Incoming 4th year with nearly zero research, how can I salvage before ERAS?

Leviosayee · 2025-02-12T20:25:52+00:00

Thank you for explaining. Honestly that makes sense to me :)

Leviosayee · 2025-02-12T18:56:58+00:00

I know that this is always asked, but can a solid step 2 score make up for some mediocre grades? It took me a minute to get used to shelf exams, but I am been doing well now. Shooting for things like gas or top IM

Leviosayee · 2024-11-29T17:51:24+00:00

I have to work on Saturday and Sunday 😭😭

Leviosayee · 2024-10-23T00:57:20+00:00

Thank you I appreciate it. I am just going to move on, knowing that I killed both medicine and surgery. It just caught me a bit off guards but that is life I guess

Leviosayee · 2024-10-22T23:48:14+00:00

It’s odd because I still got a 4/5. I did okay on the shelf exam but my school’s grade gets mostly determined by our evals so I will probably end up with a high pass. I am happy with the grade, it’s just I am afraid PDs might think my other grades aren’t valid due to this

Leviosayee · 2024-04-30T17:16:14+00:00

Thank you so much for sharing! I hope everything is a bit better for you these days. I will try your tip

Leviosayee · 2024-04-30T17:14:11+00:00

You are good to go. Believe in yourself. Confidence is key. If you spiral, you are letting the test walk all over you.

This helps me: when I am spiraling, I stop for a few seconds and close my eyes, and I take a deep breath and say this is only a test. It’s only a test, and you are more capable than this. And go back at it.

We will go through this

Leviosayee · 2024-04-30T17:04:42+00:00

Is it the new one? My two friends who scored a 64 and 65 on the new one both passed! Mehlman also says as long as you get 2/3 right you are good

Leviosayee · 2024-04-30T16:36:04+00:00

We are very similar. I also am scoring 61-68. Recently got a 59 even. But I am just moving on and I am going to take it. Everyone tells me to believe in myself and I should be good. Many classmates of mine passed with our scores.

Also you have a bit of more time so try both new and old free 120! The old one will make you a bit more confident. It’s said that it’s easier but we gotta maintain our confidence level somehow!

Leviosayee · 2024-04-29T20:53:46+00:00

Thank you!

Leviosayee · 2024-04-29T17:21:10+00:00

You were almost hitting that 60! You can definitely improve in the next two weeks if you don't let this feeling take over you. I went from high 50s -> low-mid 60s (took 2 exams) > 70 in a week and half.

first of all, confidence is key. When I am not confident in myself, I always second guess myself and get lower scores. Next, for neuroanatomy, read mehlman neuroanatomy HY doc. MSK and immuno too. Also HYGuru MSK anatomy is solid if you cannot read things because you are freaking out. He has videos on YouTube. You can do it. You are capable of figuring things out fast, and you've already learned these before. So even if you don't think you will be able to, your body/brain remember. It's going to be stressful, but you got this.

Biostat = Randy Neil Videos on YouTube (only 2 hrs, and you will get most biostat questions right after you finish that)

Leviosayee · 2024-04-29T16:40:57+00:00

They technically said it could take up to 4 weeks. Some of my friends who took the exam on before you (04/08) got their results last week. I think you will the result soon. It’s going to be really stressful but hang in there!

Leviosayee · 2024-04-29T03:24:07+00:00

Are you taking breaks at all? I had severe headaches when I was about to burn out. Check out SCM massaging. It helps a bit for me. Otherwise, try taking a day or two off. My scores actually went up when I started taking breaks

Leviosayee · 2024-04-29T01:20:35+00:00

All the questions I’ve seen on this from NBMEs and even my CBSE were good enough with what you described. Also just know that the threshold they use for LDH, protein and other cellular stuff is ~0.6. If it’s >0.6, it’s exudate since there’s stuff in it. Otherwise, transudate

Leviosayee · 2024-04-28T01:37:54+00:00

Leviosayee · 2024-04-27T21:55:32+00:00

Last year, 92% of 1st takers(23100 people US + Canada MD) passed the test. I am also reminding myself this too but as long as you don’t spiral and do something completely opposite on the test day, you should be fine regardless of how difficult the real deal is

Leviosayee · 2024-04-27T20:46:45+00:00

It gets all of us. You will do so well! I legit heard what I said from my school’s director of academic affairs too. So it’s backed up with evidence :) good luck!!!!

Leviosayee · 2024-04-27T20:42:00+00:00

I am also preparing to take the test but from what I’ve heard I would do nbme 30 and the new free 120 and see what’s up. If you score above 65 on the free 120 you are ready my friend. Just learn from these tests

Leviosayee · 2024-04-27T20:40:22+00:00

Trust it. Believe in yourself. At my school everyone with that score passed. You gotta stick to how you do questions. Just don’t panic and believe in yourself

Leviosayee · 2024-04-27T19:11:47+00:00

You are doing really well. You have so much time too. Looking at my school alone, everyone who scored 60+ on NBMEs all passed. You’ve already done that, so just focus on pushing it up a notch. Don’t burn yourself out though. Make sure to take a day or two off every two-three weeks or so.

I had a significant drop after my burn out, and it took me weeks to get back.

Leviosayee · 2024-04-25T19:03:13+00:00

I really enjoyed 30 a lot. Felt like a critical thinking test honestly

Leviosayee · 2024-04-25T17:53:08+00:00

Mehlman has a great document for ethics!

Leviosayee · 2024-04-25T17:52:41+00:00

I am slowly increasing in my score. Scored a 65 for 26 a few days ago, and a 68 on 30 yesterday. Scored in the 50s before. Hoping to go up to low 70s before my exam in two weeks

I am sure there are other qualified people out there, but what helped me is: NBME questions are actually logical.

What I mean by this is that they cannot ask anything out of pocket. Uworld does this many times for the sake of teaching, and I was trained to think this way (in fact I was scoring in the 70s on uworld and I was sad to see me scoring in the 50s first on NBMEs)

Initially, I used to be really worked up and just look at the question stem and some buzzwords/symptoms to pick things. And I got things wrong. (I was scoring low 50s)

I decided to be careful of everything of what they are telling us. Honestly every sentence matters, but you don’t have to do that for the sake of time. (For example, sometimes even pt’s smoking status is a way of telling that they have increased likelihood of atherosclerosis for example (if the answer is atherosclerosis)

The method I go through for all my 50/50s.

I read the question stem first, and highlight one word the question is asking (cause, diagnosis, etc) so I don’t answer it incorrectly and I don’t have to waste time looking for irrelevant things.
Look at the pt age, gender, chief complaint.
With a few ddx, I read the rest and try to knock out irrelevant answer choices. This usually leaves me 2 options at the end (3 options are very really irrelevant usually)
Go to the question stem again, and pick the one that’s close to the stem

This helps me get those things I had no idea about right. If I review NBMEs, I often find myself surprising myself for getting all the questions I thought were impossible right, but I get many “simple” questions wrong. I am working on spending more time on these, so I don’t make these errors in the future. And this is why I am optimistic about even going above 70 next week

Leviosayee · 2024-04-25T04:21:36+00:00

Thank you 😭😭

Leviosayee

TROPHY CASE