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Dont' Panic, You CAN DO IT

10K views 24 replies 12 participants last post by  fairysung 
#1 ·
Hi guys,

I was an inactive member (almost) of this forum...but I was following up the new releases and recent information per se.
and in fact this forum help me a lot.
first of all I would like to say that i have not taken any prep classes for step 1.
secondly i was not a big fan of licking different sources of study material.

My study plan and duration:
Total time for prep of step 1-4.5 momths
about 1.5 moth in betn- i had a **** period d/t some distractions :mad:
real time - 3 - 3.5 mths

Sources:
FA - Bible/Qur'an/Geeta or whatever u call
Kaplan Lecture Notes - gold standard
Dr najeeb - v good in some topics to understand
NBME 13 - 230 1 month before exam
USWSA 2 - 245 3 wks before exam.

Exam Day Experience:
I was not worried about the exam till the exam day but the last hour before my departure to test center was really terrible...omg...never faced such stress.
but after arriving to test center everything settled down.
block 1 - tough enough
block 2 - better than 1
block 3 and 4 - in between 1 and 2
block 5,6,7 - easier. i mean much better than 1 and 3.
WTF q @ 1-2 in each block- n all from bioastat n epidemiology.
mind storming but doable c effort q , @3-4 in block 1-4 and @ 2 in block 5 6 7
hardest part of the test- epidemiology >biostat> genetics>ethics.rest subj just fine.

Time management:
block 1 n 2- cont,
then break after every block c red bull booster in last 2 blocks(really helps guys, have it).
suggestions--- don panic,it's not that hard as u guess, it's almost like nbme forms in complexity(but the content totally different).pay ur full attention to epidemiology, biostat, for rest subj FA is enough if u really understand the content there(it does not mean that u just learn by heart).

Big hug n thanks to my friend who helped to ace my exam thru this forum. (somebody in Sacramento? PM me plz).

If u have any queries, just let me know, I'll write u.
 
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#2 ·
heyy, congrats on getting this thing out of the way!!

SO did u have 2 cans of red bulls? lol, im just wondering if having more than 1 is gonna have any adverse effects. my exam is on monday. Were you able to sleep the night before??

And how were they pictures/radiographs and the audio questions?
 
#3 ·
heyy, congrats on getting this thing out of the way!!

SO did u have 2 cans of red bulls? lol, im just wondering if having more than 1 is gonna have any adverse effects. my exam is on monday. Were you able to sleep the night before??

And how were they pictures/radiographs and the audio questions?
Thanx bro n good luck to u.
i used 1 can after block 5 and the next after 6. u really get so fatigued after finishing around block 5. don go continuously 2 block(exception may b block 1 n 2). but the night after exam really i got hyper with those bulls.
i slept all together like 7.5 hrs sleep(total duration @ 9 hrs).i did not take any med. u just try not to think about ur exam.in my case i was chanting some mantras(helped to fall asleep, just mind was diverted while doing so).
don worry about the pic/radio, such q were pretty easy if u hav ev en some residual anat knowledge, it works. there were around 15 q in my case.
audio q 2 - 1 was confusing.
sleep well, it gives u confident. go v early to sleep and maintain v quite sleep environment, u definitely gonna sleep.

once again good luck...
 
#5 ·
Congratulations on taking the test it is an achivement in itself. What do you suggest about Goljan pathology?
I had done it quite q while back and dont remember much. Is it worth reading it again now or should I just focus on FA FA FA and Q banks? 2 months to exam.
 
#7 ·
thanx lara,

per Goljan, it's v nice material. but i had used during my school and I did not revise it for my test now coz i was in short of time actually. I went thru Kaplan. if u hav time u go thru once. If u read all Kaplan books n FA, do nbme compulsary, n UW(don know how useful is it) ,, that gives u almost wat u need(of course it's my experience n my view, may differ from other:rolleyes:)
FA is sooooooo compact, u shud understand the every sentence( Kaplan helped me lot to elaborate the content of FA).

best of luck...
 
#8 ·
Good job

Congratulations firstly !
Would you please elaborate more on your study strategies, like did you do Uworld along with kaplan or later after revising everything. Did you use FA along with kaplan as well ? Also when is a good time to take the 1st NBME assessment like after going thru kaplan once ?
thanks.
 
#9 ·
Congratulations firstly !
Would you please elaborate more on your study strategies, like did you do Uworld along with kaplan or later after revising everything. Did you use FA along with kaplan as well ? Also when is a good time to take the 1st NBME assessment like after going thru kaplan once ?
thanks.
Hi,
i didn't do UW except for UWSA, i did Kaplan with FA. I think 1st NBME would fit @ 1.5-2 mth after KAplan, and at least after 1 pass FA ( it's my opinion!!!) so that u can focus on ur weak areas.
 
#17 ·
Heyy congratulationss!!!!

well done :) you can party hard now :)

I had a couple of q's..

did you only do uworld qbank or did u do usmle rx???

i registered for both uworld n rx... b/ ci wanted to do usmle rx along w/ first aid when i start...

right now i'm in my first read of kaplan... have 3 more subjects to go.. its taking 4 ever... i took my nbme in btw last saturday form 12.. but it didn't go too well...:confused::confused:

so wht should i do now???

i' m gonna give another nbme after 5 weeks..and meanwhile use FA more and see whr i'm...

its just i din wanna use first aid when i was doin first read of kaplan.. just b/c first aid's confusin if you don know all the concepts..??

if you can help me out tht would be great?

also did you do DIT videos?
 
#18 ·
Heyy congratulationss!!!!

well done :) you can party hard now :)

I had a couple of q's..

did you only do uworld qbank or did u do usmle rx???

i registered for both uworld n rx... b/ ci wanted to do usmle rx along w/ first aid when i start...

right now i'm in my first read of kaplan... have 3 more subjects to go.. its taking 4 ever... i took my nbme in btw last saturday form 12.. but it didn't go too well...:confused::confused:

so wht should i do now???

i' m gonna give another nbme after 5 weeks..and meanwhile use FA more and see whr i'm...

its just i din wanna use first aid when i was doin first read of kaplan.. just b/c first aid's confusin if you don know all the concepts..??

if you can help me out tht would be great?

also did you do DIT videos?
thanx. really get rid of suffering.
I didn't do UW or USMLE Rx. i did only Kaplan Qbook.
do kaplan LN and just highlight the things for revision. so that you can go through the selected one. FA do at least 3 times ( but u shud understand the content clearly).i didn't do DIT either.
NBME is good evaluation of ur performance and go thru the weak areas.
bottom line KAplan LN+FA combo, read n read read n get the concepts.
 
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