Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[amavir281]

I saw that there was a similar thread for 2011 that had plenty of useful info so I figured its best to start one for 2012.

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[CarlATHF]

By pastries you meant eye candy right? lol

Check out the croissants on that chick!

 

[Hippocrates33]

Hey guys,

So I need some advice. Just did my NBME 11 and got a 610 (247) which was I happy with.
I feel like a 260 is close enough now where I'd like to go for it

I have about 3 weeks left and am thinking about changing up my plan. I've been working off a modified Taus method so far - did my "first pass" through the year with annotations and am about to finish my first dedicated pass in a couple of days.

Originally, the plan was to go through another complete run through but I am starting to think that my time may be better spent just doing questions. The stuff I've gotten wrong on the NBME was either stuff I hadn't studied yet or where I just didn't make the connections.

I have about 40% of Uworld left. So I was thinking to do about 200-250 questions a day, reading the answers but not annotating, going through the marked questions and getting through as many Kaplan questions as I can before the test. I've been keeping a list of things I keep forgetting so I will spend a few hours each day on that.

What do you guys think? Am I in danger of forgetting stuff I know by not revising one more time.

Thanks in advance!

 

[johndoe3344]

Hey guys,

So I need some advice. Just did my NBME 11 and got a 610 (247) which was I happy with.
I feel like a 260 is close enough now where I'd like to go for it

I have about 3 weeks left and am thinking about changing up my plan. I've been working off a modified Taus method so far - did my "first pass" through the year with annotations and am about to finish my first dedicated pass in a couple of days.

Originally, the plan was to go through another complete run through but I am starting to think that my time may be better spent just doing questions. The stuff I've gotten wrong on the NBME was either stuff I hadn't studied yet or where I just didn't make the connections.

I have about 40% of Uworld left. So I was thinking to do about 200-250 questions a day, reading the answers but not annotating, going through the marked questions and getting through as many Kaplan questions as I can before the test. I've been keeping a list of things I keep forgetting so I will spend a few hours each day on that.

What do you guys think? Am I in danger of forgetting stuff I know by not revising one more time.

Thanks in advance!

Whether or not you forget stuff entirely depends on you, and how well you learned it the first time. Nobody here can tell you whether or not you will forget things. Given that the questions you seem to be missing are because of things that you know but couldn't make the connections to, then doing questions would seem like a good idea.

 

[maxxor]

What would both of you have done differently looking back on things? Anything?

I'd echo what I saw earlier: go through BRS physio until you know physiology cold. On the USMLE, the physiology questions are NOT like any qbank. Yes, there will be this table with arrows and the question stem will be "predict how the values will change", but the difference is that the real test has every single permutation. I routinely had choices A-N or higher. You couldn't just reason out through a few parameters; you had to know how every single value changed. That was my biggest surprise.

Once you do that, you can go back and look at the blood supply of the neck. Those were the other wtf questions...

 

[docjohn101]

I'd echo what I saw earlier: go through BRS physio until you know physiology cold. On the USMLE, the physiology questions are NOT like any qbank. Yes, there will be this table with arrows and the question stem will be "predict how the values will change", but the difference is that the real test has every single permutation. I routinely had choices A-N or higher. You couldn't just reason out through a few parameters; you had to know how every single value changed. That was my biggest surprise.

Once you do that, you can go back and look at the blood supply of the neck. Those were the other wtf questions...

Can you give an example?

 

[Tatastrophy]

Hi, all. My score is back and I figured I would follow up.

My goal pre-study: 240
My practice scores:
UWSA 1: 226 about 6 weeks before the test
UWSA 2: 236 about 5 weeks before the test
School administered NBME CBSE: 235 4 weeks before the test
NBME 12: 233 3 weeks before the test
NBME 13: 228 2 weeks before the test-almost had a heart attack taking this one. HARD
NBME 11: 233 1 week before the test

Real deal: 249/87

As you can see, I got basically the same score for the duration of my studying despite the fact that I intensified my study after each practice. Super frustrating. Seeing NBME 11 result made me want to punch the computer screen. I calmed down, put things into perspective: 230 is not a bad score. Went in with that attitude, took the test. The test felt easier than my practices but I still made a point to not expect anything above 230.

I was a little surprised by some of the performance bars-areas where I struggled even a week before were very high but one area that I consistently did well on was oddly low. That area felt very difficult during the test so I expected that to some degree.

I guess best advice I can give you is don't give up if your scores seem to be stagnant. Double your efforts and keep it up even if you don't immediately see results. Set realistic expectations and adjust as needed after a few practices.

I quoted my previous posts about my experience but if anyone has more questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Good Luck everyone!

Well I already took my exam but I started out somewhat unusually: during the last month of classes I went through DIT just to get a good exposure to everything and see where I was having trouble remembering things. It was pretty time consuming and I am lucky that our last block was Neuro/Psych, felt much lighter than all the other blocks.
I didn't do anything but required stuff for that block and studied everything in the week leading up to the exam, like 4 days.
I already knew some of the areas where I'd have trouble (cough.biochem.cough) but I feel like it also showed me areas where I wasn't connecting things. Also, as dumb as they are, some of their pneumonics stuck. Made my life easier for later rounds.

Obviously, your plan will depend on the time you have/difficulty of your last block.

I took NBME 13 and I found it to be the hardest one of the ones I've taken ( I did 11 and 12 as well). I didn't end up scoring much lower than the other two (4 points). From personal experience along with my friends' experience, my advice is that you shouldn't take this exam iif you have less than 2 weeks til your real one. It will scare the pants off of you.
Compared to the real thing (which I took today, will hear back about in I guess a month), 13 is harder. There were definitely questions today that I still don't know the answer to because they aren't something I can even look up but those are relatively few and the rest have a mix of give away and some relatively difficult questions that you can reason through. Maybe I just learned not to panic but it felt a lot less stressful today than when I took 13.

Keep in mind that I am not a typical SDN 250+ scorer, my scores have been respectful but unfortunately resistant to every manner of intense study >:[.

The hardest question, period, was an immuno/deficiency one. It had what seemed like 2 conditions superimposed and the answer choices they gave didn't seem to make sense, perhaps I just didn't study enough immuno. There were a couple more questions that were really trying to sell you hard on multiple diagnoses, one of them very long, 2 paragraphs and lab values (and a ton of concomitant meds), but I eventually reasoned my way through.
Anatomy: knowing nerves and vessels is not enough, I was asked insertion points of muscles, spinal fracture questions. Had maybe 4 stroke questions, nothing particularly intense.
It felt like all my patients were women or children with something itching, hardly any cardio but when it did come up it was HARD! I don't remember a single pelvic question but like people say...each test is different, so know it as well as you know arms/legs/brachial plexus.
Timing: some questions take longer to read, some longer to read and think about, some are a breeze through. On the breeze ones, just trust that you know what you are talking about and move on as soon as you pick the answer. There were plenty where I spent 15 seconds on, and I am not a native speaker . I ended up finishing a couple blocks 5 minutes or so early and I never do that, so it just depends on your mix.
I found that the biostats questions were more involved than anything uworld showed but not out of my reach, the ethical questions made me really think when they are usually are a breeze for me.
Last word of caution: I don't know if that was a coincidence or what but me and like 3 of my friends felt our very last section was significantly harder than the rest, like marking one question after another and taking way too long to move through. The hardest questions on my exam were largely here. Be aware and ready for it if it happens to you.


wow, this is a novel. anyways, hope this helps.

 

[docjohn101]

Hi, all. My score is back and I figured I would follow up.

My goal pre-study: 240
My practice scores:
UWSA 1: 226 about 6 weeks before the test
UWSA 2: 236 about 5 weeks before the test
School administered NBME CBSE: 235 4 weeks before the test
NBME 12: 233 3 weeks before the test
NBME 13: 228 2 weeks before the test-almost had a heart attack taking this one. HARD
NBME 11: 233 1 week before the test

Real deal: 249/87

As you can see, I got basically the same score for the duration of my studying despite the fact that I intensified my study after each practice. Super frustrating. Seeing NBME 11 result made me want to punch the computer screen. I calmed down, put things into perspective: 230 is not a bad score. Went in with that attitude, took the test. The test felt easier than my practices but I still made a point to not expect anything above 230.

I was a little surprised by some of the performance bars-areas where I struggled even a week before were very high but one area that I consistently did well on was oddly low. That area felt very difficult during the test so I expected that to some degree.

I guess best advice I can give you is don't give up if your scores seem to be stagnant. Double your efforts and keep it up even if you don't immediately see results. Set realistic expectations and adjust as needed after a few practices.

I quoted my previous posts about my experience but if anyone has more questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Good Luck everyone!

.

What were your sources? Did you feel that first aid and uworld covered all of the material?

I got less than a week left, and my scores have been stagnant at between 210-215, is still possible for me to get 230+?

What should I do in these last few days?

 

[Tatastrophy]

.

What were your sources? Did you feel that first aid and uworld covered all of the material?

I got less than a week left, and my scores have been stagnant at between 210-215, is still possible for me to get 230+?

What should I do in these last few days?

I used FA, UWorld, some Kaplan, Goljian Path, BRS Physio, Lippincott's Pharm, BRS Biochem for some detail and a neuroanatomy atlas for some pictures. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'd say if you understand background/causation of things discussed, UWorld+FA are good for 220, the rest is mostly luck. That's just my opinion though.

Honestly, I can't really say anything about what is possible for you: in my case I could tell I knew exponentially more on each round but was "hitting a wall" which is why I was so frustrated. Only you know if you made significant progress through your studying and something else is interfering with your test taking. Be honest with yourself and think about things you did during practices that improved/worsened your performances (for example: I needed to trust my gut on the first choice, many times I would pick the right answer initially but would get distracted/nervous when reviewing and switch for no reason. I had to hold my hand back on the real thing to avoid doing that. It paid off, afterwards I looked up the questions I was unsure of but remembered and in 1/10 times my first choice, which thankfully was my last too, was the right one).

In the days leading up to the test, I went through entirety of FA once again (6 days) and did some of the UWorld questions that I missed on the first pass through. I had a list of "things I think worth seeing at last moment" going that I reviewed quickly on the morning of the exam, I'd say 5-6 things from that list showed up on my test. The day before my exam, I didn't study, went to the testing center. I think that's what people generally recommend.

 

[Hippocrates33]

Whether or not you forget stuff entirely depends on you, and how well you learned it the first time. Nobody here can tell you whether or not you will forget things. Given that the questions you seem to be missing are because of things that you know but couldn't make the connections to, then doing questions would seem like a good idea.

Agreed. I was just wondering if anyone else went with the all questions approach towards the end and if it helped or hurt them. I feel like I have a good grasp of the fundamentals. It's now the details and pattern recognition which is why I was leaning towards questions.

 

[jatt12]

Hello folks took my exam today, and I am glad it's done lol. I had at lease two or three neuroanatomy questions in each block, which was kinda pissing me off even though I knew the answers, biochemistry was easy had 10-15 in whole exam, physio and pathology was heavily tested, and board people made sure nothing was left in terms of organs lol, pharmacology was easy, which consisted of MOA, and p450 stuff, anatomy in my exam consisted of all brain slices and I think one was straight from one of the nbme that I can't remember, micro was straight forward with couple of pictures which were easy to identify, immuno was also straight forward had some deficiencies and know FA for what CD are on what HINT!!!!. I had no embryo question and two genetic pedigrees. Behavioral and biostatistic were easy.

I used FA, rapid review path and school notes. I used uworld qbank.

My progress:

CBSSA: 242
NBME 6: 240
NBME 7: 254
NBME 11: 268
NBME 12: 264
NBME 13: 261
NBME 13: 273 ( one week before exam, and I reviewed my wrong answers from previous nbme 13)

Uworld Qbank: all finished with 81%

Good luck everyone, time for paaaartyyyy

 

[lrkoehle]

Hello folks took my exam today, and I am glad it's done lol. I had at lease two or three neuroanatomy questions in each block, which was kinda pissing me off even though I knew the answers, biochemistry was easy had 10-15 in whole exam, physio and pathology was heavily tested, and board people made sure nothing was left in terms of organs lol, pharmacology was easy, which consisted of MOA, and p450 stuff, anatomy in my exam consisted of all brain slices and I think one was straight from one of the nbme that I can't remember, micro was straight forward with couple of pictures which were easy to identify, immuno was also straight forward had some deficiencies and know FA for what CD are on what HINT!!!!. I had no embryo question and two genetic pedigrees. Behavioral and biostatistic were easy.

I used FA, rapid review path and school notes. I used uworld qbank.

My progress:

CBSSA: 242
NBME 6: 240
NBME 7: 254
NBME 11: 268
NBME 12: 264
NBME 13: 261
NBME 13: 273 ( one week before exam, and I reviewed my wrong answers from previous nbme 13)

Uworld Qbank: all finished with 81%

Good luck everyone, time for paaaartyyyy

Congrats on being finished with this beast! How long did your study period last? Any reason you chose to do NBME 13 twice, instead a UW assessment earlier on in your study period?

 

[jatt12]

Congrats on being finished with this beast! How long did your study period last? Any reason you chose to do NBME 13 twice, instead a UW assessment earlier on in your study period?

Thanks!! I had 5 weeks to study, reason I didn't do uworld SA because i was told by upperclass students that it is not accurate predictor for step1 score, and low score at nbme13 was bothering me thats why I took it 4 days before my exam .

 

[lrkoehle]

Thanks!! I had 5 weeks to study, reason I didn't do uworld SA because i was told by upperclass students that it is not accurate predictor for step1 score, and low score at nbme13 was bothering me thats why I took it 4 days before my exam .

Haha, yeah, I was looking at your post and I couldn't help but think, "many, that first go around on NBME 13 was just awful!" I understand though, you need to have 100% confidence in yourself going into this thing, or I imagine it would be really easy to have a tough block that throws you off your game and makes you start second guessing yourself on every question for the rest of the exam. Anyways, I'm sure you did way better than a lowly 261

 

[Kaputt]

Thanks!! I had 5 weeks to study, reason I didn't do uworld SA because i was told by upperclass students that it is not accurate predictor for step1 score, and low score at nbme13 was bothering me thats why I took it 4 days before my exam .

The World SAs have easier curves, but they're worth doing because they're 368 World-quality questions not lifted from the qbank. But you would have likely scored 265 (the top score) on both of them judging by your NBME results.

Congrats to Tatastrophy, it's awesome to see a jump from the practice tests to the real deal!

 

[lrkoehle]

The World SAs have easier curves, but they're worth doing because they're 368 World-quality questions not lifted from the qbank. But you would have likely scored 265 (the top score) on both of them judging by your NBME results.

Congrats to Tatastrophy, it's awesome to see a jump from the practice tests to the real deal!

That's good to know. I was wondering if they were repeats from the general pool of questions or not.

 

[jatt12]

Ok, so let me rewrite my exam experience, that i took on Saturday i wrote my experience yesterday, but that was in midst of hangover lol.

Anatomy- Believe it or not i had atleast 3 questions in each block showing brain stem, and other showing s.olivary structure etc, most of them were easy, but had long stem which was kind of pissing me off lol, i had 2 brachial plexus questions, know FA for lower limb nerves, in terms of if you fracture ..... what happens in motor or sensory. I had no female anatomy but one of my friend who was taking exam with me had 1 female pelvic anatomy related question, had 4 CT abdomen basically wanted to know where the particular structure is and identify it, know TIPS and where to create shunt etc. Overall i think anatomy was easy if you know your stuff.

Histology: I can't remember but i guess know gap junction, tight junction etc.

Embryology: FA is enough, i can't believe i wasted time on school notes.

Biochemistry/Genetics: It was straight forward know all the diseases in FA, inside out, sideways or whatever way they all were on exam, easier then uworld. I think i had one or two question from nbme's i can't remember which one though, i had no rate limiting enzyme. Had 2 pedigree in genetics which again was easy to recognize, didn't had to read all the question stem.

Microbiology/Immunology: Studied mostly my school notes, which was more then enough. Bacteriology and virology was heavy on mine, but my friend had 5-8 questions in their exam. U world did awesome job in micro and immuno. Know all the receptors like what receptor on T cell know FA cold HINT!!!.

Pathology/Pathophysio: I think this was heavy on my exam, board people covered every single organ in my exam. Some were easy, and some questions were like what the hell they asking, it was frustrating because i knew what they were asking and then when i was looking at the options, i would be like could it be B, OR C.

Pharmacology: Straight forward, know SE, MoA and drug to drug interaction, some graphs.

Physiology: Endocrinology was heavy plus female reproductive.

Behavioral Science/Biostatistic: Ethical questions were nerve wrecking, bio statistic was easier then uworld lol. Know all the definitions etc.

Overall i was happy coming out from exam, i had 5 weeks to study and missed all the good weather, but at the end i am glad its over and done with. I would recommend doing more questions in last couple of days, instead of doing FA over and over but again that is my opinion everyone is different, and answer choices were easy, not like uworld where you have to think twice. Hope this help and good luck

 

[jatt12]

Haha, yeah, I was looking at your post and I couldn't help but think, "many, that first go around on NBME 13 was just awful!" I understand though, you need to have 100% confidence in yourself going into this thing, or I imagine it would be really easy to have a tough block that throws you off your game and makes you start second guessing yourself on every question for the rest of the exam. Anyways, I'm sure you did way better than a lowly 261

Lol, it was risky but i was like ehhhh, what the hell i might as well take it .

 

[jatt12]

The World SAs have easier curves, but they're worth doing because they're 368 World-quality questions not lifted from the qbank. But you would have likely scored 265 (the top score) on both of them judging by your NBME results.

Congrats to Tatastrophy, it's awesome to see a jump from the practice tests to the real deal!

Thanks, yea i guess i should have taken uworld SA.

 

[metallica81788]

I start my dedicated study period tomorrow. 30 days, yay. Moving right before this wasn't the best idea.

I'm probably going to take 2 NBMEs - which ones should I take? 13 and 11? 12 and 11? Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[ijn]

If anyone tells you there's a significant difference in the three most recent NBMEs then they're bull****ting you. It doesn't really matter what version you do. Some people suspect that STEP 1 questions are more likely to repeat from the most recent NBMEs than the earlier NBMEs, but if you're using the exams for their predictive value rather than as a learning tool then they're all equivalent.

 

[futuredoctor10]

I start my dedicated study period tomorrow. 30 days, yay. Moving right before this wasn't the best idea.

I'm probably going to take 2 NBMEs - which ones should I take? 13 and 11? 12 and 11? Thoughts? Thanks.

I'm curious about this also. Do you guys recommend 2 NBME + the 2 UWSA as a general guideline? Seems like a lot of practice tests but I guess it is good to gauge yourself each week...

 

[jatt12]

I'm curious about this also. Do you guys recommend 2 NBME + the 2 UWSA as a general guideline? Seems like a lot of practice tests but I guess it is good to gauge yourself each week...

I don't know about UWSA, but i did nbme6 to nbme13. More questions the better.

 

[jatt12]

I start my dedicated study period tomorrow. 30 days, yay. Moving right before this wasn't the best idea.

I'm probably going to take 2 NBMEs - which ones should I take? 13 and 11? 12 and 11? Thoughts? Thanks.

Take all three of them.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

Take all three of them.

I would go a step further and say that take as many exams as you can. It can only help by being able to see similar concepts tested in a different way. Also it will help you realize your mistakes and hopefully you'll be able to catch yourself on the real thing.

 

[mmmcdowe]

By pastries you meant eye candy right? lol

Guilty.

 

[weightlifter911]

Just took my exam yesterday and I want to start off by seeing it was NO WHERE near as bad as SDN made me think it would be. It was easier than any NBME practice test or U world self assessment. That being said, there might be a harsh curve so I not saying I killed it. Just leaving the exam I felt 100% better than i thought I would.

Our school have us about 6 weeks to the study for the exam, in which i did UWORLD, RX, and Kaplan. I finished these Q banks in those 6 weeks and also did my incorrect in U world, Micro twice in kaplan, and all biochem again (weakest subject). I split studying up in systems so I would study cardio (for example) 9 am to noon then do questions noon to 10 pm. After that I would do pharm until about midnight with some call of duty interspersed between, of course. I took 4 practice exams and averaged a 260 on them. SO thats how I went about studying.

The actual exam: Pretty nerve wrecking taking it but was excited to finally get it over with. My first block was the toughest and the last block was the easiest (random?). I had about 10 questions marked each block but still felt confident about my selections. Whoever said NBME does not use buzz words is sadly mistaken. They were everywhere. 90% of the questions I have seen in before in another form from a QBank. 5% were tricky physio arrows and the other 5% was let me take a random guess and pray.

Anatomy: Not much at all. Simple brachial plexus, the classic winged scapula, and not one question on leg or pelvis.

Biochem: This was my biggest surprise. I had literally no questions where i had to recall a whole pathway. It was presentations of diseases that were quite simple. They did have some tricky lab stuff that I could never have studied for, more logic questions. A lot of genetics and inheritance patterns

Micro: WOAH MICRO. Talk about low yield ****. I had 8 questions on parasites, worms, treatment of them and what there eggs look like. DO NOT just skip those few pages in first aid. Also look at the egg shapes since first aid does not include them. MMRS covered me pretty well.

Immuno: Nothing difficult at all. AT ALL, no crazy CD or cytokines just basic ones we all seen.

Heme/Onc: Nothing hard. First aid covered more than enough

Behvioral/Biostat: Biggest joke of the test, I wish i spent no time studying. I didn't have to do one math problem with the calculator. Maybe one or two tricky behavioral what to tell the patient next, but can always narrow it 50/50.

EMbryo: Some stuff not totally included in first aid but covered during the school year or seen in High yield embryo but only a few questions

Pharm: A lot lower yield than i thought. Couple cancer drug questions, one of which i never heard of it but you can narrow it down and take an educated guess. It was basically MOA of the drugs and maybe side effects of a couple like digoxin. No general pharm formulas or anything like that.

Cardio: arrows, arrows, arrows and renin pathway is gold

Pulm: Smoking, cancer, a couple most common questions

Renal: literally nothing except maybe a few simple RTA and RTN questions

Endo: just classic diseases with classic presentations and they wanted to know where the tumor was. I think 50% of questions on mine were paraneoplastic syndromes.

MSK/derm: not much but a decent amount of term. Maybe like 8 questions on cancer, and what stuff looks like. hyperkaratosis and all that definitions: know them.

Neuro: gross specimens with a marker showing a lesion. Pretty tricky but def don't just study this section without looking at MRIs and gross specimen pictures. It was the only way they tested it.

Repro: high yield for drugs, and had some breast and ovarian tumors. Memorize those cold

Thats all the subjects i can think of on top of my head. Had two audio questions with murmurs and only one question that was grouped with another. And you found out if u get it wrong the second u click next haha.

If i were to do it again i would not have studied behavioral or biostat prob at all. I would of done more questions. They were the only thing that prepared me. SO DO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE. I would of also made my test sooner probably. Starting burning out at end.

Hope this helps.

 

[jatt12]

Just took my exam yesterday and I want to start off by seeing it was NO WHERE near as bad as SDN made me think it would be. It was easier than any NBME practice test or U world self assessment. That being said, there might be a harsh curve so I not saying I killed it. Just leaving the exam I felt 100% better than i thought I would.

Our school have us about 6 weeks to the study for the exam, in which i did UWORLD, RX, and Kaplan. I finished these Q banks in those 6 weeks and also did my incorrect in U world, Micro twice in kaplan, and all biochem again (weakest subject). I split studying up in systems so I would study cardio (for example) 9 am to noon then do questions noon to 10 pm. After that I would do pharm until about midnight with some call of duty interspersed between, of course. I took 4 practice exams and averaged a 260 on them. SO thats how I went about studying.

The actual exam: Pretty nerve wrecking taking it but was excited to finally get it over with. My first block was the toughest and the last block was the easiest (random?). I had about 10 questions marked each block but still felt confident about my selections. Whoever said NBME does not use buzz words is sadly mistaken. They were everywhere. 90% of the questions I have seen in before in another form from a QBank. 5% were tricky physio arrows and the other 5% was let me take a random guess and pray.

Anatomy: Not much at all. Simple brachial plexus, the classic winged scapula, and not one question on leg or pelvis.

Biochem: This was my biggest surprise. I had literally no questions where i had to recall a whole pathway. It was presentations of diseases that were quite simple. They did have some tricky lab stuff that I could never have studied for, more logic questions. A lot of genetics and inheritance patterns

Micro: WOAH MICRO. Talk about low yield ****. I had 8 questions on parasites, worms, treatment of them and what there eggs look like. DO NOT just skip those few pages in first aid. Also look at the egg shapes since first aid does not include them. MMRS covered me pretty well.

Immuno: Nothing difficult at all. AT ALL, no crazy CD or cytokines just basic ones we all seen.

Heme/Onc: Nothing hard. First aid covered more than enough

Behvioral/Biostat: Biggest joke of the test, I wish i spent no time studying. I didn't have to do one math problem with the calculator. Maybe one or two tricky behavioral what to tell the patient next, but can always narrow it 50/50.

EMbryo: Some stuff not totally included in first aid but covered during the school year or seen in High yield embryo but only a few questions

Pharm: A lot lower yield than i thought. Couple cancer drug questions, one of which i never heard of it but you can narrow it down and take an educated guess. It was basically MOA of the drugs and maybe side effects of a couple like digoxin. No general pharm formulas or anything like that.

Cardio: arrows, arrows, arrows and renin pathway is gold

Pulm: Smoking, cancer, a couple most common questions

Renal: literally nothing except maybe a few simple RTA and RTN questions

Endo: just classic diseases with classic presentations and they wanted to know where the tumor was. I think 50% of questions on mine were paraneoplastic syndromes.

MSK/derm: not much but a decent amount of term. Maybe like 8 questions on cancer, and what stuff looks like. hyperkaratosis and all that definitions: know them.

Neuro: gross specimens with a marker showing a lesion. Pretty tricky but def don't just study this section without looking at MRIs and gross specimen pictures. It was the only way they tested it.

Repro: high yield for drugs, and had some breast and ovarian tumors. Memorize those cold

Thats all the subjects i can think of on top of my head. Had two audio questions with murmurs and only one question that was grouped with another. And you found out if u get it wrong the second u click next haha.

If i were to do it again i would not have studied behavioral or biostat prob at all. I would of done more questions. They were the only thing that prepared me. SO DO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE. I would of also made my test sooner probably. Starting burning out at end.

Hope this helps.

Had similar experience, hope curve ain't too harsh .

 

[djquickfingers]

So, after the taking the test, and a night of recovery, here is my full assessment of the exam:

A little bit of background...I'm an average student, American FMG(no I didn't have unlimited time to study for step):

My Uworld: 64% first pass
UWSA 1-228 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2-238 (2 days before)
NBME 7-228 (3 weeks out)
NBME 11-230 (2 weeks out)


Prep: I started in earnest about 2.5 months ago after taking the school sponsered NBME, and scored a 210. My primary resources are Kaplan Books/Videos, Pathoma, Goljan Rapid Review Notes and Slides, FA, Uworld, DIT and the occasional bootlegged Kaplan Qbank.

I first started with one run thru of DIT, which I did completely in 3 weeks. I did all the questions and quizzes. Guys, I recommend doing this because I saw no less than 10 questions straight from DIT that he said were HY. I too thought it was too good to be true, but I laughed out loud when i saw questions straight from DIT. I enjoyed it so much, I went thru it again before the test.

I then did Pathoma, and its GOLD..like everyone else here has said, Dr. Sattar knows what he's saying. I tried listening to Goljan, but it was too much for me. I did read his notes and found them reinforcing.

Kaplan: Good for a solid read if you forget something. I read all books twice except Micro, Pathology and Anatomy. They were very good in reinforcing all the things I THOUGHT I knew but didn't. Actually, I found quite a few questions in Uworld directly from Kaplan, that wasn't in FA, so use it if you can.

FA: Pretty gold. Read it one time thru the week before the test. Went thru it a few times before with DIT and supplement with Goljan I suggest supplementing it, but practically everything in FA is relevant. Every line can be a questions or a distractor. I'll detail each section below.

Uworld: Gold!! Like everyone has said, its a MUST DO. Do it twice, do it 3 times, just know the concepts. They WILL repeat, sometimes word for word on the test. What's more surprising is that the format of the test is EXACTLY like uworld. So familiarize yourself with it and skip the tutorial. From the color to the tabs, it all looks the same.

Kaplan Qbank: I can't really comment because i barely did it, and It was just ok. A little too detailed but I can't speak too much on it.

So as far as the test:
It's slightly easier than Uworld, with ALOT of questions being too easy. I was so surprised that they were asking me easy stuff. I almost thought there was some kind of a trick, but they aren't. They will ask classic stuff, like bugs and drugs so know the relationships. They want you to know whats common and how to treat it. There are no tricks, just straight forward thinking. Now for details, and I won't speak to specific questions since everyone's test is different:

Behavoiral: FA and Kaplan are sufficient. Know them cold, as these will be gimme's on the test. They ask for specificity, NPV/PPV, attributable risk. These aren't hard to know so memorize the table and know how to read it. Know study designs, what calculations used in each. Know limitations to study designs and KNOW CORRELATION COEFFICIENT. It's 2 lines in FA but know how to look at the graph..major gimme.

Biochem: FA not enough, so use something else. I used Kaplan. The questions were clinical and not too indepth. Believe it or not but I didn't get a lysosomal storage disease question! Know your rate limitors, and what enzymes are deficient in diseases. Uworld prepares you well for these types of questions

Embryo: nothing major. Know heart defects, know derivatives. All in FA

Pharm: FA is sufficient. No out of the world questions. Know how to read graphs and know your receptors. Know what blocks what, and what happens to EPI if you block something. Uworld gets out of hand with some of these questions but its good practice. I can't stress enough of knowing how to read graphs

Path: Pathoma is gold...nuff said. Goljan, ehh, idk. Use whatever works for you. The test is straight up, "what is the disease?" Very few in depth pathology questions about histology or mechanism. They just want you to recognize what the signs and symptoms are.

Micro: FA is enough. Classic cases, classic bugs. Know what HIV'ers get, both brain and butt. Know how to treat it. Know your fungi, and know your virulence factors. Those are all the secondaries.

Psych: FA..don't waste time on anything else

Neuro: Used James Fix's, FA and some school slides. Pretty much straight forward stuff. I got lucky here

Anatomy: Nothing out of the ordinary. I got luck again. know how to read xrays and know your bones in the wrist, know your organs on CT, know your left from right!

Overall it wasn't as bad as I thought. I always had time to review the marked questions, but I RARELY changed answers. It was long but it is a doable exam. Just make sure you relax the day before, look over xrays. Study everything you can and nothign will be a surprise. There was maybe 1 or 2 WTF questions per block, but nothing tripped me up.

Good luck and hopefully I scored as well as I felt. I'll take any questions

230/83. I know I messed up the SDN average but I'll take it!

Good luck to everyone

 

[RedSoxSuck]

230/83. I know I messed up the SDN average but I'll take it!

Good luck to everyone

Very good score. Congrats and screw sdn average.

 

[FML]

I took it on Thursday and since this site/thread has helped me out, I'm gonna write this up hoping it helps someone else. I'm gonna comment on the test itself and after I get my score, I'll update with study plan so there is some context to the study plan.

The test itself wasn't bad. Not easy, but not horrible. Like has been said before, the easy questions were EASY like very classic presentations, diseases, etc. The medium questions were pretty doable in general just more thinking involved (like 2nd-3rd order) but still able to think through. Now the hard ones were completely out of left field. Like things I would not have known if I had remembered every single thing that I had read/heard in first and second year. I just pray that those were the experimental questions (is that even a real thing? I hope so). I'd say the easy ones were 60-70%, 20-30% were medium, and 0-10% were hard.


Behavioral: Fairly easy. Some things that you had to narrow down to two and kinda pick one but maybe that was just me. One REALLY annoying question on abortions which did NOT have a correct answer. You basically had to take a stand on the issue. Ridiculous.

Biochem: Straightforward. A few of the wtf questions were biochem. Idk even what they were to tell you really.

Embryo: I thought I knew embryo well enough but they threw some really weird and specific questions at me. Some of the hard questions were here.

Pharm: This was a weakness of mine but I think it wasn't that bad. There were some things where they wanted to know how to treat a disease but the first classic answer wasn't there, so you had to know the second-best, which was interesting.

Path: Not bad. Some pics threw me off but mostly you totally could get the answer from the vignette alone. Straightforward for the most part.

Micro: Overall not too bad. There were def some random bugs that I had NEVER heard of, but by process of elimination or other reasoning/knowledge you could usually figure it out or at least narrow down the answer. This is regular for micro but knowing bug = disease wasn't enough. Know specifics about bugs/characteristics/etc.

Neuro: Decent. Most neuro questions had pictures: arteriograms, MRIs, spinal cord sections, etc.

Physio: a lot of goddamn arrows. SO many arrows.

Anatomy: I had some really specific ones here. Super annoying. But some really easy ones too tho.

Random: the test had some REALLY sweet pictures! haha They had these 3-D-like arteriograms in the brain. They were so real-looking!! lol, it was just something that I wasn't expecting and I was totally impressed. They weren't always in the position you're used to looking at them though so know that well. I too looked at the neuroanatomy the day before and I would def recommend it, but more on studying in 3ish weeks!

Overall, not too bad. I prolly marked about 10-12 questions per section but that to me means that I just had to think about them a bit more than a 1st-2nd order question and usually got it down to 2-3 answer choices. But on the other side, I didn't mark the wtf questions bc if I had no idea, I just guessed and moved on.

Hope that helps!

Scores are out today, so I suppose you'll be getting quite a few updates. Here's my 2 cents:

Not having finished classes: Kaplan Simulated 1- 47%
One week into mild-studying: Kaplan Simulated 2- 56%
2 mos out (still only part-time studying): UWSA 1- 219
7 weeks out: NBME 6- 196
Freaked out and took NBME 7 the next day- 212
6.5 weeks out: school NBME- 210
5 weeks out: UWSA 2- 219
(After that, real studying started)
2 weeks out: NBME 13- 221
10 days out (when I was originally supposed to take Step 1): 88% on prometric practice
5 days out: NBME 12- 228

Real deal: 243/86

Was gunning to do a little bit better since I want to go into a small competitive speciality, but this should keep me in the game, I hope.


Ramblings and thoughts:

The curve on the NBMEs SUCKS. Just look at the % you got correct instead of the 3-digit score it corresponds to. I know for many of the people, they are highly predictive but I had a feeling my knowledge was greater than what the NBMEs showed. I was more than discouraged seeing the scores but I took solace in the fact that my %correct was going up with each one.

As you can see, I took a lot of practice tests, and I also did a lot of questions (all of Kaplan, all of UWorld and then repeats, and about 1/3-1/2 of Rx). Sitting and reading through FA was harrrdddd for me as I'm super ADD. So questions were easier for me to learn from. I wish I had started Rx earlier with my passes through FA. They really go hand-in-hand and work to cement FA into your head. Don't use it like you would UWorld, but Rx is a great tool.

Besides FA/UWorld, I say that I used Kaplan along with my classes, but really I finished most of it in that part-time study period kinda after classes but before hard-core studying. I already talked about Rx. Goljan audio is money. Pathoma is gold for really understanding things. I used an older version of DIT and I liked it. It really helped me get through FA. I just wish I had done that a little earlier (finished about 10 days out). I casually read BRS Physio but I guess i should have read a bit more in depth.

Oh, and don't be scared to push your test back. I whole heartedly believe that if I had taken my test about 10 days earlier, like I had planned originally, my score would have been about ~10-15 points less. If you truly believe there will be a difference in your score, do it. But DO NOT do it if you just are scared to take it. That won't end well.

That's all I can really think of for now, if you have any questions, I'd be willing to anser them. But I'm sure my score is pretty low compared to what most of you are aiming for lol.

 

[Enolate]

Dude. your score is F-ing amazing and I have similar stats at the moment (with my diagnostic being about the same and my most recent practice being 226 (NBME11, last friday)!

I'm 10 days out! I hope to get a score like yours so congratulations!!

And thanks for posting and giving all of us "mid-teir" (lol, on SDN at least) people some hope!!

 

[Convalaria]

Congrats, guys! So glad for you!

 

[FML]

Dude. your score is F-ing amazing and I have similar stats at the moment (with my diagnostic being about the same and my most recent practice being 226 (NBME11, last friday)!

I'm 10 days out! I hope to get a score like yours so congratulations!!

And thanks for posting and giving all of us "mid-teir" (lol, on SDN at least) people some hope!!

haha thanks! I guess we do really get jaded being on SDN...

But best of luck to you!!
The one thing that I'll say about test day is, read through the questions carefully! I had a really bad habit of reading through UWorld questions quickly and missing "not's" or "pregnant," so I would watch out for that if you know you have problems with it. But besides that...

GOOD LUCK!!

 

[murdoc9]

Got scores today, high 250s. Very happy. Let me know if u have any questions, but i think my initial post is still applies. Interestingly uwsa 1 predicted exactly (right before the real thing.) good luck everyone! Back to the OR

Took it today... thought I'd contribute since this thread has helped me, maybe alleviate some anxiety (or maybe not ). Obviously this is all pre getting my score, so take it w/ grain of salt.

Overall pretty much what I expected. don't know if that's good or bad. Lots of thinking on this test, like others have said. Knowing & understanding physiology and pathophys is (obviously) really important. E.g. what are lab values in renal failure? what happens to synthesis of vit D? (down) serum ca++? (down) phosphate? (up) In your prep focus on how stuff works!

I'd say about 2/3 of the test was - "oh ok, yah that's pretty classic, i think i know that," And 1/3 was "oh wait, i have to think through this." Lots of novel situations where you have to eliminate answer choices mostly (at least for me, heh). Probably marked between 10 - 15 questions per section (tend to mark a lot of questions, so this was somewhat normal)

anatomy on mine was relatively benign, embryology seemed like kind of a nuisance, but probably only because it's a weak point for me

biochem - again seemed relatively benign compared to what i was expecting. know regulation of metabolism, vitamins, focus on diseases mostly, i'd say.

pysch & behavioral science: a few ethicals, # needed to treat, sens/spec, basics of study type, study design. maybe review this before your test (hint!)

immuno got kinda in depth w/ details (some q's I was like... really??) review immuno, path, and pharm sections in FA!

path & pathophys- got interesting i thought. lots of questions coulda gone either way. relies a lot on your basic understanding of phys and pathophys from first two year, i feel like.

I basically went though most of Uworld during second year with organ blocks (my school does custom NBME's, which helped familiarize me with their style) , then went through Uworld again start to finish during designated study time, while annotating some Uworld into first aid. This was all on tutor mode. Ended on 78% in Uworld tutor mode, whatever that means. For about the last week I focused most on FA.

Other resources used during second year (in no particular order step 1 secrets, pathoma, RR path (as a reference), some of kaplan qbank, deja review micro (once through), lange biochem cards (once through), read through most of underground clinical vignettes in anatomy, this was actually pretty helpful. <edit: oh yeah used goljan audio throughout 2nd year to help learn stuff. great guy.>

Practice tests, chronologically:
Cbse thru school before studying: 225-230
nbme12: 238
nbme11: 250
UWSA: 2: 247
UWSA1: 259

Took basically ~5 wks to study. Not gunning for anything spectacular, would be happy with 230+. It really could go either way w/ the curve. Will report back with score in T-4 Wednesdays, apparently.

Good luck to you all. Try to approach this thing with a positive attitude, like "hey i can figure a lot of this stuff out!" I feel like you kinda just gotta go for this thing. I hope I did ok. I hope you all do great too.

 

[IJL]

Got a 250.... not really excited about it, I think SDN has ruined me.

 

[wacritchlow]

Got a 250.... not really excited about it, I think SDN has ruined me.

Are you kidding me? 250 is awesome. That's higher than the average accepted resident in every single specialty (save maybe plastics). You should be thrilled. No matter what you go into, a 250 will be a plus.

 

[colts]

Got a 250.... not really excited about it, I think SDN has ruined me.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

Got a 250.... not really excited about it, I think SDN has ruined me.

You should bit*h slap yourself for being such a failure and a disgrace to SDN community. This guy

 

[johndoe3344]

Got a 250.... not really excited about it, I think SDN has ruined me.

I hate you. So much. Words cannot describe how angry/jealous I am.

I would sell my right kidney for a 240.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

I hate you. So much. Words cannot describe how angry/jealous I am.

I would sell my right kidney for a 240.

I would sell my kidney, my ripped body AND half of liver for 240. Hahaha

 

[Pharmacol90]

@murdoch - how much prep time did you have between your NBME11 and the UWSA1?

 

[blagoblag]

Just got my score: 270/91 . This is my first time posting, but I used some of the experiences on this forum to help me prepare so I thought I'd share as well. Plus, I'm really happy that I've done well, and want an outlet to express myself

School Prep:

I'm in the U.S., so I pretty much just read well-reviewed textbooks while going through my first two years. For most big subjects, I read just one textbook all the way through and reviewed w/ one review book + the relevant section in First Aid before my finals (we had several spread out throughout the first 2 years). Since reading these textbooks was spread over a large period of time, my first two years of med school were actually really pleasant and relaxed. I'd say I studied only about 2-3 hours per day, except before exams when studying would go up exponentially. Here's the general rundown of my sources:

Anatomy: Gray's for Students, BRS just for the questions
Behavioral Science: BRS
Biochemistry: Lippincott's
Microbiology/Immunology: Quick skim-read of Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple and How the Immune System Works (only took a few days of light reading for both during the summer), followed by Levinson's Microbio/Immuno and Parham's the Immune System during the school year; Microcards sparingly
Pathology: ~60% of Medium Robbins and most of Goljan RR Path. Also used USMLEconsult that comes w/ Goljan to review before finals. Did Pathoma during school, right before board study and I thought it was great. I knew I had to review pathology, but there was no way I was going to tackle all of Goljan again.
Pharmacology: Most of Katzung and Trevor, a few pharm cards
Physiology: Costanzo + BRS for review/questions

During Cardio, Pulmonary, Renal, and Gastrointestinal weeks I also read Lilly, Weinberger, Rennke, and LANGE GI, respectively, although for boards those would probably be unnecessary. I also read Blumenfeld for Neurology, which I really enjoyed, and might have even helped for the boards (there was a decent amount of neuro, some of which was quite difficult)

I would recommend all of the books I read, although I didn't enjoy Weinberger, Rennke, or Lange GI as much as I enjoyed the others, and again, they were probably not helpful for boards. Surprisingly, although I read an entire textbook dedicated to immunology (Parham), it was still my second lowest scoring section. I did like Parham, but Levinson probably has all that you need for immunology.

Usmle Step 1 Prep:

I had about 8 weeks of time to prep, during which I did USMLEWorld, Kaplan Qbank (had done a few questions earlier too, before my last finals), Kaplan Lecture Notes (bought off ebay), First Aid, and all the NBME that had extended feedback. Prep was pretty intense b/c I decided to skim-read all the Kaplan Lecture Notes during the 8 weeks, and I hadn't read even a page of it before. I hate re-reading books b/c I get bored out of my mind. In the end, I'm glad I did it since I remembered a few things things on the exam that I'd learned exclusively from Kaplan. Besides reading Kaplan, I also did exactly two 46-question blocks a day. I might have done 3 once or twice but it was too tiring so I stopped.

I did not read Goljan during the board study period, although I'd read maybe 80% of it during classes.

Practice Exams:

CBSSA in school (around Dec., before doing behavioral science/neuro, both of which i didn't do as well on in this practice): 255
Kaplan QBank: 85%
USMLE World: 91%
NBME 13 (~6 weeks out): 271
NBME 7 (the next day): 268
NBME 6 (3 weeks out): 268
Prometric (2.5 weeks out): 99% (got one wrong)
NBME 11 (2 weeks out): 271
NBME 12 (1 week out): 268 (extended feedback showed me that somehow, I got exactly 6 questions wrong on every single NBME I took)

Exam Day:

I felt really good through the first 5 blocks, but thought I'd messed up the 6th block before recovering a bit in the 7th. Although I had 20 minutes left over for all my World exams (at least the last 20 or so of them), I never had enough time to check all my answers during the Step, and a few times was unable to check more than 2 or 3 of my marked ones. Like many others have said, during the Step, I wanted to make sure everything I marked was correct, and that takes up a lot of extra time.
I also noticed that the test felt harder than the NBMEs. Although the questions are similar, I'm convinced the Step I "hard" questions are more difficult than the hardest questions on the NBME, and so the test most likely has an easier curve. It is very unlikely I got as high a percentage correct on my actual Step as my NBMEs, yet I got the exact same score as predicted. This effect might be more noticeable at higher percentages correct, b/c overall the exam is probably similar difficulty.. it's really hard to tell.

Post-Exam:

After the exam I felt relieved, but within a few hours I'd remembered a few things I'd messed up on, and for the next week I was feeling pretty bad about the exam. I remembered and looked up ~11 questions that I certainly got wrong on the step, many of which were relatively simple though specific questions about drugs and anatomy. I figured that if the curves were like the NBMEs, there was no way I could reach my practice scores. I thought I might have even done much worse, since I had no memory of that 6th block which I felt I messed up. But as I said earlier, I think the actual Step's curve is less harsh. If you look at the NBME and Step 1 Score reports and compare them side by side, it makes sense that the Step questions would be harder (there is more room to the right of borderline in the step score report... of course this also might just be b/c there are more overall questions). Don't worry too much if you feel bad after the Step. Almost everyone stresses afterwards, and if you don't it just means you have a wonderful and easygoing disposition . The NBME's will probably predict very close to your actual score.

Advice/thoughts on if I could do it over:

-If you feel the NBMEs are easy, don't become complacent. There are a few Step questions that require more specific knowledge than the NBMEs test (in my opinion.. who actually knows), so you should still study hard
-Cram during the last week. I looked through First Aid during my last 5 days of study, but I pretty much just flipped through it as fast as I could and read bold headings rather than actually reading. If I'd been more careful, there are probably 1-3 more questions I could have answered correctly
-Bring food that you really like to eat, and that you can eat quickly
-Perhaps look for some anatomy or pharmacology specific practice questions to do (I wish I'd done this)
-I regret never reading Goljan's nutrition chapter. It was one of the 5 or 6 chapters I hadn't read in Goljan, and I knew it was one of the items in the step 1 exam content, but in the end I forgot to read it. Reading it might have helped w/ the seemingly nutrition-related questions
-Forget about the exam as soon as you finish it. Worrying about it sucks. It might be inevitable if you're the type of person to read a forum like this, but still, it's not helpful. Try.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[weightlifter911]

update to my post: to do well on this test, it isn't studying first aid or looking through BRS. Questions i saw on my exam that I can tell were the questions that separate a 265 from a 245 are stuff you see throughout medical school during specific studying for a certain exam such as immuno. Review books are not going to have it. Sometimes even college I pulled info from.

If i studied for another 3 months, i still would not of known some questions regardless. Also a lot of the questions are reasoning, not memorizing.

 

[murdoc9]

@murdoch - how much prep time did you have between your NBME11 and the UWSA1?

It was 1 week between those two (with uwsa2 between). I took uwsa1 one week before the exam. The last week was mostly first aid cramming with some Uworld questions.

Also, I wanted to post this if I ended up doing well- if it's not evident from my last post, I'll throw another vote in for focusing on Uworld and first aid during the dedicated study period, and also focusing on test taking skills. Most of the time they are really trying to guide you to the answer, don't make it harder than it is, i guess? i know that's easy for me to say, but if you focus on WHY u are getting questions wrong, i think that will be more helpful in the long run than just cramming random facts. Remember they do say it's a test focused on integration of knowledge rather than just flat recall of facts (by the way, i am not a crammer nor a memorizer)

 

[Chirurg]

Just got my score: 270/91 . This is my first time posting, but I used some of the experiences on this forum to help me prepare so I thought I'd share as well. Plus, I'm really happy that I've done well, and want an outlet to express myself

School Prep:

I'm in the U.S., so I pretty much just read well-reviewed textbooks while going through my first two years. For most big subjects, I read just one textbook all the way through and reviewed w/ one review book + the relevant section in First Aid before my finals (we had several spread out throughout the first 2 years). Since reading these textbooks was spread over a large period of time, my first two years of med school were actually really pleasant and relaxed. I'd say I studied only about 2-3 hours per day, except before exams when studying would go up exponentially. Here's the general rundown of my sources:

Anatomy: Gray's for Students, BRS just for the questions
Behavioral Science: BRS
Biochemistry: Lippincott's
Microbiology/Immunology: Quick skim-read of Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple and How the Immune System Works (only took a few days of light reading for both during the summer), followed by Levinson's Microbio/Immuno and Parham's the Immune System during the school year; Microcards sparingly
Pathology: ~60% of Medium Robbins and most of Goljan RR Path. Also used USMLEconsult that comes w/ Goljan to review before finals. Did Pathoma during school, right before board study and I thought it was great. I knew I had to review pathology, but there was no way I was going to tackle all of Goljan again.
Pharmacology: Most of Katzung and Trevor, a few pharm cards
Physiology: Costanzo + BRS for review/questions

During Cardio, Pulmonary, Renal, and Gastrointestinal weeks I also read Lilly, Weinberger, Rennke, and LANGE GI, respectively, although for boards those would probably be unnecessary. I also read Blumenfeld for Neurology, which I really enjoyed, and might have even helped for the boards (there was a decent amount of neuro, some of which was quite difficult)

I would recommend all of the books I read, although I didn't enjoy Weinberger, Rennke, or Lange GI as much as I enjoyed the others, and again, they were probably not helpful for boards. Surprisingly, although I read an entire textbook dedicated to immunology (Parham), it was still my second lowest scoring section. I did like Parham, but Levinson probably has all that you need for immunology.

Usmle Step 1 Prep:

I had about 8 weeks of time to prep, during which I did USMLEWorld, Kaplan Qbank (had done a few questions earlier too, before my last finals), Kaplan Lecture Notes (bought off ebay), First Aid, and all the NBME that had extended feedback. Prep was pretty intense b/c I decided to skim-read all the Kaplan Lecture Notes during the 8 weeks, and I hadn't read even a page of it before. I hate re-reading books b/c I get bored out of my mind. In the end, I'm glad I did it since I remembered a few things things on the exam that I'd learned exclusively from Kaplan. Besides reading Kaplan, I also did exactly two 46-question blocks a day. I might have done 3 once or twice but it was too tiring so I stopped.

I did not read Goljan during the board study period, although I'd read maybe 80% of it during classes.

Practice Exams:

CBSSA in school (around Dec., before doing behavioral science/neuro, both of which i didn't do as well on in this practice): 255
Kaplan QBank: 85%
USMLE World: 91%
NBME 13 (~6 weeks out): 271
NBME 7 (the next day): 268
NBME 6 (3 weeks out): 268
Prometric (2.5 weeks out): 99% (got one wrong)
NBME 11 (2 weeks out): 271
NBME 12 (1 week out): 268 (extended feedback showed me that somehow, I got exactly 6 questions wrong on every single NBME I took)

Exam Day:

I felt really good through the first 5 blocks, but thought I'd messed up the 6th block before recovering a bit in the 7th. Although I had 20 minutes left over for all my World exams (at least the last 20 or so of them), I never had enough time to check all my answers during the Step, and a few times was unable to check more than 2 or 3 of my marked ones. Like many others have said, during the Step, I wanted to make sure everything I marked was correct, and that takes up a lot of extra time.
I also noticed that the test felt harder than the NBMEs. Although the questions are similar, I'm convinced the Step I "hard" questions are more difficult than the hardest questions on the NBME, and so the test most likely has an easier curve. It is very unlikely I got as high a percentage correct on my actual Step as my NBMEs, yet I got the exact same score as predicted. This effect might be more noticeable at higher percentages correct, b/c overall the exam is probably similar difficulty.. it's really hard to tell.

Post-Exam:

After the exam I felt relieved, but within a few hours I'd remembered a few things I'd messed up on, and for the next week I was feeling pretty bad about the exam. I remembered and looked up ~11 questions that I certainly got wrong on the step, many of which were relatively simple though specific questions about drugs and anatomy. I figured that if the curves were like the NBMEs, there was no way I could reach my practice scores. I thought I might have even done much worse, since I had no memory of that 6th block which I felt I messed up. But as I said earlier, I think the actual Step's curve is less harsh. If you look at the NBME and Step 1 Score reports and compare them side by side, it makes sense that the Step questions would be harder (there is more room to the right of borderline in the step score report... of course this also might just be b/c there are more overall questions). Don't worry too much if you feel bad after the Step. Almost everyone stresses afterwards, and if you don't it just means you have a wonderful and easygoing disposition . The NBME's will probably predict very close to your actual score.

Advice/thoughts on if I could do it over:

-If you feel the NBMEs are easy, don't become complacent. There are a few Step questions that require more specific knowledge than the NBMEs test (in my opinion.. who actually knows), so you should still study hard
-Cram during the last week. I looked through First Aid during my last 5 days of study, but I pretty much just flipped through it as fast as I could and read bold headings rather than actually reading. If I'd been more careful, there are probably 1-3 more questions I could have answered correctly
-Bring food that you really like to eat, and that you can eat quickly
-Perhaps look for some anatomy or pharmacology specific practice questions to do (I wish I'd done this)
-I regret never reading Goljan's nutrition chapter. It was one of the 5 or 6 chapters I hadn't read in Goljan, and I knew it was one of the items in the step 1 exam content, but in the end I forgot to read it. Reading it might have helped w/ the seemingly nutrition-related questions
-Forget about the exam as soon as you finish it. Worrying about it sucks. It might be inevitable if you're the type of person to read a forum like this, but still, it's not helpful. Try.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

it somes to me, your work throughout the year paid off. not so much your prep, you could have crushed that thing during your first 2 weeks of prep
well deserved score, well done!

 

[chiefMD]

lets keep it real...If you're going to put that you got a 91% average on world dont bother putting down the rest of your study plan..because lets face it... it didn't really make a difference for your score anyway.

 

[sanityonleave]

update to my post: to do well on this test, it isn't studying first aid or looking through BRS. Questions i saw on my exam that I can tell were the questions that separate a 265 from a 245 are stuff you see throughout medical school during specific studying for a certain exam such as immuno. Review books are not going to have it. Sometimes even college I pulled info from.

If i studied for another 3 months, i still would not of known some questions regardless. Also a lot of the questions are reasoning, not memorizing.

I have to disagree. Granted, I didn't do as well as some of the superstars on here (262) but having done close to the top end of your range -- I don't feel like there were that many questions at all on my exam that I needed to reach back and recall knowledge that I hadn't see in FA (and definitely very few that hadn't shown up in either FA or UWorld).

I think the key difference (and why people tend to disagree with this topic) is that you can't simply memorize FA -- you really need to conceptually understand the topics covered in FA, which is where the material from the first two years really comes into play. It's like someone else said, they have no qualms on Step 1 making the answer choices A - Z if they have to in order to make sure you really know what you're answering and can't take shortcuts to the right answer.

Again, YMMV. People with different learning styles or who didn't learn as much in the first two years may not have as much success from FA. Also, I wasn't in the 270 club with the rockstars of this thread, and the difference may be that I used relatively few resources outside of FA (especially as I got close to my test).

 

[weightlifter911]

Yea definitely need to understand the concepts but i had at least 10-15 questions of recall stuff that was not concept and not taught in any review book. And yes its only 10 questions. But that can be a super high score to just a high score

But i agree with understanding the concept

 

[rocketbooster]

Yea definitely need to understand the concepts but i had at least 10-15 questions of recall stuff that was not concept and not taught in any review book. And yes its only 10 questions. But that can be a super high score to just a high score

But i agree with understanding the concept

That's <5% of the test, which means >95% is in First Aid. I would say First Aid is the best way to go, based on your stats anyway.

 

[msbbc833]

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