Peaking

[Brainchild777]

I was wondering what you guys think about the possibility of "peaking" too early.

I started firecracker mid way through first year and have done it religiously since then.

I am a 2nd year and have 4 weeks left in school and then am taking 4 weeks for designated study period before I take Step 1. I still feel like I have material to review and a few new things to learn.

I just got my target score yesterday on nbme13 (missed 7qs out of the 200).

Questions for you.

1) Has anyone experienced the other side of a peak?

2) Ways to avoid peaking/ maintain the progress you've made?

I'd really appreciate any help or advice.

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[AnalisCanalis]

I don't really believe in the concept of "peaking". It essentially implies that you are forgetting things at a faster rate than you are learning. If that's the case, you must be doing it very wrong.

 

[Jabbed]

I don't really believe in the concept of "peaking". It essentially implies that you are forgetting things at a faster rate than you are learning. If that's the case, you must be doing it very wrong.

Remember that dedicated studying is more like dedicated review in that you're not really learning a whole lot of new information. At some point, continually reviewing material that you know is just an attempt to plug a leak in the information that you're passively forgetting.

 

[cbrons]

I apologize can someone explain to me what "peaking" means?

 

[Brainchild777]

Peaking is more of an athletics term. You want to set yourself up for the best performance you can possibly deliver on the day of the test. It could happen for a variety of reasons, being too fatigued, being too familiar with the material so that you no longer find it novel and interesting, forgetting stuff that you once knew, etc. I think some of my anxiety has arisen out of the fact that being prepared for something this early (8 weeks before) is unfamiliar territory for me.

 

[pd1112]

I apologize can someone explain to me what "peaking" means?

Once at a peak, there's nowhere to go but down, i.e. continuing to study would not provide any benefit and might cause you to start to subconsciously take shortcuts when reviewing the same information from the same sources, which would most likely hurt you on the actual test.

 

[cbrons]

Can you take the exam early? You should be able to reschedule.

 

[Brainchild777]

Yeah. I will consider doing so.

 

[globe199]

I felt I "peaked" pretty quickly after starting dedicated study and starting to do USMLEWorld questions; I also had a relatively high baseline NBME score since I had been studying consistently throughout MS2. Still, I didn't move my test earlier because I wanted to finish USMLEWorld to the end and do all the NBME exams - I wanted to feel as if I had exhausted every potentially score-predicting resource available. I had no regrets in doing that!

Each individual practice NBME has a rather tight curve (differences in missing small numbers of questions lead to larger differences in scores than you would expect), so be cautious in interpreting a result from just a single practice test. Averages of NBME scores are much more reassuring predictors.

 

[Brainchild777]

Yeah that's a good point. Although this test was a 271, I did only get a 251 on my nbme about 2 mo ago. I also have been above 90% on uworld for the past 6 blocks of 46. I will take more NBMEs and reevaluate.

 

[globe199]

Right, so for comparison, the last NBME I took before my test was also a 271, but in that particular test I missed 6 questions. For the test that you posted (NBME 13) I had missed 8 questions, which came out to 266. Be aware that on the real exam it will probably feel like you missed a lot more than you did when taking practice tests; the practice tests in aggregate are quite predictive, nonetheless.

I was also consistently getting >90% on my last UWorld blocks. I took almost all of my practice tests after finishing UWorld and got similar scores, which was about ~2 weeks before my Step 1, and my real exam score was consistent with the practice exams. It's intuitively obvious, but it was the consistent pattern of high performance rather getting a good score on any one test that was reassuring.

 

[pathologyDO]

Yeah that's a good point. Although this test was a 271, I did only get a 251 on my nbme about 2 mo ago. I also have been above 90% on uworld for the past 6 blocks of 46. I will take more NBMEs and reevaluate.

Trolling?

You're telling me that without a dedicated study period you already have scored a 271 on an NBME? If true that's ridiculous and if I were you I would literally plan to take the exam asap after classes end because there is pretty much nowhere to go but down from that score tbh

 

[pd1112]

>270 with no dedicated and asking for advice?

0/10

 

[Brainchild777]

I am not trolling. I have put in a lot of hard work to get this far. I like what globe199 said about consistency; the advice has been helpful.

 

[globe199]

I am not trolling. I have put in a lot of hard work to get this far. I like what globe199 said about consistency; the advice has been helpful.

View attachment 191734

Wow, that subject breakdown looks almost exactly like mine last year! I wasn't the biggest fan of behavioral science...

Good luck!

 

[pd1112]

I meant trolling in regards to asking for advice. If you're doing that well, either move it up and take it or continue what you're doing and take it. There's no reason to change what is clearly working.

 

[bestlife4others]

I am not trolling. I have put in a lot of hard work to get this far. I like what globe199 said about consistency; the advice has been helpful."

Brainchild777 can you share you preparation strategy?

 

[Brainchild777]

My strategy was basically built off of firecracker.

1) started firecracker early and did about 3 hours a day x 500 days. combine with other resources when things don't make sense.

2) this allowed me to get most of the memorizing out of the way so that I could start focusing on some of the nuances/3rd level thinking.

3) my test strategy is based upon asking myself a series of questions about why i chose the answer i did and why the other answers aren't correct, re-reading the last sentence of the q stem (i.e. the question), etc.

Basically when you can get the memorizing out of the way it frees you up to focus on things that will help to prevent you from making "stupid mistakes" (i.e. answering a question wrong when you knew all of info needed to answer/logic through the question).

 

[synecdoche]

My strategy was basically built off of firecracker.

1) started firecracker early and did about 3 hours a day x 500 days. combine with other resources when things don't make sense.

2) this allowed me to get most of the memorizing out of the way so that I could start focusing on some of the nuances/3rd level thinking.

3) my test strategy is based upon asking myself a series of questions about why i chose the answer i did and why the other answers aren't correct, re-reading the last sentence of the q stem (i.e. the question), etc.

Basically when you can get the memorizing out of the way it frees you up to focus on things that will help to prevent you from making "stupid mistakes" (i.e. answering a question wrong when you knew all of info needed to answer/logic through the question).

Wow, that's a lot of firecracker - was your curriculum P/F only?

 

[Brainchild777]

Wow, that's a lot of firecracker - was your curriculum P/F only?

Yes. True P/F.