missing days of doing questions

[cassieandcheeta]

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Hi everyone,

I've just gone through my first week of studying, and I'm a bit worried that I've missed a few days of doing questions because I got a bit overwhelmed with immuno and microbio....Am I doomed because I know everyone has emphasized doing questions, but I'm so overwhelemd with the material right now...

 

[doc20]

its ok to give yourself giving a break here and there from questions, and you should reverse the order and just do questions some days and no studying, really helps to keep doing different things that way you are more productive

 

[TinyFish]

Agree with doc20; it's important to do questions, but it's also really important not to burn out...especially if it's early in your schedule. It also depends on whether you learn better from doing questions vs. reviewing. I would say both are equally important.

It's good to stick to your planned schedule, but inevitably, you'll have to be a little bit flexible, because...well, things happen. The best way to handle changes to your schedule is to take a deep breath and realize that all is not lost because you didn't do all the questions you wanted to, etc.

It's kind of like being on a diet: don't freak out or give up just because you "accidentally" downed a pint of ice cream on Friday night. 🙂 Just keep plugging away.

 

[gouda]

It's more important to learn the material well and then test how well you know the material with questions.

If you don't know the material and then start testing yourself, you gain very little other than random factoids.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I wouldn't sweat a few missed days. Trying to catch up might cut into your study time too much, so I would just proceed as planned without trying to make up the missed blocks. If you're trying to do questions by subject and are having trouble keeping up, you might want to switch to random questions so you cover your bases and don't end up with big gaps in your knowledge. I really recommend random, unused questions to begin with, but to each his/her own.

 

[JaSam]

It's more important to learn the material well and then test how well you know the material with questions.

If you don't know the material and then start testing yourself, you gain very little other than random factoids.

took the words right out of my mouth. Beautiful advice gouda. I mean you can do all the questions you want but if you don't know/understand or at least have reviewed the material somewhat, what good does that do? why don't you start doing questions right when you get into medical school? because its just gonna be random info that doesn't make sense.

 

[osli]

From the other perspective, however, we should have learned all of this material once (or more) already. Thus, everything in preparation for the boards is a review of some sort. Whether you are reading a book or doing practice questions, you should hopefully be remembering and not learning a pile of new information. If this were equivalent to taking a test before ever having seen the information then I agree that wouldn't make sense... but it is not.

It comes down really to how you best reinforce information in your head. Is it by reading first, refreshing your memory that way, and then reinforcing it by doing questions? Or is it by doing questions and refreshing your memory of things both remembered and forgotten, and then concentrating your reading on areas that you struggle most with?

Different strokes for different folks. I can't see how either approach is "wrong."

 

[gouda]

Different strokes for different folks. I can't see how either approach is "wrong."[/quote]

Agreed - everyone is different.

I just know from my own experience that any knowledge I had gained over the first 2 y was not sufficient for UW and some of my other sources. However, really taking the time to go thru the material once made all the difference in the world.

I wish I was that student that had enough of a base to just start UW could appreciate the Q/A like I do now.

 

[osli]

Well, after examining my progress, I'm starting to question how valuable UW really is. It almost seems like you can "learn" the UW stuff and not realize a proportional increase in NBME scores. On the other hand, it looks like knowledge necessary for the NBME (and USMLE?) is only marginally represented by UW.

I'm guessing that as your NBME score gets higher (i.e., after you have the basics down) then UW will become more and more important in further improvements. That seems like a logical conclusion since there is such a drastic difference in NBME scores that correlate to UW averages of 60% and 70% (225-230 on the low end, and often 250+ once you get to 70%). Maybe UW is right... they are targeting the questions that separate the average score from the great score, and perhaps another resource (like FA) is the best path to starting at the average.

So maybe I did things backwards after all? Glad I have a little time left.