NEED HELP :'(

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happytreasuress

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hey everyone!
i'm brand new to this forum stuff (even tho ive been creeping, lol). i've been studying for step 1, for a while now and i have been doing horrible on all my NBMEs. i have no idea what i'm doing wrong and how to change. i'm lookin for anyone who can help!! either tutor or skype or phone, anyone!! please lol i'm desperaadddoooo, i feel like im drowning in misery without a clue of whats happening.

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is there someone at your school you can talk to? my school has advising to help with study skills/planning for step 1, check to see if your student affairs or med education depts have something like that to offer. or people here can help if you give a little more detail about what you have been doing so far (study materials, etc).
 
is there someone at your school you can talk to? my school has advising to help with study skills/planning for step 1, check to see if your student affairs or med education depts have something like that to offer. or people here can help if you give a little more detail about what you have been doing so far (study materials, etc).


No one at my school! I'm actually an IMG but from America so I've been self studying FA, DIT and finished uworld 2x. I've taken 3 nbmes and haven't passed any, only passed and got a 211 on a uworld test. I've been studying for 6 months now and I'm just getting so frustrated not seeing any results. I just don't know what to do anymore :(
 
No one at my school! I'm actually an IMG but from America so I've been self studying FA, DIT and finished uworld 2x. I've taken 3 nbmes and haven't passed any, only passed and got a 211 on a uworld test. I've been studying for 6 months now and I'm just getting so frustrated not seeing any results. I just don't know what to do anymore :(

Have you tried using Pathoma? It works wonders - especially if Path is one of your weaker areas. Is there a trend in your NBMEs ie are you consistently struggling in certain areas each time?
 
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Have you tried using Pathoma? It works wonders - especially if Path is one of your weaker areas. Is there a trend in your NBMEs ie are you consistently struggling in certain areas each time?

Oops!! I've done pathoma too! My path and phys are pretty okay. All my nbmes vary but path and phys pretty consistent. The only trend I could see is a weakness in general principals and biochem (yuck!) I feel like when I go back and look at the answers I can Almost always see why my answer could be wrong. I never have this problem with uworld tho, I've been steadily increasing there, getting about 70-78% per block I do averaging out at about 70 overall, just very disheartening not knowing what's the problem..
 
Have you gotten a chance to do other qbanks like Kaplan or UsmleRx?

I've done some (80%) Kaplan videos and I've done usmle Rx before doing uworld.... I feel like I've exhausted all the options and now I'm just in need of some guidance to regroup and look at it differently maybe figure out how to strategize my studying to be more effective.
 
I just want some guidance, what would you guys do if you were stuck?/ has anyone gotten stuck? What did you do to get out of the slump?
 
Sounds like your issue might be with test anxiety or test taking problems in general. Did you have problems like this when studying for the MCAT? If you're still struggling to pass practice tests after 6 months of studying with DIT/FA/Pathoma/UWorld, there's either something up with your knowledge retention or your test-taking abilities.
 
Sounds like your issue might be with test anxiety or test taking problems in general. Did you have problems like this when studying for the MCAT? If you're still struggling to pass practice tests after 6 months of studying with DIT/FA/Pathoma/UWorld, there's either something up with your knowledge retention or your test-taking abilities.


How do I fix it/me??
 
This is my personal opinion, I think a lot of IMGs spread out their studying over too long a time period and it can become life sucking and frustrating. I think the first thing you need to do is take a few days off. Just relax and do something you enjoy. The biggest battle in this exam is in the head. If you feel defeated, each page of FA seems like the biggest challenge.

2) On my days off if I were you I'd fill my head with positive thoughts. Thoughts that remind me that although it's a hard exam, it can be done, like everyone else has done it before me. I'd probably use my free time to watch Tony Robbin's ted talk on human motivation. I'd maybe go over Amy Cuddy's ted talk too about how we can reprogram our minds with our body. And I'd listen to some motivational music (for some reason eye of the tiger gets me in the mood to conquer lol). I really think you need to change your mental outlook before you sit back and study for this beast.

3) Once your mind is cleared, and you're in the "I can do this" frame of mind, the next thing is to execute a plan. The first thing you should realize is that after a while, the amount of new information you learn becomes equal to the amount of information you forget. You forget a lot of things with time. So you need to go through the maximum material possible in the minimum time possible (this is where most IMGs sort of screw up). I would suggest the following plan given the resources you have.

Do DIT subject wise. For example, lets say you have 16 biochemistry videos. Take day 1 to finish all 16 biochemistry videos. DIT will give you the BIG picture and make the big points stick. Make sure to do their questions properly (dont just look at the damn answer. Try to atleast think about it before going over the answer)
Day 2: Read the Biochem section for all of FA. Fill in the gaps that DIT left out. And go over their end of session answers again. Repetition of material is key to memory.

And once you get to the systems:
I'd suggest doing DIT videos first for any given section first. (Don't just passively stream. If you don't understand something, pause, rewind, learn).
Next day read FA for the same thing and do then do that system in Pathoma as well. This way you've done the pathology material 3 times within two days on your "first pass". Again, repetition within a short time interval is key.

Also, for bugs and drugs, try anki. I made anki cards for the first 200 pages of FA. I constantly kept doing Anki cards as well as I reviewed new FA material. Doing anki made sure that I kept my biochem, micro, and pharm fresh (because lets be honest...there is no way someone remembers all the details of the pathways 2 weeks after having seen it. And I say this as a biochem major -_- )

This is pretty much what I followed for my first pass. After my first pass my uworld test scores went from the 60s to the 80s. I was able to do this concurrent first pass of DIT + FA + Pathoma in 25 days I think. I followed this with 4 blocks of UW everyday until the last 6 days before my test where I read FA again (making sure I had as much memorized as possible).

So basically give yourself 25 - 30 days. And then re-evaluate your situation.
 
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This is my personal opinion, I think a lot of IMGs spread out their studying over too long a time period and it can become life sucking and frustrating. I think the first thing you need to do is take a few days off. Just relax and do something you enjoy. The biggest battle in this exam is in the head. If you feel defeated, each page of FA seems like the biggest challenge.

2) On my days off if I were you I'd fill my head with positive thoughts. Thoughts that remind me that although it's a hard exam, it can be done, like everyone else has done it before me. I'd probably use my free time to watch Tony Robbin's ted talk on human motivation. I'd maybe go over Amy Cuddy's ted talk too about how we can reprogram our minds with our body. And I'd listen to some motivational music (for some reason eye of the tiger gets me in the mood to conquer lol). I really think you need to change your mental outlook before you sit back and study for this beast.

3) Once your mind is cleared, and you're in the "I can do this" frame of mind, the next thing is to execute a plan. The first thing you should realize is that after a while, the amount of new information you learn becomes equal to the amount of information you forget. You forget a lot of things with time. So you need to go through the maximum material possible in the minimum time possible (this is where most IMGs sort of screw up). I would suggest the following plan given the resources you have.

Do DIT subject wise. For example, lets say you have 16 biochemistry videos. Take day 1 to finish all 16 biochemistry videos. DIT will give you the BIG picture and make the big points stick. Make sure to do their questions properly (dont just look at the damn answer. Try to atleast think about it before going over the answer)
Day 2: Read the Biochem section for all of FA. Fill in the gaps that DIT left out. And go over their end of session answers again. Repetition of material is key to memory.

And once you get to the systems:
I'd suggest doing DIT videos first for any given section first. (Don't just passively stream. If you don't understand something, pause, rewind, learn).
Next day read FA for the same thing and do then do that system in Pathoma as well. This way you've done the pathology material 3 times within two days on your "first pass". Again, repetition within a short time interval is key.

Also, for bugs and drugs, try anki. I made anki cards for the first 200 pages of FA. I constantly kept doing Anki cards as well as I reviewed new FA material. Doing anki made sure that I kept my biochem, micro, and pharm fresh (because lets be honest...there is no way someone remembers all the details of the pathways 2 weeks after having seen it. And I say this as a biochem major -_- )

This is pretty much what I followed for my first pass. After my first pass my uworld test scores went from the 60s to the 80s. I was able to do this concurrent first pass of DIT + FA + Pathoma in 25 days I think. I followed this with 4 blocks of UW everyday until the last 6 days before my test where I read FA again (making sure I had as much memorized as possible).

So basically give yourself 25 - 30 days. And then re-evaluate your situation.

wow. this was exactly what i needed to hear, i feel so much better knowing i'm not a crazy person, and that i have a chance, THANK YOU SO MUCH! i'm gonna work hard on this, hopefully building up my confidence along the way so i can be ready. this step 1 process has become like black hole to me, draining me from every angle, its such a tedious parasite that i never thought would come to an end, but this plan seems so plausible that i really have built up some renewed hope!

greatly appreciate it! i'm sure theyre others out there just like me and this is gonna help them too :)
 
I know other IMGs in your situation. The problem isn't that they aren't smart or something. The problem is that they've burned themselves out. And back in the day when they were motivated and studying at full steam, all the information they learned then is decaying away with time (while acquiring new information has become the biggest obstacle due to the burn out. The net result is stagnancy, depression, feeling of inadequacy. It's all in the mind). An IMG cousin of mine and I had a long talk about this and she was in the same situation as you, she is brilliant, but feels defeated. You cannot feel defeated. In my 6 wk dedicated prep, I felt defeated for one day and I took the rest of the day off and just watched some motivational crap and saw the sort of wonders people have done in life. And in comparison, the usmle doesn't seem like a challenge. I'd also recommend the commensement speech for UT austin for this year, it was pretty inspiring, for me atleast. And it may sound ridiculous, but I almost had this self talk slogan that I kept asking myself, "if not me, then who?" This little self talk (and the stuff that amy cuddy talks about in her ted talk) actually had me really pumped up for test day. This was the first major exam in my life that I felt zero nervousness (and this is coming from someone who was puking before his mcat). And I think this change in me was because of the positive mind frame I had developed. I honestly went into the exam thinking, "if I can't score atleast a 250, who can?" Believe in yourself. If you studied 16 hrs everyday with 100% focus and finished FA in 7-10 days (reviewing weaknesses from the day before in a staggered fashion), I can bet that you'll see a 20-30 point jump in those 10 days alone.

As long as you do DIT, FA, and pathoma once within 1 month (and all of them together and sort of staggered by a day so that you get repetition of the same material. Ideally repeating the same material over 3 days commits it to long term memory, but repeating the same material again on the next day itself improves retention significantly.). If you do that, you'll atleast pass comfortably.
 
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Do you know what else I would do? I would take the leap of faith, and believe in myself and get an exam date and give myself 10 weeks. You cannot imagine what having a "deadline" does. It instills a sense of urgency and gets people to start being more productive. A lot of IMGs don't get an exam date until they hit a certain score. But in the process they don't hit max efficiency and productivity and just tinker along at 50-60% productivity. And the longer they keep dragging this, the worse the burnout gets, and the bigger this mountain starts to feel.

60% of my school fails an NBME that we take in march. 3 months later our usmle step 1 average is 240+ (School ends in may and then we have 6 wks of dedicated prep time). Having a deadline makes a difference. You will always otherwise find the easy way out and keep postponing setting an exam date because you'll always find that "excuse" of not feeling prepared. And you honestly won't feel prepared unless you had a looming deadline that was driving you to be at your best and to be at 100% efficiency and productivity.
 
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Do you know what else I would do? I would take the leap of faith, and believe in myself and get an exam date and give myself 10 weeks. You cannot imagine what having a "deadline" does. It instills a sense of urgency and gets people to start being more productive. A lot of IMGs don't get an exam date until they hit a certain score. But in the process they don't hit max efficiency and productivity and just tinker along at 50-60% productivity. And the longer they keep dragging this, the worse the burnout gets, and the bigger this mountain starts to feel.

60% of my school fails an NBME that we take in march. 3 months later our usmle step 1 average is 240+ (School ends in may and then we have 6 wks of dedicated prep time). Having a deadline makes a difference. You will always otherwise find the easy way out and keep postponing setting an exam date because you'll always find that "excuse" of not feeling prepared. And you honestly won't feel prepared unless you had a looming deadline that was driving you to be at your best and to be at 100% efficiency and productivity.

you know i was actually trying to make myself work harder/faster thinking of my deadline, that's why im having such a hard time now because i didnt think i did as bad as i did! it was like "what just happened?!" ive never experienced anything like this. ive been thinking about what to do and how to postpone and when not to, and i really thought ill force myself to make it work and that was last wk.... for a month later and then i hit this massive rock, i dont have any crazy expectations i dont want a 250 lol i just want a 230-240 and i'm a happy girl but in the end, i need to realistically set some goals but i cant seem to figure out how to make it fit into my timeline! i'm hoping now in a month, with some new re-vamped studying i can make it.
 
MS2/3/4? Is this a retake or your first time?

i'm actually done with my MBBS so thats like MS4 + 1. first attempt at step 1 so its really all up in the air for me, ideally id like to get it done with asap so i can study for CK i really wanna try get in my application for match this year
 
i'm actually done with my MBBS so thats like MS4 + 1. first attempt at step 1 so its really all up in the air for me, ideally id like to get it done with asap so i can study for CK i really wanna try get in my application for match this year

Have you considered a mentor who scored well on their Step? I also had trouble with Step 1 preparation. I took it really easy last year and partied a lot. Buckled down in January when I got the new First Aid and read it once, then started partying again. I obviously passed my classes, but just barely (didn't need to remediate anything)

Now, the school says that I have to take the Step by end july, so I've recruited a really good friend to go over FA with me every day for 4-6 hours in such a way that I'm very familiar with it by the time the test comes around and I have a good understanding of the topics covered. In the remaining 4-6 hours, I'm just doing Qbanks.
 
Have you considered a mentor who scored well on their Step? I also had trouble with Step 1 preparation. I took it really easy last year and partied a lot. Buckled down in January when I got the new First Aid and read it once, then started partying again. I obviously passed my classes, but just barely (didn't need to remediate anything)

Now, the school says that I have to take the Step by end july, so I've recruited a really good friend to go over FA with me every day for 4-6 hours in such a way that I'm very familiar with it by the time the test comes around and I have a good understanding of the topics covered. In the remaining 4-6 hours, I'm just doing Qbanks.

i've got a friend who just started residency and he's a great help always doing his best with whatever time he has, but its just so difficult formulating what the next step is to get a good score because i thought i had done everything i needed to, but i guess im just going to have to try starting up again to try seeing everything with fresh eyes again.

i hope it works for you!! i'm gonna try doing the same, some (more) dedicated time each day just for first aid and qbanks.
 
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There's a boards prep company that specializes in optimizing your test taking strategy. I just can't think of the name right now.
 
Personally, if I was contemplating hiring a company, I'd probably try hiring a private tutor first and just try out new study and thinking strategies until something works. Make sure the tutor knows you only need to optimize your methods and don't need tutoring for the material (unless you do).
 
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