Holy cowballs.
I was most worried about forgetting/missing things in FA on the real thing, and there were probably at least 10 questions I missed just from that. Easy points! Makes me kind of depressed thinking about it. Of course this is not including the non-FA stuff, of which there were plenty I missed/was unsure of. But it's these recall type of questions that are really frustrating to miss!
Well, in the spirit of SDN, here is my post game review as well as a few comments on things I was curious prior to taking it (plus I've always enjoyed reading about other people's post exam experiences, so here is mine!).
So first of all, yes, FA and UW will adequately prepare you for it, as much as you can prepare (which has a real limit, both in terms of time and mental capacity/willpower). That is, unless your name starts with a P, ends with an n, and rhymes with Boston. The rest really just comes from your experience in years 1+2. A lot of the tougher questions you will have to read between the lines to pick up on what they're talking about, and a few details I knew only because they were mentioned off-hand by an attending or lecturer. But these are really a small fraction of the questions on the test.
In terms of subjects, most were straightforward minus a few questions per subject/system that might ask for really specific items (like what week does X event happen during fetal development?). It's quite difficult to anticipate and prepare for every single one of these types of questions, so you just have to take it and run with whatever they give you.
Pharmacology was mostly straightforward. FA is sufficient. If you have FA pharmacology completely mastered (and I mean completely), then you will get nearly all if not all the pharmacology questions correct. The time investment reading an additional pharmacology text (flash cards included) is not worth it IMO for picking up the 1-2 details that might be tested. I know a majority buy these cards anyway and a majority end up not using them anyway, so just save your monies. The same goes for microbiology.
Physiology was probably the most difficult subject for me. I also had a lot of endocrine/reproductive questions that were also quite challenging, as I had maybe 3-4 questions about cases/scenarios I have never ever encountered during my studies. Like a man with two penises, a vagina, uterus, and three balls kind of thing.
For biostats/behavioral sciences, I felt like FA was good enough. I did not use an external resource, although I was tempted to since this was one of my weakest areas prior to studying.
Oh, another thing I was quite worried about. The question length was not a big deal, although I thought it would be since everyone says the stems are longer than UW/NBME. Time wise, I felt like the really difficult 3-4 questions per block slowed me down more than anything. I probably had 5-15 minutes left per block, whereas in UW I usually have 10-15 minutes. It's hard to use this time properly though, and I only had the will/energy to use this time to review my marked ones. There was however one block where I did not have the time to sufficiently review all my marked questions.
The exam experience overall is kind of odd, in that you are rushing to finish each block (and wish you had more time), but also at the same time wanting to get through the test, a whopping 7 hour ordeal (and thus wanting it to be shorter).
I actually had trouble sleeping even 3-4 days prior to the day before the test, but this was probably more due to an annoying neighbor that recently decided to repeatedly bang on my walls throughout the night.
Alright, I think this is enough for now. Maybe more after I get my score. Time to go sit outside and twiddle my thumbs.
