Compiled Step one Experiences

[Jalby]

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Hey guys. This is a thread to post individual step 1 experiences. Like what was on it, how you felt going into it, what books you used, what was helpfull, what was not. Basically anything you think would be helpfull to other students. Post your own thread so that you can get the congratulations you deserve and answer any questions, but please just cut and paste that experience onto this thread so it will be around for years. Thank you very much.

 

[Tool_fan]

prob a damn good score. so go find what rez you like

 

[bludeviled]

Yay! - i am so stoked to be done today 😀

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I took longer (7 weeks of studying over 8 weeks) than most people. But I didn’t touch anything board related until then and simply felt that that was how long I needed to learn everything.
STUDY PLAN:
- 3 days HY Embryo (what you need to know is most likely in FA but this helps)
- 3 days HY Anatomy
- 3 days HY Neuro (3rd ed great book! - esp. the neuroimaging)
- 3 weeks of Organ system based Path and Physio review. For each subject I would skim FA, read BRS path + do ?’s, answer Robbins Review Book questions, read and do ?’s in BRS physio. All the above while annotating FA. This took a while (esp. Robbins) but I guess worth it – I don’t think I had a path question today I wasn’t sure about
- Up till then I would do 50?’s of Qbank a night. The next week was spent frantically trying to finish Q bank while skimming/learning the remaining subjects from FA. I finished Qbank with a 79% average (probally a little inflated because i did about half of it according to what subject I had most recently studies as opposed to randomly) Took the Kaplan QReview full length practice test and got a 69%
- Final 2 weeks I spent reviewing remaining subjects in FA and taking the NBME tests in tutor mode (I looked up all the right answers but left my wrong ones in so I could get accurate score feedback)
NBME 1: 640 (247)
NBME 2: 700 (256)
Also did 40% (subjects I was weak on) of BRS behavioral science – good book! Spent a day on HY Cell and M Bio. Worthwhile review! If you need a good background in CMB, I’d recommend this. I was a bio major and while I was comfortably famillar w/ all the obscure stuff thrown at me today, I couldn’t recall all the nuances involved. I ended up guessing on those questions. Regardless that stuff isn’t in HY or FA but it wouldn’t be worth my time to have read Alberts or Gilberts. Speaking of long books, I made it through HY Histo (great book! – got a me a few extra points). 2 days before I took the 150 free questions and got 86%
Other resources:
- Step up to the Bedside: book of 70 clinical cases presenting VERY VERY high yield info in the most enjoyable presentation possible. This is an amazing book from the Step Up authors w/ the same great info and diagrams/charts. Only got through 75%
- Goljan Audio lectures. Between getting from door to door to the library/coffeeshop, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, errands, working out (which btw, make sure you still do – its important to stay healthy, sleep a lot too) etc. I could listen to that man for 1-1.5 hours a day. I made it through all of them twice. I loved these! – high yield and great concepts.

I never made it through FA in the end like I had planned on. The day before I reviewed a little bit of this and that (neuro images, HIV related stuff, got through 10 pages of Goljan 36page HY notes and realized it was getting late and I knew most of it from his lectures anyway and decided to call it a night.

Day of:
drove to the center and realized it wasn’t there! I put the address in mapquest but it spit out something weird and I didn’t get a chance to double-check it. After some calls, I found the center down the street. I could have done without the 10 minutes of undue anxiety. ** DRIVE TO THE CENTER BEFOREHAND**
test itself went fine. Skipped tutorial and took a break between every block to eat/drink/pee etc. Needed the full time to answer review some questions. I was surprised by how easy/straightforward most questions were. I think 70-80% of them I was pretty sure about. The rest I had to make narrowed down educated guesses. random specifics:
- a health care financing ? I got right thanks to BRS behavioral
- a few randoms I got right only b/c of Goljan
- lot more Pharmdynamics and kinetics questions than i cared for but oh well, I probally did 50/50 on those
- lots of paraneoplastic syndromes and straightforward genetics/probability
- a few tricky behavioral "what would u say/do" questions which I could only narrow it down to 2 choices
There was nothing on the test that I wasn’t famillar with (which also surprised me).So I’m I thinking I had a pretty easy test and b/c of that will probally end up with a lower curved score. We’ll see what happens – I’ll post it here when I get it back.

Best of Luck to everyone and thanks to those who took the time to share their experiences.

 

[armando1]

what is a 230 percentile wise?

thanks, Armando

 

[realmdo]

finally got my step 1 score. 234/95. not too bad but i thought i could do better. since i just want to do internal medicine, i hope this score can help me land a good IM spot. i mastered first aid and randomly did kaplan TQs. i usually got b/w 65% to 72% on those TQs.

 

[realmdo]

what is a 230 percentile wise?

thanks, Armando

I think 230 percentile is about 75% to 80%, which means you are in the top 25% of the total US and Canadian candidates if the mean is 216 and SD is 24.

 

[armando1]

I think 230 percentile is about 75% to 80%, which means you are in the top 25% of the total US and Canadian candidates if the mean is 216 and SD is 24.

thanks for the quick response...where did u find the mean and sd? all i could fine was that the meant was between 200-220 with sd of 20?

Armando

 

[snman31]

I scored a 231, which is not as bad as I feared, but not as good as I dreamed. All-in-all, it's pretty much what I expected. For reference, below is my post from when I took the test.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I took Step I at the Boston Prometric Testing center, which was nice, quiet, and had decent computer screens. Overall I'd say the conditions at the testing center had no effect on my performance. I did arrive early, and they let me start right away, which was nice.

I lightly studied through March and April, essentially just going through PharmCards and MicroCards until I knew them faily well. I also read First Aid once through during this time. Come May, I started to do Q-Bank a lot, finishing it one week before the exam. I did several blocks per day, always one timed and the rest untimed, and always repeating any questions I got wrong until I got them right. I also did both NBME tests, electing to do them self-paced, but timing myself so that I didn't change any answers after one hour, but still had time to review my answers to make sure I understood the questions. The numbers from various tests were as follows:

Q-Bank (cumulative) = 69% (50%-78%)
NBME Released Items = 80%
NBME CBSSA1 (4 days before exam) = 500 (219)
NBME CBSSA2 (2 days before exam) = 560 (236)

As mentioned before, my preparation was pretty much just First Aid and Q-Bank, with a little BRS Path thrown in when First Aid didn't explain things quite as well as I wanted. My target score was 230, so if CBSSA is any indication, I think that preparation was good enough.

As for the actual exam: it was a beast. I thought it did not really resemble anything that I had studied, but I guess everyone feels that way. There was a lot of random stuff, such that I thought I could have taken it a month ago and done pretty much the same. I'll post the final score when I get it. Hope the info helps.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Re: the free questions, my theory is that those questions have already "expired," but I'm not basing that on a very large sample size.

 

[mark1070]

For those of you who took the exam more recently--do you know if they used any of the questions from either of the NBME tests or the 150 free on your test? And when did you take the test?

My theory is that those questions have already "expired," but I'm really just basing that on the experiences of a small handful of test takers.

I took the test mid-June and I recall about 1-2 questions that were either exactly or VERY similar to a couple of the 150 free questions, and 2-3 that were straight from the NBME practice tests. These questions I recognized were actually some of the easier ones. I'm not sure how helpful focusing on these questions would be, I have also heard from classmates that had none of these questions. Hope this helps and good luck!

Mark

 

[joshua_msu]

I think 230 percentile is about 75% to 80%, which means you are in the top 25% of the total US and Canadian candidates if the mean is 216 and SD is 24.

So since the mean was 216, and the SD was 24, a 240 is exactly 1 SD above the mean. Does this make it the 84th percentile?

 

[xaelia]

So since the mean was 216, and the SD was 24, a 240 is exactly 1 SD above the mean. Does this make it the 84th percentile?

It would make it 84th percentile...though that's only an approximation, since we're assuming a normal distribution.

 

[realmdo]

So since the mean was 216, and the SD was 24, a 240 is exactly 1 SD above the mean. Does this make it the 84th percentile?

true if it's 240. what about 230?

 

[Evil Monkey]

I think that this is the calculation for a 230:

230-216= 14
14/24= .58 z-score
=> ~72% percentile

 

[bulldog]

if u want to calculate ur %tile,

found this link from another post: http://psych.colorado.edu/~mcclella/java/normal/normz.html

so, the values that you'd enter are:
on the box w/ the arrow, select CUMULATIVE.
mean: 220 [not sure what mean is]
std: 20 [not sure what std is]
Y: your score

that'd give u a percentile from normal distribution.

i find it interesting that a passing score in the range of the low 180's gives u about a 7-10%tile, which matches w/ what FA says about how 90% of step i takers pass.

 

[Boris Badenov]

I took the test mid-June and I recall about 1-2 questions that were either exactly or VERY similar to a couple of the 150 free questions, and 2-3 that were straight from the NBME practice tests. These questions I recognized were actually some of the easier ones. I'm not sure how helpful focusing on these questions would be, I have also heard from classmates that had none of these questions. Hope this helps and good luck!

Mark

Thanks, dude.

 

[tatabox80]

Howdy all!
I took step I towards the end of June. I think my scores will be released tomorrow (July 27th)....so I'm crossing my fingers. I remember when I was done with the exam I thought it kinda sucked. As far as the breakdown, I think, if I remember correctly, the majority of the exam was pathology. There was quite a bit of immunology, even most of my infectious disease questions had an immuno spin on them. The vast majority of pharm was straight forward. Behavioral was straight forward. I remember having quite a bit of neuro on my exam, most of which was easily answered with first aid, which had me kicking myself for not studying FA more. There were quite a bit of random, I have no idea, type questions. I'm hoping that they were experimental. Anyways, good luck all in your step I endeavors. I'm sure I'll be posting my results tomorrow...hopefully it's a passing score! 🙂

 

[Jalby]

Man, what a great idea for a thread.

 

[p53]

Man, what a great idea for a thread.

Not enough recognition on the wards lately, heh. Good job Jalby, for starting this thread. It feels good to have your ego stroked doesn't it? Isn't that what this is all about?

RX: p53 recommends getting an undergrad girl to bang (just make sure you tell her upfront you are looking for a friend with benefits), or a steady girlfriend to kiss your butt. Trust me, both options work. Although I like the variety of the former option. 👍

 

[P53 Apprentice]

P53 is the master of Student Doctor. Go back to your real skills BigFrank = Posting Fake USMLE Score Reports

 

[gary5]

I've seen lots of mention of First Aid, but not much of Kaplan books. Do you recommend them?

If you recommend them, which is better?
A) The Kaplan lecture notes from the actual classes
B) The Kaplan Home Study Step I books

Thanks! 🙂 😛 🙂

 

[emtji]

the kaplan stuff tends to be too detailed in some areas and not detailed enough in others. my recommendation and seemingly the recommendation of alot of other people would be to have one extra resource besides first aid for each subject area. BRS path was good for all of path. Any short text for pharm would be acceptable, though first aid should guide your studying for pharm- know all of it word for word. biochem is hit or miss- i thought lipincott's was too long and wordy for the step i's. kaplan lecture notes served me well for biochem. behavioral science similarly was good in kaplan lecture notes. micro did well with made ridiculously simple. neuro did well by kaplan lecture notes, anatomy and class notes. in hindsight, i probbay would have used high yield neuro. hope this helps.

 

[Ramoray]

Took the test a couple of days ago so I wanted to post my experience, which is alot the same as others but I also wanted to let people know some things that I dont see posted here and add any other info I can. First of all i was middle of the class student at a average medschool. I slacked a TON my first year. I felt I should have put alot more time in but was having so much fun in a great city that i slacked too much. At the end of year 1 i felt that i did not learn Neuro at all or biochem. I did learn physiology and immuno very well since i was interested in it. Anatomy i dont think anyone really learns, i memorized along with the rest of them however i thought neuro and biochem were kinda importantant and something I wanted to learn.
So summer after m1 i basically bought nolte and haines texts and lehinger biochem. I learned neuro cold after 8 weeks of summer. Also knew biochem cold. So after year 1 i felt I had the 3 important subjects for step 1, year 2 and medicine in general. Physio, biochem and neuro. I geuss neuro isnt so huge but rather it is a time consuming subject to "review" for. My thinking was when i only had 5 weeks down the line to review, I wanted to be able to read over neuro in 2 days and not spend weeks plowing through a dense subject. I think neuro is dense and hard to review if ur base is not good. So that is my reasononing.
Year 2- I was a robot, studied 12-13 hours, every day of the year. Weekends etc. During the year i reviewed Histology, physiology before each section in path. During 2nd year here are the books i read:
For each systems block-
Junquira histo
Boron and Boulpap physio, Costanzo physio and Guyton physio ( read each book once. I also read boron and boulpap first year) I enjoyed physio and liked to see things in all angles
Robbins Path- I read every chapter in this book 9 times when the year was all said and done. I loved this book. I just kept reading and reading for each chapter.
Harrisons Int. Medicine- I would read this after all that to tie in pathopys and medicine. I read every single chapter in harrisons 2 times ( other than Emerg med chapters and some other rare ones)
Katzung Pharm( big one) probably read each chapter 2 times
I did that for each cardio, resp, repro, neurology, etc - all the systems. I usually had 1 month per system. Would spend 4 days on histo and physio,
3 weeks on path and medicine and probably 4 days on pharm.

I started studying step 1 the day 2nd year ended. I went to the library that night-may 5th
I basically had 9 weeks to study for step 1. These are the books i used:
I studied in systems but before i started systems i did general stuff
week1-2
-a short course in immunology
-Big Robbins- General Path chapters one more time through
-BRS path and Golgan path-after i read teh big robbins chapter i went through each of these to make sure i saw the highest yeild topics 2 and 3 times
weeks 3-8-systems
Costanzo physiology
brs embryo and anatomy
Big Robbins each chapter
Harrisons-read through each organ system accordingly. After 2 reads already it was quck to do a 3rd, not as time consuming as it seems
Katzung pharm Review( great book) and FA
Weeks 9 and 10
Microbiology-Lange micro/immuno review and FA
Biochem-lippincotts

I used FA throughout, annoting more just so I knew I was hitting the highest yeild points. By annotating, even lightly, that meant that I stopped at a big topic atleast 2 times- one reading it and then another to stop and look it up in FA and write some notes. I never ended up looking through FA after i annotated it so it was more for the sake of writing the notes.

As for questions- not much
Robbins review of path- I did the corresponding chapter with each organ system and i also did all the general path questions. I found the book very good but I ran out of time near the end and stopped doing it.
No qbank or anything else, no released items

Now as far as the test
70% Path- very basic path most times. TONS of female repro and i mean tons. Very little memorization or buzz words. I cant think of any to be honest which was great for me. I did not have to use lab values once overall path is straightforward. I had alot of respiratory too. Very little neuro-path or MSK.

Pharm- I had very little pharm and something i wish someone would have told me is regarding antibiotics- you DONT need to know which bugs they cover. All my questions stated in the stem the antibiotic and what it was treating and than asked for a side effect. I wasted time memorizing what antibiotic covered what. The rest Side effects and MOA( some VERy bizzare MOAs, i felt that are impossible.. its not worth learnning MOA in that depth for every drug cause youull only see 1 or 2 weird ones like this

Micro- VERy basic, I mean i sucked ass at micro. I hated the subject all year and really crammed at the end for this. FA is MORE MORE than enough. I mean not buzz words persay but straight forward. Like man goes to Southwest and returns with pulmonary systems-valley fever. (youll see why i mention this later)

Neuro- I had a fair bit and for me this was probably my strongest thing along with path. Alot of ANATOMY, i mean brain stem pics, cross sections, CTs etc but all really doable. If you havef any sense they are recognizable and its not like u have to spend time reviewing cts. If you konw how to read basic cts, its more the knowledge of the disease that you need. I remember this one that messed me up for so long- they were asking about an aphasia and they gave you a pick of the brain and asked where the lesion would be. They gave two halves of a brain, each labeled and at first I am like WTF, i thought they were making you differentiate between really specific areas WITHIN certain lobes from this crappy picture but than after being dumb for 5 mins i realized one was from the right side and one left and then made the question easy. Anyway neuro was tough overll.

Embryo- 1- Urachus . i had basically none even though i studied it. Didnt know it but studied it. I remember one of the few things i did remeber was a urachus and it showed up . go figure

ANATOMY- UPPPPPER LIMBB!!! OMG. overall anatomy was not huge but one block had 10 upperlimb questions. Like i literally checked 10 questions and retruned to them in the end and all of them were upper limb. I didnt study upper limb BUT since there were so many in one block, i used their own questions to answer most of them. I mean with 10 questions on ulnar nerve damage, along with answer choices for each i could usually reason it out. However in retrospect i wish i studied upper limb nervew and muscle innervation and action. But anatomy is always a crap shoot. HY anatomy would have been good but just a basica understanding of upper limb anatomy would have been fine.

Immuno- very basic MHC, cytokines, CD4 cells. I mean pretty basic
MOL Bio- pretty heavy. I would say 60 percent of them were MCAT hardness or less. I mean simple stuff. 20 percent that were harder could be found in HY mol bio. then like 10 percent were obscure and nowhere to be found . I would read HY mol bio and that is more than enough
Genetics- quite a few questions on which diseases were aut dom, rec, xlink etc. Seemed kind of heavy in that

Stats- alot, probably 3 per block. I didnt study this at all. Some you could reason but i was happy to just guess and move on. they seemed time consuming too so it paid off to have extra time to use on the others.

Beh sci.- i realy wanted to read BRS but just ran out of time. I did take pysch second yera so had a decent grasp on various disorders. most were easy like- patient is diag with cancer, what do you tell him etc. person. disorderes were big. 1 milestone question. mostly common sense but BRS beh sci woul be more than enough. I wish i had given it one read through

Phsyio- honestly i do not remember more than 4 physio questions. I mean probably 4 straight physio questions. but considering pathophysiol, esp womens repro system. A fair number but mostly pathophysi Constanzo is more than enough.

biochem- not much at all, maybe 10 questions. The SAME exact question 3 times. i always find it funny when there is that much material they woul give you teh same question three times. I think understanding biochem as part of path is enough. I mean everything biochem related was in big Robbins.
Histo- none.. oh wait one. There was a hande sketched drawing with some labeled parts of a cell and you had to pick from like organelles or something. was hit or miss, either u remebered it or didnt.

Overall, once again, as i have been with most of my med school tests, its alwasy disapointing to take a test, be done and realize all the knowledge you have attained was not even really tested. I felt my prep was way overkill but on the ohter hand I have alwasy been one to study to learn. I get to bored if i just memorize or read review books. More power to someone who could just read brs all year and FA- you would do fine but i wanted to LEARN medicine this year. I enjoyed robbins and harrisons and seeing and making connections with everything.
I found with most questions there was VERY little memorization. After awhile i just glazed the question and went to the answer choices and reasoned it out.

Time- I havfe always been a fast test taker but i had time to read every question twice. My strategy was to finish the questions in 30 mins. And then spend 30 mins going over the checked ones and then all of them one more time. I find if you let something sit in your head for awhile an answer will come to you or after you read all 50 you might pick up a clue. So i answered them quickly, moved on and then that way did not get bogged down. Time not an issue.

 

[Ramoray]

just to add- although i felt prep was overkill, i didnt think the test was easy in anyway. I probably didnt even do well. I missed a ton of questions. For one i do hate memorizing and should have sucked it up and just memorized FA pharm and micro. I did miss some easy pharm sx and micro bugs cause i was too lazy to sit and MEMORIZE. there is a time and place for it and micro and pharm are 2 of those places.
Also as i posted weeks back i had a couple huge things happen in my life family wise as well as getting ridiculously sick to the point i couldnt make it out of bed. This took out about 4 weeks of my studying. That would have been fine and i could have studied in 5 weeks, the problem was i had a schedule for 9 or 10 weeks so after my first 4 weeks I was no where near covering everything so i spent my last 5 weeks feeling like ****, basically got a couple hours of studying in. And today I am still really sick and am going to have to postpone my rotations to this sickness which is still undiagnosed. Sitting through a 8 hour test almost falling asleep feeling like youve been kicked in the head does not help your testing conditions. I am just saying not as an excuse but for anyone who is looking for a testing strategy- i felt my strategy was perfect, i learned everything well and I had the potential to do well with it so i do stick by learning over memorizing.
All that said the test is really tough and i would be happy with a nice pass! The other piece of advice.. some people say " oh i can study hard for 5 weeks before step 1, so i can slack during the year" well you NEVER know what will happen, in retrospect i am so happy i spent year 2 studying so hard cause I had no idea i would be strucken randomly with a sickness. Had i not studied i would have been screwed, it was my year 2 konwledge i relied upon totally during the test. So study hard year 2 is still hte best advice. Then study as hard as you can for the 5 weeks prep and that is just icing on the cake. I believe year 2 is the year to prep. good luck

 

[xXAnksXx]

EYES TWITCHIN
$15 WORTH OF STRABUCKS A DAY
CRAVING CANCER STICKS

Im stressed about boards... USMLE 9/10/05

please help

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

I'll add another perspective to what Ramoray was saying. We went to the same medical school for years 1+2, but probably approached at a little differently.

I was pretty much a robot through year one, studying about 10-12 hrs/day, and I never missed a lecture. There was far less material so I studied to learn the material, but I also memorized at the end. Second year, less learning, more memorizing, and more like 12hrs/day of studying. I remember all too often having to put away Robbins (which I loved) in favor of memorizing the handouts we were given in path lecture. There just wasn't enough time to really learn AND go to lecture AND memorize the bulls#it you needed to memorize to do well. In the end, I honored almost everything, and was #1 in the class in several subjects (the Deans tell us there's no overall rank, and then privately email and congratulate the students who are on top in each class).

I studied for 11 weeks for Step I, studying 12-16hrs/day without a single day off, and never taking breaks for anything other than groceries/laundry/etc. I used the same sources everyone uses, but there's four that were absolute gold:
Kaplan Biochem,
Robbins Question Book,
HYNeuro,
HYCellbio.
(HY Embryo was also fantastic, but there just wasn't enough material on the exam to justify anything more than First Aid.)

I think where mine and Ramoray's experiences may have diverged though (aside from him getting terribly ill), is that I stuck with the review books more, and essentially memorized first aid for the week before the exam. It came in very handy for Micro, Pharm, and Biochem. I also did Qbank, but not as much as I could've. I think I only finished 50% of the questions, never did any released items or even the Qbank diagnostic. I just kept doing random blocks of 50 every now and then to find any weaknesses to help focus my studying. I think I started around 65% correct on day one, but by the end was getting 80% EVERY SINGLE TIME. I must've gotten 80% on 10 straight blocks of 50, so I stopped taking those tests after that.

The real deal I thought was shockingly straightforward. I don't want to sound cocky, but I think everyone who's taken it knows what I mean. For me, there were 30 Q's per block that required zero thought, assuming you memorized first aid. Just read the last sentence, and answer the question. For example: "A pt. comes in with .... (insert 3 paragraphs of life history). Given that information, what's the mechanism of erythromycin?" On top of those, there were usually 10 or so cell bio per section, of which HY Cell Bio was again more than enough. The remaining 10 were either anatomy, which I was woefully unprepared for, or behavioral, which is a crapshoot. So I guess all-in-all I only really felt shaky on about 5-10 questions per section, but of those, I don't remember any that couldn't be narrowed down to two answer choices.

I have no idea how I did, but I can't imagine I failed it. It was much more straightforward than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I think memorizing first aid was probably the highest-yield thing I did. I easily could've just done that and probably still done well. If I were to do this over though I would definitely do a few things differently.

1) Memorize first aid as early as possible and re-memorize it after you do each section in more detail. Then, spend the last week re-memorizing it one more time.
2) Spend less than a week on embryo. I was too ambitious in the beginning and read HY embryo twice, and ended up only spending 4 days on BRS path at the very end. Luckily, path was taught extremely well at my school, so it was enough.
3) Do every single question in the Robbins question book, twice. Some of those questions showed up word-for-word on my exam (ex: mechanism for hepatocellular carcinoma in a Hep B infection).
4) Get good sleep the night before the exam. I probably got 1 hour, tops.


Oh, one last thing I thought was amusing. Some of the questions have pretty obvious mistakes in them. One question had in the stem "child presents with ...blah blah... and is 10% predicted WEIGHT and 90% predicted WEIGHT". I'm thinking, one of those should be HEIGHT, so is this marfans, or achondroplasia? Another question listed a presentation for kidney stones, and asked what the diagnosis was. The answer choices were: "a) Proximal tubule, b) glomerulus, c) collecting duct, ..." I think I chose that the patient had an acute case of "proximal tubule". I hope I was right.

HamOn

 

[Ramoray]

congrats hamon! you def. deserve a great score, numb 1 in the class is just awsome too! I def. agree with all of what you said about the straightforwardness of the test. That is why i found i could glaze the question stem quickly and 80 percent of the time get the answer and that is how i was able to read every question 2 or 3 times in the end if needed. I def. cant emphasize enough about memorizing the micro and pharm sections of FA. Honestly embryo, anatomy, neuro and path I would say atleast in my version was not entirely in FA. I found on my exam in path atleast and even anatomy they chose to hit a few topics hard and some not at all. Like my fem repro and pulmonary they hit at all angles where as FA covers a little bit of everything. But def agree overall if you can memorize FA you are set. I found it hard to believe myself at first but after taking the test, it IS a test of straightforward mostly memorizable stuff. You can also make it through like i did my learning a ****load of stuff and piecing it together but i think it takes more work. I think in the end you can get a great score and learn material in 2 ways- memorzing like a soldier or reading multpile sources over and over from many angles and seeing connections finally made that make you remmeber, which is just a drawn out form of memorization anyway. I think you just choose the lesser of 2 evils for you- either way as youll see by both of us we put in 12 hours a day anyway, it just depends on how you best tolerate those 12 hours. I dont think i could be a soldier and memorize for 12 but i sure would have done alot better as hamon did. So my final advice, memorize FA< BRS class notes if you can. If you cant do that, than read texts-atleast youll not get burned out as quickly. Do what works is my advice, just learn the material somehow! congrats again hamon, im sure youll pull a nice 270 to go with the number 1 rankings.. can you say derrrmmmmm or radddss!

peace

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

congrats hamon! you def. deserve a great score, numb 1 in the class is just awsome too! I def. agree with all of what you said about the straightforwardness of the test. That is why i found i could glaze the question stem quickly and 80 percent of the time get the answer and that is how i was able to read every question 2 or 3 times in the end if needed. I def. cant emphasize enough about memorizing the micro and pharm sections of FA. Honestly embryo, anatomy, neuro and path I would say atleast in my version was not entirely in FA. I found on my exam in path atleast and even anatomy they chose to hit a few topics hard and some not at all. Like my fem repro and pulmonary they hit at all angles where as FA covers a little bit of everything. But def agree overall if you can memorize FA you are set. I found it hard to believe myself at first but after taking the test, it IS a test of straightforward mostly memorizable stuff. You can also make it through like i did my learning a ****load of stuff and piecing it together but i think it takes more work. I think in the end you can get a great score and learn material in 2 ways- memorzing like a soldier or reading multpile sources over and over from many angles and seeing connections finally made that make you remmeber, which is just a drawn out form of memorization anyway. I think you just choose the lesser of 2 evils for you- either way as youll see by both of us we put in 12 hours a day anyway, it just depends on how you best tolerate those 12 hours. I dont think i could be a soldier and memorize for 12 but i sure would have done alot better as hamon did. So my final advice, memorize FA< BRS class notes if you can. If you cant do that, than read texts-atleast youll not get burned out as quickly. Do what works is my advice, just learn the material somehow! congrats again hamon, im sure youll pull a nice 270 to go with the number 1 rankings.. can you say derrrmmmmm or radddss!

peace

Thanks Ram, but I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised when your score comes in. I know you mentioned you did well on the path shelf, and that's supposedly a strong predictor, right? (BTW, were you the person who got the 99% on the path shelf? I always wondered what gunslinger came out of nowhere and smoked that thing.)

Good luck on rotations,

HamOn

 

[humerus73]

Hello everybody,

My name is Dr arun. I am a doctor from india who is at present working in grantham, lincolnshire,United Kingdom. I am interested in taking the usmle step I by november 2005.

I have heard of prep courses such as kaplan, youel's prep and passprogram. I also have heard of many books like first aid, kaplan q bank etc.

As i am working ,it will be difficult for me to attend live lecture classes for these exams.

Can someone please tell me the proper method to study for this exam. Please tell me which of these abovesaid courses is good for usmle. Your opinions will be greatly appreciated as it will guide me through the proper path for these exams.

yours truly,

arun

 

[xXAnksXx]

Is that a TYPE 2 HYPER SENSITVITY IMMUNE RESPONSE OR IS IT TYPE 4?

KAPLAN SAYS TYPE 4

 

[bludeviled]

Yay! - i am so stoked to be done today 😀

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I took longer (7 weeks of studying over 8 weeks) than most people. But I didn’t touch anything board related until then and simply felt that that was how long I needed to learn everything.
STUDY PLAN:
- 3 days HY Embryo (what you need to know is most likely in FA but this helps)
- 3 days HY Anatomy
- 3 days HY Neuro (3rd ed great book! - esp. the neuroimaging)
- 3 weeks of Organ system based Path and Physio review. For each subject I would skim FA, read BRS path + do ?’s, answer Robbins Review Book questions, read and do ?’s in BRS physio. All the above while annotating FA. This took a while (esp. Robbins) but I guess worth it – I don’t think I had a path question today I wasn’t sure about
- Up till then I would do 50?’s of Qbank a night. The next week was spent frantically trying to finish Q bank while skimming/learning the remaining subjects from FA. I finished Qbank with a 79% average (probally a little inflated because i did about half of it according to what subject I had most recently studies as opposed to randomly) Took the Kaplan QReview full length practice test and got a 69%
- Final 2 weeks I spent reviewing remaining subjects in FA and taking the NBME tests in tutor mode (I looked up all the right answers but left my wrong ones in so I could get accurate score feedback)
NBME 1: 640 (247)
NBME 2: 700 (256)
Also did 40% (subjects I was weak on) of BRS behavioral science – good book! Spent a day on HY Cell and M Bio. Worthwhile review! If you need a good background in CMB, I’d recommend this. I was a bio major and while I was comfortably famillar w/ all the obscure stuff thrown at me today, I couldn’t recall all the nuances involved. I ended up guessing on those questions. Regardless that stuff isn’t in HY or FA but it wouldn’t be worth my time to have read Alberts or Gilberts. Speaking of long books, I made it through HY Histo (great book! – got a me a few extra points). 2 days before I took the 150 free questions and got 86%
Other resources:
- Step up to the Bedside: book of 70 clinical cases presenting VERY VERY high yield info in the most enjoyable presentation possible. This is an amazing book from the Step Up authors w/ the same great info and diagrams/charts. Only got through 75%
- Goljan Audio lectures. Between getting from door to door to the library/coffeeshop, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, errands, working out (which btw, make sure you still do – its important to stay healthy, sleep a lot too) etc. I could listen to that man for 1-1.5 hours a day. I made it through all of them twice. I loved these! – high yield and great concepts.

I never made it through FA in the end like I had planned on. The day before I reviewed a little bit of this and that (neuro images, HIV related stuff, got through 10 pages of Goljan 36page HY notes and realized it was getting late and I knew most of it from his lectures anyway and decided to call it a night.

Day of:
drove to the center and realized it wasn’t there! I put the address in mapquest but it spit out something weird and I didn’t get a chance to double-check it. After some calls, I found the center down the street. I could have done without the 10 minutes of undue anxiety. ** DRIVE TO THE CENTER BEFOREHAND**
test itself went fine. Skipped tutorial and took a break between every block to eat/drink/pee etc. Needed the full time to answer review some questions. I was surprised by how easy/straightforward most questions were. I think 70-80% of them I was pretty sure about. The rest I had to make narrowed down educated guesses. random specifics:
- a health care financing ? I got right thanks to BRS behavioral
- a few randoms I got right only b/c of Goljan
- lot more Pharmdynamics and kinetics questions than i cared for but oh well, I probally did 50/50 on those
- lots of paraneoplastic syndromes and straightforward genetics/probability
- a few tricky behavioral "what would u say/do" questions which I could only narrow it down to 2 choices
There was nothing on the test that I wasn’t famillar with (which also surprised me).So I’m I thinking I had a pretty easy test and b/c of that will probally end up with a lower curved score. We’ll see what happens – I’ll post it here when I get it back.

Best of Luck to everyone and thanks to those who took the time to share their experiences.

Got score back today; big thanks to SDN!!
250/99

 

[dcpark74]

Got score back today; big thanks to SDN!!
250/99

congratulations. 🙂

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

I'll add another perspective to what Ramoray was saying. We went to the same medical school for years 1+2, but probably approached at a little differently.

I was pretty much a robot through year one, studying about 10-12 hrs/day, and I never missed a lecture. There was far less material so I studied to learn the material, but I also memorized at the end. Second year, less learning, more memorizing, and more like 12hrs/day of studying. I remember all too often having to put away Robbins (which I loved) in favor of memorizing the handouts we were given in path lecture. There just wasn't enough time to really learn AND go to lecture AND memorize the bulls#it you needed to memorize to do well. In the end, I honored almost everything, and was #1 in the class in several subjects (the Deans tell us there's no overall rank, and then privately email and congratulate the students who are on top in each class).

I studied for 11 weeks for Step I, studying 12-16hrs/day without a single day off, and never taking breaks for anything other than groceries/laundry/etc. I used the same sources everyone uses, but there's four that were absolute gold:
Kaplan Biochem,
Robbins Question Book,
HYNeuro,
HYCellbio.
(HY Embryo was also fantastic, but there just wasn't enough material on the exam to justify anything more than First Aid.)

I think where mine and Ramoray's experiences may have diverged though (aside from him getting terribly ill), is that I stuck with the review books more, and essentially memorized first aid for the week before the exam. It came in very handy for Micro, Pharm, and Biochem. I also did Qbank, but not as much as I could've. I think I only finished 50% of the questions, never did any released items or even the Qbank diagnostic. I just kept doing random blocks of 50 every now and then to find any weaknesses to help focus my studying. I think I started around 65% correct on day one, but by the end was getting 80% EVERY SINGLE TIME. I must've gotten 80% on 10 straight blocks of 50, so I stopped taking those tests after that.

The real deal I thought was shockingly straightforward. I don't want to sound cocky, but I think everyone who's taken it knows what I mean. For me, there were 30 Q's per block that required zero thought, assuming you memorized first aid. Just read the last sentence, and answer the question. For example: "A pt. comes in with .... (insert 3 paragraphs of life history). Given that information, what's the mechanism of erythromycin?" On top of those, there were usually 10 or so cell bio per section, of which HY Cell Bio was again more than enough. The remaining 10 were either anatomy, which I was woefully unprepared for, or behavioral, which is a crapshoot. So I guess all-in-all I only really felt shaky on about 5-10 questions per section, but of those, I don't remember any that couldn't be narrowed down to two answer choices.

I have no idea how I did, but I can't imagine I failed it. It was much more straightforward than I thought it would be. Unfortunately, I think memorizing first aid was probably the highest-yield thing I did. I easily could've just done that and probably still done well. If I were to do this over though I would definitely do a few things differently.

1) Memorize first aid as early as possible and re-memorize it after you do each section in more detail. Then, spend the last week re-memorizing it one more time.
2) Spend less than a week on embryo. I was too ambitious in the beginning and read HY embryo twice, and ended up only spending 4 days on BRS path at the very end. Luckily, path was taught extremely well at my school, so it was enough.
3) Do every single question in the Robbins question book, twice. Some of those questions showed up word-for-word on my exam (ex: mechanism for hepatocellular carcinoma in a Hep B infection).
4) Get good sleep the night before the exam. I probably got 1 hour, tops.


Oh, one last thing I thought was amusing. Some of the questions have pretty obvious mistakes in them. One question had in the stem "child presents with ...blah blah... and is 10% predicted WEIGHT and 90% predicted WEIGHT". I'm thinking, one of those should be HEIGHT, so is this marfans, or achondroplasia? Another question listed a presentation for kidney stones, and asked what the diagnosis was. The answer choices were: "a) Proximal tubule, b) glomerulus, c) collecting duct, ..." I think I chose that the patient had an acute case of "proximal tubule". I hope I was right.

Just got my results: 259/99

I guess in retrospect all I can say is that I probably studied a month longer than I needed. I would've been more than happy with a 240, and while I can't say for sure, I'm pretty confident I could've gotten that having studied 5-6 weeks instead of 11. If I had it to do over, I would've taken it a month earlier and enjoyed those last weeks before starting up school again. Studying for that long was tough on my relationship with my fiancee, and was somewhat detrimental to my motivation to be in medical school anymore. So make sure you weigh the pro's and con's before you decide to pull out all the stops and kill yourself to score as high as possible. I don't know, I just can't imagine someone getting hired over another based on one of them getting 240-ish and the other 250-ish on Step I. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just doesn't seem rational to me.

Final tips on how to study:
1) You don't HAVE to do tons of Q's. I did Robbins Question Book and 50% of Qbank, that's it; and I had three months to study. Just use sets of Qbank to make sure you're not missing anything major, as Qbank is really not useful for learning the material in my opinion. Its just a reality-check for how well you're doing.

2) MEMORIZE first aid over the last week before the exam. You'll be glad you did, as it really is free points. I didn't even read the path section though, too dense and redundant.

3) I didn't use Goljan, so don't feel like you HAVE to do that either. If you learned path well the first time, you should be more than prepared for those questions on the real thing. I ended up spending more time on embryo than path for crying out loud.

4) I know people will disagree with this one, but you don't have to start studying for boards during school, unless you have less than 5-6 weeks between school and boards. I know some people say to start in December of 2nd year, but in my opinion, studying for class IS studying for boards if you do it right. I honored almost everything, and felt well-prepared immediately after class ended to take step I. Naturally I didn't take it then though, as I'm an anal med student. I guess I'd rather kill myself for three months and get a 250+ than study for a few weeks and get a 240-ish. Again, I can't say for sure; just a gut feeling.

Good luck everyone, and if anyone wants my books, PM me.

HamOn

 

[bulletproof]

Just got my results: 259/99

I guess in retrospect all I can say is that I probably studied a month longer than I needed. I would've been more than happy with a 240, and while I can't say for sure, I'm pretty confident I could've gotten that having studied 5-6 weeks instead of 11. If I had it to do over, I would've taken it a month earlier and enjoyed those last weeks before starting up school again. Studying for that long was tough on my relationship with my fiancee, and was somewhat detrimental to my motivation to be in medical school anymore. So make sure you weigh the pro's and con's before you decide to pull out all the stops and kill yourself to score as high as possible. I don't know, I just can't imagine someone getting hired over another based on one of them getting 240-ish and the other 250-ish on Step I. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just doesn't seem rational to me.

Final tips on how to study:
1) You don't HAVE to do tons of Q's. I did Robbins Question Book and 50% of Qbank, that's it; and I had three months to study. Just use sets of Qbank to make sure you're not missing anything major, as Qbank is really not useful for learning the material in my opinion. Its just a reality-check for how well you're doing.

2) MEMORIZE first aid over the last week before the exam. You'll be glad you did, as it really is free points. I didn't even read the path section though, too dense and redundant.

3) I didn't use Goljan, so don't feel like you HAVE to do that either. If you learned path well the first time, you should be more than prepared for those questions on the real thing. I ended up spending more time on embryo than path for crying out loud.

4) I know people will disagree with this one, but you don't have to start studying for boards during school, unless you have less than 5-6 weeks between school and boards. I know some people say to start in December of 2nd year, but in my opinion, studying for class IS studying for boards if you do it right. I honored almost everything, and felt well-prepared immediately after class ended to take step I. Naturally I didn't take it then though, as I'm an anal med student. I guess I'd rather kill myself for three months and get a 250+ than study for a few weeks and get a 240-ish. Again, I can't say for sure; just a gut feeling.

Good luck everyone, and if anyone wants my books, PM me.

HamOn

thats an awesome score 😱 Thanks for the advice. Can you get away with just doing FA biochem or is the Kaplan book key? If so why and how long would it take to get through it. Thanks in advance.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

thats an awesome score 😱 Thanks for the advice. Can you get away with just doing FA biochem or is the Kaplan book key? If so why and how long would it take to get through it. Thanks in advance.

That's a tough one to answer for a bunch of reasons. First, I never learned biochem well the first time through, so I felt a real need to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and really master it. Kaplan was perfect for this, and was extremely well written. I spent 6 days (12-14 hrs. each) really hammering Kaplan, nailing the concepts and memorizing all the tables. Second, THE GENETICS IN KAPLAN WAS VITAL. All the stuff regarding gene transcription/translation regulation, the lac operon, and all the details of ribosome structure and trna loading, ALL OF THAT SHOWED UP. Had I not spent a good deal of time on the genetics, it really would've been a different story. So overall, I felt like I had really learned genetics and Biochemistry for the first time thanks to those Kaplan books.

That being said, if you understand the big picture of how all that fits together, the details of the relevant genetics (except the lac operon stuff) are all listed nicely in the first four or five pages of the biochem section of FA (if I remember correctly). So you could absolutely just use first aid to hammer home the details. But man, that's a really risky proposition if you're not 100% solid on the genetics. The rest of the biochem in first aid is pretty complete, at least for my exam. All of my tough questions were genetics related. All of the pure "biochem" questions were along the lines of "knock out enzyme x, what builds up.. or what's the symptom of its buildup". So that was more straightforward.

So I guess to answer your question, if I had it to do over, I would still definitely read Kaplan, but if you're in a major pinch, you could probably get away with doing the first 9 chapters of Kaplan (that being the genetics stuff), and use FA for the rest of the "pure biochem" type stuff. But that's really if you're pressed for time, because Kaplan Biochem is a fantastic resource, and it would be a shame to skip it.

Oh, and the Signal Transduction coverage in Kaplan is phenomenal and highly tested too. For ex: I had a question regarding MAPKinase, so if you can't think of which pathway that belongs to off the top of you head, you should probably give kaplan a look for that too (you don't need to know anything too detailed, just be able to identify the key players in the pathways and in general how they work; i.e. "transcription factor" vs. "enhancer" vs. "kinase" etc.).

For what its worth, my score report had an "*" for every section except Nutrition and Behavioral, both of which I bombed bad. Go figure.

Good Luck,

HamOn

 

[bulletproof]

That's a tough one to answer for a bunch of reasons. First, I never learned biochem well the first time through, so I felt a real need to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and really master it. Kaplan was perfect for this, and was extremely well written. I spent 6 days (12-14 hrs. each) really hammering Kaplan, nailing the concepts and memorizing all the tables. Second, THE GENETICS IN KAPLAN WAS VITAL. All the stuff regarding gene transcription/translation regulation, the lac operon, and all the details of ribosome structure and trna loading, ALL OF THAT SHOWED UP. Had I not spent a good deal of time on the genetics, it really would've been a different story. So overall, I felt like I had really learned genetics and Biochemistry for the first time thanks to those Kaplan books.

That being said, if you understand the big picture of how all that fits together, the details of the relevant genetics (except the lac operon stuff) are all listed nicely in the first four or five pages of the biochem section of FA (if I remember correctly). So you could absolutely just use first aid to hammer home the details. But man, that's a really risky proposition if you're not 100% solid on the genetics. The rest of the biochem in first aid is pretty complete, at least for my exam. All of my tough questions were genetics related. All of the pure "biochem" questions were along the lines of "knock out enzyme x, what builds up.. or what's the symptom of its buildup". So that was more straightforward.

So I guess to answer your question, if I had it to do over, I would still definitely read Kaplan, but if you're in a major pinch, you could probably get away with doing the first 9 chapters of Kaplan (that being the genetics stuff), and use FA for the rest of the "pure biochem" type stuff. But that's really if you're pressed for time, because Kaplan Biochem is a fantastic resource, and it would be a shame to skip it.

Oh, and the Signal Transduction coverage in Kaplan is phenomenal and highly tested too. For ex: I had a question regarding MAPKinase, so if you can't think of which pathway that belongs to off the top of you head, you should probably give kaplan a look for that too (you don't need to know anything too detailed, just be able to identify the key players in the pathways and in general how they work; i.e. "transcription factor" vs. "enhancer" vs. "kinase" etc.).

For what its worth, my score report had an "*" for every section except Nutrition and Behavioral, both of which I bombed bad. Go figure.

Good Luck,

HamOn

I appreciate the in-depth reply. We had a really good genetics course, and it is an area I feel relatively confident in. Nevertheless I am not that pressed for time and will take your advice. I already have the books anyway. Better to be safe than sorry. Thanks again, and good luck.
👍

 

[Long Dong]

4) I know people will disagree with this one, but you don't have to start studying for boards during school, unless you have less than 5-6 weeks between school and boards. I know some people say to start in December of 2nd year, but in my opinion, studying for class IS studying for boards if you do it right. I honored almost everything, and felt well-prepared immediately after class ended to take step I. Naturally I didn't take it then though, as I'm an anal med student. I guess I'd rather kill myself for three months and get a 250+ than study for a few weeks and get a 240-ish. Again, I can't say for sure; just a gut feeling.

Good luck everyone, and if anyone wants my books, PM me.

HamOn

Yeah I'm one of those who well disagree with that. The reason being you are ranked #1 in your class or honored almost everything. So yeah if you rank that high then 5-6 weeks when school gets out would get you that 250+. But for us average guys/gals I'd recommend some time in Jan.

Oh yeah congrats on your score.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Yeah I'm one of those who well disagree with that. The reason being you are ranked #1 in your class or honored almost everything. So yeah if you rank that high then 5-6 weeks when school gets out would get you that 250+. But for us average guys/gals I'd recommend some time in Jan.

Oh yeah congrats on your score.

Thanks Dong. 👍

You bring up an interesting point though. I went back and looked at how you studied, and how it seemed to be highly question-based. I'm sure you did a lot of bookwork too, but you definitely seemed to be going for the record on how many questions and practice tests a human being can do in preparation for step1. As you mentioned, you started studying in January, and focused on step1 more than classes (please correct me if any of this is wrong).

I did almost the exact opposite, focused on classes, started studying for step1 late, fewer questions, not a single practice test, memorized every review book I could find.

Yet we got the EXACT SAME SCORE.

I realize this is hardly a scientific comparison, as our tests could've been drastically different, and our classes could've been focused differently, and [insert 1,000 possible confounding variables here], etc. But it does make you wonder if there really is a "formula" for doing well on this exam.

I'd really like to hear that Ramoray got a 259+, given how different his study methods were from the conventional wisdom. That sure would tend to devalue alot of the advice given on this board. Just an interesting thought. Then again, maybe its not and I'm just writing this to procrastinate from studying for my aviation psych. exam tomorrow. 👎

Take care,

HamOn

 

[Long Dong]

Thanks Dong. 👍

You bring up an interesting point though. I went back and looked at how you studied, and how it seemed to be highly question-based. I'm sure you did a lot of bookwork too, but you definitely seemed to be going for the record on how many questions and practice tests a human being can do in preparation for step1. As you mentioned, you started studying in January, and focused on step1 more than classes (please correct me if any of this is wrong).

I did almost the exact opposite, focused on classes, started studying for step1 late, fewer questions, not a single practice test, memorized every review book I could find.

Yet we got the EXACT SAME SCORE.

I realize this is hardly a scientific comparison, as our tests could've been drastically different, and our classes could've been focused differently, and [insert 1,000 possible confounding variables here], etc. But it does make you wonder if there really is a "formula" for doing well on this exam.

I'd really like to hear that Ramoray got a 259+, given how different his study methods were from the conventional wisdom. That sure would tend to devalue alot of the advice given on this board. Just an interesting thought. Then again, maybe its not and I'm just writing this to procrastinate from studying for my aviation psych. exam tomorrow. 👎

Take care,

HamOn

Yeah I focused less on class because my school just started a new curriculum and I wasn't gonna put to much faith in something that they haven't gotten all the bugs worked out with. Also because I get really sleepy after staring at a review book for more then 3 hours so questions help me stay awake and retaing things.

As for the formula I think we all have it figured out, and it is to bust your butt the first two years and pretty much any method you use can get you a good score. You just have to know what works best for you.

As for Ram, I think people are waiting on his score just as much as people where waiting for pox's and p53's. Being that these 3 were some of the most vocal on this forum.

 

[a_ditchdoc]

I am a lurker here on SDN and I thought since I used some of the advice on the forum, and in an effort to make it appear there are mortals on the site, I thought I would share my stats...

Grade school: After suspecting I was mentally challenged and performing a battery of IQ tests, I was moved into academically gifted classes. Top six in the class.

Middle school: Discovered girls. Dropped to the middle of the class. On probation for shooting staples at people with rubber bands. The principle refused to see me anymore after filling several pages with my name, date, and offenses.

High School: Discovered I could actually touch the girls with a little sweet talking. Fell in love, went ape, and fell to the bottom third of the class. Finally decided I was too brilliant for high school and quit outright at age 15.

Post highschool: Worked at various jobs including pizza delivery and plumbing. Decided I was not as brilliant as I suspected. Got a GED and became a paramedic.

College: Finally completed 240 semester hours after a convoluted course and a long career as a paramedic. Applied to medical school with a degree in anthropology.

MCAT: 10,9,8. Disappointed.

Med school: Middle of the class. Reaffirmed I was not brilliant.

Q-bank: 40% complete, 65% cumulative, mid-seventies for last eight blocks.

NBME 1: 460/209, three weeks out

NBME 2: Chickened out, studied instead.

USMLE: 225/91



For my preparation I studied six weeks. The first three of which were productive and the last three which demoralized me. I recommend a balanced study schedule. I studied 14 hours per day for the first several weeks with the blinds closed, it did little for my psych and feel in the end it was harmful to my end results. I read First Aid once at the beginning of my studies and once at the end. The kaplan systems review was helpful but perhlaps too extensive. I read it once and some sections that I was weak on twice. I recommend the biochem/immunology section. BRS Path was helpful but is difficult to absorb and superficial. Some physiology book , don't remember the name (NMS?). I lost BRS phys...crap. Micro made ridiculously simple was golden, all you need. Make sure you know HIV and it's mechanisms, meds, antigens, etc., inside and out. High yield gross anatomy with cross referencing in Netters, although it was not represented heavily on my exam. I cross referenced many other books during my studies. I wonder in retrospect if I might not have done better had I taken a more superficial approach with more time spent on memorization. I think this is the most important thing that people will have to decide for their test preparation.

In retrospect, the best preparation is to study really hard during your first two years. I was hoping not to fail the exam, and more so I was hoping that my score would not limit my applications to EM programs. Although I wish that I had scored higher, I am thankful for the score I did recieve.

I want to thank everyone that has posted helpful advice on the site. If anyone needs any advice, although I am certainly not the idol that some of the top scorers are, I would be happy to provide any assistance I can...

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I am a lurker here on SDN and I thought since I used some of the advice on the forum, and in an effort to make it appear there are mortals on the site, I thought I would share my stats...

Grade school: After suspecting I was mentally challenged and performing a battery of IQ tests, I was moved into academically gifted classes. Top six in the class.

Middle school: Discovered girls. Dropped to the middle of the class. On probation for shooting staples at people with rubber bands. The principle refused to see me anymore after filling several pages with my name, date, and offenses.

High School: Discovered I could actually touch the girls with a little sweet talking. Fell in love, went ape, and fell to the bottom third of the class. Finally decided I was too brilliant for high school and quit outright at age 15.

Post highschool: Worked at various jobs including pizza delivery and plumbing. Decided I was not as brilliant as I suspected. Got a GED and became a paramedic.

College: Finally completed 240 semester hours after a convoluted course and a long career as a paramedic. Applied to medical school with a degree in anthropology.

MCAT: 10,9,8. Disappointed.

Med school: Middle of the class. Reaffirmed I was not brilliant.

Q-bank: 40% complete, 65% cumulative, mid-seventies for last eight blocks.

NBME 1: 460/209, three weeks out

NBME 2: Chickened out, studied instead.

USMLE: 225/91



For my preparation I studied six weeks. The first three of which were productive and the last three which demoralized me. I recommend a balanced study schedule. I studied 14 hours per day for the first several weeks with the blinds closed, it did little for my psych and feel in the end it was harmful to my end results. I read First Aid once at the beginning of my studies and once at the end. The kaplan systems review was helpful but perhlaps too extensive. I read it once and some sections that I was weak on twice. I recommend the biochem/immunology section. BRS Path was helpful but is difficult to absorb and superficial. Some physiology book , don't remember the name (NMS?). I lost BRS phys...crap. Micro made ridiculously simple was golden, all you need. Make sure you know HIV and it's mechanisms, meds, antigens, etc., inside and out. High yield gross anatomy with cross referencing in Netters, although it was not represented heavily on my exam. I cross referenced many other books during my studies. I wonder in retrospect if I might not have done better had I taken a more superficial approach with more time spent on memorization. I think this is the most important thing that people will have to decide for their test preparation.

In retrospect, the best preparation is to study really hard during your first two years. I was hoping not to fail the exam, and more so I was hoping that my score would not limit my applications to EM programs. Although I wish that I had scored higher, I am thankful for the score I did recieve.

I want to thank everyone that has posted helpful advice on the site. If anyone needs any advice, although I am certainly not the idol that some of the top scorers are, I would be happy to provide any assistance I can...

Great story. Very inspirational. Congrats on your score!

 

[xXAnksXx]

Suggestions 5 days left?

 

[Long Dong]

Suggestions 5 days left?

Go over first aid again and again.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Go over first aid again and again.

👍 I second that. 👍

I would also go as far as to say memorize the Microbio, Pharm, and Behav./Biostats sections word-for-word if you can. Memorizing pharm and micro helped me a ton. Had I memorized all of Behav./Biostats I would've done much better in those sections, as the answers were all in first aid.

Oh, and GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP (another thing I didn't do and wish I had).

HamOn

 

[xXAnksXx]

👍 I second that. 👍

I would also go as far as to say memorize the Microbio, Pharm, and Behav./Biostats sections word-for-word if you can. Memorizing pharm and micro helped me a ton. Had I memorized all of Behav./Biostats I would've done much better in those sections, as the answers were all in first aid.

Oh, and GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP (another thing I didn't do and wish I had).

HamOn

Thanks guys.. I've drained 4 pens in that First Aid, its what I've been doin', I'll keep that in mind... I have 1000 Q banks left any suggestions...? 😉

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Thanks guys.. I've drained 4 pens in that First Aid, its what I've been doin', I'll keep that in mind... I have 1000 Q banks left any suggestions...? 😉

I'd stick with FA. I only finished 50% of Qbank and did fine, but to each his/her own.

HamOn

 

[xXAnksXx]

I'd stick with FA. I only finished 50% of Qbank and did fine, but to each his/her own.

HamOn

since when do we have to know what medicare A and B are? and the compensation? ? ? ? ? That was unfair, lots of biostats, not enough pharm, tons of path 👍 overall I felt violated after that thing... I'll post in 6 wks.

 

[Pox in a box]

Took the test in June 2005. I spent 6 months studying regularly for the exam. I spent 6.5 weeks after my last 2nd year classes finished for focused studying in preparation for the exam.

The exam level of difficulty, in a nutshell, is dependent on how much you study. As Goljan once told me, "The more you study, the higher your score. The less you study, the lower your score." I feel that 4 weeks as some people choose would not have been sufficient, at least not for me.

I was an average student throughout my first two years of medical school. My last half of the second year I committed myself to board preparation above class grades (in essence, I actually performed better than ever my final semester!). As others have said, I too was not the greatest student my first year. I found great difficulty learning anatomy and I believe it was my weakness (especially neuroanatomy) on Step 1. I did not study between first and second year. I tried to learn pathology and microbiology very well during the fall semester of my second year.

During my second year, I studied much more than first. I studied almost every day of the year (even Fridays). I tried to do very well in my second year courses (and did compared to first year). My top resources for each subject are as follows:

TOP OVERALL RESOURCES:

1) First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 (my own content added quadrupled the amount of information)
2) Kaplan Qbank (better than you think...used for learning, not necessarily for mastery)
3) Goljan (wow)

Anatomy: Most is in FA...Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy helped for many of the innervation of the hand questions
Histology: High Yield Histology is a great book.
Neuroscience: High Yield Neuroanatomy is not enough...need more imaging references (CT, MRI, etc.)
Embryology:First Aid sufficient
Physiology: Basically all physio was tied into pathology.
Biochemistry: Many questions just listing an intermediate in a pathway (easy if you have memorized FA)
Pathology: If you read Robbins, you are golden. Pathophysiology is the name of the game.
Genetics: Know the classic associations with pathological conditions (involving chromosomal abnormalities).
Molecular Biology: Quite a bit and not in any resources (including HY Cell & Molecular Biology). Know your weird genes involved in embryology.
Microbiology: classic associations you can memorize in FA
Immunology: Know this cold (end of FA section of microbiology); know immunodeficient states and how to treat (i.e. AIDS patients)
Behavioral Science: Surprisingly more difficult than Qbank...HY is a good source.
Pharmacology: FA (I didn't believe anyone when they told me this before...it's really all you need)

I used First Aid and annotated it as I read the information in other sources (High Yield, BRS, etc.). I annotated even those points that I knew cold...because you will forget! I did the Robbins questions and the Qbank questions. Appleton & Lange were rubbish in my opinion.

The NBME exams were good for learning how the test questions would be written. There were "buzzwords" but not many. Sometimes the buzzwords led you astray however, so be careful. There's a lot of reading passages and determining endocrine hormone levels (usually up or down arrows). For pharm, side effects and antineoplastics were big. I thought neuro was the toughest subject so in retrospect, I wish I had studied it last. Biostats was poorly represented and did not seem difficult compared to Qbank.

Time was an issue on the exam. It was tough to get all the questions in during the block for a few of the blocks but others were less time consuming. I think it was just luck or unluck of the draw. Work fast and efficient. In terms of overall time, I just snacked in between sessions and left a lot earlier than anticipated.

I enjoyed the experience (though it was tough toward the end) and am glad I have faced Step 1. I believe the core knowledge I gained in preparation for that exam is helping me day in and day out as I deal with real problems in real patients. Medicine is very fun once you understand the reason behind what you are doing. Good luck to everyone taking and preparing for the Step 1. It is a grueling and sometimes daunting task, but with a little bit of elbow grease and hard work, it is manageable. If you feel distressed, just keep studying. Instead of stressing the last day while sitting at home or lounging, I kept studying. I studied right up until I went to bed. I was tired and I went right to sleep. I woke up the next morning and felt very confident and ready to take the exam. It felt good knowing that I had prepared well and knew I had an edge on the testwriters. I'd like to thank everyone on SDN for the support and help. 👍 👍 👍

 

[wam_256]

Took the test in June 2005. I spent 6 months studying regularly for the exam. I spent 6.5 weeks after my last 2nd year classes finished for focused studying in preparation for the exam.

The exam level of difficulty, in a nutshell, is dependent on how much you study. As Goljan once told me, "The more you study, the higher your score. The less you study, the lower your score." I feel that 4 weeks as some people choose would not have been sufficient, at least not for me.

I was an average student throughout my first two years of medical school. My last half of the second year I committed myself to board preparation above class grades (in essence, I actually performed better than ever my final semester!). As others have said, I too was not the greatest student my first year. I found great difficulty learning anatomy and I believe it was my weakness (especially neuroanatomy) on Step 1. I did not study between first and second year. I tried to learn pathology and microbiology very well during the fall semester of my second year.

During my second year, I studied much more than first. I studied almost every day of the year (even Fridays). I tried to do very well in my second year courses (and did compared to first year). My top resources for each subject are as follows:

TOP OVERALL RESOURCES:

1) First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 (my own content added quadrupled the amount of information)
2) Kaplan Qbank (better than you think...used for learning, not necessarily for mastery)
3) Goljan (wow)

Anatomy: Most is in FA...Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy helped for many of the innervation of the hand questions
Histology: High Yield Histology is a great book.
Neuroscience: High Yield Neuroanatomy is not enough...need more imaging references (CT, MRI, etc.)
Embryology:First Aid sufficient
Physiology: Basically all physio was tied into pathology.
Biochemistry: Many questions just listing an intermediate in a pathway (easy if you have memorized FA)
Pathology: If you read Robbins, you are golden. Pathophysiology is the name of the game.
Genetics: Know the classic associations with pathological conditions (involving chromosomal abnormalities).
Molecular Biology: Quite a bit and not in any resources (including HY Cell & Molecular Biology). Know your weird genes involved in embryology.
Microbiology: classic associations you can memorize in FA
Immunology: Know this cold (end of FA section of microbiology); know immunodeficient states and how to treat (i.e. AIDS patients)
Behavioral Science: Surprisingly more difficult than Qbank...HY is a good source.
Pharmacology: FA (I didn't believe anyone when they told me this before...it's really all you need)

I used First Aid and annotated it as I read the information in other sources (High Yield, BRS, etc.). I annotated even those points that I knew cold...because you will forget! I did the Robbins questions and the Qbank questions. Appleton & Lange were rubbish in my opinion.

The NBME exams were good for learning how the test questions would be written. There were "buzzwords" but not many. Sometimes the buzzwords led you astray however, so be careful. There's a lot of reading passages and determining endocrine hormone levels (usually up or down arrows). For pharm, side effects and antineoplastics were big. I thought neuro was the toughest subject so in retrospect, I wish I had studied it last. Biostats was poorly represented and did not seem difficult compared to Qbank.

Time was an issue on the exam. It was tough to get all the questions in during the block for a few of the blocks but others were less time consuming. I think it was just luck or unluck of the draw. Work fast and efficient. In terms of overall time, I just snacked in between sessions and left a lot earlier than anticipated.

I enjoyed the experience (though it was tough toward the end) and am glad I have faced Step 1. I believe the core knowledge I gained in preparation for that exam is helping me day in and day out as I deal with real problems in real patients. Medicine is very fun once you understand the reason behind what you are doing. Good luck to everyone taking and preparing for the Step 1. It is a grueling and sometimes daunting task, but with a little bit of elbow grease and hard work, it is manageable. If you feel distressed, just keep studying. Instead of stressing the last day while sitting at home or lounging, I kept studying. I studied right up until I went to bed. I was tired and I went right to sleep. I woke up the next morning and felt very confident and ready to take the exam. It felt good knowing that I had prepared well and knew I had an edge on the testwriters. I'd like to thank everyone on SDN for the support and help. 👍 👍 👍

Thank you for sharing your experience. Congrats!!! 👍

 

[chak_de_phatee]

Took the test in June 2005. I spent 6 months studying regularly for the exam. I spent 6.5 weeks after my last 2nd year classes finished for focused studying in preparation for the exam.

The exam level of difficulty, in a nutshell, is dependent on how much you study. As Goljan once told me, "The more you study, the higher your score. The less you study, the lower your score." I feel that 4 weeks as some people choose would not have been sufficient, at least not for me.

I was an average student throughout my first two years of medical school. My last half of the second year I committed myself to board preparation above class grades (in essence, I actually performed better than ever my final semester!). As others have said, I too was not the greatest student my first year. I found great difficulty learning anatomy and I believe it was my weakness (especially neuroanatomy) on Step 1. I did not study between first and second year. I tried to learn pathology and microbiology very well during the fall semester of my second year.

During my second year, I studied much more than first. I studied almost every day of the year (even Fridays). I tried to do very well in my second year courses (and did compared to first year). My top resources for each subject are as follows:

TOP OVERALL RESOURCES:

1) First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 (my own content added quadrupled the amount of information)
2) Kaplan Qbank (better than you think...used for learning, not necessarily for mastery)
3) Goljan (wow)

Anatomy: Most is in FA...Moore's Clinically Oriented Anatomy helped for many of the innervation of the hand questions
Histology: High Yield Histology is a great book.
Neuroscience: High Yield Neuroanatomy is not enough...need more imaging references (CT, MRI, etc.)
Embryology:First Aid sufficient
Physiology: Basically all physio was tied into pathology.
Biochemistry: Many questions just listing an intermediate in a pathway (easy if you have memorized FA)
Pathology: If you read Robbins, you are golden. Pathophysiology is the name of the game.
Genetics: Know the classic associations with pathological conditions (involving chromosomal abnormalities).
Molecular Biology: Quite a bit and not in any resources (including HY Cell & Molecular Biology). Know your weird genes involved in embryology.
Microbiology: classic associations you can memorize in FA
Immunology: Know this cold (end of FA section of microbiology); know immunodeficient states and how to treat (i.e. AIDS patients)
Behavioral Science: Surprisingly more difficult than Qbank...HY is a good source.
Pharmacology: FA (I didn't believe anyone when they told me this before...it's really all you need)

I used First Aid and annotated it as I read the information in other sources (High Yield, BRS, etc.). I annotated even those points that I knew cold...because you will forget! I did the Robbins questions and the Qbank questions. Appleton & Lange were rubbish in my opinion.

The NBME exams were good for learning how the test questions would be written. There were "buzzwords" but not many. Sometimes the buzzwords led you astray however, so be careful. There's a lot of reading passages and determining endocrine hormone levels (usually up or down arrows). For pharm, side effects and antineoplastics were big. I thought neuro was the toughest subject so in retrospect, I wish I had studied it last. Biostats was poorly represented and did not seem difficult compared to Qbank.

Time was an issue on the exam. It was tough to get all the questions in during the block for a few of the blocks but others were less time consuming. I think it was just luck or unluck of the draw. Work fast and efficient. In terms of overall time, I just snacked in between sessions and left a lot earlier than anticipated.

I enjoyed the experience (though it was tough toward the end) and am glad I have faced Step 1. I believe the core knowledge I gained in preparation for that exam is helping me day in and day out as I deal with real problems in real patients. Medicine is very fun once you understand the reason behind what you are doing. Good luck to everyone taking and preparing for the Step 1. It is a grueling and sometimes daunting task, but with a little bit of elbow grease and hard work, it is manageable. If you feel distressed, just keep studying. Instead of stressing the last day while sitting at home or lounging, I kept studying. I studied right up until I went to bed. I was tired and I went right to sleep. I woke up the next morning and felt very confident and ready to take the exam. It felt good knowing that I had prepared well and knew I had an edge on the testwriters. I'd like to thank everyone on SDN for the support and help. 👍 👍 👍

Pox finally capitulates to the pressure after defending herself and stating that she posted her prep in many posts already. I guess she wanted to stop looking like a hypocrite and a leech so she posts her step 1 prep. Even if the motives were not altruistic it is still a good solid post with useful info that can help people. Good job.................... 👍

 

[Gipper99]

You don't have to turn into a robot and study 800,000 hours studying for step I. And no, you don't have to start until at least spring break. If you are a good student and typically take standard tests well, you'll be fine. If not, put in the time unti lyou know it. I took 5 weeks (8 hours/day), did tons of QBank(see below), First Aid, a Princeton review book, and 1 or 2 high yield books. I also became worthless the last week and played lots of XBox. The best thing to do is study hard during your first two years, as this info will stick with you better than cramming for a few weeks and wanting to shoot yourself.
About QBank... everyone acts like it is Gods gift to med students. It is good because it gives you an idea of what the questions are like and identifies weaknesses in your studying. However, the subject matter of QBank will not help you. In other words, do not think there will be duplicates or that you can study from QBank.
Step I= 248
Good luck and go get 'em