USMLE World, for those of you who are new to the
field of USMLE is a MUST HAVE during the preparation of your Steps for United
States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE).
A few tips I thought that might be useful for
people who start using it for the first time.
Use the timed mode and NOT the untimed or tutor
mode, since you are using the Q bank as a test prep material not for a walk in
the park. If you want to be sharp and score well you need to learn to pace yourself
well in time. Time management is of paramount importance.
The next tip is not my own, but I had stumbled upon
it during my search to learn how to use the Q bank effectively. I felt that
since you have a time limit during each test, say for example in my case Step
1. The timer is set at 60.00 mins which thankfully starts counting downwards.
This way you know how much time is remaining prior to the ending of the section.
Now for those of you who are good with maths, you can ignore this tip, but I
felt that if you started from the last question i.e. q no. 46 and worked your
way to q no 1, you start to realise whether your time management is good. I
mean to say at 60.00 mins I am at q no. 46; by 30 mins I should be at least halfway
down the line which makes it roughly at about q no. 23. Not sure whether you
agree with me on this but this tip helped me a lot. I didn’t have to worry
about how many questions I had left since the number I am currently on, is the number
of questions left.
The next one is marking. So for this let me tell
you of a strategy. You should train your mind NOT TO PANIC and to read through
questions quickly.
Divide your question reading techniques into 3
rounds.
·
In the
first round read the entire section and try to answer questions which you sure
off (recall types). Skip ones you have no clue about, don’t worry about them
now.
·
In the
2nd round finish off those which you feel you know the answer but are not yet
sure.
·
Finally
in the last round do all the questions, regardless of whether you know them or
not, since touch-wood the USMLE currently doesn’t have any negative marks so
what have you to lose by selecting an answer.
Now marking is both a boon and a bane. I feel
marking can be used when you feel you know the answer but don’t have time
currently. I mean it should be left for those questions where you feel that if
you could just spend a little more time you will be sure of the answer. Like
say for example the capital of Karnataka is Bangalore. Sometimes people may get
confused thinking about whether is it Bangalore or Mangalore, since both are
similar sounding and that way waste precious time (PS: I know it is Bangalore,
I am only giving an example here) So here you mark the question and later when
you have finished ALL the questions in the 3 rounds that I mentioned earlier
NOW you come back to the marked ones.
The tips till now are purely exam oriented.
Now for revision purposes in U world.
While studying the answer to a question, you feel
that you will not remember this question without another look, mark them now
while studying. Since there is an option in U world where you can do questions
which are ONLY marked, which will be easier for you towards the end when you
have a lot of time constraints. This was one thing which I dint do which cost
me a lot I guess.
Regarding the studying aspect, have already covered
that in the Step 1 experiences post.
Feel free to comment.
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