Typically a history in the family would be a risk factor so you would get the bone scan earlier. Was she post meno?

For the dpp-4 the only thing my pharm cards taught me was nausea. Can't thing of anything else.

How was the anatomy?

For DPP-4 .. AE include headache, nasopharyngitis and URI's (baby katzung p366)

Thanks for the feedback everything! Can't wait for me to get this over with too!!

I am wondering if anyone can comment on pharmacokinetics? It seems most questions dealt w/ MOA, AE, indications, etc. What about the Km, Vm, Lineweaver Burke, elimination plots, etc etc?

Kaplan pharm seemed to emphasized those!

Thanks for the feedback everything! Can't wait for me to get this over with too!!

I am wondering if anyone can comment on pharmacokinetics? It seems most questions dealt w/ MOA, AE, indications, etc. What about the Km, Vm, Lineweaver Burke, elimination plots, etc etc?

Kaplan pharm seemed to emphasized those!
I had a fair number of pharmocokinetics. Two lineweaver burkes, one clearance and one asking about what maintenance dose to give ( i brain farted on this one...so ticked)

I read on page 308 Goljan RR that CF screening in infants is done using serum immunoreactive trypsin levels.

Hey Vagus,

It's high yield in a certain respect. It's very nitpicky and alone the bank would be insufficient but matched with FA its a really good combo. There are alot of things in that bank that I didn't see. However, I would say that it's high yield in that it'll help you get harder questions that can tweak a simple concept that'd be easy to gloss over in FA (chronic hypercapnic patient going into respiratory arrest after recieving 100% O2). It'll also give you presentations of diseases that are somewhat rare as well (had a question on fanconi's anemia and fanconi's syndrome). Id say around 75% of questions on the test were out of FA and things you couldnt miss. Probably the next 20% was in UW. The last 5% is just random and somewhat impossible to prepare for.

I read RR twice and the only question I can say definitively I got right from that was that you can diagnose CF with serum Trypsinogen.

TL;DR Know FA and UW inside and out and you'll crush this thing

I read on page 308 Goljan RR that CF screening in infants is done using serum immunoreactive trypsin levels.

I don't know if "same" mechanism (not exactly the same in this case) equates to similar side effect profile. I mean sulfonylureas 1st generation have sulfa allergy but not the second generation. Ethacrynic acid vs. furosemide. etc. etc. Also, pancreatic toxicity was not in the answer choice. Lol. It's a terrible question. I guess some researcher must have figured out a new side effect in a test tube!


lol what! it wasn't a choice?. I was just going based off what I learned in class... man thats a hard one.

Took the exam on June 13, and finally have a chance to post about it.

First, my study schedule was pretty much the same as everyone else. Read RR and FA throughout the school year. Took 4 weeks to study for the exam. Read FA 2-3x during that period and did UWorld once. I usually spent about 6-7 hours on UW and another 2-3 reading FA. I did not read RR during the month because I had added a lot of notes from my readings throughout the year into FA, which was all I read. I personally dislike the BRS series, especially phys, so I avoided that and focused on FA.

NBME12 (5 weeks to test) - 175
UWSA1 (2 weeks to test) - 228
UWSA2 (1 week to test) - 247

I thought that the test itself was not nearly as bad as most people make it seem. I thought that the questions were at least comparable to the questions on UW. I had a good number of questions that I was able to answer about halfway through because I spotted a buzzword and got it. I will say that the questions were somewhat longer than those on UW, especially in terms of lab values (most of which were not important). The questions were also more straightforward than UW and less nit-picky, especially when it came to biochem. There are always going to be questions that completely throw you off, and I definitely had a few of them. But overall I thought that there were more than enough "basic" questions to balance them out.

As for timing, I actually had a good amount of time on all but 1 section. I was generally finishing with about 15 minutes to go and had enough time to review all of the questions and then all the marked questions over a third time. I was taking breaks after every block, usually for about 5 minutes, but took longer breaks after the 4th (for some food) and the 6th (to settle nerves for the last block). I didn't feel rushed in any of the sections, and felt that the break time was more than enough (I skipped the tutorial).

I did have something really strange happen during my exam. All of the computers at the prometric station froze because the server went down. It took about 10 minutes to get it set back up, and fortunately no one lost any material. It was basically a free 10 minute break. I was lucky that I had been in the middle of reviewing the block and not answering question, so I did not have my momentum broken too much.

As a tip for others, I would say that when it gets closer to the test, you might be better off stopping questions and doing more FA, especially taking the time to memorize some of the high yield notes at the back of FA. I picked up a couple of questions from that section that I would not have gotten from anywhere else. I definitely felt that FA + UW was more than enough to prepare me for the test.

Good luck to everyone still to take it.

I read on page 308 Goljan RR that CF screening in infants is done using serum immunoreactive trypsin levels.

Trypsin is interchangable with trypsinogen as far as the test. Googled it to confirm.

I got a lot out of this board in deciding how to go about my board prep and hopefully this will be useful to some of the MS1s and MSOs out there. I don't really have much advice for my fellow ms2s nearing the test, but i've got my fingers crossed for you

First things First: figure out what your goals are. for a lot of people, going all out to max out their step1 score makes little sense. If you know that you want to do family practice or something that you don't need that really high score, celebrate rejoice and work hard on doing things you think will make you a great doctor. STEP 1 is not the be all end all, but for some people, myself included getting as high a score as is possible is important and this is what I did and it worked for me. I put in an incredible amount of work over the last year and it was worth it for me based on my goals (pretty set on one very competitive field) and strong desire to be in one of a few difficult to match locations for family reasons. I wanted to put myself in a position where I felt confident that I could break 260 on any test that I got and made a year long study plan accordingly. It is not for the faint of heart, but I'm pretty sure that any US medical student will break 250 if they do what I did and the good test takers among us will be over 260 with this type of study plan. Final advice, don't follow anyone study plan exactly, but figure out what you need to use (first aid and uworld) and then tailor the specifics towards what you need.

Things used during the year:
Gunnertraining: Awesome, awesome, awesome. This was a huge part of my success on this exam. It hammers an incredible amount of stuff into your brain and made me a rockstar all year in classes and small groups and payed off big time for board studying. First aid is great, but I would not really have been able to memorize it, but gunnertraining has most of first aid plus a lot of the best tidbits of goljan and other good stuff. If you are finishing up first year and have a goal of a very hight step1 score I would start it now, bank all of the first year stuff over the summer, bank the rest along with classes, but double up at the end of the year so that you have gt fully banked by at least 1 month before your dedicated study period-that way you will be able to keep doing your gt questions, but it will be down to a more manageable 100 or so qs a day.

Kaplan Qbank: Did this along with classes. Did all questions on tutor mode, would do a question read the explanation, flip to the page in first aid, read the appropriate section and annotate if necessary.

First Aid: In addition to the annotations from qbank, i made sure to read the appropriate sections from first aid at least once (usually 2x) along with classes second year. Not to memorize but to get very familiar with all the content.

Goljan audio: This is still great though it has a few errors (but not really more than most up to date written texts). Had a 25 minute commute to school and listened to goljan almost everyday=about 1 lecture a day. I would listen to what we were studying in school and just repeat it until my exam, this meant that i listened to each lecture around 3x at least during the year.

RR path: Also good and a good combo with the audio. I would generally read through each chapter 2 times along with classes. Also it has all the pictures referred to in the audio and has a synergistic learning response when combined.

Robins Q book and webpath: Did these along with classes, maybe a little over the top, but I found it helpful in really nailing down path.

BRS Physio: I would read the appropriate chapters and do the questions at the beginning of each block at school. It is great to be really solid on your physio because it makes a lot of things make sense and the more that you understand pathology and pathophysiology (vs memorize) the better. Plus physio is high yield in general and this is a great book.

Brenner pharmcards and Katzung and trevors examination and board review: My schools curriculum is a little weak in pharm. I don't really know if these books are the best, but they worked for me. Would do the appriate drugs/chapters along with class.

CMMRS: book is gold, read it twice during our ID (micro +micro pharm block)

HY neuroanatomy: read before neurology block, a little overdetailed but very good.

Lily for cardiology: great book, but way beyond what you need for boards

BRS behavioral-read this twice plus all the questions twice during our psych block (final was the BS shelf). Big fan of this book.

Class syllabi and lectures: I read the syllabi and went to or watched all of my class lectures until the end of february. I think that you need to learn things for the first time somewhere and this was good for me, but YMMV. The 20 points above 250 IMO are made up largely of somewhat random stuff and you'll find some of it in your classes. My school is P/F though, so I would go to class, read the syllabus once and did the rest of my studying including the 3-4 days before the test solely w/board level materials




Few months before step1 (while still in class)
UWORLD: the best resource of all, an amazing learning tool-use it that way. I did my first pass of uworld + marked and incorrects during my last two months of classes. All on tutor mode with the same method I used for kaplan qbank (see above). Though I was doing tutor mode, I tried to do the questions quickly (but took my time with the answers) though occasionally i would take 2-3 minutes for a question. remember uworld is a learning tool, not a prognosticator first and foremost, use NBMEs for that.

Rx: did about 1000 questions from it (including all behavioral science) but didn't have time to do more. IMO for qbanks UWORLD >>>kaplan>rx, but kaplan and rx aren't that far apart in quality, what really turned me off to rx was that there were at least 3 or 4 completely incorrect answers which didn't happen in the other qbanks (i.e. in world or qbank there might be an error here or there, but the right answer to the question is still the right answer, whereas the rx questions that were incorrect the actual answer choice was wrong)

Read RR biochem: I liked this book alot, and along w other resources I thought was good, though not super high yield.

Last 23 days (after classes)-beast mode
Would read through the appropriate section in BRS physiology (but not do the questions), then read the section in first aid and do all of the kaplan qbank questions for that subject on tutor mode(some subjects had 2-3 days according to their length in first aid and my gut feeling on strengths and weaknesses), doing the easy questions, then medium then hard (would intersperse reading with questions because I could not read first aid for extended stretches). I would also do 100 UWORLD questions on random tutor mode and my gt questions for the day last once I was thoughouly burnt for the day (would actually do the last 50qs in bed). I only used RR as a reference during this period and referred to other books/wikipedia as necessary. I also listened to goljan while walking to and from the library and got through most of it again.

along the way i did some practice exams

Last 5 days I was done w kaplan qbank and finished UWorld plus incorrects and read through first aid one more time (didn't get fully back through it). I did UWSA 2 one block a day for the first 4 days (i.e. not the day before the test) to get myself back to being used to doing random questions i'd never seen in 46q blocks and then read the answers.

Wasn't able to take the last day off, but stopped studying at 7pm, ate dinner and watched one of my favorite movies in bed and was able to get a good nights sleep the night before (try as hard as you can to do this)



Good luck everybody. for the younguns-set your goals intelligently and do what you need to do to get there. Hard work over a long period of time pays off on this test.

numbers (all qbanks done on untimed tutor mode with annotation into first aid on first pass)
Gunnertraining: 98% banked (didn't bank some of the stuff they added during the last 3 weeks) and about 76% mastered with a peak of 80% mastered
Kaplan qbank along with classes: 81%
1st pass uworld (in the last two months of school): 84.5%
Usmlerx (did about 1000qs):don't remember exactly but around 93%
Behavioral Shelf about 2months before step1-910
Second Pass qbank: around 90%
second pass UW: 97% (though I was recognizing a fair amount of the answers)
NBME 5 4/1: 690: 264 (old scale)
UWSA1 4/13: 265
NBME 12 4/23: 680:264 (missed 9)
NBME 11 5/1: 710: 271 (missed 6)
UWSA 2 (taken as 4 separate blocks):265 (max for uwsas)
STEP1: 5/16: 270

:thumbup: GREAT JOB!!!

Congrats on the great score!

I got a lot out of this board in deciding how to go about my board prep and hopefully this will be useful to some of the MS1s and MSOs out there. I don't really have much advice for my fellow ms2s nearing the test, but i've got my fingers crossed for you

First things First: figure out what your goals are. for a lot of people, going all out to max out their step1 score makes little sense. If you know that you want to do family practice or something that you don't need that really high score, celebrate rejoice and work hard on doing things you think will make you a great doctor. STEP 1 is not the be all end all, but for some people, myself included getting as high a score as is possible is important and this is what I did and it worked for me. I put in an incredible amount of work over the last year and it was worth it for me based on my goals (pretty set on one very competitive field) and strong desire to be in one of a few difficult to match locations for family reasons. I wanted to put myself in a position where I felt confident that I could break 260 on any test that I got and made a year long study plan accordingly. It is not for the faint of heart, but I'm pretty sure that any US medical student will break 250 if they do what I did and the good test takers among us will be over 260 with this type of study plan. Final advice, don't follow anyone study plan exactly, but figure out what you need to use (first aid and uworld) and then tailor the specifics towards what you need.

Things used during the year:
Gunnertraining: Awesome, awesome, awesome. This was a huge part of my success on this exam. It hammers an incredible amount of stuff into your brain and made me a rockstar all year in classes and small groups and payed off big time for board studying. First aid is great, but I would not really have been able to memorize it, but gunnertraining has most of first aid plus a lot of the best tidbits of goljan and other good stuff. If you are finishing up first year and have a goal of a very hight step1 score I would start it now, bank all of the first year stuff over the summer, bank the rest along with classes, but double up at the end of the year so that you have gt fully banked by at least 1 month before your dedicated study period-that way you will be able to keep doing your gt questions, but it will be down to a more manageable 100 or so qs a day.

Kaplan Qbank: Did this along with classes. Did all questions on tutor mode, would do a question read the explanation, flip to the page in first aid, read the appropriate section and annotate if necessary.

First Aid: In addition to the annotations from qbank, i made sure to read the appropriate sections from first aid at least once (usually 2x) along with classes second year. Not to memorize but to get very familiar with all the content.

Goljan audio: This is still great though it has a few errors (but not really more than most up to date written texts). Had a 25 minute commute to school and listened to goljan almost everyday=about 1 lecture a day. I would listen to what we were studying in school and just repeat it until my exam, this meant that i listened to each lecture around 3x at least during the year.

RR path: Also good and a good combo with the audio. I would generally read through each chapter 2 times along with classes. Also it has all the pictures referred to in the audio and has a synergistic learning response when combined.

Robins Q book and webpath: Did these along with classes, maybe a little over the top, but I found it helpful in really nailing down path.

BRS Physio: I would read the appropriate chapters and do the questions at the beginning of each block at school. It is great to be really solid on your physio because it makes a lot of things make sense and the more that you understand pathology and pathophysiology (vs memorize) the better. Plus physio is high yield in general and this is a great book.

Brenner pharmcards and Katzung and trevors examination and board review: My schools curriculum is a little weak in pharm. I don't really know if these books are the best, but they worked for me. Would do the appriate drugs/chapters along with class.

CMMRS: book is gold, read it twice during our ID (micro +micro pharm block)

HY neuroanatomy: read before neurology block, a little overdetailed but very good.

Lily for cardiology: great book, but way beyond what you need for boards

BRS behavioral-read this twice plus all the questions twice during our psych block (final was the BS shelf). Big fan of this book.

Class syllabi and lectures: I read the syllabi and went to or watched all of my class lectures until the end of february. I think that you need to learn things for the first time somewhere and this was good for me, but YMMV. The 20 points above 250 IMO are made up largely of somewhat random stuff and you'll find some of it in your classes. My school is P/F though, so I would go to class, read the syllabus once and did the rest of my studying including the 3-4 days before the test solely w/board level materials




Few months before step1 (while still in class)
UWORLD: the best resource of all, an amazing learning tool-use it that way. I did my first pass of uworld + marked and incorrects during my last two months of classes. All on tutor mode with the same method I used for kaplan qbank (see above). Though I was doing tutor mode, I tried to do the questions quickly (but took my time with the answers) though occasionally i would take 2-3 minutes for a question. remember uworld is a learning tool, not a prognosticator first and foremost, use NBMEs for that.

Rx: did about 1000 questions from it (including all behavioral science) but didn't have time to do more. IMO for qbanks UWORLD >>>kaplan>rx, but kaplan and rx aren't that far apart in quality, what really turned me off to rx was that there were at least 3 or 4 completely incorrect answers which didn't happen in the other qbanks (i.e. in world or qbank there might be an error here or there, but the right answer to the question is still the right answer, whereas the rx questions that were incorrect the actual answer choice was wrong)

Read RR biochem: I liked this book alot, and along w other resources I thought was good, though not super high yield.

Last 23 days (after classes)-beast mode
Would read through the appropriate section in BRS physiology (but not do the questions), then read the section in first aid and do all of the kaplan qbank questions for that subject on tutor mode(some subjects had 2-3 days according to their length in first aid and my gut feeling on strengths and weaknesses), doing the easy questions, then medium then hard (would intersperse reading with questions because I could not read first aid for extended stretches). I would also do 100 UWORLD questions on random tutor mode and my gt questions for the day last once I was thoughouly burnt for the day (would actually do the last 50qs in bed). I only used RR as a reference during this period and referred to other books/wikipedia as necessary. I also listened to goljan while walking to and from the library and got through most of it again.

along the way i did some practice exams

Last 5 days I was done w kaplan qbank and finished UWorld plus incorrects and read through first aid one more time (didn't get fully back through it). I did UWSA 2 one block a day for the first 4 days (i.e. not the day before the test) to get myself back to being used to doing random questions i'd never seen in 46q blocks and then read the answers.

Wasn't able to take the last day off, but stopped studying at 7pm, ate dinner and watched one of my favorite movies in bed and was able to get a good nights sleep the night before (try as hard as you can to do this)



Good luck everybody. for the younguns-set your goals intelligently and do what you need to do to get there. Hard work over a long period of time pays off on this test.

numbers (all qbanks done on untimed tutor mode with annotation into first aid on first pass)
Gunnertraining: 98% banked (didn't bank some of the stuff they added during the last 3 weeks) and about 76% mastered with a peak of 80% mastered
Kaplan qbank along with classes: 81%
1st pass uworld (in the last two months of school): 84.5%
Usmlerx (did about 1000qs):don't remember exactly but around 93%
Behavioral Shelf about 2months before step1-910
Second Pass qbank: around 90%
second pass UW: 97% (though I was recognizing a fair amount of the answers)
NBME 5 4/1: 690: 264 (old scale)
UWSA1 4/13: 265
NBME 12 4/23: 680:264 (missed 9)
NBME 11 5/1: 710: 271 (missed 6)
UWSA 2 (taken as 4 separate blocks):265 (max for uwsas)
STEP1: 5/16: 270

We have the exact UWSA scores and my NBME score was similar. How many questions did you think you missed after the test? (rough estimate)

For DPP-4 .. AE include headache, nasopharyngitis and URI's (baby katzung p366)



Flushing was an answer choice. But, none of the ones listed above were in the choices.
I think seeker is right. Priapism has to be the answer. Lol.

Btw, Good luck to you and Seeker!

Is the free Nbme150 the same thing as the USMLE practice test (where you get? Anyone know? Thanks :)

Flushing was an answer choice. But, none of the ones listed above were in the choices.
I think seeker is right. Priapism has to be the answer. Lol.

Btw, Good luck to you and Seeker!

lol well i wonder where they got their info from

I took Step 1 two weeks ago and was just getting around to looking up some answers of questions that I marked, probably a bad idea I know but what the hay.

Anyway, does anyone else remember a question about someone who was recently diagnosed with chlamydia and was asking if they should be tested? I don't recall too many other details about the question, but I don't believe that it mentioned multiple sexual partners/drug use/homosexual male type of stuff. If so, did you have any thoughts on the question?

I took Step 1 two weeks ago and was just getting around to looking up some answers of questions that I marked, probably a bad idea I know but what the hay.

Anyway, does anyone else remember a question about someone who was recently diagnosed with chlamydia and was asking if they should be tested? I don't recall too many other details about the question, but I don't believe that it mentioned multiple sexual partners/drug use/homosexual male type of stuff. If so, did you have any thoughts on the question?

Always get tested.

....

for all those considering 5hr energy, i wanted to share my story:

i have never tried it before. i always stuck to coffee or sugarfree red bull when things got really bad. but i noticed while studying that i had to pee all the freaking time with red bull so i finally decided to try 5 hr energy bc there is no way i wanted to worry about having to pee during the exam. i really like 5 hr energy now. i was always kinda scared of it, but it doesnt taste bad, its an ok taste, and i did not feel jittery at all. after a few minutes i just realized that i wasnt tired and my eyes werent closing bc i wanted to sleep.
during the actual exam i took 5 hr energy with me in case i was getting tired. i ended up drinking it (its really 2 big sips) after block 3 i believe. i didnt think about hwo tired i was or anything.. but i did think about how dehumanizing that exam was haha


I'm kinda puzzled by all this talk of 5-hr energy being better than red bull/coffee because it "makes you pee less". Caffeine in and of itself has relatively strong diuretic effects regardless of the amount of water you consume along with a dose of it. Drop a NoDoz and trust me, you will be pissing like a racehorse in 30-45 min...especially if you're nervous to boot.

I'm kinda puzzled by all this talk of 5-hr energy being better than red bull/coffee because it "makes you pee less". Caffeine in and of itself has relatively strong diuretic effects regardless of the amount of water you consume along with a dose of it. Drop a NoDoz and trust me, you will be pissing like a racehorse in 30-45 min...especially if you're nervous to boot.

Because you still have less fluid in you regardless. I had 2 of them during the exam and didn't have to pee at all until the 5th block.

Take that NoDoz and then take it with a big glass of water and see which one makes you pee faster.

Yes, I know caffeine inhibits Na reabsorption and all that junk, but it is much harder to diuresis someone when there is less fluid in them to begin with.

Arite folks! I'm taking the plunge tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Arite folks! I'm taking the plunge tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Good luck bro. Go destroy that thing like Nero destroyed your home planet.

Arite folks! I'm taking the plunge tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Good luck dude!

Arite folks! I'm taking the plunge tomorrow! Wish me luck!

good luck!

I took the test last week and here's how I prepped and how I felt about it... i'll post my score as soon as I receive it.

Prep:

During the last 5 months of my second year:
Read BRS physiology
Kaplan Physiology qbank (600q's 79% first and only pass) over winter break.
Read FA once
Kaplan Qbank 65% overall first pass
- Took NBME 6 (228) studied two more weeks NBME 11 (233)

Had 18 days (studied 12-16 hour/day) for specific STEP 1 Prep:
Read FA 2 more times
Completed UWORLD 77% first pass, random, timed. and read every explanation.
-Took UWSA #1 (264) eight days into this study period.
-Took Free 150 at P testing center - 92% (264 medfriends estimate) one week before the real deal.

The Test:

Overall I thought it was a very fair test. I had a headache during it for some unknown reason which caused me to take a 5-10 min breaks after each block. In retrospect I would recommend doing this... it kept me refreshed and I felt like I was catching little pieces of info that I would have skipped over if I would have done 3 or 4 blocks in a row like I did a few time while practicing.

Last week before my exam it seemed like everyone was saying that FA was not enough and that freaked me out a little. But, I think it is more than enough if you go through it thoroughly a few times (and use Wiki to fill in any background info you may not have learned to understand the one sentence FA gives you). I only could remember a few questions from each block that I had trouble with and FA had the answer for every one of them. That is not to say that FA had the answer to every question on the test, but I think it did have all the answers to the straight recall questions. A few pages back another guy mentioned that he thought it was kind of an IQ test. I had a few question that made it seem that way too; there was no way anyone memorized the info they were testing (well, maybe a few people on here did ), but if you knew enough pathophys of common diseases you could make a really good guess.

I don't think my exam focused on any particular organ system, but it did seem to focus on AIDS. Every block I had four or five questions on AIDS related conditions, drugs, phys, path, ect.

If I had to do it over again... I would probably just do exactly what I did. I think I'll jump on my bandwagon and say the FA and UW are gold. I used RR during school and I don't think it would have been helpful during my dedicated STEP 1 study period, nor do I think any on the BRS books would have helped. Leaved those books behind once you pass your second year classes and focus on FA and UW.

If anyone has any q's please feel free to ask and I wish everyone luck on their upcoming exams.

Quick question guys, this may have been asked before but my reading comprehension sucks (I got a 1 on verbal). Can I use time when I am sitting at the computer to write down equations and junk? Before I start the test, tutorial or anything, can I just take 10 mins to breathe and write down some info that I might forget in the heat of the battle? Thanks for the info.

Quick question guys, this may have been asked before but my reading comprehension sucks (I got a 1 on verbal). Can I use time when I am sitting at the computer to write down equations and junk? Before I start the test, tutorial or anything, can I just take 10 mins to breathe and write down some info that I might forget in the heat of the battle? Thanks for the info.

Ya I mean you have to enter your student number or whatever it is before you start and there was no timer so I assume you could wait a couple minutes to start.

I was wondering if anyone who took the test found the inflammation/cell injury stuff to be more detailed/involved than in first aid? DIT reccomends flipping thought the 1st 6 chapters of robbins and looking at the different images/pathways. Do you guys think that would have helped? Alternatively I have notes I took from reading robbins during 2nd year... would that be worth going through? (it's about 25 pages of notes on the first 6 chapters.)

thanks

I was wondering if anyone who took the test found the inflammation/cell injury stuff to be more detailed/involved than in first aid? DIT reccomends flipping thought the 1st 6 chapters of robbins and looking at the different images/pathways. Do you guys think that would have helped? Alternatively I have notes I took from reading robbins during 2nd year... would that be worth going through? (it's about 25 pages of notes on the first 6 chapters.)

thanks

I would say FA was enough for most stuff including inflammation/cell injury. That was far from difficult on my test (physio on the other hand was a different story)

I would say FA was enough for most stuff including inflammation/cell injury. That was far from difficult on my test (physio on the other hand was a different story)

damn, what was so bad about physio? was it like uworld/nbme's?

damn, what was so bad about physio? was it like uworld/nbme's?

The only hard physio I had was the up/down arrow questions. They seemed hard because one of the lab values would be something you didn't think about being affected before, but if you reason it out you should be fine.

I was wondering if anyone who took the test found the inflammation/cell injury stuff to be more detailed/involved than in first aid? DIT reccomends flipping thought the 1st 6 chapters of robbins and looking at the different images/pathways. Do you guys think that would have helped? Alternatively I have notes I took from reading robbins during 2nd year... would that be worth going through? (it's about 25 pages of notes on the first 6 chapters.)

thanks

I did DIT and took my test last Wed the 15th. I don't think this would be worth your time, I can't think of a single question that this would have made the difference on (assuming you know your FA and UW in these areas). There were a few Jenkins question predictions that were way off - this subject and child development - neither had a single question and I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to them.

The only hard physio I had was the up/down arrow questions. They seemed hard because one of the lab values would be something you didn't think about being affected before, but if you reason it out you should be fine.

Okay, yea thats what everyone has been saying. Thanks.

I did DIT and took my test last Wed the 15th. I don't think this would be worth your time, I can't think of a single question that this would have made the difference on (assuming you know your FA and UW in these areas). There were a few Jenkins question predictions that were way off - this subject and child development - neither had a single question and I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to them.

Good to know. Thanks for the advice.

Quick question guys, this may have been asked before but my reading comprehension sucks (I got a 1 on verbal). Can I use time when I am sitting at the computer to write down equations and junk? Before I start the test, tutorial or anything, can I just take 10 mins to breathe and write down some info that I might forget in the heat of the battle? Thanks for the info.

Yeah, DIT suggests doing this with your vital equations and concepts. But according to Jenkins (FWIW), you shouldn't take too long to do this. He said anything over 5 min may look suspicious. I would agree that you should limit this time to 5 min or less. Keep in mind that the proctors are watching you like a hawk with multiple cameras every instant you are in the room, don't give them anything to question.

I memorized equations in the high yield section of FA. I divided them into two groups - those to write down and those to be able to recall as necessary. My write down list included stat and pharmacokinetics. I used most/all of these multiple times. For something like Hardy-Wienberg, I was able to recall the eq and use it as necessary for 2 questions.

The best thing to do is use your tutorial to write down equations. This way you don't lose any time from the actual test. Even though I wrote down a bunch of equations from memory, I don't think it really helped me that much anyways. I might of had 2 questions in total that I was able to answer with my notes. It does help calm nerves knowing you are able to look at the info if you need it but depending on your test you may not need it.

I did DIT and took my test last Wed the 15th. I don't think this would be worth your time, I can't think of a single question that this would have made the difference on (assuming you know your FA and UW in these areas). There were a few Jenkins question predictions that were way off - this subject and child development - neither had a single question and I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to them.

Another question regarding DIT.... did you review DIT book and if so did you find it helpful for your exam? Besides child development and inflammation...were his high yield topics really high yield?

Just took the exam today. I would have to say that I’m not sure how I did. I would be surprised if I didn’t pass, but not sure if that means I got a 210 or a 250. During my study period I really appreciated the individuals who gave a full write up about the exam, as I felt it helped calm my anxiety and made me realize I actual was studying the right stuff. Sorry if it is long, but I tried to be as complete as I could be.

I took the exam at noon. I recommend this to everyone if you can. It allowed me to get up at a normal time, have breakfast, pack a lunch, review some high yield material and do some questions to warm up (Of the 5 questions I did this morning from World I got 4 of them on the exam).

The testing center was pretty laid back, everyone is pretty nice and makes it easy to check in. I was told by other students to use the tutorial time to get your head phones set up and to regurgitate as much of the high yield formulas or memory tricks that I could. This was probably a good idea just because it gave me reassurance and something to fall back on in case I didn’t remember something, but it may have only helped me on 1 or 2 questions.

I slammed a Starbucks Mocha before I went in for the exam, and couple that with the nerves I sailed through the first 3 blocks. I will say that the first block was tough, especially as time ran down. I think it is just a psychological issue, knowing that once that clock hits zero or when you hit submit any mistake you make will be a permanent mark on your CV. I was planning on doing 2 blocks and then taking a break. I was feeling really focused and doing well in terms of the questions so I decided to do another block. This was one of the best things I could do. It enabled me enough break time to take a break between each of my last blocks. By the time block 6 and 7 came around, I really needed to clear the air, and walk around and was lucky I had the extra time.

I took most of the time for each section. I have a problem of going fast through sections and made a conscientious effort to slow down. If a question was taking me a long time to figure out I guessed, marked it and came back. I would say that I probably marked 15 questions each block. Most of these were things I needed to check and make sure I didn’t make any careless reading mistakes.

As far as the test, mine was pretty balanced. I don’t think there was any specific trend. There weren’t too many behavioral science questions which was disappointing as I am usually good at those and studied those a lot. I think the one thing I didn’t like was that the test was almost too clinical. There were a lot of things where I needed to be able to recognize diseases and treatment protocols, third and fourth line therapies. I had a lot of clinical experience before med school and our school emphasizes early clinical experience, and that is the only way I was able to get some of those questions. I couldn’t tell which questions were experimental as they all seemed to be appropriate difficulty. I might not have gotten a question right, but I am convinced that is only because I didn’t spend enough time looking at the minute details of a disease in FA.

Subjects:

Anatomy: Not very difficult, was expecting a lot more. Most of it was pretty basic. I just used FA and what I remembered from my first year anatomy class.

Biochem: Not a lot of metabolism stuff, most of it was Molecular/Cell. I was disappointed with the lack of genetics on the exam, as this was traditionally a strong suit with me on UW.

Micro: Studied it quite a lot in my last 3 days leading up to the exam, overall it wasn’t as high yield as I thought it would be. Most of them were normal bugs, a few random ones that I would pass over thinking there was no way on a 322 question exam they would think that was important.

Embryology: This was ridiculous, I maybe only had 10 questions, but it was very random details. I don’t know what I could have done better short of getting a major in Embryology in college. I couldn’t even tell someone how to study this.

Immunology: There was a lot of immune on my test, half of it was really easy, other half was extremely difficult. Probably had 25-30 questions on it.
Path: In general I thought this was the most difficult/annoying part of the exam. There were a lot of pictures on my exam. I did Webpath and Goljan and FA and never saw the pictures they presented. I was able to narrow it down based on the question stem, but nothing to the point that I could say with 100% certainty what a question was.

Pharmacology: Kept hearing that ANS was really high yield, I wish I would have had more questions on it, I might have had 5 total. Other pharm stuff was okay, but it got a little annoying when they would ask 3rd line treatment for random, non FA diseases.

Cardio: 4-5 heart sounds where were pretty easy, but the answer choices were phrased differently making it difficult to figure out what they were going for. Other than that I had maybe 2 path and 2 pathophys questions. Not a lot on the exam.

Endocrine: Mostly pathophys, not a lot of pharm or path.

GI: Very little path phys or pharm, mostly micro with an occasional anatomy question.

Heme/Onc: A few questions where you would need to treat a patient based on a diagnosis with only lab values. 1 cancer drug MOA and it was a gimme.

MSK: Was hoping to get a lot of these nerve injury questions to help raise my score. I was not so lucky, there were very few path question, and 2-3 nerve lesions.

Neurology: I was worried because I only went through it twice in FA and got confused with brainstem lesions. I didn’t have anything nearly that difficult, most of it was simply stroke/TIA between the ACA and MCA. Relatively speaking though I had a lot of hearing questions, 4-5 at least.

Psychiatry: Easy points to get with minimal studying

Renal: Questions weren’t that difficult, but had a lot of them overall. Mostly pathphys.

Repro: Don’t know what to make of this one, other than saying Repro is Repro. Some questions were extremely easy stuff you would know even if you hadn’t gone to med school, other stuff was just random.

Resp: Asthma medications and maybe one lung cancer and PNA. No phys or serious path. Very interesting that they would have so few questions on respiratory.

Overall, the test was not as bad as I was expecting. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I was definitely building it up bigger in my head. It’s so much of a crap shoot. I had classmates take the test with me today who said they had to guess on 35-40 questions in a block and others who hit the jackpot and got a test suited to their strengths. I brought FA with me to review in between breaks but never ended up using it. There isn’t any way to “cram” for this test. I didn’t even know where to look to check out answers I may have missed. Study hard, utilize the full break time, and try to calm down as much as possible while taking the exam. Good luck.

Just took the exam today. ..... Relatively speaking though I had a lot of hearing questions, 4-5 at least.

When you say hearing do you mean the the auditory pathway/ how the cochlea works or like Rinne/Webber or what? just wondering since they took most hearing stuff out of FA this year. Congrats on being done and thanks for the thorough write up!!

We have the exact UWSA scores and my NBME score was similar. How many questions did you think you missed after the test? (rough estimate)

Sorry, i have no idea how many I missed and didn't right when I walked out either. All in all I felt similar to the NBMEs or UWSAs in terms of how I felt about it walking out.

Just took the exam today. I would have to say that I’m not sure how I did. I would be surprised if I didn’t pass, but not sure if that means I got a 210 or a 250. During my study period I really appreciated the individuals who gave a full write up about the exam, as I felt it helped calm my anxiety and made me realize I actual was studying the right stuff. Sorry if it is long, but I tried to be as complete as I could be.

I took the exam at noon. I recommend this to everyone if you can. It allowed me to get up at a normal time, have breakfast, pack a lunch, review some high yield material and do some questions to warm up (Of the 5 questions I did this morning from World I got 4 of them on the exam).

The testing center was pretty laid back, everyone is pretty nice and makes it easy to check in. I was told by other students to use the tutorial time to get your head phones set up and to regurgitate as much of the high yield formulas or memory tricks that I could. This was probably a good idea just because it gave me reassurance and something to fall back on in case I didn’t remember something, but it may have only helped me on 1 or 2 questions.

I slammed a Starbucks Mocha before I went in for the exam, and couple that with the nerves I sailed through the first 3 blocks. I will say that the first block was tough, especially as time ran down. I think it is just a psychological issue, knowing that once that clock hits zero or when you hit submit any mistake you make will be a permanent mark on your CV. I was planning on doing 2 blocks and then taking a break. I was feeling really focused and doing well in terms of the questions so I decided to do another block. This was one of the best things I could do. It enabled me enough break time to take a break between each of my last blocks. By the time block 6 and 7 came around, I really needed to clear the air, and walk around and was lucky I had the extra time.

I took most of the time for each section. I have a problem of going fast through sections and made a conscientious effort to slow down. If a question was taking me a long time to figure out I guessed, marked it and came back. I would say that I probably marked 15 questions each block. Most of these were things I needed to check and make sure I didn’t make any careless reading mistakes.

As far as the test, mine was pretty balanced. I don’t think there was any specific trend. There weren’t too many behavioral science questions which was disappointing as I am usually good at those and studied those a lot. I think the one thing I didn’t like was that the test was almost too clinical. There were a lot of things where I needed to be able to recognize diseases and treatment protocols, third and fourth line therapies. I had a lot of clinical experience before med school and our school emphasizes early clinical experience, and that is the only way I was able to get some of those questions. I couldn’t tell which questions were experimental as they all seemed to be appropriate difficulty. I might not have gotten a question right, but I am convinced that is only because I didn’t spend enough time looking at the minute details of a disease in FA.

Subjects:

Anatomy: Not very difficult, was expecting a lot more. Most of it was pretty basic. I just used FA and what I remembered from my first year anatomy class.

Biochem: Not a lot of metabolism stuff, most of it was Molecular/Cell. I was disappointed with the lack of genetics on the exam, as this was traditionally a strong suit with me on UW.

Micro: Studied it quite a lot in my last 3 days leading up to the exam, overall it wasn’t as high yield as I thought it would be. Most of them were normal bugs, a few random ones that I would pass over thinking there was no way on a 322 question exam they would think that was important.

Embryology: This was ridiculous, I maybe only had 10 questions, but it was very random details. I don’t know what I could have done better short of getting a major in Embryology in college. I couldn’t even tell someone how to study this.

Immunology: There was a lot of immune on my test, half of it was really easy, other half was extremely difficult. Probably had 25-30 questions on it.
Path: In general I thought this was the most difficult/annoying part of the exam. There were a lot of pictures on my exam. I did Webpath and Goljan and FA and never saw the pictures they presented. I was able to narrow it down based on the question stem, but nothing to the point that I could say with 100% certainty what a question was.

Pharmacology: Kept hearing that ANS was really high yield, I wish I would have had more questions on it, I might have had 5 total. Other pharm stuff was okay, but it got a little annoying when they would ask 3rd line treatment for random, non FA diseases.

Cardio: 4-5 heart sounds where were pretty easy, but the answer choices were phrased differently making it difficult to figure out what they were going for. Other than that I had maybe 2 path and 2 pathophys questions. Not a lot on the exam.

Endocrine: Mostly pathophys, not a lot of pharm or path.

GI: Very little path phys or pharm, mostly micro with an occasional anatomy question.

Heme/Onc: A few questions where you would need to treat a patient based on a diagnosis with only lab values. 1 cancer drug MOA and it was a gimme.

MSK: Was hoping to get a lot of these nerve injury questions to help raise my score. I was not so lucky, there were very few path question, and 2-3 nerve lesions.

Neurology: I was worried because I only went through it twice in FA and got confused with brainstem lesions. I didn’t have anything nearly that difficult, most of it was simply stroke/TIA between the ACA and MCA. Relatively speaking though I had a lot of hearing questions, 4-5 at least.

Psychiatry: Easy points to get with minimal studying

Renal: Questions weren’t that difficult, but had a lot of them overall. Mostly pathphys.

Repro: Don’t know what to make of this one, other than saying Repro is Repro. Some questions were extremely easy stuff you would know even if you hadn’t gone to med school, other stuff was just random.

Resp: Asthma medications and maybe one lung cancer and PNA. No phys or serious path. Very interesting that they would have so few questions on respiratory.

Overall, the test was not as bad as I was expecting. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I was definitely building it up bigger in my head. It’s so much of a crap shoot. I had classmates take the test with me today who said they had to guess on 35-40 questions in a block and others who hit the jackpot and got a test suited to their strengths. I brought FA with me to review in between breaks but never ended up using it. There isn’t any way to “cram” for this test. I didn’t even know where to look to check out answers I may have missed. Study hard, utilize the full break time, and try to calm down as much as possible while taking the exam. Good luck.

Thanks for the write up. Congrats on being done.

The best thing to do is use your tutorial to write down equations. This way you don't lose any time from the actual test. Even though I wrote down a bunch of equations from memory, I don't think it really helped me that much anyways. I might of had 2 questions in total that I was able to answer with my notes. It does help calm nerves knowing you are able to look at the info if you need it but depending on your test you may not need it.

I was thinking about quickly jotting down that qiss qiq siq sqs pneumonic and the Flat Champ because everyone keeps saying how many Qs they had on second messenger pathways. Was this true for your exam?

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of people are curious about anatomy. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Nothing crazy unusual. However, word of advice, if you have HY gross anatomy, I would look over clinical procedures *BIG HINT*. An upperclassmen told me this exactly advice and I listened...and I'm glad...big time.

When you say clinical procedures...is that a certain section of the book or is it randomly dispersed throughout? I just skimmed over the book and I didn't notice any 'procedures' but I guess I wasn't sure where to look.

When you say clinical procedures...is that a certain section of the book or is it randomly dispersed throughout? I just skimmed over the book and I didn't notice any 'procedures' but I guess I wasn't sure where to look.

They are dispersed throughout. For example, in the chapter on heart anatomy, they describe the two locations for performing a pericardiocentesis.

They are dispersed throughout. For example, in the chapter on heart anatomy, they describe the two locations for performing a pericardiocentesis.

Is there anyway to just read those without having to basically read the whole book in search of them? lol. thanks.

I was thinking about quickly jotting down that qiss qiq siq sqs pneumonic and the Flat Champ because everyone keeps saying how many Qs they had on second messenger pathways. Was this true for your exam?


What is the Flat Champ one? I searched for it on this thread, couldn't find it.

What is the Flat Champ one? I searched for it on this thread, couldn't find it.

It's in the Endo section of First Aid, its the mnemonic for the cAMP 2nd messengers!

What is the Flat Champ one? I searched for it on this thread, couldn't find it.

Fsh Lh Acth Tsh Crh Hcg Adh (V2) Msh Pth
then you have
Glucagon, GHRH, Calcitonin

I was thinking about quickly jotting down that qiss qiq siq sqs pneumonic and the Flat Champ because everyone keeps saying how many Qs they had on second messenger pathways. Was this true for your exam?

I wrote them down and had 2 questions on them. Having them written down didn't help me as I simply read the question, saw they were talking about "X" and put down what happened as a result. Writing things out before the test in the tutorial is a nice way to free yourself of anxiety, at least it was for me.

I just closed FA for the last time! Good luck everyone taking it tomorrow. :luck:

I just closed FA for the last time! Good luck everyone taking it tomorrow. :luck:

Lets go kill it together! I'm going too!

First time poster, after reading so much of what you guys wrote decided to give my own 2 cents (i'm also going crazy over this waiting game and i have to do something!)

I'm one of the few kids here who did FA only during the study break (read RR once during school year while taking path) + UW:

Kaplan (75% completed, not random - subject based, during school year): 72% first pass

UW (100% completed, random, timed) - 75% first pass (with a gradual increase from 72% in the beginning to about 78% during the last few weeks)

My practice test scores were:
1. NBME 12 = 233; UWSA1 = 256 (6 weeks ago, prior to studying)
2. NBME 7 = 254; UWSA2 = 265 (1 week ago, post studying)
- felt like crap after taking ALL my self assessments, for NBME 7 i did the extended report for an extra 10 bucks, marked every question i thought i was guessing on (ended up being 45 questions/200 and i only missed like 8 of them so lucky guessing day i guess?)
- UWSA1 and 2 i felt were easy in the fact that you didn't have to know anything specific (did anyone else feel that way?). I thought they were mostly logic based with minimal memorization required hence the high UWSA1 score before i even began cramming

Real exam:
Feel like crap just like self-assessments after taking the test I'm praying for something within 30 points of my average assessment exam score. I'm probably overly-anxious; looked up all the questions i had a problem with got some, missed others. Embryology was tough.. very tough - FA helped me a little bit, but not enough. It almost felt like the question writers knew what was in FA and asked you about one more detail beyond it.

Although some people posted they thought FA could answer 90% of their questions, I'm sure that wasn't true in my case as I felt I had FA locked down cold (since that's the only thing i was studying from for like 6 weeks). I felt FA could answer roughly about 65-70% of the exam; remainder 35-30% of the exam was based on what you remember from your previous 2 years + reasoning + guessing. ALSO, i find that the real exam has longer question lengths than UW or Kaplan (or perhaps im reading more carefully?)

Good luck to everyone taking the exam. Don't freak out - its normal to hit questions you don't understand or never heard of.

Lets go kill it together! I'm going too!

good luck! I assume we'll see each other around here afterwards? lol

good luck! I assume we'll see each other around here afterwards? lol

LOL, you know it.

Took my test Monday. As rough as the test was with me, I found it a little rude that I was not provide with dinner and a bottle of wine afterwards. On a serious note, it felt a little rough. I don't really have a list of events for anyone, since I don't really remember many of the questions; I have enough trouble just concentrating on the questions in front of me, let alone trying to remember details after ~350 of them. If I had to estimate, I would say in my hardest sections that there were about 27-30+ questions where I was sure I had the right answer. Maybe anywhere from 2-4 where I felt like I was completely guessing. Qbank definitely does not do behavioral science justice for my test. Also, I had the questions about the drug which they said in the stem was a Na+ channel blocker, and then asked which ion conductance was affected with Na+ in the answer choice. I actually didn't believe the person who originally posted this.

Truthfully, the exam didn't feel much more difficult than the NBMEs or UWORLD. However, I routinely under predict my performance and it felt like I was making a lot of best guesses. My NBME scores were 247, 233, 242 on 6, 12, 11 respectively (I marked over 20% of the questions on all forms), and I honestly feel like I probably performed on the low end.

I definitely was guilty of score obsessing. I would recommend just studying as much as you can and being appreciative for the progress you are able to make in the amount of time given. I had trouble concentrating after my huge drop from NBME 6 to 12, even though both scores were respectable. I definitely attribute this to putting too much pressure on myself to break 250; a mistake IMO.

First Aid and Qbank is definitely enough for the test. I totally regret not getting through an entire pass through first aid a second time and I was working though U world questions way too slowly and didn't end up finishing the Qbank. I also, would use fewer resources if I could do it again (first aid, Gojan, Qbank(s) during the school year...nothing else!!!). I read 6 other books throughout the year which would have been better spent reading first aid and Gojan.

IMPORTANT!!!!___*************---> The most high yield resource that I feel everyone should know cold is the common side effects section (2 pages) in FA pharm section. I am not kidding... I didn't specifically do a hard study for pharm except for these two pages and had 10+ questions that could be answered from these two pages alone (Also, I had what BJ (B. jenkins) added). I studied this between every break and highlighted 9 SE that were on my test and I am sure there were others. I bet those 2 pages are higher yield than the FA HY section in the end of the book.

My prediction is 220 to 252. Honestly, I will be somewhat surprised if I break 240, but it seems like a ton of people feel crappy after the test then end up doing pretty well. If I break 250 I will try to refrain from streaking down the halls of the IM wards. In the meantime I am going to enjoy the next couple weeks with my wife and kids and try not to think about it.

I wish everyone the best of luck with their exams if you haven't taken it, and also, to those awaiting their scores. I apologize for any typos or redundancies.

Peter North

I wish everyone the best of luck with their exams if you haven't taken it, and also, to those awaiting their scores. I apologize for any typos or redundancies.

Peter North


Thanks so much for your uber-helpful write-up...I'm sure you rocked it!

PS I love your work...

Thanks so much for your uber-helpful write-up...I'm sure you rocked it!

PS I love your work...

Thanks buddy. Decided it was time for a career change and now here I am.

Up and at em! Didn't sleep too well last night, probably around 6 hours only but o well I think I can function. Good luck to everyone taking it today. :luck:

[QUOTE=dude1344;11165397]Up and at em! Didn't sleep too well last night, probably around 6 hours only but o well I think I can function. Good luck to everyone taking it today. :luck:[/QUO

Best of luck you will rock it :luck::luck::luck:

Took Step 1 yesterday. I don't have an absurd amount of wisdom to give you, but I will say this... I felt like I had seen nearly everything on there before. The test is extremely doable, especially with First Aid and Uworld as your guide. I felt like it was more straightforward than NBME 12 and Uworld.

My test was super renal heavy. I had every stone variety at least twice and tons of tubule pathology. Lots of prostate. Everything else was pretty evenly distributed, I think. Anatomy, Biochem and Embryo were pretty straight forward. I had a good amount of Pharm on my first few blocks, but it dwindled significantly at the end. Nothing on anesthetics. Some tricky behavioral questions. Micro seemed lower yield than I expected. Couple of oddball or weird questions on there, but not too many.

General pointers:

-Make sure you mostly relax the day prior. I pretty much focused on the rapid review stuff in First Aid and the pictures for an hour or two, got a massage, and watched Ip Man. A couple of my classmates showed up the exam after a day of full studying and they looked haggard.

-Carefully read the stem. If you get to the answer choices and you think more than one option is correct, go back and read the stem again. I had a couple of times where I thought I read "increase" but I actually read "decrease."

- You will get questions you don't know. Don't let them derail your momentum. Make an educated guess, mark them, and move on.

- I felt like my Pathology and Pharm courses were incredibly helpful. I really stepped up my educational game during second year and I am positive it helped me on the exam.

- I combined an NBME with the Free 150 in order to simulate a real exam. I think this helped me with the endurance stuff, maybe even subconsciously.

- I was studying in physical presence of the great MossPoh, so hopefully I picked up some of his knowledge through diffusion.

Peter North and smk, very helpful posts. Thanks. :thumbup:

I've benefited from reading other people's experiences on this thread, so I will also contribute to those willing to read.

First of all I wanted to say, Step 1 is totally doable. It also is goal dependent, a goal of 220 requires different prep than a goal of 270+. That being said, I feel that you are doing a disservice if you don't go into this thing wanting to do your best. That was my mind set, so whatever I get I'll be happy since I really did try and put everything into it.

I took my test June 18th in the morning, and for my test it was really micro, pharm, molecular bio and consistently had anatomy questions every block.

My practice test history:

UWSA1: 248
UWSA2: 250
NBME11: 238
NBME12: 233
(Not in that order)

For my preparation I used:

Goljan Audio, in the car, in the gym, whenever I didn't feel like reading or doing questions
Goljan Path (read it here and there during the year, not consistently, but finished 1 whole pass during my study period)
DIT (IMHO, I liked it, and it definitely helped me get organized, give me a system, and helped me get a good chunk of questions right on my actual exam)
USMLE World (I went through slowly in 5 months for my first pass, annotating my copy of FA, and then going over my missed questions), I started off at 50% in Jan. and by the time the study period started I could get anywhere from 70% to 90% on unused question blocks.
First Aid Q&A (finished all the questions and reviewed the answers in FA for confusing ones)
First Aid (obviously)

I honestly think that my test was more in line with the difficulty of UWSA than any of the NBMEs, I did have some tricky questions, but I think overall the test was very fair. Out of all 7 blocks, I feel that I had 2 blocks of medium/moderate difficulty, and then the rest were actually not that bad for me... (we'll see when I get my score back whether I am still singing the same song :laugh:)

I used all my break time, and that really helped me out. I'm the kind of guy that really only goes through questions once, but doing UWorld and NBME tests I found that I made a lot of stupid mistakes that could've been prevented, and so I went over really quickly all my questions for each block once to make sure I was confident, and spent some extra time reviewing questions that I was less sure on.

I've confirmed that I've missed about 8 questions on the actual thing, and there were mayber 15+ where I had a good idea, but wasn't 100% sure.

I also wanted to say that this test is a THINKING test. Sure, there are questions where you have to just know the treatment, etc. but the reason why people on SDN are saying that FA "isn't enough" is because FA doesn't teach you to think critically. It's good for the memorization of facts and regurgitation and maybe reviewing, but if you don't understand the concepts, there's no substitution for actual learning. That being said, if you actually took the time to understand your course material and use FA to review the little factoids that come up frequently I would say that's 95% of the exam.

There is no substitution for NOT knowing/understanding the material. Do you have to honors your MS1 MS2 classes? No I wouldn't say so. But you do need to have the concepts down pat in your mind. I find that understanding the material will give you the ability to manipulate the facts you DID memorize into a more amenable format for answering step 1 questions. It will also give you the ability to answer those questions that "aren't in first aid." True, a lot of the answers aren't in first aid verbatim, but with the use of 2-3 facts and maybe a bit of anatomy, there's no reason that you can't take an educated guess, or pick an answer that you are somewhat confident is the best answer.

Goljan sums it up the best when he says: "mechanisms, mechanisms, mechanisms" is what the boards are all about. We're all here because we can memorize, that's the easy part.

Anyways, good luck to you all, and don't be discouraged, I wasn't on an AOA level of performance my first two years, but really just went for understanding and learning the material, more than memorizing some minutiae that some research prof. put on slide #12 that he put on the test. My advice for first and second years that wanna destroy the exam is to LEARN the material, if you know how things work, it will stay with you longer and benefit you better in the long term, rather than memorizing and dumping the facts as soon as the test is over.

I will update this post as I get my score and hope that my preparation was enough. Again good luck, this is totally doable, and if I can walk out of the exam feeling good about it, then you all can as well. Seriously. :thumbup:

I've benefited from reading other people's experiences on this thread, so I will also contribute to those willing to read.

First of all I wanted to say, Step 1 is totally doable. It also is goal dependent, a goal of 220 requires different prep than a goal of 270+. That being said, I feel that you are doing a disservice if you don't go into this thing wanting to do your best. That was my mind set, so whatever I get I'll be happy since I really did try and put everything into it.

I took my test June 18th in the morning, and for my test it was really micro, pharm, molecular bio and consistently had anatomy questions every block.

My practice test history:

UWSA1: 248
UWSA2: 250
NBME11: 238
NBME12: 233
(Not in that order)

For my preparation I used:

Goljan Audio, in the car, in the gym, whenever I didn't feel like reading or doing questions
Goljan Path (read it here and there during the year, not consistently, but finished 1 whole pass during my study period)
DIT (IMHO, I liked it, and it definitely helped me get organized, give me a system, and helped me get a good chunk of questions right on my actual exam)
USMLE World (I went through slowly in 5 months for my first pass, annotating my copy of FA, and then going over my missed questions), I started off at 50% in Jan. and by the time the study period started I could get anywhere from 70% to 90% on unused question blocks.
First Aid Q&A (finished all the questions and reviewed the answers in FA for confusing ones)
First Aid (obviously)

I honestly think that my test was more in line with the difficulty of UWSA than any of the NBMEs, I did have some tricky questions, but I think overall the test was very fair. Out of all 7 blocks, I feel that I had 2 blocks of medium/moderate difficulty, and then the rest were actually not that bad for me... (we'll see when I get my score back whether I am still singing the same song :laugh:)

I used all my break time, and that really helped me out. I'm the kind of guy that really only goes through questions once, but doing UWorld and NBME tests I found that I made a lot of stupid mistakes that could've been prevented, and so I went over really quickly all my questions for each block once to make sure I was confident, and spent some extra time reviewing questions that I was less sure on.

I've confirmed that I've missed about 8 questions on the actual thing, and there were mayber 15+ where I had a good idea, but wasn't 100% sure.

I also wanted to say that this test is a THINKING test. Sure, there are questions where you have to just know the treatment, etc. but the reason why people on SDN are saying that FA "isn't enough" is because FA doesn't teach you to think critically. It's good for the memorization of facts and regurgitation and maybe reviewing, but if you don't understand the concepts, there's no substitution for actual learning. That being said, if you actually took the time to understand your course material and use FA to review the little factoids that come up frequently I would say that's 95% of the exam.

There is no substitution for NOT knowing/understanding the material. Do you have to honors your MS1 MS2 classes? No I wouldn't say so. But you do need to have the concepts down pat in your mind. I find that understanding the material will give you the ability to manipulate the facts you DID memorize into a more amenable format for answering step 1 questions. It will also give you the ability to answer those questions that "aren't in first aid." True, a lot of the answers aren't in first aid verbatim, but with the use of 2-3 facts and maybe a bit of anatomy, there's no reason that you can't take an educated guess, or pick an answer that you are somewhat confident is the best answer.

Goljan sums it up the best when he says: "mechanisms, mechanisms, mechanisms" is what the boards are all about. We're all here because we can memorize, that's the easy part.

Anyways, good luck to you all, and don't be discouraged, I wasn't on an AOA level of performance my first two years, but really just went for understanding and learning the material, more than memorizing some minutiae that some research prof. put on slide #12 that he put on the test. My advice for first and second years that wanna destroy the exam is to LEARN the material, if you know how things work, it will stay with you longer and benefit you better in the long term, rather than memorizing and dumping the facts as soon as the test is over.

I will update this post as I get my score and hope that my preparation was enough. Again good luck, this is totally doable, and if I can walk out of the exam feeling good about it, then you all can as well. Seriously. :thumbup:

congrats and thanks for the write up buddy

Alright I just took it and I think I got a really hard form. I would say only 70% of my stuff could be found or thought out through concepts in FA. I had FA down cold and scored between 254-260 on my last 3 practice tests (2 UWSA/1 NBME) and I felt lost on maybe 10% of the questions.

Ah well so goes the test, we'll find out in a few weeks.

P.S. I'll probably update a little more later tonight.

I took my exam a few days ago. My first block was by far my hardest, so it started me off very panicky. For all blocks, I skipped the questions that I knew would take me a long time. By the time I finished all other questions, I only had a few minutes left. With those few minutes I did the questions that I had skipped, but then I never had the chance to go over any of the other questions including the ones I marked. Now I have this bad feeling that I made a million careless mistakes. If I could do it over, I wouldn't have spent so much time on the ones that I probably got wrong anyway so that I could double check the ones that were probably gimmes.
I've since been able to count at least 15 questions that I got wrong, and so am really worried. Another thing I would do differently is take more breaks. I only took ten minutes of break throughout b/c I was so anxious to finish.

The content on my exam:
My exam seemed to be very heavy with cardio and immuno. I had very few micro, biochem, or pharm. I had quite a few anatomy Qs that weren't in FA. Several Qs dealing with mice, experiments etc that I had no idea what they were getting at.

Another reason I'm so worried is that my mbne scores were 213 three weeks out and 204 one week out. I didn't understand how after studying for two more weeks my score would go down instead of up. From everything I read, those tests are supposed to be so accurate at predicting scores. My predicted score from my uworld percent at 66% is much different than those tests so I'm not sure which will be the better predictor or if it will be somewhere in between. The weird thing about my uworld percent is that it started out at 66% and never went up or down. I'm not sure why this is either. I never took another nbme exam before the real one. I did the free 150 the day before and scored 86%. So, with all of these stats I'm not sure what to expect. I think I marked anywhere from 5-10 Qs on each block except the first one I probably marked close to half.

Any thoughts on my experience would be much appreciated.

Just took the test... mine had a theme: viruses, arteries and ligaments. LOTS OF ANATOMY. I may have gotten the pelvic anatomy test. On the other hand, if you know first aid front to back, you're pretty much gold on the rest of the test.

congrats everyone! i cant wait til i am done with this thing! hearing everyones experiences gives me hope LOL.

I would like to ask those that have moved on, recently it seems that people arent using Goljan or singing his praises this round of tests. Would it be safe to say that not using goljan is "ok"? I ask because initially i thought i would be using Goljan but I am running out of time and I am still weak in path. More specifically I am weak in the "descriptive pathology" questions, the ones where you get the full on microscopic description of the pathology rather than just a "round mass".

Any tips?

thanx....counting days now! can not wait!

goljan audio is great. i literally got a few answers on the nbme and the real thing from it. exact concepts. that said, if u don't have time to intersperse it over 2 weeks or so, and only listen to it during your 'breaks', then i wouldn't actively listen to it during crunch time.

I'm a US citizen who is going to school in Sweden (summer between MS2-MS3), this summer I'm taking the USMLE in the states and I'm here all summer to study. Thing is, its just me. If it wasn't for you guys I would be all alone in this. I just have no sense of how to gauge my performance or get a feel for how I'm doing, if I'm on the right track or not.

I am having a hard time staying motivated and focused even though I just started my designated study period a week ago. I've been doing Kaplan videos during the spring though and Qbank, also just started UW today. I don't know how to feel about my scores or anything. Just a little lost I guess :) The only people I hear about are the gunners on SDN so who even knows what kind of score is actually reasonable to aim for? I want to do residency here in GS, so I guess I'm aiming pretty high. Especially with everyone on here saying I'm doomed since I went to school abroad :scared:

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, I just need to get a little bit of a boost.

Should I do an NBME? Which one should I start with?
Here is how I've been doing on Qbank:
I have been getting around 70% on Kaplan trending upwards to 75%
On my first couple Uworld blocks I am avg 73%
What kind of a score can I be realistically aiming for?
My exam is on July 31st and I still have a lot to cover. (Anatomy, pharm and neuro are just gaping black holes right now haha)

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

I gotta say guys the test is not bad. I hope that I did well but I felt it was fairly "easy" in the sense that we have been preparing for it for so long. I think FA + Uworld is more than enough. I even think UWorld is too much because it makes you think the world is trying to trick you.

The highest I ever got on a practice test was a 242 on NBME 7 I think so I am not sure how I did on the real thing. There were probably 15 qs that FA could not prepare me for on the entire test out of 322 so I don't think that is bad. The rest you could reason out or pick up from FA or UWorld.

I saw people studying before the test form FA...dont' do that. What is wrong with you people. It's an 8 hour test. Chill out and relax, don't study. Come on man. Why would you do that.

My test was Immuno, Cardio, and Renal heavy. Here is the breakdown for you guys.

Renal: Did someone unleash all the possible kidney diseases on me? Just understand the two pages of the nephro versus nephri and you should be good I feel. Also understand the ATN versus DIC, the simple stuff and there is no way you won't kill this section.

Histo: Was there anything there except one question?

Micro: Thank the lords of the Step 1 this was one of my strong points and man did I get 30 Qs on this. The common stuff with the common presentations, it is so doable.

Pharm: Easy stuff with the common side effects for most drugs. Just know FA. One drug in there that I had never heard of but the rest were in FA. Don't sweat it.

Pulm: Pretty easy stuff. You can do this if you have a basic understanding of this stuff. Just study FA and you are set. Know a little anatomy too.

Neuro: Was so easy that I am pissed I spent 1 full day on HY Neuro. Really I am floored by the stuff I saw. You could figure this out if you looked at FA.

Genetics: WTF??? Everyone was mating with their Mom and Dad I swear. I had no clue on this crap. This was the worst for me.

Behavioral: Was so easy that I was thanking the pregnant teens across the U.S. for it. It is doable. Maybe 1-2 Qs that make you think but the rest are easy.

Pshcy: Easy! These points you should bank. If you don't, I will find you in your dreams and do things to you that you won't like.

Pathphys: My booty hurts, that's how rough it was. I don't even know how to prepare. There were some that were ridiculous.

Repro: You know it or you don't. Some easy give me stuff you expect. Other stuff has more path phys involved. The usual presentation of the common stuff will be there that is in first aid. Don't know how else you can prepare for it.

Hepatic stuff: Know alcoholics and know them well. Also know the anatomy of the liver. It might be important.

HIV: Know the drugs and know the infections that can happen.

Musculo: Know innervations and the common stuff that can happen...ex: ALS.

Endo: Some rought Qs but most easy stuff. The usual typical stuff. You know what I mean. You can't go wrong with it. Why does the little girl have a penis kind of stuff.

GI: Pretty Easy from what I remember. This hormone does what in the stomach? Oh you take this medication to do what?

Cardio: Heart sounds were a joke. You can figure them out. The Qs were rough around some of the pathology but most of the stuff you can figure it out. Nothing more to add to this.

Biochem: Vitamin Def, Common Enzymes for pathways. So easy for the amount I studied.

Embryo: I had maybe 3 Qs, 2 from FA...1 from who knows where.

Anatomy: You can do this, it is easy. Maybe 2 Qs out of 10 that I didn't have a clue on but even those I reasoned out and I'm trashed!

Heme: Dear God, could they have made this any easier. I felt like I was going to cream myself when I saw the qs they had...the usual stuff, boy eating paint, guy eating him. The usual stuff. You can do this. The cancers are there too. You got this. If you don't get this, I will show up in your dreams again. Cancer!

Immuno: A little easier than I expected but there were a few Qs that were smoking me. But the usual cytokines and receptors kind of stuff. Nothing major.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know. I love you guys. You guys are the best. This test is doable. Don't lose hope. You got this. FA+UWorld is gold. Trust me, I used every resource under the sun. I could cite FA pages as I did the qs.

Oooh by the way, I had about 5 qs from the practice NBMEs. They do show up...it's impossible for them not to.

I hate complement def stuff. Can't wait for the scores but not sweating it too much.

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

I gotta say guys the test is not bad. I hope that I did well but I felt it was fairly "easy" in the sense that we have been preparing for it for so long. I think FA + Uworld is more than enough. I even think UWorld is too much because it makes you think the world is trying to trick you.

The highest I ever got on a practice test was a 242 on NBME 7 I think so I am not sure how I did on the real thing. There were probably 15 qs that FA could not prepare me for on the entire test out of 322 so I don't think that is bad. The rest you could reason out or pick up from FA or UWorld.

I saw people studying before the test form FA...dont' do that. What is wrong with you people. It's an 8 hour test. Chill out and relax, don't study. Come on man. Why would you do that.

My test was Immuno, Cardio, and Renal heavy. Here is the breakdown for you guys.

Renal: Did someone unleash all the possible kidney diseases on me? Just understand the two pages of the nephro versus nephri and you should be good I feel. Also understand the ATN versus DIC, the simple stuff and there is no way you won't kill this section.

Histo: Was there anything there except one question?

Micro: Thank the lords of the Step 1 this was one of my strong points and man did I get 30 Qs on this. The common stuff with the common presentations, it is so doable.

Pharm: Easy stuff with the common side effects for most drugs. Just know FA. One drug in there that I had never heard of but the rest were in FA. Don't sweat it.

Pulm: Pretty easy stuff. You can do this if you have a basic understanding of this stuff. Just study FA and you are set. Know a little anatomy too.

Neuro: Was so easy that I am pissed I spent 1 full day on HY Neuro. Really I am floored by the stuff I saw. You could figure this out if you looked at FA.

Genetics: WTF??? Everyone was mating with their Mom and Dad I swear. I had no clue on this crap. This was the worst for me.

Behavioral: Was so easy that I was thanking the pregnant teens across the U.S. for it. It is doable. Maybe 1-2 Qs that make you think but the rest are easy.

Pshcy: Easy! These points you should bank. If you don't, I will find you in your dreams and do things to you that you won't like.

Pathphys: My booty hurts, that's how rough it was. I don't even know how to prepare. There were some that were ridiculous.

Repro: You know it or you don't. Some easy give me stuff you expect. Other stuff has more path phys involved. The usual presentation of the common stuff will be there that is in first aid. Don't know how else you can prepare for it.

Hepatic stuff: Know alcoholics and know them well. Also know the anatomy of the liver. It might be important.

HIV: Know the drugs and know the infections that can happen.

Musculo: Know innervations and the common stuff that can happen...ex: ALS.

Endo: Some rought Qs but most easy stuff. The usual typical stuff. You know what I mean. You can't go wrong with it. Why does the little girl have a penis kind of stuff.

GI: Pretty Easy from what I remember. This hormone does what in the stomach? Oh you take this medication to do what?

Cardio: Heart sounds were a joke. You can figure them out. The Qs were rough around some of the pathology but most of the stuff you can figure it out. Nothing more to add to this.

Biochem: Vitamin Def, Common Enzymes for pathways. So easy for the amount I studied.

Embryo: I had maybe 3 Qs, 2 from FA...1 from who knows where.

Anatomy: You can do this, it is easy. Maybe 2 Qs out of 10 that I didn't have a clue on but even those I reasoned out and I'm trashed!

Heme: Dear God, could they have made this any easier. I felt like I was going to cream myself when I saw the qs they had...the usual stuff, boy eating paint, guy eating him. The usual stuff. You can do this. The cancers are there too. You got this. If you don't get this, I will show up in your dreams again. Cancer!

Immuno: A little easier than I expected but there were a few Qs that were smoking me. But the usual cytokines and receptors kind of stuff. Nothing major.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know. I love you guys. You guys are the best. This test is doable. Don't lose hope. You got this. FA+UWorld is gold. Trust me, I used every resource under the sun. I could cite FA pages as I did the qs.

Oooh by the way, I had about 5 qs from the practice NBMEs. They do show up...it's impossible for them not to.

I hate complement def stuff. Can't wait for the scores but not sweating it too much.

Probably one of the best posts iv'e seen lol. Thanks for the writeup and congrats!

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

Not only was your post informative, it also made me laugh. Thanks for that.

I'm a US citizen who is going to school in Sweden (summer between MS2-MS3), this summer I'm taking the USMLE in the states and I'm here all summer to study. Thing is, its just me. If it wasn't for you guys I would be all alone in this. I just have no sense of how to gauge my performance or get a feel for how I'm doing, if I'm on the right track or not.

I am having a hard time staying motivated and focused even though I just started my designated study period a week ago. I've been doing Kaplan videos during the spring though and Qbank, also just started UW today. I don't know how to feel about my scores or anything. Just a little lost I guess :) The only people I hear about are the gunners on SDN so who even knows what kind of score is actually reasonable to aim for? I want to do residency here in GS, so I guess I'm aiming pretty high. Especially with everyone on here saying I'm doomed since I went to school abroad :scared:

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, I just need to get a little bit of a boost.

Should I do an NBME? Which one should I start with?
Here is how I've been doing on Qbank:
I have been getting around 70% on Kaplan trending upwards to 75%
On my first couple Uworld blocks I am avg 73%
What kind of a score can I be realistically aiming for?
My exam is on July 31st and I still have a lot to cover. (Anatomy, pharm and neuro are just gaping black holes right now haha)

Hey BlondDoctor,

It can be hard to get things moving when motivation is at an all time low. But remember why you are doing what you are doing! :) Take it one day at a time, make a specific plan at the start of the day and make sure you take small breaks every now and then. At the end of the day, you can look back at ALL that you have accomplished and that will fuel the fire for the next day :)

It looks like you are on the right track with doing questions. Doing practice questions is a really important part of studying for the Step 1 in my opinion. Knowing the content, however, is paramount. Just remember that you can't study for every possible question out there! 5 weeks (the time between now and your test) is plenty of time to do both! Use your primary sources well and do a few blocks of questions each day. A few days of that routine should put you in a nice schedule.

Regarding NBME practice tests: Sit down and think about days that you are willing to take those practice exams like the real deal! I'm a big believer in practice making perfect and if you set aside time in your schedule to do some (1, 2, 3, ... as many as your heart desires) of those tests, your scores will be more meaningful :)

Interpreting % points on the Q-banks can be tricky so I stay the heck away from it. Don't get caught up in it! :D I know, I know, It's easy to get sucked into it, but DON'T! The best thing you can do with the Q-banks is that you can do a good number of questions in the timed and random mode, thereby allowing you practice in a low-stakes environment. You also have access to all the answers! I would suggest keeping notes on all the questions that you miss and all those you get right for the wrong reasons. It's a lot of work, but it will pay off on test day. :)

Finally, you seem to have some concerns regarding certain subjects. It's ok, the three subjects you listed in your post are some of the more anxiety provoking subjects for students on this forum. This is what I did in preparation for these subjects:

Anatomy: Divide it into sections (limbs, thorax, abdomen, pelvis & perineum, head & neck); Review major arteries, nerves and innervation, muscles and miscellaneous landmarks for each section. This doesn't take as long as it sounds. Here's an example: Let's work with limb anatomy; here is what I would review:

- major branches of the axillary and external iliac arteries and downstream smaller vessels (what comes off the brachial artery?, ...)
- Brachial plexus + Lumbosacral plexus; know how to draw the brachial plexus real quick --> there's a great schematic in FA! As far as the lumbosacral plexus, know the big ones! superior and inferior gluteal nerves, sciatic nerve, ...; know what happens to the large branches of the brachial and lumbosacral plexuses/plexi (where does the anterior interosseus nerve come off?)
- Know the dermotomes for the limbs; look at a dermatome diagram and match them up to landmarks (the tips of the dorsum of the index and middle finger are innervated by what nerve?)
- Know the muscles (duh :) ) and their innervation. Try to do this by compartments, I swear it will make it easier. Try to know exceptions and keep your memorizing to a minimum (only intrinsic muscles of the hand that are NOT innervated by the ulnar n.?)
- Know your landmarks (why is the adductor canal important?)
- Know clinically important procedures! (Where are large bore IV's placed? Where is the best location to put in a needle to perform a thoracocentesis?)
- Finally, Look at some CTs and XRs...this should work on your spatial abilities

Neuro: Do this section after your head and neck anatomy section; I've organized this list below in a hierarchical order (the last bullet is puts together all the other parts of neuro well in my opinion)

- Know your surface anatomy well. Any rigorous neuroanatomy atlas will do. If you don't own one, the BRS neuro-book, or wiki does just fine :)
- Know the blood supply to the brain! Try to complete this arterial tree: Vertebral arteries --> Basillar artery --> ? --> ? ... Know try to complete this arterial tree: Internal carotid artery --> ? --> ?; know how the circle of willis works
- Know the MAJOR tracts - Spinothalamic, DCML, corticospinal, ... and know the major nuclei of the thalamus and hypothalamus (Why is the VPM important? What is produced in the preoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus)
- Know your stroke syndromes: Wallenberg, anterior spinal, pontine, MCA, ACA, ...

Pharm: This section is a wild card. Go through pharmacology sections in first aid and if possible use Lippincott's illustrated review of pharmacology. I really like that book. The question banks will help you ALOT with this subject so that you can tease out the nitty-gritty details of side effects, ... (Why does someone on thoridiazine need regular eye exams?).

I hope this helps BlondDoctor! You get your motivation up, and there is no goal that you set that you can't achieve! ;)

Ok so just took the test today. I had a 77% on UWorld (first time through mixed), 240 NBME 11 (3-4 weeks in), 260 UWSA 1 (1 week ago). Studied for 6 weeks, but worked pretty hard throughout the year. I am worn out and can't sleep so thought i'd write this out.

Things that I think are helpful:
- Don't score obsess and build endurance. Take practice tests to build endurance. I only took 1 NBME because once you think you can pass, you really don't learn a whole lot from them. Sure you might see a 1-2 questions that will show up on your exam, but if you a do 4 blocks of 46 questions from UWorld (I think you'd prob see more). I also felt like UWSA 1 was better than the NBMEs, but after finishing most of UWorld, UWSA tested very similar concepts from UWorld's main bank (which is why I think the score is inflated). If I had more time I would have done UWSA 2 but just wanted to finish UWorld. I also did two UWorld blocks back-to-back, everyday for the 1-2 weeks before my exam except for the last few days. This helped a lot with endurance.. and I had to so I could finish UWorld :)
- Get your sleep cycle in check. Sleep at 10 pm and get up at 5 am the one week before the test. This seems like common sense, but its amazing how easy it is to keep studying past what you planned. Sleep is huge for this test. I wouldn't study to hard the day before.
- Plan your break's in advanced. Decide how you are going to split up your break time before so you're not thinking about it. I took short breaks for the first 3 blocks, took one 20 min break which was awesome, took more short breaks. Also checking in and out took as long as 5 minutes depending on who was working at the desk...
- You won't know what's really "high-yield" until you take the test :) From the posts on this thread, there is a lot of variability in difficulty and content. I personally thought the test was really hard! As people said before... you will have to THINK. There were definitely questions which took 20 seconds to do. There was also definitely random crap which wasn't in first aid. Go into the exam expecting a mix of anything. Just know its based on some sort of curve so hopefully it will be fair. With that said, I felt UWorld was the most helpful. FA/Kaplan random details did show up.

Prep:
- UWorld (took it timed and mixed with only 46 question blocks. took notes on everything I got wrong and reviewed it daily. I didn't do two passes, just reviewed my notes. Toward the end, I also tried (often failed) to finish each block with about 10 minutes left. Behavioral science on UWorld didn't help as much.)
- Kaplan vids (most of it)
- FA (Made notes on random details I felt weak on and reviewed these daily too. Made a quick pass through like 3/4 of DIT toward the end of classes on 2x before starting my dedicated prep.)
- Kaplan QBank (did approx 1/2 of it. But spend very little time reviewing stuff).


So in a nut shell: The test (might) be very hard. It will be hard for everyone, not just you. Try your best. You will be fine! I walked out of a few blocks thinking damn a few of those questions were hard. But it is really hard to know how you do on a block. So I have no idea how I did. Hoping for the best...! Gluck everyone. Going to get off of STDN for a good while haha.

Took exam today.

Behavior Science/Psych: I didnt respect this subject so I didnt really start reading it until the last week. But i made sure to look at it everyday and if you know your equations and definitions well and it will be an easy 10-12 points.

Biochem: FA will provide you with 90%. A lot of the questions are integrative metabolism, cell/molecular, and clinical. duh. for me the pain in the ass ones are always the dna/genetic engineering questions that are random.

Embryo: A lot of people said FA was bad but for me i got maybe 4 questions and they were all covered. Cant really complain.

Micro: Was a weakness of mine so I literally made sure to memorize all 60+ pages of FA. The questions were so random and ranged from S. Aureus easy to out of nowhere protozoans with pictures. Was even a question with a staining i had never heard of and all 5 choices never heard of. Just gotta chalk those up as what can you do and pick your favorite letter. Overall 90% on FA.

Immuno: Little to none. Atleast from the immuno section in FA. most of the questions were related to path (HLAs, Hypersensitivity Rx's, etc). A lot of people were telling me how heavy it was on their exams but I think I literally could have not read one word on FA immuno and did fine on it.

Pharm: Just gotta memorize mechanisms and side effects. the hardest ones are always the experiment where drug x and y are added but if you know your receptor effects real well it wont be a problem. Didnt need to know any of the equations for mine. Pregnancy drugs and HIV were stressed.

Pathophys: Dear god this was the hardest part of the entire exam. Took the most amount of time and if there was one thing I would do again is spend more time on BRS physio bc they def went steps above what FA/UW would tell you. an example would be CRF and hpth except theyd add another disorder that def effected the up and down arrows that would throw you off. I cant even count the number of times there was a situation where I'd have it down to two choices and only one variable was effected that I never even thought would be important.

Path: Pretty straightforward. Majority of test. Always gonna have atleast 4 per section where you never saw a picture of it. Its like they know what FA and goljan provide picture wise and find something else. We all know what bone cancer looks like on MRI. They'll throw you a gross specimen; Only days like these I wish I had an uncircumcised penis so I could understand how the hell phimosis causes symptoms. UW is great prep for this section and will limit the surprises you have if you go thru it all.

Anatomy: 50% basic 50% hard. Gotta know your blood supplies and nerves, not just cranial but head to toe.

Overall Advice: Dont wear yourself out the last day trying to memorize minute details of pharm drugs or going thru pictures. They wont help. If anything review definitions and equations. U really need a clear mind for 8 hours bc maybe only half the test you can find the answer you were looking for when reading the question while the other half you have to reason your way through the choices. It can take its toll on you mentally as you get to the later blocks so pace yourself well. I took atleast a 5 min break every block to clear my head and it helped.

Ok...so I have been reading these forums alot and it helped calm my nerves while preparing for step 1. I'll share my experience incase it helps someone. I took the test today after about 6 weeks of prep. I didn't use DIT or anything formal to prepare. I read Goljan RR during the school year, some chapters, but it was hard to keep up with it because the organization didn't really go with what we were learning and I would have to skip stuff that wasn't covered in class...in short it was a pain trying to use goljan to review for class tests so I ditched it second semester. I read alot of review books during the second year. In btn summer of M1 and M2 I started in BRS Path, Physiology and randomly reviewed some Biochem techniques in BRS Biochem. I was doing research at the time so I only studied like ~5 hrs/wk for step. At the beginning of second year I read Baby Robbins Pathology according to what we were learning in class. I just wanted to get used to seeing pictures but honestly I don't know it helped with tests. I would say I worked pretty hard second year but overall I would say I am a "B" student even though I feel I understood alot of what I did. So in short, during second year, the books I read along with class notes were MMRS (most of it), BRS Path, Kaplans Immunology LN and Kaplan Pharmacology LN. I listed to most of Goljan audio...and I think it was helpful because he tries to integrate alot of different things like labs and why things go wrong as opposed to just stating facts....

-In January I also started reading sections of First Aid 2011, overall I got thru the whole FA once before the end of second semester. I also started Kaplan Qbank doing ~40 questions every other day mostly on stuff we were learning in class so I didn't feel like I was wasting time. I 599 questions (57% correct) before I stopped using the Qbank at the start of my dedicated study period. I kept hearing that Kaplan Qbank was a waste of time and I needed to start UWorld anyway....

-School got out early May. We took an NBME basic comprehensive science in March and I made a 63 (=~183ish)...so I knew I wasn't going to fail step 1 which helped take down the stress level.

-At the beginning of my study period my plan was to start a different review book every three days but after rading 4 chapters of BRS Physio I realized that I wasn't really getting anything out it and my mind was wandering so I ditched this plan pretty early. So for the rest of my prep I focused on UWORLD questions and annotated into FA. I also took notes in a separate notebooks on some days because it would help speed up the review. Here are the major highlights of my review for each subject.

Pharm and Biochem: Kaplan videos...seriously if you have time, watch these, it helps if you have the review books so u just follow along and it keep you engaged as opposed to just watching without anything to take notes on.

Immuno:I read the first 7 chapters of immuno lecture notes during the spring

Micro: CMMRS...most of it except the viruses

Neuro: This is my weakest subject, I started to read HY Neuro but...more on this later

Anatomy: I looked at Netters here and there but realized most of it would just have to be figured out based on things I already knew or from FA

Path: BRS Path during the year, most of it complete, also read Robbins Path during the year ALOT

Behavioral Science: I just memorized the stuff in first aid and hoped it would be enough

Physiology: BRS Physio (Renal, cardio, Resp, and GI) during dedicated study time

FA: read once during the spring, 2 more times during dedicated study time (except GI, Endocrine, Psych, MSK, Reproductive because I ran out of time).

UWORLD: I only went through the whole thing once (58%correct) but was finishing in the high 60s and a few in the 70s. I didn't really have the strength for another run but I see how it can be useful...

Practice tests:

UWSA- 1.5 weeks out---236
NBME 12- 1 wk out----214 (this made me sad and I almost moved my test date)
UWSA 2--4 days out ----254 (atleast I knew I was safe from completely bombing step 1)


As far as the real thing, it was a mixture of UWORLD and NBME type questions...here are the highlights:

Anatomy: Pelvic anatomy and some GI anatomy, FA NOT ENOUGH

Immuno and Micro: FA is enough for both ...not alot of AIDS questions, not alot of nit picky viral structure as I was expecting, UWORLD goes overboard with this...just common diarrhea stuff

Psych: FA more than enough. Immature defences and the like...

Behavioral science: Know the major definitions and calculations, Sens, Spec, NNH etc...FA enough

Path: alot of cardio, MSK, and renal infections and neoplasm, respiratory---not alot of smokers surprisingly, ..most of it is in first aid. 2 heart sounds, one easy, one not sure about...some pictures on respiratory infections--...GI ---alot of hepatitis from alcohol, GI and sickle cell

Biochem: Not as much as I was expecting, easier than UWORLD but then I had also reviewed this separately

Pharm: U world pharm and FA mostly covers most of it but with pharm I believe it is much less painful if you really understand the mechanism and Dr. Ramon of Kaplan does a great job of explaning things you wouldn't otherwise pick up from reading a review book(took four days to listen to all of Kaplan Pharm lecture notes because I didn't really learn it during the school year). If you are weak in Pharm, I highly recommend this...other than that on the test, there was Kinetics, interactions, alittle of ANS and most of the agonist/antagonist stuff in FA ...also the FA pharm sections at the end of the system chapters are helpful and a good quick review

Neuro: Not as specific as I was expecting....a few infections, blood supply, hemorrhages and a lot of MRI and locations of stuff...not alot in the way of ipsilateral/contralateral confusing stuff so not hard...I felt my Neuro class in med school was way harder than the stuff tested on Step 1. Try to understand EVERYTHING in the FA Neuro section

Miscellaneous:

I took a break after every 2 blocks, no big meals in between, just snacks--pudding, chips, coffee, water and used the bathroom during each break. The first section is the most nerve racking because you are in a new environment. Marked about 10 questions per section and had enough time to review in the end. Used up the whole time for each section.

Overall, I prayed alot in the last few days before the test. I would say I am not the most efficient person but I am okay with my effort. This is a hard test so you definitely have to study....how hard is up to you. Some people can study all day but others are not made that way so just do what you can and one more thing...if you need more time to prep than others, that's okay too. If I could review faster I would have but some days I am just more productive than others so I definitely needed that whole 6 weeks. If you have questions, let me know. Good luck to everyone who still hasn't taken this test:).

thanks for the writeups, guys!
hope you all killed it!

.

Time for my writeup that I promised. As i said I thought my test was quite difficult and a lot wasn't found in FA....


Alot of people have been mentioning how difficult genetics is...is it just not knowing the inheritance pattern of diseases or is there something else that makes it difficult? Any idea how to better prepare?

Thanks for the post..i'm sure everyone who took your form found it difficult as well. Congrats on being done!

I always find it amusing when people say stuff isn't in first aid. Most of the time it probably is, as a side note, somewhere random. Almost any question that involves reasoning wont be spelled out in first aid, its a fact book, not a text book. This is why you don't memorize the book before you understand it (or if you do memorize it, don't forget to work out those associations and concepts), because it is in first aid, you just had to string together 2 or 3 facts to get the answer. Obviously First Aid doesn't contain EVERYTHING (and we are well aware of specifics), but you would be hard pressed not to find nearly everything in there if you really went looking.

I'm very particular about this because using too many resources (taus method) is going to leave most people in the weeds. If they had just really focused on a few resources (assuming you didn't need extra extra help) you WILL do better.

I always find it amusing when people say stuff isn't in first aid. Most of the time it probably is, as a side note, somewhere random. Almost any question that involves reasoning wont be spelled out in first aid, its a fact book, not a text book. This is why you don't memorize the book before you understand it (or if you do memorize it, don't forget to work out those associations and concepts), because it is in first aid, you just had to string together 2 or 3 facts to get the answer. Obviously First Aid doesn't contain EVERYTHING (and we are well aware of specifics), but you would be hard pressed not to find nearly everything in there if you really went looking.

And i find it amusing when people pretend to know what questions i had on my test.

I always find it amusing when people say stuff isn't in first aid. Most of the time it probably is, as a side note, somewhere random. Almost any question that involves reasoning wont be spelled out in first aid, its a fact book, not a text book. This is why you don't memorize the book before you understand it (or if you do memorize it, don't forget to work out those associations and concepts), because it is in first aid, you just had to string together 2 or 3 facts to get the answer. Obviously First Aid doesn't contain EVERYTHING (and we are well aware of specifics), but you would be hard pressed not to find nearly everything in there if you really went looking.

I'm very particular about this because using too many resources (taus method) is going to leave most people in the weeds. If they had just really focused on a few resources (assuming you didn't need extra extra help) you WILL do better.

Have you taken the test yet? There will be many things that are not mentioned at all in FA. I memorized FA completely (AND understood everything) and I knew what page every disease could be found etc. And there was a ton of stuff that is not in it.

:thumbup:

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

I gotta say guys the test is not bad. I hope that I did well but I felt it was fairly "easy" in the sense that we have been preparing for it for so long. I think FA + Uworld is more than enough. I even think UWorld is too much because it makes you think the world is trying to trick you.

The highest I ever got on a practice test was a 242 on NBME 7 I think so I am not sure how I did on the real thing. There were probably 15 qs that FA could not prepare me for on the entire test out of 322 so I don't think that is bad. The rest you could reason out or pick up from FA or UWorld.

I saw people studying before the test form FA...dont' do that. What is wrong with you people. It's an 8 hour test. Chill out and relax, don't study. Come on man. Why would you do that.

My test was Immuno, Cardio, and Renal heavy. Here is the breakdown for you guys.

Renal: Did someone unleash all the possible kidney diseases on me? Just understand the two pages of the nephro versus nephri and you should be good I feel. Also understand the ATN versus DIC, the simple stuff and there is no way you won't kill this section.

Histo: Was there anything there except one question?

Micro: Thank the lords of the Step 1 this was one of my strong points and man did I get 30 Qs on this. The common stuff with the common presentations, it is so doable.

Pharm: Easy stuff with the common side effects for most drugs. Just know FA. One drug in there that I had never heard of but the rest were in FA. Don't sweat it.

Pulm: Pretty easy stuff. You can do this if you have a basic understanding of this stuff. Just study FA and you are set. Know a little anatomy too.

Neuro: Was so easy that I am pissed I spent 1 full day on HY Neuro. Really I am floored by the stuff I saw. You could figure this out if you looked at FA.

Genetics: WTF??? Everyone was mating with their Mom and Dad I swear. I had no clue on this crap. This was the worst for me.

Behavioral: Was so easy that I was thanking the pregnant teens across the U.S. for it. It is doable. Maybe 1-2 Qs that make you think but the rest are easy.

Pshcy: Easy! These points you should bank. If you don't, I will find you in your dreams and do things to you that you won't like.

Pathphys: My booty hurts, that's how rough it was. I don't even know how to prepare. There were some that were ridiculous.

Repro: You know it or you don't. Some easy give me stuff you expect. Other stuff has more path phys involved. The usual presentation of the common stuff will be there that is in first aid. Don't know how else you can prepare for it.

Hepatic stuff: Know alcoholics and know them well. Also know the anatomy of the liver. It might be important.

HIV: Know the drugs and know the infections that can happen.

Musculo: Know innervations and the common stuff that can happen...ex: ALS.

Endo: Some rought Qs but most easy stuff. The usual typical stuff. You know what I mean. You can't go wrong with it. Why does the little girl have a penis kind of stuff.

GI: Pretty Easy from what I remember. This hormone does what in the stomach? Oh you take this medication to do what?

Cardio: Heart sounds were a joke. You can figure them out. The Qs were rough around some of the pathology but most of the stuff you can figure it out. Nothing more to add to this.

Biochem: Vitamin Def, Common Enzymes for pathways. So easy for the amount I studied.

Embryo: I had maybe 3 Qs, 2 from FA...1 from who knows where.

Anatomy: You can do this, it is easy. Maybe 2 Qs out of 10 that I didn't have a clue on but even those I reasoned out and I'm trashed!

Heme: Dear God, could they have made this any easier. I felt like I was going to cream myself when I saw the qs they had...the usual stuff, boy eating paint, guy eating him. The usual stuff. You can do this. The cancers are there too. You got this. If you don't get this, I will show up in your dreams again. Cancer!

Immuno: A little easier than I expected but there were a few Qs that were smoking me. But the usual cytokines and receptors kind of stuff. Nothing major.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know. I love you guys. You guys are the best. This test is doable. Don't lose hope. You got this. FA+UWorld is gold. Trust me, I used every resource under the sun. I could cite FA pages as I did the qs.

Oooh by the way, I had about 5 qs from the practice NBMEs. They do show up...it's impossible for them not to.

I hate complement def stuff. Can't wait for the scores but not sweating it too much.
That was by far the most entertaining and informative post I had read all year. I nearly fell off of my chair by having to grab my sides. I'm sure you killed it.

Have you taken the test yet? There will be many things that are not mentioned at all in FA. I memorized FA completely (AND understood everything) and I knew what page every disease could be found etc. And there was a ton of stuff that is not in it.
I believe it. FA isn't an official syllabus for the step so it's to be expected. I'm sure you still did great tho. Could have just had an exam with tougher questions so nicer curve. Or they could have been experimental

Dude, I was so trashed last night I don't even remember writing this. Oddly enough after going to sleep at 1 I still woke up at 4...happy I didn't have to study though! Party time baby.

Good job to everyone on here. I am sure you guys killed it. There are definately Qs on there that seems like you can't find anywhere. Not even with google.

OK I'm up next (in 20 hrs!!!)...wish me luck seeker :) You're so good at these lil pep talks...and I need one, please!

Have you taken the test yet? There will be many things that are not mentioned at all in FA. I memorized FA completely (AND understood everything) and I knew what page every disease could be found etc. And there was a ton of stuff that is not in it.

Oh I didn't say everything. But I would say at least 50% (probably bordering 75%) of the time somebody says "x isn't in first aid" I know where it is generally a side note in a margin in a very odd section not in the index, that all I mean. Not to mislead you need to do an entire question bank on top of FA to weed out the missing stuff and test your understanding. I'm agreeing with you in a way I think FA is terrible because of how fragmented it is but there is a lot in there. You prove my point as well, it wont be on the disease page, it'll be somewhere stupid in the margin.

I also said what I said on the advice of a neurosurgeon (use as few comprehensive resources as you can i.e. FA + Qbank) but maybe he was just smart in the first place.

But we are all different and each test is different so to each their own.

The advice in short I guess would be more amicably put "don't spread yourself too thin" and that's about all I have to say about that.

Oh I didn't say everything. But I would say at least 50% (probably bordering 75%) of the time somebody says "x isn't in first aid" I know where it is generally a side note in a margin in a very odd section not in the index, that all I mean. Not to mislead you need to do an entire question bank on top of FA to weed out the missing stuff and test your understanding. I'm agreeing with you in a way I think FA is terrible because of how fragmented it is but there is a lot in there. You prove my point as well, it wont be on the disease page, it'll be somewhere stupid in the margin.

I also said what I said on the advice of a neurosurgeon (use as few comprehensive resources as you can i.e. FA + Qbank) but maybe he was just smart in the first place.

But we are all different and each test is different so to each their own.

I agree with you that FA is a starting base - you should at least try to learn everything in there. If you worked hard during basic sci FA reviews concepts and has details that is very high yield, that's why everyone uses it. It will probably vary how high yield it is for each individual depending on how their test makeup is.

FA even writes in the book that it should not be used as the main studying tool (though at this point I think it is for the majority of people) as it only contains things they consider must know high yields for the exam.

I know each testing centers differ, but can my FA binder fit in their small lockers?

OK I'm up next (in 20 hrs!!!)...wish me luck seeker :) You're so good at these lil pep talks...and I need one, please!

Me too! Good luck, let's kill it :)

I agree with you that FA is a starting base - you should at least try to learn everything in there. If you worked hard during basic sci FA reviews concepts and has details that is very high yield, that's why everyone uses it. It will probably vary how high yield it is for each individual depending on how their test makeup is.

FA even writes in the book that it should not be used as the main studying tool (though at this point I think it is for the majority of people) as it only contains things they consider must know high yields for the exam.

I'm 100% positive you probably know first aid better then I do. I mention the side note thing because every time it happens and I'm aware of it makes me curse at the book and hate it a little bit more and ask them why they didn't put it in the correct section as well, must help with retention. I sort of wish they actually repeated stuff in the actual disease section and not leave out the information you can find about it spread out across 5 different chapters.

Me too! Good luck, let's kill it :)
Eeekkk good luck to you too!!!! :) :luck:

I doubt FA does not have about 85% of the material tested in step 1.

OK I'm up next (in 20 hrs!!!)...wish me luck seeker :) You're so good at these lil pep talks...and I need one, please!

You got this man, you got nothing to worry about. The only thing you should be thinking about is what you are going to do to celebrate tomorrow. Go in there knowing they throw stupid idiotic questions into every block just to mess with us but we are better than them. Don't get stuck on the stupid stuff and let your muscle memory take over. I swear that crap works. Everytime I didn't know an answer, the first thing that came to my mind I picked and bam, it was right (I double checked!).

Don't let me see you talking about First Aid later today. You need to relax and watch a movie. Don't think about opening that book tomorrow either. It's evil!

I just want you to walk in there and ask the Step 1 people one question tomorrow..."who is your daddy?" and you know what Step 1 will say..."You!!!!"

I LOVE DRINKING! I got you in my toast tonight! Go smoke this like Will Smith smoked Carlton's career.

You got this man, you got nothing to worry about. The only thing you should be thinking about is what you are going to do to celebrate tomorrow. Go in there knowing they throw stupid idiotic questions into every block just to mess with us but we are better than them. Don't get stuck on the stupid stuff and let your muscle memory take over. I swear that crap works. Everytime I didn't know an answer, the first thing that came to my mind I picked and bam, it was right (I double checked!).

Don't let me see you talking about First Aid later today. You need to relax and watch a movie. Don't think about opening that book tomorrow either. It's evil!

I just want you to walk in there and ask the Step 1 people one question tomorrow..."who is your daddy?" and you know what Step 1 will say..."You!!!!"

I LOVE DRINKING! I got you in my toast tonight! Go smoke this like Will Smith smoked Carlton's career.
You're so awesome! I was smiling the whole time I read that and I'm going to read it again tomorrow morning :) Thank you!

I know each testing centers differ, but can my FA binder fit in their small lockers?

It might be close...I don't think it would have fit very well in mine. Just leave it in your car! You can leave the test center on your breaks.

I took the test today and all I can say was I thought it was way harder than the NBME tests and at least as hard as Uworld Qbank maybe harder. If I only got about 60% of the questions right does anyone know what kinda score range that equates to historically? I'm really not sure how I did because I made a lot of educated guesses. I'm feeling pretty down right now... maybe I can write more later.

Took it today and didn't think it was too bad. Most was either directly from UW/FA or could be reasoned out from info gained in there. Pharm was especially easy. Of course there were questions that seemed to be out of left field (3-4 per block), but honestly don't think you can really prepare for those outside of knowing everything about everything.

Took it today and didn't think it was too bad. Most was either directly from UW/FA or could be reasoned out from info gained in there. Pharm was especially easy. Of course there were questions that seemed to be out of left field (3-4 per block), but honestly don't think you can really prepare for those outside of knowing everything about everything.
What about Immuno? Was it heavily tested for you?

I always find it amusing when people say stuff isn't in first aid. Most of the time it probably is, as a side note, somewhere random. Almost any question that involves reasoning wont be spelled out in first aid, its a fact book, not a text book. This is why you don't memorize the book before you understand it (or if you do memorize it, don't forget to work out those associations and concepts), because it is in first aid, you just had to string together 2 or 3 facts to get the answer. Obviously First Aid doesn't contain EVERYTHING (and we are well aware of specifics), but you would be hard pressed not to find nearly everything in there if you really went looking.

I'm very particular about this because using too many resources (taus method) is going to leave most people in the weeds. If they had just really focused on a few resources (assuming you didn't need extra extra help) you WILL do better.

One thing that I found to be true on the real thing is that while knowing FA cold may not necessarily lead you directly to the answer on hard qs, it usually gives you enough background knowledge to dump some (or even all) wrong answer choices.

The rest of your reasoning ability on this test will largely come from doing lots of qs (and I mean more than just UW).

I took the test today and all I can say was I thought it was way harder than the NBME tests and at least as hard as Uworld Qbank maybe harder. If I only got about 60% of the questions right does anyone know what kinda score range that equates to historically? I'm really not sure how I did because I made a lot of educated guesses. I'm feeling pretty down right now... maybe I can write more later.

If you prepped solidly, I can almost guarantee you got more than 60% correct (and probably way more). According to FA, a passing score has historically involved getting 65-70% correct. If you were serious enough about studying to do multiple NBMEs, I can pretty much assure you that you at least passed (and probably did way, way better than that).

If you prepped solidly, I can almost guarantee you got more than 60% correct (and probably way more). According to FA, a passing score has historically involved getting 65-70% correct. If you were serious enough about studying to do multiple NBMEs, I can pretty much assure you that you at least passed (and probably did way, way better than that).

I did really well on my practice tests, literally all between 230 and 250. The real thing felt totally different. When I did the practice tests I felt good about the tests. This thing felt like I was guessing way too much. After the first block I felt like this :eek: After the 4th block I felt like this :( and now I just feel like this :scared:

BTW, where did you see the part about historically 65-70% correct to pass in first aid? I can't find that part.

Took the test today, and because I got so much good info from ya'lls I'm posting this quick write up before I return to drinking for the rest of tonight...and all of tomorrow....I'll write a longer thing later...

Overall, today was a blood bath, or at least it feels that way now...

The good: I got a fair amount of random questions that I happened to know the answer too but were def NOT in FA, easy pharm, pretty easy micro

The bad: neuro/neuroanatomy and anatomy were ALL over my exam...I'm talking like 5-12 neuro questions per block and easily 8-12 anatomy questions per block. Neuro was my weakest subject...I magically "forgot" all the tracts today and had about 6 or 7 brainstem slides...yay me. I only one question about bleeds which I have down cold...Oh, and I'm pretty darn solid in biostats and behavioral (~80% on UW) and every question that needed a calculation was either a) NOT in FA or b) presented in a 13-line paragraph that required 3-4 to understand what the hell they were saying. Also, I swear some of the ethics questions had two right answers...or should I say both sucked equally...

THE UGLY: The first block and the last block. The first 10 questions of my exam were insane and given some exam day jitters I allowed myself to spend ~20 minutes on them. The last block was filled with 50% WTF!?! questions and I basically found myself with 8 minutes for the last 12 problems. So, when combined with being short on time in the first block, I LITERALLY GUESSED ON ~15 QUESTIONS ON STEP1!!!! The worst part of it all...as I fired through them clicking at random I saw just how friggen easy 60% of them were. Time has never been an issue for me, but I basically lost track regarding how long I spent on some of the questions.

I took the free 150 and got a predicted score in the 240s on medfriends and my UW% was in the low 60s at the end...at this point, I just wanna pass. I really thought things were gonna be OK until the last block, and then boom!

Anywho, nobody feels good coming out of this I guess, so here's to hoping...oh man please let me pass!

My short-term advice for anybody taking it soon: WATCH YOUR TIME!

Good luck to all!

Took the test today, and because I got so much good info from ya'lls I'm posting this quick write up before I return to drinking for the rest of tonight...and all of tomorrow....I'll write a longer thing later...

Overall, today was a blood bath, or at least it feels that way now...

The good: I got a fair amount of random questions that I happened to know the answer too but were def NOT in FA, easy pharm, pretty easy micro

The bad: neuro/neuroanatomy and anatomy were ALL over my exam...I'm talking like 5-12 neuro questions per block and easily 8-12 anatomy questions per block. Neuro was my weakest subject...I magically "forgot" all the tracts today and had about 6 or 7 brainstem slides...yay me. I only one question about bleeds which I have down cold...Oh, and I'm pretty darn solid in biostats and behavioral (~80% on UW) and every question that needed a calculation was either a) NOT in FA or b) presented in a 13-line paragraph that required 3-4 to understand what the hell they were saying. Also, I swear some of the ethics questions had two right answers...or should I say both sucked equally...

THE UGLY: The first block and the last block. The first 10 questions of my exam were insane and given some exam day jitters I allowed myself to spend ~20 minutes on them. The last block was filled with 50% WTF!?! questions and I basically found myself with 8 minutes for the last 12 problems. So, when combined with being short on time in the first block, I LITERALLY GUESSED ON ~15 QUESTIONS ON STEP1!!!! The worst part of it all...as I fired through them clicking at random I saw just how friggen easy 60% of them were. Time has never been an issue for me, but I basically lost track regarding how long I spent on some of the questions.

I took the free 150 and got a predicted score in the 240s on medfriends and my UW% was in the low 60s at the end...at this point, I just wanna pass. I really thought things were gonna be OK until the last block, and then boom!

Anywho, nobody feels good coming out of this I guess, so here's to hoping...oh man please let me pass!

My short-term advice for anybody taking it soon: WATCH YOUR TIME!

Good luck to all!

Wow! very similar to my test taking experience. I didn't have much problem with time, but other than that we are in the same boat. First block: insane! Last block: even more insane! My free 150 also predicted 240's and UW was also in the low to mid 60's.

Took the test today, and because I got so much good info from ya'lls I'm posting this quick write up before I return to drinking for the rest of tonight...and all of tomorrow....I'll write a longer thing later...

Overall, today was a blood bath, or at least it feels that way now...

The good: I got a fair amount of random questions that I happened to know the answer too but were def NOT in FA, easy pharm, pretty easy micro

The bad: neuro/neuroanatomy and anatomy were ALL over my exam...I'm talking like 5-12 neuro questions per block and easily 8-12 anatomy questions per block. Neuro was my weakest subject...I magically "forgot" all the tracts today and had about 6 or 7 brainstem slides...yay me. I only one question about bleeds which I have down cold...Oh, and I'm pretty darn solid in biostats and behavioral (~80% on UW) and every question that needed a calculation was either a) NOT in FA or b) presented in a 13-line paragraph that required 3-4 to understand what the hell they were saying. Also, I swear some of the ethics questions had two right answers...or should I say both sucked equally...

THE UGLY: The first block and the last block. The first 10 questions of my exam were insane and given some exam day jitters I allowed myself to spend ~20 minutes on them. The last block was filled with 50% WTF!?! questions and I basically found myself with 8 minutes for the last 12 problems. So, when combined with being short on time in the first block, I LITERALLY GUESSED ON ~15 QUESTIONS ON STEP1!!!! The worst part of it all...as I fired through them clicking at random I saw just how friggen easy 60% of them were. Time has never been an issue for me, but I basically lost track regarding how long I spent on some of the questions.

I took the free 150 and got a predicted score in the 240s on medfriends and my UW% was in the low 60s at the end...at this point, I just wanna pass. I really thought things were gonna be OK until the last block, and then boom!

Anywho, nobody feels good coming out of this I guess, so here's to hoping...oh man please let me pass!

My short-term advice for anybody taking it soon: WATCH YOUR TIME!

Good luck to all!

Similar experience here. I had to completely guess on 2 Biostats questions (close my eyes and pick and answer) out of maybe the 4-5 total I had on the test.. the Q stems were too long. And I pretty much aced UW Biostats. Even if you're amazing at Biostats, if the majority of questions in your specific block are super long or challenging, you're going to have to triage and save Biostats for last. I'm hoping the magical curve in the end somehow takes all this into account. From what I understand and from even reading the 2010 Experiences thread, a small number of us are getting very difficult forms/blocks. I'm not sure if they just pool together questions randomly within a block like UW does, or whether the blocks themselves are pre-determined. Either way, 2/7 of my blocks I'd call "fair." The rest were downright ridiculous.

hey all, I stopped reading SDN after getting into med school, but found this thread recently and got some good info and figured I give back and show some solidarity for everyone going through this process.

background: read RR once and FA throughout the year, went through FA 1.5x and UW 2x during dedicated step1 studying. Did free 150, NBMEs 1, 2, 4, 12, and got anywhere from 238 to 250+. First pass through UW (~60%) second pass (~75%).

I took it on 6/22, the night before I slept less than 2 hrs (been sleeping at 6am for a month and couldn't adjust my sleeping schedule in time) and had to drinkk 2 5hr energies and 2 cans of rockstar (0 calories though) throughout the day just to stay awake, so that definitely affected how I performed and feel about the exam.

The actual exam: it was challenging, the exam had some easy questions, a lot of medium questions, some hard ones and some that just felt out of the scope of what we should know. It felt like my exam had a heavy dose of neuro and anatomy and not enough micro or pharm, but I may be biased since I'm good with micro and pharm, not so much with neuro and anatomy.

Timing wasn't an issue, if you can finish a block of UW you can do it, just pay attention to the clock. I flagged about 8 or 9 per block, and for most of them I was down to 2 answers. Each block would have 1 or 2 that I had no idea about, most of them were anatomy related. The exam was definitely more of a thinking exam than just regurgitation, the NBME was very clever with the way they asked the questions, figuring out what they are actually asking for is most of the battle.

As far as prep material: what you learn in school and FA + UW is enough to do well. If you want a stellar score you'll need RR and a source for anatomy. FA is very condensed, there are things you catch on your second and even third read through, it's good to make notes in it. The NBME exams are similar to the real thing, seems like they just trimmed more of the hard and wtf questions out before releasing them online. I honestly have no idea how I did other than I'm decently sure I passed, it's frustrating walking out without any idea how well you did.

Hope this helps, good luck to all of you!

Edit: I would pay attention to physio, FA is more than sufficient, but most of us haven't had any physio classes since year 1.

I did really well on my practice tests, literally all between 230 and 250. The real thing felt totally different. When I did the practice tests I felt good about the tests. This thing felt like I was guessing way too much. After the first block I felt like this :eek: After the 4th block I felt like this :( and now I just feel like this :scared:

BTW, where did you see the part about historically 65-70% correct to pass in first aid? I can't find that part.

According to the USMLE website it is somewhere between 60-70% (I think it is in the FAQ page somewhere...I was bored and neurotic one night).


What about Immuno? Was it heavily tested for you?

Not much Immuno here. The immuno I did have was not that bad either.

I did have a crap-load of biostats though. I felt like every 10th question I was calculating an odds ratio or relative risk.

Took my test on Saturday. I have absolutely no idea how I did, although I have to say that I felt exactly this unsure when I took nbme 7, uwsa 1 and uwsa 2, so I'm hoping my performance was consistent and I scored at least around the same range, though I was really hoping I'd feel better about the real exam. I freaked out a little in my last block because I finished with a little bit more time than other blocks, was looking at my marked questions and changing my answers a lot, and then worrying that I was changing them arbitrarily and screwing myself over.

A few easy questions felt kind of like a Captcha "Are you a human or a spambot?" questions, lots of "Huh, I know what you're talking about but I'm not 100% sure how to answer this" and only a very small handful of "Woah! I have absolutely no idea how to answer this or I really just don't have this crucial fact memorized."

Other people have given better write ups on content. Only other thing I wanted to add about the whole experience was that they did take my phone away from me. :( Which I really wish they hadn't because I had a few unknown answer choices that I saw in one block that I wanted to look up during break, that then came up in the next block. And I hadn't brought my copy of First Aid with me. Ah well.

I definitely got at least one question right because someone had mentioned a drug in a topic on SDN and I looked it up, so thanks guys! :D I really wish I'd bought UWorld earlier and done it twice (or that my school had given me more time to study; I used 4 weeks of my available 5). I got quite a few questions right using knowledge I'd learned from the qbank, and even from the self assessments.

Anyway, good luck to those who haven't taken it yet! :luck: And to those who have, damn this is going to be a long wait for our scores, but at least we're free!

You are going to be just fine....Wishing you all the best..

I know everybody has been saying (for the most part) that UW + FA is great study tool. What about Kaplan Q bank? Did anyone do UW and Kaplan Q bank together? How would you rate the benefit of Kaplan or Rx?

I know everybody has been saying (for the most part) that UW + FA is great study tool. What about Kaplan Q bank? Did anyone do UW and Kaplan Q bank together? How would you rate the benefit of Kaplan or Rx?

I thought UW was a "complete" question bank that featured a lot of things that I considered high-yield. I thought that UW had questions that hit a good bit of the of the important high points of each subject and had some questions that tested concepts that one does not pick up on their first, second, third, ... pass of FA, Goljan pathology, ... such as the hardcore pathophysiology (being able to tell the story of a disease process). UW also had good explanations for the wrong answers and showed what % of people chose each answer. I also thought that UW had more questions that tested in the same breadth of knowledge as the questions on my real USMLE Step 1 test.

In my opinion, Kaplan is a peg below UW. I felt that some of the questions COULD NOT be answered correctly unless you read med-essentials, and these questions featured details were a little low-yield. Other Kaplan questions were comparable to UW but the explanations to some of the answers were not satisfactory. The little video tutorials for the extra-super-duper hard questions are hit or miss (hit if done by Dr. Wazir Kudrath or Dr. Lionel Raymon, more miss if by others). The behavioral science section in Kaplan is a little crazy with super long question stems and 8 different, ambiguous, sometimes poorly worded answer choices. I definitely liked some of the physiology questions on Kaplan.

In retrospect, I was glad I used both question banks. I went through each question bank multiple times and took notes on each question that I missed/got right for the wrong reasons. Kaplan filled in some of the nit-picky little stuff that I would have ignored and would have netted me very few points on the actual test. UW covered more of the big picture stuff better.

Just my 2 cents :)

I know everybody has been saying (for the most part) that UW + FA is great study tool. What about Kaplan Q bank? Did anyone do UW and Kaplan Q bank together? How would you rate the benefit of Kaplan or Rx?


I actually thought that behavioral was the best part of the kaplan qbank. I think that doing more than 1 qbank is a great idea and that kaplan is the second best (I did kaplan and UW twice and got through about 1000 questions of rx)

I know everybody has been saying (for the most part) that UW + FA is great study tool. What about Kaplan Q bank? Did anyone do UW and Kaplan Q bank together? How would you rate the benefit of Kaplan or Rx?

Personally, I did USMLERx and Kaplan Q bank earlier on in board studying. Used them to get the major stuff down (excluding the stupidity of some of kaplan's questions which they couldn't even reference their own review books on), and then used Uworld near my exam to focus on the little details.

i have been following sdn forum since quite some time and i loved it....personally my exam was scheduled on september 2nd and due to whole lot of personal problems i was unable to study but now im out of it and hav started 2 study since today...u guys think i can do it in 2 mnths....i have seen lot of gud souls with great advice on this forum,i would really appreciate if sum1 cud guide me with this or even encourage...im **** scared and petrified and i jus cant postpone the exam again due to personal reasons...so guys pls pls help......

hey guys, to those of you done with the test, congrats...a quick question though; everyone seems to be talking about how tough the pelvic/ repro anatomy on the exam is this year. I went through HY anatomy yesterday and today, and though the 'clincal' cases in there are helpful, there is barely anything in there not covered in FA or uworld...the anatomy questions you guys had, are they very detailed in regards to vasculature and the blood vessels of the pelvis/thorax/reproductive structures? i'm just not really sure what to review. thanks.

Nothing exceptional to report.

Had one pretty screwy ethics question. Had some specialist surgery questions. I had a lot of a 50/50 person with x generic sx what is the most common, except they were uncommon things. I had some step two combination feeler questions that were very obvious. I would say the worst part was they were being deliberately confusing or misleading my test was a workshop in test making trickery, conceptually wasn't that bad. Was very much closer to uworld type confusing then NBME straightforwardness, reminded me of a normal medical school exam and made me die inside a little, i expected more.

The bad: neuro/neuroanatomy and anatomy were ALL over my exam...I'm talking like 5-12 neuro questions per block and easily 8-12 anatomy questions per block.

Out of your test's 322 questions, 130+ of them were either neuro or anatomy? I think you may be exaggerating just a tiny bit..

Whoa, long post...

So, I took the beast today. It wasn’t terrible but I wasn’t exactly sailing through all the blocks, either. It also didn’t help that there was a chick in the next cubicle who sounded like she had pneumonia. She kept coughing and making these weird hiccuping noises. I wanted to throw my headphones over the divider and whack her on the head.

Anyway, here’s what I remember:

Behavioral: Lots of biostats. Some were easy, and some I couldn’t quite interpret their charts so I guessed. Many of the “What do you say to the patient in this situation?” questions were dumb and I had to guess between two choices. You really can’t prepare for those so don’t sweat them.

Biochem: Pretty basic stuff. FA was sufficient for me. Enzyme deficiencies and lab techniques were hit hard. Very few nutrition questions.

Embryo: Not too much on my exam, though there was one that was definitely not in FA (I looked during a break). If you have time, you might want to supplement with another resource here.

Micro: Straight out of FA. Lots of bacteriology, only a few viruses, and (thankfully) no weird protozoans. Not much hepatitis or HIV, either, which kind of surprised me. Almost no antibiotics, which was also surprising.

Immuno: My exam was pretty immuno heavy. Know ALL the interleukins, immunodefinciencies, and hypersensitivity reactions. There was one IL question that wasn’t in FA and I had to guess. The rest were pretty obvious. I had some repeat questions too, which was nice. :)

Path: Had a few tumor markers, oncogenes, and the like. Nothing that wasn’t in FA.

Pharm: Lots of autonomics (definitely know all the second messengers) but they weren’t crazy like some of the ones in UWorld. A few graphs with the “Drug x alone, then drug x + drug y; what is drug x?” questions, but UWorld more than prepares you for those.

Cardiovascular: I had a fair amount of this. 2 heart sounds but I think I got the answer just by reading the question stem. Lots of questions about MIs, HTN, and pharm.

Endo: Seemed like I had a lot of this. A few were kind of wtf. :rolleyes:

GI: Again, had a fair bit. Liver and pancreas seemed to come up a lot. FA was sufficient.

Heme/Onc: I thought this section was somewhat difficult. A lot of questions were easy but for many I found myself debating between two possible choices. Seemed like I had a lot of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and coagulation disorders.

Musculoskeletal: Nothing that wasn’t in FA. Review the brachial plexus and lower extremity innervation. This was probably my weakest area at the beginning of the study period but I didn’t think the questions were too terribly difficult.

Neuro: Lots of “Patient had a stroke in location x; what is the deficit?” I had to guess on a few but after looking them up I think most were in FA. Definitely be comfortable with cerebral blood flow and spinal tracts.

Renal: I had a lot here but they seemed pretty straightforward. Classic presentations of GN and such. One calculation of net filtration. Renal pharm showed up a lot in association with cardio and endocrine disorders.

Repro: DEAR GOD. So many pelvic anatomy questions! Ugh. Again, if you have time, definitely review pelvic stuff. I think this was the area where I marked the most questions. Know your hormones too!

Resp: The expected mix of infections, COPD, asthma, heart failure, and vasculitis. Nothing ridiculous.


Overall, I think it was a fair test. There were many subjects which I didn’t see at all and some that were hit over and over, but I think FA and UWorld were sufficient for the majority (probably 70-80%) of the questions. Goljan audio + RR was helpful for me throughout the year to understand the material, but I for this exam I mainly used FA + UWorld and kept RR as a reference. For physio review I used BRS and it was sufficient. I recommend reading the margin notes in RR the day or two before the exam and looking at the pictures; I definitely got a few points today by doing that.

Also, I saw a LOT of repeat questions/images from the NBMEs and Free 150. Granted, they were the easy ones and I probably could have answered them anyway, but it was comforting to see a familiar question in the midst of a string of really baffling ones. :D

And, if anyone is interested, here are my practice scores:
UWSA 1 (5/27): 232
NBME 7 (6/3): 224
UWSA 2 (6/11): 252
NBME 12 (6/14): 235
Free 150 (6/20): 92%

So, good luck to all of you who will be taking the exam soon! SDN has been a great resource for me and I hope this information helps.

Just took it.

I feel sorry for anyone that has to go through this experience in the future (knock on wood). Like someone posted above, I had been going to bed at 4ish and tried to readjust the week before. Couldn't do and got like 4 hours of sleep. Had to down lots of coffee to keep me going. As for the test...

I thought there was a lot anatomy and that's probably my weakest subject. Maybe it just seemed like a lot?

Some sections were definitely better than others. But there were two sections where I marked 20+ questions. No idea if it was just the section or my mind wasn't there.

Anyways, glad to be done for now. Drinking it up tonight. Will complain in more detail later.

I took the test yesterday, it was a long day but I'm really glad I am done with that. I've been reading this forum for long time and it helped me a lot I hope someone finds this useful.

Overall it wasn't so bad, specially when I compare it with some of the experiences of my friends that took it the same day and of some of the people that posted in the forums.

my first block was pretty good and I was feeling awesome, then the fun started 2nd and 3rd block ooohhh god! I went from 5-6 marked to 10-15 because there were 3-4 in each block that I was like WTF?
these guys love the what is increased, decreased Q. I got about 40 Q of what would be the finding and they will put ^, decreased, no change. you have to be very careful because it can be in serum, in urine, even how is absorption, excretion affected. So you have to read really well! the last 3 blocks I felt pretty good I was back to having 6-7 marked per block. I was laughing a lot in the last 2 blocks b/c I got two Q that didn't know well the answer, but I remember watching the daily show. stuart making fun of obama's trip to Puerto rico and reading the FA at the same time and the answer was right there. So thanks daily show.



Its incredible how much the test varies b/w people , my friends got a lot of anatomy, I barely got 5-6 Q of anatomy and it wasn't that bad. I felt that endocrine was the only system that I really got a lot of questions. And 20-30 Q of micro(this was good for me and my background) and some really weird ones. Tx Anaplasma phagocytophilum I think its doxy. barely got musculoskeletal, only RA, one lupus and one sarcoidosis. I got killed in the what should the physician say, dammit, that was hard. and the bastards!! put an obvious case of SCID but had ADA and IL-2 R as answers! that sucks. I got no nephritis at all, but a lot of ATN, fanconi and that crap. There was a skin photo of a cherry hemangioma and the guy watching the tape must be laughing his ass of because i was checking my abdomen and back because I have one, just to see if it looks the same.

Preparation:
6 weeks
UW during 2nd year- 75%
did like 65% again during the 6 weeks and was getting 86% but I don't know if that really helps b/c you remember a lot of the questions and don't really test knowledge.
FA is a must, I think >75% is in the FA and complement with UW >80% of the test. I read it 2 times and reproductive, respiratory, endocrine and cardio >3 b/c I was weak in these subjects.
RR and audios, I actually got like 5 Q that were exactly like goljan said.
did NBME 6-12 and was getting >335 but I varied a lot between them.
UW assessment I think overshoots and overestimates. because I got 245 and UW assess 2 260 so I don't know if they are a good estimate, will find out soon

for neuro: some of the high yield helped me a lot.

biochem used FA and BRS, but FA is more than enough.

pharm you really need to add to the FA, I did kaplan and it was awesome for the test, and the french guy from the videos was very helpful and fun to see.

repiratory- FA is not enough specially when you get hammered in the UW questions... I got very frustrated after that, but in the step it wasn't so bad

anatomy is pure luck- what was in my test: 5/6 Q were in the FA, but my friends got some really weird ones that I haven't heard before. I don't know if its worth it to use anatomy review b/c of time.

I think the key is to keep to what works for you! and study really hard 2nd year! When I started studying almost two months ago I felt that 6 weeks was not enough but at the end I really wanted to change the test date to take it earlier because I was sick of studying and was getting burnt out!
Its a long test with the intention of failing everybody that underestimates it. But is a du-able test. Its exactly like gambling, you decide what to focus your studying time and hope that they ask the subjects that you have strength and little about your weaknesses.

any question feel free to ask anything.

DONNEEEE! I'll write up later. Nothing I could have studied more that would have helped...and I wish I could have taken it earlier. Buncha biostats, renal, anatomy, pelvic, biochem, behavioral (the most annoying!!!), and drugs/side effects not in FA. But seriously not at alll bad. Totally doable.

Hey everyone, thought I would post considering I've been reading throughout this process.

Study Time ~9weeks
Materials - FA, UW, Qbank >>> Goljan (Of course, if you do not understand things in Goljan, you should supplement)
Assessments
NBME 7 - 184 - Before Studying
NMBE 12 - 228 - 2 weeks in
UWSA1 - 252 - 4 weeks in
UWSA2 - 262 - 6 weeks in
NBME 11 - 264 - 7.5 weeks in
Free 150 - 94%-268 - 8 weeks in

I've come to realize that people freak out too much on this board. Overall, the exam was fair. Not to say that there weren't any "WTF" moments or, "really, you're going to ask that?" moments, but overall it wasn't thaaaaat bad. Stick to your studying pattern people, whatever that may be. What people say on here shouldn't influence what you do very much.

I'd say one of the major challenges of the exam is staying focused. It is very easy to let your mind wander and continue thinking about that last question or how you can't wait until it is over. Try to use your breaks wisely to prevent this. I took 2 blocks in a row at most and I think it helped me keep focus throughout. It is very easy to press that Start Next Block button just so you can be done faster but I would suggest that you use your breaks.

With that said, here's a brief breakdown of what I can remember (which to be honest I'm not sure how much it is since it was all a blur - and because I'm drinking... but whatever)

Behavioral - What Would you Do questions were either kind of tricky or retarded easy. I think it's just a crap shoot - narrow it to 2 and make a guess --> this part of the exam has got to go... it's stupid

Biostats - nothing difficult, all in first

Biochem - To be honest, I can't remember many. Maybe a few glycogen storage/lysosomals. (Oh, and know why your asian friend is always red after 1 drink... apparently this is important enough to ask 2 questions on... lucky i get wasted with asians)

Embryo - don't even think i had 1...

Micro - pretty straightforward actually. Know FA, know it well.

Immuno - very few IL's etc. was this even tested? I don't know.

Path - apparently memorizing all those random chromosomes was worthless.

Pharm - a good amount of questions on drugs, but they were all fairly common. A couple you just had to make a point of memorizing in order to remember it. Not much on kinetics

CV - good amount on MIs, HF, etc. 2 heart sounds which weren't that bad (1 could be had by the stem if you looked carefully...)

Endo - I don't even know, I think it was easy?? know about DM, DI, etc. etc.

GI - uhhh, basically just malabsorption problems

Heme/Onc - Not too much on anemias, but a good amount on lymphomas, tranplants

MSK - ummm lupus, sarcoid, Heberdon's nodes... what else can I say?

Neuro - know your brain lesions, all the basic only really. other than that, nothing out of the ordinary

Psych - easy, know FA only

Renal/Pulm/Repro - I'm getting lazy at this point and to be honest don't remember anything about this... such a blur

Overall, I'd say some of the trickier ones were anatomy-based. But don't do study your anatomy books - had absolutely zero questions on brachial/lumbosacral plexus, nothing about innervations etc. etc. instead they feel that stones in your salivary ducts are important (wtf?)

Anyways, this exam is doable. Don't freak out, use your breaks and just keep doing what you're doing.

Any questions, just ask.

ps. apparently chinese food restaurants still use MSG - watch out....

Just took it today, and I will just say that the real exam was helluva lot harder than the NBME exams and much more random than the UWorld QBank. It wasn't even in the "If I'd spent a bit more time reviewing this material or thought smarter, I'd have known this" category but rather the "I know this disease/anatomy but WTF I've never heard of the obscure detail this question is asking for" category. Lame. At this point, all I can do is rely on the curve. Frankly, I thought UWorld was easier than the real exam. Pretty much most of UWorld can be answered using the information from FA, but I'd say only about 70% of the material on the real exam covered details I had seen in FA.

Not to mention, many of the questions had long and extensive clinical vignettes...I finished each block in time, but I was sometimes cutting it close there and seldom had much time to review (as opposed to the NBME exams, where I had around 15 minutes left after my initial run).

Edit: Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from: Got 245 on the last 3 NBME exams I took (11, 7, and 6).

It seems like I was on autopilot the whole time. I don't remember the first three blocks at all, other than getting obsessed with a renal clearance question which I thought I could just figure out... that killed a lot of time. Once I popped some caffeine gum after the third block, things went a lot better. Barely enough time for 5/7 of the blocks. That's never happened before. Almost every question you could throw out 2-3 answers right from the get go. Then you either know it, or you got a 50% shot. Pharm questions that throw out beta-blockers and antibiotics for treatment for depression is an example of what you will see.
Everything was so doable. You need to get the basics down. Like completely down through and through. Then you can fill in the gaps with minutia to move above that 220-230 range. That's why FA is crap if you don't know the core concepts, but it's golden to go through for the little crap. I feel like the exam catered to what I knew, or I just selectively forgot the ones I got wrong. Really can only remember three questions, the stupid clearance question, and two other ones that I got right. Sidefanil mechanism for the win.

Hey BlondDoctor,

It can be hard to get things moving when motivation is at an all time low. But remember why you are doing what you are doing! :) Take it one day at a time, make a specific plan at the start of the day and make sure you take small breaks every now and then. At the end of the day, you can look back at ALL that you have accomplished and that will fuel the fire for the next day :)

It looks like you are on the right track with doing questions. Doing practice questions is a really important part of studying for the Step 1 in my opinion. Knowing the content, however, is paramount. Just remember that you can't study for every possible question out there! 5 weeks (the time between now and your test) is plenty of time to do both! Use your primary sources well and do a few blocks of questions each day. A few days of that routine should put you in a nice schedule.

Regarding NBME practice tests: Sit down and think about days that you are willing to take those practice exams like the real deal! I'm a big believer in practice making perfect and if you set aside time in your schedule to do some (1, 2, 3, ... as many as your heart desires) of those tests, your scores will be more meaningful :)

Interpreting % points on the Q-banks can be tricky so I stay the heck away from it. Don't get caught up in it! :D I know, I know, It's easy to get sucked into it, but DON'T! The best thing you can do with the Q-banks is that you can do a good number of questions in the timed and random mode, thereby allowing you practice in a low-stakes environment. You also have access to all the answers! I would suggest keeping notes on all the questions that you miss and all those you get right for the wrong reasons. It's a lot of work, but it will pay off on test day. :)

Finally, you seem to have some concerns regarding certain subjects. It's ok, the three subjects you listed in your post are some of the more anxiety provoking subjects for students on this forum. This is what I did in preparation for these subjects:

Anatomy: Divide it into sections (limbs, thorax, abdomen, pelvis & perineum, head & neck); Review major arteries, nerves and innervation, muscles and miscellaneous landmarks for each section. This doesn't take as long as it sounds. Here's an example: Let's work with limb anatomy; here is what I would review:

- major branches of the axillary and external iliac arteries and downstream smaller vessels (what comes off the brachial artery?, ...)
- Brachial plexus + Lumbosacral plexus; know how to draw the brachial plexus real quick --> there's a great schematic in FA! As far as the lumbosacral plexus, know the big ones! superior and inferior gluteal nerves, sciatic nerve, ...; know what happens to the large branches of the brachial and lumbosacral plexuses/plexi (where does the anterior interosseus nerve come off?)
- Know the dermotomes for the limbs; look at a dermatome diagram and match them up to landmarks (the tips of the dorsum of the index and middle finger are innervated by what nerve?)
- Know the muscles (duh :) ) and their innervation. Try to do this by compartments, I swear it will make it easier. Try to know exceptions and keep your memorizing to a minimum (only intrinsic muscles of the hand that are NOT innervated by the ulnar n.?)
- Know your landmarks (why is the adductor canal important?)
- Know clinically important procedures! (Where are large bore IV's placed? Where is the best location to put in a needle to perform a thoracocentesis?)
- Finally, Look at some CTs and XRs...this should work on your spatial abilities

Neuro: Do this section after your head and neck anatomy section; I've organized this list below in a hierarchical order (the last bullet is puts together all the other parts of neuro well in my opinion)

- Know your surface anatomy well. Any rigorous neuroanatomy atlas will do. If you don't own one, the BRS neuro-book, or wiki does just fine :)
- Know the blood supply to the brain! Try to complete this arterial tree: Vertebral arteries --> Basillar artery --> ? --> ? ... Know try to complete this arterial tree: Internal carotid artery --> ? --> ?; know how the circle of willis works
- Know the MAJOR tracts - Spinothalamic, DCML, corticospinal, ... and know the major nuclei of the thalamus and hypothalamus (Why is the VPM important? What is produced in the preoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus)
- Know your stroke syndromes: Wallenberg, anterior spinal, pontine, MCA, ACA, ...

Pharm: This section is a wild card. Go through pharmacology sections in first aid and if possible use Lippincott's illustrated review of pharmacology. I really like that book. The question banks will help you ALOT with this subject so that you can tease out the nitty-gritty details of side effects, ... (Why does someone on thoridiazine need regular eye exams?).

I hope this helps BlondDoctor! You get your motivation up, and there is no goal that you set that you can't achieve! ;)

Thank you for this!!!
I have taken your tips to heart, and printed this out so I can keep up my motivation! Thank you again for taking the time to write this up :)

Took it a few days ago. Harder than NBME 11/12, but mostly because the question stems were longer. Still felt like an NBME, though. I don't remember all that much from the test. Make sure that you know the presentations of the super rare bugs that are named in FA but not described. FA is gold and I can confidently say that anything with Goljan's name on it is a waste of time (at least as far as board review). I was getting 240+ on practice tests and I will be happy with 230+ on the real deal (but not surprised if I scored in the 220s--this test was hard). There was some difficult anatomy (some that I still haven't been able to figure out with netter in front of me). Overall I think the best approach to this test is to learn FA as best as you can and let your knowledge from class and UW fill in the blanks. Studying from additional resources in the weeks before the test seems low yield. Current events came up a few times. Probably no way to prepare for these, just an observation (they were pretty easy anyway). Questions stems were really long, but if you know what to look for you don't have to read the whole thing. I had one question that was maybe 10 sentences long plus a list of labs, and it then finished by saying the patient was started on drug X, what is its mechanism of action? Another described a patient for literally ~15 sentences and buried within this was an EKG finding. They then asked what was the metabolic disturbance (which is characteristic of the EKG finding). Calculations were all easy. H-W, sensitivity, specificity, etc. 5 images repeated from practice NBMEs, 2 of which I would have missed had I not been familiar with the image. No repeat questions as far as I could tell (I took NBME 5,6,11,12). They also asked about drug s/e not in FA, but really there is again no efficient way to prepare for this. Twice they asked a drug that was not in FA, but its name sounded like a related drug that is in FA.

I'm hoping that the curve will make this test turn out like my practice NBMEs (240s), but am not too hopeful. Good luck!

For those who are getting a lot of anatomy questions, is first aid enough for most of it?

For those who are getting a lot of anatomy questions, is first aid enough for most of it?

No way. I don't think there's much you can do to prepare for it. The best resource for me was my MS-I anatomy course.

No way. I don't think there's much you can do to prepare for it. The best resource for me was my MS-I anatomy course.

thanks man, anatomys my weakest so ill guess ill have to wing it and hope for few questions

I know each testing centers differ, but can my FA binder fit in their small lockers?

This doesn't end up being a big deal. I had a bag that was too big for their small lockers and all the big lockers were full...they just told me to leave my bag by the coat rack. Since you're allowed to look at your materials on breaks, the lockers are really more to ensure your valuables don't get stolen than anything else.

For those who are getting a lot of anatomy questions, is first aid enough for most of it?

Personally, I thought the most useful thing for these was looking at a lot of CTs (I posted good sites for this in some other threads on this board). Most of my kooky anatomy qs were CTs, and those that weren't were spatial qs that were made more answerable by being able to envision where things were located (which CTs can help with).

At any rate, the hard anatomy qs are basically reasoning qs that you can think through with a basic understanding of how things are positioned/grouped in various cavities/zones of the body. It's tremendously difficult to point to specific material to study outside of FA because it seems peoples' experiences with these qs are highly variable. What might help is looking through the end-of-chapter summaries in a book like BRS Gross or HY Gross...but this is relatively low yield and only worth doing if you have FA locked down and you've completed lots of qs.

That said, I definitely did find myself thinking back to M1 anatomy (and even cadaver dissections) to answer a couple of those qs...

Took it a few days ago. Harder than NBME 11/12, but mostly because the question stems were longer. Still felt like an NBME, though. I don't remember all that much from the test. Make sure that you know the presentations of the super rare bugs that are named in FA but not described. FA is gold and I can confidently say that anything with Goljan's name on it is a waste of time (at least as far as board review). I was getting 240+ on practice tests and I will be happy with 230+ on the real deal (but not surprised if I scored in the 220s--this test was hard). There was some difficult anatomy (some that I still haven't been able to figure out with netter in front of me). Overall I think the best approach to this test is to learn FA as best as you can and let your knowledge from class and UW fill in the blanks. !

thats a bit harsh, no?

Took it a few days ago. Harder than NBME 11/12, but mostly because the question stems were longer. Still felt like an NBME, though. I don't remember all that much from the test. Make sure that you know the presentations of the super rare bugs that are named in FA but not described. FA is gold and I can confidently say that anything with Goljan's name on it is a waste of time (at least as far as board review). I was getting 240+ on practice tests and I will be happy with 230+ on the real deal (but not surprised if I scored in the 220s--this test was hard). There was some difficult anatomy (some that I still haven't been able to figure out with netter in front of me). Overall I think the best approach to this test is to learn FA as best as you can and let your knowledge from class and UW fill in the blanks. Studying from additional resources in the weeks before the test seems low yield. Current events came up a few times. Probably no way to prepare for these, just an observation (they were pretty easy anyway). Questions stems were really long, but if you know what to look for you don't have to read the whole thing. I had one question that was maybe 10 sentences long plus a list of labs, and it then finished by saying the patient was started on drug X, what is its mechanism of action? Another described a patient for literally ~15 sentences and buried within this was an EKG finding. They then asked what was the metabolic disturbance (which is characteristic of the EKG finding). Calculations were all easy. H-W, sensitivity, specificity, etc. 5 images repeated from practice NBMEs, 2 of which I would have missed had I not been familiar with the image. No repeat questions as far as I could tell (I took NBME 5,6,11,12). They also asked about drug s/e not in FA, but really there is again no efficient way to prepare for this. Twice they asked a drug that was not in FA, but its name sounded like a related drug that is in FA.

I'm hoping that the curve will make this test turn out like my practice NBMEs (240s), but am not too hopeful. Good luck!

Hating on the holy grail of UW/FA/RR? Blasphemy :laugh:

I will say Goljan's format isn't for everyone but it sure helped me out

Biggest piece of advice for the test is stay calm and confident. My 1st block was by far my hardest of the day and halfway into it I had already lost hope of reaching my practice scores. I recovered to finish the block decently and then took a nice 10 min break to get my head back into the game and calm down.

I took breaks after every block to get the blood flowing and get some fresh air. I also never wanted the feeling of having to pee right after starting a block. FWIW I practiced this method of taking a break every block the Sunday before my exam when I did 8 blocks of NBME and UWSA

For the love of God please simulate a real exam (at least 7 blocks, I did 8 so I would get 2 scores) before taking the real one. Several of my classmates did not do this and said they burned out at the end. I was able to keep on trucking which was essential because my last two blocks were relative cake and I would have submarined my score by making a bunch of dumb mistakes on easy q's.

thats a bit harsh, no?

As far as Goljan audio - this is maybe good during exercise, etc when you can't study anything else. He claims to know test questions (he doesn't). I listened to the audio twice through and believe that it didn't make one question of difference. There are also a good deal of mistakes in the audio.

For Goljan RR - this is a good resource for your path course during M2. Studying this for step 1 just seems so low yield. What you need to know is in FA. Something only in RR might be on Step 1, but the amount of time that you would have to spend learning low-yield information makes it not worthwhile as a study source in my opinion.

Overall, it's best to learn one source really well. I studied exclusively from FA and UW during the 5 weeks before the test and feel that I still could have learned more FA. If I would have tried to study RR too it would have ate into the time I needed to really learn FA.

As far as Goljan audio - this is maybe good during exercise, etc when you can't study anything else. He claims to know test questions (he doesn't). I listened to the audio twice through and believe that it didn't make one question of difference. There are also a good deal of mistakes in the audio.

For Goljan RR - this is a good resource for your path course during M2. Studying this for step 1 just seems so low yield. What you need to know is in FA. Something only in RR might be on Step 1, but the amount of time that you would have to spend learning low-yield information makes it not worthwhile as a study source in my opinion.

Overall, it's best to learn one source really well. I studied exclusively from FA and UW during the 5 weeks before the test and feel that I still could have learned more FA. If I would have tried to study RR too it would have ate into the time I needed to really learn FA.

Unless FA 2011 changed significantly I didn't believe the path in FA was enough. There was a good amount of path that I learned from RR that wasn't in FA that showed up on the exam.

If you read Goljan once or twice during the year, reading it again during board studying is fast because you aren't reading it for the first time but skimming it more and focusing on your highlights/notes

In 4 weeks I was able to do UW, FA x2, and RR x2. My FA had been heavily annotated from my 1st pass through UW and I had read it in full over the year with some sections twice.

Again, different strokes for different folks but at least last year it seemed that a lot of people that were 250+ used RR. I admit I am biased because I used it and I may have selective memory

As far as Goljan audio - this is maybe good during exercise, etc when you can't study anything else. He claims to know test questions (he doesn't). I listened to the audio twice through and believe that it didn't make one question of difference. There are also a good deal of mistakes in the audio.

For Goljan RR - this is a good resource for your path course during M2. Studying this for step 1 just seems so low yield. What you need to know is in FA. Something only in RR might be on Step 1, but the amount of time that you would have to spend learning low-yield information makes it not worthwhile as a study source in my opinion.

Overall, it's best to learn one source really well. I studied exclusively from FA and UW during the 5 weeks before the test and feel that I still could have learned more FA. If I would have tried to study RR too it would have ate into the time I needed to really learn FA.
Probably because the audio's that are currently out right now are very outdated..

Did you use his audio along with RR? I am trying to decide if I should

A) Even bother listening to audio
B) Listening to audio while annotating into RR
C) Listening to audio alongside the audio transcript to reinforce it better

EDIT: BTW I am going into MS2.. not in dedicated step study period

Unless FA 2011 changed significantly I didn't believe the path in FA was enough. There was a good amount of path that I learned from RR that wasn't in FA that showed up on the exam.

If you read Goljan once or twice during the year, reading it again during board studying is fast because you aren't reading it for the first time but skimming it more and focusing on your highlights/notes

In 4 weeks I was able to do UW, FA x2, and RR x2. My FA had been heavily annotated from my 1st pass through UW and I had read it in full over the year with some sections twice.

Again, different strokes for different folks but at least last year it seemed that a lot of people that were 250+ used RR. I admit I am biased because I used it and I may have selective memory

Did you use his audio along with RR? I am trying to decide if I should

A) Even bother listening to audio
B) Listening to audio while annotating into RR
C) Listening to audio alongside the audio transcript to reinforce it better

EDIT: BTW I am going into MS2.. not in dedicated step study period

I did C during the year. I usually would read RR beforehand so I would pay better attention during the audio

Took it yesterday, thought I'd give a little write-up since I've been reading everyone else's.

First of all, feels soooo good to be done. Right now that's what I'm trying to focus on. My prep started in .. May. Did uworld twice, half of kaplan, first aid like 4-5 times, some kaplan vids, some pretest questions in micro/pharm/path (about 600 in total). I came from a pretty low point starting wise, so eh.

Breakdown: So I did 2 blocks, break, 2 blocks, break, 2 blocks, break, last block. Interface is just like Uworld, but a little 'cleaner' - hard to describe what that means, I just felt it was a very clean interface. My first 2 blocks were relatively okay .. my next 4 seemed a little harder (or maybe the caffeine was wearing down?), and then my last 1 seemed relatively okay.

In terms of content:

Biostats: 15 questions? So these weren't hard, but the problem is I didn't focus too much on studying this, so there were a couple that I saw, that I knew I'd seen before, but couldn't remember a certain calculation or something. In general, you just kinda have to reason out what they're asking.

Behavioral: 15 questions about. I didn't think these were very difficult - some questions were worded a little strangely, and for some, you had to know specific facts about the issue/disease being discussed, so that could've thrown you if you didn't know. In general though, not *too* confusing.

Biochem: I'd suggest you know your vitamin deficiencies. There were about 20? questions - and the vitamin deficiency ones always got me flustered for some reason. The enzymatic stuff was ok, though. There were a couple of wtf questions in this area - some of them asked about concepts that were well taught in a lot of qbanks, but took it an extra step. I think I was kinda lucky in that the few guesses I made in this turned out to be right.

Immunology: This was pretty basic I think - nothing really stood out as super difficult.

Anatomy: I have a love/hate relationship with anatomy. On the one hand, when I get it, I get it - it seems obvious to me, and I can say .. well, it's right there. On the other hand, I don't always get it. For the test though, I'd say there were about .. 10? anatomy questions, most of them were pretty basic, though it took a minute to orient yourself. Missed a couple, I know, but I dont think I did all that badly in this area.

Pharm: Eh, this was a little on the difficult side I think. Side effects were a big deal for mine - oh well. Had about 20 questions in this. Made a couple of gusses that again turned out to be right (yay), missed one question that's got me so pissed off since it wasn't hard at all, I just psyched myself out and chose the wrong answer. Oh well.

Micro: This was ... interesting. There were about 25 questions. Some were classic presentations, and others were just weird. Like, question stem would start out describing one thing, then throw a lab value that totally changed the picture. Nothing that came way off left base, it just kinda forced you to think a little. Not that much HIV, protozoans seemed to be a slight focus on my test. Know your vectors. Micro ended up being a stronger section for me during studying, so I think (hope) I did ok in this.

Embryo: 5 questions or so, glad it wasn't a focus on the test - not sure how I did on'em.

Neuro: I dont think this was too bad. There were 15ish questions, 1 brain section. Again, pay attention to the lab values that were important/not important. My test had some repeats of certain neuro questions.

Psych: Hmm, I dunno - a couple of these had me stumped. Only about 10 questions.

Cardio: Quite a few of these (about 15?) - couple of heart sounds that I didnt find particularly difficult. Also some arrows.

Endocrine: Definitely know your diabetes. For the most part, wasn't too hard. About 10 questions or so.

Heme/Onc: Not that much of this that I remember, maybe 2/3 questions - dont think they were too difficult though.

GI: Hate GI. But I think I did ok - or I dunno, maybe I'm just tricking myself.

Renal: Always hated renal, still do. Were about 15 questions on the exam, no clue how I did on'em.

Respiratory: Hated respitatory too, I just did what I could with the questions I saw, and moved on. They didn't seem too hard though. 10 qs.

Repro: Some breast tumors, some other stuff. One of the pictures they had on there was a little weird since I knew the answer, but wasn't sure if it was pointing to what I thought it was pointing to.. whatever.

In summary - I have no idea how I did. Although I think my test was balanced, there were definitely some stupid mistakes, but I think I surprised myself with the ones I did get right, and the ones I guessed up and ended up guessing right - after checking on wiki and whatever. My prep could've been better in my opinion, but it was something that was slowly evolving, so although I had a plan going in, I found myself switching it if I came across a resource I thought was helpful. Anyway, just very very happy to be finished - it's a chapter I definitely do not want to repeat. So, cross my heart, hope to pass (at least).

Good luck to everyone taking it, and everyone waiting!

did anyone who took the test this weekend have that question about that nurse coming in with a lesion because she poked herself with a needle that her Alzheimer's patient with cold sores had used? then it showed you a picture of her finger with blisters? what was the name of the blister? I've been thinking about that question for a while now.

did anyone who took the test this weekend have that question about that nurse coming in with a lesion because she poked herself with a needle that her Alzheimer's patient with cold sores had used? then it showed you a picture of her finger with blisters? what was the name of the blister? I've been thinking about that question for a while now.

Herpetic Whitlow via HSV-1 from his cold sore?

http://www.viralinhibitor.com/images/VIColdSoresFinger.jpg

Hating on the holy grail of UW/FA/RR? Blasphemy :laugh:

I will say Goljan's format isn't for everyone but it sure helped me out

Biggest piece of advice for the test is stay calm and confident. My 1st block was by far my hardest of the day and halfway into it I had already lost hope of reaching my practice scores. I recovered to finish the block decently and then took a nice 10 min break to get my head back into the game and calm down.

I took breaks after every block to get the blood flowing and get some fresh air. I also never wanted the feeling of having to pee right after starting a block. FWIW I practiced this method of taking a break every block the Sunday before my exam when I did 8 blocks of NBME and UWSA

For the love of God please simulate a real exam (at least 7 blocks, I did 8 so I would get 2 scores) before taking the real one. Several of my classmates did not do this and said they burned out at the end. I was able to keep on trucking which was essential because my last two blocks were relative cake and I would have submarined my score by making a bunch of dumb mistakes on easy q's.

It is funny how we all view things differently. I don't feel the two exams really made any difference. I knew I'd be tired after all those questions and sure enough, I was tired. That was about all I got from it. :p

did anyone who took the test this weekend have that question about that nurse coming in with a lesion because she poked herself with a needle that her Alzheimer's patient with cold sores had used? then it showed you a picture of her finger with blisters? what was the name of the blister? I've been thinking about that question for a while now.

It was Herpatic Whitlow f' real ;)

It is funny how we all view things differently. I don't feel the two exams really made any difference. I knew I'd be tired after all those questions and sure enough, I was tired. That was about all I got from it. :p

I figured out how I needed to formulate my break schedule to deal with the unavoidable fatigue. Also by doing 8 blocks 7 felt easier and I was more tired during the practice exam than the real thing.

Considering it's the biggest test of our lives I think it's a mistake to go into it without ever taking a practice test that really simulates how the real thing is.

I figured out how I needed to formulate my break schedule to deal with the unavoidable fatigue. Also by doing 8 blocks 7 felt easier and I was more tired during the practice exam than the real thing.

Considering it's the biggest test of our lives I think it's a mistake to go into it without ever taking a practice test that really simulates how the real thing is.

I just want to second this, doing two NBME's back to back was invaluable leading up to the real deal. Having thought that hard for longer than the real thing, made the test seem more doable.

I'd recommend it!

(I viewed it like training for a marathon. Those two NBME's were my final long run before tapering the week leading up to the test. Haven't gotten my score, but in terms of energy it really did help)

Yea, my thing was that I already studied 12+ hours a day. Usually that was in hour intervals. I'm focusing just as hard during that as I am during any questions I answer.

It didn't change my break schedules at all because the setup was completely different. It was much easier during the practice exams to keep to the accurate timing. I don't have to sign sheets or go into a locker during the practice NBMEs. I also didn't have the same adrenaline rush.

I think it also depends on your school and how they do tests. We routinely had block exams with all 6 classes on the same day and more questions per block.

It is obviously person dependent. All it did was kill any drive I had left and when done I just looked at the score and said, "Ok" but didn't try to better myself. I just didn't care anymore afterwards. I also never really take big breaks, so the whole mapping that out didn't matter. I didn't know when I'd need to pee. I didn't know if I'd feel hungry. I didn't even know if I'd have a rough block that'd take the wind out of me when I least expected it. I also had several days where I answered 7 or 8 blocks and one day where I did 10 blocks on uworld and I just realized that there is a point where it stops mattering to me. I get in my groove and I answer. By the end I don't feel like I'm thinking, yet my percentages didn't change much and sometimes increased. (My 2 NBME day, my first NBME was more than 10 points lower than my second)

To me, there are so many variables that it didn't matter how I mapped out the breaks. It wasn't any different than my regular studying with time allocation. In fact, parts of it probably took less processing than regular studying because it was just keyword, click, move.

:(

.

Yea, my thing was that I already studied 12+ hours a day. Usually that was in hour intervals. I'm focusing just as hard during that as I am during any questions I answer.

It didn't change my break schedules at all because the setup was completely different. It was much easier during the practice exams to keep to the accurate timing. I don't have to sign sheets or go into a locker during the practice NBMEs. I also didn't have the same adrenaline rush.

I think it also depends on your school and how they do tests. We routinely had block exams with all 6 classes on the same day and more questions per block.

It is obviously person dependent. All it did was kill any drive I had left and when done I just looked at the score and said, "Ok" but didn't try to better myself. I just didn't care anymore afterwards. I also never really take big breaks, so the whole mapping that out didn't matter. I didn't know when I'd need to pee. I didn't know if I'd feel hungry. I didn't even know if I'd have a rough block that'd take the wind out of me when I least expected it. I also had several days where I answered 7 or 8 blocks and one day where I did 10 blocks on uworld and I just realized that there is a point where it stops mattering to me. I get in my groove and I answer. By the end I don't feel like I'm thinking, yet my percentages didn't change much and sometimes increased. (My 2 NBME day, my first NBME was more than 10 points lower than my second)

To me, there are so many variables that it didn't matter how I mapped out the breaks. It wasn't any different than my regular studying with time allocation. In fact, parts of it probably took less processing than regular studying because it was just keyword, click, move.

Yeah your method of studying was preparation for it.

My studying method involved longer blocks and longer breaks and my focus was pretty high but not test taking high. I felt like the 8 block test was necessary because I was only doing 100 UW a day and then previous practice tests of 200.

I'm talking about folks who at most did 4 or 5 blocks in one day. They were unprepared for the grind of the real exam and admitted it.

\

:(

I don't think you should be posting questions and answer choices in a public forum, for your own sake...

I don't think you should be posting questions and answer choices in a public forum, for your own sake...

This is probably smart advice to take.

I don't think you should be posting questions and answer choices in a public forum, for your own sake...

dito.

Did step 1 today

UWSA 1 214
usmle free questions 83%
UW cumulative (did about 50%) 54%
I am a UK grad currently doing internship, did step 2 ck last week, and step 2 cs the week before that - it has been a high pressure month with very little time to breath and I haven't worked hard enough for this exam. It is 6-7 years since I learnt most of this basic science stuff.

It was I felt a reasonable exam on the one hand, but just horrible on the other. Reasonable in that it was relatively balanced and I think with a bit more prep I would have been able to easily answer more questions. Horrible, because I hadn't prepared enough, was tired, and the endless questions on inborn errors of metabolism provoked my ire!

Anatomy: actually very little, most of it was clinically related, had some images (CTs, contrast plain films, MRI); neuroanatomy was stroke syndromes
Behavioural sciences: not very much, very easy marks
Biochem: thankfully no horrible questions on metabolic pathways. virtually all questions were on inborn errors of metabolism e.g. Gaucher's, McArdle's, Cori, San filipo - there were some which i was not sure of/had not heard of
Biostats: easy marks- some of the questions seemed to be repetition but subtly different. One or two I wasn't quite sure what they were asking
Immunology: not very much, quite a few questions about hypersensitivity reactions, questions of transplant rejection a few autoimmune type questions
Micro: mostly bacteriology, 1 fungal q i remember, a few basic virology, and a couple of parasitology ones - very straightforward FA stuff, the odd question on antibiotics. most questions were name that bug rather than the more horrible intricacies
Pathology: the vast majority was pathology which was thankful as it the only subject I know! i didn't think anything was particularly overrepresented
Pharmacology: most questions were 'what drug to use?' 'mechanism of action?' or 'side effect?' but there was 1 lineweaver-burke plot, a couple of drug x graphs, and 1 on intracellular mechanisms - was pleased with pharm
Physiology: one of my worst subjects - could have been a lot worse; a few cardiac catheterisation questions, and then acid-base type qs or renal excretion graphs. cant really remember any lung physiology

Im not going to comment on systems except to say nothing seemed to be overrepresented and I wish I'd had more neuro!

There were some very very easy questions but many just had me stumped.

I thought it was a fair exam compared to what it could have been, I have only let myself down. Was aiming for 220+ but I think now I will just be glad if I get over 200!

now time to get drunk!

After reading tons of strategies on the forum I took what I thought was the best of all of them and used it. Not saying it is for everyone but it worked well for me and I was pleased for the amount of time I had studying it was the most efficient way to study for this test in my opinion.


My "overall" strategy: Do well the first 2 years, a month of studying does not make up for 2 years of slack. This month (or however long you committ) should be for review. That being said part 2 of my strategy was to do as many questions as possible before the exam.

Question Banks:

UsmleWorld: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
Kaplan: 70-75% Average, 100% completed
USMLErx: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
USMLEconsult: This one sucks, I started it then stopped it very quickly after

I was doing 500-700 questions per day for a while, its doable if you have a solid work ethic and discipline. I wrote one line down for each question I missed (basically the fact that I did not know). I would review these each night. At the end I had about 50 pages of facts that were super high yield for me. Rather than redoing 10K questions + I would re-read these every single night.


Review courses:

DIT: There are a lot of haters out there for this, and I was one of them. However even though they mostly read through first aid they do it in a fashion that lets you catch the fine details in the book and make it maneagable to digest. After this course I had FA completely memorized. I would recommend it if you don't have FA memorized yet, also using it conjunction with Rx early is a good idea since Rx references FA for all the questions.


Kaplan Vid's: I used these throughout second year. Very helpful for material that my professors and school was often lacking in. I used this to fill in any holes in my education throughout the year. It is simply too much to do it all at the end, if you don't start these early you will not benefit from them.


Books:


Goljan: Used it in 2nd year, it helped to REVIEW material since glancing over things I had already seeen helped me remember stuff quicker than reading a brand new review book.

BRS Phys: Over rated imo (I did it like 5x throughout 2nd year) you can do it an afternoon.

FA: A must, I am against making it a mad scientists notebook though. Many of my colleagues would write as many text books as they could possibly fit in FA in hopes that it would bring them success. That time could have much been better spent doing q's and writing down only the points you miss in FA (that is true annotating). FA is meant to be a review book, writing other books into is imo a waste of time.

Biochem Lange flash cards: Not bad for a few quick runs through, some of this material was on my test.

BRS Path: Quick review only.

Practice Tests:

NBME 1-4: 240-250's
NBME 5-7: 260's, high 260's on 6 and 7 (last ones I took)
NBME 11/12: 260's
UWSA1/2: 265+

I took NBME 1-4 earlier on in my studying.


USMLE:

I had very few questions that I had not seen before. I had seen most everything before by doing 10,000+ questions and all the practice tests out there. NBME 11/12 had some direct questions (identical) on my exam so I would definitely take those. Murmurs were not bad and radiology was not bad, usually they had clues that helped you even if you did not know the sound or picture. I would recommend UCLA's auscultation assistant for help with heart sounds.

Take a break after each block, wash your face. Don't let things carry over. I saw lots of students pushing through the whole exam with hardly any breaks. That is not a good strategy, just treat each block like a new test--mentally reset and you will benefit from that.


Good luck and hope this helps!

http://i55.tinypic.com/2r46ghy.jpg




Good luck and hope this helps!


nice1!
thanks for posting your score sheet btw.

Hey guys, took my test yesterday, here's a quick writeup out of my step 1 experience.

Little background:

CBSSE (2 weeks before finishing school) - 235
Started studying May 16
UWSA 1 (4 weeks in) - 265/800
NBME 12 (5 weeks in) - 257/650
UWSA 2 (Little after 5 weeks in) - 265/800
Free 150 - 95%
Uworld full pass - 86% correct
Real deal (6/27) - ?

I kept a log of hours I spent in the library over the course of my 6 week study period, and ended up with a touch over 560 hours overall. I found it helpful to keep such a log, because it kept me focused on maximizing my effort - there was no point where I thought "aww I've spent so much time in the library today, lemme just go home and relax," because I knew I was keeping track of every minute I wasted.

I originally had my test scheduled for 6/30 at 12:00 in the testing center in the city where I live, but I decided right after I started studying to bump it up 3 days. The only time available then was 8:00am, which I wasn't going to take, so I had it changed to a testing center in a nearby town, which had a spot available for 1:00. I'd HIGHLY recommend taking it in the afternoon - I had plenty of time to sleep in, get a shower, grab a nice lunch, and watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being filmed right outside of my house (more on that later). Additionally, the testing center I went to was much smaller than the one in the city, which meant fewer delays, fewer distractions, less noise, etc.

The test:

I'm really not sure if I just got an unbelievably lucky draw of questions or what, because I thought the test was really easy - far easier than the free 150 questions or the NBME11/12 exams, and definitely way easier than Uworld. The questions weren't all that long, and there didn't seem to be a lot of "tertiary" questions at all (like on Uworld where you have to figure out the diagnosis, decide what the correct treatment is, and then answer a question about a side effect of the treatment). In fact, there were a lot of questions that were so basic (2 sentences testing a BASIC fact, like what the diagnosis is for a pt with B symptoms and acid fast bacilli on sputum) where I just tilted my head and said "wait, really???"

That actually concerns me, because a friend of mine took the test recently and got SLAMMED with embryology / anatomy - she said it was incredibly hard. My brother took the test 3 years ago and walked out feeling like he completely screwed up on the questions, and ended up getting a 260+. I would not be surprised at all if you're graded based on the difficulty and statistical analysis of the questions you took, which means if my test was full of cake walk questions, it's going to be a lot harder for me to clear the 260 level. But, who knows. We'll find out in 3 weeks - I know for sure that I'm going to get a score high enough to get me into the specialty I want to go into, I just want to get a score that'll make the *******s at the NBME sputter their coffee when it pops up on the discharge screen


I had maybe 4 or 5 embryo questions, and probably 9 or 10 anatomy questions, although they were all very, very reasonable. The CT scans are HIGH quality (not the copyright(c) 1993 scans you get from Uworld), and for the most part they were all fairly reasonable questions (as reasonable as USMLE-style anatomy questions can be).

Immuno was not hard at all - there were definitely a lot of immuno-related vignettes, but the final question asked was not always immuno related. When it was, it was a reasonable concept that you should have learned during your MSII classes.

I had a surprisingly large amount of microbiology, which I'm normally very strong in, however there was (as far as I can remember) 1 question that had me caught in between two answers. I'm refusing to look up any of the questions I wasn't sure about.

People talk about pathophysiology and describe ridiculous arrow questions with values that they had never even thought to consider, but all those questions are perfectly workable - you just need to take a step back and think about the physiology a bit holistically - skip the question and come back to it later if you're getting a bit tunnelvisioned.

As for Uworld / Fist Aid - I highly suggest you do all the questions you'd marked in Uworld the day before the exam (preferably in the morning and taking the afternoon off). I had 2 or 3 concepts that I had marked on Uworld that I had just reviewed the day before, that showed up on my exam. A lot of the info was of course in First Aid, but it's somewhat of a moot point, because you can only get the most out of First Aid if you already understand the material to a degree that you wouldn't really have needed to memorize the book in the first place. They're testing questions more than facts - First Aid is amazing for studying and consolidating your info, but I think you have to have the background knowledge first before relying on it.

Before I forget, here's my study materials:

Pathology during the school year - both Goljan Path and BRS Path
Pathology during board studying - BRS Path
Physiology - BRS Physio
Neuroanatomy - HY Neuro
Anatomy - Mainly First Aid (not enough, but you can figure out a lot of the questions if you remember a few things from your MSI class)
Immuno / Microbio: CMMRS supplemented with the Kaplan notes
Pharm: Pharm Cards + BRS flash cards
Behavioral - BRS
Embryology - First Aid (again, 2 out of the 5 weren't in FA, but you can figure them out if you remember anything from your MSI class)
Biochemistry - Pelley / Goljan's Rapid Review (highly recommended. Biochem was by far my weakest subject in MSI, and after spending 4 days with RR biochem, it was by far one of my strongest going into the test)




Oh, so, It's Always Sunny: I left the house to go grab some lunch before driving to the testing center, and made it about a block before the street was closed off. Turns out they were filming an episode of Always Sunny right there, so I had to circumvent the block they were using in order to get to the Wawa. On the way back, though, I stopped by the film site and managed to snap some pictures of the crew + Mac, Dee and Charlie:

Mac is fat (http://i.imgur.com/T43RG.jpg)
More Mac (http://i.imgur.com/VRAv8.jpg)
Charlie doing the Charlie face (http://i.imgur.com/soRws.jpg)
Dee on the left (http://i.imgur.com/jN9Qi.jpg)
Another of Dee (http://i.imgur.com/UOUSQ.jpg)

http://i55.tinypic.com/2r46ghy.jpg



Above is my score report, I changed my username for anonymity but promised myself that I would post here once I was done and had time since these forums have helped me out in school and for the USMLE. I wanted to post the screen shot so that users know this is for real and the following method can work (I combed the forums during my studying looking for credible study methods use). After reading tons of strategies on the forum I took what I thought was the best of all of them and used it. Not saying it is for everyone but it worked well for me and I was pleased for the amount of time I had studying it was the most efficient way to study for this test in my opinion.


My "overall" strategy: Do well the first 2 years, a month of studying does not make up for 2 years of slack. This month (or however long you committ) should be for review. That being said part 2 of my strategy was to do as many questions as possible before the exam.

Question Banks:

UsmleWorld: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
Kaplan: 70-75% Average, 100% completed
USMLErx: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
USMLEconsult: This one sucks, I started it then stopped it very quickly after

I was doing 500-700 questions per day for a while, its doable if you have a solid work ethic and discipline. I wrote one line down for each question I missed (basically the fact that I did not know). I would review these each night. At the end I had about 50 pages of facts that were super high yield for me. Rather than redoing 10K questions + I would re-read these every single night.


Review courses:

DIT: There are a lot of haters out there for this, and I was one of them. However even though they mostly read through first aid they do it in a fashion that lets you catch the fine details in the book and make it maneagable to digest. After this course I had FA completely memorized. I would recommend it if you don't have FA memorized yet, also using it conjunction with Rx early is a good idea since Rx references FA for all the questions.


Kaplan Vid's: I used these throughout second year. Very helpful for material that my professors and school was often lacking in. I used this to fill in any holes in my education throughout the year. It is simply too much to do it all at the end, if you don't start these early you will not benefit from them.


Books:


Goljan: Used it in 2nd year, it helped to REVIEW material since glancing over things I had already seeen helped me remember stuff quicker than reading a brand new review book.

BRS Phys: Over rated imo (I did it like 5x throughout 2nd year) you can do it an afternoon.

FA: A must, I am against making it a mad scientists notebook though. Many of my colleagues would write as many text books as they could possibly fit in FA in hopes that it would bring them success. That time could have much been better spent doing q's and writing down only the points you miss in FA (that is true annotating). FA is meant to be a review book, writing other books into is imo a waste of time.

Biochem Lange flash cards: Not bad for a few quick runs through, some of this material was on my test.

BRS Path: Quick review only.

Practice Tests:

NBME 1-4: 240-250's
NBME 5-7: 260's, high 260's on 6 and 7 (last ones I took)
NBME 11/12: 260's
UWSA1/2: 265+

I took NBME 1-4 earlier on in my studying.


USMLE:

I had very few questions that I had not seen before. I had seen most everything before by doing 10,000+ questions and all the practice tests out there. NBME 11/12 had some direct questions (identical) on my exam so I would definitely take those. Murmurs were not bad and radiology was not bad, usually they had clues that helped you even if you did not know the sound or picture. I would recommend UCLA's auscultation assistant for help with heart sounds.

Take a break after each block, wash your face. Don't let things carry over. I saw lots of students pushing through the whole exam with hardly any breaks. That is not a good strategy, just treat each block like a new test--mentally reset and you will benefit from that.


Good luck and hope this helps!

Hi ... First of all, congrats for your score. Your disciplined approach really paid off amazingly well ...

I still have about 2 months left for my exam (taking it late august). Done with 60% of UW with cumulative of 70% correct. I take tremendous amount of time reviewing the questions after completing a block of 46. It usually takes aorund 4 hrs for me to review one block. :( I use notes function of UW and write down what i dont remember from that explanation.

What can I do to increase my speed so that I can also do all question banks (Kaplan, Rx, all NBMEs)???

I havent yet taken any NBMEs. Which NBME I should give first?

Unfortunately, I have rotations for the month of July. So for that month, I wont get more than 4-5 hrs per day of study.

I started typing out info I didn't know into a word document that I had opened simultaneously with W and that moved things along significantly compared to handwriting answers. I also only thoroughly read the wrong explanations to questions I didn't feel comfortable with or got wrong.


Hi ... First of all, congrats for your score. Your disciplined approach really paid off amazingly well ...

I still have about 2 months left for my exam (taking it late august). Done with 60% of UW with cumulative of 70% correct. I take tremendous amount of time reviewing the questions after completing a block of 46. It usually takes aorund 4 hrs for me to review one block. :( I use notes function of UW and write down what i dont remember from that explanation.

What can I do to increase my speed so that I can also do all question banks (Kaplan, Rx, all NBMEs)???

I havent yet taken any NBMEs. Which NBME I should give first?

Unfortunately, I have rotations for the month of July. So for that month, I wont get more than 4-5 hrs per day of study.

I just want to get a score that'll make the *******s at the NBME sputter their coffee when it pops up on the discharge screen

hahaha ... i just did reading this , lol u the man brother . Goodluck

Did step 1 today

UWSA 1 214
usmle free questions 83%
UW cumulative (did about 50%) 54%
I am a UK grad currently doing internship, did step 2 ck last week, and step 2 cs the week before that - it has been a high pressure month with very little time to breath and I haven't worked hard enough for this exam. It is 6-7 years since I learnt most of this basic science stuff.

It was I felt a reasonable exam on the one hand, but just horrible on the other. Reasonable in that it was relatively balanced and I think with a bit more prep I would have been able to easily answer more questions. Horrible, because I hadn't prepared enough, was tired, and the endless questions on inborn errors of metabolism provoked my ire!

Anatomy: actually very little, most of it was clinically related, had some images (CTs, contrast plain films, MRI); neuroanatomy was stroke syndromes
Behavioural sciences: not very much, very easy marks
Biochem: thankfully no horrible questions on metabolic pathways. virtually all questions were on inborn errors of metabolism e.g. Gaucher's, McArdle's, Cori, San filipo - there were some which i was not sure of/had not heard of
Biostats: easy marks- some of the questions seemed to be repetition but subtly different. One or two I wasn't quite sure what they were asking
Immunology: not very much, quite a few questions about hypersensitivity reactions, questions of transplant rejection a few autoimmune type questions
Micro: mostly bacteriology, 1 fungal q i remember, a few basic virology, and a couple of parasitology ones - very straightforward FA stuff, the odd question on antibiotics. most questions were name that bug rather than the more horrible intricacies
Pathology: the vast majority was pathology which was thankful as it the only subject I know! i didn't think anything was particularly overrepresented
Pharmacology: most questions were 'what drug to use?' 'mechanism of action?' or 'side effect?' but there was 1 lineweaver-burke plot, a couple of drug x graphs, and 1 on intracellular mechanisms - was pleased with pharm
Physiology: one of my worst subjects - could have been a lot worse; a few cardiac catheterisation questions, and then acid-base type qs or renal excretion graphs. cant really remember any lung physiology

Im not going to comment on systems except to say nothing seemed to be overrepresented and I wish I'd had more neuro!

There were some very very easy questions but many just had me stumped.

I thought it was a fair exam compared to what it could have been, I have only let myself down. Was aiming for 220+ but I think now I will just be glad if I get over 200!

now time to get drunk!

Thanks for great experience, it actually calmed my nerves :D, congrats and good luck i am sure you will be fine mate :laugh: my exam is on july 7th :luck::luck:

Took the test a week ago, so with some time to digest what happend:

The greatest tool for me was definitely gunner training. I did not use it as extensively as I should have during the year and if I had another month I would have attempted to hit completion for the mastery portion. There are parts that are definitely overkill in terms of exam material, but seeing it every day repeatedly helps the concepts stick in your head. Again for those that prefer the flashcard model, this is definitely a system that works.

After that, it has to be First Aid, Goljan, and UWorld. I used Goljan extensively throughout the year while studying for Path and concepts that he taught repeatedly came up on the real thing. Listen to his audio as many times as necessary for your studies.

Know First Aid front to back. Even one word in first aid can alter the answer you put down and I know that a couple times I would remember the page the answer was on but just couldn't bring out the specific memory I needed.

UWorld is awesome for both learning and getting used to the format of the test. It really represents a cross-section of the type of questions you may see, although it does tend to be a bit more knitpicky than the real thing.

Other than that, I used various review books here and there but it really comes down to how well you laid the foundation during the first two years because it is pretty difficult to squeeze in all the random anatomy and extraneous bits of info that you may come across during those 6 weeks.

Practice tests, roughly chronological
NBME6 - 235
NBME7, 11, 12 - 240s
UWSA 1,2 - 250s 260s
free 150 - 92%
real thing - ?

And finally, please get a good night's sleep the night before. I didn't and I probably ended up with at least another 5, 6 questions incorrect because I was simply dead beat after not getting enough rest. If I could change one thing about how I studied, getting sleep would be at the top of the list.

Good luck to everybody who has taken and will be taking the test. Now for the waiting game. :laugh:

Above is my score report, I changed my username for anonymity but promised myself that I would post here once I was done and had time since these forums have helped me out in school and for the USMLE. I wanted to post the screen shot so that users know this is for real and the following method can work (I combed the forums during my studying looking for credible study methods use). After reading tons of strategies on the forum I took what I thought was the best of all of them and used it. Not saying it is for everyone but it worked well for me and I was pleased for the amount of time I had studying it was the most efficient way to study for this test in my opinion....



Congratulations man. This is a major accomplishment.

I should contribute some test experience. Had mine earlier in the week.

Let me just go through the concrete stuff first:

Anatomy: Landmark questions, classic presentation of injuries (where the damage was..). For me.. the hardest was the pelvic anatomy. Though I only had 1 question on that.

Biochemistry: They asked stuff that was easier than expected. HOWEVER, I had an extremely hard time with anything that pertains to glycolysis and aerobic metabolism. Had a few of those questions. On the very last Q of my exam, I was asked to ID a particular amino acid. In front of me were 5 AA structures. I left the test with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Pathology: Nothing much to report. There were comments that NBME is more straightforward than USMLEWORLD... Not in my case. A lot of questions didn't give much classic presentation. Most of the time, they gave you one or two symptoms. The rest, they just threw a bunch of lab test and describe the age, sex, race of pt. Lotta red herrings. Lastly, there were quite a few things that I was asked that weren't really covered in FA. For instance, I had a question about some eye pathology that was NOT in FA.

Pharmacology: Again, straightforward stuff. FA would suffice.

Micro: I had a lot more parasites than I wanted. I was hoping for more bacteria and viruses... but I had at least 3 bug/worm questions. Had no clue. Had to guess. Knowing the stains are important, but I encountered one stain that wasn't even in FA. I can't remember it anymore.

Psychiatry: The usual. Not much to say. FA is good.

Biostats: See FA.

Ethics: I never really liked this.. I would say I'm an ethical person, but I still had a hard time since I can always narrow it down to 2 - 3 choices. However, it's pretty much inline with NBME.

Embryo: Had like 1 question on it. Had NO clue what they were asking for. They asked me to ID what an arrow was pointing to in the U/S. All of the choices were something I had not seen before..

Immuno: Don't recall seeing much, saw like a few. FA is good.

Neuro: FA. I was lucky to get some classic cases/presents and easy to ID landmarks. (Picture quality was crappy though.. hope I picked the right nerve because it was so bad.)
----

Concluding remarks:
I don't know what to make of the test. I am usually able to get through a block of question w/ 7-10 minutes to spare on UW. I'm a slow worker and I usually don't go back and check my answers. However, for blocks 1-4... I had a hard time pacing myself. I took a 10 min break after my first block because I was pretty shell-shocked and my nerves were kicking in over drive. I started to settle down by block 5. Despite settling in, I found that I wasn't able to work at my usual UW pace.

I walked out of the test feeling like I guess through half of it. Part of me also said that this should have been a doable test. I had a lot of questions where I went "Oh Damn... I READ THIS IN FA... I should know the answer to this Q..." I honestly can't say whether my form was hard or easy... If it was considered "easy," then I really hope the curve won't kill me.

Study method: FA, UW, Kaplan Qbank (only did like 25% of it), RR, other gold standard stuff (think of the book list from Tao)

That's all I can think of now... As I was leaving from Prometric, I wasn't able to get through the turnstile because my subway pass was expired. Missed my train. Had to walk across the street to a booth to get a new one.. On the back, it said "OPTIMISM" in caps. That's the way I'll live for the next few weeks.

That's all I can think of now... As I was leaving from Prometric, I wasn't able to get through the turnstile because my subway pass was expired. Missed my train. Had to walk across the street to a booth to get a new one.. On the back, it said "OPTIMISM" in caps. That's the way I'll live for the next few weeks.

That's just awesome.

I should contribute some test experience. Had mine earlier in the week.

Biochemistry: They asked stuff that was easier than expected. HOWEVER, I had an extremely hard time with anything that pertains to glycolysis and aerobic metabolism. Had a few of those questions. On the very last Q of my exam, I was asked to ID a particular amino acid. In front of me were 5 AA structures. I left the test with a bitter taste in my mouth.


Thanks for the write-up.
and regarding AA structures, I wouldn't be surprised if that was purely experimental a la "let's see how students do on this one, whether they still know stuff like this". like they mix in step1 material in a step2 exam just to see how much basic science you know a year after step1, or MCAT into step1, it is official that they do have experimental questions.

so you averaged over 13 hours a day every single day for 6 weeks straight? u sir are far more motivated than myself, or completely insane, either way, have you considered neurosurgery, probably feel like a walk in the park after such prep. also, im completely jealous of ur photos, you could prob sell that one of mac to the tabloids, looks like a few too many trips to the snack table for that guy
Hey guys, took my test yesterday, here's a quick writeup out of my step 1 experience.

Little background:

CBSSE (2 weeks before finishing school) - 235
Started studying May 16
UWSA 1 (4 weeks in) - 265/800
NBME 12 (5 weeks in) - 257/650
UWSA 2 (Little after 5 weeks in) - 265/800
Free 150 - 95%
Uworld full pass - 86% correct
Real deal (6/27) - ?

I kept a log of hours I spent in the library over the course of my 6 week study period, and ended up with a touch over 560 hours overall. I found it helpful to keep such a log, because it kept me focused on maximizing my effort - there was no point where I thought "aww I've spent so much time in the library today, lemme just go home and relax," because I knew I was keeping track of every minute I wasted.

I originally had my test scheduled for 6/30 at 12:00 in the testing center in the city where I live, but I decided right after I started studying to bump it up 3 days. The only time available then was 8:00am, which I wasn't going to take, so I had it changed to a testing center in a nearby town, which had a spot available for 1:00. I'd HIGHLY recommend taking it in the afternoon - I had plenty of time to sleep in, get a shower, grab a nice lunch, and watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being filmed right outside of my house (more on that later). Additionally, the testing center I went to was much smaller than the one in the city, which meant fewer delays, fewer distractions, less noise, etc.

The test:

I'm really not sure if I just got an unbelievably lucky draw of questions or what, because I thought the test was really easy - far easier than the free 150 questions or the NBME11/12 exams, and definitely way easier than Uworld. The questions weren't all that long, and there didn't seem to be a lot of "tertiary" questions at all (like on Uworld where you have to figure out the diagnosis, decide what the correct treatment is, and then answer a question about a side effect of the treatment). In fact, there were a lot of questions that were so basic (2 sentences testing a BASIC fact, like what the diagnosis is for a pt with B symptoms and acid fast bacilli on sputum) where I just tilted my head and said "wait, really???"

That actually concerns me, because a friend of mine took the test recently and got SLAMMED with embryology / anatomy - she said it was incredibly hard. My brother took the test 3 years ago and walked out feeling like he completely screwed up on the questions, and ended up getting a 260+. I would not be surprised at all if you're graded based on the difficulty and statistical analysis of the questions you took, which means if my test was full of cake walk questions, it's going to be a lot harder for me to clear the 260 level. But, who knows. We'll find out in 3 weeks - I know for sure that I'm going to get a score high enough to get me into the specialty I want to go into, I just want to get a score that'll make the *******s at the NBME sputter their coffee when it pops up on the discharge screen


I had maybe 4 or 5 embryo questions, and probably 9 or 10 anatomy questions, although they were all very, very reasonable. The CT scans are HIGH quality (not the copyright(c) 1993 scans you get from Uworld), and for the most part they were all fairly reasonable questions (as reasonable as USMLE-style anatomy questions can be).

Immuno was not hard at all - there were definitely a lot of immuno-related vignettes, but the final question asked was not always immuno related. When it was, it was a reasonable concept that you should have learned during your MSII classes.

I had a surprisingly large amount of microbiology, which I'm normally very strong in, however there was (as far as I can remember) 1 question that had me caught in between two answers. I'm refusing to look up any of the questions I wasn't sure about.

People talk about pathophysiology and describe ridiculous arrow questions with values that they had never even thought to consider, but all those questions are perfectly workable - you just need to take a step back and think about the physiology a bit holistically - skip the question and come back to it later if you're getting a bit tunnelvisioned.

As for Uworld / Fist Aid - I highly suggest you do all the questions you'd marked in Uworld the day before the exam (preferably in the morning and taking the afternoon off). I had 2 or 3 concepts that I had marked on Uworld that I had just reviewed the day before, that showed up on my exam. A lot of the info was of course in First Aid, but it's somewhat of a moot point, because you can only get the most out of First Aid if you already understand the material to a degree that you wouldn't really have needed to memorize the book in the first place. They're testing questions more than facts - First Aid is amazing for studying and consolidating your info, but I think you have to have the background knowledge first before relying on it.

Before I forget, here's my study materials:

Pathology during the school year - both Goljan Path and BRS Path
Pathology during board studying - BRS Path
Physiology - BRS Physio
Neuroanatomy - HY Neuro
Anatomy - Mainly First Aid (not enough, but you can figure out a lot of the questions if you remember a few things from your MSI class)
Immuno / Microbio: CMMRS supplemented with the Kaplan notes
Pharm: Pharm Cards + BRS flash cards
Behavioral - BRS
Embryology - First Aid (again, 2 out of the 5 weren't in FA, but you can figure them out if you remember anything from your MSI class)
Biochemistry - Pelley / Goljan's Rapid Review (highly recommended. Biochem was by far my weakest subject in MSI, and after spending 4 days with RR biochem, it was by far one of my strongest going into the test)




Oh, so, It's Always Sunny: I left the house to go grab some lunch before driving to the testing center, and made it about a block before the street was closed off. Turns out they were filming an episode of Always Sunny right there, so I had to circumvent the block they were using in order to get to the Wawa. On the way back, though, I stopped by the film site and managed to snap some pictures of the crew + Mac, Dee and Charlie:

Mac is fat (http://i.imgur.com/T43RG.jpg)
More Mac (http://i.imgur.com/VRAv8.jpg)
Charlie doing the Charlie face (http://i.imgur.com/soRws.jpg)
Dee on the left (http://i.imgur.com/jN9Qi.jpg)
Another of Dee (http://i.imgur.com/UOUSQ.jpg)

Took mine yesterday....

Finished Uworld ~63% correct.
NBME 12: 228
UWSA1: 232
NBME 11: 245
UWSA2: 234

I had a **** ton of experimental questions it seemed like, not something I was expecting. Also had at least 3-4 behavioral/ethical questions on each block which was rad.

Other than that, I didn't feel that my test was particularly heavy in any specific organ system or basic science category. It was pretty evenly spread. Pharm questions were pretty straight forward, nothing too tricky.

However, a fair number of questions had words/drugs I swear I have never in my life seen before which made me a little uncomfortable.

I dunno what else to say, it was long, challenging, and very random.

Oh, and as compared to UWorld or NBME.... My test was much more ambiguous in its wording... I felt a number of questions were asking me to play "Guess what I'm thinking!"

WTF ever, its done. Have no fear of failing, just nervous I won't make my goal.

so you averaged over 13 hours a day every single day for 6 weeks straight? u sir are far more motivated than myself, or completely insane, either way, have you considered neurosurgery, probably feel like a walk in the park after such prep. also, im completely jealous of ur photos, you could prob sell that one of mac to the tabloids, looks like a few too many trips to the snack table for that guy

You're too kind :) I'm interested in interventional radiology - I actually always have had a fond streak for neuro, but the market for neuro-IR is a bit shaky and probably will be for a while now. Regardless, that's years and years ahead, so I've got plenty of time to worry about the details

I did take three "relax and review" days throughout my study schedule where I slept in an extra hour and spent the morning at home reviewing material from the previous two weeks. My original plan was to take some serious time off on those days, but I found myself getting antsy at sitting around and ended up back in the library in the afternoon on all three occasions. I found that it was more stressful for me to be sitting there doing nothing and knowing the test date was approaching, than it was to just get back to the books.

You're too kind :) I'm interested in interventional radiology - I actually always have had a fond streak for neuro, but the market for neuro-IR is a bit shaky and probably will be for a while now. Regardless, that's years and years ahead, so I've got plenty of time to worry about the details

I did take three "relax and review" days throughout my study schedule where I slept in an extra hour and spent the morning at home reviewing material from the previous two weeks. My original plan was to take some serious time off on those days, but I found myself getting antsy at sitting around and ended up back in the library in the afternoon on all three occasions. I found that it was more stressful for me to be sitting there doing nothing and knowing the test date was approaching, than it was to just get back to the books.

:thumbup:

I did step 1 today.......i think

I did UW with 71% overall once through.
qbank was through the year but about the same.
Did DIT as well.......but there wasn't a thing they discussed that was on my exam so I guess a paid 700 some odd bucks to aid in excluding a few answer choices.
UWSA2 = 254
NBME 7, 11, 12 = all between 245-255

Im not sure where my Step 1 questions came from or what they were even asking.

I must have drawn an erratic or odd set of questions. Pretty much an even 3 way split between micro, immunology, and anatomy. Other than those topics, I had about 1-2 questions from the other basic/organ subject areas.

I marked the questions that were topics I had no clue what an answer might be.....I marked a low of 11 in one section and a high of 21 in another. On the NBME SA's I usually marked 2-4 per section. Usually marked 3-4 in my random UW 46 question blocks as well.

Feel pretty indifferent about it, hoping that I just drew a hard set of questions......but its over and cant do anything about it now anyway:)

Best of luck to all those of you who take it in the future.

Hi ... First of all, congrats for your score. Your disciplined approach really paid off amazingly well ...

I still have about 2 months left for my exam (taking it late august). Done with 60% of UW with cumulative of 70% correct. I take tremendous amount of time reviewing the questions after completing a block of 46. It usually takes aorund 4 hrs for me to review one block. :( I use notes function of UW and write down what i dont remember from that explanation.

What can I do to increase my speed so that I can also do all question banks (Kaplan, Rx, all NBMEs)???

I havent yet taken any NBMEs. Which NBME I should give first?

Unfortunately, I have rotations for the month of July. So for that month, I wont get more than 4-5 hrs per day of study.

I made a seperate document for each qbank, typed one liner factoids into it. You need to be more efficient at finding what is the reason why you missed the questinon and not getting bogged down reading every word of the explanation unless you really don't know whats going on. 4 hours is long for one block, as you progress your timing should improve.

Your experience sounds just like mine- I marked 10+ per section as having no freaking clue what they were asking. I'm venting about it here

It seemed like 10-15 images per block as well.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=834932

I did step 1 today.......i think

I did UW with 71% overall once through.
qbank was through the year but about the same.
Did DIT as well.......but there wasn't a thing they discussed that was on my exam so I guess a paid 700 some odd bucks to aid in excluding a few answer choices.
UWSA2 = 254
NBME 7, 11, 12 = all between 245-255

Im not sure where my Step 1 questions came from or what they were even asking.

I must have drawn an erratic or odd set of questions. Pretty much an even 3 way split between micro, immunology, and anatomy. Other than those topics, I had about 1-2 questions from the other basic/organ subject areas.

I marked the questions that were topics I had no clue what an answer might be.....I marked a low of 11 in one section and a high of 21 in another. On the NBME SA's I usually marked 2-4 per section. Usually marked 3-4 in my random UW 46 question blocks as well.

Feel pretty indifferent about it, hoping that I just drew a hard set of questions......but its over and cant do anything about it now anyway:)

Best of luck to all those of you who take it in the future.

....yeah sounds strangely similar, female repro and some male too.

Just got done. Feel like I crap, but figured I would give my feedback before I break out the booze. Honestly, I feel like the test was really difficult but I think almost everyone feels that way and sits there pondering on the ones they missed. IMO, a lot of the exam is based completely on your luck that day and whether the test Gods bless you by testing you on subjects that are you are stronger on. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky. :scared:

Since most of these write-ups are very similar, I'll only post what was unique to my exam. I was "fortunate" enough to get a dozen or so pelvic anatomy questions, with 75% of them being ridiculous. I also got a bunch of extremity related anatomy, but it wasn't bad at all. Apparently knowing EVERYTHING about Langerhans cells is very important, because I got like 6 questions on them. The micro wasn't bad at all, but for some reason I got at least 7 questions on ABX mechanisms. They aren't that hard, but truthfully I just didn't study them very much because I haven't heard of anyone getting more than 3 of these. Also make sure you know how the unique/rare bugs present, because FA doesn't go into a lot of them. Also, like some others the last few days have posted, my test was very Repro and Immuno heavy. Some hard, some not too bad. A lot of the Repro stuff was not in FA nor on UW, and I thought was a but too clinical for Step 1. What pisses me of the most, some questions were just very poorly presented. For example, I had a bacterial genetics questions that was literally one sentence long and asked what the drawing above showed. I swear, I think a 2 year old drew it. I have no idea what anything was nor the process that was going on, and it was really small. It also only had 3 answer choices which was a bit odd. Guess it could have been a trial question. Also, I guess they except us to be very familiar with radiology. I had a question with a very obvious presentation of COPD and they wanted you to pick the x-ray that should match it. However, every freaking x-ray looked identical. Wide chest, vertical heart, hyperlucent lungs, flatted diaphragm, etc.

Ok, hope this helps. If I remember anything else relevant, I'll come back and post it later this week. Keep your fingers crossed for me please. :xf: Good luck to you all! :thumbup:

Took the step 1 on 6/29, and my experience is that it was "Harder than UWorld" fo sho.
15% of this exam I have never seen before
30% of it was Difficult / Really Hard / Confusing
30% was fair
15% wasn't even a question - answer was so obvious

Block #5 was my "impossible" block - from the behav sci, to the obscure molecular cell - one question after another were things that I cannot recall any clear knowledge or memory of during my prep time.

My step 1 test prep experience:

UWorld - 2 passes, 70% correct 1st pass, 82% correct 2nd pass
Kaplan QBank - 1 pass, 72% correct
USMLE Rx - only did 1/4 of this qbank - 71% avg correct
DIT 2011 - finished 5 weeks out

-UWSA1 - 247 (taken 5 weeks out)
-UWSA2 - 247 (taken 4 weeks out) - i accidentally activated both at the same time, so had to do both of them quickly : (
-NBME 11 - 250 (taken 1 week out)

-First Aid 2011 - cover to cover 3 times
-RR Path
-RR Micro & Immuno
-RR Biochem
-MMMRS
-HY Neuro
-HY Biostats
-HY Embryo
-SS Patel Notes - Immuno

So I really thought this had prepared me "adequately" enough for this exam - being an A/B student that literally had to deprive myself of life, liberty, and happiness to get a 91% on an exam

Sadly - I don't believe it was enough.
10-15 questions per section were marked (meaning they were at best an educated guess) - and I didnt have a chance to go back to them.
Ran out of time during my "horror block #5" - C's from 42-46

So basically - my own experience was terrible, and "knowing" the 18 or so questions that i KNOW i got wrong just adds a lil NaCl to the erosion. :scared:

Took the step 1 on 6/29, and my experience is that it was "Harder than UWorld" fo sho.
15% of this exam I have never seen before
30% of it was Difficult / Really Hard / Confusing
30% was fair
15% wasn't even a question - answer was so obvious

Block #5 was my "impossible" block - from the behav sci, to the obscure molecular cell - one question after another were things that I cannot recall any clear knowledge or memory of during my prep time.

My step 1 test prep experience:

UWorld - 2 passes, 70% correct 1st pass, 82% correct 2nd pass
Kaplan QBank - 1 pass, 72% correct
USMLE Rx - only did 1/4 of this qbank - 71% avg correct
DIT 2011 - finished 5 weeks out

-UWSA1 - 247 (taken 5 weeks out)
-UWSA2 - 247 (taken 4 weeks out) - i accidentally activated both at the same time, so had to do both of them quickly : (
-NBME 11 - 250 (taken 1 week out)

-First Aid 2011 - cover to cover 3 times
-RR Path
-RR Micro & Immuno
-RR Biochem
-MMMRS
-HY Neuro
-HY Biostats
-HY Embryo
-SS Patel Notes - Immuno

So I really thought this had prepared me "adequately" enough for this exam - being an A/B student that literally had to deprive myself of life, liberty, and happiness to get a 91% on an exam

Sadly - I don't believe it was enough.
10-15 questions per section were marked (meaning they were at best an educated guess) - and I didnt have a chance to go back to them.
Ran out of time during my "horror block #5" - C's from 42-46

So basically - my own experience was terrible, and "knowing" the 18 or so questions that i KNOW i got wrong just adds a lil NaCl to the erosion. :scared:

Stumbled upon your post - you summed up my experience taking USMLE 1 on 06/4 pretty nicely - your difficulty breakdown is on par with my experience. I hope that's a good sign for both of us. I was really disheartened leaving that exam - and I have to say in the first block I must have tagged 15-20 of the questions... but as you said, no time to review.
good luck to you.

Stumbled upon your post - you summed up my experience taking USMLE 1 on 06/4 pretty nicely - your difficulty breakdown is on par with my experience. I hope that's a good sign for both of us. I was really disheartened leaving that exam - and I have to say in the first block I must have tagged 15-20 of the questions... but as you said, no time to review.
good luck to you.

I wouldn't overly freak out - I've been finishing up UW and seeing that the new questions in it have 30-50% correct (vs 70-80% for old questions everyone's drilled). hard as fk = good for us (easy curve)

On the actual test, did anyone have wigger diagrams? I've noticed that the "normal" in UWorld is wrong - they show aortic pressure less than LV even at closure of the valve. Should I expect this incorrect portrayal of "normal" on the step? Or can I safely consider lower aortic pressure than LV pressure going up to the incisura/dichrotic notch to be pathologic (i.e. aortic stenosis)

I wouldn't overly freak out - I've been finishing up UW and seeing that the new questions in it have 30-50% correct (vs 70-80% for old questions everyone's drilled). hard as fk = good for us (easy curve)

On the actual test, did anyone have wigger diagrams? I've noticed that the "normal" in UWorld is wrong - they show aortic pressure less than LV even at closure of the valve. Should I expect this incorrect portrayal of "normal" on the step? Or can I safely consider lower aortic pressure than LV pressure going up to the incisura/dichrotic notch to be pathologic (i.e. aortic stenosis)

I had a bunch of cardiac cath questions but no pressure tracing diagrams. I did however get gels and western blots on my exam (though they weren't very tough)

yo yo took that junt on 7/2

micro up the wazoo

little cardio

little neuro

**** ton of immuno

lots of bs cell bio that was basically GUESS HERE LOL

ok so my exam is on july 7th, and i read posts from students who recently gave exam and its freaking me out a little ( ok a lot ):bang: . Why Board people are asking something which was not taught in MS1 and 2, Like someone said on this thread there were lot of questions which were not covered by FA or Qbanks. is it just me who is freaking out because my exam is coming soon lol.

Took the test 6/27. Had a ton of micro, and then just a whole bunch of abstract stuff that I had trouble figuring out exactly what they were asking. I did all UW random timed 71% then redid 250 questions and bumped it to almost 73%. Anyway, I thought the test was considerably harder than UW and harder than the 8 practice tests I took. Seriously I thought it was on another level of difficulty.

My test had many drug questions to which I didn't know about and came home and researched them finding out they're in clinical trials right now. Lots of parasites that aren't in FA.

Nbme 5 203
Nbme 6 211
Nbme 11 238 then nbme 12 242
Free150 257 then uswa1 247
Nbme 7 240 then uswa2 265

I used UW FA goljan and RR. I am just hoping for something around my practice scores.

i took my exam on june 24th. i've been away from a computer since then, but i wanted to reply in this thread because i found it so helpful in my prep.

i used a lot of practice questions to prepare. i did all of uworld, usmleRX, and kaplan qbank one time through each. i also did about 500 of my missed questions in uworld again. i kept a notebook full of facts from qbank questions. some of them were from missed questions, other facts i recorded were things i'd seen in questions i got right that i was unfamiliar with. for example: i had an easy sjogren syndrome question in one of the qbanks. sjogren larsson syndrome was a wrong answer choice for that question, and i had not seen SL syndrome before, so i wrote a few sentences about it in my notebook. that particular example is pretty low yield, but that method of keeping a notebook helped me learn a lot.

i found RR Path to be very helpful throughout second year, and I re-read all but the last three chapters in the first two weeks of my dedicated prep time.

i didn't actually read first aid until the last two weeks of my prep. by then, i had finished one pass of all three major question banks, and so going through first aid was pretty easy. i only focused on things that i had not seen much of in qbanks, which wasn't much. in total, i only did one pass of first aid.

i had about six weeks of dedicated study time after 2nd year ended. my practice test score progression was:
school cbse: 205
nbme 11 (after two weeks of dedicated study): 226
nbme 6 (four days later): 205 (this was after a LOOONG day of studying)
nbme 5 (two days after nbme6): 233
nbme12 (one week later): 235
uworldSA1 (two days before step1): 261
uworldSA2 (day before step 1): 259

i thought that my step 1 exam was VERY similar in content and difficulty to the uworldSA's i had done. i had one hard set on uworldSA1 in which i got 69% correct. i felt that my first set on the real step 1 was very similar (i flagged about 19 q's in my first set on the real thing and only finished with four minutes to review them). i had about 5-6 repeats from uworldSA's on my step 1 that were almost word-for-word from uworldSA's. the main difference in content between step 1 and uworldSA's would probably be: (1) questions requiring interpretation of obscure experiments and (2) crazy anatomy questions about innervation of parts that you'd never really expected to be asked about. i don't know how i would prepare for the crazy anatomy stuff. i think the best way to prepare for the questions about obscure experiments is to know that they are probably asking about something you've seen before in a really strange and bizarre way. just try to have confidence in what you've learned and try to see through the smoke and mirrors. even then, you just have to answer as best as you can.

after that first (really hard) set on my step 1 exam, the rest seemed very similar to a typical uworld/uworldSA block. on those last 6 sets, i flagged about 6-12 questions each and finished with about 10 minutes that i then used to review flagged questions. i know of at least 4 "gimme" questions that i definitely missed. what's worse is that i flagged them while i was doing them and knew at the time that they should have been easy. i just completely blanked on them. one was a basic antibiotic mechanism question, and i had the right answer but convinced myself that i should change it (to the wrong answer). i usually miss about 1-2 gimme questions per block in question banks and practice tests anyway, but it still sucks.

*edit - i also want to add that except for nbme6 in which i had already done and studied 4 blocks in kaplan qbank that day, i generally did three blocks in the morning and an nbme in the afternoon when i took nbme's. the reason is so i could simulate test-day fatigue. i did not do that with the uworldSA's though because i was more interested in building confidence and using those questions to study when i took those.

Had a ton of micro, and then just a whole bunch of abstract stuff that I had trouble figuring out exactly what they were asking.

We had very similar experiences. I was so depressed when I walked out of the testing facility, convinced that I failed. Hopefully there is a curve and it's generous!

We had very similar experiences. I was so depressed when I walked out of the testing facility, convinced that I failed. Hopefully there is a curve and it's generous!

stupid question, but when you say curve, what does it mean?

stupid question, but when you say curve, what does it mean?

What is a curve? It is an adjustment of scores based on how everyone did. Some people say there is one since the forms are of varying difficulty but the NBME is very vague about it.

.

It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

I am wondering the same thing. It freaks me out when i see posts saying that there are a lot of weird/difficult questions that are not in UW/FA. I am an average student so I will be happy if i pass or get above 200.

It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

at the end of the day, its still an exam testing concept comprehension - so if you're "sticking to the basics" and using uworld and FA, and slowing yourself down to see the information from different sides, I think you're absolutely doing the right thing. I and others are probably relaying the theme of out-of-nowhere questions bc those are the ones that stuck with us after we left the building and left us with the "What the hell just happened" feeling.

I think what really got me more than anything were the questions I should have gotten cold but didn't because in some cases I hadn't revisited that concept in many weeks since it was "so low yield" in my mind's eye.. OR because of time constraints, I didn't feel I had ample time to work things through as I could and should have. Every practice exam I took before USMLE I had many minutes left over, and come USMLE, 3-5 mins remained each and every block, and for one block I had 15 seconds remaining.

No review book can ever be as comprehensive to encompass everything you will see on a board exam. You just read and read and read and hope that most of the stuff you see is something you've studied. The majority of your test will be able to be figured out from FA and UW and the popular sources, but of course there will be questions that you've never read about. You can't think people at NBME just go through FA and write questions about material that's in there.

If you read the beginning few pages of FA they write themselves that FA is not to be used as the "sole study bible" for the boards. It's just something to guide the student. That being said, I think FA is still the most high yield out of anything you can read.

It is scary but I genuinely feel like this is what happened to me on my exam. For mine, it was very clearly the last 2 blocks that had quite a lot of questions (10-15) that I felt could NOT be inferred from FA or UW, both of which I completed thoroughly. Quite a number were anatomy questions and while I'm terrible at anatomy, I studied FA enough to know what I did and didn't know. There were also just a handful of random questions where I've thought about afterwards and can think of no place in FA/UW that would've helped. Haven't gotten my score yet but hoping for a nice curve.. And I also got a bunch of neuro questions that I'm pretty sure weren't even mentioned in my course at school, but not so many on classic pathway type neuro questions you typically see.


It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

.

.

What is a curve? It is an adjustment of scores based on how everyone did. Some people say there is one since the forms are of varying difficulty but the NBME is very vague about it.

If the NBME tests estimate your score correctly, then the grading scale is definitely different, because there's no way I could have got the same percentage right on the test as I did on the practice test. If that's what people mean by a curve, then yes, that's what happens. On top of that, the NBME folks say they try to normalize scores, comparing all of us with people who've taken the test before us, to try to make sure that a 220 means the same no matter which year you take the test. I have no idea how they do that. A few pages back, someone whose parents work for a standardized testing company laid out some general principles on how they set up big standardized tests like this... if you're really curious about this stuff, I'd go find that post.

It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources.
[...]
What gives?

There are a few ways to look at this, but before I go further, I'd say your time is probably best spent doing what you're doing, and going through FA these last few days.

As far as the test... people focus on the WTF questions that they had, so bear that in mind. I had a question that mentioned a ridiculous detail, but the way the question was asked, I reasoned my way through to an answer. When I looked it up after my test, I was amazed by how obscure this gene was, but the point of the question was whether or not I could draw an analogy with another gene that I remembered (that was in FA).

Supposedly, NBME is trying to minimize the impact of the popular question banks and FA, but I don't think they're trying to do that by just asking totally random stuff. The way they seem to do it is figure you know what's in FA, and then ask you to use that information to answer a new question. There are still straightforward, "Remember this?" kind of questions, but the hard ones really try to make you work.

Back to the question I mentioned. The odds of me remembering this one random detail were basically zero. That's how random it was. It wasn't in FA, but what was in FA helped me reason my way to the answer. Does that mean FA is incomplete, or does it mean it's good enough? Depends on how you look at things, I guess.

Getting all the way through UW, and going through FA as many times as you have will help you. Just stick with it, and don't let our venting about stuff stress you out.

If the NBME tests estimate your score correctly, then the grading scale is definitely different, because there's no way I could have got the same percentage right on the test as I did on the practice test. If that's what people mean by a curve, then yes, that's what happens. On top of that, the NBME folks say they try to normalize scores, comparing all of us with people who've taken the test before us, to try to make sure that a 220 means the same no matter which year you take the test. I have no idea how they do that. A few pages back, someone whose parents work for a standardized testing company laid out some general principles on how they set up big standardized tests like this... if you're really curious about this stuff, I'd go find that post.



There are a few ways to look at this, but before I go further, I'd say your time is probably best spent doing what you're doing, and going through FA these last few days.

As far as the test... people focus on the WTF questions that they had, so bear that in mind. I had a question that mentioned a ridiculous detail, but the way the question was asked, I reasoned my way through to an answer. When I looked it up after my test, I was amazed by how obscure this gene was, but the point of the question was whether or not I could draw an analogy with another gene that I remembered (that was in FA).

Supposedly, NBME is trying to minimize the impact of the popular question banks and FA, but I don't think they're trying to do that by just asking totally random stuff. The way they seem to do it is figure you know what's in FA, and then ask you to use that information to answer a new question. There are still straightforward, "Remember this?" kind of questions, but the hard ones really try to make you work.

Back to the question I mentioned. The odds of me remembering this one random detail were basically zero. That's how random it was. It wasn't in FA, but what was in FA helped me reason my way to the answer. Does that mean FA is incomplete, or does it mean it's good enough? Depends on how you look at things, I guess.

Getting all the way through UW, and going through FA as many times as you have will help you. Just stick with it, and don't let our venting about stuff stress you out.

Great reply, thanks for calming my nerves :laugh: I am 3 days out, you think i should do incorrect questions as well or keep going over FA?

It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

Lol and i was thinking that its only me who is going crazy.Good luck with your exam my exam is 3 days out, i will write my experience before you lol

i had about six weeks of dedicated study time after 2nd year ended. my practice test score progression was:
school cbse: 205
nbme 11 (after two weeks of dedicated study): 226
nbme 6 (four days later): 205 (this was after a LOOONG day of studying)
nbme 5 (two days after nbme6): 233
nbme12 (one week later): 235
uworldSA1 (two days before step1): 261
uworldSA2 (day before step 1): 259


Took mine on June 20th and got the same nbme 12 score and uwsa2 score. I would be ecstatic with a score somewhere in the ballpark. Good luck!

Great reply, thanks for calming my nerves :laugh: I am 3 days out, you think i should do incorrect questions as well or keep going over FA?

Either one, really. If it were me, I'd do one until I got sick of it, then switch to the other; but it depends how much you feel like you're getting out of going over your incorrect q's. Good luck.

Took the test today. Going to make this quick since I can't remember specifics about particular sections...i'm really bad at remembering tests after they are done.

I found my test to be pretty fair and was very similar to the NBMEs (probably not as hard as 11 and 12 though). I would say 95% of it was from First Aid, but as many people have said you need a strong background in addition to knowing the facts to get the harder questions right. I did DIT and although I didn't get any questions on any of the extra material it presented, the random stuff that was in first aid that was emphasized (that I would have otherwise overlooked) came up on my test.

I think the hardest part of my exam was the fatigue at block 5-7. It is probably the MAIN reason why I would have missed questions on those blocks. If fatigue was not an issue and I had First aid down COLD and every word ingrained my head (which I did not - i probably knew 85-90% of it cold) I could see myself getting a 260+ on my exam. If I had to guess I probably got between 75-90% which I would think translates to between 230 and 260, depending on how many dumb mistakes I made/ how lucky I was.

In the end FA + uworld were all you needed. Uworld only helped with seeing how questions can be presented and training yourself on how to think through them. Content wise i'm not sure how much I got out of it that came up on my test.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to everyone who still has to take it! My advice is to work on your weaknesses (they WILL come up) and to stay confident. If you have been working hard you will be fine for this test. It was not as hard as I made it out to be in my head before going in.

Congrats on being done and thanks for the feedback!

Took the test today. Going to make this quick since I can't remember specifics about particular sections...i'm really bad at remembering tests after they are done.

I found my test to be pretty fair and was very similar to the NBMEs (probably not as hard as 11 and 12 though). I would say 95% of it was from First Aid, but as many people have said you need a strong background in addition to knowing the facts to get the harder questions right. I did DIT and although I didn't get any questions on any of the extra material it presented, the random stuff that was in first aid that was emphasized (that I would have otherwise overlooked) came up on my test.

I think the hardest part of my exam was the fatigue at block 5-7. It is probably the MAIN reason why I would have missed questions on those blocks. If fatigue was not an issue and I had First aid down COLD and every word ingrained my head (which I did not - i probably knew 85-90% of it cold) I could see myself getting a 260+ on my exam. If I had to guess I probably got between 75-90% which I would think translates to between 230 and 260, depending on how many dumb mistakes I made/ how lucky I was.

In the end FA + uworld were all you needed. Uworld only helped with seeing how questions can be presented and training yourself on how to think through them. Content wise i'm not sure how much I got out of it that came up on my test.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to everyone who still has to take it! My advice is to work on your weaknesses (they WILL come up) and to stay confident. If you have been working hard you will be fine for this test. It was not as hard as I made it out to be in my head before going in.

Thanks for the write up man. I rescheduled my test because I freaked out! Taking it in a week. I was wondering if you thought the test compared to the Free 150?

Took the test today. Going to make this quick since I can't remember specifics about particular sections...i'm really bad at remembering tests after they are done.

I found my test to be pretty fair and was very similar to the NBMEs (probably not as hard as 11 and 12 though). I would say 95% of it was from First Aid, but as many people have said you need a strong background in addition to knowing the facts to get the harder questions right. I did DIT and although I didn't get any questions on any of the extra material it presented, the random stuff that was in first aid that was emphasized (that I would have otherwise overlooked) came up on my test.

I think the hardest part of my exam was the fatigue at block 5-7. It is probably the MAIN reason why I would have missed questions on those blocks. If fatigue was not an issue and I had First aid down COLD and every word ingrained my head (which I did not - i probably knew 85-90% of it cold) I could see myself getting a 260+ on my exam. If I had to guess I probably got between 75-90% which I would think translates to between 230 and 260, depending on how many dumb mistakes I made/ how lucky I was.

In the end FA + uworld were all you needed. Uworld only helped with seeing how questions can be presented and training yourself on how to think through them. Content wise i'm not sure how much I got out of it that came up on my test.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to everyone who still has to take it! My advice is to work on your weaknesses (they WILL come up) and to stay confident. If you have been working hard you will be fine for this test. It was not as hard as I made it out to be in my head before going in.


Thanks for the reassurance and post. I was starting to freak out a lot based on how much everyone said was 'random' and 20% of the test was stuff they had 'never seen before'. I think most of us on here understand that just memorizing and spitting out facts from first aid isn't going to be enough to nail a good score, but when it comes down to it, we expect most of the information tested on it to be relevant to FA, uworld, goljan, etc.

For what it's worth, most of my friends took the usmle this past week/weekend and when we got together last night they all agreed on one thing : there is definitely stuff on there you haven't seen before - it's not the content that is necessarily new, but the way they ask the question. all of them agreed ( based on what they got asked ) that between 80-90% of their test could have been answered or 'deduced' from first aid, and that 10-20% was going to be based on random knowledge from school or other sources, with a few questions per block that are out of the blue.

anyways, my test is thursday. wish me luck everyone. :xf:

It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

I did look through FA (I annotated EVERYTHING into it from UW and some RR and BRS Physio) and didn't find answers to about 20-25 questions that I remembered. However, that said, I think most of those are "experimental" questions because the only info I could find on them was in research articles or were an obscure disease that isn't in those resources.

That means that probable at least 270 of my questions were from UW or FA so I'd stick with that. I really think that I just got a tough test, at least that is what I am hoping. I'd stick to your plan, you'll do great.

I did look through FA (I annotated EVERYTHING into it from UW and some RR and BRS Physio) and didn't find answers to about 20-25 questions that I remembered. However, that said, I think most of those are "experimental" questions because the only info I could find on them was in research articles or were an obscure disease that isn't in those resources.

That means that probable at least 270 of my questions were from UW or FA so I'd stick with that. I really think that I just got a tough test, at least that is what I am hoping. I'd stick to your plan, you'll do great.

realistically, 10%-15% of the test is always anticipated to be random +/- expiremental stuff, so if 270/322 questions are covered or at least mentioned and made relevant in FA or Uworld i'd say that's pretty legit.

I dunno if i was lucky but I can only remember about 7-8 questions that werent in FA/UW and 2 of those were in RR. I wrote down pretty much everything in UW and that netted me anywhere to 20-30 questions that I def. would have gotten wrong.

so the scores are still expected on july 13 correct?

Took it june 8th so just wondering... thanks!!!!!!

i also found goljan audio useful. in fact, the morning of the exam when i was walking to the testing center, i was listening to one of the kidney lectures and i had 2 questions that i was able to get in the 1st block just bc i was listening to goljan.

Thanks for the write up man. I rescheduled my test because I freaked out! Taking it in a week. I was wondering if you thought the test compared to the Free 150?

I thought mine was similar to the prometric version of the free 150 plus a few more hard questions. The free 150 that you can download was easier than the one at the prometric imo.

I thought mine was similar to the prometric version of the free 150 plus a few more hard questions. The free 150 that you can download was easier than the one at the prometric imo.

Um I'm about 95% sure it's the same thing

If it is just like the prometric, I ll be in disbelief

If it is 95% from FA, I will donate a lot of things from my Apt to the shelter before I leave here :)

Um I'm about 95% sure it's the same thing

the prometric 150 and the free 150? I'm 100% sure it's different...i did both. There are some repeats but alot were different... I think this was the first year it was like that.

If it is just like the prometric, I ll be in disbelief

If it is 95% from FA, I will donate a lot of things from my Apt to the shelter before I leave here :)

Yea my form was pretty chill. I'd say 30?s in each block were at the prometric 150 level. And I definitely had heard of everything in every question...no WTFs (granted I studied all my class lecture notes as well)

I dunno if i was lucky but I can only remember about 7-8 questions that werent in FA/UW and 2 of those were in RR. I wrote down pretty much everything in UW and that netted me anywhere to 20-30 questions that I def. would have gotten wrong.

Similar experience last yr. Used FA/UW/RR. Maybe 5 questions that were completely foreign and had to make a completely uneducated guess

Similar experience last yr. Used FA/UW/RR. Maybe 5 questions that were completely foreign and had to make a completely uneducated guess

Not step 1 related at all. I just wanted to say, your 4th year schedule looks pretty friggin awesome.

Did anyone notice any changes to their page?

I think my Review Document Request History page changed.

At the top it says "Click a Reference ID below to view your original request, view additional processing details, and print the forms that may be required to fulfill your request."

Beneath that, it shows boxes with "Reference ID," "Submission Date," and "Status" and underneath those boxes it says "There is no history."

Has it always said that? b/c i don't remember it saying that and i've check fairly regularly...

Did anyone notice any changes to their page?

I think my Review Document Request History page changed.

At the top it says "Click a Reference ID below to view your original request, view additional processing details, and print the forms that may be required to fulfill your request."

Beneath that, it shows boxes with "Reference ID," "Submission Date," and "Status" and underneath those boxes it says "There is no history."

Has it always said that? b/c i don't remember it saying that and i've check fairly regularly...

Mine says the same as yours. I don't know if it is a change since I don't regularly look at that page. My request documents page is still the same though.

Anybody else have some insight?

Relax, breathe and quit being OCD. It is up when it is up. ;)

should I be able to diff the types of malaria? I can't really tell some of the stages even looking at the pictures

should I be able to diff the types of malaria? I can't really tell some of the stages even looking at the pictures

I rarely if ever had a question where they had a picture and the question hinged on knowing what's on that picture.

However they may describe in words the different malarial forms. The easier thing is just epidemiology - falciparum in Africa, vivax in South America, etc.

Not step 1 related at all. I just wanted to say, your 4th year schedule looks pretty friggin awesome.

Yea I can't wait to be done with M3. Definitely excited

should I be able to diff the types of malaria? I can't really tell some of the stages even looking at the pictures

Know what's in FA. I can recall 2 questions on mine about hypnozoites. How to treat them and which spp. are responsible.

what % of the q's had pics on the actual exam? 20-30ish like in world? or more

do abcde and the arrows work on the actual test? or is it mouse only

what % of the q's had pics on the actual exam? 20-30ish like in world? or more

do abcde and the arrows work on the actual test? or is it mouse only

I never knew you could use the keyboard...

I never knew you could use the keyboard...

Lol, yea. UWorld punishes you for using your keyboard.

not from mars, just from the other side of the world. can someone please be kind enough to tell me what FA and NBSME (hope i got it right) mean. i already know about USMLE. i'm a 300 med student in nigeria who would love to continue studies in the states. thanks in advance

not from mars, just from the other side of the world. can someone please be kind enough to tell me what FA and NBSME (hope i got it right) mean. i already know about USMLE. i'm a 300 med student in nigeria who would love to continue studies in the states. thanks in advance

FA = first aid, it is a series of books written for exams. So if you google First Aid for Step 1 you'll find the book for sale on many bookstore websites.

NBME = national board of medical examiners, it is the governing body over all healthcare examinations in the USA. http://www.nbme.org/

Hi,
I took the test on the 5th which was a Tuesday. I heard we get our results back 3 Wednesday from the date we took it. Will this wed count or do i have to wait three weeks?

thanks

DONE DONE DONE !!!! :D

NBME 6-207
NBME11-210
NBME12-205
NBME7-207
UWSA1-220
UWSA2-230

I was so nervous when i checked in, but as soon as i started answering questions from 1st block i was ease lol ( for sometime ). My exam was heavy on MICRO,PHARM,ETHICAL ( yes ETHICAL) questions. Overall exam covered every single topic from FA. I was surprised that some of the questions were so easy, it was like examiner is telling you what the dx is lol. In each block i had atleast 3-4 questions which i had no clue, i couldn't no clue in question stem. I had no only 3 Female Pelvic questions very easy. 10-11 pictures including ct's, x-rays and histology slides and one brachial plexus question. I had 6 repeat questions from nbme 11, 12 and 7. One question was copy pasted from nbme 7 lol ( CA*** REPEAT DISORDER where you have calculate something and go across chart HINT!!!) No angiograms surprisingly, no Hep question.

Overall exam was well written, and it covered majority of system, only one DNA question which i had no clue what they were asking, drawing was weird.

As you can see my nbme scores, i am just hoping to get atleast >190 i will be happy.

Thanks

Oh 3,5,7 block i marked at least 10-11 questions :o and i am worried , i hope i pass and please keep me in your THOUGHT guys !!

Oh 3,5,7 block i marked at least 10-11 questions :o and i am worried , i hope i pass and please keep me in your THOUGHT guys !!

congrats on being done ! i'm sure you did great

sorry about the grammer, blame corona :zip:

Oh 3,5,7 block i marked at least 10-11 questions :o and i am worried , i hope i pass and please keep me in your THOUGHT guys !!
pppsshhh on block 1-5, i marked 15-23 questions eachh. hahaha im screweddddddddddd

How did you guys mark questions? For the few that I didn't feel I could answer in a minute or so, I just left them unanswered and returned to them after I finished the block. I marked questions that I wanted to double check on if I had time available at the end out of concern for possibly having made a simple mistake.

How did you guys mark questions? For the few that I didn't feel I could answer in a minute or so, I just left them unanswered and returned to them after I finished the block. I marked questions that I wanted to double check on if I had time available at the end out of concern for possibly having made a simple mistake.

I would flag any question i was not 100% sure on. I would add a note (just type a random letter so the note symbol comes up) to any one I really felt I had to come back and look over again. I would leave blank ones that I had no clue / were taking too long to answer. If I was able to review all the ones I added a note to / the blank ones, I would then go over the ones that were just flagged. In the end I marked (in total) 15-20 per block.

.

I'm taking the beast in couple days. I'm going to try and limit myself to 1 min per question - if I can't figure it out in that time, I intend to mark an answer, flag and move on. I didn't really do this in UW until the last several blocks. Wondering if anyone used a similar strategy, or could offer suggestions on mine? Thanks in advance.

Haha....I was wondering the same thing....also, has anyone tried just skipping their weaker areas and hitting them at the end? For instance, I tend to spend a ton of time on questions with lab values or questions asking about drug X/Y....would it be wise to save those till the end? Thanks!

took the test yesterday. Still so exhausted, by the time 430 rolled around I was totally fried. I've gotten some good info from this thread so i'll offer some feedback.

First of all, I have to say, I don't know how much trust i put in the concept that some forms of this test are 'easy' and some are 'hard. I'm absolutely certain that there are various different forms, obviously - and that curves will vary slightly based on this, but I give the NBME enough credit to say that for the most part they don't allow for wild variability from test to test. I just don't think some of us get forms with 100 obscure pelvic anatomy questions while others get a test that was entirely based off first aid or easier concepts.

That being said, the test isn't easy by any means, It's also not impossible. I would agree most with step1Hash's breakdown , I think close to 80% or so of the questions are answerable based on first aid/uworld, maybe 85% if you really memorized the crap out of uworld. Based on First aid ALONE, I would say you can probably regurgitate 50% of the test, and with some proper test taking and deducing skills + FA , likely around 65-70%.


It's not harder than Uworld, It's not easier than Uworld, I would say there are some questions that are harder, and some that are easier, with most around the same difficulty. Difficulty wise it seemed most similar to nbme 11, but with more 'gimmie' questions.

Okay, subject wise, here is what I felt :

Behavioral : super easy. dumb easy. Only a few difficult 'what would you say', or 'what would you do' questions on which more than 1 answer seemed right. This was expected based on other's experiences. The equations/statistics questions were mostly pretty easy, i had 1 really bizarre obscure one.

Embryo: Not a ton. Either very easy or very obscure. Maybe 7-8 questions total. Half i knew from FA, the rest i just guessed.

Biochem : Very straightforward. Not a ton , maybe 5-7 per block. Most of them were straightforward, a few tough ones as expected. Basic diseases/pathways/disorders they always ask.

Cell/Molecular Bio/Genetics : Wow. I would say this section had most of the 'tricky'/difficult questions on this exam. A lot of it was the obvious G receptor/CAMP stuff, but they really made you work for the answer - they often wrapped what they were asking in an obscure experiment or hard to understand concept. There were some easy pedigrees and genetics questions, but also some really hard obscure questions involving random genes and knockout/deletions i hadn't heard of. I can absolutely see why people would say they had questions here that they had never seen/heard of. Again - i think the difficulty was in figuring out WHAT they were asking without wasting a crapload of time. For the ones i didn't know, not even sure where i'd look - they were that obscure.

Micro/Immuno - pretty straightforward for the most part. Immuno was harder than micro. Reasonable amount of easy questions, but a lot of 'made you think' questions. Again, stuff that isn't really mentioned in FA, but you can probably deduce based on what they gave you in First aid. I had a few here that I just didn't know..Probably only 2-3 markers/IL's that i hadn't seen before though. First aid is enough.

Physiology: Some easy, some hard. Some of the arrow questions were definitely tricky, but many were doable based on common sense/ general knowledge. For the most part, first aid was enough.

Anatomy : Expectedly difficult. Some of it I was able to get based on First aid, but a fair amount of it was harder. A good amount of pelvic anatomy as others have mentioned. If i messed up on this test, it's mostly becuase of this section, but Honestly, not anything worth studying. You'll probably get the easier ones right, and the harder ones aren't worth wasting time going through a atlas for. The answers weren't really in HY anatomy either.

Path : Mostly bread and butter. The occasional difficult 'wtf' question on some random pathology or presentation that i had never heard of. Mostly your bread and butter stuff, first aid was enough.

Repro: A decent amount of questions, nothing hard, nothing that wasn't in FA or could be figured out from FA.

Endo: Not too bad. first aid definitely enough.

Neuro: Not too bad, basic lesions/blood supply/diseases you would expect. Mostly bread and butter. First aid is more than enough. Some pics of the brain/stem etc, easy though.

Psych: Easy. Nothing too hard. First aid enough.

GI: Mostly bread and butter. common presentations and drugs, first aid enough.

Cardio: First aid was mostly enough. most questions were physio based. I only had 2-3 murmur questions; but you could often 'figure it out' based on presentation. Path was straightforward. First aid is enough.

Heme/onc - some easy, some hard. most of it is in FA, the stuff that isn't you can likely figure out from FA.


Overall it was a difficult test, but a fair test. As i said before, I can easily see where people would say some questions were out of the blue / way too hard - but again, if you really read into them you could usually see what they were getting at/implying/asking. Wether these are 'experimental' or not is beyond me. I probably had 5-6 questions per block where i really didn't know what they were talking about. I marked questions pretty liberally on some blocks, up to 15-20 on the high end, 5-8 on the low end. I made some dumb mistakes, got some easy questions wrong, and definitely missed stuff that i thought wasn't in first aid - when i got home and looked over FA I saw that most of the stuff i got wrong was in there, just not presented as clearly.

If i could do it again, I don't know what i'd do different. I made some really dumb mistakes, overthought some questions, wasted too much time on the 'superhard' questions..but that's the kind of stuff you can't really prepare for. I'm just happy to be done. Not sure how many questions per block it takes to 'pass', but if the curve is anything like the NBME, where you need 30/46 just to get a 190 - i'm in trouble, haha.

good luck to everyone and feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Hey guys. I just had a question regarding the last week of studying. I have been studying for 6 weeks and taken 4 practice tests. I took my first two UWORLD practice tests and got a 224 and 228. A week later I took the NBME 7 and got a 217. The most recent test last week was nbme 11 and scored a 238. I am perfectly happy with a 238. I think the big difference in the scores was due to goljian RR. I read the RR pathology book after doing the lectures. My school was absolutely terrible in pathology which is a problem because its key to understanding everything. Of course it prides itself on its OMM department though.....lol....thats for another blog.

Think I should take another practice test? I am half way going over uworld for the second time. I plan on reading first aid one more time. I really hate kaplan q bank questions and stopped doing those. I took the free 150 yesterday and got an %88.

I take the comlex three days after the USMLE and while everyone else is out partying the night of the USMLE I get to look forward to doing OMM for three days before the COMLEX.

Another NBME?

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way. The point of this post is to help calm the nerves of my fellow brothers in arms who have yet to take the USMLE. I took it today and was shocked by how easy it was. I went in there with feelings of dread, terrified actually. All I could think about was all of the stuff that I did not know, sure that all of that stuff would be what they tested me on and that I would bomb the damn thing. After every block, I was left thinking "ok, the next block is surely going to kick my ass." Anyway, I got done with the 7th block and realized that I never got my ass kicked. YOU CAN DO IT!
I can say that I went over FA 2X and did 14,000 DIFFERENT practice questions and was still asked MANY RANDOM questions that I had never come across before. For example, random thing about iritis and tattoo removal. Folks, this was a THINKING test. I had very few questions that just straight up required me to regurgitate facts from FA. I'm sure that if I had only read FA 7 times, as opposed to doing so many questions, I would have had a MUCH rougher time. Having done so many questions, I had such a fine tuned sense of what the question was going to ultimately ask after having only read the opening 2-3 sentences of the vignettte. With that being said, I give the test writers a TON of credit for originality. Like I said, this is a THINKING test, requiring more common sense, strategy, and test taking skills than knowing facts from FA.
I don't want to come across as toolish or arrogant, but there was only 1 question out of 322 that I had no idea wtf they were even asking. I spent 3 minutes on the damn thing, reading it over and over, and could not piece it together. I left there thinking I may have missed 10 questions on the entire exam. I mean, 90% of the questions it just seemed like I knew the answer with ultimate certainty. Out of the remaining 10%, 8% of those I felt comfortable choosing the answer that I did after narrowing it down to 2.
As for the breakdown of the exam, it's all a blur. I can say that the previous poster was dead on about the cell bio/genetics stuff being the most challenging. Those were the ones I had the hardest time with. They like to just show you an image, and then they will ask you "What does this mean?" w/o any other background info. Otherwise, the exam didn't seem to have questions that were just straight path, phys, etc. The questions were so unlike UW or any other of the 14000 questions I did. I was really surprised by how original the test writers were. Instead of having specific questions by discipline, my exam as a whole seemed to require the ability to INTEGRATE all of the disciplines for one question. It makes sense though, since that is how real medicine is. If anyone has any questions, I will try to answer. I think I did VERY well, and will post a copy of my score report whenever I get it so as to substantiate everything I've said.

And one other thing...I put in at least 14 hrs/day, doing a MINIMUM of 250 questions per day, annotating in FA. I gained ~10 lbs and became ghost-white. At this point, I haven't been laid (layed?) in over 2 months, and I felt like a weirdo-recluse any time I rarely went out in public to briefly do this or that. I actually cried on the way home from the exam, and I thanked GOD for blessing me with the drive and discipline to get through this. IT WAS NOT EASY.

And one other thing...I put in at least 14 hrs/day, doing a MINIMUM of 250 questions per day, annotating in FA. I gained ~10 lbs and became ghost-white. At this point, I haven't been laid (layed?) in over 2 months, and I felt like a weirdo-recluse any time I rarely went out in public to briefly do this or that. I actually cried on the way home from the exam, and I thanked GOD for blessing me with the drive and discipline to get through this. IT WAS NOT EASY.

You sound stable and well adjusted.

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way. The point of this post is to help calm the nerves of my fellow brothers in arms who have yet to take the USMLE. I took it today and was shocked by how easy it was. I went in there with feelings of dread, terrified actually. All I could think about was all of the stuff that I did not know, sure that all of that stuff would be what they tested me on and that I would bomb the damn thing. After every block, I was left thinking "ok, the next block is surely going to kick my ass." Anyway, I got done with the 7th block and realized that I never got my ass kicked. YOU CAN DO IT!
I can say that I went over FA 2X and did 14,000 DIFFERENT practice questions and was still asked MANY RANDOM questions that I had never come across before. For example, random thing about iritis and tattoo removal. Folks, this was a THINKING test. I had very few questions that just straight up required me to regurgitate facts from FA. I'm sure that if I had only read FA 7 times, as opposed to doing so many questions, I would have had a MUCH rougher time. Having done so many questions, I had such a fine tuned sense of what the question was going to ultimately ask after having only read the opening 2-3 sentences of the vignettte. With that being said, I give the test writers a TON of credit for originality. Like I said, this is a THINKING test, requiring more common sense, strategy, and test taking skills than knowing facts from FA.
I don't want to come across as toolish or arrogant, but there was only 1 question out of 322 that I had no idea wtf they were even asking. I spent 3 minutes on the damn thing, reading it over and over, and could not piece it together. I left there thinking I may have missed 10 questions on the entire exam. I mean, 90% of the questions it just seemed like I knew the answer with ultimate certainty. Out of the remaining 10%, 8% of those I felt comfortable choosing the answer that I did after narrowing it down to 2.
As for the breakdown of the exam, it's all a blur. I can say that the previous poster was dead on about the cell bio/genetics stuff being the most challenging. Those were the ones I had the hardest time with. They like to just show you an image, and then they will ask you "What does this mean?" w/o any other background info. Otherwise, the exam didn't seem to have questions that were just straight path, phys, etc. The questions were so unlike UW or any other of the 14000 questions I did. I was really surprised by how original the test writers were. Instead of having specific questions by discipline, my exam as a whole seemed to require the ability to INTEGRATE all of the disciplines for one question. It makes sense though, since that is how real medicine is. If anyone has any questions, I will try to answer. I think I did VERY well, and will post a copy of my score report whenever I get it so as to substantiate everything I've said.

I would like to congratulate you on a job well done! I really like the confidence in you and I am sure you killed it! Looking forward to seeing your score.....:thumbup:

I know you said u did a ton of questions, may I ask from which sources?..... since u said UW questions were different on your exam...

I only did UW twice since everyone is saying FA and UW is all you need, and I heard kaplan was worthless....
Thanks a lot!

You sound stable and well adjusted.
Not even close, lol. I am barely clinging on to any sense of normalcy. Thank the CREATOR this is just a temporary insanity. However, in case you were being serious (which I'm sure you weren't), yes, I am very stable. I know myself well enough and am comfortable enough with who I am to unflinchingly express who I really am. Yes, I cried. The people that scare me are the ones who are afraid to confront themselves. Those are the ones who are unstable. The fact of the matter is is that I'm a grown-ass man who taught high school science and had a family before I went to med school. No one in my family is a doctor. I decided to do this because I was made for it. I don't know you, but just in case you fit the mold of the majority in this forum, then you can't possibly understand how insulting you seem. In the case that you meant to put a smiley face or a "lol" after your post, then disregard this lecture.

Congratulations on being done! is it possible for you to tell us how long did u prepare for this beast and what sources you used?

I would like to congratulate you on a job well done! I really like the confidence in you and I am sure you killed it! Looking forward to seeing your score.....:thumbup:

I know you said u did a ton of questions, may I ask from which sources?..... since u said UW questions were different on your exam...

I only did UW twice since everyone is saying FA and UW is all you need, and I heard kaplan was worthless....
Thanks a lot!
Ok, here's the breakdown:
I did all of UW, Kaplan, RX, USMLE Consult and thepoint
Most people rank as such: UW>Kaplan>RX>Consult
The way I see it is: thepoint>UW>Consult>RX>Kaplan
I know a lot of people will question ranking Consult above RX and Kaplan. There has been a lot of negative feedback regarding all of the errors in consult. But, let me tell you, even with the MINIMAL errors in consult, it was well worth it. The diversity of the questions in consult was unparalleled. I knew enough from basic sciences that when I saw something that didn't seem right, I looked it up. With that being said, there were maybe 10 blatant errors out of the 2600 questions. I was dismayed after completing consult; I just didn't understand why so many people have bagged on it.
The reason I ranked RX over Kaplan is because of the utility of RX. Kaplan is cool bc it references the pages in FA, but RX actually displays the page. Another thing is that people say that Rx just regurgitates the exact same thing that FA says. This just is not true ALL of the time. There were MANY things in RX that were not in FA; it was like they had a separate team that knew what was lacking in the book and they added some extra details. Now, about thepoint. It isn't an actual test bank per se. I bought these books while in basic sciences, and you have online access to them (they have a different interface than FRED). They're Lippincott Williams and Wilkins books. I, more than even than the almighty UW, highly recommend the following: Lippencott Q & A of biochem, Q & A of micro and immuno, and especially the Q & A patholgy. I also did the BRS genetics and cell bio. People, the Q & A books are VERY challenging (way more challenging than even UW), but they teach you a hell of a lot. I mean, they're so challenging that I got pissed and almost quit a couple of times; but, those are the kind of questions that TEACH...

Haha....I was wondering the same thing....also, has anyone tried just skipping their weaker areas and hitting them at the end? For instance, I tend to spend a ton of time on questions with lab values or questions asking about drug X/Y....would it be wise to save those till the end? Thanks!
I did exactly this. If I saw a graph or anything that looked really "sciencey," I immediately marked it and moved on without even trying to answer it. I usually ended up having 25 minutes at the end to do my 1 or 2 marked questions.

I did exactly this. If I saw a graph or anything that looked really "sciencey," I immediately marked it and moved on without even trying to answer it. I usually ended up having 25 minutes at the end to do my 1 or 2 marked questions.

Great effort man!

May I ask how many hours it would take you per day to go through so many questions?

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way. The point of this post is to help calm the nerves of my fellow brothers in arms who have yet to take the USMLE. I took it today and was shocked by how easy it was. I went in there with feelings of dread, terrified actually. All I could think about was all of the stuff that I did not know, sure that all of that stuff would be what they tested me on and that I would bomb the damn thing. After every block, I was left thinking "ok, the next block is surely going to kick my ass." Anyway, I got done with the 7th block and realized that I never got my ass kicked. YOU CAN DO IT!
I can say that I went over FA 2X and did 14,000 DIFFERENT practice questions and was still asked MANY RANDOM questions that I had never come across before. For example, random thing about iritis and tattoo removal. Folks, this was a THINKING test. I had very few questions that just straight up required me to regurgitate facts from FA. I'm sure that if I had only read FA 7 times, as opposed to doing so many questions, I would have had a MUCH rougher time. Having done so many questions, I had such a fine tuned sense of what the question was going to ultimately ask after having only read the opening 2-3 sentences of the vignettte. With that being said, I give the test writers a TON of credit for originality. Like I said, this is a THINKING test, requiring more common sense, strategy, and test taking skills than knowing facts from FA.
I don't want to come across as toolish or arrogant, but there was only 1 question out of 322 that I had no idea wtf they were even asking. I spent 3 minutes on the damn thing, reading it over and over, and could not piece it together. I left there thinking I may have missed 10 questions on the entire exam. I mean, 90% of the questions it just seemed like I knew the answer with ultimate certainty. Out of the remaining 10%, 8% of those I felt comfortable choosing the answer that I did after narrowing it down to 2.
As for the breakdown of the exam, it's all a blur. I can say that the previous poster was dead on about the cell bio/genetics stuff being the most challenging. Those were the ones I had the hardest time with. They like to just show you an image, and then they will ask you "What does this mean?" w/o any other background info. Otherwise, the exam didn't seem to have questions that were just straight path, phys, etc. The questions were so unlike UW or any other of the 14000 questions I did. I was really surprised by how original the test writers were. Instead of having specific questions by discipline, my exam as a whole seemed to require the ability to INTEGRATE all of the disciplines for one question. It makes sense though, since that is how real medicine is. If anyone has any questions, I will try to answer. I think I did VERY well, and will post a copy of my score report whenever I get it so as to substantiate everything I've said.

14000 Qs? how did you have that much time to do so many Qs?! Thats crazy...I'm just on my 2nd pass of UW and finished Combank for my COMLEX. I'm debating on either finishing UW or just focusing on DIT, FA and pathoma. lol

Great effort man!

May I ask how many hours it would take you per day to go through so many questions?
Really just depends, but the most I was ever able to squeeze into a 14 hr day was 500 questions. Some days just go smoother than others.

14000 Qs? how did you have that much time to do so many Qs?! Thats crazy...I'm just on my 2nd pass of UW and finished Combank for my COMLEX. I'm debating on either finishing UW or just focusing on DIT, FA and pathoma. lol
Well, I went against the grain and only did UW once. I figured seeing different questions would be more beneficial than seeing the same ones twice. I actually did most of Kaplan during second year, so in the 2 months before the exam, I really only did about 12,000 questions. I tried the FA thing, but it was not interactive enough and my mind kept wondering. I guess I just need something to keep me engaged, and doing questions was perfect for me.

Well, I went against the grain and only did UW once. I figured seeing different questions would be more beneficial than seeing the same ones twice. I actually did most of Kaplan during second year, so in the 2 months before the exam, I really only did about 12,000 questions. I tried the FA thing, but it was not interactive enough and my mind kept wondering. I guess I just need something to keep me engaged, and doing questions was perfect for me.

I completely agree. You need to compare the gains from repeating FA vs the gains from covering new material from QBanks. I think 2-3 times covering FA is great - anything more than that is counter-productive.

i really hope my exam on wednesday is really HY in everything I'm really good at and low yield in the stuff i suck at lol

i really hope my exam on wednesday is really HY in everything I'm really good at and low yield in the stuff i suck at lol
I firmly believe that luck definitely plays a huge part in it.

I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way. The point of this post is to help calm the nerves of my fellow brothers in arms who have yet to take the USMLE. I took it today and was shocked by how easy it was. I went in there with feelings of dread, terrified actually. All I could think about was all of the stuff that I did not know, sure that all of that stuff would be what they tested me on and that I would bomb the damn thing. After every block, I was left thinking "ok, the next block is surely going to kick my ass." Anyway, I got done with the 7th block and realized that I never got my ass kicked. YOU CAN DO IT!
I can say that I went over FA 2X and did 14,000 DIFFERENT practice questions and was still asked MANY RANDOM questions that I had never come across before. For example, random thing about iritis and tattoo removal. Folks, this was a THINKING test. I had very few questions that just straight up required me to regurgitate facts from FA. I'm sure that if I had only read FA 7 times, as opposed to doing so many questions, I would have had a MUCH rougher time. Having done so many questions, I had such a fine tuned sense of what the question was going to ultimately ask after having only read the opening 2-3 sentences of the vignettte. With that being said, I give the test writers a TON of credit for originality. Like I said, this is a THINKING test, requiring more common sense, strategy, and test taking skills than knowing facts from FA.
I don't want to come across as toolish or arrogant, but there was only 1 question out of 322 that I had no idea wtf they were even asking. I spent 3 minutes on the damn thing, reading it over and over, and could not piece it together. I left there thinking I may have missed 10 questions on the entire exam. I mean, 90% of the questions it just seemed like I knew the answer with ultimate certainty. Out of the remaining 10%, 8% of those I felt comfortable choosing the answer that I did after narrowing it down to 2.
As for the breakdown of the exam, it's all a blur. I can say that the previous poster was dead on about the cell bio/genetics stuff being the most challenging. Those were the ones I had the hardest time with. They like to just show you an image, and then they will ask you "What does this mean?" w/o any other background info. Otherwise, the exam didn't seem to have questions that were just straight path, phys, etc. The questions were so unlike UW or any other of the 14000 questions I did. I was really surprised by how original the test writers were. Instead of having specific questions by discipline, my exam as a whole seemed to require the ability to INTEGRATE all of the disciplines for one question. It makes sense though, since that is how real medicine is. If anyone has any questions, I will try to answer. I think I did VERY well, and will post a copy of my score report whenever I get it so as to substantiate everything I've said.
What kind of scores were you getting on the practice tests if you took any?

What kind of scores were you getting on the practice tests if you took any?
Didn't do any NBMEs. Thought I would learn more doing questions w/ explanations

Didn't do any NBMEs. Thought I would learn more doing questions w/ explanations

What about uworld percentage?

What about uworld percentage?
Final avg was in the upper 70s

I did exactly this. If I saw a graph or anything that looked really "sciencey," I immediately marked it and moved on without even trying to answer it. I usually ended up having 25 minutes at the end to do my 1 or 2 marked questions.

That's what I did too. I personally feel it's a great strategy. Let's you get into a rhythm and prevents you from being psyched out while still having enough time to answer those

Not even close, lol. I am barely clinging on to any sense of normalcy. Thank the CREATOR this is just a temporary insanity. However, in case you were being serious (which I'm sure you weren't), yes, I am very stable. I know myself well enough and am comfortable enough with who I am to unflinchingly express who I really am. Yes, I cried. The people that scare me are the ones who are afraid to confront themselves. Those are the ones who are unstable. The fact of the matter is is that I'm a grown-ass man who taught high school science and had a family before I went to med school. No one in my family is a doctor. I decided to do this because I was made for it. I don't know you, but just in case you fit the mold of the majority in this forum, then you can't possibly understand how insulting you seem. In the case that you meant to put a smiley face or a "lol" after your post, then disregard this lecture.


Dear
I studied medicine in caribbean medical college
I completed MD in caribbean.
There is no necessity of step 1 before starting rotations.

I thought I can do step 1 after completing the rotations so that i will can correlate both the practical aspect so that iwill score good in step 1 and step 2 also
But it seems to be a wrong decision

I have to study everything from scratch
I have 8 months starting from july 30th
can you tell me what are the books which i have to study
what is the plan i can follow
what are the qbanks that i can study so that i can score something nearby 95
thanks so much

Dear
I studied medicine in caribbean medical college
I completed MD in caribbean.
There is no necessity of step 1 before starting rotations.

I thought I can do step 1 after completing the rotations so that i will can correlate both the practical aspect so that iwill score good in step 1 and step 2 also
But it seems to be a wrong decision

I have to study everything from scratch
I have 8 months starting from july 30th
can you tell me what are the books which i have to study
what is the plan i can follow
what are the qbanks that i can study so that i can score something nearby 95
thanks so much
Read above. I already went into the details of how I studied. Just remember that one size does not fit all.

Well, I went against the grain and only did UW once. I figured seeing different questions would be more beneficial than seeing the same ones twice. I actually did most of Kaplan during second year, so in the 2 months before the exam, I really only did about 12,000 questions. I tried the FA thing, but it was not interactive enough and my mind kept wondering. I guess I just need something to keep me engaged, and doing questions was perfect for me.

Thanks for the write up man. It took me a long time to figure this out, but I agree with you, reading FA over and over isn't very interactive. I've got 1.5 weeks left before exam day, and I'm just hitting UW hard. It's exhausting, but I hope it'll pay off in the end.

no problemo and good luck to you!

Ok, here's the breakdown:
I did all of UW, Kaplan, RX, USMLE Consult and thepoint
Most people rank as such: UW>Kaplan>RX>Consult
The way I see it is: thepoint>UW>Consult>RX>Kaplan

I did the qbank questions on Consult from RR Biochem. Of the ~350 questions, I counted something along the line of 15-20 significant errors in either the answers or the explanations / justifications. If Consult's regular Qbank is anything like the one provided with the RR book, I'll have to take your own impression with more than a few grains of salt.

took mine earlier today. i think it was very similar to a couple of people who posted a few weeks earlier about tests with a ton of repro. i probably had a repro question every 4th question, no joke. most stems started out with a pregnant chick, i had tumors in pregnant chicks, midgets trying to get pregnant, ethic questions regarding pregnant chicks, all of my pathophys questions were repro related, pregnant chicks with gallstones, pregnant chicks with mental problems, babies with mental problems, babies with big balls, etc.

i did the "memorize" first aid thing and it didn't really seem to help me much. i probably got 30ish questions right off the bat with it, but overall my time probably could have been better spent on another qbank (i did uworld and kaplan).

my drug questions were super easy, all moa's and of course which of the following would be contraindicated in pregnancy. i actually had a question RIGHT after another question i would have missed, but it literally answered the previous question in the stem so i went back and changed my answer.

i had very little phys, and the questions i did have were very easy (like how does adh work, seriously).

overall i didn't think it was too bad, just way too much repro for my taste. oh, and i almost forgot, i had the baclofen question someone mentioned earlier. make sure you wiki that drug and just read about it for a few mins. also, while you're at it, check out death cap mushroom.

i think i had a weird test so i don't think this will be of much help to most people, but you never know.

good luck to those taking it within the next few weeks !

I did the qbank questions on Consult from RR Biochem. Of the ~350 questions, I counted something along the line of 15-20 significant errors in either the answers or the explanations / justifications. If Consult's regular Qbank is anything like the one provided with the RR book, I'll have to take your own impression with more than a few grains of salt.
I didn't do those. Don't get me wrong. The questions were poorly written relative to the other banks and there were many editing errors, but I was referring to outdated/false info type of errors. If you can overlook the annoying little mistakes and make it through all of the questions, I believe you will have learned more from consult than kaplan. The main reason I ranked them the way I did was based on which banks taught me the most that I didn't already know. Take it with as many grains of salt as you need, or don't take it at all for all I care. I'm not trying to sell anyone anything; just gave my impressions, and impressions are like *******s.

For those who already took the exam, would you say that there is less emphasis on "do you know this detail" questions and more emphasis on "can you apply this concept" questions?

Time is winding down for me, and I'm just nervous because I don't feel like I have FA memorized at all. I think I just know the main/important topics, but that's about it. :scared:

For those who already took the exam, would you say that there is less emphasis on "do you know this detail" questions and more emphasis on "can you apply this concept" questions?

Time is winding down for me, and I'm just nervous because I don't feel like I have FA memorized at all. I think I just know the main/important topics, but that's about it. :scared:
I was freaking out the night before, and I kept getting out of bed to look up random details in FA that I couldn't remember. I just knew that I'd be asked all of the stuff I didn't know, but it never happened. It's more of a conceptual exam.

I had a much more detail oriented exam.

I was freaking out the night before, and I kept getting out of bed to look up random details in FA that I couldn't remember. I just knew that I'd be asked all of the stuff I didn't know, but it never happened. It's more of a conceptual exam.

y'all probably had a very similar exam :laugh:

I had a much more detail oriented exam.

y'all probably had a very similar exam :laugh:
:laugh: totally true.

I guess there's really no way to tell :(

I'm just nervous because I've only done 1 pass of FA so far. I still have a good chunk of UW to do, so I'm working through that at the moment. The way things look so far, I'll be finishing UW 2 days before the exam, then I'll probably look over the sections of FA that I still have trouble with in 1 day, and then take the other day before the exam off.

There's so much pressure, I don't know how you guys deal with it. I wake up every morning looking at my calendar and feeling like I want to puke.

I guess there's really no way to tell :(

I'm just nervous because I've only done 1 pass of FA so far. I still have a good chunk of UW to do, so I'm working through that at the moment. The way things look so far, I'll be finishing UW 2 days before the exam, then I'll probably look over the sections of FA that I still have trouble with in 1 day, and then take the other day before the exam off.

There's so much pressure, I don't know how you guys deal with it. I wake up every morning looking at my calendar and feeling like I want to puke.
that

that

lol. ar2388, i know you had a tough time with the test, but i hope you get the score you want :) i have a feeling i'm going to be going through what you went through on test day.

I guess there's really no way to tell :(

I'm just nervous because I've only done 1 pass of FA so far. I still have a good chunk of UW to do, so I'm working through that at the moment. The way things look so far, I'll be finishing UW 2 days before the exam, then I'll probably look over the sections of FA that I still have trouble with in 1 day, and then take the other day before the exam off.

There's so much pressure, I don't know how you guys deal with it. I wake up every morning looking at my calendar and feeling like I want to puke.

Haha....sometimes I wake up, look at my calendar, and go back to bed...

For those who already took the exam, would you say that there is less emphasis on "do you know this detail" questions and more emphasis on "can you apply this concept" questions?

Time is winding down for me, and I'm just nervous because I don't feel like I have FA memorized at all. I think I just know the main/important topics, but that's about it. :scared:

Universally, you will have the full range of replies. Of course there are going to be random factoid questions, but I felt that if you truly are strong at applying concepts and integration, then you are far better off.

Many people say they understand the concepts and they got pimped on random questions, but oftentimes they are lying to themselves. Even on the questions I was completely clueless about, I was able to calm myself down and narrow my choices by looking at the answer choices, word derivations, etc.

Haha....sometimes I wake up, look at my calendar, and go back to bed...

lol, i envy you.

Universally, you will have the full range of replies. Of course there are going to be random factoid questions, but I felt that if you truly are strong at applying concepts and integration, then you are far better off.

Many people say they understand the concepts and they got pimped on random questions, but oftentimes they are lying to themselves. Even on the questions I was completely clueless about, I was able to calm myself down and narrow my choices by looking at the answer choices, word derivations, etc.

Thanks. I'm banking on my test taking skills and reasoning to get me through this rather than pure memorization of FA. I'm generally really bad at memorizing stuff, but better at figuring things out (was a physics/math person in undergrad fwiw). I just hope that I'm not shooting myself in the foot by not doing more passes of FA. It's just really hard to sit and read, since most of the time my mind starts wandering.

lol, i envy you.



Thanks. I'm banking on my test taking skills and reasoning to get me through this rather than pure memorization of FA. I'm generally really bad at memorizing stuff, but better at figuring things out (was a physics/math person in undergrad fwiw). I just hope that I'm not shooting myself in the foot by not doing more passes of FA. It's just really hard to sit and read, since most of the time my mind starts wandering.

Integration and reasoning of concepts will get you the majority of the way through the test in my opinion; and it will also help

However for a lot of the questions as well, it's just straightforward memorize-regurgitate. Not super intuitive unfortunately. I recall having a question (relatively easy but still) which asked about what the second messengers were for a dopamine-1 receptor (got this right but I can't remember what it actually is lol) - this is something which I got just from straight up memorizing FA.

The Calm before the STORM. . . .

July 16-17: carmaggedon?

July 13: nbme-aggedon.

Start stocking up on water bottles and dry goods this week. This week may get messy.

so i was going over FA ck, and i saw a picture in Derm section, which was on step1 exam, and i got that wrong, i had it right but i changed it to wrong answer. I took mine on 7th july i marked atleast 11-14 questions which i was not sure about 3-5-7 blocks. I feel like peucking every time i look at calender :scared:

So, I fled the anticipatory 7/13 thread to try and dodge some of the neuroticism, but I figured I'd say good luck to everyone "expecting" tomorrow.

I will be checking my score as soon as I can. After rounds I guess. Will try and add to the "here's what I did" posts in this thread if my results make that useful.

So, I fled the anticipatory 7/13 thread to try and dodge some of the neuroticism, but I figured I'd say good luck to everyone "expecting" tomorrow.

I will be checking my score as soon as I can. After rounds I guess. Will try and add to the "here's what I did" posts in this thread if my results make that useful.


Good luck, you will be fine...and let us know :luck::luck::luck:

Looks like they may not start releasing scores until noon tomorrow.

This was sent by the nbme to our school:

The scores for the majority of examinees who took Step 1 starting in mid-May through late June will be released Wednesday, July 13. Email notifications of score availability will be sent to these students STARTING AT 12:00 PM, but it may take several hours to send all emails. Although the NBME has increased server capacity, note that over 13,000 students are likely to access the NBME Licensing Examination Services website to retrieve their score reports. The following paragraph has been added to the standard email notification that you will receive on Wednesday, July 13:

Your USMLE Step 1 SCORE REPORT is available on the NBME Licensing Examination Services (NLES) website. Due to a larger-than-normal score release today (Wednesday, July 13), examinees may experience some delays in accessing their results, depending upon the level of server traffic on reporting day. If you encounter a delay or an error message, please close the window and try again later today or tonight.

Thanks for the post Rapplix

Hey guys! Took the beast today and it went ok. I counted ~25 that I missed but there were probably more. At this point, I'm just hoping some of it won't count...lol

I got saddled with a ton of pelvic anatomy and repro. Like the poster above said....every other lady was pregnant haha. The good news is...I only memorized 25% of the drugs in first aid and thankfully, only got one drug I didn't know.

The bummer was, I had like 5 biochem questions at most and biochem is my strong suit but perhaps I'm just remembering my faults...here's the breakdown:

Behavioral: some really easy PPV and prevalence crap but one hard one on calculating r coefficient using a graph
Biochem: ~5....all really easy. First aid was definitely enough.
Pharm: know the pharm section well...it will literally get you the majority of pharm questions. I did have one where it asked how to make MPTP...I had no clue so guessed
Micro: wish I learned the DNA circular/noncircular/+/- crap but all well...was burning out at the end so didn't bother reviewing it. Other then that, I only had one bug I really didn't know but guessed correctly
Immuno: I only got like 3 questions here...too bad because I like immuno. First aid seemed to be enough

Organ systems: Like I said, I ended up with a lot of repro but Pathoma prepared me well. I also got a lot of derm questions surprisingly which Pathoma also prepared me for. Other then that...a one heart sound (easy), a couple of lung patho questions, and really nitpicky questions about gastric enzymes....which I only got right because I read BRS physio 2 days before taking the test.

Overall, I'd say First aid and pathoma were the way to go. If I had to do it all over again...I'd just focus on First aid, Pathoma, and BRS physio. I ended up only studying for 3 weeks...wish I had more time but duty calls. Here are my stats:

April: NBME 3- 183.....I took it because my school offered it for free and I just wanted to see where I was at
June: NBME 5- 193....I took this right before studying
2 weeks later- Pometric Practice test: 85%, NBME 7: 231

That's all I did lol. At this point, I'm just hoping to pass. Good luck everyone! I'm glad I can now move to another trend but pm me if you have questions. To those who came before me...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE HELP!

test day may 17th
238/99

The whole wait I thought I did terrible.
Good luck to everyone today !

244/99

I'm happy, for sure. :)

Took mine this past monday july 11.

I had about 5-10 exact NBME repeats from 6-12. Overall, the exam went well. Here's a breakdown:

Behavior - basic calculations, but mainly "quote" questions

Biochem - very basic and not too specific, or difficult

Embryo - FA was enough

Micro - classic presentations, identify bug. no virus structure at all (thank god)

Immuno - more like immuno path, interpret some graphs, mainly application q's

General Path - FA was fine

Pharm - much easier than basic science pharm. classic stuff, AE

Cardio - 2 murmurs, one i knew based on the vignette, 2 equations, a graph and a very hard ekg lol had noo idea .. cardiopath q's were HY stuff

Endocrine - FA was enough

GIT - some CTs that seemed difficult, but once u knew what they wanted and also figured out what side the arrow was on, and where you were in the abdomen (i had a pelvis CT), you could make a good guess. other than that, FA GIT was enough. phys was basic hormone stuff, a graph

Heme/Onc - no auer rods (wtf!), classic stuff.

MSK - rotator cuff, some nerve lesions, HY diseases etc.

Neuro - where is the lesion type deal, mainly imaged, spinal cord x-section .. not bad if you know your neuro

Psych - basic presentations, choose problem

Renal - mainly phys, HY stuff (i.e. efferent/afferent and how that changes things if u dilate/constrict), path was HY stuff

Cell Bio - some stuff not in FA but gained from UW and from ugrad knowledge

The questions where you had to read a graph were not bad. Find out what they want, read the axes and go for it. I don't think I had 'experimental' questions? I think these are the questions that ppl call "wtf questions" lol. Everything on my test seemed like I saw it somewhere once before either in basic science or in ugrad with the exception of a few diseases.

After basic science, I was strict FA, DIT and UWx1. Also used HYN and HYA. Good luck to people who still have to take it. The best thing you can do for yourself is be confident and don't let the nerves get to you! It's only a test, not someone with a gun in your face. You got thisssssss.

So no scores til noon??

Sweet flying space monkeys I'm finally done with that. Off for some sun soon!

Quick brief recap (I may post a bigger one later)

Exam was overall pretty fair. It was about UW difficulty, with a few easier questions, a few harder questions, mostly in the middle. My preparation definitely helped me for most of them and even the ones which I wasn't entirely sure about, I managed to make educated guesses on. Until I know how the curve is however I absolutely refuse to speculate on the score.

By subject:

Embryo - pretty simple, often very straightforward. There was only one embryo question which took me a minute and then I smacked myself in the head. Overall not that many, maybe 1-2 per section.

Anatomy - straightforward anatomy was fairly low yield, but I had something like 3 or 4 questions on the prostate/pelvis, which has always been tough for me. However I think I managed to approximate a good answer for many of them and that's really all I can ask for. There were a couple of ridiculously easy ones too though to even it out (including a common peroneal nerve fracture at the fibular neck).

Path/Pathophys/Phys - by far the biggest component of the exam. There were a few up/down arrows per section which weren't too bad, and only one of them really stumped me for a bit, but I think I figured it out. Also I really wish they didn't use "+" signs as it confuses me which answers I crossed out and which ones I didn't sometimes as a result. Overall this is fairly high yield stuff, and ranges from very straightforward to somewhat tough.

Pharm - surprisingly, this was one of the simplest. Most of the questions were straightforward mechanisms of action or side effects. A few required some thinking but otherwise it was fairly good. Only one of the questions really confused me and I think I made a good educated guess nonetheless.

Biochemistry - also surprisingly, not that hard. A few questions were on lipid metabolism, a few were glycogen storage diseases, and a few were lysosomal storage diseases as well. This was probably the biggest surprise for me since I had spent a lot of time expecting very very tough vignettes on these, and I came out feeling pretty good about it.

Molecular bio/Genetics - also not that bad, fair mix of easy and hard questions. There was one random question about "hydropathicity" for which I had no effing clue what they were talking about but otherwise it was pretty straightforward. A lot of them involved lab techniques and interpreting them, and there were a few pedigrees. There were also 2 or 3 questions amazingly which involved hardy weinberg stuff, so I'm glad that I paid attention to this.

Immunology/Micro - there's been speculation on whether this was super high yield since they're "shaking it up" a bit and adding new questions... and to be honest I don't know. Most of the immuno questions were very simple and straightforward, or required a little understanding of maturation processes (which you should be able to dredge up from your immuno courses if you were taught it well). I had only one vaccine question, and it was the expected "which of these has the most immunogenicity" one. There were a couple micro diseases I was unsure of but I managed to narrow it down and guess for one, and the other was some random disease "from Minnesota" and asked for what two other diseases were carried by the same vector. Not too bad.

Behavioral - ooo this got a little tricky at times. The ethics questions/"situation" questions could get a little rough and there was one situation I had never come across on a practice question but I think I guessed it correctly. The psych was for the most part simple and straightforward. Amazingly I had a grand total of ONE psych drugs question, and it was a mechanism of action question... definitely overstudied those, but better safe than sorry.

Neuro - THANK GOD, no brainstem pictures. There were a few side views/gross views of the brain talking about different lesions and such, but they were either obvious or they required a small bit of thinking to figure out (aphasias, middle cerebral artery strokes, etc). Had some extraocular muscle questions and a spinal cord cross section question which were easily discernible. I had only 2 or 3 drug questions on neuro and they were all very straightforward.

Biostats - I'm very thankful I looked at the equations and definitions last night. I had at least 3 or 4 questions on study designs and a couple questions on math stuff. These are very easy points to get and you can do yourself a favor by not skimping on the biostats!

What I did, and also what I shouldn't have done:

- Raymon's pharm lectures were CLUTCH for this exam, and I am so glad I did them.
- UW and FA are golden. There were a few details from FA that I got as questions on the exam which people sometimes skim over. DON'T.
- Kaplan qbank was definitely waaaaaaay harder and more nitpicky, but it provided good practice. Also, the font used by them is the same as the one on the real interface, which was nice.
- Goljan was... sort of helpful in the end. He helped me learn some of the concepts but not that many of his "high yield" things came up on the exam, and most of them were in FA already anyway. It was definitely absolutely worth it to go through though.
- I would have spent more time on Behavioral Ethics in retrospect.
- You're going to come out of some sections feeling like crap. Don't worry about it. You probably did fine.
- I doubt an extra week would have helped me get a higher grade and I think the time I spent was sufficient.

All in all, glad I'm done, and glad that's over. Peace out!

Final score: 251/99

Prior practice tests:

USMLERx Exam 1: 238
USMLERx Exam 2: 240
NBME 11: 240
NBME 7: 250
NBME 12: 238
UWSA1: 265/800
UWSA2: 265/800
Final UW Average, second pass: 80% (timed blocks), First pass: 70% (tutored)
Final Kaplan Average: 74%

So it looks like in the end, my score was closest to my NBME 7 score, so I guess there's *some* validity to that argument that it's the closest approximation? haha.

Overall, no complaints.

1

252/99

Not impressive by SDN standards, but I'm happy!
Practice scores were, in order:
nbme5: 220 (baseline)
uw1: 252 one week in
uw2: 244 2 weeks in
nbme11: 243 2.5 weeks in
nbme12: 247 3.5 weeks in

Just got my score: 249. Very happy! I took the exam on 5/27 and my score report was available at about 11 am, for those who are interested.

Score estimates:
Medfriends.org: 247 from the QBank, 262 from Free 150 Q's, 241 from NBME, 253 from MCAT

Kaplan Diagnostic Exam: 62% - end of 3rd semester
Kaplan USMLE Practice exam: 65% - 1 month before
UWSA 2: 242 / 610 - 2 1/2 weeks out
NBME #12: 242 / 590 - 1 week out
UWSA 1: 250 / 660 - 2 days prior
Uworld Overall: 71%
Kaplan Qbank: 64% overall, 73% last 400 q
Actual USMLE Step 1: 249/99
COMBANK: 79%
COMLEX Level 1 - 601/89, 3 days after (not my best performance--I was pretty burnt out by this point)

I spent the bulk of my time in the last couple of weeks going through UWorld as thoroughly as I could, and got through it all the way once. I went back through some missed questions, but I was scoring so highly on those I'm pretty sure I'd just memorized the questions. I switched to going through FA after I finished UW, though I didn't spend as much time on FA as I could have. Anyway, it worked for me. Oddly enough, I left the USMLE feeling like I'd done ok, but figured more in the 230-240 range. COMLEX, I left thinking, "Wtf was that?" and REAAAALLY wasn't sure how I'd done. Thankfully, both turned out fine.

So I got my score I got a 225/97 and I know that's terrible by SDN standards but I'm happy with it
I started off doing an NBME and got a 177 or so so I made like a 50 point jump in 4 weeks
My score report was kind of surprising though I was borderline in Behavior even though I scored like 80-90% on my uworld and thought that'd be my strong suit.
Anyway good luck to all of the people who still have to take it I wish you all the best

Took the test a week ago, so with some time to digest what happend:

The greatest tool for me was definitely gunner training. I did not use it as extensively as I should have during the year and if I had another month I would have attempted to hit completion for the mastery portion. There are parts that are definitely overkill in terms of exam material, but seeing it every day repeatedly helps the concepts stick in your head. Again for those that prefer the flashcard model, this is definitely a system that works.

After that, it has to be First Aid, Goljan, and UWorld. I used Goljan extensively throughout the year while studying for Path and concepts that he taught repeatedly came up on the real thing. Listen to his audio as many times as necessary for your studies.

Know First Aid front to back. Even one word in first aid can alter the answer you put down and I know that a couple times I would remember the page the answer was on but just couldn't bring out the specific memory I needed.

UWorld is awesome for both learning and getting used to the format of the test. It really represents a cross-section of the type of questions you may see, although it does tend to be a bit more knitpicky than the real thing.

Other than that, I used various review books here and there but it really comes down to how well you laid the foundation during the first two years because it is pretty difficult to squeeze in all the random anatomy and extraneous bits of info that you may come across during those 6 weeks.

Practice tests, roughly chronological
NBME6 - 235
NBME7, 11, 12 - 240s
UWSA 1,2 - 250s 260s
free 150 - 92%
real thing - ?

And finally, please get a good night's sleep the night before. I didn't and I probably ended up with at least another 5, 6 questions incorrect because I was simply dead beat after not getting enough rest. If I could change one thing about how I studied, getting sleep would be at the top of the list.

Good luck to everybody who has taken and will be taking the test. Now for the waiting game. :laugh:

252. The adrenalin probably kicked in by the time my test started...anyways wouldnt recommend that route bc I would be kicking myself if I had not done as well over something as silly as not sleeping..

To reiterate: gunnertraining, Goljan, FA, Uworld. Add in other stuff as needed, but the above is a solid combo. Foremost was GT bc I am certain on a great number of questions it allowed me to rely on fact recall that had become automatic.

real deal: 228, had an insane test.

So disappointed. Its as if I would have gotten a much better score if I took it on a different day.
Ortho/Rads might be out of the question now :(


nbme 12: 245
nbme 11: 247
uwsa2: 248

MCAT:37

229! So happy to be over with.

4/24 NBME 6 165
5/1 UWSA 1 186
5/8 NBME 11 193
5/15 UWSA 2 206
5/30 NBME 12 210
6/6 DIT predictive 231
6/6 NBME 7 224

6/15 real deal 229/99

Man what a ride, I'm very happy with my score. Of course it pales in comparison to all the sdn superstars. I never would have thought I would improve 64 points from my baseline. DIT was a gem for me. With that I focused on FA and UW. My UW percentage ended up around 53% so the magic formula didn't apply to me(thankfully) but that could be because I had such a big progression over my study period.

Posting from a Blackberry, so I'll elaborate more on strategy/tips later (I can't even really find my old post-exam post on this thread).

237/99

A bit disappointed since I studied my brains out for this test and really wanted to at least break 240. I had also scored >250 on some nbmes, so this really feels like a slide downwards from what I was expecting.

MCAT - 31
Kaplan COMLEX diag - 61%
Final qbank avg (2 months out) - 67%
Final Uconsult avg - 71%
". UW avg - 74%

Have to look up NBME scores later.

Just took it today, and I will just say that the real exam was helluva lot harder than the NBME exams and much more random than the UWorld QBank. It wasn't even in the "If I'd spent a bit more time reviewing this material or thought smarter, I'd have known this" category but rather the "I know this disease/anatomy but WTF I've never heard of the obscure detail this question is asking for" category. Lame. At this point, all I can do is rely on the curve. Frankly, I thought UWorld was easier than the real exam. Pretty much most of UWorld can be answered using the information from FA, but I'd say only about 70% of the material on the real exam covered details I had seen in FA.

Not to mention, many of the questions had long and extensive clinical vignettes...I finished each block in time, but I was sometimes cutting it close there and seldom had much time to review (as opposed to the NBME exams, where I had around 15 minutes left after my initial run).

Edit: Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from: Got 245 on the last 3 NBME exams I took (11, 7, and 6).

So I just got back my score, and I ended up scoring higher than I'd ever gotten on any of my practice exams (>245). Huh. I guess test impressions have little bearing on actual scores; considering that my exam included a whole bunch of WTF questions, I was expecting anywhere from a 220 to a 240 based on my mood after the exam.

As for my study habits if anyone is interested:

I just used First Aid, USMLEWorld, and the NBME exams for a period of 6 weeks. No other books. Read through FA once, completed the USMLEWorld QBank, then read through FA again. For USMLEWorld, I went through the whole QBank once in untimed tutor mode and made sure to read all the answer explanations, both correct and incorrect.

Lesson of the day: Don't get bugged out when you find the exam difficult yet hear everyone saying his/her exam was easy/doable/etc. The curve will correct for this.

If I took the test on june30th when can I expect my scores? Thanks.

If I took the test on june30th when can I expect my scores? Thanks.

3 wednesdays after the week of your exam. congrats on finishing!