Is this really what Step 1 is like? No long passages, just quick paragraphs?

[Gauss44]

I just looked at the below pdf and am wondering if this is the typical question length for USMLE Step1? Are there also long passages like on the MCAT, or is it all pretty much like this?

http://www.kaptestglobal.com/sites/kaptestglobal.com/files/usmle-practice-questions_0.pdf

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[mvenus929]

On Step 2, there are different things you have to analyze--usually an ad for a drug. I can't remember if they were there on Step 1 as well, but I think they were.

But yeah, there's only a couple of those per exam. Most of the questions are paragraph questions (a bit longer than the average Kaplan question).

 

[Ismet]

lol "just quick paragraphs"

 

[BABSstudent]

I just looked at the below pdf and am wondering if this is the typical question length for USMLE Step1? Are there also long passages like on the MCAT, or is it all pretty much like this?

http://www.kaptestglobal.com/sites/kaptestglobal.com/files/usmle-practice-questions_0.pdf

It's nothing like what you saw on the MCAT because it is the paragraph version, but there are way more questions and thus way more to read. But since you are just a premed, just focus on the MCAT for now and wait to suffer through Step 1 when you are a second year.

 

[JJMrK]

The questions are typically a bit longer than those, on average. Question 6 is a pretty good example. On the MCAT, you sit there and agonize about every question and every word of the passage. When you take an NBME test, it's a pattern recognition game, and usually the answer jumps out because you've seen the scenario before. If not you make an educated guess and move on. It's a different type test, but not necessarily harder; you just have to put in the time to do the reps.

 

[tantacles]

Whoever wrote that guide doesn't know how to use apostrophes.

 

[inycepoo]

This is preallo

 

[Ismet]

This is preallo

the OP is a pre-med. if they posted this in allo, it would be moved here anyway.

enough med students frequent pre-allo that these questions are always answered. 😉

 

[inycepoo]

the OP is a pre-med. if they posted this in allo, it would be moved here anyway.

enough med students frequent pre-allo that these questions are always answered. 😉

lololol not what I meant at all. I meant that this is such a typical preallo post about med school so it's funny.

 

[Goro]

From what my students tell me about Step I, it's a novella-length story, with the question really in the last sentence. As a general rule, the Boards like to assess your ability to engage in 2nd and 3rd order reasoning, not merely memorize factoids.

I just looked at the below pdf and am wondering if this is the typical question length for USMLE Step1? Are there also long passages like on the MCAT, or is it all pretty much like this?

http://www.kaptestglobal.com/sites/kaptestglobal.com/files/usmle-practice-questions_0.pdf

 

[armybound]

From what my students tell me about Step I, it's a novella-length story, with the question really in the last sentence. As a general rule, the Boards like to assess your ability to engage in 2nd and 3rd order reasoning, not merely memorize factoids.

I pretty much ignored the first 2-3 sentences. They're usually pretty worthless, except for things like patient age and location, if they give it.

They can give you this long spiel about how the patient was an orphan and had 3 children with diabetes and works in a ship yard and then the question is actually about the mechanism of action of a drug.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I pretty much ignored the first 2-3 sentences. They're usually pretty worthless, except for things like patient age and location, if they give it.

They can give you this long spiel about how the patient was an orphan and had 3 children with diabetes and works in a ship yard and then the question is actually about the mechanism of action of a drug.

Preach.

Most of the questions have fluff you need to sort out. There are a lot of questions, time management is still pretty important. Near the end of the test when you start getting fatigued it can be easily to lose time and stay on a question too long.

And also, there are a good deal of buzz words used.

 

[Tatastrophy]

Meh, I found that I processed the question quicker if I just read straight through and predicted the answer. I always had at least 15 minutes (most of the time about 20 minutes) at the end of each 46 question block to go back to any questions I was unsure of. So I guess there are multiple strategies to answering the questions in given time, mine was swift triage.

 

[mvenus929]

Meh, I found that I processed the question quicker if I just read straight through and predicted the answer. I always had at least 15 minutes (most of the time about 20 minutes) at the end of each 46 question block to go back to any questions I was unsure of. So I guess there are multiple strategies to answering the questions in given time, mine was swift triage.

Ditto. Whenever I tried to skip right to the question without reading the passage first, I invariably missed an important piece of information that you needed to appropriately answer the question.

 

[JJMrK]

Yeah tons of different strategies. I always read the last sentence first, then skim the passage for relevant info and buzzwords.

I'm sure by the time these pre-allo folk get to nbme testing they'll also have their own (probably even better) way of doing things.