Worth Doing All NMBEs?

[stop2stop]

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Hey all,

So I was hoping to pose a question that some with experience may be able to touch on. I deciding how many NBMEs I want to do, and it seems like most people did from 5-6 (Including UWSA). Is this a good number, or would people say it is really worth doing them all? Thanks so much for your time.

 

[Entadus]

From what I understand... the NBME's may not be as good of practice as UWorld since there are no easily available answers/explanations. For this reason I will probably be prioritizing UWorld over the NBME assessments, though I may do a few.

 

[stop2stop]

From what I understand... the NBME's may not be as good of practice as UWorld since there are no easily available answers/explanations. For this reason I will probably be prioritizing UWorld over the NBME assessments, though I may do a few.

Thanks for the reply. I agree completely. I guess I am asking more how important it is to do the NBMEs beforehand not so much to learn from them, but to simulate the actually test taking experience. Is doing 4-5 of these enough for that, or is it really a good idea to do them all and get as much experience with answering lots of questions, stamina, etc. beforehand.

 

[Vexare]

Do as many NBMEs as you can. Not only are these questions highly representative of the material you'll see tested on Step 1, but the average of 3 NBMEs in the week before your exam is highly predictive of the score you'll get. Also, as Phloston and others have mentioned in the past, UWorld and other qbanks simply have a different question style from the NBME and you need to start thinking like the NBME writers in the days leading up to Step 1. The best way to do this is to blast through as many NBME questions as possible. Search for the answers online once you're done and LEARN from your mistakes. You are practically guaranteed to see questions similar to those on the practice NBMEs on the actual Step 1 and so in many ways this is as "high yield" as it gets.

 

[stop2stop]

Do as many NBMEs as you can. Not only are these questions highly representative of the material you'll see tested on Step 1, but the average of 3 NBMEs in the week before your exam is highly predictive of the score you'll get. Also, as Phloston and others have mentioned in the past, UWorld and other qbanks simply have a different question style from the NBME and you need to start thinking like the NBME writers in the days leading up to Step 1. The best way to do this is to blast through as many NBME questions as possible. Search for the answers online once you're done and LEARN from your mistakes. You are practically guaranteed to see questions similar to those on the practice NBMEs on the actual Step 1 and so in many ways this is as "high yield" as it gets.

Wow, thanks so much for the thoughtful answer. I do have one follow up question though: Are you suggesting that most people do 3 NBME the week before the exam? And do many people try to simulate the real exam by doing back-to-back NBMEs at a time/is that a good idea as well? Thanks again so much for your time.

 

[Vexare]

Wow, thanks so much for the thoughtful answer. I do have one follow up question though: Are you suggesting that most people do 3 NBME the week before the exam? And do many people try to simulate the real exam by doing back-to-back NBMEs at a time/is that a good idea as well? Thanks again so much for your time.

I can't recall how many people do 3 NBMEs the week before their exam (you'd be able to check this by going through any of the dedicated Step 1 experiences threads and looking at when people did those tests relative to Step 1; most people list it as "x days out" or by date). If you do 3 NBMEs in the last week before your exam however, then they're likely to be predictive of your actual score.

That being said, I would recommend doing 3 NBMEs in the week leading up to your exam to be exposed to that question style, the material tested, and to assess where you stand score-wise while shoring up weaknesses you may discover along the way. I do not think simulating the real exam by doing back-to-back NBMEs is necessary or useful. In fact, people that do this typically get burned out, have wasted an entire day doing 2 exams and so have little time to review them, and often are in no state of mind to work through all of that material the next day. You would be much better off taking 1 NBME per day, taking a good break after the exam, then reviewing that exam at night before getting plenty of hours of quality sleep. If you're worried about timing then practice by doing timed, random UWorld blocks and set small goals for where you want to be at different time points (ex. halfway through by x-amount of time, or always finish with 10 min. to review marked questions). If you're worried about test-taking stamina then you must prioritize adequate sleep throughout your dedicated study period and plenty of break/relaxation time for your mind to process and rest both during dedicated and on test day. Wearing yourself out by doing back-to-back NBMEs once or twice will not magically improve your test-taking stamina. Besides, you'll be so pumped full of adrenaline on test day that you'll push through even if you don't think you can.

 

[mxmd]

I had a 5 month study plan, coinciding with my school's pathophys/path module based course. the last month was about 5 weeks of dedicated study time. Most of my Step 1 studying was done during those 4 months, with the dedicated time basically to review and finish up the questions I hadn't done yet.

I did two NBMEs.. one at the end of the my 4 month long pathophys course. and one the week before the exam. Did like crap on the first nbme, presumably because I hadn't reviewed some of the stuff in months. Jumped about about 50 points on the second, ended up with 252 on the real deal.

 

[mymembernames]

Is it wise to use NBMEs to study topics that they specifically questions us about?

 

[stop2stop]

Is it wise to use NBMEs to study topics that they specifically questions us about?

What do you mean by this?

 

[ATypicalLymphocyte]

Is it wise to use NBMEs to study topics that they specifically questions us about?

Most of the topics on the questions you'll see (both on NBME's and the real deal) are covered by the "high-yield resources" (e.g., UFAP). Needless to say, if you encounter questions that aren't covered by these you should probably look them up (since it won't take you long and might prove useful, however slightly).