How to incorporate Review books, FA, and Qbanks?

[emlopez2]

So i always read about these laundry lists of review books and getting through like 2000-4000 questions, but how on earth are all you people managing to get it all done in 6 weeks or less? Ive been working on my schedule for awhile now and just about have a majority of the important info consolidated and added into FA. Ive read through most of the FA sections to see how long it takes me to get through each and have wrote them down in a calender. Right now it takes me nearly 3-4hrs to do and go over only 50 questions and about 4-5 per FA section so from the 5 week schedule I created I barely have time to go over everything once. This is not even including taking any time to read BRS physio or BRS path. Ive been using them throughout the year but cant seem to fit them into my schedule. How did all of you incorporate them into your review? Did you read each book back-to-back, combine certain sections from each book, or only read the sections that your Qbank performance said you were weak on?

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[Blesbok]

So i always read about these laundry lists of review books and getting through like 2000-4000 questions, but how on earth are all you people managing to get it all done in 6 weeks or less? Ive been working on my schedule for awhile now and just about have a majority of the important info consolidated and added into FA. Ive read through most of the FA sections to see how long it takes me to get through each and have wrote them down in a calender. Right now it takes me nearly 3-4hrs to do and go over only 50 questions and about 4-5 per FA section so from the 5 week schedule I created I barely have time to go over everything once. This is not even including taking any time to read BRS physio or BRS path. Ive been using them throughout the year but cant seem to fit them into my schedule. How did all of you incorporate them into your review? Did you read each book back-to-back, combine certain sections from each book, or only read the sections that your Qbank performance said you were weak on?

I only went through FA once. It took me 2-3 hours per smaller section (ie. not biochem or micro). Then I would spend another 2-3 going through goljan and I would skim over BRS and physio. Then I would spend ~8hours doing 100 questions and going over them very thoroughly and I would spend another 1hr at night doing bugs and drugs. Then on saturday I would make up anything that I didn't get through and then review everything. Sunday I would finish up any review I didn't get through and then take the rest of the day off.

 

[osli]

The questions are slowing you down a lot. Towards the end of your question bank, at least, you would hope that it takes a lot less time to review than 3-4 hours per 50. It usually takes me 30min to take 50, and an hour to review, but I wouldn't say that I absolutely nail every concept that I missed during that hour. Some of it I know is coming later in my study schedule, so I read the answer explanations, make sure that I understand what is being said, and make a note emphasize that when I get to the appropriate section. If I miss a lysozomal storage disease question for example, and I haven't gotten to that section in biochem or path yet, then I make sure I understand the explanation and file that in my head but I don't stop to review and "memorize" all storage diseases at that time.

 

[osli]

I only went through FA once. It took me 2-3 hours per smaller section (ie. not biochem or micro). Then I would spend another 2-3 going through goljan and I would skim over BRS and physio. Then I would spend ~8hours doing 100 questions and going over them very thoroughly and I would spend another 1hr at night doing bugs and drugs. Then on saturday I would make up anything that I didn't get through and then review everything. Sunday I would finish up any review I didn't get through and then take the rest of the day off.

14 hours per day is pretty intense, and I doubt most people will be able to manage that pace with good retention for long. With decent sleep, that only leaves 3 hours to eat three meals and hopefully squeeze in either exercise or some down-time for the brain. You might be an exception, of course.

For the average person, I'd shoot for 4 hours questions and 4 hours book study per day. Any extra that you feel like doing that evening is a bonus.

 

[Blesbok]

14 hours per day is pretty intense, and I doubt most people will be able to manage that pace with good retention for long. With decent sleep, that only leaves 3 hours to eat three meals and hopefully squeeze in either exercise or some down-time for the brain. You might be an exception, of course.

For the average person, I'd shoot for 4 hours questions and 4 hours book study per day. Any extra that you feel like doing that evening is a bonus.

I admit, I probably worked a lot more than most people are going to have time for. Although I was wrong, I did 5 hours of book study (8-1), 1 hour for lunch, 6 hours of questions with 1 hour in there for dinner and taking a walk with my fiance every night (2-9), then 1 hour of bugs and drugs (9-10), and sleep by 11:30. So it was only a total of 12 hours/day for 6 days a week and probably an average of 3-4 hours on sunday.

 

[Blesbok]

The questions are slowing you down a lot. Towards the end of your question bank, at least, you would hope that it takes a lot less time to review than 3-4 hours per 50. It usually takes me 30min to take 50, and an hour to review, but I wouldn't say that I absolutely nail every concept that I missed during that hour. Some of it I know is coming later in my study schedule, so I read the answer explanations, make sure that I understand what is being said, and make a note emphasize that when I get to the appropriate section. If I miss a lysozomal storage disease question for example, and I haven't gotten to that section in biochem or path yet, then I make sure I understand the explanation and file that in my head but I don't stop to review and "memorize" all storage diseases at that time.

That is another thing, I started to have more time in the evenings for finishing up my book study toward the end, because it would only take me 1-1.5 hours to review all the questions.

However, I recommend taking the full 1hr for taking the questions, just like you would on the real thing. Flying through questions doesn't help you learn it nearly as well.

 

[emlopez2]

14 hours per day is pretty intense, and I doubt most people will be able to manage that pace with good retention for long. With decent sleep, that only leaves 3 hours to eat three meals and hopefully squeeze in either exercise or some down-time for the brain. You might be an exception, of course.

For the average person, I'd shoot for 4 hours questions and 4 hours book study per day. Any extra that you feel like doing that evening is a bonus.

My schedule im thinking I'll do 4 hrs (8-12) to do 100 questions. Right now it takes me 4hrs to do 50 but I read the explanations for every single answer so ill cut back to wrong answers only. Then i'll do another 6hrs (1-7) covering FA sections. Im not sure if if should just transition from one FA section to the next and just read all of BRS phys/path straight through sometime later or if I should lump each section together with what im studying that day. (ie. FA Cardio + BRS path Cardio/Vasc + BRS phys Cardio in one day) Any suggestions?

 

[osli]

I admit, I probably worked a lot more than most people are going to have time for. Although I was wrong, I did 5 hours of book study (8-1), 1 hour for lunch, 6 hours of questions with 1 hour in there for dinner and taking a walk with my fiance every night (2-9), then 1 hour of bugs and drugs (9-10), and sleep by 11:30. So it was only a total of 12 hours/day for 6 days a week and probably an average of 3-4 hours on sunday.

Whew! 12 hours is definitely more manageable. I'm pretty comfortable with 8-10 for now but will probably step it up closer to test time. Gotta have my

 

[osli]

My schedule im thinking I'll do 4 hrs (8-12) to do 100 questions. Right now it takes me 4hrs to do 50 but I read the explanations for every single answer so ill cut back to wrong answers only. Then i'll do another 6hrs (1-7) covering FA sections. Im not sure if if should just transition from one FA section to the next and just read all of BRS phys/path straight through sometime later or if I should lump each section together with what im studying that day. (ie. FA Cardio + BRS path Cardio/Vasc + BRS phys Cardio in one day) Any suggestions?

I'd recommend at least skimming correct answer explanations to make sure what you were thinking was in line with the explanation. Should be able to pick out the key words pretty easily and quickly if you really knew that question. But I'd treat anything that was an educated guess and especially a lucky guess as a wrong answer. Do 50 and review then another 50 and review to keep the questions fresh so you'll know which ones you weren't sure about (maybe even 25 25 25 25, but I prefer keeping block lengths the same as the actual exam). You might want to split it into 50 morning and 50 evening just to keep your study from being too monotonous.

As for FA and other sources, I say do whatever works for you. A lot of people follow FA as they go through another source so they can add notes to FA where it is lacking; I don't like flipping from one source to another, so I prefer to read say BRS Phys straight through and then go through the phys of each FA section to see what is lacking. You might want to do that in reverse order... FA, then other sources? Not sure there is any one best way to do this. It's easier for the HY discipline sections up front in FA, but it's trickier with the organ systems since phys or path is broken up vs. another source where it is all together (but still perhaps broken into systems within the source).

However you approach it, your goal should probably be to go through all of your sources thoroughly and FA once through for understanding not memorization and having added any notes you feel it needs, with enough time left to focus just on FA and read it to memorize things that need to be committed to memory.