200 on NBME plz advice me how to improve my score

[mattbiernat]

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Hi all,
Im not an American medical student but an Caribbean one. I have studied FA for 5 weeks and did ~1300 Kaplan Questions and another 300 U-World. My school gives out NBME exams in order to allow you to take a USMLE1. The passing grade in my school was 66% and I got 70% on the most recent NBME which is equivalent to 200 on USMLE.
I am really disappointed at such a low score. I looked at the percentages and I got the lowest scores on Respiratory and Path. I have 2-3 weeks before I find out my exact exam date and I will give myself probably another 5 weeks before the exam to review everything once more.
What would you guys do with those 2-3 weeks to improve your score from 200 to perhaps solid 220.
Matt

 

[fahimaz7]

Hi all,
Im not an American medical student but an Caribbean one. I have studied FA for 5 weeks and did ~1300 Kaplan Questions and another 300 U-World. My school gives out NBME exams in order to allow you to take a USMLE1. The passing grade in my school was 66% and I got 70% on the most recent NBME which is equivalent to 200 on USMLE.
I am really disappointed at such a low score. I looked at the percentages and I got the lowest scores on Respiratory and Path. I have 2-3 weeks before I find out my exact exam date and I will give myself probably another 5 weeks before the exam to review everything once more.
What would you guys do with those 2-3 weeks to improve your score from 200 to perhaps solid 220.
Matt

Our class (US MD) took the CBSA deal and we averaged a 186 on it. Our class averages a 227 on Step 1. Just keep the faith, study, finish Uworld, and keep reviewing the material.

You'll improve if you keep working hard.

Best of luck.

 

[mattbiernat]

Our class (US MD) took the CBSA deal and we averaged a 186 on it. Our class averages a 227 on Step 1. Just keep the faith, study, finish Uworld, and keep reviewing the material.

You'll improve if you keep working hard.

Best of luck.

thanks for your word of encouragement especially that I sometimes feel stupid that I went to Caribbean Med School. but I need to figure out what would be the best thing for me to study during those extra 2 weeks:
- should I do all of u-world questions 12 hours a day for 2 weeks
- should I real all of BRS Path or maybe there s a better source for studying Path in 2 weeks

 

[justdoit31]

thanks for your word of encouragement especially that I sometimes feel stupid that I went to Caribbean Med School. but I need to figure out what would be the best thing for me to study during those extra 2 weeks:
- should I do all of u-world questions 12 hours a day for 2 weeks
- should I real all of BRS Path or maybe there s a better source for studying Path in 2 weeks

So are you saying that you have 2 weeks plus an additional 5 for 7 total?

I wouldn't do questions 12 hours/day but try to do 1-2 blocks and annotate the answers into FA. You learn more from reviewing the questions and reading explanations than from just answering questions.

Are you using any review course? I'm doing DIT which is 3 weeks and they recommend you taking the exam within 5-10 days of finishing. They say an average student gets a 20-30 point improvement in their score using it (usually it's about 6-7 hours a day of video lectures cuz you have to pause to do questions and stuff) then they recommend 6 additional hours in FA and doing/annotating questions. It take a lot of time but I'm seeing improvement in my UW percentages- I haven't taken an NBME since I started but plan to this weekend.

 

[mattbiernat]

Are you using any review course? I'm doing DIT which is 3 weeks and they recommend you taking the exam within 5-10 days of finishing. They say an average student gets a 20-30 point improvement in their score using it.

isn't DIT the same as FA? i know FA in and out probably 90% of it. how is listening to DIT videos better than reading the book? do they go into more depth? do they offer their own explanations?

 

[deleted387928]

isn't DIT the same as FA? i know FA in and out probably 90% of it. how is listening to DIT videos better than reading the book? do they go into more depth? do they offer their own explanations?

If you really know first aid that well, you should be doing better than 200.

Maybe you don't really know it that well? Or you're having trouble applying the knowledge to answering questions?

Try doing a block on UW for a specific subject. If you're getting less than 70%, you're missing plenty of questions that can be answered from knowing first aid.

 

[justdoit31]

isn't DIT the same as FA? i know FA in and out probably 90% of it. how is listening to DIT videos better than reading the book? do they go into more depth? do they offer their own explanations?

They use FA as their text but they do provide a workbook with daily quizzes, questions for lectures, and some additional info. For me the biggest help is the quizzes because I can see where I might have thought I got it but then when I go to answer it I don't remember it as well as I thought I understood it. It is time consuming but keeps me on focus. They sometimes do add in extra details and he tells you what topics he considers high yield and which things you can not focus on as much (it's fair game but less commonly asked).