I arrived at the testing centre at 0815, hoping that I would be able to get registered early and get out of there sooner. The lady did not even show up until 0900, so that plan fell through. However, registration was quick and easy so I was able to start almost immediately.
::Block 1::
- Time spent: 50 min
- Most questions were way easier than I thought they would be; very little micro or pharm in this block. There were lots of questions about embryology and hereditary diseases. My approach to the questions was:
- To read the last sentence first. That way, I knew whether the question was about diagnosis, treatment, or something I didn't even need the vignette for.
- To read the vignette and highlight relevant information. This was very helpful went I was reviewing my answers for each block. Also, just having a purposeful activity during each question helped me to stay focused and not wander off into dream land.
- To try to answer the question in my head without looking at the answers. This wasn't always possible, but it actually worked for about half of the questions!
- To explain to myself why the other answers were wrong. Again, not always possible, but it helped me feel very confident about my answer choices, and I was able to find the answer for some harder questions simply by process of elimination.
- Marking questions that I felt merited more time. I did not mark every question to which I did not know the answer. Some of the questions were about things I had never even heard of before. I didn't waste my time on these ones. I simply made as educated a guess as possible, and moved on. The questions I did mark were ones that either required some calculations, or needed more "brain time" to sort out.
- I did not take a break after block 1, but went straight into block 2
::Block 2::
- Time spent: 50 min
- Again, a pretty easy block. I had one question in this block about why HIV rapidly becomes resistant to reverse transcriptase inhibitors. I really hope I answered correctly, since that question came up in almost identical form three more times during the exam!
- Took a 10 minute break afterward; ate a granola bar, went to the bathroom, had some water
- Time spent: 55 min
- I felt very fatigued during this block. I am not sure if it was because I ate during my previous break, or if "midmorning blues" just kicked in. I almost fell asleep halfway through the block. There were also some very long vignettes in this block which were exhausting to read through. History, blah, blah, vitals, blah, blah, patient remembers some relevant fact, blah, blah... Anyway this was the hardest block for me just because I had to force myself to stay awake. I made use of my writing boards and drew some cartoons.
-Took a 5 minute break afterward
- Time spent: 50 min
- I felt better during this block. I was still so tired, but I knew lunch was coming! There was a lot of cardio and path in this block and a few weird biostats questions that I wasn't sure about.
- Took a 30 minute lunch break afterward
- Time spent: 45 min
- I was re-energized and ready to kick the crap out of the last three blocks! The last three blocks kicked back. There was a lot of MSK and Neuro anatomy that I was really not prepared for. I had a couple of questions about paths of cranial nerves, about 5 upper limb msk questions, and a CT scan of a knee.
- Took a 5 minute break afterward
- Time spent: 50 min
- At this point I was just really angry about all of the MSK and neuro anat. Then I got a bunch of stupid pharm questions about adrenoreceptors and crap. I really wanted to throw a temper tantrum and walk out! But I didn't. :) I finished it up and prepared myself for the last block.
- Took a 5 minute break afterward
- Time spent: 45 min
- This block was actually pretty easy. There were two or three "WTF" questions, but for the most part it was actually a great block to end with. I was just really bored and tired at this point. There are only so many times you can read the word "Zidovudine" before you want to take a nap and explode at the same time.
- Finished as quickly as possible and got the hell out of there!
