271 Write-up
Tested 6/1 and figured I would throw my two cents in the thread after receiving news of a 271 this past Wednesday.
NBME 9 : 246
NBME 10 : 250
NBME 11 : 250
NBME 16 : 272
UWSA1 : 266
NBME 15 : 256
Old old free 120 : 93%
New free 120: 84%
Amboss predictor: 262
Actual score: 271
I listed the exams in the order that I took them. NBME 15 really deflated me going into the exam. I knew it wasn't my best performance and truthfully it didn't feel all that much like the actual test to me.
Used UW for the majority of prep (3.5 week dedicated) and scored 77% on 82-3% of the test bank (didn't complete it). Shifted gears and just did a few scattered CMS forms and as many Amboss HY plans as I could muster during the past week + the free 120's listed above. I listed to a ton of DI podcasts during dedicated and even before to target weak areas. I also used a custom template to put incorrect questions from older NBME forms into Claude Sonnet to get much more intelligible answer descriptions. Reading this throughly helped me get into the mind of the test writer.
I think one of my biggest strengths was being kind to myself on test day. I took every second of break I was given. I had a PB&J sandwich on sourdough bread (😋) and many more snacks + coffee that I ate during the breaks. I tried to stretch and focus on the next set of 20 questions each time rather than obsessing over the set I just completed. I would let the 60 second timer that automatically starts when you finish a section completely run out while I just did deep breathing exercises if I wasn't going to take a formal break. I think these things helped me overshoot on test day. Find your zen in that infernal testing site!
Lastly, I want to specifically shoutout the EPC score predictor on Amboss, which allegedly just takes into account your performance on recent QBank sessions. This was predicting me to get a 268 which is much closer to how I did than the what the normal Amboss predictor tool said I was going to do (262). I liked this tool because Amboss HY plans were the thing I did closest to the exam (as recent as the day before testing) and therefore were the best assessment of my knowledge level. I don't see people talk about that one much on this thread, but if you use Amboss for dedicated or attempt to do a ton of HY plans leading up to the exam - it could help better predict how you will do.