Concern over shelf score

[ViergeEnnuyeuse]

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I recently received my biochem shelf score and I didn't do very well compared to my class. I was 20 points below the national average and almost 60 below from my class average. I'm disappointed in myself but I think it was because 1) I didn't allow myself enough time to study and 2) I had difficulty figuring how to study. I used First Aid for the majority of my study time but in retrospect, I wish I had looked more at the BRS. Anyway, should I be really concerned about my performance? Naturally I'm now worried about how I'm going to do on the USMLE. I'm not shooting for any very competitive specialties but it looks like I need to step up compared to rest of the nation.

 

[OncHeme2B]

Isn't step 1 mainly path, pharm, and physio? I guess you might need a little biochem for pharm...but most of step 1 depends on your other subjects...right?

 

[lil pook]

yes, the form for step 1 that i took had like maybe 3 biochem q's on it. of course everyone has a different form, but the general consensus is that biochem is extremely low yield for step 1... just my personal experience

if you're gonna concentrate on any bio subject, it should probably be cellbio...equally as dry and boring, but for some strange reason, really really popular on last year's step 1

 

[Law2Doc]

Isn't step 1 mainly path, pharm, and physio? I guess you might need a little biochem for pharm...but most of step 1 depends on your other subjects...right?

Biochem (if you include vitamins/nutrition) is actually generally considered one of the higher yield subjects for Step 1 actually. Some see a ton of it on the step, usually in a question integrated with other subjects.

 

[Law2Doc]

Isn't step 1 mainly path, pharm, and physio?

Micro, biochem are also very high yield.

 

[Blade28]

Agree with the above.

Path > phys > pharm > micro > biochem