qbank as primary learning tool?

[dyspareunia]

---

Members don't see this ad.

As MS1 comes to an end, I'm realizing that I can't spend another year re-reading the course notes 3+ times to study for tests. By the second read through I feel like I am just picking up random facts.. and very few at that.

Is it feasible to watch the lecture, read the syllabus once, then do the rest of my prep by going through FA and a Qbank?

While I'm at it, can I do that for MS1 immuno/micro?

 

[cbrons]

Yes you can. And actually you should do this


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile

 

[GangaMaster]

Ok so this is the great thing about MS1, its where you figure out what strategies work for such a large amount of information. In this time you figured out what you think is important to focus on and what's most likely not to be tested. I, like probably many of us, thought this strategy was the most time efficient, but in the end you realize that by test time and you're re-reading these lecture notes constantly that you are not very confident in your preparation to write the exams. But then you take the exam and go, "well everything went better than expected." However, I'm sure you stressed out like I did.

Now, you may possibly think, what can I do to switch things up so I don't get the same amount of unnecessary anxiety?

To your question, there was a study performed at a school (can't think of it right now) that did a study on half their class doing this method of doing lecture once and immediately doing questions afterward. They scored higher than their counterparts that did repetition of material with practice questions before the test. So take that for what you will. I tried this in second semester of MS1 and scored the same as I did in MS1 and had more free time.

For what I'm doing now in MS2, if you care to read this. I abandoned Anki in MS1 after a month because it was taking a great deal of my time because on top of learning how to use Anki, I was trying to learn how to make good questions which literally sapped all my time out. Now, that I know how to do these two things (with the latter I am still improving upon), I am using a snippet I learned from drwillbe and its been working pretty well and giving me a decent amount of free time:

credit: http://drwillbe.blogspot.com/2012/02/studying-pathology.html

However, I've changed it for certain classes, for example, in Micro I watch the lecture once then I take the objectives and lecture slides and make questions based off the objectives. If I find an objective to convoluted, I break it into pieces or if the objective is too easy or way to ridiculous to formulate a question, I just read it once and don't make a card based off it.

It also includes a step where you use questions to integrate the knowledge you learned. These steps are more spread out on different days in drwillbe's guide but I do 1 and 2 the same day and then do step 4 on the weekends.

 

[sazerac]

Pathoma for the first week of a block, doing usmleRX questions for the next two, breezing through lecture notes a couple days before the exam. That's how I survived second year (stayed above average), and as a bonus I got very familiar with question styles and where things are located in FA.

Some people pooh-pooh using a QBank as a primary learning resource, but the nice thing about medicine is there are so many paths to success. Your proposed path will work just fine.

 

[cbrons]

Firecracker also seems pretty good tbh. Not sure if it has comprehensive coverage of everything you need to know for Step I, but it might.

 

[Etorphine]

For a new organ system in the curriculum:
Week 1: Pathoma videos to get intro
Week 2-3: First Aid review. Leave no sentence or phrase uncovered
Week 2.5-5: UWorld, at a rate of 10-25q per day, with review of the previous day's question

It will take extra time and balancing with coursework, above and beyond the class average. But you might be rewarded with a 240-250 starting score in day 1 of dedicated review

 

[Kaputt]

I left UWorld untouched till my dedicated Step 1 prep time. I always did questions on random. It's hardcore but it really gets the gears going in your mind, which facilitates critical thinking, making the use of UWorld a very active process. I always did timed tests, and would commit to answers for every question in the question set before reviewing them.

I don't get why people say you should use UWorld as a textbook. It's not set up for that. It's a way to review material you should largely know a good deal about already. But if your mind can make sense of a very random and erratic way for material to be presented to you...have at it.

There are lots of other question sources you can mess with during M1/M2, like the Robbins path review book, Webpath, or even Rx/Kaplan. UWorld questions are best the first time you do them, rather than by doing them over and over, in my opinion.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Doing Step 1 UWorld questions as anything but a review sounds like a terrible idea. The answer choices are so wide that you'll end up learning so much new information from one question that you won't be able to discern a way to remember it all.

 

[caffeinemia]

As MS1 comes to an end, I'm realizing that I can't spend another year re-reading the course notes 3+ times to study for tests. By the second read through I feel like I am just picking up random facts.. and very few at that.

Is it feasible to watch the lecture, read the syllabus once, then do the rest of my prep by going through FA and a Qbank?

While I'm at it, can I do that for MS1 immuno/micro?

Uhh for micro -- definitely Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple. All I ever needed, all I ever used.

http://www.amazon.com/Clinical-Microbiology-Made-Ridiculously-Simple/dp/1935660152

Is it feasible to watch the lecture, read the syllabus once, then do the rest of my prep by going through FA and a Qbank? I did exactly this. 250+ step I, passed every P/F class. Matched? Yes. Suffering? Less.