comparing qbank and step I

[kellysmith]

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i'd always heard that the actual exam was supposed to be easier than qbank. however, out of the ten people or so who i know who have taken the exam, not ONE single person has said that the exam was easier. in fact, they've all said it was harder. is it possible that the exam is much harder than previous years?
at this point - i don't know what to expect on the exam or how to feel prepared....

 

[bigfrank]

I thought the real exam was equally difficult -- how's that?

So much of the exam is a crapshoot. Also, because it is a "little" more stressful than QBank, the hard questions tend to stick in people's minds. And over the course of 350 questions, there are several hard questions.

I think most people would say that they are similar in the quality/difficulty of questions -- generally. Someone who hammers out 75% of QBank questions correctly is not going to fail the exam.

 

[Jalby]

I'd put the number at 65% for the gaurunteed pass. For the people who posted their scores last year, anybody who got at least a 65 got at least a 218 or so. That's like 30 points above passing.

 

[kellysmith]

dear god - what does a 55% translate to?

 

[Spang]

It doesn't. None of the scores "translate".

There is obviously some correlation because you either take tests well or you don't, and you either have a sufficient background in the sciences, or you don't. That's it. The released items, Qbank and NBME test are good tools for evaluating your learning, but I think you enter a slippery slope, either going up or down, when you try to correlate.

That said, if your 200 points above the mean on NBME assessments, are you going to fail? No. I think too much depends on the test you draw, the "magic" grading, and your level of anxiety on test day.

Take a beta-blocker and keep reading FA for the next 3 days. That's my plan.


Who loves ya?

Spang

 

[Jalby]

dear god - what does a 55% translate to?

Here is the reporting from people who posted their scores last year:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=126258

I'd say if you have a 55% you have a really good chance of passing.

 

[lindyloohoo]

I'll say that the real thing is easier because it doesn't ask nitpicky things about small topics. HOWEVER, I will say the real thing is harder in that it's not just recall. Which is the only reason I feel ok about my 65% cum on q-bank. It's more application and concepts rather than what HLA is associated with RA. Q-bank is good in that it makes sure you know the foundation. Personally, I believe I will be able to answer questions from attendings a lot better after doing q-bank than after taking that test. 😉

 

[DOapplicant]

are qbank questions as detail oriented as the material presented in kaplan books?
i was reading kaplan biochem and it went into detail about the lac operon (we didn't even cover that in 1st year)

 

[DrSmiles]

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I got NAILED with biochem on the USMLE and the majority of my questions went beyond the Kaplan book and First Aid was a waste of time by comparison. HORRIBLE!!!! I actually thought I had the wrong exam at first because there were so many questions relating to molecular bio, experiments on the level of someone with a masters or Phd. You just don't know what they are going to throw at you.

 

[14022]

keep in mind 50 or so questions on step 1 are questions that do not count towards your score, but are used in order to statistically analyze their potential for use on future tests....it is possible that many of the questions that were beyond the scope of most board review books or medical school curricula may not even count towards your score

i thought that the questions on the boards tested your ability to think through problems rather than instantly recall facts, which is required by the majority of q bank questions

 

[Jalby]

I thought the test was easier than q-bank. Not as much random useless facts as there are in q-bank. In fact, whenever I missed a q-bank question, I wrote down the usefull information in my first aid. I can only think of 2 questions I got right because I knew this information and it wasn't in first aid.

 

[lotanna]

based on old score reporting from old threads, seems like NBME released questions seems to correlate more with high Step 1

like if you score 80% , u'll probably get around 240+

 

[bigfrank]

I hope you're right. I got a 700 and a 710 on the two NBME exams. I'll let you all know if it correlates around July 15th

 

[Stinger86]

keep in mind 50 or so questions on step 1 are questions that do not count towards your score, but are used in order to statistically analyze their potential for use on future tests....it is possible that many of the questions that were beyond the scope of most board review books or medical school curricula may not even count towards your score

i thought that the questions on the boards tested your ability to think through problems rather than instantly recall facts, which is required by the majority of q bank questions

It's also a good possibility that if you get a question dealing with a disease or drug you've never heard of or something like that, it's an experimental. Why not write a question about a few lesser known diseases and see how many schools and students know about them? If no one knows the diseases, then tank the questions (or keep them as real questions to tick test takers off)