Last 7 days FA:UW ratio...Please guide me

[okt3]

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Last 7 days, Should I go crazy on F.A. with review of only Pathology questions from Uworld? This will be my third pass on F.A.
50% on Uworld with 300 remaining ques remaining

I had taken UWSA2 few weeks back and scored a 194. I am dead scared to take UWSA1 since it may make or break my confidence. Should I do Free 150 instead? Or skip doing an assessment altogether and just memorize the hell out of F.A. for the last week or concentrate mainly on reviewing Uworld and little F.A!!

Another reason, I dont want to take an assessment is to waste 4 hours doing it when I could be memorizing some drugs or micro!!

Please Please guide me!

PS - I am not looking to score 240s-250s..I know my capability and will be content with 210-219 as I am only looking in to getting into Psyc or FP.

 

[PokerDoc]

pretty much same boat as you, im waking up at 630 and doing UW until lunch, then I do FA till bed... thats about it.


but if you want to get a 210, you should at least get a little closer to that on your practice exams.. I might consider taking another one to be sure ur not at risk for not passing. What is your UW %?

 

[okt3]

Hey Pokerdoc. that sounds good but are you planning on taking any assessment in the last week? THe one and only assessment i took was about 2 weeks back when I was at a 194.. That was a confidence shatterer score. Planning to just concentrate on Last 300 ques. left + F.A. + review of Just 600Path questions in Uworld!!


Edit - Sorry, I read your edition later...So should I take UWSA1? or Free 150 is better? So far i am 50% on the dot in Uworld although last few tests have been 58-60-60-54-50. I dont know why my percentile is 39th!!

 

[PokerDoc]

hmm well you've shown improvement lately, but the free 150 is crap.. I would maybe order NBME7 and see how you do on that and then make the call.. its only 4 blocks its not going to take up your whole day. you should be absolutely certain youre not at risk for failing.

 

[okt3]

hmm well you've shown improvement lately, but the free 150 is crap.. I would maybe order NBME7 and see how you do on that and then make the call.. its only 4 blocks its not going to take up your whole day. you should be absolutely certain youre not at risk for failing.

Is NBME 7 tougher than UWSA1? or vice versa? Last time when i took it and got a bad score, i couldn't study for almost 2 days out of depression and thats the only dilemma i am facing now!

 

[otacon88]

Is NBME 7 tougher than UWSA1? or vice versa? Last time when i took it and got a bad score, i couldn't study for almost 2 days out of depression and thats the only dilemma i am facing now!

I don't know about UWSA1, but i thought NBME 7 was way harder than USMLEW. however, everyone else here says NBME is way easier than world. and if you really need a confidence boost take the free 150, it's super easy.

 

[drizzt3117]

I'd definitely take NBME7, you need to have some idea of where you stand... if you're still scoring 200s then you might want to push your date back a bit if you can.

 

[DocDanny]

He just said he wants Psych or Family Med.

200 is fine.

 

[PokerDoc]

it is, but I like to see one practice test break 200 before I can confidently tell someone theyre going to pass.. otherwise I'd feel horrible if I indirectly influenced someone to take the test when theyre not really ready.

 

[okt3]

Thank u all for your input. Will take UWSA1 after 4 days and see where i stand, will report back after 4 days. Thanks pokerdoc for watching out. I appreciate it.

 

[drizzt3117]

He just said he wants Psych or Family Med.

200 is fine.

The assessments are generally +/- 16. A 200 could be a 184, and obviously you need 188 to pass. I wouldn't be confident taking the test without at least having one assessment in the mid 200s.

 

[BenCarson]

agreed. You don't want to feel sorry later so better take the right decision now friend. my suggestion always is to count on 20 points drop, just in case. gl. 208+ almost 100% sure you'll pass.

The assessments are generally +/- 16. A 200 could be a 184, and obviously you need 188 to pass. I wouldn't be confident taking the test without at least having one assessment in the mid 200s.

 

[DocDanny]

agreed. You don't want to feel sorry later so better take the right decision now friend. my suggestion always is to count on 20 points drop, just in case. gl. 208+ almost 100% sure you'll pass.

I have to say, I have never heard anyone say the NBMEs were that inaccurate. Only a few points here or there. Not 16 or 20. Where does that come from? Is it from people who get 200 who go down to 180, or people who score 260s and go down to 240?

It seems to me to be a highly unlikely possibility that someone could drop 20 points with continued study. This is by far the worst case scenario and seems like something that has only happened a handful of times EVER.

Then again, our school seems to have not told us as much about the NBME as your schools told you.

I agree with the advice someone else gave that said he needs to take another NBME.

 

[DocDanny]

I REALLY hope you are wrong. Many of my friends and classmates I talked to scored 183-200 on their NBME that most took labout a week before their exam. And for the most part they are all still taking it. I shudder to think what could happen if you are right.

 

[drizzt3117]

Kaplan says right on their diagnostic that it's +/- 16.

IMO if 20 of the questions per set on the nbmes aren't instant no brainers I would postpone. Those are the Qs you need to get right to pass step 1. The real test is significantly harder than nbme 7. I haven't talked to a single person that's claimed it's easier. I'm not trying to be harsh, but having to retake step 1 would be brutal.

 

[drizzt3117]

I REALLY hope you are wrong. Many of my friends and classmates I talked to scored 183-200 on their NBME that most took labout a week before their exam. And for the most part they are all still taking it. I shudder to think what could happen if you are right.

Why would you spend $500 to take step 1 if you aren't passing a self-assessment?

 

[DocDanny]

But it has to be a bell curve. How many people actually go down that much? I've never heard of anyone doing that. Is it like, 2 SD?

As far as the scores, I just know that there are about a dozen people who's scores I know, and only two were over 200. Someone said my score was the highest they'd heard of. That was my old 209. Also, the school kind of got really mad at a few other people for cancelling the test and taking a year off.

Our class is really small, so 12 people with known scores that low is really scary to me. And it makes me worry.

 

[drizzt3117]

But it has to be a bell curve. How many people actually go down that much? I've never heard of anyone doing that. Is it like, 2 SD?

As far as the scores, I just know that there are about a dozen people who's scores I know, and only two were over 200. Someone said my score was the highest they'd heard of. That was my old 209. Also, the school kind of got really mad at a few other people for cancelling the test and taking a year off.

Our class is really small, so 12 people with known scores that low is really scary to me. And it makes me worry.

1 stdev is 21 pts. That's crazy. Our school doesn't recommend people taking the test with nbmes < 220. I guess they want their 100% pass rate in the past 10 years alive.

 

[DocDanny]

1 stdev is 21 pts. That's crazy. Our school doesn't recommend people taking the test with nbmes < 220. I guess they want their 100% pass rate in the past 10 years alive.

Under 220???

So your school suggests all students who are under or near the national AVERAGE not to take the test? They actually think that someone who gets a 216 on the NBME shouldn't bother?

How much time do they give you to study? 8 weeks?

 

[drizzt3117]

Under 220???

So your school suggests all students who are under or near the national AVERAGE not to take the test? They actually think that someone who gets a 216 on the NBME shouldn't bother?

How much time do they give you to study? 8 weeks?

That's the average for all test takers, not us md students. Our school's step average is > 230. We have 6 weeks but most ppl take 4-5.

 

[PokerDoc]

I am amending my comments in the beginning of my thread.. I am just not finding reading FA very useful.. im going to spend most of the week just redoing wrong questions in UW.. i am so f'n burned out... i cant read anymore.. screw goljan, screw FA, im just doing questions

 

[drizzt3117]

I am amending my comments in the beginning of my thread.. I am just not finding reading FA very useful.. im going to spend most of the week just redoing wrong questions in UW.. i am so f'n burned out... i cant read anymore.. screw goljan, screw FA, im just doing questions

Seems like a good plan, q bank.

 

[NoWayOut]

Seems like a good plan, q bank.

I cannot help myself but stick to UW more than anything. I know I have to read FA completely, but I can't help but wonder now .. how well would you (previous test takers) think one could perform on the actual exam if they had gone through all of UW and carefully read all the explanations including the wrong answer choices (i.e. thoroughly gone through each q)? 😕

Everyone says it's important and I can see why from the difficulty of the questions. But I guess what I am really asking is how beneficial will mastering (as much as possible) UW be for the real deal? (%-wise) ?

I just completed the darn thing yesterday and my cumulative average is 67%. For days I have been trying to bump it up..but it was stuck b/n 66-67.

 

[drizzt3117]

mastering UW was the highest yield thing I did in all of board studying.

I cannot help myself but stick to UW more than anything. I know I have to read FA completely, but I can't help but wonder now .. how well would you (previous test takers) think one could perform on the actual exam if they had gone through all of UW and carefully read all the explanations including the wrong answer choices (i.e. thoroughly gone through each q)? 😕

Everyone says it's important and I can see why from the difficulty of the questions. But I guess what I am really asking is how beneficial will mastering (as much as possible) UW be for the real deal? (%-wise) ?

I just completed the darn thing yesterday and my cumulative average is 67%. For days I have been trying to bump it up..but it was stuck b/n 66-67.

 

[NoWayOut]

mastering UW was the highest yield thing I did in all of board studying.

Good to know, but did you feel it helped with with 50%, 60%...how much percent-wise of the questions? (approximately..I know every exam can be different).

 

[harv1212]

for me personally i felt that usmle world helped with 50-60% of the exam. There were huge gaps that usmle world left out (a bunch of phsyio, social stuff, etc). I thought I covered my bases pretty well, but during the test I realized I had some gaping holes. I used outside resources as well other than FA and world.

 

[drizzt3117]

50-60% seems about right!

 

[doc29]

right now, im doing uw/fa/goljan path. u guys think thats enough? UW avg- 63%

 

[drizzt3117]

right now, im doing uw/fa/goljan path. u guys think thats enough? UW avg- 63%

Sounds good. I would focus on finishing those, use assessments to assess your weak points and if you need to use outside sources to address them, go about it at that point.

 

[NoWayOut]

Thanks guys. I really had the impression that UW would cover more than that..but I guess it is better that I know now then later. Thanks again.

 

[drizzt3117]

Thanks guys. I really had the impression that UW would cover more than that..but I guess it is better that I know now then later. Thanks again.

U World just doesn't have enough questions to cover some areas in depth. I would say the glaring weak points are in anatomy and neuroanatomy. Behavioral science isn't that strong either, and I just don't think there are enough questions in a lot of the other categories. Another 400-500 questions and UW would have most of the test covered, IMO.

 

[PokerDoc]

dont forget dermatology, theres like 40 questions total on that, and over 100 on like every other subject at least (even head+neck has more... wtf that is its own category i dont know)


but I do agree with the sentiment that UW isnt the here all end all.. but again, its all relative.. is FA + UW by itself enough to get your a 220-230 MAYBE even a 240? sure..

is it enough to get you a 250+ no..

it all depends what your goals are so its not a clear cut answer as to whether it will be enough for you.. Honestly, one of the bigger regrets I made was going out and buying all these extra books. i dont have time for any of them. I'm gonna sell them off to some unknowing 2nd year who will probably never use them either.

 

[drizzt3117]

I don't think derm is super high yield on the boards. I got about 5 questions on it but they were generally pretty easy except one hard one. As far as outside sources goes, i think one of the key things in this process is identifying your weaknesses and addressing them early. My 4.5 week study period looks much different from other people's. I spent a week on biochem/embryology/behavioral science, then a week on micro, anatomy, and pharm. Then I spent a week on Goljan, a day on high yield histo, a day on neuroanatomy, an day on anatomy, 4 days on FA, and dedicated 3 hours to do 200 q-bank questions a day in the first month. I listened to Goljan audio during breaks, at the gym, during meals, and while driving. The last three days I spent doing the entire UW q-bank over again (660 Qs a day) This seemed to work out good for me. The only thing I would have changed would have been to lessen the amount of time I spent on FA.