- Joined
- Jun 29, 2011
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction score
- 37
Hi there, Brazilian IMG here.
Took my first NBME today (Form 13) and got 410/209. I've been seriously preparing for less than a month and haven't gone through the entire FA yet -- still missing half of micro, biochem, public health services, general path, reproductive, hem/onc, GI -- neither UWORLD (about 20% of the questions or so) but decided to take Form 13 anyway as I still have about 2 months for the real thing and thought it could be a decent baseline (don't know if I'm right, though). Missed a lot of biochem and reproductive system questions (not a big surprise there).
I'm actually not that unhappy with the score as I haven't studied most of this stuff in the last 4 years. We cover Step 1 material in the first 2 years of med school (out of a total of 6 years; the last 4 are clinical) and getting 80% of 200 questions right wasn't that bad, I think (again, I may be wrong.) I just wasn't expecting the grading curve to be so brutal.
I want IM and am targeting a 250+ score (to be in the top 10% percentile.)
My current plan is: finish FA and my first pass at UWorld by the end of May and spend June and the first few days of July revisiting FA, redoing UWorld and taking the other NBMEs. I'm also doing 1 hour of Pathoma 5 days of week on the treadmill.
I would really appreciate your input on the following:
- How realistic is it to improve about 40 points in 2 months?
- Should I make any changes to the plan above?
- Should I reassess my performance after I finish FA for the first time and then decide to postpone the exam (or not)? If so, what should be my target in a 2/3 weeks time?
Took my first NBME today (Form 13) and got 410/209. I've been seriously preparing for less than a month and haven't gone through the entire FA yet -- still missing half of micro, biochem, public health services, general path, reproductive, hem/onc, GI -- neither UWORLD (about 20% of the questions or so) but decided to take Form 13 anyway as I still have about 2 months for the real thing and thought it could be a decent baseline (don't know if I'm right, though). Missed a lot of biochem and reproductive system questions (not a big surprise there).
I'm actually not that unhappy with the score as I haven't studied most of this stuff in the last 4 years. We cover Step 1 material in the first 2 years of med school (out of a total of 6 years; the last 4 are clinical) and getting 80% of 200 questions right wasn't that bad, I think (again, I may be wrong.) I just wasn't expecting the grading curve to be so brutal.
I want IM and am targeting a 250+ score (to be in the top 10% percentile.)
My current plan is: finish FA and my first pass at UWorld by the end of May and spend June and the first few days of July revisiting FA, redoing UWorld and taking the other NBMEs. I'm also doing 1 hour of Pathoma 5 days of week on the treadmill.
I would really appreciate your input on the following:
- How realistic is it to improve about 40 points in 2 months?
- Should I make any changes to the plan above?
- Should I reassess my performance after I finish FA for the first time and then decide to postpone the exam (or not)? If so, what should be my target in a 2/3 weeks time?
