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My USMLE Step 1 Experience: 261/99
Just discovered this forum a few days back but I think it is an awesome forum
and it will help me a lot during my future prep, I used many similar
experiences since the beginning of my preparation. Hope this helps as well,
my way of thanking everybody who take the time to share and help.
Status: 6th year medical student at a university in Romania
Target score:250+
Final score: 261/99
Exam date: 12.1 received score: 12.22
Total prep time: 1 year 1/2 - effective prep 9 months
I have to explain this part a bit. My still being a student, and hence with
recent contact (well not THAT recent) with basic sciences might have helped
me out a bit. But the lack of clinical experience is also to be taken into
consideration. My total prep time was that long, atypical for most exam
takers, for a few reasons. I started in March 2009 reading around in forums
about materials used and general guidelines regarding prep (while I was in
my 4th year). I gathered books (downloading a few, buying others) step wise.
This means I first used Kaplan lecture notes and FA, read through a subject
(see description below) and then decided if I needed any extra material.
Looked up ratings on these forums and Amazon and bought it. This was not a
classical first read, it was more of a recon mission...I also color code and
underline everything that I read so yeah it took abnormally long to gather
everything, orient myself and really start my prep: almost a year. Thus I hope
my experience may help a bit in shortening this process. At the end of my
4th year I only had cards, respiratory, gastro as major rotations. I felt the
need to go through hematology and neurology and I was right, that helped
out a lot. I don't think it's a must to have had clinical rotations since AMGs
have this exam at the end of their first two years without any clinical
contact...but it certainly does make your life easier, know how to read faster
through questions, what to look for, how to judge in a certain context...you
know, just allow you to focus to answer the question without getting tangled
up in details which is very important and I'll explain later.
One more thing...I do not think that the time allotted for your prep is
essential. I only got to study for the step 2-3 hours per day weekdays and
about 9-10 hours weekends, had quite a few breaks because of school exams
(like peds-very long) and started real study in my summervacation. Those 9
months (March 2010 - December 2010) are more like 6 months total.
So it's really difficult to answer questions of how much time is
need...depends on many factors, your prep style, your background (since I
needn't (and cannot) memorize, but it helps, a lot, trust me... read
it again 3 weaks before my exam after going through everything at least
once to try and integrate info. I suggest reading this book (had the 2nd
edition, dunno about the first seemed a bit to old) and try to understand stuff
in there ...questions in my exam were near to impossible in this section, info
nowhere to be found (trust me), so I had to make educated guesses to the
best of my knowledge...here is where this book steps up. After going through
biochem once I knew that all the pathways will vanish into thin air, so I used
this first time to understand, make a few correlations. Cell biology mainly
sticks with you after the first time, but you really have to have a general view
on all processes here.
During these two months (March-April) I also read FA cover to cover...see how
much in that book is familiar (about 70% ), know where everything is etc.
While studying any subject (except path) I had FA open next to me and
looked up the info there after I read (and understood) something in
the lecture notes.
Mid April I started Kaplan Qbank...I do suggest you do this qbank, I really
think it is really useful in two aspects (and difficult ones at that) :1.Molecular
biology and genetics, really difficult questions here with much labwork
(RFLPs, DNA sequencing etc.), well explained in the videos; 2.Microbiology
maybe not that similar to the real exam,but huge help in learning stuff,
mainly bacteria and virus descriptions (lactase positive, oxidase positive,
dsDNA enveloped, helical etc.). Behavioral is really good also (even better
than UW I suppose). Took me two months to finish (also read in parallel and
much school work to be done also...my peds rotation started, a long one, so I
decided this was the time to squeeze in a qbank). This qbank has references
to FA so that was really useful, was like reading selectively from FA. I also
made my own notes, round 120 pages that will prove useful in the end.
One more detail...did both qbanks the same way...tutor,random,unused. Why
tutor? because once you choose an answer in tutor you cannot change it. I
wanted to be this certain of an answer in my real exam: when I choose
something, to be my best idea for that question (Ill explain why later). I
timed myself every time so that it did not take me more than 35-40 min for a
48 question block. And yeah, I started a qbank before I went through most of
the subjects...because this is what I believe means to use as a learning
tool(love this phrase ). See how your learning gauges up (or not) the
performance in that particular subject, and taking notes of what seems extra
and important info.
The same time I started reading Micro from MMRS. It was neat seeing how
my performance in the qbank went up as I advanced in micro readings. (from
around 60% to nearly 75% , low, mainly because of physio). MMRS is fun to
read, useful as a start, really gives a great foundation. Do use FA in parallel
with the best mnemonics ever. (yes I suppose most of the info you really
need to know is in FA...most). Finished MMRS (it is quite big, round 400
pages, even with the funny pictures and all) in 3 weeks and started
immuno (really important subject!). Went fast, 1 weeks, Kaplan seemed
enough. what does enough mean? to me it means I understand most of it
and I can answer around 80-90% of questions in any qbank (doing kaplan at
that time).
Did not mention a few breaks in this schedule because of school exams. After
another study break (1 months) summer break came (mid July). I was on
track. Subscribed to UW for 3 months (got an extension later), started doing
questions, really slow progress, a max of 30 questions per day (well 48
answered in the same way, tutor, random, unused / 30 by going through all
the answered, right and wrong). Wrote a lot of extra info that i considered to
be important in two notebooks (about 160 pages) which what seemed to me
to be VERY important as I jotted down in my FA. I know I know, how does one
decide what is important or not. What I believed is info that can be forgotten
I it wrote down in my FA, pathophysiology (like heart sounds and details
about the OS) and smaller details in the notebook. You should get the hang
of it in time, see what works for you.
I had the 2009 version of FA. After finishing UW and with quite a few new
details written down in it i compared it to the 2010 version, everything (and I
mean everything) they added in the 2010 FA (and even on the same pages) I
had already written down.
Mid July started Pharmacology which was kind of easy for me,
remembered many details from my courses in school and I paid attention to
mode of action (MOA) and adverse effects and It took me 2 weeks,
only Kaplan. FA in parallel, cancer drugs and immuno drugs are vicious to
remember and high yield (did they throw a weird drug at me in my exam?
yes they did, asked MOA, did not recognize the name, recognized the type by
looking at its suffix). UW helps with details here, especially CNS pharm.
August meant BRS and Kaplan Physiology easy to learn, easy to remember,
important to understand. Yes, do use both books, they really complement
each other nicely. Kaplan has many weird graphs you do not need to learn
but really help in learning how to read graphs in general (had a really weird
never before seen graph in my exam aswell). took 2 weeks off...vacation and
a trip (really needed!) .good performance (along with path and pharm and
cell and molecular) in my exam here.
In September I started Anatomy. First Road Map (I know, lots of info, not all
needed but do read it at least once), since I knew Kaplan is shallow in gross
anatomy (embryo is enough trust me!). I also tore up my Netter atlas and
selected some images there...learn anatomy (pathology as well!) by seeing
things, take advantage of this fact (unlike immuno or biochem). Look up
notesagain, and, while reading, looked up stuff in FA. This helped a lot. It was
mainly because I simply could not decide even after all the NBMEs what my
specific weaknesses or strenghts were. Why? because of this integrative
style...while my biochem, cell, physio, path, pharm, micro had stars, cardio
or resp or general principles were a bit lower.
Final word for prep...I do not know if you HAVE to use ALL of these books.
Most people suggest you stick to one set. I felt the need to fill some gaps so I
bought the extra books, and that made a difference to me. See what works
for you...if you are unsure of a subject search alternatives (before it is too
late), these were the best alternatives I found by reading posts like this. It
was hard work but I loved, literally, every minute of my prep, cause I felt
things becoming clear and adding up. And started diagnosing rare disease in
school during rotations..Awesome... And I did have a life (some at least) went
out Friday nights and Saturday nights (not very fresh for my NBME's huh?),
played football etc. Do those, keep a balance or you'll go mad (like I felt
during those last 3 weeks).
Exam:
Really REALLY hard. No, not because it was THE exam, not even because it
was MY exam. Wasnt nervous at all, had a 7h night sleep, breakfast etc. It is
just that, while reading around in forums I found out that some people have a
slightly atypical exam: way tougher, with recent research, long questions etc.
(the ones that get a 99 with 229 I suppose-just a wild guess not something
certain of course) Hoped it wont be mine, but was prepared for that (no,
actually, not really). Cannot disclose particular questions but I'll give you a
few examples.
Dont want to scare people, or complain, or find excuses, just be sure you are
ready for this. Most people say they have one hard block with long questions.
Many easy questions alongside, a few difficult ones, 5% impossible
questions. NBME style exactly. Not this one.
I had a slightly different system in solving questions that worked really well
in all NBMEs and UWSA. I finished all 46 questions (well 50 in NBME) in 30
-35 mins. left 2-3 unanswered if I really had no clue and I tackled those after
finishing the block (decide on an answer in max 5 mins). Did so, in order not
to lose focus, think too much about one, and get tired for the others. Marked
around 20 questions that seemed tricky or needed further attention and
reviewed those till the end of the time for that block. During my exam I
succeeded in answering in that 30-35 mins self imposed time gap. No
random choosing but many many questions, maybe 80%, even more, had
huge question stems. Never had an issue with reading stems but they slowly
add up in a 7h exam. Really drains one out.
About the difficulty...lemme put it this way: I marked 35 questions give or
take for further reviewing. No, again, not because it was the real deal and I
wanted to be sure but because questions were incredibly difficult and
twisted. Many details, like side effects of antimalarials (really?), dengue
fever...yeah micro, the subject I used to be really sure of (had 90% in UW)
was unbelievably hard. Not to mention the always present cell and
molecular...things never ever seen before (guess my guesses were mostly
correct since my profile shows a star here huh). Yeah, in behavioral you
always always ended up with two equally good choices (BRS did wonders,
got a star here too), couple of twisted graphs in phys. Biostat with few
calculations, but many many conceptual questions. Neuroanatomy was big
(look up CTs, know even the slightest detail on them-High Yield Neuro). All in
all pathology seemed to be prevalent but I actually believe they were evenly
distributed or sure seemed like it (even behavioral), maybe a bit lower on
pharm questions. Truth is I could not classify many of the questions as being
simply this or that subject. 2 heart sounds (one answer using the stem, the
other could be answered only by listening), no sequence questions at all.
Breaks...use them! Did first two blocks in a row, took a 10 min break to
recover. I knew what was to follow so I decided to overcome the initial panic
and just do my best. Washed my eyes during every break, drank a coke
(diuretic, use with caution!) and some water, ate some chocolate. Took a
break after every block (5-10 mins), not necessarily because I was tired but I
forced myself too in order to recover focus. Managed not to think about
previous questions during breaks (too much).
Moral of the story...I am not exaggerating here (certainly do not believe so
at least) but you can be the unlucky one that gets this type of exam (or
worse?)...be prepared to read long stems (many if not most!), be prepared to
improvise (answer without really knowing details of that-giving examples
would explain this better but as you know I cannot do that), be prepared to
face questions from recent research (no, this does NOT mean you HAVE to
read recent articles), be prepared not to be able to answer questions fast like
in the NBMEs (i.e based solely on knowledge)...be prepared means morally
prepared (dont panic!!!) because I do not think there is a way (or enough
time) to be ready for these exams. I do not know if in a different exam I could
have broken the 265, but it would have been certainly more possible.
Needless to say how I felt coming out of the test center.
Take everything I say (and everyone else for that matter) with a pinch of salt.
For me it was a difficult exam, for which I couldnt have prepared much more
better in this 9 month time frame. Just be ready for everything, expect the
worst and you will be more than fine. Again, I do not know how much time
one needs to be prepared, or which books are best or how many readings are
necessary. Different people, different ways. The exam is hard but with hard
work and wits anyone can do it.