Taking Step 1 without finishing UWorld? Advice?

[qmcat]

Hey guys, I'm kind of in a pinch and looking for opinions/advice.

My test is 5 days away, and I'm estimating that I'll only be done with around 70-75% of UW qbank by the time I walk into the prometric center. My percentage on recent blocks of 46 range between 65-71% (65, 71, 65, 67 were the last 4 blocks I did). I'm trying to do as much UW as I can over the next couple days, but I am just wondering if you guys think I'm in good shape or if I should change anything or if you have any advice for the last few days of studying?

I feel like an idiot because I should have been more consistent with using UW so I would finish it by now, but I ended up spending too much time reading. Anyhow, I can't go back in time and fix things, so I'm just trying to make the most of the time I have left.

Thanks in advance!

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[235009]

I think you should do 3 solid days of UWorld. Doing 5+ blocks a day is doable, even in tutor mode. The day before my Pharm NBME I did 270 UWorld questions. So if you do 5 blocks a day for 3 days that's ~700 questions ...hopefully that doesn't leave you with too many unfinished questions.

Also don't worry about the percentage and keep doing the questions in tutor mode or timed tutor mode. The point of UWorld is to learn from each question so if you see the same question or a slightly different question on test day you can nail it.

 

[qmcat]

Thanks skinMD. That sounds like a good plan, and I think doing it in tutor mode will save a lot of time. I'll take your advice and pile through as many UW questions as I can in the next 3 days. If I can get through 700, that would be perfect and I would be done with UW!

Time to turn on the beast mode!

 

[Gullain Barre]

Just do your best to do as many questions and learn from them as you can, without burning out.

I'm sure you could do 3-5 blocks of 46.. just don't do that many the day before the exam if you can manage it.

 

[WashMe]

Don't worry if you don't have time to finish it... just do what you can and focus on your weak areas.

I made it through all of UW once, barely, and didn't review incorrects; I scored in the 250's. My buddy made it through 75% of the qbank and just memorized the heck out of FA and he scored a 256. Another guy I know out here did 90% of the UW bank, memorized FA, and scored a 274. None of us touched anything other than UW and FA.

I was the only one who finished UW, but they did better than I did. They mainly memorized the FA minutiae and it seemed to pay off.

 

[xrevision]

Focus on your weaknesses now. Some people get unlucky with their question distribution and it picks apart their weaknesses. A guy I know was getting 230 to 240 on his practice exams but didn't study musculoskeletal as well as he should have. He got a score in the upper 210's after his test seemed to focus on that system

 

[ar2388]

i did not get to finish most of uworld. in fact i only did 43% of it. however, i used my last 4 days to reread ALL of first aid and I think that helped me more. My last practice test score was 221 and then i reread all of FA and ended up with a 238. i think oyu should figure out what will work better for you. i personally wanted to review all the material once more.

 

[tl04164]

I just took the exam and got my scores back in the July 13 score dump. Best advice I can give is that you should trust the base of knowledge you've accumulated in medical school. I've always studied best by having an understanding of the material being tested and only used practice questions to reassure myself that I was on track. Before taking the exam, I only completed 1200q in UW, but was scoring UW in the 70s and 80s. I did 3 passes through FA (2 passes following along with DIT) and I scored in the 250s on the exam.

If you know how you study, do that, and don't let yourself be freaked out by what other people do. And try not to get into the trap of ruminating over material in your mind, and worrying that you dont know some random side effect of some random drug.

Also, if NMBE exams are any clue into how the real thing is graded, you can miss AN ENTIRE SECTION worth of questions and still end up with a 240+. Spend these days trying to hold all the information in the front of your head and forming a plan on how to pace yourself for the exam (everyone dies in section 6 and 7) and have a source of caffeine and snacks available.

Finally, DONT PANIC! Many of my classmates let the test get to them, and scored below their potential. DONT LET THE NATIONAL BOARD WIN!!!

 

[qmcat]

Thanks for the input guys. I've been going beast mode on questions the last couple days, and I'm currently sitting at 70% completed UW. I'm now trying to figure out whether I should do a 2 day review of FA tomorrow + Monday, or continue doing questions tomorrow and review FA only on Monday.

I think I'm in a tough spot because I've only done 1 in-depth pass of FA, and I probably won't be able to finish UW or do a 2nd in-depth pass of FA. But, I've been referring to pages of FA whenever I get questions wrong in UW, so I hope that counts somewhat as another pass.

As far as targeted review, I think that's a great idea, and I'm planning to hit up my weak sections, which coincidentally are all the non-system chapters (biochem, micro, immuno, pharm... ew). I'm also not sure if I'm going to bother with the embryo section in FA, since I always hear that it's low yield.

Anyway, thanks guys for the responses. I'll make a note to do a write-up of my experience after I take my exam Weds.

 

[as90]

I'm finding myself in a similar situation. I LOVE DIT and Pathoma. I feel like I get 100X more out of those sources because I do not know the material well enough to tackle some of those questions nor can I get much out of them just by reading first aid and the explanations (they are quite extensive in uworld).

I at least wanted to get through Comquest before sitting for my COMLEX but I am alternating with Uworld as it is just to familiarize myself with the Usmle-trend the COMLEX is going towards. I think things work out better when I do it in tutor mode, but still I won't have that luxury come exam time (2 weeks for me).

Just wondering if anyone else out there is in a similar position?