How long should I prepare?

[Sunz81]

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I am an IMG planning on taking Kaplan for Step I in early Jan. The course is about 6 weeks. I was wondering how long after the course I should take the exam. What's the average? I haven't been in touch with the basic sciences for 2-4 years so I have a lot of work ahead of me, but at the same time I don't want to take unnecessarily long. I've heard some people study upto 6 months, which sounds a little much for me. Any advice from someone who's been in a similar situation and did well on the exam? Also, is there anywhere I can get a look at (free) sample questions to get an idea of what the exam is like/what to expect? Thanks for the help.

 

[Sunz81]

Come on, no one has a response???

 

[elektra]

Hi!!
Im an IMG like you with 4 yrs of medical pratice experience, so getting back into the books and basic sciences has been very dificult for me
I started my preparation on late may with the Kaplan live lectures after that I watched all the videos at kaplan center (this part took me about 2 months) then just before my kaplan enroll date expaired I took the simulated exam, I had a bad score (55%) since then Im studying by myself with a little extra resources like Goljan RRS, HY Histology, HY Anatomy, HY Embriology, HY Molec Biology, Microbiology RRS by Rosenthal and Katzung Pharmacology, BRS Behavioral. Now Im hitting 60% on Qbank and my plan is to take Step 1 next january. So I have been studying for about 4 months and I have 3 more infront of me. My goal is to obtain a high score, as IMG I thinks this is the best way to obtain a residency spot.
Hope this help
Bye

 

[Sunz81]

Hey Elektra, thanks for the response. Anyone else?

 

[bulletproof]

Hey Elektra, thanks for the response. Anyone else?

I also am an IMG. I sit the beast on tuesday.....and studied for the last 5 and a 1/2 weeks. I only studied around 4-6 hrs per day for the first 3 weeks and moved it up to ~8-12 hrs per day for the final couple of weeks. I would strongly recommend not doing more than 6 weeks as you will burn out. I could take more time if I wanted , and sure it is tempting but it would drive me nuts, and I am not sure I would be better prepared. Just pick your sources wisely and stick to them. I will post my score and study habits etc. after I get my score back, and then you can decide whether or not my advice is helpful 😀 If you are from an offshore school like I am you should be relatively well geared for the USMLE whereas if you are from a European/australian/asian school you may need more time to review USMLE focused material. Good luck. 👍

 

[bulletproof]

I see you have been out of school for a while...which is fine. I guess I would probably hold off on setting a date as of yet. If you are taking a Kaplan course, measure how well you are doing on practice tests and Qbank. You should be aiming for ~ 70% average in Qbank so as to be comfortable with taking the USMLE. As for free questions, once you register for a three month window in which to sit the exam, the ECFMG will send you a CD with 150 released items. I believe they are also available at the NBME website.

 

[Sunz81]

Thanks for the great advice bullet. I'm looking forward to see how you do, but it sounds like you're pretty confident so I'm sure it'll be awesome. Good luck! 🙂