How do you study efficiently for classes and the USMLE at the same time?

[yanon]

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My school has a mandatory attendance policy. After attending classes from 8am to 5pm, I have limited amount of time and energy for studying at home. To make matter worse, I am one of those people who have short attention span--I usually start day dreaming after 20 minutes of lecture. After 2 1/2 months of studying, I realize that I can barely keep up with classes and have no time left to prepare for the board exam. Please give me some advices on how to study efficiently for class and the board exam at the same time.

Pathology
My professor likes to go over cases in classes and expects us to read his massive lecture handout before class. When I say his lecture handout is massive, it is not a joke. For two months worth of lectures, I already printed out 1000+ pages worth of notes (in outline format) that cover all the common diseases and some esoteric diseases. For the first block, I just read RR pathology once and my professor's lecture handout once. I done okay on the 1st block exam. For the second block, I stuck to that studying method plus annotated RR pathology with the extra info I found in my professor's lecture handout. However, I done poorly on the second block exam since there are lot more 2nd order and 3rd order questions on it. I am thinking about using a new study plan for the next block.

Here is my new plan:
1) Read STARS pathology (it is in paragraph format. hopefully, it will give me a better understanding of pathology)
2) Skimp through lecture handouts and condense them (since the handouts are in electronic format, it is really easy to delete, copy, & paste)
3) Read Rapid Review Pathology and listen to Goljan Audio  revise my condensed lecture handout according to Gojan's stuff. Basically, I will focus on the diseases that are listed in RR pathology.
4) Do questions from Rubin's pathology questions book, BRS Pathology, and read Deja Review to make sure that I actually learned the important points about each disease.
5) Read revised lecture handout and Lange pathocards before exam.

I don't think I have enough time to carry out the aforementioned study plan. So, please help me streamline it. What should I use for board exam review—my revised lecture handouts or RR pathology? Both review materials are massive (condensed lecture handouts 2000+ and RR pathology is 600+). I would like to limit reading RR-pathology to two week because I will be using 3 weeks to review pharm, microbiology/immunology, biochem/molecular/cell biology, anatomy/neuroanatomy/embryology, and behavioral/biostatistics. Were you guys able to finish re-reading RR pathology in 2 weeks?

 

[yanon]

Pharm
1st block, I just read Lippincott's Pharm and did the questions in that book, I got destroyed on my block exam.

2nd block, I used the following study plan
1) Read lecture slides/classmate's lecture objective notes.
2) Use Clinical Pharmacology Made Ridiculously Simple and classmate's lecture objective notes as guides, I created my own drug table on Excel.
3) Read pharm recall to make sure that I learned the important points
4) review old quizzes questions, review drug table, and re-read classmate's lecture objective note.

I dominated on the 2nd block exam! However, some people say doing well in class doesn't necessarily translate to doing well on the USMLE. So, should I use the drug tables I made to prepare for the USMLE? Should I use something that is more board exam oriented while studying for my pharmcology class and for the USMLE? I can't imagine using something entirely new to prepare for the USMLE when I haven't use it during the school year.

 

[yanon]

Microbiology
1st block, I did okay.
2nd block, I didn't review as much and there are lot more 2nd order clinically-oriented questions. I failed the exam!

my current study plan:
1) read lecture slides/browse the tables from cmmrs
2) review class lecture notes (highlight important information)

New study plan:
1) read lecture slides/browse the tables from cmmrs
2) review class lecture notes
3) read micro recall's organ system section to learn about the microbes from a clinical perspective.
4) Do questions from Pretest and First Aid Q&A book
5) review class lecture notes.

Alternatively, I can just replace the micro recall with the Problem-Based Microbiology book (recommended by Dragonwell) and dump CMMRS for microcard. Is this a better alternative?
-------------------------------------------------------------
How can I prepare for microbiology questions on the USMLE? Should I just read CMMRS and Micro Recall in one week?

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I'm a bit biased because I only used 3 books for my boards prep (First Aid, BRS Path, BRS Phys), but it sounds to me like you are trying to use way too many different resources. First of all, during the semester you need to focus on your classes. If you learn the basics well in your classes, this *will* help your boards prep. For studying for classes, you need to focus first on your lecture notes. These come from your professors, and they are the ones who know what will be on your exams. If you aren't understanding something from the lecture notes, then you can go to textbooks or other resources that might explain things in greater detail.

Do you have time to study for boards after your classes are over? It doesn't hurt to start looking at some books for boards and even reviewing from them a bit for your exams now, but they are called "review" books for a reason -- you need to learn the material the first time before you can review it. There's nothing wrong with using some materials you've created or some lecture notes in your dedicated boards review time (after classes are over, or whenever it is), but in general the review books have the important information distilled out and are going to be more efficient for a relatively short period of boards review studying. In your dedicated review time, you should focus on the review books to guide your studying, then fill in gaps with other resources like those notes or tables you've made. If you aren't comfortable using a new resource to study for boards, it's ok to take a look at it during the semester, but for me it was very helpful to see things presented in a new, fresh way when I was studying for the boards. This helped me avoid the complacency that I would have undoubtedly experienced if I had been reviewing from lecture notes ("Oh, I know that!" :turn page: "Yeah, I know that too." :turn page:, etc).

Well, I hope this helps a little bit. Remember to take care of yourself, too!

ETA: I forgot to add that as far as review books, you should limit yourself to 1 or maybe 2 resources per subject. There are a lot of threads on which books to use, and I can't recommend anything other than what I used, but I think you could really end up being to scattered to study efficiently if you have too many resources available. Pick one resource that covers each subject succinctly, and then for subjects where you feel weak pick another resource that goes into more detail.

 

[yanon]

Integrated Clinical System
This class is crazy. Basically, it is path, pharm, and microbiology, plus treatment plan and diagnostic guidlines all roll into one. The required textbook for this class is Cecil. My school invites clinical specialists from each field to give us lectures on each topic. The clinical specialists know a lot about their specialty but they don't always give clear cut answers to lecture objectives. To make things worst, they are not ones who write our exam.

My current study plan is
1) read Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simple for a genergal understanding of the topic.
2) read class lecture notes/modifies them according to the slides or and other books I had read for other classes.

I am not doing too well in this course. So, I am thinking about making the following changes to my study plan
3) read either Board & Ward for Step 2 and 3 or USMLE Secret for Step 2 since other step 1 books doesn't cover treatment guidelines. Hopefully, I can get precise answers to my lecture objectives from these books and sort out what is important from the massive amount of information cover in this class.
4) Do some questions from Step 2 questions books? I haven't find a suitable books yet. Any recommendation?

 

[yanon]

I'm a bit biased because I only used 3 books for my boards prep (First Aid, BRS Path, BRS Phys), but it sounds to me like you are trying to use way too many different resources. First of all, during the semester you need to focus on your classes. If you learn the basics well in your classes, this *will* help your boards prep. For studying for classes, you need to focus first on your lecture notes. These come from your professors, and they are the ones who know what will be on your exams. If you aren't understanding something from the lecture notes, then you can go to textbooks or other resources that might explain things in greater detail.

Unfortunately, my professor's lecture handout is a massive list of diseases which includes some very obsecure ones (occurring in 1 out of 500,000 people). I learned that just memorizing the detail about each diseases did't help me solve 2nd order or 3rd order pathology problems. I think learning the thought process behind differentiating similar diseases is very important. I just wish there is a list of important facts to differentiate between similar diseases.

 

[yanon]

Hell, maybe I should just dump the books I have and go with the Crash Course Series. This series is organized by organ system and each book in the series cover everything (pathophysiology, pharm,and micro) about each system. Any thought about this series?

 

[tony montana]

Never heard of it, I am sticking to the classics

 

[lord_jeebus]

If my school had a mandatory attendance policy, I would have brought board review material to lecture, sat in the back with earplugs, and looked at that during the lamer lectures.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Okay, the first thing you need to do is unless you're at one of those schools which give you zero board prep time (or your personal situation isn't going to allow you that time) is not focus on learning boards stuff now. Because you're struggling now in class, you need to focus all attention on passing that pronto. Because even if you kill the boards, having failures/retakes or whatever show up in your transcript is going to raise eyebrows. If you focus on learning the material they teach you now (even as obscure as it seems) that's still going to help you with board prep when you hit that actual board prep stuff for real.

Trying to focus on both now is just going to make it so you don't do well on either. Cross the first bridge you have in front of you(your school work) and cross the USMLE bridge when you come to it.

 

[SeventhSon]

ignore the lecturer. problem solved.

 

[yanon]

Okay, the first thing you need to do is unless you're at one of those schools which give you zero board prep time (or your personal situation isn't going to allow you that time) is not focus on learning boards stuff now. Because you're struggling now in class, you need to focus all attention on passing that pronto. Because even if you kill the boards, having failures/retakes or whatever show up in your transcript is going to raise eyebrows. If you focus on learning the material they teach you now (even as obscure as it seems) that's still going to help you with board prep when you hit that actual board prep stuff for real.

Trying to focus on both now is just going to make it so you don't do well on either. Cross the first bridge you have in front of you(your school work) and cross the USMLE bridge when you come to it.

Actually, I would like to understand the underlying concepts well enough that I will be ready for any exam not just for class exams. I can spend many hours reading lecture handouts and do pretty well in my classes, but what good will that do if I am going to forget the information within a month? Is it so wrong that I want to find a way to condense my knowledge such that I can do well in class and not have to spend ridiculously amount of time to prepare for the board exam?

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Actually, I would like to understand the underlying concepts well enough that I will be ready for any exam not just for class exams. I can spend many hours reading lecture handouts and do pretty well in my classes, but what good will that do if I am going to forget the information within a month? Is it so wrong that I want to find a way to condense my knowledge such that I can do well in class and not have to spend ridiculously amount of time to prepare for the board exam?

I apologize, but I don't understand how "Board studying" is going to help you achieve the goal of understanding concepts better than attending lecture, reading lecture notes, reading assigned readings, etc.

 

[yanon]

I fail to understand how "board preparation" is going ot make you more better at understanding the underlying concept any better than studying the class material in depth would.

From what I gather from this forum, the board exams is about knowing the underlying concepts and integrating the knowledge from various disciplines in order to solve 2nd order and 3rd order problems. This is exactly what I wanted to do for my classes too since my professors started asking more 2nd order and 3rd order questions in block exams. However, their lecture notes don't necessarily provide the intergration that I need. So, I just want to search for something that can help me get to that level.

Let's stop arguing. Please tell me how did you prepare for path during school year and how did you review path for the board exams. I think this information will help me tremendously.

 

[blz]

you're overdoing it and you're overestimating step 1. doing well in your classes throughout the year and then hitting it hard when your school allows you to study is the best way to go about it. medicine isn't full of crazy indepth theory that requires intense conceptual understanding. it's mostly just memorization. of course you will forget details after a month but the point of board studying is to structure your study regimen to peak on the day of the exam. studying over a tremdendous length of time won't allow you to peak on exam day - you're just going hit a plateau in which you're going to keep relearning what you're forgetting.

many here have hit >260 with only studying for 6-7wks. the key to their success was doing well 2nd year.

just remember the exam isn't all high and mighty as you are making it out to be.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

Let's stop arguing. Please tell me how did you prepare for path during school year and how did you review path for the board exams. I think this information will help me tremendously.

Again, I apologize. I don't want to seem like I'm arguing (I even edited my original post because I thought it read as disrespectful).

The thing is, how did I prepare for path during the year? I read what they told me to read. I studied what the lecturer told me to study. If there's a zebra he wanted me to know, I knew it. I did fine. Zero board prep during the year other than focusing on my M2 course work.

For the boards, I took me month and a half I had to study and switched focus. Instead of indepth directed learning, you focus to broad based review. That's using review text books and such. All the wacky diagnosis you learned during the year are going to make this much easier as you can focus on big picture now.

How did I end up doing? One of the highest grades in my class in individual classes AND on the boards. And believe you me, I'm aware of people who I know thought I was a fool for doing it how I did "He just learns what the lecturer tells him, he won't do well on the boards". Ended up proving them wrong.

Blz is correct, you're giving the boards to much credibility. Focus on the here and now. Do well in your classes. When its time to study for boards, study for boards.

 

[yanon]

Again, I apologize. I don't want to seem like I'm arguing (I even edited my original post because I thought it read as disrespectful).

The thing is, how did I prepare for path during the year? I read what they told me to read. I studied what the lecturer told me to study. If there's a zebra he wanted me to know, I knew it. I did fine. Zero board prep during the year other than focusing on my M2 course work.

For the boards, I took me month and a half I had to study and switched focus. Instead of indepth directed learning, you focus to broad based review. That's using review text books and such. All the wacky diagnosis you learned during the year are going to make this much easier as you can focus on big picture now.

"zebra" = differentials?

It sounds like your professor had a great plan for you guys. Did you professors just assign readings out of Robbins or pass out lecture handouts?

 

[AmyO]

zebra = the weird, very rare dz's that you read about but depending on where you practice & what specialty you enter, you may never see or see only a few times in your entire career

 

[SOML]

I'm doing Rx questions right now, and many of them are 2nd/3rd order questions. I'll be doing Uworld later. I'm an MS-2. Qbank questions are good, but very limited in helping you out for succeeding in class (since most of the time, questions are taken in an erratic, or too all-encompassing way).

But I think time is better spent in Qbanks (for board prep) than reading books straight through i.e. BRS etc..