265 upper limit on UWSA's?

[norealname]

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Hey everyone,

I am sure a lot of the SDN'ers here did the UWorld assessments and so I had a question regarding the scoring system on these exams. I was just wondering what the score upper limit for the UWSA's is. I did UWSA1 2 weeks ago and got 800 (or USMLE equivalent of 265), with about 88% of the questions right. Today I did UWSA2 and got the same thing (800, or 265) with about 91% of the questions right. Does that just mean their predictive score does not change beyond a certain point? or is UWSA2 somehow easier than UWSA1 and that's how I ended up with same predictive score even with higher % correct?

Thank you for your responses in advance 🙂

 

[Ty Webb]

Cutoff is ~84% for 265+

I started a thread regarding this issue a while back that you might want to check out. I had 91% on UWSA1 and 90% on UWSA2. Scored in 260s.

 

[norealname]

Thank you Ty. Appreciate your response. I read that previous thread you had on here. So do you think that around the scoring range we're talking about here, I should start to look at my NBME's as a better scoring predictor? I use both my NBME's and UWSA's as an educational tool, but I'm just trying to see where I stand now since my NBME's and UWSA's are now within the same scoring range (265+) and I'm taking my exam hopefully in the next 2 weeks. Thank you for your input again.

 

[Tig2575]

Take the NBME's with a grain of salt. I got 265/800 on both my UWSA's and a 257 on NBME 12 in between those two assessments, and ended up scoring well above my UWSA score. If your NBME is significantly lower, don't let it shake your confidence.

 

[kaleerkalut]

Thank you Ty. Appreciate your response. I read that previous thread you had on here. So do you think that around the scoring range we're talking about here, I should start to look at my NBME's as a better scoring predictor? I use both my NBME's and UWSA's as an educational tool, but I'm just trying to see where I stand now since my NBME's and UWSA's are now within the same scoring range (265+) and I'm taking my exam hopefully in the next 2 weeks. Thank you for your input again.

Do you mind stating what you are doing to study? Those are great scores. Thanks 🙂

 

[norealname]

Take the NBME's with a grain of salt. I got 265/800 on both my UWSA's and a 257 on NBME 12 in between those two assessments, and ended up scoring well above my UWSA score. If your NBME is significantly lower, don't let it shake your confidence.

That's where I'm somewhat confused I guess. I got 264 about 6 weeks ago on NBME6. 3 weeks ago, I got 271 on NBME7 and now the 265's on UWSA's; I'm not quite sure what to make of this score progess. I guess I'm also afraid because the score reports from these exams are inconsistent for me, and I always have different weaknesses on every exam, so I don't know what to focus on anymore. I wish I could just take my exam right now to be honest, but I'm an IMG and it's taking a ridiculously long time for the ECFMG to process my papers.

Anyways, thank you for your input. Appreciate it 🙂

 

[norealname]

Do you mind stating what you are doing to study? Those are great scores. Thanks 🙂

Hey kaleerkalut,
I'm not following a certain strategy per se. The main backbone of my plan is to do 50 pages of First Aid every day. I already finished UWorld at the end my year 2, so I'm just re-doing marked questions from that, 46 every day. Besides the uworld questions and FA, I try to finish reading review books in my weak subjects based on the reports I get from NBME and UWSA's. For example, I read the HY Gross Anatomy, HY Embryo and HY behavioral in the past 3 weeks.

I'm hoping to do the exam in the next 2 weeks.

Hope this helps 🙂

 

[Tig2575]

You'll do fine, just don't choke on exam day.

 

[Ty Webb]

norealname, I would guess on a good day you'd be in the low 270s. With similar UWSA scores, I very subjectively felt that my range was approximately 260-272 or so (just used 12 pts in this example because +/- 6 pts is the SEM given on the score report, but you get the idea).

You'll do great.

 

[rashy]

May I ask what uw% you guys were having? Did you get there 85-90% too?? Thx

 

[Ty Webb]

may i ask what uw% you guys were having? Did you get there 85-90% too?? Thx

85%

 

[norealname]

Thank you for your feedback guys. I know I'm over-stressing here, but I can't help it We'll see how the big thing goes hopefully in 2 weeks.

Rashy, my cumulative after first uworld run was 86%.

 

[Tig2575]

My Uworld cumulative was 86%, and I got a 95% on the free 150

 

[kaleerkalut]

Thank you for your feedback guys. I know I'm over-stressing here, but I can't help it We'll see how the big thing goes hopefully in 2 weeks.

Rashy, my cumulative after first uworld run was 86%.

How were you doing the questions? Timed, random? Also, had you finished all of your coursework when you started or were there still subjects you hadn't covered? TIA 🙂

 

[norealname]

Timed random blocks of 46 all the way. I was done almost all of my courses by then except for some portions of GI and hepatobiliary pathology.

 

[kaleerkalut]

Timed random blocks of 46 all the way. I was done almost all of my courses by then except for some portions of GI and hepatobiliary pathology.

And I'm assuming you had been studying for Step 1 along with courses prior to starting UW, right? Thanks for your help.

 

[norealname]

I just took studying for these courses seriously in years 1 and 2. For each course, I always read a textbook (usually one of the Lange Review series) along with 1 or 2 question books for the subject (say PreTest or some Rapid Review bank). Taking things moderately seriously in the beginning makes it much easier and manageable in the end.

 

[Asp]

UWSA tops out at 265+ rating. Despite what SDN seems to suggest, scores in this range are rare. You're probably on track to score in low 270s, which means you are top 10 in the country for sure. AFAIK, the high score on Step 1 falls in the 273-275 range in a typical year. Congrats and good luck.

 

[Asp]

There is also the issue of overfitting (in the machine learning sense). UWSA scores are more valid if you haven't done much UWorld beforehand. They may overpredict if you've already done the entire QBank. This is why I recommend not using UWorld as the SOLE resource, even though it is by far the best. A raw 265+ prior to doing UWorld is very impressive and almost certainly indicates #1 score in the country potential.