Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What you need to know before you come to Maine

The biggest worries for me in fourth semester were "am I ready for maine?" "do I know enough?". The answer is yes and yes. I wasn't an A+ student. I studied as much as I could stand (probably less than most of my classmates) I made ok grades (B and C). I took masters classes all the way through. I struggled in some classes and had to retake neuroscience. I had every right to be worried. 

When I got here, I was stressed about money (that will never change), and I had to finish up a paper for a master's class. I wasn't sure that I was even coming to Maine until the day before I left. I bought my plane ticket one night and left only a day later. It was a whirlwind. I had a place to live lined up so that wasn't a problem. I hadn't worked out any details of transportation and I didn't know where anything was, and there wasn't a "Welcome Committee" or even many last semester's students here to show me around. It was a real "you are on your own" type of feeling. It took about a week to get acclimatized to the weather (think cold, then think you can not imagine, but colder), and to my surroundings. Moving anywhere new takes time to adjust and this adjustment was just a bit more difficult than I had prepared for, or imagined. 

Luckily, I can read road signs, even though they are very few, and I have a GPS. I made it to the UMHS Building and got my paperwork taken care of and then Friday came. 

The big test. 



  • You get a print out that tells you exactly what your percentages correct are so you can use that as a guide to build up your weakest areas. 
  • you can look at the answers to the questions ( not explanations, just letter answers) at the end of the test if you click analysis. 
  • If you write your password and Id down then you can go back and look at the numbers that you missed each block and the correct answer choice. You will see if you changed the answer. This is an important note of information that I didn't know at the time. 
  • Also, if you finish a block before you run out of time, you don't have to end the block right then, you can use that time to plan or write information that you may have missed from earlier questions. 
  • Use all the time allotted. 
  • You will have plain white paper and pencil provided for you, you can take this with you when you leave, so make notes on what you are unclear about so you can look at it later and use it to study by. Especially if you see a question that you have no idea what they are talking about. Make sure to bring snacks with you. 
  • You only get 45 minutes of break with the Kaplan sims, it isn't an hour.
Here is what I did the first time.

I ate a light breakfast and took two blocks (2 hours) of the test and then took a break for 10 or 15 minutes. I didn't realize right away that I didn't have to end the block so I finished in under two hours for those two blocks. I did block 3 and then I took a 20 minute lunch. block four I finished in 30 mins and I took a 30 min nap. on the clock. I realized that I didn't have to end the block and I used the remainder of the time for a rest. You cannot leave your seat during that time, but you can sit in your seat and wait for the time to tick down. I took a bathroom break after block four and my nap, and then took block 5 and 6 and took another short bathroom break. My score was 43%

I wasn't prepared to sit for 7 hours, to read questions straight for 7 hours, or to manage my stamina for 7 hours. I came out feeling zonked and defeated, but I didn't do poorly. I didn't pass it on the first time, but I was ok with that. 

Last week was our Kaplan optional midterm. This time I tweaked my breaks and snacks and it helped tremendously. I also tried to slow down a bit and use all of the allotted time during the blocks for question answering and reading. (I am a fast reader, but I can miss important information by reading too fast). I am not going to say that our clinical exposure didn't help at all, but my primary focus of study was to read the Kaplan physiology (my weakest subject on the entrance) for each organ system of the week. 

My midterm went as follows:

Breakfast- protein, coffee, my regular breakfast. After block one I took a short three minute bathroom break. block two, I took another break, had some protein and cheese crackers. block three I took another break, and had more snacks. a salad and protein and cheese, coke zero. bathroom, and block four and five I did back to back, took a short break with more snack with protein and bathroom. Block six and took a short bathroom break, and then block seven. Done. My score 48%. 

  • I didn't nap, but I wasn't tired. I had the energy, because I was taking frequent short breaks with protein, to power through it. 
  • I didn't eat any sugar and I limited my carbs, I only had whole wheat crackers. 
  • I used all of my time in each block except for a few where I had five or so minutes left. If I had time left over at the end of the block I used it to plan my break time. 
  • I took notes on topics and questions, and I made sure that if I didn't know the answer that I had written down something about the question so that I could make sure to know it later. 
I attribute a large part of my improvement to my test taking strategy. 

I will write more later, we start Kaplan in two weeks, and I will let you know how that goes. I also want to share with you about my preceptorship, and about the information and how it is tested on the Kaplan practice exams. I will do that later. 

Hope this will help you fourth semester students as you prepare to come to Maine, and encourage those of you in the earlier semesters to study hard and do your best. 

Until next time, 
Amy 






0 comments:

Post a Comment