Good luck all. I have my exam end of March and hope to be the 1st one to post here for 2010.
Official 2010 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
- Thread starter FMD212
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Coolguy!! Your stat makes mine look like child's play. I am certain that you will beat 250s even if you fell asleep through the exam. And you will be somersaulting when you see the 270 smiling at you. My own wait will be one week tomorrow. we will all survive it guys.
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Hey guys, thanks for the support. Test day however was a different story. I couldnt sleep well the night before and was damn tired throughout the exam. That itself limited by ability to think clearly. I relied heavily on what I had read rather than actually trying to figure out the question they were asking.
My pathophys questions were pretty tough and so were my ethics questions. I had a lot of anatomy on my exam and most of it was stuff you couldnt really prepare for. Overall though, I think I did really well on anatomy (most of it not in FA), biochem (I know I missed one question, possibly more), embryo (it was pretty stupid--some of it was in FA), I had a lot of molecular genetics stuff though, and all of it was in the first aid so I wouldnt get too crazy on that stuff. Micro and micro pharm was very heavy on my exam--I had some very rare stuff on there including very rare treaments; ummm what else is there...one thing though; the stuff I was weak on I think ended up being my strengths whereas the subjects I thought I knew very well (according to previous exams and quizbanks), ended up being my worst topics.
Overall though, I think first aid or DIT (which is just FA plus some), is all that sufficient for a great score. UWorld was good but I kinda wish i did it later in prep now, I did it too early and forgot some of the key things.
One thing I noticed though, they do not try to trick you on the exam--if you think its the right answer, it probably is!! (I missed 4 questions by second guessing myself--always go with your instinct!!)
My pathophys questions were pretty tough and so were my ethics questions. I had a lot of anatomy on my exam and most of it was stuff you couldnt really prepare for. Overall though, I think I did really well on anatomy (most of it not in FA), biochem (I know I missed one question, possibly more), embryo (it was pretty stupid--some of it was in FA), I had a lot of molecular genetics stuff though, and all of it was in the first aid so I wouldnt get too crazy on that stuff. Micro and micro pharm was very heavy on my exam--I had some very rare stuff on there including very rare treaments; ummm what else is there...one thing though; the stuff I was weak on I think ended up being my strengths whereas the subjects I thought I knew very well (according to previous exams and quizbanks), ended up being my worst topics.
Overall though, I think first aid or DIT (which is just FA plus some), is all that sufficient for a great score. UWorld was good but I kinda wish i did it later in prep now, I did it too early and forgot some of the key things.
One thing I noticed though, they do not try to trick you on the exam--if you think its the right answer, it probably is!! (I missed 4 questions by second guessing myself--always go with your instinct!!)
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Congrats... But not so fast!! Care to dwell on how it was? Your thoughts during, and after you walked out of the exam? I am taking my exam next week, and really aiming for 240+.. So whats a normal feeling during the exam? Did you feel it was hard/easy while you were doing it, or did you have a good/bad feeling after you left?
Congrats again dude! You input is greatly appreciated
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I'd actually say that's an amazing score. I'm sure the ~90% of people who score lower would agree. By SDN standards, you *barely* passed, though.
............heeheh I know.
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Ok so I got my score on Wednesday at around 6:30am (yea it was early
.and I was hyperventilating as I opened the PDF doc)
I got a 245/99
I was ok with the score its respectable I wished it was a bit higher and am hoping its enough to get a categorical surgery position at a university program.
I can say . there was nothing on my practice exams and my STEP exam that wasnt covered by SGU.
I began studying late December and took my exam on March 22nd. My days were long (i.e. varying between 12 -18 hours a day .everyday), and I studied in 4 hr blocks. Usually I would take out an hour in the evenings ..go for a walk ..and listen to Goljan. If I was too tired too read b4 going to read I would also listen to goljan. This is what worked for me .its different with everyone else.
I studied by subject .not by organ systems, b/c Kaplan doesnt really divide their books that way. I pretty much counted the number of pages I needed to cover and divided by the approximate number of days I had (i.e. about 50 60 pages a day). Every day I did between 50 200 questions depending on how much time I had. I paid close attention to the explanations .as they filled important gaps in my notes.
I left about 2 weeks for review. During this time I re-read my pathology notes and read thru First Aid. I also did a random block of questions every day from USMLE World up until the day of the exam
A week b4 the actual exam I took a practice exam at the Prometric Center it familiarized me with the place and my anxiety level was definitely much lower .I would highly recommend it
So exam day
.was a bit scary (at first), but uneventful. Its easy to psyche yourself out
.but try to think of it as a practice exam
.and keep going.
I did 2 blocks took a 10 minute break .another two blocks ..a lunch break two blocks bathroom break .and finally the last block. During my breaks I ate tangerines (pre-peeled), mini snickers bars, took a swig of coffee; For lunch I had a cheese sandwich and mini- snickers bar. The sugar and caffeine refills kept me going. Try not to have anything with high protein ..or a heavy lunch for that matter .you wanna stay awake.
Sources
Overall:
ii. NBME 2 = 244 = 3 weeks out
iii. NBME 3 = 247 = 2 weeks out
iv. NBME 4 = 244 = 1 week out
The several must haves are: Goljan book and tapes, USMLE World Qbank, and NBME practice tests everything else can be switched around or debated.
Good luck to anyone about to take their exams. If anyone has questions after reading this feel free to PM me.
I got a 245/99
I was ok with the score its respectable I wished it was a bit higher and am hoping its enough to get a categorical surgery position at a university program.
I can say . there was nothing on my practice exams and my STEP exam that wasnt covered by SGU.
I began studying late December and took my exam on March 22nd. My days were long (i.e. varying between 12 -18 hours a day .everyday), and I studied in 4 hr blocks. Usually I would take out an hour in the evenings ..go for a walk ..and listen to Goljan. If I was too tired too read b4 going to read I would also listen to goljan. This is what worked for me .its different with everyone else.
I studied by subject .not by organ systems, b/c Kaplan doesnt really divide their books that way. I pretty much counted the number of pages I needed to cover and divided by the approximate number of days I had (i.e. about 50 60 pages a day). Every day I did between 50 200 questions depending on how much time I had. I paid close attention to the explanations .as they filled important gaps in my notes.
I left about 2 weeks for review. During this time I re-read my pathology notes and read thru First Aid. I also did a random block of questions every day from USMLE World up until the day of the exam
A week b4 the actual exam I took a practice exam at the Prometric Center it familiarized me with the place and my anxiety level was definitely much lower .I would highly recommend it
So exam day
.was a bit scary (at first), but uneventful. Its easy to psyche yourself out
.but try to think of it as a practice exam
.and keep going.I did 2 blocks took a 10 minute break .another two blocks ..a lunch break two blocks bathroom break .and finally the last block. During my breaks I ate tangerines (pre-peeled), mini snickers bars, took a swig of coffee; For lunch I had a cheese sandwich and mini- snickers bar. The sugar and caffeine refills kept me going. Try not to have anything with high protein ..or a heavy lunch for that matter .you wanna stay awake.
Sources
Overall:
- Kaplan 2008 lecture notes
- BRS Anatomy
- First Aid
- Class lecture notes Pharmacology, Physiology, Pathology
- Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
- Goljan Pathology Notes,
- Goljan tapes
- Lipincott Pharmacology
- Web path for path pics ./ also random Google image searches for pics. Make sure you know the high yield pics I definitely had a significant number on my exam.
- USMLE WORLD (OMG THIS IS SOOOOOOOOOOO IMPORTANT!!!!!)
- Kaplan Qbank
- Kaplan qbook
- Wiki questions
- Histo bank questions
- UTAH medical school website with practice questions for each subject.
- NBMEs (first 4)
- Biochemistry Read & took notes thru lipincotts & then went thru Kaplan 2008 biochemistry lecture notes. Technically lipincotts is enuf I scored about 91% on usmle world questions in biochemistry after just reading lipincotts.
- Anatomy & Neuroscience: Anatomy BRS, Kaplan, Neuroanatomy atlas (the one we receive in 2nd term)
- Physiology: Kaplan, and lecture notes from class. I would normally read thru each lecture packet and then read the corresponding section in Kaplan. It allowed me to get a better understanding of each topic and read thru Kaplan pretty quickly. Keep in mind .I had already been over these notes twice before (i.e. during 2nd term and 5th term), so this was the third time. In my opinion .the Kaplan physiology is not enuf to cover physio ..
- Pathology: Ok so here is where I may differ from most people in my preparation. In 4th term, I had made the decision to take notes from Robbins & Goljan and combine them into a complete set of pathology notes .I did this as each section was being covered. Take notes from whatever path book your school uses. It takes a lot of work , but in the end it was worth it. I didnt need any other source to cover pathology.
- Microbiology: I kinda went overboard on this topic b/c its not my favorite. I used Kaplan micro lecture notes & Micro Made ridiculously Simple . Either resource can be used ..but the latter is my favorite b/c there are weird pics and pneumonics that help you remember various points. Technically .First Aid is also enough for this topic.
- Pharmacology: Wasnt too much a fan of Kaplan pharmacology So I used Lipincotts pharmacology book. First Aid is also more than enough for this topic.
- Behavioral Science & Biostatistics: Kaplan is more than enough. Ummmm first aid is a close second.
- USMLE WORLD - (Avg 84%) / 85% of Qbank completed
- Kaplan Qbank (Avg 80%) 100% completed
- Kaplan qbook (Avg 85%) 75% completed
- Wiki questions - (Avg - 90%) = 100% completed
- UTAH medical school website with practice questions for each subject.
- NBMEs (first 4)
ii. NBME 2 = 244 = 3 weeks out
iii. NBME 3 = 247 = 2 weeks out
iv. NBME 4 = 244 = 1 week out
The several must haves are: Goljan book and tapes, USMLE World Qbank, and NBME practice tests everything else can be switched around or debated.
Good luck to anyone about to take their exams. If anyone has questions after reading this feel free to PM me.
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Hi all, just got my score a week ago and thought I would post my experiences on the thread because it helped me get myself in order to read other students' experiences while preparing for the test.
First of all, I used a very condensed study schedule because I test well and I can't for the life of me see the point in getting above a 235. I guess that's why they have the two digit scale, it's all icing on the cake after that. I studied for and took my test 12 days after my last final for my second year, and I didn't use first aid much, didn't use rapid review, actually I didn't use any books at all, I just listened to Goljan audio and did World. From my perspective, if you want to go with a bare minimum study schedule and framework, these two resources are the most high yield, most well presented ways to learn your ****, fast. Using these resources I felt pretty well prepared, the only thing I wasn't not ready for was how effing long of a mother of a test the step one is. Fortunately I packed 4 red bulls and I used every one of them.
The test was hard, it felt hard, and it was really goddamn long. That's about the most I can say about it. The lengthy stuff that everybody else has been saying was by and large correct as far as I could tell and I think it has all been good advice. Just do yourself a favor and bring some caffeine and bring some NSAIDS to kill the headache that so much caffeine will give you. I actually used one of my breaks to go dive down the road to a pharmacy to get some motrin because my mind was aching so much. I didn't leave the building feeling much at all, just sort of blah and tired, I didn't feel like I had bombed it but I definitely didn't feel like I had just slammed it out of the ballpark. Anyway, went home, had a nice dinner with my wife who I had barely seen in god knows how long, and went out and had many nice beers before flying off to vacation afterwords. Exactly three Wednesdays later, I got an email saying my scores would be available at 11:00 AM, and after fighting with my infernal developing world internet connection for 45 minutes I finally got my score report.
All in all, I think they way I did things worked well for me, but as with anything you have to figure out what is going to work well for you and go with it. My final two cents is that USMLE World and Goljan (audio) are both fantastic resources and with those two alone you can get away with a pretty decent boards study and score experience.
Good luck to all of you out there who are gearing up for this thing, you can do it!
for those who care, my self assessments and real test scores are as follows:
NBME CBSSA: 240 (taken 12 days before test)
USMLE World Self Assessment: 258 (taken 3 days before test)
The Real Deal: 248
First of all, I used a very condensed study schedule because I test well and I can't for the life of me see the point in getting above a 235. I guess that's why they have the two digit scale, it's all icing on the cake after that. I studied for and took my test 12 days after my last final for my second year, and I didn't use first aid much, didn't use rapid review, actually I didn't use any books at all, I just listened to Goljan audio and did World. From my perspective, if you want to go with a bare minimum study schedule and framework, these two resources are the most high yield, most well presented ways to learn your ****, fast. Using these resources I felt pretty well prepared, the only thing I wasn't not ready for was how effing long of a mother of a test the step one is. Fortunately I packed 4 red bulls and I used every one of them.
The test was hard, it felt hard, and it was really goddamn long. That's about the most I can say about it. The lengthy stuff that everybody else has been saying was by and large correct as far as I could tell and I think it has all been good advice. Just do yourself a favor and bring some caffeine and bring some NSAIDS to kill the headache that so much caffeine will give you. I actually used one of my breaks to go dive down the road to a pharmacy to get some motrin because my mind was aching so much. I didn't leave the building feeling much at all, just sort of blah and tired, I didn't feel like I had bombed it but I definitely didn't feel like I had just slammed it out of the ballpark. Anyway, went home, had a nice dinner with my wife who I had barely seen in god knows how long, and went out and had many nice beers before flying off to vacation afterwords. Exactly three Wednesdays later, I got an email saying my scores would be available at 11:00 AM, and after fighting with my infernal developing world internet connection for 45 minutes I finally got my score report.
All in all, I think they way I did things worked well for me, but as with anything you have to figure out what is going to work well for you and go with it. My final two cents is that USMLE World and Goljan (audio) are both fantastic resources and with those two alone you can get away with a pretty decent boards study and score experience.
Good luck to all of you out there who are gearing up for this thing, you can do it!
for those who care, my self assessments and real test scores are as follows:
NBME CBSSA: 240 (taken 12 days before test)
USMLE World Self Assessment: 258 (taken 3 days before test)
The Real Deal: 248
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Wow you guys both did wonderful. Congratulations! You guys have this part of your life WELL squared away. Now I can only hope to do as well as both of you guys.
I'm going under the knife tomorrow =( so we'll see if I come out alive on the other side or not. I'll post my test experience after the test. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...cross them for me too guys!
I'm going under the knife tomorrow =( so we'll see if I come out alive on the other side or not. I'll post my test experience after the test. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...cross them for me too guys!
Those of you that just took it, did they have questions with like 8-10+ answer choices like you see in UWorld? What about any nitpicky details like what chromosome a gene is on or where exactly a given triplet repeat is located?
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The thing about all these postings after reading these for a longgg time is that many people seem to brag post about their good scores but if you notice this is deceiving to many who don t score well. I guess its good inspiration and hope but its not an accurate reading on how people really perform on this test imo. I wonder how many fail who will never post scores to all here. You see, you know people fail this test and never post a thing to this forum so keep this in mind next time you read a great score raa-raa post.
I enjoy reading these too but,,,,,,
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First of all......I'm a chick, not a dude. ........so one thing is squared away.
2nd.........when I began studying for step I there were many other people b4 me who posted their experiences in detail. This allowed me to gather the appropriate resources and utilize them. Their posts were very valuable for me.........
I dont see this post as a way to brag...............I see it as informative.....i.e. these are the resources I used, this was my schedule, and this was what test day felt like. Anyone who is interested......feel free to read it, otherwise......dont.
........so one thing is squared away.2nd.........when I began studying for step I there were many other people b4 me who posted their experiences in detail. This allowed me to gather the appropriate resources and utilize them. Their posts were very valuable for me.........
I dont see this post as a way to brag...............I see it as informative.....i.e. these are the resources I used, this was my schedule, and this was what test day felt like. Anyone who is interested......feel free to read it, otherwise......dont.
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Too bad those who fail dont post about their experience, this is an "experience" thread, the posts have been tremendous and i dont think anyone has bragged about their scores.
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they were not picky with embryo at all.......much of embryo is covered in kaplan.....they do a pretty good job. First Aid is pretty good tho..........it covers the salient points.
Anyone who wants to understand embryo better..........I would recommend BRS embryo....its pretty good and easy to understand... and the chapters are short...Kaplan's format actually mimicked BRS embryo in formatting the info.
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ok.....so someone asked me about the utah medical school website link with the questions.........
so here it is.
http://umed.med.utah.edu/testfiles/courses.cfm
I used these questions mostly to test my histo knowledge...........but there are others present too.
so here it is.
http://umed.med.utah.edu/testfiles/courses.cfm
I used these questions mostly to test my histo knowledge...........but there are others present too.
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U know.......funny u mention it...........but during my prep....and on the exam..... I noticed that the questions that contained > 8 answer choices tended to be pretty basic knowledge type questions that would be found in prep books such as first aid.......or that professors and books mentioned ad nauseum. For example.........major bug involved in UTIs.......a question like this would have like 15 choices.......and u had to hunt for E.Coli.
The stuff that involved some critical thinking or had to be derived tended to have only 4-5 answer choices.
So in questions containing a lot of answer choices..........I tended to stay with basics and not over think it.
Um......regarding nitpicky details.....I would know the chromosome numbers for genes in first aid.......and stuff you see more than 3 or 4 times while studying (i.e. its a pretty good gauge of its importance). Regarding where a triplet repeat is located..............I dont know if location is so important as knowing........which disorders have triplet repeats, common characteristics of it (i.e. 4 major symptoms and the concept of anticipation and its implications)...
I did one practice question in which a karyotype was displayed....symptoms were given.......and the gene abnormality had to be determined from both. (i.e. gene deletion at C-5, cri-du-chat)
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what are wiki questions?
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Good job BodyMaster, with that score and the time you spent studying, I'd say you test VERY well.
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Thanks! I'm feeling pretty pleased myself. The whole culture of boards studying and super stressing-out was getting me kind of down and I had to just do it and get it out of the way and go find my soul before I started third year.
I understand that's easy for me to say, because I felt like I was in a place where I could get a good score without sacrificing 4+ weeks of my life to studying, still it all seems rather over-hyped to me.
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Paging vicinihil . . .
(let us know how things went once you recover from your several-day hangover)
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Alright I'm back from my several day hangover in beautiful Florida and posting my day's experiences.
6am: Get up, get to starbucks and cram some last minute things like adverse reactions to pharm drugs, look over the micro charts again, nothing too intense
7:30am: Armed with 2 cups of starbucks coffee (one to leave in my car for the afternoon) and a bottle of Ethos Starbucks water for rehydration and 2 starbucks fruit and nut bars and a starbucks sandwich, I head to the center (1 block away from the starbucks)
7:40am: arrive and sign in and they promptly got me to a testing computer because you can start early if you show up early. (originally scheduled at 8am)
I only used 40 minutes of my 1hr for break. I didn't feel like I needed a break every block especially if I was in the zone. I generally took 5 minute breaks every 2 blocks and roughly 10-15 minutes for lunch. During the breaks I made sure to pee even if I didn't need to just to make sure I don't get the urge later and drank water to rehydrate from the coffee.
3pm: Finish, got up, left
Overall Impression:
The test was difficult but majority of it was whether you knew it or not. >90% of the test was 1-2 step reasoning and the stems give a lot of information away. I finished each block with roughly 20 minutes left to go back and go through the section again quickly to make sure I didn't misread a question or misunderstand what they were shooting for.
Breakdown of the test: Largely largely largely largely PATHOLOGY with a lot of PHYSIOLOGY
If I had to assign percentages I would have to say
50% Pathology (Neuro = GI > MSK = Cardiac)
20% Physiology
10% Micro and Pharm
20% Everything else (Anatomy > Behavioral > Genetics = Biochem)
Pathology questions: Straightforward asking for diseases with good patient presentations (60 year old dude experiencing xxxxxx symptoms with occasional xxxxxxx.Wife reports that he's been xxxxxxxx. On presentation patient appears xxxxxxxx. What's the most likely diagnosis). GI, Neuro, MSK, Cardio seemed like the biggies on this section. Had quite a few questions on GI presentation/cancers/diseases and presentations, neuro cancers/dementia/visual field deficits, and MSK pathology like lesions here would cause what nerve deficit/muscular dystrophies/etc. Cardio questions were more to do with heart sounds. I got 3 auscultation questions each consisted of me being able to move the stethescope around on the chest of the patient and listen for murmurs, gallops, etc.
Physiology questions: Also straight forward (Which of the following is a stimulus fr the release of xxxxxx enzyme...then they'd give you a chart with arrows saying that the concentration of the enzyme goes up or down due to different stimuli. (ex: Which of the following is a stimulus for insulin release? chicken wings (up) sugar (up) Glucagon (up) or chicken wings (down) sugar (up) glucagon (up).
Pharm questions were much more focused on side effects and what you can use with xxx drug and what you can't use with xxx drug. Only the cancer drugs did they focus on mechanism of action (example: Person has testicular cancer, went on a cisplatin. What's the MOA?) I would say Neuro drugs and Antibiotics showed up more than any other classes of drugs.
Micro: Once again, whether or not you knew what bug caused the disease. The choices weren't confusing. It started with a presentation and asked you for the most likely organism. There were a few stains that you had to identify if the organisms were intracell/extracell, g+/g-. Some micro questions tied into treatments such as prophylaxis and side effects of antibiotics etc and MOA. If I have to break down the different micro subtopics, I would have to say
Bacteria > Parasites > Viruses (drugs for viruses seemed to come up pretty often and their MOA.)
Anatomy was like....dude's got pain here, what muscle attaches here. Or person was using crutches and now has a nerve deficit HERE (arrow points to brachial plexus nerve) and it asks you what deficit he has. Quite a few radiographs and CT's that went along with the presentation. Got a few brainstem gross photos which asked me where certain CN exit and if so and so has a deficit this and that, where's the most likely lesion and the answers point to different areas of the brain stem.
Genetics: Some pedigrees, you have to draw some punnette squares, and you do need to solve P2 + 2pq + q2 = 1 equation. You have to know your AD, AR, XR, etc etc.
Behavioral Sciences: There were at least 1-2 ethics questions per block and they were random. Most of it had to do with the patient physician interview and what you say to such and such response or what do you suggest to the patient to get him and her to do this and that. Nothing you can really do here. Not a lot of calculations in terms of biostats that need to be done and only one or two questions that asked you about bias and different type of studies.
Biochem: One or two hardcore biochem questions that had to do with what product transforms into what and where (example: Leucine and Lysine are purely ketogenic AA) Some cofactor questions and some lysosomal storage diseases etc etc. I would say I got no more than half a dozen biochem questions.
Overall: The test was more straightforward than expected. I would say that it's more like 70:30 NBME:UW in terms of depth of questions and involvement. Each of the NBME's that I took (6 and 7 and free 150) felt similar in terms of difficulty so I can't make a recommendation as to which one is better than another to take.
What you should take away from my experience:
1. Read BRS Phys and Read Goljan Path and listen to his audio. They are by far the three most valuable resources to prepare for this test. They are better resources than FA in my opinion for studying for this test at least initially. Use FA as an outline and nothing more. Read FA word for word and every time you come across a pathology or a "relationship" they want you to associate two diseases with, look it up in Goljan and understand what it has to say about that. Memorizing FA for path as is is NOT enough. Everything else for FA is great (Micro, Behavioral, Psych) but not the path. You need more.
2. UW is your best friend. Quite a few of my questions mimicked UW and there were some that were STRAIGHT from it. I wish I had the chance to do UW twice fully without just glancing at some of the questions I missed. Very similar concepts were tested in a lot of my questions.
3. Outside resources were not necessary. Everything can be found in FA and Goljan with the exception of some radiographs and brainstem slices (I would go to HY Neuro) for those. But in terms of HY Mol Bio, HY Neuro, HY Behavioral, HY Immuno...they are all great if you have a lot of time but not necessary and frankly low yield. CMMRS is good only for the table and even that is a bit of an overshoot for the depth of micro questions. If you memorize what Micro bug is gram blah and oxidase blah etc etc you're golden. Also make sure you check out the BONUS MICRO TABLES on the firstaid blog website
http://firstaidteam.com/cases/
I found them to be excellent for review the last day before the exam.
4. Some question you just can't prepare for because you know 10,000 facts out of the possible 100,000 facts and only 336 of them will be tested. You're not going to know which one is going to be thrown at you. I had a friend that spent two days on learning Biochem and he was given maybe 1 or 2 biochem questions and had a lot of neuro brainstems that he ignored. Go for the high yield topics and leave the low yield for what it is...low yield. You're most likely not going to get every answer correct and there's a much better chance that spending those 2 days studying Path will be better rewarded than studying Biochem. If you know NOTHING about biochem, that's a different story.
Ok I think that's about all I had to say. I'll post how I studied after I get my exam scores but the above is my impressions and what I thought as I was taking the exam. I hope it helps everyone on this website. I know all you guys have been a major source of my support during these months while I'm studying for this beast and also during the MCATs.
Let me know if there's any other info you guys need to rock this thing. I'm here to help!! 4 weeks left to wait. Wish me luck
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Best of luck vicinhil! Also thanks for sharing your experience, it is very much appreciated.
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Alright I'm back from my several day hangover in beautiful Florida and posting my day's experiences.
6am: Get up, get to starbucks and cram some last minute things like adverse reactions to pharm drugs, look over the micro charts again, nothing too intense
7:30am: Armed with 2 cups of starbucks coffee (one to leave in my car for the afternoon) and a bottle of Ethos Starbucks water for rehydration and 2 starbucks fruit and nut bars and a starbucks sandwich, I head to the center (1 block away from the starbucks)
7:40am: arrive and sign in and they promptly got me to a testing computer because you can start early if you show up early. (originally scheduled at 8am)
I only used 40 minutes of my 1hr for break. I didn't feel like I needed a break every block especially if I was in the zone. I generally took 5 minute breaks every 2 blocks and roughly 10-15 minutes for lunch. During the breaks I made sure to pee even if I didn't need to just to make sure I don't get the urge later and drank water to rehydrate from the coffee.
3pm: Finish, got up, left
Overall Impression:
The test was difficult but majority of it was whether you knew it or not. >90% of the test was 1-2 step reasoning and the stems give a lot of information away. I finished each block with roughly 20 minutes left to go back and go through the section again quickly to make sure I didn't misread a question or misunderstand what they were shooting for.
Breakdown of the test: Largely largely largely largely PATHOLOGY with a lot of PHYSIOLOGY
If I had to assign percentages I would have to say
50% Pathology (Neuro = GI > MSK = Cardiac)
20% Physiology
10% Micro and Pharm
20% Everything else (Anatomy > Behavioral > Genetics = Biochem)
Pathology questions: Straightforward asking for diseases with good patient presentations (60 year old dude experiencing xxxxxx symptoms with occasional xxxxxxx.Wife reports that he's been xxxxxxxx. On presentation patient appears xxxxxxxx. What's the most likely diagnosis). GI, Neuro, MSK, Cardio seemed like the biggies on this section. Had quite a few questions on GI presentation/cancers/diseases and presentations, neuro cancers/dementia/visual field deficits, and MSK pathology like lesions here would cause what nerve deficit/muscular dystrophies/etc. Cardio questions were more to do with heart sounds. I got 3 auscultation questions each consisted of me being able to move the stethescope around on the chest of the patient and listen for murmurs, gallops, etc.
Physiology questions: Also straight forward (Which of the following is a stimulus fr the release of xxxxxx enzyme...then they'd give you a chart with arrows saying that the concentration of the enzyme goes up or down due to different stimuli. (ex: Which of the following is a stimulus for insulin release? chicken wings (up) sugar (up) Glucagon (up) or chicken wings (down) sugar (up) glucagon (up).
Pharm questions were much more focused on side effects and what you can use with xxx drug and what you can't use with xxx drug. Only the cancer drugs did they focus on mechanism of action (example: Person has testicular cancer, went on a cisplatin. What's the MOA?) I would say Neuro drugs and Antibiotics showed up more than any other classes of drugs.
Micro: Once again, whether or not you knew what bug caused the disease. The choices weren't confusing. It started with a presentation and asked you for the most likely organism. There were a few stains that you had to identify if the organisms were intracell/extracell, g+/g-. Some micro questions tied into treatments such as prophylaxis and side effects of antibiotics etc and MOA. If I have to break down the different micro subtopics, I would have to say
Bacteria > Parasites > Viruses (drugs for viruses seemed to come up pretty often and their MOA.)
Anatomy was like....dude's got pain here, what muscle attaches here. Or person was using crutches and now has a nerve deficit HERE (arrow points to brachial plexus nerve) and it asks you what deficit he has. Quite a few radiographs and CT's that went along with the presentation. Got a few brainstem gross photos which asked me where certain CN exit and if so and so has a deficit this and that, where's the most likely lesion and the answers point to different areas of the brain stem.
Genetics: Some pedigrees, you have to draw some punnette squares, and you do need to solve P2 + 2pq + q2 = 1 equation. You have to know your AD, AR, XR, etc etc.
Behavioral Sciences: There were at least 1-2 ethics questions per block and they were random. Most of it had to do with the patient physician interview and what you say to such and such response or what do you suggest to the patient to get him and her to do this and that. Nothing you can really do here. Not a lot of calculations in terms of biostats that need to be done and only one or two questions that asked you about bias and different type of studies.
Biochem: One or two hardcore biochem questions that had to do with what product transforms into what and where (example: Leucine and Lysine are purely ketogenic AA) Some cofactor questions and some lysosomal storage diseases etc etc. I would say I got no more than half a dozen biochem questions.
Overall: The test was more straightforward than expected. I would say that it's more like 70:30 NBME:UW in terms of depth of questions and involvement. Each of the NBME's that I took (6 and 7 and free 150) felt similar in terms of difficulty so I can't make a recommendation as to which one is better than another to take.
What you should take away from my experience:
1. Read BRS Phys and Read Goljan Path and listen to his audio. They are by far the three most valuable resources to prepare for this test. They are better resources than FA in my opinion for studying for this test at least initially. Use FA as an outline and nothing more. Read FA word for word and every time you come across a pathology or a "relationship" they want you to associate two diseases with, look it up in Goljan and understand what it has to say about that. Memorizing FA for path as is is NOT enough. Everything else for FA is great (Micro, Behavioral, Psych) but not the path. You need more.
2. UW is your best friend. Quite a few of my questions mimicked UW and there were some that were STRAIGHT from it. I wish I had the chance to do UW twice fully without just glancing at some of the questions I missed. Very similar concepts were tested in a lot of my questions.
3. Outside resources were not necessary. Everything can be found in FA and Goljan with the exception of some radiographs and brainstem slices (I would go to HY Neuro) for those. But in terms of HY Mol Bio, HY Neuro, HY Behavioral, HY Immuno...they are all great if you have a lot of time but not necessary and frankly low yield. CMMRS is good only for the table and even that is a bit of an overshoot for the depth of micro questions. If you memorize what Micro bug is gram blah and oxidase blah etc etc you're golden. Also make sure you check out the BONUS MICRO TABLES on the firstaid blog website
http://firstaidteam.com/cases/
I found them to be excellent for review the last day before the exam.
4. Some question you just can't prepare for because you know 10,000 facts out of the possible 100,000 facts and only 336 of them will be tested. You're not going to know which one is going to be thrown at you. I had a friend that spent two days on learning Biochem and he was given maybe 1 or 2 biochem questions and had a lot of neuro brainstems that he ignored. Go for the high yield topics and leave the low yield for what it is...low yield. You're most likely not going to get every answer correct and there's a much better chance that spending those 2 days studying Path will be better rewarded than studying Biochem. If you know NOTHING about biochem, that's a different story.
Ok I think that's about all I had to say. I'll post how I studied after I get my exam scores but the above is my impressions and what I thought as I was taking the exam. I hope it helps everyone on this website. I know all you guys have been a major source of my support during these months while I'm studying for this beast and also during the MCATs.
4 weeks left to wait. Wish me luck
good luck buddy. I'm sure u did well.
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4 weeks left to wait. Wish me luck
Congrats on being done!! I face the beast on Thurs.. I thought it takes 3 weeks to get your results? Are they taking longer now?
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2008
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Alright I'm back from my several day hangover in beautiful Florida and posting my day's experiences.
6am: Get up, get to starbucks and cram some last minute things like adverse reactions to pharm drugs, look over the micro charts again, nothing too intense
7:30am: Armed with 2 cups of starbucks coffee (one to leave in my car for the afternoon) and a bottle of Ethos Starbucks water for rehydration and 2 starbucks fruit and nut bars and a starbucks sandwich, I head to the center (1 block away from the starbucks)
7:40am: arrive and sign in and they promptly got me to a testing computer because you can start early if you show up early. (originally scheduled at 8am)
I only used 40 minutes of my 1hr for break. I didn't feel like I needed a break every block especially if I was in the zone. I generally took 5 minute breaks every 2 blocks and roughly 10-15 minutes for lunch. During the breaks I made sure to pee even if I didn't need to just to make sure I don't get the urge later and drank water to rehydrate from the coffee.
3pm: Finish, got up, left
Overall Impression:
The test was difficult but majority of it was whether you knew it or not. >90% of the test was 1-2 step reasoning and the stems give a lot of information away. I finished each block with roughly 20 minutes left to go back and go through the section again quickly to make sure I didn't misread a question or misunderstand what they were shooting for.
Breakdown of the test: Largely largely largely largely PATHOLOGY with a lot of PHYSIOLOGY
If I had to assign percentages I would have to say
50% Pathology (Neuro = GI > MSK = Cardiac)
20% Physiology
10% Micro and Pharm
20% Everything else (Anatomy > Behavioral > Genetics = Biochem)
Pathology questions: Straightforward asking for diseases with good patient presentations (60 year old dude experiencing xxxxxx symptoms with occasional xxxxxxx.Wife reports that he's been xxxxxxxx. On presentation patient appears xxxxxxxx. What's the most likely diagnosis). GI, Neuro, MSK, Cardio seemed like the biggies on this section. Had quite a few questions on GI presentation/cancers/diseases and presentations, neuro cancers/dementia/visual field deficits, and MSK pathology like lesions here would cause what nerve deficit/muscular dystrophies/etc. Cardio questions were more to do with heart sounds. I got 3 auscultation questions each consisted of me being able to move the stethescope around on the chest of the patient and listen for murmurs, gallops, etc.
Physiology questions: Also straight forward (Which of the following is a stimulus fr the release of xxxxxx enzyme...then they'd give you a chart with arrows saying that the concentration of the enzyme goes up or down due to different stimuli. (ex: Which of the following is a stimulus for insulin release? chicken wings (up) sugar (up) Glucagon (up) or chicken wings (down) sugar (up) glucagon (up).
Pharm questions were much more focused on side effects and what you can use with xxx drug and what you can't use with xxx drug. Only the cancer drugs did they focus on mechanism of action (example: Person has testicular cancer, went on a cisplatin. What's the MOA?) I would say Neuro drugs and Antibiotics showed up more than any other classes of drugs.
Micro: Once again, whether or not you knew what bug caused the disease. The choices weren't confusing. It started with a presentation and asked you for the most likely organism. There were a few stains that you had to identify if the organisms were intracell/extracell, g+/g-. Some micro questions tied into treatments such as prophylaxis and side effects of antibiotics etc and MOA. If I have to break down the different micro subtopics, I would have to say
Bacteria > Parasites > Viruses (drugs for viruses seemed to come up pretty often and their MOA.)
Anatomy was like....dude's got pain here, what muscle attaches here. Or person was using crutches and now has a nerve deficit HERE (arrow points to brachial plexus nerve) and it asks you what deficit he has. Quite a few radiographs and CT's that went along with the presentation. Got a few brainstem gross photos which asked me where certain CN exit and if so and so has a deficit this and that, where's the most likely lesion and the answers point to different areas of the brain stem.
Genetics: Some pedigrees, you have to draw some punnette squares, and you do need to solve P2 + 2pq + q2 = 1 equation. You have to know your AD, AR, XR, etc etc.
Behavioral Sciences: There were at least 1-2 ethics questions per block and they were random. Most of it had to do with the patient physician interview and what you say to such and such response or what do you suggest to the patient to get him and her to do this and that. Nothing you can really do here. Not a lot of calculations in terms of biostats that need to be done and only one or two questions that asked you about bias and different type of studies.
Biochem: One or two hardcore biochem questions that had to do with what product transforms into what and where (example: Leucine and Lysine are purely ketogenic AA) Some cofactor questions and some lysosomal storage diseases etc etc. I would say I got no more than half a dozen biochem questions.
Overall: The test was more straightforward than expected. I would say that it's more like 70:30 NBME:UW in terms of depth of questions and involvement. Each of the NBME's that I took (6 and 7 and free 150) felt similar in terms of difficulty so I can't make a recommendation as to which one is better than another to take.
What you should take away from my experience:
1. Read BRS Phys and Read Goljan Path and listen to his audio. They are by far the three most valuable resources to prepare for this test. They are better resources than FA in my opinion for studying for this test at least initially. Use FA as an outline and nothing more. Read FA word for word and every time you come across a pathology or a "relationship" they want you to associate two diseases with, look it up in Goljan and understand what it has to say about that. Memorizing FA for path as is is NOT enough. Everything else for FA is great (Micro, Behavioral, Psych) but not the path. You need more.
2. UW is your best friend. Quite a few of my questions mimicked UW and there were some that were STRAIGHT from it. I wish I had the chance to do UW twice fully without just glancing at some of the questions I missed. Very similar concepts were tested in a lot of my questions.
3. Outside resources were not necessary. Everything can be found in FA and Goljan with the exception of some radiographs and brainstem slices (I would go to HY Neuro) for those. But in terms of HY Mol Bio, HY Neuro, HY Behavioral, HY Immuno...they are all great if you have a lot of time but not necessary and frankly low yield. CMMRS is good only for the table and even that is a bit of an overshoot for the depth of micro questions. If you memorize what Micro bug is gram blah and oxidase blah etc etc you're golden. Also make sure you check out the BONUS MICRO TABLES on the firstaid blog website
http://firstaidteam.com/cases/
I found them to be excellent for review the last day before the exam.
4. Some question you just can't prepare for because you know 10,000 facts out of the possible 100,000 facts and only 336 of them will be tested. You're not going to know which one is going to be thrown at you. I had a friend that spent two days on learning Biochem and he was given maybe 1 or 2 biochem questions and had a lot of neuro brainstems that he ignored. Go for the high yield topics and leave the low yield for what it is...low yield. You're most likely not going to get every answer correct and there's a much better chance that spending those 2 days studying Path will be better rewarded than studying Biochem. If you know NOTHING about biochem, that's a different story.
Ok I think that's about all I had to say. I'll post how I studied after I get my exam scores but the above is my impressions and what I thought as I was taking the exam. I hope it helps everyone on this website. I know all you guys have been a major source of my support during these months while I'm studying for this beast and also during the MCATs.
4 weeks left to wait. Wish me luck
Great ! good luck dude! hope yr 're-entry' phenomenon is goin great!
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,168
- Reaction score
- 139
Alright I'm back from my several day hangover in beautiful Florida and posting my day's experiences.
6am: Get up, get to starbucks and cram some last minute things like adverse reactions to pharm drugs, look over the micro charts again, nothing too intense
7:30am: Armed with 2 cups of starbucks coffee (one to leave in my car for the afternoon) and a bottle of Ethos Starbucks water for rehydration and 2 starbucks fruit and nut bars and a starbucks sandwich, I head to the center (1 block away from the starbucks)
7:40am: arrive and sign in and they promptly got me to a testing computer because you can start early if you show up early. (originally scheduled at 8am)
I only used 40 minutes of my 1hr for break. I didn't feel like I needed a break every block especially if I was in the zone. I generally took 5 minute breaks every 2 blocks and roughly 10-15 minutes for lunch. During the breaks I made sure to pee even if I didn't need to just to make sure I don't get the urge later and drank water to rehydrate from the coffee.
3pm: Finish, got up, left
Overall Impression:
The test was difficult but majority of it was whether you knew it or not. >90% of the test was 1-2 step reasoning and the stems give a lot of information away. I finished each block with roughly 20 minutes left to go back and go through the section again quickly to make sure I didn't misread a question or misunderstand what they were shooting for.
Breakdown of the test: Largely largely largely largely PATHOLOGY with a lot of PHYSIOLOGY
If I had to assign percentages I would have to say
50% Pathology (Neuro = GI > MSK = Cardiac)
20% Physiology
10% Micro and Pharm
20% Everything else (Anatomy > Behavioral > Genetics = Biochem)
Pathology questions: Straightforward asking for diseases with good patient presentations (60 year old dude experiencing xxxxxx symptoms with occasional xxxxxxx.Wife reports that he's been xxxxxxxx. On presentation patient appears xxxxxxxx. What's the most likely diagnosis). GI, Neuro, MSK, Cardio seemed like the biggies on this section. Had quite a few questions on GI presentation/cancers/diseases and presentations, neuro cancers/dementia/visual field deficits, and MSK pathology like lesions here would cause what nerve deficit/muscular dystrophies/etc. Cardio questions were more to do with heart sounds. I got 3 auscultation questions each consisted of me being able to move the stethescope around on the chest of the patient and listen for murmurs, gallops, etc.
Physiology questions: Also straight forward (Which of the following is a stimulus fr the release of xxxxxx enzyme...then they'd give you a chart with arrows saying that the concentration of the enzyme goes up or down due to different stimuli. (ex: Which of the following is a stimulus for insulin release? chicken wings (up) sugar (up) Glucagon (up) or chicken wings (down) sugar (up) glucagon (up).
Pharm questions were much more focused on side effects and what you can use with xxx drug and what you can't use with xxx drug. Only the cancer drugs did they focus on mechanism of action (example: Person has testicular cancer, went on a cisplatin. What's the MOA?) I would say Neuro drugs and Antibiotics showed up more than any other classes of drugs.
Micro: Once again, whether or not you knew what bug caused the disease. The choices weren't confusing. It started with a presentation and asked you for the most likely organism. There were a few stains that you had to identify if the organisms were intracell/extracell, g+/g-. Some micro questions tied into treatments such as prophylaxis and side effects of antibiotics etc and MOA. If I have to break down the different micro subtopics, I would have to say
Bacteria > Parasites > Viruses (drugs for viruses seemed to come up pretty often and their MOA.)
Anatomy was like....dude's got pain here, what muscle attaches here. Or person was using crutches and now has a nerve deficit HERE (arrow points to brachial plexus nerve) and it asks you what deficit he has. Quite a few radiographs and CT's that went along with the presentation. Got a few brainstem gross photos which asked me where certain CN exit and if so and so has a deficit this and that, where's the most likely lesion and the answers point to different areas of the brain stem.
Genetics: Some pedigrees, you have to draw some punnette squares, and you do need to solve P2 + 2pq + q2 = 1 equation. You have to know your AD, AR, XR, etc etc.
Behavioral Sciences: There were at least 1-2 ethics questions per block and they were random. Most of it had to do with the patient physician interview and what you say to such and such response or what do you suggest to the patient to get him and her to do this and that. Nothing you can really do here. Not a lot of calculations in terms of biostats that need to be done and only one or two questions that asked you about bias and different type of studies.
Biochem: One or two hardcore biochem questions that had to do with what product transforms into what and where (example: Leucine and Lysine are purely ketogenic AA) Some cofactor questions and some lysosomal storage diseases etc etc. I would say I got no more than half a dozen biochem questions.
Overall: The test was more straightforward than expected. I would say that it's more like 70:30 NBME:UW in terms of depth of questions and involvement. Each of the NBME's that I took (6 and 7 and free 150) felt similar in terms of difficulty so I can't make a recommendation as to which one is better than another to take.
What you should take away from my experience:
1. Read BRS Phys and Read Goljan Path and listen to his audio. They are by far the three most valuable resources to prepare for this test. They are better resources than FA in my opinion for studying for this test at least initially. Use FA as an outline and nothing more. Read FA word for word and every time you come across a pathology or a "relationship" they want you to associate two diseases with, look it up in Goljan and understand what it has to say about that. Memorizing FA for path as is is NOT enough. Everything else for FA is great (Micro, Behavioral, Psych) but not the path. You need more.
2. UW is your best friend. Quite a few of my questions mimicked UW and there were some that were STRAIGHT from it. I wish I had the chance to do UW twice fully without just glancing at some of the questions I missed. Very similar concepts were tested in a lot of my questions.
3. Outside resources were not necessary. Everything can be found in FA and Goljan with the exception of some radiographs and brainstem slices (I would go to HY Neuro) for those. But in terms of HY Mol Bio, HY Neuro, HY Behavioral, HY Immuno...they are all great if you have a lot of time but not necessary and frankly low yield. CMMRS is good only for the table and even that is a bit of an overshoot for the depth of micro questions. If you memorize what Micro bug is gram blah and oxidase blah etc etc you're golden. Also make sure you check out the BONUS MICRO TABLES on the firstaid blog website
http://firstaidteam.com/cases/
I found them to be excellent for review the last day before the exam.
4. Some question you just can't prepare for because you know 10,000 facts out of the possible 100,000 facts and only 336 of them will be tested. You're not going to know which one is going to be thrown at you. I had a friend that spent two days on learning Biochem and he was given maybe 1 or 2 biochem questions and had a lot of neuro brainstems that he ignored. Go for the high yield topics and leave the low yield for what it is...low yield. You're most likely not going to get every answer correct and there's a much better chance that spending those 2 days studying Path will be better rewarded than studying Biochem. If you know NOTHING about biochem, that's a different story.
Ok I think that's about all I had to say. I'll post how I studied after I get my exam scores but the above is my impressions and what I thought as I was taking the exam. I hope it helps everyone on this website. I know all you guys have been a major source of my support during these months while I'm studying for this beast and also during the MCATs.
4 weeks left to wait. Wish me luck
Solid post vicinihil! I am sure you rocked the test
OOC, how many times did you go through RR?
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2010
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Alright I'm back from my several day hangover in beautiful Florida and posting my day's experiences.
4 weeks left to wait. Wish me luck
great post! i'm sure you did awesome. i know you used kaplan along with coursework, what did you think of it? is the addage "the more questions you do, the better your score" true? thanks
I took Step 1 on Thurs. April 1st. Scores should be back soon
Study Resources I used:
FirstAid obviously a must-have amazing resource. I annotated into FA from my other books and UWorld. I read through FA twice once as I was annotating and then again during the final week leading up to my exam. I wish I had spent less time with other resources and more time with FA.
Micro Made Ridiculously Simple I dont think this book was high yield for step 1. It does have some good mnemonics and I wish I had used it during my first year micro course work. The book is too long to be worthwhile during your dedicated step 1 study time, and FA covers most of what you need to know. That being said, this book did get me one question right on the exam that I might have otherwise missed because I remembered the picture of Francis the rabbit for Francisella tularensis.
Crash Course Immunology I read this book but dont recommend it.
Lippincotts Illustrated Reviews Biochem I didnt like this book at all and gave up on it very quickly. I used only FA for biochem.
Lippincotts Illustrated Reviews Pharmacology This is another book I barely even attempted because I hated it so much.
Pharm Cards While studying each pharm segment of FA I read through the corresponding Pharm Cards. This helped clear up some questions I had when FA wasnt detailed enough. I did not ever go back through the cards or use them as flashcards. Basically I used them as a review book, and def liked these better than I liked Lippincotts pharm.
BRS physiology This book is easy to read and probably worthwhile.
Goljan Rapid Review Path (most recent edition) I know everyone loves this book, but I absolutely do not recommend it. It is the most tedious read ever and in a horribly organized outline format. I forced myself to read the entire book (I averaged reading 10 pages per hour on this), but certainly would have given it up if I wasnt so in love with Goljan audio. If you are going to waste your time with this book I at least recommend listening to the corresponding Goljan audio as you are going through it. I dont understand how such an amazing lecturer could produce such a horribly written book.
Goljan audio AMAZING! Goljan is a wonderful lecturer and makes concepts so easy to understand. He can explain something in 5 minutes that would have taken me hours to figure out on my own. These lectures are not just path, but he also incorporates physiology and lots of other stuff. These audio files are great to listen to while exercising, driving, showering, or when you are just tired of looking at books.
High Yield Neuroanatomy not worthwhile. Stick to FA. The only thing that was useful in here was the chapter with cross-sectional brain images, because FA is somewhat lacking in brain images.
Kaplan Behavioral Science I had bootleg copies of the Kaplan books but this was the only thing I looked at because I lost the copy of High Yield Behavioral Science I bought. It was fine but I dont recommend using any supplementary source for behavioral science because there is nothing that is not covered by FA and UWorld.
High Yield Embryology I did not end up reading this because it didnt look like there was much in it that wasnt covered by FA.
UWorld great question bank. I made it through a little over half of the questions. This is something else I wish I had spent more time with rather than my extraneous resources.
The advice I kept hearing from all the upperclassmen was focus on FA, use as few resources as possible. Of course I didnt listen and thought it was necessary to buy a book for every subject (including books I havent listed here because I never even had time to open them.)
My advice to future test takers would be to use only FA, Goljan audio, and UWorld. And maybe BRS physiology if you have to throw something else in there. Otherwise only consult other resources if there is something you really dont understand in FA. Likely there will not be that many things in FA you need help on so you can just look them up on the internet as opposed to buying 20 different review books.
Study Resources I used:
FirstAid obviously a must-have amazing resource. I annotated into FA from my other books and UWorld. I read through FA twice once as I was annotating and then again during the final week leading up to my exam. I wish I had spent less time with other resources and more time with FA.
Micro Made Ridiculously Simple I dont think this book was high yield for step 1. It does have some good mnemonics and I wish I had used it during my first year micro course work. The book is too long to be worthwhile during your dedicated step 1 study time, and FA covers most of what you need to know. That being said, this book did get me one question right on the exam that I might have otherwise missed because I remembered the picture of Francis the rabbit for Francisella tularensis.
Crash Course Immunology I read this book but dont recommend it.
Lippincotts Illustrated Reviews Biochem I didnt like this book at all and gave up on it very quickly. I used only FA for biochem.
Lippincotts Illustrated Reviews Pharmacology This is another book I barely even attempted because I hated it so much.
Pharm Cards While studying each pharm segment of FA I read through the corresponding Pharm Cards. This helped clear up some questions I had when FA wasnt detailed enough. I did not ever go back through the cards or use them as flashcards. Basically I used them as a review book, and def liked these better than I liked Lippincotts pharm.
BRS physiology This book is easy to read and probably worthwhile.
Goljan Rapid Review Path (most recent edition) I know everyone loves this book, but I absolutely do not recommend it. It is the most tedious read ever and in a horribly organized outline format. I forced myself to read the entire book (I averaged reading 10 pages per hour on this), but certainly would have given it up if I wasnt so in love with Goljan audio. If you are going to waste your time with this book I at least recommend listening to the corresponding Goljan audio as you are going through it. I dont understand how such an amazing lecturer could produce such a horribly written book.
Goljan audio AMAZING! Goljan is a wonderful lecturer and makes concepts so easy to understand. He can explain something in 5 minutes that would have taken me hours to figure out on my own. These lectures are not just path, but he also incorporates physiology and lots of other stuff. These audio files are great to listen to while exercising, driving, showering, or when you are just tired of looking at books.
High Yield Neuroanatomy not worthwhile. Stick to FA. The only thing that was useful in here was the chapter with cross-sectional brain images, because FA is somewhat lacking in brain images.
Kaplan Behavioral Science I had bootleg copies of the Kaplan books but this was the only thing I looked at because I lost the copy of High Yield Behavioral Science I bought. It was fine but I dont recommend using any supplementary source for behavioral science because there is nothing that is not covered by FA and UWorld.
High Yield Embryology I did not end up reading this because it didnt look like there was much in it that wasnt covered by FA.
UWorld great question bank. I made it through a little over half of the questions. This is something else I wish I had spent more time with rather than my extraneous resources.
The advice I kept hearing from all the upperclassmen was focus on FA, use as few resources as possible. Of course I didnt listen and thought it was necessary to buy a book for every subject (including books I havent listed here because I never even had time to open them.)
My advice to future test takers would be to use only FA, Goljan audio, and UWorld. And maybe BRS physiology if you have to throw something else in there. Otherwise only consult other resources if there is something you really dont understand in FA. Likely there will not be that many things in FA you need help on so you can just look them up on the internet as opposed to buying 20 different review books.
Practice exams:
CBSE (administered by school) - 2/22 (first day of study period, ~5 and a half weeks before exam) 53=158
UWSA1 3/12 (~3 weeks before exam) 195
NBME 4 3/25 (1 week before exam) 490=220
Free 150 3/30 (2 days before exam) 86%=241 (according to WikiTestPrep)
NBME 6 night before exam 560=236
I missed 29 questions on the NBME6, averaging out to ~7 questions per section. Im concerned because I definitely feel like I missed a lot more than 7 questions per section on the real exam.
Testing experience:
Took it Thurs April 1st.
Well, I didnt sleep at all the night before the test (I was up doing NBME6 from 1am to 5am). In retrospect this was not very smart because I didnt learn anything from the NBME, but I really just wanted to get that one last practice test in to get a better feel for the NBME style questions and to have a gauge on what kind of score I could hope to get. Besides, I pulled an all-nighter before almost every med school test Ive taken, so why switch it up now? I tend to procrastinate and then have to study right up until the last minute. On test day caffeine and ephedrine (yes, I know its bad for you) were my friends.
The test was really hard, mostly because of time constraints. I may be unique in this, but the test questions I got were longer than those in UWorld. Appx all of my questions except 2 were 2 paragraphs long and many with lab values. I had to try to fly through all the questions and then didnt have any time to review at the end for most blocks. Besides timing, I still thought the test was more difficult concept-wise than either of the NBMEs I took (hopefully they take that into consideration when scoring my test). I had 2 heart sound questions, and they could NOT be figured out based on the stem. I actually had about 4 questions that I had to figure out a particular heart murmur based on location, timing, etc but these were not questions that included audio. I did 2 blocks, took a break, did 3 blocks, took a break, 2 more blocks and then I was done.
Now Im just waiting for my score. Hoping to get it back this Wednesday, but it may not be til next.
CBSE (administered by school) - 2/22 (first day of study period, ~5 and a half weeks before exam) 53=158
UWSA1 3/12 (~3 weeks before exam) 195
NBME 4 3/25 (1 week before exam) 490=220
Free 150 3/30 (2 days before exam) 86%=241 (according to WikiTestPrep)
NBME 6 night before exam 560=236
I missed 29 questions on the NBME6, averaging out to ~7 questions per section. Im concerned because I definitely feel like I missed a lot more than 7 questions per section on the real exam.
Testing experience:
Took it Thurs April 1st.
Well, I didnt sleep at all the night before the test (I was up doing NBME6 from 1am to 5am). In retrospect this was not very smart because I didnt learn anything from the NBME, but I really just wanted to get that one last practice test in to get a better feel for the NBME style questions and to have a gauge on what kind of score I could hope to get. Besides, I pulled an all-nighter before almost every med school test Ive taken, so why switch it up now? I tend to procrastinate and then have to study right up until the last minute. On test day caffeine and ephedrine (yes, I know its bad for you) were my friends.
The test was really hard, mostly because of time constraints. I may be unique in this, but the test questions I got were longer than those in UWorld. Appx all of my questions except 2 were 2 paragraphs long and many with lab values. I had to try to fly through all the questions and then didnt have any time to review at the end for most blocks. Besides timing, I still thought the test was more difficult concept-wise than either of the NBMEs I took (hopefully they take that into consideration when scoring my test). I had 2 heart sound questions, and they could NOT be figured out based on the stem. I actually had about 4 questions that I had to figure out a particular heart murmur based on location, timing, etc but these were not questions that included audio. I did 2 blocks, took a break, did 3 blocks, took a break, 2 more blocks and then I was done.
Now Im just waiting for my score. Hoping to get it back this Wednesday, but it may not be til next.
