Start with 11 if you want an easy one. Took the real one today... Wish I had just done uworld 3x instead of 2x. All the people telling me to stop uworld after 2x and just do first aid for a week before the test, that was terrible advice. Good bit of m/s anatomy, ligaments, bones, nerves, etc. Good bit of basic genetics. 5 biochems. Lots of basic neuro (HY not needed), impossible/ambiguous ethics type qs, and a whole bunch of stuff ranging from ridiculous minutiae to ridiculous things I'd never heard of. Lots of pharm of course. Most were easy, several were difficult, and some you could not find the answer too even if you pulled up wikipedia (or clinical pharm or whatever). I kept wanting to tab out of the FRED and look stuff up during the test.
I certainly made the standard handful of stupid errors. How much these affect me, who knows. I probably won't report my score here regardless. My NBME average was in the 250s though. If that's too low for you to continue reading, then here is your warning.
NBME 16 was very close, real thing was more difficult, but not really that much more so. Uworld in general was uncannily similar. I mean the format, the question stems, the distractors, everything. There was VERY little information covered in first aid that wasn't in uworld. Do the free 150 (several repeats). I did every NBME but 7, and UWSA 1 and 2. Would not do anything differently, other than limit first aid to 2 days. And also take the test earlier. Seriously, first aid though; It's like trying to learn to speak french by picking up a french dictionary. Did i get a few right because I freaked out and looked over it the night before and the morning of? Hell yes. But who knows how many I screwed up because Uworld was not as fresh on my mind.
I will say that Uworld is focusing WAY too much on biochem. I would just either ignore them, or take them with a grain of salt. Use first aid for that. Everything else, Uworld was very, very good. If you are not doing it at least 2x, you are leaving points on the table.
Sources in order of importance: 1) Uworld 2) Uworld second pass 3) uworld notes of difficult to remember points 4) pathoma 3x audio only 5) first aid 6)everything else. Do all NBMEs. Unless you don't like seeing exact questions before your real thing. Do the Uworld self assessments, because minus the biochem, they look and feel more like the real thing than anything else (but there are more easy questions on the real thing, nothing's perfect).
Not sure if I adequately conveyed the singular importance of uworld. It is like they broke into the NBME office and stole their topic list.
Hope everyone has as much fun as I did. Good luck.
