STEP 1 exam experience
i was talking to a friend of mine today. she's starting to study for step 1 and she had asked me a few familiar questions. i decided to write it all down so as to just answer most, if not all, of the question sin one sitting, and perhaps direct further questions to this site instead. haha. (it really does get tiring to answer the same thing over and over and over and over again! ha!)
my journey with step1 started october 2005. yup, that was last year. and i had taken it end of february 2006. int hat time i spent an average of 3 or 4 hours a day except on the last few weeks where i was doing AT LEAST 8 hours. but technically speaking, if you ask me, i'd usually answer that i DID study 8 hours a day throughout my studying. *grin*
references:
here's what i had used for my study references:
i actually had Kaplan lecture notes, First Aid for step 1, QBOOK, Underground clinical vignettes (for those nights i couldn't sleep, i read those to get me sleepy. haha!) I did find that the lecture notes were quite enough. but i did find that my recent graduation helped since some were fresh from med school (i think). Maybe it also helped that i actually did study in med school. anyways, i spent a good time reading the lecture notes. read over it only once.. making sure i did not move on unless i fully understood it.... i didn't want to have the notion in my head that i was going to read it again... that idea will just make me slack off and tell myself to just read it more thoroughly on the next reading... i do wish i had some of my textbooks with me for reference but i left them all behind. no matter, i had to make do with what i had. i took as much notes as i can but only to help me remember. i really never got into the habit of reading my own notes. i just write to help me remember better. technically speaking i studied for4 months. but in reality it was more like 3months. i made sure i went through the lecture notes. i did first aid about a week or two before the exam date. so that's that for references.
practice questions:
practice questions, i believe are important. i made sure to start doing practice questions at 1 month before the exam. that would mean that i had finished reading the lecture notes by then. i had practice questions from qbook and some other sources. I used mainly QBOOk. i made sure that i did blocks of 50 at a time and reviewed the answers and explanations. only in doing questions did i really remember everything that i had been reading. before that, it seemed utterly hopeless. it felt as if i wasn't retaining anything i read. but questions helped that. I did do NBME self-assessment exams. I did them twice. once at 1 month before the exam. another at 2 weeks before the exam. I used it mainly as a learning tool to assess my stronger and weaker points. and made sure i address them.
exam day:
i arrived 30 minutes early as stated by our exam permit. i arrived having a full night's sleep and a hearty breakfast. it was somewhat nerve-wracking but i had to do it. i signed in and i was assigned a computer by which to work on.
the very first question scared me. and the question after that. and the question after that. It really knocked me off my chair! (well, it really didn't but that's what it felt like) there was a part of me that wanted to just bawl and cry and another wanting to run out of the room screaming.
i realized that there were question i felt i could have never have known to study or could possibly answer. it dealt with the braod spectrum of coverage. but i tried to answer them as best as i could.
it was here that i realize that studying images such as xrays and slides, and gross specimens were important. in my studying, i never made much emphasis and regretted it. but i tried to answer as best i could. some questions were really long. others are quite short and straight to the point. i took my time. tired to read the question carefully and also try not to rush through it. i kept careful note of the remaining time and makred questions i wanted to go back to (i never got a chance to review them again since the time was tight).
managing break times are important. i didn't want to use them all up so early. i wanted to have some time to refresh in the afternoon when my mind grows tired. for me, i spread them apart, taking more breaks in the afternoon and building a momentum in the morning. my schedule is as follows:
in general, i thought it was hard. many of the questions felt as though they were some weird form of writing or language and just had no clue. some were a little better. but most important is to stay calm and answer as best as you can... make sure to look through all the answers and do not jump to conclusions too fast.
take a deep breath. read carefully. and move on.
and after about 3 weeks... you'll get that piece of paper with your results.
my journey with step1 started october 2005. yup, that was last year. and i had taken it end of february 2006. int hat time i spent an average of 3 or 4 hours a day except on the last few weeks where i was doing AT LEAST 8 hours. but technically speaking, if you ask me, i'd usually answer that i DID study 8 hours a day throughout my studying. *grin*
references:
here's what i had used for my study references:
i actually had Kaplan lecture notes, First Aid for step 1, QBOOK, Underground clinical vignettes (for those nights i couldn't sleep, i read those to get me sleepy. haha!) I did find that the lecture notes were quite enough. but i did find that my recent graduation helped since some were fresh from med school (i think). Maybe it also helped that i actually did study in med school. anyways, i spent a good time reading the lecture notes. read over it only once.. making sure i did not move on unless i fully understood it.... i didn't want to have the notion in my head that i was going to read it again... that idea will just make me slack off and tell myself to just read it more thoroughly on the next reading... i do wish i had some of my textbooks with me for reference but i left them all behind. no matter, i had to make do with what i had. i took as much notes as i can but only to help me remember. i really never got into the habit of reading my own notes. i just write to help me remember better. technically speaking i studied for4 months. but in reality it was more like 3months. i made sure i went through the lecture notes. i did first aid about a week or two before the exam date. so that's that for references.
practice questions:
practice questions, i believe are important. i made sure to start doing practice questions at 1 month before the exam. that would mean that i had finished reading the lecture notes by then. i had practice questions from qbook and some other sources. I used mainly QBOOk. i made sure that i did blocks of 50 at a time and reviewed the answers and explanations. only in doing questions did i really remember everything that i had been reading. before that, it seemed utterly hopeless. it felt as if i wasn't retaining anything i read. but questions helped that. I did do NBME self-assessment exams. I did them twice. once at 1 month before the exam. another at 2 weeks before the exam. I used it mainly as a learning tool to assess my stronger and weaker points. and made sure i address them.
exam day:
i arrived 30 minutes early as stated by our exam permit. i arrived having a full night's sleep and a hearty breakfast. it was somewhat nerve-wracking but i had to do it. i signed in and i was assigned a computer by which to work on.
the very first question scared me. and the question after that. and the question after that. It really knocked me off my chair! (well, it really didn't but that's what it felt like) there was a part of me that wanted to just bawl and cry and another wanting to run out of the room screaming.
i realized that there were question i felt i could have never have known to study or could possibly answer. it dealt with the braod spectrum of coverage. but i tried to answer them as best as i could.
it was here that i realize that studying images such as xrays and slides, and gross specimens were important. in my studying, i never made much emphasis and regretted it. but i tried to answer as best i could. some questions were really long. others are quite short and straight to the point. i took my time. tired to read the question carefully and also try not to rush through it. i kept careful note of the remaining time and makred questions i wanted to go back to (i never got a chance to review them again since the time was tight).
managing break times are important. i didn't want to use them all up so early. i wanted to have some time to refresh in the afternoon when my mind grows tired. for me, i spread them apart, taking more breaks in the afternoon and building a momentum in the morning. my schedule is as follows:
block
block
break
block
block
break/lunch
block
break
block
break
block
in general, i thought it was hard. many of the questions felt as though they were some weird form of writing or language and just had no clue. some were a little better. but most important is to stay calm and answer as best as you can... make sure to look through all the answers and do not jump to conclusions too fast.
take a deep breath. read carefully. and move on.
and after about 3 weeks... you'll get that piece of paper with your results.
posted by ms.match at 2:03 AM
1 Comments:
thANK you so much!
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