This post is For those who didn't pass the exam
I didn't pass ABIM the first time, multiple reasons but basically, I didn't know what to study, I was following posts here in the student doctor network and every one was saying I did UW or MKSAP mcqs or did awesome review and I scored that much or this much blah blah blah + in the real exam I scored 500+ or 400+ etc.
Following these advices, I just did MKSAP mcqs X 2 and UW mcqs X2 plus NEJM mcqs X1 and ACP prep review course videos. I read mcq explanations and scored 20 marks below the passing score. I never failed any exam in my life so I was shattered. I couldn't sleep for months. I didn't know what I did wrong and what to do now.
In 2022 during my last year of fellowship, one of my attendings sat down with me and told me that I have very good medical knowledge but seems I don't study systematically. That advice was shook me for few days but I took it seriously. For my fellowship IT which was in Feb 2023 (in training exam) I started studying my speciality book, every system one by one and every chapter one by one. I had 2 months before the exam so I was able to give 2-3 hours every day. Aim was to do systematic studying to become knowledgeable and not just pass the exam. I was able to do 10-12 high yield chapters (out of 32 chapters) before the IT. I didn't do a single mcq during that period. I was surprised the next month, when PD called me to disclose our IT results and I scored 482 (highest in the whole program). This strategy gave me a hope that I can pass ABIM and I knew what did I do wrong.
I found 6 study partners online, 2 didn't pass the ABIM once and 3 didn't pass ABIM in their first 2 attempts. Asked their strategy and most were relying on doing as much as mcqs, some loved UW and some loved MKSAP. We discussed and started studying Board Basics 19 (online as well as paper). We would just read BB every day 1-2 hours and discuss the topics. We would go to the related text link and read mksap related text and add notes to Board basics paper form. After finishing fellowship I took a break, stayed in library for 8-12 hours from July 15th onwards. I did took Awesome review which I initially thought was very helpful but found it extremely difficult to retain any information from awesome review notes. Well 3 of my partners left the group in early june as they disagreed with our strategy of reading BB and not doing mcqs during study sessions. 2 of three wanted to just do UW mcqs and 1 just wanted to go over awesome review notes multiple times. Anyways moving forward 3 of us kept reading BB till id of july and than started our own studying. I probably have read some BB chapters 10-15 times. Just towards the end I started doing mksap 19 mcqs in the tutor mode and finished all of them 2-3 weeks before the exam and repeated them once again. BB probably has 300 pages but my BB has almost 550 pages (stuff I added from mksap). I didn't do a single UW mcq. I read awesome review cardiology and rheumatology chapters very well.
Moving forward the day of exam 1st 2 blocks I finished 30-40 min earlier, last 2 5-10 min earlier. Most questions were more than easy some were difficult. Result: I passed with score close to 500, 2 other partners who stayed with BB strategy passed (I don't know there scores). All three who wanted to just do UW/MKSAP mcqs or awesome review revision unfortunately couldn't pass. I discussed with all of them and unfortunately, they opted for mcq strategy as they were also doing jobs and didn't have time to read the book.
2 of them loved UW and failed doing just UW mcqs previously as well.
My 2 cents.
- Read some book and than do mcqs (mksap or UW)
- Reverse learning (learning from mcqs only) doesn't work in real exam. You must read a book for whatever exam you are going for and than strengthen your memory by doing mcqs. In real exam they won't give you same mcqs.
- 8000 plus docs take this exam every year 90% plus pass this exam, less than 0.5% post their experience here (that might have worked for them but might not work for you) . I trusted (posts from student doctor) them once by doing UW/mksap mcqs and awesome review and I failed. Reading the book got me through ~ Let me tell you reading the book is 10 times harder than doing just the mcqs.
- Read the same book multiple multiple times. (You should read so much that when you sleep you dream about what you've read)
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* My personal advice is "unless you scored extremely good in you IT exams", avoid doing MCQS for this exam without reading a book.
Thanks
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