I will let other people comment on study tips because I was a hot mess during my dedicated and just flailed about trying to acquire information. I think it would be better for all of you to hear that from someone who actually had a plan. I will talk a little bit about my experience because I was honestly preparing to score less than a 220 and I think it is more important to talk about that. First, my numbers, since we are all fact people.
October NBME: 186 (we had only completed 1 course during second year at this time so I wasn't expecting much)
January CBSE: 215 (scared the pooh out of me, but again, I was missing 2+ courses)
> also I had studied the same topics over and over and over. I killed it on those topics. Bombed my least favorite topics. The jump from 215 > 238 was a result of studying those topics.
NBME beginning of dedicated (End of February): 230
NBME 4 weeks out: 238 (I was so mad, I had been studying hard core for two weeks and had only gone up 8 points)
UWSA1 (maybe a week later): 254
NBMEs during dedicated: 239, 241, 238? (form 19 right before the test)
UWSA2(1 week out): 243 (don't focus on this score so much, I took this after doing 3 UW blocks on an empty stomach. I got a 90% on block 1 and then tanked the last 2 blocks because I was HANGRY and over it)
Real deal: 250
For people who care: my MCAT was average, and medical schools didn't want me at first, but I persisted and here we are.
About me: I exist in a constant state of slightly above averageness. Like my gift in life is to be slightly above average at LITERALLY EVERYTHING. I am really good at it. No matter what I do, I some how always manage to be slightly above average. It's a really awkward place to be. Also, until today, I was the most unlucky person you will probably ever meet. Maybe I was saving up for today! Either way, I am feeling so unbelievably blessed.
Med School career- my school doesn't rank, but I would say (based on ranges of scores on exams and shelfs I was probably in the top 25% at a top 50 med school).
> my school is awful as far as delivering content. Essentially no one goes to class and I had to teach myself almost everything over the course of years 1 + 2. I like my school, but they are going through some changes and the growing pains show for sure. That being said, I am a little irritated about that. I just sat through a lecture from a professor from another school and it was the BEST lecture I have ever attended in my life. Had I had the pleasure of having him as a teacher for 2 years I would have blown this test out of the water.
> Qbanks- this is how I studied for exams. Starting MS1, I used Kaplan in blocks by subject. This really helped and I was usually scoring 1SD+ above the mean on the NBME shelf exams.
> FA- I used FA from day 1, but to be honest, I didn't really like it. I didn't use it much during dedicated
> UW- I went through UW twice, once during MS1/2 with my classes and once during dedicated. I tried to go back through my incorrect, but my brain was tired. I have no idea what my first pass average was because I used it as a learning tool. My second pass was in the 80s. I didn't review my first pass and it was almost a full year before I did my second pass. That being said, I did not remember the questions and I felt like it was a good move because it pulled out the areas that I really needed to focus on and the ones that I was solid in despite having not seen them in a year.
USMLERx- I used it during dedicated and I think it helped me with some topics I would not have otherwise covered because I couldn't stand to read FA
> Anki- made the cards, never went through them...oops.
THE TEST: as I am sure all of you have seen, I thought my score was going to be a disaster. I cannot comment on the test very much because, I swear to you, I am pretty sure I blacked out. I know I missed 21 questions for sure. Granted these were the only questions I remembered because I couldn't figure them out during the test. Please refer back through the tread to see my comments about my exam.
Quick summary: (side note, I have NEVER had test anxiety! Like ever. I mean during the school year I would just waltz in sit down and take the test like it was no big deal. USMLE STEP1 day was VERY different).
> First 2 blocks "OMFG WHAT THE H IS THIS OMG OMG OMG I AM GOING TO FAILLLLLL, my career is OVERRRRRRRR"
> took a break, cried in bathroom >>>> "Okay you have to pull yourself together, you can do this, deep breath." successfully pulled myself together
> block 3: "okay this is better, hard, but better" > I'm hungry > 5minute break to essentially swallow Jimmy John's #2 BIG JOHN whole.
> block 4-whatever: I marked like 6-8 questions on each one, 1/2 I think I got correct, the other half I was like "UGHHHH WHY DO YOU PEOPLE HATE ME?!?!?! WHYYYYYY???????"
Words of "wisdom"
If you have been doing well in medical school and are consistent on the NBMEs (which you should be taking like real tests, that means no looking up answers etc), then you can expect to earn a solid score. Work on areas that you are weakest or don't like. Know that when you are sitting there having the world's most colossal mental breakdown that everyone is in the same boat! (Caveat: everyone except all these brainy freaks on here that easily score >250). I forced myself to study the stuff I hated and it paid off. For example: my General Principles and Behavioral sections were consistently my lowest scores on the practice NBMEs. On the real deal I earned stars in those sections. That's a big deal and will help you a lot. It does no good to continuously go over the same stuff over and over again. You know it, move on. If you are getting stars on sections on multiple NBMEs during dedicated, move on, you know it. Focus on the areas that you are not getting stars in. Or your lowest areas. For most of us, these will be consistent.
I wish I could contribute to more about what I did or didn't do, but really I didn't have a plan. I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I looked at areas I wasn't good at and I went from there. As you can see from my scores on the practice exams, they were not very predictive, but they were VERY consistent. I think that is important. If you are climbing 10 points on every test, that is great! But that doesn't mean you will get your highest score. Yes, of course you want that upward trend, but I walked into the test feeling pretty confident I was going to score a 238/240 given that I had essentially scored that ad nauseam. And then I nearly pooped my pants and thought all hope was lost.
Fun Fact: (I hope I can share this) at the bottom of my score report it says that the scoring takes into account what score you would receive if you were tested multiple times. This is used to make up for the variability in the tests you are administered. Granted they could have just typed that on there to make everyone feel like this exam was fair, but from what I have seen (with the exception of a few people who either blow it out of the water or tank due to some extenuating circumstances), I believe this to be true. In talking to my classmates about NBME practice test scores, my friends who had always scored much lower (10-20%) than I had during medical school were scoring in the same ranges on the NBMEs as I was. But they were averaging much lower on UW. That makes zero sense.
Hindsight: I think that if I had started using ANKI and FA from day one I would have blown this test out of the water (oh and add that guy who just gave me a lecture, he was da bomb). For example, I studied for no more than 3 hours for several NBME shelf exams during MS2 and managed to get solid scores. I would wake up at 4-5 am for a 9 am exam, read through FA and show up. Granted I had gone through those sections on UW, but that was it. DO NOT DO THIS! I would purge the information immediately after the exam. Trust yourself. That whole gut thing, it's REALLL. I mean I essentially blacked out and didn't even remember my exam. Clearly some part of me was working. It just wasn't the conscious part.
At the end of the day, most things work out. Most of us will get scores that make sense based on the last two years of our lives. Some of us will not, some of us will do much better, some of us will not. But big picture, everything does work out in the end. If you don't score high enough to land your dream job, maybe that is because you were meant to do something else. I know that sucks and it is so cliche, but I have seen people not get the job they thought they wanted and end up being WILDLY successful doing the job they didn't know they would love. I can't tell you how lucky I feel right now. And in return for that luck, I promise to be an AWESOME doctor and more importantly, I promise to always try to be a great person. So I will leave you with this. Leave SDN, study your brains out. Because "The harder I work, the more luck I have." < fun fact no one actually knows who said this. Just do it 🙂
