First pass through World: 67%
Did DIT after that
NBME Form 4: 510 (232 predicted), after 10 days of DIT, when he tells you to take a practice test.
Second-pass through World: 85% (~40% completed... I hope to do a couple hundred more questions before I take the USMLE)
UW Self-Assesment: 690 (255 predicted) Last night. Would be thrilled with this.
The day I did NBME 4 was not my best day. I had a benadryl hangover, because I took some to go to sleep the night before, and I didn't really get going until the second half. Also, I kept stopping to write stuff down to look up during the exam, without pausing it, and found myself pressed for time on a couple blocks. Hopefully the UWorld test is a better representation of where I stand than the NBME test was. Then again, I wouldn't exactly go looking for the nearest cliff to jump off if I got what I got on the NBME. I'd be ok with it.
Got USMLE on Monday (Day after tomorrow). Going to finish tearing through Master the Boards today, and tomorrow, I'm going to just stick to little stuff. Flash-card-type quick memorization stuff. The kind of stuff that I can't keep in my head for more than about a day.
Pretty good feeling about this. I wish I had a couple more days to take another self-assessment, but on the other hand, I think I'd cut my own head off with an axe if I had to wait any longer for this.
And to my allopathic colleagues, close your eyes for a second and pretend you've got this test on Monday, then you get to turn around and take it again 10 days later. And on top of that, you get to study a subject that you've barely seen in the past year, which will account for 20% of your score. That's me.
Okay, did this exam, and now I am trying to study for COMLEX. This really sucks, but whatever.
I barely slept, if at all, the night before. I wasn't really nervous about the exam, but it was one of those deals where you know you have to be up early, and you aren't falling asleep, so then you start to worry about not falling asleep, and it snowballs on you.
Also, I had been on a screwy study schedule for the week or so leading up to test day.
But I was running on adrenaline for the entire day. Occasionally, would catch myself staring off at my screen, forgetting that I was taking an exam. But for the most part, I was pretty with it. A little tired, but not where I thought I was going to fall asleep during the exam or anything (I felt like this during step 1).
So overall, I thought the test was easy. There were a handful of stinkers, but I could count on one hand the number of times where I just didn't know what the hell they were getting at.
I was the beneficiary of some good guessing, as well. Some of the ones I had never heard of (but answered based on eliminating choices I was fairly confident I could eliminate), worked out well for me. I was googling stuff on my breaks, because I am a huge tool who does crap like that.
I also made some stupid mistakes. A 3-year-old kid with sickle cell should be taking TMP-SMX for prophylaxis, even when the Pneumococcal vaccine was right there in plain English as a choice. I was thinking about sicklers needing penicillin prophylaxis until age 5, but I had already freaking answered that earlier in the exam. I am a *******.
For USMLE Step 1, I finished that thing in about six hours, including breaks. This thing was a different story. I got the "five minute warning" pop-up on all but a couple blocks, and I probably only finished one block with more than 10 minutes to spare. The moral of the story is, if you are a slow test taker, practice your ass off on World. If I have anything going for me, it's that I am fast, and this thing really tested my speed. I haven't always been fast though, so it can definitely be worked on.
Overall, I have a good feeling. I'm sure I made some really boneheaded mistakes on there though, just for lack of sleep/concentration. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. I'd be surprised if I didn't get above average though.
