Help with General Principles

[cruCiATE]

Need advice on where to solidify on General Principles, I took a Kaplan 3 block diagnostics from school and got 61% and took uWA #1 and got 206, both of them where consistent on my weaknesses being General Principles, I have done 50% percent of uW getting like 65% system based.

I am 6 weeks out and need a 220+, is it doable ? and is there some way to solidify on General Principles ?

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[SBR249]

Sure it's doable. A ~20 point bump in 6 weeks is not unheard of. But I'm a little curious as to what this "general principles" thing is? General principles of what exactly? Micro? Path? Pathophys? Pharm?

 

[cruCiATE]

uWA#1 score card report asses it as General Principles of Health and Diseases, Kaplan just says General Principles, thats what I am unsure about, I dont know if its General Principles of ALL the Subjects or just General Principles of Path, Phys, Pharm...

 

[SBR249]

Sounds like general principles of pathophys. How's your physiology and pathophys?

 

[cruCiATE]

Physiology itself is good (reached the High Bar), for some reason I am making mistakes with pathophysiology and path. But other weakness are Genetics and Microbiology, yet again I dont know if those two apply to General Principles.

 

[Transposony]

General Principles is such a vague term. When they can't figure out in which subject you are making mistakes, they say it's your general principles.

 

[SBR249]

Yeah, they may as well have just called it "Medical School Stuff" and it would have been appropriate

 

[cruCiATE]

I am 6 weeks out so, I ll definitely will figure it out since then

 

[Transposony]

I am 6 weeks out so, I ll definitely will figure it out since then

What else have you done apart from UW?
What about Pathoma/Goljan RR/Goljan Audio ?
They are great for integration ans should enough to achieve your desired score.
If nothing else works (and you can afford it) then try Raymon's Integrated cases (but I don't think you are going to need it).
Meanwhile try these out for free. They are trying to compete with Kaplan and we get to have some freebies.

 

[cruCiATE]

Done 80% pathoma, did kaplan bank back in School, I plan to finish UW, do RX quick then review UW again, and NBMEs 12 - 16 and UWA2.
I have the Goljian Audios, I didn't think that I needed them for a 220, but a couple a ppl are pointing me towards that direction since my UWA1 score.
Good thing is that my FA is heavily annotated already.

 

[SBR249]

6 weeks is probably good for at least 2 more passes through first aid.

 

[cruCiATE]

6 weeks is probably good for at least 2 more passes through first aid.

What about Goljian RR ?

 

[SBR249]

do you feel weak in path?

 

[Transposony]

Although 6 weeks are more than enough to work on your weaknesses.
I find it difficult to understand your scores especially on UWSA considering the resources you are using.
There is a missing link somewhere and you need to find it.
Have you tried to think why you got a question wrong on UW - Is it due to lack of knowledge or lack of application? Is it a recall problem or an integration problem?

 

[cruCiATE]

I took a quick glance, and its more of dumb mistakes for path and recall problems for micro. Also I got almost all Behavioral science and Biostatistics questions wrong, since I haven't read the material yet. I ll post again once I review the Assessment, and I ll try to put up my score card report.

 

[cruCiATE]

 

[Transposony]

220+ is very likely with 6 weeks in hand considering that you haven't yet done Behavioral science and Biostatistics because they give you best bang for buck. Just make sure to practice a lot of questions on these two subjects.
Other than that you need to work on Biochem/Genetics & Immuno/Micro.
Also, take Anatomy very seriously since it is being heavily tested.
Once you are done with these, your score will improve by at least 20 points.

 

[cruCiATE]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I ll work on this topics for two weeks, the sit NBME 13 to see where I am at, final thing is FA enough for Anatomy, or do I need another source. I currently have Netters Clinical Anatomy but its like 400 pages, but it does has a HY Clinical section with very good pictures... but if you there is another source let me know.

 

[Transposony]

Anatomy can be achilles heel for anyone But I don't think going through Netters or any Anatomy text will be the most efficient way to prepare for it.
I would just do tons on questions on every weak topic and only (selectively) read those topics from whichever source you prefer.
Point is, it's not the source you use that counts but what you know inside out from any source.
So, I would focus on finding the gaps in knowledge and filling them up.
If you are a visual learner then This. this and this might help.

 

[cruCiATE]

Yes, I feel pretty good with my Systems so after I am done with uW I will do all Anatomy, Biochemistry, Genetics, Micro and Behavioral questions as much as I can, another thing I have heard from some peers that Pelvic Anatomy was heavily tested on their boards, what are your thoughts on that? (I ask since its one of my weakest sub-sections in anatomy and FA is very vague on that particular topic) and finally MRI and CTs I also know are big, any thoughts on that as well ?

 

[Transposony]

Yes, I heard that too that pelvic anatomy is heavily tested and that's what I meant by doing selective review of topics. Basically most of the visceral applied anatomy is tested in one way or another.
They are not going to ask anatomy of the fascial planes in leiomyosarcoma of the limb or smooth muscle tumors derived from skin (arrector pili or dartos etc) but they might ask about their innervation or a loss thereof.
Also, once you know your anatomy you shouldn't have much problem in figuring out CT/MRI anyway and there are some good website links posted on SDN to review/quiz them.