Bianca Gruber, Class of 2009
SCHEDULE (xls)
My typical day of studying went something like this –
7:30 am – wake up
8-10 – step-up
10-2 – rapid review and some questions if time
2-3 – lunch
3-6 – enjoy the weather, sit outside and go through first aid and do some questions
6-8 – back inside, first aid, questions
8-9 – dinner
9-11 – review and questions
This is just a sample and obviously it varied a lot from day to day. I liked to do questions throughout the day because it breaks things up nicely. It can get really boring to sit and read for hours on end, so if I found myself losing concentration I would do some questions to keep myself working rather than just staring at my books and not absorbing anything. I think if I learned anything throughout 1st and 2nd year, it is that forcing yourself to sit and study because that’s what you think you should be doing is a waste of time if you aren’t into it. You are far better off taking a night off and taking it easy and starting up fresh the next day if that’s what you need to do, than just forcing yourself to sit there and go at it even though you aren’t getting much accomplished. Listen to your body and be flexible with your day!
BOOKS
- FIRST AID – this one is obviously a must have, as everyone always says. I didn’t use it during 1st and 2nd year at all, and when I started using it to study for the boards I actually was not very pleased with the book at all. Some sections are better than others (for instance I found all of the pathophysiology sections to be ok, but micro was pretty bad), and the way it is written can seem extremely disjointed at times. Even though I hated it at the time, I forced myself to at least go through it for every section as I studied that, and it wasn’t until about a week before my exam that I really appreciated this book for what it is, which is an extremely high yield review. It’s easy to use it while you are studying and get frustrated at all the information that is left out, but once you are going back and reviewing everything you will appreciate it. I added a fair amount of info in the margins as I did questions so I would have it right there for review.
- Step-Up – This book gives a great and easy to read overview of everything and his some really nice charts in it. I didn’t really use it for review, I just read the appropriate section of it every day as I was studying. It also has a nice chart of drugs extremely overwhelming) in the back, which I would not recommend using for studying, but it’s really good for reference while going through questions to look up and refresh yourself on some drug info.
- Rapid Review Pathology – Awesome. Use it. I bought BRS pathology too just to compare and it pretty much sucks in comparison. I got a bunch of my friends to use RR as well (it just came out in Nov 2006 so no one really knew about it) and everyone was very happy with it. After using it for the boards, I wished I would have used it for the pathophys units too because it would have been really good and helpful.
- BRS physiology – This was a decent review of first year phys so I read the appropriate section while I was going through pathophys. Wouldn’t spend a ton of time on this since it really isn’t that heavily tested, but it was a good refresher.
- ROADMAP for microbiology – this is the only class I was really freaking out about so I went out and bought a book. It’s a really good book, but there is a ton of information in it, much of which is in way to much detail. I used it for the couple of days that I studied micro and it gave me a little peace of mind which was what I needed at the time, but as the exam came closer I began to realize that even though the micro section in first aid is a mess and terribly organized, most of the really key points about organisms are in there somewhere. So for review I only used first aid, but for an initial overview, a book like this was good.
- Pharm – I freaked out about pharm and was considering buying a book but they all had so much information in them that I knew I would never make it through them anyways and they would probably stress me out more than help me. So, I decided pharm could be my weakest subject and I was ok with that, so I studied exclusively first aid. And believe it or not, I think it was more than enough. Some of the questions, especially the Kaplan ones, ask REALLY detailed things about drugs which is what freaked me out in the first place, but the real test was surprisingly not bad. The same went for anatomy by the way, which I ended up not studying at all except learning the stuff as I went along the question banks. The same concepts come up over and over again, and it’s those same things that are tested on the boards, and so since the test isn’t all that heavy on anatomy I just went with that plan and it worked out ok.
QUESTIONS
- Kaplan Q-bank – It’s an ok questions bank but the questions ask ridiculously detailed information which will make you feel stupid and are really much pickier than the actual test. I got annoyed with this question bank about a week into my studying so after a little online searching on better question banks I signed up for USMLE world which is by far the best questions you can do to prepare.
- USMLE world – EXACTLY like the real test, except in general a little harder and more thought requiring. I would DEFINITELY get this! Personally I still used Kaplan as well, but Kaplan is kind of a rip-off and the questions suck anyways so it really isn’t necessary. If you think you’ll have time to make it through all of USMLE world, I would get Kaplan too, if not, just use this one.
I also had the first aid question book and the robbins question book, neither of which I really used.
A note on questions – this is the best way to prepare for the exam. But, it’s pointless to do questions if you haven’t studied the material well, so you need to find a balance. Also, they WILL freak you out at the beginning when you find yourself seemingly unable to score much above a 50% no matter what you do. It’s ok….just keep studying and it will get better, I promise. My percentages on the question banks weren’t even that great towards the end so I was surprised by how well I did on the actual exam….I was scoring around a 70-80% on random sets of Kaplan and USMLE world questions in the days leading up to my test.
PRACTICE TESTS
I didn’t do the practice test that you can do at the testing center, but from what I have heard they are a good idea, and most people who did them are glad that they did. So that’s a good option. I just did 2 of the online NBME tests, 7 and 4 days before my test. I don’t know if I would recommend doing them, only because the questions are completely unlike the actual test questions. I kept reading online that it was a good indicator of how you would do, which I don’t really understand since the questions were just random things out of nowhere, and the majority were one or two liners, when on the real test almost all the questions are pretty long. Mostly they freaked me out because they made me feel like I had to really focus on biochem and memorizing little details, which isn’t the case on the real thing. The only nice thing about it is it gives you an estimated score, so at least you can reassure yourself that you are on your way to a passing rather than failing score, since it’s hard to gauge where you stand otherwise. So if I had to do it over again, I would probably do 1 of these tests, and remind yourself that although the score might be a decent indicator of where you’re headed, the types of questions really aren’t.
Overall you just need to accept that you are never going to know everything….pick and choose your battles wisely, and go with it. I wouldn’t completely blow anything off, but if there’s something you feel like you will never be that great at (pharm for me), then study it hard, but really focus more effort on areas where you feel like you can make a bigger difference. And even though you will get extremely frustrated along the way, you have to just keep studying even though at times it feels futile, and you will start to see progress. Good luck!
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