Taus last two weeks. Any tips from experience?

[badasshairday]

So I think I am going to hit Taus last two weeks, starting tomorrow. It really seems like a lot to do. But it seems so worthwhile. I have gone through RR 2x. FA once over the year, which doesn't really count, so 1x so far during study period. Also I have already been doing 96q's a day of WORLD, so I will have finished all the questions 1 week into the "last two weeks." I think for the last week I'll do my wrong answers over (BIOSTATS!).

Any words of wisdom before I embark?



The last 2 weeks

AM: 100 UW Questions, in random/timed blocks of 50, then go over all explanations in full

PM: 6 hours of studying as divided below
- get through everything in 10 Days
- final 3 day plan at the end


1a 4 hours
Biochem:
• FA
• Goljan: Ch1-cell injury, Ch7-Nutritional Disorders
• FA Path Intro

1b 2 hours
Behavoral (all except Pysch):
•FA

2a 6 hours
Molec Bio:
•HY
•FA
•Goljan: Ch5-Genetic Disorders, Ch8-Neoplasia
•FA Path Intro

3a 2 hours
Pharmacodynamics and Autonomic Pharm:
•FA pharm section
•Goljan:Ch6-Environmental Path

3b 4 hours
•Immunology:
• FA
•Goljan: Ch2-inflammation and repair, Ch3-immunopathology
• aids pharm
•immuno pharm in msk section of FA

4a 4 hours
Micro Principles and Micro Pharm:
•FA



*******Full Systems

4b 2 hours & 5a 2 hours
Heme/Onc:
•Goljan: Ch.11-15
•FA

5b 4 hours
Cardio:
•Goljan:Ch 4-fluids(only edema to end), Ch9-Vascular Dz, Ch10, Heart Dz
FA

6a 4 hours
Renal:
•Goljan: Ch4-fluids (beginning to edema), Ch19-Kidney disorders
•FA

6b 2 hours & 7a 2 hours
Respiratory:
•Goljan: Ch16-upper and lower respiratory
•FA, Bugs

7b 4 hours
GI:
•Goljan: Ch17-GI, Ch18-hepatobiliary
•FA, Bugs (diarrhea,hep,worms)

8a 3 hours
Reproductive:
•Goljan: Ch20-male and lower GU, 21-female
•FA, UTI/STD bugs

8b 3 hours
Endocrine:
•Goljan: Ch22-endocrine
•FA

9a 5 hours
Musculskeletal & Skin & Anat:
•Goljan: Ch23 msk disorders
•FA MSK anatomy (in neuro section)
•Goljan: ch24-skin
•look at some GI/thoracic CT's


9 b 1 hour
Embryo:
•FA

10a 4 hours
Neuro:
•Goljan: ch25-nervous system
•FA, bugs
•Radiology in HY/online

10b 2 hours
Pysch:
•FA (some in behav section too)



3rd to last Day
- ½ of margin (blue) notes in RR Path & slides
- crammable facts in immuno (CD markers, etc)
- all of Biochem

2nd to last Day
- ½ of margin (blue) notes in RR Path & slides
- molec & genetics in full
- all of pharm- go through all systems in FA
- some behavioral/biostats (non-pysch)…quickly review high yield areas

Last day
- FA HY section (at end of book) & Pics
- formulas and lab values one last time
- pharm sides in FA (those 2 pages in the intro to pharm section)
- NO HEAVY STUDYING

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[metalrex]

I am in the same '2 weeks TAUS' boat as you

Things that seem to be working for me:

1. when it comes to RR - margins ofcourse and scan the page quickly to jog hazy concepts.Saves time and keeps things fresh.Focus on tables /pics too.Attempt to recall all that you know about the topic first: for instance with Cardiogenic shock : recall without looking at the margin note.Keep it quick and simple.

2. when it comes to UW questions: I am doing more than taus's plan for questions, on a 2nd run.What I do is 4-6 blocks everyday , with 'marked/incorrect' blocks interspersed.

3. FA -I go back to front of each unit, meaning tackle pharmac , path, physio ,anat in that order.Makes it quick.Brute memorization of facts you don't understand.Also, I found a quick run of that DIT workbook helps a lot.

every 3rd day- i revise FA chapters covered to keep it fresh.

Good luck Almost there.....

 

[mq123]

That 2 week plan looks like a lot! But I guess it gives you good organization! Please post back on how it's going, and thanks to the poster above for feedback -- I think the Taus plan is great, but you can always tweak it a little to suit your own style of studying, and I'm interested to find out what's working for people

 

[metalrex]

That 2 week plan looks like a lot! But I guess it gives you good organization! Please post back on how it's going, and thanks to the poster above for feedback -- I think the Taus plan is great, but you can always tweak it a little to suit your own style of studying, and I'm interested to find out what's working for people

You are welcome.I just started so I am gonna be watching this thread intently too.

 

[Domenech]

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????



You can ACTUALLY stick to this timetable? Hard to believe. I have been making timetables all my damn life but not once had I ever managed to accomplish anything out of it. Heck I even made on on May 21st and starting 22nd, it all got destroyed I guess I am more of a spontaneous person but atleast I can take a few bits and pieces from your schedule

 

[metalrex]

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????



You can ACTUALLY stick to this timetable? Hard to believe. I have been making timetables all my damn life but not once had I ever managed to accomplish anything out of it. Heck I even made on on May 21st and starting 22nd, it all got destroyed I guess I am more of a spontaneous person but atleast I can take a few bits and pieces from your schedule

Optimize and tweak it up.I found a quick scan of the page on RR and its margin notes to be more HY and quick rather than sitting around reading each line which makes you tachycardic with two weeks out.

 

[Domenech]

Optimize and tweak it up.I found a quick scan of the page on RR and its margin notes to be more HY and quick rather than sitting around reading each line which makes you tachycardic with two weeks out.

Yeah but I have a tendency of going through all the details But anyway I'd be starting first aid mixing it with kaplan medessentials today. Just 8 days left so let's see how it works. I'm glad I'm finished with a few kaplan books revision because they were freaking taking so much time but atleast it ensured I actually learnt a lot of forgotten knowledge

 

[HTxFrog]

ugh, I just finished my first day of the taus final two week plan and this is going to be a really crappy 14 days. I probably need to do a better job of just skimming RR b/c I started at 8 and finished at 1130 and there is no way I can keep that up for two weeks

 

[badasshairday]

You are doing UWORLD too right? I think I am gonna do it for sure. If I change anything, it will be to do RR in one week by itself, then FA the last week by itself. But it would be nice to see both side by side to really get the repetition.

 

[MDpride]

I gave USMLE yesterday and I tried to follow taus plan.

I was able to solve 100 UW Qs and FA.

RR reading is unrealistic unless you have good grasp of it. I had hard time going through designated FA sections alloted for each day. It took me whole day instead of alloted time by taus.

In short, unrealistic to go through FA and RR in alloted time unless you have good grasp of it. That means, you should have gone thru 3 rounds as recommended by TAUS before 2 weeks plan.

MY ADVICE: stick thru 100 UW Qs and FA. supplement brs physio or rr path prn.

 

[RapidReview]

hairday,
how has your progress been? i just finished DIT today and was going to start the 10 day plan as my 2nd pass. is it a realistic pace for you, or do you find yourself needing to put in 14+ hour days because i think i am in the latter category. thanks.

 

[HTxFrog]

I'm on day 3 of the final 2 weeks and its taking me 5-6 hrs for the 100q's, so I'm done with that by 1-2. Then you've got at least 6 hrs to do the other stuff taus says, but it usually takes me 8. I wouldn't consider myself a slow studier either. I need to wake up earlier I guess, or stop wasting time on sdn...

 

[badasshairday]

RapidReview,

I got held up by some really unecessary BS that happened. Lost 2 full days of study, so I had to reschedule my exam to make up those two days.

I am going to start tomorrow. However, I think I am going to switch it up. I think I am going to start RR by itself tomorrow, followed by review of pages/sections of FA that I wrote down in a notebook that I don't know very well or need to memorize. Then of course UWORLD. I should finish this by next Friday. Then I will cram FA for the rest of the time, until my test on the 21st. And I will definitely be going over the Blue margin notes in RR a day or two before the test.

I'll see how I feel tomorrow, I may actually just do it as Taus put it out, but I am leaning towards doing it in the fashion I described above. If I can get throgh RR fast enough, then I'll Taus it. Either way, in the end, I will have been through FA and RR pathology almost 3x in total before the test. Did RR almost twice over the school year. Did FA once, in a long drawn out way over the year, followed by another pass that I just completed today.

 

[RapidReview]

RapidReview,

I got held up by some really unecessary BS that happened. Lost 2 full days of study, so I had to reschedule my exam to make up those two days.

I am going to start tomorrow. However, I think I am going to switch it up. I think I am going to start RR by itself tomorrow, followed by review of pages/sections of FA that I wrote down in a notebook that I don't know very well or need to memorize. Then of course UWORLD. I should finish this by next Friday. Then I will cram FA for the rest of the time, until my test on the 21st. And I will definitely be going over the Blue margin notes in RR a day or two before the test.

I'll see how I feel tomorrow, I may actually just do it as Taus put it out, but I am leaning towards doing it in the fashion I described above. If I can get throgh RR fast enough, then I'll Taus it. Either way, in the end, I will have been through FA and RR pathology almost 3x in total before the test. Did RR almost twice over the school year. Did FA once, in a long drawn out way over the year, followed by another pass that I just completed today.

Sorry to hear about that; hope everything got worked out. I actually had a little burn out so took a couple 2/3 days (8ish hours). Yeah, I'm debating whether I should stick purely to FA and UWorld or try to add in Goljan because my path scores are good - it's everything else, esp physio that sucks. I will start tomorrow and see what I can get through.

 

[RapidReview]

I'm on day 3 of the final 2 weeks and its taking me 5-6 hrs for the 100q's, so I'm done with that by 1-2. Then you've got at least 6 hrs to do the other stuff taus says, but it usually takes me 8. I wouldn't consider myself a slow studier either. I need to wake up earlier I guess, or stop wasting time on sdn...

Yeah, I'm at the same pace for questions as you - 3hr/48qs. I dunno if I can wake up earlier, I already have skipped all my workouts, haha. You know you can't stay away from sdn... plus it's only 5 minutes to take your mind off things lol

 

[mq123]

Yeah, I'm at the same pace for questions as you - 3hr/48qs. I dunno if I can wake up earlier, I already have skipped all my workouts, haha. You know you can't stay away from sdn... plus it's only 5 minutes to take your mind off things lol

Same here! I thought I was being slow, but I'm not even taking long breaks during my alloted UWorld time. I do each block in under 45min (1.5 hrs for 2 blocks) and then the rest of the time is review. I do highlight key stuff in the explanations, so when I (hopefully) get to go through U World again, I can skim the answers...

Which brings me to my question -- I think I'll be done with my first pass of UW about 12 days out, so how long will it take then to get through 2 blocks if you're on your second round (if anyone has already done this)? Is it doable with the Taus 2-week plan? I don't mind pulling 14 hour days for a couple of weeks...

 

[badasshairday]

Yeah, I'm debating whether I should stick purely to FA and UWorld or try to add in Goljan because my path scores are good - it's everything else, esp physio that sucks. I will start tomorrow and see what I can get through.

I did give BRS Physio a run with my FA overview. I think it is a good, quick, and very helpful read of physiolgy.

But I'm definitely going to put in Goljan because the book really integrates it all. Plus, I left out Renal, Male/Female chapters, during my 2nd run though. I still feel the stings of messing up Renal questions. I feel like he covers 70% of what is in FA anyways, but in a much more integrative manner. Fluids/Hemodynamics chapter is a must, as well as Cardio chapter, because he really hits the physiology of it if you need help in that.

I'm hitting 12-15 hours a day on a regular. I'm slow though. It takes me ~7 hours to go through two blocks of 48q in WORLD. I read it all. So far it has helped... in fact, I think it has been the best use of my time. Consistently in the 70's percent-wise on timed random blocks now.

 

[tachyon34]

im into my last week of it and i def could not do it as quickly as recommended. I recommend cutting down WOrld question review time. After you've done 50% most of the questions are the same and have the same explanations... try to do 2 blocks within 4 hours.

i spent most of my time reading FA and not that much on other sources

 

[RapidReview]

I did give BRS Physio a run with my FA overview. I think it is a good, quick, and very helpful read of physiolgy.

But I'm definitely going to put in Goljan because the book really integrates it all. Plus, I left out Renal, Male/Female chapters, during my 2nd run though. I still feel the stings of messing up Renal questions. I feel like he covers 70% of what is in FA anyways, but in a much more integrative manner. Fluids/Hemodynamics chapter is a must, as well as Cardio chapter, because he really hits the physiology of it if you need help in that.

I'm hitting 12-15 hours a day on a regular. I'm slow though. It takes me ~7 hours to go through two blocks of 48q in WORLD. I read it all. So far it has helped... in fact, I think it has been the best use of my time. Consistently in the 70's percent-wise on timed random blocks now.

did day one today - 4 hours in the morning for 75 questions, lunch, then 8 hours to do biochem (accidentally did molec bio section from FA as well) and bs including goljan reading. i realized that the goljan reading goes pretty quick since i've read most chapters 2-3 times during the year. the biochem took forever to get through however. still some time so i might try to get ahead on tomorrow. hope your first day went well.

 

[badasshairday]

Hey, yeah, first day of my modified plan. I'm beginning to think maybe I should just do the real Taus two week plan. I got through ~90 pages of Goljan today, and it was all the stuff that I never got to do a second pass on over the year (Renal, Lower Urinary tract/Male Repro, Female Repro). If I can go this fast on that stuff, I can surely get through 100+ pages easily for the rest of the book that I will be doing a 3rd pass on. There is so much that FA skips over, I sometimes would open up my FA and write stuff in that is missing.

I don't know still though. Ugh. Maybe I will really Taus it tomorrow. I am about to start on my UWORLD 96q's. I do them in the evenings/night because reading books at night makes me .

 

[HTxFrog]

I'm starting to get used to it (day4) and I am liking the Taus 2 week plan a lot more than I did at first. I was originally going to just read straight through RR and then FA, but I think the way its laid out in the word document works better

 

[badasshairday]

I'm starting to get used to it (day4) and I am liking the Taus 2 week plan a lot more than I did at first. I was originally going to just read straight through RR and then FA, but I think the way its laid out in the word document works better

I think you are right. I am going to switch to the real Taus plan starting tomorrow. Woohoo! I don't think there is any better way of cramming all the high yield information in an integrative way. If you do RR by itself, then FA by itself, you never get the full picture.

I was just worried about not being able to keep up with it. But now I definitely think it is doable. It will be a pain, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

 

[mq123]

I think you are right. I am going to switch to the real Taus plan starting tomorrow. Woohoo! I don't think there is any better way of cramming all the high yield information in an integrative way. If you do RR by itself, then FA by itself, you never get the full picture.

I was just worried about not being able to keep up with it. But now I definitely think it is doable. It will be a pain, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

So you're also doing 96q every day as well? How long does it take you to get through (questions, reviewing, etc), and do you have enough time left for the rest of the reviewing without feeling rushed?

I used RR Path during course work throughout most of the year, so I'm hoping it won't take me too much time to get through.

Thanks!

 

[badasshairday]

So you're also doing 96q every day as well? How long does it take you to get through (questions, reviewing, etc), and do you have enough time left for the rest of the reviewing without feeling rushed?

I used RR Path during course work throughout most of the year, so I'm hoping it won't take me too much time to get through.

Thanks!

Yes, I am doing 96q a day also. I do my reading in the morning/afternoon. Then questions at night. It takes ~3hours to do and review a block of 48q.

 

[badasshairday]

Guys. I am assuming you are doing the readings in the order that they are llisted by Taus? Ie. Reading FA biochem followed by Goljan Ch. 1 and Ch. 7 on day on. And then on the systems days, going through Goljan first, followed by the recommended FA readings.

 

[metalrex]

Guys. I am assuming you are doing the readings in the order that they are llisted by Taus? Ie. Reading FA biochem followed by Goljan Ch. 1 and Ch. 7 on day on. And then on the systems days, going through Goljan first, followed by the recommended FA readings.

I am not.I tweaked it up according to areas that I am weak at the most: these being heme/onc, CVS or whatever and they are top of the list for me.
But the sequence ,that is reading corresp goljan then FA is the same.

 

[PokerDoc]

hairday,
how has your progress been? i just finished DIT today and was going to start the 10 day plan as my 2nd pass. is it a realistic pace for you, or do you find yourself needing to put in 14+ hour days because i think i am in the latter category. thanks.

did you like the DIT course? I start tomorrow...

 

[badasshairday]

Two week plan is intense. I found myself going over day 1 FA biochem pretty slowly. I can read Goljan faster than FA biochem. And the weird thing is, my UWORLD biochem score is my best topic, like in the 85th percentile... but I just can't remember all those little BS details. Plus while reading I made up some mneumonics and wrote them in, such as for the amino acids that are glucogenic/ketogenic.

Mary's Angry at His Glucose = Met, Arg, His are Glucogenic (Picture a wife mad at her diabetic husband)

Ill, Phil Tries Threesomes with Gloria & Kelly = Ile, Phe, Trp, Thr are Gluogenic & Ketogenic

Lue Likes Ketones = Leucine, Lysine are Ketogenic

No wonder I am slow through FA biochem. Alright. Off to Goljan-land.

 

[badasshairday]

This is insane. I think I am going to take 11 days to get through it all instead of 10. But it is okay because I started this Taus last 2-week plan with like 2ish days of leeway (one to take a practice test and one to cram in red-starred points I am making in FA). I'm going to still shoot for getting it all done in 10 though. Try my best!

 

[mq123]

This is insane. I think I am going to take 11 days to get through it all instead of 10. But it is okay because I started this Taus last 2-week plan with like 2ish days of leeway (one to take a practice test and one to cram in red-starred points I am making in FA). I'm going to still shoot for getting it all done in 10 though. Try my best!

This doesn't sound very encouraging

I have 13 days exactly for the 10+3 day plan + a practice test day at the test center (so maybe like half a day), so I really don't have a lot of extra time...

Quick question: Did you follow the Taus plan as its written for the rest of the study time (minus the last 2 weeks)? So, did you do an extended 1st pass, then a faster 2nd pass, etc? I am just now going over my material for the 2nd time, and it's taking forever! I'm a little over 3 weeks out from my test, and my second pass kind of got squished in the middle with not a lot of time... I'm thinking that the last 2 weeks of the plan go faster depending on how much you've done before...

 

[username456789]

I'm kind of jealous of you guys going through the last two weeks of Taus bootcamp (which I realize is an odd thing to be jealous of). I originally planned to time things so I had two weeks for it too, which should've been no problem since I started a slow Taus pass several months ago. But, as excpected, I couldn't make myself bail on class totally during the last month, so I got a later start than I wanted for my second/major pass through all this stuff.

I'll probably have 7-9 days depending on how this next week and a half goes. Not sure how I can tweak the Taus finale to fit into that.

 

[badasshairday]

This doesn't sound very encouraging

I have 13 days exactly for the 10+3 day plan + a practice test day at the test center (so maybe like half a day), so I really don't have a lot of extra time...

Quick question: Did you follow the Taus plan as its written for the rest of the study time (minus the last 2 weeks)? So, did you do an extended 1st pass, then a faster 2nd pass, etc? I am just now going over my material for the 2nd time, and it's taking forever! I'm a little over 3 weeks out from my test, and my second pass kind of got squished in the middle with not a lot of time... I'm thinking that the last 2 weeks of the plan go faster depending on how much you've done before...

You can do it! I really am only following Taus' last 2-week plan hardcore. The rest of my study was just doing FA as much as I can, BRS physio, RRpath (read 2x so far, going for the third pass Taus style), and UWORLD. So no, did not really follow the Taus plan as written. The closest thing I did to the true Taus was annotating BRS physio in, and doing 3 passes of RRpathology, and almost 3 passes of FA (I don't really count the first one, since I did it over 2nd year, and one big spurt through it before school NBME).
I think I can do it in 10 days, I was just being a whiner. Definitely need to be more efficient with WORLD, and thus far I am. Took just over 2.5 hours to do and review block of 48, which is much better than my average of just over 3 hours.

This method is really powerful. The way he layed out the readings, it just gets ingrained, and you make the necessary connections. And if you have followed his plan completely, I don't think you will have any issues. It is hard, but just do it!

 

[RapidReview]

did you like the DIT course? I start tomorrow...

i liked it alot... until about day 12, then i started to get really tired of listening to him and ended up doing about 2 lectures/day with just more questions and some goljan sparkled in. his silly quizes really did help me solidify the knowledge. if i had to do it again, i would. best of luck.