How many NBMEs to prep for Step 1

[emalie]

I am taking Step 1 at the end of this month. I am wondering how many NBME practice tests people recommend? People have given me different advice: take one every week to simulate an actual test or take a handful (~3) and spend that extra time honing in on the material. Also which NBMEs do you recommend to correlate with the actual Step score?
So far I have done NBME 16 and UWorld 1.

I appreciate any advice people have!

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[funtertaining15]

I am taking Step 1 at the end of this month. I am wondering how many NBME practice tests people recommend? People have given me different advice: take one every week to simulate an actual test or take a handful (~3) and spend that extra time honing in on the material. Also which NBMEs do you recommend to correlate with the actual Step score?
So far I have done NBME 16 and UWorld 1.

I appreciate any advice people have!

Depends on how much time you have and how prepared you are... I think I took ~5... Lots of people I think took on avg 4. The more recent the better, but I'd do it in order, ie most recent one last before your exam...If you take 2 in a row and see no difference in your scores near your goal, take 1-2 w to study and focus on your week spots. I ended up pushing mine back a few weeks to take a break and clear my stress before taking another practice test. Everyone is different. I'd do the nbme ones, though, first.

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[Batracho]

I took all of them and IMO the oldest 3 (maybe even 4) are nothing like the real exam. That doesn't mean doing them is totally useless, but for me it was close to that.

 

[MedSchoolGurus]

Do as many as you have time for. The most significant modifiable determinant of your USMLE score is the number of practice questions completed (see NCBI link below). Others may disagree and call some NBMEs high yield. I disagree with this and recommend doing as many as possible, so long as you're not doing a test every 3 days or something too aggressive like that. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Student-directed retrieval practice is a predictor of medical licensing examination performance