hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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Hi MLE takers,
I thought I would add my exam experience(Be warned-This will be long!)-
To start with I want to thank all those people in these forums that help others with tips and notes, my prep/life last 4 months would have been much more miserable without this!Thanks to the Prep4usmle support staff too for maintaining this great site! I must admit that this is my first post and I am not a pro , I am doing this mainly because when I was preparing I ferquented MLE forums and looked for advice, tips on studying, sometimes motivation too and I think its important that I pay back my debts at least in part to the netters who helped me when I was looking for guidance. I break it up into parts so that it makes it easier for those who are looking for specific things:
Prep time:
Collected stuff since last year but didn’t get serious about prep till the last 4-5 months- this too was only after I took my exam slot in Oct-Dec-as you can see I am not the most organised/disciplined student!
My resources:
Mostly Kaplan notes-2004-except
Anatomy- used High yield �"Gross Anatomy, NeuroAnatomy and embryology. Pathology-used Goljan Pathology Review for 1st read, but revised only with 100pg notes And used the mp3s- early in prep-I am not sure if I remembered most of what I heard as I used it also when I was doing something else and this was approx 4-5 months before the test- but I would recommend it to everyone who has time- It’s a good place to start �"also towards the end I was too stressed to listen to anything ;-)
Physio- I was not at all confident about this-started with some old Kaplan notes-2000 or so that I got from a senior then did BRS physio- Constanzo- but still was messing up all my Acid base stuff!
Of the Kaplan stuff I liked the Micro-Immuno stuff and Behaviour Sciences a lot And I used FA2006 first read 4-5 months ago when I started and added stuff that I used to forget occasionally from my other reading- this helps in 2 ways �
one when you paraphrase what you read and (not just copy it)- it helps your memory � and secondly those synapses are reactivated one week before the test when you review FA+ your notes- this is really important because otherwise you will panic like I almost did on the last week when its impossible to revise everything from the original books- even if you only skim thru the notes, it will take tooo long- believe me ! I tried to do that for some subjects- And this is the reason I found FA useful- It made me feel that this test was somehow possible to prepare for- most people underestimate the importance of this- Dont get me wrong, what I personally felt was that Not everything in FA was tested and also not everything in the test was in FA but I guess (hope) its enough to get a decent score- But I realise if it weren’t for FA I would have gone MAD trying to review everything and this is the worst thing that can happen before the test!(more on this later)
Question Banks:
This is where I procrastinated the most- I hated doing questions without covering all the material but I did not manage this till the last 1 month- I then decided that I would do only QBank subjectwise and try to do Qbook if there was time and of course the MLE CD �" Again this is what I failed to realise beforehand that doing questions is REALLY Time consuming- I struggled to do 200 questions the first 2 days but after a week was slightly better but still I found it difficult to do more than 350 questions in a day and learn from the mistakes- again added the stuff I forgot in FA- by this time it was just a bit random where in the book- when I reviewed I realised that a lot of the stuff was already in FA- indicating that this is really commonly tested!- but then I couldn’t do Qbook as I had only a week left and was panicking- decided wisely to start final revision of the subjects in FA- took approx 3 days, then had to travel to test site and also do the 3 tests on the MLE CD- I was really freaking out before I did the CD as I thought I was not at all prepared but then doing the tests helped me realise that to answer the questions, you need to think and not just memorise information.
The test:
On test day I was way too tense, tried to sleep for 6 hours but kept waking up and checking the time till 3am! Got to the centre 20 minutes early but was nervous for the 1st block when I looked at the clock after each question and read most of the questions 2 times just to make sure- a classic OCD case! I just managed to finish with 2 minutes for the 1st couple of blocks but later when I wasn’t so tense, there was at least 5 minutes left at the end to check answers- I think in this respect the advice in the beginning chapter of Qbook was the best- some questions are strange- in the later blocks I saved time by just taking my choice and moving on-I didn’t waste too much time on stuff that I simply did not know/ remember/ had no clue-this is also what made me feel a bit better on the later blocks- as to what my score is, and wheter I made the right choices, I will only know after 6 weeks!And now I am getting into full blown mania after 48 odd hours with 3 hours of sleep But before that happens- MLE takers- this is what I can summarise as the most useful pieces of advice:
As Goljan says, Concepts are whats tested, quite often, you just have to think and most of the info is in the question (which is difficult to answer if you are too tense or are just trying to cram the answer from a test that you saw before) And as the Qbook says, Admit that you willl get a few wrong, and decide not to waste time on those that you anyway do not know. Overall my favourite quote from Qbook, (easy to say but tough to do as you all no doubt know) Take care of yourself, suffering helps no one! 
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| jamdoc
Forum Elite
Topics: 30
Posts: 244
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good luck.im sure u wud get good score
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Dont worry.Nobody knows 100%
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| hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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Hi JAm doc ,
Thanks a lot ! I like your quote!
Its just that I was a bit surpised by the 'strange'ness - may be some of them are strange or more likely may be it was me I too read some exam experience but my own was well, not what I expected!(I hope thats not the same with the results) It was almost like 50- 60% of the answers I had to think on the spot right there and me being hypomanic didnt help!
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| drbcshah
Forum Elite
Topics: 48
Posts: 227
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can you tell me about % Q you got right on practice?
Thanks and all the best for score
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| dartikaz
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 39
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Thanks for sharing your experience!! Sure you will get a great score.... Now chill.. and get good night sleep!!! GL
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| MRMAVERICK
Forum Guru
Topics: 43
Posts: 774
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gud luck
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245/264/CS awaiting result/2006 Grad/Need VISA
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| KOBITA
Forum Junior
Topics: 14
Posts: 53
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Respected Friend,
At first good luck for your exam. Can you please tell me that, in how many questions you saw graphs from Pharmacolgy(means E, NE, Ganglion blocker action on different setting) as well as calculations? How was the genetic, molecular biology and Biostatistic portion?? As, all of those staffs are nightmare for me.
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| hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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Thanks for the wishes!
Most of the QBANK I did subject wise and I used get on Average only 65% in Physio and upto 70-80% on Patho and the rest were b/w 65-75%-
On the MLE CD a couple of days before the test I got close 80% but then you already have 'seen' most of these questions sometime during your prep, so might not mean anything- the reason is most of the questions on my test were not the same as I seen on QBanks-Not that they asked totally different stuff but the questions were either a mix of other questions I had seen on Qbanks or the answer choices were very different- eg if you had question about CD markers on T cells, the choices were not just the numbers but you had to point to the part of the FACS plot which had the right population- It was in fact asking you for the same info- for eg helper TCells are CD4+ but then you had go 1 step further and look for the right area on the FACSplot- In the first few blocks I would get nervous when I saw stuff like this but then when you calm down, its basically the same thing
Overall may be 5-10 q out of 350 were stuff that I hadnt seen in my prep - and unfortunately KOBITA these were the strange Mol bio stuff, may be these were even experimental??
I had to calculate only may be only less than 3-4 questions, I was happy about that , and these were relatively simple sensitivity stuff
As pharma there was the usual drug x blocks what kind of stuff but then choices were again drug names so you had to know the additional step- but again these were maybe only 3-4 questions- so if you are really sure you dont know the answer then mark something save this time for Patho which was I guess the bulk of the exam
Ethics screwed me esp in the 1st blocks when I spent 2-3 minutes reading the question 3-4 times and changing choices when in the end I had no idea which was right- later blocks I realised that this is useless and saved time by just making a choice and looking at the question again only if I had time in the end of the block
Another thing I forgot to mention earlier was the break time- I took a break after evry block as I was very nervous in the beginning and I needed to break to calm myself down- In end I decided this was what worked for me and i skipped Lunch and made a break after evry block for 10 minutes- But this obviously depends on you- to find a balance between using the break time later in the exam to beat fatigue, and using it afetr each block to just calm yourself - Also I was more used to breaks after 1 hour because of thats what I did also while studying- I found that if I tried to go on for 2 hours without a break, i would make stupid mistakes after 100 minutes- But if you are a slow starter and need 'warm' up then may doing 2 blocks cotinuously like Kaplan recommends is better
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| abdo
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 136
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did u use usmleworlds ? adn what do u think about it ?
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stupidity: the art of making locks instead of making keys
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| hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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abdo- I didnt use usmleworlds and so have no idea about it
But I got my score yesterday finally afetr waiting for a month which felt more like a year-
But it was worth the wait- got a 99/254!!!!
Thanks to everyone in the forum for their input- and for all the answers to questions about preparing that I wanted to ask but didnt have have anybody around as I am working in a lab
Best of luck to those who are preparaing - if there are any others questions I would be ahppy to answer them- (but be patient as I am not very regularly online
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| Luckyall
Forum Guru
Topics: 11
Posts: 593
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Congrats !!!!! 
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| jamdoc
Forum Elite
Topics: 30
Posts: 244
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congrats on great score.goodluck for other exams
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| Ancylostoma
Forum Guru
Topics: 42
Posts: 637
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Great score, all the best in the future
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| drplacebo
Forum Senior
Topics: 6
Posts: 138
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Its raining 99's ........But each of 'em have a great story behind them.
Thanx for your valuable experience.....
A HUGE CONGRATS.....!!!
Hav a blast..
GudLuck for future....
Edited by drplacebo on 02/01/07 - 04:36 AM
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nothing in this world thats worth having,comes easy!!!- "SCRUBS"
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| laura81
Forum Elite
Topics: 32
Posts: 176
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hypomanic..... what are "FACSplot" and CONGRATS!!!!!!!
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| sukhs
Forum Senior
Topics: 18
Posts: 200
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BIGGGGG CONGRATULATIONS FOR THIS BIGGG SCORE
GOOD LUCK IN FUTURE
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Everyone works equally hard.....God alone decides the reward...
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| zenith
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congratulations on getting an awesome score! i was just wondering - r u a recent grad? also, u mentioned that u work in a lab - do u work full-time? actually, i work full-time and find it very hard to balance job+studying for this exam. any tips would be appreciated!
also, how many times did u revise everything and how many hours were you putting in everyday?
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| hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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Hi all,
Thanks a lot for the wishes! (Warning Long reply!!)
Laura 81- FACSplot refers to the plot of the FACS- pretty useful huh 
-no seriously its the diagram that you see when you do FACS-Fluorecence Activated Cell Sorting- usually they show a plot and you have to identify the cell type eg cell type thats missing in the patient compared to controls- the point is that they expect you to know that the celly in the right upper quadrant are double positive for the markers that are being anaylsed- for eg in AIDS CD3+CD4+ cells are decreased- so the choices will not be names but A;B,C,D referring to the 4 quadrants of the graph or different graphs abd you have to pick the right one- it not difficult- mainly common sense but if you havent seen one before you might freak out
Dear Zenith, I fully understand your situation-because it is like mine(although I am manic, I have insight)I was in the same dilemma from last July or so when I registerd for the exam- I tried to study a few hours everyday -like it says in Kaplan- Punch in those 2 (or 3 or how many hours that you can fit into your schedule ) as if you were starting your 2nd job-Whenever I thought that it was getting too much, I thought about other students who work part time in bars and MacDonalds and I felt a lot better that at least I was learning a lot in my "2nd " job
an important point is that you should try to make a realistic plan beased on your situation- if you only have 2 hours each day then make sure that you plan something for at least the week ahead- It might not always be possible to stick to the plan every day- i.e if the Acid base chapter took 3 hours instead of the 1 hour that you had planned then make up for the 2 hours on the weekend- or at least have some days for revision and some days off as a back up in case you dont stick to your schedule
And be flexible- I realised that I wont have time to do both Qbook and Qbank because of lack of time and so I did Qbank- thanks to the advice from the forum - but then convinced myself that it is practically impossible to completely know everything but it is more important to keep your cool and apply what you know- rather than try to do both and get stressed out -
And 3 weeks before the exam I told my boss that i will need time off for the exam and I took the last 2 weeks off to concentrate on the exam- For me this was important (although difficult as I didnt know how my boss would take it ) as I would not have been able to work in this time- May be it helps when you are manic(and very much look manic) and ask for a couple of weeks off  - My point is if you are going to take this exam seriously try to at least get a couple of weeks off - it is an expensive exam and only should be once in a liftime- the last days when it was getting a bit too much I just closed my eyes and imagined what it would feel like walking out of the test centre and having my life back!
As for the number of hours and number of revisions- it went in opposite propotions with time- earlier I thought more about number of revisions and less about the hours that are required - Later I realised one or two revisions but more thorough and active revisions where you integrate all the subjects
eg meningitis revision: fever photophobia, vomiting- neck rigidity- -clinical med,
spinalLevel for lumbar tap- Anat
Micro/Epidemiology common causes in different age groups- Micro findings on spinal tap in the main causes- again integrate with PHOTOS- Gram negative diplococci is not enough if you dont know that look pink/red in the photo because you will need to identify it-
then Pharma drugs used for treatment and their sideeffects..
and force yourself to think with questions are better than 10 revisions when you just turning pages without thinking- In the final days I calmed myself down because I had nt revised evrything 3 times but I thought Quality is more important and most important- ITS ALL in YOUR MIND- If you feel confident after one revision good for you, but if you dont feel confident even after 3 then there's something wrong with the way you are revising- It a bit like asking how much should I exercise- It depends on how fit you are and each preson is different- If you think 2 hours a day is enough, then use those 2 hours efficiently but plan to cover all areas during your prep- esp the big hitters-Patho,Physio, Micro Pharma- and high yield stuff like biostats- specificity, sensitivity, Anat- Fractures, Cranial nerves, etc
6 months out I thought I will put in 3-4 hours evryday and 8-10 hours on the weekends but then I realised this was not very realistic with my scheduleBUT.. I put in as many hours as I could- the important point at least for me (as I am not very disciplined) is that If I sort of fell out my schedule, I would come to this forum and look ath posts and get back on track-
Also what helps when you are down and low is having a lsit of topics that you like to revise or questions from subjects that you are good at- so that at least you can tick something off your list for that day- My favourite was the Microbio /Patho case studiesin kaplans micro notes- It also helps that you cover 40 or so pages in the time when you normally were struggling to read 10 pages- a bit like detective work - and it helps you integrate- Pharma, patho and micro- Sometimes a change of subject is as refreshing as a break
Study hard and just do it!
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| ron84
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 14
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Hi.Congrats.
My exam is in 1 week.
I am currently reviewing FA Again.
My q bank scores have never been great around 62 percent average.
Was wondering if anyone could let me know whether i should stop reviewing FA and repeat all the q bank questions or continuing review FA.
Thnaks
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| hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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Hi ron84,
Its a difficult call- the advantage of doing questions is that you think and therefore learn more actively - as in you can just read through questions just looking for the rigt answer(at least you shouldnt!)- but it takes more time to cover topics with questions compared to revising with FA- I can only give you my perspective- Being hypomanic the last week before the exam I didnt want to go into mania by getting psyched out . So i decided to do only fewer questions in the last days- I went thru the MLE CD in the last week and the rest I spent revising with FA And Also Goljan high yield comes a bit handy here-( some stuff here is esoteric !But if you want a 280 then..)
- but do this thoroughly takes time- as in for me last week - just look at the topic cover whats in the FA page and try to recollect what you need to know about it for - more like making a mind map- eg. Sickle cell anemia: Genetics-AR- mutation-A to T in b-globin gene-Glutamic acid to valine -what they look like in a smear- -low oxygen causes sickling-Hb electrophoresis HbS- painful crises-Aplastic crises Parvo virus B19- Autosplenectomy-increased risk of capsulated bacterial infections- S.pneumonia/ Hinf-(vaccination) salmonella osteomyelitis-Hydroxyurea- helps by increasing HbF
Just an example- If you are wondering if I really remembered all of that ..well ask no questions and you'll hear no lies!!
the bottom line- In the last week STICK to material that you are Familiar with- and dont get too tense! Look at it this way- the new stuff you learn might help to get a couple of hi-fi questions right but the MAjority of the simple Patho stuff that you miss will be because you just dont remember because you didnt revise- Also spend soem time revising stuff like the formulae for simple Bio stats like Sensitivity, etc-
Best of luck and keep your coool- Think of it as a mostly simple exam with some weird questions in the 350 that you will see- dont let them distract you from the simple stuff that you should get right
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| ron84
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 14
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Hi thanks for the advice.
I will try to do that
:so what i have to do is try to revise the basic stuff in FA and also do USMLE CD Questions.
Just wondering:all the questions i got wrong from q bank i copied their high yield bits and answers in a copybook.do u think it will help me if i go through them in the copybook.
thanks again.
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| ron84
Forum Newbie
Topics: 3
Posts: 14
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sorry again
hopefully a last piece of advice from you.
I have the goljan lecture notes as well.do u think it is high yield to review them in the last week as u did although i have never looked at them before.
Thanks
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| zenith
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hypomanic: thank u soooooooooooooooo much for answering my Qs in so much detail. i had even forgotten that i had asked u that qs and just today i read your post again and realized that u answered my Qs long back.........sorry dear. just shows how disoriented i am these days.
but thanks again buddy. wish u all the best for step-II.
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| hypomanic
Forum Senior
Topics: 11
Posts: 153
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Hi ron84,
That a very good tip also that i saw in the forum- Making notes from the questins you missed- this helps a lot because if you see a similar question to the one you missed you will remember the imp point from your notes instead of this vague feeling of deja vu and that the answer is somewhere lost in q bank!- Try to go thru the notes with your FA review and supplement it- thats how I realised that there is already a lot of info in FA but I never thought it could be tested in that way!
I tooo got Goljan notes late in my prep but I decided it would be too much to go thru the whole thing and so I only went thru the high yield stuff- but this is also approx 100 pages and as Goljan says- like an expresso- you will need to go thru each point and try to recall what you know- and thats why its useful- you are forced to be read it more actively and think- But it also has some stuff that I doubt if it is tested- a bit like some of the qBank questions- so dont panic if you didnt know some of the points - Just keep your cool and complete the revisions and make arrangements for the test- like getting there, lunch , break time as advised in FA - BEST OF LUCK !!
Hi zenith, I understand your situation- some disorientation is part and parcel of the MLE!- It makes you feel happy when its over and 'normal' life seems a lot easier to handle- Its a bit like running a marathon- At the end you are happy when you reach the finish line and you know that you have given it your best shot. Just do it!
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Life is short, the Art long,opportunity fleeting experience treacherous, Judgement difficult - Hippocrates
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| zenith
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thanks buddy!
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