#test prep reviews

[gmatclub]

Hitting the Bullseye: Mastering GMAT Prep with Target Test Prep.

If you're gearing up to tackle the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), you're probably aware that a well-structured study plan is your key to success. Among the plethora of GMAT preparation resources available, Target Test Prep stands out as a formidable ally. In this blog post, we'll explore why Target Test Prep is the choice of many GMAT aspirants, what sets it apart, and how it can help you hit the bullseye in your GMAT performance.

Why Target Test Prep?

Target Test Prep is not just another GMAT prep tool; it's a comprehensive system designed to maximize your GMAT potential. Its approach focuses on quality over quantity. Here's why GMAT students turn to Target Test Prep:

Focused GMAT Math Preparation: For many GMAT test-takers, the quantitative section is the Achilles' heel. Target Test Prep specializes in GMAT math, providing an in-depth and targeted curriculum that helps you master the math concepts required for the test.

Interactive Learning: Target Test Prep's interactive lessons keep you engaged and make learning more effective. The platform doesn't just throw content at you; it actively involves you in the learning process.

Adaptive Learning: One size doesn't fit all, especially when it comes to GMAT preparation. Target Test Prep adapts to your strengths and weaknesses, ensuring you spend more time on challenging topics and less on what you've already mastered.

What Makes Target Test Prep Stand Out?

Now that you know why GMAT aspirants love Target Test Prep, let's dive into what sets it apart from the competition:

Comprehensive Math Coverage: Target Test Prep's core strength lies in its comprehensive coverage of GMAT math concepts. From basic arithmetic to advanced algebra & geometry, it's got you covered. This depth ensures that you're well-prepared for any math-related question that may appear on the GMAT.

Customizable Study Plans: Your GMAT journey is unique, and Target Test Prep understands that. You can customize your study plan based on your goals and timeline, ensuring an efficient and effective study experience. This level of personalization allows you to focus on the areas where you need the most improvement, optimizing your study time.

Adaptive Learning: Target Test Prep adapts to your progress, ensuring you spend more time on challenging topics and less on areas where you've already demonstrated proficiency. This adaptive approach maximizes the efficiency of your study sessions, helping you make the most of your time and resources.

Optimizing Your GMAT Study Plans with Target Test Prep

So, how can you make the most of your GMAT preparation with Target Test Prep? Here are some tips:

Start Early: Beginning your GMAT preparation well in advance allows you to fully utilize Target Test Prep's extensive resources and tailor your study plan to your pace and comfort.

Set Realistic Goals: Take the time to establish achievable score goals and milestones throughout your preparation. Tracking your progress against these goals helps maintain focus and motivation.

Review and Reflect: Consistently reviewing the detailed performance analytics provided by Target Test Prep is vital. Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses to adapt and fine-tune your study plan, ensuring efficient and targeted preparation.

Simulate Test Conditions: Incorporating practice tests under real GMAT conditions into your study routine is crucial. This not only helps in building test-taking endurance but also familiarizes you with the format and structure of the GMAT, reducing anxiety on exam day.

Conclusion

In the world of GMAT preparation, precision & focus matter. Target Test Prep, with its specialized approach to GMAT math, interactive learning, and adaptive features, can be your secret weapon to achieving your target GMAT score. Don't just aim for the target; hit the bullseye with Target Test Prep Reviews and take one step closer to your academic & career aspirations.

[mymedlife]

Case Files Family Medicine

This text is a great resource for the family medicine shelf.

Family medicine was my first rotation, and this book was such a great resource. Like the others in the series, it consists of clinical cases starting with patient presentation, followed by a sample presentation, differential, and labs. Each section has a discussion of the case, and is followed by shelf style multiple choice questions.

Since this was my first rotation, this book was really great for learning how to think through cases, summarizing patient histories, deciding what to order, and coming up with a differential diagnosis. Both the family med offices I worked in were super busy, which didn’t leave much time for feedback. So this was a great way to try and figure out things on my own.

This text highlights some of the most common cases seen in a family medicine practice in a super easy format. The cases are nice and short, which makes this text great for picking up and studying between patients.

Not only does it cover the most common reason for sick visits, it does a great job at covering the health maintenance and screening tests which are highly tested on the exam. It includes a great number of awesome charts which are great for memorizing these guidelines.

This one is definitely a must for shelf exam preparation. 

[mymedlife]

Blueprints Surgery

In true blueprints faction, this text is excellent.

It provides a nice succinct review of the topic, covering not only surgical aspects but also a great review of relevant anatomy. Unlike many other surgery text books that focus mainly on the surgical aspects, this one reviews some of the relevant medicine topics, which is oh so important for the shelf exam which tends to have more medicine than surgery.

One of my favorite parts of this text is the images. As long time readers of this blog know, anatomy is not my friend, and as such I have no patience for overly complicated anatomy diagrams. These are simple and straight to the point.

Like all texts in this series, it’s not enough to use this text alone, especially with how much surgeons like to pimp. Given how short and easy to read it is, it’s best to read this one right at the beginning of your clerkship to get a brief overview of the topic, figure out which areas you need more review in, and use another text to boost up those areas. 

[mymedlife]

Comprehensive Handbook OBGYN

As I've said before, in the digital age pocket books have gone out of favor for most medical students. However, there are a few times when they are a good thing to have, this text is one of them.

Granted, my experience is biased because Dr Zheng is an attending at the hospital where I did my OB rotation, and everyone had this book. However, my classmates assure me they also carried around this text while rotating at different hospitals. 

I don't know how Dr. Zheng managed to do it, but this book is truly comprehensive. It lists everything you could ever want to know about OBGYN, from the guidelines for abnormal paps to knot tying techniques (and most sections even have pictures!). It even helps you look extra sharp on rotations by including sample procedure and progress notes, order sets, and dictations for operations. 

If that wasn't enough, there is even a medical Spanish section in the back. 

Sections are color coded for easy accessibility, and the organization flows nicely if you find yourself with some downtime and decide just to start reading the thing. 

It fits perfectly in scrub pants pockets, which is always a plus. 

The best part, it contains all the answers to pimp questions in one place. 

So carry this little gem around for your rotations, you'll be glad you did. 

[mymedlife]

Blueprints OBGYN

Always a favorite review book, the OBGYN edition of this series doesn't disappoint. 

Like most books in this series, it's an easy read. Which is great for the unpredictable schedule that comes with OB. 

The gyn chapters each start with a nice review of physiology. While there was no straight up physiology questions on the exam, it was nice to have the refresher while studying. 

One downside is that all the cancer chapters are at the very end of the book instead of placed next to the other chapters discussing that system. Had I payed attention to the table of contents I would have realized this and read the chapters in a different order. But as it was, in my sleep deprived state I read this book straight through and felt that I didn't get enough out of those chapters as they stood in isolation. 

When paired with practice questions, this makes a great resource for acing that shelf and impressing your attending. 

[mymedlife]

Pretest OBGYN

Normally I'm a huge fan of these books, but this one had some issues. 

For starters, the questions were way more detailed than any I saw on the exam. Each question was an extensive paragraph of details about the patient, but on test day all you got was something like 26 year old at 8 weeks gestation presents with vaginal bleeding, what do you do next? 

Don't get me wrong, the questions are a great way to become familiar with the different cases you'll see on the rotation. However, it's not the "closest thing you'll see to the exam" as the book claims. 

The answer explanations are pretty weak for a hand full of questions in this text. Some of the explanations contradict themselves. I had two questions in a row about antibiotics. The answer to the first essentially gave the  answer to the second, but then the second decided to use a different antibiotic without an explanation as to why it would be superior to any of the other choices. 

Additionally, the questions in the book appear to have been updated in this edition, but not the answers. There are explanations as to why choices that weren't given are wrong and nothing indicating why choices that were given are incorrect. 

Granted, only about 50 or so questions out of the 500 had these issues. So it's nothing that would have kept me from using the text again if I had to do it all over, but its something to keep in mind when using this text. 

There were also these odd question sets that were nothing but ultrasounds or histology images that asked you to match them to what you were seeing. There was nothing like this on the shelf. The only image I got was a vagina paired with a question stem that didn't really need a image to answer. 

So all in all it's not my favorite book for the OB/GYN shelf. I'd say using your Qbank would be a better use of time. However, if you don't have your Qbank yet, this might be worth looking into. 

[mymedlife]

COMQUEST

http://www.comquestmed.com/

If you took the COMLEX step 1 you probably noticed how little COMLEX specific prep material there is out there, and how hard it is to study using USMLE material. Step 2 is even worse, not only are the test prep materials less focused than for step 1, but the COMLEX seems to have been completely forgotten. I’m so glad I had COMQUEST by my side to guide me through the beast that is step 2.  

COMQUEST is designed to mimic the test itself, which is great because as you know the two exams look nothing alike. It includes all the same functions you’ll see on test day: marking questions, leaving comments, the lab values that pop up in a separate window, and the review section at the end of the exam. And it all comes without having to leave your web browser. That’s right, no annoying downloads and the program doesn’t lock you out of the rest of your computer functions. It’s great for flipping between questions and digital text books.

The questions are spot on. While USMLE and COMLEX step 1 had somewhat similar question styles, for step 2 they are like night and day. USMLE likes to give really long question stems that require muddling through for relevant information. COMLEX on the other hand likes to give two or three lines of vagueness and expects you to know what they are asking. This is where COMQUEST shines. It provides 1300 questions that are every bit as confusing as the exam itself, and the guidance on what to look for to navigate through them.

COMQUEST’s answer explanations are the best of any I have seen. They are written in an easy to read conversational tone, and read like a good friend is talking to you and explaining where your thinking went wrong. I often find myself frustrated when trying to navigate through dense explanations saying why the choice I picked was “clearly wrong.” I never felt this way with COMQUEST. Their writing style and not being able to see that 0% of people picked the choice I did really helped keep me motivated to keep going and do better on the next set.

The OMM questions and medical jurisprudence section are top notch. I don’t know how I would have prepared for these sections without COMQUEST. I hate to admit this, but I definitely got out of practice doing OMM on rotations. I don’t think I would have felt quite as confidant about these questions if it hadn’t been for COMQUEST. The medical jurisprudence questions were amazing, and so similar to those I saw on the test itself. The USMLE questions and prep material don’t come close to the breadth covered by the COMLEX, thanks to COMQUEST I was one of the few people walking out of the exam who wasn’t shocked by these types of questions.

Pricing is quite reasonable, ranging from $75 for a one month subscription to $350 for a one year subscription.

I used a 6 month subscription this year, giving me much more time to do questions than my 1 month subscription of last year. I’m glad I did, not only was I able to do more questions, but it was a great asset for preparing for my NBOME shelf exams. Just like the USMLE and COMLEX are different beasts, as are the NBME and NBOME shelf exams. I took my family med exam without using COMQUEST and my internal med with, I feel like the better practice questions played a big part in my score jump.

So for those of you about to embark on your COMLEX studied, consider adding COMQUEST to your test prep lineup. I'm so glad I did.

[mymedlife]

Case Files OB

One of the residents I worked with said this was the only thing he used to study during his third year rotation. Although I wasn't willing to risk my shelf score by only studying one book, I have to admit this one was pretty good.

OB/GYN is much more unpredictable than some of the other rotations. Some nights you get a long time to sit and do nothing, others you are on your feet all day. This book is great for that. The cases are short, easy to read, and perfect for reading while you stand awkwardly in the hallway waiting to be invited into a room. 

The cases are great for practicing the what comes next questions. Plus it covers a lot of the the things you'll see on rotations, so it's good for primp questions.

It does emphasize the OB part a bit more than the GYN.  On my shelf it was pretty much an even split between the two topics, so be aware you'll need something else to supplement that section. 

The cases on pap screenings and female cancers was especially weak. The Pap guidelines are always changing it seems and I have yet to find a resource that explains them well, it's as if authors don't want to bother because they'll just have to rewrite that section in the new edition.

All in all, it's a great book that will help you immensely on your rotation. Would I use it without any other resource? No. Would I use it again? Most definitely. 

Summary:

Pros: Easy to read, good for pimp questions, lots of high yield facts

Cons: More OB than GYN, sections on cancer and pap smears need improvement. 

Score: