Should I make a pass through First Aid before I start doing Uworld?

[psychMDhopefully]

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Its almost March and I am getting antsy now. I want to just jump right in and start doing uworld. It would take me a while to make it through First aid, and staring at that 800 page book just gives me anxiety.

 

[HereWeGo21]

No. You shouldn't.
Your antsiness is your subconscious telling you that reading FA right now, instead of sinking your teeth into UW, would be a waste of time. Which is exactly right.

 

[okokok]

I use UW mainly as a learning tool. I read one section in FA at a time (example: Physio section of Cardiology) then do those questions in UW over the next few days. I find it helps me learn better to be more focused on a specific topic. I'm concerned about it being short term memory, but I look over the sections several times over several days when annotating.

There's no wrong way, though.

 

[ortnakas]

When are you signed up for USMLE?

 

[psychMDhopefully]

When are you signed up for USMLE?

June 23rd, but I want to get through Uworld twice

 

[chillaxbro]

No. You shouldn't.
Your antsiness is your subconscious telling you that reading FA right now, instead of sinking your teeth into UW, would be a waste of time. Which is exactly right.

Bruh u got a 270 right? So you saying given the option of FA or Uworld, I should do UW? Aite if u say so massah

 

[malin]

Start UW now. You should try to answer UW questions in organ systems you've already covered. Whether you get a question right or wrong, go study the corresponding part of FA that relates to that question, and then annotate any pertinent UW facts into FA. That's how you will read through FA this semester, in addition to covering UW.

 

[psychMDhopefully]

My only concern about starting uworld now, is that during my dedicated study period, may 15-june 23rd, what am I going to use to asses myself? When you take practice test, are there any that allow you to see what you have missed and gives explanations?


Also if you don't really like all the cartoons in sketchy micro, what else can you use for micro???

 

[Postictal Raiden]

If you feel compelled to read FA, I'd suggest doing Rx for a month. This will help you actively read and memorize FA. Do a 1-2 blocks a day (if you have time), and in a month you should have FA memorized. Then switch to UW. That's what I'm doing.

 

[HereWeGo21]

Bruh u got a 270 right? So you saying given the option of FA or Uworld, I should do UW? Aite if u say so massah

Yeah, I actually didn't really even touch first aid until t-4 days. Since it's context-free information, I found it hard to learn from. I used it occasionally as a REFERENCE. But only at t-4 days did I actually start reading it page by page.

Edit: wording

 

[walakin25]

Yeah, I actually didn't really even touch first aid until t-4 days. I just think it's pretty useless. I used it occasionally as a REFERENCE. But only at t-4 days did I actually start reading it page by page.

Thats cause you boss man

 

[OrthoRehab33]

Yeah, I actually didn't really even touch first aid until t-4 days. I just think it's pretty useless. I used it occasionally as a REFERENCE. But only at t-4 days did I actually start reading it page by page.

You didn't go through FA until 4 days before your exam? So what did you do during dedicated other than UW?

 

[HereWeGo21]

You didn't go through FA until 4 days before your exam? So what did you do during dedicated other than UW?

I finished Kaplan during the first week of dedicated, and spent most of the rest of the 6 weeks on UW. I went pretty slowly, about 2 blocks per day, writing detailed typed notes on each question.

 

[Qester]

I finished Kaplan during the first week of dedicated, and spent most of the rest of the 6 weeks on UW. I went pretty slowly, about 2 blocks per day, writing detailed typed notes on each question.

Kaplan lecture notes, videos, Qbank? Or some combination?

 

[HereWeGo21]

Kaplan lecture notes, videos, Qbank? Or some combination?

QBank only

 

[Qester]

QBank only

Oh nice, did you take in-depth notes for Kaplan or only UW?

 

[HereWeGo21]

Oh nice, did you take in-depth notes for Kaplan or only UW?

I took in-depth notes for both

Edit: my goal was that, for each question I saw, wrong or right: if I saw another question, on that topic or a related topic, I should be able to get those questions right, too, in the future.

So, in fact I never ended up going over my incorrects, or doing a second pass through UW or Kaplan. Once or twice I did a small block of old questions, but I tended to get them all right, so it wasn't useful. But I think that served to validate my note-taking process