Friday, November 11, 2011

Comp

Since I'm getting no studying done today I might as well post about something useful....comp. So at AUC we have to take and pass a comp which is a cumulative, standardized exam for all of basic sciences. It encompasses all disciplines and is a pretty big deal. In order to get off this island 5th semester we must pass a comp with a scaled score of 64. I feel like everyone always gets confused with the scoring but it really isn't too bad. The test is 4 blocks of 50 questions with 64 minutes per block. I thought our comp had a wide array of topics and really didn't focus too heavily on anything...which was a little surprising. This semester our average on the 1st comp was a 67 which is one of the higher first comp scores I believe. Thankfully I passed and am decently happy with my score.

In order to prep for comp I think it is important to start as soon as possible. I started doing questions during 2nd semester to stay on top of old material. I continued doing questions all the way up until comp. I think I've done somewhere between 4000 and 4500 questions between books and online Qbanks. Along with doing questions I also went through the entire Kaplan MedEssentials book, but I think doing a ton of questions was the single most important thing for me passing on my 1st attempt. As long as you use questions as a learning tool and not just an assessment of where you're at they can be a great prep tool.

I'm planning on taking the last comp on Dec 8th as well, hopefully by then I can be through first aid, rapid review path, and Pathoma but we'll see...I'd have to find a lot of motivation between now and then!

Noxolo

Thursday, November 10, 2011

ugh

Serious amotivational syndrome going on right now....hopefully it will pick up soon. On the bright side we have no class tomorrow due to Saint Maarten day and then wine and cheese is on saturday. Hopefully the weather will be nice and not too humid.

Noxolo

Monday, November 7, 2011

Serious countdown

As of today, I found out I passed the first "comp" aka one step closer to getting off the rock and back to the states! Since my last post there has been lots of studying, a bunch of tests and then even more studying. We've had shelf after shelf after shelf (shelf tests are standardized tests that the NBME puts out to kind of see where everyone is sitting in the different subjects). So far i've been pretty pleased with how i've done given how much I've studied for certain aspects.

Also, I'm officially DONE with the basic science classes. We finished up Behavioral 2 and Pharm 2 last week and I couldn't be more happy. Just another thing to have finished.

I've also gone and finished 2 rotations. One in anesthesiology and one doing general surgery rounds. Both were good experiences and I learned a good amount from both.

It's weird thinking that I have a little over a month left here (fingers crossed). A few more tests and lots of studying still to do but 20 months is coming to a wrap.

Noxolo