These students plateau early and have trouble progressing in their studies. You may get some questions correct with this approach, but you will find your scores to be remarkably below average. For example, this is someone who skims the entire case and sees “pain radiating to the back” and immediately picks aortic dissection but misses that the answer is actually pancreatitis. The buzzword medical student doesn’t really understand what’s going on but only looks for patterns. On the other hand, there’s the other pitfall-buzzwords. Practice makes perfect: learn how to be comfortable reading questions at the needed pace by always practicing with timed blocks so you have real exam-day pressure on you at all times. Take a deep breath, take a step back, and let the question flow and read the case, accepting that the entire picture may not make sense until you get to the end. Avoid being an overanalyzer at all costs! If you ever find yourself spending too much time on a question and getting bogged down with the details, remind yourself that you have the information needed to get the question correct-all you have to do is find the pattern in the question to arrive at the correct answer. Generally, students who overanlayze not only miss the question, but they don’t have time to finish their entire block. This is probably the worst habit to have and needs to be actively avoided. This bias exists more in anxious students who are afraid to miss anything. They will get bogged down in the details and will never arrive at the correct answer because they can’t distill down the myriad of facts being presented. The student who tries to interpret every single word and derive meaning from everything won’t be able to see the forest for the trees. The first one is overanalyzing and reading too slowly. When you read each question, there are two major pitfalls to avoid: With this in mind, you’re ready to read the case and interpret the information. There’s enough information in the case to get every question correct. Remind yourself that every question tests a basic concept. In this case, simply move on to step 2 and start reading the case from the beginning. Occasionally, the question stem will be broad, such as “Which of the following is the most appropriate next step in management?” and the answer choices will be too varied to direct you (that is, they might include a multitude of unrelated diagnostic tests and treatments). If you mostly see cardiac and pulmonary answers, you can pay closer attention to the cardiopulmonary risk factors, history, exam, and diagnostics. This is a fast, easy way of directing your thinking right from the beginning.įor example, if the question is “Which of the following is the most likely cause of this patient’s hypercalcemia?” you know you should scan the case for causes of hypercalcemia, and you can significantly filter all the information presented.īut what about a broader question, such as “Which of the following is the most likely diagnosis?” In this case, quickly look at the answer choices. By reading the question first, you already know what you need to answer, and then you see which options are available. This generally takes less than 5 seconds and can give you a major edge. There are lots of strategies out there, but a tried and true approach is to first read the question stem and then quickly scan the answer choices. Step 1: Start with the Question Being Asked Remember: you’re taking a multiple-choice test, so you should use everything to your advantage to maximize your score. However, having a systematic approach can demystify and organize the process, making these questions much easier. Many questions can be tautological or filled with distractors, irrelevant information, and a slew of lab tests and diagnostics that obscure the case and the correct answer. It’s common for students to feel overwhelmed or even panicked when put under the spotlight for a high-stakes, timed, multiple-choice test.
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