please help, any advice?

[Anonymous]

hi everyone, this is my first time posting here. i hope there are people out there that can lend some advice. i just failed step 1 for the third time and feel totally lost and frustrated. i did the kaplan review class and felt confident this time but still fell short. i feel like i have tried everything i possibly can and nothing is working. is there anyone out there that had gone through what im going thru? is so any advice would be greatly appreciated. i have come to the point that maybe medicine just isnt for me, but a part of me doesnt want to give up. so please any info or thoughts would be really helpfu.

Thank You for you time!

[Anonymous]

you are not alone i failed for the 4th time and i am not stupid, but have family problems that keeps me from studying at least 10 hours a day, that is what you should do if you can. see i can,t do that anymore .
my concentration is gone and i have nomore patience. i study one page of BRS pathology per day and the rest of the time i surf the net . they say study first aide only! but first aide alone is not enough at all.
and that is right one part of me does not want to let me give up !
we are all like that. i just wanted you to know there all a lot of people in the same situation. so all i can say is to try to go back and study harder this time and take your time and take it again. if there is anything else let me know. good luck

[studentMD]

have you tried the pass program course in chicago?
apparently alot of ppl that have struggled to pass have has a lot of success with it. At least that is what I have heard from the 6 ppl I personally know that have taken that class as a last resort.

I really dont have details on it in terms of cost etc.. try searching for it on the internet... or if you are interested I can see if anyone has the website address for them still...

[Anonymous]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your problems. Maybe if you tell us more we might be able to advise you better. Are you an IMG or still in Med School? What are you doing now? Must you work in USA or do you have other options? Over what period of time have you attempted the step 1? Have you passed Step 2?

[Anonymous]

or the UK PLAB! I heard it's easy...

[FleurMD]

hi, when i read your post it was like a small *** of hope for me; that there are others who feel the same way. i hv been feeling hopeless for some time now. its especially difficult with the holidays and new year as you meet people and they ask you and u ask urself what hv u achievd. i am an img and cannot work here. been here for 3 yrs now! gosh that sounds awful and due to finacial constraints hv not taken he test. i started studying and gave up many times. i am totally isolated here. no one i can talk to & no one to study with with. i volunteered for a while at a local clinic and really enjoyed it but then had a bad experience and stopped going there. i hv just lost the will now to studya dn i cant even bring myself to open my books. i hvnt achieved any of my goals and feel totally useless. ppl say u hv all teh time in the world just sit down and study 12 hrs aday etc but i just cant . i feel scared of teh exam now and am thinkng abt maybe doing sumthing else. i will be settling bcoz i really want to practsie medicine and i know i am good at that. its just that i cant study...and feel like i will never get thru all teh tests.

lostand frustrated...atleast u hv been brave enuf to face the exams. i think that maybe ur test taking skils or way of studying is whats going wrong? i'm not one to gv u advice but hold on to ur support system and listen to everyone who gvs u good advcie. one of my friends recently cleared step 1 on her 5th attempt . she had alll sorts of healtha dn family problems but finally mad eit. u can too.

sorry for going on & on...its a relief to be able to tell someone. (excus my typos as i am typing in a hurry.)

FleurMD

[Anonymous]

thank you for everyones advice, i really appreciate it. i have decided to take the exam over again, and im going to pass that damn thing if its the last thing i do. i have realized that it isnt the end of the world, ITS ONLY A TEST! I know there are many others out there that are in the same boat and i hope everyone the best in whatever they choose to do. It is so important to be around positive people. everyone that i have spoken to has said to stay focused and try again. a good friend of mine told me that every successful person had to experience failure at one point on their way to success, and i truely believe that. i have realized that this is a test for me to see if i have what it takes to be the best doctor i can be. hopefully one day in the future i can look back and these tough times see like nothing. so to everyone out there in the same shoes as me, stay focused and positive. everything happens for a reason and if you work hard it will all fall into place. again thank you everyone for taking time to post your thoughts and i wish everyone the best. ok time to hit those damn books.

[MDJack]

Greetings to all those who failed more than once. Just a few suggestion from a recent graduate who managed to pass his Step 1 (78) with some luck and blessing from above. I only had one month to prepare for Step 1. Thus, I studied full time, up to 14 hours a day sometimes, away from my wife and children at the local library. The important thing to remember is don't drag out your study. The longer you take, the more you will forget the materials you studied previously. In order to mitigate that, I reviewed previously studied material at the end of every week regardless of whether or not I am finished with the current material. The big subjects are Path, Phys, Pharm and Micro. Thus, I start out studying Path, that way every week thereafter I will come back and review Path. Consequently, my knowledge of Path will strengthen. I then studied Phys and Micro. I ran out of time and was not able to study Biochem, Anatomy, Behavioral/Statistics and Pharm. Every subject studied was from Kaplan's notes. Don't use too many sources! If I didn't understand something, then I look it up in a text. Lastly, if you have time left, do questions to assess your knowledge. Remember, do questions to assess what you know. Don't use them as study tools. Of course you will learn a thing or two by reading the answers, but don't use the questions exclusively for studying. I did only 150 questions from Qbank and scored an average of 68%, then took the USLME sample test and scored 72%. The exam was much harder than the sample as most of you know by now. I felt tricked by that sample test and did not feel confident about passing after taking the exam. I think the part that helped me pass the exam was constant reviewing of materials I studied, making sure I remember what I know. You need to answer 55-65% of the questions correctly to pass, so make sure and remember what you learned and answer that 55-65% correctly. It would be ashame to recognize a question but miss the answer because you can't remember what you learned two months ago! Well, I hope my lack of time studying example will help you guys with more time to spare develop better studying skills and time management. Remember to review what you learned over and over again and don't worry about what you haven't learned.

[Anonymous]

I agree with MDJack! It is easier to accept the fact that you didn't answer a question correctly because you don't know it and didn't study it, than not get the correct answer for topics you knew you studied, but can't remember it.

[Cadusma]

Thank you for that great post MDJack!

I have only one disagreement with your post ... I have several friends who only studied from question banks and they scored very well. For some people, studying texts just doesn't help to make the material stick in their memory -- they must be quizzed constantly to actually learn the material.

For those people, I would recommend the following questions books (generally, in this order; some of these are listed in the back of First Aid):
+Board Simulator Series (BSS) [ISBN 0683304119]
+Kaplan Online Q-Bank [www.kaptest.com/med_home.jhtml]
+Integrated Basic Sciences: PreTest Self-Assessment and Review [ISBN 007052551X]
+PreTest Question Book Series
+NMS Review [ISBN 0781732921]
+Appleton & Lange Review [ISBN 0071377425]
+Mosby's Rapid Review Series [ISBN 0323008410]
+Buzzwords for the Boards [ISBN 0683306391] (less effective but good last minute review)
+NBME practice exams that come with the USMLE Step1 material and their website versions - http://www.nbme.org/programs/sas.asp
+The NBME also allows you to sit for a non-graded half-day practice Step1 prior to taking the Step1
+Any of the "Examination & Board Review" books by Lange
+Any of the "Blueprints" series (Blueprints Q&A Step 1 [ISBN 140510323X])
+Any of the Biotest Study Aids Series for Step1 - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...758808-9509636
+Medrevu sample questions online (an LWW online course) - http://www.medrevu.com/products/sample.asp
+any of a variety of questions you may download from ValueMD's download section - http://www.valuemd.com/viewtopic.php?t=2619

More intense question books (intensive internal medicine):
+Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine [ISBN 0071391029]
+Cecil Review of General Internal Medicine [ISBN 0721677894]

One of my roommates said his high-yield resources were:
+Any resource developed by Edward Goljan is very high-yield
+Pathology (Saunders Text, Edward F. Goljan) [ISBN 0721670237]
+Pathology Review (Saunders Review Series, Edward F. Goljan) [ISBN 0721670245]
+Pathophysiology for the Boards and Wards [ISBN 1405103426]
+Cracking the Boards: USMLE Step 1 [ISBN 0375761632]

Other Resources:
+Kaplan Medical USMLE Step 1 Home Study Program - http://www.kaptest.com/catalog/templ...04&rcid=200042

Here are some other review courses compliments of http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcam/osa/faq/USMLE.htm
+Kaplan, website - www.kaplanmedical.com
+Princeton Review, website - testprep.princetonreview.com/coursefinder/search.asp
+Chicago Medical School, website - http://www.finchcms.edu/cms/educatio...oardReview.cfm
+University of Missouri at Kansas City, website - www.umkc.edu/ipp/

General information about the USMLE:
+http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcam/osa/faq/USMLE.htm