- Joined
- Dec 14, 2001
- Messages
- 679
- Reaction score
- 16
I'm pretty much at the end of the Step I test cycle, so this summary may not be helpful to anyone. But I've appreciated the contributions of everyone else - so here's my part:
Either my test got messed up and gave me credit for doing an entire block that I didn't do, or I forgot that I did a block (the latter is more probable). Either way, I took 1 short break and upon returning I saw that I had less than 4 hours to finish 4 blocks. I then rushed through the next two blocks to try to make up the time (on the advice of the lady running the testing center). Later, I clicked on the little clock icon in the upper right of the screen and it said I had done more blocks that I thought I had done.
However, because I thought I had somehow lost time, I had rushed two blocks and skipped all breaks. Not stopping for lunch or to even look away from the screen gave me a headache that had reached migrane proportions by block 7. By the end, I could hardly see the screen.
All this to say: Do the dang tutorial at the beginning! I woulda known about the "clock icon" and wouldn't have made the dumb decision to ask the test proctor for help. She didn't know anything, and just told me to "catch up". Also, bring painkillers in case you get a headache from the computer screen. I worked at a .com before med school so I figured I could stare at a screen for 7 hours w/o problems, but for a number of reasons, that wasn't the case. Deciphering those graphs and extensive A-J answer options through the haze of a migrane is pretty tough.
I agree with a couple of other posters who have suggested that the Kaplan questions aren't the answer to the world's problems. Nor is 1st Aid. The questions are pretty scattershot, so you can't review in a step-wise manner. And 1st Aid was just basically impossible for me to truly memorize; it was too boring and really just an endless list of facts. The most effective thing I did was really crank through BRS Path, Phys and Lippincott Pharm.
The test is not a "high-yield" type of test. It also isn't as much of a reasoning thing as the MCAT. You have to know stuff, AND be able to come up with probable answers based on what you know. 1st Aid makes it seem like the test will be "cimetedine = ?". But it just isn't that simple. Knowing the mechanism of cimetidine will be much more helpful because the scenario you will get won't be something you can memorize. It'll be unique and will require some good reasoning based on what you know of different drug mechanisms.
I don't know how I did on the test. Probably not too well. My scores on Kaplan were usually in the 50's, and other diagnostic indicators weren't promising. Because I was so stressed out by "diagnosing" myself, I dramatically changed my study pattern for the final 2 weeks - I quit with all the on-line questions, all the self-diagnostic scoring, toned 1st Aid WAAAY down, and instead just busted through the "big 3" review books cover to cover, actively reading each page and doing the questions at the end of each chapter. I wish I'd done that for the entire 5 weeks I'd studied, maybe incorporating 1st Aid in more toward the end as well as some questions.
Finally, I think that to do well on the test, you should make sure you REALLY know the actual diseases/bugs/drugs and their mechanisms. There are very few (if any) 1-word associations. The goal should be to obtain true knowledge of the basic priciples of the material. You should know the material well enough to reason with it - just remembering the deatails isn't enough, and just being good at reasoning isn't enough...you gotta be able to do both.
Either my test got messed up and gave me credit for doing an entire block that I didn't do, or I forgot that I did a block (the latter is more probable). Either way, I took 1 short break and upon returning I saw that I had less than 4 hours to finish 4 blocks. I then rushed through the next two blocks to try to make up the time (on the advice of the lady running the testing center). Later, I clicked on the little clock icon in the upper right of the screen and it said I had done more blocks that I thought I had done.
However, because I thought I had somehow lost time, I had rushed two blocks and skipped all breaks. Not stopping for lunch or to even look away from the screen gave me a headache that had reached migrane proportions by block 7. By the end, I could hardly see the screen.
All this to say: Do the dang tutorial at the beginning! I woulda known about the "clock icon" and wouldn't have made the dumb decision to ask the test proctor for help. She didn't know anything, and just told me to "catch up". Also, bring painkillers in case you get a headache from the computer screen. I worked at a .com before med school so I figured I could stare at a screen for 7 hours w/o problems, but for a number of reasons, that wasn't the case. Deciphering those graphs and extensive A-J answer options through the haze of a migrane is pretty tough.
I agree with a couple of other posters who have suggested that the Kaplan questions aren't the answer to the world's problems. Nor is 1st Aid. The questions are pretty scattershot, so you can't review in a step-wise manner. And 1st Aid was just basically impossible for me to truly memorize; it was too boring and really just an endless list of facts. The most effective thing I did was really crank through BRS Path, Phys and Lippincott Pharm.
The test is not a "high-yield" type of test. It also isn't as much of a reasoning thing as the MCAT. You have to know stuff, AND be able to come up with probable answers based on what you know. 1st Aid makes it seem like the test will be "cimetedine = ?". But it just isn't that simple. Knowing the mechanism of cimetidine will be much more helpful because the scenario you will get won't be something you can memorize. It'll be unique and will require some good reasoning based on what you know of different drug mechanisms.
I don't know how I did on the test. Probably not too well. My scores on Kaplan were usually in the 50's, and other diagnostic indicators weren't promising. Because I was so stressed out by "diagnosing" myself, I dramatically changed my study pattern for the final 2 weeks - I quit with all the on-line questions, all the self-diagnostic scoring, toned 1st Aid WAAAY down, and instead just busted through the "big 3" review books cover to cover, actively reading each page and doing the questions at the end of each chapter. I wish I'd done that for the entire 5 weeks I'd studied, maybe incorporating 1st Aid in more toward the end as well as some questions.
Finally, I think that to do well on the test, you should make sure you REALLY know the actual diseases/bugs/drugs and their mechanisms. There are very few (if any) 1-word associations. The goal should be to obtain true knowledge of the basic priciples of the material. You should know the material well enough to reason with it - just remembering the deatails isn't enough, and just being good at reasoning isn't enough...you gotta be able to do both.
For First Aid, some enterprising author should take FA and add in all the damn details. As it is now, everyone is constantly going back to reference books and other review books to "fill in" FA. Big, big hassle. Some might argue that you''ll be creating a new textbook. True. But this expanded FA could be used as a first read, with the official FA then serving as the actual review source. The FA now is too bony -- someone needs to flesh it out a little more. I'd bet my money that book would sell...