USMLE world scores

[ripper123]

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Hey everybody,
Just need some advice regarding USMLE world scores. I am averaging about 60 percent untimed. I am assuming with time pressure i will go down to about 52-55. Is that good enough to take the exam. I have exam coming up in two and half weeks.
Thanks.

 

[dhoonlee]

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[Law2Doc]

Hey everybody,
Just need some advice regarding USMLE world scores. I am averaging about 60 percent untimed. I am assuming with time pressure i will go down to about 52-55. Is that good enough to take the exam. I have exam coming up in two and half weeks.
Thanks.

If I were you I would start practicing some blocks under timing situations. I found the questions on the real thing to be dramatically longer than on world, so if you are feeling a time crunch on world, you need to pick up the pace big time. You only want to lose points on the real thing because you don't know the answer, not because you didn't ever get to see the question.

As the prior poster indicated, thus far nobody has ballparked where you have to have scored on World to be "on target". But I would note that all of those targets are only in the right ballpark because of large error bars, so you will never see great "how am I doing" feedback. Just keep practicing and your best will be your best.

 

[pristine21]

Yeah I am getting nervous too... on UW I am NEVER BREAKING 60 and my test is in 5 days- I barely passed NBME 2 so I am nervous... already pushed my test date back so thats not an option...

 

[basupran]

When will people understand that USMLE WORLD IS A LEARNING TOOL, not an assessment service. Do not look at your scores and try to use a formula to determine your score. Use the NBME to do that.


For example, I was getting in the 50's...60's...70's....30's... hell, I even hit a 25% for one. I wound up rocking step one....NBME was much more consistent and reliable for me.

 

[Law2Doc]

When will people understand that USMLE WORLD IS A LEARNING TOOL, not an assessment service. Do not look at your scores and try to use a formula to determine your score. Use the NBME to do that.

I was in agreement with you until the last line above. Actually, the NBME says over and over and over on its site that it these tests are also not meant to provide accurate assessment of your forthcoming score, but only meant to be diagnostic. So no, it too is just a learning tool. Use it to work out timing and see what areas you need to stregthen. In truth, whether one qbank or practice test provides useful assessment depends a lot on the real test form you ultimately get and whether you have many or few questions in your strongest (wheelhouse) areas. The same person can get a test where s/he knows everything or next to nothing. All qbank and world do is focus you onto what is high yield and serve as good practice in such areas. NBME gives you a chance to practice on actual questions used in the past, in a timed multiple block situation. Reading more into it than this is not such a good idea. The websites (medfriends etc) that give you estimates based on qbank, NBME scores all have huge error bars because the utility of such as an assessment tool is so limited.

 

[somethingvague]

My final world scores were around 64% and i pulled a 237 (which to me, is darn good).

And my scores were everywhere prior to that as well. But overall, my scores raised 20% from before studying. Don't assume you'll go down under pressure, if nothing else, you'll probably do better with the adrenaline helping you out.

I felt like World prepared me well for time and everything. The only one that was close for me was the first one (4 minutes to spare),the rest of the blocks, i had extra time.

good luck!