How to study for boards?

[95439]

Hey everyone,

I'm a 2nd year med student at a DO school, and I'm starting to think about how to study for the boards. Over the summer, I read through half of the First Aid book, reread BRS physio, and now am almost all the way through BRS Path. My problem is, I'm a Slooooow learner, who likes to memorize every detail and has difficulty figuring out what's important to study. (having said that I'm getting pretty good grades for what it's worth). Anyway, I want to do really well on the boards, and I'm wondering if anyone out there has a similar learning style and can help me figure out how to focus my studies? For example, what can I do during the year to prepare for boards? I just purchased USMLE world's Qbank. Is it worth it to get Kaplan's Qbank also? Has anyone out there used a private tutor and is willing to share their experience? I've got a million questions, but I figure this is a good start. Also, does anyone know if there's truth to the rumor that the USMLE and COMLEX are abandoning 'keywords' (i.e. 'Herald Patch' for Pityriasis Rosea)? Thanks in advance to anyone who takes time out to answer this....I know we're all really busy!!

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[staphaureus]

Hey everyone,

I'm a 2nd year med student at a DO school, and I'm starting to think about how to study for the boards. Over the summer, I read through half of the First Aid book, reread BRS physio, and now am almost all the way through BRS Path. My problem is, I'm a Slooooow learner, who likes to memorize every detail and has difficulty figuring out what's important to study. (having said that I'm getting pretty good grades for what it's worth). Anyway, I want to do really well on the boards, and I'm wondering if anyone out there has a similar learning style and can help me figure out how to focus my studies? For example, what can I do during the year to prepare for boards? I just purchased USMLE world's Qbank. Is it worth it to get Kaplan's Qbank also? Has anyone out there used a private tutor and is willing to share their experience? I've got a million questions, but I figure this is a good start. Also, does anyone know if there's truth to the rumor that the USMLE and COMLEX are abandoning 'keywords' (i.e. 'Herald Patch' for Pityriasis Rosea)? Thanks in advance to anyone who takes time out to answer this....I know we're all really busy!!

I think by studying for your classes, you're studying for boards. It may be a good idea to use the review books then, but what you learn is much more in depth and detailed so that when you use the book,s you can understand all the shortcuts. During the year, I found robbins review questions and the webpath to be most useful. What really helped was to come up with a list of books that I wanted to use so come time to study, I don't waste time figure that out. UW is more than enough unless you feel like you're weaker than people in the class. Those are my opinion, goodluck!

 

[95439]

delete

 

[95439]

I think by studying for your classes, you're studying for boards. It may be a good idea to use the review books then, but what you learn is much more in depth and detailed so that when you use the book,s you can understand all the shortcuts. During the year, I found robbins review questions and the webpath to be most useful. What really helped was to come up with a list of books that I wanted to use so come time to study, I don't waste time figure that out. UW is more than enough unless you feel like you're weaker than people in the class. Those are my opinion, goodluck!

Thanks for the advice! Can you tell me a little more about UW? In your opinion, is it better than Kaplan? So far, I'm banking on using First Aid, BRS physio and path, my old anatomy tests, and neuro notes, along w/ USMLE world..opinions? BTW, have you already taken the boards? Thanks again for your input, please everybody feel free to weigh in here!

 

[Terpskins99]

COMLEX still uses buzzwords, but the USMLE technically doesn't any longer. The USMLE still uses the actual meaning of the words though. For example, you won't see "currant jelly sputum" in a stem. But you will come across a passage that describes a guy coughing up thick dark purple phlegm.

As long as you understand what the buzzwords mean, they are still worth knowing. (Good rule of thumb... assume that all of the symptoms are being described to you by the patient or a nurse... someone that may not be familiar with all of the medical jargon.)

As for the rest... look at the topics that are high yield for boards, and isolate which areas you're weak in. Work on those first. For me, that was biochemistry and path... so I hammered them like a mother from day 1.

Its up to you when to do questions. I started by doing subject specific questions while studying the same topic (a lot of people disagree with that approach, but I figured it didn't help to get frustrated at trying to answer questions on stuff you hadn't studied yet). And yes, I agree that UWorld is a better service than Kaplan (mostly because they are more integrative, have better explanations and use an identical format to the real thing). I used both.

 

[staphaureus]

Thanks for the advice! Can you tell me a little more about UW? In your opinion, is it better than Kaplan? So far, I'm banking on using First Aid, BRS physio and path, my old anatomy tests, and neuro notes, along w/ USMLE world..opinions? BTW, have you already taken the boards? Thanks again for your input, please everybody feel free to weigh in here!

I UW, i didnt use Kaplan QBank, but I did use a couple sections in their Q-Book, which i heard has similar questions to QBank. I thought UW was harder, but prepare me well for the real test (even the interface is similar to the real test). UW has a lot of multiple step questions, and few single step questions, whereas, QBook is the reverse in my opinion. MY TEST was a easier than UW, and about the level of QBook. The best book I can recommend you is FA, FA, FA, FA, and FA. I only went through FA about 1.5 times and felt like I could have done a whole lot better if I went over it a few more times and memorize all the tables. I did took the test, you can go back on my history and read about it. goodluck

 

[evenflowcarter]

hey blue,

I nailed 650ish on the comlex by:

First Aid x 5
Step Up x 2
Goljan RR path x 3
First Aid case studies x 2

Don't bother with kaplan phys/path/omm/or biochem, although the kaplan micro had some great tables and was overall pretty good for micro.

From what everyone else had told me and my experience, those who knew one/few sources REALLY well did way better than people who used like 20 different sources and only went over them 1x.

gl !

 

[95439]

COMLEX still uses buzzwords, but the USMLE technically doesn't any longer. The USMLE still uses the actual meaning of the words though. For example, you won't see "currant jelly sputum" in a stem. But you will come across a passage that describes a guy coughing up thick dark purple phlegm.

As long as you understand what the buzzwords mean, they are still worth knowing. (Good rule of thumb... assume that all of the symptoms are being described to you by the patient or a nurse... someone that may not be familiar with all of the medical jargon.)

As for the rest... look at the topics that are high yield for boards, and isolate which areas you're weak in. Work on those first. For me, that was biochemistry and path... so I hammered them like a mother from day 1.

Its up to you when to do questions. I started by doing subject specific questions while studying the same topic (a lot of people disagree with that approach, but I figured it didn't help to get frustrated at trying to answer questions on stuff you hadn't studied yet). And yes, I agree that UWorld is a better service than Kaplan (mostly because they are more integrative, have better explanations and use an identical format to the real thing). I used both.

Excellent advice! Did you start studying for boards during second year? I'm finding it difficult to make time to study for anything outside of school at this point. How long did you guys wait before taking the boards? (i.e. 4 weeks, two months...), and did you guys take COMLEX and USMLE? What is the main difference between the 2? (I hear it's mainly microbiology and biochemistry emphasis). Thanks again for the advice, it's golden!

 

[95439]

hey blue,

I nailed 650ish on the comlex by:

First Aid x 5
Step Up x 2
Goljan RR path x 3
First Aid case studies x 2

Don't bother with kaplan phys/path/omm/or biochem, although the kaplan micro had some great tables and was overall pretty good for micro.

From what everyone else had told me and my experience, those who knew one/few sources REALLY well did way better than people who used like 20 different sources and only went over them 1x.

gl !

That seems like really good advice.....excuse my ignorance, but isn't the Step up book for Step 2? Thanks again and keep it coming!

 

[Surfns]

Step up has a Step 1 book as well.

 

[Terpskins99]

Did you start studying for boards during second year? I'm finding it difficult to make time to study for anything outside of school at this point. How long did you guys wait before taking the boards? (i.e. 4 weeks, two months...), and did you guys take COMLEX and USMLE? What is the main difference between the 2? (I hear it's mainly microbiology and biochemistry emphasis). Thanks again for the advice, it's golden!

I didn't start until somewhere late in 2nd semester (mostly because our school had arranged for Kaplan live prep to come in on weekends early March). But even then, I mostly focused on classwork. As long as you're studying high yield material for boards in class, you should focus on your classwork first. Two reasons to do so... 1) its going to be tested on the exam, so spending all your energy on it is NOT wasteful... 2) you're still getting a grade and you do not want to put yourself in jeopardy of failing a section/block just because you spent too much time preparing for boards.

Differences: COMLEX: (outside of having OMT) has a higher percentage of straight up regurgitation questions (gets caught up in the minutiae, particularly with pharmacology) and usually have shorter stems. You also have matching questions and multi-question passages. If you have the Simmons book, the back of the book has questions that are spitting images of COMLEX. Make sure to thoroughly study your alternate as well as DOC's for micro and know your psych/chemo drugs. Has zero questions on biostatistics or research techniques.

USMLE: more conceptual. Covers a more even distribution of topics. Every passage has a stand alone question. Will try to confuse you with unusual presentations of common diseases (i.e. your time is better spent by thoroughly reviewing the most common diseases/treatment approach rather than trying to memorize a few simple facts of every zebra known to man). Has VERY long stems (half of which are labs/tests that may or may not be relevant to the question) and will have a set of answers that (at worst) will all look identical to each other.