USMLE Help! Might be at risk of failing :(

[zeppelinpage4]

Hi everyone! I could use some serious advice.

My test was initially schedule for June 4th, but I'm pushing back.

So from January to May, during the year I did Uworld on and off with classes and read First Aid and watched Pathoma. I got through about 1000 Uworld questions during MS2, half the Pathoma videos, and read most of First Aid.

My study period began May 1st, but due to some personal issues, the first two weeks were not well spent. I didn't have a schedule and was honestly depressed and unable to focus.
So Week 1-2:
Took Uworld SimExam1 first and foremost and got a 172 as a diagnostic.

I finished up all the Immunology Uworld I had left
I finished up all the Micro Uworld i had left
I read the Immunology section of FA
I real the micro section of FA

I honestly don't feel I learned micro well, cause I can't remember most of what I studied from those first two weeks.
I took NBME 17 and got a 145 (I was weak on almost every subject, including micro and immuno despite having covered it)

Week 3-4: I got more serious and started to get my energy back. I made a schedule too.
I finished up all the biochem Uworld I had left (I didn't read biochem in FA yet however)
I finished up all the behavioral/social science Uworld
I read the behavioral section of First Aid
I spend my fourth week doing Pathoma and reading First Aid for cardio, pulm and renal. I did some Uworld for cardio and pulm, but didn't have time to do renal Uworld.

So I took NBME 15 and got a 162 (I was above average on cardiology, so my studying for that helped. And I improved on behavioral science. But I was low on everything else, or my performance was too sporadic to gauge anything from)



Now I'm truly scared of failing my test. I re-schedule for June 18th, so that gives me 3 more weeks exactly. But I am scared I can't get to a passing score by then. I know I'm studying wrong, because I should have improved more after a month of studying.

1) Is there any hope of me being able to get my score up to a 200 or so by June 18th? I just want to know I can safely pass. I just want to pass.

2) I have ~700 Uworld questions left on my first pass still. Should I finish those up? Or focus on Pathoma and First Aid? I still have half of Pathoma left.
Also, the first ~1000 questions of Uworld, I did during MS2...so it was a long time ago. I don't remember them. Should I re-review those if I'm so short on time?

3) My NBME exams only tell me what i got wrong, but not what the right answer was. Is it a waste of time to review my NBME exams? And how would I review them? I paid for the expanded feedback.

4) Any suggestions or advice or anything, please I'll listen. I'm so down and desperate right now with my performance. I was always below average MS1 and MS2, so I never expected to do that well. But I thought I'd at least be passing.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just so scared and broken down right now. I know I was't at my best before. But I'm willing to put all my effort in to pass this exam. I just need to know what I can do these next 3 weeks to help me pass, and what I should be focusing on.

Thanks everyone.

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[stevesteve123]

sounds shaky man, from what you describe u barely not even got one pass thru pathoma, uworld, FA

pretty much a coin flip on P/F at this point imo

if you are ok with "just passing" i make assumption you are ok with retaking it? so why not just go hard until june 18 and hope for the best

if you do plan to take it june 18 i'd skip uworld and read FA hopefully twice and go thru pathoma once. all content review no more practice tests

 

[zeppelinpage4]

sounds shaky man, from what you describe u barely not even got one pass thru pathoma, uworld, FA

pretty much a coin flip on P/F at this point imo

if you are ok with "just passing" i make assumption you are ok with retaking it? so why not just go hard until june 18 and hope for the best

if you do plan to take it june 18 i'd skip uworld and read FA hopefully twice and go thru pathoma once. all content review no more practice tests

Thanks for the advice.
Yeah, that's sensible. Though I would prefer not to get pulled out of 3rd year to have to retake. Good points though. I'll skip Uworld for now and focus hard on Pathoma and First Aid as much as I can for two weeks, and take it from there.
I did almost an entire pass of First Aid throughout MS2, so hopefully everything I'm doing now is a second pass of FA (except for biochem which I need to still read). We'll see if things stick.

And I can push my date back a little more. If you think it will help. My classes start June 29th. And I need to settle in to the hospital I'm moving to a few days before.

So I could probably push it back to the 25th or 26th. Could that make a difference? I just want to reach a point where I can feel safe about passing. I'm willing to push it back to the latest date possible and work my ass off till then if I know I can pass the test doing so.

 

[DoctorGSS]

Do not skip uworld at all, in 3 weeks time you can finish the other 1200 uworld qs you have left and also go through incorrects. My advice is split your three weeks into 50% UW, 25%FA, 25% pathoma.

 

[TorsoLigament]

i took the exam today.

FA + UW.

You can pass.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Do not skip uworld at all, in 3 weeks time you can finish the other 1200 uworld qs you have left and also go through incorrects. My advice is split your three weeks into 50% UW, 25%FA, 25% pathoma.

i took the exam today.

FA + UW.

You can pass.

Thanks so much DoctorGSS, and TorsoLigament. This gives me some hope. I really need that right now to stay motivated.

So from both of your posts it looks like, I should keep Uworld in my study regimen. And I can realistically get through that in the next 3 weeks if I speed up my pace. Fortunately, I have just over 700 questions left unused right now. After that I'll have finished it. Is it an issue at all that the first 1000 questions i did during the year were a while ago? I haven't seen some of those in months.

And the 50,25,25 breakdown looks like a good idea. I've be going really slow on Uworld, which is probably why I haven't finished it yet. But I'll speed it up now that time is running short.

I'm also willing to push my date back to the 26th if needed. But, I'd like to be able to stick to the 18th if at all possible.

 

[Mediquita]

I think it would be a good idea to do more NBME exams to help u find out where exactly are u at.... Best of luck

 

[byaaaaaaah23]

Just try to hang in there and keep grinding out FA chapters and UWorld blocks. How many more days until you finish FA? I would wait to take another NBME until you've finished FA because there's going to be stuff you'll miss just because you haven't covered it yet. Try to make a good pass thorugh all of FA as soon as you can because it sounds like your cardio scores went up after you did that so I think it'll help for the rest too.

How many blocks of UWorld are you doing every day? You might need to scale it back if its eating up most of your day. UWorld is good for applying concepts but you have to have reviewed the concepts first before you can consistently get the questions right. If you only have 700 questions left, then I would just do 1 block per day for the next 2 weeks and spend the rest of your time on FA and Pathoma.

I definitely think you can pass if you put the work in, but you need to make sure you can get through FA twice (plus Pathoma at least once if possible) and finish up Uworld before your test date along with an NBME score that you're comfortable with. If you haven't already, print out a calendar for the month of June and divy up the rest of the FA chapters you have + Uworld blocks between the days and make sure you have enough time left to finish all that. Save time for going over UWorld incorrects if you want to do that too. In your case, since you did a lot of the questions a few months ago, it may be beneficial to go back over them, but you might need to push back your date again if you want to do this.

Good luck and hang in there!

 

[zeppelinpage4]

I think it would be a good idea to do more NBME exams to help u find out where exactly are u at.... Best of luck

Thanks Mediquita! I will try to fit another NBME this next week. I definitely hope to do more than I was before, so I can keep a close track on my progress. Hopefully it will help.

Just try to hang in there and keep grinding out FA chapters and UWorld blocks. How many more days until you finish FA? I would wait to take another NBME until you've finished FA because there's going to be stuff you'll miss just because you haven't covered it yet. Try to make a good pass thorugh all of FA as soon as you can because it sounds like your cardio scores went up after you did that so I think it'll help for the rest too.

How many blocks of UWorld are you doing every day? You might need to scale it back if its eating up most of your day. UWorld is good for applying concepts but you have to have reviewed the concepts first before you can consistently get the questions right. If you only have 700 questions left, then I would just do 1 block per day for the next 2 weeks and spend the rest of your time on FA and Pathoma.

I definitely think you can pass if you put the work in, but you need to make sure you can get through FA twice (plus Pathoma at least once if possible) and finish up Uworld before your test date along with an NBME score that you're comfortable with. If you haven't already, print out a calendar for the month of June and divy up the rest of the FA chapters you have + Uworld blocks between the days and make sure you have enough time left to finish all that. Save time for going over UWorld incorrects if you want to do that too. In your case, since you did a lot of the questions a few months ago, it may be beneficial to go back over them, but you might need to push back your date again if you want to do this.

Good luck and hang in there!

I appreciate the advice lost in transcrip. I'll keep at Uworld, FA and Pathoma.
And I'm hoping to finish covering all of FA and Pathoma within the next 9-11 days or so. So 12th or 13th. If I speed up my pace, maybe a little sooner, but I'm afraid to go too fast just in case things don't stick.
And yeah, 1 block a day is quite reasonable. I'll try my best to fit that in.
I'm also leaving a few buffer days after finishing First Aid, where I can hopefully finish up remaining Uworld and review weaker subjects like micro and biochem (I still need to read the biochem section).

And thank you, it's something I needed to hear. I was feeling sick at the thought of failing this test the last two days. So hearing passing is possible is a big motivator.
And I just spoke with our dean and got permission to take my test on the 25th. So hopefully that will give me an extra week for a second pass on FA or Uworld incorrects.

Thanks again!

Hope I can pull this off! Gonna give it everything I have for the next 22 days.

 

[byaaaaaaah23]

Glad to hear it. I think focusing on FA will really be your best bet at this point. When you do take an NBME, treat it like a real test, go to the library or something and try to simulate testing conditions. Then use that to adjust your schedule as necessary.

I know it sucks to stare at 3 more weeks of this but focus on one day at a time and do your best each day, and it'll go faster than you think. You'll be glad you put in the work. Good luck!

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Hey guys, so an update.
I just finished Pathoma and all of the organ systems in First Aid.

I took NBME 11 and got a 190. I realize it's not passing, but I'm just really thankful to see I improved from where I was and could get close to passing. But there's still a ways to go. Hopefully I can get to a safely passing mark by the 25th.

I have exactly 2 more weeks and wanted to ask how it might be best to approach them, now that I've covered the organ systems in FA and Pathoma.

Unfortunately I didn't get time to hit the remaining Uworld I have.
So I still have 640 unused Uworld questions.
I also need to learn pharm, and biochem.
And I'd like to go over microbio again.

1) Any tips on how I can study pharm in these next two weeks?
-I did most of the pharm Uworld throughout the school year with classes. Should I go through these again?
-I ordered the Lange flashcards, but I don't know how I should use them. Do you go through them by subject, random? How many cards a day?

2) The majority of my unused Uworld questions are cardio, heme/onc, neuro, and musculoskeletal. Would it be better to try and finish these remaining questions. OR to go back and re-review questions on subjects I am weaker on?
I'm not sure if I'll have time to both finish the 640 remaining questions, AND review the topics I'm weaker on.

3) So this was my subject breakdown. I'm definitely weak on a lot of things. But since I can't review everything. Where might be the best place to focus my efforts? Definitely I think I'll benefit from learning pharm and micro like I plan. Anything else I should focus on subject wise? I'm probably going to go over repro again.
http://imgur.com/9LpOzaU


4) So, ideally I'd like to finish my Uworld, learn pharm, review micro, and learn biochem. And review organ systems I'm weaker on.
Is it realistic do all this in two weeks? Or should I prioritize some things over others?


Thanks again to all those who took the time to post here and messaged me. All the advice and encouragement and support I've gotten has been so helpful. And I am truly grateful for that. It definitely helped me get my score up.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Going to take another NBME this weekend. I already did NBME 17, 15, and 11.
This might be my last one to see where I am at. Any suggestions on which one I should do?

 

[Mediquita]

Omg I cannot believe... I took my first NBME exam 13 with expanded feedback... I was expecting at least a list with my wrong answers or something.... Anyways my score 700 out of 800 or 271...
I don't think I'm ready to take the exam as of now only reason I took NBME is because my medical school requires nbme score to release my papers to apply for the step 1... I'm planning to keep reading FA book and one more round at uworld...
God bless u all...