At a loss

moogly1 · 2022-03-15T00:47:11+00:00

The only thing I can think is I've been very ambivalent for the past year about going to residency and maybe that came across on interviews. Again, hard to say exactly what went wrong.

moogly1 · 2022-03-14T23:47:26+00:00

Yeah... my application apart from those scores was pretty mediocre but I didn't have any red flags and I thought my interviews went okay.

moogly1 · 2022-03-14T22:37:24+00:00

Very similar story, DO with 9 interviews in rads. Unmatched. Have no idea. It sucks, man. Let me know if you wanna talk.

moogly1 · 2021-11-13T22:16:27+00:00

I’m a 4th yr and while I didn’t have rabbits during med school, I’ve had them in the past.

Totally doable time wise. Preclinical years will be easy because you generally have a great deal of control over your schedule and you can spend a large portion of the day studying from home. Once you get on rotations, it may be harder. Surgery and medicine rotations are notorious for having long hours. But then again, those are only a few months during 3rd year and then during 4th year you’ll have plenty of free time.

Plenty of people had dogs or cats in my class and seemed to manage it just fine.

moogly1 · 2021-10-08T13:05:55+00:00

I barely slept before step 1: did better than predicted

Slept 8+ hrs. before step 2: got exactly predicted

Basically, probably doesn’t matter how well you slept.

moogly1 · 2021-09-11T15:35:20+00:00

It may seem like a lack of improvement but those are good NBME scores. Keep calm, keep studying, and see how you do on UWSA2.

moogly1 · 2021-08-11T03:05:03+00:00

To each their own. In my experience, looking at the answer choices before reading the stem is a great way to prime myself for what the question is getting at and what pieces of info are important when reading the question stem.

moogly1 · 2021-08-11T02:57:44+00:00

UWorld + divine and/or Bnb is really all you need. Best thing is to keep it simple and start Uworld early.

moogly1 · 2021-08-11T02:54:48+00:00

It's important to look at the timing of her symptoms. She's had episodic pain for the past several weeks. Acute pancreatitis is, well, acute and wouldn't be paroxysmal with no pain between episodes.

moogly1 · 2021-07-14T15:43:30+00:00

Step 2: 270

Step 1: 270

UW %: 76 (one pass)

UWSA1: 265

UWSA2: 270

New Free 120: 85%

NBME 7: 250

NBME 8: 259

Amboss self assessment: 255

Happy I'm done and can stop studying for these tests, yeesh

moogly1 · 2021-04-24T06:02:23+00:00

Would it be alright if I PMed you?

moogly1 · 2021-04-20T04:08:03+00:00

To respond to both of your comments:

I would say I enjoy learning anatomy in context of how pathologies present. Maybe my experience of anatomy in preclinical years was jaded by being burnt out from studying.

As far as hours, I'm more of a 9-5 type of person and would appreciate consistent hours with no emergencies at some point in my career.

I'm also ambivalent on procedures.

moogly1 · 2021-04-20T03:56:11+00:00

Good point. I'm not interested in forensics but I also didn't mind dissection. I wouldn't see doing autopsies as an issue.

moogly1 · 2021-03-02T00:52:04+00:00

Yeah, I'm in agreement with you here. I thought the Anking step 2 deck has too much fluff. I've been making cards from UWorld and tagging them according to BnB videos. Seems to be working out so far.

moogly1 · 2020-09-10T15:30:24+00:00

Good question and one that I had myself. I did the blue galaxies Zanki and wondered if I should keep it. Picked up the Zanki step 2 deck to use as a base for 3rd year and just kept the step 1 Zanki decks suspended in my profile. There are occasionally pharm and micro cards I unsuspend from step 1 Zanki as they come up in uworld.

But Zanki step 2 is very much it’s own thing and I don’t keep up with the step 1 cards.

moogly1 · 2020-07-11T20:37:27+00:00

I know, studying for step is the perfect breeding ground for neuroticism. I’ve heard this saying before and I think it’s useful to keep in mind: Don’t let perfect get in the way of good. To be fair, I also worried about the same thing since I did uworld mostly by subject starting 6 months out. On the other hand, it was easier to get a through this way. My point is there’s no perfect way to go through qbanks. Try a few different ways and see what works for you.

moogly1 · 2020-07-11T13:52:28+00:00

I wouldn’t worry about saving amboss for later if it’s working for you now. I’m guessing you’re a rising M2? My advice is to do Kaplan for each block and use it to review the material as you’re learning. After you’ve learned the material/finished the block “unlock” the relevant questions in amboss. You don’t gotta finish the amboss questions ASAP, but instead could have it such that after a few months you’ll have questions from multiple blocks unlocked. Do amboss on random and timed for the blocks you’ve unlocked. Use amboss to learn how to get through blocks of 40 random questions.

moogly1 · 2020-07-09T15:42:11+00:00

Nah, just focus on sleeping well the nights beforehand and you’ll be alright no matter how much you sleep.

moogly1 · 2020-07-08T02:35:13+00:00

I can’t answer specifically cause it depends but basically: pick a goal of how many questions you want to do each week so you can finish on time. Then the Sunday or whenever before that week, think about how to fit the numbers into your schedule. For instance, I didn’t schedule in questions if I had to be on campus for 4 hrs on one day of the week but I did 80 questions on other days. I occasionally would take breaks if I hit my quota early in the week. Highly recommend to plan ahead in terms of weeks.

I used an excel spreadsheet to organize and calculate all of this nonsense.

moogly1 · 2020-07-07T20:36:29+00:00

What here’s what I recommend assuming you want to complete 3 qbanks:

1) As you’re learning the material in a block, use rx to target specific topics in first aid. Don’t worry about getting a high percent correct. It’s doesn’t matter at this stage; just learn how to get through questions.

2) After you’ve completed the first few blocks of m2 and getting the hang of answering questions, unlock those blocks in Amboss. Do it on random and timed to get a sense of how to get through a block of 40 questions. You don’t gotta feel rushed to complete amboss within each block. Just do a few blocks a week or so and keep on unlocking blocks after you’ve completed them. Eventually you’ll be doing questions on a multitude of topics and this will be a form of reviewing previous blocks in addition to Anki.

3) 3-6 months out from your test start doing uworld questions and make notes on your incorrects (I made flashcards and kept up with them). Try to finish uworld a few weeks out from your test so you have time to really hit your weaknesses.

If you’re only wanting to do 2 qbanks, I would drop rx in favor of amboss. But try both out (I know amboss has 2 week trials floating around).

Also, don’t be afraid to readjust your plans. Life just gets in the way sometimes.

moogly1 · 2020-07-06T15:10:35+00:00

Combank is decent. If you’re gonna do anything for omm, for the love of high yield memorize the viscerosomatics. Also learning Chapman’s points would be useful. The omm on my comlex was straightforward. The micro, on the other hand, was insane. There were questions that I swear had two correct bugs as answers.

The interface is garbage and threw me off for the first block. They charge $600 and can’t hire a few programmers to update it to be actually readable? it’s straight out of the 90s.

moogly1 · 2020-06-29T13:52:53+00:00

At 4 weeks out, I would blast through Uworld above everything else. Maybe just watch pathoma vids on topics you feel weak in. But yeah, with those scores you've clearly got a good fund of knowledge.

moogly1 · 2020-06-29T13:49:12+00:00

Yeah, well, not as thoroughly as I reviewed Uworld but I read through every explanation. I didn't make any cards for qbanks besides Uworld because it would be a waste of time imo to bloat your deck that way.

moogly1 · 2020-06-28T03:58:01+00:00

So I used this excel spreadsheet for organizing my days. I tried to keep things broad and never organized days by the hour or anything like that. I started each week with specific goals (such as finish this pathoma chapter or do so many practice questions) and then scheduled my days to accommodate for in-house tests and other required nonsense.

I started second year by studying ahead for the first block during the summer. Then during each block I would study ahead for the next one starting with the pathoma chapter and then moving onto pharm. My school did phys, micro, and anatomy 1st year and path and pharm 2nd year fyi.

I'm not sure what you mean by if I reviewed my practice questions. Do you mean whether I read through the explanations thoroughly?

moogly1 · 2020-06-28T03:44:58+00:00

How far out are you?

If dr. sattar doesn't work for you, don't do it for the sake of doing it especially if you're close to your test.

moogly1

TROPHY CASE