Uworld avg not increasing

[StepRepeater1]

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Hello I am attaching a picture of my Uworld progress graph that I have done over the past 2.5 months, I have 49% of the bank left to do. I can't seem to raise my avg - 61%, and am doing FA and Uworld everyday. 1-2 blocks of Uworld a day + 10-20 pages of first aid. This is the second time I am taking the exam and am worried that I may fail again as this is my second pass of Uworld and I'm still at 61% cummulative avg. I finished with a 50% the first time over 4 months and received a 191 on the real exam. I took NBME 1 month ago and got a 192. My exam is scheduled in the next 13 days. Please tell me what to do. I plan on taking an NBME in 4 days.

 

[StepRepeater1]

By the way I took a 3 month break between Step 1 and studying for it again.

 

[IMdoc2015]

I wouldn't take the test if you are not comfortably passing your NBMEs. Are the only resources you are using FA and UWorld? If so then you should introduce a pathology resource (pathoma is probably best for you) and physio (BRS physio is a good one). Are your questions relevant to the content you reviewed that day in FA or are they random?

 

[StepRepeater1]

thanks! yes they are random questions. i have half of pathoma done, but i only have 2 weeks left.. i guess I'll find out where i stand once i take the NBME and see if i'm ready or not...

 

[hpdoc2]

Pathoma was where everything clicked for me. Saw a significant score increase after finishing it. But I delayed my exam until I was hitting 220s on nbme. I agree with everyone else. Don't take it if you're not comfortably passing nbmes.

 

[IMdoc2015]

thanks! yes they are random questions.

I know there's some debate about this, but the best way (i believe) for your content review and questions to really solidify the knowledge is to not do random questions, at least for your first pass. If you review 20 pages of GI in first aid then the questions you do should only be GI. This way you can make connections and reinforce the material you studied. I think this is especially important if you haven't had a great deal of success / improvement with your current approach.

 

[scoKraz4]

100% do not take the test again until you can pass nbme. look at your practice test breakdown and see what areas you suck in and focus on those.

 

[StepRepeater1]

So I will be delaying my exam. I took NBME 17 today and recieved a 340 ~ 194. (I also took NBME 15 on May 1st and got a 330 ~ 192_ I do not know what I am doing wrong after studying for 1.5 months. I've attached a picture of my score report.

 

[davezhan]

Hey OP. I'm scoring around the same as you except I haven't taken the Step 1 yet. I'll keep you updated on what hopefully will work for me in hopes that we can both pass when we take our Step 1. I agree with everyone else about incorporating pathoma. Also, I would recommend watching first aid express. I just can't read first aid and get anything out of it by myself but I found first aid express lectures to help tremendously with my understanding. My weakest section for NBME is pathology for which I missed 40+ questions which is why I'm going to go with Pathoma but other sections have been pretty good and I'm also at 190ish. I also think USMLE-RX is good to use with FA to solidify concepts. Again, the book by itself doesn't do the material any justice as it is just a review book. You have to incorporate the other side resources to make it more worthwhile imo. Just my 2 cents as a similarly struggling student.

 

[Meatspin]

The problem is you aren't actually studying. It has taken you 1.5 months to complete 49% of UWorld. That comes out to about 24 questions per day. You are also reading "10-20 pages of FA" per day. At that pace it will take just under 6 weeks to finish a single pass. This would take me a little over 2 hours to do each day. It would have been nice to have been done studying every day at 9 am with the rest of the day to do whatever I want, but I would also have scored ~191.

Sorry if this comes off harsh, but I'm trying to put this in perspective for you. In 5 weeks (significantly less then the time you have spent studying) I made 2 passes through FA, 1 pass through UW, 2 passes through Pathoma, 2 passes through sketchy micro, completed brosencephalon's pharmacy anki deck, and made and reviewed anki cards for all missed UWorld questions. You aren't scoring low because you aren't smart or you haven't found the 'right' way to study, you are scoring low because you aren't putting in the effort.

Today, you need to assess why you have done so little over the past 1.5 months and to decide what you are going to do differently tomorrow.

 

[wtr24]

Sorry if I missed this, but what format are you doing your uworld questions? Are you doing complete blocks or are you doing sets of 5-10 questions. Random? Timed? Its tough to draw significant information from the graph when your data points are just inherently different.

Also, the best predictor of your performance not he exam is going to be the NBME self-assessments. Take another one to get an idea of where you stand. I would be very hesitant to take the exam if you are not passing with a safe margin.

 

[StepRepeater1]

@Meatspin thanks for the slap of reality can you be my USMLE mentor?

 

[EmergDoc2B]

For General principles and pathology get a hold of goljan transcripts or the audio. I used those with pathoma and drastically improved those two areas. Also, your average in UWorld is arbitrary. Ignore it. Take the blocks as information gathering exercises and take notes on the misses and guesses you got right. Keep reading first aid. Possibly get another qbank and use it as a quiz when you finish a section in FA to see how well your retaining and synthesizing info youre reviewing. I wasnt a fan of goljan before but I am now. I took my exam yesterday and got 3 freebies from the guys 2007ish lectures. I didnt listen to him I read the transcript that was floating around. Good luck and dont let the percents drag your confidence into the crapper.