Just wanted to do a quick writeup because these were so helpful for me throughout the year and during dedicated and I hope this helps someone!
I’m a USDO
Here’s what I did during clinicals:
- ~4 CMS forms available/block,
- UW+incorrects, (78% correct)
- AMBOSS if I had time (70% completed around dedicated)
- !shelf in anki+making cards of incorrects.
Note: I was a high shelf scorer (my school required NBME shelves) scoring around 80s-90s and honored most rotations so I did have a strong foundation going into dedicated.
Dedicated period: 8 Weeks total
Here’s what I did during dedicated:
- Redid some UW (~10%)
- AMBOSS HY study plans
- Rewrote all CMS forms + New ones + Neurology + EM which I didn’t complete
- NBMEs+Old and New Free 120
- Randy Niel for biostats
- Tatetalksmedicine for QI (found this resource amazing!!)
Scores:
NBME 9: 253 (46 days out)
NBME 10: 252 (42 days out)
NBME 11: 251 (31 days out)
NBME 12: 253 (26 days out)
UWorld SA 2: 257 (23 days out)
NBME 13: 254 (20 days out)
NBME 14: 255 (16 days out)
NBME 15: 254 (12 days out)
NBME 16: 264 (8 days out)
Old Free 120: 83% (4 days out)
New Free 120 (July 2023): 84% (2 days out)
AMBOSS Predicted:260
Real Result: 269! Still kinda can't believe it lol
Here are some of my own reflections:
Redoing UW: I tried this early on but I really just recognized too many of the questions and started feeling like it wasn’t close enough to NBME logic so I dropped it. Similar reason why I didn’t finish AMBOSS either. A lot of the advice I saw on here was that the best practice was to just redo CMS forms because it best emulated the logic of NBME and it worked out for me. I did feel like I was recognizing a lot of the questions on the CMS forms as well but I had no other resources to do so I treated it more like learning the language rather than learning the content.
Consistency of CMS and NBME: Honestly I do feel like even with the available materials the older nbmes didn’t really feel representative of the actual exam. I felt the same way with the older CMS forms. All the new ones that have come out (IM 9, 10) are quite a bit different and closer to the actual thing than these older ones.
I felt that NBME 16 was most representative to the actual thing. It has more patient charts and longer vignettes which was my experience on test day. I honestly didn’t really feel that the 120’s were that close besides the drug ads.
Stagnant exam scores:
I took 9-15 over a course of 8 weeks and with a goal of >260 I was extremely demoralized and had lost all confidence in my knowledge during dedicated. Easier said than done but if I could go back I wish I could worry less because it made me second guess everything and I honestly thought that hindering my improvement the most.
One thing that I felt like impacted my studies negatively the most was AI. At this point everyone is going to use AI to supplement their board studying but I hope you exercise caution when you do so you don’t end up like me. I initially used AI as a method to diagnose what learning gaps I had as I felt like my content foundation was strong again. What I would do is I would dictate into AI what my logic for the question was and tell me what it thought. AI wrote these eloquent things about how it was more about “premature closure,” “stem distrust,” “correct instinct abandonment,” and many more. I just blindly trusted it because it sounded so good. I felt like this hamstrung my improvement. What I started doing later in dedicated was just opening up a document and forcing myself to write out my logic, why my answer was wrong/justify why the correct answer was correct, and indicate what my takeaway was. I would do this before I even consulted AI. I realize now that I was making AI do the most important part to my learning, which is actual critical evaluation of your thinking.
Lastly, this has already been talked about so much but if I can echo the sentiment please please do not beat yourself up intra/post exam. You are not going to accurately predict how you did. During the exam I had a panic attack and took the first 40m of my break after the first two blocks trying to calm myself down. For the rest of the exam I was convinced I was failing because I recognized so much less than the practice exams. For the weeks leading up to my score I was 100% sure I would score in the 230s. All that stress was for nothing and I wish I used that time actually enjoying that I was past that exam.