Today is my time to be happy, I got my result yesterday and I am very happy with my score, many will say, its not so great, however, as a working full time mother of a very active toddler I am so happy I could be close to my target score. Here my timeline and two cents:
Sorry for the long post.
Target: 260
Study time: whole 1 year, dedicated 4 months. (I’m not dumb, I work full time and have a husband and a kid thats why it took too long)
UW first round: 72%
UW second round 86%
UWSA1: 241 3 months out
NBME 7: 248 1.5 months out
UWSA2: 257 2 weeks out
Free 120 (old): 92% 10 days out.
Free 120 (new): 73% 3 days out, this freaked me out!
Materials and preparation: I came to step 2 trying to not make the same mistakes than in step 1, one of those mistakes was using so many resources, when I started studying I took kaplan free self assessment and decided to start for obgn, I spent time reading all kaplan books, but by July 2019
I started UW and my score was not what I wanted and also I noticed my concepts were not clear. I started UW notes but due to lack of organization and outdated info I just read GI there. I tried Yale G for CK and MTB but they both had contradictions with UW, I decided to do UW alone untimed, tutor, subject wise, finished my first round with 72%, and stopped studying for 3 months (yes guys life happens) and then came across this amazing book which saved my life, its white coat companion, I did my uw wrongs along with this book, for example I read CVS from white coat and solve my CVS wrong and so on, then I took my uwsa1 and scheduled my exam for April but prometric canceled my appointment many times. I did a reset and started UW timed random tutor off, I was doing 3 to 4 blocks per day, I woke up at 3 am and did the blocks and then during the day took time between work, kid and chores to review the explanations. If I had to do the exam again I would take white coat book along with UW and I know I would be done sooner.
Other resources I added at the end I didn’t do questions last 10 days;
Divine intervention postcasts: listened to them last 3 days before exam while doing chores, not too high yield but got around 3 questions right thanks to this guy.
Randy Neil videos in youtube: I did them for step 1 and repeated for CK, he should do a new video about how to interpret abstracts.
FA for step 1:Micro and Pharmacology
UW step 3: Ethics, I am still wondering crazy questions I found in ethics.
Tips for exam day:
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Practice in advance 2 blocks of UW back to back to improve your endurance, is a long exam, you will need it.
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Practice with a mask on always, I did it and the exam went okay, I took 10 disposable masks with me and I changed one after each block, it helped me to feel refreshed.
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Take a break after each block, in step one someone gave me the bad advice of doing 2 blocks back to back, I finished earlier and my results were good, but I know I could do it better if I would take a break after each block.
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Write your cheat sheet and practice during last month, it will make biostatistics easier
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Don’t do any assesments the last 10 days, that’s 4 hours you can use them reviewing weak areas, I took new free 120 too close to exam because everyone in Reddit said was very similar.
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Don’t change questions, 75% of the time you will change it from right to wrong. And also I didnt have time to change, I ran out of time in 2 blocks, and in all the remaining blocks the 5 minutes alarm appeared and I was with around 5 questions left. FYI in UW I always finished the blocks with 15 or 10 minutes to spare.
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Take light snacks: apple, banana, chocolate, coffee (I had to take in 4th block) whatever keeps you awake.
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Everyone says dont study the day before, I woke up at 5 am to finish reviewing formulas and glomerulonefritis, in my case that works for me, evaluate what is best for you.
Finally, I want to say to all the mothers, wives and old graduates reading this, don’t lose hope, I was driving crazy with this exam, I wanted to do good, zi barely slept the last 3 months, it is hard but if I did it, anyone can do it. If you have any questions please post here, so everyone can benefit, I won’t reply to PM.