- Joined
- Dec 17, 2001
- Messages
- 2,151
- Reaction score
- 5
Just got back from the testing center, and all I can say is that I am glad that this chapter of my med school life has come to a close.
Ok, I know you are all huddled around your computers waiting for me to spill some secrets, so here goes...
There are no secrets. I got a solid mix of every subject with a large focus on path (of course), pharm, and cell bio. The cell bio stuff was pretty picky (signaling pathways, growth factor receptors, etc), some of the stuff I had learned in undergrad. I think I did fairly well on this section, but with my luck these will be tossed. Little to no embryo (5?s maybe), maybe 10 gross questions (half to which I said WTF?), micro was straight out of First Aid, with the exception of a couple of questions. Immuno was challenging if you arent good with this subject, or dont have a solid knowledge of the interactions between inflammatory cells. Most behavior questions were the "what would you say?" type questions with a small amount of biostats. Pharm was a little more challenging with a few drugs I have never heard of. The images pretty much sucked (CTs, MRIs, Xrays werent that great--little hazy from my point of view).
I finished in about 4.5 hours with 2 ten minute breaks (eye drops--bring them with you, I am glad that I had them! My eyes were destroyed from staring at the white background of the screen). I finished most sections with between 20-30 minutes left. I am pretty rapid test taker, so this was the norm for me (similar for CBSSA). I was jittery throughout the first three blocks, which was weird because I never have gotten nervous about an exam. I didnt settle in and relax until about the 4th block. By the end you just want it to be over, which also hastened my completion. I lost track of how many blocks I had completed, so for future reference I would put hash marks on your erase board so that you know how many you have done. I kept having to estimate by trying to count the number of times I put my code in on the screen.
All in all, first aid is the way to go. A more detailed knowledge of path, pharm, and cell was required for maybe like 20% of my questions (ie histopath, cell signaling, weird pharm drugs) to get them right. I found some of the questions were a bit tricky if you didnt catch something the first time you read it. I think the only thing that really could hurt me is missing some small statement in a stem that points to the answer.
Anyway I would be happy to post Q bank scores, CBSSA scores, Shelf scores, etc if you think it would help you assess anything or make correlations (I doubt it, plus I wouldnt want to be called a liar 😉 ).
The only advice I can give is to work hard and things will pan out in the end.
Good luck to everyone and thanks for all your help and support.
UC
Ok, I know you are all huddled around your computers waiting for me to spill some secrets, so here goes...
There are no secrets. I got a solid mix of every subject with a large focus on path (of course), pharm, and cell bio. The cell bio stuff was pretty picky (signaling pathways, growth factor receptors, etc), some of the stuff I had learned in undergrad. I think I did fairly well on this section, but with my luck these will be tossed. Little to no embryo (5?s maybe), maybe 10 gross questions (half to which I said WTF?), micro was straight out of First Aid, with the exception of a couple of questions. Immuno was challenging if you arent good with this subject, or dont have a solid knowledge of the interactions between inflammatory cells. Most behavior questions were the "what would you say?" type questions with a small amount of biostats. Pharm was a little more challenging with a few drugs I have never heard of. The images pretty much sucked (CTs, MRIs, Xrays werent that great--little hazy from my point of view).
I finished in about 4.5 hours with 2 ten minute breaks (eye drops--bring them with you, I am glad that I had them! My eyes were destroyed from staring at the white background of the screen). I finished most sections with between 20-30 minutes left. I am pretty rapid test taker, so this was the norm for me (similar for CBSSA). I was jittery throughout the first three blocks, which was weird because I never have gotten nervous about an exam. I didnt settle in and relax until about the 4th block. By the end you just want it to be over, which also hastened my completion. I lost track of how many blocks I had completed, so for future reference I would put hash marks on your erase board so that you know how many you have done. I kept having to estimate by trying to count the number of times I put my code in on the screen.
All in all, first aid is the way to go. A more detailed knowledge of path, pharm, and cell was required for maybe like 20% of my questions (ie histopath, cell signaling, weird pharm drugs) to get them right. I found some of the questions were a bit tricky if you didnt catch something the first time you read it. I think the only thing that really could hurt me is missing some small statement in a stem that points to the answer.
Anyway I would be happy to post Q bank scores, CBSSA scores, Shelf scores, etc if you think it would help you assess anything or make correlations (I doubt it, plus I wouldnt want to be called a liar 😉 ).
The only advice I can give is to work hard and things will pan out in the end.
Good luck to everyone and thanks for all your help and support.
UC
