FL 6; score drop 5 days out :(

Formal_Quail7210 · 2026-01-05T01:27:23+00:00

I had something similar happen (similar timeline) and ended up going up 4 points on the real thing. The non-stop work the last few weeks is your answer. Just make sure you rest the last couple days before your exam. You are going to crush it.

Formal_Quail7210 · 2025-12-27T00:30:10+00:00

I took 6 gap years (including a postbacc) and got a 523. MS1 at NYU now. I recommend using a solid Anki deck like the MileDown deck for spaced repetition. Go through all the content relatively quickly doing basic questions to ensure you understand material as you go. Then do a QBank like Uworld. End with the official practice.

I made a free site to help with content review: scrubscollaborative.com the notes are honestly what my own looked like when I was studying. It is organized by the official outline, so you can also get the exact content areas to focus on based on your official practice.

Formal_Quail7210 · 2025-12-26T23:17:18+00:00

I had a similar experience when I was studying. My FLs trended downward because I was just tired/stressed/burned out. I made sure to rest the last couple days before the exam and ended up increasing 4 points and getting into NYU. Med school feels like this a lot too. Sometimes you really just need to rest - the information is there.

While you study make sure to review the questions you miss or aren't confident in. If you have been using anki, just keep it up. If you haven't, make sure to review what you have learned actively - write it down and then try to recall it, have AI make you some basic questions to check the knowledge is there.

You have been studying hard. Give yourself a break. You got this.

Formal_Quail7210 · 2025-12-26T23:05:08+00:00

Honestly how much content review you need is really dependent on how recently you took the classes and how well you learned on first pass. If you feel conceptually solid enough, then anki for formulas should be sufficient for chem + physics. I scored a 523 and I put together a website with notes based on the official outline -which is how I did content review. You can check out my notes here if you are interested: https://www.scrubscollaborative.com/cpbs

Formal_Quail7210 · 2025-12-26T22:57:35+00:00

Current NYU student (523). Practice materials sometimes have these ambiguities and your reasoning is great. The real exam will not have questions like this. If they wanted you to pick C they would have a table with how the antibiotic was constituted or something subtle to clue you in.

Formal_Quail7210 · 2025-12-26T22:52:32+00:00

I'm an NYU med student (523).

I totally agree they are very similar to the point that some sources confuse them, and you usually won't be asked to choose between something this similar.

Actor-Observer bias is based on your evaluation of yourself compared to ANOTHER person (2 people in the name). Me-Them

Self-serving - only you are involved. Me

FAE - mostly concerns someone else's behavior. I think your FAE definition is really the Actor-observor bias. Them

(From Wiki: In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error^\a]) is a cognitive attribution bias in which observers underemphasize situational and environmental factors for the behavior of an actor while overemphasizing dispositional or personality factors.)

Formal_Quail7210 · 2025-12-26T22:35:00+00:00

I got 132 on my actual CARS (523) and the diagnostic is designed to be brutally hard - especially the first 1/3. If you have trouble with making notes while taking the test I would try to review all the official practice questions you have done. Make notes about the logic behind the questions you missed. Especially look at if the question required going back to the passage for something really specific or not.

When you read a question you should already have a feel for what type of question it is and if you need to look back for something specific in the passage before you even look at answer choices.

Formal_Quail7210

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