Barely pass classes in order to study for boards?

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camng22

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2nd semester 2nd year here. Is it a good idea to barely study for classes and get 70s on exams and focus on boards? Im the type of person that can memorize small details in the lecture notes and get an 85% but forget everything like 3 days later. It seriously seems useless memorizing all these small details. People say doing well in class = doing well on boards, but I did well some semesters and when reviewing those subjects I don't even remember it that well.
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Whats this "class" you speak of? Its Board Season.. gotta get it while the gettin' is good.
 
camng22 said:
2nd semester 2nd year here. Is it a good idea to barely study for classes and get 70s on exams and focus on boards? Im the type of person that can memorize small details in the lecture notes and get an 85% but forget everything like 3 days later. It seriously seems useless memorizing all these small details. People say doing well in class = doing well on boards, but I did well some semesters and when reviewing those subjects I don't even remember it that well.
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I wouldn't go so far as to barely pass, but I certainly wouldn't be trying to get my best grades. Focus on boards, try not to aim for a 70 on exams, maybe like a 78...
 
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I believe all DO schools have class ranking and are on a grade scale so no, I would not recommend just barely passing. Do your best, but know how to allocate your time in order to understand board material while also doing decent in classes.
 
I was told by several people (residents/fellows and PDs) in my specialty of choice that my rank is not going to matter (basically don't be at the bottom 25% or something like that, but don't worry about being rank #1) and that Step 1 and research will be far more valuable for matching. Also, we don't really have a true equivalent of AOA. If you legitimately feel that doing well in your classes is holding you back from doing well on Step 1, I think its a no-brainer as to what you should do.
 
camng22 said:
2nd semester 2nd year here. Is it a good idea to barely study for classes and get 70s on exams and focus on boards? Im the type of person that can memorize small details in the lecture notes and get an 85% but forget everything like 3 days later. It seriously seems useless memorizing all these small details. People say doing well in class = doing well on boards, but I did well some semesters and when reviewing those subjects I don't even remember it that well.
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The risk is that you will fail your classes, and then you won't be able to take Boards. And gawd knows what will go into your Dean's letter for your slacker attitude.

I can't recommend this.
 
I've found its worth to aim for mid As, not worth the time to get 100s in most classes since the law of diminishing returns sets in. plus that last 5% always seems to be random professor specific factoids that are otherwise near worthless for everything but the grade. sometimes if the class is a filler class a b will do lol
 
I'm personally not worrying about classes and yet still doing well somehow. The board prep sets me up to do really well on clinical presentation type problems so I think it evens out with points I lose on minutiae. Just don't fall below 75. No one needs the extra stress of worrying about winding up on the wrong side of passing and it's not that much extra effort to pass by a comfortable margin.
 
TissueSpeed said:
I've found its worth to aim for mid As, not worth the time to get 100s in most classes since the law of diminishing returns sets in. plus that last 5% always seems to be random professor specific factoids that are otherwise near worthless for everything but the grade. sometimes if the class is a filler class a b will do lol
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lol do people actually get 100s in exams? (re-curve of course)
 
Mr. D.O.five said:
lol do people actually get 100s in exams? (re-curve of course)
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I've been reading this forum for over 5 years easily and one thing I have noticed is that some schools have class averages that are above 85%-90%. At my school, average test grades seem to stay around 77% and we have a perfect score a couple times a term. I'm sure at schools with higher averages they have more than us too. This is speaking of real class not clinical skills and OPP or whatever.
 
If your class curves to a 78-80%, then I recommend trying to stay above a 75%. If you are below this then drop the board prep.
 
IslandStyle808 said:
If your class curves to a 78-80%, then I recommend trying to stay above a 75%. If you are below this then drop the board prep.
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How many classes actually curve things. My school only really curved things if the final grades came out below 70%. Our averages were consistently high 70s and low 80s.

I feel like using numbers to state how well you should be striving to do in classes is useless given we're all coming from schools that have different grading.

My point before about having a 78 was more to say thatHow many classes actually curve things. My school only really curved things if the final grades came out below 70%. Our averages were consistently high 70s and low 80s.

I feel like using numbers to state how well you should be striving to do in classes is useless given we're all coming from schools that have different grading.

My point before about having a 78 was more to say that you should be a securely above passing and not at risk of failing a class. Beyond that boards matter far more than classes.

As far as class rank goes, its hard to imagine that for most people 1 semester out of 6 doing slightly worse is going to make that big of a difference. I guess it really depends. The truth of the matter is that for DO schools, rank matters if you're in the extremes. Try to avoid being in the bottom 1/4 and if you're in the you 1/4 try to stay there. Beyond that, most programs won't notice or care.
 
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hallowmann said:
As far as class rank goes, its hard to imagine that for most people 1 semester out of 6 doing slightly worse is going to make that big of a difference. I guess it really depends. The truth of the matter is that for DO schools, rank matters if you're in the extremes. Try to avoid being in the bottom 1/4 and if you're in the you 1/4 try to stay there. Beyond that, most programs won't notice or care.
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But if this is the case then why do you disagree with my point? Being at a 75% when the class average is a 78%-80% means you are still around the third quartile. If the class averages are higher, then what you state makes sense that you would want to maintain a higher grade. It still is in line with your reasoning that schools will differ in grading.
 
IslandStyle808 said:
But if this is the case then why do you disagree with my point? Being at a 75% when the class average is a 78%-80% means you are still around the third quartile. If the class averages are higher, then what you state makes sense that you would want to maintain a higher grade. It still is in line with your reasoning that schools will differ in grading.
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You're talking about being in the third quartile for one semester out of 6 that will be recorded prior to your residency apps. Basically it shouldn't change your rank that much (at most like a 12% drop).
 
My class rank drops from top 30% to third quartile now ever since I throw away all class lectures second year. Just being real about how class rank drops by a modest 12-15%. That’s complete bull.
 
Ive been told "the split in class rank at 25-75% is usually very few percentage points" I hold class rank in very low regard since OMM and other classes have such a heavy weight.. Aim for a 90% in a 6 credit hour class (like OPP/OMM) while others are 95+ and you'll soon see people scoring a letter grade below you in the real classes become equal or above you in rank. Pass class and study boards
 
Depends on what your school is like. My school exams have been getting worse every semester, they have incredibly low correlation with boards, and they're written in a way that requires absolute memorization. The only questions we're getting right now that actually tests thought-process are pharm qs, which only make up about 10% of the exams. All this to say, I'm struggling to both board study and memorizing details for the exams. There is some overlap, but not enough for me to pass without looking at class material. It sucks.

I wouldn't care at all about rank, but certainly don't fail anything, which is a risk. I'm slowly trying to work my way away from class materials, but for some classes/exams its pretty much impossible.
 
Isn’t everything memorization? Lol. Even most uworld Kaplan rx questions I come across and basically “blah blah blah blah blah” what is this single factoid? This is after several thousand qs between all of them
 
TissueSpeed said:
Isn’t everything memorization? Lol. Even most uworld Kaplan rx questions I come across and basically “blah blah blah blah blah” what is this single factoid? This is after several thousand qs between all of them
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The basis of all learning is memorization, but I don't think I am alone in missing mostly just discrete questions and not missing almost any 3rd or 4th order questions.
 
Neopolymath said:
The basis of all learning is memorization, but I don't think I am alone in missing mostly just discrete questions and not missing almost any 3rd or 4th order questions.
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Yeah I agree. People act like this stuff is high level physics when most is pure rage pounding memorization
 
I think the answer to this depends on where you stand amongst your class mates in terms of board prep in general. At my school, a majority of our "top 10%" students barely managed to get a 400 on their practice comsae that we took at the beginning of January. A number of middle of the road students though were over 500. How you play the semester before boards is completely dependent on your ability to still maintain that "pass" while maximizing your board study time.
 
FenderBenderEmergency said:
I think the answer to this depends on where you stand amongst your class mates in terms of board prep in general. At my school, a majority of our "top 10%" students barely managed to get a 400 on their practice comsae that we took at the beginning of January. A number of middle of the road students though were over 500. How you play the semester before boards is completely dependent on your ability to still maintain that "pass" while maximizing your board study time.
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Pretty sure we go to the same place and yes our clinical professors are mostly terrible. Have to be able to sort out which lectures are worth time and which are worth a few hour cram before the test.
 
OP why don't you do both? Study for classes, but also do board prep questions in the topic you're studying in class. That way if there's other items being discussed in board prep but not in class you're learning that too, and your practice will help you do even better on the exam as well.

But case in point, pass class first, then yea do boards to your best ability.
 
MADD!!! said:
OP why don't you do both? Study for classes, but also do board prep questions in the topic you're studying in class. That way if there's other items being discussed in board prep but not in class you're learning that too, and your practice will help you do even better on the exam as well.

But case in point, pass class first, then yea do boards to your best ability.
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It's not board-study if you're not reviewing old material. The whole point of board studying is to make sure you get to boards and haven't forgotten what interleukin causes T cells to become Th1 cells for example. Using board materials to help you in class will help you in class...but not necessarily for boards.
 
MADD!!! said:
OP why don't you do both? Study for classes, but also do board prep questions in the topic you're studying in class. That way if there's other items being discussed in board prep but not in class you're learning that too, and your practice will help you do even better on the exam as well.

But case in point, pass class first, then yea do boards to your best ability.
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In an ideal world, you'd have time for both, but it's really not feasible time wise - hence why a lot of schools have dedicated board study time so that you can focus entirely on reviewing everything. The First Aid book covers about 90-95% of the material on the board exam. If you've had a chance to chat with some of the superstars that get scores in the 260+ range of Step 1, many of them will tell you that they basically memorized the book. For the rest of us that aren't superstars with photographic memories, we'd be doing pretty good if we could even absorb 80% of the book. Now if you had to not only commit First Aid to memory, but you also had to spend time to learn things not covered in it or time learning OMT or whatever else, your ability to cover First Aid must then go down.

I'm not saying the extra material is irrelevant to medicine. What I am saying is that it's really quite irrelevant for a 2nd year medical student to learn how to intubate someone or learn about specific state laws or some receptor that has no medical purpose. If the goal of an institution is to make good doctors, then it should be clear that the 2 most important things during the first 2 years of medical school is preparing them for their board exams and teaching them how to act like compassionate professionals. Why? Because these are the 2 things that will allow students to get a strong residency where REAL doctor training begins. If you have a 4.0 trying to learn all the minutiae, but your board score is a 200 on the USMLE, it's likely that your options for residency are going to be limited to weaker programs. I think it's unlikely that any student ever goes into medical school with the goal of being a bad doctor, but it's very much a fact that you can be caring and compassionate, but still be bad simply because your training during residency was subpar.
 
FenderBenderEmergency said:
In an ideal world, you'd have time for both, but it's really not feasible time wise - hence why a lot of schools have dedicated board study time so that you can focus entirely on reviewing everything. The First Aid book covers about 90-95% of the material on the board exam. If you've had a chance to chat with some of the superstars that get scores in the 260+ range of Step 1, many of them will tell you that they basically memorized the book. For the rest of us that aren't superstars with photographic memories, we'd be doing pretty good if we could even absorb 80% of the book. Now if you had to not only commit First Aid to memory, but you also had to spend time to learn things not covered in it or time learning OMT or whatever else, your ability to cover First Aid must then go down.

I'm not saying the extra material is irrelevant to medicine. What I am saying is that it's really quite irrelevant for a 2nd year medical student to learn how to intubate someone or learn about specific state laws or some receptor that has no medical purpose. If the goal of an institution is to make good doctors, then it should be clear that the 2 most important things during the first 2 years of medical school is preparing them for their board exams and teaching them how to act like compassionate professionals. Why? Because these are the 2 things that will allow students to get a strong residency where REAL doctor training begins. If you have a 4.0 trying to learn all the minutiae, but your board score is a 200 on the USMLE, it's likely that your options for residency are going to be limited to weaker programs. I think it's unlikely that any student ever goes into medical school with the goal of being a bad doctor, but it's very much a fact that you can be caring and compassionate, but still be bad simply because your training during residency was subpar.
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Is there a better/alternative response to the OP's question?
 
MADD!!! said:
Is there a better/alternative response to the OP's question?
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He will need to calibrate the amount of studying based on his exam results. Ex. if he was getting a 72% on his 1st exam with 3 hours of board prep per day, then he would need to stop it until the next exam. If he gets a 82% on the next exam, then he maybe able to squeeze a hour per day. If he gets a 79% with one hour, then this would be okay.

However, a lot of this depends on if the school runs on a semester system or a block system as to how much of a hit a person can take. Unfortunately your suggestion won't work. The USMLE and COMLEX are far more about memorization than conceptualization. So it would be far more important to randomly review subjects and beef up your long term memory. So that way you enter dedicated with a larger knowledge base and use that time to gain even greater knowledge.
 
IslandStyle808 said:
He will need to calibrate the amount of studying based on his exam results. Ex. if he was getting a 72% on his 1st exam with 3 hours of board prep per day, then he would need to stop it until the next exam. If he gets a 82% on the next exam, then he maybe able to squeeze a hour per day. If he gets a 79% with one hour, then this would be okay.

However, a lot of this depends on if the school runs on a semester system or a block system as to how much of a hit a person can take. Unfortunately your suggestion won't work. The USMLE and COMLEX are far more about memorization than conceptualization. So it would be far more important to randomly review subjects and beef up your long term memory. So that way you enter dedicated with a larger knowledge base and use that time to gain even greater knowledge.
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Interesting, I didn't know that. I assumed it was more MCAT-like where # of practice questions was key. But in regards to your first statement, I feel like that's easier said in theory than in practice. When I study, I try my best to learn the material. I don't know how to "gauge" how to get a 70 vs. an 80 vs. a 90 on an exam. Obv. I know if I study less, I'll do worse. But to what extent is, I think, rather hard to actually determine (and risky).
 
MADD!!! said:
Interesting, I didn't know that. I assumed it was more MCAT-like where # of practice questions was key. But in regards to your first statement, I feel like that's easier said in theory than in practice. When I study, I try my best to learn the material. I don't know how to "gauge" how to get a 70 vs. an 80 vs. a 90 on an exam. Obv. I know if I study less, I'll do worse. But to what extent is, I think, rather hard to actually determine (and risky).
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No, I mean you look at your test results after the exam and scale back your board studying if they are bad and ramp up board studying if they are really good.
 
MADD!!! said:
Interesting, I didn't know that. I assumed it was more MCAT-like where # of practice questions was key. But in regards to your first statement, I feel like that's easier said in theory than in practice. When I study, I try my best to learn the material. I don't know how to "gauge" how to get a 70 vs. an 80 vs. a 90 on an exam. Obv. I know if I study less, I'll do worse. But to what extent is, I think, rather hard to actually determine (and risky).
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Sorry forgot to answer the first part. The # of question is key and maybe even more key in board prep than MCAT studying since there is ton of stuff to memorize.
 
I've been doing about 80% Board Prep and 20% classes for about 2 months now (50/50 beginning of M2).

IMO, it takes experimenting, but only you can gauge how much time you need to pass classes comfortably while doing board material.

Most recent exam I was above the average, but spent little time on the class work. I studied board relevant material for the exam, studied other subjects as well, and crammed the minutiae 2 days out from the exam. Has worked well for me so far.

Also depends how savage you are. Team no sleep? How focused are you? Love coffee? Do you love challenges? I am exhausted, but loving every minute of this (or at least pretending like I am).
 
MADD!!! said:
Is there a better/alternative response to the OP's question?
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I essentially do what Carbon090 said above me. About 4 days before our block exams, I go through our powerpoints and pick out the minutiae that I do not know from my boards and turn that into an Anki that I just spend 2-3 hours on over the next 4 days. Depending on the exam, I might get over a 90% or I might get a 75%, but most of the time I get somewhere around an 82% and I've spent probably about 8 hours total over 2 weeks of lectures on class material. The rest of the day I spend doing my board prep. When you can physically cut watching lectures out of your schedule, even if you watch them at 2x speed, you literally have 3-4 more hours in a day to study other things. On my current schedule, on days without mandatory labs/events, I can get in about 12-14 hours of dedicated board studying. On days with mandatory events, that drops to about 8-10.
 
FenderBenderEmergency said:
I essentially do what Carbon090 said above me. About 4 days before our block exams, I go through our powerpoints and pick out the minutiae that I do not know from my boards and turn that into an Anki that I just spend 2-3 hours on over the next 4 days. Depending on the exam, I might get over a 90% or I might get a 75%, but most of the time I get somewhere around an 82% and I've spent probably about 8 hours total over 2 weeks of lectures on class material. The rest of the day I spend doing my board prep. When you can physically cut watching lectures out of your schedule, even if you watch them at 2x speed, you literally have 3-4 more hours in a day to study other things. On my current schedule, on days without mandatory labs/events, I can get in about 12-14 hours of dedicated board studying. On days with mandatory events, that drops to about 8-10.
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Nailed it. I stopped watching lectures over a month ago. Waste of time at this point.
 
Carbon090 said:
Nailed it. I stopped watching lectures over a month ago. Waste of time at this point.
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Wish I could do this, but still worried about the types that like to test things from their lips (the vindictive types). However, the types that tell you what is going to be on the exam are a god send. So I still watch lectures.
 
Watched neuroanatomy lectures and that was it. Otherwise not worth the time. Haven’t opened our online video library for 9 months
 
I finish my weekly lectures on Monday and spend tuesday thru sunday reviewing first aid and pathoma and usmle rx. I'm ALMOST done with my first pass but that is because I am literally taking my time going through systems I haven't covered since first year. I need to pick up the pace for sure.

The weekend before an exam... I cram and all-nighter it out. Get a nice mcdonald's sausage egg and cheese mcmuffin and OJ... head to class. Aim for a 75/80% or higher as our grading system is all pass/fail grading for us anyway.

My USMLE rx averages have gone from 40-50% to 70-80% in the meanwhile and my performance has stayed the same in classes. LOL

I'm so pissed I didn't figure this out in first year.

KNOW FIRST AID IN AND OUT. Use the lectures to get extra detail for your class exams and move on.

Or not.

Do ....

whatever the fUGGGG ya wanna doooo *Hodgetwins voice*
 
68PGunner said:
My class rank drops from top 30% to third quartile now ever since I throw away all class lectures second year. Just being real about how class rank drops by a modest 12-15%. That’s complete bull.
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So you went from top 30% to below 50%. I'm still not seeing the huge shift. For one thing, you still have an entire year of grades that goes into your residency app, with plenty of time to bring that back up to the second quartile, which again lets be honest 2nd or 3rd quartile at a DO school might as well be the same.

What I was saying was that one semester in the grand scheme of things across the 3yrs that will go into your residency app won't be all that devastating to your rank. Obviously this varies by school, credits per semester, grading, and what not, but say you're at 70th percentile for your class in the first 3 semesters of med school, 40th percentile in the 4th semester, then 70th percentile in the 5th and 6th semester (3rd yr). That puts you at 65th percentile by residency app time. That means that one semester that you slacked off in only dropped you 5%.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
I’m convinced if you do Zanki the way it was designed by following the Anki algorithm your floor is probably 245.
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Don't know about the floor being 245. But, I would say that if you pound Zanki at least 5-6 hrs, 6 days a week throughout 2nd year, you can definitely get 240+. 240+ but less than 270 would open the door to a lot of specialties that are realistic for DOs in term of location and quality of training.
 
68PGunner said:
272 is a liability, brah... Now, that dude is definitely going to a community program.
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Yeah they may end up with me in Alaska doing FM making that ssshhhhmoneyyyy.


tumblr_n8f60rQUDc1rtlon2o1_500.gif
 
QueenJames said:
I finish my weekly lectures on Monday and spend tuesday thru sunday reviewing first aid and pathoma and usmle rx. I'm ALMOST done with my first pass but that is because I am literally taking my time going through systems I haven't covered since first year. I need to pick up the pace for sure.

The weekend before an exam... I cram and all-nighter it out. Get a nice mcdonald's sausage egg and cheese mcmuffin and OJ... head to class. Aim for a 75/80% or higher as our grading system is all pass/fail grading for us anyway.

My USMLE rx averages have gone from 40-50% to 70-80% in the meanwhile and my performance has stayed the same in classes. LOL

I'm so pissed I didn't figure this out in first year.

KNOW FIRST AID IN AND OUT. Use the lectures to get extra detail for your class exams and move on.

Or not.

Do ....

whatever the fUGGGG ya wanna doooo *Hodgetwins voice*
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oh em gee we are like board prep twinsies
 
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