Official 2009 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[VFib911]

---

Members do not see this ad.

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?

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

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...

Cool, thanks.

 

[sebsvenmdc]

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.

So, the question stems for some overall...much longer than UW? Two or three times longer? Ugh, I hate having to read that fast, especially on a computer! 😱

 

[doc4Jesus]

Overall I would say they were a little longer but there are also plenty of short ones. I think the main thing was that I understood the weight of each question more so than UW. In UW when I came across something that I didn't know I wouldn't spend that much time thinking about it but on the real thing I did my best on each question which took more time overall...So I basically just spent more time on the ones that I did not know for sure. The questions stems are definitely not 2x or 3x longer. Still only a paragraph or two.

 

[jsong812]

So I just took my exam today and overall, I felt the exam was very straight forward and doable. All the horror stories I heard from previous exam takers freaked me out but if you've studied hard and are confident going into the test, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Granted, I don't know my score yet so you should take everything I say with a grain of salt but I felt like the majority of the questions didn't require all that much application and reasoning. Contrary to what the previous poster said, I felt like 2/3 of the exam was straight recall. I would say about 90 percent of what was tested on my exam was straight from first-aid. FA/UW pharm was dead on. Path and phys. from FA may have been a little lacking but Goljan was more than enough. I also read HY Molecular/Cell Bio. and although I found it helpful, it may have been a little excessive. All the test required you to do was understand BASIC molecular biology and know how to apply it to new theoretical cases. I thought the most difficult part of the exam was the timing. The questions themselves aren't that difficult...it's just that you're under a time constraint. On average, I finished with about ten minutes left and barely had enough time to check over my answers. Listening to the heart murmurs was a waste of time; I didn't learn anything new from them, and it ended up just eating up A LOT of time. For the most part, you can answer the question just from the stem alone. Also, make sure you are answering what the question is asking. The question stem will be littered with a whole bunch of distractors and so it's easy to notice a few buzz words and then pick an answer you're familiar with. While the answer itself may be true, it may not necessarily answer the question. As for the distribution of topics tested, I felt that it was pretty even. I know a previous poster mentioned that the NBME is starting to focus on diseases that are more common here in the states but I felt that my exam didn't reflect that at all. I had a whole bunch of such and such patient comes from Pakistan and has fever, night sweats, and hemoptysis, etc...Let me know if you guys have any other questions

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

So I just took my exam today and overall, I felt the exam was very straight forward and doable. All the horror stories I heard from previous exam takers freaked me out but if you've studied hard and are confident going into the test, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Granted, I don't know my score yet so you should take everything I say with a grain of salt but I felt like the majority of the questions didn't require all that much application and reasoning. Contrary to what the previous poster said, I felt like 2/3 of the exam was straight recall. I would say about 90 percent of what was tested on my exam was straight from first-aid. FA/UW pharm was dead on. Path and phys. from FA may have been a little lacking but Goljan was more than enough. I also read HY Molecular/Cell Bio. and although I found it helpful, it may have been a little excessive. All the test required you to do was understand BASIC molecular biology and know how to apply it to new theoretical cases. I thought the most difficult part of the exam was the timing. The questions themselves aren't that difficult...it's just that you're under a time constraint. On average, I finished with about ten minutes left and barely had enough time to check over my answers. Listening to the heart murmurs was a waste of time; I didn't learn anything new from them, and it ended up just eating up A LOT of time. For the most part, you can answer the question just from the stem alone. Also, make sure you are answering what the question is asking. The question stem will be littered with a whole bunch of distractors and so it's easy to notice a few buzz words and then pick an answer you're familiar with. While the answer itself may be true, it may not necessarily answer the question. As for the distribution of topics tested, I felt that it was pretty even. I know a previous poster mentioned that the NBME is starting to focus on diseases that are more common here in the states but I felt that my exam didn't reflect that at all. I had a whole bunch of such and such patient comes from Pakistan and has fever, night sweats, and hemoptysis, etc...Let me know if you guys have any other questions

How many times did you read FA?

 

[jsong812]

How many times did you read FA?

I followed the Taus plan very closely, so I went through it at least three times. I also cross referenced all the questions I got wrong in UWorld with FA, so maybe 3.5-4x.

My base line score was a 220 on NBME 5
236 on NBME 4
248 on USWA #1
257 USWA #2
255 NBME 3
UW 76% all timed, unused, and random

 

[Veronicacronica]

I followed the Taus plan very closely, so I went through it at least three times. I also cross referenced all the questions I got wrong in UWorld with FA, so maybe 3.5-4x.

My base line score was a 220 on NBME 5
236 on NBME 4
248 on USWA #1
257 USWA #2
255 NBME 3
UW 76% all timed, unused, and random

How was behavioral (any recent test takers want to comment?)?
Did FA/UW really help with behavioral?

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

How was neuro and is FA sufficient?

 

[jsong812]

How was behavioral (any recent test takers want to comment?)?
Did FA/UW really help with behavioral?

For the most part, I thought FA/UW was plenty for behavioral. The ethical questions were by far the hardest. For some reason, I got a whole bunch on sun tanning and skin care and I don't think there was any other way I could have prepared for those questions.

 

[jsong812]

How was neuro and is FA sufficient?

Actually, I'm probably the strongest in Neuro so I may be a little biased when I say this but the questions were very straight forward and FA is plenty. I had a whole bunch of lesions questions where they showed you a brain stem and wanted you to locate the site of the lesion. A few of them were MRIs, one was an actual brain stem stained for myelin, and there were also a few cartoons.

 

[nlax30]

Actually, I'm probably the strongest in Neuro so I may be a little biased when I say this but the questions were very straight forward and FA is plenty. I had a whole bunch of lesions questions where they showed you a brain stem and wanted you to locate the site of the lesion. A few of them were MRIs, one was an actual brain stem stained for myelin, and there were also a few cartoons.

I agree, especially for "where's the lesion" type of questions. There is one little section in 1st Aid that lists which part of the brain (midbrain, pons, or medulla) the various cranial nerve nuclei are located and knowing that is KEY for most of those brainstem lesion type of questions. Somewhere in the question stem they'll probably give you some sort of physical exam finding related to a cranial nerve defect..... as long as you know which nerve it is then you can narrow down to which part of the brainstem.

 

[humabot]

Its over...6/8/09 is history.

Felt like I had a lot of neuro(was all over my test), respiratory, and gi....I noticed more biostats questions than straight up ethic questions...

below class average.
baseline (6 weeks ago), nbme 1: 190
3 weeks ago, nbme 4: 226
2 weeks ago, nbme 5: 238
1 week ago, free 150 Q's: 86% I think.
UW twice random, timed: first time through 66%, second time through 79%.

I figured i stick to a few sources. I thought once i mastered FA and Goljan RR/audio then I would venture out to study other sources. Never did end up venturing out to other sources during study period. Just kept going over FA/RR over and over and over again. I went through some FA sections like 10x and some goljan sections like 5x.


Schedule:
7-12-read goljan
12-1 lunch
1-6--questions started with 48 Q sets then like two weeks in started doing more. reviewd questions and annotated FA during this time period. I did questions during this time period because this is the worst time of day for me to focus....this really helped me with block 5,6, and 7 on the real exam...i was just so wired in doing questions daily after lunch that it felt like any other day.
6-11 read FA

I took small 10 minute breaks here and there and napped alot...everytime I would get the impulse to go online I would go to webpath and look at pics in ten minute intervals.

FA/RR is still ringing in my head.....wow.

overall, test was fair...I started getting scared at the last minute because I did not touch other sources, but I think things went fine.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

I agree, especially for "where's the lesion" type of questions. There is one little section in 1st Aid that lists which part of the brain (midbrain, pons, or medulla) the various cranial nerve nuclei are located and knowing that is KEY for most of those brainstem lesion type of questions. Somewhere in the question stem they'll probably give you some sort of physical exam finding related to a cranial nerve defect..... as long as you know which nerve it is then you can narrow down to which part of the brainstem.

So what you are saying is based on the physical findings, figure out the cranial nerve damaged, then know where in the brain stem the cranial nerve comes from?

 

[Perudoc]

where can I find those pictures? HY Neuro??

 

[jsong812]

where can I find those pictures? HY Neuro??

Yep. The two chapters on spinal cord and brain stem lesions were really good. Make sure you know how the location of the tracts change as they go from the spinal cord to the brain stem (i.e spinothalamic tract is right ventral to the anterior horn in the spinal cord but it becomes more dorsolateral as you go up into the medulla).

 

[nlax30]

So what you are saying is based on the physical findings, figure out the cranial nerve damaged, then know where in the brain stem the cranial nerve comes from?

Yea, pretty much. At least the ones I had were straight forward like that. Pt has a bleed or some sort of lesion, then gives you several deficits.... one of which may be an eye that's deviated inferior and lateral, so you can say that CN3 is affected, and then know that CN3 nucleus is in midbrain.

I may of had like 1 or 2 questions that asked about some nit picky specific detail on a nuclei but that's it.

 

[harrisonIM]

I also read HY Molecular/Cell Bio. and although I found it helpful, it may have been a little excessive. All the test required you to do was understand BASIC molecular biology and know how to apply it to new theoretical cases.

Agreed. Everyone talks this book up. I read some chapters from the hard to find 1st edition and wasn't impressed. I wonder how it go such a good reputation on here.

 

[sebsvenmdc]

Its over...6/8/09 is history.

Felt like I had a lot of neuro(was all over my test), respiratory, and gi....I noticed more biostats questions than straight up ethic questions...

below class average.
baseline (6 weeks ago), nbme 1: 190
3 weeks ago, nbme 4: 226
2 weeks ago, nbme 5: 238
1 week ago, free 150 Q's: 86% I think.
UW twice random, timed: first time through 66%, second time through 79%.

I figured i stick to a few sources. I thought once i mastered FA and Goljan RR/audio then I would venture out to study other sources. Never did end up venturing out to other sources during study period. Just kept going over FA/RR over and over and over again. I went through some FA sections like 10x and some goljan sections like 5x.


Schedule:
7-12-read goljan
12-1 lunch
1-6--questions started with 48 Q sets then like two weeks in started doing more. reviewd questions and annotated FA during this time period. I did questions during this time period because this is the worst time of day for me to focus....this really helped me with block 5,6, and 7 on the real exam...i was just so wired in doing questions daily after lunch that it felt like any other day.
6-11 read FA

I took small 10 minute breaks here and there and napped alot...everytime I would get the impulse to go online I would go to webpath and look at pics in ten minute intervals.

FA/RR is still ringing in my head.....wow.

overall, test was fair...I started getting scared at the last minute because I did not touch other sources, but I think things went fine.

It seems like time is more of an issue on the real exam compared to NBMEs and other practice exams...can you comment on this? Did you feel like some questions were much longer than UW questions? Or about on average, the same?

 

[humabot]

It seems like time is more of an issue on the real exam compared to NBMEs and other practice exams...can you comment on this? Did you feel like some questions were much longer than UW questions? Or about on average, the same?

If you have done nbmes and uw you will notice that some questions are short and some longer, but nothing is way over the top. on the real exam, the questions with longer stems seemed like they were just trying to hide stuff. I think they know that people skip and go to the question so they twist it up somewhere in the middle---just make sure to read carefully. I finished just in time every block. When i was doing uw i would sometimes finish with 15-20 minutes to spare, probably because my life did not depend on it...on the real exam I slowed down and was more careful.

If you want to get a feel for a real exam take an nbme and do three blocks of world 48 q's right after.

hope that helps..

 

[sebsvenmdc]

If you have done nbmes and uw you will notice that some questions are short and some longer, but nothing is way over the top. on the real exam, the questions with longer stems seemed like they were just trying to hide stuff. I think they know that people skip and go to the question so they twist it up somewhere in the middle---just make sure to read carefully. I finished just in time every block. When i was doing uw i would sometimes finish with 15-20 minutes to spare, probably because my life did not depend on it...on the real exam I slowed down and was more careful.

If you want to get a feel for a real exam take an nbme and do three blocks of world 48 q's right after.

hope that helps..

Thanks for the advice. 👍

 

[arroser]

Hey all,

I don't post much, but I've gotten a lot out of this forum and I'd like to give back. (I'm sorry this is SO LONG.)

Background:
Humanities major, took two years off to work before med school, have always been a good test-taker
MCAT: 35, middle of the road med school
Honored most of my classes (except neuroscience) and did well on the shelf exams in biochem, anatomy, physiology, micro, pharmacology, pathology and physical diagnosis.
Kaplan Diagnostic: 69% (241) in February
CBSE: 92 (255) in March
Kaplan QBank: Hovered between 72-75%, finished 95% of QBank by finals, ended up with 74% (248)
Kaplan Simulated Exam: 78% (255) during finals
CBSE (different test): 99 (260+) in May after finals (5/12/09)
Moved my test date up ten days (from 6/19 to 6/9) on 5/22/09 – best decision I made, rescued my motivation levels and got me studying with a lot more purpose
UWSA 1: 750 (261) after completing 1/3 of the Qbank (5/23/09)
UWSA 2: 800 (265) after completing 2/3 of the Qbank (5/28/09)
UW final average: 79%
NBME 6: 700 (266) after completing UW (6/3/09) (got freaked out due to everyone saying the UWSAs over-predicted)
Real Thing: TBA (6/9/09) EDIT 7/15/09: 270!!

Shooting for a competitive academic general surgery program, would like to at least hit my March CBSE score.

My school bought us Kaplan QBank Plus starting in December. I had ambitions to do all of the BSS questions before Spring Break, then start Kaplan, but gave up on BSS and started Kaplan in February. I'd listened to most of Goljan (he put me to sleep for most of second year), finished half of QBank, and reviewed some of First Aid (notably micro and biochem) by the time I took a required CBSE at school on 3/19/09, exactly three months before my scheduled test date. Was surprised and pleased to get a 92 (255 equivalent) on the CBSE. Kept doing Kaplan, hoping to finish the bank and start doing missed questions by mid- April, finals time. Finished most of Kaplan and redid missed questions for the pharm shelf and some for the path shelf, then switched to UW. Finished UW in about three weeks with 5 days to spare, then redid most of the questions I got wrong. I did all my Qbanks in sets of 10-20, timed and random. I didn't like the "commitment" of dedicating an hour to questions and a couple more to review (especially when I was still in class), and doing smaller numbers per test let me remember more about each question when reading the explanations. I've never had trouble with time, so didn't feel like I needed to worry about practicing sets of 48.

I declined in motivation to study as time went on and my practice scores stayed up, but went most of the way through FA in detail for the first time in the last five days as well as redoing most of my missed UW questions. (I hate FA and avoided it as much as possible during my study period, but there still turned out to be a lot of annotation from other, more palatable sources that got in there.)

Sources used include:
Robbins Review of Pathology questions with a friend throughout second year
Kaplan Qbank during second semester
USMLE World after finals
Case Files Biochem, Physiology, Neuroscience, Gross Anatomy
HY Cell and Molecular Bio, Neuroanatomy
BRS Physiology questions with a friend, Gross Anatomy for some limb stuff
Rapid Review Pathology and audio
Lange Microbiology and Immunology (Immuno section)
PharmCards, MicroCards, Lange Biochem/Genetics cards
Google/Wiki/Pubmed PRN
First Aid 2009

I am obviously a big fan of the Case Files series and flashcards (used these at night). I didn't read a single one of the books on this list all the way through in my study period (except FA), but had used all the Case Files books except Neuro in the relevant classes and cherry-picked the topics I felt weak on.

Test experience:

Had a lovely 2PM start time, got there at 1:30 and went right in. I like afternoons better, so this was awesome. Felt like a lot of the questions I marked and went back to were anatomy - these could be tough and I was pretty good at anatomy back in first year and tutored it first semester this year. Hard to study for this. Saw several brainstem questions, was glad I'd looked over them this morning. Seemed like a lot of cardio stuff, but I like the heart so that was ok. I'm not good at estimating what subject was more represented than the others, but felt like a pretty fair representation. A lot of classic presentations - I didn't feel like they were trying to trick me for most of the time. Micro was fair, didn't have a lot of antimicrobials from what I remember. Timing wasn't an issue - got out of the exam 2.5 hours early, but I always finish early on tests and usually had 15-20 minutes to spare in each block. I didn't feel like the length of the questions was any different than Kaplan or UW. Didn't take all of my breaktime, mostly wanted to get the thing over with.

I'm better at remembering specific questions than overall, but since I can't post specifics then this will have to do. Please feel free to ask me anything I glossed over!

 

[SnakeEyes]

Test experience:

Had a lovely 2PM start time, got there at 1:30 and went right in. I like afternoons better, so this was awesome. Felt like a lot of the questions I marked and went back to were anatomy - these could be tough and I was pretty good at anatomy back in first year and tutored it first semester this year. Hard to study for this. Saw several brainstem questions, was glad I'd looked over them this morning. Seemed like a lot of cardio stuff, but I like the heart so that was ok. I'm not good at estimating what subject was more represented than the others, but felt like a pretty fair representation. A lot of classic presentations - I didn't feel like they were trying to trick me for most of the time. Micro was fair, didn't have a lot of antimicrobials from what I remember. Timing wasn't an issue - got out of the exam 2.5 hours early, but I always finish early on tests and usually had 15-20 minutes to spare in each block. I didn't feel like the length of the questions was any different than Kaplan or UW. Didn't take all of my breaktime, mostly wanted to get the thing over with.

I'm better at remembering specific questions than overall, but since I can't post specifics then this will have to do. Please feel free to ask me anything I glossed over![/QUOTE]

Jealous that you're done,

Anatomy was indicative of FA or random anatomy correlations?

 

[arroser]

Anatomy was indicative of FA or random anatomy correlations?

I guess it's possible it's all in there, but I was pulling a lot from my time as a tutor and trying to remember my pelvic dissections. I think I only had one upper extremity question, the rest were all below the diaphragm.

 

[EMT2DO]

Hey all,

I don’t post much, but I’ve gotten a lot out of this forum and I’d like to give back. (I'm sorry this is SO LONG.)


My school bought us Kaplan QBank Plus starting in December.

Quick question Arroser, when you say your school bought you Q-bank, did they add it to your loans, or did they actually pay for it. Reason I ask is my school forced us to buy the Kaplan full web prep (which is a complete waste of $900) by just adding it onto our tuition/fees and I want to know if this is standard or just my lovely school. Thanks.

 

[tomorrowgirl99]

So HAPPY that crap is done with. I think a lot of the questions were straight up recall from First Aid. I'm really tired now so I will update this post later. 🙂

 

[joeylux]

I really don't know what to think - anywhere from 220 to 250 - depends on my guessing? I'd be ecstatic with 240+.

241/99

Definitely satisfied with my result. I posted my experience earlier in this thread, on page 8. The past few weeks I've been worrying I didn't do nearly as well as I thought I did and then minutes later I would convince myself I guessed correctly on everything and would end up with a 255+ like so many SDNers. In the end this grade is representative of my time and effort and I hope I'm not limited to what field I go into because frankly I don't know what that is quite yet. I worked really hard and I'm glad it paid off.

 

[WolfPackSOM]

A question for anyone who has taken their step 1...
how similar was the kaplan or UW format to the actual step 1?
Do you have a calculator app? Can you highlight/underline? Can you take notes?

 

[tomorrowgirl99]

exactly like uworld, I mean EXACTLY.

 

[arroser]

Quick question Arroser, when you say your school bought you Q-bank, did they add it to your loans, or did they actually pay for it. Reason I ask is my school forced us to buy the Kaplan full web prep (which is a complete waste of $900) by just adding it onto our tuition/fees and I want to know if this is standard or just my lovely school. Thanks.

They didn't tell us it was added on to our tuition and I think the money came from the Dean's office. They're working pretty hard to improve our test scores and I think this was part of that.

 

[DOMb]

Just finished USMLE......wow, soo happy.
Very fair test....

 

[docbill]

Hey guys and gals,

Anyone knows about Sunday test dates. If I write my test on Sunday is it going to come out in 2.5 weeks (old version) or is it going to come out in 3.5 weeks (old version).

Thanks

 

[BoneNibbler]

Hey guys and gals,

Anyone knows about Sunday test dates. If I write my test on Sunday is it going to come out in 2.5 weeks (old version) or is it going to come out in 3.5 weeks (old version).

Thanks

If you WRITE your test, I am sure you would already know the answers to your own questions.......You can probably do this from home also.😴

 

[docbill]

If you WRITE your test, I am sure you would already know the answers to your own questions.......You can probably do this from home also.😴

Canadians say write the exam.. American's say sit the exam. Don't be a smarty pants.

 

[Scotty_G]

AH I have my test in a week. Tell me about biostats? How many ques were stat stuff? I hate math ha! For neuro, lesion and symptom is fine, but do they want you to identify lesion on the specific cross-section? For example let's say you have wallenburg's syndrome: do you have to identify the cn nucleii on the medulla stain or they will just ask you to point to a medulla? I guess the same thing goes w/ the spinal stains...However those were in uworld 🙂

 

[SnowTown]

Canadians say write the exam.. American's say sit the exam. Don't be a smarty pants.

we don't sit on exams... we take it up the $#%

 

[Instatewaiter]

Canadians say write the exam.. American's say sit the exam. Don't be a smarty pants.

we don't sit on exams... we take it up the $#%

Let's not bicker and argue, about who killed who...


Great movie...

Seriously though, good luck on writing, sitting or taking you guys' exam, whichever you chose.

 

[stanka]

score: 268/99
exam date: 5/21
score report: today, 6/10

thoughts and suggestions:
main thing in this exam is stamina. for the most part, you will know most of the stuff...it's whether you have the concentration left in block 6 or 7 to sprint to the finish line.
in regards to preparation, i had 8 weeks (my med school is pretty kind in that regards). my main resources for prep: FA 2010 and UWorld. though my classes were taught in terms of subjects, i strongly recommend following the FA's method and doing a systems review for organs. it's very hard to cram all of pharm into three days, but relatively easier to cram all of cardio into three days... and the material seems very complete in a systems review.
so, i basically followed FA (and buy the latest version for FA!!!):
for the first half (before the systems review sections), i only used fa and uworld (no kaplan books, hy, brs, etc). i would read the fa chapter once -- highlighting what i thought important. it would take me around an hour for 10 or so pages. then i would do relevant uworld questions -- in blocks of 48. after completing the block, i would go through the explainations slowly and anotate FA with them. this would take me on average four hours to do. then, after completing all the relevant uworld questions, i would read FA again with anotations and then move on to the next chapter.
when i got to the systems review part of FA, the strategy changed. i would do the FA and uworld as suggested above. but, i also added goljan and brs phys. so, highlight FA, do a block of 48 uworld questions, anotate fa with uworld explainations, go through brs phys chapter for that organ system (pretty quick read -- not spending too much time on detail), read/highlight goljan (rapid review), probably do another block of uworld questions, anotating FA with uworld explaination, then listen to goljan lecture and probably another block of uwolrd/fa anotations. i stronly recommend that when listening to goljan you have his book (rapid review) out and underline/anotate it as he talks -- his lecture is mostly scripted into the book. then after completing the uworld questions and anotating the answers, i would read through the fa chapter with anotations (from uworld explainations). i did this for each organ system and at the end i had a really good grip of the info.
the only other book i used was hy neuro, which i quickly read over (i had forgotten most of my neuro and fa was not too good going through brain lessions and all -- yet there was nothing on my exam FA did not cover!). i finished my first round of review in ~5.5 weeks. for the last couple of weeks, i purchased usmle rx and used their option of doing mock exams. it would take me roughly 5 hours to finish a 7 block test, because i did not go back to questions, etc. i would then quickly go over explainations, just noting if there were any concepts i did not get and then trying to understand them. so, going through explainations would take another 4 hours. i would spend any remaining time reading over parts first aid again. i spent a couple of days just going over fa. doing the usmlerx mock exams really helped with my stamina -- i would strongly recommend that you do these or other type of mock exams of 7 blocks.
over the last week, i "came across" nbme 1-6. i went through them and looked up any answer choices/questions i did not get. looking back, if i had more time, i would spend it on these exams as questions DO reappear!
Two days before exam, go over FA again.
Day of exam, bring along an mp3 player and listen to songs to pump you up b/w breaks.
Strong suggestion: I find that many med students sacrifice their body for their mind. Don't be one of them. My med school's in a pretty dangerous city (once ranked as the US's most dangerous). But, throughout my first two years of med school, i went running in the morning (on the streets! -- no one who's anyone is around at 6:45 am). I started out at a mile and made my way up to doing around 6 miles/day. During step 1 review, i moved home and continued my running and it was key to doing/studying well. as i stated in the beginning, step 1 is like a marathon -- so doing some physical stamina training will help both body and mind. i also recommend that you listen to songs (not goljan!) when running. listen to these same songs b/w breaks during the exam. it really pumps you up!
good luck guys.
i apologize for any gramatical/spelling mistakes -- i'm tired from being in peds nursery from 6:00 am.

 

[defcon8]

score: 268/99
exam date: 5/21
score report: today, 6/10

thoughts and suggestions:
main thing in this exam is stamina. for the most part, you will know most of the stuff...it's whether you have the concentration left in block 6 or 7 to sprint to the finish line.
in regards to preparation, i had 8 weeks (my med school is pretty kind in that regards). my main resources for prep: FA 2010 and UWorld. though my classes were taught in terms of subjects, i strongly recommend following the FA's method and doing a systems review for organs. it's very hard to cram all of pharm into three days, but relatively easier to cram all of cardio into three days... and the material seems very complete in a systems review.
so, i basically followed FA (and buy the latest version for FA!!!):
for the first half (before the systems review sections), i only used fa and uworld (no kaplan books, hy, brs, etc). i would read the fa chapter once -- highlighting what i thought important. it would take me around an hour for 10 or so pages. then i would do relevant uworld questions -- in blocks of 48. after completing the block, i would go through the explainations slowly and anotate FA with them. this would take me on average four hours to do. then, after completing all the relevant uworld questions, i would read FA again with anotations and then move on to the next chapter.
when i got to the systems review part of FA, the strategy changed. i would do the FA and uworld as suggested above. but, i also added goljan and brs phys. so, highlight FA, do a block of 48 uworld questions, anotate fa with uworld explainations, go through brs phys chapter for that organ system (pretty quick read -- not spending too much time on detail), read/highlight goljan (rapid review), probably do another block of uworld questions, anotating FA with uworld explaination, then listen to goljan lecture and probably another block of uwolrd/fa anotations. i stronly recommend that when listening to goljan you have his book (rapid review) out and underline/anotate it as he talks -- his lecture is mostly scripted into the book. then after completing the uworld questions and anotating the answers, i would read through the fa chapter with anotations (from uworld explainations). i did this for each organ system and at the end i had a really good grip of the info.
the only other book i used was hy neuro, which i quickly read over (i had forgotten most of my neuro and fa was not too good going through brain lessions and all -- yet there was nothing on my exam FA did not cover!). i finished my first round of review in ~5.5 weeks. for the last couple of weeks, i purchased usmle rx and used their option of doing mock exams. it would take me roughly 5 hours to finish a 7 block test, because i did not go back to questions, etc. i would then quickly go over explainations, just noting if there were any concepts i did not get and then trying to understand them. so, going through explainations would take another 4 hours. i would spend any remaining time reading over parts first aid again. i spent a couple of days just going over fa. doing the usmlerx mock exams really helped with my stamina -- i would strongly recommend that you do these or other type of mock exams of 7 blocks.
over the last week, i "came across" nbme 1-6. i went through them and looked up any answer choices/questions i did not get. looking back, if i had more time, i would spend it on these exams as questions DO reappear!
Two days before exam, go over FA again.
Day of exam, bring along an mp3 player and listen to songs to pump you up b/w breaks.
Strong suggestion: I find that many med students sacrifice their body for their mind. Don't be one of them. My med school's in a pretty dangerous city (once ranked as the US's most dangerous). But, throughout my first two years of med school, i went running in the morning (on the streets! -- no one who's anyone is around at 6:45 am). I started out at a mile and made my way up to doing around 6 miles/day. During step 1 review, i moved home and continued my running and it was key to doing/studying well. as i stated in the beginning, step 1 is like a marathon -- so doing some physical stamina training will help both body and mind. i also recommend that you listen to songs (not goljan!) when running. listen to these same songs b/w breaks during the exam. it really pumps you up!
good luck guys.
i apologize for any gramatical/spelling mistakes -- i'm tired from being in peds nursery from 6:00 am.

Congrats! and you mean FA 2009 right
Also, wat were your NBME scores and qbank %s?

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

stanka all I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!

I have a question for you. I have 2 weeks until my exam.

Would you recommend going through FA as many times as possible or going through RR Path once and then FA as many times as possible?

I read through RR Path a few weeks ago but don't remember anything specifically from that book.

 

[metallo]

FA 2010 and UWorld.
so, i basically followed FA (and buy the latest version for FA!!!):

I agree that it's best to make sure you have the most recent edition of FA, but trying to get your hands on next year's book might be going a bit overboard!

 

[Knicks]

I'm using the 2006 FA.

Hey, UW is "current", so anything not in the 2006 FA, I'll just annotate in from UW.

That's my plan anyway.

I'm also using the 2006-2007 Kaplan books and I compared them with the 2002 Kaplan books and to me they looked 99% identical.

 

[Whats_up_doc]

I agree that it's best to make sure you have the most recent edition of FA, but trying to get your hands on next year's book might be going a bit overboard!

 

[BoneNibbler]

I'm using the 2006 FA.

Hey, UW is "current", so anything not in the 2006 FA, I'll just annotate in from UW.

That's my plan anyway.

I'm also using the 2006-2007 Kaplan books and I compared them with the 2002 Kaplan books and to me they looked 99% identical.

Kaplan books are identical except the cover and page 411. FA on the otherhand has cahnged alot and you will probably get ~25 points less if you do not use the newest version. Beware and remember I warned you.

 

[Knicks]

Kaplan books are identical except the cover and page 411. FA on the otherhand has cahnged alot and you will probably get ~25 points less if you do not use the newest version. Beware and remember I warned you.

LoL, calm down.

I've already annotated the crap out of the 06 book. I might just skim through a newer version to see if there is anything that's already not in the 06 book and/or anything that I already didn't annotate into it.

Also, maybe you missed this part of my post that you quoted:

.....

Hey, UW is "current", so anything not in the 2006 FA, I'll just annotate in from UW.

.....

Even if I do I miss "~25 points" (which I hope not), I'm sure it won't be due to which version of FA I used....

 

[stanka]

in response to above questions,
1. yes, it is meant to read FA 2009, not 2010. sorry about that.
2. i think knowing fa is better than knowing rapid review path. goljan includes many things that are beyond step 1. if you read his text, got a gist of it, and listened to the audio, you should be fine. so, given that you have 2 weeks left, i would focus more on fa and doing questions. if you want to read goljan, only do the chapters that you are not comfortable with.
3. I got my FA a week before I started reviewing. I would strongly recommend that you get in December (?) when it is released (I heard they give pretty good discounts then too).

 

[hateroftheyear]

Okay guys,

I don't want to give the impression that this test is impossible. I have a tendency to overreact to my own unforced errors on exam day (went so far as almost cancel my MCAT score even though I ended up doing quite well) -- so take everything I said with a grain of salt. The majority of the test is quite doable, and the remaining questions with few exceptions aren't entirely out in left field, just written in a surprising or confusing way. It was entirely my own failure on test day to recognize the stupid tricks they threw in -- and I don't think I "failed" by any stretch of the imagination -- would estimate between a 230-240 being conservative -- simply that I would suffer a significant drop from the scores I had been previously been receiving on NBMEs and elsewhere.

As for distribution, it's all been said before: know your Path cold, know your pharm and micro, know the pathophysiological relationships... I had about 10 embryo questions which was surprising, and not as much anatomy (good for me) -- typical ethics / biostats smattering, light on Neuro (unfortunately for me) and heavy on Repro (unfortunately for me -- this is where I got killed).

UW + FA + Goljan = Win. The rest is exam day luck of the draw and whether you commit silly mistakes. Still depressing to think about, but I guess there's nothing I can do now. There's no way in hell I'm going to get even close to my 262 on the last NBME or 265 on UWSA2. No chance.

Good luck studying, all.

 

[quietude]

Okay guys,

I don't want to give the impression that this test is impossible. I have a tendency to overreact to my own unforced errors on exam day (went so far as almost cancel my MCAT score even though I ended up doing quite well) -- so take everything I said with a grain of salt. The majority of the test is quite doable, and the remaining questions with few exceptions aren't entirely out in left field, just written in a surprising or confusing way. It was entirely my own failure on test day to recognize the stupid tricks they threw in -- and I don't think I "failed" by any stretch of the imagination -- would estimate between a 230-240 being conservative -- simply that I would suffer a significant drop from the scores I had been previously been receiving on NBMEs and elsewhere.

As for distribution, it's all been said before: know your Path cold, know your pharm and micro, know the pathophysiological relationships... I had about 10 embryo questions which was surprising, and not as much anatomy (good for me) -- typical ethics / biostats smattering, light on Neuro (unfortunately for me) and heavy on Repro (unfortunately for me -- this is where I got killed).

UW + FA + Goljan = Win. The rest is exam day luck of the draw and whether you commit silly mistakes. Still depressing to think about, but I guess there's nothing I can do now. There's no way in hell I'm going to get even close to my 262 on the last NBME or 265 on UWSA2. No chance.

Good luck studying, all.

Thanks, looks like I'll be cramming the menstrual cycle yet again (ugh) tonight.

I've yet to meet anyone who walked out of that test feeling like they aced it, so I suspect your score will end up closer to what was predicted than what you're guessing now.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

How much psychiatry is on the test?

 

[deaconwave]

I've been following this forum while getting ready for Step 1, so I thought I would add my experiences and practice exam scores to use as a comparison. To help start the comparison, I went into studying with the following goals, I wanted to get at least a 230 and would be ecstatic to get a 240 or greater.

So, here are all my scores and if you're interested to read more I'll summarize my approach to studying below.
Total USMLE World Average (all questions): 60%
Final two weeks World Average (doing 96 q's/day): 65%
Final 7 48 q sections World Average: 67%
NBME 4 (Apr 5): 221
USMLE World Assessment 1 (Apr 12): 209
NBME 5 (Apr 20): 227
USMLE World Assessment 2 (May 3): 240
NBME 6 (May 8): 234
On site practice test (May 11): 86%
USMLE Step 1 (May 15): 240 (score came June 10)

My preparation really started during first year. For Physiology I had BRS and for Biochem I had Rapid Review. I would annotate into these books from things we learned in class and would then further annotate into First Aid. It took some time to figure out what was really important and in how much detail to annotate, but I liked doing it this way because then I had it figured out for second year. In second year, I would read Medium Robbins, annotate into Goljan, and then annotate into First Aid. So, by the time by boards studying ramped up, I had FA pretty much all annotated. Then about 10 weeks before I was finished with my classes I designated one week to each section of FA (Cardiology, Respiratory, etc). I would then spend a couple of hours at the end of each day for that week going through the section and making sure I had FA completely annotated. Then, in March I started doing USMLE World tests about 2-3 times per week in 48 question shots. I had a notebook that I would then write a couple lines about each of my incorrect questions. I then started my full time board studying at the beginning of April. During these days I would do 48 questions of World and then completely go over the test and write the wrong answers in my notebook. In the afternoon I would go over an entire system as they are organized in First Aid. At this point, I was only reading FA. I continued this schedule for the next five weeks (I also had a few shelf exams sprinkled in, which were great for practice). I took the practice tests as listed above and about 3 weeks out, I started doing 96 questions every morning on World. The last week, I had finished World so I would just read through weak points on FA and do a few more sections of questions that I had already done just to keep the test taking atmosphere fresh.

Sticking with the schedule was a challenge, but I always made sure to do my questions, that was my priority. The last week was the hardest because I had a real tough time staying motivated to do anything, I really wanted Friday to come as soon as possible. I hope this helps, PM me if you have any questions because I probably won't be checking this thread anymore.

 

[BillyBuckets]

Has anyone here taken the exam AND the Kaplan simulated? (The 7 block, not the diagnostic)

I just took the simulated and it had a whopping 82 pharm questions. That's almost 1/4 of the questions of the entire exam. That seems a little ridiculous to me.

Does the real thing really emphasize drugs that much? say it ain't so!