Studied for 6 weeks. Did Q bank, averaging in the 60's the week before the exam. The books that I used:

Path: Goljan Review of Pathology. Did some of his taped lectures but didn't have time in the end to finish all of them. Did BRS Path first but it's hard for me to just read a bunch of random facts so at the end I didn't really retain hardly anything after reading it. Goljan puts everything together more clinically I felt. His questions at the end of each chapter is good practice with the explanations to teach you. On my exam I had alot of Path. I think this is one subject where you just have to know Path inside and out since they can throw anything at you; and they will. The questions I had pretty much covered everything you could think of. Goljan Audio and his book is plenty. If there is one subject you should concentrate on, it's Path.

Micro: Micro made ridiculously simple and HY Micro. Since I haven't been in basic sciences for about 6 months, Micro made ridiculously simple was a good book to refresh my memory and then HY Micro at the end a couple of weeks before the exam to tie everything together. HY Micro will tell you everything you need to know for the exam, but unfortunately Micro wasn't heavily tested on my exam. First Aid is good to let you know what is really high yield. The questions were difficult I felt. Alot of the questions just gave you a clinical scenario with a patient, what their symptoms were, and then you had to name the agent w/o even being given a description of it (e.g. staph is a catalase and coagulase + agent, or you have to be able to differentiate between gonococcal urethritis vs non gonococcal urethritis based on their symptoms only and no gram stain data available. So know the clinical symptoms of the agents, what makes them virulent, etc.

Pharm: First Aid is definitely enough. I used that as well as USMLE Roadmap: Pharmacology. I think only if you're clueless about Pharm should you use something thick like Lippencotts or Katzung and Trevor Pharm review since they're overkill if you're proficient in the subject. First Aid really hit it on the spot, especially the last couple of pages telling inhibitors/inducers of P450. Unfortunately this is my strong spot but I didn't have alot of questions the subject. Maybe 25 at the most. I didn't have any equations at all.

Behavioral: I have BRS Behavioral and Kaplan Behavioral sciences. I didn't use either of them since I didn't have time to read them and I was scoring 70's and 80's on Q bank for the subject. First Aid definitely was enough for me to answer the questions in this subject since most of the questions are " what would you do if, etc, etc". I felt those questions were really easy and First Aid will tell you everything you need to know about personality disorders, depression, schizophrenia, etc. You might need to get additional resources to study the epidemiology portion though since First Aid kind of lacks in that subject. Acutally it lacks alot since none of the equations on my exam in Epidemiology was in First Aid.

Anatomy: I used HY Gross Anatomy and Neuroanatomy, neither of which I finished completely. I have to say that about 75% of the questions on the exam that I had for anatomy could be answered with First Aid for these two subjects. Definitely look at CT scans for Neuro in the first couple of pages and know First Aid cold since they're good at narrowing down to what is frequently tested. I used HY Cell Biology/Molecular Biology for the cell bio and molec bio questions. It's an ok book, kind of brief though. I had a ton of questions on Cell Biology and Molecular Biology which was TOUGH. I felt like I was taking a Ph.D exam on the two subjects. Definitely know DNA replication, protein expression, mutations, like the back of your hand. Genetics was easy, it's all basic stuff so be able to read pedigrees and do calculations with carrier rates, etc.


Biochemistry: Almost everyting in First Aid was on the exam in some form or another but there are also alot of other questions asked thats not in First Aid if you have an exam like mine that a ton of Biochem. I used Kaplan Biochem and felt it was ok. Definitely know molecular biology is all I can say about that.

Physiology: I used BRS Physio. Now if you can master that book, then you can answer any question on the exam. Definitely know how to interpret graphs b/c thats how most of the questions are asked. I wouldn't walk into that exam w/o knowing your hormones or else you're going to be sorry.

In the end, you can read a ton of books and it won't make much of a difference if you don't know how to apply that knowledge to a question they might ask on the exam. If I could do it again, with the 6 weeks I studied for it, I would have stopped reading at 4 weeks and just used the last two weeks to do only Q Bank and any other questions that you can get your hands on. I felt my exam was about on the same level as Q bank. When I was taking the test, it just felt like I was taking another Q bank exam. Practice questions are the key to this exam. Don't try to review before the day of the exam, if you've covered it well before, it will come back to you when the question appears. Just give your brain a break.

Thats all I can really have to say. If you have questions about something, I'l try and answer but unfortunately I won't be able to give information on what questions I was asked, etc.

Unfortunately I don't know how I did. Alot of the questions always came down to two answers. There was only a few questions where I knew the answer definitely with a few secs, they always require alot of thinking to come to a conclusion. I wonder if most people who take this exam are like me and have no clue on how the result will be?

thanks for that description, it was very helpful. I hope that you do really well and I am sure that you are going to pass. Did you do either of the NBME tests?

go celebrate!

Yeah, I took the NBME form 1, 2 days before the exam. I heard it correlates very well. I hope to get a comfortable pass. I'm not aiming for 240's-260's since I'm not wanting to do anything like ophthalmology, dermatology or anything like that. If I could do it again, read less books and do more practice questions. Of course you have to read to get the knowledge but you also have to know how to apply that knowledge to a question.

Hey Fox. Your info is golden. I have 2 months till the exam (nov 30th); can you provide me with an example of a time table?, ie 8 hrs everyday?, I have been avarage a solid 5 hrs a day everyday 7 days per week and every 2 weeks I do the practice test like kaplan (just 50 questions burst) and have like 15 minutes left each time. I got at least more than half right, but still it's depressing. any comment is appreciated. Hope you get the score that you wanted. Thanks.

To avoid getting stressed/burned out, I'd do no more than 8 hours a day. Start early at like 8-9am and be done for the day so that you have the evening to do what you want to keep your sanity. I wish I would've taken my own advise b/c it seemed as if from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep I was always studying. You can only study for only so many weeks before you start getting burned out and going crazy.

If I were you, I wouldn't do questions every two weeks. I'd do them everyday and once you finish all the questions from one source, move to another. My exam had alot of Biochem/Molecular Biology questions and on Q bank I focused on Micro/Path/Pharm for questions and didn't even finish the questions for the other subjects, except for Behavioral Sciences. So, do as many questions as you can so you can avoid having questions on your exam that you've never seen before, like me.

Are you from Ross too?

Hey fox, yes i'm from ross, i think you are a class ahead of me though. I'm craping my pant man. I don't know if I'll ever be ready. Tell you the truth I'm pretty scare. But I'll try your suggestion I think it's a sound idea. The thing is that I studied today and can spit it out like the back of my hand, but then the next day, I get so irritated. Nov 30, i hope this is enough time for me. I am not a dumb student man, I got almost straight As through out well more like B student without a curve but I guess that doesn't matter right? Hope you rocked the test..

Thank you.Congrats