I took the USMLE and my scores

[Anonymous]

I have read many posts about studying for the USMLE. this is my take on it.

I cant stress this enough-know more than what the exam requires. You will forget a ton of stuff during the exam just because you are nervous. If you know more then at least there is some basis to answering the questions in this exam. there are couple of curve balls but dont kill yourself trying to answer those- you would know upfront becase those questions or thier ans wont make any sense. I had about 5 of those type of questions.

For Path:
Find Goljan Notes - questions and notes, audio lectures. Memorise it top to bottom. I read ittwice. Listened to his audio at least twice. It is 100% on the money. Goljan is 1000% better than BRS b/c he gives subtle clinical sx's associated with diseases. plus he puts a lot of stuff in there that makes it stick in your brain.

Study Kaplan Q bank 2x-I did it once before I read goljan, then once after. I wished I repeated CV, Resp, Renal once more to refresh my memory. To get the best out of it u must study the ans as well with a supplimental text book.

Biochem-if you did Q bank biochem and studied those questions you will be fine. Use Lippincott's Biochem as a study source.

Pharma-Q bank and First AID all the questions were from these two sources.

Microbiology-Immunology-there is really no solution to this-High yeild is useless unless u dont know anything, But if u have read a good basic science MicroB-to refresh a good source is Lippincotts MicroB flash cards and Images of Basic Histology from jaunqiera-Read your class from Immunology-those pictures are very high yeild. If all else fails use First Aid.

Behavioral- I used BRS which turned out to be a fantastic review book.

I can go around point to various questions i had. but i dont think that would be helpful to you becase there are many angles to a question.

I studied about 4 months for this exam. about 8 hours a day. when i knew i was burned out i took a day or two off and watched a movie...hung out at the beach and etc...

During the last 6 weeks I studied to expand my knowlege in stuff I already knew. Every few days I spent time reviewing material I already knew using Goljans rapid question-ans review charts.I am telling you all the questions 100% came from his lists. Either take a Kaplan course w/ Goljan or read his notes.

During the Last week I stopped learning new stuff. I reviewed material in main topics that integrated all my basic sciences knowledge.

I made sure to eat a balanced diet and take one B vitamin complex pill a day. get enough sleep, at least 7 hours worth. forming memory is really based on giving enough time for your brain to process new material. Remember no sleep--then breain sees noise--and noise is bad in our case, unless you have a nagging spouse.

on the day of the exam I raced through the first hour-It was incredibly difficult-and turned out be the section which i did poorly of all-Then it became easier-at times i was questioning if it was an exam at all

i had a Shake for lunch-then I finished the rest of the exam in about 3 hours.

I had so many nightmares before i got my exam score-It finally arived today 235 94 .


Good luck to everyone here. I hope you also get great scores.

[Anonymous]

Hey congratulations. Really appreciate your input.

You mentioned... "using Goljans rapid question-ans review charts... all the questions 100% came from his lists..." Exactly which of his sources were you referring to?

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your comments and congratulations!

[jek2839]

Wow_tooo,

Congratulations, you have earned an excellent Step# 1 score.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on ur big score and Good luck to all who have to go through it yet.

[Anonymous]

if you guys have questions please post it and i will be glad to answer them.


Again thanks for all the good wishes and I hope you all do well in your exams.

[Anonymous]

Well on Ebay they are selling some of Goljans notes and audio lectures on a CD. I had previously downloaded some of that stuff free of charge from some sites posted on this board. dont ask me anymore about it because i dont do any of the selling or deal with any of the copyright issues associated with it.

I got that CD for about $10. when i got that CD it had basically all of Goljans Photocopied/PDF notes. so that is how I got his comprehensive notes. He has perhaps 600 pages of notes in that i had to go to Kinkos and photocopy that whole set

Goljan is good, no i mean excellent! His notes boils down what the USMLE needs you to know. anything more is bit complicated and anything less is garbage. lets say if i had memorised Goljan 100%, I would have gotton 100% of Path correct.

To go with Goljans notes you need pictures, my source quite strangely was Google picture search. for example a search for Blastomycosis gives many pictures on how it presents on skin, lungs and other parts of body.

Also I forgot to tell you that I used High Yeild Gross Anatomy-dont waste your time on anything else. Neuroanatomy High Yield is a bit excessive but reading both of these books will also help you later in clinical sciences.

About Qbank
in the begining it was Brutal because i was not familier with the Format. But in the end i ended up with an overal score of 72%. Again use it as a learning tool: to test the main concept and learn the differentials.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for taking the time to put together a thorough reply. We all definitely appreciate your input, which is more so a confirmation of what we know already. You know, it's that need of assurance kind of thing.

Good luck in the rest of your studies!