I want you to keep in mind that everyone's testing experience is different, so this is just my personal story. I started really studying the beginning of April, but I had been doing gunnertraining and Kaplan Qbank since January. I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to studying, so did daily flashcards and questions and made notes in my First Aid.
Final Stats:
Gunnertraining: 92% complete
Kaplan Qbank: 95% complete, average 58%
UWorld: 70% complete, average 63%
April 11- NBME 6: 191
June 5- NBME 5: 210
June 24- UWSA: 230
June 27- NBME 11: 226
July 9- UWSA2: 252
July 12- NBME 12: 233
July 13- Free 150: 251
Read FA about 2-3 times
I didn't do much in the month of May because we had our clinical orientation during that month. My advice would be not to take long breaks like that during your prep, because I forgot a lot during that time.
Test Day
I woke up early, felt refreshed because I had a good night's sleep. I started going to bed early and waking up early for a whole week before my test, and 2 days before my test I started trying to relax my mind and not do anything new.
I had breakfast (a Starbucks breakfast wrap), and packed lunch- 2 Cliffbars in case I was too on edge to eat a full meal, a bottle of Gatorade, and a Starbucks protein lunch box (had apple, grapes, boiled egg, a wheat roll and peanut butter).
I got to the center before it opened, but with all the checking in procedures I still didn't start until about 20 minutes after my appointment time.
With regards to breaks, I decided to take a break whenever I needed to and skip lunch if needed. I took a short break after the first block, then 2 blocks in a row and break. This worked really well, I had a bite of cliffbar and Gatorade during my breaks, so I wasn't really hungry. I took a longer break after the 4th block, and still had lots of time. Also, I used the break time to look in my FA for little things I may have forgotten (good to do because they some of the same questions were asked twice, just in a slightly different way, I wonder if those are experimental ?)
Test
The test was different from what I expected. The question stems were longer, a lot more lab values presented in the stem. Sometimes you don't really need the lab values to answer the question, but a lot of the times you have to go through them. Most of the questions were concepts I knew, but presented differently. Not much straightforward pathology or physiology, but instead lots of pathophysiology that required you to know a lot of variables. Most of my questions were like that. Also, pretty much every question had a clinical stem, the only ones with 1 or two lines would be ones with pictures. If I had to pick one practice test that it was most similar to, it would have been NBME 12. Kaplan Qbank pathophysiology section also does a good job. UWSA is a good confidence booster and it does test your knowledge of concepts, but the questions are structured differently. Also, definitely take the Free 150. Of course I can't tell you the details of the exam, but here are some general study guidelines:
Anatomy-
FA is not enough! Not a lot of questions, but definitely more detailed than FA
Embryology
Not a lot of questions. Very straightforward and FA is enough.
Neuroanatomy
Not a lot of questions, but FA is not enough.
Behavioral Science
These questions can be tricky and you never really know if you're right, FA definitely not enough. The behavioral sciences section in Kaplan Qbank does a great job.
Biostats
FA enough. Need to understand basic calculations and concepts.
Immunology
Not bad at all, very straightforward. FA enough, just know that chapter really well and you're gold.
Biochem
This was one of my weakest subjects coming in, and I went through the FA chapter a few times and all the UWorld biochem questions and it was more than enough.
The rest was very integrated. For instance, you would need to recognize an infection from the stem, and know the drug to treat it for the answer. Or know the infection, what to treat it with, and how it would interact with another drug that the patient is taking. Side effects are also big. It's not simply enough to be able to recognize a blood smear, you also need to know the associated translocations, associated pathophysiololgy such as effects on serum calcium, PTH or any other relevant value.
That said, if you work hard I think the test is doable. When you study, try to integrate as much as possible. Know the presentation, pathophysiology, and treatment of common diseases such as HIV/AIDS, heart disease, renal disease, obesity, diabetes and HTN.
Final Stats:
Gunnertraining: 92% complete
Kaplan Qbank: 95% complete, average 58%
UWorld: 70% complete, average 63%
April 11- NBME 6: 191
June 5- NBME 5: 210
June 24- UWSA: 230
June 27- NBME 11: 226
July 9- UWSA2: 252
July 12- NBME 12: 233
July 13- Free 150: 251
Read FA about 2-3 times
I didn't do much in the month of May because we had our clinical orientation during that month. My advice would be not to take long breaks like that during your prep, because I forgot a lot during that time.
Test Day
I woke up early, felt refreshed because I had a good night's sleep. I started going to bed early and waking up early for a whole week before my test, and 2 days before my test I started trying to relax my mind and not do anything new.
I had breakfast (a Starbucks breakfast wrap), and packed lunch- 2 Cliffbars in case I was too on edge to eat a full meal, a bottle of Gatorade, and a Starbucks protein lunch box (had apple, grapes, boiled egg, a wheat roll and peanut butter).
I got to the center before it opened, but with all the checking in procedures I still didn't start until about 20 minutes after my appointment time.
With regards to breaks, I decided to take a break whenever I needed to and skip lunch if needed. I took a short break after the first block, then 2 blocks in a row and break. This worked really well, I had a bite of cliffbar and Gatorade during my breaks, so I wasn't really hungry. I took a longer break after the 4th block, and still had lots of time. Also, I used the break time to look in my FA for little things I may have forgotten (good to do because they some of the same questions were asked twice, just in a slightly different way, I wonder if those are experimental ?)
Test
The test was different from what I expected. The question stems were longer, a lot more lab values presented in the stem. Sometimes you don't really need the lab values to answer the question, but a lot of the times you have to go through them. Most of the questions were concepts I knew, but presented differently. Not much straightforward pathology or physiology, but instead lots of pathophysiology that required you to know a lot of variables. Most of my questions were like that. Also, pretty much every question had a clinical stem, the only ones with 1 or two lines would be ones with pictures. If I had to pick one practice test that it was most similar to, it would have been NBME 12. Kaplan Qbank pathophysiology section also does a good job. UWSA is a good confidence booster and it does test your knowledge of concepts, but the questions are structured differently. Also, definitely take the Free 150. Of course I can't tell you the details of the exam, but here are some general study guidelines:
Anatomy-
FA is not enough! Not a lot of questions, but definitely more detailed than FA
Embryology
Not a lot of questions. Very straightforward and FA is enough.
Neuroanatomy
Not a lot of questions, but FA is not enough.
Behavioral Science
These questions can be tricky and you never really know if you're right, FA definitely not enough. The behavioral sciences section in Kaplan Qbank does a great job.
Biostats
FA enough. Need to understand basic calculations and concepts.
Immunology
Not bad at all, very straightforward. FA enough, just know that chapter really well and you're gold.
Biochem
This was one of my weakest subjects coming in, and I went through the FA chapter a few times and all the UWorld biochem questions and it was more than enough.
The rest was very integrated. For instance, you would need to recognize an infection from the stem, and know the drug to treat it for the answer. Or know the infection, what to treat it with, and how it would interact with another drug that the patient is taking. Side effects are also big. It's not simply enough to be able to recognize a blood smear, you also need to know the associated translocations, associated pathophysiololgy such as effects on serum calcium, PTH or any other relevant value.
That said, if you work hard I think the test is doable. When you study, try to integrate as much as possible. Know the presentation, pathophysiology, and treatment of common diseases such as HIV/AIDS, heart disease, renal disease, obesity, diabetes and HTN.
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