2007 USMLE Step I Experiences

[missmod]

I think I'll start the thread, since I just finished Step I today! Boy does it feel good to have it over with. In case you guys are wondering, my med school is on a different schedule, so we do basic sciences in 1.5 years, do one year of clerkships, and then take the boards.

So I started a 6 week study schedule (started after new years). The first five weeks, I studied for about 9-10 hours with a lot of breaks and took weekends off to either have fun or catch up/review. The last week I saved just for review and as many questions as I could fit into my 10 hour day. I have to say, this last week was the worst. Not in the no-sleep-cram-for-a-test kind of way, but in the huge-weight-on-your-shoulders kind of way.

Now for a breakdown of the subjects...

Biochem: There was not a lot of biochem on my exam. A few key enzyme deficiency ones (Lesch Nyhan, Maple Syrup Disease) but all of the questions were very obvious and did not require you to put much thought into it. Don't blow off porphyria and lead poisoning-- for some reason I got so many questions on that!

Molecular Bio: This was a big one! I think the NBME is moving away from the biochem towards questions on molecular bio. Many questions about DNA regulation, transcription, translation, bacterial plasmids, etc. Sometimes these questions look very scary -- they are always so long and use long names for molecules or restriction enzymes that you have never heard of. You need to get used to the question style and realize that what they are asking is very simple. The NBME forms have questions very similar to the molecular bio ones I saw on the exam.

Pharm: Another one I thought would be difficult but not. Big drugs you should know a lot about (like antihypertensives, drugs for hyperlipidemias, cardic drugs, etc.) However, I wouldn't worry too much about the side effects for every tiny drug -- especially the chemo and immunosupressant drugs that kept on tripping me up so much.

Micro/Immuno: I had not a single question on parasites! That huge chart of worms and helminths in First Aid had me worried for a while, but it was not a big part of my exam. If anything, just know the key phrases because if they do test you on it, it would be a really obvious scenario. Mostly bacterial processes and what you would use to treat them... or what was their mechanism of disease (i.e. endotoxn, exotoxin, etc.) Know immunology and cytokines well, as well as the functions of all the cells. Different immune deficiencies were all asked on my exam (there is one page in First Aid that sums them up very well).

Anatomy/Neuroanatomy: Always combined with a pathology question or an imagine. I had a few branchial plexus/lumbar plexus questions. Many questions would give you a clinical scenario, then ask you to identiy the artery/nerve/organ on a CT scan/MRI/angiogram/brain cross section. Again, I think Qbank does not help you much at all because there aren't that many images. All i can say is look through some atlases quickly as you are studying anatomy -- not Netters bc that won't help much, but books that will give you real radiographic images.

Physio: This was almost always combined with Pathology--they would ask the physiology behind some path process. I had so many questions where the question asked "what would be the levels of x, y, and z enzymes/hormones?", answer choices being "increased, decreased, etc"

Pathology: Not as detailed orientated as Kaplan. Very little histology related pathology -- most of the questions though, required you to make a diagnosis and then know something about the pathophys of the disease or the treatment of the disease. There were also a lot of images -- MANY more than Qbank's representation.

All in all, I think the test more manageable than Kaplan's Qbank. Don't let Qbank discourage you -- ! Doing the questions help you to learn, so if you were getting them all right then the questions are too easy and not really helping you much. I do remember many questions that I knew only because I got the question wrong on Kaplan's Qbank. Also, the NBME tests are VERY good and very representative of the real thing. They also help you get used to the wording of the Q's, which can be a LITTLE different from what Qbank is like. I did forms 2, 3, and 4 and I thought 2 and 3 were the best. A few images on those practice exams were repeated on my actual exam.

Goljan's book and lectures were great. He pointed out lots of things that wound up being on the exam and presents them in a way that really sticks. Also, his images are a great resource.

I've been lurking for a while and haven't really posted since applying to med school, but I have to say you guys have really helped me out during my boards studying. Good luck to everyone else getting ready to take this monster.

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[IzzyMD09]

Ive done about 65% of Kraplan and I gots like a 62%
Took form 1 NBME got a 216

need to study neuro, gross anat, embryo, micro, and pharm (saving for last)
plan on spending 4 days on anatomy/neuro/embryo going over goljans 100 pages with blue boxes from moore and high yields for all 3 (dont know if this is even doable)

starting pharm and micro behav and stats for the last week and a half

am i wrong, should I switch to UW, i have about 700 q's left on kaplan time is dwindling

help

 

[futrorthodr]

Izzy,

If you have 18 days left I would switch over to UWorld. You should be able to get through all the questions UWorld has to offer. I used kaplan until about 65% and then switched over and I am glad I did.

 

[IzzyMD09]

what about all those subjects i still need to go over
should i just forget it and do UW
thanks for the reply

 

[futrorthodr]

I would still try to at least go over those subjects ESPECIALLY NEURO, PHARM AND MICRO! Maybe try to do 150-200 questions a day and some reading on those subjects at night. You will pick up a lot from Uworld especially for micro and pharm because in their explanations they describe the actions of pretty much all the answer choices.

 

[IzzyMD09]

yeah that sounds like a plan
i definately want to read the micro chapters from the high yield cell and molec book
i feel all the kraplan ive been doing has given me a good base of micro so i wont spend too much time on it besides the micro phys mol bio and viruses

pharm ....ugh i hate pharm....i dont know but i think im just going to memorize the first Aid pharm and call it a day


neuro and gross im at a loss for, im trying to study it now with the goljan 100 pages and its just all crazy go nuts

 

[N-Surge]

HY Anatomy, Embryology, and Neuroanatomy might hook you up in the least amount of time. Maybe spend 2-3 days on nothing but this and move on. At least this will allow you to have seen the material once in such a format. This is my plan for these 3 topics, and I am pretty much where you are timewise (16 days left).

Goljan's boxes is VERY doable. I plan on going through the entire book again.

Pharmacology... Yeah, memorize "1" list somewhere and move on. Hit it again 1 or 2 days before the exam. I am probably going with the Step-Up list. FIRST AID should suffice as well, from what I have heard from friends. Make sure to hit the kinetics/dynamics stuff one more time as well so as not to miss an easy calculation, if you get one.

Microbiology... I hear FIRST AID is good enough. I am using Rosenthal's flash cards, the author of the FIRST AID rated RR Micro/Immuno book. And I am liking them. In fact, I am taking a break from them right now, lol.

Behavioral... FIRST AID is probably good enough. BRS (or Kaplan) might not be bad to skim, if you think you need it.

Questions... I am torn between finishing up Review of Pathology and hitting UW hard, personally. If I was to choose between Kaplan and UW, I'd go with UW. If you do 2 blocks of 50 per day you will finish around 1500 Qs. That's sound good to me!

Good luck!

 

[IzzyMD09]

when you guys all say you get through all these qbanks and qbooks and what not
how much time are you spending with answers
it takes me an hour to do the 50q's and then another 2 hours to go over all the answers right and wrong

im just wondering how many you do per day vs. how much time you spend using other materials
thanks

 

[N-Surge]

when you guys all say you get through all these qbanks and qbooks and what not
how much time are you spending with answers
it takes me an hour to do the 50q's and then another 2 hours to go over all the answers right and wrong

im just wondering how many you do per day vs. how much time you spend using other materials
thanks

I will be doing 100 per day (2 hrs to do the problems and then no more than 3 hrs to review). Personally, I'd rather review my study materials than stew too much over the answers. My reasoning is that the answers may only be showing one way the topic "could be" presented.

Other materials... 6-8 hrs, depending.

 

[joe6102]

Those last 9 posts are freakin fantastic USMLE Step 1 experiences.

 

[leechy]

So, I finally took the exam and thought I'd add my two cents.

Content: I felt the exam was reasonably split between everything in a predictable way - lots of path and physio and micro, lesser amounts of anatomy and biochem and molecular stuff and pharm.

The other thing about content is that there ARE a certain number of questions that you're unlikely to have picked up in your studying, no matter HOW long you studied or what resources you used. Anatomy in particular falls into this category (unfortunately), because really anything's game once they move beyond the brachial plexus. And there were one or two questions I think I got (not sure) only because I used to read the newspaper and follow current events (back in the day).

After I came home, I looked up a few questions that I didn't know, and I still couldn't figure out the answer. Maybe they were experimental, maybe not though (I had the same issue with a few NBME questions - felt the wording was poor).

Issues: Time actually was a bit of an issue. I could finish each block with some time left over, but often I felt like there were a few questions that I just wanted a few minutes to think over in an unhurried way, with like a cup of fresh coffee in hand. Went wrong a few times because I was in a rush. Oh well.

Exhaustion is also an issue, towards the end - more like a lack of mental freshness, to be specific. There were a few 'thinking' pathophys or physiology type questions that I could have gotten quickly first thing in the morning, but by 4 pm and question 300 they became more difficult to untangle in my mind.

Advice: Okay, people might disagree but I'd advise REALLY knowing FA well. I did an attempted re-read as the day of the test approached, and that was helpful, but I really wish I had done TWO re-reads, because during the test there were a few times when I just wished I could recall exactly what was written on page x. It also boosts confidence to feel like you know some resource well.

On the other hand, at the start of your studying, it is extremely difficult to just read through FA without going bonkers. So I'd say do lots of questions, and refer to FA while doing them.

As far as question sources go, UW is very good, but I actually thought Kaplan wasn't totally bad in retrospect. There were a few nitpicky detailed type questions on the real thing that Kaplan had actually tested me on (BUT, I forgot the answers anyway. *chuckles*). Still, of course, don't waste $300 on Kaplan. Get UW and then time permitting, just go through as many questions in book sources as you can get your hands on - like Kaplan qbook, Robbins review, etc (I didn't use these much, but I think they're helpful, and a cheap alternative to Kaplan). Doing lots of questions is helpful in that it at least exposes you to a lot of material.

Next, physiology. I'd recommend really knowing basic physiology and pathophysiology, particularly renal and endocrine. Use BRS physiology. If you don't have time to read it, look over the graphs. If you can recognize and interpret some commonly used physiology graphs more easily, it'll save you some time (and hopefully earn you a few points). I'd also recommend having the serum electrolyte profiles of standard endocrine and renal disorders on mental speed dial. Basically what I mean is, you know those little sections in FA with little tables of arrows going up and down and various diseases? Really know those. I kind of wish I had them down cold.

Also, molecular. Definitely read high yield molecular and cell. Really worth it. Yes, technically a lot of the content is in first aid, but HY M&C gives a better understanding.

Anatomy is tough to study for. I'd say basically familiarize yourself with chest x-rays, abdominal CTs, really basic brain stuff, and beyond that, just do questions to expose yourself to more material. There were clinical injury questions that would probably be easy if you'd been on the wards, but with a nonclinical background they were 'wtf' questions.

So yeah, I'd recommend FA, BRS phys, HY M&C, and lots of question books. I also used HY neuroanatomy and immunology, USMLE anatomy roadmap (a little), Lippincott biochem and pharm (a little), but I thought these were less helpful.

Lastly, I'd recommend doing one to two NBMEs, just so you know what you're dealing with. Maybe take one on slow mode early on, to note what content is being tested, and then do another maybe 10 days before your test as a self-assessment.

All this, and I still have no idea how I did. I guess that's the nature of the beast.

 

[kate0834tkjn]

Okay, people might disagree but I'd advise REALLY knowing FA well. I did an attempted re-read as the day of the test approached, and that was helpful, but I really wish I had done TWO re-reads, because during the test there were a few times when I just wished I could recall exactly what was written on page x. It also boosts confidence to feel like you know some resource well.

I totally agree with this advice. I had SEVERAL q's right out of FA that I got wrong b/c I didn't review it enough time. If I had to do it again, I'd definitely do that.

 

[Tastebuds]

So, I finally took the exam and thought I'd add my two cents.

Content: I felt the exam was reasonably split between everything in a predictable way - lots of path and physio and micro, lesser amounts of anatomy and biochem and molecular stuff and pharm.

The other thing about content is that there ARE a certain number of questions that you're unlikely to have picked up in your studying, no matter HOW long you studied or what resources you used. Anatomy in particular falls into this category (unfortunately), because really anything's game once they move beyond the brachial plexus. And there were one or two questions I think I got (not sure) only because I used to read the newspaper and follow current events (back in the day).

After I came home, I looked up a few questions that I didn't know, and I still couldn't figure out the answer. Maybe they were experimental, maybe not though (I had the same issue with a few NBME questions - felt the wording was poor).

Issues: Time actually was a bit of an issue. I could finish each block with some time left over, but often I felt like there were a few questions that I just wanted a few minutes to think over in an unhurried way, with like a cup of fresh coffee in hand. Went wrong a few times because I was in a rush. Oh well.

Exhaustion is also an issue, towards the end - more like a lack of mental freshness, to be specific. There were a few 'thinking' pathophys or physiology type questions that I could have gotten quickly first thing in the morning, but by 4 pm and question 300 they became more difficult to untangle in my mind.

Advice: Okay, people might disagree but I'd advise REALLY knowing FA well. I did an attempted re-read as the day of the test approached, and that was helpful, but I really wish I had done TWO re-reads, because during the test there were a few times when I just wished I could recall exactly what was written on page x. It also boosts confidence to feel like you know some resource well.

On the other hand, at the start of your studying, it is extremely difficult to just read through FA without going bonkers. So I'd say do lots of questions, and refer to FA while doing them.

As far as question sources go, UW is very good, but I actually thought Kaplan wasn't totally bad in retrospect. There were a few nitpicky detailed type questions on the real thing that Kaplan had actually tested me on (BUT, I forgot the answers anyway. *chuckles*). Still, of course, don't waste $300 on Kaplan. Get UW and then time permitting, just go through as many questions in book sources as you can get your hands on - like Kaplan qbook, Robbins review, etc (I didn't use these much, but I think they're helpful, and a cheap alternative to Kaplan). Doing lots of questions is helpful in that it at least exposes you to a lot of material.

Next, physiology. I'd recommend really knowing basic physiology and pathophysiology, particularly renal and endocrine. Use BRS physiology. If you don't have time to read it, look over the graphs. If you can recognize and interpret some commonly used physiology graphs more easily, it'll save you some time (and hopefully earn you a few points). I'd also recommend having the serum electrolyte profiles of standard endocrine and renal disorders on mental speed dial. Basically what I mean is, you know those little sections in FA with little tables of arrows going up and down and various diseases? Really know those. I kind of wish I had them down cold.

Also, molecular. Definitely read high yield molecular and cell. Really worth it. Yes, technically a lot of the content is in first aid, but HY M&C gives a better understanding.

Anatomy is tough to study for. I'd say basically familiarize yourself with chest x-rays, abdominal CTs, really basic brain stuff, and beyond that, just do questions to expose yourself to more material. There were clinical injury questions that would probably be easy if you'd been on the wards, but with a nonclinical background they were 'wtf' questions.

So yeah, I'd recommend FA, BRS phys, HY M&C, and lots of question books. I also used HY neuroanatomy and immunology, USMLE anatomy roadmap (a little), Lippincott biochem and pharm (a little), but I thought these were less helpful.

Lastly, I'd recommend doing one to two NBMEs, just so you know what you're dealing with. Maybe take one on slow mode early on, to note what content is being tested, and then do another maybe 10 days before your test as a self-assessment.

All this, and I still have no idea how I did. I guess that's the nature of the beast.

Can you recommend HY topics in cell/molecular bio? I have my exam in 2 weeks....and I want to know what I should focus on in this subject.

Thanks

 

[UT_mikie]

Looks like I'm the first to bite for todays score release.

Step 1 score: 236/99

NBME 2: 240

I am skipping lecture to write this. So this will be short.

Sources: WYNTK course (Texas residents), FA x 3, Goljan RR x 1, Goljan Audio x alot, Goljan Biochem x 1, USMLE World - 92%, other random review books.

5 weeks to study, all of my schools MS 2 finals were shelf exams so I studied my ass off for those.

Best sources: USMLE World (if you don't use this you're an idiot), Goljan RR and Audio, the WYNTK course was also good for those who can't keep to a time schedule.

I felt like absolute crapp after the exam, I thought for sure I had scored a 215 or something. So you never know. Overall 80%+ of my exam was right out of FA, although I hear that some people had some weird exams where <50% was out of FA, so who knows.

Overall I'm happy. I missed 10-15 questions because of dumb stupid ass mistakes, I didn't sleep AT ALL the night before, excuses excuses. But overall I don't hear any doors shutting (except derm and ortho but I was never interested in the first place) so I'm happy. I'm really enjoying my pedi rotation so who knows. Maybe Cali isn't so far away after all.

Oh, and just one small plug for UT-Houston. They beat the crapp out of us by shoving so much information down our throats during the 1st 2 years, but I honestly felt there was nothing on that exam that I had never seen before.

Good luck to all of you.

 

[simha1487]

I'll bite next...

NBME 1 - 217 (diagnostic.. 6 wks before exam)
NBME 4- 238 (3 wks before exam)
NBME 2- 248 (1 wk before exam)
USMLE 150 released qs- 95% (3 days before exam)
USMLE world - 70% (96% finished)

Exam scores - 256 !! (yeah ! )

Contributing to the highly inflated scores on SDN, of course (since its nice to share anonymously when you do well, of course)... , but i'm glad the scores progressed so steadily and reliably through studying

USMLE world, Goljan lectures and FA were my only sources.. It seems to have worked out.. checked out some textbooks for references when i needed more detail...

exam had a few weird psych questions but for the most part was focussed on the traditional path, phys, micro etc... had four or five really nitty gitty HIV questions that i still dont know the answer to (molecular pathophysiology of HIV in cells other than CD4 cells or Macrophages), but i thought they were experimental..

in any case, very happy today ! Friends did well too, in the 230+ range, so its a good day..

 

[chocolate-e]

QBank: If memory serves, I was a few percentage points above the "average QBank user." (My time has run out and I can't access the exact info anymore.)

NBME 3: 221 (510) ~1 week before the real thing

The real thing: 238/99

My goal was 230, so I'm psyched. Studied for 3 weeks, mostly in FA (went through most of it twice) and QBank (~75% complete), with tentative forays into UCV and the pharm flashcards I'd made during the year.

 

[Shades McCool]

Well I took the test today.

I studied for 31 days straight with no break. These are the materials that I used:

Anatomy: FA
Biochemistry: FA and Kaplan
Embryology: FA
Immunology: FA and Kaplan
Microbiology: FA and MMRS
Physiology: BRS and FA
Pathology: Goljan and FA
Pharmacology: FA
Behavior & Biostats: BRS and FA

Q-Bank: 80% completed @ 78% correct
USMLE World: 700 questions @ 80% correct

Now to the actual exam...

Anatomy: Good number of images but they were very straight forward. I don't think anyone should devote any significant amount of time to this subject.

Biochem: A few inborn errors of metabolism and a few molecular biology.

Immunology: Just a few basic questions.

Pharm: Integrated with physiology. FA was plenty.

Pathology: Straight forward and just about always integrated with physiology.

Genetics: Easy, just know the presentations.

Mirco: FA is plenty.

Overall the test was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was easier than Kaplan's Q-Bank. I did two blocks at a time and then would take a five minute break and also took thirty minutes for lunch.

Know FA like it is your name and you should be fine. Hopefully I'll do ok, all I want is a 230+.

254/99

I am honestly shocked out of my mind.

 

[Arctic Char]

nice job shades. congrats!

 

[supercomp]

Does everyone get 99 nowdays?

 

[Roy7]

Does everyone get 99 nowdays?

No kidding, I'm happy everyone did well, but I feel so inferior (249). Every other person got a 256. sigh

 

[supercomp]

No kidding, I'm happy everyone did well, but I feel so inferior (249). Every other person got a 256. sigh

Shut up before I kick your ass lol

 

[Shades McCool]

Thanks! I just about dropped a load in my pants when I saw the score.

 

[Mike Jones]

Did your schools notify you, did you check online somehow, or did it come in the mail in 1 day?

 

[Bob2009]

seriously, what's with all the high scores? I got a 248 (totally stoked as i was hoping for 235), but WTF... everyone seems to be posting >250. i'm assuming the people who did well are excited and posting their scores, while everyone who didn't, well, would rather not post. congrats to everyone.

i got my score from the school registrar by the way.

 

[panerai1]

NBME 1 prior to studying: 210
NBME 3 a few weeks in: 226
UWorld: 100% complete, high 60%'s
Kaplan: 100%, 75% I believe
Free 150: 251 from score generator or 86%

Real Deal: 238/99

As a summation of my previous post on how I studied, basically all I did was FA and questions. Routine was 2 passes through FA in the AM, then 250-300 questions per day on each topic. I'm satisfied with the results

 

[stargirl50]

Guess I'll add my 2 cents... even though I'm somewhat of an underachiever compared to everyone else on this board

My goal was 230+.
NBME 1= 230 (2 weeks to go)
NBME 3= 228 (1 week to go)

Score= 247/99

I used RR Path + audio, FA and QBank as my major study sources. I would rate them Goljan>>>>QBank>>FA. I studied really hard for M2 exams, then went on vacation for a week before I did the hard core boards studying thing for 4 weeks. I studied 6-8 hours most days including weekends, more towards the end.

I also took the test in the afternoon which, if you are not a morning person, I would highly recommend. I woke up at like 9, went to Panera and drank coffee while skimming my notes for a couple hours before the test and I think this was a great way to get my mind ready.

 

[doctorp82]

Hopefully this is useful to someone/some people and not an utter bore. I kept getting questions from people as PM's so I tried to make the post able to answer all of the things I was getting asked. It’s amazing how having your life back can keep you from wanting to sit down and type stuff like this out. I had my exam Saturday.

I have to drive about 30-40 minutes to the next town to take it, so I was up at 6 am and leaving by 7 am. I got to the Prometrics site around 7:40, and was able to get in and actually started the test a few minutes before 8 am. I was the second of several classmates who were taking it that day.

When I signed in and presented my testing permit, I received a code to unlock my exam, and was let in to the testing area. I found out that earplugs are not allowed; they provide sound dampening earmuffs for you to use at the Prometrics site.

There was no way for me to skip the 15 minute tutorial, but having done the free 150 questions you can download at http://www.usmle.org , I quickly moved through it without spending too much time. The tutorial will explain how breaks are taken, which is the one thing I was most interested in .

Each block, to summarize:
Block 1 - This was a challenge, but not unreasonably so. It seemed on par with USMLEWorld, but maybe a little bit easier at times.
Blocks 2 - 4 - This was easily the hardest section of my exam, and had the most make-me-go-wide-eyed questions in them. I marked for review every question that wasn't a knee-jerk answer or that I was less than 75% sure I had correct. These blocks had the most of those. Most of those challenging questions were of the cell bio/biochem/kinetics-type questions, and these I felt were the toughest subjects overall.
Block 5 - Still challenging, but a bit easier perhaps than the last few.
Blocks 6 - 7 - Not completely letting up in difficulty, and perhaps a combination of trying to be more confident/wanting to get done and get out, but I marked much less through these blocks to review.

Subjects tested:
Behavioral Science - I thought that the scenario questions, where it asks for the most appropriate respose/action were rather straightforward. If you've used QBank or UW, these (at least my test) seemed easy. Never had a challenging situation. Know how to calculate PPV and NPV, sensitivity and specificity, and the answer to "which of these is affected by prevalence of disease?" Knowing the definitions of defense mechanisms, and definitions of things like type 1 and type 2 error, and definitions of study types will help you pick up some easy points. These are straightforward, you know it or not.

Biochem - Vitamin deficiencies are straightforward. If you know what the vitamin does, you're fine. The hardest questions of this type deal with enzyme kinetics plots, of the Michaelis-Menton type plot. Know all the enzymes mentioned in FA, from rate limiting steps to storage diseases to lead-heme-pophyrin stuff. Anything related to an enzyme will be something from FA. There were some questions on amino acids, but maybe 1-2 total the whole test. The sections of FA dealing with different genetic diseases is useful, as is knowing Southern, Northern, and Western blotting and what they do. You should know DNA and RNA replication, transcription, and translation mechanics too; this will also help with some microbiology questions related to viral genetics, so there's good carryover with that.

Embryology - I definately didnt' study this very hard, but I don't think that it was all that important to the test. I would try to briefly review embryology of each organ system as you study it, and then know some of the common things in FA such as pharyngeal arches and pouches, and how the face is formed. That's all.


Microbiology - Micro Ridiculously Simple and QBank were sufficient for this. QBank is more detailed than is needed. The way they make these questions difficult is by asking something about viral genetic replication, or bacterial virulence or resistance factors, which again heralds to molecular bio. Any questions that require you to deduce the infectious organism and then answer a question on it will give you classic lab findings, such as lactose +/-, catalase +/-, etc. Simple perhaps to me, since I've had microbio in undergrad, last year, and reviewed again this year.

Immunology - Kinda straightforward. Know cytokines and what they activate/signal. Know the surface proteins used in signal transduction (B7, CD20/CD20L, etc.), and the surface proteins of the leukocytes. I had a few questions only dealing with immunodeficiency, and that was covered well by FA and BRS/RR. Basic stuff like cytokines.

Pharmacology First Aid is sufficient for specific drugs, for the most part. I thought there were only a couple that weren’t well covered by FA, and I answered many of these alright based on previous studying for school anyways. Beyond specific drugs, know receptors. Know alpha, beta, muscarinic, histamine, etc. and where they function. Questions from Kaplan QBank and UW were good for these. There were also some kinetics and inhibition questions on my test. I think one question with a graph actually dealt with a receptor and was worded in the context of receptor activity…still dealing with efficacy and potency and whatever.

Organ Systems
Lumping this altogether mostly because I’ve already been rather long, but also because it’s easily generalized. First Aid covers the basics well. Fill in with Rapid Review and/or BRS and you should be fine. I think it was a good strategy to study the system’s physiology, pathology, and pharmacology as the core, and pick up the anatomy and embryology as more fine points.

How I prepared:
Back in February during classes I started making my studying more Step-1 focused. I did lower than I could have on the block exam, but felt that I knew what was important for boards, and didn’t’ care about anything but passing. I used Rapid Review Pathology from when it came out during the year to study. I didn’t really start studying until April 2 or 4th, and hadn’t a very rigid schedule since I was also required to go to class and write my objectives. I did all of Kaplan’s QBank, and I think I had a 66% average finishing. I only really did it subject based, not random 50 timed from the start. I got about 20-something% of UW in during the last week as I was reviewing weak spots and just to see what the hoopla was about. UW is definitely better than Kaplan, and if I could redo how I did questions over I might have done USMLERx subject based until I knew First Aid cold, then UW randomized. Still, I read all the Kaplan explainations and I did learn from it. Doing about 3,000 questions was very helpful, but I would have really liked to have finished more. After class was over I tried to do an organ system per day, starting at cardiovascular. I broke from my organ system routine in the evening to hit topics like biochem, pharm, and the general principles topics like the first few RR or BRS chapters. I did questions in the morning, starting around 7-8 and going to noon. I could do perhaps 150 questions in that time with reading and reviewing. I did that for two weeks, took form 4 at the beginning of my last week, then spent a couple days going heavy on biochem and pharm, then read FA once over fast like lightning. Didn't study Friday evening, and that's a good choice.

Books I used:
First Aid 2007 – Know it cold, and know it, don’t just memorize it. Understand the meaning behind every word.
Rapid Review Pathology 2nd ed. – I used this more during the year than in the last couple weeks, but it is great. Once you buy it, keep it. It’s really good for integrating subjects, but not everyone may like the brevity of the outline format. Quite a few of the tables are worth their weight in gold. Tables like the polycythemias, or male and female genital cancers, etc., are very worth going over.
BRS Pathology– A very good book regardless of how many people try to convert you to RR. It’s a good source, and some things are in here that aren’t in RR, athough the things each has that the other doesn’t are usually minutiae that I don’t recall seeing anything of on the exam.
BRS Physiology – Absolutely know your physiology. Know it as strong as your pathology, because the integration between path and physio is too important to not know. It was a massive help to study both the path and phys of an organ system at the same time, because it helps you see why certain things happen in certain disease states.
High Yield Neuroanatomy I read this so many times during my neuro block, that I only read it once over in about two days during board review. Very good book, but boards neuron is a bit simpler. Knowing the pathways and where cranial nerves have their nuclei in the spinal cord is important. A good deal of neuro was partially musculoskeletal, with all the different peripheral nerve lesions and injuries.
Micro Made Rediculously Simple – I read this cover to cover, then did all the micro questions in Kaplan at once. If you know this book and the salient details from First Aid, you’re good. If you don’t have a strong background in this as I did, I think Lange’s Micro and Immuno Review is a stellar book.
Step Up for Step 1 – I didn’t use this in the last three weeks of studying, but during the 4 or so weeks before classes ended I read the whole thing once over. It’s a really good book to get an overview with, and works as a really good complement to reading First Aid to “warm up” to a system. I have the second edition, but a friend of mine who I know was pulling 260+’s on his NBME had the newest edition, and he mentioned a couple of times he really thought it was worth looking at. I think it’s a good book to add early if you have time for another full-coverage source, otherwise don’t stray from First Aid.

NBME Form 2 – April 8th – 204 (440)
NBME Form 4 – May 27th – 228 (540)

QBank 100% complete – 66% subject-based. Often would start questions before having fully covered a subject, and started using it in mid-February along with studying for class in renal, GI, and endocrine. I was pulling mid to high 70's toward the end until all that was left was "general principles", which always managed to trip me up.

USMLEWorld 400 questions – 65%, would have been higher but was compelled to try to do two blocks of 50 late at night and scored both in the 50’s. Mostly was in the mid-60’s to 70’s

Hoping that I brought a 230+ effort on Saturday. I actually feel confident in having done well, based on my NBME’s and having so many questions done, but I definitely got kicked around for a few hours.

Received score today:

241

I had to ask the associate dean if she was serious when she read it off.

 

[Hallm_7]

My stated goal was 230.

NBME form 3: 2 weeks prior to test and before I had done biochem, most of micro, and half of pharm: 201 (I was really worried after this BTW)
Qbank: The last week I was averaging 65-70% on 50 question sets
The released 180 two days prior to the exam: 86%

Real deal: 231/96 - Not as high as other people on here but I am completely satisfied with my score since I felt like anything over ~230 should allow me to enter any specialty.

 

[Hallm_7]

I took mine on today.....well yesterday now seeing as it's after midnight.

I wouldn't exactly call it easy, but it definitely was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I did NBME form 3 (430) but it was before I had touched pharm, behavioral, biochem, and half of micro, and stats, so I don't know how accurate it will project my score. I all but quit doing Qbank because it was frustrating me and I thought it was pointless (I would recommended trying UW instead....it's cheaper and apparently more accurate) to learn the amount of detail that Qbank requires. At the point I quit I was getting in the mid-60s I guess. I took the USMLE 150 the day before my test and I got 86% right. The 150 is definitely more like the real test than Qbank.

The path and pharm and phys are usually all rolled into one in these vignette style questions. So in order to know the phys you need to know the path and vice versa. The number of, "What is the action of this hormone" type questions were pretty rare. Instead they might give a certain disease state that you had to figure out and then ask a question about the primary hormone involved. The biggest key to these questions was simply to take your time and reason things out. If you do that you can easily knock of 3/4 of the answer possibilities because they are so absurd, and you'll usually formulate the answer in your head without even needing to look at the answer choices.

Here's my point by point breakdown of subjects:
Biochem: I spent roughly three days going through FA biochem (genetics, molecular bio, traditional biochem, cell bio) and it was the best time I spent doing anything I think. There are tons of biochem questions thrown in that are really easy questions if you know the enzymes and disease states that accompany them. Also, molecular biology was pretty important on my tests (types of mutations, exons, introns, transcription factor concepts, splicing sites, post-translational modification, etc).

Path: BRS was plenty in depth and broad. I highly recommend it. Almost all of the path is clinically associatied. There were almost no path questions that didn't have a vignette attached to it.

Pharm: I just used FA and I think I did fine on it. It was one of my weaker subjects, but I don't think it will hurt me all that much. Get ready for graphs and charts with pharm. There are more pharm questions that use graphs and such than there are side effects. The most common pharm questions involved antibiotics and cardio/ANS.

Phys: BRS Phys was plenty in depth as well. Particulary focus on endocrine and renal as they are the two largest sections by far. Get read for a lot of questions where you have to predict renin, angiotensis, aldo, ADH levels if Na intake is cut or increased (or something similar using a different scenario).

Micro: Micro Made Ridiculously simple is amazing! Their antibiotic section was more than adequate for this test. Make sure you know the 8 important gram + bugs (Staph, Strep, Bacillus, Clostridium, Listeria, and Corynebacterium) because almost every bacteriology question stem will include whether something is gram +/-. You can always mark off one or two possibilities simply because that option is a different gram stain. I got quite a bit of bacteriology on my test.

Viral micro: I maybe had 5 questions the whole day. Learn the shape of the capsid, whether it is enveloped, and the nucleic acid it carries. Knowing these things will allow you to mark off many possibilities just as knowing gram stains allows you to mark off many possibilities of bacteria.

Fungal: 2 or 3 questions the whole day I think.

Ethics/Situations: I don't know how to study for this, so it's more of a common sense thing. There were a TON of these on my exam (at least 3 or 4 per sections I guess). I was really surprised at how well they were represented.

Stats: 5-10 questions the whole day. FA is pretty much adequate, but there were a couple that I didn't know exactly. Also, on these just use common sense. If you don't know the equation just think about it logially. I was amazed at how many ridiculous and impossible answers were seen when it came to numbers (for example, in genetics if the frequency of an recessive allele is .1, then it is impossible for the frequency of disease to be more than that; yet all but two of the answers given were .1 or larger.)

Majorly important point: Don't get your head down if you don't know a string of answers. I would literally go 10 or 15 questions in a row that I knew for sure and then I would get a string of 3 or 4 that I had absolutely no idea on. This will happen, and if you let those 3 or 4 get you down you'll start to panic and will miss many of the easy questions that follow. Also, be sure to use your breaks. The ending of a section was always stressful because I used all my time reviewing any marked questions. There's just something about a ticking clock that increases cortisol levels. IMO, it isn't smart to start another section immediately after finishing one. Walk out of the room for 5 minutes to get fresh air and calm down a little. I would also recommend taking your phone with you so that during lunch you can call somebody (mom/dad, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc) to just get your mind off things. My parents are in Florida, so I called them and we talked about the beach and mating sea turtles (they saw them ealier in the day....that didn't just come up ). Anyway, it's a great way to relax and momentarily leave the stressful situation you're in.

The day will absolutely fly by. It was one of the fastest 8 hours of my life. And when you walk out of the building it will be one of the biggest feelings of accomplishment you've ever had. Keep that in the back of your mind when you're plowing through those middle blocks of questions.

All in all, it was a tough exam, but it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought people made it out to be. And I'm also convinced that, while studying the month or so before the exam is important, you must have a solid foundation encompassing the entire first two years of school. There's just something about learning how to think during those two years that is absolutely essential to doing well on this exam.

Good luck to everyone!

My stated goal was 230.

NBME form 3: 2 weeks prior to test and before I had done biochem, most of micro, and half of pharm: 201 (I was really worried after this BTW)
Qbank: The last week I was averaging 65-70% on 50 question sets
The released 180 two days prior to the exam: 86%

Real deal: 231/96 - Not as high as other people on here but I am completely satisfied with my score since I felt like anything over ~230 should allow me to enter any specialty.

 

[kate0834tkjn]

258/99!

 

[IndianBabu]

My eyes, my eyes!!! All these 99's!!! You SDN geniuses.

 

[kmmikey]

This forum has been amazingly helpful in finding the right resources to study from. I had about 2.5 weeks after classes finished to study for the boards so efficiency was key.
I thought Rapid review pathology was great. I didn't read the book front to back, but I played the audio and followed along in the book. Listened to the audio twice.
USMLE world was also extremely helpful. The answers are pretty long but then you realize that there is a 2-3 sentence summary answer at the bottom. Did these questions twice through.
First Aid - read about 1/2 of it and then stopped. It wasn't working for me, seemed to be a random collaboration of facts. I was worried because everyone sweared by First Aid and had been annotating it all year long.
I'm not a big fan of having too many books and spreading myself thin, so I stuck with USMLEworld and Rapid review path. Those two resources saved me.

 

[cubsrule4e]

Cubs' Medical Exam Scorecard:

MCAT: 26
CBSSE: 155 (5 weeks out, no studying)
NBME 2: 226 (1 week out)
UWorld: 62% final, 70% done

Taming the beast: 233/97

Respectable. Definitely cant complain since my goal was 230+

 

[Termwean]

I think only medschool super stars post their scores.....let me bring down the average a little, give hope to the average Joe..

completed 74% of qbank for an average of 56%

NBME #4 2 weeks before step 1 :172

Step 1: 204....and I am happy considering I really thought I was failing it, and that my school was going to make me go to the PASS program which would have been hard on the wife and kids. Maybe I can make it up on the steps to come.

Congrats CUBS!

Our friend's score was through the roof.

 

[BOHICA-FIGMO]

I think only medschool super stars post their scores.....let me bring down the average a little, give hope to the average Joe..

completed 74% of qbank for an average of 56%

NBME #4 2 weeks before step 1 :172

Step 1: 204....and I am happy considering I really thought I was failing it, and that my school was going to make me go to the PASS program which would have been hard on the wife and kids. Maybe I can make it up on the steps to come.

Congrats CUBS!

Our friend's score was through the roof.

Q-bank: $200
Step 1: $450
passing with a 194 while living a somewhat normal, happy, healthy, drug-free existence during medical school: priceless!!!

 

[Friendly]

So...I took Step 1 this week. Here's what I had going into the exam:

Kaplan Qbank 80% Complete - 62% average (always mixed, timed, and includes pre-study score; last 6 blocks were 70% average).

USMLEWORLD 90% complete - 62% average (always mixed, timed, and includes pre-study score; last 6 blocks were 64% average).

Free 150 questions two weeks before exam: 78%

NMBE form 2 two weeks before exam: 219 (500)

I seriously feel liked I was schooled today. The first two blocks went well. Block 3 was a nightmare and I feel liked I guessed on 50% of the questions. Blocks 4-6 were a mixed bag and block 7 was reasonable. Overall, I really feel like I had to guess and think less than I would have liked. I just hope that my selections were not the more obvious ones. I resisted the urge to over-think.

The hardest questions for me were behavioral science, where the selections often had salient details and many similarities. My test had a lot of pharmacology (no cancer drugs, thankfully) and a TON of the "up/down" tables for physiology and acid/base balance. Also, know all the cross sections of the brain and spinal cord. I probably had around 15 of those on my exam. I also had a TON of pregnant women questions: inborn errors of metabolism in mom/baby, low birth weight, mom is diabetic, baby has this disorder, baby's heart rate is doing this etc.....

The exam format resembles USMLEWORLD more than Kaplan, with the odd 'gimme' question added in, and with less ambiguity than USMLEWORLD.

My target score was 230. I would be satisfied with a pass.

Step 1 Score: 220 (91)
1.) The NBME exams are the BEST predictor of your Step 1 score. I was one point higher than NMBE 2, taken two weeks before Step 1. It seems that the level of knowledge and subject mastery at the end of MSII is pretty much going to predict your Step 1 score if you are not a talented standardized test-taker
2.) Don't let your MCAT score define you. I was fortunate to have gained admission to medical school as a 'regular' applicant with an otherwise average application. Work hard, and do your best.....
3.) Stay humble, and always treat people well.

Overall, I am happy with my final score. I didn't kill myself studying, and I felt that the exam was fair, but left me with no idea of how I did when I left the test center.

 

[blz]

I guess it's my turn. Just took the bad boy today. Here's my take on the subjects:

Anatomy: These were the tougher questions for me because I wasn't a 100% sure of the answer choices I was putting down. I really only knew what was in FA but I had a lot of anatomy questions on topics not in FA that I had to recall from what I remembered 2 years ago. In my opinion, the hours of reviewing necessary to answer all the anatomy questions correctly would not be worth it. There weren't too many anatomy questions though so don't stress too much over it.

Behavioral/Psych: A lot of basic questions here and nothing too crazy. Simple calculations and psychiatric disorders. HOWEVER, the hardest questions on my test I feel were the patient-doctor reponse questions. I had most of them down to 50/50 and went with my gut. Really, there's no way to prepare for these questions because none of the sources were adequate for it (USMLEWorld questions were way too easy on the doctor-pt questions and kaplan was too obscure)


Biochem/Genetics: Not too bad. Most of mine was vitamin related and few enzyme deficiencies that I never heard of but was able to derive from symptoms and findings. The genetics on my test was very straight forward. I had one difficult question involving a lot of experimental genetics that took up like the whole page. Easily one of the more harder questions. I was a genetics major in college so I'm used to these kind of questions. It was doable once you got through all the jargon and fancy graphs/figures/gene maps.

Embryo: I had a few and they were usually intertwined in path questions. Pretty easy if you know your stuff. One difficult question on molecular embryology.

Micro: I knew my micro pretty well and they were pretty easy on the test. It got to the point where I would get happy to see a micro question because it was like a mental break. Make sure you know your characteristics of different bugs (gram +/-, anaerobe, spore former, growth requirements). I didn't have a single question on the structure of some obscure virus (or the stucture of any virus). Virus questions were probably the most basic questions. I had one really tough virus/genetics question that I only got right because I remembered it from when we covered it in school. I had one worm pharm question that was easy.

Neuro: Standard stuff here, very classic presentations. Know the functions of different parts of the brain and crossectional anatomy. Standard brachial plexus questions.


Path/Phys: These are easily my two strongest subjects going into the exam. They were very straight forward and the questions practically gave you the diagnosis (they even used buzzwords like "starry sky", etc.). I almost feel like I got cheated by knowing the material at the depth I did. Phys questions were your standard "arrow" questions and I had a lot of renal/endocrine questions. They seemed to like one particular hormone a lot. I had like 4 phys questions that were dependent on knowing what it did. A few of the picture questions that came up on my exam I've seen exactly from some question banks out there. It's not like it really helped though, they were very basic and classic conditions. The hard pictures were obscure ones I've never seen before, but the question usually gave away the answer. Oh yea, NO CALCULATIONS at all.

Pharm: I stressed about pharm as I got closer to the exam because I kept putting off just sitting down and memorizing all the drugs. So the last three days I buckled down and just memorized the lippincott flashcards. In the end, I easily turned pharm into one of my stronger subjects and the questions on the test were pretty basic. Hard questions were related more to pharmacology and involved a crapload of graphs. No calculations.

Overall, I thought the test was very doable. I am pleased that I was able to answer every question that I was prepared for. I feel like the only questions I got wrong were ones that I would have never prepared for even given a year to study. I was aiming for a 245+ but I don't think I scored that high. I feel like a lot of my score is dependent on the random variation in the hard questions I had to make an educated guess on.

Some info on various banks:

finished 70% of kaplan QBank: 74% - I stopped this a while ago 3/4s through my studying to switch over to USMLEWorld

finished 75% of USMLEWorld: 78% - 83% on my last 300

I only took one NBME halfway through my studying before I started any question bank and got a 235. I definitely have progressed a lot more since that day so I hope I atleast do better than that. I thought about taking more, but I saw no use in taking them so close to the exam. I studied about 7 weeks straight with only three days off for family issues. It feels great to finally be done!

update:

score: 263/99!

time to officially retire from these boards. i'll be back for step 2.

 

[Biscuit799]

So I took it on June 12th, which puts me at exactly one week post-test. Now what I'm going to say is definitely for those of us on the other end of the spectrum; a lot of what I went through won't apply to those of you with straight A's/H's/HP's etc, and shooting for a 250.

I thought right away that I wouldn't need to study anatomy. I reasoned that most of the relevant anatomy would be covered by pathology, and I was a TA for the anatomy lab last summer, so that should be enough. I also thought studying embryo would be a waste of time as all the relevant stuff (again) would be covered by pathology. I was definitely right on both accounts. While I'm sure I'll be cutting it close, if you're just looking to pass the week before the test, do NOT waste your time with these two subjects.

As far as the rest of my study plan goes, I broke it down to organ systems. I had 2-3 days per system. I'd start out by listening to the Gojian lectures (straight Gold), followed by BRS path and BRS physio. I'd then work through First Aid for everything else. That's it. While I think First Aid certainly isn't enough, if you know everything in there, you should have no problem getting in the 210's or maybe even 220's if you fill in the gaps well.

As far as test day goes, I did 3 straight blocks with 3 minute breaks in between. During the third block, fatigue hit, but I wanted to get through at least 4 before I stopped for lunch. So after the 3rd block, I took 10, and hit the 4th (which was living hell, no matter how well you prep, at least 1-2 of the blocks are hell). I couldn't focus to save my life. I took a 15 minute lunch break, then did the 5th, which wasn't bad, took another 5 minute break, and the 6th block sucked the life out of me. I was totally dead and probably put "B" for every answer. I took all of my remaining break ( I timed it perfectly, I had 20 minutes left for break and used all but 24 seconds of it). The 7th wasn't that bad, but by the time I finished I was so anxious to get out of there that I didn't really have enough focus to go back and take a serious look at the ones I marked. But I didn't care, I was done.

As far as my stats:

OGPA: 2.75
Kaplan: 55% overall, around 60 by the end, but my scores kept dropping in the last 2 days before the test
USMLEW: same as QBank
NBME(4): 175 1.5 weeks before test
NBME(2): 195 3 days before test
Free 150: 74%

I'll post my score when I get it, I'm anxious not only to get it but also to see how it correlates compared to my medfriends estimated scores.

USMLE Score: 193

Apparently the NBME's are pretty good predictors...

 

[surfgirl2]

Well, after reading this for a while I decided it is my turn to contribute...

I honestly think that the test really was not that bad. I might be getting into trouble by saying this but it was very much like NBME #3 and USMLE World. I think that path and physio were VERY highly represented and pharm was only really out of first aid. Anatomy and embryo made up about 2-3 questions per block total and were VERY straightforward- gotta know the brachial plexus, hernias, common nerve injuries, etc. Only a few MRI's and CT's which I was happy about There were maybe 2 WTF questions and as people say, molecular biology is highly represented. Know DNA, transcription, translation, receptors, etc. Behavior was also 3-4 questions per block and not as much stats as I had expected, more what would you do type questions.

I didn't particularly think one block was harder than the other and time wasn't much of an issue. I marked between 5-12 questions per block that I felt I had to guess on so we shall see about those.

As for my stats... I was hoping for 230+ and I think/hope that happened. Overall world 90% complete. I started in the 50-60's and ended in the high-mid 70's. I got a 232 on NBME form 2 about 3 weeks out and 238 on form 3 about 1 week out. 85% on the 150 released questions.

I will let you know when I get my scores... Good luck to all! Hopefully this was helpful.

STEP 1- 239/99

The NBME exams are a good predictor!!! Even the 150 released questions were within range of my real score.

 

[cdql]

Step 1 > 250

I'll second the notion that the NBME exams are a great predictor! I scored higher on the 150 released questions but again as the last poster noted, it was still within range.

I'll probably get smacked around for saying this but I was really hoping to clear 260 But I will gladly, gladly, GLADLY, (fall on my knees thanking whoever is up there) take the score I got.

 

[joe6102]

Now that scores are in, I wanted to post to show that it is not necessary to study for 6 weeks and do UsmleWorld to get a great score. This is only one man's story, so take it for what it's worth.

I did not do well during M1. I got around the class average, but all of my shelf exams were under 500 (anatomy, biochem, histo, and physio). So I changed my strategy. Second year I didn't go to class at all. I stayed home and studied on my own. I decided that a 240 with no honors would be much better than a 220 with 3 honors. It is important to note than studying for class and studying for step 1 are NOT the same thing! Sure there is some overlap, but ultimately you must decide which is more important and focus on that. For me, it was step 1, especially since I was in no danger of failing. There is stuff in the class notes that will never show up on step 1, and there is stuff on step 1 that will never show up on the in-house exam. Time is limited, so you must prioritize. For me, a good step 1 score is much more desirable than a decent class rank during the first 2 years. I think residency directors feel the same way.

My plan:

During M2, I read MMRS, Lippincott pharm, Big Robbins, RR path, Robbins Q book, BRS Behavioral Sciences, and some First Aid. I also used my class notes for our pathophysiology class, which I thought were great.
I used Kaplan Qbank a little, but stopped after 30% because it was very low-yield.

Step 1:
I had 3 weeks after the CBSE in which to study. The majority of the time was spent on BRS phys, RR path and Robbins Q book, along with 2 days each for Neuro and Biochem since they were weak subjects for me. I used FA, although I only read through it once (except for the neuro and biochem sections twice).
HY Cell and Molecular, 1st Ed. was excellent. I read it twice in about 12 hours total.

I guess I'm one of the few high scorers who didn't use UsmleWorld. Never even saw one question from it. My question bank consisted of Robbins Qbook and the NBME forms. I did all 4 forms, scored 3 of them, and looked up the answer to every question. This had a HUGE impact on my score, as I saw 6-10 questions on my exam that were straight from the forms, that I wouldn't have gotten right otherwise. Why use any other qbank when you can use questions straight from the source?

Numbers:
CBSE: 81 or 83, can't remember...something around 232
Form 1 (taken 3 months out): 228
Form 3 (taken the day after CBSE, 3 weeks out): 232
Form 4 (1 week out): 245
Free 150 (4 days out): 91%

Step 1: 259

I'm still in shock. I didn't think I was capable of that score. I guess it was a combination of a lot of hard work and a lot of luck. For instance, I got 3 biochem questions on the same rare disease, which I knew well (this was a weak area for me). Study hard, but study the right stuff. That way, even on a bad day you can get a 240.

 

[domer621]

Step 1 score: 234

Honestly, I'm not sure how I would change my study plan that I posted before. The 2 sections that brought my score down were Behavioral Science (I had ~14 quote questions) and Genetics - both of which are pretty poorly taught at my school.
I might have pushed my date up a bit, since on test day I forgot a few things that I had known before.

I also need to acknowledge the guy over at rumorsweretrue for putting together a great guide on how to set up a study schedule. I made mine the day before I started studying and stuck to it... sticking to a schedule is key!

Also thanks to the badasses of the Step 1 forum (Long Dong, jeebus, Medikit, etc) for lending advice.

 

[discreet44]

Thanks to all for posting their scores and experiences, and congrats to everyone, regardless of your score. Completing the 1st 2 years of medical school is a major accomplishment, and for those who have passed this exam, I believe there are better things to come in the future.

Here's my stats:

MCAT - 32
Elsevier Qbank - 68% average
USMLE WORLD - 72% average
NBME #2: 224 (4 weeks prior to exam)
NBME #3: 242 (1 week before exam)
STEP 1: 246

My goal was 230, so I was happy with this score. For those who were unhappy with their scores, I just want to point out that this exam is NOT the most important part of your residency application, by any means, even for the more competitive subspecialties. Based on the experiences of friends ahead of me and residents I have spoken with, it is my belief that performance on clinical rotations is of paramount importance.

For 1st and 2nd years who are preparing for the test, here are the links to my test experience and advice on how to study:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...&postcount=354


http://forums.studentdoctor.net/show...82&postcount=7

Good luck to all.

 

[insistence]

Happy that I can finally add my name to this thread! Everyone’s write up’s have been so helpful over the past 1-2 years, so I’m glad I can finally write my own.

I felt that the exam was a solid mix of virtually everything I had learned my 1st two years. Of course, everyone gets a different “kind” of test but I really don’t feel that one subject was overly tested. However, if I had to recall the subjects that initially seemed more represented than I expected, I would say: 1)immuno – usually mixed in with path; 2) neuroanatomy lots of MRI’s; 3) ethical/”what would you say?” ; 4) HIV/AIDS - path, treatment, mech of infection, ect. I finished the test thinking that it was a pretty fair test and felt decent about it (220-230 hopefully). The feel of the questions was pretty much 1st and 2nd order questions of the “UW feel” but they provided MUCH more info in the question stem and the answer choices were different enough to clearly understand what they were looking for.

Now for the subjects:

Pharm: Again, to supplement what most people seem to be saying…KNOW FA. UNDERSTAND MECHANIMS. Half the time they would set up the question so it was sooooo obvious what drug they were talking about. Then they would ask about mechanism or which bug would be ideal to treat it with.

I’m not sure what else to add here. I used a supplemental pharm book to understand mechanisms of toxicities a little bit better but I’m not sure it really helped me that much (Deja Review Pharm). I was REALLY worried about pharm, especially with anti epileptic and HIV drug toxicities (I just couldn’t keep them completely straight!). Of course, getting a slightly more heavy AIDS, HIV focus on my exam, I got a good amount of pharm related to it. There was one question where I had to differentiate between the toxiticies of similarly classed HIV drugs. If I remember correctly, it’s covered in FA.

Physiology: Again, almost always presented with a graph or arrow table with 10 different choices. You just had to know it. I seemed to be tested on lots of respiratory and renal mechanisms. Often mixed in with pathology. I used BRS physiology and felt reasonably prepared.

Pathology: Now that I think about it, my exam seemed to have a lot of hematology, which was good since I felt pretty comfortable with it but they picked a few topics to test repeatedly. A lot of immunology was integrated into these questions. All path was well represented. There were more than a few path questions that simply had a pic with a VERY BRIEF description of the problem and you had to identify the mechanism or make a diagnosis. For those questions I had to rely on basic histo to figure it out, especially with those skin lesions.

I used Goljan (audio and book) and thought he was amazing for understanding mechanism for anything path or path-related. His book was a bit of overkill but the clinical integration really helped everything stick. The numerous tables, pictures, HY’s, and clinical integration of path, immuno, biochem, physiology, and micro were the reason to use this book over BRS. I actually switched from BRS to Goljan right before boards studying. There were 5-7 questions that were not in his book though..kinda surprising. Fortunately I remembered something from class!!

Microbiology/Immunology: Lots of it, mostly bacteriology. Not much with viruses but if so, usually in an AIDS/HIV patient – really straightforward. No crazy +/- strand, “eveloped or not” kind of questions thankfully. 1-2 questions on helminths AND treatment. Like I mentioned before, immunology was much heavier than I expected but nothing off the wall. Usually was associated with path.

I used Micro Made Ridiculously Simple to help with mnemonics and funny pics then moved to FA. FA’s micro section is quite solid – no questions outside of it. However, for immunology, I don’t think FA is enough. I read Lange’s 90pg immuno section which was waaaay more than you really need for the exam. If you can understand the basic concepts from each chapter and salient details plus FA immunology you should be more than prepared.

Biochemistry: Not heavily as tested as micro or pharm but they were looking for basic ideas here. FA’s biochem section is quite strong and should help answer 80% of these questions off the bat. The other 20% seemed to be about big picture concepts which you can lose in FA if you don’t understand how all the pathways are integrated and how major hormones and regulators affect multiple pathways. Surprisingly, virtually no nutrition but lots about signaling systems. Again, mechanisms of disease are what they want you to know.

Behavioral: Tons of “what would you do next or what is the appropriate response” type of questions. I actually began to look forward to these questions because 85% of the time it was so obvious. 1-2 were pretty tricky in that both answers seemed correct. Decent amount of biostats and identifying study types. FA’s behavioral section is gold for these questions.

Molecular/Genetics: Genetics and I do not get along but I felt these questions were reasonable. Lots of pedigrees. Not really sure how best to prepare outside of FA to be honest. It seems to have the minimal info you need.

Molecular bio I turned into a strength in the last few days before the exam thanks to 1st edition HY Cell/Molecular (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). Not many questions but they tended to be a bit detailed. Fortunately, they were testing a very fundamental concept so don’t get worried by those insane question stems.

Anatomy: lots of MRI’s and exactly 1 arteriogram (VERY straightforward). I was worried about this section and unfortunately got a ton of neuro anatomy. I would say learn FA’s neuro section well and add concepts from HY Neuro if you're missing details. Unfortunately, HY has too much info but I used it to supplement if I wasn’t understanding certain spatial relationships. In terms of what to expect with MRI's, I would say watch for clear landmarks (gastric air bubble, ribs, etc) to know what level you’re at. You can usually reason from there..really not anything terrible.

Embryology: basically owned me and I went through FA’s section twice. There was 1 picture that I’m certain I saw while breezing through HY Embryo. Probably not high enough yield but I got about 4-5 questions. Just stick with FA for basics.

Hopefully this is kinda helpful to someone! Good luck to everyone still studying.

I thought I'd update my post now that I have my score in hand. I've been reading about everyone's experiences with the exam and seems like all the SDN rockstars have been bustin out the 250+! Fortunately, my addendum will give hope to the more average students performing less than stellar leading up to the exam.

I took 3 NBME's and the free 150:

free 150 (a little over 2 weeks before exam): 74%
NBME #1 (2 weeks before exam): 211
NBME #2 (1 week before exam): 219
NBME #3 (3 days before exam): 211

My UW final avg was 50% since it took me a long time to figure out their questions and quickly figure out the pertinent data from each question. Plus...my highest timed 50Q block was 60% correct, even the last block days before the exam. Granted I was consistently hitting 56-60% in the previous 7-8 blocks but I never got higher even though I felt like I knew the material better and better. My point is that UW averages aren't everything, especially if your NBME's aren't revealing persistent weaknesses. After not seeing my UW averages significantly increasing after 3 weeks of studying, I tried to not freak out and learn the max amount from each question.

One addendum I must add in regards to my NBME 3 score was that I had a bit of a meltdown in the beginning of the exam because I felt I was missing questions I should have known and it completely threw off my rhythm, very much dragging my score down too. I'm not sure how much value taking NBME #3 so close to my actual exam was but all it did was freak me out. However, I did punish all my weaknesses and really pulled things together in the 2-3 days after my last NBME. I absolutely felt like I peaked on test day..in terms of keeping clear-headed and feeling like I could recall the things that used to trip me up.

Step I score: 233/97

In terms of my studying, I would recommend a lot of the baseline recommended resources (at least on SDN): Goljan audio, RR Path (over and over and over), HY Molecular and Cell (OLD EDITION!!), and FA (of course). Those books should set you up very nicely if you know them well. But overall, I'm completely thrilled with my score and glad that my hours and hours and hours of studying paid off

 

[andiluvsk]

Just got my scores back and I am really happy. I am reading the previous posts with everybody listing tons of books they used, and I wanted to propose a different strategy for those like me that like to make things simple. Best advice is to work hard second year. My school's 2nd year is systems based and I really worked my tail off to do well and honored almost every class. For boards I took 1 month to study. I used three books. 2006 First Aid (with the downloaded PDFs of missing pages), BRS path and BRS phys. The first two weeks I went over things in a system based fashion. I did 1 system a day, going over FA and the BRS's. I copied anything I thought was important from BRS into the FA margins. The last 2 weeks I just read first aid over and over and over. I think I read it 6 times and did lots of memorizing. I did one hour of Qbank a night (95% complete, started in the 60s, finished in the 80s) as well. Test day was not so bad. About 50% was knee-jerk stuff (giving a drug and asking the most common side effect). About 30-40% was tougher, where you could narrow it down to 2 or 3 answers. Most of these tougher questions were the physiology questions with the arrows going every which way. 10-20% was unreal. I actually laughed quite a few times during the exam due to the ridiculous difficulty of a couple questions (usually the choices were A-K on these too). After my test was over I felt that the only area my study plan lacked in was the molecular biology. I got a lot of tough questions on lab type tests. Luckily I worked in a lab for a couple of years and could make some sense out of a few of them. For the anatomy, pharm, behavioral sciences, micro, and embryo I felt FA and the BRS's were sufficient. After I walked out of the test, I could not have predicted my outcome. I was pretty sure I didn't fail, but my estimated range was from a 210-240ish. I got my score back and got a 247 and was jumping for joy. PM with any questions and good luck. Don't overdo it. You can overdo it and make this thing into a monster if you want. I studied hard for a month, but maintained my sanity and really only used 3 books. Your best game plan is to cement the stuff in your head during 2nd year.

 

[AlbertConstable]

M1 and M2: Did not attend class. Studied from the classic textbooks such as Costanzo, Robbins, MMRS, Lippincott. Performed at about the class average on the exams so no honors.

Began Qbank near end of M2 and completed about 75% of QBank scoring about 70%/block by the end. Stopped QBank and did almost all of USMLEWorld and got about 75%/block by the end. I did about 100-200 questions/day, all random blocks of 50.

Along with questions, I read FA, BRS Phys, BRS Path, BRS Behavioral, HY Cell/Molecular 1st edition, HY Immuno. I also referred back to my bigger books (Lippincott, Robbins, etc) when I came across topics I wasn't strong in. I went through BRS Phys/Path/FA once at a slower pace and then reviewed them at a faster pace for a second time.

I spent about 4 weeks studying, 6-10 hours/day (averaging about 7 hours) with a few days off.


Step 1 Score: 256


Best of luck to everyone still preparing for this beast.

 

[Brian Griffin]

Just got my scores back and I am really happy. I am reading the previous posts with everybody listing tons of books they used, and I wanted to propose a different strategy for those like me that like to make things simple. Best advice is to work hard second year. My school's 2nd year is systems based and I really worked my tail off to do well and honored almost every class. For boards I took 1 month to study. I used three books. 2006 First Aid (with the downloaded PDFs of missing pages), BRS path and BRS phys. The first two weeks I went over things in a system based fashion. I did 1 system a day, going over FA and the BRS's. I copied anything I thought was important from BRS into the FA margins. The last 2 weeks I just read first aid over and over and over. I think I read it 6 times and did lots of memorizing. I did one hour of Qbank a night (95% complete, started in the 60s, finished in the 80s) as well. Test day was not so bad. About 50% was knee-jerk stuff (giving a drug and asking the most common side effect). About 30-40% was tougher, where you could narrow it down to 2 or 3 answers. Most of these tougher questions were the physiology questions with the arrows going every which way. 10-20% was unreal. I actually laughed quite a few times during the exam due to the ridiculous difficulty of a couple questions (usually the choices were A-K on these too). After my test was over I felt that the only area my study plan lacked in was the molecular biology. I got a lot of tough questions on lab type tests. Luckily I worked in a lab for a couple of years and could make some sense out of a few of them. For the anatomy, pharm, behavioral sciences, micro, and embryo I felt FA and the BRS's were sufficient. After I walked out of the test, I could not have predicted my outcome. I was pretty sure I didn't fail, but my estimated range was from a 210-240ish. I got my score back and got a 247 and was jumping for joy. PM with any questions and good luck. Don't overdo it. You can overdo it and make this thing into a monster if you want. I studied hard for a month, but maintained my sanity and really only used 3 books. Your best game plan is to cement the stuff in your head during 2nd year.

This is the most similar study method/test experience to mine that I have read so far - I also really wanted to keep it as simple as I possibly could. I pretty much did the exact same thing - worked really really hard 2nd year and got honors in my classes (pharm, micro, and system-based path), then studied for one month also using a system-based approach (basically going in the order that the systems were presented to us during 2nd year) and really focusing on First Aid, BRS Path, and BRS phys. The only differences from the person I quoted above is I had two book additions: I read Micro Made Simple (because I felt like I had crammed a lot in my micro class and didn't retain much), and HY Neuroscience (which I only did b/c I felt really weak in basic 1st year neuro stuff - spinal cord pathways, etc) - but it ended up being waaayyy too much. After I took the real thing, I realized I could have totally done without HY Neuro. I think it helped me answer one question about a brainstem nucleus, but that's it. Anyway, I took a lot of notes from these books (because I'm a note-taking kinda person), then read my notes over and over during the last few days before the test. I also only completed about 85% of Qbank, ending up with a percent in the 60's (doing all random questions starting from day 1 of studying). The plan was to do about 100-200 questions from Qbank a day, but it didn't always work out. Although when I did do questions, I always took a lot of time to go over the answers really thoroughly. Oh, and I didn't do any NBME tests except for the free sample one - I was too broke to pay for those!

My overall impression of the real thing was pretty much exactly like what was said above: about 50% knee jerk responses, 40% I could narrow it down to about 2 answers and try and make an educated guess, and about 10% had no idea (and these were usually molecular bio questions, which is a subject that has ALWAYS been the bane of my existence!). I felt that First Aid was perfectly sufficient for biochem, immuno, anatomy, and embryo (those were my "scary" subjects - although I may have gotten lucky b/c I had some friends who felt they had A LOT of biochem or anatomy, but I had only a few on each question block). First Aid was also fine for pharm. Anyway, I walked out feeling like I definitely passed, and did fairly decent (maybe 210-240 like the previous poster said).

Anyway, I got my score: 239/99. I know it's not as amazing as some of the scores people are posting on here, but I'm really happy! I don't know what field I want to go into yet, but I'm pretty sure it's not derm or plastics, so I honestly think I would have been totally happy with a score in the 220s. I'm not entirely sure what a 239 actually means, but I think it means I don't have to completely eliminate anything at this point (as long as I do ok in 3rd year stuff). I'm really proud of myself and I think anyone who passed this stupid thing should be really proud also

Looking back, what would I have done differently? Well I had been beating myself up for not doing more questions or getting better scores on Qbank, but Qbank reallllly frustrated me to no end, and I walked out of the real thing feeling like Qbank was NOT a good indicator of what the real test would be like at all. To me, Qbank is all zebras - you gotta know a little detail about every disease that exists to do well on Qbank. But the real Step I to me was more like knowing a lot of detail about fairly common diseases (with maybe a very few zebras thrown in) - and that knowledge came more from my 2nd year classes. Interestingly enough, my lowest performance on Step I was in Respiratory, which was the test that I got my lowest score on during 2nd year. I do think Qbank helped me get used to the computer-based interface, and it helped me learn to read test questions efficiently and try to pick out the important details. I just wish that I would have thought to try USMLE World or another question bank that may have been less frustrating or something. But that's really the only thing I would have changed. I'm glad I took a simple approach, kept it to those three books mainly, and didn't torture myself for more than a month

 

[akpete]

So, took the test Tuesday, but haven't been able to bring myself to visit the Step 1 forum until today.

That was by far the hardest test I've ever taken, and hopefully will never have to do that again. So many reviews on here were saying, "oh, it wasn't that bad." Well, for me, it was. I'm about average to above average in classes. After getting my butt kicked Tuesday, I'm hoping to get an average score.

My advice for future test-takers. Do a lot of UW. A lot. I didn't manage to get in as many questions as I originally planned, kept thinking that I should read more first, then ran outta time for questions. I think that hurt me because there were several questions in which I had to first just figure out what the heck they were asking for. I feel that UW is much more like the real thing then the 2 NBMEs I took (forms 3 and 4).

My other piece of advice: If you're not a morning person, don't think that you'll all of a sudden become one for step 1 studying. It just doesn't work.

I thought FA was a piece of crap, but that's just me. I listened to Goljan over and over and over again, and thought the audio and RR path were probably the best part of my test prep other than UW. I also used:

BRS path, BRS phys, BRS behavioral sciences
HY neuroanatomy, HY cell and molecular, HY immuno, HY embryology

I had HY histology, but didn't have time to use it. Other than FA, I was happy with all my books.

UW: 50s and 60s
NBME 4 on Jun 8: 470
NBME 3 on Jun 10: 510

I really have no idea what my score will be. Anywhere from 200 - 230 I'm guessing. I originally came to med school for ortho, but it's not gonna happen with those scores. Oh well. Hoping for a 220 at least.

Don't mean for this post to be such a downer, but I thought I should post my honest experience with the exam. In the end, I think I would've been more confident with another week or two of studying.

Good luck everyone!

Got my score today!! Very excited considering I was bracing myself for disappointment.

236/99

 

[predodoc]

MCAT: 24
NBME 3: About 6 weeks before test- 224 (I was really surprised)
NBME 2: About 4 days before test- 236
UW: 65% (About 45% complete)
COMLEX: (June 4) 646/92
USMLE: (June 1) 239/99
Wow! I have been thinking about the day that I would have my scores in hand and be writing about my experience for a long time. A few months ago, just daydreaming about writing this up would boost my willpower and ambitions and push me to put in a good day of learning.

First of all I want to Thank God helping me through Step 1. I know a lot of people out there don't believe but I do, and I know that I could not have made it this far all alone.

Ok this is going to be pretty long but if you are a future 2nd year then reading this might help you.
So if you haven't figured out yet, I go to a DO school. I thought my school did a decent job of preparing me for Step 1 overall, but just like most schools (I assume), If you want the good score you must do more than just passively learn and must really try to tie things together from the beginning.

So my step one story started probably in the first week of med school. I barely made it into medical school since I had a low MCAT even though the rest of my application was OK. I am so glad that my school looked beyond that test and listened to me when I told them I would excel if they took me. Anyway, I decided not be like I was in Undergrad and work hard all the way through. I also made my #1 goal to do awesome on the boards. Although I did not eat, sleep, breath school, I did put in lots of effort and always had my #1 goal in mind when learning every topic.

So, for the first year I followed the advice that I read on SDN and just tried to learn the material well. I did use Board review books my first year but not lots. I think a few like HY Anatomy, Brs Phys, Lippincott Biochem and Micro made Rid simple. These can help you get a better grasp of what is important and what is not. So when learning these subjects use these review books as your syllabus for the boards but not as your main learning tool b/c the shortcuts in explanations sometimes make it harder instead of easier to learn.

Ok, one of the biggest things that I learned that was not really on SDN much. You WILL forget most if not all of what you learn. By that I mean, most of the info will be lost somewhere in your brain and you will not be able to pull it out when you want. For example, if you take an anatomy test in October and get a 95%, taking that same test in February you would fail. This is NORMAL. The goal though is to reinforce your past knowledge with a new separate links of information tied in. For example, if you are studying something like biochem in April and you cross a topic like carbohydrate break down in the small intestine and you say to yourself, man I have already forgot all the anatomy of the intestines. This is your chance to look up anatomy and get a GENEARAL overview of what you forgot and tie it into the biochem you are learning. That way, when you get a question on boards asking about carbs, you will already have at least 2 links in your brain that you can trace back to that info. I think of it like a spider web of information. After doing this with all the subjects like anatomy, phys, path, micro, biochem, ect&#8230; there will be no questions related to the intestines you can't get. I will warn you that doing this will frustrate you but don't let it. Unless you go to a school that teaches/tests like this, then you will feel like you are wasting time. When your classmates are only learning the carbohydrate breakdown pathway and not linking it to other info, you will have to put in more time to get the same grade. But board study will be easier for you and you will score higher in the end.


Goljan: He's awesome, but why? Because he takes pathology and ties it to other subjects. He is also awesome because he uses only the material that is probably on Step 1 and stops there. I bought an 8 GB MP3 player just for him. When we had each new block in 2nd year I would use him continuously. For example, in the Cardiology block the first 2-3days I would listen and take notes, pausing, and look up what he was talking about in books like Robins, BRS and Rapid review path. , Then I would listen to his 3-4 lectures on cardiology over and over in my car driving, working out Then I would review our class notes and learn even more. Before our test for that block had rolled around I would have listened to him about 2-3 times for that system and by that point would be working on tying info to other subjects and making links in Micro, phys(which is big) , ect. I would not do as well on my test as I think I could if I would just cram in the class notes on pure memorization, but it stuck a lot better this way.
Make his book and his lectures your central study aid for the entire 2nd year and you are at least guaranteed to pass and probably much more.
As for other books and material I just looked up what the All-stars of SDN used and tried to narrow it down to one book each

subject. As follows:
Anatomy: Roadmap Anatomy (but did not read the whole thing) Anatomy is a subject that is best to look at in the final weeks. It's a little harder to link the tiny details to other subjects and its just too much info for the few Q's you get. I trying to hit the higher yield Anatomy and know everything in first aid (in more detail than First aid gives it though). Don't worry about it too much. Didn't touch embryo except the Q's in UW and First Aid.

Neuro: I used Kaplan Neuro from an older set of books(2004). I think you should know neuro anatomy ok but put more effort into pathology neuro since I think its more high yield. I used webpath for pics of brain slices the week before the test.
Biochem: Again used the Kaplan book because I heard it was the best and I thought it was good. Rapid review biochem I bought and used a little at the end. It was good but was better for a more hardcore review than Kaplan, which was more informative (paragraph not outline) but less detail. Both were good though. I would recommend using only Lippincott biochem as your main text book when learning biochem in your first year and using RR or Kaplan with it the first time. Then when reviewing for boards just use the review book.

Molecular: I thought that these questions were not as bad as expected and I didn't have too many. I read HY cell/molecular but I don't think it gave me that many points that I didn't already have. Also usmleworld Q's were pretty good for this.
Pathology: Get the Rapid review book and use it. Get his lectures and use them. Organize all of them perfectly on your MP3 player. Make CD's (it might take a lot) of the lectures and listen to them all the time in the car. Try to enjoy them. I was lucky enough to hear him in person when he came to my school to give a 1 wk review. Even thought about 90+% of the material was presented the exact same, it helped me so much to hear all of it again from the man himself. If you use if late in the game you won't get that much out of it. The more you use him the more you will see how good he is.

Pharm: I used First Aid but only after I already learned a lot of the info. The pharm on both comlex and usmle are not that bad. I mostly used Lange pharm cards to memorize along with books like Lippincott pharm to look up things I needed more detail on.
Physiology: Use BRS. I thought it was very good . Even though there were sections were I needed more description, I thought it covered most of the need to know stuff. I used books like Guyton , ect. to look up extra details when needed. If you want to do well on usmle this should be your #1 or 2 priority. (along with path)

Micro: I used Micro made rid simple. I thought this was a good book and read parts of this book probably 5 times. But other parts 0-1 times. You MUST know all bacteria well. Then focus on virus, then the rest. I got stars beside my micro and immuno on my score breakdown because I knew it well. Then thing about micro is its all memorization and you must hit it over and over a lot to really get it.

Immuno: I read about &#189; of the 80 pages out of the lange micro/immune book everyone talks about. I thought it was a little too detailed and didn't help too much. I think you should know FA well and read the lange book only on topics you are weak on.
Behavioral science: I used a combination of Brs and Kaplan. I thought it was important to know it well but I wish I had spent even more time because this was my lowest section on my score report. My school didn't teach us this well (except a decent job on stats) and I had to try and learn it on my own.

OMM: I used the green Savarese book. It most if not all the information on the Comlex. Chapters 6, 10,and 11 are the most important and you should be able to almost quote these 3 chapters by test time. Also do at least 2 of the test in the back of the book. I only spent 2 days on the book except for those 3 chapters I mentioned which I read 3-4 times each. I was pushing it and I would recommend that anyone take the USMLE first and then take Comlex 4 days later giving you 3 full days to concentrate on Savarese.
If you are taking Comlex, (esp. if you are only taking comlex), then you should look up info about what is more emphasized. For example, comlex had a lot of obstretics stuff while Usmle didn't. Look up some threads on SDN and you will get an Idea of what you should study.

Questions: I had planned on doing Tons of questions. I bought Kaplan qbook, First Aid Q&A, robins path Q-book, and lots of other questions I had found. But in the end I didn't have time. All I used was USMLEWorld and I only used about 45% of it with a score of about 65%. I thought it was very good and gave me a lot of good information. But with all the questions I did, my NBME test only went up 12 points in 6 wks. So that tells me that most of my score came from what I already knew before the final wks.

So, If you want to get started on your way to a good score, get your plan together.

First thing you should do is look up advice from people like: Idiopathic, Nrosigh, lord_jeebus, cherrypie, Long Dong, Big Frank, cd1998, stinger86, Along with anyone else that posts high/super High Scores from this year. Take their advice and copy and past it into a folder and look at it when ever you want to know what to do. Pay special attention to the person's MCAT score with their USMLE/COMLEX score. If someone has a 27 MCAT and a 250 usmle/700 comlex then their advice might be better than a 37 MCAT and 250 USMLE. Just use your own judgment.

Make sure you use this website. It will almost guarantee you a better score. I became obsessed with checking it at least 1 time every few days for about 9 months before my test. The advice on what to use and what not to use along with what topics to concentrate on (COMLEX and USMLE) added tons of points to my score. I became an expert on how to study for boards to the point that several of my friends from MD schools were calling me for advice. These are the same people who scored 5 points above me on MCAT. And the same people who I most likely beat on USMLE.

So to get the good score you must put in a lot of organized effort, know and understand the information, and know the test itself.

If you want it bad enough Almost anyone can do it.

Good luck to all the future test takers and I hope I helped some.

 

[UCLAstudent]

Some people have PMed me asking which board review books I used. I thought here would be a good place to list them.

BRS Pathology --- loved it. I did not use anything related to Goljan for pathology, which I felt was too detailed (whereas the pathology questions on the USMLE test basic concepts in convoluted ways)

Rapid Review Biochem --- another great book. Took me a good amount of time to get through, but I felt like it prepared me well.

HY Molecular Biology --- I tried the new edition and the amount of detail was overwhelming. The older edition was perfect

BRS Behavioral Science --- highly recommended!

Clinical Micro Made Ridiculously Simple --- it was a good starting point, but too basic. You might be fine just using First Aid.

HY Gross Anatomy --- used the old edition. I don't if it got me that many points, but I didn't think it was awful

HY Neuroanatomy --- wonderful book. You need to know how to filter out the parts that are too detailed (a good example would be the chapter on the cerebellum)

I think that was everything! It's been awhile.

 

[healthyvideo]

what has to be done

kaplan text books...for Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Immunology, Behavioral Science

Compass Anatomy/High Yield Anatomy/High Yield Neuronanatomy/High Yield Embryo/High Yield Histology

BRS Behavioral Science

BRS Physiology - Just the Neurophysiology.

Goljan Patho - Very good, if you cant read it just solve questions from it.

kaplan q book and bank
usmle sample cd
hematology slides from Harrison's Textbook of Internal Medicine
Color Plates from first aid
questions from goljan patho full test
questions from goljan 5 star pathology

http://healthismoney.blogspot.com/2007/01/laughter-is-best-medicinemedical-jokes.html