seems like no one has asked this question

[zama]

Are the BRS questions easier/similar/harder than the real Step 1 questions?

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[jed2023]

I haven't taken Step I yet, but I have taken practice tests from various sources (NMBE released step 1 questions, Q-book, NMS, and BSS) and the BRS Path and Phys questions always turn out to be quite a bit easier than any of these question sources (90-95% performance average for BRS versus 70-80% for the others). One complicating factor, of course, is that questions from the other sources come at you from all directions (all subjects), but the nature of the questions still differ.

If you look at the format of the BRS questions, many of them aren't even in boards format (paucity of vignettes, EXCEPT questions, etc). They are meant to test your recall and understanding of the material presented in the books but aren't apparently meant so much to simulate Step 1.

 

[zama]

I am still a first year, so I don't know much about the boards yet, but what would a step 1 question be like?

 

[jed2023]

Check out this link and then click on "Download Step 1 content. . "

http://www.usmle.org/step1/default.htm

These are released Step 1 questions from the 2000 examination. If you go through you'll find that some of the questions are no-brainers but a few are a bit on the more difficult side. As a first year, though, you'll probably draw blanks on path, pharm, and micro questions, but you can still get a feel for what the questions are like.

 

[Goofyone]

Originally posted by zama
I am still a first year, so I don't know much about the boards yet, but what would a step 1 question be like?

I haven't taken it yet but I've done a ton of reading and asking people about this.


I think a step one question would be something like:

This old man had these symptoms yada yada. Here's a picture of His brain.

What are the side effects of the drug used to treat this disease?



So, you'll have to recognize that you're looking at basal ganglia, and that he has Parkinson's, and that you use dopamine to treat it, yada yada.

So essentially they ask you three questions rolled into one. While each question is fairly straightforward, your chance of getting the whole thing right goes down w/ each link in the chain.

That's my understanding.