Step I Scared ****less

[Tastebuds]

I have been doing the pathology USMLE world questions in 50 question/1 hour increments. The first set of 50 questions----I made a 60%; and the next 2 sets....I went down considerably---between 40-45%. I have not started studying pathology at all for the USMLE. But, I started on the USMLE world pathology questions a few days ago...because there are sooo many of them. But now im getting very discouraged 🙁 . Even though I havent started studying the path section yet.....I was hoping that studying for pathology during the school year would come in handy when answering USMLE World questions. Is anyone going through the same thing?

 

[barmay]

start worrying after you study for it, thats just common sense

 

[SwissB4]

Yup to what barman said...World is very integrated in ways that most med school curriculums aren't.

 

[doctorp82]

If you're doing questions pre-studying, then do them to learn from them and forget your score. If you learn well from doing UW and only have a 50% but take an NBME and find you're doing great, who cares?

 

[Tastebuds]

Thanks SwissB4 for your comment. I know its common sense Barmay...but i was wondering what other people were scoring on questions they might be answering straight from learning the material in school.

 

[Terpskins99]

Before I started studying, I took a quick 50 block of random path questions and scored under 50%. Naturally, I was pretty scared too.

But after going through path once, I usually score ~70%. My goal is to get that up to around 80% after my second pass. If you're still hovering around 50% after your first pass through... then you should get concerned.

 

[chitown82]

as wild as this may seem, the time of day that you do questions may also be a factor. i used to do questions as soon as i woke up in the mornings and i would get low 60s on qbank. one day i started doing questions in the afternoon and my scores are now in the low 70s consistently.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

The only problem with that is the exam will require you to do questions early in the morning and in the afternoon. I've been doing questions mostly in the morning, because I have trouble getting going in the morning and that gives me a kick in the pants. But, do whatever time of day works for you. Just don't take *too* much stock in your scores -- even if you're doing well, there's more you can learn. Think of 40-45% as room for improvement, not a reason to worry excessively.

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Ill tell you what, I've done maybe 600 world questions since Sunday when I got it. I was seriously getting my ass kicked. After you settle in, realize what they are actually asking and GO OVER YOUR MISTAKES AND EVEN THE ONES YOU GET RIGHT AS IF YOU GOT THEM WRONG, you will make some seriously nice improvements.


I still have about 11 days left. I intend on finishing the last 1300 questions or so by Monday or Tuesday leaving me about a week of review.

 

[Tastebuds]

Does it take you guys a long time to go over the questions----whether you got them right or wrong? Because it takes me forever! But I have to admit the questions are Very good!

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Right now it takes me about an hour and a half to go through the explanations for 50 questions, but I think if I could probably get that down to an hour if I really tried.