Low UWorld Scores

[futureDDM]

Ok, I am unsure of how to study for boards. I have 1 month left, and I have done 60% of the UWorld questions (also done in tutor mode picking the subjects and topics I want to cover). I go over the questions, take a quick not on it, then move on. Now when I take random in timed mode, I get around 30% and cant seem to get my score up.

WHAT DO I DO!?!?

This is not a troll, just a very desperate student logging on after a very very long time asking for your help.

Please, any help will be much appreciated!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[medman88]

Ok, I am unsure of how to study for boards. I have 1 month left, and I have done 60% of the UWorld questions (also done in tutor mode picking the subjects and topics I want to cover). I go over the questions, take a quick not on it, then move on. Now when I take random in timed mode, I get around 30% and cant seem to get my score up.

WHAT DO I DO!?!?

This is not a troll, just a very desperate student logging on after a very very long time asking for your help.

Please, any help will be much appreciated!

I'd suggest to not do questions for a week and reread FA front to back carefully. Your score should dramatically improve.

 

[futureDDM]

I'd suggest to not do questions for a week and reread FA front to back carefully. Your score should dramatically improve.

Thanks for the reply. I've decided to go over DIT, did the first day already.... at my current pace, i plan on doing it twice as fast, finishing in 8 days. Everyday, I plan on doing 1 block of untimed USMLE questions and going over it. Also, spending about 1 hour each day to review first aid... I know its a lot, but this is what I get for slacking off during medical school.

Anyone else have any tips or suggestions? Is this too much? I'm open to any criticism

 

[AngryBird69]

Thanks for the reply. I've decided to go over DIT, did the first day already.... at my current pace, i plan on doing it twice as fast, finishing in 8 days. Everyday, I plan on doing 1 block of untimed USMLE questions and going over it. Also, spending about 1 hour each day to review first aid... I know its a lot, but this is what I get for slacking off during medical school.

Anyone else have any tips or suggestions? Is this too much? I'm open to any criticism

If you're doing so badly in uWorld, DIT is not the answer man. First identify what is killing your random score. If it is simply nerves then you need to just keep doing questions to fix the problem. Otherwise you need to go back to the drawing board and see what your weaknesses are by looking at the feedback in uWorld and NBMEs and hitting those hard. Feedback is key in this whole study period.

 

[futureDDM]

If you're doing so badly in uWorld, DIT is not the answer man. First identify what is killing your random score. If it is simply nerves then you need to just keep doing questions to fix the problem. Otherwise you need to go back to the drawing board and see what your weaknesses are by looking at the feedback in uWorld and NBMEs and hitting those hard. Feedback is key in this whole study period.

Honestly, I think my problem is lack of knowledge. I barely passed medical school and crammed for almost every test, meaning, studying the night before, for almost every test. Some tests, if I had a cushion, I just wouldn't study, cause I didn't need to pass the exam. So now I'm stuck with knowing very very little, which is why I decided to go back to the drawing board and try DIT

 

[link2swim06]

Honestly, I think my problem is lack of knowledge. I barely passed medical school and crammed for almost every test, meaning, studying the night before, for almost every test. Some tests, if I had a cushion, I just wouldn't study, cause I didn't need to pass the exam. So now I'm stuck with knowing very very little, which is why I decided to go back to the drawing board and try DIT

DIT is kinda a big waste of time. Just read first aid.

Pathology is the most tested area on step 1...hence why going through pathoma twice will help a ton.

If I were you I'd spend 1 week going through pathoma twice. Then read a first aid section and do a block of 46 questions after each section...see where that gets you.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

futureddm. only you know what you need to do to improve your score. everyone here has given you great advice, but no one here knows your whole story. like angrybird mentioned, you have to analyze why you are getting the questions wrong and try to fix it in the amount of time you have left. Just keep in mind that DIT takes a long time to do.

 

[futureDDM]

I know. The reason I decided to go with DIT is because it forces you to learn the material. To be honest, I have not gone through first aid at all because looking at the book is overwhelming. I don't even know where to start sometimes when I look at the book.
Do you guys think that DIT might be a little too informative? I have done many questions, but I think my problem is that I have such weak background knowledge, its hard to memorize fact on top of fact. Again, I'm only getting a 30%. Assuming I guessed correctly on some, that means i knew only about 15-20% of the material...
So think of me as a guy who knows no medicine, but is trying to take boards soon

 

[StIGMA]

DIT is a review of first aid. Just listening to it is no replacement for actually studying FA and commiting facts to memory. The DIT program even suggests/requires that you read FA before using it.

 

[Nellyakgo]

I know. The reason I decided to go with DIT is because it forces you to learn the material. To be honest, I have not gone through first aid at all because looking at the book is overwhelming. I don't even know where to start sometimes when I look at the book.
Do you guys think that DIT might be a little too informative? I have done many questions, but I think my problem is that I have such weak background knowledge, its hard to memorize fact on top of fact. Again, I'm only getting a 30%. Assuming I guessed correctly on some, that means i knew only about 15-20% of the material...
So think of me as a guy who knows no medicine, but is trying to take boards soon

If you feel your knowledge is low, then neither FA nor DIT is the answer because both are summaries of summaries. Basically annotated facts meant for memorization. If your knowledge is low, my personal ipinion is that you need to hit actual textbooks. Longer yes, and a pain, but I believe that is needed.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

I know. The reason I decided to go with DIT is because it forces you to learn the material. To be honest, I have not gone through first aid at all because looking at the book is overwhelming. I don't even know where to start sometimes when I look at the book.
Do you guys think that DIT might be a little too informative? I have done many questions, but I think my problem is that I have such weak background knowledge, its hard to memorize fact on top of fact. Again, I'm only getting a 30%. Assuming I guessed correctly on some, that means i knew only about 15-20% of the material...
So think of me as a guy who knows no medicine, but is trying to take boards soon

I honestly think you will get more out of it by doing pathoma rather than DIT in a very short amount of time. I finished DIT 4 days ago but pathoma is far superior to DIT.

 

[futureDDM]

I honestly think you will get more out of it by doing pathoma rather than DIT in a very short amount of time. I finished DIT 4 days ago but pathoma is far superior to DIT.

The only problem I have about going through Pathoma is that it is missing all other topics aside from pathology, which is obvious. Don't you think I will be lacking in everything else?

 

[link2swim06]

The only problem I have about going through Pathoma is that it is missing all other topics aside from pathology, which is obvious. Don't you think I will be lacking in everything else?

If you know "pathology" then you also know good bits of biochem, micro, and physio. Therefore, pathoma is more than just pathology. Also pathoma explains the concepts better than first aid. This makes it easier to answer the multi-step questions you are missing on usmle world.

You are correct Pathoma isn't enough, but it will bring you up to speed on a bunch of more difficult concepts.

To be frank, a monkey would get a 20% on usmle world (5 answer choices)...therefore with a 30% you know 10% more than random guessing...it seems you are missing all of the multi-step questions. I think going through pathoma 3 times would bring your score up to a 50%.

Do some questions on each topic afterwards to make sure you learned what you were suppose to. If you didnt learn it well, rinse and repeat until you do.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

If you know "pathology" then you also know good bits of biochem, micro, and physio. Therefore, pathoma is more than just pathology. Also pathoma explains the concepts better than first aid. This makes it easier to answer the multi-step questions you are missing on usmle world.

You are correct Pathoma isn't enough, but it will bring you up to speed on a bunch of more difficult concepts.

To be frank, a monkey would get a 20% on usmle world (5 answer choices)...therefore with a 30% you know 10% more than random guessing...it seems you are missing all of the multi-step questions. I think going through pathoma 3 times would bring your score up to a 50%.

Do some questions on each topic afterwards to make sure you learned what you were suppose to. If you didnt learn it well, rinse and repeat until you do.

Yea, i completely agree.

Pathoma is more than just pathology. He does a great job of breaking down the topics. I think the best thing about pathoma is that it is concise.

 

[Bernoull]

I agree with everyone recommending Pathoma. U'll be utterly wasting ur time if you do FA or DIT given ur weak background. I would suggest BRS physio & Pathoma as core resources to focus on. Flashcards may be a good idea for MIcro and Pharm, just memorize that 'ish.

GL

 

[futureDDM]

Do you really think I can build a strong micro, pharmacology, and even neuro through pathoma? My problem is I don't want to do Pathoma, then end up looking for other books to use afterwards. If I use pathoma, I feel I would still have to use all of first aid to fill in the gaps...

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

obivously you will have to fill in the gaps. you may need more than 1 month to get everything together. You just gotta tough it out and study 14+ hrs a day. You will have to do questions as well.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

Do you really think I can build a strong micro, pharmacology, and even neuro through pathoma? My problem is I don't want to do Pathoma, then end up looking for other books to use afterwards. If I use pathoma, I feel I would still have to use all of first aid to fill in the gaps...

For micro and pharm you need FA. So perhaps supplementing FA (micro and pharm) along with pathoma. Pathoma is NOT meant to replace FA rather supplement it. Since Path is often the biggest chunk on exams, pathoma will solidify pathology much better than FA will at this point.

I don't think anyone is telling you to abandon FA. Pathoma is just a tool to supplement FA.

 

[link2swim06]

obivously you will have to fill in the gaps. you may need more than 1 month to get everything together. You just gotta tough it out and study 14+ hrs a day. You will have to do questions as well.

+1 first aid is essential an outline of two year of med school...alot of info anyway you look at it.

OP, pathoma isn't enough, but pathoma + FA + uworld is enough.

The point is FA alone (aka DIT) isn't going to work very well unless you have some framework to how diseases occur.

 

[Allsta2003]

If you feel your knowledge base is low, I agree with everyone else that DIT and reading first aid isnt going to get you very many points. You need to basically start from the beginning and learn the material. I agree Pathoma is the way to go for learning path quickly and learning it well. Also, since you have about a month left, honestly I would suggest getting Kaplan online prep and watching the lectures while following along with the books (for the topics you feel you are weakest in if you dont have time to do them all). I've been doing that for my weakest subjects (Biochem, Micro) and my UWorld percentage is up around 70-80% from the low 50% initially.