Karl Avillo, MD 🚢

Over the past 10 years, I ranked 7th in the Nurse Licensure Examination, 3rd in the Physician Licensure Examination, and 1st in the Philippine Specialty Board of Internal Medicine. What most people don’t know? I use the same 3 study strategies every time. 🧵👇

Studying is hard. Failing your exams is much harder. Staying focused is hard. Falling behind your study schedule is much harder. Doing active recall is hard. Forgetting everything you’ve studied is much harder. Choose your hard.

Active recall being hard is exactly why you should do it. Because the harder a study technique is, the better you'll learn & remember information. Which means you’ll actually know the right answers when it really matters. And that's how you pass your exams.

Studying for an exam is hard. And no matter what study strategy you use, it's still going to be hard. So if it's going to be hard anyway, do the one that will actually help you pass the exam. And that’s doing a lot of practice tests.

One of the hardest things to do when studying for a big exam is to keep studying no matter how you feel. You gotta do it tired. Do it scared. Do it sleep-deprived. Because the exam doesn’t care about how you feel. You just have to not quit and keep going.

Daily reminder: Your mistakes in the practice test will teach you lessons that your correct answers never will.

Another study mistake I used to make: Using my phone during study breaks. Scrolling during breaks leaves an "attention residue" in my mind. So when I go back to studying, my brain is still thinking about whatever I just saw on my phone.

Here's your daily reminder that if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got.

Shi* happens. You can fail your exam because of something that’s entirely out of your control. But, just don’t allow your lack of effort to be the reason you do.

Stop trying to: • Think about all the ways you could fail • Dwell on the time you wasted in the past • Obsess over the possibility of not passing your exam Instead, just focus on your effort today, at this very moment. The result will take care of itself.

You’re anxious of the exam because you haven’t studied enough. Do so much practice tests that whatever question comes out will not be new to you. Then when people ask, “Aren’t you nervous about the exam?” “No, because it’s not the first time I’ve seen this question.”

The ultimate purpose of doing practice tests is to make all your mistakes now, so that you don’t make the same mistakes on the actual exam.

Another good studying framework: The 80/20 Rule. 80% of the exam questions will likely come from only 20% of the entire study material. Prioritize studying the high-yield 20%, instead of spending equal amounts of time studying everything. Saves you a lot of time and effort.

Happiness is greater than or equal to (your perception of life’s events) minus (your expectations for life’s events). - Mo Gawdat @MGawdat

You’ll never have enough time to study everything. But you’ll always have enough time to do the 1 thing that matters most so you can pass your exams. And that’s doing a lot of practice tests.

Just because you finished reading the study material doesn't mean you'll remember it during the exam. To avoid forgetting, do practice tests to identify your weak areas and fill your knowledge gaps. Trust me, you'll pass your exam.

Good night to everyone who’s put in their study hours today despite feeling tired and burned out. May your dreams of passing your exams be bigger than whatever you’re feeling.

Do it tired. Do it scared. Do it anyway.

The only certainty in this world is uncertainty. And we just have to get comfortable with that. You don’t need to know every step you’ll take to get to where you’re going. You just need to know the next one and that’s it. Don’t let everything after that paralyze you & just focus on what’s right in front of you.