Study Hacks with DocOssareh – Chapter One: USMLE® Exam Day

00:00 So let's go ahead and get started.

00:03 So I am going to be your host today, my name is Nicole Shinn.

00:06 I'm responsible for Lecturio Student Engagement.

00:09 Again, this is really exciting for us today.

00:12 Because this is something that we've been wanting to do for quite some time.

00:16 And we finally were able to make it happen.

00:19 And so one of my passions is working with students, and just helping you get through that hump wherever it is that where you need that motivation.

00:30 It's one of the things I love doing the most.

00:32 So I will be your host today.

00:35 And I will be facilitating as we go through the presentation today.

00:39 Of course, the star of the show, DocOssareh.

00:45 And so I want you guys to meet him, I'm introducing him.

00:49 He has a great bio, I mean, this, he has amazing, done amazing things.

00:54 So I'm going to turn it over to him.

00:57 The floor is yours.

01:00 Alright, thank you Nicole for that very nice introduction.

01:03 And hello to everyone who's on in today.

01:06 So the topic for today's lecture.

01:09 And this is kind of a focus that I wanted to have, you know, you will study for the USMLE.

01:14 You know, you'll make it through your first two years of med school, you'll study for months and months on USMLE.

01:19 And then test day arrives.

01:21 Really I think one important key to consider is how do you ensure that test day goes well? You know, you studied, you planned out resources to use, you made a schedule, etc.

01:32 All the things that common people think about, you study the technique, you studied all the content.

01:37 And I think logistically, there is a lot that goes into test day that I think a lot of value discussing today to make sure all your hard work pays off perfectly.

01:45 So that's the topic of what we're going to do today.

01:47 That's the big overview.

01:49 And we'll have lots of details on how to make every aspect of the day go perfectly.

01:53 So you earn the high score that you put all that effort into.

01:56 So my name, I'm DocOssareh.

01:59 I had a YouTube channel called DocOssareh.

02:01 I've given lectures in Lecturio platform.

02:03 So a little bit about myself.

02:05 I'm I happen to be an M.D.-M.B.A., Southern California train, I did my own neurology at USC, my board certified general neurologist, and I completed a Vascular Neurology or Stroke Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai.

02:18 And now I work as a Stroke Neurologist or Vascular Neurologist here in Southern California.

02:22 And really, my whole focus has been, I am nothing but a normal guy.

02:27 You know, I mean, look at that photo of me before I had all that great hair.

02:30 That was the beginning of medical training, look at my hair now, the end of medical training.

02:35 But I'm just a normal guy.

02:36 What does that tell you? Anyone can do what I did.

02:39 And that's what's been my passion.

02:40 That's why I joined Lecturio.

02:42 That's when you know, joined years ago, I made that long lecture series on how to do well in academia.

02:46 Because if I can do it, frankly, anybody can.

02:49 I am as average and maybe a little below average, sometimes.

02:53 You know, but if I can do it and do well in life, treat patients well, and you know, have a great life going here.

02:58 And hopefully you can too, but just don't want anyone to know.

03:02 And let me try my best to give you all the techniques I can to help you ensure some success.

03:07 So let's see.

03:08 Next slide. Okay.

03:09 So, like we said, when I gave you a little teaser, you've done it, you've made it to test day.

03:14 Now what and that's I think the key is put that framework, even if you're in the first year of med school, the second year USMLE is around the corner or it's a bit far away.

03:23 This is something you should think about, kind of like when you go on a vacation.

03:27 It's one thing that you want to go to, say a resort.

03:31 But again, the logistical planning of getting there, you want it to be streamlined to not ruin the outcome.

03:36 The same thing here, you put a lot of time into picking a schedule, the resources, putting in all those painful hours of studying, and then also all those painful complex times of test taking strategy.

03:47 Now you have to execute it, you don't want anything to go wrong.

03:50 And that's what we're going to focus on.

03:52 So I highly recommend that we all discuss and take seriously what do you do on test day? So what happens on test day? Well, let's start really quick before test day.

04:02 Let's hope you sleep.

04:03 And I happen to have you know, I work with students privately as well.

04:07 And you know, I get texts from different people.

04:09 And recently I had a student text me the night before.

04:13 She was in a different timezone, it was 3am my time.

04:16 Why was I awake at 3am? You know what, sometimes I can't sleep.

04:19 And she texted me and she's like, "I have step one." "And you know, four or five hours I haven't slept a wink." And I was like, "Oh my God." You know, in my heart, I said, "Oh my God." But you know, for her, I was like, "That's okay, you'll do okay, you know, you got to push and push through." You're not gonna let all your hard work go to waste.

04:36 So I just say that so you know.

04:38 In real life, you may not sleep that well the night before.

04:41 And that's okay.

04:42 You know, I want to give you a real life example.

04:43 It's like we all sleep eight hours before and wake up to all smiley sunshine.

04:47 No, you may not sleep the night before.

04:49 You may be super tired, and you wake up groggy.

04:51 And the last thing you want to do is take that test.

04:53 You may think to yourself every minute, "Man, I just want to quit I don't want to call in." Let's just find an excuse.

04:58 "I have diarrhea, I can't go in." You'll find something.

05:00 No, you got to push through.

05:02 And that's number 1.

05:03 Don't feel guilty, it's real life.

05:04 Some days you don't sleep good.

05:05 When you have a lot of stress, you'll definitely not gonna always sleep well.

05:08 If you slept well, you know you got lucky.

05:11 And if you didn't, that's okay too.

05:12 So don't worry about the night before.

05:14 Sleep whatever you can the best you can, try to take it easy, I recommend not studying the night before.

05:21 You kind of want to take it easy watch some TV or just kind of relax and workout and then go to bed early the best you can.

05:28 And that's kind of my before the night thing and to let you know real things happen that can make you tired.

05:33 Now, test day.

05:34 Before test day, what we're going to do is be going to a Prometric testing centre.

05:39 Prometric is a third party company that is hired for people to take standardized exams on different platforms.

05:47 So whether you're taking the USMLE, even the MCAT, accounting tests, different platforms, you can take it at these centers.

05:54 So USMLE is only done at Prometric Center.

05:58 Now Prometric Centers are this really weird, creepy, sterile environment, which is kind of the required because you're going to go there and you're going to take a test.

06:07 And they have sterile environments of you know, weird computers, cubicles they put you in, there's cameras all around you, you're getting fingerprint.

06:16 We'll talk about a little bit more of this in a second.

06:18 But that's where you're going to go.

06:20 So the first thing you should do when you sign up for your test date is know where are the Prometric Centers around you.

06:25 And once you pick one and schedule your test day, drive to it.

06:28 Get a sense of what it's like.

06:30 I can't overemphasize this enough.

06:32 I drove to mine, I parked where I would normally park, I walked in, I found the centre, I feel like I was going to go in a bin kind of open the door.

06:39 And they asked me What are you doing here? And I said, sorry, you know, wrong, we're gonna walk back out and just kind of watch what people were doing a little bit coming in and out of the room.

06:46 That's just get a sense of it.

06:47 You don't want to show up on a damn danger.

06:49 Like, where do I park? What's the room? Where a suite 201? You know, or something like this.

06:54 You want to have a -- you know, a mind frame some pictures in your mind.

06:58 So, you know, go even the week before, it's not gonna be the day before.

07:02 Whenever you have time, drive out there and get a sense of traffic look on, you know, waze, see what traffic times are early in the morning because your test is usually at 8am.

07:10 There are pm options, but most people take 8am.

07:13 So see what the morning traffic is like, run that traffic get there.

07:18 And you want to get there early, at least 30 minutes, if not more.

07:21 I would recommend an hour and just sit in your car and hang out.

07:23 You know, review material, whatever you want to do, but get there it's an hour early.

07:27 So on test day, what happens? Let me just review the slide. Okay.

07:32 So on test day, what happens? You're going to go in and they're going to say to you, "Okay, let's go through the details here." So let's discuss the entire process in detail.

07:40 Now, first thing, you can actually do a mock test day, believe it or not at Prometric.

07:45 So what better than to drive, park, get there etc.

07:51 You can actually do a test day.

07:52 During the pandemic this one away, but pre-pandemic it was present.

07:56 And it should be present again, because testing centres are open again.

07:59 And what you do is you will schedule, I want a mock test day.

08:02 And what they'll do is they'll give you a day, usually 2-3 hours, sometimes one hour only.

08:07 And you'll get to go drive there, they'll give you a printout, you'll show up with that printout, you'll show up with your proper form of identification.

08:14 And they'll say to you, "Okay, you're here for the Mock USMLE Test day." And they'll run you through the whole thing.

08:21 There you walk in, you have to have your proper documentation, that's the form that the USMLE gives you to be able to take the test, two forms of identification usually.

08:30 I always brought a passport and a driver's license, and the names have to match.

08:34 If they don't, you need to have a third piece of paper, it's usually notarized or very formal that explains why the pay for your name isn't matching to make it clear to them.

08:42 They're very strict about this.

08:45 Everything these people are so strict about.

08:48 And you have to think why.

08:49 Prometric is a company that makes money from USMLE and other testing people to operate this test.

08:56 If they hear from someone or a complaint that oh, we gave a test and you weren't sure on the name or maybe someone cheated, etc.

09:03 That could jeopardize prometrics entire business model, and they're not going to get any more business.

09:08 So Prometric doesn't care about you, they care about themselves.

09:11 So they will do everything they can to follow the rules, and they're not going to kind of budge at all.

09:15 They're pretty strict.

09:16 And you'll even see when you go there.

09:17 They're worse than the TSA, they're rude.

09:19 They're strict, they're awkward.

09:21 They kind of treat you like a prison inmate.

09:23 And you know, just be ready for that mentally.

09:25 It's not going to be a fun day. They're not nice to you.

09:28 So the mock is great.

09:29 You get there, you get your paper, you give your documentation, you get a sense of how they kind of mess with you.

09:34 They give you a locker key, and then you have access to a locker.

09:37 You have to put everything in that locker.

09:39 You can't have a watch on even because you know they'll think, Oh, what if it's broadcasting into your ear or your brain and giving you cheat codes.

09:48 You cannot bring in any pencils.

09:50 No cell phones, obviously. Nothing.

09:53 The only jewellery you can have is like a wedding band and that's it.

09:56 Bracelets are not allowed.

09:58 I think an earring is allowed maybe, maybe not.

10:00 Just don't wear anything.

10:02 This is my point: Don't have a risk of having anything go wrong.

10:07 So I don't wear jewellery, I don't wear watches, nothing.

10:10 So just kind of get that sense going into it, they'll fingerprint you, they'll run you through the, you know, show us up your sleeves and the scanning with high COVID more of that in a second.

10:19 And then it'll put you at a weird computer.

10:22 And you know, it's usually Dell or HP really old black desktop, and they'll sit you there.

10:26 On the right, you'll have a cubicle you're sitting in, and on the right side, there'll be like two different headphones.

10:32 One is the headphone like this that you can hear on.

10:34 So the test, say has heart sounds or lung sounds, you can hear them.

10:38 And then there's other big headphones like this also.

10:41 But they're the ones that go over your ear.

10:43 And they kind of function like they're noise cancelling.

10:46 So that you can have complete silence in your ear.

10:49 It's like what you see people on the runways of airports wearing, it's the same thing.

10:53 And they can also give you little ear plugs you would put into your ear.

10:56 So you'll see all those options.

10:58 Depending on the test site, they will also give you two pencils, and a blank piece of paper or two blank pieces of paper, or two pens and two laminated pieces of paper.

11:10 Depending on what age sites different, depending on what resources they use, and then they'll let you only bring in your one form of ID, that's the only personalized thing you can bring in and the key to your locker.

11:23 So you're going to walk into there, you'll have your pencils or pen, the paper, whatever they gave you, your driver's licence, your key, and that is it.

11:32 And you're just going to go into the room, you do the mock test, it's like an hour or so long.

11:37 And usually it's like a little sample USMLE thing.

11:40 There's no score, there's no report, it doesn't go anywhere.

11:43 It's just for your education.

11:45 They don't tell you how you did, you don't know your score, nothing.

11:48 But so just a day for you to do that.

11:49 And the nice thing is, it's a few blocks.

11:51 So you can do a block, find out what it's like to take a break because for a break, you got to get up, you got to go out you got to go through security again, fingerprinting sign out, that eats up some time.

12:02 You can try going to the bathroom, using your locker key etc.

12:05 Coming back, checking back in again, fingerprint security metal scans up your sleeves up your things to check all your pockets, signed back in, go sit at the desk, again that eats up more time.

12:16 These are all good things to get a sense that as to what is your Prometric Center like.

12:20 Most prometrics are very streamlined.

12:23 These people are fast efficient to the point they're not lollygagging because they know you have a time sensitive test, and then I hear to mess with your day.

12:32 So that's the beauty of this.

12:33 And then they'll give you a piece of paper saying you did it and you get to go home.

12:37 This is the beauty of the mock test day, it's the full days, you know, exposure, but you get to do it early.

12:44 You drive there, you park, you get the sensation, you go in and check in you do some questions, you take a break and come back in etc you leave.

12:52 And now you have a lot of mental framework of what was this like? What was you know, the test day like what was so weird about it, etc? Now, you know.

13:01 So that's the beauty of the mock test day.

13:03 When you want to do this, it's the same as when you schedule it's an option on the pull down menu.

13:07 If you can't figure it out, call Prometric, call USMLE tell them, "I heard I can do a mock test day. How do I do it?" If it's not in the website, call them and make them tell you.

13:17 So that's the rationale there.

13:22 Let's see next slide.

13:24 Okay, how to prepare your documents, packers applies for success? This is key.

13:28 So as you notice, and yes, I did do a mock test.

13:32 Of course, it was great.

13:34 I'm telling you about it. So so fantastic.

13:35 Okay, so how do you prepare your documents and supplies for test date? This is key.

13:39 This is kind of like when you're packing your bags to go to a trip, you know, like packing your bag intelligently versus throwing in random stuff will make a big difference.

13:48 So here, I actually brought a folder.

13:50 This is a Word document file.

13:54 So what I did was I printed my you know the thing they give you to allow you to go into test day, I put in my ID card and my passport in there.

14:03 And that was like my document package because that's what you have to bring.

14:07 Then the question is, well, what foods do you bring? Boy, oh boy is that critical or what? So food is everything here.

14:15 So.

14:17 Sorry, one quick thing I want to mention on real test and the mock day, you are given access to a 15-minute tutorial on how do you use a mouse or a keyboard? Does your screen work? Can you hear on your headphones, etc? On mock test day run that entire 15-minute, What's it called a finish, sorry.

14:40 So on mock test day, run that entire 15-minutes roll, read every line etc get comfortable with it.

14:46 Because on real test day, we're going to pass right through that tutorial to add 15 minutes to our total break time.

14:52 So just thing before I forgot to mention that I see here.

14:56 So remember, do the entire tutorial on mock test day because on a real test day, you don't want to do it.

15:02 Also so you don't get to do a mock or you forget, that's okay.

15:06 Because you can actually do the mock tutorial, or excuse me the tutorial online on USMLE website.

15:12 So they're kind of nice about that.

15:14 Now going back to the supplies you bring up.

15:16 We have 3 questions before you go talking about mock tests.

15:19 Sharon would like to know, how do we track the time when taking a break out and watch? That's very smart. So on, you'll see on the website, so like, here's the screen up on the on this site actually, so if you're looking will be a clock.

15:35 And it'll have a countdown timer for your block and for the entire test day.

15:40 So you actually have to keep track by just using that one clock.

15:44 And I actually think it's more valuable to use that as opposed to using your watch.

15:49 Because your watch is kind of all over the place.

15:51 You know, you could get distracted with time, how long was my break, pretty hard to keep track of.

15:56 And we'll talk about how to time your breaks in the next slide or two.

15:59 But you look at the top clock, you see the clock going down, you know you have an hour per block.

16:05 And you have a few minutes for a break, 5 or 7.

16:07 Just keep that so I look at the time and I say, "Okay, write it down." I got an hour to go, next one.

16:13 And so that's how you keep track of your timeline by looking at the countdown clock on the top right hand corner.

16:18 That'll be the key.

16:20 Next, how do you bring the documents practice class? We talked about documents bring the folder, two forms of ID, the paper that has your name on it saying you're taking a test that day.

16:29 And then what do you bring? Number 1: So it's just -- closing and the food.

16:32 That's all you're gonna bring it with you.

16:34 I'm just gonna make a quick side here.

16:36 Do not bring any test study material into the testing center.

16:42 You're technically not even supposed to have it in your car or on you.

16:45 That's technically a violation.

16:48 Do the majority of people said there in their car reading first date, of course, no one's that crazy.

16:52 They're not going to come into your parking lot, y'all crazy.

16:54 But don't bring it into a test room.

16:56 They'll make a scene until you take it out.

16:58 And that just feels uncomfortable with a lot of anxiety.

17:00 And it is considered cheating.

17:02 So if you have like a book in there that they didn't see and you're taking a break and you opened it, they see the book, problems.

17:08 So do not bring any material into the room.

17:11 Leave it in the car, leave it at home, I don't care.

17:13 Don't take the risk.

17:15 And guess what if you say like you're taking a break, and you're like man in my car, I could look this up.

17:19 I just had this question about it.

17:20 Don't do it. Don't be stupid.

17:22 If you get caught, gameover.

17:24 The one thing you may remember, maybe it'll come up later.

17:27 Maybe it won't. It ain't worth it.

17:29 Don't do it.

17:29 Don't take any risks on this day.

17:31 It's the most important test day.

17:33 You know your medical career is on all these little stupid tests, don't risk it.

17:37 So, close.

17:39 What do you wear? I keep it simple.

17:41 Most testing centres are cold. They run the AC.

17:44 Why do they run the AC? I'm not sure maybe to torture you.

17:47 But I always wear long pants, socks and some super comfortable shoes.

17:52 I usually wear like clogs because it's what I used to wear back in the day in the hospital.

17:56 My last test at worst on my crocs, I know very attractive.

18:00 You can also wear some vans that's my worst like skateboarding shoes just be comfortable.

18:03 And then you know, kind of loose baggy jeans and a T shirt and then a like pullover sweater like, what's it called, like a pullover hoodie sweater.

18:13 The reason here is you cannot -- So the clothes there.

18:19 You cannot technically take your jacket on or off during your testing canter.

18:24 Usually you can do it, no one's gonna care, like just unzip it.

18:27 You can open it if you're hot. And if you're cold, zip it back up.

18:31 The reason is, you don't want to like overdressed warm and then you can't be like you know, take off all your clothes.

18:36 They'd asked you to step outside, you know eat up your time to do that.

18:39 So long pants is chill, put on some shoes, a t-shirt because if you're cold you can zip up the hoodie and if you're hot open it up and kind of do like this.

18:48 And you're good to go.

18:48 If you notice going to test day, it's really hot.

18:51 On your next break, you could just take off a sweater even take off your socks and put your shoes on without them or just walk around with your socks. I don't know.

18:58 No one's gonna care.

18:59 But you can protect your temperature.

19:00 Who cares how you look? I just took my neurology boards last September I showed up in scrubs, you know because I'm comfortable in scrubs. I wear them.

19:07 I showed up in scrubs.

19:10 Yeah, and then I see a question here from Excel Judy or Jude.

19:13 Do not, no.

19:14 Can you review notes on a break? No.

19:16 You do that you're gonna get slammed.

19:18 These people are so strict.

19:19 So high school, man people are chill in high school entrance test.

19:22 This is your medical licence, you know.

19:24 The lives of people is in your hand.

19:25 Don't do a girl or a boy.

19:28 Okay, so we talked about clothes, wear some comfortable shoes, don't wear flip flops, it gets cold socks, loose jeans, pants, you know a t-shirt and like a zip up hoodie.

19:37 And again, I recommend zip or button so you can open it like this to stay cool.

19:42 You know kind of some pro tips and again, they're going to be picky about the hood.

19:45 You can't put it on.

19:47 They're annoying, but I like to keep it on my neck.

19:49 Okay, and that's it.

19:50 Now. food.

19:51 What do you do for food? So we talked about the supplies the folder, we talked about the clothes, the classic setup, you know.

19:57 You look like a young college kid sort of.

19:59 And then for the food.

20:01 I brought a lot of food.

20:03 I could have fed three kids with the food I bring.

20:05 And I do it on every single test day.

20:07 Why? You don't want to run out, who cares stored away at the end.

20:12 So drinks, snacks and main courses is in the restaurant, it's USMLE.

20:17 Some drinks, I would bring, I think a coffee.

20:21 Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

20:23 I'm not good at the slides.

20:24 So I'd bring the coffee, okay.

20:27 And then I always bring a small thing of coffee cuz I don't want to get to buzz.

20:30 I bring some tea because I like to start the morning with coffee and then have tea later.

20:35 Do whatever works for you.

20:36 If you're a person that likes to slam bread bowls and do crazy things, don't change it now.

20:41 I just never liked that stuff.

20:42 I couldn't do energy drinks.

20:43 They were too high low for me.

20:45 And I can't drink too much coffee.

20:46 So I had a little coffee in the morning I finished it.

20:49 And then I went to tea and then water.

20:51 I also brought Gatorade because sometimes you just need that sugar kind of to help you going.

20:55 So that's my thing.

20:56 Every little small thing a coffee.

20:57 A big thing a tea like a big thermos, a big thing of water and I think of Gatorade.

21:03 So that's my drink setup.

21:04 Snack setup.

21:05 I bring bananas just whole bananas because you can peel them and eat a really quick.

21:10 Chocolate you know, it's like chocolate you break off squares and again, you can just you can eat that and walk in that's kind of the beauty of this.

21:17 Again, a dark chocolate gets a bit more spice for your life and it kind of wakes you up more.

21:21 Apples, cut them up, don't try to eat them like this, you know, chewing and making a big scene cutting up shoving your mouth you could eat him with the skin.

21:29 Why? Spice of life, exactly.

21:31 Apples to keep you more awake, the skin eat the red one, so yummy.

21:36 Okay, that's just me.

21:37 You can have a snack to like, but that's my setup.

21:39 And then main course one thing one thing only.

21:41 Classic. What is it? What is it? PB&J.

21:45 Right? Are we in high school? Are we in kindergarten? I don't know.

21:47 But PB&J is my favorite.

21:49 Why? When I was studying for step 1, first I would go library I'd bring banana with me PB&J and Apple and like a water and my tea.

21:57 So that was kind of my setup.

21:58 And I wasn't going to break it on game day.

22:00 I didn't even change the brand of coffee that I use.

22:03 I was drinking like this weird cheap you bond stuff.

22:06 And I kind of outgrew it.

22:07 But on test day I bust out that cheap you bond....

22:10 This is my point to you, whatever you eat and drink in normal life, do it on test day, don't try to mix it up.

22:16 Don't be eat heavy, don't be eat in crazy.

22:19 And I'm just telling you the foods that I eat because it's just works well for me.

22:25 And hopefully you can kind of copy them if you like.

22:27 But don't eat anything heavy.

22:28 Don't eat anything intense because the last thing you want is to eat a lot of food, all that blood to go into your enteric system, you're going to get tired lightheaded, not what you want.

22:36 You want to be like an athlete, just keep racing that endurance pattern.

22:40 That's the goal of what we want.

22:41 So that's my rational for my food.

22:44 And if you notice, none of my food is messy.

22:47 The PB&J, you eat it in a ziploc bag, the apples you just put an amount, chocolates in the wrapper, bananas peeled, throw it away.

22:54 So clean, easy, efficient.

22:55 So that's my style.

22:57 So we talked about how to bring the documents, what clothes to wear, what food to eat.

23:00 Now, the most difficult thing of all, how do you time your breaks, man? Okay, you have seven blocks on USMLE.

23:08 When I took it initially it was 6, then they changed it.

23:12 Why? To make you suffer, that's why.

23:15 Really, I think they did.

23:16 Because if you have more blocks, true you have less questions per block.

23:21 But now it means your...

23:24 break time is a lot less.

23:26 So if you have 7 blocks, the first question you have is, well, when do I take a break relative to the block.

23:33 So you know, you go in on exam day, you know, you get given your -- Information, they'll give you the key, you open up the key to the locker, you put your food, you know your ID in there.

23:44 And that's it, so simple.

23:47 And then you know, you go in there they do the fingerprinting, they do the metal detection, they sign you in.

23:52 And then you go into the room you sit down, you click start, and it'll say here's a 15-minute tutorial to waste your life and to eat up 15 minutes of your break time.

24:00 Don't use that 15-minute tutorial because either experienced it.

24:05 Can you drink water if it isn't a break time? No.

24:08 How are you going to have the water? You can't have water by the computer.

24:11 You don't let you go until you, when you go in all you get is the pen or paper and the pencil thing you know, pen, pencils and paper, your key for the locker and your ID.

24:20 That's it.

24:22 You can't drink water.

24:23 For that hour, you got to be a big kid gotta toughen up.

24:27 Alright, so you go into the room.

24:29 And you know you sit down the computer, you click start the tutorial because you saw the tutorial on the mock day or we logged into the platform that you download something on Java, JavaScript, that's old school, and that opens up the tutorial for you on your own home computer where you can experience it and test it.

24:46 The only thing I recommend testing on actual exam day is make sure the screen looks fine, which takes the longest look and there it is and make sure you put on the headphones and they'll have a button for your test that, you know, the headphones speakers, hit test, hear the audio make sure work.

25:01 If those two things are good, you know, it'll have you type a little something you want to type on to somebody, it's all a mouse click, you know, click Next.

25:09 And you're good to go, just keep hitting next, I think they're important to read because you already read it.

25:13 And then you just now consumed your 15 minutes of break time into your normal break time.

25:18 So if they give you several blocks, they give you an hour per block, and then you get 45 minutes of break time.

25:28 And if you don't use your 15 minutes of your tutorial, now you have an hour break time.

25:33 So you go in, you click start, finish the tutorial, you hit, let's go, block one is initiated.

25:39 So if countdown timer starts in the top right, where you will see a total time countdown and the block countdown because you only have an hour per block that then I kind of let you, you know, spend too much time per block and not get it done.

25:51 They're gonna make sure you get it done.

25:53 So but there is a little bit of wiggle room where you could screw it up.

25:56 So you'd start block one, you know, it's an hour, and you start doing the questions because you were doing Qbanks at home, you know you're doing and then the blocks coming to an end.

26:05 And then you finish it.

26:07 If you finished before an hour, you know, you could finish and whatever time you finished early does get added to your break time.

26:13 So that's nice.

26:14 They don't take it away from you.

26:15 And then then you finish the first block, then the question is, do you take a break or do you keep going? This is completely based on how you prepped.

26:25 So I was the type that after every block, I wanted to get up, go to the bathroom, drink a little water, eat a little snack, sit back down kind of move.

26:33 That was me.

26:35 I knew people who on test day did you know two blocks three blocks back to back and then it took a break.

26:41 I even know one person who did the entire test sitting that was psycho to me, don't do that.

26:46 I don't know, I don't like that.

26:47 I like the idea of being normal, you know, take a break after you block, maybe take a break every two blocks in between, you know, after four blocks, have a little lunch break for yourself.

26:56 So that's what I did.

26:57 So here's my setup, complete block one, then take a 7-minute break, go to the bathroom, eat a little piece of apple, -- a fourth that your sandwich, a little bit of coffee, tea, water, whatever you want, and then come back in.

27:10 And remember, it takes about 4 minutes to you know, get out and back in into the center with the fingerprinting the name, the you know, scanning for metal, etc.

27:22 So that's already 4 minutes that you're seven gone, and gives you 3 minutes to run to the bathroom and eat and come back in.

27:28 So I just tell you be ready to move.

27:31 Like it's not like a casual break, it's kind of a rushed break.

27:35 But you know, you can get up move around.

27:37 So I did a break after every block.

27:39 And I gave myself 7 minutes at the halfway point after block 4.

27:44 You know, because it's seven blocks. After all, it's kind of odd, you could do it after break block 3 or block 4, whenever you want to eat lunch, then I took a 15-minute break.

27:53 Gave myself a little more time.

27:55 You know, after block 3 or 4, I would recommend doing it after 4.

27:58 Because after you've done four out of seven, you need a moment to recalibrate.

28:03 And this is the most important thing I may tell you today.

28:05 It's a concept called buckling down.

28:07 I was taught this years ago and it's been paramount to my life and success.

28:12 Whenever you start to feel tired or weak or I don't I'm kind of over it.

28:17 That's when you feel that you tell yourself, "Listen, everyone feels is right now, if I can buckle down and double down to work harder focus and you know, recalibrate myself.

28:27 Now with everyone else starts to drift down, I'm going to drift up so eat now the gap between my success will be greater.

28:33 So throughout the assembly and throughout life, when you start to feel the urge to be slacking and lazy, amp it up.

28:39 And that's the point where you will differentiate yourself from other people and get better in life.

28:43 And in this case, do better on the exam.

28:45 So block 1, 7-minute break, take block 2, 7-minute break, block 3, 7-minute break, block 4, 15-minute lunch break, eat a whole sandwich, go to the bathroom again, drink a little more water, etc.

28:59 So I like to take a break after everyone, I go to the bathroom after every block, I eat a little bit and snack.

29:05 And then like I said, after block 4, we take our 15-minute break, which is our lunch break.

29:10 And then after you complete block 7, you're all done.

29:12 That's nice.

29:14 So that's our snack schedule.

29:16 We talked about the break schedule.

29:17 And now the question becomes some personal time management here.

29:20 Now, this is kind of going to be contingent on how you practice on your Qbank.

29:25 But for me, I would get the questions done in under an hour.

29:29 Not drastically a couple minutes. That's fair --.

29:31 And it's up to you whether you want to...

29:38 Sorry, it's up to you whether you want to use that extra time that you finished early and just apply it to your break time or if you want to eat up the hour of you know, because you'd like to have each block just be one hour because you're like I don't need that much break time and just review questions that you flagged.

29:54 Up to you, I repeat questions that I flagged and I told myself, "Don't change it unless you're 100% sure it needs to be changed." Just in general thing, they do say that if you change the answer, if you pick one, you're likely going to go from right to wrong.

30:09 Unless you're 100% rights that no longer applies to you.

30:12 So that's where I think you could do an override from this myth.

30:15 And just, you know, kind of tell yourself, I know what I'm doing. I picked it initially wrong.

30:20 I thought about some more, I think actually it, I'm more clear now.

30:23 So if I have time left over on a block and the hour section of each block, I use it up, I don't apply it to my break.

30:28 I think there's ample break time because I'm quick to get in and out, go to the bathroom and snack.

30:33 So kind of how that works.

30:36 Yeah, so we talked about that.

30:37 Okay, now, the importance of your mental state, and how it leads to success.

30:41 So this is a bit about, we kind of gave a teaser about it, about your mental health.

30:48 Looking forward to how you decide to fight question, that's up to you.

30:51 So when you're doing a question, you can you know, if you're unsure, I pretty much like anything I'm uncertain about, which means I may flag a lot of questions.

31:00 But again, that's my style.

31:01 That's how I did it when I was cube banking.

31:03 That's how I did it when I was preparing.

31:05 So it only made sense to kind of continue doing that.

31:09 Now, you may find that that's not going to work for you.

31:12 Because after you finish your test, if you have a bunch of things flagged How do you review? I just likes to do that. Because after I reviewed them, I mean, after I flagged them, after I finished the block, I could go back and look at it.

31:22 I just like to see what I was uncertain about.

31:25 And I could be like, Yeah, I still don't know, I don't know on the flag it I make it go away or if I think you know what, I think I could figure this out and have time left over.

31:32 I give myself a minute or 2 extra and try my best to get that one right.

31:35 So that's my strategy for flagging.

31:38 Alright, so the importance of your mental state and how it can lead to success.

31:41 This is outrageously important.

31:42 How you go into there is so important, you got to have the right state of mind.

31:46 If you're for dazzled or freaking out are panicking isn't going to help.

31:50 And if you're too disconnected like that, either.

31:52 So, number 1 that we said, you know, the day before the exam, that's when the mindset starts.

32:00 Don't go crazy.

32:01 Don't be doing a bunch of questions and a bunch of tests.

32:04 And then maybe you don't do well and you start doubting yourself in like, oh my god, I'm gonna fail.

32:08 Let's not do that.

32:09 It's just too late review all day, you've done plenty of questions.

32:12 If you haven't then okay, it's a choice.

32:14 You're gonna be slamming questions to get into it.

32:16 But if you hopefully have been you know, preparing well, you feel comfortable with your questions, skills, and you can just take do some light review all day and take the afternoon evening off, take a chill, sleep the best you can and accept that it may not work.

32:30 And again accepting this and having this mindset beforehand, sets expectations and makes the day go easier.

32:36 You need to be relaxed and calm.

32:38 You know, don't do anything wild than I have before.

32:41 Do not celebrate. You're not even done yet.

32:43 Wait till you're completely done.

32:45 Don't even think about celebrating until you're completely done.

32:48 Here's a real life thing.

32:49 I remember I was taking a different test and this guy, he was like man, I had planned this whole party to go to Vegas after my test and towards the end of his test he was thinking about the trip what club he was going to go to who is going to hang out with and it distracted him and that's what I mean.

33:08 Don't think too much about what am I going to you know, don't put yourself in that position.

33:12 The mind frame is so important.

33:15 So really focus on putting yourself simple, think about celebrating later you have plenty of time etc.

33:21 Eat, you know, eat clean, wake up early.

33:24 Because you know last thing you want to do is wake up in the morning rushed like "O my god I slept in", "Oh my god I didn't plan this well." Now there's lots of traffic I may be late quickly getting things ready. No.

33:35 Get all the food ready the night before.

33:38 Everything piled up ready to go into pile documents already so all you do is wake up, do your quick morning routine whatever it is, eat some breakfast.

33:48 You know, put on your clothes that you've already prepared the night before because we talked about our outfit, put them on, grab the food, grab the documents and go.

33:59 So that's that's a good trick there.

34:01 And that's simple because you want to remove things.

34:03 Again you don't get there an hour early, I don't care sit your car watch YouTube.

34:08 You know take it easy do questions if you want I don't care flashcards.

34:11 But again, get there early because last thing you want to do is be rushing worried about traffic, maybe get a speeding ticket etc.

34:17 Don't do that, be clever wake up early, be prepared, take it easy.

34:22 Now like I said when you mental frame here this is going to be quite a second most important thing I tell you.

34:27 When you get there you're going to see a bunch of other kids taking the test because the way Prometric does it is they have like sections of test days that they do for different tests.

34:35 So when you go there mostly kids are gonna be taking USMLE.

34:38 You know the day before it could have been most the case taking the accounting exam etc.

34:42 Now, when you go there you guys see a lot of other kids in there and they're all going to be you know, having their med school sweaters on, talking about step 1 that we chit chat with each other.

34:52 Stay away from it.

34:54 Like I said, the second most important thing I'm telling you today, stay away from it.

34:58 Be that weird kid look at the floor, look at the corner, go sit by yourself, don't talk to anyone, don't make eye contact.

35:04 The last thing you want to do is be talking to all these people and getting yourself messed up.

35:10 Because all those kids who are talking or their little chatter annoying boxes, who are trying to get into everyone else's head, and those people are gonna think, "Oh, yeah, I did, you know, a Qbank five times, and I've been scoring, you know, perfect, and I want to go into or so or plastics." I don't care what anyone has to say.

35:26 All that is, is noise that's getting into your head and distracting you from success.

35:31 So I'm really big about that.

35:33 Be in your own mind.

35:35 You can't unfortunately, put in headphones, listen to music, they make a thing about that again.

35:39 So what do I do, I just sit there and kind of like serve myself, look in the corner.

35:42 Don't talk to anyone.

35:44 You know, who cares what anyone thinks about you, this is your very important test day.

35:48 So ignore everyone.

35:50 Don't talk, try your best to not hear anything.

35:53 A lot of testing centers now have a no talking policy, which it's really creepy, when you go in there it's dead silent.

35:59 But I like it now before it wasn't like that.

36:01 So you might hopefully it's like that where you go.

36:04 And, you know, just kind of keep yourself away from all that baloney, from all that noise, let it go.

36:08 And again, don't bring your phone into testing center.

36:11 Leave it in the car, the last thing you want to do is them saying your phone went off, you got a taxi looked at it. That's cheating.

36:17 Don't even take the risk.

36:18 Don't bring anything in except the clothes you're wearing, your document package and the food and drink.

36:23 That's it. Keep it simple.

36:25 Now, so that's the importance of mental state.

36:27 And I'm telling you, you got to plan all the stuff the night before.

36:29 So you have a low stress morning, get there, keep to yourself, stay in your own bubble.

36:33 And the truth is me a lot better because you're in your own zone the whole time, no one can distract you.

36:40 All right, now here are some tips for how to stay focus on exam day.

36:44 Now, if you're taking step 1, you have a lot of experience for taking very long exams for extended period of times, you may have taken an exam to get into undergrad, you may have taken an exam to get in for the MCAT to get into med school, etc.

37:00 This isn't rare to you.

37:01 So this is where it's important.

37:03 You know the sense you got to go back again to the first most important thing I told you about buckling down.

37:09 If you have seven blocks on exam day, and you're on block five, let's say or six, when you start to get tired.

37:15 This actually happened to me on step 1, I started to get so tired.

37:20 For a few moments, I had some doubts that I was like, You know what, I may not be able to do this.

37:25 I'm tired. Like I don't know what's going to happen here.

37:28 And what I had to do was buckle down.

37:31 I told myself, man, I won't block six.

37:33 I'm tired as hell, I don't feel like doing this.

37:35 All I want to do is go home.

37:37 But I have no choice. I'm here, I'm stuck.

37:39 I might as well suffer, you know, make it happen.

37:44 So what do you do that you have to mentally tell yourself, everyone else must be tired too.

37:48 And they're all slacking now.

37:50 So what am I going to do? I'm going to amp it up.

37:52 So how would you do this, you can just magically turn it on.

37:56 Number 1. You got to tell yourself that and go okay, got it.

37:59 Second, there is this thing you can do called a tension exercise to help yourself get better.

38:05 When you're in the room, this is where you do this.

38:08 Now you sit there and he served from your feet and you go all the way up to your neck and you start contracting every muscle, your toes, your foot, your calves, your thighs, your buttocks, your core, your back, your arms, your shoulders, your neck and your face.

38:20 And you hold it for like 10-15 seconds, whatever you can.

38:24 And then you suddenly let it all go and you take a deep breath.

38:27 You're allowed to take deep breaths, right exam day.

38:29 You're actually also allowed to talk to yourself, I talk to myself a lot.

38:34 And not like in a weird way but like I kind of like...

38:36 Could this be this could be done, I don't know.

38:38 And I kind of read questions in a whispery tone my 25 year old male past medical history, okay, you know, that's okay, no one's gonna care. Everyone kind of does that.

38:47 So do this kind of you know, tense thing go, take a deep breath, no one's gonna care, you can breathe, take noise, it makes some noises.

38:54 So that's something you can do when you're in the test we can't leave for a break in the middle of a blocking need to recalibrate.

38:59 Take 30 seconds to do that it helps tremendously.

39:02 Something separate you can do is we need to block for the break, run around outside.

39:09 You know, kind of move stretch yell I don't care what you got to do.

39:12 Do whatever you got to do to get it out to wake yourself back up.

39:15 So that's what you know the brakes are for amp yourself up.

39:18 There are some people okay, I forgot to tell you this, who bring stimulants with them.

39:23 Whether you take them or not, whether it's caffeine gum, nicotine gum, nicotine patches, prescription drugs, illegal illicit drugs, I don't care.

39:33 Some people do them probably a lot more than people want to do them.

39:36 I would say I've seen too many things on Prometric bathrooms.

39:39 But just so you know, you know, don't do anything crazy.

39:42 You know, if other people have seen it, they could report you.

39:44 So just be aware.

39:46 You know, this is a zone where you have to really protect yourself.

39:49 So be cautious.

39:51 Now, okay, so that's kind of some key things to stay focused, double down, buckle down when you get hard.

39:56 It'll make you different for everyone else.

39:58 Do the tension techniques early on.

40:00 In exam rooms during the breaks, run outside, eat some foods, get the sun, go to the bathroom a lot, a lot of water, whatever you got to do to make it happen.

40:08 And we talked about the stretching technique already.

40:11 So perfect.

40:11 And then let's go through some art big takeaway points, we discussed a lot of logistical things that hopefully now are simple to you.

40:20 So get the test takes place in a very awkward and sterile Prometric testing centre, you want to be familiar, do a mock test drive there beforehand, get a sense of what it's like, so that when you get there, you're not totally freaked out, or hopefully through this lecture, you kind of heard, okay, it's a really weird thing.

40:37 They're making you dress certain I can't bring anything in with me.

40:42 No water, no pills, no, nothing, you know, they're scanning me for metal to show them up my sleeves and up my ankles at minutes to get fingerprinted assigned in and out now that you're aware of it.

40:53 And hopefully you can experience it, that can really help you on exam day.

40:57 And again, plan every single break.

40:59 I spent so much time before test day.

41:01 So there was paper, writing block 1, block 2, you know, all the way to block seven, I had six but you guys have seven now and thinking okay, 45 minutes, let's just say at 50 because it used up five by accident 50.

41:12 I was dividing you know, minutes, okay, 7, 8, maybe 15. Whatever.

41:16 I told you 7, 7, 7, 15. 7, 7 is how I do it for the break minutes.

41:21 But again, plan what works for you.

41:22 If you're a person that does two blocks at a time, okay, maybe take longer breaks, whatever happens.

41:28 So plan your breaks well before in advance the food, I told you what I eat, pack them all the night before put them right there, whatever's in the fridge, whatever's on the kitchen counter, ready to go and exam date, no crap.

41:39 You can stay in your own mental space.

41:41 Everyone's going to be chit chatting and talking about nonsense, you know.

41:45 This I did, I took this, I say that I've been scoring this, I don't want to hear any of it.

41:49 You want to hear whatever's in your head, keep it chilled, buckle down in the later blocks, it improves your score.

41:55 Everyone else is getting tired and lame, you're not because you have techniques we talked about, you're going to do substantially better.

42:01 It's that few score difference.

42:03 It's that crazy.

42:04 A few questions is what separates higher scores from low ones.

42:08 Because on average, most people do well, you know, you're in a crowd of very accomplished people who are very good at tests.

42:14 So for the most part, everyone's going to be doing very well.

42:16 And when you can buckle down well, at the end, it works out for you.

42:19 And again, some of the techniques, we talked about the muscle relaxing and releasing, controlling your stress, getting a snack walking outside, you know, etc.

42:30 And then here we go.

42:31 So, I don't know if the call is doing this, but I'll be your presenter.

42:35 Hey, do you want to prepare for the USMLE? Try Lecturio for free for one weekend.

42:39 There's no credit card neccesary. I'm kidding.

42:42 But let me see some of the questions here.

42:43 Okay, what tips would you give if you were taking the LSAT? It's the exact same thing.

42:49 And because again, this stuff is not like specific to USMLE if you took my wife took the accounting test and actually the CPA, we use all the same techniques here LSAT, exact same thing.

43:00 And you may discuss that, you know, the more time you put into preparing this the food, the exposure that drive, it's just on exam day, it's seamless you go, you perform, you go home, hopefully good result.

43:16 That was, that was wonderful.

43:19 But I was going to open the floor up for any more questions.

43:23 - So we're having a good time. - Sure, sure.

43:25 So if you have any other questions that you'd like to ask, now's the time to answer some questions before we get to this slide.

43:35 -- I was looking through all the...

43:41 Yeah, I think we answered.

43:44 I think it's Sharon.

43:47 Yeah. Here's a question from Sharon.

43:49 Sharon said, No, you can't take the you can leave the paper and pen at your desk.

43:54 When you leave to go take a break, the only thing you bring with you is your ID and the key your locker nothing else because they want to check your ID and you can get access to your locker.

44:03 Let's say for example, your paper fills up.

44:06 What do you do just have to raise it, it's way awkward or if your pen breaks or the pencil isn't working, you just raise it.

44:11 Keep your hand up and someone will come to you.

44:14 It'll give you a new one take oh by the way.

44:16 So man's asking, can you take prescriptions during the day? You can't I mean, think about it like food.

44:25 So only during a break. Can you do anything and if you're gonna do anything sketchy, do it in like your car or bathroom but frankly, you're not gonna have time you know, if you're gonna run to the parking lot not enough time, you'll you'll be surprised at checking in and checking out takes so much time, the security, the writing in, the fingerprinting.

44:45 All this takes forever.

44:46 So you're you're not going to do these things.

44:48 So you get a super bad headache in the middle.

44:50 Yeah, that's worth it.

44:51 Eat up a couple minutes, run your car, take a bunch of motor and title, slam some water and come back.

44:56 But again, these are just like logical things you would do.

45:00 No more whiteboards. So it's whiteboard laminate paper, pencil.

45:03 I haven't seen whiteboards boards in a long time.

45:06 I know we're talking about but how do you here at the CES pathway 6, skills physical skills pathway? Well that's very different because that's your CS test where you walk into the exam rooms.

45:24 That one apply it to a different test because that's a whole different thing about what do you wear that day? How do you greet the patient? CS, believe it or not, people fail.

45:34 Good doctors from US med schools are big names.

45:38 So CS, we'll have to do a whole different thing.

45:41 If you're in high school and watching this Farshad, good job.

45:43 When I was in high school, I was trying to download illegal like songs on Napster, so and playing Counter Strike like a nerd.

45:51 Okay, and eating Mike and mountain Mike's pizza watching Sacramento Kings.

45:54 Do they have vending machines or small capture? No, that's a very good point.

45:58 This is all in what's called a business park.

46:00 For those of you that are not familiar with commercial real state, business parks are just like big buildings with a bunch of different suites.

46:07 And this is just one of those.

46:08 So you show up and there is like a random building and random suite inside of it with no big name or anything.

46:14 That's where you go.

46:15 And it's like a bathroom that everyone share.

46:16 It's very uncomfortable.

46:18 And USMLE there you go.

46:23 Can you take exams in USA? I mean, USMLE I'm not sure what you mean by that.

46:28 Are there any med programs that don't require undergraduate degrees anymore? No.

46:31 They are strict.

46:33 How can we motivate ourselves when... Okay, that's a really good point.

46:38 That's a whole different topic of how you motivate yourself.

46:40 But it kind of comes down to the inner question of what are you trying to do that day? Whether you're at home studying you don't want to do it, I kind of just tell myself the opposite.

46:48 If I don't do it, I'm going to feel really pissed off and guilty later.

46:52 And usually you have to do the suffering anyways.

46:54 I'm really big and suffer early feel good that it's over and then know that rewards coming so that's kind of how I do it.

47:02 I just tell myself I'm just going to suffer and get over with, turn off my distractions and then just you know enjoy the free time afterwards.

47:09 Like right now you know I'm doing this by myself after this I'm gonna watch Fast and Furious 1, get ready for a Fast and Furious 9 coming out, you know, well review.

47:18 So I don't know we answer man had a question.

47:20 Can you take prescriptions during the day? I don't know if we address that.

47:23 Only if you take it like during a break.

47:26 Okay.

47:27 But I would do it like you know, when you're eating the sandwich, quickly put it in, drink the water.

47:31 And then we have would you say slagging many questions with psych you out? I don't know, if we addressed that.

47:37 You only you only do that.

47:39 Do what works for you when you're doing your Qbank prep.

47:42 I flagged a lot, some people never flag.

47:45 So if you think it's gonna like you, don't do it.

47:48 But again, just on exam day mimic what you did on like when you were sitting there Qbanking your time, don't try to change your technique on test day.

47:58 And then there is a question regarding what do you suggest for those who are planning to take CK in this case? CK is same thing because it's the exact same format.

48:13 There you have eight blocks with an hour of time, so you get even less in between.

48:18 But same thing, same food.

48:19 Once you learn this technique for step 1, you will mimic it for step 2, for step 3, for your boards, for your specialty, even for your sub specialty boards.

48:29 I mean, like I said, I just took neurology boards in September, I wore scrubs and I still ate bananas, peanut butter, jelly, chocolate, had my tea, my coffee.

48:37 I hated it.

48:38 By the end of the test, I was like I don't want to eat PB&J for a while.

48:42 Because you know, I've done it every single test day.

48:44 So any test you take identical planning, identical clothes and execution always works.

48:50 And then we have a question.

48:51 I'm asking what is step 3? So step 3, so they're USMLE step 1, 2 and 3.

48:58 Step 1 is the basic science review.

49:00 So yes, it's a review of your first two years of med school.

49:03 Step 2 is clinical basic science.

49:06 That's a review of your third and fourth year of your medical rotations from the different specialties, surgery, internal medicine, neurology, OB GYN, etc.

49:14 Step 3 is actual clinical practice.

49:16 So you take step 1, after your second year of med school, you take step 2 after your fourth year or during your fourth year of med school.

49:24 And then you take step 3 after or during your intern year.

49:28 So at that point, you already graduated med school, you're out there working as an intern, you're learning how to treat patients and finally being a doctor with a long white coat.

49:36 And you're expected to go home and save for step 3 at night.

49:38 And you take step 3, which is actual clinical management.

49:42 They'll ask you like okay, so you're seeing a patient, they have heart failure, they're taking this medication at this dose, what should you do? So it's much more real.

49:50 And then after you finish step 3, you get a medical licence in practice.

49:55 And then Sharon has a question.

49:57 Do we all start at the same time in the morning or can I start at like 8am and other people at 10am? So it's everyone's going to get scheduled at 8.

50:07 And they're going to start bringing people in, like, Okay, you come on in, they scan you, you're all set up seven minutes later, they take the next one in.

50:14 So everyone's gonna get there the same time, but actually in the order received, you will get seated.

50:19 So if you show up late you may be starting at 9.

50:22 And then is it possible to study 8 hours a day? Is that something that's feasible? Easy, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

50:31 Why is it easy? It's called the taco Sora Pomodoro technique, or the Pomodoro Technique, aka study for 5-minute I mean, sorry, study for 30 minutes, and then take a 5-minute break, study for 30 minutes, take a 5-minute break.

50:46 How does this work? It gives you a sense that during the 30 minutes of studying, you turn off your phone, put on airplane mode, no Facebook, nothing.

50:55 For 30 minutes, you go hard.

50:57 Then, you know the timer beeps that you went off, you get a five minute break of doing whatever you want.

51:02 I don't care if you jump off the roof naked for five minutes, five minutes of freedom.

51:06 And then you know, when the timer goes off.

51:08 Again, it's back to studying.

51:10 So that's the rationale of how we study for a long time is 30 minutes, you know, a break is coming to break you enjoy the five minutes go back to it.

51:17 That's called the Pomodoro Technique.

51:20 And spending more questions, is that equal better scores? Yes, there's actually a direct correlation between the number of questions you do and your outcome.

51:31 Because the test is kind of threefold.

51:34 It's the content you get into stuff.

51:37 It's test taking strategy, which you start to get better at and experience while doing lots of questions.

51:43 And it's exam day management.

51:44 So if you have those three things, and I think the majority of people just focus on the one which is content.

51:50 It doesn't matter what you know, if you don't know how to perform on a standardized test, and how to strategize and use the question, it's not going to go well.

51:58 Although actually on Lecturio, I was just doing a review.

52:01 Because it made me, there is a bunch of walkthrough videos that I had to do for step 1 and step 2, where I tell you how to do like, I do a question with you.

52:10 And I tell you everything going on in my head, and how I tackle it.

52:13 So you could watch that and kind of learn test taking strategy that was painful to do, because showing you how my brain works was painful.

52:21 But we did it. And that's I think valuable.

52:23 Because once you learn the material, you gotta learn like, how do I eliminate questions? How do I read a question quickly? What are the techniques? That's what we use.

52:31 And today, we talked about all the technical aspects.

52:33 So you should really be set.

52:35 And one last question, because that was a perfect segue.

52:38 But I want to make this answer.

52:40 What is the average time to prepare for step 1? Well, that's hard.

52:46 So it depends how good are you are.

52:48 Now if your normal, people will just like, you know, study the first 2 years and take like 1-3 months of hardcore studying at least a month, there's no way to get them on.

52:59 Really, people are getting crazy now.

53:02 So step 1, by the way, is now pass fail.

53:04 So does that mean you should slack off and just get a pass and be like, Oh, P=MD.

53:08 No, because this is the thing nobody told you.

53:11 And this isn't in all the articles on Kevin MD or whoever.

53:14 Step 1. Content will haunt you for the rest of your life.

53:17 Step 2. It's there. Step 3 is there.

53:20 For your geneeral boards, it's there.

53:22 I took neurology boards and it was on there.

53:25 So step 1, content never goes away.

53:28 So it is in your favor to memorize it and do well in step 1.

53:31 It's not even the last pass fail, it's going to impact your next scores for 2 or 3 years -- in your whatever boards you take.

53:39 So you know, what people are doing now is first year of med school people are Qbanking and watching Lecturio videos or whatever videos while they're seeing their lectures in class to learn what is high yield, how to do a Qbank.

53:51 And if you think about if you were doing a little by little over 2 years, you're gonna have a lot better performance than the guy who crammed it at 1-3 months.

53:57 That's just real life.

53:59 And if you're thinking, oh my god, I'm an MS2, I didn't do it.

54:01 Who cares? Do it now.