Real Deal Difficulty Level

[morkdaddy21]

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So I keep hearing that for most people the real deal is easier than USMLE world. I'm curious to know if there are people that took the exam already and felt that it was much more difficult than USMLE world. I only ask because I did 80% of USMLE world and felt good going in. On the first 2 blocks I was just blown away with the difficulty of the questions. I felt that USMLE did not prepare me well for the questions on those blocks. Overall I think that 4 of the blocks on the real deal were the HARDEST blocks I've ever taken (practice and all). Kind of feel like **** because I prepared so hard and I feel like I got an unfair exam. Waiting for 1 month is going to suck. Hopefully there's some sort of curve that accomodates for this or I'm screwed.

 

[Tiger26]

I thought that it was similar to the UW self assessment. Plus, the harder stuff may be experimental (hopefully)

 

[kkc620]

I took the real deal yesterday and also finished 80% of UW with a 70% average. Four of the blocks were ridiculously difficult. There was only one block that I thought was easier than UW. It got to the point where I took a break, went outside and sat in my car and truly considered driving off. Believe me, you aren't the only one who feels they got an unfair exam. I seriously think they took FA, the Goljan lectures, the BRS books, and UW and made sure that 75% of the exam could not be answered with those resources. On top of that, giving us 58 minutes to complete those blocks is absolutely absurd. Folks, the traditional way to study for this test won't work anymore but I have no idea what I could've done differently. Just remember that we aren't being compared to students who had the older version when our scores get released. It's the only thing comforting me now.

 

[GynGuy1983]

I have yet to hear of anyone coming out of the real exam confident, so there isn't much to worry about. If both of you were shooting in the 70's on UW, I really don't think that this will pose any sort of issue with either one of you. I can only imagine what it must have felt like coming out of the testing center. I'm going to be taking it soon, so I have a feeling that I will feel the exact same way.

Just keep in mind that the exam is graded against your peers, so I don't think that either one of you should worry. It's the people that are borderline like me that lose sleep knowing that students like you may be taking it the same day as me.

Out of curiosity, what did you feel the exam was heavy on? How long did you prepare? Was the exam extra heavy on anything in particular?

Thanks for the info.

 

[The Angriest Bird]

I've already told my family NOT to ask "how was it" after I drive back from the test center, because based on information provided by this forum, everyone feels they blow it 🙂

 

[2cr8tive]

so are we ranked against the people taking it the same day or the same month?

 

[The Angriest Bird]

so are we ranked against the people taking it the same day or the same month?

I have the same question. Since you get the score in 3-6 weeks, they can't compare you against people across a 3-month period.

I know the answer would be "very very unlikely", but can you have idiots/geniuses clustered with you so your grade is much raised/lowered?

 

[GynGuy1983]

I thought it was the people who took it the same day as you and then they pool you in with people who took it that month.

 

[lilnoelle]

I have the same question. Since you get the score in 3-6 weeks, they can't compare you against people across a 3-month period.

I know the answer would be "very very unlikely", but can you have idiots/geniuses clustered with you so your grade is much raised/lowered?

I'm guessing questions get reused too - so they can use data from the previous year (and from the previous months for that matter)

 

[BrisketAttack]

I took the real deal yesterday and also finished 80% of UW with a 70% average. Four of the blocks were ridiculously difficult. There was only one block that I thought was easier than UW. It got to the point where I took a break, went outside and sat in my car and truly considered driving off. Believe me, you aren't the only one who feels they got an unfair exam. I seriously think they took FA, the Goljan lectures, the BRS books, and UW and made sure that 75% of the exam could not be answered with those resources. On top of that, giving us 58 minutes to complete those blocks is absolutely absurd. Folks, the traditional way to study for this test won't work anymore but I have no idea what I could've done differently. Just remember that we aren't being compared to students who had the older version when our scores get released. It's the only thing comforting me now.

I'm with you.

However, I hope the score is not based on people who took the exam on the same day because the top student in my class was sitting behind me, taking the test. she may have ****ed the curve for the whole nation. smarty.

as for the way I felt when leaving the exam. it can be summed up in a word that begins with S and ends with hit. i too studied my ass off (>500 hours) using the top rated resources (UW, FA, RR path, BRS phys, CMMRS) and I thought step 1 questions were (on average) impossible to study for. Not impossible to answer, just impossible to study for. I hate to say this, but it's truly how I felt, which is why I have said that I wish I took the exam 3 weeks earlier. There's literally zilch that I learned or saw in those last three weeks that helped me answer even one more additional question on my exam. There were less than 5 instant recall questions on the whole exam. the rest were crazy brain gymnatics questions that made you think so hard you stood serious risk of bleeding from the ears.

 

[2cr8tive]

I'm with you.

However, I hope the score is not based on people who took the exam on the same day because the top student in my class was sitting behind me, taking the test. she may have ****ed the curve for the whole nation. smarty.

as for the way I felt when leaving the exam. it can be summed up in a word that begins with S and ends with hit. i too studied my ass off (>500 hours) using the top rated resources (UW, FA, RR path, BRS phys, CMMRS) and I thought step 1 questions were (on average) impossible to study for. Not impossible to answer, just impossible to study for. I hate to say this, but it's truly how I felt, which is why I have said that I wish I took the exam 3 weeks earlier. There's literally zilch that I learned or saw in those last three weeks that helped me answer even one more additional question on my exam. There were less than 5 instant recall questions on the whole exam. the rest were crazy brain gymnatics questions that made you think so hard you stood serious risk of bleeding from the ears.

that sux but hey if u felt that way most people seeing the same questions felt the same so u'll be fine. but isnt that strange? some people say over 50% was pure recall some say only 5 questions ... fingers cross it's over soon

 

[osli]

so are we ranked against the people taking it the same day or the same month?

There was some discussion about this in a thread or two a few weeks back. I think the logical conclusion is that the NBME tracks the difficulty of each question individually based on how students having that question have done on it. Thus, each question on your exam has a difficulty rating assigned to it, and it isn't just how many questions you get right but which questions you get right. Missing a hard vs. an easy question won't affect your score the same way.

Similarly, if you felt that your test was "crazy hard" it might well have been, but your score still might not suffer for it. If you happened to draw a heavily unrepresentative sampling of questions by having way more "difficult" questions than chance would predict, then you may have really sucked it up on test day... but the statistical analysis will account for the difficulty of those questions. It all evens out. I'd probably rather get a really tough test than a really easy one, because I'd guess that "silly mistakes" (i.e., missing things you know but just misread or didn't think through) would hurt you more on the easy exam.

So in all likelihood, you aren't compared against a group of students on any one day, or during any set time span... or even against a group having your exact exam. But rather against everyone who has ever had the questions on your exam, individually analyzed, question by question, to build up your score.

 

[synapse lapse]

There was some discussion about this in a thread or two a few weeks back. I think the logical conclusion is that the NBME tracks the difficulty of each question individually based on how students having that question have done on it. Thus, each question on your exam has a difficulty rating assigned to it, and it isn't just how many questions you get right but which questions you get right. Missing a hard vs. an easy question won't affect your score the same way.

Similarly, if you felt that your test was "crazy hard" it might well have been, but your score still might not suffer for it. If you happened to draw a heavily unrepresentative sampling of questions by having way more "difficult" questions than chance would predict, then you may have really sucked it up on test day... but the statistical analysis will account for the difficulty of those questions. It all evens out. I'd probably rather get a really tough test than a really easy one, because I'd guess that "silly mistakes" (i.e., missing things you know but just misread or didn't think through) would hurt you more on the easy exam.

So in all likelihood, you aren't compared against a group of students on any one day, or during any set time span... or even against a group having your exact exam. But rather against everyone who has ever had the questions on your exam, individually analyzed, question by question, to build up your score.

Of course, the flip side of getting a super hard test is it takes a mental toll on you, thus causing your performance to decline. I know if I took 150 super hard questions my head would hurt and I would almost shut down, but if I had 150 recall questions I'd be pretty relaxed. Who knows how it all works.

 

[skm95]

So in all likelihood, you aren't compared against a group of students on any one day, or during any set time span... or even against a group having your exact exam. But rather against everyone who has ever had the questions on your exam, individually analyzed, question by question, to build up your score.

This also sums up my understanding of this exam.

So, why some who are taking exam after May 15th are seeing some very tough questions? As I explained in my previous posts, the USMLE exam is not designed to fail. It is a professional exam with negatively skewed distribution; therefore more students are likely to pass it than fail it. But getting a score above mean-score requires answering tougher and tougher questions. For last one year USMLE was most likely adding long stem experimental questions to the old 50-question step1 exams. Now that they have all the statistical data collected for those questions, they are becoming part of the new 48-question exam. But, new experimental questions in 48-question USMLE exam also have long stems. So, cumulative affect is presenting a picture of a very difficult exam.

But, using exam data from May16-July16, USMLE will normalize the distribution to keep the grading standard consistent, therefore the impact on comparative score (pre-May15/350 vs. post-May15/336) is going to be minimal.

As osli said, there was some discussion about USMLE exam scoring here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=525730&page=2

Of course, the flip side of getting a super hard test is it takes a mental toll on you, thus causing your performance to decline.

This can only be fixed by making USMLE an adaptive-test. It can definitely help in reducing anxiety level and stress, for those who panic quickly by looking at few tough questions at the very beginning of exam. But discussion on pros and cons of adaptive exams is a whole discussion topic by itself!

 

[synapse lapse]

This can only be fixed by making USMLE an adaptive-test. It can definitely help in reducing anxiety level and stress, for those who panic quickly by looking at few tough questions at the very beginning of exam. But discussion on pros and cons of adaptive exams is a whole discussion topic by itself!

Like the GRE. I think an adaptive test is probably a better test design, but that is a completely other discussion. In any case, I always enjoy your posts on statistics and test design, and was hoping you'd move to this thread. 👍

 

[The Angriest Bird]

I want to thank this community for getting me mentally prepared for the worst.

I'm going in this Saturday. I'm ready to face the most ridiculous-freaking-a**-impossible exam in my whole life. If I hadn't read what's in this forum, I'd totally freak out when I get those hard questions and mentally break down in the test center.

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

z

 

[GynGuy1983]

I really don't think the exam is graded against your peers. I always thought it was based on how you do statistically on each and every question you get. Even though you might take the USMLE on the same day as another person, you two will not have the same questions.

I'm convinced in my mind that there is a huge pool of thousands of questions and every time you go on to the next block it randomly selects 50 (now 48) questions from that magical pool. I think everyone will feel violated after the exam.. it's just a matter of degree, like "I got touched on the knee by Uncle Jack" violated, or "Bend over and don't ask questions" violated. I'm hoping for the former.

Haha, would it be wrong if I said that I wanted the latter?


J/k. In all honesty though, you prepare to the best of your ability, if it's enough to clear the exam, awesome, if not, you're going to need to spend more time on studying. That's what it all comes down to.

The moderators on here said that the pool of questions that they use isn't that big to begin with and that some question may actually repeat, thus why we can't discuss them.

 

[LUBDUBB]

I want to thank this community for getting me mentally prepared for the worst.

I'm going in this Saturday. I'm ready to face the most ridiculous-freaking-a**-impossible exam in my whole life. If I hadn't read what's in this forum, I'd totally freak out when I get those hard questions and mentally break down in the test center.

As Goljan would say, I completely, unequivocally, absolutely feel the same.

 

[highyield]

I took the real deal yesterday and also finished 80% of UW with a 70% average. Four of the blocks were ridiculously difficult. There was only one block that I thought was easier than UW. It got to the point where I took a break, went outside and sat in my car and truly considered driving off. Believe me, you aren't the only one who feels they got an unfair exam. I seriously think they took FA, the Goljan lectures, the BRS books, and UW and made sure that 75% of the exam could not be answered with those resources. On top of that, giving us 58 minutes to complete those blocks is absolutely absurd. Folks, the traditional way to study for this test won't work anymore but I have no idea what I could've done differently. Just remember that we aren't being compared to students who had the older version when our scores get released. It's the only thing comforting me now.

I couldn't agree more. I firmly believe that the creators of step 1 know what items people use to study, and make sure not to ask questions that would allow us to regurgitate facts. Really with all the graphical/experimental interpretations, it is must be turning into a test of logic. I said on the "experiences with 2008 boards" thread, that it really seemed more like the MCAT than UW or USMLERx questions. It's nice to know that people feel the same.

It's true, people studying for this exam in the coming years are going to have to change their study methods. Maybe people should start taking LSAT prep classes and doing logical games from the newspaper. no j/k, but thats what it feels like.

 

[synapse lapse]

I couldn't agree more. I firmly believe that the creators of step 1 know what items people use to study, and make sure not to ask questions that would allow us to regurgitate facts. Really with all the graphical/experimental interpretations, it is must be turning into a test of logic. I said on the "experiences with 2008 boards" thread, that it really seemed more like the MCAT than UW or USMLERx questions. It's nice to know that people feel the same.

It's true, people studying for this exam in the coming years are going to have to change their study methods. Maybe people should start taking LSAT prep classes and doing logical games from the newspaper. no j/k, but thats what it feels like.

I prefer a test of logic, largely because I was a philosophy major in college and prefer reasononing to regurgitation. However, 350 questions that require deep reasoning in less than a minute and a half each is simply too much. Pretty nervous about going into the beast wed.

 

[TerpMD]

Not to go against the grain here, but I do not think that all this conspiracy theory about them making it harder or trying to ask things not found in the 'classic' review sources has any merit at all. I took it last week and was it hard- yes. The questions that stick out in your mind are the hard ones, and there are plenty of questions that are straightforward. I felt very similar to how I felt after the NBMEs and the UW assessment. On every NBME I took I was convinced I did terribly and my scores turned out much better than I expected. Like I said, it isn't easy but we all knew that going in. I just think post exam recall bias is unnecessarily scaring others and is uncalled for. A hard test for one person might be easy for another so I think people should be more considerate about their own issues before posting and making other freak out.

Sorry to rant but SDN freaked me out the last week a little too and others should not suffer this added stress.

 

[highyield]

Not to go against the grain here, but I do not think that all this conspiracy theory about them making it harder or trying to ask things not found in the 'classic' review sources has any merit at all. I took it last week and was it hard- yes. The questions that stick out in your mind are the hard ones, and there are plenty of questions that are straightforward. I felt very similar to how I felt after the NBMEs and the UW assessment. On every NBME I took I was convinced I did terribly and my scores turned out much better than I expected. Like I said, it isn't easy but we all knew that going in. I just think post exam recall bias is unnecessarily scaring others and is uncalled for. A hard test for one person might be easy for another so I think people should be more considerate about their own issues before posting and making other freak out.

Sorry to rant but SDN freaked me out the last week a little too and others should not suffer this added stress.

i agree with you too. i guess i am just agreeing with everyone today. I wrote a longer review under a different thread. i am sorry if i may have freaked people out. i honestly thought the questions were easier than UW. I guess i was trying to say that they were different than i expected, and probably easier. definitely nothing to freak about.

 

[lilnoelle]

Not to go against the grain here, but I do not think that all this conspiracy theory about them making it harder or trying to ask things not found in the 'classic' review sources has any merit at all. I took it last week and was it hard- yes. The questions that stick out in your mind are the hard ones, and there are plenty of questions that are straightforward. I felt very similar to how I felt after the NBMEs and the UW assessment. On every NBME I took I was convinced I did terribly and my scores turned out much better than I expected. Like I said, it isn't easy but we all knew that going in. I just think post exam recall bias is unnecessarily scaring others and is uncalled for. A hard test for one person might be easy for another so I think people should be more considerate about their own issues before posting and making other freak out.

Sorry to rant but SDN freaked me out the last week a little too and others should not suffer this added stress.

Would it make those of you who haven't taken it feel better if I told you that my test was EASIER than I thought it would be?

Obviously theres a lot of variance from test to test, but I'm rather certain that the grades are adjusted based on the difficulty of the test. So you guys don't have anything to worry about.... just do your best (and hope for the best).

 

[Anaphylactic]

Not to go against the grain here, but I do not think that all this conspiracy theory about them making it harder or trying to ask things not found in the 'classic' review sources has any merit at all. I took it last week and was it hard- yes. The questions that stick out in your mind are the hard ones, and there are plenty of questions that are straightforward. I felt very similar to how I felt after the NBMEs and the UW assessment. On every NBME I took I was convinced I did terribly and my scores turned out much better than I expected. Like I said, it isn't easy but we all knew that going in. I just think post exam recall bias is unnecessarily scaring others and is uncalled for. A hard test for one person might be easy for another so I think people should be more considerate about their own issues before posting and making other freak out.

Sorry to rant but SDN freaked me out the last week a little too and others should not suffer this added stress.

Thank you, you are the voice of reason. All these paranoid hypochondriacs on SDN should be hung up by the toes.

 

[LUBDUBB]

Would it make those of you who haven't taken it feel better if I told you that my test was EASIER than I thought it would be?

Obviously theres a lot of variance from test to test, but I'm rather certain that the grades are adjusted based on the difficulty of the test. So you guys don't have anything to worry about.... just do your best (and hope for the best).

I agree there may variability in the topics that represented. However, all the tests are probably around the same difficulty scale. The variability in "difficulty" that is reported by test takers most likely results from differences in level preparation and also differences in subject strengths and weaknesses.

 

[GynGuy1983]

Thank you, you are the voice of reason. All these paranoid hypochondriacs on SDN should be hung up by the toes.

These are the same people that come on here spewing this nonsense of how difficult their exam was and in mid-July, you'll see them editing their posts with their scores of 240+.

Yeah, real difficult 😛

I already flamed some other poster in a different thread for crying about getting 3 consecutive 260's on his NBME's and how he was hoping to just get a 220 or pass.

Congratulations to those that do so well on the exam, but I really could do without the whiny overachievers looking for consolation. If you're looking for someone to pet your ego, give your mom a call.

 

[kkc620]

Not to go against the grain here, but I do not think that all this conspiracy theory about them making it harder or trying to ask things not found in the 'classic' review sources has any merit at all. I took it last week and was it hard- yes. The questions that stick out in your mind are the hard ones, and there are plenty of questions that are straightforward. I felt very similar to how I felt after the NBMEs and the UW assessment. On every NBME I took I was convinced I did terribly and my scores turned out much better than I expected. Like I said, it isn't easy but we all knew that going in. I just think post exam recall bias is unnecessarily scaring others and is uncalled for. A hard test for one person might be easy for another so I think people should be more considerate about their own issues before posting and making other freak out.

Sorry to rant but SDN freaked me out the last week a little too and others should not suffer this added stress.

I can only assume that this was meant to be a semi-stab at my post. For your kind information, I wouldn't post something here to freak people out and to insinuate this is (as you so kindly put it) "uncalled for".

Let me get this straight, people on this forum prefer to read only positive posts regarding exam experiences so that they can have a false sense of security going into the exam? That's real smart.

Truthfully, I read so many posts about how much easier the real exam was than UW that I was surprised by the difficulty of my exam. I felt like an idiot throughout my test for even reading the exam experiences thread. This is why I decided to share my personal experience and two days after dealing with my "own issues" I feel the same way.

Anyways, thanks for your input. I hope you can continue using this forum as a way to achieve a false sense of security for the rest of your medical career. If anyone would like to know why I felt the way I did about my test please feel free to PM me. This is the last time I'll post anything publicly.

 

[osli]

I for one appreciate this real world feedback. Based on some threads/posts here going back over the last two months or so, I too was very much under the impression that the real exam had to be significantly easier than UW... much in line with the NBME's. Of course, the logic that an average of 55% is not appropriate for a pass/fail licensure exam still stands, but whether that is true or not I agree that it probably isn't healthy to go in with too much of a false sense that the questions will be easier than you are used to.

There's a psychology of the test day that a question bank can't duplicate, and that accounts for a lot of the perceived difficulty of the questions you actually face. I'm glad now that I know that I'll see some real UW style biatch questions, and will hopefully be a bit better prepared for that reality. I think I'm going to have to go in with a split personality... knowing that the questions are going to be very difficult, but assuming that I'm going to destroy the exam none-the-less.

 

[lilnoelle]

I agree there may variability in the topics that represented. However, all the tests are probably around the same difficulty scale. The variability in "difficulty" that is reported by test takers most likely results from differences in level preparation and also differences in subject strengths and weaknesses.

Could be.... but I have a hard time understanding why someone with 260's scores on NBME could go on and on about how hard their test was, when I got a 214 on my last NBME and thought the exam was easier than expected.

Not to say that I thought it was easy, but rather I expected it to be an incredibly frustrating, exhausting day, and I was wrong - it wasn't.

It could be that I went through the exam in a bit of a daze - I honestly can't remember but a few questions that were on the exam.... I may have completely missed the difficulty of various questions....

 

[GynGuy1983]

Could be.... but I have a hard time understanding why someone with 260's scores on NBME could go on and on about how hard their test was, when I got a 214 on my last NBME and thought the exam was easier than expected.

Not to say that I thought it was easy, but rather I expected it to be an incredibly frustrating, exhausting day, and I was wrong - it wasn't.

It could be that I went through the exam in a bit of a daze - I honestly can't remember but a few questions that were on the exam.... I may have completely missed the difficulty of various questions....

+1

I think that the people who get these really high scores (i.e. 240+) probably go through UW and know most of the answers after a simple one time pass over the question, yet when you add the extra dynamic of stress to taking the actual exam, they answer the question the same way they would at home, but with a little bit of uncertainty. I think that is what is truly skewing their judgment about the difficulty, or maybe their fear of failure.

Lilnoelle, be proud of your theoretical 214 (which I'm sure will become a reality when you receive your score in July) and don't let any of these other people detract from the fact that you be a great physician. Some people are just better test takers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are better clinicians.

 

[LUBDUBB]

Could be.... but I have a hard time understanding why someone with 260's scores on NBME could go on and on about how hard their test was, when I got a 214 on my last NBME and thought the exam was easier than expected.
....

+1

I think that the people who get these really high scores (i.e. 240+) probably go through UW and know most of the answers after a simple one time pass over the question, yet when you add the extra dynamic of stress to taking the actual exam, they answer the question the same way they would at home, but with a little bit of uncertainty. I think that is what is truly skewing their judgment about the difficulty, or maybe their fear of failure.

I have a hard time believing a standardized test is going to have "easy" and "hard" forms. I think it's more a matter of psychology; GynGuy's hypothesis sounds pretty good to me.

 

[BrisketAttack]

Could be.... but I have a hard time understanding why someone with 260's scores on NBME could go on and on about how hard their test was, when I got a 214 on my last NBME and thought the exam was easier than expected.

Not to say that I thought it was easy, but rather I expected it to be an incredibly frustrating, exhausting day, and I was wrong - it wasn't.

It could be that I went through the exam in a bit of a daze - I honestly can't remember but a few questions that were on the exam.... I may have completely missed the difficulty of various questions....

I got a 260 on an NBME and thought the real exam was the most difficult I had taken after 3000+ practice questions. The reason why is simple: the questions were harder. I am sure of this. it is not recall bias. There were pharmacodynamics questions that were way beyond the range of FA. There were short question stems and gross pictures of breast cancer and you had to identify which one out of a list of 8. There were feedback diagrams of reproductive processes that I had never seen before. There were clinical cases so complex they were fit for step 2. There are many other examples of stuff I had never seen before/ever considered/was not prepared for after >500 hrs of studying.

As for exam day, I was destroyed at the end. Bloodshot eyes like out of a comic, wasted, exhausted, could barely speak beyond sentence fragments. Maybe my constitution just isn't as strong as yours Lilnoelle. I'm not being facetious. I am being serious. The test just took so much out of me.

 

[Instatewaiter]

+1

I think that the people who get these really high scores (i.e. 240+) probably go through UW and know most of the answers after a simple one time pass over the question, yet when you add the extra dynamic of stress to taking the actual exam, they answer the question the same way they would at home, but with a little bit of uncertainty. I think that is what is truly skewing their judgment about the difficulty, or maybe their fear of failure.

+1

I have a hard time believing a standardized test is going to have "easy" and "hard" forms. I think it's more a matter of psychology; GynGuy's hypothesis sounds pretty good to me.

I figure with all the data the NBME has collected over the years everyone gets a test with an average correct percentage of X.

I think U world does the same thing. At the end of each block of UW the average score is usually in the low 50s. Sometimes i get a test with a ton of questions where 90% of people get them right with a bunch of 20s and 10s.

Sometimes I get a test with mainly 50s, 60s and 70 % correct. Either way, the average score nationally is around 52%.

I figure the same thing happens on USMLE: some people do get tests with a bunch of hard questions but i figure they also must have a larger percentage of very easy questions. And how often do you remember a question that was a straight gimme? So they basically report an inordinant amt of hard ones.

 

[-Goose-]

This thread is making me feel better. I am one of "those" kids with pretty high NBMEs that felt like he got rocked by the real thing.

 

[obiwan]

i took the test last friday. i would have to say the test is either what i would consider easy questions where i felt like the entire study period wasn't really needed since i had already learned it through the first 2 years or the questions were ridiculously hard/vague/out of nowhere. These questions are so frustrating because you will not come across any of these questions in your 6 weeks of studying. hopefully, they are experimental which i kept telling myself throughout the test. and it doesn't help that i've already decided that i've missed a couple of the easy ones.

 

[lilzelda2]

and it doesn't help that i've already decided that i've missed a couple of the easy ones.

I understand how you feel I can think of 10 questions I should of gotten right b/c they were easy, but I over thought them. Next time def. going with the gut instead of the brain.

I think only my last block was like a NBME and I breezed through it, the others were pretty hard. There wasn't a lot of recall it was more graphs and I didn't get easy crap like what is TSH/T3 going to do in hyperthyroidism, it was random.

I think alot of it depends on the test you get. People who had hard test or thought the test was hard is going to say the exam sucked, those that have the opposite experince are going to say contrary. You'll make your own assessment when you take the test. Just know it can go either way and that life goes on.

 

[osli]

You know... I'm noticing a definite pattern here on SDN. The people who have scored very high on UW and/or NBME's (high 70's-80's, 250-260) are the very ones that felt like the USMLE was very difficult. People in the "average" range seem to think it was "hard, not crazy".

This has to be due to the psychology of expectations. People scoring 260 consistently on NBME's probably go in thinking they have seen most everything, and can reason through most any question. That probably just isn't being realistic. People who are "average" know there is some stuff they don't know and will miss, thus when they get a tough question that would frustrate a "better prepared" student, they just pick C and move on, chalking it up to either experimental or one of the dozens they know they will miss anyway.

Go back and look at the threads. It's a very clear pattern. Helo's post in his new thread, and on this thread BA, kkc, goose, and many others.

I'm not saying that you are lying BrisketAttack (and others)... the test probably is that difficult. And it's the same for everyone. It's just that your expectations may have been different ("I'm going to nail this thing... I hope I don't miss many that aren't experimental...") vs. the average student ("I know it's going to be tough, I'm going to miss plenty, but others with my level of preparation have managed to come out with a decent score so I know I will too...").

Very different mindsets lead to very different perceptions.

 

[Anaphylactic]

You know... I'm noticing a definite pattern here on SDN. The people who have scored very high on UW and/or NBME's (high 70's-80's, 250-260) are the very ones that felt like the USMLE was very difficult. People in the "average" range seem to think it was "hard, not crazy".

This has to be due to the psychology of expectations. People scoring 260 consistently on NBME's probably go in thinking they have seen most everything, and can reason through most any question. That probably just isn't being realistic. People who are "average" know there is some stuff they don't know and will miss, thus when they get a tough question that would frustrate a "better prepared" student, they just pick C and move on, chalking it up to either experimental or one of the dozens they know they will miss anyway.

Go back and look at the threads. It's a very clear pattern. Helo's post in his new thread, and on this thread BA, kkc, goose, and many others.

I'm not saying that you are lying BrisketAttack (and others)... the test probably is that difficult. And it's the same for everyone. It's just that your expectations may have been different ("I'm going to nail this thing... I hope I don't miss many that aren't experimental...") vs. the average student ("I know it's going to be tough, I'm going to miss plenty, but others with my level of preparation have managed to come out with a decent score so I know I will too...").

Very different mindsets lead to very different perceptions.

Either that, or they are just prevaricating their NBME scores or they just got lucky.

 

[-Goose-]

You know... I'm noticing a definite pattern here on SDN. The people who have scored very high on UW and/or NBME's (high 70's-80's, 250-260) are the very ones that felt like the USMLE was very difficult. People in the "average" range seem to think it was "hard, not crazy".

This has to be due to the psychology of expectations. People scoring 260 consistently on NBME's probably go in thinking they have seen most everything, and can reason through most any question. That probably just isn't being realistic. People who are "average" know there is some stuff they don't know and will miss, thus when they get a tough question that would frustrate a "better prepared" student, they just pick C and move on, chalking it up to either experimental or one of the dozens they know they will miss anyway.

Go back and look at the threads. It's a very clear pattern. Helo's post in his new thread, and on this thread BA, kkc, goose, and many others.

I'm not saying that you are lying BrisketAttack (and others)... the test probably is that difficult. And it's the same for everyone. It's just that your expectations may have been different ("I'm going to nail this thing... I hope I don't miss many that aren't experimental...") vs. the average student ("I know it's going to be tough, I'm going to miss plenty, but others with my level of preparation have managed to come out with a decent score so I know I will too...").

Very different mindsets lead to very different perceptions.

You are probably right.

 

[BrisketAttack]

You know... I'm noticing a definite pattern here on SDN. The people who have scored very high on UW and/or NBME's (high 70's-80's, 250-260) are the very ones that felt like the USMLE was very difficult. People in the "average" range seem to think it was "hard, not crazy".

This has to be due to the psychology of expectations. People scoring 260 consistently on NBME's probably go in thinking they have seen most everything, and can reason through most any question. That probably just isn't being realistic. People who are "average" know there is some stuff they don't know and will miss, thus when they get a tough question that would frustrate a "better prepared" student, they just pick C and move on, chalking it up to either experimental or one of the dozens they know they will miss anyway.

Go back and look at the threads. It's a very clear pattern. Helo's post in his new thread, and on this thread BA, kkc, goose, and many others.

I'm not saying that you are lying BrisketAttack (and others)... the test probably is that difficult. And it's the same for everyone. It's just that your expectations may have been different ("I'm going to nail this thing... I hope I don't miss many that aren't experimental...") vs. the average student ("I know it's going to be tough, I'm going to miss plenty, but others with my level of preparation have managed to come out with a decent score so I know I will too...").

Very different mindsets lead to very different perceptions.

i never felt i was going to nail the real test. as for how i scored what i did on the NBME, i just knew the stuff that was on there. i know i did. not the same with the real exam. this is not imagined. on a typical uworld test i'd mark 4-5 questions/block. on the real thing i marked 10+. I've thought about whether this was due to nerves or the actual questions, and i'm 100% certain it was because the questions were harder (for me).

to ana:

as for prevaricating things, i don't know what that word means, so maybe i've been prevaricating my whole life and not known it. and for that matter, how do you know I wasn't postvaricating? it's all the rage these days, or didn't you hear?

 

[lilzelda2]

I like how other people are calling people out when they haven't even taken the test yet. Its like pre-meds giving people advice on medical school. 🙄

 

[45408]

Of course, the flip side of getting a super hard test is it takes a mental toll on you, thus causing your performance to decline. I know if I took 150 super hard questions my head would hurt and I would almost shut down, but if I had 150 recall questions I'd be pretty relaxed. Who knows how it all works.

No kidding. There's no way I would be performing at my best game if I felt like the guy who said he truly considered driving off. If I were going out and crying in between blocks, my performance would plummet. I'd rather have the easier test.


I felt that the test was, by and large, easier than UW, as did several other guys that I studied with.

 

[45408]

I agree there may variability in the topics that represented. However, all the tests are probably around the same difficulty scale. The variability in "difficulty" that is reported by test takers most likely results from differences in level preparation and also differences in subject strengths and weaknesses.

Definitely. Fortunately for me, bacteriology is one of those subjects that just clicks for me, and I had a fair number of bacteria questions. Had they all been virus questions of similar difficulty, I'd have been upset about how hard it was. One of my classmates felt brutalized after his test because he got a bunch of tough biostats questions, and he didn't know that stuff too well. Neither do I, but I didn't get many of those questions.

 

[DwyaneWade]

You know... I'm noticing a definite pattern here on SDN. The people who have scored very high on UW and/or NBME's (high 70's-80's, 250-260) are the very ones that felt like the USMLE was very difficult. People in the "average" range seem to think it was "hard, not crazy".

This has to be due to the psychology of expectations. People scoring 260 consistently on NBME's probably go in thinking they have seen most everything, and can reason through most any question. That probably just isn't being realistic. People who are "average" know there is some stuff they don't know and will miss, thus when they get a tough question that would frustrate a "better prepared" student, they just pick C and move on, chalking it up to either experimental or one of the dozens they know they will miss anyway.

Go back and look at the threads. It's a very clear pattern. Helo's post in his new thread, and on this thread BA, kkc, goose, and many others.

I'm not saying that you are lying BrisketAttack (and others)... the test probably is that difficult. And it's the same for everyone. It's just that your expectations may have been different ("I'm going to nail this thing... I hope I don't miss many that aren't experimental...") vs. the average student ("I know it's going to be tough, I'm going to miss plenty, but others with my level of preparation have managed to come out with a decent score so I know I will too...").

Very different mindsets lead to very different perceptions.

I agree with this.

I think a lot of those 260+ people didn't go in with the expectation that there would be plenty of questions they would not have come across while studying. These people are used to knowing pretty much everything on their tests (or at least having some idea). That said, I doubt most of you guys scored much worse on the actual exam, remember everything is standardized according to question difficulty (most likely). If it was hard for you, it was hard for everyone else.

Personally I had 5-6 questions per block I had no clue about but I walked in expecting those so I just put down an answer and moved on. Unless you let those questions ruin the rest of your exam I bet you did fine 🙂

 

[osli]

i never felt i was going to nail the real test. as for how i scored what i did on the NBME, i just knew the stuff that was on there. i know i did. not the same with the real exam. this is not imagined. on a typical uworld test i'd mark 4-5 questions/block. on the real thing i marked 10+. I've thought about whether this was due to nerves or the actual questions, and i'm 100% certain it was because the questions were harder (for me).

And I believe you 100%. All I'm saying is that for you (in your own words) you "knew" the stuff on the NBME's (and apparently UW), and didn't on the USMLE. Thus, the test felt very difficult for you... especially when others have said that UW should be harder than the real thing. But from the perspective of the average student, they don't "know" a lot of stuff on the NBME's, or UW, or Kaplan, or on the real thing. So the real thing feels to them very much like everything else they have gone through.

If you're getting 55% right on UW and 70% right on NBME's and get 60% or 65% right on the USMLE, it feels very similar, perhaps even "not that difficult". If you're getting 85% on UW and 90% on NBME's and drop to 80% on the USMLE (remember, they may be some 10% that are experimental), then it may well feel significantly more difficult.

I personally don't know exactly what to expect, but thanks to you (honestly) and others, I'll go in expecting to see some very hard questions and hopefully not get too rattled by them.

 

[DwyaneWade]

I like how other people are calling people out when they haven't even taken the test yet. Its like pre-meds giving people advice on medical school. 🙄

👎

 

[DwyaneWade]

And I believe you 100%. All I'm saying is that for you (in your own words) you "knew" the stuff on the NBME's (and apparently UW), and didn't on the USMLE. Thus, the test felt very difficult for you... especially when others have said that UW should be harder than the real thing. But from the perspective of the average student, they don't "know" a lot of stuff on the NBME's, or UW, or Kaplan, or on the real thing. So the real thing feels to them very much like everything else they have gone through.

If you're getting 55% right on UW and 70% right on NBME's and get 60% or 65% right on the USMLE, it feels very similar, perhaps even "not that difficult". If you're getting 85% on UW and 90% on NBME's and drop to 80% on the USMLE (remember, they may be some 10% that are experimental), then it may well feel significantly more difficult.

I personally don't know exactly what to expect, but thanks to you (honestly) and others, I'll go in expecting to see some very hard questions and hopefully not get too rattled by them.

🙂

 

[VPDcurt]

Just took it today. It's just weird - that's all there is to it. There are some ridiculously easy questions and then there are the other ones. I finished the NBMEs with 10-15 mins left per section - here I was down to about 2 minutes left over per section. The stems were definitely longer (longer than UWorld). A few were really long. I was scoring pretty high on my practice tests and on UWorld - I think one of the main problems with the practice questions and first aid is the overuse of buzz words. It seems like they went out of there way to not use any buzz words on my test - maybe 5 the entire exam. I felt like I knew what they were talking about most of the time, but not with the same level of certainty that I had with the practice questions. The answers are also a lot more obscure. It just wasn't what I was used to...my computer screen was also flickering the whole time which drove me absolutely crazy and I felt like I had "the worst headache of my life" (unfortunately it wasn't a berry aneursym).

 

[MSKalltheway]

Just took it today. It's just weird - that's all there is to it. There are some ridiculously easy questions and then there are the other ones. I finished the NBMEs with 10-15 mins left per section - here I was down to about 2 minutes left over per section. The stems were definitely longer (longer than UWorld). A few were really long. I was scoring pretty high on my practice tests and on UWorld - I think one of the main problems with the practice questions and first aid is the overuse of buzz words. It seems like they went out of there way to not use any buzz words on my test - maybe 5 the entire exam. I felt like I knew what they were talking about most of the time, but not with the same level of certainty that I had with the practice questions. The answers are also a lot more obscure. It just wasn't what I was used to...my computer screen was also flickering the whole time which drove me absolutely crazy and I felt like I had "the worst headache of my life" (unfortunately it wasn't a berry aneursym).

These were exactly all my feelings about the exam. I thought it was definitely difficult, but not "Oh my God the sky is falling I'm gonna fail and get a 160, drop out and be a stripper to pay my loans back". I'd say I felt as though my exam was, on the whole, around the same difficulty as those UW questions that had in between 35-45% of students getting them correct. I was very unsure because they usually didnt clearly point you in the direction of an answer via buzzwords or anything, and not having or being able to look up answers for instant gratification right afterward probably contributes to how hard we feel it was.

The theory about how "average" vs high scoring students viewed the exam seems quite reasonable, but I can think of a few classmates that were getting high UW %'s, did well on the NBME's and probably killed this test, but didnt think it was exceptionally difficult. I do agree though, perceived difficulty is def all about how you look at the exam.