berkeleyboy
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Hey guys, I'm stressed out, I feel my immune system going down the drain. I even got the flu last week and I haven't even really left my house.
I'm in a constant dilema of either doing questions or continue reading. I don't feel confident yet about my mastery of the material but time is running out and I wanted to to a lot of practice questions before I started this thing. I guess I'm just here to vent some frustrations while studying. I'm in a mix right now of burning out and stressing out at the same time. I'm planning to write this exam b/n march 31-april2 since my school wants us to take our test before a certain date in order to start rotations on time. I started studying Jan3rd and have been hitting it pretty hard since then...but like I've mentioned before....I'm starting to feel the stress creeping hard and starting to feel the burn. At the beginning of my studies I was hard core hitting the books like 12-14 hours a day. Last week I still studied at least 6-10 hours but found myself watching a lot of movies and dvds. Constantine is pretty good if you have the time to watch it.
Anyways this is what I'm using to study
Path: Goljan's rapid reveiw with notes taken from Kaplan lecture notes 2002 edition
(I went thru both books and superimposed what was missing from goljan's rapid review from the kaplan lecture notes, now I'm just reading my goljan/kaplan hybrid) path read 3X so far
Pharm: kaplan lecture notes 2002 edition
read 4x
Micro/immuno: micro made ridiculously simple (read 1X- to help me get thru the kaplan lecture notes) Kaplan lecture notes
read 2X
Behavioral: kaplan read 2x
Biochem: kaplan read 1x
physio: kaplan --> almost done reading 1x
Anatomy: HY neuro HY gross Histo/embryo : FA
read 2x
So I've done the webpath questions (1500Q averaged about 74%) but I'm not sure about how good these question are.....
Questions from katzung (700Q) while studying pharm...didn't tally my scores
I've done 400Q from NMS 75% all randoms. I just finished a 200Q set this morning.
I think I'm going to start doing a ton of questions every day. I started Qbank (done like 500Q) but I didn't do them randomly. I did them by subject and pretty much went thru almost all the pharm and micro questions...(hitting about 75%) but I don't think the subject wise approach is really good. I mean on the real thing its going to be completely random so I think its about time to start doing questions all random....
So I've got less than 6 weeks left before I take this thing...
any comments on how I should approach this last 6 weeks?
I also want to thank everyone who's answered my posts and gave support. Def. Shout outs to pink and retro.
Good luck everyone.....
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PGY-1 Ohio State University Plastic Surgery
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| lmbebo
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Posts: 338
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i have yet to take the exam, this saturday, but I already feel like I have should done things a bit differently.
I don't know how long you have till you take your exam. At this point, I wish I would have concentrated on reading more earlier on and had the opportunity to just do questions in the last 3 weeks or so while concentrating on my weak areas and revising FA.
Doing questions earlier helped solidify some concepts, but my qbank subscription ended 2 weeks ago, so I rushed to do the quetions too early.
In the past 2 weeks I've tried todo more reading. Right now I'm working AL questions, qbook and doing FA.
as for the stressing out, I am too.
Take a day or 2 off and forget about the test. I had to, which coincidentally coincided with the superbowl...
But I feel the pain. My school is pressing me to take the exam but the 28th of Febuary!
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| berkeleyboy
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wow...thats so early. I don't know what I would do. You know in medical school, our tests are completely multiple choice and I never did any practice questions. I would just simply read and reread the material over and over again and everything would turn out fine. I just did 200Q from NMS this morning and just finished grading it and going over answers. Total time: 7.5 hours
Imbebo, my original plan was to do about 150-200 Q a day. And read for 7 or so hours. I have 5 weeks till my exam. Do you suggest I hold out on questions for a couple more weeks and that I just read for 14 hours a day and do soley questions in my last 3 weeks of prep? I think in 2 weeks without doing questions I can read all the material again once.
Best of luck this Saturday! How long did you prep for?
Thanks for replying by the way. I have a huge problem with stressing out and it seems that the only thing that can somewhat aleviate the stress is studying, studying, and more studying....
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| KEROCHI
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Posts: 971
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hi berkelyboy,
You're doing just great!! i wish I could read 10hrs per day too.. I always end up sleeping at night only after reading 5-6 hours.. Can't stay up late.. Have tried coffe but it is giving me the opposite effect... more sleepy... I guess Im resistant to it already.. Anyway you sstill have 5 weeks to study so stick to your plan... doing more questions great!! Good luck on your test!! Any tip to stay awake at night???
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| berkeleyboy
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Topics: 15
Posts: 361
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I appreciate the support. I know, I'm putting in the time but I seriosly feel like I'm not progressing. I have a huge problem with retention. I'm usually pretty solid with concepts but route memorization justs destroys me. Which is why I've been basically reading a lot of pharm and micro...
I usually don't have trouble staying up at night, coffee tends to put me to sleep too, but you know what? You just have to add more of it. Its definitely tolerance but when I add another heaping spoonful of it, works great. Another trick I got is study standing up. Whenever I get really sleepy I stand up and read. Usually this works for at least a lilttle while.
Good luck to you too!
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PGY-1 Ohio State University Plastic Surgery
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| berkeleyboy
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Posts: 361
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just finished reading endocrine/acid-base/renal in kaplan lecture notes today. Attempting to finish off the book tonight by finishing GI. Didn't get to do any questions today but I'm going to do test 3 out of NMS when I wake up tommorrow. The plan thru the weekend is to do the Qbook and all of micro and immuno again. At some point I'm going to start incorporating FA into my studies. Just 5 more weeks....gotta stay strong
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PGY-1 Ohio State University Plastic Surgery
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| berkeleyboy
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Topics: 15
Posts: 361
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76%
NMS test#1 77%
NMS test#2 74.5%
NMS test#3 76%
I see a trend here....
but I seriosly feel that I'm guessing on about half the questions while I'm taking the exam. This changes my game plan again. With 5 weeks till the exam....I'm going to go thru all the material again and do Qbook questions whenever I finish a subject. I'm hoping my score will go up by a few more points after one more time thru the material. AFter...I'll finish Qbank IV and blackwell, NMBE, and hopefully get thru the material one last time.
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PGY-1 Ohio State University Plastic Surgery
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