New NBME exams 25-30

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MadScientist95

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So I have been studying since January (Uworld and FA). Uworld scores started in the 40s, then went to 50s and 60s, and are now mostly 60s to 70s. Took UWSA1 last week and scored a 232. I am 7 weeks out from the actual exam and my goal is to do a self-assessment once a week. I took the new NBME form 25 today and scored a 189!! I felt this exam was extremely difficult and nothing like Uworld style questions. I know UWSA1 can overestimate your score but are you telling me by 43 points? I was beginning to feel like I was making progress and now this has killed my confidence. Has anyone else experienced this???
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MadScientist95 said:
So I have been studying since January (Uworld and FA). Uworld scores started in the 40s, then went to 50s and 60s, and are now mostly 60s to 70s. Took UWSA1 last week and scored a 232. I am 7 weeks out from the actual exam and my goal is to do a self-assessment once a week. I took the new NBME form 25 today and scored a 189!! I felt this exam was extremely difficult and nothing like Uworld style questions. I know UWSA1 can overestimate your score but are you telling me by 43 points? I was beginning to feel like I was making progress and now this has killed my confidence. Has anyone else experienced this???
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Just took it. Have been passing in all of my other practices, passed the AMBOSS one, UWorld, and got absolutely wrecked on 25. while some of that could be due to forgetting my medication this morning and feeling totally off, it was really, really bad compared to everything else I've done. Really not comfortable with even attempting the real thing now. :/ Totally destroyed any confidence I had.
 
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Did anyone take 29 or 30? How are they? Looking for a reasonable NBME for baseline, 6 weeks left. NOT form 25, I presume.
 
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Mayday21 said:
Did anyone take 29 or 30? How are they? Looking for a reasonable NBME for baseline, 6 weeks left. NOT form 25, I presume.
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Honestly from being on Reddit it seems like all the new exams are pretty roughy. I’m taking 25 this weekend and going to just go in order through the rest of them.
 
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I took 25 last week and didn’t do great either lol. I felt it was very anatomy heavy?
Taking 30 on Thursday so fingers crossed it’s a little kinder but from what I’ve seen here and on Reddit... probably not
 
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I took 26 a week ago and scored significantly higher. Just finished form 27 today and barely passed. I am seriously all over the place with these new exams
 
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i have taken the old 21 and the new 26 and i mean taking NBMEs are not fun to begin with but i didnt think they were drastically different in difficulty
 
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Just finished 25 and got wrecked, like 15-20 point drop from 22 and Amboss SA weeks ago. Felt like it was really biochem heavy, but that could be because that’s my weakest section.
 
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I really hope these exams do underpredict like people say. Regardless, its annyoing because you cant really see where you're at scorewise
 
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Ive taken 26, 27 and 29 so far. 26 and 27 felt very similar to 24 which I took awhile back. They were both hard for sure but pretty similar. I took 29 yesterday and it seemed like it felt easier than 26 and 27, but I noticed if you did the anking deck a lot of the questions were straight off of anki cards so that might have been why. I've been reading on reddit that a lot of people are saving 30 to around their test date.
 
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Etan19197 said:
Ive taken 26, 27 and 29 so far. 26 and 27 felt very similar to 24 which I took awhile back. They were both hard for sure but pretty similar. I took 29 yesterday and it seemed like it felt easier than 26 and 27, but I noticed if you did the anking deck a lot of the questions were straight off of anki cards so that might have been why. I've been reading on reddit that a lot of people are saving 30 to around their test date.
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Why 30? Is it supposed to be the best of them?
 
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MadScientist95 said:
Ive seen a lot of people say that Uworld SA2 is the most predictive
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Yeah sorry I wasnt clear, UWSA2 and free120 are the safest tests to take closest to your exam and are probs still the most predictive. But out of the new NBMEs from anecdotal evidence on reddit people are taking 30 which could just be due it being the last of the bunch.
 
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Mayday21 said:
Do the new NBMEs give you performance reports with bars subject-wise/system-wise? How about the UWSAs?
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They do but IMO the NBMEs are not very helpful. Due to the curve being so harsh (at least in my experience) they claim that I am below average in just about all areas. Yet I consistently score mid 70s - 80s on Uworld and have taken one UWSA where I scored a 232
 
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MadScientist95 said:
They do but IMO the NBMEs are not very helpful. Due to the curve being so harsh (at least in my experience) they claim that I am below average in just about all areas. Yet I consistently score mid 70s - 80s on Uworld and have taken one UWSA where I scored a 232
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I am in a similar boat, i am in the 70-80s on UW but then i get wrecked by an NBME and am not sure which to believe. I havent taken the UWSA yet though. if anybody has advice please let me know
 
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giguerex35 said:
I am in a similar boat, i am in the 70-80s on UW but then i get wrecked by an NBME and am not sure which to believe. I havent taken the UWSA yet though. if anybody has advice please let me know
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I took UWSA1. Ive heard that it can over-predict your score while UWSA2 is the best predictor we have so I am going to finish the remaining NBME exams (if I can endure through them) and save UWSA2 for last
 
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Yeah, I’m about 3 weeks out and I’ll do one more NBME, UWSA2, and Free 120. The NBMEs really make you question your abilities whereas I’m comfortably 70-75% on UWorld blocks lol.
 
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Captain_Falcon said:
No but You can find explanations to it made by some guy/gal who typed up short reasons for why the correct answer was correct if you google it
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youve already taken step right? how would you say the NBMEs vs UW compare to the real thing in terms of format and difficulty. Also i find the NBMEs have so much random cell bio that comes out of nowhere, in your experience was there alot of random cell stuff like that. For example i think i saw 3 questions on zinc finger motifs the other day which seems more random than not
 
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giguerex35 said:
youve already taken step right? how would you say the NBMEs vs UW compare to the real thing in terms of format and difficulty. Also i find the NBMEs have so much random cell bio that comes out of nowhere, in your experience was there alot of random cell stuff like that. For example i think i saw 3 questions on zinc finger motifs the other day which seems more random than not
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About in between them I'd say. And honestly it can just come down to the form you take. I didn't have much biochem at all. UW2 is littered with biochem
 
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Captain_Falcon said:
About in between them I'd say. And honestly it can just come down to the form you take. I didn't have much biochem at all. UW2 is littered with biochem
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appreciate it, one more thing, were your NBME scores consistent with your real score (if you got it back yet) becasue ive heard from some people to trust the reddit calculator for the old NBMEs becasue the NBMEs underpredict and then ive heard others say what you get on the NBME is what you get on the real thing so just curious what your experience was becasue my NBMEs scores are all over
 
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giguerex35 said:
appreciate it, one more thing, were your NBME scores consistent with your real score (if you got it back yet) becasue ive heard from some people to trust the reddit calculator for the old NBMEs becasue the NBMEs underpredict and then ive heard others say what you get on the NBME is what you get on the real thing so just curious what your experience was becasue my NBMEs scores are all over
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Haven't gotten my score back but I took only 2 NBME and the 2 UW ones.
Amboss assessment 2 months out - 242
NBME 25 (6 weeks out) - 236
NBME 30 (1 month out) - 252
UW1 (3 weeks out) - 264
UW2 (1 week out) - 254
Free 120 (few days out) - 87%
 
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NBME's underpredict really badly. UWSA's and Free 120 usmle sample questions are better predictors. This is coming from an IMG who passed Step 1, Step 2 CK, Step 2 CS, Step 3, and currently finishing residency. Tutors will hype the NBME's that way you can pay them big bucks to teach you NBME concepts/explanations.

Use NBME's only for active learning. Don't delay your exams because of a fail on an NBME. Trust me.
 
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Just took step a few days ago. Overall, I felt it was much more straight forward than the NBME questions. The question stems were a lot shorter than Uworld and more direct however, I feel the Uworld explanations prepared me a lot more to answer the questions than any of the NBMEs. I'll have to wait and see what my score is though.
 
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I took Step back in April. I did better on the real thing then I did on all the practice exams. Use the new NBMEs as learning tools not predictors. Free120 and UW2 I thought were most realistic. The older NBMEs were also more predictive, particularly 18. Take deep breathes… don’t let anybody or any test get in your head
 
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JMS54 said:
I took Step back in April. I did better on the real thing then I did on all the practice exams. Use the new NBMEs as learning tools not predictors. Free120 and UW2 I thought were most realistic. The older NBMEs were also more predictive, particularly 18. Take deep breathes… don’t let anybody or any test get in your head
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How close to your actual score was NBME 18?
 
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