Looking back what would you have done differently?

[doctor4life]

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This post is for those who have take the Step. Please respect the topic and ONLY post:
1. your score (optional)
2. what you did to prepare
3. looking back what you would have done differently
I understand that alot of this is in the experiences threads but there is alot of random info in there too and it takes a good while to find useful information in there. That is why i request that you only post the above and absolutely nothing else.
This post is geared makinly to what you would have done/not have done differently looking back.

For example:
1. 250/99
2. FA, Uworld, RR
3. looking back would have done uworld again and High yeild neuro.
ofcourse it does not have to be that short - add as much as you like as long as you stick to the topic.
Thanks to everyone in advance.

 

[Captopril]

I'll start:

1. 237/99
2. Kaplan Live Course, FA, CMMRS, RR Path, Uworld, DIT
3. looking back, I would have skipped the Kaplan course completely. Definitely not worth your time or money. The only Kaplan books I would look at are the Biochem and Neuroanatomy (part of the Anatomy book). Other than that, maybe should have found another source for Gross Anatomy and Embryo but this is only because my test was heavy on these subjects...and I ended up getting a lower bar in the score report on them.

 

[HopefulDoc1984]

I'll start:

1. 237/99
2. Kaplan Live Course, FA, CMMRS, RR Path, Uworld, DIT
3. looking back, I would have skipped the Kaplan course completely. Definitely not worth your time or money. The only Kaplan books I would look at are the Biochem and Neuroanatomy (part of the Anatomy book). Other than that, maybe should have found another source for Gross Anatomy and Embryo but this is only because my test was heavy on these subjects...and I ended up getting a lower bar in the score report on them.

You mentioned that you wouldnt go to the kaplan course at all. My school provides us with a 2 week live kaplan course in May. I just took NBME II and got a 223 so I am curious as to how I should focus my later weeks of studying. Does kaplan give you the basics or do they go into details? I think the classes would be beneficial if they don't just re-teach all the basic sciences.

 

[McGillGrad]

1 - 243

2 - What's listed in the Taus method plus Pharm Recall (with some tinkering on other basic sources)

3 - Make sure to listen to all Goljan audio in the last week, look at FA one last time...apparently, I am not the only person to totally forget to look through FA in the last 10 days.

 

[francisco84]

You mentioned that you wouldnt go to the kaplan course at all. My school provides us with a 2 week live kaplan course in May. I just took NBME II and got a 223 so I am curious as to how I should focus my later weeks of studying. Does kaplan give you the basics or do they go into details? I think the classes would be beneficial if they don't just re-teach all the basic sciences.

Was that your first practice test pre-hardcore board studying? If so you should be in really good shape. At my school (with 80%-ish responding) we averaged an increase of 40+ points from baseline to the real thing.

 

[psammomabody]

1. 270/99
2. FA, Kaplan Home Study series, 100% of UWorld, 30-something% of Kaplan qbank, 2 NBME assessment exams, first 8 chapters of Goljan RR path, listened to Goljan lectures between Jan-Mar of 2nd year

3. What I would have done differently:
-Not do kaplan qbank. It was a waste of a LOT of money. I hated the software interface and didn't find the questions/explanations very helpful.
-Take the test earlier and have more vacation before 3rd year. We had cumulative year 2 exams in May, so I could have focused on a few select topics (biochem, micro, phys, anatomy) and then do UWorld and take the test in 3 weeks or so. I took 4.5 weeks to study, but I was able to get through all of the Kaplan home study series.

 

[vicinihil]

1. 270/99
2. FA, Kaplan Home Study series, 100% of UWorld, 30-something% of Kaplan qbank, 2 NBME assessment exams, first 8 chapters of Goljan RR path, listened to Goljan lectures between Jan-Mar of 2nd year

3. What I would have done differently:
-Not do kaplan qbank. It was a waste of a LOT of money. I hated the software interface and didn't find the questions/explanations very helpful.
-Take the test earlier and have more vacation before 3rd year. We had cumulative year 2 exams in May, so I could have focused on a few select topics (biochem, micro, phys, anatomy) and then do UWorld and take the test in 3 weeks or so. I took 4.5 weeks to study, but I was able to get through all of the Kaplan home study series.

I'm sure I'm not the first to tell you congrats on your excellent score 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I was wondering why you thought Kaplan was a waste of time? I have the Kaplan Qbank now (~80%) through and will be getting UWorld 1 month before my exam with the goal of completing it.

 

[RapidReview]

I'm sure I'm not the first to tell you congrats on your excellent score 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I was wondering why you thought Kaplan was a waste of time? I have the Kaplan Qbank now (~80%) through and will be getting UWorld 1 month before my exam with the goal of completing it.

god, do you sleep??? lol

 

[Elixir86]

god, do you sleep??? lol

I second the sleep question, but I too would like an answer to vicinihil's question about Kaplan QBank. I did about 45% of the QBank until my subscription ran out (last week) and I decided to just ago ahead and start UWorld on tutor mode and try and learn from that until school ends. Btw, my test is in June. However, I keep hearing all these things like UWorld interface is the same as the real test, blah, blah, blah. But having done some of Kaplan and then having just started UWorld, the interfaces for both are nearly identical. I do agree that Kaplan does have some nit-picky questions while UWorld does have a some crazy integrations (lac operon question with GI?! I shouldn't have been so surprised).

Anyways, my point is that I would have renewed my QBank sub., but with all the talk about UWorld being awesome, I decided to just jump into that question bank instead. Why all the QBank haters?