“APMLE Part I is the hardest test of your entire career.” You have probably heard that from numerous upperclassmen and practicing physicians. Needless to say, the anxiety associated with this test is always through the roof for many students. So here are 10 tips to help you get started to conquer this monster of a test that we all know as APMLE Part I.
1. Start with what you are most comfortable with
Review the materials you learned a long time ago during your first year and felt like you crushed it! I started with Lower Extremity Anatomy that we all love studying and learning (Why else would you be in this field right?) and Physiology. Once I reviewed those and answered a couple of questions on BoardVitals, I felt a boost of confidence. This helped me get started with the harder subjects.
2. Make a plan and Stick with it
Now that you are all warmed up to start studying and have an idea about what and how much you have to study, it’s time to make a plan. Do not under any circumstance change your study method or the materials you are using to prepare for the exam. This will definitely pull you out of your groove and throw your brain off. Do a lot of research when you first come up with your study plan and STICK WITH IT!
3.Start your day early and finish early
You should start studying by 8am and plan to be done around 6-7pm. Take dedicated study breaks. Do something during your study breaks that will help you completely shut off your brain for 30 minutes. For me it was watching a show or cooking a meal. Choose an activity that you can indulge yourself and completely take your mind off of studying. You should also have one day out of the week when you don’t think about the exam at all and do something else. You shouldn’t even look at flashcards on that day; give your brain some time to organize all the content you learned that week.
4. Study all subjects everyday and repeat
There are seven subjects on APMLE Part I: Lower Extremity Anatomy, Immunology and Microbiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Physiology, Pharmacology, and General Anatomy. The hardest part of studying for boards is remembering all the content…small little K on that Sketchy E.coli video, attachments of this one particular ligament, or that one enzyme that’s rate-limiting. If you are not studying everything everyday and reviewing what you learned the day before, you tend to forget things. You are not going to get everything the first time you go over them. Repetition is key!
5. Start answering practice questions as early as possible
It might be disheartening to miss a bunch of questions when you first start answering BoardVitals questions, but look at it as a learning resource rather than something that grades your ability to pass the exam. There’s a valuable lesson to learn from both the questions you get correct AND the ones you miss. Instead of just looking at the explanations and moving on, add what you learned to your notes (Pharm, Biochemistry, LEA, etc.). This will help you review content from BoardVitals without you needing to go back to the questions.
6. Know your basics like the back of your foot
Simple things that you learned like which Ig crosses the placenta or what makes up the bacterial cell wall tend to fall out of your brain. Every time you say to yourself, “Oh man, I knew this before,” write it down on a separate piece of paper or a Word document. These are the topics that your brain tends to ignore because they’re just basic to you by the end of two years of didactics, but they WILL come back to haunt you. So don’t forget to make notes of the “Basic” Sciences.
7. Expedite your learning
For example, General Anatomy is so vast. If you start to read your old lectures, you will get bogged down by details and get overwhelmed. Watch videos that go over the GI anatomy or the brain anatomy, which I didn’t want to waste time reading about. You watch those videos on repeat a couple of times and it will save you a lot of time. Do the same for any topics that you feel are difficult to grasp.
8. Visualize instead of memorizing content
Look up every muscle, every ligament, arteries, veins - all of it! Nothing reinforces your learning like a picture or a diagram. If you can recall the image or diagram, you can picture where things were grouped in the image. It will make your life so much easier and you will be able to easily recall these things during the exam.
9. Master your test taking strategy
There is no way you can learn everything and the test makers know that. The skill you need to master is the process of elimination. Do you know what ABSOLUTELY CANNOT BE TRUE? It’s an important concept to keep in mind in medicine. There is a lot that’s still unknown to us about the human body, but what we know is 100% true. Same concept applies to this test too. When you are answering questions, don’t just choose something random if you don’t know the answer. Look at the answer choices that you know for sure are incorrect and eliminate them to increase your chance of choosing the correct answer. Look at word stems, take clues from questions you answered previously, practice your critical reasoning skills, and never choose an answer randomly.
10. Trust yourself!
You have a plan in motion, you are studying diligently, you are almost a walking medical encyclopedia by the time it’s time to take the test. All you need is a little trust in yourself and a reminder that you have worked day and night for this test. None of it was in vain and you will crush the exam! Always trust what you learned and don’t let any other pesky answers distract you!
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