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

It's been a while...

It's been a pretty crazy past month and a half or so! Block 3 ended up going well, block 4 seemed to go alright until I got my phys grade back and it was my lowest test score here at AUC by 20%! It sucks when you drop 11% in a class simply because of one poorly written test. Oh well. The same thing happens as always when it comes to finals....i'm burnt out! I try and study because it is usually the difference between deans list and missing it but everyone, including myself, just get too burnt out to really care anymore. I did what I could and ended up doing pretty well on all my finals...in fact I got the same grade for all three of them! I THINK it'll be enough for deans list but it's going to be pretty close! All in all i'm glad 3rd semester is over with! I really liked 3rd semester, at least content wise, but the amount of information was ridiculous at times. I can't believe it's been just under 1 year that i've been on this island...crazy really. My family was down for the past week which was fun and now I have another 8 days or so before school kicks back up....breaks go by soooo fast!

I'm going to try and really start my Step 1 prep this semester so by the time i start 5th sem I will be through FA once, through the Kaplan Qbank for the classes im done with, and hopefully ID some of my weak parts. I'll probably try and set up a schedule in the next few days, maybe ill post it up if there is anyone who actually reads this lol


Cheers

Odds and ends

As of a few days ago a bunch of my ICM equipment came in. It's good to have it, but a little weird too. Well, first it's weird because I really don't need any of this stuff until 2nd semester, however, I'm not planning on coming back to the states in between 1st and 2nd semester so I figured I'd rather pack it with me now than worry about shipping it all to SXM. It's also a little weird because the whole med school thing is kind of sinking in now. Only a month and a half away....crazy.

Another thing I jumped the gun about....step 1 prep! I picked up with 2010 First Aid book last week as well in my big med school buying frenzy and decided to make it my own yesterday. I had heard that it's nice to be able to add in your own pages and write all over it as you go through basic sciences so I did a little chop shop work on my copy. I decided to take it to Staples and have them remove the binding, I three whole punched everything, and then threw it in a big ol binder. Hopefully this will work out as I envision it......

I think that's all for now on the whole med school tip....

Noxolo