boilerbeast said:
...it becomes painfully obvious that you're not going to be able to get through all the material that an exam will cover? (Aside from getting off of SDN...my brain can't hold anymore right now) Should you learn what you can in enough detail to sound intelligent on a few questions? or just go nuts and kind of breeze through everything so you can get partial credit on more? Drat, finals.
Come on man, take a chill pill. I've faced some pretty hopeless situations, in my day. But remember as long as you have time, even at night, use it. When you realize, that you can't cover everything to the ability you want, that's fine, but at that point try to do as much damage to the test as possible. Study the material and really encode what you think will be on the test so you can get maximize the amt of points that you get. At a situation like this you need to consolidate and get as much points as you can. Its tough going in knowing you didn't get to cover everything. But whatever you do don't panic. Also once you are at the test, use the full time you are there. Fight for every point. Also what you can't cover properly, cover it superficially, and also make sure you cover the stuff you are weak on, right before the exam and I mean RIGHT before even 5 min before if you can. You get the recency effect and you might stab a q or two even if you don't really know the material.
Above all DO NOT panic. If you panic, you are done, picture yourself doing well and just keep covering material. Remember if you are in the right state of mind, your guessing ability will be that much better. I find that even if I am tired I get incredible focus, and I just keep plugging thru. Next time, remember what you did wrong, and make that a very powerful detterant so that next time you don't fall into the same trap. I find that even though material is quite overwhelming in med school. If you study right, and are efficient, you can really cut out the fat and look solid on the exam. Remember, people who are doing real well on the exams, are usually not studying every waking minute, it's the ones that struggle that study day and night. And even though they throw all bunch of crap yourway, they DONT" test everything. Just don't panic consolidate what you know, and improve your efficiency.
