Retention of Material

[Unty]

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So how do you all go by retaining all this information for the boards. I know this might be a dumb question to ask now since I really should know the answer to this question.

Just curious how do you guys/gals do it? I know some use flashcards. I find myself busting my *** (like 8 hours and sometimes more on some days) and then weeks later I forget everything I read or took notes on. I am really going to use 1 or 2 sources for the boards and try to memorize it..I know doing questions help as well. It's really frustrating since I find myself putting so much time but not really getting the results I want (RISE).

I also think reading about your cases will help...but what about all the other material you dont see or even CP as a whole is all book-based!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I know some of you geniuses out there have a photographic memory!

 

[2121115]

Get a copy of Henry's. Stare at each page until you can recite the text word for word without looking. Then move to the next page. Then at the end hand the book to one of your colleagues and recite the entire book out loud to them as they check you. Only then will you be prepared to take the boards.

 

[Unty]

😱😱

Get a copy of Henry's. Stare at each page until you can recite the text word for word without looking. Then move to the next page. Then at the end hand the book to one of your colleagues and recite the entire book out loud to them as they check you. Only then will you be prepared to take the boards.

 

[cellmatrix]

I was just about to post on this same topic...I feel very confident with hematopathology residency training and yet just memorizing the CP Compendium hemepath section is EXTREMELY difficult. They do not pull any punches either for the level of detail. Does passage of CP boards require this degree of information retention? How well do you have to have CP compendium memorized to be prepared? Very very difficult task bordering on insanity.

 

[2121115]

AP and CP boards are way more about test taking skills and problem solving than memorizing. Because no can memorize the details needed to know the answer to all the questions. You'll have to figure them out. Eliminate 2 wrong answers and then guess on 50/50 with the other two. Etc, etc.

 

[sirenomelia]

The CP compendium for all the complaining Ive heard about errors and typos is THE resource for CP boards. If you're solid on that material you're home free unless you just wet the bed on tests. The Spring of my boards I went through it 5 times or so. Each time I went through I highlighted stuff that I had forgotten a different color. The last review I made detail memorization notes on paper for things left- It took up about 12 pages. The CP test topics I felt it comes up short in are:

- Micro- esp the gross morphology of the fungal colonies and the bacteria chemical tests- the dif color tubes no one does anymore anyway.
- Immunology
- Plasmapheresis- basic clinical mgt
- Lab admin/ informatics
- ddx of blood cell findings like blast morphology, chediak higashi

 

[Blind Guy]

On the hematology exam I just took about of 1/3 of the questions were straight out of Robbins, which I was teaching to my med students at the time. Also, if you have to guess, guess benign. It also seems that you can eliminate two distractors that occur together like celiac disease and enteropathic T-cell lymphoma of different variations of PTC.