For IMG/IMS.. or those not knowing where to start

[Jabez]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey all,

This is primarily for IMG / IMS out there not knowing where to begin preparing for this beast of an exam.

I'm a final year med student from Down Under (no, I'm not a US citizen) who sat Step 1, well, cuz you never what the future might bring you.

I was pretty nervous at the beginning of the prep cuz I knew that the American curriculum tested in Step 1 was quite different to those of non-American countries. Many people react by thinking they have to READ a review book for EVERY subject.. Well, it is important to have a book for each discipline that you can refer to when you wanna look something but it is neither feasible (time-wise) nor effective to read those books cover to cover.

Here's what worked for me:

-Buy the latest edition First Aid for Step 1
-Purchase USMLERx. Do questions subject by subject. And READ FA. FA is integrated into explanations so by the end of the question bank you'll have read FA once at least.
-Purchase Kaplan Qbank. Do questions while reading FA for the second time. Look up review books if necessary.
-Purchase USMLEWorld. Do questions while annotating FA throughout. Remember your goal is to know everything in FA and to add extra information that will help you understand and retain the info in FA.
-Do a NBME form if you wanna assess yourself. Note that you won't be supplied with explanations. This will only serve to predict your score. Quite accurately.

This triad of question banks worked for me, with God's Grace - I got 260/99.
Remember when you walk into that room and the timer begins in the left upper corner of the screen, you won't be in the position to think back to your notes and work through questions. If you've trained yourself with the 'triad', you'll sift through the question stem and options and you will REACT. You'll know what I mean when you've done about 2000 or so questions.

All the best to you ladies & gentlemen.

 

[ibavraham]

Thank you for sharing the information. Congratulations and good luck with your future.

 

[rice_boy]

Hey, which aussie uni are you at btw?

 

[lankeke]

Thanks a lot! I hope I had read such thread earlier. I am also an FMG, and even worse, my native language is not English. I started preparing by reading the whole book of Robbins pathology, which was a birthday gift from my sister, and which tortured me a lot for reading it from cover to cover. I have two months left for step 1. Scared and uneasy.

 

[jon stewart]

yea..which uni did you go to?

 

[Jabez]

hey guys & gals,

i'm glad that my post proved useful to some of u.

btw, i'd rather not divulge the name of my school. this post was written in order to help u prepare for Step 1 and no more.
but i can tell u that i went to a school in a country other than Australia. one that can actually play rugby 😀

anyway, i thought that the following info might be helpful to you all:

i read thru these books first along with my course in med school:

-Path: Rapid review with Goljan audio
-Biochem: Kaplan
-Physiology: BRS (Costanzo) (outdated edition)
-Pharm: Kaplan
-Micro: Made Ridiculously Simple
-Immuno: Kaplan (old edition)
-Anatomy/Histo/Molecular/Cell Bio: Kaplan

questions:

-Kaplan Qbank: 71% average. random 50Q blocks first time through.
-USMLERx: 78% average, 50Q blocks by subject first time through.
-USMLEWorld: 71%, random 50Q blocks first time through.
-Robbin's Path Question book: approx 76%, first time through
-Rapid review path goljan questions: 350Q. approx 93%? (these are the questions u can access on the web using the code at the front of the book. my score is high because i think Goljan covered most of them so well in his book and audio lectures.)

sample tests:

-NBME form 1: 610 (242) 7 weeks before test
-150Q released items: 126/150 (84%) 4 weeks before test


remember that it doesn't matter what books u use, as long as u stick to the 'famous' ones and do questions to solidify your knowledge. for example, it doesn't matter which ones u end up choosing from the following books: RR vs BRS (although i think Goljan audio flows so much better with RR), FA vs Step-up, Kaplan notes for Pharm vs Road-map vs Lippincott vs Katzung book for USMLE (not road map but a thicker one), Kaplan Micro notes vs MRS, Old BRS physio vs new BRS physio vs Kaplan notes for Physio, Anatomy books (there really isn't that much emphasis on this. just do questions and revise the ones u get tested on. period.), Kaplan notes for Biochem (best of the series) vs RR vs BRS.

Bottomline - Stick with the books you've already used. and start the questions once you know where (in the review books) to go back to when you wanna look something up.

 

[lunartune]

👍

 

[chef]

thank you, your post is the most helpful for me.

i'll get those question subscriptions and the kaplan review books.

thanks!

 

[PEN15]

Hey all,

This is primarily for IMG / IMS out there not knowing where to begin preparing for this beast of an exam.

I'm a final year med student from Down Under (no, I'm not a US citizen) who sat Step 1, well, cuz you never what the future might bring you.

I was pretty nervous at the beginning of the prep cuz I knew that the American curriculum tested in Step 1 was quite different to those of non-American countries. Many people react by thinking they have to READ a review book for EVERY subject.. Well, it is important to have a book for each discipline that you can refer to when you wanna look something but it is neither feasible (time-wise) nor effective to read those books cover to cover.

Here's what worked for me:

-Buy the latest edition First Aid for Step 1
-Purchase USMLERx. Do questions subject by subject. And READ FA. FA is integrated into explanations so by the end of the question bank you'll have read FA once at least.
-Purchase Kaplan Qbank. Do questions while reading FA for the second time. Look up review books if necessary.
-Purchase USMLEWorld. Do questions while annotating FA throughout. Remember your goal is to know everything in FA and to add extra information that will help you understand and retain the info in FA.
-Do a NBME form if you wanna assess yourself. Note that you won't be supplied with explanations. This will only serve to predict your score. Quite accurately.

This triad of question banks worked for me, with God's Grace - I got 260/99.
Remember when you walk into that room and the timer begins in the left upper corner of the screen, you won't be in the position to think back to your notes and work through questions. If you've trained yourself with the 'triad', you'll sift through the question stem and options and you will REACT. You'll know what I mean when you've done about 2000 or so questions.

All the best to you ladies & gentlemen.

Dude that's a wicked score! I'm also studying in Australia and seriously thinking about taking the USMLE ... you know just so I have more options!