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- Oct 16, 2003
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After 41 grande iced americanos, I am done with this exam! (That's 1 drink per day of studying, not today's consumption!) I'd like to thank the people on this forum for all their great advice and reflections. They were *very* helpful in tailoring my studying techniques.
Overall impression: Difficult but by all means do-able. For me, the most important part of preparing for this exam is not FA, review books, or Q-bank. It was paying attention during the first two years of medschool. Some of the stuff tested was non-crammable material - it tested whether you truly understood the material or not.
Most helpful study tools used in the last 41 days: GOLJAN GOLJAN GOLJAN. I listened to his lectures over and over again until I felt very comfortable with pathophysiology and the major concepts that he emphasized. I recommend buying his Rapid Review Path book and follow along with his lectures. Some people in this forum recommended that a while back and I'm very glad to have listened to them. The USMLE is partially a concept-driven exam, so superficial memorization can only get you a few obscure points, if any.
Second most important tool: NBME exams. I had a butt-load of repeat questions. Almost word for word from NBME 1-4. I forget who set up that thread about that, but THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Those were essentially 20-30 free questions.
Question sources: You know, I'm not such a big fan of Q-bank because the questions didn't require much thinking. Maybe 1-2 questions similar to Q-bank on my test. That was essentially the most expensive part of my USMLE expenses but the least helpful. It was only helpful in getting used to using a computer for the exam. Robbins was much better for this because it had more pictures, made me think and try to understand more, plus it got me used to reading lab values and long question stems.
Some semi-unconventional resources: Big Robbins. I read parts of it for diagrams and path pix. Overall, very time consuming, but helpful to understand what's really going on behind the disease process.
Well that's it for now!
Overall impression: Difficult but by all means do-able. For me, the most important part of preparing for this exam is not FA, review books, or Q-bank. It was paying attention during the first two years of medschool. Some of the stuff tested was non-crammable material - it tested whether you truly understood the material or not.
Most helpful study tools used in the last 41 days: GOLJAN GOLJAN GOLJAN. I listened to his lectures over and over again until I felt very comfortable with pathophysiology and the major concepts that he emphasized. I recommend buying his Rapid Review Path book and follow along with his lectures. Some people in this forum recommended that a while back and I'm very glad to have listened to them. The USMLE is partially a concept-driven exam, so superficial memorization can only get you a few obscure points, if any.
Second most important tool: NBME exams. I had a butt-load of repeat questions. Almost word for word from NBME 1-4. I forget who set up that thread about that, but THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Those were essentially 20-30 free questions.
Question sources: You know, I'm not such a big fan of Q-bank because the questions didn't require much thinking. Maybe 1-2 questions similar to Q-bank on my test. That was essentially the most expensive part of my USMLE expenses but the least helpful. It was only helpful in getting used to using a computer for the exam. Robbins was much better for this because it had more pictures, made me think and try to understand more, plus it got me used to reading lab values and long question stems.
Some semi-unconventional resources: Big Robbins. I read parts of it for diagrams and path pix. Overall, very time consuming, but helpful to understand what's really going on behind the disease process.
Well that's it for now!
