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

So long Saint Maarten

For the last 20 months I've called Saint Maarten my home away from home. Between moving to a new country where I knew no one and the rigors of med school it has been quite the experience. 3 days from now I will be back home in Minnesota and I couldn't be more excited. It's actually a really weird feeling. I'm excited to get home to the cold and see family for the holidays, but it's weird to think that I may never see people from my island family ever again.... Down here I have seen everyone in my class almost every single day for the greater part of 2 years, and now, I won't. You grow accustom to seeing the smiles and the nervous faces...and now...nothing. I can't imagine what people did without Skype/FB/email or any other sort of instant contact. I know i'll keep in contact with my good friends and a majority will drift but that's the nature of a situation when you put thousands of miles between people again; especially when everyone is busy studying for Step and during clinicals.

Top 3 things I will NOT miss about SXM:
1. Traffic: 1 island, 1 road, too many hours in traffic just to go to the grocery store.
2. Having to go to more than 1 store for random things....AKA no Target
3. Everything costs more $$!

3 things I'll miss:
1. The people....mostly friends from school, but also getting to be friends with your pizza guy or the ladies at the coffee shop. All in all it really is a friendly island and having friends or someone to cheer you up everyday made it all easier.
2. Friends that are like family...I really can't imagine going through these past 20 months without great friends.
3. The beaches, winters on the island and chatting up the tourists.

Alright, I'm going to try and finish up these last few days with some fun and goodbyes and call it a wrap. I'll try and keep blogging and maybe do a post about shelfs/NBME comps/kaplan comp and what I found worked for me in case anyone who is in basic sciences actually reads this.

Noxolo

Comp

Since I'm getting no studying done today I might as well post about something useful....comp. So at AUC we have to take and pass a comp which is a cumulative, standardized exam for all of basic sciences. It encompasses all disciplines and is a pretty big deal. In order to get off this island 5th semester we must pass a comp with a scaled score of 64. I feel like everyone always gets confused with the scoring but it really isn't too bad. The test is 4 blocks of 50 questions with 64 minutes per block. I thought our comp had a wide array of topics and really didn't focus too heavily on anything...which was a little surprising. This semester our average on the 1st comp was a 67 which is one of the higher first comp scores I believe. Thankfully I passed and am decently happy with my score.

In order to prep for comp I think it is important to start as soon as possible. I started doing questions during 2nd semester to stay on top of old material. I continued doing questions all the way up until comp. I think I've done somewhere between 4000 and 4500 questions between books and online Qbanks. Along with doing questions I also went through the entire Kaplan MedEssentials book, but I think doing a ton of questions was the single most important thing for me passing on my 1st attempt. As long as you use questions as a learning tool and not just an assessment of where you're at they can be a great prep tool.

I'm planning on taking the last comp on Dec 8th as well, hopefully by then I can be through first aid, rapid review path, and Pathoma but we'll see...I'd have to find a lot of motivation between now and then!

Noxolo

ugh

Serious amotivational syndrome going on right now....hopefully it will pick up soon. On the bright side we have no class tomorrow due to Saint Maarten day and then wine and cheese is on saturday. Hopefully the weather will be nice and not too humid.

Noxolo

Serious countdown

As of today, I found out I passed the first "comp" aka one step closer to getting off the rock and back to the states! Since my last post there has been lots of studying, a bunch of tests and then even more studying. We've had shelf after shelf after shelf (shelf tests are standardized tests that the NBME puts out to kind of see where everyone is sitting in the different subjects). So far i've been pretty pleased with how i've done given how much I've studied for certain aspects.

Also, I'm officially DONE with the basic science classes. We finished up Behavioral 2 and Pharm 2 last week and I couldn't be more happy. Just another thing to have finished.

I've also gone and finished 2 rotations. One in anesthesiology and one doing general surgery rounds. Both were good experiences and I learned a good amount from both.

It's weird thinking that I have a little over a month left here (fingers crossed). A few more tests and lots of studying still to do but 20 months is coming to a wrap.

Noxolo

blah blah blah

So over classes....thankfully we only have another 4 days of formal lectures. Seriously though, they can't end soon enough. I'm trying to get back into studying for comp on top of classes and it's going alright. I'm actually a pretty big fan of step studying so far since it's nice to review and make more connections.

As per usual SXM is pretty nice. It's still pretty warm during the day but has started to cool down at night. Hopefully the humidity will leave for the season soon!

Back at it

oops

So it has been quite a while since i've last posted, sorry for that. I've been back at school for a little over a month now and time is flying by as usual. Being that it is 5th semester our schedule is different than the rest of the students in basic sciences. We now have only 2 blocks, we have ICM the whole semester and now we have ICM in the morning and classes in the afternoon. I'm not a huge fan of the change in class time. By the time we have class I'm usually ready to take some time and relax, oh well. We had our first block for pharm 2 and behavioral 2 last week...everything went fine and i'm looking forward to finishing up classes so I can just study for the comp.

Now that my hectic week last week is done maybe i'll try and get on and post some more. Although between class, ICM, planning the 5th semester party, the Biochem Shelf, and a Harvey review it is looking like another busy week.

Noxolo