Go Back   Student Doctor Network Forums > Medical Student Forums > USMLE and COMLEX > Step I

Step I Discuss strategies and issues for the USMLE and COMLEX Step 1. RSS: Feed Icon


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-09-2012, 01:43 PM   #1
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 87
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default Uwsa #2


SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)
Did anyone else find Blocks 3 & 4 on UWSA #2 difficult? I missed 4-5 questions more on each section than I usually do. What is even more strange is that on some of questions that I am confident about, I ended up missing them. Am I not thinking in the right way?
thinkenergy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 02:52 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
RedSoxSuck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: I Love L.A
Posts: 689
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by thinkenergy View Post
Did anyone else find Blocks 3 & 4 on UWSA #2 difficult? I missed 4-5 questions more on each section than I usually do. What is even more strange is that on some of questions that I am confident about, I ended up missing them. Am I not thinking in the right way?
Hey, i took UWSA 2 today and found it to be harder than 1 even though my overall score increased. I thought i was failing it because there was very little path on 2 (48 q) compare to 1 (68q).
RedSoxSuck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 02:59 PM   #3
1K Member
 
MDApps: View Profile
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,363
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

I did UW2 today and i did the worst on blocks 2 and 3. I think it depends what your strengths and weaknesses are as well as how you deal with the mental fatigue as the blocks progress.

The entire time I thought I was getting my arse handed to me and then i ended up doing so much better than I could have hoped. So who knows
__________________
Officially Class of 2014
red10 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 03:20 PM   #4
Senior Member
 
RedSoxSuck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: I Love L.A
Posts: 689
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by red10 View Post
I did UW2 today and i did the worst on blocks 2 and 3. I think it depends what your strengths and weaknesses are as well as how you deal with the mental fatigue as the blocks progress.

The entire time I thought I was getting my arse handed to me and then i ended up doing so much better than I could have hoped. So who knows
I was hoping to see more path since i reviewed entire pathoma is last 5 days and then did goljan audio. My path scored increased but there was not that much path. There was alot of anatomy/embryo and way too many CT scans.
RedSoxSuck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 04:24 PM   #5
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 87
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

I don't think I was fatigued toward the end, there is something about UWorld. I don't know, maybe I was overthinking on some questions and not thinking hard enough on others.

UWorld makes me depressed. Oh well..
thinkenergy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 06:00 PM   #6
MS3
 
osumc2014's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,073
SDN 5+ Year Member
Default

not much harder than the other sections, I missed a bit more in the 4th block, mainly because I was at the tail end of NBME + UWSA2 in one sitting, the fatigue did get to me at the end. Maybe that's the case?
osumc2014 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 06:41 PM   #7
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 87

Default

Took UWSA #2 today as well. I was a little surprised by some of it just like you mentioned less path was there but I scored exactly on par with my previous NBME so I'm not too sure what to make of it.
Houmd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-09-2012, 07:13 PM   #8
MS3
 
osumc2014's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,073
SDN 5+ Year Member
Default

doesn't UWSA overpredict usually?
osumc2014 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2012, 05:29 AM   #9
1K Member
 
MDApps: View Profile
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 1,363
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by osumc2014 View Post
doesn't UWSA overpredict usually?
I've heard both that it over and under. It depends on way too many factors come test day
red10 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-10-2012, 11:03 AM   #10
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: NYC
Posts: 413
SDN 5+ Year Member
Default

for what it's worth, my block 1 and 2 were the same percentage, block 3 went down, and block 4 was my best.

i thought this was the hardest of all the assessments/NBMEs (both UWorlds and NBME 7,12) i took but it was my best score by far (which i don't understand -- the entire time i felt like i had no idea WTF was going on).

i wonder if the scale is nicer to make it seem like your score jumped a lot from the first assessment.
MBHockey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-12-2012, 09:48 AM   #11
MS-4
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 582
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MBHockey View Post
for what it's worth, my block 1 and 2 were the same percentage, block 3 went down, and block 4 was my best.

i thought this was the hardest of all the assessments/NBMEs (both UWorlds and NBME 7,12) i took but it was my best score by far (which i don't understand -- the entire time i felt like i had no idea WTF was going on).

i wonder if the scale is nicer to make it seem like your score jumped a lot from the first assessment.
Ditto. I just did UWSA 2 and got a 257, but I was pretty sure I was failing the whole time. It was much more difficult than NBME 11, 12, or UWSA 1 but the score is better. Anyone who has taken the real exam think UWSA 2 was more difficult?
MrBeauregard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-12-2012, 12:58 PM   #12
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: NYC
Posts: 413
SDN 5+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBeauregard View Post
Ditto. I just did UWSA 2 and got a 257, but I was pretty sure I was failing the whole time. It was much more difficult than NBME 11, 12, or UWSA 1 but the score is better. Anyone who has taken the real exam think UWSA 2 was more difficult?
I took NBME 13 this morning and it didn't seem nearly as bad as UWSA 2 but my score was significantly lower. For me, it seems that the UWSA 2 score was an anomaly.
MBHockey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-12-2012, 01:04 PM   #13
Senior Member
 
RedSoxSuck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: I Love L.A
Posts: 689
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MBHockey View Post
I took NBME 13 this morning and it didn't seem nearly as bad as UWSA 2 but my score was significantly lower. For me, it seems that the UWSA 2 score was an anomaly.
Well, from what i have read it seems like UWSA generally has more medium/difficult questions and less easy/buzzword questions compare to NBMEs. Because of this, UWSA has a generous curve than NBMEs. So i think it is kind of hard to predict whether it is over predicting or under predicting your score. Consensus seems to be that Step 1 is somewhere in between UWSA and NBMEs.
RedSoxSuck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-12-2012, 02:58 PM   #14
MS-4
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 582
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

What if NBMEs and UWSAs are all within a few points (<10)?
MrBeauregard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-12-2012, 04:01 PM   #15
Senior Member
 
RedSoxSuck's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: I Love L.A
Posts: 689
SDN 2+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrBeauregard View Post
What if NBMEs and UWSAs are all within a few points (<10)?
I have no idea. I still haven't taken my exam yet so i can't be sure.
RedSoxSuck is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-29-2012, 05:57 AM   #16
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 178

Default

Big bump, I know, but I just took the UWSA2, and got a 770/263. 82% correct. I absolutely bombed the last hour and got 11 wrong including 5 sitters. I think my brain took a walk when I couldn't see phenobarbital in the list of options in a question about enzyme induction.

So I guess I'm sitting in the 230s? For the record I took NBME7 a month ago before I started my dedicated prep and got 82% in that as well (510/224). I've almost finished one read-through of FA (alongside the Kaplan notes, adding a little here and there). I thought I would've improved a little more than this? I'm 7 weeks out at this point.

Recalling where apob48 is synthesised and where urea leaves the urea cycle is a matter of, well, recall, I guess (which I really dislike if it involves only memorisation). But I need to work on staying focussed through the test because almost all my errors were stupid, e.g. not choosing the brainstem as the affected site in a Parkinson's case. Any pointers?

EDIT: The lack of behavioral science questions was quite unnerving. And why did it keep telling me there would be multimedia when there was none?
thehundredthone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-29-2012, 03:05 PM   #17
MS3
 
osumc2014's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,073
SDN 5+ Year Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by thehundredthone View Post
Big bump, I know, but I just took the UWSA2, and got a 770/263. 82% correct. I absolutely bombed the last hour and got 11 wrong including 5 sitters. I think my brain took a walk when I couldn't see phenobarbital in the list of options in a question about enzyme induction.

So I guess I'm sitting in the 230s? For the record I took NBME7 a month ago before I started my dedicated prep and got 82% in that as well (510/224). I've almost finished one read-through of FA (alongside the Kaplan notes, adding a little here and there). I thought I would've improved a little more than this? I'm 7 weeks out at this point.

Recalling where apob48 is synthesised and where urea leaves the urea cycle is a matter of, well, recall, I guess (which I really dislike if it involves only memorisation). But I need to work on staying focussed through the test because almost all my errors were stupid, e.g. not choosing the brainstem as the affected site in a Parkinson's case. Any pointers?

EDIT: The lack of behavioral science questions was quite unnerving. And why did it keep telling me there would be multimedia when there was none?
I'd say that test overpredicts by about 10 points, so you are good
osumc2014 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-19-2012, 08:38 PM   #18
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 51

Default

Did you guys take notes for UWSA 2? I took this exam 2 months ago, and didnt take notes on it and it expired in 2 weeks!!!! if anyone has notes for UWSA 2, can you please share? THANKS!!!
exudate is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-19-2012, 08:43 PM   #19
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 64

Default

same here . does anyone have notes for one or two? please and thank you
firstaid2012 is offline   Reply With Quote

Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:25 PM.


Comments are closed.