USMLE Step I Question for Dual Degree OMFS

[oms22]

I have step I scheduled in a couple of months and was wondering how the dual degree guys prepared for the exam. (i.e. study materials, how long to prepare, what the test was like, Q-bank or not, what % of Q-bank to aim for if I am going to do it.....)

Thanks

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[gary_ruska]

I have step I scheduled in a couple of months and was wondering how the dual degree guys prepared for the exam. (i.e. study materials, how long to prepare, what the test was like, Q-bank or not, what % of Q-bank to aim for if I am going to do it.....)

Thanks

Gary "Steppin' the Steps" Ruska here,

You should set aside about two solid months to study for Step I if you want to do well (> 230)...one month should be sufficient to pass.

Here's what GR did, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (for you Jediortho):

Materials:

1. BRS Physiology
2. Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
3. BRS Pathology
4. Robbins' Pathology Question Book
5. High-Yield Biochemistry
6. First Aid for the USMLE Step I
7. Kaplan QBank
8. Lippincott's Pharmacology
9. Robbin's Pathology (not the little wuss one, but the big daddy)

Plan: Primarily used First Aid, when GR didn't understand something, GR looked it up in the aforementioned resources...The key areas on the exam for GR were pathology and pathophysiology. Know these well and you'll be fine. There will be, of course, some random biochem and molecular biology questions, a few biostats questions, and some important pharmacology, but the First AID book is sufficient for those.

The key for GR was to feel comfortable with the material prior to doing the QBank - try to get through the First Aid book once before doing QBank - it's not that helpful unless you know what you don't know...

Again, if your aim is to just pass (which it is for many OMFS residents), then First AID and the QBank should be absolutely fine.

As an aside, GR encourages you to do as well as you can on Step I - another feather in your cap, and it makes OMFS residents look good when they can spank the test without nearly as much prep as med students.

 

[oms22]

Thanks for the input.

 

[scalpel2008]

first aid for 3 weeks, q bank for 1 week. my program hasn't had anyone fail in 5 years.

 

[Ramathorn]

my program hasn't had anyone fail in 5 years.

wow! five years...

 

[toofache32]

...Again, if your aim is to just pass (which it is for many OMFS residents), then First AID and the QBank should be absolutely fine....

Ditto this. I used First Aid as an outline. Anything I didn't understand, I pulled out one of those review books to read it closer. I was averaged 55% on Q-bank, although I was really averaging around 65% towards the end of my subscription. This bought me a USMLE score right on the national average.

 

[Doggie]

Ditto this. I used First Aid as an outline. Anything I didn't understand, I pulled out one of those review books to read it closer. I was averaged 55% on Q-bank, although I was really averaging around 65% towards the end of my subscription. This bought me a USMLE score right on the national average.

Yeah, you are a pretty average man, except for your below average taste for NASCAR.

 

[Doggie]

Gary "Steppin' the Steps" Ruska here,

Plan: Primarily used First Aid, when GR didn't understand something, GR looked it up in the aforementioned resources...The key areas on the exam for GR were pathology and pathophysiology. Know these well and you'll be fine. There will be, of course, some random biochem and molecular biology questions, a few biostats questions, and some important pharmacology, but the First AID book is sufficient for those.

Dog "I hate speaking in 3rd person" Gie here,

4 weeks of First aide and Q banks landed me an average score as well. There's no need to do much better than a 183 (minimal pass), which is why I kick myself every time I think about how much I had overstudied.

 

[aphistis]

Yeah, you are a pretty average man, except for your below average taste for NASCAR.

A classical guitar major with an insatiable appetite for NASCAR...there's gotta be a psychology thesis buried in that somewhere.

 

[toofache32]

A classical guitar major with an insatiable appetite for NASCAR....

....who installed an air-conditioner in his dogs' house....

 

[north2southOMFS]

first aid for 3 weeks, q bank for 1 week. my program hasn't had anyone fail in 5 years.

Thats nothing. We got you beat by 2. Our last failure was 7 1/2 years ago, and we don't step foot inside a med school classroom until after we pass step 1.

Rock on S'Port!

(I mainly wrote the above to put more nervous pressure on our 1st years.)

 

[OMFSCardsFan]

It's been so long since I've been on here, I almost forgot how to log in...kind of like how N2S forgets how to take out teeth after a month off service...

At the Port, we are allowed (forced) to take all of our vacation the month prior to taking the Quiz. My intention was to get pretty comfortable with the Pathology section of First Aid prior to my month off, but that didn't happen. I also started doing some questions in the Robbins pathology book that GR mentioned (it was easy to do questions between pages while I was on call). I had gotten about 75% of the way through Robbins by the time I started my month off. At that point, I signed up for QBank, one-month subscription. I would study mainly from First Aid, and I'd use Wikipedia.org and eMedicine to get most of my peripheral information -- saved time over looking stuff up in books. If you search for something in Google and add "eMedicine" in the search, you can bypass the sign-in stuff when you click the link. It was a quick realization that my dental school didn't teach those classes in the depth as their medical school counterparts -- I had never seen a lot of the First Aid information before.

On Kaplan's site, QBank allows you to include or disclude any subjects you want when you create a test. I would study First Aid until I needed a change of scenery, create a test including only the subjects that I had studied so far (like "Pathology" and "Pharmacology"), and do only those questions. As I got through more information in First Aid, I widened the scope of the questions I did in QBank. When I took the Quiz, I think I had gotten through about 80% of QBank with a 63% cumulative score.

I took a couple of the NBME practice exams ($35/each) through their website, one two weeks before the Quiz and one five days before. They say that your score will correlate well with these. I got a 203 and a 205 on the two practice tests, which really made me feel good about the week-and-a-half of studying I'd done since the first one.

After getting the 205 on the second NBME, I decided to take it pretty easy those last few days. I dropped some on my real score, but I passed with a 196. Good enough for government work!

My co-resident studied hard in First Aid, and only did about 20% of QBank. He got the exact same score.

Expect to question, on a daily basis, why the hell you decided to do a 6-year program. Also expect to leave the test feeling like you had your nuts handed to you. I had never felt as sh*tty walking out of a test as I felt that day. It was miserable feeling like I was going to have to go through that eight-hour torture again to retake it.

In any case, I was thrilled given the fact that I hadn't had some of those subjects in 3-5 years and how I felt when I walked out.

Good luck! I'm happy to have that behind me...

 

[toofache32]

....I took a couple of the NBME practice exams ($35/each) through their website, one two weeks before the Quiz and one five days before. They say that your score will correlate well with these.....

I forgot about those. My year was the first year they did those, and we got one for free because they were just scoping out the questions. I liked it so I paid for the second one. My score almost exactly correlated with my real USMLE score. That NBME exam is scored differently, but I realized my scores were the same when I calcualated my distance from the average using the standard deviations they provide.

 

[WestCoast]

Expect to question, on a daily basis, why the hell you decided to do a 6-year program. Also expect to leave the test feeling like you had your nuts handed to you. I had never felt as sh*tty walking out of a test as I felt that day. It was miserable feeling like I was going to have to go through that eight-hour torture again to retake it.

In any case, I was thrilled given the fact that I hadn't had some of those subjects in 3-5 years and how I felt when I walked out.

Good luck! I'm happy to have that behind me...

I couldn't agree more. i was wishing everyday that i had done a 4 yr program. but now that it is behind me, i guess its not too bad being in a 6yr program

 

[scalpel2008]

I couldn't agree more. i was wishing everyday that i had done a 4 yr program. but now that it is behind me, i guess its not too bad being in a 6yr program

i was thinking of my buddies in private practice living it up on the golf course and going on vacation while i was eyeball deep in the minutia studying for step 1.