First off, I intend for this to be both an informative thread as well as a place where you can give me your opinion. First I'd like to tell you what I did leading up to the exam, a list of all my practice scores, what the exam was like, and my final thoughts. I realize that this might be a long post but I've been reading these forums for a year now without posting anything and i always found these kinds of posts really helpful, so I'm giving back to the community!
Leading up to the exam:
I took the step mid November and received my score in the first week of December. Leading up to the exam I did a lot of different things with First Aid 2010 and Uworld as what I considered to be the "220" mark. That is to say that I think doing nothing but FA/UW with no other work (granted you'd have to know them cold) would get me to around a 220. I also did the kaplan video lectures while following with the books-twice (this was the biggest waste of time). I also did uworld twice, kaplan qbank once, and usmle Rx once (usmle rx is extremely underrated and I actually saw many many questions repeated almost verbatim on the real exam).
I think the key to doing well on this exam is a set schedule. I admit that even though I made a schedule I wound up not following it too closely and I think that had I done what I planned to do from the very beginning I would have broken 240. I began my studying August 1st and did kaplan for a month and a half while doing 100 questions of uworld a day. Then when the UWorld questions ran out, I switched to kaplan Qbank. Doing questions really helped me learn first aid because I would try and find all the things I got wrong in the questions inside it-and i would highlight the key fact that I missed or add it in if it wasn't there. I never forgot what I got wrong that way and it gave me a really good 1st exposure to first aid. I can honestly say that kaplan was a waste of time, I understand the tendency to get paranoid and want to do everything before step (someone also warned me about that before i started studying but I didn't listen) but I dont think I saw a single thing on step that I thought to myself "I could have only gotten this right if I had done kaplan." So if you're shooting for a 225-230 you can comfortably ignore kaplan. The people who tell you that kaplan was invaluable are probably the people who got 245+ on this exam and would have known it anyway.
Anyways moving on in mid September I did goljan audio twice, all the while keeping up the daily 100 questions. In the final month of studying I did the DIT program once, and then read first aid cover to cover. The final 2 weeks of studying I bought usmle Rx and did about 70% of the 3000 questions they offer, most often in the form of simulated half tests (4 blocks of Qs that give you a predicted score just like the nbme's).
Practice Scores:
UWorld 1st pass: 62%
UWorld 2nd pass: 75%
Kaplan Qbank: 63%
NBME 6 (3 months out)-215
NBME 7 (2.5 months out)-210
NBME 11 (2 month out)-214
NBME 12 (1 month out)-226
USMLE Rx test 1: 230
USMLE Rx test 2: 240
USMLE Rx test 3: 250
USMLE Rx test 4: 256 (2 days out)
UWSA 1: 244 ( 5 days out)
UWSA 2: 245 (1 day out)
REAL DEAL: 235
From browsing all the forums, I had read that NBME's are the most predictive but I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the case for me because when I reviewed my wrong answers it was stupid mistakes, or simply not reading the questions properly. In the last month of studying when my intensity went into high gear my scores jumped dramatically. I had also read that UWSA overpredicts by 10 points and that was true for me as you can see from my scores. As for USMLE Rx, I found it to be an amazing resource, some of the questions repeated almost verbatim and I had not seen them anywhere else. Also it really really hammers every detail of first aid into your brain. It does over predict and I read that it over predicts by 20 points and as you can see from my scores that was true for me.
Test Day:
I went into my exam having not had the best sleep ever (I dont get anxious usually but I felt nervous for this exam). But I didnt feel like I was at a disadvantage, it felt like another day of countless questions. I went into the testing center looking a little disheveled, a little scruff, my glasses, my hoodie sweater and sweat pants.The toughest part of the exam was getting started because you are in an unfamiliar place, at an unfamiliar computer with a huge task in front of you. But by the 5th or 6th question of the first block, all the anxiety went away because, well, at that point everything became familiar again-all the concepts I had been studying for the past 2 years were there in front of me. I knew from all the practice exams that I took that I work best at 2 block intervals, more than 2 blocks and I'd get tired and less then 2 blocks I felt like I was breaking a nice rhythm. So I took 15 minute breaks every 2 blocks. I brought 2 PB&J sandwhiches with me, a gatorade, and some granola bars. The time passes by pretty quickly unless you start thinking about it- I was in the middle of the 3rd block when I realized oh wow I've already done half the exam...but oh wait that means I still have to cover exactly what I just did ahhhhh. Anyways its a bit of a mental game but just ignore it and keep answering questions, the exam will be over before you know it. The questions themselves are very very familiar with some questions being pure giveaways and some questions being impossible to answer. There are a fair number of questions where FA was not enough to answer the question and I had to rely on common sense, goljan, or some random question in a qbank. I had a couple of truly wtf questions-but I knew they were coming and didn't let them throw me off.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, my goal from the start was to break 230. So I did what I could to get there. In the end I feel like I did my best, and I achieved my goal but I'm one of those people who is really susceptible to making stupid mistakes, I always knew the gap was not in my knowledge but rather in my test taking ability. So a 235 is what I wound up with and i feel like it was a good representation of my abilities. For those of you taking step soon, FA is still an amazing resource: USE IT.
Now that I've shared my experience with you I'd like to ask the community about what they think of my score. I am trying to land a surgery residency. as an IMG, what are my chances?? I know the average step 1 score these last few months was a 221, but how do I fare with regards to competitive residencies?
Thanks again and good luck to you all. PM if you would like answers to something specific.
and also HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Leading up to the exam:
I took the step mid November and received my score in the first week of December. Leading up to the exam I did a lot of different things with First Aid 2010 and Uworld as what I considered to be the "220" mark. That is to say that I think doing nothing but FA/UW with no other work (granted you'd have to know them cold) would get me to around a 220. I also did the kaplan video lectures while following with the books-twice (this was the biggest waste of time). I also did uworld twice, kaplan qbank once, and usmle Rx once (usmle rx is extremely underrated and I actually saw many many questions repeated almost verbatim on the real exam).
I think the key to doing well on this exam is a set schedule. I admit that even though I made a schedule I wound up not following it too closely and I think that had I done what I planned to do from the very beginning I would have broken 240. I began my studying August 1st and did kaplan for a month and a half while doing 100 questions of uworld a day. Then when the UWorld questions ran out, I switched to kaplan Qbank. Doing questions really helped me learn first aid because I would try and find all the things I got wrong in the questions inside it-and i would highlight the key fact that I missed or add it in if it wasn't there. I never forgot what I got wrong that way and it gave me a really good 1st exposure to first aid. I can honestly say that kaplan was a waste of time, I understand the tendency to get paranoid and want to do everything before step (someone also warned me about that before i started studying but I didn't listen) but I dont think I saw a single thing on step that I thought to myself "I could have only gotten this right if I had done kaplan." So if you're shooting for a 225-230 you can comfortably ignore kaplan. The people who tell you that kaplan was invaluable are probably the people who got 245+ on this exam and would have known it anyway.
Anyways moving on in mid September I did goljan audio twice, all the while keeping up the daily 100 questions. In the final month of studying I did the DIT program once, and then read first aid cover to cover. The final 2 weeks of studying I bought usmle Rx and did about 70% of the 3000 questions they offer, most often in the form of simulated half tests (4 blocks of Qs that give you a predicted score just like the nbme's).
Practice Scores:
UWorld 1st pass: 62%
UWorld 2nd pass: 75%
Kaplan Qbank: 63%
NBME 6 (3 months out)-215
NBME 7 (2.5 months out)-210
NBME 11 (2 month out)-214
NBME 12 (1 month out)-226
USMLE Rx test 1: 230
USMLE Rx test 2: 240
USMLE Rx test 3: 250
USMLE Rx test 4: 256 (2 days out)
UWSA 1: 244 ( 5 days out)
UWSA 2: 245 (1 day out)
REAL DEAL: 235
From browsing all the forums, I had read that NBME's are the most predictive but I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the case for me because when I reviewed my wrong answers it was stupid mistakes, or simply not reading the questions properly. In the last month of studying when my intensity went into high gear my scores jumped dramatically. I had also read that UWSA overpredicts by 10 points and that was true for me as you can see from my scores. As for USMLE Rx, I found it to be an amazing resource, some of the questions repeated almost verbatim and I had not seen them anywhere else. Also it really really hammers every detail of first aid into your brain. It does over predict and I read that it over predicts by 20 points and as you can see from my scores that was true for me.
Test Day:
I went into my exam having not had the best sleep ever (I dont get anxious usually but I felt nervous for this exam). But I didnt feel like I was at a disadvantage, it felt like another day of countless questions. I went into the testing center looking a little disheveled, a little scruff, my glasses, my hoodie sweater and sweat pants.The toughest part of the exam was getting started because you are in an unfamiliar place, at an unfamiliar computer with a huge task in front of you. But by the 5th or 6th question of the first block, all the anxiety went away because, well, at that point everything became familiar again-all the concepts I had been studying for the past 2 years were there in front of me. I knew from all the practice exams that I took that I work best at 2 block intervals, more than 2 blocks and I'd get tired and less then 2 blocks I felt like I was breaking a nice rhythm. So I took 15 minute breaks every 2 blocks. I brought 2 PB&J sandwhiches with me, a gatorade, and some granola bars. The time passes by pretty quickly unless you start thinking about it- I was in the middle of the 3rd block when I realized oh wow I've already done half the exam...but oh wait that means I still have to cover exactly what I just did ahhhhh. Anyways its a bit of a mental game but just ignore it and keep answering questions, the exam will be over before you know it. The questions themselves are very very familiar with some questions being pure giveaways and some questions being impossible to answer. There are a fair number of questions where FA was not enough to answer the question and I had to rely on common sense, goljan, or some random question in a qbank. I had a couple of truly wtf questions-but I knew they were coming and didn't let them throw me off.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, my goal from the start was to break 230. So I did what I could to get there. In the end I feel like I did my best, and I achieved my goal but I'm one of those people who is really susceptible to making stupid mistakes, I always knew the gap was not in my knowledge but rather in my test taking ability. So a 235 is what I wound up with and i feel like it was a good representation of my abilities. For those of you taking step soon, FA is still an amazing resource: USE IT.
Now that I've shared my experience with you I'd like to ask the community about what they think of my score. I am trying to land a surgery residency. as an IMG, what are my chances?? I know the average step 1 score these last few months was a 221, but how do I fare with regards to competitive residencies?
Thanks again and good luck to you all. PM if you would like answers to something specific.
and also HAPPY HOLIDAYS
