bulldog said:
how'd u do on the nbme or 150q usmle cd exams? i'm in the same range and i just took it.
sorry, didn't take any of those. i did take the school-sponsored nbme cbse (comprehensive basic science examination) test 2 times though, once at end of first year, second time at end of second year. here's how those went:
first time: subject test score: 60 (step 1 equiv = 175)
second time: subject test score: 56 (step 1 equiv = 165)
so according to this test, i dropped 10 points between first and second year!!! by the way, the second time i took it was before boards studying. i didn't really start studying until my summer "break," but i did spend 9 weeks studying for boards.
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my advice to self-proclaimed slackers studying for boards: FOCUS ON FIRST AID!!! i learned soooooooo much stuff in kaplan textbooks that was totally irrelevant, like the intimate details of b-cell maturation. if i had spent the first 6 weeks of my studying focused primarily on first aid and q-bank (instead of cracking those open with 3 weeks to go), my score would have been much much higher!
kaplan textbooks are great reference materials, but reading them all back to back if you have a weak knowledge base to start with just causes you to lose focus, become quite bored of medicine, and stresses you out. note that this is only advice to self-proclaimed slackers... for those gunners who want uberhigh scores, i'm sure memorizing all the kaplan details is a must.
🙄