Can anyone tell how much would a 230 earn on 2 digit score scale, had I given my exam when 2 digit score was reported.

I am a mom of a 1 yr old. Its been very challenging and at one point I felt that I can never take this exam, but fortunately I had good parental support and I asked for help. My mom stayed with me for 4 months and finally I was able to take the exam. For the last 1.5 months, I was able to study intensively with around 10 hours a day.I spent time with my baby in the evening and managed some chores but overall am satisfied. Still wanted to know how did I perform on the regular scale.

My overall aggregate on UW was 72%
UWSA 30 days before exam was 214
NBME Form 2 15 days before exam was 210
NBME Form 4 4 days before exam was 229
Real deal 230

230 is awesome!!!

grats on your score
could you share with us ur study plan?

thanks.

Thanks.
Sure. Here's my study plan.
The first challenge for me was motivation. So to take it easy, I watched all Kaplan Medicine videos twice (also saw surgery, psychi videos, a few important obgyn and peds video but not all). Then I took a baseline NBME where I scored pretty bad, 178. Clearly, just videos weren't enough. Then I went through all Kaplan notes and listened to Goljan path lectures since I was taking step 2 before 1. Also heard a few immuno lectures and all general anatomy lectures. Completed UW, scored overall 72% . Then took a UWSA without any revision and scored 214. Not very happy but was satisfied with increment in score. Then I thought that revision is extremely important and for that you need a concise book. So I picked up Master the boards. Someone told me that MTB 3 was better. After skimming through both, I felt that Medicine is adequate in MTB2 and for the rest of the topics, MTB step 3 was good.So thats what I did. Then took NBME form 2 and scored 210 (this was 14 days before exams). I was highly disappointed but didn't want to give up. I had time and resource constraint and could not postpone my exam. Had to give it by the chosen date. So I revised all the material from MTB again , this time I memorized things and made a few mnemonics which helped big time. Did all wrong questions from UW again and did rapid review from first aid 1 and 2 and gave yet NBME form 4 four days before exams. Scored 229 on it . I was satisfied with this. A few people suggested me to postpone my exam after my score on form 2 but as mentioned, i didn't have the luxury of postponing due to numerous factors. So with 229 4 days before exam, I was mentally prepared to take the exam and scored 230. I relaxed 2 days before exam. watched tv, listened to music, enjoyed with my baby, revised rapid review and preventive medicine guidelines from USPSTF
Test day strategy:
Bio-break after every 2 blocks, closed by eyes and did neck rotation after first and 2nd block but unfortunately developed spasm of neck muscles right after 2nd block which made the rest of the exam somewhat a challenge so won't recommend neck rotations. Rested my head and closed my eyes after each block, took a deep breath and told myself that it is not just this exam and imagined that I have to do it everyday so that I won't feel anxious after a few blocks. Just take your exam as if you are playing a very engaging medical video game or quiz. That will allay any anxiety. I finished each block atleast 8-10 minutes before time and finished the exam with 10 minutes to spare. The key here is not to get stuck on any question that you don't know. Just mark an option and move on. If you have time in the end, revisit the item. In my case, I always reviewed the first few questions because I had a pattern of making silly mistakes in the first few questions due to rushing through those questions in order to save time. Thats all I have to say about my study plan and test strategy.
In summary:
Books:
All Kaplan
Goljan (to review while listening to lectures)
MTB2 (stress on Medicine)
MTB3 (stress on rest of the subjects)
Kaplan Videos step2 (All Medicine, Surgery, Psychi, few OBGYN and very few paeds)
Kaplan Videos step 1(last 60% of Immuno, Embryology, Gen Anat, Cardio from Physio, Neuro and psychi meds from pharma)
Rapid review in the end of first aid step1 and step 2

Hope that helps.

Congratulations for performing so well on the exam !

Can you plz share with us your actual NBME scores without the conversion .

Thanks .

These are actual nbme scores. well, there were 2 score scales, so on the other scale, as far as i remember, the scores were 370 and 490 respectively but I believe that scale is not as predictable as the 200s scale is. I guess, it varies with which questions you did correct, difficulty level, etc.

Thank you very much for sharing that information . Actually I took the NBME form 2 last week and scored 210 (370) . I was really confused what it really meant because couple of my friends who took the NBME s a few months back had different conversion scales .

I think your score is good. Would you mind telling me when you took your exam? Was it before/on or after July 27th? If it was after, when did you receive your score?

I took mine on August 17th and I know with the score delay I probably won't get it back until Sept 25th but I'm hoping it's earlier.
edited by desai827 on 9/12/2013