Advice please re 150 free q's

[swman]

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Hi,

I'm in a bit of a time crunch - my test is Wednesday morning. Looking at my schedule it appears that I'll probably have to pick between taking the 150 free questions from NBME or the final ~ 150 or so UWorld questions, but not both. I had been putting off the free q's because I heard they were way too easy.

What would any of you do?

Thanks

 

[lord_jeebus]

Finish USMLEWorld

 

[VPDcurt]

UWorld

 

[Its_MurDAH]

I would take the 150 free. i took those the day before my test and it really put me at ease the next day when I took the actual thing. The format of the questions, the FRED interface, the tutorial, the a/v questions: getting comfortable with these things the day before the real thing definitely dialed down my anxiety. I felt I was more focused after having taken the 150.

 

[tfom08]

I would also suggest the 150 free. It's nice and leisurely and I felt like I needed confidence a couple days before the exam more than I needed to rack my brain and work on 150 UW questions. And there is a better chance of seeing repeats off of the free 150 than off of 150 random UW questions since they are actual USMLE questions, at least that's what I have heard and I did have at least one repeat that I can remember off of my test. I would have gotten it right either way, but hey, it was a repeat.

 

[penguinophile]

Hi,

I'm in a bit of a time crunch - my test is Wednesday morning. Looking at my schedule it appears that I'll probably have to pick between taking the 150 free questions from NBME or the final ~ 150 or so UWorld questions, but not both. I had been putting off the free q's because I heard they were way too easy.

What would any of you do?

Thanks

If you want to learn something, UW. If you want a BIG ego boost, do the free 150.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

Free 150...getting used to the interface/format = increased confidence/comfort. 🙂

 

[underdoggg]

Hey guys, you think its worth doing those q's at the testing site during the practice session?

 

[Instatewaiter]

I didnt do it. I would recommend making a 'dry run' to your testing center to figure out where it is, the traffic etc. If you have time go in and check it out.

 

[VPDcurt]

If you want to learn something, UW. If you want a BIG ego boost, do the free 150.

I second that. I forgot about the nice confidence booster of the free 150. Also, if you jot down your answers on a sheet of paper while you are taking the 150 you can check your answers later and see which ones you got wrong and why you got them wrong.

 

[Instatewaiter]

Yeah the free 150 is a nice ego boost after getting rocked by Uworld. I just hope that it is predictive. At med friends it has the tightest confidence interval compared to their other predictors.

 

[drdr2010]

i agree with the above. those free 150 increased my confidence a lot the day before my test (whereas, every qbank random 50 made me want to quit/postpone my test/freak out).

i also had one exact question from the free 150 on my real test.

 

[Helo]

Hey guys, you think its worth doing those q's at the testing site during the practice session?

i think its a good idea to do it at the testing site. i knew exactly where to go, what the center would be like, where the bathroom was when i needed it (which was quite often), and most importantly, what my testing cubicle could be like. the only difference btw the practice session and my real step 1 was the level of difficulty...

to the OP, free practice questions werent the best representation of my real test and i didnt learn much from reviewing my answers to the free 150 (kaplan has explanations) but it did inflate my ego. UW is a very good learning tool but a bad score was hard to swallow. whichever way you go, just remember that you're gonna kill it and good luck!