Usmle Step 1 513x2v

INFORMATIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

USMLE

STEP 1 Karimul Islam Rafi AFMC 16 USMLE (STEP 1) VICE PRESIDENT , AFMC CARNIVAL CLUB BATCH REPRESENTATIVE , AFMC PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB

Resources : BOOKS & VIDEOS Must do Kaplan (videos+ notes)

May do BRS Physiology

First Aid for step 1

BRS Gross anatomy

Pathoma (videos + notes)

BRS Behavioral science

100 cases of medical ethics

High yield Neuroanatomy

Uworld biostat review

High yield Cell biology

High yield Gross anatomy Anatomy Shelf Note MR Biostat review

 DO CT+MRI+CROSS SECTIONS FROM BRS GROSS ANATOMY & HY NEUROANATOMY

OTHER RESOURCES  FACEBOOK : USMLE Step 1 Forum(300k + ) -Whenever you have questions during reading FA or other material search in group using keywords . This is gem.  WHATSAPP Study Group  WIKIPEDIA  ANKIDROID  YOUTUBE CHANNEL ( HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL,LECTERIO,FIRECRACKERS,STRONG MEDICINE,STOMP ON STEP 1,THE PATH TO MEDICINE,USMLE FASTTRACK,ANATOMY ZONE,DR SHARIFUL HALIM,BOARDS & BEYONDS,OSMOSIS,DIRTY USMLE )  WEBSITES : - easyauscultation.com( heart and lung sound ) , medworld.pk(free uworld online practice version- 2016), startradiology.com .

QUESTION BANK MUST DO UWORLD

MAY DO KAPLAN PASTEST USMLE USMLE RX

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TO BUY UWORLD ONLINE , GO TO WWW.UWORLD.COM

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TO USE IT OFFLINE , IT FROM USMLE STEP 1 FORUM IN FB ( THIS IS ILLEGAL ) OR GO TO MEDWORLD.PK ( 2016 VERSION )

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DO ATLEAST 2 QBANKS . I WOULD RECOMMEND USMLE RX . YOU CAN BUY IT ONLINE OR PDF FROM FB GROUP , WHICH IS ILLEGAL .

HOW TO SOLVE QUESTIONS

 FIRST READ THE LAST LINE OF QUESTION  THEN QUICKLY LOOK OVER VITALS , ELECTROLYTE LEVELS

 NOW YOU ARE READY TO READ THE ACTUAL QUESTION STEM  NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU STUDY , YOU WILL ALWAYS FACE ATLEAST 50-60 QUESTIONS IN EXAM THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW THE DEFINITE ANSWER . YOU MUST SOLVE THEM BY USING METHOD OF EXCLUSION . ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUT FEELINGS .

REGISTRATION  REQUIREMENTS

- YOU HAVE TO BE A 5TH YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT TO TAKE STEP 1 - YOUR INSTITUTION MUST BE INCLUDED IN “ WORLD DIRECTORY OF MEDICAL SCHOOLS”

 PROCESS

- GO TO WWW.ECFMG.ORG . OPEN AN WHICH WILL COST 75 DOLLAR . THEN YOU HAVE TO

FOR EXAM , THEY WILL GIVE YOU FORM 186 ( GRADUATE) OR 183 (STUDENT) . FILL IT , GET IT SIGNED BY COLLEGE AUTHORITY AND MAIL IT USA - CHECK OASIS REGULARLY TO FIND OUT YOUR REGISTRATION STATUS

 COST - I SPENT AROUND 1400 DOLLAR WHICH IS THE LEAST AMOUNT ONE MUST SPEND . IT INCLUDES REGISTRATION FEE , PROMETRIC CENTRE FEE , BOOKS , QBANKS , ETC  TRIAD SELECTION - AFTER REGISTRATION THEY WILL LET YOU CHOOSE A 3 MONTH PERIOD DURING WHICH YOU CAN TAKE THE EXAM ANY DAY . IF YOU WANT , YOU CAN EXTEND YOUR PREPARATION TIME FOR ANOTHER 3 MONTHS BY PAYING SOME EXTRA MONEY

DEDICATED STUDY PERIOD ‘WILL YOU LET YOUR PATIENTS DIE JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE TIRED & DISTRACTED?’

 DO NOT BURN OUT YOURSELF . TAKE BREAK WHEN YOU ARE EXHAUSTED  DO NOT TALK WITH NEGATIVE MINDED PEOPLE  TRY TO UNDERSTAND . IF YOU ARE GOOD AT MEMORIZATION IT MAY HELP FOR SOME QUESTIONS BUT IN THE LONG RUN YOU WILL BE THE SUFFERER

MOCK TEST/NBME  WHEN TO TAKE – AFTER ONE COMPLETE READING OF YOUR STUDY MATERIAL  WHICH ONE TO TAKE - TAKE NBME 12 OR 16 FIRST . LEAVE NBME 18 FOR LAST WEEK OF PREP . DO NOT READ ANY NBME QUESTIONS IN ANY GROUP UNLESS YOU ALREADY TOOK IT  COST – 60 DOLLARS EACH  SIGNIFICANCE - IT WILL SHOW YOUR WEAK AREAS  HOW TO IMPROVE SCORE - READ THOSE WEAK AREAS FROM FA OR OTHER REVIEW BOOKS PROPERLY AGAIN AND TAKE ANOTHER NBME . YOU SHOULD DO NBME 16 , 17 , 18 AND 19 ONLINE. I DID ONLY NBME 16 AND 18 ONLINE THOUGH  WHAT TO DO BEFORE TAKING NBME - READ RAPID REVIEW SECTION FROM FA , REVIEW ALL FORMULA . TUNE YOUR BRAIN BEFORE EXAM BY MUSIC OR SOLVING RANDOM QUESTIONS FROM UWORLD

MY NBME SCORE REPORTS ARE SHOWN IN NEXT 2 SLIDE FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING . FIRST ONE IS NBME 16 ( SCORE244), NEXT ONE IS NBME 18 ( SCORE-260 ) . I STUDIED FOR 1 MONTH SERIOUSLY AFTER NBME 16 AND WORKED ON MY WEAK AREAS , THEN I TOOK NBME 18.STAR ON RIGHT SIDE MEANS YOUR SCORE IS OUTSTANDING IN THAT AREA . BORDERLINE OR LOWER PERFORMANCE MEANS YOU NEED TO WORK ON THAT AREA .

HOW TO PREPARE FOR DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS CT SCAN/ MRI/ ECG/ EEG /XRAY – TRY TO ATTEND COURSES BY MEDISCHOOL AND AXIS MEDICAL SCHOOL BUT IF NOT POSSIBLE DO NOT WORRY . IT IS COVERED IN FA ND UWORLD . YOU CAN USE YOUTUBE ALSO HEART SOUND – EASYAUSCALTATION.COM LUNG SOUND - EASYAUSCALTATION.COM

EXAM DAY  MAKE SURE YOU SLEPT ATLEAST 6 HOURS THE NIGHT BEFORE YOUR EXAM  JUST RELAX . YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE EVERYTHING POSSIBLE  TAKE ENOUGH FOOD , COFFE AND ONE TIME GLASSES  TAKE BREAK WHENEVER YOU FEEL LIKE BUT ALWAYS AT THE END OF A BLOCK  MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE IN THE CENTRE, PROMETRIC STAFFS ARE EXTREMELY HELPFUL  TRY TO WEAR POCKETLESS DRESS . IT WILL REDUCE THE TIME SPEND IN SECURITY CHECK .TRUST ME THIS IS IMPOTANT  WATCH TUOTORIAL AND SOLVE FREE 120 QUESTIONS FROM WWW.USMLE.ORG THE DAY BEFORE EXAM . SKIP TUTORIAL AT THE BEGINNING OF EXAM , THIS WILL GIVE YOU EXTRA 15 MINUTES BREAK

USMLE STEP 1 EXPERINCES

MASUM RAHMAN JALALABAD RAGIB RABEYA MEDICAL COLLEGE MBBS USMLE ( STEP 1) RESEARCH TRAINEE , MAYO CLINIC , USA • USMLE Step 1 experience • I am a graduate from Bangladesh

• Target : 240plus Actual score : 242 Preparation time : dedicated study from November 2016 to july 2017. But had pre exposure with Goljan , Kaplan and medical text books like Guyton, Robins pathology, Davidson etc from 3rd year of medical school. • Reading text books helped me a lot I think , but it is not mandatory KAPLAN is more than enough for basic conception.

• Materials I used : Kaplan viedo plus texts for all subjects except patho, for patho I used Pathoma ( video plus text ), 100 cases of ethics, BRS physiology, UWORLD offline once, UWORLD online once, NBME . NBME scores: did 5 online nbme 1.NBME 16 : 228 2.NBME 17: 225 3.NBME15 : 232 4. NBME 18 : 242 5. NBME 19 : 234 UWSA1: 247 UWSA2 : 245

• About the exam day , 1.I didn’t feel any anxiety , it helped me a lot 2. Questions pattern were more like UW 3. Some question were very confusing 4. I ANSWERED most of the questions by exclusion method 5. there were 3 CT scan, 3 ECG, 2 heart sound and lot of picture and upcrease downcrease questions 6. I think from subjects the questions were very straight forward and doable question, Anatomy, Micro, Pharma . 7. I felt some difficulties due to memorization problem specially in pharma and micro. 8. Understanding the question SCENERIO is very much important, UW can help u at this point, all questions have clues , but u have to identify them wisely I think. 9.I skipped some tough questions very quickly thats why I could invest those extra time on other questions. 10. Breaks : first 3 blocks in a row > break> 2blocks > break >1 block > break > last block • Some mistakes that I should not have done during my preparation course 1.I did not completed UW online , around 200 question were left when I appeared on exam 2. I did not review all wrong UW online questions 3. I did not read or search the explanations of NBME questions eve NBME 18,19 4. I did not read UWSA questions with explanations 5. I did not review pathoma prior exam again

• My recommendations for future test takers 1.Do Kaplan videos and text if u think u have basic concept deficiency 2.Must do pathoma video plus text again and again 3.Emphasize enough on UW, invest your at least 70% time of preparation on read 4.Dont be panic with FA , u always feel like ur preparation is not complete , u r forgetting all stuffs 5. don’t read the FA alone, do it with uw. 6. don’t over think anything , uw concepts only is more than enough , there are so many things that question may arise about the explanation , but u don’t have to learn more than what is described in uw 7. limit your resources , if u can do this u can invest more time on uw which is required. 8. We have to understand and also review it again and again, in a word repeation is the key. • In Sha Allah every one will do good..

MY EXPERIENCE • I have full respect for traditional preparation system but this post is for people who always do things differently. Some of u guys may know me as "Raf Sum". Aomine Daiki brother thank you for that at last moment. I was freaked out 5 days before my exam as i got 261 in nbme 18. Do not get me wrong, i just read basic science portion of FA(except micro patho)& neuro+cardio from organ system . Basically 2/3 of FA pages i never opened. I actually dont care if you believe me or not, this guy told me- you will be fine brother , trust your Score". Masum Rahman vai also told me I WIll be fine , he was my mentor during whole prep. Then i took the test & got this. Now i realize why those who scored higher always said- This is not about how many times you revise FA . This is about you. How u see things , how u analyze thigs“ • Let me introduce myself, I am a 5th year student From Armed Forces Medical College, Bangladesh. I'll simply write my resources & nbme scores & my opinion why i got this score. I started preparing by reading posts of people who got more than 260.My target was around that . I bought all books used by them & studied..

• Time: 9 month, dedicated period- 6/7 month Resources: Kaplan videos(except micro,patho) Uworld offline followed by online during last month( i did 10 block a day to build my stamina.Didnt bother to take notes anywhere from uworld. Just wrote the page number of offline uworld which i got wrong or didnt knew before & revised them during last month of prep. This was a lifesaver) • Pathoma(video 1 times+ book 3 times, this is an amazing book. If u're from subcontinent like me, Dr hussain sattar will make your life so much betterStart prep with one & u'll have more confidence during rest of the prep) • First Aid- 1 time(Just basic science portion except micro patho, Neurology,cardiology) • Brs- physio,behavioral science,gross anatomy High yield -cell biology,neuroanatomy,gross anatomy Anatomy shelf note Uw biostat review 100 cases of ethics Cardiology notes made by a guy from group,i loved that note( he compiled uw+FA) • Qbank : • Uworld Pastest Usmle Usmle rx

• Most important resource : ANKIDROID ( BROSENCEPHALON DECK)

• NBME score : Nbme 1- 176( out 280,offline,December 22) Nbme 12- 239 ( offline april 25) Nbme 16-244 ( Online, may 25) NBME 18 - 260 (Online, june 21) other nbme'a were around 250,cant exactly • Real deal : 255 • Suggestion : Always study in your own pace. I cant follow routine . Someday studied for 16/17 hours , someday 1/2 hours. But i made sure to study every single day • Whenever u got a question during reading, first search in the group using a keyword. , a lot of people ed this exam, they had same questions. You never know what amazing information u will find there .Keep digging until you are satisfied

• Don't rush, i think i got less than my NBME because of that,i still had 33 minutes break time when i left prometric • Best of luck everyone