Official 2011 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[ProtossCarrier]

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Hello everyone. I am a second year who will write the exam in June 2011. Meanwhile let this be a good thread where everyone share their study progress and recent trend of the exam.

 

[medgirl13]

.

 

[Day man]

Wasn't referring to my 'marked' questions. I'm talking about setting it to ALL questions after the first pass. Have you tried this yet? You will recirculate the same questions within the first 5 exams. Maybe a few new, but it's really annoying.

For me, it wasnt just that but i also wanted to wipe the slate clean (new percentage).

fair enough. just didn't want people reading the thread to think they had to buy a new subscription to UW. there's ways to make it work, just have to be clever with the marking of questions from the get go. best of luck

 

[qmcat]

Wasn't referring to my 'marked' questions. I'm talking about setting it to ALL questions after the first pass. Have you tried this yet? You will recirculate the same questions within the first 5 exams. Maybe a few new, but it's really annoying.

For me, it wasnt just that but i also wanted to wipe the slate clean (new percentage).

I tried that before... kept getting the same question on hemoglobin over and over. Then I just decided I was going to do incorrects only.

 

[icaruswalks]

FYI If you buy the longer 6 month subscription, you can reset the whole Q-bank within the application itself.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

OK, so I'd like to get your guys' opinions on how % correct corresponds to score on the real thing.

I've heard from a number of places that 90% correct on Step 1 would be an absolute baller performance (we're talking 270+). But I've also heard that the curve on the real thing is similar to the NBMEs such that 80% correct might only yield a 220 😱.

Does anyone have input on this? Is the distance from a 270 to a 220 really only approximately 10% correct qs? I was under the impression from past years' discussions on this board that 80% on the real thing was still a very solid/respectable performance.

 

[qmcat]

Btw, does anyone have an opinion on using UW vs. FA for getting the finer details to stick? I'm trying to do a second pass of FA, but I don't feel like anything is sticking, and I'm zoning out a lot. If I do UW questions though, I actually remember the things I get wrong because it's more engaging.

Any thoughts on only doing 1 full pass through FA before the test? Of course, I'm going to be looking up things I get wrong in UW as I do more questions... I'm just don't feel like sitting and going page-by-page through FA again. /passout

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Also assess whether the poster has actually taken the exam or not. There's a lot of people who havent taken it yet, but will defend FA to no end because that's what *they're* using to study.

It is also wrong to assume that a difficult question is in fact "experimental". Experimental items consist of easy, medium, and hard in terms of level of difficulty. My source--> parents who are in the standardized test publishing business.

Most people who have *taken* the exam and come on here stating their opinion of the utility of FA for their exam are coming from a neutral and experienced place. What purpose would it serve to come on here and bash FA? It think most people, myself included, are coming from a place of wanting to support others and give them an opportunity to remedy their study plan (if they so chose) before they might get a big surprise on test day. With that said, I don't think anyone is claiming FA wont help you score some major pointage on the exam...just maybe not a 260+ if that's the main resource you use. Again, grain of salt...

75-85% of my exam involved FA material. The crazy stuff that seemed to come from outside FA I generally picked up from the 3 question banks I worked through. I think where so many people are getting the sensation that FA is "inadequate" is that the writers are now heavily testing application of the info and w/o working through a boatload of qs (I'm talking 7k+) you might not be able to see where they're going with some things. I saw through a lot of tricks based on what I'd done with the question banks, but I'm not sure I would have if I hadn't done so many qs.

However, of the 20-30ish qs I'm kicking myself over at this point, at least 75-80% involved FA material. Most of the rest I can't even get a definitive answer for after googling and paging through textbooks, so I'm not worried - if I didn't figure them out, I sure as hell can't imagine many other people did.

Basically, read FA and do a *lot of qs* (and perhaps GT).

 

[Sheldor]

Wow people are really freaking out about the First Aid comments from a few of us who have already taken it. Medgirl did a pretty good job explaining, but I thought I'd throw a little more in 🙂

First Aid + UWorld was a great combination. I bought into the mantra and so I knew them both like the back of my hand going into my test. Did I feel well prepared? YES. Based on SDN Dogma I was unaware how many questions I would NOT know the answers to by memorizing these resources. My goal was to let people know that there were a good number of questions where the answers were not in FA or Uworld. Some of them I remembered from the first two years, some of them were "figure it out" type questions, and some of them are WTF questions that I can't even find by googling.

What could be done differently? I don't really know. Not knowing my score yet I hesitate to speculate, but in hindsight I personally wish I had consulted a separate review book for each topic while using First Aid to organize this information in my head.

I repeat, I saw numerous questions where the facts necessary were NOT in First Aid. The humorous thing is that most of the facts that are in First Aid were actually given in the stem and the question was literally just beyond First Aid. Felt like a friendly "take that" from the test writers to be honest.

You can't know what the test is like before you take it, and relying on advice from previous years is helpful but be cautious since it is applicable to previous test forms. You have multiple people who have taken it after the May 17th switch saying the same thing, I think that should mean something. Then again, I already took it so I can't change anything now 🙂

So don't freak out, First Aid is great. It has a ton of info in it that you will see on the test. However, even if you know it forward and backward, there will be questions that require knowledge (read:Not reasoning) beyond what is in First Aid. It is impossible to speculate what this extra knowledge correlates to in terms of score. If I had to, I think medgirl was being generous. I think that FA + Uworld = 230+. I think the range from 230 to 260 is made up from extra Qbanks, recalling facts from the first two years, and inherent test taking abilities. 260+ requires all of the above plus a lucky day or insane prep like that poster a while ago!

Go in there, be confident, and kill this thing. If you prepared your hardest the fruits of that labor will be reflected in you score!

 

[countthestars]

Just took this test today. Man was it hard. But I think First Aid + Uworld +DIT is more than enough for this test. I really don't think RR path helped me all that much for this test.

So my review: This test is really about stamina. I had started to loose stream by block 6 and 7 but somehow found some strength to concentrate and get through block 8. The whole test just feels like one big blur right now. I had always finished Uworld blocks with more than enough time but I just felt so pressed for time during this test. The problem was they gave a clinical history that was 6 or 7 sentences long and then they gave a whole list of lab values with 7 to 8 answer choices for many many questions. Along with a picture to look at. It took me like 1 to 2 minutes just to understand what they were asking me. I felt like i had to select any answer that I felt was correct and just could not look at the other 4 answer choices because there is just not enough time. I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but I was really annoyed at going back and forth between lab values.

There were also some very easy gimme questions and for 3 questions I could have sworn they asked the same question twice. I must have gotten 3 questions on secretin and bicarb release. I also had 5 or 6 questions asking about viral structures...double stranded, single stranded, circular, linear DNA, RNA ect ect. I just did not study that in first aid am very pissed that I glanced this over. Also know your secondary messengers! It also seemed liked every patient was either pregnant or was a smoker and had some sort of lung cancer. I guess for my test, repro and resp was hugely tested.

I donno, overall I just don't feel that great. This was a hard test and on top of that, there were things that I knew a couple of days before but just blanked out on the test. I will say this DIT was golden. many things on his handouts that were HYQ I saw on the test...along with the 4 and 5 start topics.

 

[Step1Hash]

Just took this test today. Man was it hard. But I think First Aid + Uworld +DIT is more than enough for this test. I really don't think RR path helped me all that much for this test.

So my review: This test is really about stamina. I had started to loose stream by block 6 and 7 but somehow found some strength to concentrate and get through block 8. The whole test just feels like one big blur right now. I had always finished Uworld blocks with more than enough time but I just felt so pressed for time during this test. The problem was they gave a clinical history that was 6 or 7 sentences long and then they gave a whole list of lab values with 7 to 8 answer choices for many many questions. Along with a picture to look at. It took me like 1 to 2 minutes just to understand what they were asking me. I felt like i had to select any answer that I felt was correct and just could not look at the other 4 answer choices because there is just not enough time. I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but I was really annoyed at going back and forth between lab values.

There were also some very easy gimme questions and for 3 questions I could have sworn they asked the same question twice. I must have gotten 3 questions on secretin and bicarb release. I also had 5 or 6 questions asking about viral structures...double stranded, single stranded, circular, linear DNA, RNA ect ect. I just did not study that in first aid am very pissed that I glanced this over. Also know your secondary messengers! It also seemed liked every patient was either pregnant or was a smoker and had some sort of lung cancer. I guess for my test, repro and resp was hugely tested.

I donno, overall I just don't feel that great. This was a hard test and on top of that, there were things that I knew a couple of days before but just blanked out on the test. I will say this DIT was golden. many things on his handouts that were HYQ I saw on the test...along with the 4 and 5 start topics.

Thanks for the write up! I too was going to blow of the virus +/- strand stuff..thanks. Congrats on being done and I bet you did better than you think. Remember the test is based off an average so if it was hard for you, it most likely was hard for everyone else who got those same questions.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Just took this test today. Man was it hard. But I think First Aid + Uworld +DIT is more than enough for this test. I really don't think RR path helped me all that much for this test.

So my review: This test is really about stamina. I had started to loose stream by block 6 and 7 but somehow found some strength to concentrate and get through block 8. The whole test just feels like one big blur right now. I had always finished Uworld blocks with more than enough time but I just felt so pressed for time during this test. The problem was they gave a clinical history that was 6 or 7 sentences long and then they gave a whole list of lab values with 7 to 8 answer choices for many many questions. Along with a picture to look at. It took me like 1 to 2 minutes just to understand what they were asking me. I felt like i had to select any answer that I felt was correct and just could not look at the other 4 answer choices because there is just not enough time. I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but I was really annoyed at going back and forth between lab values.

There were also some very easy gimme questions and for 3 questions I could have sworn they asked the same question twice. I must have gotten 3 questions on secretin and bicarb release. I also had 5 or 6 questions asking about viral structures...double stranded, single stranded, circular, linear DNA, RNA ect ect. I just did not study that in first aid am very pissed that I glanced this over. Also know your secondary messengers! It also seemed liked every patient was either pregnant or was a smoker and had some sort of lung cancer. I guess for my test, repro and resp was hugely tested.

I donno, overall I just don't feel that great. This was a hard test and on top of that, there were things that I knew a couple of days before but just blanked out on the test. I will say this DIT was golden. many things on his handouts that were HYQ I saw on the test...along with the 4 and 5 start topics.

Congrats on being done man. Did you take any NBMEs going into this thing? Would you say harder than UW?

 

[countthestars]

Congrats on being done man. Did you take any NBMEs going into this thing? Would you say harder than UW?

I took two NBME's scored 220 on one and 235 on the second. I would say the test is on par with Uworld. The test was more visual. It had more pictures and more lab values. The answer choices for many questions very very similar to each other...it's similar to world in that aspect.

 

[hyrule]

Just took this test today. Man was it hard. But I think First Aid + Uworld +DIT is more than enough for this test. I really don't think RR path helped me all that much for this test.

So my review: This test is really about stamina. I had started to loose stream by block 6 and 7 but somehow found some strength to concentrate and get through block 8. The whole test just feels like one big blur right now. I had always finished Uworld blocks with more than enough time but I just felt so pressed for time during this test. The problem was they gave a clinical history that was 6 or 7 sentences long and then they gave a whole list of lab values with 7 to 8 answer choices for many many questions. Along with a picture to look at. It took me like 1 to 2 minutes just to understand what they were asking me. I felt like i had to select any answer that I felt was correct and just could not look at the other 4 answer choices because there is just not enough time. I don't know if anyone else felt like this, but I was really annoyed at going back and forth between lab values.

There were also some very easy gimme questions and for 3 questions I could have sworn they asked the same question twice. I must have gotten 3 questions on secretin and bicarb release. I also had 5 or 6 questions asking about viral structures...double stranded, single stranded, circular, linear DNA, RNA ect ect. I just did not study that in first aid am very pissed that I glanced this over. Also know your secondary messengers! It also seemed liked every patient was either pregnant or was a smoker and had some sort of lung cancer. I guess for my test, repro and resp was hugely tested.

I donno, overall I just don't feel that great. This was a hard test and on top of that, there were things that I knew a couple of days before but just blanked out on the test. I will say this DIT was golden. many things on his handouts that were HYQ I saw on the test...along with the 4 and 5 start topics.

8 blocks?

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

I took two NBME's scored 220 on one and 235 on the second. I would say the test is on par with Uworld. The test was more visual. It had more pictures and more lab values. The answer choices for many questions very very similar to each other...it's similar to world in that aspect.

Good stuff. Thanks man. Seems like you had your stuff together, just kick back and relax now.

 

[med87]

Thought I would share my experience since I checked this thread many times during my studying period. I just took the exam yesterday. 8 hours went by faster than I expected. took 2 blocks, 5 min break, then another 2 blocks 20 min break, then another 2 blocks, then 5 min break and then last block. had 20 mins of break left unused.
Microbio: My exam was composed so much of microbiology. I think I had at least 10 microbio questions each block (or it seemed like it). The questions weren't that bad. I think they all could've been answered using FA. pretty straight forward. I had some pictures too. wish i had gone over this section one more time before the exam.
Immuno: I don't remember my test being too heavy on immuno. I think I had less than 10 questions. I think i had a question on TNFa and another on SCID.
Biochem: questions on enzyme deficiencies. probably less than 15 here too. had a lot of random questions about random genes and experiments (no idea on these) had a few questions on vit deficiency.
Pharm: pretty straight forward. Everything could be found in FA. I was really weak in this area coming into the exam and was super worried about pharm. Luckily the drugs they asked.. I knew (hopefully)
Pathology: don't remember much. I had some tumor markers and immunohisto stains that wasn't in FA.
Pathophys: I had a lot of questions on pathophys. a lot of up and down arrows or decreased/increased kind of stuff. Very emphasized in this area on my test (too much I think 🙁) I found these questions to be the hardest.
Embryo: I think I had 1 or 2 embryo questions. both found in FA
behavioral science: I actually had a lot of questions on BS. a lot of questions on psychiatric disorders (i was glad since I was a psych major 🙂) a lot of questions on what to do in this type of situation kind of questions. Those I could narrow down to 2 choices and just had to go with what I thought was right.


I think FA and UW are pretty good resources. I read Goljan/audio but not sure if it helped much. Overall my exam was very detail oriented. questions were fairly short. there were some that were really long (>5 or 6 sentences). I think UW is extremely helpful because the explanations to the questions give you that extra detail that might be helpful on the test. I did UW once throughout the second semester and during my studying period. I wish I had done more UW questions during my studying period. I had tons of questions that you either knew it or you didn't, couldn't use clues to narrow down the choices.

So overall, I don't really know how I did. just hoping for the best.
hope this helps.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Thought I would share my experience since I checked this thread many times during my studying period. I just took the exam yesterday. 8 hours went by faster than I expected. took 2 blocks, 5 min break, then another 2 blocks 20 min break, then another 2 blocks, then 5 min break and then last block. had 20 mins of break left unused.
Microbio: My exam was composed so much of microbiology. I think I had at least 10 microbio questions each block (or it seemed like it). The questions weren't that bad. I think they all could've been answered using FA. pretty straight forward. I had some pictures too. wish i had gone over this section one more time before the exam.
Immuno: I don't remember my test being too heavy on immuno. I think I had less than 10 questions. I think i had a question on TNFa and another on SCID.
Biochem: questions on enzyme deficiencies. probably less than 15 here too. had a lot of random questions about random genes and experiments (no idea on these) had a few questions on vit deficiency.
Pharm: pretty straight forward. Everything could be found in FA. I was really weak in this area coming into the exam and was super worried about pharm. Luckily the drugs they asked.. I knew (hopefully)
Pathology: don't remember much. I had some tumor markers and immunohisto stains that wasn't in FA.
Pathophys: I had a lot of questions on pathophys. a lot of up and down arrows or decreased/increased kind of stuff. Very emphasized in this area on my test (too much I think 🙁) I found these questions to be the hardest.
Embryo: I think I had 1 or 2 embryo questions. both found in FA
behavioral science: I actually had a lot of questions on BS. a lot of questions on psychiatric disorders (i was glad since I was a psych major 🙂) a lot of questions on what to do in this type of situation kind of questions. Those I could narrow down to 2 choices and just had to go with what I thought was right.


I think FA and UW are pretty good resources. I read Goljan/audio but not sure if it helped much. Overall my exam was very detail oriented. questions were fairly short. there were some that were really long (>5 or 6 sentences). I think UW is extremely helpful because the explanations to the questions give you that extra detail that might be helpful on the test. I did UW once throughout the second semester and during my studying period. I wish I had done more UW questions during my studying period. I had tons of questions that you either knew it or you didn't, couldn't use clues to narrow down the choices.

So overall, I don't really know how I did. just hoping for the best.
hope this helps.

Congrats on being done. I hope I get your exam!!!! How was your prep? How was the time you had per block? Did you feel rushed?

 

[toayoztan]

I took the test this past Thursday (the 9th of June).

I must say, it was pretty tough. I've not had much trouble during the first two years of med school (except the heme stuff!).

Anyway, I did DIT+FA+UWorld qbank. I didn't take any NBME tests (perhaps I should for self assessment purposes, but felt the Qbank was plenty of actual practice), and I was scoring 65-70% on the UWorld Qbank (timed, tutored, chunks of 46 or 10 question sets).

I also believe FA has about 75% of the information (if you read and know every single word out of the book...UWorld seems to love the little 3 sentence details anyway, eg "Listeria - Tumbling motility." hah).

I personally felt I walked out of their knowing only 1/3 of the info for sure, narrowing down to 2-3 answers on about half, and "felt" totally lost on the rest...so yes, not a good feeling at all. And USMLE states we need 65-70% to PASS! There are, I hear/read anyway, about 5 questions per block that are "experimental" that aren't included in the scoring. So I'm not sure if the 65-70% needed to PASS includes these experimentals or not.

At this point, I'm really hoping I just even pass...I'm feeling pretty bummed about it honestly, it was tougher than I had imagined (not that I took the studying lightly, but coming from UWolrd questions, I still felt the actual test was just as tough). I'm wanting to get into Radiology, and I'm genuinely afraid it may not happen anymore...I honestly am anxious to see my score.

What sucks is, I can't even think of more than 5 questions that i've had, it becomes a big blur once you finish. Perhaps though we are all naturally focused on thinking/remembering the questions we didn't know, and fail to realize how many questions we did know and therefore our post-test confidence just drops...who knows.

I also felt a loss of stamina on the 6-7th block, but also took a deep breath, shook my head, and told myself it's just 2 more hours left, so push hard!

Oh, and remember how I was weak on Heme? Yea, I got nailed with a handful of those questions, and little of the other stuff I knew rather well...go figure. I'm weak on Kidney Pathology and Heme Pathology...so I suggest that you all study up your weak areas well, and don't be afraid to attack them during your studies, b/c you may end up with the test that challanges you in these areas! Although I did get lucky by not having any child development milestones (I hate those).

Equations...know those well! I had a handful of biostat questions. One conversion/equation I had no clue on (I suppose it was in FA, perhaps in the back where the equations are that I happen to just not see) was converting calories to body weight *shrug*.

Bryan

 

[toayoztan]

8 blocks?

The first block is designated as the tutorial, so the test is actually blocks 2-8 (still only 7 blocks of 46 questions).

Bryan

 

[dozitgetchahi]

I took the test this past Thursday (the 9th of June).

I must say, it was pretty tough. I've not had much trouble during the first two years of med school (except the heme stuff!).

Anyway, I did DIT+FA+UWorld qbank. I didn't take any NBME tests (perhaps I should for self assessment purposes, but felt the Qbank was plenty of actual practice), and I was scoring 65-70% on the UWorld Qbank (timed, tutored, chunks of 46 or 10 question sets).

I also believe FA has about 75% of the information (if you read and know every single word out of the book...UWorld seems to love the little 3 sentence details anyway, eg "Listeria - Tumbling motility." hah).

I personally felt I walked out of their knowing only 1/3 of the info for sure, narrowing down to 2-3 answers on about half, and "felt" totally lost on the rest...so yes, not a good feeling at all. And USMLE states we need 65-70% to PASS! There are, I hear/read anyway, about 5 questions per block that are "experimental" that aren't included in the scoring. So I'm not sure if the 65-70% needed to PASS includes these experimentals or not.

At this point, I'm really hoping I just even pass...I'm feeling pretty bummed about it honestly, it was tougher than I had imagined (not that I took the studying lightly, but coming from UWolrd questions, I still felt the actual test was just as tough). I'm wanting to get into Radiology, and I'm genuinely afraid it may not happen anymore...I honestly am anxious to see my score.

What sucks is, I can't even think of more than 5 questions that i've had, it becomes a big blur once you finish. Perhaps though we are all naturally focused on thinking/remembering the questions we didn't know, and fail to realize how many questions we did know and therefore our post-test confidence just drops...who knows.

I also felt a loss of stamina on the 6-7th block, but also took a deep breath, shook my head, and told myself it's just 2 more hours left, so push hard!

Oh, and remember how I was weak on Heme? Yea, I got nailed with a handful of those questions, and little of the other stuff I knew rather well...go figure. I'm weak on Kidney Pathology and Heme Pathology...so I suggest that you all study up your weak areas well, and don't be afraid to attack them during your studies, b/c you may end up with the test that challanges you in these areas! Although I did get lucky by not having any child development milestones (I hate those).

Equations...know those well! I had a handful of biostat questions. One conversion/equation I had no clue on (I suppose it was in FA, perhaps in the back where the equations are that I happen to just not see) was converting calories to body weight *shrug*.

Bryan

What, like 3500 cal = 1 lb? That's not in FA, I'm pretty sure (I'm not sure where I heard that from, though.)

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Whoa, whoa. I think before everyone about to take the test panics and thinks that First Aid was not the best reference tool to base their studying off of...

You need to consider that it doesn't matter if question writers have "caught on" to the fact that people use First Aid...First Aid has been around for over 20 years. It's not like they found out about it last year and started writing questions completely differently. Use your own logic to assess this poster's judgement. Even if a question submitter writes a ridiculous question with minutia that is found outside of First Aid, there's a very good chance that the question will not do well at all experimentally, since the overwhelming majority of test takers used FA as their basis. These questions that deviate far from First Aid are more likely to get tossed than used.

Some of us know professors who have submitted very "clever" questions for Step 1 that they probably give themselves a big pat on the back on for its complexity...but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking "if I'm in your CLASS and can't even answer it, I doubt it's going to do well on the national level.

I was just thinking about this.

Someone told me that the cutoff for qs that get thrown out because too few people got them right is actually really low (like 15-18% of testers getting the q correct). If there's any truth to this, then a lot of silly qs probably get past the cutoff because people randomly guess at them, and random guessing is bound to hit 20-25% correct overall. Remember all those hard uworld qs where the %s were about evenly split between the choices because people just had no idea? The only time a q gets only 15% right is if there's a great distractor among the choices and a lot of people go for it.

 

[Day man]

Alright party people, these current reviews have made me Anxious enough to crap my pants. I'm signing off until after my exam (Wednesday), hopefully I have some time to check in afterwards (although I tend to avoid this site when not in standardized test mode). I know alot of people are taking it soon, just be confident in what you know and hope for the best. Best of luck everyone!

Ps: how bout them mavs!?

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

I took the test this past Thursday (the 9th of June).

I must say, it was pretty tough. I've not had much trouble during the first two years of med school (except the heme stuff!).

Anyway, I did DIT+FA+UWorld qbank. I didn't take any NBME tests (perhaps I should for self assessment purposes, but felt the Qbank was plenty of actual practice), and I was scoring 65-70% on the UWorld Qbank (timed, tutored, chunks of 46 or 10 question sets).

I also believe FA has about 75% of the information (if you read and know every single word out of the book...UWorld seems to love the little 3 sentence details anyway, eg "Listeria - Tumbling motility." hah).

I personally felt I walked out of their knowing only 1/3 of the info for sure, narrowing down to 2-3 answers on about half, and "felt" totally lost on the rest...so yes, not a good feeling at all. And USMLE states we need 65-70% to PASS! There are, I hear/read anyway, about 5 questions per block that are "experimental" that aren't included in the scoring. So I'm not sure if the 65-70% needed to PASS includes these experimentals or not.

At this point, I'm really hoping I just even pass...I'm feeling pretty bummed about it honestly, it was tougher than I had imagined (not that I took the studying lightly, but coming from UWolrd questions, I still felt the actual test was just as tough). I'm wanting to get into Radiology, and I'm genuinely afraid it may not happen anymore...I honestly am anxious to see my score.

What sucks is, I can't even think of more than 5 questions that i've had, it becomes a big blur once you finish. Perhaps though we are all naturally focused on thinking/remembering the questions we didn't know, and fail to realize how many questions we did know and therefore our post-test confidence just drops...who knows.

I also felt a loss of stamina on the 6-7th block, but also took a deep breath, shook my head, and told myself it's just 2 more hours left, so push hard!

Oh, and remember how I was weak on Heme? Yea, I got nailed with a handful of those questions, and little of the other stuff I knew rather well...go figure. I'm weak on Kidney Pathology and Heme Pathology...so I suggest that you all study up your weak areas well, and don't be afraid to attack them during your studies, b/c you may end up with the test that challanges you in these areas! Although I did get lucky by not having any child development milestones (I hate those).

Equations...know those well! I had a handful of biostat questions. One conversion/equation I had no clue on (I suppose it was in FA, perhaps in the back where the equations are that I happen to just not see) was converting calories to body weight *shrug*.

Bryan

Congrats on being done Bryan and on making me crap my pants lol. Atleast you can go kick it now.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Alright party people, these current reviews have made me Anxious enough to crap my pants. I'm signing off until after my exam (Wednesday), hopefully I have some time to check in afterwards (although I tend to avoid this site when not in standardized test mode). I know alot of people are taking it soon, just be confident in what you know and hope for the best. Best of luck everyone!

Ps: how bout them mavs!?

Good luck man. My execution date is next Wednesday.

 

[countthestars]

I took the test this past Thursday (the 9th of June).

I must say, it was pretty tough. I've not had much trouble during the first two years of med school (except the heme stuff!).

Anyway, I did DIT+FA+UWorld qbank. I didn't take any NBME tests (perhaps I should for self assessment purposes, but felt the Qbank was plenty of actual practice), and I was scoring 65-70% on the UWorld Qbank (timed, tutored, chunks of 46 or 10 question sets).

I also believe FA has about 75% of the information (if you read and know every single word out of the book...UWorld seems to love the little 3 sentence details anyway, eg "Listeria - Tumbling motility." hah).

I personally felt I walked out of their knowing only 1/3 of the info for sure, narrowing down to 2-3 answers on about half, and "felt" totally lost on the rest...so yes, not a good feeling at all. And USMLE states we need 65-70% to PASS! There are, I hear/read anyway, about 5 questions per block that are "experimental" that aren't included in the scoring. So I'm not sure if the 65-70% needed to PASS includes these experimentals or not.

At this point, I'm really hoping I just even pass...I'm feeling pretty bummed about it honestly, it was tougher than I had imagined (not that I took the studying lightly, but coming from UWolrd questions, I still felt the actual test was just as tough). I'm wanting to get into Radiology, and I'm genuinely afraid it may not happen anymore...I honestly am anxious to see my score.

What sucks is, I can't even think of more than 5 questions that i've had, it becomes a big blur once you finish. Perhaps though we are all naturally focused on thinking/remembering the questions we didn't know, and fail to realize how many questions we did know and therefore our post-test confidence just drops...who knows.

I also felt a loss of stamina on the 6-7th block, but also took a deep breath, shook my head, and told myself it's just 2 more hours left, so push hard!

Oh, and remember how I was weak on Heme? Yea, I got nailed with a handful of those questions, and little of the other stuff I knew rather well...go figure. I'm weak on Kidney Pathology and Heme Pathology...so I suggest that you all study up your weak areas well, and don't be afraid to attack them during your studies, b/c you may end up with the test that challanges you in these areas! Although I did get lucky by not having any child development milestones (I hate those).

Equations...know those well! I had a handful of biostat questions. One conversion/equation I had no clue on (I suppose it was in FA, perhaps in the back where the equations are that I happen to just not see) was converting calories to body weight *shrug*.

Bryan

I don't think your alone with how you are feeling. I felt the same way as you did after I was done with my test. I just I don't know if I thought enough about the answer choices for some questions. I just picked whatever looked best and moved on. I might have overlooked some answer choices because I was rushing to just get through the next question. I've never felt this way after doing Uworld questions. I always had time to think the question in my head but on the real deal I felt like I was glancing over the question stems and picking random answers through instinct from previous questions I had done in Uworld. They were the answer choices that I seemed familiar and it seemed to fit with the question stem. I hope we just went into autopilot mode and answered the questions from previous experience.

Sadly I'm not done since I go to an osteopathic school..Have to study OMM now for my COMLEX which is on Wednesday. Just what I need...another 8 hour test.

I should also say, there were about 4 anatomy questions that I got right because i used what we learned in our OMM course in school pertaining to thoracic outlet, viscerosomatic, facilitation and referred pain. I thought that was pretty funny

 

[nicolai]

I took the test this past Thursday (the 9th of June).

I must say, it was pretty tough. I've not had much trouble during the first two years of med school (except the heme stuff!).

Anyway, I did DIT+FA+UWorld qbank. I didn't take any NBME tests (perhaps I should for self assessment purposes, but felt the Qbank was plenty of actual practice), and I was scoring 65-70% on the UWorld Qbank (timed, tutored, chunks of 46 or 10 question sets).

I also believe FA has about 75% of the information (if you read and know every single word out of the book...UWorld seems to love the little 3 sentence details anyway, eg "Listeria - Tumbling motility." hah).

I personally felt I walked out of their knowing only 1/3 of the info for sure, narrowing down to 2-3 answers on about half, and "felt" totally lost on the rest...so yes, not a good feeling at all. And USMLE states we need 65-70% to PASS! There are, I hear/read anyway, about 5 questions per block that are "experimental" that aren't included in the scoring. So I'm not sure if the 65-70% needed to PASS includes these experimentals or not.

At this point, I'm really hoping I just even pass...I'm feeling pretty bummed about it honestly, it was tougher than I had imagined (not that I took the studying lightly, but coming from UWolrd questions, I still felt the actual test was just as tough). I'm wanting to get into Radiology, and I'm genuinely afraid it may not happen anymore...I honestly am anxious to see my score.

What sucks is, I can't even think of more than 5 questions that i've had, it becomes a big blur once you finish. Perhaps though we are all naturally focused on thinking/remembering the questions we didn't know, and fail to realize how many questions we did know and therefore our post-test confidence just drops...who knows.

I also felt a loss of stamina on the 6-7th block, but also took a deep breath, shook my head, and told myself it's just 2 more hours left, so push hard!

Oh, and remember how I was weak on Heme? Yea, I got nailed with a handful of those questions, and little of the other stuff I knew rather well...go figure. I'm weak on Kidney Pathology and Heme Pathology...so I suggest that you all study up your weak areas well, and don't be afraid to attack them during your studies, b/c you may end up with the test that challanges you in these areas! Although I did get lucky by not having any child development milestones (I hate those).

Equations...know those well! I had a handful of biostat questions. One conversion/equation I had no clue on (I suppose it was in FA, perhaps in the back where the equations are that I happen to just not see) was converting calories to body weight *shrug*.

Bryan

Wow Bryan, I also took it on Thursday, and that is exactly my experience too.
I had a very high UWorld average, but questions on exam were even harder. I hope we just got a hard version of the test. I had an equation for cardiac output, and glad that I remembered the formula for it

 

[MossPoh]

Most people who have *taken* the exam and come on here stating their opinion of the utility of FA for their exam are coming from a neutral and experienced place. What purpose would it serve to come on here and bash FA? It think most people, myself included, are coming from a place of wanting to support others and give them an opportunity to remedy their study plan (if they so chose) before they might get a big surprise on test day. With that said, I don't think anyone is claiming FA wont help you score some major pointage on the exam...just maybe not a 260+ if that's the main resource you use. Again, grain of salt...

I really don't care either way about how useful FA is because I consider it more for guidance and bringing me up to a baseline in multiple areas than a definitive source on EVERYTHING one can be questioned on.

That being said, that is a pretty iffy conclusion. I'd say it is less neutral if someone is posting after an exam they felt wrecked on, when that is a perfectly normal feeling. It becomes emotionally charged after months of staring at a book and beleiving on some level it has everything you need. It is like preparing for any sport and then getting your arse handed to you. You may SAY that certain aspects of your training were worthless, but you don't know how you would have performed on that day without that training either.

I'm yet to run into a person who walked out of that exam saying, "Killllllllled it biatches!" Even the smartest and most confident/borderline cocky person I know (and I know quite a few) didn't feel that great walking out. Felt okay, but not great. Step 1 is one of those things that you invest so much emotion and energy into that you begin to feel like you know everything. You also expect a little more of a grand finale than walking out to your car in a crappy parking lot and driving home...give me fireworks or something.

 

[futIDdoc]

Took it last week. Prep = 3.5 weeks, FA two and half times (hated the book actually. I learn better when presented with a narrative and not lists of things), Uworld 2 times (simply the best,again presents the concept as a narrative), BRS phys (awesome), RR + audio (if you don't like Eddie G I don't want to know you). UWSA1 + NBME 7 for practice exams.

Biochem: Easier than UWorld, FA more than sufficient
Embryo: Total of maybe 4 straight Embryo Q's (thank god, my weakest subject) had trouble with only 1
Physio: KNOW YOUR NORMAL. Suprising number of q's on normal function, arrow up and down q's. BRS Phys FTW.
Path: RR + Uworld was golden, much better than FA. Go over images in both the day before, extremely high yield. Had a TON of endocrine Q's and maybe 1 or 2 Renal Q's which shocked me.
Pharm: We have a pretty bad @$$ pharm course at my school,this was kid's play compared to our final. If you know Uworld and FA, no way you should get a pharm q wrong.
Psych and Biostats: All of it directly from FA. Was sufficient and maybe missed a question or two. Would not have been worth the work to pour over more intense resources.
Micro: HEAVY on the micro and Immuno Know FA and the buzzword concepts about each organism. Ton of fungi Q's for some reason. HIV knowledge would be very high yield.

Test Day advice--maintain a good pace and don't let one question psych you out. Read and re-read each passage (went through each question at least 3 times, only change your answer if you spot an obvious mistake) and don't be afraid to finish a block early if you are satisfied by you answer. You need your energy for the last few blocks, don't waste it going over questions you have no clue about or are a 100% sure about!

 

[medgirl13]

.

 

[Path Fiend]

What else did you use to prep?

I used Uworld and First aid. The night before the test i had about 100 U world questions left and didn't do it. don't know if it woulda made any difference there is this hoo ha that you need to finish the uworld questions and read through first aid a bunch before you take the test. I don't think either one would have helped maybe. there was just a lot of questions where i was like wtf. There were also a lot of questions about mice and animals in experimental situations. I thought the exam was actually too clinical and we aren't in the clinics yet

 

[med87]

Congrats on being done. I hope I get your exam!!!! How was your prep? How was the time you had per block? Did you feel rushed?

My studying period was probably around 5 weeks. I read FA, RR and did audio a couple of times during the school year as part of studying for my school exams. during the 5 wks, I read FA 2x, read most of RR again and listened to audio once more. I read BRS phys during the school year and annotated it into FA so I didn't reread that again. i think BRS phys is really helpful.
I did 90% of UW throughout second semeser with avg around 67-70%.
school administered NBME at the end of the school year 209
nbme 6 2 wks into studying 224?
nbme 11 after 3 wks 214 i think =/
nbme 7 1 wk prior to test 242

there were some blocks that I had a bunch of long questions back to back with extremely long sets of data. Personally, I always take too long to read each question because I always read and then reread. SO i think the time should be fine for you (and everyone else).

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

My studying period was probably around 5 weeks. I read FA, RR and did audio a couple of times during the school year as part of studying for my school exams. during the 5 wks, I read FA 2x, read most of RR again and listened to audio once more. I read BRS phys during the school year and annotated it into FA so I didn't reread that again. i think BRS phys is really helpful.
I did 90% of UW throughout second semeser with avg around 67-70%.
school administered NBME at the end of the school year 209
nbme 6 2 wks into studying 224?
nbme 11 after 3 wks 214 i think =/
nbme 7 1 wk prior to test 242

there were some blocks that I had a bunch of long questions back to back with extremely long sets of data. Personally, I always take too long to read each question because I always read and then reread. SO i think the time should be fine for you (and everyone else).

Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it. It is wierd but you and I got the same NBME 7 score and I have a week left too. Are you my twin?

 

[vulgata]

But I probably would have worried less about going over it 5 times and memorizing the heck out of it like everyone says and instead focused on finishing 4 or 5 question banks. Now i WILL advise people to do massive question banks. I can't emphasize this enough! If you can afford to subscribe to at least 2 (plus a second run through UW towards the end) I think that would prepare you incredibly well.

So after UW and Qbank, what should I buy? Rx? Consult? GT? Should I do a second run through UW instead of another question bank?

 

[medgirl13]

.

 

[toayoztan]

I thought the exam was actually too clinical and we aren't in the clinics yet

I agree with this entirely, key word being "too" clinical. I know they love trying to fit our questions into "clinical" scenarios, but when I am given lab values that become irrelevant half the time, and every person is anemic, diabetic, or pregnant, I wonder how much Basic Sciences and Path knowledge is being tested purely vs the similarity this may have in CK step 2. I don't expect softballs for every other questions, but my test personally had way too much "filler" to filter out (I never had problems running out of time on UWorld, with 4-5 minutes to spare, yet I ran out of time and had to blindly guess on 2-3 questions on half the blocks during my exam..).

I do agree with medgirl above that FA isn't all inclusive, nor should no one solely rely on it for the exam, but it does get you 70% of the way there. I did have a handful of questions though that always took it one step beyond FA that I simply had no clue on - it wasn't a question you could reason through an answer, it was a "you knew or didn't" type of deal.

For anyone that still has time, pick up extra sources (preferably ones you've used before or are familiar with). RR is good only if you've been using it through the Path course, otherwise it's a bit too dense even for an RR book. BRS Phys works well, and I also liked HYNA (neuro anat). I used these books throughout my course, so I didn't bother picking them up for the 3.5 weeks I had to study after my finals before the exam. Oh, and the first 7 chapters of Robbins/Cotran's Path is highly recommended (if your course didn't use this book). Reading through these chapters and doing the Robbins Qbook was nice as it also had plenty of pictures for practice.

And on a side note for the other responses, I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling "bummed" about the test. I just don't like guessing or not knowing an answer for sure, but i suppose that's what's challenging about this test and medicine (you won't always know the answer for sure but just need to be confident and go with 'it'). I have days where I can put it behind me and say "yeah, I'm sure I did fine, looking forward to the rest of the day" and other days where I'm still thinking about answers/questions and the two that I know for sure I missed (as if that would be a make it break it huh? lol).

Oh, and what makes this even worse is that USMLE reports that there are score reporting delays til the middle of July for those of us that have taken it within the past month!


Oh, following the trend, I should probably post my exam/break schedule:

Skipped tutorial (did this ahead of time online) - added 10 of break, and used 5 mins to write down biostat formulas
2 blocks
~10 min break
2 blocks
30 min lunch
2 blocks
~10 min break
1 block
Survey - if there was any break time left over...i had like 2 minutes so didn't get through the entire survey

Bryan

 

[fahimaz7]

I took it today. I'd say that 99% of the material that I saw was either in First Aid or in uWorld. My test was heavy on stats and biochem, less so on immunology, and I got a well-balanced variety of all of the organ system subjects.

It's interesting how they weave the topics together, and manage to still make a good test. Overall I think it went fine, although I already have discovered a few questions that I changed to incorrect answer. Oh well, right?

I'd say focus on uworld and First aid, really try to understand what is going on there, and then try to link together mechanisms. There's going to be a few questions that you aren't ever going to be prepared for, but that's just how it goes. I could have studied for the rest of the year and not seen a few of them.

I didn't have any complaints about the length of passages or the number of lab values that are present. To be honest, we should be able to look at a basic lab profile and have a gross idea what is irregular and relevant. I thought the length of the passages were equal to what I've seen in UW and NBME 11. The test was very clinically oriented, which I was fine with.


That's about it. Now for the long wait.

I did my test...

150
bathroom
50
lunch
100
bathroom
50

 

[quepatho]

I took it today. I'd say that 99% of the material that I saw was either in First Aid or in uWorld. My test was heavy on stats and biochem, less so on immunology, and I got a well-balanced variety of all of the organ system subjects.

It's interesting how they weave the topics together, and manage to still make a good test. Overall I think it went fine, although I already have discovered a few questions that I changed to incorrect answer. Oh well, right?

I'd say focus on uworld and First aid, really try to understand what is going on there, and then try to link together mechanisms. There's going to be a few questions that you aren't ever going to be prepared for, but that's just how it goes. I could have studied for the rest of the year and not seen a few of them.

I didn't have any complaints about the length of passages or the number of lab values that are present. To be honest, we should be able to look at a basic lab profile and have a gross idea what is irregular and relevant. I thought the length of the passages were equal to what I've seen in UW and NBME 11. The test was very clinically oriented, which I was fine with.


That's about it. Now for the long wait.

I did my test...

150
bathroom
50
lunch
100
bathroom
50

Nice work!!! You're gonna kill it 😉.

 

[Premedico]

Fahimaz, that sounds awesome! I hope I get a test that's so well representative of FA and Uworld.

Ps. can someone help me with accessing the free 150? It must be pretty easy but I guess I'm dumb

 

[iA-MD2013]

I took it today. I'd say that 99% of the material that I saw was either in First Aid or in uWorld. My test was heavy on stats and biochem, less so on immunology, and I got a well-balanced variety of all of the organ system subjects.

It's interesting how they weave the topics together, and manage to still make a good test. Overall I think it went fine, although I already have discovered a few questions that I changed to incorrect answer. Oh well, right?

I'd say focus on uworld and First aid, really try to understand what is going on there, and then try to link together mechanisms. There's going to be a few questions that you aren't ever going to be prepared for, but that's just how it goes. I could have studied for the rest of the year and not seen a few of them.

I didn't have any complaints about the length of passages or the number of lab values that are present. To be honest, we should be able to look at a basic lab profile and have a gross idea what is irregular and relevant. I thought the length of the passages were equal to what I've seen in UW and NBME 11. The test was very clinically oriented, which I was fine with.


That's about it. Now for the long wait.

I did my test...

150
bathroom
50
lunch
100
bathroom
50

Congratulations!!!

 

[speedyk]

It was a nightmare. I am not as smart as the people who post here, I am just a below average student so take what I say with that in mind.

There was 1 block that was almost all "easy" like the free 150. There were 3 blocks where I literally guessed on more than half of them. There were like 4 stains I never heard of and a bunch of detailed anatomy that I forgot. Blah It's all a blur in my mind. I don't even know how I would prepare for it differently if/when I have to retake it? The only positive is that most of the Behavioral sciences questions were easy. I want to cry now.

I had like 30 embryology questions no joke.

 

[hyrule]

It was a nightmare. I am not as smart as the people who post here, I am just a below average student so take what I say with that in mind.

There was 1 block that was almost all "easy" like the free 150. There were 3 blocks where I literally guessed on more than half of them. There were like 4 stains I never heard of and a bunch of detailed anatomy that I forgot. Blah It's all a blur in my mind. I don't even know how I would prepare for it differently if/when I have to retake it? The only positive is that most of the Behavioral sciences questions were easy. I want to cry now.

I had like 30 embryology questions no joke.

It's def. a block by block thing. Some people had fairly straightforward blocks throughout the exam. In my case, I had 2 decent blocks and 5 super hard ones where I was making educated guesses on most of the questions. Hopefully the curve will take this into account.

For those 5 blocks, I was just on autopilot mode... using muscle memory to pick an answer based on previous questions I had encountered that were similar. There was simply not enough time to go through each question thoroughly.

 

[winkleweizen]

I took it today. I'd say that 99% of the material that I saw was either in First Aid or in uWorld. My test was heavy on stats and biochem, less so on immunology, and I got a well-balanced variety of all of the organ system subjects.

It's interesting how they weave the topics together, and manage to still make a good test. Overall I think it went fine, although I already have discovered a few questions that I changed to incorrect answer. Oh well, right?

I'd say focus on uworld and First aid, really try to understand what is going on there, and then try to link together mechanisms. There's going to be a few questions that you aren't ever going to be prepared for, but that's just how it goes. I could have studied for the rest of the year and not seen a few of them.

I didn't have any complaints about the length of passages or the number of lab values that are present. To be honest, we should be able to look at a basic lab profile and have a gross idea what is irregular and relevant. I thought the length of the passages were equal to what I've seen in UW and NBME 11. The test was very clinically oriented, which I was fine with.


That's about it. Now for the long wait.

I did my test...

150
bathroom
50
lunch
100
bathroom
50

Nice....so were the questions similar to UWorld or NBME? I guess im curious whether the curve will lean more towards uworldish or Nbmeish haha


Grats on finishing!! im sooo close

 

[speedyk]

It's def. a block by block thing. Some people had fairly straightforward blocks throughout the exam. In my case, I had 2 decent blocks and 5 super hard ones where I was making educated guesses on most of the questions. Hopefully the curve will take this into account.

For those 5 blocks, I was just on autopilot mode... using muscle memory to pick an answer based on previous questions I had encountered that were similar. There was simply not enough time to go through each question thoroughly.

Sorry about your tough testing experience... and I hate to say it but it's nice to know I am not alone ha ha.

 

[toayoztan]

Sorry for my ignorance, but what's this curve you all are referring to?

All i somewhat know about the 3 digit scoring system (since they are dealing away with the 2 digit, according to USMLE in the score reporting) is that it means that at "any point and time in space, someone would yield the same score on this particular test given the difficulty, which ones answered correctly, etc." I have on clue what that means hah.

So it's assumed that a 3 digit score ISN'T as simple as getting X of 346 questions right (omitting the experimental q's or not)?

I don't want to make this thread a "how is the usmle scored thread" so if there's another thread or just a quick reply, that'll do!

Thanks

Bryan

 

[chiz2kul]

I had like 30 embryology questions no joke.

😱

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

It was a nightmare. I am not as smart as the people who post here, I am just a below average student so take what I say with that in mind.

There was 1 block that was almost all "easy" like the free 150. There were 3 blocks where I literally guessed on more than half of them. There were like 4 stains I never heard of and a bunch of detailed anatomy that I forgot. Blah It's all a blur in my mind. I don't even know how I would prepare for it differently if/when I have to retake it? The only positive is that most of the Behavioral sciences questions were easy. I want to cry now.

I had like 30 embryology questions no joke.

You win the award for the worst luck on earth.

 

[speedyk]

You win the award for the worst luck on earth.

It's my fault for not knowing it. Almost all of the embryology I had could have been figured out based on 1st Aid & UWorld if you were good with anatomy. There is just 1 can think of that was beyond it. My only real problem with it is that I had basically some repeat questions in the same block with different wording.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

It's my fault for not knowing it. Almost all of the embryology I had could have been figured out based on 1st Aid & UWorld if you were good with anatomy. There is just 1 can think of that was beyond it. My only real problem with it is that I had basically some repeat questions in the same block with different wording.

Sorry to hear that man. Don't beat yourself up over it. Be like Speedy Gonzales and go get a drink and enjoy yourself. Actually I think his cousin was the drunk one but who cares, just go drink!

 

[jfgavina]

So do you think if you knew your FA well the final outcome could be different?

 

[speedyk]

So do you think if you knew your FA well the final outcome could be different?

For the embryology yes. I only knew about half of them. For the rest of it... no. Like I said there were 4 stains I had never heard of in my life. There were some ridiculously worded answer choices. There were lots of tough anatomy questions which I probably did the worst on. There were lots of "experiment" questions some of which I did not understand what they were asking. For micro they liked making it real obvious what bug they were talking about and then ask you a question that was beyond 1st aid. The lac operon was also high yield to know apparently. Lots of physio questions especially in diseased states... for these they like using the arrows and having 1 column that you don't know. I am kind of blanking now but there were so many questions in a row that I didn't have a clue on. And TONS of distractors in the question unlike on the nbme which threw me. I think I had 1 renal question.

 

[ATrim7]

Geez....I wish my test was tomorrow and not this coming Saturday. I'm tired of spending my days fearful.