12-30-2009, 10:51 PM
Hi guys...
I'm done with step1 today Alhamdulillaah. Still in denial
Can't believe it's finally over...this monster that's been haunting me for the past 2 years, but today I felt that it's more of a 'Casper - the friendly ghost' than a demonic ghoul.
Just one piece of sincere advice: know ur concepts, the stuff in Kaplan and Goljan is ENOUGH! and yes, the NBMEs are a good indictaor of how the exam questions are written. I don't think there was one thing on my exam today that was really wierd or strange. Yes, there were a few questions where I had to choose between two answers, but no matter how hard you study, or for how long, you will never know definitely what the answer is for these kind of questions.
my experience:
Last night, I went out with my husband and kid to do what i love doing - shopping!
Went to bed at 11:30. My kid woke me up at 4:30, and then I just couldn't sleep cz of the jitters. I got up, got ready, prayed, wore something that looked good and felt comfortable (that's important for me..to feel good too..I know some people are ok with the Tom Hanks look from 'Castaway', but different strokes for different folks..) Had a bowl of cereal, got my daughter ready and we left for the centre at 6.45.
got there around 7.30, but they wouldn't let me in till 8. I sat down outside the door and went over a few things in FA. By the time i signed in and started, it was exactly 8.30 and started the first block.... a few of the questions, i looked at, and went 'what!!!! are you kidding me!? that's a no-brainer'...i was genuinely surprised...they were at a level you would find in an inaginary NBME form 0.5 - yes, twice as easy as form1. It made me feel good and confident...i flagged around 5 questions, and after finishing all 48, revised the flagged, and the rest, and still had 10 minutes left, and i took a break. (yes! the questions were NOT a mile long. they were NBME length)
block 2 and 3 were the same way...just a couple of questions that looked long, but the length was mainly due to the lab values listed one below the other....took atleast a 5 min break after each block, esp since I had 5-10 min left at the end of each of these blocks...
overall, for blocks 1 thru 3, i was unsure about the answer for maybe 5-6 questions max.
then, along came the spider...block 4...here's when things started to get a leeeetle tricky, but not too tricky...it was kinda mixed...i flagged around 10 questions..after i went over all the questions again, i had maybe a couple of mins left. took a break for lunch and to call up home and my parents (who were in a different time zone and hadn't slept all night bcz they were worried about my exam....thank God for parents.. ) and told them to relax and that all was well, and to keep praying...
blocks 5,6,7....yes, kinda tough..flagged 12-13 each block....had time to go over all answers again, but no time left over after that...kept breaking after each block...5 min atleast.
Take home points:
* DON'T BE SCARED!!!!!!
* All u need to know is covered in Kaplan/FA/UW
* I didn't get any strange new names/drugs from a galaxy far far away...
* Question pattern correlates closely with NBME
* I didn't get a single question/slide from the NBMEs
* if asked to compare my sections 1-7, i would compare them directly, and in that order to NBME 1-7
* I didn't get a single graph/curve that was too screwed up to figure out
* Got a few heart-sound clips...yes, they were a little tricky...i suggest you go over them once..
* most slides were ok, but sometimes, no matter how u look at it, u can't figure out what they want u to see...relax, u'll probably figure out the answer from the stem
* READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY ( it is why i make mistakes usually...right from kindergarten i hated revising my answers once i was done, but I tried doing it for these tests, and it helps... )
If u can: TAKE A PRACTICE TEST AT THE PROMETRIC CENTRE.....IT MADE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE TO ME WHEN IT CAME TO ANXIETY LEVELS...( initially I thought i wouldn't want to waste any more money on this exam, but my parents suggested it strongly, and I'm glad I listened. The first time i went, i was such a wreck, that i gave the proctor the wrong permit,and was so crazy, I dodn't realize till 2 days later that I had the correct permit in my bag, and then I called Prometric again, and requested to let me re-schedule...yes, I had to call them up like a zillion times to get it processed, but let me take it...imagine if that had happened today!!! :O ) IF U CAN'T/DON'T WANT TO, ATLEAST VISIT THE PLACE ONCE, TALK TO THE STAFF, LOOK AROUND AND GET A FEEL OF THE PLACE....
* Use your mature defense mechanisms - REPRESS!!!!! don't let your anxiety get your goat..... I wouldn't even let my husband mention the test, or anything related since yesterday....
* Take whatever you want, have options so that u can eat/drink what you want to. I don't drink tea/coffee, unless I need to stay awake for an exam... I took a can of 'Starbucks Espresso doubleshot + energy'.....just drank a few sips coz i was feeling a little tired after block3.... i don't know if that worked, or it was just the adrenaline...but i was okay.
* don't stress yourself out.....for the first time, I actually sat and answered questions for 8 hours straight without feeling mentally fatigued, even though I'm the kind of person who needs a break and gets distracted every 10 mins.....what's done is done!
now u probably think my test was very easy...no! I know I might have screwed up a few things and ofcourse got some wrong, but no use worrying about it now...
* If I had studied VERRRRYYYYYYYY HARD...... I probably would have been correct/sure about maybe 3/4 more answers...that's it....like i said, for all the others, no matter how long/how hard you've studied...u will never be sure
....so my honest advice: Don't worry about the nittygritty...know ur concepts, just make sure you are able to understand what the question asks you, assess yourself using the NBMEs...this exam isn't for super-geeks or super-nerds with a IQ of 160, it's for the common masses....US.....
* NO, I didn't get crazy/wierd questions from Immuno/Biochem/Molecular Biology/Biostat/Genetics....very basic stuff
* NO, will not discuss specific exam content.
*YES, if you're a girl, you can cook, clean, wash dishes, get a dose of your daily soap-opera, get up every 10 minutes to attend to your kids, deal with your spouses/in-laws/friends....and still take the exam....yes, it takes us a little more time, but hey...I'm all for girl-power....we can be jack-of-all trades, so don't fret..God is with us...
and THANKYOU all the wonderful people from the forum.....esp okt3, super99 (i dunno where he disappeared to), dr.bkc, bilal, basicq, Fexo, nitya, usmlefocus, and everone else... and I'm sorry If I have ever been rude/incommunicado...never intentional...
....I just hope InshaAllah that my prayers, and those of family and friends get me a decent score, because I know I didn't work as hard as I should have or did justice to the faculties or intellect that God gave me to make good use of, so I just hope for His mercy and blessings...
I'll try and answer any other questions/doubts, as long as they don't pertain to specific exam content...
Thanks everyone and Good Luck...
I'm done with step1 today Alhamdulillaah. Still in denial
Can't believe it's finally over...this monster that's been haunting me for the past 2 years, but today I felt that it's more of a 'Casper - the friendly ghost' than a demonic ghoul.Just one piece of sincere advice: know ur concepts, the stuff in Kaplan and Goljan is ENOUGH! and yes, the NBMEs are a good indictaor of how the exam questions are written. I don't think there was one thing on my exam today that was really wierd or strange. Yes, there were a few questions where I had to choose between two answers, but no matter how hard you study, or for how long, you will never know definitely what the answer is for these kind of questions.
my experience:
Last night, I went out with my husband and kid to do what i love doing - shopping!
Went to bed at 11:30. My kid woke me up at 4:30, and then I just couldn't sleep cz of the jitters. I got up, got ready, prayed, wore something that looked good and felt comfortable (that's important for me..to feel good too..I know some people are ok with the Tom Hanks look from 'Castaway', but different strokes for different folks..) Had a bowl of cereal, got my daughter ready and we left for the centre at 6.45.
got there around 7.30, but they wouldn't let me in till 8. I sat down outside the door and went over a few things in FA. By the time i signed in and started, it was exactly 8.30 and started the first block.... a few of the questions, i looked at, and went 'what!!!! are you kidding me!? that's a no-brainer'...i was genuinely surprised...they were at a level you would find in an inaginary NBME form 0.5 - yes, twice as easy as form1. It made me feel good and confident...i flagged around 5 questions, and after finishing all 48, revised the flagged, and the rest, and still had 10 minutes left, and i took a break. (yes! the questions were NOT a mile long. they were NBME length)
block 2 and 3 were the same way...just a couple of questions that looked long, but the length was mainly due to the lab values listed one below the other....took atleast a 5 min break after each block, esp since I had 5-10 min left at the end of each of these blocks...
overall, for blocks 1 thru 3, i was unsure about the answer for maybe 5-6 questions max.
then, along came the spider...block 4...here's when things started to get a leeeetle tricky, but not too tricky...it was kinda mixed...i flagged around 10 questions..after i went over all the questions again, i had maybe a couple of mins left. took a break for lunch and to call up home and my parents (who were in a different time zone and hadn't slept all night bcz they were worried about my exam....thank God for parents..
) and told them to relax and that all was well, and to keep praying...blocks 5,6,7....yes, kinda tough..flagged 12-13 each block....had time to go over all answers again, but no time left over after that...kept breaking after each block...5 min atleast.
Take home points:
* DON'T BE SCARED!!!!!!
* All u need to know is covered in Kaplan/FA/UW
* I didn't get any strange new names/drugs from a galaxy far far away...
* Question pattern correlates closely with NBME
* I didn't get a single question/slide from the NBMEs
* if asked to compare my sections 1-7, i would compare them directly, and in that order to NBME 1-7
* I didn't get a single graph/curve that was too screwed up to figure out
* Got a few heart-sound clips...yes, they were a little tricky...i suggest you go over them once..
* most slides were ok, but sometimes, no matter how u look at it, u can't figure out what they want u to see...relax, u'll probably figure out the answer from the stem
* READ THE QUESTION CAREFULLY ( it is why i make mistakes usually...right from kindergarten i hated revising my answers once i was done, but I tried doing it for these tests, and it helps... )
If u can: TAKE A PRACTICE TEST AT THE PROMETRIC CENTRE.....IT MADE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE TO ME WHEN IT CAME TO ANXIETY LEVELS...( initially I thought i wouldn't want to waste any more money on this exam, but my parents suggested it strongly, and I'm glad I listened. The first time i went, i was such a wreck, that i gave the proctor the wrong permit,and was so crazy, I dodn't realize till 2 days later that I had the correct permit in my bag, and then I called Prometric again, and requested to let me re-schedule...yes, I had to call them up like a zillion times to get it processed, but let me take it...imagine if that had happened today!!! :O ) IF U CAN'T/DON'T WANT TO, ATLEAST VISIT THE PLACE ONCE, TALK TO THE STAFF, LOOK AROUND AND GET A FEEL OF THE PLACE....
* Use your mature defense mechanisms - REPRESS!!!!! don't let your anxiety get your goat..... I wouldn't even let my husband mention the test, or anything related since yesterday....
* Take whatever you want, have options so that u can eat/drink what you want to. I don't drink tea/coffee, unless I need to stay awake for an exam... I took a can of 'Starbucks Espresso doubleshot + energy'.....just drank a few sips coz i was feeling a little tired after block3.... i don't know if that worked, or it was just the adrenaline...but i was okay.
* don't stress yourself out.....for the first time, I actually sat and answered questions for 8 hours straight without feeling mentally fatigued, even though I'm the kind of person who needs a break and gets distracted every 10 mins.....what's done is done!
now u probably think my test was very easy...no! I know I might have screwed up a few things and ofcourse got some wrong, but no use worrying about it now...
* If I had studied VERRRRYYYYYYYY HARD...... I probably would have been correct/sure about maybe 3/4 more answers...that's it....like i said, for all the others, no matter how long/how hard you've studied...u will never be sure
....so my honest advice: Don't worry about the nittygritty...know ur concepts, just make sure you are able to understand what the question asks you, assess yourself using the NBMEs...this exam isn't for super-geeks or super-nerds with a IQ of 160, it's for the common masses....US.....
* NO, I didn't get crazy/wierd questions from Immuno/Biochem/Molecular Biology/Biostat/Genetics....very basic stuff
* NO, will not discuss specific exam content.
*YES, if you're a girl, you can cook, clean, wash dishes, get a dose of your daily soap-opera, get up every 10 minutes to attend to your kids, deal with your spouses/in-laws/friends....and still take the exam....yes, it takes us a little more time, but hey...I'm all for girl-power....we can be jack-of-all trades, so don't fret..God is with us...
and THANKYOU all the wonderful people from the forum.....esp okt3, super99 (i dunno where he disappeared to), dr.bkc, bilal, basicq, Fexo, nitya, usmlefocus, and everone else... and I'm sorry If I have ever been rude/incommunicado...never intentional...
....I just hope InshaAllah that my prayers, and those of family and friends get me a decent score, because I know I didn't work as hard as I should have or did justice to the faculties or intellect that God gave me to make good use of, so I just hope for His mercy and blessings...
I'll try and answer any other questions/doubts, as long as they don't pertain to specific exam content...
Thanks everyone and Good Luck...