WHAT IS THE BIGGEST REASONS WHY YOU GET A LOW SCORE AND FAIL THE USMLE STEP 1 EXAM?
When first learning about the medical residency path in the US in general and USMLE Step 1 exam in particular, surely you have gone online, Googled questions like: “What is USMLE Step 1? Study How effective is USMLE Step 1?”
You will also receive countless tips from people who have taken this exam. They share everything without “hiding” anything, from books, materials to preparation strategies…
You listen to their advice, buy UWorld, First Aid, or Anki, and follow exactly what they tell you. You believe that if you do exactly as they do, you will achieve the same results. But in reality, the results were not as expected. When studying those materials, you feel overwhelmed, dry, and even do not achieve the desired results in your most important exam.
Why is that so?
You are not a “copy” of someone else
You are a completely different individual, you and they have completely different strengths, weaknesses and starting points. Even if you are an identical twin, you will have differences from your siblings.
When you watch videos sharing experiences from successful doctors, you will see many of them come from countries like India, the Middle East, Canada, or Europe.
Medical schools in these countries often have systematic training programs in English, close to the American medical style. They have studied in English from the beginning, so when studying for USMLE, they only need to consolidate their knowledge and not have to re-learn many things from the beginning.
Many people ask me:
“Sister, why do I hear people say to study for USMLE Step 1, after only 6 months they have finished and taken the exam. Why do I study better? It’s been 6 months and you still haven’t been able to take the exam?
Or:
“Why do they only need to study for USMLE Step 2 CK for about 2 months and I still haven’t been able to take the exam?”
These things are completely true, but they are only true for those who who study medicine in the US, or study medicine abroad, where teaching is conducted entirely in English.
And now applying it to your case, you study medicine in Vietnam, everything is very new.
There are many specialized terms, even if you have never seen it once in your life, but now you not only need to understand its meaning, but also apply it to clinical cases and solve questions on the exam.
It’s very in-depth, not just you can translate “Oh, what is this bone, this disease, this symptom called in Vietnamese?”
Furthermore, when you take a USMLE question and keep translating it into Vietnamese in your head, you have already lost. Because on average, each question is half an A4 page long, so you can only do it in 1 minute and 30 seconds!
Therefore, you cannot arbitrarily apply everything you see online and then go home.
Next, each person will have different learning styles and require different tools.
For example, there are people who learn and really like using Anki. They find that when using Anki, they remember very well. But there are people who feel that it’s time-consuming and the knowledge they learn is very fragmented and doesn’t fit together.
Then there are people who feel that Anki’s interface and usage are not suitable for them, and are more suitable for Quizlet.
Or there are Some people like to do UWorld from the beginning. They feel like they will remember it longer, but some people feel overwhelmed and cannot jump in from the beginning. They have to prepare themselves with good background knowledge first and then start studying UWorld later.
There are people who will learn First Aid from the beginning and feel it is just right for them, but there are also people who just read a few pages and are overwhelmed and have to leave, because their background knowledge is still lacking a lot and First Aid is too concise.
Then there are people. then go to school and work. For example, if they work at a hospital during the day, then come home at night to study more, they can still pass the exam, but most of them cannot do that because their background knowledge has long been lost, their learning style is to focus on one thing, they are easily distracted and cannot handle many things at the same time.
You can’t just follow what others say. not understanding your strengths and weaknesses. Without a specifically designed learning path, you will easily get overwhelmed and burn out. At that time, studying becomes meaningless, and you can easily feel discouraged and even want to give up.
This is the reason why I chose my own path of 1-1 Coaching and designed a personalized roadmap for each of my students.
Right from the input stage, through the process of exposure, evaluation and testing, I will help them determine what their strengths and weaknesses are, what their learning style is, and what style is most effective for them. From there, adjust the study plan and study schedule to suit each person.
It’s the same Coaching program, but not everyone is the same.
There are some people who, in addition to studying Step 1, I want them to do more research and volunteer. But for some people, I don’t want them to do anything but focus on learning Step 1 at that time.
In addition, I also have to arrange and adjust the learning program in each specific period to make it most effective for you.
There are times in my Coaching program, I tell the students: “Now I don’t want you to study Step 1, I want you to stop everything related to the USMLE and this boarding program. I want you to take a week off, relax, go out and do nothing related to this.”
Because that was the time when he was very burned out and felt bored studying USMLE Step 1, every day I had to call and do thought work with him. (This is something that IMG students often encounter when studying for USMLE.) And then, when her spirit is stable, I will let her continue studying.
But for other friends, I think it’s okay for her to do that. And at that time, I also want you to allocate time to do other things. Because I know you are capable, strong enough, and focused enough to do other things besides learning Step 1 at that time.
That’s what I bring to my students – personalizing the roadmap to each small step to help them get to the final destination. Because each person is a completely different version, no one is a “copy” of anyone else.
Although receiving 1-1 Coaching makes me harder, more stressed and takes more time to “pick the results”, I understand more than anyone else how important personalization is on this path.
This is a marathon, a huge challenge, a very long journey, and it’s not for everyone.
That’s why I don’t choose to open mass classes, for example mass classes teaching Step 1, Step 2 CK… where I only need to record a video once and many people can register to learn.
Because if you choose like that, for you, it’s like leaving your child in the market!
I cannot go deep, understand deeply and create separate learning programs and plans for each person. I also will not be able to grasp what you learn from such programs, how you apply it to your path and whether it is really useful for you?
To summarize, I just want to send one thing: the biggest reason why you get a low score or fail USMLE Step 1 is not at all because you are incompetent, but because you have not found a suitable study method and do not have a personalized study plan for yourself.
Don’t compare yourself to others, because everyone has their own journey. “You were born as an original, don’t die as a copy“.Understand your strengths and weaknesses, and find someone capable of guiding and accompanying you on the path to conquering your dreams. me.
If you are cherishing the dream of becoming a doctor in the US, hopefully these shares will be somewhat useful to you.
Please comment “yes” if you like this article!
Dr. Christina Nguyen
Phoenix Medical Academy
