Purpose of NBME

[kkc620]

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I'm just wondering what the benefits of taking the NBMEs are? I have 2 weeks left and haven't taken any yet. I'm thru about 40% of UW and want to know if I should spend money/time on the NBMEs. From what I have read, answers are not provided. Are the questions normally very similar to the actual test? Why does everyone talk them up so much? Thanks.

 

[hsans23]

i think it's because they seem to have good predictive value of what you'll get on the real thing, and the questions simulate the real thing more than any qbanks can since they are actual questions used on previous tests. mostly i think it is because med students are so anxious about the thing and want some gauge of how they're doing other than their qbanks. you dont see answers but i still think it's worth the 4 hours and 45 bucks to have a pretty reliable self assessment. alot of people on these boards seem to take 4+ of them though, which i think is kind of overkill.

 

[luhando]

I'm just wondering what the benefits of taking the NBMEs are? I have 2 weeks left and haven't taken any yet. I'm thru about 40% of UW and want to know if I should spend money/time on the NBMEs. From what I have read, answers are not provided. Are the questions normally very similar to the actual test? Why does everyone talk them up so much? Thanks.

honestly...i personally dont see the point of taking them except in a few situations.

1) before you start studying as a baseline, especially since you get a breakdown of your performance by subject
2) in the middle of your studying if youre really lost and think you need to change your study plan. even then...i think it would be more efficient to just ask someone you know who has been through it...so number 2 on this list is a maybe in my opinion.
3) closer to your test if you think you might need to postpone and arent sure if youre ready.

i personally have never taken one and will be taking one this coming week just as an evaluation close to the real thing. some people have said not to do this as it could stress you out/make you overconfident but i tend to be pretty level-headed about these things so i decided to do it anyway.

basically...it sounds like its personal preference but i dont see it as a study tool since there are no answers/explanations.

 

[BillyRubinstein]

Personally I see no reason why not to take the NBME's. They give you an estimate as to how your USMLE knowledge is progressing, and even more important, they are confidence builders. As long as you are studying, there's no reason why your scores should not progressivley increase. For me, it gives me incentive to work even harder if I see that what I am doing is paying off, and actually working. When you come test day, you will have seen hundreds, maybe thousands of "lookalike questions" from the NBME's and Uworld.

 

[45408]

I just want to know how well I'm doing. My practice test showed I was doing better than I thought, so it's a morale booster.

 

[luhando]

sounds like everyone has a different answer...but thats cause everyone tends to work differently when studying for this beast. pooling it all together should help you decide if it's for you though.

 

[WalterDandy]

Can anyone just confirm for me, am I right in thinking the NBMEs are "retired" questions or is there a possibilty that NBME questions can come up in the real thing?

 

[kkc620]

i've heard that they are "retired" questions but that a very similar question can show up on the test. people say the same thing about UW too so I don't really get the point. is this right?

 

[synapse lapse]

They are composed of retired questions. Of course there are only so many topics to ask questions on, and though there are a myriad of ways to test that, there are clearly things that they expect every physician to know. Goljan mentions often questions that have been repeated every year in differant/the same way. In any case, it wouldn't be time effective to just take all the NBME hoping for repeats, may as well just study with that time. I won't be taking any NBME as I am too cheap and don't really see the point for me since I can't reschedule my exam anyhow (taking it on 6/25 and 3rd year starts 6/30) so it wouldn't make a differance, I have to take it whether I'm ready or not!

 

[WalterDandy]

I think that's fair enough. I've just stuck with UW, it was tempting to do the NBME's for the ego boost but I decided just to keep beating my head against the UW wall. Test on Friday 😱 so I'll let you know how that worked out...

 

[kkc620]

thanks for the information. this makes my decision to forgo doing the NBMEs much easier. i think UW is good enough for me with 2 weeks left.