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From:
Date: 12 Mar 2005
Time: 11:57:50 -0500
Remote Name: 192.30.202.28
Posted by percj from IP 66.66.14.227 on February 15, 2005 at 15:53:25: I got to tell you everything. Very tired, of course, but can't rest. I can't asssess my performance right now, but I can surely tell you exam is not that terrible. I've been preparing for something more like a brain surgery. It turned out to be a probing, sometimes deeper, sometimes more superficial. Overall, it was a fair game. I 've got a feeling that the topics they ask are somewhat limited to the very Basics. From this angle, from that angle, but still the same things. Sometimes they don't even bother to change scenario a whole lot. Some questions are ridiculously simple. I was like, are you taking me for a fool here? :-))) Ok, but that's not it. Of course, most of the questions do require a considerable amount of reasoning, but again, in the vincinity of the very basic.You see, there is this fashion of the presentaion. You got to think what they ask you about. And choices! Yeah, they are very close. So, pretty often I was asking my intuition to help me. There were a couple of questions, where I could not figure out what the hell is this, and they were asking for another pathology associated with this pathology I had no idea about. Well, I didn't let it to discoarage me, and was moving on, preserving my positive attitude. Ok, subject-wise. Patho - a lot. Fortunately, no rare pathology, a little bit of congenital pathology, mountains of endocrinology, CV, respiratory and NS are evenly distributed. Physio - graphs. A lot of them. If the choices are like "this goos up, this down, that up", I advise you to fing out what is going to happen to "this" or "that", and then just pick up the answer. You'll save the time. No calculations, as I can remember, but they can ask you to interprete the changes in the subject, and for this you've got to use the formula. Microbiology - all common pathogens. Pictures, not of the best quality, by the way. Immunology - they come up with some realy twisted ones. Seemingly simple, because about something you know well, but still answer is not that obvious. Biochem - basic processess. Regulations, enzymes. Usual staff. Molecular biology - they got wild here. One question was about 40 lines long. Crazy! They accumulated at the end of the exam. So I got my brains almost burned out in attempt to answer them. They were not straightforward. Mostly "experimental" meaning some crazy scientist did somethinf, and now you've got to interpret results. Of course, using the very basics. But tell me, how much experience do we have in this kind of interpretations. Don't know, hope I did well in my guessing work. Almost no embriology, anatomy - mostly (if not all) neuroanatomy. Brain CT. And yes, they did not show me drawings, but black and wite autopsy specimens. I'm soooo glad I studied them from this site, I'll tell you about later. Cell biology - not a lot, but some details. Know cell-cell connections and communications. Be able to apply them to different organs. Some tricky questions on biostat. Usual behaivioral. Overall, exam content is somwhere between Qbank and NBME part 1. Timing was ok for me. No problems here. My scores Qbank 77 (finished 3 weeks before exam) NBME part 2, 2 month before 570 NBME part 2, 2 weeks before 640 USMLE CD, 2 weeks before 38,44,45 Kaplan CD 78, 1 week before Now, for those who are close to the exam. #1 - set your mind. Don't let in any negative thoughts. #2 - go over same basic over and over again. #3 - take the exam and ace it! (you also may invite God, wouldn't hurt) Guys, I'm tired. I can't remeber anything else right know. I was inviting God to guide me through this ordeal with the deepest sincere love to Him. And to you. I wish you all find yourself. For, you see, taking USMLE is not about taking USMLE, this is about making the grandest statement of who you realy are. Well, I hope I did it. I realy hope with all my heart. You all were, and are a great source of support, encouragement, and ultimately love. When I receive my score report, I will tell you much more about strategies I used for my preparation. Good luck now