Question about exam experience

[path problems]

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I've been going thru the practice NBME exams. It feels like

1. The more application questions are toward the end of each block. The recall questions and biochem questions are at the start of the block. Does the real exam follow this pattern or is it completely random? Should I consider starting each block from the end and working back?

2. The question stems are short and some questions (not all) are dead simple. Is this any representation of the real thing?

I'd appreciate your insight.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I've been going thru the practice NBME exams. It feels like

1. The more application questions are toward the end of each block. The recall questions and biochem questions are at the start of the block. Does the real exam follow this pattern or is it completely random? Should I consider starting each block from the end and working back?

I didn't notice this

2. The question stems are short and some questions (not all) are dead simple. Is this any representation of the real thing?

I'd appreciate your insight.

The lengths of question stems are extremely variable. I had ones that were two lines long and one that took up the whole screen with useless history details and lab values.

 

[path problems]

this is SO disappointing. on the released items I'm scoring in the high 70s, but on the nbme I'm barely passing.

the released items show no correllation do they?😡

 

[39094]

Unfortunately the released items are not at all representative of the real thing as the questions tend to be much easier and less complicated.

Honestly the NBME's aren't that representative either, but the score they predict is.

I found on the real thing that question length varied a lot, but there are a lot less gimme questions than on the NBME's. I thought that my last block was particularly hard, but that may have been because I was tired towards the end rather than because they saved the hardest questions for last. I otherwise didn't notice any particular order to the questions.

 

[superoxide]

i just took nbme 4 yesterday and scored a 460. I did nbme 1 early last month and scored 440. nbme 4 was MUCH harder than form 1. i thought i'd be lucky to get a stinkin 300 on it as i was doing it. i felt like i was guessing on most of the questions. Although i should be happy about the increase in the score, im not (lucky guesses??). im doing usmlerx questions right now, after which im going to do forms 2 and 3....and i write step 1 on november 9th ...hopefully my nbme's WILL be predictive for me.

 

[shiv]

hey
Howz USMLERx?? Is it better than q-bank? Are the questions more pathophys based? Thanks

 

[superoxide]

hey
Howz USMLERx?? Is it better than q-bank? Are the questions more pathophys based? Thanks

so far ive done 47% of usmlerx and i am sitting at exactly 70%. I feel that most of the questions are straight out of FA and the reason i get most of the questions wrong is only because i dont know my FA well enough and not because i don know a certain concept. I read the first line of the question and i already have the answer and most of the time i'm correct. there are about 20% of the questions that really make u think. its very much different from qbank. it doesnt have any crazy wtf questions. i think robbins review path questions are much better and more challenging. the questions are nothing like the ones i got on nbme4. im going to do nbme 3 at the end of this month and see how it goes. im still going to finish usmlerx...its a good way to review your FA material in question form. just my opinion.