Well, its been fun................not

[basupran]

Tomorrow is D-Day and I am contemplating pushing back the exam. I am looking over material and I have no idea what the hell anything is anymore. Ugh.... I realized last night at about midnight that I haven't really spent any time on pathology or pharmacology, but spent all my time on biochem, physio, and micro. At about 1201AM, a minute after I realized this, my adrenal medulla received word, and started secreting gallons of epinephrine. Soon, my heart caught on to all of this commotion, and then my brain joined the party. Every insecurity, fear and worry popped into my head. Like that time in High School, when Dr. Plass laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a surgeon, and proceeded to tell me that I wouldn't amount to anything. What about that that doctor I went to see when I hurt my hand-he told me I would never make it through med school. Were they right? Am I really not capable of this? I was too awake to go to sleep, and too sleepy to be study. Stuck in this confused, fearful state, I managed not to sleep, and now, I don't know what to do.


Well, I figure this is somehow 'normal', and I should just say screw it and hope for the best. I hope that I at the very least hit my NBME 3 score, which I took about 4 weeks ago. People don't go down with studying, do they?

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[deleted113029]

Tomorrow is D-Day and I am contemplating pushing back the exam. I am looking over material and I have no idea what the hell anything is anymore. Ugh.... I realized last night at about midnight that I haven't really spent any time on pathology or pharmacology, but spent all my time on biochem, physio, and micro. At about 1201AM, a minute after I realized this, my adrenal medulla received word, and started secreting gallons of epinephrine. Soon, my heart caught on to all of this commotion, and then my brain joined the party. Every insecurity, fear and worry popped into my head. Like that time in High School, when Dr. Plass laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a surgeon, and proceeded to tell me that I wouldn't amount to anything. What about that that doctor I went to see when I hurt my hand-he told me I would never make it through med school. Were they right? Am I really not capable of this? I was too awake to go to sleep, and too sleepy to be study. Stuck in this confused, fearful state, I managed not to sleep, and now, I don't know what to do.


Well, I figure this is somehow 'normal', and I should just say screw it and hope for the best. I hope that I at the very least hit my NBME 3 score, which I took about 4 weeks ago. People don't go down with studying, do they?

snap out of it! you should be able to hit your NBME score whatever that was. have some cajones and be confident when you take your exam...

 

[Medikit]

I had to stay in a hotel the night before my exam. I was so stressed out I tossed and turned and couldn't fall alseep until 1 AM. Then at 3:30 AM a garbage truck's reverse sound blared constantly through the thin walls while simultaneously the hotel provided alarm clock went off! It took me another hour before I could fall asleep again.

Oh yeah, during the test the computers crashed twice.

It should be stressful, you just have to push yourself to do it.

 

[anesthesiarocks]

Tomorrow is D-Day and I am contemplating pushing back the exam. I am looking over material and I have no idea what the hell anything is anymore. Ugh.... I realized last night at about midnight that I haven't really spent any time on pathology or pharmacology, quote]

It doesn't matter whether you spent "any time" on path or pharm. all that matters is if you know path and/or pharm fairly well. If you do, then it's irrelevant how much time you spent studying them. If you don't know path or pharm well, I'd learn some before taking the test.

 

[lumbering]

My advice: Don't push the test back unless there are objective signs of being underprepared (i.e. low scores on practice tests or failure to complete your study plan). If your feelings of inadequacy are merely subjective, ignore them. Don't let your adrenal glands screw with you. Punch them if necessary. Try deep breathing, meditation, masturbation, and alcohol (in moderation) to calm yourself in the short run plus hardcore review of weak subjects and lots of practice questions to build knowledge and confidence for the long run.

 

[FrickenhugeMD]

This doesnt pertain to anything about this topic, but I notice you are a proud 2 owner. Got one myself and love it. Had to give a shout out, sry, back to topic.

I have an 89 SC that I have built from the ground up

 

[basupran]

Thanks for the advice. I am going to go ahead and take it, and whatever happens happens. Not everyone can get the 99, but I did work very hard, and in the end, that is all that matters. I chose the right profession, and though I didn't finish all my topics, I feel priveleged for getting this far.


Frickenhuge, I love MK1's. Got any pics? Any engine/sc/pulley work? I used to have a Supra which, I parted out becuause I started med school. The car was heavily modified, but was too expensive (and crappy on gas...hard not to have a lead foot when you are pushing 21psi on pump). I recently got the MR2, and while it is relatively slow, the car feels like it is on rails. Nothing like a midengine...the physics are amazing. As soon as my boards are over, I am going to redo the suspension and do the turbo work. I am not going to for crazy horsepower, but I want a well balanced car that will do very well on the track.

Also, by frickenhuge, do you mean frickenfat or frickenmuscular?

 

[pugsly]

hi basupran....

all the best tomorrow....u will do well!!!! let us know what you thought of it and get some sleep

 

[surprisedgirl]

good luck

 

[TheEleventhReel]

Good luck. Let us know how it goes (after you sober up, of course).

 

[guitarguy09]

Have confidence in yourself. You can do it, you've worked hard. Time to go rock it. Best of luck.

 

[IndianBabu]

Good luck basupran.

Do NOT take melatonin tonight. Remember what happened last time?

 

[grw0o]

Hey man don't worry, I'm in the same boat as you!! I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow when I take it, but hey - my class pass rate is 97-98% - and I know I'm not in the bottom 10 of the class . I studied hard for a month - still don't know what the hell all those interleukins do and tons of other nit picky details (cough drug rxns) - but I am confident I will make it regardless of the outcome and you will too!!

Think about it - after tomorrow the worst of med school is over!!

My first rotation is in surgery starting next week and I am so excited I'm going to pick up some books this weekend

Goodluck and godbless!

 

[basupran]

I had to stay in a hotel the night before my exam. I was so stressed out I tossed and turned and couldn't fall alseep until 1 AM. Then at 3:30 AM a garbage truck's reverse sound blared constantly through the thin walls while simultaneously the hotel provided alarm clock went off! It took me another hour before I could fall asleep again.

Oh yeah, during the test the computers crashed twice.

It should be stressful, you just have to push yourself to do it.

Horror story! You were strong enough to pull through though.

Thanks for the well-wishes.

 

[basupran]

Hey man don't worry, I'm in the same boat as you!! I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow when I take it, but hey - my class pass rate is 97-98% - and I know I'm not in the bottom 10 of the class . I studied hard for a month - still don't know what the hell all those interleukins do and tons of other nit picky details (cough drug rxns) - but I am confident I will make it regardless of the outcome and you will too!!

Think about it - after tomorrow the worst of med school is over!!

My first rotation is in surgery starting next week and I am so excited I'm going to pick up some books this weekend

Goodluck and godbless!

In I go! Best of luck to you.

 

[sweatybrain]

so.

how was it?

(and congrat for being DONE!)

 

[basupran]

That was horrible, and harder than the NBMEs IMHO. I always wondered why some people said it was 'fair', while others said it was hard. I didn't fail, but I didn't do as well as I wanted to-things didn't click when I was reading the question, and I found myself faltering on the diagnosis, which is needed to pull up the pertinent information.

There were many more red herrings than I anticipated. Enzyme names differed by 1 or 2 letters. I had about 30 direct micro + pharm questions, not as many path questions as I thought, a ton of molecular path/biochem/enzyme questions, biochem was rough mosty because of the similarities between choices. Physio was graphs. Pharm is doable, but I am weak with it so I had a hard time. There were a lot of random experiments, but as people say, they are masking a relatively simple concept with complexity. It is hard to do this when you get fatigued as everything starts to look pertinent to the problem at hand.

NBME 4 felt more like the real thing, though the stems on my exam were longer. Neither NBME 3, nor the usmle cd were representative. I took NBME 3 about 1 month ago and gave myself a false sense of confidence. I did the USMLE CD yesterday, and was hoping it would be around the same level, but it wasn't.

A lot of the prior examinee posts said that the stems were 3-4 lines, most of my questions were significantly longer. I had about 30 questions with a big clinical scenario, with 7-10 lab values. Most questions were a paragraph. I thought I was good with lab values, but I found myself blanking when I saw the numbers and had to waste time looking some of them up.


I finished my NBMEs with about 10 minutes left/block, sometimes more, but I felt very very rushed during the actual exam. I didn't have enough time to review my choices. Approximately 1/3-1/2 of each block had a check mark, meaning I wasn't sure of the answer.

Mistakes:
UW is the ****, First Aid Q and A was not representative. I was getting crappy scores on UW and felt discouraged, so I spent the last couple of days doing USMLE Rx questions. hindsight is 20/20, but hopefully someone will read this: don't worry if you are getting crappy scores on UW, just push ahead, but learn from the mistake.

First aid has everything in there, and is a great fact review source. It is NOT a primary learning tool, but an outline at best. Kaplan books were phenomenal, and they did a good job explaining what they did. I did not have time to finish the kaplan books, unfortunately-there were times when I knew the info was in the books, but I didn't get a chance to look at it. I didn't listento Goljan, but I have a feeling that his audio would have helped me.

Oh well, I will try to put up a more detailed experience sometime soon, I have a long drive ahead of me.

 

[grw0o]

Yeah I do remember there being a handful of questions - specifically the heme - where a patient came in for a routine check up and you had to diagnose something based solely on labs.

UW hands down is the way to go. There were some long questions like you see in usmleRX or robbin's Q&A - but only 30 or so.

If I had to do it again i'd spend more time on UW!

Yay, time to party now!!

 

[basupran]

Yeah I do remember there being a handful of questions - specifically the heme - where a patient came in for a routine check up and you had to diagnose something based solely on labs.

UW hands down is the way to go. There were some long questions like you see in usmleRX or robbin's Q&A - but only 30 or so.

If I had to do it again i'd spend more time on UW!

Yay, time to party now!!

Congrats, and I hope you have a fun night!

 

[pugsly]

hey

how was the Anat and Bchem??? a lotta pathways?? ct's mri's??

 

[basupran]

It has been a while since I posted this, but I got my results:
.../99

If you read my post on 4/28, you can see that my thoughts were jumbled and all over the place. I was terrified after I took the exam, and felt like I barely passed. I went through a mildly depressive state for the next few days. In the end, it was worth it, and someone was looking over me on the day of my exam.


If I may, I have the following advice:

1) don't listen to everyone else who tells you that they did this, that, and then more. Ie, I didn't finish Pathology, and was very worried bc it seemed everyone read BRS+RR+Robbins 2x before the exam. Use your NBMEs as a guide, not what other people are doing. Focus on your weaknesses

2) UW is the ****, though the owners have a bunch of ridiculous anti-piracy measures and I hate them for that. As far as UW goes, I ranged from 25%-70% on the questions, and averaged in the 50's. After reading everyones conversions, I got worried, and considered changing my date. The smart thing to do: use an objective test, like the NBME, and find out where you truly stand. Don't worry about other people

3) the last 6 days are important. Get through FA 1X. If you are ambitious, use the last 14 days to go through FA 3X.

4) Pick only a couple of sources, and stick with them. Don't get bogged down with too much information. You will only get overwhelmed. Use what works for you, not what works for your friend's friend who got a 288/99.

5) FA is a piece of crap for studying, but it is a great review source. Don't use it to learn, but to get an outline. I like to think of FA as the index of my studies. I personally did not touch FA until 2 weeks before my exam. What I did was : Kaplan for a couple of weeks-->FA. I did not finish Kaplan like I wanted.

 

[knight3]

Man, that was inspiring! I have the step in exactly 10 days, and it was great to see that we'er all going through the same thing. Your advices are brilliant and very true, specially regarding FA and UW. Thanks and you should be very proud of yourself!

 

[Arctic Char]

yeah dude!!!! way to go!

and thanks for sharing

 

[Nitro]

well done

what does dr plass know anyway, the dude's a pervert...

 

[Scaredshizzles]

LOL, did you ever take a Plass class? Dude would totally make inappropruate jokes, I'm surprised it took so long for allegations to come against him.

 

[Medikit]

It has been a while since I posted this, but I got my results:
247/99

If you read my post on 4/28, you can see that my thoughts were jumbled and all over the place. I was terrified after I took the exam, and felt like I barely passed. I went through a mildly depressive state for the next few days. In the end, it was worth it, and someone was looking over me on the day of my exam.

Congrats dude! Your freak out might have just been information overload.