Decent scores on Uworld but getting rocked by the practice USMLEs

[ChackieJan]

Hey everyone,

I'm about 3 weeks out from my test and I'm getting frustrated. I'm about 55% through my first pass on Uworld and my cumulative percentage is 70%. Over the past few weeks the percentage has been going up as I've been getting better at approaching the questions and as I've refreshed myself on the material. I did the first Uworld assessment as well and scored 240. However, I have been taking 2 USMLE tests per week and my USMLE scores have not improved. I am scoring around 220 on each practice test. So far I've done 13, 15, 16, and 18 and my scores have ranged between 217 and 223. It's starting to worry me because I expected to see improvement on those by now. Does anyone have thoughts on the discrepancy or ideas on how I can get better at the USMLE style questions? Anyone with similar experience to this?

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[ButterButter]

If you are 3 weeks out, then I would focus as much as you can on learning content. That means getting through all of UWorld and putting your energy there. How many questions are you doing each day? Are you doing timed blocks? You can read a dozen threads on NBME vs. UWorld correlations and get a dozen different opinions. But at the end of the day, the more content you learn, the better score you will get.

I was pretty disillusioned with the score discrepancy between my NBMEs/UWorld SAs and my final Step 1 score. I still did well, but I didn't score > 95th percentile like the practice exams predicted. So for Step 2, I only did 1 UWorld SA and just studied my ass off and I was happy with the results. I think that by doing so many practice exams people can get super frustrated with score predictions and that negatively affects how they spend precious study time.

 

[ChackieJan]

If you are 3 weeks out, then I would focus as much as you can on learning content. That means getting through all of UWorld and putting your energy there. How many questions are you doing each day? Are you doing timed blocks? You can read a dozen threads on NBME vs. UWorld correlations and get a dozen different opinions. But at the end of the day, the more content you learn, the better score you will get.

I was pretty disillusioned with the score discrepancy between my NBMEs/UWorld SAs and my final Step 1 score. I still did well, but I didn't score > 95th percentile like the practice exams predicted. So for Step 2, I only did 1 UWorld SA and just studied my ass off and I was happy with the results. I think that by doing so many practice exams people can get super frustrated with score predictions and that negatively affects how they spend precious study time.

I do timed blocks and I do 100 questions per day. Most of the day is spent reviewing what I got wrong or marked and then reviewing the relevant topics in first aid. I'm also doing pathoma. Hopefully I'll start scoring better as I study more. Maybe I need to focus more time on reading first aid just to make sure I hit everything.

 

[STEPinthenameoflove2018]

You’re taking some old nbmes the exam has changed a lot don’t worry about the score so much. Nbme 18/19 many day to add 15-20 points maybe it’s the same for the old ones too. Nbme are good predictors but I think only once you reach a 245/250 threshold From what I’ve read.


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[ChackieJan]

You’re taking some old nbmes the exam has changed a lot don’t worry about the score so much. Nbme 18/19 many day to add 15-20 points maybe it’s the same for the old ones too. Nbme are good predictors but I think only once you reach a 245/250 threshold From what I’ve read.


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That is good to hear. Thanks for the response. In talking to others I've heard scores tend to start really improving in the last couple of weeks of prep so hopefully that is true.

 

[Integral]

That is good to hear. Thanks for the response. In talking to others I've heard scores tend to start really improving in the last couple of weeks of prep so hopefully that is true.

Simply saying or expecting your scores to improve without actively changing something is a bold risk.

Anyhow, how did the exam go? How was it compared to the NBMEs?