Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Seeing a bit of light...

Well practice NBME #2 is over and was harder than the last. Last time I took form 4 and this time it was form 3. I won't give details about each because I don't want to give away any hints to ruin anyone's experiences with them but I thought 3 was a toughie! Ironically, I did... better! It was such a surprise and a great relief. My studying method is paying off! Last exam I got a 340, equivalent to a 175 on the Step. Not so good at all. This time? Still not as high as I want but a 390, equivalent to a 190. We are getting there folks! I am still planning on taking at least one more exam before the COMP but if I can improve 15 pts. in nearly 2-2.5 weeks, I am very optimistic for my next exam. Also - this made the difference between a pass or fail of the USMLE Step 1! According to my exam, I can pass the Step! Of course, I am don't feel like I can just rely or settle on that but it was such a great feeling to know that it IS possible to do! Next time, if I could break 200, I would be so very happy!

I know to some people these scores aren't anything to smile about but not to me - I am happy with my improvement and am ready to get studying again. I was a bit hesitant of posting my scores as I know others are scoring much higher than I am now. I am proud of myself though, as I am historically not the best test taker, but I am also doing this for others. So often you just see people who post their awesome scores and it really used to leave me feeling low. It seemed like everyone was scoring high because, well frankly, those who were average just wouldn't bother posting their score for others to see. Well, I am here to show all what hard work does and progress looks like! Hopefully it will help someone who might not be so lucky as to have exams come naturally to them. Just have to keep working, keep swimming (Finding Nemo!) and just push on when you feel like you can't do it anymore! So cliche and until I can come up with a better line of advice - if I can do it - YOU CAN TOO!

So for those studying for shelf exams, minis and even the COMP coming up - keep going!!! You are almost there!!! Don't give up!!! Take a break if you must, get a nice meal or go buy some good junk food to study with but keep going!!!

I will keep you all updated for my further progress! Looking foward to giving more good news!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I LOVE YOU JESS!!!! This is by far the most motivational post. Thank you and congratulations.

Anonymous said...

Jessica,

So good to hear that you are making progress on the NBME exams. I have my COMP coming up on April 22nd and doing USMLE World questions has been the bulk of my study strategy. For UMBR down here, we've had four days with Kaplan Medical's Dr. Wasir Kudrath and he has been absolutely amazing. He did mention that come 2011, Step 1 and Step 2 are going to be combined into a single exam to be taken at the conclusion of the 3rd year of medical training (after core rotations have been completed.) I haven't found anything definitive regarding this on www.usmle.org other than this one article which is rather vague in nature:

http://www.usmle.org/General_Information/review.html

What are your thoughts on taking a combined Step 1/Step 2 exam? Any positives or negatives you can come up with off the top of your head?

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