Thread: exam experience

I took the exam yesterday and wanted to share my experience with everyone. I'm not a regular on this site or active within the site but have appreciated exam experiences in the past so thought I'd share some of mine.
The exam was definitely doable. Not very easy but not impossible. I'll breakdown the major topics touched upon as I can recall it:PHARM: alot of questions on signaling mechanisms. It wasn't enough just to know what the drug did but you have to know how. Also drug interactions as well as side effects were stressed....Got a few questions on drugs affecting the arachadonic acid pathway as well as questions on NO. Also drugs affecting the cell cycle.
PATHO: definitely the bulk of the exam. Alot of pathophysiology. Wasn't enough just to know the disease but make sure to understand the disease process. Types of cell injury, wound healing as well as alot of renal diseases were a few topics I can recall encountering.
MICRO: Again it was integrated with either patho or pharm. Alot of it was connected to patient history and then you figure out the bug and then gotta integrate it with either pharm or path. Had quite a few questions on Staph and Strep as well vaccination and sterilization.
BIOCHEM: mostly the clinical aspects of this subject. Stressed alot about how different pathways integrate and work together. Had to know how a deficiency of an enzyme would affect not just that particular pathway but how it might affect another pathway and changes expected in various organs, etc... Topics I remember include G6PD deficiency, Tay Sachs, and vitamins. Also stress your molecular biology. Alot of integrations with DNA synthesis, regulation, mutations. Genetics was also touched upon like inheritance patterns and genetic counseling.
PHYSIO: mostly graphs that tested concepts dealing with factors affecting CO and SV as well as GFR, FEV1/FVC. Know concepts solid in cardio and renal especially. Also know your endocrine!!! It was heavily stressed upon and integrated with the other subjects.
ANAT: mostly neuro. Alot of head injury questions and visual pathway lesions. Had MRIs, CT scans and gross specimens of the brain. Mostly dealt with tracks and cranial nerves.
BEHAV: Mostly about substance abuse, i.e. withdrawal symptoms and intoxication symptoms. A few ethics questions about what to do in the given situation as well as questions about what the best statement to say next to the patient was. Some of these were definitely tricky. As well as preventive health questions dealing with what to advise the patient to do to improve his/her health. Also questions on Type 1 and 2 errors as well as calculations for sensitivity and specificity. Nothing too complicated.
I wanted to add that my exam was did not use the FRED software. I had heard that the new software was to start for Step 1 and 2 by the 15th of April but my exam used the older software.
Well, this about all I can remember. I know its not as much as some people detail in their experiences but I hope this proves to be helpful to some. I feel the major thing with this exam is to keep your faith and never give up!!! Will be waiting now for the results....
BEST OF LUCK TO ALL...
God Bless....

I must have had the same exam. All the things you mentioned sound awefully familiar. I took the test today. The biochem was shifty I thought. Much harder than any of the biochemistry encountered on qbank.Anyhow, it's going to be a long 4weeks...G-dawg.

Originally Posted by G-Dawg

I must have had the same exam. All the thingsyou
mentioned sound awefully familiar. I took the test today. Thebiochem
was shifty I thought. Much harder than any of the
biochemistryencountered on qbank.Anyhow, it's going to be a long 4weeks...G-dawg.

Dear
G-dawg, is there any advise for us who still have to take exam andwhat
do you wish you'll sure study if you get some more time aftertaking it.
appreciate your advise.
Thanks in advance.

Well, I don't think I would study any differently than I did. I focused at lot on raw memorization of all the HLAs and antibodies and was only asked about one antibody but at least I got that sucker right!My exam was more based on how well you think on your feet and analyse graphs than on how much you were able to store in your memory. I had a consequent amount of physiology. What serum level would go up if you have this and that? No matter how much you knew, it seems as though you had to take a leap of faith every now and then. I had a high degree of uncertainty throughout. Rarely did I feel 100% confident that the selected answer was the correct one. Rather, I could narrow it down to 2 answers but then had to roll the dice sort of speak.Last night I went through first aid and looking carefully at each page was able to remember 201 of the questions. Out of which I answered correctly on 127, incorrectly on 49, and the rest are up in the air since none of the books I have are able to give me an answer to these questions. The remaining 149 questions were to complex and much too long for me to remember specifically what was asked or even what I answered. Consequently, I need a third of those right in order to pass. It'll be a long month.So anyway, learning mechanisms of action of drugs in every detail is well worth your time.Basically, there was a lot of detail for everything. It certainly wasn't anything like the flashcard format from BRS series where everything is straight forward. During the exam, I knew what disease they were talking about but often felt unsure about the detail they were inquiring about.And all the question were mighty long. An average of 8 lines for my test. Which is incredibly time consuming. Every question basically was as long as any question on the behavioral section of qbank.I usually finished a qbank set of 50 random questions in 45 minutes. On the actual test, my last 5 questions were rushed. So make sure you read fast and move along if you don't know what's being asked.G-Dawg.