Not a fan of NBME practice

[usrael]

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I'm a person who needs feedback, both for guidance and confidence building. So I though that taking the NBME tests would be a good idea. Many of us are shocked that NBME puts such a hefty price-tag on these exams. I reluctantly forked up my 6.8% interest loan money and took a shot. Pretty avg. score- 1 month before exam. I continued to study, reached the point where I wanted some more feedback and decided to take an additional exam. But I was concerned that a 4 hour NBME exam 2 weeks before the real test would be a waste of time, especially since I would not be able to learn from mistakes. So I decided to take the UW exam which typically produces a slightly inflated score. I knew this going in- but isn't that what I was looking for? Feedback that would build my confidence and a way to learn from my mistakes and strengthen weak topics.

I'm not saying you shouldn't take NBMEs. If you have the extra time and $$$ you probably should take all 6. This builds your stamina.
If you only have 1-2 months, I'd stay away from those money-makers. The score might predict your performance on test day (it didn't in my case), but the questions are not that similar and you have no real way of knowing where you went wrong.

On a final note, I want to thank UW for coming up with a quality question pool. The actual exam didn't compare in quality.

Good luck.

 

[tfom08]

I sort of agree with you. On the one hand, the NBME scores appear to be the best predictor. So I would suggest taking one a couple weeks before the test to see exactly where you are at. They don't usually lie. But as for using them as a study tool, only if you are getting them for free. For $45, they just aren't worth it IMO. I didn't see any more repeats off of the one I took than I did of of UW for sure.

 

[UditNarayan]

hey guys,

its def a rip off...tough to learn from them but were very accurate for me when predicting my score. i had one repeat from an NBME i think, and one repeat from UWorld (that I could recall). for the rest, i was on my own...i suggest taking NBME's to track your progress, but as it gets close to the exam, be careful about taking NBME unless you won't get phased by the score you earn...I took NBME's as I went thru my studying a saw a temporal increase in my performance. that felt good and let me know that i was on the right track.

 

[Instatewaiter]

$45 is a small price to pay for peice of mind IMHO.

 

[McMD]

I agree. We received NBME fee-waivers from our school, so taking the test was free for me (I would have blindly payed anyways) and I really started slacking off on my studying about 1 month before the test, so I took the test to help scare me (I was expecting a low score) into studying. I haven't received my real exam score, so I can't say if it was a good predictor, but the questions were a very different style from my actual exam and the NBMEs...but I used the NBME test ultimately to see what I was weak in, felt least comfortable with, and once I received my NBME test score I used it to build my confidence which helped me to WANT to study!

 

[tfom08]

$45 is a small price to pay for peice of mind IMHO.

I agree with you on that. I definitely felt it was worth it to pay for an NBME a couple of weeks from the test. I don't think it was worth it to pay as a way to prepare for the test like some people do because there just aren't enough repeats to make it worthwhile. Stick with UW. I know on torrents you can download NBME 1-4 if you really want to see the questions (illegally), but who knows if the answers are correct so you have to spend time looking them up anyway.

 

[car123]

Is there any one NBME test (1-6) that is most representative of the actual exam? (or all the NBME's completely diffierent from the actual step)....hopefully the concepts tested on the NBME are somewhat similar to those tested on the actual exam.

Thanks.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Is there any one NBME test (1-6) that is most representative of the actual exam? (or all the NBME's completely diffierent from the actual step)....hopefully the concepts tested on the NBME are somewhat similar to those tested on the actual exam.

Thanks.

I think the main reason to take one of these tests is to see the questions, which are more representative of the real exam than anything else out there.

Score prediction is just an added bonus.

 

[Instatewaiter]

FWIW one of our professors that runs our board review took all the NBMEs and scored the same on all of them. So while people may say that form 1 and 2 are easiest and 3 is hard, they all have good predicitive value b/c the scores are scaled.

 

[McMD]

FWIW one of our professors that runs our board review took all the NBMEs and scored the same on all of them. So while people may say that form 1 and 2 are easiest and 3 is hard, they all have good predicitive value b/c the scores are scaled.

I would agree with that...I took 3 different ones and all my scores were within 3 points of each other.

 

[thedrjojo]

Anedotal evidence from the forum seems to show 3 or 6 are closest predictors (i only took NBME3 2weeks out and scored 4 points higher than it on the real exam...) but its probably a crapshoot.

 

[gluon999]

The NBMEs under-predicted my score big time (even the one I took a few days before the real deal).

But they were extremely helpful in pointing out my weak areas, which I spent a few days on before the test and actually 'starred' those areas on the real deal. I actually got a couple of lengthy bio-stats questions on the real exam that were exactly the same format as on the NBMEs, which saved me some reading time (not that they were difficult). I also a got two questions that were eerily similar to UW questions.

 

[GMDMD]

I'm not sure I understand all of the griping over the NBMEs. You get what you pay for and you know it up front. Sure it is overpriced. Sure there are no answers. You know that up front. If that doesn't seem like a good deal to you, don't buy it.

People seem to have unreasonably expectations that the NBMEs should predict their score within a point. First of all, unless you're taking the things the day before your test, you're presumably learning more material. People complain that none of the tests predicted their score- only the last test you take should be used for this benchmark. And you really shouldn't be taking these things with less than a week left to go. A lot of crap can really sink in during that last week if you apply yourself.

What it provides you with is an assessment of your current status measured against thousands of peers whom are given the same random set of questions. This is exactly what you will see on the real thing- a non-perfect distribution of questions weighted to reflect your performance against thousands of your peers. The big task for step1 is to have no glaring weaknesses, to be equally rounded in all subject areas.

When people start complaining about how their test had so much of this subject and so much of that subject, a good percentage of that is selective memory- people remember the stuff they suck at because it is stressful. And even if you are bombarded with low yield material, remember that question is being used to measure you against others to whom it is equally low yield- ie harder questions will be curved easier.

People way overhype the significance of the variability of test questions on test day. When weighed against your peers, A WELL-ROUNDED student will consistently score in the same score-range.

I took 2 NBMEs- one the day before any studying and one the day after getting through all of the material once. It didn't predict my score but I thought it was a perfect assessment of how I was trending as I approached the test date.

It's just another tool folks. If you understand how it works you won't overblow your expectations of it.

 

[Pewl]

NBME = CRAP.

The UW assessment tests are much beter.

 

[UditNarayan]

NBME = CRAP.

The UW assessment tests are much beter.

hmm, never got a chance to do the UW assessment...also heard from a couple others that it was pretty accurate for them