anyone else feel like they don't know anything?

[hippocampus]

after reading the comments from people who have taken the boards, i feel like i dont know anything and have no clue what they're talking about (when they give examples about the questions they had).
anyone else feel the same way?

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[ShyRem]

*raises hand*

At this point, I feel amazed I ever passed the first two years of medical school.

 

[helda]

I felt the same thing ,i took NBDE part 1 ,2 weeks ago if any body no how long it takes to get the result iam so confused after i read the score of the students they posted ,and if any body know how they do the score if it is curve or not please replay me ,i am new my e mail [email protected]

 

[hippocampus]

huh.. did u take the nmbe practice test 1 or step 1?
nmbe practice test 1 = they show u the score right after u finish
step 1 = probably a minimum of 3 weeks, they post-mail u the score

 

[Lany]

huh.. did u take the nmbe practice test 1 or step 1?
nmbe practice test 1 = they show u the score right after u finish
step 1 = probably a minimum of 3 weeks, they post-mail u the score

ya.. i was wondering that too..then i saw "pre-dental" and "D" (from nbde) probably stands for dentistry and their system might be diff.

As for not knowing anything.. my hands r up 2.. atleast not as much as i would like to (possibly neverending story?)

 

[DragonWell]

Studying for this thing is like walking up Mt. Everest; you know you're moving forward but the scale involved is so big, it feels like you're not going anywhere. You are making progress, though.

 

[DaveinDallas]

OP - I hear you.....how many times during study have
I had the light bulb come on with --'Oh, so THAT's
how that works......' or 'So that's what they meant
when....'.....

There's a doc that posts on this website occasionally
(he's now a resident) that tried to tell me how to prep
for boards during my first two years.....if I'd have listened
rather than fall into the stress treadmill, I'd be
sitting pretty right about now......

Ah, well, two weeks to go, lots to cover.....

 

[helda]

Thank you hippocampus why it takes 3 weeks this is make me do you know how they do the scores ,l think i did not do good on the exam

 

[PenguinHead]

how many times during study have
I had the light bulb come on with --'Oh, so THAT's
how that works......' or 'So that's what they meant
when....'

Until recently, I was so confused about urine darkening upon standing. How the crap does standing up make urine get dark? .....




I hadn't felt that stupid in a while...

 

[BrownieGirl]

Thank you hippocampus why it takes 3 weeks this is make me do you know how they do the scores ,l think i did not do good on the exam

It seems to me like you're talking about the Dental Board Exam. Can you clarify as this is a forum for the Medical Board exam.

In any case. The NBDE (dental board) gives part I score (not "step 1") via mail about 6 weeks after your exam date. You need a minimum score of 75 to pass, which is curved, so the large majority of people pass. I think a 75 on the exam correlated to answering about 60% of the questions correctly.

If you did take the NBDE - there is a dental forum with dicussions about NBDE parts I and II and I'm sure the dental students on there can guide you a little better.

Good Luck. Don't stress, you probably did fine.

 

[DwyaneWade]

after reading the comments from people who have taken the boards, i feel like i dont know anything and have no clue what they're talking about (when they give examples about the questions they had).
anyone else feel the same way?

Do UW, review your mistakes, and you will be fine.

 

[g6pddfishnc]

.

 

[futuredoc10]

Raising my hand here too. Yup, feel the same way much of the time...pretty clueless.



Actually...how does that happen?

Upon contact with air, homogentisic acid is oxidized to form a pigmentlike polymeric material responsible for the black color of standing urine. ("standing" as in stagnant, not as in getting up from sitting)

 

[agranulocytosis]

Until recently, I was so confused about urine darkening upon standing. How the crap does standing up make urine get dark? .....




I hadn't felt that stupid in a while...

This made me LOL. I had the same problem with the HiB vaccine. I thought they the text was talking about Influenza VIRUS for a solid 2 weeks. Another one was intraventricular hemorrhage. It got me thinking, how in the hell do you detect a hemorrhage in a heart chamber that's already full of blood??

 

[PenguinHead]

This made me LOL. I had the same problem with the HiB vaccine. I thought they the text was talking about Influenza VIRUS for a solid 2 weeks. Another one was intraventricular hemorrhage. It got me thinking, how in the hell do you detect a hemorrhage in a heart chamber that's already full of blood??

Intraventricular. Nice.

My friend can't associate "cervical" with anything other than female parts.

Patient has a sore throat and cervical lymphadenopathy???

 

[neoserenity333]

i feel ya.
i just got a 20% on a block, and that's no better than leaving it to chance i laugh now, but i'll probably be crying later...

this is going to be a fun 4 weeks

 

[g6pddfishnc]

.

 

[45408]

Until recently, I was so confused about urine darkening upon standing. How the crap does standing up make urine get dark? .....




I hadn't felt that stupid in a while...

that's pretty funny. I had a lightbulb moment today too.

 

[ShyRem]

Yeah. After beating the average for a block yesterday (I was SO excited!) today I'm back to 40%. But I'm only 5 days into studying.

And I totally get the "certain things have to be sacrificed" comment. I could not for the life of me think of "railroad company" in conversation today. The best I came up with was "the folks that own the locomotive tracks that trains run on". Yeah. On a funnier note, my husband said something about "speculating". And all I could think of was gyn exams and all the different bacterial infections and cervical dysplasias you would see while "speculating". I'm not kidding. Sad, isn't it?

 

[farnsworth]

Yeah. After beating the average for a block yesterday (I was SO excited!) today I'm back to 40%. But I'm only 5 days into studying.

And I totally get the "certain things have to be sacrificed" comment. I could not for the life of me think of "railroad company" in conversation today. The best I came up with was "the folks that own the locomotive tracks that trains run on". Yeah. On a funnier note, my husband said something about "speculating". And all I could think of was gyn exams and all the different bacterial infections and cervical dysplasias you would see while "speculating". I'm not kidding. Sad, isn't it?

If it makes you feel any better, you do improve a lot (I don't take mine until next week though, so take my advice with a grain of salt!). Keep track of your progress (write down your scores next to the date in chronological order), looking back over your improvement makes you feel better, makes you feel like you're gaining some ground.

And forgive yourself for your bad sections, because you learn from your mistakes and if you get a question right that you guessed on, chances are you may just breeze over the explanation or something rather than really reading it to figure out why you got it wrong, so really, you're getting the most of your money. And plus, you're going to (ideally) read all the explanations anyway, and obviously your Qbank score doesn't count for anything. Best to get them wrong now. Like when Navy Seals play lazer tag.

...at least that's the....I believe the term is "rationalization"...I use to explain my blunder sections.

 

[Tiger26]

Now I totally get how it turns dark on standing. I kept thinking that it meant when you got up to pee.

Also, yes, I feel like I have completed my descent into social awkwardness. A girl I knew in college tried to give me her number today:

Me: "ok, great" (as in thinking she'd give it to me at some undetermined time in the future)

Her: "well, now's the part where you get out a pen and write it down"

Me: umm . . . yeah, that makes sense I guess

 

[farnsworth]

Now I totally get how it turns dark on standing. I kept thinking that it meant when you got up to pee.

Also, yes, I feel like I have completed my descent into social awkwardness. A girl I knew in college tried to give me her number today:

Me: "ok, great" (as in thinking she'd give it to me at some undetermined time in the future)

Her: "well, now's the part where you get out a pen and write it down"

Me: umm . . . yeah, that makes sense I guess

Did you pee when you stood up?

 

[futuredoc10]

Did you pee when you stood up?

ahahhahahahahahhahahahahahah.......now that was funny.

 

[CCLCMer]

Penguinhead's a-ha moment cracked me up too. I think we've all had those days and those question sets. There are still a lot of topics I haven't covered yet, so of course I don't do as well when they show up on a random set of questions. But what really annoys me is when I know the answer to something and I miss it because I misread the question or was careless in working out the solution. I had one today on hyperkalemia like that. I never miss those electrolyte questions, but I just misread this one, so I chose the exact opposite answer. I've also noticed that some of the things I know really well and think are "easy" are apparently not what the rest of you guys are learning at your schools, and vice versa. Like, I know biostats and genetics/molecular bio really well without having reviewed them yet, but I suck at a lot of those anatomy and embryo questions that it seems like most med students know really well. It's kind of interesting. I guess different schools just focus more heavily on different subjects. Do most of you have to take a biostats class at your schools? We have a whole block of epi/biostats at CCLCM. But we don't do nearly as much anatomy as most schools do.

 

[45408]

I just noticed that IgE antibodies are already bound to a mast cell. Hmmmm, I thought the allergen bound to the IgE, then allowing it to bind to the mast cell.

 

[Hayat]

after reading the comments from people who have taken the boards, i feel like i dont know anything and have no clue what they're talking about (when they give examples about the questions they had).
anyone else feel the same way?

All the time

 

[osli]

I just noticed that IgE antibodies are already bound to a mast cell. Hmmmm, I thought the allergen bound to the IgE, then allowing it to bind to the mast cell.

I think the allergens just cross-link two IgE's as a signal.

I keep seeing tons of stuff like this that I thought I "knew" or perhaps at one time actually did, and when I see it in a review book I think "really? are you sure?".

Like E coli. Because of the way a certain professor kept saying it, I always thought it was spelled Escheria coli or something similar (in print, we just got E coli in our notes or exams). After seeing Escherichia coli in a review book, I just knew it was misspelled. So I grabbed another book. Hmm... they misspelled it too! So I went online... whadda ya' know, there's a few extra letters in there after all!

 

[g6pddfishnc]

.

 

[78222]

I felt that way when I started. It will come together closer to the test date

 

[Keg]

Wait a minute, is this really true? I always heard it pronounced that way too. Hold on...lemme check my Kaplan book.

(a minute later)

Hey you're right! There's an extra ch in there. How come I never noticed that before?

So then....how is it really supposed to be pronounced?

Arrggh.

Maybe the ch is silent?

Escherichia (esh-

-rik

-

) - per Stedman's

 

[g6pddfishnc]

.

 

[HunterGatherer]

There are many medical terms I dont know how to pronounce.


after reading through USMLE roadmap Gross Anatomy I have great fear for my surgery rotation.

 

[farnsworth]

I felt simultaneously victorious and ashamed when I realized "____coxib" is short for COX inhibitor. And "_____mab" is short for monoclonal antibody.

And of course "USMLE" is short for Uncontrollable Sobbing Many Late Evenings.