CBSE- Final stretch advice

Started by RaveDamsey
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RaveDamsey

RaveDamsey

Full Member
2+ Year Member
I could use some help. I've been plugging away at as much UWorld as possible. I'm 62% of the way through with 3 weeks until my test. I've been scoring sections of 40 in the 50% range but still several in the 40s and 30s. I'm about to start taking practice NBMEs. I'm worried because when I do UWorld there's still many times where I simply don't know a lot of material. It's pretty discouraging. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve?
 
NBMEs are just going to confuse you more since there is no feedback and no explanations. Sounds like you just need more study time.
 
My plan is to redo UWORLD incorrects during the week and then do NBMEs w/ review during the weekend. Plan on doing micro Anki deck during down time. I was definitely getting more questions right towards the end of the first pass of UWORLD than in the beginning.
 
I'm just powering through UWorld (80-120 questions/day) and made Anki cards for my incorrects that I also review. Supplementing any weak areas with Pathoma, Boards n Beyond, Dirty Medicine. Reviewing FA too. UWSAs/NBMEs every week. Cramming as much crap as possible into my brain.
 
odontogenesis said:
I'm just powering through UWorld (80-120 questions/day) and made Anki cards for my incorrects that I also review. Supplementing any weak areas with Pathoma, Boards n Beyond, Dirty Medicine. Reviewing FA too. UWSAs/NBMEs every week. Cramming as much crap as possible into my brain.
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Do you mind sharing what you first started doing when you started studying? I am 1 month in studying and have just been doing high yield on anking with some medschool bootcamp videos
 
dentalchamp98 said:
Do you mind sharing what you first started doing when you started studying? I am 1 month in studying and have just been doing high yield on anking with some medschool bootcamp videos
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Nothing novel or fancy. Just went by system through Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, and Dirty Medicine. Then did Sketchy for bugs/drugs. Took all my notes in FA. Cranking through UWorld and listening to Goljian and Pathoma chapters 1-3 on repeat. Also staying up to date on my Anki deck for my UWorld incorrects. Doing 80 new questions + 40 incorrects a day. I have Amboss too but don't really use it often. And doing UWSA/NBMEs every few weeks.
 
odontogenesis said:
Nothing novel or fancy. Just went by system through Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, and Dirty Medicine. Then did Sketchy for bugs/drugs. Took all my notes in FA. Cranking through UWorld and listening to Goljian and Pathoma chapters 1-3 on repeat. Also staying up to date on my Anki deck for my UWorld incorrects. Doing 80 new questions + 40 incorrects a day. I have Amboss too but don't really use it often. And doing UWSA/NBMEs every few weeks.
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At what point did you say you started looking at uworld questions? I am very bad with anki and only know how to use pre-made decks.
 
dentalchamp98 said:
At what point did you say you started looking at uworld questions? I am very bad with anki and only know how to use pre-made decks.
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Once I finished going through all the systems; however, I do not recommend that and would change the way I did it if I could go back. My recommendation is do UWorld with the system you are studying. Then once you are done with all the systems, you've finished one full pass of UWorld. Then I'd reset my UWorld and do them again on random.

Also, YouTube and the Anki website are pretty good at explaining how to use it.
 
odontogenesis said:
Once I finished going through all the systems; however, I do not recommend that and would change the way I did it if I could go back. My recommendation is do UWorld with the system you are studying. Then once you are done with all the systems, you've finished one full pass of UWorld. Then I'd reset my UWorld and do them again on random.

Also, YouTube and the Anki website are pretty good at explaining how to use it.
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And how long did you study in total for this exam? Would it be okay if I just did uworld questions without making an Anki for them?

Right now I am using anking but only the "high yield" tag which is around 10,000 flashcards, covering some pathoma, sketchy, and boards and beyond, do you think that is enough for anki? It takes me a while to just get through 200 flashcards a day

Sorry for all my questions
 
dentalchamp98 said:
Right now I am using anking but only the "high yield" tag which is around 10,000 flashcards, covering some pathoma, sketchy, and boards and beyond, do you think that is enough for anki? It takes me a while to just get through 200 flashcards a day
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I am also doing the AnKing high yields right now and I dont think it will be enough by itself, I will probably do the Relatively High Yield cards too. I say this because my UWorld blocks have not improved that significantly (10% better on average now). I'll take any improvement, but theres definitely work left to do.

You'll need to try to get faster with the cards, 200 cards should not take long. I have done 7,000 of the high yield cards, so nowadays I get 300+ reviews and I add 100 new a day (ends up being 500-600 cards a day). Don't want to freak you out, anki is a great resource if you stay consistent. Though you should try to start doing 200 cards in an hour. Therefore when the workload ramps up, you'll still be able to balance anki with school.
 
Personally I don't think memorizing a bunch of Anki cards will as useful as committing full-time to UWorld and the explanations because in Anki you are missing the clinical relevance/presentation/identification in the vignettes. Doing questions forces you to make all the connections, so maybe do the High Yield Anki cards as a secondary or even tertiary mechanism to study.

I started studying last April. I guess you could do UWorld without making an Anki card for what you don't know... but how will you remember it? There's over 3700 questions, and unless you have an eidetic memory, I dunno how you would be able to keep up with what you got wrong and why.

My first UWorld block a couple of months ago was an absolutely pathetic score, and now I've completed ~55% of UWorld and am pretty consistently scoring in the mid 50s-60s. Even gotten a few in the 70s. So hopefully by the time I finish all of it I'll be scoring really well. The blocks of incorrects I've been going back through have been in the upper 70s/low 80s.
 
Teeth and Titanite said:
I am also doing the AnKing high yields right now and I dont think it will be enough by itself, I will probably do the Relatively High Yield cards too. I say this because my UWorld blocks have not improved that significantly (10% better on average now). I'll take any improvement, but theres definitely work left to do.

You'll need to try to get faster with the cards, 200 cards should not take long. I have done 7,000 of the high yield cards, so nowadays I get 300+ reviews and I add 100 new a day (ends up being 500-600 cards a day). Don't want to freak you out, anki is a great resource if you stay consistent. Though you should try to start doing 200 cards in an hour. Therefore when the workload ramps up, you'll still be able to balance anki with school.
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Thank you I appreciate that, definitely will start ramping things up with anki
odontogenesis said:
Personally I don't think memorizing a bunch of Anki cards will as useful as committing full-time to UWorld and the explanations because in Anki you are missing the clinical relevance/presentation/identification in the vignettes. Doing questions forces you to make all the connections, so maybe do the High Yield Anki cards as a secondary or even tertiary mechanism to study.

I started studying last April. I guess you could do UWorld without making an Anki card for what you don't know... but how will you remember it? There's over 3700 questions, and unless you have an eidetic memory, I dunno how you would be able to keep up with what you got wrong and why.

My first UWorld block a couple of months ago was an absolutely pathetic score, and now I've completed ~55% of UWorld and am pretty consistently scoring in the mid 50s-60s. Even gotten a few in the 70s. So hopefully by the time I finish all of it I'll be scoring really well. The blocks of incorrects I've been going back through have been in the upper 70s/low 80s.
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So let me ask you this, as somebody who really doesn't like making his own flashcards, is there any alternative to being able to review the wrong answer choices? I have uworld but in pdf format with questions followed by the answers

And what would you supplement the Uworld studying with? Other than anki high yield I am watching pathoma and using medschool bootcamp for content videos
 
dentalchamp98 said:
Thank you I appreciate that, definitely will start ramping things up with anki

So let me ask you this, as somebody who really doesn't like making his own flashcards, is there any alternative to being able to review the wrong answer choices? I have uworld but in pdf format with questions followed by the answers

And what would you supplement the Uworld studying with? Other than anki high yield I am watching pathoma and using medschool bootcamp for content videos
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If there is an alternative, I'm not aware of it. You could use the UWorld Notebook or Flashcards and take notes/flashcards that way? I've been supplementing with Pathoma, Dirty Medicine, and Boards and Beyond for my weaker areas.
 
odontogenesis said:
If there is an alternative, I'm not aware of it. You could use the UWorld Notebook or Flashcards and take notes/flashcards that way? I've been supplementing with Pathoma, Dirty Medicine, and Boards and Beyond for my weaker areas.
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What about manually marking questions I struggled with and then going back to them after the first pass of uworld?
 
dentalchamp98 said:
So what would be doable?
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Part of it is learning the hard way lol. I feel we can all tell you all day how hard this test is but it'll only truly sink in once you sit down and review a block of UWorld thoroughly on top of anki, B&B, sketchy... and then you will know how long you will need.

It can be quite variable, there are med students that review 80-120 UWorld questions a day which is wild. I can get 40 done regularly, 60 on a good day. That adds quite bit of extra days to my study timeline as a result.
 
Teeth and Titanite said:
Part of it is learning the hard way lol. I feel we can all tell you all day how hard this test is but it'll only truly sink in once you sit down and review a block of UWorld thoroughly on top of anki, B&B, sketchy... and then you will know how long you will need.

It can be quite variable, there are med students that review 80-120 UWorld questions a day which is wild. I can get 40 done regularly, 60 on a good day. That adds quite bit of extra days to my study timeline as a result.
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I’m studying for step 2 right now, and some days even doing 20 can be a struggle. When I have nothing but studying to do, without any work or school, going to be on 60 is pretty pretty tough.
 
Teeth and Titanite said:
Part of it is learning the hard way lol. I feel we can all tell you all day how hard this test is but it'll only truly sink in once you sit down and review a block of UWorld thoroughly on top of anki, B&B, sketchy... and then you will know how long you will need.

It can be quite variable, there are med students that review 80-120 UWorld questions a day which is wild. I can get 40 done regularly, 60 on a good day. That adds quite bit of extra days to my study timeline as a result.
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I understand, thank you for this. So what do you do when you arrive at a uworld question and don't know the medical content behind the question? Do you use the explanations to help you explain it or or do you watch supplemental videos?
 
dentalchamp98 said:
I understand, thank you for this. So what do you do when you arrive at a uworld question and don't know the medical content behind the question? Do you use the explanations to help you explain it or or do you watch supplemental videos?
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Tbh I just read the explanation and move on otherwise I feel I'll never get through the block. Occasionally I jot the topic name down onto my list of hard topics to read about more in FA at a later time.
 
I'm pretty much in the same boat. About halfway through UWorld. Averaging 62% correct on random/untimed. With only a little over 2 weeks left, there's really not much more we can do aside from more practice questions and reviewing FA/Sketchy.
 
Ivy.ch said:
I’m studying for step 2 right now, and some days even doing 20 can be a struggle. When I have nothing but studying to do, without any work or school, going to be on 60 is pretty pretty tough.
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Would you say the question types on the CBSE are more similar to NBMEs or UWorld questions? Or unique in its own category?
 
odontogenesis said:
Would you say the question types on the CBSE are more similar to NBMEs or UWorld questions? Or unique in its own category?
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Way more similar to NBME. A lot of the question were simple one liners. It’s not like you world where they give a bunch of background.
 
So I just got uworld and am unfamiliar with how to use it? What would you do to start out with
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