Well, I got my results.
I have been a silent "forum stalker" this year but I have to say that some of the advise I read here help me passing the boards.
This is my experience, and my experience only. I just realized that we all learn differently and what works for me might not work for you, so try to customize your study plan based on your needs, your strenghts and weaknesses.
First a little about myself.
Im an international graduate, pass all Steps on the first attempt with good scores. Went to a decent IM residency, then matched for fellowship 3 years later. I cant remember the results of my ITE, and after 2 years into fellowship I dont think they would be a good representation anyways.
Due to personnal issues and a busy schedule as a fellow I posponed taking the boards for 2 years (Big Mistake). I was about to graduate as a specialist and I was not board elegible in my speciality because I was not board certified in IM
.....it was scary and difficult to find a job at that time. During my interview process everybody asked about why I had not taken the boards yada yada yada and so on.....
I finally found a job that I like but "my credentials" were subject in me passing the board.....talking about pressure he!
So I found myself in my last 3 months of fellowship completly overwhelmed trying to decide what to do. I was doing inpatient consults and finalizing my research project to be presented in a National metting in late June...I was freaking out and with no time in my hands!
I started studying on/off in late May and June, doing question from MKSAP 15 and reading the explanations, but something was not working...
After I finish fellowship I decided to take time off and make the test my only main focus, my fsmily was very very very supportive with this
.
So I made my plan, I had roughly 7 weeks to be ready, about 50 days or so. I study 13-14 hrs a day wohaa yes I did that and I did not develop blood clots lol.
Very important for me was to find a quite a comfortable place to study, I knew I couldnt study from home...so I went to a local library from a near community collegue and study from dawn to dusk with only 45 minutes break for meals.
During those 7 weeks I might had about 2-3 days off total....yes I know I was killing myself but I did not had a choice.
I was coming to this thread and check other people's strategies I read about people doing notes while studying, so I did that. At the beginning I did not know if that was going to be a good strategie because I never did that in the past with the steps, but I kept focus.
I read every single mksap book, cover to cover!! It took me about 3 days to read a subject and do "my notes", I ended 4 weeks later with 7 little notebooks....which were GOLD after that.
During those 4 weeks I did MKSAP 15 questions for 2 hours a day and I figured it out that most of the explanations were very smiliar to the actual text, so actually I was reading the material a second time without realizing it. So I finished all mksap books cover to cover by the end of the 4th week (30 days down, 20 more to go)
During my second stage I started reading again my notebooks...because the information was already well condensated I read a subject In 1 day and kept doing question but now USMLE world and MKSAP 16....I kept doing that for 10 days until I did my third run of all main subjects. During that time I was still getting not so good scores but much improved from the beginning. Because of that I decided to add MedStudy Books to the plan. These I did not read completly but rather read the topics I was weak.....
Finish Stage 2 with only 8 days left
My Third Stage I kept reading my notebooks, now 2 subjects per day...and kept doing questions. By now I think I cover the material for the 4th time, during this time I add Board Basic 2 which to me is a good resource at the beginning when because it serves as a road map of the things you need to focus....for me at this point of the game was kinda useless because to me it misses a lot of important information...I kept going back to my notebooks....
The last 3 days I kept doing questions most of the day and read one more time my notebooks for Cards, ID, and Hem-Onc which were my weakest subjects...By the end I was averaging 70-80% on Mksap and 65% on UW.
The last day people say you are not supposed to study, well I did, but only Derm. I basically took both MKSAP books and went to every single picture, and knowng the management of every single skin lesion and of course read my notebook....
During the test day I brough all my favorite food
I didnt rush through it (that was an advised from here) and did it slowly reading the questions and all options.
I finished every block with 5- 10 minutes left, so I used every single second and went back to the questions I was not sure and think and rethink the correct answer....I fight fight fight every single second of that test, thinking one question will make the difference in passing or failing!
The results:
I passed, with a good score, above the mean and more of my deciles in the 5-6-7.
In my case I assumed I did not know anything and start from scratch building "my foundation" and kept repeating and reading the material over and over again.
There were people telling me: " Just do question and you will pass", well, I tried that in May and it didn't worked for me, for me that was studying backwards and I felt all the information was spread out in my brain like a measy desk....what I did was to classifed all the information in my brain, put everything on "files inside my brain" in order for me to retrieve the information faster.....I did that in a structure and systematic way and that's what worked for me....
I wish you all the best of luck, study hard, take the test seriously, get to know yourself and identify what type of learner you are (visual, auditive, reader-writter, etc), On a side note during residency and fellowship I kept hearing about "how awesome" the Awesome review is, but I knew that was not the way my brain will get the information.....so don't do something just because people is telling you "it is the best thing ever" or because "everybody is doing it" and you have the fear if you don't do it also you might fail the test.....DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU!!
Don't feel discourage at any point, and keep going
If you have fail, next time around don't do the exact same thing, change your strategy , thats my advised...
xoxo
PD I hope you guys forgive me for the looong post
I have been quite for so long that now I just regurgitate everything I have to say and share....GOOD LUCK!!
