Effective studying for great USMLE score requires that students comprehend, retain, retrieve and use information. These are the primary elements of the SQ4R method: Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review-Reflection. In lieu, medical students should learn to set daily, weekly and longer-term goals by establishing schedules in a workbook. Students monitor their own progress and adjust their work or goals as necessary, if their performance does not match their own expectations.
To strategically use your time, self-talk is encouraged so that you can be desensitized by imagining anxiety-provoking situations when relaxing. Monitoring and diagnosing require that students determine in advance where they will stop in the text to assess their level of comprehension. As they reach each stop point, they asses their understanding and take corrective actions as needed to achieve maximal USMLE scores.
Effective time management contributes to learning and achievement. Time management components of short-range planning and time attitudes are significant predictors of USMLE scores. Effective use of time is partly a function of use of goal setting and planning. These procedures in turn, prompt the medical students to engage in other self-regulatory activities such as self-monitoring of progress.
Typically, USMLE review programs are already integrated with instruction and practice on topics to facilitate better use of time such as becoming a strategic learner, roles of goal setting and self-management, time management planning, study strategies including note taking, listening, underlining, summarizing and coping with stress as well as test taking strategies and organizing a setting for learning.
One problem with study time for USMLE Steps is that medical students often do not realize how they really spend their time. A good measure is to have yourself keep a time log for a week to show how much time you devote to each task. You will be surprised at how much time you waste. USMLE review instructions and sessions must address ways to eliminate these or reduce such waste to achieve the best USMLE scores.
Another common problem is failing to understand how long tasks take to complete your USMLE review. A useful exercise is to have yourself estimate the amount of time various tasks will take and then to keep a log of the actual time and record these with the estimates to determine their accuracy.
Many times, medical students need a change in work environment. Too often they try to study in places with distractions such as friends, telephones, televisions, refrigerators, stoves, video and audio equipment and so forth. Some medical students may benefit from light music or noise in the background but almost everyone has difficulty concentrating when many potential distractions are present such is the what an in-house USMLE review desires to elimimate: a review environment that is free from distractions. Medical students should complete an inventory of study preferences and present study conditions to determine whether changes are necessary to achieve their best USMLE scores.