Afternoon step 1 pros and cons share your experience plz~

[godchaser1016]

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Hello everyone,

I am scheduled to take step in 6 weeks at 8:00 AM. In the beginning phase of my studying, I was able to go to bed and wake up early (11- 6 AM), but now I slowly got back to original sleeping cycle like 2 AM to 9:00 AM. I am afraid I will never go back to my early bird schedule again. ALSO, I've been having difficulty sleeping the night before the exam, and worry that the same thing will happen before step I. Now, I am contemplating on rescheduling it at 12:00 exam, so I can sleep late and still get some decent hours of sleep.

But I also worry that I might have afternoon fatigue and etc. I would love to hear about what people think. thanks!!

 

[Tig2575]

There have been evidence-based studies that have shown that adolescents and young adults perform significantly better on problem solving tasks (including tests) when administered in the late morning to early afternoon hours, with poorer performance in the early morning and late evening. At the same time, elderly patients tend to peak in performance in the early morning and decline somewhat in the late morning and early afternoon (which can be compared to the anecdotal observation that teenagers tend to sleep late into the afternoon while the elderly tend to be morning people)

I had my test scheduled at 1:00 PM, slept in comfortably, got a nice lunch beforehand, and ultimately did incredibly well on the exam. If you're significantly concerned about afternoon fatigue, try taking your NBME / UWSA exams during "break days" where you sleep in til ~10 or so and take the practice test at around noon. You can use that to gauge your ability to stay focused, and experiment with caffeine or energy drinks / shots.

 

[235009]

i took it in the afternoon and it was a great choice . got up at the same time as any other day (9am) having had a full night of sleep. it was excellent and it paid off big time on the test