Last nite was really hard to fall asleep, but it was really beautiful. The thunder rolled like crazy. Everytime the thunder clapped, there was a car alarm going off. The lightning was amazing. It was so so bright that lit up my room through my windows. The rain was pattering like crazy. Just my type of weather. It was amazing to see this kind of storm. I'm very glad that God has put me in Missouri where I can enjoy this type of weather where the sunny California doesn't get even in the winter.
Unfortunately, I'm discovering a really weird allergy, perhaps mold. It's making me cough like crazy. It's not an itch but more a slight pressure pushing down on me but coughing relieves the weird pressure. One thing I'm definitely glad to leave behind in a little over a month is the darn allergy. They drive me crazy.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Few things been going through my head ....
As the clinical rotations coming up, few specialties have been running through my head, wondering what would fit me and what I want better. Hopefully I'll eventually find something that will fit. I have come down to a few: OB/Gyn, Anesthesiology, Allergy/Immunology, Heme/Onc. We'll see in the next few months.
This is one of the few things that I have found while I was searching online regarding specialties and personality. This one is very interesting.
This one is just for fun for being the perfect resident. Hopefully, it'll be amusing to you as well.
Hopefully, God will open the right doors and lead me in path that will do His work.
This one is just for fun for being the perfect resident. Hopefully, it'll be amusing to you as well.Hopefully, God will open the right doors and lead me in path that will do His work.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Updated Schedule for Boards
This is the updated version of my study plan for the 3.5 weeks. It was pure torture.The daily schedule starts at 8am before I went home and 7am after I flew home. Study until lunch around noonish then lunch break till 1pm ish. Then study again till 5-6 ish pm. Workout, shower and dinner until 8-8:30pm. Start the final round of studying till 11-11:30pm. Before I went home, Fri, Sat and Sun ended by 10pm. After I went home, Fri and Sat ended at 10pm and Sun took a break after 8pm spending with family. I definitely felt burned out by the test time and definitely did not want to look at any books or questions anymore.
The books and qBanks used:
First Aid
BRS Phys
HY Immuno, Neuroanatomy
Kaplan Pharm, Anatomy, Phys, Biochem
COMLEX Review (BRS) for clinical anatomy and OMT
Rapid Review Path (Goljan)
Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple
Goljan PDF Review files
Goljan Path Audio
Kaplan Audio
USMLE World and assessment
Kaplan COMLEX qBank
A couple of us went through the Kaplan audio lectures and books and listen to Goljan path starting from Feb to end of April. This was a pre review of the basic sciences from 1st year. We did this once a week on Sat for about 5-6hrs. But we also did other subjects on our own time over spring break and during the week. On average it was 2 hrs every spent on boards, other than Spring break. Our school provided all the Kaplan materials and had Dr. Raymon, who lecture the Pharm for Kaplan, for a weekend. That weekend was totally worth it.
Here's the practice scores over the 3.5 weeks:
Kaplan Pre-test 35%
CBSSA (March) 51 - correlate to 150
Kaplan Final (end of April) 53%
USMLE World assessment - 54%
CBT from NBME web - 69%
USMLE World - 55% completed, started with 35%, ended with 55-64%
Based on practices, I was scoring around 210-225 for USMLE. My goal is to get the national average of 220. But I'm glad for anything over 200. For COMLEX, my goal is the same, the national average of 500. Hopefully, I'll get it, but the test was bad enough that I'll take the passing score.
I'll update when I get the score report. Hopefully, it'll be good news.
USMLE World conversion - (UW x 2.4) + 84
COMLEX conversion - USMLE Score = 0.24 x COMLEX + 69
Monday, June 16, 2008
Boards are DONE!!!!
Boards are finally done. It was the longest 3 1/2 weeks worth of studying. I took the COMLEX on Tues then USMLE on Sat. Let me tell you, those are not fun and very scary.
First for COMLEX, I thought I was going to be fine going in to take the test. I got there early almost 1.5 hr early. But it was fine, I spent some quiet time going over the final cramming. Then I waited around the waiting room to go through the registration. I was schedule for 9am but I ended up starting at 8:30am. It was a fully 8hr exam with 45 min lunch. I didn't get out until 5:30pm with a fat headache. The test itself was interesting. Every year the test like to focus on one topic heavily while still covering everything else. This year was on Neuro. I got the version where it was at least 50% neuro related. The people who took it the day before and the days after mine weren't as heavy neuro related as mine was. What luck I got with the test. It got so bad that when I got out, I felt like crying because I don't think I have passed. I marked half of the questions and there were 2 blocks of question set where I ran out time going over the marked questions. I make it a point where I always put an answer to the question when I go through it the first time just so I won't run into the running out time problem. Now I'm justing praying to pass, I don't really care how high the score is, just need to 400/75 on m score sheet.
The questions themselves were interesting. There were ones where I literally had sit there and guess what they are trying to ask. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the point was with those questions. There were other questions that are very straight forward. The OMM portion of the test was very much what we've had on tests for our OTM class. But there were a few where I'm sure the proctor had an amusingg time watching me trying to position myself as the question asked. There were Chapman's point, treatment/diagnosis positions, and tons of upper extremity. I only got one sacrum question. My neuro questions were pharm, anatomy, path and others where I couldn't quite place into categories. The questions were not topics that I've had in class or perhaps, the professors just completely turn me off on neuro and I'm just in the denial phase. Anywhoo, the questions were what I was expecting.
Then Sat, I took USMLE at the same center and I arrived at the same time. So I did the same thing in the morning as I did for COMLEX. I started the test at 8:30am and finished at 4:30ish pm. The test was what I expected since I have done 55% of USMLE World qbank. The test was easier than the qbank. I felt very comfortable with the test. But really nothing stands out, the topics the tested was very equally distributed. They didn't really favor one topic or the other. The questions were more staright forward unlike the qbank where it requires multiple steps to get to the answers. There are a few on the tests that are like the qbank. I can't really say much since I like to binge and purge after the test. All I can say is that I felt much better after USMLE than COMLEX. Hahahaha. I will be laughing and rolling around if my USMLE score is better that my COMLEX score especially since I'm a DO student at KCOM.
We shall see in about 6wks time, early August. Long wait. ::sigh::
I will post the schedule that I end up with.
First for COMLEX, I thought I was going to be fine going in to take the test. I got there early almost 1.5 hr early. But it was fine, I spent some quiet time going over the final cramming. Then I waited around the waiting room to go through the registration. I was schedule for 9am but I ended up starting at 8:30am. It was a fully 8hr exam with 45 min lunch. I didn't get out until 5:30pm with a fat headache. The test itself was interesting. Every year the test like to focus on one topic heavily while still covering everything else. This year was on Neuro. I got the version where it was at least 50% neuro related. The people who took it the day before and the days after mine weren't as heavy neuro related as mine was. What luck I got with the test. It got so bad that when I got out, I felt like crying because I don't think I have passed. I marked half of the questions and there were 2 blocks of question set where I ran out time going over the marked questions. I make it a point where I always put an answer to the question when I go through it the first time just so I won't run into the running out time problem. Now I'm justing praying to pass, I don't really care how high the score is, just need to 400/75 on m score sheet.
The questions themselves were interesting. There were ones where I literally had sit there and guess what they are trying to ask. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out what the point was with those questions. There were other questions that are very straight forward. The OMM portion of the test was very much what we've had on tests for our OTM class. But there were a few where I'm sure the proctor had an amusingg time watching me trying to position myself as the question asked. There were Chapman's point, treatment/diagnosis positions, and tons of upper extremity. I only got one sacrum question. My neuro questions were pharm, anatomy, path and others where I couldn't quite place into categories. The questions were not topics that I've had in class or perhaps, the professors just completely turn me off on neuro and I'm just in the denial phase. Anywhoo, the questions were what I was expecting.
Then Sat, I took USMLE at the same center and I arrived at the same time. So I did the same thing in the morning as I did for COMLEX. I started the test at 8:30am and finished at 4:30ish pm. The test was what I expected since I have done 55% of USMLE World qbank. The test was easier than the qbank. I felt very comfortable with the test. But really nothing stands out, the topics the tested was very equally distributed. They didn't really favor one topic or the other. The questions were more staright forward unlike the qbank where it requires multiple steps to get to the answers. There are a few on the tests that are like the qbank. I can't really say much since I like to binge and purge after the test. All I can say is that I felt much better after USMLE than COMLEX. Hahahaha. I will be laughing and rolling around if my USMLE score is better that my COMLEX score especially since I'm a DO student at KCOM.
We shall see in about 6wks time, early August. Long wait. ::sigh::
I will post the schedule that I end up with.
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