What's wrong with me? Need help FAST.

[Dr Dejected]

I am desperately in need of advice. I just can't take this test. Well I could take it, but I would fail miserably.

I just don’t understand. I had no problem with the MCAT. The first 2 years haven't been horrible. I have been studying for a few weeks now, but I am not improving AT ALL.

I am averaging 40% on UWorld. I'm not asking to do great on Step 1, just not embarrass myself. I have 2 weeks left before the exam. Aside from crawling under a rock (which I have considered…seriously), what would be the best course of action?

Thanks.

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[McGillGrad]

How many practice questions (UW etc) have you done so far? How about a NBME exam?

 

[Durgsheel]

when I started doing practice questions on UW I was barely making 50%. Just disregard the nyumber and do the questions and see if you can answer correctly. If you get it wrong, is it because you did not know or could not decide between final two choices or just plain marked the wrong choice. I sort of feel that the approach forward could depend on which one of these is your case (or something else). it may also be worthwhile tro just do an NBME test to really see where you stand with scores.

If all else fails then rethink your study strategy and dealy taking the test.

 

[Dr Dejected]

I have only done a few hundred practice questions (since I was guessing on almost every one, I tried to concentrate on FA).

I'll take an NBME exam tomorrow to have a more accurate idea of where I am.

How much time do you think I should spend studying FA vs. doing questions?

Thanks-

 

[Durgsheel]

Tell us more about yourself - did you just finish MS2 or are you IMG or something else?
Memorizing FA straight up without understanding it does not work for me - I wish that it did, it would have made my life much easier. Just straight up memorizing is OK for short term but considering the gamut of information, when I used to take tests I would not score as well.

 

[Dr Dejected]

I just finished MS2 at a really great school (which makes me feel even worse). I don't think comprehension is my problem. I understand everything, but I don't seem to be able to recall information when taking tests.

How do you memorize FA? Reading through it doesn't appear to be enough for me, but it took too long when I tried to make flashcards.

 

[DrMike24]

This is a pretty important test, and not something to be taken lightly. Really think about it, and if you are not ready, then delay it and hit the books some more. You may be able to pass it by just memorizing FA, but if you truly want to do good, you need to understand the material. I would say the first half of your studies, you should do something like 50:50 review and questions. It is very important to know why you got something wrong. Try to understand the mechanisms of what you are studying. Try to ignore UW%. Its meant to be hard.

The closer you get to the real test, do more questions and less review. Take a couple of practice tests, especially the UWSAs. They were the closest thing to the real deal. And an absolute must, is to go over as many of your incorrect UW and UWSA questions, as many times as it takes until you understand why you got it wrong and then hopefully right. Don't just memorize, understand. Good luck

 

[Disinence2]

Don't stress. Chances are you know way more than you think you know. If you made it through M2 with passing grades then chances at most US medical schools are 95% + that you will pass step 1.

Don't let Uworld scare you. Its tough. Do an NMBE (1,2 or 3) and see how you do.

Remember you have 2 weeks left. Sounds to me like your might just be stressing too much and not learning enough.

Best of luck. If your an audio learner then don't forget goljan.

 

[Durgsheel]

I just finished MS2 at a really great school (which makes me feel even worse). I don't think comprehension is my problem. I understand everything, but I don't seem to be able to recall information when taking tests.

How do you memorize FA? Reading through it doesn't appear to be enough for me, but it took too long when I tried to make flashcards.[/QUOTE]


I would recommend looking for Dr. Goljan's audio online or upper classmen. It is great. Too bad I did not know about it in second year. As one of the previous contributors noted maybe you are just panicking. That 95% statistic for pass rate is true. Trust your instinct and do some practice NBMEs. They are a good metric to guage your progress. Rapid Review Pathology by Dr. Goljan is a great resource. It is long but he explains the disease state very well (second to none). That may be used as a refresher if you understand the material well.
Good luck.

 

[FreakofMeds]

I am desperately in need of advice. I just can't take this test. Well I could take it, but I would fail miserably.

I just don't understand. I had no problem with the MCAT. The first 2 years haven't been horrible. I have been studying for a few weeks now, but I am not improving AT ALL.

I am averaging 40% on UWorld. I'm not asking to do great on Step 1, just not embarrass myself. I have 2 weeks left before the exam. Aside from crawling under a rock (which I have considered…seriously), what would be the best course of action?

Thanks.

You need to offer more info, especially your study method. You could be going about step 1 the wrong way. Step 1 is not about memorizing only, it's about understanding concepts. First Aid is never meant to be used as a normal text book, where you just read through it and hope that something sticks. It is a very very high yield text book that expects you to have read and understood most of the concepts it mentions at one point during your studies at med school, but just happened to lose them in your very deep memory. What First Aid does is just rekindle those shutdown memory circuits. If the circuits weren't there in the first place it won't work. You have to give much closer attention to First Aid, and if you don't understand a concept in First Aid, you really need to seek a more informative source that can explain it to you. Anyone could memorize first aid, but understanding what you are memorizing in order to be able to implement that knowledge into a clinically based problem solving mode much like Step1 can't be done by anyone, it needs medical understanding.

You also need to learn how to manage options. Strike out as much as possible, and then take a best guess. Your chances for getting the question will creep up.

I just did Step 1 yesterday, and in general the real thing has a larger ratio of straight forward questions than USMLE world. If all you wish to do is pass, then you should at least break 55%.

And like the others said, try some of the assessments around, whether it was NBME or USMLE world SAs. Don't beat yourself on this.

If you have the time, I recommend you give it a week or two more. Obviously I didn't get my score yet, since I just did my step 1, so I might be giving the wrong advice here if I find out in three weeks I flunked the test, and more seasoned SDNers are better at this. You can read my score progress on SDN step 1 experiences. Finally I recommend that if you make the decision to go on with the test on time, to just shut down SDN, because that could raise your anxiety much further and reflects negatively on your scores.