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- Jan 10, 2018
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Once again, congrats to everyone for even completing the exam. It's mentally and physically exhausting, so cheers to you. I figured I might share a few more words to shed light on a couple details that were mentioned. A little background:
Score: 83% (87/240) - 1st Attempt
Length studied: 6 Months
Resources: UFAP, Sketchy, Boards
Background: Ranked, Non-Med Curriculum, 2nd Year
I never thought I would say this, but I don't think I would have done much better with a medical school curriculum. This exam takes effort and guts. Those classes might help, but it's your effort that will afford you a good score. That's all I'll say on that.
There are many ways to skin this cat, so find what works for you. UFAP and Anki are tried and true, but that might not be your thing. I hate flashcards, so I never touched a single one. Efficiency is key, so find ways to build your CBSE learning around dental school classes. Once you have a foundation, start ripping through UWorld. My first block was 25%. Who cares. Trust the process. Do at least 1 full and an incorrect pass. Complete as many practice exams as you can. No matter how good or bad you do on the practice exams, it's going to feel like a grenade went off in your ear after the real thing. In the end, do the best you can, and don't get hung up on comparing your score to somebody else's.
Quick write-up as these were invaluable for me when I was preparing to study:
Score: 84% (~243)
Length studied: 9 months
Resources: Anki, UWorld (2.5x), practice NBMEs
Background: Ranked school, no med school curriculum
Strategy: I essentially only used Anki to learn/review material, did not open First Aid once or watch any Pathoma / Boards and Beyond videos. I very rarely supplemented with 3rd party videos for concepts I did not understand through Anki (I'm talking less than an hour of total watching). To study this way comes at a price though, in the end I had just under 32k flashcards in my master deck, I had done over 330k total reviews, and matured 31k of my total flashcards. My average over the 9 months was about 1400 per day. I think there was a 2-3 week stretch where I averaged 3.5k per day, yeah....
My advice would be to compile the major resources, try them out for a month and then create a comprehensive game plan with the resources you like best for the remaining time you have. I learned very quickly that Anki was the way to go for me, but it will not be the best for everyone.
I took 5.5 months purely learning through Anki, then I used UWorld for the final 3.5 months and also did every NBME I could get my hands on (even the old ones and the Free120's). I ended up doing 2 passes of UWorld and my incorrects for the second pass. I also ended up doing around 15 total practice tests (under simulated conditions).
Practice Test Scores:
NBME 30: 76% / 225 (6 weeks out)
NBME 25: 74% / 220 (5.5 weeks out)
NBME 28: 73% / 219 (5 weeks out)
UWSA 1: 73% / 243 (4 weeks out)
NBME 27: 83% / 240 (3 weeks out)
New Free120: 85% (2 weeks out)
Old Free120: 87% (2 weeks out)
NBME 26: 80% / 234 (1 week out)
UWSA 2: 82% / 251 (4 days out)
NBME 29: 86% / 247 (2 days out)
CBSE: 84% / 243
Final thoughts:
Something not talked about enough in all the breakdowns I have sifted through was the importance of life balance. I originally thought I would spend every waking moment grinding for this test, but looking back, the times I did this and neglected all the other aspects of my life (friends, girlfriend, gym, etc.) were ironically the weeks I performed the worst on my studying sessions, practice tests, and just felt crappy overall.
One thing I made sure to do was to have at least one weekend every month that had something I looked forward to (a trip, a big drinking weekend, guys night out, date night, etc.). It made it feel like I was working towards something every month, and gave me motivation on those early mornings and late nights.
Good luck to everyone taking it in the future and congratulations to everyone who never has to think about Leptomeningeal angiomas ever again.
Congrats to both of y'all - how did you guys feel walking out of the test? Did it feel like you knew most of the information or were you pleasantly surprised?