Salute sdners, this post is meant to those waiting to finding out their step scores, wondering if there’s a chance they passed, going back and forth, piling up a list of dumb questions they got wrong, impending doom.
Quick background. Currently in my intern year of OMFS residency. In other words, I am a recently graduated Dental student, now taking overnight calls closing monstrous facial lacs then heading straight into work on 3 hours of interrupted sleep, making sure sedation rooms set up for chief, OR and patients are in line as planned, seeing 20 clinic pts, while my pager is going off taking ED consults, the list goes, in other words, a bolus of responsibility never experienced in dental school. I was also expected to find the time to get through UWorld and first aid, a whole other ball game.
PREPPING:
UWorld - read questions when commuting to work, I saw nothing but my phone, sometimes I wondered how I actually got to work without getting pedestrian struck lol. My target goal was to get through 40 questions a day
First aid - the Bible of medicine. For the 2 hours I had after work, It was dedicated to this. Listened to pathoma here and there when I hit the speed bumps.
Sketchymicro
Picmonic - pharm
Total prep time - 11 weeks
SCORES
UWorld, 61% average (made it through most but not all)
NBME 19 - 194 (1 month out)
NBME 18 - 203 (2 weeks out)
UWSA2 - 190 (2 days out) ouch! was hoping for some confidence boost there
Rolled the dice and took exam
EXAM DAY
Clif bars and espresso shots - weak sauce, I kno
Section 1 - if theres one question I want to get right on this exam, its the very first one. Guessed on the first 5, section 1 was a cluster ****, felt like the hardest section a lot of guessing going on, maybe certain about 10 questions, but thats it. No time for review. 5 minute break
Section 2 - another **** show. Stepped outside for 10 minute break, trying to recoup, but also panicking that residency is over.
Section 3 - this was a smooth section, shorter question stems, saw the answers after barely reading the question. Felt like minkus from boy meets world.
Section 4 - average
Section 5 - less than average
Section 6 - hard to focus, too much guessing, kinda wanna give up
Section 7 - I couldn’t comprehend one from two at this point. I started to pinch myself in the chair to focus, a part of me saying whats the point, no way I pass this thing, the other voice in me saying, you at least owe it to your studies to fail knowing you gave it your all, so I pushed on. This section turned out better than I expected actually.
All in all, felt like I was in the ballpark of 170-180 (I just guessed alot man, on many it was educated, but on some it was totally blind).
On exiting the test center, I can’t tell you about a moment where I felt more defeated, depressed. You see, I didn’t micromanage, I tried HARD and still felt these things.
For the 3 weeks to follow, I started to remember all the easy questions I missed at the stakes of human error. Tight ofcourse, but what can I do!?
I was in my own mental bubble for the duration of the 3 weeks waiting, thinking how i'd react when I’m faced with the reality of an F+. I could not think of any, so to make myself feel better, I scoured the internet looking for hope in similar stories.
3 Wednesdays later, 205. Relief.. Maybe its normal to feel that way afterall.
Quick background. Currently in my intern year of OMFS residency. In other words, I am a recently graduated Dental student, now taking overnight calls closing monstrous facial lacs then heading straight into work on 3 hours of interrupted sleep, making sure sedation rooms set up for chief, OR and patients are in line as planned, seeing 20 clinic pts, while my pager is going off taking ED consults, the list goes, in other words, a bolus of responsibility never experienced in dental school. I was also expected to find the time to get through UWorld and first aid, a whole other ball game.
PREPPING:
UWorld - read questions when commuting to work, I saw nothing but my phone, sometimes I wondered how I actually got to work without getting pedestrian struck lol. My target goal was to get through 40 questions a day
First aid - the Bible of medicine. For the 2 hours I had after work, It was dedicated to this. Listened to pathoma here and there when I hit the speed bumps.
Sketchymicro
Picmonic - pharm
Total prep time - 11 weeks
SCORES
UWorld, 61% average (made it through most but not all)
NBME 19 - 194 (1 month out)
NBME 18 - 203 (2 weeks out)
UWSA2 - 190 (2 days out) ouch! was hoping for some confidence boost there
Rolled the dice and took exam
EXAM DAY
Clif bars and espresso shots - weak sauce, I kno
Section 1 - if theres one question I want to get right on this exam, its the very first one. Guessed on the first 5, section 1 was a cluster ****, felt like the hardest section a lot of guessing going on, maybe certain about 10 questions, but thats it. No time for review. 5 minute break
Section 2 - another **** show. Stepped outside for 10 minute break, trying to recoup, but also panicking that residency is over.
Section 3 - this was a smooth section, shorter question stems, saw the answers after barely reading the question. Felt like minkus from boy meets world.
Section 4 - average
Section 5 - less than average
Section 6 - hard to focus, too much guessing, kinda wanna give up
Section 7 - I couldn’t comprehend one from two at this point. I started to pinch myself in the chair to focus, a part of me saying whats the point, no way I pass this thing, the other voice in me saying, you at least owe it to your studies to fail knowing you gave it your all, so I pushed on. This section turned out better than I expected actually.
All in all, felt like I was in the ballpark of 170-180 (I just guessed alot man, on many it was educated, but on some it was totally blind).
On exiting the test center, I can’t tell you about a moment where I felt more defeated, depressed. You see, I didn’t micromanage, I tried HARD and still felt these things.
For the 3 weeks to follow, I started to remember all the easy questions I missed at the stakes of human error. Tight ofcourse, but what can I do!?
I was in my own mental bubble for the duration of the 3 weeks waiting, thinking how i'd react when I’m faced with the reality of an F+. I could not think of any, so to make myself feel better, I scoured the internet looking for hope in similar stories.
3 Wednesdays later, 205. Relief.. Maybe its normal to feel that way afterall.
