- Joined
- Jun 4, 2016
- Messages
- 682
- Reaction score
- 1,413
I've always wanted to start one of these...So here we go!
My stats:
M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270
My stats:
M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270
Last edited:
I would commit atrocities to get a 230-240 on the real thing
It sounds like youre going through rx and kaplan pretty thoroughly and retaining enough to do well in both qbanks. There shouldnt be an overwhelming knowledge gap once you get to uworld but you definitely will learn some more that should help raise your scoreI want to believe this is true! But I have this nagging doubt that I won't actually improve that much. Like I feel like I have already crammed so much information in my brain from Rx, how could there possibly be more to learn! Haha.
Awesome progress!!here's an update on my progression!
CBSE: 190 (2 months out)
NBME19: 198 (5 weeks out)
UWSA1: 245 (4weeks out) - I knew this overpredicted lol
NBME16: 234 (3 weeks out)
UWSA2: 241 (1 week out, today)
Free 117%: 87% (1 week out, today)
Anyone have experience with the Free 117/120 percentage and the real deal?
Overall, I'm so happy that I have been on this uptrend and hope to carry it into testday.
Made an account just to share this because I obsessed over the score reports and wanted to give back. Found out my score 4/11, took 3/20
3 months out: CBSE: 170
6 wks out: NBME 15: 205 (pre-uworld)
4 wks out: NBME 16: 234 (post-uworld)
3 wks out: NBME 17: 234
3 wks out: UWSA1: 256
2 wks out: NBME 18: 246
1 wk out: UWSA2: 245
uworld first pass: 69%
uworld second pass: 91%
Felt ok leaving. Remembered 20ish wrongs.
Prep was just UFAP. USMD school
Score: 250 - 255
@Lannister How are the NBMEs in relation to Rx and UW questions (I know you haven't done UW yet but what about RX)? I should probably do one soon to gauge where I'm at. Test is in a little under 8 weeks.
Also, great to see all the improvements that everyone is making. Keep up the good work guys!!
Done with Rx, wooo. Just bought UWorld, here we go.
Side note, my last set of questions on Rx was stupidly hard, a ton of trick questions that <40% got right. A small part of me is convinced that they saved all the hard questions for last so I would renew my subscription haha.
I think like a week or two ago I was in the middle of a nice run of like, high 70s/low 80s on Rx (sets of 40 questions) and then I got a random ridiculously hard block where I flagged like 15-20 and got a 45%. It was painful. It's amazing how one block like that can make you feel so bad about where you stand even though it's just 40 questions haha.
Done with Rx, wooo. Just bought UWorld, here we go.
Side note, my last set of questions on Rx was stupidly hard, a ton of trick questions that <40% got right. A small part of me is convinced that they saved all the hard questions for last so I would renew my subscription haha.
I'm almost half done with UW and microbio and pharm are two of my worst subjects. I'm considering doing Rx for spot-checking these two subjects after I finish UWorld. How did you feel Rx covered microbio and pharm?
mines gone too!To follow up on what I posted before: I thought permit disappearing means when you click your permit it says "permit no longer available." That's what I was seeing before. This week is the 3rd Wednesday and now there is no link for my permit. The permit thing still stands
So I had absolutely no foundation for microbio. My school really doesn't teach us micro unfortunately, so going into Rx I knew absolutely nothing. By the end of Rx my % correct for micro was in the mid 80s, and I feel very good about micro. So I would say that's probably a good sign that Rx covers micro pretty well.
I think it does a fine job with pharm too. Rx is definitely the best qbank for memorizing facts, and I think pharm requires a lot of memorization.
@sahell
NBME 4, block 4, question 27
Its about a 22 year old with severe chest pain radiating to the back & CT scan confirms aortic dissection. Question is which of the proteins is most likely defective. Both fibrillin and elastin were options. I chose elastin, since the only feature they'd given was aortic dissection, so it seemed more appropriate than fibrillin. The few online discussions disagree with me, but I'm still unsure. What is your take on this?
@sahell
NBME 4, block 4, question 27
Its about a 22 year old with severe chest pain radiating to the back & CT scan confirms aortic dissection. Question is which of the proteins is most likely defective. Both fibrillin and elastin were options. I chose elastin, since the only feature they'd given was aortic dissection, so it seemed more appropriate than fibrillin. The few online discussions disagree with me, but I'm still unsure. What is your take on this?
Plan on doing the final two NBMES - 13 and 19?Progress through dedicated, just moved test up to this week from next:
UWorld % - 77 first pass, 95 second pass
CBSE - 245 (6 weeks)
NBME15 - 250 (5 weeks)
NBME16 - 257 (4 weeks)
NBME17 - 263 (3 weeks)
NBME18 - 257 (2 weeks)
UWSA2 - 266 (1 week)
Hope they weren't all flukes!
Why not?
You're definitely going to beat 255 but I sense a 260 in your future! What are your plans for your last days of studying?Curiosity got the better of me and I took NBME 19...offline though because I didn't want to be demoralized with a score.
But then I only missed 12 questions so I got curious about scoring. My best estimates from previous posts put that at a 250-255. Any insight?
Was pretty happy with this performance, especially since people tend to outscore this exam by at least a little!
Curiosity got the better of me and I took NBME 19...offline though because I didn't want to be demoralized with a score.
But then I only missed 12 questions so I got curious about scoring. My best estimates from previous posts put that at a 250-255. Any insight?
Was pretty happy with this performance, especially since people tend to outscore this exam by at least a little!
Thanks for the optimismYou're definitely going to beat 255 but I sense a 260 in your future! What are your plans for your last days of studying?
Overall, I'd say it was...easier?Great score!
How did you find NBME 19 in comparison to NBME 17 (or any other NBME)? Was it easier/harder/more vague/more twisted/any-adjective-that-describes-it?
Thanks
Any reason why you went straight to UWSA2 as opposed to going through UWSA1 first?Progress through dedicated, just moved test up to this week from next:
UWorld % - 77 first pass, 95 second pass
CBSE - 245 (6 weeks)
NBME15 - 250 (5 weeks)
NBME16 - 257 (4 weeks)
NBME17 - 263 (3 weeks)
NBME18 - 257 (2 weeks)
UWSA2 - 266 (1 week)
Hope they weren't all flukes!
What other resources did you use? How much time are you taking for dedicated in total?Heard it over predicted and I really only had time to hit 5 practice tests. Took UWSA2 today and NBME18 last week, wanted the most predictive tests last.
210! Nice! I did a retired nbme recently and got a similar score
As a filthy DO can someone gently tell me precisely a CBSE is? Is it retired step 1 Qs like the nbmes? Or, is it a an entire seperate set of questions written by the nbme?
Neither?
Zanki/Sketchy/Pathoma/Boards and Beyond/FA + class material first two years. Full pass of UWorld second year keeping an anki deck of wrongs. 5 weeks dedicated: second pass of Uworld, used boards and beyond to review alongside of FA (1 pass), almost full pass of pathoma, some sketchy, hitting weak subjects in anki
looking for advice.
I had 7 weeks of dedicated, during my M2 I had all but about 800Qs of Rx and Kaplan finished. So in the first 2 weeks I read through FA one time, completed the 800Qs from Rx and Kaplan I had left, and took a practice exam.
Rx:83%
Kaplan:84%
NBME 13: 232
over The last 2.5 weeks I've bought and gone though UWORLD. about 85% done with the bank, all mixed, and I'm averaging 84% right now. I usually score like 82-85% on any given block, with some random 90s and 70s mixed in.
I'm due to finish by the end of the week, and I'll have 2 weeks remaining.
Any suggestions on the best things to do in those last 2 weeks to maximize my score?
suggestions desperately welcome
210! Nice! I did a retired nbme recently and got a similar score.
As a filthy DO can someone gently tell me precisely what a CBSE is? Is it retired step 1 Qs like the nbmes? Or, is it an entire seperate set of questions written by the nbme?
Neither?
Edit-- grammar.
looking for advice.
I had 7 weeks of dedicated, during my M2 I had all but about 800Qs of Rx and Kaplan finished. So in the first 2 weeks I read through FA one time, completed the 800Qs from Rx and Kaplan I had left, and took a practice exam.
Rx:83%
Kaplan:84%
5 weeks out 1st practice exam-NBME 13: 232
over The last 2.5 weeks I've bought and gone though UWORLD. about 85% done with the bank, all mixed, and I'm averaging 84% right now. I usually score like 82-85% on any given block, with some random 90s and 70s mixed in.
I'm due to finish by the end of the week, and I'll have 2 weeks remaining.
Any suggestions on the best things to do in those last 2 weeks to maximize my score?
suggestions desperately welcome
I used kaplan and rx as learning tools through M2-so theyre not random. But uworld is. I have a question for you-why do nbmes if they dont give the answers? Thats the only reason ive been avoiding them since after taking nbme 13 i felt like i learned nothing and just got my soul crushed (i didnt know they under predict) Is there somewhere i can get them? The answers i meanThose are some pretty insane qbank completion averages if you're doing them all random/timed. With 2 weeks to go, I'd highly recommend buying all of the NBMEs and spending your last 2 weeks on them. Considering your qbank scores and your NBME 13 score, all you need to kill the real deal is time spent adjusting to true USMLE questions which will come from the NBMEs. Congrats on your killer work!
I used kaplan and rx as learning tools through M2-so theyre not random. But uworld is. I have a question for you-why do nbmes if they dont give the answers? Thats the only reason ive been avoiding them since after taking nbme 13 i felt like i learned nothing and just got my soul crushed (i didnt know they under predict) Is there somewhere i can get them? The answers i mean
Absolutely, when I started uworld I was expecting to crush because I had a higher Kaplan avg. but my first couple were low 70s. After a hundred or so I got into the 80s like I was doing in Kaplan. When I took that nbme 13 I got hammered because I hadn’t touched uworld yet, and uworld I think is closer to the nbmes than Kaplan, even tho it’s still pretty different. Do you think nbmes>than second pass of uworld?There are NBME explanations floating around - not in a nice neat format like we would like, but a quick google search will probably turn up some. A significant benefit though comes from simply allowing yourself to get accustomed to how the true USMLE questions are written. I'm sure you've probably noticed that going from Rx to Kaplan and from Kaplan to UWorld each qbank was slightly different in how cases were presented. For me personally, it took me about 200-300 in order to get use to the transition and after I got accustomed to the style, I made less stupid mistakes.
@sahell
NBME 4, block 4, question 27
Its about a 22 year old with severe chest pain radiating to the back & CT scan confirms aortic dissection. Question is which of the proteins is most likely defective. Both fibrillin and elastin were options. I chose elastin, since the only feature they'd given was aortic dissection, so it seemed more appropriate than fibrillin. The few online discussions disagree with me, but I'm still unsure. What is your take on this?
I'm not aware of a elastin disease. Fibrillin is a better fit.
NBME 5, block 3, question 47
This is the one with 3 graphs and how elderly maintain CO. Online disagreement between LV dilation vs LV hypertrophy.
This gave me trouble but after some research I sided with LVH.
NBME 5, block 4, question 28
This is the one about the mechanism behind hirsutism in post menopausal women. I remembered reading (in FA I think) that increased androgens are behind this. Most online searches echo increased testosterone as the cause (I think this includes uptodate), but some do mention an increased T:E ratio as well as decreased SHBG due to lower E. The testosterone values they've given are in the normal range, so perhaps T:E ratio is the answer? Confused!
This tests concepts more than facts. Increased androgens do cause hirsutism and virilzation but here the levels are normal. By process of elimination T:E ratio is the only one that fits.
NBME 5, block 4, question 35
Patient with gastrinoma, hyperstimulation of which cell is the cause behind the development of a duodenal ulcer?
Both ECL and parietal cells could be the answer, it just depends on what they want the answer to be. How did you go about deciding this?
I boiled the question down to which one of these cause Du ulcer, which would be Parietal cells secreting the acid.
Absolutely, when I started uworld I was expecting to crush because I had a higher Kaplan avg. but my first couple were low 70s. After a hundred or so I got into the 80s like I was doing in Kaplan. When I took that nbme 13 I got hammered because I hadn’t touched uworld yet, and uworld I think is closer to the nbmes than Kaplan, even tho it’s still pretty different. Do you think nbmes>than second pass of uworld?
My responses in the quote
When did you take your test?Damn, my permit link is still there. I guess I will have to be a patient aneurysm and wait another week for my score!
Thanks! We took form DGreat scores this far out! Not really sure if there is a one-size-fit-all for how much improvement you should expect. A good friend went from 195-235 in 5 weeks last year. But, obviously that is much easier than a 240-280, if we compare relatively. I think a 250 or more is totally doable. I would be aiming for a 260 if I were you. But, then again, I'm not a destroyer like all of you peeps .
Which Comsae did you take btw?
Like the 2nd- I shouldn't expect it for another week or so lolWhen did you take your test?