MD M1- Retake Final NBME Exam HELP

[deleted987875]

Hi all, I am a first year medical student and I took a NBME final exam on cardio, pulmonary, and renal systems (all regular physiology, pathophysiology, and histology) yesterday and I got a 68%.. passing is 70%
I’m just at a loss of words to describe how devastated and disappointed I’m feeling about this

I have put so much time, energy, efforts, making my own study guides, etc using the class lectures notes and adding stuff from first aid. My first aid book is completely annotated and highlighted and I have clipped in my so many of my own notes in first aid pages

Have done over 300 practice questions combined using different resources, which are between USMLE Rx, Amboss, UWorld, and MedBullets

The major thing I was thinking about doing different for preparing this second time around is:

1) continuing to go through practice questions with these resources and actually have time to review the explanations for missed questions (I started making a document with missed questions) but it’s hard to go back and review- I know practice questions are challenging but I really like the tables they Amboss and Uworld have
*should o do Robbins practice histology questions as well?

2) reviewing in class lecture notes on basic physiology concepts and BRS physiology and doing practice questions since there are not a lot of regular physiology questions for organ systems on the practice question resources I listed above

Any feedback or advice welcome

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[Billiam95]

aking my own study guides, etc using the class lectures notes and adding stuff from first aid. My first aid book is completely annotated and highlighted and I have clipped in my so many of my own notes in first aid pages

Sounds like a huge time sink of questionable benefit.

*should o do Robbins practice histology questions as well?

No

reviewing in class lecture notes on basic physiology concepts

Another time sink.

Why are you studying in-house lectures if you have NBME exams?

 

[Kierkegaard's Bud]

1) continuing to go through practice questions with these resources and actually have time to review the explanations for missed questions (I started making a document with missed questions) but it’s hard to go back and review- I know practice questions are challenging but I really like the tables they Amboss and Uworld have
*should o do Robbins practice histology questions as well?

If you don't go back and review, you will make the same mistake. The goal is not to be busy but effective, then efficient, in that order.

 

[deleted987875]

If you don't go back and review, you will make the same mistake. The goal is not to be busy but effective, then efficient, in that order.

Okay I will make sure I go back and review the questions I missed

Practice should be more about learning and not just seeing how many questions I get right (which I forget sometimes)

Amboss, UWorld, and MedBullets we’re going to be my go-to resources for practice questions

 

[deleted987875]

Sounds like a huge time sink of questionable benefit.


No


Another time sink.

Why are you studying in-house lectures if you have NBME exams?

I have used first aid and USMLE Rx

However, the in-class lecture notes have good figures and graphs to understand concepts

However, I thought there were very challenging questions on the NBME final exam. That is why I am kind of at a loss or what else I could’ve done differently

I thoroughly went through first aid and combined my own notes with what’s in first aid and went through some of the bricks

What else can I do to do content review for a NBME exam?

 

[EthylMethylMan]

Sounds like a lot of different materials you’re using. Most people do better finding a couple that mesh well with their style and sticking to those. Maybe narrow what you’re using a little. And for what it’s worth, I only found First Aid useful for dedicated Step studying. I feel like it’s not great for the first time you’re learning the material. I always found that it would become useful as a review aid after I already learned the topics in more granular detail.

 

[Billiam95]

Sounds like you're going an inch deep but a mile long with so many different resources. Pick one or 2 that really work for you and stick with them - for me, it was B&B and Pathoma.
I also used Rx and Amboss during preclinical. If I could go back, I would exhaust uWorld (2 passes if possible using marked questions), then as much Amboss as possible. I found the Rx questions to be too easy and not representative of the NBME exams.

 

[deleted987875]

Sounds like a lot of different materials you’re using. Most people do better finding a couple that mesh well with their style and sticking to those. Maybe narrow what you’re using a little. And for what it’s worth, I only found First Aid useful for dedicated Step studying. I feel like it’s not great for the first time you’re learning the material. I always found that it would become useful as a review aid after I already learned the topics in more granular detail.

Yes I definitely use first aid as a review source

I did all of the assigned class reading and in-house lecture slides to learn the material for the first time

 

[deleted987875]

Sounds like you're going an inch deep but a mile long with so many different resources. Pick one or 2 that really work for you and stick with them - for me, it was B&B and Pathoma.
I also used Rx and Amboss during preclinical. If I could go back, I would exhaust uWorld (2 passes if possible using marked questions), then as much Amboss as possible. I found the Rx questions to be too easy and not representative of the NBME exams.

I have not finished going through UWorld and Amboss practice questions. So my goal is to finish going through the practice questions with both of these sources

 

[Sidus1011]

Anki would help, even if it's just over your incorrect