nbme predictive value - phi500ac

[ArchivalUser]

Hi, I am an IMG medical student. I have done Internal Medicine in my country, and I want to repeat it in U.S. I have taken 4 mbme online and two Kaplan full length simulation tests. My results are the following:

mbme 15 -- 228
mbme 16 -- 240
mbme 17 -- 250
Kaplan full length simulation test 1 -- 87%
Kaplan full length simulation test 2 -- 88%
mbme 13 -- 259

I thought Kaplan full length simulation tests would be a good exercise, since its duration is roughly equal to the real stuff. However, I have no idea on how Kaplan correlates with the three digit step 1 score. As you can see, I started very low, at 228 in mbme 15. I made a lot of stupid mistakes in mbme 13. For instance, I performed a division where I should have done a multiplication. I will take step 1 a month from now, on September 13, 2017. I have saved mbme 18 and mbme 19 for the end of August. For the time being, I am repeating UWorld qbank, since I already did all of them.

I would be glad to hear from people with the same perfil as myself, i. e., who started with a very low score in mbme 15, and improved little by little, but never reached the 260+ range. What range can I hope for in the real thing? I heard that nbme have a predictive power of +/-5, and I should expect something between 254 and 264. Other people say that a more realistic range is +/-10, and my real score could be as low as 249.

[ArchivalUser]

Sorry I can't answer your question but please share how you improved your score, I did offline nbme 12 and scored 217, and I really wanna cross 240, as being an old img I must have something in hands

[ArchivalUser]

Hi, nimb. As far as I know, it is very hard to calculate the score for offline nbme. I believe that your real score is something around 225, not very different from my score in nbme 15. I also believe that more recent nbme tests are more predictive. But you should do the tests online. I also suggest that you put your goal higher than 240, unless you aim at a family medicine residency program. IMGs must enter an observership program in order to get LORs, and their LORs are not as good as those obtained by American medical students. Therefore, aim at 260+ or you may end in a Medically Underserved Area, where the training may not be as good as you may desire. By the way, where are you from? What do you mean by old img? Are you trying a match for a long time?

[ArchivalUser]

I'm from Pakistan, 2013 graduate,1year h.j in my country but no US experience, did uworld twice, 90% of Kaplan Q bank, first aid couple of times, aiming for pathology residency, I am in a situation where I can't study for more than 4 hours a day and no study on weekends, so I take months to do anything, but I can have chances of getting dicated study period in September and October and I really wanna give exam in mid October as it's my only chance of having some dedicated time to study, so really wanna some help to improve score,

[ArchivalUser]

I did uwsa 2 online few months ago, got 228,

[ArchivalUser]

Hi, nimb.

I think you are in the same situation as all the rest of us, IMG students. I am finishing residency in Internal Medicine in Brazil. I chose Brazil because medical schools there are completely free. Therefore, I work from 5 to 8 hours a day. If my adviser is lazy, I work 5 hours, if he or she is a hardworker, then 8 hours is the rule. When I go home, at the end of the day, I do 2 hours of physical exercise, eat a vegan dinner, and study during 4 hours, until 10 PM. As you can see, I study exactly the same amount as you do. The difference is that I study 12 hours on Saturdays and Sundays, when I don't work. Why can't you study at weekends? Americans don't work in hospitals, since they are not allowed to practice without finishing a residence program and taking step 3. However they are attending medical school when they take step 1, and don't have all the time free to dedicate to First Aid, Kaplan and UWorld.

I have taken my vacations in August and September to dedicate myself to the exam. I suggest that you do the same. Just quit the job, and dedicate 2 months to step 1.

If you were an American, you would have a high chance of matching with a score between 231 and 241. An IMG needs at least 250 to match in pathology in a good hospital. I think that you will reach this score easily. Besides this, you will need US clinical experience. No way to match without LORs (Letters of Recommendation). You can get your LORs through observership. There are three kinds of observership. The hospital can pay you, you can pay the hospital, or the observership is free, nobody pays anything. In University of California, there is an International Physician Observership Program, with a scholarship of 1500 USD a month. Since my aunt lives there, I intend to do this observership. I have a friend, Dr. Tiago Moreno, who did his observership in the Mayo Clinic. Tiago Moreno graduated in 2011, and matched this year, in 2017, in the Cook County Health and Hospitals System. There are also programs that you pay for the observership, something like 500 USD a week. You will need at least 3 months to get your LORs. Of course, you must pay for your stay in the US, while you do your observership, unless your relatives are American citizens and live there, as in my case. I think that you will do great in step 2 CS, since you have clinical experience in Pakistan. Therefore, you will need full dedication to step 1.

My impression is that it is quite easy to get 250 or even 260+ in step 1. Of course, you will need to dedicate yourself to FA, UWorld and Kaplan during 2 months at least. The problem is the observership. It is hard to find a good observership, whose LORs that really matter.

[ArchivalUser]

Hi, nimb. As you can see, I started at 228, exactly like you, three months ago. A very good simulation, IMHO, is the Kaplan full length tests, since it last 7 hours, exactly like the real thing. The problem with the Kaplan full length tests is that I don't know how to correlate its score with the step 1 three digit score. Let us wait, and see if somebody can help us tell us how to transform Kaplan score into a three digit score.

[ArchivalUser]

Thanks phi500ac for great advice, I have family situation where it is difficult for me to move to some other town or to study on weekends, I am currently living in US, and I have some contact who can get me at least free obsevership, but prob is I only get few free hours a day and I want to stay during this time, maybe once I am done with at least step 1 then I will go for observation, thanks again, all the best luck