Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Final post

So it's been a few months and now I bring about my last post for this blog.

Since I left the island back in december I took a few weeks off and then studied for a solid 6 weeks for Step 1. I took it Feb 23rd and got my score back today! It's a good feeling to wrap up basic sciences and I am more than ready for clinicals to start. I still don't know where I'm going to end up but hopefully I'll find that out in the next few days.

I figured I would give a little run through of my step studying just incase anyone actually reads this.

I started out and did Pathoma, then read through Goljan rapid review path and listened to his audio sporadically throughout the 6 weeks. My weak areas were micro and biochem so I did those subjects out of the kaplan books along with immuno and pharm as well just to brush up. Next, I went through the entire First Aid Cases book. I thought it was a great resource and could really help you connect dots if you were willing to put in the time to think while you read. Finally, I did First Aid cover to cover twice over the last 2 weeks. Then 3 days before the test I reviewed some high yield biochem and micro, two days before I read through the entire pathoma book again, and finally the last day I relaxed and did NOTHING!

All in all I couldn't imagine studying any longer and highly recommend taking the test sooner than later (pending you feel prepared).

As for Qbanks....I started Kaplan Q bank during 2nd semester and finished it completely during 5th semester. Then I started UW Qbank and did the entire Qbank TWICE before the test. A majority of the Qs were during my 6 weeks of studying. I also used the FA Qbook for a few hundred Qs.

I believe doing Qs is the single best prep for STEP and will continue to stand behind that. Between comps, NBMEs, Qbanks, online and book Qs I ended up doing 12,586 practice Qs. Originally my goal was 10,000. People may think you're crazy but it was worth it.

I also recommend doing the UW Self assessments and the NBMEs while using test like conditions starting 6 weeks out.

My results were as follows:
UWSA 1: 234 6 weeks out
UWSA 2: 240 5 weeks out
NBME 6: 224 4 weeks out
NBME 7: 224 3 weeks out
NBME 11: 231 2 weeks out
NBME 12: 235 1 week out

I finished the Kaplan Q bank with a 58% average, UW first time through= 63% and UW second time through=80%

I'm pleased to say I am quite happy with my score and the way it all turned out.

The only must have resources for step in my opinion are First Aid, Pathoma and UWorld Q bank. Although I highly recommend goljan rapid review path, FA cases and kaplan for pharm, biochem, immuno and micro.

It is a very stressful time and no one really understands unless they've been through it but if you study hard and efficiently there is no reason why anyone can't reach their (realistic) goal on Step 1.

If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me an email: brink127@gmail.com

Noxolo