Advice please... did poorly on NBME 12; school won't let me change test date

Juis · Jun 9, 2011

I'm 2 weeks into my 4 weeks of total study time, and I just took NBME 12 and scored a 170

. I'm just wondering if anyone can give me tips on how to best use the rest of my study time before Step 1.

I haven't finished my first pass of FA yet, and I still have to go through heme-onc and neuro... planning to finish the first pass by this Saturday or Sunday. That leaves me with roughly 8-9 days to do a second pass of FA and memorize micro/bugs/drugs. Is that a good plan?

Also, I've done about 40% of UWorld at this point with subject review and I'm scoring around 60%. Obviously, one of my goals is to finish UWorld, but is there anything else I can do that will help raise my score?

I looked over my incorrect questions on the NBME and most of the things I got wrong were micro or drug questions. I also noticed that I can narrow down answers to two on most of my incorrect questions, but end up picking the wrong one of the two. On my performance profile, my weakest subjects were micro (haven't forced myself to memorize the bugs yet), immuno, heme/onc (haven't studied yet). The only subject that was in the "high" section was cardio, and the rest of the subjects were either borderline or between low and borderline.

I'm just not sure if my performance is okay at this stage, since I really haven't finished my first pass or memorized most of the stuff yet... just trying to focus on understanding right now. But, I'm kind of freaking out because I know the test is coming up in 2 weeks. :scared:

On a side note, I asked my school if I could push my test date back, since I didn't do well on NBME 12, but they say school policy requires that all M2s take Step 1 in June, and we all only get 4 weeks to study for it. It's because of this stupid policy that 10 students in last year's class failed Step 1. We also don't start rotations until mid-July, so I don't see what the big deal is. grrr

Sorry for venting a little, but any advice is appreciated.

Premedico · Jun 9, 2011

Sorry to hear your situation..

I don't know if one can actually finish the 1st pass with FA, 60% remaining Uworld and then an additional FA pass in 2 weeks.

But 60% is a good Uworld score and predicts a much higher score. Is this the first NBME you took?

Juis · Jun 9, 2011

Premedico said:
Sorry to hear your situation..

I don't know if one can actually finish the 1st pass with FA, 60% remaining Uworld and then an additional FA pass in 2 weeks.

But 60% is a good Uworld score and predicts a much higher score. Is this the first NBME you took?

Thanks. Yea, this was the first NBME I took. According to my schedule, I'm supposed to do NBME 11 next Tuesday.

I hear that 60% on Uworld is at least passing. But, the 60% in Uworld that I'm getting is with subject review, so I'm not sure how great that really is.

I think my main weakness at this point is not having memorized micro and pharm yet. I'm pretty sure I can get through heme/onc and neuro by Saturday though, and I hope that I will retain more from FA on my second pass. I'm just not sure if getting micro and pharm down will dramatically increase my score, but I'm hoping so. And, I'm really afraid of only having 8-9 days for a second pass of FA.

tech2doc · Jun 9, 2011

Juis said:
I'm 2 weeks into my 4 weeks of total study time, and I just took NBME 12 and scored a 170 . I'm just wondering if anyone can give me tips on how to best use the rest of my study time before Step 1.

I haven't finished my first pass of FA yet, and I still have to go through heme-onc and neuro... planning to finish the first pass by this Saturday or Sunday. That leaves me with roughly 8-9 days to do a second pass of FA and memorize micro/bugs/drugs. Is that a good plan?

Also, I've done about 40% of UWorld at this point with subject review and I'm scoring around 60%. Obviously, one of my goals is to finish UWorld, but is there anything else I can do that will help raise my score?

I looked over my incorrect questions on the NBME and most of the things I got wrong were micro or drug questions. I also noticed that I can narrow down answers to two on most of my incorrect questions, but end up picking the wrong one of the two. On my performance profile, my weakest subjects were micro (haven't forced myself to memorize the bugs yet), immuno, heme/onc (haven't studied yet). The only subject that was in the "high" section was cardio, and the rest of the subjects were either borderline or between low and borderline.

I'm just not sure if my performance is okay at this stage, since I really haven't finished my first pass or memorized most of the stuff yet... just trying to focus on understanding right now. But, I'm kind of freaking out because I know the test is coming up in 2 weeks.

On a side note, I asked my school if I could push my test date back, since I didn't do well on NBME 12, but they say school policy requires that all M2s take Step 1 in June, and we all only get 4 weeks to study for it. It's because of this stupid policy that 10 students in last year's class failed Step 1. We also don't start rotations until mid-July, so I don't see what the big deal is. grrr

Sorry for venting a little, but any advice is appreciated.

With only 2 weeks left, you need to start doing the remaining 60% of UWorld in random blocks of 46 q's. And to make going over the questions faster, only go over the one's you got wrong and the one's you might have gotten right but weren't sure. If you got it right and you know why you got it right, skim through the learning objective and move on. This will save you time. I would shoot for 3 x 46q blocks of UWorld/day for the rest of your study time.

As far as First Aid goes, definitely spend some time on Micro. If you had to emphasize specific sections, I would focus on the general bacteriology and the systems sections of the Micro chapter (but try to get through them all). Heme/onc should be a quick read as it's not a long chapter.

With 60% on UWorld, I have confidence that you could take the test today and get a passing score. But I think you can still get a 210+ if you knuckle down and get through these next 2 weeks.

NERDY · Jun 9, 2011

Premedico said:
Sorry to hear your situation..

I don't know if one can actually finish the 1st pass with FA, 60% remaining Uworld and then an additional FA pass in 2 weeks.

But 60% is a good Uworld score and predicts a much higher score. Is this the first NBME you took?

Where can you see USMLE world score predictions? Thanks

Bingo87 · Jun 9, 2011

I'm in a similar situation as you. Recently took form 5 but fell short of 188. My Step 1 is less than 2 weeks away...

The only difference is that I'm 90% done with UW, but only hitting 50-60%. Never got close to 70%

Still, I though I would at least pass with constant 50-60% in UW...but that didn't happen.

Of course, my school also wont let me change my step 1 date... If all else fails, I might just take a year off and do research (and of course study Step 1). But I'm not sure if my med school will let me do that...

Juis · Jun 10, 2011

tech2doc said:
With only 2 weeks left, you need to start doing the remaining 60% of UWorld in random blocks of 46 q's. And to make going over the questions faster, only go over the one's you got wrong and the one's you might have gotten right but weren't sure. If you got it right and you know why you got it right, skim through the learning objective and move on. This will save you time. I would shoot for 3 x 46q blocks of UWorld/day for the rest of your study time.

As far as First Aid goes, definitely spend some time on Micro. If you had to emphasize specific sections, I would focus on the general bacteriology and the systems sections of the Micro chapter (but try to get through them all). Heme/onc should be a quick read as it's not a long chapter.

With 60% on UWorld, I have confidence that you could take the test today and get a passing score. But I think you can still get a 210+ if you knuckle down and get through these next 2 weeks.

Thanks, I'll take your advice and try my best to finish UWorld.

Bingo87 said:
I'm in a similar situation as you. Recently took form 5 but fell short of 188. My Step 1 is less than 2 weeks away...

The only difference is that I'm 90% done with UW, but only hitting 50-60%. Never got close to 70% Still, I though I would at least pass with constant 50-60% in UW...but that didn't happen.

Of course, my school also wont let me change my step 1 date... If all else fails, I might just take a year off and do research (and of course study Step 1). But I'm not sure if my med school will let me do that...

I hope things work out for both of us. It wouldn't make sense for our schools to force us to take Step 1 when we are in danger of failing it. I'm going to try talking to my school's admin again to see if they can help.

Bingo87 · Jun 13, 2011

So I talked to my school's admin again, and apparently they do allow extension of Step 1 date. But that would come with a "negative connotation" because it means I failed to comply with the Step 1 deadline. Sigh...I don't know what to do... Should I just take the damn thing and hope for a pass? Or extend the date regardless of this "negative connotation" thing.

RapplixGmed · Jun 13, 2011

Bingo87 said:
So I talked to my school's admin again, and apparently they do allow extension of Step 1 date. But that would come with a "negative connotation" because it means I failed to comply with the Step 1 deadline. Sigh...I don't know what to do... Should I just take the damn thing and hope for a pass? Or extend the date regardless of this "negative connotation" thing.

A "negative connotation" is nothing compared to the giant waving bleeding red flag of failing the step 1. Push back your exam.

sylvanthus · Jun 13, 2011

I would push it back as well. The negatives with failing step 1 are far worse than whatever vague threat your school is giving you.

Bingo87 · Jun 13, 2011

Well, I actually just did another NBME few days ago and passed it... though a very low score. I also passed the free 150 practice Q. So that form 5 score may have just been a fluke. But still, my score is VERY low... Thus the dilemma...

Advice please... did poorly on NBME 12; school won't let me change test date

Juis

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Premedico

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