My ITE was 25-30. My COMLEX score wasn’t good, I did MKSAP about 60% correct. Did UWORLD one pass with 55-60% correct and passed ABIM by a lot and I’m bad test taker.

Focus on UWORLD.

Just restart and finish all of MKSAP this last semester. Then start UWorld a month before fellowship and then take the test. By now, you should know if you learn better with videos, flash cards, etc. People that fail don't take the test seriously

One pass of uworld is all you need. Mediocre test taker and I passed comfortably.

Ask your PD not random people on Reddit for abim advice

Forget about mksap. That’s good for rotation learning. For the Abim uworld is all you need. All once, then at least repeat the wrong one. If have time/money the one board review I recommend is the awesome review. Ideally in person. Those notes read x2. ITE score doesn’t say anything. It’s all about how you prepare the 6-3 and 2 months before the ABIM.

If I was in your shoes would focus on weak areas. Why do you think you failed? Was it exam timing? Knowledge? Anxiety? Would try to focus on this in the next 2 weeks.

Personally, getting into a test taking pace helps me a lot prior to exam. Had 2 weeks off prior to my boards and all I did is timed questions. Spent minimal time reviewing the answers at that time.

When you failed twice, what was your initial UW percentage correct then? Had you completed UW before taking the exam?

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Bro I think you need to work on something other than studying or retaining information.. something more introverted

I’m Pathology but does AMBOSS have questions you can take?

I failed last year. All I did last year was MKSAP x2. This year I did medstudy videos. I realized video lectures are really helpful for me and that’s how I learn and retain information. I also realized that I would convince myself that I understood why I missed review questions when in reality I didn’t. This time when doing questions I would make sure to understand the topics if I missed them and I think that helped a lot. Also, I reviewed my score report the week before and went over the topics at the bottom that I missed which helped alot

I posted this in the "ABIM Results out. Site crashed" thread. But it's 10000% endurance. I have always been a terrible standardized test taker.
My stats: MCAT was 500. Went to a D.O school. My step scores were way below average, in the 200s when step 1 had a score and 210s on step 2. Scored the lowest on ITE in my internal medicine class and was borderline for remediation. Passed ABIM first attempt.
I did UWORLD 5 times, Awesome Review (because my program paid for it), and MKSAP 3 times. It was a struggle but definitely worth it.

Lots of posts there about people who failed multiple times and did very well on steps (by my standards) so you know it's not a knowledge based exam.

How do you normally do on tests? How do you best study for exams? I’m terrible with lectures. I read all the books in MKSAP 19, then did uworld twice and it was great prep for me

uworld uworld uworld. Do it a minimum of 2x, turn all the tables and charts into flash cards, you can also add on a review course (i did medstudy and i thought it was ok but a lot of people recommend awesome review), if you have time go through boards basics

I did awesome review. It is annoyingly long, but I I got so many questions from it.

I would say the caveat to awesome review is that you really need to have a foundation before taking the review course. I took awesome review, was overwhelmed with info, then read all of the mksap textbook after. In hindsight awesome review makes so much more sense only after having read mksap

The course is literally 3 days, from 7am-7pm, of listening to him rapidly speaking and jotting down all the notes. You don’t have time to process what he says, it’s just 3 days dedicated to copy down everything he says in 2 workbooks that he has shipped to you (if virtual) or hands out in person. He also goes on long tangents, sometimes 15+ minutes worth with some story that somewhat ties in to a concept, but by then my attention has totally fizzled out.

the days are LONG. Sitting down, listening to him talk forever… I didn’t benefit from the course as much as others. My attention just couldn’t handle it.

What worked for me is the watch-when-you want medstudy videos, which also comes with a written syllabus for you to write on. I was definitely happier with this.

In the end, it doesn’t hurt to do some sort of review course; i feel that Awesome review is more for those who are confident in their knowledge and want some additional tips and tricks to score more points on the exam; it’s not something you go to to learn the material, otherwise you get lost easily (me).

Medstudy worked better for me in that it essentially re-taught me all the info i lost during my specialty training (when you see cards all day you forget what the heck a PFT looks like), but also has a nice pause button so i can take breaks and recharge and ultimately kept my focus up.

you can use mksap for general studying throughout residency for personal learning and ite. Definitely uworld for dedicated, i’d probably try to get through it a few times during dedicated

I just did Uworld and Awesome Review. Also study the Board Basics book.

If you really want videos I’d recommend ACP’s videos (which have great lectures from best faculty and come with extra study tools) over Awesome (which are done by one guy). But if you haven’t really worked through the MKSAP syllabus and questions yet you might not need videos. Don’t forget to use the MKSAP ITE feedback tool to study your weaker areas in more depth. It helps you set up a learning plan and points you to other good resources like reviews and podcasts that you can use to give your studies some variety.

Do you think the MedStudy videos are worth it? I’m trying to decide if I should purchase them but they are pricey. I take my exam aug 26th as well

Should I get uworld? Test same day

Only 60% through MKSAP since starting this summer and scoring 72% so far. My ITE last year I was 50th percentile

I'm also in the same boat. The test anxiety gets worse every time I take an exam. I made a list of topics I was not certain about and run through a few everyday, in addition to doing timed tests of 2nd round of UWorld. I finished at 57% first pass and a few hundred in on round 2 at 77%. I also am going to make sure I hit some high yield stuff regularly as well: thyroid eval and treatment, murmurs, EKGs, hyponatremia, post-transplant infections, syphilis, blood smears, and medications that have odd effects like amiodarone, bactrim, CYPs

Anyone who took the exam, are you available to talk/guide? I am scoring in the 60-70s on uworld, have learnt (need 1 more revision) good chunk - maybe 60% of tables , scoring in the 70-80s now on the incorrects but I feel I know the options, and not always the exact reason why not the other options.. just to change a bit , i did mksap 1 block today and dropped to 58% and started panicking.. please guide

How did you have time to study that much?? I have my test in 2 days and I only did Uworld once!!! I’m proud of you and now I’m thinking I’m underprepared

I’m in the same boat as you. I truly think it was a matter of badluck with my previous exam along with being underprepared. I’m convinced that some people get extremely easy exams because I had a buddy who said he did uworld once and studied two weeks before the exam and still passed

Took my entire moral down after finding some vague way of testing and options in mksap.. cardiac mri etc which was not something i saw in uworld

Could you share the PDF or any files you have available that you think might be useful?

Could you share the PDF or any files you have available that you think might be useful?

Thank you so much for crafting this post. This is exactly what I was looking for! 👍

Thanks for spending time to compile this!

Thanks for this

Following! Everyone on Reddit seems to have studied UWx3/video lectures/MKSAPx2 and still 9/10 stories are about failing ):

I did 1/2 of uworld and no mksap

Studied for a week. Realized that there isn’t enough time to actually learn anything. Yolo’d the exam and scored above average

Is it similar difficulty level to ITE? I know ITE is 300 questions but residents get "passing scores" even without the intensity we do now for the boards. Is ITE an easier version of the real thing?

Did about 60% Uworld 10 days before the exam. I should add I scored relatively okay on all the inservice exams (40-45 percentile ish every year) but legit barely passed the ABIM. It’s random. Would not postpone a year though just take it a failure does not matter for this and basically counts the same as a postponement in admins eyes. Take a pray. If you still have a few days also don’t underestimate how much studying you can get done in crunch time either. Most of my studying was truly like 5 days before the exam.

In the same exact boat, here’s hoping we both pass! Everyone is pretty much telling me UW, also board basics if you have time. I’d focus your energy on Cardio/GI/Pulm as that’s the bulk of the exam, good luck!!

Keep reviewing Uworld, incorrect and marked questions. Also try to memorize all the important flowcharts.

Similar here, 66% first pass. 1/2 second pass done scoring 80-90%. I’ll do only incorrects now. I usually do 2 blocks everyday, 1 uworld 1 MKSAP 20. I feel uworld is not helping me at this point to focus since I already know many of the answers. For this reason I do MKSAP 20 to keep the stamina.

Almost done with all my UW incorrect and I wasn’t worried about failing but with how many of these posts I’ve been seeing I’m starting to get worried…. Is there something about this test everyone but me knows?

I got around that percentage at the end of it. I felt the exam was more straightforward than uworld (less tricky questions and stems were generally shorter)

Honestly I think you will pass

To really maximize the high yield points on the exam if time permits cross reference the questions on uworld with the ABIM blueprint. Lots of questions are derived from that forreal.

Exam is in August typically.

What are you doing in July? Are you starting fellowship or working or taking time off?

If you have a solid 6 weeks uninterrupted I would try to do MKSAP and UWorld. If you’re doing fellowship then I would take a series of practice tests/randomly generated questions, identify key weak points and then do questions on those, at least 10 a day.

You're going to get a variety of answers consisting of MKSAP, Uworld, review course or combinations of the above. That's it. There's no one true way.

I did MKSAP only, I have coresidents that did UW only and both and some of us passed, some didn't. Godspeed, doc

MKSAP and UWORLD

There are tons of threads on this already. Do UWORLD

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