What am I doing wrong

[minnime]

Please please help me. I have no idea what I am doing wrong...
I have been studying for a few weeks and decided to do an nbme exam on which i scored a grand total of 184 (form 1 which is supposed to be the easiest). My exam is in 3 weeks. I am in the process of listening to goljian (on the last day). My q bank score ranges from 45-70. I have about 20% done. I plan to take nbme 2 in two weeks-but to make it worthwhile, i need to change something.Anyone else in the same boat? SHould I memorize the hell out of FA and goljian and q bank it? or should I go through my kaplan notes again?
Thanks so much for all your help!!!!

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[chintu]

I think if you work at it you have a potential of improving ~20 points on real from your NBME 1. Three weeks is still a good amount of time to improve. First, I think you should learn what your weak subjects are from your NBME assessment or consistent Qbank assessments. Those would be my first priority: For path or pathophys at this point once you finish goljan I would just stick to BRS path if you're still weak at it instead of going over goljan again. Going over BRS path after goljan helped me quite a bit since it reinforced same ideas and now I am doing much better in path. For all other subjects I would strictly stick to FA unless you need a detailed understanding because it would take you a long time if you use individual resources for each subjects. And of course try to finish all Qbank if you can. Make sure you are learning from your mistakes on Qbank and not just doing random questions. Also, try experimenting this for a weak and take a crack at another NBME instead of waiting the week before the exam because then you won't have much time to change your study strategy if you need to.

 

[viper]

You have enought time. First relax. Okay now - create a plan. You have to understand things and have to memorize them also. One or the other is not a good thing. Figure out which of these is YOUR problem and then tackle it.

If you understand things and can't recall specifics to answer questions, then concentrate on memorizing. Use FA and try this program - facts in a flash on gotmedbooks.com

If you are having problem with understanding - read more book material - BRS, HY, or Kaplan. You can find a list of books for subject you have trouble with - there is a sticky in this forum and gotmedbooks has a guide with a list also. I think valuemd.com also has lists, etc.

Figure out what you are doing wrong and then fix it. Hopefully that helps.

 

[AmaurosisFugax]

You've got lots of time, I think. Here are my random thoughts:

*I'd say that 20% QBank is not a lot. At all.

*Have you read First Aid? First Aid caused my QBank score to skyrocket.

*Did you go over the answers to that NBME exam? You should look up the stuff you got wrong. Over at the USMLE site they've made the answer explanations available.

I would try this, if you're looking to spice up your study routine:

Do a 50+ block of questions on QBank. Click the boxes so that "everything" is selected in both fields. When you're done, look at the percentages. Are there certain areas that are much lower than others? You may want to revisit those areas in First Aid and your other materials.

Viper's comment is great--if you need MEMORIZATION, then First Aid is totally awesome. It's useless, however, for concepts.

 

[minnime]

Thanks so much for the advice. I am definitely using the facts in a flash. After much contemplation, I've figured out that I understand everything, I just can't remember. So FA it is..with 100 q a day and annotation into FA.

Thanks so much!!