Studying for NBME and the USMLE STEP 1

After moving back to the states in October my life has been a flurry of study and learning how to be back home with my family.  Personally I feel like I struggled the most with learning how to study for the NBME and the USMLE!!!  These exams were not like the in house exams us students experienced at our institution.  These exams are a completely different beast. In all honesty I hate having to admit how much I struggled.  After getting off the island I finally passed my NBME exam have been studying for my USMLE step 1 and preparing to depart for my pre-clinical in Decatur Georgia in April.  

However, it hasnt been just studying that has preoccupied my time and thoughts since I have been home.  My grandfather has been diagnosed with Parkinson a while back and has been steadily declining since I have been home.  Finally a month ago out family decided that he was to much work for my Grandmother and I and decided to put him into an nursing facility.  This has been the most difficult decision I believe we have ever made as a family.  I feel like his decline affected me mentally ( I lived with them and we are very close) and thus affected my studying!!! Never underestimate the power of your mind.....and your mental health.

But on a more benign note while I have been home I have had the opportunity to spend time working with my dad, brother and sister.  We have done tons since I have been home. We have worked cattle, artificially bred some of our cows, and built miles of fence on top of what THEY do on EVERYDAY!!!  

Looking back

This will be my last week on the island of Antigua.  In just 4 days I will be hauling my large suitcases out to a taxi one last time.  I feel a way that I ever thought I would at this time.  I am overwhelmed with sadness yet excitement.  I have pushed myself physically and mentally to places I never thought I could ever go.  However, the battle doesn't end here on the island....I still have to slay the dragon that is STEP and preparing myself for the long hours required in the wards.  There is so much uncertainty that lays before me and I am scared to find out what lies ahead.  There isn't enough love and support I could give to fellow classmates as we continue on this crazy journey.  I wish everyone luck :-)

Knowing where you stand.

I know that there are plenty of blogs out there written by medical students just like me however, I want this blog to highlight what I think is important. I know several other bloggers that compare various Caribbean school, programs, and USMLE prep (and I am sure are more interesting and use better grammar than I) but......I think I want to talk about taking it one step at a time, semester by semester, class by class.  Plenty of people can compare and contrast schools, but talking about going through a semester and surviving is another matter all by itself.  

I learned about the school I am attending from a friend back home.  This friend had a fraternity brother that should be graduating AUA this upcoming spring and he recommended the school.  However, if I would of know what I know now about AUA, I probably would gone ahead and attended the one of the podiatry schools that I was excepted into in the United States.  I know Caribbean schools have a stigma, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I hear plenty of rumors about Ross's program "circling the drain" , or how SGU is nothing but an over priced weeding out program........all which may or may not be true.  Again all of these statements are just rumors and hearsay from students, friends or colleagues that have attended or know individuals that attended these programs.  My point is......every Caribbean school has its reputation and AUA's is quite poor.  From my personal experience the faculty is unorganized, the school is over crowded, and some of the faculty is less than stellar. I wouldn't be honesty if I stated I was confident in my ability or my classmates to match on time.......its a very scary realization.  However, I will boost that my school has several great members in its faculty.  I have to say I was really impressed with our new renal physiologist. When I took an optional lecture from him this spring my mind was blown with his wealth of knowledge and his desire to see us students succeed.  He even created a computer program to help teach renal physio and I credit it for helping me understand the subject better than most of my classmates.  We also have a very amazing biochemistry and cellular biology department that don't play games with the material they teach.  I also think that the pathology and immuno departments are well organized and straightforward.

 Although, all schools (anywhere in the world) have their strong and weak points, I am thankful to be attending medical school and pursing my dream.  Being in the Caribbean, attending a relatively new school is a risk and sometimes it can feel overwhelming academically and financially.  I am just keeping my head up, living the dream and keep adjusting my expectations.

Things that I think are helpful!

Well, I have to say one of the best things that I have discovered is QUIZLETS!  I have to say in undergrad I was the queen of flashcards.....however in med school creating flash cards with such a large volume of material is not the best use of time.  One of my upperclassmen friends stated, "You are so tired from making the flash cards you don't want to use them".  A very true statement!  I bring this up because at AUA med 3 and 4 is based mostly if not entirely on the premise of memorization.  During med 1-2 critical think and understanding of key concepts helped you passed exams..........in med 3 and 4 memorization is the name of the game. So, by utilizing digital flash cards made by other students or creating your own is very helpful in preparing for in house exams.  I also think that purchasing pre-made flash cards for pharm and micro from companies such as Lange McGraw Hill, Lippincott's and Kaplan are also a fair way to go.  Some of these pre-made flash cards go as far so to give scenarios and vignettes on your flash cards.  However, I have to say the anatomy flash cards that feature Dr. Netters images are pretty close to useless.  I guess they are appropriate for undergrad anatomy classes, but are not helpful at helping you answer secondary or tertiary questions seen on exams (classroom or cadaver).  Books such as Brs and Snells are more appropriate.

 

  

Utilizing outside sources!

One thing that I have learned about attending a caribbean medical school is that YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!  Although a few departments are amazing about being professional, organized and present lecture material that will show up on an exam......several department are not!  One bit of advice I could give an aspiring medical student is to use the lecture material presented by the professor sparingly and use outside sources!  Although many of my classmates absolutely adore Dr. Najeeb, I am less than enthused about this lectures.  The videos are lengthy, dry, and not just loaded with information that is just not that important to understanding the "testable" topic.  I think that Kaplan, and Kaplan lectures notes are the BOMB!  When studying for my shelf exams at occurred at the end of my first year I also found Kaplan Q books to be helpful for preparing for the exam.  However, I found that our shelf exam for anatomy had far more neuroscience than what any of the question books ever presented.  In regards to biochem/cell biology the shelf exam was far more difficult than the question books.  Kaplan questions for physio was right on when preparing for the Kaplan shelf.  It was also really helpful that our school hired Kaplan to come in and review physiology (cardiac, resp, and hemodynamics) and endocrine!  The endocrine review provided to us by Dr.Wazur Kudrath M.D., from Kaplan was amazing and help resolve any confusion I had in regards to the topic.

However, I loved using books like BRS for anatomy that are a "little wordy" and use them along with text such as Moores or Snell (that have great images) to get a full grasp on the topic.  Plus BRS will help you get a better idea of what is high yield instead of wading through hundreds of pages of text and trying to figure out what is helpful. This is so true when it comes to learning the muscular skeletal system. In medical school we dont get tested with pictures or with primary type questions but, with multiple choice questions and tertiary type questions. By being able to conceptualize things into words you will have an easier time answering questions on multiple choice exams.  

Starting our second year

As I mentioned before I am terrible about keeping up with the blog and have decided to kind of changed the type of information I post. Instead of focusing on the things my friends and I do in our down time I want to redirect towards the med school experience as a whole. 

Currently I am starting my second year here at AUA and needless to say I am a little nervous aboutthe change in subjects that occurs. No longer are we focusing on anatomy, physiology, biochem, or genetics......but we're beginning the daunting tasking of understanding pharm, path, behavioral, ICM, immuno, and micro. Ahead of my colleagues and I are 1000's of drugs and massive memorization. Hopefully will be able to keep up wi blogging better than I did last semester and focus more on my strategies to prepare for step 1

Jolly Harbor!

After our zip lining adventure us girls decided that we want to experience the other side of the island and ventured down around Valley road to Jolly Harbor.  It was quite a beautiful drive. It is interesting that we have been living here for over 7 months and still have seen very little of the island.  While on that side of the island we also ate at Castaways on the beach.  I cant say it was my favorite but it was an alright restaurant.  I do have to admit it was quite beautiful though, full of English on holiday.  Below are several of the photos I took of us on the beach and in the are itself.