instatewaiter: What did you feel helped you to bump up that high? Are you using the standard FA, Goljan, UW resource method?
Well I started with high yield topics first. That way I saw them multiple times. I ended with low yield memorization based topics. I studied from about 8:30 till 12. Took an hour for lunch. Studied 1-5. took 2-3 hour break. 9-12pm I did UW questions. 8 hours of sleep per night is CRUCIAL.
3 very important hints:
Take days off. 1 too 3.5 full days off. I liked half days (7 half days) b/c you could study for a few hours and feel like you got stuff done and then take the rest of the day off.
Get plenty of sleep. Nothing burns you out like not enough sleep. It will add to your stress level.
Get some exercise. Jog for 10 minutes if nothing else.
I broke it down by subject instead of organ system because this is how the books are done and it also allows for a lot of over lap. The more times you see something the more you will remember it. During each of the subjects I would do a cursury review of FA to see what was hit and what was missed in the other books.
In order
I did ~2.5 days of BRS physio. I used about 2 days to go through it completely and then 1/2 a day to review
Next I did RR path (great book that reviews phys, pathophys, path and micro). It took about 5.5 days to go through it and then used 1 day to review
Next I did behavioral for 2 days. I used HY behavioral. Good book that covers all you need to know
Took a break for 1/2 day then started micro
For Micro used Micro made ridiculously simple and spent 5 days- 4 reading MMRS and 1 review. Great book. I made note cards during this of little tid bits. Often times you will be asked to know minutia like which gram + cocci are coagulase positive and catalase positive? Which are grown on MacKonkey. Often times you dont even have to recognize the clinical picture b/c they give you the answer just based on some minutia you need to memorize like what agar it's grown on. The note cards were key b/c I came back to them during my wrap up. I separated out antimicrobials into 1/2 a day out of the 5. And again I used 1 day to review
Next I did pharm- used FA for the drug list and most of the info. Any times there was no Mechanism of action or I didnt know how an impt side effect worked I looked it up. Really you only need to know FA. Memorize the crap out of the page with side effects. Knowing that page alone will get you tons and tons of points. I spent 5 days on pharm and made note cards for this one too.
After pharm I took NBME 3
Next 2 days of neuro. Used HY. Quick read and great book.
Next I did 1.5 days of Gross/histo/embryo. Used only what was in FA. I recommend NOT using anything else
Did biochem using mainly FA. There is a good chapter about integration of all the pathways in BRS biochem. It is worth a quick read. Otherwise memorize the crap out of FA
After biochem did the free 150.
Then I used 5 days to review only FA and my note cards of micro and pharm.
So to recap for those who dont want to read it all
Phys 2.5 days (BRS)
Path 6.5 days (RR)
Behavioral 2 days (HY)
Micro 5 days (MMRS)
Pharm 5 days (FA alone)
Neuro 2 days (HY)
Gross/embryo/histo 1.5 days (FA alone)
Biochem 2.5 days (mainly FA and some BRS)
Wrap up with FA for 5 days
Took NBME 1 for a baseline. Took NBME 3 about halfway through. Took the free 150 right before. Did UWorld questions every night.
