Ok guys, I made a post after my test, and I PMed a guy who asked me a question, so I have a lot of material for a post so I figured I might as well do one. Fire away with any questions and I promise to check periodically. Try to keep it in this thread though and not my PM box. A common theme is striking a good balance between being thorough and wasting too much time. It is easy to annotate a ton, but the benefits diminish the more thorough you are. The balance will be up to you, I cannot tell you how to balance it. I even think I wasted too much time being thorough, although it helped me a lot, I could've spent less time doing things. In hindsight, it worked out, and I do not regret wasting the time, but you get the overall point.
Make sure you sleep at least 7 hours a day. Often times, I went up to 10 hours a day. That's excessive. But at least 7 guys. Don't hurt yourselves on this exam. Lots of sleep + having confidence and only the right amount of anxiety (not excessive) does more wonders than any of you will allow yourselves to believe. Please listen to this. You probably won't if you already break some of these, but I promise you it will help you no matter how much you think you might be wasting time/have too much to do/omg low uworld score kill self and dog.
The main key to my success*********For all you rising MS1ers. Study hard for your classes and do not focus on boards until study period (mine was 40 days). Honestly, you won't have to get exotic with your study sources if you do this, you may honor most if not all your classes, as well as guaranteed to have a great baseline for step 1. As you read below, you'll see I practically did nothing before my study period, and I attribute my success to going hard on my classes the first two years. I know a lot of people who do this and score extremely well. I highly suggest it. My med school is not top 20 or any of that fancy stuff before you ask. Even if you completed MS1 and didn't work hard, work your ass off for MS2 classes and do little step 1 stuff. Maybe hit the intro stuff before the study period during winter/spring break. That's all though.
Test Scores
NBME 7, 11, 12, 13, 15 average = 260 (forgot the individual scores)
UWSA 1 and 2 = 260+ (forgot the scores, less than 265).
Actual score = 260
About the exam itself:
Pholston's advice of hitting biochem, embryo, micro, and pharm in the last few days helped me. I had 0 embryo questions it seemed though unfortunately lol. His plan still helped me on a lot of Q. But honestly they can hit on anything. Biochem questions were really, really simple but a couple I got right only because I reviewed it the last week (yay for pholston).
Goljian's audio for some reason was in my head. It wasn't in my head during uworld q bank or during the NBMEs but for some reason in the high stress situation I heard things he said in my head and got questions right because of him. Could you get it right without his audio? Of course, I have no idea if I would have reasoned through it without him, I'm just saying he helped me net questions.
Pharm for some reason had a lot of questions on the differences between drugs within the same class. I had no idea... just go w your best guess I suppose. It wasn't in 1st aid. Kinda freaked me out lol
It wasn't heavy on neuro or anatomy thank god.
All in all, I'm glad I didn't spend too mcuh time on neuroanatomy or gross. Maybe it was just my exam though.
Behavorial sciences was so stupid and ambiguous. I hate NBME. It's so stupid. Very difficult.
I reiterate what others said about "what's the next step". Stupid questions, ambiguous, not important in clinical medicine IDGAF what anyone says.
All in all guys. You're gonna be going with your intuition A LOT. I had it down to 2 choices often. No sources would've helped more. Not pathoma or anything like that. It came down to intuition. An open book exam would not have helped me. Stop using the words "high yield". There is no more high yield. The vignette had most of what you needed but there was little high yield stuff. Yea there were some gimmies, but not enough to net a good score in my opinion. You need intuition.
I felt like on my NBMEs every question was easy. I got 260+ with being half asleep. I was not nervous on this exam. I was in a good mindset. Good review past few days. But it was 100x harder than NBMEs. There is a lot of intuition. I think the wildcard for me are those questions as well as behavorial sciences which were stupid and ambiguous (ended up doing ok in hindsight-from an old post). Don't be scared because of this. Just go in there with the correct mindset. It's not as easy. Take it 1 quesion at a time and give your best go. It's a constant battle in there. I'm happy as **** to be done. Your score will be based on your intuition past a certain point. Not based on if you know aortic dissection is ripping chest pain to the back or w/e.
I hope you all do well. I don't know what my score will be. Also, try your best to focus because a lot of times I was wondering between 2 and my eyes somehow caught something in the vignette that clued me in. And listen- I think you should avoid looking at marks when you practice because you're probably going to be tight on time in the real thing moreso than any practice. Give it your best go and move on (seriously, saving the time of clicking the mark button 15 times on a question set might give you extra seconds on the last Q). Even if you have a little time I still just clicked next section because you get tired of the exam. And yes, I think Fa+uworld+nbmes is good enough for the exam, the rest is up to your brain power. I thought I could've done anywhere from 245-260.
Materials/Strategy
Summary of materials- First aid latest version, uworld, NBMEs (do all the extended feeds), pathoma, goljian audio, UWSAs
Before my study period began- I listened to the pertinent goljian audio along with the year 2 class at the time. Renal audio ~ renal unit. I read first aid following each exam for pathophys ONLY. Likewise renal first aid after renal year 2 exam. So that means I didn't read any intro sections before my study period, but I did complete every goljian audio before study period.
My typical day-
1. Read a first aid section
2. Do 1 uworld set/go over explanation; Do a second uworld set/go over explanation
3. Listen to goljian before bedtime and annotate (1 a day, when he would go over something slowly I would just start reading stuff in first aid next to where I annotate, great review at the same time)
+/-4. If have more time, read a section in pathoma, highlight stuff I don't remember from first aid or weren't in first aid. So read the first aid section before the pathoma one to do this. If you have time at end of your study period you can hit up the highlights. It was a tremendous and quick review of all of path in less than 1 day at the end of my study period to do this.
I woke up and would read a section of first aid (the intro sections would take me multiple days though). I didn't always get to finish a section but I tried. I would then do 2 qbank 46 questions uworld TIMED and RANDOM and NOT focused (you will see a topic many times over a longer period of time and thus store it in your long term memory better). When I reviewed, I had first aid by me and would HEAVILY annotate into first aid from uworld on things I thought were important. This could be tricky as you may waste a lot of time doing this if you stray from important details. I took up more time than I thought ended up being useful, but a few things I annotated into the intro sections I reviewed at the end of my study period when I hit the intro sections up again, and a few were on my exam.
FIRST AID- - I completed this source 1x (+referring to it during using ALL other sources + 1x pathophys sections during year 2)
Before study period, I would read a section after my year 2 exam. For ex, after my renal pathophys exam, I would read the section in first aid - quick because I just took an exam on it- and annotate any helpful charts, information, clarifications, ETC. from my class notes into first aid. It was not a heavy annotate, but helped in the end for sure. Not much more to say. Just read it with a focus on understanding what you're reading as well as memorizing pertinent information. The exam focused more on your understanding and intuition, but there were plenty of memorization to go around. Strike a good balance and don't waste too much time. Having a pdf version as welll as hardcopy saved me a tremendous amount of time when I was doing annotating to ctrl+find the topic to write something into from uworld, etc.
UWORLD - I completed this source 1x.
1- if you get a Q wrong, always put in the summary into first aid. Like the 1-2 sentence learning objectives. You don't have to put the whole thing, but get it into first aid if it's not in there in some shape or form.
2- Only review a question extensively if you had no idea, or if you want to know when a different choice would be correct. Like if the answer was pleural effusion, but choice A was pneumothorax and you want to know when pneumothorax would be right, read that. Otherwise, don't feel the need to read EVERYTHING or you'll waste time. This is one of those balance things. You just don't have the time to read everything.
3- Use your discretion on the 2 above on what to annotate and what not to annotate to maximize time and putting in good points. I did not only annotate the summary lines, although I know friends who did this and did very well. I annotated some things from the explanation too.
4- You likely won't be able to read through all your annotates at the end but it will help you learn by writing it down, or reading the relevant FA section at the time. For example, at the beginning I remember little about biochem. So every uworld section with biochem I would go through the pathway in FA to learn it (and annotate into it), and I would hit some pathways like 5+ times over the course of a month and thus remember it better. Study from FA at the same time is great.
5. This is kinda lame, but I kept a word document going of strategy. Like in uworld I would often overthink too much, so I put that down in the word doc. Or I would remind myself to make sure I completely understand the question. For example: Anatomy Q- what nerve is cut v.s. the nerve feeding the muscle likely injured as described in the vignette is (your answer can be different based on the vignette). So make sure you know the question well. Also things like make sure that for picture questions, your answer fits the clinical scenario > what the picture shows as youre more likely to get a correct answer (in my opinion). Stuff like that, and your word doc will look different than mine.
6. Every question you get wrong, read aloud the learning objective at the end, and kind of explain the concept to yourself like you're teaching it. Helps in retention and making sure you're understanding. This was important to me.
7. MAKE SURE you know why you got every single question wrong. Things to ask yourself: Why did I get this question wrong? How could I have gotten it right EVEN WITHOUT KNOWING more knowledge? (This is huge, not every question you'll know the answer to, but you can make an educated guess, and so challenge yourself on Q you get wrong to see how you could've got it right). FOR EVERY QUESTION YOU GET WRONG DO THIS WITH NO EXCEPTION KTHXBYE
8. Read learning objective for every question, even the ones you get right. If you got a question right in the bank and basically had absolutely no problem with it, it's safe to skip the long explanation (not the short one though, but go with your own discretion on that. You have less time than you think in the end you'll see lol
That's all I can think of for uworld right now.
PATHOMA - I completed this 1x + reviewing my highlights
pathoma after you down first aid (I did it along with it as said above, but I think it would be better to do it completely after. Refer to first aid on things you want a refresher on from pathoma. Still do the highlighting, and reviewing the highlighting after). Good source but overrated. I didn't feel like pathoma was needed beyond first aid for the questions I saw. It's still a very good and helpful source especially if you're weak in pathophys, which I made sure I wasn't during year 2.
GOLJIAN AUDIO - I completed this 1x (+1x during year 2)
I listened to all his lectures during year 2 whenever I had to drive for the particular unit his audio pertained to. I made absolutely sure I was listening to every word too lol. Ex. During renal unit I would like to his renal lectures. Kinda helped on some exams for year 2. I listened. to goljian audio 1 hour a day during study period (you can listen at 1.4x speed, which was a good change of pace and he helped me with quite a few questions on test day. I annotated hardcore what he said, which reinforced the info, and I would read along in first aid anything that was around where I annotated if he would go off on a tangent. Guys, it's not that much time everyday. It was weird because I generally didn't think it was AMAZING (it was helpful for sure) on NBMEs but on the real deal when **** hit the fan, I remembered his words playing in my head lol (no joke).
NBMEs - Did all extended feedback except for 6 (in hindsight, you might as well do 6 as well)
Save the NBMEs for after FA/uworld ONLY if you have time to hit all the NBMEs with extended feedback. Basically what I mean is, make sure you do all the NBMEs with extended feedback no matter what. Go over the wrong questions, and then hit the wrong questions in the last 1-2 days of studying. I got a question right because I did that and happy that I did. 1 question can be the difference in your score in the end. And it won't take that much of your time.
Kaplan qbank????If you have time after your year 2 exams in pathophys, do this qbank. Like if your exams are generally on fridays, do this on the weekend. Only add the sections you've already done during year 2, and honestly don't really start using it until pathophys. If you're a daring individual, go ahead and use it during winter break/on down time during micro and pharm. But don't get burned out. Other than that, don't feel the need for a 2nd qbank. Follow what I said above and you really don't need one. I did do the kaplan anatomy qbank in the final week, and it helped me on 1-2 questions on the real deal, which was cool. So kaplan is probably useful, but I wouldn't bother annotating from kaplan unless it's something really profound and really clinical. It will waste too much time IMO. Just use it as a throw away during year 2, and if you're rocking the materials above during your study period and want something more, throw in kaplan qbank, but also weigh that with hitting up another source again. Honestly not necessary, but can help (I won't know for sure because I completed like 600 Q - only anatomy during study period, some pathophys **** during year 2). Not necessary.
USMLE Rx????????I did not buy this or use this. I heard it's pretty much asking questions directly from info from first aid. I honestly don't see the use of doing that. I know it obviously reinforces FA material. But you're trying to save time here. Focus on class work + doing uworld questions +possibly kaplan is MORE MORE than good enough. You do not need something to ask you directly out of FA. Uworld will often do that alone. And the good thing is asking things not really presented the same way in FA. This thing is obviously in my opinion the least important qbank, and not worth doing. Many will disagree on this board, so don't bitch at my post just because of this paragraph. Seriously, don't bitch at this post just bc of this opinion.
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Don't correlate uworld to your predicted score. Just keep getting better and the outlier score you might get (on the low end), just use it as a learning experience. Use the NBMEs to know where you're at, but do them later on because that's more predictive and more time efficient in reviewing answers (you'll get more right later).
In the last week, go over all the intro sections of FA + pharmacology chapter + pharm of every pathophys chapter. This helped me a lot on test day.
At the most, besides FA + uworld + pathoma + goljian audio, the most you should do is high yield neuroanatomy mainly for the IMAGES. If you're especially weak on this like during your MS1 class, then maybe read it (I wasn't weak on it though). I didn't even look at it and was fine, as well as an anatomy resource for images mainly. The thing is, these subjects, especially anatomy that is, is so vast that you'll be lucky to cover everything enough times to master it. But some people say they got a lot, I didn't. What you have to do on these questions on the real deal is use your logic to make the best educated guess and youll usually get it. Making a concerted effort to know these subjects can take away your understanding of other subjects, but at the most those sources can be hit up, nothing more. My friends told me some questions they got, and honestly if you calm down and use logic, don't freak out because it's anatomy, a lot of them can be guessed right.
After you finish FA, reassess your time left. You need to absolutely finish uworld and NBME. So see if you could finish uworld BEFORE NBME, if not start NBME and do uworld on your time when not doing NBME. Take your last NBME ~ 4 days before your exam (not a day later, avoid question burnout).
A lot will depend on how much time you assess that you have left at certain key points.
Goals- Do FA/uworld at the same time
-When finish FA, reassess time and see if you can do uworld before NBMEs
-When finish FA + uworld, do NBMEs + pathoma.
I studied the whole last day up to the very end. I got 6 hours of sleep and hardly rested. In hindsight, I wish I did rest for like at least half a day but it didn't hurt me during the exam. I was fresh and all that. But I think try to tie up what you want to do before that last day. I know it's hard because there's always something to do, but you never know subconsciously how much better your brain performs if you give it a little rest. It can definitely work.
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That's all folks. I feel like I was as all inclusive as my memory could allow for now. Feel free to ask questions.
Cheers to 2013 
