NBME Comprehensive exams

[doc-Oc]

Sorry if this has been asked before. My question is do all schools (american,canadian, caribbean..etc) have NBME comprehensive exams for med 2,3,4? or is this just select schools who decide to opt in?

Also i recently finished med 1 and im going to be entering in med 2. in med 2 we have a NBME comprehensive exam at the end. Can anyone provide advice as which books would be the best to study for these NBME comprehensive exams?

Thanks!

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[hallowmann]

Sorry if this has been asked before. My question is do all schools (american,canadian, caribbean..etc) have NBME comprehensive exams for med 2,3,4? or is this just select schools who decide to opt in?

Also i recently finished med 1 and im going to be entering in med 2. in med 2 we have a NBME comprehensive exam at the end. Can anyone provide advice as which books would be the best to study for these NBME comprehensive exams?

Thanks!

Schools have to opt into it, and not all do. I think around 20-30 US schools (MD and DO) do, but that's just off what I vaguely remember from my MS2 shelfs.

Study whatever subject you're taking. Also look at the NBME shelf exam guide for a break down of what the questions will be. You can find more info here:
http://www.nbme.org/students/Subject-Exams/subexams.html

Its been my experience that you don't really need to study for the pre-clinical ones if you're doing fine in med school, unless they are a major part of your grade or something. They test the knowledge you learned in school, so ideally you should know it all or at least enough to do around average. You can use it to figure your weaknesses though. For example I was above average on all of the others, but I was almost 0.5 SDs below the mean on the micro one, so I knew that was my weakest subject.

 

[doc-Oc]

Schools have to opt into it, and not all do. I think around 20-30 US schools (MD and DO) do, but that's just off what I vaguely remember from my MS2 shelfs.

Study whatever subject you're taking. Also look at the NBME shelf exam guide for a break down of what the questions will be. You can find more info here:
http://www.nbme.org/students/Subject-Exams/subexams.html

Its been my experience that you don't really need to study for the pre-clinical ones if you're doing fine in med school, unless they are a major part of your grade or something. They test the knowledge you learned in school, so ideally you should know it all or at least enough to do around average. You can use it to figure your weaknesses though. For example I was above average on all of the others, but I was almost 0.5 SDs below the mean on the micro one, so I knew that was my weakest subject.

Thank you for that. the reason i wanna study for it, is just so i know how im doing, and to be better prepared for the usmle.

 

[hallowmann]

Thank you for that. the reason i wanna study for it, is just so i know how im doing, and to be better prepared for the usmle.

Just to warn you, the USMLE is nothing like the shelf exams. The NBMEs are very straightforward and mostly test general knowledge, whereas the USMLE Step 1 is more 3rd order and testing application. That said, it should be a good gauge of the information you've acquired and you can compare yourself to national averages as well.

 

[doc-Oc]

Just to warn you, the USMLE is nothing like the shelf exams. The NBMEs are very straightforward and mostly test general knowledge, whereas the USMLE Step 1 is more 3rd order and testing application. That said, it should be a good gauge of the information you've acquired and you can compare yourself to national averages as well.

Ok thank you. That makes things more clear. So regarding the pre clinical shelf exams in going to take in med 2 what books do you recommend to study for it? I was looking at the first aid 2015.

 

[Mountaineer12]

Ok thank you. That makes things more clear. So regarding the pre clinical shelf exams in going to take in med 2 what books do you recommend to study for it? I was looking at the first aid 2015.

I took pharm, micro/immuno, path, some other one that was for our clinical skills class that was basically path-lite, and the comprehensive basic science exam that past May. I would recommend sticking mostly to FA and a question bank. That worked out really well for me. I know some classmates used BRS books for each subject, but I think that may be overkill unless you're really weak in certain areas.

 

[hallowmann]

I took pharm, micro/immuno, path, some other one that was for our clinical skills class that was basically path-lite, and the comprehensive basic science exam that past May. I would recommend sticking mostly to FA and a question bank. That worked out really well for me. I know some classmates used BRS books for each subject, but I think that may be overkill unless you're really weak in certain areas.

I agree with all of this. Some people I know used Kaplan videos to review as well as FA. Most people who just used FA did fine.

Took anatomy in MS1 (didn't study - they gave us no time to), took Pharm, Micro/Immuno, Path, and Phys near the end of MS2. Took CBSSA at the end of MS2.

 

[doc-Oc]

another question i have is that, is the med 4 comp exam a good indication of the USMLE step 1?

 

[Mountaineer12]

another question i have is that, is the med 4 comp exam a good indication of the USMLE step 1?

Mine said I would get a 220 if I took it the same day as the comp exam. I got a 239 on the real thing after 3.5 weeks of dedicated studying. Another person I know got a bit less than what the comp exam said they would so I don't know if it's a great predictor. The NBME practice exams seem to be better trusted.

 

[Psai]

nbmes are generally within 5 points of the real thing from what i read here and on reddit
worked like that for me