Narcolepsy and Coconut Trees
I spent the morning devising a super-duper-take-over-the-world study schedule plan for the USLME Step 1. I’ll be taking it around June 15th, so I have about 20 weeks to prepare. Part of my plan involves watching Kaplan videos on every subject. I started watching them this morning, and fell asleep about 30 minutes in. I had some disgusting bookstore espresso, and then gave it another shot. I got about 25 minutes in and fell asleep. I’m starting to think that my plan may need some adjusting. The man giving the anatomy lectures (in the pic) has a very monotonous voice, and I just can’t seem to stay awake when he’s talking. It doesn’t help that all this information is review for me.
I took this second pic just a few minutes ago from my balcony and sent it to John, an awesome guy who found me through my website and sends me great emails, but whom I’ve never met. The coconut trees happen to be way more exciting than the Kaplan videos. I can stare at them for hours without falling asleep. Maybe I should have gone into dendrology instead of medicine.
My name is Kendra and I am a newly minted doctor about to begin my residency in Psychiatry at 
20 weeks seems excessive?
At my school it seems like people prepare for 1-2 months.
If you do so well in school, you shouldn’t be to worried?
Yep, 20 weeks is excessive. But really, I’ll only be studying for like 5-10 hours a week for the first 12 weeks. The last 8 weeks (when I don’t have to go to the hospital) is when I really plan on buckling down and doing the “real” studying.
I was so worried when I first read the title in my Feed Reader. I thought some poor schmuck with narcolepsy had passed out under a Coconut tree and had one fall on his head. That would almost certainly have killed him. What a sad story that would be.
I’m glad it’s just studying difficulties.
From the picture you posted, it seems that you are using the NEW Kaplan lectures. From my experience using the Older version, Do Not waste your time watching all the videos. It takes too much time in order to watch them all. In the Older set of videos, some of them were almost useless, such as the Pathology videos, there is no need to watch them if you are planning to listen to Dr.Goljan’s Audio lectures.
Of course, it all depends on you and your insight on the subjects, but in general and from hearing my friends’ opinions on the Old videos:
From anatomy —- Neuroanatomy is the best
Doctor Leonel Raymond (the French doctor) is excellent
Doctor Daughtery (Behavioral science) is excellent
The physiology videos were good but extremely boring (as you did, I fell asleep watching these!), fortunately a new doctor teaches physiology in the New videos
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I can go on if you want. The bottom line: you don’t have to watch all of them, some of them are useless, spare your time, reading your books may be more productive.
GL
YS, thanks for the information. It’s actually incredibly helpful!
Don’t worry about the intermittent naps- I find them to be quite helpful in retention of info. No joke.
Do more questions from Qbank and other sources. That is all my mom did while studying for her FP board and she scored in the 98%.