study plan...

[Ella]

Hey guys,

Ok so I finally made an account instead of just posting as an unregistered person.

I am writing my exam in august (haven't picked a date yet) and I was wondering if I could get some input here.

1.) I am going to start UW questions on the in two weeks. Reason for this is that I'm on my last "revision" before I start questions. So I will have one week in June, all of July and most of August for UW questions. Is this much time enough? How many questions are there?

2.) Should I purchase Qbank as well? Money is not an issue ....so if it's worth it along with UW questions please let me know.

3.) I haven't done any NBMEs. I wanted to do them closer to the exam date. Is this a good idea?

Just so you all know I am using the following resources:

1. First Aid - With FA what I did was I got the book unbound and hole punched so that it would be all loose pages. Then I put it in a big binder and kept adding pages of my own notes, diagrams etc to the binder behind the corresponding pages. So really I ended up combining all my resources into this big binder (including Kaplan notes)
2. Rapid Review Path with the Goljan audio
3. Kaplan Biochem/genetics

Please let me know what you all think!

Thanks.

[stateofequilibrium]

1.) You should be doing UW NOW. NOW NOW NOW. Don't waste two weeks. You LEARN as you take the questions by going over EACH explanation of the questions you got right and wrong. Don't delay. Sign up now!

2.) If money isn't an issue, why not? The more questions the better.

3.) You should space them out between now and your exam date. You should be using them as a learning tool to see not only where you stand overall but the breakdown of your strengths and weaknesses so you can readjust accordingly.

[Dr. X]

if i were you, i would get UW right away (like soe said)..

this is how i would think..
they got 2000+ questions. 2mth time is about 60 days.. 10 days miss, so 50 days.

2000/50 = 40 q's a day. i normally take up about an hour per 10 questions so thats about 4 hrs/day.

You might take more or less so do UW first for few days.. see how your schedule's fitting your plan and if you feel that you could take up qbank as well.. go from there on. i chose not to do qbank cause i spend rest of the day studying from text after starting the day with 4hrs of uw.

[Ella]

Hey guys...thanks for the help.

Dr. X you said that it takes you 1hour for 10 questions. Do you mean studying the theroy behind each question?

Do you study each question as you go a long or do you do timed 50 questions per hour?

Isn't it better to do the timed random 50 question blocks??

Thanks!

[Dr. X]

it basically depends on which format you choose to study.

1) some do the 50 questions (within 1 hr), then go over explanation (another 1-3hrs)

2) some jus do questions and read educational objective.

3) i do tutor mode with 50 (4-5hrs) usually. question then explanation. i treat it more like a relevant textbook. i focus on all of the explanation.

Ive had time so this approach is better for me. I also take notes on a notebook very briefly. Use FA a bit too. my plan is to finish uw in the first 3 mths. Im also getting another uw account just for one month (4th month - which also happens to be my last month) to go over it 2nd time around. Alot faster of course cause i would be familiar with most neway. planning to use nbme for assessment. PS: i use uw only in the mornings.

So prepare yourself according to the time you got.