2007 USMLE Step I Experiences

[missmod]

I think I'll start the thread, since I just finished Step I today! Boy does it feel good to have it over with. In case you guys are wondering, my med school is on a different schedule, so we do basic sciences in 1.5 years, do one year of clerkships, and then take the boards.

So I started a 6 week study schedule (started after new years). The first five weeks, I studied for about 9-10 hours with a lot of breaks and took weekends off to either have fun or catch up/review. The last week I saved just for review and as many questions as I could fit into my 10 hour day. I have to say, this last week was the worst. Not in the no-sleep-cram-for-a-test kind of way, but in the huge-weight-on-your-shoulders kind of way.

Now for a breakdown of the subjects...

Biochem: There was not a lot of biochem on my exam. A few key enzyme deficiency ones (Lesch Nyhan, Maple Syrup Disease) but all of the questions were very obvious and did not require you to put much thought into it. Don't blow off porphyria and lead poisoning-- for some reason I got so many questions on that!

Molecular Bio: This was a big one! I think the NBME is moving away from the biochem towards questions on molecular bio. Many questions about DNA regulation, transcription, translation, bacterial plasmids, etc. Sometimes these questions look very scary -- they are always so long and use long names for molecules or restriction enzymes that you have never heard of. You need to get used to the question style and realize that what they are asking is very simple. The NBME forms have questions very similar to the molecular bio ones I saw on the exam.

Pharm: Another one I thought would be difficult but not. Big drugs you should know a lot about (like antihypertensives, drugs for hyperlipidemias, cardic drugs, etc.) However, I wouldn't worry too much about the side effects for every tiny drug -- especially the chemo and immunosupressant drugs that kept on tripping me up so much.

Micro/Immuno: I had not a single question on parasites! That huge chart of worms and helminths in First Aid had me worried for a while, but it was not a big part of my exam. If anything, just know the key phrases because if they do test you on it, it would be a really obvious scenario. Mostly bacterial processes and what you would use to treat them... or what was their mechanism of disease (i.e. endotoxn, exotoxin, etc.) Know immunology and cytokines well, as well as the functions of all the cells. Different immune deficiencies were all asked on my exam (there is one page in First Aid that sums them up very well).

Anatomy/Neuroanatomy: Always combined with a pathology question or an imagine. I had a few branchial plexus/lumbar plexus questions. Many questions would give you a clinical scenario, then ask you to identiy the artery/nerve/organ on a CT scan/MRI/angiogram/brain cross section. Again, I think Qbank does not help you much at all because there aren't that many images. All i can say is look through some atlases quickly as you are studying anatomy -- not Netters bc that won't help much, but books that will give you real radiographic images.

Physio: This was almost always combined with Pathology--they would ask the physiology behind some path process. I had so many questions where the question asked "what would be the levels of x, y, and z enzymes/hormones?", answer choices being "increased, decreased, etc"

Pathology: Not as detailed orientated as Kaplan. Very little histology related pathology -- most of the questions though, required you to make a diagnosis and then know something about the pathophys of the disease or the treatment of the disease. There were also a lot of images -- MANY more than Qbank's representation.

All in all, I think the test more manageable than Kaplan's Qbank. Don't let Qbank discourage you -- ! Doing the questions help you to learn, so if you were getting them all right then the questions are too easy and not really helping you much. I do remember many questions that I knew only because I got the question wrong on Kaplan's Qbank. Also, the NBME tests are VERY good and very representative of the real thing. They also help you get used to the wording of the Q's, which can be a LITTLE different from what Qbank is like. I did forms 2, 3, and 4 and I thought 2 and 3 were the best. A few images on those practice exams were repeated on my actual exam.

Goljan's book and lectures were great. He pointed out lots of things that wound up being on the exam and presents them in a way that really sticks. Also, his images are a great resource.

I've been lurking for a while and haven't really posted since applying to med school, but I have to say you guys have really helped me out during my boards studying. Good luck to everyone else getting ready to take this monster.

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[fun8stuff]

are you allowed to have something to drink while you are taking the exam?

 

[superdevil]

are you allowed to have something to drink while you are taking the exam?

no (at least not at my test site).

 

[cdql]

I believe you are allowed to bring water bottles and store them in your locker but not at the computers. (Probably more afraid of you spilling and zapping one of their systems rather than cheating off the label of your water bottle )

 

[DocMizzle]

Took mine yesterday, and my test experience was similar to SquishyMD's. Overall, the first four sections were comparable to NBME2 in difficulty; however, the fifth and sixth sections were much harder, more similar to UWorld (second and third order q's) but with longer question stems and more images, histo, graphs, and lab data to analyze. The first half of the last section was easy recall, but cruelly, the last 25 questions were extremely difficult. The difficulty of these last three sections was due to long question stems with a ton of info to analyze within time constraints, then having to pick out that one distinguishing sign/symptom that leads to the correct diagnosis from the differential, and then correctly answering the actual question, which would often be a recall of some remote first-year fact related to the disease process.

As for content, it was pretty much a mixed bag and covered just about every organ system. Many of the questions integrated organ systems within the question itself, so it's hard to separate them out. Molecular bio and micro/antibiotics were tested heavily. There was also a decent amount of anatomy and neuroanatomy/neuroscience. Pharm/path/pathophys were often integrated together, and the "what should you say/what is the next best step in management" q's were much more difficult than Kaplan/UWorld.

I studied hard for a month and even harder these last 2 weeks. I took NBME1 (score=510) before i started my studying to get a feel for my areas of weakness. I used FA as my main source and filled in the gaps with Goljan RR, BRS path, BRS phys, BRS Anatomy, HY Embryo, HY biochem, and HY Behavioral Science. Took NBME2 (score=630) four days out to see how much progress I'd made. I used mostly UWorld for questions, started out around 55% and finished getting high 70's low 80's at the end. My goal was to get 230+.

Overall i'm satisfied with my performance. I was able to catch many of my stupid mistakes, limiting them to probably 3 or 4 out of the whole test. Only got 5 or 10 WTF q's. I really don't think i could have prepared myself too much better; I might have been able to score 5 pts higher had I studied another week, but it comes to the point where you have to ask yourself if it's worth it. I'd personally rather have an extra week of vacation before rotations start. My best piece of advice is to get a solid night's sleep before the test, as this is what probably affected my score the most, especially with my most difficult q's coming at the end of the test when fatigue was setting in. To those of you who still have to take this beast, best of luck!

 

[domer621]

I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one to have post-step I dreams/nightmares...

This makes me feel a lot better... I still haven't been able to get good sleep since taking the beast, even though most of the q's I've looked up I guessed on correctly.

 

[Bandit]

i cant take this anymore................... i need to know if i passed!!!!!!!

 

[bigdan]

DrGuy-

Thanks bro!

I owe you.

dc

 

[pleaseletmepass]

are you allowed to have something to drink while you are taking the exam?

i was wondering if we can bring alcohol as well

 

[GOGETA]

i cant take this anymore................... i need to know if i passed!!!!!!!

No kidding, I took it in May.
I hope this week OASIS will tel me that they send my grade, so I can know if I pass or not.

The questions that were easy but I was confuse, I got them all I mean ALL wrong, it does not look good, only GOD will tell me.

 

[fun8stuff]

No kidding, I took it in May.
I hope this week OASIS will tel me that they send my grade, so I can know if I pass or not.

The questions that were easy but I was confuse, I got them all I mean ALL wrong, it does not look good, only GOD will tell me.

anyone now what the turn around time is for those who are taking it at the end of june (based on past years)??? i am thinking it will be long since a majority of the people are taking it now...

 

[5150]

To the people who just took the test, I have a question.

Which Qbank did you personally feel was the most representative of the actual exam, both in material emphasized and in question style?

 

[GOGETA]

To the people who just took the test, I have a question.
Which Qbank did you personally feel was the most representative of the actual exam, both in material emphasized and in question style?

During my test I saw several questions, exactlly like UW.
Some questions I knew the answer only because of UW.

Most areas where focus on the concepts of UW.
Bioch and Histology are weak in UW.

 

[Inquiringmind24]

I took the exam today and found it pretty challenging but not as bad as I thought. Although I was expecting to get a ton of nasty detailed biochem and molecular bio questions, there really weren't many on my test. The great majority was path/pharm/phys/micro/behavioral. After having taken both the COMLEX and USLME, I'd say that the USMLE was a little more challenging but a more fair exam than COMLEX. Plus, the fact that there were only 7 blocks on USMLE compared with the 8 on COMLEX made a big difference.

The questions on the exam I found the most challenging were some pharm questions dealing with wierd second messengers and some of those darn ethics questions where two or more answers looked good. My goal on the exam was to get higher than a 215 so we'll see.... Best of luck to everyone.

 

[Snelgrave]

First, I am not hardcore. Unlike many other posters, my goal is not a high score. Mean+ is fine. Our school is H/P/F first two years and I never honored a single course. Our school took a path mini-board during finals, so that helped tremendously.

Study plan 4 ½ weeks – the mantra is work smarter not harder. I generally hit things roughly in the order we learned in med school + weak high/yield subjects. My days started 9:30 – 10:00 AM and lasted till 7:00 -8:00 PM with lunch and breaks as needed. I tried to work out everyday, spend time with the girlfriend, and allowed myself to take a half-day off if I needed it.

I used FA as my general guide and filled in with other books as needed. UW - 68% complete. Kaplan – 10% complete. I tried to read in the morning and do questions in the afternoon/evening. I didn’t finish the qbanks because I always wrote down every significant problem/concept/fact I got wrong and reviewed them later.

Week 1: M1 subjects + pharm (my weak subject). Particular emphasis on immuno, physiology and biochem.
Week 2: M2 subjects. Hit them all, but emphasis on neuro, endo, renal, and cardio.
Week 3 - 4: Spot reviewed in the morning. Then did questions all afternoon. I would mix it up with random 50 Q blocks and focused Q blocks of variable length.
Last 5 days before exam – NMBE form 2 (230). Used the report to brush up on weak subjects. Reviewed behavioral and stats. Did all of Kaplan’s behavioral questions (~110) since they are harder the UW’s.

The test:
Started 8:15 AM. Block 1 was the by far my hardest. I had to make an educated guess on half the questions. Fortunately, the other blocks were easier and/or assessed my knowledge base – or maybe I just woke up. I always took at least 5 minutes between a block. 20 minutes for lunch. I ate light, but snacked often, and did pushups to get the blood flowing.

Path/Pathphys/phys – Almost half the questions. Many card/endo/renal questions. Most are 2nd and third level thinking. Not very many “what’s the diagnosis?”
Study sources: FA and BRS path and phys.

Micro/Immuno – 4-5 questions per block. Bacteria and viruses mostly. A few fungi. Only 1 parasite question. Mostly straight diagnosis or basic drug treatment. Immuno concepts are high yield.
Study sources: FA and Levinson Micro/Immuno.

Behavioral Sci/Biostats – 5 questions per block. Many more questions than I expected, but fortunately they are pretty straightforward. Sens/spec/T I error/etc. Many ethics questions.
Study sources: FA and Kaplan Qbank.

Pharm – 2-3 questions per block. UW is way overkill (in a good way). FA is all you need. Basic MOA, tox, and treatment.
Study sources: FA and RR.

Anatomy – one of my worst subjects, but fortunately not emphasized too much. 1-2 questions per block. Typical question is a clinical scenario and you have to know which nerve/artery has the lesion.
Study sources: FA and blue boxes in Baby Moore.

Embyo – 1-2 questions per block. I def wished I knew this better, but fortunately, there weren’t too many questions.
Stusy sources: FA and Kaplan book.

Overall, I felt I hit my goal. UW is by far the best investment you can make. It mirrored all the most difficult questions of the exam. I can’t think of a significant change I would have made to my study schedule. I’ll find out soon though.

Thanks to all who post!

 

[Snelgrave]

Minor point, but at my testing center you were allowed to bring earplugs. Great because the ear muffs provided looked useless.

 

[Taus]

Took it today...I'm too drained and buzzed to write a full review....but I think I can sum up w/ a few words....draining, but doable...UWorld and RR Path/goljan audio were unbelievable and right on the money.....and know your receptors/signal transduction/2nd messengers/etc

 

[surprisedgirl]

Took it today...I'm too drained and buzzed to write a full review....but I think I can sum up w/ a few words....draining, but doable...UWorld and RR Path/goljan audio were unbelievable and right on the money.....and know your receptors/signal transduction/2nd messengers/etc

congrats on being done!!!!

 

[y2janitor]

Took it today...I'm too drained and buzzed to write a full review....but I think I can sum up w/ a few words....draining, but doable...UWorld and RR Path/goljan audio were unbelievable and right on the money.....and know your receptors/signal transduction/2nd messengers/etc

Hey i take this thing pretty soon and i've noticed everyone is saying to know receptors/2nd messengers. What specifically does this entail?

 

[MikeyK]

"QISS and QIQ til your SIQ of SQS" is a pretty golden mnemonic to know... and one of the only worthwhile/not ******ed mnemonics in First Aid. I also had a cleavage problem about Phospholipase C, but I personally didn't have many 2nd messenger type questions. Oh, Like NO/cGMP/MOA of Sildenafil type stuff will show up, plus a question or two about GI hormones and their action.

 

[Taus]

congrats on being done!!!!

thanks....it feels damn good

 

[Taus]

Hey i take this thing pretty soon and i've noticed everyone is saying to know receptors/2nd messengers. What specifically does this entail?

that page in the FA pharm section is pretty good.....I actually prefer the other 2 mnemonics of the qiqs thing..... ie HAV1 M&M = Gq, MAD2's= Gi and the others are Gs by process of elimination...i always remembered that you were "2MAD...so you were shutting it down (ie Gi)" and "having one M&M is Gq...like a person only wanting one m&m b/c they're trying to look good (GQ)....sounds stupid but it worked for me

the above will tell you the 2nd messenger that each Gprot recepter uses....beyond that....the last chapter in HY Cell and Molec (1999 edition) is golden for 2nd messengers/signal transduction...ie what exactly uses Gprots, try-kinase, jak-sat, ligand gated, etc

 

[Arctic Char]

congratulations Taus! thanks for the feedback. hope the best for you . . . enjoy the beer

Cheers!

 

[TheEleventhReel]

Took it today...I'm too drained and buzzed to write a full review....but I think I can sum up w/ a few words....draining, but doable...UWorld and RR Path/goljan audio were unbelievable and right on the money.....and know your receptors/signal transduction/2nd messengers/etc

Congrats on being done! Time to get ready for COMLEX...

Let us know how they go!

 

[Taus]

Congrats on being done! Time to get ready for COMLEX...

Let us know how they go!

thanks Eleventth and Mtmed....I can't describe how good it felt to sleep in today and just lay around......as for the comlex....we had a comprehensive omm final at the end of the year so I'm just gonna spend a couple hours reviewing OMM/bug n drugs...and thats it

 

[Biscuit799]

So I took it on June 12th, which puts me at exactly one week post-test. Now what I'm going to say is definitely for those of us on the other end of the spectrum; a lot of what I went through won't apply to those of you with straight A's/H's/HP's etc, and shooting for a 250.

I thought right away that I wouldn't need to study anatomy. I reasoned that most of the relevant anatomy would be covered by pathology, and I was a TA for the anatomy lab last summer, so that should be enough. I also thought studying embryo would be a waste of time as all the relevant stuff (again) would be covered by pathology. I was definitely right on both accounts. While I'm sure I'll be cutting it close, if you're just looking to pass the week before the test, do NOT waste your time with these two subjects.

As far as the rest of my study plan goes, I broke it down to organ systems. I had 2-3 days per system. I'd start out by listening to the Gojian lectures (straight Gold), followed by BRS path and BRS physio. I'd then work through First Aid for everything else. That's it. While I think First Aid certainly isn't enough, if you know everything in there, you should have no problem getting in the 210's or maybe even 220's if you fill in the gaps well.

As far as test day goes, I did 3 straight blocks with 3 minute breaks in between. During the third block, fatigue hit, but I wanted to get through at least 4 before I stopped for lunch. So after the 3rd block, I took 10, and hit the 4th (which was living hell, no matter how well you prep, at least 1-2 of the blocks are hell). I couldn't focus to save my life. I took a 15 minute lunch break, then did the 5th, which wasn't bad, took another 5 minute break, and the 6th block sucked the life out of me. I was totally dead and probably put "B" for every answer. I took all of my remaining break ( I timed it perfectly, I had 20 minutes left for break and used all but 24 seconds of it). The 7th wasn't that bad, but by the time I finished I was so anxious to get out of there that I didn't really have enough focus to go back and take a serious look at the ones I marked. But I didn't care, I was done.

As far as my stats:

OGPA: 2.75
Kaplan: 55% overall, around 60 by the end, but my scores kept dropping in the last 2 days before the test
USMLEW: same as QBank
NBME(4): 175 1.5 weeks before test
NBME(2): 195 3 days before test
Free 150: 74%

I'll post my score when I get it, I'm anxious not only to get it but also to see how it correlates compared to my medfriends estimated scores.

 

[NineInchBone]

People, first of all take everything I say with a grain of salt. I know ppl say this all the time but really, do take what i say with a grain of salt because i guarantee you my exam was one of a kind.
First of all my exam was very very tough and i might add tougher than UW, NBME1,2,3 and 4. With that being said the exam is still doable. If you don't believe me ask the guys who score the 240's,250's and 260's fir i cant really say so until i pass and hopefully get comparable scores.
As for moi and everyone else I hope to pass and pass well. I am an average student, some of my class mates may think other wise but considering how much I do fool around, I I'm really just average.
I began studying, gunning for a pretty good score, towards the end I was forced to humble my self a bit and be a content with a not soo cocky score but still a descent one for residency apps. I'm not sure where to start from in my experience but here it is. I'll start from what i though was most helpful out of all my study tools and what i felt was not so helpful.

First of all if your school taught you basic sciences on a system based approach i urge you to review for this exam the same exact way your you learnt it. Defintiely make a schedule and don't try to be a swinger in your study process, you'll be deceiving your self, studying only the things you feel are important (may I remind you, we are not the test writters so read everything or at least as much as you can we do not know what they will ask.)

I studied with a subject based approach, as much as i love to tie things but this was the way my school taught it. Nevertheless, still feel free where necessary to tie in subjects together but focus on a subject/system at a time.

Books used ranged from kaplan to HY to Goljan. Most importantly limit the books per subject. For instance Kaplan might be pretty good for biochem but kaplan phsio is crap IMO. So select books wisely. Dont feel the need to go all kaplan or all HY or what have you. In as much as you want to limit your sources select each book based on which one is best "for you" or which ones people on here have mentioned are pretty good for that particular subject.
That being said for those of you who where taught on a system based approach i think there's now a high yield system based series out there so you can knock your self out with that and first aid to sup it. HY is written very well at least the mol bio series.
I'm looking at this info so far and seems like i have a lot to say i really hope my scores would say the same. Anyway back to my experience.
I used kaplan biochem-verygood but i also think FA was enough post my exam, kaplan physio-crap, micro-FA and MMRS(beautiful overlap-i would say the FA writers used this book for their Micro section) path-Goljan of course which i feel UW used to make their questions, sometimes word for word. Umm... anatomy i just did questions on anatomy from various sources and learnt from their explanations, FA as well has some good diagrams in the begining of each chpt on the systems edition. Immuno i used some class notes and supplemented with FA for some knee jerk things like autoimmune markers, cluster desigs and cytrokines, also molecular bio highyield has 2 good concise chapters on immuno-good for basic immune concepts and as referecnce of common autoimmune diseases.
i also used this book for cell and mol bio. Umm...whatelse, oh behavioral i really want to hold back but it wont be fair cuz someone else told me about this book. There's a book out there called first aid psychiatry for wards and boards (purple and black cover) this is a very very very good book to cover alllll your behavioral questions including drugs to treat, side effects etc. its not bulky, very comprehensive, quick and an interesting read (FYI i dont like psych). You definitely need to supplement with brs for the biostats and epi section and maybe childhood developmental stages if you really want to go hard (wasn't on my exam). histo and embryo didnt study exclusively on these subjects but pay attention to any questions during your practice that tie these in as they are the more likely questions to pop up, but definitely in a different way so my advvice on the "low yield topics" which weren't necessarily so on my exam is that ANY question you see on these topics, look at every answer and explanation on that question study it research it and understand it but dont waste your time trying to study mad exclusively on these cuz you might shoot yourself in the foot "literally" postexam. pharm FA is good but still not very clear on some things and might need other outside sources to clarify and supplement, lange cards are descent. I aggree that pharm is memorization, but believe me there is some concept to it if you really look (by the way i hate memorization so sometimes if it means you need to go the long route to make it clear, do so. its your exam, your score, your life not what your friend told you he or she or her aunts 2nd cousin in law did). FA-i wasn't a fan of. IMO, too bulletty for me no emphasis or depth but nevertheless it means the world to some and might mean the same for you, so if it works for you and manifests in your practice scores keep going if not you need to open up a bigger book-sorry my 2cents. Guys this is not a sergent spit drill kinda test you really have to understand MAD COCEPTs the why not the what and if you do understand 99% of the "whys" you will annialate (probably the wrong spelling -who cares you catch my drift) the test - Goljan said this and its true. trust me i can be a bull****ter sometimes playing bball, soccer, gym instead of studying hard core.
This is an exam you want to study hard core for so you dont punch out your bedroom walls when your results come out because you were spending time at the club or whatever your extracurriculars are.
Question sources
im not going to post my scores cuz it would be irrelevant if i don't pass the stupid exam. Like i said i'm an average student and a few times a bit above average.
UW this is a very good source and im a huge fan BUT it is NOT like the real exam, trust me. the good thing about it is that it drills you on what you've studied and drills you on almost all the posible highyield materials that you would ever come across from goljan to kaplan notes to FA to some say video lectures. Keep in mind that these questions where written by students not NBME so take it with a grain of salt but still do it. IMO they pretty much regorged everything goljan said some things in FA somethings MMRS and almost all other popular usmle review materials out there. So the good thing is that in doing UW, the more you study the higher your scores should go (be happy with the improvements but like i said this is not like the real exam) improving in your scores should let you know you are doing the right thing but don't get gassed.
NBME is pretty good especially with the graphs charts and any pics or scheematics you might see on them because THIS IS PROBABLY THE ONLY THING THAT YOU CAN TELL YOURSELF WOULD BE REPLICATED ON THE EXAM almost exactly but with a diff quest. everything else do NOT push your luck. The examiners work hard in trying not to replicate any questions so the exam is fair for anyone who takes it in the entire world not just U.S and SDN memebers. So keep that in mind when answering question in practice and on the real thing, they may test the smae highyield concepts but hardly in the same way you saw it in your various Qbanks.
Kaplan Qbank is trully the very best next thing to shooting yourself in the foot if you rely solely on this q-bank as a good question source. I did only about a 3rd of them after completing UW and i started with an okay score on it considering i just finished doing UW but as time went on i started getting series of questions on concept/topics that where, either new and not rated or I had never ever been tested on before. Doing this towards the end of your studying is not good because you displace the things that are more important. Kaplan is not a high yield Q-bank IMO but more so a gen basic science Qbank so if you do use use it, use it early and only as learning tool. But 4real, its not worth going through the 2000+ questions on there to get only the 1/3 of the good questions they have which some ppl here on sdn have attested to after completing it, by the time your done you may have forgotten the things that where more highyield for the exam and have a wonderful wealth of knowledge on ish you are very unlikely to get tested on.
Pretest pathophys is very good. I saw a question word for word on there... made me feel like the author may have been one of the writers for the USMLE, just speculating. But honestly do this book in your last week or 5 days before. it pretty much covers everything from anatomy to micro to phys and pharm. all except for behav and biostatistics but I swear that the wordings of some of the difficult questions and easy ones are justy like the nbme and the real exam..hmmmm i wonder different questions for the most part but there's an enigma to the way the questions are written.
That been said i still felt my exam was very, very tough and maybe like 2 and 1/2 blocks where ok the rest where out of this world with a sprinkle of Thank God questions here and there. So ppl study your asses off. I got a rack of anatomy questions-more than i expected, hard ones too (i swear) and every other topic was pretty much covered evenly but with tough long stem quests, and required "propper" reasoning and some quests you had to pay close attention to every stinking word that was in the stem (every)-not all the questions where like that. some questions you would read and know the answer of the bat and if you do then its probably right but the catch is your answer, the way you like to see it wont be there in the options. so you have to look for the one that relates best to your answer (example: characteristics, manifestations of longterm complications of the s/e of a drug, properties of structures, treatment of common diseases that you probably knew everything about including the etiology and pathophys but didnt pay attn to the treatment, etc) dont get distracted by the other beautifully crafted choices becuase they are what they are, distractors. well I'll stop for now if i remember anything else i think might be helpful I will add on to the posts, I just pray i pass the stupid thing cuz i really felt like crap comming out the exam hall... sorry for the typos i aint no english proff...lol
Last words if you are studying with materials now and you see improvements in your performance stick to what your doing, now won't be the time to experiment or do what other ppl think you should do. On the other hand if you do not like your performance thus far and wish to imporve it, seek advice from those who are willing to help, not your fellow competitors friends or not. Not everyone is out there for your best of interest. So therefore, look at this forum and ask ppl who already took it and did reached your aspired goals or w/i that ball park. Still listen around though cause not everyone is out there to get you...lol but be wise with the advice you take.




Good luck peoples...back to my bogus (cuz I dont know if i passed) stress free post exam experience. 1!

 

[The Buff]

I took the test on Monday and feel like I should give something back, so here goes...

My preparation consisted of mostly FA and RR Path, with some of the other books used to fill in on the side. Things like BRS Phys and HY Cell (1st ed.). Nothing you haven't read here before, and I did not find any earth-shattering new books to use. I also used UW after a little stint with Kaplan at the start of my study period and like everyone else I have to say that if you have a choice then UW is the way to go. Unlike many posters here I think if you have Kaplan you will do fine, UW is not the secret to a high score, but go with UW if you can only have one. In addition, I would advise you to start UW early if you really want to read through all of the explanations because it takes forever to do so.

I had 4.5 weeks to study, and tried to use it as efficiently as possible, but it usually came out to about 10 hours per day.

As for the actual exam: I have to start by saying that I got the exam that proves everyone will not see the things that are typically said to be "high-yield". Just goes to show that everyone's test WILL be different. Here is a list of those subjects that I seriously had 0-1 question on overall: biostatistics (grrr), vitamins, second messengers, brachial plexus, anything having to do with molecular biology. What did I have a lot of? Path, path, and more path. I also had a lot of toxicology-type questions (Cyanide, drug overdoses, carbon monoxide, a couple others) so I was glad I read that chapter in Goljan.

As for a breakdown of the test:

Anatomy: Not too hard. Some blood supplies, and a couple random questions on ureters and vertebrae.

Embryo: A couple of really random ones here. Didn't read HY Embryo (ran out of time) but FA was not sufficient for them. Seemed like a lot of my embryo questions involved twinning.

Neuro: Just a few that were not too bad. No crazy CT/MRI scans or anything; and as above, absolutely no questions on the brachial plexus.

Biochem: This is probably my worst subject and I was happy to see that everything here was very simple and right out of FA. Not too many questions overall, but of course know your F2,6 BP.

Micro: Again, not a huge portion of my test. Mostly bacterial although I did get a random virus question that Goljan just has a "?" by in his book so I really hope that one was experimental. Couple of fungi; no worms. They didn't go too crazy on the abx, it was mostly MOA and very simple toxicities.

Immno: Had quite a bit of it which I was pleased with. Even had a few straight up "what does this Interleukin do?" type questions. Know the basics and you will be good.

Pharm: I was scared to death of this section, but it is true that FA is all you need to know. I would say that MOA is the key to know for most of the drugs and then toxicities.

Behavioral: Some crazy questions here. Not too much pure psych on my test, but lots of quote questions (about 12 or so). The quote ones had some hilarious scenarios (I actually laughed out loud at one of them just because of the question and the fact it had nothing to do with medicine.) and they always seemed to have two logical answers. No way to prepare for these since they went beyond confidentiality and other basic ethical principles.

Phys: Not as many ‘arrow questions' as I would have liked (those are my specialty—so of course there were few) but this area was very high-yield for me. There were many pure physio questions (including one calculation, and two(!) EKG's) plus a lot of pathophys. I was very glad I read BRS phys and thought it was an awesome book overall.

Path: Like I said above, this subject was everywhere no my test. A TON of pictures of gross specimens, photomicrographs, CT's, you name it. Unfortunately they started to get into some details that I didn't quite remember (two I missed on f'ing Reye Syndrome) or diseases that bordered on obscure. Oh well, guess I should have read through RR again. (PS: Thanks to the concepts thread for teaching me about thymomas....)

Bottom Line: The test was not that bad overall. Lots of gimmie questions with a few harder ones mixed in. (I marked about 10 question per block that gave me problems.) I honestly felt that if I had just memorized more obscure facts I would have done a lot better, as opposed to not being able to think through the questions adequately. FA, RR, and UW were just great. They made up the bulk of my study time and I wouldn't do it differently if I had to do it over, except I would try to get through all of UW.

My scores (to make this legit and so you smart people can ignore this post):

First two years: average grades

Qbank: 75% ish (but only 15% complete)

UW: 70% (51% complete: should have done more but I took 2.5 hours per 50 questions, so it started to eat too much time)

CBSA: 195 (given by school in March, before we had even done neuro or I had opened FA)

NBME #2: 226 (2.5 weeks ago) (I felt this one was the closest to the real thing in terms of difficulty)

NBME #3: 244 (1 week ago) (I felt this one, unfortunately, was much easier than the real thing, maybe it just played to my strengths)

150 free: 86% (had four of these on the real thing)

Step1: 246/99 Very happy with this!

Good luck everyone who still has to take it!

 

[NineInchBone]

Wow... I just saw the amt of typos I made, anyways I hope you guys at least understood what was written despite the gramatical errors. Gotta run..

later

 

[NineInchBone]

Someone asked.... path was RR 2nd edition and neuro I did specific questions on and looked at some class notes. Practice questions when using a book was subject specific but the online q-banks where mixed and timed.
If scores come out okay, I would share a better breakdown of my actual schedule.

 

[muddlephud]

That's how much I just wanted this experience to be over with. Finally got to drop that kid yesterday, and man do I feel better. Most of my experiences with it repeat things that people have already said here. I used Qbank for the last month of school, studying lightly, then after school ended studied hard-core, 11-15 hours/day with maybe 3 days off total. I was an above-average but not stellar student these past two years. I took NBME #1 right after school and got a 410... took NBME #2 a week later and got a 450. At that point I switched to UW from Kaplan Qbank, and found it was a lot better. As everybody before me has said, the UW questions are very similar to the real thing, the format is identical to the real thing, and the explanations are fantastic - it works well as a primary learning resource, not just a means to test your knowledge. Qbank I thought had too many obscure questions, not enough 2-3 level "integrated" questions, not enough images, and less-complete explanations. Plus I only used UW for a month (70% complete, hitting mid-70% correct on unused questions by the end of studying), which at $75 is a bargain. I used FA to organize my studying; it's the best of it's kind out there, but it had plenty of errors. Goljan's lectures were phenomenal and I had at least 3 questions that I was able to answer without thinking at all strictly due to his lectures (talkin' bout you, nutmeg liver). I listened along to Goljan lectures while reading his RR Path book (also very good), used Robbins's path when needbe, Rapid Intepretation of EKGs (excellent), Lippincott's pharm, Lippincott's biochem, Ridic. simple micro, and the embryology animations at indiana.edu (highly recommended- don't underestimate the utility of embryology even if it isn't thoroughly tested- it helped me understand/remember nerofibromatosis, the orientation of the greater and lesser omentum, the innervation of the tongue, etc.) Studied very intensely for the week leading up to the test - definitely key for remembering all the micro/biochem/immunology minutiae.
The test itself: If you have been working with UW a lot, the test is going to be exactly what you think it will be. I knew, immediately, the answers to maybe 40% of the questions - I had a "very good feeling it's this answer, though I can't precisely explain why" approach to maybe another 45%. And the last 15% were either WTF or "oops, didn't review that". Most of the subjects tested I felt thoroughly prepared for - pharm was my weakness, which I knew going in. It's true what people say, the molecular receptor stuff is 'big-time' on this exam; gotta know your CNS receptors, your intracellular cascades, which hormone uses what pathway, etc. I also discovered that I didn't know my hepato-biliary diseases as well as I would have liked, and that neuro can always be made difficult. The behavioral sciences are a ridiculously easy place to pick up points- very happy I didn't just gloss over those. Overall though, very few unpleasant surprises - watch your timing very carefully - I occasionally put 5 minutes into a question, but only when I had spare time at the end of a block to dither with. I opted to take a lot of quick breaks, where I would get a small amount of food and caffeine- this worked well, was alert and never in a food coma. The Prometric facility I used was excellent - good staff, very quiet, no delays.

Educational objective:
After taking the test, I think if you don't use UW and Goljan lectures, you will be at a disadvantage to those who do. Not to say you can't attain the same scores, but you'll have to work harder for it.
Good luck to everybody.

 

[UT_mikie]

Hey guys,

Took mine two weeks ago. And it sucks but its true, you don't know what kind of test you are going to get so you have to know everything. I read this board and after all of the "Cell bio / Neuro anatomy was so hard <cry> <cry>" I decided to hit that stuff hard the last day or two, and guess what? I got about 5 questions total on both of those subjects that were cake and right out of first aid. Only 2nd messenger question I got was what glucagon increases in the cell which is easy of course.

So study everything, in the first aid. About 80% of my exam was right out of there, but you need to have a general understanding of the concepts that first aid presents or you're screwed.

I think I got a fairly easy form, which I hear is a bad thing for your score. The exam is fair, but your nerves will get to you, as will the lack of sleep the day before. The biochem was all out of first aid, anyone who says FA is crapp simply doesn't understand the concepts out of there and tried to memorize which is no good for the exam. FA is not a crutch but one of many tools you need to use. Its the best review out there and the high yield information out of there is just that, high yield.

So let me echo everyone else and say that your best friends in order are:

- USMLE World
- FA
- WYNTK course (for Texas residents only I guess)
- Goljan audio (over and over and over again, in the shower in the car, while you are eating, running, having sex ... )
- Goljan Rapid Review


If I had to do it all over again, I would use the above sources in a heart beat. Oh, and you're an idiot if you gloss over behavioral, it gets almost equal representation on the test as all of your 1st year courses combined. And Goljan audio will not really help you that much with individual questions but in terms of finally getting a grasp of concepts for the exam his lectures are absolutely essential. So don't expect his vitamin A/bear liver q to pop up on your exam, but his explanation of diabetic nephropathy will be essential in sorting out a mechanism on your exam.

Overall, its not quite the monster you think it will be, just make sure you avoid dumb mistakes and try not to second guess yourself too much. I will post more detailed explanations if my score is good. As for stats:

NMBE 2: 600/240, 2 weeks out, I only took one form.
USMLE WORLD: 92% complete. Consistently in the mid 70's 1 week before the exam. The average is lower of course since I started in the 30-40's.

I felt like crapp after the exam actually, but maybe I psyched myself out. Overall I had about 10 questions marked for the harder blocks and 2-3 for the easier ones. Lets hope I did alright. God speed to all of you.

This turned out to be not so brief.. oh well.

 

[Taus]

Everything I would say about the exam has really been said in the last few posts.....UW, Goljan audio + RR and FA were "Gold, Jerry, Gold". However, they won't serve you much good if you just glaze over them, memorize some facts and never actually take the time to fully understand and be able to apply every detail.

 

[NineInchBone]

thats funny UT_Mike, Ive never really heard that if a test was easy then thats not a good thing. But who knows, mine was tough.

Shooting for a 245+
UW: started in the 50's then jumped to 60+s b4 the end of the week. The next week I was getting 70's to mid 70's, all unused, mixed and timed. Didn't quite get to hit the 80's at the end, I ran out of questions. kap Qbank (33% of it) i started out with 70's-mid 70's and then got stuck and sometimes went down to the 60's. I didn't like these questions so I didn't complete it, I then switched to Qbook to freshen up my subjects. Mostly mid to high 70's and some 80's here and there. Behav section was really wack more like 58's so i brushed up on this subject. NBME#1 pre-any qbank and at the begining of my studying was 450 (not a proud score) but went up from there for the rest of them. NBME# 4 was my best score.

USMLE step 1 ....???

 

[blz]

I'm a little doubtful that there are true 'easy' and 'hard' forms out there. it's all relative. i think if you felt good coming out of the test, that's more of a reflection of how prepared you were rather than how easy the test was. if you felt like crap coming out, most likely it's post test jitters, or less commonly, you didn't know the material as well as you thought you did.

 

[Hallm_7]

I took mine on today.....well yesterday now seeing as it's after midnight.

I wouldn't exactly call it easy, but it definitely was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I did NBME form 3 (430) but it was before I had touched pharm, behavioral, biochem, and half of micro, and stats, so I don't know how accurate it will project my score. I all but quit doing Qbank because it was frustrating me and I thought it was pointless (I would recommended trying UW instead....it's cheaper and apparently more accurate) to learn the amount of detail that Qbank requires. At the point I quit I was getting in the mid-60s I guess. I took the USMLE 150 the day before my test and I got 86% right. The 150 is definitely more like the real test than Qbank.

The path and pharm and phys are usually all rolled into one in these vignette style questions. So in order to know the phys you need to know the path and vice versa. The number of, "What is the action of this hormone" type questions were pretty rare. Instead they might give a certain disease state that you had to figure out and then ask a question about the primary hormone involved. The biggest key to these questions was simply to take your time and reason things out. If you do that you can easily knock of 3/4 of the answer possibilities because they are so absurd, and you'll usually formulate the answer in your head without even needing to look at the answer choices.

Here's my point by point breakdown of subjects:
Biochem: I spent roughly three days going through FA biochem (genetics, molecular bio, traditional biochem, cell bio) and it was the best time I spent doing anything I think. There are tons of biochem questions thrown in that are really easy questions if you know the enzymes and disease states that accompany them. Also, molecular biology was pretty important on my tests (types of mutations, exons, introns, transcription factor concepts, splicing sites, post-translational modification, etc).

Path: BRS was plenty in depth and broad. I highly recommend it. Almost all of the path is clinically associatied. There were almost no path questions that didn't have a vignette attached to it.

Pharm: I just used FA and I think I did fine on it. It was one of my weaker subjects, but I don't think it will hurt me all that much. Get ready for graphs and charts with pharm. There are more pharm questions that use graphs and such than there are side effects. The most common pharm questions involved antibiotics and cardio/ANS.

Phys: BRS Phys was plenty in depth as well. Particulary focus on endocrine and renal as they are the two largest sections by far. Get read for a lot of questions where you have to predict renin, angiotensis, aldo, ADH levels if Na intake is cut or increased (or something similar using a different scenario).

Micro: Micro Made Ridiculously simple is amazing! Their antibiotic section was more than adequate for this test. Make sure you know the 8 important gram + bugs (Staph, Strep, Bacillus, Clostridium, Listeria, and Corynebacterium) because almost every bacteriology question stem will include whether something is gram +/-. You can always mark off one or two possibilities simply because that option is a different gram stain. I got quite a bit of bacteriology on my test.

Viral micro: I maybe had 5 questions the whole day. Learn the shape of the capsid, whether it is enveloped, and the nucleic acid it carries. Knowing these things will allow you to mark off many possibilities just as knowing gram stains allows you to mark off many possibilities of bacteria.

Fungal: 2 or 3 questions the whole day I think.

Ethics/Situations: I don't know how to study for this, so it's more of a common sense thing. There were a TON of these on my exam (at least 3 or 4 per sections I guess). I was really surprised at how well they were represented.

Stats: 5-10 questions the whole day. FA is pretty much adequate, but there were a couple that I didn't know exactly. Also, on these just use common sense. If you don't know the equation just think about it logially. I was amazed at how many ridiculous and impossible answers were seen when it came to numbers (for example, in genetics if the frequency of an recessive allele is .1, then it is impossible for the frequency of disease to be more than that; yet all but two of the answers given were .1 or larger.)

Majorly important point: Don't get your head down if you don't know a string of answers. I would literally go 10 or 15 questions in a row that I knew for sure and then I would get a string of 3 or 4 that I had absolutely no idea on. This will happen, and if you let those 3 or 4 get you down you'll start to panic and will miss many of the easy questions that follow. Also, be sure to use your breaks. The ending of a section was always stressful because I used all my time reviewing any marked questions. There's just something about a ticking clock that increases cortisol levels. IMO, it isn't smart to start another section immediately after finishing one. Walk out of the room for 5 minutes to get fresh air and calm down a little. I would also recommend taking your phone with you so that during lunch you can call somebody (mom/dad, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc) to just get your mind off things. My parents are in Florida, so I called them and we talked about the beach and mating sea turtles (they saw them ealier in the day....that didn't just come up ). Anyway, it's a great way to relax and momentarily leave the stressful situation you're in.

The day will absolutely fly by. It was one of the fastest 8 hours of my life. And when you walk out of the building it will be one of the biggest feelings of accomplishment you've ever had. Keep that in the back of your mind when you're plowing through those middle blocks of questions.

All in all, it was a tough exam, but it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought people made it out to be. And I'm also convinced that, while studying the month or so before the exam is important, you must have a solid foundation encompassing the entire first two years of school. There's just something about learning how to think during those two years that is absolutely essential to doing well on this exam.

Good luck to everyone!

 

[Hallm_7]

I'm a little doubtful that there are true 'easy' and 'hard' forms out there. it's all relative. i think if you felt good coming out of the test, that's more of a reflection of how prepared you were rather than how easy the test was. if you felt like crap coming out, most likely it's post test jitters, or less commonly, you didn't know the material as well as you thought you did.

I agree. This whole notion about an "easy" test or "hard" test is bogus. It's like saying you're going to beat the house when going to a casino....you may beat the house with 10 hands, but you're going to lose every time when you play 350 hands. The test is long because that way statistically everyone will get the same numbers of easy/medium/hard questions and path/phys/pharm/embry/etc questions.

Also, people typically remember the subjects they are weak in. You will forget about every question you knew without a doubt, but you'll remember every question that you had absolutely no clue on. That means if you're weak in embry you are going to remember every embryo question. If you're weak in GI phys then you'll remember every GI phys question that comes along. In your mind you'll think these were overrepresented on your exam, but in reality you've fallen into a logical trap because of emotion.

 

[NineInchBone]

Guys the book i mentioned earlier for psych was psychiatry for clerckships... purple and black cover... the pathophys pretest i was refering to is the new edition (3rd edition).

BLZ when did you take your step1 and how did you do?

 

[blz]

Guys the book i mentioned earlier for psych was psychiatry for clerckships... purple and black cover... the pathophys pretest i was refering to is the new edition (3rd edition).

BLZ when did you take your step1 and how did you do?

I took it last thursday (6/14). Scroll up a bit and you can see my experience. I still have a while before my score comes in but i'll let you guys know how it turned out.

 

[viostorm]

Took it today:

Three words: GOLJAN GOLJAN GOLJAN!!!!

Other things I found high yield, first aid is pretty much gold but you have to *understand it* and not memorize it.

It is a total crapshoot what you are going to get, don't blow off a single subject. I think they prescreen all applicants and find out what you don't study from your NBME's and then screw you on the real thing.

USMLEWorld and QBank were ok, but don't make the mistake thinking they will be like the real thing. My real thing had a TON of random crap you probably couldn't find anywhere but Harrison's or NEJM.

What I did and thought was good:

Lippincott Biochem: A+, it was awesome, especially the diabetes chapter at the end and the cell and molecular section was plenty. This book was one of the best things I did.

BRS Path: B+, the quizzes at the end help cement topics

HY Neuro: it was B+, I got some random neuro questions that were really tough and not in HY neuro, but I also missed a couple of midbrain lesions that were completely my fault. Overally 95% of neuro is in that book, but it doesn't integrate it well with the other topics which is where my questions fell.

Micro: Clinical Micro RS - I did it, it was good, got me no questions on the test. Everything was from first aid with emphasis on virulence factors. Know the lab algorithms.

Goljan RR: A-, everything you need is in here

First Aid: A+, 100% of pharm came right from it. MEMORIZE the drug reaction page (I think 222).

BRS Micro cards: A-, I liked them

BRS Pharm Cards: A-, but too much detail, 100% in FA.

Anatomy: Flipped through netters, did all the USMLEWorld anatomy questions in tutor mode the day before the test. Got me 2 or 3 questions.

BRS Phys: B+, did a good job of just phys but I had very little phys. It was mostly PATHOPHYS and this book is useless for that. I spent a lot of time memorizing equations, I had none on my test. I really think First aid is enough, but then again, I like working problems.

BRS Behavioral: A, it will definitely get you the questions on the test, most of it can however be done from First Aid and I disagree with some of their *ethics scenario* answers. Go with Qbank/USMLEWorld. Memorize the sensitivity/specificity page in First Aid, all the biostats came right from it. My advice: NEVER REFER A PATIENT. I had several of them that you could rule the answers out just by applying that rule.

Did 50% of Kaplan QBank, and thought it was completely too random, in hindsight maybe this lets you get the more obscure questions on USMLE.

Did 70% of USMLEWorld, I liked it, but the difference is the USMLE will be a mix between easy and impossible questions, whereas USMLEWorld is always *intermediate* level in my opinion.

Last NBME 1 week before was 240, I'd be SOOOOO psyched if I could be in the 240's. In reality I think I'll be between 220-240 because Form 2 played to my strengths, and USMLE definitely showed my some of weaknesses.

**************

Updated: Step I - 246!!!! Thanks SDN, thanks "papi", thats FA team!

 

[marr]

Took it yesterday, my general impression after the test was that people overhyped this exam as being the hardest. I thought that the MCAT was much harder than step I. To be honest, there weren't hyper intergration between subject matters that most people on here make it out to be. Yeah, there were a few oddballs here and there but it was like 8 or 9 questions on my exam. The majority of questions could be answered if you pay attention in class, learn the basic concepts, a few stuff you have to recalled from undergrad not in med school, and finally some common sense. There were a few questions that gave charts and stuff and they make it look very very complicated. But in reality, they asked something very simple. None of the questions I had were tricky nor would they have extra stuff that would misguide you down the wrong answer. instead, it was classic disease presentation without the buzzwords and lab values, that was it. It seemed like either you know it or you don't. You read the questions and if you know the answer and see that it's one of the answer choices then you are golden. Overall, a very fair exam, they will hit on everything at least once. If I had known beforehand what I know today, just do questions and plenty of it, review your weak subjects and take the exam. Oh, this wasn't a "thinking" exam like the mcat, rather it's more like recognizing the disease and know everything about it like what would it's lab values be, how would the x-ray look like, basic path mechanism, patient's symptoms. If you know all of that, you are golden.

FA=useless, waste of money, a quick review at the end only. Maybe 3 or 4 questions came from FA on my exam. A low yield study method.
Qbank=useless, waste of money, 2 thumbs down. Doesn't really teach you anything, maybe you pick up on some really weird diseases. Step I focus on your everyday problems.
USMLEWorld=overhyped yet again, really useless, questions bordered on asinine, you really wouldn't learned much except that the format looked very much like the real deal. Do it if you have time.
Goljan=didn't used him at all.
BRS=phys was a good review, didn't used path.
Robbins review of questions=man, wished I had gone over this like a gazillion times. basically, if you do every questions in this book, you have down about 80% of what step I will cover. if you really want to know how step I asked questions, just do this book, the questions are about the same length, actually a few showed up on my exam word for word. The rest were derivative of this book. Know this book and you will literally tear up step I.
High Yield=Neuro was the bomb, learn it, because on my exam at leat 50 questions were about neuro. tracts, diseases, symptoms, and everything in between were on my exam. Believe me, this is one of the few books that you feel like you weren't robbed of your money.
BSS=a jewel, know this 5 parts series and you will own step I. Literally, every questions asked came from this one source. Except for the weird molecular and biostats questions. it's old from 97 but it's gold. Do it early though, it id very long and detailed. read it again when you are taking you exam. The best questions bank that no one is using. I really wished that I had more time for this beast. the best part is that it's free, just look around on the internet. best bang for the bucks.
Biochem=lippincott, a jewel, classic disease presentation. DOn't read word for word pay attention to the charts and dieases. trust me, you will thank your self afterward. it's worth every penny.
NBME=ha, one question showed up on my exam. Pic for pic, word for word. NBME 2 was just liked my exam. Nbme 3 and four had some weird questions which was like the 8/9 questions on my exams. made in the 600's for all 4. not really a predictor of anything, just points out your weakness. You better work on your weakness, step I seems to smell it and will hurdle tons of it your way.


What i would of have done differently? F*** FA,Qbank,Goljan,USMLEWorld. You know 50 % of this test already, that is if you had pay attention in class.Take NBME 2 and 3, not a predictor of anything, see your weak point and work on it. Do BSS early and Robbins early, you will be glad that you did. Not helpful for class but gold for step I. Then review your answers choices again and again the week leading up to your test.

 

[marr]

Oh yeah, like to do a shout out to Long Dong. The dude has been posting his stuff on here for a while. His experiences with BSS and Robbins led me to doing them for step I but I didn't believe that it would help much. Ha, after the test BSS and Robbins made me a believer. Thanks Long Dong, your post helped me out alot. best of luck whereever you are.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Oh yeah, like to do a shout out to Long Dong. The dude has been posting his stuff on here for a while. His experiences with BSS and Robbins led me to doing them for step I but I didn't believe that it would help much. Ha, after the test BSS and Robbins made me a believer. Thanks Long Dong, your post helped me out alot. best of luck whereever you are.

Yeah what Long Dong says, I do.

 

[blz]

Yeah what Long Dong says, I do.

I generally do as well. Only I couldn't follow his step1 schedule as much as I would like because who the hell studies 6 months for this test (obv worked well for him since he's living in derm bliss). Looking back at older step1 posts when he took it (with lord jeebus, bigfrank, and others) - those guys were insane. we haven't seen too many 260+s since. i don't think i could stomach a schedule like those guys though. actually, it wouldn't even matter because when i made the realization that i should be studying for step 1, i was way too far along to follow any of their schedules.

 

[musinj6]

Hi,

I wanted to get an idea when I should start thinking about the Step I. I'm starting my first year and thought it would be worth getting a 2006 step I study guide just to keep in mind what is stressed while I'm taking courses. However, I thought that I should refrain because A. perhaps the step I test changes a lot each year and B. I need to focus on taking coursework at the beginning. Thoughts?

 

[ginger60]

Hi,

I wanted to get an idea when I should start thinking about the Step I. I'm starting my first year and thought it would be worth getting a 2006 step I study guide just to keep in mind what is stressed while I'm taking courses. However, I thought that I should refrain because A. perhaps the step I test changes a lot each year and B. I need to focus on taking coursework at the beginning. Thoughts?

This is not really the thread you should be posting this question on, although you are correct that you should probably refrain from buying a step 1 book now. If you look back on some of the older threads, I'm sure you can find several other threads from MS0/MS1s asking what to do about studying for step 1, and I will reiterate what most of those threads say--focus on your coursework your first year, maybe consider getting FA your second year when you are doing path, but don't even start thinking about the test yet--you have enough to worry about with starting med school. I'd encourage you to search through older threads if you want more recommendations.

 

[panerai1]

Time to give back...very anticlimatic. I don't know if I got an easy test or was overprepped (or overstressed) or whatever, but it felt just like a UW or NBME with plenty of gimmes and a few WTF's thrown in. I paced on par to all the practice stuff I did (about 20 min of extra time each block), which was on par with previous NBME's and stuff (I just test fast, I dunno). The glaring difference for me was that instead of ambiguous answers like a lot of UW, there weren't too many questions with very similar answers to guess between.

The test was overall pretty balanced, in that I don't recall thinking there was an abundance of any one type of question. I was surprised by the behavioral content, but in the end it was on par with what others have said.

Previous Stats:
MCAT: 35
Grades: Gen HP with a few H's here and there
NBME: pretty much the pharm shelf was the only one worth anything for us, so I studied and got a 700. Others in the 5's and high 4's.

Study Materials:
Basically I used FA as the skeleton to build a comprehensive review book to go over multiple times the last week or so. I did all of Kaplan Qbank (74%) and UW (65%), along with the free 150 (86%) and NBME 1 (210, prior to any studying but pharm) and 3 (228, about 2 weeks in). I used no other books besides a little Micro Ridiculously Simple and occassional glance in BRS Physio to remember some stuff.

Schedule: I started studying the first of April, taking 2 weeks to go through BioChem, 2 weeks on Micro and 2 weeks on Pharm (we take the Pharm shelf as our last 2nd year exam, so it set up well). From there I did a day on each topic, generally going through FA twice and then doing anywhere from 150-200Q per day from Q bank, and taking notes on the stuff I got wrong or guessed on and got right. Every 4 days I did a review of the previous 4 systems, going through FA and then doing a full 350 from UW, again trying to understand the errors and what not. I took no days off over the month or so, but was flexible in terms how much I did per day. Before people call BS on the number of questions I did per day, reviewing mistakes generally equaled reading the objective and highlighting in FA or adding a quick few words that would allow me to remember the concept when I came back to it. I wasn't delving into Robbin's to learn everything about the missed answer, rather just understanding how the info was presented. 2 weeks out I was done with all materials, and was doing around 300-350 UW mixed unused per day, hitting between high 60's and high 70's. Last week was spent just going over FA a million times.

I'll refrain from advice since I don't have a score to go by yet, but I feel questions were key to me doing well, as they were with the MCAT. I won't get into the Kaplan/UW debate, as I think both served me well, but I will say there were a few questions that I had only heard of the disease from UW (AD QT prolongation springs to mind). There is just a finite way of presenting this material as a patient with a disease, and for me the more exposure to them the better I tend to do, even in classes during the first two years. Good luck to all still prepping, what you put in will most likely be what you get out of it.

 

[UT_mikie]

Took it today:

It is a total crapshoot what you are going to get, don't blow off a single subject. I think they prescreen all applicants and find out what you don't study from your NBME's and then screw you on the real thing.

Naw, I sucked at all the musculoskeletal stuff on my practice exam and I don't think I got even one question on my actual exam. I know you were kidding though. But if we were to stick to conspiracy theories I think that they see what you were weak in on the practice exams, then they assume that you are going to study those topics, and then they don't test you on that stuff on the real thing.

But then of course they know that you know that they know that you know the material you DON'T KNOW, so they proceed to ask you a bunch of questions on diarrea by obscure parasites. Thats how they do it. I mean duh!

 

[lfesiam]

This message board was very helpful for me. I guess it is now my turn.

My Step 1 Experience &#8211; 2007

Outline
I. Introduction
II. Studying Materials & Question Banks
III. Scheduling & Studying System
IV. The Exam Day

I. Introduction
Hi everyone, I took my exam this past Monday (06/18/07). Overall, it was a very fair and doable test. Believe it or not, my test was evenly spread out among all subjects & systems! I also had 2 pictures of Giardia Lambia on my exam! What is the chance of that happening? Lady luck?

My Exam Subject Spread:
20% Pathology
10% Pathophysiology
10% Physiology
10% Biochemistry, Genetics, and Nutrition
10% Molecular Biology and Immunology
10% Pharmacology
10% Anatomy and Embryology
10% Microbiology
10% Behavior & Biostats

My Exam Difficulty Level:
50% easy
30% medium
10% hard
10% medicine from mars

My Milestones
NBME Form 1 = 204 before studying
NBME Form 2 = 221 midway into studying
USMLE World = 50% before studying
USMLE World = 60% midway into studying
USMLE World = 80% last week before exam

II. Studying Materials & Question Bank
My core materials were FIRST AID and USMLE WORLD. Put First Aid in a three ring binder, it'll make your life easier. USMLE World is the best QBank hands down. 1) They simulate the FRED interface down to the exact details (fonts, color, mechanics, timer, location of buttons, etc.) 2) The questions test you on multi-step thinking 3) The explanations are top notch, clear, concise, full of beautiful diagrams 4) Very affordable. The familiarity factor alone will give you an edge on exam day. It'll feel like another set of practice question. I also used the following resources to cover my weak areas: HY Neuroanatomy, Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, and BRS Behavior. Overall, if you've gone through First Aid 6 times, USMLE World 2-3 times, you will be golden. Other important resources were the NBME exams. They're made by the people who wrote step 1. You can access the service here: https://apps.nbme.org/nsasweb/servlet/mesa_main. I used them as assessment tools, one before studying and one midway into my study.


III. Scheduling & Studying System
Set a schedule and goals. I used Google Calendar to block out my days (http://www.google.com/calendar/). Very useful, flexible and printable! As for my schedule, it was something like this.

Part 1, The First Run, 15 Days
Before I seriously started studying, I took an NBME practice exam to assess my knowledge. Based on my practice exam score of 204, I planned my goal score at 220. For two weeks, I read First Aid in the Morning and completed 100 to 150 Questions in the afternoon (subject based). My main goal is to completely finish First Aid and the Question Bank. I also scheduled one free day per week for catching up or relaxing. I also blocked in lunch, workout, and dinner time each day! [Milestones: NBME 204, USMLE World 50% Correct (100% completed)]

Part 2, Patching Up Weak Areas, 10 Days
I took another NBME practice exam midway in my preparation. The score was 221. I achieved what I wanted but I kept up the momentum by focusing on my NBME weak areas. I used the next 10 days to re-read First Aid. This time around, I would use other resources to supplement FA. I also did questions from my "WRONG" question bank on USMLE World. [Milestones: NBME 221 (2 weeks before exam), USMLE World 65% Correct (Wrong Question Bank)]

Part 3 = Last run through, 5 Days
I used these last 5 Days to fully go through First Aid one last time. This was the time when I would do 4 blocks of mixed 50 questions per day. I also used this time to train myself into waking up at 6:30am everyday. Make sure you make a test run to your center site during this time. [Milestones: USMLE World 80-90% Correct]

IV. Exam Day
Get there early and they will let you start early. Go in with a positive attitude. The FRED software interface is identical to USMLE World; the familiarity factor will aid you in maneuvering through the exam. You will be given a code to punch in every time you start a test block. Once you hit "enter" the timer will start, so make sure that you take a deep breath before you click the key! Also go in with a plan with your day organization, for example: 1 block, break, 2 blocks, break, 1 block, lunch, 2 blocks, break, 1 block. Be flexible though. If you hit a hard block, take a longer break to gather yourself together before you begin another one. Make sure you don't drink too much caffeine since bathroom breaks are not allowed once you started a block! Pack your own lunch and bring snacks with lots of sugar. Use them to help you during the morning lows if you are not a morning person. That's all from me. Good luck everyone.

 

[StudentOrthoPod]

1) Who reads these 2 page posts?
2) Took the exam yesterday - it was HARD (3 blocks not so bad, 4 that for 15-20 q's each block i was always down to 2, and had to guess)
3) had lots of pharmacokinetics that i had never seen before (surprised me)
4) 25-30 anatomy q's, much of which was neuroanatomy
5) pharm, micro and behavioral were a breeze
6) physio was tough, path was tough, biochem was tough (LOTS of cell!!)

Background: unknown state school
MCAT: 30, ugrad GPA 3.82
GPA: 3.8 (rank - 20 out of 140 -->have worked my ass off for the past 2 years)
Studied for 32 days: used FA, UW (finished 90% of q's w/ avg 67%), some Goljan audio; should have used HY Cell/Molecular and definitely should have listened to more GOLJAN!!

Goals were 235+, hoping for 240 - (see name)
Only form was our schools full-length mock 10 days before, which has been shown to have on avg a SD of 6 points. Score: 230
Step 1 score: ??? - 1 month until I find out!!

Thanks to everyone on StudentDoctor - I have been reading here for 2 years now!

E

 

[TX_Longhorn]

just came back from the center, my time to contribute.

i ll write about my study schd, books, etc if my scores are decent.

as far as the test goes, it was a combo of UW, nbme form 3 and 4 (for molec bio), and some wtf - about 15 or 20.

my first bloc was cake walk, but it started to get tougher after that. bloc 6 and 7 were the toughest most likely bc i was wearing out.

the questions came from everyplace. a lotta details were tested - most are in FA though.

Anatomy: maybe 2-3 qns per block. not too bad. FA + UW are good enough for most of these qns.
embryo: 5 or so in the entire exam, again easy.

Neuro: 3 or so per block - all were associated with pictures, but were sooo easy. luckyly, no MRAs on mine.

Molecular bio/genetics: 10 per block. most tested basic concepts in weird ways. terminology is very imp to know and understand. i was clueless to some of the words being thrown around.

biochem: not much on my test, everything is in FA. Just know the big picture.
actually maybe a couple of em required u to know more than FA

Behavioral/biostats: My hardest section. 3 or so ethics qns per bloc that were rape me up the as$ hard. i guessed after narrowing to 3 choices. ALso, the regular psych qns were tricky too, none were classic presentations.
bioststs was very easy. all from fa.

path: Not too much of pure path, most was tied in with rest. there were a bunch of pictures though that required you to name the pathogenesis or some other trivial factoid associated with the disease.

pathophys/phys: Most of the test was full of these qns. renal was the theme for my test i guess. The reason why some of these qns could be hard is bc they ll ask you about changes in different electrolytes, etc after giving you a disease state like sickle cell anemia, leukodystrophys, etc - basically stuff with which you wont ever imagine any other correlations.

micro: 95% from FA. a lotta bacteriology.

immuno: this was a mixed basket. most were easy but some of em required you to have majored in this subject. i mean wtf is oncertinM

pharm: most from FA. some of the qns required more than just FA.

There were some computational problems that required too much time, which i didnt have the luxury of, so i guessed on those.

The test is mostly about application of the material u have covered. thus reading and re-reading review books wont take u far. it is imp to practice practice and practice.
Also, a lotta qns will require you to think back to what you learnt in class, since you wont find em in review books, so learn the stuff the first time around.

gd luck to all those who who are yet to take the beast.