is the real exam like nbme????

[minahil]

just took the nbme 2 & 3 my score were 440 & 380 but i`m very dissapointed as it had nothing wat i was expecting is the real usmle like that only or wat ?thanx plz. relp!

[minahil]

plz. relpy i`m very upset don`t know wat to do &wat not to.

[TaxiDriver]

i would say the exam is closest to NBME 2. I took NBME 1 and 2 before the test. and the real thing has the same style of kind-of-vague format questions.

[Sara123456]

I took the exam on March 31st and I thought the exam was much more clinically oriented and kaplan style than the NBME. I got so frustrated by the NBME 2 and 3 that I just didn't even bother to take it when it got to 10 days before my exam. Believe in yourself and don't let a so called 'predictor' get the best of you. If you've studied hard then do your best on test day and you'll be fine.

Remember the NBME are RETIRED QUESTIONS - meaning they were once tested on the USMLE but then taken off. The exam is more clinically oriented and less '1 liner style'.

Also, I don't know about you but I tend to have that extra adrenaline surge and when I know it's not the real thing I don't put my all and all into it the same way I did on exam day.

So don't stress about it............just keep studying hard, review first aid and your notes and learn how to analyze and do questions by doing lots of practice qbank.

Good luck!

[In_Training]

thanks sara. can you tell us more about your exam as far as what kinds of ques you were asked and what your nbme/qbank scores were? congrats btw, im sure u did great

[Sara123456]

Hi,

Well my thoughts on the exam (and you'll all have this clarity afterwards) is that the exam really focuses on the big picture. Literally, the majority of what you need to know is in First Aid. So, my advice is understand the material well from Kaplan and then fill in the blanks into your first aid........then with this overall understanding of all subject matter, begin to read first aid over and over again.

In Kaplan qbank i must have done at least 15 questions on the Glycogen storage diseases.....factual tidbits about each of them......on my exam there was nothing. So the actual exam varies......mine had lots of immuno and genetics whereas someone else who wrote on the same day had a lot of pathophysio. The NBME seems to have a very large pool of questions so don't waste your time going over 'remembered questions' or recently asked topics..........trust me, i did that and it didn't help.

After you've filled Kaplan material into First Aid just keep reading it over and over and over again. Before my exam I didn't understand why people emphasized the need for questions......and at a certain point I got so frustrated qbank. However, keep at it because although the content on the actual usmle is not nearly as picky, it does teach you a couple of things: It teaches you to be able to jump from topic topic. It teaches you how to read and analyze questions. For example, if you get a qbank question wrong and while reviewing the answer you think "grr....i knew that!!! what a silly mistake!".....take it a step further....analyze how you picked your answer, think about the logical steps you took in analyzing the question and answer options.

Unless you're a really memorizer (which I am not) you can't possibly know everything so that you're able to recall information and answer all the questions right off the top of your head. So, learn to 'think' about questions and eliminate choices and make an educational and logical decision about an answer.

I only used Kaplan material and I felt that was adequate for everything except anatomy. After my exam I went thru my first aid and the vast majority of the material is in there.....it's just not explained....hence why you need to use Kaplan the first time around to understand what you're eventually going to commit to memory. I'm just annoyed at all the silly mistakes i made :cry:

Keep at it. I'd say 3 months with 8 hours of study every day is more than enough. (the week or two before the exam adrenaline will help you increase study time to 12 hours per day) The first month and a half get thru Kaplan videos and books and keep filling in first aid. The next month and a half keep reading first aid and do all of qbank.

Well good luck!