How I improved my assessment scores :
- After your assessments, ask these questions to yourself : Do you feel that either
You make silly mistakes
Or
You don’t know the concepts well
Or
You cannot recall properly what you have read & understood ??
You can find your answers for your weak scores in assessments by asking these 3 questions to yourself !! - Solutions for each are as following:
For silly mistakes,
Try to focus more on question & options given for it, look for the hints & clues where they want you to
think !!
& look what you missed in a question stem !
For new concepts, you should write it down !
For confused ones,
Those are your weak areas which you have to focus more before giving any assessments ! - Here is list of things how I improved ,
What I did after NBME to improve included :
- REPEATEDLY READING SAME TOPICS WHICH I EASILY FORGET - you’ll have to hammer
them down in your brain at whatever cost, I have made 3 pdfs each having 70-80 photos of my FA which
are my weak areas & areas which I repeatedly forget if I don’t revise it in a WEEK. - After identifying weak areas , I was giving more time to it for understanding properly so that even if I
don’t have enough time to revise it again but if I had understood it properly then it would help me for a
long time for sure. - I was exposing myself with more & more possible questions daily because of that I can get easily
almost 90% idea after reading a question that what it asks for so less time to think, rapidly selecting a true
option & can get more time for HARD QUESTIONS in a block. - ALWAYS I ATTEND THE QUESTIONS FROM HARD TOPICS OF MINE AT LAST so that after
finishing a block I can get more time to think, and believe me by thinking properly in a spared time for
your hard topic questions can get you select a true answer in almost 95-99% cases & ALWAYS
REMEMBER , YOU CAN FIND CLUES IN EITHER QUESTIONS OR ANSWERS IN A QUESTION
YOU ARE ASKED SO TRY TO IMPROVISE THOSE MCQ SOLVING STRATEGIES OF YOURS.
& yes read the question line first as it will give you an idea what question is all about !!
For example,
a question stem may give a case scenario of a patient having on & off Panic attacks and history related to
it
but question line or options give you lab findings of electrolytes —> so reading question line will lead
you to get know that question is more likely of RESPIRATORY ALKALOSIS due to Panic attacks rather
than related to PSYCHIATRY !
Hope I made my point clear how to think for a true option in a question !! - I DID UWORLD BIOSTAT REVIEW,
READ 100 ETHICS CASES,
HAD A THOROUGH READ IN MICROBIOLOGY WITH SKETCHY NOTES AGAIN which were my
weak topics. - I also did My own written UWORLD NOTES revision multiple times & also did my Uworld
flashcards revision multiple times & believe me it has helped me a lot.—> You will get to know at the
end of preparation phase that UWORLD had covered every possible topics that are tested.
◦ What I did in COVID-19 Pandemic situation to keep myself motivated
for studies :
My goal was 250+ in my real test so I was repeatedly finding ways to increase my performance in
assessments &
NBME as well as Uworld also helped in their own ways to excel my performance by giving free older
NBMEs & extending my subscription without any cost
& ECFMG also didn’t charge anything for date extension so overall a big thanks to NBME, Uworld,
ECFMG.
So overall I took everything positively to improvise myself daily !!
◦ Last month tips :
⁃ Revision of whole FA, Uworld notes with alternate day 1 block of mcqs,
⁃ Don’t get panic if you forget something you read few weeks back as you’ll recollect
every concepts in exams,
⁃ I did NBMEs & UWSA2 in between preparation of last month which helped me to boost
my confidence but again it’s a trap remember that !
⁃ Last week, I did revision of my weak topics only + Uworld flashcards which I had made
- Pathoma first 3 chapters + revision of Uworld biostat review + My notes of NBME wrongs & their
explanations.
◦ Last day tips :
⁃ DON’T GET PANIC !!!
⁃ Believe me just rewind your journey to test day, you have passed through a lot including
COVID PANDEMIC & if you have survived Pandemic then be thankful to God & believe in him & give
your test with full confidence !
⁃ Keep on telling yourself that “I have Got this & I believe in myself.”
⁃ Pre exam anxiety is very normal & don’t postpone your exam just for the sake of Anxiety
as you’ll never feel satisfied for your preparations.
⁃ Please don’t get into any trap of pre exam anxiolytics & sedatives as you never know
how they will react for you & I know on pre exam day, you have to be calm but that anxiety is normal so
be with it ! See my exam day tips for anxiety management !
◦ Exam day tips :
⁃ I was damn anxious & was literally sweating
before entering Prometric center then I
told myself, how much struggle I have faced till now & whatever preparations I have done was the BEST
POSSIBLE OUTCOME FROM MYSELF so be positive!
⁃ Anxiety due to sympathetic drive is there to help us like to think quickly, to hurry in
completing our block so overall it’s our bodily mechanism to handle any stressful situations to have best
possible outcome so never suppress it down rather than use it to improvise your performance ! (It’s my
opinion)
⁃ Try to complete a block with questions you know first & directly escape questions you
don’t know —> get back to hard questions at last ! I used to complete 30-32 questions within first 40-45
minutes & rest hard 10-8 questions in last 15 minutes !!
⁃ I used to take break after each block as it will give you some change as well as you can
have some snacks to eat !
⁃ Never give up till your last mcq & last block .
⁃ Accept whatever you get results as you have done your best so take a moment to
congratulate yourself for it !
before entering Prometric center then I