Whew! Finally over!
I can't really say that any one subject was really heavy on my test. I heard so many people say "oh man, i had so much _____" but really, I did not see it. Could just be the luck of the draw with my questions, but I really think that it wouldn't be a standardized test if they gave you a lot of one subject.
At any rate, heres how I did the test, and I really recommend it, especially if you are taking it at a testing center with someone (for me it was my girlfriend). This worked really well for me, and I hope it will for you too.
Eat breakfast - for me this was tough as I always get the test day stomach ache as I get nervous. I still managed to choke down a banana and some coffee (since I was using it all along to study, I still needed that caffeine to keep me awake).
Skip the Tutorial - you will want those precious minutes of break time later to collect your thoughts before diving in again. Download the software from NBME or take the practice exam so you can just dive right in on test day.
1st block - CALM DOWN. Getting the jitters is not gonna help you answer questions. Take deep breathes and get into a groove and keep going.
Take a break - not that long, maybe 5-10 min just to relax some more, realize that you are on your way to finishing the exam, and it will all be over soon. Just gotta keep working.
2nd and 3rd blocks together - Doing 2 blocks for me was great. 3 was way to much, and 4 was right out (learned from doing the NBME's). That way when you finish a block, you only have one more to go before your break. Its a great psychological trick to help you relax.
Take a lunch break - by this time it will be about noon (assuming you started between 8-9am). Take about 20 minutes to just relax and make sure to eat something!
4th and 5th blocks - These are the hardest blocks to get through, question difficulty aside. You have done so many questions up to this point, but still have just as many to go. It will be easy to get fatigued, and you will be glad that you ate something. Keep your head down and power through, knowing that your last break is coming soon.
LAST break - take another break, leaving about 5 minutes left if you need to go to the bathroom between blocks 6 and 7 (which was the case for me). Relax, and enjoy the fact that you are almost done. Eat something here too to keep that blood sugar up.
6th and 7th blocks - these are the easiest blocks to handle, because they are the last ones, but be careful not to get too excited about the exam being over. You still need to concentrate on these questions, and answer them the best you can.
You are done! If you did all of the above, you also won't have time to take the survey which would just be annoying anyway.
Doing it this way, and if you had a buddy you can commiserate together at breaks, takes the 8 hours and puts it into manageable chucks that are easy to deal with. If you can sit down and do the whole thing in 5 hours then go for it, but for those of us that take the whole hour for every block just to squeeze out those few extra points, this helps to prevent some fatigue.
My strategy for marking questions:
For me, there are always 2 different tiers of questions that I mark. Ones that I think I can figure out or I know I am close on, and ones that I have absolutely no idea how to answer. Luckily, the USMLE gives you two ways to mark questions. The check mark, and the annotate. I had never used the annotate before today, but its a great way to add a little note to yourself so when you come back to a question, you can remind yourself what you were thinking before you had to move on. For me, there wasn't always enough time to go over all the questions that I had marked, so prioritizing them made getting those extra few points more efficient. I annotated ones that I had no idea on, and check marked those that I thought I was close on. If I had enough time I would look ar both, but I made those with an "a" next to them my priority. This way I was able to get to all of the questions and concentrate all my mental effort on the really bad ones once I had answered all the questions in a block.
I was really happy with the way that the above strategies worked for me, and hopefully they can make your test day a little less stressful and a little more productive.
As a (not so) quick side note, this is what I used to prepare.
Program - Kaplan Web Prep - used the online lectures to supplement First Aid, which filled in a lot of the gaps, and meant that I didn't have to read everything. It took out a lot of the monotony.
Prep Books - First Aid, Kaplan 2007 course books
Flash cards - Many, but making your own flash cards will help you the most. Going over them every night will help you retain that information that you looked over three weeks ago while the game was on. If you think its important or interesting, make a card. If its a mnemonic, make a card. You will be surprised how well this works. I ended up making over 400 cards.
Qbank - Kaplan and UW. UW was far superior. While Kaplan dealt with a lot of detail which may have been important, UW tested important concepts and those details. The questions totally prepared me for test day. The double and triple jump questions didn't even make me flinch. The "Educational Objective" is also a good quick summary of what you should get out of the question if you are in a hurry.
Additional things - get your hands on some high yield notes from a certain veteran Kaplan professor and you will be surprised some of the things you will be tested on word for word. 'nuff said.
If you have any questions for me, send me a message. For me its time to get some sleep. FINALLY!
Night all, and hope this helps some of you to calm down. It will all be ok.
-J
I can't really say that any one subject was really heavy on my test. I heard so many people say "oh man, i had so much _____" but really, I did not see it. Could just be the luck of the draw with my questions, but I really think that it wouldn't be a standardized test if they gave you a lot of one subject.
At any rate, heres how I did the test, and I really recommend it, especially if you are taking it at a testing center with someone (for me it was my girlfriend). This worked really well for me, and I hope it will for you too.
Eat breakfast - for me this was tough as I always get the test day stomach ache as I get nervous. I still managed to choke down a banana and some coffee (since I was using it all along to study, I still needed that caffeine to keep me awake).
Skip the Tutorial - you will want those precious minutes of break time later to collect your thoughts before diving in again. Download the software from NBME or take the practice exam so you can just dive right in on test day.
1st block - CALM DOWN. Getting the jitters is not gonna help you answer questions. Take deep breathes and get into a groove and keep going.
Take a break - not that long, maybe 5-10 min just to relax some more, realize that you are on your way to finishing the exam, and it will all be over soon. Just gotta keep working.
2nd and 3rd blocks together - Doing 2 blocks for me was great. 3 was way to much, and 4 was right out (learned from doing the NBME's). That way when you finish a block, you only have one more to go before your break. Its a great psychological trick to help you relax.
Take a lunch break - by this time it will be about noon (assuming you started between 8-9am). Take about 20 minutes to just relax and make sure to eat something!
4th and 5th blocks - These are the hardest blocks to get through, question difficulty aside. You have done so many questions up to this point, but still have just as many to go. It will be easy to get fatigued, and you will be glad that you ate something. Keep your head down and power through, knowing that your last break is coming soon.
LAST break - take another break, leaving about 5 minutes left if you need to go to the bathroom between blocks 6 and 7 (which was the case for me). Relax, and enjoy the fact that you are almost done. Eat something here too to keep that blood sugar up.
6th and 7th blocks - these are the easiest blocks to handle, because they are the last ones, but be careful not to get too excited about the exam being over. You still need to concentrate on these questions, and answer them the best you can.
You are done! If you did all of the above, you also won't have time to take the survey which would just be annoying anyway.
Doing it this way, and if you had a buddy you can commiserate together at breaks, takes the 8 hours and puts it into manageable chucks that are easy to deal with. If you can sit down and do the whole thing in 5 hours then go for it, but for those of us that take the whole hour for every block just to squeeze out those few extra points, this helps to prevent some fatigue.
My strategy for marking questions:
For me, there are always 2 different tiers of questions that I mark. Ones that I think I can figure out or I know I am close on, and ones that I have absolutely no idea how to answer. Luckily, the USMLE gives you two ways to mark questions. The check mark, and the annotate. I had never used the annotate before today, but its a great way to add a little note to yourself so when you come back to a question, you can remind yourself what you were thinking before you had to move on. For me, there wasn't always enough time to go over all the questions that I had marked, so prioritizing them made getting those extra few points more efficient. I annotated ones that I had no idea on, and check marked those that I thought I was close on. If I had enough time I would look ar both, but I made those with an "a" next to them my priority. This way I was able to get to all of the questions and concentrate all my mental effort on the really bad ones once I had answered all the questions in a block.
I was really happy with the way that the above strategies worked for me, and hopefully they can make your test day a little less stressful and a little more productive.
As a (not so) quick side note, this is what I used to prepare.
Program - Kaplan Web Prep - used the online lectures to supplement First Aid, which filled in a lot of the gaps, and meant that I didn't have to read everything. It took out a lot of the monotony.
Prep Books - First Aid, Kaplan 2007 course books
Flash cards - Many, but making your own flash cards will help you the most. Going over them every night will help you retain that information that you looked over three weeks ago while the game was on. If you think its important or interesting, make a card. If its a mnemonic, make a card. You will be surprised how well this works. I ended up making over 400 cards.
Qbank - Kaplan and UW. UW was far superior. While Kaplan dealt with a lot of detail which may have been important, UW tested important concepts and those details. The questions totally prepared me for test day. The double and triple jump questions didn't even make me flinch. The "Educational Objective" is also a good quick summary of what you should get out of the question if you are in a hurry.
Additional things - get your hands on some high yield notes from a certain veteran Kaplan professor and you will be surprised some of the things you will be tested on word for word. 'nuff said.
If you have any questions for me, send me a message. For me its time to get some sleep. FINALLY!
Night all, and hope this helps some of you to calm down. It will all be ok.
-J
