Being exam ready

[radian313]

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Curious to see how many passes of a particular "slideset" does it take for you to feel comfy with the material?

Personally for me, I am much more of a solo study person, I believe in repetition....but just want to gauge myself against my peers...

Thanks for your input.

 

[SurgDoc95]

Curious to see how many passes of a particular "slideset" does it take for you to feel comfy with the material?

Personally for me, I am much more of a solo study person, I believe in repetition....but just want to gauge myself against my peers...

Thanks for your input.

It really depends on what the subject is for me. Some topics I can get down with a couple passes others i need to see 4-5 times to understand.


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[Neopolymath]

It's going to vary by subject, but generally, one solid, honest viewing of the lecture, one review of the notes before the exam, and a solid amount of practice problems (and general googling) will get me to 78-82 or 10 points above class average on all exams so far. That said, I am an excellent test taker and have always been great at deciding what is going to be on exams. The questions I get correct to get my score up further than that are honestly just memorizing superficial facts. Upon exam review, the few questions I miss are also always small facts. I think if I reviewed the material more rapidly/superficially three times I would get 95% grades. I will probably try that and try flashcards/anki again like I did in undergrad for this next term. I do not have retention issues though with this method and I have a lot of free time so it's hard to consciously choose to be a slave to anki again for slightly better grades. Nothing in medical school will be intellectually challenging for most people so it's hard to find a good balance.

The key to being efficient is honesty. I know myself and know when I really do understand something well enough to move to the next subject. It also allows me to learn via understanding versus memorizing and then putting it all together without it becoming a trap.

 

[68PGunner]

One pass at prof lectures at 2x speed is enough to get comfortable passes on all exams so far. I dedicate the rest of my time to Zanki and board prep materials.

 

[Neopolymath]

One pass at prof lectures at 2x speed is enough to get comfortable passes on all exams so far. I dedicate the rest of my time to Zanki and board prep materials.

That's my plan as I shift into systems/summer/second year. This recently came up in a conversation at school and I honestly have no idea what these people are doing looking at these notes 4 and 5 times like they are learning differential equations. What is your class exam average and how has it changed over time? Ours seems to be a low C and I don't think it is going to suddenly jump.

 

[radian313]

Thanks for your input. So in totality, would you say going at it for about 5 days of review is sufficient with no new material at hand?

 

[68PGunner]

That's my plan as I shift into systems/summer/second year. This recently came up in a conversation at school and I honestly have no idea what these people are doing looking at these notes 4 and 5 times like they are learning differential equations. What is your class exam average and how has it changed over time? Ours seems to be a low C and I don't think it is going to suddenly jump.

Our class average is around 82%. When I was focusing on class materials, my grades were bet 85%-88%. Nowadays, with my focus on board materials, my grades are bet 78-82%. Believe it or not, my Kaplan Qbank % for each block is actually higher than my actual grade in the class. So... I don’t know... I just might be the classic outliner to the whole mantra about good preclinical grades —> good board scores.

 

[Neopolymath]

Our class average is around 82%. When I was focusing on class materials, my grades were bet 85%-88%. Nowadays, with my focus on board materials, my grades are bet 78-82%. Believe it or not, my Kaplan Qbank % for each block is actually higher than my actual grade in the class. So... I don’t know... I just might be the classic outliner to the whole mantra about good preclinical grades —> good board scores.

I guess you will find out pretty soon. I study to learn/understand and do minimal work in school "for the grade" but I do wonder why our exam averages seem low compared to other posters' averages. I don't feel like our exams are super hard or particularly unfair. I also don't attend a Liberty University **** tier school.

 

[Azete]

Our class average is around 82%. When I was focusing on class materials, my grades were bet 85%-88%. Nowadays, with my focus on board materials, my grades are bet 78-82%. Believe it or not, my Kaplan Qbank % for each block is actually higher than my actual grade in the class. So... I don’t know... I just might be the classic outliner to the whole mantra about good preclinical grades —> good board scores.

If I could add one suggestion, it would be to do all the practice questions you can in higher level physiology textbooks (Guyton & Hall is a good one) along with your current study plan. Zanki and other Anki decks are amazing, but they can leave you feeling like you understand concepts more than you really do. Guyton will poke any holes you have left from Zanki and give you an opportunity to patch them up for boards. While the question styles were different, I found the vast majority to be very board relevant (even if it didn't seem like it at the time).

That was my biggest takeaway from current iterations of Step 1 compared to the NBMEs and UWorld; they hammered the hell out of physiology.

Just my n=1.

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

3-5 times through the slides. Then 30-60 practice problems in the related material.

My grades have ranged from a 60% to 90% ... So, I'm working on consistency issues.

 

[Scrubs101]

I like the idea of 3-4 passes, if we’re provided study questions for the material I usually only go for 2-3 then do the questions. Having sketchy definitely makes the amount of passes i need go down a lot, usually once, sketchy, then another time the weekend before the exam has been good for pharm/micro.

My first pass through usually feels pointless though, almost nothing sticks. Then i go through use external resources to get the important parts down, then start running through the course material again. End with doing questions to confirm understanding and engrave it into my brain.

To answer your previous question if im understanding this right, yeah 5 days of review without new material should be plenty as long as you werent slacking off before those 5 days came up or anything. We typically get 3-3.5ish “days off” without any new material before an exam(exams monday, friday is review day, no labs thursday/usually just case studies thursday), and it’s definitely nice to have.

 

[deleted244469]

I guess you will find out pretty soon. I study to learn/understand and do minimal work in school "for the grade" but I do wonder why our exam averages seem low compared to other posters' averages. I don't feel like our exams are super hard or particularly unfair. I also don't attend a Liberty University **** tier school.

Uncalled for (No, I don't attend LUCOM).

 

[radian313]

You all are awesome, thanks

 

[Noisewater-TDX]

Uncalled for (No, I don't attend LUCOM).

I do. That was a random outburst by that user. Odd.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Ours seems to be a low C and I don't think it is going to suddenly jump.

That’s about where ours generally sit as well. Anatomy here is brutal and a number of people are failing, most likely going to have to be a generous curve at the end.

I forgot to answer the OP: My general rule is that 4 passes for me = A. Because I have a family that I spend some time with I often settle for 2-3 passes and am happy with my grade as long as I am at least 5% above the average. I’ve kinda stopped caring about my GPA and am mostly only caring about being in the top half of the class.