MY EXAM EXPERINCE!

[Anonymous]

I took the test few days ago, I couldn't write my experience right away because I needed a couple of days to recover! Well guys, it was a tough experience but I assure you, you can do it! To tell you the truth I don't know if I did well or bad, I left the test center with an irresistible urge to cry ( so I did), the tears then kept flowing during the day which I think is normal after you come out of this stressful 8 hour fight! I had a feeling I have been betrayed because after all this effort and all the time I devoted myself to do nothing but study hard, now I am not sure if I did well enough, if I will even pass or not, I just don't know..
Here is my advise to my friends in this wonderful forum hoping it help you get an idea about this test :
-First advice for my friends (specially IMGs) who are taking this test for the first time, I strongly advise you to register for practice session at prometric center at least one month before your scheduled test date, believe me you will feel more confident after doing this, first you will get a chance to experience all the anxiety the day before the practice test and even you will get a sleepless night just like you were going for the real thing! On the real test I knew what to expect and it felt like I felt more at ease because I had done this before.. (Note that they give you the same questions as the USMLE cd, so it would be even better if you do these questions for the first time at the center and imagine you are doing the real test) it's a chance to simulate how easy it's going to be to check in and out of testing room, to sign out for a break ..etc , you might not find this step necessary but believe me if you are doing this for the first time it really pays off during the real exam, you will be more relaxed and suffer less anxiety than when going there for the first time.

Now to the real stuff:
-The test covers everything as they say but I felt that few topics are presented more than others, it was very much similar to the USMLE CD, although I didn't have nay questions from that CD.
Subject wise, there was no problem with pathology (when you read the vignette it clicks right away, if it doesn't don't waste too much time trying to figure it out, it won't come to you in such a short time! To my amazement I started remembering the right answer to these questions after I left the test center and kept telling myself how stupid of me not to see the right answer then, it was right below my nose!!
My mistake was holding on to one or two vague questions for too long and then found myself running out of time so I had to speed up toward the end of each block), the first 3 blocks I had time to review the marked Qs but from the 4th block on I had to read the last questions really fast and missed 1-2 questions in the end because time's up. I also advise that you don't mark many questions even if you feel comfortable with time because you don't know what you are going to get toward the end of each block so mark not more than 3 Qs per block and NEVER leave a question unanswered just pick something and go..

still speaking of patho, they don't show many slides and in fact you can't get much by looking at the slide and you can figure the answer from the stem of the question most of the time (but that's not always the case) my advise is that you always read the question first and see if you know the answer, then look at the picture afterwards.

-Neuroanatomy: I don't know why but it was tested heavily as I had more than enough questions in each block, most neuro questions had pictures, make sure you know exactly the angiography of brain shown in HY neuro,I had one of the pictures and they ask what will the patient suffer from if the artery in the picture is blocked! (in terms of visual defect or motor function..etc), also I had different imaging technique (I think it was positron emission or something) showing part of the brain and I had no clue what it was,I marked the question and when I came back to it later I still had no clue! Other question show MRI of brainstem section and they put arrows on different areas and ask what the defect is, so make sure how each part of the brain stem looks and know the defects related to it. Also they show many hand drown pictures of spinal cord and you have to identify the areas and other drawing of a man with sensory defect and you have to know the cause of sensory loss,

Anatomy: again, most questions came as pictures, I had CT scans of abdomen, x *** of shoulder, IVP, make sure you know the upper limb nerves in detail (they asked about a nerve supplying a muscle in the rotator cuff, I don't know what it was..
I had 2 embryo qs, first aid is more than enough!

Physiology: mainly endocrine and renal,cardio of course! Know the preload and afterload stuff, they describe changes in the circulation and you should know which valve is abnormal (I had 2 questions like that), I had few questions from renal (pure physio or mixed with pharama (make sure you understand the renal diagrams shown in F.A) many qs, specially afferent and efferent arteriol changes (must know!)

-microbiology: I got around 3-4 questions per block (sometimes more or less) , most are very straight forward, the classic bugs are always there (staph, sterpt, Niesseria, Chlamydia, mycoplasma, Borrelia and syphilis), I had about 3 fungi and I hated this (one showing picture in tissue and outside) I had to guess, also not to mention a couple of questions on HIV, make sure you know the main properties of common viruses, forget about the uncommon or rare ones in US. Also I had a few micro genetics, they describe something happened to the bacteria when placed with other bacteria or with DNA..etc, you have to identify the procedure.. Not a question about parasites. Immuno was okay, I also had one transgenic mouse, it's very easy guys and you don't have to go read extra about this subject, just know that it has the same disease charachteristics as human and act accordingly (very easy).

Beh. Science: before I say anything I must say that I was able to answer most of these questions just by listening to the web prep course (the lectures on this subject are gold.. gold gold!) I read BRS before and did the qs after each chapter but it didn't help me as much as the audio lectures did, it teaches you the rules to answering those weird qs , one thing annoyed me was the length of these questions, they tell you a loooooong story full of irrelevant stuff in detail so you have to read really fast and skim between the lines because these questions were the biggest time killer!!
Statstics: Not much, I had only one calculation of odds ratio (no Sens-Specificity Qs!) one question had a table and I could not interprete it, they put the results of a study and tell you to figure out the relevant factor changing in that study, I have no idea what that was!

Pharama: here is the tragedy of pharma (for me) I just hated the questions that add 2 drugs acting on the same receptor and want you to iD what is the drug from the graph, I always get this wrong and decided beforehand to ignore these qs but I seemed to get 2-3 in EACH DAMN block and felt they did it that on purpose!! Know your G proteins cold, I can never say enough about Sympath & parasymp system drugs, those were pain in the #ss because I hate graphs and there were more than I could have imagined!
make sure you know the side effect of all the renal drugs (not just the common S/E), two qs about ca drugs and immuno drugs, cardio of course (maily S/E) and they love renal , renal and renal!


Biochem: I put this at the end because if you are like me (IMG), this was my weakest area in reality but it wasn’t that bad in the test, I didn’t get tough pathways or detailed stuff, make sure you know the storage diseases (you have to know WHERE is the abnormality not just the name of the disease) I had about 3 qs on that, also if there is one subject you need to know in Biochem is the Glucose metabolism and everything related to it (Glycogenolysis , gluconeo..etc) most if not all qs were on this subject, sometime they repeated the same question and just changed one of the enzymes listed so if you are screwed in this topic you miss few easy questions in a row!!! Genetics: I had only one pedigree which I know I got wrong, one Hardy-weinberg, and another q I don’t remember,..Ahh man don’t they just love Tay sacks disease! As for molecular bio, were not tough, few diagrams, DNA and RNA stuff, not hardcore, the best this I can advice is you listen to the Kaplan web preparation course on molecular, I listened to it twice and I can't say how great it is, it makes you understand this no-more-tough subject!

That’s all I can remember now, what is left to say is that less than 30% of the questions were straight forward, most questions you had to think, use your brains or common sense, some questions were query and even if you know the answer is not given or more than one right answer among the choices, and it might drive you crazy so try to stay calm in spite of it all,
I hope this long article was helpful to you, I hope you all do great in your test, don't let it beat you, you can do it, I pray to Allah that I will pass, and if I don't pass I will just do it again, if anything it will only make me stronger!

[macobt1]

Great post!!! I'm sure you did well.
good luck!

[Rahat3256]

hi

thank you for ur nice experience. i am an IMG. i am trying to get prepared for step 1 during the month of december this year. will you permit me to talk to you over my email.....please....then i can get some more experience from you, which will help me a lot in future....my msn id is...........

rahat3256@hotmail.com

if you please allowe me contact with you ...will help me a lot...
thank you & waiting for your reply...

take care & bye
wish you all the best

[Anonymous]

hope you get through.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing your experience.
I want to ask you some questions. Please can you contact me at ilisaman@yahoo.com .

[rikky]

Very useful post - hope you got through the Step 1 exam :-) All the best!

[jameslynton]

Great Post - Best wishes for passing the monster!!!

[md90]

congrats on getting the test done... I felt and even now feel the same way.. not knowing either way on how I did?????? your exam experience and others that I have read tell me that each test is different, and we as students should be prepared to be asked anything in relation to the exam... Good luck to you in your medical career.. now just relax and enjoy..

[dsv]

pal, i'm img too, had almost everything you said.....sooooooooooo many graphs, one after the other, i felt like physics classes back in europe.
killed me with persistence of upper and lower limb......
every day that goes by i am more convinced i have failed it.
advise: do NOT rethink answers if you have time to.....
had some confusing pictures...........

[rose.82]

Please let me know do you mean by web prep course for Beh.Science means Beh.Science Kaplan course ?