USMLE Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Originally Posted by ilovetea

I was shocked that I had NO UP/DOWN ARROW QUESTIONS. I guess everyone's tests are different.

Of note: I don't remember having any arrows either, but I DID have questions of the same format with hypothetical lab values that represented high/low/normal, so don't let this throw you if you see it.

So has anyone been getting their scores today or last Wednesday? I know the website says July 11th... but it also says MOST examinees will have a delay, not all. So I'm wondering if some people are still getting scores. I took the test early June, so I was hoping to get it this week or next.. but if its July 11, whatever, what can I do.

Originally Posted by Food

Bah. I thought it was hard. 50% was extremely straight forward stuff that was obvious. I feel like I made educated guesses on 30% of it, and then 20% was like wtf, I really don't know, hopefully "C". Whatever. I'm just praying for a 235.

Oh also - made at least 10 - 15 stupid mistakes. expect to make at least a few of those. not all their questions are so straightforward, and I guess those are the ones that get thrown out.

I feel you. My experience mirrors yours. So effing mad that I got all those pelvic anatomy questions. I just want to pass now. Pretty sure I will be doing family medicine or general internal medicine. Kind of mad I wasted 7 wks of my life. A lot of my exam could not even be found in FA, Goljan, or UWorld. People say that the exam is a thinking test, but I was and am stunned by the content.

Originally Posted by HeyThere13

I feel you. My experience mirrors yours. So effing mad that I got all those pelvic anatomy questions. I just want to pass now. Pretty sure I will be doing family medicine or general internal medicine. Kind of mad I wasted 7 wks of my life. A lot of my exam could not even be found in FA, Goljan, or UWorld. People say that the exam is a thinking test, but I was and am stunned by the content.

In all seriousness though, where do you think we could find the info that showed up on your exam that you're referring to?

All the anatomy I had could be found in chungs BRS anatomy including the pelvic stuff.

.

Originally Posted by Phlame217

All the anatomy I had could be found in chungs BRS anatomy including the pelvic stuff.

That's interesting. I have BRS Anatomy and I hate it. It's just a bunch of text and doesn't seem to cut to the chase about anything. Not to mention, there aren't CTs in the pelvic section. Even a couple of the topics that it touches upon that I've encountered in practice questions, it doesn't highlight the clinically important info that I would have expected. Once again, that's just my opinion based on my learning-style. I'm looking for a succinct resource that has excellent pelvic CTs, with perhaps a little pithy clinical discussion mixed in.

Originally Posted by Anonymous222

Took it today... made a throwaway to save anonymity.

I was worried about timing, because I had some trouble with that on sets of Uworld / NBMEs, but didn't think it was particularly longer and had no issues with time. Yeah, an extra 5 minutes would always make me feel better, but I got through everything and had time to review. I'd say it pretty accurately matched NBME 12/13 (don't really remember what 11 was like) as far as difficultly / length / content.

Yeah there were some random factoids on there, but I'd say ~98% was covered in First Aid / UWorld / Gunner Training in some way, shape, or form. I think I could count on my two hands the questions where I was like "that wasn't in any review book, daf*ck is this asking?". The questions were pretty fair. Couldn't really peg any as "experimental".

Anatomy - brachial plexus questions. CT slices were very straight-forward. One random GU question that I'd never seen.

Behavioral - very much on the lines of Uworld. I went through BRS behavioral science (ie just did the questions at the end of each chapter and the test at end) - this was helpful.

Biochem - some lysosomal storage, some glycolysis etc. Again, nothing was a surprise or not seen in the majority of study sources. One vitamin was confusing - definitely missed one of these I think.

Cell Bio / Genetics - very concept heavy, so know the "why". Memorizing random facts won't help here. All the relevant concepts are in first aid. Questions very similar to uworld. Of course, it helped a lot that I've done a lot of cell bio / genetics research.

Immuno - straight from first aid / uworld. No surprises.

Embryo - didn't have much on the test. The few that were on there were 2nd or 3rd step questions, so knowing the big picture is important. Had a random GI one that was kind of WTF-age.

Pharm - very much all out of first aid / uworld / gunner training. Did not see a single drug that wasn't in first aid AND gunner training. I went through Lange pharmacology. This was good to learn physiology, but I would not use it to learn random drugs because they don't show up.
Don't need to know details, just know the mechanism and major side effect of most drugs. Know the (para)sympatholytic/mimetics well.

Micro - not much micro. The micro that was there was all buzzwords. Gunner training did well here.

Cardio - decent amount of cardio. Moderately difficult (a bit easier than Uworld difficulty). 2 heart sound questions - neither one required listening. A couple of ECGs scared the beejesuses out of me, but then when I read the question it was clear what the presentation was and the ECG just confirmed the case description.

Resp - struggled with this when qbanking. Nowhere near as hard as uworld. Even easier than NBMEs. The Chest X-rays were waaaaaay obvious.

Endocrine - some up/down but nothing crazy, all of it was very logical. They may have had a random variable as a column. I went and started eliminating based on patterns that are taught/covered in the study sources I was able to narrow everything down to just one choice pretty quickly.

Repro - A lot of repro. All of it was in Uworld / First Aid / Gunner Training. No WTFs. There were intricacies and details tested, but its all in the aforementioned sources.

Neuro - probably the hardest section for me because I'm personally weak in this. My neuro course was incompetent when it came to clinical concepts (eg... never heard of craniopharyngioma until I studied boards). I'd say it was comparable to Uworld questions. Very clinical / being able to diagnose and discern the different pathologies etc. I struggled on a couple and likely missed more than my fair share, but I'm certain they were all in Uworld / First Aid.

GI - was on there - can't remember what they asked, so I think it was straight forward. Nothing comes to mind as especially challenging / awkward.

Heme - a lot of pictures. Very straight forward. I've never seen so many auer rods in a picture. ever.

Psych - not much. These were off the beaten path, and more of the obscure ones mentioned in first aid / gunner training. The level of knowledge required was not deep though, just being able to identify the disease label was sufficient.... no treatment / no management.

Renal - Buzz. Words. All day, everyday. More buzz than a beehive.

Compared to what other people posted, I was expecting a harder test with more random WTF questions and details. I'd say people around here exaggerate those. I also expected really longer question stems and time to be a serious challenge - it wasn't.

TL;DR - most everything is in first aid / uworld / gunner training. The why is way more important than the specific details. Very much like NBME 12/13.

Cheers for posting. Hopefully we'll all have more buzz than a beehive..

Originally Posted by WildcatS11

So has anyone been getting their scores today or last Wednesday? I know the website says July 11th... but it also says MOST examinees will have a delay, not all. So I'm wondering if some people are still getting scores. I took the test early June, so I was hoping to get it this week or next.. but if its July 11, whatever, what can I do.

just got an email from our dean. some scores came out yesterday. the rest will come out the 11th. None will be coming out the 4th

Originally Posted by red10

just got an email from our dean. some scores came out yesterday. the rest will come out the 11th. None will be coming out the 4th

Boo. I had no idea these 5.5 weeks would feel so long.

Originally Posted by red10

just got an email from our dean. some scores came out yesterday. the rest will come out the 11th. None will be coming out the 4th

so the dean sees our score before we do?

Originally Posted by ohyeahbaby

so the dean sees our score before we do?

I don't think they get them before us, but they do have access to them when they are released (you had to submit something to the USMLE people to stop them from submitting to your school)

Took it yesterday (finally) after moving my date back twice. Spoiler: glad I did. Disclaimer: I am likely forgetting a ton of what showed up on my test.

Overall: Biggest shock to my system was the sheer volume of questions that I could not have answered had FA been sitting there and with unlimited time. Luckily I remembered quite a few from class the first two years, but others I was like "mmm maybe could have answered that the day of my Embryo final, but not today." Made me glad I didn't delay 3rd year for another month to study, as I wouldn't have done any better, and maybe even worse. Fatigue wasn't an issue surprisingly, as it just felt like one of those lazy Saturdays doing a ton of UW blocks one after another. The break time was sufficient. No testing center/protocol complaints.

Anatomy: not bad, though they certainly like the CTs. Not sure how to get ready for those other than a decent amount of non-FA practice. No weird foot anatomy or pelvic anatomy. Surprised at the number of angiograms.

Behavioral: Pretty easy; don't remember anything from outside of FA. No weird biostats either. There was one graph where none of the 4 answer choices were very good, so I just picked the least bad one. Must have re-read that one 5 times.

Biochem: Same, with one tricky glycogen storage question. Also an amino acids question that surprised me. Nutrition showed up 2-3 times.

Embryo - there wasn't a ton of this, but there certainly was a high percentage of left-field considering the few questions they DID do. I'm not supposed to get specific, and I don't know how traceable these accounts on here are, but I remember at least 2 that weren't in FA and that I wouldn't have thought to learn. I was expecting at least one cardio embryology question, but I never saw any. No congenital cardiac defects, no shunts, etc. Would have liked those. One gene question that I knew didn't come from FA, so I just picked one I didn't recognize.

Micro - mostly easy; surprised to only see 1 virology question that was technical (i.e. the replication, family, structure stuff). Also not much by way of protozoans/helminths. One or two very basic ones. There was at least 1 not from FA, and I looked up the answer afterwards and I am hoping I didn't change it, but I think I did. I remember staring at it as my block wound down and having an internal struggle. There may have been more weird ones too, but none that I can remember.

Immuno - hardly any on my test at all; I think only 1 disorder, and the most well-known one at that. Take that back, there were a handful of transplant rejection questions.

Path - of course lots of disease presentations, many of which I found to be moderately atypical. This is a subject where they can throw in many gimme questions, and they do, but they can also give very incomplete presentations, or presentations that closely mimic another. I must have had to choose between Goodpasture's and Wegener's 4 times yesterday. Only one had the IF image.

Pharm - after the first 10 questions of the day (I literallty had the phrase, "Is this the Pharm shelf?" go through my head at that point), there was not much, and very basic. I was glad to see I didn't have to pick from a list of 5 drugs which had "hepatotoxicity" or "GI distress" or any of those vague and common side effects. Aside from the first 10 questions, the pharm was very basic. Only exception: I was surprised to see a few questions on which anti-arrhythmic to use. I didn't think that would happen since there's so much overlap and discretion allowed for those. So in summary, the Pharm was a LITTLE harder than I expected, but certainly could have been MUCH worse.

CV - pretty straightforward - only 2 murmurs and they were pretty easy. I was expecting more arteritis disorders.

Endocrine - Not hard. This was a section that was represented enough that I can say with confidence was significantly easier than UW. Not much physiology either.

GI - again, not bad. They could have thrown some weird curveballs here if they wanted, but I don't remember any.

Hem/Onc - all basic. Not as many leukemias as I was expecting.

MSK/CT - except for a few wonky lupus things and one CT thing that was not in FA, this wasn't bad. Could have been much harder as well.

Neuro - Got 2 brainstem slices, which is of course not in FA for some reason, but I predicted this. Neither was a gimme, so both were educated guesses. Couple of locate-the-lesions, one of which was also not answerable from FA. I had FA nearly memorized, so I am confident in saying this.

Psych - easy

Renal - nothing hard here, except for a weird multi-system integration one about a random transporter.

Repro - all very easy.

Resp - also pretty easy. No weird graphics, etc.

What I did:

Summer after 1st-year: reviewed micro when I could, because I felt like I didn't learn anything from Micro during the year. I crammed for every test, and it felt like learning a new language b/c I never had it in college like most of my classmates. It wasn't very efficient, but I'm glad I used my down-time to address my weaknesses.

Fall of 2nd year: school and research took all my time and I didn't get any study time in with FA, though I meant to. I listened to Goljan along with where we were in Path.

Spring 2nd year: again, almost nothing by way of FA studying, as our class scheule was overwhelming and lasted until mid-May. Still went through Goljan with Path class.

After finals: The above explains why I pushed my test back until late June; I felt like I couldn't start in earnest until finals were over. If any of you feel like you need more time, trust your instincts. You know whether you've mastered certain material or not; don't let other people tell you that you're ready to take it. Nothing has ever made less sense to me conceptually than telling someone else that they're ready to take a test. That being said, if you find yourself struggling to find new things to learn as you study, then that's probably a good sign that you're ready.
Anyway, I started putting in 12-14 hour days, with a reasonable mix of FA study time, making flashcards from FA, and doing UW questions. This probably went for 7 weeks, and I took Sundays off. There were long stretches where I felt like the questions were a waste of my time before I got a better handle on FA, so I would stop and just do FA all day. This worked out well for me. I listened to Goljan while commuting each day, while running in the morning, and while eating lunch or sitting on the commode. My wife and my dog didn't see me much during this time, and if I felt the need, I would eat my lunch outside and spend 20min or so in the sun. I figured every point was worth it, since I will never take a test that matters more to my future. It was a crazy time, but I'm glad I put in the effort that I did. While out to dinner with my family last night, I told my Dad that I could honestly say more study time would not have helped me, which was a huge success for me, a slow and methodical studier. The worst is knowing you could have done better, which I am grateful does not apply to me regarding this particular test.

CBSE in March (after zero studying): 190
NBME7 (4 1/2 weeks out): 200 (freaking out)
UW1 (3 1/2 weeks out): 236
NBME13 (2 1/2 weeks out): 221 (at this point I came on SDN searching for explanations for the discrepancies between the scoring of UW v. NBME)
At this point I decided to stop taking tests and do more studying of my weak areas.
DAY BEFORE: I put in a full day, again contrary to popular practice. Even got up at 4am the morning of to go over a few more weaker areas. I got 4-5 questions from the stuff I hit the morning of, including waiting in my car for the center to open and standing in line to get registered. Truly a blessing.

I would recommend FA, UW, NBMEs, and Goljan, probably in that order. Everything on my test that came from OUTSIDE these sources I never would have come across anyway had I added 15 more sources. I can't comment on DIT, since I didn't take it. Maybe they know a few "secrets" like they claim, but not likely.

I'm only a little worried that I got a random grab-bag of a seemingly-high proportion of non-FA questions. I worry that my score goes on the same curve as those who got different forms and come on here and say that 98% of their test came from FA. Anyone know how that grading mechanism works?

Originally Posted by morte7

I would recommend FA, UW, NBMEs, and Goljan, probably in that order. Everything on my test that came from OUTSIDE these sources I never would have come across anyway had I added 15 more sources. I can't comment on DIT, since I didn't take it. Maybe they know a few "secrets" like they claim, but not likely.

How can you say that when you hadn't hit additional resources? What about the questions makes you say that?

Also, regarding your neuro, were the regions they were asking about obscure, or were they merely only to be found via QBanks...?

Originally Posted by morte7

I'm only a little worried that I got a random grab-bag of a seemingly-high proportion of non-FA questions. I worry that my score goes on the same curve as those who got different forms and come on here and say that 98% of their test came from FA. Anyone know how that grading mechanism works?

I've guessed that since the question allocation is random, the curve you get is also custom to your particular test. It comes down to two things: despite the randomness of topics assessed, if the proportion of easy, medium, difficult and wtf questions remains constant with every test, then your curve will be similar to other people's; if the proportion changes alongside the topic-randomness, then your curve will in fact be unique, based on increasing #s of easy or hard questions, etc. My guess would be that the proportion and curve remain somewhat consistent between people. If you got hard questions not in FA, then other people did too; it's just a toss-up as to whether these were topics you happen to have covered/knew/seen before.

Originally Posted by red10

just got an email from our dean. some scores came out yesterday. the rest will come out the 11th. None will be coming out the 4th

For what dates did scores come out yesterday? (general estimate) I am asking on behalf of a friend who took it in early June.

I know us late June dates have to wait until the 11th.

Originally Posted by morte7

Everything on my test that came from OUTSIDE these sources I never would have come across anyway had I added 15 more sources.

I agree with this. Almost all of my friends and classmates that I have talked to agree that there is no way they could have expected or prepared for those particular questions (the most challenging or as they are known on here "WTF" type questions).

Some questions on my form you could reason out, even though they were introducing variables you had not considered to be associated with a particular disorder. But other questions were either conceptually obscure (or) details that I have not seen covered in any review source that I used. Not to scare anyone, but just know to expect that.

Originally Posted by morte7

I'm only a little worried that I got a random grab-bag of a seemingly-high proportion of non-FA questions. I worry that my score goes on the same curve as those who got different forms and come on here and say that 98% of their test came from FA. Anyone know how that grading mechanism works?

Me and a couple friends also thought we had some really super random questions. My understanding is that each form has a particular set of questions and so the score will be generated based on the curve for that exam (based on how many people get the question correct, aka its relative difficulty). So if you have a more difficult form, you can miss more questions and get the same score as someone with an easier form.

Originally Posted by futuredoctor10

For what dates did scores come out yesterday? (general estimate) I am asking on behalf of a friend who took it in early June.

I know us late June dates have to wait until the 11th.

no idea but if hers were released she'd have gotten an email about how to access them.

Originally Posted by red10

no idea but if hers were released she'd have gotten an email about how to access them.

Oh good point. I forget we get an email when we can access.

So why do some people say they are constantly checking the website? When they could just wait to get the email notification...

Finished my exam yesterday. Should've posted right after while it was fresh, but I had multiple glasses of whiskey and then went to a steak house so get off my back about it already! If it makes you feel better, I'm probably going to need a bottle of allopurinol after that night.

Prep
-GT: Started this summer of MS1.Can't say enough good things about it. It's time consuming but it helped me in classes and I came into my dedicated step 1 period without having to relearn anything and I automatically jumped to qbanks.
-FA: Started annotating in MS1. I followed the book along with class and if I saw a picture in my notes I liked, I'd throw it into FA. All my books and notes are electronic, so screen shotting into one-note on a tablet pc was super easy. Attached below is a sample of how I would annotate a FA chapter.
-Pathoma: One day MS1-2 will just be online videos taught by the best like Dr. Sattar. Still infuriates me that I pay $18k/sem to learn this from my school when he only charges me $89 and teaches it better.
-Goljan Audio: Good for treadmills and drives to school.
-UW: Amazing resource. If I could do it again, I would've done UW through the year and then try to do it twice during study period (not so much working through questions as just reading the amazing explanations).
-NBMEs: Took the basic ones.

Stats
UW: 100% completed, 81% avg (low 69%, high 91%), only one pass
GT: 100% completed, 95% mastered
NBME 7: 252
NBME 11: 242
NBME 12: 250
NBME 13: 255

The test
Poring rain, got a parking ticked for parking in a professors space (didn't want to walk across campus to testing center in the rain and be uncomfortable all day). Worth it. No problems checking in, they allowed me to have my favorite headphones and had no problems throughout the day. Went to bathroom after every block to make sure my bladder was always near empty. Used all break time to eat, recharge, and pop 100mg caffeine pill when I needed it.

-Micro: GT and UW covered things well. Had a couple problems with specific mechanisms of macroclides, aminoglycosides, etc (what specific step of protein formation do they block, aka initiation, translocation, etc.).
-Biochem: Lysomal storage, galactose/fructose metabolism, lot of newborns with diarrhea or big spleens. One patient was even reported to be restrained for chewing his lips, fingers and genitals or whatever off.
-Genetics: My worst subject. Felt good on the pedigrees (had >4) and I actually got the hardy wineberg crap right. They had a lot of experiments with mice and genes that I flat out had no clue. Whenever a question started out "A little, homely Asian researcher in the hospital basement is studying expression on the 9XHDNE$SA2 gene..." my heart sunk a little bit.
-Pharm: Had some drugs I didn't know, but I think I got via elimination. Not a good feeling picking a drug you don't know. Lot of MOA and SE like everyone says. Lot of farmers, fat people, and patients with a sore first metatarsal joint.
-Immuno: These guys sure love organ rejection and TB.
-Anatomy/Embryo: Didn't feel as good about most of these. I didn't memorize all the ligaments in the foot or the pelvic floor well enough. I do however enjoy a good Meckel's Diverticulum question.
-Behavior: Just know that stupid 2x2 table inside and out and everything you can possibly do with it. Lot of study design stuff. Felt like there was tons of ethical/what would you do questions. I just made sure not to refer the patient and told them I couldn't sleep with them even though I wanted to sometimes.
-Psych: They like to do stuff where they put oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and antisocial personality disorder and you have to know the minor little differences to pick out the dx. Most weren't too bad.
-Path: Felt like I had a lot of questions where I narrowed down to 2 and couldn't finalize the dx. This didn't feel good. Pretty even distribution across subjects, but felt like hemat/onc was light and endo/renal were heavier. 2 media questions about the heart. 1 said the patient had a dental appt 1 wk prior and I laughed loud enough that the guy next to me moved in his little cube.
-Physio: Didn't feel great about some of the arrow problems and graphs. You could get 4/5 arrows right, but still have 2 choices left. Wish I had more time to do renal/cardio/pulm in the guyton/hall physio practice book that I used during MS1.

Difficultly was between UW and NBME, but closer to UW. I felt great coming out of the NBME's, but felt lousy walking out of this test. Really doubting my 250 goal. I think the length got to me and the questions didn't have as clear cut answers as the NBMEs. I always finished with 10-15min extra time during practice, but would only have ~5min on the real deal. Questions were longer to read through and they definitely add a lot of extra unneeded info. There's definitely a good 5-10% of the test that you can't prepare for by using classic review sources. I don't know how to overcome this other than just killing it MS1-2 and reading journals on the toilet.

Anyways, glad to be done. I'll try to write more on my prep if it turns out to have worked, but I'm too unsure right now. Hit me up if there's anything I can do to help give back for all the help I received from these forums. Lot of good people on this board and I hope I don't get banned for not meeting the SDN cutoff (<250).

Originally Posted by Alvarez13

Finished my exam yesterday. Should've posted right after while it was fresh, but I had multiple glasses of whiskey and then went to a steak house so get off my back about it already! If it makes you feel better, I'm probably going to need a bottle of allopurinol after that night.

Prep
-GT: Started this summer of MS1.Can't say enough good things about it. It's time consuming but it helped me in classes and I came into my dedicated step 1 period without having to relearn anything and I automatically jumped to qbanks.
-FA: Started annotating in MS1. I followed the book along with class and if I saw a picture in my notes I liked, I'd throw it into FA. All my books and notes are electronic, so screen shotting into one-note on a tablet pc was super easy. Attached below is a sample of how I would annotate a FA chapter.
-Pathoma: One day MS1-2 will just be online videos taught by the best like Dr. Sattar. Still infuriates me that I pay $18k/sem to learn this from my school when he only charges me $89 and teaches it better.
-Goljan Audio: Good for treadmills and drives to school.
-UW: Amazing resource. If I could do it again, I would've done UW through the year and then try to do it twice during study period (not so much working through questions as just reading the amazing explanations).
-NBMEs: Took the basic ones.

Stats
UW: 100% completed, 81% avg (low 69%, high 91%), only one pass
GT: 100% completed, 95% mastered
NBME 7: 252
NBME 11: 242
NBME 12: 250
NBME 13: 255

The test
Poring rain, got a parking ticked for parking in a professors space (didn't want to walk across campus to testing center in the rain and be uncomfortable all day). Worth it. No problems checking in, they allowed me to have my favorite headphones and had no problems throughout the day. Went to bathroom after every block to make sure my bladder was always near empty. Used all break time to eat, recharge, and pop 100mg caffeine pill when I needed it.

-Micro: GT and UW covered things well. Had a couple problems with specific mechanisms of macroclides, aminoglycosides, etc (what specific step of protein formation do they block, aka initiation, translocation, etc.).
-Biochem: Lysomal storage, galactose/fructose metabolism, lot of newborns with diarrhea or big spleens. One patient was even reported to be restrained for chewing his lips, fingers and genitals or whatever off.
-Genetics: My worst subject. Felt good on the pedigrees (had >4) and I actually got the hardy wineberg crap right. They had a lot of experiments with mice and genes that I flat out had no clue. Whenever a question started out "A little, homely Asian researcher in the hospital basement is studying expression on the 9XHDNE$SA2 gene..." my heart sunk a little bit.
-Pharm: Had some drugs I didn't know, but I think I got via elimination. Not a good feeling picking a drug you don't know. Lot of MOA and SE like everyone says. Lot of farmers, fat people, and patients with a sore first metatarsal joint.
-Immuno: These guys sure love organ rejection and TB.
-Anatomy/Embryo: Didn't feel as good about most of these. I didn't memorize all the ligaments in the foot or the pelvic floor well enough. I do however enjoy a good Meckel's Diverticulum question.
-Behavior: Just know that stupid 2x2 table inside and out and everything you can possibly do with it. Lot of study design stuff. Felt like there was tons of ethical/what would you do questions. I just made sure not to refer the patient and told them I couldn't sleep with them even though I wanted to sometimes.
-Psych: They like to do stuff where they put oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and antisocial personality disorder and you have to know the minor little differences to pick out the dx. Most weren't too bad.
-Path: Felt like I had a lot of questions where I narrowed down to 2 and couldn't finalize the dx. This didn't feel good. Pretty even distribution across subjects, but felt like hemat/onc was light and endo/renal were heavier. 2 media questions about the heart. 1 said the patient had a dental appt 1 wk prior and I laughed loud enough that the guy next to me moved in his little cube.
-Physio: Didn't feel great about some of the arrow problems and graphs. You could get 4/5 arrows right, but still have 2 choices left. Wish I had more time to do renal/cardio/pulm in the guyton/hall physio practice book that I used during MS1.

Difficultly was between UW and NBME, but closer to UW. I felt great coming out of the NBME's, but felt lousy walking out of this test. Really doubting my 250 goal. I think the length got to me and the questions didn't have as clear cut answers as the NBMEs. I always finished with 10-15min extra time during practice, but would only have ~5min on the real deal. Questions were longer to read through and they definitely add a lot of extra unneeded info. There's definitely a good 5-10% of the test that you can't prepare for by using classic review sources. I don't know how to overcome this other than just killing it MS1-2 and reading journals on the toilet.

Anyways, glad to be done. I'll try to write more on my prep if it turns out to have worked, but I'm too unsure right now. Hit me up if there's anything I can do to help give back for all the help I received from these forums. Lot of good people on this board and I hope I don't get banned for not meeting the SDN cutoff (<250).

Lol. Nice to have read a funnier post here.

Is there anything you would have done differently regarding your prep if you could go back in time?

Do you recommend the caffeine pill?

Originally Posted by futuredoctor10

Oh good point. I forget we get an email when we can access.

So why do some people say they are constantly checking the website? When they could just wait to get the email notification...

WELL YOU NEVER KNOW THE SCORE MIGHT BE ON THE WEBSITE BEFORE WE GET AN EMAIL!!!!!!11

Originally Posted by Phloston

Lol. Nice to have read a funnier post here.

Is there anything you would have done differently regarding your prep if you could go back in time?

Do you recommend the caffeine pill?

I wish I could've gone through UW another entire time. Kaplan during the year might have helped too, but GT, class, and life took up too much time. Can never have too many questions.

I'm anti-mornings (I want to be a surgeon ) and not a big coffee fan so I just got rid of the coffee part and bought some pills. I used them thru the year and they work great. I didn't mention, but I also loaded up on melatonin and made myself go to bed at like 10:00pm the night before. My thinking is usually foggy in the morning which I was worried about. A good nights sleep, caffeine, and NE kept me wide awake for the whole exam, so I was happy about that part.

Originally Posted by morte7

Renal - nothing hard here, except for a weird multi-system integration one about a random transporter.

autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease?
liver cysts, splenic cysts, mitral prolapse and diverticula plus maybe berry aneurysms?

I should stop reading this thread, at least right before exam..getting nervous..

Originally Posted by Alvarez13

GT: 100% completed, 95% mastered

you people make me so sad

I just took this bad MOFO Today. The most stressful part of the day was .... finding the stupid testing site. WHY IS THE entrance to the prometic center underground in the subways.... I spent a good 15 minutes frantically searching for the entrance. stupid me...

The second most annoying part of the day was the test center itself. These people talked for 4 out of the 8 hrs. Good thing i had super ear plugs that blocked out most of the noise. I LUV MY ear plugs. LOWERS SOUND BUT still allows me to ear heart sounds without having to take them out. These prometric people also open the door every 3 minutes and walk around and stuff.... then they stand behind you and look at your screen. IF I had ADHD I would have been really pissed.

Now to the exam itself. It seriously isn't as hard as a lot of the posters make it out to be. So for those who haven't taken the test yet. RELAX and trust yourself. If you have been doing well on UWORLD / NBMEs you have nothing to worry about. My test was on the level of the NBMEs in terms of difficulty with some WTF questions sprinkled in. The WTF questions were only WTF cause it involved the interpretation of genetic experiments. They aren't that bad if you stare at it for 5 minutes lol.

The question stems on the test are not that much longer than that of UWORLD or the NBME. They are longer, but not by much. I did get some arrow questions but they were on par with the ones in UWORLD.

80% of my test could be answered using PATHOMA alone. GOD THAT GUY IS AWESOME. I had a stats / behavioral science heavy test. 4-6 questions per section.

I didn't have any brain stem slices... but had cts of the skull. and the stuff inside it including the brains and air cells. Guess i studied the wrong stuff last night lol. THe anatomy was fairly straight forward and the calculations werent so bad. NOW I CAN FINALLY RELAX.

Thanks to all the posters of SDN that has helped by answering my questions.

UWORLD 74%
school assessment 205

6/5 238 nbme 11

6/15 ? forgot the date too lazy to look up 250 nbme 12

6/21 ? too lazy about the date as well 254 nbme 7

If I were to do it all over again I would stick to FA / Pathoma / UWORLd without using all the outside books. I feel like I wasted a good 3 weeks using review books and listening to kaplan high yield

The lysosomal storage disease questions were full of buzzwords. The lange biochem cards had all those words highlighted in bold letters so that helped.

Originally Posted by morte7

Renal - nothing hard here, except for a weird multi-system integration one about a random transporter.

Originally Posted by Chirurg

autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease?
liver cysts, splenic cysts, mitral prolapse and diverticula plus maybe berry aneurysms?

I would actually think Pendrin would be the high-yield "obscure" transporter that would be multi-system. It's found in the kidney as well as in the thyroid gland and cochlea, and is necessary for halide (i.e. chloride, iodide) transport. I had read somewhere a while ago that mutations in Pendrin cause Pendred syndrome, which is one of the most common genetic causes of hearing loss; if the pt is hypothyroid and deaf, then the Dx is a clincher. Any SLC#A# mutations should ring a bell regarding the kidneys.

Originally Posted by Phloston

I would actually think Pendrin would be the high-yield "obscure" transporter that would be multi-system. It's found in the kidney as well as in the thyroid gland and cochlea, and is necessary for halide (i.e. chloride, iodide) transport. I had read somewhere a while ago that mutations in Pendrin cause Pendred syndrome, which is one of the most common genetic causes of hearing loss; if the pt is hypothyroid and deaf, then the Dx is a clincher. Any SLC#A# mutations should ring a bell regarding the kidneys.

learned something new

I seriously think that phloston will get the highest score in the history of the usmle. Greater than a 270 for sure!!

Originally Posted by loveoforganic

you people make me so sad

You're ahead of where I was post MS1. Keep it up

Originally Posted by HelpPleaseMD

NOW I CAN FINALLY RELAX.

Congrats! Have fun!

Originally Posted by usmlesuccess

I seriously think that phloston will get the highest score in the history of the usmle. Greater than a 270 for sure!!

That's a lot of pressure.

Originally Posted by usmlesuccess

I seriously think that phloston will get the highest score in the history of the usmle. Greater than a 270 for sure!!

I think its possible for people like him who will study 5,343 months for step 1.
Others will do it in a fraction of that time period and will score in the same upper-range bracket.

Originally Posted by med8957

I think its possible for people like him who will study 5,343 months for step 1.
Others will do it in a fraction of that time period and will score in the same upper-range bracket.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with studying 5,343 months for step 1. If thats what an individual needs to do then hey thats what he/she has to do. Just saying!

Originally Posted by med8957

I think its possible for people like him who will study 5,343 months for step 1.
Others will do it in a fraction of that time period and will score in the same upper-range bracket.

That is really mean to say!

Originally Posted by usmlesuccess

I seriously think that phloston will get the highest score in the history of the usmle. Greater than a 270 for sure!!

I'm sure he'll do quite well, but he seems kind of inflexible based on this posts. You don't get a high score on this test because you've invested (or wasted) time learning about low yield things like pendrin. I bet he gets a low-mid 260.

Originally Posted by ijn

I'm sure he'll do quite well, but he seems kind of inflexible based on this posts. You don't get a high score on this test because you've invested (or wasted) time learning about low yield things like pendrin. I bet he gets a low-mid 260.

lol. now thats mean

Originally Posted by Phloston

How can you say that when you hadn't hit additional resources? What about the questions makes you say that?

Also, regarding your neuro, were the regions they were asking about obscure, or were they merely only to be found via QBanks...?



I've guessed that since the question allocation is random, the curve you get is also custom to your particular test. It comes down to two things: despite the randomness of topics assessed, if the proportion of easy, medium, difficult and wtf questions remains constant with every test, then your curve will be similar to other people's; if the proportion changes alongside the topic-randomness, then your curve will in fact be unique, based on increasing #s of easy or hard questions, etc. My guess would be that the proportion and curve remain somewhat consistent between people. If you got hard questions not in FA, then other people did too; it's just a toss-up as to whether these were topics you happen to have covered/knew/seen before.

Just that it was so obscure. I'm sure the answers to those questions were in some resource somewhere, but not one that a student would pick up to prepare for Step 1. If you have FA memorized and would like to go searching for more in-depth material, all the power to you, but the likelihood that you will actually come across that obscure information, remember it without forgetting any of the basic stuff from FA, and that it shows up on your test, is silly-low.

Regarding the neuro, nothing that I had seen on UW. When I say stuff I had never come across, I really do mean it; not just stuff I should have come across but didn't get to out of laziness, etc. Like stuff that I could know from memorizing a Neuro atlas, and that goes for the other subjects.

All that said, I would say like 80-85% of my test was answerable with FA. That's a high percentage, but I was expecting like 95% +.

Originally Posted by RedSoxSuck

There is absolutely nothing wrong with studying 5,343 months for step 1. If thats what an individual needs to do then hey thats what he/she has to do. Just saying!

Well, there kind of is. This is one of the very few "standardized" and objective assessment of our abilities that there is. When people spend a year studying for this exam then it isn't really so standardized, is it? You're (and I'm not referring to you Redsoxsuck) playing the system at the expense of others. How unconfident in your abilities can you possibly be to put that kind of energy and time into this test? If you need that much time to get the score your want on step 1 what makes you think you are qualified for whichever residency it is that you want? I appreciate reading about the exam experiences of others on here but it is pretty weird to see the same ~2 people commenting on practically every post.

most of the stuff not in fa or uw were covered in my classes.... except for the really weird genetics interpretation experiments

Originally Posted by 24thGrade

Well, there kind of is. This is one of the very few "standardized" and objective assessment of our abilities that there is. When people spend a year studying for this exam then it isn't really so standardized, is it? You're (and I'm not referring to you Redsoxsuck) playing the system at the expense of others. How unconfident in your abilities can you possibly be to put that kind of energy and time into this test? If you need that much time to get the score your want on step 1 what makes you think you are qualified for whichever residency it is that you want? I appreciate reading about the exam experiences of others on here but it is pretty weird to see the same ~2 people commenting on practically every post.

Yeah but you have to look at it from a fmg point of view also...they haven't seen basic sciences for a good 3-4 years when they graduate from medical school....add to that they have to get acclimatized to the system over here too....of course they aren't gonna pick up the nuances of the american medical system in just a few months so it takes a little bit of time....amgs tests throughout medical school are geared towards usmle from the start whilst fmgs tests are more writing with little to no mcqs.

Originally Posted by EaglesAllDay

Yeah but you have to look at it from a fmg point of view also...they haven't seen basic sciences for a good 3-4 years when they graduate from medical school....add to that they have to get acclimatized to the system over here too....of course they aren't gonna pick up the nuances of the american medical system in just a few months so it takes a little bit of time....amgs tests throughout medical school are geared towards usmle from the start whilst fmgs tests are more writing with little to no mcqs.

You're saying FMG's take step 1 after 4 years of medical school,.. that means they have even more time to study basic sciences before their step (vs the <2 years for AMGs)...

They are no nuances in the school system in the U.S.. It's simple; you essentially teach yourself, whether you live in cambodia or go to Harvard, so don't make excuses. And no, the exams in the U.S. are not geared to the step. They are very detailed and picky, testing over a large depth of information.

And Finally, no one forced you to go to FMG school system. Everyone has a choice in what they do. But in general, making excuses like that doesn't really prove anything nor justifies why the system should be tweaked for one's own purposes because you ruin the integrity of that particular system.

Originally Posted by med8957

You're saying FMG's take step 1 after 4 years of medical school,.. that means they have even more time to study basic sciences before their step (vs the <2 years for AMGs)...

They are no nuances in the school system in the U.S.. It's simple; you essentially teach yourself, whether you live in cambodia or go to Harvard, so don't make excuses. And no, the exams in the U.S. are not geared to the step. They are very detailed and picky, testing over a large depth of information.

And Finally, no one forced you to go to FMG school system. Everyone has a choice in what they do. But in general, making excuses like that doesn't really prove anything nor justifies why the system should be tweaked for one's own purposes because you ruin the integrity of that particular system.

Yeah that makes sense...let's study basic sciences instead of doing third and fourth year properly and going to clinical rotations which start actually in 2nd year.

Lol @ you getting butthurt, who made excuses? I'm calling a spade a spade. I agree nobody forced us to go overseas but some people had to For reasons specific to them.

Originally Posted by EaglesAllDay

Yeah that makes sense...let's study basic sciences instead of doing third and fourth year properly and going to clinical rotations which start actually in 2nd year.

Lol @ you getting butthurt, who made excuses? I'm calling a spade a spade. I agree nobody forced us to go overseas but some people had to For reasons specific to them.

Then why are you whining like a b.itch. Man up, loser. And Lol at you coming on here making excuses and pleading yourself to validation, then saying you're not making excuses. Retard.

Originally Posted by med8957

Then why are you whining like a b.itch. Man up, loser. And Lol at you coming on here making excuses and pleading yourself to validation, then saying you're not making excuses. Retard.

Ah look she resorts to name calling, must be that time of the month.

Next.

Originally Posted by med8957

Then why are you whining like a b.itch. Man up, loser. And Lol at you coming on here making excuses and pleading yourself to validation, then saying you're not making excuses. Retard.

why you getting so worked up? it's friday...

Originally Posted by med8957

Then why are you whining like a b.itch. Man up, loser. And Lol at you coming on here making excuses and pleading yourself to validation, then saying you're not making excuses. Retard.

Wow, guy. Out of line.

Man up and behave like an adult.

Originally Posted by med8957

I think its possible for people like him who will study 5,343 months for step 1.
Others will do it in a fraction of that time period and will score in the same upper-range bracket.

I don't really know where you gather your information from. You and iCY should grab a mocha-java or something. I'm sure you guys would make great penpals. EaglesAllday got it right. Our MS1/2 curriculum carries a written-exam-based 2CK material-focus, rather than one catered to much of the MCQ basic science stuff. However, once again, I hadn't seen FA until just this February nor had I thought about ever sitting the USMLE until I was almost through my second semester of MS2. So if I can do the math correctly, given that you were geared toward this exam since the beginning of MS1, you actually will have prepared longer overall by the time we both sit the Step. I've read posts about people having read FA during MS1/2 or having gone through Kaplan QBank / UWorld during MS2, etc. So if you think I'm at an advantage in any way then you are simply imagining based on your own internal struggles, which is normal since projection is an SDN-common defense mechanism.

And I find it hilarious how discussing something = making excuses

Funny how people can get into med school yet don't have an ounce of decency or common sense

Done posting in this thread though, so the good folks who just want to see exam experiences won't have to filter thru crap like the above.

nvm