We make learning medicine easier

How This Mom of 3 Aced the Boards the Second Time Around

Written by Maddy Crouch | Sep 2, 2020 9:26:56 PM

Studying for the boards is a huge task. And if you’ve got a busy personal life—like working full-time and being a mother of three young kiddos—it can be impossible to squeeze study time into your already hectic days. Alexis Orama, MD is a doctor in Illinois who was working within those exact parameters. She’s a mother of 3, is a busy Pediatrician, and needed to find a way to carve out time to study for her board exam. 

After failing the ABP exam the first time, she turned to MedStudy to help her get all the tools she needed to ace the boards the second time around. Dr. Orama used the Core, Video Board Review, Q&A Premium, StudyWise, and Personal Trainer to prepare for and ace her exam. 

Reinforce Topics by Using Study Tools in Multiple Formats

Incorporating multiple formats when you study is proven to funnel the information into your long-term memory. Dr. Orama took our advice and used multiple study tools in her prep.

She particularly liked our Pediatric Video Board Review because of the number of speakers presenting the content—there are 16 very engaging teachers who cover every topic from the ABP content outline! The videos also come with a 700+ page printed color syllabus that contains every slide from the presentations, which helped her follow along with the content.

 maddy blog images (51)Dr. Alexis Orama on her study method

Effortlessly Implement Learning Techniques That Actually Work 

We’ve created a few free tools to help our customers not only understand the best learning techniques but also to implement them. This helps you streamline your process, saving you precious time. Dr. Orama used 2 of our free tools: StudyWise and Personal Trainer. 

StudyWise is a short eBook that will unsettle you by de-bunking 6 learning myths that may be holding you back—and will reveal the 2 secrets to long-term learning. We break down the best way to study medicine for immediate recall and retention and show you how to do it in 3 easy steps.  

Think of our Personal Trainer as your learning guide: after you tell us your exam date and a few other details, Personal Trainer will create your study plan—with timing based on your exam date—that tells you what to study, and when. Many doctors really like it because it provides some accountability and keeps you on track! 

maddy blog images (50)
Dr. Alexis Orama on additional study tools she used

Use High-Yield Questions to Hammer Topics Home 

Self-testing is the most essential and effective process to you in the months leading up to your next exam—and Dr. Orama knew it! There are a few things to keep in mind when you are answering questions—most importantly, focus on understanding why the correct answer is right, and why the incorrect answers are wrong. 

Dr. Orama liked that our Q&A bank had multiple questions per topic area, and many questions reinstated the same idea. This helped her reinforce the information. 


Dr. Alexis Orama on additional study tools she used

If you’re preparing for the boards or trying to update your knowledge for practice, you might want to take advice from Dr. Orama and study with multiple formats to really drive the content into your long-term memory. We’ve created study tools that incorporate the best science-backed learning techniques so you’re always ready to ace the boards and your patients get the best care possible. 

Thank you to @drmamaorama for chatting with us about her success taking the boards!