Hey guys,
Little background...I took NBME 12 few weeks ago and i missed alot more than questions i wanted (missed 70 questions). Out of these 70 questions, 35 were from pathology and 21 were from pharmacology. So that showed that pathology and pharmacology were my weakness.
As others have suggested above to do pathoma. So i have been doing pathoma for last few weeks in the following manner. So my current schedule looks like this:
I read a system from Pathoma (1st exposure to path) then I read entire system which includes embryo, anatomy, path, physio and pharm from First Aid Binder (I broke down my fa in a binder and i have notes which were taken from High Yield Series, Med Essentials, BRS series). This is my 2nd exposure to path for the day and 1st exposure to pharm. After that I do a block of questions from USMLERx question bank focusing on path, path phys and pharm only. This is my 3rd exposure to path and 2nd to pharm for the day. Then before going to bed, I review pharm related to the system covered that day. This leads to 3rd exposure to pharm for the day.
Another weakness was not being able to recall information in a timely manner because prior to last nbme, I had been doing questions from uworld in an untimed tutor mode. So to combat that I am doing questions from usmlerx qbank in a TIMED mode/system based. I am also trying to push myself to finish the block with few minutes to spare. This is important because it will allow me to finish the entire block and not miss easier questions due to lack of time and also will force me to give up quicker on a difficult question to have time to come back to it at the end. It will ensure that I am not spending more time than needed on one question.
So I am studying one system a day. I just finished this schedule and about to start it for the 2nd time. It took me a little more than 2 weeks to finish everything. In next two week, I am planning to go through the entire schedule for the 2nd time. I should be done around April 10th. Then I will take a nbme exam to see what areas/ subjects I am still missing.
Reason I am using usmlerx over uworld is because usmlerx tests facts from first aid so in a way it helps to drill in the concepts. Also my exam date is not until May but i have step up hard deadlines on which i need to show progress. I am planning to take another NBME exam on April 19th. I would like to be around 220s on April 19th and then i can spend last few weeks completing U World questions for the 2nd time and perhaps even going through my "schedule" once or twice more.
Overall plan seems good to me because It allows me to address my weak areas daily and allows repetition. However, i am still very anxious because I am not sure if it will work and it is this anxiety which is causing me to write this Novel. Most of the time I am confident that it will work because I remind myself that I am hitting my weakness daily but I am still unsure/scared of "what if" and un easy about the whole thing. Anxiety dies down after doing questions and scoring around high 60s to low 70s in the qbank.
Approach towards questions:
Read the question, come up with a diagnosis and then answer the questions. If i can't come up with a diagnosis then i work backwards ( i try to look at the answer choices and ask myself what is the typical presentation of this answer choice and whether that presentation matches the signs and symptoms presented in the questions. If they do not match then i eliminate them)
What do you guys think? Am i missing something in my schedule? Do i need to change something up to make sure i am on right track? or am i just worrying too much?
Any thoughts, concerns or suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
