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- Jan 18, 2001
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Got my score back today so I thought I'd repost my experience.
Just gone done with the test today (May 27) and I'm two beers in so I should still be comprehendable. Here's what I did to study:
School let out for us on April 30 although that last week of finals in Pharmacology and Pathophysiology was the real beginning of Step 1 studying...so a total of about 5-6 weeks. I studied anywhere from 4-14 hours per day depending on how I felt that day. I took short breaks whenever I felt like I needed them. Didn't really take any full days off but those 4 hour days weren't much. This was easily 10X more than I studied during the school year. I studied in the library most of the time (although towards the end my dog started having seizures everyday so I had to study at home so I could watch him and make sure he didn't keel over).
School had us take the NBME Comprehensive Basic Science Exam a couple of weeks before school let out which did not count for any grade...it was just to help us guide our studying. I scored 76 (national mean 70, standard deviation 8).
Study aids I would recommend (in order of usefulness to me):
First Aid (of course). Know this well. Know the figures and tables well. It's great in most areas. Can't really say that it is lacking in any particular area but if I had to pick some 'bad' areas it would be Microbiology and Biochemistry...but even so maybe there were a few questions that First Aid couldn't answer. I went through one section of that book (i.e., anatomy, biochemistry, behavior science, etc.) reading and writing out the tables and figures, etc., every day. This was my main source of study material. I would pull out other references from the library (as I did my studying in the library so that other references were around) when I didn't understand something or felt that I could use more clarification. In this way I went through First Aid very thoroughly about 5 times.
QBank - Excellent set of questions that were very much like the real thing...i.e., similar level of difficulty, similar mix of "that's an easy one" and "what the heck are they talking about" feelings when I took the test. If anything, the behavioral sciecne types "what would you say now" type questions were much much harder in QBank than on the real thing. I would use QBank by taking random 50 block sections (usually first thing in the morning) then going through every answer, one at a time, even on the ones I got right to read what QBank had to teach me. If I didn't understand something or I felt like I need to learn that better, I'd pull out some reference text or the internet or whatever to look up more about that topic. I did two days of full 7 blocks of questions on two mornings just get up my stamina and then went through the answers in the afternoon. When I finished QBank I went back and did every question that I got wrong again. My overall average in QBank was 75% with a range of 54% - 88%.
Although I read some other books like BRS Physiology, BRS Pathology, etc., I'm not sure that was nearly as helpful as First Aid and QBank which really, combined, had everything...not that I remembered it all and could answer everything on Step 1, just that I felt like almost everytime a question came up I knew that it had been covered in one of those two sources. Very few questions are not covered in those two.
Other than that, I just did lots of qustions. I did both NBME Self Assessment Tests (first one 3 weeks before test day and scored 610, then one 2 days before test day and scored 640.....mean is 500 with SD of 100). I did the 150 released items 2 weeks before test day and scored 83%. I also did many questions from the Robbins Question book, the Aplpleton & Lange USMLE Step I review, QBook, BSS, NMS USMLE Review, NMS Physiology and any other question books I could check out of the library. I like doing quesitons so I did many thousands of questions before test day.
Just so everybody knows, I'm one of the cheapest bastards on the planet so I didn't buy all these books. I did buy QBank (although I work for Kaplan so they gave me the deep discount) and I did buy BRS Pathology but the rest I either checked out of the library (our school has every Step 1 review book imaginable...what they don't have you just ask and they'll buy it and many times multiple copies...and since its a small school, there's plenty for everybody), bought used or got from our library's free shelf, or just used in the library when I needed it. However, this is stupid. Spend what you need. This is an important test.
Final score on Step 1 (got scores from my school on June 30, 1 month after the test: 239/97 (about what I expected...hoping for more and praying it wouldn't be less but happy none the less)
Good luck everyone!
Just gone done with the test today (May 27) and I'm two beers in so I should still be comprehendable. Here's what I did to study:
School let out for us on April 30 although that last week of finals in Pharmacology and Pathophysiology was the real beginning of Step 1 studying...so a total of about 5-6 weeks. I studied anywhere from 4-14 hours per day depending on how I felt that day. I took short breaks whenever I felt like I needed them. Didn't really take any full days off but those 4 hour days weren't much. This was easily 10X more than I studied during the school year. I studied in the library most of the time (although towards the end my dog started having seizures everyday so I had to study at home so I could watch him and make sure he didn't keel over).
School had us take the NBME Comprehensive Basic Science Exam a couple of weeks before school let out which did not count for any grade...it was just to help us guide our studying. I scored 76 (national mean 70, standard deviation 8).
Study aids I would recommend (in order of usefulness to me):
First Aid (of course). Know this well. Know the figures and tables well. It's great in most areas. Can't really say that it is lacking in any particular area but if I had to pick some 'bad' areas it would be Microbiology and Biochemistry...but even so maybe there were a few questions that First Aid couldn't answer. I went through one section of that book (i.e., anatomy, biochemistry, behavior science, etc.) reading and writing out the tables and figures, etc., every day. This was my main source of study material. I would pull out other references from the library (as I did my studying in the library so that other references were around) when I didn't understand something or felt that I could use more clarification. In this way I went through First Aid very thoroughly about 5 times.
QBank - Excellent set of questions that were very much like the real thing...i.e., similar level of difficulty, similar mix of "that's an easy one" and "what the heck are they talking about" feelings when I took the test. If anything, the behavioral sciecne types "what would you say now" type questions were much much harder in QBank than on the real thing. I would use QBank by taking random 50 block sections (usually first thing in the morning) then going through every answer, one at a time, even on the ones I got right to read what QBank had to teach me. If I didn't understand something or I felt like I need to learn that better, I'd pull out some reference text or the internet or whatever to look up more about that topic. I did two days of full 7 blocks of questions on two mornings just get up my stamina and then went through the answers in the afternoon. When I finished QBank I went back and did every question that I got wrong again. My overall average in QBank was 75% with a range of 54% - 88%.
Although I read some other books like BRS Physiology, BRS Pathology, etc., I'm not sure that was nearly as helpful as First Aid and QBank which really, combined, had everything...not that I remembered it all and could answer everything on Step 1, just that I felt like almost everytime a question came up I knew that it had been covered in one of those two sources. Very few questions are not covered in those two.
Other than that, I just did lots of qustions. I did both NBME Self Assessment Tests (first one 3 weeks before test day and scored 610, then one 2 days before test day and scored 640.....mean is 500 with SD of 100). I did the 150 released items 2 weeks before test day and scored 83%. I also did many questions from the Robbins Question book, the Aplpleton & Lange USMLE Step I review, QBook, BSS, NMS USMLE Review, NMS Physiology and any other question books I could check out of the library. I like doing quesitons so I did many thousands of questions before test day.
Just so everybody knows, I'm one of the cheapest bastards on the planet so I didn't buy all these books. I did buy QBank (although I work for Kaplan so they gave me the deep discount) and I did buy BRS Pathology but the rest I either checked out of the library (our school has every Step 1 review book imaginable...what they don't have you just ask and they'll buy it and many times multiple copies...and since its a small school, there's plenty for everybody), bought used or got from our library's free shelf, or just used in the library when I needed it. However, this is stupid. Spend what you need. This is an important test.
Final score on Step 1 (got scores from my school on June 30, 1 month after the test: 239/97 (about what I expected...hoping for more and praying it wouldn't be less but happy none the less)
Good luck everyone!
