USMLE World Blues

Having completed over 50% of USMLE World, I'm constantly fighting an overwhelming desire to destroy my computer. It's not that I don't like my computer. In fact, I quite like it. But the questions on UW are just driving me crazy. It's not like I'm that dumb. I'm not. Well, I, at least I think I'm not. And my mom says I'm not as well, so there. So far, I've resisted the urge, but my poor, poor mouse. That little left mouse button just couldn't hold out any longer, and alas, succumbed to the repeated stress of my index finger. It's final resting place, in a plastic bag surrounded by leftover pizza scraps, a banana peel and 3 empty wrappers of mini-toblerone. That mouse deserved better.

Hmmmm

So I did my first block of UW. I did ok. 67%. Made some dumb mistakes that could have easily taken me over 70%. So, I'm thinking, I can beat this thing no problem. Right? Wrong. Next block...50%. Yikes. I'm beginning to regret not actually reading my books before starting the questions.

USMLE World Begins

Well I finally got around to buying the online question bank at USMLE World. The interface is slick, just like the one FRED put out. It's very unlike the crappy Kaplan one that I used in Step 1, which, while functioning like like FRED, looked nothing like it. Haven't done any questions yet, but I hear I'm in for a real treat.

Step 2 Mock Exam

So, I'm happily working on the USMLE Step 2 Mock Exam. As I mentioned before, it's written the the same author as the Crush Step 2: The Ultimate USMLE Step 2 Review and the USMLE Step 2 Secrets books. So what can I say about the Step 2 Mock Exam? The first few had some inhumanely long questions. Like seriously long. I hope the real thing isn't like that. But by about block 3, most of the question lengths were quite reasonable. The questions are completely random, which I prefer and seem to have good coverage of all topics. I don't know if the questions are easier, or if I'm getting smarter, or maybe I'm actually focusing better, but my block scores are pretty decent these days - high 70's to mid 80's. It's doing wonders to my confidence, which, apparently, is going to get a proper butt-kicking once I start UW.

First Aid CS

Got my First Aid CSin the mail today! Yay! I haven't really talked about CS because I was trying to avoid thinking about it. I have scheduled CS sometime in June, which gives me plenty of time to mull over the cases. Plenty. Plenty? Yeah right. Just to be clear, I'm not one of the foreign grads who takes 12 months of to study for the steps. I'm IN medical school right now, and I have final exams coming up. I'm also in the middle of scheduling electives which, as it turns out, is a colossal pain in the butt. So there, I'm probably just as busy as you are.

First Aid CK

Got my First Aid CKin the mail today! Yay! Now I can actually read the topics before I do questions on them. How exciting. Now I can start annotating the crap out of it with all the useless pearls of knowledge that I am sure I've forgotten most of already. We'll see.

New Book Discovered

Step 2 Mock Exam. It's written by the same guy who wrote Crush and Step 2 Secrets -- Adam Brochert. Everyone says that the book sucks. I've done the first block of 50 questions and here's what I think and what I've been told. Lots of questions are those crappy 'which of the follow DOESN'T apply' type, so you have to think in reverse to get the answers correct. Apparently, the real exam doesn't use this line of questioning. Also, the questions in this book are extremely long. Like seriously long. Most of the time, I just read the last sentence which contained the actual question. Then I read the appropriate sections of text above, trying to find clues on how to answer the question. Very tedious work, and to be honest, I don't need tedious at this point in my life. I'm going to try a few more blocks, and we'll see if this one gets tossed into the paper shredder. By the way, finished that first block with a 74%.