is it normal to feel like you guessed on half the test?

[pigglewiggle]

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so..i took step 1 and it all seemed like a big blur. my questions seemed really random and i felt like i was guessing on literally half of the test. just wondering if this was a common feeling or a bad sign? thanks!

 

[Blesbok]

Guessing as in completely guessing or narrowing it down to two answers and having a good feeling about one of them?

 

[moinmoin]

I'm with you. Took it today and marked a lot of questions on each section. Especially anatomy! Those questions rocked me and I always have done well in the SEVERAL anatomy classes I've taken! I usually narrowed it down to 2 but there were a couple of times I just threw out a letter (see anatomy again).

 

[pigglewiggle]

i could narrow a bunch of them down but every question seemed like a struggle and i wasn't sure if that was normal or if most people could answer them right off the bat. i had to flat out guess on a bunch too.....oh, and i know what you mean about the anatomy questions-they were way too many of them and they seemed totally out of left field!

 

[morkdaddy21]

well i dont know if its normal, but i certainly felt like this, and i know we're not alone. i felt after so much preparation that i was given an exam that picked out my weaknesses. lets just hope and pray that we dont have to do it all over again.

 

[DragonWell]

Congrats on finishing the test.

It seems like a lot of people feel this way; I know I definitely did, not only after the Step, but after almost all the tests I've taken in the last two years. Based on these experiences, intellectually I can tell myself that how I feel after the test has no relation to how I actually perform, but it's still not a warm, fuzzy feeling to go home with. Luckily, the elation at just being done takes over pretty quick. 😀

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I think this is completely normal. I certainly felt this way - I probably felt fairly confident (say, 90%) about half of the questions, and the other half I felt unsure about to some degree -- most I could narrow down to 2 choices, some I could only rule out one of the choices, and a few were total guesses. Congrats on having the test over! Don't worry, be happy. 😉

 

[osli]

Probably normal. I haven't taken it yet, but I feel that way about many test, and about pretty much all of UWorld. Even when I know something pretty well I often feel like I'm making an educated guess on a question. Often that's because they're asking for an application of knowledge, or asking it in a way a little differently from how I "learned" it. And I know that I have made careless mistakes on almost every test in the past, so I'm always aware that even if I think I really know this question I might be overlooking something, or making a silly swap in my mind. Like a question a few days ago about CREST, asking for the autoantibody, and even though I've looked at that a hundred times and know it's anticentromere I just glanced down at the choices and quickly clicked anti-SSA and moved on. So on real tests I'm not often 100% confident in any answer. It has to be something that I know beyond doubt, committed to long term memory that I'll never forget, and pretty simple so that I know I'm not overlooking a clue in the stem.

And my reasoning abilities are better than my rote memorization, so things like drugs and bugs perpetually have me thinking "well, I think it's this one, but I can't remember for sure." It usually is, and I usually get most of them right, but it leaves me feeling like I guessed on a lot of questions. And then there are the question that I know I knew at one point and can't remember at the moment. I'm sure that happens to everyone. Thankfully, somewhere in my deep brain my "gut" has me select the correct answer more often than not, but when I get home all I can remember is that it was a question on which "I forgot" which equates to "one I'm sure I missed".

 

[moinmoin]

The morning after my test has sucked for me. I woke up this morning and thought immediately of 2 questions I knew but for some reason marked something else. Kind of like you and CREST syndrome, but for me it was what kind of carcinoma cervical cancer is. D'oh.

 

[osli]

I think that kind of thing is easy to do under the pressure. And I'm sure almost everyone makes a mistake or two like that... unless they pull off the 270. 🙂

 

[IdiotJones]

Yea i had one like that. Last block, Classic Tuberous Sclerosis, even the buzzword. By that time my mind had turned into mush, and my reasoning went exactly like this, "It's looks exactly like Tuberous Sclerosis therefore so it must be a trick question" and quite confidently chose the wrong answer.

 

[ROBINHO]

I did the Test today and It was my worst Nightmare.
Half of the Test I was stuck between two ANswers.
God Help me Pass becos I don't want to do the muthafvcking exams ever again

 

[anonperson]

Took the test today and it definitely felt as though I had to guess on a fair amount. It was a tough tough test.