Failed first comprehensive exam. Not sure what to do.

[gsm95]

I had my first comprehensive exam today and based off the number I got wrong in the immediate review afterward, I failed with a 66. Questions are sometimes thrown away and this percentage may increase a little but I need a 70 to pass.

My school is Pass/Fail set to a 70 but there are only two comprehensive/block exams left and I have obviously already put myself in a very bad position. To be honest my biggest problem is test taking skills and it always has been. I felt I had a decent grasp of the material but am now devastated by what has happened.

I really don’t want to think about having to repeat the year but that’s what’s going to happen if I don’t change things up super quickly. I would have appreciated having more exams so it gives you a little more room for error to work with but it is what it is at this point.

I would appreciate any tips from anyone regarding how to bounce back from failure and study tips. I use anki, I review lectures, I watch sketchy and boards and beyond. I am definitely studying inefficiently at times which I’m trying to address and also incorporate more practice questions.

I’m just in a very bad place right now though and feel like an utter failure. I worked so hard to get into med school and I really like my school (other than this only 3 exam thing), but I feel it’s slowly all slipping away.

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[Goro]

Deficits in test taking skills are fixable. Get thee to your student services office for help with test taking. Now.

 

[Dr_Jan_I_Tor]

Don't panic, that's totally fixable. If it's 3 exams, all worth equal amounts, you'd need a 72% average on both following exams, just 2% more than what you already have to shoot for.

Do you know which Qs you missed? Figure out if it's a content gap or if it's purely test-taking skills.

My test-taking advice is that if the answer isn't instinctive (like, you read the Q and just *know* which answer is right immediately), go through each choice and explain why it's wrong. Eliminate those and then start on why the other ones might be right.

If you're running out of time mulling over individual questions, do the above strategy and once you've got 2-3 of the 4-5 choices marked as "no", move on and come back at the end. It definitely happens sometimes that when I come back to the Q it's like "Oh DUH, it's B".

Agree with Goro in seeing either your student services/academic success type people, or the professor. You're paying a lot of tuition, use the resources and people the school offers.

 

[Mav13]

Keep studying using the resources you are using, but you HAVE to add some kind of question bank. You will improve your test taking ability just by doing countless problems from a qbank. Complete qbanks that are relevant to the topics that will be on your exam, that way by the time you sit for the exam they really cant ask you anything you haven't seen. Study your in class lecture material too because sometimes professors ask weird trivial facts that are only from their slides. Good luck, stay focused!

 

[Dr Meow]

In this case, stop boards studying (if you're simultaneously trying to do that). At my school, if you tried to study for boards, you'll fail.
Everyone we get tested on are nonboards minutiae written by *****s who love to say "boards this boards that" but will never teach based on boards.

Focus on the lecture notes and any 3rd party resources is used to understand the lecture notes.
I like to assume this: If lecture notes are memorized perfectly, you should get an A in the class.

Source: Me. A's in all classes so far studying only for class. I'm gonna be destroyed by the time I get to boards but...It's just as easy to fail as it is to get an A because the only difference is whether I memorized that tiny little factoid on this random slide 15XX out of 3000. Hence you can't say "if you have A's, why not spend more time on boards and get B's in class?". It's not like that. A few random nonboard factoids means the difference between fail and A.
Oh yeah. Did I mention, we have about 3000-4000 slides per exam? 5 exams. So that's about 15,000-20,000 slides per semester so far. Good luck making anki cards for class (it'll never work). And you'll fail if you use Anking as your main class resource.

 

[gsm95]

Don't panic, that's totally fixable. If it's 3 exams, all worth equal amounts, you'd need a 72% average on both following exams, just 2% more than what you already have to shoot for.

Do you know which Qs you missed? Figure out if it's a content gap or if it's purely test-taking skills.

My test-taking advice is that if the answer isn't instinctive (like, you read the Q and just *know* which answer is right immediately), go through each choice and explain why it's wrong. Eliminate those and then start on why the other ones might be right.

If you're running out of time mulling over individual questions, do the above strategy and once you've got 2-3 of the 4-5 choices marked as "no", move on and come back at the end. It definitely happens sometimes that when I come back to the Q it's like "Oh DUH, it's B".

Agree with Goro in seeing either your student services/academic success type people, or the professor. You're paying a lot of tuition, use the resources and people the school offers.

I second guess myself way too much. For a few questions my instinct told me one thing (which was the correct answer) and then I decide to go against it. Those few questions would’ve had me above the passing threshold.

Just a very unfortunate situation all around but I have no choice but to push forward. Don’t really have a tangible plan B so the stakes are pretty high.

I very much appreciate your advice.

 

[Goro]

In this case, stop boards studying (if you're simultaneously trying to do that). At my school, if you tried to study for boards, you'll fail.
Everyone we get tested on are nonboards minutiae written by *****s who love to say "boards this boards that" but will never teach based on boards.

Focus on the lecture notes and any 3rd party resources is used to understand the lecture notes.
I like to assume this: If lecture notes are memorized perfectly, you should get an A in the class.

Source: Me. A's in all classes so far studying only for class. I'm gonna be destroyed by the time I get to boards but...It's just as easy to fail as it is to get an A because the only difference is whether I memorized that tiny little factoid on this random slide 15XX out of 3000. Hence you can't say "if you have A's, why not spend more time on boards and get B's in class?". It's not like that. A few random nonboard factoids means the difference between fail and A.
Oh yeah. Did I mention, we have about 3000-4000 slides per exam? 5 exams. So that's about 15,000-20,000 slides per semester so far. Good luck making anki cards for class (it'll never work). And you'll fail if you use Anking as your main class resource.

What hell of a penal colony do you attend? Devil's Island COM???

 

[Faster Horses]

What hell of a penal colony do you attend? Devil's Island COM???

ARCOM without a doubt. They are so ignorant. Teachers LOVE to ask about minute details regarding some totally irrelevant topic and act like its so important, meanwhile you couldn't find one fact about it in First Aid. Dr. Meow is telling the truth when saying studying only board material will get you a 50% on the in house exams at best. If you memorized everything in First Aid about a topic, you would be super lucky to get the question on the test correct. Total joke. Students are in a constant battle of choosing between being prepared for the boards or barely scraping by in their classes. Teachers and admin completely out of touch with what is actually important. Hell, they ask pharm questions about experimental/new drugs that aren't even tested on the step/comlex.

 

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

In this case, stop boards studying (if you're simultaneously trying to do that). At my school, if you tried to study for boards, you'll fail.
Everyone we get tested on are nonboards minutiae written by *****s who love to say "boards this boards that" but will never teach based on boards.

Focus on the lecture notes and any 3rd party resources is used to understand the lecture notes.
I like to assume this: If lecture notes are memorized perfectly, you should get an A in the class.

Source: Me. A's in all classes so far studying only for class. I'm gonna be destroyed by the time I get to boards but...It's just as easy to fail as it is to get an A because the only difference is whether I memorized that tiny little factoid on this random slide 15XX out of 3000. Hence you can't say "if you have A's, why not spend more time on boards and get B's in class?". It's not like that. A few random nonboard factoids means the difference between fail and A.
Oh yeah. Did I mention, we have about 3000-4000 slides per exam? 5 exams. So that's about 15,000-20,000 slides per semester so far. Good luck making anki cards for class (it'll never work). And you'll fail if you use Anking as your main class resource.

This is factually wrong. We go to the same school. I never studied class information. Used exclusively other sources and Anki and obtained 85-95% on every test. I’m not an outlier either, many people do/did this.

 

[Dr_Jan_I_Tor]

I second guess myself way too much. For a few questions my instinct told me one thing (which was the correct answer) and then I decide to go against it. Those few questions would’ve had me above the passing threshold.

Just a very unfortunate situation all around but I have no choice but to push forward. Don’t really have a tangible plan B so the stakes are pretty high.

I very much appreciate your advice.

Ahhhh. We had a little presentation by a dean about academic success and such, and one of the things he hammered in was "don't go back and change your answer". He's right.
Obviously once in a while your first choice will be wrong, but if you don't have a really good explanation for why the second choice is actually right, don't touch that bubble.

Best of luck to you, you aren't that far off from at least a passing grade.

 

[PapaGuava]

@gsm95

In my opinion, at least for the first year, focus on the content you need to learn from your school and don’t use too many board reviewing programs because it may not be focused enough on things they ‘want you to know.’ I’d say focus on their content first and then when you have extra time do practice questions for the relevant topics then do them. You gotta play the game correctly.

Also, you need assess yourself, is Anki working? Are you making your own decks or borrowing them? No matter what study method you choose, you need adequate review and consistent review. Seeing it multiple times helps a ton. I personally used old school methods of writing things down and creating review sheets for each lecture but to each their own during the first two years for what works well.

Reach out to your school sources and also speak to students ahead of you who may be able to give guidance as well. Also, be wary of listening to everything your peers say because their methods may not always work for you.

 

[gsm95]

@gsm95

In my opinion, at least for the first year, focus on the content you need to learn from your school and don’t use too many board reviewing programs because it may not be focused enough on things they ‘want you to know.’ I’d say focus on their content first and then when you have extra time do practice questions for the relevant topics then do them. You gotta play the game correctly.

Also, you need assess yourself, is Anki working? Are you making your own decks or borrowing them? No matter what study method you choose, you need adequate review and consistent review. Seeing it multiple times helps a ton. I personally used old school methods of writing things down and creating review sheets for each lecture but to each their own during the first two years for what works well.

Reach out to your school sources and also speak to students ahead of you who may be able to give guidance as well. Also, be wary of listening to everything your peers say because their methods may not always work for you.

I have been using anki but honestly have not been using it properly. Just a lot of button mashing and hoping stuff sinks but I am going to address that going forward.

I’ve decided I’m going to give it my absolute all these next two exams and hopefully achieve the 70 overall passing average. If not, I’ll take it as a sign that medicine isn’t for me and just move on. Thank you very much for your advice.

 

[Dr Meow]

I have been using anki but honestly have not been using it properly. Just a lot of button mashing and hoping stuff sinks but I am going to address that going forward.

I’ve decided I’m going to give it my absolute all these next two exams and hopefully achieve the 70 overall passing average. If not, I’ll take it as a sign that medicine isn’t for me and just move on. Thank you very much for your advice.

"hoping stuff sinks"? I think you're going into this with the wrong mentality.
The week before class started, I got some advice from one of the top 10 at my school. If your not tired by the end of the day because of mental strain, you're not studying correctly. You've gotta push your mind! At the end of the day it doesn't matter what technique you use. It's just a conduit for you to be squeezing every little bit of energy out of your plump brain cells HARD like a sponge till they absorb it. There's no passiveness here.

At my worst, I feel like I'm going to die of an aneurysm rupture after some study sessions!! That's how hard you're USING YOUR BRAIN. It's not entirely about anki this anki that. Writing this writing that. etc etc etc. Ultimately, what matters is that any of these "tools and methods" are just conduits for you to be able to think harder.

 

[gsm95]

"hoping stuff sinks"? I think you're going into this with the wrong mentality.
The week before class started, I got some advice from one of the top 10 at my school. If your not tired by the end of the day because of mental strain, you're not studying correctly. You've gotta push your mind! At the end of the day it doesn't matter what technique you use. It's just a conduit for you to be squeezing every little bit of energy out of your plump brain cells HARD like a sponge till they absorb it. There's no passiveness here.

At my worst, I feel like I'm going to die of an aneurysm rupture after some study sessions!! That's how hard you're USING YOUR BRAIN. It's not entirely about anki this anki that. Writing this writing that. etc etc etc. Ultimately, what matters is that any of these "tools and methods" are just conduits for you to be able to think harder.

Apologies for the typo, I meant “hoping stuff sticks”. Ironic considering I’m sinking lol.

 

[Dr Meow]

ah ok.
Just make sure, end of day... should feel like a ruptured aneurysm from thinking so hard. This crazy input of effort is necessary no matter the technique used.

Also, I bought BnB and Sketchy for 1st year....but I didn't find either helpful. Class tests on minute minutia, not overarching ideas.
So if your schools the same way, focus on the slides/lecture material.

 

[Goro]

I have been using anki but honestly have not been using it properly. Just a lot of button mashing and hoping stuff sinks but I am going to address that going forward.

Well here's a recipe for disaster. If you're using it wrong, doubling down is not going to make it any better. It'll just make it twice as wrong..

My recommendation is that you stop using Anki and use forms of active learning

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Practice questions, practice questions, practice questions. After each lecture look at various sources for practice questions

 

[Dr Meow]

Practice questions, practice questions, practice questions. After each lecture look at various sources for practice questions

yup.

I'd like to add, for me, practice questions are another means to guide what me on what I don't know.
It's not meant to substitute for memorization and lecture material studying.
aka don't "waste" practice problems by doing them all before doing the necessary material studying.

I say this because when I was new to studying, I wasn't able to know when to use which technique "lecture notes vs boards vs practice problems vs anki vs. rewatching". Keep trying to try to match which technique fits which situation in order for you to #1 understand then #2 memorize what you understood +minutiae.

 

[WhereMyLiberalsAt]

OP you can DM if you want I can give personalized advice while keeping anonymity… A whole bunch of confirmation bias and advice of working hard not smart. Did well in pre-clinical and managed a 240+ without giving myself a brain aneurysm and working myself to death.

 

[Goro]

I had my first comprehensive exam today and based off the number I got wrong in the immediate review afterward, I failed with a 66. Questions are sometimes thrown away and this percentage may increase a little but I need a 70 to pass.

My school is Pass/Fail set to a 70 but there are only two comprehensive/block exams left and I have obviously already put myself in a very bad position. To be honest my biggest problem is test taking skills and it always has been. I felt I had a decent grasp of the material but am now devastated by what has happened.

I really don’t want to think about having to repeat the year but that’s what’s going to happen if I don’t change things up super quickly. I would have appreciated having more exams so it gives you a little more room for error to work with but it is what it is at this point.

I would appreciate any tips from anyone regarding how to bounce back from failure and study tips. I use anki, I review lectures, I watch sketchy and boards and beyond. I am definitely studying inefficiently at times which I’m trying to address and also incorporate more practice questions.

I’m just in a very bad place right now though and feel like an utter failure. I worked so hard to get into med school and I really like my school (other than this only 3 exam thing), but I feel it’s slowly all slipping away.

Read this:

• Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2019 edition)

 

[Dr_Jan_I_Tor]

Not to be a creep but if you are the same person posting on Reddit and mentioning being essentially passively suicidal, please get some help for that and don't make any decisions about quitting until after you're stable.

One multiple choice exam (your FIRST ONE, in probably the hardest graduate school track there is!) is not a good barometer for you to judge yourself on. I know plenty of classmates who have failed an exam or two already. It's a lot of material, it's hard, it's coming at you fast. Don't beat yourself up so much.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I second guess myself way too much. For a few questions my instinct told me one thing (which was the correct answer) and then I decide to go against it. Those few questions would’ve had me above the passing threshold.

There is a lot of good advice in this thread, but I just wanted to highlight this--for whatever reason, there is good research showing that someone's initial instinct on a MCQ is usually correct even if they don't KNOW the answer for certain. It is human nature to second guess ourselves, and it is something I used to do ALL THE TIME. I truly think that learning to ignore that instinct has helped me to do better on standardized tests.

My advice--learn to recognize when you absolutely do or do not know the answer to a question. If you do know the answer, great, pick the right answer and move on. If you definitely do NOT know the answer and no amount of staring at the question is going to make the answer come to you (ie it's rote memorization and you can't reason your way to an answer), then eliminate answers that are definitely wrong, go with your gut, and move on. Finally, if you truly are unsure between multiple answer choices and feel that you could reason out the answer given more time (ie it's a mechanistic question that you might be able to figure out), then pick the answer that your instinct is telling you but mark the question to return to if you have time at the end. You don't want to get bogged down for 10 minutes on a single question, but this is where you will benefit from spending any extra time at the end trying to reason things through, not on the questions where you either know it or you don't. If you STILL have more time to review at the end, it doesn't hurt to give everything a once over to make sure nothing sparks in the back of your brain. But you had better have a very compelling reason to change your answers if it's just a memorization question or one where you felt very confident previously. If you still have time after you've done all that, just walk out--no good is going to come from reviewing questions a 3rd or 4th time. I walked out of my board exams with probably 30 minutes left on each block of questions, and it felt weird, but also I knew I wasn't going to have any magical epiphanies that hadn't already come to me and so I needed to avoid second guessing myself.

Everything else in this thread about finding a good study practice and sticking to it applies. But a lot can be fixed just by being a smarter test-taker.

 

[gsm95]

Thank you everyone for all of your advice and support. I'm in a much better frame of mind now and going forward I am going to give it my absolute all. If it still doesn't work out, at least it won't be because I didn't try.

I am also trying to reason with myself that a 66 is still not too insane of a deficit to overcome when theres two exams left and I just need a 70. Many people scored much worse than I did.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Memorization is still important. It should be

PowerPoint -> anki -> practice questions

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

Memorization is still important. It should be

PowerPoint -> anki -> practice questions

alternatively, anki -> anki -> anki -> anki

 

[Goro]

Memorization is still important. It should be

PowerPoint -> anki -> practice questions

It's not enough to memorize. You have to be able to apply.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

It's not enough to memorize. You have to be able to apply.

Yes but wouldn’t that be the practice questions. The arrows weren’t implying greater than/less than but rather a sequence

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

alternatively, anki -> anki -> anki -> anki

But you lose the big picture sometimes

 

[FluffyCat1212]

Let me start this off by saying that I am ridiculously jealous of anyone who can rely solely on anki and do well in a class. I wish I could do that, but my brain just doesn't work that way.

For me, I've learned that I really need to contextualize things in order to learn them. Without that, I feel like Anki just causes me to memorize random factoids that aren't super helpful for exams. I know it's super tough given the volume of info that we have to memorize, but consider that you (OP) might be someone who really needs to understand why things are the way they are in order to memorize them. One technique I've found to be really helpful is, if you repeatedly miss a bunch of anki cards on a topic (or just feel like you're shallow-memorizing the card), try summarizing your class notes on the topic. By putting things into your own words, it's easier to see exactly where the gaps in your understanding (and associated knowlege) are. To quote an acting teacher I had in college- "if you can't remember the line, it's because you don't understand why it's there."

Also, I feel like the appearance of the card becomes more of a memory jog than the actual content sometimes which, as you can guess, is SUPER bad for exams.

And OP, you're allowed to mess up, especially when you're brand new to medical school. It took me a hot minute before I found my study groove, and even then I still struggle sometimes. Many med students have failed quizzes, looked silly in front of patients and peers, or just generally felt stupid. However, if you continue to find yourself being extremely critical of yourself, it might be worthwhile to reach out to your school's counselor. Medical school is straight-up not a good time, so if you need any support, get it sooner rather than later. Somewhere around 30% of medical students have anxiety, 30% have depression, and 1 in 10 have contemplated suicide. Seeing a counselor (even just once) is a super low-risk situation with the potential for great benefit. Also reach out to the student academic success office ASAP if you have one.

Shoot, I accidentally wrote a novel. Sorry fam. As a recovering perfectionist, this is a subject near and dear to my heart.

 

[Goro]

Yes but wouldn’t that be the practice questions. The arrows weren’t implying greater than/less than but rather a sequence

One can never, ever do enough practice items!

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

But you lose the big picture sometimes

Yeah my comment was somewhat facetious. Def should supplement with sketchy bnb pathoma pixorize etc

 

[never-too-late]

Your exam schedule sounds a lot like my school’s, so much so please feel free to send me a message. I’m a 3rd year and while I wasn’t in your shoes, I know lots of students fail first block and go on the have a successful first year. Failing 2 block exams in the same course is a bigger issue. Time to buckle down. Take advantage of tutoring: it’s amazing! Go to office hours and review sessions . Certain professors have specific questions they like to ask and styles for asking questions. Now in my 3rd year I understand why that is. Also: don’t underestimate the importance of sleep. You can only study so much in one day so spread it out and get your sleep. A rested brain works better!!!