What's up with Form 4?

[PreMedAdAG]

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Anyone else find this one more difficult than the others? With kinda weird questions?

Just curious...

 

[Termwean]

Form 4 dominated me.

 

[Mistress S]

I had a 20+ point drop form form 1 to form 4, after studying another week in between them. Needless to say I am very disappointed and freaked out (I didn't exactly have a big enough margin to comfortably lose >20 points, that put me on the low end of passing). I hope form 4 was a fluke, I'm going to take form 2 on Wed (my exam date is next Mon) and hope for the best.

 

[marr]

Yes, form 4 has some really weird questions. I think that is why they throw them out Anyway, good luck

 

[wild0ne]

yep, me too. I had a fairly large drop from 1/2 --> 4. I wouldn't say the questions were really strange, just a lot less knee-jerk. I hear 3 is even harder, so not much to look forward to.

 

[joe6102]

Yes, form 4 has some really weird questions. I think that is why they throw them out

That's exactly what I think when I see a strange question on one of the NBME forms. Just like everyone thinks the strange questions on the real thing MUST be experimental.
FWIW, form 4 was my highest (form 1 < form 3 < form 4).

 

[UglyDOCling]

Of all the forms, I felt like I was making random guesses the most on form 4. That said, my scores were equal on the three forms I used (2,3,4).

 

[SoCuteMD]

So, I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question isn't worth starting a new thread.

I did form 2 on Friday (taking the test on June 21st) and hit my goal right on the nose. Would y'all take another NBME this week or just keep going with UWorld and review?

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

Anyone else find this one more difficult than the others? With kinda weird questions?

Just curious...

I don't know that it was necessarily harder, but it was definitely REALLY heavy on the biochem (which is my weakest subject).

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

So, I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question isn't worth starting a new thread.

I did form 2 on Friday (taking the test on June 21st) and hit my goal right on the nose. Would y'all take another NBME this week or just keep going with UWorld and review?

I wouldn't. You already know you're in the range you want to be in, why drop another $45 and risk not doing as well and shaking your confidence? Save your money and your sanity, and just focus on last minute review. Good luck!

 

[cubsrule4e]

I wouldn't. You already know you're in the range you want to be in, why drop another $45 and risk not doing as well and shaking your confidence? Save your money and your sanity, and just focus on last minute review. Good luck!

Ditto. I was within 4 points of my goal 1 week out and figured I could easily make up those points by just reviewing some weak areas.

 

[stargirl50]

I'm glad you brought this up! I also hit my goal on the NBME and have exactly 1 week left. I was planning on taking 1 more this week but I think I'm gonna skip it. Although theyre great practice they're more "evaluative" for me rather than learning from what I get wrong... and they do really take a lot of time. So I think I'm just going to use the time to study instead and save the $45.

 

[Roy7]

So, I don't want to hijack this thread, but my question isn't worth starting a new thread.

I did form 2 on Friday (taking the test on June 21st) and hit my goal right on the nose. Would y'all take another NBME this week or just keep going with UWorld and review?

Take the test. The questions in each of the NBME's are LIVE QUESTIONS. As per the NBME guru over at the PASS program, as well as countless people that have seen questions from their NBME's on the exam. Take it in study mode over 4 hrs and break it up. But know the questions, nkow the answers. Why do 4 hrs of World when you can just do 4 hrs of REAL QUESTIONS.

My classmate that took the exam last week has 6 questions straight from the NBME exams - not a word changed. A person that posted in the experiences thread had the exact same I-cell qusetion from form 1.

Take it over 4 hrs, dont grade it, cheat whatever so it doesnt affect your confidence, but know those qusetions. That's just my 2 cents - but check the experiences thread - EVERYONE says the NBME's were the best practice.

 

[PreMedAdAG]

I kinda get what people are saying - I felt it was hard b/c I suck at molec/biochem, which apparently others do too - my score went up 2 points from form 2 which I took a few days ago - so basically the same. I probably did worse in terms of missing problems, but overall i think i performed about the same.

 

[Ypo.]

I just took form 3 today. I felt it was harder than form 2 (form 2 felt like it was too easy after taking all those ridiculous Qbank questions). But my score went up on form 3.

I've heard that form 4 is the hardest, and that the real test is most like form 3. I was told that if you run out of time, you should just take form 2 & 3, so that is what I did. I hope they are right that it's like the real exam.

Socute-I agree with the others. Just focus on Uworld. I wish I had gotten that, because Qbank drives me crazy, and I've only done 50% of the questions because I hate it so much.

 

[lfesiam]

I'm glad you brought this up! I also hit my goal on the NBME and have exactly 1 week left. I was planning on taking 1 more this week but I think I'm gonna skip it. Although theyre great practice they're more "evaluative" for me rather than learning from what I get wrong... and they do really take a lot of time. So I think I'm just going to use the time to study instead and save the $45.

agreed.

I made my goal on NBME form 2 about 1.5 week before the exam.

I think my time would be better at working on my weaknesses rather than taking NBME 3-4. good luck everybody!

 

[doctorp82]

My classmate that took the exam last week has 6 questions straight from the NBME exams - not a word changed. A person that posted in the experiences thread had the exact same I-cell qusetion from form 1.

Would most people feel this is worth $180 to have seen all 800 NBME questions? I would think not. At least, not for me.

I took form 2 (pre-studying, 204) and form 4 (1 week before, 228). I didn't take another because my goal was to be in the 230 range. For both my sanity and for sake of time I simply re-read as much First Aid as I could and did UW that week. I think SoCute would do best to do something like that since she's right where she wants to be already. If someone in general is not doing so hot either, I think that studying more would be worth more than buying all the exams for sake of doing them. With that said, I thought form 4 was pretty wild. I think the very first question in the very first block had my smacking my head, and I did that a few times in that form.

 

[blz]

Repeat questions are always easy ones too.

 

[joe6102]

Repeat questions are always easy ones too.

I had 5-10 on the real thing that were on the forms. I don't know for sure if they were word for word exactly the same, but they were the same concept asked in the same way. Getting those you've seen before also saves you some time for the rest.

 

[blz]

I had 5-10 on the real thing that were on the forms. I don't know for sure if they were word for word exactly the same, but they were the same concept asked in the same way. Getting those you've seen before also saves you some time for the rest.

Were these 5-10 that you got wrong and only got right because of taking the NBME? highly doubt that. Plus, most people don't even have the answers for the test. If it's the week of your exam, you're doing yourself more harm by taking an NBME exam. If you do well on it, fine- you're no better off. If you screw up though, your confidence is down and it may cause you to do drastic things like pushing back your test. A little earlier in the season is ok, but going in confident will help you out a lot more.

 

[drguy22]

Were these 5-10 that you got wrong and only got right because of taking the NBME? highly doubt that. Plus, most people don't even have the answers for the test. If it's the week of your exam, you're doing yourself more harm by taking an NBME exam. If you do well on it, fine- you're no better off. If you screw up though, your confidence is down and it may cause you to do drastic things like pushing back your test. A little earlier in the season is ok, but going in confident will help you out a lot more.

well...it could work the other way too...when i took the a NBME 3 days before the exam i scored a 214....that pissed me off and made me motivated...my real score was higher by more than 16+ pnts. just depends on how u work

 

[joe6102]

Were these 5-10 that you got wrong and only got right because of taking the NBME? highly doubt that.

There were 2 for sure that I missed on NBME but got on step 1. I knew them right away which saved time for other questions. I did all 4 forms and they really helped me out, much more than kaplan qbank.