Guys Help I'm Freaking Out!

[ghandoc]

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so i've been studying for 3 weeks solid now!
i've been using first aid, some high yields and have done about 40% of Kaplan Qbank. i've gone thru all of path,phys,pharm,biochem, micro once. and i'm at that point in my schedule where i'm supposed to reread FA and increase the no. of questions i do till test day(~100/day)--i have 2.5 weeks left.

here's why i worry....
1. my q bank scores have not consistently been going up. they've been all over the map ranging from 50% to 70%.
a friend told me about Uworld just recently and how wonderful it is at big picture concepts but i don't know if it is too late for me right now to get it with the amt of time left. what do you guys think, should i stick to kaplan, hopefully my score will rise? or switch to uworld. with those who have found uworld helpful, how much time did you have and how many questions did you do per day??
2. i did not hear about Goljan till recently as well. though i could squeeze some time to listen to him i am concerned about how much time that would take and if that would really be high yield since i have gone thru path once already. i came accross the 120 page transcribed notes, and i was wondering has any of you gone thru both the audio and these notes and do you think i would be fine with just looking at these notes since it may be faster instead of listening to all his lectures(36hrs in all, right?) or does he say stuff that sticks pretty easily that i wouldn't get the benefit of if i was reading?

i have limited time and i want to improve my scores....please help

 

[Krazykritter]

The Goljan notes are good, but IMO they are not nearly as good as his audio lecturers. The brilliance of his lectures is the integration across all subjects & for me, listening to the audio is GOLD. Many of the integrations are not very useful w/out listening to him put it all together.

I listen to his lectures on Window Media at aboue 1.6 speed so it doesn't take nearly as long & w/ > 2 wks left, I would listen to his audio. I relistened to his lectures in the 2 wks btwn. my COMLEX & USMLE so I know it can be done fairly easily.

 

[cdql]

I was in a similar situation 3 weeks into my studying with 3 weeks to go.

I'd definitely recommend getting both UW and Goljan's book. I used to do 150 Kaplan questions a night and just modified my routine to include 100 UW and 50 Qbank.

As for Goljan, I had already spent the 5 days I had allotted for path so I just ended up using his book for an hour a night. It definitely helps in explaining some of the concepts behind the diseases (I felt BRS Path merely listed the diseases without explaining why they occur)

 

[blz]

i got through most of usmleworld in about 1.5wks. it can be done. as far as the goljan audio lectures, if you know your path well it's not really reasonable to spend 40hrs listening to those lectures. I read his RR path book and i listened to his lectures afterwards. The only lecture i found useful was his nutrition lecture. he explains a lot of basics that would be very helpful for people who have been out of the med school game for a while (his classroom audience is mostly foreign docs). if you got a decent background in path though, just read his RR path book. you can get through it in a week and it covers everything in his lectures and more.

 

[Old_Mil]

Are you a visual learner or an auditory learner? For me, I can read stuff and it's often in one eye and out the other. If I hear something, it sticks better.

As far as USMLEworld, if I were you, I'd stick with the Kaplan Qbank at this point. Get as far through one Qbank as you can so you max out the # of topics you see. Plus, in my experience, Uworld is much tougher. I easily score in the 70%s in Kaplan, and am consistently between 50% and 60% on the Uworld qbanks with a couple of 60%s, one 62%, and one 74% (nothing below 50% though).

 

[lfesiam]

I would switch to UW asap. Not for the content at this point but for the familarity factor. UW interface copied FRED (the real USMLE exam) down to the very last details (fonts, color, buttons, mechanics, location of timers, etc...) It sure made my exam day much easier.

Don't be discourage if you get 40-50% in UW, it will go up. I started in the 40s, by the time I was doing my last 200-300 questions (random, timed, no repeat), I was averaging around the 70s.

If you want to learn the contents of UW, I would go through it once, then go through the wrong answers question bank on your 2nd run. It can be done in 2 weeks. Do 100-150 Qs a day. Make sure you read the explanations! Do the wrong questions again on your 3rd run, if you have time.

Qbanks (50% completed)
UW (100% completed, went over the bank 3 times).

 

[ghandoc]

hi guys thanks for all the suggestions,
i think what i'm going to do at this point is do one of the nbmes to see what my weak points really are and then listen to those goljan lectures.
i will also try usworld tho i'm not sure yet if i'll give up kaplan completely.
i've heard kaplan qbank is good for micro? are there any other subjects its best for so i make sure i've done those and then do the rest of the subjects in uworld?