Hey all,
I am currently a medical student in the UK at UCL (University College London). I am a UK national but hold a green card. So I was considering doing the USMLE to keep my options open (post-grad training has become a farce over here because of gov mis-management)
Anyway I have just completed my 2nd year, and I am planning to take step 1 in oct/nov this year. after reading many many post on SDN I have a far idea where I should start for my prep.
So here is the books im going to use (what do you guys think)
FA 2008 (ill try and memorise it all)
BRS phys and path (again try to memorise as much as possilble)
HY bio, cell and mol, gross anatomy, embro, neuro anatomy, and brain/behaviour.
also i try do as many q banks's i can do.
(can any1 recommend a very good pharm book)
So what i want to know is whether I need to memorise BRS phys and path word for word, like FA, or just understand concepts. Also how would I go about using the high yield books (stupid question i know, do i try memorising everything in them). I am asking sily questions like this because the course at UCL is systems based, so we get a course book (published by the school) before each module, and contains notes for most lectures and a recommended reading, from which we make notes. so we use hundreds of books in the first two years, taking bits from each. ALso looking at the 150 free questions on the usmle site, i have noticed the path is far more detailed than we have been taught, so would learning ecrything in BRS path prepare me well for it?
I dont mean to come on all egotistical but i got a distinction for my first two years, about the top 8-9% class get this, and UCL is one of the most selective schools after Oxbridge, so id like to get 230+( unrealistic probably). So how should i go about achieving, is it a reasonable goal to set considering internationals do not do to well?
Final question what is the passing percentage for the test. in our MCQ's the passing mark is usually set at around 50-55%. about 10-20% of the class fail the first time around. having a quick look at the 150 questions
step looks harder.
Sorry for the really long post
I am currently a medical student in the UK at UCL (University College London). I am a UK national but hold a green card. So I was considering doing the USMLE to keep my options open (post-grad training has become a farce over here because of gov mis-management)
Anyway I have just completed my 2nd year, and I am planning to take step 1 in oct/nov this year. after reading many many post on SDN I have a far idea where I should start for my prep.
So here is the books im going to use (what do you guys think)
FA 2008 (ill try and memorise it all)
BRS phys and path (again try to memorise as much as possilble)
HY bio, cell and mol, gross anatomy, embro, neuro anatomy, and brain/behaviour.
also i try do as many q banks's i can do.
(can any1 recommend a very good pharm book)
So what i want to know is whether I need to memorise BRS phys and path word for word, like FA, or just understand concepts. Also how would I go about using the high yield books (stupid question i know, do i try memorising everything in them). I am asking sily questions like this because the course at UCL is systems based, so we get a course book (published by the school) before each module, and contains notes for most lectures and a recommended reading, from which we make notes. so we use hundreds of books in the first two years, taking bits from each. ALso looking at the 150 free questions on the usmle site, i have noticed the path is far more detailed than we have been taught, so would learning ecrything in BRS path prepare me well for it?
I dont mean to come on all egotistical but i got a distinction for my first two years, about the top 8-9% class get this, and UCL is one of the most selective schools after Oxbridge, so id like to get 230+( unrealistic probably). So how should i go about achieving, is it a reasonable goal to set considering internationals do not do to well?
Final question what is the passing percentage for the test. in our MCQ's the passing mark is usually set at around 50-55%. about 10-20% of the class fail the first time around. having a quick look at the 150 questions
step looks harder.
Sorry for the really long post
