Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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ijn said:
Can you present an example where they don't match up?
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On page 6 of Charting Outcomes, there is a pie chart that suggests there were over 30,000 applicants in the pool for 2011. This graph only shows about 25,000.
 
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smartparts said:
On page 6 of Charting Outcomes, there is a pie chart that suggests there were over 30,000 applicants in the pool for 2011. This graph only shows about 25,000.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Part of it is that residencies with less than 50 spots nationwide aren't included - so stuff like vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, nuclear medicine, or weird residencies like emergency medicine-family med and medicine-dermatology.

The other part of it is that not everyone apparently has to report their data to the AAMC - mostly it seems to be DO students who would likely lower the average and make the percentile for a 260 higher than if you based it solely on NRMP data. Every US allopathic student who matched or tried to match in a residency with >50 spots was included in the data (16,559).
 
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alternatego said:
wow I come back here after taking some weeks off and all of a sudden I see all the hatin' towards IMGs 🙁

at least in my case, it isn't that I chose to become an IMG - I was simply born in another country and studied there almost all my life (brief interruption for a 1 semester program I took at Georgetown). I also decided to take the boards during the last 2 semesters of medical school, the first of which was spent just doing research on what the hell Step 1 was all about and how the ECFMG paperwork was done
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I don't think people are hating on IMGs. I think it's arrogance and know it all attitudes that people don't like. Pretentiousness.

I've yet to see a humble hard working IMG get hated on. It's the loud few that start the discriminating.
 
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ijn said:
Yeah. Part of it is that residencies with less than 50 spots nationwide aren't included - so stuff like vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, nuclear medicine, or weird residencies like emergency medicine-family med and medicine-dermatology.

The other part of it is that not everyone apparently has to report their data to the AAMC - mostly it seems to be DO students who would likely lower the average and make the percentile for a 260 higher than if you based it solely on NRMP data. Every US allopathic student who matched or tried to match in a residency with >50 spots was included in the data (16,559).
Click to expand...

Seems legit to me.

Why do you guys care anyway if its a 95 or 93 or 98? Ego boost?

Ijn seems to know his stuff though.
 
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Lost my permit link guys, I guess this is the week. Goodluck to those awaiting their scores this week!!
 
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Permit link gone, so results expected this week! My own stats/resources for those interested:
Material: UW, DIT and First Aid. Had BRS physiology on hand for expanding on things that didn't make sense to me in FA, but didn't end up using it much. As for my stats;
UW: Last 7-10 blocks was scoring >70% with a couple high 60's
NBME 6: 221 (16/8)
NBME 11: 233 (22/8)
NBME 7: 233 (02/9)
NBME 12: 240 (07/9)
REAL DEAL (12/9): ?

Hoping for anything over 230. Goodluck everyone!
 
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zeyad said:
Permit link gone, so results expected this week! My own stats/resources for those interested:
Material: UW, DIT and First Aid. Had BRS physiology on hand for expanding on things that didn't make sense to me in FA, but didn't end up using it much. As for my stats;
UW: Last 7-10 blocks was scoring >70% with a couple high 60's
NBME 6: 221 (16/8)
NBME 11: 233 (22/8)
NBME 7: 233 (02/9)
NBME 12: 240 (07/9)
REAL DEAL (12/9): ?

Hoping for anything over 230. Goodluck everyone!
Click to expand...

These are good scores! I am sure you will do better than 230! 👍
 
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i know this is not sdn standards but its the best I could do and hopefully will help someone in a similar situation


Hey guys, this is a long time coming so here is my experience. Love this forum, its been so helpful to me so obviously i needed to do this. Received my score today after taking my exam on Sept 13.

A little bit about me. I am a US citizen who went to school in India in a very reputable college, graduated back in May 2011 after completing my internship.

Preparation leading up to exam
Started preparations for step 1 in August of 2011...I skimmed my first aid before starting with Kaplan.....started with Kaplan live lectures in Washington dc...all it was good for was meeting new people actually saw a person from my school there who i had never spoken to but we became good friends.

I think Kaplan live lectures would have more beneficial to me if I would have used it with some sort of base....most of it just flew over my head cause i hadn't seen the basic science material in 4 years. The live lectures were for 8 weeks. I must say though that Dr. Kudrath and Dr. Barone where worth the money just by themselves...Kudrath explains everything so well...and Dr Barone has mnemonics for days, once you go to his live lecture you won't want it to end. So during the time i had kaplan live lectures they gave us the Kaplan Qbank so i did that during that time period, don't remember my percentage as i was just doing to do it. Oh yea let me not forget Dr. Davis for pharmacology....everything he told us was high yield was very high yield...a great teacher

So kaplan ended and the 8 weeks flew bye...Around January then the actual preparations started....opened up my first aid and anointed it with Kaplan notes...then I started my 2nd read of first aid along with doing uworld...got the 3 month subscription...when i started doing world my scores were HORRIBLE...like yeah around 50 percent...very terrible...i thought to myself how is this possible after doing kaplan etc...so then i took a step back and read my first aid again...mind you i had scheduled my exam for march....

So i think It was in February that i took my first assessment test...UWSA1...got something like 179....was devastated because i heard that it underpredicts....I studied for about 4/5 months and i Still wasn't passing? Was very pissed at myself but just continued on....continued doing uworld and reading my first aid...then about a month later I took nbme 5....finally passed but just by the grit of my teeth...Lol 189 was my score

Tried to see where i was making mistakes...noticed my cell bio and histo was low and if anyone has taken nbme 5 they know one whole block is cell bio....so picked myself up again...around this time my world subscription was about to run out...and i noticed i was doing well in it more so because i remembered the qs rather then understanding the concept...so i stopped world..

Decided to get usmlerx....and let me tell you, this was the best decision i made...it not only made you to learn first aid inside out but A LOT of the qs on the exam are very similar...got the 3 month subscription to this and did every question...3000 in total...some were really easy and some where really hard but I feel it was most exam like...ended it with a 64% average.

Decided to do nbme 12 next...felt pretty good while doing it...then the result came...193 ...so many emotions went thru my head...Am I stupid? Is this too hard for me? Should I change professions? I just couldn't believe it, how the hell did my score not go up...took nbme 13 couple weeks later with the same result....was dumbfounded....my exam was supposed to be in 2 weeks on march 27...dont like to admit it but i went t sleep crying...there was no way i was gonna take the exam...felt bad for wasting money but i didn't have any option.

Took a step back and tried to see where i was making mistakes...saw my pathology was consistently on the low end...saw people raving about pathoma here so i decided to get it...it couldn't hurt...did a chapter every day...man i loved it...I owe everything to dr. sattar, he made every hard concept so simple....i was seriously mind blown that he could make pathology look so easy...

So NOW, i finally thought i was ready...took nbme 7...and yup u guessed it...scored a 196...now i thought to myself this is just crazy...but then i saw the mistakes i made on it and just laughed...the mistakes i made more so had to do with mental mistakes then not knowing the material....i laughed at some of my stupidity i made.....I took nbme 7 in the end of july....i said from that point I have 45 days no matter what I was taking the exam.... in the last 24 days, i made a schedule where i would read first aid one final time cover to cover twice

From that point forward I only read first aid...no more banks...only had two nbmes which I had left...both offline nbme 3 and 4....took those 1 week and 10 days before my exam...all other ones i had taken online so i had none left

nbme assessments
April 8: Nbme 11 310
May 8: Nbme 5 360
May 20: Nbme 12 380
June 7: Nme 13 380
July 31: 390
Sept 1: Nbme 4 158/200
Sept 6: Nbme 3 160/200

Day before the exam
I know most people say not to study the night before the exam but thats not me...never has been...i always have to study the day before...I studied microbe the day before....and since i was studying all day i figured it would tire me out and i would go right to sleep...lol how foolish of me..didnt happen that way...i got into bed around 930 but I kept tossing and turning and turning...didnt get an ounce of sleep until i said screw it Im taking a benedrly....i had no other choice...didnt want to take it because of the sedative effects the next day but luckily i was fine

Day of the exam

Woke up around 6 am...got about 4 hours of sleep but i was tired at all...went to the exam center around 8 and was taking my exam at 815....when i was going thru the intro my headphones weren't working, i was like crap i hope it isn't one of those days...the staff was nice and set me up with a working pair...on to the exam

BLOCK 1: this thing hit me like a brick...was very very very hard...I said to myself if the rest of my test is like this, not a good sign...I marked about 15 qs, barely finished this block on time had zero time to go back and check answers...wasnt planning on taking a break but i had to...went to the bathroom and cleared my head...just prayed it wouldn't be tougher

Block 2, 3 ,4: Blocks were easy...marked only 5 qs per block, was thanking god they were nothing like the first block

Block 5: Okay block, not to bad but not as good as blocks 2,3,4

Block 6: very tough block, comparable to block one but not as bad

Block 7: was a very good block..not as easy as 2, 3,4 but not even close to being as hard as 1

Break time
More then enough...i took a break after every block...about a five minute break between 1,2,3,4,5....blocks 6 and 7 i had two 10 minute blocks left over...im not the type to eat a lunch while an exam is going on so all i had in between blocks was dr. pepper and a protein bar...also had brought a sub but only ate half of it...and of course had to drink a red bull before block 7

What was on the exam
Pharmacology: was really straight forward...DO NOT go beyond first aid...every drug which was tested was in there....had a couple of graphs on antagonists, couple of ans drug graphs, lots of moas...side effects etc...

Physiology: Git was tested heavily, renal, acid base disorders...nothing really to mind boggling here, all important concepts were tested...had a couple of weird resp equations which weren't in first aid

Immuno: straight forward...well i felt it was straight forward during the exam and it has always been a good subject to my but to my surprise it was on the lower end of performance in my score report...know everything in first aid cold probably also have a look at kaplan...i think i made some silly mistakes here

Micro: same thing as immune, was my best subject but on my score report it was lower then physio which i always found to be tougher lol...after coming out my exam i knew I made a couple of blunders so guess this was it

Pathology: Any and every high yield concept was tested...know Pathoma Inside and out...pathoma really saved my ass

Biochem: not as much on the exam as I would like...had only like 3/4 molec questions...cell bio was simple...LOTS AND LOTS of vitamins on my exam...didnt have many glycogen storage disorders which i was pissed about

Genetics: Was very straightforward...know that definition page in first aid cold...had like 7 qs directly from that page...had only one pedigree which i had to analyze

Anatomy/emrbyo: All of it was nueroanat...had maybe 5 qs outside of neuronat....did really good on it according to my score report...everything was in first aid...embryo had about 6/7 qs everything in first aid

Cts/heart sounds: had one ct which was abdominal, made a guess and moved on...heart sounds had two both were hard and the stem didn't give any clues

How did I feel coming out of the exam
Felt good...i was pretty confident i passed but i wasn't sure about what my score would be...the next few days were hell....kept remembering qs i screwed up on...tallyed all of my right and wrong answers i messed up and it came out to be 110 right and 25 wrong...and of those 25 i made some really dumb mistakes...i think those mistakes cost me a 220 which was my goal, but life goes on

Result day
Nervous as hell obviously...went to the Gurudwara (church) to pray 3 times in the last five days ....woke up in the morning to the email that score rep or was out and i ended up with a 210...not the greatest but being a US citizen and having some connects i think ill be alright

What would I do differently?
Use UWORLD after i had my basics down...basically i threw away this bank because i did qs before i was ready...biggest mistake i made, won't make the same for step 2 ck

Let me end by saying...i read this experience about 20 times
http://www.prep4usmle.com/forum/thread/109804/

I know exactly how he was going thru because i went thru it to...it hit home with me...anytime i was down with studying i would read this experience and it would lift me up...

If anyone has any questions let me know will gladly answer....and trust me when i say that if I did it, anyone can...all you need is hard work...just look at my nbmes, i could have easily given up....good luck to you all.
 
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@EaglesAllDay good on you bro ! you fought for every point on that scorecard - way to go 👍
 
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ijn said:
SDN really warps your sense of reality. >260 is a very high percentile score.

Take a look at the NRMP data. Out of 26,880 students only 547 scored 261 or higher in 2011. So a 261 is a 97.9th percentile score relative to those students who were applying for residency in 2011.

2011usmlematchdata.jpg
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Where did you get this data? Can we have a source?
 
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EaglesAllDay said:
What would I do differently?
Use UWORLD after i had my basics down...basically i threw away this bank because i did qs before i was ready...biggest mistake i made, won't make the same for step 2 ck
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I like that you say this. I always get annoyed when I see people recommending UWorld early along in prep / MS2. USMLE Rx for basics and UWorld to finish is the way to go.

Congrats on having the whole thing over and done with. Thanks so much for helping us out!
 
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USMLE12Doc, someone had compiled it either on this thread or on a separate one on this forum several months ago. I recall the original post. Apparently he went through all of the match data and just surfaced/compiled the numbers.

I believe the whole point of this is to show that the curve is slightly positively skewed. FA is wrong when they suggest the Gaussian distribution with that picture they have. No one is entirely sure as to where the percentiles lie on the upper-end.
 
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Phloston said:
I like that you say this. I always get annoyed when I see people recommending UWorld early along in prep / MS2. USMLE Rx for basics and UWorld to finish is the way to go.

Congrats on having the whole thing over and done with. Thanks so much for helping us out!
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i really don't think there is a right or wrong way though.

if you want to use uworld as self assessment, then sure, you should do it after.

if you want to use uworld as a learning tool, then it is very beneficial to start early.
at least in the US, absolutely no one would be able to dedicate 8 hours for a single 46 question block during dedicated prep time, phloston. the fact that you dedicate so much time shows that you should be extra thorough with this qbank. why try to squeeze it in to dedicated study time when you can do it throughout the year

and there is no way you would remember the answers to the questions you do in the beginning of M2 a year later, unless you actually know the material
 
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Question for those who have used Uworld at what percentage correct do you think the question would be considered difficult? if only 20%, 30%, 40% etc of those who answered it got it correct
 
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phd89 said:
Question for those who have used Uworld at what percentage correct do you think the question would be considered difficult? if only 20%, 30%, 40% etc of those who answered it got it correct
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I'm a little over 3/4 through the QBank at this point, so perhaps my answer/opinion is only 3/4 as significant, but I actually don't think those percentages correlate with difficulty as much as you'd think.

Whenever I finish a block, it magically seems to be that 75% of the questions I get wrong are the ones which students answer correct at >50%, and I'd say about a third of those incorrects people answer at >65% correct. It's quite exasperating really. In contrast, I also feel that I get about 80% of questions correct that have <25-30% answering correctly. My rationale for this is is that I've learned a lot of minutiae/tricks from having done lots of prior questions, and have somehow worked backwards in terms of building foundation; I'm actually having to learn quite a few of the big-picture concepts just now.

So furthermore I'd say difficulty isn't based on %correct. It's based on your personal weaknesses. %correct just signifies to you which topics people don't spend time on and/or plainly overlook.
 
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Ok, long time lurker on this forum, just got out of step 1 and thought I should retribute with my turn at the famous Step 1.
Background: IMG, hoping for a possible General Surgery residency
Study time: about a year low intensity, stepped up the pace drastically for about 2 months.
Did Kaplan Step 1 Classroom anywhere in the first semester.
Did DIT2012 last month.
UWORLD S1: 580/236 (Before final 2 months)
Kaplan Simulation: 78%
Kaplan Qbank average: 81% (finished about 50%)
UWORLD QBank first time, random pass: 96% completed, my steady average was 75% until the 2 last weeks, it which I bumped up to 79%.
NMBE13: 640/254 (1 week before)
UWORLD S2: (Weekend before test) 800/265

I just finished the real thing, didn't really feel it was too terrible, but subjective preliminary feelings after a test don't have any predictive value whatsoever. Have read plenty of stories of People walking out of Step 1 thinking they aced it and then getting a final score way below their simulations and averages. I can just cross my fingers and hope I didn't fall for too many of NMBE's tricks! All in all, it seemed like a long awaited end game after having the goal of the Step 1 for so long, finally getting to met the real deal!
I'll update once I get my score.
 
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gringo8419 said:
Ok, long time lurker on this forum, just got out of step 1 and thought I should retribute with my turn at the famous Step 1.
Background: IMG, hoping for a possible General Surgery residency
Study time: about a year low intensity, stepped up the pace drastically for about 2 months.
Did Kaplan Step 1 Classroom anywhere in the first semester.
Did DIT2012 last month.
UWORLD S1: 580/236 (Before final 2 months)
Kaplan Simulation: 78%
Kaplan Qbank average: 81% (finished about 50%)
UWORLD QBank first time, random pass: 96% completed, my steady average was 75% until the 2 last weeks, it which I bumped up to 79%.
NMBE13: 640/254 (1 week before)
UWORLD S2: (Weekend before test) 800/265

I just finished the real thing, didn't really feel it was too terrible, but subjective preliminary feelings after a test don't have any predictive value whatsoever. Have read plenty of stories of People walking out of Step 1 thinking they aced it and then getting a final score way below their simulations and averages. I can just cross my fingers and hope I didn't fall for too many of NMBE's tricks! All in all, it seemed like a long awaited end game after having the goal of the Step 1 for so long, finally getting to met the real deal!
I'll update once I get my score.
Click to expand...

did u feel that dit 2012 helped?
 
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DIT2012? ENORMOUSLY. In my humble IMG opinion, Kaplan is good for reviewing the basics, but DIT2012 just really gives such an extreme edge it's not even funny. Without geting into specifics, "the beast" asked specific biochemical information that DIT just really made a point of standing out. Again, I have no idea of my final score, I might have made who knows how many mistakes, but in my test experience it just seemed as if DIT really knew what specific areas tend to be overlooked and are not in FA (nuclear localisation signals for instance) and apparently have had a tendency of appearing on exams. Yet again, I have no idea of my final score, I really hope I did well but I have read so many posters here on SDN stating excellent simulations and then bombing out on the real test so I can only hope it's not my case. Anyway, that's just my two cents. I may be way wrong, but the test REALLY seemed similar to UWORLD on random, imho. And as for the Kaplan Qbank questions I've been seeing, I remember reading the SDN comments suggesting against Kaplan Qbank, in my experience I completed 75% of Kaplan Qbank before I upped the pace in the final two months, but then my Classroom anywhere expired and so I renewed just the Qbank and it reset all the questions, and I then completed 50% of it in my final two months, with a similar % correct overall, but I gave up on Kaplan Qbank in order to focus on the UWORLD as I kept getting a strong impression it was higher yield. And while I definitely believe "the more the merrier" when it comes to doing questions, as it helps prep your strategy facing multiple selection timed exams, if you have to choose only one qbank i.e. Kaplan versus UWORLD, previous SDN posters are not wrong: UWORLD beats Kaplan hands down in terms of "yield". Anyway, will continue keeping my fingers crossed! Best of luck to all pre-testers, just keep up the good work, that finish line is coming!
 
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Bagheera said:
As an IMG, I feel a bit compelled to respond to this thread now. Heres my 2cents on this whole thing. First most American medical graduates prepare for USMLE on the side during the first 2 years as we have seen here in this thread from many posters. There are a few who start from scratch, but that does not seem to be the case. Also, as Phloston pointed out, AMG's know they have to take step 1 after 2nd yr to go to clerkship in many cases, whereas IMG's dont have this time constraint and pressure to have to take it after any school year, they can take it whenever they want. If, however, IMGs started their step 1 study during their first 2 years, then there should be no reason they need that much more time. Having finished the qbank, looked at some high yield review books, and first aid prior to a 4-8 week study peroid should be more than sufficient for a good score; my definition of good score is anything slightly above the average score by the way. If however one did not review during their 2 years, then of course it is going to take much more time to review for anyone whether its an IMG or AMG. But seeing some of the AMGs starting with low step scores before dedicated study peroid, like around 180-190, and then shooting up to 250 towards the end should prove that not all US medical schools cater towards board prep, because if it did, they would have a much higher board score starting out than 180-190, and it also shows that if one is very dedicated and motivated, he/she can make massive jumps in their score in a short amount of time. There are IMGs I know who took a year to study, and they still ended up failing. Not everyone that studies a year, does all qbanks, and reads this and that is going to get a 250+. If having much more time significantly increased ones score, I think most US med schools would demand more time for their students to prepare, but that is not the way this test is set up, and that's why many students are able to score very well with 4-8 weeks, whereas many IMGs spend up to a year and end up failing. I would say lack of english skills and lack of good reasoning is the reason why this occurs to IMGs.



I can say that while many here posted that First aid pharma is enough, that was not the case for every question on my exam. I knew first aid very well and focused on it. There were 3 drug questions, of which included the drugs in first aid, but asked sideffects, specific uses of the drugs, ect of these drugs that were not listed in first aid. This is just 3 questions however.

Most of everything is from UWORLD, first aid, and pathoma. There were some clinical questions that I just was not familar with as step1 material does not go over that stuff. Perhaps 3-5 questions on that stuff. To cover all bases for that, I could have probably looked up every disease in first aid and put the treatment, diagnostic procedures, ect in first aid, as it is lacking this info. But again this is was a miniority of questions, and as you can see is low yield to go and do that. One might spend all time memorizing low yield crap, and then forget some of the high yield stuff that is going to be asked for sure.

Anyways, for the most part, with the exception of the few screws up I had of putting the wrong answer down, most of the stuff I have seen before, and if I missed the question, it was because I wasnt understanding exactly what they wanted, I wasn't able to reason good and do proper process of elimiation, or they worded the question really weird testing a really common thing, and just confused me. Again this was rare but happened in a couple questions.

Many say to not look at first aid during the break, but there was a question I wasn't sure I was right on and second guessed myself, and I looked in first aid and ended up missing it. I learned the concept from that question, and then they asked a very very similar question, but now since I learned the concept, I didn't miss this next question and could answer it with 100% confidence. Not sure if i recommend this to anyone for just helping me with one question but I know many here are very anal for every question they can get. Toward the end however one is so tired and he/she is not going to want to look at first aid anymore atleast that was the case for me
.

Goodluck everyone. After one takes the exam, he/she realizes this is about high yield, common diseases, just not ALL questions are presented in the way review books and first aid have it. Reasoning will get you to the correct answer in most cases.
Click to expand...

qbank scores in this order:
UWORLD 2nd time: 78%
USMLErx 1st time: 79% USMLErx prediction: 258 plus or minus 20 with 95% confidence interval
UWSA1: 238
UWSA2: 253
Free150 questions: 88%( 91, 85, 89) supposedly predicted 255 plus or minus 11 with 70% confidence interval
Step 1 score: 233

I even did a little bit of kaplan qbank but my opinon is the questions are not represenatitive of the exam and how to think. I was worried and thought the more questions I would do, the higher and higher score I would get; however, I am not a genius student and I eventually hit a point where my score wasnt getting any higher. USMLERx while good, is unecessary if you have a good grasp of first aid. But if you don't , it will be helpful to make learning it more interactive. Memorizing first aid and then knowing how to apply it, by using USMLEWORLD, is more than enough for a high score. If you want above 250 or so maybe you can look outside of those 2 sources, but otherwise, I dont see a point. Good luck for future test takers
 
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gringo8419 said:
DIT2012? ENORMOUSLY. In my humble IMG opinion, Kaplan is good for reviewing the basics, but DIT2012 just really gives such an extreme edge it's not even funny. Without geting into specifics, "the beast" asked specific biochemical information that DIT just really made a point of standing out. Again, I have no idea of my final score, I might have made who knows how many mistakes, but in my test experience it just seemed as if DIT really knew what specific areas tend to be overlooked and are not in FA (nuclear localisation signals for instance) and apparently have had a tendency of appearing on exams. Yet again, I have no idea of my final score, I really hope I did well but I have read so many posters here on SDN stating excellent simulations and then bombing out on the real test so I can only hope it's not my case. Anyway, that's just my two cents. I may be way wrong, but the test REALLY seemed similar to UWORLD on random, imho. And as for the Kaplan Qbank questions I've been seeing, I remember reading the SDN comments suggesting against Kaplan Qbank, in my experience I completed 75% of Kaplan Qbank before I upped the pace in the final two months, but then my Classroom anywhere expired and so I renewed just the Qbank and it reset all the questions, and I then completed 50% of it in my final two months, with a similar % correct overall, but I gave up on Kaplan Qbank in order to focus on the UWORLD as I kept getting a strong impression it was higher yield. And while I definitely believe "the more the merrier" when it comes to doing questions, as it helps prep your strategy facing multiple selection timed exams, if you have to choose only one qbank i.e. Kaplan versus UWORLD, previous SDN posters are not wrong: UWORLD beats Kaplan hands down in terms of "yield". Anyway, will continue keeping my fingers crossed! Best of luck to all pre-testers, just keep up the good work, that finish line is coming!
Click to expand...


thanks for the response! 🙂 I hope you do well and I am sure your score will be great! 🙂
 
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Hey everyone, I thought that I would share my experience as well since I received significant amount of help from some of the members of SDN.

Overall USMLE World first pass correct %: Timed, all random, 75%.
USMLE World SA1 - 2 weeks before exam, 265
USMLE World SA2 - 2 days before exam, 265

Free 150 - not sure when I took it, but 95% correct.

NBME 1: ~3 weeks before the exam. 242
NBME 2: 249
NBME 3: 256
NBME 4:~260 (some questions had multiple answers offline so omitted those questions)
NBME 5: 256
NBME 6: 250

NBME 1-6 were all offline. I thought they were very helpful regardless as I saw some repeats off these NBMEs.

NBME 7: 10 days before exam. 640/254
NBME 11: 9 days before exam. 660/259
NBME 12: 5 days before exam. 650/257
NBME 13: 3 days before exam. 610/247 (Freaking out)

NBME 7-13 were all online, purchased with extended feedback so I know which questions I need to work on.

Real deal: 267!!!! :luck:

I used First Aid to skim through first -> Started USMLE World, annotated all the details into the corresponding chapters of First Aid -> Watched Pathoma -> Did a little bit of USMLE Rx (not as helpful at all compared to USMLE World) -> Re-read the fully annotated First Aid few times to memorize all the details -> Re-did all the incorrects in USMLE World. Meanwhile, whenever I felt bored with studying base material, I took an exam. I saved the reliable purchased NBMEs to the end so I can gauge my real expected score (more n, more reliable score prediction).

Thanks, once again, SDN!
 
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LuckiestOne said:
Hey everyone, I thought that I would share my experience as well since I received significant amount of help from some of the members of SDN.

Overall USMLE World first pass correct %: Timed, all random, 75%.
USMLE World SA1 - 2 weeks before exam, 265
USMLE World SA2 - 2 days before exam, 265

Free 150 - not sure when I took it, but 95% correct.

NBME 1: ~3 weeks before the exam. 242
NBME 2: 249
NBME 3: 256
NBME 4:~260 (some questions had multiple answers offline so omitted those questions)
NBME 5: 256
NBME 6: 250

NBME 1-6 were all offline. I thought they were very helpful regardless as I saw some repeats off these NBMEs.

NBME 7: 10 days before exam. 640/254
NBME 11: 9 days before exam. 660/259
NBME 12: 5 days before exam. 650/257
NBME 13: 3 days before exam. 610/247 (Freaking out)

NBME 7-13 were all online, purchased with extended feedback so I know which questions I need to work on.

Real deal: 267!!!! :luck:

I used First Aid to skim through first -> Started USMLE World, annotated all the details into the corresponding chapters of First Aid -> Watched Pathoma -> Did a little bit of USMLE Rx (not as helpful at all compared to USMLE World) -> Re-read the fully annotated First Aid few times to memorize all the details -> Re-did all the incorrects in USMLE World. Meanwhile, whenever I felt bored with studying base material, I took an exam. I saved the reliable purchased NBMEs to the end so I can gauge my real expected score (more n, more reliable score prediction).

Thanks, once again, SDN!
Click to expand...

You really are the luckiest one aren't you. I'm a bit wowed at how you jumped up so much from your practices. I've gotta ask though: on the real exam, how many do you feel you got wrong, on average, per block? Did you feel the topics were "luckily" in your favor or did you feel it was comparable to what you had taken during practice? Thanks,
 
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Phloston said:
You really are the luckiest one aren't you. I'm a bit wowed at how you jumped up so much from your practices. I've gotta ask though: on the real exam, how many do you feel you got wrong, on average, per block? Did you feel the topics were "luckily" in your favor or did you feel it was comparable to what you had taken during practice? Thanks,
Click to expand...

Before going into the exam room, I kinda knew that I would get 250+ because most of my practices showed that 250+ is definitely doable. I was very surprised that I broke the 260 margin by that much.

I would say that overall, I knew for sure that I got ~70% of the questions correct and other ~25% was very well educated guess (deduction from reasoning and conceptual understanding, just had never seen a question like these before), and other ~5% was a relatively uneducated guess (probably eliminated 50% of the answer choices but still had to guess between 2 or 3 answer choices).

I felt that I covered my topics pretty broadly without going too in depth in each subjects, I realized that Step 1 isn't really that detailed AT ALL. As long as you can conceptually reason out the answer from the information given, you will do well. It definitely isn't as crazy as people were making it out to be, I think those people just freaked out because they encountered questions that they had never seen before, but if they thought about the concepts behind them, they probably were all doable questions.

Got lots of molecular biology crap that used lots of crazy acronyms and what not, but it all came down to simple logical deduction.
 
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LuckiestOne said:
Before going into the exam room, I kinda knew that I would get 250+ because most of my practices showed that 250+ is definitely doable. I was very surprised that I broke the 260 margin by that much.

I would say that overall, I knew for sure that I got ~70% of the questions correct and other ~25% was very well educated guess (deduction from reasoning and conceptual understanding, just had never seen a question like these before), and other ~5% was a relatively uneducated guess (probably eliminated 50% of the answer choices but still had to guess between 2 or 3 answer choices).

I felt that I covered my topics pretty broadly without going too in depth in each subjects, I realized that Step 1 isn't really that detailed AT ALL. As long as you can conceptually reason out the answer from the information given, you will do well. It definitely isn't as crazy as people were making it out to be, I think those people just freaked out because they encountered questions that they had never seen before, but if they thought about the concepts behind them, they probably were all doable questions.

Got lots of molecular biology crap that used lots of crazy acronyms and what not, but it all came down to simple logical deduction.
Click to expand...

I knew I should've chosen a different username.

Congrats on the score, and it's great to see that you had such confidence.
 
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LuckiestOne said:
NBME 1: ~3 weeks before the exam. 242
NBME 2: 249
NBME 3: 256
NBME 4:~260 (some questions had multiple answers offline so omitted those questions)
NBME 5: 256
NBME 6: 250

NBME 1-6 were all offline. I thought they were very helpful regardless as I saw some repeats off these NBMEs.
Click to expand...

Wait, how did you know what your score conversions were for those offline exams? All you knew was how many you were getting correct out of 200, right? The reason I ask is because the offline exams don't give you scores out of 800 for the conversion. That's why I'm wondering how you knew what your 3-digit predicted scores were.

And the other thing is, because those are old exams, did you use the old score conversion chart: http://www.scribd.com/doc/85535807/Nbme-Score-Conversion-Table

or the new one: https://nsas.nbme.org/nsasweb/doc/sample_CBSSAF.pdf ?
 
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Phloston said:
Wait, how did you know what your score conversions were for those offline exams? Even though there's the 800/292 chart link (second one below), for the offline NBMEs, all you knew was how many you were getting correct out of 200, right?

And the other thing is, because those are old exams, did you use the old score conversion chart: http://www.scribd.com/doc/85535807/Nbme-Score-Conversion-Table

or the new one: https://nsas.nbme.org/nsasweb/doc/sample_CBSSAF.pdf
Click to expand...

Yep, I just converted it using the old score conversion chart, http://www.scribd.com/doc/85535807/Nbme-Score-Conversion-Table.

I didn't even know that we had a newer one to refer to.
 
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Phloston said:
No, I'm asking how you knew what your raw %correct on the offline NBMEs converted to as 3-digit scores, because the offline exams don't predict scores out of 800.
Click to expand...

If you look at the pdf I used, there's a column for the Approximate % correct. I just followed that and matched my % with the 3 digit score. I only used offline for NBME 1-6
 
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LuckiestOne said:
Hey everyone, I thought that I would share my experience as well since I received significant amount of help from some of the members of SDN.

Overall USMLE World first pass correct %: Timed, all random, 75%.
USMLE World SA1 - 2 weeks before exam, 265
USMLE World SA2 - 2 days before exam, 265

Free 150 - not sure when I took it, but 95% correct.

NBME 1: ~3 weeks before the exam. 242
NBME 2: 249
NBME 3: 256
NBME 4:~260 (some questions had multiple answers offline so omitted those questions)
NBME 5: 256
NBME 6: 250

NBME 1-6 were all offline. I thought they were very helpful regardless as I saw some repeats off these NBMEs.

NBME 7: 10 days before exam. 640/254
NBME 11: 9 days before exam. 660/259
NBME 12: 5 days before exam. 650/257
NBME 13: 3 days before exam. 610/247 (Freaking out)

NBME 7-13 were all online, purchased with extended feedback so I know which questions I need to work on.

Real deal: 267!!!! :luck:

I used First Aid to skim through first -> Started USMLE World, annotated all the details into the corresponding chapters of First Aid -> Watched Pathoma -> Did a little bit of USMLE Rx (not as helpful at all compared to USMLE World) -> Re-read the fully annotated First Aid few times to memorize all the details -> Re-did all the incorrects in USMLE World. Meanwhile, whenever I felt bored with studying base material, I took an exam. I saved the reliable purchased NBMEs to the end so I can gauge my real expected score (more n, more reliable score prediction).

Thanks, once again, SDN!
Click to expand...
Congratulations on the great score. Interestingly, UWSA was a better indicator than the NBMEs for you.
 
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Phloston said:
No, I'm asking how you knew what your raw %correct on the offline NBMEs converted to as 3-digit scores, because the offline exams don't predict scores out of 800.
Click to expand...

Hey..there is a tried and tested forumla out there...you take tr number you got correct out of 200 and multilply it by 1.4 or 1.38,..try this with the nbmes you've taken online and you'll see it's within 3-4 points if your actual score
 
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EaglesAllDay said:
Hey..there is a tried and tested forumla out there...you take tr number you got correct out of 200 and multilply it by 1.4 or 1.38,..try this with the nbmes you've taken online and you'll see it's within 3-4 points if your actual score
Click to expand...

Yes, that usually works out approximately but towards the upper end it gets sketchy, or at least there on NBME13, where there's 1 answer between 254 (184/200) and 257 (185/200). Which doesn't quite make sense seeing as there are 15 more correct answers and only 35 more points.
 
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**NEED SOME ADVICE**

Just took NBME 7, and got a 490/217! Exam is scheduled for the 17th, so that's 9 days left!! I am not sure if I should postpone. What would you guys do, if you were in my situation? Thank you so much for your reply!
 
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exudate said:
**NEED SOME ADVICE**

Just took NBME 7, and got a 490/217! Exam is scheduled for the 17th, so that's 9 days left!! I am not sure if I should postpone. What would you guys do, if you were in my situation? Thank you so much for your reply!
Click to expand...

I would sit another NBME asap. If you score below your target range, postpone. No questions asked. The NBMEs don't lie (LuckiestOne's case is the utmost exception rather than the rule), so if you're scoring 217-225 on the NBMEs, expect an actual outcome right around that interval.
 
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Where can I find NBME's 1-6 offline?

I tried googling it but I was only able to find few blocks of some of them and not the complete sets.

Thanks
 
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VisionaryTics said:
Also, it has been recalibrated. No more FMGs obsessed with 99s since 90 is like 265 now.
Click to expand...

Not only has it been recalibrated, but its meaning is just as nebulous as it had been before. The NBME should just suck it up and start giving actual percentiles. Cry me a river. None of "that's not the original intention of the exam" business.
 
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So, no one knows what the two-digit score is for or how it is calculated? No one at all? That is very strange.
 
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godson said:
The 2-digit scale is intended to meet statutory requirements of some state medical boards that rely on a score scale that has 75 as the minimum passing score.
source: http://www.usmle.org/announcements/?ContentId=63
Click to expand...

Bingo. Right now it's basically a 3 digit score truncated into 2 digits. Roughly 3 consecutive 3 digit scores will result in the same 2 digit score.
 
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ijn said:
Bingo. Right now it's basically a 3 digit score truncated into 2 digits. Roughly 3 consecutive 3 digit scores will result in the same 2 digit score.
Click to expand...

Really? This means that 1 point on the 2 digit scale is equal to 3 points on the 3 digit scale.

I wonder if the math works... let's see, if a 75=188=passing, then a 260 is 72 points above 188 and the 2 digit score would be 75+(72/3) = 99...

I guess it doesn't work, because 260's currently are much less than a "99" on the scale

edit: if it's actually FOUR consecutive scores per 2-digit number, it actually gets interesting, because then a 260 would be 75+(72/4) = 93 That's pretty close, isn't it?
 
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