Pre- dedicated study NBME?

[hrain]

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Hey guys,

Did any of you take an NBME as a diagnostic/baseline test before entering your dedicated study period? If so, can you shed some light on where most people start and end up, ie typical improvement over dedicated study? I'll have somewhere between 4.5 and 6 weeks for my just-studying period...

Thanks!

Edit: I should mention that I've completed about 70% of GT (45% mastery) and about 300 Kaplan questions already. Also, I've seen most of Pathoma over the last year (but haven't rewatched most parts in a while).

 

[Phloston]

Sitting the NBME exams is a huge catch-22.

You want to sit them early enough so that you know how/what the USMLE actually assesses, but late enough so that you can walk into the real deal with a relatively accurate prediction of your performance.

Sit NBMEs 1, 2, 3 and 4 offline. Do these now or soon.

Then sit NBME5 online as a diagnostic. Once you get your score, you'll now have 1000 NBME questions under your belt and a preliminary sense of what the USMLE questions will be like.

Save the remaining online NBMEs for the final two weeks before your exam.

 

[Lioness12]

...

 

[OneMoreRound]

nm. Does anyone have NBME 1 that they could shoot me a PDF of?

 

[hrain]

Sorry, I guess I also should have included this:

I actually took form 6 today (wanted the extended feedback, or else I would have chosen 5), earned a 390 / 196. It's not quite where I wanted to be, but I'm pretty glad that I passed. Plus, the lowest scores I had were Microbio and Musculoskeletal/Derm...I haven't had the latter at all yet, and I have a refresher 2 week "Infectious Diseases" course in February that I'm hoping will help me out a lot. I'm hoping to get an idea of how much I might be able to improve, if anyone has any ideas? I know that's a pretty personal thing, though...definitely varies from person to person.

I like your idea of doing the early forms as well, although it sounds like a daunting task...I'm also hoping to (try to) get through Kaplan QBank, some of Rx, and then start UW for my dedicated study come March 15. Plus I need to finish GT and hopefully get through a couple rounds through FA...and school. That too :/

I've been debating between taking 4.5 vs. 6 weeks for dedicated study...told myself before today that if I got a 200 I'd take the 4.5 but if I got less I'd go for 6 weeks. I'm pretty close to the line, but leaning towards taking the full 6 now, I suppose, putting my test at the end of April (I'm an AMG btw).

Thanks for all the help, Phloston.

 

[OneMoreRound]

Is there any disadvantage to taking offline NBME 5 and 6?

 

[Phloston]

Is there any disadvantage to taking offline NBME 5 and 6?

Anything you don't take online won't give you a score prediction. If you want scores, you need to do the NBMEs online.

Online, NBME5 doesn't come with extended feedback, but NBME6 does. Getting extended feedback is a HUGE time-saver. It's onerous to have to search the internet forums / PubMed for answers.

 

[cliffhuxtableDO]

Where does one find the offline exams?