Starting to think about the NAVLE

[Ojala]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering:

How many hours did it take you to fully complete vetprep (approx)?

How many months prior to the NAVLE should I start studying? I've heard anywhere from 3-6 months.

During clinical rotations, how many hours a day were you aiming to study for? and was that hard to accomplish considering the varying rotations?

Did your clinical rotations help prep you for the NAVLE in any significant manner?


Thanks in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SocialStigma]

I hit 80% completion 2 days before my NAVLE, and I only pushed myself to make it that far so that I could fall back on the guarantee if I failed. I started doing VetPrep questions in late August and my exam was in late November, so 3 months. Clinical rotations did not help me prep for the NAVLE really, but that's because my school streams our clinical year (ie. in the small animal stream, I only had to take SA rotations, and had no exposure to equine, food animal, etc). The hardest questions for me as a SA person was always the food animal questions. On busy rotations like IM, surgery, etc I would only have time to do a few questions per night, but I scheduled my radiology rotation to be right before the NAVLE, and got a lot of studying done then.

 

[Ojala]

I hit 80% completion 2 days before my NAVLE, and I only pushed myself to make it that far so that I could fall back on the guarantee if I failed. I started doing VetPrep questions in late August and my exam was in late November, so 3 months. Clinical rotations did not help me prep for the NAVLE really, but that's because my school streams our clinical year (ie. in the small animal stream, I only had to take SA rotations, and had no exposure to equine, food animal, etc). The hardest questions for me as a SA person was always the food animal questions. On busy rotations like IM, surgery, etc I would only have time to do a few questions per night, but I scheduled my radiology rotation to be right before the NAVLE, and got a lot of studying done then.

Can I ask on average how long did you study each day to achieve that 80% completion on vet prep? Thanks for the response by the way.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

Can I ask on average how long did you study each day to achieve that 80% completion on vet prep? Thanks for the response by the way.

Hey,
Full disclosure I haven't taken NAVLE or started rotations yet, but if you go look over on the pre-vet side c/o2021 we had a discussion about the helpfulness of rotations as well as the amount of studying you may want to go check out.

Just as a reminder that the 80% completion on vetprep isn't a 100% thing because there are some people that just do the vetprep to get through it-per the gal in charge of vetprep when she came to talk to us. Vetprep also has awesome 3&6mo study calendars premade to keep you on track. I've had vetprep for several months now and am only at 8% completion (granted I'm not hardcore studying currently-more like 5-20q/day).

As for how soon to start studying there's me and a few of my friends easy studying now. There was a 4th year who didn't study til the month before and still passed(only starting studying 1mo prior is probably not recommended).

On my neuro rotation I won't get home til late like 9pm I'll pry do like 5 questions before bed if that. However easier rotations I'm planning on doing alot more like 1 prep page, 1 video and like 20 questions depending on my time availability.

Imo clinical rotations are helpful but the order may not necessarily matter. I will be grateful to have neuro and radiology before NAVLE because I know I am weak in those subjects. My school doesn't track so it can be helpful but just depends where rotations fall.

 

[SocialStigma]

Can I ask on average how long did you study each day to achieve that 80% completion on vet prep? Thanks for the response by the way.

Probably an hour on weekdays and 2-3 hours on weekends? In the last month I did questions every chance I got. While I was waiting to round, while eating lunch, etc. I did get faster as time went on and as I depleted the question bank, I also started to recognize questions I had before.

 

[finnickthedog]

I have no idea how many hours it took me, because that wasn't something I kept track of.

I bought vetprep in May and took the NAVLE in late October so my total study time was around 5 months but it's not like I was studying intensely that entire time.

I had no particular goal for amount of time to study in a day or at a time. I just did some questions whenever I had time.

I did feel clinical rotations helped prepare me and I can actually think of specific questions on the NAVLE that I learned the answer to through clinical rotations.

I took two ICVA practice exams at 90 and 30 days out from my exam.

 

[JaynaAli]

I did the same as Finn. I didn’t really have a set plan or set aside any specific time each week. I studied between cases in rounds rooms on clinics and in evenings when I didn’t have a bunch of records to do. Rotations like the general practice rotation I hammered through hundreds of questions a week but other rotations like internal medicine when we were much busier I did very few. I took an ICVA assessment the week before. I did do 100% of vetprep but it wasn’t on a schedule.

 

[turnandburn]

Same as above. I didn't do VetPrep on a schedule but I did start about 6 months in advance and did complete the entire program.