Hitting the lower yield (but point getting) subjects

[vicinihil]

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Anyone have approach ideas for:

Embryo and Anatomy?

HY Embryo is way too extensive I feel for this topic but I keep missing questions on it in UW. Do you guys think FA is enough? Anatomy is definitely lacking in First Aid and people have pondered over whether to use HY or Roadmap. Any suggestions?

I think these are two of the subjects I'll be spending a day on closer to the test date. (2 weeks 😱😱)

Also...behavioral science. I have the HY book but is it worth spending a day reading through it? I know the formulas in FA pretty well but it's the ethics that I miss.

 

[username456789]

Anyone have approach ideas for:

Embryo and Anatomy?

HY Embryo is way too extensive I feel for this topic but I keep missing questions on it in UW. Do you guys think FA is enough? Anatomy is definitely lacking in First Aid and people have pondered over whether to use HY or Roadmap. Any suggestions?

I think these are two of the subjects I'll be spending a day on closer to the test date. (2 weeks 😱😱)

Also...behavioral science. I have the HY book but is it worth spending a day reading through it? I know the formulas in FA pretty well but it's the ethics that I miss.

Weird, I was about to start a very similar thread (although I'm farther out from the exam than you are). I've been mulling over whether to bother doing much/anything right now with Embryo and Anatomy for my "Taus" studying first pass. I might just skip over it for the moment . . .

As for behavioral science, are these questions you're missing more "Jehovah's witness/tranfusion" style, or more "a patient returns to your office and is unhappy with the care you provided" style? I haven't really gotten any of the former in QBank, but I've gotten several of the latter, and for me those aren't usually too bad (although the formula ones I screw up, so I guess we're the opposite in that regard).

 

[FeedTheHippo]

I cant tell you enough how many people have come out of that exam in the last few months complaining of how much anatomy they had.. I wouldnt say its high yield.. It can be the diff between a 220 and a 240 in some cases. However, they say FA and Uworld questions.. with other questions.. is sufficient.. but, your M1 memory needs to kick in too!

 

[badasshairday]

I keep hearing about Behavioral being sort of mid yield. I am planning on reading HY Behavioral just because of this. Everyone talks about the 3 P's being high yield. It seems like the 3 B's (Biochem, Bugs, Behavioral) are mid yield. If I had to choose between reading HY Anatomy and HY Behvioral, I'd go with Behavioral. UWorld + FA should cover you for anatomy. Embryo... I've heard people tell me that they could have studied it forever or for 4 hours, and still miss those random 2-3 embryo questions they had on the test. Just pick neural crest cells if you don't know the answer. lol.

 

[vicinihil]

UW messes with my head on embryo.

I picked up the earlier edition of Hy Anatomy and it's only 180 pages or so (2nd ed). I plan on quickly browsing through a few of the sections I['m weak on (Abdominal and LL anatomy) and then peruse some radiographs to make sure I can identify typical pathologies and normal anatomy.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Embryo is very low yield but unfortunately the scope of testable information extends well-beyond First Aid. Perhaps the older HY editions are shorter?

Some people (myself included) get a lot of gross anatomy. I did not think First Aid nor HY covered the things that were on my Step I but I don't know what books would beyond the huge texts. I think everyone should dedicate some time to covering this subject.

I don't think review books really prepare you for the ethics questions. It's sort of a way of thinking more than factual recall.

 

[turkeyjerky]

what do you think is a good way to tackle anatomy then? maybe read the blue boxes in moore?

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm going to read the chapter summaries of the BRS which is probably something like 40 total pages. I knew those cold last year and scored in the average-ish range on the gross/embryo section of the basic science NBME despite not looking at any of the material since last spring. If those summaries and the embryo section of FA aren't enough to get me most of the points in those sections, I'm willing to accept the loss. There's no way I'm going to spend more time than that on those subjects with the 3 P's looming.

For behavioral science, it seems like a lot of the practice questions I've gotten have been largely common sense kinds of things. There have been plenty of "what do you tell your patient first?" questions, for example. I doubt I'll be using more than FA and questions for it.

 

[username456789]

For behavioral science, it seems like a lot of the practice questions I've gotten have been largely common sense kinds of things. There have been plenty of "what do you tell your patient first?" questions, for example.

Agreed. I'm certainly not trying to make others look bad or put them down for having trouble with these (lord knows I have plenty of trouble with plenty of subjects), but these are almost always common sense. Then again, I worked in a doctor's office for a couple years so most of the stuff is second nature just from being there (i.e. when an angry patient calls saying the pharmacist told them the med you prescribed reduces the efficacy of the OCP they're on, you don't just "tell your nurse to call in another drug she thinks would work just as well" or something. The correct answer is "apologize and tell them it was your mistake for not explaining this to them beforehand." But really, that doesn't take two years in a doctor's office to figure out.)

 

[MilkmanAl]

Oh right, I wasn't trying to be insulting, either. I was more aiming at communicating that a lot of behavioral science doesn't seem like something that studying will help with.

 

[illixir]

I think practice questions are best for behavioral. Doing a couple sets of 50 just behavioral will probably give a good sampling of most of the question variations and can be helpful to see if there's any principles you dont have down solid.

 

[kryptik]

Fischer Ethics books is also pretty damn good, it also includes the 100 most likely cases you see on the step 1

 

[NRAI2001]

Yea I m really afraid of this happening.... you could spend tons and tons of time and know path, pharm, micro, physio..etc inside-out, but then by a stroke of bad luck be slamed with an exam with a lot of anatomy, embryo, histo... lower yield stuff.

There is just so much on the line... its like buying insurance, things will probably ok if you dont get it 85% of the time but when you get unlucky you really get slamed and you can loose big time... I guess its better to "buy the insurance" and just study up on those subjects and hope they dont show up.