Input on my schedule

[username456789]

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Ok, so I've been going a little slower than I wanted to, but I had built in some "buffer" days originally in my schedule, so it shouldn't be a huge deal. After tonight and probably a little bit tomorrow, I'll be done through BS/micro/biochem/immuno/pharm in FA (but still really feel like I need a strong refresher on most of it). Here's what I have mapped out roughly ahead:

Exam date: June 24

May 26-27: Heme/Onc
May 28-30: Cardio (heme/onc might take longer and cardio might take less but I expect to spend 5 days total here)
May 31: practice exam
June 1-2: Respiratory
June 3-5: GI (again, maybe more on Resp and less on GI, but total I plan on 5 days)
June 6-8: Neuro/psych
June 9-10: Renal
June 11-13: Endocrine/MSK
June 14-15: Repro
**this leaves me with 8 days before the exam, which is less than I'd like. I'll definitely need another run through FA after it all, and I want to make sure I have time to finish UW. I don't really know what else I'll specifically do for these last days . . .

The basic plan for each system is BRS Phys->Goljan->FA. Random UW Questions in the morning, try to do specific topical questions at night if I can. Microcards and Lange Pharm Cards hopefully alternating each day if I can find the time.

Two of my biggest self-perceived weaknesses are Pharm and Heme/Onc.


1. Am I missing something huge here as far as topics?
2. Am I completely wasting my time on a specific topic and spending way too much on another?
3. Any other input would be great.

 

[MilkmanAl]

That sounds pretty solid to me. I think your timing is pretty spot on, even though you could probably go through everything faster if you got in the groove. Eight days seems like plenty to get all the way through FA again and then have a couple of days to do questions. I'd also suggest adding at least one more practice exam, probably after you finish your big Taus-ish pass (so June 16th or something).

Heme/onc was a really, really weak subject of mine when we went through it in class, but after doing the Goljan and FA sections for it, I was murdering question blocks for it. Those sources seem to be really good.

As for pharm, I'm not really sure what to tell you. Using FA's pharm sections and UW got me a shiny score on the NBME even though my UW percentages were decidedly average. However, I cam into med school knowing tons of clinical pharm already. I don't think I'd bother with the flash cards and stuff, but if you don't feel like you're learning anything with FA+UW, do what you need to do.

 

[Phenytoin]

I think it looks good, and it is very similar to schedule. From my experience thus far, I would maybe add some time for GI because GI+Hepatobiliary in RR is long.
I would also say that 2 days for Renal may be tight because of the challenging physio and the fair amount pharm involved.
Maybe you can take a day off from cardiovascular (took me 2 days) and add half a day for renal and half a day for GI.

 

[badasshairday]

To correct your percieved Heme/onc deficiency, I suggest going through RRpath. All 80 pages of it. You will be solid on your heme/onc knowledge after that. Other than that your schedule is great. 8 days is a LOT of time before the exam. I am hoping to have all my reading done by 7 days before the test. So I will have a week to re review FA stuff, and wrong answers on UWORLD.

 

[username456789]

Appreciate the input so far guys. I was also actually thinking I'd take most of tomorrow and sort of wrap up any basic science loose ends, brush up on a few things I may feel like I rushed, and sit down with goljan and really go through chapters 1, 2, and 8 (cell inj, inflammation/repair, and neoplasia). My reasoning is that I'd rather make sure I hit these again (I've read through them once in the past) before really hitting all the path stuff hard.

Does this sound like a wasted day?

 

[username456789]

To correct your percieved Heme/onc deficiency, I suggest going through RRpath. All 80 pages of it. You will be solid on your heme/onc knowledge after that. Other than that your schedule is great. 8 days is a LOT of time before the exam. I am hoping to have all my reading done by 7 days before the test. So I will have a week to re review FA stuff, and wrong answers on UWORLD.

Definitely agree about RR. I read through it (not as thoroughly as I could have) over spring break, and then was rocking questions. I think I mostly need a refresher. And in general, I'm one of those people that needs to see things several times, hence wanting plenty of time to hit everything again (for class exams I always ended up with a million passes through my notes).

 

[username456789]

Man, I just spent about 3.5 hours going through the RBC chapter in Goljan. I mean I'm somewhat of a slow reader, but a lot of the earlier chapters I can get through in less than an hour.

It doesn't help that I've only been through this one once, really. I should've done all the blood stuff while learning it the first time in class. There's a LOT in there, and I usually feel like I get it at the time, but then forget it quickly.

I do recall the audio being particularly helpful for this part, so I'll probably give it a listen. But I feel like I just spent 4 hours reading something I probably should've been taking notes on or something, instead of just highlighting/underlining/re-reading.

 

[badasshairday]

Just read it through. Don't worry about note taking. Even on my second pass of rr, I felt how you felt while reading the chapters. The thin that really helps solidfy your knowledge is the blue margin notes. Read them right after you are done with the chapter. Hits you with the take home points, plus since you just read the chapter you will make all the synaptic connections for "why." Then you will be more than ready to destroy pathology. Esp heme.

 

[username456789]

Just read it through. Don't worry about note taking. Even on my second pass of rr, I felt how you felt while reading the chapters. The thin that really helps solidfy your knowledge is the blue margin notes. Read them right after you are done with the chapter. Hits you with the take home points, plus since you just read the chapter you will make all the synaptic connections for "why." Then you will be more than ready to destroy pathology. Esp heme.

Word. I'm actually doing the StudentConsult RBC questions (there's like 30 of them). So far I'm batting a thousand, but I still forget about the reasoning for several of the findings and just come across something that sticks out (like bite cells, ringed sideroblasts, kid with sickle cell and osteomyelitis).

Thanks though, I'm just gonna keep chugging through. I always forget to review the margin notes, I'll do that when I'm through with this question set.

Oh and this is kind of random, but since our GI/all other blocks skipped the stuff about bilirubin/UBG/etc changes (beyond learning the heme breakdown pathway in biochem), I just wanted to run this by someone since it was part of a question on StudentConsult:

When you have a cholestatic process and there's a bile duct blockage, you'd have increased CONJUGATED bilirubin in the blood d/t it basically getting backed up and leaking into the blood vessels. Since it's conjugated, it also finds its way into your urine and you have elevated urine bilirubin. You'd have NO urine UBG, because, no bilirubin is coming out of the gallbladder to go into the bowels (where it's converted to UBG by bacteria and subsequently either 1) gets defecated out, 2) goes back to the liver, or 3) is excreted in urine.

Does that sound right?

 

[mq123]

Word. I'm actually doing the StudentConsult RBC questions (there's like 30 of them). So far I'm batting a thousand, but I still forget about the reasoning for several of the findings and just come across something that sticks out (like bite cells, ringed sideroblasts, kid with sickle cell and osteomyelitis).

Thanks though, I'm just gonna keep chugging through. I always forget to review the margin notes, I'll do that when I'm through with this question set.

Oh and this is kind of random, but since our GI/all other blocks skipped the stuff about bilirubin/UBG/etc changes (beyond learning the heme breakdown pathway in biochem), I just wanted to run this by someone since it was part of a question on StudentConsult:

When you have a cholestatic process and there's a bile duct blockage, you'd have increased CONJUGATED bilirubin in the blood d/t it basically getting backed up and leaking into the blood vessels. Since it's conjugated, it also finds its way into your urine and you have elevated urine bilirubin. You'd have NO urine UBG, because, no bilirubin is coming out of the gallbladder to go into the bowels (where it's converted to UBG by bacteria and subsequently either 1) gets defecated out, 2) goes back to the liver, or 3) is excreted in urine.

Does that sound right?

Yes 👍