Anyone do the NBME Field Trial questions?

[po' boy]

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I was wondering if anyone did/is doing the NBME field trial basic science questions for the new exams. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. My school's student affairs office sent us an email with a link to a 200-question test of basic sciences questions they're considering implementing on new exams, probably step 1.) I tried to access it today, but the quota of test takers has been reached.

For those who took it and are preparing for Step 1, what did you think? How does it compare to Q-Bank, etc.?

Thanks,
po'

 

[kd]

Yeah, I just finished my test. It was completely worthless. 200 questions- but no feedback whatsoever! No way to even find out if you got the right answer. At the end, it gives you this so-called "performance profile" which tells you how you did by organ system (Sad to say, I was "borderline" for most areas! Guess I better get on the ball before Step 1!)
It was a total waste of 4 hours of my precious time. And unless they start offering answers and explanations, I would never pay $45 for this product. Stick with QBank and Board Simulator Series.
BTW I think most of the questions were fairly straightforward- I just completely forgot everything I've learned this year!

 

[Jeff698]

I have the opposite take on that thing. I finished it yesterday and was glad I did.

I liked it even though it didn't give feedback (that would have been very nice) because it gave me an idea of what the real thing will be like. It gave me an idea of the difficulty, the wording, the formating and the timing. That is all assuming, of course, that it is close to the real thing.

I found that I was finishing each block with plenty of time so I went back and took notes on the things that I needed to go back and look up (sadly, that seemed to have been several reams of paper).

I've also been doing QBank and found the NMBE questions to be easier and more straightforward. There weren't as many nth degree questions like Kaplan likes.

I'd probably have forked out the $47 for it but would definitely have saved it for much closer to test time. I'd have liked to have done it after my studying to get a 'final assessment' just before the real deal.

I'm sure you know this, but NBME offers 150 questions in the same format as the test from their web site. I've heard many, many folks who have taken Step I say there were several questions taken almost verbatim from that practice test.

Take care
Jeff, MS-II
UTMB

 

[docuw]

I also thought that test was pretty worthless. Also, I wouldnt take your performance to heart. Many people were taking the selft paced exam and looking up answers as they went along - thus, their scores are going up the mean by quite abit. I took the standard paced exam and found I had plenty of time as well, but also found that several of the answers I couldnt even come up with even when I tried to look thru the text. That's the kind of stuff I hate on these exams.

 

[Jaded Soul]

I didn't think it was much different from Qbank. I sure as hell wouldn't spend the $45 they are asking for it, though. Just did not seem worth it.