10-16-2003, 02:06 PM
Majeed
Dear Colleagues,
Here are some points from Kaplan's news letter, I want to share with folks on this forum.
When we are preparing for the USMLE, nothing helps students feel better and gain confidence than getting a good score on practice questions. If you do 100 questions and get 80% correct, it makes your whole week. If you do 100 questions and get 50% correct, you feel panic setting in and begin to doubt everything that you are doing. Here again, if you are not careful, you will do things to gain the good feeling at the expense of good exam preparation. You will do questions on material you have just reviewed, you will do them one at a time and give yourself time to think about each one, you will redo questions that you have done previously or you will mentally give yourself credit for getting the question right when you were going to pick the right answer, but at the last minute changed your mind. All of these things will inflate your score, but do not give the dose of reality that exam preparation demands. Make practice hard. Do only fresh questions you have not seen before, mix up the subjects, and do your questions in clusters and under a tight time limit. To prepare for the exam, simulate the exam. A hard time doing questions now will give you an easier time on the real exam where your score really counts.
When confronted by a multiple choice question, most people naturally focus on the answer choices. The choices (A, B, C, D, E...) seem to be the solution, and thus, the way out of the question. In fact, the answer to the question is to be found in the case material presented in the question stem. Reading and thoroughly processing what you read in the stem will lead you to the correct answer. The options let you make a choice, but the question stem tells you what the right choice should be. Racing to the options is, once again, an attempt to avoid pain. Questions are aversive; we do not like them. If you are not careful, you will jump to the offered choices as soon as you can to get rid of the discomfort of the question as fast as you can. And you will get the question wrong. Most of your time spent on a question should be spent reading and thinking about the question. Spend as little time on the presented options as possible. If you learn to tolerate the pain of the question, you will buy yourself the time you need to pick, not just any answer, but the BEST answer.
Look at your own study and exam behavior and make an honest assessment. Decide if what you are doing is to help yourself feel good, or to prepare you the best way possible for your exam. Make the choices that lead to success, even if they seem uncomfortable in the short term. When your envelope with your exam score comes, you'll be glad that you did.
Kindest regards,
Wishing luck to self and other strugglers,
Majeed.
Dear Colleagues,
Here are some points from Kaplan's news letter, I want to share with folks on this forum.
When we are preparing for the USMLE, nothing helps students feel better and gain confidence than getting a good score on practice questions. If you do 100 questions and get 80% correct, it makes your whole week. If you do 100 questions and get 50% correct, you feel panic setting in and begin to doubt everything that you are doing. Here again, if you are not careful, you will do things to gain the good feeling at the expense of good exam preparation. You will do questions on material you have just reviewed, you will do them one at a time and give yourself time to think about each one, you will redo questions that you have done previously or you will mentally give yourself credit for getting the question right when you were going to pick the right answer, but at the last minute changed your mind. All of these things will inflate your score, but do not give the dose of reality that exam preparation demands. Make practice hard. Do only fresh questions you have not seen before, mix up the subjects, and do your questions in clusters and under a tight time limit. To prepare for the exam, simulate the exam. A hard time doing questions now will give you an easier time on the real exam where your score really counts.
When confronted by a multiple choice question, most people naturally focus on the answer choices. The choices (A, B, C, D, E...) seem to be the solution, and thus, the way out of the question. In fact, the answer to the question is to be found in the case material presented in the question stem. Reading and thoroughly processing what you read in the stem will lead you to the correct answer. The options let you make a choice, but the question stem tells you what the right choice should be. Racing to the options is, once again, an attempt to avoid pain. Questions are aversive; we do not like them. If you are not careful, you will jump to the offered choices as soon as you can to get rid of the discomfort of the question as fast as you can. And you will get the question wrong. Most of your time spent on a question should be spent reading and thinking about the question. Spend as little time on the presented options as possible. If you learn to tolerate the pain of the question, you will buy yourself the time you need to pick, not just any answer, but the BEST answer.
Look at your own study and exam behavior and make an honest assessment. Decide if what you are doing is to help yourself feel good, or to prepare you the best way possible for your exam. Make the choices that lead to success, even if they seem uncomfortable in the short term. When your envelope with your exam score comes, you'll be glad that you did.
Kindest regards,
Wishing luck to self and other strugglers,
Majeed.