Advice for someone who sucks at standardized test.

[urbanclassic]

I'm an MS1 and so far I am doing really well. However in the back of my head is step 1. I'm a bad standardized test-taker. My GPA in High School and college were great/almost perfect, but my SAT score was barely above average and my MCAT was sub-30s. I have reading comprehension problems sometimes, so the verbal sections always brought my score down and I have mild ADD, so I always make stupid mistakes on tests, so when there is a strict time limit, I was never fast enough to go back and check my answers. My dad, who went to medical school, but never passed his boards. He also has reading comprehension problems, but worse than me because english is his second language. So knowing that my dad couldn't pass his boards concerns me a little.... Anyway, I am determined to do well on step 1, not just to get into some super competitive field (because I'm not sure what I want to do yet), but to prove to myself I can do well on standardized tests. I'm hoping that because step 1 has more to do with science and it's application to the body it won't be as bad as it would be if it were some philosophical/find the meaning of what the author was thinking stuff like the MCAT/SAT verbals were.
Long story, but any advice? Any inspirational stories about someone with subpar MCAT, but amazing step 1 scores?

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[koan]

You made it into medical school, and you did well enough on exams in college to have a great GPA. My guess is that you'll figure out what needs to be done to pass Step 1. Knowing and accepting that you have an innate disadvantage, I would think you should give yourself every advantage possible and dedicate significant time / effort to preparation. There are lots of great threads on here about boards prep, and I think if you're already obsessing about it this far into MS1 you are sufficiently paranoid to do well. 🙂

My tricks for working reading comprehension for the MCAT were to speed read as much of the New York Times every day during breakfast as possible, and do the crossword puzzle during lunch. Forget about the Saturday puzzle though... people who can do that without cheating are 45T (or 280+ Step 1) material.

Also if you have diagnosed or suspected ADHD you should consider taking methylphenidate. At least that's what First Aid tells me.

Wow, I have never used that many emoticons in one post. Forgive me.

 

[urbanclassic]

You made it into medical school, and you did well enough on exams in college to have a great GPA. My guess is that you'll figure out what needs to be done to pass Step 1. Knowing and accepting that you have an innate disadvantage, I would think you should give yourself every advantage possible and dedicate significant time / effort to preparation. There are lots of great threads on here about boards prep, and I think if you're already obsessing about it this far into MS1 you are sufficiently paranoid to do well. 🙂

My tricks for working reading comprehension for the MCAT were to speed read as much of the New York Times every day during breakfast as possible, and do the crossword puzzle during lunch. Forget about the Saturday puzzle though... people who can do that without cheating are 45T (or 280+ Step 1) material.

Also if you have diagnosed or suspected ADHD you should consider taking methylphenidate. At least that's what First Aid tells me.

Wow, I have never used that many emoticons in one post. Forgive me.

Thanks for replying. 👍 I am a little paranoid, but I think my fears are validated for the reasons I posted above... I want make a step 1 score that shows what I am capable of.
I feel like all the posts for prep for step 1 are for MSII, that's why I started this post, for MSIs, who wanted to do little here and there to prepare.

 

[mleick]

I scored a 1270 on my SAT, a 30 on my MCAT with an 8 in VR (native english speaker) and always had a stellar GPA in high school and college. Like you I wanted to kill step 1 and get into a competitive field, I started studying early and ended up with a score in the mid 250s. My roommate scored a 42 on his MCAT and ended up with the same step score as me, so its possible to make great improvements. There are many stories like this, start early your second year and you will be fine. Good luck.

 

[urbanclassic]

I scored a 1270 on my SAT, a 30 on my MCAT with an 8 in VR (native english speaker) and always had a stellar GPA in high school and college. Like you I wanted to kill step 1 and get into a competitive field, I started studying early and ended up with a score in the mid 250s. My roommate scored a 42 on his MCAT and ended up with the same step score as me, so its possible to make great improvements. There are many stories like this, start early your second year and you will be fine. Good luck.

Awesome! Thanks for replying, that is so inspiring/motivating! Did you feel like Step 1 had similar testing style to the MCAT?

 

[p30doc]

Did you feel like Step 1 had similar testing style to the MCAT?

Lol wat look up some usmle practice q's online.

 

[evilbooyaa]

MCAT Verbal is your issue? Don't worry about Step 1 then. There isn't a lot of critical reading to be done.

You need to be able to recognize words, pictures, etc. and know what to do from there. If I give you a set of thyroid enzyme numbers, you should be able to 1) tell me what type of hypo/hyper thyroidism that person has and 2) know the relevant treatment, diagnostic, etc. etc. about it. Very narrow example, but there isn't a whole lot of 'reading comprehension' on step 1.

I'd take a look at some USMLE Step 1 questions and see what you're getting into.

 

[urbanclassic]

MCAT Verbal is your issue? Don't worry about Step 1 then. There isn't a lot of critical reading to be done.

You need to be able to recognize words, pictures, etc. and know what to do from there. If I give you a set of thyroid enzyme numbers, you should be able to 1) tell me what type of hypo/hyper thyroidism that person has and 2) know the relevant treatment, diagnostic, etc. etc. about it. Very narrow example, but there isn't a whole lot of 'reading comprehension' on step 1.

I'd take a look at some USMLE Step 1 questions and see what you're getting into.

Thanks!

 

[Go Ducks]

If you are just starting your third year, don't look at STEP 1 questions. It will be like reading Greek and will seriously freak you out.

If you suck at standardized tests, you are at a real disadvantage. I'm in the same boat. Even worse, all your scores third year are also based largely on standardized tests (the shelves). Sucks to be you; sucks to be me. However the world will keep turning and you'll get a residency. Just try not to think about it.

 

[Cancer Man]

Institute for Medical Boards. They have a "questions quest" course. I pulled a 70 point gain on my comlex and a guy in my class pulled 140 points. I'm not sure how that would translate to a USMLE score, but it would be significant.

What they do, is teach you how to analyse and understand the question. It's not that you don't know the material, just that you probably don't understand the question.

 

[amanda9e1]

I was always under the impression I was a bad test-taker as well...scraped by with a 30 on the MCAT somehow, but I've never really been above-average with grades since high school (or first semester of med school...which was cake!). Did horribly on Step 1 (196).. had tried to get some help before taking it from my school's academic center but they just told me I didn't know how to read the questions, so that's how I prepared- qbanks.

That score was devastating...so I cracked down with step 2 studying. I did the kaplan online lecture series over a few weeks. My practice test score (the school administered one) was dismal..in the 190s, but I pulled out a 251 on the actual exam. Honestly there's too much info to go through to study, and if you don't know what to study (your curriculum isn't a good indicator) and you aren't a great test-taker, you probably won't do well. The step exams test your ability to take the test (in that one way, similar to MCAT), not necessarily your understanding of the material, so you need to understand the exam. (Kaplan was AWESOME, it narrowed the spectrum of info and made everything easy to remember- the actual test felt like a review.) I proved that it's possible to overcome being a crappy test-taker, with good prep.

It can end up being a lot of money, but I went the cheap way the first time and regret it every single day. I let that one score define me for most of last year..so just consider how much risk you're willing to take and how a sub-average score would affect your psyche (and possibly career, as it almost did in my case).

 

[DarkmanX]

No offense to anyone, I never understood the "not a good test taker" unless you get panic attacks, I think the feeling every test taker gets during an exam is part of how test size each other up. If you can handle it better that gives you the higher score just as if you studied harder.

 

[Alvarez13]

Do as many practice questions as possible.