发信人: neuronwangyu (neuron), 信区: MedicalCareer
标 题: try to be serious this time
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Fri Jan 19 18:04:29 2007)

Took the exam on 28th, Dec and the score is 227/92. Not good but acceptable.
Hope something I said is helpful for someone.

I think theres is no better reviewing material if you already have one (
certainly, the mainstream books). But the problem is how you can
incorporate into your own system and memory. The best thing is to do Qs
after 2-3 times reading and do the Qs very very thoroughly (read the
explanantion, go back to textbook, take notes...). Qbank is a must and I
realized later that UW which I did not do is another must if you aim 99.
After 4-5 times and thousands of Qs, definitely everyone can get better
score than me. For example, I did poorly in some senses in the so so college
and my final rank was around 50% (I think most ppl here is much smarter and
studied harder than me). The exam is very very tough but also very very
doable. The scope is extremely wide and the depth is much more than we can
get from reviewing book if we don't understand the real meaning between
lines. The way to overcome this difficulty is to do Qs, not only do but
thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly.

What mistakes did I do? First, did the exam in a rush. I did not do NBME,
did not do USMLE CD and UW Q becasue I told myself I have to finish before
2007. I think I wasted somet ime in repeat reading which is not good enough.
Second might be that I did not do kaplan reviewing books, videos and Gojan'
s. Third, I did not know the prep4usmle.com which is great.

Something to remeber. First, aim high and high, the only limit is how you
think of yourself. Second, build your muscle and mind which mean you need to
be strong and artistic otherwise it is easy to lost yourself physically and
mentally in this seemingly "mission impossible". Third, the important one
for PH.D student like me but please don't take me the wrong way. Don't put
the exam as your 1st priority before you have built the trust among the lab,
estabilished yourself as boss's right hand man. After that, you can do what
you want. Score is score but it is only score. I don't think the future PD
will put more than 50% weight on the USMLE score. And everything else they
count on is mostly from your boss's RESOURCE if you are Ph.D student without
any background in US. The last one. After taking a glance at step2 books
and subjects and also hearing from many many ppl,I think that taking step2
firstly is more reasonable and a better way to "crush" the exam IF you are
confident and have a long term plan.

Hope everyone doing great, and everyone can spread their wings and reach the
sky.
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