Ali Usman

Here I am! finally the day has come when its over…
Took my exam on august 5th and the result is out today…
I have upcoming final yr exams without any prep…but I am happy that the reason I ignored final yr has paid off well and I am ending up with a decent score…
95/227
In my view…it’s a good score…the baseline for excellent score for me has been 95…I used to think 95-99 is excellent, 90-94 is good and below that is low…
So I have done well according to my standards…
I was really scared and the idea of seeing 83 as soon as I open my report was haunting me…with a contrary fantasy of 99 rotating around a 250…so everything was going on in my head…but I am glad it paid off well…
Well now the clichés…which ere no doubt true…Thanks to the community,Naeem bhai and other people(whom I did not bug as frequently as Naeem bhai) and to all the help that this community provided to me…I used to go through Sept 08 step 1 post and used to get a lot of energy seeing people doing well, discussing things…things did give me tension and I was boosted up for the day…

The actual Prep...

Now the regular stuff….
Prep in final yr was tough…My approx timeline was Feb-Aug 4th…First few months were easier,chill reads,chill timelines etc!I had done Physio and Micro and immunology in 4th year but at the moment cant say how much I had retained but things definitely help when once read.My first two reads were average.Had done many subjects well but pharma and biochem were sucked up and I couldn’t retain any micro so did a few interventions in third read…
For micro,had a look at community experiencesand came across Mansumeet’s post in which this 99er had done micro from First aid and bingo…I told myself this is a good idea and after a lot of deliberation went for the idea(it was a tough decision at that time)
Biochemistry I did in third read for the first time very well…I had done it earlier but no retention…
Pharam I did better in third read…
Did Q bank with second read mostly except pharma,biochem and Micro.U world i did with 3rd read. Everything was offline.Got around 70 percent in Q banks,and 73-74 in U worlds.Did most of Q book too,37-39/block
Took just nbme 1 offline-got 75.5 percent i.e. 151/200(wasn’t very happy with it,but I didn’t readjust my exam as I had important final yr ward coming up and I am glad I didn’t delay it)
Did 3 blocks from usmle.org on thelast day.It enlightened me towards actual exam pattern.Got 43,38,36 in 3 blocks.
Didn’t do Kaplan simulated.
Slides etc haphazard…here and there a lil bit.nothing formally like webpath or anything.But of course if u do it,its better.

The exam day...

Exam day was fine. I had started with Vit B complex 14 days prior to Exams. First aid was a treat. Kept last 4 days for it only. Now realize I should have done it even more times. Micro and Parasitology for me was ALL from first Aid. Made notes of all q bank and u world(the things I didn’t know).Studies till6p.m. last day. was chill on exam day, just a minimal level of apprehension, no fear. Exam kicked off well n I took first two blocks together .Regular breaks, prophylactic brufen after 3rd block and disprin after fifth block…Came out of exam centre happy and content.Told everyone that my paper was “fine”(believe me thats a safe word!!!)

My chills...:p

I did a chill prep pverall.I watched all seasons of friends during my prep,watched all Grey’s anatomy,Followed Heroes and started Gossip girl.This is not to tell everyone to start doing this stuff.Onl;y aim is to tell thefuture test takers that work in your comfort zone.For some comfort zone maybe listening to music,sticking to family,or hanging out wid friends etc.But don’t waste your time.the lil bit difference between me and a 99er isn’t doing q bank or U world online or reading books over and over again.Its only a lil bit extra hard work that 99ers would have done as compared to me.But to me it’s a treat.I am in final yr yar(rationalization…)
Anyway,my scrap book isn't open to everyone so you can post anything u want to here...or i have an email Id where i check mailz daily almost(:P)
dr.aliusman@gmail.com
and believe me...it feels good to be on this side of step 1...
I would try better for step 2...
but for now,I am content

Best of luck!