A Little Advice On Step I Please

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So I am schedulled to take the exam 10 days from now. I took a diagnostic NBME 1 about a month ago and I got 180 on it which is not a pass. in the last month i haven't had a chance to study at all (a lot of family problems my dad is very sick etc.). My school does not allow me to take more time to study so I HAVE to take the test in 10 days. I dont even know where to start or what to do. By the way, I have taken a year off due to same problems and don't remember any thing!
What should I do? Should I even touch 1st aid. or should i just learn all the NBME questions really well. What subjects from what organs should I focuse most on...... Sorry this sounds Ive been living in Planet Mars for the last 3 years, but I had a lot to deal with. I can use some HONEST advice.

BEST,

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Just read first aid like 5 times. Knowing all NBME questions isnt going to help much.

 

[dianamd]

Just read first aid like 5 times. Knowing all NBME questions isnt going to help much.

I agree. Forget about the NBME completely. Read the HY stuff, and focus for ten days on Your life.

FA, the MRIs in HY Neuro, BRS Path if you can (for the HY chapters, most importantly). Learn the biostats section of FA. Pharm basics only/side effects, and do as much Qbank or other question bank as you can. Don't worry too much about the crazy details of Qbank -- don't waste your time memorizing crazy exceptions or details -- especially on pharm and micro, and crazy details of chromosomal #s, translocations, etc. If you are a good memorizer, FA over and over is the way to go.

Good luck!

 

[Uegis]

Sorry to hear about your situation. As the previous two posters said, just memorize First Aid. There was not many questions on my test where I had no idea what they were talking about because I read about it in FA (though for some crazy interleukin question, you're not going to get no matter how many books you looked at). Good luck.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Have you actually talked to someone at your school about delaying the exam? They may have a general policy of not letting people delay the exam, but they might make an exception if they knew you were having personal issues that completely prevented you from studying. Since you are very much borderline, I think you would definitely benefit from a couple more weeks.

If you absolutely can't delay, I second the suggestion to focus on FA and BRS Path. I didn't use HY Neuro, so I can't comment on it. FA is really a good guide for what you should focus on -- the information is concise and well organized, but it hits all the major points. After you study each section in FA, you can look at the corresponding chapter(s) in BRS Path for more information. BRS Path is also a quick read, so I think these 2 books are doable in 10 days. Forget the stuff about reading FA multiple times. Just read it once and read it well (but keep moving, of course). Order isn't really important, but you'll probably want to get your weakest areas out of the way first so you are sure to have enough time to cover them.

Are you doing any practice questions? If you are, I would limit it to 50 questions a day since you should be spending most of your time reviewing. If not, I probably wouldn't worry about it at this point since you have your work cut out for you with just reviewing.

Don't spend a lot of time debating strategy. Just make a plan and go with it. Also, I've been saying this a lot lately, but once you decide what to do, stop reading SDN. You don't have time at this point, and it can really drive you crazy if you compare yourself too much to others. I think if you buckle down for these 10 days, you can do it. Good luck!

 

[blue_feiyan]

hardcore First Aid at least 3 times, first 8 chapters in BRS pathology, some questions.

you will pass with just that!

good luck!

 

[peppy]

Sorry to hear you're going through such a harsh time in your life. I've had similar experiences with family illness and I know it makes it hard to focus on anything else.
If at all possible, I agree that you should see if the school can make an exception for you to give you more time.
I had to push the start date of my rotations back due to family illness and it was no problem even though they normally are very strict at my school about not letting people change that part of things.

However, if you can't get an exception, if I were you, I'd be going with the advice to try to get to know First Aid inside and out, then hope for the best.

If it helps any, remind yourself that most people do pass the test even though not everyone gets to prepare as well as they'd like. There was a guy who posted here a few weeks ago who said he got a 215 just from reading First Aid and doing questions for a week (here's the post: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=407592 ). Hey, you learned this stuff once already, so it's just a matter of bringing it back to your memory. 🙂 All the best to you...

 

[adlib]

thank you so much guys for your advices. studied 12 hours yesterday (just woke up). I could only get through GI and I am not even finished with it yet. It is diguisting how i have forgotten every thing. And allegedly i am in a top 10 medschool! it will be really embarassaing when they see my score! Some of you guys advised me to go through FA like 3 times. At this point I dont think I am even going to finish the whole thing once! I guess I am just a turtle reader. I am a pretty good exam taker though so if I get through it I will get most of the questions. For the ones that took the test, if you guys had to leave a couple of chapters in FA out (besides embryo). which ones would you choose?

 

[godschosenone]

thank you so much guys for your advices. studied 12 hours yesterday (just woke up). I could only get through GI and I am not even finished with it yet. It is diguisting how i have forgotten every thing. And allegedly i am in a top 10 medschool! it will be really embarassaing when they see my score! Some of you guys advised me to go through FA like 3 times. At this point I dont think I am even going to finish the whole thing once! I guess I am just a turtle reader. I am a pretty good exam taker though so if I get through it I will get most of the questions. For the ones that took the test, if you guys had to leave a couple of chapters in FA out (besides embryo). which ones would you choose?

For all of the gunners on here, I am quite impressed with all of the empathy shown to the OP. Far more classy than I would have expected. I would bet on First Aid, but don't just read it. Find a way to truly focus on what you are reading. Do so in an organized fashion--and plan it out. USMLE World is a great resource to use as a measure of what you picked up during your FA read. Best of luck. Dig deep. You'll surprise yourself.

 

[pratik7]

I would suggest reading first aid twice and doing questions so you know how to apply the info

 

[doctortwindad]

For all of the gunners on here, I am quite impressed with all of the empathy shown to the OP. Far more classy than I would have expected. I would bet on First Aid, but don't just read it. Find a way to truly focus on what you are reading. Do so in an organized fashion--and plan it out. USMLE World is a great resource to use as a measure of what you picked up during your FA read. Best of luck. Dig deep. You'll surprise yourself.

Yes, very classy indeed.
Thanks to all the posters, and best of luck to the OP.👍

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Basically, everything in FA is important. The only thing I can say that might save you some time is that if you know the subject well, you can probably just briefly skim over the section in FA. Speed is of the utmost importance at this point -- I had 3 weeks to study and would take 1-2 days per section, but that was reading FA plus BRS path and phys, plus 2 hours doing questions in the morning. Reading just the section in FA usually only took maybe 2-4 hours (and I'm not an especially fast reader). Anything you can do to speed up your reading is a good thing -- are you taking longer because you're having trouble concentrating, or because you're really trying to understand and learn each concept? If it's the latter, I think you can back off a little on the depth of knowledge and go for breadth. You might also consider doing some blocks of random questions in USMLE World, especially since you might not finish reading FA. That will give you a little insurance since it will cover areas you haven't reached yet, and the explanations are great.

Keep it up! The next few days are probably going to seem awful, but it'll all be over soon!