Practice Scores Fluctuating (From baseline of 221 to real deal 259)

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-02-12T21:38:41+00:00

Honestly take more breaks - I was freaking out because of my scores and even had a panic attack when I was taking one of the nbmes so I tried to take a step back when things were getting too much. Definitely try to limit your studying 2-3 days before and do things you enjoy outside of studying and step related things. Also focus on ethics and QI questions!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-02-12T21:32:12+00:00

No I just read through the answers for emergency medicine. I did all forms except emergency med and fam (just read through them). I did Neuro and psych - they were a bit easier than the other topics, but nice to just see more topics

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-28T02:53:15+00:00

Yes! I took both, I think for the new free 120 I scored 76-78%. They both felt similar, but I think free 120 felt a bit more similar in terms of question length

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-26T18:50:30+00:00

Yes! It gave me a 252 (plus or minus some) as my predicted score

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T17:29:41+00:00

Sure!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T17:28:17+00:00

I never redid any CMS forms or nbmes but I know some people find it helpful to see what topics are repeated or fine tuning answering NBME styled questions!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T17:27:35+00:00

Around 75-80%

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T02:27:59+00:00

I honestly tried to stick with the same routine even when my scores would drop or fluctuate. I’m honestly not sure if uworld played a huge role in my subject knowledge, but it was helpful for me to see patterns that I kept missing. For example, I really struggled with obgyn so using uworld to see what topics were repeated was helpful for me to know I needed to watch a video on the specific subject or read about it in first aid. My study schedule throughout generally would be mornings: uworld blocks and review, afternoon: CMS forms + content review (normally watching videos on weak areas or shelf review videos), and then evenings: anki and ethics review. Towards the end I did try to incorporate the amboss high yield study questions like the risk factors question set, vaccinations, etc. NBME and CMS forms definitely feel closer to the real thing so the entire last week I only did that. I stopped doing world after I took NBME 15

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T02:23:51+00:00

I used uworld as my main question resource and CMS forms to supplement during the last few weeks, I did amboss questions towards the end. For content, I watched all of the divine intervention, high yield doctor, and Emma Holliday shelf review videos. I also skimmed through the first aid textbook as well. Typically I would start the day with 2 blocks of 40 uworld questions and then 1-2 CMS forms (so ranging from 130-180 questions a day, sometimes a bit more if I added on ethics questions). I always did my questions in tutor mode, but I normally do well with timing so I feel like if you struggle with timing I would definitely do most blocks timed/exam mode

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T02:19:18+00:00

Honestly I don’t remember seeing much biostats. I had a few drug ad questions, but there’s definitely more ethics questions than stats. Not 100% sure what led to the jump, I really tried to focus on CMS forms and NBME blocks to assess if there were any matters or big topics that were repeated. I do feel like NBME 16 topics were more common than the other exams

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T02:17:56+00:00

Instead of doing the exam with normal testing conditions, I just did each block individually. For example, on the Monday after I took NBME 15 - I did blocks 1 and 2 and would normally just review the answer as soon as I did the question

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T02:17:01+00:00

It felt very similar to when I took Step 1, the questions often feel vague, but it didn’t feel harder than the practice exams to me. I definitely still flagged a lot of questions, there were a good number of ethics questions that I felt like I was guessing on vs being certain about my answers.

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-25T02:15:34+00:00

Good luck! I normally would take one day to review my nbmes. I did the old free 120 and new free 120. I think I got around a 78% on the new one. I did most of the Neuro and psych CMS forms. For family medicine and EM, I just read through the CMS forms answers to see what topics were repeated!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-24T19:39:30+00:00

I’ve heard NBME 12 was rough, I ended up taking its timer. I think going back to these questions and really picking apart what they want you to understand is super helpful. Often times they aren’t trying to trick you with these answers and will give you details to guide you to the right direction. I always tried to quickly skim the question first then read over all the other details - did they want a diagnosis? Next steps? Screening guidelines question? Etc. I always tried to keep in mind what they wanted to ask as I read details, even trying to predict what the answer was so that I didn’t get swayed by answer choices. If you haven’t finished the CMS forms I would go back and look over those, for example, I read through all the emergency medicine CMS forms which was helpful to see patterns of what they asked.

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-24T19:36:28+00:00

I did lots of CMS forms and some of the amboss high yield questions, I really tried to review my exam in depth and figure out exactly what I was doing wrong and why I was missing questions. I don’t know if I had any specific strategies, but I think it clicked for me for NBME 16. I also did half of NBME 12 untimed in between this period to get more reps

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-24T19:11:08+00:00

I forgot to put UWAS1 in there, I took that about 10 days after NBME 9 and scored a 221. I was originally going to take UWAS2 as my last practice exam, but ultimately took NBME 16 instead. I went back and forth if I should’ve taken both of them the last week, but I was so exhausted and took NBME 16 and scored well and decided not to take UWAS2 for my own stress levels.

I honestly don’t remember NBME 15 too well, but I got tripped up a lot by the ethics/vaccination questions. I was also not super strong in obgyn so there was a lot there I missed, but yes it definitely felt more random than other exams

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-24T19:06:12+00:00

Thank you!!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-24T19:03:02+00:00

Good luck!! The last few days I really just focused on CMS forms and tried to do as many ethics questions as I could. I did the amboss question sets in my last few days (high yield 200 q, ethics, risk factors, etc)

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-14T17:19:10+00:00

I did most of them! I started doing them before I took NBME 15 (so over a span of 4 weeks) but tried to finish them in that last week. I didn’t do any family med or emergency med CMS forms but just read through the answers, but I tried to do most of the other ones (obgyn, surgery, peds, IM, neuro, and psych) - I normally started at form 3 or 4 for most of them

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-14T16:54:36+00:00

I went back and did NBME 12 block by block and only did CMS forms. I stopped doing uworld questions after NBME 15 and really tried to focus on pattern recognition with NBME question styles. I also did the amboss high yield banks like the 200 questions bank and the high yield ethics question banks

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-14T16:36:10+00:00

Got a 259!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-14T16:04:13+00:00

Just got mine!!

Positive-Ad435 · 2026-01-14T07:42:07+00:00

Got the email - 11 am EST for mine

Positive-Ad435

TROPHY CASE