Step I Official 2015 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

Started by KushWeedNuggetsStankyLeg
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KushWeedNuggetsStankyLeg

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M2 here. Starting today, I am just going to be reviewing for Step 1 which I am taking next May, and nothing else. Here is my plan:

Oct 23-Dec 31: Memorize FA2014, Watch all of Pathoma
Jan 1-Jan 31: FA2015, Pathoma (pass 2), Kaplan QBank
Feb 1-Feb 28: FA2015 (pass 2), Pathoma (pass 3), USMLERX
March 1- March 31: FA2015 (pass 3), Pathoma (pass 4): UWorld
April 1- Mid May: FA2015 (pass 4), Pathoma (selective topics), UWorld (pass 2), all practice tests

Goal: High number
 
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wangers5270 said:
268 on Step 1!!!!!


Study materials/info:

-Goljan Audio, once during MS-1 year, once during MS-2 year. There were a handful (15+) of questions on my exam I readily figured out because of listening to this lecture series, and smiled every time Poppie was there to help me out.
-
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Fuq, thats like the only thing i didnt use that i sorta kinda maybe wish i did. listened to a couple but the dude sounded like a complete maniac and the quality was harsh on the ears

btw u didnt use pathoma?

nice score tho congrats!
 
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LaCroix09 said:
I'd recommend you take one of the newer forms of NBME. The vignettes are longer and the questions require more reasoning and less rote memorization. I'm not sure how old the CBSE is relative to some of the older NBME forms, but I felt like it was more what you're describing: questions were straightforward and the vignettes were very understandable and classic. NBME15/16 felt a lot more like UWorld: long vignettes, tons of detail, more reasoning; UWSA1 was the same.

Granted, I haven't taken NBME11 or anything older than 15. This is just what I've gathered from friends and from the forum.
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Just took UWSA1 this morning. I'll probably be spending the afternoon reviewing my answers.

I definitely see what you mean about UWSA1 being more conceptual and having less straightforward questions. That said the curve is notoriously generous and I would up doing better on it than my previous NBME:

NBME 11 (~2wks ago): 241
UWSA1 (today): 252

Unfortunately, with all the buzz about UWSAs having too generous a curve and overpredicting, I'm left in doubt about how much of the increase, if any, is due to my studying versus just being the nature of the beast. I kind of knew I might have this issue when I took it, but I had bought the self assessments before I knew about this issue and I feel like I should use them if I paid for them.

Until I take a newer NBME in a week or so I guess I'll just hope the studying was doing something. In any case, it's put my mind at ease a little bit that at least the 241 probably wasn't some sort of fluke (right?).

God this stuff is getting to me, haha. I'm kind of a neurotic/OCPD type as it is and this test is not the best for that.
 
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imk90 said:
How did u find uwsa1 difficulty level wise and which subject was tested the most......m nt taking uwsa 1 thats y asking
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Compared to NBME11: slightly longer question stems, harder questions, easier curve. I don't know if anything seemed tested in proportions that were different than what you'd probably expect. Obviously it's mostly path/pathophys and everything else sort of rounds it out. I want to say there was more anatomy than last time, but that's probably a lie because I suck at anatomy and probably just remember those questions being hard for me. I feel like there were only like 4 or 5 behavioral science questions, but that might just be my memory for the exam too.

Overall, the topical makeup seemed reasonable. Sorry I don't have more to add about that.
 
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seminoma said:
Are we supposed to use the NBME correlation chart provided (with the purchased version of an NBME) or is there a "more accurate" one online? I just took NBME 13 and got a 660, which correlates to a 262 on the chart provided and a 250 from this table I found via google http://usmle-score-correlation.blogspot.com/...
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I think each is curved differently so use the one that came with it.
 
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seminoma said:
Are we supposed to use the NBME correlation chart provided (with the purchased version of an NBME) or is there a "more accurate" one online? I just took NBME 13 and got a 660, which correlates to a 262 on the chart provided and a 250 from this table I found via google http://usmle-score-correlation.blogspot.com/...
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My guess is that you should go by the table they provide. That's what I went off of when I took an NBME. I mean, think about it: The NBME themselves admit that the tests may be of different difficulty which is why the curve chart is different for different forms. I can't imagine that there would be any generic rubric that would work when the forms are different.

Also, I just assumed that the NBME has done more quality investigation work into correlating their diagnostic exams than some random unnamed person on the internet.
 
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sloop said:
Just took UWSA1 this morning. I'll probably be spending the afternoon reviewing my answers.

I definitely see what you mean about UWSA1 being more conceptual and having less straightforward questions. That said the curve is notoriously generous and I would up doing better on it than my previous NBME:

NBME 11 (~2wks ago): 241
UWSA1 (today): 252

Unfortunately, with all the buzz about UWSAs having too generous a curve and overpredicting, I'm left in doubt about how much of the increase, if any, is due to my studying versus just being the nature of the beast. I kind of knew I might have this issue when I took it, but I had bought the self assessments before I knew about this issue and I feel like I should use them if I paid for them.

Until I take a newer NBME in a week or so I guess I'll just hope the studying was doing something. In any case, it's put my mind at ease a little bit that at least the 241 probably wasn't some sort of fluke (right?).

God this stuff is getting to me, haha. I'm kind of a neurotic/OCPD type as it is and this test is not the best for that.
Click to expand...

Heh, I know how you feel. It seems like we're in a similar position. From what I've gathered, UWSA1 doesn't necessarily over-predict, but it isn't a great predictor of score. What I mean is that it's accurate for some people, overestimates others, and I've heard from a few people for whom it actually under-predicted. So, I wouldn't put a tremendous amount of stock in your score, but I think you should still be happy with it. I chose to take UWSA1 because I felt like I needed to take more practice tests and because I felt like I need a confidence boost, so the score has been nice in that sense.

On the other hand, I didn't get as much out of reviewing the test as I had thought I might. Spending 12 hours in a day staring at UWorld was much more daunting than I had thought it would be, and by the end of it I'm certain I was learning very little, if anything.

Anyway, I agree that your 252 on UWSA1 very likely validates your 241. I doubt that it's going to over-predict much more than 10 points, if it does at all. I'm taking NBME17 this weekend, so hopefully we'll both see scores similar to UWSA1! :happy:
 
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sloop said:
Just took UWSA1 this morning. I'll probably be spending the afternoon reviewing my answers.

I definitely see what you mean about UWSA1 being more conceptual and having less straightforward questions. That said the curve is notoriously generous and I would up doing better on it than my previous NBME:

NBME 11 (~2wks ago): 241
UWSA1 (today): 252

Unfortunately, with all the buzz about UWSAs having too generous a curve and overpredicting, I'm left in doubt about how much of the increase, if any, is due to my studying versus just being the nature of the beast. I kind of knew I might have this issue when I took it, but I had bought the self assessments before I knew about this issue and I feel like I should use them if I paid for them.

Until I take a newer NBME in a week or so I guess I'll just hope the studying was doing something. In any case, it's put my mind at ease a little bit that at least the 241 probably wasn't some sort of fluke (right?).

God this stuff is getting to me, haha. I'm kind of a neurotic/OCPD type as it is and this test is not the best for that.
Click to expand...

OCPD is egosyntonic!
 
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Regarding UWSAs and their score correlation I would guess that the UWSA raw percentage is a better predictor than the official curve. It would be intresting to see the raw % vs real deal score.
 
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LaCroix09 said:
Heh, I know how you feel. It seems like we're in a similar position. From what I've gathered, UWSA1 doesn't necessarily over-predict, but it isn't a great predictor of score. What I mean is that it's accurate for some people, overestimates others, and I've heard from a few people for whom it actually under-predicted. So, I wouldn't put a tremendous amount of stock in your score, but I think you should still be happy with it. I chose to take UWSA1 because I felt like I needed to take more practice tests and because I felt like I need a confidence boost, so the score has been nice in that sense.

On the other hand, I didn't get as much out of reviewing the test as I had thought I might. Spending 12 hours in a day staring at UWorld was much more daunting than I had thought it would be, and by the end of it I'm certain I was learning very little, if anything.

Anyway, I agree that your 252 on UWSA1 very likely validates your 241. I doubt that it's going to over-predict much more than 10 points, if it does at all. I'm taking NBME17 this weekend, so hopefully we'll both see scores similar to UWSA1! :happy:
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Thanks, dude! It's reassuring to hear someone else tell me this. Obviously I take everything with a little grain of salt regarding practice exams, but simply having someone tell you you're not crazy in the way you're looking at this stuff does take away some of the anxiety about the uncertainty!

Regarding going over UWorld, I'm reviewing the practice exam in full mostly because I didn't have anything else explicitly scheduled in for today and usually after the exams I need something somewhat more mindless than studying FA and Pathoma. That said, I agree with you about it not being the most helpful thing. I had heard from some people that you should read every single answer explanation in UWorld. When I started doing UWorld in March I did that. I quickly found myself becoming infuriated by the amount of time I was wasting reading explanations of things I already knew.

I then transitioned to a new strategy (which is generally what I'm still doing now for the second pass of the QBank): As I'm doing the questions I will flag questions for 2 reasons. They are: 1)I am unsure of the answer and want to go back to it; 2) I know the answer but I do not feel like I could give a detailed explanation for it or I think there are gaps in my knowledge about it. After doing a block I will only review incorrectly answered questions and flagged questions.

This has been far more helpful for me and has filled me with far less rage. I've also started keeping a word file on the concepts I'm learning since doing the second pass. It only goes in the file if I made a mistake or feel like I could make the mistake if I was asked about it again. Stupid mistakes/testing errors don't go in the file.

Good luck with your studying too! I hope you get your dream score!

seminoma said:
OCPD is egosyntonic!
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Haha. Point taken.
 
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Radiolucent said:
Regarding UWSAs and their score correlation I would guess that the UWSA raw percentage is a better predictor than the official curve. It would be intresting to see the raw % vs real deal score.
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Yeah, this would be interesting to see. However, analyzing this correlation would require sampling people's UWSA scores and actual Step 1 scores without sampling errors or recall bias, which is basically impossible to do in a voluntary manner online.
 
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Anybody have any thoughts on a "easier" NBME? Taking my first tomorrow and would rather not be devastated 😉. Or, does the curve really take into account the varying difficulty on each form?
 
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Kapooya said:
Anybody have any thoughts on a "easier" NBME? Taking my first tomorrow and would rather not be devastated 😉. Or, does the curve really take into account the varying difficulty on each form?
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I thought 13 was the easiest so far as it was my highest score. However, they will probably be different for everybody.
 
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Kapooya said:
Anybody have any thoughts on a "easier" NBME? Taking my first tomorrow and would rather not be devastated 😉. Or, does the curve really take into account the varying difficulty on each form?
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I can pretty much echo that they'll be different depending on who you ask. But anecdotally, I felt like 11 and 16 were the easiest so far, I've also taken 15 and thought it was a bit less straightforward but that's also just because I made 1 or 2 dumb mistakes on it so it might just be in my head.
 
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Well I appreciate the response! I'm sure nobody will be able to help, but let's just say I have yet to cover all of biochem and viruses/fungi/parasites... Along with endocrine + Heme/Onc (but I consider both of these stronger areas)... Any thoughts? 🙂 I'm sure nobody really remembers, but worth a shot.

Edit: Anatomy + Biochem + Fungi/Parasites = My current score killers
 
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Kapooya said:
Well I appreciate the response! I'm sure nobody will be able to help, but let's just say I have yet to cover all of biochem and viruses/fungi/parasites... Along with endocrine + Heme/Onc (but I consider both of these stronger areas)... Any thoughts? 🙂 I'm sure nobody really remembers, but worth a shot.

Edit: Anatomy + Biochem + Fungi/Parasites = My current score killers
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Haven't taken the real thing, but I'm in a similar boat with anatomy/biochem. There's such a huge amount of things they could test and I think it's best to just get through as many questions as possible. I'm still about 4 weeks out, but if I still feel weak on them in 2-3 weeks I'm going to start doing 10-15 extra subject-specific questions per day from stuff like kaplan qbank or pretest or whatever I have laying around. Anatomy and biochem are way too big of topics to just read about.
 
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Kapooya said:
Well I appreciate the response! I'm sure nobody will be able to help, but let's just say I have yet to cover all of biochem and viruses/fungi/parasites... Along with endocrine + Heme/Onc (but I consider both of these stronger areas)... Any thoughts? 🙂 I'm sure nobody really remembers, but worth a shot.

Edit: Anatomy + Biochem + Fungi/Parasites = My current score killers
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Personally, if I were in your shoes, I absolutely would not want to take a practice test until getting through ALL the material at least once in first aid. You're just doing yourself a disservice and your score won't be an accurate reflection of your actual potential on that specific test.
 
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^ I agree, that's my plan. For the same reason, I'm doing UW subject-specific and adding topics as I complete them. I don't see a reason to demoralize myself by missing Qs on topics I haven't covered just because the repeated theme on these threads over the years is to do timed-random. It's hard to assess your comprehension of a subject after you complete it if you only get 3 Qs/set related to it. YMMV.
 
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blueshockey said:
Personally, if I were in your shoes, I absolutely would not want to take a practice test until getting through ALL the material at least once in first aid. You're just doing yourself a disservice and your score won't be an accurate reflection of your actual potential on that specific test.
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Alright, well here's my problem (or I think it might be). Let me just say that I didn't study throughout the year at all, but did well in classes (top 10-20%)... I wish I would have reviewed over the year, because I feel like I've forgotten a lot, but I didn't so oh well. Anyways, I'm 75%ish through DIT and about 600 questions deep in UW (62%). I have four weeks till my exam.. I took UWSA as a baseline and got a 212. I have four weeks left and feel like I should get used to how questions are on NBME. Do you guys think it would be better to wait until next week (~3 weeks out) to take an NBME when I will have gone through all the information?

I really just want to make sure I'm passing on an NBME, but I also realize that it won't be that indicative since I won't have gone through everything. I seriously only want 205+ (but obviously want to do the best I can). I'm a small town guy, want to do FM back home, so score isn't all that important to me, but like most people I want to give it my all. Essentially I'm just wondering how important it is to do NBME's in terms of getting used to how they ask questions. Or, should I just continue to expand my knowledge base and do one in about 5 days when I will have gone through everything?

Also... just because I would be happy with just a passing score, doesn't mean I haven't been working my butt off... Pretty scared of failing this exam and fear is a pretty strong motivator. 🙂
 
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Kapooya said:
Alright, well here's my problem (or I think it might be). Let me just say that I didn't study throughout the year at all, but did well in classes (top 10-20%)... I wish I would have reviewed over the year, because I feel like I've forgotten a lot, but I didn't so oh well. Anyways, I'm 75%ish through DIT and about 600 questions deep in UW (62%). I have four weeks till my exam.. I took UWSA as a baseline and got a 212. I have four weeks left and feel like I should get used to how questions are on NBME. Do you guys think it would be better to wait until next week (~3 weeks out) to take an NBME when I will have gone through all the information?

I really just want to make sure I'm passing on an NBME, but I also realize that it won't be that indicative since I won't have gone through everything. I seriously only want 205+ (but obviously want to do the best I can). I'm a small town guy, want to do FM back home, so score isn't all that important to me, but like most people I want to give it my all. Essentially I'm just wondering how important it is to do NBME's in terms of getting used to how they ask questions. Or, should I just continue to expand my knowledge base and do one in about 5 days when I will have gone through everything?

Also... just because I would be happy with just a passing score, doesn't mean I haven't been working my butt off... Pretty scared of failing this exam and fear is a pretty strong motivator. 🙂
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I'm sure other people will chime in as well but personally I would be too scared to take a practice exam until I had been through everything once, then again I'm also the person that waited to do uworld until I completed my first pass, so to each their own? I don't really think that if you take one now that it will, like, hurt you in the long run, don't get me wrong, but if you're wanting the best indicator of where you're at, I would put it off. If you wait a week and take a test, you'll still have three weeks left, which is still plenty of time to get through another pass as well as another few practice tests here and there, why not give yourself the best chance for success?
 
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Kapooya said:
Alright, well here's my problem (or I think it might be). Let me just say that I didn't study throughout the year at all, but did well in classes (top 10-20%)... I wish I would have reviewed over the year, because I feel like I've forgotten a lot, but I didn't so oh well. Anyways, I'm 75%ish through DIT and about 600 questions deep in UW (62%). I have four weeks till my exam.. I took UWSA as a baseline and got a 212. I have four weeks left and feel like I should get used to how questions are on NBME. Do you guys think it would be better to wait until next week (~3 weeks out) to take an NBME when I will have gone through all the information?

I really just want to make sure I'm passing on an NBME, but I also realize that it won't be that indicative since I won't have gone through everything. I seriously only want 205+ (but obviously want to do the best I can). I'm a small town guy, want to do FM back home, so score isn't all that important to me, but like most people I want to give it my all. Essentially I'm just wondering how important it is to do NBME's in terms of getting used to how they ask questions. Or, should I just continue to expand my knowledge base and do one in about 5 days when I will have gone through everything?

Also... just because I would be happy with just a passing score, doesn't mean I haven't been working my butt off... Pretty scared of failing this exam and fear is a pretty strong motivator. 🙂
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I think UW is better used as a learning tool than an assessment tool and the more questions you get wrong on UW the more you stand to learn from it, so if that 62% is bothering you I think you should consider that outlook. Was the UWSA before or after you went through DIT and did those 600 UW questions? I've done about 850 UW questions and gone through all of FA once except for micro, biochem, and behavioral and my NBME score jumped up quite a bit.

I can see where others are coming from in regard to getting a complete first pass done before assessing where you're at, but personally I wanted to know if the way I've been studying for the past 2 weeks was working (i.e. if my NBME score didn't improve then something must be going wrong and I would rethink my study plan). My UW scores have been fairly consistent and have only increased by about 3-4% on average, which contributed to my uncertainty about the progress I have (or have not) been making. Somehow UW always manages to throw in a few questions about things I have absolutely no clue on.
 
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Kapooya said:
Alright, well here's my problem (or I think it might be). Let me just say that I didn't study throughout the year at all, but did well in classes (top 10-20%)... I wish I would have reviewed over the year, because I feel like I've forgotten a lot, but I didn't so oh well. Anyways, I'm 75%ish through DIT and about 600 questions deep in UW (62%). I have four weeks till my exam.. I took UWSA as a baseline and got a 212. I have four weeks left and feel like I should get used to how questions are on NBME. Do you guys think it would be better to wait until next week (~3 weeks out) to take an NBME when I will have gone through all the information?

I really just want to make sure I'm passing on an NBME, but I also realize that it won't be that indicative since I won't have gone through everything. I seriously only want 205+ (but obviously want to do the best I can). I'm a small town guy, want to do FM back home, so score isn't all that important to me, but like most people I want to give it my all. Essentially I'm just wondering how important it is to do NBME's in terms of getting used to how they ask questions. Or, should I just continue to expand my knowledge base and do one in about 5 days when I will have gone through everything?

Also... just because I would be happy with just a passing score, doesn't mean I haven't been working my butt off... Pretty scared of failing this exam and fear is a pretty strong motivator. 🙂
Click to expand...

Why don't you just take an NBME. I get that you're afraid you might not do well, but these tests are supposed to be diagnostics. They exist for you to gauge where you are and what your weak areas are. Trying to find an exam that avoids your weak areas and gives you a better chance at a higher score defeats the purpose.

If you take an NBME, you will either A) be validated that you're on the right track or B) know you have to work harder. Either way it's valuable information so just do it.

Completely disagree with the person who said don't do it until you've gone through everything once. You're burning time and you need to know approximately where you stand—especially if you're concerned about failing.

TL;DR Grow a pair and do an NBME.
 
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Anyone taking the exam this week? Just wanna get this over with. I have about 100 pages of FA to finish for my second run and then tomorrow I'm just gonna go over all the big charts/diagrams before the big day on Thursday.
 
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seminoma said:
I think UW is better used as a learning tool than an assessment tool and the more questions you get wrong on UW the more you stand to learn from it, so if that 62% is bothering you I think you should consider that outlook. Was the UWSA before or after you went through DIT and did those 600 UW questions? I've done about 850 UW questions and gone through all of FA once except for micro, biochem, and behavioral and my NBME score jumped up quite a bit.

I can see where others are coming from in regard to getting a complete first pass done before assessing where you're at, but personally I wanted to know if the way I've been studying for the past 2 weeks was working (i.e. if my NBME score didn't improve then something must be going wrong and I would rethink my study plan). My UW scores have been fairly consistent and have only increased by about 3-4% on average, which contributed to my uncertainty about the progress I have (or have not) been making. Somehow UW always manages to throw in a few questions about things I have absolutely no clue on.
Click to expand...

Kapooya said:
Alright, well here's my problem (or I think it might be). Let me just say that I didn't study throughout the year at all, but did well in classes (top 10-20%)... I wish I would have reviewed over the year, because I feel like I've forgotten a lot, but I didn't so oh well. Anyways, I'm 75%ish through DIT and about 600 questions deep in UW (62%). I have four weeks till my exam.. I took UWSA as a baseline and got a 212. I have four weeks left and feel like I should get used to how questions are on NBME. Do you guys think it would be better to wait until next week (~3 weeks out) to take an NBME when I will have gone through all the information?

I really just want to make sure I'm passing on an NBME, but I also realize that it won't be that indicative since I won't have gone through everything. I seriously only want 205+ (but obviously want to do the best I can). I'm a small town guy, want to do FM back home, so score isn't all that important to me, but like most people I want to give it my all. Essentially I'm just wondering how important it is to do NBME's in terms of getting used to how they ask questions. Or, should I just continue to expand my knowledge base and do one in about 5 days when I will have gone through everything?

Also... just because I would be happy with just a passing score, doesn't mean I haven't been working my butt off... Pretty scared of failing this exam and fear is a pretty strong motivator. 🙂
Click to expand...

I guess I didn't ask when he took his UWSA, because I was basing my assumption on him taking it relatively recently. But yeah, anyway, I'm pretty odd as far as study habits and scheduling goes, so it would probably just be better to take one now and see. If you decide to take it sooner rather than later good luck!!
 
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blueshockey said:
I'm sure other people will chime in as well but personally I would be too scared to take a practice exam until I had been through everything once, then again I'm also the person that waited to do uworld until I completed my first pass, so to each their own? I don't really think that if you take one now that it will, like, hurt you in the long run, don't get me wrong, but if you're wanting the best indicator of where you're at, I would put it off. If you wait a week and take a test, you'll still have three weeks left, which is still plenty of time to get through another pass as well as another few practice tests here and there, why not give yourself the best chance for success?
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Everyone is different. For me, I couldn't really start studying until I had done a baseline NBME. Not knowing where I stood made my anxious/stressed.
 
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Kapooya said:
Well I appreciate the response! I'm sure nobody will be able to help, but let's just say I have yet to cover all of biochem and viruses/fungi/parasites... Along with endocrine + Heme/Onc (but I consider both of these stronger areas)... Any thoughts? 🙂 I'm sure nobody really remembers, but worth a shot.

Edit: Anatomy + Biochem + Fungi/Parasites = My current score killers
Click to expand...

I know I'm a Picmonic *****, but I'm dead serious when I say micro (especially fungi/parasites) are easy once you do the Picmonic cards. The cards for biochem diseases are pretty good, but the anatomy cards are a waste of time.
 
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blueshockey said:
I guess I didn't ask when he took his UWSA, because I was basing my assumption on him taking it relatively recently. But yeah, anyway, I'm pretty odd as far as study habits and scheduling goes, so it would probably just be better to take one now and see. If you decide to take it sooner rather than later good luck!!
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@Kapooya I was also under the wrong assumption that you had at least one nbme done before dedicated since most schools seem to be doing that now. Just take one and see where you're at. If you keep putting it off, then take it and aren't where you need to be, there's less time to make necessary changes to your habits.
 
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Alright, alright... I'll just take one! That was my plan all along, no I haven't done one. I took UWSA 1 the day before I started dedicated (two weeks ago) and got the 212.

I don't like not knowing where I stand (makes me anxious) and I'm pretty sure I can pass it at the least, so might as well get er' done.

Edit: It really won't change how I prep for the next 5-6 days though. I spent too much on DIT to not finish it 🙂
 
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sloop said:
Why don't you just take an NBME. I get that you're afraid you might not do well, but these tests are supposed to be diagnostics. They exist for you to gauge where you are and what your weak areas are. Trying to find an exam that avoids your weak areas and gives you a better chance at a higher score defeats the purpose.

If you take an NBME, you will either A) be validated that you're on the right track or B) know you have to work harder. Either way it's valuable information so just do it.

Completely disagree with the person who said don't do it until you've gone through everything once. You're burning time and you need to know approximately where you stand—especially if you're concerned about failing.

TL;DR Grow a pair and do an NBME.
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100% agree
Took an NBME (16) mid-way and got a 241 but found I'm deathly weak at biochem (tanks my score). Worked through lippincott's chapters and took UWSA1 and got a 265. Lo' and behold I've no idea where I stand for tomorrow getting my score back b/c I should've done an NBME to see true weak areas and how ready I really am for step1 (score I want) but didnt have time.

Instead I wasted time looking for correlations b/w UWSA and UW% to try and predict how I did, but I know I probably did fine.

tl;dr -- after much research, UWSA overpredicts by 10+ (more so w/UWSA2), nonetheless treat UWSA as extra UW qs. NBMEs are where it's at as predicted w/user above. 3xNBMEs where you want your score to be = safe bet you're good for that score for Step 1
 
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theTruth_97 said:
so i only have 2 weeks left before my exam- I've done pathoma and I was thinking of reading the Goljian audio transcript....do you think that's worth it? or is goljian only helpful if you listen to him?
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The audio transcript is not that easy to read without the audio IMO. I used it to fill in gaps where I couldn't really understand what he said or to review something I had already listened to.
 
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is it not productive to just read the audio transcript and add missing points to FA ? Because i was thinking of doing the same to save time
.
or he actually connects different points in the audio ?
 
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lunalight said:
The audio transcript is not that easy to read without the audio IMO. I used it to fill in gaps where I couldn't really understand what he said or to review something I had already listened to.
Click to expand...

is it not productive to just read the audio transcript and add missing points to FA ? Because i was thinking of doing the same to save time
.
or he actually connects different points in the audio ?
 
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usmleraptor said:
is it not productive to just read the audio transcript and add missing points to FA ? Because i was thinking of doing the same to save time
.
or he actually connects different points in the audio ?
Click to expand...

Allow me to just jump into the conversation here...I always felt the utility of Goljan audio was that it wasn't a text resource and could be used while multitasking (i.e. while not otherwise studying). The content itself is great but not a whole lot better than most other board prep resources. Particularly if someone is in their dedicated prep period, they shouldn't spend too much time outside of UWorld + FA + Pathoma, and that includes Goljan.
 
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Apoplexy__ said:
Allow me to just jump into the conversation here...I always felt the utility of Goljan audio was that it wasn't a text resource and could be used while multitasking (i.e. while not otherwise studying). The content itself is great but not a whole lot better than most other board prep resources. Particularly if someone is in their dedicated prep period, they shouldn't spend too much time outside of UWorld + FA + Pathoma, and that includes Goljan.
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I agree with this. I listen to it when I'm walking/riding/driving to or from school, doing dishes, or whatever doesn't require significant concentration. The moment I get to school to study, I turn it off and use my time more effectively..... like on SDN 😉
 
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pd1112 said:
^ I agree, that's my plan. For the same reason, I'm doing UW subject-specific and adding topics as I complete them. I don't see a reason to demoralize myself by missing Qs on topics I haven't covered just because the repeated theme on these threads over the years is to do timed-random. It's hard to assess your comprehension of a subject after you complete it if you only get 3 Qs/set related to it. YMMV.
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i totally agree with you, i am starting UW today and i am planning on doing it timed and subject wise….because i think its easier to master a concept if you keep seeing it than seeing random questions from no where. after i am done with UW then i will do random timed blocks.
 
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