Official 2010 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Finally got my score report today and I did better than I expected! Thanks for everyone's support in the last year..couldn't have done it without all of you guys giving me key advice and reading experiences.

So here is a brief run up of how I studied for this. I didn't want to post anything until I get my score just to verify that it worked! Here goes:

During 2nd Year: I did pretty well in my classes generally getting grades in the top 25% of the class. I used Kaplan Qbank throughout the year doing questions relevant to the subject of study before exams for the test. I also used Webpath and Goljan RR and audio (Run 1) for every unit. Our final exams for Path and Pharm were cumulative so in the 8 weeks leading up to the finals, I went through First Aid for Path and Pharm as well as Goljan and the audio (Run 2) for Path. I also finished majority of the Kaplan Qbank questions (~96% complete) and avg 60%.

4.5 Week Study: Try to do things in a systematic fashion starting from physiology and building up to pathology and using FA for what it is…a review. Do questions with the systems. Repetition is key!

Week 1: On the last day of exams (Monday), I began my Step 1 prep. I did the Free 150 first to see where I was. Score = 82% (Med Friends est. 243)
For the first week I chose to focus on mostly basic sciences in First Aid (Behavioral, Biochem, Genetics, Cell/Mol bio, Immunology, Microbiology). I supplemented with a quick read of the first 11 chapters in HY Mol Bio (1st edition), CMMRS Charts, Goljan Nutrition and Immunopathology, BRS Physiology (Cell physio chapter). I did my best to do the corresponding First Aid Q&A chapters at night. That sometimes didn't happen. Every morning I made sure to do at least 24 UW questions to warm up.

Week 2-3: Pathology and meat of the study. Once again…key is systematic approach with the appropriate questions lumped on and random UW review DAILY!

7-9am: I start every morning with 48q of random UW before I really study and go over all of it while annotating FA. I make sure to look at all the choices of the questions I get wrong and import important tables and drawings into FA.
10-12p: BRS Physiology for the relevant organ system and I do all the practice questions at the end of the chapter.
12-1p: Lunch
1p-4p: Goljan Reading for the relevant system.
4-6p: Goljan Audio for the relevant system.
6-7p: Dinner
8-11 or 12a: First Aid for the organ system including Pharm. Do FlashFacts at the end of reading the FA chapter. Then if I have time, do some FA Q&A for the chapter. I probably got through 50%-75% of Q&A by the end of my studying.

I supplemented my studying by going through HY Neuroanatomy (the Key Facts at the beginning of every chapter)

UWSA #1 between weeks 2 and 3. Score = 253

Week 4-5 (Took the test on the Friday of week 5): 5 Blocks of UW DAILY and go over all of it. I read a small part of HY Anatomy (Upper and Lower Limbs), read through UCV Biochemistry and made some review cards, and random other things to supplement my weaker areas. I went through the Rapid Review chapters of First Aid in the last two days and studied Lange Pharm Cards and MicroCards. The last two days were pretty disorganized but good to look at some things that don't really require understanding but just random facts to memorize quickly before the test.

NBME 7 +3 48q blocks of UW at the beginning of week 4. Score = 249
NBME 6 at the end of week 4. Score = 253
UWSA 2 at beginning of week 5. Score = 261

Final UW percentage = 76%
Goal: >250
Actual: 263

Summary:
1. Went through FA twice
2. Went through Goljan book and audio 3x (some chapters more than others)
3. Read BRS Physio cover to cover once and did all the questions
4. Finished all of UW, most of Qbank, and more than half of Q&A

PM me if you want more details or have questions regarding my plan.
 
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Solid work dude. Congrats on that amazing score! You worked hard for it.
 
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Fantastic scores guys! Thanks for the details, too. I hope you two will visit the Step 1 thread from time to time to help the rest of us out.
 
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Just one quick question:

How did you guys learn/rectify from your NBME tests? cuz they have no answers, all they give is a graph.

Did you review the organs/subjects you were weak at completely or go fishing for specific answers?

Thanks!
 
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You guys are really inspiring. Thanks for posting.

What do you think makes the difference from 240 to 250+? I'm trying to decide if I should expand my sources (FA, UW, G RR) or just keep going over the same ones repeatedly.
 
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Cooolguy said:
Im not sure whether the test got harder as the blocks progressed or whether I was getting tired—it could have been a bit of both.
Click to expand...

Do you guys think that reserving 1 day near exam day and doing 7 blocks of UW would be helpful in terms of trying to mirror the endurance required on the test day?
I have that in my schedule, but seems like it will take 1-2 more days just to go over all those questions properly afterwords.
 
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go lakers said:
Do you guys think that reserving 1 day near exam day and doing 7 blocks of UW would be helpful in terms of trying to mirror the endurance required on the test day?
I have that in my schedule, but seems like it will take 1-2 more days just to go over all those questions properly afterwords.
Click to expand...

I think it's best to do this few days earlier, for the reason you mentioned to have more time to review whilst charting your weaknesses again

It's a great way to gauge endurance like you said, I would def use it to up my endurance.
 
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👍
vicinihil said:
Actual: 263
Click to expand...

Congrats vicinihil. Stellar performance. Thanks for the tips and for having been helpful even so close to your exam.

1 question. Is BRS physio better than Kaplan Physio? Is it wiser to combine Kaplan Physio video with BRS Physio rather than Kaplan physio notes?
 
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I was wondering what method you guys adopt to review your weak topics.

Do you review the whole organ system again
or
Simply learn from your mistake and never repeat it again by reading up only the relevant section.

For instance: if you suck at neuropharm, would you reviews whole neuro pharm with physio etc or just gamble on time and take note of your specific mistake and read the relevant section only?
 
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metalrex said:
I was wondering what method you guys adopt to review your weak topics.

Do you review the whole organ system again
or
Simply learn from your mistake and never repeat it again by reading up only the relevant section.

For instance: if you suck at neuropharm, would you reviews whole neuro pharm with physio etc or just gamble on time and take note of your specific mistake and read the relevant section only?
Click to expand...

Well, I couldn't get the nephritic/nephrotic stuff into my head...ever...eventually I just went through it a hundred times until I could repeat just about everything on the page from memory. BUT, I'm pretty sure I still didn't get all the Qs on this right.

My point is - if it's a weakness, and it seems quite high yield, I'd review the whole section until I feel comfortable with it - maybe even check some stuff in another source. BUT, if you can't get the arches from embryology down, and you've been through it a few times, I'd just deal with it. If you feel you've been through the HY stuff enough times, and you want to start heading up to 250+, you can always read through something the night before the test...
 
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The one with the darker front cover (4th ed) is the most recent one. If you have never used the book before and are VERY rusty on the physiology, you can always get BRS Physiology Cases and run through cases before your hardcore studying month. Otherwise, it's probably not worth the time.
 
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vicinihil said:
The one with the darker front cover (4th ed) is the most recent one. If you have never used the book before and are VERY rusty on the physiology, you can always get BRS Physiology Cases and run through cases before your hardcore studying month. Otherwise, it's probably not worth the time.
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Hey bro,
Wanted to know something: when you went about working on your weak areas , how did you do that? I mean did you read the whole organ system over again or just tackle the specific sub-area that you were weak at? What resources did you use, the same RR /FA or did you supplement?

I am working on some weak points but my UW scores are still trailing in the high 50's.

Thanks!
 
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when i worked on weak areas i would hit it with more pratice questions since thats how i learned best. i used first aid q&a for some, make flash cards for some that i cant remember like vasculitis, and also went to robbins review of path qbook.
 
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DONE! just took it today!

Honestly, it was the perfect exam experience. (Okay there was this one part where I went to cross my legs and lacerated my toe on what could only have been a hidden blade under my #13 [unlucky!] workstation at prometric - so my next "bathroom" break was wiping the blood away .. oh and my chair was stuck in this like "throttle forward" position so I was literally falling into my computer screen for 7 of the 8 blocks - well it kept me engaged to say the least - and it was HIDEOUSLY loud every time I tried to adjust it to a normal config - i figured out how to fix it on block 8)

no but seriously: it was great! I got a lot of crazy questions that only I would know because I am weird like that with the topics I like to study (I was a math major in college, so I am more interested in the 'why' behind medicine). Like a 1 in a billion chance topics - function of osteroprotegerin, mecA gene, BCL-2, EWS/Fli-1, nitrofurtimox - i got those and I knew them! .. yay!

now I missed some questions that were very silly here and there too. Oh and on UWorld .. you know those renal pathophys questions about where they give you a case and say, ok now what lab values will you see for this acid/base distrurbance? and they list random numbers for pH, pCO2, etc. etc.? well those were ALL over my test! yikes!

got 8 hours of behyootiful rest last night sleeping to a clear mind. had a wonderful lunch break with lots of delicious and nutritious foods i had from my "care kit." Now, I do think I'm about to get served though because I know that you're supposed to walk out of there feeling like jack crap and then you get a 270+ or something, but eh I did not. At the same time, I was furiously checking the stuff I was 50/50 on during break so I know I got most of those right (somehow!).

today was a very lucky day for me :luck: ---- my only hope is the score report says the same (cuz I'll be honest I missed a lot of heart murmur questions - they are SO hard .. i mean you move the stethascope around - when FA says "this murmur will radiate to other areas," you better BELIEVE that it WILL radiate to other areas on your auscultation .. I thought that every murmur I had was a freaking VSD because it was blowing murmurs everywhere - i honestly was looking for the answer choice that said, "this patient probably has four holes in her heart.")

for all you readers out there, EVERY exam is unique - do NOT think that one person's emphasis will mimic yours. my exam had NO pharm (except nitrofurtimox and a few questions about the -cillins. EVERYthing was pathology! and the topics in pathology were very widely represented with no topic preferred over the next.

In each block I had at least 3 ethical dilemmas .. biostats was straightforward and completely conceptual .. had to use calculator for one HW problem.

as for my prep .. I'll post that if I do well (you never know - and I walked out of there feeling like there was SO much I guessed on and did NOT know the answer to!! very unsettling!) - but I completed 100% of UWorld, went back and forced myself to answer everything to 100% correct on UWorld .. by the end I was averaging 91% correct per 48 question set on random mode. as for kaplan i had like 400 questions to go. I hand wrote every UWorld learning objective, no matter how short or long, into first aid, and that made my final review of first aid spectacularly more meningful. The handwriting process took 3-4 months.

part of my prep was .. unique .. I started a year ago! Well, not in the way you all do though. Basically I outlined first aid .. I made several word documents, and named them as page numbers in first aid. In each document, I put roman numerals to delineate the given topic in first aid. The goal of this document, which I lovingly dubbed P☼WERAID, was to make sense of the craziness and madness that is first aid! Honestly, it's so easy to overlook so much of what's in there, but if you force yourself to sit down and to explain in lay man's terms a short justification of each fact (much like a student of math must generate proofs for the facts of math), then you will be better off in the long run .. takes a lot of time though. If I do well, I'll provide the link to that document that you can browse (it's 600 pages though right now and, sadly, it covered only 200 pages of first aid because I started so late!)

so I'll be lucky to get a 230 (my goal score - gets your foot in the door for ortho!) because although I lucked out on most of the hard ones there was quite a lot of other difficult ones i did not get so lucky on (i don't think at least ..) plus some ethical dilemmas that were, at best, completely bizarre.

Good Luck to you all. I hope in 3 weeks I have good news (I don't want to be that disaster story of the kid who felt great and then absolutely ate it on the score report :bang:)
 
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majik1213 said:
Like a 1 in a billion chance topics - function of osteroprotegerin, mecA gene, BCL-2, EWS/Fli-1, nitrofurtimox - i got those and I knew them! .. yay!
Click to expand...


Yikes . . .


Anyway, congrats! (on being done, and on likely doing very well from the sound of things)
 
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Sounds like you rocked this bad boy haha. Getting those questions right will boost your score like crazy because I doubt most other people know what those are (I don't!). You may be the first 300 test taker 😛. Good luck! I can't wait to hear the good news.
 
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Have you guys been annotating *just* the educational objectives from UW into FA? I've been writing things from their explanations of each of the answers choices and it is officially taking me forever. Should I stop this?
 
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Okay, I'm drunk and I finally looked at my score. It's okay I guess. 248/99. I'm fine with that.

I can post more details later, if people are interested. Basically I did FA, UW, and Goljan lectures. Three weeks of study time. Little else. Never attended lecture in my two years of medical school. This is a doable test.

Good luck to everyone.
 
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NorGwynCrab said:
Okay, I'm drunk and I finally looked at my score. It's okay I guess. 248/99. I'm fine with that.

I can post more details later, if people are interested. Basically I did FA, UW, and Goljan lectures. Three weeks of study time. Little else. Never attended lecture in my two years of medical school. This is a doable test.

Good luck to everyone.
Click to expand...

Great job man! Maybe you could have spared the booze for a celebration party instead ,lol

Yeah, post some details on your study timeline and all that you did.

Looking forward to it👍
 
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kryptik said:
really? its been taking me a while too. the way folks swear by uw i dont want to leave any stone, in this case any explanation unturned lol.
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I find that intriguing too, it sure takes a lotta time to annotate the whole page , so would sticking to the objective suffice?
 
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I actually annotated in anything from the explanation page that wasn't in FA. Towards the end though, I only checked to see if it was something that wasn't in FA if it was something i didn't know.
 
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majik1213 said:
DONE!

so I'll be lucky to get a 230 (my goal score - gets your foot in the door for ortho!) because although I lucked out on most of the hard ones there was quite a lot of other difficult ones i did not get so lucky on (i don't think at least ..) plus some ethical dilemmas that were, at best, completely bizarre.

Good Luck to you all. I hope in 3 weeks I have good news (I don't want to be that disaster story of the kid who felt great and then absolutely ate it on the score report :bang:)
Click to expand...

With the average SDN step 1 score of 250 i doubt you will get anything close to 230. Aren't there any average folks on SDN? lol everyone has 248 or 265, i even saw a 276 holyshyt.
 
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NBME 1: 231-3/3
NBME 5: 247-4/24
NBME 4: 244-4/28
UWSA1: 244-5/3
NBME 6: 258-5/5
USWA2: 252-5/8
NBME 7: 249-5/9

UWorld finished 2x, 2nd time Avg 77
Kaplan Qbank Finished, 1st time avg 72
USMLERx 65% done, avg 77

Taking the real deal on Tuesday, hope it correlates to the practices.
 
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illixir said:
I actually annotated in anything from the explanation page that wasn't in FA. Towards the end though, I only checked to see if it was something that wasn't in FA if it was something i didn't know.
Click to expand...

IMHO, doing uWorld is the part where you really learn. If you feel their discussion of a question is worth going through again, just mark it and highlight the nice bits. Or make a note on it if your using the marking feature to review a specific subset of Q's.

If there is just one or two facts from their discussion/objective, and you think you'd benefit from reading it again, by all means write it down in FA. But to copy something from every question is senseless I think. Just go through the answers, see where you made a mistake, understand why the other options are wrong, etc.

I did that, so a few days out from my test I went through the 400 or so Qs I marked, reading the highlighted bits.

(Think about it - there are, what, 2000+ Qs? If you spent two minutes EXTRA writing the objectives down, thats more than 66 hours. SOOOO not worth it...)
 
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African said:
With the average SDN step 1 score of 250 i doubt you will get anything close to 230. Aren't there any average folks on SDN? lol everyone has 248 or 265, i even saw a 276 holyshyt.
Click to expand...

Yeah....easy to be intimidated around here ,lol:scared:
 
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I wouldn't say it was very little effort. I studied extremely hard for three weeks, but beyond that I just didn't have time because I had to keep up with classes. I can post details about my study schedule if that's helpful for people.

I also have no idea how to post a picture of my score report with my name blocked out.
 
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