USMLE tips/advice/experiences wanted!

Biologic

roro1neil0 wrote: »

basically what i'm getting at is you're saying 230+ is very doable in 10 weeks but you're obviously one of the cleverest in your class so it might be considerably easier for you than some random gamsatter

Just as a follow up to this, I got my 230+ in less than 10 weeks. Not bad for some random gamsatter.
All in all, it's a horrible exam. Doable just after the preclinical years of the Irish curriculum, but requires a lot of work. IMO, the essential resources are First Aid and UWorld Qbank. I think it would be a horrible idea to attempt the exam without having used those. The other resources I really recommend are Pathoma and BRS Physiology. Pathoma is a largely unknown pathology book with online supportive video lectures. I used this throughout the term and was scoring very highly in path on UWorld and practice exams even before I started my Summer prep. BRS is a bit intimidating at first, but very USMLE focused and well worth the time. Physiology went from being one of my worst subjects to being one of my best. I still use both of those books this year too.
Goljan's audio and Kaplan QBank were ok. The audio had a lot of fluff in between the content, and the QBank was detailed to the point of irrelevant.

The stuff I wouldn't use again: Goljan's Rapid Review Pathology and First Aid Q&A book. Goljan's was just too detailed. I'm sure it's great if you have the time, but I didn't. First Aid Q&A was really easy and could lure you into a false sense of security.
Lastly, I think the Doctors in Training videos were very good, but mind numbingly boring. If I could go back, I'd only use them for the sections of First Aid that I felt were poorly explained (biochem for me).

mardybumbum

Biologic wrote: »

Just as a follow up to this, I got my 230+ in less than 10 weeks. Not bad for some random gamsatter.
All in all, it's a horrible exam. Doable just after the preclinical years of the Irish curriculum, but requires a lot of work. IMO, the essential resources are First Aid and UWorld Qbank. I think it would be a horrible idea to attempt the exam without having used those. The other resources I really recommend are Pathoma and BRS Physiology. Pathoma is a largely unknown pathology book with online supportive video lectures. I used this throughout the term and was scoring very highly in path on UWorld and practice exams even before I started my Summer prep. BRS is a bit intimidating at first, but very USMLE focused and well worth the time. Physiology went from being one of my worst subjects to being one of my best. I still use both of those books this year too.
Goljan's audio and Kaplan QBank were ok. The audio had a lot of fluff in between the content, and the QBank was detailed to the point of irrelevant.

The stuff I wouldn't use again: Goljan's Rapid Review Pathology and First Aid Q&A book. Goljan's was just too detailed. I'm sure it's great if you have the time, but I didn't. First Aid Q&A was really easy and could lure you into a false sense of security.
Lastly, I think the Doctors in Training videos were very good, but mind numbingly boring. If I could go back, I'd only use them for the sections of First Aid that I felt were poorly explained (biochem for me).

Congrats Biologic. That's really impressive.

Anthony16

Congrats.
May i just ask for those of u who got ridiculously high scores (like biologic) ,do u need to be in the top of the class at med school to be capable of this.
Also,when u say u studied for 10 weeks is this 10 hours a day 6 days a week kinda stuff?
Im not a med student,btw

Biologic wrote: »

Just as a follow up to this, I got my 230+ in less than 10 weeks. Not bad for some random gamsatter.
All in all, it's a horrible exam. Doable just after the preclinical years of the Irish curriculum, but requires a lot of work. IMO, the essential resources are First Aid and UWorld Qbank. I think it would be a horrible idea to attempt the exam without having used those. The other resources I really recommend are Pathoma and BRS Physiology. Pathoma is a largely unknown pathology book with online supportive video lectures. I used this throughout the term and was scoring very highly in path on UWorld and practice exams even before I started my Summer prep. BRS is a bit intimidating at first, but very USMLE focused and well worth the time. Physiology went from being one of my worst subjects to being one of my best. I still use both of those books this year too.
Goljan's audio and Kaplan QBank were ok. The audio had a lot of fluff in between the content, and the QBank was detailed to the point of irrelevant.

The stuff I wouldn't use again: Goljan's Rapid Review Pathology and First Aid Q&A book. Goljan's was just too detailed. I'm sure it's great if you have the time, but I didn't. First Aid Q&A was really easy and could lure you into a false sense of security.
Lastly, I think the Doctors in Training videos were very good, but mind numbingly boring. If I could go back, I'd only use them for the sections of First Aid that I felt were poorly explained (biochem for me).

Biologic

Anthony16 wrote: »

Congrats.
May i just ask for those of u who got ridiculously high scores (like biologic) ,do u need to be in the top of the class at med school to be capable of this.
Also,when u say u studied for 10 weeks is this 10 hours a day 6 days a week kinda stuff?
Im not a med student,btw

Anthony16 wrote: »

Congrats.
May i just ask for those of u who got ridiculously high scores (like biologic) ,do u need to be in the top of the class at med school to be capable of this.
Also,when u say u studied for 10 weeks is this 10 hours a day 6 days a week kinda stuff?
Im not a med student,btw

Hi Anthony,
Sorry, I just saw this now. Hopefully it's still helpful. I'm certainly not top of my class, but I wouldn't say I'm near the bottom either. The exam isn't overly difficult but there is a huge amount of information to get through. I'd say the majority of people in medical school are smart enough for it, so the biggest variable is the amount of work they put into their prep.
The 10 weeks was pretty intense. I had a family wedding the first week so that was 2 days gone, but apart from that it was roughly this:

• Up at about 10am for breakfast in front of BBC News
• 10:30-1:30pm: do a block of 46 sample questions and review all the explanations. Almost invariably took me 3 hours to do right.
• 1:30-2pm bus into the college library while listening to an audio review.
• 2-8pm: New material for that day, be it pathology or pharmacology etc. There'd be a burrito in there somewhere too.
• 8-10pm: Mc DonaldsCafe or Starbucks to review stuff I already learned with a coffee.
• 10pm-2am: Head home, do another block of sample questions. Bed. Repeat.

Almost every day was the same as that. 7 days a week, with maybe an earlier finish (7/8pm) on Sundays. If I felt myself plateau I'd just take an entire day off, but that only happened maybe 3 times. Really sh*tty few months actually, and from talking to other classmates on gchat at the time, we were all in the same boat. I was relatively lucky in that almost everyone I knew was away for the Summer, so minimal interruptions.
For anyone reading this with the step on front of them this Summer, the biggest mistake people in my class made was setting an inappropriate date. If you give yourself too much time (say 13 weeks), you'll hit a wall and start losing information quicker than you gain it. If you don't give yourself enough time obviously you won't peak. The problem is that you will have to book your date well in advance because they tend to fill up quickly, so it's hard to know where you are. The NBME practice tests are good to keep track of your progress.
Another thing people tended to do was set a date into the following term (eg: "I'm starting with a GP rotation, I'll just use that as an extra 6 weeks"). This doesn't seem to have worked for anyone in my class. It obviously works for some people (Mardybumbum did outstandingly well and he took it during term), but the group that took it during term time in my class had a tougher time than those who took it in the Summer. Also, loads of people got caught in a cycle of constantly pushing it back because they never felt that the next rotation would be better for prep, and many still haven't taken it. That's a nightmare outcome because now we're all prepping for step 2.

Lastly, anyone have any tips for step 2?:(

Biologic

Me again. Step 2CK done. There's very little info on step 2CK on this forum, so I thought I'd do a quick run through. I'd rather not post my exact score because I'm weird like that, but it was 250+, which I couldn't be happier with.
Prep time: 3 or so weeks full time, another 3 or so weeks of (fatigued) night time study after a busy rotation.
Resources used: Just UWorld and Step 2CK Secrets. No practice tests due to lack of time. I did feel apprehensive going into the test with such a reliance on UWorld, but it proved to be up to the job. Just be careful to read every single answer explanation and note the stuff you don't know. By the end of UWorld, I had amassed a 35 page document of information I didn't know (which was useful and depressing in equal measures).
On the day, try not to let the test get the better of you. I thought it went kind of badly to be honest, but that's just the nature of the test. There seems to be a strange inverse correlation between how people think in went, and how it actually went. So don't dwell on gaps in your knowledge. Also, have a plan for your breaks. I started to feel completely brain dead toward the end. It's an hour longer than step 1, and it feels like more.

Biologic

I'm starting to feel lonely in this thread, but hopefully these updates will be useful to someone in the future.
Step 2 CS done and passed, which brings a welcome end to my USMLE journey. While it's fresh in my head, here's how step 2CS went down:
Apparently in the past few months they've increased the passing standard, so it's not as much of a walkover for Irish students. Some really competent people in my class stumbled on this step. It's still relatively easy because we're typically good at taking histories, performing exams and speaking English, but there's a few important differences. Firsly, they write their patient notes differently to us so it's worth familiarising yourself with their format. Secondly, the physical examination portion is very short, so there's no time for the usual Irish exam where you start by examining every crevice on the patient's hand. Go straight for the subcomponent of the exam you feel is needed. Lastly, they really love you to keep the patient in the loop. They expect you to periodically ask about patient concerns and expectations, and explain exactly what your plan/DDx is when you've finished with them.
I'll be honest, I studied about 3 hours for this exam. I just read the first 100 or so pages of first aid. It was enough to pass with some comfort margin, but I probably wouldn't recommend cutting it this close. I could have been caught out by another station or two and that would have scuppered my chances of matching this year entirely. Maybe spend 3 days or so going through cases with a study partner. Some people studied for 2 weeks which seems like total overkill. I won't go over the format of the exam et al, because it's on wikipedia and I'm not even sure if anyone will read this.

nomoreexams

haha don't feel lonely biologic - I need all the info for the future so really really appreciate the updates!

medic087

Hi Guys

I thought i'd try to get this thread going again with the summer coming up. Anyone else planning to sit step one in the next few months ? Just booked my test date for the end of august. Lots of great information in the thread already and hoping we could offer more advice/tips/study guides. It's going to be a long 11-12 weeks.

Dr Nic

So are you guys applying for residency in the states now or soon? Is that the plan?

Have you all or will you do intern first?
Done electives?
Im on elective right now and just have the nac osce left to sit in sept then i can apply for canadian residency in 2016. Ppl here are telling me the states is far more straight forward however but I've none of my exams done for there yet at all. And im also on a training scheme back home. Big decisions and just want tonsee what others are thinking...

Thanks guys

goldencrisp62

Dr Nic wrote: »

So are you guys applying for residency in the states now or soon? Is that the plan?

Have you all or will you do intern first?
Done electives?
Im on elective right now and just have the nac osce left to sit in sept then i can apply for canadian residency in 2016. Ppl here are telling me the states is far more straight forward however but I've none of my exams done for there yet at all. And im also on a training scheme back home. Big decisions and just want tonsee what others are thinking...

Thanks guys

Canada is very difficult.

Need to have citizenship and much less spots for IMG.

USA is fairly straightforward especially if you are irish.

Most hospitals apply a cut off of 3 years post grad, some will stretch to 5. so get on top of it quickly.

Your training here will help you a little over there, depending on what level you have gone to and what scheme you are on.