Doctors In Training Step 2 CK Live Webinar

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to pass this along to any students who are currently studying for USMLE Step 2 CK (or will be soon!). Doctors in Training is holding a webinar on December 15th at 8pm to discuss the exam. They will go over some important things to know about the exam and will provide an overview of their review course. The DIT rep told me that they will be offering the BIGGEST discount on this course that they'll be offering all year so be sure to check it out!!

It is free to register, just click the link below.

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001N4P6jnD29hEGxgRj6AddMhkCkWslR1i1sC3_CTszpW31h7iyNLODKg90plw4FqnAgSjr-q_hmnYlG6S6ZYgQDwgjWh6zLx9ixC2i40WRpU84c5TdplGmv9m12Vm-AxQ33qU5dTTfEWRLusmHiWrbl37bS6pJq3DrAEVXniLr7aDpzVOSF4uAo3ByTVTSYiCXw4dxVQugdsitv4Dy7DHdH_F6F-W_IRsJ

My USMLE Step One Study Tips!

Hey All!

First of all I’d like to wish everyone a very happy holiday season! I haven’t posted about it yet, but I took the USMLE Step 1 on Oct 22nd and I passed! I have been trying to figure out my next steps which is why I haven’t posted. This post is specifically for people who are looking for advice on how to study for the exam. I’ve been getting tons of questions about how to study, what resources to use, and how long to expect to spend studying. My short answer is always this: “It depends on you!!” Most aspects of your study plan should be catered to how you learn as an individual. Everyone learns differently and has different needs. Part of the battle is figuring out how to take the breadth of information we need to know and break it down in a way that you are going to understand and retain it. I will, however, break down roughly what I did and please feel free to use the information that is helpful and forget anything that isn’t! There's a quick summary at the bottom of the page for anyone who doesn't want to read my jibber-jabber!

Just to catch everyone up to speed if you aren’t familiar with my blog, I attended basic sciences (16 months) in anguilla, graduated from the island in December, and then did my introduction to clinical sciences semester in Chicago from February until May.

January - May

I started AICM in February but moved to Chicago at the beginning of January. As many other students from Caribbean medical schools can probably relate, I began my step one preparation and quickly realized that my knowledge base was not where it should be. There was so much lacking in my basic foundation and I realized I really didn’t have an accurate grasp of the scope of the exam. I spent this time while I was doing my intro to clinical medicine semester trying to build a solid foundation on which to start my more intense study when the semester was over.

In order to do this, I watched the Kaplan review series from front to back. I tried to complete one four hour video each day, take notes, add notes to my First Aid book, and I tried to do one block of qbank questions related to what I was learning.

June - October

Once I was finished AICM, I was also completely through the Kaplan video and had done around 6000 qbank questions (I will discuss qbanks later). Now my more focused study began.

I tried to keep my days pretty consistent with the same routine.

Each day I would do at least two blocks of qbank questions. I did them timed and then went through them carefully. My goal was to always make sure that if I were asked another question on that same concept, I’d be able to answer it no problem. For some questions this just took reading the explanation thoroughly, and for others it involved looking things up online, watching youtube videos, or whatever it took me to understand it well. Lastly, ANYTHING I didn’t already know cold, I wrote down in a notebook. When I was finished the entire block, I would take everything that was written in my notebook and turn them into question/answer flashcards. You could make flashcards manually or use any of the apps/flashcard programs that are out there. I used ANKI specifically - I like it because it automatically populates flashcards for you to review based on how hard you ranked them the last time you saw them. I always started my day with reviewing whatever flashcards were due for that day. One big mistake I made earlier on, and a mistake I think a lot of people make is not reviewing information enough times or in a systematic way. Anki was a way for me to know what needed to be reviewed when in order to keep everything as fresh as possible.

I also started sketchy micro and Pathoma during these days. I would typically only spend about a half hour a day on each of them because I found it was easiest to retain that way. I would take notes from these as well and make them into flashcards when I was done.

Lastly, each day I would get through a chunk of my first aid book. I typically spent an hour and a half to two hours on this. I literally started at the front of the book and worked through it, paragraph at a time and made sure I knew and understood everything. Anything I didn’t became a flash card as well. Once I made it through the whole book, I started over and did it again.

The further I got along in this process, the less stuff I would have to write down and the less flashcards I would need to make. By the last month before I took the exam, most things were just a review.

NBME exams: make sure to do NBME exams regularly. These are really the best way to know where you stand and what you strong and weak areas are. At first I was doing NBMEs every 2 months and by the end I did one every couple of weeks - it helps keep you focused and kicks your butt into gear if you aren’t improving!

Self Care: Make sure you take care of yourself during this process. Eat well, sleep well, and exercise! These things are so important and I can’t stress them enough. Trying to maintain a study schedule like this for so many months can feel near impossible if you are burning yourself out. You really need to be in the game with as few distractions as possible, but do make time for the things you enjoy and the things that are important to you.

Qbanks : I STRONGLY believe that seeing as many questions as possible is one of the best ways to get good at them. It really shows you what concepts come back over and over, and you get asked the same thing multiple ways which reinforces the information. By the time I took the exam, I was able to tell myself, "Chill out, you are just going to sit down for seven blocks of questions just like the tens of thousands you have done over the past year!". I did USMLErx, Kaplan twice, Uworld twice, and most of USMLE Easy. Uworld was certainly the closest to the actual exam, but I still think as many practice questions as you can do the better. USMLE Easy was the worst of the bunch in my opinion, but our school gave us free access to it and there's no such thing as bad practice.

Above all, everyone, just have patience! At some point you need to sit back and accept that it is just a huge amount of information that you have to pick apart and come to love and completely understand. It's not easy, and if it were - everyone would do it. It's really hard and it should be hard. We are going to be responsible for people's lives. I know they expect us to know damn near everything, but I think we should. Just be persistent, learn as much as you can each day, and it will come!

Here's a quick summary for those of you who don't want to read all of this detail I posted!

Jan-May

- Kaplan Review Videos

- 1 block of questions daily

June-Oct

- ANKI flashcards first thing in AM

- 2 Blocks of questions

- Pathoma

- Sketchy Micro

- First Aid

Hope this helps!! Study hard, follow your dreams and never give up!

XOXO

Stilllll Studying!

A lot of people have been writing to me asking for updates on our progress for the USMLE so I thought I'd write a quick post! We have had a really great summer. Granted, it was mostly consumed by studying - which we were expecting of course! We have spent most of our time at Patrick's family lakehouse which has been very relaxing. Preparing for the test is coming along nicely and we have made a lot of progress this far.
I took the "prequalifying exam" through our school about 6 weeks ago. I did very well on it, which made me feel like I was just around the corner from being ready for the big guy. I started struggling with booking a date. When should I book it? How much time should I take? This test is so tricky, especially for international graduates like myself. There is such a heavy importance placed on our score for this. From my understanding, it basically goes like this: each residency program sets a "cutoff score" for the USMLE. They only look at the applications of those who score above their specific cutoff score. So, only if you score above whatever number they set will they look more into your application and see the other qualities that you bring to the table. That being said, it should be simple to understand that a low or mediocre score can make a whole lot of opportunities disappear just based on that score alone. A high score can open many doors and have residency programs want to see more about what you have to offer. Because I will be a Canadian seeking residency in the USA, plus I will be an international graduate, it is in my best interest to score as high as I possibly can.

View from the lakehouse...peaceful, right?

At this point right now, I am very confident that I can pass the USMLE. I have done 3 NBMEs and have had passing scores on all of them, however I am still scoring right around the average of everyone who takes the test. Don't get me wrong, this isn't bad...I just feel like if I can score higher than your average US student, it will really look good to residency programs and will open so many doors for me! Also, Patrick and I are obviously hoping to get residencies that are at least somewhat closeby eachother, and if we both have great scores it will be a lot easier to do that than if we don't.
Studying for this test has been challenging, and I have changed my approach several times. You study, you learn, you figure out what worked and what didn't, and you change things up and study some more.
Patrick and I have been working together a lot. We spent the first couple of months sort of doing our own thing and getting a solid base of information, and now we are studying in a much more interactive way. We drill each other, we do questions together, and just talk things out over and over. It is amazing how well it works. I will admit, I had a very hard time accepting that this test wasn't over as quickly as I hoped it'd be, but what we are doing is truly great. We are breaking things down and learning them cold. I honestly do not want to go and step on a hospital floor until I am confident that I have a GREAT understanding of the things that I need to know in order to perform well and help people to the best of my ability. One big thing I didn't realize, but definitely do now is that when you go to a Caribbean school like I did, you are getting the "quick and dirty" of everything. There are a lot of shortcuts taken, and a lot of learning that should be happening that isn't, and I think that is just based on time. The Caribbean schools boast this "accelerated program". We covered everything most US students cover in 2 years in only 16 months. It is not surprising that many of us find that we lack a certain foundation when we are finished. I am OK with all of this - I am taking the time to build that foundation myself so that when I do move on, I will be the best physician and practitioner that I possibly can!
Anyway, I should get back to it. Patrick and I are actually heading to Canada in the next few days and will be setting up "study shop" there for awhile. Thank you to everyone reading! For any medical students, as always please feel free to contact me with any questions you have about anything at all. I promise I will post some good tricks and tips for the USMLE when it is all over - you can all learn from my experiences (good and bad)!
XOXO

On to our next adventure!

What? I lived in Anguilla?

I can't believe the last time I posted was about the Hurricane. To me, that seems like it was years ago...suddenly a distant memory! So much has happened since then, it has certainly been a busy time. I remember counting the minutes until I could finally leave the island and now it feels like forever ago that I was there.

To briefly sum up, the last couple of months on the island were pretty uneventful. I had definitely hit my breaking point and was ready to leave. They talk about "island fever"....well it is a very real thing! I remember cursing the drive to school, everyday thing "If I have to drive down this same road ONE more time...". Regardless, I made it, and that's what counts! It was time to pass on the reigns of running the school website as well as my other positions in various clubs which was very bittersweet. Some friends of mine from school found four tiny puppies abandoned at a gas station and took them in and I ended up fostering two of them for my last month there. It truly made time pass a little easier and gave me something to take care of. The dog population in Anguilla is out of control and there is a great program run by the shelter "AARF" that helps find homes in North America for the pups. Any current or prospective students...this is definitely a great place to volunteer some time and get some puppy therapy!

Me, my dad, and my stepmom, Lisa 

The White Coat Ceremony came up on me fast and before I knew it I was taking the ferry from Anguilla to St. Martin for the last time and getting on the plane to finally go home. I was so lucky to have so much support at the ceremony! My mom, dad and stepmom, and two friends of mine came for my last week there and cheered me on. I will admit, that day was probably the proudest one of my life this far. It symbolized the end of the Anguilla chapter, and reinforced that I AM able to do this. I won't lie...along this path I have doubted myself over and over, and I think that is normal. Each time I reach the next stage of the game it helps me believe in myself a little more.

Me, My mom and Patrick

Me, sporting my fancy new White Coat. Yes, that is a Christmas tree in the Caribbean!

After leaving Anguilla, I was lucky to be able to spend a couple of weeks at home soaking in some much needed family time. As always it was difficult to see everyone as much as I wanted but having those weeks at home was important. I will be honest, the homesickness never really gets better. When I left I thought it would be much different, but it has been almost two years that I have been away from home now and it's not even a bit easier. Every day I spend a few minutes here and there thinking about home and wishing I was there. I remind myself that this is the decision I made and that it'll all be worthwhile, and I also remind myself of all of the support I have at home. There are so many people rooting for me in this journey - that is what really gives me the motivation to keep pushing forward.

I recently completed my first semester in Chicago. Fifth semester is known as "Advanced Introduction to Clinical Medicine". It was a pretty easy semester to be honest. The goal is to just orientate us to the hospital and the different departments and disciplines that are there and how they all work together. We got to take patient histories and do basic physical examinations. I think because I have so much experience working in hospitals already that this part came quite easy to me. The second half of the semester was spent in class reviewing for the big monster. Yup, the USMLE 1 - the big monster we have all been dreading since starting the program! For those who don't know...it is the United States Medical Licensing Examination (the boards). It is an 8 hour exam that covers everything that we learned (or were supposed to learn) in our first two years of medical school. All students who want to practice in the USA (or even do clinical rotations in the USA) must take and pass this exam. The amount of material and the difficulty of the questions is unbelievable. Furthermore, the score we get on this exam is one of the main things residency programs look at when filling their positions. This is a lot of pressure! Basically, if you get a low score, tons of doors are closed. If you get a high score...tons of doors are opened and you can essentially do almost anything you want to. I don't think I need to explain any further how important a high score on this exam is, especially for international graduates.

Our first day in AICM rotations...we almost look like real doctors!

As of now...we are off until we take this exam. We are allowed as much time as we want and need before we take it but we can not continue with our clinical rotations until it is done. I just got back from a week and a half at home visiting before I put myself into isolation! I am staying with my boyfriend Patrick in Indiana and we have a pretty strict studying schedule laid out. We will not rest until we have slayed the beast! My goal is to take June and July to study and to take the test early August. Obviously I will not take it until I am sure I will get the results I want (there are plenty of diagnostic tools to see where you stand). Studying alone without any structure is difficult but it is how it must be done! For those interested I will post an outline of my study strategy once I am finished :) 

I'd like to thank everyone who continues to follow my blog! As always, feel free to contact me with any questions you have about the process, I am always happy to help others in my shoes :) (although bear with me if I take a little while to respond during this study time!)

My "WOOOHOOO...I did it!" moment