Hitting 30-50% in Qbank after heavy review. Help.

[amakhosidlo]

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I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I go over a chapter in first aid front to back, then read through Goljan's RR, then listen to him. Then take a test. I've been bombing every single one.

It's like nothing's sticking, all my knowledge is just a jumble in my head. I'm spending 15 hrs/wk on this **** and nothing is helping.

What do I do?

 

[mtwop]

Start by narrowing it down to 1 subject at a time if you aren't already doing that. Spend a few hours going over the corresponding section, and then do a block of untimed questions on tutor mode. It's overwhelming trying to start any other way. Good luck

 

[RedSoxSuck]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I go over a chapter in first aid front to back, then read through Goljan's RR, then listen to him. Then take a test. I've been bombing every single one.

It's like nothing's sticking, all my knowledge is just a jumble in my head. I'm spending 15 hrs/wk on this **** and nothing is helping.

What do I do?

I can totally relate to your concern and frustration. Best advice is to keep studying and keep reviewing because eventually you will get a hang of Uworld question language. I am assuming you are talking about UWORLD. Another thing that i found helpful is the following:

Read the question and understand the signs/symptoms and quickly come up with the diagnosis. This will make sure that you know what is being asked or what disease they are talking about. In other words it will direct you towards appropriate disease

2nd (Probably more important) is if you do not know the answer , after coming up with the diagnosis, then look at the answer choices and try to remember their typical presentation and match that presentation to the sign/symptoms/clues presented in the question stem. If they do NOT match then eliminate that answer choice. This technique is really important and helpful because YOU CANNOT KNOW EVERYTHING AND YOU CANNOT RECALL EVERYTHING. It will help you eliminate wrong answers and pick the answer choice that is left over and most of the time it will be correct.

Hope it helps!

 

[hrain]

If you have the means, I would STRONGLY suggest getting Pathoma to go through before RR (even if you decide you want to go through RR after...which you may not). I've only done a few chapters in Pathoma, but even so, I can tell it is absolute gold. I'll give you an example:

Last night I did about 10 Qbank questions from Kaplan, just to practice a bit. I got an unlucky bunch of questions that I hadn't actually studied for yet (I'm halfway through Cardio and it just happened to test me on everything I hadn't studied), so I got maybe like 7 or 8 wrong. Crappy haha. Right after, I went through the second half of the Cardiac lecture in Pathoma, and immediately 5 of those 7 or 8 questions were completely obvious to me. Of course, that won't always be the case, but there are some very obvious correlations to me, and the best part is that Dr. Sattar makes understanding Path extremely easy, in a way that sticks. Last night I learned about Rheumatic fever in Pathoma, and today we happened to have a case related to it in PBL...I was the only one who knew all the criteria, who could explain the process, and the only reason was because I watched one 5 minute section of Pathoma.

I know that's a long response, but here's my advice: if you can, give it a try. It will make Path stick, and then if you want to go into more depth with RR.

 

[sineapse]

I'm spending 15 hrs/wk on this **** and nothing is helping.

This is probably your problem. You need to be doing way more than that to be consolidating knowledge. I take it this is your part time study period? You will find stuff sticks better when you are doing it day in, day out for like 10-12 hours a day.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

This is probably your problem. You need to be doing way more than that to be consolidating knowledge. I take it this is your part time study period? You will find stuff sticks better when you are doing it day in, day out for like 10-12 hours a day.

Hey OP, I 2nd that. You need to be putting in more than 15hrs a week.

 

[jpudge12]

If you have the means, I would STRONGLY suggest getting Pathoma to go through before RR (even if you decide you want to go through RR after...which you may not). I've only done a few chapters in Pathoma, but even so, I can tell it is absolute gold. I'll give you an example:

Last night I did about 10 Qbank questions from Kaplan, just to practice a bit. I got an unlucky bunch of questions that I hadn't actually studied for yet (I'm halfway through Cardio and it just happened to test me on everything I hadn't studied), so I got maybe like 7 or 8 wrong. Crappy haha. Right after, I went through the second half of the Cardiac lecture in Pathoma, and immediately 5 of those 7 or 8 questions were completely obvious to me. Of course, that won't always be the case, but there are some very obvious correlations to me, and the best part is that Dr. Sattar makes understanding Path extremely easy, in a way that sticks. Last night I learned about Rheumatic fever in Pathoma, and today we happened to have a case related to it in PBL...I was the only one who knew all the criteria, who could explain the process, and the only reason was because I watched one 5 minute section of Pathoma.

I know that's a long response, but here's my advice: if you can, give it a try. It will make Path stick, and then if you want to go into more depth with RR.

I also think this is best way to go about it! Pathoma then RR, every thing just sticks...If you have a couple months get GunnerTraining and do the cards in the subjects you are weak at. The endless repetition will solidify the concepts in your head...this is what has helped me the most...good luck!!

 

[Munchen]

This is probably your problem. You need to be doing way more than that to be consolidating knowledge. I take it this is your part time study period? You will find stuff sticks better when you are doing it day in, day out for like 10-12 hours a day.

I totally agree. It gets easier as one increases the hours and reviews again and again.

 

[Valadi]

I disagree with what everyone else is saying.

I think you should go to the source. If it's not sticking after going through the review books it's because the big picture isn't there. Read through your weak areas in Robbins to make it click, then use the review books to fill in the details. Again, these are REVIEW books. Not learning books. What you're describing suggests you need to learn it better first.

Best of luck

 

[MilkmanAl]

Again, these are REVIEW books. Not learning books.

For First Aid, that's true. For everything else, I disagree. I learned everything from Goljan and other review books without a problem, and so did most people I know. I also don't agree that reading a text qualifies as "learning it better." Repetition is the key.

I'm spending 15 hrs/wk on this **** and nothing is helping.

I agree with the above statement that this amount of time is insufficient. I study very efficiently but still invested over 3 times that much studying per week, at the least.

 

[katarina90]

I disagree with what everyone else is saying.

I think you should go to the source. If it's not sticking after going through the review books it's because the big picture isn't there. Read through your weak areas in Robbins to make it click, then use the review books to fill in the details. Again, these are REVIEW books. Not learning books. What you're describing suggests you need to learn it better first.

Best of luck

I agree with Robbins. Honestly I have read a lot of textbooks that weren't worth the time, but Robbins is one of the best textbooks I've ever learned from. I am seriously 20 pages away from having read it cover to cover.

OP probably does not have time to read it in its entirety, but I'd at least suggest Ch 4 (hemodynamic), Ch 6 (immune), and Ch 7 (neoplasia) and then brush up on the weak areas as needed. The rest of the intro topics are well covered in Pathoma I think.