Guessed on more than 10 questions on actual exam! Long vignettes issue...

[shigella123]

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My friend took the exam and he is so worried because he guessed on more than few questions on his actual exam as he ran out of time.. He was not fully prepared to deal with the long vignettes even after doing 2 qbanks and all the NBMEs. He told me he was rushing through the exam as he didn't have enough time to finish the remaining 10 questions on one of the blocks and so he guessed on them! He did that on few other blocks too.
I'm really worried now.

How should we prepare for the long vignettes on the actual exam?? I'm scared I will freak out too and mess up the timing with the long vignettes on the actual exam if I don't prepare earlier for them. I am not that good with skimming through fast on vignettes..

Can anyone please give any advice how to prepare for the long vignettes and how to deal with them on the actual exam?

 

[Frostling]

My friend took the exam and he is so worried because he guessed on more than few questions on his actual exam as he ran out of time.. He was not fully prepared to deal with the long vignettes even after doing 2 qbanks and all the NBMEs. He told me he was rushing through the exam as he didn't have enough time to finish the remaining 10 questions on one of the blocks and so he guessed on them! He did that on few other blocks too.
I'm really worried now.

How should we prepare for the long vignettes on the actual exam?? I'm scared I will freak out too and mess up the timing with the long vignettes on the actual exam if I don't prepare earlier for them. I am not that good with skimming through fast on vignettes..

Can anyone please give any advice how to prepare for the long vignettes and how to deal with them on the actual exam?

What i did:
I made sure i set small goals for myself... 25-30min in i should be half way ie 23 questions through...if a question is hard, guess n move on.. Ofcourse mark it so you can come back to it but there is no point losing time in which you could have got an easy question correct for sure...
Next i made sure i knew a few values so that if they gave me lab work i didnt have to look up each value everytime... Know things like normal blood pH, bicarb, co2, o2, sodium, potassium, glucose... Things you know are present on most labs...

I felt by just doing this i was able to go through every question and have like 30sec left at the end... Yeah i was rushed a few times when i was behind at the half way stage but i was able to catch myself early that it wasnt too bad...

 

[GunbydayJREbynt]

What i did:
I made sure i set small goals for myself... 25-30min in i should be half way ie 23 questions through...if a question is hard, guess n move on.. Ofcourse mark it so you can come back to it but there is no point losing time in which you could have got an easy question correct for sure...
Next i made sure i knew a few values so that if they gave me lab work i didnt have to look up each value everytime... Know things like normal blood pH, bicarb, co2, o2, sodium, potassium, glucose... Things you know are present on most labs...

I felt by just doing this i was able to go through every question and have like 30sec left at the end... Yeah i was rushed a few times when i was behind at the half way stage but i was able to catch myself early that it wasnt too bad...

👍👍👍

 

[shigella123]

What i did:
I made sure i set small goals for myself... 25-30min in i should be half way ie 23 questions through...if a question is hard, guess n move on.. Ofcourse mark it so you can come back to it but there is no point losing time in which you could have got an easy question correct for sure...
Next i made sure i knew a few values so that if they gave me lab work i didnt have to look up each value everytime... Know things like normal blood pH, bicarb, co2, o2, sodium, potassium, glucose... Things you know are present on most labs...

I felt by just doing this i was able to go through every question and have like 30sec left at the end... Yeah i was rushed a few times when i was behind at the half way stage but i was able to catch myself early that it wasn't too bad...

You have a good strategy to deal with lab values and dealing with the hard questions and that's exactly how I have been doing all the questions on my qbanks. However, if all the vignettes are long with a lot of information unlike the qbanks, then reading through them to not miss any important info might be a issue. If the qbanks had long vignettes then that would have given me a good practice and I would feel prepared. So, that worries me.

I usually have ~5-10 minutes left to review when I do timed qbanks since the questions are not long.

How many guessed questions are ok on the blocks?

 

[Frostling]

You have a good strategy to deal with lab values and dealing with the hard questions and that's exactly how I have been doing all the questions on my qbanks. However, if all the vignettes are long with a lot of information unlike the qbanks, then reading through them to not miss any important info might be a issue. If the qbanks had long vignettes then that would have given me a good practice and I would feel prepared. So, that worries me.

I usually have ~5-10 minutes left to review when I do timed qbanks since the questions are not long.

How many guessed questions are ok on the blocks?

All the vignettes are NOT long. There were a few one liners in my exam and my fellow classmates and friends exams. I feel like on a 8 hour exam you are bound to get slow at some point. Just catching yourself early and not panicking will do you well. Also, you can actually write on your white board before you begin the exam. This might be a good time to jot a few mnemonics and formulas down especially stuff in stats, renal and cardio so you always have them at a glance when the exam question pops up 🙂

As far as guessed questions go, it totally depends on the block. If the block has hard questions you would have guessed more compared to an easy block.

 

[shigella123]

All the vignettes are NOT long. There were a few one liners in my exam and my fellow classmates and friends exams. I feel like on a 8 hour exam you are bound to get slow at some point. Just catching yourself early and not panicking will do you well. Also, you can actually write on your white board before you begin the exam. This might be a good time to jot a few mnemonics and formulas down especially stuff in stats, renal and cardio so you always have them at a glance when the exam question pops up 🙂

As far as guessed questions go, it totally depends on the block. If the block has hard questions you would have guessed more compared to an easy block.

Thanks Frostling...