Intense Board Review Schedule From Now Until June

[Roy7]

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Here's my schedule, and it's been working pretty well so far, although I'm afraid that will start to affect my lecture as we get to Neuro (neuro unit starts in february). So I was just wondering what some people think that I should maybe take out, or decrease, or cut back on. Thanks - any and all advice is appreciated. Real quick the schedule works such that I can end up taking 1-2 days completely off from everything, which would be my makeup review days and I take 2-3 days off before every lecture exam.

Amount per hour: 2 Pages an hour

Day to Day Plan:
3 Hours Old Organ System Review (Below Dates)
1 Hour Q bank/Robbins/BRS Questions Previous Unit.
2 Hours Unit System Anatomy/Pharm/Embryo Review (From Book Along w/Unit)
-Eg. We're doing endocrine, 2 hours reading endocrine physiology.
1 Hour First Aid Writing/Reading
3 Micro-cards : 50 Days (140 cards)
Begun December 23rd

Review Systems:

Biochemistry : 63 Hours : 24 days: Break -1/6
135-181: Carbohydrate Metabolism (46 pages)
193-224: Lipid Metabolism (31 Pages)
237-269: Nitrogen Metabolism (32 Pages)
283-300: Endocrinology (17 Pages)

HL : 39 Hours : 16 days : Break – 1/6
Embryo 19-25 (6 pages)
Path 155-194 (39 pages)
Histo 102-134 (32 pages)
Pharm : GO OVER LATER
Cover chemotherapeutics and cover general HL pharm.

Cardio : 67 Hours : 26 days : 1/6 – 2 /7ish
Anatomy 44-56 (12 pages) 1/27 – 1/30
Embryo 28-36 (12 pages) 1/19-1/23
Path 137-145, 123-132 (17 pages) 1/7 – 1/11
Phys 68-105 (38 pages) 1/12-1/18
Pharm 95-137 (44 pages)
Histo 163-171 (10 pages) 1/24-1/26

Respiratory : 62 Hours: 24 days : 2/4-3/4
Anatomy 34-41 (6 pages)
Embryo (page 70)
Path 199-213 (14 pages)
Phys – 119-141 (22 pages)
Pharm – Lippencotts 315-327 (12 total)
Histo 219-230 (10 pages)

Renal : 38 Hours : 16 days : 3/4 – 3/24
Anatomy 94-103 (7 pages)
Embryo 54-61 (7 pages)
Path 257-269 (12 pages)
Phys 151-189 (38 pages)
Histo 269-281 (12 pages)

GI : 60 Hours: 24 days : 3/24-4/24
Anatomy 61-90 (29 pages)
Embryo 39-51 (12 pages)
Path 219-249 (30 pages)
Phys 201-221 (20 pages)
Pharm 507-509 (3 pages)
Histo 235-251, 255-265 (25 pages)

April – May:
Endocrine Review
Neuro Review
Musculoskeletal Review

May – June: Pass Program – Rereview EVERYTHING
Questions/ Final Review BOARD

 

[hyperbaric]

😱 Mine is a non-specific, mental plan. Am I the only one?

 

[Roy7]

Not many people in my class have one, I just squandered last year in terms of not retaining anything at all (trust me, it's all gone), so I'm super paranoid about boards and dont want to screw em up. Plus I'm big on ultraplanning everything.

 

[Taus]

Neuro isn't exactly a fluff unit...I couldn't imagine doing 5+ hours a day of intense board review right now (we're in the middle of our 2 month Neuro block). Thats great that you have your plan together and know exactly what you will be doing when it comes time....I just think this is a little early. If you weren't still learning new and important material in class I'd say have at it and go nuts w/ your plan...but why not concentrate on learning neuro really well so you won't need more then a brief review before boards?

 

[Roy7]

That totally makes sense, but my class is pretty notorious for having fluff lectures, so what I've been doing since starting (we've only had one exam since I started), is just not looking at the fluff lectures (some surgical procedures, some psychology lectures, some environmental lectures) until the weekend before the exam, and hit the pathology really really hard from the start to the point where I never have to review it again. But you're right I dont know if I'll be able to keep the organ system review, and I'd rather just cut it down during neuro instead of completely omitting it.

About starting too early, I think it would be too early if I knew my material form last year well. But I've just forgotten soooo much, that whilst I know this years material cold (path, pharm mostly), my physio, histo, embryo, anatomy, sucks - its just horrendous. So I really want to make sure that I refresh the path again, while really hitting everythign else hard during the semester, then really really hard the month before.

Thanks again.

 

[Taus]

To make your life even easier: for histo, embryo and anatomy you can mainly rely on First Aid. So if those are all that you're weak in besides physio....just work on the physio for now. Also, if you know your path and pharm really well then the relevant physio should be pretty familiar.

 

[trudub]

I think you will get burned out doing a schedule like this. Just focus on your classes right now and then devote 4-8 weeks to intense board review. If you learn things well in your classes the first time around, you are going to be sitting pretty for the boards. I think most people who scored well on the boards would agree with this.

 

[lord_jeebus]

To make your life even easier: for histo, embryo and anatomy you can mainly rely on First Aid.

I see this stated a lot on this forum, but in my opinion relying on FA for anatomy is risky (and for neuroanatomy simply not appropriate for those aiming for a high score).

Many people have lots of anatomy on their exam, and if you have the misfortune of being one of them, you are likely to find that the FA anatomy section is not very comprehensive.

Even for embryo, I know of people (not last year however) who had enough of that subject to justify a source beyond FA.

If your goal is to pass, or to score around 220, ignore this post.

 

[Taus]

I see this stated a lot on this forum, but in my opinion relying on FA for anatomy is risky (and for neuroanatomy simply not appropriate for those aiming for a high score).

Many people have lots of anatomy on their exam, and if you have the misfortune of being one of them, you are likely to find that the FA anatomy section is not very comprehensive.

Even for embryo, I know of people (not last year however) who had enough of that subject to justify a source beyond FA.

If your goal is to pass, or to score around 220, ignore this post.

agreed....I'm gonna use the Moore blue boxes...and HY neuro is a must....but if this guy is worried that he doesn't remember anything about those subjects then he might be better off focusing on the big-boys (ie path/phys/pharm) and doing what he can in the smaller subjects...and also if you really know and understand EVERYTHING related to path you are bound to know a good amount of embryo and anatomy

 

[Roy7]

Well what I think I'll do after everyones advice is keep the HY histo as that seems to have a lot of testable material and brings everything together, decrease the time for pathology, and do embryo in first aid now, that way I have a solid understanding of the basics before I do it again during the Pass program. I may cut back on anatomy if I have too, but my anatomy is pretty bad so I'd rather not. In regards to knowing the anatomy, sure I know organ systom anatomy as it pertains to pathology - but there's no chance that I could name of the brachial plexus for the life of me. Embryo - equally bad, I can name what the pouches and arches do, but anything beyond the bare basics I've genuinely forgot. Like for neuro - I was planning on just doing neuroanatomy from BRS neuroanatomy, BRS neuro phys, and HY Neuro histo. at around 2 hrs a day in addition to lecture review, that way I have all the bases covered the first time round.

I'm aiming for the highest score possible - I dont know what I want to specialize in, so I want to make sure that if I suddenly fall in love with plastics or ortho it wont be completely out of reach.

About burning out, it sounds kinda wierd, but I dont think I get burned out. I dont know, think its because I've got a quality girlfriend and really like studying. I know talk is really simple, and reading my own post seems a bit of a stretch - but really I'm just not sure if embryo is a good idea to leave out or if I should pass on anatomy, or cut back on pharm. They all seems important.

I really appreciate everyones advice and I'm definitely taking it into consideration.

 

[stretch210]

agreed....I'm gonna use the Moore blue boxes...and HY neuro is a must....but if this guy is worried that he doesn't remember anything about those subjects then he might be better off focusing on the big-boys (ie path/phys/pharm) and doing what he can in the smaller subjects...and also if you really know and understand EVERYTHING related to path you are bound to know a good amount of embryo and anatomy

what are the Moore blue boxes?

 

[Taus]

what are the Moore blue boxes?

the clinical correlation "blue boxes" in Moores Clinically Oriented Anatomy textbook...the smaller "baby more" aka essential clinical anatomy's blue boxes should also suffice

 

[lekky]

ya i see a lot of peeps advising other ppl to not start now or only do it in 6-7 weeks toward the end, because you will get burned out, but i dont think thats true for everyone since some people have more stamina than others, because on other forums i havee seen ppl that scored in 90th percentile say that they studied at least 5-6 months, some of them as many hours per day as you are planning. and so i dont think its a issue of being burnt out if you pace yourself right and just cuz some peeps can't do it, doesnt mean you can't either. and besides, i've seen in my own school, alot of peeps that advised others to only study like 4-5 weeks only said that cuz they had been studying througouht their year with reveiw books anyway for each subject, so they were already familiar with the material and retaining stuff. and like you said, if you did not retain anything from last year or majority of it, then its not too early, considering the amount of material you have to learn or relearn. i seriously dont get though why peeps advise others to study only a few weeks before exam, unless its just a matter of passing, then i guess its possible, but u probaly wouldnt even have a chance to go finish any q-bank in that little time on top of cramming stuff .

 

[lord_jeebus]

I'm going to say a little more about anatomy since I'm getting PMs on the subject.

I saw 3 major types of gross anatomy questions on the exam. The first covered classic clinical correlates as seen in Moore's blue boxes.

The second covered spatial relationships of structures to each other. eg. what structure is deep to this landmark, or what structure is anterior to this structure, or what is this vague structure next to a well-defined ______ on XR/CT/MRI. You don't get this from any review books; you do get it from learning anatomy well from a cadaver. Failing that, spending some quality time with an atlas to get a feel for how things are laid out in the body is probably the best alternative.

The third, and least common by far, were questions that simply asked for the name of specific structure in an image, or of a muscle based on function.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Well what I think I'll do after everyones advice is keep the HY histo

If I were you, that's the first thing I'd cut out. In my opinion HY Histo tries to do too much and accomplishes too little. Also, its images are in black&white.

 

[VincentAdultman]

ya i see a lot of peeps advising other ppl to not start now or only do it in 6-7 weeks toward the end, because you will get burned out, but i dont think thats true for everyone since some people have more stamina than others, because on other forums i havee seen ppl that scored in 90th percentile say that they studied at least 5-6 months, some of them as many hours per day as you are planning. and so i dont think its a issue of being burnt out if you pace yourself right and just cuz some peeps can't do it, doesnt mean you can't either. and besides, i've seen in my own school, alot of peeps that advised others to only study like 4-5 weeks only said that cuz they had been studying througouht their year with reveiw books anyway for each subject, so they were already familiar with the material and retaining stuff. and like you said, if you did not retain anything from last year or majority of it, then its not too early, considering the amount of material you have to learn or relearn. i seriously dont get though why peeps advise others to study only a few weeks before exam, unless its just a matter of passing, then i guess its possible, but u probaly wouldnt even have a chance to go finish any q-bank in that little time on top of cramming stuff .

It's not an issue of being burned out. It's just more practical to study for 4-6 weeks if you can score highly all the same.

If you stay on top of lectures and focus on doing welll this year, then studying for 6 months is a moot point.

I took the test, I know the deal. Trust me, the system works.

 

[mules05]

I refuse to start actual scheduled studying until classes end. That being said, I didn't do as well as I wanted 1st year and still don't know a lot of anatomy, physio, and neuro. So now that we're in our systems-based path/pharm course, I'm taking the time during each block to go over the related anatomy and physiology of that system, which I've found helps me to understand the stuff I didn't learn last year, and has helped me (so far, at least) get a better grasp on what we're learning now. I keep saying I'm going to study neuro, but that's a lie. Maybe when we're in the psych/neuro block.

 

[Roy7]

While Im' sure some school prepare you more than well enough for the boards and some people can retain information well enough such that it takes them a month to review the entire body well - I cant possibly imagine doing that in 1 month with my current knowledge. I need to review things multiple times for them to stick (I'm stupid), and I have yet to see a single person that wasnt in the top 10 of their class score above 240.

If some people that did can post that'd be spectacular. But I personally know many students that did extremely well on the boards - (from my school), that did poorly in lecture leading up (well they did well on the pathology, just poorly on the non-pathology sections) - that simply spent the 6-8 months before preparing. Now, it may just be my school - Howard is notorious for giving too much minutia, and not enough basic sciences (I know how to treat a refractory fistula in ulcerative colitis, but nothing aobut a warthins tumor).

I hope what everyone does works for everyone, and definitely understand that everyone studies their own way. G'luck.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I have yet to see a single person that wasnt in the top 10 of their class score above 240.

raises hand

I'm not even in the top 25% of my class.

My score was well above 240, and I believe (based on rumors) that it was the highest in my class.

If some people that did can post that'd be spectacular.

No problem

 

[VincentAdultman]

I have yet to see a single person that wasnt in the top 10 of their class score above 240.

Present..

 

[Roy7]

I kinda meant people that havent been in the top 10 percent, that did well, and, that also recommend studying for only the month before the test.

I didnt mean to knock anyone or say that you guys arent there. Its just that I'm getting a ton of advice (all of it appreciated) and all of it conflicts. I'm just trying to make sure that the people that're saying 1 months' all you need to get a 250, are people that've done that coming from a situation in which their class performance was not stellar.

Thanks again for all the advice and anything is appreciated.