frustrations!

[gunit07]

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I'm doing both USMLEworld and Kaplan Q bank. and i'm using secrets and first aid. (and kind of boards and wards - i just read it once to get a refresher before i start really studying)

Anyhoo...

I'm getting really frustrated with all of these questions! I feel like they all have their preferred sources, and the answer is specific to that question bank.
ie: imaging for AAA? U/S or CT - different books say different things; and in real life I've never seen a AAA U/S to follow a AAA (i did a vascular surgery rotation)
or for example, pneumonia questions - they'll present an alcoholic and say he has pneumonia -- sometimes the answer is still strep (since it's the most common overall) and sometimes the answer is klebsiella!
oh!
and cholesterol screening - secrets says start at 20 yo q5years. but UW says 35! not to mention the fact that i'm getting different LDL goals from different sources.
And this keeps on happening over and over and over again. Is anyone else noticing this, or is it just me??

so anyways. essentially i'm just venting about how this is so confusing. Because when the real test comes around, I will have no clue which answer to pick🙁 and then I'll do poorly🙁

i dont know which source to believe!

OK. Thank you. Rant over.
🙂

p.s. does anyone have tips on how to remember the glomerulonephropathies?? please share🙂

 

[footcramp]

ultrasound for aaa screening, ct for surgery. some use ct only for monitoring but the textbook answer is ultrasound for monitoring.

 

[gunit07]

i read that in first aid, but in secrets it says "CT is used for initial evaluation and diagnostic confirmation in stable patients"
eep!

hopefully the test wont have both answer choices for the question and it will be clear🙂

ultrasound for aaa screening, ct for surgery. some use ct only for monitoring but the textbook answer is ultrasound for monitoring.

 

[DOapplicant]

i agree gunit07!

kaplan lectures say avg age menopause is 52, crush says 51.
it's like when you were on the floors and one attending said one thing and another attending said something contradictory.

definately frustrating.
good luck. looks like we'll need it. 🙂

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,

I found USMLE Step II and III pretty straightforward in terms of the questions and cases. They are not tying to trick you into choosing between one number of another. For example, if you have a case of vaginal bleeding, they are going to give you a 78-year-old lady and not a 54-year-old lady as some 54-year-olds may still have menstrual cycles. In either event, you would work them up differently i.e. get hormone levels in the 54-year-old and go straight to endometrial biopsy in the 78-year-old. You may still end up getting an endometrial biopsy in the 54-year-old but you may want to check the hormone levels too.

Step II was the most tiring in that the scenarios were long but I had no problems narrowing down the answer choices between one or two. Most of the time, I had already decided on a course of action before I got to the answer choices. After reading them, I was sure that I made the correct decision.

USMLE Step II is not about pinning down a specific number. It is more about being able to diagnose a problem and initiate treatement. USMLE Step III was about handling common medical, OB and pediatric problems a bit more thoroughly. The biggest hurdle for me was making sure that I could handle the software. The disk that they send when you register for the test is great.

njbmd 🙂

 

[VincentAdultman]

I'm doing both USMLEworld and Kaplan Q bank. and i'm using secrets and first aid. (and kind of boards and wards - i just read it once to get a refresher before i start really studying)

Anyhoo...

I'm getting really frustrated with all of these questions! I feel like they all have their preferred sources, and the answer is specific to that question bank.
ie: imaging for AAA? U/S or CT - different books say different things; and in real life I've never seen a AAA U/S to follow a AAA (i did a vascular surgery rotation)
or for example, pneumonia questions - they'll present an alcoholic and say he has pneumonia -- sometimes the answer is still strep (since it's the most common overall) and sometimes the answer is klebsiella!
oh!
and cholesterol screening - secrets says start at 20 yo q5years. but UW says 35! not to mention the fact that i'm getting different LDL goals from different sources.
And this keeps on happening over and over and over again. Is anyone else noticing this, or is it just me??

so anyways. essentially i'm just venting about how this is so confusing. Because when the real test comes around, I will have no clue which answer to pick🙁 and then I'll do poorly🙁

i dont know which source to believe!

OK. Thank you. Rant over.
🙂

p.s. does anyone have tips on how to remember the glomerulonephropathies?? please share🙂

Wanna know what I hate?

I'm doing qbank 50 ? blocks, and I'm hitting about 80%. Then all of a sdden I miss like 6 out 7 in one stretch and my avg sucks.

 

[sponch]

p.s. does anyone have tips on how to remember the glomerulonephropathies?? please share🙂

Check out the renal chapter on B&W. All you need to know re GNs are on those tables pages.

I've always had trouble memorizing lists, so what I do is memorize the names of each of the GN. Just the names. Once I have that framework down, I build on it by adding key facts to each until I'm able to replicate the entire table from memory. I dunno if that really helps or not but it's a technique I had to develop in med school to manage all the information they shove down your throat. Good luck!

PS Don't worry about the nitpicky questions on UW. I got so mad when all the questions seemed to come down to two choices that both sounded correct and I had actually seen both done on the wards! On the actual exam, you won't have to differentiate between first & second line therapies.