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.

 

[Step1Hash]

Arite folks! I'm taking the plunge tomorrow! Wish me luck!

good luck!

 

[jopo]

I took the test last week and here's how I prepped and how I felt about it... i'll post my score as soon as I receive it.

Prep:

During the last 5 months of my second year:
Read BRS physiology
Kaplan Physiology qbank (600q's 79% first and only pass) over winter break.
Read FA once
Kaplan Qbank 65% overall first pass
- Took NBME 6 (228) studied two more weeks NBME 11 (233)

Had 18 days (studied 12-16 hour/day) for specific STEP 1 Prep:
Read FA 2 more times
Completed UWORLD 77% first pass, random, timed. and read every explanation.
-Took UWSA #1 (264) eight days into this study period.
-Took Free 150 at P testing center - 92% (264 medfriends estimate) one week before the real deal.

The Test:

Overall I thought it was a very fair test. I had a headache during it for some unknown reason which caused me to take a 5-10 min breaks after each block. In retrospect I would recommend doing this... it kept me refreshed and I felt like I was catching little pieces of info that I would have skipped over if I would have done 3 or 4 blocks in a row like I did a few time while practicing.

Last week before my exam it seemed like everyone was saying that FA was not enough and that freaked me out a little. But, I think it is more than enough if you go through it thoroughly a few times (and use Wiki to fill in any background info you may not have learned to understand the one sentence FA gives you). I only could remember a few questions from each block that I had trouble with and FA had the answer for every one of them. That is not to say that FA had the answer to every question on the test, but I think it did have all the answers to the straight recall questions. A few pages back another guy mentioned that he thought it was kind of an IQ test. I had a few question that made it seem that way too; there was no way anyone memorized the info they were testing (well, maybe a few people on here did ), but if you knew enough pathophys of common diseases you could make a really good guess.

I don't think my exam focused on any particular organ system, but it did seem to focus on AIDS. Every block I had four or five questions on AIDS related conditions, drugs, phys, path, ect.

If I had to do it over again... I would probably just do exactly what I did. I think I'll jump on my bandwagon and say the FA and UW are gold. I used RR during school and I don't think it would have been helpful during my dedicated STEP 1 study period, nor do I think any on the BRS books would have helped. Leaved those books behind once you pass your second year classes and focus on FA and UW.

If anyone has any q's please feel free to ask and I wish everyone luck on their upcoming exams.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Quick question guys, this may have been asked before but my reading comprehension sucks (I got a 1 on verbal). Can I use time when I am sitting at the computer to write down equations and junk? Before I start the test, tutorial or anything, can I just take 10 mins to breathe and write down some info that I might forget in the heat of the battle? Thanks for the info.

 

[whoknows2012]

Quick question guys, this may have been asked before but my reading comprehension sucks (I got a 1 on verbal). Can I use time when I am sitting at the computer to write down equations and junk? Before I start the test, tutorial or anything, can I just take 10 mins to breathe and write down some info that I might forget in the heat of the battle? Thanks for the info.

Ya I mean you have to enter your student number or whatever it is before you start and there was no timer so I assume you could wait a couple minutes to start.

 

[Step1Hash]

I was wondering if anyone who took the test found the inflammation/cell injury stuff to be more detailed/involved than in first aid? DIT reccomends flipping thought the 1st 6 chapters of robbins and looking at the different images/pathways. Do you guys think that would have helped? Alternatively I have notes I took from reading robbins during 2nd year... would that be worth going through? (it's about 25 pages of notes on the first 6 chapters.)

thanks

 

[whoknows2012]

I was wondering if anyone who took the test found the inflammation/cell injury stuff to be more detailed/involved than in first aid? DIT reccomends flipping thought the 1st 6 chapters of robbins and looking at the different images/pathways. Do you guys think that would have helped? Alternatively I have notes I took from reading robbins during 2nd year... would that be worth going through? (it's about 25 pages of notes on the first 6 chapters.)

thanks

I would say FA was enough for most stuff including inflammation/cell injury. That was far from difficult on my test (physio on the other hand was a different story)

 

[Step1Hash]

I would say FA was enough for most stuff including inflammation/cell injury. That was far from difficult on my test (physio on the other hand was a different story)

damn, what was so bad about physio? was it like uworld/nbme's?

 

[jopo]

damn, what was so bad about physio? was it like uworld/nbme's?

The only hard physio I had was the up/down arrow questions. They seemed hard because one of the lab values would be something you didn't think about being affected before, but if you reason it out you should be fine.

 

[beyondbethany]

I was wondering if anyone who took the test found the inflammation/cell injury stuff to be more detailed/involved than in first aid? DIT reccomends flipping thought the 1st 6 chapters of robbins and looking at the different images/pathways. Do you guys think that would have helped? Alternatively I have notes I took from reading robbins during 2nd year... would that be worth going through? (it's about 25 pages of notes on the first 6 chapters.)

thanks

I did DIT and took my test last Wed the 15th. I don't think this would be worth your time, I can't think of a single question that this would have made the difference on (assuming you know your FA and UW in these areas). There were a few Jenkins question predictions that were way off - this subject and child development - neither had a single question and I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to them.

 

[Step1Hash]

The only hard physio I had was the up/down arrow questions. They seemed hard because one of the lab values would be something you didn't think about being affected before, but if you reason it out you should be fine.

Okay, yea thats what everyone has been saying. Thanks.

I did DIT and took my test last Wed the 15th. I don't think this would be worth your time, I can't think of a single question that this would have made the difference on (assuming you know your FA and UW in these areas). There were a few Jenkins question predictions that were way off - this subject and child development - neither had a single question and I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to them.

Good to know. Thanks for the advice.

 

[beyondbethany]

Quick question guys, this may have been asked before but my reading comprehension sucks (I got a 1 on verbal). Can I use time when I am sitting at the computer to write down equations and junk? Before I start the test, tutorial or anything, can I just take 10 mins to breathe and write down some info that I might forget in the heat of the battle? Thanks for the info.

Yeah, DIT suggests doing this with your vital equations and concepts. But according to Jenkins (FWIW), you shouldn't take too long to do this. He said anything over 5 min may look suspicious. I would agree that you should limit this time to 5 min or less. Keep in mind that the proctors are watching you like a hawk with multiple cameras every instant you are in the room, don't give them anything to question.

I memorized equations in the high yield section of FA. I divided them into two groups - those to write down and those to be able to recall as necessary. My write down list included stat and pharmacokinetics. I used most/all of these multiple times. For something like Hardy-Wienberg, I was able to recall the eq and use it as necessary for 2 questions.

 

[Footprints13]

The best thing to do is use your tutorial to write down equations. This way you don't lose any time from the actual test. Even though I wrote down a bunch of equations from memory, I don't think it really helped me that much anyways. I might of had 2 questions in total that I was able to answer with my notes. It does help calm nerves knowing you are able to look at the info if you need it but depending on your test you may not need it.

 

[Step1Hash]

I did DIT and took my test last Wed the 15th. I don't think this would be worth your time, I can't think of a single question that this would have made the difference on (assuming you know your FA and UW in these areas). There were a few Jenkins question predictions that were way off - this subject and child development - neither had a single question and I'm glad I didn't devote any more time to them.

Another question regarding DIT.... did you review DIT book and if so did you find it helpful for your exam? Besides child development and inflammation...were his high yield topics really high yield?

 

[Footprints13]

Just took the exam today. I would have to say that I’m not sure how I did. I would be surprised if I didn’t pass, but not sure if that means I got a 210 or a 250. During my study period I really appreciated the individuals who gave a full write up about the exam, as I felt it helped calm my anxiety and made me realize I actual was studying the right stuff. Sorry if it is long, but I tried to be as complete as I could be.

I took the exam at noon. I recommend this to everyone if you can. It allowed me to get up at a normal time, have breakfast, pack a lunch, review some high yield material and do some questions to warm up (Of the 5 questions I did this morning from World I got 4 of them on the exam).

The testing center was pretty laid back, everyone is pretty nice and makes it easy to check in. I was told by other students to use the tutorial time to get your head phones set up and to regurgitate as much of the high yield formulas or memory tricks that I could. This was probably a good idea just because it gave me reassurance and something to fall back on in case I didn’t remember something, but it may have only helped me on 1 or 2 questions.

I slammed a Starbucks Mocha before I went in for the exam, and couple that with the nerves I sailed through the first 3 blocks. I will say that the first block was tough, especially as time ran down. I think it is just a psychological issue, knowing that once that clock hits zero or when you hit submit any mistake you make will be a permanent mark on your CV. I was planning on doing 2 blocks and then taking a break. I was feeling really focused and doing well in terms of the questions so I decided to do another block. This was one of the best things I could do. It enabled me enough break time to take a break between each of my last blocks. By the time block 6 and 7 came around, I really needed to clear the air, and walk around and was lucky I had the extra time.

I took most of the time for each section. I have a problem of going fast through sections and made a conscientious effort to slow down. If a question was taking me a long time to figure out I guessed, marked it and came back. I would say that I probably marked 15 questions each block. Most of these were things I needed to check and make sure I didn’t make any careless reading mistakes.

As far as the test, mine was pretty balanced. I don’t think there was any specific trend. There weren’t too many behavioral science questions which was disappointing as I am usually good at those and studied those a lot. I think the one thing I didn’t like was that the test was almost too clinical. There were a lot of things where I needed to be able to recognize diseases and treatment protocols, third and fourth line therapies. I had a lot of clinical experience before med school and our school emphasizes early clinical experience, and that is the only way I was able to get some of those questions. I couldn’t tell which questions were experimental as they all seemed to be appropriate difficulty. I might not have gotten a question right, but I am convinced that is only because I didn’t spend enough time looking at the minute details of a disease in FA.

Subjects:

Anatomy: Not very difficult, was expecting a lot more. Most of it was pretty basic. I just used FA and what I remembered from my first year anatomy class.

Biochem: Not a lot of metabolism stuff, most of it was Molecular/Cell. I was disappointed with the lack of genetics on the exam, as this was traditionally a strong suit with me on UW.

Micro: Studied it quite a lot in my last 3 days leading up to the exam, overall it wasn’t as high yield as I thought it would be. Most of them were normal bugs, a few random ones that I would pass over thinking there was no way on a 322 question exam they would think that was important.

Embryology: This was ridiculous, I maybe only had 10 questions, but it was very random details. I don’t know what I could have done better short of getting a major in Embryology in college. I couldn’t even tell someone how to study this.

Immunology: There was a lot of immune on my test, half of it was really easy, other half was extremely difficult. Probably had 25-30 questions on it.
Path: In general I thought this was the most difficult/annoying part of the exam. There were a lot of pictures on my exam. I did Webpath and Goljan and FA and never saw the pictures they presented. I was able to narrow it down based on the question stem, but nothing to the point that I could say with 100% certainty what a question was.

Pharmacology: Kept hearing that ANS was really high yield, I wish I would have had more questions on it, I might have had 5 total. Other pharm stuff was okay, but it got a little annoying when they would ask 3rd line treatment for random, non FA diseases.

Cardio: 4-5 heart sounds where were pretty easy, but the answer choices were phrased differently making it difficult to figure out what they were going for. Other than that I had maybe 2 path and 2 pathophys questions. Not a lot on the exam.

Endocrine: Mostly pathophys, not a lot of pharm or path.

GI: Very little path phys or pharm, mostly micro with an occasional anatomy question.

Heme/Onc: A few questions where you would need to treat a patient based on a diagnosis with only lab values. 1 cancer drug MOA and it was a gimme.

MSK: Was hoping to get a lot of these nerve injury questions to help raise my score. I was not so lucky, there were very few path question, and 2-3 nerve lesions.

Neurology: I was worried because I only went through it twice in FA and got confused with brainstem lesions. I didn’t have anything nearly that difficult, most of it was simply stroke/TIA between the ACA and MCA. Relatively speaking though I had a lot of hearing questions, 4-5 at least.

Psychiatry: Easy points to get with minimal studying

Renal: Questions weren’t that difficult, but had a lot of them overall. Mostly pathphys.

Repro: Don’t know what to make of this one, other than saying Repro is Repro. Some questions were extremely easy stuff you would know even if you hadn’t gone to med school, other stuff was just random.

Resp: Asthma medications and maybe one lung cancer and PNA. No phys or serious path. Very interesting that they would have so few questions on respiratory.

Overall, the test was not as bad as I was expecting. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I was definitely building it up bigger in my head. It’s so much of a crap shoot. I had classmates take the test with me today who said they had to guess on 35-40 questions in a block and others who hit the jackpot and got a test suited to their strengths. I brought FA with me to review in between breaks but never ended up using it. There isn’t any way to “cram” for this test. I didn’t even know where to look to check out answers I may have missed. Study hard, utilize the full break time, and try to calm down as much as possible while taking the exam. Good luck.

 

[Step1Hash]

Just took the exam today. ..... Relatively speaking though I had a lot of hearing questions, 4-5 at least.

When you say hearing do you mean the the auditory pathway/ how the cochlea works or like Rinne/Webber or what? just wondering since they took most hearing stuff out of FA this year. Congrats on being done and thanks for the thorough write up!!

 

[Encephalectomy]

We have the exact UWSA scores and my NBME score was similar. How many questions did you think you missed after the test? (rough estimate)

Sorry, i have no idea how many I missed and didn't right when I walked out either. All in all I felt similar to the NBMEs or UWSAs in terms of how I felt about it walking out.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Just took the exam today. I would have to say that I’m not sure how I did. I would be surprised if I didn’t pass, but not sure if that means I got a 210 or a 250. During my study period I really appreciated the individuals who gave a full write up about the exam, as I felt it helped calm my anxiety and made me realize I actual was studying the right stuff. Sorry if it is long, but I tried to be as complete as I could be.

I took the exam at noon. I recommend this to everyone if you can. It allowed me to get up at a normal time, have breakfast, pack a lunch, review some high yield material and do some questions to warm up (Of the 5 questions I did this morning from World I got 4 of them on the exam).

The testing center was pretty laid back, everyone is pretty nice and makes it easy to check in. I was told by other students to use the tutorial time to get your head phones set up and to regurgitate as much of the high yield formulas or memory tricks that I could. This was probably a good idea just because it gave me reassurance and something to fall back on in case I didn’t remember something, but it may have only helped me on 1 or 2 questions.

I slammed a Starbucks Mocha before I went in for the exam, and couple that with the nerves I sailed through the first 3 blocks. I will say that the first block was tough, especially as time ran down. I think it is just a psychological issue, knowing that once that clock hits zero or when you hit submit any mistake you make will be a permanent mark on your CV. I was planning on doing 2 blocks and then taking a break. I was feeling really focused and doing well in terms of the questions so I decided to do another block. This was one of the best things I could do. It enabled me enough break time to take a break between each of my last blocks. By the time block 6 and 7 came around, I really needed to clear the air, and walk around and was lucky I had the extra time.

I took most of the time for each section. I have a problem of going fast through sections and made a conscientious effort to slow down. If a question was taking me a long time to figure out I guessed, marked it and came back. I would say that I probably marked 15 questions each block. Most of these were things I needed to check and make sure I didn’t make any careless reading mistakes.

As far as the test, mine was pretty balanced. I don’t think there was any specific trend. There weren’t too many behavioral science questions which was disappointing as I am usually good at those and studied those a lot. I think the one thing I didn’t like was that the test was almost too clinical. There were a lot of things where I needed to be able to recognize diseases and treatment protocols, third and fourth line therapies. I had a lot of clinical experience before med school and our school emphasizes early clinical experience, and that is the only way I was able to get some of those questions. I couldn’t tell which questions were experimental as they all seemed to be appropriate difficulty. I might not have gotten a question right, but I am convinced that is only because I didn’t spend enough time looking at the minute details of a disease in FA.

Subjects:

Anatomy: Not very difficult, was expecting a lot more. Most of it was pretty basic. I just used FA and what I remembered from my first year anatomy class.

Biochem: Not a lot of metabolism stuff, most of it was Molecular/Cell. I was disappointed with the lack of genetics on the exam, as this was traditionally a strong suit with me on UW.

Micro: Studied it quite a lot in my last 3 days leading up to the exam, overall it wasn’t as high yield as I thought it would be. Most of them were normal bugs, a few random ones that I would pass over thinking there was no way on a 322 question exam they would think that was important.

Embryology: This was ridiculous, I maybe only had 10 questions, but it was very random details. I don’t know what I could have done better short of getting a major in Embryology in college. I couldn’t even tell someone how to study this.

Immunology: There was a lot of immune on my test, half of it was really easy, other half was extremely difficult. Probably had 25-30 questions on it.
Path: In general I thought this was the most difficult/annoying part of the exam. There were a lot of pictures on my exam. I did Webpath and Goljan and FA and never saw the pictures they presented. I was able to narrow it down based on the question stem, but nothing to the point that I could say with 100% certainty what a question was.

Pharmacology: Kept hearing that ANS was really high yield, I wish I would have had more questions on it, I might have had 5 total. Other pharm stuff was okay, but it got a little annoying when they would ask 3rd line treatment for random, non FA diseases.

Cardio: 4-5 heart sounds where were pretty easy, but the answer choices were phrased differently making it difficult to figure out what they were going for. Other than that I had maybe 2 path and 2 pathophys questions. Not a lot on the exam.

Endocrine: Mostly pathophys, not a lot of pharm or path.

GI: Very little path phys or pharm, mostly micro with an occasional anatomy question.

Heme/Onc: A few questions where you would need to treat a patient based on a diagnosis with only lab values. 1 cancer drug MOA and it was a gimme.

MSK: Was hoping to get a lot of these nerve injury questions to help raise my score. I was not so lucky, there were very few path question, and 2-3 nerve lesions.

Neurology: I was worried because I only went through it twice in FA and got confused with brainstem lesions. I didn’t have anything nearly that difficult, most of it was simply stroke/TIA between the ACA and MCA. Relatively speaking though I had a lot of hearing questions, 4-5 at least.

Psychiatry: Easy points to get with minimal studying

Renal: Questions weren’t that difficult, but had a lot of them overall. Mostly pathphys.

Repro: Don’t know what to make of this one, other than saying Repro is Repro. Some questions were extremely easy stuff you would know even if you hadn’t gone to med school, other stuff was just random.

Resp: Asthma medications and maybe one lung cancer and PNA. No phys or serious path. Very interesting that they would have so few questions on respiratory.

Overall, the test was not as bad as I was expecting. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I was definitely building it up bigger in my head. It’s so much of a crap shoot. I had classmates take the test with me today who said they had to guess on 35-40 questions in a block and others who hit the jackpot and got a test suited to their strengths. I brought FA with me to review in between breaks but never ended up using it. There isn’t any way to “cram” for this test. I didn’t even know where to look to check out answers I may have missed. Study hard, utilize the full break time, and try to calm down as much as possible while taking the exam. Good luck.

Thanks for the write up. Congrats on being done.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

The best thing to do is use your tutorial to write down equations. This way you don't lose any time from the actual test. Even though I wrote down a bunch of equations from memory, I don't think it really helped me that much anyways. I might of had 2 questions in total that I was able to answer with my notes. It does help calm nerves knowing you are able to look at the info if you need it but depending on your test you may not need it.

I was thinking about quickly jotting down that qiss qiq siq sqs pneumonic and the Flat Champ because everyone keeps saying how many Qs they had on second messenger pathways. Was this true for your exam?

 

[Step1Hash]

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of people are curious about anatomy. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Nothing crazy unusual. However, word of advice, if you have HY gross anatomy, I would look over clinical procedures *BIG HINT*. An upperclassmen told me this exactly advice and I listened...and I'm glad...big time.

When you say clinical procedures...is that a certain section of the book or is it randomly dispersed throughout? I just skimmed over the book and I didn't notice any 'procedures' but I guess I wasn't sure where to look.

 

[MudPhudHopeful]

When you say clinical procedures...is that a certain section of the book or is it randomly dispersed throughout? I just skimmed over the book and I didn't notice any 'procedures' but I guess I wasn't sure where to look.

They are dispersed throughout. For example, in the chapter on heart anatomy, they describe the two locations for performing a pericardiocentesis.

 

[Step1Hash]

They are dispersed throughout. For example, in the chapter on heart anatomy, they describe the two locations for performing a pericardiocentesis.

Is there anyway to just read those without having to basically read the whole book in search of them? lol. thanks.

 

[BeardedRunner]

I was thinking about quickly jotting down that qiss qiq siq sqs pneumonic and the Flat Champ because everyone keeps saying how many Qs they had on second messenger pathways. Was this true for your exam?

What is the Flat Champ one? I searched for it on this thread, couldn't find it.

 

[jkuk]

What is the Flat Champ one? I searched for it on this thread, couldn't find it.

It's in the Endo section of First Aid, its the mnemonic for the cAMP 2nd messengers!

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

What is the Flat Champ one? I searched for it on this thread, couldn't find it.

Fsh Lh Acth Tsh Crh Hcg Adh (V2) Msh Pth
then you have
Glucagon, GHRH, Calcitonin

 

[Footprints13]

I was thinking about quickly jotting down that qiss qiq siq sqs pneumonic and the Flat Champ because everyone keeps saying how many Qs they had on second messenger pathways. Was this true for your exam?

I wrote them down and had 2 questions on them. Having them written down didn't help me as I simply read the question, saw they were talking about "X" and put down what happened as a result. Writing things out before the test in the tutorial is a nice way to free yourself of anxiety, at least it was for me.

 

[dude1344]

I just closed FA for the last time! Good luck everyone taking it tomorrow.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

I just closed FA for the last time! Good luck everyone taking it tomorrow.

Lets go kill it together! I'm going too!

 

[W00terz]

First time poster, after reading so much of what you guys wrote decided to give my own 2 cents (i'm also going crazy over this waiting game and i have to do something!)

I'm one of the few kids here who did FA only during the study break (read RR once during school year while taking path) + UW:

Kaplan (75% completed, not random - subject based, during school year): 72% first pass

UW (100% completed, random, timed) - 75% first pass (with a gradual increase from 72% in the beginning to about 78% during the last few weeks)

My practice test scores were:
1. NBME 12 = 233; UWSA1 = 256 (6 weeks ago, prior to studying)
2. NBME 7 = 254; UWSA2 = 265 (1 week ago, post studying)
- felt like crap after taking ALL my self assessments, for NBME 7 i did the extended report for an extra 10 bucks, marked every question i thought i was guessing on (ended up being 45 questions/200 and i only missed like 8 of them so lucky guessing day i guess?)
- UWSA1 and 2 i felt were easy in the fact that you didn't have to know anything specific (did anyone else feel that way?). I thought they were mostly logic based with minimal memorization required hence the high UWSA1 score before i even began cramming

Real exam:
Feel like crap just like self-assessments after taking the test I'm praying for something within 30 points of my average assessment exam score. I'm probably overly-anxious; looked up all the questions i had a problem with got some, missed others. Embryology was tough.. very tough - FA helped me a little bit, but not enough. It almost felt like the question writers knew what was in FA and asked you about one more detail beyond it.

Although some people posted they thought FA could answer 90% of their questions, I'm sure that wasn't true in my case as I felt I had FA locked down cold (since that's the only thing i was studying from for like 6 weeks). I felt FA could answer roughly about 65-70% of the exam; remainder 35-30% of the exam was based on what you remember from your previous 2 years + reasoning + guessing. ALSO, i find that the real exam has longer question lengths than UW or Kaplan (or perhaps im reading more carefully?)

Good luck to everyone taking the exam. Don't freak out - its normal to hit questions you don't understand or never heard of.

 

[dude1344]

Lets go kill it together! I'm going too!

good luck! I assume we'll see each other around here afterwards? lol

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

good luck! I assume we'll see each other around here afterwards? lol

LOL, you know it.

 

[PeterNorth55]

Took my test Monday. As rough as the test was with me, I found it a little rude that I was not provide with dinner and a bottle of wine afterwards. On a serious note, it felt a little rough. I don't really have a list of events for anyone, since I don't really remember many of the questions; I have enough trouble just concentrating on the questions in front of me, let alone trying to remember details after ~350 of them. If I had to estimate, I would say in my hardest sections that there were about 27-30+ questions where I was sure I had the right answer. Maybe anywhere from 2-4 where I felt like I was completely guessing. Qbank definitely does not do behavioral science justice for my test. Also, I had the questions about the drug which they said in the stem was a Na+ channel blocker, and then asked which ion conductance was affected with Na+ in the answer choice. I actually didn't believe the person who originally posted this.

Truthfully, the exam didn't feel much more difficult than the NBMEs or UWORLD. However, I routinely under predict my performance and it felt like I was making a lot of best guesses. My NBME scores were 247, 233, 242 on 6, 12, 11 respectively (I marked over 20% of the questions on all forms), and I honestly feel like I probably performed on the low end.

I definitely was guilty of score obsessing. I would recommend just studying as much as you can and being appreciative for the progress you are able to make in the amount of time given. I had trouble concentrating after my huge drop from NBME 6 to 12, even though both scores were respectable. I definitely attribute this to putting too much pressure on myself to break 250; a mistake IMO.

First Aid and Qbank is definitely enough for the test. I totally regret not getting through an entire pass through first aid a second time and I was working though U world questions way too slowly and didn't end up finishing the Qbank. I also, would use fewer resources if I could do it again (first aid, Gojan, Qbank(s) during the school year...nothing else!!!). I read 6 other books throughout the year which would have been better spent reading first aid and Gojan.

IMPORTANT!!!!___*************---> The most high yield resource that I feel everyone should know cold is the common side effects section (2 pages) in FA pharm section. I am not kidding... I didn't specifically do a hard study for pharm except for these two pages and had 10+ questions that could be answered from these two pages alone (Also, I had what BJ (B. jenkins) added). I studied this between every break and highlighted 9 SE that were on my test and I am sure there were others. I bet those 2 pages are higher yield than the FA HY section in the end of the book.

My prediction is 220 to 252. Honestly, I will be somewhat surprised if I break 240, but it seems like a ton of people feel crappy after the test then end up doing pretty well. If I break 250 I will try to refrain from streaking down the halls of the IM wards. In the meantime I am going to enjoy the next couple weeks with my wife and kids and try not to think about it.

I wish everyone the best of luck with their exams if you haven't taken it, and also, to those awaiting their scores. I apologize for any typos or redundancies.

Peter North

 

[happylunchbox]

I wish everyone the best of luck with their exams if you haven't taken it, and also, to those awaiting their scores. I apologize for any typos or redundancies.

Peter North

Thanks so much for your uber-helpful write-up...I'm sure you rocked it!

PS I love your work...

 

[PeterNorth55]

Thanks so much for your uber-helpful write-up...I'm sure you rocked it!

PS I love your work...

Thanks buddy. Decided it was time for a career change and now here I am.

 

[dude1344]

Up and at em! Didn't sleep too well last night, probably around 6 hours only but o well I think I can function. Good luck to everyone taking it today.

 

[combat]

Up and at em! Didn't sleep too well last night, probably around 6 hours only but o well I think I can function. Good luck to everyone taking it today. [/QUO

Best of luck you will rock it

 

[smk9]

Took Step 1 yesterday. I don't have an absurd amount of wisdom to give you, but I will say this... I felt like I had seen nearly everything on there before. The test is extremely doable, especially with First Aid and Uworld as your guide. I felt like it was more straightforward than NBME 12 and Uworld.

My test was super renal heavy. I had every stone variety at least twice and tons of tubule pathology. Lots of prostate. Everything else was pretty evenly distributed, I think. Anatomy, Biochem and Embryo were pretty straight forward. I had a good amount of Pharm on my first few blocks, but it dwindled significantly at the end. Nothing on anesthetics. Some tricky behavioral questions. Micro seemed lower yield than I expected. Couple of oddball or weird questions on there, but not too many.

General pointers:

-Make sure you mostly relax the day prior. I pretty much focused on the rapid review stuff in First Aid and the pictures for an hour or two, got a massage, and watched Ip Man. A couple of my classmates showed up the exam after a day of full studying and they looked haggard.

-Carefully read the stem. If you get to the answer choices and you think more than one option is correct, go back and read the stem again. I had a couple of times where I thought I read "increase" but I actually read "decrease."

- You will get questions you don't know. Don't let them derail your momentum. Make an educated guess, mark them, and move on.

- I felt like my Pathology and Pharm courses were incredibly helpful. I really stepped up my educational game during second year and I am positive it helped me on the exam.

- I combined an NBME with the Free 150 in order to simulate a real exam. I think this helped me with the endurance stuff, maybe even subconsciously.

- I was studying in physical presence of the great MossPoh, so hopefully I picked up some of his knowledge through diffusion.

 

[sunny117]

Peter North and smk, very helpful posts. Thanks. 👍

 

[icaruswalks]

I've benefited from reading other people's experiences on this thread, so I will also contribute to those willing to read.

First of all I wanted to say, Step 1 is totally doable. It also is goal dependent, a goal of 220 requires different prep than a goal of 270+. That being said, I feel that you are doing a disservice if you don't go into this thing wanting to do your best. That was my mind set, so whatever I get I'll be happy since I really did try and put everything into it.

I took my test June 18th in the morning, and for my test it was really micro, pharm, molecular bio and consistently had anatomy questions every block.

My practice test history:

UWSA1: 248
UWSA2: 250
NBME11: 238
NBME12: 233
(Not in that order)

For my preparation I used:

Goljan Audio, in the car, in the gym, whenever I didn't feel like reading or doing questions
Goljan Path (read it here and there during the year, not consistently, but finished 1 whole pass during my study period)
DIT (IMHO, I liked it, and it definitely helped me get organized, give me a system, and helped me get a good chunk of questions right on my actual exam)
USMLE World (I went through slowly in 5 months for my first pass, annotating my copy of FA, and then going over my missed questions), I started off at 50% in Jan. and by the time the study period started I could get anywhere from 70% to 90% on unused question blocks.
First Aid Q&A (finished all the questions and reviewed the answers in FA for confusing ones)
First Aid (obviously)

I honestly think that my test was more in line with the difficulty of UWSA than any of the NBMEs, I did have some tricky questions, but I think overall the test was very fair. Out of all 7 blocks, I feel that I had 2 blocks of medium/moderate difficulty, and then the rest were actually not that bad for me... (we'll see when I get my score back whether I am still singing the same song )

I used all my break time, and that really helped me out. I'm the kind of guy that really only goes through questions once, but doing UWorld and NBME tests I found that I made a lot of stupid mistakes that could've been prevented, and so I went over really quickly all my questions for each block once to make sure I was confident, and spent some extra time reviewing questions that I was less sure on.

I've confirmed that I've missed about 8 questions on the actual thing, and there were mayber 15+ where I had a good idea, but wasn't 100% sure.

I also wanted to say that this test is a THINKING test. Sure, there are questions where you have to just know the treatment, etc. but the reason why people on SDN are saying that FA "isn't enough" is because FA doesn't teach you to think critically. It's good for the memorization of facts and regurgitation and maybe reviewing, but if you don't understand the concepts, there's no substitution for actual learning. That being said, if you actually took the time to understand your course material and use FA to review the little factoids that come up frequently I would say that's 95% of the exam.

There is no substitution for NOT knowing/understanding the material. Do you have to honors your MS1 MS2 classes? No I wouldn't say so. But you do need to have the concepts down pat in your mind. I find that understanding the material will give you the ability to manipulate the facts you DID memorize into a more amenable format for answering step 1 questions. It will also give you the ability to answer those questions that "aren't in first aid." True, a lot of the answers aren't in first aid verbatim, but with the use of 2-3 facts and maybe a bit of anatomy, there's no reason that you can't take an educated guess, or pick an answer that you are somewhat confident is the best answer.

Goljan sums it up the best when he says: "mechanisms, mechanisms, mechanisms" is what the boards are all about. We're all here because we can memorize, that's the easy part.

Anyways, good luck to you all, and don't be discouraged, I wasn't on an AOA level of performance my first two years, but really just went for understanding and learning the material, more than memorizing some minutiae that some research prof. put on slide #12 that he put on the test. My advice for first and second years that wanna destroy the exam is to LEARN the material, if you know how things work, it will stay with you longer and benefit you better in the long term, rather than memorizing and dumping the facts as soon as the test is over.

I will update this post as I get my score and hope that my preparation was enough. Again good luck, this is totally doable, and if I can walk out of the exam feeling good about it, then you all can as well. Seriously. 👍

 

[jkuk]

I've benefited from reading other people's experiences on this thread, so I will also contribute to those willing to read.

First of all I wanted to say, Step 1 is totally doable. It also is goal dependent, a goal of 220 requires different prep than a goal of 270+. That being said, I feel that you are doing a disservice if you don't go into this thing wanting to do your best. That was my mind set, so whatever I get I'll be happy since I really did try and put everything into it.

I took my test June 18th in the morning, and for my test it was really micro, pharm, molecular bio and consistently had anatomy questions every block.

My practice test history:

UWSA1: 248
UWSA2: 250
NBME11: 238
NBME12: 233
(Not in that order)

For my preparation I used:

Goljan Audio, in the car, in the gym, whenever I didn't feel like reading or doing questions
Goljan Path (read it here and there during the year, not consistently, but finished 1 whole pass during my study period)
DIT (IMHO, I liked it, and it definitely helped me get organized, give me a system, and helped me get a good chunk of questions right on my actual exam)
USMLE World (I went through slowly in 5 months for my first pass, annotating my copy of FA, and then going over my missed questions), I started off at 50% in Jan. and by the time the study period started I could get anywhere from 70% to 90% on unused question blocks.
First Aid Q&A (finished all the questions and reviewed the answers in FA for confusing ones)
First Aid (obviously)

I honestly think that my test was more in line with the difficulty of UWSA than any of the NBMEs, I did have some tricky questions, but I think overall the test was very fair. Out of all 7 blocks, I feel that I had 2 blocks of medium/moderate difficulty, and then the rest were actually not that bad for me... (we'll see when I get my score back whether I am still singing the same song )

I used all my break time, and that really helped me out. I'm the kind of guy that really only goes through questions once, but doing UWorld and NBME tests I found that I made a lot of stupid mistakes that could've been prevented, and so I went over really quickly all my questions for each block once to make sure I was confident, and spent some extra time reviewing questions that I was less sure on.

I've confirmed that I've missed about 8 questions on the actual thing, and there were mayber 15+ where I had a good idea, but wasn't 100% sure.

I also wanted to say that this test is a THINKING test. Sure, there are questions where you have to just know the treatment, etc. but the reason why people on SDN are saying that FA "isn't enough" is because FA doesn't teach you to think critically. It's good for the memorization of facts and regurgitation and maybe reviewing, but if you don't understand the concepts, there's no substitution for actual learning. That being said, if you actually took the time to understand your course material and use FA to review the little factoids that come up frequently I would say that's 95% of the exam.

There is no substitution for NOT knowing/understanding the material. Do you have to honors your MS1 MS2 classes? No I wouldn't say so. But you do need to have the concepts down pat in your mind. I find that understanding the material will give you the ability to manipulate the facts you DID memorize into a more amenable format for answering step 1 questions. It will also give you the ability to answer those questions that "aren't in first aid." True, a lot of the answers aren't in first aid verbatim, but with the use of 2-3 facts and maybe a bit of anatomy, there's no reason that you can't take an educated guess, or pick an answer that you are somewhat confident is the best answer.

Goljan sums it up the best when he says: "mechanisms, mechanisms, mechanisms" is what the boards are all about. We're all here because we can memorize, that's the easy part.

Anyways, good luck to you all, and don't be discouraged, I wasn't on an AOA level of performance my first two years, but really just went for understanding and learning the material, more than memorizing some minutiae that some research prof. put on slide #12 that he put on the test. My advice for first and second years that wanna destroy the exam is to LEARN the material, if you know how things work, it will stay with you longer and benefit you better in the long term, rather than memorizing and dumping the facts as soon as the test is over.

I will update this post as I get my score and hope that my preparation was enough. Again good luck, this is totally doable, and if I can walk out of the exam feeling good about it, then you all can as well. Seriously. 👍

congrats and thanks for the write up buddy

 

[dude1344]

Alright I just took it and I think I got a really hard form. I would say only 70% of my stuff could be found or thought out through concepts in FA. I had FA down cold and scored between 254-260 on my last 3 practice tests (2 UWSA/1 NBME) and I felt lost on maybe 10% of the questions.

Ah well so goes the test, we'll find out in a few weeks.

P.S. I'll probably update a little more later tonight.

 

[carps513]

I took my exam a few days ago. My first block was by far my hardest, so it started me off very panicky. For all blocks, I skipped the questions that I knew would take me a long time. By the time I finished all other questions, I only had a few minutes left. With those few minutes I did the questions that I had skipped, but then I never had the chance to go over any of the other questions including the ones I marked. Now I have this bad feeling that I made a million careless mistakes. If I could do it over, I wouldn't have spent so much time on the ones that I probably got wrong anyway so that I could double check the ones that were probably gimmes.
I've since been able to count at least 15 questions that I got wrong, and so am really worried. Another thing I would do differently is take more breaks. I only took ten minutes of break throughout b/c I was so anxious to finish.

The content on my exam:
My exam seemed to be very heavy with cardio and immuno. I had very few micro, biochem, or pharm. I had quite a few anatomy Qs that weren't in FA. Several Qs dealing with mice, experiments etc that I had no idea what they were getting at.

Another reason I'm so worried is that my mbne scores were 213 three weeks out and 204 one week out. I didn't understand how after studying for two more weeks my score would go down instead of up. From everything I read, those tests are supposed to be so accurate at predicting scores. My predicted score from my uworld percent at 66% is much different than those tests so I'm not sure which will be the better predictor or if it will be somewhere in between. The weird thing about my uworld percent is that it started out at 66% and never went up or down. I'm not sure why this is either. I never took another nbme exam before the real one. I did the free 150 the day before and scored 86%. So, with all of these stats I'm not sure what to expect. I think I marked anywhere from 5-10 Qs on each block except the first one I probably marked close to half.

Any thoughts on my experience would be much appreciated.

 

[m_rivera84]

Just took the test... mine had a theme: viruses, arteries and ligaments. LOTS OF ANATOMY. I may have gotten the pelvic anatomy test. On the other hand, if you know first aid front to back, you're pretty much gold on the rest of the test.

 

[pbnj003]

congrats everyone! i cant wait til i am done with this thing! hearing everyones experiences gives me hope LOL.

I would like to ask those that have moved on, recently it seems that people arent using Goljan or singing his praises this round of tests. Would it be safe to say that not using goljan is "ok"? I ask because initially i thought i would be using Goljan but I am running out of time and I am still weak in path. More specifically I am weak in the "descriptive pathology" questions, the ones where you get the full on microscopic description of the pathology rather than just a "round mass".

Any tips?

thanx....counting days now! can not wait!

 

[BlondDoctor]

I'm a US citizen who is going to school in Sweden (summer between MS2-MS3), this summer I'm taking the USMLE in the states and I'm here all summer to study. Thing is, its just me. If it wasn't for you guys I would be all alone in this. I just have no sense of how to gauge my performance or get a feel for how I'm doing, if I'm on the right track or not.

I am having a hard time staying motivated and focused even though I just started my designated study period a week ago. I've been doing Kaplan videos during the spring though and Qbank, also just started UW today. I don't know how to feel about my scores or anything. Just a little lost I guess 🙂 The only people I hear about are the gunners on SDN so who even knows what kind of score is actually reasonable to aim for? I want to do residency here in GS, so I guess I'm aiming pretty high. Especially with everyone on here saying I'm doomed since I went to school abroad

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, I just need to get a little bit of a boost.

Should I do an NBME? Which one should I start with?
Here is how I've been doing on Qbank:
I have been getting around 70% on Kaplan trending upwards to 75%
On my first couple Uworld blocks I am avg 73%
What kind of a score can I be realistically aiming for?
My exam is on July 31st and I still have a lot to cover. (Anatomy, pharm and neuro are just gaping black holes right now haha)

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

I gotta say guys the test is not bad. I hope that I did well but I felt it was fairly "easy" in the sense that we have been preparing for it for so long. I think FA + Uworld is more than enough. I even think UWorld is too much because it makes you think the world is trying to trick you.

The highest I ever got on a practice test was a 242 on NBME 7 I think so I am not sure how I did on the real thing. There were probably 15 qs that FA could not prepare me for on the entire test out of 322 so I don't think that is bad. The rest you could reason out or pick up from FA or UWorld.

I saw people studying before the test form FA...dont' do that. What is wrong with you people. It's an 8 hour test. Chill out and relax, don't study. Come on man. Why would you do that.

My test was Immuno, Cardio, and Renal heavy. Here is the breakdown for you guys.

Renal: Did someone unleash all the possible kidney diseases on me? Just understand the two pages of the nephro versus nephri and you should be good I feel. Also understand the ATN versus DIC, the simple stuff and there is no way you won't kill this section.

Histo: Was there anything there except one question?

Micro: Thank the lords of the Step 1 this was one of my strong points and man did I get 30 Qs on this. The common stuff with the common presentations, it is so doable.

Pharm: Easy stuff with the common side effects for most drugs. Just know FA. One drug in there that I had never heard of but the rest were in FA. Don't sweat it.

Pulm: Pretty easy stuff. You can do this if you have a basic understanding of this stuff. Just study FA and you are set. Know a little anatomy too.

Neuro: Was so easy that I am pissed I spent 1 full day on HY Neuro. Really I am floored by the stuff I saw. You could figure this out if you looked at FA.

Genetics: WTF??? Everyone was mating with their Mom and Dad I swear. I had no clue on this crap. This was the worst for me.

Behavioral: Was so easy that I was thanking the pregnant teens across the U.S. for it. It is doable. Maybe 1-2 Qs that make you think but the rest are easy.

Pshcy: Easy! These points you should bank. If you don't, I will find you in your dreams and do things to you that you won't like.

Pathphys: My booty hurts, that's how rough it was. I don't even know how to prepare. There were some that were ridiculous.

Repro: You know it or you don't. Some easy give me stuff you expect. Other stuff has more path phys involved. The usual presentation of the common stuff will be there that is in first aid. Don't know how else you can prepare for it.

Hepatic stuff: Know alcoholics and know them well. Also know the anatomy of the liver. It might be important.

HIV: Know the drugs and know the infections that can happen.

Musculo: Know innervations and the common stuff that can happen...ex: ALS.

Endo: Some rought Qs but most easy stuff. The usual typical stuff. You know what I mean. You can't go wrong with it. Why does the little girl have a penis kind of stuff.

GI: Pretty Easy from what I remember. This hormone does what in the stomach? Oh you take this medication to do what?

Cardio: Heart sounds were a joke. You can figure them out. The Qs were rough around some of the pathology but most of the stuff you can figure it out. Nothing more to add to this.

Biochem: Vitamin Def, Common Enzymes for pathways. So easy for the amount I studied.

Embryo: I had maybe 3 Qs, 2 from FA...1 from who knows where.

Anatomy: You can do this, it is easy. Maybe 2 Qs out of 10 that I didn't have a clue on but even those I reasoned out and I'm trashed!

Heme: Dear God, could they have made this any easier. I felt like I was going to cream myself when I saw the qs they had...the usual stuff, boy eating paint, guy eating him. The usual stuff. You can do this. The cancers are there too. You got this. If you don't get this, I will show up in your dreams again. Cancer!

Immuno: A little easier than I expected but there were a few Qs that were smoking me. But the usual cytokines and receptors kind of stuff. Nothing major.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know. I love you guys. You guys are the best. This test is doable. Don't lose hope. You got this. FA+UWorld is gold. Trust me, I used every resource under the sun. I could cite FA pages as I did the qs.

Oooh by the way, I had about 5 qs from the practice NBMEs. They do show up...it's impossible for them not to.

I hate complement def stuff. Can't wait for the scores but not sweating it too much.

 

[Step1Hash]

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

I gotta say guys the test is not bad. I hope that I did well but I felt it was fairly "easy" in the sense that we have been preparing for it for so long. I think FA + Uworld is more than enough. I even think UWorld is too much because it makes you think the world is trying to trick you.

The highest I ever got on a practice test was a 242 on NBME 7 I think so I am not sure how I did on the real thing. There were probably 15 qs that FA could not prepare me for on the entire test out of 322 so I don't think that is bad. The rest you could reason out or pick up from FA or UWorld.

I saw people studying before the test form FA...dont' do that. What is wrong with you people. It's an 8 hour test. Chill out and relax, don't study. Come on man. Why would you do that.

My test was Immuno, Cardio, and Renal heavy. Here is the breakdown for you guys.

Renal: Did someone unleash all the possible kidney diseases on me? Just understand the two pages of the nephro versus nephri and you should be good I feel. Also understand the ATN versus DIC, the simple stuff and there is no way you won't kill this section.

Histo: Was there anything there except one question?

Micro: Thank the lords of the Step 1 this was one of my strong points and man did I get 30 Qs on this. The common stuff with the common presentations, it is so doable.

Pharm: Easy stuff with the common side effects for most drugs. Just know FA. One drug in there that I had never heard of but the rest were in FA. Don't sweat it.

Pulm: Pretty easy stuff. You can do this if you have a basic understanding of this stuff. Just study FA and you are set. Know a little anatomy too.

Neuro: Was so easy that I am pissed I spent 1 full day on HY Neuro. Really I am floored by the stuff I saw. You could figure this out if you looked at FA.

Genetics: WTF??? Everyone was mating with their Mom and Dad I swear. I had no clue on this crap. This was the worst for me.

Behavioral: Was so easy that I was thanking the pregnant teens across the U.S. for it. It is doable. Maybe 1-2 Qs that make you think but the rest are easy.

Pshcy: Easy! These points you should bank. If you don't, I will find you in your dreams and do things to you that you won't like.

Pathphys: My booty hurts, that's how rough it was. I don't even know how to prepare. There were some that were ridiculous.

Repro: You know it or you don't. Some easy give me stuff you expect. Other stuff has more path phys involved. The usual presentation of the common stuff will be there that is in first aid. Don't know how else you can prepare for it.

Hepatic stuff: Know alcoholics and know them well. Also know the anatomy of the liver. It might be important.

HIV: Know the drugs and know the infections that can happen.

Musculo: Know innervations and the common stuff that can happen...ex: ALS.

Endo: Some rought Qs but most easy stuff. The usual typical stuff. You know what I mean. You can't go wrong with it. Why does the little girl have a penis kind of stuff.

GI: Pretty Easy from what I remember. This hormone does what in the stomach? Oh you take this medication to do what?

Cardio: Heart sounds were a joke. You can figure them out. The Qs were rough around some of the pathology but most of the stuff you can figure it out. Nothing more to add to this.

Biochem: Vitamin Def, Common Enzymes for pathways. So easy for the amount I studied.

Embryo: I had maybe 3 Qs, 2 from FA...1 from who knows where.

Anatomy: You can do this, it is easy. Maybe 2 Qs out of 10 that I didn't have a clue on but even those I reasoned out and I'm trashed!

Heme: Dear God, could they have made this any easier. I felt like I was going to cream myself when I saw the qs they had...the usual stuff, boy eating paint, guy eating him. The usual stuff. You can do this. The cancers are there too. You got this. If you don't get this, I will show up in your dreams again. Cancer!

Immuno: A little easier than I expected but there were a few Qs that were smoking me. But the usual cytokines and receptors kind of stuff. Nothing major.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know. I love you guys. You guys are the best. This test is doable. Don't lose hope. You got this. FA+UWorld is gold. Trust me, I used every resource under the sun. I could cite FA pages as I did the qs.

Oooh by the way, I had about 5 qs from the practice NBMEs. They do show up...it's impossible for them not to.

I hate complement def stuff. Can't wait for the scores but not sweating it too much.

Probably one of the best posts iv'e seen lol. Thanks for the writeup and congrats!

 

[Daedra22]

I love this forum so I have to post my experience. Nobody comment on the grammar because I have had about 5 martinis and 3 shots so I'm wasted but my dedication to this forum forces me to still post so I must.

Not only was your post informative, it also made me laugh. Thanks for that.

 

[Lizloveslilies]

I'm a US citizen who is going to school in Sweden (summer between MS2-MS3), this summer I'm taking the USMLE in the states and I'm here all summer to study. Thing is, its just me. If it wasn't for you guys I would be all alone in this. I just have no sense of how to gauge my performance or get a feel for how I'm doing, if I'm on the right track or not.

I am having a hard time staying motivated and focused even though I just started my designated study period a week ago. I've been doing Kaplan videos during the spring though and Qbank, also just started UW today. I don't know how to feel about my scores or anything. Just a little lost I guess 🙂 The only people I hear about are the gunners on SDN so who even knows what kind of score is actually reasonable to aim for? I want to do residency here in GS, so I guess I'm aiming pretty high. Especially with everyone on here saying I'm doomed since I went to school abroad

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, I just need to get a little bit of a boost.

Should I do an NBME? Which one should I start with?
Here is how I've been doing on Qbank:
I have been getting around 70% on Kaplan trending upwards to 75%
On my first couple Uworld blocks I am avg 73%
What kind of a score can I be realistically aiming for?
My exam is on July 31st and I still have a lot to cover. (Anatomy, pharm and neuro are just gaping black holes right now haha)

Hey BlondDoctor,

It can be hard to get things moving when motivation is at an all time low. But remember why you are doing what you are doing! 🙂 Take it one day at a time, make a specific plan at the start of the day and make sure you take small breaks every now and then. At the end of the day, you can look back at ALL that you have accomplished and that will fuel the fire for the next day 🙂

It looks like you are on the right track with doing questions. Doing practice questions is a really important part of studying for the Step 1 in my opinion. Knowing the content, however, is paramount. Just remember that you can't study for every possible question out there! 5 weeks (the time between now and your test) is plenty of time to do both! Use your primary sources well and do a few blocks of questions each day. A few days of that routine should put you in a nice schedule.

Regarding NBME practice tests: Sit down and think about days that you are willing to take those practice exams like the real deal! I'm a big believer in practice making perfect and if you set aside time in your schedule to do some (1, 2, 3, ... as many as your heart desires) of those tests, your scores will be more meaningful 🙂

Interpreting % points on the Q-banks can be tricky so I stay the heck away from it. Don't get caught up in it! 😀 I know, I know, It's easy to get sucked into it, but DON'T! The best thing you can do with the Q-banks is that you can do a good number of questions in the timed and random mode, thereby allowing you practice in a low-stakes environment. You also have access to all the answers! I would suggest keeping notes on all the questions that you miss and all those you get right for the wrong reasons. It's a lot of work, but it will pay off on test day. 🙂

Finally, you seem to have some concerns regarding certain subjects. It's ok, the three subjects you listed in your post are some of the more anxiety provoking subjects for students on this forum. This is what I did in preparation for these subjects:

Anatomy: Divide it into sections (limbs, thorax, abdomen, pelvis & perineum, head & neck); Review major arteries, nerves and innervation, muscles and miscellaneous landmarks for each section. This doesn't take as long as it sounds. Here's an example: Let's work with limb anatomy; here is what I would review:

- major branches of the axillary and external iliac arteries and downstream smaller vessels (what comes off the brachial artery?, ...)
- Brachial plexus + Lumbosacral plexus; know how to draw the brachial plexus real quick --> there's a great schematic in FA! As far as the lumbosacral plexus, know the big ones! superior and inferior gluteal nerves, sciatic nerve, ...; know what happens to the large branches of the brachial and lumbosacral plexuses/plexi (where does the anterior interosseus nerve come off?)
- Know the dermotomes for the limbs; look at a dermatome diagram and match them up to landmarks (the tips of the dorsum of the index and middle finger are innervated by what nerve?)
- Know the muscles (duh 🙂 ) and their innervation. Try to do this by compartments, I swear it will make it easier. Try to know exceptions and keep your memorizing to a minimum (only intrinsic muscles of the hand that are NOT innervated by the ulnar n.?)
- Know your landmarks (why is the adductor canal important?)
- Know clinically important procedures! (Where are large bore IV's placed? Where is the best location to put in a needle to perform a thoracocentesis?)
- Finally, Look at some CTs and XRs...this should work on your spatial abilities

Neuro: Do this section after your head and neck anatomy section; I've organized this list below in a hierarchical order (the last bullet is puts together all the other parts of neuro well in my opinion)

- Know your surface anatomy well. Any rigorous neuroanatomy atlas will do. If you don't own one, the BRS neuro-book, or wiki does just fine 🙂
- Know the blood supply to the brain! Try to complete this arterial tree: Vertebral arteries --> Basillar artery --> ? --> ? ... Know try to complete this arterial tree: Internal carotid artery --> ? --> ?; know how the circle of willis works
- Know the MAJOR tracts - Spinothalamic, DCML, corticospinal, ... and know the major nuclei of the thalamus and hypothalamus (Why is the VPM important? What is produced in the preoptic nucleus of the hypothalamus)
- Know your stroke syndromes: Wallenberg, anterior spinal, pontine, MCA, ACA, ...

Pharm: This section is a wild card. Go through pharmacology sections in first aid and if possible use Lippincott's illustrated review of pharmacology. I really like that book. The question banks will help you ALOT with this subject so that you can tease out the nitty-gritty details of side effects, ... (Why does someone on thoridiazine need regular eye exams?).

I hope this helps BlondDoctor! You get your motivation up, and there is no goal that you set that you can't achieve! 😉

 

[jejun]

Ok so just took the test today. I had a 77% on UWorld (first time through mixed), 240 NBME 11 (3-4 weeks in), 260 UWSA 1 (1 week ago). Studied for 6 weeks, but worked pretty hard throughout the year. I am worn out and can't sleep so thought i'd write this out.

Things that I think are helpful:
- Don't score obsess and build endurance. Take practice tests to build endurance. I only took 1 NBME because once you think you can pass, you really don't learn a whole lot from them. Sure you might see a 1-2 questions that will show up on your exam, but if you a do 4 blocks of 46 questions from UWorld (I think you'd prob see more). I also felt like UWSA 1 was better than the NBMEs, but after finishing most of UWorld, UWSA tested very similar concepts from UWorld's main bank (which is why I think the score is inflated). If I had more time I would have done UWSA 2 but just wanted to finish UWorld. I also did two UWorld blocks back-to-back, everyday for the 1-2 weeks before my exam except for the last few days. This helped a lot with endurance.. and I had to so I could finish UWorld 🙂
- Get your sleep cycle in check. Sleep at 10 pm and get up at 5 am the one week before the test. This seems like common sense, but its amazing how easy it is to keep studying past what you planned. Sleep is huge for this test. I wouldn't study to hard the day before.
- Plan your break's in advanced. Decide how you are going to split up your break time before so you're not thinking about it. I took short breaks for the first 3 blocks, took one 20 min break which was awesome, took more short breaks. Also checking in and out took as long as 5 minutes depending on who was working at the desk...
- You won't know what's really "high-yield" until you take the test 🙂 From the posts on this thread, there is a lot of variability in difficulty and content. I personally thought the test was really hard! As people said before... you will have to THINK. There were definitely questions which took 20 seconds to do. There was also definitely random crap which wasn't in first aid. Go into the exam expecting a mix of anything. Just know its based on some sort of curve so hopefully it will be fair. With that said, I felt UWorld was the most helpful. FA/Kaplan random details did show up.

Prep:
- UWorld (took it timed and mixed with only 46 question blocks. took notes on everything I got wrong and reviewed it daily. I didn't do two passes, just reviewed my notes. Toward the end, I also tried (often failed) to finish each block with about 10 minutes left. Behavioral science on UWorld didn't help as much.)
- Kaplan vids (most of it)
- FA (Made notes on random details I felt weak on and reviewed these daily too. Made a quick pass through like 3/4 of DIT toward the end of classes on 2x before starting my dedicated prep.)
- Kaplan QBank (did approx 1/2 of it. But spend very little time reviewing stuff).


So in a nut shell: The test (might) be very hard. It will be hard for everyone, not just you. Try your best. You will be fine! I walked out of a few blocks thinking damn a few of those questions were hard. But it is really hard to know how you do on a block. So I have no idea how I did. Hoping for the best...! Gluck everyone. Going to get off of STDN for a good while haha.

 

[TRuSchool]

Took exam today.

Behavior Science/Psych: I didnt respect this subject so I didnt really start reading it until the last week. But i made sure to look at it everyday and if you know your equations and definitions well and it will be an easy 10-12 points.

Biochem: FA will provide you with 90%. A lot of the questions are integrative metabolism, cell/molecular, and clinical. duh. for me the pain in the ass ones are always the dna/genetic engineering questions that are random.

Embryo: A lot of people said FA was bad but for me i got maybe 4 questions and they were all covered. Cant really complain.

Micro: Was a weakness of mine so I literally made sure to memorize all 60+ pages of FA. The questions were so random and ranged from S. Aureus easy to out of nowhere protozoans with pictures. Was even a question with a staining i had never heard of and all 5 choices never heard of. Just gotta chalk those up as what can you do and pick your favorite letter. Overall 90% on FA.

Immuno: Little to none. Atleast from the immuno section in FA. most of the questions were related to path (HLAs, Hypersensitivity Rx's, etc). A lot of people were telling me how heavy it was on their exams but I think I literally could have not read one word on FA immuno and did fine on it.

Pharm: Just gotta memorize mechanisms and side effects. the hardest ones are always the experiment where drug x and y are added but if you know your receptor effects real well it wont be a problem. Didnt need to know any of the equations for mine. Pregnancy drugs and HIV were stressed.

Pathophys: Dear god this was the hardest part of the entire exam. Took the most amount of time and if there was one thing I would do again is spend more time on BRS physio bc they def went steps above what FA/UW would tell you. an example would be CRF and hpth except theyd add another disorder that def effected the up and down arrows that would throw you off. I cant even count the number of times there was a situation where I'd have it down to two choices and only one variable was effected that I never even thought would be important.

Path: Pretty straightforward. Majority of test. Always gonna have atleast 4 per section where you never saw a picture of it. Its like they know what FA and goljan provide picture wise and find something else. We all know what bone cancer looks like on MRI. They'll throw you a gross specimen; Only days like these I wish I had an uncircumcised penis so I could understand how the hell phimosis causes symptoms. UW is great prep for this section and will limit the surprises you have if you go thru it all.

Anatomy: 50% basic 50% hard. Gotta know your blood supplies and nerves, not just cranial but head to toe.

Overall Advice: Dont wear yourself out the last day trying to memorize minute details of pharm drugs or going thru pictures. They wont help. If anything review definitions and equations. U really need a clear mind for 8 hours bc maybe only half the test you can find the answer you were looking for when reading the question while the other half you have to reason your way through the choices. It can take its toll on you mentally as you get to the later blocks so pace yourself well. I took atleast a 5 min break every block to clear my head and it helped.