Cheating on the USMLE

Your USMLE Scores Increased, Guaranteed!
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
J

jtre506

Junior Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
113
Reaction score
0
Regarding the dry erase boards that we are provided, would it be considered cheating if during the 15 min tutorial I wrote out information on the erase boards from memory (ex. renal phys equations, bio stats, and receptors ect..)
so i wouldnt have to think about it during the exam. Then during breaks could I look at first aid and do the same before each block??
Members don't see this ad.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
no its not cheating,
but if you are running so low on memory then you might need a new hard drive? lol
with 350 questions, and a small erase board to right on, its not going to be much of help,
just focus on the exam and relax, remember this is exam is about long term memory, short term memory would rarely help
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
jtre506 said:
Regarding the dry erase boards that we are provided, would it be considered cheating if during the 15 min tutorial I wrote out information on the erase boards from memory (ex. renal phys equations, bio stats, and receptors ect..)
so i wouldnt have to think about it during the exam. Then during breaks could I look at first aid and do the same before each block??
Click to expand...

that is cheating.

you are not allowed to bring the dry erase boards outside the room during the 15 minutes. so if you do, that in itself is a violation. if you do + write equations on it during the break, you'll be terminated for sure.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
theunderdog said:
that is cheating.

you are not allowed to bring the dry erase boards outside the room during the 15 minutes. so if you do, that in itself is a violation. if you do + write equations on it during the break, you'll be terminated for sure.
Click to expand...

He didn't say he wanted to take the board outside, he said he will right from memory on the board during the tutorial time things he is likely to forget. He also would write things during his test time after looking at FA during break. Neither is cheating, but probably a waste of time as you spend all that time writing crap out then it's probably in your recent memory anyhow, and you may not even get a question on it. Also, I don't know if they will let you have things written on your board between blocks, it is probably up to the proctor.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
I think the rules are a bit excessive. I mean, really, how much could you really cheat on the USMLE? If you don't know the answer, FA might be able to help you out, but if it's a two-step question, forget it. Also, if it gives symptoms and asks for the disease, you're probably not going to be able to look that up either. Try doing UW/Kaplan with a book right in front of you - I doubt you'll do that much better than you would otherwise.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't know if it is technically cheating, but regardless, it might get you reported by another student or looked at for "suspicious behavior"... that would be enough to keep me from doing it. It's also probably not going to be that useful anyway, for the reasons other have mentioned.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Plus there's the logistical issue involved--with an hour that you're allowed to spread over 6 breaks, you've got to be able to access your materials, locate your info, memorize it, and then get back to your station and then write it all down. I'd think that your time would get used up fast.

Doable, maybe, but I'd rather do the food thing during breaks and give my brain a little rest so that everything's clicking when I hit the next block.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
It's not cheating, you can right whatever you want on the dry erase boards cause you can't take them out. However, the equations are going to be the least of your problems (actually I didn't have any questions with equations other than the sensitivity/specificity crap). Also, they give you these crappy worn out dry erase pens with fat numbs, so you have to write huge just to read the letters.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Tiger26 said:
Plus there's the logistical issue involved--with an hour that you're allowed to spread over 6 breaks, you've got to be able to access your materials, locate your info, memorize it, and then get back to your station and then write it all down. I'd think that your time would get used up fast.

Doable, maybe, but I'd rather do the food thing during breaks and give my brain a little rest so that everything's clicking when I hit the next block.
Click to expand...

Speaking of time, I once heard a story of a guy (FMG) who wore a diaper to the USMLE.

That way he wouldn't have to waste time on using the bathroom and instead could look stuff up in FA during the breaks!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DOCTORSAIB said:
Speaking of time, I once heard a story of a guy (FMG) who wore a diaper to the USMLE.

That way he wouldn't have to waste time on using the bathroom and instead could look stuff up in FA during the breaks!
Click to expand...

No way. That is disgusting. The smell! :confused:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DOCTORSAIB said:
Speaking of time, I once heard a story of a guy (FMG) who wore a diaper to the USMLE.

That way he wouldn't have to waste time on using the bathroom and instead could look stuff up in FA during the breaks!
Click to expand...

It'd be better to just not drink much so you wouldn't need to use the restroom. If you could suck on cough drops, it would probably take care of thirst. (I'm guessing you can't bring cough drops in though)

I can see the benefit of writing a few equations out. I tend to remember "lists" and sometime have a hard time picking out the appropriate item in my head when faced with a question. Writing all of the equations out on the board wouldn't necessarily make me get more answers correct, but it would save me the time of trying to go through the equations in my head to pick the right one.

To the person who had very few equations - it seems like they'll require some math for renal, cardiopulmonary in addition to the biostats stuff. Am I wrong?

I don't think I'll even bother bringing FA exam day... I want to clear my head during break time, not work myself into a frenzy trying to look things up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I don't think it's cheating. But keep in mind that as you are writing out all the equations you're also eating into your time (either break time if you're doing it during the tutorial or in between blocks, or block time if you're doing it at the beginning of the block).

lilnoelle said:
To the person who had very few equations - it seems like they'll require some math for renal, cardiopulmonary in addition to the biostats stuff. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

I took my test yesterday and I had 1 physiology calculation question. It was a Q = change in pressure/resistance question in which you also had to calculate total resistance in parallel (I guess that's 2 calculations in one). However, I had zero calculations for cardio, renal, or pulmonary.

I had one relative risk question, one true prevalence question, and nothing else in terms of calculations for biostats.

I'm not saying you shouldn't worry about knowing the equations because in the end it depends on what test you get. This was just my personal experience.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
not so much in respect to the cheating/suspicious behavior part, but i don't think it would be very useful to write that stuff down.

i also took step 1 last week, and i looked over all my equations the night before and tried to memorize them. but on my exam i only had 2 calculation questions for physiology, and they were easy ones...GFR and CO. plus there were some biostats like sensitivity/specifcity.

and i don't think anything significant can be obtained from trying to cram First Aid during your breaks. a little mind rest and some food + caffeine are going to serve you a lot better than 10 minutes of trying to memorize the lysosomal storage diseases in the rare event that your next block has an obscure question about one of them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You can look at First Aid during breaks? I didn't know that. I thought you couldn't call anyone or look at material during breaks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This question came up at my school because a bunch of us took the Doctors in Training class (Dr. Jenkins advises you to write some stuff on your board before you log in). One girl got in trouble for doing it during a practice test, so a student asked our school administration for clarification. Here's the e-mail my school sent out:

TO: Rising MS 3's

Below is the official USMLE policy on when a test-taker can start writing on
the erasable note boards. If anyone has been instructed differently at the test or a practice test, please let me know at what testing center this occurred. Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: Melanie Nelson
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 3:26 PM
To: Caver, Patricia E
Subject: RE: writing on marker board b/f starting exam=cheating

Pat, I asked the Director of Test Administration for the answer to your
inquiry. There is no prohibition for writing on the note boards once the
examinee is seated at the workstation. The note boards stay in the testing
room and cannot be removed or written on during a break outside of the
testing room.

Melanie Nelson
Program Officer, Medical School Programs
National Board of Medical Examiners

jtre506 said:
Regarding the dry erase boards that we are provided, would it be considered cheating if during the 15 min tutorial I wrote out information on the erase boards from memory (ex. renal phys equations, bio stats, and receptors ect..)
so i wouldnt have to think about it during the exam. Then during breaks could I look at first aid and do the same before each block??
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
The only "legitimate cheating" (what an oxymoron) I can think of in medical school is palpating yourself for some anatomy questions.

It's impossible not to bring myself to the exam:)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DOCTORSAIB said:
Speaking of time, I once heard a story of a guy (FMG) who wore a diaper to the USMLE.

That way he wouldn't have to waste time on using the bathroom and instead could look stuff up in FA during the breaks!
Click to expand...

See? Now that is what medicine SHOULD be like. Hardcore! :mad::thumbup: All us american-bred are spoiled rotten. We gotta go back to the old-school to hold our own against the foreign guys.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Good Yeast said:
The only "legitimate cheating" (what an oxymoron) I can think of in medical school is palpating yourself for some anatomy questions.

It's impossible not to bring myself to the exam:)
Click to expand...

:laugh:

I remember on one of our section quizzes there was a question pretty early - perhaps ten or so into the quiz - that was an anatomy oriented question. Something like which way your arm moves when some rotator cuff muscle contracts or something. Since it was early in the exam everyone reached it at pretty much the same time, and you could see about half the class (myself included) start flailing an arm about!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Nodelphi said:
So nothing says you can't tattoo FA to your forearms...right?
Click to expand...

Totally going with the optic lesions....and if anyone asks on the wards next year, I'll just say they're some symbols from a native tribe of South America..:laugh:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Nodelphi said:
So nothing says you can't tattoo FA to your forearms...right?
Click to expand...

Hahaha, pull some prison break stuff. Why not tattoo your entire body? Your sitting and taking your test and the guy next to u is taking off his shirt trying to read his tattoos, hahaha:laugh::D
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
zahque said:
not to stray too far off topic here, but three future doctors in this thread have spelled the word "write" as "right."

really?

REALLY?
Click to expand...
I see that someone didn't take their paroxetine for their OCD today. :p
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

Asilbek
USMLE Usmle step 1
Replies
0
Views
692
Asilbek
Asilbek
L
  • Question
USMLE Step1 Course prep
Replies
1
Views
1K
MedBoardTutors
MedBoardTutors
J
USMLE Studying for USMLE Step 1
Replies
7
Views
3K
MedBoardTutors
MedBoardTutors
R
EAGLE USMLE STEP 1 REVIEW COURSE
Replies
2
Views
1K
gyngyn
gyngyn
F
How would you redo your prep for COMLEX Level 1/USMLE Step 1
Replies
16
Views
6K
IssaDr
IssaDr
Top