QBank Performance over time

[mnms]

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I read on this forum of people scoring in the 60%s and 70%s. I was wondering if you guys made these scores from the get-go, or did you have to work up to those scores. If there was a learning curve, where did you start from and how long did it take you to get up to the 60s and 70s.

Thanks
😀

 

[DarksideAllstar]

I predict that you will find a narrow range of responses consisting of...I started at 76 and by the end of the 2nd week I was averaging 92, and by the end of the 4th week ,100%. I think SDN selects out only the most brilliant med students from the entire med student population. Its the same way with the MCAT in PreAllo, everyone has a 34T.

I can provide you with this info however. I took the average at the end of each week of studying and I increased roughly 3-4% per week (doing 50Q, random subject tests). I do not attribute this to "learning" new material, but learning how to answer their questions. It does become somewhat predictable, mainly because it seems like a lot of their questions (mainly in Path), focus on the same disease process over and over (ie. I think I had like 20 questions on Myasthenia Gravis). How many different ways can you kick the dog?

Dont put too much stock in those percentages that you get, as I am sure some of the questions come out of left field, and some of those answers that they deem "correct" are debatable.

Good luck and keep your head up. 🙂

 

[imtiaz]

I predict that you will find a narrow range of responses consisting of...I started at 76 and by the end of the 2nd week I was averaging 92, and by the end of the 4th week ,100%. I think SDN selects out only the most brilliant med students from the entire med student population. Its the same way with the MCAT in PreAllo, everyone has a 34T.

I can provide you with this info however. I took the average at the end of each week of studying and I increased roughly 3-4% per week (doing 50Q, random subject tests). I do not attribute this to "learning" new material, but learning how to answer their questions. It does become somewhat predictable, mainly because it seems like a lot of their questions (mainly in Path), focus on the same disease process over and over (ie. I think I had like 20 questions on Myasthenia Gravis). How many different ways can you kick the dog?

Dont put too much stock in those percentages that you get, as I am sure some of the questions come out of left field, and some of those answers that they deem "correct" are debatable.

Good luck and keep your head up. 🙂

word. qbank is so predictable now i can get a 90% with my hands tied behind my back. they ask the same questions over and over again from different angles.

 

[Idiopathic]

i can get a 90% with my hands tied behind my back

Me too...I type with my penis, but it is getting sore...

 

[EctopicFetus]

Hmm I started Qbank and I was getting in the low 60s this was like in Feb or March, I did like 10% then. When I finished the exam my cum was 68% i think, I finished a little over 50% of Q Bank and i was averaging in the 70s (70-76) with a few outliers an 84 and an 86. That being said about 3 or 4 days before my exam i did about 150Qs and I got 54, 58 and 65. I started to freak the FFFF out! Then the next morning I got my 84. I think i was burnt out and a much needed break was taken.

 

[PACtoDOC]

I started out with 73% and ended up with 74% overall. I varied only minimally over the month of doing it. I did it though in a different manner than most. I would read the chapter in Step Up and then complete the system of questions that went with that system. Where I scored worst was biochem (60%) and stats. I have had several people tell me and reinforce that USMLE has really shifted to almost all clinically focused questions, thus if you can kick butt on path/pharm/micro, that you are going to do well overall. My pharm was roughly 85%, my pathophy was 88%, and my micro 76%, so I feel confident that my weaknesses will only bring me down a few questions overall. My true weaknesses are biochem/anatomy/embryo/stats, and I figure that will consititute less than 15% of the exam. I can guess on all those if I have to and still do respectably. And more than not have told me that their exam was easier this year than Q Bank. So don't fret, just be ready!! 7 days and counting, not even counting the fact that I have COMLEX tomorrow and Wednesday!!

 

[AlexRusso]

I started out doing just path q's before my shelf exams. I was averaging a 70 there. When I started board studying I did random blocks of 50 every night. My scores for those were originally in the low to mid 60's with few otulier abouve a 70. My scores increased consistentlyu throughout my studying and I'm now consistenly getting the mid70's with a few outliers above 80. I only have 200 questions left to do (hopefully get through those today) and my overall average is a 71%...I'm taking the practice exam at prometric tomorrow, the Kaplan CDROM on Wed, the Kaplan Full length in-center on Thurs and the NBME released items on Fri. I'll let you know how those go for some sort of correlation.

 

[nuprin]

i did questions random in 50 question blocks. every day 50. somedays near the end i did two blocks, first thing in the AM most days.

0.88 (this was my last test the day before boards i believe)
0.76
0.82
0.66 (so was this)
0.84
0.80
0.72
0.78
0.68 (this was a shocker)
0.82
0.78
0.74
0.80
0.78
0.80
0.74
0.80
0.84
0.74
0.76
0.80 (after this I wanted to score 80 all the time)
0.76
0.72
0.78
0.74
0.70
0.72
0.76
0.48 (first test back was a heartbreaker)
Went to hawaii for 5 days with family for a wedding basically.
0.64
0.66
0.64
0.58

my boards score was Z greater than 1.

 

[mnms]

i think that some of the high percentages reported in these forums come from:

1. taking a block after a full day of studying
2. selecting only specified topics/subjects that have just been studied
3. repeat questions...etc.

i think the best estimate of one's qbank performance is doing the Qs randomly, first thing in the morning, and selecting all topics and all systems. what do y'all think?

 

[mnms]

i could, however, just be jealous, 'cause i'm just scoring in the mid 50%s. but i am getting better and increasing my score about 5-8% per week with 2.5 weeks left. knowing me, i'll probably hit a plateau around the mid 60%.

also, i had a crazy end of the year with one class (pathophys) on the fence. i had to study my a#@ off for that and didn't have time to review much of FA and re-review the anatomy, biochem and embryo i studied over spring break. so really, i was an empty vessel when i began qbank 1 week ago...i hope 😕

but as many have said before, it's understanding your mistakes and the topics in the questions that is more important than getting the score.

n e wayz, i will trudge on ahead and hope for greater learning, and sure why not, better scores.

ciao 😎

 

[babinski bob]

i think that some of the high percentages reported in these forums come from:

1. taking a block after a full day of studying
2. selecting only specified topics/subjects that have just been studied
3. repeat questions...etc.

i think the best estimate of one's qbank performance is doing the Qs randomly, first thing in the morning, and selecting all topics and all systems. what do y'all think?

I agree w/ you. I hardly believe that anyone is regularly scoring 90-100% on 50 question random blocks. Anyone that says this is full of ****.

 

[Mossjoh]

No, I doubt anyone is doing THAT well.

I started around 70% and with studying almost 3 weeks, I'm up to around 78-86%. I'm sick and tired of this though...

I agree however that qbank does a LOT of repeat questions. I have only unused questions that I'm taking...and its seems I've seen a lot of these before.

The big exam is Thursday..hope I'm ready.

Mossjoh

 

[Lara]

I started studying about 2 1/2 weeks ago and have just under 2 weeks left (eek!) I have 25% of qbank done - all completely random. My cummulative score so far is 62, ranging from 50-70 (but my last four exams were all 66). I definitely have to study more if I'm going to get out of the 60's - but that likely won't happen, at least cummulatively. 🙄

Hopefully this isn't so bad, I'll just do as much as I can in the relatively short time left (and try to finish qbank!)

 

[EctopicFetus]

mnms I did all of them randomly above you can see my scores. I will say I dont know how it correlates to an actual score.

 

[Brian Pavlovitz]

i could, however, just be jealous, 'cause i'm just scoring in the mid 50%s. but i am getting better and increasing my score about 5-8% per week with 2.5 weeks left. knowing me, i'll probably hit a plateau around the mid 60%.

I hear you, mnms. I've been doing q bank for almost 2 weeks, and seem to be sticking in the 60's on random 50q blocks. I'm wondering if I'll plateau in the mid 60's, too. Hopefully, this will be sufficient for the real thing. 🙄 Good luck!!

 

[moo]

When I started studying right out of school I was hitting the 40s, 50s... I was depressed for a week, then my scores started rising and now I am in the 70s and 80s... I think this has more to do with getting skilled at taking these exams than anything becaues after I do a block, I always think I did poorly but end up doing ok.

 

[AlexRusso]

When I started studying right out of school I was hitting the 40s, 50s... I was depressed for a week, then my scores started rising and now I am in the 70s and 80s... I think this has more to do with getting skilled at taking these exams than anything becaues after I do a block, I always think I did poorly but end up doing ok.

same thing here...as i said earlier i started in the low 60's and increased consistently (all random blocks). Did 4 blocks yesterday and scored 80+ on all of them. (Range 80-88) I have just two more blocks to go. if you get low scores in the begining. don't give up, stick with it an you'll see your scores improve.

on a side note..took my prometric practice exam today and got an 82...qbank average is a 72

Anyone have any ide if 82 on the released items is good??? I heard they tend to be easier than the real deal.

 

[pxz]

When I started out Qbank, I was in 40%-50% until I read the BRS path/BRS physio over in the first two weeks. Then my scores improved to 60-70%. If someone can start it off at 60% without reviewing any old subjects, he is definitely a top student. I mean, the most Qs I got right when I started Qbank were behav Qs and some obvious ones with big DZs.

 

[lindyloohoo]

anybody ever notice that you get higher scores on say a randomized 25 ? than a 50 randomized? it's like I feel like all the "hard" esoteric facts are stuck in my 50 ?s and the general stuff that is easy to reason through is 25 ?s. This has happened on more than 1 occasion. so much for random.

 

[mnms]

it is a relief to see that i am not the only one starting in the 40s and 50s (lindyloohoo, moo). with 1.5 weeks of qbank down, i started in the 40s and now in the mid to low 50s with one glimmering 60 that i hold onto for self-respect and hope.

well, i hope that learning from the questions and keeping up my FA review along with other review books will increase my score. i realised that when i started qbank, i knew nothing..and had big gaping holes of knowledge in more than a couple of subject areas (embryo, stats) and was getting slaughtered. but when i went back to check the answers on a 40%er, i saw that the questions i missed were from the "knowledge-holes" and that if i had reviewed that material, i would have scored in the 60% range.

but that aside, i talked with our academic dean today who said that performance assessment should be done w/ NBME questions (the released items, the $45 ones, etc.) they offer. and that we should use qbank as a mode of studying. the reasons being that the NBME Qs are more like the real thing and that we may also see them on the Step 1. i trust him bc he's written many Qs for the Step 1.

So i'll just keep trudging along and hope that qbank scores go up anyways if for any other reason than pride and i'll use the NBME material to punctuate my qbank experiences.

good luck!

 

[DarksideAllstar]

Like I said before, dont use Q bank as an assessment of what you know because it will drive you absolutely mad!
Keep on keepin' on everyone.