Good luck all. I have my exam end of March and hope to be the 1st one to post here for 2010.
Official 2010 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
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Bull$hit
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Finally got done with the exam today.
Overall impressions: It was a very fair and well written test, although there were a reasonable amount of nit picky questions. The question stems were a lot longer than any of the other tests, but overall, I felt like it was most like NBME 7. I barely slept the night before, but that's just the nature of the beast.
Practice test (in order of taking them):
nbme 4 - 262 (1 week into studying)
nbme 5 - 260 (2 weeks into studying)
USMLEW 1 - 265 (3 weeks into it)
nbme 6 - 247 (4 weeks into it)
USMLEW 2 - 265 (4 weeks into it)
nbme 7 - 275 (4 days before test day)
Study method: I started really studying around spring break of 2nd year and using FA throughout the school year to annotate. Also, I used DIT's bi-weekly questions to help me get through random parts of FA. I canceled the class when I get out of school and got my money back less 50 dollars. After I got out of school, I had 6 weeks until my exam date. All in all, I put in 10 hour days for 6 weeks and I don't regret it because I was pretty comfortable with the actual test.
I used BRS Phys, First Aid, and CMMRS (for the charts only). Also, I used lippincott illustrated rivews for the helminths. I read Goljan Path along with the organ systems. However, unlike a lot of people here I strongly believe Goljan isn't as necessary to do well. It's a good supplemental book, but it's not first aid. I did not listen to any of the audio questions. The reason I'm kind of not as gungho about goljan is because I feel that people just try to "memorize" the pathology, and not understand the disease processes. I feel like goljan is good for a reference, but if you actually struggle through the pathology yourself in second year it stays a lot longer, and you can apply it to situations you are not sure of.
I think people on this board put too much emphasis on memorizing things. Honestly, I can probably say if you memorize FA you can only do ~ 225. By far the most important thing, as people have said before me, is to kick ass in 2nd year. The second most important thing to do is practice questions. When doing practice questions it's absolutely critical to figure out why you're getting questions wrong. Was it a thought process error or was it just a factual error?
All in all, if you have the motivation, and you busted your ass second year, I feel like anyone can get a great score. The hard part is keeping the motivation, but just try to put it all in perspective.
With all that being said, I will be happy with anything 250+, satisfied with 245+, and ecstatic with anything 255+. I would be "okay" with 240. I know that seems kind of exaggerated and it really isn't a bearing on what I believe a good score is, more like "false" expectations based on the practice tests.
Anyways good luck, keep your chin up, and remember, it's only 2 months for the rest of your life.
Overall impressions: It was a very fair and well written test, although there were a reasonable amount of nit picky questions. The question stems were a lot longer than any of the other tests, but overall, I felt like it was most like NBME 7. I barely slept the night before, but that's just the nature of the beast.
Practice test (in order of taking them):
nbme 4 - 262 (1 week into studying)
nbme 5 - 260 (2 weeks into studying)
USMLEW 1 - 265 (3 weeks into it)
nbme 6 - 247 (4 weeks into it)
USMLEW 2 - 265 (4 weeks into it)
nbme 7 - 275 (4 days before test day)
Study method: I started really studying around spring break of 2nd year and using FA throughout the school year to annotate. Also, I used DIT's bi-weekly questions to help me get through random parts of FA. I canceled the class when I get out of school and got my money back less 50 dollars. After I got out of school, I had 6 weeks until my exam date. All in all, I put in 10 hour days for 6 weeks and I don't regret it because I was pretty comfortable with the actual test.
I used BRS Phys, First Aid, and CMMRS (for the charts only). Also, I used lippincott illustrated rivews for the helminths. I read Goljan Path along with the organ systems. However, unlike a lot of people here I strongly believe Goljan isn't as necessary to do well. It's a good supplemental book, but it's not first aid. I did not listen to any of the audio questions. The reason I'm kind of not as gungho about goljan is because I feel that people just try to "memorize" the pathology, and not understand the disease processes. I feel like goljan is good for a reference, but if you actually struggle through the pathology yourself in second year it stays a lot longer, and you can apply it to situations you are not sure of.
I think people on this board put too much emphasis on memorizing things. Honestly, I can probably say if you memorize FA you can only do ~ 225. By far the most important thing, as people have said before me, is to kick ass in 2nd year. The second most important thing to do is practice questions. When doing practice questions it's absolutely critical to figure out why you're getting questions wrong. Was it a thought process error or was it just a factual error?
All in all, if you have the motivation, and you busted your ass second year, I feel like anyone can get a great score. The hard part is keeping the motivation, but just try to put it all in perspective.
With all that being said, I will be happy with anything 250+, satisfied with 245+, and ecstatic with anything 255+. I would be "okay" with 240. I know that seems kind of exaggerated and it really isn't a bearing on what I believe a good score is, more like "false" expectations based on the practice tests.
Anyways good luck, keep your chin up, and remember, it's only 2 months for the rest of your life.
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Woops, sorry for leaving that out
I used Kaplan Qbank during the school year, and started UWorld when class got out. Did 1 pass of UWorld 87%.
For what it's worth, I thought Qbank was a waste of time. Don't remember seeing one thing that was in there that wasn't in UWorld.
Kaplan Qbank % - 77%? i think, i don't really remember, and I really don't want to open it. Closing step 1 chapter in my life.
Books:
1st aid
BRS Phys
CMMRS (charts only)
Goljan Path (mainly during the school year, barely touched it during the 6 weeks of studying)
Goljan Biochem (I really felt like FA covered biochem enough)
I also skimmed HY Mol Bio, but FA really covers it.
Once again I have no idea how I did, but we'll see. I'm a terrible predictor of my own scores.
Finished the test today and I have some things I want to say to those of you who are taking it soon.
Study Materials:
First Aid
Goljan RR - w/Audio
Biochem RR
CMMRS
HY Cell
BRS Physio
HY Neuro
HY Behavioral
Kaplan Qbook
Robbins Qbook
UWorld - 79% - (2/3 timed/random, 1/3 organ based - which I would recommend in the beginning)
Study Method: I started off planning on doing a modified Taus method with one pass and the last two weeks deal. I started with biochem/genetics and micro/immuno in mid-April while I still had 5 weeks of school left. My school did a really crappy job at teaching clinical biochemistry, so I decided to start that stuff early. I didnt spend too much time during that period, maybe 15 hours a week, but managed to get through it all so I started with path when my year ended. I anotatted FA an tried to consolidate all of my resources into FA. This was a HUGE MISTAKE.
It took so much time and I fooled myself into thinking I was actually accomplishing things. I never wrote anything down during the year and I did most of my learning by reading things. I also ended up annotating things that I couldnt figure out and ended up reading the primary source again. Why I tried to follow another person's method I still dont know? So my advice is STUDY THE WAY YOU NORMALLY STUDY.
Obviously this doesnt work for world, but I realized (a few days ago unfortunately) that I could just write down a general topic for the question and ID # for the question. So I saved time not writing abbreviated phrases that meant nothing to me later and it was easy to get the whole picture again for review if I needed it. If I were to do it all over again, I would only use the kaplan qbook for resp and cardio physiology and reserve the robbins qbook for early studying (assuming you have time to finish world). World was KEY for alot of the questions and there were alot of questions that were identical to world.
I Tried the whole margin note thing over the previous two days and it was helpful, but I would definitely supplement it with the anatomy, biochem, micro, pharm HY goljan 100pg notes. I didnt look at it until yesterday and I wish I had earlier cause I got a few and missed a few that I wouldnt have if I spent more time on it.
Practice Tests:
UWSA 1 : 254 (4 weeks out)
NBME 6: 244 (3.5 weeks out)
USWA 2: 263 (5 days ago)
NBME 7 : 255 (3 days ago) - I agree with Killinsound and other who have said this is the most representative. I was debating taking it and Im glad I did because there were questions straight from this test and question that were rearranged with the same general principle
Test Today 6/18:
Biochem/genetics/molecular bio: I had a TON of questions about cell signaling proteins, processes, receptors ect. I felt like I was taking the MCAT for some of them where they give you some molecular protein and based on general principles you had to predict the outcome. It threw me off at first, but got easier along the way. An interesting presentation of red-green colorblindness with turners syndrome was notable. HY cell bio helped ALOT for a bunch of these questions. Especially the cell signaling chapter.
Micro/Immuno: Alot of the micro was difficult and FA WAS NOT ENOUGH, I had a question about malaria prophylaxis, the transmission route of several different viruses (some very rare), and what do you treat this odd presentation of an infection (hot tub folliculitis). Aside from those questions the rest were pretty straighforward. Immuno was pretty easy, except a question about the type graft rejection with someone who is positive for lewis Abs.
Path: These were the gimmie questions. There were a few difficult questions distributed pretty equally across the organ systems. Now that I think about it, I did have quite a few brain slices, but the questions were easy if you could identify the structure.
Behavioral/Stats?Ethics: This section, believe it or not, killed me. I didnt take stats too seriously and it showed. I probably had 2 per block and a bunch of graphs. Once you figure out the graphs the questions were easy(assuming you know simple definitions and didnt mix stuff up like I did). I also had 2-3 questions regarding ethics or defense mechanisms per block. Most of these were pretty straight forward except some defense mechanisms that werent in FA (idealization)
Pharm: straightforward mechanisms and side effects, nothing notable
My Impression:
Aside from the few topics I mentioned, the exam wasnt bad. It seemed like the questions were on the extremes. Some seemed like insane Uworld wtf questions and others were "are you kidding me" easy with the latter being the majority (which was nice). I made some really dumb mistakes and changed a few answers to the wrong answer, but overall I think it went pretty well. Now for the long wait for scores which reminds me...When is the earliest we would be getting scores?
Study Materials:
First Aid
Goljan RR - w/Audio
Biochem RR
CMMRS
HY Cell
BRS Physio
HY Neuro
HY Behavioral
Kaplan Qbook
Robbins Qbook
UWorld - 79% - (2/3 timed/random, 1/3 organ based - which I would recommend in the beginning)
Study Method: I started off planning on doing a modified Taus method with one pass and the last two weeks deal. I started with biochem/genetics and micro/immuno in mid-April while I still had 5 weeks of school left. My school did a really crappy job at teaching clinical biochemistry, so I decided to start that stuff early. I didnt spend too much time during that period, maybe 15 hours a week, but managed to get through it all so I started with path when my year ended. I anotatted FA an tried to consolidate all of my resources into FA. This was a HUGE MISTAKE.
It took so much time and I fooled myself into thinking I was actually accomplishing things. I never wrote anything down during the year and I did most of my learning by reading things. I also ended up annotating things that I couldnt figure out and ended up reading the primary source again. Why I tried to follow another person's method I still dont know? So my advice is STUDY THE WAY YOU NORMALLY STUDY.
Obviously this doesnt work for world, but I realized (a few days ago unfortunately) that I could just write down a general topic for the question and ID # for the question. So I saved time not writing abbreviated phrases that meant nothing to me later and it was easy to get the whole picture again for review if I needed it. If I were to do it all over again, I would only use the kaplan qbook for resp and cardio physiology and reserve the robbins qbook for early studying (assuming you have time to finish world). World was KEY for alot of the questions and there were alot of questions that were identical to world.
I Tried the whole margin note thing over the previous two days and it was helpful, but I would definitely supplement it with the anatomy, biochem, micro, pharm HY goljan 100pg notes. I didnt look at it until yesterday and I wish I had earlier cause I got a few and missed a few that I wouldnt have if I spent more time on it.
Practice Tests:
UWSA 1 : 254 (4 weeks out)
NBME 6: 244 (3.5 weeks out)
USWA 2: 263 (5 days ago)
NBME 7 : 255 (3 days ago) - I agree with Killinsound and other who have said this is the most representative. I was debating taking it and Im glad I did because there were questions straight from this test and question that were rearranged with the same general principle
Test Today 6/18:
Biochem/genetics/molecular bio: I had a TON of questions about cell signaling proteins, processes, receptors ect. I felt like I was taking the MCAT for some of them where they give you some molecular protein and based on general principles you had to predict the outcome. It threw me off at first, but got easier along the way. An interesting presentation of red-green colorblindness with turners syndrome was notable. HY cell bio helped ALOT for a bunch of these questions. Especially the cell signaling chapter.
Micro/Immuno: Alot of the micro was difficult and FA WAS NOT ENOUGH, I had a question about malaria prophylaxis, the transmission route of several different viruses (some very rare), and what do you treat this odd presentation of an infection (hot tub folliculitis). Aside from those questions the rest were pretty straighforward. Immuno was pretty easy, except a question about the type graft rejection with someone who is positive for lewis Abs.
Path: These were the gimmie questions. There were a few difficult questions distributed pretty equally across the organ systems. Now that I think about it, I did have quite a few brain slices, but the questions were easy if you could identify the structure.
Behavioral/Stats?Ethics: This section, believe it or not, killed me. I didnt take stats too seriously and it showed. I probably had 2 per block and a bunch of graphs. Once you figure out the graphs the questions were easy(assuming you know simple definitions and didnt mix stuff up like I did). I also had 2-3 questions regarding ethics or defense mechanisms per block. Most of these were pretty straight forward except some defense mechanisms that werent in FA (idealization)
Pharm: straightforward mechanisms and side effects, nothing notable
My Impression:
Aside from the few topics I mentioned, the exam wasnt bad. It seemed like the questions were on the extremes. Some seemed like insane Uworld wtf questions and others were "are you kidding me" easy with the latter being the majority (which was nice). I made some really dumb mistakes and changed a few answers to the wrong answer, but overall I think it went pretty well. Now for the long wait for scores which reminds me...When is the earliest we would be getting scores?
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Nice, looks like we are in a similar situation. Are you planning to use Rx as well during the year?
Does GT teach/review the topics or is it just questions and flashcards? I guess you're getting a 12mth subscription or are you dumping it midway for like qbank or UW?
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hot tub follliculitis = pseudomonas. i think thats in FA and any antipseudomonal carbapenem will work + aminoglycoside or flouroquinolone. but dont quote me on the treatment
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When I started my first block I think the first 3 out of 5 questions were along the lines of "what would you use to treat this". I completely freaked because I really didn't put a whole lot of effort into memorizing those 
. I think those ended up being my only questions like that the entire exam, though.
. I think those ended up being my only questions like that the entire exam, though.
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I read this thread so much while studying for the step, sometimes easing my anxiety while other times fueling it. As you can see this is my first post but I would feel such overwhelming guilt if I didn't give back to the community that helped me so much through the process that I have no other choice but to post my experience.
Test Date: April 14th
USMLE World: 68% time unused
USMLE SA 1: 236 (8 weeks out)
USMLE SA 2: 238 (2 weeks out) This was a bummer, after 1 month additional studying only went up 2 points.
NBME 6: 224 (1 week out) In the words of Billy Madison after seeing Ernie pee his pants… "Guuuuuuuueeeee!" This definitely put the fear of God into me, not only did I have a major drop in score but I was also concerned about the inconsistency between UWORLD and NBME.
NBME 3: 236 (5 days out) This was a relief, wasn't planning to do another NBME but after form 6 I needed to regain my confidence.
Real Deal: 243/99 Sweet Merciful Moses I couldn't be happier. I think it was extra tasty because my expectations were lower.
My thoughts: You have to take practice exams with a grain of salt. When looking at the questions I got wrong and my areas of lower performance I was consistently getting Cell and Molecular Bio and Neuro-gross picture questions wrong. On the real exam these were 2 of my highest performance subjects. Why? Because I worked on my weak subjects. On USMLE SA 2 I got in the 80s for blocks 1 and 2 but bombed block 3 and 4 which were heavy in molecular and cell bio. These various practice exams have certain subjects that they are heavy on and it is CRUCIAL to recognize your weakness when you do poorly on a particular question type or subject.
My study method: FA cover to cover 3 ½ times with U- World annotated into it. Don't try to transcribe the whole damn thing, just the important stuff. Do not dwell on random details that you've never seen before, they will not be asked. Annotated Goljan Audio into FA.
I agree with other posters that the USMLE does not test minutiae but I disagree that it is a thinking test. The USMLE was 90% a high yield exam testing concepts that you have seen repeated over and over again in FA and UWORLD. Yes, 10% will be questions that you have no clue on but you need to ignore these and move on. There is no way that I would have ever gotten those questions no matter what I studied. Further more, if I did focus on low yield sources to get those questions it would have wasted so much valuable time that could be spent doing U-World and FA. This is the key to racking up the majority of your points. I wish I started annotating from the beginning but I am a stubborn SOB and can't stand taking notes. This is an absolute must and I can't stress enough how crucial it is to combine these 2 sources. The icing on the cake (what separates a 220 from a 240+) is improving on your weak subjects. I am convinced that this is what got me out of the 230 range. My friend who took the exam a month before me told me that the same subject that he was doing poorly on the self assessments (behavioral science) was the same subject he ended up doing poorly on the real thing. After consistently doing bad in the same types of questions ( I say types of questions because I don't always agree with the categorization they use) I spent a couple days watching the Cell and Molecular Kaplan videos ( the first few videos of Bio-chem) and looked at a website with high yield neuro images ( http://brain101.info/Neuroscience.php) and a couple chapters from HY Neuro. Like I said earlier, these subjects went from my lowest in practice exams to my highest on the real thing.
Regrets/Advice: My main regret is that I fed into the fear and panic spread on this forum and from friends who took the exam. After reading on here that someone had a plethora of anatomy, I preceded to spend days doing HY anatomy (the week of my exam mind you) what a HUGE waste of time, every anatomy question was in my FA and I ended up missing a few qs out of FA because I was doing that stupid book (or some other waste of time). This was the theme of my 3 months, I would stick to the game plan of FA and World for a while and then get sidetracked and waste a few days wasting time with a low yield source, I would eventually realize the error of my ways and get back to FA and world. I repeated this cycle for the entire 3 months.
I am 100% confident that the following plan will secure a 99…..Step 1)Do FA through out until every fact is memorized, I did FA 3 ½ x and still missed a hand full of questions that were straight out of there (REALLY FRUSTRATING). Step 2) Annotate Goljan Audio into FA (picked up a lot of points from this) Step 3)Do USMLE WORLD and annotate into FA as you go. Don't do Kaplan Qs they suck horribly. The real exam falls somewhere between the difficulty and style of Uworld and NBME Step 4) Space out practice exams evenly (i.e. if you have 3 months to study than 1 practice test every 2-3 weeks) by the time you have mastered FA w/annotations you will see a trend in your weakness and have enough time to work on them. Only once you've done you're annotated FA at least twice should you integrate outside source like Kaplan or a rapid review book to correct your weakness (NOTE: NEVER NEVER STOP DOING FA THROUGH YOUR ENTIRE STUDYING) IMPORTANT NOTE:Outside sources should only be integrated if you are getting decent scores on the practice exams (i.e. 225-230+) IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING 225-230+ CONSISTENTLY OR ARE CONSISTENTLY MISSING QUESTIONS STRAIGHT OUT OF FA/UWORLD THAN YOU HAVEN'T DONE ENOUGH FA/UWORLD AND SHOULD REPEAT STEP 1(with annotation)!!!!!!!!!!! The high yield information between these two sources, if mastered, should be getting you at least 220s on the practice exams and is the fastest and most efficient method in making big jumps (i.e going from 200 to 220) BOTTOM LINE...If you don't know these 2 sources cold and are instead doing other sources, then you are not studying at maximum efficiency and wasting valuable time.
If any of this is confusing or if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
Test Date: April 14th
USMLE World: 68% time unused
USMLE SA 1: 236 (8 weeks out)
USMLE SA 2: 238 (2 weeks out) This was a bummer, after 1 month additional studying only went up 2 points.
NBME 6: 224 (1 week out) In the words of Billy Madison after seeing Ernie pee his pants… "Guuuuuuuueeeee!" This definitely put the fear of God into me, not only did I have a major drop in score but I was also concerned about the inconsistency between UWORLD and NBME.
NBME 3: 236 (5 days out) This was a relief, wasn't planning to do another NBME but after form 6 I needed to regain my confidence.
Real Deal: 243/99 Sweet Merciful Moses I couldn't be happier. I think it was extra tasty because my expectations were lower.
My thoughts: You have to take practice exams with a grain of salt. When looking at the questions I got wrong and my areas of lower performance I was consistently getting Cell and Molecular Bio and Neuro-gross picture questions wrong. On the real exam these were 2 of my highest performance subjects. Why? Because I worked on my weak subjects. On USMLE SA 2 I got in the 80s for blocks 1 and 2 but bombed block 3 and 4 which were heavy in molecular and cell bio. These various practice exams have certain subjects that they are heavy on and it is CRUCIAL to recognize your weakness when you do poorly on a particular question type or subject.
My study method: FA cover to cover 3 ½ times with U- World annotated into it. Don't try to transcribe the whole damn thing, just the important stuff. Do not dwell on random details that you've never seen before, they will not be asked. Annotated Goljan Audio into FA.
I agree with other posters that the USMLE does not test minutiae but I disagree that it is a thinking test. The USMLE was 90% a high yield exam testing concepts that you have seen repeated over and over again in FA and UWORLD. Yes, 10% will be questions that you have no clue on but you need to ignore these and move on. There is no way that I would have ever gotten those questions no matter what I studied. Further more, if I did focus on low yield sources to get those questions it would have wasted so much valuable time that could be spent doing U-World and FA. This is the key to racking up the majority of your points. I wish I started annotating from the beginning but I am a stubborn SOB and can't stand taking notes. This is an absolute must and I can't stress enough how crucial it is to combine these 2 sources. The icing on the cake (what separates a 220 from a 240+) is improving on your weak subjects. I am convinced that this is what got me out of the 230 range. My friend who took the exam a month before me told me that the same subject that he was doing poorly on the self assessments (behavioral science) was the same subject he ended up doing poorly on the real thing. After consistently doing bad in the same types of questions ( I say types of questions because I don't always agree with the categorization they use) I spent a couple days watching the Cell and Molecular Kaplan videos ( the first few videos of Bio-chem) and looked at a website with high yield neuro images ( http://brain101.info/Neuroscience.php) and a couple chapters from HY Neuro. Like I said earlier, these subjects went from my lowest in practice exams to my highest on the real thing.
Regrets/Advice: My main regret is that I fed into the fear and panic spread on this forum and from friends who took the exam. After reading on here that someone had a plethora of anatomy, I preceded to spend days doing HY anatomy (the week of my exam mind you) what a HUGE waste of time, every anatomy question was in my FA and I ended up missing a few qs out of FA because I was doing that stupid book (or some other waste of time). This was the theme of my 3 months, I would stick to the game plan of FA and World for a while and then get sidetracked and waste a few days wasting time with a low yield source, I would eventually realize the error of my ways and get back to FA and world. I repeated this cycle for the entire 3 months.
I am 100% confident that the following plan will secure a 99…..Step 1)Do FA through out until every fact is memorized, I did FA 3 ½ x and still missed a hand full of questions that were straight out of there (REALLY FRUSTRATING). Step 2) Annotate Goljan Audio into FA (picked up a lot of points from this) Step 3)Do USMLE WORLD and annotate into FA as you go. Don't do Kaplan Qs they suck horribly. The real exam falls somewhere between the difficulty and style of Uworld and NBME Step 4) Space out practice exams evenly (i.e. if you have 3 months to study than 1 practice test every 2-3 weeks) by the time you have mastered FA w/annotations you will see a trend in your weakness and have enough time to work on them. Only once you've done you're annotated FA at least twice should you integrate outside source like Kaplan or a rapid review book to correct your weakness (NOTE: NEVER NEVER STOP DOING FA THROUGH YOUR ENTIRE STUDYING) IMPORTANT NOTE:Outside sources should only be integrated if you are getting decent scores on the practice exams (i.e. 225-230+) IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING 225-230+ CONSISTENTLY OR ARE CONSISTENTLY MISSING QUESTIONS STRAIGHT OUT OF FA/UWORLD THAN YOU HAVEN'T DONE ENOUGH FA/UWORLD AND SHOULD REPEAT STEP 1(with annotation)!!!!!!!!!!! The high yield information between these two sources, if mastered, should be getting you at least 220s on the practice exams and is the fastest and most efficient method in making big jumps (i.e going from 200 to 220) BOTTOM LINE...If you don't know these 2 sources cold and are instead doing other sources, then you are not studying at maximum efficiency and wasting valuable time.
If any of this is confusing or if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
Last edited:
I dont believe they were there, but cipro was which is what threw me off... I figured piperacillin is an "anti-pseudomonal" and it was only a folliculitis, so that had to be the answer.... hopefully
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Hey lebowski congrats on the awesome score. Did you just get your score? When did you take the exam?
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I took the test yesterday. As for the content of the test it wasn't too bad, nothing that I've never seen at all before, but yeah there were some hard questions. I would also say first aid is not enough for statistics with regards to study design considerations. It would also help to flip through an anatomy atlas so you can get some extra points.
I think I missed some of the ethics questions where two answers sound fine to me, those always have annoyed me. Overall I'm pretty sure I will hit around 237 (i hope) which is my goal.
I think I missed some of the ethics questions where two answers sound fine to me, those always have annoyed me. Overall I'm pretty sure I will hit around 237 (i hope) which is my goal.
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yeah those "quote" style questions can be really tricky... ego defenses sound really similar as well... besides HY behav science, does anyone know of any good sources for these? Thanks!
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How many media questions did you guys have. I am short on time and may skip on listening to auscultation. I know the basics, just haven't really sat down with it.
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Just FYI, all 7 of the heart sound questions in UW are in the cardio pathphys section. You can make a test from all of them (only 43 questions total) and mark them to listen to.
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I had 2, and you could figure them out from the stems alone. The audio just concluded it
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ditto
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So, I know the scores won't be released until the 14th or whatever, but how will we get them? Snail mail? Or can we get them online?
edit: Nevermind, I found where they say they will email you with a login to view it online.
edit: Nevermind, I found where they say they will email you with a login to view it online.
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Thanks xantho. I should have mentioned that I got my score Wednesday May 12th. But I assure you my recollection is as if the exam were yesterday.
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I can't believe I made such a glaring error in my post. I don't want my entire painstaking post to be dismissed so please believe me when I say that was the only detail (although an insanely BIG detail) I left out. I listened to Goljan audio and annotated the important points into FA as I went. (took an entire week but well worth it). I was pleasently surprised on how much of this material showed up on the exam. Keeping with my original regiment, stick to annotating goljan audio into FA, if the self assesments and Uworld reveal that you are consistently weak in path then I would do which ever Goljan Rapid Review sections you are weak in. But you are right in that I had a good grasp on path, it was never one of my weak areas so I never had to result to using rapid review. Thanks alot for catching that Carson, I'm hoping my post can be of some help to studiers and with out the Goljan audio it would have had a huge hole in the regimen
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I sincerely advice not wasting your time. Peoples experiences with "quote" questions scared me into reading the HY behavioral science quote section and another source that I can't quite remember. It was something along the lines of "175 ethics questions your sure to see" The point is that when it came time none of those examples showed up on the exam and it was a huge chunk of time that could have been spent doing something higher yield. I don't regret the HY behavioral science section though as it is a very quick read and covers a broad spectrum. In all honesty you can't prepare for those questions they are completely random. The one thing I do suggest is figuring out the guidelines for handling underage smokers/drinkers and what to tell them/there parents. This question shows up every where and I still don't know the right answer.
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I hope it isn't too late. If you feel like you should review Micro and Pharm, then you should review Micro and Pharm. It's that simple.
Focus on your weaknesses. I spent the last day doing a couple things that I had trouble on, did Rapid Review in First Aid, and studied my favorite topic (cardiology). I'm thinking it would've been better to just go through some moderate-yield memorizable stuff that I was weak on, e.g. various definitions, rare diseases that are good vehicles for testing basic biochemistry, etc.
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I think that counts as cruel and unusual punishment. Eighth amendment!
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I had two also, both pretty easy to pick out. I spent about an hour on this site a day to two before my exam and it really helped me out. FYI, the heart murmurs on the real thing are a lot better done than the ones on UW (which just sound bizarre imo).
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I used most of their Qbank. It's good to go through and get hosed on strict-memorization questions. It'll motivate you to hit FA and RR Path really hard. There are some good facts in there that help fill out your knowledge.
However, I think as a learning tool UWorld was superior. The level of thinking allowed for you to learn more than just the fact that was tested.
Hahaha. Thanks, but you've never met me. My belief is that hardwork will always trump raw intelligence until you get into the super difficult stuff, e.g. philosophy, high level physics, groundbreaking medical science, etc. I'd guess that I'm probably in the bottom 5% of my class in terms of raw intelligence, which I take to mean the speed and facility with which one can learn new concepts. The best indicator would probably be the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Processing Speed Index.
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Hahaha. Something doesn't add up here. I'm guessing you'll be pretty ecstatic.
However, I think this attitude is good advice: being happy about your score is largely a game of managing expectations. I'll be very happy if I get my second lowest (out of 6) practice score. If I can only match my lowest score, I'll be content, but I won't be pleased.
I think that's an underestimate because of the level of knowledge you've accumulated from other books. There are ways to use FA to eliminate 4 of the 5 answer choices on a given question leading to the right answer even though the First Aid doesn't explicitly have the required knowledge.
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I agree - it's all about keeping it in perspective. I realize that at high scores, the variation in your question distribution is going to have a huge impact on your score. Also, I finished the Step 1 in 5 hours including the 30 minutes total I took for break, so I'm afraid I glazed over some details. I don't like to second guess myself and probably only marked 5 questions per block, but I was finishing the practice tests around 2 hours and 30 minutes, so I think it was an "okay" speed for me.
Yeah, you are probably right. I guess the point I was making was that I think 2nd year prepared me more for taking the Step I than reading FA did. The amount of rote memorization that was tested on was very minimal - which is good. However, you probably are correct in that you can use certain things in FA to eliminate the wrong answers, but I really feel like this is a flawed method of going about things that the NBME people really like to nail you on by putting in distractors.
With that being said, I doubt any of the people on sdn use the technique of eliminating answer choices to arrive at the correct answer their number 1 test taking plan - so you definitely are right, and perhaps I was under-acknowledging FA. However, I do still strongly believe that there is too much goljan memorizing. Based on the test, I think I was asked only 4 or so questions that were only found on goljan.
Goljan is a GREAT book, but I feel like learning and arriving at the clinical presentations based on what you know the pathophys to be is much higher yield, and I get the impression from sdn that a lot of people are hoping that rote memorizing goljan will yield the same results.
EDIT: For badasshairday - I wouldn't even worry about the media questions, they were some of the easier questions. Most of the time the description in the text was more than enough. If that wasn't - a good technique is just see what area the sound is the loudest, then if it's systolic or diastolic. You can pretty much get it to the answer without reading the text that way.
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Would you say, then, that the level of rote memorization required to answer correctly on the real thing is far lower than the rote memorization necessary to answer correctly on the NBME practice exams?
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I would say to a certain extent yes. I never felt the NBME practice tests were really trying to nail me on rote memorization. They will ask you rote memorization questions, don't get me wrong, but I feel this is definitely lower yield for two reasons.
1) the vast majority of questions are not rote memorization
2) the large variation in questions means that you have to memorize a crapload to cover all the bases
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I would agree that the NBMEs are not testing you on rote memorization, but I would also offer that the vast majority of questions are going to require you to have memorized a certain factoid in order for you to answer the question correctly. Many questions are 10% memorization, 90% reasoning, but if you don't know the memorizable factoid, you can't even begin the reasoning process, and end up getting the question wrong.
That's been my problem; my scores have improved significantly by drilling memorizable points, but I still miss many questions because I can't remember some factoid.
I wonder if your apparent intrinsic ability to retain a vast volume of info is making it seem that questions aren't testing you on memorizable material. Since you know that 10% immediately, you focus on the 90% reasoning and remember that specifically.
My inability to persist factoids for any significant length of time is what I feel is really holding me back on this thing. I'm hoping that the real thing is less memorization dependent than the NBMEs. That's why I asked that question.
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You're probably correct again, but I disagree with the "can't even begin reasoning". I think you can reason around factoids as long as it's not a straight up factoid question. You can hedge your bets based on what you know about that particular disease process and increase your chances about getting a question right.
For you, it seems like you identified your problem, so in your case maybe memorizing the factoids would be a wise decision. However, I still feel "learning" the material is much higher yield and what everyone should first strive to achieve.
For you, it seems like you identified your problem, so in your case maybe memorizing the factoids would be a wise decision. However, I still feel "learning" the material is much higher yield and what everyone should first strive to achieve.
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Yeah, I agree with you. You're right; in many of those questions you can at least narrow down to a subset of possible answer choices.
I also agree that learning the material is much higher yield. If I had just memorized the factoids in absence of understanding, my retention would have been much poorer and most of the questions would have been out of reach, knowing the factoid or not.
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Its flashcards sort of. I used them to review the topic after covering it in class and then I would try to do the relevant questions if I had time before the exam.
I actually got a 20 month subscription I believe because it was $50 off and the price was i think $200 for 20 months which is much better than any of the other Qbanks out there.
I plan on getting USMLERx probably at the beginning of 2nd year and UWorld during the last 3 months before the exam.. I hope thats enough.. Maybe I should get Uworld earlier?
Hi everyone,
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed their experiences here. They have been so helpful to me and many many others. I just wanted to mention a few things that I really regret and wish to share in the hopes that someone can take away something useful. First of all: know what you don't know-and be honest about it. I had 5.5 weeks to study, did DIT, am a slow reader, and did not get through all of First aid more than twice. some parts I did read 4/5 times, but still-not the whole thing in its entirety more than twice, which was a big big mistake.
The really important thing is: know the material and don't stress about trickiness in terms of questions. If you don't know the material, it doesn't matter how many questions you do.
Another poster said somewhere that the breakdown of questions is like: 50% straightforward-know it or you don't, 30% tricky-this includes crazy stuff that expects you to make those mental jumps and phys type questions with the arrows or graph/table interpretations, 15% stuff that you've learned but they ask about the aspects of the concept that just happen to not be covered in First aid. 5% random stuff that you might be able to remember from just stuff 1-2nd years or elsewhere and you couldn't possibly have covered in your dedicated studying time.
What you need to take away from this breakdown which I've modified a bit to conform to what I experienced during test day is this: the majority of the questions (80%) -you can get if you just know the stuff really well, and another 15% ( total 95%!) if you really know the same stuff REALLy well and are awake enough to reason through using pieces of info you know and APPLYing them and making smart guesses. at least-you'll be doing better than the great majority of other ppl on that 15%-which is the point-b/c you'll know more stuff and can make more educated guesses and rule out more wrong answers! and that is the best thing you can possibly do for yourself on a test like this. The other 5%? check out postings from ppl w/ 250/above to see specifically what they did in addition, but don't even think about that before you have gotten down all the material-which again gets you 95% of the way there. you really have to be systematic about this.
So in your last week-or like 1.5 weeks even-just go over info!!
This seems to be totally against the vast majority of what I've read on here, and that is the one thing I reallly really regret not doing. You don't study for your school's tests by just going through old tests if they are available. You do 90% of the studying by studyign the material!
(of course this percentage doesn't apply to the step 1-youi would go crazy just studying without breaking it up with as many questions as possible- but you see my point) the point is, don't prioritze the questions. Depending on your time situation, do as many as you can, but no matter what, you cannot neglect the MATERIAL!!
ok, sorry I had to go through all that, but it just seems to be against what other people say in general and I really hope that someone can see this and actually see the logic in it. and not make the mistake that I did.
ok test day:
yes. I did have to get up and tell my proctor to shut the hell up (nicely). I was so irritated but half my frustration was at myself for not going through the material more. earplugs- get the purple ones that create a great seal-I have only seen them at walmart -called aquablock I think. They still didn't prevent me from hearing some stuff but sigh whatever I wasn't pressed for time those last two blocks. and for the most part they did quiet down. If you are in a smaller test center there will be only one proctor, you could probably call to ask about that, but that is better if you are worried about distractions-since they wont be talking to each other in their high lady voices. (it's ok I'm a girl, our voices just aren't as effectively blocked out by ear plugs)
barely finished 2 blocks- I can't remember exactly but one block I definitely had to fly through 4 questions and another one like 8-10 questions and I barely read 3!
the other 5 blocks-had at least 9 min-15min. to check answers. I think the key here is:
think through each of the questions-because you don't wanna get a question wrong that you didn't mark b/c it was a simple oversight/you read the question stem wrong. just be alert-but if you do know it through some buzzwords, skim the rest if it's long and just read the question stem over again. Then, you know you have this question down and you don't need to mark it-so don't hesitate not to go through the wrong answers choices or anything like that-like tau says- you just don't have time to be 100% for all the questions.
I think during those terrible 2 blocks-I was just spending too much time on certain questions-you have been spending all this time, and still sometimes can't get the right answer- these were usually calculations/biostats, etc. and that is frustrating to move on when you feel the right answer is so close-but you have to move on!! and mark it. You dont' wanna kick yourself later and you will get questions later on that block that you just need a bit of time to reason through to get right, and you will hate yourself for not having the time to reason through questions that you certainly would have otherwise gotten correct.
the 46 question format doesn't seem to be anything different from world. I had to do a nbme through my school but I dont' remember much about the length of question stems. I certainly had no problem, and you just wanna make sure that you are finishing uworld blocks 15-20min earlier-then you 'll have no problem finishing & have time to look over your answers-if you follow what I said above for the calculating questions. There is a thread that is devoted to this subject-and I certainly saw nothing different from world. maybe 1-2 sentences on average more, but nothing that would affect you if you just read the stem first, then the question, which will help you know what you need to look for. I read the stem first, and on a couple of questions I literally didn't read the whole question b/c there was simply nothing else you needed to answer the question other than the stem. (yes, they will give you a scenario, and even though you may get a question that is just 3 lines long, it is just 2 more lines to set up a clinical scenario, which has no relationship to the question other that being a scenario that you could possibly use a drug in, or whatever. so read the question stem first no matter how short the question.) so yeah, if you are worried about it, stop it. go study.
not too many anatomy questions that were difficult-I am terrible at anatomy but there was just such a limited amount there-I guess some people recently have been remembering there were more anatomy questions than they expected-but I think there were just more anatomy questions that made up that 5% that I didn't and wouldn't even worry about, than other subjects. plus,they are easy to remember so-I dunno that might contribute to the recall bias.
the other distributions really aren't that important-everyone's test is different, but do know what is high yield. DIT really hit it on the nail! everything he said: HIV drugs, Diabetes/cholesterol drugs, biostats, TB drugs, vitamins. everything he said was not HY was also correct: embryo, antibacterial drugs. blanking on the rest.
If you are close to the test, just relax if you dont' know how everything works and the why of everything like Goljan keeps saying. Yes-ideally-but during the test if you have some word associations for the questions that are asked that are on the relatively less common stuff-that's actually enough to answer a question in many cases-so try to figure out what those more esoteric areas are, and just know the important key words, and not know everythign about it-like you do for the High yields and the most common stuff like diabetes, HIV, TB, etc. And that, trust, will actually be enough in those cases. you should also stop reading SDN soon.
Ok, good luck to everyone. We'll see if I failed in a few months. (no, I'm realistic, I 'm pretty sure I didn't fail but I might have just barely passed. just shooting for the national average here. Know your material!)
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed their experiences here. They have been so helpful to me and many many others. I just wanted to mention a few things that I really regret and wish to share in the hopes that someone can take away something useful. First of all: know what you don't know-and be honest about it. I had 5.5 weeks to study, did DIT, am a slow reader, and did not get through all of First aid more than twice. some parts I did read 4/5 times, but still-not the whole thing in its entirety more than twice, which was a big big mistake.
The really important thing is: know the material and don't stress about trickiness in terms of questions. If you don't know the material, it doesn't matter how many questions you do.
Another poster said somewhere that the breakdown of questions is like: 50% straightforward-know it or you don't, 30% tricky-this includes crazy stuff that expects you to make those mental jumps and phys type questions with the arrows or graph/table interpretations, 15% stuff that you've learned but they ask about the aspects of the concept that just happen to not be covered in First aid. 5% random stuff that you might be able to remember from just stuff 1-2nd years or elsewhere and you couldn't possibly have covered in your dedicated studying time.
What you need to take away from this breakdown which I've modified a bit to conform to what I experienced during test day is this: the majority of the questions (80%) -you can get if you just know the stuff really well, and another 15% ( total 95%!) if you really know the same stuff REALLy well and are awake enough to reason through using pieces of info you know and APPLYing them and making smart guesses. at least-you'll be doing better than the great majority of other ppl on that 15%-which is the point-b/c you'll know more stuff and can make more educated guesses and rule out more wrong answers! and that is the best thing you can possibly do for yourself on a test like this. The other 5%? check out postings from ppl w/ 250/above to see specifically what they did in addition, but don't even think about that before you have gotten down all the material-which again gets you 95% of the way there. you really have to be systematic about this.
So in your last week-or like 1.5 weeks even-just go over info!!
This seems to be totally against the vast majority of what I've read on here, and that is the one thing I reallly really regret not doing. You don't study for your school's tests by just going through old tests if they are available. You do 90% of the studying by studyign the material!
(of course this percentage doesn't apply to the step 1-youi would go crazy just studying without breaking it up with as many questions as possible- but you see my point) the point is, don't prioritze the questions. Depending on your time situation, do as many as you can, but no matter what, you cannot neglect the MATERIAL!!
ok, sorry I had to go through all that, but it just seems to be against what other people say in general and I really hope that someone can see this and actually see the logic in it. and not make the mistake that I did.
ok test day:
yes. I did have to get up and tell my proctor to shut the hell up (nicely). I was so irritated but half my frustration was at myself for not going through the material more. earplugs- get the purple ones that create a great seal-I have only seen them at walmart -called aquablock I think. They still didn't prevent me from hearing some stuff but sigh whatever I wasn't pressed for time those last two blocks. and for the most part they did quiet down. If you are in a smaller test center there will be only one proctor, you could probably call to ask about that, but that is better if you are worried about distractions-since they wont be talking to each other in their high lady voices. (it's ok I'm a girl, our voices just aren't as effectively blocked out by ear plugs)
barely finished 2 blocks- I can't remember exactly but one block I definitely had to fly through 4 questions and another one like 8-10 questions and I barely read 3!
the other 5 blocks-had at least 9 min-15min. to check answers. I think the key here is:
think through each of the questions-because you don't wanna get a question wrong that you didn't mark b/c it was a simple oversight/you read the question stem wrong. just be alert-but if you do know it through some buzzwords, skim the rest if it's long and just read the question stem over again. Then, you know you have this question down and you don't need to mark it-so don't hesitate not to go through the wrong answers choices or anything like that-like tau says- you just don't have time to be 100% for all the questions.
I think during those terrible 2 blocks-I was just spending too much time on certain questions-you have been spending all this time, and still sometimes can't get the right answer- these were usually calculations/biostats, etc. and that is frustrating to move on when you feel the right answer is so close-but you have to move on!! and mark it. You dont' wanna kick yourself later and you will get questions later on that block that you just need a bit of time to reason through to get right, and you will hate yourself for not having the time to reason through questions that you certainly would have otherwise gotten correct.
the 46 question format doesn't seem to be anything different from world. I had to do a nbme through my school but I dont' remember much about the length of question stems. I certainly had no problem, and you just wanna make sure that you are finishing uworld blocks 15-20min earlier-then you 'll have no problem finishing & have time to look over your answers-if you follow what I said above for the calculating questions. There is a thread that is devoted to this subject-and I certainly saw nothing different from world. maybe 1-2 sentences on average more, but nothing that would affect you if you just read the stem first, then the question, which will help you know what you need to look for. I read the stem first, and on a couple of questions I literally didn't read the whole question b/c there was simply nothing else you needed to answer the question other than the stem. (yes, they will give you a scenario, and even though you may get a question that is just 3 lines long, it is just 2 more lines to set up a clinical scenario, which has no relationship to the question other that being a scenario that you could possibly use a drug in, or whatever. so read the question stem first no matter how short the question.) so yeah, if you are worried about it, stop it. go study.
not too many anatomy questions that were difficult-I am terrible at anatomy but there was just such a limited amount there-I guess some people recently have been remembering there were more anatomy questions than they expected-but I think there were just more anatomy questions that made up that 5% that I didn't and wouldn't even worry about, than other subjects. plus,they are easy to remember so-I dunno that might contribute to the recall bias.
the other distributions really aren't that important-everyone's test is different, but do know what is high yield. DIT really hit it on the nail! everything he said: HIV drugs, Diabetes/cholesterol drugs, biostats, TB drugs, vitamins. everything he said was not HY was also correct: embryo, antibacterial drugs. blanking on the rest.
If you are close to the test, just relax if you dont' know how everything works and the why of everything like Goljan keeps saying. Yes-ideally-but during the test if you have some word associations for the questions that are asked that are on the relatively less common stuff-that's actually enough to answer a question in many cases-so try to figure out what those more esoteric areas are, and just know the important key words, and not know everythign about it-like you do for the High yields and the most common stuff like diabetes, HIV, TB, etc. And that, trust, will actually be enough in those cases. you should also stop reading SDN soon.
Ok, good luck to everyone. We'll see if I failed in a few months. (no, I'm realistic, I 'm pretty sure I didn't fail but I might have just barely passed. just shooting for the national average here. Know your material!)
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Hey guys I just took STEP1 on June 5th and had the new version of the test and wanted to know how long it took people to get their results for the newer version. I've read on the official website that it might take until July 14th and was hoping that people weren't having to wait this long.
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They haven't started reporting scores for those that took the 46q format yet.
Let's hope its not as late as july, good luck to everyone!
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After not trying to contact me in over a year, my ex from college decided that 12:40 last night would be a good time to text me. I didn't get back to sleep until 2:30. Fantastic!
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guys i postponed my test from the 24th to the 29th, did i make the right choice? the only reason i did is because i needed to get through FA another time (only on page 160 as of now, 2nd read through), have only done 55% of USMLEWorld, and haven't taken any practice assessments (want to at least take NBME 7 and free 150) ya, horrible planning on my part.
but please reassure me that it was right that i postponed lol
but please reassure me that it was right that i postponed lol
