USMLE 248 First Practice Exam: Move Exam Up?

[13132]

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Since January I have been doing about 20-25 UWORLD questions/day on review topics as well as doing the UWORLD/Pathoma for the corresponding topics that I cover in my schools curriculum. I also make all of FA path/pharm into Anki and do it as I cover a topic in class. Since I was basically finished with UWORLD (some Biostats and Behavioral Science is left), I decided that I wanted to see what my baseline level of knowledge was before I started studying exclusively for shelves and/or Step 1. I ended up scoring a 248. I have heard that the UWORLD exams over-estimate by about 10 points (correct me if I am wrong), but I still think that scoring ~240 before dedicated/shelves raises a few questions in my mind.

I'm primarily writing this post to ask whether it would be wise to move my exam date up? I have heard that it is very possible to peak before the exam and start to forget things due to information overload or burnout/apathy. I've worked pretty hard throughout the year, and I wouldn't say that I am burned out yet but I can't see myself lasting until my test date of April 28th. I should also say that while I want to get a good score I am not the type to go crazy over a few points by memorizing obscure anatomy topics. Its just not worth it to me. I don't necessarily want or need a residency in a desirable geographical location (e.g. California), and I don't tend to like any of the extremely competitive specialties.

For context here is what I decided about my Step 1 expectations:
<230: Crushed
230-239: Disappointed
240-249: Happy
>250: Ecstatic (Goal)

I also wanted to know whether anybody here has had a similar experience? I am happy that I seem to be starting from a good position, but I am concerned about my ability to increase that score. Given where I am starting from what is the time and effort required to bump my performance up to a 250. I'd imagine gaining points in the 250 range is much harder than in the 220-230 range, so I wondered if anybody could comment on that as well. I think it would be discouraging to hover around the same score for all of dedicated.

Thanks!

 

[plasmodium]

Firstly, which practice exam did you take?

In any case, the overwhelming majority of students will tell you to move your test up if you have practice scores close to your desired range. I personally believe it depends on your own goals, your own capacity for commitment, and your own willingness (or lack thereof) to persist in your studies.

I was told by many students to move my test date up because I was already scoring high early on. However, I decided not to rush into an early test date, and over the past 1.5 months have since witnessed a 17-point improvement from my first NBME (which was originally a score that you stated in your breakdown you would be ecstatic with). Keep in mind, it has become quite a bother to still be studying, and I undoubtedly acknowledge why students told me to move my test date up. Yet, my experience begs the question: would I have improved if I did took the test sooner rather than later?

In the end, it's really up to you. Take all advice and everything you read and are told with a grain of salt. Anything you do will just be additive to what appears to be a strong foundation.

EDIT: I just noticed based on @tasar1898's post that you took a UWSA. I would not consider this predictive (yet), especially since UWSAs typically assess you on your ability to answer UWorld questions and, as you have already stated, you are almost complete with the QBank, so you have probably seen a lot of the concepts and images in UWSA 1/2 already. If you had taken this assessment without having finished more than half of the QBank, it would be a different story.

Take NBME 12 or 13 if you want to see where you stand. If you score similarly, I'd say you are genuinely within that range give or take some points. If you don't score where you would like to be, then at least you still have the rest of dedicated, and the rest of the NBMEs to take throughout dedicated to track your progress.

 

[tasar1898]

IMO UWSA is garbage in predicting if you do it after you finished all the qbank.. Your reasoning sounds fine but you are basing it on a false assumption. Better do an NBME to see where you at , then see how much effort you wanna dedicate to this exam. 240 --> 250 during dedicated sounds very plausible .

For what its worth , as an IMS I did my first NBME and got 262 before my 8wks dedicated ( before doing any Uworld , FA revisions ) after only getting through the Kaplan series and qbank , so I was contemplating the same thing ( moving my test day up ) . In the end I didnt change the date but during these 8 wks I solidified my knowledge and came out okay on the real deal . If I skipped these weeks , I am like 90% sure that I would see a MAJOR score drop on the real thing

 

[13132]

Firstly, which practice exam did you take?

I took the first UW self-assessment. I've definitely heard those aren't great at predicting your score and over-estimate.

In any case, the overwhelming majority of students will tell you to move your test up if you have practice scores close to your desired range. I personally believe it depends on your own goals, your own capacity for commitment, and your own willingness (or lack thereof) to persist in your studies.

Im torn here. I would be happy with something in the 240s, but I'm starting to think I'd be crazy not to capitalize on the foundation I currently have.

In the end, it's really up to you. Take all advice and everything you read and are told with a grain of salt. Anything you do will just be additive to what appears to be a strong foundation.

Thanks for response.

 

[13132]

IMO UWSA is garbage in predicting if you do it after you finished all the qbank.. Your reasoning sounds fine but you are basing it on a false assumption. Better do an NBME to see where you at , then see how much effort you wanna dedicate to this exam. 240 --> 250 during dedicated sounds very plausible .

For what its worth , as an IMS I did my first NBME and got 262 before my 8wks dedicated ( before doing any Uworld , FA revisions ) after only getting through the Kaplan series and qbank , so I was contemplating the same thing ( moving my test day up ) . In the end I didnt change the date but during these 8 wks I solidified my knowledge and came out okay on the real deal . If I skipped these weeks , I am like 90% sure that I would see a MAJOR score drop on the real thing

This is a good reason not to move it up. There are a fair amount of questions that I get right because I am a "good guesser". The guessing is based on some knowledge in that I can identify totally wrong answers and eliminate a lot of stuff, but I couldn't tell you the exact explanation for the answer I picked. I know that there will always be some of that and that actually is part of what makes a good test taker, but right now I am relying on that a bit more than I am comfortable with.

 

[plasmodium]

Im torn here. I would be happy with something in the 240s, but I'm starting to think I'd be crazy not to capitalize on the foundation I currently have.

You answered your own question right here.

No problem. Feel free to inbox me with any more questions.

 

[13132]

@plasmodium I just saw the edit to your original post. I think that I will study for shelves then after I take them (at the start of my dedicated) I will take the first NBME and evaluate from there. I also wanted to note that when I talk about moving my exam up I would only be talking ~1 week. Nothing too drastic.

 

[13132]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I have some specific questions/updates for the thread.

My school takes all the NBME shelves at the end of the year, so I recently just studied for those for like a week ago and then took them. I relaxed for a few days then took NBME 12 today to kick off my 5 weeks of dedicated studying. I got a 243. My initial feeling was one of letdown since this is "lower" than my 248 from UW, but given that UW overestimates I probably shouldn't worry about it too much.

Anyway, as I review the questions I missed on NBME 12 I am finding that they are all things that I didn't really encounter in UWorld and First Aid doesn't really make a point of highlighting some of the issues I'm missing. They aren't the type of questions where I can just flip to a page of FA and find the right answer staring back at me. My original plan to was do UW, Pathoma, Sketchy Micro, my anki cards of FA again, but I am wondering if I need to add another qbank to get more exposure to the details/low yield things.

Any thoughts on this? I know its impossible to make sure you've covered every topic to the appropriate depth that may (or may not) be needed, but I'm starting to wonder if UWorld and FA alone are capable of getting me over 250.