My step 1 experience....

[invitro]

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Okay, well I took it yesterday (I know, pretty late).

US MD student, at a non-top 30 private med school.

Unlike the "superstars" on this forum (bigfrank,idio, jalby etc.), I am a pretty avg student when it comes to "national exams".

Scheduled 8 weeks for it....was not that motivated for the 1st month, but really pushed hard for the second. By the end of my review I had annotated the f**k out of 1st aid/read through it 4 times. I knew it really well. People really dump on 1st aid as being meager, but I think if you know it really well, you should definitely pass....probably do a lot better. Of course, I haven't gotten my score report back, so don't take my word for it...yet. Make sure to UNDERSTAND EACH HIGH YIELD FACT THOROUGHLY! BTW I used the 1st aid 2003...didn't even update with stuff from 2004.

Questions-
Didn't like qbank....questions kinda of picky.
I thought goljan's was pretty good (the rapid review for usmle thing).
I did some of the Blueprints q and a....although the info was kinda of high-yield the questions aren't very well written (the distractors are really dumb...thus easy to find the right answer). All in all ~1000 q, maybe a little less.

Pharm-
It seemed very basic....knowing 1st aid well was definitely enough.

Micro-
Again, 1st aid was pretty good. I spent a lot of time memorizing stuff about viruses....NOTHING on my EXAM!!!! Mostly bacteria....a few parasites. General micro too.

Path-
Here 1st aid was okay, but it would be good to SUPPLEMENT it with a review text....BRS path maybe. It seemed VERY CLINICAL...lab values given than make a dx. I think boards and wards/pathophysiology for the boards would have been a good book for me. I should have paid better attention in my Intro to clinical medicine class 2nd year. There were quite a few questions that stumped me.

Anat/Micro/Neuro-
Well, I thought 1st aid + clinical neuro made ridiculously simple was fine. clinical anat made ridiculously simple (skim through brachial plexus section etc...) is good. Not too many crossections on my exam. HY gross/neuro/embryo WAY TOO MUCH. In fact embryo was so little....NO goddamn brachial arches/clefts/pouches...made me mad. A few basic arteriograms (like head/GI) are very high yield.

Phys-
Well, I guess renal/pulm very high yield....but that's because it was so easy to ask "thinking questions" about these subjects. 1st aid was pretty good. I think doing questions was the best though (it makes you think through situations).

Behave-
Even 1st aid was overkill. Know that section well. The ethics section was pretty straightforward. Read through the Dos/Donts of BRS. Pay attention in your Practice of medicine courses.

Biochem-
Hmm...well 1st aid was definitely good. However, It might be a good idea to skim through HY mol bio....I did not, and regretted it. Quite a few q's on where enzymes are/pathways etc, lab techniques. I had some experience working in a Mol bio research lab...it helped.

All in all it was a tough exam, but pretty doable. Just remember, there will be a bunch of really obvious questions (ex. identify a really common structure/compound in a diagram).

Since I want to do anesthesia(community/middle tier university program), I looking to hit the mean...maybe a little better. But, with all those confusing pathophys q's maybe I should just think of passing. I guess I will know in a couple weeks...will keep you guys posted. Wish me luck!

-invitro

 

[bigfrank]

Best of luck Invitro. Keep us posted. Thank you for your great advice!

 

[AlexRusso]

congrats and good luck

 

[daisygirl]

CONGRATS on finishing the monster

I'm sending good vibes your way too

 

[DendriticCell]

congrats and good luck.. 🙂

 

[invitro]

Okay folks...just got my score back.

I scored a 225. Not amazing....but definitely could have been worse.

I think for MOST people (i.e. the ones NOT shooting for 250s) if you just know first aid REALLY well (make sure to MEMORIZE the hi-yield facts) you will do fine. The PICTURES were also VERY GOOD.

Just to point out something....I think BSS is just about the best source. After taking the exam it seemed like the NMS/BSS questions were SIMILAR to the exam. The only problem is that there is a lot of low-yield stuff (like archaic drugs/really arcane diseases) interspersed in the BSS questions, and that on the whole they are significantly harder.

In my opinion the Rapid review questions/Blueprints questions for step I were not that good....I wonder why 1st aid ranked them SO HIGH in the 2004 edition, they did not seem that great at all.

Well, I guess with my score I can do what I wanted to do....match into a middle-tier anesthesiology program....I feel so happy! 😀

BTW for all the guys who scored 250+ congrats!

 

[Idiopathic]

Just to point out something....I think BSS is just about the best source. After taking the exam it seemed like the NMS/BSS questions were SIMILAR to the exam. The only problem is that there is a lot of low-yield stuff (like archaic drugs/really arcane diseases) interspersed in the BSS questions, and that on the whole they are significantly harder.

I would agree with this. I have said all along that I thought my Step 1 was a lot harder than I had anticipated. MOre BSS prep would have prepared me better for that (I did about 1000 questions total).

edit: congrats. it is always nice to be in the upper half, no?

 

[Rom]

Congratulations... That's what I hear, people go through FA and a couple HY and take it... lot's of people around here did not even do half of QBank. Congrats, and good luck in the next adventures...