Why do people say Step 1 is harder than NBME, UW, etc?

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surfguy84

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But then score as predicted based on their NBME exams. If the test was harder, shouldn't they be scoring lower?

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Because the actual test is not harder- just more stressful knowing that you're taking the real deal. Trust your NBME scores- they (typically) don't disappoint...
 
Like Bobcat said. Also because the real test has a good amount of questions that most people are supposed to get wrong. These are the qs that help them separate 270 from 268, for example. That's why many walk out feeling they were hit by a train.

Just trust your NBMEs.
 
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Like Bobcat said. Also because the real test has a good amount of questions that most people are supposed to get wrong. These are the qs that help them separate 270 from 268, for example. That's why many walk out feeling they were hit by a train.

Just trust your NBMEs.

Fair enough. I'm doing well in UW and practices...but I keep hearing "omg I've never seen anything like this!!!!" and I can't help but feeling like I'm going to get hit with WTF question after WTF question...
 
Because the actual test is not harder- just more stressful knowing that you're taking the real deal. Trust your NBME scores- they (typically) don't disappoint...

Yeah, that makes sense. I noticed you already took the exam - did you think most (almost all?) of the material was covered in UFAP?
 
Fair enough. I'm doing well in UW and practices...but I keep hearing "omg I've never seen anything like this!!!!" and I can't help but feeling like I'm going to get hit with WTF question after WTF question...
You'll be fine. When I walked out of the test I would have gladly accepted a score 20 points lower than the one I got.
 
You'll be fine. When I walked out of the test I would have gladly accepted a score 20 points lower than the one I got.
Appreciate it. I was looking at old threads re: the free 120 and noticed we essentially got the same score 84 vs 85%...and you ended up w a pretty killer step1 from what I recall.

Do you remember how different/comfortable you felt with step 1 compared to the free120?
 
the free 120 were surprisingly more difficult than any NBME for some reason. However, nothing comes close to the difficulty I had experienced on step1. I remember flagging ~10-15 qs per block. There were tons of qs I felt I was guessing on. But again, that's the nature of the test. They need to produce a bell curve so they need to include a lot of qs that make people uncomfortable. If all the qs came straight from UFAP, then you'll have a good number of people scoring 270+. That is not good for a standardized test. Besides, how are you going to differentiate between 274 and 270 if you don't include some ridiculous qs that only few have encountered such concept/factoid.

Stress/worry is a health thing but if it exceeds its limit and impedes your progress then it's counterproductive. Trust your hard work. UW does a really good job at preparing you for most of the questions. NBMEs are very good at estimating your score regardless of the difference in difficulty.
 
Fair enough. I'm doing well in UW and practices...but I keep hearing "omg I've never seen anything like this!!!!" and I can't help but feeling like I'm going to get hit with WTF question after WTF question...

NBMEs are scored to be predictive. Generally speaking, you need a higher percentage correct on those than you do on the real thing to get the same kind of scores. Also keep in mind that the real thing is twice as long as NBMEs.

I agree with all of what Ibn Alnafis said. You come out of the exam feeling terrible and will get hit with questions you've never seen before, brush them off and move on. You end up right around your NBMEs.

As far as UWSAs, they, from what I hear - never took one, just took multiple NBMEs, inflate your predicted score.
 
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Situational stress + fatigue. A UWorld block in your pajamas on your couch is easier than 8 blocks of questions in a row at Prometric when you're subconsciously (or consciously) worrying about the implications of getting too many wrong.

NBMEs seem to be predictive for most people. I think the percentage correct on UWorld chart overpredicts, but that only diminishes its value as a predictor not as a learning tool.
 
Situational stress + fatigue. A UWorld block in your pajamas on your couch is easier than 8 blocks of questions in a row at Prometric when you're subconsciously (or consciously) worrying about the implications of getting too many wrong.

NBMEs seem to be predictive for most people. I think the percentage correct on UWorld chart overpredicts, but that only diminishes its value as a predictor not as a learning tool.

Are NBME still predictive? I read they re-scaled late last year and as a result are undepredicting.
 
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