Step I 35%.. help plzz

Started by dingleberry007
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dingleberry007

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15+ Year Member
I need some serious advice and am scared beyond belief.
I just finished 200 Qs using USMLERx that I started last week 4 days ago and I am at a DISMAL 35%!!! And this bank is supposed to be the easy one! I'm going over first aid (haven't finished yet) and been reading class notes here and there.

what am I doing wrong and how do I fix it?

any advice anyone could give me would be very appreciated...
 
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Have a look at the way questions are asked. If you have a good basic science background this should improve your score straight away. If for example there are 5 answer options narrow it down by knowing the incorrect answers if you don't know the correct one. For example, if its a micro question thats asking about endotoxin then eliminate the gram positives minus listeria etc etc.

Understanding the questions helped me on UW to go from 50% at the start for blocks to now getting 65-74% consistently, I haven't taken the test yet but knowing how the questions are asked helped me answering qbanks
 
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lord_jeebus said:
How have you been doing in class? When are you planning on taking Step I? Where are you in medical school, and do you attend a US school?
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1st year I did very well, but second year I got really low Bs throughout. I was planning on taking the step in a month. I am in an md/phd program in a US school and need to take this asap to get it out of the way.
 
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when did you finish 2nd yr? some md/phd programs dont make their students take step 1 immediately after 2nd yr giving them some leeway...it seems like you are not too confident with your path, pharm, micro, immuno foundation (2nd yr classes) so you will definitely need to build on that. use these banks as learning tools rather than assessments and along the way take NBME exams to check your progress. what sort of a score are you shooting for? if necessary, could you take more than a month to study for this exam?
 
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UditNarayan said:
when did you finish 2nd yr? some md/phd programs dont make their students take step 1 immediately after 2nd yr giving them some leeway...it seems like you are not too confident with your path, pharm, micro, immuno foundation (2nd yr classes) so you will definitely need to build on that. use these banks as learning tools rather than assessments and along the way take NBME exams to check your progress. what sort of a score are you shooting for? if necessary, could you take more than a month to study for this exam?
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I do have the option of taking it next year, but I really want to get it out of the way. My initial goal was to take it at the end of september. If i continue to do this poorly, I will push that back, but at this moment, I just want to do better...
 
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