Step I in 3 days, need high yield advice

[PoorMD]

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So I've been studying solid for the last 3 weeks and I am finally done with First Aid for the most part. I have been taking UWorld questions and getting 55-60% correct, sometimes lower.

I am starting to shake and freak out a bit because the exam is on thursday and I just don't know what I can do right now that will actually help my score. Should I read FA again and try to really hammer in the biochem/micro high yield sections? or should I do more pharm flash cards (which help tie in all topics because of cross over with phys/micro)? or just start taking 300 q's on UWorld and going over answers??

any advice would be appreciated... thanks~!

 

[evenflowcarter]

do first aid again

do goljans high yields

 

[blz]

do first aid again

do goljans high yields

agree with first aid but don't bother with goljan's high yields.

dont bother doing anymore questions either.

 

[lord_jeebus]

agree with first aid but don't bother with goljan's high yields.

dont bother doing anymore questions either.

👍

 

[DOme2009]

i would disagree with not doing anymore questions 3 days before your test - maybe you could do fewer questions each day than you have been doing, but doing questions every day keeps your brain in that test-taking mode of thinking. reviewing any concepts that are straight memorization (like which dz's are AR vs AD vs X-linked) can be very helpful sometimes.

 

[PoorMD]

ok, im focusing strictly on first aid... more specifically, the micro, pharm, biochem and rapid review sections... i dont think i have time (less than 2 days!) to read all the organ system sections again

also toning down the questions to about 50 UWorld random timed Q's at the begining and end of the study day

 

[drstudychick]

ok, im focusing strictly on first aid... more specifically, the micro, pharm, biochem and rapid review sections... i dont think i have time (less than 2 days!) to read all the organ system sections again

also toning down the questions to about 50 UWorld random timed Q's at the begining and end of the study day

i like your plan. also, be sure to MEMORIZE the biochem pathways. it's high yield and relatively easy to do the day before... spend 2 hours with page 94 in the 2007 edition, and i think you'll be glad you did. i was suprised at the level of detail they required us to know for the real thing, and a lot of it was on that page

however, that said, you know your weaknesses, and your time might be better spent working on whatever it is you know you don't quite have memorized. it's not a good time to try to learn concepts, really just a good time for memorizing and reviewing. try to just keep calm and make your time productive. i was in such a state of panic the day before that all the studying i tried to do was just not helpful. also, try to completely stop by 5pm or so the day before the test. eat a good dinner, and take something to help you sleep. most everyone i know took an ativan/ambien/tylenol pm to sleep the night before, the ones who didn't wished that they had.

super good luck. from my experiences, if you're getting in that range on kaplan, you'll pass with plenty of room to spare!

 

[NeuroDocDO]

memorize the urea cycle

 

[DOme2009]

most everyone i know took an ativan/ambien/tylenol pm to sleep the night before, the ones who didn't wished that they had.

whoa, i gotta say no to this right here. using a sleep aid for the first time the night before the test sounds like a terrible idea. maybe 3-4 days out is ok because then you know how you're gonna feel the next morning, but don't try to switch up your routine the night before - that's just asking for trouble.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Trying anything new or out of your normal routine close to the test date isn't a good idea. If you have taken a sleep aid in the recent past and know how your body will react to it, go ahead. Otherwise, I wouldn't risk it. I didn't take any sleep aids the night before - I didn't sleep great, but I did sleep some and felt fine for the exam. I think the key is to make sure you are getting enough sleep for several nights before the exam. As for the night before, I highly recommend doing something relaxing to reduce your stress level rather than relying on medication to get you through the night - watch TV, read a book, go for a hike, do yoga, play basketball, bake cookies..whatever is relaxing to you and gets your mind off the exam.

 

[PoorMD]

the exam is tommorow and i feel like i didnt get to go over everything the way i wanted... i got through the biochem section of FA like 3-4 times, but I still cant get the biochem questions right consistently on UWorld... its just a major weakness for me, and Im hoping I dont get the biochem heavy exam...

even if the worst case scenario does happen and i get the biochem HEAVY exam, that is still only like 5-7 questions per block? (like 35-50 total biochem questions, ie 10-15% of the test?)

i just hope that weakness in biochem isnt enough to sink this entire ship

 

[strongson]

has anyone tried sex the night before the exam? i'm thinking of trying it, but i'm concerned about addiction.

 

[CanIMakeIt]

the exam is tommorow and i feel like i didnt get to go over everything the way i wanted... i got through the biochem section of FA like 3-4 times, but I still cant get the biochem questions right consistently on UWorld... its just a major weakness for me, and Im hoping I dont get the biochem heavy exam...

even if the worst case scenario does happen and i get the biochem HEAVY exam, that is still only like 5-7 questions per block? (like 35-50 total biochem questions, ie 10-15% of the test?)

i just hope that weakness in biochem isnt enough to sink this entire ship

Good Luck 👍
you are going to fine..relax and get some rest .. you will need it

 

[aesop]

Don't worry the USMLEWORLD biochem worked me and I got a star on the real thing. You'll be fine.

 

[Law2Doc]

has anyone tried sex the night before the exam? i'm thinking of trying it, but i'm concerned about addiction.

There was a Seinfeld episode on this. Having sex has opposite effects on men and women. You could go from speaking Portuguese to being a bumbling idiot overnight.

 

[FrogE7]

There was a Seinfeld episode on this. Having sex has opposite effects on men and women. You could go from speaking Portuguese to being a bumbling idiot overnight.

Hah! I remember that episode. Good times. I think for women though, it's very calming and totally aids in concentration. Only mad exercise has effects in the same ballpark...maybe.

 

[PoorMD]

... wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!! Sure there were tough biochem questions and some path stuff I had forgotten.. but also lots of knee jerk questions, quite a few where I thought for a second or so and figured it out, then a bunch where no answer jumped out "hmmm? ... oh ok i see, its A or C" questions.... of course the occasional "WTF" variety

I think I got the pharm heavy exam which really worked in my favor.. not too many in depth pharm questions either... virtually NO embryo... lots of "what drug most likely caused _____?" If you looked over the common drug side effects list in First aid and memorized it, those questions were like free points

The fatigue factor did not seem to affect me at all, which is hard to believe... really i thought after 4 blocks i would be crushed but i had over 1 hour of break time left when I finished the post test questionaire? I just didnt feel like the breaks were helping my mind at all, seemed like I would zone out if I was out of the test center too long and I wanted to keep after it.

in conclusion, walking out of the test center it felt like a pass... 😳

Its best to just assume I passed, otherwise it would be near impossible to give my 100% best effort in this family med rotation which starts monday, always worrying about what if...

 

[PoorMD]

just to share my experience with the rest

 

[Googy]

wut about USMLErx.com??

 

[Skills of House]

wut about USMLErx.com??

I took it the day b4 yesterday...I used RX, UW, and Kaplan. A lot of people thought that UW was much harder than the exam. In my opinion they were VERY comparable...which seems unfortunate in my case since I only finished UW at about 58% (with about 52% completed)...and I had a block at 47% 2 days before the exam! Kaplan - I started at about 40% and finished at about 58%, but I only did about 30% since I switched to UW. I only did about 30% of RX since I started doing those questions really late and they were significantly ez-er than Kaplan or UW so my avg was usually in the high 60s and 70s...and that was usually after about 11pm when my brain was fried from studying all day (tried to simulate doing questions under exhaustion)...I also used the First Aid Question book which had pretty much the exact same ques that were on Rx...but I didn't know that at the time and Rx was relatively inexpensive.
I pray that I don't have to take it again, but for future reference, I'm curious....do any of you find it helpful to use the highlight/strike out features??? They seem really time consuming...and I hadn't used them during practice so I didn't use them on the exam (except for 1 question...which incidentally took me about 2 mins to answer). But I saw a couple of people who were taking Step 2 in the room and I noticed they had highlight all over their screen!