converting 230s into 250s in 8 weeks

[Dr.serotonin]

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my baseline nbme was 230 a month n half ago, then i was out of study for a month, how possible is it to get into 250 range in 8 weeks period ( full time) from now.
your inputs needed.
regards

 

[iceman55]

Very possible


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[walakin25]

my baseline nbme was 230 a month n half ago, then i was out of study for a month, how possible is it to get into 250 range in 8 weeks period ( full time) from now.
your inputs needed.
regards

Hey buddy, you have ample time. Take an NBME soon and see where you stand. Based on your exact performance I can advise better. Remember the most important thing is that you are constantly learning. Be curious buddy.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

thankyou very much for this support. I'll take an NBME soon.
what I am doing is to do NBME 16,17 and 18 along with UWSA1 and 2. plz suggest me the order and the time when I should use them like how many weeks apart/before the exam which is exactly 8 weeks from now.

 

[plasmodium]

thankyou very much for this support. I'll take an NBME soon.
what I am doing is to do NBME 16,17 and 18 along with UWSA1 and 2. plz suggest me the order and the time when I should use them like how many weeks apart/before the exam which is exactly 8 weeks from now.

Take 12 or 13 early in prep. Save 16, 17, 18 until a bit later in preparation. Your baseline is solid and if you work hard to improve you will probably be in the 240+ range for sure by the end of prep. How much higher you are capable of reaching is strictly up to you and your own ability.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

Take 12 or 13 early in prep. Save 16, 17, 18 until a bit later in preparation. Your baseline is solid and if you work hard to improve you will probably be in the 240+ range for sure by the end of prep. How much higher you are capable of reaching is strictly up to you and your own ability.

thankyou for the inputs. my target is 250+ I'll definetly work hard to reach there. you are great people, this is a great supporting group.
when should i use UWSA 1 & 2 ?

 

[plasmodium]

thankyou for the inputs. my target is 250+ I'll definetly work hard to reach there. you are great people, this is a great supporting group.
when should i use UWSA 1 & 2 ?

Doesn't matter really. I did NBME 11, NBME 12, NBME 13, UWSA 1, NBME 15, UWSA 2, NBME 16, NBME 17, NBME 18. Exam Sunday.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

my order will be NBME 13 (done) , NBME 16 , UWSA1, NBME 17 , UWSA2 , NBME 18
willl do NBME 11 , 12 and 15 as offline. every saturday an NBME/ uwsa . as i will have 8 saturdays from now onwards. exam will be on thrusday and last nbme i.e 18 will be on saturday4 days before exam

 

[plasmodium]

my order will be NBME 13 (done) , NBME 16 , UWSA1, NBME 17 , UWSA2 , NBME 18
willl do NBME 11 , 12 and 15 as offline. every saturday an NBME/ uwsa . as i will have 8 saturdays from now onwards. exam will be on thrusday and last nbme i.e 18 will be on saturday4 days before exam

You are 100% wasting those NBMEs if you don't do them online.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

You are 100% wasting those NBMEs if you don't do them online.

I can't afford them. i have already wasted alot of money on useless resources

 

[Dr.serotonin]

plus they retired nbme 11

 

[plasmodium]

I can't afford them. i have already wasted alot of money on useless resources

The scales have been updated so you will not be able to accurately grade yourself, and it is just overall not the same taking an NBME offline as it is to take it online. I can't speak on behalf of your financial situation, I am just saying it would be a waste to do them offline. NBME 11 is still a solid test to use if you have time, although not essential anymore given the implementation of NBME 18.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

The scales have been updated so you will not be able to accurately grade yourself, and it is just overall not the same taking an NBME offline as it is to take it online. I can't speak on behalf of your financial situation, I am just saying it would be a waste to do them offline. NBME 11 is still a solid test to use if you have time, although not essential anymore given the implementation of NBME 18.

ok sir, I'll do them online. i.e 12 and 15 along with the rest of them

 

[Reperfused]

Hi Dr. Serotonin, do you mind me asking if you had already completed UWorld atleast once before taking NBME 13?

 

[plasmodium]

Hi Dr. Serotonin, do you mind me asking if you had already completed UWorld atleast once before taking NBME 13?

I took NBME 13 when I had completed 28% of UWorld.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

Hi Dr. Serotonin, do you mind me asking if you had already completed UWorld atleast once before taking NBME 13?

I took it on 14 Jan. and around 55 to 60 % of UW was completed by that time.

 

[Reperfused]

ok thanks for your reply both of you. Just wanted to have an estimate of when I should start taking online NBMEs. Halfway through UWorld would be a good point I guess then.

 

[Dr.serotonin]

ok thanks for your reply both of you. Just wanted to have an estimate of when I should start taking online NBMEs. Halfway through UWorld would be a good point I guess then.

exactly

 

[malin]

really try to learn from the nbmes you take, and don't just use them as performance assessment. i got 5 nbme questions on my step 1 [including 2 that i got wrong], so screenshot every question and look up the ones you get wrong on message boards [yes it takes time but these can and will pop up again]

make sure you've gone through uworld and really learned from it. know micro and pharm inside out [both are HY subjects for step 1; i used picmonic to know them really well. there's not much more that can be said about these two subjects. it's mostly memorization and you'll get lots of free points by knowing them well].

focus on your weak areas hard.

honestly the two most important things to doing well on step 1 [in my opinion] are 1) doing as many practice questions as you can and learning from them and 2) knowing first aid as well as you can (whether you use brosencephalon's anki deck, picmonic, or just re-reading it multiple times, etc)

my timed practice tests were 241 @ beginning of dedicated, 245 towards the end. my untimed practice tests started in the low 240s and inched towards the high 240s. never actually broke 250 on a real practice test and still got 250+ on the real thing. so don't be discouraged if you don't hit it on your practice tests; you can still do it!

 

[Reperfused]

Malin, thanks for sharing your experience.
The 5 questions you had out of NBMEs, were they from the older ones nbme 1-7 or the newer ones nbme 11-17?

 

[plasmodium]

Malin, thanks for sharing your experience.
The 5 questions you had out of NBMEs, were they from the older ones nbme 1-7 or the newer ones nbme 11-17?

It is not advised to spend much time memorizing old NBME questions, especially since the exam is changing. Spend your time, above anything else, mastering the content and you won't have to memorize old questions to get the new questions correct. If you truly understand the material, you will be able to manipulate the concepts as they are presented to you so you can use reason to derive the correct answer organically. Regardless of whether or not the old questions show up on the real deal, to study old NBMEs is not great use of your time outside of reviewing the exam when you complete it (this is an understandable time to review the questions). To screenshot every question and spend time researching their answers and reviewing them? Not worth it, at all.

Take everything (especially advice) you read on the internet with a grain of salt and try to read as many USMLE experience write-ups as you can. Sounds like @malin did quite well, and his method worked for him, but one person's thoughts on the matter is not enough to devise a concrete understanding of what needs to be done to score high. Everyone has their own unique path, and you have to find yours.

To reiterate: this is just my opinion, so you should take what I say with a grain of salt, as well.

260+ on every NBME. Taking the real exam Sunday.

 

[malin]

It is not advised to spend much time memorizing old NBME questions, especially since the exam is changing. Spend your time, above anything else, mastering the content and you won't have to memorize old questions to get the new questions correct. If you truly understand the material, you will be able to manipulate the concepts as they are presented to you so you can use reason to derive the correct answer organically. Regardless of whether or not the old questions show up on the real deal, to study old NBMEs is not great use of your time outside of reviewing the exam when you complete it (this is an understandable time to review the questions). To screenshot every question and spend time researching their answers and reviewing them? Not worth it, at all.

Take everything (especially advice) you read on the internet with a grain of salt and try to read as many USMLE experience write-ups as you can. Sounds like @malin did quite well, and his method worked for him, but one person's thoughts on the matter is not enough to devise a concrete understanding of what needs to be done to score high. Everyone has their own unique path, and you have to find yours.

To reiterate: this is just my opinion, so you should take what I say with a grain of salt, as well.

260+ on every NBME. Taking the real exam Sunday.

I both agree and disagree 🙂 .I also used the old NBMEs to identify what my weak areas were. Sometimes I'd get NBME questions wrong that I also got wrong in UWorld, and then I really made sure to read up those concepts. True, you must understand the concepts and content, but the NBME questions are there to show you what content you don't know. It's really easy to gloss over First Aid thinking you understand something, only to get a question wrong on the topic in a question bank.

In my case I wouldn't have broken 250 if I didn't review the NBME questions I got wrong (but I also scored in the lower end of the 250s where the margin of error was lower). I only googled the ones I got wrong and really made sure to try and understand why I got them wrong.

But yes, take this advice with a grain of salt. Looking back it was somewhat of a risky strategy but it also honed my test-taking skills. I distinctly remember how I would get so many questions wrong because I wouldn't read the last sentence of the question very carefully. After doing 2800 NBME questions I then had to force myself to do this on every Step 1 question (even if it seemed like an innocent question), and caught myself twice about to do a mistake because I was about to jump to an answer (e.g., thinking the question is asking for "what value is low," when they're really asking for "what value is high").

So yea, this strategy worked well for me, and it won't work for everyone, but it does undoubtedely hone your test-taking skills and will expose you to some questions that will pop up word-for-word on your Step 1 (to answer another users' question, that included NBMEs 1-7 and 11-17). Some of them also popped up word for word in the UWSA 1+2.