If you are testing in 5 or more months, we recommend choosing a course that meets once per week so that you can spread out your prep. The study plan is designed around a progression from content review to test like practice, and slowly shifts from heavy module and qbank assignments at the beginning of your course, towards lots and lots of practice, including AAMC questions and exams, at the end of your course.
You may find your study plan has big gaps at the beginning, at the end, or both.
If you’ve got a big gap at the beginning of your study plan, know that modules can always be moved earlier in the course and spaced out. We usually advise against moving modules much *later* in the course since content mastery should be one of the earliest parts of your prep. Moving modules earlier, though, is just fine! Just make sure that you don’t move topics too far out of order if they’re related. For example, a topic like amino acid-base chemistry could be hard if you haven’t watched the other earlier amino acid modules first! Similarly, you can move the strategy modules earlier, but don’t move them out of their numbered order. Math and Formulas 3 is going to be overwhelming if you haven’t made it through 1 and 2! Moving these modules earlier should also create more space in your plan, which you should plan to fill in with test like practice and review, followed by a review of module content as needed. Essentially, you’re giving yourself room to be able to “polish up” your content knowledge later, after you know what you’re still struggling with a few months in!
Similarly, if you’ve got a big gap at the end of the study plan, fill it in! You can add in office hours throughout your study plan, which will not only give you time to ask questions and chat with some of our top instructors, it’ll also provide valuable content and skill review. You also should add in and space out full length exams. Most students should plan to take at least 7-8 full length exams, and if you have time, more may be beneficial. It also may help you to space the exams out more; if you take 2 weeks between each full length, you’re going to have more time to thoroughly review, build your Lessons Learned Journal, review content, and practice based on your results. You can also add AAMC assignments, End of Chapter Exams, and Qbank practice into your study plan. Working through practice sets between full length exams leads to the best score improvements.
This advice may be *most* helpful to students who have uniquely long study timelines, but it applies to all blueprint students! Move assignments around, customize your practice and exam schedule, and make it your own. Don’t forget about that ability to sync the study plan to your calendar. Setting up that linkage will make it easy to keep track of your study commitments as you plan out the rest of your activities, and will help you to hold yourself accountable to your study plan!
Good luck! You can do this!
Blueprint Team