Here's my USMLE experience and how I studied for it.

[RussianJoo]

I took the test on april 16th and just got my scores back today may 7th.. I did well got a nice solid score of 227/95. In the morning of my exam I ate some oatmeal for breakfast got the center 5min early. at the center they took my picture, checked my id and took my test ticket. I was provided both foam ear plugs and those orange construction noise reducing ear muffs. My exam was exactly like an easier version of a USMLE world 50 question test. The format of the exam looked exactly like it. I only ran out of time for one section and had to rush through 2 questions in the end, every other section i would finish with about 1min left on the clock. I didn't eat much through out the test, but drank two redbulls and one double shot espresso from starbucks. I ate half a sandwich, two bananas and an apple. I did the first two sections with out any breaks, and then took 5 to 10min breaks between the other sections. Everything went smoothly it was easy to log in and out of the computer and since i did usmle world I felt like i was taking another 50question block it was that similar.

Here's how I studied. I just want to first say that I was a very bad student during basic sciences my gpa was way below 3.0. and I knew I had a lot of studying to do. I studied for almost 4 months for at least 12 hours a day..I only took new years off. I would wake up at 6am and go to bed at 10pm. I would only take breaks to eat and walked outside for 30min at like 4pm to clear my head. I am a slow reader and in that 4months I only read the kaplan notes 2 times, and watched the kaplan dvds once. I also listened to Goljan audio once and towards the end I read First Aid once. For questions through out my studying once I finished a subject I would do the two subject tests in the kaplan qbook and averaged about 75% in them. At the end I did USMLE World and I only got through 86% of the questions. I did them timed all subjects unused and had a cumulative average of 62% my last 4 or 5 tests I got 66 or 68%. about 2 weeks before my test date i took two nbme's on nbme 5 i got 245 and on nbme 3 i got 230. about a week before my test date i took the free 150 q's and got 86% correct. I felt that my test wasn't too hard. I was very lucky and I got mostly path questions fallowed by physio and pathophys quesitons. not too many obscure questions.

so this is my story, I truly feel that if I can do it you can do it too.

good luck everyone and thank you for your help and support.
RJ

[devildoc8404]

Way to go, RJ!

That is a great score, and your description of the exam and your preparation will be an excellent help to people.

(I have now committed to eating oatmeal on the morning of my exam, for instance!) :p

[RussianJoo]

Way to go, RJ!

That is a great score, and your description of the exam and your preparation will be an excellent help to people.

(I have now committed to eating oatmeal on the morning of my exam, for instance!) :p

well my dad had high cholesterol and triglycerides so to get him to eat oatmeal, we as a whole family eat oatmeal everyday, and not the instant stuff, that stuff is garbage. get the steel cut irish oatmeal, it take about 35min to cook but it's the real deal and so much better for you.

[devildoc8404]

Yeah, I've seen that "steel-cut" oatmeal at the grocery - it sure sounds like a manly breakfast, anyway.

(And heck, look what it does for Step One scores, too!) Good going, RJ, and best wishes on Step Two, as well.

[Mannyjmd]

You definately deserve a BIG congrats. I have been following your posts in both here and SDN. I am glad to see you got such an awesome score.

The worst of the worst is practically over... now go get wasted and concentrate on step 2. :)

[RussianJoo]

thanks.. I still have a year before I take stepII.

[windsorMD]

congrats on the great score and best of luck in clinicals

[Baadshah]

I took the test on april 16th and just got my scores back today may 7th.. I did well got a nice solid score of 227/95. In the morning of my exam I ate some oatmeal for breakfast got the center 5min early. at the center they took my picture, checked my id and took my test ticket. I was provided both foam ear plugs and those orange construction noise reducing ear muffs. My exam was exactly like an easier version of a USMLE world 50 question test. The format of the exam looked exactly like it. I only ran out of time for one section and had to rush through 2 questions in the end, every other section i would finish with about 1min left on the clock. I didn't eat much through out the test, but drank two redbulls and one double shot espresso from starbucks. I ate half a sandwich, two bananas and an apple. I did the first two sections with out any breaks, and then took 5 to 10min breaks between the other sections. Everything went smoothly it was easy to log in and out of the computer and since i did usmle world I felt like i was taking another 50question block it was that similar.

Here's how I studied. I just want to first say that I was a very bad student during basic sciences my gpa was way below 3.0. and I knew I had a lot of studying to do. I studied for almost 4 months for at least 12 hours a day..I only took new years off. I would wake up at 6am and go to bed at 10pm. I would only take breaks to eat and walked outside for 30min at like 4pm to clear my head. I am a slow reader and in that 4months I only read the kaplan notes 2 times, and watched the kaplan dvds once. I also listened to Goljan audio once and towards the end I read First Aid once. For questions through out my studying once I finished a subject I would do the two subject tests in the kaplan qbook and averaged about 75% in them. At the end I did USMLE World and I only got through 86% of the questions. I did them timed all subjects unused and had a cumulative average of 62% my last 4 or 5 tests I got 66 or 68%. about 2 weeks before my test date i took two nbme's on nbme 5 i got 245 and on nbme 3 i got 230. about a week before my test date i took the free 150 q's and got 86% correct. I felt that my test wasn't too hard. I was very lucky and I got mostly path questions fallowed by physio and pathophys quesitons. not too many obscure questions.

so this is my story, I truly feel that if I can do it you can do it too.

good luck everyone and thank you for your help and support.
RJ


First is first!!!! Congraduations:D:D:D:D:D to you:lol::lol::cool:!!! Did you by any chance used gebbis UW notes?

[HN_MD]

Congrats dude!

[RussianJoo]

First is first!!!! Congraduations:D:D:D:D:D to you:lol::lol::cool:!!! Did you by any chance used gebbis UW notes?


thank you, no i didn't use gebbis, i don't even know what that is. I used only the material that I wrote above that I used.

[theimmortal]

Hi RussionJoo. I was just wondering which book you used as your primary source for Patho. I read an earlier thread where you posted a question on whether Kaplan pathology was sufficient or Goljan was required. So I was interested on your position on this, especially after such a great score! I'm currently using BRS, and i'm contemplating whether I should switch to Goljan.

Thanks.

[RussianJoo]

Hi RussionJoo. I was just wondering which book you used as your primary source for Patho. I read an earlier thread where you posted a question on whether Kaplan pathology was sufficient or Goljan was required. So I was interested on your position on this, especially after such a great score! I'm currently using BRS, and i'm contemplating whether I should switch to Goljan.

Thanks.

I used the kaplan books as my main studying, like stated above I also listened to Goljan audio once. The BRS books should be good i think it's more detailed then the kaplan path book which I used. I didn't read the goljan book so i have no idea how good it is.