USMLE Official 2018 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Foot Fetish]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I've always wanted to start one of these...So here we go! 🙂

My stats:

M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270

 

[Ttubule]

The consensus was that it under predicted ya dingud

Oops! Sorry, brain is still recovering from step I think..

Edited and corrected.

 

[Rahas]

Whats the best resource to learn brainstem cross-sections? The level of detail varies between different books from what I've seen, in both the number of sections and the level of detail in labeling. Confused about this!

 

[CIrcleofWillis504]

How hard is it to just pass step 1(above 200s)? I have 12 weeks left and I took a baseline nbme a couple days ago and got the equivalent of around a 100? I have not done much preparation before this and was wondering if I can pass step 1 within 12 weeks? Thank you!

 

[bonemann]

Whats the best resource to learn brainstem cross-sections? The level of detail varies between different books from what I've seen, in both the number of sections and the level of detail in labeling. Confused about this!

Check out this website:

UBC Undergraduate Medicine: Neuroanatomy


What's the consensus for Sketchy Pharm? The videos are painfully long, perhaps too comprehensive? and the sketches aren't particularly cohesive in their imagery.
I know some people swear by them but are people getting away with just doing Zanki and re-cramming close to test day?

 

[831929]

How hard is it to just pass step 1(above 200s)? I have 12 weeks left and I took a baseline nbme a couple days ago and got the equivalent of around a 100? I have not done much preparation before this and was wondering if I can pass step 1 within 12 weeks? Thank you!

I cannot say from personal experience since I have yet to take an NBME, but I think you will have an uphill battle preparing. However, I think 12 weeks is a long time and it is possibly doable. I would start full dedicated studying as soon as you can and maybe take another NBME 7 weeks out. If you score above passing, then maybe no need to reschedule. If you do not pass, then consider talking to your advisers. I would talk to them now anyways, they should have good tips from dealing with students previously. You could possibly sacrifice your 3rd year elective and use that time to study if you need more than 12 weeks. Talk to your school about that. Not sure if all schools allow that.

 

[831929]

Check out this website:

UBC Undergraduate Medicine: Neuroanatomy


What's the consensus for Sketchy Pharm? The videos are painfully long, perhaps too comprehensive? and the sketches aren't particularly cohesive in their imagery.
I know some people swear by them but are people getting away with just doing Zanki and re-cramming close to test day?

felt the same way about sketchy pharm earlier in the year. Give it a few more chances. I think they are the best resource for pharm. plus they make zanki pharm a breeze to go through

 

[jimmyd1]

I take step 1 mid june. So about three months away. I have one more system left and classes end around the end of april. I then will have a little over 6 weeks of dedicated. I plan on using UFAP, sketchy, BnB and maybe goljan if I have time. How would y'all suggest I use this last month and a half of school before dedicated to prepare for step 1?

 

[intubesteak]

Check out this website:

UBC Undergraduate Medicine: Neuroanatomy


What's the consensus for Sketchy Pharm? The videos are painfully long, perhaps too comprehensive? and the sketches aren't particularly cohesive in their imagery.
I know some people swear by them but are people getting away with just doing Zanki and re-cramming close to test day?

I have not used sketchy, instead been doing 1 hour or so of flashcards every day during dedicated (6 weeks so far). I feel prepared in the pharm department at this point. Haven't used sketchy to compare but that should give you an idea of how much time it would take using cards to essentially master pharm (or at least as good as I'm gonna get).

 

[bonemann]

I have not used sketchy, instead been doing 1 hour or so of flashcards every day during dedicated (6 weeks so far). I feel prepared in the pharm department at this point. Haven't used sketchy to compare but that should give you an idea of how much time it would take using cards to essentially master pharm (or at least as good as I'm gonna get).

Nice, are you just making your own pharm decks? Do you break them up by system or do you study them randomly?

 

[sahell]

Whats the best resource to learn brainstem cross-sections? The level of detail varies between different books from what I've seen, in both the number of sections and the level of detail in labeling. Confused about this!

Kaplan neuroanatomy was sufficient for me. Just make sure you google some gross specimens.

Check out this website:

UBC Undergraduate Medicine: Neuroanatomy


What's the consensus for Sketchy Pharm? The videos are painfully long, perhaps too comprehensive? and the sketches aren't particularly cohesive in their imagery.
I know some people swear by them but are people getting away with just doing Zanki and re-cramming close to test day?

I only used sketchy for antihyperlipidemics, antidiabetics and antiemetics and antidiarreal. They helped with the side effects that just would not stick. If you have a good understanding of pharm, they're far too long. I'd suggest use them if you are consistently getting wrong answers in that particular topic.

 

[coldcase331]

Haven't posted in here since January and wanted to update and get some advice from you guys:
Started doing Kaplan in October as my "subject by subject" Q-bank. Average sitting at about a 69%, about 1100 Q's in
Started doing Uworld in January with Q's mixed with M1 all the way to current material. At a 70% right now and 860 Q's in.

One thing I realized after doing Uworld for a while is that I certainly have some weakness (Heme/Onc+drugs, antibiotics, and neuro). I've slowely been re-learning antibiotics and my scores have been going from low 60's to upper 70's and low 80's.

My semester ends May 9th, and my test date is June 15th, so that will give me ~4.5 weeks of dedicated. I also have 10 days off for spring break, 4 days of which will be spent at a pool no even remotely thinking about school. My plan during spring break was to try and relearn some heme/onc, as well as finally learn biostats (since my schools biostat curriculum is horrible). One thing I had a question about is that would it be too early to do one of the UWSA (#1) during spring break to assess where I am currently (will not have covered girl/guy parts, endo, or derm at this point)?

In terms of my plan up until dedicated, just learning the course material via pathoma+B&B+First Aid+Sketchy Pharm. I've found that while I'm not learning the absolute minutia like what would be found in robbins, having the time freed up to relearn anatomy/physio of each organ has certainly helped with Uworld.

Curious what you guys think of this plan and if there's any ways I can improve it.

 

[intubesteak]

Nice, are you just making your own pharm decks? Do you break them up by system or do you study them randomly?

I have firecracker so Ive just been doing them by system, trying to make as many connections to pathophys and minimize rote memorization. I think any good anki deck or whatever would be fine, its all about mechanisms and important side effects (at least all the questions ive come across in Uworld and NBME). Nothing special about any particular pharm resource IMO.

 

[Elessar]

Haven't posted in here since January and wanted to update and get some advice from you guys:
Started doing Kaplan in October as my "subject by subject" Q-bank. Average sitting at about a 69%, about 1100 Q's in
Started doing Uworld in January with Q's mixed with M1 all the way to current material. At a 70% right now and 860 Q's in.

One thing I realized after doing Uworld for a while is that I certainly have some weakness (Heme/Onc+drugs, antibiotics, and neuro). I've slowely been re-learning antibiotics and my scores have been going from low 60's to upper 70's and low 80's.

My semester ends May 9th, and my test date is June 15th, so that will give me ~4.5 weeks of dedicated. I also have 10 days off for spring break, 4 days of which will be spent at a pool no even remotely thinking about school. My plan during spring break was to try and relearn some heme/onc, as well as finally learn biostats (since my schools biostat curriculum is horrible). One thing I had a question about is that would it be too early to do one of the UWSA (#1) during spring break to assess where I am currently (will not have covered girl/guy parts, endo, or derm at this point)?

In terms of my plan up until dedicated, just learning the course material via pathoma+B&B+First Aid+Sketchy Pharm. I've found that while I'm not learning the absolute minutia like what would be found in robbins, having the time freed up to relearn anatomy/physio of each organ has certainly helped with Uworld.

Curious what you guys think of this plan and if there's any ways I can improve it.

Seems like a good plan to me, but maybe save UWSA for later and take NBME 13 or 15 instead.

 

[USMLE_Pro]

I have firecracker so Ive just been doing them by system, trying to make as many connections to pathophys and minimize rote memorization. I think any good anki deck or whatever would be fine, its all about mechanisms and important side effects (at least all the questions ive come across in Uworld and NBME). Nothing special about any particular pharm resource IMO.

Firecracker is just way too much in general. I bought it but never used it.

 

[bonemann]

Does anyone have suggestions on how to configure Anki for the Zanki deck if I don't plan to finish the entire deck before Test Day and just want to focus on specific decks, and not necessarily doing a a bunch every day?
I guess my question is, what are good approaches/settings to employ for more 'casual' Zanki use?
In the past I just brute forced a deck for several hours and then went back to it for review like a month or so afterward, but this approach was fairly sporadic and I want to have a slightly more systematic approach.

 

[Epicurusall]

Does anyone have suggestions on how to configure Anki for the Zanki deck if I don't plan to finish the entire deck before Test Day and just want to focus on specific decks, and not necessarily doing a a bunch every day?
I guess my question is, what are good approaches/settings to employ for more 'casual' Zanki use?
In the past I just brute forced a deck for several hours and then went back to it for review like a month or so afterward, but this approach was fairly sporadic and I want to have a slightly more systematic approach.

Go hard or go home #casual260

 

[bananafish94]

Last night I lucid dreamed reading a page of First Aid.

 

[Ttubule]

Last night I lucid dreamed reading a page of First Aid.

Last night I woke up at 3am from a dream that I had to take UWSA2 and get a better score than I did on UWSA1 before they would release my actual step score to me. It felt. So. Real.

 

[sahell]

Last night I lucid dreamed reading a page of First Aid.

Last night I woke up at 3am from a dream that I had to take UWSA2 and get a better score than I did on UWSA1 before they would release my actual step score to me. It felt. So. Real.

I was sleep studying for almost 2 months. If only it were effective lol.

 

[bananafish94]

I was sleep studying for almost 2 months. If only it were effective lol.

I wish I could download my Anki decks into my subconscious and do them in my dreams.

 

[Lannister]

I wish I could download my Anki decks into my subconscious and do them in my dreams.

I wish I could pay someone to study and take step 1 for me, so I could just sit in bed and browse reddit for the next 3 months (holy crap my test date is exactly three months from tomorrow).

 

[bananafish94]

I wish I could pay someone to study and take step 1 for me, so I could just sit in bed and browse reddit for the next 3 months (holy crap my test date is exactly three months from tomorrow).

I just want it to be over so I don't have to feel the existential dread build within me when I can't immediately remember the mechanism of Sirolimus.

 

[Lannister]

I just want it to be over so I don't have to feel the existential dread build within me when I can't immediately remember the mechanism of Sirolimus.

If it makes you feel better, I don't even know what sirolimus is Similar to tacrolimus? Calcineurin inhibitor?

 

[bananafish94]

If it makes you feel better, I don't even know what sirolimus is Similar to tacrolimus? Calcineurin inhibitor?

It's an mTOR inhibitor that doesn't have the nephrotoxicity of Tacrolimus or Cyclosporine. I think it ultimately prevents T cell division or something like that in immune response.

 

[Lannister]

It's an mTOR inhibitor that doesn't have the nephrotoxicity of Tacrolimus or Cyclosporine. I think it ultimately prevents T cell division or something like that in immune response.

Oh okay, cool, I'll just pretend like I know what mTOR is 😀 haha.
I was just looking through our list of multi-systems lectures, I was assuming we would get a lecture on organ transplant and drugs but I guess not. And only one lecture worth of cancer drugs.

 

[Rahas]

Its also called rapamycin, which is why mTOR is called mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin)!

 

[oshanimalia]

Its also called rapamycin, which is why mTOR is called mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin)!

Ayyyyyy

Sent from my VS996 using SDN mobile

 

[James Bottomtooth III]

Hey everyone. Been reading this for a while and decided to jump in. Take step on Tuesday 3/6. Just took my last NBME and am feeling pretty nervous right now. I was really hoping to score 255+, but today was sort of a let down. I was originally going to take my test on 3/1, but the flu really messed me up.

Here are my current stats:

CBSE back in late December: ~197 (school mandated)
NBME 15: 232 (4-weeks into dedicated-5 weeks out ~ 25% of UW done)
UWSA1: 266 (4 weeks out)
NBME 13: 250 (3.5 weeks out)
Got the Flu day before NBME 13; took roughly 1 week to get over it (had to take about 2 days off completely and felt like **** for the remainder)
UWSA2: 254 (2 weeks out- should have taken this last; just gotten over flu and was sort of out of )
NBME 16: 259 (1.5 weeks out)
NBME 17: 257 (1 week out; couple of REALLY dumb mistakes)
NBME 19: 248 (6 days out; knew I was going to do poorly based on what everyone said, and I think that threw me off even more than it should have)
NBME 18: 250 (idk what happened here. I just really hated this one.)

I guess I still have a good shot to hit 255+, but I really did not like NBME 18, and that was sort of a confidence killer.

Took It yesterday. Relatively fair test and I actually walked out feeling like I did ok... then I started looking up answers. Don't do this lol.... I sort of went on autopilot during the test and just let the training take over; this really helped me for most questions I was unsure about, and I ended up guessing most right. That being said, I've counted quite a few that should have been easy that I totally screwed up-- Hopefully it balances out. I'm really not sure how it went overall, but I'm glad it's done. Good luck to everyone! I'm happy to answer questions and will report back with my real score... In 3-4 LONG weeks

All in all though, I had my first beer in 2 months yesterday and was instantly trashed and also slept past 5:30 AM for the first time. Things could be worse.

 

[bananafish94]

I had my first beer in 2 months yesterday

Acute alcohol consumption is an inhibitor of Cytochrome P-450. I hope you're not on warfarin.

Congratulations on finishing!

 

[Lannister]

then I started looking up answers. Don't do this lol

I'm gonna have to shut down all of my electronic devices immediately after the test. I'm TERRIBLE about looking up answers after tests, I just can't resist. Thank God I'm leaving the country the next day and won't have internet access for two weeks.

And congrats on being done!!

 

[Ttubule]

Took It yesterday. Relatively fair test and I actually walked out feeling like I did ok... then I started looking up answers. Don't do this lol.... I sort of went on autopilot during the test and just let the training take over; this really helped me for most questions I was unsure about, and I ended up guessing most right. That being said, I've counted quite a few that should have been easy that I totally screwed up-- Hopefully it balances out. I'm really not sure how it went overall, but I'm glad it's done. Good luck to everyone! I'm happy to answer questions and will report back with my real score... In 3-4 LONG weeks

All in all though, I had my first beer in 2 months yesterday and was instantly trashed and also slept past 5:30 AM for the first time. Things could be worse.

I did a lot of that the first day and then finally just fought the urge the rest of last week until now when I finally don’t think I actually remember enough questions to look them up. Strongly advise this for your sanity lol. I was in the same boat though- looked up a few that I was pleased to see I guessed right, and a few that I was so mad at myself for getting wrong. You were killing your NBMEs, I’m sure it all balanced out for you

Congrats on getting through dude!! And welcome to the miserable wait, lol

 

[Ttubule]

If it makes you feel better, I don't even know what sirolimus is Similar to tacrolimus? Calcineurin inhibitor?

Similar but the kidney SIRvives =D

..... damn you FA mnuemonics! Leave my brain and never return!!!!

 

[Fission Chips]

Took It yesterday. Relatively fair test and I actually walked out feeling like I did ok... then I started looking up answers. Don't do this lol.... I sort of went on autopilot during the test and just let the training take over; this really helped me for most questions I was unsure about, and I ended up guessing most right. That being said, I've counted quite a few that should have been easy that I totally screwed up-- Hopefully it balances out. I'm really not sure how it went overall, but I'm glad it's done. Good luck to everyone! I'm happy to answer questions and will report back with my real score... In 3-4 LONG weeks

All in all though, I had my first beer in 2 months yesterday and was instantly trashed and also slept past 5:30 AM for the first time. Things could be worse.

How did you feel the test compared to Uworld and the NBME in terms of style and difficulty? I know this has been mentioned ad nauseam, but I'm always curious about individual perceptions. My NBME's are right around the same as yours, so I'm looking forward to hearing about how you did.

 

[sharkbyte]

Hey everyone. I had a pretty organized plan of reasonably intense studying for spring break, but I am feeling very exhausted with studying. We have a Neuro exam Friday and then spring break starts. Would it be such a bad idea to take spring break mostly or totally off? My original plan was to take the two Fridays/Saturdays of spring break off and study Sun-Thurs mostly full time but I do not think I will be able to do that anymore, unless I am somehow able to push through but I do not want to risk burnout. My test is June 8 so that still leaves me 11 weeks. Up till now I would say that I have done ~350 Rx questions, somewhere around ~250 UWorld questions before shelving it for later, and maybe ~150 Kaplan questions while also following closely with Pathoma, B&B videos wherever helpful and I have been sticking to a spreadsheet I made where I watch 4 Sketchy Micro videos each night before going to bed. Thoughts?

 

[James Bottomtooth III]

Acute alcohol consumption is an inhibitor of Cytochrome P-450. I hope you're not on warfarin.

Congratulations on finishing!

Thanks! Good luck to you!

I'm gonna have to shut down all of my electronic devices immediately after the test. I'm TERRIBLE about looking up answers after tests, I just can't resist. Thank God I'm leaving the country the next day and won't have internet access for two weeks.

And congrats on being done!!

Haha I’m the same way (obviously). Thanks and good luck!

I did a lot of that the first day and then finally just fought the urge the rest of last week until now when I finally don’t think I actually remember enough questions to look them up. Strongly advise this for your sanity lol. I was in the same boat though- looked up a few that I was pleased to see I guessed right, and a few that I was so mad at myself for getting wrong. You were killing your NBMEs, I’m sure it all balanced out for you

Congrats on getting through dude!! And welcome to the miserable wait, lol

Thanks! I actually ended up just having to make a list for my sanity. I realized I was thinking of a lot of the same questions over again which made it hopefully seem worse than it really is. I’m getting close to the point where it’s all hazy like you said so thats helping too. Hope it works out for you as well and congrats!

 

[James Bottomtooth III]

How did you feel the test compared to Uworld and the NBME in terms of style and difficulty? I know this has been mentioned ad nauseam, but I'm always curious about individual perceptions. My NBME's are right around the same as yours, so I'm looking forward to hearing about how you did.

It’s hard to say because I mainly only remember the ones I missed or was unsure about. Like I said though, I was just sort of on autopilot, which freaks me out. Not nearly as much thinking as is required in U world in my opinion. I only marked 2 in the first block, but there was one block that where I had like 11 marked and really had to rush to get back to them to think about them. I had some short stems and a couple that were insanely long. I’m sorry I can’t give you a better answer. They were just sort of a mixed bag. I guess they were most similar to the NBMEs in that they weren’t tricky, but I also didn’t find them as convuluted as some of the NBMEs can be. I pretty much always knew what they were asking, I just didn’t always know the answer.

I think this post sums it up better than I ever could

 

[Ttubule]

I think this post sums it up better than I ever could

WOW that sums it up insanely well!!! I only remember a couple that were totally WTF (one I googled and the only place I found it mentioned with USMLE was in a med bullets page for Step III lol) but I really think this explains why I literally can only remember like 20 of 280 questions. Lots are pretty easy to breast through (though I missed too many of those) but they are good at asking you stuff in a way that just makes you SO unsure of an answer you know is correct.

 

[Lannister]

Hey everyone. I had a pretty organized plan of reasonably intense studying for spring break, but I am feeling very exhausted with studying. We have a Neuro exam Friday and then spring break starts. Would it be such a bad idea to take spring break mostly or totally off? My original plan was to take the two Fridays/Saturdays of spring break off and study Sun-Thurs mostly full time but I do not think I will be able to do that anymore, unless I am somehow able to push through but I do not want to risk burnout. My test is June 8 so that still leaves me 11 weeks. Up till now I would say that I have done ~350 Rx questions, somewhere around ~250 UWorld questions before shelving it for later, and maybe ~150 Kaplan questions while also following closely with Pathoma, B&B videos wherever helpful and I have been sticking to a spreadsheet I made where I watch 4 Sketchy Micro videos each night before going to bed. Thoughts?

I'd definitely say that if you need a break, take a break. No point in burning yourself out this early on.

I was planning on taking spring break off, then I remembered I'm a workaholic and can't sit around and do nothing for a week. So I've been studying five hours a day, and that still gives me plenty of time to catch up on sleep, and like ten hours a day to spend time with my family!

 

[James Bottomtooth III]

Hey everyone. I had a pretty organized plan of reasonably intense studying for spring break, but I am feeling very exhausted with studying. We have a Neuro exam Friday and then spring break starts. Would it be such a bad idea to take spring break mostly or totally off? My original plan was to take the two Fridays/Saturdays of spring break off and study Sun-Thurs mostly full time but I do not think I will be able to do that anymore, unless I am somehow able to push through but I do not want to risk burnout. My test is June 8 so that still leaves me 11 weeks. Up till now I would say that I have done ~350 Rx questions, somewhere around ~250 UWorld questions before shelving it for later, and maybe ~150 Kaplan questions while also following closely with Pathoma, B&B videos wherever helpful and I have been sticking to a spreadsheet I made where I watch 4 Sketchy Micro videos each night before going to bed. Thoughts?

How long is your dedicated and what are your goals? I agree with Lannister though. Study burnout happens.

 

[Lannister]

Anyone have advice for studying psych, specifically personality disorders? Idk what's going on, I didn't have to study for psych at all when we learned it during neuro and would get every exam question right. Now my average % correct for psych is like 20% lower than every other subject. It's driving me crazy, no matter how many times I re-read the first aid stuff on personality disorders, I always pick the wrong one.

 

[sharkbyte]

How long is your dedicated and what are your goals? I agree with Lannister though. Study burnout happens.

My dedicated is 5 weeks from May 3 or so until June 8 but we have a one-month block right before dedicated that is mostly just a review of signs and symptoms we have covered. All the M3's have told me to treat that block essentially like a dedicated and maybe just watch the lectures once/pass the tests since it's not new material or anything. So looking at it that way, I have 5 weeks of true dedicated and another 4 weeks of pseudo-dedicated, I guess lol. I would like to score 245+ but I am not sure if that is feasible. I am only averaging about 55% on Rx questions but many of the questions I am getting wrong are because I forgot stuff from the first semester or forgot a basic science detail that I learned last in M1. I am trending up, though (went from ~45% to ~65% recently)

 

[James Bottomtooth III]

My dedicated is 5 weeks from May 3 or so until June 8 but we have a one-month block right before dedicated that is mostly just a review of signs and symptoms we have covered. All the M3's have told me to treat that block essentially like a dedicated and maybe just watch the lectures once/pass the tests since it's not new material or anything. So looking at it that way, I have 5 weeks of true dedicated and another 4 weeks of pseudo-dedicated, I guess lol. I would like to score 245+ but I am not sure if that is feasible. I am only averaging about 55% on Rx questions but many of the questions I am getting wrong are because I forgot stuff from the first semester or forgot a basic science detail that I learned last in M1. I am trending up, though (went from ~45% to ~65% recently)

Hard for me to give you great advice as my situation was different (also I don’t have a score yet). I had roughly 9 weeks of full dedicated and did literally no studying outside of that. I honestly probably was at my best at week 7. The only thing I can say is that you should make sure you really crush the blocks you are in. You have so much more time to study and understand them in the actual blocks than you will during dedicated. Also, you are close enough that if you learn them well now you can just skim them during dedicated. We had Endo repro at the end of my pre-clinicals and I literally didn’t study them again during dedicated besides questions (I also had a 2 week break in between the block and dedicated). I would definitely listen to the M3s though and try to find someone who got a score that you want.

 

[Ttubule]

Anyone have advice for studying psych, specifically personality disorders? Idk what's going on, I didn't have to study for psych at all when we learned it during neuro and would get every exam question right. Now my average % correct for psych is like 20% lower than every other subject. It's driving me crazy, no matter how many times I re-read the first aid stuff on personality disorders, I always pick the wrong one.

I got more of those wrong than I expected on the banks too but actually the RX videos helped me a TON. They just had some little stupid ways of remembering them that really helped (like for avoidant vs schizoid etc). For the schizo ones I’d also just mind map or make a table and that helped. Basically for me it was just like figuring out how to make some connections between the ones that I’d regularly mix up.

Sorry if that’s not super helpful but I definitely feel your frustrations on those ones!!

 

[Lannister]

I got more of those wrong than I expected on the banks too but actually the RX videos helped me a TON. They just had some little stupid ways of remembering them that really helped (like for avoidant vs schizoid etc). For the schizo ones I’d also just mind map or make a table and that helped. Basically for me it was just like figuring out how to make some connections between the ones that I’d regularly mix up.

Sorry if that’s not super helpful but I definitely feel your frustrations on those ones!!

Haha actually the reason I asked was because I just got a question wrong where the answer was schizoid and I put avoidant! I'll check out the Rx videos, thanks! I really haven't utilized those at all, actually.

 

[Ttubule]

Haha actually the reason I asked was because I just got a question wrong where the answer was schizoid and I put avoidant! I'll check out the Rx videos, thanks! I really haven't utilized those at all, actually.

I think he said something in there about like thinking of the hard D at the end of shozoiD reminding you that they Don’t want to know you, while the -ANT in avoidANT means the wANT to know you (but are too scared).
Totally stupid but I swear I never missed another one after that.
The Rx videos are a little hit or miss but the psych chapter is short and the videos in general are good for helping you understand FA rather than just passively reading it.

 

[bananafish94]

Anyone have advice for studying psych, specifically personality disorders? Idk what's going on, I didn't have to study for psych at all when we learned it during neuro and would get every exam question right. Now my average % correct for psych is like 20% lower than every other subject. It's driving me crazy, no matter how many times I re-read the first aid stuff on personality disorders, I always pick the wrong one.

For psych I've found that you just have to be super systematic about the questions and you can't be afraid to eliminate the one that it's trying to trick you into picking (e.g., if there's only four SIGECAPS criteria, it cannot be MDD even if every other part of it sounds exactly like MDD and it feels weird to eliminate it). Same thing goes for time and whatnot, too.

For the personality disorder questions, I imagine people I know in my life who kind of fit the criteria for the personality disorders and it helps me remember them pretty well!

 

[Lannister]

For psych I've found that you just have to be super systematic about the questions and you can't be afraid to eliminate the one that it's trying to trick you into picking (e.g., if there's only four SIGECAPS criteria, it cannot be MDD even if every other part of it sounds exactly like MDD and it feels weird to eliminate it). Same thing goes for time and whatnot, too.

For the personality disorder questions, I imagine people I know in my life who kind of fit the criteria for the personality disorders and it helps me remember them pretty well!

I like the idea of associating the personality disorders with people I know, I'm going to try that!
Also...I'd be pissed if I got a question wrong because a patient only met four criteria instead of five. I would definitely just automatically put depression without even thinking about it. I dunno though, so far it doesn't really seem like step 1 questions are out to trick us. I've only done ~100 UWorld questions so maybe UWorld is different, but there really are not very many trick questions in Rx or Kaplan.

 

[bananafish94]

Also...I'd be pissed if I got a question wrong because a patient only met four criteria instead of five.

That's an extreme example but I've definitely seen UWorld questions where they try to blur the lines pretty heavily between MDD vs. Schizoaffective vs. Schizophrenia vs. Schizophreniform, GAD vs. Adjustment Disorder, Conduct Disorder vs. ODD vs. Antisocial, everything vs. normal reactions to stressors, etc. In my experience psych is the subject where I least trust my "gut" answer choice and have to know the nitty-gritty definitions cold.

 

[DRapplicant21]

congrats on score, what did you think of those Kaplan behavioral questions, where they representative of the real exam?

Thanks.
Definitely not

 

[DRapplicant21]

wow superb 🙂 thanks a lot..did u annotate ur uworld notes in FA or you wrote the UWORLD notes separately in a book? thanks once again..wishing u all success 🙂 god bless 🙂

Thank you,
No I wrote them separately and I think this is the better way. Cause you don't need to go over those notes as much as doing FA.