Takes me 7-8 hours to review 1 uworld test. Is this normal?

[GomerPyle]

Hi everyone. I was hoping I could get some advice on how to review uworld questions. I've been taking a very long time going through the answers and annotating it all into first aid. It's taking me forever and I'm hoping I could go through it all a 2nd time. Am I doing this right or do I need to be going through them faster and do less annotating so I can have enough time to go through it again? I'm not sure if I am focusing too much on annotating everything into first aid, and at this point I don't know how beneficial that'll be. Any suggestions? I'm 2.5 months out from test day and I've 20% through uworld right now. Will be taking my first NBME in 2 weeks but I'm definitely not ready...

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chillaxbro]

I also take way too long (but 3-4 hours). I bet most of your time is from flipping back and forth and trying to find the right place in first aid.


I stopped trying to put it in FA and just started typing up notes in Microsoft word

also turn off SDN reddit and facebook and shut off your phone

 

[Derivations]

I think that is a little excessive. Don't write every single explanation word for word. Find out why you got the question wrong and annotate the key point that caused you to miss the question. If you're rusty on a topic, then sure, in that case I'd say that is justification to spend a little longer to review and annotate that section in FA and/or write a little blurb in a word doc (I do both). But don't do that for every question, for correct answers especially (ones I get correct due to solid knowledge of the topic, not due to a lucky guess) I just read through everything and if I feel comfortable with the material presented I just move on. I don't think writing something down is always necessary. At some point the time lost due to unnecessary annotating can actually hurt you because it means you are getting exposure to less questions.

 

[worldbeater]

Am I doing this right or do I need to be going through them faster and do less annotating so I can have enough time to go through it again? I'm not sure if I am focusing too much on annotating everything into first aid, and at this point I don't know how beneficial that'll be. Any suggestions?

Look for the bridge of what knowledge you have and what answer they want marked. Whatever the bridge is, that's what you want to annotate in your reading source.

What I use to do in 1st half of my prep is treat it like a math a problem and use a notebook for questions I missed. Let's say if it was a side effect of drug they wanted. I'd look at the vignette and write the condition -> then the drug for that condition -> then the side effect of the drug. If your missing the question due to details earlier the chain due to not getting the clue for the condition, it's more concerning. If you know the condition and drug for it, but just missed the side effect, it's an easy fix. This shouldn't take more than 5 minutes or so per question. 7 hours is excessive in my opinion, because your sacrificing the ability to due more questions for review time as the poster said above. Try to figure out a reasonable balance, so for your 2nd pass if you choose to do so you will be able hit >75%.

 

[Phloston]

I took 8 hours to go through 50 UWorld questions. That pace is fine depending on where you are in prep and how much time you have. You can still ace the USMLE and not obsess over UW, but thorough review of the QBank ONCE is ideal. Not cursory review with multiple passes.

 

[worldbeater]

Yeah I agree it's ideal if your going to do one pass, you can spend the entire day methodically going through it over 2 months. But you need to retain everything and that means your foundation should be strong enough to support all the info your picking up.

It didn't work for me, and I think it's because my foundation was very weak when I first started, so I had to figure out another way to learn/currently learning the material. It isn't an ideal situation, but you get better as the days progress.

 

[GomerPyle]

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[HereWeGo21]

When I first started, it took about week or more for me to finish going through a single block (though this was during school or summer research, so I was somewhat occupied). By the end, I could cover two blocks in a single day (during dedicated). So, my pace was slow. By the end, I finished UW and Kaplan each just once. I think this is ideal. Go as slow as you need to. As long as you're building deep knowledge, you know you're not wasting time. A much greater waste of time is to skim through, building only superficial knowledge, and do your qbanks twice or three times. This might give you a sense of having accomplished a lot, and it's good for impressing/intimidating your friends, but it won't serve you well on the big day.

 

[walakin25]

When I first started, it took about week or more for me to finish going through a single block (though this was during school or summer research, so I was somewhat occupied). By the end, I could cover two blocks in a single day (during dedicated). So, my pace was slow. By the end, I finished UW and Kaplan each just once. I think this is ideal. Go as slow as you need to. As long as you're building deep knowledge, you know you're not wasting time. A much greater waste of time is to skim through, building only superficial knowledge, and do your qbanks twice or three times. This might give you a sense of having accomplished a lot, and it's good for impressing/intimidating your friends, but it won't serve you well on the big day.

Boss of all bosses preachin'

 

[HereWeGo21]

Boss of all bosses preachin'

Hahaha. Y'all flatter me

 

[moisne]

ctrl + f in FA2016 pdf --> life saver

 

[Pushtothestars]

ctrl + f in FA2016 pdf --> life saver

What does that feature do?

 

[zhopv10]

Searches the pdf for your search query, makes me wish I had been using the pdf haha


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app