04-07-2010, 05:27 PM
Dear friends windygirl , 4highope, gsiofy and all
as to my experience reading Kaplan notes was a good start because I was so far from basic science subjects and it gave me an up-to-date perspective of each subject.
By saying FA and UW being enough I mean:
FA is objective monitor of what has already being asked in exams. so, by going through it yu can find out what are most important points and focus more on those in what you study. Unfortunately I didn't studied it until late in my reviews and only had time to go through few sections.
I recommend studying Fa from the beginning.
UW is a good source of important topics in each field , plus a good tool to practice test taking. I used it for 4 months and thanks to it I felt realy comfortable in the real test. Considering that this was my first MCQ test after 28 years of graduation and my first computer based test in my life, I think this period of 3-4 months should be more than enough for recent graduates.
Combination of these two will cover 70-80% of Qs. Besides, there are Qs which are very simple and Qs that are very tough. I realised that some of tough Qs can't be covered even by reading many other texts and sources! either you may have the chance to have heard about them in some recent papers or experience or... So, I think adding more and more texts to your study when you are fresh garduate will increase your score only a little. The core remains the basic concepts.
Actually, I took the advantage of my clinical experience in diagnosis which is a base for many Qs. I mean first you should diagnose the problem and then answer the basic mechanism behind it. This might be a problem for a fresh graduate and you should work on it.
Last but not the least I think NBME is a very good indicator of your performance. Do it online in the beginning and in the last w2 weeks of your study. I found out that it correlates well with my score. It helped me to know my weaknesses and strenghts in final review and focus more on weak areas.
as to my experience reading Kaplan notes was a good start because I was so far from basic science subjects and it gave me an up-to-date perspective of each subject.
By saying FA and UW being enough I mean:
FA is objective monitor of what has already being asked in exams. so, by going through it yu can find out what are most important points and focus more on those in what you study. Unfortunately I didn't studied it until late in my reviews and only had time to go through few sections.
I recommend studying Fa from the beginning.
UW is a good source of important topics in each field , plus a good tool to practice test taking. I used it for 4 months and thanks to it I felt realy comfortable in the real test. Considering that this was my first MCQ test after 28 years of graduation and my first computer based test in my life, I think this period of 3-4 months should be more than enough for recent graduates.
Combination of these two will cover 70-80% of Qs. Besides, there are Qs which are very simple and Qs that are very tough. I realised that some of tough Qs can't be covered even by reading many other texts and sources! either you may have the chance to have heard about them in some recent papers or experience or... So, I think adding more and more texts to your study when you are fresh garduate will increase your score only a little. The core remains the basic concepts.
Actually, I took the advantage of my clinical experience in diagnosis which is a base for many Qs. I mean first you should diagnose the problem and then answer the basic mechanism behind it. This might be a problem for a fresh graduate and you should work on it.
Last but not the least I think NBME is a very good indicator of your performance. Do it online in the beginning and in the last w2 weeks of your study. I found out that it correlates well with my score. It helped me to know my weaknesses and strenghts in final review and focus more on weak areas.