UWorld Difficulty compared to Real Deal

[septoplasty]

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I'm not doing so hot in UWorld (still have about 6 weeks till exam), after finishing 10 blocks (46/random/timed), my cumulative 40%.

How is the UWorld compared to the real thing? 🙁

Ill be satisfied if I reach a score of 220 on the real thing..

 

[KSDeacon]

i'm pretty sure you're going to find conflicting answers about this topic. I felt my UWorld questions were actually pretty comparable to my exam. In some aspects they were quite different, but the thinking process that is required to answer difficult uworld questions will be the same for answering questions on exam day.
10 blocks isn't really a large sample size, but you definitely want to see your percentage trending up as your review continues. And definitely make sure you spend the time to review the questions you missed! Six weeks is plenty of time to boost that number. Keep on chugging away

 

[septoplasty]

i'm pretty sure you're going to find conflicting answers about this topic. I felt my UWorld questions were actually pretty comparable to my exam. In some aspects they were quite different, but the thinking process that is required to answer difficult uworld questions will be the same for answering questions on exam day.
10 blocks isn't really a large sample size, but you definitely want to see your percentage trending up as your review continues. And definitely make sure you spend the time to review the questions you missed! Six weeks is plenty of time to boost that number. Keep on chugging away

Thanks,

Im trying to finish 2 blocks a day, and review them (reviewing takes ALONG time), and also trying to finish FA every week...

Should I bother with anything else or just stick to the regimen?

 

[DrYoda]

I felt UW was a good approximation of the exam in terms of content and question format. I think UW is slightly harder, because on the actual test my questions were more straight forward (the real thing is more likely to just say "a patient w/ a history of x disease" vs. UW liking to just imply they have it).

6 weeks is a lot of time for improvement, so don't let your current percentage get to you.

Thanks,

Im trying to finish 2 blocks a day, and review them (reviewing takes ALONG time), and also trying to finish FA every week...

Should I bother with anything else or just stick to the regimen?

I think FA and UW is all you need.

 

[scudrunner]

I thought UWorld was a little harder in that just about all of the questions are of higher order, whereas on the real deal, not all were higher order questions. I can tell you for a fact that if I had not done UWorld, though, the exam would have been a LOT harder.

 

[deleted387928]

You're on the right track with UW and FA. Just make sure you're learning from your mistakes so that you don't repeat them.

The harder questions on my step 1 exam were comparable to UW questions, but there were more straightforward questions in general.

 

[KSDeacon]

Thanks,

Im trying to finish 2 blocks a day, and review them (reviewing takes ALONG time), and also trying to finish FA every week...

Should I bother with anything else or just stick to the regimen?

I really liked BRS Phys, just because it dives a little deeper into the Why for physiological processes rather than just the straight up facts that I feel you get out of First Aid. However, don't overwhelm yourself with books since you'll risk spreading your self too thin, so to speak.

 

[Dissected]

If you need a boost in pathology, start reading Goljan's Rapid Review. That book literally bumped up my score 10-20 points on my assessments a few weeks out from the test. If you can't handle dry reading it (which gets painful after a while) just focus on the subjects you need a boost in. There's some really great stuff in there that kept coming up on UWorld and the NBME exams...and the real thing for that matter!

GL!

 

[septoplasty]

I felt UW was a good approximation of the exam in terms of content and question format. I think UW is slightly harder, because on the actual test my questions were more straight forward (the real thing is more likely to just say "a patient w/ a history of x disease" vs. UW liking to just imply they have it).

6 weeks is a lot of time for improvement, so don't let your current percentage get to you.



I think FA and UW is all you need.

That's what I was thinking, because some of the questions I feel like it takes a me almost 2 reads just to understand what the patient has and what the question is asking (I developed the nasty habit of reading the last line of the question before hand lol). I will keep sticking to UW and FA for the time being. Also in my last assestment I felt like I made stupid mistakes on 4 - 5 questions that woulda easily pushed me into 60's, so its more of a problem of execution.

 

[septoplasty]

Originally Posted by DrYodaI felt UW was a good approximation of the exam in terms of content and question format. I think UW is slightly harder, because on the actual test my questions were more straight forward (the real thing is more likely to just say "a patient w/ a history of x disease" vs. UW liking to just imply they have it).

6 weeks is a lot of time for improvement, so don't let your current percentage get to you.



I think FA and UW is all you need.

Did you feel that most of the exam questions were 1st or 2nd order? or did they even go deeper? Im kind of jittery because I feel it takes me more time to just understand 2nd and 3rd order questions, and if that's how majority of the questions are like on the real thing, then i'm screwed

 

[WhyOhWhy]

Did you feel that most of the exam questions were 1st or 2nd order? or did they even go deeper? Im kind of jittery because I feel it takes me more time to just understand 2nd and 3rd order questions, and if that's how majority of the questions are like on the real thing, then i'm screwed

Don't let people here freak you out homey. I made the mistake of reading things other people had said on this board about the things they were doing for studying and it just made me more nervous. I took step 1 on Monday and personally felt that it was much easier than UWorld questions. My first UW assessment exam projected me at 230 and I got through about 1100 questions in the qbank in about 8 days time and averaged about 70%. read first aid, do as many UW questions as you can.. And then just don't worry. You'll be just fine. It's not the devil like everyone makes it out to be. The worst part was fatigue.. I was pretty tired by the 5th or 6th block but I was finishing each block with about 20 mins remaining so I ended up with a lot of break time. It came in handy. Good luck!

 

[Dissected]

Don't let people here freak you out homey. I made the mistake of reading things other people had said on this board about the things they were doing for studying and it just made me more nervous. I took step 1 on Monday and personally felt that it was much easier than UWorld questions. My first UW assessment exam projected me at 230 and I got through about 1100 questions in the qbank in about 8 days time and averaged about 70%. read first aid, do as many UW questions as you can.. And then just don't worry. You'll be just fine. It's not the devil like everyone makes it out to be. The worst part was fatigue.. I was pretty tired by the 5th or 6th block but I was finishing each block with about 20 mins remaining so I ended up with a lot of break time. It came in handy. Good luck!

+1

Same exact experience I had..even took it on monday 👍

 

[cyberer]

I just finished UWorld last night, and my cumulative score the first time through was a 57% (55th percentile). How should I interpret this number?

 

[hyrule]

UWorld was easier than the real deal in my case.

 

[da8s0859q]

UWorld was easier than the real deal in my case.

I feel so bad for you guys. I just don't see it... but that must have been one rough exam.

OP: I felt that the real thing was notably easier than UW more or less, and almost always more straightforward than UW.

 

[septoplasty]

Alright I guess the majority consensus is that its easier. Ill keep that in mind next time I land a block score of 50% lol

Thanks for all of your help!

 

[hyrule]

I feel so bad for you guys. I just don't see it... but that must have been one rough exam.

OP: I felt that the real thing was notably easier than UW more or less, and almost always more straightforward than UW.

Yeah at first seeing the majority of people say they had a fair test kinda scared me... especially since I went in there confident and well-prepared. I'll hold any more judgment until I get my scores back.

 

[septoplasty]

Okay, after further review of the questions, I realized that Ive narrowed it down to 2 choices in the question, and ended up choosing the wrong one.

Is this UW being nit picky or do my execution skills suck?

Out of 10 blocks I've done, I would have passed 8 of them (10% improvement) if I had chose the right option from 50/50.

Gah, this sucks.

 

[engineeredout]

I thought the hard questions in Uworld were equivalent to the Hard questions on the real thing. The difference is while Uworld questions were all long and around the same difficulty, there were definitely easy questions on the real thing to balance it out.

 

[deleted387928]

Okay, after further review of the questions, I realized that Ive narrowed it down to 2 choices in the question, and ended up choosing the wrong one.

Is this UW being nit picky or do my execution skills suck?

Out of 10 blocks I've done, I would have passed 8 of them (10% improvement) if I had chose the right option from 50/50.

Gah, this sucks.

if you narrowed it down to 50/50 but don't know the right answer, it means you should read the explanation and learn the difference between the 2 answer choices.

As you memorize more information, you will get stuck with less 50/50's and you'll guess better as well.

 

[coffeeeandtea]

I thought the hard questions in Uworld were equivalent to the Hard questions on the real thing. The difference is while Uworld questions were all long and around the same difficulty, there were definitely easy questions on the real thing to balance it out.

this was my experience as well. it was a little weird because i expected the whole test to be the same as UW, but when the straightforward questions came up i was slightly taken aback. to OP: just keep doing more blocks, and try to get through as many questions as you can. i would agree with the other person who said that while UW is harder than the real thing, the actual test would have been much more difficult had i not done UW.

 

[greg1184]

Don't get bogged down on the percentages. Read each explanation carefully, learning as you go. You will see your percentage improve.

As USMLE World says in their cover page, "We believe that the creation of such difficult questions is beneficial for the improvement of your critical thinking, judgment, and test-taking skills. We strongly suggest that you use our Qbank as a learning tool, and not for mere assessment of your knowledge."

USMLE World prepares you well for the Step. I found it comparable to the Medium-Hard questions on the test.

 

[septoplasty]

Okay,

Just to put things into perspective to future readers I found the exam easier than UWorld.