ubs
Forum Newbie
Topics: 7
Posts: 11
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hi , i took step 3 in feb and failed, then started preparing again ... now i have exam again in 10 days & got 340 on NBME... i m very very depressed & tensed & i dont know wat to do. any helpful soul plz advise as to wat i can do to make a passing score in step 3. thank you in advance
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| ubs
Forum Newbie
Topics: 7
Posts: 11
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hi , i took step 3 in feb and failed, then started preparing again ... now i have exam again in 10 days & got 340 on NBME... i m very very depressed & tensed & i dont know wat to do. any helpful soul plz advise as to wat i can do to make a passing score in step 3. thank you in advance
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| suresubabu
Forum Junior
Topics: 12
Posts: 34
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Hi
Dont take the test. This is not a EASY test, as it was made out to be. As you have to know the hardway, it is NOT easy. Let us face it, we have to be ready before we take it. We should not take it as we have to get over with it. We should be genuinely ready. Ask yourself, ARE YOU READY??? In the truest sense? Something in you must tell the answer. Affirmative or otherwise. If you are genuinely confident, and genuinely ready(which I doubt , with a score of 340) then go ahead and take it. But honestly, a couple of months preparation won't hurt. Dont let this H1B thing bog you down.J1 is equally good if not better. This is the exam for residents, for the people who have finished and on the verge of finishing, and dont be in a hurry to get over with that. On the otherhand stay determined to DECIMATE it. CRUSH it. Get ready. Keep working hard for some more time. You will most certianly get there. We are all with you. Jai hind.
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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i got 290 on nmbe today. I am thinking of revising all my step 2 books and buying the crush step 3 book. Can you please tell me whats the best interactive approach to CCS.
USMLE world CCS makes me sleepy. Its extremely choppy and unclassified.
currently i am doing an average of 50 - 60 % on the USMLE world, about 30-35 questions on the USMLE CD and about 30 - 35 questions on the q book.
Can you guys please tell me how to maximise my performance. and also, Can i retake NBME and depend on its validity the next time? coz there is only one form for step 3.
i am quite nervous about regaining all the step 2 knowledge and finishing this step 3 adventure.
anyways thanks in advance,
also Suresh babu, if you are reading this, please advice man.
thanks again, BUD
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| bj123
Forum Senior
Topics: 5
Posts: 24
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i got 340 in nbme and passed with 196/80 in the exam
you can do it if you master ccs and study weak areas
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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Hi UBS whats going on with your exam? did you take it again? or post pone it? whats up?
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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should i take it 1wk before the exam or 1 month before the exam?
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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fighter wrote:
should i take it 1wk before the exam or 1 month before the exam?
I mean the NBME exam, is it closest to the exam compared to kaplan qbank or UW, what % is needed for a 80 on the actual? what would that be in the 3digit score on the actual exam?
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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Fighter, take it 1 month before exam, so you can work on the areas you are weak in, instead of realising you dont know something and cant do much about it, in the last minute.
i think if you get around 420 its around 80 on the real exam.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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Budlight wrote:
Fighter, take it 1 month before exam, so you can work on the areas you are weak in, instead of realising you dont know something and cant do much about it, in the last minute.
i think if you get around 420 its around 80 on the real exam.
Thanks budlight. For $45 , NBME is a one time pass, or we can review our performance for days after taking it
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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you cant review th equestions, but you get a feed back exactly like the Real Exam score sheet, based on that, you can try to decide where to focus more.
NBME scores are the closest to what you will score on the exam, so do it like a real exam. I am saying all of this, but i am real scared myself, coz i got a lower score a month ago when i took it and i postponed my exam since.
good luck to you, and hope the same to me.
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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practicing CCS really well seems to be the key to step 3. A lot of average people like me, got through the exam after doinga lot of CCS. And doing averagely in the MCQ part.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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Budlight wrote:
practicing CCS really well seems to be the key to step 3. A lot of average people like me, got through the exam after doinga lot of CCS. And doing averagely in the MCQ part.
Budlight, how much would you think a score of 250-300 worth in the actual 2digit score? a 75 is @400 on nbme? so may be a 70? i know it is harder to get over the bump of the mountain, just some extra help-but how? redo the q's over & over???b/c it is not the content, we know we have to pick between those 2 last choices!!!!!!!! but how do we take the ccs performance into consideration when we are evaluating the NBME score?somebody said NBME doesn't correlate to the actual exam score!
got any answer to ur q about taking NBME over & still having validity of the score?thanks
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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Budlight wrote:
practicing CCS really well seems to be the key to step 3. A lot of average people like me, got through the exam after doinga lot of CCS. And doing averagely in the MCQ part.
Budlight, how much would you think a score of 250-300 worth in the actual 2digit score? a 75 is @400 on nbme? so may be a 70? i know it is harder to get over the bump of the mountain, just some extra help-but how? redo the q's over & over???b/c it is not the content, we know we have to pick between those 2 last choices!!!!!!!! but how do we take the ccs performance into consideration when we are evaluating the NBME score?somebody said NBME doesn't correlate to the actual exam score!
got any answer to ur q about taking NBME over & still having validity of the score?thanks
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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i think a score of 75/184 on the real exam co relates somewhere around 370-380 on the NBME. Dont listen to that somebody, coz the NBME isthe closest assesment there is to the real exam. Who would you trust, that person or the NATIONAL BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS. ? so my friend, take the nbme like a real exam, ifyou get lower score, take time and study, forget about going over the bump, in my experiance, if you know enough and are lucky enough, going over the bump is comfortable, and if you dont know enough, the bump is real hard to cross and you need a lotta luck,
I burnt my fingers too many times to take a risk on any of these exams, i suggest you not to also. With only 1 week of 10 days of focusing on the things you dont know, you can improve yourself significantly. trust me on that one.
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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the only way that worked for me in the past was to read the topics that i was weak in and then practice questions from those topics. There are gonna be me things that we dont know, Reading the books, USMLE step 3 notes, or relevant step 2 materials, really really helps in understanding the topic, and consequently answering questions,
finally if you are really not sure of picking an answer, try to select an answer based on one last reason why you would think one is better, like prognostic value, life expectancy, or simple things like easier route of administration, single dosing, single most preferred,
for eg, aspirin, ACE I s and beta blockers have mortality benefit ; procainamide is the preferred drug for WPW, Amiodarone is used in SVT and PSVT after carotid massage (rule out carotid bruit before you massage), etc i may also be wrong please check these,
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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and finally, no i never got an answer to the validity of retaking the NBME,
i suspect that its gonna be less valid coz i already would look up some answers, but its still worth trying i think, i am gonna do it in a day or 2 again. please tell me if you got the answer.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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Budlight wrote:
i think a score of 75/184 on the real exam co relates somewhere around 370-380 on the NBME. Dont listen to that somebody, coz the NBME isthe closest assesment there is to the real exam. Who would you trust, that person or the NATIONAL BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS. ? so my friend, take the nbme like a real exam, ifyou get lower score, take time and study, forget about going over the bump, in my experiance, if you know enough and are lucky enough, going over the bump is comfortable, and if you dont know enough, the bump is real hard to cross and you need a lotta luck,
I burnt my fingers too many times to take a risk on any of these exams, i suggest you not to also. With only 1 week of 10 days of focusing on the things you dont know, you can improve yourself significantly. trust me on that one.
How are planning to improve your score? i am thinking of doing the wrong q's over & read the explanations really carefully....don't know if this is a good strategy...also, reading the kaplan step3 video lecture notes is what i am reading b/c it breaks by system..............advise me on this!
Do you about the CCS/MCQ of passfirst.com?CCS on this are apparently interactive, I am trying to see if anyone knows the quality of CCS, should we buy the CD or online?both are available at different prices.
also there is studentconsult.com CCS which is interactive too. I subscribed to this, they are better than UW ccs.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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fighter wrote:
How are planning to improve your score? i am thinking of doing the wrong q's over & read the explanations really carefully....don't know if this is a good strategy...also, reading the kaplan step3 video lecture notes is what i am reading b/c it breaks by system..............advise me on this!
Do you about the CCS/MCQ of passfirst.com?CCS on this are apparently interactive, I am trying to see if anyone knows the quality of CCS, should we buy the CD or online?both are available at different prices.
also there is studentconsult.com CCS which is interactive too. I subscribed to this, they are better than UW ccs.
Budlight, I am sorry i missed on ur earlier replies regarding prep, i didn't get an answer on the validity on repeat NBME, how long ago u took the NBME? what's ur prep for ccs, this is not scored in the NBME practice test, so again, how can we know where we stand before going for the prep? do you anything about pass first ?
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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hi fighter,
I took the NBME on the 22nd of july i think, and i got around 290, so i post poned, and am studying. I dont think its very valid, to take it again, but i dont know what else to do! i am using the USMLE steps 123 for CCS, i like it better than the USMLE world too. i dont know about pass first, not many people suggested it though.
i think the best thing to do is to do as many new questions as possible and see if we are getting above 65%. i was doing the USMLE steps 123 questions, and i was getting around 60%, sometimes even less but the questions were allright. and my CCS, is based on the steps 123.com, i am scoring around 60-70 % sometimes even more so i am starting to feel comfortable on that.
good luck buddy, leave me your input too. thanks.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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hai Budlight,
I am reading the systems that I am weak in the step3kaplan video lecture notes, occassionally referring to CMDT. Were you doing & doing over the step123 CCS at the same sitting or is it first time around? I am not doing more than 40-60% on CCS,occassional case i would get 70-80%, on the MCQ's I was getting 50-80%
On the UW I am getting 50-55%, NBME 260-a few days ago. So what do you think? where do I stand? I appreciate your input, i think you are along the same trail..............Thanks buddy.
I know what you mean & I understand that we need to check our progress with new q's...There are only so many sources of q's out there which are good enough to be q's for step3, how can we get new q's? by this time we have been exposed to all of them.
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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Fighter,
Did you do Kaplan q bank questions!? they are very good for step 3. I was planning on revising those but i only have another week. I will revise my steps 123 questions as well as vol I and II books and Q book for now.
I am doing the Steps 123 ccs for the first time., some times i too get a low score, but that is mostly because i order the tests before or after they do in the CCS . that may be a problem, but i think as long as we do everything we should be fine.
i am taking the NBME again tomorrow, and based on that, i will feel comfortable, but right now, i do feel like taking the exam in one week rain or shine.
Well, stay in touch, it does look like we are in the same boat, lets work hard to keep it afloat.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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budlight,
good luck man for tomorrow.
what is ur standing on the UW currently, i know in the past you got
50-60%, are you doing them now or you are staying with the kaplan & step123 only? UW was useful initally to give more solid knowledge on the high yield topics but too detailed for last min prep??? please advise.
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| Budlight
Forum Senior
Topics: 9
Posts: 92
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Hi Fighter, I took the ?NBME again, this time i got 330! which corelates to 171. I improved in a lotta things from last time, but not enough i guess,
I am a little frustrated with it, because no matter how hard i work, i always hang around the pass/fail border, i mean for once i wanna walk in to a test knowing that i will pass it. but that sounds far from possible. I have to read on my weak areas and go take the exam in a week. thats my final decision. Rain or shine! i am weak in pedes and surgery. And a little weaker in medicine. But i am gonna read them a lot this week and go.
hope this daring attempt is worth it.
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| fighter
Forum Newbie
Topics: 2
Posts: 17
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Budlight,
It is encouraging that you improved, don't get discouraged, since you have 1 more wk, it helps. Since you last took 1 month ago, what did you read to improve your weak areas-volI & II ?wha else? what q's were you practising for the last 1 month?
medicine is the big chunk of the exam, it's good that you are good at that, i think you should be proud of your progress, i know how hard it is to improve at the borderline. were you studying the systems you were weak in medicine from a text like CMDT? how did you improve on those areas??
stay focused.
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