Alright, I'm 19% through UWorld right now and my score has been in three different decades on the last three sets I've done. I know I made some dumb mistakes on my lowest of those three, but it's really just random based on what I get asked. I don't really have any subjects that are far and away my weakest. Almost all of my divisions and subdivisions are between 50 and 80 percent with 4 above that range and 4 below. I'm definitely remembering things better now as well as understanding things better than I did during the school year just from going through UWorld, so it's working. But I need to brush up on everything, apparently. :-/
I hope I'll start going through the sets faster as I get more of them right, because I'd really like to get through all of UWorld before the test if I can.
I'm doing UWorld on tutor, but trying to answer the questions within about a minute most of the time, like the real deal. My penance for getting them wrong is to write the educational objective (and maybe some of the explanation) into FA and reading what's already in the book. Even with the ones I get right I try to find some minor factoid to jot into the book. I feel I remember things better when I write them myself but I haven't done that since starting medical school just because of the sheer volume of material. I figured I'd save self-assessments for 2 NBME's I'd like to take (probably next Friday and the Friday before my test, which is a Tuesday) and use this to learn, like it's been suggested to me in this thread. Keep on truckin', I guess.
Couple of things based on my time with UWorld (~60% done, all timed, random):
-My scores can also vary quite a bit. They generally fall in a particular range (usually 60-75%), however just the other day I did one block and scored 95% and the very next block scored 40%.
If you're doing random, then I think you should expect some variability to some extent because there are likely topics you're weak on and ones you're strong in. Even if you're going by topic/system, though, this happens; my partner in crime went through UWorld primarily by system/topic as he read it in FA, and he also had wild fluctuations in his scores. That's just the name of the game I think.
-My suggestion would be to get through FA at least once if you haven't already before really hitting UWorld hard. Others might disagree, but I see very little value in answering questions on material you have yet to review - obviously you don't know it, so doing questions on it is just a waste of questions and time (unless you're going to actually learn the material from the explanations). Just my two cents. If you've made it through FA once, you at least have some context for all of the content. No, you're not going to be getting 100% of the questions correct, but at least you're more likely to say "oh, I remember that but forgot that detail/didn't understand that concept" in response to an incorrect answer rather than "wow, what the hell is that?" I've found that I'm more likely to learn the concept when my response is the former than the latter because you have some kind of framework/context in which to place that fact being asked by the question.
-I think writing the learning objectives down is a good idea. I have an ongoing Google Doc that I fill with facts from questions that I get wrong, concepts that I keep having difficulty with, and things in UWorld that aren't in FA. This is a super high-yield list for me as it is basically a long list (now up to 23 pages) of facts and concepts that I KNOW I don't know but should. I sit down and read this list every few days; I've been surprised at how much of it I retain. I think this is a good strategy so long as you use what you're writing.
-And finally, something that I've been struggling with (especially when I get the occasional block I do horribly on): remember that UWorld is a learning tool rather than an evaluation tool. It is meant to teach you and the questions are intentionally difficult to highlight important facts, concepts, etc.. It is not meant to be used as a predictive tool. If you haven't taken a NBME, you will be surprised I think at how simple the NBMEs generally are in comparison to UWorld. Obviously you want to do well, and doing poorly on blocks doesn't give you that warm fuzzy feeling, but as long as you're learning from the questions then UWorld is being used correctly IMO. Multiple people on this forum have stated that they or people they know have various scores on UWorld but still do very well on the actual exam. Everyone uses UWorld differently, so using percentages to predict much of anything isn't that useful.
Obligatory disclaimer saying I haven't taken the exam yet, am by no means a step 1 expert, etc. etc..
Cheers to 2013 
