tolito
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it has taken a while to start my journal cos i have been thinking so hard about my life in general. it is almost as though i do not want to acknowledge that i have this big feat ahead of me and starting a journal that virtually counts down is an acknowledgment of an inevitable unpleasant event. i always felt like i have a mountain to dig up and move and i have been given a shovel to do the work with a short deadline. will i ever get it done in good time? THAT IS USMLE
well, a proverb says, once you bend down to start to work, you are on the way to finishing it.
so i have finally devised a system. i have made a time table and following the advise of good people like malinda and sharvil to mention a few good folks on this forum, i will stick to it. i have realised that i have spent too long on pharma thinking i had a lot of time but taking a look at my timeline, i find i really do not have that much time left. i have read almost the whole of physiology and pharmacol. and behav sci before, so i have headstart on those.
for the sake of posterity, (just in case i think to chicken out) here is my time table.
i will sit the exam in JUNE by God's grace. technically i have 8 weeks to study and i leave 2 weeks for revisions. i am awaiting ECFMG too. ( By the way, i postponed the exam 4times!!!! first i planned dec 2005, then feb 2006, then maarch 2006 then april 2006 and now FINALLY JUNE 2006.)
WEEK 1. 3/26 - 4/1 BEHAVIORAL SSCIENCES
WEEK 2. 4/2 - 4/8 MICROBIOLOGY
WEEK 3. 4/9 - 4/15 IMMUNOLOGY
WEEK 4. 4/16 - 4/22 HISTO (am) PATH (pm)
WEEK 5. 4/23 - 4/29 EMB (am) PATH (pm)
WEEK 6. 4/30 - 5/6 BIOCH (am) PHYSIO(pm)
WEEK 7 5/7 - 5/13 NEURO (am) GEN ANAT (pm)
WEEK 8 5/14 PATH
5/15 PATH
5/16 BIOCH
5/17 EMB
5/18 HISTO
5/19 ANAT
5/20 MICRO
WEEK 9 5/21 PHARM
5/22 PHYSIO
5/23 PHYSIO
5/24 IMMUN
5/25 BEHAV
5/26 BEHAV
5/27 PATH
WEEK 10 QBANK, QBANK, QBANK, QBANK
6/3 NBME
6/5 NBME
6/7 NBME
6/9 NBME
I should be ready anytime from the 10th.
looks herculean. i can do it by His grace.
i will need to wake up each morning at 5:30 and sleep at 12mn . i have a full time job as a research scholar at the university. i will nap at 5pm for an hour to resume study at 6pm.i am only believing that since i have gone through such a rigorous life before, i can draw on that past experience and get through. i will need to live and breathe and move and think and dream USMLE SUCCESS,USMLE SUCCESS.
Edited by tolito on 04/02/06 - 06:01 PM
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| general malaise
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good plan tolito. your first paragraph describes exactly how i feel sometimes since i started preparing for step 1. sometimes i wake up and think "oh my god, do i really think i can overcome such a beast of an exam, i gotta be crazy". i wish you the best.
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"El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz" Benito Juarez
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| hodgkins
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Hi tolito..welcome to the journal world!
Nice to see you with a great schedule ahead..this time sure you will make it happen..keep moving, and Yes U will..by Gods grace. All the best tolito
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WE CAN DO IT..!!!
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| ing
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Wish you the best!
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Never give up!!
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| infliximab
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GOODLUCK TO U TOLITO
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| robin082006
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Good plan Tolito,
Good luck
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The Key to Succeed is Patience.
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| tolito
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thanks guys for visiting and for your well wishes.
well i am on the way to executing my plan. tonight i am going to conclude pharma with 2 readings of antiarryth and cns drugs. i hate these 2 areas. i just mix up all the receptors and discharges. i just cannot seem to want to read the electrical charges of the heart and brain pathways and transmitters.
i have till 12mn to do so. i will not be popular with my family cos i have no time to go to the movies and do all the silly stuff. i may make sunday my day of 'rest' ie. light study. so i can go to the movies with my man. he feels so neglected right now. i do not know what to do. i tend to go about stuff the 'surgeon's' way ie 'quick, sharp and clean!!! it will hurt but i got to do it'. this does not make me very popular but i get stuff done this way.
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| tolito
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it's 11:15 i cannot make it till 12mn. no point reading when i am not assimilating. i am better off sleeping.
i had an ambitious schedule for tonight. i couldn't do antipsychotics, anti depressants and i just browsed thro anaesth drugs. that reflected in my performance in tonight's qbank. i scored 66% and had 20mins time left. it is funny how it keeps telling me i scored higher than average. it worries me that the test is too simple.
anyway tomorrow is sunday, i will go to church and have dinner with friends so i may not get to do any studying till late. cos i must give my man time tomorrow.
i will make up for today's leftover. i am lucky that i am reading behav so i can read up those areas along with it cos they are relevant.
now for a hot shower and then a well deserved cup of brandy laced ice-cream (just a teaspoon... is good for the heart...u know .. good cholesterol via little alcohol).
i will post a few questions tomorrow. i wonder if i run the risk of being arrested for copyright infringement by kaplan!!!! so i will paraphrase and rephrase them so they can no longer accuse me of copyright infringement. like dr pepper and pepsi. abciximab and infliximab. different names?? so we get T-BANK.
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| tolito
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just found out that pass mark is over 70% for Qbank. that makes sense cos i was really worried with my 'above average' scores.
so i got to buckle up!!!! this girl is gunning for a 99
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| tolito
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sun.
alarm went at 6am ( i changed it to 6 from 5:30). did my usual, ie turned it off and turned over to continue my sleep. couldnt sleep!!!! kept remembering i was behind schedule. nothing like good old determination!! so here i am with a cup of coffee.
today's goal. kaplan ch 14 (psychopharmacology) and maybe start 13 (organic disorders) too. i doubt i can read much today but i will endeavour.
nothing ventured, nothing gained
ciao.
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| USMLEGladiator
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Tolito,r u IMG?when graduated?
Q-bank scores above 70 r very good.But Q-bank Qs r quite different from NBME.
It is said that just rough estimate add 15-20 points to ur q-bank score to get mle score.
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scores are just up to how high we aim and of course the amount of effort and time we put into it
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| tolito
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hi usmle gladiator,
thanks for your comments. so i need to aim for 80's in qbank. trouble is qbank may not be indicative for me as i go along cos i intend to have done all the questoins at least 4times. one tends to remember the answers even if you dont understand them. i intend to take the nbme a couple weeks before the scheduled date of exam. i will take all forms that should be a good assessment. i pray to have enough time to make corrections.
yes i am img. am over 10yrs since grad.
mmm.... over 10yrs since grad. that is like asking a woman her age. she goes, am 20 something. that means she is around 28yrs and does not want to remember she is closer to 30. but like it or not, she will have to say 30 someday...
i sometimes dont want to remember my years since grad cos it discourages me some. but friends say i have a few things in my favour like i have been working as a physician everyday since grad, i have poat grad residency, i have a few publications etc etc. will cross that bridge when i get there.
its 9:30 and am just back from friends'. had a nice dinner.. steak and mashed potatos and chocolate cake. i should remember physio and post prandial shunting of blood from brain. i will rewrite the books and prove that higher cerebral centres prevent the shunting . no sleeping for me till 12mn. i aim to finish cns pharma.
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| tolito
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woke up this morning at 6:05. before my alarm!!!! i went to bed at 1am and just tossed and turned i probably got to sleep around 3am. so i set the alarm for 8:30am and now, here i am awake. nothing but deperation to wake you up. i know i will feel sleepy by 10 or max 12noon. good thing is the uni is on spring break.
last night i went ot bed unhappy cos i was doing so badly in qbank beh. i tried my usual 50q but i didnt go beyond 22 before i stopped out of sheer frustration. check out my scores, 10 correct 12 incorrect. i just cannot understand the doct pt relationship. the answers are not in kaplan. if they are, the book is so packed together my poor brain cannot assimilate it. can anyone reading this help me out????? this is one sad girl. i was thinking of buying brs but it is 500pages long, i do not even know if it is worth spending $40 on it. if it has the answers, i will buy it. i believe that beh questions are bonus questions. you either know them or you dont. sadly, we operate differently where i come from. eg you do not tell the patient alone that he/she has a cancer if he/she has a spouse or father or mother or big brother. you ask them to come along on the day you break the news to the patient. you dont ask permision from patient to inform family about his/her condition so they can help. obviously wrong here. a 14yr old married girl does not have a right. her husband does. if he is also underage, then the parents.. ...... if you open a patient for appendicitis and find an ovarian tumour ( which they teach us is a possibility) you take a biopsy even though you ahve not got consent. the patient will be furious if s/he wakes up and you tell him/her that you need a second surgery for 'BIOPSY'. question is ' WHY DID YOU NOT TAKE IT OUT WHEN YOU SAW IT' they are not even asking for a 'BIOPSY'
well i trudge on. a new day the lord has created. i will rejoice and be glad in it.
today it is organic brain disorders. i have yesterday's backlog to worry about.
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| mitty
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tolito
try this http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/index....
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He will make it happen.
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| tolito
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mitty,
you are a life saver!!!
it is such a cool site. i will go through every single section this week. thanks.
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| tolito
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finished cns pharma and then took a nap. now, next thing is to go over again with more attention to detail. first i answer questions at end of chapter then i go back and make notes. then i am done.
i am beginning to enjoy those receptors. they were real bummers before esp first time i came across them sometime in jan. i had no clue about them. they had no rythm or rhyme but now i understand them. mmm....
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| tolito
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well well well. cns pharma, i am going to master you. like it or not. i scored so low in qbook 12 over 25. this is after 3days of reading the stuff. i got up. played my favorite music loud and i started dancing . then i did some exercies, had a shower, styled my hair, made up my face and i am back at it!!!! i wont give up.
i am picking it up again. this time around i am going to read my good old lippincott. i have never done well when i read just kaplan i dont know why i wanted to go shortcut. i am the kind of student who likes lengthy explanations in order to retain that is why kaplan alone is no good,
i am grateful to genmalaise who advised brs and also p53. i cannot wait for it to arrive. i may need to change my schedule.....
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| tolito
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YES!!!! 24 correct out of 25. not much to shout about since it was second time of answering questions; i had better grasp of the concept and i saw my pitfalls the first time. i just love my lippincott.
i have done up a room for myself. i have a nice armchair, a desk, a bed, a tv. i am doing it all pretty in orange to keep me awake. i have yellow cardboard as posters to paste all the stuff i want to remember. i will paste these on the wall and add stuff to them each day. i intend to look at them everyday. one is going to be a list of drugs that i come across for the day. the drugs are endless. can you believe that in my first pass at the questions, i did not know what class of drug paroxetine was???? is it surprising i got a miserable 12 correct out of 25. i will not be caught sloppy anymore about these drugs.
well it is 12:07 so i will retire and tomorrow is another day. i will post some knotty questions before i sign off.
ciao.
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| tolito
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woke up at 7:30 this morning. i have been going to sleep later than my plan and that does not help cos it is hard to wake up early. mmm.
today ch 13.
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| tolito
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half way through. been 'easy' reading schizo, mood disorders and .... sometimes i wonder while reading all these mental disorders and personality disorders ' is that not a bit like me or like my friend or like .....' it is true that there is some madness in all of us. i like the postsript of a member of this forum which says ' a mad man thinks 2 plus 2 is 5 but an anxious man knows it is 4 but worries about why'
ok back to work.
i read something very puzzling in HY it says TCA and antipsychotics are inhibitors of H2 receptors. i cannot find that in my lippincott or kaplan. are they inhibiting h2 in the stomach????? so why are they not used for ulce management??????????? someone out there please help. this may be the question that makes or breaks!!!!!
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| tolito
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i need to stop 1 and half hours before my deadline. i am fagged. been slugging at it since 7:30am. it's 10:30pm. oh no did not spend the entire time studying!!! took a littl nap around 11:30 then lunch at 2:30 then dinner at 6:30. so maybe in all i have done round about 11hrs. my brain is fried.
read
schizo
anxiety disorders
mood disorders
incl their drugs. i think next to cvs, cns has the greatest number of drugs. but i found cvs drugs easier to remember. anyway i have 3 small pocket memos. one for stats, one for drugs, one for scaps of information.
cannot do any qbank tonight it wont be worth the excercise cos i wont learn from it and i wont even be able to think straight to answer the questions. will do them first thing tomorrow.
cannot wait for brs beh to arrive.
a domani
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| rouadefoc
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ALL THE BEST TO ALL AND MAY YOU ALL FIND YOURSELF WHEREVER YOU WANTED TO BE.
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| tolito
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thanks rouadefoc.
where i want to be, mmm. big wish come true.
starting late this morning. hubby came in late from work which disrupted my sleep.
first, do qestions (for yesterday) then add neccessary points to notes.
then today is chapters 1 and 2. stats and epid... my 2 worst topics. i just hate them. it is second reading for these but trouble is it will feel like a first cos i just cannot retain the stuff in them.
am still pondering about H2 antag effect of TCA and AntiPsychotics. no answers yet.mmm
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| 26malik
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Dear Tolito
I cant help but say that your journal is so very interesting. its like reading a novel. i must say.
Your style is so good. (You should try out to be a writter.) Or like publish your diary after the exam
And I learned so many good points from your journal. thanks for sharing them.
tomorrow when my alarm will try to wake me up, i will use " good old determination".& look for score in 80s in qbank.
All the best to you.
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There is always hope
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| tolito
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malik,
i just cracked up when i read your posting . thanks for the compliment. a writer??? hmm, that is something to think about esp if i do not make it!!!! did you see the one about the guy, an aspiring writer, who spent 41hrs in walmart and became famous????? i am glad you enjoy reading and also that it makes sense to you...
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