NBME 20 freaked me out .. any help?

[Medical Seed]

my step 1 scheduled in June and I just got 189 on nbme 20.. i am so scared.. so far I finished kaplan and usmle-rx (about 4700 questions). Of course I read and watched first aid+pathoma+sketchy.. I thought I was on the right track since I got about 70% correct on kaplan q bank on average. My daily schedule has been doing 40 kaplan qbank+ 20 incorrect usmle-rx. I just finished 2 qbanks yesterday and that is why I did nbme 20 today.. and still I got 189.. I was gonna start Uworld from tmrw but I am just so shocked by this result so that I don't know what to do now. Imma review nbme tmrw but anyway what do you think of my problem? I seriously review every single question whenever I do qbanks... I am so depressed. 70% correct on kaplan=189 nbme 20..

Any help please T_T

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[TakotsuboOkazaki]

1.) You have until June, relax.

2.) Start UWorld, look at your % correct over the first few hundred Qs on Random, Timed. See how that correlates with your NBME score.

3.) The curve on the NBMEs is rough, from my experience:
- 82-84% for ~240
- 86-88% for ~250

What was your % correct did you get on NBME 20?

 

[stickgirl390]

1.) You have until June, relax.

2.) Start UWorld, look at your % correct over the first few hundred Qs on Random, Timed. See how that correlates with your NBME score.

3.) The curve on the NBMEs is rough, from my experience:
- 82-84% for ~240
- 86-88% for ~250

What was your % correct did you get on NBME 20?

Nice avatar

 

[Medical Seed]

1.) You have until June, relax.

2.) Start UWorld, look at your % correct over the first few hundred Qs on Random, Timed. See how that correlates with your NBME score.

3.) The curve on the NBMEs is rough, from my experience:
- 82-84% for ~240
- 86-88% for ~250

What was your % correct did you get on NBME 20?

I got 56% correct.. T_T I feel like I am so behind.. I will come back tmrw after reviewing nbme 20 .. I have to know why I got wrong those questions. So far I felt like 30% of questions in nbme 20 was not in first aid.

 

[Lucca]

isn't this the form with almost no correlation to your actual score (albeit major sampling bias and small n as this is from reddit and virtually everyone submitting data scored >240)

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

Nice avatar

 

[treatem-and-streetem]

Some of the disparity in your score is due to the way questions are written on NBME compared to Rx, Kaplan, UW, amboss, etc. The NBME tests are written terribly so you have to be really good at making correct assumptions in the questions.

 

[bigfootisreal]

NBME 20 is a tough exam and the curve is also tough. You’ve got plenty of time. I improved 40 points from my initial NBME 20 score so keep pushing!

 

[themoonman2]

You have a huge amount of time until you take the exam. RELAX! There is tons of time to improve your knowledge base and increase the score. Most people don't even take an NBME exam as a baseline until they hit dedicated. You'll be surprised at how much your score goes up once you start Uworld and covering your deficiencies as review with pathoma, first aid, etc.

Have faith and stay at it.

 

[Medical Seed]

i started Uworld 8 days ago, 40q/day. So far did 320q and got 60% correct and it is indicating I am on 41% percentile. So now I know where I am and I am a bit depressed since my goal is +245. But I am really studying hard and memorizing and putting all Uworld questions into my head. Hope there is an improvement :/ ..

 

[Hippocrates II]

i started Uworld 8 days ago, 40q/day. So far did 320q and got 60% correct and it is indicating I am on 41% percentile. So now I know where I am and I am a bit depressed since my goal is +245. But I am really studying hard and memorizing and putting all Uworld questions into my head. Hope there is an improvement :/ ..

Honestly, starting out at 60% is pretty good imo. I started around there and I'm steadily seeing small but incremental increases in my averages. Keep in mind that the averages uworld shows correct are a combination of every attempt people have made at the question, including repeat attempts. There's a reason why extremely obscure enzyme questions still have 70% of people getting it right - some people knew it, and the rest of us memorized it from our first attempt and got it right on subsequent attempts.

Don't be too hard on yourself. I have been a solid student in 1st/2nd year and my scores so far have been humbling. I have accepted that there is going to be a steep learning curve from doing well on school exams to board exams. Just trust the process and watch your scores rise over time.

 

[Medical Seed]

Honestly, starting out at 60% is pretty good imo. I started around there and I'm steadily seeing small but incremental increases in my averages. Keep in mind that the averages uworld shows correct are a combination of every attempt people have made at the question, including repeat attempts. There's a reason why extremely obscure enzyme questions still have 70% of people getting it right - some people knew it, and the rest of us memorized it from our first attempt and got it right on subsequent attempts.

Don't be too hard on yourself. I have been a solid student in 1st/2nd year and my scores so far have been humbling. I have accepted that there is going to be a steep learning curve from doing well on school exams to board exams. Just trust the process and watch your scores rise over time.

This is a really lovely comment. Thank you

 

[Medical Seed]

Just an update. I did nbme 21 today and got 212. My nbme 20 score was 189, 23 points improvement in 2 weeks! I feel good and sad bc 212 is still really low .. but at least I am ok. I will keep it posted

 

[Medical Seed]

Guys .. wake up and help me again. Since taking nbme 19 and 21 a month ago, I have been studying 9-10 hours/day doing 80q uworld/day with in depth review. I am hitting 63% on uworld (timed, all random, did 2000 q so far, 2/3 of uworld), exactly on half percentile. I am learning A LOT everyday and was happy about being able to put all the new info into my head and progressing everyday.
So bc it's been a month since taking the last nbme, I tried another nbme (19) today. And I got 209.. -_- ... 3 points down from the last nbme a month ago (212 on nbme 21) tho I have been studying 9-10 hours everyday and learning huge amount of info.. what the heck is this? i got 37 wrong out of 200 (81.5% correct) and that is 209. I don't know what should I do. I don't progress. What should I honestly do? Is nbme 19 garbage since this is an old exam? or how should I take this result...? is uworld garbage -_-? ... or I am just bad ..?

PLEASE SAVE MY LIFE

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Guys .. wake up and help me again. Since taking nbme 19 and 21 a month ago, I have been studying 9-10 hours/day doing 80q uworld/day with in depth review. I am hitting 63% on uworld (timed, all random, did 2000 q so far, 2/3 of uworld), exactly on half percentile. I am learning A LOT everyday and was happy about being able to put all the new info into my head and progressing everyday.
So bc it's been a month since taking the last nbme, I tried another nbme (19) today. And I got 209.. -_- ... 3 points down from the last nbme a month ago (212 on nbme 21) tho I have been studying 9-10 hours everyday and learning huge amount of info.. what the heck is this? i got 37 wrong out of 200 (81.5% correct) and that is 209. I don't know what should I do. I don't progress. What should I honestly do? Is nbme 19 garbage since this is an old exam? or how should I take this result...? is uworld garbage -_-? ... or I am just bad ..?

PLEASE SAVE MY LIFE

My understanding is that NBME 19 is hard and under predicts by 10-15 points. When are you slated to take the exam?

 

[Medical Seed]

My exam is on July 19. It was supposed to be June 21 but it is delayed due do COVID-19 (thank god..)
How does the real usmle look like? is it more like 280q uworld? or 280q nbme?
It is so hopeless and no point to study. I can see the future where I do hard work again for another month and nbme is like 'good job, I will give you 206 this time'. T_T My motivation totally disappeared after this nbme 19..

 

[Steve_Zissou]

My exam is on July 19. It was supposed to be June 21 but it is delayed due do COVID-19 (thank god..)
How does the real usmle look like? is it more like 280q uworld? or 280q nbme?
It is so hopeless and no point to study. I can see the future where I do hard work again for another month and nbme is like 'good job, I will give you 206 this time'. T_T My motivation totally disappeared after this nbme 19..

The NBMEs have really harsh curves, I wouldn’t take it to heart. I’d take it as a sign to kick it into overdrive for the next few months till your exam.

I’ve heard it’s more like a big U world exam, but I have yet to take it.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

My exam is on July 19. It was supposed to be June 21 but it is delayed due do COVID-19 (thank god..)
How does the real usmle look like? is it more like 280q uworld? or 280q nbme?
It is so hopeless and no point to study. I can see the future where I do hard work again for another month and nbme is like 'good job, I will give you 206 this time'. T_T My motivation totally disappeared after this nbme 19..

It’s just like UWorld IMO. NBME 19 has the harshest curve of them all, there is a reason it was abandoned.

 

[yeet]

nbme 19 also has super easy questions. the real thing is more like UW questions.

@Medical Seed Try UW1/UW2 and see where you're at. Hang in there. You can make a lot of progress in 2 months.

 

[Medical Seed]

So I can throw my score into garbage..?. Because if this score is real (209, 81.5% correct), then 230 will be 90% correct, 240 will be 95% correct, and 250 will be 99% correct ...?????????

 

[Medical Seed]

nbme 19 also has super easy questions. the real thing is more like UW questions.

@Medical Seed Try UW1/UW2 and see where you're at. Hang in there. You can make a lot of progress in 2 months.

yeah I might try UW1 once I finish uworld.. I am so down rn and don't have energy to do any more tests.

 

[deleted915325]

Yeah I got 88.5% correct on nbme19 and that only correlated to a 232. Apparently it underpredicts by 10-20 pts. I’m taking NBME24 tomorrow so Ill let you know how that compares. Either way, I think your in a good spot and will def score 230+ if you keep grinding

 

[Medical Seed]

Yeah I got 88.5% correct on nbme19 and that only correlated to a 232. Apparently it underpredicts by 10-20 pts. I’m taking NBME24 tomorrow so Ill let you know how that compares. Either way, I think your in a good spot and will def score 230+ if you keep grinding

Yeah, please let us know how different nbme24 is ! Thank you

 

[deleted915325]

Yeah, please let us know how different nbme24 is ! Thank you

Just finished up. Scored a 241!!! I got 166/200 (83%) correct. Super happy with that score considering I woke up at 7:50am and started at 8:00am and had my dog barking for amost all of section 2!

It definitely involved more thinking than the older forms but there were still some straight factoid questions. I also felt like it repeated a few concepts so if you knew them you had a couple gimmes but if you didn’t than you would pretty much lost those points. Overall, it felt more like the question banks than the older forms. I thought it felt like a mix of Uworld and Amboss.

 

[treatem-and-streetem]

High 80%s should get you 250+ on the real thing