Aug 18th CBSE

[Mr.Scalpel]

Exactly one month left today. Time to say goodbye to the world. Don't despair and don't burn out. Good luck people.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

The burn out is real.

Indeed.

I have not taken any practice tests yet. But the vignettes in both the NBME and the CBSE are shorter and more straight forward than UWorld from what I have heard.

 

[Ivy.ch]

T-27 days. We have ventured far from the oral cavity and have entered the lymphatics of the penis. Wondering what the hell I'm doing here

Venturing deep into the penal inguinal nodes.

But seriously, good luck you guys! Hopefully you nail it and can return with some wisdom for the rest of us. Looking forward to hearing back from you all.

 

[White_Sponge_Nevus]

Hopefully our S5 dermatomes come out unscathed

 

[Dentalkid20]

You know it’s bad when you get these jokes.... or maybe it’s a good thing and I’m acrually retaining something from UWorld after all ....
Best of luck everyone!

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

Copyright (c) UWorld, Please do not save, print, cut, copy or paste anything while a test is active.

 

[poutinepower]

do you guys know if we get an hour or an hour 15 for each block?
I thought it was an hour but CBSE FAQ | AccessOMFS indicated the july 2017 exam gave an hour 15 for each block

 

[yappy]

Does anyone know from experience or other people approximately how many questions will net you anywhere from a 65-75?

Don't torture yourself with questions like that. It's a scaled exam with many "test questions" that will not even count towards your score. The scale changes from test to test.

 

[BrazilianRider]

do you guys know if we get an hour or an hour 15 for each block?
I thought it was an hour but CBSE FAQ | AccessOMFS indicated the july 2017 exam gave an hour 15 for each block

1 hour, 15 min. 50 questions per section.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

I counted 20+ that I got wrong and ended up in the low 70s on the Feb exam so yeah it varies. Average was a 52 so it was a tougher exam relative to other dates. Take it with a grain of salt. @Arabidopsis mentioned that he counted 8 wrong and still got a 98. You never know what to expect after the exam and no one really feels great coming out of it. It’s best to just wait out the 4-5 days until the score comes out rather than counting what questions you got right and wrong.

 

[786783]

I counted 20+ that I got wrong and ended up in the low 70s on the Feb exam so yeah it varies. Average was a 52 so it was a tougher exam relative to other dates. Take it with a grain of salt. @Arabidopsis mentioned that he counted 8 wrong and still got a 98. You never know what to expect after the exam and no one really feels great coming out of it. It’s best to just wait out the 4-5 days until the score comes out rather than counting what questions you got right and wrong.

How does one score a 98 and handle being around people of average intellect thru life?

 

[Masterus]

Generally, what I've noticed from NBME grading and threads on how many wrong correlate to a score Your percentage correct almost estimates your number scored so a 70 is around 70% right give or take with a little bit of a curve. You're looking at around 50- 60 wrong.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Generally, what I've noticed from NBME grading and threads on how many wrong correlate to a score Your percentage correct almost estimates your number scored so a 70 is around 70% right give or take with a little bit of a curve. You're looking at around 50- 60 wrong.

I don’t know that’s accurate for the real exam since it’s graded on a scale and the mean/standard deviation vary for each date.

 

[Masterus]

They vary from each NBME as well, but the general score tends to be pretty similar except for NBME 19.

NBME is extremely predictive of your CBSE score.

 

[White_Sponge_Nevus]

Venturing deep into the penal inguinal nodes.

But seriously, good luck you guys! Hopefully you nail it and can return with some wisdom for the rest of us. Looking forward to hearing back from you all.

If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you

 

[Dentalkid20]

I have 300 UWorld questions left. Do you think it’s better to spend this last week competing the Qbank or reading Pathoma for the first time?

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

I have 300 UWorld questions left. Do you think it’s better to spend this last week competing the Qbank or reading Pathoma for the first time?

You need to do what works for you. Focus on your weaknesses, review your notes, etc. Don’t bother doing lots of questions if you aren’t going to review them.

 

[sand man]

The burn out is real. I'm already ready to sign up for Feb. That being said, have you done any NBME exams? They are significantly less layered questions than UW. Is that how the CBSE is too?

I just did one of the practice exams a couple of days ago. the stems of the questions are for sure shorter than UWORLD style questions. Although I still had my ass handed to me by the end of it.

 

[DDSER1]

I have 300 UWorld questions left. Do you think it’s better to spend this last week competing the Qbank or reading Pathoma for the first time?

I havent written the exam yet but from my research people’s scores are directly proportional to how many questions they did. I would pump out those 300 but make sure youre understanding everything.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

I havent written the exam yet but from my research people’s scores are directly proportional to how many questions they did. I would pump out those 300 but make sure youre understanding everything.

People’s scores are correlated to their practice scores, not the number of questions they attempted.

 

[DDSER1]

People’s scores are correlated to their practice scores, not the number of questions they attempted.

Here’s the study and I screenshotted the relevant slide
https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/Are Questions the Answer PPT 11-6-12 10PM.pdf

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

Test was pretty straight forward with very few multistep questions. The one question I had no idea wtf they were talking about was one of the last ones, a lady with an ulcer in the back; I had like two minutes left and just answered on a hunch. I’ll take it again just because I know I could have done better had I finished UWorld (Only had time to go through 31%). I did NBME 16 a few days ago and I honestly thought it was harder. Does anyone know what the answer to that question was?

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Test was pretty straight forward with very few multistep questions. The one question I had no idea wtf they were talking about was one of the last ones, a lady with an ulcer in the back; I had like two minutes left and just answered on a hunch. I’ll take it again just because I know I could have done better had I finished UWorld (Only had time to go through 31%). I did NBME 16 a few days ago and I honestly thought it was harder. Does anyone know what the answer to that question was?

Lol it was a bed sore (pressure ulcer). They asked a question about a pressure ulcer in the Feb exam too but the answer to this one was to get them out of the bed or not on their back anymore. It’s a pathology associated with lack of mobility.

 

[786783]

Test was pretty straight forward with very few multistep questions. The one question I had no idea wtf they were talking about was one of the last ones, a lady with an ulcer in the back; I had like two minutes left and just answered on a hunch. I’ll take it again just because I know I could have done better had I finished UWorld (Only had time to go through 31%). I did NBME 16 a few days ago and I honestly thought it was harder. Does anyone know what the answer to that question was?

NBME score?

 

[C.elegans]

What did people choose for the disc herniation resulting in loss of achilles reflex and difficulty in plantar flexion? Its usually compression of either S1 or S2, but I've never seen a question where they gave both S1 and S2 as choices. The first aid revision says S1-S2 herniation compressing S2 nerve, but some sources say L5-S1 herniation compressing S1. Hmm..

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

What did people choose for the disc herniation resulting in loss of achilles reflex and difficulty in plantar flexion? Its usually compression of either S1 or S2, but I've never seen a question where they gave both S1 and S2 as choices. The first aid revision says S1-S2 herniation compressing S2 nerve, but some sources say L5-S1 herniation compressing S1. Hmm..

If I remember correctly there was loss of sensation on the lateral aspect of the foot as well, answer was S1.

Lol it was a bed sore (pressure ulcer). They asked a question about a pressure ulcer in the Feb exam too but the answer to this one was to get them out of the bed or not on their back anymore. It’s a pathology associated with lack of mobility.

Dam it, that makes sense, can’t even remember what I chose

 

[GoldenDomer11]

Did anyone else feel bad for the terminally ill 4 year old?

 

[kingme23]

Test was pretty straight forward with very few multistep questions. The one question I had no idea wtf they were talking about was one of the last ones, a lady with an ulcer in the back; I had like two minutes left and just answered on a hunch. I’ll take it again just because I know I could have done better had I finished UWorld (Only had time to go through 31%). I did NBME 16 a few days ago and I honestly thought it was harder. Does anyone know what the answer to that question was?

Lol does your school take med courses? It wasn’t terrible, but I definitely had a few “WTF is this” moments.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Low 70s the first time I took this and felt much better this time around. Goal was 80-85+ so fingers crossed .

 

[Likkriue]

Don’t wanna jinx it but, it felt just like all of the nbmes I took and I got above 70 in all of them. Honestly very few long vignettes and was pretty straightforward. Maybe 10 per section had me clueless but that’s about how I felt for all of the nbmes.

The micro was piss easy compared to the nbmes and the exam had a crap ton of those.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Don’t wanna jinx it but, it felt just like all of the nbmes I took and I got above 70 in all of them. Honestly very few long vignettes and was pretty straightforward. Maybe 10 per section had me clueless but that’s about how I felt for all of the nbmes.

The micro was piss easy compared to the nbmes and the exam had a crap ton of those.

Nice bro. Prepping for this during D1 must've been really fun I bet.

 

[Likkriue]

Nice bro. Prepping for this during D1 must've been really fun I bet.

The med school courses def helped for immuno and micro which there was a lot of Qs on haha. Wished we took physio with the med students too, would’ve made studying that so much easier.

 

[Likkriue]

Test was pretty straight forward with very few multistep questions. The one question I had no idea wtf they were talking about was one of the last ones, a lady with an ulcer in the back; I had like two minutes left and just answered on a hunch. I’ll take it again just because I know I could have done better had I finished UWorld (Only had time to go through 31%). I did NBME 16 a few days ago and I honestly thought it was harder. Does anyone know what the answer to that question was?

What have you been getting on your online nbmes?

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

What have you been getting on your online nbmes?

Lol you shouldn’t be asking that

 

[Likkriue]

Lol you shouldn’t be asking that

Lol why not, few people do them so good to see how everyones progress is. It’s like asking dat bootcamp averages.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Lol why not, few people do them so good to see how everyones progress is. It’s like asking dat bootcamp averages.

I mean if someone wants to share they can share but I just dont think it’s right to put someone on the spot in a public forum

 

[jmukid]

I mean if someone wants to share they can share but I just dont think it’s right to put someone on the spot in a public forum

You make a great point but kinda interesting for you to say that when you posted all of your practice scores on the med school forum...

 

[BrazilianRider]

You make a great point but kinda interesting for you to say that when you posted all of your practice scores on the med school forum...

Not to mention the fact that this is all anonymous anyway...

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

Got a really ****ty score. I took that test primarily to calibrate my time management since I was doing UWorld tutor mode. I did two blocks in a starbucks, one before going to bed and the other after I woke up. I like to think I am sitting somewhere between 65-75 when we get the scores on Friday. I’ll take it again regardless.

@GimmeTheScalpel has put in a lot of time and effort, no doubt you’ll reach your goal bro.

 

[C.elegans]

You make a great point but kinda interesting for you to say that when you posted all of your practice scores on the med school forum...

LOL.

 

[Likkriue]

Got a really ****ty score. I took that test primarily to calibrate my time management since I was doing UWorld tutor mode. I did two blocks in a starbucks, one before going to bed and the other after I woke up. I like to think I am sitting somewhere between 65-75 when we get the scores on Friday. I’ll take it again regardless.

@GimmeTheScalpel has put in a lot of time and effort, no doubt you’ll reach your goal bro.

You would retake a 75? That’s a lot of commitment lol.
I don’t wanna study for this ever again. I hit a 80 on one nbme, but I’m burned out after studying for 6 weeks 12 hours a day.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

You make a great point but kinda interesting for you to say that when you posted all of your practice scores on the med school forum...

Oh is that the same thing? Asking someone to tell me their scores and me asking what to expect on the real thing based on other people’s experiences? Nice connections my dude.

 

[GimmeTheScalpel]

Got a really ****ty score. I took that test primarily to calibrate my time management since I was doing UWorld tutor mode. I did two blocks in a starbucks, one before going to bed and the other after I woke up. I like to think I am sitting somewhere between 65-75 when we get the scores on Friday. I’ll take it again regardless.

@GimmeTheScalpel has put in a lot of time and effort, no doubt you’ll reach your goal bro.

Appreciate you my bro. Hope you get that 75+ you want!

 

[BrazilianRider]

Oh is that the same thing? Asking someone to tell me their scores and me asking what to expect on the real thing based on other people’s experiences? Nice connections my dude.

I *think* what he’s trying to say is he gets what you’re saying, but doesn’t understand what the big deal is considering you already posted your scores on the site before.

 

[Likkriue]

Positive vibes guys!!!! Hope we all got what we were aiming for.

 

[C.elegans]

Anyone knows what the score trend is for OMS applicants these days? 5 years back, breaking 70 would place you in top 5~10% of the applicant pool from what I heard. It seems to me everyone on this forum is aiming for minimum 75, and some ppl seem to be aiming for over an 85. Nothing wrong about aiming for the highest score you can get, but if people are willing to retake a 75 for something higher, does that mean top 10% applicants are breaking 80~85 these days? I just don't know what the expectations are these days as it is somewhat true the average scores have been creeping up. Can someone shed some insight on this?

 

[jmukid]

Anyone knows what the score trend is for OMS applicants these days? 5 years back, breaking 70 would place you in top 5~10% of the applicant pool from what I heard. It seems to me everyone on this forum is aiming for minimum 75, and @GimmeTheScalpel seems to be aiming for over an 85. Nothing wrong about aiming for the highest score you can get, but if people are willing to retake a 75 for something higher, does that mean top 10% applicants are breaking 80~85 these days? I just don't know what the expectations are these days as it is somewhat true the average scores have been creeping up. Can someone shed some insight on this?

I mean you’d ideally want to get as high as possible regardless of what the trend is. If you get above a 70 you’re solid. But you also have to take into consideration a lot of different things. Class rank and gpa are also really important. So if you have a very good class rank and gpa, you can get away with not doing amazing on the cbse but if your class rank isn’t great than ideally you’d wanna get mid 70s/80s. You’re personally is also a huge factor. If the residents don’t like you then it doesn’t matter what your gpa or cbse score is. With that said I think if you get anywhere above a 70 that’s a really good score.

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

It may appear that way, especially in this forum. No need to guess though. February's exam data had a mean of 53 and a standard deviation of 12.5, therefore:

68% of the people who took that exam were in the range of 40.5 - 65.5

95% of the people who took the exam had a score between 28-78

Only 2.5% had a score higher than 78.

People can say whatever they want but in the end the numbers don't lie.

A few interesting things according to this 2015 article. For every point increase in CBSE score, there is a 1.57% less chance of being rejected. Also the mean CBSE score of invited, waitlisted, and rejected candidates are 67.13 (SD 10.93), 62.86 (SD 8.24), and 58.99 (SD 8.79), respectively.

 

[C.elegans]

It may appear that way, especially in this forum. No need to guess though. February's exam data had a mean of 53 and a standard deviation of 12.5, therefore:

68% of the people who took that exam were in the range of 40.5 - 65.5

95% of the people who took the exam had a score between 28-78

Only 2.5% had a score higher than 78.

People can say whatever they want but in the end the numbers don't lie.

A few interesting things according to this 2015 article. For every point increase in CBSE score, there is a 1.57% less chance of being rejected. Also the mean CBSE score of invited, waitlisted, and rejected candidates are 67.13 (SD 10.93), 62.86 (SD 8.24), and 58.99 (SD 8.79), respectively.

Thank you for the interesting paper. I read it just now but it seems that the data used for this were all obtained during the early years (2013,2014 cycles) of the CBSE being implemented as a assessment tool. 5 years have passed since. And I remember someone mentioning that the averages and SD for one exam means very little because applicants are allowed to take the exam multiple times, and the highest one counts. I'm just trying the see what kind of scores are competitive for which kinds of programs. For example, I've heard the higher tier 6yr programs often require VERY high scores (high 70s to mid 80s) for anyone to have a shot.

 

[Mr.Scalpel]

For example, I've heard the higher tier 6yr programs often require VERY high scores (high 70s to mid 80s) for anyone to have a shot.

You know, I find it helpful to simply assume that is the case. I think having that frame of mind in general during the application process drives you in the right direction.