Official 2010 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[FMD212]

Good luck all. I have my exam end of March and hope to be the 1st one to post here for 2010.

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[TheLesPaul]

I hesitate to state exactly, but let's say it was a smattering of CV/biostats equations that are really easy if you know, but can be frustratingly difficult if they're on the tip of your tongue but can't quite place term X in the numerator or denominator. Small equations too, the kind that you think "hey, this isn't important" but if it's in FA, it's fair game. Just know the eq's. I'm sure we'll all have wildly different forms anyway, so this won't matter .

As far as uworld: I ended up w/ 72% right, but that spanned the duration of my study time so I dunno how accurate that is. I took my tests after a full day of studying, so I tended to rush through it - my scores varied wildly from 70% to 91% one lucky time.

I took 4 wks to study after school, but started in feb. The real test was pretty equivalent to UW #2, I felt. Less pharm thumbup, so maybe a *little* easier. Not by much though.

 

[Dirt]

For those who posted their experience, big thanks

I'm curious to know what role did UW play in your prep, and did you find that UW covered a major portion of the exam? Or better do you think UW + FA + RR = Above average Pass

I personally felt that UW+FA+RR definitely will get you an average pass. Those three resources were literally all I used and it was definitely enough for me. To be exact I did UW once through totally random blocks, and then re-did my marked questions (which ended up being about 400 or so) in the week before the test. I went through FA and RR twice each and that was it. The only reason I would not guarantee that it is totally sufficient is everyone has a different base of knowledge from the first two years to work with.

for those that recently took the test and noticed the extra anatomy.. do you think the moore blue boxes would be sufficient?

There was definitely a lot of tough anatomy on my exam. I would say that moore blue boxes would not be a good prep for this exam. It is true that most of the anatomy questions are clinicallly phrased but not necessary clinical. An example:

A X year old woman complains of frank hematuria and flank pain. X-ray shows a radio-opacity in the ureter. The stone is most likely lodged in the ureter in a narrowing as it crosses over the...

a. External iliac
b. Internal iliac
c. Iliac crest
d. Fallopian tube
e. Uterine artery
f. Ovarian artery

In my opinion, know first aid for the easy anatomy Qs, but I felt that Uworld was by far and away the best anatomy prep. The questions that I had on the exam were either a direct Uworld question or were explained away as an incorrect answer to a slightly different question. Unfortunately you are probably not going to get any "rock hits a kid under his arm and his scapula wings out, what nerve?"

By the way the answer is the external iliac.

 

[NoWayOut]

I personally felt that UW+FA+RR definitely will get you an average pass.

Average pass? Where exactly would that leave one when you say average pass? I am heavily depending on those 3 sources, especially FA and UW with UW my #1 priority. Now I am nervous.

 

[NoWayOut]

?

 

[jammed]

For those that have taken and gotten their scores back- was it natural for you to be worried during the time after the test and keep remembering answers that you put that you are finding out was wrong?? I have about ten questions that I remember having trouble with and missed about 9 of them- starting to freak out a bit!!

 

[joshtb86]

im taking my test friday. i think everyone needs to just relax. it looks like the bottom line is that its hard, but FA goljan and UW will get you a good grade. if ur llooking for 260+, then you need more but if not then you are fine. all i have used is FA, UW, usmlerx and goljan audio and my nbmes/uswa/usmlerx/free150 ended up at 255 this week, and i never looked at a book other than FA. ill post more this weekend when i take the test, but relax! its just a test and the bottom line is that there is no source that you can get everything, so find what works for you and just use that.

 

[idler12]

A X year old woman complains of frank hematuria and flank pain. X-ray shows a radio-opacity in the ureter. The stone is most likely lodged in the ureter in a narrowing as it crosses over the...

a. External iliac
b. Internal iliac
c. Iliac crest
d. Fallopian tube
e. Uterine artery
f. Ovarian artery

By the way the answer is the external iliac.

I thought the ureter crossed over the common iliac before it branches. That's a tough question. I would have gone with either common iliac or pelvic brim if they were options.

 

[kryptik]

I thought the ureter crossed over the common iliac before it branches. That's a tough question. I would have gone with either common iliac or pelvic brim if they were options.

yeh its crosses the external iliac just below the common iliac, i think both wont be in the choices, at least i hope not

 

[TheFranchise]

Man calm down everyone. FA and UW are more than enough for whatever score you want. If you want a really high score, memorize every page of first aid and be able to recite the page with your eyes closed, including parentheses, side notes, essentially everything in print. Then make sure you learn from mistakes on UW. Thats it. It is more than enough for an outstanding score, it just depends how intensely you want to memorize FA and if you can apply it.

That anatomy question above is a perfect example. It is a fact straight out of FA on the first page of renal.

Edit: That fact was actually a world question, I just always thought of it when I was on my first page in renal. Still, FA and UW are golden.

 

[ATLNEWDOC]

So I’ve received several questions regarding my impression of the three B’s (BioStats, Behavioral Science, and BS...Ethics), so here goes.

BioStats:
IMHO, there is no better companion for Biostats than UW in the sense that it offers great questions that require application, not regurgitation, of FA concepts. If you are itching for more, there is always HY (thorough, but way over-the-top for what’s required). Additionally, Kaplan Q bank offers the same material with a few more complex questions (e.g. computing CI intervals requires utilizing sqrt of sample size...gotcha). Lastly, Wikitestprep has one question whose explanation gives, IMHO, the best way to handle negative/positive skew questions ever! Nevertheless, I feel that if you can do the UW section in your sleep, you’re solid. My form pretty much stuck with straightforward SENS, SPEC, PPV and NPV; they even pre-populated all the blocks for me! The only curveball was in a “describe the study” question, where they really blurred the lines between study types.

Behavioral Science:
Pretty standard, at least on my form. Only surprises involved more recent epidemiologic/public health guidelines only available on the CDC website; however, I was always able to narrow it down to two options using the smell test...then employed the Goljan principle of “go cheaper.” Also in my NBME practice, I always came across the dreaded child development questions, but it never appeared than anyone ever turned out stunted. Real deal appeared no different, but the devil was in the details of why normal is normal (i.e. what psychological principle was at play). As always, the coping mechanisms, shizo differentials and factitious disorders were all free points if you just can keep definitions and temporal delineations straight.

Ethics:
In certain circles, these questions seem to elicit as much consternation as antiarrhythmic pharm or supra-FA anatomy, a perception I just don’t share. What I did notice regarding ethics is that the examiners appear more focused on the wrong answers than the right. For example, most of the foils prey on common layperson misperceptions of particular illness or general social bias regarding certain social populations. There really is very little preparation advice I can offer on these, but what I can say is check your particular political or social bias at the door and just use any common sense approach (e.g. Golden rule, etc.). You’ll be amazed how many foils evaporate as just ridiculous solutions (i.e. anything House would say is just wrong).

 

[2012doctor]

Recently got my results: 255/99.

Took the exam in mid-May and felt absolutely horrible afterwards. I remembered so many questions I had missed or wasn't sure about. Seems like everyone feels this way though and most do better than they thought.

Prep:
Studied for 5.5 weeks.
FirstAid & USMLEWorld mostly. Also read some of Goljan's RR and listened to some of his audiofiles. Read most of BRS Physiology as well.
Completed 92% of USMLEWorld (71% score overall).
NBME 7 (3.5 weeks out): 207 - hadn't studied most of the systems yet
Free 150 at Prometric test center (2 weeks out): 80% correct
UWSA1 (10 days out): 242
UWSA2 (6 days out): 245
NBME 6 (4 days out): 234

Never dreamed I'd get in the 250s based on my practice scores, but somehow it happened!

 

[Maxprime]

Ethics:
There really is very little preparation advice I can offer on these, but what I can say is check your particular political or social bias at the door and just use any common sense approach (e.g. Golden rule, etc.). You’ll be amazed how many foils evaporate as just ridiculous solutions (i.e. anything House would say is just wrong).

I used the Kaplan medical ethics guide and found it extremely helpful. It's a relatively short read and gives you logical rules to follow for each type of question. I highly recommend it - well worth the hour or two it takes to read.

 

[Dirt]

Average pass? Where exactly would that leave one when you say average pass? I am heavily depending on those 3 sources, especially FA and UW with UW my #1 priority. Now I am nervous.

Sorry, I don't mean to scare people. I said average pass because it is impossible to say what studying with those three resources will get you. If you barely passed the first two years, those three resources will not get you a 240. If you had high sats and honors, you will need nothing else to score well.

Your strategy was exactly what I did and though I don't have my score yet I am hoping for 245+.

And yes my hypothetical Q was straight out of Uworld and was on the real thing.

 

[Xtrasystolic]

Recently got my results: 255/99.

Took the exam in mid-May and felt absolutely horrible afterwards. I remembered so many questions I had missed or wasn't sure about. Seems like everyone feels this way though and most do better than they thought.

Prep:
Studied for 5.5 weeks.
FirstAid & USMLEWorld mostly. Also read some of Goljan's RR and listened to some of his audiofiles. Read most of BRS Physiology as well.
Completed 92% of USMLEWorld (71% score overall).
NBME 7 (3.5 weeks out): 207 - hadn't studied most of the systems yet
Free 150 at Prometric test center (2 weeks out): 80% correct
UWSA1 (10 days out): 242
UWSA2 (6 days out): 245
NBME 6 (4 days out): 234

Never dreamed I'd get in the 250s based on my practice scores, but somehow it happened!

wow dude, you have no idea how much i enjoyed reading that post...well done!
Did you take it after the may 15 changes? (just curious to see if they've started reporting scores for tests taken after the transition)

 

[2012doctor]

wow dude, you have no idea how much i enjoyed reading that post...well done!
Did you take it after the may 15 changes? (just curious to see if they've started reporting scores for tests taken after the transition)

I did take it after May 15 (took it the 17th), but still had the version with 48 questions (maybe I lucked out?). I don't know of anyone who took the new version and has received a score. Good luck!

 

[JimT30]

Anyone know the latest score release date? I took mine on the 24th and heard they come out 3 wednesdays from when you take them, which would be this week. Anybody know if this is true?

 

[AggieSean]

Anyone know the latest score release date? I took mine on the 24th and heard they come out 3 wednesdays from when you take them, which would be this week. Anybody know if this is true?

I took mine on the 24th and had the old 48q version. I do believe we'll hear on Wednesday. Yikes!

 

[NoWayOut]

Sorry, I don't mean to scare people. I said average pass because it is impossible to say what studying with those three resources will get you. If you barely passed the first two years, those three resources will not get you a 240. If you had high sats and honors, you will need nothing else to score well.

Your strategy was exactly what I did and though I don't have my score yet I am hoping for 245+.

And yes my hypothetical Q was straight out of Uworld and was on the real thing.

Thanks for your reply .. If I could just hit that 230..I'll be jumping with joy..believe me.. I really hope this strategy works..I am so depending on it.
By the way, good Luck to you on your score ..hope you come out with flying colors..please let us know

 

[greg1184]

I was debating whether I should post this writeup when I get this score, but I guess I will post it now and quote it when I get my score.

I took the exam on June 8. It was incredibly long. The first block was incredibly easy. It was actually a great warm up block. But as each block went along it kept getting harder and harder. There was a decent balance between hard, medium and easy questions. If there were two practice tests that I would highly recommend: TAKE NBME 6 and 7. They are very good tests in simulating the real thing. Secondarily, UWSA 1 and 2 would supplement it well.

Biochemistry: Kaplan Lecture Notes, FA
Not much in the way of Biochem, but I had plenty of genetics. One question I was able to answer because I worked in an immunology lab that worked with plasmids and restriction enzymes. Kaplan Lecture notes are excellent. It helped me solve a Hardy Weinberg question by setting p=1. More than enough to go along with first aid.

Microbiology: CMMRS and Microcards, FA
Basic stuff for the most part. The worst part was a few antibiotics questions, one which I knew I fell for a NBME trap/distractor. Otherwise not bad at all. I actually enjoyed reading CMMRS, but if you don’t like it, FA and Microcards are more than adequate.

Immunology: Kaplan Lecture Notes, FA
Pretty straight forward. Kaplan Lecture Notes are a pretty good, quick read. But FA is probably more than enough.

Neuroanatomy: My Neuroanatomy teacher’s podcasts and atlas (Best resource for me EVER) and HY Neuroanatomy
I didn’t have too many neuroanatomy questions. A couple of hippocampus questions. One location of facial motor in the cortex. HY Neuroanatomy is anything but HY. One of the rare times I actually used resources from my class, and ironically they were actually the highest yield sources.

Pharmacology: Kaplan Notes, Some Brenner’s Cards, Lippincotts for stuff I been struggling, FA
Mixed bag here. I got some UWorld caliber side effects questions. The most annoying ones are the ones that they ask side effects for specific drugs within a group. I also had a couple of interesting pharm experiments that took some thinking. First Aid is more than enough. Brenner’s cards are only useful to clutter my room with cards everywhere. Lippincotts is useful only if you really need help in an area. Kaplan notes are for the most part pointless and are as barebones as FA.

Behavioral Sciences: BRS Behavioral, FA
Straight forward biostatics questions. Easy calculations. The ethics questions were not bad, except for a couple out of let field. BRS Behavioral is OUTSTANDING, ESPECIALLY for the ethics questions. This book made a difference for me since I at first sucked at NBME Behavioral questions. On NBME 5, all I had was a star on the left hand side... not even a bar! On NBME 7, I had a star on the right hand side.

Pathology: RR Pathology, Most of Goljan's Lectures, FA
Definitely the majority of my exam. A balance of hard and easy questions. Didn’t notice a particular bias towards any subject on my exam. I had multiple “biggest risk factors” for certain questions. Many mechanisms questions. Difficulty ranged from NBME to UWorld difficulty. NBME 6 and 7 are very nice. Goljan and USMLE World along with First Aid is fine.

About the multimedia questions: I had heart murmur questions. I actually really enjoyed them. Being able to actually visualize where the sound was loudest made it very easy to answer the questions.

Physiology: BRS Physiology, FA
I had many many arrow questions. They are definitely annoying. I had one clearance calculation that I had to deal with varying units. (minutes/hours, differing 10^x units). I essentially changed hours to minutes and ignored the SI units. I ended up getting the answer, just off a decimal point. I also had an alveolar O2 question with a different barometric pressure as well. BRS and FA are plenty.

Embryology: FA, UWorld
Very little Embryo in my exam. I actually don’t recall much there, but I didn’t notice anything outside of First Aid and UWorld.

Anatomy: FA, UWorld
I had a bunch of anatomy on my exam. Most of them were pretty straight forward, but I did have some questions that were random, but I vaguely remembered as reference in my class (e.g. posterior fornix). Potentially the blue boxes from Moore can probably help on this one, but I am not sure.

My scores:
Kaplan Diagnostic: 31%
USMLE World: 66% (100% done, subject based tutor mode)
CBSSA: 160-165
NBME 1: 168
UWSA 1: 192
NBME 5: 198
UWSA 2: 209
Free 150: 77% (Medfriends Estimated 233)
NBME 6: 223
NBME 7: 227
Real thing: Pending

My test scores continued to rise up to a couple of days before the exam. Whether the UWSA or NBMEs are better estimates seems irrelevant. I mixed the exams, and they stayed within my linear regression. I had no real outlier exams (except for maybe the Free 150). I hope that the trend continues, and that I peak at the right time. Looking back, I would have further simplified my resources and worked more with First Aid. I can’t say enough how important it is to read this book cover and cover at LEAST once, especially after you are done with annotating USMLE World. FA + UWorld cover a significant portion of the exam. The rest are the WTF questions you have to reason out or flat out guess.

I would not waste my time on other qbanks unless you have used up all other resources and have time to waste. I did one block of Kaplan Qbank, and did not like it. Do not spread yourself thin with resources. It will only hurt. Keep looking at the BIG PICTURE.... and as a result, if you are short on time, do FA!

I have mixed feelings about how I did on my exam. You have to love recall bias. I know I felt like utter crap when I left that exam, but that is a common occurrence with people taking this exam. The number that has been on my mind and I forced it into my subconscious when I took the exam: 240. Aim high and take whatever is given yes?

Best of luck to everyone who has not taken it yet.

 

[mq123]

I was debating whether I should post this writeup when I get this score, but I guess I will post it now and quote it when I get my score.

I took the exam on June 8. It was incredibly long. The first block was incredibly easy. It was actually a great warm up block. But as each block went along it kept getting harder and harder. There was a decent balance between hard, medium and easy questions. If there were two practice tests that I would highly recommend: TAKE NBME 6 and 7. They are very good tests in simulating the real thing. Secondarily, UWSA 1 and 2 would supplement it well.

Biochemistry: Kaplan Lecture Notes, FA
Not much in the way of Biochem, but I had plenty of genetics. One question I was able to answer because I worked in an immunology lab that worked with plasmids and restriction enzymes. Kaplan Lecture notes are excellent. It helped me solve a Hardy Weinberg question by setting p=1. More than enough to go along with first aid.

Microbiology: CMMRS and Microcards, FA
Basic stuff for the most part. The worst part was a few antibiotics questions, one which I knew I fell for a NBME trap/distractor. Otherwise not bad at all. I actually enjoyed reading CMMRS, but if you don’t like it, FA and Microcards are more than adequate.

Immunology: Kaplan Lecture Notes, FA
Pretty straight forward. Kaplan Lecture Notes are a pretty good, quick read. But FA is probably more than enough.

Neuroanatomy: My Neuroanatomy teacher’s podcasts and atlas (Best resource for me EVER) and HY Neuroanatomy
I didn’t have too many neuroanatomy questions. A couple of hippocampus questions. One location of facial motor in the cortex. HY Neuroanatomy is anything but HY. One of the rare times I actually used resources from my class, and ironically they were actually the highest yield sources.

Pharmacology: Kaplan Notes, Some Brenner’s Cards, Lippincotts for stuff I been struggling, FA
Mixed bag here. I got some UWorld caliber side effects questions. The most annoying ones are the ones that they ask side effects for specific drugs within a group. I also had a couple of interesting pharm experiments that took some thinking. First Aid is more than enough. Brenner’s cards are only useful to clutter my room with cards everywhere. Lippincotts is useful only if you really need help in an area. Kaplan notes are for the most part pointless and are as barebones as FA.

Behavioral Sciences: BRS Behavioral, FA
Straight forward biostatics questions. Easy calculations. The ethics questions were not bad, except for a couple out of let field. BRS Behavioral is OUTSTANDING, ESPECIALLY for the ethics questions. This book made a difference for me since I at first sucked at NBME Behavioral questions. On NBME 5, all I had was a star on the left hand side... not even a bar! On NBME 7, I had a star on the right hand side.

Pathology: RR Pathology, Most of Goljan's Lectures, FA
Definitely the majority of my exam. A balance of hard and easy questions. Didn’t notice a particular bias towards any subject on my exam. I had multiple “biggest risk factors” for certain questions. Many mechanisms questions. Difficulty ranged from NBME to UWorld difficulty. NBME 6 and 7 are very nice. Goljan and USMLE World along with First Aid is fine.

About the multimedia questions: I had heart murmur questions. I actually really enjoyed them. Being able to actually visualize where the sound was loudest made it very easy to answer the questions.

Physiology: BRS Physiology, FA
I had many many arrow questions. They are definitely annoying. I had one clearance calculation that I had to deal with varying units. (minutes/hours, differing 10^x units). I essentially changed hours to minutes and ignored the SI units. I ended up getting the answer, just off a decimal point. I also had an alveolar O2 question with a different barometric pressure as well. BRS and FA are plenty.

Embryology: FA, UWorld
Very little Embryo in my exam. I actually don’t recall much there, but I didn’t notice anything outside of First Aid and UWorld.

Anatomy: FA, UWorld
I had a bunch of anatomy on my exam. Most of them were pretty straight forward, but I did have some questions that were random, but I vaguely remembered as reference in my class (e.g. posterior fornix). Potentially the blue boxes from Moore can probably help on this one, but I am not sure.

My scores:
Kaplan Diagnostic: 31%
USMLE World: 66% (100% done, subject based tutor mode)
CBSSA: 160-165
NBME 1: 168
UWSA 1: 192
NBME 5: 198
UWSA 2: 209
Free 150: 77% (Medfriends Estimated 233)
NBME 6: 223
NBME 7: 227
Real thing: Pending

My test scores continued to rise up to a couple of days before the exam. Whether the UWSA or NBMEs are better estimates seems irrelevant. I mixed the exams, and they stayed within my linear regression. I had no real outlier exams (except for maybe the Free 150). I hope that the trend continues, and that I peak at the right time. Looking back, I would have further simplified my resources and worked more with First Aid. I can’t say enough how important it is to read this book cover and cover at LEAST once, especially after you are done with annotating USMLE World. FA + UWorld cover a significant portion of the exam. The rest are the WTF questions you have to reason out or flat out guess.

I would not waste my time on other qbanks unless you have used up all other resources and have time to waste. I did one block of Kaplan Qbank, and did not like it. Do not spread yourself thin with resources. It will only hurt. Keep looking at the BIG PICTURE.... and as a result, if you are short on time, do FA!

I have mixed feelings about how I did on my exam. You have to love recall bias. I know I felt like utter crap when I left that exam, but that is a common occurrence with people taking this exam. The number that has been on my mind and I forced it into my subconscious when I took the exam: 240. Aim high and take whatever is given yes?

Best of luck to everyone who has not taken it yet.

Thanks a lot for sharing this, especially for all the details! I think 'big picture' is definitely important instead of focusing on studying for those few obscure questions.

Good luck with breaking 240 Your practice exams scores were heading in the right direction!

 

[bbydoc]

I was debating whether I should post this writeup when I get this score, but I guess I will post it now and quote it when I get my score.

I have mixed feelings about how I did on my exam. You have to love recall bias. I know I felt like utter crap when I left that exam, but that is a common occurrence with people taking this exam. The number that has been on my mind and I forced it into my subconscious when I took the exam: 240. Aim high and take whatever is given yes?

Best of luck to everyone who has not taken it yet.

many thanks for sharing all these details!
I pray you get your 240!
I confirm the recall bias from medschool, its a bitch. thanks again!

 

[studentologist]

I recently took mine, and I can say that I had about the same experience as tachyon:

i just took the test.... i thought i got ROCKED hard. There were so many questions that I just had no idea what was going on.

So if you feel beaten after that test, you're definitely not alone.

I'll try to post my practices scores and resources when scores come in.

 

[NoWayOut]

I was debating whether I should post this writeup when I get this score, but I guess I will post it now and quote it when I get my score.

I took the exam on June 8. It was incredibly long. The first block was incredibly easy. It was actually a great warm up block. But as each block went along it kept getting harder and harder. There was a decent balance between hard, medium and easy questions. If there were two practice tests that I would highly recommend: TAKE NBME 6 and 7. They are very good tests in simulating the real thing. Secondarily, UWSA 1 and 2 would supplement it well.

Biochemistry: Kaplan Lecture Notes, FA
Not much in the way of Biochem, but I had plenty of genetics. One question I was able to answer because I worked in an immunology lab that worked with plasmids and restriction enzymes. Kaplan Lecture notes are excellent. It helped me solve a Hardy Weinberg question by setting p=1. More than enough to go along with first aid.

Microbiology: CMMRS and Microcards, FA
Basic stuff for the most part. The worst part was a few antibiotics questions, one which I knew I fell for a NBME trap/distractor. Otherwise not bad at all. I actually enjoyed reading CMMRS, but if you don’t like it, FA and Microcards are more than adequate.

Immunology: Kaplan Lecture Notes, FA
Pretty straight forward. Kaplan Lecture Notes are a pretty good, quick read. But FA is probably more than enough.

Neuroanatomy: My Neuroanatomy teacher’s podcasts and atlas (Best resource for me EVER) and HY Neuroanatomy
I didn’t have too many neuroanatomy questions. A couple of hippocampus questions. One location of facial motor in the cortex. HY Neuroanatomy is anything but HY. One of the rare times I actually used resources from my class, and ironically they were actually the highest yield sources.

Pharmacology: Kaplan Notes, Some Brenner’s Cards, Lippincotts for stuff I been struggling, FA
Mixed bag here. I got some UWorld caliber side effects questions. The most annoying ones are the ones that they ask side effects for specific drugs within a group. I also had a couple of interesting pharm experiments that took some thinking. First Aid is more than enough. Brenner’s cards are only useful to clutter my room with cards everywhere. Lippincotts is useful only if you really need help in an area. Kaplan notes are for the most part pointless and are as barebones as FA.

Behavioral Sciences: BRS Behavioral, FA
Straight forward biostatics questions. Easy calculations. The ethics questions were not bad, except for a couple out of let field. BRS Behavioral is OUTSTANDING, ESPECIALLY for the ethics questions. This book made a difference for me since I at first sucked at NBME Behavioral questions. On NBME 5, all I had was a star on the left hand side... not even a bar! On NBME 7, I had a star on the right hand side.

Pathology: RR Pathology, Most of Goljan's Lectures, FA
Definitely the majority of my exam. A balance of hard and easy questions. Didn’t notice a particular bias towards any subject on my exam. I had multiple “biggest risk factors” for certain questions. Many mechanisms questions. Difficulty ranged from NBME to UWorld difficulty. NBME 6 and 7 are very nice. Goljan and USMLE World along with First Aid is fine.

About the multimedia questions: I had heart murmur questions. I actually really enjoyed them. Being able to actually visualize where the sound was loudest made it very easy to answer the questions.

Physiology: BRS Physiology, FA
I had many many arrow questions. They are definitely annoying. I had one clearance calculation that I had to deal with varying units. (minutes/hours, differing 10^x units). I essentially changed hours to minutes and ignored the SI units. I ended up getting the answer, just off a decimal point. I also had an alveolar O2 question with a different barometric pressure as well. BRS and FA are plenty.

Embryology: FA, UWorld
Very little Embryo in my exam. I actually don’t recall much there, but I didn’t notice anything outside of First Aid and UWorld.

Anatomy: FA, UWorld
I had a bunch of anatomy on my exam. Most of them were pretty straight forward, but I did have some questions that were random, but I vaguely remembered as reference in my class (e.g. posterior fornix). Potentially the blue boxes from Moore can probably help on this one, but I am not sure.

My scores:
Kaplan Diagnostic: 31%
USMLE World: 66% (100% done, subject based tutor mode)
CBSSA: 160-165
NBME 1: 168
UWSA 1: 192
NBME 5: 198
UWSA 2: 209
Free 150: 77% (Medfriends Estimated 233)
NBME 6: 223
NBME 7: 227
Real thing: Pending

My test scores continued to rise up to a couple of days before the exam. Whether the UWSA or NBMEs are better estimates seems irrelevant. I mixed the exams, and they stayed within my linear regression. I had no real outlier exams (except for maybe the Free 150). I hope that the trend continues, and that I peak at the right time. Looking back, I would have further simplified my resources and worked more with First Aid. I can’t say enough how important it is to read this book cover and cover at LEAST once, especially after you are done with annotating USMLE World. FA + UWorld cover a significant portion of the exam. The rest are the WTF questions you have to reason out or flat out guess.

I would not waste my time on other qbanks unless you have used up all other resources and have time to waste. I did one block of Kaplan Qbank, and did not like it. Do not spread yourself thin with resources. It will only hurt. Keep looking at the BIG PICTURE.... and as a result, if you are short on time, do FA!

I have mixed feelings about how I did on my exam. You have to love recall bias. I know I felt like utter crap when I left that exam, but that is a common occurrence with people taking this exam. The number that has been on my mind and I forced it into my subconscious when I took the exam: 240. Aim high and take whatever is given yes?

Best of luck to everyone who has not taken it yet.

Great post...thanks for sharing. Good Luck to you

 

[metalrex]

DONE.Phew.

I am having mixed feelings about the exam as everybody else.It had quite a few curveballs in there, for instance ; fungal infection with 70% prevelence amongst children in the US Some gene stuff that seemed greek and latin to me and luciferase gene expression ...whatever.

Chill though, it did seem balanced with lots of gimme qs as well.So I would say pretty balanced mix.

That's all I can pen for now, barely had any sleep last night, gonna crash and come back later with a detailed post

Thanks ya all, you guys have been very resourceful.I saw a coupla of questions I saw others had spoken of here and even questions directly lifted from the free 150

Now onto that hard earned snooze.....

 

[kryptik]

DONE.Phew.

I am having mixed feelings about the exam as everybody else.It had quite a few curveballs in there, for instance ; fungal infection with 70% prevelence amongst children in the US Some gene stuff that seemed greek and latin to me and luciferase gene expression ...whatever.

Chill though, it did seem balanced with lots of gimme qs as well.So I would say pretty balanced mix.

That's all I can pen for now, barely had any sleep last night, gonna crash and come back later with a detailed post

Thanks ya all, you guys have been very resourceful.I saw a coupla of questions I saw others had spoken of here and even questions directly lifted from the free 150

Now onto that hard earned snooze.....

CONGRATS metalrex

 

[match2011]

Thanks

fungal infection with 70% prevelence amongst children in US

because there are a lot of thrush and diaper rash in children.

DONE.Phew.

I am having mixed feelings about the exam as everybody else.It had quite a few curveballs in there, for instance ; fungal infection with 70% prevelence amongst children in the US Some gene stuff that seemed greek and latin to me and luciferase gene expression ...whatever.

Chill though, it did seem balanced with lots of gimme qs as well.So I would say pretty balanced mix.

That's all I can pen for now, barely had any sleep last night, gonna crash and come back later with a detailed post

Thanks ya all, you guys have been very resourceful.I saw a coupla of questions I saw others had spoken of here and even questions directly lifted from the free 150

Now onto that hard earned snooze.....

 

[AggieSean]

Is anyone else getting their scores tomorrow? I hope it's tomorrow, anyway.

 

[McGillGrad]

Is anyone else getting their scores tomorrow? I hope it's tomorrow, anyway.

 

[Xtrasystolic]

Is anyone else getting their scores tomorrow? I hope it's tomorrow, anyway.

Well if it weren't for the dang 46q format, tomorrow would be the 3rd wed for me as well...

anyways, good luck to you

 

[AggieSean]

Something wrong with your eyes?

 

[McGillGrad]

Something wrong with your eyes?

Despite what I've heard about Aggies from Longhorns, I still like you!

 

[AggieSean]

You like me! You really like me!

And hey, could be worse, I could be a Sooner.

 

[mordounhas]

It's all over for me but the waiting.

What I did:

I ended up taking about 9 weeks to study for this thing- I had a couple of weeks worth of school stuff (a week of clinical preceptorship/clinical skills and another week worth of physician skills) interspersed with the first 3 of the 9 weeks, and then a solid 6 weeks with nothing else going on. Didn't go particularly hard the first 3 weeks, just an 8-5 kind of thing. Tried to do about 12 hours each day M-Saturday (took Sundays completely off) the last six weeks.

Materials used:

Kaplan Study at Home 2007 (went through the whole thing once in the first 2 weeks of studying)

An old Qbook (2003) that I did in the 3rd week of the first 3.

First Aid (2010)- Got through it 4 times completely I believe, but ran through sections I felt weak in several times.

Goljan RR path- Got through it twice and the margin notes and pictures a 3rd time (though not all the tables again).

Took some quick peeks at some old High Yield books a graduating 4th year gave me (ran through clinical considerations in HY anatomy, things like that).

USMLEworld- Got through it twice in the 6 weeks. Averaged about a 73% the first time and around an 87% the second time (I did remember some of the questions though, which certainly inflated that score a lot).

USMLERx- Got through it completely and through all my missed questions a second time- averaged about an 84% on the first pass and started after I had more or less finished USMLEworld the first time.

Practice tests:

5 weeks out- Free 150- 252 I think (whatever 87% is)
4 weeks out- UWSA #2- 260
3 weeks out- UWSA #1- 245
2 weeks out- NBME #6- 253

I had originally planned on doing another practice test, but my reluctance to plunk down another $45 got the best of me. That and not really wanting to risk seeing a lower score closer to the date.

Thoughts on the test:

Largely, the questions were easier than the ones you see in USMLEworld. That being said, there were some oddballs in the mix.

General test day advice- make sure you have a plan for not running out of steam. I definitely dragged a bit in the second-to-last block but managed to get my energy levels back up for the last one with Aussie licorice.

Anyways, good luck to everyone when they take their test. Hopefully, the scores will start rolling in about a month from now. I'll try to add my score later.

 

[McGillGrad]

lol...nothing unites Texans like making fun of slow people...err, I mean Oklahomans!

You like me! You really like me!

And hey, could be worse, I could be a Sooner.

 

[jackets5]

Just took the exam today and wanted to share my experience. First off the test is very fair, they dont want to trick you just make sure know the material. I had maybe 3 questions that i thought were pretty tricky. More anatomy than expected but still very fair. As for studying i used the Taus method. Had 1 calculation on the whole test. DO NOT neglect behavioral had maye 20 or so behavioral questions that are easy points if you simply know FA, glad i spent an hour going over that the day before. Lots of receptors, second messangers again easy points if you memorize the IP3 etc mechanisms.

Feel absolutely mentally destroyed right now, think i did well/ok but unsure, which i hear is a good thing. now its just a long wait to get results. July 14th cant come soon enough. Ill put more specifics later.

 

[1nicelady]

Man calm down everyone. FA and UW are more than enough for whatever score you want. If you want a really high score, memorize every page of first aid and be able to recite the page with your eyes closed, including parentheses, side notes, essentially everything in print. Then make sure you learn from mistakes on UW. Thats it. It is more than enough for an outstanding score, it just depends how intensely you want to memorize FA and if you can apply it.

That anatomy question above is a perfect example. It is a fact straight out of FA on the first page of renal.

Edit: That fact was actually a world question, I just always thought of it when I was on my first page in renal. Still, FA and UW are golden.

hahaha. I had the same thought process. 1st page of my renal has the same uworld fact.

 

[jmayer]

Just took the exam today and wanted to share my experience. First off the test is very fair, they dont want to trick you just make sure know the material. I had maybe 3 questions that i thought were pretty tricky. More anatomy than expected but still very fair. As for studying i used the Taus method. Had 1 calculation on the whole test. DO NOT neglect behavioral had maye 20 or so behavioral questions that are easy points if you simply know FA, glad i spent an hour going over that the day before. Lots of receptors, second messangers again easy points if you memorize the IP3 etc mechanisms.

Feel absolutely mentally destroyed right now, think i did well/ok but unsure, which i hear is a good thing. now its just a long wait to get results. July 14th cant come soon enough. Ill put more specifics later.

thanks for sharing! congrats on being done

what do u mean by behavioral questions - ethics, biostats, development, psych?

 

[NotMeNow]

Hey all - first of congrats to my fellow colleagues who have taken step 1. I am now official post-step1.

I came out of the exam feeling GREAT. Honestly, I thought I was able to avoid dumb mistakes and was able to work through some tough questions. There were a few times I would have no idea about a question, really dig and think, and then it would come to me - Ooo this patient has disease x or ooo they are testing concept x is a novel way! This is a great feeling. Do no feel frustrated if you originally don't know an answer! Are they testing a concept through a disease they don't expect you to know?!?

On a given block I would mark about 6-8. My marking strategy was

1) Mark any early question (first 20) I took more than 1 minute on. After a minute if I didn't know the answer I put my best guess and moved on. Each block is different, so even if i normally have 10 minutes left I don't want to use that buffer up early in a block. Later in the block I would spend 2 or 3 minutes on a questions really working it out to get the answer.
2) Brain farts - sometimes you get to a question, you know the answer, but can't access it from your memory. Mark it, move on, come back and most of the time I was like OBVIOUSLY its y.
3) Anything my gut said I should recheck.
4) Anything I didn't know.

I always had 15 minutes left at the end of a block - I would then go back to my marked. I had the 46 Qs, but the stems were of equal length to what I was expecting (UW/NBMEs)

I didn't think the 'left-field' questions were unfair! I would say I had about 20 'left-field' questions. By left-field I mean questions that could not be answered from MEMORIZING FA/UW (or any reasonable source).

However, many of them could be answered by applying a parallel concept from UW/FA - or FROM REAL LIFE. I answered 5 or so of those left-field questions from knowledge I learned outside of medicine.

Of all the left-field questions, I would say only 4 were ridiculous, true 'left-field' questions. No way the average on the questions were > 25%.


FYI - my NBME scores started at 234 (5 weeks out) and rose to 258 (1 week out)

Resources: I'm a question person, so my resources were weighted heavily in the question banks. Completed all of Kaplan Qbank, UWorld, UWSA1,2, new Free 144, wikitestprep.

Honestly I don't like FA at all. I got through FA only once, with some sections twice. Still don't know all of FA to be honest - I'll elaborate on this in a later post. Also read cover-cover BRS physiology (and did all the questions in the book). Read HY neuroanatomy cover-cover. Hated all pharm cards with a passion. Used some random anatomy atlas and radiology book night before exam to recall cross sections.

Like I said before over the 5 months preceding I did roughly 8000 questions - I felt so comfortable, and had the stamina, to do 322 questions with no problem.

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

I have a lot more to add - I'm going to wait until I get my score to see if it justifies divulging my theories about the exam more fully.

At this point, my goal has always been 242 even as my exam scores rose above 250. I expect a >255, but if I get a 242 I will be ecstatic.

Last piece of advice - you will dominate this exam if you put honest hard work into it - don't let the selective recall of anonymous posters get you nervous!

Have a wonderful day!

-NMN


PS - Even found a glaring typo on one of my questions! The NBME isn't even perfect !

 

[jgb316]

Took it today. What a relief to be done. I only took two practice tests to prepare, reminded me more of USW1 more then USW2. COMPLETELY RANDOM. After studying all day everyday for a month, I thought I would have at least heard of everything they would ask. Didnt happen. Proves you can't completely prepare for everything.

Work hard and it'll pay off.

 

[blarrgh]

Ahem. Been awhile since I posted here (the dark ages of pre-med).

But since this thread helped me, I'll throw my name into the data set. I took the exam recently; here's my track record:

School sponsored NBME: 200 (early April?)
Practice NBME at test site: 264 (early May) -> Not... sure how this happened
Free 150: 235 (early May)
NBME 6: 240 (late May)
NBME 7: 231 (late May)
NBME 5: 219 (early June)
NBME 4: 238 (early June)
NBME 3: 248 (1 week out)
USMLEWSA #1: 245 (4 days out)
USMLEWSA #2: 256 (4 days out)
Currently waiting on step 1 score

To people who have a train wreck of score variation as me: it's most likely due to psyching yourself out, concentration and possibly ADHD flareups. But come game time, those things tend to sort themselves out.

My 'tetralogy of step 1' was: FA, Qbank, Brenner's pharm cards, Goljian

Qbank: 62% unused starting from April. Took notes on every question and referenced it with FA. Proven true combo.

FA: someone said here that if you know FA cold, you are guaranteed a 230. I'll subscribe to that. The re-read is key.

Brenner's pharm: this took some time. I started in April doing about 5 cards a day. Along with referencing FA and Qbank, it allowed me to tackle whatever pharm curveball they threw at me on the boards.

Goljian: pretty self-explanatory. I counted 20+ questions using his clinical scenarios or his lecture images. His RR is decent as well.

About the exam itself:

Yes, those rumors you hear about anatomy are true. Thanks to this thread and reports from other students, I sat down and read HY gross anatomy in a couple of days. It saved my ass for about 6 questions. There were some others, however, that I just chalked up in the loss column. If you have everything else down cold and want to review a subject-- go learn your thoracic, abdominal CT landmarks + vasculature. Don't forget neuroanatomy too.

I would venture and say FA alone could have prepared me for most of my subject matter with the exception of anatomy and micro (CMMRS tables are your bible).

What I did wrong: overstudy for biochem, genetics, embryology-- imo, supplementary materials were not needed outside of the aforementioned sources except for an integration of metabolic pathway diagram (you can find a PDF of that anywhere).

Now I have a question for those who took the exam-- I felt the actual test was at a difficulty split right between Qbank and NBME. I'm trying to get a feel for where the scale is going to be relative to % correct. For example, a 70%-80% on Qbank is extremely solid but that correlates to something like 85%-90% on the NBME. Although I think the final scale for the actual exam is somewhere in between (experimentals aside). Thoughts?

Edit: 246/99 Very happy!

 

[mq123]

Yes, those rumors you hear about anatomy are true. Thanks to this thread and reports from other students, I sat down and read HY gross anatomy in a couple of days. It saved my ass for about 6 questions. There were some others, however, that I just chalked up in the loss column. If you have everything else down cold and want to review a subject-- go learn your thoracic, abdominal CT landmarks + vasculature. Don't forget neuroanatomy too.

Everyone has been talking about the anatomy!!! I haven't really read any outside of FA and now I'm a little concerned. I have a very old edition of High Yield gross anatomy (from 1997). Is it worth to go through that, because it sounds like it helped you? I'm under two weeks from the exam and a little crunched for time....

 

[pottymouth]

DONE.Phew.

I am having mixed feelings about the exam as everybody else.It had quite a few curveballs in there, for instance ; fungal infection with 70% prevelence amongst children in the US Some gene stuff that seemed greek and latin to me and luciferase gene expression ...whatever.

Chill though, it did seem balanced with lots of gimme qs as well.So I would say pretty balanced mix.

That's all I can pen for now, barely had any sleep last night, gonna crash and come back later with a detailed post

Thanks ya all, you guys have been very resourceful.I saw a coupla of questions I saw others had spoken of here and even questions directly lifted from the free 150

Now onto that hard earned snooze.....

hope u did well brotha...

 

[blarrgh]

Everyone has been talking about the anatomy!!! I haven't really read any outside of FA and now I'm a little concerned. I have a very old edition of High Yield gross anatomy (from 1997). Is it worth to go through that, because it sounds like it helped you? I'm under two weeks from the exam and a little crunched for time....

I may have made it seem like anatomy was the end of the world but there were really only about 10 weird questions extra-FA. Reading through HY helped for about half of them, the other ~5 I still don't have the slightest clue... even now. That's why it stands out so saliently (comon experimentals!)

If you are really strapped for time, more points will come from broad things. A FA re-read, Goljian review, specifically marked Qbank diagram review saved me far more points than sitting down and staring at high yield anatomy.

Of course, your expectations and mileage will vary. I'd be ecstatic to get the average of my practice exam scores.

 

[jackets5]

Behavioral for me was a good mix of ethics, what to say next, pysch disorders, biostats with maybe 4 questions or so on psych drugs (one on bulimia, ADA) None of the anatomy was that difficult the two or three very hard ones, 2 radial nerve questions. For me the hardest questions were the

Biochem: wasnt really that much at all and most of it was pretty easy, had a damn delta G question.

Behave: said above a good mix of all topics and 25 questions or so on the exam

Immuno: Thought this was the hardest subject for me fair amount of questions about the same amount or little more than biochem

Micro: less then i thought there would be pretty straight forward
Pharm: fair amount, alot of know the mechanisms, what the drug binds two what it inhibits, not much on side effects or uses. Know the MECHANISM of the druge and resistance. Had the exact question twice on the MOR of Acyclovir.

Physio: arrows, arrows, arrows, virtually all of them you cold get down to 2 choices without really thinking, Renal physio was big

Path/Pathophyis: major portion of my test, full range of questions from simple to some that were very hard, to some that were weird. Had a picture of lung cancer and asked the carcinogen, buy worked in basement, with wood etc. nothing looked great so i picked Creosote (not going to lie i thought it was another name for asbestos) turns out it is a polycyclic hydrocarbon so i guess i was right. Know Goljan book or audio, he got me several questions i never wouldve had a chance to get if it wasnt for really know his material well. Those side notes are golden.

Molec/cell: Not bad was expecting much worse. They present it in a very intimidating though. When they really want a simple answer about poly-a tail stabilizing for transport out of the nucleus or a splicesome removing segements of RNA.

Overall, very fair test, more easy questions than i wouldve expected but some questions that made me look twice and say WTF. But very fair, they are not trying to trick us. In general easier than Uworld.

In terms of materials used i would rank them like this.

Gold: FA, Uworld, RR Path (if you dont use these your hurting yourself)
Silver: RR physio, HY Neuro, HY Cell and Molec (really good for messangers, replicaton, transcription, translation etc)
Bronze: CMMRS (FA is really good), RR biochem (again great book but FA is very very good)

SDN: overall a great source of information but definately a bit overboard. You can really freak yourself out reading to much on here. I literally thought that each questions would be asked in the absolutely must difficult way possible, which obviously for anyone who has taken it is not the case.

Waiting now for July 14th to get scores back. Worst part is simply not know how the damn test is graded. I mean do you get points for experimental questions you get right and no deduction for ones you get wrong. Do you need to get 80,85,90% to a 240. Are there really 10% questions experiemental etc. My goal is to get a 230+, i felt it was fair and unsure about some sections, feel like my score can go from like 200-240

 

[NYCOMDO]

wow after reading about 10,000 of these things I'm finally writing my own.


Step 1 score 248/99 (released July 14th!!!!)
Goal= 250
(Happy >240)
USMLEWORLD 1st pass (pre-study)- 61%/100% complete
USMLEWORLD 2nd- 77%/81%
USMLERX- 74%/44%

NBME1(12 weeks, during classes): 236
NBME2 (7 weeks, right before dedicated study): 232
NBME4 (6 weeks): 239
NBME6 (5 weeks): 239
NBME3 (4 weeks): 246
NBME5 (3 weeks): 244
UWSA1 (2 weeks): 247
NBME7 (1 week) : 249
UWSA2 (.5 week): 236 (whaaaaat!)
Free150(2 days before): 93% (255wiki-266medfriends
o
COMLEX 1 Score - 590/89 (took 7 days after the usmle. advice = take it ~3-4 days after)

Prep: Worked hard during my 2nd year systems. Made sure I focused on board relevant stuff, which probably cost me some points on school tests. Used the Taus method and went through everything slowly over my 2nd yr. Listened to goljan audio during each system. 2nd yr commute was 90%dedicated to listening to poppy. Subbed RR for biochem and highly reccommend it.

Did a 6 month subscription for UW starting in Jan. Slowly did questions and learned what the major topics were and how they asked them. This really helped me when I went into my dedicated study mode. This does defeat the purpose of using UW as a measuring stick... but thats not what it should be used for. It's probably the best study tool for step 1- learn from it!!! If I got a 50% avg on UW and my buddy has a 80% average but I learned the other 50% while he didn't learn his extra 20% who is better off? I know its hard not to use the 2.3*UW +84 equaions and website calculators... but all the time spent doing that is time that could be spent learning something. Use NBME's to see where you are.

Everyone learns differently and studying should be suited to your personal style. This is unlike any other test though. It really does test understanding- which is why MECHANISMS are key. Talk things out with people. Have study partners- they come in handy during the freakout days Cramming facts will not cut it. I am very anti-kaplan and very pro-goljan. But to each their own. Absolutely Hate FA! Terrible primary resource. I went through it during my 2nd pass.

Get into a routine. Pretend its a job- punch in, punch out. I studied everyday 8-5ish. When I got home I relaxed. I don't know how people can study all night... but again learning is very personal and I'm a morning person. I swear by a glass of redwine everynight before bed improving memory.

Exam- holy crap, I can see why people can feel like they failed yet get >250. I don't know how it is possible to leave the test feeling confident. Maybe its just the post-8hr test delerium. Sure there are gimmie questions but there are a lot that make you really think. There are the handful of insane questions that aren't in ANY review books. The best thing you can do is eliminate answers and make the best guess...

Breakdown:
Path- bulk of the test (~60%). pretty well distributed. Mostly straightforward. A lot of pathophys and mechanisms of disease. More gross picture/histo slide combos than I expected but not too horrible. If your doing goljan and get it down there aren't any surprises.
Anatomy- wow. was not expecting the detail here. A handful of the classic anatomy questions (carpal tunnel, fracture-nerve injuries, ect) but also some things i have not seen since lab. Trace the catheter through venous system, tendon attachments, ect. Some really cool anatomic variations I've never heard of but still got right... they really do make you think! I used roadmap- it was ok but time consuming.
Embryo- classic, FA is good
Pharm- not too bad at all.
Physio- Considered it one of my strongpoints... read guyton cover to cover during my 2nd year. In retrospect BRS phys covered most of the questions but again, there are some you won't find in any review book. 2 questions I still don't know the answer to.
Micro- CCMRS is perfect. Know that and its easy- covers all the HY genes that aren't in FA. Viral properties are annoying... i know that chart in FA sucks but it could get you 2 more questions right. Know only the classic helmiths/parasites. I had this 1 question about the intracellular mechanism of a certain virus that wasn't in FA/CCMRS/wiki... found it in a journal article (thank God I guessed right)
Molecular- Has been notoriously hard for some people and for good reason. They write some great questions that test your understanding of mechanisms ('mechanisms' in goljan voice). A lot of "researcher doing this" sorta thing. HY Molecular is golden for every doable question I had. Also I would go with the molecular technique section in RR biochem in leiu of the section in HY.
Biochem- Not too terrible. Clinically relevant for the most part. If you have the major pathways/major enzymes down your good.
Immuno- straightforward
Behavioral- A few iffy questions... what are ya gunna do/say. 1 weird question on breaching contracts lol.
Biostats- UW covers more than enough. Last 2 chapters of HY behavioral is better than FA.
Media- wow I possibly had the coolest media question ever.... I wish I could post it but I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise No linked questions for me.

Overall- 46q version- Qs were definitely longer than the average nbme but I was never pressed for time. The 2-3 liners balance out the paragraphers. I left feeling terrible, but looking up some stuff helped... It was definitely more difficult than I thought it would be. But really 50% are gimmies, 30% are tricky, 10% are nitpicky, 10% insane. It's those stupid mistakes in gimmie group that really haunt ya afterwords.

To all

 

[AggieSean]

Got my scores today: 262/99. Glad to be done with it, and glad I moved it up. Best of luck to everyone else waiting!

Alrighty then...seems weird to be posting here, but here is my experience:

PREPARATION
Going into medical school, I knew that I was one of those people that had to see stuff over and over and over again for it to stick. I am not one of those people that has a reliable long-term memory. I posted in the NBME thread that I forgot the direction of DNA replication!
So when I came upon Gunner Training (GT), I knew I had found at least somewhat of a cure for my ills. I think people on here are at least familiar with the program so I won't go into all that, but I started doing GT in June of last year, slowly adding in material from first year. I kept up with it every day and added in material as we covered it in 2nd year. This was by the far the most important part of my studying, especially given my proclivity to forget the simplest, most rudimentary basic science facts.
Another thing, GT is essentially First Aid in flash card/spaced learning format, and one of the "pillars" to my studying for Step 1 was to be as familiar with this book as possible. Hence my use of USMLERx and DIT throughout the 2nd half of my 2nd year, to keep First Aid as fresh as possible.
And of course, I went into 2nd year with the approach of being as hardcore as possible about classwork, because I knew how high yield this stuff was. So I studied my caucasian derriere off. I would head up to school at about 7 every morning and study in the learning resources unit/library until about 5. I started off every day by doing my assigned GT and doing so as quickly as possible, because I didn't think that lingering over things I got wrong in GT served its purpose well. I wanted multiple succinct reviews, and that's what I got. I also made it a point to become as familiar with medium Robbins as possible, and I made it a goal to nail pathology in every block, as I knew this was the core of what would be on Step 1 (and you know all that third year crap too ) I made time almost every day to work out, if at least for 20 minutes. Once I came home, I was done and I spent time with my wife, read, watched TV, whatever. I can't stress enough how important I think it is to find balance throughout this whole process. I also took every Sunday off from studying, because I may be a weakling, but I can't keep up 10 hour days 7 days a week.

TIMELINE
-June before 2nd year: started GT, this was the only studying I did. Maybe took me 30 minutes a day.
-2nd year: kept up with GT, tried to own pathology, and listened to Goljan lectures as many times as possible with the according system. I would maybe use FA as a quick review before our exams, but that's it. Also I used Robbins Review questions, because they were much harder than necessary, and I wanted to "over train," as it were.
-January of 2nd year: started doing USMLERx to again solidify what was in FA, and to get used to doing boards-style questions. I started doing 48 random, timed questions on tutor mode. Towards the end of February, I started doing 96 questions every morning just to get through them quickly, as I was anxious to move on to UW.
-March-May of 2nd year: Still stayed dedicated to class stuff, but I was doing 48 blocks of UW on random, timed mode and would annotate in as necessary. This was a crucial part of my learning. UW is so tough but I wanted again to "over train" for the exam by using materials that were typically more difficult than the real thing, so that when I took the exam it actually felt easier. I also trained myself to start flying through questions, which I'm usually a pretty fast test taker, but I wanted to get through a block of 48 with at least 15 minutes left, because I knew on test day some people were a lot slower.
-May (dedicated prep time): I started doing DIT the day after our neuro final. Every AM I did my GT, then would watch DIT lectures from 8-2, and afterwards I tried to do UW and study that days material in FA. If you do DIT I really recommend being pretty comfortable with FA, or else it'll get frustrating and anxiety-producing because he constantly drills you over stuff that, at least I wouldn't have been able to recall had I not been doing GT and RX to familiarize myself with FA.
On weekends I took practice exams. I heard that NBME 4 and the UWSA's were tough, so I did those. I did NBME 5 in the middle because I wanted a bit of a confidence boost, I know that's weird and kinda goes against my whole "harder than the real thing" philosophy, but whateva, whateva, I do what I want! Here is my breakdown:

CBSE (school-mandated, given in April): 240
NBME 4 (3 weeks out): 244
NBME 5 (2 weeks out): 255 - It was at this point I decided to move up my test another week. I was already in "I'd crap myself if I scored this" goal range and still had another 2 weeks, even after moving up my test.
UWSA 2 (1 week out): 258
Free 150 (1 week out, taken after UWSA 2 so as to simulate a full-length exam): 255

USMLERx: 72% with 100% completed
UW: 75% with 100% completed, last few blocks were 100%, 89%, 85%, 85%, 83%

TEST DAY
Had a great night's sleep the night before, stayed in a hotel as the testing center was 45 minutes from where I live, but I didn't want to take any chances. The place I checked in was quiet and since I had already done my finger printing for the MCAT in 2007, I didn't need to go through that again. The proctors were laid back and didn't waste my time every time I checked out, I just had to sign in on a piece of paper every time. It was fine. And for some reason, I really wasn't that nervous. I usually get bad test-day anxiety (I did for the MCAT and it really cost me), but I didn't on Monday. Strange.
So, I sat down and flew through the tutorial, only checking to make sure the headphones worked (they did, but only in one ear, but I wasn't going to waste time trying to get it fixed).
I started and FLEW through the first block, I was finished in 30 minutes. I knew I had a propensity to go too fast and make dumb mistakes, so I went back and rechecked everything, especially the ones I marked. Didn't find any dumb mistakes, so I went on and still banked like 15 minutes of break time. I finished the 2nd block with about 12 minutes left, so I took a break afterwards. I ate a protein bar and chugged a sugar-free red bull and went back in after 10 minutes. I powered through the next 2 blocks and then took a 20 minute lunch. I ate a chicken sandwich with some fruit, not wanting to stuff myself and crash 30 minutes later. The proctors let me go outside and get some fresh air, which was nice. After the 5th and 6th block, I also took 20 minute breaks just so I could splash some water on my face, grab a red bull, and rest my mind. This was crucial as I didn't feel exhausted on any block, not even the 7th. I finished the exam with almost an hour of break time remaining. I know that some people would say I'm going too fast, but it worked for me on UW, and I didn't want to hem and haw over questions I was unsure of, because I usually ended up over thinking and changing my answer to an incorrect one.

EXAM BREAKDOWN
Overall, this was a very fair and balanced (Fox News ) kind of test. Very well-written questions. Though one thing they like to do is ask you straight-forward concepts in the most jacked-up of ways. You have to filter through the bull crap, but if you can, those kinds of questions become simple. I think this is where doing a crap ton of questions helped me, because I could read the stem and usually understand exactly what they wanted from me.

PATH: Very balanced, and very straightforward for the most part. There were quite a few 2nd order questions, but most weren't as challenging as UW questions. It seems like there was a lot of Derm on there, but I'm just having some selective recall, I think. I don't really remember a lot of out of the blue questions here. Oh, and EVERY OTHER PT was preggers. I swear! It was ridiculous. Know your repro path, COLD.

PHARM: Cake compared to UWorld. I don't recall having ANY autonomic pharm. I had some anti-virals and abx questions, as well as some CV pharm, but overall I don't remember anything too weird, except for one asking for the MOA of an alcohol-abuse drug, and there were 2 right answers! Fortunately I picked one of them, but still. Yikes! Also I had 2 questions on competitive inhibition, one of which was a lineweaver-burke plot. Overall, pretty straightforward. Most of the questions had to do with MOA rather than random side effects.

PHYS: Renal seemed heavy, with some cardiac and endo stuff. UNDERSTAND the whole afferent/efferent arteriole business with renal, they love to ask you questions on that.

IMMUNO: Had lots of immuno questions. They love to ask what cell is responsible for what kind of reaction, so that's important (e.g. which cell is responsible for type 4 HS rxn?) Also know the immunodeficiencies (I had one on Job syndrome and Wiskott-Aldrich). I had no immunosuppressant questions.
Out of the blue: MOA of papain on immunoglobulin? I looked it up and I guessed right, but yikes.

MICRO: Pretty good mix. I have but one piece of advice here: READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE BUG. I have a tendency to, when I see buzzwords, click on the appropriate answer choice and not even read the frickin question. They used the word "honey-crusted lesions" in one stem, and I wanted to pick S. pyogenes, but the description of the bug was "gram positive in groups and clusters." As well, pt has a fever and indwelling venous catheter, I wanted to pick Staph epidermidis, but no, the bug described was "gram positive in chains and pairs." They're onto us and our Jedi mind tricks, so read the stem carefully!
Random stuff I had: mecA gene, tx for scabes, aeromonas hydrophila

BIOCHEM: Overall, not as bad as it could have been, given that this is my weakness. Basically they just asked about enzymes gone wrong in diseases. G6PD, NADPH oxidase, Hurler's syndrome, and a glycolysis questions (got that one wrong, I think). I definitely had a random throwback to first year biochem, I don't know how I remembered, but understand how your body buffers pH and when certain things do their buffering.

BEHAVIORAL: Lots of "what would you say next" questions, probably 1 or 2 per block. I laughed when I saw one, because it was a repeat from NBME 7! (You mistake a male pt for a girl, what do you do?). Another random one had to do with a pt who quit smoking for a month before an operation, what complications would most likely be decreased? One psych personality d/o question, and I think that was it. Overall, not too bad. UW prepares you well for these.

ANATOMY: Definitely the most random crap on here. No way I would have known some of this stuff if I had studied another week. They love the brachial plexus and stuff taht can be damaged during surgery (PDA repair, thyroid surgery, just as examples). Also, know what artery/nerve can be injured when a certain bone is broken, and don't forget the lower extremity! And don't forget the blood supply to the genitals (middle cerebral wasn't an answer).

NEURO: Not too bad, had one brain stem slice that I probably got wrong (I'm terrible at those) and a REALLY simple spinal cord lesion that had the same answer on it at least twice. I would recommend being comfortable with correlating clinical sx with MRIs of the brain and being able to point out where the lesion should be. Standard stuff, nothing too crazy.

MEDIA: Had 3, all were heart sounds. 2 were the same thing, and 1 was just a variant of normal. You could have figured 2 of them out from the stem (the two that were the same thing), probably, but the heart sound really helped.

Overall, I walked out feeling kinda good about the exam, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Thanks to everyone who posts on here for your insight and contribution. Any time I was feeling a lack of motivation, I just read Pollux's post from last year, or imagined myself on match day opening up the letter and being disappointed. Sounds lame I know, but whatever works!

PM me if you have more questions.

 

[match2011]

big congrat!

Got my scores today: 262/99. Glad to be done with it, and glad I moved it up. Best of luck to everyone else waiting!

 

[McGillGrad]

Got my scores today: 262/99. Glad to be done with it, and glad I moved it up. Best of luck to everyone else waiting!

Excellent score, Sooner!

 

[greg1184]

Got my scores today: 262/99. Glad to be done with it, and glad I moved it up. Best of luck to everyone else waiting!

Well done Sean! Hopefully I also improve from my test scores the way you did.

 

[jmcappleby]

Congratulations, Aggiesean! I think I took my test a few days after yours but I got the 46q version. So I guess I will be waiting till July!

Our diagnostic history is very similar though, so I'll be hoping!