5 Tips For How You Can Learn More

By Deanna Mascle

There are a number of reasons why we should be lifelong learners. Continuing education reaps us professional, personal and health benefits that are too numerous to list. However if you do not want to enter another classroom as long as you live then take heart as there are other ways you can be a lifelong learner. Here are five tips for ways to continue your education.

First and foremost is to read. Read for fun and pleasure but also read for information and research. You do not have to fear taking on heavy, dusty tomes filled with multi-syllabic boring language. There is a whole industry of writers who make history and science fun. In fact, you do not even need to read books at all. There are a lot of informative magazines that offer both general and specific information. Check them out at a large book store or your local library before selecting a few to take home. Do not overlook the wealth of information available to you on the internet. There are site and publications devoted to just about any topic you can imagine. Start with a main news site and then begin sifting and searching to find topics that interest you. The best thing about this kind of reading is that you get to pick it -- not a teacher with an agenda you don't understand.

Listening is an often overlooked skill when it comes to learning today. Sure listening in the classroom is important but there are people all around us who have a wealth of knowledge to share if we are only willing to listen. Open your ears and your mind. You might be surprised at what you can learn.

You can also learn by simply observing the life around us. What can you learn about parenting by watching the families around you? You can learn not only what to do but what not to do. What can you learn about financial planning, relationships, and just about everything else you want to know? You can learn from the mistakes of others if you only take the time to be observant.

If you are looking for answers then ask questions. Ask questions of experts as well as information brokers, such as librarians and teachers. You should also ask questions of people like you because they can share their experiences and knowledge.

Finally, the most important part of becoming a lifelong learner is simply pursuing knowledge whether it is for a specific purpose or simply knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It is not important what you decide to study and learn more about and you can change topics as often as you change your shoes if you like. The important thing is to continue opening your mind and filling your brain.

You can becoming a lifelong learner and enjoy continuing education by reading, listening, observing, questioning, and pursuing knowledge. If you take these five steps for continuing education then you will live a smarter and more fulfilling life.

About the author:
Renaissance Woman Deanna Mascle shares more education articles at http://ezinesbydawggone.info/

Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Free Study Guide E-Book: Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories

Book Details:
Title: Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories
Author: Margaret Lucke
Published by: McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 0070390770
Published on: 1999
Format/File Type: PDF
Size: 0.5 MB
Number of Pages: 163 pages

Book Description:
This guide to writing compelling, memorable short stories gives you all the essentials without wasted words. It tells you how and where to get ideas, how to establish and sustain excitement, how to create live, colorful characters, and how to plot, develop and bring home your story. It even includes exercises to help you perfect your story-telling skills. Full of tips and techniques that work, it makes an indispensable, reliable collaborator. You’ll find it ideal whether you’re studying alone or supplementing a creative or fiction writing course, conference or workshop.

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Free Public Speaking Tips: 7 Secrets of Great Public Speakers

The major secret of great speakers is that they do not think about themselves during a talk. Great speakers prepare and practice before the big event and when the big event comes, they think about their audience.

At its core, public speaking is not about your image or ego. It is about communicating a message and that means connecting with an audience.

Here are seven ways of creating an experience that will wow audiences and make sure they come away with your message:

1. Respect Your Audience.This means you view your audience as your equals. You neither look down on them nor crawl before them in hopes of winning their approval. You make some effort to find out what information they already have. That way, you can offer a presentation that gives them something new and does not insult their intelligence.

2. Listen to the Audience. Communication is a two-way street. Even when you are the only one talking, your audience will communicate with you through facial expressions and body language. Listen to these communications, so that you can give the audience what they need. If you see a lot of confused looks, slow down, back up and repeat your last statement. If you see sleepy body language, speak up, use gestures and visual aids to inject energy into the room.

3. Maximize Learning. The most effective speeches cover enough material to be engaging, but not too much. Ideally, you should make three to five clear points, but never more than seven. Give an overview of the main points in your introduction and a recap of them in your conclusion. The rest of your material should be facts that accurately support those points. If you can state the main points concisely, your audience can learn them.

4. Speak Their Language.In most cases, the shortest, most direct words are the best. However, there are some situations that call for academic, technical or other jargon. Even in the most academic settings though, listeners appreciate easy to remember words and phrases. Unless you are a comedian with a very tolerant audience, absolutely avoid profane or crude language.

5. Make Them Comfortable.Make the audience stiff and unresponsive by memorizing your speech. As much as possible, speak as if you are having a conversation with a very comfortable friend about something you care about. That does not mean being loud and obnoxious: it means you capture the feeling of sharing something you are excited about. If you think your topic is not exciting, do some work to identify why it is important. This helps your audience feel comfortable with you and enthusiastic about your topic.

6. Show Them What You Are Talking About. Use high-quality visual aids to help drive your message home. It does not need to be complicated. For instance, a talk about the life of Benjamin Franklin would benefit from something as simple as his portrait. Other aids are PowerPoint slides with a minimum of text listing your main points or slides of art prints.

7. Be Honest. When you give a presentation, you are trying to change something about your audience like increase their knowledge, change their beliefs or habits and convince them to take a particular action. A great speaker does any or all of that by giving an ethical speech. That means you avoid plagiarism, falsehood or exaggeration. Even in a persuasive speech, you never try to force, coerce or deceive. What you want is to teach and convince with clean, logical argument and concrete evidence.

Connecting with an audience is an art with foundational rules like any other art. You have learned these seven methods in just a few minutes. You can devote a lifetime to mastering them and so become a truly great public speaker.

About the Author

Ranju is assistant editor at MindPower Marketing, which helps entrepreneurs and independent professionals to earn more by making their marketing and communication more persuasive. For tips on more persuasive communication, sign up for the free e-class mastering public speaking

Free Study Tips: How to Make an Oral Presentation

The very thought of making an oral presentation is enough to make many people -- old as well as young -- want to stay in bed on the day of the presentation. So daunting is the thought of standing up in front of a room full of people and speaking that most people will avoid this as far as possible. Unfortunately there are many situations in life, especially during school life, where you are required to make an oral presentation as part of your subject grade.

If you find yourself in the position of needing to speak in front of the class there are a few things that you can do to prepare yourself for this experience, and if you follow them, you won't find it nearly as traumatic as you think it 's going to be. You might even enjoy it!

Presentation Preparation: Know your stuff. Whatever it is you're going to be speaking about, make sure that you know it backwards, forwards, inside out. Practice what you're going to say, and if possible have someone time you so that you manage to get in all the important points within the time limit you're given for the presentation. Create a cheat sheet of all the questions -- with the appropriate responses -- that you think will come up if there 's to be a question and answer session after your presentation you're already prepared. Of course there 's always a possibility that someone will ask something that 's not on your list, but at least you'll have done some thinking about the questions and so be prepared about how to go about answering the ones that aren't on your cheat sheet.

Who 's the Audience? Know who you're going to be speaking to. This will help you to make your presentation interesting. If you're presenting to your classmates, keep it on their level. Make it interesting. Where possible, use examples that they can relate to. If you can, make it funny (within the context of your subject area) so that they don't start to chatter or switch off.

Involving the audience in some way is another way of actively engaging with them, perhaps asking them a question relevant to your presentation such as "how many of you know?" Or "how many of you have ever?" If no-one responds, ask again. If still no response, make a comment like it 's obviously a good thing that you're there then or they'd miss out on knowing about it! If some people respond, then indicate that this is great because they'll already have some idea about what you're talking about.

Audio Visual Aids: During your presentation preparation think about ways that you can use any audio or visual aids in your presentation. These could include music, speech, overhead projection sheets that show bullet points of your main presentation themes (only reveal each point as you start to speak about it so that you are keeping their interest going by not showing the entire list at once.

Speak -- Don't Read: A presentation isn't to show that you know how to read. You are presenting your subject, not reading about it. Make sure that you know your information, and you have a plan of what you're going to say but don't read word-for-word from a "script" that you've created. A presentation where the person at the front of the room is making eye contact with the audience, and has a tone that is varied, is going to hold the audience 's attention. Someone who looks down constantly at their papers and speaks in a monotone voice won't.

End with a Bang: Well not literally! But finish your presentation with some form of audience interaction such as "Do you feel you've learned anything?" "Hands up if you're still awake?" Or some other form of question that requires action from them will ensure that you've ended with them all still with you. You could also end with some form of humor related to your subject area which again will give interaction as they will laugh.

Oral presentations are rarely as bad as you think they're going to be. Make sure that you're prepared and you remember to look at your audience instead of reading a "script", and to interact a little with them, and you'll be just fine!

Jane Saeman runs an In-Home Tutoring service called Aim High Tutors. Find out about how to help your student reach their full potential at http://www.aimhightutors.com/blog

Free Reviewer: Board Review from Medscape: CASE-BASED INTERNAL MEDICINE SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Product Details
Book Publisher: WebMD Professional Publishing (22 July, 2005)
ISBN: 0974832782
Book author: David C. Dale

Book Description:
This is a convenient new review e-book, consisting of nearly 1000 case-based problems. Whether you’re studying for the board, recertifying, or just looking for a convenient way to make sure your patient-care skills stay sharp, this internal medicine self assessment tool makes review easy and enjoyable.

* Comprehensive. An extensive library of questions covers all of adult internal medicine, plus Psychiatry, Neurology, Dermatology, and more. And, each of the 981 questions presents commonly encountered cases, diagnostic and therapeutic options, and in-depth reasoning and explanations on the recommended choices. Covers all the major areas of practice you need to review to score well on the exam.

* Trustworthy. Questions are derived from the respected ACP Medicine CME program. For further reading, the problems are referenced to ACP Medicine, a continually updated, evidence-based reference of adult internal medicine. The cases are reviewed by experts in clinical practice from our editorial board at the nation’s leading medical institutions.

* Relevant. Case-based for greater relevance to daily practice?the format selected for many of the questions on recent exams. These self-assessment questions provide easy-to-understand, detailed explanations of the principles behind the answers?an ideal way to get ready for the boards or recertification.

* Print or Electronic Formats. Our problem series can be ordered in traditional print or convenient e-book formats. The soft-cover print book is approximately 600 pages, published in July of 2005. Or, our e-book offers a convenient PDF format for immediate download and allows you to test your medical knowledge wherever you choose?from your computer or handheld device or by printing out an easy-to-read hardcopy to carry with you.

Download Links:

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10 Easy Ways To Make Children Smarter

Scientific research shows that intelligence is both genetic and environmental. Intelligence is also not fixed but can be increased because the brain develops new neurons and interconnections with stimulation.

A supportive environment fosters numerous aspects of intelligence. The following 10 easy ways to stimulate intelligence in children will provide an "enriched environment" for brain growth.

One: Love and Self-Esteem Improve Academic Performance

In a long series of experiments, Prescott Lecky, an American educational researcher, found a high correlation between low self-esteem and learning problems in children.

He correctly theorized that by raising a child's self-esteem, learning performance would also improve.

His success stories include a poor speller who averaged 55 in six months, a Latin student who went from 30 after three encouraging conversations with a teacher, and a student considered to have no aptitude for English who improved over a semester to win the school's literary prize.

Two: Breast Fed Babies Are Smarter

Danish researchers found that mother's milk contained essential micronutrients for brain development. In fact, the longer the child was breast fed, the more the brain was nourished. For example, infants breast fed for 9 months were smarter than infants only breast-fed for two months.

Three: Proper Nutrition Improve Health And Nerve Conduction

Diets high in sugar, Trans fatty acids, and salt decreased health in children. Junk food failed to provide sufficient iron for healthy brain development, resulting in poor nerve impulses. Children with nutritional deficiency also missed school more often because of illness and fell behind their peers.

Four: Proper Breakfast Improves Attention At School

Thirty years of research has shown a strong correlation between breakfast and mental alertness. Children who had nutritious breakfasts had better memory. They also concentrated better and absorbed more information during class. Those who had no breakfast or poor breakfast were more irritable and distracted during class.

Five: Exercise Benefits Intelligence And Personality

Research conducted by the University of Illinois showed that fitter children performed better academically. Besides the obvious physiological benefits of improved oxygen intake, blood flow, immune stimulation, and neural transmission, there was also a psychological and sociological component, too. Psychologically, fitter children showed higher self-esteem. Sociologically, those who participated in organized sports displayed more confidence, more cooperation, and spontaneous leadership.

Six: Musical Training Improves IQ Into Adulthood

Long-term research by the University of Toronto showed that organized music lessons benefited children all the way into adulthood. The longer the child studied music, the higher their IQs as adults. Music students also displayed better grades throughout their schooling.

Seven: Some Video Games Enhance Mental Acuity

Research by the University of Rochester found that certain video games improved sensory perception, strategic thinking, and planning ahead of time. The video games that created positive mental improvements had an educational element that improved motor skills and enhanced memory.

Eight: Mind Games Do More Than Entertain

Board games like chess, checkers, creative games like Lego and jigsaw puzzles, and brainteaser games like crosswords, cryptograms, riddles, and Sudoku improved intelligence. Specifically, they stimulated better decision-making, smarter analytical thinking, and more accurate problem solving.

Nine: Reading Improves Both Creativity And Logic

Whether a child was read to at bedtime, or actively read their own books, silently or aloud, they displayed increased left and right brain intellectual growth. Both fiction and non-fiction books improved creative imagination and logical, sequential thinking.

Ten: Nurturing Curiosity Creates An Open, Absorbent Mind

Curiosity, the urge to seek knowledge, is essential to improving intelligence in children. Conducting educational outings, teaching new skills, and supporting hobbies encouraged the development of curiosity.

These 10 ways of raising intelligence in children are easy to apply, practical, and within the reach of parents and teachers. Research has shown that they are highly effective in creating the environmental support children need to develop their intelligence.

About the author:
Learn more about your childs development and child education at http://childrenlearnmore.info


Article Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

The All Time Top Ten Study Tips For Success In Tests And Exams

by: Michael Tipper

There comes a time in every student's life when those things that you dread begin to loom on the horizon. Depending upon how confident you are about them, your horizon will either be measured in months, or maybe days. What am I talking about? Of course I mean examinations. You may be about to go into mid term mock examinations or you could be facing your final tests.

Whatever your situation and whenever you are going to be sat in an examination room it is never too early to start getting ready for those tests. Thorough preparation will provide you with a strong foundation and will give you the confidence and belief that you can do them and that you will get the grades you want.

But where do you start and which of the hundreds of study tips and study skill ideas do you use?

I am often asked for my top ten tips when it comes to exam success and over the years I have accumulated many ideas, some of which are more effective than others. However if I were to limit myself to just the top 10 that I felt were the most powerful based on all of the work I have done in this field, here are the ones that I think are the most powerful:

1. Find your own deep and compelling reason to successfully learn your subject and pass your exams.

This really is the most important of the study tips I shall share with you here because your success will be deeply rooted in your motivation to learn. Many kids at school do not want to be there and can't be bothered to try which is often why they fail. It does not mean that they are unable to learn, it just means that they have not applied themselves to the work at hand. I know that this is often true because I have met literally hundreds of people who "failed" at school by conventional standards yet later in life made the decision to go back to studying a subject because they wanted to do it. And because of their motivation to succeed the did.

So what does that mean to you? Well understand that you are driven by emotional needs and not necessarily logical ones. If we were driven by logic, the world would be a much better place. So you have to find a deep emotional reason for achieving success as a student. And if you can dig deep and find that reason then nothing will stop you because you will find a way.

2. Plan your time to include study, revision and social commitments - a balance of having fun, taking breaks and studying is vital.

Balance is very important to have a successful and rewarding life and the same is true when you are a student. OK you could spend every waking hour reading every book you could find and learning everything you could and yes you would pass your exams provided you had not burnt out. But it would not be fun, you would have no friends and you would definitely be out of balance.

Taking appropriate breaks and giving yourself little rewards when you have finished an essay or learnt something new for your exams is vital for your success. This is because it keeps you in balance and gives you a degree of variety that keeps you fresh and alert. Yes having a night out with your friends is good for you - but only if it is as a reward for doing good work and is as part of your overall plan.

3. Use multi-coloured Mind Maps for your notes.

My friend and mentor Tony Buzan developed the most powerful thinking tool ever (and I am not exaggerating here) when he invented the Mind Map. Imagine being able to get the key facts from an entire book on a single page in a way that was not only easy to remember but would stay in your memory for as long as you wanted it.

Imagine having a thinking tool that allowed you to prepare essays and assignments in a fraction of the time than you do at the moment AND have them much better. Imagine being able to give a powerful hour long presentation from a single page of colourful notes that you put together in about 10 minutes.

Well all these are possible with the Mind Map. It is an amazing tool that combines the power of association, the fact that we have a very strong visual processing mechanism and that it combines right and left brain processing.

I have seen what Mind Maps can do for students of all ages and all abilities and if I had my way it would be a compulsory tool taught to kids from a very young age.

4. Review your notes regularly to reinforce your new-found knowledge.

This is another very simple but extremely powerful tip for you. The experience of most students is that the learning that takes place in the classroom is really an information gathering exercise. When it comes to revising for their exams at the end of the year they go to their notes and often can't remember ever seeing that information before. They know they must have because the notes are in their handwriting but they can't remember anything! So the preparation for exams becomes a re-learning exercise.

This study tip is so simple and powerful yet most will not bother. If at the end of every day, every week and every month you quickly scanned what you have learnt, made a few key word notes and then reviewed those ultra-condensed notes regularly, you would be amazed at how much you could remember. This only need take 10 minutes at the end of the day, half an hour at the end of the week and maybe an hour or two at the end of the month.

Each time you review what you have learnt, even in condensed key word format, it is more deeply engrained in your memory.

5. Swiftly skim through your text books and course material before you read them in depth to give you an overview of your subject.

Now there is not enough space here to explain why this tip is important because it is a fundamental part of learning how to read faster and absorb more information. Just trust me on this one and before you start reading, skim through your book (no more than 10 minutes) to get a feel for the contents.

As you read in greater depth later on, some of what you have got from the quick scan will help put into context that information and allow you to make the necessary links in your mind and memory.

Doing this will often stop you from getting stuck at any point because you will have a flavour of what is to come later in the book and this added preview can help the understanding of earlier information.

6. Learn how to remember lists of things by linking each item to a location on a journey or route you are familiar with around your town. You could even use your own home.

At some point, once you have understood your subject, you will need to be able to memorise it. Many people think that just understanding it is enough to learn it but unfortunately that is not the case and so some memorization is necessary.

The most powerful way of doing this is to create a "filing system" in your mind. One way to do this is to create a little journey in your imagination (it can be a real place or you can make it up). See for example the chair, the bed, the TV, the door and the window in your bedroom. If you wanted to remember a sequence of items you would link an outrageous (and therefore memorable) picture to each location.

To recall the information, simply revisit the journey in your own mind and "see" the information in the silly pictures you have created.

7. Before you do any revision, warm up by doing some gentle exercise to relieve any tension in your body and to get a rush of healthy oxygen flowing to your brain.

There is a saying - "a healthy body, a healthy mind" - and nowhere is this more true than when it comes to learning. Two things happen when you physically warm up before studying. First of all you get rid of any physical tension that will create stress in the body and mind (not good for learning) and secondly you will get a rush of oxygen to the brain which will help you think more clearly (definitely good for learning).

8. Do past papers under thorough exam conditions as often as possible to familiarise yourself with the format and the pressures of working under exam conditions.

If you are training in a sport or practicing a musical instrument, you will practice the plays or rehearse the pieces for the big day. It would not make sense to spend months doing push ups and then turn up on the big day and expect to play soccer really well. It would also be unwise to only practice scales on your instrument and then when the big performance comes up expect a perfect recital.

So the same is true of exams. Fortunately these days you can get hold of past exam papers from previous years. Do these, under the same exam conditions, over and over again so that when the big day comes you will have exam experience under your belt.

Doing this will give you more confidence, much better exam techniqe and an insight into how the examiners for your subject think. Remember practice makes perfect.

9. In an exam, make sure you read the question completely and fully understand what the examiner wants before you allocate your time and begin answering the questions.

This is commonsense but you would be amazed at how many people do not do this. Take your time, plan what you are going to write and then write it.

10. If you are faced with a mental block breathe deeply, relax and ask yourself "If I did know the answer to this question, what would it be?"

This might sound silly but if you do it with a positive expectation that your very powerful subconcious will give you the answer, then you will be amazed at what comes to mind. The combination of the breathing, relaxation and expectation is the key. Of course you have had to have done the preparation beforehand because this won't work with information that you have not previously learnt or covered in class.

So there you have my top 10 tips. Each are very powerful and just doing one of them will make a big difference to your success...but if you do all 10...Wow!

Good luck and please do let me know how these work for you.

About The Author

Michael Tipper makes it very easy to be highly effective at learning and passing exams in a way that any student can easily achieve. To receive your free 7 day mini-course on being a highly effective student visit http://www.the77habits.com.

himself@michaeltipper.com

Free Nursing Articles and Essays

Where to get free nursing articles and essays?

Nursing Planet is a directory of open access full-text nursing research and review articles. They also offer free articles, websites, journals and resources on mental health nursing. Additionally, they offer tips on clinical nursing. A directory free nursing journals is also available.

They also provide tips and free article downloads for those taking the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which is an essential requirement for those nurses who aspiring to work United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and United States.

Visit their website at http://www.nursingplanet.com/.

Free E-book: Exam Tips

A Free Exam Preparation E-Book for students appearing in Various Entrance Exams - Class 12, Engineering Entrance, Medical Entrance, MBA Entrance, MCA Entrance, IAS & Other Civil Services Entrance, Bank PO, NDA Entrance, CDS Entrance, SSB Interviews, Hotel Management and all other Entrance Exams.

This ebook, written by Anurag Chopra, tackles about obstacles to academic success, making good study habits, improving your memory, and improving your objective test-taking skills. It also discusses about the number 1 "don't" in every exam: cramming and why it does not work. It also gives some informative and helpful tips on how to take a multiple choice-type of exam and preparing for an exam.

The suggestions & tips have been taken from the experience of various leaders in education & student psychology from the net and is informative in nature.

Download this e-book for free.

Study Tips: 10 Tips to pass the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certification exam

American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certification exam is a high stress test given to graduates from Internal medicine residency programs. The Internal medicine recertification exam is given to physicians already in clinical practice, who have been ABIM board certified in the past. This article gives tips on preparing, studying and taking the Internal medicine boards. Although written specifically for ABIM Internal medicine boards, these tips are also useful for Family Practice, Pediatrics, OBGYN, Surgery and other board exams.

• When & How to study for ABIM exam: During your medical residency, schedule time to study for the ABIM Internal medicine boards. The third year (PGY 3) of your residency should be your main time of preparation. Reading alone is usually a bad strategy and often depressing. You may not be able to retain much of the ABIM material that you reviewed alone either. Try to form a study group with other PGY 3 residents who will be taking the same ABIM Internal medicine boards. This will boost every ones morale and give a common sense of purpose. Set a mutually agreeable time for the discussions. The best time to study in a group is over the weekend when none of you have residency obligations. Spending three or four hours every weekend (once a week) is enough to stay focused. Understand what you are studying and the reasons for it. Keep asking yourself the question “why?” and “why not?”
• Study groups: It is crucial that you keep your study group small and stay focused on your ABIM Internal medicine board exam goals. An ideal number would be three or four residents. More than four residents would be counter-productive. Try to have a schedule and read ahead of the planned discussion. By preparing ahead, you will save time, cover more topics and retain more from the discussion. The study group will work best if all participants follow the same board review material. However, different ABIM board review material could also work to your advantage. A good plan is to discuss your ABIM Internal medicine board review study material (Medstudy / Mayo clinic review etc) for the first two hours and then solve multiple choice questions (MKSAP) for the next two hours. Solving multiple-choice questions in groups and discussing each option in detail is vital in developing your thought process and sharpening your clinical decision making skills. You will realize the usefulness of the study group and thank your colleagues when you sit for the actual ABIM Internal medicine boards.
• What to study for ABIM exam: Decide on the ABIM Internal medicine board review material you wish to study from. We have reviewed some commonly used material in this website. The important thing is to choose what works best for you. Choose one ABIM board review textbook and stick to it. It is far more advantageous to revise the same material several times than reading several different materials and getting confused. You must concentrate on solving MKSAP or Medstudy questions at least 50 % of your preparation time.
• Create and devote time to prepare for your ABIM boards. Remember, medical residency is the best time to prepare for the boards. Once your residency is completed, you are thrown out into the real world. If you are starting a fellowship, you will not find much time to study. If you are starting a job as a new physician, your first month will be busy learning the intricate details of medical practice and the paperwork that comes with it. You will most likely, end up designating ten days for study just prior to the exams and as we all know that never works out. So once again, residency is the best time to study. You will not find that kind of quality time after your residency.
• Prepare a schedule to study for ABIM Internal medicine board exams and hang it in a prominent place. You will make several changes to this over time. Plan to revise the ABIM Internal medicine board review material that you have chosen several times (minimum twice). Stay focused throughout the third year of your residency. By middle of the third year, your ABIM Internal medicine board review preparation must be at its peak. If you have not yet formed a study group, now is your last chance.
• Solve questions similar to ABIM exam content: Don’t try to read the ABIM Internal medicine board review material from “cover to cover”. You will not retain much. The best way to prepare is to solve questions, then read the explanation and then look up additional information related to each of the choices (options). This really improves your understanding of the question, familiarizes you with the “teaching principle” and the “testing objective” of that question (which may be repeated in the actual ABIM Internal medicine board exam), and gives you an opportunity to learn about all the other choices and how they differ from the correct answer. Ideally you should be solving MKSAP questions in your second year of residency (PGY 2). If this is not the case, you must definitely begin doing the MKSAP questions by the start of your third year of residency (PGY 3).
• Pictures & Images: Pictures of skin disorders, X-rays and other images given in board questions are generally easy ones to score points. Looking at the image first, before reading the question, usually helps spot the abnormality. Reading the ABIM question’s stem after that will help you put the pieces of the puzzle in place.
• ABIM answering strategies: When reading long multiple choice questions, it may be useful to first read the actual “lead line” of the ABIM Internal medicine board exam question. Once you understand what the question is asking, you can stay focused and look for clues in the long stem of the ABIM exam question. This strategy will also save you time. Several residents have found this strategy useful. As you read through the question, you may also find it useful to underline the key facts and abnormal findings. Once you have gone through the choices, it will be easy to look at the underlined abnormalities and try to “connect the dots”.
• Zebras: Use exam “techniques” to your advantage. Look for target words in ABIM Internal medicine board exam questions. These are referred to as “zebras”. For example in an ABIM exam question, if you see the word “anosmia”, think Kallmann’s syndrome. If you see the phrase “scar on left abdomen”, think splenectomy and look for encapsulated organisms causing sepsis. If the patient is from the Ohio or Mississippi river valleys, think histoplasmosis (CXR calcifications).
• ABIM exam day: Do not study the day before the ABIM Internal medicine boards or in-between the ABIM exam sessions. Discussing the ABIM exam questions with other residents may upset you and adversely affect your performance in the next session. Remember, “What is done, is done”. So don’t cry over spilt milk. Rather, stay focused and conserve your energy for the next ABIM board exam session.
  

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