Ready for the real deal?

[cookiemonster15]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So I'll be straight forward and say that I'm looking for some confidence boosting before the big day.

I'm 5 days away from sitting for the Step 1 exam and here are the stat's so far:

UWORLD cumulative: 71%

NBME 12 : 470 / 214 (6 weeks ago, start of study period, taken as baseline)
School administered NBME: predicted 220-225 (4 weeks ago)
NBME 13: 560 / 241 (2 weeks ago)
NBME 15: 580 / 245 (1 week ago)
UWSA 1: 242 (1 week ago)
UWSA 2: 253 (today)

I cannot claim that I know everything, and I feel like I could keep studying for days maybe weeks before I can recall most things. Did anyone feel like this before their exam?? I feel like I'm really good at recall - looking at a question and going with gut feeling about what I think the right answer is. However I continue to get stupid questions wrong by not reading the entire question properly, or I'll get questions wrong that 70%+ of people get right.

Is it okay to feel like this or is this a sign of knowledge gaps?

 

[MilkIsGood]

what score are you trying to aim for? I definitely feel the same as you, especially to part about missing ques that so many people have gotten right. I plan on making a final run through of FA before my test so nail down those details that Ive gotten wrong

 

[cookiemonster15]

I'd definitely be happy with anything above a 240. According to practice tests I'm right where I should be but there is always this nagging sense of doubt. Like I'm just getting lucky all the time.

 

[penguinism]

I'm in the same position, with almost the same scores (from baseline to UWSA2 yesterday and my UW percentage). It still feels like I'm guessing on questions, but I also know that there's a reason that my test scores have gone up. I could keep studying for months and still not feel like I know enough, so I am just going to go into the test next week with confidence and hope I do well. I think you should too!

 

[wololololololo]

The fact that NBME questions force you to rule out stuff instead of knee-jerking buzzwords means there's always some degree of guessing and lack of confidence in your answer. Given the steep curve of some NBMEs, guessing one answer over the other could have changed my score pretty drastically but I think this ends up washing out because I would've gotten other questions right (that I got wrong) based on my mindset at the time and what was fresh in my head.

 

[cookiemonster15]

I'm in the same position, with almost the same scores (from baseline to UWSA2 yesterday and my UW percentage). It still feels like I'm guessing on questions, but I also know that there's a reason that my test scores have gone up. I could keep studying for months and still not feel like I know enough, so I am just going to go into the test next week with confidence and hope I do well. I think you should too!

Thanks, glad to know someone else feels the same way. Just imagine what it will feel like when you answer that last question in Block 7, I'm nervous and stoked at the same time.

The fact that NBME questions force you to rule out stuff instead of knee-jerking buzzwords means there's always some degree of guessing and lack of confidence in your answer. Given the steep curve of some NBMEs, guessing one answer over the other could have changed my score pretty drastically but I think this ends up washing out because I would've gotten other questions right (that I got wrong) based on my mindset at the time and what was fresh in my head.

I agree with the whole mindset thing. I tend to mark around 20 questions a block (a little less on NBME's - more like 15-18) and not every wrong answer was one of the ones I marked. But I'll still get a good number of the marked ones right. For example, NBME 15 I think I marked around 32% of the questions which means I marked 64 questions. I got 24 wrong. That means I got 2/3 of my marked questions I got right, assuming the wrong answers were ones that I marked which I highly doubt they all were. Same thing with NBME 13, 37% marked (74 questions) and 26 incorrect. I think that is what makes me most nervous, like if I'm unsure about that many questions and if I screw up exam day I could be looking at a 220-230 rather than my coveted 240.

 

[penguinism]

Thanks, glad to know someone else feels the same way. Just imagine what it will feel like when you answer that last question in Block 7, I'm nervous and stoked at the same time.

I agree with the whole mindset thing. I tend to mark around 20 questions a block (a little less on NBME's - more like 15-18) and not every wrong answer was one of the ones I marked. But I'll still get a good number of the marked ones right. For example, NBME 15 I think I marked around 32% of the questions which means I marked 64 questions. I got 24 wrong. That means I got 2/3 of my marked questions I got right, assuming the wrong answers were ones that I marked which I highly doubt they all were. Same thing with NBME 13, 37% marked (74 questions) and 26 incorrect. I think that is what makes me most nervous, like if I'm unsure about that many questions and if I screw up exam day I could be looking at a 220-230 rather than my coveted 240.

Lol I'm glad I'm not the only one marking that many questions. I mark everything I'm not sure about (even though I sometimes don't mark questions I get wrong). I'm just worried that I will mark too many on the real exam and not have enough time to really look over those questions again, given that the real test may have longer question stems than I am used to (according to people that took it recently). I could definitely also flub up on test day and drop below 240, but I'd also be thrilled to hit the 240+ mark on my exam. I took my NBMEs earlier in my study period (my school gave us NBME 15 as our baseline and NBME16 after our first pass which I think was kind of dumb vs. giving us older NBMEs to start with), so it's harder for me to gauge exactly where I stand right now since UWSAs are notorious for overestimating. I could shell out for another NMBE, but I don't think it's worth it at this point since it's harder to learn from them with no explanations.

I just can't wait for it all to be over! 😀

 

[cookiemonster15]

Lol I'm glad I'm not the only one marking that many questions. I mark everything I'm not sure about (even though I sometimes don't mark questions I get wrong). I'm just worried that I will mark too many on the real exam and not have enough time to really look over those questions again, given that the real test may have longer question stems than I am used to (according to people that took it recently). I could definitely also flub up on test day and drop below 240, but I'd also be thrilled to hit the 240+ mark on my exam. I took my NBMEs earlier in my study period (my school gave us NBME 15 as our baseline and NBME16 after our first pass which I think was kind of dumb vs. giving us older NBMEs to start with), so it's harder for me to gauge exactly where I stand right now since UWSAs are notorious for overestimating. I could shell out for another NMBE, but I don't think it's worth it at this point since it's harder to learn from them with no explanations.

I just can't wait for it all to be over! 😀

Sometimes you gotta just go with your gut. I can't count the number of times I'm down to two answer choices and then talk my self out of my first impression, only to find out I was right the first time.

NBME 12 and 13 are not bad for practice. I'll be taking NBME 16, 2 days before as my final assessment/serious studying.