Consistency on NBMEs

[throwaway211]

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Hey guys,

Quick question regarding NBMEs and how confident I should feel for the real deal (taking it next week!):

I've done well on 4 NBMEs so far, but I feel kinda crappy after each one and there seem to be a decent number of questions (not a ton, but enough to scare me) where I really have to make an educated guess and hope that my reasoning is correct. Here are my results:

NBME 7 -- 254
NBME 11 -- 247
NBME 13 -- 252
NBME 15 -- 254

I know it seems a bit like "first world problem" but it's really making me nervous that, in each of those practice NBMEs, there were a decent number of questions where I really had to depend on reasoning and just hope to the gods that the answer was correct. And it's making me very nervous for next week, when I take the real deal. Should I be comforted by the fact that 4 practice exams have shown good consistency, spread out over a month? Even though I had to depend a lot on reasoning rather than seeing a question and straight-up knowing the answer? I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance that I wouldn't have consistently done well if my foundation was bad and that I should be okay on the real exam. My main study source has been UW so far and I'm about half-way through my first pass of FA at the moment -- hoping to get finish UW and FA by the time I take my exam next Monday. Thanks!

 

[CrouchingLiger]

Dude, that's awesome that you can reason out answers like that, its a very useful skill. On the actual exam you will probably have several of those types of questions too, and since you've been consistently doing well with this approach, I believe you should be fine. I'm in a similar scenario, but I've only done NBME 15. However, I know that reasoning out answers and making educated guesses is something I've done fairly well on exams overall, so I take it in stride. Besides, this is a sign that you actually have a much broader knowledge base than you realize because you know random bits of details to make the right educated guesses.

 

[D elegans]

I understand your is it too good to be true? impulse. I've not yet taken Step 1 (not til Friday) but everyone says the NBMEs are the best measure of your preparation. It's really hard to go from the 250s range into the 260s. There's not a single person who could honestly tell you that 250+ is anything but a truly impressive score. You are in good shape if you've been scoring consistently in that range.