What should I use for my first practice test?

[Vrachika]

I want to take my first practice test next weekend (NBMEs or one of the UW 1 or 2), but I am unsure of which one would be best (or if I should even hold off and do something else like blocks of UW or Rx in lieu of an "official" practice test.

My situation is as follows. I go to a DO school, top quartile of my class, ~75% correct with Rx qbank on random (including stuff we haven't covered), haven't started UWORLD yet (plan to start mid feb when done with Rx). Did well on a COMLEX practice test my school made us take, so I'm feeling good about my readiness for that test but...

Obviously not much of an idea of my readiness for USMLE. So I want to take a practice test that will provide some insight as to where I am for Step 1, and whether or not I should go ahead and fork over the cash for the registration fee.

So which practice test would you guys suggest? I want a good snapshot but I also don't want to use the "best" ones since I want to save those for closer to when my actual test date would be (end of June), especially since we still have ~2 months of classes with a couple of systems to cover.

Any related insight also appreciated since my school doesn't give us much info on studying for USMLE or if we should even take it.

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[Espressso]

I've always heard to start with NBME 13 and go from there. But it seems to be highly variable. UWSA 1 and 2 should be saved for later in dedicated, as those "supposedly" are really accurate to your score.

Granted, I'm a second year as well and am prepping myself but this is just the information I've gathered

 

[roupeeg92]

You're on the right track. I would recommend not overthinking this one. Take NBME 13, identify some of your weaknesses, and keep grinding.

 

[Vrachika]

Thanks for the replies, I’ll purchase NBME 13 and see how it goes!

 

[MarshMedic]

When do you think would be best for the first practice exam? I'm in a similar position as the OP regarding schedule and doing well on a double comsae practice exam. I've only done combank (avg 64% through 2000) and UW (avg 55% through the first 600). Dedicateds are in 10 weeks and by that point I'll have a first pass thru UW. I'm currently just reviewing things as they come up vs doing a blanket review. I use FA, pathoma, sketchy, and physeo.

 

[deleted645092]

NBME 13 is a good baseline. My order was NBME 13 -> UWSA1 -> NBME 18 -> NBME 19 -> UWSA2. My score was higher than all my NBMEs by a good amount, 8 higher than UWSA1, and spot on with UWSA2, which I took 1 week before Step 1.

 

[MarshMedic]

NBME 13 is a good baseline. My order was NBME 13 -> UWSA1 -> NBME 18 -> NBME 19 -> UWSA2. My score was higher than all my NBMEs by a good amount, 8 higher than UWSA1, and spot on with UWSA2, which I took 1 week before Step 1.

When did you take 13?

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

When do you think would be best for the first practice exam? I'm in a similar position as the OP regarding schedule and doing well on a double comsae practice exam. I've only done combank (avg 64% through 2000) and UW (avg 55% through the first 600). Dedicateds are in 10 weeks and by that point I'll have a first pass thru UW. I'm currently just reviewing things as they come up vs doing a blanket review. I use FA, pathoma, sketchy, and physeo.

I'll start a separate thread on the bolded so we don't derail OP; I'm wondering the same.

 

[Espressso]

I'll start a separate thread on the bolded so we don't derail OP; I'm wondering the same.

From the advice I've gained on this topic... there seems to be two camps: One says to take your first real practice exam at the early bit of the Spring semester (so, nowish, assuming you're taking the exams in May-July), orrrr take the first one at the start or right before the start of dedicated.

Either one, it functions as a relative "baseline" for the semester/dedicated period of studying.

I took NBME 13 mid-way through January, and I highly recommend taking it before the start of dedicated. It was good to see how the test looks, how the questions were written, and just to see what the heck I'm really bad at. Granted, taking it that early was sort of disheartening, because there were a few big topics/systems I have yet to review since first year. But it did give me a little burst of motivation to crank up the board prep for these next few months prior to dedicated.

Just my $0.02 though

 

[deleted645092]

When did you take 13?

I took it mid-April. The only system we had left was repro. Took Step and COMLEX early July.