USMLE Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[WeedForLunch]

I know this is quite early but most American Students have finished giving the test for this year.
I am an IMG and have been prepping for the steps since quite some time and have seen Phloston, Transposony's and others' threads for their respective years and how helpful they have been.

I intend on giving step in Jan.. let's share timetables, plans and other stuff on how everyone intends on taking on this beast.

P.S. : I think it is not that early.. the 2015/2016 threads were started in September/October.. but in true SDN gunner style..i wanna start it in August..

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[mymembernames]

About how long does it take to get through Uworld? Saving it for dedicated (6-8 weeks) and not sure if that will be enough time.

 

[Major procrastinator]

About how long does it take to get through Uworld? Saving it for dedicated (6-8 weeks) and not sure if that will be enough time.

if you do 48 questions a day...timed and random and go through each question thats about 4-5 hours of work a day....very doable unless your planning on doing a ton of other work. but UFAP alone in 6-8 weeks plenty of time

 

[chromuffin]

if you do 48 questions a day...timed and random and go through each question thats about 4-5 hours of work a day....very doable unless your planning on doing a ton of other work. but UFAP alone in 6-8 weeks plenty of time

How long do you spend in FA?! Takes me 4-6 hours for 10 pages on average.

 

[Major procrastinator]

How long do you spend in FA?! Takes me 4-6 hours for 10 pages on average.

i can tell you during my last 6 days i did 10 pages an hour for 10 hours a day.

if your just starting out its going to take a lot longer. if you havent reviewed material yet i wouldnt spend time memorizing. just read through it fairly quickly to become familiar. as you learn the material it will become more of a quick review read. its not a learning tool its a review book

 

[chromuffin]

i can tell you during my last 6 days i did 10 pages an hour for 10 hours a day.

if your just starting out its going to take a lot longer. if you havent reviewed material yet i wouldnt spend time memorizing. just read through it fairly quickly to become familiar. as you learn the material it will become more of a quick review read. its not a learning tool its a review book

Understandably so, but seeing material for the first time in over a year requires a bit more than 10pages/hr. Is there something I'm missing in the UFAP study method?

 

[Major procrastinator]

Understandably so, but seeing material for the first time in over a year requires a bit more than 10pages/hr. Is there something I'm missing in the UFAP study method?

yeah for UFAP

first get a baseline NBME
if your very very weak in certain subjects you might want to think about sketchy micro, physio kaplan or brs etc. depending on how good your school was and how well you studied during basic sciences
1- just read FA to get familiar again with info again
2-start off doing a block of uworld and reviewing info well
3- start doing couple hours pathoma a day

as the weeks progress you would have started to cover a lot of FA.

after couple weeks do another nbme and gauge your progress. see where you are weak, and see if your improving. if your improving your study method is working, focus reading FA for weak areas along with UFAP. if score doesnt move your studying is ineffective and you probably need a more solid foundation.

you should know how good your basic foundation is and if you need help from sources like kaplan.

 

[Step1EKG]

Just took my first NBME 13. Missed 52 (148/200 = 74% correct) for a score of 194.

I'm crushed. 10 weeks to go and I'm panicking.

 

[Major procrastinator]

Just took my first NBME 13. Missed 52 (148/200 = 74% correct) for a score of 194.

I'm crushed. 10 weeks to go and I'm panicking.

no need to be crushed. be happy its your first nbme and your at passing.

you have 10 weeks which is a ton of time you can easily get 30-40 points by studying smart.

use nbme to focus on your weaknesses and keep doing UFAP hardcore. if you see a significant weakness use a different source if FA doesnt make much sense.

nbme 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 left
take them every 2 weeks to gauge progress and weaknesses.

there is no reason or time to feel down, do your best study hard and fix weaknessess-most area for points.

kick ass!! give it everything you can for 10 weeks and it WILL payoff. there are no shortcuts and it wont be easy. isolate yourself from distractors, and negativity. relax take deep breathes, have a plan and keep going. hard work pays off.

 

[Step1EKG]

no need to be crushed. be happy its your first nbme and your at passing.

you have 10 weeks which is a ton of time you can easily get 30-40 points by studying smart.

use nbme to focus on your weaknesses and keep doing UFAP hardcore. if you see a significant weakness use a different source if FA doesnt make much sense.

nbme 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 left
take them every 2 weeks to gauge progress and weaknesses.

there is no reason or time to feel down, do your best study hard and fix weaknessess-most area for points.

kick ass!! give it everything you can for 10 weeks and it WILL payoff. there are no shortcuts and it wont be easy. isolate yourself from distractors, and negativity. relax take deep breathes, have a plan and keep going. hard work pays off.

Thanks for the encouragement -- got no choice but to keep on pressing on.

 

[wedoitlike123]

Just took my first NBME 13. Missed 52 (148/200 = 74% correct) for a score of 194.

I'm crushed. 10 weeks to go and I'm panicking.

You're fine. Don't panic. Learn from the mistakes. What's your target score? How have you been doing on Uworld?

 

[Step1EKG]

You're fine. Don't panic. Learn from the mistakes. What's your target score? How have you been doing on Uworld?

I've been aiming for 240+. About 2/3 through UWorld and averaging 60%.

My weakest areas are pharm and biochem so hopefully 2 weeks of focusing on those will help. Gotta grind away at that sketchypharm. I haven't touched biostats since ms1 so hoping a review of that will get me a few more points. And lastly, I have yet to do behavioral/psych at all.

I've got a lot of work to do if I want any chance at my target score. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Anti-PD1]

Just took NBME 19.

11 wrong. Translates to 255. That curve seems a little steep, maybe because it's new.

It highlights the correct answers when you review it, if you bought extended feedback I think.

It was a similar exam, been there done that kind of thing. Exam in T-3 days!

 

[TheOther]

Just took NBME 19.

11 wrong. Translates to 255. That curve seems a little steep, maybe because it's new.

It highlights the correct answers when you review it, if you bought extended feedback I think.

It was a similar exam, been there done that kind of thing. Exam in T-3 days!

Goodness gracious, that does seem pretty steep. But you're ready to rock! Best to you.

 

[Major procrastinator]

Just took NBME 19.

11 wrong. Translates to 255. That curve seems a little steep, maybe because it's new.

It highlights the correct answers when you review it, if you bought extended feedback I think.

It was a similar exam, been there done that kind of thing. Exam in T-3 days!

no way! people have been waiting so long for correct answers

 

[Major procrastinator]

I've been aiming for 240+. About 2/3 through UWorld and averaging 60%.

My weakest areas are pharm and biochem so hopefully 2 weeks of focusing on those will help. Gotta grind away at that sketchypharm. I haven't touched biostats since ms1 so hoping a review of that will get me a few more points. And lastly, I have yet to do behavioral/psych at all.

I've got a lot of work to do if I want any chance at my target score. Thanks for the encouragement!

kaplan pharm and biochem is very very good depending on how weak you are. got me very stronf.

kaplan behavorial with daughterty is awesome but kinda long, you can pick areas you want though

seems like you have a lot of points to get yet and can become strong in 2 weeks

 

[baclofen]

Just took NBME 19.

11 wrong. Translates to 255. That curve seems a little steep, maybe because it's new.

It highlights the correct answers when you review it, if you bought extended feedback I think.

It was a similar exam, been there done that kind of thing. Exam in T-3 days!

Is NBME 19 the same length as the NBME's (i.e. 50 q's/1h15m per block)? Or is it reflective of the real deal (i.e. 40 q's/1h per block)?

 

[Anti-PD1]

Is NBME 19 the same length as the NBME's (i.e. 50 q's/1h15m per block)? Or is it reflective of the real deal (i.e. 40 q's/1h per block)?

Same length, identical format.

 

[Major procrastinator]

Is NBME 19 the same length as the NBME's (i.e. 50 q's/1h15m per block)? Or is it reflective of the real deal (i.e. 40 q's/1h per block)?

50/1hr 15

 

[Anti-PD1]

no way! people have been waiting so long for correct answers

Time to discuss the questions then.

 

[Major procrastinator]

I am going crazy waiting for my score, I still have 10 days to go. my friend was scoring 215+ on nbmes got a 193. Although he had a problem finishing every block with 5-8 questions to go, which he never had a problem with on practice tests. I had no problem finishing except for 1 block i had to guess on a couple and didnt even answer 1. I hope it was a "test" question hehe.

I have ups and downs. I felt good after the exam. However I feel uneasy now. At times I have a high and think my confidence was real and I prepared well, other times I feel like maybe Im fooling myself and I didnt do well at all.

I really want 230+ by some miracle but I doubt its a reality. I would still be super happy with 220+!!

 

[Surgeria]

Just took my first NBME 13. Missed 52 (148/200 = 74% correct) for a score of 194.

I'm crushed. 10 weeks to go and I'm panicking.

Hello, Can you tell me please what's your problem? Why are you missing that questions? No understanding concept, memorize tiny minutae details, maybe can't interpret the question stems and get the idea what do they heck want? I will sat nbme in one week. Times to times I am affraid that I am also in that boat, boat of 200 score. For example my problem frequently is not knowing the detail (for example, enteroccocus is alpha hemolitic and produces no hemolysis) this information is straightforward and you just need to remember. But times to times I can also get wrong in hard topics like interpretation of graphics about lungs, heart and stuff. There are really easy questions you just need to know the detail. For example crush injury in the orbit, which nerve is injured? I guess maxillary devision of trigeminal? ... Just need to remember. Whats you problem?

 

[Joanna1987]

Since you're done with NBME 19 and had ONLY 11 mistakes, I'd like to ask you a few questions

I will DM you maybe? Don't really want to spoil questions to other people

Thanks in advance

 

[Major procrastinator]

Hello, Can you tell me please what's your problem? Why are you missing that questions? No understanding concept, memorize tiny minutae details, maybe can't interpret the question stems and get the idea what do they heck want? I will sat nbme in one week. Times to times I am affraid that I am also in that boat, boat of 200 score. For example my problem frequently is not knowing the detail (for example, enteroccocus is alpha hemolitic and produces no hemolysis) this information is straightforward and you just need to remember. But times to times I can also get wrong in hard topics like interpretation of graphics about lungs, heart and stuff. There are really easy questions you just need to know the detail. For example crush injury in the orbit, which nerve is injured? I guess maxillary devision of trigeminal? ... Just need to remember. Whats you problem?

enteroccous is gamma hemolytic

memorizing gram positive and gram negative alogrithm is a must do for micro. its not minute details and its well known that you should be very familiar with them you can solve a lot of questions with that alone.

anatomy i hate cause it is straight memory

 

[Surgeria]

enteroccous is gamma hemolytic

memorizing gram positive and gram negative alogrithm is a must do for micro. its not minute details and its well known that you should be very familiar with them you can solve a lot of questions with that alone.

anatomy i hate cause it is straight memory

Thank you, as you can see I have serious problems with this stuff. I can easily understand the concept behind the activity of class 1 drugs in patients with MI, I get the idea but I fastly forget the details. For example yesterday I review one more time that class 3 acts only in AV nodes and Accessory tracs. Today I knew that enterococcus has no hemolysis properties, but I made a mistake in differentiating the alpha hemolysis (partial hemolysis) and gamma hemolyssis. I do every day around 3-4 hours anki cards of first aid rx 2016, I hope it will solve my problem or I am screwed. Somebody is granted with super long term memory, but I think most of the people are in this boat, constant forgetting. I hope anki will fix it, because passive reading of FA gives me nothing, give me just backbone. After this anki cards which is 11 000 cards I will add bros anki for pathology that is 6000 cards of pathoma + first aid pathology. Hope this 17 000 cards will kick me trough. I have now more problems with details than understanding the concept. Anyway I am +- done with concepts, now I am in next phase, phase of integrating details with concepts. Hope that I am not fooling myself.

any ideas ? ...

 

[goodvibes27]

Hi guys,

I've been studying UFAP. I'll be done with UW soon, with around 51% first pass.
NBME 12 = 178 (69%), at the end of December
UWSA 2 = 168, at the end of January
So I've been focusing on finishing UW nicely, also covering the weaker topics (which were quite a bit ). I plan on taking NBME 13 in 2 weeks, once I'm done with UW. Hoping that there's an improvement this time, my exam is towards the end of April (6 weeks out)
I was wondering if I should do all my incorrects? Or just reset the whole thing? Because half the qbank is incorrect.
If anyone has any advice regarding the last few weeks of prep too. I'm all ears. I need all the help. Thanks!

 

[Major procrastinator]

Thank you, as you can see I have serious problems with this stuff. I can easily understand the concept behind the activity of class 1 drugs in patients with MI, I get the idea but I fastly forget the details. For example yesterday I review one more time that class 3 acts only in AV nodes and Accessory tracs. Today I knew that enterococcus has no hemolysis properties, but I made a mistake in differentiating the alpha hemolysis (partial hemolysis) and gamma hemolyssis. I do every day around 3-4 hours anki cards of first aid rx 2016, I hope it will solve my problem or I am screwed. Somebody is granted with super long term memory, but I think most of the people are in this boat, constant forgetting. I hope anki will fix it, because passive reading of FA gives me nothing, give me just backbone. After this anki cards which is 11 000 cards I will add bros anki for pathology that is 6000 cards of pathoma + first aid pathology. Hope this 17 000 cards will kick me trough. I have now more problems with details than understanding the concept. Anyway I am +- done with concepts, now I am in next phase, phase of integrating details with concepts. Hope that I am not fooling myself.

any ideas ? ...

anki is great because of spaced recognition.

i did not read about you doing questions. only way to integrate everything and test your application of knowledge is tons of questions. i would do thousands of questions over thousands of anki cards.

certain stuff you have to memorize but most is understanding.

if you can integrate subjects together by knowing core concepts you wont forget so easily. you dont have to remeber everything but when given choices you should be able to recognize and figure things out.

even if all you know about class 1 is sodium channel blocker, if you know how action potentionals work from basic physiology you can understand a lot.

first aid reading sucks, but if you have studied properly it should be a nice quick review

 

[Major procrastinator]

Hi guys,

I've been studying UFAP. I'll be done with UW soon, with around 51% first pass.
NBME 12 = 178 (69%), at the end of December
UWSA 2 = 168, at the end of January
So I've been focusing on finishing UW nicely, also covering the weaker topics (which were quite a bit ). I plan on taking NBME 13 in 2 weeks, once I'm done with UW. Hoping that there's an improvement this time, my exam is towards the end of April (6 weeks out)
I was wondering if I should do all my incorrects? Or just reset the whole thing? Because half the qbank is incorrect.
If anyone has any advice regarding the last few weeks of prep too. I'm all ears. I need all the help. Thanks!

since its been around 5 weeks since your last nbme we would need to know a new nbme score. i wouldnt wait 2 weeks. you still have 5 nbmes. if your going to go all out you should be doing one weekly til exam now.

take an nbme if your not around 200 after 5 weeks of studying you need to stop and reassess whats going on. at that point i would go to a proper review source like pathoma, kaplan, sketchy and solidify your basic foundation.



if you take 13 and your around 200 finish qbank and work on weaknesses from nbme 13 and take another nbme in a week. keep doing this weekly with strenghting weaknesses via FA and uworld, and doing incorrects. if you have a huge weakness in a specific major subject use a lecture (for example brs physio or kaplan biochem)

never stray far from UFAP and keep going over FA and pathoma

 

[Surgeria]

anki is great because of spaced recognition.

i did read about you doing questions. only way to integrate everything and test your application of knowledge is tons of questions. i would do thousands of questions over thousands of anki cards.

certain stuff you have to memorize but most is understanding.

if you can integrate subjects together by knowing core concepts you wont forget so easily. you dont have to remeber everything but when given choices you should be able to recognize and figure things out.

even if all you know about class 1 is sodium channel blocker, if you know how action potentionals work from basic physiology you can understand a lot.

first aid reading sucks, but if you have studied properly it should be a nice quick review

thank you very much for you time! It's a great idea of anki + questions, actually that's what I am doing and hoping that It will lead to results. Sometimes I read people's posts about how much energy they put into but results are still poor, I think after giving an NBME next week and getting normal results this frustration will fade away. Sometimes I think that I can faill, then I might think that I will break 250. Yesterday I did hematology pathology uworld block with 87% right, it was cool. What I figured out is I basically know my weak subjects and topics even without nbme's. I know that I am weak on micro, on nerves, on tumors especially male and female reproductive, in kidney issues (nephritic, nephrotic). When I just think about the topic, i get feedback in seconds, i have a feeling that i am not comfortable with kidney and male tumors, but hell I am comfortable with heart, or for example with endocrinology. After finishing uworld next week first round, I will do nbme's, then I will do weak subjects and topics (tumors, nerves, kidney e.t.c) and then I will do nbme 13 and only after will start uworld 2nd round. What I am sure about is that score improvement comes not from uworld milion rounds + fa gazilion reviews, It simply comes from doing subjects and topics you are weak in. That will be my strategy, I hope I don't make any outstanding silly mistakes ...

 

[goodvibes27]

since its been around 5 weeks since your last nbme we would need to know a new nbme score. i wouldnt wait 2 weeks. you still have 5 nbmes. if your going to go all out you should be doing one weekly til exam now.

take an nbme if your not around 200 after 5 weeks of studying you need to stop and reassess whats going on. at that point i would go to a proper review source like pathoma, kaplan, sketchy and solidify your basic foundation.



if you take 13 and your around 200 finish qbank and work on weaknesses from nbme 13 and take another nbme in a week. keep doing this weekly with strenghting weaknesses via FA and uworld, and doing incorrects. if you have a huge weakness in a specific major subject use a lecture (for example brs physio or kaplan biochem)

never stray far from UFAP and keep going over FA and pathoma

Thanks for the reply.
Okay yeah you're right. I shouldn't be a wimp and just go take NBME 13 to see if I've improved. Reassess the weaknesses, etc

 

[Step1EKG]

Hello, Can you tell me please what's your problem? Why are you missing that questions? No understanding concept, memorize tiny minutae details, maybe can't interpret the question stems and get the idea what do they heck want? I will sat nbme in one week. Times to times I am affraid that I am also in that boat, boat of 200 score. For example my problem frequently is not knowing the detail (for example, enteroccocus is alpha hemolitic and produces no hemolysis) this information is straightforward and you just need to remember. But times to times I can also get wrong in hard topics like interpretation of graphics about lungs, heart and stuff. There are really easy questions you just need to know the detail. For example crush injury in the orbit, which nerve is injured? I guess maxillary devision of trigeminal? ... Just need to remember. Whats you problem?

My main problem is that during my "pre-dedicated" review, I haven't covered repro and behavioral/psych. I'm weak in pharm and biochem as well. It's really straight details that I had trouble remembering because I haven't gone over them yet because they're toward the end of my prep before dedicated.

Also, the wording of the questions are different that UWorld so I misunderstood several questions that I easily knew the answers to.

I'm hoping to chalk it up to my not having reviewed everything yet, needing to focus on my weak areas and getting used to a different question style.

Example: I got high marks on the material I've covered so far: cardio, pulm, renal, etc. I had the lowest marks in the areas I have yet to cover, which I shared above.

 

[blueforest]

Hey, just writing here to track my progress and for others to see the variation/changes that are difficult to interpret. I took NBME 15 last Monday and was crying about it here, but I just took NBME 16 and scored 225. That's a huge improvement for me. This form felt more clinical and since I'm an IMG I'm actually much stronger in clinical sciences than basic sciences. 3 weeks till my exam, goal is >220. There's still a lot of work left for me to do, some days I feel hopeful and other days I wonder if I can pass.

edit:
NBME 15= 205 (Feb 27)
NBME 16= 225 (March 5)

 

[Anti-PD1]

Hey, just writing here to track my progress and for others to see the variation/changes that are difficult to interpret. I took NBME 15 last Monday and was crying about it here, but I just took NBME 16 and scored 225. That's a huge improvement for me. This form felt more clinical and since I'm an IMG I'm actually much stronger in clinical sciences than basic sciences. 3 weeks till my exam, goal is >220. There's still a lot of work left for me to do, some days I feel hopeful and other days I wonder if I can pass.

Congrats! Three weeks is plenty. Keep reviewing your weaknesses in First Aid. Keep practicing, and trust what you know. Having a clinical background is definitely a plus on many of these questions.

 

[Major procrastinator]

Hey, just writing here to track my progress and for others to see the variation/changes that are difficult to interpret. I took NBME 15 last Monday and was crying about it here, but I just took NBME 16 and scored 225. That's a huge improvement for me. This form felt more clinical and since I'm an IMG I'm actually much stronger in clinical sciences than basic sciences. 3 weeks till my exam, goal is >220. There's still a lot of work left for me to do, some days I feel hopeful and other days I wonder if I can pass.

as ive been saying my real exam was like nbme 16, i hope you get lucky as well!!!. 16 was also my best

 

[Surgeria]

Hey, just writing here to track my progress and for others to see the variation/changes that are difficult to interpret. I took NBME 15 last Monday and was crying about it here, but I just took NBME 16 and scored 225. That's a huge improvement for me. This form felt more clinical and since I'm an IMG I'm actually much stronger in clinical sciences than basic sciences. 3 weeks till my exam, goal is >220. There's still a lot of work left for me to do, some days I feel hopeful and other days I wonder if I can pass.

edit:
NBME 15= 205 (Feb 27)
NBME 16= 225 (March 5)

how do you think what contributed to your progress?

 

[blueforest]

how do you think what contributed to your progress?

I felt this NBME had more "what is the diagnosis" and clinical aspects of medicine than the previous nbme 15. There were less questions on interpretation of random experiments of muscle etc. (stuff I suck at). I also took my time and tried to really understand the questions being asked, but sometimes this backfires because I ended up switching my answers to like 2-3 questions. It must have just been a better form for me, representing the subjects i'm slightly stronger at. My weakest subject so far was cardiovascular so I made sure to finally understand preload/afterload/SV/MAP etc. all that good stuff before my next NBME. I also had to relearn biochem so i've just been drawing out the pathways almost everyday. I'm also trying to get better at biostats but no matter how many times I review the equations sometimes it doesn't even help. I'm also doing pathoma on 1.5-2x speed 1 last time before my exam. I'm better at organ systems than general foundations so the first few chapters are crucial for me.

Has anyone noticed that the same NBME form will repeat questions/concepts for like 3-5 questions? So annoying, I was thinking to myself today "Seriously? AGAIN?!" everytime I saw a repeat concept being asked for the 5th time.

 

[Major procrastinator]

I felt this NBME had more "what is the diagnosis" and clinical aspects of medicine than the previous nbme 15. There were less questions on interpretation of random experiments of muscle etc. (stuff I suck at). I also took my time and tried to really understand the questions being asked, but sometimes this backfires because I ended up switching my answers to like 2-3 questions. It must have just been a better form for me, representing the subjects i'm slightly stronger at. My weakest subject so far was cardiovascular so I made sure to finally understand preload/afterload/SV/MAP etc. all that good stuff before my next NBME. I also had to relearn biochem so i've just been drawing out the pathways almost everyday. I'm also trying to get better at biostats but no matter how many times I review the equations sometimes it doesn't even help. I'm also doing pathoma on 1.5-2x speed 1 last time before my exam. I'm better at organ systems than general foundations so the first few chapters are crucial for me.

Has anyone noticed that the same NBME form will repeat questions/concepts for like 3-5 questions? So annoying, I was thinking to myself today "Seriously? AGAIN?!" everytime I saw a repeat concept being asked for the 5th time.

on my step repeated concepts happened quite often and it sucks when its one of the concepts you suck at

 

[wedoitlike123]

My main problem is that during my "pre-dedicated" review, I haven't covered repro and behavioral/psych. I'm weak in pharm and biochem as well. It's really straight details that I had trouble remembering because I haven't gone over them yet because they're toward the end of my prep before dedicated.

Also, the wording of the questions are different that UWorld so I misunderstood several questions that I easily knew the answers to.

I'm hoping to chalk it up to my not having reviewed everything yet, needing to focus on my weak areas and getting used to a different question style.

Example: I got high marks on the material I've covered so far: cardio, pulm, renal, etc. I had the lowest marks in the areas I have yet to cover, which I shared above.

"It's really straight details that I had trouble remembering because I haven't gone over them yet because they're toward the end of my prep before dedicated."


Bro's will solve this.

 

[Step1EKG]

"It's really straight details that I had trouble remembering because I haven't gone over them yet because they're toward the end of my prep before dedicated."


Bro's will solve this.

Yep, that's what I'm hoping. I'll be finishing up those subjects in the next 3-4 weeks so hopefully I see a substantial increase on my next two NBMEs before entering dedicated.
The subjects that I've hit Bro's with are my strongest, by far. I'm glad that rather than a broad/general weakness, it's only the things I have yet to cover in my pre-dedicated study time.

 

[LeroyGlover]

i would do nbme 19, you see similar questions to nbme on real thing. sometimes almost identical. i would do uwsa 2 and nbme back to back. thats gonna give you a solid feeling of test day. take your 60 minute break as if you woukd on test day.

also uworld tends to overpredict 10-15%

While I agree that the NBME practice tests are the best practice tests, I would disagree that UWorld self assessments over predict by 10-15 points. For some people they might, but that is not typical. I personally know many students in my class that scored at or above their score on the UWorld self assessment forms. I scored about 5 points lower than my UWSA, but I scored 7 points higher than NBME 18. There is no perfect estimate. If you average the scores of the practice NBME and UWSA tests, that is the closest estimate you can probably get.

 

[LeroyGlover]

Just took my first NBME 13. Missed 52 (148/200 = 74% correct) for a score of 194.

I'm crushed. 10 weeks to go and I'm panicking.

I know two students that scored between 230-240 on the real exam after scoring below a 200 on an NBME practice exam 4 weeks before their exam. 10 weeks is a long time. Spend at least half of your study time doing practice questions. Do NBME exams 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. Work on your weak topics and your score will go up.

 

[Major procrastinator]

While I agree that the NBME practice tests are the best practice tests, I would disagree that UWorld self assessments over predict by 10-15 points. For some people they might, but that is not typical. I personally know many students in my class that scored at or above their score on the UWorld self assessment forms. I scored about 5 points lower than my UWSA, but I scored 7 points higher than NBME 18. There is no perfect estimate. If you average the scores of the practice NBME and UWSA tests, that is the closest estimate you can probably get.

I agree with that, my personal experience with friends has been it overestimates but taking an average is solid

 

[Major procrastinator]

I know two students that scored between 230-240 on the real exam after scoring below a 200 on an NBME practice exam 4 weeks before their exam. 10 weeks is a long time. Spend at least half of your study time doing practice questions. Do NBME exams 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. Work on your weak topics and your score will go up.

i hope im the third student haha. i was at 203 5 weeks before i think ill be 220+

 

[Step1EKG]

I know two students that scored between 230-240 on the real exam after scoring below a 200 on an NBME practice exam 4 weeks before their exam. 10 weeks is a long time. Spend at least half of your study time doing practice questions. Do NBME exams 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. Work on your weak topics and your score will go up.

Thanks, I appreciate you sharing that. Gotta keep grindin.

 

[DocSpy332]

i hope im the third student haha. i was at 203 5 weeks before i think ill be 220+

Heyy dont worry at all I scored ~10 points higher than my last NBME that was 12 days before my test. You had 35 days to prepare for a score .. and I am sure you did the best you could

 

[Major procrastinator]

Heyy dont worry at all I scored ~10 points higher than my last NBME that was 12 days before my test. You had 35 days to prepare for a score .. and I am sure you did the best you could

thanks, I hope so!!! if i score ten points higher than my last nbme ill be soooooooo happpy

 

[Major procrastinator]

Hey, just writing here to track my progress and for others to see the variation/changes that are difficult to interpret. I took NBME 15 last Monday and was crying about it here, but I just took NBME 16 and scored 225. That's a huge improvement for me. This form felt more clinical and since I'm an IMG I'm actually much stronger in clinical sciences than basic sciences. 3 weeks till my exam, goal is >220. There's still a lot of work left for me to do, some days I feel hopeful and other days I wonder if I can pass.

edit:
NBME 15= 205 (Feb 27)
NBME 16= 225 (March 5)

hey did you work on weaknesses for thr week after nbme 15? or did you just continue your normal routine?
trying to figure out if you fixed areas or it was just truly more towards clinical

 

[dachigo]

hey guys, gotta qs here....been going thru pathoma(1st read) and im finding that its taking me so much time to write the additional info mentioned during the lecture. do you guys write them in the book or just not write at all knowing we'd be repeating watching the video again. Or do you think its important to add them to the book???
TIA

 

[TheOther]

hey guys, gotta qs here....been going thru pathoma(1st read) and im finding that its taking me so much time to write the additional info mentioned during the lecture. do you guys write them in the book or just not write at all knowing we'd be repeating watching the video again. Or do you think its important to add them to the book???
TIA

I personally have found it very useful to have all of what he says in the videos written in the book -- when you're cross-referencing your study material with First Aid and UWorld questions, it's helpful to be able to just flip through and quickly read everything. It would be annoying to have to go pull up the video and waste time finding the right spot if I wanted to understand something in the book that he explains in the video.

But I guess it depends -- where are you in your studying? If you're crunched for time, it may not be worth it to write everything down.

 

[Major procrastinator]

I personally have found it very useful to have all of what he says in the videos written in the book -- when you're cross-referencing your study material with First Aid and UWorld questions, it's helpful to be able to just flip through and quickly read everything. It would be annoying to have to go pull up the video and waste time finding the right spot if I wanted to understand something in the book that he explains in the video.

But I guess it depends -- where are you in your studying? If you're crunched for time, it may not be worth it to write everything down.

it is worth your time to write all the info and explanations you need the first time. it might take a couple weeks but after that you wont have to write again and you can focus on listening knowing you have it all written down to review and finish in 5 days

 

[TheOther]

it is worth your time to write all the info and explanations you need the first time. it might take a couple weeks but after that you wont have to write again and you can focus on listening knowing you have it all written down to review and finish in 5 days

I absolutely agree. I put that disclaimer as I have no idea where they're at in their study prep. If they're 2 weeks out, it would be better to fly through the videos 2x times listening/understanding rather than spending time writing things down that they might not have time to read again.