking notes. Would have been nice to see pictures he was talking about instead of just imagining. Read his 100 page HY facts the second to last 2 days, probably just pushing other facts out of my head at that point. Didn't use any other Path resources even though I'd planned to look at Robbins pics, and I'd had a fair background from basic sciences already. Then I got some ridiculous path/gross slides on the test, but I doubt I'd remember even if I had seen them before.

150 Free Questions: 226 before studying. Good for motivation.
NBME Form 2: 242 2 weeks out.
NBME Form 3: 234 1 week out. and a bit distressing after declining Q banks... but some people say this is the hardest one?
NBME Form 4: 244 3 days out.
Also saw that Forms 5 and 6 had been posted that last week but couldn't handle anymore test-taking (or $$$). Saw some repeat questions on the real thing, but of course I hadn't been sure I'd gotten them right the first time because I didn't review the answers. Good to practice sitting and taking the tests, closer question format to the real thing than Qbank, and especially to see the breakdowns of my strong and weak points - even if there was nothing I could do at the end. Can't say if any were easier or harder because I'm too good at blanking out a test I've just taken. Would be very happy if these are true to life.

Last 5 days Planned to do FA twice more, but did it once and instead went through Goljan 100 HY PDF so I wouldn't waste a resource I had. Was doing 2-4 Qbank sessions a day to try to finish that as well. Planned to look through all my typed notes from Qbank wrong answers, which also did not happen. Was doing my best just to keep solid 8-10 hour study days and started revisiting Biochem pathways, Biostats equations and other formulas. Tried to wean myself off of coffee and kept most distractions to a minimum.

Big day. First of all I was not sleeping very well the entire study period - nightmares and noisy cats, so I made sure to have everything for the next morning already prepared (map, lunch/snacks, schedule permit and ID) and went to bed really early the night before (as I threw FA across the room in disgust) so when the inevitable early-morning awakening happened I would have gotten at least a few hours of rest.
Tried to look at FA at the last minute (rapid review section) that morning, or go through some old notes and my formula sheet, but I couldn't focus at all. The drive there got my heart racing even more when I felt like I was about to get pulled over on the highway for speeding (luckily cop was chasing someone else). Got to the testing center 30 min early and it really did take that long for them to check everyone in and assign lockers, so my plans of beating the crowd were dashed. 25 minutes into Block 1 I decided to use the annotate button and my screen went black. Huge panic attack, but somehow the proctor turned the computer on and off several times and the test was still there. No more annotation after that.
Was ok on time for most of the test, but slower than my usual test-taking because I was trying to be really careful (5 - 15 minutes early each time), however I still couldn't trust myself to go back to previously marked questions and second-guess myself, and I'd accidently hit block end before I could review anyway. Took little breaks after block 2, block 4 (~20 min for lunch), block 6 (for caffeine) which kept my mental health during the exam, but was suprisingly not fatigued and didn't even really need the caffeine at the end (after all those adrenaline moments earlier in the day) or all the snacks I'd packed (didn't want to be going to my locker every 30 minutes). Had to fight the urge to rush through the last one just to get out of there (my block 7 was also the hardest). I don't dwell on questions I don't know, but I'd say I felt the same as the practice tests?

not sure that was helpful, but needed to dump it somewhere.
will update with scores....
 
Took it on Friday. Typically, how many days/weeks does it take to get your score back and where do you go to find it?
 
They say within six weeks. I received it exactly three weeks from my exam date. Most people I know received it 4 weeks from their exam date. You will receive an e-mail entitled "Your score report is available", and you will be guided to view your score. I Heard scores are released on wednesday night each week..was true for my score. I took it on Wednesday and received the score on Wednesday 3 weeks later.

Best wishes :)
 
Top