Readers may ask why the question mark. The answer is that medical exams are externally imposed and that your continued aims should be to progressively educate yourself so that exams and revision for exams should not be a defined period of time but rather a continuous process.
Throughout your career you should read or skim relevant journals on a regular basis, paying particular attention to topics you find interesting and those that you will need to know. Pay particular attention to the letter pages of journals. That is where debate and disagreements are aired and, because of this, what you read will be memorable. Do all the quizzes that come your way – that is one way of gaining “experience by proxy.” In particular do quizzes that have pictures or clinical illustrations as these are manifestly based on real life situations rather than on academic constructs.
A note about textbooks. At a junior level do not revise from single speciality textbooks or multi-tome textbooks that aim to cover every speciality. These are books for reference! Use books that have a general flavour. I found a useful technique was to mark in the margins with pencil any piece of information that was essential knowledge or interesting knowledge that you did not know already. Then to revise all you have to do is to look back at the bits you had marked.
Do not attempt to memorize complex flow chart guidelines unless you have a photographic memory. Rather try to understand the logic of the decision branches. There are certain guidelines that have to be committed to memory and (I am not making this up) the best way is to stick the guideline on the back of your lavatory wall! What else will you be concentrating on? At least once a day if you are lucky. The reference for those who really want to know is Grogono AW, Johnson MM, Jastremski RF Educational Graffiti: better use of the lavatory wall. Lancet 1982;319:1175-1176.
If you really must attempt to cram in knowledge in the last days before an exam, remember that attention spam for single topics is about 20 minutes. Therefore change the topic every 20 minutes or so to ensure continual stimulation.