what is going on?

[minnime]

Hey
I have a quick question,
I have finished about 40% of usmle world questions with a 50% avg. I was scoring in the high 50's only two days ago. I didn't do any questions yesterday. Today I just finished two blocks today and scored an amazing 36 %. What is going on? Has this happened to anyone else?
Any ideas and or tips to improve my score?
Need all/ any advice at this time, my test is in a little over two weeks :-(
thanks

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[RexMorganMD]

I think after a while you just psych yourself out. The same thing happened to me on q-bank with step one. I started bombing the practice tests right before the real thing. It made me nervous, so I just stopped doing them.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I don't think there is any significance in two blocks being 14% under your average.

Keep going.

 

[watermen]

Hey
I have a quick question,
I have finished about 40% of usmle world questions with a 50% avg. I was scoring in the high 50's only two days ago. I didn't do any questions yesterday. Today I just finished two blocks today and scored an amazing 36 %. What is going on? Has this happened to anyone else?
Any ideas and or tips to improve my score?
Need all/ any advice at this time, my test is in a little over two weeks :-(
thanks

It happens to me too...i have been scoring around 60-70%, and I thought I was pretty confident...then suddenly I get a score of 46%....I was shocked...I couldn't answer so many questions....I think the most important thing was that I learn from those questions that I got wrong. Don't worry about the score.

 

[minnime]

Thanks for the kind words. Just gotta keep at it. Any tips on how to bring up the score?

 

[cbdoctor]

I'm in the same boat. keep at it! chug chug chug. test date: 06/18. . . 64% of UW left to go!

 

[mrdowntoearth]

The same thing happened to me too. I got so frustrated. I only did 19% of UW questions so far with average of 50%. I always narrowed it down to two and picked the wrong one

 

[minnime]

Its great to see I'm not the only one with this issue.
Any tips that have helped drastically??

 

[arthrodisiac]

My tip is to use a good text source. (step up to medicine) I started around 40-50, im always in 70's now. What really is starting to piss me off though is how first aid has a lot of information that is contradictory to usmleworld answer explanations. I'll give you the most recent example (although not the best)......Progression of ekg changes after ST elevation MI

USMLEWORLD: Peaked T...ST elevation...T wave inversion...Qwave
First aid: Peaked T...ST elevation...Qwave...T inversion

Now, i really dont care about the progression...but the boards ask stupid things like this and i dont like seeing two different things.

 

[watermen]

My tip is to use a good text source. (step up to medicine) I started around 40-50, im always in 70's now. What really is starting to piss me off though is how first aid has a lot of information that is contradictory to usmleworld answer explanations. I'll give you the most recent example (although not the best)......Progression of ekg changes after ST elevation MI

USMLEWORLD: Peaked T...ST elevation...T wave inversion...Qwave
First aid: Peaked T...ST elevation...Qwave...T inversion

Now, i really dont care about the progression...but the boards ask stupid things like this and i dont like seeing two different things.

According to case files for medicine...Q wave comes first then T wave inversion.
Anyone has any other sources?

 

[arthrodisiac]

Heres another bs discrepancy

a person has hepatic encephalopathy and liver cirrhosis. PT is increased, 40k platelets. INR 2.

How will u correct his coagulopathy

1 cryoprecipitate
2 vit k
3 ffp
4 whole blood
5 prbc

They say the answer is vitk. my understanding is that a cirrhotic liver does not respond to vitk, so wtf is the point of giving it. In the explanation it says...even though the liver won't respond to the vitk, you should give it first anyway. Blow me. its like the other question that says a pregnant woman should get amoxicillin for lyme disease just because the bug was walking on her arm, but never actually bit her.

 

[indymed]

I just hit this question today! wtf. If platelets are low give platelets right? Oh well. What do we do if we see this on a test?

 

[arthrodisiac]

No. You don't give platelets. You only give platelets below 20k, some say 10k, depends on the etiology. For example...a trauma patient given 15 units of blood, you give platelets no questions asked if they have bleeding. If they have ITP, you don't necessarily give platelets. My answer for this question would have been fresh frozen plasma. At the same token, an INR of 2 isnt that big of a deal, which is probably why they say vitamin k. But vitk is useless for cirrhosis, so whatever.

 

[nykka3]

My tip is to use a good text source. (step up to medicine) I started around 40-50, im always in 70's now.

so you used step up to medicine and FA CK as your main texts for step 2?