Freaking out, advice please

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staphaureus

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I have exactly 1 week left, I have gone through FA once and BRS path once. I've done about 30% of UW and averaging ~60%.

Planning on going though FA again and finnish up UW. What do you guys think? at this point, is 60% on UW correlates to a reasonably passing score (say average) on the real test? hoping for advice from those who already took the test. thanks
 
It's hard to turn a UW score into an actual score. It's best to take an NBME exam and use that as a gauge.

For my final week of prep, I went through FA twice (probably overkill...once is plenty), tapered down my UW from 150 a day to 50 by the last day, and referred back to any of my smaller reference books if I felt the need from viewing the material in FA (I stopped this during my 2nd run through of FA due to time constraints)

Good luck
 
It's hard to turn a UW score into an actual score. It's best to take an NBME exam and use that as a gauge.

For my final week of prep, I went through FA twice (probably overkill...once is plenty), tapered down my UW from 150 a day to 50 by the last day, and referred back to any of my smaller reference books if I felt the need from viewing the material in FA (I stopped this during my 2nd run through of FA due to time constraints)

Good luck

Thanks for the reply. I just want to know if that UW score is reasonable compared to most other SDNers out there.
 
Focus on doing USMLEworld and FA...if you've gone through other things then don't worry about the rest.

Your usmleworld score is just fine. Of course, it also depends on how you're getting your scores. (granted, this is all opinion and experience, not fact) If you are able to fly through the tests and are going back to check your answers, I think that's a lot better than cutting it very close with time etc. Also, are you doing at least 20 questions randomly in a batch rather than 10 in a specific area? I would advice against doing more than 2 blocks of 50 in a day.

I found it most helpful to go with 20-25 questions in a set. Then go back and read almost all of the questions and answer choices in the explanations. I had about 60% of USMLEworld to do 4 days before my exam and got it down to 15%. I found this to be the most helpful way to get the test stamina for test day. It's somewhat draining, but it helps to shape the WAY you think rather than simply reading text and trying to memorize facts. It's true that facts are very important for the exam, but when you get to a question where you have to think things through and might not be able to just regurgitate an answer, being able to rely on some logic is helpful.

When you go to do sets of questions, see how your gut instinct works for you in getting questions right or wrong. Are you the kind of tester who can get it down to 2 answers and then is able to pick the right one, or do you get it down to 2, lose some confidence and switch? Or, are you still finding yourself lost on some questions...the 'world will help, trust me!

Doing a little FA every day is also extremely helpful of course. I don't recommend trying to plod through it cover to cover though...by this point you will know the behavioral science, so skip that part unless you need to review calculations...even then I would do world questions on stats instead since their explanations are excellent. You could also try and just go through the columns in FA to get the highest yield facts in a quick sitting. I recommend changing it up between FA and 'world q's...do 2 sets of 20, read a part of FA about what you might have missed, then go back to it.

I took an nbme with 1 week to go to see where I was at...I found it motivating, but you have to be careful of not letting it get you down if it's not in your target range at that point...that's where usmleworld can help...getting a good % on a section can give you a little morale boost.

Good luck!
 
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