Take NBME close to real deal?

[WashMe]

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I'm 11 days out and I'm 100 pages into my 2nd UW pass with ~1200 unused UW questions remaining. I feel like I might have time to get through my 2nd pass as well as finish UW, but only if I do it all day every day. That doesn't really leave time for an NBME...

Do you guys think it's better to finish my 2nd FA pass as well as complete UW, even if it means I'm going into the test without any recent NBME exposure? I took NBME5 at baseline a while back and scored 220, but I hear it's the "easiest" one. More recently, I scored 252 on UWSA1 then 244 on UWSA2 a week later. I'm scared to take an NBME because I'll be devastated if it's in the low 220's or something, as I'm already disheartened by the drop between the UWSA's (especially since they supposedly overestimate and most people do better on UWSA2).

Please help me decide: (1) take an NBME, even if it cuts into study time and might deflate morale, just because I should to calibrate to their questions and get an idea of what I realistically may score, or (2) keep going through UW and FA guns blazin' and just show up on test day... or (3) [some other idea?]

Thanks guys!

 

[WashMe]

need to bump this baby to the top for the morning crowd

 

[quepatho]

I'm 11 days out and I'm 100 pages into my 2nd UW pass with ~1200 unused UW questions remaining. I feel like I might have time to get through my 2nd pass as well as finish UW, but only if I do it all day every day. That doesn't really leave time for an NBME...

Do you guys think it's better to finish my 2nd FA pass as well as complete UW, even if it means I'm going into the test without any recent NBME exposure? I took NBME5 at baseline a while back and scored 220, but I hear it's the "easiest" one. More recently, I scored 252 on UWSA1 then 244 on UWSA2 a week later. I'm scared to take an NBME because I'll be devastated if it's in the low 220's or something, as I'm already disheartened by the drop between the UWSA's (especially since they supposedly overestimate and most people do better on UWSA2).

Please help me decide: (1) take an NBME, even if it cuts into study time and might deflate morale, just because I should to calibrate to their questions and get an idea of what I realistically may score, or (2) keep going through UW and FA guns blazin' and just show up on test day... or (3) [some other idea?]

Thanks guys!

Depends a bit on how long you have before the test. I wouldn't take a test within one week of taking the exam, just because, you know...bad news is not what you want to hear 7 days before the exam. 14 days before the exam is different.

If you have two weeks, you could take an NBME now and take the free 150 at the one-week-from-test-date for a morale boost.

Also your NBME won't be in the low 220s. I'd say worst case is 230s.

 

[abmd]

My test is also in 11 days I am taking NBME 7 on Tues, people say it's the best predictor and I'd like to know what I need to hit the couple days before.

 

[WashMe]

I'm 11 days out. I guess maybe I should take a practice test... one thing I'm considering, and it may be a dangerous idea, is just saying **** it to the rest of UW and spending several days getting FA down cold. I'm getting really frustrated with UW, because I feel like a lot of the questions are bullcrap and most of the time I can find the answer in FA if I look hard enough. I dunno, we'll see. I don't want to miss out on the UW stuff, but I spend 1/2 my time reading the question stems rather than just memorizing high-yield info for the test.

Thoughts?

 

[SlaveOfTCMC]

a lot of people insist there are duplicated questions from the NBME practice exams as on the real exams.

Moreover, I have noticed repeated concepts (though different wording) throuhgout all 9 NBME forms.

THerefore, it is logical that there are repeats to some extent and that going over every sinlge NBME form is a fairly good idea (if you have the time to spare)

 

[WashMe]

a lot of people insist there are duplicated questions from the NBME practice exams as on the real exams.

Moreover, I have noticed repeated concepts (though different wording) throuhgout all 9 NBME forms.

THerefore, it is logical that there are repeats to some extent and that going over every sinlge NBME form is a fairly good idea (if you have the time to spare)

I'm not concerned about concepts per se, just details. I don't miss concept questions, I just miss questions where I didn't memorize "x" fact. Do you think there were recurrent facts from the NBME's that aren't in FA, or even UW?

 

[Hokie06]

i took nbme practice test 7 days before d-day and i score significantly lower than my previous practice exams. i wouldnt recommend it.....it was a huge blow and as a result i pushed it back to two weeks later

 

[winkleweizen]

i took nbme practice test 7 days before d-day and i score significantly lower than my previous practice exams. i wouldnt recommend it.....it was a huge blow and as a result i pushed it back to two weeks later

So wouldnt that be a good thing? knowing you arent prepared?

 

[Sheldor]

I took NBMEs 9 days before my real test this coming Monday and I'm glad I did. If hadn't scored where I wanted I would have been able to spend the last 10 days focused on week areas. Fortunately I did well so they served as a confidence boost!

BTW - I took NBME 6 A's a baseline and scored 221, then nailed a 260 on NBME 7 3 weeks later. I'm sure you'll see similar improvement if you've been working hard (which I know you have been)

Personally I'll be ecstatic if I can split the difference and get. 240 on the real deal 🙂

 

[fahimaz7]

I just took nbme 11 8 days from my test. Worked well for me 🙂

 

[quepatho]

Maybe I should rephrase. Take an NBME practice test if you think that the outcome will influence your study strategy/test date one way or the other.

Don't take your first NBME for a confidence boost (if that's what you're seeking) cause yikes they have not been kind to me 😉.

 

[mrmandrake]

I'm planning on taking NBMEs 12, 7 and if I have time 2 and 3 before my test. I have a week before my test. This sounds crazy I know but I want to be well "calibrated" for the exam. I don't care if I make mistakes as long as I learn from them and I learn better by doing questions, they seem to stick more. I also tend to overthink questions and so I skipped reviewing UW questions and thought it would be better to do NBME questions in my last week.

Not sure if this works for everyone and I'm not even 100% sure this is a good strategy but I don't think anyone knows.

 

[fahimaz7]

I'm planning on taking NBMEs 12, 7 and if I have time 2 and 3 before my test. I have a week before my test. This sounds crazy I know but I want to be well "calibrated" for the exam. I don't care if I make mistakes as long as I learn from them and I learn better by doing questions, they seem to stick more. I also tend to overthink questions and so I skipped reviewing UW questions and thought it would be better to do NBME questions in my last week.

Not sure if this works for everyone and I'm not even 100% sure this is a good strategy but I don't think anyone knows.

Everyone does their own thing! Just do what you feel makes you happy 🙂