Need advice/suggestions on 2 more practice tests

[thawunandonly]

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Took UWSA1, got a 244. Honestly felt bad when taking it and psyched myself out so I know I could have done better. Had that "WTF is this question talking about" feeling on probably simple questions and didn't care to think.

Took UWSA2, got a 262. Felt really calm on this one, and breezed by. Kind of in disbelief about it because I am NOT that smart. Lots of questions I wasn't 100% sure but was still able to make an educated guess.

So a couple of things:

This was within 3 days of each other (UWSA1 on a Monday, UWSA2 on a Thursday [today]). Is everyone's UWSA's the same or are they drawn from a random bank of questions? Do people tend to score higher on UWSA2? Again my panic mode on UWSA1 messed me up, but just looking for similar discrepancies between your experiences, because I'm not sure if it was just harder or it was all me...

So I don't know what to think of my scores. Is one a better predictor than the other?

I aim to take two of the NBMEs in similar spacing, so like this coming Sunday, then Wednesday, then test day Saturday. Which ones should I be aiming for?

EDIT: Also, do the NBME's provide full explanations just like UWorld?

 

[paul411]

Do people tend to score higher on UWSA2?
...
I aim to take two of the NBMEs in similar spacing, so like this coming Sunday, then Wednesday, then test day Saturday. Which ones should I be aiming for?

EDIT: Also, do the NBME's provide full explanations just like UWorld?

UWSA tend to overshoot; NBMEs are the most robust predictors of actual performance. The NBMEs do not provide any explanations. The NBME extended feedback option shows you which questions you got wrong and what answer you picked for each wrong one.

As for which NBMEs to use, they are all comparable in predicting performance. 15 is the newest one. The difficulty/style of the NBMEs doesn't correlate well with that of the actual exam, so be cognizant of this as you use the NBMEs in your preparation.

 

[thawunandonly]

Wuuuut, difficulty and style doesn't correlate well? What does that mean....easier? Then how are they better predictors? And where do UWSAs stand then? They overshoot because they are easier?

 

[paul411]

Wuuuut, difficulty and style doesn't correlate well? What does that mean....easier? Then how are they better predictors? And where do UWSAs stand then? They overshoot because they are easier?

The NBME questions are generally shorter and slightly easier than real Step 1 questions. They seem to still be good predictors because of the way they are scaled (e.g. missing about 10Qs out of 200 = 260+)

My Step 1 felt closer to the actual UWorld Qbank questions.