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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[VisionaryTics]

Can someone explain why I am dropping off so hard?


3/15 CBSE 260 (school administered)
5/4 UWSA1 265
5/8 NBME7 266
5/14 UWSA2 264
5/15 NBME12 254
5/16 NBME6 247


I've already done UW, Kaplan, RX, and read FA probably twice. How are my NBMEs now even lower than in march before I was even done with class? Some of the questions on these NBMEs are pure bull**** and the curves are very harsh

Exactly. The difference between 240s and 260s on the NBMEs is a few questions. Also, taking three exams in three days has got to be draining. I also feel like a piece of **** after an NBME.

 

[msbbc833]

Are there questions like that on the real deal? For example..

EDITED

 

[wacritchlow]

Edited: gone

 

[LadyLightning20]

Got my score today. Some people IRL know who I am so I'll just say it was between 250 and 260.

I've benefited from this thread, so I'll give back my 2 cents.

Prep: about 4.5 weeks (boo - I would have loved a little more.)

Gunner Training: (fairly seriously seriously, from end of December through end of March.)
FA - a few times through. I didn't go through this with classes, but I wish I had.
UW - finished it, average 76%, started around 60 to 65 to about 80 by the end. I did this all during my dedicated study period.
NBME 6, before starting: 214
NBmE 7. ~ 2 weeks in - 238.
Goljan - kinda/sorta read through most of the systems during class. Read through all the systems once during dedicated prep. I also flipped through once the night before to look at all the path pictures. I did not use the Goljan lectures, I am not a good auditory learner.
BRS physiology - to clarify stuff, not a primary resource.
Robbins - again, to clarify. (rarely)
Random rads pictures online.



I took it today. I didn't think it was that bad. There were a few questions that came totally out of left field (which is somewhat to be expected) but most of the things that I didn't know, I was kicking myself because it was a familiar topic that I just hadn't studied in depth enough (or I'd forgotten a basic fact.) My brain is definitely fried but I'll try to break it down as much as I remember.

As a general prep note: I didn't start using GT until LATE. (there's a 1500ish post thread on that so check it out if you're interested.) I definitely do better repeating things quickly a bunch of times, as opposed to going through really slowly once, so this was golden for me, even for the short time that I used it. It provided more detail and therefore more context to a lot of subjects. I know FA is the classic resource (and I obviously used it) but having the extra information about mechanism and stuff that GT provided made it a lot easier for me to understand things.

Biochem - more than I thought. I was definitely glad I hammered in a bunch of random crap at the last minute.

Anatomy - I knew this was weak going in and, well, I obviously should have studied it more. Looking at CT's/CXR's online the night before was definitely helpful.

Path - this is definitely my strong point - the only reason my UW average ended up on the higher end is because my path scores were dragging the rest up. I felt like this was really fair, not a ton of curveballs. There were a couple you had to work through but it was very doable. Also, looking at pictures the night before was DEFINITELY a good idea.

Pharm - FA was really good but not quite enough in depth. There were a couple (and I really mean, very few) that were not in FA or UW but I felt pretty prepared for this. On a couple of questions, GT went just that extra step in depth enough to help you answer the question.

Embryo - fair, not that many questions and all of them were answerable from FA.

Micro - a couple of weird questions, but mostly straightforward. GT is definitely strong here too - it has quite a bit of extra detail that really helped me to contextualize things, and the repetition is key to hammering in a subject like this.

Physio - lots of arrows. A couple that threw me off, but definitely easier than UW. KNOW your feedback loops, but also be prepared to reason past those.

I'm probably missing stuff here but that's about all I remember. I'll post a score range when I get it.

Overall:

I feel OK about it. I had a few good blocks at the beginning that I just flew through (also scored on several questions that came directly from my "random **** to cram at the last minute" list, which made me feel awesome.) Then I hit a couple of blocks in the middle where I marked about half the questions, and that was totally demoralizing. So now I'm not really sure how I did.

I do wish I'd had more time to study (i was also pretty inefficient during the beginning of my study period, since I pretty much spent it panicking.) A couple more days would have been great, but this is how my school works. If I had taken a couple more days, actually it would have been with the "random crap" list. As I said above, the vast majority of the questions that I missed, I could tell you on what PAGE of FA to look. So I think going through that would definitely have boosted my score.

Fun tip: chocolate covered espresso beans. Trader Joe's. Totally awesome.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

The second question about [DELETED]. The first one though, about [DELETED]. It seems like a lot of the NBME questions test your [LEVEL OF AWESOME, RATHER THAN YOUR LEVEL OF NAWESOME].

Hey guys; lets keep the NBME spoilers in threads dedicated to discussing the NBMEs. People would probably appreciate it if you came back and deleted your posts.

 

[msbbc833]

The second question about filgasgrim was tough, totally agree. The first one though, about the contaminant- that just took a little reasoning. There was a line - smear - with a bunch of black colonies and a white colony in the middle. The white colony was the contaminant. It seems like a lot of the NBME questions test your logic rather than your recall.

Yeah I know I actually got that one right but those two questions just came to mind. There are a some questions on there that are just so random though. No amount of extra studying will ever lead you to the knowledge to answer them

 

[CALLR001]

Can someone explain why I am dropping off so hard?


3/15 CBSE 260 (school administered)
5/4 UWSA1 265
5/8 NBME7 266
5/14 UWSA2 264
5/15 NBME12 254
5/16 NBME6 247


I've already done UW, Kaplan, RX, and read FA probably twice. How are my NBMEs now even lower than in march before I was even done with class? Some of the questions on these NBMEs are pure bull**** and the curves are very harsh

Because the difference between a 250 and a 260 is only a few questions. I got a 254 on nbme 7 and a 259 on nbme 12. That is a 5 point difference but I only got 2 more points correct on nbme 12. Granted they are different tests and may be weighted differently, but I think it still demonstrates the point.

 

[blagoblag]

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!

Thanks! Yeah, I guess I agree w/ the crowd that thinks the best/easiest/least stressful way to prepare for the step is to learn well during the first 2 years.

 

[blagoblag]

Can someone explain why I am dropping off so hard?


3/15 CBSE 260 (school administered)
5/4 UWSA1 265
5/8 NBME7 266
5/14 UWSA2 264
5/15 NBME12 254
5/16 NBME6 247


I've already done UW, Kaplan, RX, and read FA probably twice. How are my NBMEs now even lower than in march before I was even done with class? Some of the questions on these NBMEs are pure bull**** and the curves are very harsh

Have you been missing a few questions that in retrospect you knew the answer to in the latest nbmes? A few small mistakes will greatly decrease score since their curves are really harsh, as you noted. Not sure if you used extended feedback, but i'd guess your # wrong has only changed from maybe ~-9 to -20, which isn't too much of a drop off at all. I think the actual step 1 won't punish you as much for a few mistakes due to its slightly easier curve and more difficult questions.

Part of it might be fatigue too-- i noticed you took 3 of them back to back to back, which is pretty taxing.

*edit* just noticed VisionaryTics said the exact same thing, but more concisely, my bad. I second!

 

[msbbc833]

Have you been missing a few questions that in retrospect you knew the answer to in the latest nbmes? A few small mistakes will greatly decrease score since their curves are really harsh, as you noted. Not sure if you used extended feedback, but i'd guess your # wrong has only changed from maybe ~-9 to -20, which isn't too much of a drop off at all. I think the actual step 1 won't punish you as much for a few mistakes due to its slightly easier curve and more difficult questions.

Part of it might be fatigue too-- i noticed you took 3 of them back to back to back, which is pretty taxing.

*edit* just noticed VisionaryTics said the exact same thing, but more concisely, my bad. I second!

I do not know how many I missed on 7, but on form 12 I missed 14 and form 6 i missed 18. I am hoping the real thing does not have such a steep curve.

 

[The kitchen sink]

Reading this forum makes me feel like the most incompetent piece of **** ever. I have less than 6 weeks till the examine and I'm averaging a horrid 45% on Uworld. Of course now the panic has set in and I am starting to hit FA/Pathoma hard (or trying too).

Is DIT worth it? BLAHHHHHHH

Is there any hope ? or should i just start -> and praying?

thanks to anyone who responds in advance...

 

[doclemon]

Just got my score: 270/91 .




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.

Awesome score. Congratulations!

So, you do not recommend using any specific physio/pathophysio system books.
I am using similar resources as what you've listed- kaplan/FA/some other board specific books. Had done some system specific books during class; and was wondering if i need to redo those for physio/pathophys. Thanks.

 

[lrkoehle]

Reading this forum makes me feel like the most incompetent piece of **** ever. I have less than 6 weeks till the examine and I'm averaging a horrid 45% on Uworld. Of course now the panic has set in and I am starting to hit FA/Pathoma hard (or trying too).

Is DIT worth it? BLAHHHHHHH

Is there any hope ? or should i just start -> and praying?

thanks to anyone who responds in advance...

You still have lots of time. Based on an average of 45%, it sounds like you probably need to focus on cramming as much information into your brain as possible, because there is probably some gaps in knowledge. If you've done a few random blocks of questions, hopefully you have a decent idea where those areas are. If you feel like it's just everything, then start powering through FA, pathoma, etc. to review everything. I'm sure you'll see your scores rise steadily with work over the next few weeks. Don't let the SDN gunners freak you out; those who score well on Step-I are far more likely to post on here.

 

[chiefMD]

on DIT they say if you score a 45 on a random block in world you should postpone your test so you have more time to study.

 

[Enolate]

Chief you're such a negative nancy

I think that since you have six weeks you can definitely get your UWorld average up. I started around 55% and now I average 75% on random 46. It is not unreasonable at all. Do some questions, memorize some first aid, take some practice tests, take some breaks. It's not worth freaking out about or rescheduling (yet). Pathoma is awesome because it is so simple, yet in my opinion, it gives you the information you need to start solving complex problems and at least make an educated guess.

I did DIT (not the full program, just the videos). DIT takes a lot of time. If you cannot sit and read then DIT is for you. If you can sit and read then I would forgo DIT and make 2 (or even 3 if your fast) passes of First Aid in the same amount of time.

Good luck!

 

[blagoblag]

Awesome score. Congratulations!

So, you do not recommend using any specific physio/pathophysio system books.
I am using similar resources as what you've listed- kaplan/FA/some other board specific books. Had done some system specific books during class; and was wondering if i need to redo those for physio/pathophys. Thanks.

Thanks doclemon. Yeah, absolutely do not redo any system specific books during boards study-- waaaay overkill and a waste of time. Kaplan is great and includes almost everything on the boards.

I'd guess based on my step that the only questions Kaplan wouldn't cover are the many dealing w/ interpretation of some data or experiment, the few totally out of left field that require answer elimination/common sense, the reasonable though more specific (not as specific as a system specific book) questions about common diseases/drugs/whatever, and very simple questions about common things that might be a little bit out of many med students' breadth (just as an example, extremely common ectoparasites). System specific books wouldn't help much w/ those kinds of questions either, so they wouldn't be very useful. Discipline-related books, e.g. goljan, levinson, brs anatomy/gray's could be useful though, but they'd only help you for a small handful of questions, and if you've read them before, you probably still remember enough of the gist of them to answer those questions right on the step.

 

[buccsmf1]

Took my test yesterday, my experience.

Background: 2 passes through uworld. 62% first time, 85% second time. Did about 1200 Kaplan questions 68%. Used mostly FA and Pathoma. Supplemented weaker subjects with Kaplan lectures (biochem), BRS physio, CMMRS, the usual.

NBME given by school back in early march - 215
NBME 11 done 2 weeks go - 242

A note about the NBMEs since everyone is complaining about the score distribution being tough. The distribution is tough because the NBMEs are an absolute joke. They are SUBSTANTIALLY EASIER than the actual test. Out of the 200 questions on NBME 11 I think I only missed like 23 questions. Do I think I got anywhere even remotely close to a 90% on the actual test? LOL, not even close.


Anatomy - very comparable to uworld, not bad.

biochem - a couple of obscure things, but nothing over the top. Memorizing the "summary of pathways" chart in FA proved to be worthless, I dont remember a single question on it. But nothing that wasnt covered in uworld or fa

Molec cell - by far the hardest part of my test. Mostly obscure facts tested. Numerous things I'd NEVER seen before. Ugh.

-One area that FA/uworld lacks, is all the ER, golgi, ribosome, basically all the organelle crap. Theres VERY little in FA about it and basically no questions on uworld, yet they loved it on my test. Know this stuff cold. Know the Electron microscopy cold.

Path - not terrible, though much more vague than Uworld from time to time. More generalized symtoms (fever, headache, muscle ache) instead of things that jump out, like "palpable purpura."

-Other note: the NBME is starting to really push what they expect out of a second year medical student in regards to reading pathology slides. On Uworld you'd usually get a long paragraph that hints at a ddx, and then you use the picture to confirm what you already thought. My test had 2 questions that basically said, "The patient has pain in the upper quadrant/lower limb/whatever" then provided no extra information other than a picture, and asked for a ddx. So you were basically going in blind, just reading a slide. Pretty absurd. And they werent the easy slides like AML, CML, granulomas... it was much more obscure pathology.

Pharm - a few obscure facts but mostly pretty easy, make sure you know the pharm chapter of FA cold, they loved those first few pages about antagonist and all that crap, lots of graphs.

embryo - I can only remember 2 questions off the top of my head, very low yield.

micro - very very easy. definitely the easiest section, no random bugs, just the basics. And tons and tons of hints at that, usually after the first or second hint I'd have it figured out and yet theyd add on like 3-4 more. Only one question that took the info in FA one step farther than what we read, so I had to guess.

Physio - costanzo + uworld = win

Neuro - went into MUCH more detail than Uworld. I bought HY neuroanatomy but read that the USMLE is much more simple and you dont need all that detail. I wish I had read this book....

Overall: I felt OK. The whole test is really a blur. People kept saying, "wow 8 hours, thats going to feel like forever!" It actually felt like I blinked, and the test was over, very odd.

A couple things I wish were more clear to me before I went in. You get 40-45 minutes of break time PLUS whatever is left over from your 15 minute tutorial. The software is EXACTLY the same as Uworld. So when youre doing the tutorial just read the first few slides about breaks, then skip all the crap about highlighting and stuff, you'll give yourself another 10 minutes. And your breaks can be used however you want. You could take one 45 minute break, or 8 five minute breaks. Its up to you. I banged out 5 sections in the morning and then took a 30 minute lunch break, came back and finished the last two. I'd recommend doing as many sections as possible before you break for lunch.

 

[Pharmacol90]

Thanks, Murdoc9.

 

[Pharmacol90]

Congrats on your score blagoblag. Go, celebrate.

 

[krisrad]

Took the exam today. Overall, very surprised (and somewhat upset) about the content that showed up on my particular exam. I feel like I got a lot of the new questions (...which is also why mid-May exam takers are getting their scores later than usual. double fudge). I think if I had FA + UW open in front of me and had all the time in the world for each block, I still wouldn't have been able to answer or even make an educated guess about, like, 5-7 questions each block.

Anyway, here was my prep. I had about 6 weeks of dedicated study time. 1) Two passes of FA, supplemented with Lange pharm cards, Kaplan videos, Costanzo physio, Robbins path, and Goljian lectures as necessary. 2) One pass UW. Ended up with ~69% (untimed, unused).

Practice Exams (in order taken):
School-given diagnostic at end of MSII: 187
NBME 6 (five weeks out): 217
NBME 7 (three weeks out): 240
UWSA 1: 252
NBME 13: 233
UWSA 2: 261
NBME 11: 231
NBME 12: 242

As you can see, my practice exams were all over the boards. Hoping for a 230+.

From what I can remember about the actual exam:

Lots of immunology. They really up-ed the immuno content, at least on my exam. Lots of stuff that I haven't seen before or stuff that I was able to deduce only because of what I've learned in my undergrad immuno class.

Similar to what a previous poster above me had said, a lot of cell biology questions that were unexpected. Not too difficult to work through, but still, not typically seen in UW or FA because I don't think they're typical USMLE content.

Biochemistry was super easy. Anatomy was pretty straightforward, except for the CT scans (but I may be just bad at those). Lots of graph. Biostat was straightforward. So was behavior science (except for one question about religion). I was also surprised to find a sprinkling of public health questions that were pretty straight forward unless you've been living under a rock.

Lots and lots of pathology. They would describe the findings (like...biopsy showed so-and-so appearance, or pleomorphic cells with blah-blah-blah inclusions), but they won't used the key phrases so I thought that was challenging, but not unfair.

The two sections that really made me mad were micro and pharmacology. Lots of obscure stuff and lots of drugs that I haven't seen - not in FA, not in Lange cards, not in UW, and def not taught in my MSII classes....so I don't know what anyone can do about that.

As for the systems, they hit every one. Mine was heavy on heme/onc and endocrinlogy. Also, lots of little kids with "failure to thrive" and lots of old men with BPH that they threw twists upon twists on. Few cardio. Very few neuro. I think I had more questions about obscure parasites than I had about neuro.

Overall, not to satisfied with how the whole thing turned out. Just general advice - watch your time. I wished I had just said "to hell with it" on the obscure questions that most people probably won't get anyway, and spent more time on the questions that I had a decent chance of getting right...because repeatedly, I was running out of time. On UW blocks and practice exams, I usually finish with about 5-10 mins to review my answers. Here I was scrambling just to finish with seconds counting down. Not a good feeling.

Good luck to everyone who still has to do this! Just stay strong and be smart DURING the exam.

 

[theRainmaker78]

Took the exam today. Overall, very surprised (and somewhat upset) about the content that showed up on my particular exam. I feel like I got a lot of the new questions (...which is also why mid-May exam takers are getting their scores later than usual. double fudge). I think if I had FA + UW open in front of me and had all the time in the world for each block, I still wouldn't have been able to answer or even make an educated guess about, like, 5-7 questions each block.

Anyway, here was my prep. I had about 6 weeks of dedicated study time. 1) Two passes of FA, supplemented with Lange pharm cards, Kaplan videos, Costanzo physio, Robbins path, and Goljian lectures as necessary. 2) One pass UW. Ended up with ~69% (untimed, unused).

Practice Exams (in order taken):
School-given diagnostic at end of MSII: 187
NBME 6 (five weeks out): 217
NBME 7 (three weeks out): 240
UWSA 1: 252
NBME 13: 233
UWSA 2: 261
NBME 11: 231
NBME 12: 242

As you can see, my practice exams were all over the boards. Hoping for a 230+.

From what I can remember about the actual exam:

Lots of immunology. They really up-ed the immuno content, at least on my exam. Lots of stuff that I haven't seen before or stuff that I was able to deduce only because of what I've learned in my undergrad immuno class.

Similar to what a previous poster above me had said, a lot of cell biology questions that were unexpected. Not too difficult to work through, but still, not typically seen in UW or FA because I don't think they're typical USMLE content.

Biochemistry was super easy. Anatomy was pretty straightforward, except for the CT scans (but I may be just bad at those). Lots of graph. Biostat was straightforward. So was behavior science (except for one question about religion). I was also surprised to find a sprinkling of public health questions that were pretty straight forward unless you've been living under a rock.

Lots and lots of pathology. They would describe the findings (like...biopsy showed so-and-so appearance, or pleomorphic cells with blah-blah-blah inclusions), but they won't used the key phrases so I thought that was challenging, but not unfair.

The two sections that really made me mad were micro and pharmacology. Lots of obscure stuff and lots of drugs that I haven't seen - not in FA, not in Lange cards, not in UW, and def not taught in my MSII classes....so I don't know what anyone can do about that.

As for the systems, they hit every one. Mine was heavy on heme/onc and endocrinlogy. Also, lots of little kids with "failure to thrive" and lots of old men with BPH that they threw twists upon twists on. Few cardio. Very few neuro. I think I had more questions about obscure parasites than I had about neuro.

Overall, not to satisfied with how the whole thing turned out. Just general advice - watch your time. I wished I had just said "to hell with it" on the obscure questions that most people probably won't get anyway, and spent more time on the questions that I had a decent chance of getting right...because repeatedly, I was running out of time. On UW blocks and practice exams, I usually finish with about 5-10 mins to review my answers. Here I was scrambling just to finish with seconds counting down. Not a good feeling.

Good luck to everyone who still has to do this! Just stay strong and be smart DURING the exam.

Thanks for the writeup and Congratulations on finishing the exam. You probably did better than you think.

And about the new questions, that really sucks. I was afraid of this happening, especially, since almost everyone these past few weeks has been saying that the test was easier than expected. Maybe I'm going too far, but it was as if you could predict that the NBME was going to come back hard with a bunch of obscure stuff (possibly to bring the average back down) and now here we go.....

I take it next month. Some things just aren't in our control. Guess we just got to make the most of every opportunity presented to us, and leave the rest to God.

 

[futuredoctor10]

Thanks for the writeup and Congratulations on finishing the exam. You probably did better than you think.

And about the new questions, that really sucks. I was afraid of this happening, especially, since almost everyone these past few weeks has been saying that the test was easier than expected. Maybe I'm going too far, but it was as if you could predict that the NBME was going to come back hard with a bunch of obscure stuff (possibly to bring the average back down) and now here we go.....

I take it next month. Some things just aren't in our control. Guess we just got to make the most of every opportunity presented to us, and leave the rest to God.

Although in theory this could happen, don't they standardize the scores? So if the overall scores on questions were lower, the "curve" would be better for example.

 

[Aclamity]

Thanks for the writeup and Congratulations on finishing the exam. You probably did better than you think.

And about the new questions, that really sucks. I was afraid of this happening, especially, since almost everyone these past few weeks has been saying that the test was easier than expected. Maybe I'm going too far, but it was as if you could predict that the NBME was going to come back hard with a bunch of obscure stuff (possibly to bring the average back down) and now here we go.....

I take it next month. Some things just aren't in our control. Guess we just got to make the most of every opportunity presented to us, and leave the rest to God.

When they add in new questions every year, shouldn't those "new" questions be the experimental questions from the year before? I mean, isn't that the point of the experimental questions--to assess what students are learning or not learning in school? I figured they would base their new questions on those and not add in obscure trivia

 

[shan564]

This is my 1000th post on this forum! I figured it was appropriate for me to avoid posting so that I could save #1000 for my post-Step 1 post.

I'm sitting on a train on my way back home after taking Step 1. There's a guy in front of me who is on the phone with (what sounds like) his daughter, saying something like "did you hear about the antibiotic that does more harm than good? It was on the news last night. Oh, that's the one that you're on? Quit taking that! They said on the news that you should quit taking that!"

Unsolicited on-the-street medical consultation is supposed to be a bad thing, right? Come to think of it, that would make a good Step 2 question.

I've got an hour-long train ride to write about my thoughts regarding the exam. And I have a tendency to write excessively long posts, so let's hope that I can find a way to be concise this time.

So…

My Prep
Sometime in February – took UWSA1, scored 192
March 1 – started going through FA in detail, also started the UW bank. Also used Pathoma along with the corresponding section in FA, and used FA Express for sections that were particularly weak for me.
Late March – scored 230 on UWSA2 (which supposedly overestimates), started Kaplan Qbank
Early April – scored 221 on NBME7
mid-April – scored 228 on NBME11, started DIT immediately afterwards
a bit after the halfway point of DIT – scored 247 on NBME12, but I think this was an overestimate because a lot of the questions were familiar, so I think I might have done parts of the test once before several months ago.
around May 6-7 – finished DIT, did the DIT post-test and scored 246.
Next ~1 week – did one more pass of FA with the help of the Kaplan HY program on some of the sections.
Last ~2-3 days – reviewed my noted pages in FA (particularly the 3-5 star concepts from the DIT course), the FA Fast Facts section, and some random online flashcards with images from Goljan RR.
Last day – stayed in a hotel near the test site. Ate a really big burger, fell asleep at ~6pm, and woke up at ~5:30am.

Overall impressions
Wow, I don't know whether to feel relieved, excited, exhausted, stressed (about my score), angry at the NBME for the 3-week score reporting delay, or just zen. The exam was certainly tough – tougher than the NBMEs – but like everybody says, I guess that means I'll have a friendly curve. Overall, I think the difficulty and question structure was generally on par with UW. Definitely nothing like Kaplan, and definitely harder than the NBME tests. Some of the questions were completely what-the-F-out-of-nowhere types of questions that I probably couldn't have answered if I had ten years to study, so I won't beat myself up over those. Others were just difficult and unfamiliar, but I was able to reason my way through them with reasonable certainty based on some understanding of the underlying concept. Others were simple one-liner recall questions that didn't even have a clinical vignette attached to them. 90% of the answers could have been found somewhere in FA, but a lot of the time, those questions require you to make connections to prove that you understand all of the FA concepts rather than just having memorized them. There were some questions for which I knew all of the relevant facts, but I was having trouble figuring out exactly how to best answer the question… I could have had a copy of FA in front of me, and I still wouldn't have been able to answer those. I can understand why the people who take a year off to memorize FA often don't do particularly well on the exam.

The exam, by topic
PATHOLOGY: Overall, it was fair. There was more than I expected with regard to interpreting images. There were a few questions where I felt like I would have had a better chance of getting it right if I could tell the difference between a biopsy of a large B-cell lymphoma vs. small lymphocytic lymphoma vs. follicular lymphoma vs. two other choices (I thought it was Burkitt's from the slide, but that wasn't an option).
The Path section of FA wasn't as high-yield as I thought.

PHYSIOLOGY: There were a lot of challenging conceptual questions that I had to work through based on my basic knowledge. Physiology was a strong point for me on UW, but the real thing threw me a bunch of different graphs where I looked at it and said "OMG, I've never seen anything that looks like this before… hold on, let me sit down and think about what this says." Those questions weren't particularly difficult, but I always came out of them thinking that I might have completely misinterpreted it.
The other particularly difficult thing in physiology was the fact that they were very particular about the way that various lab values change in different settings. For instance, I had a question about acute altitude sickness, and I knew how most of the lab values would have been affected, but I couldn't decide for sure whether the bicarb is decreased or normal. I always got those questions down to two choices. I know that the kidneys excrete more bicarb, but I feel like that shouldn't happen within an hour or so of the increased altitude…

PHARMACOLOGY: Almost everything was straight out of First Aid, although there were a few curveballs. There was one question about a random drug that I'd never heard of… but after I sat down and broke up its name into its root, I realized that it was just a Vitamin A derivative (which immediately changed my answer from "hepatotoxicity" to "teratogenicity").
There were at least 3-4 questions on enzyme kinetics. Also a few about autonomic pharm, but those weren't too difficult.

ANATOMY/EMBRYOLOGY: Neuroanatomy was fairly detailed. There were two questions that required me to identify Wernicke's or Broca's area – which I thought would have been easy, but they were unnecessarily particular about where EXACTLY each area is located. There was also a brainstem cross-section that I wouldn't have been able to answer based on FA information, but I learned it during the DIT course. Outside of neuro, anatomy wasn't particularly difficult. Of note, there were at least 2-3 questions on the brachial plexus and at least 2-3 questions on female reproductive anatomy (which I don't think I did particularly well on), but the reproductive questions were sort of integrated anatomy/pathologyish.
I was surprised by embryology. There were only 4-5 (maybe 6) questions, but they were fairly challenging. If I hadn't studied FA embryology thoroughly, I would have missed all of them. Because I did study FA embryology thoroughly, I think I got all of them right. I thought that Brian Jenkins was being a bit overzealous when he said that thyroid development is a 4-star topic (i.e. most of us will get one question about it), but sure enough, there was a question about it.

BIOCHEMISTRY: There were a lot of very specific 1-step questions. This is one section where I think I could have done better if I'd done a better job of memorizing FA. But for what it's worth, I think 100% of the questions were probably answerable from information that's somewhere in FA. Vitamins were very high-yield. Also, memorize the page on autosomal dominant disorders – there were at least 2-3 questions from there, and several questions on rare genetic diseases from other parts of FA. Also make sure that you know the genetic terms. I didn't get any questions on rate-limiting enzymes or irreversible enzymes or metabolism sites, which is disappointing because I spent a lot of time making sure that I know all of those things. Also 2-3 questions on glycogen-storage and lysosomal storage diseases – one was pretty straightforward (presented a classic case of metachromatic leukodystrophy, including the fact that the patient was deficient in arylsulfatase A, and asked which organelle was malfunctioning), and the other was fairly tough (nonspecific presentation that I now realize was Pompe's disease, but I thought it was a lysosomal storage disease because the patient's glucose level was normal).

MICRO: I think it was all fair. There were a lot of questions, and some of them were fairly difficult, but they could all be answered based on FA. I had at least 3 questions on exotoxins, so learn the hell out of that page in FA. I think one of those questions required me to know bacterial toxins well enough so that I could rule out all of the incorrect choices with certainty and arrive at the correct answer, which I think was "cobra snake toxin." Aside from that, the bacteria/virus/antimicrobial questions may have been challenging, but they were all answerable.
Come to think of it, I did pick "Yersinia pestis" as one answer choice, which wasn't in FA – but it was in DIT and I'd seen it a few times in UW/Kap Qbank, so I was fairly confident. I also had one tricky question asking about which antifungal may make a patient hypokalemic… I didn't pick "amphotericin" because I'm pretty sure it would cause hyperkalemia, but I thought that an –azole might do it by inhibiting aldosterone synthesis, so I picked that. Don't know if it was right.
I probably had more questions than expected about fungi, so that's probably a relatively high-yield section in FA. I also had 3-4 questions about parasites, but they all both common ones – one where I had to diagnose Trichomoniasis in a classic presentation, one where I had to diagnose Cryptosporidium in an AIDS patient with diarrhea, one where I had a classic presentation of Enterobius infection and they asked for the treatment (so you didn't even have to diagnose him correctly as long as you knew that the treatment is mebendazole), and one where a guy consumed some questionable pork and I had to know that he probably had cysts somewhere due to cysticercosis.
Also, I had at least 4 questions with AIDS patients. Make sure to know about AIDS.

IMMUNO: FA is very high-yield. I think everything was in FA, and it's a fairly short section.

BEHAVIORAL: Pretty straightforward. There were a few simple questions about sensitivity/specificity, a couple of simple questions about study design, one about developmental milestones, a few about ethical scenarios, etc.


Ah, I could go through system by system, but that seems pretty difficult right now...

 

[msbbc833]

Edit

 

[lrkoehle]

Overall impressions
Wow, I don’t know whether to feel relieved, excited, exhausted, stressed (about my score), angry at the NBME for the 3-week score reporting delay, or just zen. The exam was certainly tough – tougher than the NBMEs – but like everybody says, I guess that means I’ll have a friendly curve. Overall, I think the difficulty and question structure was generally on par with UW. Definitely nothing like Kaplan, and definitely harder than the NBME tests.

Congrats on surviving that thing Shan564. With all the work you put in, I'm sure you did great.

What do you mean it was nothing like Kaplan? I just finished the Kaplan Qbank, so I am interested in how it compares to the real thing. Is Kaplan harder or easier? Just different? I'm starting UW tomorrow, which sounds like it's more in line with the real thing.

 

[shan564]

Congrats on surviving that thing Shan564. With all the work you put in, I'm sure you did great.

What do you mean it was nothing like Kaplan? I just finished the Kaplan Qbank, so I am interested in how it compares to the real thing. Is Kaplan harder or easier? Just different? I'm starting UW tomorrow, which sounds like it's more in line with the real thing.

Well, the word "nothing" might have been a bit of hyperbole on my part, but it wasn't a whole lot like Kaplan. Kaplan questions tend to be more fact-based with fewer integrations across systems. There were plenty of simple fact-based questions on the real exam, but those are generally easy questions and you don't need a lot of Qbank prep for those. The challenging questions were the ones that required you to know one piece of information from cardiovascular physiology, one piece from autonomic pharmacology, and one piece from neuroanatomy... and Kaplan doesn't do as good of a job on those questions as UWorld. Generally, it's hard to explain WHY the UW questions were so much more like the real thing than Kaplan questions, but once you take the test, I'm sure you'll agree.

But then, it's common knowledge that UWorld is the best Qbank. Even the exam interface was a lot more like the real thing than the Kaplan interface. It's good that you saved it for the end - just make sure to finish it.

 

[docjohn101]

.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

This is my 1000th post on this forum! I figured it was appropriate for me to avoid posting so that I could save #1000 for my post-Step 1 post.

I'm sitting on a train on my way back home after taking Step 1. There's a guy in front of me who is on the phone with (what sounds like) his daughter, saying something like "did you hear about the antibiotic that does more harm than good? It was on the news last night. Oh, that's the one that you're on? Quit taking that! They said on the news that you should quit taking that!"

Unsolicited on-the-street medical consultation is supposed to be a bad thing, right? Come to think of it, that would make a good Step 2 question.

I've got an hour-long train ride to write about my thoughts regarding the exam. And I have a tendency to write excessively long posts, so let's hope that I can find a way to be concise this time.

So…

My Prep
Sometime in February – took UWSA1, scored 192
March 1 – started going through FA in detail, also started the UW bank. Also used Pathoma along with the corresponding section in FA, and used FA Express for sections that were particularly weak for me.
Late March – scored 230 on UWSA2 (which supposedly overestimates), started Kaplan Qbank
Early April – scored 221 on NBME7
mid-April – scored 228 on NBME11, started DIT immediately afterwards
a bit after the halfway point of DIT – scored 247 on NBME12, but I think this was an overestimate because a lot of the questions were familiar, so I think I might have done parts of the test once before several months ago.
around May 6-7 – finished DIT, did the DIT post-test and scored 246.
Next ~1 week – did one more pass of FA with the help of the Kaplan HY program on some of the sections.
Last ~2-3 days – reviewed my noted pages in FA (particularly the 3-5 star concepts from the DIT course), the FA Fast Facts section, and some random online flashcards with images from Goljan RR.
Last day – stayed in a hotel near the test site. Ate a really big burger, fell asleep at ~6pm, and woke up at ~5:30am.

Overall impressions
Wow, I don't know whether to feel relieved, excited, exhausted, stressed (about my score), angry at the NBME for the 3-week score reporting delay, or just zen. The exam was certainly tough – tougher than the NBMEs – but like everybody says, I guess that means I'll have a friendly curve. Overall, I think the difficulty and question structure was generally on par with UW. Definitely nothing like Kaplan, and definitely harder than the NBME tests. Some of the questions were completely what-the-F-out-of-nowhere types of questions that I probably couldn't have answered if I had ten years to study, so I won't beat myself up over those. Others were just difficult and unfamiliar, but I was able to reason my way through them with reasonable certainty based on some understanding of the underlying concept. Others were simple one-liner recall questions that didn't even have a clinical vignette attached to them. 90% of the answers could have been found somewhere in FA, but a lot of the time, those questions require you to make connections to prove that you understand all of the FA concepts rather than just having memorized them. There were some questions for which I knew all of the relevant facts, but I was having trouble figuring out exactly how to best answer the question… I could have had a copy of FA in front of me, and I still wouldn't have been able to answer those. I can understand why the people who take a year off to memorize FA often don't do particularly well on the exam.

The exam, by topic
PATHOLOGY: Overall, it was fair. There was more than I expected with regard to interpreting images. There were a few questions where I felt like I would have had a better chance of getting it right if I could tell the difference between a biopsy of a large B-cell lymphoma vs. small lymphocytic lymphoma vs. follicular lymphoma vs. two other choices (I thought it was Burkitt's from the slide, but that wasn't an option).
The Path section of FA wasn't as high-yield as I thought.

PHYSIOLOGY: There were a lot of challenging conceptual questions that I had to work through based on my basic knowledge. Physiology was a strong point for me on UW, but the real thing threw me a bunch of different graphs where I looked at it and said "OMG, I've never seen anything that looks like this before… hold on, let me sit down and think about what this says." Those questions weren't particularly difficult, but I always came out of them thinking that I might have completely misinterpreted it.
The other particularly difficult thing in physiology was the fact that they were very particular about the way that various lab values change in different settings. For instance, I had a question about acute altitude sickness, and I knew how most of the lab values would have been affected, but I couldn't decide for sure whether the bicarb is decreased or normal. I always got those questions down to two choices. I know that the kidneys excrete more bicarb, but I feel like that shouldn't happen within an hour or so of the increased altitude…

PHARMACOLOGY: Almost everything was straight out of First Aid, although there were a few curveballs. There was one question about a random drug that I'd never heard of… but after I sat down and broke up its name into its root, I realized that it was just a Vitamin A derivative (which immediately changed my answer from "hepatotoxicity" to "teratogenicity").
There were at least 3-4 questions on enzyme kinetics. Also a few about autonomic pharm, but those weren't too difficult.

ANATOMY/EMBRYOLOGY: Neuroanatomy was fairly detailed. There were two questions that required me to identify Wernicke's or Broca's area – which I thought would have been easy, but they were unnecessarily particular about where EXACTLY each area is located. There was also a brainstem cross-section that I wouldn't have been able to answer based on FA information, but I learned it during the DIT course. Outside of neuro, anatomy wasn't particularly difficult. Of note, there were at least 2-3 questions on the brachial plexus and at least 2-3 questions on female reproductive anatomy (which I don't think I did particularly well on), but the reproductive questions were sort of integrated anatomy/pathologyish.
I was surprised by embryology. There were only 4-5 (maybe 6) questions, but they were fairly challenging. If I hadn't studied FA embryology thoroughly, I would have missed all of them. Because I did study FA embryology thoroughly, I think I got all of them right. I thought that Brian Jenkins was being a bit overzealous when he said that thyroid development is a 4-star topic (i.e. most of us will get one question about it), but sure enough, there was a question about it.

BIOCHEMISTRY: There were a lot of very specific 1-step questions. This is one section where I think I could have done better if I'd done a better job of memorizing FA. But for what it's worth, I think 100% of the questions were probably answerable from information that's somewhere in FA. Vitamins were very high-yield. Also, memorize the page on autosomal dominant disorders – there were at least 2-3 questions from there, and several questions on rare genetic diseases from other parts of FA. Also make sure that you know the genetic terms. I didn't get any questions on rate-limiting enzymes or irreversible enzymes or metabolism sites, which is disappointing because I spent a lot of time making sure that I know all of those things. Also 2-3 questions on glycogen-storage and lysosomal storage diseases – one was pretty straightforward (presented a classic case of metachromatic leukodystrophy, including the fact that the patient was deficient in arylsulfatase A, and asked which organelle was malfunctioning), and the other was fairly tough (nonspecific presentation that I now realize was Pompe's disease, but I thought it was a lysosomal storage disease because the patient's glucose level was normal).

MICRO: I think it was all fair. There were a lot of questions, and some of them were fairly difficult, but they could all be answered based on FA. I had at least 3 questions on exotoxins, so learn the hell out of that page in FA. I think one of those questions required me to know bacterial toxins well enough so that I could rule out all of the incorrect choices with certainty and arrive at the correct answer, which I think was "cobra snake toxin." Aside from that, the bacteria/virus/antimicrobial questions may have been challenging, but they were all answerable.
Come to think of it, I did pick "Yersinia pestis" as one answer choice, which wasn't in FA – but it was in DIT and I'd seen it a few times in UW/Kap Qbank, so I was fairly confident. I also had one tricky question asking about which antifungal may make a patient hypokalemic… I didn't pick "amphotericin" because I'm pretty sure it would cause hyperkalemia, but I thought that an –azole might do it by inhibiting aldosterone synthesis, so I picked that. Don't know if it was right.
I probably had more questions than expected about fungi, so that's probably a relatively high-yield section in FA. I also had 3-4 questions about parasites, but they all both common ones – one where I had to diagnose Trichomoniasis in a classic presentation, one where I had to diagnose Cryptosporidium in an AIDS patient with diarrhea, one where I had a classic presentation of Enterobius infection and they asked for the treatment (so you didn't even have to diagnose him correctly as long as you knew that the treatment is mebendazole), and one where a guy consumed some questionable pork and I had to know that he probably had cysts somewhere due to cysticercosis.
Also, I had at least 4 questions with AIDS patients. Make sure to know about AIDS.

IMMUNO: FA is very high-yield. I think everything was in FA, and it's a fairly short section.

BEHAVIORAL: Pretty straightforward. There were a few simple questions about sensitivity/specificity, a couple of simple questions about study design, one about developmental milestones, a few about ethical scenarios, etc.


Ah, I could go through system by system, but that seems pretty difficult right now...

First of all congrats on finishing and doing well.

So if I am correct, you did fa, dit, pathoma, usmlerx videos and Kaplan hy videos? If you ha to pick one (rx or Kaplan hy) as one more pass through fa which one would you use?

2nd: it seems like fa, uworld and pathoma is all you need for big chunk on the points. And you must understand and be able to integrate fa along different disciplines?

3rd: It seems like EVERYTHING in fa is important either directly or indirectly ( helps to eliminate answers). And nothing should be overlooked.
Congrats on finishing.

 

[shan564]

First of all congrats on finishing and doing well.

So if I am correct, you did fa, dit, pathoma, usmlerx videos and Kaplan hy videos? If you ha to pick one (rx or Kaplan hy) as one more pass through fa which one would you use?

I thought that Kaplan was better, but also longer. I skipped the cardio/resp videos because they were 7 hours each, which cut down the rest of it to about 35 hours. Kaplan went through a lot of little things to help you understand FA. If I were starting over, I would have done it before DIT along with my first pass of FA.

2nd: it seems like fa, uworld and pathoma is all you need for big chunk on the points. And you must understand and be able to integrate fa along different disciplines?

Yes, definitely. Make sure that you have a good understanding of everything in FA. If you're not sure whether you understand it, take the time to read the wikipedia article. I think that's more important than doing multiple passes.

3rd: It seems like EVERYTHING in fa is important either directly or indirectly ( helps to eliminate answers). And nothing should be overlooked.
Congrats on finishing.

I wouldn't necessarily say that "everything" is "important"... there were a lot of things that didn't show up. But it's easier to list the things that did show up than the things that didn't. For the most part, DIT was right on the ball with which things are "high yield" and which things aren't.

 

[docjohn101]

How would you break down the questions in terms of difficulty, in terms of easy, hard, and wtf are they talking about?

And you said 90% would be found within in First Aid, where do you think the other 10% would be found?

Also, did you use any other books, besides First Aid? Like the pathoma book, rapid review, brs, etc?

Did you think First and UWorld covered the material well?

(I know, a lot of questions lol)

I'm sure you did awesome, enjoy your freedom! lol

 

[shan564]

How would you break down the questions in terms of difficulty, in terms of easy, hard, and wtf are they talking about?

I'd say 50% easy (i.e. answer is obvious), 20-25% moderate (i.e. I'm pretty sure I got the right answer), 20-25% hard (i.e. educated guess between a couple of options, maybe 60-75% chance of getting it), and about 5% "wtf."

And you said 90% would be found within in First Aid, where do you think the other 10% would be found?

Nowhere. Literally, Some of those are questions that I would have had trouble answering if I had a laptop/Internet with me. Either they're testing an obscure piece of information, or they're asking some sort of obscure concept that you can probably work through and make an intelligent guess, etc.

Also, did you use any other books, besides First Aid? Like the pathoma book, rapid review, brs, etc?

I used the Pathoma videos, but I only used the book a little bit at first, and then just went back to FA for path. I also used the whole DIT course along with their 500-page workbook. But aside from that, I didn't really use any books.

Did you think First and UWorld covered the material well?

Yes.

 

[MrBigglesworth]

congrats on finishing shan. i have a few weeks left and i'm so scared. ugh

 

[LaCasta]

Congrats Shan

Just curious, which question bank were you using alongside DIT?

 

[Phloston]

And you said 90% would be found within in First Aid, where do you think the other 10% would be found?

Nowhere. Literally, Some of those are questions that I would have had trouble answering if I had a laptop/Internet with me.

I find this entertaining for some reason. I'm trying to imagine the look on people's faces / the rolling of the eyes that must occur when encountering these types of Qs.

Regardless, congrats on making it to the other side.

 

[buccsmf1]

I find this entertaining for some reason. I'm trying to imagine the look on people's faces / the rolling of the eyes that must occur when encountering these types of Qs.

Regardless, congrats on making it to the other side.

you just have to laugh it off and move on. one thing you must realize, is that everyone is (basically) using the same study materials you did. Obviously some people integrate better than others, but there will be questions that have stuff nowhere even remotely related to what you covered during your studies.

 

[drhma]

my avg in uworld is 65, started out with 60's, but last couple of blocks got 70's and one single 82,,,, half of the question bank is done and the other half still not... my exam is after 4 weeks exactly

i havent done FA from cover to cover yet, nor memorized everything in it, i only use it while doing Q's,,, but it's annotated and full of notes from kaplan Qbank [finished it with AVG = 67%] and what i've already finished from UWORLD..... what is the best way to make use of time in the final weeks to come, besides finishing UWORLD? self assesments and NBMEs are already in mind,,, any advice besides that??, aiming for a 240+ wont hurt, or is it out of the question

any advice is much appreciated, thank u all, and good luck all

 

[metallica81788]

Is it just me or does anybody else find there are a lot of Uworld behavioral science and biostats questions that have answer choices that aren't in First Aid? I've been having some problems with these and am wondering if I should read High Yield Behavioral Sciences.

 

[ipizzy]

Is it just me or does anybody else find there are a lot of Uworld behavioral science and biostats questions that have answer choices that aren't in First Aid? I've been having some problems with these and am wondering if I should read High Yield Behavioral Sciences.

Yep, I've definitely noticed haha. I've taken lots of notes on these questions and annotated into FA. I haven't run into BS questions on NBMEs (7, 11, 12) that required the extra knowledge outside of FA, though.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Is it just me or does anybody else find there are a lot of Uworld behavioral science and biostats questions that have answer choices that aren't in First Aid? I've been having some problems with these and am wondering if I should read High Yield Behavioral Sciences.

Just keep doing them. After a few blocks, they start to get pretty easy. I read the HY book during an unmotivated day. I don't know how much it helped, but it was probably better than staring at the wall all day. I wish I could compare its value to that of a long nap to aid you in this most complicated of decisions.

 

[LisaFrank]

Practice scores:

NBME 13: 235
NBME 11: 238
NBME 12: 242

Actual score:

248/87


What I did:

I read First Aid four times
Used BRS physio during the first pass of First Aid
BRS behavioral for ethics (everyone should read and do the BRS ethics questions!)
Kaplan HY QBank questions: I started them two months before my dedicated step I study time began, and I finished them after I had completed UWorld twice
HY Neuroscience: I used this book because the intro enumerates what you need and don't need to know for Step 1. I felt the book was to-the-point, and the CT and gyri images were very high-yielf
UWorld: I did the entire bank twice (I think my first pass was in the low 70's, second pass was 95%+). FYI, during the second pass, I was able to do 300-450 questions a day easily
Pathoma: I used it during the school year, and re-read it as I did each FA pass. NB: Goljan is unorganized and a waste of time (yes, even the old audio recordings)
Did not do DIT because I was told by upperclassmen at my school that as long as you can set your own schedule and follow it, DIT is a waste of money

So, what was the key to my success? I believe I did well because I read FA multiple times. If you look at DIT and the Taus method, both stress the importance of reading FA at least three times. My initial pass was two weeks, but in later weeks, I was able to do my FA passes (along with the corresponding Pathoma chapters and 1-2 UWorld blocks) in 9 days; here is my schedule

Day 1: Heme/onc
Day 2: Musculoskeletal and derm
Day 3: Endo and embryo
Day 4: Neuro
Day 5: Psych and pulm
Day 6: Renal and repro
Day 7: GI
Day 8: Cardio
Day 9: Immuno and biochem

I did not dedicate days to pharm and micro; instead, I read a little bit of each chapter everyday

Good luck everyone, and I'm happy to answer any questions

 

[Aclamity]

Practice scores:

NBME 13: 235
NBME 11: 238
NBME 12: 242

Actual score:

248/87


What I did:

I read First Aid four times
Used BRS physio during the first pass of First Aid
BRS behavioral for ethics (everyone should read and do the BRS ethics questions!)
Kaplan HY QBank questions: I started them two months before my dedicated step I study time began, and I finished them after I had completed UWorld twice
HY Neuroscience: I used this book because the intro enumerates what you need and don't need to know for Step 1. I felt the book was to-the-point, and the CT and gyri images were very high-yielf
UWorld: I did the entire bank twice (I think my first pass was in the low 70's, second pass was 95%+). FYI, during the second pass, I was able to do 300-450 questions a day easily
Pathoma: I used it during the school year, and re-read it as I did each FA pass. NB: Goljan is unorganized and a waste of time (yes, even the old audio recordings)
Did not do DIT because I was told by upperclassmen at my school that as long as you can set your own schedule and follow it, DIT is a waste of money

So, what was the key to my success? I believe I did well because I read FA multiple times. If you look at DIT and the Taus method, both stress the importance of reading FA at least three times. My initial pass was two weeks, but in later weeks, I was able to do my FA passes (along with the corresponding Pathoma chapters and 1-2 UWorld blocks) in 9 days; here is my schedule

Day 1: Heme/onc
Day 2: Musculoskeletal and derm
Day 3: Endo and embryo
Day 4: Neuro
Day 5: Psych and pulm
Day 6: Renal and repro
Day 7: GI
Day 8: Cardio
Day 9: Immuno and biochem

I did not dedicate days to pharm and micro; instead, I read a little bit of each chapter everyday

Good luck everyone, and I'm happy to answer any questions

Congrats on your score! Interesting about BRS behavioral; did you only read it ONLY for ethics? I've heard that FA isn't enough for BS, but I'm not sure if people are referring to biostats, ethics, the psych stuff, or everything. Did you think most of the BS was doable from just FA? If not, which sections of BRS do you recommend? Thanks!

 

[Kaputt]

Congrats on your score! Interesting about BRS behavioral; did you only read it ONLY for ethics? I've heard that FA isn't enough for BS, but I'm not sure if people are referring to biostats, ethics, the psych stuff, or everything. Did you think most of the BS was doable from just FA? If not, which sections of BRS do you recommend? Thanks!

I'll chime in here because I used BRS Behavioral Science in addition to FA and World. Here's my breakdown:

Psych - FA is sufficient; real exam was easier than World questions
Biostats - FA is sufficient; my exam was exactly like the World questions
Epi - FA is sufficient, but BRS chapter helped (esp. the questions)
Ethics - BRS + FA is sufficient; the questions help a lot and there are more situations in BRS (like HIV testing, reportable diseases, etc); I had some left-field ethical situations on my real exam that weren't in either source, however (don't remember any specifics though)

 

[JackShephard MD]

Practice scores:

NBME 13: 235
NBME 11: 238
NBME 12: 242

Actual score:

248/87


What I did:

I read First Aid four times
Used BRS physio during the first pass of First Aid
BRS behavioral for ethics (everyone should read and do the BRS ethics questions!)
Kaplan HY QBank questions: I started them two months before my dedicated step I study time began, and I finished them after I had completed UWorld twice
HY Neuroscience: I used this book because the intro enumerates what you need and don't need to know for Step 1. I felt the book was to-the-point, and the CT and gyri images were very high-yielf
UWorld: I did the entire bank twice (I think my first pass was in the low 70's, second pass was 95%+). FYI, during the second pass, I was able to do 300-450 questions a day easily
Pathoma: I used it during the school year, and re-read it as I did each FA pass. NB: Goljan is unorganized and a waste of time (yes, even the old audio recordings)
Did not do DIT because I was told by upperclassmen at my school that as long as you can set your own schedule and follow it, DIT is a waste of money

So, what was the key to my success? I believe I did well because I read FA multiple times. If you look at DIT and the Taus method, both stress the importance of reading FA at least three times. My initial pass was two weeks, but in later weeks, I was able to do my FA passes (along with the corresponding Pathoma chapters and 1-2 UWorld blocks) in 9 days; here is my schedule

Day 1: Heme/onc
Day 2: Musculoskeletal and derm
Day 3: Endo and embryo
Day 4: Neuro
Day 5: Psych and pulm
Day 6: Renal and repro
Day 7: GI
Day 8: Cardio
Day 9: Immuno and biochem

I did not dedicate days to pharm and micro; instead, I read a little bit of each chapter everyday

Good luck everyone, and I'm happy to answer any questions

I've heard a lot of people dissing Goljan lately.

Is RR pathology no longer a great Step 1 book? What replaces it? BRS Path, Pathoma, FA + UWorld?

I would like to know if I should take time to use this book or not. Thanks!

 

[LisaFrank]

I've heard a lot of people dissing Goljan lately.

Is RR pathology no longer a great Step 1 book? What replaces it? BRS Path, Pathoma, FA + UWorld?

I would like to know if I should take time to use this book or not. Thanks!

I liked Pathoma because the book and the videos were succinct. RR is too big to quickly/repeatedly review, and in Goljan's 60 minute lectures, there's only about 30 minutes of content (FYI, the same content was explained just as well and in less time in the Pathoma videos).

IMHO, I believe the issue is that for the past 5-7 years, Goljan has been the standard path review source, and although Pathoma is an easier-to-use product, many posters are reticent to stop using Goljan and try Pathoma simply because so many med students before them were successful with Goljan.

 

[ijn]

And it's not like you can't use both. If I could have the option of streaming Pathoma in the car I might do it, but Goljan's just pretty easy to take with me when driving or jogging. Although I wouldn't be suprised if pirated Pathoma in MP3 form is out there now.

 

[Kaputt]

I've heard a lot of people dissing Goljan lately.

Is RR pathology no longer a great Step 1 book? What replaces it? BRS Path, Pathoma, FA + UWorld?

I would like to know if I should take time to use this book or not. Thanks!

Pathoma is the flavor of the week here, like Goljan used to be. Goljan is still a great source. You can't go wrong with either. I believe Goljan is more comprehensive than Pathoma.

 

[wacritchlow]

My test is this coming Wednesday, and I've been going through Goljan RR Path these past four days are so. If you just read the blue excerpts on the side, it really doesn't take that long. Easily get through 100 pages in a few hours, and I've definitely seen some topics/factoids that I've had questions on from NBMEs etc.

 

[SOCDOC2BE]

First of, Congrats to all who took the exam and take the time to come back and share your experiences. Thank you!

I have a few questions..

a.) I have a 2011 First Aid book and scheduled to take exam end of July. I have so much stuff annotated into it, and so would hate to switch to 2012. Do you think that's a bad move?

b.) For those who are doing pathoma with FA on your second/third pass..Are you watching the Videos or just reading the book?

Thank you!

 

[AndyRSC]

I have a 2011 First Aid book and scheduled to take exam end of July. I have so much stuff annotated into it, and so would hate to switch to 2012. Do you think that's a bad move?

Skip it. Make sure your book is patched up with the latest errata and stick with it. A fully-annotated, personalized FA is solid gold.