Practicing USMLE questions

Look at this survey results, No look really close. Even though we have no exact numbers of the correlation can you even doubt that solving as many questions as you possibly can, even if not causing the high score, is associated with a high score. No one who solved more than 7.5 thousand questions during his prep got a score lower than 235. and I mean NO one.

Come to think about it, how many banks should be done to get past this 7500 questions?
The 3 big banks would get you there, but what if you really want to shine and fly? Do you still have others to solve?

Of course you have. You have the NBME forms, USMLE weapon, USMLE consult and Goljan pathology bank. and that's just the on-line materials that are highly recommended.
There are also punch of other highly recommended question books that could dramatically increase your question load and more training that would help you greatly during the exam.

But, how can you manage the time to do all of that. Med school is a time sucker. I can barely get enough sleep, so talking about dedicating time to solve before the dedicated prep time is a dream, or not?

If I managed my time properly I think I'd be able to finish between 15 and 18 K questions in the year before my exam, how is that manageable? That's what I'm about to describe here.

• A 50 question block with feedback should never take you more than 2.15 hours max. If I'm taking more than 2.30 hours in any block I'd really try read faster and try to preserve my comprehension. From the experiences I've read and from advice I got from senior class mates, train yourself for this and you should have no problem finishing exam blocks in 45 mins during the exam. Saving precious time for difficult and more time consuming questions. I'm not suggesting lowering your comprehension for the sake of speed, that would be counterproductive. What I'm merely trying to achieve is train my eye movement patterns to read fast with the same comprehension I achieve when I take my time. Search for speed reading for more info.
• Start with the bank or book you want but leave UW for the end.
• For a start, I use Kaplan + weapon + consult combo. I solve them subject wise and start a subject after I finish a subject in school or after I review it, and solve it simultaneously as I study the next subject.
• Of course add your notes into your FA copy.
• I started out solving a block a day but evolved to handle more over time. but a block a day is a pretty good start, it could take almost 4 hours in the start.

That's what I'm doing for now. I really hope it would pay off .