Step I Which practice test to take first?

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thrombin

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10+ Year Member
My school doesn't give us a practice CBSE therefore I just studied on my own and now want to take my first practice exam? I'm thinking of saving the Uworld assessment exams for later since they are more accurate. How about one of the NBME's which one should I do first? Or should I start somewhere else?
 
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I will start with UWSA 1 for a confidence boost! Only one read in FA and pass for UW with 53% overall correct. I will save NBME's and the other UW as well as free 150 for a date near to the examination.
 
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I would definitely not say that the UWorld practice exams are more accurate. My first practice exam was the UWorld SA 1, followed by 3 NBMEs. My score dropped 30 points from the UWorld to my first NBME. But each NBME has steadily risen. So I think the UWorld really really over-estimates your score. I thought my UWorld SA was too good to be true, especially since I was so early into studying, and it looks like that was the case.
 
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Cookie Queen said:
I would definitely not say that the UWorld practice exams are more accurate. My first practice exam was the UWorld SA 1, followed by 3 NBMEs. My score dropped 30 points from the UWorld to my first NBME. But each NBME has steadily risen. So I think the UWorld really really over-estimates your score. I thought my UWorld SA was too good to be true, especially since I was so early into studying, and it looks like that was the case.
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I would have to agree. You need far, far less answers correct on UWSA to get a given score, and I found the content & difficulty to be very similar between NBME & UWSA.

My own antectodal story: I took UWSA early on in studying, studied for three weeks, and then took an NBME. My score only went up 3 points. I then studied for another week. Took another NBME. Score went up 14 points.

So I am left to conclude that this logarithmic growth was occurring all along, and I just had an artificially inflated original score.

That being said, I wouldn't discourage you from taking UWSA. It's a good learning tool, cheap, and there are great descriptions (UWorld-style) for every answer. I would say it's the perfect test to take at the BEGINNING of your journey (where it may not be worth it to pay the extra 10 bucks on NBME only to have to look up all the answers of stuff you haven't reviewed yet).

Just my personal opinion! Good luck!
 
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