Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Phloston]

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I figure now is a good time to jump-start this thread.

Even though some of us who had taken the exam in late-2012 are still awaiting our scores (amid the holiday delays) and could technically still post within last year's thread, it is after all mid-January now, so it's probably apposite that we move forward and hope for a great year.

Cheers to 2013

 

[NickNaylor]

How much does the test change from person to another? Should I be paying attention to what past test takers are saying concerning the content of their examinations (ex. more neuroanatomy)?

I agree with calvn... it'd be silly and a waste of time to prepare on topics people report showing up more on the test because that says nothing about the test YOU will get. The best preparation would be to study everything.

 

[Jonari]

I seriously hate these ethics response questions. Q. 7733 is just straight ******ed. I don't see how answer A is a better choice compared to C.

If she's not your patient, wouldn't you just say "no". That response in a sly/indirect way kind of tells the other person that the person is a patient of yours.

 

[Jonari]

any of you guys not bother to read the uworld explanations for some of the correct answers, just because of time constraints? i feel that if i got the question right because i knew the material, i won't bother reading the explanation. i'll only read it if i got it right out of process of elimination or guessing, and of course the wrong answers...

 

[NickNaylor]

any of you guys not bother to read the uworld explanations for some of the correct answers, just because of time constraints? i feel that if i got the question right because i knew the material, i won't bother reading the explanation. i'll only read it if i got it right out of process of elimination or guessing, and of course the wrong answers...

Yup - if it's a question that I got right and feel pretty comfortable about the topic, I'll sometimes skim the educational objective but most times will just move on through.

I'm in the midst of this time crunch now as I'm trying to finish up UWorld this week... doing 200 questions/day in order to do so, and unless I want to spend all night reading explanations I can't read everything.

 

[Goober11]

I seriously hate these ethics response questions. Q. 7733 is just straight ******ed. I don't see how answer A is a better choice compared to C.

If she's not your patient, wouldn't you just say "no". That response in a sly/indirect way kind of tells the other person that the person is a patient of yours.

I think in that question you have to assume the woman is in fact "your" patient (according to your colleague's friend) and since lying is never the correct answer on the USMLE you can't get away with just saying no.

 

[Goober11]

200 questions/day in order to do so, and unless I want to spend all night reading explanations I can't read everything.

200/day is beast. How far out are you? I still haven't hit dedicated yet and I am trying to figure out how much UW I can crunch through each day for my second pass.

 

[Jonari]

Yup - if it's a question that I got right and feel pretty comfortable about the topic, I'll sometimes skim the educational objective but most times will just move on through.

I'm in the midst of this time crunch now as I'm trying to finish up UWorld this week... doing 200 questions/day in order to do so, and unless I want to spend all night reading explanations I can't read everything.

Touche. Yeah, sometimes ill read the questions which i felt comfortable with...but basically doing what you're doing

I think in that question you have to assume the woman is in fact "your" patient (according to your colleague's friend) and since lying is never the correct answer on the USMLE you can't get away with just saying no.

makes sense...thanks!

 

[withrye]

any of you guys not bother to read the uworld explanations for some of the correct answers, just because of time constraints? i feel that if i got the question right because i knew the material, i won't bother reading the explanation. i'll only read it if i got it right out of process of elimination or guessing, and of course the wrong answers...

There are some real gems hidden in the "why this was wrong" explanations. I agree that it can be a pain sometimes, but I think it's definitely worth reading every reasonably lengthy explanation for why an answer was or wasn't right.

I seriously hate these ethics response questions. Q. 7733 is just straight ******ed. I don't see how answer A is a better choice compared to C.

If she's not your patient, wouldn't you just say "no". That response in a sly/indirect way kind of tells the other person that the person is a patient of yours.

One answer has less information than the other, and that's all that matters for the USMLE. There isn't any room for "well... this kinda hints at that." It's all about what you explicitly say, and less what you mean or convey.

 

[CDI]

There are some real gems hidden in the "why this was wrong" explanations. I agree that it can be a pain sometimes, but I think it's definitely worth reading every reasonably lengthy explanation for why an answer was or wasn't right.

+1

There are also questions, from UW and NBME, that are very similar on the real deal (at least for me there were) I recognized that only the stem was slightly different but the answer choices were all identical. Being able to differentiate those other answer choices can make the difference on these questions, or when you get stuck with two choices.

When I did UW, I would just do the educational objective but not the explanations for answers. (Until I did my incorrects, where I took notes, etc.) My score hardly improved there during my full-run as a result, and this led to my exam score being sub-par. Unlike many here who can tell you what to do, I'm the most qualified in telling you what not to do.

Sometimes we know the answer to a certain question, but if they change it up slightly would you know why the other answer is the right one?

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Ethics: The USMLE's version of Verbal

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Someone mind giving their opinion on this question.

1. Which is a risk factor associated with Obesity:
a. Peptic Ulcer Disease
b. Osteoarthritis
c. nobody cares
d. I'd only pick "d" if I was half drunk


I answered peptic ulcer, looked it up and it seems both osteoarthritis and peptic ulcer are the case but osteoarthritis seems to be a more "established answer", as most of the peptic ulcer stuff is from 1980 and newer

 

[NickNaylor]

200/day is beast. How far out are you? I still haven't hit dedicated yet and I am trying to figure out how much UW I can crunch through each day for my second pass.

Yeah, it's pretty insane and 100% sucks. I'm taking it in 16 days. 🙁 I'm trying to finish it this week so that I can focus the rest of my time on 1) memorizing all of the nitty gritty stuff, 2) getting through FA, and 3) doing NBMEs. I didn't do any questions for the first week and a half of my study time so it put me a little behind for questions.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[NickNaylor]

Someone mind giving their opinion on this question.

1. Which is a risk factor associated with Obesity:
a. Peptic Ulcer Disease
b. Osteoarthritis
c. nobody cares
d. I'd only pick "d" if I was half drunk


I answered peptic ulcer, looked it up and it seems both osteoarthritis and peptic ulcer are the case but osteoarthritis seems to be a more "established answer", as most of the peptic ulcer stuff is from 1980 and newer

Obesity = more physical trauma on load-bearing joints (e.g., knees) = osteoarthritis. At least that's my thinking. Not sure about PUD.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[loveoforganic2]

Someone mind giving their opinion on this question.

1. Which is a risk factor associated with Obesity:
a. Peptic Ulcer Disease
b. Osteoarthritis
c. nobody cares
d. I'd only pick "d" if I was half drunk


I answered peptic ulcer, looked it up and it seems both osteoarthritis and peptic ulcer are the case but osteoarthritis seems to be a more "established answer", as most of the peptic ulcer stuff is from 1980 and newer

Obesity is definitely a risk factor for both PUD and OA

Edit: Actually, I was thinking of obesity and GERD when I answered confidently, but it looks like obesity and PUD also

 

[Jonari]

Yeah, it's pretty insane and 100% sucks. I'm taking it in 16 days. 🙁 I'm trying to finish it this week so that I can focus the rest of my time on 1) memorizing all of the nitty gritty stuff, 2) getting through FA, and 3) doing NBMEs. I didn't do any questions for the first week and a half of my study time so it put me a little behind for questions.

Sent from my Nexus 7

What else are you using? Goljan Audio, Pathoma, or just UWorld + FA + nbmes?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Someone mind giving their opinion on this question.

1. Which is a risk factor associated with Obesity:
a. Peptic Ulcer Disease
b. Osteoarthritis
c. nobody cares
d. I'd only pick "d" if I was half drunk


I answered peptic ulcer, looked it up and it seems both osteoarthritis and peptic ulcer are the case but osteoarthritis seems to be a more "established answer", as most of the peptic ulcer stuff is from 1980 and newer

Osteoarthritis fo sho.

I think the major things they want us to know for PUD are H. Pylori and NSAIDS (along with the other stuff that causes acute gastritis like Cushing's, Curling's, EtOH). If I had to pick one "best" answer it'd be osteoarthritis.

 

[bangarang]

Yeah, it's pretty insane and 100% sucks. I'm taking it in 16 days. 🙁 I'm trying to finish it this week so that I can focus the rest of my time on 1) memorizing all of the nitty gritty stuff, 2) getting through FA, and 3) doing NBMEs. I didn't do any questions for the first week and a half of my study time so it put me a little behind for questions.

Sent from my Nexus 7

good luck, man. i remember you from the MCAT forums. it's hard to believe that it's been a couple of years since then. time flies.

 

[NickNaylor]

What else are you using? Goljan Audio, Pathoma, or just UWorld + FA + nbmes?

This week I'm just doing questions, but other than that I've just gone through FA twice and I'm working my way through Pathoma (though I used that during MS2). After I finish questions I'll be hitting up more specific sources - probably read over a few of the systems in BRS Phys, gunna flip through Netter's, but mostly just memorize the things I know I need to memorize.

 

[NickNaylor]

good luck, man. i remember you from the MCAT forums. it's hard to believe that it's been a couple of years since then. time flies.

How time flies indeed... and thanks, appreciate it - you too!

 

[Greenbayslacker]

Id say it was a mix of cross-section brain slides (where you identify where the characteristic lesion is a certain disease), identify the lesion questions (stroke/focal lesion with a set of symptoms, identify where in the brain it would be), and some CT/MRI questions showing the findings of classic diseases (ie NPH, hydrocephalus, etc).

I guess where it got hard was when they tested more obscure lesions (all the random brainstem area lesions which are all named and have too many characteristic findings) and when you knew where the lesion was (lets say thalamus), but in a view youre not comfortable seeing (instead of coronals, they gave you axials or sometimes gross dissection images).

If I had to do it again, dont know if reviewing a book on neuroanatomy would have necessarily helped. Id say the most high yield would be being comfortable naming high yield neuroanatomy structures from different modalities (different cross sectional views etc). and knowing the regions affected of the classic neuro diseases (make a list of the 10/15 brain related lesions, and where the lesions usually are) and how to find them.

do you think the roadmap to neuro book would help with this? neuro is by far my weakest subject & i'm hoping that book will help. not sure what other resources out there are good, especially for radiographs and such.

 

[Zuhal]

do you think the roadmap to neuro book would help with this? neuro is by far my weakest subject & i'm hoping that book will help. not sure what other resources out there are good, especially for radiographs and such.

HY neuroanatomy

 

[normtheniner]

Someone mind giving their opinion on this question.

1. Which is a risk factor associated with Obesity:
a. Peptic Ulcer Disease
b. Osteoarthritis
c. nobody cares
d. I'd only pick "d" if I was half drunk


I answered peptic ulcer, looked it up and it seems both osteoarthritis and peptic ulcer are the case but osteoarthritis seems to be a more "established answer", as most of the peptic ulcer stuff is from 1980 and newer

I think PUD would be correct if it were flipped around (as in what is an associated risk with PUD). If its in the duodenum the basic secretions with eating would decrease pain, thus making people eat more to relieve the pain. If its in the stomach eating makes it worse and these patients actually lose weight.

 

[Greenbayslacker]

HY neuroanatomy

roadmap is rated higher, but idk how true that is

 

[docnotsopc]

I really wish there was more experiences about the people getting more.... normal scores (average) hahah apparently everyone on here is getting 240s and 250s. Also, super jealous at the people who get 6+ weeks of dedicated study time. Seriously you are so lucky.

Im about 8 weeks out, got 3 weeks left of a brutal curriculum (aka little board studying during this time)
Done 20% of UWorld on random and im only at 60%. Kind of sad considering I technically read first aid over the last few months, and watched all of pathoma. Im hoping for some good acceleration starting in 3 weeks when im out. I was aiming for 240, but im not sure if thats possible when looking at the experiences on here of people who got a 240....and their progression

 

[loveoforganic2]

I really wish there was more experiences about the people getting more.... normal scores (average) hahah apparently everyone on here is getting 240s and 250s. Also, super jealous at the people who get 6+ weeks of dedicated study time. Seriously you are so lucky.

Im about 8 weeks out, got 3 weeks left of a brutal curriculum (aka little board studying during this time)
Done 20% of UWorld on random and im only at 60%. Kind of sad considering I technically read first aid over the last few months, and watched all of pathoma. Im hoping for some good acceleration starting in 3 weeks when im out. I was aiming for 240, but im not sure if thats possible when looking at the experiences on here of people who got a 240....and their progression

60% on UW predicts a 225, you're 2 months out, and your content review has been spaced over a few months with classes mixed in. You're in a good place to break 240 in my opinion

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

I really wish there was more experiences about the people getting more.... normal scores (average) hahah apparently everyone on here is getting 240s and 250s. Also, super jealous at the people who get 6+ weeks of dedicated study time. Seriously you are so lucky.

Im about 8 weeks out, got 3 weeks left of a brutal curriculum (aka little board studying during this time)
Done 20% of UWorld on random and im only at 60%. Kind of sad considering I technically read first aid over the last few months, and watched all of pathoma. Im hoping for some good acceleration starting in 3 weeks when im out. I was aiming for 240, but im not sure if thats possible when looking at the experiences on here of people who got a 240....and their progression

Half the battle is just getting used to the question style. I'll bet you'll be breaking 70%+ on your recent blocks by the time you're half done with UWorld.

 

[Phloston]

roadmap is rated higher, but idk how true that is

I own HY, BRS, USMLE Roadmap Anatomy and Kaplan lecture notes. All were a waste of time.

Those books help you for SoM classes and the cadaver lab, but on the real deal, the anatomy is fairly basic, and of the WTF questions you could possibly get, there's no way you'd ever be able to prepare for those.

Doing tons and tons of practice questions + reading FA is how you'll get your anatomy in gear for the Step-1. That's it.

Early in my prep, however, I did find Underground Clinical Vignettes - Anatomy helpful. The whole book is extremely HY and cuts to the chase. And as far as the Kaplan notes were concerned, the neuro-only section images were great as last-minute review, but the rest of the book was circumlocutory and inundated with garbage.

 

[stronghold]

I own HY, BRS, USMLE Roadmap Anatomy and Kaplan lecture notes. All were a waste of time.

Those books help you for SoM classes and the cadaver lab, but on the real deal, the anatomy is fairly basic, and of the WTF questions you could possibly get, there's no way you'd ever be able to prepare for those.

Doing tons and tons of practice questions + reading FA is how you'll get your anatomy in gear for the Step-1. That's it.

Early in my prep, however, I did find Underground Clinical Vignettes - Anatomy helpful. The whole book is extremely HY and cuts to the chase. And as far as the Kaplan notes were concerned, the neuro-only section images were great as last-minute review, but the rest of the book was circumlocutory and inundated with garbage.

Thanks Phloston. I read HY neuroanatomy 3 months ago cover-to-cover (except the chapter of images with branches of small arteries) because I am weak in neuro field and found the book was very dense and my speed was very slow. I do have Kaplan lecture notes and read all the book except the neuro section.
I will start the FA first pass after 7-10 days and I am confused if I need to do the kaplan lecture notes neuro section or repeat the HY neuroanatomy before starting FA first pass. I really don't remember anything from the HY!
What makes me more confused that you and many members posted that neuroanatomy is heavily tested in their exams. What is your advice?
Also, I would be grateful to get inputs from other members, especially, those weak in neuro.

 

[Prince090]

I own HY, BRS, USMLE Roadmap Anatomy and Kaplan lecture notes. All were a waste of time.

Those books help you for SoM classes and the cadaver lab, but on the real deal, the anatomy is fairly basic, and of the WTF questions you could possibly get, there's no way you'd ever be able to prepare for those.

Doing tons and tons of practice questions + reading FA is how you'll get your anatomy in gear for the Step-1. That's it.

Early in my prep, however, I did find Underground Clinical Vignettes - Anatomy helpful. The whole book is extremely HY and cuts to the chase. And as far as the Kaplan notes were concerned, the neuro-only section images were great as last-minute review, but the rest of the book was circumlocutory and inundated with garbage.

Can I know the reason behind this statement because --->>>

I have personally met a senior in my school couple of months back.He only used Kaplan notes(+videos) and UW. He got 249 just by doing that and he is currently an internal medicine resident.Just to let you know,I am a non-US IMG.

 

[sharklasers]

Thanks Phloston. I read HY neuroanatomy 3 months ago cover-to-cover (except the chapter of images with branches of small arteries) because I am weak in neuro field and found the book was very dense and my speed was very slow. I do have Kaplan lecture notes and read all the book except the neuro section.
I will start the FA first pass after 7-10 days and I am confused if I need to do the kaplan lecture notes neuro section or repeat the HY neuroanatomy before starting FA first pass. I really don't remember anything from the HY!
What makes me more confused that you and many members posted that neuroanatomy is heavily tested in their exams. What is your advice?
Also, I would be grateful to get inputs from other members, especially, those weak in neuro.

why do you want to go into neurosurgery if you are weak in neuro...

 

[stronghold]

why do you want to go into neurosurgery if you are weak in neuro...

My university does not teach neuro well.

 

[Greenbayslacker]

I own HY, BRS, USMLE Roadmap Anatomy and Kaplan lecture notes. All were a waste of time.

Those books help you for SoM classes and the cadaver lab, but on the real deal, the anatomy is fairly basic, and of the WTF questions you could possibly get, there's no way you'd ever be able to prepare for those.

Doing tons and tons of practice questions + reading FA is how you'll get your anatomy in gear for the Step-1. That's it.

Early in my prep, however, I did find Underground Clinical Vignettes - Anatomy helpful. The whole book is extremely HY and cuts to the chase. And as far as the Kaplan notes were concerned, the neuro-only section images were great as last-minute review, but the rest of the book was circumlocutory and inundated with garbage.

FA doesn't cover A LOT of neuro, even being one of the biggest chapters. for example, the trigeminal nerve branches & their actions aren't mentioned. the pathways of some nerves (ex: radial nerve goes between the two flexor digitorum muscles) aren't mentioned either. i'm really struggling with neuro, even though i read through the FA section a bunch of times and did most of the UWorld questions.
i'm really hoping there's a single good resource out there that can help me..

 

[baglococcus]

(ex: radial nerve goes between the two flexor digitorum muscles) .

You are confusing radial with median nerves. The median nerve runs between the deep and superficial flexors on its way to the wrist.

 

[CDI]

I really wish there was more experiences about the people getting more.... normal scores (average) hahah apparently everyone on here is getting 240s and 250s. Also, super jealous at the people who get 6+ weeks of dedicated study time. Seriously you are so lucky.

Im about 8 weeks out, got 3 weeks left of a brutal curriculum (aka little board studying during this time)
Done 20% of UWorld on random and im only at 60%. Kind of sad considering I technically read first aid over the last few months, and watched all of pathoma. Im hoping for some good acceleration starting in 3 weeks when im out. I was aiming for 240, but im not sure if thats possible when looking at the experiences on here of people who got a 240....and their progression

If you're at a 60% with 8 weeks out, once all said and done...you're going to be one of those people getting the 240-250.

 

[Greenbayslacker]

You are confusing radial with median nerves. The median nerve runs between the deep and superficial flexors on its way to the wrist.

yeah sorry that's what i meant

 

[addy]

I really wish there was more experiences about the people getting more.... normal scores (average) hahah apparently everyone on here is getting 240s and 250s. Also, super jealous at the people who get 6+ weeks of dedicated study time. Seriously you are so lucky.

Im about 8 weeks out, got 3 weeks left of a brutal curriculum (aka little board studying during this time)
Done 20% of UWorld on random and im only at 60%. Kind of sad considering I technically read first aid over the last few months, and watched all of pathoma. Im hoping for some good acceleration starting in 3 weeks when im out. I was aiming for 240, but im not sure if thats possible when looking at the experiences on here of people who got a 240....and their progression

Question---do most people do UWorld/pathoma without having finished their 2nd year stuff? I guess i'm curious as to how you're expected to do well/make sense of UWorld on random or pathoma if you haven't seen the content in class yet.

 

[Goober11]

Question---do most people do UWorld/pathoma without having finished their 2nd year stuff? I guess i'm curious as to how you're expected to do well/make sense of UWorld on random or pathoma if you haven't seen the content in class yet.

Dr. Sattar was my class. Listened to him and then looked at school slides. Almost nominated him for lecturer of the year at my school (I don't go to U of C), ha. Scores in UW, Rx and class all jumped up after I ditched class lecture.

 

[Jonari]

do you guys know how to check when these cbssa exams were released or roughly around when they were released...

 

[docnotsopc]

If you're at a 60% with 8 weeks out, once all said and done...you're going to be one of those people getting the 240-250.

haha i guess time will tell. I hope i dont end up hating myself since I hate people who say they failed tests than get 90+%

Question---do most people do UWorld/pathoma without having finished their 2nd year stuff? I guess i'm curious as to how you're expected to do well/make sense of UWorld on random or pathoma if you haven't seen the content in class yet.

I finished all my real courses a few weeks ago. GI was our last major system. Our last month is Peds, EM, Geriatrics and some first aid (not the book) courses.... but they are testing on useless details so you need to study a lot

I did like 500 Kaplan questions over the semester (didnt do well though). Started UWorld 2 weeks ago.

Most 2nd years supplement their systems courses with Pathoma. Technically you can do pathoma without having done a system, I mean he is VERY straight forward and such a good professor. Also, the chapters are short for the most part (like 1-2.5 hours). I didn't get ahead of myself though

 

[docnotsopc]

Dr. Sattar was my class. Listened to him and then looked at school slides. Almost nominated him for lecturer of the year at my school (I don't go to U of C), ha. Scores in UW, Rx and class all jumped up after I ditched class lecture.

Hes so good that he is the ONLY board prep course that most people I know actually paid for. Worth every penny of the $99 for the year.

 

[lira126]

Just finished my exam today and I'm surprisingly pleased with the way things went. I would say that the real deal was definitely more challenging than the NBME's, but not in an overwhelmingly unfair way. Let me explain.

Over the past several weeks my practice NBME's have been hovering around the high 250s and low 260s. My thoughts about the NBME's were that each section of 50 questions had more than a handful of freebies, a few questions that weren't explicitly covered in FA but could be answered correctly by applying the information in first aid, and couple of questions for which I felt that I needed to make an educated guess between two answer choices.

The distribution of questions on the real deal felt VERY similar. I thought that each section of 46 questions had about 25 to 30 questions that were directly from FA or UWorld, around 10-13 questions that required a little bit of thought in terms of applying the concepts within first aid, and maybe 3 or 4 questions per section that most people would not be able to feel 100% comfortable with regardless of their level of preparation. Halfway through the exam I felt that I had consistently marked 3 or 4 questions in each section. I was convinced that these "WTF questions" were evenly distributed throughout the exam. Realizing this, I thought that I was able to work through the second half of the exam much more efficiently because I was able to make better use of my time by not dwelling too long on these tough questions and really concentrating on the meat of each section, keeping in mind that the curve for the real deal is likely to be more forgiving than the NBME curves.

As for the recent rumors of neuroanatomy being over-represented, I did not find that to be the case at all for my exam. There were a few identification of structures on spinal cord/brain stem slices and brain stem gross anatomy but the questions were all fair.

I think that's all I can think of for now. I'm pretty mentally exhausted and I'm looking forward to spending the next week in Europe with a few friends. I'll share some more of my experiences when I get my score back in a few weeks. Good luck to everyone!

 

[CDI]

do you guys know how to check when these cbssa exams were released or roughly around when they were released...

Here you go:

Form 5 (added September 2009)
Form 6 (added September 2009)
Form 7 (added December 2009)
Form 11 (added April 2011)
Form 12 (added April 2011)
Form 13 (added March 2012)
Form 15 (added March 2013)

 

[DopaDO]

Just wondering if anyone could give me any insight. I'm really wanting to break 250 (don't we all?), I'm 6 weeks out from my test. I took an nbme about a month ago and did poorly (440 - 207). Id really like to know where I stand now. Im currently at a 68 average Uworld after having done 40%. Do you guys think Im on a decent pace for my target? I'm planning on getting through Uworld twice and then just going through FA and Pathoma a few more times. Any recommendations on what else I should be doing? Thanks a lot.

 

[CDI]

Just wondering if anyone could give me any insight. I'm really wanting to break 250 (don't we all?), I'm 6 weeks out from my test. I took an nbme about a month ago and did poorly (440 - 207). Id really like to know where I stand now. Im currently at a 68 average Uworld after having done 40%. Do you guys think Im on a decent pace for my target? I'm planning on getting through Uworld twice and then just going through FA and Pathoma a few more times. Any recommendations on what else I should be doing? Thanks a lot.

68% UW w/ a 207 NBME doesn't seem right...I'm guessing you haven't hit FA enough?

 

[blaqmamba]

Just finished my exam today and I'm surprisingly pleased with the way things went. I would say that the real deal was definitely more challenging than the NBME's, but not in an overwhelmingly unfair way. Let me explain.

Over the past several weeks my practice NBME's have been hovering around the high 250s and low 260s. My thoughts about the NBME's were that each section of 50 questions had more than a handful of freebies, a few questions that weren't explicitly covered in FA but could be answered correctly by applying the information in first aid, and couple of questions for which I felt that I needed to make an educated guess between two answer choices.

The distribution of questions on the real deal felt VERY similar. I thought that each section of 46 questions had about 25 to 30 questions that were directly from FA or UWorld, around 10-13 questions that required a little bit of thought in terms of applying the concepts within first aid, and maybe 3 or 4 questions per section that most people would not be able to feel 100% comfortable with regardless of their level of preparation. Halfway through the exam I felt that I had consistently marked 3 or 4 questions in each section. I was convinced that these "WTF questions" were evenly distributed throughout the exam. Realizing this, I thought that I was able to work through the second half of the exam much more efficiently because I was able to make better use of my time by not dwelling too long on these tough questions and really concentrating on the meat of each section, keeping in mind that the curve for the real deal is likely to be more forgiving than the NBME curves.

As for the recent rumors of neuroanatomy being over-represented, I did not find that to be the case at all for my exam. There were a few identification of structures on spinal cord/brain stem slices and brain stem gross anatomy but the questions were all fair.

I think that's all I can think of for now. I'm pretty mentally exhausted and I'm looking forward to spending the next week in Europe with a few friends. I'll share some more of my experiences when I get my score back in a few weeks. Good luck to everyone!

Congrats on being done!

Could you elaborate a bit more on how you prepped along the way, especially on neuroanatomy? I'm feeling like that's one of my weaker subjects...

 

[blaqmamba]

68% UW w/ a 207 NBME doesn't seem right...I'm guessing you haven't hit FA enough?

Hahaa CDI you're like the full-time FA-advocate

I hope they're paying you.

 

[CDI]

Hahaa CDI you're like the full-time FA-advocate

I hope they're paying you.

Haha, I know, broken record here.

I just know that not hitting FA well enough is the reason I got below a 220, but also is the reason I passed.

 

[DopaDO]

68% UW w/ a 207 NBME doesn't seem right...I'm guessing you haven't hit FA enough?

Well the NBME was about a month ago, but I had hit FA and Pathoma pretty hard before taking it. It was NBME 6, which I heard was a little funky so maybe I just had a bad test? Where does a 68% Uworld put me about? I've hit FA pretty good but will continue to hit it until the exam. Would I even be able to get a 68% if I hadn't hit FA hard yet?

 

[Jonari]

Well the NBME was about a month ago, but I had hit FA and Pathoma pretty hard before taking it. It was NBME 6, which I heard was a little funky so maybe I just had a bad test? Where does a 68% Uworld put me about? I've hit FA pretty good but will continue to hit it until the exam. Would I even be able to get a 68% if I hadn't hit FA hard yet?

http://usmle-score-correlation.blogspot.com/ not sure how accurate that is though

 

[lira126]

My main sources for prep included FA, goljan RR, goljan audiotapes, and going through as many qbank questions as possible. I had the good fortune of having really good professors for neuroanatomy and although our curriculum covers it early in M1, I was still able to recall a lot of the key concepts. I never really used any dedicated review books outside of FA and goljan so I can't really comment on any dedicated sources for reviewing neuroanatomy. On my exam, however, FA was honestly enough to correctly answer the vast majority of the neuroanatomy. The neuro chapter is very dense and has a lot of really good information in it.