Official 2015 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[KushWeedNuggetsStankyLeg]

M2 here. Starting today, I am just going to be reviewing for Step 1 which I am taking next May, and nothing else. Here is my plan:

Oct 23-Dec 31: Memorize FA2014, Watch all of Pathoma
Jan 1-Jan 31: FA2015, Pathoma (pass 2), Kaplan QBank
Feb 1-Feb 28: FA2015 (pass 2), Pathoma (pass 3), USMLERX
March 1- March 31: FA2015 (pass 3), Pathoma (pass 4): UWorld
April 1- Mid May: FA2015 (pass 4), Pathoma (selective topics), UWorld (pass 2), all practice tests

Goal: High number

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[seminoma]

Just wanted to add a few more things to what I already posted.

Background
Low to lower-middle tier US MD school. Low 30s MCAT (if anyone actually cares)

NBME7 offline: 228 (baseline, 6.5 weeks out)
School CBSE: >260 (6 weeks out)
NBME13: >260 (4 weeks out)
UWSA1: 261 (2.5 weeks out)
UWSA2: 265 (1.5 weeks out)
NBME17: >270 (1.5 weeks out)
Free 138: 99% (3 days out)

Dedicated time
UW: 85% (timed, random, single pass)
2-3 passes of FA (2 just reading, 1 by reading each page that corresponded to a UW question/answer)
1 pass of Pathoma
Spent 6 days trying to do DIT. Really regretting this as it was super time consuming and not helpful at all.

During MS2
Kaplan qbank: 82% (timed, by organ system, finished ~80% of it)
USMLE Rx: 90% (timed, by organ system, finished ~70% of it)
~2 passes of Pathoma
Read through probably 70-80% of Goljan RR. My school teaches from Robbins, so I probably learned a good amount of Robbins just from our lecture notes.
KLN Pharm, then Becker eCoach near the end of the year.
Some sketchy micro. The bugs I did get through definitely represent my strongest areas as far as micro is concerned. Really great resource.


Timing
I usually finished UW blocks with ~10-15 minutes to spare. NBME blocks with ~20 minutes to spare.

Today I went down to the very end on 6/7 blocks. Two things contributed to that. First, I actually read the entire vignette to make sure there weren't any tricks in there. This is in contrast to UW and NBMEs where, for example, question is "which gene is mutated in this patient?" and the first sentence says "5 year old boy who needs to use his arms to stand from a seated position..." I would stop reading right then, pick dystrophin, and move on. Not worth the risk on the real deal. Second there was always at least 1 question that I was pretty stumped on and just stared at until time ran out hoping something would come to me. I probably finished every block with 10-15 minutes to review my marked and incomplete questions.

Just got done. Will write a more thorough thing later on, but I thought the test was, for the most part, very fair. There was some very obscure questions and obscure situations (more later), but most of the questions were on things you should expect to be tested on.

Really felt like I was sitting at home taking an NBME with some UW questions mixed in.

A few specifics since people have been worried about them all summer.

1. 7 pelvic anatomy questions, all were in FA.
2. No developmental milestones.
3. Biochem was way easy. Almost verbatim out of FA.
4. Non-pelvic anatomy questions were pretty straight forward. Mostly 2nd/3rd order questions based on H&P and CT/MRI.
5. About 15 EKG and/or heart sound questions (5-7 with media). I was really surprised to get this many. Two of the EKGs were on things not covered in FA, but they're pretty straight forward things that I'm sure everyone learned in cardio block. The heart sounds with media could not be answered based on the vignette. At least, not with my brain.


Examples of obscure questions/situations.

1. Had to choose between two drugs within the same class at least 2-3 times. These were not things covered in FA or UW (e.g. not "which is the better TCA in an elderly person? nortriptyline or amitriptyline?", not "which carbapenem should you give this patient with pseudomonas?"). Best example I can think of is "which of the following first-generation H1 antagonists is the least sedating?", but even that was covered in UW (if you don't already know, diphenhydramine, promethazine, and hydroxyzine are the most sedating).. The questions I had were not in UW or FA.

2. "High Yield" drug classes, but not the drugs listed in FA if that makes any sense. For example (not what was on my test) answer was obviously an alpha1-agonist, but the only alpha1 agonist listed was oxymetazoline (not phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, etc). But oxymetazoline is in UW.
3. On 3 blocks I had 2-3 questions that tested the exact same thing. Example (not what was on my test) is one question tells you about this guy who has purulent urethral discharge and doesn't use condoms. Tells you the gram stain shows intracellular gram neg diplococci, says he was treated with cetriaxone, and asks what other drug you should treat him with. Obviously doxy/azithro for chlamydia. A few questions later there's a girl with purulent cervical discharge and asks what abx combo you should give her. Answer was doxy+ceftriaxone.

Again, none of the examples I've given were the actual questions/answers on my test.

 

[sloop]

Just wanted to add a few more things to what I already posted.

Background
Low to lower-middle tier US MD school. Low 30s MCAT (if anyone actually cares)

NBME7 offline: 228 (baseline, 6.5 weeks out)
School CBSE: >260 (6 weeks out)
NBME13: >260 (4 weeks out)
UWSA1: 261 (2.5 weeks out)
UWSA2: 265 (1.5 weeks out)
NBME17: >270 (1.5 weeks out)
Free 138: 99% (3 days out)

Dedicated time
UW: 85% (timed, random, single pass)
2-3 passes of FA (2 just reading, 1 by reading each page that corresponded to a UW question/answer)
1 pass of Pathoma
Spent 6 days trying to do DIT. Really regretting this as it was super time consuming and not helpful at all.

During MS2
Kaplan qbank: 82% (timed, by organ system, finished ~80% of it)
USMLE Rx: 90% (timed, by organ system, finished ~70% of it)
~2 passes of Pathoma
Read through probably 70-80% of Goljan RR. My school teaches from Robbins, so I probably learned a good amount of Robbins just from our lecture notes.
KLN Pharm, then Becker eCoach near the end of the year.
Some sketchy micro. The bugs I did get through definitely represent my strongest areas as far as micro is concerned. Really great resource.


Timing
I usually finished UW blocks with ~10-15 minutes to spare. NBME blocks with ~20 minutes to spare.

Today I went down to the very end on 6/7 blocks. Two things contributed to that. First, I actually read the entire vignette to make sure there weren't any tricks in there. This is in contrast to UW and NBMEs where, for example, question is "which gene is mutated in this patient?" and the first sentence says "5 year old boy who needs to use his arms to stand from a seated position..." I would stop reading right then, pick dystrophin, and move on. Not worth the risk on the real deal. Second there was always at least 1 question that I was pretty stumped on and just stared at until time ran out hoping something would come to me. I probably finished every block with 10-15 minutes to review my marked and incomplete questions.

I told you that you'd be fine. I'm sure you aced it.

 

[abolt18]

Just got done. Will write a more thorough thing later on, but I thought the test was, for the most part, very fair. There was some very obscure questions and obscure situations (more later), but most of the questions were on things you should expect to be tested on.

Really felt like I was sitting at home taking an NBME with some UW questions mixed in.

A few specifics since people have been worried about them all summer.

1. 7 pelvic anatomy questions, all were in FA.
2. No developmental milestones.
3. Biochem was way easy. Almost verbatim out of FA.
4. Non-pelvic anatomy questions were pretty straight forward. Mostly 2nd/3rd order questions based on H&P and CT/MRI.
5. About 15 EKG and/or heart sound questions (5-7 with media). I was really surprised to get this many. Two of the EKGs were on things not covered in FA, but they're pretty straight forward things that I'm sure everyone learned in cardio block. The heart sounds with media could not be answered based on the vignette. At least, not with my brain.


Examples of obscure questions/situations.

1. Had to choose between two drugs within the same class at least 2-3 times. These were not things covered in FA or UW (e.g. not "which is the better TCA in an elderly person? nortriptyline or amitriptyline?", not "which carbapenem should you give this patient with pseudomonas?"). Best example I can think of is "which of the following first-generation H1 antagonists is the least sedating?", but even that was covered in UW (if you don't already know, diphenhydramine, promethazine, and hydroxyzine are the most sedating).. The questions I had were not in UW or FA.

2. "High Yield" drug classes, but not the drugs listed in FA if that makes any sense. For example (not what was on my test) answer was obviously an alpha1-agonist, but the only alpha1 agonist listed was oxymetazoline (not phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, etc). But oxymetazoline is in UW.
3. On 3 blocks I had 2-3 questions that tested the exact same thing. Example (not what was on my test) is one question tells you about this guy who has purulent urethral discharge and doesn't use condoms. Tells you the gram stain shows intracellular gram neg diplococci, says he was treated with cetriaxone, and asks what other drug you should treat him with. Obviously doxy/azithro for chlamydia. A few questions later there's a girl with purulent cervical discharge and asks what abx combo you should give her. Answer was doxy+ceftriaxone.

Again, none of the examples I've given were the actual questions/answers on my test.

Test sounds just like mine, minus all the EKG stuff. Congrats on being done. Can't imagine hitting those scores. Just hoping I break 240. Enjoy the wait with the rest of us.

 

[pd1112]

I took my exam today and had a comparable experience to @sloop and @seminoma - extremely fair test. I had 1 Q with a few excessively ph.d.-ish terms, but you could still answer it from the rest of the context provided, and 1 Q that asked a very specific epidemiology statistic. Can't be mad about the rest. I had a large amount of research-type Qs as others have mentioned, but none were that difficult if you're patient enough to read through the whole stem. For the most part, the question style was very similar to the NBMEs with many more first order and straight recall Qs than I expected. That being said, what made it difficult was the fact that many Qs asked for pathophys mechanisms of risks and consequences of a disease, not of the disease itself or the classic associations we have drilled into our heads from UFAP. There were a lot of these that you could very easily narrow down to a few choices, then had to reason through or guess, because both seemed 100% right. I think a good foundation and Pathoma are the most useful resources, and regurgitating facts from FA will get you a decent number of Qs as well. I only got through ~60% of UW and ~75% of FA, but honestly I don't know if UW specifically helped with a single Q on my exam. It wasn't nearly as detailed as UW. I can echo the lack of balance that others mentioned - I had at least 5 questions about one cause of one variant of one disease, and 3-4 other topics that had 2+ questions each. For more proof that there aren't "forms" and that each test is generated randomly from a pool of questions, the highest yield topics on my exam in some order were immuno, psych, micro, stats (not calculations, but understanding the ins and outs of every type of study and every term) & cardio. I've read every post of this thread and last year's thread, and I don't recall anyone mentioning any of those first three.

 

[starstarie]

Just got done. Will write a more thorough thing later on, but I thought the test was, for the most part, very fair. There was some very obscure questions and obscure situations (more later), but most of the questions were on things you should expect to be tested on.

Really felt like I was sitting at home taking an NBME with some UW questions mixed in.

A few specifics since people have been worried about them all summer.

1. 7 pelvic anatomy questions, all were in FA.
2. No developmental milestones.
3. Biochem was way easy. Almost verbatim out of FA.
4. Non-pelvic anatomy questions were pretty straight forward. Mostly 2nd/3rd order questions based on H&P and CT/MRI.
5. About 15 EKG and/or heart sound questions (5-7 with media). I was really surprised to get this many. Two of the EKGs were on things not covered in FA, but they're pretty straight forward things that I'm sure everyone learned in cardio block. The heart sounds with media could not be answered based on the vignette. At least, not with my brain.


Examples of obscure questions/situations.

1. Had to choose between two drugs within the same class at least 2-3 times. These were not things covered in FA or UW (e.g. not "which is the better TCA in an elderly person? nortriptyline or amitriptyline?", not "which carbapenem should you give this patient with pseudomonas?"). Best example I can think of is "which of the following first-generation H1 antagonists is the least sedating?", but even that was covered in UW (if you don't already know, diphenhydramine, promethazine, and hydroxyzine are the most sedating).. The questions I had were not in UW or FA.

2. "High Yield" drug classes, but not the drugs listed in FA if that makes any sense. For example (not what was on my test) answer was obviously an alpha1-agonist, but the only alpha1 agonist listed was oxymetazoline (not phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, etc). But oxymetazoline is in UW.
3. On 3 blocks I had 2-3 questions that tested the exact same thing. Example (not what was on my test) is one question tells you about this guy who has purulent urethral discharge and doesn't use condoms. Tells you the gram stain shows intracellular gram neg diplococci, says he was treated with cetriaxone, and asks what other drug you should treat him with. Obviously doxy/azithro for chlamydia. A few questions later there's a girl with purulent cervical discharge and asks what abx combo you should give her. Answer was doxy+ceftriaxone.

Again, none of the examples I've given were the actual questions/answers on my test.

Congrats on being done phew!

 

[cage92]

I took my exam today and had a comparable experience to @sloop and @seminoma - extremely fair test. I had 1 Q with a few excessively ph.d.-ish terms, but you could still answer it from the rest of the context provided, and 1 Q that asked a very specific epidemiology statistic. Can't be mad about the rest. I had a large amount of research-type Qs as others have mentioned, but none were that difficult if you're patient enough to read through the whole stem. For the most part, the question style was very similar to the NBMEs with many more first order and straight recall Qs than I expected. That being said, what made it difficult was the fact that many Qs asked for pathophys mechanisms of risks and consequences of a disease, not of the disease itself or the classic associations we have drilled into our heads from UFAP. There were a lot of these that you could very easily narrow down to a few choices, then had to reason through or guess, because both seemed 100% right. I think a good foundation and Pathoma are the most useful resources, and regurgitating facts from FA will get you a decent number of Qs as well. I only got through ~60% of UW and ~75% of FA, but honestly I don't know if UW specifically helped with a single Q on my exam. It wasn't nearly as detailed as UW. I can echo the lack of balance that others mentioned - I had at least 5 questions about one cause of one variant of one disease, and 3-4 other topics that had 2+ questions each. For more proof that there aren't "forms" and that each test is generated randomly from a pool of questions, the highest yield topics on my exam in some order were immuno, psych, micro, stats (not calculations, but understanding the ins and outs of every type of study and every term) & cardio. I've read every post of this thread and last year's thread, and I don't recall anyone mentioning any of those first three.

what about brainstem sections are these high yield i the exam?

 

[Radiolucent]

@seminoma @pd1112 @sloop
How many misstakes would you guys estimate on the real thing? Comparable to the NBMES?

 

[sloop]

@seminoma @pd1112 @sloop
How many wrongs would you guys estimate having made? Comparable to the NBMES?

It's unclear to me how many questions I likely got wrong, tbh. On most blocks I was actually marking fewer questions than the nbmes. That one block I mentioned being harder, I think I marked about 7 or 8 which was on par with my nbmes. All of this subjective feeling stuff could be irrelevant though because if I just got a lot of easy questions the curve will be harsher on me.

I also probably got a few wrong that I was confident on. I just feel like that can always happen if you miss some stupid detail.

There are like 5 questions that I haven't gone out of my way to look up my answers on (and, to be honest, I don't remember the questions well enough to do this), but I think I have a very high probability of getting them wrong. Then there are all the questions I have marked which, including those 5 questions, was probably 37-40 questions. Obviously I don't think I got all of these wrong and some of them I was pretty confident about but just needed to go over again. Who knows though.

 

[seminoma]

@seminoma @pd1112 @sloop
How many misstakes would you guys estimate on the real thing? Comparable to the NBMES?

I haven't looked up any answers or really thought much about it, but I can think of at least 3 mistakes. I'm sure I made way more than 3 mistakes (and I for sure got more than 3 wrong) though. I don't know for sure about NBMEs since I never paid the extra $10 for incorrects (nor did I thoroughly look up every question), but on UWSAs I typically didn't make more than 1 "mistake" per block.

Interesting that you ask about mistakes because that's what is bothering me and making me uncertain about my score. I don't feel like I made mistakes on NBMEs or UWSAs, but I know I made some on the real deal.. Mistakes combined with the number of questions I straight up got wrong for not knowing the info can really drag a score down imo.

what about brainstem sections are these high yield i the exam?

I had zero neuro cross sections, but 2+ gross neuroanatomy questions. One was regurgitation, the other was about a pretty commonly tested topic, except I've only ever seen it tested using imaging (not a gross specimen). Both in FA.

It's unclear to me how many questions I likely got wrong, tbh. On most blocks I was actually marking fewer questions than the nbmes. That one block I mentioned being harder, I think I marked about 7 or 8 which was on par with my nbmes. All of this subjective feeling stuff could be irrelevant though because of I just got a lot of easy questions the curve will be harsher on me.

I also probably got a few wrong that I was confident on. I just feel like that can always happen if you miss some stupid detail.

There are like 5 questions that I haven't gone out of my way to look up my answers on (and, to be honest, I don't remember the questions well enough to do this), but I think I have a very high probablilty of getting them wrong. Then there are all the questions I have marked which, including those 5 questions, was probably 37-40 questions. Obviously I don't think I got all of these wrong and some of them I was pretty confident about but just needed to go over again. Who knows though.

I marked more than NBMEs or UWSAs. Again, my exam had a lot of really vague questions with vague answer choices. Very few were slam dunks for me. One block I remember marking at least 20 questions. Don't freak out though.. they weren't marked because they were super hard or anything. They were marked because I felt pretty good about an answer, but there was one or two things about it that didn't quite fit.

 

[Radiolucent]

Thanks for answering guys. I remembered >100 questions right after the exam and know for sure that I picked the wrong answer on 15 of those. Thats way worse than my NBMEs and thats whats making me nervous. Of course well never know and have to wait three more weeks.

 

[seminoma]

Thanks for answering guys. I remembered >100 questions right after the exam and know for sure that I picked the wrong answer on 15 of those. Thats way worse than my NBMEs and thats whats making me nervous. Of course well never know and have to wait three more weeks.

Well the test was for sure harder for almost everyone than the NBMEs. Hopefully the curve on the real deal is more lenient than NBMEs.

Trust your NBMEs, it seems to work out for most!

 

[Focused1]

I suck at actual EKG interpretation.. meaning the media EKGs..what did u do for that ?

Just got done. Will write a more thorough thing later on, but I thought the test was, for the most part, very fair. There was some very obscure questions and obscure situations (more later), but most of the questions were on things you should expect to be tested on.

Really felt like I was sitting at home taking an NBME with some UW questions mixed in.

A few specifics since people have been worried about them all summer.

1. 7 pelvic anatomy questions, all were in FA.
2. No developmental milestones.
3. Biochem was way easy. Almost verbatim out of FA.
4. Non-pelvic anatomy questions were pretty straight forward. Mostly 2nd/3rd order questions based on H&P and CT/MRI.
5. About 15 EKG and/or heart sound questions (5-7 with media). I was really surprised to get this many. Two of the EKGs were on things not covered in FA, but they're pretty straight forward things that I'm sure everyone learned in cardio block. The heart sounds with media could not be answered based on the vignette. At least, not with my brain.


Examples of obscure questions/situations.

1. Had to choose between two drugs within the same class at least 2-3 times. These were not things covered in FA or UW (e.g. not "which is the better TCA in an elderly person? nortriptyline or amitriptyline?", not "which carbapenem should you give this patient with pseudomonas?"). Best example I can think of is "which of the following first-generation H1 antagonists is the least sedating?", but even that was covered in UW (if you don't already know, diphenhydramine, promethazine, and hydroxyzine are the most sedating).. The questions I had were not in UW or FA.

2. "High Yield" drug classes, but not the drugs listed in FA if that makes any sense. For example (not what was on my test) answer was obviously an alpha1-agonist, but the only alpha1 agonist listed was oxymetazoline (not phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, etc). But oxymetazoline is in UW.
3. On 3 blocks I had 2-3 questions that tested the exact same thing. Example (not what was on my test) is one question tells you about this guy who has purulent urethral discharge and doesn't use condoms. Tells you the gram stain shows intracellular gram neg diplococci, says he was treated with cetriaxone, and asks what other drug you should treat him with. Obviously doxy/azithro for chlamydia. A few questions later there's a girl with purulent cervical discharge and asks what abx combo you should give her. Answer was doxy+ceftriaxone.

Again, none of the examples I've given were the actual questions/answers on my test.

 

[sloop]

I marked more than NBMEs or UWSAs. Again, my exam had a lot of really vague questions with vague answer choices. Very few were slam dunks for me. One block I remember marking at least 20 questions. Don't freak out though.. they weren't marked because they were super hard or anything. They were marked because I felt pretty good about an answer, but there was one or two things about it that didn't quite fit.

No worries, I can see that. I don't think I marked most of those types of questions because I knew I wouldn't get back around to all of them (I tend to spend more time on my first look than a lot of people) and I'd just pick what seemed like the "best" answer and move on. Also, although my answer changes on UWorld and NBMEs were generally more likely to be incorrect to correct than the other way around, I know that the types of questions you're describing are exactly the types of questions that I'm liable to change a correct to an incorrect on.

 

[stepone2015]

Today I went down to the very end on 6/7 blocks. Two things contributed to that. First, I actually read the entire vignette to make sure there weren't any tricks in there. This is in contrast to UW and NBMEs where, for example, question is "which gene is mutated in this patient?" and the first sentence says "5 year old boy who needs to use his arms to stand from a seated position..." I would stop reading right then, pick dystrophin, and move on. Not worth the risk on the real deal. Second there was always at least 1 question that I was pretty stumped on and just stared at until time ran out hoping something would come to me. I probably finished every block with 10-15 minutes to review my marked and incomplete questions.

Where there questions where that the obvious answer you thought it was was actually wrong once you read the whole question? I did the same thing when I took the free 150, and I don't think my initial answer ever changed.

 

[seminoma]

Where there questions where that the obvious answer you thought it was was actually wrong once you read the whole question? I did the same thing when I took the free 150, and I don't think my initial answer ever changed.

I don't understand what you're asking..

 

[seminoma]

I suck at actual EKG interpretation.. meaning the media EKGs..what did u do for that ?

I read this book during cardio. Better than the dubin book imo.

I don't recommend looking at it during dedicated though. There's a ton of stuff in there that I don't think would ever show up on step 1. Might be nice to have around for MS3 though.

 

[stepone2015]

I don't understand what you're asking..

You said you read the final sentence of the question then the first. Based off that, the easy questions like the one about DMD will make you skip the rest of the stem and just answer the question. You said on the real deal, you read all the stems regardless.

My question is did reading the full stem ever change your answer choice on the real deal?

 

[seminoma]

You said you read the final sentence of the question then the first. Based off that, the easy questions like the one about DMD will make you skip the rest of the stem and just answer the question. You said on the real deal, you read all the stems regardless.

My question is did reading the full stem ever change your answer choice on the real deal?

Yes,a few times.

 

[greatsurg]

hey, please what material can i use to study genetics and biostat ? not doing well in genetics calculations

 

[pd1112]

what about brainstem sections are these high yield i the exam?

Anatomy, head to toe, was very HY on my exam, but I expected it from all of the posts the last few years.

@seminoma @pd1112 @sloop
How many misstakes would you guys estimate on the real thing? Comparable to the NBMES?

I looked up maybe 5-6 Qs right after the exam because they were guesses that were nagging me throughout the day. I ended up getting most of them right. They were bothering me so much that I almost pulled out FA or my iPad during breaks, but am really glad that I didn't. With the amount of Qs I wasn't 100% confident, I easily could have missed a lot. But then again, as I said previously, I knew exactly what they were asking on >99% of the questions and could narrow it down to 1-3 choices, then just went with my gut on most and tried to avoid over-thinking. This was very strange because on every NBME and all of UW, there were always 5-10 Qs per block that I had to make an educated guess because I couldn't tell what they were asking. I should also mention that I ran out of time on 3 blocks, 2 of which I just had to click an answer on the last question without reading anything, and the other I had to breeze through the last 3 questions with only reading a sentence or two of the stem. This happened to me on at least a block or two of every practice test I took, so it didn't surprise me and actually might've helped having experienced seeing 30 seconds left while being on question #42. My last 3 NBMEs and UWSA2 were all between 241-247, all in the last week before my exam. If I had a good day of guessing, I think I could push 250+. If I didn't and made a lot of careless mistakes, I'll be lucky to be in the 220s. I know that sounds stupid and cliché, so I'm trusting my NBMEs and hoping for the best.

I went in with the mindset of wanting to mark Qs and go back with extra time, but scrapped this after the first block when I marked 4 of the first 8 and got even more anxious. It might've been because I was running on 3.5 hours of sleep, so it took me ~1/2 of a block to wake up, calm down and get comfortable. I marked ~3 Qs the rest of the blocks combined.

 

[seminoma]

If I had a good day of guessing, I think I could push 250+. If I didn't and made a lot of careless mistakes, I'll be lucky to be in the 220s. I know that sounds stupid and cliché, so I'm trusting my NBMEs and hoping for the best.

Congrats on being done man!

I feel exactly the same way about my score. WAY more guessing than I was used to.

 

[Focused1]

Yes,a few times.

I had a question related to your style of studying.

Congrats on being done man!

I feel exactly the same way about my score. WAY more guessing than I was used to.

Thanks for sticking around and helping those of us who haven't taken the beast yet.

How much Anatomy did you have on the test ? In terms of just number of Qs approximately ? You mention 7 pelvic anatomy.. how many total for anatomy ?

 

[seminoma]

I had a question related to your style of studying.


Thanks for sticking around and helping those of us who haven't taken the beast yet.

How much Anatomy did you have on the test ? In terms of just number of Qs approximately ? You mention 7 pelvic anatomy.. how many total for anatomy ?

About 3-4 per block, then 7 on the last block.. so 25-30.

 

[sloop]

About 3-4 per block, then 7 on the last block.. so 25-30.

Wow. I'm pretty sure I had a lot less anatomy than you did. Then again, it's possible that I just happened to know most of the anatomy that I got asked so I don't remember as much of it. This would be a very rare event for me. Just as well—I'm dreadful at anatomy (at least compared to everything else). It was my worst subject in the first two years.

That being said, one of my few truly "wtf" questions was an anatomy question. Maybe somebody else who doesn't suck at anatomy could have answered it, but it seemed obscure to me.

 

[usmleraptor]

About 3-4 per block, then 7 on the last block.. so 25-30.

Would you say that the rest of Anatomy could be answered based on UFAP ? I bought myself HY Gross Anatomy but I'm really wary of going through the whole of it.

 

[seminoma]

Wow. I'm pretty sure I had a lot less anatomy than you did. Then again, it's possible that I just happened to know most of the anatomy that I got asked so I don't remember as much of it. This would be a very rare event for me. Just as well—I'm dreadful at anatomy (at least compared to everything else). It was my worst subject in the first two years.

That being said, one of my few truly "wtf" questions was an anatomy question. Maybe somebody else who doesn't suck at anatomy could have answered it, but it seemed obscure to me.

I think I remember them all because everytime I read a question about anatomy I thought to myself "oh f****".

Would you say that the rest of Anatomy could be answered based on UFAP ? I bought myself HY Gross Anatomy but I'm really wary of going through the whole of it.

Yup, all except 2-3 were out of FA I think. Nothing ridiculous like the path of an artery or something that you'd find in UW.

 

[imk90]

I think I remember them all because everytime I read a question about anatomy I thought to myself "oh f****".



Yup, all except 2-3 were out of FA I think. Nothing ridiculous like the path of an artery or something that you'd find in UW.

Plz check ur inbox seminoma

 

[deleted564496]

Also took the exam today... Thought it was overall a fair exam, but honestly feel like I could've scored anywhere from failing to ~250... Just felt like there were a lot of questions that I had down to a couple choices or questions where I wasn't *absolutely* sure, but made very educated and logical guesses. I've never walked out of a test being more unsure of how I did.

UWSA 1--210 (or something like that--baseline)
NBME 13--217 (2 weeks out)
NBME 15--241 (3 weeks out)
NBME 17--249 (2 weeks out)

I think FA is where it's at guys. I didn't do pathoma (other than the first four chapters and some chapters throughout the school year). I used DIT (did it in about 18 days) and then went all FA and UW the rest of the way. I didn't take any notes on UW, just answered the questions and read through every explanation. I did take notes on UW, but didn't use them. Almost everything on the exam I had at least seen before although I definitely had forgotten some details. If I were to do anything differently it would probably be getting rid of DIT and doing pathoma instead, because DIT really is just reading FA to you... The workbook is too easy, but it is a great, non-stressful way to get through your first pass of FA. I also would have stayed off SDN for longer than I had. I had this test worked up to be much harder than it actual was and it really stressed me out. Seriously, unless you're killing it, really need advice, or feel like you are actually going to change your approach based off what people say I'd stay off of this forum.

I seriously think I had only one embryo, very little anatomy (although my first question was anatomy--bummer, definitely didn't know it). I had one safety science question, you either knew it or you didn't, but it was not difficult. I felt like I had quite a bit of biochem (compared to others--not my best subject and I think I took a hit). Probably 1-2 truly WTF questions per block, I just accepted these and moved on.

Really I thought this exam was much more doable than others have mentioned (granted I haven't checked these threads in quite awhile). I just really have no idea how I did, but really felt like FA covered a lot of it, just felt like I had to do some educated guessing on a fair number of questions.

I'll write a more detailed response of how I studied later, I'm a little drunk! Also... Studying before the day of the test can be helpful! I was doing some questions from Rx the day before my test and ended up having a completely identical question on the real deal. Problem was I really wasn't focusing on those questions and I didn't remember what the answer was! Oh well, screw it! I came in wanting to pass and I just hope I got it done!

Edit--Felt exactly like taking 1/2 of an NBME, with 1/2 of medium-hard UW

 

[deleted564496]

Whoops, double post

 

[seminoma]

Also took the exam today... Thought it was overall a fair exam, but honestly feel like I could've scored anywhere from failing to ~250... Just felt like there were a lot of questions that I had down to a couple choices or questions where I wasn't *absolutely* sure, but made very educated and logical guesses. I've never walked out of a test being more unsure of how I did.

UWSA 1--210 (or something like that--baseline)
NBME 13--217 (2 weeks out)
NBME 15--241 (3 weeks out)
NBME 17--249 (2 weeks out)

I think FA is where it's at guys. I didn't do pathoma (other than the first four chapters and some chapters throughout the school year). I used DIT (did it in about 18 days) and then went all FA and UW the rest of the way. I didn't take any notes on UW, just answered the questions and read through every explanation. I did take notes on UW, but didn't use them. Almost everything on the exam I had at least seen before although I definitely had forgotten some details. If I were to do anything differently it would probably be getting rid of DIT and doing pathoma instead, because DIT really is just reading FA to you... The workbook is too easy, but it is a great, non-stressful way to get through your first pass of FA. I also would have stayed off SDN for longer than I had. I had this test worked up to be much harder than it actual was and it really stressed me out. Seriously, unless you're killing it, really need advice, or feel like you are actually going to change your approach based off what people say I'd stay off of this forum.

I seriously think I had only one embryo, very little anatomy (although my first question was anatomy--bummer, definitely didn't know it). I had one safety science question, you either knew it or you didn't, but it was not difficult. I felt like I had quite a bit of biochem (compared to others--not my best subject and I think I took a hit). Probably 1-2 truly WTF questions per block, I just accepted these and moved on.

Really I thought this exam was much more doable than others have mentioned (granted I haven't checked these threads in quite awhile). I just really have no idea how I did, but really felt like FA covered a lot of it, just felt like I had to do some educated guessing on a fair number of questions.

I'll write a more detailed response of how I studied later, I'm a little drunk! Also... Studying before the day of the test can be helpful! I was doing some questions from Rx the day before my test and ended up having a completely identical question on the real deal. Problem was I really wasn't focusing on those questions and I didn't remember what the answer was! Oh well, screw it! I came in wanting to pass and I just hope I got it done!

Edit--Felt exactly like taking 1/2 of an NBME, with 1/2 of medium-hard UW

Congrats dude, bet you killed it!

 

[deleted564496]

Congrats dude, bet you killed it!

Thanks man I'd put money on you killing it, probably not me though! I think what's crazy is how different everybody's exam is. It just doesn't seem fair honestly. Like I didn't have a single q on pelvic anatomy (looked like you had quite a few) and only 2 murmurs. One really easy, the other I literally had no idea what in the **** I was listening to. And I think cardio is easily my best subject.. I used the stem to answer, but there is no way in hell what I was listening to was aortic stenosis so I'm sure I got it wrong hahaha.. Just wish there was a better system to distinguish what residency you can and cannot get into. But whatevs. It is what it is.

 

[starstarie]

My exam had a light to moderate amt of anatomy I would say. Maybe 10 questions total? Two if those were pretty random ones that you couldn't have studied for really.

 

[nds86]

Thanks man I'd put money on you killing it, probably not me though! I think what's crazy is how different everybody's exam is. It just doesn't seem fair honestly. Like I didn't have a single q on pelvic anatomy (looked like you had quite a few) and only 2 murmurs. One really easy, the other I literally had no idea what in the **** I was listening to. And I think cardio is easily my best subject.. I used the stem to answer, but there is no way in hell what I was listening to was aortic stenosis so I'm sure I got it wrong hahaha.. Just wish there was a better system to distinguish what residency you can and cannot get into. But whatevs. It is what it is.

Going from a 210 to 249 is a winner to me. Congrats on being done. I agree with the DIT part, should be used an intro and probably not during dedicated.

 

[nds86]

@seminoma @sloop @pd1112

Congratulations on being done with exam and sharing your experiences throughout. Now that you guys have taken the test, would you still say UFAP is the best source for it? Would adding Goljan RR path make any difference if I have enough time to read it all? Thanks and good luck!!

 

[sloop]

@seminoma @sloop @pd1112

Congratulations on being done with exam and sharing your experiences throughout. Now that you guys have taken the test, would you still say UFAP is the best source for it? Would adding Goljan RR path make any difference if I have enough time to read it all? Thanks and good luck!!

I felt like UFAP was plenty. Didn't use RR path but don't believe it's necessary. I am definitely of the minimalist school of thought though.

I think people get way too wrapped up about resources. If you think something would help reinforce for you, get it, but you don't need it. UFAP is basically the most proven plan at this point.

 

[seminoma]

@seminoma @sloop @pd1112

Congratulations on being done with exam and sharing your experiences throughout. Now that you guys have taken the test, would you still say UFAP is the best source for it? Would adding Goljan RR path make any difference if I have enough time to read it all? Thanks and good luck!!

Only after you memorize UFAP 100%.

 

[dfib slim]

Only after you memorize UFAP 100%.

I think it's best used during the year to get a solid foundation.

 

[dartmed]

What's everyone doing with Biochem? It's making a lot of sense after going through organ systems really well, but I still can't phrase a big picture in my head as to what's going on and where all the enzymes fit and stuff. I am a week away and I am leaning toward just focusing on pathologies at this point.

 

[seminoma]

Forgot to write this in my original 2 posts, but embryo on my exam was straight forward if you knew the embryo well. I think I had 5 embryo questions, 4 were about branchial pouches/arches/clefts. One was about apoptosis or something obvious. Anyway, all of the questions about pouches/arches/clefts were straight forward (e.g. patient is born without a thymus, what structure failed to develop?), but each time all of the pouches/arches/clefts were answer choices. So that's what... 4 pouches, 5 arches, 4 clefts? Idk, but each one of them was an answer choice so there really was no hope to guess correctly.

What's everyone doing with Biochem? It's making a lot of sense after going through organ systems really well, but I still can't phrase a big picture in my head as to what's going on and where all the enzymes fit and stuff. I am a week away and I am leaning toward just focusing on pathologies at this point.

At least on my exam biochem was really straight forward and only about the main pathways/diseases. Nothing like UW. Everything I needed was in FA. Big picture is nice, but it's not necessary imo.

 

[dartmed]

Forgot to write this in my original 2 posts, but embryo on my exam was straight forward if you knew the embryo well. I think I had 5 embryo questions, 4 were about branchial pouches/arches/clefts. One was about apoptosis or something obvious. Anyway, all of the questions about pouches/arches/clefts were straight forward (e.g. patient is born without a thymus, what structure failed to develop?), but each time all of the pouches/arches/clefts were answer choices. So that's what... 4 pouches, 5 arches, 4 clefts? Idk, but each one of them was an answer choice so there really was no hope to guess correctly.



At least on my exam biochem was really straight forward and only about the main pathways/diseases. Nothing like UW. Everything I needed was in FA. Big picture is nice, but it's not necessary imo.

Thanks, Seminoma!! Hopefully, if I just memorize the diseases and the enzyme that's missing type of thing, I should be ok.

 

[psylocke]

About 3-4 per block, then 7 on the last block.. so 25-30.

I cannot handle that many anatomy questions. I need to start dedicating a couple of hours a day studying anatomy just incase I get hit with that many.

 

[stepone2015]

I cannot handle that many anatomy questions. I need to start dedicating a couple of hours a day studying anatomy just incase I get hit with that many.

i.imgur.com/HwAOIgB.gifv

 

[psylocke]

i.imgur.com/HwAOIgB.gifv

I'm sure it won't, but it must at least marginally help...

 

[srilankangirl89]

Just curious, what did you guys write on your laminated board during the exam? Or before?

 

[stepone2015]

Just curious, what did you guys write on your laminated board during the exam? Or before?

I took the practice Step 1 last week. I doodled dicks and boobs when I started to zone out. Got some weird looks from the lady when I handed in those sheets at the end...

 

[srilankangirl89]

I took the practice Step 1 last week. I doodled dicks and boobs when I started to zone out. Got some weird looks from the lady when I handed in those sheets at the end...

Hmm...I was thinking more along the lines of helpful formulas or mnemonics. Apart from the biostats table for sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV.

 

[seminoma]

Just curious, what did you guys write on your laminated board during the exam? Or before?

I didn't write anything on mine. Just used it when I needed to write things down to help answer a question.

My prometric center said we aren't allowed to write things during the tutorial. I didn't ask, they just told me when they were telling me the other rules. If you do plan to write some things down before starting I would check with yours just to be safe. It's not like you can say "well, prometric didn't say I couldn't write things down" after the fact.

 

[deleted604914]

Question for you guys about guessing/timing. So often when I'm taking a test, I get hung up on a question without realizing that I've spent 4-5 mins and it puts me real behind. The issue is when I realize it, I've still not arrived at an answer and often then just mark it and come back just to waste more time at the end on it. This is annoying because it's usually a question that I am stuck between 2-3 choices and am agonizing over which one is correct. It's especially bad when its a question that I know I should know and have learned previously, but cannot remember the detail that I had learned (I often waste time hoping that the answer will come back to me).

What do you guys when you approach a question that you don't know? What about when you start trying to answer a question, only to spend more time than you anticipated? I often think to myself I've already invested all this time, do I really want to mark it and come back to it and waste more time having to reread/start from scratch or just spend the last little bit to answer it. I understand a lot of you probably master answering and moving on, but I have trouble even on the questions I have no idea for, bc I think to myself that there's always something I can pick from the stem/choices to try to narrow things down a little or come to an answer.

Lastly, how do you guys approach your guessing when you are between 2 answers that you can think of pros/cons for each choice? I spend waaaay too much time weighing these when I'm stuck and it legit bugs me to pick one choice so I just sit there. It's terrible. Thanks for your help!

 

[srilankangirl89]

I didn't write anything on mine. Just used it when I needed to write things down to help answer a question.

My prometric center said we aren't allowed to write things during the tutorial. I didn't ask, they just told me when they were telling me the other rules. If you do plan to write some things down before starting I would check with yours just to be safe. It's not like you can say "well, prometric didn't say I couldn't write things down" after the fact.

Oh that's a valid point. Thanks!! I'll call and ask them.

 

[super_mom]

my hands are so numb from writing notes from UW questions…omg sometimes the pain is so bad its around my MCP joints i will like to type but i like writing because it helps me remember more….i really can't wait to be done with this exam its sucking the life out of me…some times i want to take a break but then i plan to write my exam july 10 and taking a break might be dangerous at this point because i still have not finished UW still have 25% left, haven't finished my pathoma videos but am on my third pass of FA…. i really envy those who are done with step 1