NBME woes...

[myershurt]

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Advice -

Two weeks till test date - have completed UWorld once, and have taken all 4 NBMEs - 410-450-480-480 respectively...

I'm happy that these are passing scores - but spread out over a month i was hoping for larger improvements...and ultimately i was hoping to at least break 500 - ideally be in the 550 range before taking the exam...

i'm wondering if more questions is the answer to bring my score higher, or if i should just take a few reading days to skim FA and notes - or if this pattern of consistency really doesn't lend itself to a 550+ score unless i go back and re-learn things...

i know i should focus on my weak areas - but each form has different results - pharm is consistently borderline - but from form to form sometimes my weakest subject became my strongest subject and vice versa...hard to decipher...have 14 days to figure it out - d-day is June 8th...

 

[Arctic Char]

man, that has to be frustrating. i wish i could help, but i'm a step 1 rookie myself. but, i will ask if you've been listening to goljan lectures at all? i knw i've read a lot of posts of people picking things up from him last minute in terms of tying concepts to gether. i know he's really carried some of my shelf-exam scores . . . ??

anyway, i only suggest it because he always emphasises the "why" on step 1, as opposed to "what". so maybe you could go back through your FA or notes or whatever and just take a few more notes on the "why's"

again, i'm a rookie. but, justa suggestion. good luck

 

[doctorp82]

How much reading are you doing outside of doing questions and reading the explainations? Try taking a look at your cumulative results breakdown, and start focusing on the weakest links a bit more, that might help.

You could also set up practice questions sets of only your weaknesses and work on those.

 

[Taus]

you're up around the national average....so you really can't consider that to be so bad.....well unless you'll die w/o derm, plastics, etc...

also....in a week and a half of doing UWorld Q's for about half the day and studying for the other half my score went up 18 points from nbme form 4-->3 (both above avg...but too many people on here know who I am so I won't post the scores...med school can be like high school is some aspects....)

IMO figuring out why you're getting q's wrong is HUGE...though its not necessarily the easiest thing to do....ie try to really see if you're missing the questions b/c you don't know the info well enough (be honest w/ yourself) or b/c you thought about it wrong/couldn't exactly tell what they were asking in the end

 

[doctorp82]

IMO figuring out why you're getting q's wrong is HUGE...though its not necessarily the easiest thing to do....ie try to really see if you're missing the questions b/c you don't know the info well enough (be honest w/ yourself) or b/c you thought about it wrong/couldn't exactly tell what they were asking in the end

This may not be true for everyone, but I know I would frequently miss a QBank question because I overthought things. Don't try to be smarter than the question, i.e. don't rule out the most likely diagnosis because it could be something else. Scratch off the ones that don't blatantly match classic signs/major tell-tale symptoms, and you'll improve your odds.

Classic example: On a test here at the end of second year there was a picture of a caseating granuloma. I ruled out mycobacteria on my differential because of a negative Fite stain. Ruled out fungus because of a negative silver stain. Had nothing left for a differential of caseating granulomas. Know what it was? Mycobacteria, after culturing the tissue.

Don't overthink.

 

[myershurt]

thanks to all -

i'm going with a schedule of 200 q's a day, with some reading in between - i'm doing my incorrect from UW and trying to mix in some BSS for deeper material coverage - maybe i'll repeat an NBME form this coming friday, or take the released items to see where i stand with one week to go...