7/25/2023 0 Comments Making anki cards during lectureFor me, the NBME practice tests added unnecessary stress and discouragement that I wish I had avoided. I did not do as well as I wanted to on any of them and found it really discouraging, and I didn't find them at all reflective of my final score or the U World scores that I was getting. I wish that I hadn't taken more than one NBME.Every student learns in different ways what is most critical is to via trial and error to identify what resources work best for you and to stick with it. Three things I wish I would have known then is that 1.) medical students have a remarkable ability to project confidence when they in fact are as worried as you are, 2.) there is a reason why Feinberg medical students do so well on Step I compared to peer institutions the first two years are remarkably effective at preparing students to do well, and 3.) there is not only one correct way to study. Throughout much of my designated study time, I was quite stressed out and was constantly worrying that I was not studying correctly and was not as prepared as classmates. It never hurts to start studying early or at least start thinking about Step 1. Subjects like biochemistry are covered early in M1 year so I essentially had to relearn it doing my dedicated period. If I could go back in time, I would get a copy of First Aid and start annotating it on the first day of lecture as a M1 student. About half way through M2 year, I began keeping my First Aid book open during lecture and annotating it with additional information or explanations that I thought would be useful.So my advice is to make sure that by the end of each school unit, you've read through all of first aid for that unit and have a decent understanding of the material within it. It's way easier to learn something like RTA when you're learning Everything else about renal than if you learn it a year later during dedicated study period. There are lots of topics that we never learn in class but that we have to know for boards (i.e., RTAs, amyloidosis). If I could do it all over again, I would make sure that I always had reviewed the material in first aid for a unit while we were studying that in class.Start a Question bank (either USMLERx or Kaplan) at the beginning of M2 year and do corresponding questions).I think that some of the value of the QBanks are lost when you do them more than once! However, don't start Uworld so earlier that you reset and start over. I think Uworld is a wonderful learning tool and superior to Kaplan.
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