Nervous as HELL!!!!

[radgirlbadgirl]

I have started studying for the Step 1. I feel like I recall nothing from Basics. Not that we were taught that well anyways. I was pretty good about studying etc. but the training was AWFUL. I still managed.

NOW, I am taking a couple of months to study for Step 1. I feel like I am at an disadvantage b/c of the bad training.

I feel like my head is empty. Like I am learning from the beginning.

Sorry had to vent
Any advice on how long I should take to study considering that I feel like I learnt nothing in school. (I did not screw around. I was pretty serious during school also.)

This combined with the normal nervousness is killing me.

[wcb22]

take the nbme, see where your weaknesses are, and go from there.

[marie15]

doing questions helped me out. i was reading and reading but it felt like nothing stuck... but the questions helped out a lot. i suggest doing a lot ofthose and carefully reading the practice questions.

[radgirlbadgirl]

take the nbme, see where your weaknesses are, and go from there.

I wanted to take it after studying a bit. Are there different tests or only one at the NBME? Just wondering how many different times I can take it?

[wcb22]

there's 4 of them, $45 each. there are several diagnostic tests. see where your "unrepeated" question Q-bank average is. you can do the 350 Q blackwell test here, Welcome to LWW.com's sample USMLE questions (http://www.lww.com/medstudent/usmle/) i think it's slightly easier than qbank.

if you are in the 60-70 range on qbank, i'm pretty sure you'll pass. if you are in the 70-80 range, there's a good shot you'll hit 90s. if you are getting 80%+ on qbank with unrepeated questions, you are upper 90s, good chance you'll get a 99.

do qbook, do any questions you can get your hands on.

[radgirlbadgirl]

there's 4 of them, $45 each. there are several diagnostic tests. see where your "unrepeated" question Q-bank average is. you can do the 350 Q blackwell test here, Welcome to LWW.com's sample USMLE questions (http://www.lww.com/medstudent/usmle/) i think it's slightly easier than qbank.

if you are in the 60-70 range on qbank, i'm pretty sure you'll pass. if you are in the 70-80 range, there's a good shot you'll hit 90s. if you are getting 80%+ on qbank with unrepeated questions, you are upper 90s, good chance you'll get a 99.

do qbook, do any questions you can get your hands on.

Do you do the questions, then go back to read the answers to the ones you got wrong? OR read them as you are getting them wrong.

[marie15]

the NBME does not give answers so technically, you don't really know which ones you even got wrong. but it will give you an assessment as to whish ones are your strong and weaker points/subjects.

with regards to doing practice questions, i was referring more to USMLEWORLD or Qbank, even qbook.

[jameslynton]

Actually you can run the NBME tests in several modes. There are many resources that have answers to the NBME board questions including this site. However - what most people do is use the timed test then print out the evaluation - then use this to study by till you take the next test. Radgirl - if you saw the schedule I had on another thread you started you will have seen I included taking all four NBME tests in it.

About venting about your poor training - you had the same books any US medical school had. You may not have had the teachers. However, after a certain point in your education - you are suppose to know how to learn/extract information even if you have a poor teacher.

Tests are all about recall - The more questions you do in test like situations the better perpared you will be for the monster. There are tons of USMLE type questions and q-banks available.