Question Banks go Up, grades go down

[AnonymousD.O.]

SO, just want to get a feel for how others are feeling right now.

Up to this point in my 2nd year, including first year, I've had what I personally would consider a great GPA. I've met my personal goal in that regard. I could keep doing what I've been doing, getting as many A's and B+ as possible, but I'm choosing to focus way more on boards at this point. Like many, I'm less than four months out.

My school right now is still going hard in block 7 of 8, heme oncology (w/ derm and psych as well). The next block, is Block 8 at my school, which is quite a bit of OMM, and Board review/prep. I'm trying to memorize FA cold, section by section and knock out questions. I would like to be done with FA in about 5 weeks, and do 25 questions each day until block 8 (mid april) when I begin more questions (50 a day or so). On top of class this is rough. I've taken a hit in my grades, nothing alarming by any means at all, but I was wondering if others have experienced this. Some of the classes we are taking right now are ehhh.....fluff to say the least.

I feel like if I were to look back on this block a year from now and say "wow I pulled a 3.7+", I'll be thinking "what in the world was I thinking, I should've spent more time on boards?"

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[EmergDoc2B]

I'm taking a hit now as well but as long as youre not abandoning your classes and learning concepts ( to me means solid B's) then
I feel like its a good sacrifice. If youre barely passing ( not saying thats you) then you'll have to teach yourself that information
later and that will slow down your board studying. I've been going tough for 3 months now and I certainly feel your pain. Its a grind.

 

[ajh1983]

Same boat here. I confined class studying to weekends only at this point. I started Uworld on new years, and I'm almost done with my first pass, 65 days out. I'm excited about that. For class the goal is to score Bs on everything. 1st year I was a 3.6 student, now I'm happy with 3.0. It's a tough pill to swallow, but you have to remember - nobody cares about MS1/MS2 grades. As long as you're middle of the pack it's fine. A 260 vs a 220 however.... huge difference in interviews and audition opportunities.

We just took a survey of our class where they anonymously asked what people were scoring on their question banks, and how many Qs per day. I was very pleased to see where I fell compared to my classmates.