First of all I believe that what you think after you come out of the exam, is irrelevant to what your score will be, I knew many people who told me the exam was "easy" and had really bad scores and vice versa. I think that what you think about the exam tells more about your personality whether you are an anxious person or an easy going one. Most of us are of the first type.
Knowing that I am a bad exam taker, mine was not that bad. Although I only had 3 hour sleep the night before, I found that time was very sufficient, I usually mark a lot of questions but finish the block very soon so that I don't miss an easy question among the last ones for a difficult biostatistics question that requires a lot of time in the middle of the block. I finished the 3rd block and had thirteen minutes to go over the marked ones, and took 5 of them to rest. Though in the fifth block I didn't have enough time to analyse 2 questions, but those required a lot of time and I think I wouldn't get them correct anyway.
There was a huge variability in the difficulty of blocks, in some blocks I was really thinking "the USMLE people are embarrassing their selves with these kind of questions, and insulting our cleverness", there were too many easy questions. On the other hand there were blocks with questions that requires you to be aware of insignificant details that if I spent 2 years studying I would not really care to read them. The easier blocks were the first ones; the night before the exam I went to bed early, but I also woke up very early
, so I had only 3 hours to sleep, I might have been exhausted in the 2nd half of the exam and maybe that's why I thought the blocks were variable in difficulty.
I percieved genetics questions as the most difficult ones. Also the post receptor mechanism questions were difficult. But overall, I thought UW was more difficult, and many ideas came from it, also CK was much much more difficult, but in all fairness I was better prepared for this one although I spent more time prepering for CK.
A lot of questions were "typical of UW". I thought I would see more of FA information, or it would cover most of the subjects asked in the exam, it was certainly very useful but I still used a lot of information that I acquired from studying IM back in med school to solve many questions. Many ideas also came from FA questions and answers, but not as frequent as UW. I am not flattering when I say that I benifited very much from the information on this forum, there were at least a dozen questions that I would not get correctly if not for it.
Anatomy questions were "all" radiology, if I would do something extra for the exam preperation I would study radiology. Not only in anatomy, but also in pathology, they were asking about sophisticated details. I went through the last two pages of FA containing the high yield equations, it was very very helpful (I didn't regret waking up early). Also it is wise to go through the physiology section last, physiology questions were difficult too.
Another thing, on the breaks it's really helpful to wash your face (I got this from this forum), also carbohydrates from plant source are good, they give you energy, relieve hunger without making you sleepy, personally, I used banannas lool. I am not sure whether the funny feeling I felt in my chest was related to hyperkalemia or anxiety.
I am a very bad exam taker, I am generally very happy with my knowledge; clinical and basic, but I get anxious very easily. It would be nice if I finally get a high score this time, but no one knows, though I am expecting more than 95 in comparison to CK, I wouldn't be very surprised if I got less than 80.
Knowing that I am a bad exam taker, mine was not that bad. Although I only had 3 hour sleep the night before, I found that time was very sufficient, I usually mark a lot of questions but finish the block very soon so that I don't miss an easy question among the last ones for a difficult biostatistics question that requires a lot of time in the middle of the block. I finished the 3rd block and had thirteen minutes to go over the marked ones, and took 5 of them to rest. Though in the fifth block I didn't have enough time to analyse 2 questions, but those required a lot of time and I think I wouldn't get them correct anyway.
There was a huge variability in the difficulty of blocks, in some blocks I was really thinking "the USMLE people are embarrassing their selves with these kind of questions, and insulting our cleverness", there were too many easy questions. On the other hand there were blocks with questions that requires you to be aware of insignificant details that if I spent 2 years studying I would not really care to read them. The easier blocks were the first ones; the night before the exam I went to bed early, but I also woke up very early
, so I had only 3 hours to sleep, I might have been exhausted in the 2nd half of the exam and maybe that's why I thought the blocks were variable in difficulty.I percieved genetics questions as the most difficult ones. Also the post receptor mechanism questions were difficult. But overall, I thought UW was more difficult, and many ideas came from it, also CK was much much more difficult, but in all fairness I was better prepared for this one although I spent more time prepering for CK.
A lot of questions were "typical of UW". I thought I would see more of FA information, or it would cover most of the subjects asked in the exam, it was certainly very useful but I still used a lot of information that I acquired from studying IM back in med school to solve many questions. Many ideas also came from FA questions and answers, but not as frequent as UW. I am not flattering when I say that I benifited very much from the information on this forum, there were at least a dozen questions that I would not get correctly if not for it.
Anatomy questions were "all" radiology, if I would do something extra for the exam preperation I would study radiology. Not only in anatomy, but also in pathology, they were asking about sophisticated details. I went through the last two pages of FA containing the high yield equations, it was very very helpful (I didn't regret waking up early). Also it is wise to go through the physiology section last, physiology questions were difficult too.
Another thing, on the breaks it's really helpful to wash your face (I got this from this forum), also carbohydrates from plant source are good, they give you energy, relieve hunger without making you sleepy, personally, I used banannas lool. I am not sure whether the funny feeling I felt in my chest was related to hyperkalemia or anxiety.
I am a very bad exam taker, I am generally very happy with my knowledge; clinical and basic, but I get anxious very easily. It would be nice if I finally get a high score this time, but no one knows, though I am expecting more than 95 in comparison to CK, I wouldn't be very surprised if I got less than 80.
