NBMEs...is this really what we can expect?

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doctah123

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Do you really need to know all of first aid to do well!??! Somehow I've gotten 250+ on 3 out of 4 NBME's I've taken, and 265+ on UWSA, and all I've used are FA/UW/goljan audio to study (I'm 6.5 weeks into an 8 week dedicated period). I've been using FA more like a reference (but i use it all day/everyday and flip through it constantly---I just don't really sit down and read/memorize it really...not my style), and I really feel like I'm not really even close to knowing this book "cold" like people say you should. However, the NBMEs and UW questions are very answerable to me and seem to draw mostly on overarching concepts and high yield things. And while I don't know every word on every page of FA, I do remember details well enough to recognize and distinguish different things in a table, etc. Mostly all I've done is go through UW once slowly while reading FA in bits and pieces simultaneously. I just tend to think carefully about the questions and make good educated guesses I suppose? I also studied very well for the first two years, and I go to a school where we take Step after a year of rotations, and I attribute that to probably 80% of what I get right. Is this normal or are these practice tests way overestimating me?! Is the real thing going to be way more detailed and then I'll be kicking myself for not knowing FA like the back of my hand?!


I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the time (my goal is 250+):
-should I focus on internalizing whatever is in FA that's unfamiliar/needs reinforcing? I try to sit down a flip through a chapter at a time but I just can't. I can do 10 pages at a time at most. How high yield is it really, at this point?
-should I go over uworld again? I've started go over incorrects and I get about 90% of them right now.
-should I just focus on embryology and anatomy since I feel weakest there, and mostly ignore the rest except for a fast pass through FA 3 days before the test?
 
I haven't taken my exam yet, but if I end up in your position, focus on weaknesses first and then crammable/easily-forgetful facts just before my exam.
 
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