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Well, I am done with step 1 and i couldn't be more glad to be done. I figured you guys could send this email on to those who haven't taken it.
So, i thought the test was somewhere between the difficulty of kaplan (hard) and the 150 questions that you get when you register (easy). Although, take that with a grain of salt since i have no idea what my step score is going to be. I had more than enough time to finish the test, got out 2.5 hours early. You might want to check out the prometric site you will be testing at, so you know what to expect as far as temperature, fridges, food, all that jazz. So yah, i am having a bit of a hard time figuring out what to write. So i will try to split this into general hints and specific hints.
General:
You need to be able to apply the stuff you have memorized...yes you need to memorize lots of the stuff, but they won't ask a "What is" type of question. So DON"T use first aid and just memorize things, make sure you understand the Why and how of it. Goljans audio is pretty good for that.
Don't freak out about the test, i was super super nervous before i started, once i got in and started doingthe questions i realized this is what i have been doing for 2 years now, the questions are no different than the ones you have already been doing.
Make sure you read the questions carefully, lots of them i had no idea what they were talking about, but you could figure out the answer from the questions stem and with a little bit of background knowledge. There were only a couple of questions that i didn't have a clue what they were talking about. When you get to one of the questions that oyu don't know anything about start generalizing everything. I.E. If the question is asking about hormones, and you don't have a clue what they are talking about look at the answer choices and start putting things in categories. Lets say you had to choose between, Insulin, Glucagon, Aldosterone, Epinephrine and Dopamine. RIght off the bat you should divide them up into groups. Notice aldosterone is the only steroidal in that group so it is not going to have a cytoplasmic receptor. Things like that, you will be able to answer lots of the questions that way.
First Aid is really really good as far as stuff that is on the test. The problem with first aid is it doesn't lend itself to understanding so i would NOT use it is a primary resource. Use it as an outline of what you need to know.
Most of my pharm questions were asked by side effects, so they would say X person has a cough, which started 2 weeks ago when the patient began a new medication for high blood pressure. They will give you 5 choices or so that will all treat high blood pressure, an ACE inhibitor would be the answer (stops the break down of bradykinin).
I only had one calculations question, and it was multistep, You DO need to know your equations because lots of concepts are asked from the calculations, they just don't have you calculate anything.
While you are doing questions make sure you read through the answers and understand why the wrong answers are incorrect, add your own notes to your review books (FA is a good one because it gives you an easy way to review most everything the week before the test)
As far as memorizing random little diseases that have some random guys name in them..i wouldn't worry about it too much, focus on concepts first and then get to stuff like sturge-weber syndrome, and Osler rendue.. whatever the hell that is called.
Focus on the big picture first and then fill in the details.
Goljan audio was pretty dang good, a good percentage of the stuff he guaranteed to be on the test was actually on the test, Some concepts tests more than a couple times, like VitaminK.
Ok, For the more specific stuff
Please don't use Neuroantomty BRS. definantly use HY, My test had more Neuro on it than it did Gross anatomy. Learn your brainstem and spinal cord crossections.
Goljans High yield notes that have to do with biostatistics, sensitivty, etc are really good, that pluse FA covered every biostatistics question on my test.
If you are going to pick one subject to learn I would definantly pick pathology, path includes so much of the other subjects, and it seemed like the other subjects were only asked in relation to clinical stuff.
Embryo- i had maybe 2 questions, (thank god because i truely hate embryo)
Physio- learn how to read graphs. Don't learn how to read specific graphs, just learn how to figure out a graph. If you aren't good with graphs, spend some good quality time with them to figure out how to pull information out of a graph. There are lots of graphs on step 1. (mine at least)
Oh, before i forget, i thought the review book step up is complete Ass. It has way too many mistakes in it, don't put yourself through trying to figure out which are mistakes and which aren't, just avoid it. Yes it is easier to read than First Aid, but first Aids info is a lot better. The only redeeming value to step up is their Embryo sections at the begining of each chapter.
Biochem, Cell bio, Mol cell bio- actually a fair amount of this stuff on the test, although most of it was given in a scenario that you had enough data given to you in the question to figure out the answer. Most of them were basically just Logic Questions.
Genetics- i really didn't have much, first aid really covered all that i needed.
Pathology- Huge Huge huge part of the test. Learn your pathology
Microbiology- Know how to identify bugs, I.E. optichin resitant, green halo, gram positive cocci
Pharm- first aid is good enough
Physio- learn graphs
Ok, as far as the books i used.
I am going to rate the books 1-5 scale
Pathology BRS 4
Lipincott Biochem 3.8
Kaplan Qbank 4 (Doesn't get a 5 because it has a LOT of information in it that isn't even close to what i would call high yield, sometimes hard to differentiate what you need to know from what you don't.)
Costanza Physiology (i think it is called stars) 3.5
HY microbiology 5
HY immunology 3.5
HY mol and cell bio 4.5 (only because i know of no other book that has all that info in one place...the book itself isn't the most wonderful thing in the world)
Behavioral BRS 4.5- good book but i think you could get away with the HY and save time
First Aid 5 (STudy from this after you have a good grasp on a subject)
(Various sections from FA)
FA anatomy 4.0 (its neuroanatomy section was not enough)
FA Biochem 4.8
FA pathology 3
FA pharmacology 5
FA Micro 3.5
FA Physio 3.5
FA behavioral 4
Kaplan Qbank is your friend, do Qbank (i found the standard Qbank questions much more useful than the IV set..only ended up doing the IV set)
THe robbins USMLE 1100 questions book is very good for pathology but DON"T use robbins to study, BRS is much more time efficient.
Sorry this email is so rambling, i just spoke to things as they popped into my head. If you have anyquestions feel free to email me. All the examples in this post are made up, they aren't from my test. Hope it helps, if you have any questions feel free to email me.
Zedpol
So, i thought the test was somewhere between the difficulty of kaplan (hard) and the 150 questions that you get when you register (easy). Although, take that with a grain of salt since i have no idea what my step score is going to be. I had more than enough time to finish the test, got out 2.5 hours early. You might want to check out the prometric site you will be testing at, so you know what to expect as far as temperature, fridges, food, all that jazz. So yah, i am having a bit of a hard time figuring out what to write. So i will try to split this into general hints and specific hints.
General:
You need to be able to apply the stuff you have memorized...yes you need to memorize lots of the stuff, but they won't ask a "What is" type of question. So DON"T use first aid and just memorize things, make sure you understand the Why and how of it. Goljans audio is pretty good for that.
Don't freak out about the test, i was super super nervous before i started, once i got in and started doingthe questions i realized this is what i have been doing for 2 years now, the questions are no different than the ones you have already been doing.
Make sure you read the questions carefully, lots of them i had no idea what they were talking about, but you could figure out the answer from the questions stem and with a little bit of background knowledge. There were only a couple of questions that i didn't have a clue what they were talking about. When you get to one of the questions that oyu don't know anything about start generalizing everything. I.E. If the question is asking about hormones, and you don't have a clue what they are talking about look at the answer choices and start putting things in categories. Lets say you had to choose between, Insulin, Glucagon, Aldosterone, Epinephrine and Dopamine. RIght off the bat you should divide them up into groups. Notice aldosterone is the only steroidal in that group so it is not going to have a cytoplasmic receptor. Things like that, you will be able to answer lots of the questions that way.
First Aid is really really good as far as stuff that is on the test. The problem with first aid is it doesn't lend itself to understanding so i would NOT use it is a primary resource. Use it as an outline of what you need to know.
Most of my pharm questions were asked by side effects, so they would say X person has a cough, which started 2 weeks ago when the patient began a new medication for high blood pressure. They will give you 5 choices or so that will all treat high blood pressure, an ACE inhibitor would be the answer (stops the break down of bradykinin).
I only had one calculations question, and it was multistep, You DO need to know your equations because lots of concepts are asked from the calculations, they just don't have you calculate anything.
While you are doing questions make sure you read through the answers and understand why the wrong answers are incorrect, add your own notes to your review books (FA is a good one because it gives you an easy way to review most everything the week before the test)
As far as memorizing random little diseases that have some random guys name in them..i wouldn't worry about it too much, focus on concepts first and then get to stuff like sturge-weber syndrome, and Osler rendue.. whatever the hell that is called.
Focus on the big picture first and then fill in the details.
Goljan audio was pretty dang good, a good percentage of the stuff he guaranteed to be on the test was actually on the test, Some concepts tests more than a couple times, like VitaminK.
Ok, For the more specific stuff
Please don't use Neuroantomty BRS. definantly use HY, My test had more Neuro on it than it did Gross anatomy. Learn your brainstem and spinal cord crossections.
Goljans High yield notes that have to do with biostatistics, sensitivty, etc are really good, that pluse FA covered every biostatistics question on my test.
If you are going to pick one subject to learn I would definantly pick pathology, path includes so much of the other subjects, and it seemed like the other subjects were only asked in relation to clinical stuff.
Embryo- i had maybe 2 questions, (thank god because i truely hate embryo)
Physio- learn how to read graphs. Don't learn how to read specific graphs, just learn how to figure out a graph. If you aren't good with graphs, spend some good quality time with them to figure out how to pull information out of a graph. There are lots of graphs on step 1. (mine at least)
Oh, before i forget, i thought the review book step up is complete Ass. It has way too many mistakes in it, don't put yourself through trying to figure out which are mistakes and which aren't, just avoid it. Yes it is easier to read than First Aid, but first Aids info is a lot better. The only redeeming value to step up is their Embryo sections at the begining of each chapter.
Biochem, Cell bio, Mol cell bio- actually a fair amount of this stuff on the test, although most of it was given in a scenario that you had enough data given to you in the question to figure out the answer. Most of them were basically just Logic Questions.
Genetics- i really didn't have much, first aid really covered all that i needed.
Pathology- Huge Huge huge part of the test. Learn your pathology
Microbiology- Know how to identify bugs, I.E. optichin resitant, green halo, gram positive cocci
Pharm- first aid is good enough
Physio- learn graphs
Ok, as far as the books i used.
I am going to rate the books 1-5 scale
Pathology BRS 4
Lipincott Biochem 3.8
Kaplan Qbank 4 (Doesn't get a 5 because it has a LOT of information in it that isn't even close to what i would call high yield, sometimes hard to differentiate what you need to know from what you don't.)
Costanza Physiology (i think it is called stars) 3.5
HY microbiology 5
HY immunology 3.5
HY mol and cell bio 4.5 (only because i know of no other book that has all that info in one place...the book itself isn't the most wonderful thing in the world)
Behavioral BRS 4.5- good book but i think you could get away with the HY and save time
First Aid 5 (STudy from this after you have a good grasp on a subject)
(Various sections from FA)
FA anatomy 4.0 (its neuroanatomy section was not enough)
FA Biochem 4.8
FA pathology 3
FA pharmacology 5
FA Micro 3.5
FA Physio 3.5
FA behavioral 4
Kaplan Qbank is your friend, do Qbank (i found the standard Qbank questions much more useful than the IV set..only ended up doing the IV set)
THe robbins USMLE 1100 questions book is very good for pathology but DON"T use robbins to study, BRS is much more time efficient.
Sorry this email is so rambling, i just spoke to things as they popped into my head. If you have anyquestions feel free to email me. All the examples in this post are made up, they aren't from my test. Hope it helps, if you have any questions feel free to email me.
Zedpol
