go blue
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i'm new to this forum and have never posted before...however i have been here before a few times and did learn a few things that i think helped my studying and my score tremendously (namely NBME and Goljan....will say more later), so i thought this the best way to give back and say thanks to all those who have posted their experiences and advice.
i will try and make this complete as i don't usually come to this forum and will probably not be able to respond to questions.
firstly, the score that i got is totally possible. i was expecting nowhere near that (hoping to get in the 240's based on the specialties i am considering) and was literally shocked when i got my results. that was more so because i had no idea how to gauge myself while i was taking the test. on the whole, i thought the test was by no means impossible (btw i felt this way after taking it). i had seen almost everything before, with the exception of a few charts and graphs that you can never really prepare for. perhaps i just got lucky. the one thing that i do remember finding tough was behavioral science, which reflected on my qbank scores as well as my final board score analysis!
i should probably also say that i just finished second year of medical school, and that you don't have to prep for 6 or 8 months (i know some people who have been out of medical school for a while do spend a bit longer studying for the test, esp if they are working at the same time)......the most important thing is doing well your first two years :wink:
Timeline:
i started during my spring break of second year. I basically picked one subject (for me, micro) that i felt i didn't have a great handle on, and probably studied for about 4-6 hrs/day, nothing too strenuous.
luckily for me, our school implemented a new curriculum where the last five weeks of school was case studies and relatively low stress. I used free time that i had to review biochem. I went through it thoroughly , so that i didn't have to spend as much time on it during my main study period.
i essentially had 5 weeks to study after school finished. my advice is, if you're looking to get a great score, make sure you give yourself enough time. i know a lot of people who cut down their study time so they could get a slightly longer vacation. that may have worked for them, but i wanted to make sure i had enough time so that i was comfortable with all the subjects, and had at least a little time off but not too much.
Resources used:
1. GOLJAN *********
I cannot stress how much this helped me. i probably went through most of goljan's audio. i listened to most of them before i actually started my boards studying, and looking back i wish i had listened to all of them during the year when i was doing those sections in pathophys, and at least one more time before starting to study. They teach you to think 1. logically and 2. like the boards. The notes are dense and don't underestimate how long it will take to get through them. I probably read about 1/2 of them, and should have started them when i started studying (i would advise to do a couple pages a day) for the boards instead of the last week as i did.
2. Kaplan Qbank
I was told that Kaplan is not really representative of the boards in question style or content. In my experience, I would say that Kaplan was a great prep tool. If nothing else, i learned a lot from reading the explanations. I thought the style was similar (cannot comment about content as it has been about a month since the test and i'm prob trying to block it out!!) Make sure you finish the q's with adequate time to review the ones you missed (eg. 2 weeks before the test, if possible). in fact some of the q's on the board looked vaguely familiar :wink: :wink: ...esp behav sc!
3. NBME
there's a lot of debate about wether NBME is worth it because you don't see what you got right/wrong. i think that if you can afford to buy it, and i know it is expensive, that it really helps. I bought it with a friend of mine and did the q's together. I found that a really good way b/c then when you answer a question and talk it over, you have a better sense of whether you likely got it right or not. doing it this way gives you less an idea of how much you know yourself, but it helped me. i did one on my own and one with a friend. I would suggest to do the first one 2 weeks before the test and the second 1 week before, that way you don't freak out if you aren't at the score you would like. difficulty wise, i found it very comparable to the test itself.
4. Qbook: good questions, great explanations. do if u have time. i did pharm, biochem, phys, and some path. reserve for the middle-end of studying, otherwise you'll prob freak out (the q's are a little tough)...and you'll be able to test your knowledge of the subject when you read the explanations thoroughly.
5. and i totally forgot FA!! maybe that's cuz you gotta know it front to back, back to front. not much else to say bout it really. :-k
Subject:
Anatomy, Embryo: FA. High yields for reference and reading up on topics that you'll find coming up on qbank q's a lot (eg perineal anatomy!)
Genetics: school review notes, FA (in path and biochem sections)
Micro: Lippincott cards, FA, Micro made ridiculously simple
questions were not particularly detailed
Pharm: FA and Qbook explanations. Lippincott's for reference
I felt that this was totally adequate. you'll always get a drug or two that you've never heard of..but i don't think it's worth doing much extra
Behavioral: FA, High Yield. Qbank style was essentially the same as boards.
Biochem: FA, BRS, Qbook explanations
the biochem i had on the test was in general not very detailed, but i did have a few very specific ones (apparently orotic acid is more important than i thought!)
Cell Bio: *** First few chapters of high yield histo
Histo: High yield histo (did rest of chapters with corresponding phys/path sections)
Phys: FA, BRS
Path: FA, BRS (would be very comfortable with BRS, first 5 chapters esp good for molecular q's)
OK, i'm sorry that was so long :icon_sleep: ! i just wanted to make sure i put down everything i wanted to say. oh yes, and as far as test day itself, make sure you take enough breaks. there's no prize for finishing early, and you don't want to feel burned out in the middle of a section. my advice is at least 5 mins between each section. good luck to all!!!!
go blue 
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| nuprin
Forum Elite
Topics: 16
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carolina? yale?
mind if i ask your nbme and qbank scores? wondering and waiting for my scores to return...
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| go blue
Forum Newbie
Topics: 1
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go blue as in michigan
hmm...my qbank scores aren't really reflective as i went through questions more than once. I ended up with an overall % of 83, but i'm sure it would have been much lower if i had just gone through the questions once. As far as NBME, 680 (alone) and 720 (with someone else and also looking up a few very random q's in books/online). i hope that helps and good luck w/your score!
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