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Ok, I finished it today. In short, it felt just like Block 5 of NBME, with about 4-5 questions per block that I thought were more specific and harder than the NBME questions. In reading peoples postings about how terrible it was, I got a little bit intimidated. But for all of you that have not yet taken the test yet, I can assure you that it is very similar to the 4 NBMEs online.
In terms of difficulty, I initially marked an average of 7-8 per block. I finished going through each block one time consistently in about 35 minutes, and then spent another 10 minutes reading each question a second time. The second time through I became much more confident of my answers, and was able to reason through about 3-4 of the marked questions. I felt like I knew the answers to more than two thirds of the questions right away, but even so, I was surprised at how specific some questions were. There were hardly any calculations more complex than dividing by 2 or multiplying by 10, even though they did ask you to set up some simple epidemiology equations.
Statistically, I think that there is a MUCH wider variation in peoples preparation for this exam than there is in the difficulty of distribution between exams. If there are 350 questions, I seriously doubt that one test taker will get an average of 350 difficult questions, and a person sitting next to him will get 350 easier questions. The moral of the story: dont let peoples postings of the test was impossible, I must have gotten a really hard form! get to you. There is a linear relationship between how prepared you are and how difficult the exam feels. That's not to say it's not a hard test, because it definitely does have its challenging parts, but the point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't get too anxious about it.
Logistically, the most irritating thing was how much the screen flickered. Bring ibuprofen if your eyes are sensitive. At home, I have a 20 flat screen monitor that I did all my practice exams on. The test center had a 17 CRT that was set to too high a resolution so everything was small and flickery. It ended up not bothering my eyes as much as I thought it would initially probably because I took a prophylactic ibuprofen halfway through. I took a 5-10 minute break after each section to take a couple sips of water and eat a few bites of a sandwich or energy bar. I was surprised that I did not find myself getting hungry at all. The entire exam including breaks took a shade under 7 hours.
The best advice I can give in terms of preparation is to take ALL FOUR NBMEs and carefully go over and research every question. True, this is a daunting task, but in terms of time spent, it is much more useful than QBank. I actually have a serious bone to pick with QBank. I feel that the questions are way too minutia-oriented. I completed QBank, and in taking Step 1, I recognized exactly *one* question out of 350 that was similar to a QBank minutia-question. In contrast, I had about 5-10 questions *per block* that were extremely similar to the NBME questions. Two questions were practically identical. The range of content was also very similar: I had many pneumothoraxes, hydronephroses, hypocalcemias, 8-hour histories of crushing substernal pain radiating to the jaw, etc.
Its a very weird test. Many of the questions require that you add a little sprinking of common sense and intuition to the vast amount of facts that we memorize. There were probably about 2-3 questions in the entire exam that I would have felt more confident on if I had First Aid in front of me, and about 10-15 questions in the entire exam that I would have liked to look stuff up online or in more substantial reference books. The rest that I was unsure of were just weird. Specifically, the cell biology was straightforward, but very specific.
Speaking about First Aid, this is a great resource, but its not perfect. As p53 mentioned, after doing the NBME exams, certain factoids in FA just jumped out at me. However, there is still A LOT of info in FA that is probably too trivial to be memorized, like all the hyperspecific details of branchial clefts/arches/pouches (but definitely know what an absence of pouches 3 and 4 will do!), memorizing the different M1-M7 of leukemias, etc. There are also many mistakes in the 2005 edition (I dont know about 2006).
If I get a good score I will post my study methods, but a study guide without a final score is generally worthless.
Good luck everyone staying focused and calm is much more important than memorizing minutia. If you study a week of minutia you will get just a couple extra points. If you take a step back and try to take apart the logic behind the NBME questions you will gain much more.
In terms of difficulty, I initially marked an average of 7-8 per block. I finished going through each block one time consistently in about 35 minutes, and then spent another 10 minutes reading each question a second time. The second time through I became much more confident of my answers, and was able to reason through about 3-4 of the marked questions. I felt like I knew the answers to more than two thirds of the questions right away, but even so, I was surprised at how specific some questions were. There were hardly any calculations more complex than dividing by 2 or multiplying by 10, even though they did ask you to set up some simple epidemiology equations.
Statistically, I think that there is a MUCH wider variation in peoples preparation for this exam than there is in the difficulty of distribution between exams. If there are 350 questions, I seriously doubt that one test taker will get an average of 350 difficult questions, and a person sitting next to him will get 350 easier questions. The moral of the story: dont let peoples postings of the test was impossible, I must have gotten a really hard form! get to you. There is a linear relationship between how prepared you are and how difficult the exam feels. That's not to say it's not a hard test, because it definitely does have its challenging parts, but the point I'm trying to make is that you shouldn't get too anxious about it.
Logistically, the most irritating thing was how much the screen flickered. Bring ibuprofen if your eyes are sensitive. At home, I have a 20 flat screen monitor that I did all my practice exams on. The test center had a 17 CRT that was set to too high a resolution so everything was small and flickery. It ended up not bothering my eyes as much as I thought it would initially probably because I took a prophylactic ibuprofen halfway through. I took a 5-10 minute break after each section to take a couple sips of water and eat a few bites of a sandwich or energy bar. I was surprised that I did not find myself getting hungry at all. The entire exam including breaks took a shade under 7 hours.
The best advice I can give in terms of preparation is to take ALL FOUR NBMEs and carefully go over and research every question. True, this is a daunting task, but in terms of time spent, it is much more useful than QBank. I actually have a serious bone to pick with QBank. I feel that the questions are way too minutia-oriented. I completed QBank, and in taking Step 1, I recognized exactly *one* question out of 350 that was similar to a QBank minutia-question. In contrast, I had about 5-10 questions *per block* that were extremely similar to the NBME questions. Two questions were practically identical. The range of content was also very similar: I had many pneumothoraxes, hydronephroses, hypocalcemias, 8-hour histories of crushing substernal pain radiating to the jaw, etc.
Its a very weird test. Many of the questions require that you add a little sprinking of common sense and intuition to the vast amount of facts that we memorize. There were probably about 2-3 questions in the entire exam that I would have felt more confident on if I had First Aid in front of me, and about 10-15 questions in the entire exam that I would have liked to look stuff up online or in more substantial reference books. The rest that I was unsure of were just weird. Specifically, the cell biology was straightforward, but very specific.
Speaking about First Aid, this is a great resource, but its not perfect. As p53 mentioned, after doing the NBME exams, certain factoids in FA just jumped out at me. However, there is still A LOT of info in FA that is probably too trivial to be memorized, like all the hyperspecific details of branchial clefts/arches/pouches (but definitely know what an absence of pouches 3 and 4 will do!), memorizing the different M1-M7 of leukemias, etc. There are also many mistakes in the 2005 edition (I dont know about 2006).
If I get a good score I will post my study methods, but a study guide without a final score is generally worthless.
Good luck everyone staying focused and calm is much more important than memorizing minutia. If you study a week of minutia you will get just a couple extra points. If you take a step back and try to take apart the logic behind the NBME questions you will gain much more.
