Missionary Orthopod in the Making

So I’ve finally calmed down about recieving my Step I score and all I can say is Thank you Jesus! Honestly, when I walked out of that stupid test I felt like I scored a 200 or a 217 because it seemed like I was guessing for many of the questions but it definitely worked out. It was funny because everyone actually thought that the scores would be out my midnight (Eastern Time) of the 15th, so when that time came the NBME site actually crashed because everyone was trying to log on, lol. When that turned out to be a big disappointment I went to bed not knowing when I would know how I did. At 8 a.m. n the 15th we have Grand Rounds which is basically a lecture made by some important person on some medical topic to almost everyone involved in Internal Medicine including the attendings, residents, medical students, and nurses. About 5 minutes into the lelcture I started to get really bored and I whipped out my iPhone to surf the internet, including StudentDoctor.net (SDN). When  I was on SDN I started to read reports of students saying that they got their Step 1 score so I hastiely started to check my score by logging onto the NBME site. When I tell you my heart was beating, it was truly truly truly about to rip through my ribcage and fly out of my chest as I was logging on. When I logged on I had to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see my scores and as I did my eyes started to bulge because I just couldn’t believe the score I was seeing. Some of my classmates saw the look on my face and asked me what happened. I mouthed to them that the Step I scores were up and all of them started to whip out their iPhones and BlackBerries and started to check their scores. Those that couldn’t access it on their phone acted like they had to use the bathroom but they really ran home to log onto their computer, lol. Either way it was a pretty great experience.

The score I got doesn’t guarantee my a spot in an residency…what it does is that it guarantees that at least I will get an interviewee which gets my foot in the door. Once I get an interview I believe that I can sell myself. The score I got is way above the average for general surgery and above the overage for orthopedic surgery. I still think that I am interested in these fields but to be honest I am not hating Internal Medicine either, so we will just have to see. Below is a little write up I made on how I studied for the test. If you want to see other people’s study plans then check out this thread http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=589961 :

My study plan was basically to use UsmleWorld as a study tool. So starting from the beginning of the school year, as my school was going through the different systems (cardio, neuro, etc.), I would be reading that section in First Aid and then doing all the questions on Cardio, or Neuro, etc. in UsmleWorld. I only did questions on tutor mode and whatever I didn’t know and wasn’t in First Aid, or that was explained better on World, I would type up and put in my unbound..3-hole punched copy of First Aid. The following are the list of resources that I used to study:

Question Bank: UsmleWorld QBank (only on tutor mode)
Microbiology: Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, UWorld Micro questions, First Aid Micro section
Biochemistry: First Aid Biochemistry section, UWorld Biochem questions
Pathology: First Aid (the whole book), BRS Pathology, UWorld Path Questions
Pharmacology: First Aid (the whole book), UWorld Pharm questions
Everything Else: First Aid and UWorld questions

As you can see I didn’t really stray away and use a bunch of different resources. For my personality and study style I felt it was better for me to read First Aid 4x over than to read 5 different books once. Now I think what worked best for me was that I was basically using all of these study resources since about the 3rd month into 2nd year. I really wanted to learn it slowly and not cram it all in at the end. Also, I wanted to learn all of the information as it was also being taught in class.

So overall I didn’t really have a set schedule but basically if we were on our Renal section in class then I would read about everything renal in First Aid. Then I would make tests in UsmleWorld that were only based on the Renal system. I would do each test on tutor mode, and whether I got it right or wrong, I would read the explanation and then type whatever knowledge I was lacking into a Microsoft Word document that was open. (This requires you to either have two monitors OR to run UsmleWorld inside of a virtualization software like VMWare Fusion so that your Mac or PC can’t detect when you take a screen shot of the information. I only took screen shots if I wanted to transfer a picture or graph from the UWorld explanation into my notes. If it was text then I just typed it up). This overall plan basically continued until I had finished all of the UsmleWorld questions (yeah all 2,035 of them) and read all of First Aid once. After that I basically read First Aid over and over as many times as I could ( which turned out to be only 2 more times) and I also took practice tests. Ideally, I would have wanted to get the UsmleRx Qbank and do their questions since it is based solely on First Aid material and it would help me learn First Aid better, but I ran out of time.

My upperclassmen mentor basically told me that the more stuff you read besides First Aid the less you know the facts inside First Aid. I really took this advice to heart and tried to know the stuff in First Aid. As you have probably noticed, I didn’t read RR Pathology at all; not because it isn’t a great book, but because it would have taken too much time to read it for me…time that was better spent reading First Aid and doing UWorld questions. I honestly think that 85% of the test is in First Aid and UsmleWorld. That other 15% you would probably get wrong anyway, lol, so don’t worry about it.

Here are my practice and real scores:

SAT: 1170 (out of 1600)
MCAT: 27N
NBME free 150= 242 (from medfriends estimate)
UsmleWorld Sim Test 1= 245
Comprehensive Basic Science Exam: 245-250
Real thing: Greater than a 240 (which is all that matters to me)

Honestly after I took the test I felt like I got somewhere in the 215s or the 220s. But everyone feels like crap after they take it. Don’t trust your feelings…trust your practice exam scores. Also, realize that medical school is a new game so don’t worry if you got a low MCAT score; you can more than make up for it on Step I (as you can see in my example). Also remember that each person does what works best for them. Read all of the posts in this thread and glean the study tips that best work for you. Taus’ plan is great but it may not work for you so pick and choose because in the end it will be you that will be sitting down for 7 hours and taking the test so you have to do what is best for you. My study plan fit my studying style (never going to lecture and just studying at home); for others it may be different. Also if you are a spiritual person, never forget God in the process; He can certainly fill in any inadequacies that you may have. I’m glad it is over and I’m glad that I can look forward to having options for residency. One hurdle down, one thousand more to go