For those of you who only studied for 1 month...

[qmcat]

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Did you guys take any days off? I'm on my third day of my dedicated study month, and I already feel overwhelmed with material. Maybe it's because I just started the biochem section in FA and feel like there's so many enzymes and things to remember. But, I feel like I can't take a day off because the study schedule I have requires studying everyday in order to finish all the subjects by the time I test.

Also, does anyone know if doing the last 2 weeks of Taus plan twice works? I'm tempted to just switch to that plan rather than do the plan that my school advisor drew up for me.

 

[Karees]

It's just my opinion...but I've been taking Sabbath my whole life, including my Boards studying and I know I'm a better person for it.

That's like running for a month straight. Your body won't handle it well. I'm sure there are some gunners who haven't taken a break in 3 months and won't...until they're dead.

I'm not saying don't study hard, but at least a half day a week commit yourself to break time. PLAN the fun things to do. Look forward to it. It's good for your pysche - and it's a depressing time.

It's a long ass test. You don't want your brain already tired from a month of studying when you start. That 4th block already sucks, let alone number 7.

 

[fahimaz7]

I'm on day 28 and it sucks. But, that's the price we pay to try and get done what needs to be done.

Best of luck with whatever you decide. I'm going to keep plugging away until I can't handle it anymore, then i'll go do something else for a few hours.

 

[shaman06]

It's just my opinion...but I've been taking Sabbath my whole life, including my Boards studying and I know I'm a better person for it.

That's like running for a month straight. Your body won't handle it well. I'm sure there are some gunners who haven't taken a break in 3 months and won't...until they're dead.

I'm not saying don't study hard, but at least a half day a week commit yourself to break time. PLAN the fun things to do. Look forward to it. It's good for your pysche - and it's a depressing time.

It's a long ass test. You don't want your brain already tired from a month of studying when you start. That 4th block already sucks, let alone number 7.

I could not agree more. I'm 2/3 done with my studying, and have been grinding out close to 15 hours a day of studying. I'm even listening to Goljan lectures when cooking dinner, reading high yield clinical cases during breakfast, and I have lab values and equation sheets laminated and posted in my shower, haha.
But EVERY DAY, I've given myself ~1.5 hours of break for "me" time. Once a week, I hit the hockey rink for a league; once a week, I hit the tennis courts; every remaining day, I get outside and go on a run or rollerblade. And sometimes, I grab my guitar and jam for a few minutes.

Point is, there is only so much information you can physically learn. The less stressed out you are, the more you will retain. I'm completely sold that a positive attitude + being calm/poised and being emotionally 'healthy' will lead to a stronger score for me than cramming that extra ~1 hour a day in, at this point.

good luck!

 

[deleted387928]

OP if your study schedule is too fast paced you'll have trouble retaining what you study. I don't think you can learn for more than 8-10 hours in a day. Your brain will hit a limit at which point its better to rest.

Maybe you should readjust your study schedule to cut out low yield material or figure out some way to make each day more manageable. Slowly building a knowledge base of high yield material is better than scrambling at every random fact.

 

[Fillabuster]

I studied everyday for 5 weeks including the day before the exam. But every 45 minutes to an hour I would take a 15-20 minute break. I would sit down to study approximately 12 hrs a day. If you break it down it comes out to 3.5 hrs of break time peppered in b/w 8.5 hrs of studying. This schedule allowed me to focus for longer periods of time. Hope this helps.

 

[qmcat]

Thanks guys. I remade my schedule so that I'm only spending 2 days per subject rather than the 3-4 days or 1 day per certain subjects that my school advisor put down for me. I should finish my first pass in 24 days (already on day 5), giving me about 6 days to do a last review and tons of qbank. I'll also be able to take half a day off each Saturday.

Other changes I made:
I'm planning to go faster over FA during my first pass and spend more time on qbank. I think I will learn/remember more by doing questions than sitting and staring at FA.
Also, I might scrap CMMRS and just look over a few bugs from the FA micro section every night. My school advisor originally gave me just 1 day for micro, but I don't think I can learn and remember all the bugs in 1 day.

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated!

 

[abmd]

Definitely do not use CMMRS if you don't have time. It's wayy too big. and I am a fast reader I read the FA micro section in one day but I am planning to go through it another two additional times. One day will not be enough to remember it, just focus on the details in FA and scrap CMMRS.

 

[qmcat]

Definitely do not use CMMRS if you don't have time. It's wayy too big. and I am a fast reader I read the FA micro section in one day but I am planning to go through it another two additional times. One day will not be enough to remember it, just focus on the details in FA and scrap CMMRS.

Thanks. Yea just FA micro for me.

Also, for any of you guys who used Levinson for Immuno, was it really worth it? I think I might scrap Levinson also. I can probably fit in the time for it though, but not sure if it would be better to use that time for practice questions instead.

 

[abmd]

I did but i think you should really focus on FA. almost everything is in there you just have to make the right links. better to know one thing really well then to spread yourself out 🙂

 

[tco]

Definitely do not use CMMRS if you don't have time. It's wayy too big. and I am a fast reader I read the FA micro section in one day but I am planning to go through it another two additional times. One day will not be enough to remember it, just focus on the details in FA and scrap CMMRS.

I read it in 3 days and I'm a horribly slow reader. I also didn't encounter a micro scenario that I didn't know on the shelf.