my step 1 experience...

[j_sde]

alright, so i'm finally done with the test.. definity feel relieved but unsure of my performance.. and like the rest, i've been readin this listserve for the past month so thought i'd contribute...


heres some general points that i got out of the test

1.) its not THAT bad.... and take it from me... i was startin to freak out last week, just feelin as if i kept forgettin everyting i read and that i just couldnt study all this.... i was goin thru qbank questions and even tho scorin 50-70% seemed like it was about 'average' of what everyone else was doin... i couldnt help feelin like that was such a low score and indicative of 50-30% more of stuff that i didnt know.. basically, i was really worred about takin the test and fearful of all the horror stories.

so my advice to others would be that its not THAT bad and dont freak out

2.) give that... it is PRETTY bad.... haha... what i mean by that is that, there are a good percentage of questions that were just like wtf.... personally, i agree with some other posters who suggested that the test was nearly 1/3rd easy you kno it right away, 1/3 narrow down to bout 2 and just guess, and 1/3 that went over my head even after i read it twice, so i just had to make my best guess.

3.) you really cant "study' that much for the test..... i kinda agree w/another poster who said some of the test was based on 'common sense' knowledge.... so in that sense, its hard to study and prepare for it. also... a good amount of the questions were presented in chart/graph form and its not really something you 'studied'. honestly, i feel like studyin first aid did not help that much.... the 'high yield' points werent really what was tested... its hard to explain, you just gotta take it for yourself.

4.) i will have to say to be careful and read thru all the answer choices tho... because.. just off the top of my mind, there was one question which i coulda gotta wrong had i not re-read the all the answers again.... i guess i cant post the specific answer.. but i will just say it had something to do with knowing the actual acroqnam (sp??) of something.... for example... if you kno that TSH was the asnwer... but didnt know TSH stood for thyroid stimulating hormone.. as opposed to somethign like thyroid suppressing hormone... then you may have gotten it wrong.. so just be careful.

alright... my specific test....... i got very little pharm.. or at least felt it was little... of what i did get, most of it was first aid... althouh not all... physio... kinda difficult on some questions... nothing really stated out like adolesterone increases Na reabsorptiaon.. instead, itd be something like a person on such a diet and what happens to his extracellular volume/osmolarity/etc.

path... not so bad... although some were kinda hard too... like the question would present a patient who was sickle cell and hypertensive, then ask about something relating to an organ pathology. again, 1/3rd would be pretty easy... etc

micro/immuno... not bad .. i think first aid is sufficient. had about 5 questions or so that required knowin classifications such as virluance factors/lab tests.. other than that it was mostly disease presentation.

biochem... hardly any quesitons.. i think there was 10 or so.. not many lysosomal/glycogen either.. what i had was mostly regulatory enzymes.

anatomy... this section i blew off.. cuz i didnt really get to study for it... ended up w/bout 15q on them... 4 of which had to do with the circle of willis... oh wellz

behavior... this was the suprise section for me... it felt like there were at least 3 quesitons eeach block that asked a 'what do you say to the patient' scernio... but there were kinda difficult i think... nothing that match exactly like the examples given in first aid/ BRS Beahvior.. so i just made my pick.... but id say some of the quesitons were stupid... one i rem, required knowin the difference between a 'core gender identiy crisis' versus 'transvetisim'?! see... thats just a example of something that you really cant study.

anyways.... i guess thats it... went by fast.. pray that i passed.. i had high expections before i started studyin, but as it got on (6 months) i just burnt myself out and i think worried too much about it... so main advice is to just try your best and study the main diseases and then just take the sucker.

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[j_sde]

6 months --- actually 6 weeks... although it did feel like 6 months, ha.

 

[Smurfette]

I took it last week...my take on it is much like j_sde's: it wasn't easy!

-I had been doing quite decently on Q-bank the week before I took it. However, I thought my test was harder than Q-bank. The questions were MUCH longer and I always used the full time on each section despite having 15-20 minutes left at the end of 50 Qbank questions. A lot of my classmates also noted this. The questions I got I did not feel were very straightforward...more thinking than recall-type of questions.

-while there were some questions that I flat out knew, most of my questions were physiology (which I thought I was good at before the exam) and had options A through K with every possible combination of physiologic variables ("up up up", "up up down", "up down down", "n/c up up", etc.). That sucked b/c if you knew all the variables but one that you aren't sure about, you still couldn't narrow it down to one answer. I didn't even feel like thinking things through after a few blocks--it just got long and I just wanted to pick an answer and move on.

-some questions you read and realize no matter how much you studied, you NEVER in a million years would have studied that. Kind of a "wtf? oh well" question. Some questions I had were so detailed I could not find the answers in any of my texts (review books or otherwise). Keep in mind that if you study a lot and feel this way about a question, most other med students who get the same question will feel the same way you do.

-I had one question that was so poorly written I couldn't figure out what they were asking after reading it 10 times. I came to the conclusion that there were a few key words missing in the question. It really bothered me during the test that I literally couldn't decipher the question enough to even take a stab at eliminating some of the MC answers. However, I have now convinced myself that it must be an experimental question and will get thrown out. My advice to others is to move on and not get obsessed with poorly written questions as I did.

-I lucked out and got very few pharm questions (I barely knew any pharm....very poorly taught at my school and I couldn't retain it when I studied it). I got a test that was at least 50% physiology and endocrinology, very little anatomy or immuno. My roommate got a version of the test that was 40% pharm...my other roommate got 30% biochem and about an even 10-15% mix of everything else (she also complained she had lots of antivirals and few antibiotics on her test!).

-MISCELLANEOUS: most drawings/pictures were ok. I had one or two that weren't very clear, but I did my best by using the clinical presentation that was given.... if you are a person who gets a lot of test anxiety, avoid people who have already taken it for the couple of days before you take it....most people I knew felt kind of crappy or discouraged after finishing it, so they may make you more nervous....come to the test prepared to take breaks and stretch your back out between sections (the chairs are comfy, but comfy only goes so far when staring at a screen barely moving around for 1 hour chunks of time)...

-DEFINITELY read all answer options...sometimes a "better" answer than the one you initially see will catch your attention and you will be very glad you read things through!

 

[Surgery2Do]

I was surprised when I took the exam a few days ago that I only had about 10 pharm questions and not many pathology.

 

[egroupie]

My Step one experience was horrible.

Studied weeks; memorized 1st aid, did all q-bank, read some vingrettes, brushed up on path, and did all NBME questions [which some (q-stems only) were used again on the real thing], and did pretty good on these.

THEN

I couldn't sleep AT ALL the night before, was so tired the day of the test I couldn't even recognize a gram stain I'll be lucky if I passed. I feel like such a disgrace; fully scholared, top 10% student and can't even pass the 1st board.

Loser-ville here I come

 

[kd]

Just took my Step 1 today and have to agree with Smurfette- mine was FULL of those horrible physiology questions with 10 different options for levels of hormones increased, decreased, stays the same, blah blah. I must have had at least 10 questions of that variety and I suspect I missed all of them.
I had a fair amount of NIT-NIT-PICKY biochem and mol bio- WAY beyond what was in First Aid.
I did have a fair amount of Pharm and most of those questions were straightforward. I also had the Behavioral Science scenarios-those were mostly similar to Qbank, so I think I did ok on those. A couple of straightforward Biostats questions and a few relatively easy Micro questions (know First Aid.)
OTOH I found the Path questions to be VERY difficult- lots and lots of tertiary questions. It was almost never a simple "what disease is this". Overall, I thought the path questions were orders of magnitude more difficult than either QBank or the released items. Many were more on a par with the Board Simulator Series, especially those !@#$$% pathophys questions.
I walked out feeling like I had failed miserably. I guess everybody feels that way - but statistically we have a 90+% chance of passing, so guess I'll try to chill and enjoy the long weekend before I start OB on Monday!

 

[egroupie]

KD,

Relax and enjoy the 4th of July weekend ; that's all you can do. As long as you got a sound night's sleep I'm POSITIVE you'll beat the average and will score high because it sounds like you did a lot of preparation. I was so pissed after I took my exam because I did crappy that I cried but I'm sure that's not a "mature" coping mechanism; I should have just laughed it off (i.e. use humor ).
-egroupie

 

[Surgery2Do]

Yes when I took the exam a week ago, I felt like I had be hit by a truck. It took me a few days to calm down, those physiology questions were killer.

So I look up many of the questions and found out that I had many of them correct.

But still disappointed because I did not get many ?'s from pharm or path.

Anyway just hope the exam is behind me now and off to prepare for step 2.

 

[egroupie]

Well, to anyone interested in reading I report to results of my USMLE diaster. Passed with an okay score; just relieved not to be taking the d*mn thing again. My congrats to all the wonderful scores out there!!!!!! Still, lesson learned: take sleeping pills.

 

[8744]

In regards to First Aid, it is my understanding that as little as three years ago Step 1 was more geared towards recall of specific facts, hence the format of First Aid and its so-called "high-yield" topics.

I think Step1 is more concept based now and First Aid has not caught up. I wasn't impressed with the usefullness of First Aid.

 

[TulaneKid24]

Originally posted by Panda Bear
In regards to First Aid, it is my understanding that as little as three years ago Step 1 was more geared towards recall of specific facts, hence the format of First Aid and its so-called "high-yield" topics.

I think Step1 is more concept based now and First Aid has not caught up. I wasn't impressed with the usefullness of First Aid.

I agree with Panda Bear. First Aid is just a book of disjointed facts. While you must know certain facts for Step 1, it much more integrative than what First Aid would lead you to believe. I personally thought First Aid sucked. Step 1 must be approached in a problem solving way. First Aid doesn't prepare one for that very well.

 

[punjabiMD]

Originally posted by TulaneKid24
I agree with Panda Bear. First Aid is just a book of disjointed facts. While you must know certain facts for Step 1, it much more integrative than what First Aid would lead you to believe. I personally thought First Aid sucked. Step 1 must be approached in a problem solving way. First Aid doesn't prepare one for that very well.

hmmm.. then what WOULD be good for preparation?

 

[TulaneKid24]

Originally posted by sardarg89
hmmm.. then what WOULD be good for preparation?

This is just my opinion. You should do as many practice questions as possible. You should start doing these practice questions early in your medical school training. For example, I liked the Pre-Test series when I was in years 1 and 2. These questions make you think about the material much more than just specific recall of certain facts. So, when you take the Step 1, you will be comfortable approaching these types of questions; and you will know the thought process you will have to use to come up with the correct answer.

 

[me109cito]

Anyone has any opinions on whether Q-bank or Medrevu is more useful as far as practice questions go?

Thanks,

 

[kd]

Here's my update: I ended up doing fairly well, though didn't quite get the 245 I was hoping before I took the test. Got a 238/96, which is way better than I thought when I walked out of the test.
My suggestion: do as many practice ???s as possible. QBank is easier than the real thing, but still worthwhile. Board Simulator Series is tougher and more time-consuming, but has very thorough, detailed explanations, so you really learn a lot from doing those questions. Either way, take notes on the questions you miss and review them the week before the test.
Know everything in First Aid, everything in the BRS Path book, and Costanzo's BRS Phys book. Don't bother studying anatomy or embryo other than what's in First Aid. FA is probably enough for Micro and Pharm as well, though I also used the PharmCards and a couple of review books for questions. First Aid does NOT have enough Biochem and Mol Bio, but Lippincotts' and BRS are both too much...High Yield Biochem may be a nice compromise (I didn't use it personally though.) For behavioral science, I just did the questions in Fadem's BRS book, which was plenty.
Above all, get enough sleep the night before. If you can tolerate Benadryl without getting too groggy the next day, fine, but if not, get a 1-time prescription for Ambien (just try it once or twice before your test night to make sure you don't have unpleasant side effects or anything).