comments of the author after the original contribution :
guest007 said:
Hi guys,
starting with a good note that...exam is doable if u drink ur first aid in and out...moreover if u apply ur brain on exam day.
But otherwise its very tough...very tough...believe me...so study hard.One very important point... i wanted to make is....in another thread......somebody had said not to study 2 days before exam......and just relax......I dont know how u wud like to do it....but if i had followed tht advice it wud have been fatal for me for sure....just believe me.
whatever i studied in last 2 days...biochemistry and pharmacology...the most volatile ones.....I increased my chances of picking the right answers for straight forward questions......my short term memory is low for biochem....pharmac......ofcourse its upto ur individual capability.......If u are confident of ur preparation you can surely can relax for last 2 days.....BUT u can also choose to relax and study ....atleast keeping the book in front of you....or flipping thru the pages....like u can take a break of 1 hour in evening or see a movie.....but keep ur focus on exam.......I think the last 15 days are the most important days 4 any exam....MAKE THEM COUNT FOR YOU.and those DAYS shud be counted per second......and shud be utilised properly.
I had a lot of immunolgy and and molecular biology.....Kud not do many questions with confidence ....though i had drunk high yield.....may be....i had a mental block DURING SECOND BLOCK but it was not without any reasons...questions were tough in that block ..........IN SHORT i felt not everything is answerable on step1 ......and thts true....
immunology....was doable....cant remember many questions but....study Graft versus host reactions usefullness in transplantation....its a big hint.
in pharmacology...did not have much of thing but had 3 antiviral drugs and antineoplastic questions scattered in different blocks.
pathology was doable.......be ready with all relations between angiotensin,renin,sympathetis system....blood pressure....it shud be on tips.......and shud not take time on exam day.....time is very crucial during exam....i had kept 1 minute/ques.....and still had trouble....but somehow kud get only....4 minutes on average for revision.........which was usefull for few guess answers for which time was required and i had guessed them wrongly becoz of time constraints....once i came back to them...i changed my answers confidently to correct answers.
I had read in somebodies thread that when she had taken the exam...she felt the 8th block was damn hard and it can help anybody in flunking.....that was true but for me tht block was 2nd block.
when i did the first block i felt....exam is going to be easy.....questions were easier than even kaplan q bank....but the second block was such tht ...even if u have book in front of u...u will not be able not answer them.....most of them were related to latest immunlogy technologies....and applications of molecular biology....usmle thinks 1 step ahead of kaplan for the tougher questions to make us believe tht...exam is tough.....i got 2 questions on fragile x and myotonic dystrophy...i knew every line of kaplan and still kud not answer them....cant tell u what they asked....THEY WENT 1 step ahead thts it.
For me the toughest in exam became the graphs of pharmac and physio....put together....i got some right probably but have no confidence about being correct in others as i kud not interpret 2 graphs at all...and wasted my time on thinking about it...and just guessed and went ahead....for few i understood the graph...but the choices were tricky....
I did well in anatomy,biochem,pharmac...other than graphs....physiology...okay....pathology was good for me.....i will surely miss marks in latest molecular biology.....and immunogy....but may be i did okay.
I have heard people having a mixed feeling after exam....i have the same feeling......but i m sure one shud not take more than 6 months for this exam,,,,specialy if he/she is sitting at home and studying.....I am a male..married..working and still i did it in 6 months and was feeling at the end that I kud have utilised those 6 months more efficiently if i had focussed on exam in all those 6 months....but i focussed only in last 2 months....though was regular in studying for 6 hours everyday since the beginning....
so When i started studying for 13-14 hours everyday in last 2 months...i realized tht i kud have done tht even in previous 4 months too....but there was no point in repenting...so i kept studying....my wifes was always my best critique when i deviated from usmle.....She said she will complain to my dad and mom...if i dont study....ha ha....she asked me what i m aiming for as my step score....this was 3 weeks before exam...and i said....i have not aimed for any score but will complete all my subjects properly and will do my best in exam...and will wait for the results.....she had a heartily laugh....and than i came to know....tht i shud make a aim........even if its late...i had already studied kaplan 3 times...i just told myself i want to get all the questions correctily on my exam....350 out of 350.......I know it was unimaginable....but thts what i aimed for...........I believe everybody will aim for that.....right...but how many of u will think about it while solving the exam questions.....frankly.......if yes you are on the correct path.......that will make u study every line in kaplan properly and will help u in grasping the subject.
I even thot about it during exam....and my dream was heartlessly shattered.....I dont know whether i will reach 175 or not.......or even 250...or will pass or fail.....but onething i know i did not miss even a single direct question i dont know how many of those were there may be 50 or less or more but....i got all first aid answers right...but exam is much more than that....be ready for it mentaly....dont let it bother u though as i believe.....ur mind will take you through it during exam...stick to kaplan and first aid in last few days specialy.
And do pray for my good result.....only thing i dont want is below 85 by any case....i m praying to my lord for all of u at this very moment......do pray for me too and .Do it well guys......most important keep studying...
and guest007 commented on some questions :
thanks robin,ing and star1,
AS hours after the exam are passing by....i m feeling tht i might have done some more silly mistakes......like i remember picking up hemidesmosome as 1 answer ....the tragedy...is i realy dont remember the question.........and for another question i chose stratum spinosum...as the answer....same thing cant remember the question...sorry for tht...anyway....the gut feeling is i may have got this answers as wrong.....only reason i can not remember the questions is that the facts are twisted and interwoven 2 make u believe tht....gap junction and stratum basale can not be the answers....which i think from my part....
usualy i followed the policy...tht if i dont have any idea...about a question....i will pick up the most common occuring topic tested on usmle like gap junction or stratum basale...but for these two and few more they made me believe tht those were not the answers...even though i dont remember the questions now...but i believe...i was fooled anyway...i think it is all normal feeling after the exam.......
star1...they use fred..
yes question were little long but not more than 6 lines........toughest part was alot of facts inside the stem...so always read complete question and then all chioces...plz.
some were easy...very easy....but proportion was less than i had expected.....guessing ,,,may be 50-75 questions were completely taken directly from q banks used by us.
calculation were easy....brain application....i remember 1 calculation about alveolar ventilation which was difficult and i kud not do....guessed it clinicaly.....imaging a patient in clinic and approximate value....instead of using any formulas...tht 1 was only difficult calculation.....otherwise i got 1 as t1/2 and specificty.....may be 1 pharmac question abt maintainence dose.....
if u have any other query or something is not clear...do ask me again.
all the best to u all.
thank u doc179,saeedkhan,tolito,hilfiger,vanshita.......thank u so much...just pray for me too.
As the time is passing by...i m feeling i have made lot of dumb mistakes in logical questions.which under normal situation i will always pick up...becpz of time pressure and hurry i chose wrong one...just to pick up 1 answer.....
about asking for a score of 99......i will be happy if God gives me tht......but i will be satisfied even for a above 90....but believe me i afraid of failing every now and then....specialy remembering some questions....thts why i need ur prayers.
star1...graph variable will be tough to remember but hazily i can say...i got one with drug dosage and agoinsts....and antagonist....i was asked to identify agoinst or antagonists
one was regarding epinephrine...and its agonists....
1 about angiotensin....
i about sensitivity and specificity...it was damn tough...which i had never imagained...
1 about co2 and alkalosis....something...not the one which we see in kaplan........for me it was easy to understand the graph...but picking the answers was very difficult..........infact i just picked....what my brain said might be right.....wasted 2 minutes on each graph...some were easy like respiratory alkalosis and somethink...from kaplan....
My centre was in davie,florida.but I m an IMG from india.study well u all...any other questions.....read First aid well.
saeedkhan....i did not take NBME ....but i did NBME questions from this forum itself...what people have already discussed....that helped me alot...but I think even NBME questions were also not close to real exam....just read kaplan and first aid nicely....
thts best we can do.........offcourse it helps to take NBME but i always knew my weaknesses already......u can generalise everybodies weakness without even giving NBME.....it will be molecular biology....biochemistry,genetics....becoz these things are not taught in detail during our medical school...right...so i read high yield for this one from begining with kaplan...still did badly in molecular biology and graphs becoz of difficulty level....the bad thing was i was using 2003 notes for eveything ......but i guess i compensated for it buy using high yield....
i can only say use internet for ur best use to read latest articles sometimes....specialy abt molecular biology and genetics...
all the best once again.
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