Official 2009 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[VFib911]

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Two days premature, but I thought I would get it started anyway as I just took the exam this morning!!!!!

Overall impressions:
- Path, path, path - been said before and I'll say it again "know it Goljan style"
- Don't forget the biostats. I prob had 10-13 questions here.
- UW is gold... both for content and material presentation. Get comfortable with the interface and it will help you test day as it is very similar.
- FA was very helpful, but I used it for review rather than primary study source.

Today:
- In at 8:30, out at 2:30.Finished each block with 10-15 minutes left.
- Three breaks, one quick trip to the BR, one 10 minute Red bull/ powerbar refresher, and one 20 minute monster/ MetRx "lunch" and walk.
- I didn't find a large difference in content difficulty between the different module. The second-to-last was my most difficult and I was have ing a little difficulty concentrating, but I think my brain was pre-toast.

I'm feeling pretty relieved at the moment as it was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. In NO WAY was it easy, but certainly doable. I had planned on taking this in July after the COMLEX, but I convinced myself I was not ready for it. Retrospectively, I feel I still would have done well after my COMLEX prep, but the last 6 months has filled in a lot of gaps.

Pre-COMLEX:
- Goljan mp3's 1st and 2nd years commuting to-from school. I did a ton of commuting. Highly valuable.
- Kaplan Biochem DVD(felt it was my weakest) and Micro DVD(lots of content).
- MedEssentials and FA for system-based content review. Big Robbins for reference only.
- CMMRS, know the virus charts, staph and strep algorithms, systemic mycoses, immunocompromised opportunistics.
- Costanza text for physio. Tried to review BRS physio (also Costanza), but I am strong in physio and I felt I was wasting my time.
- Lippincott pharm. Cover-to-cover, but overkill. Easy read though if you know your pharm.
- Kaplan and FA for biostats.
- Flash cards from eBay, both electronic and paper. Great way to review - at least for me - but be aware there are occasional errors. Prob went through 5-7000, really.
- BRS flash cards - Micro, Pharm, Biochem.
- (Savarese for any DO's - know the green book and you are golden.)

COMLEX - 06/08.

Post- COMLEX

UWorld - Thank god I did this. Wish I had done this before the COMLEX. Did tutor mode, took notes, looked each unknown up. I ended up with about 40 pages of topics with key notes written next to each topic. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
HY Histo, Cell Bio, Immuno. By this time it was mostly review, but they all helped tie things together and are quick reads.

One week before test:

Goljan cover-to-cover. Goes quick when it is review.
HY Neuroanat - overkill for my exam. Still good topics if you have the time.
FA cover-to-cover.
Reviewed UW notes/ answers.

UW - 100% completed, overall 68%. Last 450 questions mid 70's. Tutor, random, unused.


That's it. I have been meaning to post this for a while after my COMLEX grade posting, but never got around to doing it... been too damn busy reading. I'll update when result is in.

BTW - anyone know if it takes longer to receive your grade this time of year since fewer people are taking the exam?

 

[omarm]

So.... I did my test yesterday. I def felt like loads of crap when I walked out and kept remembering questions that I missed. All my blocks were fair but I had a 50-50 guessing day I think. We'll see how it goes.


TEST
My only advice to those coming up is that don't just read and cram FA - when they list the various causes/side effects of something and they don't explain each thing - go look it up and understand what they are talking about eg what the heck is fetal hydrantoin syndrome, cinchonism? (not on my test but just examples). The boards are going to describe things not just used those buzzwords (although I have to say that there were a few of the buzzwords on my test that had me reading the questions a few times over!)

Also Goljan's book and audio, USMLE World!! were excellent. I did abt 20% of Kaplan and honestly it wasn't useful for even one question but there were repeats from UWorld and NBME 6 blatantly on there. There were also a bunch of things that our professors had hammered home that somehow made their way onto my test and were not in any review book. And many things that I was just curious about from FA and looked up in external sources that showed up on my test. My point is, like I said above, don't just sit and passively memorize FA, use it as a foundation and also be an active learner in class.

On my test there was a lot of Neuro, Repro, Thyroid, Molecular bio and BEHAVIORAL/BIOSTATS! I was glad I prepared for behav/biostats. The Biostats questions were very basic but the key was reading the question right- like them giving you values in percentages but then having the answers in actual numbers...happened twice and I had to catch myself from picking the wrong answer. The anatomy was mostly classic too.

Time was not an issue until the last block. On most other blocks I always had abt 5 minutes left to go over marked questions. But on the last block, I think I was a bit down b/c of some of the questions on the previous one that gave me some trouble so I started out slowly and had to fly through 30 questions in 25 minutes but I somehow still had 10 minutes left to go back over them again. I barely read through some of the questions on that block esp the micro questions where you can pick out a few buzzwords and know the right answer.

I didn't take a lunch break but took 5-10 minutes after each section to regroup and snack...I guess bringing food enough for a four person picnic wasn't necessary

PREPARATION:
I had 4.5 weeks to prepare and I was initially worried about not having enough time to get through everything but in the end I finished going over everything once and some sections twice in the first 4 weeks and then using about 5 days to review all of FA. Honestly I think regardless of how much time you have it all comes down to recramming everything again the last week b/c the whole primacy-recency dynamics is ever shifting as you shove new things into your brain. Also be realistic with your schedule and allow one day each week for reviewing or catching up on things you did not get to. It was very important for me mentally to see myself progressing through my schedule and it kept me going.

I used First Aid, UWorld, BRS Physiology, Goljan's RR, Goljan's Biochem, HY Neuro, BRS Behav (mostly for the biostats-FA is enough for the behavioral) and KAPLAN notes as reference. It is very important to not use too many resources in my opinion b/c the more resources I tended to reference the more things seemed to contradict each other and sometimes the more confused I was. I also skipped through Robbins and Rubins for pictures (it was good to actually know what bladder exostrophy looked like rather than just cramming it into your already bursting brain)

I studied about 10+ hrs a day. I had initially tried to do the whole waking up at 8am thing to do some questions but that quickly changed 3 days into studying. Do what works for you. I realized that no matter how early I woke up I was going to study till 2am anyways so I just started not setting my alarm and somehow starting work b/w 10-11am each day. I also took a 5 min break probably after every hour and a long 2-3 hr dinner break everyday. 12-2am usually entailed me sitting in bed with the TV on and doing some of the Kaplan Qbook questions or just looking up things that weren't very clear in other sources.

I listened to Goljan's audio during the school year but did not listen to much more of it during study time cus there was really no time. I relistened to the cell injury and repro sections again though. He was very useful in helping me know how to figure things out rather than just cramming- and reinforces the fact that everything should make sense and pathophys is not magic. Reading only his book during the review period was almost like listening to him again because he almost goes word to word from it.

NUMBERS:
UWorld - 100% done, 77% correct
Kaplan - 18% done, 78% correct
NBME 1 - 231
NBME 3 - 244
UWSA 1 - 265
NBME 6 - 255

Like I said, I felt like crap walking out the exam and I also felt like crap after all my practice tests. But I feel the practice tests are done under so much more relaxed conditions that the emotions of test day (eg getting palpitations when you realize you still have more than half the test left and 25 mins to do it) do not play as much of a role. I don't think I did as well as last two NBMES and I'm still trying to untie the knot in my stomach...

Please question to Bola, psammoma body, boyblu32, skelfie and anyone who can help!
Can you please tell us which edition of FA did you use?? 2008 or 2009!!!
I really wana know if you used the 2009 and do you think it contains more material or newer data??
as some ppl said they had questions about new drugs for example!! does the new edition contain any new info??

I would really appreciate your reply as no one mentioned the editions in the experiences!!

Good luck and hope you get high scores 🙂

 

[docbill]

I love how many posting here have scores ranging from 230 to 260 even before starting to study for step 1 (ie. at end of second year).

Here I am with low 200s as a baseline. Heck if I get 237 on step 1, I would be grateful as ever and promise to donate a big amount of money to the poor children (or another good cause) when I start working.

 

[Skelfie]

yea wow thats killer. sounds like a internal medicine board exam question then a step 1 q... hopefully it was experimental

Yeah, that question was crazy... it really threw me for a loop for a few minutes. I was generally finishing each block with about 10 minutes to spare, but I barely finished the block that had that question on time! Mostly because I kept thinking about it while I was answering the other questions in the block... So, yeah -- I'd advise people who have yet to take Step 1 to learn from my mistake and just ignore any weird questions until after you've finished the rest of the block. 🙂

Please question to Bola, psammoma body, boyblu32, skelfie and anyone who can help!
Can you please tell us which edition of FA did you use?? 2008 or 2009!!!
I really wana know if you used the 2009 and do you think it contains more material or newer data??
as some ppl said they had questions about new drugs for example!! does the new edition contain any new info??

I would really appreciate your reply as none mentioned the editions in your experiences!!

Good luck and hope you get high scores 🙂

Hi omarm, I actually ended up using both FA 2008 and FA 2009. That's because I started using FA 2008 early on in my studying (during winter quarter), but then I got worried that I was missing out on something by not using FA 2009. Then Barnes and Noble had one of those great online coupon deals and I was able to get FA 2009 for like half off or something, so that was the clincher. I ended up annotating my FA 2008 notes into FA 2009 and I had both editions spiral bound so I could swap sections if I liked one year's better than the other's. So I ended up with a hybrid FA, haha.

I felt that doing that helped to consolidate a bunch of info that I normally wouldn't remember, because it made my process more "active". But, that's just me... I tend to be easily distracted if I'm not doing something while I study (like making notes or a chart of the info or something).

 

[Whats_up_doc]

I love how many posting here have scores ranging from 230 to 260 even before starting to study for step 1 (ie. at end of second year).

Here I am with low 200s as a baseline. Heck if I get 237 on step 1, I would be grateful as ever and promise to donate a big amount of money to the poor children (or another good cause) when I start working.

I could never understand how big SDNers tend to overworry about their Step 1 Scores when they have over the top 230 and 240+ on CBSE and NBME 1 (before studying). It is actually kind of irritating. In my school, the average was 183 for CBSE at the end of semester. If you scored 240 you are in big shape.

 

[omarm]

Hi omarm, I actually ended up using both FA 2008 and FA 2009. That's because I started using FA 2008 early on in my studying (during winter quarter), but then I got worried that I was missing out on something by not using FA 2009. Then Barnes and Noble had one of those great online coupon deals and I was able to get FA 2009 for like half off or something, so that was the clincher. I ended up annotating my FA 2008 notes into FA 2009 and I had both editions spiral bound so I could swap sections if I liked one year's better than the other's. So I ended up with a hybrid FA, haha.

I felt that doing that helped to consolidate a bunch of info that I normally wouldn't remember, because it made my process more "active". But, that's just me... I tend to be easily distracted if I'm not doing something while I study (like making notes or a chart of the info or something).

[/QUOTE]



Many thanks Skelfie for your reply!!🙂
Well then did you find any difference between FA 2008 and FA 2009???
Please tell me if you really found extra info, new data or any important things in FA 2009 when annotating your FA 2008 notes into FA 2009????
I have FA 2008 now,, but do you advice to get the 2009 edition!!!

Thanks a lot n all the best for the scores 🙂

 

[omarm]

.

 

[cosine]

I could never understand how big SDNers tend to overworry about their Step 1 Scores when they have over the top 230 and 240+ on CBSE and NBME 1 (before studying). It is actually kind of irritating. In my school, the average was 183 for CBSE at the end of semester. If you scored 240 you are in big shape.

I started out with 175 prestudying, i worked my way up to close to 230 but I still feel like I know nothing. If I get 220+ I will be ecstatic. It is just worrisome when people are scoring 240 and 250+(prestudying) and come out of the test thinking they failed the test. I wonder where it leaves us normal people who are barely getting by?

 

[Abilene85]

Took the test 2 days ago and I just have a few points for now. I tend to not remember my exams very well, but these are the things that actually stuck out in my mind during the test.

(1) My exam was VERY heavy in GI. I've been going through posts here and haven't noticed much talk about this system, so it's just an example of why you should be prepared for the test to focus on any topic.

(2) Physiology involved a lot of cardiac phys, and the way that they asked questions…the little twist they would put on it…made many of them more difficult than I expected.

(3) Many topics I was really expecting to see didn't show up at all…bummer.

(4) I thought that many lab tests and some photos (X-rays, biopsy) were thrown in there just for fun and distraction. Don't try to understand all the tests they give you unless the question actually requires you to use that information. That's an easy way to run out of time.

(5) The key to many of my photo questions was in the photo. I had heard a lot about how you can figure it out from the stem and don't even need to know what you are looking at, but I felt like my stems were extremely vague and if you didn't recognize the picture, you were out of luck.

(6) I felt like my version of the test was comparable to USMLE World difficulty, but with some easier questions mixed in. I didn't encounter any questions that jumped out as clearly experimental, but my feeling of the test overall was that it was a little more difficult than I was expecting.

(7) In the last days, I was getting nervous about the fact that I chose to use First Aid as my primary study source. After the exam, it seemed like the number of questions that seemed completely foreign was about equal to the number of questions in FA that I simply couldn't remember. So at least for me, another round through FA or running through a different source probably would have had the same end result.

(8) And a piece of advice: If you are feeling some burnout mid-study, don't be afraid to take a break. My mom forced me to get away from the books and go out shopping for almost an entire day. It definitely helped to recharge my battery, and looking for clothes for third year got me excited about school again, just as I was starting to let Step 1 become everything to me. Getting out of your library/home office/coffee shop and into the real world reminds you that life is about a lot more than this test. I think keeping that little reminder in the back of my mind helped to keep me from getting overly anxious.


If I remember, I will try to post more details about my study approach when I get my results. Best of luck to those currently studying!

 

[ArtfulDodger]

Just took "that which shall not be named" yesterday. Longtime forum lurker here who wanted to post on my experience. Big thanks to all previous posters on this thread--it really helped me put together a plan of attack when I first started thinking about how to slay this beast. Stats:

NBME 2: 261. Taken 3 months out, after completing my first run through of a modified Taus method.
NBME 4: 266. 2 months out.
UWord Self Assessment: 265. About 1 month out. Not sure.
Free 150: 96%. Two weeks out.
UWorld average: 79%. I completed 100% of the questions, taking every single one random, timed, and without duplicating any. Started off around 60-65% in the beginning, and by the end I was pissed if I got below 80-85% on a random block.
Kaplan Qbank: Suuuuuuucks. Don't bother.

I started studying on the first day of class in January. In brief, I just used a modified Taus plan, with modified meaning I used more sources than his plan recommends--I added additional resources for pharm, anatomy, and biostatistics. My only other significant alteration was to use more resources in their entirety for each run through, rather than trying to annotate everything into First Aid. Where Taus suggests using only Goljan and HY Molec in full, I kept using each of my resources in full, with the exceptions being HY Neuroanatomy, CMMRS, RR Biochem and Lange Micro's Immunology section. I annotoated CMMRS b/c I thought it was just too long to get through more than once, and the others b/c I was confident I could get everything I needed by annotating. Doing it this way meant that each run through took significantly more time than it would have otherwise, hence my starting back in January. I did my first run through at a very leisurely pace (didn't finish till just before spring break), taking Taus' advice and just going for an understanding of everything and not trying to memorize yet. I took NBME 2 after this run through and got 261, which would lay the seeds for my destruction yesterday. I comment more on this when I get to test day. Here's my full list of resources, along with some unsolicited advice/comments on each:

RR Path: Fooking solid gold. If you talk yourself into believing BRS Path or FA are enough, you are just giving points away, plain and simple. Nothing else to say. For my first run through, I listened to the Goljan audio and followed along in RR Path--they really match up quite nicely. Thereafter I just read the book and didn't bother with the audio.

FA: This is heresy, but I HATE First Aid with all my bitter heart. Just an empty skeleton with a few random, spewed facts and soundbites with no context, which also happen to be riddled with errors. I recommend using First Aid thusly: When doing a review of an organ system, start with that system's chapter in HY Anatomy, then read BRS Phys, then read the RR Path, then finish up w/ the relevent section in Deja Review Pharm. Then, and only then, do you read FA as your final review to solidify everything you've just read. FA is too bare bones, too topical, and too devoid of mechanisms to use a primary resource for ANYTHING except embryo and histology in my humble opinion. I expect to be flamed w/o mercy for this, but I stand by that statement.

RR Biochem: Painful to get through, but necessary. If you can get through it once and annotate into FA (which is totally insufficient), you will be golden. It made the biochem questions on my test seem like softballs.

CMMRS and Microcards: CMMRS is great, but it's length presents a problem. I read it once in its entirety during my first run through, then used FA and Microcards in my second and third passes. I know every test is different, but on my form, going through Microcards in the last days leading up to the test was the single most beneficial part of my studying. You need to know each pathogen in extreme detail, even the extraordinarily annoying lab algorithms (ie whether its SS RNA, or DS DNa, or novobiocin sensitive, etc) and I felt Microcards were the least painful (but still agonizing) way to learn this.

BRS Phys: Second only to RR Path in value. If Goljan is the father, then Costanzo is the son and UWorld is the holy ghost.

Deja Review Pharm: This is a quick read, and it's Q and A format makes for interesting reading and gives a much needed change of pace. It seems to cover every drug that's in FA, plus a few more. And it gives a lot more detail on each drug's mechanism and some good clinical pearls. It was hard for me to find a resource that I really liked for pharm, and Deja Review was my favorite.

HY Cell Bio and Molecular Genetics, 1999 edition: Is this overkill? I don't think so. It's a quick read, and there were definitely enough questions about receptors, DNA, and RNA on my test to make it worth my time. It certainly helps improve your Uworld average, if that means anything.

HY Behavioral Science: This was very high yield on my test. My recall is certainly not perfect, but I seemed to have 3-5 biostats, ethics "quote questions" and/or psych questions on each block.

The resources above where the core of my studies. If you want to go big, I mean SDN big on this test, I think these resources are the ESSENTIAL ones. Now I know plenty of people have gotten fantastic scores with a lot less, but I personally would not take that gamble. My memory for random facts that I heard months ago in lecture just isn't good enough.

I also used these resources, but they are secondary in importance to those above, in case you're trying to decide how to lighten your load w/o hurting your chances too much:

HY Anatomy, HY Neuroanatomy, HY Biostatistics, Neuro made ridiculously simple, Lange's Micro (for the Immuno section, just as Taus suggests). I didn't use anything for histology or embryo, and it turned out that there wasn't much of either on my test.

Test Day:

Others have already posted on the process of checking in at Prometric and all that other stuff, so I'll just stick with the test itself. My first thoughts upon leaving were: Whoa, Lord Jeebus please save me, and WTF just happened? I've gathered from reading all the posts on this forum that, obviously, there can be an enormous variation in both content and perceived difficulty of the test. The consensus seems to be that the test is slighly harder than NBME exams, but not quite as hard as UWorld. I must have gotten an outlier, b/c mine was noticeably more difficult than UWorld. I left feeling like someone had shoved a bottle down my throat and kicked it till it broke. I had drugs that did not even sound familiar, so I am 99% certain they weren't in FA, Deja review, or covered in my pharm course. I had pathophys questions (the type with the arrows going up or down) that asked you to predict changes in 5 different variables, and that seemed purposely designed to take it just a step beyond what's in Goljan or Uworld and throw in another variable that just made it impossible to narrow down the choices. I had questions that were either experimental items purposely meant to make you have a nervous breakdown, or weren't proofread at all--for example, I had a question that asked what zone of a particular organ would be affected by the described disease process, and none of the answer choices was a zone of that organ (I am not making this up. I sat and stared at that question for 5 mins, and I thought that I had perhaps momentarily lost my mind). I got the same question about Psuedomonas 3 times. And then, sprinkled into all this madness, were several questions that were so easy I couldn't believe they were being asked. The overall impression I got from this test is that it's just bizarre. I mean seriously, this is the most important exam we're ever going to take, and they ask me the same question 3 times, and give me experimental items so poorly written they literally cannot be answered? Give me a break. I wash my hands of this test.

The breakdown of my exam was as follows: Very heavy on hematology and reproductive. Seemed like every other question was a pregnant woman. Heavy on musculoskeletal. Heavy on bacteria as well. Actually, very, very heavy on bacteria. This is why I felt that microcards were the most high yield thing I did in the last few days leading up to the exam. I also had a generous portion of behavioral (some of the "what would you do next" questions are absolutely insane) and some infuriating anatomy questions that only a surgeon would or ever should know (questions about fascia, recesses, and other ridiculous ****e).

I went into this test having broken 260 on every practice exam I took, and I left feeling like someone had broken my neck. I was taken to the brick oven, and pizza was made with my face. I was unsure to very unsure of about 40% of my answers. I think perhaps I went in overconfident--I know after my last practice exam my effort dropped considerably. There was also an element of burnout going on--I have been studying for this garbage since January. It's hard to say precisely what made the test so difficult--was it testing minute detail, like Kaplan, or was it multiple jump questions like Uworld? Neither, really. It's more like they know what you haven't covered, and just ask you those questions.

The sad thing is, I feel like my study plan was as solid as they come. I certainly did well on practice exams, if that counts for anything. My hope is that I truly did get a difficult exam form, and that once my score has been corrected or normalized or whatever mathematical witchcraft the NBME does has been applied, that I'll come out OK. I'll post my score when I get it back, and hopefully it doesn't invalidate all my study advice. Good luck to everyone who's yet to get their turn in the woodshed. I had an experience I can't wait to forget, but I would like to add in closing that this seems to be an outlier. The majority of people I know felt that the test was fair and well written. Don't take my experience as typical.

 

[kdburton]

For those of you who have taken the exam... How closely would you say the questions on UW resembled that of the real exam (not format of the exam, but rather content)? Currently I'm scoring well on UW, but I think I can attribute a lot of my correct answers to test-taking skills that I've acquired while doing 80+% of the question bank so far. I've got a fairly good general understanding of most of the concepts we need to cover, so I tend to be able to "guess" right even if I don't know the answer for sure. For instance if you were to ask me about something specific I may not be able to regurgitate the facts, but if you were to give me multiple choice answers I could probably pick the right one haha. If anyone who has taken the exam already felt the same way as me while doing UW questions, would you say your experiences with the real exam were similar or do you think the real deal required more concrete knowledge and factual recall?

 

[ArtfulDodger]

@ kdburton:

I felt exactly the same way while doing Uworld. If you asked me to regurgitate facts, I couldn't tell you anything, but give me multiple choice, and I could almost always narrow it down. For the most part, the real exam felt about the same. There are some short, single sentence questions that just require straight recall of a drug or bug, but most are just as you described--you don't know it via recall, but you're pretty sure you can narrow it down. The kicker, as I talked about in my experience post, is that I got so many questions over stuff I hadn't covered, that it doesn't matter whether it's recall or reasoning--you're just screwed.

 

[bola]

Please question to Bola, psammoma body, boyblu32, skelfie and anyone who can help!
Can you please tell us which edition of FA did you use?? 2008 or 2009!!!
I really wana know if you used the 2009 and do you think it contains more material or newer data??
as some ppl said they had questions about new drugs for example!! does the new edition contain any new info??

I would really appreciate your reply as no one mentioned the editions in the experiences!!

Good luck and hope you get high scores 🙂

I used FA 2009 simply because I knew I would be paranoid about missing info. Honestly there is really nothing one can do about some of the questions - b/c it seems like there will just be some that are not covered in FA. I don't know a way around that. We all secretly hope that the question writers somehow use FA to make-up questions but it is the opposite - FA reacts to new stuff that exam takers report were on the exam (I have a feeling there might be more pelvic anatomy in FA 2010). I used FA 2008 at the bookstore before FA 2009 came out. If you're worried about starting to annotate early- I have to say that I found myself erasing things I annotated into FA during the school year- it's really hard to know what's actually impt then. (I also found starting UWorld before my study period useless but it mentally makes you feel like you're doing something to prepare for the boards)

@ Whats-up-doc, et al:
I know it is irritating to hear ppl with good practice scores supposedly worrying excessively about their performance post exam - I felt the same way too when I read previous step 1 takers doing this. But even though it makes logical sense not to worry, in all honesty, previous exams serve little comfort after the test. I guess the practice tests somehow raise one's expectations about the possibilities a little high and they simmer down a bit after the real thing.

 

[kdburton]

If there are "new" drugs or "new" anything on the exam then you have to keep in mind that it may be an experimental question. The NBME is probably testing the question to see how many people get it right (i.e. how widely taught that concept/drug is given that it may be somewhat new to the medical field at large). If I come across questions that I don't even recognize I'm probably going to pick C and move on. My micro prof write questions for the NBME and he said to do exactly that, because if we haven't heard of it then it probably isn't a question that counts towards our score.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

What else did he say?

 

[kdburton]

What else did he say?

LOL thats all he said. Basically everyone at this point should know that there are experimental questions. If you read over a path, phys, pharm, etc, etc book and come across questions on your exam with stuff that you've never heard of after all that is said and done then I'm guessing its is experimental. On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if they throw some random/new drug names in with the correct answer choice (and the correct answer choice being something that you would have seen) just to trick yhou into thinking that it was an experimental. Actually sometimes I'll come across pharm questions on UW that have drugs I've never heard of as answer choices, so I just never pick that one haha.

On a realted note there will probably be stuff on your exam that is not in FA. I didn't look at FA until a few days ago and I think its absolutely horribly written (errors, no explanations for anything, etc). I'm reading it anyways just because everyone says its gold and becuase I've got nothing else to do before my exam on Thursday.

 

[Lespedeza]

For those of you who have taken the exam... How closely would you say the questions on UW resembled that of the real exam (not format of the exam, but rather content)? Currently I'm scoring well on UW, but I think I can attribute a lot of my correct answers to test-taking skills that I've acquired while doing 80+% of the question bank so far. I've got a fairly good general understanding of most of the concepts we need to cover, so I tend to be able to "guess" right even if I don't know the answer for sure. For instance if you were to ask me about something specific I may not be able to regurgitate the facts, but if you were to give me multiple choice answers I could probably pick the right one haha. If anyone who has taken the exam already felt the same way as me while doing UW questions, would you say your experiences with the real exam were similar or do you think the real deal required more concrete knowledge and factual recall?

I definitely felt this way on the real exam. After being able to pick out the right answer on UWorld WITHOUT always KNOWING the right answer, I learned to trust my instinct. Always go with your gut! I didn't double guess or agonize over answers during the actual test either and it paid off well (245/99).

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Meaning you didn't change your answers the 2nd time around unless you were absolutely sure?

 

[kdburton]

I usually finish a UW block with like 10-15 minutes left and then I go back to the ones I flagged and want to think about again. Usually they are calculation questions, the ones with up/down arrows for endocine questions and maybe some micro stuff where the answer was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't remember the first time through. Sometimes I'll find that I read the question wrong in which case my answe would be the exact opposite of the correct answer. But for the most part I don't change too many. I looked at my cumulative performance thing in UW though and it says that 66% of the time I'm changing from incorrect --> correct, so I'm gunna stick with that for the real deal I guess... If I mark 5-10 questions in a block I might change one answer when I'm reviewing, otherwise I stick with my gut on the others

 

[Cirrus83]

A quick google gets the result " -- In patients with COPD, an anticholinergic drug used to prevent bronchospasm, ipratropium bromide (Atrovent), significantly increased the risk of cardiovascular death, researchers here reported. [...] Ipratropium use was also associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.15)."

lol, exactly why listening to drug reps for your drug knowledge is such a terrible idea...the tacos will get you.

 

[pepotonoto]

.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Are there health insurance questions on the test?

 

[omarm]

Hi omarm, I actually ended up using both FA 2008 and FA 2009. That's because I started using FA 2008 early on in my studying (during winter quarter), but then I got worried that I was missing out on something by not using FA 2009. Then Barnes and Noble had one of those great online coupon deals and I was able to get FA 2009 for like half off or something, so that was the clincher. I ended up annotating my FA 2008 notes into FA 2009 and I had both editions spiral bound so I could swap sections if I liked one year's better than the other's. So I ended up with a hybrid FA, haha.

I felt that doing that helped to consolidate a bunch of info that I normally wouldn't remember, because it made my process more "active". But, that's just me... I tend to be easily distracted if I'm not doing something while I study (like making notes or a chart of the info or something).

[/QUOTE]


Many thanks Skelfie for your reply!!🙂 Also thanks Bola for your info 🙂

Well then, Skelfie did you find any difference between FA 2008 and FA 2009???
Please tell me if you really found extra info, new data or any important things in FA 2009 when annotating your FA 2008 notes into FA 2009????
I have FA 2008 now,, but do you advice to get the 2009 edition!!!

Thanks a lot n all the best for the scores 🙂

 

[docbill]

Just took "that which shall not be named" yesterday. Longtime forum lurker here who wanted to post on my experience. Big thanks to all previous posters on this thread--it really helped me put together a plan of attack when I first started thinking about how to slay this beast. Stats:

NBME 2: 261. Taken 3 months out, after completing my first run through of a modified Taus method.
NBME 4: 266. 2 months out.
UWord Self Assessment: 265. About 1 month out. Not sure.
Free 150: 96%. Two weeks out.
UWorld average: 79%. I completed 100% of the questions, taking every single one random, timed, and without duplicating any. Started off around 60-65% in the beginning, and by the end I was pissed if I got below 80-85% on a random block.
Kaplan Qbank: Suuuuuuucks. Don't bother.

I started studying on the first day of class in January. In brief, I just used a modified Taus plan, with modified meaning I used more sources than his plan recommends--I added additional resources for pharm, anatomy, and biostatistics. My only other significant alteration was to use more resources in their entirety for each run through, rather than trying to annotate everything into First Aid. Where Taus suggests using only Goljan and HY Molec in full, I kept using each of my resources in full, with the exceptions being HY Neuroanatomy, CMMRS, RR Biochem and Lange Micro's Immunology section. I annotoated CMMRS b/c I thought it was just too long to get through more than once, and the others b/c I was confident I could get everything I needed by annotating. Doing it this way meant that each run through took significantly more time than it would have otherwise, hence my starting back in January. I did my first run through at a very leisurely pace (didn't finish till just before spring break), taking Taus' advice and just going for an understanding of everything and not trying to memorize yet. I took NBME 2 after this run through and got 261, which would lay the seeds for my destruction yesterday. I comment more on this when I get to test day. Here's my full list of resources, along with some unsolicited advice/comments on each:

RR Path: Fooking solid gold. If you talk yourself into believing BRS Path or FA are enough, you are just giving points away, plain and simple. Nothing else to say. For my first run through, I listened to the Goljan audio and followed along in RR Path--they really match up quite nicely. Thereafter I just read the book and didn't bother with the audio.

FA: This is heresy, but I HATE First Aid with all my bitter heart. Just an empty skeleton with a few random, spewed facts and soundbites with no context, which also happen to be riddled with errors. I recommend using First Aid thusly: When doing a review of an organ system, start with that system's chapter in HY Anatomy, then read BRS Phys, then read the RR Path, then finish up w/ the relevent section in Deja Review Pharm. Then, and only then, do you read FA as your final review to solidify everything you've just read. FA is too bare bones, too topical, and too devoid of mechanisms to use a primary resource for ANYTHING except embryo and histology in my humble opinion. I expect to be flamed w/o mercy for this, but I stand by that statement.

RR Biochem: Painful to get through, but necessary. If you can get through it once and annotate into FA (which is totally insufficient), you will be golden. It made the biochem questions on my test seem like softballs.

CMMRS and Microcards: CMMRS is great, but it's length presents a problem. I read it once in its entirety during my first run through, then used FA and Microcards in my second and third passes. I know every test is different, but on my form, going through Microcards in the last days leading up to the test was the single most beneficial part of my studying. You need to know each pathogen in extreme detail, even the extraordinarily annoying lab algorithms (ie whether its SS RNA, or DS DNa, or novobiocin sensitive, etc) and I felt Microcards were the least painful (but still agonizing) way to learn this.

BRS Phys: Second only to RR Path in value. If Goljan is the father, then Costanzo is the son and UWorld is the holy ghost.

Deja Review Pharm: This is a quick read, and it's Q and A format makes for interesting reading and gives a much needed change of pace. It seems to cover every drug that's in FA, plus a few more. And it gives a lot more detail on each drug's mechanism and some good clinical pearls. It was hard for me to find a resource that I really liked for pharm, and Deja Review was my favorite.

HY Cell Bio and Molecular Genetics, 1999 edition: Is this overkill? I don't think so. It's a quick read, and there were definitely enough questions about receptors, DNA, and RNA on my test to make it worth my time. It certainly helps improve your Uworld average, if that means anything.

HY Behavioral Science: This was very high yield on my test. My recall is certainly not perfect, but I seemed to have 3-5 biostats, ethics "quote questions" and/or psych questions on each block.

The resources above where the core of my studies. If you want to go big, I mean SDN big on this test, I think these resources are the ESSENTIAL ones. Now I know plenty of people have gotten fantastic scores with a lot less, but I personally would not take that gamble. My memory for random facts that I heard months ago in lecture just isn't good enough.

I also used these resources, but they are secondary in importance to those above, in case you're trying to decide how to lighten your load w/o hurting your chances too much:

HY Anatomy, HY Neuroanatomy, HY Biostatistics, Neuro made ridiculously simple, Lange's Micro (for the Immuno section, just as Taus suggests). I didn't use anything for histology or embryo, and it turned out that there wasn't much of either on my test.

Test Day:

Others have already posted on the process of checking in at Prometric and all that other stuff, so I'll just stick with the test itself. My first thoughts upon leaving were: Whoa, Lord Jeebus please save me, and WTF just happened? I've gathered from reading all the posts on this forum that, obviously, there can be an enormous variation in both content and perceived difficulty of the test. The consensus seems to be that the test is slighly harder than NBME exams, but not quite as hard as UWorld. I must have gotten an outlier, b/c mine was noticeably more difficult than UWorld. I left feeling like someone had shoved a bottle down my throat and kicked it till it broke. I had drugs that did not even sound familiar, so I am 99% certain they weren't in FA, Deja review, or covered in my pharm course. I had pathophys questions (the type with the arrows going up or down) that asked you to predict changes in 5 different variables, and that seemed purposely designed to take it just a step beyond what's in Goljan or Uworld and throw in another variable that just made it impossible to narrow down the choices. I had questions that were either experimental items purposely meant to make you have a nervous breakdown, or weren't proofread at all--for example, I had a question that asked what zone of a particular organ would be affected by the described disease process, and none of the answer choices was a zone of that organ (I am not making this up. I sat and stared at that question for 5 mins, and I thought that I had perhaps momentarily lost my mind). I got the same question about Psuedomonas 3 times. And then, sprinkled into all this madness, were several questions that were so easy I couldn't believe they were being asked. The overall impression I got from this test is that it's just bizarre. I mean seriously, this is the most important exam we're ever going to take, and they ask me the same question 3 times, and give me experimental items so poorly written they literally cannot be answered? Give me a break. I wash my hands of this test.

The breakdown of my exam was as follows: Very heavy on hematology and reproductive. Seemed like every other question was a pregnant woman. Heavy on musculoskeletal. Heavy on bacteria as well. Actually, very, very heavy on bacteria. This is why I felt that microcards were the most high yield thing I did in the last few days leading up to the exam. I also had a generous portion of behavioral (some of the "what would you do next" questions are absolutely insane) and some infuriating anatomy questions that only a surgeon would or ever should know (questions about fascia, recesses, and other ridiculous ****e).

I went into this test having broken 260 on every practice exam I took, and I left feeling like someone had broken my neck. I was taken to the brick oven, and pizza was made with my face. I was unsure to very unsure of about 40% of my answers. I think perhaps I went in overconfident--I know after my last practice exam my effort dropped considerably. There was also an element of burnout going on--I have been studying for this garbage since January. It's hard to say precisely what made the test so difficult--was it testing minute detail, like Kaplan, or was it multiple jump questions like Uworld? Neither, really. It's more like they know what you haven't covered, and just ask you those questions.

The sad thing is, I feel like my study plan was as solid as they come. I certainly did well on practice exams, if that counts for anything. My hope is that I truly did get a difficult exam form, and that once my score has been corrected or normalized or whatever mathematical witchcraft the NBME does has been applied, that I'll come out OK. I'll post my score when I get it back, and hopefully it doesn't invalidate all my study advice. Good luck to everyone who's yet to get their turn in the woodshed. I had an experience I can't wait to forget, but I would like to add in closing that this seems to be an outlier. The majority of people I know felt that the test was fair and well written. Don't take my experience as typical.

Come back and tell us when you get your scores. I have a feeling that someone like yourself with such high pretest scores (which you should be proud of of course)... will later come back and say oups I was overreacting... I guess I did do pretty well after all!!!

Also if I was getting scores that high 2 months before my exam. I would of booked the earliest available date and got it over with. But then again that is just me.

 

[rahulb]

lol seriously who the hell gets a 261 and studies for 3 more months

 

[Darksmurf]

Test yesterday. Once I got into my car after the test, I popped the clutch, turned the key, and guess what was on the radio. Tom Petty. Free Falling. I cannot imagine that was coincidence.

Numbers:
NBME 5: 207 (in March, before studying or finishing 2nd year)
UW overall (timed, random, unused, 100%): 63%
UW Sim 1: 247
UW Sim 2: 252
Free 144: 86%

Test: I feel a bit like SMA wrote above that my test was on the whole probably fair and straightforward. Nothing jumped out at me as experimental (although I think I found one or two typos in the questions). Overall it seemed doable, but there were many questions that I knew I had known the answer to at some point, but that it was just out of my mental reach and I had to make an educated guess between two things.

Time was a bit of an issue. I just didn’t feel like there was any time to think about things. That said, some of the questions were really short and so straight-forward that I felt uneasy doing them in 15 seconds and would linger just to make sure that I hadn’t missed a trick or something. And then other questions I just didn’t know the answer to (but probably should have).

Content felt mostly like micro and pharm with a fair bit of quote questions (what should you say to this patient?) and up/down-arrow physio questions. No particular organ system stood out. A handful of anatomy questions, some of which I just guessed on because I don’t know what would be most vulnerable to damage during those surgical procedures (and I got honors in anatomy). A couple of brainstem/neuro sections. A few pictures were right out of UW. And a fair number of questions I was able to answer just because I had seen similar (though not identical) questions on UW. And then there was just the random stuff—not necessarily conceptually difficult—that I just didn’t look over recently enough and couldn’t quite remember.

All in all I’m afraid I got an easier form of the test and that that’s not going to bode well when they do the curve, considering that I didn’t feel like I remembered everything from First Aid that I should have.

C’est la vie, I guess.

DS

 

[silas2642]

lol seriously who the hell gets a 261 and studies for 3 more months

That's what I was thinking... if I got a 261, I'd take another NBME just to make sure that it wasn't some sort of computer error and then schedule the damned thing as soon as possible. After that kind of score, I would figure that I could only get dumber.

 

[Deferoxamine]

Finished the exam ~3 hours ago. My belly's full and now I can do some typing.

Prep Time:
100% STEP 1 STUDY:
4 weeks. (Basically 1-2 days after our MS2 finals were finished)

PARTIAL STUDY:
Began in February, probably about 15 hours a week when there weren't exams going on.

Resources Used:
COMPLETE:
--> First Aid 2008 edition holepunched and annotated (some sections better than others) - 3 full times through since ~Feb/March
--> RR Path Goljan - most sections covered during the year with classes, read once thru during 4 week review
--> BRS Physiology
--> HY Neuroanatomy

PARTIAL
--> USMLE Road Map Anatomy - mainly for legs/arm stuff
--> HY Embryo - most of it
--> BRS Behavioral Sci - 5 or 6 chapters, including Biostats
--> HY Cell/Molec - read about 1/2 of it back in March/April

OTHER
--> Highly recommend: BRS Pharm Cards when classes are almost over; Microcards (!!)
--> Kaplan Qbank (March to May): about 55% completed
--> USMLE World - completed ~70% of the questions, most of them in timed sets of 48 unused; score only rose 1 percentage point when switched to Tutor mode in final days (inconsequential)

Progression:
5/9 - Kaplan 7 x 48: 67% overall, Score Estimator = 238 (a projection)
5/30 - NBME 4: 227
6/6 - UWorld1: 236
6/16 - NBME 6: 244
USMLEWorld average: 71%

After MS1 and MS2, I'm probably borderline top 1/3rd in the class... Honors in slightly over half of the courses, consistently above the average (even if only slightly), never really the superstar.

Day before the test:
Stopped studying at 5pm. Went for a long run late-morning to tire myself out. Ate less food than Calista Flockhart. I was nervous, not gonna lie. Went through the NBME tutorial online (same one we see on test day)... read through it so that I could bank ~14 extra minutes of free time.

Today, Test Day:
About 5 hours of sleep last night, laid in bed and just rested when I awoke early. Ate a light breakfast and reviewed FA Cardio section for about 20 minutes, because it seems like tons of Cardio is popping up on EVERYONE'S exams.

Arrived at Prometric site 1 hour early (in typical Deferoxamine fashion...), they checked me right in.

Breakdown of the material I encountered today - on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest):
FREQUENCY:
5 - Renal, Neuro
4 - Behavioral Sci/Stats, Cell/Molec, Micro, Immuno, Cardio, Heme/Onc, Repro
3 - Biochem, Pharm, GI/Hepato, Derm
2 - Anatomy, General Pathology, Endocrine 🙂( - this is my strong point), Pulmonary, Musculoskeletal
1 - Embryo, Psychiatry

DIFFICULTY: (5 being the hardest)
5 - Pharm, Musculoskeletal
4 - Renal, Neuro, Cell/Molec, Cardio, Repro, Derm
3 - Immuno, Heme/Onc, Biochem, GI/Hepato, General Pathology, Pulmonary
2 - Behavioral Sci/Stats, Micro, Anatomy
1 - Endocrine, Psychiatry
Can't remember - Embryo - did I even have any?

Keep in mind that all of this is relative to my abilities, flawed memory, and the fact that MANY, YES MANY, questions could probably fit into more than 1 discipline/subject area.

General Tips from my own experience:
--> I am generally slow at these types of tests, and today was no different. On 6 out of 7 of them, the system told me time was up, and I was literally filling in my last guess at 0:03. On Block 6 (I think), I ended the section on my own... a whopping 11 seconds before time was up.
--> I did Blocks 1 and 2 back-to-back, and then took breaks between all the rest of them. Got a little dizzy (maybe hypoglycemic) for about 1-2 minutes during Blocks 2 and 3 (this was a little scary... I got really worried), luckily it wasn't a factor after that as I kept making sure to take sips of Pepsi and snacks during each break.
--> Audio = useless. Figured out the answer from the question stem. The combo question (sequential) I did get was actually very difficult, and I got Part 1 (and assuredly Part 2) correct once part 2 was revealed. Yay.
--> Comparing each block, and now looking back, Block 1 was just awful. I flagged 16 questions. The first 5 or 6 questions I knew the answer within 15 seconds but was almost too nervous to see the next question until I double-checked the current question 2 or 3 times. This was really hard. Odds are this will happen to a lot of you as well, and if it does DO NOT FREAK OUT. You will get your rhythm down after another 10-15 minutes.
--> Signing in and out also eats up valuable break time (you have to re-type your ID # every time you log back in), so keep an eye on the clock!

I took my exam at a site near home, away from school. No classmates around. No other Step 1 test-takers. Very small site in a city I was familiar with. The only person I knew today was one of the proctors. And her daughters are hot.

I also had a bit of a scare on a later block when a non-FredV2 software window popped up with about 5 minutes remaining in a block, something about a Javascript error, did I wish to continue? Yes? I lost about a minute of test time on this when I check with a proctor, and I hope to God the ~45 other questions in that block that I didn't go back to weren't magically erased or something. 😱 It submitted okay, and those dots showing unanswered questions would have popped up if an error did happen. I'm sure it was fine, but still... I can't even imagine...

And one more thing. There seems to be a ton of people posting here all of the sudden with post counts of 5 or less, claiming to have scored 260+ on all their practice NBME's with a 98% average on UWorld and "OMG I FAILED!! 🙁" While some may be legit, I bet others are completely making this crap up... so take stuff you see here with a grain of salt.

All-in-all, I'm satisfied with today. Didn't hit it out of the park, but wasn't expecting to. Somewhat challenging at times, but not insurmountable. It really wasn't that bad, and it's hard to tell where in the 220-250 range I will fall. 240 would be amazing. Hopefully the experimental questions were all the ones I got wrong.

Happy it's done! Happy I worked so hard in MS1 and MS2, and hopefully it paid off today. And happy to answer any questions you might have. Best of luck to you all!


Update 7/16/09: Score on Real Test = 243/99.

 

[rahulb]

.

 

[Deferoxamine]

All in all I’m afraid I got an easier form of the test and that that’s not going to bode well when they do the curve, considering that I didn’t feel like I remembered everything from First Aid that I should have.

I'm really worried about this too. My test was difficult but really not that bad. I hope that doesn't bite me, where getting 10+ questions wrong on the whole thing locks you out of a 240 or something. 😱

 

[ArtfulDodger]

lol seriously who the hell gets a 261 and studies for 3 more months

I definitely regret it, that's for sure. When I got that score on my first practice exam, I got greedy and started having visions of 270+ in my head. So I kept studying, and, as I wrote in my experience post, I think I got a serious case of burnout towards the end. I had also already scheduled my exam date, and as I said earlier, I was using the Taus method and had my study schedule written down in extreme detail, especially the last weeks leading to the exam. I was somewhat paranoid that any alterations to the plan would throw me off. I'll have to wait for my score, obviously, but I think in my case that the extra time hurt a lot more than it helped. Should have just scrapped the plan and taken the damn thing, but I was hellbent on seeing it through to the end. Tried to do too much for too long I think. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[dbth77]

does anyone really believe some tests are actually appreciably harder than others? i'd imagine with 350 questions that the averages for any two tests would be quite similar and I wouldn't really worry about harsh "curves"

 

[SIQ]

I also had a bit of a scare on a later block when a non-FredV2 software window popped up with about 5 minutes remaining in a block, something about a Javascript error, did I wish to continue? Yes? I lost about a minute of test time on this when I check with a proctor, and I hope to God the ~45 other questions in that block that I didn't go back to weren't magically erased or something. 😱 It submitted okay, and those dots showing unanswered questions would have popped up if an error did happen. I'm sure it was fine, but still... I can't even imagine...

dude, i had the same problem (i.e. the Javascript error) when taking my test last week. to make it worst, i did not alert the proctors (which was very stupid) because i was running out of time in that block so i just clicked "yes" and continued. i have seen this error before on my PC so i just clicked yes and moved on but i am also worried that maybe something got screwed up with the previous questions in that block...

one of my friends who took step 1 last week also had the error--the proctors restarted the computer during the exam and he ended up loosing 4 mins of test time! anyway, from talking with a few computer wizzes it sounds like that error should not mess things up--if that is any consolation to you!

 

[SeminoleFan3]

does anyone really believe some tests are actually appreciably harder than others? i'd imagine with 350 questions that the averages for any two tests would be quite similar and I wouldn't really worry about harsh "curves"

I do. If I could post some of the ridiculous questions I got, I would. But, that would be wrong and against the rules. Some of my stuff was straight out of left field. It was obscene. Don't get me wrong, I had my share of easy questions, but some questions were unbelieveable.

 

[SIQ]

Finished the exam ~3 hours ago. My belly's full and now I can do some typing.

Prep Time:
100% STEP 1 STUDY:
4 weeks. (Basically 1-2 days after our MS2 finals were finished)

PARTIAL STUDY:
Began in February, probably about 15 hours a week when there weren't exams going on.

Resources Used:
COMPLETE:
--> First Aid 2008 edition holepunched and annotated (some sections better than others) - 3 full times through since ~Feb/March
--> RR Path Goljan - most sections covered during the year with classes, read once thru during 4 week review
--> BRS Physiology
--> HY Neuroanatomy

PARTIAL
--> USMLE Road Map Anatomy - mainly for legs/arm stuff
--> HY Embryo - most of it
--> BRS Behavioral Sci - 5 or 6 chapters, including Biostats
--> HY Cell/Molec - read about 1/2 of it back in March/April

OTHER
--> Highly recommend: BRS Pharm Cards when classes are almost over; Microcards (!!)
--> Kaplan Qbank (March to May): about 55% completed
--> USMLE World - completed ~70% of the questions, most of them in timed sets of 48 unused; score only rose 1 percentage point when switched to Tutor mode in final days (inconsequential)

Progression:
5/9 - Kaplan 7 x 48: 67% overall, Score Estimator = 238 (a projection)
5/30 - NBME 4: 227
6/6 - UWorld1: 236
6/16 - NBME 6: 244
USMLEWorld average: 71%

After MS1 and MS2, I'm probably borderline top 1/3rd in the class... Honors in slightly over half of the courses, consistently above the average (even if only slightly), never really the superstar.

Day before the test:
Stopped studying at 5pm. Went for a long run late-morning to tire myself out. Ate less food than Calista Flockhart. I was nervous, not gonna lie. Went through the NBME tutorial online (same one we see on test day)... read through it so that I could bank ~14 extra minutes of free time.

Today, Test Day:
About 5 hours of sleep last night, laid in bed and just rested when I awoke early. Ate a light breakfast and reviewed FA Cardio section for about 20 minutes, because it seems like tons of Cardio is popping up on EVERYONE'S exams.

Arrived at Prometric site 1 hour early (in typical Deferoxamine fashion...), they checked me right in.

Breakdown of the material I encountered today - on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest):
FREQUENCY:
5 - Renal, Neuro
4 - Behavioral Sci/Stats, Cell/Molec, Micro, Immuno, Cardio, Heme/Onc, Repro
3 - Biochem, Pharm, GI/Hepato, Derm
2 - Anatomy, General Pathology, Endocrine 🙂( - this is my strong point), Pulmonary, Musculoskeletal
1 - Embryo, Psychiatry

DIFFICULTY: (5 being the hardest)
5 - Pharm, Musculoskeletal
4 - Renal, Neuro, Cell/Molec, Cardio, Repro, Derm
3 - Immuno, Heme/Onc, Biochem, GI/Hepato, General Pathology, Pulmonary
2 - Behavioral Sci/Stats, Micro, Anatomy
1 - Endocrine, Psychiatry
Can't remember - Embryo - did I even have any?

Keep in mind that all of this is relative to my abilities, flawed memory, and the fact that MANY, YES MANY, questions could probably fit into more than 1 discipline/subject area.

General Tips from my own experience:
--> I am generally slow at these types of tests, and today was no different. On 6 out of 7 of them, the system told me time was up, and I was literally filling in my last guess at 0:03. On Block 6 (I think), I ended the section on my own... a whopping 11 seconds before time was up.
--> I did Blocks 1 and 2 back-to-back, and then took breaks between all the rest of them. Got a little dizzy (maybe hypoglycemic) for about 1-2 minutes during Blocks 2 and 3 (this was a little scary... I got really worried), luckily it wasn't a factor after that as I kept making sure to take sips of Pepsi and snacks during each break.
--> Audio = useless. Figured out the answer from the question stem. The combo question (sequential) I did get was actually very difficult, and I got Part 1 (and assuredly Part 2) correct once part 2 was revealed. Yay.
--> Comparing each block, and now looking back, Block 1 was just awful. I flagged 16 questions. The first 5 or 6 questions I knew the answer within 15 seconds but was almost too nervous to see the next question until I double-checked the current question 2 or 3 times. This was really hard. Odds are this will happen to a lot of you as well, and if it does DO NOT FREAK OUT. You will get your rhythm down after another 10-15 minutes.
--> Signing in and out also eats up valuable break time (you have to re-type your ID # every time you log back in), so keep an eye on the clock!

I took my exam at a site near home, away from school. No classmates around. No other Step 1 test-takers. Very small site in a city I was familiar with. The only person I knew today was one of the proctors. And her daughters are hot.

I also had a bit of a scare on a later block when a non-FredV2 software window popped up with about 5 minutes remaining in a block, something about a Javascript error, did I wish to continue? Yes? I lost about a minute of test time on this when I check with a proctor, and I hope to God the ~45 other questions in that block that I didn't go back to weren't magically erased or something. 😱 It submitted okay, and those dots showing unanswered questions would have popped up if an error did happen. I'm sure it was fine, but still... I can't even imagine...

And one more thing. There seems to be a ton of people posting here all of the sudden with post counts of 5 or less, claiming to have scored 260+ on all their practice NBME's with a 98% average on UWorld and "OMG I FAILED!! 🙁" While some may be legit, I bet others are completely making this crap up... so take stuff you see here with a grain of salt.

All-in-all, I'm satisfied with today. Didn't hit it out of the park, but wasn't expecting to. Somewhat challenging at times, but not insurmountable. It really wasn't that bad, and it's hard to tell where in the 220-250 range I will fall. 240 would be amazing. Hopefully the experimental questions were all the ones I got wrong.

Happy it's done! Happy I worked so hard in MS1 and MS2, and hopefully it paid off today. And happy to answer any questions you might have. Best of luck to you all!

btw, did they restart your computer when the error came up?

 

[Deferoxamine]

btw, did they restart your computer when the error came up?

Nope, I just clicked "Yes" while the two of them watched, and about a minute had been deducted from my time.

I think the Javascript "error" might have happened when I kept uncrossing out and recrossing out answer choices. (Maybe clicked too many times?) Those cross-outs remained after I clicked "Yes", so hopefully that means none of the other stuff in that block changed.

F*ck this technology ****. Give me paper and pencil.

 

[SIQ]

Nope, I just clicked "Yes" while the two of them watched, and about a minute had been deducted from my time.

I think the Javascript "error" might have happened when I kept uncrossing out and recrossing out answer choices. (Maybe clicked too many times?) Those cross-outs remained after I clicked "Yes", so hopefully that means none of the other stuff in that block changed.

F*ck this technology ****. Give me paper and pencil.

lol...u got my vote w/paper and pencil!

i think i was clicking way too much when it happened to me too. anyway, i guess we'll find out what the verdict is on july 15th. i have very similar stats to you--just hoping to break a 240!!

 

[hooperg]

Exam Date: May 23, 2009
Score Report Date: June 17, 2009
Version: FRED V1
Testing Center: Pittsburgh, PA

NBME Form 4: 4 Weeks Prior to the exam -- 209
NBME Form 5: Few days prior to exam -- 221
USMLEWorld: 61% Cumulative
COMLEX Step I: 608/90 (taken June 2008)
MCAT: 26P 10/9/7 (first go of it)
I had 1 month to prep for this exam. I took the exam so hastily on the advice of a radiology program director while transitioning to my surgery clerkship. I'll give advice/ideas on private messages if you want them.

USMLE I Score: 235/98

 

[RisingSun]

Exam Date: May 23, 2009
Score Report Date: June 17, 2009
Version: FRED V1
Testing Center: Pittsburgh, PA

NBME Form 4: 4 Weeks Prior to the exam -- 209
NBME Form 5: Few days prior to exam -- 221
USMLEWorld: 61% Cumulative
COMLEX Step I: 608/90 (taken June 2008)
MCAT: 26P 10/9/7 (first go of it)
I had 1 month to prep for this exam. I took the exam so hastily on the advice of a radiology program director while transitioning to my surgery clerkship. I'll give advice/ideas on private messages if you want them.

USMLE I Score: 235/98

Great improvement! Congrats on the stellar score!

 

[Nematode]

Script error happened to me too, i just said yes and moved on, it was the very end of my block so I didnt want to waste any time.

 

[SIQ]

Script error happened to me too, i just said yes and moved on, it was the very end of my block so I didnt want to waste any time.

this error seems to be happening to a lot people taking the test using fredv2. to people who are gonna take this test soon my advice if you get a script error is to just click yes and keep going if time is an issue--it's gonna cost you a couple minutes to involve the proctors, in which case they aren't gonna do anything magical--so just click yes and go for it! if u have time, then that's a different issue.

also, i am sure this varies across different test centers but the proctors at my center were useless. and they kept delaying me--i had to wait 5 mins to sign back in after a break b/c the proctor was on the phone.

my friend actually got screwed when he took his first break b/c the proctor wasn't there to sign him out, so they reported it to NBME as an irregularity which messed him up for the rest of the test.

take home: if u are taking this test, don't let the stupid proctors get to you--just keep focused!

 

[sprinkibrio]

this error seems to be happening to a lot people taking the test using fredv2. to people who are gonna take this test soon my advice if you get a script error is to just click yes and keep going if time is an issue--it's gonna cost you a couple minutes to involve the proctors, in which case they aren't gonna do anything magical--so just click yes and go for it! if u have time, then that's a different issue.

also, i am sure this varies across different test centers but the proctors at my center were useless. and they kept delaying me--i had to wait 5 mins to sign back in after a break b/c the proctor was on the phone.

my friend actually got screwed when he took his first break b/c the proctor wasn't there to sign him out, so they reported it to NBME as an irregularity which messed him up for the rest of the test.

take home: if u are taking this test, don't let the stupid proctors get to you--just keep focused!

Yes, the proctors can be authoritarian aholes. For someone like me who's only taken paper tests and never had to go to a center like this it was a bit shocking. I would recommend people do a practice test or at least expect that they will be *off.* Just think that they will lose their jobs if someone in their pod cheated.

 

[docbill]

Exam Date: May 23, 2009
Score Report Date: June 17, 2009
Version: FRED V1
Testing Center: Pittsburgh, PA

NBME Form 4: 4 Weeks Prior to the exam -- 209
NBME Form 5: Few days prior to exam -- 221
USMLEWorld: 61% Cumulative
COMLEX Step I: 608/90 (taken June 2008)
MCAT: 26P 10/9/7 (first go of it)
I had 1 month to prep for this exam. I took the exam so hastily on the advice of a radiology program director while transitioning to my surgery clerkship. I'll give advice/ideas on private messages if you want them.

USMLE I Score: 235/98

Excellent score. We seem to be about the same in our pre-test scoring. I hope I can reproduce that. Finally a realistic person. With the average being about 217, I am always surprised when I see these 260+ on SDN.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Is there a lot of neuro on the exam to justify using a source other than FA?

 

[GeorgeMichael B]

Is there a lot of neuro on the exam to justify using a source other than FA?

It really varies by test (not that you didn't know that or anything). I didn't have too much neuro. The stuff I did have was all covered in first aid. I did have an anatomy question about symptoms/where is the lesion (in a very complex part of the CNS)....very difficult question that would have taken a very detailed review of anatomy to really have a decent grasp of (not covered in FA). Took my best guess but wasn't too worried because I knew there couldn't be too many more like it.

Word of advice. Don't forget the basic stuff. For example, know where the cranial nerves come off the brainstem! I really fudged a question because I assumed I knew stuff like that and when the big day came, I really struggled to come up with the answer....I wanted to kick myself for not reviewing it as well as I should have.

Many people advise looking through CT/MRI scans for neuro...could be useful but my test ONLY covered gross pictures, for what its worth

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Thanks for the tips. I am just worried about brain stem cross sections and like where is the red nucleus or vestibular nuclei, etc.

This kind of stuff:

http://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/brstem.html

 

[Deferoxamine]

Is there a lot of neuro on the exam to justify using a source other than FA?

Depends. My test was very Neuro-heavy. Had it not been, I'm sure FA would have been enough, assuming of course that someone just didn't gloss over it once expecting to retain it.

 

[Skelfie]

Many thanks Skelfie for your reply!!🙂
Well then did you find any difference between FA 2008 and FA 2009???
Please tell me if you really found extra info, new data or any important things in FA 2009 when annotating your FA 2008 notes into FA 2009????
I have FA 2008 now,, but do you advice to get the 2009 edition!!!

Thanks a lot n all the best for the scores 🙂

There were some minor differences between the two -- there definitely was a little bit of new material in FA 2009, and some things were rearranged. For example, the 2009 Biochem chapter was reorganized, and the relevant 2008 embryo stuff was removed from various subject chapters and put into the 2009 embryo chapter itself. Also, stuff disappeared from 2008 -- like the herbal supplements section in the 2008 Pharm chapter wasn't in 2009.

It's hard for me to recommend one way or another about getting the latest FA. I can't remember offhand that any FA 2009 new material showed up on my test, but since everyone has a different test, I can't say for sure that those FA 2009 factoids aren't going to give you an extra point or two (sorry for the double negative!!).

If you still have a few weeks before your test, and you think it'll be worthwhile given your personal learning style, then I'd say it's helpful to go over the new FA 2009 (perhaps borrow it from a friend or the library?) and annotate any differences you find into your 2008. I did all of my annotating while I was still taking classes so it was worthwhile to me at that time. But I wouldn't have done it during my 4 free weeks of study time leading up to Step 1 since it's less efficient than other things I do while really studying hardcore.

Hopefully that's of some use... 🙂

 

[omarm]

Thanks Skelfie,, I really appreciate your help 🙂
Yes i think better to for the newer edition as long as i have few weeks to go!!
We should work hard for this once in a lifetime exam!!
Good luck everybody,, and best wishes to you skelfie! good luck for the scores🙂

 

[Mr. Three-Wiggle]

Thanks for the tips. I am just worried about brain stem cross sections and like where is the red nucleus or vestibular nuclei, etc.

This kind of stuff:

http://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/brstem.html

Just took it and I was freaked about that too...
The hardest neuro stuff I had was a description of brown sequard and i had to identify which slice of the spine/brain - with part of it blacked out - would correspond to the symptoms.

Then I also had to ID CNIII on a crappy b/w pic of a brainstem.

It was a joke. Dont waste time on that.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Just took it and I was freaked about that too...
The hardest neuro stuff I had was a description of brown sequard and i had to identify which slice of the spine/brain - with part of it blacked out - would correspond to the symptoms.

Then I also had to ID CNIII on a crappy b/w pic of a brainstem.

It was a joke. Dont waste time on that.

Any more tips?