Hey! Well, I completed around 20% on UWORLD and I was seeing all this correlations saying that an average of 80 is above at least 250... I imagined it wouldn't be that high but at least I expected a 235 or 240 in the NBME15 as a result. However, when I saw my score I couldn't believe why. That was 1 week ago, I've completed now 31% of UWORLD and 81.3 average and I'm afraid it will happen again when I take my next NBME in 2 weeks. I checked by NBME answers and realized I got 84% right, but still what says the reality is that 225 score. Can someone tell me if they have an idea of what happened? Is UWORLD score a good indicator about how you'll do in the NBMEs or is it that I'm really not that good? I'm aiming for 250s at least, but this was I confidence kicker (exam in 2 months and 3 weeks)
USMLE 80% on UWORLD (20% completed) and still got a 225 on NBME15, why?
- Thread starter gilaze
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Are you going through UWorld random timed?
Firstly, I wouldn't worry about UWorld % trying to predict your score. That's what NBMEs are strictly for.
Secondly, the correlation might coincidentally fit for some people, but for many it doesn't. There's so much variability in how people use UWorld, how they used it to learn, if they ended up doing 2 passes or not, and how they perform on standardized tests in general.
That said, you're only 20% through the qbank, bro/brodette. If there is a correlation, it's likely based on percentages at the end of the qbank. Being 500 questions in pales in comparison to how UWorld transforms your mind after all 2500.
TLDR; don't get caught up in UWorld % translating to a NBME score. Use the NBME as a way to focus your studies as you keep trucking through UWorld. Best to you.
Firstly, I wouldn't worry about UWorld % trying to predict your score. That's what NBMEs are strictly for.
Secondly, the correlation might coincidentally fit for some people, but for many it doesn't. There's so much variability in how people use UWorld, how they used it to learn, if they ended up doing 2 passes or not, and how they perform on standardized tests in general.
That said, you're only 20% through the qbank, bro/brodette. If there is a correlation, it's likely based on percentages at the end of the qbank. Being 500 questions in pales in comparison to how UWorld transforms your mind after all 2500.
TLDR; don't get caught up in UWorld % translating to a NBME score. Use the NBME as a way to focus your studies as you keep trucking through UWorld. Best to you.
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Then just keep going. You should see your NBMEs rise over time. When are you sitting for the exam?
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20% isn't a lot of material. You might have just gotten lucky and pulled up a good number of questions you happen to know well, while your weaknesses are largely in the 80% you haven't done.
I thought about that a week ago after the NBME, but this week I've got a couple of 90s and above 85 (and 80% in 2 blocks) so this got me confused.
What I mean is that I don't seem to be going down, but rather going up, so I don't know if it still is because I haven't got tested in my weaknesses yet by this 31% of completion
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It's also possible you're just not good at longer blocks of testing and need to work up your stamina, or that you have a level of score anxiety that undermines your performance. UW also was not perfectly representative of the real exam-it is a teaching tool, and tends to have far more information than the real questions. It is possible you aren't as good at reading between the lines of the much more subtle USMLE questions.
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The % correct is meaningless. Work on timing and understanding why your missing questions and build your fund of knowledge.
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Post a few questions you got wrong and your thought process. A lot of times, after doing well on UWorld and always expecting a gotcha scenario, you might overthink NBME questions. After reading an NBME question it helped me to quickly ask myself, okay what are they really asking? A lot of times, it is simple.
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Do you have any topics from FA that are gaping holes in your knowledge base? Like the glycogen/lysosomal disease or embryo section in the repro chapter? or Cell bio? The reason I ask is b/c it's possible to hit 80% on UWorld with those gaping holes in knowledge base IF you just destroy the 'medium' and some of the 'hard' questions from all the topics in UWorld that you DO know.
NBMEs, however, really test your breadth of knowledge over depth. Such that if you had any gaping holes in knowledge it would expose you and that your mastery of the other topics would not let you overcome it like in UWorld. There might be a super easy recall question on embryo where if you just didn't read that page in FA, you'll miss it. Every missed question on NBME drops you 3 points.
I was 77% correct in Uworld with over half the QBank completed and got a low 230 on my first NBME (2.5 weeks before test). I hit some of my weaknesses (embryo, biostats) hard and by my 3rd and 4th NBME I was hitting 250s.
So for you, I'd say part of your problem might be breadth of knowledge (easy fix with FA). Other problem is NBME style of question. For this, I recommend going thru some of the offline NBMEs to get a better feel of their style.
NBMEs, however, really test your breadth of knowledge over depth. Such that if you had any gaping holes in knowledge it would expose you and that your mastery of the other topics would not let you overcome it like in UWorld. There might be a super easy recall question on embryo where if you just didn't read that page in FA, you'll miss it. Every missed question on NBME drops you 3 points.
I was 77% correct in Uworld with over half the QBank completed and got a low 230 on my first NBME (2.5 weeks before test). I hit some of my weaknesses (embryo, biostats) hard and by my 3rd and 4th NBME I was hitting 250s.
So for you, I'd say part of your problem might be breadth of knowledge (easy fix with FA). Other problem is NBME style of question. For this, I recommend going thru some of the offline NBMEs to get a better feel of their style.
I think you're the winner.. Because now that you say this, I went through my wrong answers and realized the majority were due to details that either I haven't studied or I had forgotten. It's not a particular subject like in your case with embryo and biostats, though.. It's general. There were around 5 I missed due to thinking about it the wrong way. I haven't gone through FA fully (I have gone through it by subjects, but I haven't gone from one page to the next only concentrating on the FA and all of its content). I guess once I do that I will retain those details and close down those little holes you talk about I will do better.
I don't think I'll forget your "breadth of knowledge over depth" comment. Thanks!
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