I think I am going to fail

[dana1976]

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I am studying to take Step 1 and I really think that I am going to fail. I have no idea what is enough to study. Do you guys think that if I know the following I will be ok?

First Aid Pharm
BRS path
BRS physiology
FA biochem
HY gross anatomy
HY neuroanatomy
Kaplan behavioral science
FA micro with a little bit of Kaplan micro?

I am really scared and would like to hear what other people did to pass and if people don't mind sharing their scores along with what their study methods were. Thanks!

 

[kcrd]

dana, don't worry - a lot of us were worried about failing but we got through it, and you most likely will, too. Search back may through july (especially june), and you will find several posts about what people did to prepare and what scores they got. I think the best indication of where you stand are the online assessments on the nbme website. take one a few weeks before to reassure yourself that you are in the passing range (about 335-360) and then take another one 3-4 days before the test to reassure yourself that you will do well (or postpone the test if necessary).

your book list looks good, but you might want to use brs biochem or high yield biochem instead of relying on first aid alone. you might also want to consider reading through 'ridiculously simple' micro.

good luck, and keep us posted! I found this forum to be really reassuring when I was studying for boards.

 

[Starflyr]

Um....if you overload yourself with that many books, you will get confused (IMO). Keep it simple - unless, of course, you're studying for NEXT year, in which case, carry on.

If your test is in the next month or 2, Id suggest Micro made Ridiculously Simple and First Aid.

If you are taking it next year, read each book with First Aid next to you and make all your notes in it. That way, at the end, you have ONE book to study (and yes, you can transfer info from 2003 FA to 2004 FA when it comes out).

good luck!
Star

 

[Doc_Thks_JC]

Hi,
Your list of review books looks great to me. IF you know those books, You will do fine. The thing is that you really need to sit down and interact with those books and not just read them. I studied High Yield Embryo, Anatomy, Neuroanatomy, and Biochem. I also read First Aid one time and took the Kaplan Review Course. When I studied them, I would make my own clinical vignettes using the most information from the books. I would then think of questions that would likely to be asked such as: A 3 YO male child presents to the clinic in severe distress. He is stooped over and seems to be having problems getting a full breath (air hunger). He is also drooling nonstop. His vital signs are normal except for a high fever. Upon physical exam you decide he most likely has epiglottitis. If this is true, What is the most likely causative agent? What tx choice would you choose? What is the MOA of the drug you used to tx the patient? IF there were any important points for gross anatomy, biochem, embryo, I would ask about those Etc..... This seemed to really help me when I did questions and when I took the actual exam. I know most people don't want to put that much time in, but it is your score and you can make it the best you want.

 

[MissMedicine]

a score of 335-360 corresponds to passing?

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

If I can pass this thing a monkey can. I studied for a solid four weeks. I completed Qbank with a 54% average. I thought I got my azz completely and brutally spanked on the real deal and ended up with a 208. Much better than failing.


I used:

FA
Step-Up
BRS Path
and the rest of the supporting cast

 

[Stinger86]

Your book list looks perfect to me, with the exception of Kaplan Behavioral (just because I'm not familiar with that book-- I used BRS Behavioral). The last thing you need to be worrying about is failing this test. The step 1 has something like a 95% pass rate, and most people who feel like they failed actually do not, and their score is usually not even close to failing! 🙂

Just keep studying, work some practice questions, take the NBME assessment exams, and trust that you know a lot more material than you think. The test seems intimidating at first, but it's really not that bad at all. Good luck!

 

[daisygirl]

If I can pass this thing a monkey can. I studied for a solid four weeks. I completed Qbank with a 54% average. I thought I got my azz completely and brutally spanked on the real deal and ended up with a 208. Much better than failing.


I used:

FA
Step-Up
BRS Path
and the rest of the supporting cast

Thanks for sharing. This monkey can't wait to get this finished . Six weeks to go......

 

[scully]

Your book list looks perfect to me, with the exception of Kaplan Behavioral (just because I'm not familiar with that book-- I used BRS Behavioral).

Hey Stinger -- was the epi and stats in BRS enough for the exam? Those sections are so short! I tested out of epi/stats (and am now regretting it since I don't remember a thing!) so I am wondering how much depth I need.
Thanks!!

 

[AlexRusso]

I know I'm not Stinger but from my experience the epi/stats in BRS was plenty. Be sure to do the qbank stats questions (there's only like 25) to get the feeling for how they could phrase the questions. My step 1 stats questions were pretty straight forward except for 1 that I would never have gotten in a million years. It asked for some calculation I've never heard of before, not your regular 2x2 table w. ppv, npv, sen, spec, etc..but some crap with three colums of data with like 10 rows of numbers in each column and I didnt even know what they were asking. Hopefully its one of their experimental questions.

 

[Med4ever]

I recommend the kaplan physiology book. It is like 400-500 pages and IS EXCELLENT. It goes through some pathophysiology AND physiology, also it has alot of graphs to interpreat and those great arrow questiosn that pop up on the usmle.

 

[Stinger86]

Hey Stinger -- was the epi and stats in BRS enough for the exam? Those sections are so short! I tested out of epi/stats (and am now regretting it since I don't remember a thing!) so I am wondering how much depth I need.
Thanks!!

Almost everything I needed was covered in BRS Behavioral Science and the Behavioral section of First Aid. The few things that weren't covered can be found in something like HY Biostatistics. What I did is went to my school's bookstore, and thumbed through it for 20 minutes looking for and learning the things I've never seen before, such as case fatality rate, etc. As far as statistics go, nothing suprised me on the step.

 

[scully]

Thanks Alex and Stinger-

Not to be mushy, but I just have to say that you guys are great. You (and the gang -- I won't name names since I risk offending someone that I might leave out) are so nice and generous -- I wish you went to my school!

 

[NineSixteen]

I think everyone starts out thinking they'll fail because it seems like such a huge task! It really does start to break itself down into nice, managable chunks for you once you start. Everyone I know, including myself, thought seriously about pushing the test date back during the first week of studying because it just seemed so tough. Then two weeks later you're wishing you could move it up just to have it over and done with! You'll do great!

 

[mjl1717]

This is how I see it: If the mean is 217 with a S.D, of 24 and passing is 182
the NBME mean is 500 with a SD of 100.
This correlates that if one gets approx. 1.4 S.D. below the mean they pass.
My point is that one should score no less then 360 on the NBME assesment in order to have a chance to pass. I think any thing less then this is the danger zone of not passing. [I think that range of 335 -360 is to broad] Any comments?

 

[cubs3canes]

ALL that is good, but no one said Q BANK. I think this is vital to any test taker. During the exam, I felt like I was taking 7 QBANK blocks. The format of the questions on USMLE and QBANK is similar.

I just thought I would chime in.

 

[imtiaz]

while i agree that the format is similar, the content of the questions is drastically different. for example, a typical qbank question will describe something like osteogenesis imperfecta and the answer choices would be like:
a. collagen type I
b. collagen type II
c. collagen type III
d. collagen type IV

whereas on boards, a similar question would be posed and the question/choices would be like:
a. missense mutation
b. nonsense mutation
c. frameshift mutation

qbank is helpful to learn facts, but i found it NOT AT ALL like boards.

 

[greets fr. nyc]

side note:

as much as you barrel through all those quality juicy texts (yum yum)... remember towards the week or so before the exam:

1) really FOCUS on upping your speed in QUICK RECALL of factoids, concepts, and pathways (e.g. all endocrine mechanisms, pharm mechs, acid-base mechs, etc =high yield); at this point in the gameyou gotta have these things at your finger tips more so than learning new stuff.

2) focus on rehashing your past errors in q-bank and other question sets so you don't make the same mistakes again! plus you'll feel like you've learned something in addition to studying for the beast itself.

do both these things right before test day and you will be well served.

good luck!