UWorld Self Assessment

[jcr123]

Has anyone tried donig the Uworld self assessments? How are they compared to the NBME tests?

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[raynor123456]

From what I've seen, they tend to over-predict your score. I've seen many people who have very accurate predictions based on the UWSA, but I've also (often) seen people who have had their scores over-predicted by 10-20 pts. I rarely see it under-predict, which is a little strange considering some of the online "score predictors" suggest that it under-predicts your score.

It MAY have something to do with "when" you take the test. E.g. if you take it after you've done a considerable number of UW questions, you may be more inclined to get a very large boost in your UWSA relative to what you might see on an NBME. Likewise, if you take the UWSA early on it may accurately or under-predict your score since you're not yet familiar with the UW style of questions.

For a good predictor you just need to pay for the NBME's.

 

[RySerr21]

I would definitely take them - i felt their questions were way better than NBMEs overall - more comparable to what you'll actually see. Use the exams as a learning tool. You get to see which questions you got right and wrong and they all have explanations - unlike the NBMEs. My highest NBME and highest UW were only 10 points apart, which I think is a pretty reasonable range.

 

[SlaveOfTCMC]

Personally I'm sticking to NBMEs

but two of my classmates took the UWSA form 1 and these are their stats:

Raw 63% / 231

Raw 77%/ 253

The NBME forms I took all require a raw score of about 90%+ in order to get to the 250 range.

Therefore, based on just those results, it seems UWSA overestimates your score.

THen again, I never took the World assessments so I do not know the difficulty of their questions

 

[raynor123456]

Personally I'm sticking to NBMEs

but two of my classmates took the UWSA form 1 and these are their stats:

Raw 63% / 231

Raw 77%/ 253

The NBME forms I took all require a raw score of about 90%+ in order to get to the 250 range.

Therefore, based on just those results, it seems UWSA overestimates your score.

THen again, I never took the World assessments so I do not know the difficulty of their questions

UWSA gives you a 3 digit score, and you must compare the 3 digit score, not the raw percentage. When it comes to the reported 3 digit score UWSA rarely underpredicts based on what I've seen posted to SDN and other forums.

 

[RySerr21]

Personally I'm sticking to NBMEs

but two of my classmates took the UWSA form 1 and these are their stats:

Raw 63% / 231

Raw 77%/ 253

The NBME forms I took all require a raw score of about 90%+ in order to get to the 250 range.

Therefore, based on just those results, it seems UWSA overestimates your score.

THen again, I never took the World assessments so I do not know the difficulty of their questions

Exactly, you can't just compare raw % and conclude that UW overpredicts. The UW questions are significantly harder. It makes sense that you would be able to miss more quesitons and get a similar score compared to an NBME exam.

 

[ArcGurren]

Personally I'm sticking to NBMEs

but two of my classmates took the UWSA form 1 and these are their stats:

Raw 63% / 231

Raw 77%/ 253

The NBME forms I took all require a raw score of about 90%+ in order to get to the 250 range.

Therefore, based on just those results, it seems UWSA overestimates your score.

THen again, I never took the World assessments so I do not know the difficulty of their questions

To be fair the real test is probably more lenient in its curve than the NBMEs, which have a really tough curve (as you said, 90%+ for 250+)... keep in mind that the real exam has a lot of experimental questions which don't count too

I haven't taken the UWSA yet either (doing it tomorrow and Saturday) but I've heard the questions are definitely harder than NBME ones.

 

[pranay2000]

Uworld %-- 65% (I did them pretty casually, though)
NBME12-- 214 (Three weeks before exam)
Uworld SA1-- 240 (Two weeks before exam)
NBME 8-- 231 (eight days before exam)
NBME 11--235 (Four days before exam)
Uworld SA2-- 253 (Two days before exam)

Real score: 249 (87)

I was surprised at the accuracy. Uworld questions are a bit harder, but the curve is gentler than NBME. Overall, I felt the questions in the real exam were definitely easier than uworld SA and there was at least one question directly taken from uworld qbank. Quite satisfied with the score.

 

[TeamZissou]

Just took UWSA 1 as a gauge of where I need to get to. Did it prior to really any reading of FA or doing other questions. Was rough man. I'll try #2 in a few weeks and see what happens.

 

[djack240]

Just took UWSA 1 as a gauge of where I need to get to. Did it prior to really any reading of FA or doing other questions. Was rough man. I'll try #2 in a few weeks and see what happens.

In the same boat. I'm comforting myself with the fact that I took it before studying! Hehe, don't worry...we'll get there. Good luck!

 

[GoSpursGo]

Gotta be honest, I don't think there's a lot of utility in taking a practice test before studying at all to give yourself a "baseline." I don't think it's terribly surprising to find that you bomb it when you haven't put in any time to re-learning all the stuff you've forgotten. I think it's more useful to take a practice test after you've done one pass through First Aid so that you can identify subjects that maybe you need to focus closer on during your next few passes through the material.

 

[TeamZissou]

Gotta be honest, I don't think there's a lot of utility in taking a practice test before studying at all to give yourself a "baseline." I don't think it's terribly surprising to find that you bomb it when you haven't put in any time to re-learning all the stuff you've forgotten. I think it's more useful to take a practice test after you've done one pass through First Aid so that you can identify subjects that maybe you need to focus closer on during your next few passes through the material.

Yup pretty much my conclusion too. But the nice thing about the UWorld exams is you can review them and they have great explanations. So personally I hate just reading so I like approaching it from another aspect to break up the monotony.

 

[Master surgeon]

in the final 4 weeks leading up to my exam, scared as ****. Have not done a assessment yet, been finished with anatomy and physio question for about a month now, going through all of the other questions in timed and random mode with only unused questions. Scoring in the 55% range. Going to being taking a my 1st assessment in a few days. Just wanted to find out if you guys think my block percentage might be higher if I had anatomy and physio questions left because I was averaging around 80% just on those 2 subjects. Or am I ion bad shape

 

[TeamZissou]

in the final 4 weeks leading up to my exam, scared as ****. Have not done a assessment yet, been finished with anatomy and physio question for about a month now, going through all of the other questions in timed and random mode with only unused questions. Scoring in the 55% range. Going to being taking a my 1st assessment in a few days. Just wanted to find out if you guys think my block percentage might be higher if I had anatomy and physio questions left because I was averaging around 80% just on those 2 subjects. Or am I ion bad shape

Haha just take an assessment that's what they are for.

 

[seira]

I'm sorry to ask a very stupid question but is UWSA a 4 hour exam in the same way that NBMEs are?

 

[johndoe3344]

Yes. UWSA's are 4 blocks.

 

[mohni]

hi, m new here have read all posts but can someone guide me that should i go for uwsa as i gave nmbes n got 17- 430???

 

[W19]

The Uworld formula: 2.3 (Uword raw %) + 84....

 

[jack.jaret]

The Uworld formula: 2.3 (Uword raw %) + 84....

so a 50% = 200? Who said this?

 

[W19]

so a 50% = 200? Who said this?

http://usmle-score-correlation.blogspot.com

This stuff circulating everywhere is pretty close from what I have seen in SDN and from talking to friends who took step 1... However, it might not be true for everyone cause I am averaging 57% in Uworld and my last NBME score was 190..

 

[WillieTrill]

for what its worth I finished UWorld yesterday with a 75% (going thru by systems) which equals a 256.5..... then took NBME 18 today and got a 256. Crazy how accurate that was

 

[W19]

for what its worth I finished UWorld yesterday with a 75% (going thru by systems) which equals a 256.5..... then took NBME 18 today and got a 256. Crazy how accurate that was

Their prediction is accurate for the most part, but I am unsure why it's not working out for me.

 

[WillieTrill]

Their prediction is accurate for the most part, but I am unsure why it's not working out for me.

You could be over thinking stuff... I feel like UWorld tries to trick you a lot whereas NBME's are for the most part straight forward

 

[Murdock in Iraq]

I found that the 2 UWSA and NBME 18 were within a few points of one another and were comparable as far as difficulty.