I saw that there was a similar thread for 2011 that had plenty of useful info so I figured its best to start one for 2012. 
Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
- Thread starter amavir281
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I picked it up in late January I think. I wish I had started earlier with pathbio which we had in the Fall before the systems-based pathology started in the second half of the year. Your second question actually reminds me (and sorry for the slip, it has been a while since I've thought about Kaplan) that I actually did go through Kaplan adding each system as we covered it. MAJOR point that I totally forgot about, so my bad. I didn't limit the disciplines within the system I was covering though. That is, my first path unit was respiratory so I'd check the respiratory system box only, but for categories within the system (biochem, anatomy, pharm, physio, path, etc.) I'd check all of the boxes that way I'm getting solid review which was still beyond the scope of what was being covered in proximity to my school's path unit. Eventually the systems start to pile up. Moving to UWorld, I was a little worried that I might have lost a step in my earlier systems because obviously early on your blocks are going to be heavy in a given system where later your study is going to be more dilute due to the addition of other systems, and your early systems are going to suffer dilution to a greater degree since you already knocked out a large portion of those questions. I found this wasn't the case though. I still had a respiratory question here and there at the end of working with Kaplan, and that was enough to jar my memory.
Just got out of my exam on 6/19.
Practice exam scores:
School CBSE 250 (5 weeks out)
NBME 7 259 (4 weeks out)
UWSA 1 261 (3 weeks out)
NBME 13 261 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2 264 (10 days out)
NBME 12 261 (5 days out)
The real test felt harder than any of the practice exams. I will admit that I felt poor after I finished the practice exams, but the immediate relief of a good score at the end always changed my mind. The real deal just felt more difficult.
I was hoping for anything 250+ but now I'll be happy with 230 lol. I know this is a common theme around here so I hope that on exam day I'll be pleasantly surprised.
My study strategies weren't typical but weren't too far from the norm either. If I get a good score I can post more about it. Will let you guys know July 11th.
Practice exam scores:
School CBSE 250 (5 weeks out)
NBME 7 259 (4 weeks out)
UWSA 1 261 (3 weeks out)
NBME 13 261 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2 264 (10 days out)
NBME 12 261 (5 days out)
The real test felt harder than any of the practice exams. I will admit that I felt poor after I finished the practice exams, but the immediate relief of a good score at the end always changed my mind. The real deal just felt more difficult.
I was hoping for anything 250+ but now I'll be happy with 230 lol. I know this is a common theme around here so I hope that on exam day I'll be pleasantly surprised.
My study strategies weren't typical but weren't too far from the norm either. If I get a good score I can post more about it. Will let you guys know July 11th.
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Thanks for clearing that up!
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In surveys of residency program directors, step 1 is consistently rated higher than pre-clinical grades (which are often much much lower down on the list), except in fields like family medicine where neither is rated very high (in contrast to the more competitive fields). You're correct that board scores aren't viewed in a vacuum, but the grades that are taken into consideration with them are the clinical grades. Step 1 is standardized, so I guess it is considered a much more useful comparison of basic science knowledge/performance.
The other factor is that many schools, like mine, are Pass/Fail and don't disclose class rank from the first two years anyways, so preclinical grades are worthless at that point anyways...hopefully my step 1 score turns out to be excellent (hopefully at my practice NBME score range) and PD's can just assume I was getting 90%+ in blocks during the first two years, even though my actual scores were much lower than that...
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A lot of schools say that the first two years are "unranked" but I always hear that the cat is let out of the bag in the MSPE and of course the presence/absence of junior AOA since preclinical grades tend to be the primary determining factor in initial selection.
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Curious, with your long term plan did you end up buying the new First Aid when it came out in January, or did you just stick to your 1 year old copy?
Any reason you chose not to use RR Path? It seems like that is a dying review source. No one seems to mention it anymore.
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Hello folks
I took my exam back in April and just thought I would give my two cents. Even though I attend a school with true pass/fail grades I studied my butt off my first two years. I think most would agree that if you go into the 5 or so weeks of prep without a strong foundation, it is difficult to achieve a high score. I can imagine that some people who "slack" more their first two years could still get a super awesome score, but I'd think they would need more than 4-5 weeks to prepare without having a great foundational knowledge.
I prepared for 5 weeks for Step 1. This is what I used:
First Aid (went through it 3 times, the last time I went thru it in 3 days)
UWorld Qbank (went thru it once, ~80% overall)
Goljan Audio Lectures (listened to them when I worked out at the gym or needed break from reading)
That is all I used. I strongly believe that with a pretty good foundation, you don't need anything else. I had never heard of pathoma before I took the test, but if you find it to be helpful as many people have, I'm sure it would be a solid additional resource. I found that people that used a ton of resources shot themselves in the foot because they thought "the more the better". I believe that once you start to venture outside of the FA/UWorld/Goljan Audio prep approach, the harder it is to get thru everything.
UWSA 1: >265 (~88% I think, two weeks into studying, three weeks away from real deal)
UWSA 2: >265 (89%, 3.5 weeks into studying, 1.5 weeks away from the real deal)
Real Score: 268
Let me first say, the process was very tough. I studied about 12-14 hours a day, but with breaks included (so about 10-12 of devoted study time). I had a routine, and I stuck to it. One thing I can strongly suggest is to get a schedule/make a schedule and STICK TO IT. There were days that I didn't get thru as many questions as I wanted to for that day, but I stuck to my schedule and started a new topic the next day on time; I never got behind the schedule. It will feel weird moving on without having a full grasp of what you did that day, but it's in your brain somewhere; trust it. I was nervous as hell the entire time studying and worried as many of us do that I was forgetting everything, and in fact, I probably was forgetting a lot. But one thing that calmed me down over time was remembering that this is not a free response exam. If it were, I would have been toast haha. But somewhere, somehow, a key word or detail in the question stem triggers some synaptic jubilee to occur and I would have a strong hunch for one answer over another. I got used to trusting that hunch because I knew it, but I couldn't just outright tell you.
On the real exam, this is going to sound odd given that I ended up doing very well, but I felt like I absolutely tanked the exam. Within 24 hours of walking out of the test center, I could think of 15 questions on the exam that were CAKE questions that I just totally brainfarted on. Incredibly stupid mistakes. I was certain I didn't get anywhere close to my UWSA scores, but somehow it worked out alright. My test was actually pretty darn tough. It was definitely harder than both UWSAs. The question stems were a lot longer on average. The up/down arrow pathophys questions had like 5 variables, so those took a lot longer than they should have. They also put one variable in the up/down arrow questions that made it much more difficult, i.e. they would give you 4 of the 5 variables that were pretty easy, but would make the 5th be a really tough one. So on those I narrowed it down to two and went with my gut on a lot. I also had a ton of ethics questions that were ridiculously hard. They weren't obvious answer like a lot of the UWorld questions, but they were more the nit picky minutia of Durable Power of Attorney, informed consent, etc. I loved the questions on U World bc they were like free points, but the ones on the real test pissed on me. No bueno. I also found timing to be MORE of a problem than on UWorld Self Assessments. On the U World tests, I would finish a block with about 20 minutes left and maybe 5 questions marked. On the real test, I would finish with 10-15 minutes left but 15 questions marked. So the longer question stems definitely slowed me down and definitely made me mark more questions given the more complex nature of the questions compared to UWSA.
Hope that helped. Good luck to you all as you prepare for this sucky test that by no means tests how smart you are.
I took my exam back in April and just thought I would give my two cents. Even though I attend a school with true pass/fail grades I studied my butt off my first two years. I think most would agree that if you go into the 5 or so weeks of prep without a strong foundation, it is difficult to achieve a high score. I can imagine that some people who "slack" more their first two years could still get a super awesome score, but I'd think they would need more than 4-5 weeks to prepare without having a great foundational knowledge.
I prepared for 5 weeks for Step 1. This is what I used:
First Aid (went through it 3 times, the last time I went thru it in 3 days)
UWorld Qbank (went thru it once, ~80% overall)
Goljan Audio Lectures (listened to them when I worked out at the gym or needed break from reading)
That is all I used. I strongly believe that with a pretty good foundation, you don't need anything else. I had never heard of pathoma before I took the test, but if you find it to be helpful as many people have, I'm sure it would be a solid additional resource. I found that people that used a ton of resources shot themselves in the foot because they thought "the more the better". I believe that once you start to venture outside of the FA/UWorld/Goljan Audio prep approach, the harder it is to get thru everything.
UWSA 1: >265 (~88% I think, two weeks into studying, three weeks away from real deal)
UWSA 2: >265 (89%, 3.5 weeks into studying, 1.5 weeks away from the real deal)
Real Score: 268
Let me first say, the process was very tough. I studied about 12-14 hours a day, but with breaks included (so about 10-12 of devoted study time). I had a routine, and I stuck to it. One thing I can strongly suggest is to get a schedule/make a schedule and STICK TO IT. There were days that I didn't get thru as many questions as I wanted to for that day, but I stuck to my schedule and started a new topic the next day on time; I never got behind the schedule. It will feel weird moving on without having a full grasp of what you did that day, but it's in your brain somewhere; trust it. I was nervous as hell the entire time studying and worried as many of us do that I was forgetting everything, and in fact, I probably was forgetting a lot. But one thing that calmed me down over time was remembering that this is not a free response exam. If it were, I would have been toast haha. But somewhere, somehow, a key word or detail in the question stem triggers some synaptic jubilee to occur and I would have a strong hunch for one answer over another. I got used to trusting that hunch because I knew it, but I couldn't just outright tell you.
On the real exam, this is going to sound odd given that I ended up doing very well, but I felt like I absolutely tanked the exam. Within 24 hours of walking out of the test center, I could think of 15 questions on the exam that were CAKE questions that I just totally brainfarted on. Incredibly stupid mistakes. I was certain I didn't get anywhere close to my UWSA scores, but somehow it worked out alright. My test was actually pretty darn tough. It was definitely harder than both UWSAs. The question stems were a lot longer on average. The up/down arrow pathophys questions had like 5 variables, so those took a lot longer than they should have. They also put one variable in the up/down arrow questions that made it much more difficult, i.e. they would give you 4 of the 5 variables that were pretty easy, but would make the 5th be a really tough one. So on those I narrowed it down to two and went with my gut on a lot. I also had a ton of ethics questions that were ridiculously hard. They weren't obvious answer like a lot of the UWorld questions, but they were more the nit picky minutia of Durable Power of Attorney, informed consent, etc. I loved the questions on U World bc they were like free points, but the ones on the real test pissed on me. No bueno. I also found timing to be MORE of a problem than on UWorld Self Assessments. On the U World tests, I would finish a block with about 20 minutes left and maybe 5 questions marked. On the real test, I would finish with 10-15 minutes left but 15 questions marked. So the longer question stems definitely slowed me down and definitely made me mark more questions given the more complex nature of the questions compared to UWSA.
Hope that helped. Good luck to you all as you prepare for this sucky test that by no means tests how smart you are.
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Very comforting/assuaging (and kind of funny too
)Good advice, thanks. I always feel like I'm forgetting things, so I'm glad you say that.
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You're right that this is an area lacking any good resources. If someone were to actually come out with such a book, I bet they'd make a ton of money!
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Took it today - can't even remember one question >.>
Mine was heavy on micro and anatomy. Lots of visual images - stains, xrays, MRI, CT, slides, gross. I also had about 3 or so behavioral questions on every block from the "what would you do with this patient" to interpreting graphs with data. Physio was mostly endo with arrows. Biochem was focused on genetics and storage diseases, embyro thankfully was straightforward gimmes, not much immuno, pharm was the usual MOA and some SEs and some kinetics, Cardio was around 3 media questions, GI seemed to be all ulcers and infections, Hemeonc barely anything, MSK was mostly anatomy qs on injuring something, neuro was MRIs and point to the lesion, Psych was straightforward, renal was straightforward , Reproductive was big on pregnant female having random issues and lots of GYU/GU tumros, and Resp was the usual COPD/asthma case.
I think out of all things I used, going over and analyzing Uworld and the NMBEs helped the most. I also used Kaplan Anatomy and Behavioral science that definitely scored me some points.
I didn't really feel I had WTF questions, just stuff I couldn't remember or they probed deep into common problems and their complications.
Mine was heavy on micro and anatomy. Lots of visual images - stains, xrays, MRI, CT, slides, gross. I also had about 3 or so behavioral questions on every block from the "what would you do with this patient" to interpreting graphs with data. Physio was mostly endo with arrows. Biochem was focused on genetics and storage diseases, embyro thankfully was straightforward gimmes, not much immuno, pharm was the usual MOA and some SEs and some kinetics, Cardio was around 3 media questions, GI seemed to be all ulcers and infections, Hemeonc barely anything, MSK was mostly anatomy qs on injuring something, neuro was MRIs and point to the lesion, Psych was straightforward, renal was straightforward , Reproductive was big on pregnant female having random issues and lots of GYU/GU tumros, and Resp was the usual COPD/asthma case.
I think out of all things I used, going over and analyzing Uworld and the NMBEs helped the most. I also used Kaplan Anatomy and Behavioral science that definitely scored me some points.
I didn't really feel I had WTF questions, just stuff I couldn't remember or they probed deep into common problems and their complications.
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I went with the new copy. I really got into it later than I wanted to, starting in January. Not sure what I would have done had I started earlier than I did though. The move to illustrated FA was a pretty big shift imo. Early on I HATED that Kaplan hadn't updated page #s for the new FA too (since they were pretty significant this year).
I do own RR path, and I like Pathoma 1000x better simply because I see RR as just another big collection of facts outside of the blue boxes which are pretty awesome. It's just too dense. I do think with the shift toward clinical decision making RR might still have a place though. I don't think Pathoma is as consistent about these points as RR is but they are there, and I can't imagine Dr. Sattar not adjusting for this. I had one question about first step in work-up of someone with obvious MS, and just out of curiosity I looked at both and they both include spinal tap for oligoclonal ABs and MRI (being most sensitive), so for the biggies the clinical decision making is on par. Honestly, I found it so helpful to hear how someone reasons through these problems in a short lecture format. Just reading Pathoma in a vacuum is no better (and probably worse) than RR; the real gold is in the lectures.
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hi. i am new on this forum. being an IMG and having completed my graduation a few years back,i would really appreciate if i am provided with guidance about a study plan and study material that suits and old graduate like me.
what about kaplan-LNs?didnt see them mentioned as much.
what about kaplan-LNs?didnt see them mentioned as much.
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Yes, I watched all of Histo, Anatomy and Neuroanatomy at 2x. I think the two guys did a good job since especially since I reviewed the book the day before and definitely had a few questions straight from their clinical correlate boxes.
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Yes, Dr. White is an AMAZING teacher; he saved me on neuro. So I will second that Kaplan neuroanatomy is clutch. My bud over at Drexel says he is their gross teacher and he is even better in person.
Also for anyone on the last days of their prep who is too burned out to do anything, try the First Aid Express vids. Yes, it's true that it consists of a bunch of nerds just reading FA2012 to you but I found it really helpful in my last 3 days before the test. It is only 30 hours which you can watch in a couple of days on 2x speed and covers 90% of FA, by my estimate. I can remember 5-7 questions I got right simply because I could remember them reading that part of FA to me.
Nuetron: I would start with Pathoma to lay a foundation for your studying; I cannot say enough about Dr. Sattar and his teaching style. Watch Pathoma 2x and then tackle First Aid followed by uWorld over the next month. This would be my recommendation.
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I took the exam on monday 6/18. Had 6 weeks to study, which at about 5 weeks I was getting burnt out and starting to feel like I was forgetting stuff I had known a few weeks back. This is my breakdown and the resources I used:
NBME 7, 12 weeks out to get a baseline: 219
NBME 11, 4 weeks out: 247
UWSA 1, 2 weeks out: 263
UWSA 2, 1 week out: 265
UW 1st pass: low 70s%
UW 2nd pass: low 90s%
I used FA throughout 1st and 2nd year so I was pretty familiar with it. I went though it in-depth one time during my 6 weeks, then would just refer when needed.
Pathoma: HIGHLY recommend! I got a number of questions on my exam correct because of a few one-liners out of his book. He does an awesome job explaining basic principles to help you understand a concept, rather than just memorizing it. He was the only resource I used during my first 2 weeks of studying and my score jumped up to 247. I re-listened to a few of my weak sections the week before my exam and was glad that I did.
UW: cannot stress this enough!!! I would say that more than 50% of my test on Monday was a question that I had in UW, maybe not exactly the same, the real test seems to give you more labs, vitals, etc. that you don't really need to answer the question, but they were close enough. A lot of the figures on my exam I had seen in UW too. If I had to do it again I would have gone through UW one more time, at least the ones I missed or had. marked
Goljan: I listened to him throughout second year with each system course and loved him but only listened to a few lectures throughout my board studying. I would say his first few hours when he discusses cell injury, hypoxia, etc. are the best, but if you really want to understand a concept then pathoma is better, in my opinion.
I also went through all of the questions in the Red robbins questions book. I think these are a good representation of the real test questions in terms of length and the fact that they give you a lot of extra information that you usually don't need to answer the question, such as BMI, BP, pulse, etc.
Pharm: FA is definitely all I needed. All of the drugs on my exam were 1st order questions and super high yield, nothing tricky.
Micro: Most of the micro on my exam was high yield, straight from FA. There was one parasite question that you had to know what it looked like to answer the question. I looked it up on wiki after the section and the picture on the test was straight from wiki, but probably not worth stressing over for 1 question.
I am absolutely terrible at biochem and just went through the UW biochem questions a few times and felt very prepared for the questions on the test.
My exam was pretty heavy on cardio and respiratory but other than these subjects it had very little emphasis on concepts.
I think I had 3 embryo questions, all I recognized from UW or FA.
I had quite a bit of anatomy, maybe like 2-3 per section, many were easy points that everyone knows but there were a few difficult questions, overall I would say 1-2 that weren't in UW or FA.
The night before my test I went through the rapid review section in FA which is SUPER high yield. I would say at least 50% of the test can be easily answered if you know this section cold!
There were probably 10 questions on my test that I had absolutely no idea what was going on and that couldn't be answered using FA. Around half of these were ethical type questions, which were very subjective or just terminology that are not in FA. The other 2 were molecular biology/lab technique questions that I may have learned in undergrad but haven't seen since then.
I am a very slow reader and I finished most of the blocks with 12-15 minutes left, which gave me plenty of time to go back and look back over the questions I had marked, which I don't know if that was really a good thing because I know of a few that I changed from the right to wrong answer... :-/
Anyway, I will update when I get my score. Hope this helps! Good luck to everyone!
NBME 7, 12 weeks out to get a baseline: 219
NBME 11, 4 weeks out: 247
UWSA 1, 2 weeks out: 263
UWSA 2, 1 week out: 265
UW 1st pass: low 70s%
UW 2nd pass: low 90s%
I used FA throughout 1st and 2nd year so I was pretty familiar with it. I went though it in-depth one time during my 6 weeks, then would just refer when needed.
Pathoma: HIGHLY recommend! I got a number of questions on my exam correct because of a few one-liners out of his book. He does an awesome job explaining basic principles to help you understand a concept, rather than just memorizing it. He was the only resource I used during my first 2 weeks of studying and my score jumped up to 247. I re-listened to a few of my weak sections the week before my exam and was glad that I did.
UW: cannot stress this enough!!! I would say that more than 50% of my test on Monday was a question that I had in UW, maybe not exactly the same, the real test seems to give you more labs, vitals, etc. that you don't really need to answer the question, but they were close enough. A lot of the figures on my exam I had seen in UW too. If I had to do it again I would have gone through UW one more time, at least the ones I missed or had. marked
Goljan: I listened to him throughout second year with each system course and loved him but only listened to a few lectures throughout my board studying. I would say his first few hours when he discusses cell injury, hypoxia, etc. are the best, but if you really want to understand a concept then pathoma is better, in my opinion.
I also went through all of the questions in the Red robbins questions book. I think these are a good representation of the real test questions in terms of length and the fact that they give you a lot of extra information that you usually don't need to answer the question, such as BMI, BP, pulse, etc.
Pharm: FA is definitely all I needed. All of the drugs on my exam were 1st order questions and super high yield, nothing tricky.
Micro: Most of the micro on my exam was high yield, straight from FA. There was one parasite question that you had to know what it looked like to answer the question. I looked it up on wiki after the section and the picture on the test was straight from wiki, but probably not worth stressing over for 1 question.
I am absolutely terrible at biochem and just went through the UW biochem questions a few times and felt very prepared for the questions on the test.
My exam was pretty heavy on cardio and respiratory but other than these subjects it had very little emphasis on concepts.
I think I had 3 embryo questions, all I recognized from UW or FA.
I had quite a bit of anatomy, maybe like 2-3 per section, many were easy points that everyone knows but there were a few difficult questions, overall I would say 1-2 that weren't in UW or FA.
The night before my test I went through the rapid review section in FA which is SUPER high yield. I would say at least 50% of the test can be easily answered if you know this section cold!
There were probably 10 questions on my test that I had absolutely no idea what was going on and that couldn't be answered using FA. Around half of these were ethical type questions, which were very subjective or just terminology that are not in FA. The other 2 were molecular biology/lab technique questions that I may have learned in undergrad but haven't seen since then.
I am a very slow reader and I finished most of the blocks with 12-15 minutes left, which gave me plenty of time to go back and look back over the questions I had marked, which I don't know if that was really a good thing because I know of a few that I changed from the right to wrong answer... :-/
Anyway, I will update when I get my score. Hope this helps! Good luck to everyone!
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That's definitely the worst part. Can you imagine having taken this **** in mid May and having to wait until July 11th? I took mine last week and I'm already going crazy.
Just took Step 1 today, glad it's over. Let me preface by saying everyone's experience is different. I had friends who had an impossible test where they felt like they were guessing on more than half of the questions, and others who felt their test was not bad at all.
As for me, I definitely thought my test was pretty fair - a balance of everything (cardio,renal,resp,endo,repro,embryo,immuno,micro, biochem). Absolutely 85% of the material was covered in FA + UWorld and the 15% that wasn't wouldn't have been found in any other Step 1 prep material (Goljan, Pathoma, BRS, etc.). The only way I would have known those questions was if I had studied 12 hours a day for the first two years of med school and looked at random CT's and MRI's for an extra month.
My stats (not too much to show):
UW 1st pass: ~65%
UW 2nd pass: ~78%
School administered NBME - 6 weeks out: 185 (I hadn't really studied at all)
NBME 13 - 3.5 weeks out: 224 (Had reviewed about 4-5 chapters in FA)
I ended up not taking anymore NBME's because I wasn't really concerned about passing or not, and felt the 4-5 hours would be better spent reviewing material. Friends who had comparable scores to me throughout ISP were getting in the 240's with 2 weeks to go.
The tricky part of the test isn't so much knowing all the material, but knowing the material well enough that you can interpret the question vignettes and understand the language they use. On the "non-gimme", more complex questions, they tend to not use the key words or bullet points you read so often in FA, but instead describe those symptoms or conditions a little more vaguely; meaning you should understand what all the words and terms listed in FA really mean. Walking out of the exam, there were already a number questions I could think of where I knew where in FA the answer was, I could tell you what section and what part of the page it was on, but I just couldn't remember the answer itself (really frustrating). There were also a few where I knew what was going on, I could explain the phys and path, etc., but couldn't decipher exactly what the question was going for and ended up picking the wrong thing.
In general, if you're like me and didn't do too well on a practice test to start off your ISP, do not worry at all. It is absolutely reasonable to raise your score from a 180 to a 250. I've had several friends who did just that, and all of them used FA+UWorld. If I could redo 2nd year, I would spend the school year using things like Pathoma, BRS, Goljan, and UW to annotate the hell out of FA. That way once ISP comes, reading FA is like reading all of those resources together.
I got through two passes of UWorld (1 during the year and 1 during the ISP) and 2 passes of FA (1 during the first 3 weeks of ISP and one during the last week of ISP). People tend to take the day before easy (or off), but I absolutely crammed and tried to look at almost every page of FA. And it helped out a lot - things I hadn't seen for 3-4 weeks were fresh in my mind and it definitely helped me get a number of questions right on the test.
Finally, do not let this test discourage you. Anyone can do well. After taking it, I can definitely see how people who truly master (and I emphasize "master") just FA + Uworld get 250's and 260's on this thing. I'm definitely not going to be up there, but it can be done. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks.
As for me, I definitely thought my test was pretty fair - a balance of everything (cardio,renal,resp,endo,repro,embryo,immuno,micro, biochem). Absolutely 85% of the material was covered in FA + UWorld and the 15% that wasn't wouldn't have been found in any other Step 1 prep material (Goljan, Pathoma, BRS, etc.). The only way I would have known those questions was if I had studied 12 hours a day for the first two years of med school and looked at random CT's and MRI's for an extra month.
My stats (not too much to show):
UW 1st pass: ~65%
UW 2nd pass: ~78%
School administered NBME - 6 weeks out: 185 (I hadn't really studied at all)
NBME 13 - 3.5 weeks out: 224 (Had reviewed about 4-5 chapters in FA)
I ended up not taking anymore NBME's because I wasn't really concerned about passing or not, and felt the 4-5 hours would be better spent reviewing material. Friends who had comparable scores to me throughout ISP were getting in the 240's with 2 weeks to go.
The tricky part of the test isn't so much knowing all the material, but knowing the material well enough that you can interpret the question vignettes and understand the language they use. On the "non-gimme", more complex questions, they tend to not use the key words or bullet points you read so often in FA, but instead describe those symptoms or conditions a little more vaguely; meaning you should understand what all the words and terms listed in FA really mean. Walking out of the exam, there were already a number questions I could think of where I knew where in FA the answer was, I could tell you what section and what part of the page it was on, but I just couldn't remember the answer itself (really frustrating). There were also a few where I knew what was going on, I could explain the phys and path, etc., but couldn't decipher exactly what the question was going for and ended up picking the wrong thing.
In general, if you're like me and didn't do too well on a practice test to start off your ISP, do not worry at all. It is absolutely reasonable to raise your score from a 180 to a 250. I've had several friends who did just that, and all of them used FA+UWorld. If I could redo 2nd year, I would spend the school year using things like Pathoma, BRS, Goljan, and UW to annotate the hell out of FA. That way once ISP comes, reading FA is like reading all of those resources together.
I got through two passes of UWorld (1 during the year and 1 during the ISP) and 2 passes of FA (1 during the first 3 weeks of ISP and one during the last week of ISP). People tend to take the day before easy (or off), but I absolutely crammed and tried to look at almost every page of FA. And it helped out a lot - things I hadn't seen for 3-4 weeks were fresh in my mind and it definitely helped me get a number of questions right on the test.
Finally, do not let this test discourage you. Anyone can do well. After taking it, I can definitely see how people who truly master (and I emphasize "master") just FA + Uworld get 250's and 260's on this thing. I'm definitely not going to be up there, but it can be done. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks.
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Thanks for sharing your experience. My test is almost 6 days from now and I took my last practice test 3 weeks from exam and scored exactly 224 and decided not to do any other practice test. Can you give some advice regarding things one should do in last few days.
Good luck for your score.
Good luck for your score.
Different people like different strategies but what I did for the last 4-5 days was completely reread all of FA. I originally wanted to do 3-4 sets of random blocks of 46 on UWorld each night as well, but reading took so much time for me that I only got around to doing 1-2 blocks a night. On weaker subject areas (neuro for me) I made it a point to go through the UWorld blocks I had already done for that section. By just reading through those blocks quickly, without actually redoing the questions, I was able to get through 2-3 blocks in an hour. Again, I only did that for my weaker subjects and spent a majority of my time making sure FA was fresh in my mind.
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Definitely Cardio, phys, and renal. cardio and respiratory were really heavy on my exam and you had to be really comfortable with the concepts to answer the questions. I would consider phys to be my strongest subject and I even thought some of the questions were pretty difficult. But, I think BRS phys would be a sufficient review.
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just took my test 2 days ago, been freaking out since, I looked up like 7 or 8 questions afterward, got 5 wrong (1 was super easy). Kinda need some encouragement.
Stats:
UWorld 1st pass, random timed : 72%
School test 2 months out : 210
NBME 13 1 month out : 228
NBME 7 1 week out : 252
really just hoping to get a 240+, I've always been an average student during school, so I can't really hope for much more.
Books:
FA 2011 then glanced through a couple sections of a friend's 2012 after he was done with his test
BRS phys and path (COMPLETE waste of time)- i read it through and annotated my first aid during my first pass. After I got through it once I reevaluated based on Qbank and my first NBME's and decided it wasn't worth my time. I really wish I would've used that time to go through first aid an extra time. I think part of my improvement between my nbme 13 and nbme 7 was that I stopped worrying about brs and hammered FA and uworld hard. The other part is that nbme 7 just suited me better.
Kaplan Pharm videos, Pharmcards(just for review while on the john)
Didn't get through all of Uworld a second time, maybe like 25% of my 800 marked questions.
Test:
I marked like 10-15 questions per block on my first 4 sections, 6 on my 5th, and 8-13 on my last 2. Was really pressed for time on the first 4, I really think it was just nerves and not being totally mentally there for some reason.
I'm not sure how much detail I'm allowed to share so let me know if i need to delete some of this: I definitely saw a few concepts that I recognized from Uworld (the anti-sheep blood antibodies meaning heterophile test helped out on two different questions).
I felt like they went easy on me on the anatomy and embryo (even though one questions had options A through P). It was all stuff like brachial arch/pouch/cleft and brachial/lumbar plexus (besides those i had 1 abdominal anatomy question was tough)
Had at least two questions about concepts that were in FA 2012 and NOT in 2011, got 1 of them wrong. Both had to do with wound healing.
2 heart sounds, 1 9-lead ECG, 1 connected question, all pretty simple stuff.
What worries me is I really got screwed on some of the endo, and made some dumb mistakes with micro. Scabies seemed like a reasonable answer choice a few derm questions and I really don't know anything about it which was uncomfortable.
Only one image that had no clues in the question stem, and I think it was easy. All the other images and slides you could get from the stem.
Pharm wasn't terrible, had three that stick out as being tough, only one of them was about drugs I had never seen before. One about cyp modifiers was disguised and I didn't realize it until later (talked to a friend after and I guess it was explicitly stated in Kaplan's pharmcards).
I would recommend just going through FA and uworld really hard, and if you are using 2011, glance through a the couple sections of 2012 that are added (as well as bone tumors just cause its way easier in 2012). I felt like none of the details I crammed for toward the end were on the test. It really is just more about being able to recognize the way things present. Questions and FA are the only prep you need.
anyway, hope it helps, and let me know if i need to delete anything.
Stats:
UWorld 1st pass, random timed : 72%
School test 2 months out : 210
NBME 13 1 month out : 228
NBME 7 1 week out : 252
really just hoping to get a 240+, I've always been an average student during school, so I can't really hope for much more.
Books:
FA 2011 then glanced through a couple sections of a friend's 2012 after he was done with his test
BRS phys and path (COMPLETE waste of time)- i read it through and annotated my first aid during my first pass. After I got through it once I reevaluated based on Qbank and my first NBME's and decided it wasn't worth my time. I really wish I would've used that time to go through first aid an extra time. I think part of my improvement between my nbme 13 and nbme 7 was that I stopped worrying about brs and hammered FA and uworld hard. The other part is that nbme 7 just suited me better.
Kaplan Pharm videos, Pharmcards(just for review while on the john)
Didn't get through all of Uworld a second time, maybe like 25% of my 800 marked questions.
Test:
I marked like 10-15 questions per block on my first 4 sections, 6 on my 5th, and 8-13 on my last 2. Was really pressed for time on the first 4, I really think it was just nerves and not being totally mentally there for some reason.
I'm not sure how much detail I'm allowed to share so let me know if i need to delete some of this: I definitely saw a few concepts that I recognized from Uworld (the anti-sheep blood antibodies meaning heterophile test helped out on two different questions).
I felt like they went easy on me on the anatomy and embryo (even though one questions had options A through P). It was all stuff like brachial arch/pouch/cleft and brachial/lumbar plexus (besides those i had 1 abdominal anatomy question was tough)
Had at least two questions about concepts that were in FA 2012 and NOT in 2011, got 1 of them wrong. Both had to do with wound healing.
2 heart sounds, 1 9-lead ECG, 1 connected question, all pretty simple stuff.
What worries me is I really got screwed on some of the endo, and made some dumb mistakes with micro. Scabies seemed like a reasonable answer choice a few derm questions and I really don't know anything about it which was uncomfortable.
Only one image that had no clues in the question stem, and I think it was easy. All the other images and slides you could get from the stem.
Pharm wasn't terrible, had three that stick out as being tough, only one of them was about drugs I had never seen before. One about cyp modifiers was disguised and I didn't realize it until later (talked to a friend after and I guess it was explicitly stated in Kaplan's pharmcards).
I would recommend just going through FA and uworld really hard, and if you are using 2011, glance through a the couple sections of 2012 that are added (as well as bone tumors just cause its way easier in 2012). I felt like none of the details I crammed for toward the end were on the test. It really is just more about being able to recognize the way things present. Questions and FA are the only prep you need.
anyway, hope it helps, and let me know if i need to delete anything.
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Took the exam yesterday, and I must say that this thread really prepped me for what was on the test ( had been following it for the past 4-6 weeks).
Some of the stuff people said was exaggeration (like the "lists" of lab values that you have to scroll down - lol. The NBME is just trying to make the patho questions more reminiscent of medicine questions by giving basic vitals, and CBC in a lot cases). But otherwise, this thread really gave me a heads-up for what was coming on test day so I would recommend people to go through this thread. And expecting what style of questioning is coming helps you stay calm throughout- review material that was helpful was the standard First Aid, Uworld, Pathoma....
My only suggestion at this point is to make sure you get a good night sleep before the test. Eat good meals the day before, and a good breakfast (no matter how hard that might seem with the anxiety you feel). Meditate and pray the night before/morning of, to relieve your anxiety because you don't need it. The test requires a lot of thinking and my brain was burning through fuel much faster than it usually does. Stay calm and think through the questions. The more basic science oriented questions, had short-medium sized lengths but took time as you had to interpret what they were saying and really think through to the answer. Oh yea and someone on here posted a link to Kaplan's website where they talked about how the step 1 questions are designed and how you should approach them. That was a VERY useful website - so a big thank you to that individual.
Some of the stuff people said was exaggeration (like the "lists" of lab values that you have to scroll down - lol. The NBME is just trying to make the patho questions more reminiscent of medicine questions by giving basic vitals, and CBC in a lot cases). But otherwise, this thread really gave me a heads-up for what was coming on test day so I would recommend people to go through this thread. And expecting what style of questioning is coming helps you stay calm throughout- review material that was helpful was the standard First Aid, Uworld, Pathoma....
My only suggestion at this point is to make sure you get a good night sleep before the test. Eat good meals the day before, and a good breakfast (no matter how hard that might seem with the anxiety you feel). Meditate and pray the night before/morning of, to relieve your anxiety because you don't need it. The test requires a lot of thinking and my brain was burning through fuel much faster than it usually does. Stay calm and think through the questions. The more basic science oriented questions, had short-medium sized lengths but took time as you had to interpret what they were saying and really think through to the answer. Oh yea and someone on here posted a link to Kaplan's website where they talked about how the step 1 questions are designed and how you should approach them. That was a VERY useful website - so a big thank you to that individual.
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I'd stress specific teratogenic agents and neonatal pathologies. It's still pretty decent yield. I don't think they really ask questions like "what artery is associated with arch 1" these days. They still love neural crest cells though.
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Definitely do USMLE Rx. It helped me actually know FA.
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I had a little bit. I remember a couple of questions about "what failed to fuse" but not much besides that.
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Congrats! Do you happen to have the link to that website? Thanks!
quick question... did pathoma just come out this year or something? seems like everyone and their mom is using it this year, whereas no one talked about it on the 2011 thread (or maybe i didn't read 2011 thoroughly enough). I've already taken my exam, so this doesn't affect me in any way, but just wondering when it came out. If it actually came out this year I'm super impressed by Dr. Sattar's marketing skills haha
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it came out around this time last year. late june.
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Its probably SDN that did most of the advertising for Dr. Sattar. There are at least 5 different threads with a couple of thousand views.
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I had never even heard about it until I had already started my prep and came on here. I don't think anybody at my school even knows what it is or that it exists. Obviously I didn't use it.
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Wow, that's two 262s in one class. Hoesley said 260+ only comes around every other year or so. My grades were a lot like yours the first two years, but my Step 1 ended up being pretty much in line with my class ranking. Apparently, I'm awesome at UWorld practice tests though, so that's a real plus....
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I'm guessing it was probably DiGeorge? But yeah, I should take that back. LEARN EVERYTHING!
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xxx
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Well ctusfinest, since u've been through this Big test now,u deserve rest nd respite,nd u've got 1 whole month to pray! so just sit back,relax and pray earnestly! all best wishes for u,u'll do reall well!
Nuetron: I would start with Pathoma to lay a foundation for your studying; I cannot say enough about Dr. Sattar and his teaching style. Watch Pathoma 2x and then tackle First Aid followed by uWorld over the next month. This would be my recommendation.[/QUOTE]
that was reall nice of u AngryBird69,infact encouraging to see a response, thanx.
i was thinking of starting with some detailed review books since i've to recapitulate my concepts all over,nd after 1 thorough reading i would begin FA.. am planning to go through all step1 kapan-LNs nd for patho,i was thnking to go through goljanRR,or his lectures,what do u ppl suggest, Goljan or Pathoma??? i know m study plans r way too longish but i have to rewise my old days knowledge atleast once or twice...i may have to go through my even more basic books like lippincott for biochem!
that was reall nice of u AngryBird69,infact encouraging to see a response, thanx.
i was thinking of starting with some detailed review books since i've to recapitulate my concepts all over,nd after 1 thorough reading i would begin FA.. am planning to go through all step1 kapan-LNs nd for patho,i was thnking to go through goljanRR,or his lectures,what do u ppl suggest, Goljan or Pathoma??? i know m study plans r way too longish
but i have to rewise my old days knowledge atleast once or twice...i may have to go through my even more basic books like lippincott for biochem!Hi..I am an IMG and really new to this forum.I have heard and learnt a lot from this forum specially the NBME discussion part before my step 1 but actually didnot have the courage to join it seeing it is an AMG dominated forum and the high scores that was posted here and me felt completely out of sorts reading them but was often fascinated by the sheer amount of talent people have in this forum.
I actually gave my Usmle step 1 on 11th april,2012 during my 3rd year med school in a 6 year setup and got very low grades 213/80.was really depressed for 2 months,didnot come out in the open for days and felt like a looser..my last NBME 13 also predicted 228 but on the day of the exam i goofed up and ended up doing badly.I have always wanted to get IM residency or PM residency and wanted to do fellowship in either paediatric oncology or hematooncology.I am really in dire straits now and in real need of your help bcoz sitting thousands of miles away i dont even know whether i can even get a residency in USA bcoz i need j1 visa too.i would remain grateful to you if please please anybody guide me whether i should continue my dream of IM or PM residency with this low a score and what i really need to do to better my CV.I know its an uphill task from here on,but am hopeful with your guidance i will at least get to know the bumpy road ahead.Thanking you from the bottom of my heart for even reading this lengthy post
I actually gave my Usmle step 1 on 11th april,2012 during my 3rd year med school in a 6 year setup and got very low grades 213/80.was really depressed for 2 months,didnot come out in the open for days and felt like a looser..my last NBME 13 also predicted 228 but on the day of the exam i goofed up and ended up doing badly.I have always wanted to get IM residency or PM residency and wanted to do fellowship in either paediatric oncology or hematooncology.I am really in dire straits now and in real need of your help bcoz sitting thousands of miles away i dont even know whether i can even get a residency in USA bcoz i need j1 visa too.i would remain grateful to you if please please anybody guide me whether i should continue my dream of IM or PM residency with this low a score and what i really need to do to better my CV.I know its an uphill task from here on,but am hopeful with your guidance i will at least get to know the bumpy road ahead.Thanking you from the bottom of my heart for even reading this lengthy post
well ijn nd dockerdoc nd all those who have taken the exam and now bearing the waiting period,prayers for u all, and do rmmbr dear doctcrs, u hav lots of time to pray and prayers do matter! hope u all get rocking results!
For those of you who've done the free 150 practice questions how did you guys score on them compared to your qbanks and other assessments? I did it yesterday and take the beast on the 30th. I scored a 94% overall on the free tutorial. Am I good to go?
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