of everything in between

Intern No More: Side Notes for the Average

Medical Student Taking the Philippine Physician
Licensure Examinations
For the August 2011 Physician Licensure Examinations, I decided to review independently for two
reasons. One, review schools are expensive. The tuition fee at Topnotch is around Php 16,000. For
UST, it amounts to, if I remember correctly, around Php 12,000. Second, based on my average
attention span, the structure of review schools would only result in my yielding to the law of
diminishing returns. In retrospect, I dont regret the decision that I made. Note that I am advocating
neither one nor the other, as each approach has its own merits.

Should you decide to self-review, there are two exceedingly helpful medical board primers in
circulation. One is authored by the founder of Topnotch Board Prep, Dr. Enrico Banzuela, and the
other is written by Dr. James Philip Esteban, who placed fifth in the August 2010 licensure exams.
These primers were what I used in planning my review sessions. For the particularly neurotic, theres
a helpful section in Survival Guide for Doctors and Non-Doctors, co-authored by Dr. Willie Ong and
Dr. Banzuela, in which the latter includes a sample calendar for the three months prior to the exam
proper. Read both primers first before you proceed.

http://topnotchboardprep.com.ph/web/boardexamprimer.pdf
(http://topnotchboardprep.com.ph/web/boardexamprimer.pdf)

Tips for the Physicians Licensure Examination

(https://ofeverythinginbetween.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/tips-for-the-physicians-licensure-
examination1.docx)

Done? Okay, great.

For disclosure, I consider myself an average medical student in that I do not belong to the top ten of
my class (although I do belong to the upper 15-20%) and the level of motivation I had for the past five
years varied from non-existent at worst to half-hearted at best. I graduated from a medical school
which I believe to be quite competent, yet if we are to be objective, still has much work to do before it
can ascend to the ranks of UP and UST. The point of this is not to demean or praise medical schools
and their graduates. As I said, the above primers were very helpful; however, they were written from
the point of view of medical interns who were stellar students of one of the best medical schools in
the country. What Im going to do here is make suggestions from the point of view of an average
medical student the one who didnt get around to reading any of the mama books from cover to
cover, the one who realized a little too late that the best preparation for the boards is to have invested
ones best efforts in medical school. Take everything with a grain of salt, and remember to adjust
according to your own eccentricities.

SUBJECTS BOOKS I USED IN RETROSPECT

Anatomy Clinical Anatomy Review by
SnellHi-Yield Gross
AnatomyNetterEsteban and
Gonzales HistologyUSMLE
Step 1
Biochemistry Digging Up the BonesUSMLE
Step 1
Physiology BRS PhysiologyUSMLE Step 1
Pathology BRS PathologyUSMLE Step 1
For the life of me, none of these turned
out to be high yield. I read Snell during
my community rotation, so I had the
illusion of having accomplished a first
reading. Dont make the same mistake.
Personally, I thought anatomy was the
most difficult subject during the boards.
Read as much as you can, as many times
as you can. No new tips here. Use Netter.
Read. Pray. A lot.
The combination of these two turned out
sufficient for our exam. Since each
material is composed of about 60-70
pages, each source can be finished in a
day. At least two readings are necessary.
However, if you have time and want to
have a better yield of Biochemistry, most
topnotchers recommend Lippincott. I
recommend studying Biochem during the
last weeks before the exam. During our
exam, several questions on steroid
hormone synthesis turned up, so be sure
to familiarize yourself with this.
BRS Physiology was one of the best books
I used. During my first reading, I placed
notes in the Physio sections of my
USMLE Step 1, including the pages of the
original text in BRS (should I need
further explanation during my second
reading).This turned out to be a good
system for me. Study this subject first.
Dr. Esteban recommends reading the
sister Robbins. Rumor has it that he
scored a 100 in the Patho exam. If you
have the time, I suggest reading the sister
 Robbins and placing your notes in
USMLE. If youre pressed for time, use
BRS instead.
Microbiology Microbiology MRS Very, very helpful read. What I did was
photocopy the tables at the end of each
chapter, and placed them on index cards.
As I read each chapter, I placed side notes
on the corresponding topics.
Pharmacology KatzungUSMLE Step 1 I didnt actually finish Katzung, which
sucked, as the answers to most of the
questions from the Pharma exam could be
found in this book. I suggest photocopying
the chapter summary tables, and making
notes on your tables as you go
along.Feedback from Topnotch reviewees:
the Pharmacology handouts were very
useful and well-organized.
MEDICINE Aherrera IM The IM exam was surprisingly fair. Integrate
Notes(Intern/Resident with Physio, Pharma, Micro and Patho for
Edition)Hi-Yield IM better retention.
PEDIATRICS Hand-me-down Pocket Pedia wasnt as helpful as some
HandoutsPocket Pedia people said it would be. Feedback from the
Topnotch reviewers: handouts were okay,
especially the Pedia Pearls.
OB-GYNE OB BlueprintsBlack Book Most of the questions were situational, and
most of the answers were those that I
learned during my clerkship and internship
rotations. I placed notes from OB Blueprints
on my black book. Same drill.
SURGERY ABSITE First Aid Anatomy and Surgery KMN. Read and
pray.
LEGAL Hand-me-down Make sure you read the sample exams.
MED/MED HandoutsSummary of
JURIS LM/MJ
PREV MED Hand-me-down Instead of using all of these sources, I
HandoutsPretestUST recommend the handouts and Pretest. Make
Notes/UE Notes sure you read Pretest, because about 20-30
items were taken from this.
I consider myself a relatively fast reader. However, with regards to the estimation of the amount of
time it takes to finish each reviewer (as noted in Dr. Banzuelas primer), it turns out that a) I am not as
fast a reader as I thought, and b) Dr. Banzuela is an even faster reader and is decidedly more patient
and disciplined than I am. So for the average medical student, I suggest you add an additional day or
two for his estimations, and consider this when making your schedule.

The biggest distraction while reviewing was the internet. I rationalized its use as a study tool and
stress reliever, but ten minutes easily turned into an hour. An alternative to going cold turkey is
writing down what you need to look up online then allotting an hour (and a half? Your call) to all
things web-related. And sticking to that limit might translate to an extra ten points on the subject
youre currently studying for. No studies confirm this, but Im thinking thats the trend.

Another one of the mistakes that I made was reading leisurely during the start of the review season. I
imagined that since I alloted time for a second reading, I would begin the actual memorization then. I
argued (internally and foolishly) that I would most likely forget what I memorized early in the game.
Dont do as I did. Internalize what you can, when you can, as much as you can.

Keep in mind that you will only have one or two days per subject for your second reading, so distill
your materials. Dont reinvent the wheel. If you made tables during med school, or if the book has
pre-made tables (e.g. MRS and Katzung), use them and just add your notes.

Pray, pray, always pray.

Peace and more peace.

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22
AUGUST 20, 2011 BY OFEVERYTHINGINBETWEEN BOARD REVIEW, MEDICINE, MEDICINE
BOARD EXAM, PHILIPPINE PHYSICIAN LICENSURE EXAMS
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