boards part 1 retake

[vegasbound]

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hey guys thought id make this thread for us who are retaking in oct as a way to meet ppl who are in the same boat. for me at least id like to interact while maintaining anonymity so pls feel free share study methods,things u would or are doing differently frustrations , feelings towards the exam or if u just want to let off some steam. please be respectful. receiving the news of failing the exam was one of the hardest things I had to go through after studying for so long. im just starting the accept reality as im sure many other who failed are as well. good luck to all . leta get it in oct!

 

[Mofti]

I was fortunate enough to pass on my first try, but i will give some advice for the students having to retake this disaster of an exam.

I would probably do as many practice questions possible, especially for pharm, and micro.

Pharm seemed to be the one subject that was straight forward on the exam so make sure you know it cold. The basic pharm chapter probably helped me get half of the pharm questions right.

I wouldn't touch path. I would look at the rapid review on back of the first aid and the path chapter in the first aid. You should not spend more than 2 days on this subject.

I was most surprised by biochem. If you don't understand the sibject, i would highly recommend watch the DIT videos for it. The questions seemed very basic, but i got fooled by the 7% so i barely looked at it.

I think every question regarding micro came out of the FA. Unfortunately it is something you need to memorize, especially with the parasites. Try to do the BRS questions in the back of each chapter. I thought they were helpful.

Immunology was another subject i'm glad i spent a lot of time on. I seemed to have a lot of questions on this subject. Again, i thought the DIT guys did a good job of explaining this subject. I felt like i had the same amount of immunology questions as bacteria.

For LEA i overlooked the bones/jones and the features. I would make sure to review those and know everything about that subject cold.

Last but not least try not to use a lot of sources. Stick to 1 or 2 on each subject and go with it. The more information you take in on a subject the more confusing it will get.

Best of luck!

 

[shenanigans327]

I was fortunate enough to pass on my first try, but i will give some advice for the students having to retake this disaster of an exam.

I would probably do as many practice questions possible, especially for pharm, and micro.

Pharm seemed to be the one subject that was straight forward on the exam so make sure you know it cold. The basic pharm chapter probably helped me get half of the pharm questions right.

I wouldn't touch path. I would look at the rapid review on back of the first aid and the path chapter in the first aid. You should not spend more than 2 days on this subject.

I was most surprised by biochem. If you don't understand the sibject, i would highly recommend watch the DIT videos for it. The questions seemed very basic, but i got fooled by the 7% so i barely looked at it.

I think every question regarding micro came out of the FA. Unfortunately it is something you need to memorize, especially with the parasites. Try to do the BRS questions in the back of each chapter. I thought they were helpful.

Immunology was another subject i'm glad i spent a lot of time on. I seemed to have a lot of questions on this subject. Again, i thought the DIT guys did a good job of explaining this subject. I felt like i had the same amount of immunology questions as bacteria.

For LEA i overlooked the bones/jones and the features. I would make sure to review those and know everything about that subject cold.

Last but not least try not to use a lot of sources. Stick to 1 or 2 on each subject and go with it. The more information you take in on a subject the more confusing it will get.

Best of luck!

+1👍

This is prob good info for C/O 2016 as well!

Skip the Path, definitely low yield for the exam...

As far as LEA, I started with the deepest structures and worked my way out. So learn all osseous landmarks, then add in the ligs, (know where they attach!) then muscles, nerves, etc...

I def. thought the Micro out of FirstAid was all that was needed to do well. I wish there had actually been more of it on the exam. If I had to do it again, I'd prob take some of the advice from the Boards 2012 thread and know LEA + 3 subjects cold (ex: micro, pharm, physiology). I passed but don't feel at all like I deserved it...it was a complete crapshoot and it ultimately could have been any of us who failed and that 'test' proved absolutely nothing...I know you guys are going to all be great docs, just get past this BS exam! 🙂

Good Luck everyone!

 

[BubbaWub]

For all those people who say "this is a basic science test" that is actually representative of what podiatrists or general MD's should be able to pass are obviously delusional. This test was a joke. I studied the USLME step 1 and knew the bacteria backwards and received 1 question on bacteria along with 4-5 questions on parasites. Congrats to all those that guessed well and be honest thats really what its came down to. Don't even get me started on the LEA which was an embarrassment to our profession.

 

[hematosis]

1. Parasitology is still part of microbiology. What do you want? An exact breakdown of how many questions on E. coli? Most people that think the breakdowns are not consistent are not comprehending the fact that you can have a mixture of pathology with microbiology or biochemistry with immunology, so it can be difficult to categorize for the test taker (not the test maker) and what appears as a GI physiology question to you might actually be a biochemistry question on protein stability. Therefore, most people have a hard time categorizing the questions and think that the test is just "random'. Its not and i can assure you that the break down is pretty much on point with the NBPME guidelines. Our pass rate was 82.5% which is reasonable considering the quality of the application pool. (The USMLE pass rate isn't 100% either. It's less than 90% for DO students who take it).

2 First Aid isn't written for the podiatry board exam. I'm not sure why everyone picks this as their main study aid. I didn't. I used my review notes in conjunction with the NBPME subject breakdown.

Again, most people that fail the exam are students that are slacking off in school, in the bottom of their class and relied on old exams to pass classes. I don't know anyone that worked hard their last 2 years of school and actually sat down for a month, studied hard for the exam and still failed.

 

[dyk343]

The problem with that exam is we can give advice all day long but next years exam (or October's) will be completely different. The test is never the same two years in a row.

 

[Liz Frank]

1. Parasitology is still part of microbiology. What do you want? An exact breakdown of how many questions on E. coli? Most people that think the breakdowns are not consistent are not comprehending the fact that you can have a mixture of pathology with microbiology or biochemistry with immunology, so it can be difficult to categorize for the test taker (not the test maker) and what appears as a GI physiology question to you might actually be a biochemistry question on protein stability. Therefore, most people have a hard time categorizing the questions and think that the test is just "random'. Its not and i can assure you that the break down is pretty much on point with the NBPME guidelines. Our pass rate was 82.5% which is reasonable considering the quality of the application pool. (The USMLE pass rate isn't 100% either. It's less than 90% for DO students who take it).

2 First Aid isn't written for the podiatry board exam. I'm not sure why everyone picks this as their main study aid. I didn't. I used my review notes in conjunction with the NBPME subject breakdown.

Again, most people that fail the exam are students that are slacking off in school, in the bottom of their class and relied on old exams to pass classes. I don't know anyone that worked hard their last 2 years of school and actually sat down for a month, studied hard for the exam and still failed.

You must not know many people then...

 

[DrGonz]

Again, most people that fail the exam are students that are slacking off in school, in the bottom of their class and relied on old exams to pass classes. I don't know anyone that worked hard their last 2 years of school and actually sat down for a month, studied hard for the exam and still failed.

i think the only way TO pass this exam was if you had payed attn the last two years and worked hard, there was no way that studying first aide gave you enough info to pass this test. It was a lot of trying to recall info from the last 2 years.

Not saying that there arent some unlucky souls out there that studied hard and just had a really bad day..

 

[vegasbound]

without getting into the specifics of the exam, i think the consensus i got from the exam was how heavily general anatomy and biochem were....to those that passed and covered these subject areas which resources would you recommend?

I checked out BRS anatomy, seems very "wordy" and rather difficult to read and absorb.

no clue on what to do for biochem. def thought FA was useless in that area.

suggestions from colleagues much appreciated.

 

[DrGonz]

without getting into the specifics of the exam, i think the consensus i got from the exam was how heavily general anatomy and biochem were....to those that passed and covered these subject areas which resources would you recommend?

I checked out BRS anatomy, seems very "wordy" and rather difficult to read and absorb.

no clue on what to do for biochem. def thought FA was useless in that area.

suggestions from colleagues much appreciated.

if you feel those were your weakest areas then i would just suggest using whatever you can to absorb the info. I only had a few straight up biochem questions (a few where biochem/pharm), but i did have a lot of GA. What did you use to study those 2 subjects the first time?

 

[hotdawg]

Bumping this thread..

Good luck to those retaking this month....

 

[GSRaw]

I studied the USLME step 1

The USMLE is not useful for the APMLE, and I'm not sure why podiatry students still use it.

BRS is by far the most helpful for podiatry students and representative of the types of questions.

 

[GSRaw]

2 First Aid isn't written for the podiatry board exam. I'm not sure why everyone picks this as their main study aid.I didn't. I used my review notes in conjunction with the NBPME subject breakdown.
.

👍

The above has been repeated so many times, year after year, on these "step 1" threads. Even after the endless posts like "I studied First Aid all summer and failed step 1, the test is bogus!!"

smh..

 

[GSRaw]

I checked out BRS anatomy, seems very "wordy" and rather difficult to read and absorb.

If you're using "study guides" to re-learn material, that might be your first mistake. If you really need to "absorb" information, try a textbook. Though I recall general anatomy being rather limited on my exam (maybe some cranial nerve stuff), BRS is really a great text for review.

no clue on what to do for biochem. def thought FA was useless in that area.

Lippincott's = Gold standard. Pricy, but worth it.

 

[abraham917]

Hey retakers. Anyone care to share their thoughts? This was test was completely off base in my opinion. It did not follow the APMLE outline provided. How many questions can they ask about random stains of genetic defects? there was more upper anatomy than lower!? Completely bogus, it needs to be said, don't tell me not to post questions, if the test is a sham product it must be exposed. Was I the only one who had these exam focuses?

 

[Serveyoursole]

Hey retakers. Anyone care to share their thoughts? This was test was completely off base in my opinion. It did not follow the APMLE outline provided. How many questions can they ask about random stains of genetic defects? there was more upper anatomy than lower!? Completely bogus, it needs to be said, don't tell me not to post questions, if the test is a sham product it must be exposed. Was I the only one who had these exam focuses?

I had over 40 questions of human anatomy; however, I also had a lot of LEA. I felt the micro questions were really hard. The few pharm questions I had were not straight forward at all in comparison to the first exam.

 

[Podgirl19]

It sucked

 

[vegasbound]

it..was....... interesting.......

 

[ldsrmdude]

Please remember not to discuss specific questions from this or other standardized exams. When you take the test you sign an agreement not to discuss exam specifics.

 

[vegasbound]

what was last year's second time pass rate? anyone know?

 

[hematosis]

I'm not sure exactly what the 2nd time pass rate is but i do know that it usually brings the first time pass rate of 82% to about 85% (1st and 2nd time pass rates combined).. In other words, it increases the overall pass rate by 3 to 4%.

 

[abraham917]

I'm not sure exactly what the 2nd time pass rate is but i do know that it usually brings the first time pass rate of 82% to about 85% (1st and 2nd time pass rates combined).. In other words, it increases the overall pass rate by 3 to 4%.

increased 3 or 4 %? So the 17% (100% of students - 83% who passed) that retake the exam only 3-4% pass? That equates to 3/17 or 17.6% pass rate for retake. where do u get this information, sounds made up

 

[that1guyfromFL]

The pass rate on the October retake of Part 1 is approximately 50% historically.


Roughly 550 sit for the exam, roughly 450 pass the first time, roughly 50 pass the retake. Overall pass rate has historically been in the 86-90% range. Over the last 2-3 cycles, it's been the lower end, around 84-86%.

It can obviously vary several percentage points based on only a few student since the number of takers is so small.

 

[vegasbound]

where u get that 50 percent from

The pass rate on the October retake of Part 1 is approximately 50% historically.


Roughly 550 sit for the exam, roughly 450 pass the first time, roughly 50 pass the retake. Overall pass rate has historically been in the 86-90% range. Over the last 2-3 cycles, it's been the lower end, around 84-86%.

It can obviously vary several percentage points based on only a few student since the number of takers is so small.

 

[that1guyfromFL]

where u get that 50 percent from

What I posted was a really simplified version, maybe this will clear things up:

The 82.5% last July that passed was out of 572 first time takers only. 82% of 572 is 469.

It's my understanding that the overall pass rate that gets tossed around includes all the test takers, not just the 572 first timers.

In the past there have been appx another 100 students taking the exam in July for the 2nd or 3rd time that have to be factored in.

That makes 672 taking the exam, but only the pass rate of the current class being included in the first time pass rate.


An overall pass rate of 85% including every single person taking the exam would be 569 out of 672.


469 passed the first time, meaning if everyone who failed in July also sat in October, there would be 203 sitting for the exam.

If 50% passed in October, you would have 569 of 670 having passed for an overall pass rate of 85%.


It's possible, I would say very likely, that the pass rate for those taking it a 2nd time is higher than those taking it 3+ times. But as I said in my first post, the overall pass rate for the second administration of the Part 1 exam in October is historically roughly 50%.

 

[Liz Frank]

According to the APMLE website, scores were to be released today; any word on the results? Goodluck to all involved!

 

[that1guyfromFL]

The scores usually are released 3 weeks after the exam. In this case, that is tomorrow the 23rd.

I think you were looking at the 2014 dates.

 

[Liz Frank]

After the retake, Temple is now at a 93.4% pass rate for the Part 1 boards. 86/91 passed. Congrats to all and goodluck to everyone in the future!