Recent Test Takers...

[docjohn101]

Everyone knows about the "addition" of new questions to the exam, I was wondering what you guys thought of the exam in terms of content and how well First Aid and UWORLD prepared you for it...

Recent test takers (in the last week or so) or people who know people who took the exam in the last week, please reply...THANKS!

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[usmleq]

I took the test yesterday. I studied using First Aid, UWorld, and DIT. I really felt I knew the material covered by those resources pretty well and felt confident going into the real deal. I took NBME 13 Friday and made a 240. Well, the actual test was awful. There were many questions where I absolutely had no clue and had never seen the information presented in the question. My initial impression is that First Aid, UWorld, and DIT didn't really prepare me very well for the test I was given. What could I have done differently? Besides reading obscure research papers I really have no idea. I'd also add that the questions asked weren't difficult questions because they required critical thinking skills. The questions were pretty straight forward, but they presented facts that I had never seen before in any review materials. This is by no means meant to scare anyone. Like someone else mentioned previously, everyone pretty much uses the same study materials so if you get a question you've never seen before odds are almost no one else has seen it either. Keep working hard and you'll be fine.

Maybe you were just under-prepared or happened to get a bunch of hard questions on your test. Two people posted in the 2012 experiences thread and said their exams (on the same day as yours) were easy.

 

[kayakjack]

Maybe you were just under-prepared or happened to get a bunch of hard questions on your test. Two people posted in the 2012 experiences thread and said their exams on the same day as your were easy.

I was not under-prepared. I think I just ended up getting a hard test. Oh well. It'll even out in the end. Like someone said above, this same thing happens every year. There are some people who get ridiculously hard tests and there are some who get about what they expected. After the curve I think we'll all get what we deserve.

 

[kayakjack]

I took the test yesterday. I studied using First Aid, UWorld, and DIT. I really felt I knew the material covered by those resources pretty well and felt confident going into the real deal. I took NBME 13 Friday and made a 240. Well, the actual test was awful. There were many questions where I absolutely had no clue and had never seen the information presented in the question. My initial impression is that First Aid, UWorld, and DIT didn't really prepare me very well for the test I was given. What could I have done differently? Besides reading obscure research papers I really have no idea. I'd also add that the questions asked weren't difficult questions because they required critical thinking skills. The questions were pretty straight forward, but they presented facts that I had never seen before in any review materials. This is by no means meant to scare anyone. Like someone else mentioned previously, everyone pretty much uses the same study materials so if you get a question you've never seen before odds are almost no one else has seen it either. Keep working hard and you'll be fine.

Thought I should give an update that might ease the fears of those who come out of the test feeling terrible. Ended up with 250's on the real deal. I still feel the test I had was incredibly hard but it just goes to show that your initial feelings walking out really don't have much of a correlation with how you did. Work hard enough (not necessarily Pholston hard) and you'll be fine. Good luck.

 

[alternatego]

Thought I should give an update that might ease the fears of those who come out of the test feeling terrible. Ended up with 250's on the real deal. I still feel the test I had was incredibly hard but it just goes to show that your initial feelings walking out really don't have much of a correlation with how you did. Work hard enough (not necessarily Pholston hard) and you'll be fine. Good luck.

thanks for the update!!!! for how long did you study?

 

[Ronium]

Took it Tuesday and it was fine. U world and FA were good as long as you understood the concepts. My friends that took it today said they had a completely rough exam with 30% of material not seen before. So not sure when they changed the bank but it may have been today or yesterday.

I took the test on Tuesday 16 as well. I know 2 other who took it and none of us had similar questions among the ones we compared. USMLE has quite the elaborate system!

I found the exam to be quite easy overall. ended up marking like 45 questions in total.
What is your feedback weightlifter911?

Oh btw, thats my first post on this forum... i just registered