nbme query

[walakin25]

hey guys,

just wanted a quick poll on which three nbmes does everyone think are the best to do

thanks!

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[Tajima]

I would like to add to this and ask which NBME's should be done at all, and in what order.

 

[walakin25]

wise SDN members, show a brotha some love yall (feels good to be a gangsta)

 

[Apoplexy__]

Back in my day (2 years ago), NBME 16 was said to be most predictive.

11 and 12 were supposed to be good too.

I haven't taken 17 which is the most recent one, so maybe it would be better than the above 3.

 

[mymembernames]

Are all NBMEs half the length of the real deal?

 

[Apoplexy__]

Are all NBMEs half the length of the real deal?

Yes, all.

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

I took 17, 16, and 15 respectively. I found 17 easier that 16 or 15, so my jump in score was lower that expected when moving form 17 to 16.

The later the NBME was released, the better it is to take IMO, but your school may not have data on the newest ones to correlate with performances of past peers.

At my school, NBMEs were shown to be a great measure to track your progress, but the only metric that was directly correlated with higher USMLE scores was number of Qbank questions completed and reviewed.

 

[malin]

Try 15-17. They're the most recent and perhaps arguably most reflective of the types of questions you might get when you consider question stem length and whatnot. In all honesty, you should do every NBME b/c some questions from NBMEs pop up on your actual Step 1. Doing them all also hones your test taking skills. Do what it takes to find the old NBMEs 1-7, or the newer ones online. Answer keys float around (even if they're not 100% correct, you can usually find out the best answer by looking up questions on message boards). I saw 5 NBME questions on my Step 1 (and my test taking skills were improved by doing them all) so that's my argument to put all the effort/work into it.