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?

 

[hateroftheyear]

.

 

[docjg17]

I took the exam back on June 22nd but didn't get an email. Is this a bad SIGN?!?!

 

[maygrl110]

I know someone who had that exact same question. He called USMLE and they're going to review it I think. Kind of a big mistake if you ask me for such an important test...

I had the exact same question! There's not much to reconsider, it makes NO SENSE!

 

[Fibrillation]

Thought I would share my experience as I have been a long time lurker and the information I have gotten from this forum has been invaulable. First my stats
NMBE 3 209 (7 weeks out)
NMBE 1 220 (4 weeks out)
NMBE 2 238 (2 weeks out)
Free 150 85% (4 days out)
UWORLD average 69% completed random untimed

STEP 1 246/99

I am a DO student so here are those stats

COMASE Form A 603 (3 days out)
COMLEX 1 702/96

The primary resources I used for my prep were
First Aid
Goljan's Rapid Review Pathology
Goljan's Audio
HY Neuroanatomy
HY Cell and Molecular Bio. 99 edition
CMMRS
Lippincotts Biochemistry
UWORLD

My studying consisted of the following at Christmas I began going through First Aid and Rapid Review path maybe an hour each day. My goal was to get through it all by Easter before my dedicated study period began I probably got trough 2/3rds of the material. I than had a 7 weeks before my exam. I would on average study 8 to 10 hours a day. Consisting of 3 hours reading/studying in the morning and a set of 48 UWORLD questions in the afternoon followed by the explantions and annotating in to First aid. That was followed by more reading/studying at night never studying past 9 pm. I went through First Aid, Goljan and HY Cell 3 total times. I definitely hit the wall a few times during this study period and was really ready to take the exam after studying the 7 weeks took June 1st. I had a one week period where I crammed OMT (savarse) before taking COMLEX June 8th.

Impressions of the test was that is was doable, but your still going to feel like crap when your finished and the 6 week wait for scores does not help.
Overall on my test things that I found to be difficult were I had 3 heart sound questions that I more or less totally guessed on. A few Immuno. questions seemed to totally out of left field. Pharm was not to bad had 2 drugs I had never heard of otherwise straight out of first aid. Micro mostly the expected bugs few parasites thrown in for fun. At least 15 quote type questions 7 which were in the same section not the classic question either. The majority of the exam was path/pathphys. this is were I spent a large amount of my time and I feel it was time well spent lots of classic presentations.

Overall the best advice as was given by many others on this forum was learn the material well during your classes as it makes it a whole lot easier the second time around.

 

[SRK Jerk]

261/99

A bit pissed, because my first NBME six weeks before the real thing was 255, and my last was 273, and the free question thing was 272.

Ah well.

 

[Garrison1]

UWSA1 -- 261 4 weeks out
NMBE3 -- 266 (700) 2 weeks out
UWSA2 -- 265+ 1.5 weeks out
Free 150 -- 95% (275 predicted)
UW -- 81% cumulative
Kaplan -- about 72%, used it throughout the spring semester during class/etc.

Real thing -- 273

 

[fergustsi]

Here is my stuff with a less than stratospheric score of 231/96 on the real deal

Kaplan Qbank - 60-61 avg 90% complete
usmleworld - 58-59 avg 35-40 % complete
Kaplan full length - 69% (3 weeks out) our school correlates that to a 228ish
Free 150 - 83% 5 weeks out - first exam i took
NBME 1 - 520 / 227 (i think) 2 weeks out
UWSA 1 - 223 - 10 days out
DIT predictive exam - 82% Correlates to 239.25 +/- 9.25 (taken the night or two nights before the exam)

I did all kaplan live review lectures (three weeks long) plus read took notes in all corresponding books, first aid, DIT (doctors in training only about halfway through), lange path cards once through, brs pharm cards once through, elsevier micro cards 1.5 X through. I also took a COMSAE (comlex predictive and got a corrected score of 570 in case youre a DO)

It was an F-load of work but it got me where i wanted to be.

 

[bluntdissector]

Congrats to everyone!

To fergustsi, Garrison1 and Fibrillation - when you say the Free 144 predicted X or Y, is that medfriends or wikitestprep? Trying to compare stats, just for fun whilst waiting for my score, but not sure what you used...

Thanks and congrats to everyone again!

 

[bluntdissector]

261/99

A bit pissed, because my first NBME six weeks before the real thing was 255, and my last was 273, and the free question thing was 272.

Ah well.

Sucks that it looks as if 6weeks of work didn't add too much, but at least you can take heart that if you wrote then you might have gotten 246 or somethin, so it was probably still worthwhile! 🙄

 

[Garrison1]

Oh that's the medfriends correlation, didn't know there was another one

 

[Dr Angel]

Alright, here we go:

Goal: 230+
Actual: 237/99 (81 percentile I believe) Took it on Fred V2 on 6/5 and got my score today (7/15) a little after 11 am CST. Very happy!

Practice stuff:
UW Cumulative 69%
UW SA 2= 244 (can't remember what I made on form 1)
NBME Form 2, free from school (Apr 2009, way early) 420=198
NBME Form 1 (May 15) 540=231
NBME Form 3 (May 24) 490=220 Not sure what happened here. Fluke?
NBME Form 6 (May 31) 540=231 Sound familiar?

Clinical Review Calculator put me at a 236/99 +/-9. Pretty damn close.

My study schedule is attached. I stuck with it very closely. When covering the organ systems I'd read the appropriate Goljan chapter, then the FA chapter, then do FA cases and Goljan again if I had time. I'm a fast reader, and the only time I got into trouble (behind) was w/ the RBC/WBC stuff--I didn't allot nearly enough time for my reading on that. Otherwise, I did fine and used my scheduled review mornings/days to cover stuff I was hurting on in UW or just felt confused about. For those of you reading this for suggestions, I would highly recommend building in review time (even just a few hours in a morning) each week if you can. It helps you retain the stuff you've covered.

Books:
-FA 2008. Incredibly helpful. Annotated the bee-jesus out of it from Goljan and UW. Also put stuff in throughout M2 year.
-Goljan RR Path. Incredibly helpful. Used in class as well. Couldn't tell you accurately how many times I read through it all for dedicated Board prep (at least 3X completely). On the score breakdown report for Step I, I did very well and I would credit Goljan and UW entirely. Out path course left much to be desired. I also used his audio (2X through).
-High Yield Neuroanatomy. Very helpful. I sucked at this in M1 and now wish I had used this book back then as well. Read it cover to cover.
-High Yield Physiology. Very helpful. I got a lot more out of physiology just studying this book and UW than I ever did out of our physio course.
-High Yield Behavioral Science. Helpful. A very quick read, got some questions right on Step I because of this, but UW was excellent. Read it if you have time I guess.

That's pretty much it. If I had a question or needed clarification on something I would go to a primary text.

Thanks everybody and congrats to all that got their scores back today!

 

[Dr Angel]

Oh yeah, if you look in my schedule you'll see I took an hour lunch break and an hour and a half dinner break everyday. I'd usually work out or walk my dogs before a quick lunch and then spend my dinner break with my wife. Keep yourself grounded while you're studying. That last week is especially rough.

 

[fergustsi]

Congrats to everyone!

To fergustsi, Garrison1 and Fibrillation - when you say the Free 144 predicted X or Y, is that medfriends or wikitestprep? Trying to compare stats, just for fun whilst waiting for my score, but not sure what you used...

Thanks and congrats to everyone again!

i didnt include the correlations on my post
medfriends was a 245 and wikitestprep was a 232 i believe (so right on)
also clinical review calculator said my 222 on uwsa 1 would be like a 232/233 on the real thing i believe which is awfully close.
funny how my school's forced full length kaplan exam predicted what i would get within one point about 4 weeks or so before i took the real thing too.
The only one which was way off was the medfriends one. my qbank avg said like 192 and my free 150 was a 245.
My MCAT prediction from medfriends was exact btw. (29 =231) which i was always told is the best predictor on performance on the usmle anyways (this is a direct quote from our year 2 education director. try using that as a guide just for fun, see if it is accurate or if im just a fluke.

 

[SoFarBehind]

To be completely honest, from my own personal and my classmate's experiences, I think that the last week screws most people up. I wish I had taken mine before that last week of studying. I bet I would have scored better... not that I did poorly... it just psychs you out and you have no idea how to study [eg broad review or fill in the minutia details you don't know (eg p16 is on chromosome 9) hoping to boost your score] and it messes up the groove.

 

[fergustsi]

Alright, here we go:

Goal: 230+
Actual: 237/99 (81 percentile I believe) Took it on Fred V2 on 6/5 and got my score today (7/15) a little after 11 am CST. Very happy!

Practice stuff:
UW Cumulative 69%
UW SA 2= 244 (can't remember what I made on form 1)
NBME Form 2, free from school (Apr 2009, way early) 420=198
NBME Form 1 (May 15) 540=231
NBME Form 3 (May 24) 490=220 Not sure what happened here. Fluke?
NBME Form 6 (May 31) 540=231 Sound familiar?

Clinical Review Calculator put me at a 236/99 +/-9. Pretty damn close.

My study schedule is attached. I stuck with it very closely. When covering the organ systems I'd read the appropriate Goljan chapter, then the FA chapter, then do FA cases and Goljan again if I had time. I'm a fast reader, and the only time I got into trouble (behind) was w/ the RBC/WBC stuff--I didn't allot nearly enough time for my reading on that. Otherwise, I did fine and used my scheduled review mornings/days to cover stuff I was hurting on in UW or just felt confused about. For those of you reading this for suggestions, I would highly recommend building in review time (even just a few hours in a morning) each week if you can. It helps you retain the stuff you've covered.

Books:
-FA 2008. Incredibly helpful. Annotated the bee-jesus out of it from Goljan and UW. Also put stuff in throughout M2 year.
-Goljan RR Path. Incredibly helpful. Used in class as well. Couldn't tell you accurately how many times I read through it all for dedicated Board prep (at least 3X completely). On the score breakdown report for Step I, I did very well and I would credit Goljan and UW entirely. Out path course left much to be desired. I also used his audio (2X through).
-High Yield Neuroanatomy. Very helpful. I sucked at this in M1 and now wish I had used this book back then as well. Read it cover to cover.
-High Yield Physiology. Very helpful. I got a lot more out of physiology just studying this book and UW than I ever did out of our physio course.
-High Yield Behavioral Science. Helpful. A very quick read, got some questions right on Step I because of this, but UW was excellent. Read it if you have time I guess.

That's pretty much it. If I had a question or needed clarification on something I would go to a primary text.

Thanks everybody and congrats to all that got their scores back today!

I love that you scheduled booze time.

 

[SRK Jerk]

Sucks that it looks as if 6weeks of work didn't add too much, but at least you can take heart that if you wrote then you might have gotten 246 or somethin, so it was probably still worthwhile! 🙄

Good point, that's a positive spin on it. Though to be honest not sure why i went down anyway (probably lack of sleep + luck variance).

 

[ENThopeful]

how predictive is the UWSA? i made 15 points higher on it than my NBMEs, but i took NBMEs 3 weeks before UWSA.. i heard it overpredicts but it doesnt seem like it from everyone's posts.

 

[Steiner]

Did anyone get an email from the NBME saying your score was up? Everyone seems to be saying they never got an email even though their scores were up.

 

[doogoshly]

Did anyone get an email from the NBME saying your score was up? Everyone seems to be saying they never got an email even though their scores were up.

i got the email at 11:43 and checked at like 11:30AM. it's from scores @nbme.org

 

[arroser]

My experience from 6/9/09 is quoted below - just edited it with my score, which I am so, so excited about! 270!

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!

 

[spospo]

For those who read these and worry about their NBME scores not being where they want them to be and hearing that these practice tests are the best predictor of how you will do ---> take a look at my stuff. Maybe it will make you feel better

By the numbers
Goal: 230+
NBME 5: 400 --> 192 (BLAH, about 8 weeks from test day)
Comp Basic Sci: 77 --> 217 (about 5 weeks out, pretty happy)
Path Shelf: 540 --> who knows what that means (4 weeks out)
NBME 4: 410 --> 203 (on the verge of ripping my hair out, 3 weeks out)
***Decided here that I would take no more NBME's****
Free 146: 80.5% --> medfriends 239, wiki test prep 230 (1 week out, feeling much better)
UWorld: 100% done, average about 61%

Real deal: 238

I was ecstatic after seeing this. I was so nervous with everyone saying how close they were to their practice tests as I sat for weeks on end waiting for the score. As it turns out, medfriends was pretty accurate with me! I don't know what it was, but the NBMEs just didn't mesh well with me. Or me with them. Whatever.

My method (mostly just pointing about things I did differently)
-Did the usual with books
-Had about 5 DEVOTED weeks to boards but did a little bit since early March
-After our last real course I divided RR into 30 page sections and did 30 pages each night. It didn't matter if it ended in the middle of a chapter. If I missed a night then I just skipped it. I REALLY think this helped. A lot
-I had bug cards in groups of 50. 5 different groups. Would take a different pack with me each day to do when I had down time. This worked great in familiarizing myself with them again

What I would change
-Would have done a little more nutrition stuff, turns out that was my lowest section
-Wouldn't have let the NBMEs freak me out so much

General advise
-As long as you plan for it, it is okay to take an entire weekend off. I actually took 2 entire weekends off (traveling to see friends/family, so I studied zero). I planned for them though, so the loss of study time didn't freak me out
-Don't let one block on the exam throw your whole day
-Stay calm. Believe in yourself
-Whoop

That's it. Thanks for all the great advice SDN!!

 

[RussianJoo]

So all you guys that got your scores today took your exam at the begining of June? i.e. no later than 6/10/09? Just trying to figure out the timing.. thanks.

 

[drwannabe44]

What residency can i get into with a 202?

 

[nogolfinsnow]

So all you guys that got your scores today took your exam at the begining of June? i.e. no later than 6/10/09? Just trying to figure out the timing.. thanks.

I got mine today; took the test 6/25

 

[psammomabody]

Stats:
Pre study/post 2nd year NBME 5: 600/244
1 week before the test NBME 3: 680/262
UW: all random/timed, 100% complete, scored 84% the first time through

Goal: 245
Score: 270/99

Study tools:
Kaplan home study series (2 general principles, 2 organ system books)
First Aid
Goljan RR (only read the first 8 chapters, used the rest for reference)

Got my score today and couldn't be happier!!!

 

[rajvanhar]

Score: 262/99 (~96.3 percentile)

NBME1: 220
NBME2: 249
NBME3: 253
UWSA1: 257
NBME4: 253
NBME5: 260
Free 150: 263 (91.95%)
NBME6: 251
UWSA2: 265

Kaplan: 64% (prestudy)
UW: 75%
FA Q&A: ~80%

Money Spent: $1000+
Total # of Questions: 7350

wht do u mean by all these score ......help me i m planing to gve nd i knw nothing bout usmle plz help

 

[skreemer7]

My down to earth experience:

Score 214/88 (June 8th)

Studied for 3 weeks. I would have liked another week but I was getting married and I could not schedule the test any later.

Mainly used first aid, listened to goljan throughout the year.

Previous tests:

UsmleWORLD sim exam 1: 196 (3 weeks out)
NBME 1: 184 (3 weeks out)
NBME 3: 196 (2.5 weeks out)
UsmleWORLD sim exam 2: 212: (1.5 weeks out)
Free 150: 206 (1 week out)
UsmleWORLD cumulative: 53%- last 20 or so random, timed 48 question blocks averaging ~60%. Started in low 40s 3 weeks back.

I will say this- studying during the year is probably the best thing you can do. I definitely did the minimum for good grades during my 2nd year. A lot of cramming 3-5 days before exams. Memorizing previous exams and such. Obviously it didnt translate to a great board score. Im going to be more proactive during my 3rd year and try to study evenly.

Hopefully I can still make myself competitive for some of the middle residency programs- Im interested in diagnostic radiology, by having an awesome Step II score.

 

[ASAintolerance]

anyone take their test on june 26th and did not get scores today? i took mine on june 26th and didnt get scores today and had an error at the end of my test.

 

[Cliff Huxtable]

wht do u mean by all these score ......help me i m planing to gve nd i knw nothing bout usmle plz help

They are the scores he/she was getting on practice tests. The percentages are the percent of questions he/she got correct overall when doing the respective question banks.

 

[GeorgeMichael B]

My experience:

Studied for 4.5 weeks, 5-8 hours per day every day. Used only First Aid and Uworld, after classes were over. Worked hard during MS 1 and 2, but NEVER studied for step 1 during them (no goljan, etc)

NBME1 before studying - 196
Uworld 68% random, unused by the section I was studying, reviewing answers to each block after
NBME6 with 2 weeks to go - 220

Real Deal - 224

Kinda bummed I didn't bump my score up more from my last NBME, but not surprised as I felt like I got rocked by my test day. In the end, I'm really happy with my score because I really don't care as much about getting into an uber competitive field...THANK GOD ITS OVER!

 

[distracted]

Congrats to everyone on their strong scores!

I wanted to share my experience with this test to provide a slightly different outcome from what seems to be the norm on this forum. I followed a slightly modified Taus method for my preparation over a 6 month time period (I was spending a year in a lab between med school years at that time so I had quite a bit of time to study in the evenings). Additionally, I took about 3 weeks off prior to my test date to study full-time.

My stats are as follows:
MCAT= 36 (if anyone cares)
UWorld= 69% (48 questions, random, timed, ~70% complete)
NBME 2 (2 months prior)= 216
NBME 4 (1 month prior)= 247
NBME 6 (1 week prior)= 244

Step 1(5/27, V2)= 232

I went into the test feeling decent since my last two NBMEs were in the range that I had desired. I thought the actual test was fair and left feeling the same way I did after taking the practice tests. In retrospect I don't think I could have improved my study material or schedule. I was shocked today when I opened my report and saw the 232. It is a decent score and I'd be foolish to belittle the amount of preparation it took to achieve it, but considering all of my predictors, I am surprised and slightly frustrated that my outcome differed so considerably from others' who had very similar predictors. I'm simply confused about how this could happen.

A source of additional confusion comes from the lack of similarity between my graphical "performance profiles" from the practice tests and the real exam. My strengths on my practice tests turned out to be weaknesses on the real exam and vice-versa. For example, my GI/nutrition score on the last practice test was almost off the chart on the right with a star. On the real deal, my GI score and my nutrition score extended into the "lower performance" section of the profile. I understand that these practice exams are not officially meant to predict scores, but when they do so successfully for so many people, their lack of predictive power for me is very frustrating.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[odoole]

Congrats to everyone on their strong scores!

I wanted to share my experience with this test to provide a slightly different outcome from what seems to be the norm on this forum. I followed a slightly modified Taus method for my preparation over a 6 month time period (I was spending a year in a lab between med school years at that time so I had quite a bit of time to study in the evenings). Additionally, I took about 3 weeks off prior to my test date to study full-time.

My stats are as follows:
MCAT= 36 (if anyone cares)
UWorld= 69% (48 questions, random, timed, ~70% complete)
NBME 2 (2 months prior)= 216
NBME 4 (1 month prior)= 247
NBME 6 (1 week prior)= 244

Step 1(5/27, V2)= 232

Has anyone had a similar experience?

I'm right there with you. It seems like everyone did at or above their practice scores, but I dropped 10-15 points. Unlike you, though, I felt pretty crummy after the test because I really ran out of time on every section. Still, it kind of sucks when your actual score is similar to your first practice score, and it feels like all the prep work you did in between was for nothing ...

Oh well, ultimately it's a good, competitive score (even though it may not be competitive when measured against your own performance) -- and that's what counts.

 

[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!!

237/99

SUPER STOKED!!! YAYAYY!!!👍

 

[GeorgeMichael B]

Same here. Renal has always been my best (and favorite) subject. I aced renal physiology in MS1, aced renal path in MS2, and was way to the right in renal in both my practice tests.

My lowest percentile performance? (borderline to left). Yep, you guessed it....RENAL 😡

Congrats to everyone on their strong scores!

A source of additional confusion comes from the lack of similarity between my graphical "performance profiles" from the practice tests and the real exam. My strengths on my practice tests turned out to be weaknesses on the real exam and vice-versa. For example, my GI/nutrition score on the last practice test was almost off the chart on the right with a star. On the real deal, my GI score and my nutrition score extended into the "lower performance" section of the profile. I understand that these practice exams are not officially meant to predict scores, but when they do so successfully for so many people, their lack of predictive power for me is very frustrating.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[RussianJoo]

I got mine today; took the test 6/25

thanks.

 

[bola]

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

275
No words honestly...THANKS TO THE BIG GUY!! I'm still staring at my score report...

 

[Deferoxamine]

What the f.

That's gotta be like the 10th 270+ score I've seen on here today. Makes me feel like my score is child's play.

SDN = Steroid Doctor Network

 

[Ms MD]

Does anyone know what that 2-digit score stands for? Mine's in the 90's, but have no idea what that means. It seems like a wide range of scores fall into the 90's too.

 

[Nagels]

Seriously, majorly impressive scores everyone. Got mine back this morning as well: 236/99. My only goal was get a high enough score to be competitive for whatever specialty I want to go in to, so I'm happy 👍

 

[ella umbrella]

Ok, so I took my boards June 29th. Does anyone know when the next set of scores come out??? This whole waiting process is ridiculous, especially since they said May-Late June scores would be out July 15th. Some of have already started rotations, and would like to move on with our lives. Sorry, venting...but really, does anyone know?

 

[Nagels]

Does anyone know what that 2-digit score stands for? Mine's in the 90's, but have no idea what that means. It seems like a wide range of scores fall into the 90's too.

I'd also like some info on this. I had assumed it was a percentile, but reading some other peoples' posts that doesn't seem to be the case

 

[ZagDoc]

Updated with my scizzore.

Ok so here's how studying went for me.

Took my school's CBSA on 3/05/09. Score: 62 (Proj 180)

What I did between then and the end of the school year. During this time I was maybe doing 10-15 hours a week of boards stuff on top of class. So a couple hours a day, not necessarily every day of the week. Nothing too stressful. I wanted to do things to more "prepare to cram" at the end then really hit it hard and burn myself out. So more do things to RELIEVE stress and make me feel like I was being productive than add undue stress to my life:
-Listen to all of Goljan audio and annotate into RR Path
-Consolidate BRS Phys into FA
-Consolidate HY Behavioral into FA
-Consolidate CMMRS into FA
-Consolidate Lange Immunology into FA
-Consolidate RR Biochem into FA
-Consolidate HY Neuro into FA
-Do Robbins Review of Path questions and consolidate missed Q's into FA
*When I say "consolidate" I mean photocopied useful figures and 3 hole punched them into my FA binder, added facts to pertinent info in sections of FA as well as add "high yield" fact sheets of my own notes to the end of each subject/system.

I started doing UWorld questions 40 days before the exam. Timed blocks of 48. Started with a block a night then transitioned to two blocks every morning when classes were over and I transitioned into fulltime boards study mode.

I took NBME 4 at the end of classes/the beginning of my boards cram period. Score: 350 (Proj 190)

I gave myself exactly 3 weeks to study for Step 1 after the end of classes. You can see my full study schedule HERE (Word document available if you're really that desperate, just PM me). In retropect, my schedule was perhaps a bit too amitious. I gave myself "blocked out" time for things like working out and relaxing at the end of the day and found I didn't use any of it. Basically, instead of my days being over at 7 or 8pm like I planned, I found myself studying from 8am to 10 or 11pm most days since I wasn't getting through info as fast as my schedule dictated, then skipping the gym in the morning to get an extra hour of sleep. I was not a well-rounded person these past 3 weeks, but I also knew I could handle it. It's all about knowing your own limits.

After a while, I switched to tutor mode on UWorld (but did not change any answers if I got them incorrect). I just found the instantaneous feedback of "Did I get this wrong and why?" more useful for my studying than reviewing the answers after I had completed a block 45 minutes later. Doing it the latter way, I found I had lost some of my thought processing for the questions and in tutor mode I could see if I was "thinking through" questions better.

Here's what my question block progression looked like:

I took NBME 2 a week into my intensive study period. Score: 470 (Proj 216)

About 12 days out from Step 1 is when I started to see real progress in my UWorld questions. As you can see in the graph, before that point, my question blocks were wildly oscillating between high 40's/low 50's all the way up to low 70's. I just couldn't seem to smooth things out and make my scores more consistent until about 12 days out. Then all of a sudden my scores equilibrated into the 60's and started to climb. I didn't suddenly do anything differently. I think the difference was 1.) that was around the time I first got through all of FA the first time and 2.) that was around the time I crossed the 1500 questions mark in my UWorld bank. I think there's something to be said to just doing "a lot of questions" since there's a certain thought process needed in the questions to "think through them" correctly.

I took NBME 3 another week into my studying (6 days out from Step 1). Score: 550 (Proj 234)

The last week was basically spent filling in holes and working on my weaknesses (micro/biochem esp). I finished UWorld that monday and spent the rest of the week doing question blocks of ones I had missed incorrectly.

I took the free USMLE test 2 days before I took Step 1. Score: 85 (Proj 249)

Overall scores from UWorld:
-Total for 1st time through the entire bank: 61% (Proj 225-232)
-Total for all of my question blocks: 67% (Proj 235-245)

I thought my actual test was very fair. I didn't find any subject particularly heavy so much so that I found myself saying "Oh god another x questions" at any point. But it was very molecular bio heavy. A lot of questions asking you to diagnose a disease than asking about the molecular machinations of the disease process. 90 days of UWorld was the best $215 I ever spent. Their interface is literally EXACTLY like Fred and many times throughout the test it felt simply like I was doing question blocks instead of actually taking the Step 1. The day goes very fast. I was sick with a cold when I took it so I made sure to pack prophylactic DayQuil.

My goal for Step 1 was to at least hit 220. I told myself at the beginning that I would be "very, very happy" if I broke 235 and 250 was my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So it was kind of eerie that my last NBME projected 234 and my USMLE score projected 249. So I appeared to be right where I wanted to be going in. I wanted to post my experiences because I made a lot of progress in a short amount of time. Often around here people make it sound like unless you're scoring 230+ when you START studying you are doomed to mediocrity. Personally between the CBSA and my actual Step 1 score I added 73 points to my projected score.

I will update when I got my score.

Update - SCORE: 253/99! Unreal.

 

[boyblu32]

I have never posted on this forum before, but wanted to contribute because I felt it has been very helpful to me in the past year. Just a little background: I got to a US med school, and began immediately after college.

For my prep I enrolled in Kaplan's intense prep and went to classes for biochem, immuno/micro, pharm and path. The classes took about 3 weeks and then I had 3 weeks to study on my own. Looking back, I think the Kaplan classes were excellent (especially biochem and path - Barone is amazing and got me some points on the test).

While I was taking the classes (which were some looong days) I would come home and try to review as much of the material as I could, then do Kaplan Q bank questions for at least an hour based on that subject. I didn't really find questions to be very helpful at that time. It was good just to start becoming familiar with questions in general, but I can't say I learned a lot that way at first. I began USMLE world after Kaplan classes were over and loved it. Here are my numbers:
USMLE world 100% complete, finished with a 70% cumulative (started out in the mid 60's, was in the mid 70's the last 15 blocks or so).
NBME 1 about 3 weeks into studying: 236
free 150 at the Prometric site: 249.
NBME 5:223
NBME 4 one week before the real test: 236 again. I was kind of bummed my scores on the NBMEs were not going up, but I did my best not to let it bother me and kept moving. My goal is to score above 240.

Path: I used Rapid review throughout the year, and listened to Goljan's audio too. However, I thought Dr. Barone did a wonderful job with path during Kaplan's classes. I was able to rapidly recall all of that info on my exam which was helpful. He doesn't get through everything though, so I used rapid review to cover the rest of the material.
Micro: We had Dr. Ruebush for micro during kaplan. I really liked her mnemonics, especially for which viruses are dsDNA, ssRNA, etc. I transferred most of my notes to CMMRS and used the charts to study.
Biochem: Kaplan brought in Dr. Turco for this - I thought he did a fantastic job. The kaplan biochem book is really great. I tried to also use the First aid section, but in retrospect I think just sticking to Kaplan would have been a time saver.
Immuno: Again, Dr. Ruebush. I thought this subject (which only took a day) was taught extremely well. I also really liked Kaplan's book for this, and that was all I used.
Physio: I didn't attend these Kaplan lectures, mostly because the book was gigantic and by that time i was tired of sitting in class. I just read my beloved BRS physio, and that was fine. I think UWorld's physio questions were the most representative of the real exam - take time to make sure you know how those arrow questions play out.
Behavioral/Biostats: I started out using HY behavioral sciences, which was great for the behavioral material. For some reason, I was struggling with the biostats questions, so I listened to a few of the Kaplan lectures online. Very helpful for me to hear some of those concepts out loud.
Pharm: I thought Kaplan's pharm was great (Dr. Davis). That was all I used again.
Neuro: I tend to have trouble with this subject, but forced myself to spend a lot of time re-learning material from neuroanatomy during my 2nd year neuro module. This was so helpful to me during boards studying, because it was fresh in my mind. I liked Kaplan's neuroanatomy section (within the gross anatomy book) and mostly used that, along with some HY neuro pages here and there.
First Aid: Looking back, i wish I had just tossed first aid. Yea, it was helpful to have a "list" of topics that you had to know, but I htink I became too obsessed with getting all of my notes into there.

Test day: I got there very early. I was sooo happy I had taken a practice test there first. It really helped me to be familiar with the site/bathrooms and surroundings. I started the tutorial, skipped to the page that tests the headphones and just did that, then skipped to first block of questions.

Overall Impression: I don't really know what to think. My first block was so hard, I thought I was going to throw up. I could feel my heart beating through my chest, and I tagged at least 20 questions to come back to. I don't even remember what was on it thought, so oh well. I took a break immediately after, went to the bathroom and gave myself a little pep talk. I came back and the next block was better. I did: block, break, block, break, 2 blocks, break for lunch, 2 blocks, break, then last block (also killer). I was very pushed for time, like most everyone else who has written here. I had 3 heart sounds questions, all hard, probably got all wrong. I had no idea what I was even listening to, and i had actually prepared and listend to the UCLA site.

Path: I think this was the majority of the test (can you tell how I'm trying to block out the experience). Some of the questions were very basic and I was kind of shocked that they were asking it that way. Others were bizarre, and I was positive that what they were asking was NO WHERE in rapid review or anywhere in my 2nd year path course. I had a lot of cardio questions, a topic I am usually good at, and I thought some of them were very difficult.
Physio: A lot of straight up physio... some were just like USMLEworld - arrows arrows.
Gross Anatomy: I had a good amount of gross anatomy. Some uterus questions, some on topics that I knew cold like rotator cuff, but the way the showed the picture and labels had me stumped.
Immuno: Probably 10-15 total. I recall one about myeloid/lymphoid precursors, another that showed up THREE times, and of course i got wrong 3 times... nice.
Biochem: I had a few that I recall - tetrahydrobiopterin... one about insulin/adipose.
Pharm: Probably less than 10. I was shocked. I had really studied this and the questions I did have were pretty basic.
Micro: Ughh. I did not expect micro to kill me. but it was. They asked about toxins/antibodies that I didn't even know existed. And I still don't kow what they are because I did look that up, and it was nowhere to be found.
Behavioral: I had a good number of behavioral questions, some of them were repeated. Not that many sensitivity/specificity. One PPV.
Neuro: I had about 10 neuro questions probably. I actually found myself calming down with those since I had spent so much time going through it. For all those studying the brainstem cross sections and disorders - i had one on my test! hooray.


I feel very uneasy about my performance. I was really stretched for time, and think I could have done better if I had time to figure out the questions. But the time crunch made it seem like I had to rapidly recall every answer, otherwise I had to move on. It was jarring. I will post my score when I get it. For now, deep breaths and a few days off.

Step 1 score: 241/99 (SO happy)

Just wanted to say that I remember a long time ago someone posted on this forum that all of the incredible scores are due to one of two things, either everyone is exagerrating, or people who read these forums go out of their way to plan how to study, are dedicated to doing well, and put in the extra effort ...which pays off. I think it's definitely the latter. Congrats everyone!

 

[flyingdutchman]

Got my score today: 255/99 So excited!! My goal was a 240. Just to give you all a little idea of predictive value of things:

UWSE#1 3 weeks before: 245
UWSE#2 2 weeks before: 247
NBME Free 150 2 weeks before: 88% (predicts a 255!!!)

I didn't take any NBME practice exams and studied about 6 weeks after school. Congrats to everyone else who got scores today!!

 

[DoctaJay]

I previously wrote something about my plan but now that my score is back and I'm not exhausted from taking the beast I think I can write a more in depth description.

My study plan was basically to use UsmleWorld as a study tool. So starting from the beginning of the school year, as my school was going through the different systems (cardio, neuro, etc.), I would be reading that section in First Aid and then doing all the questions on Cardio, or Neuro, etc. in UsmleWorld. I only did questions on tutor mode and whatever I didn't know and wasn't in First Aid, or that was explained better on World, I would type up and put in my unbound..3-hole punched copy of First Aid. The following are the list of resources that I used to study:

Question Bank: UsmleWorld QBank (only on tutor mode)
Microbiology: Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, UWorld Micro questions, First Aid Micro section
Biochemistry: First Aid Biochemistry section, UWorld Biochem questions
Pathology: First Aid (the whole book), BRS Pathology, UWorld Path Questions
Pharmacology: First Aid (the whole book), UWorld Pharm questions
Everything Else: First Aid and UWorld questions

As you can see I didn't really stray away and use a bunch of different resources. For my personality and study style I felt it was better for me to read First Aid 4x over than to read 5 different books once. Now I think what worked best for me was that I was basically using all of these study resources since about the 3rd month into 2nd year. I really wanted to learn it slowly and not cram it all in at the end. Also, I wanted to learn all of the information as it was also being taught in class.

So overall I didn't really have a set schedule but basically if we were on our Renal section in class then I would read about everything renal in First Aid. Then I would make tests in UsmleWorld that were only based on the Renal system. I would do each test on tutor mode, and whether I got it right or wrong, I would read the explanation and then type whatever knowledge I was lacking into a Microsoft Word document that was open. (This requires you to either have two monitors OR to run UsmleWorld inside of a virtualization software like VMWare Fusion so that your Mac or PC can't detect when you take a screen shot of the information. I only took screen shots if I wanted to transfer a picture or graph from the UWorld explanation into my notes. If it was text then I just typed it up). This overall plan basically continued until I had finished all of the UsmleWorld questions (yeah all 2,035 of them) and read all of First Aid once. After that I basically read First Aid over and over as many times as I could ( which turned out to be only 2 more times) and I also took practice tests. Ideally, I would have wanted to get the UsmleRx Qbank and do their questions since it is based solely on First Aid material and it would help me learn First Aid better, but I ran out of time.

My upperclassmen mentor basically told me that the more stuff you read besides First Aid the less you know the facts inside First Aid. I really took this advice to heart and tried to know the stuff in First Aid. As you have probably noticed, I didn't read RR Pathology at all; not because it isn't a great book, but because it would have taken too much time to read it for me...time that was better spent reading First Aid and doing UWorld questions. I honestly think that 85% of the test is in First Aid and UsmleWorld. That other 15% you would probably get wrong anyway, lol, so don't worry about it.

Here are my practice and real scores:

SAT: 1170 (out of 1600)
MCAT: 27N
NBME free 150= 242 (from medfriends estimate)
UsmleWorld Sim Test 1= 245
Comprehensive Basic Science Exam: 245-250
Real thing: between 240-250

Honestly after I took the test I felt like I got somewhere in the 215s or the 220s. But everyone feels like crap after they take it. Don't trust your feelings...trust your practice exam scores. Also, realize that medical school is a new game so don't worry if you got a low MCAT score; you can more than make up for it on Step I (as you can see in my example). Also remember that each person does what works best for them. Read all of the posts in this thread and glean the study tips that best work for you. Taus' plan is great but it may not work for you so pick and choose because in the end it will be you that will be sitting down for 7 hours and taking the test so you have to do what is best for you. My study plan fit my studying style (never going to lecture and just studying at home); for others it may be different. Also if you are a spiritual person, never forget God in the process; He can certainly fill in any inadequacies that you may have. I'm glad it is over and I'm glad that I can look forward to having options for residency. One hurdle down, one thousand more to go 😀.

 

[doogoshly]

now that my test is over with, i've realized you can't follow what everyone else does bc i've seen people where that has gotten them bogged down bc it's not their style. if anyone reads this and has yet to take step1, it's all up to you. you have a billion resources, choose those that match your study type.

for example, if you're an anal, thorough studier, do kaplan lectures, DIT, qbank, uworld, and structure your study schedule. if you're like me, borderline slacker, all i did was do qbank and robbins review of pathology throughout the year and then during my dedicated month use only uworld and FA (with DIT to help me get through FA and quiz me). for me DIT was a worthwhile investment bc it's only $600 (as opposed to $2k+ for other courses). granted my school gave us kaplan lectures, i just decided after the first day that it's not my style. i understood the disease processes well bc i actually studied during the school year and all i needed was repetition and easy ways to pack all that info into my brain. basically, you have your resources out there, pick and choose 2 or 3 that are your style. don't do more bc that's too many and you won't have time (unless you have like 2 months or more).

now that i've given my two cents, i'll just follow the trend here:

MCAT 35Q
NBME free150 = 235 medfriends estimate
UWSA 1/2 = 248/250
NBME6 = 230 or something like that
DIT 2hr predictive = 83-85% (i can't remember)

final real score = 240

as i've said before, test was very fair, not easy, not hard. no big trick questions that made you go WTF?!?! just study hard, i used uworld as a learning tool, practice practice practice. be confident.

 

[AMDAVE]

Okay, I wrote a big post about my study experiences and SDN timed me out and I lost it. Sorry folks.

Highlights:

235/98 on Step 1 (so close to 236/99...)
420 on NBME 3 (1week before exam)
530 on UW self-assessment 1 (1week before exam)

Resources:
First Aid
Goljan Lectures
Goljan Rapid Review
Microcards Flashcards (Harpavat and Nissim) - EXCELLENT!
USMLE World (55% complete, tutor mode)
Kaplan Qbank (Extra questions on trouble material)
http://www.med.unc.edu/embryo_images/ - ABSOLUTE GOLD EMBRYO REVIEW!

Test day strategies:
1) Read last sentence of question first to know what is being asked.
2) Read stem then formulate answer FIRST without reading choices.
3) Check prediction vs. available choices
4) If you have a question with >5-7 choices, you must either KNOW the answer or just guess randomly and move on. Do NOT waste time sorting through each choice. That is time you DO NOT have. I had a question with 18 choices, three columns of six.
4) Take short break between each section (2 mins at beginning and 5-7 mins at end). You dont need a really long lunch.
5) MEDITATE during breaks. If you believe in God, pray or meditate during your study breaks and during your exam breaks. It will keep you calm and refreshed for the upcoming sections. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

I studied M-F and took weekends off or did light review. Started 5/18, tested 6/26. Work when you schedule work. Play when you schedule play. AND YOU MUST SCHEDULE PLAY.

All the best,

AD

 

[hateroftheyear]

As promised, some more info about my Step 1 experience and preparation...

First of all, I can't believe I was such a whiny bitch coming out of that exam, even leaving a post on SDN saying that I felt really down about my performance. The reason why is that I made the mistake of looking up the answer to questions I was unsure about when I got out of the exam, and happened to get several (around 20) incorrect. My logic was that if I knew about 20 questions that I got wrong, there must be many more that were also incorrect. In actuality, I think that I have a knack for remembering all the questions that I am not 100% about on an exam, and everything else I pretty much knew cold. Lesson: DON'T look up answers to questions after the exam, RESIST the urge, you will inevitably best remember questions after the exam that you were unsure about. DON'T let your mind play tricks on you like it did mine.

Anyway... despite all my anxiety, final score: 267/99. This is consistent with my trend on practice exams. I began in early April at the end of second year on the CBSE scoring the equivalent of ~247, and made a decision to study through the normal boards period to push my score above 260, with the following logic: even on a bad day (minus one standard deviation from my average performance), I would still break 240. My scores on practice exams bounced back and forth but the overall trend was upward. Here's the info if you're interested, from a previous post:

CBSSE, early april (written in-class exam before study period provided by NBME): 89 which the NBME estimates to be between a 245 and 250

NBME 1 the next day: 232
NBME 2 about a week later: 247
NBME 5 about a week later: 240
NBME 3 about a week later: 253
NBME 4 about a week later: 262
Took NBME 6 off-line and found it to be rather difficult and random compared to the rest.
UWSA #1 (5/19): 750 / 261
UWSA #2 (5/24): 800 / 265+
Exam 6/4.

Speaking with sample size n=1 and purely anecdotally, I can vouch for the strength of NBMEs and UWSAs in charting your progress accurately. I don't know how they do it, as the exam I took was *definitely* much more tricky than the Free 150 and NBMEs, and I made at least 20 mistakes as I said before, but my final score ended up right on target with my prior performance. Weird. Do I regret not taking the exam in early April and using the boards period as an extended vacation? Not really, as I was able to pile on about 20 points in 2 months ... however, there are definitely diminishing returns once you get into the upper 250s, and I probably should have taken the exam at the end of May rather than June 4th.

I could discuss the exact distribution of questions on my exam, but that isn't really fruitful discussion because it can vary so much between administrations. The key thing is to be ready for any mixture -- if you are aiming for a top score, avoid having a "weak" subject. Tackle those subjects you are most unsure about during the study period, and conversely do not entirely neglect those subjects with which you are most comfortable. Case in point: I had an excellent first-year histology course taught by the MD/PhD director here, heard it was the lowest-yield subject on the boards, and subsequently overlooked it as a separate study topic outside of first aid and review books. Guess which subject was the only one in which I did not receive an asterisk on my score report? Yup, you guessed it, Histology and Cell Biology.

Books:
Path - Goljan Rapid Review guys, plus the audio, amazing stuff.
Physio - BRS
Behavior - HY
Neuro - HY
Histo / Cell Bio - I blew it off, in retrospect I heard the BRS is good
Anatomy - HY
Embryo - blew it off, and this is the one subject where I feel FA really is sufficient.
Pharm - Road Map
Micro - MicroCards
Biochem - Rapid Review
+USMLEWorld, Kaplan QBank throughout second year (never attended class, thank you Yale system), First Aid several times.

Congratulations to all who have slayed the beast.

 

[Deferoxamine]

Well, now that the score is back, I have a bit more perspective on this. Here is a post from me right after the exam 6/22/09, and I've typed a some more crap below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Edited to Add: Additional study source = Robbins Review of Pathology Question Book for general pathology questions (Chapters 1-8).

Prior to the designated Step 1 study period my school provided, a very wise upperclassmen reiterated to me over and over again that studying for Step 1 was all about setting "realistic, attainable goals", not only for what I could accomplish in studying in just 4 weeks, but also for how I could do on the actual exam. This is one reason why my list of sources used in those 4 weeks (listed above) is somewhat shorter than others you will see here on SDN.

Given my performance in MS1 and MS2, and my scores on Shelf Exams, I figured a 240 or higher on Step 1 was a realistic, attainable goal that I could achieve, given that there is so much variability in the content of different people's exams. Wouldn't I love a 270? Of course I would. But am I the caliber of student to be shooting for a 270? The answer to that is a flat-out NO. Before the study period, I just had to be honest with myself. And I think this helped me keep my focus.

The final week or so is where the all of the game-changing moments can happen, and it's where I made some very critical decisions that I think kept me alive. With 6 days to go, I got an NBME score (on a hard form) that I was happy with, so I stopped all "assessments" / practice exams / whatever. Anything beyond this wasn't necessary, as taking more of them would kill several hours apiece, with no answers available, and only a chance to throw me off my game if my score fell. I also had some problems with UWorld in the final week - try as I may, my scores just weren't improving in the random blocks of 48... in fact averaging 65-75%, just like I was scoring 3 weeks earlier. I didn't freak out too much, because UWorld's average on those blocks started dropping into the 40%'s, so it was probably just the random set of questions being chosen for those blocks... Still, it wasn't encouraging, so I abandoned ship and tapered off UWorld in the final days because I just wanted to get the hell away from it. I am surprised at how "meh" I am overall about UWorld. It was helpful, yes, but I did not expect to leave 30% of those questions unused before the test -- it just wasn't helping me as much as it helps others. I also felt UWorld to be ESPECIALLY weak and/or lame in Physio, Neuro, Micro, and Pharmacology... which was confirmed on my actual exam. Thank God I used actual outside sources for those areas - again, this saved me.

I cannot credit any single source as being the lifesaver here, but I think in fact that the whole combination of sources I used is what helped get me through. There was no single "magic bullet". If anything, I'd maybe have spent a little less time with HY Embryo. Also, Kaplan Qbank should just change their name to "Disappointing", because that's exactly what their question bank was. WASTE OF TIME. Good thing I only used it until May.

In the final 4-5 days, I decided to strictly work with First Aid, while tapering off UWorld. My First Aid was well-annotated (perhaps TOO well in some sections), and I felt this would best guarantee that I would maintain my level of 240+ without shoving a bunch of new minutia in there last-minute. I did feel rushed in final day or two, and probably could have used another day or two before my exam to study a bit more, maybe read Goljan blue margin notes and photos... I didn't get to First Aid's High Yield Review section - luckily, it wouldn't have helped me anyway.

However, on June 22nd, I was at my peak mentally and emotionally. So glad to just take the damn thing and be done... if I had to wait another day or two, I might have really lost my groove.

Advice for Test day: Stay Calm, Think, Stay Slightly Caffeinated, Move Quickly, Stay Calm, Eat Snacks During Your Breaks, Stay Calm, Read First Aid During Breaks to Anticipate Unseen Material and/or Clarify What Confused You In Earlier Blocks Because You May See It Again, Stay Calm, and Stay Calm.

Score: 243/99.

I hope this offers assistance for any non-genius like myself hoping to crack 240. Send me PM's if you have any specific questions. I'm so glad I rediscovered this place before Step 1, and will probably be spending plenty of time in the Clinical Rotations forums now that this test is over.

Special thanks to the 5-10 of you who have been PM'ing me back-and-forth during the past 6 weeks or so... you all kept me in the groove, and I can't thank you enough!

I'm sure I made some typos above. Oh well. I have patients to see in 40 minutes.

 

[decal]

Background:

Biochemistry major, 39 MCAT, Honors in most med school classes at a typical state school, had six weeks of study time (in which I was not hardcore at all).

Self-assessment:

CBSE (paper exam administered by our school): 245 in March, 245 in May
Kaplan QBank: 78% correct, completed by mid-June
UW: 80% correct, completed 1 ½ weeks before exam
NBME 1: 260 two weeks before exam
Free 150: 97% correct, one week before exam
Actual score: 266/99

Thoughts:

This has been said before many times, but it bears repeating many more – the best preparation for the exam is studying hard during the first two years. There were many times when I despaired about the quality of our school’s teaching, but ultimately I’ve realized they did a pretty good job. You should not be “studying” for the step in that last month so much as reviewing and learning how to think in Step mindset by doing practice questions. Your clinical courses are just as important as the core ones, imo, since the majority of Step questions are framed as clinical vignettes.

UWorld really is the bee’s knees. As with the MCAT and SAT you need to do a lot of questions to get in the right mindset for taking a multiple choice, standardized test. The explanations are a solid source of good review too. I preferred blocks of 20 Qs untimed as I could go through them, see how my timing was, and then review afterward. I think I spent less time in that way than I would have in tutor mode, checking the explanations after each Q. UWorld is a little weak in neuro, unfortunately. Kaplan isn’t terrible, but I’m not sure I would’ve used it if my school didn’t provide it. If money is no object, Kaplan is the qbank I’d recommend for use in the second semester second year rather than UWorld as I’d rather have it for the end. I thought Kaplan's phys & biostats questions were as good as if not better than UWorld's.

I used the following review books:

RR Pathology – the first few chapters are not as great as the rest, but nonetheless this is an excellent book that you would do well to read multiple times.
FA – good, but definitely not everything you need to do well.
CMMRS – mostly used during first year, but the tables are a nice supplement to FA micro.
BRS Behavioral – read it before our behavioral shelf, best BRS book by far.
HY Pharm – got a used copy from a friend. FA pharm is pretty good, but I found it nice to have it all together for a quick review.
HY Neuroanatomy – I didn’t like this one too much. It uses a more obscure terminology than my school (and most) did, and it leaves out a lot of detail in some areas. Probably would’ve been better if I’d used it in first year to get accustomed to it.
RR Biochem – wish I used this more, esp. in first year. Great book.

Don’t bother with BRS Gross Anatomy, BRS Biochem or HY Cell and Molecular bio, they’re both a waste of time and space on your bookshelf.

Good luck to everyone, and feel free to PM me questions.