Official 2011 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[ProtossCarrier]

Hello everyone. I am a second year who will write the exam in June 2011. Meanwhile let this be a good thread where everyone share their study progress and recent trend of the exam.

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[grdnangel2]

So guys, I gave the beast on aug 10, just got result today...had been preparing for a while. Did all kaplan books except patho, hy behav, hy acid base, hy embryo, hy neuro (only some chapters). UW first pass on random unused was 76%, uwsa1 238, nbme 7 247, nbme 11 231, nbme 12 252, uwsa 2 260.
The real deal : 244 - 99

Lets just say being on SDN for a long time and seeing eye popping results has made me almost embarassed to share this score. I got worn out on the last block and felt quite fatigued. Im not saying its a terrible score, but by SDN standards it seems to be kind of a mediocre score...right? What do you guys think...maybe im just being ungrateful? Anyways at least the pain of not knowing is over. Will this be enough for a univ program residency in IM or neuro???

Well done, well done!

 

[DoctorTinyCat]

Haven't been able to post until now, but my score came back 255 - I was very pleasantly surprised. I think the take home message is that even if your score estimates aren't phenomenal, if you have truly been learning from all of your missed questions, you can get a great score come exam day.

I took my exam on May 28th. I fully went into it expecting to feel like I was getting my butt kicked after hearing people's comments on here about their recent exams. I got through the first block feeling great and thinking I must have just gotten lucky with an easy block. I started the next block... same thing. Block after block... it never got very difficult. I would say ~75% were incredibly easy, stereotypical boards questions. Another ~15% required some thought, but I think I got most of them (UW-style questions). That 90% was found in FA. The last 10% was random stuff that I had never seen or just very tricky behavioral questions. The question stems were longer than in UWorld, but 5/7 blocks I finished with ~10 minutes to spare because most questions were so obvious.

I did not feel like my test had a "theme". It seemed quite well-balanced, minus some repeats. For example, I was asked to calculate PPV twice.

If I had to do it all over again, I would study neuroanatomy more and behavioral science - those were "attainable" questions that I struggled with.

I studied for exactly 6 weeks, 8-12 hours per day (most days closer to 8). My plan:
Weeks one and two: quick pass through FA, all the Goljan lectures at 2x speed. Started UW doing 2 blocks pretty much every day (continued until the last week - got through the entire bank). Was very thorough with reading explanations and annotating into FA.
Week three: read through Costanzo physio only reading the things I needed to work on (I was weak on physio) and that I thought would be important for the boards. (That means a lot of that book was pretty much ignored.)
Week four: went through some review lectures that my school prepared for us. That was mostly a waste of my time.
Week five: wrapped up the Qbank, read through all of FA.
Week six: read through all of FA x 2, wrote a note sheet that I could use to cram the last couple days. I really didn't memorize a lot of the details until this week as I have an outstanding short-term memory.

Practice scores:
5/10 - The free 150 - 123/143 (86%) - one website estimated that at at 251, another at a 240
5/15 - UWSA 1 - 128/184 (69.6%) - 236 projected
5/22 - UWSA 2 - 141/184 (76.6%) - 253 projected
5/20 - finished UW with 65.5% overall. Using the formula I've seen (avg * 2.4) + 84, that projects 240. My scores started at about 50 and ended in the high 70s most of the time.

We'll see what my score is come July 13th, but I'm optimistic. My original goal was 240, which I REALLY hope I hit. I estimate it will be anywhere between 230 and 250.

 

[aquila]

Received a lot of help from this site so thought I would give back a little...

UWSA 1 238
NBME 7 216

2 months later and 3 days before real thing
NBME 12 247

Real deal 240/99

NBME 12 overpredicted my score but I'll take the 240! Not in the 250s like many here, but still ok in the grand scheme of things, I figure! Question now is whether I should also take Step 2 before applying for residency.

I used FA, DIT, Kaplan Biochem, Anatomy and Pharmacology, Goljan and UW.

 

[ArcGurren]

So guys, I gave the beast on aug 10, just got result today...had been preparing for a while. Did all kaplan books except patho, hy behav, hy acid base, hy embryo, hy neuro (only some chapters). UW first pass on random unused was 76%, uwsa1 238, nbme 7 247, nbme 11 231, nbme 12 252, uwsa 2 260.
The real deal : 244 - 99

Lets just say being on SDN for a long time and seeing eye popping results has made me almost embarassed to share this score. I got worn out on the last block and felt quite fatigued. Im not saying its a terrible score, but by SDN standards it seems to be kind of a mediocre score...right? What do you guys think...maybe im just being ungrateful? Anyways at least the pain of not knowing is over. Will this be enough for a univ program residency in IM or neuro???

Dude just shut up and be happy with such a good score. Who cares if you dont fall into the selection bias of this forum.


Sorry for being harsh but with that sort of score you should be celebrating.

 

[Clp321]

I'd say that once you hit 250+, then +/- 5-10 points is luck. There is a real difference between a 250 and a 270 though IMO... and tig makes sure we all know it lol



A guy who got a 270 should be smart enough to know that people find different subjects to be more difficult. If I'm great at topic "x" even though people score poorly on that topic on average, my score will be inflated and I was "lucky" I saw those questions. If I suck at a topic but most other people understand it well, I'll get screwed if I get a bunch of those questions because not only will I miss them, but I'll be scaled down since they are "easy" (even though I would have crushed a much more difficult set of questions on my best topic).

Ultimately, every person has relatively weaker and stronger areas, and it works out best for you if (a) you get a majority of questions in your strong areas, and (b) your strong areas correlate to others' weak areas, thus scaling up your score.

All this speculation I feel is false. I feel like the test is designed to measure some information retained outside of the texts that most people use to study. However, I feel like the gold standard material like FA is crucial to do well. I did feel like some of the stuff I got was anatomy I had restudied well during MSK/neuro or tidbits that I had retained from studying hard first year that def. wasn't in the review books. When people say it really is about those years its so true. There a number of things that weren't explicit to FA, Goljan, or whatever that if you had remembered them from path or pathophys you would be good. Anyway I could probably flesh it out a little better if it wasn't 630 am. But I would recommend DIT to everyone and I feel like between them and Uworld you will have a very good grasp of many of the concepts outside of FA that get overlooked. Not everything mind you but the important ones. But with FA, DIT, UWorld, Goljan there isn't much they could give you that you couldn't reason your way to the answer. The practice questions help you get to that point so that is why people say to do so many. The rest of the seemingly "curveball questions" are how well you focused MS1/MS2 and that's the way it will always be. Also there is no consistency with what "form" you get as there is such a grab bag of questions they give you speculating as to "luck" is inappropriate. Its not about the form because the NBME have a system and it accurately predicts your score. For example, all the NBMEs I took were totally different in content as was the real thing (which has more stuff that I was less knowledgeable about). However my score was relatively consistent. That's my opinion anyway.

I got a 259/99 on Step 1

NBME 6:250 (4 weeks out)
NBME 7: 254 (2.5 weeks)
NBME 11: 257 (1.5 weeks)
UWorld 1st time about 72% kaplan 70%
Uworld 2nd time: 82% ish?

 

[aaru20red]

hii people..i am new to this forum and i am planning to take my exam in november first week..i really get depressed by seeing the pace of my preparation but then i dont want to delay it any further..will 2 months be enuf for preparation if i manage to put 8-9 hrs a day? i am done with 60% of the uworld once and presently my 2nd reading of kaplan is going on...i plan to finish uworld n this second reading by september 20..hopefully i'll be able to do it..i havent read first aid properly yet..
hope u people can guide me..

 

[Torquer]

hii people..i am new to this forum and i am planning to take my exam in november first week..i really get depressed by seeing the pace of my preparation but then i dont want to delay it any further..will 2 months be enuf for preparation if i manage to put 8-9 hrs a day? i am done with 60% of the uworld once and presently my 2nd reading of kaplan is going on...i plan to finish uworld n this second reading by september 20..hopefully i'll be able to do it..i havent read first aid properly yet..
hope u people can guide me..

Hey aaru20. Im a bit cofused regarding your study plan; correct me if im wrong: you started UW while your second read of kaplan was/is ongoing and without doing first aid?(if you havent done it properly it just means you havnt done it imo)

I think 2 months in that case would be less because u'll want to finish ur read, finish UW, go over first aid atleast twice and review UW notes.

My advice: dont give it in a hurry.
My second advice: start a new thread stating ur case and asking for help, u'll get more responses - this is an experiences thread so ur post might get ignored.

 

[jfgavina]

Hey! I'm also doing in first week november! Keep focusing on UW and FA and maybe do DIT or listen to Goljan! Just do UW and FA as many times as you can. We have plenty of time imo.


I'm an average to low student. So far I've finished UW with 53% cummulative (non random timed-tutor mode) during my school year and started a week ago with FA and Kaplan. I'm scoring from 50 to 70 % in kaplan averaging 60%.

Planning to start DIT next week and UW on september the 15th no matter how questions I did in kaplan. Aiming to 230.

 

[Ty Webb]

Took the exam today. Seems like everyone has a discipline that seems to end up being insane for them. For me this was behavioral science. Nothing in UW/FA/any source could have prepared me for correctly choosing between the seemingly indiscernible shades of gray that represented many of the answer choices of my BS questions. Other than that, nothing too bad other than some ridiculously clinically-based questions that I couldn't possibly have had any greater edge on from any amount of studying.

I'll echo what pretty much everyone else says in that FA/UW is more or less all you need--I feel like the only thing else I could have done that would've helped me would be a couple of years of clinical general medicine practice.

Overall, a pretty fair exam. Will respond back after I receive my score.

 

[Torquer]

Just a thought, if you had to choose between doing your FirstAid annotated with UW notes before the exam OR FA + UW annotations + giving entire UW a quick second pass, which would you go for? I guess the latter would be helpful but would it be worth the effort?

 

[Ty Webb]

Just a thought, if you had to choose between doing your FirstAid annotated with UW notes before the exam OR FA + UW annotations + giving entire UW a quick second pass, which would you go for? I guess the latter would be helpful but would it be worth the effort?

I would strongly recommend against annotating UW into FA. It's just too time consuming. Go through UW (preferably on tutor-mode) and type up notes on UW in the "notes" box for anything you don't understand or feel you won't remember later on from the explanations. Later, you can just print out all the notes as a whole entity. Trust me, this requires much less time than annotating into FA, and to me it doesn't seem in any way inferior (except if you need to diagram something out I guess).

I ran short on time and this strategy allowed me to finish UW before my test. There were a couple days where I did 500+ questions on UW + annotations. Being able to type out the notes "in situ" on the UW app and using the tutor mode allowed me to be able to do this (I wouldn't really have thought it possible until I did it, to be honest).

Best of luck, and sorry if this post is hard to understand. Just took my exam on Saturday and am more than a little hungover this morning/afternoon.

 

[ebuks82]

So guys, I gave the beast on aug 10, just got result today...had been preparing for a while. Did all kaplan books except patho, hy behav, hy acid base, hy embryo, hy neuro (only some chapters). UW first pass on random unused was 76%, uwsa1 238, nbme 7 247, nbme 11 231, nbme 12 252, uwsa 2 260.
The real deal : 244 - 99

Lets just say being on SDN for a long time and seeing eye popping results has made me almost embarassed to share this score. I got worn out on the last block and felt quite fatigued. Im not saying its a terrible score, but by SDN standards it seems to be kind of a mediocre score...right? What do you guys think...maybe im just being ungrateful? Anyways at least the pain of not knowing is over. Will this be enough for a univ program residency in IM or neuro???

Congratulations, I would like to ask if you are a US medical student? I am asking because I took my exam August 3rd and still awaiting my score. I was told to expect it by Sep 28. I am from a caribbean medical school.

 

[thepoopologist]

How many hours prior to the exam do I have to cancel?

 

[Vanquish]

@ ebuks82: I am an USIMG....I took it aug 10 and got it aug 31
@theepopolgist: I think you can cancel even the day before but there is a penalty fee you have to pay before you can reschedule your exam for another date again...

 

[Ty Webb]

Step 1: 260s

Most of the basics regarding what is needed to score well are already hashed out sufficiently on SDN. Therefore, I'm not going to regurgitate what's been said before ad naus, but instead offer a couple of small points of advice that I haven't seen given much attention:

--UW tutor mode is greatly undervalued. It should allow you to complete questions much more quickly, and to make the task less draining. Personally, I don't see the need to do "timed" questions until the very end, unless you have serious issues with time. With tutor mode, you can immediately see what you got wrong and why, rather than revisiting it after finishing an entire block. This, I believe, also saves time, as you won't have to reread the question stem when reviewing the question.

I kind of procrastinated with UW, and did it in its entirety over the last 2 weeks before my exam. I don't think I could've pulled it off without tutor mode, and as I've stated in a previous post, on a couple days I was able to do 500-600 questions while also writing detailed notes (which unfortunately I didn't have time to review before my exam). I just don't feel this would be possible using "timed" conditions due to the reasons stated above.

--Focus on learning and understanding rather than memorization during the first two years of school.

--I've seen a disturbing number of posts lately to the effect of "what sources should I use for a 260+?". The answer, I suppose, would be whatever sources are requisite for success in your coursework the first two years, with maybe some well-regarded board prep stuff thrown in the mix if you have time. No combination of review books or of repeating FA/UW multiple times will yield the degree of success attainable from having a good understanding of the material before your committed study period begins.


I won't offer advice on a study schedule as I'm admittedly not the most consistent student out there--I procrastinate a lot and oftentimes have a hard time getting motivated until the last minute. I have been fortunate to be pretty successful thus far in medical school, however, and I attribute this to focusing my energies on learning and understanding rather than memorization.


Hope this helps, and good luck to all future test takers!

 

[Vertices]

Step 1: 260s

Most of the basics regarding what is needed to score well are already hashed out sufficiently on SDN. Therefore, I'm not going to regurgitate what's been said before ad naus, but instead offer a couple of small points of advice that I haven't seen given much attention:

--UW tutor mode is greatly undervalued. It should allow you to complete questions much more quickly, and to make the task less draining. Personally, I don't see the need to do "timed" questions until the very end, unless you have serious issues with time. With tutor mode, you can immediately see what you got wrong and why, rather than revisiting it after finishing an entire block. This, I believe, also saves time, as you won't have to reread the question stem when reviewing the question.

I kind of procrastinated with UW, and did it in its entirety over the last 2 weeks before my exam. I don't think I could've pulled it off without tutor mode, and as I've stated in a previous post, on a couple days I was able to do 500-600 questions while also writing detailed notes (which unfortunately I didn't have time to review before my exam). I just don't feel this would be possible using "timed" conditions due to the reasons stated above.

--Focus on learning and understanding rather than memorization during the first two years of school.

--I've seen a disturbing number of posts lately to the effect of "what sources should I use for a 260+?". The answer, I suppose, would be whatever sources are requisite for success in your coursework the first two years, with maybe some well-regarded board prep stuff thrown in the mix if you have time. No combination of review books or of repeating FA/UW multiple times will yield the degree of success attainable from having a good understanding of the material before your committed study period begins.


I won't offer advice on a study schedule as I'm admittedly not the most consistent student out there--I procrastinate a lot and oftentimes have a hard time getting motivated until the last minute. I have been fortunate to be pretty successful thus far in medical school, however, and I attribute this to focusing my energies on learning and understanding rather than memorization.


Hope this helps, and good luck to all future test takers!

Great post. I know what you mean about being an inconsistent student and procrastinating...there are a few of us out there. So I'm assuming that you didn't make several passes through all of the books (FA, RR...) while studying...would that be accurate?

 

[Ty Webb]

Great post. I know what you mean about being an inconsistent student and procrastinating...there are a few of us out there. So I'm assuming that you didn't make several passes through all of the books (FA, RR...) while studying...would that be accurate?

I read through FA a couple of times. Read the margin notes and checked out the images in RR. Did UW once + incorrects.

 

[mtwop]

Congrats Ty and thanks again for the sound advice. Go celebrate!

 

[SlaveOfTCMC]

Do not neglect your psychiatry! It will very well show up on the real exam! ( I can attest to it!)

 

[Ty Webb]

http://http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=310546Thanks mtwop, will do.

 

[Chirurg]

Step 1: 260s

Doesn't surprise me at all!
Well done!

 

[kevin3231]

Alright ya'll, I'm a med student at UNC-CH. Heres my story. Did well on Step I, 252. Heres what i did. U-World....all of it. Kaplan....questions are ridic but did 3/4th of it. Then did Doctors in Training which was awesome. Then did extra stuff on this other site

http://*********.com/home?u=ykfzqhpkp

This stuff is more clinical, which gave me a better view of the big picture.

Good luck to all,
J

 

[Radonkulous]

Would you still recommend doing the Kaplan Qbank in addition to Uworld?

 

[greatarablion]

Gave step 1 today. Heres my prep and experience--

Disclaimer: I am a slow reader so dont get bogged down by my months of prep.

Prep:
Started almost 10 months back, very slowly and peacefully. Read (along with videos, except anatomy) Kaplan Lecture Notes, Goljan RR annotated with Goljan audio. Took around 6 months to complete ( !!!! ). Read Goljan RR yet again. Thereafter, took USMLERx, thinking that it would be a good way to get through FA, since I am not a person who can "extract" minute details in FA. It did help for like first 200-300 questions, then eventually I realized that its one of the worse banks out there. Put in one sentence- it no way resembles, from any angle, to the real test.

Eventually, signed up for mother of all- UW. Its amazing ! Trust me guys, UW is the best prep tool you will ever come across. I was working while doing UW and so could do like 1 random timed block and its review would take around 4-5 hrs. I made notes (by using notes function of UW) and at the end of 2 months I had like 130 pages of notes. The good thing about making notes is that you will have to summarize the concept explained in that particular question bcoz UW allows only 5 lines worth characters for writing notes per question. So it gave me immense clarity of the given concept. Ended up with 68% cumulative score (74th percentile??).

After finishing UW, did DIT for 1 month. It was again a good decision to do so, because it forced me to concentrate on stupid minute details in FA (which were actually on my test !!). DIT is really very strong in pharmac, neuro, micro and immuno. It sucked at embryo, anat, renal and respi. Others were in the middle. The way he teaches is not the best method,but surely a type of "cheatsheet" type of prep, I would say. I religiously did DIT and by the end, I knew what every corner of FA had to offer me.

UWSA1 - 240.
UWSA2 - 250.
DIT predictive test (not a good test in my opinion.. just 2 blocks and in worse format possible) - 238.
NBME 12 - 226 (10 days out) - toughest exam I have taken till date.. very long stems and tough !!
NBME 11 - 235 (9 days out).

After these 2 NBMEs I thought I was screwed. I had done everything possible. But decided to stick with what I had planned and just get this over with!

Most important part: Revised FA in last 4 days (very big achievement for a person like me). But this proved to be golden. My confidence level was quite high during the test since I had it in my recent memory. In my opinion, recent memory information helps you to eliminate that last distractor which nag many people.

On the day before exam, practically fooled around. Didnt study much because I had burnt out and thought it was enough. Still managed to just skim through notes of UW (only half).

REAL DEAL:

Got like 6 hours of sleep. Had horrible time getting to sleep. Was so restless and anxious. But guys, please take enough rest. Cant stress enough the importance for proper sleep.

Took pee and snack break after every block for about 8-9 mins.

Pathology: Had some weird histopath images from almost every organ system scattered throughout my test. But general pathology is also very high yield.

Micro: Though I am not sure, I think I had quite lot of micro . FA was enough in micro for sure.

Immuno: Had lots of questions. Some were repeatedly around the same concept. But had some stuff which were not in FA, but which were covered by Kaplan/UW. I would recommend additional resource for immuno, since it has been rewarded a new stand-alone section in USMLE curriculum, which actually reflected on my test.

Biochem: Had many questions. Most of them straight forward. FA is a good "larger picture" source. I would definitely read Kaplan biochem. Its really good.

Behavioral Science: I got below borderline scores in this sucker in NBMEs. Tried hard to fill in gaps in response questions (lots of them on my test). But overall, I would still rate BS as tough on my test. FA was enough because no book can prepare you for BS. You have to have a different kind of feel to answer such questions. UW is strikingly poor in BS.

Anat: Had decent amount of questions (certainly more than I had anticipated). Its very obvious that anat is getting respected by test makers more and more. Obscure pelvic anatomy. I had read people saying that they were heavily tested on pelvic anatomy. I ignored it and faced the music. Not even Kaplan was enough for anatomy. So I dunno what you can do to get anat right. Maybe skim through RR Anat if you have time.

Pharmac: Easy were very easy and tough were damn tough. All kinds of researchers doing all kindsa stuff ! I would say FA was enough here too. Tough remains tough, no matter what you read. The "weird" questions were generally longer than others, but if you really read into it, many of them had pretty simple concept behind it. Dont freak out by such questions. Take a deep breath and read the question patiently.

Embryo: Had like 3-4 questions of embryo. Straight forward. FA enough.

Resp: Dont remember much but probably, FA was enough.

Hemat/Onc: Had decent amount of questions. Goljan helped me nail this section with full confidence.

Neurology: Had lots of questions on Neuro. I hate neuro. So really tried to know every corner of neuro in FA. But FA didnt seem to be enough. Had lots of figures with labels telling me to point out all kinds of stuff. I would suggest to supplement Neuro (if you have decent amount of time) with some good graphical book or atlas and get your anat and physio part of neuro very straight.

Physiology + Endocrine: According to me, endocrine is all physio. Lots and lots and lots of up and down arrows. Some had like 6-8 arrows going in every direction. Its frustrating because even if you know the answer its difficult to chose that particular option bcoz of that small stupid arrows make you feel dizzy ! Fundamental concepts need to be very clear to answer the arrow questions. So instead of memorizing the arrow tables in various books, understand why. Because they can add 4 different parameters to that same concept. I would say FA was not enough in this. Goljan RR was really helpful.

Renal: Had some tough questions, but I think I figured out most of them. FA seems to be pretty enough for most, but not all questions.

Overall: MOST of the questions were NOT very long. I had many one-liners. Ones which were long were, on the contrary, easier. In comparison to NBME 12, every question was easier. NBME 12 is crazy ! NBMEs gave a decent idea to me what real test would test me with. It was quite accurate regarding "what real test would look like". Interface is no ways similar to the real deal.

Final words: FA, FA and FA (except mentioned above otherwise). I was glad to know that FA is still sufficient for step 1. UW rocks- interface is pixel by pixel same, almost all "concepts" are covered by UW. A great resource, start early in prep, use it ONLY as a learning resource. I loved DIT, but I am sure its a personal choice and all may not concur. Take rest day before. As someone already mentioned, step 1 is a test of knowledge and test-taking abilities. Try to get both areas at your peak before giving the test.

Let me know if you need further help. This forum has been my best friend during these days and it feels good to pay back.

I have one question: Since I gave my test today (Wednesday), can I expect my score on 7th Sept or will it be 14th Sept?

Tired, sorry for any typos. Chao.

congratulations for you...

i would like to ask about my studying plan.... because i didn't see anybody doing it... so please i want your opinions about it....

Physiology: BRS Physiology

Biochemistry : Rapid Review Biochemistry + BRS Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Genetics for only ML biology & genitics.

Pharma: Lange pharmacology flash cards + kaplan treatment cards

Pathology : BRS + Robins & Carton Q&A pathology

Anatomy : RR Gross & developmental anatomy + some chapters from HY molecular biology & histology + HY NEURO Anatomy

Mocrobiology & Immunology: MMRS + lange medical micro & immuno for immunology section only...

behavioral siences & biostat: HY

+ DOING UW

i dont like the big book first aid & i feel kaplan is boring & i really hate waching videos....

is my plan to study cover every thing & does it help me to reach 250s ??

I'm IMG....

WATING YOUR ANSWERS & COMMENTS ...

TNX.........

 

[jfgavina]

too much resources imo.

I'm an average to low student back in my school and only did brs physio, cmmrs, rr bioch, hy bio cell 1999, rr goljan, one read in these resources. then UW+FA then kaplan (65% of the bank) and now im hitting FA+UW again

doing pretty well now.

way too much resources over there..

 

[jfgavina]

oh, also hy neuro


in all those books only one superficial read, just to understand the concepts..

 

[greatarablion]

too much resources imo.

I'm an average to low student back in my school and only did brs physio, cmmrs, rr bioch, hy bio cell 1999, rr goljan, one read in these resources. then UW+FA then kaplan (65% of the bank) and now im hitting FA+UW again

doing pretty well now.

way too much resources over there..

thanks jfgavina .....



but what about anatomy?? HY Gross Anatomy is too dense and boring as well as it does not have illustraions to clarify the gross antomy.... also the clinical considerationson..... they are like shwatz surgery !!

My Anatomy knowledge is average.... so .... does it a good idea to do Rapid Review Gross & develomental Anatom because i loved way they presenting anatomy ? or do you advice me another resource?

 

[greatarablion]

MY PARTICIPATION AGAIN ... just to get your comments about my study plan.....

i would like to ask about my studying plan.... because i didn't see anybody doing it... so please i want your opinions about it....

i'm good student but not exellent.... and i have at least 9 months till the time i'd like to take my usmle step 1 exam....

My plan is:

Physiology: BRS Physiology

Biochemistry : Rapid Review Biochemistry + BRS Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Genetics for only ML biology & genetics.

Pharma: Lange pharmacology flash cards + kaplan treatment cards

Pathology : BRS + Robins & Carton Q&A pathology

Anatomy : RR Gross & developmental anatomy + some chapters from HY molecular biology & histology + HY NEURO Anatomy

Mocrobiology & Immunology: MMRS + lange medical micro & immuno for immunology section only...

behavioral siences & biostat: HY

+ DOING UW + some from UMLERx + some Kaplan qbank

i dont like the big book first aid + DIT & i feel kaplan is boring & i really hate waching videos....

is my plan to study cover every thing & does it help me to reach 250s ??

I'm IMG....

WATING YOUR ANSWERS & COMMENTS ...

TNX.........

 

[jfgavina]

I bought HY gross anatomy but didn't read it. I think it is too much. Stick to a narrow spectrum of resources and do lots and lots of questions. I am also an IMG. where are u from?

 

[greatarablion]

I bought HY gross anatomy but didn't read it. I think it is too much. Stick to a narrow spectrum of resources and do lots and lots of questions. I am also an IMG. where are u from?

From Syria... and my friends from my faculty who are doing usmle.... almost all are doing kaplan lectures & videos + FA + UW...! but the problem is that i hate kaplan !
so i am really confused...!

 

[cbtk18]

congratulations for you...

i would like to ask about my studying plan.... because i didn't see anybody doing it... so please i want your opinions about it....

Physiology: BRS Physiology

Biochemistry : Rapid Review Biochemistry + BRS Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Genetics for only ML biology & genitics.

Pharma: Lange pharmacology flash cards + kaplan treatment cards

Pathology : BRS + Robins & Carton Q&A pathology

Anatomy : RR Gross & developmental anatomy + some chapters from HY molecular biology & histology + HY NEURO Anatomy

Mocrobiology & Immunology: MMRS + lange medical micro & immuno for immunology section only...

behavioral siences & biostat: HY

+ DOING UW

i dont like the big book first aid & i feel kaplan is boring & i really hate waching videos....

is my plan to study cover every thing & does it help me to reach 250s ??

I'm IMG....

WATING YOUR ANSWERS & COMMENTS ...

TNX.........

Holy overkill. No way I would have time or the $ to deal with all that.

I did Uworld + FA + DIT. If that's not enough, to hell with it. I heard more than enough people that did just that plus no other resources (other than a casual Goljan listen here and there) and did 240's-250's.

Took my exam Sep 7, so I guess I'll find out if it worked for me soon.

 

[jfgavina]

hope it worked good because they're the same resources I'm using! did you find the questions on dit's study guide useful/hy as well as those "if you know this you'll get about 90%" to be in line with you exam?

 

[jfgavina]

did my first NBME today, it was form 6 and took 470/214. have examination in november the 7th. do you think it is possible to reach 230?

thanks

 

[WashMe]

did my first NBME today, it was form 6 and took 470/214. have examination in november the 7th. do you think it is possible to reach 230?

thanks

Yeah, you have almost 6 weeks... in that time you could land at 240+ if you study right. I recommend focusing on FA and UW and forgetting the other stuff. At your current score, you need to focus on high yield sources to get the best value per study time. I went from 220 on nbme 5 to 250's on the real deal with 1 month of prep, using only FA and UW. You can do something similar for sure. I wouldn't advise Goljan or any other stuff at this point; consider those only once you've carefully gotten through FA/UW. Additional sources certainly aren't necessary to do well. Good luck!

 

[jfgavina]

thanks, for the boost on confidence. I'm doing UW for the second time and taking some notes but my efforts will be mostly on memorizing FA! I had 46 wrong questions I think in 200, which is about 75% correct answers. can't understand why it yielded such a low score.

 

[poorracerkid]

"I recommend focusing on FA and UW and forgetting the other stuff."

Agreed, I did and it worked. Also, DiT is a great way to make you focus for 6 hours a day.

 

[jfgavina]

Already did DIT! gr8 resource

 

[sineapse]

IMG from the UK-final year student

Sat Step 1 on the 7th Sept, results today. 7 weeks of dedicated study time, some light reading of FA and BRS path beforehand. Very poor knowledge of basic sciences!!

Materials:

DIT
First Aid 2010
UWorld

Minor resources:
BRS path
BRS physio (didnt really read this)
First few chapters of CMMRS
HY Molecular Bio

Did one light read through of FA in Easter. In my study period, I did DIT first, then completed one readthrough of FA, then a dedicated period to complete UWorld, then another two readthroughs of my annotated FA.

Score: 234/99

Thanks to all the help from this forum

 

[jfgavina]

congrats =) hope to follow your path

 

[AndreyE]

Guys,
just wondering.... is wait times for May 2012 will be any different from what we see now?
btw is it still a month before you get results?

 

[sineapse]

Guys,
just wondering.... is wait times for May 2012 will be any different from what we see now?
btw is it still a month before you get results?

Was three weeks for me, to the day.

 

[nacholibre]

Anyone have good recommendations for neuroanatomy review, and maybe a better question - do you guys think neuroanatomy is that important to review? Does anyone know if images (i.e. brainstem cross-sections) are fair game step 1?

 

[Tig2575]

Anyone have good recommendations for neuroanatomy review, and maybe a better question - do you guys think neuroanatomy is that important to review? Does anyone know if images (i.e. brainstem cross-sections) are fair game step 1?

Know your spinal cord tracts, know your reflex arcs, and know the stuff in first aid. I read HY Neuro in a single day and I found that helpful, but it's not necessary if you're not trying to massacre the test.

 

[Nellyakgo]

I bought the "Roadmap Neuroscience" and I DON"T recommend it. Written in a choppy style and the pages are cluttered. Not working for me. Can't read it.

 

[235009]

Anyone have good recommendations for neuroanatomy review, and maybe a better question - do you guys think neuroanatomy is that important to review? Does anyone know if images (i.e. brainstem cross-sections) are fair game step 1?

i dont remember any neuro pics other than a side view of the brain and you had to point out which part was broca's area. my advice is if you are weak in neuro (like i was) then do your best to KNOW the stuff in first aid. don't bring in extra sources to muddy the water. it's better to just know the high yield stuff well than to know a bunch more very superficially

 

[jfgavina]

Know your spinal cord tracts, know your reflex arcs, and know the stuff in first aid. I read HY Neuro in a single day and I found that helpful, but it's not necessary if you're not trying to massacre the test.

what are the reflex arcs? my bad LOL

 

[norealname]

Just wrote my Step 1 today. Feels great to be done! The exam was much more manageable than I thought It would be in terms of time management. Gotta admit that whoever are those people who write the Step 1 questions, they're pretty damn innovative. I've never seen concepts asked in such new ways as I did today. Most of the exam I would say is from the basic First Aid + UW combo. The harder questions were not so much weird presentations of some disease as much as they were just thinking questions that require linking a few concepts together.

Here's a list of topics that would have helped me a bit on the exam today had I studied them properly:
1) CD markers, and by that I mean the weird ones, not just CD3,4,8,19,20,21. I mean CD15,30,31,45 or CD1a
2) Surprisingly, anatomy was from weird low-yield topics for me. I had the basic brachial plexus and splanchnic circulation questions everyone gets, but there were questions on surface landmarks used in chest auscultation, course of the ureter in the abdomen, lumbosacral plexus. Lippincott's Illustrated Q&A for Anatomy helped me big time here. I did it in the last 5 days before the exam.
3)Difference between pathologic, physiologic and functional murmur.
4)Fuel sources for the skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and brain in different metabolic conditions (fed state, exercise, fasting, etc...)
5)Disgustingly low-yield topics in pulmonary physiology. Good thing I read Costanzo's Physio back in Year 1
6)More thalamic and hypothalamic neuroanatomy than my stomach could handle.
7)2 different questions on electrophoresis of viral genomes and the patterns these genomes would present after blotting. The concept is very simple once you get it, but the way it's presented makes it look daunting.
8)Two questions on weird mitochondrially-inherited disorders. Me thinks USMLE is trying to give me early-onset MI
9)FA mentions that Narcolepsy is associated with defects of a certain protein. Maybe you should know a bit more about that protein (hint hint)
10)What causes cachexia? (on a side note, i think cachexia is a very weird word).

That's what I remember for now. I'll write another post later when I get the results back

 

[jfgavina]

cachexia is TNF-alpha!


I hope it went well I'm sure it went!!

 

[belfalas]

Step 1 score: 245

Materials:
First aid 2010
DIT
Kaplan lecture notes & videos
uworld

My two cents:
I took a 5-10 min break in between every block, nibbled on some snack, used the bathroom etc. this kept me refreshed throughout. Also if you have hyperactive bowels like me, think about taking some imodium before

Goodluck

Thanks to this forums for all the advice

 

[0115]

Hey guys,
I have watched this forum for the last several months and I wanted to post my expereince. I am a US student. I had some personal things come up first year and ended up needing extra time to study for step 1. I started studying in march. Here are my scores
March:NBME 6: 151
With my school decided I needed an intensive review course. Went to falcon from May-June
June(after falcon) NBME 3: 146
I was really scared and frusterated at this point. Falcon didn't seem to help at all. I began working with my school learning specialist to try different methods of studying. Ended up having my fiance quiz me for at least 2 hours at night, and studied in the library from 7am-5pm.
Early August: NBME 7: 203
1 week later: NBME 12: 196
2 weeks: NBME 11: 191
5 days before: NBME 198
STEP 1: 210/88
For many this may not be a score to be proud of but form me I am very happy with my score. I tried the falcon method of study and didn't think it worked for me so i ended up studying Uworld, first aid and having my fiance quiz me from first aid. I would NOT reccomend FALCON. I don't think it helped any, my NBME scores were actually worse afterward. If you have any questions I can help with please pm me and I would be more then happy to answer them! Good luck to all!