Good luck all. I have my exam end of March and hope to be the 1st one to post here for 2010.
Official 2010 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
- Thread starter FMD212
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NBME CBSE: 256/90 (this one is a whole different ball-game)
NBME 4: 199 (2 months out)
Free 150: 87% (one month out)
NBME 6: 200 (3 weeks out)
UWSA #1: 199 ( one week out)
Real deal: 201/83
I could see where I was going but it was a take-it-or-forget-it situation with a research program starting off 1 week post my test day.
Thought it'll be fair to post this as well.Good luck y'all
NBME 4: 199 (2 months out)
Free 150: 87% (one month out)
NBME 6: 200 (3 weeks out)
UWSA #1: 199 ( one week out)
Real deal: 201/83
I could see where I was going but it was a take-it-or-forget-it situation with a research program starting off 1 week post my test day.
Thought it'll be fair to post this as well.Good luck y'all
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Not sure why I can't figure this one out, but what/where is the website that we go to to check our scores? Thank you
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Agent: How do you mean the CBSE is different? did u feel it was different than the NBMEs u can buy online? Im guessing you took the CBSE through your school.
congrats on passing.
I took CBSE as my final exam at school approx 5 months prior to step 1 and studied the same way I would for my step 1.
After my first boom-bastic NBME eye-opener test,I realized CBSE was diff cuz:
200 questions only,spread across 4 hrs.
Lots of gimme qs and images vs. step 1
I hear scoring is different.I ran outta time for the last few qs and thought I will never fare up to the 90's,but I did.That goes to show that this test is tabulated differently from step 1 though I can't say how.
Overall,I felt the CBSE was way easier than step 1 or maybe that's just my experience.However,I will not discount this all together,it pays if you fare well on this one as well.One mistake I made though,is that I let this 'judge' and reflect my step 1 score,and took my first NBME practice test much later.Don't do this.
Good luck and here's hoping I make a stellar Step 2 CS to mask this dumb score
I have a question for those of you guys who have already taken the step 1 after the exam change:
When you were answering your questions, did you find that most of them pertained to first aid? Were you able to be like "oh yea, i saw that in first aid!!" ??
When you were answering your questions, did you find that most of them pertained to first aid? Were you able to be like "oh yea, i saw that in first aid!!" ??
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My 2 cents:
I barely felt any difference.Honestly,I felt we had an upper hand with time:46/block vs. previous 48/block.Not a whole big deal,but it did save me few precious minutes which I could use to review unsure responses.Yeah,most of the stuff was from 'standard' step 1 material,but there were also few WTF qs I am sure I could not have prepared for.
GL!
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i wrote my test on sun. oct 24th...today was the 3rd wednesday after my test...shouldn't I have received my score today? or it may come later on in the day?
Just came out of my exam and i have to thank God, FA and UW. And of course Poppie . Step 1 byebye. I'll comment on experience tomorrow. Good luck to everyone out there reading this! You can do it!
. Step 1 byebye. I'll comment on experience tomorrow. Good luck to everyone out there reading this! You can do it!Hi Im a IMG from Ecuador, and I want internal medicine
just yesterday got my result: 99/229
and im a little bit confused
is that a good score to get into IM residency??? I have also a past rotation in 2009 and I got 2 recommendation letters
is that enough?? What more can I do?? Help me please im very confused
thank you!
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Your answer lies here:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/62400/data/chartingoutcomes.pdf
Given an average score of 221 and a standard deviation of 24, you placed somewhere among the 64th percentile of all test takers. The average score for a US senior entering IM is something like 224 and for all others (including internationals) it was something like 222.
Also, this thread is not an appropriate place for both your post and my response.
Ok
Here it is.
First of all, I'm a IMG (graduated Jan'10) from PUCMM, Dom. Rep.
I've been following some of the threads on SDN since April 2009 and actually felt it helped a lot to read other people's experiences, advices, study techniques and tips for making your Step 1 experience as smooth as possible.
I bought FA 2009 back in Jan '09 and I've been using it since then with varying intensity and by the last couple of days of my studies I could pretty much point to any information on the book within 5-10 seconds.
I started a more focused study 2 months after I graduated using Taus method as the main guide but of course made a few adjustments here and there. I did put my FA in a 3 ring binder and I believe that was one of the best decisions I made. I didn't add a whole lot of pages to it (maybe 8-10 pages mainly for pictures, biochem and few other things). But I did add a bunch of post-its from sources I'll comment in the 2nd Part of my experience , although I must admit at the end I didn't have to read from those stickers once I started doing UW q's since most of the information necessary to answer them were either on FA or stuff I wrote on sides/top/bottom of pages. If you look at one of my FA pics you'd be scared with all those little notes, at least 3 different colors of pens and highlighters, which I kept modifying every time I went through something and felt some info I was still weak on.
I spent about 2-3 months reviewing everything for the 1st time and doing paper-based q's (from Kaplan's Qbook, BRS backs, etc) on the subjects I was studying. I also did 1 month of USMLE Rx 50% complete by subject can't recall cumulative % (IMHO an average source for the beginning) After that, I had some family issues and kept my studying to only around 4 hours/day and some days I didn't even studied, which really kicked me pretty hard since I was doing very well before that. That went on for around 2 months. But I finally got my family to understand the importance of this test and I refocused my attention to killing the beast.
I did 2 months of UW (completed 1st pass with 66% all/r/t while going through FA for the 2nd time). 2nd pass included incorrect/r/t which was about 700 qs, then repeated all the marked (I marked every q I had doubt about, no matter if it was correct at the end, that way I made sure I saw those qs again). I marked around 1100qs and finished those in about 8days.
Did a couple of NBMEs
NBME 4 (227/520) 4 wks out
NBME 6 (229/530) 2 wks out. After reviewing the incorrects (extended feedback) I realized I made a lot of stupid mistakes and misunderstood a few qs I knew the answers to. So I still felt good about it and scheduled my test for Nov 10, which gave me 2 more wks of intense studying (8-10hrs/day).
The last few days I decided to go through critical areas in FA where I tended to get confused and made a list of forgettables (16pages) to go over in the last 2 days as part of a routine I started doing 1 month before the exam. Everyday I added 1-2 things to that routine and it really helped to memorize stuff and see them everyday. It did take about 45mins to do everyday, but I think it paid off.
Well, my battery is running out and I'm a bit lazy tonight to write more. Hope this is of help to anyone who is in the process or starting soon.
Good luck to you all. I'll try to finish tomorrow. Have to comment on sources I used and test day.
Gnite
Here it is.
First of all, I'm a IMG (graduated Jan'10) from PUCMM, Dom. Rep.
I've been following some of the threads on SDN since April 2009 and actually felt it helped a lot to read other people's experiences, advices, study techniques and tips for making your Step 1 experience as smooth as possible.
I bought FA 2009 back in Jan '09 and I've been using it since then with varying intensity and by the last couple of days of my studies I could pretty much point to any information on the book within 5-10 seconds.
I started a more focused study 2 months after I graduated using Taus method as the main guide but of course made a few adjustments here and there. I did put my FA in a 3 ring binder and I believe that was one of the best decisions I made. I didn't add a whole lot of pages to it (maybe 8-10 pages mainly for pictures, biochem and few other things). But I did add a bunch of post-its from sources I'll comment in the 2nd Part of my experience , although I must admit at the end I didn't have to read from those stickers once I started doing UW q's since most of the information necessary to answer them were either on FA or stuff I wrote on sides/top/bottom of pages. If you look at one of my FA pics you'd be scared with all those little notes, at least 3 different colors of pens and highlighters, which I kept modifying every time I went through something and felt some info I was still weak on.
I spent about 2-3 months reviewing everything for the 1st time and doing paper-based q's (from Kaplan's Qbook, BRS backs, etc) on the subjects I was studying. I also did 1 month of USMLE Rx 50% complete by subject can't recall cumulative % (IMHO an average source for the beginning) After that, I had some family issues and kept my studying to only around 4 hours/day and some days I didn't even studied, which really kicked me pretty hard since I was doing very well before that. That went on for around 2 months. But I finally got my family to understand the importance of this test and I refocused my attention to killing the beast.
I did 2 months of UW (completed 1st pass with 66% all/r/t while going through FA for the 2nd time). 2nd pass included incorrect/r/t which was about 700 qs, then repeated all the marked (I marked every q I had doubt about, no matter if it was correct at the end, that way I made sure I saw those qs again). I marked around 1100qs and finished those in about 8days.
Did a couple of NBMEs
NBME 4 (227/520) 4 wks out
NBME 6 (229/530) 2 wks out. After reviewing the incorrects (extended feedback) I realized I made a lot of stupid mistakes and misunderstood a few qs I knew the answers to. So I still felt good about it and scheduled my test for Nov 10, which gave me 2 more wks of intense studying (8-10hrs/day).
The last few days I decided to go through critical areas in FA where I tended to get confused and made a list of forgettables (16pages) to go over in the last 2 days as part of a routine I started doing 1 month before the exam. Everyday I added 1-2 things to that routine and it really helped to memorize stuff and see them everyday. It did take about 45mins to do everyday, but I think it paid off.
Well, my battery is running out and I'm a bit lazy tonight to write more. Hope this is of help to anyone who is in the process or starting soon.
Good luck to you all. I'll try to finish tomorrow. Have to comment on sources I used and test day.
Gnite
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well got my score back today...
School CBSE: 99 - 2 months out
NBME #4 (offline): 260 - 6 wks out
UWSA #1 (online): 265 - 5 wks out
NBME #5 (offline): 265 - 4 wks out
UWSA #2 (online): 265 - 3 wks out
NBME #6 (offline): 260 - 2 wks out
NBME #7 (online): 269 - 1 wk out
Real thing: 266/99
did DIT 2.5x and read through first aid myself a couple of times. did kaplan for biochem and micro. looked at high yield neuro for pics (very important; had a bunch of neuro pics on the real exam). Also I annotated/highlighted first aid after every question in uworld (whether right or wrong). Repeated marked/incorrect uworld questions week b4 exam.
gl everyone else and thanks for all the help
School CBSE: 99 - 2 months out
NBME #4 (offline): 260 - 6 wks out
UWSA #1 (online): 265 - 5 wks out
NBME #5 (offline): 265 - 4 wks out
UWSA #2 (online): 265 - 3 wks out
NBME #6 (offline): 260 - 2 wks out
NBME #7 (online): 269 - 1 wk out
Real thing: 266/99
did DIT 2.5x and read through first aid myself a couple of times. did kaplan for biochem and micro. looked at high yield neuro for pics (very important; had a bunch of neuro pics on the real exam). Also I annotated/highlighted first aid after every question in uworld (whether right or wrong). Repeated marked/incorrect uworld questions week b4 exam.
gl everyone else and thanks for all the help
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congratulations on your great score!
when did you do DIT 2.5X?
did you look into RR?
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Should have taken it 5 weeks before you actually did. Just kidding (kind of). A job well done. Well done indeed.
Resources I used
Most of the books/questions I used were according to Taus and I found them to be pretty good overall and definitely enough
for this test.
-Pathology
(Goljan's RR, audio and RR questions; also did a few chapters from Robbins review qbook and Kaplan's Qbook in the
beginning). I read RR cover to cover once and read some chapters more than once whenever I felt I was weak on a particular
topic. I tried reading the blue notes the last couple of days before the exam but just didn't have time...I did listened to
the audio at least 3-4 times and I found them very helpful and at times he would take the edge off by making me laugh out
loud.
-Physiology: BRS was enough.
-Pharm: 1st couple of chapters from Kaplan (dynamics/kinetics), the rest FA. Don't need to go outside from FA.
-Biochem: Kaplan and FA. Enough on those. The few questions I had on biochem were pretty straight forward.
-Mol.Bio, Genetics & Cell Bio: FA and a couple of chapters from HY. My exam was loaded with molecular biology stuff. A few
questions on experimental graphs, charts, and things you would probably won't have seen anywhere else even if you wanted...
Try to review electron micrographs.
-Anatomy: Kaplan and FA. Definitely know your CTs from head to toes.
-Embryo: FA is enough. I think I had 2-3 questions on that and it was on FA.
-Histo: Don't remember having any questions on that.
-Behavioral/Psych/Biostats: FA and HY. Also did the questions on BRS. Know your equatiueons, mechanisms of defenses, pharm
and ethical situations: the what would Jesus do type of questions...
-Neuroanatomy: HY and FA were enough. HY didn't pay attention to little details but rather learned the images and clinical
stuff and it paid off.
-Micro/immuno: CMMRS and FA. But I have to say that FA is sufficient for both topics. But know those chapters really well
from top to bottom.
-Questions: I did Kaplan's Qbook when I was doing my first pass. Did USMLERx (1 month) during 1st Pass, but only did around
500qs subject based because I didn't have much time to do the rest then as I was helping my family out...The best thing I
did after that was 2months of UWorld (Thank you, thank you thank you UW!). I did 1st pass in tutor or untimed random unused
blocks. It took me about 5 weeks doing mostly 2 blocks/day most days and reviewing all questions. I ended up with 66%, but
was really struggling in some subjects like Anatomy, Histo, Embryo, Neuro, Biochem. I marked every question I wasn't 100%
sure even if I answered it correctly. I then did all the incorrect ones (around 700) while reviewing my weak topics. I
started doing about 3 blocks/day then this time in timed mode. I never had problems with time. After the incorrect I did
the marked questions (about 1,100). By this time I was averaging >80-90% on the blocks which got my cumulative % up to 75%
by the end (last day before my exam). UW is just amazing at preparing you for the exam, as most questions do represent the
current style/format in the real deal.
-Practice tests:
NBME 4 (4wks out): 227/520
NBME 6 (2wks out): 229/530
After each one I focused on my weak subjects and polished those so I felt that I was more balanced during my actual test.
The difficulty of form 6 matched the difficulty of the real exam. And I had at least 4-5 questions verbatim from it. Thanks
God I paid the extra $15 for the extended feedback...
TEST DAY
After all of this preparation, I felt pretty good on the day of the exam. Of course, you always have a bit of anxiety and
expectation, but after the first few questions I situated myself as if I were doing another UW block and forgot about the
rest of the world.
I arrived at around 8:10am and my test started just before 9am. I felt comfortable at the testing site and luckily I was
the only one in there that day, so I didn't have any distractions. I brought a couple of sandwiches/mini chocolates/a juice
bottle and a big water bottle. I brought my ipod to use during breaks but I didn't use it...
I took a break after most blocks except for 2-3 or 3-4 (can't remember exactly, but I know I did 2 blocks with only a 2 min
breather)
I managed the time pretty well, with an average of 5 mins spare time after each block. Only in one block I had 30 seconds
left (after I had already reviewed the marked questions and all).
I marked around 5-6 questions in every block and I seldom changed answers...Only when I really figured out another answer.
I ate lunch between 4-5th blocks (10-12 mins). I had to use the restroom on almost every block as I kept myself hydrated
and ate chocolates to keep my brain working at its best.
By the 6th block the day was starting to drag me down so I decided to drink half of a 20onz Coke for the final lap. I
couldn't believe it when I hit End Block on my last block of Step 1!! Boy, it felt good to be done. The survey was quite
boring and long in my opinion, but the heck with it I finished it quickly and there I was out at 4:10pm with 30mins on my
break time. Sayonara Step 1.
I know it's a pretty long post but I felt I had to return something to the forum that helped me so much and kept me going.
I will post my score when I get it in 2-3 weeks. Now I have to focus my attention on CS (taking it on January 2011) and then CK (hopefully by april).
Good luck to everyone out there on the same boat!
Most of the books/questions I used were according to Taus and I found them to be pretty good overall and definitely enough
for this test.
-Pathology
(Goljan's RR, audio and RR questions; also did a few chapters from Robbins review qbook and Kaplan's Qbook in the
beginning). I read RR cover to cover once and read some chapters more than once whenever I felt I was weak on a particular
topic. I tried reading the blue notes the last couple of days before the exam but just didn't have time...I did listened to
the audio at least 3-4 times and I found them very helpful and at times he would take the edge off by making me laugh out
loud.
-Physiology: BRS was enough.
-Pharm: 1st couple of chapters from Kaplan (dynamics/kinetics), the rest FA. Don't need to go outside from FA.
-Biochem: Kaplan and FA. Enough on those. The few questions I had on biochem were pretty straight forward.
-Mol.Bio, Genetics & Cell Bio: FA and a couple of chapters from HY. My exam was loaded with molecular biology stuff. A few
questions on experimental graphs, charts, and things you would probably won't have seen anywhere else even if you wanted...
Try to review electron micrographs.
-Anatomy: Kaplan and FA. Definitely know your CTs from head to toes.
-Embryo: FA is enough. I think I had 2-3 questions on that and it was on FA.
-Histo: Don't remember having any questions on that.
-Behavioral/Psych/Biostats: FA and HY. Also did the questions on BRS. Know your equatiueons, mechanisms of defenses, pharm
and ethical situations: the what would Jesus do type of questions...
-Neuroanatomy: HY and FA were enough. HY didn't pay attention to little details but rather learned the images and clinical
stuff and it paid off.
-Micro/immuno: CMMRS and FA. But I have to say that FA is sufficient for both topics. But know those chapters really well
from top to bottom.
-Questions: I did Kaplan's Qbook when I was doing my first pass. Did USMLERx (1 month) during 1st Pass, but only did around
500qs subject based because I didn't have much time to do the rest then as I was helping my family out...The best thing I
did after that was 2months of UWorld (Thank you, thank you thank you UW!). I did 1st pass in tutor or untimed random unused
blocks. It took me about 5 weeks doing mostly 2 blocks/day most days and reviewing all questions. I ended up with 66%, but
was really struggling in some subjects like Anatomy, Histo, Embryo, Neuro, Biochem. I marked every question I wasn't 100%
sure even if I answered it correctly. I then did all the incorrect ones (around 700) while reviewing my weak topics. I
started doing about 3 blocks/day then this time in timed mode. I never had problems with time. After the incorrect I did
the marked questions (about 1,100). By this time I was averaging >80-90% on the blocks which got my cumulative % up to 75%
by the end (last day before my exam). UW is just amazing at preparing you for the exam, as most questions do represent the
current style/format in the real deal.
-Practice tests:
NBME 4 (4wks out): 227/520
NBME 6 (2wks out): 229/530
After each one I focused on my weak subjects and polished those so I felt that I was more balanced during my actual test.
The difficulty of form 6 matched the difficulty of the real exam. And I had at least 4-5 questions verbatim from it. Thanks
God I paid the extra $15 for the extended feedback...
TEST DAY
After all of this preparation, I felt pretty good on the day of the exam. Of course, you always have a bit of anxiety and
expectation, but after the first few questions I situated myself as if I were doing another UW block and forgot about the
rest of the world.
I arrived at around 8:10am and my test started just before 9am. I felt comfortable at the testing site and luckily I was
the only one in there that day, so I didn't have any distractions. I brought a couple of sandwiches/mini chocolates/a juice
bottle and a big water bottle. I brought my ipod to use during breaks but I didn't use it...
I took a break after most blocks except for 2-3 or 3-4 (can't remember exactly, but I know I did 2 blocks with only a 2 min
breather)
I managed the time pretty well, with an average of 5 mins spare time after each block. Only in one block I had 30 seconds
left (after I had already reviewed the marked questions and all).
I marked around 5-6 questions in every block and I seldom changed answers...Only when I really figured out another answer.
I ate lunch between 4-5th blocks (10-12 mins). I had to use the restroom on almost every block as I kept myself hydrated
and ate chocolates to keep my brain working at its best.
By the 6th block the day was starting to drag me down so I decided to drink half of a 20onz Coke for the final lap. I
couldn't believe it when I hit End Block on my last block of Step 1!! Boy, it felt good to be done. The survey was quite
boring and long in my opinion, but the heck with it I finished it quickly and there I was out at 4:10pm with 30mins on my
break time. Sayonara Step 1.
I know it's a pretty long post but I felt I had to return something to the forum that helped me so much and kept me going.
I will post my score when I get it in 2-3 weeks. Now I have to focus my attention on CS (taking it on January 2011) and then CK (hopefully by april).
Good luck to everyone out there on the same boat!
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i did it once before my school cbse. and then i started the second time about 2 weeks before the first practice nbme and continued it while also doing the practice tests. I tried going through it the 3rd time but it was so painful I only got through half of it.
oh and I forgot to mention I did all of rapid review path once and also read a few chapters twice. And i did a few hundred questions of kaplan before the cbse. I also did well during classes so I felt i had a strong foundation before i even started studying.
thanks. yea I was thinking of moving my test date up but I wanted to get through all the practice nbmes and uworld assessments so i held out. it was worth it in the end because i had about 4-5 questions straight from nbme 6/7.
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your strategy of having a solid foundation is priceless.
I mean as far as I remember you took that test sleep deprived and yet you managed to get this outstanding score. this tells me you knew the material so well, that you could have done it in your sleep, which is wow.
do you feel you could have done still better with 7 hours of sleep?
I mean on those "wtf" questions, you never came across before?
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i think after 260-265+ its just luck. Looking at my score report my weakest area was behavioral science. I was always unsure of those "quote" questions. I got lucky in nbme 7 in that I didn't get a single quote question wrong but I knew that probably wouldn't happen again. I think after doing all those uworld questions and nbmes it just became automatic for me, I had seen all those questions before but they were just written in a slightly different way. like i said in a previous post, i didn't need to think too much it was more instinctual.
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RR Pathology by Goljan may be more appropriate for Step 1. Robbins review of pathology is an excellent choice if you want a very through review of pathology.
Does anyone know how many experimental questions are on the exam?
I just took the exam two days ago and I felt as if I had a very difficult exam, far more diffucult than nbme7. I did fairly well on nbme7 and felt pretty good while taking it, however, during the real exam I felt as if I had one the more difficult versions of the exam.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of easy question if you knew FA well. But there seemed heck of a lot of phd level genetics questions.
I just took the exam two days ago and I felt as if I had a very difficult exam, far more diffucult than nbme7. I did fairly well on nbme7 and felt pretty good while taking it, however, during the real exam I felt as if I had one the more difficult versions of the exam.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of easy question if you knew FA well. But there seemed heck of a lot of phd level genetics questions.
So, I took the beast on Friday (11-26-10).
I had done fairly well on nbmes and uwsa's recently.
Uwsa1=224
Uwsa2=242
Nbme7=234 (4 days before the exam)
Usmle world average= 67% only went thru it once
Exam day-
I was seriously tired because I had such anxiety the night before and slept less then 3 hours. I got to the test center an hour early and seriously considered not taking the exam that day. However, I was so sick of studying that I decided to take the exam just to get it over with. May be not a wise decision in hindsight.
My first two blocks were not bad at all. Felt like uw questions that 50-70% of the pple get correct. Blocks 3-5 were brutal. So many questions which I couldn't even figure out. Loads of graphs to interpret (which I am not always good at). Ridiculous amounts of genetics scenarios which nearly gave me a heart attack.
Easiest portion of my exam was pharm. Nearly all pharm questions could be answered if you know your FA pharm well.
Pathology was a mix bag- some were too easy and others required more thought.
Behavioral- wasnt too bad. Know your formulas and you should be golden. Ethics questions were well, just weird but I think I did okay on those.
Biochem- everything could be found in FA. Some enzyme deficiencies and RLE's.
Embryo- easy if you know FA. Unfortunately I missed a couple of these because I hadnt reviewed embryo for a while.
Physiology- not bad if you have a good grasp of the big picture. They tested understanding rather than memorization on this subject.
Anatomy- mostly easy but some crazy pelvic stuff that looked familiar from 1st semester of basic sciences but I just had to guess on those.
Micro- not bad at all. FA was enough for 95% of it.
Immuno- also not bad, FA covers all the important stuff but there were a few questions which werent very easy. Definitely read kaplan for this if you have the book and time to do so.
Heart sounds- I had 3-4. I am not good at these but 2 of these could be figured out without listening to the audio.
I had a lot of questions which were so long that I had to scroll down the page to look at all the answer choices. Dont get me wrong, there were plenty of 2-3 liners but for the most part, stems were longer than uw. Timing wasn't an issue, I always had atleast 8-10 minutes after finishing the last question in the block. Many q's had a long list of lab values, especially all the heme questions. Overall, I think I got one of the more difficult forms but I am praying that there is very generous curve that goes along with this.
If you've studied hard, 40% of the questions were easy, another 20-30% were doable and required more thought and problem solving. The rest were very difficult for me, meaning I made educated guesses, not always being able to reduce to only two choices. I think there were about 10-20 questions on the entire exam where I didnt know what the heck they were asking or I just wasnt familiar enough with the material and I ended up making blind guesses.
I felt very clam during the exam but when I was driving home, I started to freak out. I now feel as if I may have failed. It's a horrible feeling. The only thing I find comfort in is the fact that most ppl feel this way after the exam. What worries me most is that because I had only 2.5 hours of sleep the night before, it may have cost me relatively easy points. One really needs a well rested mind for this marathon of test.
I took a short break after every block to splash some water on my face, I think this really helped. I also snacked on apples and chex mix every other block. If you are tired on exam day like I was, dont eat a big meal. It will make you more tired. Oh and yeah, I drank two cups of ice cold water from the cooler during every break and this really wakes you up, even more than splashing water on your face.
As for my prep-
I read thru most of the kaplan lecture notes once (a quick read). Then I focused on FA, went thru it about 4-5 times. I did all the uw questions over a period of 2.5 weeks, all random with an average of 67%. I also went thru all the ones I got wrong the first time thru. Did all nbmes and both uwsa's. I also did the free 150 and got 84% the night before the exam. Didnt really go thru RR path, only read select few chapters but as I was taking the exam, I wished I had read more of it.
I'll post an update once I find out how I did. Good luck to all those who are waiting for their score and to all those still preparing for the exam.
I had done fairly well on nbmes and uwsa's recently.
Uwsa1=224
Uwsa2=242
Nbme7=234 (4 days before the exam)
Usmle world average= 67% only went thru it once
Exam day-
I was seriously tired because I had such anxiety the night before and slept less then 3 hours. I got to the test center an hour early and seriously considered not taking the exam that day. However, I was so sick of studying that I decided to take the exam just to get it over with. May be not a wise decision in hindsight.
My first two blocks were not bad at all. Felt like uw questions that 50-70% of the pple get correct. Blocks 3-5 were brutal. So many questions which I couldn't even figure out. Loads of graphs to interpret (which I am not always good at). Ridiculous amounts of genetics scenarios which nearly gave me a heart attack.
Easiest portion of my exam was pharm. Nearly all pharm questions could be answered if you know your FA pharm well.
Pathology was a mix bag- some were too easy and others required more thought.
Behavioral- wasnt too bad. Know your formulas and you should be golden. Ethics questions were well, just weird but I think I did okay on those.
Biochem- everything could be found in FA. Some enzyme deficiencies and RLE's.
Embryo- easy if you know FA. Unfortunately I missed a couple of these because I hadnt reviewed embryo for a while.
Physiology- not bad if you have a good grasp of the big picture. They tested understanding rather than memorization on this subject.
Anatomy- mostly easy but some crazy pelvic stuff that looked familiar from 1st semester of basic sciences but I just had to guess on those.
Micro- not bad at all. FA was enough for 95% of it.
Immuno- also not bad, FA covers all the important stuff but there were a few questions which werent very easy. Definitely read kaplan for this if you have the book and time to do so.
Heart sounds- I had 3-4. I am not good at these but 2 of these could be figured out without listening to the audio.
I had a lot of questions which were so long that I had to scroll down the page to look at all the answer choices. Dont get me wrong, there were plenty of 2-3 liners but for the most part, stems were longer than uw. Timing wasn't an issue, I always had atleast 8-10 minutes after finishing the last question in the block. Many q's had a long list of lab values, especially all the heme questions. Overall, I think I got one of the more difficult forms but I am praying that there is very generous curve that goes along with this.
If you've studied hard, 40% of the questions were easy, another 20-30% were doable and required more thought and problem solving. The rest were very difficult for me, meaning I made educated guesses, not always being able to reduce to only two choices. I think there were about 10-20 questions on the entire exam where I didnt know what the heck they were asking or I just wasnt familiar enough with the material and I ended up making blind guesses.
I felt very clam during the exam but when I was driving home, I started to freak out. I now feel as if I may have failed. It's a horrible feeling. The only thing I find comfort in is the fact that most ppl feel this way after the exam. What worries me most is that because I had only 2.5 hours of sleep the night before, it may have cost me relatively easy points. One really needs a well rested mind for this marathon of test.
I took a short break after every block to splash some water on my face, I think this really helped. I also snacked on apples and chex mix every other block. If you are tired on exam day like I was, dont eat a big meal. It will make you more tired. Oh and yeah, I drank two cups of ice cold water from the cooler during every break and this really wakes you up, even more than splashing water on your face.
As for my prep-
I read thru most of the kaplan lecture notes once (a quick read). Then I focused on FA, went thru it about 4-5 times. I did all the uw questions over a period of 2.5 weeks, all random with an average of 67%. I also went thru all the ones I got wrong the first time thru. Did all nbmes and both uwsa's. I also did the free 150 and got 84% the night before the exam. Didnt really go thru RR path, only read select few chapters but as I was taking the exam, I wished I had read more of it.
I'll post an update once I find out how I did. Good luck to all those who are waiting for their score and to all those still preparing for the exam.
I felt as though you were reiterating my exam experience. Honestly, the above is EXACTLY what I have to say for my exam experience.
But I did get about 7 hours of sleep. Went to bed around 9pm. Couldn't sleep until 10 or so. Woke up at 5am.
I'd say, for my exam UWorld + FA + Kaplan physio + selected Goljan audio = gold. I saw some questions (no more than 5) from the NBME 4-7.
I was quite calm and felt alrite after the exam. Now, I'd say I'm anything BUT calm and I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown...! Sheesh!!
Merrily- we must have had the same exam since we took it a day apart from each other. I also had about 4-5 questions from nbmes 6,7 and may be one from the free 150. Lets hope and pray that all went well for us.
So, should we expect our score reports on Dec. 15th or so?
So, should we expect our score reports on Dec. 15th or so?
Hey, I just wanted to know where exactly (ex: city, state, or country) did you give your exam? Because after reading your post, I feel like my exam was EXACTLY the same as yours! I just want to know if they gave the same exam in the same city or state. (I gave my exam in NY on the same day as you!)
Hey. I took my exam in GA. You think it was the same? I didn't have many genetics questions. I felt like almost all questions could have been answered by first aid + uworld. But I marked like an average of 10 questions per block. How about you? I had like 3 or 4 genetics questions on some restriction fragment or some gene crap that I had NO idea about.
But I'm just worried sick now. Yeah, just praying now. I don't want to fail.
I hope we get the scores by Dec. 15th. That's a couple of days before my birthday. That's just wonderful!
Hey. I took my exam in GA. You think it was the same? I didn't have many genetics questions. I felt like almost all questions could have been answered by first aid + uworld. But I marked like an average of 10 questions per block. How about you? I had like 3 or 4 genetics questions on some restriction fragment or some gene crap that I had NO idea about.
But I'm just worried sick now. Yeah, just praying now. I don't want to fail.
I hope we get the scores by Dec. 15th. That's a couple of days before my birthday. That's just wonderful!
Well, I dont remember having any questions about restriction fragments, so may be we didnt have the same exam after all. I am a very liberal marker. I mark anything and everthing I am not atleast 90% sure about. The marked an average of 20 per block. I remember one block, may be block 5 where I marked 23 (50%) and I was like whats going on here? We'll see how it goes. At times I feel like I may have done well but mostly I worry about failing or worse yet passing with a very low score.
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So do you think that doing Uworld along with the courses for the class, and annotating answers (right/wrong) as you did into FA would be helpful?
I guess what I'm really saying is annotating FA with UWorld (answers) and RR. Would this be a good foundation or do think this is a bad use of UWorld in that it should be used only as a true "test" source? Would it help to go through UWorld 2 or 3 times?
I guess what I'm really saying is annotating FA with UWorld (answers) and RR. Would this be a good foundation or do think this is a bad use of UWorld in that it should be used only as a true "test" source? Would it help to go through UWorld 2 or 3 times?
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annotating from uworld was very important IMO, but RR might be going a bit too far. I would mark every question that you didn't answer with absolute confidence, this way you will have plenty of questions to repeat the second time. even in the real thing I marked like 20 questions/block
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well done!
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How do people feel about the new HY Cell & Molecular bio for USMLE study? I know taus method recommends the 1999 version because it isn't as detailed as the newer version, but the old version is a lot more expensive (I'm sure taus method recommendations drove the price up significantly).
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Yeah, this is what I've been reading and hearing too. Apparently FA wasn't as detailed in Molec & Cell bio when taus took the boards.
Kaplan's Biochem book has a good molecular & cell bio section too if you want little more detail.
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I def wasted time reading that book but it can be helpful if you need clarification on certain topics. I was weak in it so it helped marginally (probably 1 or 2 questions)
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to most recent test takers. what kind of neuro questions did you guys get? are they still asking the tract lesion questions? whats most high yield for neuro? im 2 weeks out.
USMLEW QBANK 54% 206 (3 DIGIT SCORE)
Kaplan QBANK 59% 225 (3 DIGIT SCORE)
KAPLAN SA 58 % 223 (3 DIGIT SCORE)
NBME 1 211
NBME 2 231
USMLEW SA 1 209
NBME 3 222
NBME 4 218
NBME 6 204
USMLEW SA 2 226
NBME 7 216
NBME 5 223
REAL DEAL: 219/93
Did 90% of USMLEW AND 90% KAPLAN QBANK, TIMED, UNUSED.
Kaplan QBANK 59% 225 (3 DIGIT SCORE)
KAPLAN SA 58 % 223 (3 DIGIT SCORE)
NBME 1 211
NBME 2 231
USMLEW SA 1 209
NBME 3 222
NBME 4 218
NBME 6 204
USMLEW SA 2 226
NBME 7 216
NBME 5 223
REAL DEAL: 219/93
Did 90% of USMLEW AND 90% KAPLAN QBANK, TIMED, UNUSED.
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Hey, congrats!!
So far, I got UWSA-2 238
NBME-3 229 (online)
Fred 86%
Feeling like forgetting a lot and not much study these days. Exam on Dec 31.
Any suggestions for the remaining days? Thanks.
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Hey, congrats!!
I got 238 on UWSA 2 and 229 on NBME 3 online 3 weeks ago. Feeling like forgetting a lot and not much study till now. Exam on Dec 31.
Any suggestions for the remaining days? Thanks.
Just review FA as much as you can and keep doing UW questions in the subjects you're weak in. Get thru FA as many times as you can.
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Just got my score back, here's my experience:
Did NBMEs, UWSAs in following order:
NBME 1: 260 (3 months out)
NBME 3: 258 (2 months out)
NBME 4: 266 (1.5 months out)
NBME 5: 266 (1 month out)
NBME 7: 269 (3 weeks out) plus free 150 on the same day to simulate the exam (got 5 wrong) (suggest doing that)
UWSA 1: 265/800 (2 weeks out)
NBME 6: 266 (1 week out) plus UWSA 2 (265/800) on the same day
REAL DEAL: 270/99
Overall did more than 11.000 questions
Did Qbanks in the following order:
Did all PretestSeries books
UW: 85% (random, timed....)
Kaplan: 85 % (their scorellator predicted 267)
USMLEConsult: did only about 80% of it
UW again (almost all correct, knew most of the questions by heart)
International student from EU, currently in 6th year, took my exam end of November, Germany. Studied 6 months extensively. Used a bunch of books:
Anatomy: some kaplan, UsmleRoadMap Gross Anatomy (very good, but lacks pictures) and Moore Clinically Oriented Anatomy (used for my class exam and during MS1 & 2, so was familiar with it)
Embryology: BRS Embryology (stay away from this book, can't recommend it), kaplan, FA
Pathology: Goljan plus Robbins, Robbins Review of Path (Qbook)
Patho- and Physiology: BRS Physiology, BRS Cases (this book is golden!), Kaplan, some Lange series
Biochem & Cell Biology: Kaplan, Devlin Biochemistry (used it during MS1, 2), Meissenberg Biochem, BRS Histology and Cell Biology
BS: Kaplan, BRS, Kaplan Ethics (strongly recommend this book to US students also, probably the only BS book I enjoyed reading)
Neuro: BRS Neuro, USMLEROADMAP Neuro (this book is overlooked, but very very good), Kaplan
Micro, Immuno: Kaplan, FA, Levinson (wish I used this book for my class exam)
Pharm: Kaplan, FA and Katzungs (by far the best Pharm book I've ever come across)
NO REVIEW BOOK WILL EVER TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW! That's why I was referring back to so many books. Having read so many books and done so many questions, here's my suggestion for
Path: GOLJAN IS KING, book's format's s****, if you really wanna, do what i did, read Robbins and annotate into Goljan
Physiology: BRS Physiology is good, you may also do Cases (plus note: do BRS Physiology AND Cases but not Cases only since Cases book lacks some topics). I recommend Kaplan to those who have been out of MedSchool for a long time, but note that KAPLAN'S PHYSIOLOGY DOES NOT HAVE MORE INFO THAN BRS. Some topics are better covered in BRS, some in Kaplan, that simple.
Anatomy: most of the students do FA, if you did FA only, had poor Anatomy knowledge, you would get about 40 % of the Anatomy Qs on my exam. It's up to you what you do. Moore's clinical vignettes (blue pages) are worth reading, UsmleROadMap is ok
Biochem, Cell Biology: FA was definitely not enough for my exam. Kaplan's Biochem is ok, probably #1 book in the series
Neuro: had to do it again, UsmleRoadMap Neuro would be my choice
BS: BRS is better than Kaplan in my opinion. As already said, Kaplan's ethics book is excellent, very well written, need only about 6 hours to read and solve all of the 100 cases, recommend it to US students also
Pharm: FA should be enough if you really don't wanna study more....... If you have time, suggest Katzung
Micro/Immuno: FA's sufficient
About Qbanks:
UW IS THE BEST, NO QUESTION. If you plan to study up to 3 months, do UW only. If you plan to spend more time, I suggest doing another Qbank. HAVING DONE SO MANY Qs was one of the keys.
Kaplan vs UConsult: can't really say that Kaplan is much better than UConsult. Overall, Kaplan has good Physiology, Ethics & Anatomy Qs, Uconsult has "what the hell Qs".
Pretest series: overall ok, nothing special to say about them, their Micro book is weird, don't recommend it, Pathology - Robbins Review of Pathology is better that Pretest Path. Do this books only if you have lots of time.
Test: definitely harder than NBME 6/7, would say 40% very easy, basic Qs, 30% medium, 30% "what the hell", Qs never seen in any Q bank.
Hope will help, if you have any Q, feel free to ask.
Good Luck to everyone
Did NBMEs, UWSAs in following order:
NBME 1: 260 (3 months out)
NBME 3: 258 (2 months out)
NBME 4: 266 (1.5 months out)
NBME 5: 266 (1 month out)
NBME 7: 269 (3 weeks out) plus free 150 on the same day to simulate the exam (got 5 wrong) (suggest doing that)
UWSA 1: 265/800 (2 weeks out)
NBME 6: 266 (1 week out) plus UWSA 2 (265/800) on the same day
REAL DEAL: 270/99
Overall did more than 11.000 questions
Did Qbanks in the following order:
Did all PretestSeries books
UW: 85% (random, timed....)
Kaplan: 85 % (their scorellator predicted 267)
USMLEConsult: did only about 80% of it
UW again (almost all correct, knew most of the questions by heart
)International student from EU, currently in 6th year, took my exam end of November, Germany. Studied 6 months extensively. Used a bunch of books:
Anatomy: some kaplan, UsmleRoadMap Gross Anatomy (very good, but lacks pictures) and Moore Clinically Oriented Anatomy (used for my class exam and during MS1 & 2, so was familiar with it)
Embryology: BRS Embryology (stay away from this book, can't recommend it), kaplan, FA
Pathology: Goljan plus Robbins, Robbins Review of Path (Qbook)
Patho- and Physiology: BRS Physiology, BRS Cases (this book is golden!), Kaplan, some Lange series
Biochem & Cell Biology: Kaplan, Devlin Biochemistry (used it during MS1, 2), Meissenberg Biochem, BRS Histology and Cell Biology
BS: Kaplan, BRS, Kaplan Ethics (strongly recommend this book to US students also, probably the only BS book I enjoyed reading)
Neuro: BRS Neuro, USMLEROADMAP Neuro (this book is overlooked, but very very good), Kaplan
Micro, Immuno: Kaplan, FA, Levinson (wish I used this book for my class exam)
Pharm: Kaplan, FA and Katzungs (by far the best Pharm book I've ever come across)
NO REVIEW BOOK WILL EVER TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW! That's why I was referring back to so many books. Having read so many books and done so many questions, here's my suggestion for
Path: GOLJAN IS KING, book's format's s****, if you really wanna, do what i did, read Robbins and annotate into Goljan
Physiology: BRS Physiology is good, you may also do Cases (plus note: do BRS Physiology AND Cases but not Cases only since Cases book lacks some topics). I recommend Kaplan to those who have been out of MedSchool for a long time, but note that KAPLAN'S PHYSIOLOGY DOES NOT HAVE MORE INFO THAN BRS. Some topics are better covered in BRS, some in Kaplan, that simple.
Anatomy: most of the students do FA, if you did FA only, had poor Anatomy knowledge, you would get about 40 % of the Anatomy Qs on my exam. It's up to you what you do. Moore's clinical vignettes (blue pages) are worth reading, UsmleROadMap is ok
Biochem, Cell Biology: FA was definitely not enough for my exam. Kaplan's Biochem is ok, probably #1 book in the series
Neuro: had to do it again, UsmleRoadMap Neuro would be my choice
BS: BRS is better than Kaplan in my opinion. As already said, Kaplan's ethics book is excellent, very well written, need only about 6 hours to read and solve all of the 100 cases, recommend it to US students also
Pharm: FA should be enough if you really don't wanna study more....... If you have time, suggest Katzung
Micro/Immuno: FA's sufficient
About Qbanks:
UW IS THE BEST, NO QUESTION. If you plan to study up to 3 months, do UW only. If you plan to spend more time, I suggest doing another Qbank. HAVING DONE SO MANY Qs was one of the keys.
Kaplan vs UConsult: can't really say that Kaplan is much better than UConsult. Overall, Kaplan has good Physiology, Ethics & Anatomy Qs, Uconsult has "what the hell Qs".
Pretest series: overall ok, nothing special to say about them, their Micro book is weird, don't recommend it, Pathology - Robbins Review of Pathology is better that Pretest Path. Do this books only if you have lots of time.
Test: definitely harder than NBME 6/7, would say 40% very easy, basic Qs, 30% medium, 30% "what the hell", Qs never seen in any Q bank.
Hope will help, if you have any Q, feel free to ask
.Good Luck to everyone
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Just got my score back, here's my experience:
Did NBMEs, UWSAs in following order:
NBME 1: 260 (3 months out)
NBME 3: 258 (2 months out)
NBME 4: 266 (1.5 months out)
NBME 5: 266 (1 month out)
NBME 7: 269 (3 weeks out) plus free 150 on the same day to simulate the exam (got 5 wrong) (suggest doing that)
UWSA 1: 265/800 (2 weeks out)
NBME 6: 266 (1 week out) plus UWSA 2 (265/800) on the same day
REAL DEAL: 270/99
Overall did more than 11.000 questions
.
.
.
Test: definitely harder than NBME 6/7, would say 40% very easy, basic Qs, 30% medium, 30% "what the hell", Qs never seen in any Q bank.
Hope will help, if you have any Q, feel free to ask
Good Luck to everyone
impressive score, congratulations!
but 30%? really? what were most of these questions on? anatomy, biochem, molecular biology, path or immuno?
