Advice Needed To Improve Score Asap

[drsc]

Originally Posted by iaustudent06

Yeah, I agree with you that golijan didn't help all that much. As a matter of fact, I thought the new Kaplan path instructor (barone, romone or something like that) was better.

But it seems like a lot of people who scored higher than me (91) used Rapid Review for Path. Besides, throughout my exam, I felt that a lot of questions could not be answered by simple question banks but through hard core studying for details.

I still think memorizing FA helps alot. Before I started my test, I also wrote out some biostat and pharm equations, ANS drugs, and a few endocrine and biochem pathways which helped me stay calm, instead of getting nervous and blanking out.

yeah when I took the kaplan course I had Barone as the teacher.

So your score was 91? What did you do to prepare? What material did you use? How did you study?

ex.

1. questions only?
2. reading only?
3. questions and reading?
4. when doing questions did you write notes?
5. did you write notes for all questions?
6. did you write notes for only wrong questions?
7. did you write everything from the explaination down or in your own words?

[drsc]

Can anyone help me understand the Muscle Spindle control?

I guess its easy to memorize the info from first aid (pg 373 first aid 2008) but when trying to apply the info into the question its a diffrent story. I have attached a question (if its against any policy or rules please delete it).

The correct anwser is C.

I guess I need help with this to be able to answer question if something goes wrong what is affected. or what is the outcome. etc..

[iaustudent06]

Originally Posted by drsc

yeah when I took the kaplan course I had Barone as the teacher.

So your score was 91? What did you do to prepare? What material did you use? How did you study?

ex.

1. questions only?
2. reading only?
3. questions and reading?
4. when doing questions did you write notes?
5. did you write notes for all questions?
6. did you write notes for only wrong questions?
7. did you write everything from the explaination down or in your own words?

I read very little after reading so much after basic science. I only read kaplan material, FA, and did all of UW twice while maintaining a journal of all information I missed.

The rest I already posted.
http://www.valuemd.com/international...ne-passer.html

[drsc]

Ofcourse I make my notes in first aid from UW.

My question is how do you read first aid? I know the answer is not word by word, so how do we read it?

Maybe this might be a way;
Lets give a example of cardiac output variables:
So when reading should we just ask ourself HOW DO YOU INCREASE Contractility (AND SV)? 1) Catecholamines 2) Increase Intracellular calcium 3) Decrease extracellular sodium 4) Digitalis

Or do we just memorize the list?

Or is there any other way to understand this stuff rather than memorizing?

[iaustudent06]

I tried to study by systems... like if I was on cardio, I hit up the physio, path, pharm, etc for each major body system.

[drsc]

Originally Posted by iaustudent06

I tried to study by systems... like if I was on cardio, I hit up the physio, path, pharm, etc for each major body system.

Yeah thats how I do it. But how about to understand the material. I know passively reading will not help. So when studying am I suppose to just memorize the list?

When I just passively read I say to myself yes I know it. But when question time comes its diffrent. So how do I know when i do FA that i really know and understand it?

I know doing the questions from the FA qbank on valuemd helps.

[IMG SURVIVOR]

http://www.valuemd.com/usmle-step-1-...ts-falter.html

I hope this help

[RussianJoo]

Originally Posted by drsc

Yeah thats how I do it. But how about to understand the material. I know passively reading will not help. So when studying am I suppose to just memorize the list?

When I just passively read I say to myself yes I know it. But when question time comes its diffrent. So how do I know when i do FA that i really know and understand it?

I know doing the questions from the FA qbank on valuemd helps.

certain things yes you have to memorize, like most of anatomy, for boichem you can look at the names of the enzymes and figure out what they do, like a kinase phosphorylates and a phasphatase dephasphorylates so a pyruvate kinase phosphorylates adp to make atp, and pyruvate.

Also for most path you have to know how the healthy normal tissue works and then when something goes wrong you can figure it out on your own what the symptoms should be. for example emphysema: there's slightly more ventilation in the apex of the lungs so when you smoke more smoke gets to the apex and causes partial emphysema i.e. centrilobular it's partial because you're healthy and still make alpha 1-anti-trypsin. but if you have an alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency that will occur at the bases of the lungs because they are more perfused with blood and so more neutrophils can get to that area and release their elastase enzymes, also because the lungs aren't as protected the emphysema is more throughout the lung i.e. panlobular. Same with pharmacology you memorize the prototype drug and how it works and then just memorize the other drug names that are in that class but know that they have the same mechanism of action, and most of the time the same adverse effects and contraindications.

it's crazy to think that you can memorize all this crap. you have to reason it out and think it through, also a lot of the q's on USMLE World are scenarios that I haven't seen associated to those diseases before but since I knew what the diseases did I was able to come up with the right answers. So as you read you're supposed make connection and say to yourself ohh that's just like that other disease... You can only memorze so much. I think what would be best for your is to read through a chapter or a system and then while it's still fresh in your head do questions on that system, the more q's you do the better you'll be able to retain the info. If you get a question wrong then don't just read the explanation for go find the right answer in the book that you used to study that section. You should keep memorizing to a minimum.

[iaustudent06]

I think anatomy, histo, embryo, some pharm, behavioural, and a lot of micro/immuno can be memorized. Drawings, graphs, and charts helped me. I even wrote out a few I commonly missed on that erasable pad before taking the test so I wouldn't get nervous and blank out (like brachial plexus, certain pathways, etc)