Take CBSE during D1?

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jhum

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As competitive as OMFS is, I want to be as good an applicant as I can be. Dedicating the time to score 75+ on the CBSE while managing didactic/clinical work, research, etc. is a tough ask. On top of that, you basically need to know you want to do OMFS during D1 or you’ll struggle to be prepared when it comes time to apply. Lacking the clinical experience, I don’t know if I want to do OMFS, but I think I do, and I want to give myself the best chance. I’ve found myself with a gap year before matriculating (currently D0?), and I’m considering spending my time outside of work studying for the CBSE before the rigors of dental school set in (August before matriculation or February of D1). Am I crazy? The biggest issue I see is that programs may not look favorably on an old CBSE score. I haven’t seen anyone try this, but it seems like it would free up time to improve other aspects of the app. Open to all advice!

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You have no idea when you will be ready for the exam. You start studying, and eventually it starts clicking and you know you might be ready. That might takes months of daily studying, maybe even more than a year. Sure, get started whenever, just remember you can’t really plan when you’ll be ready.
 
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Do it, but also enjoy friends family home while you have them/have time for them. People always say that, and people including me at the time didn’t truly understand the significance of it.
 
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It's possible; I pulled it off by studying during my last semester of undergrad and took it July. I studied around 10 hours a day for 7 months straight. I took maybe 5 break days between December 19, 2022 and July 22, 2023.

This exam is gonna be a monster regardless of when you take it. I had a hunch that it would be less of a monster if I did it before dental school really picked up but idk.
 
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I'd try to take it feb of D1. Start anki now and do a little every day. It'll also help a lot with your basic science classes in dental school.
 
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How would you compare it to the Zanki deck? I’m currently trying to decide which one to use.

Zanki has too many low yield cards Imo I did lightyear + BnB (with pepper add on for sketchy) and found it very effective to learn
 
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It's possible; I pulled it off by studying during my last semester of undergrad and took it July. I studied around 10 hours a day for 7 months straight. I took maybe 5 break days between December 19, 2022 and July 22, 2023.

This exam is gonna be a monster regardless of when you take it. I had a hunch that it would be less of a monster if I did it before dental school really picked up but idk.
That’s awesome you did it before! I’d like to do the same and would love to hear about your experience. What did you do to study? Resources and study schedule?
 
That’s awesome you did it before! I’d like to do the same and would love to hear about your experience. What did you do to study? Resources and study schedule?
Total study time was 7 months. I used Anking, Sketchy, Pathoma, First aid, NBMEs.

First 4.5 months was purely Anking + UWorld by sections that I would complete in Anking.

Anking ruined my social life; I would do 250 new cards each day and try to keep up with my reviews. Eventually, when I was about 50% of the way through, I started suspending the cards that I had already reviewed for a solid 1.5 months. Essentially, don't waste too much time on reviews (they were taking like 6 hours a day at one point). I got about 80% of the way through Anking (I didn't do Zanki pharm/micro and only did lolnotacop). I started with biochem, then progressed through the rest of the organ systems by using wheelofnames.com. My last two topics were microbiology and pharmacology; I used sketchy and the lolnotacop anki deck for these. In my opinion, sketchy is absolutely required if you want to do well in micro/pharm. First pass of UWorld was 72%, but I only completed ~60% of the qbank during this time (I reset after my finals).

Next 2.5 months was UWorld 2nd pass + NBMEs. I would sit in bed and do UWorld on my phone because I was too lazy to bring my computer out. For the first 50% of the qbank, I thoroughly read every word of each question but over time I got worn out and just started skimming. Second pass was 82% correct and I didn't do a pass of my incorrects. I feel like 60% of the average UWorld question explanation is just fluff; reading the incorrects and the educational objective was enough for me. During the last few months (this is after I graduated), I would (inefficiently) study the entire day (I did nothing else but shower, eat, and study).

About 2 months out I started on my NBMEs, and from 20-31 my scores were 75, 77, 70, 80, 85, 85, 86, 93, 85, 91, 88, and 89. I would thoroughly review each NBME. I actually started doing my early NBMEs (20-24) after doing 2 blocks of UWorld, so my scores were a bit lower than normal (don't do this). I was really short for time in my last three weeks or so, and ended up doing NBMEs 25-29 in around a two week period.

All throughout my dedicated, I would watch pathoma and mehlman videos at night before going to bed. I also listened to all of the Goljan lectures while walking, exercising, etc.

I'll be completely honest with you, I was actually really scared when I started studying for this thing. This exam covers a ton of really complex material and it can be hard to imagine that you would be able to do well on the real deal. But I promise you, if you just stay consistent and stick at it you will do great. On average, I studied ~10 hours per day during my last semester of undergrad. I only took 3 classes (which were all pretty straightforward and didn't require too much studying), so I had a ton of free time on my hands.

Hope this helps, and I'm happy to answer any other questions through DMs or just responding here. Props to anyone that studies for this thing. It's hard, and I struggled.
I quoted my reply from the July 2023 CBSE thread; lmk if you have any questions:thumbup:
 
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I quoted my reply from the July 2023 CBSE thread; lmk if you have any questions:thumbup:
You mention starting with AnKing and Uworld qbank. How did you implement first aid? To start building a foundation I was thinking first aid + boards and beyond videos, while doing anking and uworld for those sections. Would you recommend this? Also how did you go about determining how many hours each day to put into each resource? You’re seriously the best, thank you!!
 
You mention starting with AnKing and Uworld qbank. How did you implement first aid? To start building a foundation I was thinking first aid + boards and beyond videos, while doing anking and uworld for those sections. Would you recommend this? Also how did you go about determining how many hours each day to put into each resource? You’re seriously the best, thank you!!
I only used first aid when I was using UWorld. I would do a question (untimed, tutor) and read the corresponding passage in first aid after reading the UWorld explanation.

I don't know much about BnB, but from what I hear it's a great way to cover the vast majority of step 1 material without Anki.

I think doing BnB (and annotating first aid) alongside Anking (and Uworld) would be interesting. You wouldn't be able to cover much ground each day but you would be very thorough. I think that the strategy you have in mind would be perfect if you have a year to study before dental school begins. I would use the BnB tags in the Anking deck to align yourself with Dr. Ryan's lectures.

One thing to watch out for is overloading on resources. It can be pretty exhausting having to constantly switch between different studying methods, so I would just stick to either BnB or Anking. If you really want to then you can try balancing all of the resources together for a few weeks to see if it works. At the end of the day, you can do great on this exam by thoroughly using a few resources.

As for time allotment, I wouldn't know how to balance BnB/FA/Anking/Qbank all together, but if you're doing BnB by itself then you can just focus on completing/understanding a set number of lessons per day. On the other hand, if you're using Anking, then you can focus on doing a set number of new cards per day.

I would hold off on using UWorld until after you have a decent grasp on the material. In my opinion, you only should do one pass of UWorld but do multiple Qbanks (e.g., AMBOSS, USMLE-Rx). UWorld is probably the best Qbank, so you should save it until you understand the material enough to absorb everything in the explanations.

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, and I'm not a CBSE expert or anything as I only took this exam once. Good luck!
 
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I quoted my reply from the July 2023 CBSE thread; lmk if you have any questions:thumbup:
I've been using Bootcamp but Anking seems to work better for retention. Which Anking subdecks did you study when learning by one system at a time? There are tons haha
 
I've been using Bootcamp but Anking seems to work better for retention. Which Anking subdecks did you study when learning by one system at a time? There are tons haha
I just went by my gut. I think the exact order was Biochem --> Endocrine --> Immunology --> Heme/Onc --> GI --> Neuro --> MSK --> Cards --> Psych --> Derm --> Micro --> Pharm or something like that. I omitted the biostats deck and just used UWorld for that.
 
I just went by my gut. I think the exact order was Biochem --> Endocrine --> Immunology --> Heme/Onc --> GI --> Neuro --> MSK --> Cards --> Psych --> Derm --> Micro --> Pharm or something like that. I omitted the biostats deck and just used UWorld for that.
Sorry I wasn't more specific, I meant which tagged subdecks did you use within Anking for those systems? There's like #B&B, #FirstAid, #Bootcamp, #Sketchy etc. Also, did you use UWorld questions for a system right away when starting a specific system in Anki, or wait and gain more understanding before starting Uworld?
 
Sorry I wasn't more specific, I meant which tagged subdecks did you use within Anking for those systems? There's like #B&B, #FirstAid, #Bootcamp, #Sketchy etc. Also, did you use UWorld questions for a system right away when starting a specific system in Anki, or wait and gain more understanding before starting Uworld?
1. I used all of the tags when studying (We may be using different versions of Anking, I think I used V11 - the free one on reddit). I basically unsuspended all cards within the system that I was studying and just chugged.

2. I would complete a section on Anking and then do that corresponding section on UWorld. I will warn you that the two don't exactly line up. For example, MSK on Anking overlaps greatly with Neuro on UWorld (i.e., you need to do MSK on Anking before you do Neuro on UWorld). So I would recommend using a different Qbank if you're going to do one alongside Anking (e.g., USMLE-Rx). This is because Anking tends to follow first aid just like USMLE-Rx, meanwhile UWorld does its own thing.

However, if you're going to use UWorld by system with Anking (which is perfectly fine), I would just warn you that you'll waste quite a few questions due to not being exposed to the material.

3. If you're using V11 then I would do a few Anking decks (e.g., do pharm+psych before you do UWorld psych) before starting the UWorld system. Unfortunately, I can't really speak to newer Anking versions because I didn't touch them.

Keep in mind that this advice is tailored to Anking V11 users. If you have a newer version then there could be better overlap with UWorld or maybe you should be suspending certain tags. Also, I've never used USMLE-Rx (but the step 1 qmax plan says it has "first aid integration"), so take that information with a grain of salt. Good luck!
 
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