Official 2009 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[VFib911]

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?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Sublimelvc]

233/97!!! word

The UW Assessments seriously underestimated my score. My overall % in UW predicted my score within 1 point using the Clinical Review calculator.

I am very happy!!!!! (FYI...same score reporting procedure as NeuroStud, ~3 weeks w/ a morning email, IE.. No Tues midnight availability)

--------------------

I just took the beast yesterday and have a few comments that will hopefully be helpful.

But first a little background: Our school gives us about 5-6 weeks to study and we must complete the exam by April 3. Even though I attend a Top 25 medical school, our board scores are only slightly above the median, primarily because of a shorter study period, earlier exam date and clinical emphasis during the first 2 years.

I want to do emergency medicine, internal, or possibly something sub-surgical if I score high enough. Thus I am shooting for the 220-240 range. My pretests indicated something like that. I was not willing to sacrifice my sanity for the sake of this exam, so I studied 6 days a week from 8am - 6 pm with a long lunch.

I used primarily FA, with Wikipedia and RR Path/BRS phys only for things I couldn't understand in FA. I completed about 40% of UW with a 64% average on timed, random sets.

NBME (6 wks out) - 200
UW Assessment # 1 (3 weeks out) - 216
UW Assessment # 2 (1 week out) - 214

I read HY Behavioral cover-to-cover and HIGHLY recommend this book. Behavioral is very high yield and one glaring area where FA is lacking.

The last three days I crammed FA.

FA is definitely sufficient for: Biochem, Micro, Pharm and Phys for the most part. It maybe won't give all the path you need, but that is easily augmented with Goljan and 1/2nd year lectures.

UW is much more detailed (read:esoteric facts) and has more "degrees of separation" between the stem and the choices than the real exam. It was good for learning how to think about the questions. I don't think I would use it as primary learning source.

As for timing. Really, really long stems are usually pretty obvious. Like they will give you all this crap and then say the person has no C-peptide and low blood glucose. Some stems are one sentence.

I definitely made some dumb mistakes on easy questions. It happens.

As for the harder questions, I made a list of about 20-30 questions that stuck with me and looked them up this morning. Most of the ones I got wrong were really random and the knowledge would have only come from studying low-yield sources. This is what separates the 220's from the 250's I guess. About 10 of the questions I still don't know whether I got them right, even after researching them this morning. So that tells me they were either experimental or I am just an idiot.

A word on mental health. I don't think many of the A-types on SDN would admit to the anxiety this exam provokes. I am a pretty chill guy and this exam freaked me out worse than anything in my life. I couldn't sleep and was nauseous the day before. The bottom line is: this anxiety is not justified. Once you sit down and get in the zone it all melts away. Its just you and the exam, dueling it out. Good luck to everybody! I will post my score in a few weeks, hopefully I passed!

 

[Neo2011]

I just took the beast yesterday and have a few comments that will hopefully be helpful.

But first a little background: Our school gives us about 5-6 weeks to study and we must complete the exam by April 3. Even though I attend a Top 25 medical school, our board scores are only slightly above the median, primarily because of a shorter study period, earlier exam date and clinical emphasis during the first 2 years.

I want to do emergency medicine, internal, or possibly something sub-surgical if I score high enough. Thus I am shooting for the 220-240 range. My pretests indicated something like that. I was not willing to sacrifice my sanity for the sake of this exam, so I studied 6 days a week from 8am - 6 pm with a long lunch.

I used primarily FA, with Wikipedia and RR Path/BRS phys only for things I couldn't understand in FA. I completed about 40% of UW with a 64% average on time, random sets.

I read HY Behavioral cover-to-cover and HIGHLY recommend this book. Behavioral is very high yield and one glaring area where FA is lacking.

The last three days I crammed FA.

FA is definitely sufficient for: Biochem, Micro, Pharm and Phys for the most part. It maybe won't give all the path you need, but that is easily augmented with Goljan and 1/2nd year lectures.

UW is much more detailed (read:esoteric facts) and has more "degrees of separation" between the stem and the choices than the real exam. It was good for learning how to think about the questions. I don't think I would use it as primary learning source.

As for timing. Really, really long stems are usually pretty obvious. Like they will give you all this crap and then say the person has no C-peptide and low blood glucose. Some stems are one sentence.

I definitely made some dumb mistakes on easy questions. It happens.

As for the harder questions, I made a list of about 20-30 questions that stuck with me and looked them up this morning. Most of the ones I got wrong were really random and the knowledge would have only come from studying low-yield sources. This is what separates the 220's from the 250's I guess. About 10 of the questions I still don't know whether I got them right, even after researching them this morning. So that tells me they were either experimental or I am just an idiot.

A word on mental health. I don't think many of the A-types on SDN would admit to the anxiety this exam provokes. I am a pretty chill guy and this exam freaked me out worse than anything in my life. I couldn't sleep and was nauseous the day before. The bottom line is: this anxiety is not justified. Once you sit down and get in the zone it all melts away. Its just you and the exam, dueling it out. Good luck to everybody! I will post my score in a few weeks, hopefully I passed!

thanks for sharing with us your experience. Best of luck to you. please let us know how well you performed.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

I want to do emergency medicine, internal, or possibly something sub-surgical if I score high enough. Thus I am shooting for the 220-240 range.

Not trying to pick on you, but I never understand this mindset. You either want to do a surgical subspecialty or you don't - pick your career path based on your interests, not on your step I score.

(now obviously if you wanted to do ortho and then ended up with a 210, you might need to reconsider your options - but my general point is don't let the board score drive you one way or another - we have people every year who get a 240 and then all of a sudden decide that they should do something competitive just because they can)

 

[soulisatomic]

A word on mental health. I don't think many of the A-types on SDN would admit to the anxiety this exam provokes. I am a pretty chill guy and this exam freaked me out worse than anything in my life. I couldn't sleep and was nauseous the day before. The bottom line is: this anxiety is not justified. Once you sit down and get in the zone it all melts away. Its just you and the exam, dueling it out. Good luck to everybody! I will post my score in a few weeks, hopefully I passed!

Thanks for the insight, wish you the best!!

 

[Sublimelvc]

Not trying to pick on you, but I never understand this mindset. You either want to do a surgical subspecialty or you don't - pick your career path based on your interests, not on your step I score.

(now obviously if you wanted to do ortho and then ended up with a 210, you might need to reconsider your options - but my general point is don't let the board score drive you one way or another - we have people every year who get a 240 and then all of a sudden decide that they should do something competitive just because they can)

Why don't you understand this mindset? What you described in your qualification is exactly what I'm planning to do. If I score well enough, I will shoot for ENT, if not, I will be perfectly happy somewhere else. Unfortunately that is our reality.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Why don't you understand this mindset? What you described in your qualification is exactly what I'm planning to do. If I score well enough, I will shoot for ENT, if not, I will be perfectly happy somewhere else. Unfortunately that is our reality.

Because it's a cop-out mentality before even taking the test. If you want to do ENT, great. Go after that, and approach your USMLE studies with the goal of kicking butt. Don't say, "I want to do EM or IM" when what you really want is ENT.

 

[perilou]

I read HY Behavioral cover-to-cover and HIGHLY recommend this book. Behavioral is very high yield and one glaring area where FA is lacking.

Is this the general consensus - that FA is lacking in Behavioral/Psych material?

 

[Richspiders07]

Is this the general consensus - that FA is lacking in Behavioral/Psych material?

I think u r fine w/ FA if you've been exposed to enough practice questions

 

[DoctaJay]

I think u r fine w/ FA if you've been exposed to enough practice questions

I agree. FA combined with the UWorld Behavioral questions should be enough.

 

[Neo2011]

I agree. FA combined with the UWorld Behavioral questions should be enough.

have you taken the step yet?

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Is this the general consensus - that FA is lacking in Behavioral/Psych material?

Another vote for HY behavioral. The stuff in FA is just ok for behavioral...but FA is good prep for the WWJD questions.

HY is a very easy read (1 day) and is very, dare I say it, High Yield.

 

[DoctaJay]

have you taken the step yet?

lol no but I took the Behavioral Science Subject Board in December and those 2 resources helped me to do pretty well. But I'm studying for the big beast like everyone else.

 

[perilou]

Thanks for the responses.

 

[MedLover25]

Took the exam a few days ago.

First things first: I want to make a formal complaint to either the NBME or Prometrics, someone. Because that was incredibly unprofessional and annoying. There were about 4 people taking the USMLE (either Step I or II) when this lady entered the "we're going to watch you on the monitor" room. She starts yapping away to this guy in there for 3 blocks. That's ALL I could hear. I had to put those crappy orange headphones on and press them against my ears just to be able to get through questions.

I constantly stared both of them down during the exam, and they just started laughing it up.

luckily, the guy ended up leaving so she had no one to talk to - but it was beyond ridiculous. Not to mention comments like "I don't know why you people are nervous. It's just an exam. You people are acting like little children." This is NOT something anyone there wanted to hear - because, quite frankly it really isn't just "an exam" - there is SOME weight to this one.

----------------------
Anyways -

I only used FA for behavioral. I read genetics (3 pgs or something) and a couple of anatomy pages, but overall I wasn't a fan. I don't like the format and quite frankly I just felt more comfortable studying either Kaplan videos, Usmle World or class notes. I was getting more out of those sources than FA.

Behavioral: I had watched the Kaplan Behavioral Videos a few months before I prepped just to jog my memory, and I thought they were very good - especially Ethics. The 90 minutes (maybe 60 minutes) of Ethics is what you need to know to answer any questions. Making any ethics course in Medical School absolutely pointless.

When I prepped - I did all of behavioral in FA in maybe 5 hours and thought that was plenty. I really liked their Epi section.

On my test, in order of # of questions (and therefore highest yield) would go: Ethics >> Epi >>>> Psyc (maybe 2 psyc questions, extremely obvious)

Biochem - I'm horrible at this subject. It's funny, because in undergrad I rocked this course. I think I never got a grasp on it because I always crammed for it during school. It was a hard course to study since a family member passed away during that time - and biochem just felt very unimportant (still does - have yet to meet a doctor who thinks knowing glycolysis is going to help you).

So, by some grace of god, I think I did okay on this portion. I couldn't sleep the night before my test, so instead of laying their like an idiot I did about half of kaplan pharm in 4 hours. LUCKILY, about 80% of the pharm I had on the test was exactly what I had just read, and a lot of my biochem questions actually were taught in those pharm sections, so I may have done okay (big surprise).

Anatomy: Honestly, I think the best way to study anatomy would be from a cadaver. Kaplan, Falcon, BRS, etc isn't going to help you except for what nerve gets damaged, etc. But seriously, if they did a review course where they taught you from a body (instead of trying to remember first semester (at least at my school)) it would be incredibly high yield. A lot of questions I remembered my lab prof teaching to us in class actually (which helped).

Micro/Immuno: Here's where I know I made stupid mistakes. Like things that I knew the answer to but my mind made me click something else. I don't know. Surprisingly I had a LOT of Immuno questions - DETAILED. Nothing like I expected. Nothing Goljan taught would have helped. I found myself trying to remember these very esoteric facts my immuno prof taught us. Very low yield stuff seemed to be all over the test for immuno. Micro was straightforward for the most part - but they definitely tried to tie in Path and Physio knowledge in with it.

Physio: not too many straight physio questions, but the ones that were on there were quite detailed. Needed to know physio though to get some of the pharm, path, micro (etc) questions.

Pharm: The Kaplan guy (videos) is awesome. Pharm for the most part was pretty straightforward. Some things I remembered from my Pharm class, somethings from reviewing. Pharm is just one of those subjects that can be really easy to understand, but there's just so much of it. Most questions are first order. A couple of second order or third order questions, but not that bad I don't think (hopefully).

Path: Honestly, I think they teach too many low yield diseases for Path. There are things you HAVE to know, and it felt like that was the majority of the Path questions. I know I made some dumb mistakes on this section, but who knows.

------------------------
For a couple of questions, I think they love to screw with people. Like putting in key aspects of 3 different diseases, to make you think about 3 different diseaess, and then putting those 3 as answer choices. lol

Nothing to worry about or stress about beforehand, because you have to expect some oddball questions going in.

------------------------

Alright, hope this helps somebody out.

Take care guys & good luck!

 

[nlax30]

Thanks for the advice and sorry you had to put up with that crap there at the testing center. I would definitely make a complaint.

Did you feel that the USMLEWorld questions were helpful and representative of the actual test? Our school gives us access to Kaplan's qbank but a few of us are considering also getting UW after hearing that a lot of folks seem to like it.

 

[MountainEM]

Took the exam a few days ago.

First things first: I want to make a formal complaint to either the NBME or Prometrics, someone. Because that was incredibly unprofessional and annoying. There were about 4 people taking the USMLE (either Step I or II) when this lady entered the "we're going to watch you on the monitor" room. She starts yapping away to this guy in there for 3 blocks. That's ALL I could hear. I had to put those crappy orange headphones on and press them against my ears just to be able to get through questions.

I constantly stared both of them down during the exam, and they just started laughing it up.

I second the making of the complaint as it has probably happened before and will happen again so the more complaints she has on her record, the less other students will need to deal with that bs.

I would of done the point and done the zipper the mouth motion for sure. It IS a big Deal.

cheers
d

 

[MedLover25]

Thanks for the advice and sorry you had to put up with that crap there at the testing center. I would definitely make a complaint.

Did you feel that the USMLEWorld questions were helpful and representative of the actual test? Our school gives us access to Kaplan's qbank but a few of us are considering also getting UW after hearing that a lot of folks seem to like it.

Usmle World I thought was great. I thought qbank was too detailed. I did about 400 questions and none helped honestly.

 

[Sublimelvc]

Because it's a cop-out mentality before even taking the test. If you want to do ENT, great. Go after that, and approach your USMLE studies with the goal of kicking butt. Don't say, "I want to do EM or IM" when what you really want is ENT.

Its called a tradeoff. Don't be so black and white.

Look, I can't dunk a basketball. If I really, really wanted to, I would wear those goofy platform shoes, daily jump training plyometrics, lose 20 pounds and drink protein supplements. Then I could probably dunk.

But I'm not willing to do that. It's too big a trade-off. The same was true of the boards. I was not willing to give up my life for 5 weeks (or 2 years for that matter) to destroy the exam. If I do well enough, so be it. If not, I did what I was willing to do considering the circumstances.

Honestly, I know plenty of classmates who feel the same way I do and I have no idea why you chose my post and this thread to voice your disagreement about this philosophical approach.

 

[davosPlatz]

Its called a tradeoff. Don't be so black and white.

Look, I can't dunk a basketball. If I really, really wanted to, I would wear those goofy platform shoes, daily jump training plyometrics, lose 20 pounds and drink protein supplements. Then I could probably dunk.

But I'm not willing to do that. It's too big a trade-off. The same was true of the boards. I was not willing to give up my life for 5 weeks (or 2 years for that matter) to destroy the exam. If I do well enough, so be it. If not, I did what I was willing to do considering the circumstances.

Honestly, I know plenty of classmates who feel the same way I do and I have no idea why you chose my post and this thread to voice your disagreement about this philosophical approach.

I'm with Southern. I'll tell you why - it's not a tradeoff. It's 5 weeks for 40 YEARS, capisce? Do you understand that when you go to residency, barring the few who do multiple residencies (yippee 2 intern year experiences), that's it .. you are practicing after that until you die. Suck up 5 weeks. (I'm speaking more to myself here.) Haha

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Honestly, I know plenty of classmates who feel the same way I do and I have no idea why you chose my post and this thread to voice your disagreement about this philosophical approach.

The reason I replied to your post is that I read it...wasn't trying to pick on you.

I have heard that mentality before, and as I said, I just don't get it. Maybe I'm just wired differently or something - but if I wanted to do ENT, then I would make sure that I did whatever possible to make myself the best ENT candidate I could be. I wouldn't settle for another specialty because I didn't think I could make it - as the poster before me said; you're talking about what you want to do with the rest of your life - it's worth it (to me at least) to work my butt off for 5 weeks and make sure I don't have any regrets.

I had no clue what I wanted to do when I was studying for boards - but my goal in studying was that I wanted to put myself in a position where I got to choose based off my interests; not in a position where the decision was effectively made for me by my boards score.

I can understand if you legitimately don't know what you want to do with your life - but to me it sounded like you actually knew you wanted ENT but were unwilling to just admit to that.

 

[peludoguy]

As mentioned before, the quality and value of this thread is getting watered down with a lot of tangents that don't fit into the "official 2009 step 1 experiences and scores thread." I am very grateful to those folks who kindly post their detailed study plans, exam experiences, and scores. However, in my humble opinion, the rest of the topics are more appropriate to discuss in other threads. Thanks.

 

[Neo2011]

As mentioned before, the quality and value of this thread is getting watered down with a lot of tangents that don't fit into the "official 2009 step 1 experiences and scores thread." I am very grateful to those folks who kindly post their detailed study plans, exam experiences, and scores. However, in my humble opinion, the rest of the topics are more appropriate to discuss in other threads. Thanks.

 

[FutureNeuroStud]

I took the test on 3/30. Same school-alotted prep time as Sublime.

During the first 2 years, I honored most of my courses. I used RR Path & Goljan lectures during Systems Pathophysiology blocks. During test prep (5 wks total), I used FA, UW Qbank, BRS Pharm & Micro flashcards, and RR Biochem (I was weaker in Biochem at the start, so I decided for more in-depth review).

School-provided paper NBME (pre-study): 220 (estimated USMLE 3-digit)
UW: 70% on tutor mode - did all of the questions, then repeated ones I'd missed and ~150 that I had marked.
NBME Form 3 (2 weeks in): 234 - took at home, alone
NBME Form 4 (3 weeks in): 228 - took it in a noisy library...not recommended

Test day: Took quick bathroom breaks after each of the first 2 sections. Section 2 felt like it had a lot of questions that were good candidates for "field test" questions...but who knows. Then took a 15 min break after Section 3, 30 min break after Section 4, 15 min each after Sections 5 & 6. Finished all sections with at least 10 min to spare. Felt confident in the majority of my answers. Noticed a lot of questions with striking similarity to some of the easier questions on UW.

Should get scores back in 2 weeks. Not sure how much stock I put in the predictive nature of the NBME forms after talking to some friends who took them prior to the real deal last year and either scored much higher or somewhat lower than the NBME forms predicted. However, they are a good simulation of the test experience. Overall, I feel good about my test prep and think I'll be in the 230+ range. As is probably evidenced by my name, I wanna do neurosurgery, so the higher the better for getting a residency in a place my wife and I actually want to be (the PhD in Neurobiology shouldn't hurt). Not stressing about it at this point due to the fact that I've done everything I can do and the test is over. What's done is done and I'll just have to work with whatever score comes back. No regrets though.

I would recommend a brief vacation after finishing classes, but before beginning Board study, for anyone who has the time. It was a nice to blow off some stress on the slopes (and in a microbrewery) after busting my ass for 2 years.

For those of you who are earlier in your careers and reading this, I recommend actually learning things the first 2 years, as opposed to simply memorizing enough to pass (or honor) the test. That seemed to help me a lot. Focus on broader, more important concepts early in each course and narrow down your studying to specifics as you get close to the test. That seems logical, but you'd be surprised how many of my classmates just started memorizing from day 1 (or day 5, whenever they recovered from the last block).

 

[FutureNeuroStud]

Overall, I feel like UW is a better review tool than Kaplan Qbank...if used the right way. This is, of course, based on a very limited knowledge of Kaplan, as I only sampled it using a friend's subscription. UW's questions seem to make you think a little more. Someone has posted before about how the answers try to get you to take multiple steps in solving the questions, which requires a better understanding of the material. I also felt like Kaplan picked more nitpicky details to test people on, whereas the UW questions were just more challenging. By using UW "the right way", I mean use it as a learning tool, but attempt to recognize when questions are too specific to fret over. There are some that deal with really important concepts and they come up more frequently. So if you notice you're missing a lot of questions centered around one concept, make sure you learn that concept, b/c it's probably important. However, if you miss one question and never see that concept come up again, that's probably something that's not as high-yield.

As I mentioned before, some of the questions on the real deal were strikingly similar to those in UW, especially the Anatomy and Behavioral Science questions.

Warning: I think both Qbanks put an unnecessary emphasis on some of the more nitpicky details of Pharm. The questions I got on the real deal were not representative of the level of detail in UW and Kaplan Qbanks. There were actually quite similar to the level of detail in the BRS Pharm flashcards, which I highly recommend. Same thing goes for Micro, though to a lesser extent. I get the feeling they might add these types of questions in simply to pad their question count for marketing purposes.

 

[Richspiders07]

Took the test this morning.... Went well overall - started at 7:30 and was out of there by 1. [dont ask.. fast reader... two 20min breaks]. I would advise people to keep tally marks for their blocks completed so you know where you are in the test... may seem stupid, but I thought I had one block left and clicked the next block button only to find myself at the post-test survey.

There was one easy audio in my first block, and an average of 3 or so images in each of the blocks.. all were pretty standard. I felt that the test was fair and straightforward if you've done plenty of practice questions. I used UW and recommend it. Side note: make sure you do the Free 150Q because I had a few questions repeated on my real exam.

I marked probably like 7-12 questions per block, but not all of them were "hard"... just things I never reviewed or learned the first time around [ie: names of all the dang ankle/foot bones]. There were also a few behavioral science questions that were from left field... I couldn't find the answer afterwards in FA or BRS! Like most people have said, FA was sufficient for biostats, embryo, immuno, biochem, and pharm. I dont remember there being many straight physio questions either... anatomy was either ridic easy or stuff I wouldn't have known during my Gross final! Micro qs were straightforward as well.

My only irritation with my exam was that I had the same question twice. And, OF COURSE, it was one of the ones I wasn't sure about. Ugh..


So, in summary I used:

FA
RR Path
BRS Phys
HY Neuroanatomy
HY Anatomy
CMMRS
UW
USMLERx

UCV series - not used by many people anymore, but these were great. Really quick (100pgs) easy reads packed full of testable material. I read 1 book a day during my study month [i had 7 books.. so read them all 4x] You can buy them all on amazon for less than $3 each.

Time will tell...

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Did you find the UCVs had the same type of questions as the real exam? Basically I am asking are they worth the time studying them?

Same question for HY Neuro and HY Anatomy.

 

[Teee]

Congrats RS. Was USMLERx helpful? thanks

 

[Richspiders07]

Did you find the UCVs had the same type of questions as the real exam? Basically I am asking are they worth the time studying them?

Same question for HY Neuro and HY Anatomy.

HY anatomy wasn't that helpful for me.. just because of the ridic easy/ridic hard gradient for that subject...

HY neuro was great - i had multiple brainstem slices, etc and the book was a perfect review

UCVs are't written like questions... but has a new patient presentation on each page with the CC, HPI, PE, Labs, Micro/Macro pathology, Treatment, etc. It basically covers 99% of the material you need to know for the diseases/conditions. I thought they were extremely high yield and helpful in putting it all together. They dont take too much time to read either... like maybe an hour each... 100 pages, 100 HY conditions... magic

 

[Richspiders07]

Congrats RS. Was USMLERx helpful? thanks

I felt Rx was a great supplement. The questions ARE NOT straight FA regurge. They do make sure you dont miss ANYTHING on a page though, which is really helpful. Ex: I had read the Immuno chapter no less than 5 times, but never saw on the Ig diagram that the sides were held together by disulfide bonds... then I had that question and it stuck.

Also, you can avoid the "easy" questions b/c they let you select from easy/medium/hard when making the question block. I will say, there were some "easy" and also "hard" questions that felt the opposite for me. Why? Schools emphasize different things... I had never learned about a lot of the drug overdoses and their treatments, etc, so I initially got all those easy questions wrong.

The questions dont take that long to go through, and you can make numerous full/half length practice tests from the question bank for no extra cost. Great for building endurance.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

HY anatomy wasn't that helpful for me.. just because of the ridic easy/ridic hard gradient for that subject...

HY neuro was great - i had multiple brainstem slices, etc and the book was a perfect review

UCVs are't written like questions... but has a new patient presentation on each page with the CC, HPI, PE, Labs, Micro/Macro pathology, Treatment, etc. It basically covers 99% of the material you need to know for the diseases/conditions. I thought they were extremely high yield and helpful in putting it all together. They dont take too much time to read either... like maybe an hour each... 100 pages, 100 HY conditions... magic

Great tips, so exactly which UCV books should I get?

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

UCVs are't written like questions... but has a new patient presentation on each page with the CC, HPI, PE, Labs, Micro/Macro pathology, Treatment, etc. It basically covers 99% of the material you need to know for the diseases/conditions. I thought they were extremely high yield and helpful in putting it all together. They dont take too much time to read either... like maybe an hour each... 100 pages, 100 HY conditions... magic

I just looked through the UCV books and I see what you mean. They do look helpful but I guess what I meant was did you see similar case presentations on the real exam.

For instance, did you read a question on the real test and think, "Oh, I remember this from the UCV book . . ." I guess recognizing the case is one thing but usually the questions are 2nd or 3rd order so were the UCV books good enough to answer the questions correctly?

Thanks again.

 

[Richspiders07]

I just looked through the UCV books and I see what you mean. They do look helpful but I guess what I meant was did you see similar case presentations on the real exam.

For instance, did you read a question on the real test and think, "Oh, I remember this from the UCV book . . ." I guess recognizing the case is one thing but usually the questions are 2nd or 3rd order so were the UCV books good enough to answer the questions correctly?

Thanks again.

Yes and no. I became crazy good at knowing the diagnosis within the first few lines of the question (perhaps why i took the test so fast..). So... you'll know what they are talking about and then you have all the other info from the "typical case" in UCV to go from there. Like, the 2nd tier question may ask what the histological finding would be... or how you'd treat it.... or what the inheritance pattern is.. etc. All information found in the books.

I had a few questions in UW that I distinctly remember getting correctly from the UCV books. Something about measles and vitamin A and another about thiamine supplementations with MSUD. However, I cannot say I remember a question on the actual test where the UCV book flashed to mind. Not because they didnt help, but because I had done so many questions and read so much crap that it would be hard to keep straight what i learned from where!

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Yes and no. I became crazy good at knowing the diagnosis within the first few lines of the question (perhaps why i took the test so fast..). So... you'll know what they are talking about and then you have all the other info from the "typical case" in UCV to go from there. Like, the 2nd tier question may ask what the histological finding would be... or how you'd treat it.... or what the inheritance pattern is.. etc. All information found in the books.

I had a few questions in UW that I distinctly remember getting correctly from the UCV books. Something about measles and vitamin A and another about thiamine supplementations with MSUD. However, I cannot say I remember a question on the actual test where the UCV book flashed to mind. Not because they didnt help, but because I had done so many questions and read so much crap that it would be hard to keep straight what i learned from where!

Cool, I just needed to decide if I should get these books or not. I don't want to have too many resources and be spread too thin.

Which subjects did you get?

 

[Richspiders07]

Which subjects did you get?

Biochem, Anatomy, Micro I and II, Pathophys I, II, III.

They are all basically the exact same format.. just different emphasis. I found micro the least helpful, but they were still good for quick review. Biochem was the most helpful... you can BS your way through a lot of the biochem questions by knowing all the biochem-type diseases [enzyme deficiencies, etc].

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Biochem, Anatomy, Micro I and II, Pathophys I, II, III.

They are all basically the exact same format.. just different emphasis. I found micro the least helpful, but they were still good for quick review. Biochem was the most helpful... you can BS your way through a lot of the biochem questions by knowing all the biochem-type diseases [enzyme deficiencies, etc].

Thanks for all of your help!

Now have to find them on the cheap. I hate it when shipping costs more than the book.

 

[YADRIAN]

Hi to everyone, I^am a IMG just graduated from the dominican republic and planning to take the USMLE, but i dont know how to start studing and with what books to study since they dont prepare us for USMLE... Please anybody help me to initiate my study plan and give me some tips on the study plans and how to start, i will apreciated it.... please write to me at [email protected] .... God Bless You.

 

[FutureNeuroStud]

I took the test on 3/30. Same school-alotted prep time as Sublime.

During the first 2 years, I honored most of my courses. I used RR Path & Goljan lectures during Systems Pathophysiology blocks. During test prep (5 wks total), I used FA, UW Qbank, BRS Pharm & Micro flashcards, and RR Biochem (I was weaker in Biochem at the start, so I decided for more in-depth review).

School-provided paper NBME (pre-study): 220 (estimated USMLE 3-digit)
UW: 70% on tutor mode - did all of the questions, then repeated ones I'd missed and ~150 that I had marked.
NBME Form 3 (2 weeks in): 234 - took at home, alone
NBME Form 4 (3 weeks in): 228 - took it in a noisy library...not recommended

Test day: Took quick bathroom breaks after each of the first 2 sections. Section 2 felt like it had a lot of questions that were good candidates for "field test" questions...but who knows. Then took a 15 min break after Section 3, 30 min break after Section 4, 15 min each after Sections 5 & 6. Finished all sections with at least 10 min to spare. Felt confident in the majority of my answers. Noticed a lot of questions with striking similarity to some of the easier questions on UW.

Should get scores back in 2 weeks. Not sure how much stock I put in the predictive nature of the NBME forms after talking to some friends who took them prior to the real deal last year and either scored much higher or somewhat lower than the NBME forms predicted. However, they are a good simulation of the test experience. Overall, I feel good about my test prep and think I'll be in the 230+ range. As is probably evidenced by my name, I wanna do neurosurgery, so the higher the better for getting a residency in a place my wife and I actually want to be (the PhD in Neurobiology shouldn't hurt). Not stressing about it at this point due to the fact that I've done everything I can do and the test is over. What's done is done and I'll just have to work with whatever score comes back. No regrets though.

I would recommend a brief vacation after finishing classes, but before beginning Board study, for anyone who has the time. It was a nice to blow off some stress on the slopes (and in a microbrewery) after busting my ass for 2 years.

For those of you who are earlier in your careers and reading this, I recommend actually learning things the first 2 years, as opposed to simply memorizing enough to pass (or honor) the test. That seemed to help me a lot. Focus on broader, more important concepts early in each course and narrow down your studying to specifics as you get close to the test. That seems logical, but you'd be surprised how many of my classmates just started memorizing from day 1 (or day 5, whenever they recovered from the last block).

Just got my score back. They were released at 11:00am and preceded by an email 15-30 min before their release with a link to the score report login. Achieved my goal of >240 and could not be happier. Good luck to the rest of you!

 

[Murcielo]

.

 

[booswim542]

Woo Hoo! Just got my score back: 252/99!

I'm really excited, and I want to share my whole experience, but I have to go to ACLS training. I will be back this afternoon with details. What a journey!

 

[davosPlatz]

Took the test this morning.... Went well overall - started at 7:30 and was out of there by 1. [dont ask.. fast reader... two 20min breaks]. I would advise people to keep tally marks for their blocks completed so you know where you are in the test... may seem stupid, but I thought I had one block left and clicked the next block button only to find myself at the post-test survey.

There was one easy audio in my first block, and an average of 3 or so images in each of the blocks.. all were pretty standard. I felt that the test was fair and straightforward if you've done plenty of practice questions. I used UW and recommend it. Side note: make sure you do the Free 150Q because I had a few questions repeated on my real exam.

I marked probably like 7-12 questions per block, but not all of them were "hard"... just things I never reviewed or learned the first time around [ie: names of all the dang ankle/foot bones]. There were also a few behavioral science questions that were from left field... I couldn't find the answer afterwards in FA or BRS! Like most people have said, FA was sufficient for biostats, embryo, immuno, biochem, and pharm. I dont remember there being many straight physio questions either... anatomy was either ridic easy or stuff I wouldn't have known during my Gross final! Micro qs were straightforward as well.

My only irritation with my exam was that I had the same question twice. And, OF COURSE, it was one of the ones I wasn't sure about. Ugh..


So, in summary I used:

FA
RR Path
BRS Phys
HY Neuroanatomy
HY Anatomy
CMMRS
UW
USMLERx

UCV series - not used by many people anymore, but these were great. Really quick (100pgs) easy reads packed full of testable material. I read 1 book a day during my study month [i had 7 books.. so read them all 4x] You can buy them all on amazon for less than $3 each.

Time will tell...

What are these free 150 questions you speak of? I don't see them anywhere on the UW website.

 

[Instatewaiter]

free 150 is through the NBME

 

[ilovehedgehogs]

2 months out: NBME 1 - 204
1.5 months out: NBME 6 - 224
1 month out: NBME 2 - 230
2 weeks out: NBME 3 - 230
1 week out: UWSA1 - 254
Step 1-246/99

memorized FA, listed to most of the Goljan lectures, read green boxes in RR biochem, all of u world q bank, 40% of kaplan q bank. Reviewed class notes/textbooks only to clarify things in FA or q bank

I bought SO many books I barely used...including some of the high yields and UCV (lots of people really like these tho). I think I attempt to quell nervousness with book buying, haha

 

[Neo2011]

2 months out: NBME 1 - 204
1.5 months out: NBME 6 - 224
1 month out: NBME 2 - 230
2 weeks out: NBME 3 - 230
1 week out: UWSA1 - 254
Step 1-246/99

memorized FA, listed to most of the Goljan lectures, read green boxes in RR biochem, all of u world q bank, 40% of kaplan q bank. Reviewed class notes/textbooks only to clarify things in FA or q bank

I bought SO many books I barely used...including some of the high yields and UCV (lots of people really like these tho). I think I attempt to quell nervousness with book buying, haha

Congrat.....great score!
I took NBME Form 1 few days ago and scored 207...with a month and half left.....do you have any tips for me on what i should concentrate on this time left....i'm looking for 220 on the real deal...thanks

 

[ilovehedgehogs]

Congrat.....great score!
I took NBME Form 1 few days ago and scored 207...with a month and half left.....do you have any tips for me on what i should concentrate on this time left....i'm looking for 220 on the real deal...thanks

wow, you have lots of time...i think I can attribute the first jump in my scores (204--> 230) to U world, and the second jump (230-->254) to memorizing FA, finishing up classes and more u world. I think practice questions are key, and with so much time left, you can probably do even better than 220!! good luck!!

 

[booswim542]

Alright, so I am finally back to give a little more detail on my experiences. I am so happy with my score...I guess in the end it was worth every last minute of studying!

My school allows 6 weeks to study, but I knew I was going to get burned out before then. So I originally scheduled my exam for the 5 week mark. With about 2 weeks left, I pushed it back 4 days, so I ended up studying 5.5 weeks. I got up at 7 every morning and started studying by 7:30. I finished up around 5 or 5:30 when my fiance got home from work and took pretty much every evening off. I also scheduled a day off every week throughout the process, which really helped me focus. The day before the exam was also a day off. I went golfing and watched movies. I was so nervous that I never would have retained anything I studied the day before.

My main resources were:

First Aid
I spent every morning going through the subject of the day with a fine-tooth comb. If something was not explained well, I used Wikipedia. It's awesome for quick look-up. If you're really lost on something though, try to use a more reputable source

Goljan Rapid Review Pathology
I spent afternoons reading Goljan. I pretty much read the thing cover to cover. Goljan really focuses on disease mechanism and covers basic science in great detail. Which is perfect for Step I.

USMLEWorld qBank
Whenever I got bored of reading, I would take a break and do questions. Sometimes I broke them down by subject, sometimes I didn't. I usually took the questions in sets of 20-25 so going through the answers wouldn't be so time consuming. I took most of them on "untimed" mode, because I didn't want to pressure myself, just get some practice. I finished the bank about a week out.

I also used the USMLEworld self assessments. They seemed pretty true to the real thing, although the 2nd SA overshot my real score by 6 points even though I took it 2 weeks out.

I also downloaded bootleg copies of all the NBMEs and went through them at leisure for the 5 days before the exam. I found some answer sets too, but I don't know how reliable they were. I compared my answers to those and did pretty well, but I didn't really want to keep track because I didn't want to freak myself out with a low score 2 days before the exam. I had 3-4 questions on Step I that were verbatim from the NBMEs.

Lastly, I used Netter's anatomy on occasion just to double check my anatomy knowledge, High-Yield biochem to get a little more detail than First Aid, and I used an online Embryology resource provided by my school. Otherwise, everything really is in FA and Goljan.

My Scores
CBSSE (at school 5.5 weeks out): 210
USMLEworld self-assessment 1 (3 weeks out): 228
USMLEworld self-assessment 2 (2 weeks out): 258
REAL Step I score: 252

Best wishes to everyone! PM me if you have any questions!

 

[Neo2011]

USMLEworld self-assessment 1 (3 weeks out): 228
USMLEworld self-assessment 2 (2 weeks out): 258

How did you make this big jump in just one week of studying? Congrat...on an awesome score! Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[PistolPete]

Yeah, a 30 point jump in one week is HUGE. How did you do it?

 

[MountainEM]

"he scored 20 pts in the last 4 mins"
[YOUTUBE]
http://www.youtube.com/v/XGjS6xgsi4w&hl=en&fs=1[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]
http://www.youtube.com/v/Ek1iIOTsiRo&color1[/YOUTUBE]

for the baskets go to 1:45 on 2nd vid

"boo-yah"

congrats

 

[bordetella]

256
been a lurker here for a while! got my score this wednesday, took the exam 4/1. got an email from nbme wednesday morning, score was up at 11am.

I studied ~2 months.
Had a lot of books and had to cut most of them out because it was way too much. I think everyone has these grand ideas of what they will accomplish while studying for boards, most of it just doesn't pan out.

Used FA, RR path, BRS phys, UW, HY neuro, HY behavioral

I felt pretty good about the test when I left which kind of scared me because I thought everyone was supposed to feel awful, but I knew I did the best I could so it didn't really matter I guess.

UW: 70%

Good luck to everyone, feel free to pm me if you have questions.

 

[igottaquestion]

I felt Rx was a great supplement. The questions ARE NOT straight FA regurge. They do make sure you dont miss ANYTHING on a page though, which is really helpful. Ex: I had read the Immuno chapter no less than 5 times, but never saw on the Ig diagram that the sides were held together by disulfide bonds... then I had that question and it stuck.

Also, you can avoid the "easy" questions b/c they let you select from easy/medium/hard when making the question block. I will say, there were some "easy" and also "hard" questions that felt the opposite for me. Why? Schools emphasize different things... I had never learned about a lot of the drug overdoses and their treatments, etc, so I initially got all those easy questions wrong.

The questions dont take that long to go through, and you can make numerous full/half length practice tests from the question bank for no extra cost. Great for building endurance.

Closer to the test date, do you think it would be better to do incorrect questions from uworld a second time, or new questions from usmlerx for the first time? Thanks.