Getting worse before taking step 1?

[MrBurns10]

I hate that I have to post this, but here goes. I'm scheduled to take step 1 in 2 weeks. Last week, I took NBME 6 and got a decent score...about where I wanted to be 3 weeks before the test. Well today I took NBME 4 and did considerably worse...12 points worse to be exact. The score equated to only 8 points better than my UW assessment 4 weeks ago.

So I'm not sure what to do. I've been mainly just doing UW questions for the last week, but I think I may cut back on the questions some and review from books more. Good or bad idea? And if you were me, would you push the test back another week or just see how the next week goes and then decide?

Ugh. Thanks for any advice.

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[gluon999]

I hate that I have to post this, but here goes. I'm scheduled to take step 1 in 2 weeks. Last week, I took NBME 6 and got a decent score...about where I wanted to be 3 weeks before the test. Well today I took NBME 4 and did considerably worse...12 points worse to be exact. The score equated to only 8 points better than my UW assessment 4 weeks ago.

So I'm not sure what to do. I've been mainly just doing UW questions for the last week, but I think I may cut back on the questions some and review from books more. Good or bad idea? And if you were me, would you push the test back another week or just see how the next week goes and then decide?

Ugh. Thanks for any advice.

The drop in score probably wasn't because you knew any less than you did a few weeks ago. It was probably a bad day rather than you forgetting things. My advice is finish all of UW - it is GOLD. And work on your test taking skills and stamina.

 

[lankysudanese]

I hate that I have to post this, but here goes. I'm scheduled to take step 1 in 2 weeks. Last week, I took NBME 6 and got a decent score...about where I wanted to be 3 weeks before the test. Well today I took NBME 4 and did considerably worse...12 points worse to be exact. The score equated to only 8 points better than my UW assessment 4 weeks ago.

So I'm not sure what to do. I've been mainly just doing UW questions for the last week, but I think I may cut back on the questions some and review from books more. Good or bad idea? And if you were me, would you push the test back another week or just see how the next week goes and then decide?

Ugh. Thanks for any advice.

I had the same kind of drop in score (258 -> 247 -> 247) but kept to my original plan and eventually went up to ~263 on my final NBME (3 days before test) and ended up out-scoring all my NBMEs (265). so don't lose hope and keep doing what you've originally planned to do, and keep in mind that question banks (especially NBMEs and USMLEWorld) are great practice and good resources to learn from.

i wouldn't advise pushing the test back unless your scores continue to decrease up until the last week. keep in mind that plenty of people (at least judging from SDN posts) end up outscoring their NBMEs. however, if every time you take an NBME test your score goes down an additional 10 points or so, then you might want to push back your test. Nothing that a good review and some rest couldn't take care of (i'm sure).

Best of Luck

 

[MrBurns10]

Thank you both for your advice (and LS...great job!). I'm going to take another test or two a week from now and see how I do on those before deciding whether or not to push my test date back. Today was just a bit demoralizing.

Thanks again

 

[GMDMD]

You're good man. If anything you're reaching the point where studying more might either burn/stress you out or have diminishing returns. LIke someone else noted, you probably just had a bad streak of topics/questions. You'll get a wider distribution on the real thing which I would guess probably decreases the variability in your score. You're oinly going to gain more knowledge in the next week or two, it's probably sufficient.

Just think positive and try to psych yourself up to kick ass on the test day. Good luck. Ditto the finish UW comments (I left about 300 undone and I regret it.. so much good knowledge in there).

 

[MrBurns10]

You're good man. If anything you're reaching the point where studying more might either burn/stress you out or have diminishing returns. LIke someone else noted, you probably just had a bad streak of topics/questions. You'll get a wider distribution on the real thing which I would guess probably decreases the variability in your score. You're oinly going to gain more knowledge in the next week or two, it's probably sufficient.

Just think positive and try to psych yourself up to kick ass on the test day. Good luck. Ditto the finish UW comments (I left about 300 undone and I regret it.. so much good knowledge in there).

Thanks a lot . I had a handful of people tell me I was burnt out, and while I couldn't take the weekend off, I did take it easier the last couple days. I've found it's really hard to be confident about this test, though...there have been times while studying where I don't think I've ever felt so inadequate in my life. Hopefully something will click in regards to confidence before test day.

Thanks again, I really appreciate the well wishes and advice.

 

[UditNarayan]

the week before my exam I had saved like 100 UW questions and was doing 50 of them...I had been scoring like upper 80%'s on most sections and suddenly got low 60%'s on a block. That definitely shot my confidence and I didn't want to touch another block of questions... I cleared my mind and tried to tell myself that all the questions I do up until the real deal is just PRACTICE and when test day came, I was ready to get at it. The real deal turned out very well... Even if the NBME's, or UW assessments, or question banks show you a correlated score you don't think is optimal, keep chugging along, learn from your mistakes, and you'll do well. gluck!