USMLE Do students who come out of STEP feeling "okay" end up disappointed by their score?

[bubblesort]

Title pretty much says it all. I see many posts on how people come out feeling like they failed Step 1, and then end up with an amazing score. The thinking is that students who know more also know what they don't know, so they focus on that and end up feeling terrible or like they failed.

But what about students who come out feeling "meh" or "okay"-ish? Then what? How did this pan out, in your experience?

Anybody come out of Step 1 feeling good? How did that turn out?

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[Ryuzaki]

It's more about being happy with what you got after feeling like you got utterly destroyed. The first week after the exam I thought I totally failed and was studying again, the second week I was like maybe I passed and finally the third week, it was more about I think I may have scored near my NBME.

 

[pd1112]

Probably 98% of those people don't really feel like they failed, but are just being dramatic because 1. it's the most important test they/we've ever taken, +/- 2. they're the same people in your class that come out of every test saying it was harder than the last, yet continually score in the top half of the top quartile of the class +/- 3. the questions weren't the exact same ones on NBMEs or UW so the apocalypse must be coming.

 

[Bancrofti]

I came out feeling ok. I thought it was tough, but I figured it was probably what I would have felt like if I took an NBME and couldn't see my score right away. I couldn't think of a question I got wrong until I got home. I had a very, very, very good guessing day. After spending a few hours going over stuff I was confused on, I figured I couldn't have done much worse than a 235 or so. Ended up doing significantly better than that.

 

[laricb]

Title pretty much says it all. I see many posts on how people come out feeling like they failed Step 1, and then end up with an amazing score. The thinking is that students who know more also know what they don't know, so they focus on that and end up feeling terrible or like they failed.

But what about students who come out feeling "meh" or "okay"-ish? Then what? How did this pan out, in your experience?

Anybody come out of Step 1 feeling good? How did that turn out?

Trust your NBME scores

 

[xffan624]

Title pretty much says it all. I see many posts on how people come out feeling like they failed Step 1, and then end up with an amazing score. The thinking is that students who know more also know what they don't know, so they focus on that and end up feeling terrible or like they failed.

But what about students who come out feeling "meh" or "okay"-ish? Then what? How did this pan out, in your experience?

Anybody come out of Step 1 feeling good? How did that turn out?

I felt decent. Certainly, not like I failed. Ended up getting up pretty much the same score as my NBME's. Which was good enough for me. 🙂

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Title pretty much says it all. I see many posts on how people come out feeling like they failed Step 1, and then end up with an amazing score. The thinking is that students who know more also know what they don't know, so they focus on that and end up feeling terrible or like they failed.

But what about students who come out feeling "meh" or "okay"-ish? Then what? How did this pan out, in your experience?

Anybody come out of Step 1 feeling good? How did that turn out?

It's called a curve. My worst MCAT I felt awful about Physics section, great about Bio. Guess what my highest and worst scores were. It's the nature of standardized testing I think. You have to trust your studying.

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

Trust your NBME scores

Sounds like you've taken a few. How many did you take. I feel like they give a good estimate of score, only because they matched my Uworld nearly perfectly. But you can't really learn too much from them content wise at all, so how many is to many you think.

 

[olecranon4]

I think most people in my class felt like it was harder than their NBME's, but again there's the curve. I ended up scoring better than 5/6 of my NBME's.

For some reason, my friends and I all felt the same way: 2 of the blocks were reasonable, 2-3 of the blocks were difficult, and 2 of the blocks were a complete mind****. Be aware of when you are in the hard blocks and don't get demoralized if they're front-loaded on your exam.

 

[operaman]

I came out feeling pretty roughed up, but never had any doubt about passing or doing well. I wasn't sure if my score was going to be as high as I wanted, but I was certain I at least passed.

In retrospect, the key difference between UW and even NBMEs and the real deal is this: ambiguity. Questions on the real deal are written in such a way and answer choices are presented in such a way that will rarely allow you to feel 100% certain of any answer you give. Sure, the vignette might say "irregularly irregular" and the EKG shown would have no p waves and irregular r-r intervals, and you're 99% sure it's atrial fibrillation, but then there's choice 'E' down there: "Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy." WTF is that?! What if THAT is what's really going on, I mean, they wouldn't put such an obvious a-fib question on Step 1, would they?

Yes. Yes they would. But they will always leave you a tiny bit of doubt. There are a dozen other ways they do this too, and this is why I think people come out feeling pretty demoralized.

Trust your prep. Your score will almost certainly be in line with your most recent NBMEs.

 

[laricb]

Sounds like you've taken a few. How many did you take. I feel like they give a good estimate of score, only because they matched my Uworld nearly perfectly. But you can't really learn too much from them content wise at all, so how many is to many you think.

I took several 8, but I believe they throw in many questions that don't count just to confuse you. You come out feeling like you've bombed. This is why I say trust your practice scores, you should come in +/- 5% of your NBME scores....

 

[cs24]

In retrospect, the key difference between UW and even NBMEs and the real deal is this: ambiguity. Questions on the real deal are written in such a way and answer choices are presented in such a way that will rarely allow you to feel 100% certain of any answer you give. Sure, the vignette might say "irregularly irregular" and the EKG shown would have no p waves and irregular r-r intervals, and you're 99% sure it's atrial fibrillation, but then there's choice 'E' down there: "Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy." WTF is that?! What if THAT is what's really going on, I mean, they wouldn't put such an obvious a-fib question on Step 1, would they?

So true. Any question that I wasn't immediately about 98% certain on for the real test I went over at least 2x more than I would have on a practice test just because they always had that touch of ambiguity. (I don't say 100% certain because when I was 100% certain I immediately thought it was too obvious of a gimme and promptly went back to overanalyze it). Such interesting psychology goes into the taking of this test.