Help with my situation; thanks!

[snorgtguy]

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hi! totally stresssed out. i have my test at the end of this wk; took nbme 2 (yes, ive heard its easier than the actualy thing) and scored a 225; I took nbme3 2 wks ago and scored a 195. I went into this whole studying thing wanting to score in the 240's and wish i took that practice test earlier to kick my ass into gear.

That said Im curious what people think about making a 15 point jump in 2 wks (push my test back a wk). I still have some bscience/stat and a bit of pharm to still learn and still half of UsmleWorld (~1000q's) left to do (did 1/3 of qbank). Getting kinda tired of studying all the time, but i guess thats how the ball roles.

So my main question is what will push one up to the 240's? Is it more than my review books will get me? Have I reached my limit? And what should I use now that ive done 2/3 (i hear 4 isnt that good) to measure my progress? Any suggestions? Thanks 🙁

edit: also, anyone know off the top what percentage the 3 digit scores corresponds too?

 

[Roy7]

I've heard of people making big jumps - some people on here got 230's and ended up w/250s - but, it's not terribly common. Seems like you've got plenty of work to do so that extra week should help a lot.

That being said - I personally felt my entire last week was useless. I'd gone through the material two or three times before and the last week I just read through first aid did some questions I got wrong and tried to polish up everything - but who knows.

 

[Jay Jay]

You still have 50% of UW. Finish that and review the marked/wrong ones. Scores bound to go up.

 

[snorgtguy]

thanks for the response roy; hopefully my history of being a last minute person will carry through. im just so diasppointed for not testing myself earlier; really wasted alot of time on this thing, but i guess i cant wallow in self-pity right now. Do you know which thread has the nbme --> actual test score. thanks!

 

[Law2Doc]

thanks for the response roy; hopefully my history of being a last minute person will carry through. im just so diasppointed for not testing myself earlier; really wasted alot of time on this thing, but i guess i cant wallow in self-pity right now. Do you know which thread has the nbme --> actual test score. thanks!

You are putting far too much stock in the actual numerical score results of those NBME tests and not enough in the "am I doing okay" barometer. The latter is all they are really good for. NBME puts a warning all over its site that these tests are not to be used as indicators of how you will score on the real thing. Most score converter sites will tell you that the error bar on these NBME scores are plus or minus something like 13, pretty close to the 15 point jump you are hoping for (and, as a prior poster indicated, for many it is even bigger than that). So, while they are helpful to let you know a basic ballpark (passing, failing, doing much better than passing), it's a mistake to think they tell you much more specifics than that. As many people on here will tell you they scored very differently on those tests than the real thing as not.