Other answer choices on real exam

[Scean]

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So quick question for those who have taken the exam; also I guess NBME may give insight into this, but I haven't taken one yet. Are they actually old questions?

Anyway; so do any of you use the other answer choices a lot of the time the way UWorld and other qbanks seem to - by identifying mechanisms that are for OTHER (often related) diseases??

Or on the real thing could there be just some related jargon that is not really true at all as an answer choice but could distract if you weren't totally sure? This could be difficult because sometimes it seems like you have to draw on a mechanism you know to select a choice that is in more detail or at a higher level that you haven't learned directly, but can get to logically.

Sometimes I feel myself having a mech in mind and reading down the choice and saying to myself: "nope thats the mechanism of X and Y, oh there is the Z!"

ya know?

Basically just wondering if the other answer choices are as easily eliminated on the real thing by knowing various REAL mechanisms vs. made up confounders

 

[RadOncRocks]

On the one NBME I took I thought eliminating answer choices was WAY easier. I always feel like on Uworld I can narrow it down to about 4 answers, haha On the NBME I felt like it was fairly easy to narrow it down to 2.

So quick question for those who have taken the exam; also I guess NBME may give insight into this, but I haven't taken one yet. Are they actually old questions?

Anyway; so do any of you use the other answer choices a lot of the time the way UWorld and other qbanks seem to - by identifying mechanisms that are for OTHER (often related) diseases??

Or on the real thing could there be just some related jargon that is not really true at all as an answer choice but could distract if you weren't totally sure? This could be difficult because sometimes it seems like you have to draw on a mechanism you know to select a choice that is in more detail or at a higher level that you haven't learned directly, but can get to logically.

Sometimes I feel myself having a mech in mind and reading down the choice and saying to myself: "nope thats the mechanism of X and Y, oh there is the Z!"

ya know?

Basically just wondering if the other answer choices are as easily eliminated on the real thing by knowing various REAL mechanisms vs. made up confounders

 

[ScubaStarved]

Basically just wondering if the other answer choices are as easily eliminated on the real thing by knowing various REAL mechanisms vs. made up confounders

I know what you're saying, and the good news is that the real thing is both easier and harder. UWorld will ask a bone metabolism path question and give you other answer choices that all include metabolic bone disease (there are like 7-8 questions in the bank just on this topic). I did not get a particular path question like that on my exam, but when you are choosing between mechanisms on the real deal, they often have NOTHING to do with the condition you suspect. Like different organ systems, different class of microorganism, antibiotics against different classes of organisms etc. I don't think they make up confounders exactly, but they are not nearly as closely related as in UWorld and you will often have NO idea to what process, antibiotic, organism they are describing. It's unsettling, but easier.