Thoughts after leaving the Exam

[Disinence2]

---

Members don't see this ad.

First Thought: **** Me, I hope I passed

After spending my full 4 weeks working hard, I can't help but feel completely unsatisfied with my Step 1. I didn't have a SINGLE question about virology other than some research related experiment questions. Not a SINGLE question about anti-arrhythmic drugs, cholesterol lowering drugs, or even Psych/Seizure pharm. Nothing about glycogen storage or lysosomal storage disorders.

Anyone else feel like all their hard work didn't pay off? Pretty much all the questions I missed I still would have missed with months to study. The ones I got right I learned during my schools classes.

I know that you tend to focus on and remember all the questions that you missed, but still I'm a bit shaken up. I had 24 questions marked during my first set.

Anyways, I'm just ranting, I wish I didn't have to wait so long to get my score! It really could have gone either way.

 

[Ihateverbal]

sorry to hear disinence (by the way ,we go to the same med school). you did well on your practice exams from your previous posts, so I'm sure you did fine.

what did you feel was most representative on your exam?

 

[Disinence2]

Haha, I was suspicious that we might.

Mine was a lot of neuro anatomy, weird cross sections. Along with some strange physio and molecular bio stuff that I didn't understand.

Also had some similar anatomy questions that came up twice. I hate missing stuff twice! I should have memorized ALL the cytokines not just the main ones.

Overall I would say that my test was a little lopsided

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

What resources did you use to study?

 

[Disinence2]

Resources;

RR Path, RR Pharm, RR biochem, RR anatomy, High Yield Neuroanatomy (Should have used it more!!), BRS physio, Micro made Ridiculously Simple, High Yield MCB, High Yield behavioral science, FA. All of Uworld Q-bank, Half of USMLErx.

 

[Ihateverbal]

Micro, immuno and molecular genetics is my forte..

unfortunately, i reek at anatomy and neuro =(

 

[Ihateverbal]

I'll send some good luck vibes your way for your exam score in three weeks, which I'm sure you aced anyways! lol

 

[Nematode]

I took mine on friday, and have to say it was harder then NBME but closer to to world. I felt kinda the way I feel after I do a world block, where I am confident of about 2/3, and manage another 5-10% with the rest. But we will see I guess. I definitely feel your pain, sending good vibes to both you and me, and other test takers of course 🙂.

 

[snowkhat]

I'm a pessimist...and I thought the test sucked.

Who knows what that means and it's cruel that they make us wait.

 

[morriske]

I felt pretty horrible after my test. After 3 beers, i felt a little better. I took it last Friday and I can't remember many questions. Maybe I'm blocking it out. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if I failed or if I did well, mostly because I've eliminated it from my memory...

in talking to M3's and most of my friends, feeling horrible after the test is very common

 

[Haemulon]

I took mine last week and was a little disappointed about the exam. I felt that the difficulty was for the most part on par with the uworld, with longer question stems in general. I had expected to have fewer triple-quadruple level reasoning questions than uworld, but it seemed like that was pretty much the same as well. I also noticed that it had a ton of questions on about 3-4 narrow subject areas. Some of them almost seemed like repeats with just a few answer choices changed and maybe a different patient demographic or different lab values, but had the same concepts being tested. The test also managed to almost completely ignore some pretty major subject areas that I would have thought to be really important (and had studied my rear off to learn)

Ah well, it is what it is. I think I did Ok, but just seemed to me that I would have gotten pretty much the same score if I took it right after my finals. Almost like the previous 5 weeks of cramming every day had no benefit.

 

[BoneNibbler]

I took mine last week and was a little disappointed about the exam. I felt that the difficulty was for the most part on par with the uworld, with longer question stems in general. I had expected to have fewer triple-quadruple level reasoning questions than uworld, but it seemed like that was pretty much the same as well. I also noticed that it had a ton of questions on about 3-4 narrow subject areas. Some of them almost seemed like repeats with just a few answer choices changed and maybe a different patient demographic or different lab values, but had the same concepts being tested. The test also managed to almost completely ignore some pretty major subject areas that I would have thought to be really important (and had studied my rear off to learn)

Ah well, it is what it is. I think I did Ok, but just seemed to me that I would have gotten pretty much the same score if I took it right after my finals. Almost like the previous 5 weeks of cramming every day had no benefit.

Wow. You guys got 5 weeks to study for this test. You should have known everything about everything. My school gives 3 weeks.👎

 

[Haemulon]

Wow. You guys got 5 weeks to study for this test. You should have known everything about everything. My school gives 3 weeks.👎

My school does not determine when we take the exam. We just have to take it prior to starting clerkships (a lot of schools are like that). It's all individual.

Honostly, for me 1 week or 10 weeks would probably not have made too much difference to me, let alone 3 versus 5. The important thing for me was trying to learn the material as best I could throughout the previous 2 years. The rest was really just last minute refreshers for topics I never quite nailed down and becoming more comfortable with testing in 48 question blocks. I definitely have some big gaps in my knowledge, but there are other areas that I know really well. Everyone is different though. Good luck if you havn't taken it yet!

 

[BoneNibbler]

My school does not determine when we take the exam. We just have to take it prior to starting clerkships (a lot of schools are like that). It's all individual.

Honostly, for me 1 week or 10 weeks would probably not have made too much difference to me, let alone 3 versus 5. The important thing for me was trying to learn the material as best I could throughout the previous 2 years. The rest was really just last minute refreshers for topics I never quite nailed down and becoming more comfortable with testing in 48 question blocks. I definitely have huge gaps in my knowledge, but there are other areas that I know really well. Everyone is different, good luck though if you havn't taken it yet!

Thanks. Yeah I guess you are right. We will never know everything regardless of how much we study. Hoorah for limitless medicine...