Step I Last minute improvement?

[kdburton]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I've got a little less than two weeks left. I just finished reading through everything I wanted to last night and I still haven't even read First Aid yet (beyond immuno and the cell/molec portion of biochem). Assuming I get through it 1.5-2X between now and June 25th whats my prognosis? Currently I'm scoring above average on NBME's and UW, but not ridiculously above average like some people who've been posting on here haha. What kind of improvements have people seen when they've got that kind of time and only reviewing HY material?

 

[Zweisamkeit]

Well, you still have approx 10 days, which is a considerable amount of time for improvement. Also, you should start performing better on UW once you get through FA.

My lightbulb finally went on during the last week of my studying and I saw a big improvement in my practice exams. You should definitely stay optimistic!

 

[kdburton]

Well, you still have approx 10 days, which is a considerable amount of time for improvement. Also, you should start performing better on UW once you get through FA.

My lightbulb finally went on during the last week of my studying and I saw a big improvement in my practice exams. You should definitely stay optimistic!

Does this mean you were taking NBMEs in your last week or are you talking about your UW questions? I've got enough UW questions left to do random timed blocks until my test still so my plan was to just use those. I took an NBME yesterday to see where I'm at; I did pretty well, but I didn't quite hit my goal (ideally I'd like to go up another 10 points). Originally I was thinking the best thing to do was just study my butt off until the test and not take another NBME since they take up a considerable chunk of a day. Would anyone recommend taking one 5 days before the exam to see where I should focus the last few days of review or should I just read through FA and just take a mental note of where my weaknesses are and focus based on that?

 

[Zweisamkeit]

Does this mean you were taking NBMEs in your last week or are you talking about your UW questions? I've got enough UW questions left to do random timed blocks until my test still so my plan was to just use those. I took an NBME yesterday to see where I'm at; I did pretty well, but I didn't quite hit my goal (ideally I'd like to go up another 10 points). Originally I was thinking the best thing to do was just study my butt off until the test and not take another NBME since they take up a considerable chunk of a day. Would anyone recommend taking one 5 days before the exam to see where I should focus the last few days of review or should I just read through FA and just take a mental note of where my weaknesses are and focus based on that?

I did both. I took an NBME, did UW questions, and the free 150 questions test during the last week of my studying. But I learn best from doing questions. I was also freaking out and doing those tests comforted me. If it would perhaps comfort you in doing an NBME before your exam, then take another one. However, this could backfire if you don't get the score you want. Otherwise, you know your areas of weakness by now so focusing on those during this final stretch should bring you closer to your 10 point goal. So if you're not freaking out, I would just read FA or other materials that focus on your weaknesses and do UW or Qbank questions.