for those who feel shattered, i fully understand. i finally passed on my fifth attempt
i know the heartbreak. i know the despair after spending so much time and effort. i know the embarrassment and shame
what i did differently this year:
1. i created a spreadsheet that compared score reports for each past year. based on that, i ranked each of the content sections in order of which needed the most help
2. i then created a weekly schedule to hold me accountable. i work full time, so i knew i couldn’t spend hours each day. i dedicated like three hours each Sunday evening when my wife and kids were at church. during the week, maybe i would review a few things, but the weekend was it
3. im too far out to use prep. i didn’t want to pay for aap stuff. so i purely did medstudy. i went through the books meticulously. i created flashcards based on the content questions. i ended up not reviewing these as much as i thought i would, but the pure process of creating them was helpful
4. i went through ALL of it. the things that needed more work from the spreadsheet got multiple doses
5. starting about three months before the test, i started listening to the video reviews on my way to work. on the way home, i listened to mindless podcasts because my mind was fried from the day
6. i virtually attended the medstudy review course. i live on the west coast, so that meant waking at 3:30 to start at 4. it was like being in residency again… but the regimented nature was helpful. i sat in my home office and went to work. they have a ‘syllabus’ that is everything printed out, but i didn’t use it. i made a ‘journal’ and wrote down the things that stood out to me. some sections were two pages (pulm, urology). some were eight plus (ID, genetics)
7. from that point on, all i did was review that notebook. it was *me* who created it, so i knew everything in it and where to find it. also from that point on, all i did were questions
8. on the medstudy qbank, i usually did 25-40 questions at a time. about two months before, i started doing 100 questions blocks once a week to test. i only did study mode, because it helped with review. most of the time, averaged about 70-75% at this point. some days hit 80 and some days was in the 50s. just kept plugging away
i passed. after all this time. keep fighting for what you are after. it’s a test and it has absolutely no bearing on how good a pediatrician or person you are. you *can* do it
