Freaking out...HELP! I could really use some advice! 200 on my NBME 16; Test in 45 days...What next?

[Hanta Bunyana]

Hello everyone,

I'm freaking out - I scored 200 according to NBME 16; in two of the blocks, I ran out of time and couldn't get to the last 3 questions.

I finished my M2 year, and was attempting to finish Uworld like everyone else in my class since January. But I ran into some major personal problems that turned out to be (believe it or not) more important than Step 1. So my studying for the exam has been suboptimal, and I finished roughly 75% Uworld. When I did get a chance throughout my classes, I bought Kaplan Qbank (finished 20%) and USMLERx (finished 50%). I also did Pathoma throughout the year with classes, but I'm starting to go back to my heavily annotated content and videos.

I still have time, so I'm not worried about absolutely failing the exam. But I want to get the best score I can get ( shooting for >245) because I still have dreams of getting into a specialty of my choice. Is this still possible for me? What do you guys suggest I do? And what do you think of my current plan below?

My current plan:
6:30am-12:30 pm: 2.5-3 hrs of DIT (my way of going through First Aid) + 2 hrs of Pathoma + 1 hours of Anki flash cards/Firecracker of Microbes and Drugs among other factoids I need to memorize
1:00-11:30 pm: 1 block Kaplan 44Qs + 1 block USMLERx 46 Qs and going over answers. If I have time to spare, 5-10 Uworld Questions.
12-6: Sleep and start all over again the next day for 30 days.

The remaining 15 days:
6:30am-12:30 pm: Anki cards of USMLERx, Kaplan, mechanisms of disease, Pathoma cards/pages, First Aid
1:00pm-11:30 pm: Uworld - finish remaining questions + Uworld SA + First Aid

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[seminoma]

Just my experience, but there's no way you get through 2.5-3 hours of DIT in 4 hours of real time.. 2.5 hours of DIT + 3 hours of other stuff definitely isn't happening. At a score of 200 with goal of >245 there's no point in doing flashcards of "factoids you need to memorize". There are too many things you don't know to be devoting time to things you think are important or think you need to memorize. More importantly, you'll be surprised how many of those factoids you learn/memorize without focusing on them in the form of flashcards or notetaking. Many important concepts and facts come up again and again in UW questions and UW explanations. For example, I had planned to spend a few hours during my last few days of studying to memorize pharm equations and heart sounds. But when I sat down to review my notes about them I realized that I had already memorized them simply by seeing them so many times over the course of a single pass of UW. Another example is the list of P450 drugs in FA. I never once actively studied them (save for reading that particular pharm page 2-3 times), but by the time myt est came around I knew them all just from seeing them individually throughout UW. On the other hand, lysosomal storage disorders came up a few times in UW and I read about them 2-3 times in FA, but I still didn't have them memorized (still don't). Save that type of focused studying for when you're closer to your goal and/or test date and have compiled a (hopefully) short list of things that you still aren't great at.

Don't to Kaplan during dedicated.

You need more than 30 minutes to eat (e.g. break time). You need to workout. You need to schedule time to relax. I also recommend sleeping for at least 7 hours.

I don't know what SAQs are.

To be honest your plan looks kind of similar to my original study plan, but in the end I ditched Anki (except for a pathoma deck) and never planned on doing kaplan or a significant number of Rx questions. Even though you've already gone through 75% of UW it seems like you didn't get a whole lot out of it and I think you should just stick to UFAP and NBMEs.

Read a chapter of FA per day, 1-2 UW blocks per day, pathoma when you can. Schedule regular days off. Also schedule the # of UW blocks per day so that you can finish UW completely with 7-10 days left before your test date. In that last week just do 1-2 NBMEs, the prometric practice test, and a final pass of FA.

 

[Hanta Bunyana]

Just my experience, but there's no way you get through 2.5-3 hours of DIT in 4 hours of real time.. 2.5 hours of DIT + 3 hours of other stuff definitely isn't happening. At a score of 200 with goal of >245 there's no point in doing flashcards of "factoids you need to memorize". There are too many things you don't know to be devoting time to things you think are important or think you need to memorize. More importantly, you'll be surprised how many of those factoids you learn/memorize without focusing on them in the form of flashcards or notetaking. Many important concepts and facts come up again and again in UW questions and UW explanations. For example, I had planned to spend a few hours during my last few days of studying to memorize pharm equations and heart sounds. But when I sat down to review my notes about them I realized that I had already memorized them simply by seeing them so many times over the course of a single pass of UW. Another example is the list of P450 drugs in FA. I never once actively studied them (save for reading that particular pharm page 2-3 times), but by the time myt est came around I knew them all just from seeing them individually throughout UW. On the other hand, lysosomal storage disorders came up a few times in UW and I read about them 2-3 times in FA, but I still didn't have them memorized (still don't). Save that type of focused studying for when you're closer to your goal and/or test date and have compiled a (hopefully) short list of things that you still aren't great at.

Don't to Kaplan during dedicated.

You need more than 30 minutes to eat (e.g. break time). You need to workout. You need to schedule time to relax. I also recommend sleeping for at least 7 hours.

I don't know what SAQs are.

To be honest your plan looks kind of similar to my original study plan, but in the end I ditched Anki (except for a pathoma deck) and never planned on doing kaplan or a significant number of Rx questions. Even though you've already gone through 75% of UW it seems like you didn't get a whole lot out of it and I think you should just stick to UFAP and NBMEs.

Read a chapter of FA per day, 1-2 UW blocks per day, pathoma when you can. Schedule regular days off. Also schedule the # of UW blocks per day so that you can finish UW completely with 7-10 days left before your test date. In that last week just do 1-2 NBMEs, the prometric practice test, and a final pass of FA.

I really appreciate your comprehensive feedback. Thanks man!
I meant Uworld Self-assessment

Also....my lowest scores were in cardio, embryo/anatomy and multi-system/general principles. Maybe it'll be worthwhile to do the beginning few sections of pathoma first. Another thing I think I should do is think carefully about these NBME questions - some of the NBME answer choices have terminology I never heard of so far and was NOT in FA/pathoma but later made sense to me when I read the words out loud while reviewing my results. There are some questions I can never prepare for, but I think the answers are there if I think critically if that's the case.

I'll try to schedule time to relax and exercise...but my mind is on one thing right now so I'll see where my determination takes me

 

[Sea Otter]

Uworld + First Aid + Pathoma (aka UFAP) is all you need for 230+. You can throw in some extra micro or drug flashcards if you really want but 90-95% of what you need is in those 3 sources.

 

[coffeesnob]

i think you need to think about what you can reasonably accomplish within 45 days. three qbanks are too much... way too much.

i finished rx during MS2. then finished uworld during my dedicated 6 weeks. going through uworld took me 3 weeks (with referencing FA and Pathoma alongside).

if i were you, i would really stick to UFAP. uworld, FA and pathoma. reading FA cover to cover took me 5 days too. it was miserable 5 days. then I read it again a week before my real deal.

also, you need time to do practice tests. you want to as many NBMEs as you can do.

bottomline: drop kaplan and rx qbanks. finish uworld first. do incorrect questions. if you want, reset and do it again (if time allows). go through FA at least once (it is very very very dense). take NBMEs. that would take up at least 4-5 weeks.

 

[sliceofbread136]

My vote is to drop DIT, Anki, firecracker and kaplan. Focus on Uworld, firstaid and pathoma. At this point I wouldn't even bother with pathoma and focus on just memorizing his guidebook.

And info you find in uworld annotate into first. Also do an NBME every one or two weeks.