03-27-2007, 10:25 AM
I have been a silent observer, but I have learned a lot from this forum. I hope my experience might be somewhat helpful.
I took the exam on Feb. 27 and got my socre on Mar. 24. 225/94. Not a stellar score, but I am more than happy. I graduated in 1994. I wasn't interested in practising medicine at that time, so I went to research. I got my Ph.D. in 2003 and did several years' postdoc after that. And then I just lost motivation in pursing research. You see, it took me more than ten years to decide to go back to medicine. I have been studying on and off for six months. The last two months was pretty intense. I have a full-time teaching job in an undergraduate college, so I couldn't take any time off before the exam.
Material I used: First Aid (did four times, the last reading was done one hour before the exam), Goljan Path Audio (twice), and USMLEWORLD (55%). Didn't do Kaplan Notes or qbank. Didn't do NBME online. Did the downloaded NBME 3 a week before the exam: 41/36/38/42 and had no idea where I stood and went for the exam anyway, since my extended eligibility period ended in Feb.
All the subjects were evenly distributed in my exam. 1/3 of the questions are straightforward. 1/3 are twisted and require logical thinking. Rest of the questions are difficult and long, very much like those hard ones on USMLEWORLD. Over 2/3 of the questions can be answered if you know FA well. So my suggestion is do FA at least 4 times and try to remember every word. Since I didn't do Kaplan qbank, I cannot compare it with UW. But I do think UW is a very good learning tool and explains the concepts very well, even though the score can be depressing.
Even though understanding concepts is extremely important, please do not overlook details, which are heavily tested in my exam. Again FA, FA, FA...
I will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Best wishes for all of you! If I can do it, you will definitely do better.
I took the exam on Feb. 27 and got my socre on Mar. 24. 225/94. Not a stellar score, but I am more than happy. I graduated in 1994. I wasn't interested in practising medicine at that time, so I went to research. I got my Ph.D. in 2003 and did several years' postdoc after that. And then I just lost motivation in pursing research. You see, it took me more than ten years to decide to go back to medicine. I have been studying on and off for six months. The last two months was pretty intense. I have a full-time teaching job in an undergraduate college, so I couldn't take any time off before the exam.
Material I used: First Aid (did four times, the last reading was done one hour before the exam), Goljan Path Audio (twice), and USMLEWORLD (55%). Didn't do Kaplan Notes or qbank. Didn't do NBME online. Did the downloaded NBME 3 a week before the exam: 41/36/38/42 and had no idea where I stood and went for the exam anyway, since my extended eligibility period ended in Feb.
All the subjects were evenly distributed in my exam. 1/3 of the questions are straightforward. 1/3 are twisted and require logical thinking. Rest of the questions are difficult and long, very much like those hard ones on USMLEWORLD. Over 2/3 of the questions can be answered if you know FA well. So my suggestion is do FA at least 4 times and try to remember every word. Since I didn't do Kaplan qbank, I cannot compare it with UW. But I do think UW is a very good learning tool and explains the concepts very well, even though the score can be depressing.
Even though understanding concepts is extremely important, please do not overlook details, which are heavily tested in my exam. Again FA, FA, FA...
I will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Best wishes for all of you! If I can do it, you will definitely do better.