One week only

tony montana said:

Any advice/wisdom if your school only gives you a week to prep?

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That's not enough time to adequately prepare -- you'd have a tough time making it through first aid and a qbank once in that period, let alone any other resources. So you will have to find a couple hours a day in the preceding 6 weeks to study for the thing. If you wait until that week, you are SOL.

Law2Doc said:

That's not enough time to adequately prepare -- you'd have a tough time making it through first aid and a qbank once in that period, let alone any other resources. So you will have to find a couple hours a day in the preceding 6 weeks to study for the thing. If you wait until that week, you are SOL.

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Yeah, maybe 3-4/day about 4 months in advance. Thanks.

tony montana said:

Yeah, maybe 3-4/day about 4 months in advance. Thanks.

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Well, 4 months in advance is too remote -- you won't remember squat by test time, any more than you would remember your last med school class without reviewing it. 6-7 weeks was about the breaking point IMHO for truly productive studying.

Law2Doc said:

Well, 4 months in advance is too remote -- you won't remember squat by test time, any more than you would remember your last med school class without reviewing it. 6-7 weeks was about the breaking point IMHO for truly productive studying.

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Ok so about 6 - 7 weeks for reviewing what you learned well in the first place. But say you have some weak areas from 1st/2nd yr, one should start earlier, what do you think?

tony montana said:

Ok so about 6 - 7 weeks for reviewing what you learned well in the first place. But say you have some weak areas from 1st/2nd yr, one should start earlier, what do you think?

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It still needs to fit within that last 6-7 weeks, or it's not going to be fresh. I'm talking something like a couple of days per subject, followed by a week or so of problems and First Aid.

Law2Doc said:

It still needs to fit within that last 6-7 weeks, or it's not going to be fresh. I'm talking something like a couple of days per subject, followed by a week or so of problems and First Aid.

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Mannn

but I don't have like full days, the only free week we get I will use for problems and first aid, so I guess I will have to make everything [review/weak areas] fit in those 6 - 7 weeks doing a few hours a day while going to school...

tony montana said:

Mannn

but I don't have like full days, the only free week we get I will use for problems and first aid, so I guess I will have to make everything [review/weak areas] fit in those 6 - 7 weeks doing a few hours a day while going to school...

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You can try to start earlier, but at least for me most of the older stuff wasn't fresh enough in my mind to have been worth the effort.

tony,

I would think that earlier studying to shore up conceptual stuff you didn't learn well the first time or want to review to reinforce might work out just fine. I'm doing this now with subjects I've historically sucked at, like biochemistry. I don't expect to be able to map out any of the pathways three months from now by memory, but when I get ready for that intense preparation at the end I do believe the framework will be there within which I can anchor the details.

Here's one way to look at your situation... There are two aspects of USMLE preparation (following Goljan): memorization, and understanding. There are certain things you just have to memorize (anatomy, DOC lists, some adverse effects, a lot of micro, etc.) and then there are places where you must ask "why" a certain thing happens (lots of physio, pathology, and even some biochem for example).

Learn the "why" now and the "what" later. Why do anticholinergics have certain side effects? Why don't treponema gram stain well? Why do certain toxins produce watery diarrhea? When you start the intense memorization later of the huge "what" lists, hopefully the underlying comprehension will still be there and help to solify that condensed learning.

Thank you Osli


That is what I was trying to figure out. Since we have virtually no time to prepare, I can work now on the why of the areas I am weak in. Closer to the exam I can drill the whats.