Hey guys. Here is my exam day experience, basically collection of things that I did wrong despite warnings or things that I did not foresee and wish I had been prepared for. As for the resources that I used, I don’t think you would benefit much from them as I regret using most of them and my time management was also poor.
Actual score: 263
UWSA1: 275
UWSA2: 271
NBME 19:259
- I did not have a full breakfast. DO EAT, not being hungry is not an excuse. Despite having full 8 hours of sleep the night before, I literally had to close my eyes in the middle of the sixth block for a good 30 seconds or so, because all my energy had been drained by then.
- At some point I forgot how important that exam was, even started an imaginary conversation in my head. Do keep in mind that it is an important exam and be there
- I forgot to keep reminding myself not to overthink. Keep repeating it in your head if you have to! Some questions can be stupidly easy! DO NOT OVERTHINK! If the topic is familiar, the answer must be familiar too. And also, if you are making new discoveries on your exam, I would say just do yourself a favor and stop it. If you did not notice it was in your FA during months of preparation, a deduction made in 5 seconds is probably wrong.
- I started doing my fifth block bottom up. Don’t know what I was thinking. Ended up wasting full 5 minutes on an impossible question. Just don’t try anything you have never tried before, it will most likely be a stupid idea
- I took every break as planned, but instead of concentrating on the next one and adapting test-taking strategies, I kept ruminating over previous blocks.
- For the first time i did not trust my guts, I should have, sometimes it even outsmarts my brain. No matter how risky it feels, trust your intuition, there is always a reason behind it that is simply hard to understand in such a hurry
- Please for goodness sake, do not change your answer the last minute unless you noticed some detail you missed before, if you spent good 2 minutes on a question and picked an answer, do not change it at least without reading the full question stem once again. I forgot why I excluded an option and changed my answer to wrong based solely on lab values because there was no time left to read the full question again.
Post step was a NIGHTMARE. I literally went through hell, because exam felt nothing like any practice test I had ever taken and I had no idea what to expect. I thought I made tons of mistakes (which I still believe I did, but now I’m convinced that real deal has much more space for mistakes than UWSAs or NBMEs). That is all I have to say, just be prepared for the unexpected and be ready to deal with situations you have not encountered before. There will be crazy questions that you are not supposed to know the answers to. You will have to tolerate them. Whole preparation thing is the most important part, obviously, but do not underestimate importance of your mental state on the exam day, as it can be held responsible for up to as much as 10-15 points variation in your score, I would say. I feel lucky I got an amazing score despite having no control whatsoever on my actions and thoughts during my exam, fortune was definitely on my side. I could easily have done much much worse. Good luck to all of you.