I'm an IMG, graduated in june of last year, and did my Step 1 3 weeks ago after around 8 months of prep.
Score came out today and I'm very pleased to find it's a 246
Below are my practice test results with some comments.
Uworld avg correct: 76% (but I think this is completely irrelevant)
UWSA 1: 240 (5 weeks out); 75% correct
UWSA 2: 250 (4 weeks out); 80% correct (I think both UWSA overestimate)
NBME 11: 232 (3 weeks out); 84.5% correct (31 mistakes out of 200) (i had to guess 2 questions because I only had 10 seconds to answer each, I would've gotten them right if I had the time. Also I made many silly mistakes attributable to over-thinking.)
NBME 12: 241 (3 weeks out, next day); 88% (24 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 13: 239 (2 weeks out); 86% (28 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 15: 249 (2 weeks out, next day); 89.5% (21 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 16: 260 (1 week out); 92% (16 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 17: 245 (1 week out, next day); 89% (22 mistakes out of 200)
USMLE STEP 1 Sample Practice test: 88% correct (3 days out); This was most similar to the actual exam.
All my exams were done online.
Questions on UWSA are tougher than NBMEs, but the grading curve is so much more strict on NBMEs.
To be honest when I did my first NBME I was caught off guard by how easy many of the questions were. I overanswered on many questions and I also had poor time management because I wasn't used to the really long question stems.
Luck is a factor, but more than anything instinct plays a huge role in determining how much your grade can swing.
This is why it's important to be well rested, and confident in your answers.
As far as changing answers goes, I would say 45-50% of the answers I change would be from wrong to right, and 50-55%% from right to wrong, so it doesn't make a huge difference.
More importantly, I found that when I was confused between 2 answers, the assumption that the question is easy lead to more correct answers than assuming there is a really twisted trick in the question.
So what I'm saying is, for the tough questions that can go either way, unless you are sure that there is a trick in the question, you should pick the simpler answer that would be more commonly picked.
Do not assume there is a trick. Either you know there's a trick, and you see it; or there isn't a trick, and you shouldn't be making a silly mistake.
Time management and endurance are critical on the actual exam. Fatigue plays a role in making more mistakes than you otherwise would have. So does rushing questions because you are running short on time.
You should aim to have at least 3 minutes to review each section, even if you don't change any answers.
Long question stems are more frequent on the actual exam than on UWSA's or NBME's, and this is to be expected with the change they've made to the number of questions per section (44q per section instead of 46q).
I prepped for 8 months using First AID (but not religiously memorizing, only multiple readings), Uworld qbank, pathoma and the online exams.
Good Luck!
Score came out today and I'm very pleased to find it's a 246
Below are my practice test results with some comments.
Uworld avg correct: 76% (but I think this is completely irrelevant)
UWSA 1: 240 (5 weeks out); 75% correct
UWSA 2: 250 (4 weeks out); 80% correct (I think both UWSA overestimate)
NBME 11: 232 (3 weeks out); 84.5% correct (31 mistakes out of 200) (i had to guess 2 questions because I only had 10 seconds to answer each, I would've gotten them right if I had the time. Also I made many silly mistakes attributable to over-thinking.)
NBME 12: 241 (3 weeks out, next day); 88% (24 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 13: 239 (2 weeks out); 86% (28 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 15: 249 (2 weeks out, next day); 89.5% (21 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 16: 260 (1 week out); 92% (16 mistakes out of 200)
NBME 17: 245 (1 week out, next day); 89% (22 mistakes out of 200)
USMLE STEP 1 Sample Practice test: 88% correct (3 days out); This was most similar to the actual exam.
All my exams were done online.
Questions on UWSA are tougher than NBMEs, but the grading curve is so much more strict on NBMEs.
To be honest when I did my first NBME I was caught off guard by how easy many of the questions were. I overanswered on many questions and I also had poor time management because I wasn't used to the really long question stems.
Luck is a factor, but more than anything instinct plays a huge role in determining how much your grade can swing.
This is why it's important to be well rested, and confident in your answers.
As far as changing answers goes, I would say 45-50% of the answers I change would be from wrong to right, and 50-55%% from right to wrong, so it doesn't make a huge difference.
More importantly, I found that when I was confused between 2 answers, the assumption that the question is easy lead to more correct answers than assuming there is a really twisted trick in the question.
So what I'm saying is, for the tough questions that can go either way, unless you are sure that there is a trick in the question, you should pick the simpler answer that would be more commonly picked.
Do not assume there is a trick. Either you know there's a trick, and you see it; or there isn't a trick, and you shouldn't be making a silly mistake.
Time management and endurance are critical on the actual exam. Fatigue plays a role in making more mistakes than you otherwise would have. So does rushing questions because you are running short on time.
You should aim to have at least 3 minutes to review each section, even if you don't change any answers.
Long question stems are more frequent on the actual exam than on UWSA's or NBME's, and this is to be expected with the change they've made to the number of questions per section (44q per section instead of 46q).
I prepped for 8 months using First AID (but not religiously memorizing, only multiple readings), Uworld qbank, pathoma and the online exams.
Good Luck!