Should I move my STEP 1 date up?

[thehopefuldoctor23]

I have 4 weeks until my exam. My goal is to try and hit 240. Here are my practice test scores in the order that I took them, with about 1 week in between each one:

School CBSE 1: 76(215)
Uworld 1: 243
NBME 17: 219
NBME 16: 223
School CBSE 2: 88(245)

Right now Im about 70% done with Uworld and also around 70% done with DIT. I worry that I'm currently plateauing, and my actual STEP 1 score might be lower. If I find an open test date, would it be a good idea to move it up around 2 weeks or should I just stick it out the entire 4?

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[sunshinefl]

I have 4 weeks until my exam. My goal is to try and hit 240. Here are my practice test scores in the order that I took them, with about 1 week in between each one:

School CBSE 1: 76(215)
Uworld 1: 243
NBME 17: 219
NBME 16: 223
School CBSE 2: 88(245)

Right now Im about 70% done with Uworld and also around 70% done with DIT. I worry that I'm currently plateauing, and my actual STEP 1 score might be lower. If I find an open test date, would it be a good idea to move it up around 2 weeks or should I just stick it out the entire 4?

Right now I wouldn’t feel confident that you would hit your target, but you still have some time. But you know yourself best. If it would truly hurt, then move your date up regardless of hitting your target. Also consider splitting the difference if you’re truly torn and move it up by 1 week.

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

I’m not convinced by that cbse score that you are going to hit your 240 goal at this point but you also might not have plateaud- could be some room to improve still.

Maybe try nbme 18. I think that result will be more telling than a school administered cbse

 

[thehopefuldoctor23]

I’m not convinced by that cbse score that you are going to hit your 240 goal at this point but you also might not have plateaud- could be some room to improve still.

Maybe try nbme 18. I think that result will be more telling than a school administered cbse

Thanks for the advice! I am wondering if either of you would know how accurate the school CBSE is at predicting STEP 1 scores vs NBME? Would it be a fair assumption to say that I have a good chance of falling somewhere in between by the average of my NBME's and the CBSE's?

 

[libertyyne]

Thanks for the advice! I am wondering if either of you would know how accurate the school CBSE is at predicting STEP 1 scores vs NBME? Would it be a fair assumption to say that I have a good chance of falling somewhere in between by the average of my NBME's and the CBSE's?

How long ago was 17 taken?
What is your uworld average?
Only the school can tell how correlative their CBSE is compared to NBMEs.
If i was a betting person I would say your score is around ~230 +- 7 right now.

Plenty of people go up 10-20 points with a month of dedicated.But that is usually with zero uworld behind them. In your case that is a little different. But you need to be hammering out your weak areas.

 

[thehopefuldoctor23]

How long ago was 17 taken?
What is your uworld average?
Only the school can tell how correlative their CBSE is compared to NBMEs.
If i was a betting person I would say your score is around ~230 +- 7 right now.

Plenty of people go up 10-20 points with a month of dedicated.But that is usually with zero uworld behind them. In your case that is a little different. But you need to be hammering out your weak areas.

Thanks for the reply
NBME 17 was about 3 weeks ago. Uworld average is currently 72%. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the CBSE exam was curved based on data from 2nd year medical students across the country? Is the true or is it curved based on each individual school?

 

[libertyyne]

Thanks for the reply
NBME 17 was about 3 weeks ago. Uworld average is currently 72%. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the CBSE exam was curved based on data from 2nd year medical students across the country? Is the true or is it curved based on each individual school?

I honestly dont know the specifics behind it , I am not sure if they are customized by schools for difficulty. The national curves are also misleading since they are sometimes administered under very different points in training, like a school i know that administers them twice a year to m1s.

how far apart was 16 from cbssa?

 

[LyMed]

Do you feel burnt out? Do you feel like you have more to learn and improve on?

 

[XxThaDoggxX]

I would not move up. UW 1 one is notoriously known to overpredict scores by atleast 10+ points. If any other further questions please feel free to message me, did an extensive write up last year on reddit about all of this stuff.

Good luck!

 

[751866]

I would not move up. UW 1 one is notoriously known to overpredict scores by atleast 10+ points. If any other further questions please feel free to message me, did an extensive write up last year on reddit about all of this stuff.

Good luck!

This is all anecdotal evidence that UWorld "notoriously" over predicts. No one has done a legitimate quantification of how much all of these practice test under or overpredict (except some silly stuff on reddit that over complicates and poorly executes an attempt at this).
UWorld 1&2 was within a few points for me and several friends and classmates and fit pretty well with our NBMEs, but that doesn't mean these test are predicting accurately. It's not a hard question to answer with a representative sample but the reddit stuff is botched and that's the only attempt anyone's made.

 

[NotYou20]

Take an nbme either 18 or 19 and go from there. Keep in mind there's probably a lot of variation between practice tests and more importantly versions of the real test. You, like everyone who doesn't hit 270, have weak points and could get an exam that stresses them. Or maybe that cbse emphasized your strengths. Given 3/5 practice tests are below goal I don't think you should be confident in hitting it in 2 weeks.

If you're worried about plateauing you need to figure out what your weakness are. Start with uworld breakdowns, if there's a few clear things, great, work on them. If not, look at some questions you got wrong and look for patterns beyond organ system or type of knowledge tested. Did you hone in on one thing because of a buzzword? Miss a pathognemonic buzzword? Felt time pressure? Get psyched out because a minor detail didn't fit what you remembered? Trouble focusing and just picked something? Didn't pick up on the association they hinted at? Failed to see they gave you info that ruled out the answer you picked? Knowledge gaps?

All of these can be improved but first at you have to recognize them.

 

[XxThaDoggxX]

This is all anecdotal evidence that UWorld "notoriously" over predicts. No one has done a legitimate quantification of how much all of these practice test under or overpredict (except some silly stuff on reddit that over complicates and poorly executes an attempt at this).
UWorld 1&2 was within a few points for me and several friends and classmates and fit pretty well with our NBMEs, but that doesn't mean these test are predicting accurately. It's not a hard question to answer with a representative sample but the reddit stuff is botched and that's the only attempt anyone's made.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[751866]

Just my 2 cents.

I think the information is valuable to an extent, but shouldn't be overstated..."notoriously overpredicts by +10 points" makes the statement sound much more credible due to firm language and an actual number. The reality is this is an eyeball estimate that comes from self selected data (maybe these people are posting in some part because they had a bigger discrepancy?).

At the end of the day, it's not much different from "...all of my friends did X and Y followed..." but presenting it as if there's a rigorous backbone to the statement. It's not without value, but it should definitely be toned back.