Prepare USMLE step1 with a balanced life

I am inspired by a lot moms including the following one.
This story is cited from http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/MedicalCareer/31184094.html
I think she is right. We need a balanced life when we prepare USMLE. Otherwise it is going to be tougher, when we do residency.

Sorry, I can't type Chinese here. I got the OK score, not the dream 99. But
I'm happy.

Prepare time: 1 year (full time work with a two-year old boy, 2-3hr weekday,
no study on weekend, I gave weekends to my boy, took off 5 weeks before
test)

Score/date: 223/93 3/28/2008


UW: 6 months, 50-70%, average 60%

Books: Because I'm old graduate (>10year) I went over some text books for
better understanding and detail. Not just for the exam, I think that will
help me in future medical practice.

Katzung and Trevor's Pharmacology: Examination and Board Review: a lot of
detail. I like this book because it gives good physiology and phathology
background.


Lippincott's Illustrated reviews: Biochemistry Good book if you hate
biochemisty when you were in school. Good illustration for genetic disease.


Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease read once at the begining
with BRS pathology. Not neccessary for the test. But again for me, an old
graduate, it helped me to remember things with good background information
and gave me confidency somehow.

BRS and Goljan pathology: BRS 1time Goljan 2 times. I did the second time
along with UW, FA. I liked that combination.

Kplan notes: only for neuroanatomy, biostatistcs and behavior. As an old
graduate, I started with Kplan and found out it's so dry and boring to
remember. That's one reason I went to textbooks for pharmacolloy and
pathology and biochemistry.

Mirobiology: Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple: great book

Immunology: FA and UW. All things mentioned in FA I went to the chapters in
Janeway's 'Immunobiology'. Again, the textbook helped me to remember those
dry and boring test points.

NBME form1:490 (1month ago)
form4: 510(4days ago)


Lessons: Should do th FA+UW+Goljan combantion earlier. I only did that in
last 5 weeksand found myself a little short of time. But I didn't pospone
the test because I felt myself in deep anxiety, just wanted to end it soon.
Do NBME early and should downloaded them. The online paid one is good to
do the evaluation and let me where's the weak point. The downloaded should
be used to review. I got several exactly same questions during the real
test.

Feelings after test. UW is the must. Do every question and truly
understand what it ask. That's enough for the test. Sure you will get some
questions from nowhere. Oh, bother, stick the basic. For many moms doing
the test, don't give away all your life to the test. I thought that before
. And I figure out that if I cann't handle work, exam and family at same
time now I won't survive the residency year in the future. Spend time with
your family and your baby, keep good communication with your spouse. Even
if he is very surppotive, he still has his needs and thoughts. When you
are with your family, don't think your test. When my son was just one
year old, he can tell if I was concentrated on him or not. If my thoughts
went away or I wanted to read when he was playing, he would be whining
more and ask more time or even threw away whatever I was reading. If I was
truly involved in playing with him, he would actually be reasonalble and
need less time and both of us would be happy. I would be less stress and
have better efficiency in study. Don't ignor the brain power of a infant
or toddler. That little brain actually works.:) If you have an easy baby,
lucky you. That's not the case for me. That's why I gave all weekends to
him, took him to gymboree class, park, playground, zoo....Kid's happiness
is so simple and pure, why not let them have it when they can. I would say
that we can not compare the happiness of getting 99 in usmle with that in a
toddler's smile. For those who don't have kid, try to finish the test
before they come. Kid are amazing creatures. They give you endless love,
joy and WORKS.

Good luck for everyone! Thanks for everyone posted here. I've been silient
from the beginning. I got a lot of good information from here. I'm moving
to the step 2.