NBME 5 - 188 (before preparation - major freak out)
NBME 11 - 219 (8 weeks out)
NBME 3 - 224 (5 weeks out - did offline)
NBME 5 - 226 (5 weeks out)
NBME 6 - 224 (3 weeks out)
NBME 12 - 225 (3 weeks out)
NBME 7 - 228 (2.5 weeks out)
NBME 13 - 226 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 1 - 238 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2 - 258 (1 week out)
Free 150q - 89% ~ 257 (5 days out)
The NBME's were a train wreck for me. I would get 83-88% correct on those exams, but the score report was not at all indicative of my performances. I thought that they were too stingy with their points. My advisor told us that some questions are worth more than others on the online NBME's. So if I were to miss 4-5 questions that counted towards two subjects (e.g. cardio and pharm), then I would get -2 instead of -1… I'm not sure she's right, but that is just my experience with the NBME's.
That being said, I got like 6-7 questions DIRECTLY from the NBME's. So it is extremely important to do your NBME's!!
Materials that I used:
1. FA 4x
2. UWorld Q bank 2x
3. Kaplan Q bank (half)
4. Pathoma 2x
5. BRS Phys 1x
I studied for about 3 months and the last month being super intense (17 hour studying days).
I spent the last 5 days rereading all of FA. The day before the test I actually studied from 8am to 8pm going over the topics that I felt weakest in. I am one of those people that relax best by studying the day before… it's a little weird. I ended up sleeping for like 3-4 hours MAX. Be sure you get PLENTY of sleep the nights leading up to the test.
Test day:
I did the first 5 blocks consecutively without a single break. My adrenaline was pumping and I just cruised through it.
That test was probably harder than any of the exams I've taken before. It was harder than the NBME's, UWSA's, or any of the Q banks. There were a bunch of obscure anatomy questions, and A LOT of brainstem questions. Neuro is one of my strong subjects so I did okay with those. Pharm and micro was so easy that I almost felt stupid going over them in FA so many times. I had two heart sound questions and a bunch of weird cardio questions.
After I was finished with my exam, I still had like 55 minutes of my break time left. I felt super uneasy inside like I made a big mistake by not using more of my breaks. But honestly, I wasn't tired at all. I felt like I could have done 4-5 more blocks if I had to. I knew I passed, but felt like my score could have ranged from 210 to 240.
My actual score (end of June) ended up being a 241!
Hope this helps those taking the beast in the future!
NBME 11 - 219 (8 weeks out)
NBME 3 - 224 (5 weeks out - did offline)
NBME 5 - 226 (5 weeks out)
NBME 6 - 224 (3 weeks out)
NBME 12 - 225 (3 weeks out)
NBME 7 - 228 (2.5 weeks out)
NBME 13 - 226 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 1 - 238 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2 - 258 (1 week out)
Free 150q - 89% ~ 257 (5 days out)
The NBME's were a train wreck for me. I would get 83-88% correct on those exams, but the score report was not at all indicative of my performances. I thought that they were too stingy with their points. My advisor told us that some questions are worth more than others on the online NBME's. So if I were to miss 4-5 questions that counted towards two subjects (e.g. cardio and pharm), then I would get -2 instead of -1… I'm not sure she's right, but that is just my experience with the NBME's.
That being said, I got like 6-7 questions DIRECTLY from the NBME's. So it is extremely important to do your NBME's!!
Materials that I used:
1. FA 4x
2. UWorld Q bank 2x
3. Kaplan Q bank (half)
4. Pathoma 2x
5. BRS Phys 1x
I studied for about 3 months and the last month being super intense (17 hour studying days).
I spent the last 5 days rereading all of FA. The day before the test I actually studied from 8am to 8pm going over the topics that I felt weakest in. I am one of those people that relax best by studying the day before… it's a little weird. I ended up sleeping for like 3-4 hours MAX. Be sure you get PLENTY of sleep the nights leading up to the test.
Test day:
I did the first 5 blocks consecutively without a single break. My adrenaline was pumping and I just cruised through it.
That test was probably harder than any of the exams I've taken before. It was harder than the NBME's, UWSA's, or any of the Q banks. There were a bunch of obscure anatomy questions, and A LOT of brainstem questions. Neuro is one of my strong subjects so I did okay with those. Pharm and micro was so easy that I almost felt stupid going over them in FA so many times. I had two heart sound questions and a bunch of weird cardio questions.
After I was finished with my exam, I still had like 55 minutes of my break time left. I felt super uneasy inside like I made a big mistake by not using more of my breaks. But honestly, I wasn't tired at all. I felt like I could have done 4-5 more blocks if I had to. I knew I passed, but felt like my score could have ranged from 210 to 240.
My actual score (end of June) ended up being a 241!
Hope this helps those taking the beast in the future!