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?

 

[BillyBuckets]

Here's the breakdown in question (Kaplan's simulated 7 block exam)

I really doubt the real thing can be like this.

 

[metallo]

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!

At the beginning of 2nd year, we had an "Intro to Pharmacology" lecture at my school where the chair of the department put up a slide claiming that 35% of Step 1 is pharmacology. I found that hard to believe then, and even though I haven't taken the test yet, I find it even harder to believe now based on the breakdown of the NBME practice tests.

I also took the CBSE through my school in March, which is supposed to be a very good representation of Step 1, and out of the 200 questions, I probably had about 5 that were strict pharmacology questions (MOA, side effects, etc.). There may have been a few other integration questions, but pharm was not heavily tested at all.

 

[Zli]

...and it's done! Took it on 5/21, got the score back on 6/10 (thank you, fred v1). I don't know how useful my experience would be for anyone here, since I'm an FMG (more on that here), but this thread has been very helpful while I was studying, so I guess it's only fair to give a little back 🙂

First, the stats:
UW Qbank - 74% (tutor mode, only did the areas that I covered from FA/Goljan/whatever else Taus recommended, finished more than a month before taking the exam and didn't touch it again, so useless for predicting the score)
NBME form 4 - 660/258 (though the score estimator on medfriends.org says it's closer to 254 +/- 11; took it 4/24, 4 weeks before the exam)
Free 150 - 84% (247 +/- 11, if medfriends is to be believed; took it two days before)
Final score - 246/99 (mean/sd - 222/22, the report said)

Now, I originally wanted to take Step 1 in late April, and planned everything accordingly. Since my last contact with preclinical subjects was 4 years ago, I gave myself 4 months - January through April, and more or less followed the Taus guide, with a few modifications. I only skimmed through HY Neuro since neurology was still fresh, dusted off the ol' Netter for all the extremity innervations (much easier than memorizing the stupid tables, at least for me), did only 10% of the Kaplan Qbook before realizing that going through explanations in UWorld would be a much better use of my time, and early on started using an excellent little flashcard program for Palm PDAs called SuperMemo. I annotated FA 08 like I never annotated before, but it was well worth it when the time came to review.

Unfortunately, fate, circumstance, and the Spanish embassy in Belgrade all conspired against me, so I had to reschedule both steps with only three weeks between them. That's when I started doing UWorld Step 2 ck in untimed, random mode, got ~55% on the first few, crapped my pants and decided to turn all my efforts towards prepping for Step 2. Well, almost all, since I continued going through around 150 flashcards/day, which I think in the end was a life-saver. I knew my score would drop significantly, but since I got the 258 on NBME, I was willing to make the sacrifice. Of course, the last few days before the exam I did spend reviewing FA and going through Goljan's HY notes (out of which I got exactly one useful thing that came up in the test, about population genetics).

I'm a pretty bad test-taker - the only exams that counted in my med school were oral. In the few multiple choice tests I had to take I always blew a couple of easy ones, and when in doubt almost always chose the wrong answer. This time, I marked all questions I wasn't 100% sure about, even if there was a hint of doubt, and there were around 10 of those in each block, half of which were 90%, and half were 50/50. Most of those were direct questions that asked about some minutiae I know I once knew (like, a month before), but wasn't so sure now. There were exactly 2 questions in the whole exam where I was completely stumped and had no idea how I'd go around answering it - one was about non/enveloped +/- sense viruses phrased in such a way I had no idea what they wanted, the other was some molecular mumbo-jumbo. And there were many, many questions that were so easy I couldn't believe that's what they were asking and had to go through it again to see if there was anything I missed. It goes without saying that I blew at least 2 of those, 'cause I'm an ass 🙂 Oh, and a whole lotta statistics (at least 2 in each block), and arrows, arrows, everywhere.

Other than the virus question, micro was pretty easy and repetitive - I even got 2 questions about the plague in the same block. Pathology, as always, constituted most of the exam, but med students everywhere should start gathering money for a monument to Goljan, since thanks to him that was the easiest part. Biochemistry, genetics and the like were pretty straightforward. Pharm was, as has been said, much easier than what you get on UWorld, mostly mechanisms and basic side-effects. Studying for step 2 beforehand helped in a couple of pharm questions about indications, I'm guessing most of those were experimental, but was detrimental for a couple of extremely easy ones in biochem where I gave the clinical instead of what I later figured was the expected answer. If you somehow get yourself in my position, I recommend shelving everything you know for the step 2 away and not think like a clinician at all, 'cause even the clinical vignettes are basic science questions in disguise.

Time was not an issue at all, had enough time to review both marked and unmarked, with 5 minutes to spare. Then again, the stems were pretty short, so I might have just been lucky. Or not so lucky - I'm pretty sure most of the questions I had were of the "easy" kind, which is great if you just want to pass, but not so much if you're shooting for a high score. Then again, I'm going for IM, so I guess a 246 isn't all that bad 🙂

Oh, and a piece of common sense advice for ppl waiting for their scores: try not to think about it too much. What's done is done, you have no idea what's experimental and what's not, and how much each question counts, so there's really no point. Un/fortunately, I had to fill those 3 weeks with step 2 ck stuff, but even then I had flashbacks of questions that had me running for the laptop and googling the answer.

And sorry about the rambling style - between getting the scores two days ago and taking CK yesterday, I'm a bit of a mess 🙂

 

[KingsFan21]

sorry, this may be a repeated question...but when people are referring to arrow type of questions, do they mean like phsyio type logical questions or arrow to identify what's being pointed at? I've see people mention the concept "arrow questions" in a few threads. thanks in advance

 

[Zli]

sorry, this may be a repeated question...but when people are referring to arrow type of questions, do they mean like phsyio type logical questions or arrow to identify what's being pointed at? I've see people mention the concept "arrow questions" in a few threads. thanks in advance

Yep, it was all pato/physiology - electrolytes in different disorders, fluid compartements in different types of shock, lung volumes, pressures in the atria/ventricles... Pretty much any situation where you have stuff increasing/decreasing was there. It's all easy if you know the basic mechanics, but they can be and sometimes really are bastards with putting some really similar choices down there.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

What do you mean by fluid compartments in different types of shock?

 

[TXDO]

Question for people who already took step1:
can you rank the organ systems which appear on step 1 exam from the most frequently appear to the least?
Thank you

 

[Zweisamkeit]

Question for people who already took step1:
can you rank the organ systems which appear on step 1 exam from the most frequently appear to the least?
Thank you

For me it was:
1) Cardio
2) Respiratory
3) Everything else

 

[quietude]

Since I think peak test-taking is in the next two weeks, I thought I'd add in my experience today. I'll try and keep it short and sweet and will check back to see if anyone has questions at least until Saturday.

First a warning about Prometric centers: if you're taking it in an urban center, you might not be able to eat in the center, or on the floor, and it may be raining outside. That was not a situation I'd expected so if you don't take a practice test there be sure to find someone who has so that you're not totally unprepared. Breaks that involved actual food meant you had to budget in an extra five minutes just to get outside and back in, or you had the lovely experience of eating it in the restroom.

The test itself seemed pretty straightforward to me. Only a few truly crazy questions, the others an even split between USMLEWorld-style two-step and Kaplan do-you-know-the-answer. USMLEWorld tends to throw out several hints within a long stem, the boards threw out less but they were still there.

General pointers:

1) FA does not adequately cover pelvic anatomy, nor do the question banks. I had a feeling going into this exam that anatomy would be awful and I was correct. Instead of brachial plexus, leg innervation, ulcer, or even chest stab questions, mine was heavy on pelvic anatomy and obscure muscle insertion questions. None of it was in FA.

2) Having said that, it's obvious that we all had a different mix of questions and you can't predict what you'll get. Mine had almost no cardio, except for the multimedia questions. Physiology was weirdly almost all endocrine for me. That means you can almost certainly count on having a different combination.

3) Also, FA doesn't do a great job of consolidating weird conglomerations of symptoms, especially the musculoskeletal ones. Everyone knows Sturge-Weber, NF, etc, but I had several extremely obscure combinations show up and am sincerely hoping some were experimental.

4) Kaplan QBank goes overboard on its biostats questions. FA was right on the money.

5) Microbiology and its related pharmacology were VERY easy. They were all along the lines of a giant vignette, where you'd see a pathognomic sign/symptom in the middle. The non-micro pharm questions were more likely to be focused on receptors or mechanics than presenting a disease and asking you the likely treatment. I was disappointed to learn that all my time cramming the resistance mechanisms and obscure heme/onc drugs was pointless, but that's just random luck.

6) So many people scared me on immunology but I had zero cytokine questions. I can't stress how you really need to understand the balance and activation of humoral and cellular immunity.

7) I love Goljan, but the RR chapter was not adequate for musculoskeletal. I'm hoping the questions that weren't in it were experimental.

...and, I'm done. 😀

 

[sebsvenmdc]

Since I think peak test-taking is in the next two weeks, I thought I'd add in my experience today. I'll try and keep it short and sweet and will check back to see if anyone has questions at least until Saturday.

First a warning about Prometric centers: if you're taking it in an urban center, you might not be able to eat in the center, or on the floor, and it may be raining outside. That was not a situation I'd expected so if you don't take a practice test there be sure to find someone who has so that you're not totally unprepared. Breaks that involved actual food meant you had to budget in an extra five minutes just to get outside and back in, or you had the lovely experience of eating it in the restroom.

The test itself seemed pretty straightforward to me. Only a few truly crazy questions, the others an even split between USMLEWorld-style two-step and Kaplan do-you-know-the-answer. USMLEWorld tends to throw out several hints within a long stem, the boards threw out less but they were still there.

General pointers:

1) FA does not adequately cover pelvic anatomy, nor do the question banks. I had a feeling going into this exam that anatomy would be awful and I was correct. Instead of brachial plexus, leg innervation, ulcer, or even chest stab questions, mine was heavy on pelvic anatomy and obscure muscle insertion questions. None of it was in FA.

2) Having said that, it's obvious that we all had a different mix of questions and you can't predict what you'll get. Mine had almost no cardio, except for the multimedia questions. Physiology was weirdly almost all endocrine for me. That means you can almost certainly count on having a different combination.

3) Also, FA doesn't do a great job of consolidating weird conglomerations of symptoms, especially the musculoskeletal ones. Everyone knows Sturge-Weber, NF, etc, but I had several extremely obscure combinations show up and am sincerely hoping some were experimental.

4) Kaplan QBank goes overboard on its biostats questions. FA was right on the money.

5) Microbiology and its related pharmacology were VERY easy. They were all along the lines of a giant vignette, where you'd see a pathognomic sign/symptom in the middle. The non-micro pharm questions were more likely to be focused on receptors or mechanics than presenting a disease and asking you the likely treatment. I was disappointed to learn that all my time cramming the resistance mechanisms and obscure heme/onc drugs was pointless, but that's just random luck.

6) So many people scared me on immunology but I had zero cytokine questions. I can't stress how you really need to understand the balance and activation of humoral and cellular immunity.

7) I love Goljan, but the RR chapter was not adequate for musculoskeletal. I'm hoping the questions that weren't in it were experimental.

...and, I'm done. 😀

Interesting details. Thank you for your time! About the anatomy...do you think it would have helped you to flip thru the pelvic part of Netter? Thanks for any response, in advance!

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

For anatomy, do they like muscles, bones, nerve, blood vessels?

 

[quietude]

Interesting details. Thank you for your time! About the anatomy...do you think it would have helped you to flip thru the pelvic part of Netter? Thanks for any response, in advance!

It probably would, but my problem with Netter is that it's information overload. You want something closer to surgical correlations, as anatomy questions were almost always clinical-based.

I looked back through my Kaplan anatomy book this afternoon out of curiosity and it's a much better resource. I ended up reading through it but not annotating some regions of it into FA (mostly because it wasn't covered by the qbanks, either) because I thought pelvic was low-yield compared to, say, hernias. Too bad it was high-yield for me.

Hindsight is 20/20 though. If I was restudying tomorrow I would still have used that extra time for biochem or immuno or something else. That's why I'm posting here, so you can make that call for yourself.

 

[quietude]

For anatomy, do they like muscles, bones, nerve, blood vessels?

Unfortunately, all of the above. Like I said, they seem to want you to think in terms of trauma or surgery. So if it's not something easily dislocated/broken/sitting on top or a landmark for a vital thing, it's probably low-yield.

 

[silas2642]

Since I think peak test-taking is in the next two weeks, I thought I'd add in my experience today. I'll try and keep it short and sweet and will check back to see if anyone has questions at least until Saturday.

First a warning about Prometric centers: if you're taking it in an urban center, you might not be able to eat in the center, or on the floor, and it may be raining outside. That was not a situation I'd expected so if you don't take a practice test there be sure to find someone who has so that you're not totally unprepared. Breaks that involved actual food meant you had to budget in an extra five minutes just to get outside and back in, or you had the lovely experience of eating it in the restroom.

The test itself seemed pretty straightforward to me. Only a few truly crazy questions, the others an even split between USMLEWorld-style two-step and Kaplan do-you-know-the-answer. USMLEWorld tends to throw out several hints within a long stem, the boards threw out less but they were still there.

General pointers:

1) FA does not adequately cover pelvic anatomy, nor do the question banks. I had a feeling going into this exam that anatomy would be awful and I was correct. Instead of brachial plexus, leg innervation, ulcer, or even chest stab questions, mine was heavy on pelvic anatomy and obscure muscle insertion questions. None of it was in FA.

2) Having said that, it's obvious that we all had a different mix of questions and you can't predict what you'll get. Mine had almost no cardio, except for the multimedia questions. Physiology was weirdly almost all endocrine for me. That means you can almost certainly count on having a different combination.

3) Also, FA doesn't do a great job of consolidating weird conglomerations of symptoms, especially the musculoskeletal ones. Everyone knows Sturge-Weber, NF, etc, but I had several extremely obscure combinations show up and am sincerely hoping some were experimental.

4) Kaplan QBank goes overboard on its biostats questions. FA was right on the money.

5) Microbiology and its related pharmacology were VERY easy. They were all along the lines of a giant vignette, where you'd see a pathognomic sign/symptom in the middle. The non-micro pharm questions were more likely to be focused on receptors or mechanics than presenting a disease and asking you the likely treatment. I was disappointed to learn that all my time cramming the resistance mechanisms and obscure heme/onc drugs was pointless, but that's just random luck.

6) So many people scared me on immunology but I had zero cytokine questions. I can't stress how you really need to understand the balance and activation of humoral and cellular immunity.

7) I love Goljan, but the RR chapter was not adequate for musculoskeletal. I'm hoping the questions that weren't in it were experimental.

...and, I'm done. 😀

I haven't even started anatomy because I thought it was supposed to be low yield and relatively easy; so this is kind of freaking me out. I was planning on giving it half of a day along with embryology, flipping through my Netters along with HY Anatomy. I am sooooo weak in this subject. I mean, who remembers anatomy?

 

[Ihateverbal]

OMG me too!
Anatomy was my weakest subject...I'm not good with spatial visualizing what is in relationship to what. (can never go into dental)

 

[geogil]

Took the Step today, so no final scores, but here's the trend:

NBME 4 the day after classes ended 5 weeks ago: 209
UWorld practice 1 after 1.5 weeks: 236
UWorld Practice 1 week before: 256 😱
Cumulative average U world 65% (80% completed), though towards the end my averages were closer to 75-59.

Today step 1: crossed fingers.

All I can say is that Uworld is harder than the real thing, mostly. It gets really tiring after 6 blocks though, even with breaks. My advice is to learn all you can from the Uworld pharm questions and the physio questions. The histo and path are all pretty straightforward, as are the behavioral science. Good luck to all those MSII's still waiting to take the exam.

 

[defcon8]

Since I think peak test-taking is in the next two weeks, I thought I'd add in my experience today. I'll try and keep it short and sweet and will check back to see if anyone has questions at least until Saturday.

First a warning about Prometric centers: if you're taking it in an urban center, you might not be able to eat in the center, or on the floor, and it may be raining outside. That was not a situation I'd expected so if you don't take a practice test there be sure to find someone who has so that you're not totally unprepared. Breaks that involved actual food meant you had to budget in an extra five minutes just to get outside and back in, or you had the lovely experience of eating it in the restroom.

The test itself seemed pretty straightforward to me. Only a few truly crazy questions, the others an even split between USMLEWorld-style two-step and Kaplan do-you-know-the-answer. USMLEWorld tends to throw out several hints within a long stem, the boards threw out less but they were still there.

General pointers:

1) FA does not adequately cover pelvic anatomy, nor do the question banks. I had a feeling going into this exam that anatomy would be awful and I was correct. Instead of brachial plexus, leg innervation, ulcer, or even chest stab questions, mine was heavy on pelvic anatomy and obscure muscle insertion questions. None of it was in FA.

2) Having said that, it's obvious that we all had a different mix of questions and you can't predict what you'll get. Mine had almost no cardio, except for the multimedia questions. Physiology was weirdly almost all endocrine for me. That means you can almost certainly count on having a different combination.

3) Also, FA doesn't do a great job of consolidating weird conglomerations of symptoms, especially the musculoskeletal ones. Everyone knows Sturge-Weber, NF, etc, but I had several extremely obscure combinations show up and am sincerely hoping some were experimental.

4) Kaplan QBank goes overboard on its biostats questions. FA was right on the money.

5) Microbiology and its related pharmacology were VERY easy. They were all along the lines of a giant vignette, where you'd see a pathognomic sign/symptom in the middle. The non-micro pharm questions were more likely to be focused on receptors or mechanics than presenting a disease and asking you the likely treatment. I was disappointed to learn that all my time cramming the resistance mechanisms and obscure heme/onc drugs was pointless, but that's just random luck.

6) So many people scared me on immunology but I had zero cytokine questions. I can't stress how you really need to understand the balance and activation of humoral and cellular immunity.

7) I love Goljan, but the RR chapter was not adequate for musculoskeletal. I'm hoping the questions that weren't in it were experimental.

...and, I'm done. 😀

did you take any NBME exams?

 

[Knicks]

......... and obscure muscle insertion questions .........

😱 Muscle insertions?!?!?! You kidding me?!?!! 😡

 

[Nematode]

Took mine today.

Here are my stats from practice.
68% USMLE World (almost all random, did some repeats toward the end)
226 UWSA
238 UWSA
240 NBME 5
82% Free 150

So as far as the test goes, quite random. Some things that I thought would most definitely be on there were not, for example almost no biochemistry or pulm, or even anatomy.

Had quite a bit of random questions that honestly I thought were just shots in the dark, I would get them down to two answers and then just stare at it and blankly. Hoping experimental q's were among those, but am not holding my breath. Overall felt similar to UW but had more doable questions thrown in. Overall the hard ones I felt were just as hard or harder the UW, but the easy ones were dead giveaways. I dont really know what to think, it seems like a blurr really. I just hope I did close to my practice scores, would definitely be satisfied with that.

Ohh and AV q's suck.

 

[AZhopeful]

😱 Muscle insertions?!?!?! You kidding me?!?!! 😡

That's no kidding. Hopefully I could just reason through that, though I seem to be saying that a lot...

Quick Rundown: UWSA1 234 like 2 wks ago(I don't remember exactly when), NBME4 234, but then UWSA2 252 a few days ago! I seem to be a bit all over the place. UW ~64% but I was using it more as a learning tool than an assessment tool.

Step 1 on Monday 6/15, we'll see... It's in the Lord's hands, but then of course, everything is.

 

[swtiepie711]

OMG me too!
Anatomy was my weakest subject...I'm not good with spatial visualizing what is in relationship to what. (can never go into dental)

Just for a different perspective - my exam had very little anatomy and what was on there was very straightforward ...

 

[BoneNibbler]

Just for a different perspective - my exam had very little anatomy and what was on there was very straightforward ...

Oh we can only hope!!😍

 

[Ihateverbal]

Should I even study anatomy? It's by far my weakest subject (with neuro and pharm running behind).

I feel like I can study anatomy for days on end and not get any pts on the exam

 

[quietude]

did you take any NBME exams?

Yes, I took NBME 3-6. Not a lot of anatomy on those that wasn't brachial plexus.

And yes, I had a muscle insertion question. My jaw dropped when I saw it. I just gave it my best guess and wrote it off.

I think the people chiming in that they had no anatomy questions just goes to show that you should always study your weak spots, because you can't count on having a test that plays to your strengths. Try to know more pharm/physio/micro/path goes without saying, but you just don't know what mix of small subjects you could end up with.

You should study anatomy, but if you're already writing it off try to at least know the brachial plexus, the leg nerve distribution, the major knee injuries and the relationship of the stomach to the pancreas, duodenum, and liver. I think that's probably about 75% of most normal questions, even counting my crazy test.

I am going to take the popular-on-SDN view that no one else is going to know those questions either, and I'm going to end up with a 300 as a result. 😉

 

[silas2642]

Yes, I took NBME 3-6. Not a lot of anatomy on those that wasn't brachial plexus.

And yes, I had a muscle insertion question. My jaw dropped when I saw it. I just gave it my best guess and wrote it off.

I think the people chiming in that they had no anatomy questions just goes to show that you should always study your weak spots, because you can't count on having a test that plays to your strengths. Try to know more pharm/physio/micro/path goes without saying, but you just don't know what mix of small subjects you could end up with.

You should study anatomy, but if you're already writing it off try to at least know the brachial plexus, the leg nerve distribution, the major knee injuries and the relationship of the stomach to the pancreas, duodenum, and liver. I think that's probably about 75% of most normal questions, even counting my crazy test.

I am going to take the popular-on-SDN view that no one else is going to know those questions either, and I'm going to end up with a 300 as a result. 😉

I'm saying that that had to be experimental. Muscle INSERTIONS. I didn't know muscle insertions during my anatomy class when we were being tested on muscle insertions.

 

[Kuba]

I had a slightly different experience today,
Anatomy: I thought it was mostly straight forward (ex. SMA vs IMA) with a only a couple wtf's. I didn't do any anatomy in my prep and I'm happy I didn't.

Pharm: much less than I thought would be on there and pretty straightforward. I noticed the more common the drug the harder the question and the harder drugs were straight recall.

Path: Most commons for the most part. Lots of heme for me. Nutrition was huge.

Micro: not bad at all. No random DNA vs RNA virus stuff or anything.

Histo: more than I expected and really wtf but still low yield relatively.

Biochem: Exactly what I expected. Some easy, some hard. Moderate yield.

All and all, Goljan is right on the money in what theyll ask and how theyll ask it.

 

[bbqbakedlays]

Well Im sure glad its over. 🙂 I thought I would post my experience as all of you helped me before today.

Again, no scores yet....but here is my advice after today...and it is similar to what others have said but I will add my test info...

I used RRpath, Goljan Audio, RR biochem, most of the HY series (embryo, micro, anatomy, brain and behavior etc)...annotated in my FA while going thru and then the last week went thru FA again. I completed U world 2x, did BSS tests, First Aid Q book, Kaplan Qbook, First Aid Cases. I dunno...FA didnt do it for me...i like to read paragraphs not like FA. Anyway..here was my progression:

4/7 NBME form 6: 400
4/17 CBSE: 70
5/18 UWorld 1: 230
5/25 Free NBME: 225
6/1 NBME Form 2: 550
6/3 COMSAE 1a: 577
6/6 UWSA 2: 252


1) ANATOMY: OMG I couldnt believe some of the anatomy! Intricate pelvic anatomy mostly arteries and paths of them and ureters!!!.I guess I didnt know my ureters well enough....ligaments containing important structures in the pelvis....then.....omg....more ANATOMY...lol...lots about the wrist bones, arteries, tendons....I was remembering back to when I was in Anatomy 2 years ago to answer some of them....you could narrow them down, but still i was amazed. Had a few odd embryo qs but when i looked they were line items in FA so whatever. Other embryo qs were CLASSIC.

2) MOLEC/CELL Bio: I had a lot of this; especially concerning DNA, bacterial replication, DNA, meh meh meh....it was all odd ball questions..not straight forward stuff. I was a bit annoyed at this part. BOOO

3) IMUNNO/MICRO: So I put them together bc it seemed like they were woven in so closely....lots of bug questions with a bcell/tcell immuno answers.....the immuno was a lot in quantity but it wasnt hard per se. I think FA was pretty sufficient for the Immuno part. I love micro and usually do really well, I thought it was REALLY straight forward and I was thrilled whenever one came up....except for the significant amount that didnt ask about the bacteria but asked about the immuno process. A few immuno diseases too.

4) BIOSTATS/ETHICS: I must have had 20 "quote" questions. It started to get really old. I dont even think you could study for them bc they are well outside what FA covers. I had MANY study/confidence interval/error/sens/spec....It WAS ALOT!!!! I actually HATE this subject...went in thinking if I get a lot of these...ill do my best but whatver. I may be a bit biased in that I hate it so I remember all of them and it seems like there were a ton. I wont lose sleep over it bc I hope from this moment on I will NEVER be tested on it again. 😱

5) Path...hmm...Im obessed with Goljan...prob listened to all of the lectures 3 times in the last 6 mos..on my commute to and from school and then 2 weeks before the exam I went thru them all again. HE WAS RIGHT ON THE MONEY. I COULDNT BELIEVE IT! The RR path and his audio are BRILLIANT!!! Sure, there were some I was like...i dunno...but I feel like most of the questions i felt like that on werent in path (it was biostats...as noted above..lol). Most of my path was in Repro. Pregnancy, Complications, menstruation stuff...LOTS of Repro path. A few GI..etc. I was well scattered other than Repro.

6) Physio- another subject Im not fond of becasue of the calculations....i got lucky though...not one Renal phys calc, not one resp, not one cardio. I like all the non calculation physio and it was pretty straight forward. Heavy in repro/endo. AND GET THIS.....HISTOLOGY sections with case descriptions and picking out the cell causing the problem. lol. they were like 3rd order.

7) Pharm wasnt bad at all...very straight forward...mostly side affects and a few MOAs. Some graphs and theory stuff. I didnt have that many at all and I was hoping for more. 🙁 they got replaced by quote questions and wrist pathology...HAHHA

8) Neuro/psych.... prob two psych questions. Lots of images with brain sections, mri or ct....classic stuff though so it wasnt bad if you know the anatomy. there were no curveballs here.

Overall....I dont know how I feel. I was REALLY tired by the last block...and I think that is one big suggestion I have...practice lots of questions back to back to simulate the stamina you need. I did that and was still freaking tired. I wanted to be done.

these next few weeks will go like molases Im sure...I dont know why Im surprised but my overall feeling was like...WOW that was pretty tough. I hope I survived. Practice tests dont mean crap....im concerned...but I knew I would be. Ill just be hopefull I guess.

Good Luck and I hope this helps someone. Im sooooo tired. 😴

Take Care!!

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

Any areas FA2009 + UWorld were not sufficient?

 

[Knicks]

Well Im sure glad its over. 🙂 I thought I would post my experience as all of you helped me before today.

Again, no scores yet....but here is my advice after today...and it is similar to what others have said but I will add my test info...

I used RRpath, Goljan Audio, RR biochem, most of the HY series (embryo, micro, anatomy, brain and behavior etc)...annotated in my FA while going thru and then the last week went thru FA again. I completed U world 2x, did BSS tests, First Aid Q book, Kaplan Qbook, First Aid Cases. I dunno...FA didnt do it for me...i like to read paragraphs not like FA. Anyway..here was my progression:

4/7 NBME form 6: 400
4/17 CBSE: 70
5/18 UWorld 1: 230
5/25 Free NBME: 225
6/1 NBME Form 2: 550
6/3 COMSAE 1a: 577
6/6 UWSA 2: 252


1) ANATOMY: OMG I couldnt believe some of the anatomy! Intricate pelvic anatomy mostly arteries and paths of them and ureters!!!.I guess I didnt know my ureters well enough....ligaments containing important structures in the pelvis....then.....omg....more ANATOMY...lol...lots about the wrist bones, arteries, tendons....I was remembering back to when I was in Anatomy 2 years ago to answer some of them....you could narrow them down, but still i was amazed. Had a few odd embryo qs but when i looked they were line items in FA so whatever. Other embryo qs were CLASSIC.

2) MOLEC/CELL Bio: I had a lot of this; especially concerning DNA, bacterial replication, DNA, meh meh meh....it was all odd ball questions..not straight forward stuff. I was a bit annoyed at this part. BOOO

3) IMUNNO/MICRO: So I put them together bc it seemed like they were woven in so closely....lots of bug questions with a bcell/tcell immuno answers.....the immuno was a lot in quantity but it wasnt hard per se. I think FA was pretty sufficient for the Immuno part. I love micro and usually do really well, I thought it was REALLY straight forward and I was thrilled whenever one came up....except for the significant amount that didnt ask about the bacteria but asked about the immuno process. A few immuno diseases too.

4) BIOSTATS/ETHICS: I must have had 20 "quote" questions. It started to get really old. I dont even think you could study for them bc they are well outside what FA covers. I had MANY study/confidence interval/error/sens/spec....It WAS ALOT!!!! I actually HATE this subject...went in thinking if I get a lot of these...ill do my best but whatver. I may be a bit biased in that I hate it so I remember all of them and it seems like there were a ton. I wont lose sleep over it bc I hope from this moment on I will NEVER be tested on it again. 😱

5) Path...hmm...Im obessed with Goljan...prob listened to all of the lectures 3 times in the last 6 mos..on my commute to and from school and then 2 weeks before the exam I went thru them all again. HE WAS RIGHT ON THE MONEY. I COULDNT BELIEVE IT! The RR path and his audio are BRILLIANT!!! Sure, there were some I was like...i dunno...but I feel like most of the questions i felt like that on werent in path (it was biostats...as noted above..lol). Most of my path was in Repro. Pregnancy, Complications, menstruation stuff...LOTS of Repro path. A few GI..etc. I was well scattered other than Repro.

6) Physio- another subject Im not fond of becasue of the calculations....i got lucky though...not one Renal phys calc, not one resp, not one cardio. I like all the non calculation physio and it was pretty straight forward. Heavy in repro/endo. AND GET THIS.....HISTOLOGY sections with case descriptions and picking out the cell causing the problem. lol. they were like 3rd order.

7) Pharm wasnt bad at all...very straight forward...mostly side affects and a few MOAs. Some graphs and theory stuff. I didnt have that many at all and I was hoping for more. 🙁 they got replaced by quote questions and wrist pathology...HAHHA

8) Neuro/psych.... prob two psych questions. Lots of images with brain sections, mri or ct....classic stuff though so it wasnt bad if you know the anatomy. there were no curveballs here.

Overall....I dont know how I feel. I was REALLY tired by the last block...and I think that is one big suggestion I have...practice lots of questions back to back to simulate the stamina you need. I did that and was still freaking tired. I wanted to be done.

these next few weeks will go like molases Im sure...I dont know why Im surprised but my overall feeling was like...WOW that was pretty tough. I hope I survived. Practice tests dont mean crap....im concerned...but I knew I would be. Ill just be hopefull I guess.

Good Luck and I hope this helps someone. Im sooooo tired. 😴

Take Care!!

You mentioned that there were a lot of images in the neuro questions; did you "need" the images to answer the questions?

 

[Nematode]

Just out of curiosity, and also to make me feel better...do people usually think they did worse on the actual test and then end up with around the same grade as predicted? I feel like I did about what I would do on Uworld on the real thing, but not as good as an nbme. Is this typical?, and do scores typically work out. Sorry I know I am being neurotic.

 

[bbqbakedlays]

You mentioned that there were a lot of images in the neuro questions; did you "need" the images to answer the questions?

Yah..you needed the image bc it was like sxs and then said.where is the lesion (on ct, whole brain gross image, mri, or brainstem),....multiple times. Maybe one or two for not needing them.

I felt that the audio wasnt totally needed and after reading the pt case i had a guess and then convinced myself that was what i was hearing...

I hope that helps.....

 

[calespine]

Is everyone who is taking the test this month regardless of Fred V1 vs. V2, going to get scores back on July 15?

 

[alwaysaangel]

Is everyone who is taking the test this month regardless of Fred V1 vs. V2, going to get scores back on July 15?

People in my class who took V1 as late as May 21st got scores back last Wed, so apparently V1s are getting their scores back on the normal interval.

But I would be surprised if now a month later there were still sites that hadn't switched over, so I'm guessing everyone will be getting V2 by now.

 

[doogoshly]

i just took my USMLE and man does it feel good to be done.

test was really straightforward, not very many OMGWTF questions, but it wasn't cake either. i'm glad i got an energy drink for the test bc that's what kept my energy up when i was dragging. also be aware of your break time bc i noticed a few people who were too leisurely and lost a few mins of block time.

on a random side note, there was this one question about receptor tyr kinase inhibitor used in RCC and i got it down to 2 answers and did the eeny meeny miny mo thing and got the right answer. lol i can't believe it.

 

[ZagDoc]

Done here too. I don't think its actually sank in that I took the damn thing yet. I think my brain has tricked me into thinking it was a long day of UWorld question blocks.

I also thought my exam was fair. A couple of WTF questions but not many. A couple questions where I was able to make the first 1-2 jumps in logic but they wanted the next one. Would have liked more micro, since that was one of my stronger subjects by the end, but its also hard to distill out what where the experimental questions. One of my questions had an incomplete sentence (it was missing the end), and that sentence was very pertinent to the clinical vignette, which I found humorous.

Will post my study/NDME/UWorld experiences later.

But now... PAR-TAY!

 

[flyingdutchman]

Done here too. I don't think its actually sank in that I took the damn thing yet. I think my brain has tricked me into thinking it was a long day of UWorld question blocks.

I also thought my exam was fair. A couple of WTF questions but not many. A couple questions where I was able to make the first 1-2 jumps in logic but they wanted the next one. Would have liked more micro, since that was one of my stronger subjects by the end, but its also hard to distill out what where the experimental questions. One of my questions had an incomplete sentence (it was missing the end), and that sentence was very pertinent to the clinical vignette, which I found humorous.

Will post my study/NDME/UWorld experiences later.

But now... PAR-TAY!

Ahhh to be done. I pretty much echo your sentiments. The craziest thing about it is that you're only tested on 20% of all the crap that you've shoved into your brain over the past however many weeks/months. My test was pretty Cardio/Endocrine/Molec Bio heavy, but nothing too unmanageable. I'll post more later, for now time to chill....

 

[snowkhat]

You guys seem way more confident that I do. I thought it was the most difficult exam thus far. My exam made USMLEWORLD and Qbank look like a cakewalk. I came out of previous full length diags or half lengths feeling like I had a handle on the material. This one was an exception. I had tons of bizarro immuno and cell bio. I love path and it wasn't highly represented in my exam. I will be bummed if all my effort was flushed down the loo by some evil crappy exam.

 

[doogoshly]

now that i've had a little time to process it (and have a few beers), my test was pretty cardio and renal heavy but still i didn't think it was impossible and/or bad. one ekg, a lot of murmurs, one or two glomeruli IF stains, a bunch of cardio and renal drugs.

if there's any advice i can give, it's to be confident in yourself. 2 days before the test i was freakin out a little bit and after doing more qs and taking NBME6, i gave myself a little break that night. the next day i was just doing more qs and reviewing FA. i found myself on that rise or peak. i don't know why, but it felt like i knew what was going on, i was thinking more clearly, and the answers just made sense.

i mean, the downside is that i was too confident and rushed through the exam (which is why i went back and reviewed my answers once or twice) but i think that's better than going in there and being like, OMG OMGOGMOGM and screwing myself over by doubting myself.

 

[Glaxo]

i just took my USMLE and man does it feel good to be done.

test was really straightforward, not very many OMGWTF questions, but it wasn't cake either. i'm glad i got an energy drink for the test bc that's what kept my energy up when i was dragging. also be aware of your break time bc i noticed a few people who were too leisurely and lost a few mins of block time.

on a random side note, there was this one question about receptor tyr kinase inhibitor used in RCC and i got it down to 2 answers and did the eeny meeny miny mo thing and got the right answer. lol i can't believe it.

what the hell RCC tyr kinase inhibitor? I'm going to hope it ended in -tinib

 

[doogoshly]

what the hell RCC tyr kinase inhibitor? I'm going to hope it ended in -tinib

lol i thought i put in the answer. it's sunitinib. i was just super confused bc 1) i forgot imatinib is also a tyr kinase inhibitor and 2) i'd never seen sunitinib in my life. so i was just like wtf...

 

[psu07]

Yah..you needed the image bc it was like sxs and then said.where is the lesion (on ct, whole brain gross image, mri, or brainstem),....multiple times. Maybe one or two for not needing them.

I felt that the audio wasnt totally needed and after reading the pt case i had a guess and then convinced myself that was what i was hearing...

I hope that helps.....

I feel really stupid for asking, but what do you mean by saying "sxs"?

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

symptoms

 

[Glaxo]

lol i thought i put in the answer. it's sunitinib. i was just super confused bc 1) i forgot imatinib is also a tyr kinase inhibitor and 2) i'd never seen sunitinib in my life. so i was just like wtf...

haha good, i was going to say that would have been just cruel if it wasn't at least related to the one tyrosine kinase inhibitor that second years definitely know about.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

haha good, i was going to say that would have been just cruel if it wasn't at least related to the one tyrosine kinase inhibitor that second years definitely know about.

Imatinib?

 

[NCF145]

Imatinib?

AKA Gleevec. It is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor used in bcr-abl positive CML (Philadelphia Chromosome, t(9;22)).

 

[DoctorMario]

Imatinib?

Wikipedia?

--

 

[BoneNibbler]

Wikipedia?

--

'Best to be silent and thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt'

She doesn't know how to look stuff up. She only can ask stuff to be spoon fed to her. Yeah....super annoying....

 

[AllUpOnYoMama]

She doesn't know how to look stuff up. She only can ask stuff to be spoon fed to her. Yeah....super annoying....

your G-string is too tight

 

[sebsvenmdc]

your G-string is too tight

Dude, don't even waste your energy replying to Bonenibbler's comments.

 

[BoneNibbler]

your G-string is too tight

So is your diaper!