USMLE All that you expected would be?

[smellycat]

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Just wondering for those that have already taken the step 1 for this year.
Was it all that you expected it would be? I know that you can't study for everything possible.
But is it true that the 3Ps are hit hard (Path, physio and pharm?)
Or was there an even distribution.
thanks.🙁

 

[smellycat]

😎

 

[WakeMedHeel]

It was pretty much as expected. I think each individual receives a different focus. Unfortunately mine was Repro....which I decided to give a light review. Woops. I also got three questions in a row on desmosomes and adherens junctions...not cool either since I never bothered to learn anything about them.

 

[jayhawk]

I'll let you know tomorrow, after I take the test!!!

Feeling some anxiety, even though I studied hard. It's hard to read posts that from people who say the test wasn't at all what they studied for. I've done all of q-bank (avg 70%), read books to supplement first aid, and hope that that is enough. I'm worried about first year topics, I've reviewed them and get the gist of them, but they're definitely not my strength, while micro, pharm, and path are my strengths. I'll make sure to post the content of my exam and any nitpicky questions for y'all! 😉

 

[WakeMedHeel]

Sounds like you'll do fine.

 

[smellycat]

yeah jayhawk
good luck man...you'll do stellar.

 

[jayhawk]

thanks for the encouragement! 🙂

i'm spending the night decompressing by watching LOTR: Two Towers (I have a bootleg DVD...don't tell! 😛 )

i'll report my experience tomorrow, hopefully it will be somewhat positive!

p.s. smellycat...i'm a girl, but not offended that you called me man! most of my friends are guys anyways and they slip up all the time and call me man or dude!

 

[toofache32]

ummmm....dudette? maybe?

 

[Oceandust]

Took the exam today. It's a hell of a beast in length. I should've built up my stamina more than just taking the 3 Block Practice Exam.

Overall, my exam seemed pretty well distributed; tho micro was suprisingly lightly glazed.

I would say there is quite a bit of patho-physiology. Know well Ca++ regulation (PTH, etc), Repro pathways, and acid-base kidney.

Of all the resources I used, I would say the new online self-assessment (I took one exam of two from them), Robbins Path, peppered with some Qbank had the most resemblance to the exam. Sucks that NBME doesn't give you the answers afterward, but it is helpful to work through them, then review them so you know the right answers by consulting others, etc. The questions on the online exam seem to be a part of the overall active testbank they utilize for questions.

I didn't get any repeats off the practice exam; but I did get 2-3 repeats from the online assessment; $50 for the online NBME 200q wasn't worth the repeated questions only, more to get a greater sampling of NBME style and difficulty (although the online exam seemed to have shorter stems, but about the same difficulty).

Q bank seems too detail oriented but still good practice, though with Robbins and NBME stuff and Webpath, I sometimes wonder if it can be superfluous and nonrepresentative. just my 2 sense

Overall I came out of the exam exhausted but am exhilarated that this is over, and it's time to get on.

Good luck to all of you still yet to take it. It will be fine, just make you've built your stamina.

 

[Peeshee]

Ocean Dust-
Thanks for your advice! It must be a wonderful feeling to have this exam out of the way!
So, from what you saw on the actual USMLE, you would recommend to spend the money on the NBME 400 questions? Do you think they were more like the actual USMLE than QBANK, the USMLE CD, or the Kaplan full length exams?
thanks a lot!

 

[smellycat]

sorry jayhawk...don't know why i assumed it from the name...but birds can be both sexes 🙂
Thanks for all the replies..keep it coming!

 

[kcrd]

great advice, oceandust, thank you.

and

good luck tomorrow, jayhawk!

 

[jayhawk]

well, it's over, and i don't feel so good about it (but i hear that that's normal). i had a surprising amount of anatomy (25 questions or so) even showing a picture of a pelvis and asking which foramina a nerve went through. it's true that they ask a patho-phys question and ask obscure details about the disease. i also had some pure biochem pathway questions as well as tons of acid-base physiology questions. felt like i had 3 or more questions that revolved around epidural hematomas/middle meningeal artery answers (weird). almost every block had a "what would you say to the patient in this situation" question and not very much pharm at all. poor quality of mri/ct/immunofluorescence/histo pictures. i felt so confident going into it and don't feel so hot about it right now. 🙁

 

[Jattdoc]

JAYHAWK, thanks for the input. I'm up in a few days and i wanted to know, were there any path slides and quality of slide and the accompanying case ?.

Also, how about biostatistics ?.

Thanks again for any reply.

 

[jayhawk]

there were path slides, i think i had one of renal papillary necrosis, but it was so small that i had a hard time figuring out what it was. there weren't many picture slides at all. the histology slides were poopy too. some of the path scenarios are give aways, but those are few and far between. very integrated patho-phys/biochem/molec bio at least in my opinion.

i had some biostats questions...pretty straight forward (what is odds ratio/significance of p-value/prevalence and how it correlates to positive predictive value. total of like 5 or so questions i would say. i would say the majority of my questions are hard to place in one area of study, i felt they had many aspects to each of them.

good luck!

 

[Gauss]

since the frustration level seems rather high here, I'll offer some philosophical advice here:

Study as much as you can, do as many questions as you can, push yourself to do more than you have ever done before.
On the day of the test, before you walk into the test center, take a deep breath and walk in expecting to Pass. When you are finished, smile and be happy because you are finished. Mark taking Boards off your checklist, and move on to the next phase of your life. Celebrate and don't dwell on what you missed or worry how your score will turn out. Expect to Pass and that is all.

Why do I say this? Because everyone I know that expected to crush it or had to beat the mean felt awful afterwards. They toiled and writhed in pain at having to wait for their score. Their life was effectively put on pause.
There is too much with that test that is simply out of your control. You can't be fully prepared for everything and you will get questions that you are both weak and strong in and some you could never know in your lifetime. That is the way it is and there is nothing you can do but look back and say, well I gave it my best shot. That is life.

Now let me be clear here: Don't study to Pass - Study as hard as you can and walk out of the test knowing you passed. Then move on. You will be taking a ton more tests, shelfs, and boards throughout your life. They will keep testing you until you are sick of it. NO test can quantify you as a person and will not determine what field or kind of doctor you will be. You are still in control of that. Be confident in yourselves and your abilities and always move your life forward.

 

[jayhawk]

gauss-you make it sound like i'm not going to enjoy my summer and dwell until i get my score. well, i'm not, i leave tomorrow for a brief trip to chicago to see coldplay with friends and then off to sweden for some time with my man for a couple of weeks of drinking and mischief! i plan on living it up until i have to come back to reality again. i'll be just fine once i'm drinking martinis and listening to coldplay!😀

i just thought i could express my feelings here, don't want to tell people it was a cake walk and mislead them. when you're doing questions for 7 hours you really only remember the hard ones. i'm sure i did just fine (well enough to pass!) sorry if i brought anyone down, that wasn't my intention! 🙂

 

[Oceandust]

peeshee

here're the most representative questions in my opionion

Best: NBME Online Assessment and USMLE practice exam (150q).

Good: Robbins, Webpath, Qbank (qbank very good at building stamina, but some ques are too detailed and less intuitive than the real thing)

For the NBME online things, take the FOUR HOUR version, close to when you take the reall thing. Do each block in 1 hr, then go back with first aid and other references to check your answers and write the proper notes down or whatever b/c they don't give you the answers, and to get the most out of it, you should try to make sure you have the right answer. if you just can't get the answer by yourself or consulting others, don't waste too much time and drop it.

Robbins and Webpath are best done as you review each module. I used qbank with questions from subjects i'd covered hitherto. and really hit hard on qbank in the final weeks, mixed questions from all subjects. But i was a little disappointed in qbank as I thought it would be more representative.

 

[smellycat]

Both of you guys said great things...
Thanks for the advice Gauss, we all can use it esp those that are about to take their test.
jayhawk, your comments are always welcome and that is exactly what I was hoping to hear, your honest opinion. have fun at the coldplay concert. They are awesome!
I think the reason why me and a few other people post and read these posts is to find some comfort of the unknown. It is good to know that there are other people in the exact same situation as the me.

 

[Jaded Soul]

Thanks to everyone for sharing and for all the great advice.

jayhawk-
How did your test experience relate to Qbank? Was it more difficult, less difficult, or about the same?

 

[Mig24x]

Jaded soul, i have the same question!!

some people have told me that the qbank question are a little bit more hard than the real exam!! I hope they are right

 

[jayhawk]

i would say they are somewhat similar...some easy ones, some hard. the quality of pictures i had were poor, they were small and hard to see details. i personally felt like there wasn't a large proportion of path questions on the test. it was pretty even between biochem/path/phys, with not very many pharm questions. so i wish there would be more questions related to biochem/histo/etc, on qbank instead of most of the meat with path and pathophys. hope this helps.

 

[hj2005]

i have a quick question about the questions from the nbme online assessment that appeared on the real exam-- were they the more difficult ones or the easier? i can't decide if i should fork over the $ and do it...

 

[WakeMedHeel]

Jayhawk...nobody feels good after taking this exam. It's a natural reaction. I felt the exact same feeling and so did most of my friends who all did very well. There were plenty of questions that I just laughed off and there were some topics I wish I had studied more such as Repro....but I think each test hits people with a different focus. Or perhaps it seems that way because I didn't really study enough Repro. Either way it's over and done with. Enjoy your summer.

 

[JRick02]

I did about 1000 QBank questions, and I was a bit disappointed with the representation. Basically, I was knocking out 70% in QBank, and studied with emphasis on Path, First Aid, Biochem, Microbiology... the test came today and about 30-35% was Genetics and Immunology, mainly in the form of experimentations. Not really what I was hoping for, but if the pass rate is 90%+, that speaks for itself. Good luck to everyone and make sure you cover a bit of Genetics and Immunology before you head out the door with your orange paper.
---J in SC

 

[genieinabottle]

Oceandust...or anyone else..what do you mean by "reproduction pathways"...like the menstrual cycle (FH/LSH)? or actual reproduction like fertilization and the pregnancy ? or did you mean reproductive endocrinology?...sorry if this is an obvious answer

 

[ambereyze]

Like you jayhawk. I did not feel good about the test. I had a lot of neuroanatomy and general anatomy. (about 40 questions total). If was ignorant. Hope I passed