When to switch to Randomized Questions?

[MedicineMike]

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I started studying in January and finished ~2000 Rx questions since then. I would do them by subject, as I go through FA. I was scoring anywhere from 70-90% on most sections so I just switched to UW. I am almost through with my first pass through FA and don't know if I should keep doing subject-based questions through my 2nd pass through FA, or do randomized.

Should I start doing randomized in another month? I take step 1 at end of may.

 

[Jonari]

End of April...so that's 8 weeks from now. There's 10 systems in FA. Yeah, I'd probably start with doing a block randomized each week. 2nd week add another block, so you're now doing 92 questions/day. 3rd week, add another block so you're doing 138 questions/day. This will help build stamina for the real deal - lol, only downside is you'll burn through your QBank extremely fast. However, here's a few other sources for QBanks:


1. UWorld of course - 2,1xx questions
2. Inside cover of Rapid Review has a link to Goljan's Qbank which you can use. I think it's around 500 questions.
3. Utah's webpath questions = 2,900 questions.
4. www.usmlequickprep.com = 4,000 questions

Good luck!

 

[MedicineMike]

End of April...so that's 8 weeks from now. There's 10 systems in FA. Yeah, I'd probably start with doing a block randomized each week. 2nd week add another block, so you're now doing 92 questions/day. 3rd week, add another block so you're doing 138 questions/day. This will help build stamina for the real deal - lol, only downside is you'll burn through your QBank extremely fast. However, here's a few other sources for QBanks:


Good luck!

So you are saying that I should start adding 1 block of random questions per week starting now? And then +1 more block every week until end of April when I should just do everything random?

 

[Jonari]

So you are saying that I should start adding 1 block of random questions per week starting now? And then +1 more block every week until end of April when I should just do everything random?

Yup...so starting monday do 1 block 46 random questions/day or every other day
then next monday do 2 blocks of 46 random questions/day or every other day
etc
etc

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

So you are saying that I should start adding 1 block of random questions per week starting now? And then +1 more block every week until end of April when I should just do everything random?

If your school is still in session, I think the major thing to not do is get burnt.

Additionally take what I say and the other guy is saying with a grain of salt as we are both along side you currently studying for our boards and neither of us have actually taken it.

With that said, personally I don't agree with Jonar's plan as by his plan by week 5 I'd be doing 5 blocks of questions and if I was to review those 5 blocks of questions earnestly I feel that would leave me with little time to sleep. By week 7 I would be burnt out doing anything even remotely close to what he is suggesting.

Additionally to answer the random block question, I think you should be doing that now. You should be through enough of your studies where you have pretty much hit all of the major disciplines and systems. Don't be surprised if your score dips 15-20% I system base questions originally and was scoring about the same as you but when I switched I took a pretty big dip. It's much easier when you know what system the question is asking about, especially when you're giving a multisystem (which is a good % of them) question.

 

[MedicineMike]

If your school is still in session, I think the major thing to not do is get burnt.

Additionally take what I say and the other guy is saying with a grain of salt as we are both along side you currently studying for our boards and neither of us have actually taken it.

With that said, personally I don't agree with Jonar's plan as by his plan by week 5 I'd be doing 5 blocks of questions and if I was to review those 5 blocks of questions earnestly I feel that would leave me with little time to sleep. By week 7 I would be burnt out doing anything even remotely close to what he is suggesting.

Additionally to answer the random block question, I think you should be doing that now. You should be through enough of your studies where you have pretty much hit all of the major disciplines and systems. Don't be surprised if your score dips 15-20% I system base questions originally and was scoring about the same as you but when I switched I took a pretty big dip. It's much easier when you know what system the question is asking about, especially when you're giving a multisystem (which is a good % of them) question.

Oh, I've definitely taken a dip. After switching from Rx system-based, to UW random -- i've dropped to the ~50% range on most of my tests! It is quite disheartening to say the least. I still have a few sections to cover though