BOTH Class of 2018 Board Study Group

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gobigorgohome22

gobigorgohome22

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Hey fellow Class of 2018ers!

I hope everyone is enjoying the last free summer of your lives!

As the start of 2nd yr gets closer, I have started thinking a little about the infamous STEP 1 exams for USMLE and COMLEX (I'm an Osteopathic student). I thought it might be a good idea to have kind of a study group here to help keep me in check and keep each other in check as studying starts and decided to create this.

I would like to open this up to both USMLE and COMLEX discussion.

So, how's everyone spending their summer? Started thinking any about the hell that is going to be coming up over the next year?
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apr27 said:
8 weeks out. Any of you guys ever just take a day off? I feel so guilty.
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I told myself that I would take a day off per week but I always feel so compelled to study. There's always so much to be done, it's not like I actually have the time. I took a half day off a couple days ago, felt guilty as hell but I felt better mentally the next day.
 
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okokok said:
I was planning on doing NBME 15 as a baseline this weekend, but then I decided not to because I've only done 35% of UW and I thought it'd be better to wait a couple weeks til I have more done (I'm still in classes so it won't be substantially more though). I have the exam in 7.5 weeks from now (classes end in 2 weeks). But I see you took 15 with quite a few left of uw to do--so do you think there's no point in waiting? I was worried about doing 15 before I have a good grasp on the material and "wasting" it since there's so few practice tests. I'd love your opinion (and anyone else's).
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Having done 35% is still a good chunk and if you're scoring >55% than it probably wouldn't be a waste. There are actually a lot of NBME's (9 or 10 I think) its I dont think its worth doing them all just because of how expensive that would be ($50 for regular and $60 for expanded which lets you see your wrongs and I recommend the expanded version). My plan was to take 5 practice tests including UWA2 so I started with 15. Ive heard the 15+ are the most representative of the real deal. If you want to wait 2 or 3 weeks before taking an NBME you can always take a UWA ($35 i think) OR start with 13 (there is no 14). Ive heard 13 is also a good test so you could start with that.
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
Having done 35% is still a good chunk and if you're scoring >55% than it probably wouldn't be a waste. There are actually a lot of NBME's (9 or 10 I think) its I dont think its worth doing them all just because of how expensive that would be ($50 for regular and $60 for expanded which lets you see your wrongs and I recommend the expanded version). My plan was to take 5 practice tests including UWA2 so I started with 15. Ive heard the 15+ are the most representative of the real deal. If you want to wait 2 or 3 weeks before taking an NBME you can always take a UWA ($35 i think) OR start with 13 (there is no 14). Ive heard 13 is also a good test so you could start with that.
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Thanks for the advice! Ok I'll probably take the leap then. Worst case a terrible score will (hopefully) just motivate me!
 
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I'm at the point where I don't want to "waste" the 4+ hours on a practice exam just to "see where I am." Just keep swimming with the study calendar and hope for the best? Can I get away with just 1 more practice test in the next 3 weeks? I'm over these pretend scores, they don't help motivate me. Is there any benefit to the practice tests other than motivation.
I find Q banks useful because I can stop and read through the explanations of all answers and why each wrong answer was included--that is what is helping me most right now.
 
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orthogenes said:
I'm at the point where I don't want to "waste" the 4+ hours on a practice exam just to "see where I am." Just keep swimming with the study calendar and hope for the best? Can I get away with just 1 more practice test in the next 3 weeks? I'm over these pretend scores, they don't help motivate me. Is there any benefit to the practice tests other than motivation.
I find Q banks useful because I can stop and read through the explanations of all answers and why each wrong answer was included--that is what is helping me most right now.
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As long as you're hitting your goal you should be fine. Its more about telling you if you need to change study strategies, areas you're weak in, or if you really need to push the test back. You could do UWA if you haven't. That way you can get a score as well as be able to review 200 questions with explanations.
 
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Do you guys think I'll encounter most of the stuff in FA in UW? It's disturbing how much content I'm forgetting from the earlier sections of FA.
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
As long as you're hitting your goal you should be fine. Its more about telling you if you need to change study strategies, areas you're weak in, or if you really need to push the test back. You could do UWA if you haven't. That way you can get a score as well as be able to review 200 questions with explanations.
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Awesome. I hit my goal on my CBSE last week, I have 2 1/2 weeks to go, and I don't want to psyche myself out. I haven't done the UWA yet, so I'll do that one. Thanks! The explanations are the biggest help for my study process.
 
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TheShaker said:
Do you guys think I'll encounter most of the stuff in FA in UW? It's disturbing how much content I'm forgetting from the earlier sections of FA.
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There is overlap but they definitely don't mirror one another, each has info that the other one skips.
 
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TheShaker said:
Do you guys think I'll encounter most of the stuff in FA in UW? It's disturbing how much content I'm forgetting from the earlier sections of FA.
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Thats pretty normal. No one can remember everything in that book, its just too dense. Yes UW has a lot of info from FA but they both have things that others dont so both are essential.

If you can get through FA 2x, possibly 3x, and uworld 2 you'll be golden.
 
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Going to start doing one practice test per week, which ones do you think I should take? I will probably do 5-6 of them, two of them will be the UWSA's. I was thinking 14, 15, 17, 18. What do you guys think are the best ones to take?
 
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TheShaker said:
Going to start doing one practice test per week, which ones do you think I should take? I will probably do 5-6 of them, two of them will be the UWSA's. I was thinking 14, 15, 17, 18. What do you guys think are the best ones to take?
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Note that there is no NBME 14. I believe the current available ones start at 12 and go up to 18 with 14 being skipped. Higher the number, more recent the test. Based on my reading here on SDN, 15+ seem to be the most predictive of the real deal. I think 16-18 are a MUST take tests any anything else is dependent on what you have time for. Personally speaking, my plan is uworlds + NBME 15-18 and the Free 150 if I have time.

I'd say do uworld ones earlier just because they take longer time to review and NBMEs are more predictive so better to do them later.
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
Note that there is no NBME 14. I believe the current available ones start at 12 and go up to 18 with 14 being skipped. Higher the number, more recent the test. Based on my reading here on SDN, 15+ seem to be the most predictive of the real deal. I think 16-18 are a MUST take tests any anything else is dependent on what you have time for. Personally speaking, my plan is uworlds + NBME 15-18 and the Free 150 if I have time.

I'd say do uworld ones earlier just because they take longer time to review and NBMEs are more predictive so better to do them later.
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Oh wow, I didn't know that... So I guess I'll do 15-18 then. I was just hoping to do an earlier test because I heard those are easier on the score and I'm just afraid of smashing my confidence. :oops:

Yeah, I was just going to do an NBME to see where I'm at after my first pass of FA and then doing the 2 UWSA's, and then finishing off the last few weeks with the more representative NBME's.
 
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Today is my first day in the dedicated study. Just finished UWSA-1. Scored 228. I read that UWSA over predicts the real score, so I'm not too happy with my performance today given that I scored 217 on NBME 17 five weeks ago.

Anyways, hopefully I can increase my score by 10+ points over the next 5.5 wks.
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Today is my first day in the dedicated study. Just finished UWSA-1. Scored 228. I read that UWSA over predicts the real score, so I'm not too happy with my performance today given that I scored 217 on NBME 17 five weeks ago.

Anyways, hopefully I can increase my score by 10+ points over the next 5.5 wks.
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Didn't they readjust the grading scale to make it more accurate?
 
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TheShaker said:
Didn't they readjust the grading scale to make it more accurate?
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I've read this as well. I dont think anyone really knows for certain.

Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Oh did they? I wasn't aware of that. If that true, then I think my score isn't too bad given that I'm at the beginning of my dedicated study time.
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Either way, this is a great score! I got a 193 on uwa 1 and got a 225 just two weeks later on NBME 15. The accuracy of UWA varies from person to person and it definitely isnt as accurate as NBME.

I start dedicated prep tomorrow :boom::barf:
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
I've read this as well. I dont think anyone really knows for certain.



Either way, this is a great score! I got a 193 on uwa 1 and got a 225 just two weeks later on NBME 15. The accuracy of UWA varies from person to person and it definitely isnt as accurate as NBME.

I start dedicated prep tomorrow :boom::barf:
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Great! We have nearly an identical amount of dedicated prep time and we have a very similar baseline performance. I wouldn't be surprised if we end with scores that are with 5 points of each other.

Best wishes to both of us:luck:
 
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I'm like 60% done with UW and I'm all about it. I was debating adding/burning through the medium/hard questions on Rx as a means to pass through/look at my weak points. I'm just under 8 weeks out. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
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Just tried to make a schdule for remainder of prep time (~5.5 weeks) and started freaking out. I think today is the first day that it hit me just how close D-Day is and how much more I still have left to do! First official freakout day
 
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12 days to go and burning out. I feel like my weakest subjects just never come up, so I'm wasting time trying to improve them. I honestly don't know what to do.
UWSA1 is up 2 points from my CBSE from 2 weeks ago. Is there any gain I can make in these last couple weeks?
Some one tell me not to give up.
Ortnakas, I took NBME 12 2 months ago, I'm up 30 points from then-- if the CBSE and UWSA1 are relatively reasonable to use for comparison. And that was 2 months with lectures and course commitments. Are you still in classes or are you in dedicated time now? You can do this!!
Gobigorgohome: I know. Freaking out. Totally freaking out. I also had another freakout at the 6 week mark...
 
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Took NBME 11 today (offline). Got 86% correct, which I think translate into 236 +/- 5. That's 19 points improvement from NBME 15 which I took 5 weeks ago. The test, however, felt considerably easier than form 15. Regardless, I'm happy with this score.
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Took NBME 11 today (offline). Got 86% correct, which I think translate into 236 +/- 5. That's 19 points improvement from NBME 15 which I took 5 weeks ago. The test, however, felt considerably easier than form 15. Regardless, I'm happy with this score.
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Wooo hoo!! That is awesome!


I am totally freaking out. Got my worse Qbank score since February and I'm in my final week. I hope I'm just tired.
 
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New account for board studying... ok starting dedicated (about 4 weeks total) but I'm 1/2 way through Uworld, and USMLERx coming into this since I'll lose a couple days due to prior commitments. Took USAW1 this morning to see where I'm at and scored a 214. Meh. COMSAE D on Friday was 518 and CBSE a month ago was 73 or predicted score of 205. Goal is 240+
 
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Nbme are murder. I've been averaging 70s in Uworld for last 10 blocks and took nbme 16- got 220. Dropped by 6 points from nbme 15 which luckily isn't a huge difference (and taken a week apart) but still not great morale
 
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Took NBME 16 today and got destroyed. I thought NBME 16 was SIGNIFICANTLY harder than NBME 15. There were much longer stems with tricky answer choices and super detailed questions. Also, there were far less easy questions and a lot more multiple step thinking questions. Overall, I thought it was similar to doing uworld than my experience with other NBMEs.

  • NBME 16: 215 (5 weeks)
  • NBME 15: 225 (~7 weeks out)
  • UWA 1: 195 (~9 weeks out)
  • COMSE: 395
  • NBME 5 (offline): 187 (4 months out)
Not happy with the drop in the score :(. Did some searching on SDN and it seems lot of people do worst on 16 than 15.

Nothing much to do other than to keep on keeping on...
 
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Hunterthekidd said:
Nbme are murder. I've been averaging 70s in Uworld for last 10 blocks and took nbme 16- got 220. Dropped by 6 points from nbme 15 which luckily isn't a huge difference (and taken a week apart) but still not great morale
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looks like we're in the same boat. I dropped 10 pts from NBME 15.
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
looks like we're in the same boat. I dropped 10 pts from NBME 15.
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That first block--I was like holy ****, I'm screwed. I also feel like the micro on nbme is way more subtle and ambiguous compared to UW. Sketchy has gotten me a ton of questions right for micro on UW but there's not a ton of translation going into the nbme. My width in sections on nbme15 was much narrower and I knew what I needed to work on- but on 16 my width of scores was stretched over a lot of sections but my worst section by far was behavioral. At this point- I'll be happy with a 230
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
Took NBME 16 today and got destroyed. I thought NBME 16 was SIGNIFICANTLY harder than NBME 15. There were much longer stems with tricky answer choices and super detailed questions. Also, there were far less easy questions and a lot more multiple step thinking questions. Overall, I thought it was similar to doing uworld than my experience with other NBMEs.

  • NBME 16: 215 (5 weeks)
  • NBME 15: 225 (~7 weeks out)
  • UWA 1: 195 (~9 weeks out)
  • COMSE: 395
  • NBME 5 (offline): 187 (4 months out)
Not happy with the drop in the score :(. Did some searching on SDN and it seems lot of people do worst on 16 than 15.

Nothing much to do other than to keep on keeping on...
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Sorry you feel disappointed. You still have 5 weeks though. Some people on this forum were able to improve by 20+ points in less than a month. Don't you feel you should have saved this test until a little later? I'm planning on doing this form on the 30th of this month (3wks from now).
 
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I suppose I'll join this group. My three weeks of dedicated start on Wednesday. I have primarily used an in house Anki deck to memorize first aid. Finished my first pass of UWorld last week at 76.5%. Took NBME 13 over the weekend to get an idea of where I was at and I got a ~250. Goal is 260 on the real deal. Really struggling to figure out where to dedicate my time at this point. The breakdown from my NBME wasn't very helpful (1-2 wrong for each section). Same for UWorld. I know I'm relatively weak in anatomy. I'm willing to put in the time to raise my score a bit, just don't know how to do it.
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Sorry you feel disappointed. You still have 5 weeks though. Some people on this forum were able to improve by 20+ points in less than a month. Don't you feel you should have saved this test until a little later? I'm planning on doing this form on the 30th of this month (3wks from now).
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Im kinda glad I took it right now. I was getting complacent with my studies. This was just the kick I needed to get me back on track.
 
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tired, and tired of study, only a few more days to go
took the UWSA2 and got two points lower than UWSA1 which was the same as CBSE... what am I stuck on? Help!
 
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orthogenes said:
tired, and tired of study, only a few more days to go
took the UWSA2 and got two points lower than UWSA1 which was the same as CBSE... what am I stuck on? Help!
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With the test being so close for you, I'd compare the breakdowns of all three tests side by side and see if there are topics you consistently do poorly on. I would just hit those for the next few days. Nothing much more you can do at this point. I kinda wish I was as close as you are to the test but on the other hand, I wish I had one more year to study lol. This test sucks!!! Keep pushing on!!! Only a few days till freedom for you!
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
With the test being so close for you, I'd compare the breakdowns of all three tests side by side and see if there are topics you consistently do poorly on. I would just hit those for the next few days. Nothing much more you can do at this point. I kinda wish I was as close as you are to the test but on the other hand, I wish I had one more year to study lol. This test sucks!!! Keep pushing on!!! Only a few days till freedom for you!
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Thanks!
My weak areas are improving... and I've been going through way too fast on the stuff I know well because I'm sick of questions--all my good stuff went down and I look at the questions and I am just missing obvious stuff in the stem and I apparently didn't read when I was doing it (just over 3 hours for UWSA2--bad planning). I think I can pull through if I sit and focus. And my topics to review for the last few days are mostly redo sketchy micro (and maybe pharm) on 2x, reproductive system neoplasms, Wigger's diagram and heart murmurs. And then, to just cool it on the fast pace? I hope that's a good enough plan.
 
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Does anyone else find UWorld cardio physiology questions to be ridiculously hard and convoluted? I literarlly miss like half of these qs all of the time. Also, god forbids there's a media file attached; these qs are the worst.
 
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orthogenes said:
Ortnakas, I took NBME 12 2 months ago, I'm up 30 points from then-- if the CBSE and UWSA1 are relatively reasonable to use for comparison. And that was 2 months with lectures and course commitments. Are you still in classes or are you in dedicated time now? You can do this!!
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Just saw this! We've had a light last few weeks but we're finally wrapping up this week and then I have about 4 weeks of dedicated, minus two days to be in a wedding. A COMSAE, the DIT diagnostic (probably not super accurate but whatever) and UWorld have all gone better for me since NBME 12, so I'm hoping that means the NBME was a little bit of a fluke, plus I have some time. Thanks for the kind encouragement!
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
Does anyone else find UWorld cardio physiology questions to be ridiculously hard and convoluted? I literarlly miss like half of these qs all of the time. Also, god forbids there's a media file attached; these qs are the worst.
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Their audio files are the WORST. The machine like murmur was just ****ing static! :rage:
 
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Ibn Alnafis MD said:
UWorld is demoralizing. Yesterday I was scoring mid 70s and today I'm getting low 60s. :boom:
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Yeah...I thought I was making progress because my score was trending up and then it gave me a beatdown yesterday with scores back to when I first started. I suggest the immature ego defense of "displacement", get angry at the test for asking stupid questions. You're not wrong, it's wrong! :rage:
 
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TheShaker said:
Yeah...I thought I was making progress because my score was trending up and then it gave me a beatdown yesterday with scores back to when I first started. I suggest the immature ego defense of "displacement", get angry at the test for asking stupid questions. You're not wrong, it's wrong! :rage:
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Seriously. I've gotten at least three questions that are "patient presents with left sided heart failure, right sided heart failure, renal failure, they're a smoker, so what's the favorite flavor of gum?"
 
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Finished uworld 1st pass today. Planning on getting through it again. I also got kaplan qbank for super cheap from a friend earlier but have not used it yet. Have you guys incorporated kaplan? I feel like getting through FA and pathoma again will be more useful than using kaplan questions. I dont have time to do both. Any suggestions?

Edit: Just to add, I've been doing 100 or so combank as well.
 
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gobigorgohome22 said:
Finished uworld 1st pass today. Planning on getting through it again. I also got kaplan qbank for super cheap from a friend earlier but have not used it yet. Have you guys incorporated kaplan? I feel like getting through FA and pathoma again will be more useful than using kaplan questions. I dont have time to do both. Any suggestions?

Edit: Just to add, I've been doing 100 or so combank as well.
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I'm 250 qs away from finishing my first pass of UW. I think I'll be done with them over the next couple days. On Saturday I'm planning on taking UWSA2 and will be starting my second pass next week.

My plan is to do 4 blocks a day for my second pass. I also have USMLE Rx and Kaplan, but I won't be using them because I prefer to spend my time and energy doing something more HY.

In regards to COMLEX prep, I'm planning on doing Comquest in the three days between my exams.
 
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