USMLE pics

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

FoxyDoc

Senior Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2000
Messages
150
Reaction score
1
For those of you who have already taken "the beast", about how many pics do you remember having on your exam? The idea of MRI, CT, bug pics, and those horrible histo minutia pics is really starting to freak me out!!! 😱 😱 😱 :scared: :scared:

Thanks
 
I had a fair number of xrays on my exam (5 or so), plus an equal number of CT/MRI scans. The xrays were high quality, but the CT scans sucked butt. At the end of the exam when you fill out a survey, I made sure to give the lowest score to "how would you rate the quality of the CT/MRI's?" Clowns.

Fortunately, I think that for the xrays/ct/mri stuff, it's more important to know the concept behind what you're being shown and asked rather than being able to recognize teensy little details. I don't think I can be any less vague without giving questions away. If it makes you feel better, I didn't think the scan questions were all that hard..... most were so obvious I had an idea of what I was looking for right after reading the question and before analyzing the scan.

Personally I felt the challenging questions had drawings or diagrams rather than real pictures. It's much harder to interpret some doofus's artwork and then answer a question rather than seeing a real pic (that you've probably seen before) and almost knowing the question you're going to be asked..
 
A friend of mine that took the USMLE last year said that there were two pictures almost exactly like in FA. I don't remember which ones they were...there may have been a blood one and maybe a bug, but I'm not sure.
 
Don't sweat the images. Particularly the xrays or mris, usually those are for mere anatomical location of the problem. I did have some histo images, but not many, and often the image wasn't entirely necessary for the question... or provided you with the easy answer if you recognized it.
As someone mentioned above, I had at least 2 photos that were identical to photos in First Aid, both were micro type photos.
I also had some drawings that looked like they were drawn in crayon by a 6-year-old.
 
FYI, according to profs at my school Step 1 takes its pics from Nolte's "Human Brain" atlas & Robbins...
 
Couldn't be... the pics in Robbin's and the Nolte atlas are too high of quality.


😉
 
Stinger86 said:
Couldn't be... the pics in Robbin's and the Nolte atlas are too high of quality.


😉

maybe they drop the quality for the real deal to make 'em seem different? just like some profs 'steal' pics from others and flip it around for their ppt to avoid copyright laws... i dunno haven't taken it yet, but the head of of my path dept along with another prof, both write ?'s for USMLE, said that all pics come from Robbins & Nolte's book.
 
Top