Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Phloston]

I figure now is a good time to jump-start this thread.

Even though some of us who had taken the exam in late-2012 are still awaiting our scores (amid the holiday delays) and could technically still post within last year's thread, it is after all mid-January now, so it's probably apposite that we move forward and hope for a great year.

Cheers to 2013

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[Modeselektor]

yeah. I bought the book then grabbed the PDF.
Took getting used to but now I love them.

So many ways to markup/edit. Easier to annotate too, I can add links to pages of other books.

 

[voicesinmyhead]

yeah. I bought the book then grabbed the PDF.
Took getting used to but now I love them.

So many ways to markup/edit. Easier to annotate too, I can add links to pages of other books.

Cool. What program did you use?
Maybe i'll try that for CK

 

[Modeselektor]

Used foxit pdf editor.

Wow man. I skimmed/revised so much today. Everything I was unsure of I've had a look at. Time to sleep.
Goodnight guys.
Wish me luck.

 

[voicesinmyhead]

Smack that ***** up!

Good luck!

 

[Brain Bucket]

haha cool ****. As I'm going over these "weak chapters in FA" I've decided to negatively highlight: Instead of underlining/highlighting things I don't know confidently. I'm blacking out everything I know for sure.

feels way way way...better. far less tense now. Casually reading and enjoying the progressive blackening of FA.

Cross-document links and blacking out - Both very clever. Good luck!

 

[Modeselektor]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

 

[voicesinmyhead]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

Sounds like you nailed it. now go party.

And whats left field anatomy?

 

[Modeselektor]

No idea about nailing. I may have been nailed myself. hahah. :'(

I had anatomy questions that were pulled from the most random corners of anatomy.
I'm just basically not trying to think about it.
Time to put this "suppression" defense mechanism to work.

 

[ninjasurgeron]

No idea about nailing. I may have been nailed myself. hahah. :'(

I had anatomy questions that were pulled from the most random corners of anatomy.
I'm just basically not trying to think about it.
Time to put this "suppression" defense mechanism to work.

May I ask what sources you used in Anatomy? Was it only FA?

 

[DNA 105]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

Hello,

Congratulations on being done with it. Looks like you've taken the UWSAs. Mind sharing the scores and number of questions wrong (if you remember of course). Thanks..

 

[Modeselektor]

Re: anatomy: I used kaplan anatomy at the beginning and pretty much remembered most of it at the end. Then I knew all of the anatomy in FA, usmlerx, kaplan qbank, and uworld. And there were a few things I thumbed through gray's too.

There are few places the usmle can pull ****ed up questions from, I think anatomy is one of there favorites. The only remedy I can think of is getting a good working knowledge of overall anatomy so you can work through the questions. This is all just how my test went, people have gone in and had bunches of embryo questions or cherrypicking pharma questions. I had none.

My UWSAs were both 265 and I think I got maybe less than 10 wrong on them. I felt uncertain after I clicked end block on both of those, so I hope this feeling I have now is normal and my mark will come back good.
NBMEs i did:
6: 245
13: 259
15: 264
5: 259
12: 254
11: 264
5: 252

Feelings about real deal: between 220 - 260 (seriously)

 

[BlueArc]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

Mubarakan! Can't wait to be in your place in a few months.
Dude i am finishing up with neuro at the moment. Judging by your test, can you please advise me what to focus on more? I know you don't want to think about your exam right now but you might forget later on.

 

[Modeselektor]

The neuro I got on my exam was very straight forward. Emphasis on peripheral nerves, and brain lesions. Matching symptoms to level of lesion. And level of lesion to symptoms.

 

[BlueArc]

The neuro I got on my exam was very straight forward. Emphasis on peripheral nerves, and brain lesions. Matching symptoms to level of lesion. And level of lesion to symptoms.

That is a bit relieving. Thanks.

 

[keithsun]

is anyone expecting their score today?

 

[MaryAnn1]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

congrats on being done!
you will ace it ! no question about that.
How did you take breaks and what about the distribution of subjects.How was behaviur? What's with anatomy these days I have few seniors saying the same .What you think u could have done different.
Now go partay!!

 

[Modeselektor]

I took breaks based on how I felt.

1 and 2nd blocks I did back to back (with about a 30 second break)
Then about a 10-15 min break (ate a peanut butter sandwich)

3rd and 4th block did back to back (with about a 30 second break)
10-15 minute break (ate my other sandwich)

5th block
(5-10 minute break, took an ibuprofen and a caffeine pill)

6th block
(5-10 minute break)

7th block

 

[webgenius]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

Congratulation!

How was your physio?

How many anatomy Qs did you get overall?
How many of them was out of FA and the scope of common sense?

I hope you break 260+

 

[Doctosanthewan]

Well just got done earlier today... overall, the exam wasnt as bad as thought it would be... yes there was alot of 'holy **** wtf is going on here?!' But when I started to just slowly try and piece the gaps together a lot of them become solvable, and of course some of them were just ridiculous and I could have sat and scratched my head all day and still be doubtful. I had a ton of biochem and immuno (thankfully pretty solid subjects). Had a few micro questions that were ambigious and threw me off a little, but other than that I thought it was a fair exam that touched on so many different aspects of medicine that it felt like being in an interrogation room getting every last piece of info picked out your brain. The hardest part was definitely those last 2 or 3 block and seeing double.

 

[Phloston]

Re: anatomy: I used kaplan anatomy at the beginning and pretty much remembered most of it at the end. Then I knew all of the anatomy in FA, usmlerx, kaplan qbank, and uworld. And there were a few things I thumbed through gray's too.

There are few places the usmle can pull ****ed up questions from, I think anatomy is one of there favorites. The only remedy I can think of is getting a good working knowledge of overall anatomy so you can work through the questions. This is all just how my test went, people have gone in and had bunches of embryo questions or cherrypicking pharma questions. I had none.

My UWSAs were both 265 and I think I got maybe less than 10 wrong on them. I felt uncertain after I clicked end block on both of those, so I hope this feeling I have now is normal and my mark will come back good.
NBMEs i did:
6: 245
13: 259
15: 264
5: 259
12: 254
11: 264
5: 252

Feelings about real deal: between 220 - 260 (seriously)

It depends when you took those NBMEs, but if the two that were 264 were within a week of your real deal, then you are poised to score 260+.

The worst part now is just waiting on your score. >2 weeks post-exam is the worst because you'll be aware of stupid errors you made by then, whereas right now, you haven't yet realized what you did wrong.

 

[stronghold]

Post game report:

First block thought my heart was gonna detach and pop out of my chest, was beating so hard and fast. Had a bunch of left field anatomy. After that block settled in and began to get into it. Was able to finish blocks with about 15 mins to spare. Feels like I made some silly errors, and of course about 1/3 of the questions you are somewhat unsure about by the end of it. Honestly thought it felt exactly like the UWSAs.

I got about two questions where I needed the headphones. Zero "make a selection to proceed" type questions. No videos. No crazy****ing cases. Basically just hard questions on the familiar stuff, with a fair share of out-of-nowheres.

And yeah, its pretty much ALL in FA, except the 10% that isn't. And that **** is pretty much in NO book. How they ask questions is basically how NBME and UWorld ask questions. There are rarely MILE LONG STEMS or SUPER ****ED UP QUESTIONS ABOUT JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS. Questions with long stems have short answers. I think they are literally just put there to piss you off when the clock is ticking.

I am entirely unsure how I did. I've felt like this when I've done well. I've felt like this when I ****ed up.
I'll just have to wait and accept.

Congrats for being done. You said that you were able to finish blocks with 15 minutes to spare...Do you mean you had that time after marked/blank questions?
What about your timing in UW, Qbank, NBMEs? How many minutes you had in those practice exams?

 

[Modeselektor]

The worst part now is just waiting on your score. >2 weeks post-exam is the worst because you'll be aware of stupid errors you made by then, whereas right now, you haven't yet realized what you did wrong.

Haha they are slowly starting to trickle in.

Stronghold I was able to get to 46 and answer it with 15-20 minutes before I moved to blank/marked.
I came up with a nifty marking system. Any question where I wanted to take a second look I flagged. Any question where I selected an answer but had serious doubts I opened up note and wrote something random (2354), so the pencil icon appeared near it. Once I reached the end I answered blanks, then pencils, then flags, then a quick skim through all if I had time to make sure I didn't click something I didn't mean.

 

[stronghold]

Good tactic! What about your timing in UW, Qbank, NBMEs? How many minutes you had in those practice exams?

 

[Modeselektor]

Same thing with everything. Sometimes on UWorld you finish really early (like 20 minutes everything checked)
I had little goals for things during blocks, where I would want to be at question 10 with 50 minutes left, 20 with 40 minutes left, 30 with 30, etc.
One thing that made me pick up the pace was when I did USMLErx and Qbank, I didn't have time for the easy questions and only did blocks with avg/hard. Doing that MADE me speed the **** up.

There was one guy who did his step blocks in reverse, starting at question 46 and moving towards one (makes it easier to judge how much time per question left).

Please keep in mind my score ain't come back yet. If I get some uber-low **** you all will be kicking yourselves for following anything I said. hahaha

Congrats @Doctosanthewan for being done. We fought hard bro. We got it done. I'm happy I didn't delay. It would have made no difference, other than wasting time.

 

[MaryAnn1]

Well just got done earlier today... overall, the exam wasnt as bad as thought it would be... yes there was alot of 'holy **** wtf is going on here?!' But when I started to just slowly try and piece the gaps together a lot of them become solvable, and of course some of them were just ridiculous and I could have sat and scratched my head all day and still be doubtful. I had a ton of biochem and immuno (thankfully pretty solid subjects). Had a few micro questions that were ambigious and threw me off a little, but other than that I thought it was a fair exam that touched on so many different aspects of medicine that it felt like being in an interrogation room getting every last piece of info picked out your brain. The hardest part was definitely those last 2 or 3 block and seeing double.

congrats on being done!
you will sure break a 260!
what do you recommend in last few days before exam.What do you think you would have done different.How was behaviour and anatomy on your exam?
which qbank did u use

 

[Doctosanthewan]

@Modeselektor thanks bro, definitely feels somewhat surreal to be done and this weird feeling of actually not knowing what do with my time is annoying me haha. Well at least my gf is happy to have me back after weeks of almost complete absence. I just hope all the sacrifices and raw commitment that I've given to this exam pays off... oh well time will tell!! Just glad to have my life back haha

@MaryAnn1 I don't know about for sure, but I really hope so!! Most of my NBME's were 250's, with only 2 that were 260+ (last 2 weeks before the exam) so I think its really just a question of how lucky did I get on those questions I didn't know... find out soon though.
Behavioural really wasn't too bad. Make sure you understand First Aid well, don't just memorize what FA says though, make sure you have a solid working knowledge and you can comfortably manipulate all those questions that require you to use the equations. Overall it didn't get too complex though, most of the questions were sensitivity, specificity, NNT with a weird cost variable thrown in to try and confuse you, but really not too difficult stuff. You just have to be very careful with time management though so you don't spend more than a minute or so on those kind of questions.
I had a few very very strange doctor-patient-response sort of questions though. Bravo to the person who thought of them, they definitely messed with my head a little haha.
Anatomy was standard run of the mill stuff. Make sure you thoroughly understand pelvis anatomy, theres a particular structure that likes to get injured during gyn procedures, make sure you know ALL of its relations. Shoulder also seems to be another one. Neuro is of course something they like to go after, but its a lot more simple than the level of Neuro in High Yield Neuroanatomy (spent a considerable amount of time going through the whole book)
Other than that, what I would have done differently, is DEFINITELY not stress as much in those last few weeks. Although I think you need a little bit of it, just not too much though, because that little bit of fear factor is what really pushed me to consistently put in 12hr+ study days in the last few weeks. I don't think I would have been able to do that if I wasn't at least a little scared.
I flicked through FA over and over in the last few days. That definitely helped a lot, it gave me what felt like a huge boost in confidence, even though I'd already been studying for months.
Qbanks: Uworld was my favourite, finished with 82%. I did Kaplan qbank when I was just starting out and finished with 76%. I thought UW was way better than the Kaplan qbank, but I'm sure you already know that.
Wish me luck!

 

[CaliAtenza]

congrats to both of you guys . My exam is Nov 22nd (pushed it back after a low UWSA1 score), so i hope to be right there with you guys very soon . @Modeselektor, what exactly do you mean by levels in neuro? EDIT: wait just realized what you meant (levels of spinal cord and such, got it ).

 

[CaliAtenza]

@
Doctosanthewan: Is Kaplan Anatomy a good source for pelvic anatomy? Its the only Anatomy text i have on hand right now.

 

[CaliAtenza]

@Modeselektor, funny thing about Japanese Encephalitis. I know about that because i went to medical school in India near an area that is or used to be endemic for it.

 

[Doctosanthewan]

@CaliAtenza I wasn't really a big fan of the Kaplan books. Bought them, but didn't end up using them at all (other than the occasional search for a specific piece of info.) I liked the Qbook that came along with it though, finished the whole thing in less than 2 days lol.
What I will say though, is that they seem to be pretty solid, I just find them to be sooo dry, boring and long to read. I used Snell's anatomy book for its absolutely awesome diagrams and drawings e.g. pelvis, shoulder, heart, abdomen anatomy. It's more of a course book than a Step 1 book, but it is fantastic for what its worth and the sole reason why I loved anatomy so much during med school. Kinda sucks that there isn't much anatomy on the Step, and with that being said, don't bog yourself down too much with anatomy. Just know the few testable areas thoroughly.
Best of luck!!

 

[VCorp]

Is it just me, or is the new SDN layout absolutely crap? Hate how it looks now...

 

[CaliAtenza]

@CaliAtenza I wasn't really a big fan of the Kaplan books. Bought them, but didn't end up using them at all (other than the occasional search for a specific piece of info.) I liked the Qbook that came along with it though, finished the whole thing in less than 2 days lol.
What I will say though, is that they seem to be pretty solid, I just find them to be sooo dry, boring and long to read. I used Snell's anatomy book for its absolutely awesome diagrams and drawings e.g. pelvis, shoulder, heart, abdomen anatomy. It's more of a course book than a Step 1 book, but it is fantastic for what its worth and the sole reason why I loved anatomy so much during med school. Kinda sucks that there isn't much anatomy on the Step, and with that being said, don't bog yourself down too much with anatomy. Just know the few testable areas thoroughly.
Best of luck!!

Thanks !. I am sure that you will get an awsome score, i have no doubt. I thought Kaplan was pretty good for neuroanatomy and neurology though. I do agree with you that it is somewhat dry and boring to read. How was biochem and molecular bio on the exam?

 

[Doctosanthewan]

@CaliAtenza Oh yeah I neglected to mention that. Cell and molecular biology made up a big part of the exam. I had so many questions about different types of cancers and the involved genes. Of course they tried to make it a little more tricky so you first had to diagnose the case and then be able to identify the exact process involving the gene. The very first question on the exam I had was about a tumour and a certain process involving its proliferation. It was annoying I was pumping with all this adrenaline, and straight away I get a very tough molecular bio question that has me scratching my head for a good 2 minutes lol. Definitely give it the attention it needs. Its so high yield its not even funny.
Biochem wasn't too tricky IMO, although that may be relative because I used to suck at biochem and avoided it until I decided that I have to dedicate a whole week to thoroughly understand every part of it. The helped me a huge amount and made my life a lot easier. What I will say though is that its not about memorizing all the pathways. Its about understanding the function of all the important, regulatory, irreversible, related to disease process enzymes. And to know them well. You should be okay for biochem with that. And also knowing the DNA/RNA/protein analysis techniques helps. I spent time on that too, but still got a question that was strange and involved techniques I've never even heard of before, even though I read all of High Yield Cell and Molecular Biology a couple times. Sometimes they just throw stuff at you that you will have never seen before, that's just the way it is.

 

[Modeselektor]

So far I've recalled about 20 questions I was on the fence about and 4 of them I made silly mistakes on.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

 

[ninjasurgeron]

So far I've recalled about 20 questions I was on the fence about and 4 of them I made silly mistakes on.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

@CaliAtenza Oh yeah I neglected to mention that. Cell and molecular biology made up a big part of the exam. I had so many questions about different types of cancers and the involved genes. Of course they tried to make it a little more tricky so you first had to diagnose the case and then be able to identify the exact process involving the gene. The very first question on the exam I had was about a tumour and a certain process involving its proliferation. It was annoying I was pumping with all this adrenaline, and straight away I get a very tough molecular bio question that has me scratching my head for a good 2 minutes lol. Definitely give it the attention it needs. Its so high yield its not even funny.
Biochem wasn't too tricky IMO, although that may be relative because I used to suck at biochem and avoided it until I decided that I have to dedicate a whole week to thoroughly understand every part of it. The helped me a huge amount and made my life a lot easier. What I will say though is that its not about memorizing all the pathways. Its about understanding the function of all the important, regulatory, irreversible, related to disease process enzymes. And to know them well. You should be okay for biochem with that. And also knowing the DNA/RNA/protein analysis techniques helps. I spent time on that too, but still got a question that was strange and involved techniques I've never even heard of before, even though I read all of High Yield Cell and Molecular Biology a couple times. Sometimes they just throw stuff at you that you will have never seen before, that's just the way it is.

Did any of you guys get questions where the vignette points to the disease but asks for the mode of inheritance (AD, AR, XD, XR, mitochondrial)?

 

[Modeselektor]

I do faintly recall a question where you had to know something was AD and another which was XD.

 

[Doctosanthewan]

Yes I think I had maybe 3. Anyway, two of those were dead give aways. The other one was very subtle and one word in a paragraph-long case completely changed the diagnosis, and, conveniently, the mode of inheritance, which is what they were asking.

 

[Doctosanthewan]

So far I've recalled about 20 questions I was on the fence about and 4 of them I made silly mistakes on.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Yeah, me too man. I recalled one earlier that annoyed me to all living hell. But with that being said, I looked up two educated guesses that I made and somehow they both happened to be right. I don't know though, theres some niggling doubts but I feel pretty content not to think about it too much. So I decided to go do some charity work in Africa for a couple months and prob get CK out the way by mid January latest and hopefully pick up a couple publications somewhere down the road. Pretty excited for it and it really just puts this whole Step 1 **** into perspective!!

 

[ninjasurgeron]

Yes I think I had maybe 3. Anyway, two of those were dead give aways. The other one was very subtle and one word in a paragraph-long case completely changed the diagnosis, and, conveniently, the mode of inheritance, which is what they were asking.

I do faintly recall a question where you had to know something was AD and another which was XD.

Any suggestions other than straight-up mnemonics for remembering the diseases' mode of inheritance? Or would the generalities (i.e. AR are enzyme deficiencies while AD are usually structural problems) suffice?

 

[Doctosanthewan]

Yeah, the generalities seem to suffice, as long as you know the exceptions e.g. X-linked recessive/dominant/mitochondrial.

 

[ninjasurgeron]

Yeah, the generalities seem to suffice, as long as you know the exceptions e.g. X-linked recessive/dominant/mitochondrial.

Know everything, got it. Thanks. I know you'll ace that test!

 

[CaliAtenza]

@CaliAtenza Oh yeah I neglected to mention that. Cell and molecular biology made up a big part of the exam. I had so many questions about different types of cancers and the involved genes. Of course they tried to make it a little more tricky so you first had to diagnose the case and then be able to identify the exact process involving the gene. The very first question on the exam I had was about a tumour and a certain process involving its proliferation. It was annoying I was pumping with all this adrenaline, and straight away I get a very tough molecular bio question that has me scratching my head for a good 2 minutes lol. Definitely give it the attention it needs. Its so high yield its not even funny.
Biochem wasn't too tricky IMO, although that may be relative because I used to suck at biochem and avoided it until I decided that I have to dedicate a whole week to thoroughly understand every part of it. The helped me a huge amount and made my life a lot easier. What I will say though is that its not about memorizing all the pathways. Its about understanding the function of all the important, regulatory, irreversible, related to disease process enzymes. And to know them well. You should be okay for biochem with that. And also knowing the DNA/RNA/protein analysis techniques helps. I spent time on that too, but still got a question that was strange and involved techniques I've never even heard of before, even though I read all of High Yield Cell and Molecular Biology a couple times. Sometimes they just throw stuff at you that you will have never seen before, that's just the way it is.

I also have HY Cell and Molecular bio..its a pretty good book. I teamed that up with the Kaplan Biochemistry book (section on cell and molecular bio, its pretty extensive in Kaplan). I think i have a pretty good handle on biochem...but i'll definetly be reviewing it again in the last few days before the exam. I have 21 days to go!! I spent last week just doing genetics, molecular bio, the DNA/RNA/Protein analysis techniques. I also did the Kaplan Q bank questions for that, which i need to go over again. I am not sure if i am completely comfortable with it though...

 

[Modeselektor]

Yeah, me too man. I recalled one earlier that annoyed me to all living hell. But with that being said, I looked up two educated guesses that I made and somehow they both happened to be right. I don't know though, theres some niggling doubts but I feel pretty content not to think about it too much. So I decided to go do some charity work in Africa for a couple months and prob get CK out the way by mid January latest and hopefully pick up a couple publications somewhere down the road. Pretty excited for it and it really just puts this whole Step 1 **** into perspective!!

Its annoying driving down the highway, and a realization hits me in the face and I'm like "**** **** ****" so far 5 confirmed errors and 20 lucky corrects. 5 errors... I hope that's it and I got everything else right, I got my 280 and can bounce. hahahahah yeah right.

At this point, I'm pretty much "**** it, who gives a **** 2 years from now, if its good enough for residency that's all I care about. What's next?" How did you land the charity work? I've got externships to apply for, and then I'm gonna knock out CK before they call me in to work. Then gotta finish up whatever formalities are left and hope to submit my application next year.

 

[Doctosanthewan]

Its annoying driving down the highway, and a realization hits me in the face and I'm like "**** **** ****" so far 5 confirmed errors and 20 lucky corrects. 5 errors... I hope that's it and I got everything else right, I got my 280 and can bounce. hahahahah yeah right.

At this point, I'm pretty much "**** it, who gives a **** 2 years from now, if its good enough for residency that's all I care about. What's next?" How did you land the charity work? I've got externships to apply for, and then I'm gonna knock out CK before they call me in to work. Then gotta finish up whatever formalities are left and hope to submit my application next year.

Hahaha super saiyan that 270!! But seriously, I think Step 1 isn't the be all, end all. Yeah the hype is pretty big because it is, undoubtedly, very important (well, if you're intent on pursuing medicine in the States anyway.) But really in the grand scheme of things, this is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Are you already graduated? The Red Cross and Medicin Sans Frontiers are always actively looking for MD's who are down to help. You'd be really surprised at some of the places where they need doctors. It's worth having a look at purely for the insane real world experience you'd get out of it and of course the opportunity to help those who seem to live on a planet different to the rest of us. It's a shame really.

 

[Guyton Killah]

Lol

 

[whyjesse]

Question - what advice do you have about studying during preclinicals?

Should I be focusing on what's in class? Or should I focus on review materials (e.g. BRS Phys, FA)? I'm currently trying to juggle studying both FA and class. I'm doing better than average in class, but only slightly, and feel that I could do better if I focused only on class materials. However, there is some stuff covered in FA that isn't in class, so I'm not sure which to cover.

Also, would you guys recommend annotating FA or making Anki off of FA? Which one would be more useful in the long run?

 

[mcloaf]

Question - what advice do you have about studying during preclinicals?

Should I be focusing on what's in class? Or should I focus on review materials (e.g. BRS Phys, FA)? I'm currently trying to juggle studying both FA and class. I'm doing better than average in class, but only slightly, and feel that I could do better if I focused only on class materials. However, there is some stuff covered in FA that isn't in class, so I'm not sure which to cover.

Also, would you guys recommend annotating FA or making Anki off of FA? Which one would be more useful in the long run?

I'm only a fellow M1, so I'm sure the rest here will have better advice, but I've been told by second years at my school and on SDN that worrying about FA this early is a waste of time. It's meant as a review for stuff you've already learned, not as a resource to teach you this info the first time around.

Personally I'm just banking all our M1 stuff in FC and have found it pretty helpful on our exams this year, though sometimes it can be annoying (such as when they give us a prototype drug as an example of a pathway, and when I bank the card in FC I have to learn all the different drug names, or can't bank a card on physio we've covered because the card is also riddled with path stuff from next year).

 

[Phloston]

The worst part is, the questions you get wrong aren't even the hardest ones. Unfortunately you'll remember the stupid mistakes you made for the rest of your life. You'll have a few moments in the year following your exam where it will creep on you in a fairly profound way what may have been different had the mistakes not been made. But it's both healthy and humbling. And it will mature you. It forces you to recognize that a few points don't make or break a person nor his or her character.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Wow. Looks like this really was a rite of passage for you.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

[Modeselektor]

The worst part is, the questions you get wrong aren't even the hardest ones. Unfortunately you'll remember the stupid mistakes you made for the rest of your life. You'll have a few moments in the year following your exam where it will creep on you in a fairly profound way what may have been different had the mistakes not been made. But it's both healthy and humbling. And it will mature you. It forces you to recognize that a few points don't make or break a person nor his or her character.

Yeah the mistakes I remember are all what I would call "retrospect gimmies". It just didn't all click at that very moment. You never mentioned this in your pdf, @Phloston, but if you don't mind me asking how many errors did you remember by time your result came out. I'm at 7 right now. Got started on step 2. Gotta take this sucker asap. Waiting for the step 1 result so I can apply to do some externships.

@Brain Bucket, yeah may seem unusual to you haha, but this exam is a huge thing for IMGs. It's allready used as a benchmark to cut out applicants in residency but these days its also used to get clinical experience as well.

Come onnnnn internal medicine!