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- Jun 7, 2015
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Hey guys,
So I’m not sure if this was a smart move or not, but I took NBME 12 this afternoon with my test scheduled within a week, and as Murphy’s Law would have it, I scored 20+ points lower on it than my other NBMEs. On my three other NBMEs, I scored in the 210s, and on this one I got a barely passing mid-190s score----so I’m having a little bit of a freak out about whether or not to delay my test (for my career purposes, a score in the 210s or 220s is fine).
I’ve worked completely through UWorld, and my last 5-10 random timed blocks I was scoring around 65%. Like I said, my other three NBME exams were in the 210s- also, my most recent score prior to today’s debacle was a 213 on NBME 17.
Going through my test afterward, there seemed like there were a ton (probably 10-15) questions where I knew the answer, I just didn’t fully read the question stem or the answer options and gave a knee-jerk answer that ended up being wrong. For example, I think one question was talking about a lady who came in with colicky abdominal pain and I just went ahead and put whatever answer mentioned the gallbladder---and imagine how my stomach sank when I looked at it after the test and saw the phrase “left lower quadrant” in the stem and realized that the answer was diverticulitis on the spot. And there were at least ten other questions where I made similar careless mistakes that I don't make 95% of the time.
I'm a US MD student and don’t want to go into any super-competitive specialties at super-competitive institutions so a score in the 210s or 220s is perfectly OK....I just want to pass and get on with life. At this point (regarding Step 1), I feel like I have three options- delay my test based on today’s NBME score, take another NBME tomorrow or Tuesday and base my decision on that, or go ahead and take my test on Thursday. Right now, I am leaning toward going ahead and taking the exam, based on the fact that my other 3 NBMEs were in the range I wanted (and not anywhere close to failing) and that I was posting decent-ish scores on my last UWorld blocks (on random, timed, unused)....am I crazy for taking the position of just taking my exam?
Thanks!
So I’m not sure if this was a smart move or not, but I took NBME 12 this afternoon with my test scheduled within a week, and as Murphy’s Law would have it, I scored 20+ points lower on it than my other NBMEs. On my three other NBMEs, I scored in the 210s, and on this one I got a barely passing mid-190s score----so I’m having a little bit of a freak out about whether or not to delay my test (for my career purposes, a score in the 210s or 220s is fine).
I’ve worked completely through UWorld, and my last 5-10 random timed blocks I was scoring around 65%. Like I said, my other three NBME exams were in the 210s- also, my most recent score prior to today’s debacle was a 213 on NBME 17.
Going through my test afterward, there seemed like there were a ton (probably 10-15) questions where I knew the answer, I just didn’t fully read the question stem or the answer options and gave a knee-jerk answer that ended up being wrong. For example, I think one question was talking about a lady who came in with colicky abdominal pain and I just went ahead and put whatever answer mentioned the gallbladder---and imagine how my stomach sank when I looked at it after the test and saw the phrase “left lower quadrant” in the stem and realized that the answer was diverticulitis on the spot. And there were at least ten other questions where I made similar careless mistakes that I don't make 95% of the time.
I'm a US MD student and don’t want to go into any super-competitive specialties at super-competitive institutions so a score in the 210s or 220s is perfectly OK....I just want to pass and get on with life. At this point (regarding Step 1), I feel like I have three options- delay my test based on today’s NBME score, take another NBME tomorrow or Tuesday and base my decision on that, or go ahead and take my test on Thursday. Right now, I am leaning toward going ahead and taking the exam, based on the fact that my other 3 NBMEs were in the range I wanted (and not anywhere close to failing) and that I was posting decent-ish scores on my last UWorld blocks (on random, timed, unused)....am I crazy for taking the position of just taking my exam?
Thanks!
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