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On July 23 2009 10:46 radar14 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote:HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt  You definitely have to have a solid knowledge base to take the test. I'm sure you know the logistics of the test...7 sections of 48 questions each, many in the style of a clinical vignette. I am a firm believer in First Aid. If you use that, Rapid Review Path (new edition in August I think), and USMLE World for your Q bank, you should be in a good shape to at least pass (although if you want to apply to US residencies as an FMG you should try to do as well as possible...I'm sure you know). However, the key is that you must supplement anything that you don't understand in First Aid with other sources. I read through both FA and RR Path 3-4 times before the boards.
Hi again, thanks for the Info, yeah I already knew about that, already have all those books you said and I also bought the Kaplan Videos from all the subjects, In my school there are many people from the US and Puerto Rico and they also were kind enought to lend me the "Pass Course" which is an alternative, I study roughly 8 hours a day on weekends and 4 hours a day in the week because I already started classes again so I also have to study for my clinical subjects and all that  .
Thanks for the info!! and when you get your grade back please tell us how you did! hopefully good!
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Good blog. This is of interest to me!
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I had some questions about Step 1:
1) I hear they have problems where one question is related to the next where they kinda reveal the answer in the subsequent question and you can't go back to answer the prev question. Where there many of these?
2) Could you actually tell whether or not a question was "experimental" or not?
3) How did you allocate/spend your break time? Was going to the bathroom a problem at all?
4) %-wise how many questions had some sort of picture/histo/gross/chart/graph on it?
5) Did you find it difficult to use the reference values?
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If you are in class and they show this on the screen...
Remember to yell out "Holy shit! That lady swallowed a baby!!"
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Good luck Brah! You involved in any research?
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On July 25 2009 06:47 PaeZ wrote:Show nested quote +On July 23 2009 10:46 radar14 wrote:On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote:HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt You definitely have to have a solid knowledge base to take the test. I'm sure you know the logistics of the test...7 sections of 48 questions each, many in the style of a clinical vignette. I am a firm believer in First Aid. If you use that, Rapid Review Path (new edition in August I think), and USMLE World for your Q bank, you should be in a good shape to at least pass (although if you want to apply to US residencies as an FMG you should try to do as well as possible...I'm sure you know). However, the key is that you must supplement anything that you don't understand in First Aid with other sources. I read through both FA and RR Path 3-4 times before the boards. Hi again, thanks for the Info, yeah I already knew about that, already have all those books you said and I also bought the Kaplan Videos from all the subjects, In my school there are many people from the US and Puerto Rico and they also were kind enought to lend me the "Pass Course" which is an alternative, I study roughly 8 hours a day on weekends and 4 hours a day in the week because I already started classes again so I also have to study for my clinical subjects and all that . Thanks for the info!! and when you get your grade back please tell us how you did! hopefully good!
that's pretty rough to have class and boards studying. Good luck. I'm happy with my score...not super high but shouldn't hold me back from too many specialties.
On July 25 2009 07:51 lac29 wrote:
I had some questions about Step 1:
1) I hear they have problems where one question is related to the next where they kinda reveal the answer in the subsequent question and you can't go back to answer the prev question. Where there many of these?
2) Could you actually tell whether or not a question was "experimental" or not?
3) How did you allocate/spend your break time? Was going to the bathroom a problem at all?
4) %-wise how many questions had some sort of picture/histo/gross/chart/graph on it?
5) Did you find it difficult to use the reference values?
1. Like 2 sets of 2 q's each on my test.
2. No way jose. Although everyone assumes the crazy ones that they have no idea on are experimental, who really knows.
3. Nope, if you skip the tutorial you get an extra 15 mins, giving you 1 hr total. I took a 5-10 min break after almost every block, which I would definitely do again. You don't need 40 mins for lunch.
4. Would have been hard to say even right after the test. It's a distant memory now. I only remember a few q's where you literally had to diagnose from a picture, mostly gross from what i remember. In most of them you don't need the picture. A few charts for physio also.
5. It's pretty intuitive. There's even a search function under each tab which is pretty cool. You should kind of know what the common normal lab values are by test time anyways.
On July 25 2009 08:45 ItsYoungLee wrote:
Good luck Brah! You involved in any research?
I did some clinical data collecting for a project in cardiology during the summer after 1st year. It's tough to find time during the school year for a real project. Some people manage, but it's not my cup of tea.
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Good luck. I hear you need to score like a 200 on your boards just to get anywhere decent.
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Thanks for answering my questions =).
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Thanks radar for all the info you have given , when I do my test ill make a blog as well and tell everyone how I did, hopefully I can get a good score because when someone is foreigner we need to get even better scores to be able to compete.
BTW my specialties options are: Neurosurgery (just like my dad), Urology or Cardiology.
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