Discouraged!

[Bears]

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Hi all,

I have three weeks left until the big day. I took NBME Form 1 five week ago and got a dismal 198. I took Form 2 today and got a 228. My goal is 240-245ish. How in the world can I get my score up?!? Any tips on what to do? I mapped out the next few weeks. I plan to re-read BRS Pathology, BRS Physiology, CMMRS (just the charts), and of course go through First Aid several times (hopefully twice more). I also gave myself a day for Embryology/Anatomy, Biochemistry, Neuroanatomy, Cell Biology, and two days to read BRS Behavioral Science. I'm really scared at this point. Any advice?? 🙁

 

[ZAZA67401]

Goljan and USMLE world

 

[Medikit]

It's easy to get discouraged when you're goal seems so far away. It doesn't really sound completely out of your grasp though, to me three weeks is a lot of time. Now is not the time to get hung up on an exact score, your ultimate goal is do as well as you can. Here is what I would do:

Don't get obsessed with how many times you're rereading a particular source. Instead if you've already finished First Aid and your other resources then you should be using them as a review source- that is whenever you notice a deficit your can make it your task to refresh yourself on a particular subject during the morning. Now is the time to start nailing your neuro, biochem, behavioral, and embryo/anatomy. Try to go through them as best you can, then start doing questions+review.

There were countless times I became discouraged or frustrated or just plain stressed to the point of exhaustion. Whenever that happened I had to reassess, perhaps right down a rough plan and move on from there.

Good luck

 

[blz]

3 weeks to raise your score 10pts? very doable..

 

[drguy22]

3 weeks to raise your score 10pts? very doable..

hahahah..VERY VERY VERY doable!!

 

[canedoc]

USMLEworld, FA and Goljan path. That's all you need.

I just took my test yesterday, and I don't think I can overstate the importance of going back to FA. Of course, the book is not to be used as the only means of studying, but there are some very good pieces of knowledge that you need to keep in your mind by reading it at least a few times. I don't mean reread the entire book, but if you have a free half hour, just go through your weak areas in that book and say a few things out loud to yourself to hit the points home.

Goljan path is pretty decent as well...again, it's a big heck of a book, took me 4 days to read and take notes on, but it's worth it.

And, as I will continue to state, USMLEworld is amazing and should be used extensively. Focus on speed and not lamenting over getting 100's. Try to do 20 questions as fast as you can, but with confidence in your answers and you will be surprised as to how much test endurance you will build up. I was able to finish every block with at least 10-15 min to go, then able to go and recheck my answers. I even had one block that I finished with 30 min to go. I couldn't believe how much doing USMLEworld helped me build up the endurance and test mindset to know when to leave questions alone and when to be confident in your answers. It also showed me the power and importance of doing questions faster and having the time to go back and recheck your answers rather than plodding along and focusing on each question for correctness before continuing forward.

I had done qbank before that and found it to be less than helpful. USMLEworld is the way to go!

Good luck!

 

[Luc]

3 weeks to raise your score 10pts? very doable..

How?

And to Bears: How are you doing now?

 

[Rugby MD]

Goljan and USMLE world

ditto

 

[Bears]

hi everyone,

thanks for all of the advice. im finishing up nbme 3 now so ill let you know how it goes later today!

 

[Bears]

well this has definitely got to be a fluke... 257 on nbme 3. one week to go.

 

[Luc]

Well done! I'm sure it isn't a fluke! Would you be kind enough to pass on how you studied over the last two weeks to bring yourself up?

 

[Doggytime]

well this has definitely got to be a fluke... 257 on nbme 3. one week to go.

you improved ~30 pts in less than 3 weeks. !!! how did u do it?

 

[Bears]

Thanks for everyone's help. Basically I think it came down to consolidation for me. During M1/M2 years, everything just kind of came together in the few days leading up to an exam. Since school ended, I've been going through all of the primary/core review sources (BRS, High Yields, etc) with minimal use of First Aid. I've tried to learn all of the main information in those sources so that during the past 1-1.5 weeks when I went through First Aid (fair amount of annotation - mostly phys and pharm), things were relatively simple. So I basically started out trying to know everything from the primary review books (clearly not possible) and hopefully when you review with FA, you will already know the majority of the stuff while retaining some lower yield info. Make sense? Sorry if it doesn't.

Also, I think NBME 3 was easier than form 2 (especially the first two blocks) or maybe the test just catered to my strengths. Lastly, I didn't take the test under "standard" conditions - I did 3/4 blocks one night and finished the last block the next day (it was like 1:30 am and I was getting sleepy). My ultimate goal is 240 and I'll be truly happy with anything above that. I'm not expecting to get above 245 on the real deal (I think this test was a bit of a fluke).

Good Luck!

 

[dianamd]

Rex the wonder bear!

 

[chitown82]

yea lets hope we dont choke like rex did