For Such A Time As This

Seven weeks of studying, roughly $1000 for the test & study materials, an episode of sciatica, and many days of very, very bad skin all came down to that little pdf that I downloaded from the NBME website today. 

The board examiners must realize the anxiety and mania that medical students experience opening that document, so they dumb it down for us. The first line of the score report just simply states whether you pass or fail. Mine said “PASS.” I could have stopped there and been absolutely happy. Then the second line has your numerical score, which made me even happier. 

Before leaving for the hospital this morning, I jotted down my own prediction for my score, including the ranges of scores for “Unhappy,” “UGHHHHH,” and “Ecstatic.” I’m glad I did this because after I saw the score my brain turned to mush and I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. It took a few hours for it to sink in before I became an emotional basketcase. Once I stopped crying tears of joy, I celebrated by getting a facial and a manicure :) 

God is so, so, so very faithful. Studying for 7wks, alone, in my house was unbearable at times, but God carried me through. He blessed me with friends who took care of me, family who prayed for me, and the endurance to keep studying. My prayer last night was that God would use this score to show me His perfect plan for my life. I know that God’s grace is abundant and his faith is unfailing… I’m so excited to see where God takes me in the coming years. 

Oh.My.Goodness. What an exhausting experience… my brain is toast.

Overall it wasn’t the worst experience of my life (assuming I pass). In hearing some of my friends’ experiences, I was prepared for the worst. And by that I mean, prepared to be absolutely clueless about 15+ questions per block. Fortunately, a vast majority of the material was familiar. Don’t let me fool you though.. “familiar” does not mean that I could answer the question correctly. 

My exam was skewed in the direction of respiration, anatomy, immunology, and embryology. I had some REALLY difficult questions in embryology…things I’ve never even heard of. 

Ohh… and I had this crazy micro question. The stem of the question literally told me that the guy had diarrhea and then proceeded to describe the GI system and shape of the worm. That was a no-go for me. Along with all those weird embryo questions. 

Most of the biostats questions were really straightforward. I’m glad I committed the formulas from FA to memory. I probably had two biostats questions that I had no idea how to calculate. 

Cardio - I had two question with heart sounds. I’m convinced that I have hearing loss at the frequency at which the AV valves close. Thankfully the stem of the question pretty much gave me the answer before I even listened to the heart sound. 

Wow. What a day. It’s crazy to think about how much time and effort went into preparing for that exam… I’m praying it was enough. But I know that God is faithful. And I pray that whatever the outcome Christ would be glorified. If he’s opening or closing doors… so be it. I’ll know it is His will. 

Nonetheless, I keep thinking of questions I missed. It’s like torture. Now I just need to find a way to magically erase the questions from my head. I don’t even want to think about it. 

Feel free to ask me any questions. I’ll post more later! Now I’m off for dinner with my family…they won’t mind that I’m a zombie :)

It just got so real. Just called the prometric testing center to confirm for tomorrow and ask a few questions. Am I forgetting anything? 

The big day is almost here! 

With 1957/2082 practice questions done, almost 2 complete passes through First Aid, and 7 wks of studying, I’m feeling like I’ve done my best to prepare. Not to mention the two practice tests I took over the course of the 7 wks, which are like mini-board exams in themselves.

Now I’ve got to power through the next 3 days and review as much as possible! 

Oh yeah… I’m now officially a 3rd year medical student!!!! Time flies. 

The stress of studying for this all-important exam is really getting to me. First, I have an episode of sciatica…how old am I? 80? And now I’m waking up every night urgently trying to say something in my sleep. 

The latest shout out tells you what my dreams are made of. I literally sat up from my sleep and asked “does the patient have any respiratory complaints?” In my dream I remember seeing elevated ACE levels in the pt info and thinking SARCOIDOSIS! 

They say that sleep is when you process memories. Maybe all my sleep talking is the result of my brain forming lots of new memories. I sure hope so!

9 more days.

With only 400 questions left in UWorld and two chapters in First Aid to review, I’m getting dangerously close to the big day!

Even though there is still much work to do and lots of studying to go, I have to say that I’m proud of myself! I’ve managed to stay on schedule, for the most part, and am even going to finish my first pass through the material a few days early. But even if I were behind schedule, I’d still be happy with my progress. It takes a lot of discipline to study a minimum of 10 hrs/day (most days 14 hrs) for 6 weeks straight! 

What an accomplishment it will be to hit ‘submit’ at around 5:00PM on June 24! One step closer to getting that M.D. Woot! 

Inspired by the blog post below, I’m posting my progress too! Maybe it’ll be encouraging to see just how much material I’ve covered in the last 4 weeks. 2.5 more to go!

• Biochem
• Micro
• Immunology
• Pathology
• Embryology
• Cardiovascular
• Heme/Onc
• Musculoskeletal
• Neuro
• Psych
• Renal
• 69% of USMLE World Questions
• GI (in progress)
• Endocrine
• Reproductive
• Behavioral Science
• What’s left of Pharm
• 31% of UWorld Questions

Wow that’s a lot of material covered! I should finish what’s left on my list by June 17 and have a week to review my weak areas. I can’t wait for this exam to be behind me! 

And don’t you just love the Tina Fey clip below? “I am going to go talk to some food about this.” The process of studying for Step1 has definitely required a lot of counseling… from God, friends, and yes, even food!

missmd2be:

• Micro
• Genetics/cell bio
• Behavioral/biostats
• Immuno
• Endocrinology
• Repro
• Renal
• Cardio
• Respiratory
• Neuro
• Embryology
• Heme/Onc review
• MSK
• GI
• Cardio, neuro and immuno drugs
• QBank til death

Today’s addition to my little Step 1 notebook. Every word on this page makes sense to me now, but let’s see if I can make head or tail of it in a week. Oh Step 1…