Studying for the boards

From ScribbleWiki: MD PhD Advice

You'll hear a lot of fluff about studying for the boards - but it really comes down to four components:

1) Relax - it's easy to get into a tizzy when you see your classmates pour their competitive hackles into the boards. But don't study for too long (i.e., more than 2 months - you'll forgot at the end what you learned in the beginning), for too hard (10 hour days max-you'll burn out), don't give up on your rhythyms (exercise! see your friends!)

2) Expose yourself to the material over the first two years - however you learn best; if you learn by class, go to class. If you learn by reading, read the books. However, it helps to have a scaffolding in which to place knowledge. You'll have to memorize stuff every two years (such as the lysosomal storage diseases), but if you learn organizing principles, it'll be much easier.

3) First Aid - Memorize this book. The more you memorize, the better you'll do. Step 1, Step 2, whatever. However your memorize (flash cards, highlighting, interpretive dance) - just memorize it. Easier if you've done part #2 well. Doesn't hurt to skim while you're going through the first two years. ~90% of the information you'll be asked on the boards is in this book - the other 10% is so obscure that you'll never learn it.

4) Kaplan Question Bank - start doing questions so that you can do as many as possible. This will help you think, you'll learn from your mistakes (expect to spend twice as much correcting your answers as taking the test), and you'll see what kind of obscure questions you'll be exposed to. Also do the USMLE questions.

Remarkably, you'll forget it all anyway about 3 days after you take the test. Hopefully (and this hasn't been proven) it'll be easier to memorize for the next round of boards...