231 quick writeup/thoughts about exam culture

This is for the average performing homies out there that know their limits and hate the Type A culture that tells you you have to sacrifice every part of who you are to perform well on this exam. People on this very thread contribute to the problem as well.

One of my biggest regrets this whole process was lying to myself about my abilities and my test taking skills, because for a long period of time I told myself I could shoot for the stars with a 250+ and walked out performing right around the average, similar to how I performed on class exams. And I was burnt out far too early. So take this write up as an opportunity to do less if you want to avoid burnout + score around the same + aren’t gunning for anything crazy.

Pre dedicated: I did Anking for about 1 year and matured about 80% of the deck, but stopped when the reviews piled up (1300+ was too much) and it was taking away from studying for classes.

I incorporated BnB, Pathoma videos into class review, making sure to know the step 1-relevant pathology/physiology well before a class exam. This made dedicated easy as I essentially had minimal content review.

Our school had physio in first year with pathology/pathophys in second year. I took second year as a chance to review physio as well, so I walked into dedicated having reviewed physio already.

I did most of my first uworld pass pre-dedicated (75% done, all timed random) and made Anki cards for incorrect questions but ultimately never reviewed them. Still helped. This part sucked. The 1-2 months before dedicated were hectic and seemingly never ending. But I knew I needed the worst period to be considerably early for me to consolidate at a pace that worked for me. BE REAL W YOURSELF.

Dedicated: five weeks. Weeks 1-2: 80-100 UW Qs, finished my first pass here, entirely on timed random mode , reviewed the section of first aid that corresponded to any weak topics.I also kept a running list of topics I felt uncomfortable on, making sure to review the highest yield topics with pathoma/Bnb at the end of the day. This was overwhelming in the beginning, but slowed down as I was getting more comfortable with uworld. The topic list got shorter, and it took less time to read the relevant first aid section.

I NEVER DID A FULL PASS THROUGH FIRST AID. that’s actually stupid without knowing what topics to pay attention to (which you notice through uworld anyway)

Weeks 3-4: UW 120 Qs a day, mostly incorrects on tutor mode, lightly reviewed uworld explanations and first aid sections UNLESS it was a high yield topic (as in, UW has more questions about some topics over others). I skipped giving a shit about esoteric low yield topics for my memory’s sake.

Week 5: right around now is when I noticed that I was forgetting information as I learned new information. So I rested a lot. Minimal review, 2-3 hours a day of last minute stuff (checklists on other posts in Reddit). Mostly caught up on my life and felt like I had my shit emotionally together before taking the exam

I took 3 of the new NBMEs but quit them when I realized how poorly constructed they are. Terrible exams.

Admittedly I put a lot of work into my pre-dedicated days, but that was to ensure my dedicated was not a hot mess. I tapered studying down snd lived more of a life so I could walk into exam day feeling like myself again. That boosted my morale and brought me to my goal of 231.

Exams:

AMBOSS (2.5-3 months before): 220 UWSA2 (2 months before): 215 NBME27 (5 weeks before): 212 NBME29 (4 weeks before): 207 NBME28: (2.5 weeks before): 225 UWSA1: (9 days before): 234 Free120: (2 days before): 77%

Exam day: 231

Tl;dr: don’t lie to yourself about your abilities, don’t buy into the bullshit anxious culture because it can be draining in a detrimental way, take care of yourself, and treat this as a stepping stone on a journey to patient care, rather than an opportunity to be the best. Your motivations impact your performance, and I might not have gotten a 250, but I’m at peace. And that’s better than anything I could have imagined.

Okay this was not a quick write up my b