Questions for 3rd or 4th year med students

[LUCPM]

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Hello everyone,

I have been recently accepted to a DO program and will be starting next year. I sometimes come across posts about people failing their board exams, etc. and was wondering what causes them to fail such important exams besides personal issues or illness?

Is this something I should start preparing from day one of my medical school? How do people normally prepare to ace the exam?

TIA.

 

[bleeker10]

Study hard and do well your first two years. That will help more than anything. The best way to ace boards is to REVIEW for boards, not LEARN for boards. Learn the material for your first two years which will make reviewing so much easier and help you do better on the test. Don't start studying for boards (FA, Goljan, etc) from day one. Use those resources later on. Don't annotate into them from day one either because you have no idea what's important. Just focus on your classes and don't get overwhelmed trying to prep for boards until the time comes

 

[Rollo]

Echo the above post.

And to add to it, definitely read the USMLE/COMLEX experience threads for the previous year. Read people's strategies and their timing. I can't tell you how much this website helped me.

I know quite a few people who didn't do so well or even failed the boards because of simple things they didn't do like using question banks or using the right resources. SDN is the place to come and figure those things out.

But yea, like bleeker said learn the material in your first two years really well. Board studying should be the time to review/refresh stuff, not learn anything new or not have "WTF is this, I've never seen this before".

 

[Powdermonkey]

The one thing I wish I would have done more of is read.

+1 to learning it as best as possible the first time. It's too hard and stressful to Ty and learn it for the boards when you've never seen it. Work on pharm a ton, as well as physiology. Those are usually the two subjects that aren't covered super well and students are a little weak on. You can pm me if you have any specific questions.

Don't forget to take personal time for yourself too. Workout, relax, read a fun book. Something. You'll go crazy and waste time otherwise. Gotta stay focused somehow.