Time to get through FA

[username456789]

Sorry to annoy anyone who hates reading these threads. In exactly two weeks I'll likely be drunk of my ass celebrating/mourning my finishing the beast.

I've gotta get through Endo/Repro/MSK/Derm in the next couple days (I'd love to knock it all out in 4 or 5). I've been doing BRS Phys/Goljan/FA (in that order) for the systems. Solid foundation, but shaky on details.

I'm only about 50% through UW at this point as well. I expected to be farther, but I had also bee thinking "oh I can cram a ton of UW the last week or two."

Anyway, I'd obviously like to get another run through FA in, and I still feel weak on a good bit of the Pharm (some stuff like diuretics I feel great, but a lot of the cancer drugs and autonomics and CNS stuff not so much). I really wanna hammer Micro and Biochem (and some Immuno) back into my head, since it's been a while.

So anyway, my main question is, how long is reasonable to expect to be able to get through FA again? (I've made a moderate amount of notations in addition to what's there, nothing over the top). I'd still like to be doing a good bit of UW (96q/day would be great, although that's ~6 hours out of my day right there with review). I also wanted to try to review a little bit of pharm and/or micro each night before bed. I'm probably getting too ambitious.

Aaaaanyway, let's start with, how long would you estimate it should take the average-speed reader (I might be on the low end of that even, I'm not sure) to get through FA again, and to what degree should I be juggling this with UW? I've been doing well on that so far (80% correct with 50% completed), but I'm just not sure how to dole out my time here at the end. I guess it's all heading towards me faster than I expected.

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[HTxFrog]

80% on UWorld is way more than a solid foundation. Have you taken any practice tests recently b/c you probably would do really well. Anyways, as far as First Aid, I got through all of basic science in pretty good detail in two really hard core days. I think that was about 200-250 pages, so I think the fastest I could possibly do a solid run through is about 6 days. They would have to be pretty intense days though. On the other hand, if you just want to blaze through it and not be super detailed I think you could do a short of speed run through in less. I just finished the first 10 days of the Taus method final 2 week plan and it got me through all of First Aid, all of rapid review, and 100 UWorld q's a day (skipped 2 days of world) in 10 days. For pharm., the best thing I did was just doing a bunch of USMLERx pharm questions. I did about 300 the day and a half before the shelf and got a 99, so I am a big fan of that idea for pharm. I'm actually doing it again day after tomorrow, which is two days before my test b/c I feel like that is a subject you can cram a lot of nitpicky details in at the end. Anyways, maybe that will help you get a feel for timing. I read about 20pg/hr typically in Rapid Review and probably 15pgs/hr in FA so if you read a little faster or a little slower than me you can change the estimate around a little.

 

[badasshairday]

Rx sounds like a great idea for those nitpicking subjects like pharm, micro and biochem. I don't know if I will buy it though, just to use for a few days. Who knows. But it may be well worth it.

As for FA, I think the slowest part is biochem and micro because it is all straight facts. I think you will be able to fly through organ systems since you did them with rr and brs. I really got bogged down by micro. Gonna run through organs starting tommorow.

 

[username456789]

80% on UWorld is way more than a solid foundation. Have you taken any practice tests recently b/c you probably would do really well. Anyways, as far as First Aid, I got through all of basic science in pretty good detail in two really hard core days. I think that was about 200-250 pages, so I think the fastest I could possibly do a solid run through is about 6 days. They would have to be pretty intense days though. On the other hand, if you just want to blaze through it and not be super detailed I think you could do a short of speed run through in less. I just finished the first 10 days of the Taus method final 2 week plan and it got me through all of First Aid, all of rapid review, and 100 UWorld q's a day (skipped 2 days of world) in 10 days. For pharm., the best thing I did was just doing a bunch of USMLERx pharm questions. I did about 300 the day and a half before the shelf and got a 99, so I am a big fan of that idea for pharm. I'm actually doing it again day after tomorrow, which is two days before my test b/c I feel like that is a subject you can cram a lot of nitpicky details in at the end. Anyways, maybe that will help you get a feel for timing. I read about 20pg/hr typically in Rapid Review and probably 15pgs/hr in FA so if you read a little faster or a little slower than me you can change the estimate around a little.

Thanks for the reply TX. I'm thinking I'm probably slower reader (20pg/hour in Goljan is a bit much for me I'm thinking, or else I retain nothing). I think I get easily distracted. But these last two weeks I'm going to really buckle down and hammer this stuff hard (except Saturday night, because I promised my girlfriend I'd actually see her).

I took UWSA1 a week and a half ago and got a 254. I know, I know, people will crucify me for worrying. But I feel like a lot of that was based on the fact that I still had a lot of the Micro/Biochem stuff fresh in my mind, which is the hardest for me to retain apparently.

Anyway, looking at my schedule, I'll realistically have 8-9 days left for studying once I finish this whole run through FA/Goljan. I originally wanted to do the Taus last two week thing, but obviously didn't leave myself enough time.

I like your idea about the pharm stuff, I might actually spend part of a day going through most of the Kaplan Qbank pharm questions (since that's the other QBank I own....although I've considered splurging on Rx just for this nitpicky stuff). It'd hopefully be a good way to hammer that stuff into my head, more so than just sitting down and reading. Pharm is my lowest overall subject on UW. Would it be stupid to spend, say, like half an entire day on straight up Pharm? (assuming I didn't kill myself before finishing it).


I really do think that Micro and Biochem are what will slow me down, and I'm thinking organ systems will flow a bit nicer.

 

[username456789]

Ok, I finished my entire main run through tonight. I take my exam on the 24th, so I have 8 potential full days of studying left (including the day before, which I'll probably go half-effort on). I have 34% of UW to finish still, so obviously I want to get through that. I've been pretty consistent since I started it a month ago, without a huge improvement (although I started kind of high, and I suppose the standard deviation of scores has shrunken a little bit).

I took NBME3 in early May and got a 230. UWSA1 about two weeks into my studying (so about 3.5 weeks out from the exam) and got a 254. I feel like I've forgotten ridiculous amounts of information since then, and although I kind of want to take a NBME7, A) I'm worried if my score is below 254 it'll shake me a bit, and B) that's time spent not going through FA.

Any advice? I want to try to make it through FA in 5-6 days while doing 96 UW questions/day. Hopefully this isn't too ambitious or anything. In the block of UW I just did, I scored ok I guess (3 points below my overall average), but the whole time I kept thinking "wow, there's so much crap I used to know and now can't remember at all."

 

[markglt]

What is the Taus method?

 

[markglt]

nevermind

 

[PokerDoc]

What i am about to say I mean TOTALLY in a good way, please dont take it wrong:

but based on your last practice score and UW %.. I think no matter what you do in the days remaining, your score is going to wind up pretty similar.. the margin of error once you get to scores that high is so slim.. youre looking for multiple pins in a giant haystack.

I think if you did nothing but questions you havent done, you may benefit more from reading FA, because I think the HY stuff wont fool you, itll only be the WTF did that come from stuff. Try to finish everything in UW and do questions you got wrong again.. in your situation, that seems like a more solid move than reading FA.


having said that.. I wish you the best of luck!


I did USMLERx during the school year.. i dont recommend it in your case, it was great for me then, but the questions are way too easy, they wont challenge you, thats just my own opinion.. because I am way behind you score wise, and I crushed USMLERx, but im still stuck in the mid-upper 60s in UW

 

[username456789]

What i am about to say I mean TOTALLY in a good way, please dont take it wrong:

but based on your last practice score and UW %.. I think no matter what you do in the days remaining, your score is going to wind up pretty similar.. the margin of error once you get to scores that high is so slim.. youre looking for multiple pins in a giant haystack.

I think if you did nothing but questions you havent done, you may benefit more from reading FA, because I think the HY stuff wont fool you, itll only be the WTF did that come from stuff. Try to finish everything in UW and do questions you got wrong again.. in your situation, that seems like a more solid move than reading FA.


having said that.. I wish you the best of luck!


I did USMLERx during the school year.. i dont recommend it in your case, it was great for me then, but the questions are way too easy, they wont challenge you, thats just my own opinion.. because I am way behind you score wise, and I crushed USMLERx, but im still stuck in the mid-upper 60s in UW

Thanks for the feedback, definitely appreciate it.

Yeah, I decided against worrying about another qbank in the last week, that just seems silly. Overall my pharm % is worse than my other subjects, but still respectable. I definitely want to review that stuff in FA, since it's high yield and a lot of it just didn't stick first time through.

The Kaplan Q's are reallllly easy when I go back to them now (I've done about 400-500 total during the past month as "reinforces" of stuff I just studied, and my average is way up there), and I don't plan on using them at all unless I really feel the need to hammer out a few basic pharm questions (but probably won't).

To clarify, how exactly are you recommending to use FA, if at all? I'd definitely like one more run through it, even if it's not super thorough.

 

[PokerDoc]

Thanks for the feedback, definitely appreciate it.

Yeah, I decided against worrying about another qbank in the last week, that just seems silly. Overall my pharm % is worse than my other subjects, but still respectable. I definitely want to review that stuff in FA, since it's high yield and a lot of it just didn't stick first time through.

The Kaplan Q's are reallllly easy when I go back to them now (I've done about 400-500 total during the past month as "reinforces" of stuff I just studied, and my average is way up there), and I don't plan on using them at all unless I really feel the need to hammer out a few basic pharm questions (but probably won't).

To clarify, how exactly are you recommending to use FA, if at all? I'd definitely like one more run through it, even if it's not super thorough.

well for me personally, I am going to have like six days to go through FA and I calculated that I need to do 68pgs/day, not including time spent on anything else.. I havent gotten that far.. my Doctors in training course doesnt end for a little while longer, I am only on Day 10 tomorrow.. of 15 and im 2 1/2 weeks out from test date.. what happens on my UWSA1 practice test on saturday will dictate how I move forward..

i have a feeling im going to need to need to trust my gut that I know systems pathology well and focus on biochem, i am getting crushed on questions asking me about pathways and enzymes.. its like an automatic wrong answer right now.


But what i was trying to get at for you was it seems like in your case more UW questions is the way to go FIRST, and then FA second.. in priority order. So I mean, if you can get through all of FA great, but dont do it in lieu of UW questions.. because the only way the test makers are gonna get you are with things not in FA.. if youre already scoring that high.

 

[username456789]

well for me personally, I am going to have like six days to go through FA and I calculated that I need to do 68pgs/day, not including time spent on anything else.. I havent gotten that far.. my Doctors in training course doesnt end for a little while longer, I am only on Day 10 tomorrow.. of 15 and im 2 1/2 weeks out from test date.. what happens on my UWSA1 practice test on saturday will dictate how I move forward..

i have a feeling im going to need to need to trust my gut that I know systems pathology well and focus on biochem, i am getting crushed on questions asking me about pathways and enzymes.. its like an automatic wrong answer right now.

To be honest, I think really hammering biochem and micro during my first week of studying was what helped my practice score jump 24 points. There's a lot to be gained in the biochem chapter (not just all the vitamins/reactions/etc, but all those damn genetic syndromes I had completely forgotten until that week).

 

[PokerDoc]

To be honest, I think really hammering biochem and micro during my first week of studying was what helped my practice score jump 24 points. There's a lot to be gained in the biochem chapter (not just all the vitamins/reactions/etc, but all those damn genetic syndromes I had completely forgotten until that week).

Its funny.. micro was the subject I feared most starting this month.. I hardly ever get micro questions wrong anymore.. (i only get drugs wrong haha). But biochem, oh man, its rough .. i have rapid review biochem.. i might scroll through it again after I see what the DIT guy emphasizes.

I still have Goljan audio, i just cant find time at all to listen ot them.. ive done 3 so far.. i've picked up a few good tidbits here and there but Im not gonna have time to listen to all 37

 

[username456789]

Its funny.. micro was the subject I feared most starting this month.. I hardly ever get micro questions wrong anymore.. (i only get drugs wrong haha). But biochem, oh man, its rough .. i have rapid review biochem.. i might scroll through it again after I see what the DIT guy emphasizes.

I still have Goljan audio, i just cant find time at all to listen ot them.. ive done 3 so far.. i've picked up a few good tidbits here and there but Im not gonna have time to listen to all 37

Goljan audio's pretty solid overall, but it's definitely a time burglar, even at fast speed. I found it useful during the year to listen as I walked to and from class. And I even tried vicinihil's method of listening for an hour or two after reading RR Path, but realized it wasn't going to be the best use of my time. I try to listen to the relevant section as I walk to and from the library during this month of step studying, and even listen when I take bathroom breaks or walk down the street to get food, whatever. I try to squeeze it in when I can to get a few tidbits, but I don't make specific time for it.

As for biochem, I have RR Biochem too, but got frustrated with it a while ago. I'll tell you what, the Kaplan biochem lecture notes are money, at least for me. They're "longer", but probably easier/quicker to get through than RR, despite my love of Goljan stuff in general. The Kaplan stuff just reads real easily, and helped me fill in a lot of gaps and make connections I hadn't made before (then again, biochem was a weak subject for me to begin with).

 

[footcloud]

I guess I have a weak foundation, because it's been a week and I've been reading on/off and I'm only on page 200 of FA. Well I only spend like 2-3 hours a day for it. But I need to annotate because I can barely remember the definitions of most of the words and I hate reading through things where I don't know what a word even means.

And this is only first run, so no memorization even, just getting through it. Yea I feel like I'm going to fail.

 

[username456789]

This is kinda frustrating. In 5 hours of reading (5 actual hours, breaks excluded), I've covered 35 pages in FA (I'm starting with biochem). And I don't even feel like I'm retaining much. I know that micro is gonna take me forever too, so this 5 day FA plan I have might be a bust.

For you guys who have done or are doing a final FA run through, are you really trying to get down all the details in biochem? Because that seems like a pretty ridiculous task.

I think I'm just frustrated because I feel like there's no way I should be scoring as high as I am on UW and practce tests given how much there is in FA I don't know, and worry that'll somehow be exposed on exam day.

 

[kryptik]

This is kinda frustrating. In 5 hours of reading (5 actual hours, breaks excluded), I've covered 35 pages in FA (I'm starting with biochem). And I don't even feel like I'm retaining much. I know that micro is gonna take me forever too, so this 5 day FA plan I have might be a bust.

For you guys who have done or are doing a final FA run through, are you really trying to get down all the details in biochem? Because that seems like a pretty ridiculous task.

I think I'm just frustrated because I feel like there's no way I should be scoring as high as I am on UW and practce tests given how much there is in FA I don't know, and worry that'll somehow be exposed on exam day.

keep going, some sections like biochem and micro will be a little slower but pscyh/biostats/epi/embryo will make up for the lost time as those take considerably less time, also the systems go pretty fast

 

[mq123]

This is kinda frustrating. In 5 hours of reading (5 actual hours, breaks excluded), I've covered 35 pages in FA (I'm starting with biochem). And I don't even feel like I'm retaining much. I know that micro is gonna take me forever too, so this 5 day FA plan I have might be a bust.

For you guys who have done or are doing a final FA run through, are you really trying to get down all the details in biochem? Because that seems like a pretty ridiculous task.

I think I'm just frustrated because I feel like there's no way I should be scoring as high as I am on UW and practce tests given how much there is in FA I don't know, and worry that'll somehow be exposed on exam day.

Definitely agree with you on that!! I'm went through neuro yesterday and it was very painful -- almost 6 or 7 hours for FA neuro, since I was doing it after a couple of months. Today I started Micro, and it is definitely frustrating!!

And I agree that the micro stuff I've been coming across on UW is somewhat broad and focuses on a select few 'important' bugs. So, I've been managing fine with UW (at least not tanking completely), but not having TOUCHED Micro for a couple of months also, I don't know how much detail I should be going into....

Just stick with it! Like the poster above said, other sections in FA are smaller and faster to get through, so you can catch up. Divide the FA micro into sections (bacteria, then fungi/protozoa, then virsuses, etc) and then give yourself a time limit for each section. Hopefully, this will help you go through it faster.

I totally understand your frustration, because I've almost rescheduled by exam to later just so I have a couple of extra days, but I'm just so, so tired of studying, I want this OVER!

 

[match2011]

Can I ask a silly question? How many hours do you study everyday?

It seems I can only get 10 hours for study.

 

[mq123]

Can I ask a silly question? How many hours do you study everyday?

It seems I can only get 10 hours for study.

5 hours in the beginning of the day for UW question blocks and reading the answers. Then at least 5-6 hours more of reading notes -- some of this is non-productive where I'm chugging along slowly, while a couple of these hours I speed up...

I hope I can pick it up closer to my exam -- I'm 12 days out...

 

[username456789]

Can I ask a silly question? How many hours do you study everyday?

It seems I can only get 10 hours for study.

These last two weeks or so I'm basically going 9am-2am with 6 hours of sleep (which is plenty for me). Now there is time in between there for eating and walking to an from the library and defecating and showering, but overall I probably put in 14 good hours. I'm a slow reader though.


Question for anyone reading this who has taken the real thing: People on here seem to come back saying stuff like "man, my test wasn't quite as hard as UW was, but pretty comparable. Know FA and you're golden." I guess my concern here is, I'm doing what I consider to be pretty darn good on UW, but I definitely don't know FA as well as I feel like most people claim to. I did really well in M1 and M2, so I have a solid base overall, but I'm still a little paranoid about getting into the exam, and finding out it's not "big picture" like UW tends to be, and instead it's stupid nitty gritty details that are found in the crevices of FA that I failed to memorize. Did you guys find that to be the case at all?

 

[mq123]

Any suggestions on how to review as a 'last pass' before the test? I'll have about 9 days, and I definitely want to review FA once more, plus some Goljan RR thrown in (I've read it 2+ times already). I will be doing some UW in the morning, but I was wondering how to structure the FA review.

For people who've done this, does it work better to go start to finish, or follow a modified Tay 13-day plan (which is more organized across the systems/subjects)? I'm saying modified only because I have less than the 13 days.....

 

[username456789]

I don't know man, but I'm slow as ****. I guess I keep stopping to try to memorize lists or whatever. The first few chapters are brutal. 3 days in and I'm on page 230 right now. And I still have try to fit in an nbme, and I really wanted to be finishing UW about now but I can't fit everything in. I guess I planned poorly and assumed this last FA run wouldn't be so terrible.

 

[MilkmanAl]

You can't finish half of FA and do an NBME by Thursday? That seems fairly doable. With your score(s?), I wouldn't be worrying about it too much, anyway.

 

[badasshairday]

I don't know man, but I'm slow as ****. I guess I keep stopping to try to memorize lists or whatever. The first few chapters are brutal. 3 days in and I'm on page 230 right now. And I still have try to fit in an nbme, and I really wanted to be finishing UW about now but I can't fit everything in. I guess I planned poorly and assumed this last FA run wouldn't be so terrible.

How much more of UWORLD do you have left? How many questions a day are you doing? I'd say focus on questions, like 96 a day, and just hit the basic principle sections of FA hard (ie. Biochem/Micro/Pharm). You are solid on systems with your BRS phys, RRpath, and FA reads.

I wish I did it the way you did. I feel like I exhausted my questions too early. Should have just took the real thing a few days ago. Now freak out mode is hitting hard, since I haven't done any "fresh" questions in a while... It really helps you learn how to tackle and think through things.

 

[username456789]

You can't finish half of FA and do an NBME by Thursday? That seems fairly doable. With your score(s?), I wouldn't be worrying about it too much, anyway.

I'm sure I probably can, I just wanted two solid days to wrap up loose ends and such, so I wanted to be done that all by Monday night and spend Tues/Wed going through random flashcards I made, hitting a little anatomy, random stuff like that just to make sure I covered some bases.

How much more of UWORLD do you have left? How many questions a day are you doing? I'd say focus on questions, like 96 a day, and just hit the basic principle sections of FA hard (ie. Biochem/Micro/Pharm). You are solid on systems with your BRS phys, RRpath, and FA reads.

I wish I did it the way you did. I feel like I exhausted my questions too early. Should have just took the real thing a few days ago. Now freak out mode is hitting hard, since I haven't done any "fresh" questions in a while... It really helps you learn how to tackle and think through things.

I still have like 500 questions. My original plan was to be doing 150+ questions/day for the last couple days, and then a little FA on top of that. I just didn't realize how slow I'd be doing FA, so I'm fairly behind on the questions.

I like your advice about the Biochem/Micro/Pharm stuff. I feel like if I had to skip anything in FA, it'd be some of the path.

I think I'm just in freak out mode here (aren't you guys taking the exam tomorrow or in the next day or two? so I guess you guys have more of a reason to freak out). I think part of it is realizing I don't have FA "memorized" like a lot of people casually throw out there. Sure, I can think through some difficult questions here or there in UW and get some lucky guesses, but my biggest fear, I think, is that I get to the test and it turns out I realize I should've just crammed all the details from FA and spent less time on being thorough with RR Path and whatever. Scoring well early on with UWSA1 was definitely a confidence booster, but I'm wondering if it didn't make me take some things for granted. Oh well. I'm taking NBME7 tomorrow morning (was gonna take it this morning, but I woke up a little late and wasn't feeling well, and had to be on campus at a certain time in the middle of the day to fill out some BS paperwork). I'm hoping it'll turn out well and I can stop acting like a 14 year old girl who's apprehensively worrying about whether or not the captain of the football team will ask her out.

It's ridiculous how crazy this process can make you. Even more ridiculous (but sometimes in a good way) how much SDN can distort your vision. A couple months ago a friend asked me what I would be happy with on Step I. I think I said "over 230 would be nice, 240 would be great." Then when I did a few practice exams, my goals quickly shifted. Reading the "OMG 260" thread (i.e. the Step I post your score thread) hasn't helped either.

/neuroticism

 

[mq123]

I've come to realize that I'm a slow reader too because I get stuck on details. I do want to leave myself 2-3 days before test day to do final reviews for biochem, pharm, micro, etc, so I'll have 6 days to go through FA + select RR path sections, and also try to finish UW (I have about 500 Qs left...)

Seems like it'll be a few 15-hour days..... Not looking forward to it, but definitely looking forward to the day after the test

 

[badasshairday]

I like your advice about the Biochem/Micro/Pharm stuff. I feel like if I had to skip anything in FA, it'd be some of the path.

Seriously. That, plus WORLD was what I believe gave me my biggest score boost. I wish I had just taken the test earlier this week while it was fresher. Now I have to refresh with the quickness before monday.

It's ridiculous how crazy this process can make you. Even more ridiculous (but sometimes in a good way) how much SDN can distort your vision. A couple months ago a friend asked me what I would be happy with on Step I. I think I said "over 230 would be nice, 240 would be great." Then when I did a few practice exams, my goals quickly shifted. Reading the "OMG 260" thread (i.e. the Step I post your score thread) hasn't helped either.

/neuroticism

Really man. I agree. I really hate this whole damn process. It is so draining. And the thing is, the sky is the limit with this test. You're goal may be a 220 or 230 starting out, but all of a sudden you hit like 20 points above your original goal and you end up recalibrating. Your new goal moves up. You get more pressurized and stressed. ugh. Almost done guys. Almost done. I had been going back in forth about this stupid rescheduling. Really screwed with my mind.