How many of you totally BOMBED your first Step 1 practice exam?

[RynoTheGuy]

Just finished my first practice exam as a baseline - it was like getting kicked in the groin 😱. I took one of the Uworld practice exams and scored a 172....anyone else tanked on their first one or am I a little behind the ball here?

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[withrye]

How much time do you have? The baseline is nice and all as a number to track your progress, but it really has nothing to say about where your score will go. That has a lot more to do with your current background understanding, how much time you have, which resources you can use, and how well you pick up the info and apply it.

 

[RynoTheGuy]

Thanks for the reply. I've got a little more than 6 weeks to prep. I've got a nice 42 day schedule planned out and I'll be planning on taking an assessment (U-World, NBME) probably every 10 days. I'm fairly certain that I remember most of the info - it's just a matter of reviewing it all. I found myself thinking when I took my practice "oh yeah - that's familiar...but I don't remember the specific detail the questions asking about". I was just curious was others' experience was.

EDIT: I'm using First Aid and the Kaplan videos, along with class notes, Pathoma and maybe Goljan Rapid Review if I feel like it's warranted.

 

[11MD2B]

I took an NBME at the beginning of my study period and got in the 170's. Put in 5 weeks of 8 hour days and bumped it to the 240's on the step. Lots of Uworld and FA,stay rested, you will be fine.

 

[normtheniner]

Thanks for the reply. I've got a little more than 6 weeks to prep. I've got a nice 42 day schedule planned out and I'll be planning on taking an assessment (U-World, NBME) probably every 10 days. I'm fairly certain that I remember most of the info - it's just a matter of reviewing it all. I found myself thinking when I took my practice "oh yeah - that's familiar...but I don't remember the specific detail the questions asking about". I was just curious was others' experience was.

EDIT: I'm using First Aid and the Kaplan videos, along with class notes, Pathoma and maybe Goljan Rapid Review if I feel like it's warranted.

I've generally heard not to really use class notes. If its anything like ours its all over the place. Stay with focused sources and reference google/pathoma/goljan as necessary when you don't understand something.

 

[msk86]

I took an NBME at the beginning of my study period and got in the 170's. Put in 5 weeks of 8 hour days and bumped it to the 240's on the step. Lots of Uworld and FA,stay rested, you will be fine.

Same experience here. Just make sure get some fresh air, it's easy to get bogged down with 6 weeks straight of studying.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Don't use class notes. They probably aren't going to help but they certainly could take too much precious time to go through.

I would say if you use them for pharm it might be ok but not much else. Use a review source otherwise.

 

[jm192]

I did awful on my first diagnostic.

As much as anything, I just didn't care enough about it. I took it over 3 or 4 sittings. I basically just read and made the first quick guess I could without trying to think about the answer choices.

As I got closer to the real thing, you'll take them more seriously.

 

[RynoTheGuy]

Thanks a bunch for the replies everyone - I appreciate you putting my mind at ease, lol.

 

[redpanda]

I don't think it's that uncommon to tank the first NMBE. At my school, a panel is assembled every year which is at least publicly stated as the students who had the largest improvement in their score from the first NMBE at the beginning of study period to their actual Step 1 score (typically 7-8 wks). No numbers are explicitly mentioned, but several said they didn't pass the first NMBE and all said they were happy with their scores by the end, so you can interpret that as you see fit.

 

[skyblue2000]

Awesome thread!

I just got my score back from our CBSE and it was horrible - I got a 170...

That being said, it was on a saturday at 8 in the morning, and I finished like an hour early and just didn't give a ****! So I'm going to probably take the NBME 6 next week before starting my dedicated study and see where the actual starting point is.