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Dockhi's Exam Experience.

7K views 36 replies 16 participants last post by  itmt11 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone!
Ah, that day when you get done :)
I reached the place a little early, which was good cause they seated me early. And all the paper work and locker assignment got done in time. I couldn't sleep much the night before, but when you reach the Exam venue, you're so sure about taking the exam that nothing matters. Sleep, or no sleep! Stress is there, but the resolve is much greater.

The Exam was fair, and is not difficult. Just wanted to get that out of the way before I even start how my Exam even was. Yes, there are a lot of things perhaps that I was unsure of. I did the best I could manage. Hope it works smoothly. Yes, some questions are difficult. But they aren't many. Every concept is something you've already come across in FA and UW. Now, let's begin. Pharmacology in my Exam was the most heavily tested. More than half of them were classic side effects, given in First Aid. Other pharma questions had strange and confusing graphs, and I just DON'T like graphs. So I kinda just did the best I could at that moment. Cardio drugs are high yield as are CNS agonists and antagonists. UW covers the graphs well. You need practice for all of those concepts. But like I said, I don't like graphs! Micro was barely there. Makes like 5 questions. Immuno had few MHC I and MHC II questions. That is high yield. Structure of these molecules, who possesses them. And their differences. Transplant rejection was tested. Biochem was there too. Maybe like 6 questions. There's a page in First Aid dedicated to Mutations in Biochem. Commit it to memory. Cause few questions of genetics will be there. There were also "A researcher" questions but you've come across the concept if you have done UW and FA. Did what I could think of. Some Abdomen CT's. Asking for some space. :S Some slides on leukemias, but the options were a little strange. Did it by excluding other options. Hope I did them right. Some neuroanatomy, you had to localize the lesion. Gross Neuroanatomy. Basic Upper limb anatomy, and I was unsure of those. Again, remembering questions I had marked. Rest is stuff that was more simple. GI blood supply. Branches of Celiac Trunk. Know it. Cardiology function curves. So I kinda like those only and UW explains them pretty well. But for some God awful reason, the one in my Exam was a bit confusing. UW covers it though so you're good. Drug intoxication. 2 or 3 Psychiatry questions. 2 Murmurs, clues in the stem were enough. Confidence Interval question. Sensitivity and Specificity. Power, and Beta error.
The second subject most heavily tested, right after Pharma was Behavioral Sciences. Every block had questions on doctor patient relationships. But what helped here were the Kaplan videos. The page in FA where they give you various examples of what you should do is good too. Commit it to memory. A lot of the options were things you know you wouldn't do so that was helpful.They were a little easier than the UW and Kaplan questions where all the options seem right or all the options seem wrong! So I was surprised that the Exam's level of difficulty wasn't as bad when it came to Behavioral Sciences, as what we are lead to believe by UW etc. I remember the last block being dedicated to what we should do as Doctors. I mean seriously! I felt I had to put all my soul into thinking what a noble, pious and sensible Doctor should do in life :p
All in all, it was okay. Block 2 was a weird block. Had marked a lotttt of questions. You might get pretty fatigued in the last few blocks. The level of difficulty is less than UW. But it's okay if a higher level of difficulty makes you study. Also, I'd taken a lottt of stuff to eat. Juice, chocolates, sandwhich, water and nice Tea! All were helpful. Took a mini break after every block. Like 5 to 7 mins. Finger printing and signing out took maybe like 30 seconds. So that didn't affect my break much. Ate a bit during those even if I didn't feel hungry. Used the restroom even I felt that I didn't need to go. Splashed cold water on my face too everytime. Took a long break after the fourth block like maybe 20 mins, and prayed and ate. It was SO refreshing! Took an ibuprofen and a paracatemol before the exam and after the fourth block cause I do get headaches and neck aches during exams. I know it seems difficult, and it all seems like it's so much. But I promise you it will work out fine for all of you. The stress is immense and intense. But it's for an important cause, a road that will make you. So don't be afraid. I will post more preparation etc once I have the result. My silly mistakes are kinda giving me nightmare! Hope I do well InshAllah. I have never worked this hard. In like, ever. Which would explain my emo, chronic whining in the past few weeks at the Forum. :D Thanks to everyone who's helped. I really need your prayers and wishes though! Ask me if you want to know anything!
 
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#2 ·
Wow Congratulations on getting done with the exam first.I was waiting for your exam experience bro :D.Dont worry InshAllah you will get a great score you have worked hard and it never goes unpaid.I have my exam after 4 weeks and I am getting really stressed now:confused:.I am currently doing UW and now starting to revise FA again.Have about 55% OF UW remaining at the moment.I would like your suggestions as to how should I plan my studies now till my exam?I have read RR Goljan for patho but last read it about 2 months back.Do I need to revise it again or I am better off sticking to FA now?One more thing Is there any subject or any part of any subject U feel thats not covered adequately by FA and UW and that we should revise it at the end from Kaplan.I am specifically asking about Genetics,Molecular Biology and Immunology as these subjects seem to be comparatively lacking All the info compared to Kaplan..Sorry for bugging you with such a long Q list.All the best Dude :)
 
#6 ·
Hey Lara! It is okay if you stick to FA right now. I don't think you'd prolly need to do Goljan with 4 weeks left to the Exam. I felt Anatomy was not adequately covered in FA. GI blood supply as well. Do slides and MRI's as well. I didn't do that many, but they were asked. Where Genetics and Immuno are concerned, they are pretty concise in FA. But what I felt was that Kaplan is so detailed that it was difficult for me to retain. In the Exam, I was mostly correlating stuff to what I remembered from FA. Plus the exam doesn't test a lot of new information as it asks you simple concepts. It will take that simple concept and present it as something else. But UW's explanations will fill a lot of that deficit. And with 4 weeks left, keep reviewing FA with UW. It's a pretty GOOD time for revision etc, no need to freak out! Good luck!
 
#4 ·
bro. path is like 60% of exam. May be more. So thinking that path is heavily tested in exam comes by DEFAULT. :D

its 322 questions test. So i think they take out whole pre clinical subjects from our gut.;)
 
#9 ·
Hey Nishaa! In the last week, I was only doing FA and nothing else. I took NBME 13, and did the two UWSA's 2 days back. But I wasn't getting a lot of studying done cause I was so severely stressed out. Luckily, the exam won't be a lot of excruciating recall. Just go through the forgettables. Like the tables. That table of oncogenes and Tumor Supressor Genes in the Pathology section, the formulas, vasculitis, inherited CNS disorders etc. You know, stuff like that. Good luck, and I promise you it will be pretty good. Ask if you have any more questions!
 
#8 ·
cngrats 0n finishin ur exam

I need s0me advice

wrote uwsa five days back and for 206. wrote nmbe today and got 168.. no idea how. have done 60% uworld, have done rapid review and first aid and dit and have revised it too. no idea what to do. have exam on dec 6th. no idea what to study . no idea whether to write another form and decide or just postpone exam now itself.

plz advice
 
#11 ·
cngrats 0n finishin ur exam

I need s0me advice

wrote uwsa five days back and for 206. wrote nmbe today and got 168.. no idea how. have done 60% uworld, have done rapid review and first aid and dit and have revised it too. no idea what to do. have exam on dec 6th. no idea what to study . no idea whether to write another form and decide or just postpone exam now itself.

plz advice
You'd perhaps need to work where exactly are you lacking. Any specific area/subject. Work on that area. Keep reviewing FA along with UW so whatever you study in FA, you can apply it to your UW questions. If you're significantly far from your score, you'll prolly know best if it's possible for you to delay. But keep working on the weaknesses! Focus on revision too! Good luck.
 
#12 ·
Can you recommend any good website for CTs MRI etc?Were the radiology more related to general anatomy or Neuro?Plus your suggestions on any special system for which I should review pathology slides etc?Does the picture accompanying Qs give enough clues to diagnose by the stem or the pics have to be understood to answer? I have done the pictures given in gojan book.FA and UW.Will that suffice?One more thing please...I am curently doing UW and stil have 50% remaining.Do you recommend that I finish it first and then do FA the whole day or do both FA and UW side by side for the next two weeks?Alot of Qs:DThank you.
 
#14 · (Edited)
For CT and MRI's, go through http://www.med.wayne.edu/diagradiology/anatomy_modules/Page1.html. The radio questions (2 CT's only) were both gross anatomy. Both were from the abdomen. An X-ray of the shoulder, was a fracture question. Neuro had mostly questions with a gross picture of the Brain or the spinal cord etc. Go through that link if you have time, do two to three pictures from each section and don't spend too much time on it. I hadn't sit and done the slides cause I didn't have that much time. You could probably do slides for Leukemias etc. cause Hematology is considered hi yield for slides, MI, cardiac hypertrophy etc. if you want. Those are some that I got. The slides given in the Goljan book are excellent. Sometimes a question will give clues and sometimes it won't. But the options won't confuse you, it won't probably be hard. Murmur had great clues though. If it's possible, you could probably do both UW and FA together for two weeks, and then do FA again oncee you're done with UW. That's just my opinion, make sure you're done with UW in 2 weeks so you could take the UWSA's or NBME as well. For systems, try and cover tables that I mentioned above. They do love murmurs, cardiac curves, CNS syndromes, vasculitis, Lysosomal storage diseases, glycogen storage diseases, second messengers etc. Hope that helped and Good luck!
 
#15 ·
hi ! congrats on getting done ! can u advice me if goljan audio with transcript is enough? or is rapid review an absolute must?
Hey, thanks! I didn't do the goljan audio, but if you have time, try and do it. It will help reinforce the text in Rapid Review. I'm not sure what you mean by transcript, but the Goljan Rapid Review is really good. It combines your physio, biochem with pathology and that's pretty helpful early in your preparation! Good luck!
 
#18 · (Edited)
Hey! Thanks! For Anatomy, Kaplan+FA+UW is definitely sufficient. Pay decent attention to the UW explanations too. Plus, the exam also has a couple of CT's and X-rays which is also part of Anatomy. So look at those too. Neuro is excellent in both Kaplan and even FA. The video helped me a lot, cause I didn't understand neuroanatomy when I simply read the text in Kaplan at first. Annotate like crazy!. Write everything on your FA cause most students only use FA in the last few days. Your plan is good. Ask me if you have any other questions! Good luck!
 
#21 ·
thank you so much for all your help! its so nice that u took the time to write everything out. my exam is in less than 3 weeks and im freaking out! i still have alot of uw left. which nbmes do u recommend doing? and also did u feel there was any difference in nbme vs the uw assessment?? which is more like the real step 1?
again thanks so much and all the very best for your results :)
 
#25 ·
Hey! Please don't freak out, it's not going to be difficult. You should try and complete UW as soon as you can. As for the NBME's you could prolly do any of the following: 7, 11, 12 or 13. I'd done 5, 7 and 13. Try and do atleast 2 online, any of these. I thought the NBME's were more conceptual than the UW questions. I didn't find the exam to be strictly similar to UW or NBME's. But if I had to choose, I'd say it's more similar to the NBME's. Especially, the conceptual questions were much like I'd seen in NBME 13. Good luck, and ask me if you have more questions!
 
#22 ·
thanx for sharing ur experience....its very motivating ... specially when some one is 15 days away only....u ll be getting ur score in a few hrs i think.... so best of luck for that...
i needed an advice that im doing ma heavily annotated f.a for the last few wks now.... n some pple around me r scaring me abt genetics n behav... so now i wana reinforce these two topis n i hav 2 options in ma mind...1st is to open ma kapl. again which might take 2 days at least... 2nd option is to do kapl. qbank which is around 60 + 100 qs which i think i can do in 7 8 hrs...... wt do u advise me to do now or is there a third option...?...exam on 27th...... will appreciate ur help
 
#24 ·
Hey! The only reasons to reinforce a subject is when your scores in UW or NBME's aren't encouraging. You mustn't revise from Kaplans etc. based solely on what people say cause opinions always vary from person to person. That said, if you really want to do the questions, I'd recommend doing your UW wrong questions instead on BS etc. You're 15 days away, so you must only concentrate on what's highest yield. Review FA and UW wrong questions in my opinion. Good luck, and tell me if you have more questions!
 
#34 ·
If you have time, I'd highly suggest doing Goljan instead of Kaplan patho. Kaplan patho is very concise. And the way Goljan builds concepts and merges different subjects, I'd really recommend going through the book. For images, you could look up webpath if you have time. Or do the ones in Goljan properly too.
 
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