Background -
US-IMG from India graduated March 2013. Finished Internship in December the year before, but school gives us our degree in March.
Prep time -
Approx. 5 months, took a two week vacation in August.
Material used -
1. Kaplan LN + Videos. I would skip videos if you did basic sciences recently. Since I was out of touch, helped considerably.
2. BRS Physio, good supplement when you don't understand topics but too in depth otherwise.
3. Pathoma, I swear by this. Someone on SDN recommended this way back when I was planning my study schedule. I did not do Kaplan or Golijan for path.
4. UWorld QBank, I did the free questions that Kaplan gives in the beginning of my study but I didn't get a subscription because I read many reviews were people said it tested minutiae and it does.
I started in May with a review of the material, went subject wise watching the videos for all of them. After a month of this I started UWorld.
UWorld Average - 69%, I don't think this means anything because I rarely did random blocks. It was always timed tutor subject wise. Would try to do a block a day on whatever I was studying that day, towards the end it was 3-4 blocks/day.
By July end I had done half the subjects twice, second review was more focused on what appeared to be high yield. You get an idea of this while you annotate FA and see what gets tested on more in UWorld. Then I took a little break, needed it since I was getting burnt out. Reading 8-10 hours a day, being tested in a completely different pattern than what you're used to takes out a lot. Came back from vacation and did what I had leftover for my second review. Took my first NBME end of August.
NBME 12 (4 weeks out) - 228
UWSA 1 (3.5 weeks out) - 236
NBME 13 (3 weeks out) - 242
UWSA 2 (2 weeks out) - 263
NBME 7 (10 days before) - Offline, so I don't know. Think I got 22 wrong.
NBME 15 (5 days before) - 252 + Free 150 - 89%
Last few weeks, I read Pathoma again making sure I knew all the direct recall information. Went through FA a second time with everything I annotated from UWorld and Kaplan. I finished 1st pass of Uworld early Sept, after that only did the marked questions (which included incorrect and things that seemed new/difficult to remember) up until a week before the exam.
Last few days, did the subjects which I thought I needed better short term memory on. Like a day of Biostats and Biochem, day for Pharm, day for Micro.
Last day, looked at Pathoma and FA very passively. Slept for 6 hours. Get enough sleep!!
Exam Day - Sept. 24th
For me the hardest questions were the Behavioral Science ones, two of the answers always seemed right. Also Anatomy I focused a lot on Neuroanat while I was reviewing but that wasn't as heavily tested as the MSK Anatomy. I think the actual approach to the exam is very personal and depends on what works for you. I took very frequent short breaks, while others in my room I barely saw them leaving. Since I did an 8 hour simulated exam before, I kind of had an idea how my body worked in response to stress/fatigue/hunger. So it helped in a way, but at the same time if you need to revise high yields like second messengers, oncogenes, Glycogen storage disorders and all that fun stuff, then do that.
I marked around 10-15 per block and had sufficient time to review them.
Only in the last block, the monitor turned off by itself when I was in the middle of a question and it threw me off big time, so I'm pretty sure most of my incorrect were from that block. Lol.
Don't worry this won't happen to you, probably a freak accident or something. The proctor got it up and running in no time, but still no one expects that especially in the last hour so I'm sure it affected me in some way.
The moment you finish, congratulate yourself, this is a tough exam and just to be able to sit through it is an achievement. Also for a few days after you'll remember the questions you might have answered wrong and have sleepless nights over them but don't. It really doesn't change anything. Just be happy it's over.
I hope this helps. I honestly believe the whole idea of this exam is scarier than it actually is. Hard work always pays off, so don't worry. Good luck
US-IMG from India graduated March 2013. Finished Internship in December the year before, but school gives us our degree in March.
Prep time -
Approx. 5 months, took a two week vacation in August.
Material used -
1. Kaplan LN + Videos. I would skip videos if you did basic sciences recently. Since I was out of touch, helped considerably.
2. BRS Physio, good supplement when you don't understand topics but too in depth otherwise.
3. Pathoma, I swear by this. Someone on SDN recommended this way back when I was planning my study schedule. I did not do Kaplan or Golijan for path.
4. UWorld QBank, I did the free questions that Kaplan gives in the beginning of my study but I didn't get a subscription because I read many reviews were people said it tested minutiae and it does.
I started in May with a review of the material, went subject wise watching the videos for all of them. After a month of this I started UWorld.
UWorld Average - 69%, I don't think this means anything because I rarely did random blocks. It was always timed tutor subject wise. Would try to do a block a day on whatever I was studying that day, towards the end it was 3-4 blocks/day.
By July end I had done half the subjects twice, second review was more focused on what appeared to be high yield. You get an idea of this while you annotate FA and see what gets tested on more in UWorld. Then I took a little break, needed it since I was getting burnt out. Reading 8-10 hours a day, being tested in a completely different pattern than what you're used to takes out a lot. Came back from vacation and did what I had leftover for my second review. Took my first NBME end of August.
NBME 12 (4 weeks out) - 228
UWSA 1 (3.5 weeks out) - 236
NBME 13 (3 weeks out) - 242
UWSA 2 (2 weeks out) - 263
NBME 7 (10 days before) - Offline, so I don't know. Think I got 22 wrong.
NBME 15 (5 days before) - 252 + Free 150 - 89%
Last few weeks, I read Pathoma again making sure I knew all the direct recall information. Went through FA a second time with everything I annotated from UWorld and Kaplan. I finished 1st pass of Uworld early Sept, after that only did the marked questions (which included incorrect and things that seemed new/difficult to remember) up until a week before the exam.
Last few days, did the subjects which I thought I needed better short term memory on. Like a day of Biostats and Biochem, day for Pharm, day for Micro.
Last day, looked at Pathoma and FA very passively. Slept for 6 hours. Get enough sleep!!
Exam Day - Sept. 24th
For me the hardest questions were the Behavioral Science ones, two of the answers always seemed right. Also Anatomy I focused a lot on Neuroanat while I was reviewing but that wasn't as heavily tested as the MSK Anatomy. I think the actual approach to the exam is very personal and depends on what works for you. I took very frequent short breaks, while others in my room I barely saw them leaving. Since I did an 8 hour simulated exam before, I kind of had an idea how my body worked in response to stress/fatigue/hunger. So it helped in a way, but at the same time if you need to revise high yields like second messengers, oncogenes, Glycogen storage disorders and all that fun stuff, then do that.
I marked around 10-15 per block and had sufficient time to review them.
Only in the last block, the monitor turned off by itself when I was in the middle of a question and it threw me off big time, so I'm pretty sure most of my incorrect were from that block. Lol.
Don't worry this won't happen to you, probably a freak accident or something. The proctor got it up and running in no time, but still no one expects that especially in the last hour so I'm sure it affected me in some way.
The moment you finish, congratulate yourself, this is a tough exam and just to be able to sit through it is an achievement. Also for a few days after you'll remember the questions you might have answered wrong and have sleepless nights over them but don't. It really doesn't change anything. Just be happy it's over.
I hope this helps. I honestly believe the whole idea of this exam is scarier than it actually is. Hard work always pays off, so don't worry. Good luck