motivation waning...advice?

[caffeine52]

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My motivation has taken a nose dive in these past couple days...I just want to take the test and get it over with! I tried to move up my exam date, but it's too soon (next week) so I wasn't able to. I thought I would be really freaked out at this point, and kind of wish I was so that I wanted to study more. Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice?

 

[obiwan]

My motivation has taken a nose dive in these past couple days...I just want to take the test and get it over with! I tried to move up my exam date, but it's too soon (next week) so I wasn't able to. I thought I would be really freaked out at this point, and kind of wish I was so that I wanted to study more. Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice?

i'm in the same boat. and breaks don't really help since i'm stressed that i should be studying instead of wasting time so its this vicious cycle....

 

[ucsb101]

this happened to me too. The best advice that I can give is take NBME exams. These will freak you out and make you study hard. I would get tired/burned out every 4-5 days or so....so I took and NBME every week and my low scores on those exams kept me going.

Another big advice is DO NOT do an NBME if your test is in less than 3-4 days. This is because your score WILL NOT change in 3 days and you will be very stressed out if you don't do well.

Make sure you get great sleep the night before the exam. I got 9 hours....and it was the best sleep I had post-finals.

And don't go too hardcore the night before. Make sure ur head is "clear" before u go to bed the night before the exam....good luck!

 

[-Goose-]

I am so in the same boat. The tank is completely empty. Zero motivation.

6 weeks is waaaaayyyy too long to study for this thing.

 

[BlazerMed]

I take it Tuesday, and I'm having issues concentrating when I sit down with FA. It's nothing to sit and do a block of 50 questions, but reading out of a book is miserable.

 

[BrisketAttack]

same boat here too. FA is a bitch. i hate it. i'm trying to do the high yield stuff now. biochem/pharm, you know. i have 600 q's left in uworld, so i'll probably do those.

 

[-Goose-]

Euro cup being on TV throughout most of the day doesn't help any either.

 

[docmd2010]

imagine yourself in the examination room right now, and you're on a question, and you have it narrowed down to two choices. **** i knew that a month ago, but i couldn't remember it right if my life depended on it. If only I had not slacked off those last 4 days I might have gotten a chance to look over this. You've worked so hard the past 2 years in medical school, why let 4 days get the best of your laziness, when all you have to do is chug through, you'll never have to study this crazy ever again. Only a few days left, and your life will be back in order (well until rotations start).

Come on, don't be lazy, re-read that first aid, i gaurantee there are lots of things in there that you still can't fully rememeber...

 

[The Angriest Bird]

Another big advice is DO NOT do an NBME if your test is in less than 3-4 days. This is because your score WILL NOT change in 3 days and you will be very stressed out if you don't do well.

Oh really? I'm 4/6 weeks into it. I haven't taken an NBME yet because

1) I know I suck anyway so I don't need a low score on NBME to motivate me
2) I hate to get questions wrong because I haven't studied that topic yet
3) my study plan is very comprehensive and it pretty much covers everything.

My plan is to take an NBME 2 days before the real exam. So that's a bad idea? That means I won't take NBME at all? Isn't that a worse idea? What should I do? Advice! THANK YOU!

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

Oh really? I'm 4/6 weeks into it. I haven't taken an NBME yet because

1) I know I suck anyway so I don't need a low score on NBME to motivate me
2) I hate to get questions wrong because I haven't studied that topic yet
3) my study plan is very comprehensive and it pretty much covers everything.

My plan is to take an NBME 2 days before the real exam. So that's a bad idea? That means I won't take NBME at all? Isn't that a worse idea? What should I do? Advice! THANK YOU!

Man up dude -- try to take at least 2 NBMEs. Yes even if you haven't covered all the material. If you score lower than you expected, then at least you know you have room for improvement on the next one since you haven't covered everything.

If it's higher, then great that will be enough motivation to get you through your last 5-10 days of your prep.

Try not to take your one and only NBME two days before D-day. What's the use at that point?

 

[ucsb101]

Oh really? I'm 4/6 weeks into it. I haven't taken an NBME yet because

1) I know I suck anyway so I don't need a low score on NBME to motivate me
2) I hate to get questions wrong because I haven't studied that topic yet
3) my study plan is very comprehensive and it pretty much covers everything.

My plan is to take an NBME 2 days before the real exam. So that's a bad idea? That means I won't take NBME at all? Isn't that a worse idea? What should I do? Advice! THANK YOU!

I mean I don't want to discourage you from your own plan. Whatever works for you is the best thing. I was just saying that let's say that the score that I wanted to hit was a 230 or something. If I got a 207 two days before the my exam I know I personally would be really sad. And those next two days would be wasted....cuz I prolly would not be able to study. Another good thing about taking these tests early is that you really get a sense of what kind of questions they are going to be asking....which is HUGE!! I took an NBME right after finals without studying and got a 200. That freaked me out and the next week I studied like non stop 14 hour days. Then I got burned out so I took another one....and again the score freaked me out....and I got a second wind. But like I said in the end...you know ur self better than anyone. But I think that you should just swallow ur pride and take the test at least 3 weeks before the exam.

 

[osli]

Oh really? I'm 4/6 weeks into it. I haven't taken an NBME yet because

1) I know I suck anyway so I don't need a low score on NBME to motivate me
2) I hate to get questions wrong because I haven't studied that topic yet
3) my study plan is very comprehensive and it pretty much covers everything.

My plan is to take an NBME 2 days before the real exam. So that's a bad idea? That means I won't take NBME at all? Isn't that a worse idea? What should I do? Advice! THANK YOU!

I'd have to agree with the others. The NBME is especially useful as a reality check a couple of weeks out (1-3 weeks) to make sure you are on track for the score you want. If you get a score or two in the ballpark of what you hope for, then you can push through that final week or so of studying and assume you'll do even better than predicted. Go in confident. If you aren't on track about a week before then you know you can make an informed decision about when to take the exam.

If you wait until two days before, only one of two things can happen... you do good, in which case you go in confident, or you do bad in which case you shoot your confidence and attitude to hell and/or pay to reschedule if possible. There is no time left to study and shore up weaknesses.

Personally, I had planned on taking 4 or so NBME's, but after taking the first two (about two months out and about one month out) I decided that was enough. The scores were good enough to let me know I have the potential with more study to make a good score, but not so good to make me lose motivation and get lazy. If I took another now, I'd either see a drop (which I know would be a normal variant and at this point I can't push back the exam anyway), or the same score (which isn't so great for confidence and attitude going in for the exam), or a higher score (which might give me too much confidence and take the edge off of the important last minute push). I'd rather just assume that at the start of each day my score is where the last NBME said it was, and it is up to that day's studying to improve on it. I can't assume that it has every actually gone up, so each day I have the same motivation to improve it.

 

[Clemson Doc]

same boat here too. FA is a bitch. i hate it. i'm trying to do the high yield stuff now. biochem/pharm, you know. i have 600 q's left in uworld, so i'll probably do those.

I have about that many left in UWorld too, but my exam is this Friday and I feel like I should use my time going through First Aid one last time instead. That will leave one day (Thursday) to review some high yield notes I have and go over some last-minute things.

By the way, you can change your test date up until the day before your test, but if it is within 5 business days of your exam you have to pay a $105 fee. It has to be done over the phone during business hours.

 

[boardssuck]

Test on Wednesday...man I am really stumbling towards the finish line. I don't care what the drug side effects are, they are all so random anyways. Can't wait for this to be done!