[TAAOM]

Guys I really need some advice .....

I am planing to take the exam at the end of Feb ....right now I am doing UWorld finished 50% and my average is 55% ....

What shall I do to improve my score .....I wanna get 99 ....shall I review Kaplan once again ....and I didn't really do much of FA .....

Please help me ...

 

[khanar]

Do this

Go back to Kaplan Notes quickly
Read FA carefully.

If you don't hit 65% in UW, then I suggest you do Kaplan Qbank as well.

If you don't find enough time to do that, then you must postpone your exam if you want to get 99.

 

[JJtheMD]

If you want to improve your score, your going to have to do lots and lots of questions.. Finish off usmle world once and go for a second round of USMLE world (my first time through it i had a 58, my second time i had 65-78)... I would suggest doing nbme exams to show you your worst topics which will help you improve marks in areas which you will need.

I thought it was helpfull (@ least for me) To have a testing qbank which you would do every few days to see how you would do... i used usmle rx only for 336 q or 192 q exams.. i found i constantly got marks around the 65-67 percent of questions right (according to them a 220-224 for usmle mark)... near the end of my study (about 7 days before, i got 73% right and got a 240 in a 336 q exam i saved up @ the start of the qbank... so for sure the second read through and nbme/usmle world assessement exams are important to your studies.

Kaplan is also a good qbank to do for the usmle.. the qbank has been completely redone and the average has decreased from 61% from back then in the day and is now a 56-57%.. soo alot of the easy questions were removed and new "expirmental Q's" are in there qbank now.

Good luck on your exam!

 

[khanar]

Disagree

Finish off usmle world once and go for a second round of USMLE world (my first time through it i had a 58, my second time i had 65-78).

I disagree with doing any qbank twice. There's no use in doing that. the qbanks are to train us, it's not a reference book.

 

[JJtheMD]

lol.. even the usmle world people who made the qbank "recommend" to do the qbank twice..

http://www.usmleworld.com/Step1/step1_qbank.aspx

Now i understand where your coming from and i completely agree.. Thats why i recommended to do a testing qbank from either usmle rx or kaplan which helps solve that problem...

Which leads me to my next point, USMLE world should "NOT" be used as a qbank to measure your performance on the usmle... The world qbank is wayyyyyyyyyy harder than the usmle actually is (with the exception of a few questions which world works fantastically for)... The usmle world qbank is used best when it is used as a tool for learning.. therefore even if you remember the question and answer it correct... if you read the explanations for all questions regardless if you were right or wrong.. then your using a qbank correctly..

But in terms of testing your ability in exam situations, your completely right, you should always attempt new questions.

 

[TAAOM]

thx for ur reply ppl ....so now i am planing on taking break from qbanks n going bck to kaplan n FA review my stuff n get bck to uworld do u ppl think its a good idea or shall i continue with uworld simultaneously review my stuff ???

 

[khanar]

lol.. even the usmle world people who made the qbank "recommend" to do the qbank twice..

Alright, I started a poll about this issue
http://www.usmle-forums.com/usmle-step-1-forum/5765-should-we-do-usmle-world-once-twice.html
Go there and cast your vote and put down your arguments

 

[heights]

Dear TAAOM, just keep chugging away at it and you will be fine. I would say definitely continue doing questions while you are reviewing Kaplan and FA.
My suggestion would be that you do your questions based on the specific subjects you are doing. So for example when you are doing Reproductive Pathology in Kaplan, do some questions on that. Then the next topic, you do questions on the previous topic plus the current topic; so if you next topic is reproductive pharmacology, you review Repro Path and Pham. Keep adding on questions from each subject as you go along, so that by the time you are done reviewing you will be able to do questions from all sections.
While doing questions, make sure you annotate FA with anything you are not clear on, and read the corresponding section in FA carefully. Kaplan is a lot to review all over again, so if you find you're worried about time maybe review your weak areas first while thoroughly going through FA.
Good luck!

 

[ashishkabir]

I know I keep repeating this throughout the forums so I'm sorry if I sound preachy, but please use the NBME online forms to gauge your performance and not qbank percentages. Different people actually absorb qbank information in very different ways and so it cannot be used as a diagnostic system. Its just that good qbank scores correlate well to the fact that you already know your stuff and if anything, prove that you didn't need the bank in the first place.

What I'm saying is this - read the explanation for every question you got wrong thoroughly. If that requires two reads, then so be it. If you can get it done on the first read good for you. Either way, your goal is to absorb the material there, not use it to predict your score. Don't think about your exam till you feel you've absorbed the material in the bank. Then, once you're done with that - do some NBMEs and schedule the exam within a week...

 

[TAAOM]

thxxxx

i started biostats i think its my one of the weak area....i am struggling on it ....wat is the best source n easy way of understanding it ???

 

[rasheed]

i started biostats i think its my one of the weak area....i am struggling on it ....wat is the best source n easy way of understanding it ???

I suggest this thread
http://www.usmle-forums.com/usmle-step-1-forum/4439-how-do-i-improve-my-biostatistics.html

 

[JJtheMD]

I would suggest reading maybe the High Yield Behavioral Science section @ the end of the book, i think they have a biostats section in it.. as well does the BRS version... Kaplan video is somewhat decent in the topic.

If you wanted say some questions in just the epidemiology area, i would try the usmle world epi course.. its just an assortment of epi questions which i think goes over the whole subject.... its sort of helpfull but only if you have the time and you already have an good understanding the subject already.