The Test Result

It was the first one and one of many at the same time (as far as I know, physicians in the US have to take a similar test on a regular basis). For more information about what this is all about, I will refer you to my last post (At the Finish Line), which had been written mere one week before I took the exam.

Only two days before the “D day,” I took a practice test in the same testing center where I would later take the exam itself. Not only did it go relatively well, but my nervousness was further reduced by having a chance to go through the same morning wake up process and commute, sit in the same chair, use the same headphones (auscultation is also tested on STEP 1), and undergo the same security procedure as on the testing day. Everything was exactly the same, only without the stress of a once-in-a-lifetime event. This way, I underwent a conditioning process of sorts in order to get to know the test center and be able to better focus on the test itself on the “game day.”

Everything went as expected on the day of the exam. I took the first break 2 hours in, and I had lunch after 4. After another 2 hours, I took one more break so that I could get energized for the last section: stamina is definitely a very important discipline in an exam that is eight hours long. Moreover, I was lucky enough that during my test, there was no fire, power outage, or other kind of technical difficulty on my computer – all of which are events that did happen to a handful of 90 of my classmates, so it is not completely unheard of. That way, after 2 years of medical studies and those 7 weeks of intense preparation, I had a real chance to show what I can do.

The feeling I had after finishing the exam is hard to describe. The tension and fear were suddenly gone – everything is behind me and the result can no longer change! (Which can be good or bad, or course.) Now it was only 3 weeks of waiting for the result, the one number that will sum up 2 years of hard work – and also will tell the admission committees of residency programs what kind of student I am. How well I can cram large amounts of information and how well I am able to work with this data, both critically and logically, under pressure – which is a good simulation of what it means to be a doctor, after all. Without the humane side of things, that is. And it turns out, I was successful again.

It is interesting that in none of the practice tests I had taken during the prep did I do better than “slightly above average” – or about 60th percentile. All the more pleasantly was I surprised when I got the final result, which is exactly one standard deviation above the mean, or around 84th percentile. That’s an absolutely amazing number that I never expected. I’m really happy that my hard work paid off and it’s also interesting to see that my performance under pressure was significantly better in testing, rather than practice conditions. It is not the first time this happened either: it was a similar story with my SAT and MCAT. Unlike most of my peers, my final results tend to be better than practice ones, which is a great advantage in the academic world build on standardized testing. Something’s telling me that it has a thing or two to do with competitiveness and adrenalin-induced focus.

This chapter is, thus, successfully behind me and in my next post, I’m looking forward to describing my new experiences as a PhD student of translational neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Jane Hill! I can already see that this is a completely different life, though, and I can say it’s not too bad to be a graduate student. I’ll tell you more in my next post in 3 months!