[RestlessSoul]

we have a lecture coming up about preparing for the boards called "Making the USMLE Not Stink So Much"

for those of you who have been through the process, any advice on the boards (how much time to take) and scheduling the order of 3rd year rotations?

[MossadConspiracy]

i studied for just over 5 weeks with about 4 or 5 days off throughout that period. I felt it was enough.

I bought the kaplan step 1 books and read them all, taking notes into first aid the whole time. For microbiology and pathology i used BRS instead of kaplan. I planned out my schedule for getting through all of the books ahead of time, and i stuck to it very strictly (i still didnt finish part of anatomy).

Every day i did 50 or 100 questions in Kaplan Q-bank, usually 100. I did NOT do questions that corresponded to the material I was reading, I did randomly generated question sets every day, and I did them untimed in tutor mode, allowing me to go over the answers in depth. I think this helped me alot because it constantly exposed me to material from every subject and helped me really focus my reading on the stuff I was weakest in. I strongly recommend this method, it worked very well for me, but most people do not do it this way.

My study days usually started about 11 AM and ended between 2 and 4 AM, with three or four hours of down time throughout the day

ws

[Khairan]

Originally Posted by RestlessSoul

we have a lecture coming up about preparing for the boards called "Making the USMLE Not Stink So Much"

for those of you who have been through the process, any advice on the boards (how much time to take) and scheduling the order of 3rd year rotations?

One thing I will say is that you need to put faith in your studying skills. It's tricky, because you want to take good advice when you hear it, but at the same time remember that you've survived two years of one of the most grueling study schedules ever, which means you had at least some inkling of how to absorb information. If you know certain techniques don't work for you, don't start them now because other people are saying you have to.

I had a friend who tried studying from first aid (because everyone said it was so good) and threw it in the trash after the first couple of days because he thought it was too shallow. He then proceeded to read cecil's for his study period. He also got a 260.

Myself, I found the combination of reading first aid and doing qbank very, very effective. I read some other review books and flipped through some textbooks when I wanted to go deeper into a subject, but overall I used first aid to guide me and qbank to learn extra info and test my reasoning skills.

As for 3rd year, I tried to organize my rotations from hardest to easiest insofar as was possible, and to some degree that worked out (though not totally). I thought getting surgery out of the way early (my first rotation) was key because it is the hardest schedule and the longest hours. Ob was just downright evil but I couldn't take that until much later, unfortunately. Medicine is also pretty tough, but it can be a lot of fun depending on where you do it and who your clerkship director is (I didn't care for my rotation all that much but I know lots of people who loved it).

The light rotations are generally: peds, family, neuro, and psych.

You can either try to stack up the heavy ones at the beginning and then coast for the rest of the year, or mix them up so that you get breaks of light rotations after you slog through a couple of the harder ones.

[Bruinrab]

Step 2 freaking CS is done! Someone at the test center fiured out that the NBME made more money off our group today (24 people) than we'll make in our first six months of residency.

[PhDGirl]

Originally Posted by Bruinrab

Step 2 freaking CS is done! Someone at the test center fiured out that the NBME made more money off our group today (24 people) than we'll make in our first six months of residency.

Dude, you're going to bring home like a dollar an hour your first six months of residency.

[Bruinrab]

Originally Posted by PhDGirl

Dude, you're going to bring home like a dollar an hour your first six months of residency.

Don't remind me.

[PhDGirl]

Originally Posted by Bruinrab

Don't remind me.

If you go your proposed route, it doesn't get much better in year 8 either

[Bruinrab]

Originally Posted by PhDGirl

If you go your proposed route, it doesn't get much better in year 8 either

You're not supposed to say that!

You should be telling me how wonderful it gets later on and how I'm going to have a blast in residency, and let me find out the horrible truth for myself. At least then I could enjoy my last days of senioritis.

[PhDGirl]

Originally Posted by Bruinrab

You're not supposed to say that!

You should be telling me how wonderful it gets later on and how I'm going to have a blast in residency, and let me find out the horrible truth for myself. At least then I could enjoy my last days of senioritis.

Better you know now so you're going in with your eyes open! I've never been a resident myself of course, so my own pain is of a different ilk