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Hello everyone. I am a second year who will write the exam in June 2011. Meanwhile let this be a good thread where everyone share their study progress and recent trend of the exam.
Is it bad that I haven't even selected the 3 month block for my test yet?
Hey there, I plan on taking both COMLEX and USMLE towards end of May.
I've been reading 1 case out of Case Files: Micro and First Aid Cases almost everyday for couple weeks now. It's working really well because I'm seeing lot of the stuff that I have encountered before (and of course, I don't remember half of it). It's a good refresher and hopefully will make things easier to learn during dedicated study time.
This is directed towards DO students who are taking both boards...what are you folks planning on doing for using a Qbank to prep for COMLEX? Stick to Uworld, NBME, and NBOME practice exams?
Taking mine June 15th. Ugh! Started studying recently, getting about 50% on USMLE World (which I think is passing using that magic formula 2.3*%+87=score, wohoo!).
ar2388, when does your semester end?
I end on aprill 21
do you guys end school early? school ends at the end of may for me, then 4 weeks of studying. i'm taking it end of june
Hi
I'm planning on taking the exam in 5 months ..
I'm an IMG currently in the states. I finished a 6 year medical school more then 2 years ago so i guess a lot of work need to be done in regard to basic science subjects.
My Resources:
FA 2011
RR Goljan
HY NA
BRS Physiology
plus some of Kaplan LN
My plan:
a modulated Taus method.
first run through : 1 month
2nd : 3 months
3rd : 1 month
I'm not sure if this gonna work for me but I'll try my best. It has been along time since I last sat on a serious study session .
I hope I'll find some encouragement here ..
Please share with us ur study plan and feel free to give ur opinion in mine .
Wishing all the 2011 USMLE takers the best of luck : )
I did nbme1 on 1st jan and scored 220 and nbme2 online after 15 days study ( but revised only bichem, genetics, cell bio and nutrition portion)and scored 229 ... my next online nbme is after a week, will be doing micro, immuno, beh science and biostat during this time.
I m not satisfied with my nbme scores but im going to work hard to score better next time. Any suggestions regarding prep????
Really need to get motivated.... Im going too slow in revision
GOODLUCK
took my exam yesterday,
some background info :
Materials used : Kaplan lecture notes 2011 (newest ones), kaplan liveprep, UW, etc.
UWSA 1 - 244
UWSA 2 - 263
NBME 5 - 244
NBME 6 - 240
NBME 7 - 260
NBME 3 - 255
NBME 4 - 263
NBME 2 - 253
Yeah, i like donating money to the NBME.
To Psychforme - can you predict my score please???!!!
Length - Killer, much longer than NBMEs, granted there were single liners here and there but I missed like 3 questions at the end of the second block due to lack of time.....just had to pick something before time ran out.
Personally, i felt the clock on the real exam was bugged and was running faster than normal!!!
Difficulty of exam - seemed fair, nowhere near as hard as UWorld, but similar concepts tested. The material tested isnt hard/impossible, its just hard because of the time factor, gimme another 10 minutes for each block and i probably would have left the center with a sardonic smile Yeah there were a lot of research oriented questions but they could be figured out if you knew what they wanted. Again, this took time to think, 70 seconds fly by so fast and in the later blocks your brain doesn't want to think, it wants to pick something and move on...
Resource Ranking:
1. Uworld - this qbank probably has the most exam-like content, although it may seem vague at first, stick to it, it will pay off in the exam. The question length is much much longer than uworld though, so you should be doing them in like 60percent of the time. Without Uworld, i can imagine how the exam would have been for me.
2. Kaplan notes - worth their weight in gold, memorize their tables and you should be in the money, i have heard Kaplan MEd essentials is basically all the tables, so look into that if you dont got time.
3. FA 2010- not so much, i flipped through it the days before the exam, seemed full of facts, but the exam didnt test facts, in fact 95% of the questions are application application application.
Learn to guess - there were situations in the exam when i had it narrowed to like 2 choices and had to guess, this was hard for me, but it helps to be able to just make good guesses FAST, i would dwell on a question for a few minutes and timing is everything in this exam.
How do i feel? i feel like i could be anywhere on that score distribution, its hard to tell, no instant score gratification like in the nbmes..
good luck to anyone preparing.
well, first off relax, stress wont help you out.
Be honest with yourself, find your weak areas and go study those from FA/ kaplan notes.
also, keep doing atleast a block of questions per day.
stay cool towards the end.
Hey there, I plan on taking both COMLEX and USMLE towards end of May.
I've been reading 1 case out of Case Files: Micro and First Aid Cases almost everyday for couple weeks now. It's working really well because I'm seeing lot of the stuff that I have encountered before (and of course, I don't remember half of it). It's a good refresher and hopefully will make things easier to learn during dedicated study time.
This is directed towards DO students who are taking both boards...what are you folks planning on doing for using a Qbank to prep for COMLEX? Stick to Uworld, NBME, and NBOME practice exams?
Ive heard good things about Kaplan....
This is interesting because almost everything I've heard about Kaplan has been negative. In fact, we had a lunch guest lecture with an ex-Kaplan doc instructor on whether or not we should take the USMLE, he himself stated that he felt the Kaplan materials had a lot of room for improvement.
Their "revised" 2010 Qbank is supposed to be a big improvement over the previous one, but I've done a few blocks of it and it still seems focused on minutiae that may or may not be high yield. I'm still not sure how much of it I'm going to use.
I'm talking about the Kaplan notes, no the Qbank. I too have heard the complaint that the kaplan questions focus too much on little details. Ive heard nothing but good things about the kaplan books tho (especially pharm, micro, and biochem).
took my exam yesterday,
some background info :
Materials used : Kaplan lecture notes 2011 (newest ones), kaplan liveprep, UW, etc.
UWSA 1 - 244
UWSA 2 - 263
NBME 5 - 244
NBME 6 - 240
NBME 7 - 260
NBME 3 - 255
NBME 4 - 263
NBME 2 - 253
Yeah, i like donating money to the NBME.
To Psychforme - can you predict my score please???!!!
Length - Killer, much longer than NBMEs, granted there were single liners here and there but I missed like 3 questions at the end of the second block due to lack of time.....just had to pick something before time ran out.
Personally, i felt the clock on the real exam was bugged and was running faster than normal!!!
Difficulty of exam - seemed fair, nowhere near as hard as UWorld, but similar concepts tested. The material tested isnt hard/impossible, its just hard because of the time factor, gimme another 10 minutes for each block and i probably would have left the center with a sardonic smile Yeah there were a lot of research oriented questions but they could be figured out if you knew what they wanted. Again, this took time to think, 70 seconds fly by so fast and in the later blocks your brain doesn't want to think, it wants to pick something and move on...
Resource Ranking:
1. Uworld - this qbank probably has the most exam-like content, although it may seem vague at first, stick to it, it will pay off in the exam. The question length is much much longer than uworld though, so you should be doing them in like 60percent of the time. Without Uworld, i can imagine how the exam would have been for me.
2. Kaplan notes - worth their weight in gold, memorize their tables and you should be in the money, i have heard Kaplan MEd essentials is basically all the tables, so look into that if you dont got time.
3. FA 2010- not so much, i flipped through it the days before the exam, seemed full of facts, but the exam didnt test facts, in fact 95% of the questions are application application application.
Learn to guess - there were situations in the exam when i had it narrowed to like 2 choices and had to guess, this was hard for me, but it helps to be able to just make good guesses FAST, i would dwell on a question for a few minutes and timing is everything in this exam.
How do i feel? i feel like i could be anywhere on that score distribution, its hard to tell, no instant score gratification like in the nbmes..
good luck to anyone preparing.
Started studying mid August 2010, took the exam January 20th 2011 (last Thursday)! Total prep time: 4-5 months
Just wondering - what is your student status. Are you an IMG?
Started studying mid August 2010, took the exam January 20th 2011 (last Thursday)! Total prep time: 4-5 months
NBME 1 (after watching kaplan videos): 185
Thanks so much for the post! I got a lot out of it. I did the Kaplan course too but felt I didn't get much out of it as I should have.
What is DIT? Where can I get these videos from and how long does it take to go through all of them?
I'm talking about the Kaplan notes, no the Qbank. I too have heard the complaint that the kaplan questions focus too much on little details. Ive heard nothing but good things about the kaplan books tho (especially pharm, micro, and biochem).
See, the only Kaplan book I've heard good things about is biochem (and perhaps some of their OMM review material for the COMLEX). In the previous post, I was talking about both their notes and the qbanks - and I've perused the Kaplan materials because our school bought a copy of the complete set for each student. CMMRS, IMHO, is much better than Kaplan micro (I have both) and I'd rather use something like the BRS pharmcards than the Kaplan pharm materials.