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?

 

[morriske]

My school only gives 3 weeks after finals to take Step 1 which gave me 2 weeks to cram (taking a vacation for the last week). I've been studying a little bit since Jan combined with class work. I've also been doing kaplan qbank since Jan. and got world for the last month. I have a new copy of FA to read/highlight/take notes. I've been doing that for the past 8 days and I have 35 pages left...test is on Friday. Realistically, I'll be fine with anything >225 but I'm really hoping to break 230.

UWorld: 62%
Kaplan qbank: 62%
NBME 2 (day 5/10 day cram session): 530/229

planning to take 5 or 6 on this wed when I'm done studying. Any thoughts on which one is more predicitive?

 

[tdd340]

My thought are there is only bad that can come from taking an assesment 2 days before the real deal. Its not going to change your preparation at all and if you've been doing questions for a while I'm sure your already comfortable with the format.

 

[morriske]

My thought are there is only bad that can come from taking an assesment 2 days before the real deal. Its not going to change your preparation at all and if you've been doing questions for a while I'm sure your already comfortable with the format.

I know-just slightly paranoid. I want to make sure my first assessment score wasn't some kind of fluke and that I am def on track for getting close to my goal/passing...

 

[kdburton]

I know-just slightly paranoid. I want to make sure my first assessment score wasn't some kind of fluke and that I am def on track for getting close to my goal/passing...

It sounds like you are well on your way to passing based on your previous post. I agree with the last person who says its a bad idea because you won't have any appreciable time to improve on sections you score less-than-stellar on, and you risk the chance of doing worse than expected in which case you may be overly anxious on test day. Similarly if you do really well you might be too laid back on test day and that can work to your disadvantage too. Plus you've gotta pay another $45 for it

 

[sebsvenmdc]

My school only gives 3 weeks after finals to take Step 1 which gave me 2 weeks to cram (taking a vacation for the last week). I've been studying a little bit since Jan combined with class work. I've also been doing kaplan qbank since Jan. and got world for the last month. I have a new copy of FA to read/highlight/take notes. I've been doing that for the past 8 days and I have 35 pages left...test is on Friday. Realistically, I'll be fine with anything >225 but I'm really hoping to break 230.

UWorld: 62%
Kaplan qbank: 62%
NBME 2 (day 5/10 day cram session): 530/229

planning to take 5 or 6 on this wed when I'm done studying. Any thoughts on which one is more predicitive?

Hmmm, since I have only done NBME 2 and 5, I could tell you that I think 5 wasn't too much different from 2. You may want to do 6. But find out from people who've done all of them!

 

[morriske]

My thought are there is only bad that can come from taking an assesment 2 days before the real deal. Its not going to change your preparation at all and if you've been doing questions for a while I'm sure your already comfortable with the format.

My husband just convinced me that you are right. There is nothing good that come out of taking an assessment 2 days before the real thing. If I do poorly, I'll go in with little confidence. If I do well, I might go in with too much confidence. I'll just accept the fact that my one assessment score is right where I want it to be and go with it. Might check out Fred V2 questions because it's free.

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

 

[kdburton]

A couple people I talked to seemed to think that they're [recent] test had an appreciable amount of pharm on it that wasn't in First Aid. Originally I was going to dedicate 4-5 days of memorizing the shiz out of FA pharm plus doing BRS Pharm cards, but this kind of scared me. For those of you who took the exam already, do you feel like knowing FA back and forth (in terms of pharm) would be sufficient do do "very well" or would it be worth my while to maybe watch the Kaplan videos in addition - which seems to be highly recommended for that subject on here? Thanks

 

[gsmithers68]

A couple people I talked to seemed to think that they're [recent] test had an appreciable amount of pharm on it that wasn't in First Aid. Originally I was going to dedicate 4-5 days of memorizing the shiz out of FA pharm plus doing BRS Pharm cards, but this kind of scared me. For those of you who took the exam already, do you feel like knowing FA back and forth (in terms of pharm) would be sufficient do do "very well" or would it be worth my while to maybe watch the Kaplan videos in addition - which seems to be highly recommended for that subject on here? Thanks

Whoever you are talking to is wack. My school took the boards in early May and I can personally attest that pharm was 80% from FA and 20% from UW questions. I did not have more than one or two questions total on pharm that I had never seen or a concept I had never had on a question prior. I honestly think that whoever you talked to had post-test anxiety brewing over as many as 3 to 4 questions and maybe is forgetting about the other 40 that they answered fine? I have no idea, but honestly the only section of FA that may not be on par with the test is the CNS/Psych drugs, but even then... most of them are in there.

 

[kdburton]

Whoever you are talking to is wack. My school took the boards in early May and I can personally attest that pharm was 80% from FA and 20% from UW questions. I did not have more than one or two questions total on pharm that I had never seen or a concept I had never had on a question prior. I honestly think that whoever you talked to had post-test anxiety brewing over as many as 3 to 4 questions and maybe is forgetting about the other 40 that they answered fine? I have no idea, but honestly the only section of FA that may not be on par with the test is the CNS/Psych drugs, but even then... most of them are in there.

Haha thanks for the update. I'll probably just stick with FA and BRS cards then...

 

[goodboyof19]

does anyone know the score reporting schedule for this season. that link on the nbme website announcement page is incorrect.

 

[goodboyof19]

never mind, i looked at the previous page. oops!

 

[JonD]

Congrats to those of you who are done! I was just wondering as to how the level of difficulty from the actual exam questions compared to the NBME practice tests? Just kind of looking for an idea on what to expect when I sit down to take it next week...any input would be helpful!

 

[alwaysaangel]

Congrats to those of you who are done! I was just wondering as to how the level of difficulty from the actual exam questions compared to the NBME practice tests? Just kind of looking for an idea on what to expect when I sit down to take it next week...any input would be helpful!

About 30-40% of the questions are like UWorld and 60-70% are more straight forward like NBME. But in general NBME is too easy.

 

[Lespedeza]

I took a practice test ~3-4 weeks before my test date and got a 205 and then I took one 3 DAYS before my test date and got a 209. I had a near melt-down! My UWorld scores were decent. Ended up with a 67% overall, with 65 to 75% in my last few blocks. I did the free 150 the night before and got a predicted MedFriends score of 249. I really hope the score predictor is accurate and that my 2nd NBME score was a fluke. My confidence was shaken for exam day so I can't even trust how I FELT like I did on the exam. 🙁

Well, I got my scores back today and I ended up with a 245/99, which I am very happy about!

UWorld: 67% (with about 65% or so complete)
UWorld Assessment: 205 (~3 weeks til test date)
NBME: 209 (3 days before - I think this was a fluke)
Free 150: 85%ish --> 249 predicted on MedFriends (Night before)
Real Deal: 245/99

I had exactly 6 weeks to study. The first 4 weeks I used the brown method to get an idea of how much time to spend on what. The next 2 weeks I followed Tau's 2 week schedule. I used mostly books recommended in the Tau method.

Books Used:
- First Aid
- RR Path: read through all of it once and lots of it twice. Listened to all the audio (minus Heme/Onc) in the 4 weeks. Did NOT annotate anything from RR into FA.
- BRS Phys: read carefully and annotated.
- HY Neuroanatomy: read through once and annotated FA
- CMMRS + MicroCards: Read through entire CMMRS once and annotated FA
- HY Behavioral Science: Read through once and annotated FA
- HY Cell and Molec Bio: read through most of it (minus any redundant chapters covered elsewhere). Highlighted important sections; didn't annotate too much into FA.
- RR Biochem: read through and annotated FA
- Levinson's Micro Book - Only read Immu section
- HY Embryo: read through carefully and annotated some here and there.

The first 4 weeks I spent carefully reading the above review books and RR Path. I followed along/annotated in FA for Anatomy/Phys and Pharm, but pretty much ignored the path portions of FA. Focused on understanding; didn't worry about memorizing at all.

Following 2 weeks I spent reviewing all of FA + my annotations and skimming through RR Path chapters. I made flashcards for anything I hadn't passively memorized from FA the 4 weeks prior.

Last 3 days I spent cramming all of the flashcards I made (minus micro). Last day I went through 85% of the pharm from FA.

I sutdied on avg 6 to 8 hours a day. I took 1.5 to 2 days off every week.

What helped me the most in retaining all the information is being familiar with Goljan's Path/Audio AND doing very well in my 2nd year classes. I listened to Goljan and read through his book during the school year. If I had one piece of advice for doing well on Step I, it would be to focus hard and do very well in classes throughout the 2nd year.

 

[kdburton]

Well, I got my scores back today and I ended up with a 245/99, which I am very happy about!

UWorld: 67% (with about 65% or so complete)
UWorld Assessment: 205 (~3 weeks til test date)
NBME: 209 (3 days before - I think this was a fluke)
Free 150: 85%ish --> 249 predicted on MedFriends (Night before)
Real Deal: 245/99

I had exactly 6 weeks to study. The first 4 weeks I used the brown method to get an idea of how much time to spend on what. The next 2 weeks I followed Tau's 2 week schedule. I used mostly books recommended in the Tau method.

Books Used:
- First Aid
- RR Path: read through all of it once and lots of it twice. Listened to all the audio (minus Heme/Onc) in the 4 weeks. Did NOT annotate anything from RR into FA.
- BRS Phys: read carefully and annotated.
- HY Neuroanatomy: read through once and annotated FA
- CMMRS + MicroCards: Read through entire CMMRS once and annotated FA
- HY Behavioral Science: Read through once and annotated FA
- HY Cell and Molec Bio: read through most of it (minus any redundant chapters covered elsewhere). Highlighted important sections; didn't annotate too much into FA.
- RR Biochem: read through and annotated FA
- Levinson's Micro Book - Only read Immu section
- HY Embryo: read through carefully and annotated some here and there.

The first 4 weeks I spent carefully reading the above review books and RR Path. I followed along/annotated in FA for Anatomy/Phys and Pharm, but pretty much ignored the path portions of FA. Focused on understanding; didn't worry about memorizing at all.

Following 2 weeks I spent reviewing all of FA + my annotations and skimming through RR Path chapters. I made flashcards for anything I hadn't passively memorized from FA the 4 weeks prior.

Last 3 days I spent cramming all of the flashcards I made (minus micro). Last day I went through 85% of the pharm from FA.

I sutdied on avg 6 to 8 hours a day. I took 1.5 to 2 days off every week.

What helped me the most in retaining all the information is being familiar with Goljan's Path/Audio AND doing very well in my 2nd year classes. I listened to Goljan and read through his book during the school year. If I had one piece of advice for doing well on Step I, it would be to focus hard and do very well in classes throughout the 2nd year.

Congrats on the great score. It looks like it lines up pretty well with your USMLE World performance and the Free 150, but whats up with that NBME? Which form was it, and did you feel like you were performing worse than usual on the questions as you took it?

 

[Whats_up_doc]

Well, I got my scores back today and I ended up with a 245/99, which I am very happy about!

UWorld: 67% (with about 65% or so complete)
UWorld Assessment: 205 (~3 weeks til test date)
NBME: 209 (3 days before - I think this was a fluke)
Free 150: 85%ish --> 249 predicted on MedFriends (Night before)
Real Deal: 245/99

I had exactly 6 weeks to study. The first 4 weeks I used the brown method to get an idea of how much time to spend on what. The next 2 weeks I followed Tau's 2 week schedule. I used mostly books recommended in the Tau method.

Books Used:
- First Aid
- RR Path: read through all of it once and lots of it twice. Listened to all the audio (minus Heme/Onc) in the 4 weeks. Did NOT annotate anything from RR into FA.
- BRS Phys: read carefully and annotated.
- HY Neuroanatomy: read through once and annotated FA
- CMMRS + MicroCards: Read through entire CMMRS once and annotated FA
- HY Behavioral Science: Read through once and annotated FA
- HY Cell and Molec Bio: read through most of it (minus any redundant chapters covered elsewhere). Highlighted important sections; didn't annotate too much into FA.
- RR Biochem: read through and annotated FA
- Levinson's Micro Book - Only read Immu section
- HY Embryo: read through carefully and annotated some here and there.

The first 4 weeks I spent carefully reading the above review books and RR Path. I followed along/annotated in FA for Anatomy/Phys and Pharm, but pretty much ignored the path portions of FA. Focused on understanding; didn't worry about memorizing at all.

Following 2 weeks I spent reviewing all of FA + my annotations and skimming through RR Path chapters. I made flashcards for anything I hadn't passively memorized from FA the 4 weeks prior.

Last 3 days I spent cramming all of the flashcards I made (minus micro). Last day I went through 85% of the pharm from FA.

I sutdied on avg 6 to 8 hours a day. I took 1.5 to 2 days off every week.

What helped me the most in retaining all the information is being familiar with Goljan's Path/Audio AND doing very well in my 2nd year classes. I listened to Goljan and read through his book during the school year. If I had one piece of advice for doing well on Step I, it would be to focus hard and do very well in classes throughout the 2nd year.

Congrats on score.Can you write about your actual experience the day of the exam? Distribution of questions, experimental, etc. Thanks.

 

[nectarine]

random question - but when people report their UW averages, are they meaning cumulative averages? or most recent (like last 10-15 sets)? i've been doing a lot better as of late (65-70%) on UWorld and my cum avg isn't reflecting it that much since i started questions before i had really studied and was getting like 35% correct. thanks for the help 🙂

 

[morriske]

Well, I got my scores back today and I ended up with a 245/99, which I am very happy about!

UWorld: 67% (with about 65% or so complete)
UWorld Assessment: 205 (~3 weeks til test date)
NBME: 209 (3 days before - I think this was a fluke)
Free 150: 85%ish --> 249 predicted on MedFriends (Night before)
Real Deal: 245/99

I had exactly 6 weeks to study. The first 4 weeks I used the brown method to get an idea of how much time to spend on what. The next 2 weeks I followed Tau's 2 week schedule. I used mostly books recommended in the Tau method.

Books Used:
- First Aid
- RR Path: read through all of it once and lots of it twice. Listened to all the audio (minus Heme/Onc) in the 4 weeks. Did NOT annotate anything from RR into FA.
- BRS Phys: read carefully and annotated.
- HY Neuroanatomy: read through once and annotated FA
- CMMRS + MicroCards: Read through entire CMMRS once and annotated FA
- HY Behavioral Science: Read through once and annotated FA
- HY Cell and Molec Bio: read through most of it (minus any redundant chapters covered elsewhere). Highlighted important sections; didn't annotate too much into FA.
- RR Biochem: read through and annotated FA
- Levinson's Micro Book - Only read Immu section
- HY Embryo: read through carefully and annotated some here and there.

The first 4 weeks I spent carefully reading the above review books and RR Path. I followed along/annotated in FA for Anatomy/Phys and Pharm, but pretty much ignored the path portions of FA. Focused on understanding; didn't worry about memorizing at all.

Following 2 weeks I spent reviewing all of FA + my annotations and skimming through RR Path chapters. I made flashcards for anything I hadn't passively memorized from FA the 4 weeks prior.

Last 3 days I spent cramming all of the flashcards I made (minus micro). Last day I went through 85% of the pharm from FA.

I sutdied on avg 6 to 8 hours a day. I took 1.5 to 2 days off every week.

What helped me the most in retaining all the information is being familiar with Goljan's Path/Audio AND doing very well in my 2nd year classes. I listened to Goljan and read through his book during the school year. If I had one piece of advice for doing well on Step I, it would be to focus hard and do very well in classes throughout the 2nd year.

Fred V1 or V2?

 

[Lespedeza]

Congrats on the great score. It looks like it lines up pretty well with your USMLE World performance and the Free 150, but whats up with that NBME? Which form was it, and did you feel like you were performing worse than usual on the questions as you took it?

I'm not really sure what was up with that NBME (I think it was 5). I took it in the evening and was mildly distracted. I did a lot of cramming also in the last 3 days, which I found to be helpful. I should also mention that I normally strive/perform my best under pressure. So I guess all 3 things could have contributed to the rather high score discrepancy.

To address a few PMs I received regarding going over FA. I personally, disliked FA (its organization, or lack thereof, mostly), however, I can't deny that it *does* include so much of what you needed to know. I'm glad I spent the time to make flashcards for stuff I hadn't passively memorized already.

As for the actual test day. I took Fredv1. I don't really have much more to add that hasn't already been said. I went into the test expecting to have a few questions from each section that would be from left field. I attributed these to experimental ones being thrown in and didn't agonize over them. For the most part, I am almost always able to identify the disease process that is being asked about- often within the first few words. Whether or not I remember the details to go from A to B and then from B to C is another story. One strong impression that I did have was that there were sooo many topics that I had studied that weren't even mentioned at all. I also felt like certain topics, like nutrition (specifically VB12), were mentioned in 3 or 4 different ways (i.e. heme/onc, GI, neuropathy, etc). It just seemed like overkill.

Hope that's helpful.

 

[hateroftheyear]

EDIT: yeah, I was quite the whiner coming out of this exam. i thought i had massively underperformed and i ended up beating my best practice score. don't listen to your gut, it has **** for brains (quote: high fidelity). put the test out of your head. it's over.

 

[tomorrowgirl99]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

I'm sure you did better than you think you did.

 

[NCF145]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

That empty feeling is usually a good sign.

 

[kdburton]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

Regardless of what exam it is, people tend to remember the topics/questions that were hard or that they didn't knwo the answer to. When you weren't "under pressure" during practice exams you probably weren't stressed into remembering all the difficult topics/questions. Plus any of them you did have in your unconscious memory were whiped out when you got your results later and realized you did well. After the real test you remember everything that went wrong and then have three weeks to think about it (even if it really wasn't that many questions). I'm sure you did fine. Either way you're done!!

 

[RisingSun]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

We know that you studied real hard for this test. But we have no idea how hard everyone else that took the test with you (or at least those same questions) studied. Chances are that if you worked real hard and found the test to be challenging, then everyone else did, too, and probably fared similarly or worse given the same questions. Keep your chin up, I'm sure that your test score will reflect the effort that you put into studying!👍

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

Do you mean completely random questions or more like whole topics that were not covered in FA?

 

[Whats_up_doc]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

Can you give us the breakdown of the exam. Thank you. I don't think you failed, after all you are a yale MSTP. Isn't that like an ultracompetitive place to get into?

 

[tdd340]

Took the beast this week. Felt exactly like UWorld level complexity for the most part. For those that have gotten their scores back where and how do we find out that they are available? I know it won't be for a while but I want to be able to start checking obsessively as soon as possible.

 

[hari-bhari]

Just a heads up for anyone using the downloaded NBME forms with the attached scoring rubric: it may not be accurate for every exam. I took form 5 just now and a 570 correlated to a 238 on the official NBME rubric that came with my score report, whereas it was a 234 on that downloaded rubric. Not a huge difference but just a point of advice.

NBME 5 was the first form I've taken so I can't compare it to others, but I will say that I thought it was hard / different compared to Uworld. You can get a lot of Uworld questions right by reasoning and not really having a strong fund of knowledge, and my score has been consistently 70-75% for the last week. However the NBME tested whether you knew certain details COLD, and if you didn't you couldn't answer the questions. It was not little minute details (like Kaplan Q bank tests), however I have been able to get Uworld questions right so far without knowing some of the things that I missed on this exam. It was also kind of neuro/psych pharm heavy (maybe I felt that way because I haven't studied those properly yet), and also I thought behavior science questions were quite hard (I also have not studied behavioral yet). I hadn't missed very many Behavioral science on Uworld, but my score on the NBME was borderline. Biochem was pretty straightforward, and I had very very few questions on Micro. Resp physio was hard so know it well.

Bottom line, I would suggest taking an NBME sooner rather than later because the questions are different and harder in certain respects (my original plan was just to take one a week and a half in advance, and I'm glad I changed that). Also, I got a 190 on the CBBSA just 4 weeks ago without having studied at all, so don't believe when people say you will only go up 25-30 points (maybe that's true if you actually studied for the first one).

 

[unhigenyx]

UWorld: 75% (100% complete)
NBME: 253, 253 and 265 (1 month, 1month and 15 days out)
Official score: 261/99

I posted on some other forum, so just copy-pasting it here:

Hi,

Here is my experience. I think my situation is kind of unusual, so thought of summarizing my experience. First a little about my background so that you can put my experience in your perspective-

+ IMG - 6 yrs since graduation
+ an average student. in fact, passed most of my medical school tests staying below the mean
+ joined graduate school to finish PhD in a field related to immunology
+ so, while my touch with medicine was a mess, i think i did better in mol bio, immuno etc.

USMLE score - 261/99

Prep time - 3.5 months with 2.5 months full-time preparation. By full-time I mean 12+ hrs everyday.

USMLE World Qbank - about 75% or so (see below)

NBME - three of them predicted 253, 253 and 265 (the first two about a month out and the last one 15 days out)

Kaplan Qbank - didnot do it.

Prep material -

- Used kaplan notes that I borrowed from a friend (not sure what edition it is, but old one I guess). Kaplan Physio is terrific. fundamentals of physiology are tested much more than it appears. Most pathology Qs (cardio, resp and endocrine) had integrated knowledge of physio.
Micro is very high yield and overall very well organized.
Anatomy is a little too much in my opinion. I wasn't tasted as much so in a way waste of preparation. Immuno - read thru once, its a lot of details - certainly enough for the test. It was a high yield on my test. The Qs were not about the principles, but more from disease point of view.
Biochem - is enough. Curiously, Biochem was not a high-yield on my test.

- Goljan Pathology (did not even touch Kaplan pathology book). Fantastic book! Agreed its an overkill. But if you are hungry to read more, this is the book. I am glad I chose this. This one brings a lot of 'step 2' fundamentals in step 1, but I think overall I would still stick to this book and not try anything more. I read thru the book about 3 times. It was painful, but the end result certainly justifies it.

- Behavioral and statistics - did BRS. Honestly, did not pay much attention to this subject coz I was doing rather good during the practice tests. However, it is the subject I scored the lowest in the actual test.
Being in research for 5 yrs, my statistics was at par with what is tested on USMLE.
For ethics and other general stuff, I am not sure if I would chose the same book or switch to kaplan if I had to do it all over again. Ethics Qs were certainly tricky, but as I said I am not sure how much of reading would have helped.
Psychiatry - I liked the BRS book (again, more than high yield).

- Goljan lectures - heard once. I think they are great to understand how USMLE operates. So rather than getting specific knowledge out of it, I tried to extract the pattern. Also, it is high-yield material.

- USMLEworld Qbank - did 100% over 2 months. started around 60-62% and moved up to 75+%. Cumulative score shows 79% but its definitely inflated. Also, I think comparing your results to percentile is a terrible way to judge your progress since many users retake the questions until they get it right and thus inflate the scores. I kept repeating Qs that I got wrong.

(On a side note - I wonder why I havent come across this as yet, but USMLEworld is great and difficult. However, since I started preparing for step 2 ck, it dawned upon me that one reason it is difficult is that they test you for step 2 material! About 10% Qs I got wrong on UW were straight out of step 2 ck review material. On the other end, I found real test much fairer. So, take UW Qs with a pinch of salt.

Edit: Again, I haven't come across this approach, but I found it extremely helpful. Rather than doing a block of 48, I did either 5 or 10 Qs at a time for most of the time. Periodically, I would take a block or two to test my patience. But in general, I found myself unable to LEARN if I did 48 Q at a time. 5-10 Qs were great as a learning tool since you are more likely to carefully go through all the answers.

- NBME - an absolute requirement. Not only orients your prep to the real test, but also tells you when you are ready. Took three of them and scored exact same (see above). It is funny to me that there is an endless discussion about which NBME is better. It is a standardized test guys! And so is USMLE! These tests come with a mean and standard error. If a given test is harder or easier, the scores are adjusted accordingly. For what it is worth, I am ready to put my money on getting a score within +/-3 from what NBME predicted. I would rather spend my time studying than discussing these matters.

My only regret is that I didnt take all six of them. Also, I would space them out rather than taking a lot of them towards the end.

- The crux of Step 1 is that they want to test you about principles of disease, but in many cases, they dont tell you what the disease is. Hence, the 2-step logic. I found it very useful to prepare accordingly. When you review (esp Pathology) try and create a picture of the disease. See what are THE differentiating points that they HAVE to give you in order to make diagnosis. That's the key. Once you know those points (se.g. Heinz body - they won't tell you straight up. They will describe Heinz body. If you rehearsed that in your mind at least once, BANG!. Now it is a piece of cake.)

- An important lesson I learned WHILE taking the test (and hence, in retrospect) is that the test doesn't give you much time to think. Usually, I'd finish around 45 mins for a UW block. However, it took me longer to go through each of the blocks during the real test. So, do not leave things to think out DURING the test ( I certainly did). For example, you may tell your self that I will think through out how to calculate specificity vs sensitivity during the test. If you had enough time, its actually easy. But, even those things become pressing. So, the best way is to just have the basics at your figer tips and not have to derived at (I hope I am clear about what I said).

- One final point - lot of people have emphasized this, but I will exaggerate it. USMLE wants to you be schizophrenics. The more lateral connection you can make, the higher you score. The test is difficult, sure. But its definitely doable.

Good luck,

 

[Perudoc]

unhigenyx,

Congratulations for your terrific score. Did you do NBME online or offline?

 

[docbill]

- One final point - lot of people have emphasized this, but I will exaggerate it. USMLE wants to you be schizophrenics. The more lateral connection you can make, the higher you score.

Best description of the test I have ever heard. It is right on the money.

 

[unhigenyx]

unhigenyx,

Congratulations for your terrific score. Did you do NBME online or offline?

Thank you. I took NBME online and got 680, 680 and 800.

 

[Vonsmack]

- One final point - lot of people have emphasized this, but I will exaggerate it. USMLE wants to you be schizophrenics. The more lateral connection you can make, the higher you score. The test is difficult, sure. But its definitely doable.

Good luck,

I don't get specifically what you're trying to say here. Care to elaborate?

 

[docbill]

I don't get specifically what you're trying to say here. Care to elaborate?

Really? You need to review you psychiatry. It is one of the characteristics of a schizophrenic pt.

 

[kdburton]

Really? You need to review you psychiatry. It is one of the characteristics of a schizophrenic pt.

... and that sounds like the worst advice for this test

 

[jp104]

Really? You need to review you psychiatry. It is one of the characteristics of a schizophrenic pt.

I hope I hear Goljan talking me through the exam when I take it

 

[sebsvenmdc]

Thank you. I took NBME online and got 680, 680 and 800.

Which NBMEs are these? On NBME 5, 630 was a 251...

 

[unhigenyx]

Which NBMEs are these? On NBME 5, 630 was a 251...

sorry, i haven't paid much attention to it. here is what i had in mind-

forums.studentdoctor.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=10592&d=1215559478

i took 2, 5 and 6.

 

[unhigenyx]

I don't get specifically what you're trying to say here. Care to elaborate?

what i meant was that a typical USMLE Q will span across various disciplines. It may start as a patho Q and end up asking you to find the most imp adverse effect of its treatment and things like that. Hence, while preparing, you have to try and guess at least some of these associations.

Of course the reference to schizophrenia was an exaggeration, but schizophrenics typically make very loose associations and tend to go tangentially.

good luck,

 

[dbbmd]

The exam was mostly fair, but there were definitely challenging questions every block that could not be answered with information found in First Aid, UW, or Kaplan. Unfortunately, based on my post-test googling, I almost uniformly guessed poorly yesterday, had a bad day, a lot of my weakest material showed up. I was in shock when I finished, used most of my break time to calm myself down between blocks, but right now I feel an indescribable emptiness. I spent months preparing for this exam and had grown accustomed to the idea of doing well after performing well on the practice exams. Sacrificed months of my life and I feel as if my reward was a kick to the nuts on test day. I don't feel like moving, eating, doing anything but sitting here and waiting for my score. Incredibly depressed and defeated.

Study hard so you don't have to feel like I feel right now.

Wow, I took it saturday and feel exactly the same way!!! I was doing pretty well on the nbme's (on 255 on 4, 258 on 5), but I felt like there was a plethora of unanswerable behavioral, embyro of all things, and pharm! Hopefully, it will turn out okay!

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Wow, I took it saturday and feel exactly the same way!!! I was doing pretty well on the nbme's (on 255 on 4, 258 on 5), but I felt like there was a plethora of unanswerable behavioral, embyro of all things, and pharm! Hopefully, it will turn out okay!

Why do you feel they were unanswerable, just random questions or uncommon topics?

Also, would you do anything differently?

 

[dbbmd]

I took my test on 6/6/09. It was D-day, so I found it fitting. Our school gives us 5-6 wks before we start clinical rotations and I wanted at least a week of vacation beforehand, so I studied for 5 weeks taking sundays off, around 12 hours a day.

I started USMLERx at the end of October (it was the cheapest q-bank with the most questions). I really liked it and in retrospect (having completed UWORLD), I found it's coverage of the firstaid material very helpful. I would do around 20 questions a day including all material up to that point that we had gone over in second year. Before each of my tests, for example for endocrine, I would redo all the questions in endocrine that I had missed in that subject. Starting in January, I would listen to Goljan on my walks to and from class and was able to complete all of them before school finished. I was also able to complete all of the questions of Rx before starting my 5 weeks of full-day studying. I really think that doing these questions was the smartest decision in my preparation that I made. I did my first nbme about 2 months before we got out of class and got a 205. Then during spring break (about a month before class ended), I took that week and a half to read the non-organ system books of the 2005 edition of Kaplan. I took nbme 2 after that and got a 229.

When class ended, I took my first 3 days to go through FA biochem, micro, immuno, because I still felt like they were my weakest areas. I took NBME 3 after that and scored a 236.

I spent the next 7 days going straight thru Goljan Rapid Review. I took form 1 of UWORLD about three days into that and scored the equivalent of a 242. I then took my practice site test and scored 87%. Everyday during lunch I would take an hour to eat and then an hour to listen to a sped up version of Goljan. After finishing Goljan, I took NBME 4 and scored a 255.

The next 3 days I went straight through BRS Physiology. After finishing that, for the next 5 days I went through all of the FA organ systems. Two days into that I took NBME 6 and scored a 242. After finishing the FA organ system material, I took a day to study High Yield Neuro, and a day for BRS Behavioral. I was a neuro major and did the best in my neuro course in med school, so it was more of a strength (I'm convinced neuroscience is the best pre-med major).After this I simulated the exam day by taking back to back NBME 5 and form 2 of UWORLD and scored a 258 and 256 respectively.

Throughout this period I would do 1-2 sets of all-random timed questions sets of 48 from UWorld. I started with an average of 71% and ended up with an overall of 72%. I found World to be super random at times throwing red herrings left and right, but delivering the goods in their explanations (which I probably should have paid more attention to). I only glanced at each question reading the learning objective if I got it right and only sometimes reading the full explanations. My scores followed a sinusoidal wave, fluctuating from 81% to 66%.

My last week of preparation, I blitzed through FA one last time and finished up listening to Goljan. I ended up not having enough time to go through Renal, Respiratory, and parts of Pharm due to extreme burn out!! I took only the night leading up to my test off.

I failed to mention that throughout the last part of the school year I would go over a BRS biochem flash cards (I found these to be very good), BRS pharmcards, and BRS micro cards ( I went over these the least).



It was quite the day! I took a bathroom break after the first two sections, only 15 minutes for lunch, and a 10 minute break after my 6th section (which I found was the most physically draining section to get through).

I usually have a pretty decent idea of how I did (I knew the nbme 4, 5 went pretty well and 6 not so much). I didn't feel to hot after finishing which I guess is pretty standard.

Step 1 6/6/09 250/99!

 

[dbbmd]

Why do you feel they were unanswerable, just random questions or uncommon topics?

Also, would you do anything differently?

Looking back a little more seriously, I think there was a few (5) behavioral and 2 embryo questions that were just not in what I studied. Sorry, "plethora" is probably too strong of a word. I don't think embryo is high yield (I used only Rx, UW, and FA), so I don't think I would have changed my study plan. I don't know what I could have done differently for those behavioral questions.

 

[rahulb]

you should delete your post before nbme subpoenas your IP and voids your test.

did you miss the portion that explicitly states not to discuss specific questions

 

[dbbmd]

Sorry! I deleted all of the test info I incuded. I guess that's what happens when you skip the tutorial 🙂

 

[heparin]

Wow, I took it saturday and feel exactly the same way!!! I was doing pretty well on the nbme's (on 255 on 4, 258 on 5), but I felt like there was a plethora of unanswerable behavioral, embyro of all things, and pharm! Hopefully, it will turn out okay!

I'm glad I am not the only one that feels like this, I was getting 242 on NBME 5 and 252 on UWSA... and then when it came to the actual test i just feel like I bombed.

I was studying the hardest I ever have for everything. And then I messed up questions that I really should have known, and there was also a lot of stuff that I never heard of, a ton of derm!

 

[morriske]

I took the test Friday and feel like it did not go all that well. Plenty of questions that I was unsure of/didn't know and felt like my test was full of questions in my weakest areas 🙁 I've been whining on my vacation about how I might have failed (and I obvi feel the need to check sdn )

Only had 2 weeks between finals and my test date. Got a 229 on NBME 2 one week out and 84% on the free 150 2 days before my test

AND July 15th...are you f***** kidding me?!!!

 

[doc4Jesus]

Hey guys...I have been reading this thread for a while now and it has really helped me in preparation for this exam so I felt as though I needed to add my experience in hopes that it would help someone else...

A little about me...I have studied pretty hard the past two years and have done well in school. As someone earlier mentioned, there is NO REPLACEMENT for working hard before studying for boards. With that said here are a few scores that I had leading up to the exam:
After finals (3.5 weeks to exam): NBME 6: 212
1 week in: UWSA 1 : 226
2 weeks in: UWSA 2: 236
UW: started around 60% and finished with a combined 65% (timed, random, 1st time through)
NBME 5 (5 days before): 231

The Experience: The exam was much easier than UW but harder than NBME. All in all if you are used to UW you will be happy with these questions. IMPORTANT: In school, I would finish all my exams probably in the top 5 (in terms of time) out of 100...I take exams very quickly. On random UW blocks of 48 I would finish with 20 MINUTES left. On the real thing there were 3 blocks that I BARELY FINISHED. MAKE SURE YOU ARE USED TO THE TIME FRAME. The clinical scenarios can be very long but there are key words within them that throw up red flags so read quickly but don't skip through them. YOU CAN STUDY ALL YOU WANT AND KNOW EVERYTHING BUT IF YOU DON'T MANAGE YOUR TIME ALL THAT KNOWLEDGE WILL BE USELESS FOR THE QUESTIONS THAT YOU DID NOT GET TO SPEND ADEQUATE TIME ON.

The exam was very well written...all fair questions...there were both VERY in depth questions and very easy questions that people not in med school could answer. Be prepared for anything by being prepared to think! Don't expect to know everything going into this exam but your knowledge should be able to guide you through answers that are obviously wrong and answers that might be right.

Here is my advice: If you are a memorizer...BEWARE of this exam. This exam is about thinking. MEMORIZING FA if you don't understand what you are memorizing is a WASTE OF TIME. Probably less than 10% of my exam involved regurgitating a random fact. The rest of the exam was pure application. FA + Goljan + UW = success!! There is no doubt about this. There is a thread somewhere else but these three things are all you need if 230-260 is an ok score for you.
The best advice that I can give is to use FA as your resource of the major topics that you SHOULD know. Go through Goljan annotating into FA ALL OF HIS BLUE NOTES (probably 50 questions on my exam straight from here). Make sure you do ALL of UW questions AND UNDERSTAND WHY YOU GOT QUESTIONS WRONG. When you are finished if you were to do another random block of 48 you should easily break 90%...or you didn't learn from your mistakes. ANNOTATE IMPORTANT FACTS FROM UW INTO FA AS YOU READ EXPLANATIONS.

I spent around 3.5 weeks preparing for this and I felt as though this was plenty of time (granted I am only shooting for a 220-250). So if you want to be efficient with your time...don't study things that you already know...study things that you dont' know (i.e. don't memorize sections in FA that you are already solid on).

THE WEEK BEFORE THE EXAM: NO NEW RESOURCES, plan your time accordingly and study the high yield facts that you annotated into FA. UNDERSTAND THEM!! Be able to think through how the patient would present, how you would treat them, etc. If you haven't annotated Goljan into FA...THE LAST WEEK MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT HIS BLUE NOTES AND BLUE BOXES. These are very high yield and a lot of them are not in FA.

a quick note: I know two people who scored around 260 using ONLY UW AND FA...so when people say focus your time on these resources, this is why.

I hope this has helped at least someone...I will be praying for you all to do well and to have peace through this experience. If there are any other questions you have, feel free to ask me.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

When you say blue notes, do you mean the blue text in the margins, or the blue tables in RR Path?

 

[doc4Jesus]

The blue texts in the margins and the other blue box clinical correlations (such as the protein C deficiency when given Warfarin, etc). The blue tables were good but only if you have time...