Step 1 - Feb 2014 Exam Experience

[oasisgirl.]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Since I've always come to this forum for help, I think it's my time to give back

I just gave the exam yesterday and honestly it's NOT AS BAD as we imagine it to be.

Few words of advice:
1. DO ALL OF YOUR NBMES!!! I had a few repeats and the same chest xray as one of the nbmes

2. They're NOT trying to trick you. If you think an answer's making sense, go for it. so many times we think they're trying to trick us and end up choosing the wrong answer.

3. Dont stress out. I was so nervous at the start of the exam, i ended up making some really silly mistakes. But i'm blocking that out for now

4. Make sure you have lunch, chocolate bars, red bulls, the lot with you. After the 3rd block I was starved and the lunch really helped me get my energy back.

5. Dont waste your time on a question. you dont know it, skip it. you can always come back to it when you're done with rest of the block

That's all i can think of for now. you go any qs let me know! Good luck you all. I'm sure everyone will shine!

 

[Fatalis]

in comparison to UWSA, NMBE and UW; how much harder was it?

 

[oasisgirl.]

WAY easier than uwsa. I found certain nbme forms like 7 or 11 tougher than the actual test. The first three blocks were pretty straightforward. The rest 4 weren't as bad as some of the nbmes I've taken.

 

[Fatalis]

thank you for sharing, wishing you all the best! 😀

 

[oasisgirl.]

Thanks Fatalis! Best of luck to you too! Believe me its not as bad as we feel it is. Just know every single word of FA and do your nbmes close to the exam. You'll be fine

 

[metukah]

thanks for sharing! would you encourage doing the earlier forms of the NBME also? like #6? and even 1-5? thanks!

 

[oasisgirl.]

I did all the nbmes with the extended feedback

BTW, picmonic is god sent!!! Its simply a must for everyone!!!

Know the transverse sections for neuroanatomy, esp the spinal cord

I got quite a few as from biostatistics.

What else...had 2 heart sounds on the test.

But I felt if you'he done all the nbmes close to the test, you'll feel real at ease on that day

 

[metukah]

thanks oasis girl. if you don't mind me asking, how did you space out your NBMEs? ie. 1 every week/2 every week?
i scheduled to write at the end the of the month. so far i've written NBME 7 and UWSA...so trying to plan when to do the others..

 

[oasisgirl.]

My exam was yest which was 25th Feb

I did 15 on feb 10th and went over all my wrong answers
Did the form 12 on 15th
Form6 on 21st
Did 2 forms on 23rd
And one on 24 th

This is just what I did. I would strongly recommend doing ur nbmes a week before and know what mistakes you made. I read from other people's experiences that they do repeat as and it happened with me too
If you don't have time and have to choose between uswa and nbme, go for nbme

I only took one uswa and didn't have time to review my qs. I didn'thave time to do the 2nd one

 

[ninjasurgeron]

My exam was yest which was 25th Feb

I did 15 on feb 10th and went over all my wrong answers
Did the form 12 on 15th
Form6 on 21st
Did 2 forms on 23rd
And one on 24 th

This is just what I did. I would strongly recommend doing ur nbmes a week before and know what mistakes you made. I read from other people's experiences that they do repeat as and it happened with me too
If you don't have time and have to choose between uswa and nbme, go for nbme

I only took one uswa and didn't have time to review my qs. I didn'thave time to do the 2nd one

May I ask what you got for the NBMEs that you took?

 

[oasisgirl.]

My lowest was on form 7 which I found pretty tough : 230
Highest was on form 13: 247

Rest were in between these

 

[BlueArc]

Since I've always come to this forum for help, I think it's my time to give back

I just gave the exam yesterday and honestly it's NOT AS BAD as we imagine it to be.

Few words of advice:
1. DO ALL OF YOUR NBMES!!! I had a few repeats and the same chest xray as one of the nbmes

2. They're NOT trying to trick you. If you think an answer's making sense, go for it. so many times we think they're trying to trick us and end up choosing the wrong answer.

3. Dont stress out. I was so nervous at the start of the exam, i ended up making some really silly mistakes. But i'm blocking that out for now

4. Make sure you have lunch, chocolate bars, red bulls, the lot with you. After the 3rd block I was starved and the lunch really helped me get my energy back.

5. Dont waste your time on a question. you dont know it, skip it. you can always come back to it when you're done with rest of the block

That's all i can think of for now. you go any qs let me know! Good luck you all. I'm sure everyone will shine!

How many electron microscopy questions did u get? and ecgs? murmurs?

 

[oasisgirl.]

How many electron microscopy questions did u get? and ecgs? murmurs?

1 ECG. One of the heart blocks. Pretty straightforward

The em pics were pretty simple as you could figure out the answer from the question stem itself

Couple of murmurs. Know the site of where every murmurs heard and what accentuates or alleviates it.

 

[BlueArc]

Thank you. Also what about the up and down arrows everybody keeps talking about? What topics were tested using this format?

 

[Bojack Horseman]

Did you do all the picmonic cards? I really like some of them (glycogen storage dz) but some of them seem worthless (DSDs).

 

[oasisgirl.]

The only up down arrows I can think of are mainly endo qs, like in hyperparathyroidism, ca levels, pth,phosphate. Which one's up or down. Or renin-ang system. And in cvs, if there's left or right heart fail, end diastolic pressure,ejection fraction, etc.
And in renal,gfr, ff, rpf
Yes these were tested. Nothing unusal from what we've seen in qbank

 

[oasisgirl.]

Did you do all the picmonic cards? I really like some of them (glycogen storage dz) but some of them seem worthless (DSDs).

Microbiology, pharmacology related to micro, brain tumors, immunology, enzyme deficiencies, neurocutaneous synd

I felt these are a MUST.

The neuro and psych pharamacology wasn't bad either.
But I def saw a big jump in my scores when I started picmonic

 

[xadmin]

What else in picmonic was helpful?

 

[oasisgirl.]

They cover quite a bit of content. Personally I found it very helpful with biochem, immunology, pharm, micro and then some topics here and there like ovarian, bone, brain tumors, heart murmurs, etc.