3 full weeks is enough time, provided you are actually competent in your medical knowledge and are not currently killing patients left and right.

Make a schedule.

Make a schedule with a set number of questions a day, timed but with explanations after. This is your first run through the UWorld question bank.

Then make a schedule where you do the same number of questions as 1 block on the real exam, timed and no explanations until the end. Do these blocks in the morning to simulate your brain to work like in the morning of the exam. Start with 2 blocks a day and build up to 4-5. This is your second run through the UWorld question bank.

If you have any more time after that make another block-based run focused on just all the questions you got wrong. But the key element is you need to run through UWorld at least twice.

Then completely relax the day before the exam and knock it out of the park.

Do UW and make sure to finish it and review it. I went through it all once and redid incorrects. I used Boards basics too. Scored just above the mean. My 3rd year ITE was 50th percentile and UW first time through was 60th percentile so fairly accurate. In your week of studying I’d also do some days of 2 blocks of 60 qs to train your test taking stamina.

People are going to give you advice based on how they study but only you know how you best study. In fact that may have been what led you astray in the first place.

For me I learn by taking quizzes over and over so I did a bunch of mksap and other Qbanks and added info from those questions into my board basics book, effectively making it my Bible and the only book I used

My advice the entire exam comes from MKSAP board basics. That one book called the board basic if you actually know the contents of that book inside out I can almost guarantee that there is no question that is going to test any knowledge out that.

Why do you get questions wrong? Is it “I’ve never even heard the phrase renal tubular acidosis before” or is it “I kind of know about RTA but not quite enough to answer this question” or perhaps “Geez, I did know this but blanked out or selected something else in a panic” If 1, find a different job If 2, MKSAP and board basics If 3, see a shrink to discuss test anxiety, ADHD etc

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 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

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

I feel in a similar boat as a first time test taker (did I meet you last month lol). Scoring a bit lower than you on practice and ITE, but our preparation has been almost identical.

I think at this point it's highest yield information, screening guidelines, numbers you need to memorize and rest, rest rest!

Don’t overthink it. You’re doing well with your prep, you learned from your mistakes, and you’re in a better place now. In the final two weeks just keep doing questions to build test stamina, review weak subjects, and review missed questions. On the day before the test just do a quick review in the morning and then do something fun or relaxing the rest of the day. You need to go into the test refreshed and as relaxed as you can. When the first question comes up, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, tell yourself “I’m doing this, I’m ready, and I’m going to pass.” Then go for it.

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How far is ur exam ? if it ls in a couple of days u just wanna relax and calm down cuz no matter how prepared ur gonna be the real deal is different

However if I can give you an advice : you wanna make sure you do the first 10Q on ur block in under 15mins if you managed to do that perfect u probably will have enough time

If u know the question u know it if u don’t just flag and move to the next , cuz on the exam there will be experimental questions so you don’t wanna waste your time on those so if u feel like u don’t know it take an educated guess and flag it for later

Last tip is how you read the question fast and efficiently, start from the very last (,) on the question and find out what they are asking (what is the best next step in management/diagnosis/risk factor…) Then labs if found and highlight the abnormal Then skim through the question really quick and u wanna focus on the vitals and main complaint, and what they did to that patient on the hospital already to exclude other answers , and lastly you wanna read all the answers and exclude exclude exclude the answer will come out , PLEASE read all the answers even if you found what ur looking for sometimes an answer might give u a hint or it will be a better choice ,if they put 2answers similar to each other it’s probably non of them is the answer especially with pharmacological questions , anyways I don’t wanna make this long , just make sure to get some good sleep before the exam and hydrate and eat well so you can lock in 100% and good luck

My personal way of reading em quickly is to read the question, answer choices, and then start the stem. You already know what you are looking for now, saves time. Strike through any answers you can rule out. Then if I am stuck between 2 answers or something, I move on and flag it. I don’t wait long to decide. At least at the end when you are running out of time you already know what the question is asking and about the stem. Sometimes when I come back to flagged questions, I remember the answer, whereas I couldn’t before- so there is a benefit from flagging and giving it some time. This is just how I do it, probably not the BEST way but I can fly through tests

I’m in the same boat as you! 3rd time taking it, crazy test anxiety.

I think just doing Uworld over and over again should help. I’m going through my second pass and making anki cards off the questions I’m still getting wrong. What’s helping me the most is reviewing the differences between the answer I chose and what the actual right answer is and trying to find a differentiating factor.

At some point, I start to remember the question and not think through it which isn’t helpful at all.

Im hoping doing Uworld and anki this time around is just enough.

I failed comlex 1 twice. Ended up doing a board review coarse where you go there for 6 weeks etc. learned to do questions questions and more questions. Passed all my other stuff including abim. I think I did 2 passes through uworld and also 2.5 passes through mksap.. . Something like 8500 questions. But it works. Keep plugging away.

Similar boat. Only finished 50% of uw so far. I plan on finishing it before my exam and hopefully some incorrect. First time I didn't study, second time I didn't do uw but did a BS review course. So hopefully this will be the one. Very bad ADHD and worsening text anxiety.

yup. it sucks

At this point, I feel like people need to start using Anki. Legit go through the step 2-3 Anki decks and refresh your basic medical knowledge. MKSAP and uworld will build on that with the updated/more advanced stuff ABIM requires

for me I also have time management issues however, to ensure that I answer every question in the exam even if it's not that perfect but at least I didn't leave any question , I don't put a specific time frame to finish a question I will divide my time on for example 3 questions, meaning I'll start with the first question write about 7 minutes and then move on to the next question I also write for 7 minutes and then I go back to the first question to continue my answer give it some time and then go back to the other one I left so I keep on going back and forth with the questions to give them all a fair time , now this works for me but other's might mix up the answers if they did this, so it all depends on how concentrated you can be.

And drink a redbull an hour prior to the exam

my advice is to always use the 5 min reading time efficiently. During that, make a decision about which one you're doing first, that'll get you to a good start

Section A- 40 mins

Section B - 40 mins

Section C - 50 mins

Proofreading - 5 mins

If you cannot answer something right away, then skip it and save it for last. Don’t stare at something you cannot answer and run out of time for things you can.

I would say just grind out as many more UWorld questions as you can and read the answer explanations from now until test day.

Took internal medicine boards a few years ago and passed with a few points below average score. Probably got through 70% of UWorld, and that was by far the most helpful. The test question format is almost identical to the real test. The wrong answer explanations in UWorld also helped With getting a bunch of questions right on test day.

With only 11 days left, if you try to memorize tables or guidelines there's going to be an ocean of information to review and it probably wouldn't be realistic to master all of it. Doing active recall through practice questions that are very similar to the real test is probably the biggest bank for your buck.

160 questions from what qs bank? MKSAP? Uworld?

How did your exam go?

Take it next year

is passing for ABIM >65% ??

Uworld was much tougher than MKSAP in my experience and was much better as board prep. However, I dont recommend it as first pass material. I usually tell people to do MKSAP once through residency, then Uworld when prepping for ABIM.

The questions on ABIM are MUCH shorter than Uworld and its “know it or dont” on the exam. I felt like I could figure out Uworld questions without knowing the material completely. I don’t think there’s a resource that nails the question format

To respond to comments so far: I don’t feel like I wasted time as I feel that my knowledge base has been expanded. I don’t feel burned out because I took a month off to study and spend time with my family after residency. Those looking to just hurry up and pass, probably everyone is right and you might be able to get away with just doing UWorld. I intend to keep studying even after the test because I’m fascinated by IM, I’m working as a hospitalist now, and I want to make sure I don’t miss things and that I have a solid knowledge foundation in IM. Wish you all well and thanks for taking the time to comment! ☺️

I feel like posts like this is how we go into burn out. Here we are busting our ass, doing the most to just PASS a test. Honestly , our training should be sufficient plus a month or two of studying. When the expectation becomes you complete all of MKSAP + uworld + uworld incorrects + review courses + whatever more , it’s adding way more complexity to something that shouldn’t be.

Uworld is so much better than MKSAP. MKSAP goes into the weeds. No point knowing third line chemo for breast cancer. 

Yo, you wasted alot of time buddy. Just do uworld and thats it. Nothing else needed.