Thread: My experience

I'm an SGU student and I just got my passing grade for Step 1 (as did my husband who is also an SGU student). I seriously never thought this day would come and I still wake up sometimes freaking out over the exam and have to remind myself that it's over.

That being said, I read a lot on VMD and to return the favour, I do have some advice that I'd like to pass on.

First of all, I think SGU does an excellent job preparing us for the boards (for those of you out there who are still considering schools). Second, I took Falcon and to be honest, were I to do it again, I'd just study on my own. Falcon has a method that they basically force you to try and as a naive person, I went ahead and did it, and I feel as though it hurt me more than it helped me. That's my personal opinion and in no means meant to insult anybody. I also feel as though Falcon was not nearly detailed enough for Step 1. I only studied their books , because, well, they told me to, (so no FA, no BRS - just Falcon books, UW, NBME, Qbank and my previous SGU knowledge). And it wasn't enough. In my opinion, Falcon gives you the tools to get a 185. If you want more, study FA or something more.

Second, if I can do it, anybody can. I am the world's worst test taker. I get very nervous during exams and I can psyche myself out of most anything. I can make myself believe something that I know to be false (on an exam) and I can reason my way into any answer because I'm not thinking straight.

Third, it's not a "hard" exam. It's just silly (read: ridiculous). I don't think it qualifies as a hard exam when you haven't heard of the tested material. They don't test your knowledge, they just want to make you feel like you failed. And they succeed! It's not until you have the paper in front of you that you believe that you didn't fail. I was personally freaking out during the exam. But that's me.

Also, please dont' believe anything you read on these posts. Every exam is so different. My husband and I wrote at the exact same time, at the exact same test center and we had completely different exams. He had tons of long stemmed questions and I had lots of little one-liners. We didn't have a single question that was the same. It's just a crapshoot and NOBODY can tell you what will be on your exam (I promise). I can't tell you how many times I read VMD posts and somebody said, "Know this!" and I was like, "Omigod, what IS that?!" , so I'd panic a few days before the exam, go look that up and it was never a question for me. For instance, I could freak you out right now and tell you I had a question asking me what a 16S ribosomal subunit was used for (in terms of classification).

I have no idea what a 16S RU is. I refuse to look it up at this point because I'm still so angry at that question. I hope it was a "survey question". But don't go looking it up because I guarantee you it wont' be on your exam. Just dont' waste your time with things like that. Choose some books, study your butt off, do a zillion questions and give it your all.

Oh, also, I never got stellar scores on the NBME's. Heck, I even failed the second one. But after reading this forum, I thought I'd be screwed because of that. I was fine. I did better on the Step 1 than the NBME's ( I don't think they are similar at all !!). I don't want to mention my score on here because my entire school reads this forum, but both my husband and I did well (and this was our first try).

But really, if I can pass on ANY knowledge , it's not to listen to other people. Just know that nobody will have had your exam and you will have one nobody else has had. Even Falcon told us about a thousand times, "This is a board question. Know this!" and let me tell you, I was really angry during the exam at them. I just felt as though they weren't quite honest with me and if they'd just told me from the start "Know as much as you can know and don't count on anything being on it" , then I'd of been better prepared.

Feel free to ask me any questions. Hope this helps some of you. Best of luck!

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Originally Posted by Jayhawk007

I didn't know you were related to the mitochondria, don't get so insulted............I think Mdiva might stand for "mitochondrial diva...."

HAHAHA.....I was thinking the EXACT same thing!

MDiva, everyone has their opinion. Sam stated hers and you stated yours in rebuttal, after that, you can agree to disagree and drop it, no need to get all bent out of shape.

If you're gonna be a doctor, you might as well start learning now that not everyone in the room will have the same opinion as you


Knight

Ok I think everybody had time to cool a little, and the people that receive pm to edit your post, I expect you guys to comply with the TOS.

If you are posting stay on topic of the original message, take it like a nice advise.

IMG SURVIVOR

Wow, all this chaos for a person not knowing much biochem. I don't know any biochem. But I still managed to pass the USMLE with a decent score.

okay.....

I dunno what happened in this thread initially.

I'm also not one to crap on anyone's opinion, you're entitled to it. As I am to mine so here it is:

1. ribosomal subunits - I don't memorize well - so I wouldn't have remembered this stuff for an exam (I could possibly guess correctly) I do remember seeing this stuff. Yeah - i guess it would be basic knowledge - so basic that I would assume it's not even testable - but I guess it is - so maybe I need to look at it again

2. someone ( I don't remember who) said that SGU preparing you well is contradicted by taking a review course.

Huh?! that argument doesn't make sense to me. I'm the first person to point out that SGU isn't perfect. So I'm not doing this just because I'm an SGU student - moreso because I see a flaw in this argument. I went to Kaplan. The place wasn't filled with people from one school - there were people from a buncha different schools -

does that mean that NONE of those schools prepared the students well?

AND : there are schools that include Kaplan books as part of your prep in your final term, or while you are taking basic sci - According to the brunt of the argument does that mean that these schools are admitting that their teaching methods are inadequate?

I don't think so.

I went to SGU. i took a Kaplan review course. I didn't take a review course because I thought SGU's teaching was poor. I took a review course because I needed a relatively quick REVIEW. I didn't feel quite up to studying 2 years worth of material on my own. I wanted a helping hand from a company that specializes in helping students figure out how to pass this gigantic turd of an exam.

I apologize if this offended anyone. I was careful to criticize THE ARGUMENT, and not the person who holds it.

Cheers,

Silenthunder

Originally Posted by Silenthunder

okay.....

I dunno what happened in this thread initially.

I'm also not one to crap on anyone's opinion, you're entitled to it. As I am to mine so here it is:

1. ribosomal subunits - I don't memorize well - so I wouldn't have remembered this stuff for an exam (I could possibly guess correctly) I do remember seeing this stuff. Yeah - i guess it would be basic knowledge - so basic that I would assume it's not even testable - but I guess it is - so maybe I need to look at it again

2. someone ( I don't remember who) said that SGU preparing you well is contradicted by taking a review course.

Huh?! that argument doesn't make sense to me. I'm the first person to point out that SGU isn't perfect. So I'm not doing this just because I'm an SGU student - moreso because I see a flaw in this argument. I went to Kaplan. The place wasn't filled with people from one school - there were people from a buncha different schools -

does that mean that NONE of those schools prepared the students well?

AND : there are schools that include Kaplan books as part of your prep in your final term, or while you are taking basic sci - According to the brunt of the argument does that mean that these schools are admitting that their teaching methods are inadequate?

I don't think so.

I went to SGU. i took a Kaplan review course. I didn't take a review course because I thought SGU's teaching was poor. I took a review course because I needed a relatively quick REVIEW. I didn't feel quite up to studying 2 years worth of material on my own. I wanted a helping hand from a company that specializes in helping students figure out how to pass this gigantic turd of an exam.

I apologize if this offended anyone. I was careful to criticize THE ARGUMENT, and not the person who holds it.

Cheers,

Silenthunder

About the ribosomal subunits, I could have guessed it was it was that because of the name. I wouldn't say that its so basic that they woudn't test it, but what is there to test on? Biochem isn't that highyield, and if anything, they wouldn't test on the ribosomal subunits. Everyone has different strong points so even if you don't know the ribosomal subunits, that isn't so bad.

Lastly, what do you think of the Kaplan review and the kaplan course? Would you recommend it? Is it the same as the videos, so I can just watch the kaplan videos by myself, at my own pace?

Cheers,

Dear Silenthunder did you read my last reply to this post before you gave out your 2 cents? if not let me posted for you again:

Ok I think everybody had time to cool a little, and the people that receive pm to edit your post, I expect you guys to comply with the TOS.

If you are posting stay on topic of the original message, take it like a nice advise.

IMG SURVIVOR

Originally Posted by Dien dien

Lastly, what do you think of the Kaplan review and the kaplan course? Would you recommend it? Is it the same as the videos, so I can just watch the kaplan videos by myself, at my own pace?

Cheers,

I thought the Kaplan review was quite good. Not sure if they're the same as the videos - I know the instructors for several topics were different at the retreat (physiology, biochem, and micro were different instructors)

one thing I liked about Kaplan alot more when I left was the kaplan written material. Some of it is really well written when you have more time to go through it - in particular the biochem book paints a great 'big picture'.

I reccomend the review course - but for all I know the videos COULD be enough - I just don't know because I haven't watched them.

Cheers,

Silenthunder
p.s. sorry IMG Survivor - I didn't read your post after you unlocked the thread - I will edit my message if you think any of it is inflammatory or something