Official 2011 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[ProtossCarrier]

---

Members do not see this ad.

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.

 

[Decicco]

Took it a few days ago. Harder than NBME 11/12, but mostly because the question stems were longer. Still felt like an NBME, though. I don't remember all that much from the test. Make sure that you know the presentations of the super rare bugs that are named in FA but not described. FA is gold and I can confidently say that anything with Goljan's name on it is a waste of time (at least as far as board review). I was getting 240+ on practice tests and I will be happy with 230+ on the real deal (but not surprised if I scored in the 220s--this test was hard). There was some difficult anatomy (some that I still haven't been able to figure out with netter in front of me). Overall I think the best approach to this test is to learn FA as best as you can and let your knowledge from class and UW fill in the blanks. Studying from additional resources in the weeks before the test seems low yield. Current events came up a few times. Probably no way to prepare for these, just an observation (they were pretty easy anyway). Questions stems were really long, but if you know what to look for you don't have to read the whole thing. I had one question that was maybe 10 sentences long plus a list of labs, and it then finished by saying the patient was started on drug X, what is its mechanism of action? Another described a patient for literally ~15 sentences and buried within this was an EKG finding. They then asked what was the metabolic disturbance (which is characteristic of the EKG finding). Calculations were all easy. H-W, sensitivity, specificity, etc. 5 images repeated from practice NBMEs, 2 of which I would have missed had I not been familiar with the image. No repeat questions as far as I could tell (I took NBME 5,6,11,12). They also asked about drug s/e not in FA, but really there is again no efficient way to prepare for this. Twice they asked a drug that was not in FA, but its name sounded like a related drug that is in FA.

I'm hoping that the curve will make this test turn out like my practice NBMEs (240s), but am not too hopeful. Good luck!

 

[MKMD86]

For those who are getting a lot of anatomy questions, is first aid enough for most of it?

 

[dude1344]

For those who are getting a lot of anatomy questions, is first aid enough for most of it?

No way. I don't think there's much you can do to prepare for it. The best resource for me was my MS-I anatomy course.

 

[MKMD86]

No way. I don't think there's much you can do to prepare for it. The best resource for me was my MS-I anatomy course.

thanks man, anatomys my weakest so ill guess ill have to wing it and hope for few questions

 

[dozitgetchahi]

I know each testing centers differ, but can my FA binder fit in their small lockers?

This doesn't end up being a big deal. I had a bag that was too big for their small lockers and all the big lockers were full...they just told me to leave my bag by the coat rack. Since you're allowed to look at your materials on breaks, the lockers are really more to ensure your valuables don't get stolen than anything else.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

For those who are getting a lot of anatomy questions, is first aid enough for most of it?

Personally, I thought the most useful thing for these was looking at a lot of CTs (I posted good sites for this in some other threads on this board). Most of my kooky anatomy qs were CTs, and those that weren't were spatial qs that were made more answerable by being able to envision where things were located (which CTs can help with).

At any rate, the hard anatomy qs are basically reasoning qs that you can think through with a basic understanding of how things are positioned/grouped in various cavities/zones of the body. It's tremendously difficult to point to specific material to study outside of FA because it seems peoples' experiences with these qs are highly variable. What might help is looking through the end-of-chapter summaries in a book like BRS Gross or HY Gross...but this is relatively low yield and only worth doing if you have FA locked down and you've completed lots of qs.

That said, I definitely did find myself thinking back to M1 anatomy (and even cadaver dissections) to answer a couple of those qs...

 

[bbydoc]

Took it a few days ago. Harder than NBME 11/12, but mostly because the question stems were longer. Still felt like an NBME, though. I don't remember all that much from the test. Make sure that you know the presentations of the super rare bugs that are named in FA but not described. FA is gold and I can confidently say that anything with Goljan's name on it is a waste of time (at least as far as board review). I was getting 240+ on practice tests and I will be happy with 230+ on the real deal (but not surprised if I scored in the 220s--this test was hard). There was some difficult anatomy (some that I still haven't been able to figure out with netter in front of me). Overall I think the best approach to this test is to learn FA as best as you can and let your knowledge from class and UW fill in the blanks. !

thats a bit harsh, no?

 

[2012mdc]

Took it a few days ago. Harder than NBME 11/12, but mostly because the question stems were longer. Still felt like an NBME, though. I don't remember all that much from the test. Make sure that you know the presentations of the super rare bugs that are named in FA but not described. FA is gold and I can confidently say that anything with Goljan's name on it is a waste of time (at least as far as board review). I was getting 240+ on practice tests and I will be happy with 230+ on the real deal (but not surprised if I scored in the 220s--this test was hard). There was some difficult anatomy (some that I still haven't been able to figure out with netter in front of me). Overall I think the best approach to this test is to learn FA as best as you can and let your knowledge from class and UW fill in the blanks. Studying from additional resources in the weeks before the test seems low yield. Current events came up a few times. Probably no way to prepare for these, just an observation (they were pretty easy anyway). Questions stems were really long, but if you know what to look for you don't have to read the whole thing. I had one question that was maybe 10 sentences long plus a list of labs, and it then finished by saying the patient was started on drug X, what is its mechanism of action? Another described a patient for literally ~15 sentences and buried within this was an EKG finding. They then asked what was the metabolic disturbance (which is characteristic of the EKG finding). Calculations were all easy. H-W, sensitivity, specificity, etc. 5 images repeated from practice NBMEs, 2 of which I would have missed had I not been familiar with the image. No repeat questions as far as I could tell (I took NBME 5,6,11,12). They also asked about drug s/e not in FA, but really there is again no efficient way to prepare for this. Twice they asked a drug that was not in FA, but its name sounded like a related drug that is in FA.

I'm hoping that the curve will make this test turn out like my practice NBMEs (240s), but am not too hopeful. Good luck!

Hating on the holy grail of UW/FA/RR? Blasphemy

I will say Goljan's format isn't for everyone but it sure helped me out

Biggest piece of advice for the test is stay calm and confident. My 1st block was by far my hardest of the day and halfway into it I had already lost hope of reaching my practice scores. I recovered to finish the block decently and then took a nice 10 min break to get my head back into the game and calm down.

I took breaks after every block to get the blood flowing and get some fresh air. I also never wanted the feeling of having to pee right after starting a block. FWIW I practiced this method of taking a break every block the Sunday before my exam when I did 8 blocks of NBME and UWSA

For the love of God please simulate a real exam (at least 7 blocks, I did 8 so I would get 2 scores) before taking the real one. Several of my classmates did not do this and said they burned out at the end. I was able to keep on trucking which was essential because my last two blocks were relative cake and I would have submarined my score by making a bunch of dumb mistakes on easy q's.

 

[Decicco]

thats a bit harsh, no?

As far as Goljan audio - this is maybe good during exercise, etc when you can't study anything else. He claims to know test questions (he doesn't). I listened to the audio twice through and believe that it didn't make one question of difference. There are also a good deal of mistakes in the audio.

For Goljan RR - this is a good resource for your path course during M2. Studying this for step 1 just seems so low yield. What you need to know is in FA. Something only in RR might be on Step 1, but the amount of time that you would have to spend learning low-yield information makes it not worthwhile as a study source in my opinion.

Overall, it's best to learn one source really well. I studied exclusively from FA and UW during the 5 weeks before the test and feel that I still could have learned more FA. If I would have tried to study RR too it would have ate into the time I needed to really learn FA.

 

[2012mdc]

As far as Goljan audio - this is maybe good during exercise, etc when you can't study anything else. He claims to know test questions (he doesn't). I listened to the audio twice through and believe that it didn't make one question of difference. There are also a good deal of mistakes in the audio.

For Goljan RR - this is a good resource for your path course during M2. Studying this for step 1 just seems so low yield. What you need to know is in FA. Something only in RR might be on Step 1, but the amount of time that you would have to spend learning low-yield information makes it not worthwhile as a study source in my opinion.

Overall, it's best to learn one source really well. I studied exclusively from FA and UW during the 5 weeks before the test and feel that I still could have learned more FA. If I would have tried to study RR too it would have ate into the time I needed to really learn FA.

Unless FA 2011 changed significantly I didn't believe the path in FA was enough. There was a good amount of path that I learned from RR that wasn't in FA that showed up on the exam.

If you read Goljan once or twice during the year, reading it again during board studying is fast because you aren't reading it for the first time but skimming it more and focusing on your highlights/notes

In 4 weeks I was able to do UW, FA x2, and RR x2. My FA had been heavily annotated from my 1st pass through UW and I had read it in full over the year with some sections twice.

Again, different strokes for different folks but at least last year it seemed that a lot of people that were 250+ used RR. I admit I am biased because I used it and I may have selective memory

 

[septoplasty]

As far as Goljan audio - this is maybe good during exercise, etc when you can't study anything else. He claims to know test questions (he doesn't). I listened to the audio twice through and believe that it didn't make one question of difference. There are also a good deal of mistakes in the audio.

For Goljan RR - this is a good resource for your path course during M2. Studying this for step 1 just seems so low yield. What you need to know is in FA. Something only in RR might be on Step 1, but the amount of time that you would have to spend learning low-yield information makes it not worthwhile as a study source in my opinion.

Overall, it's best to learn one source really well. I studied exclusively from FA and UW during the 5 weeks before the test and feel that I still could have learned more FA. If I would have tried to study RR too it would have ate into the time I needed to really learn FA.

Probably because the audio's that are currently out right now are very outdated..

 

[msbbc833]

Did you use his audio along with RR? I am trying to decide if I should

A) Even bother listening to audio
B) Listening to audio while annotating into RR
C) Listening to audio alongside the audio transcript to reinforce it better

EDIT: BTW I am going into MS2.. not in dedicated step study period

Unless FA 2011 changed significantly I didn't believe the path in FA was enough. There was a good amount of path that I learned from RR that wasn't in FA that showed up on the exam.

If you read Goljan once or twice during the year, reading it again during board studying is fast because you aren't reading it for the first time but skimming it more and focusing on your highlights/notes

In 4 weeks I was able to do UW, FA x2, and RR x2. My FA had been heavily annotated from my 1st pass through UW and I had read it in full over the year with some sections twice.

Again, different strokes for different folks but at least last year it seemed that a lot of people that were 250+ used RR. I admit I am biased because I used it and I may have selective memory

 

[2012mdc]

Did you use his audio along with RR? I am trying to decide if I should

A) Even bother listening to audio
B) Listening to audio while annotating into RR
C) Listening to audio alongside the audio transcript to reinforce it better

EDIT: BTW I am going into MS2.. not in dedicated step study period

I did C during the year. I usually would read RR beforehand so I would pay better attention during the audio

 

[simpatico]

Took it yesterday, thought I'd give a little write-up since I've been reading everyone else's.

First of all, feels soooo good to be done. Right now that's what I'm trying to focus on. My prep started in .. May. Did uworld twice, half of kaplan, first aid like 4-5 times, some kaplan vids, some pretest questions in micro/pharm/path (about 600 in total). I came from a pretty low point starting wise, so eh.

Breakdown: So I did 2 blocks, break, 2 blocks, break, 2 blocks, break, last block. Interface is just like Uworld, but a little 'cleaner' - hard to describe what that means, I just felt it was a very clean interface. My first 2 blocks were relatively okay .. my next 4 seemed a little harder (or maybe the caffeine was wearing down?), and then my last 1 seemed relatively okay.

In terms of content:

Biostats: 15 questions? So these weren't hard, but the problem is I didn't focus too much on studying this, so there were a couple that I saw, that I knew I'd seen before, but couldn't remember a certain calculation or something. In general, you just kinda have to reason out what they're asking.

Behavioral: 15 questions about. I didn't think these were very difficult - some questions were worded a little strangely, and for some, you had to know specific facts about the issue/disease being discussed, so that could've thrown you if you didn't know. In general though, not *too* confusing.

Biochem: I'd suggest you know your vitamin deficiencies. There were about 20? questions - and the vitamin deficiency ones always got me flustered for some reason. The enzymatic stuff was ok, though. There were a couple of wtf questions in this area - some of them asked about concepts that were well taught in a lot of qbanks, but took it an extra step. I think I was kinda lucky in that the few guesses I made in this turned out to be right.

Immunology: This was pretty basic I think - nothing really stood out as super difficult.

Anatomy: I have a love/hate relationship with anatomy. On the one hand, when I get it, I get it - it seems obvious to me, and I can say .. well, it's right there. On the other hand, I don't always get it. For the test though, I'd say there were about .. 10? anatomy questions, most of them were pretty basic, though it took a minute to orient yourself. Missed a couple, I know, but I dont think I did all that badly in this area.

Pharm: Eh, this was a little on the difficult side I think. Side effects were a big deal for mine - oh well. Had about 20 questions in this. Made a couple of gusses that again turned out to be right (yay), missed one question that's got me so pissed off since it wasn't hard at all, I just psyched myself out and chose the wrong answer. Oh well.

Micro: This was ... interesting. There were about 25 questions. Some were classic presentations, and others were just weird. Like, question stem would start out describing one thing, then throw a lab value that totally changed the picture. Nothing that came way off left base, it just kinda forced you to think a little. Not that much HIV, protozoans seemed to be a slight focus on my test. Know your vectors. Micro ended up being a stronger section for me during studying, so I think (hope) I did ok in this.

Embryo: 5 questions or so, glad it wasn't a focus on the test - not sure how I did on'em.

Neuro: I dont think this was too bad. There were 15ish questions, 1 brain section. Again, pay attention to the lab values that were important/not important. My test had some repeats of certain neuro questions.

Psych: Hmm, I dunno - a couple of these had me stumped. Only about 10 questions.

Cardio: Quite a few of these (about 15?) - couple of heart sounds that I didnt find particularly difficult. Also some arrows.

Endocrine: Definitely know your diabetes. For the most part, wasn't too hard. About 10 questions or so.

Heme/Onc: Not that much of this that I remember, maybe 2/3 questions - dont think they were too difficult though.

GI: Hate GI. But I think I did ok - or I dunno, maybe I'm just tricking myself.

Renal: Always hated renal, still do. Were about 15 questions on the exam, no clue how I did on'em.

Respiratory: Hated respitatory too, I just did what I could with the questions I saw, and moved on. They didn't seem too hard though. 10 qs.

Repro: Some breast tumors, some other stuff. One of the pictures they had on there was a little weird since I knew the answer, but wasn't sure if it was pointing to what I thought it was pointing to.. whatever.

In summary - I have no idea how I did. Although I think my test was balanced, there were definitely some stupid mistakes, but I think I surprised myself with the ones I did get right, and the ones I guessed up and ended up guessing right - after checking on wiki and whatever. My prep could've been better in my opinion, but it was something that was slowly evolving, so although I had a plan going in, I found myself switching it if I came across a resource I thought was helpful. Anyway, just very very happy to be finished - it's a chapter I definitely do not want to repeat. So, cross my heart, hope to pass (at least).

Good luck to everyone taking it, and everyone waiting!

 

[endofevangelion]

did anyone who took the test this weekend have that question about that nurse coming in with a lesion because she poked herself with a needle that her Alzheimer's patient with cold sores had used? then it showed you a picture of her finger with blisters? what was the name of the blister? I've been thinking about that question for a while now.

 

[sgod34]

did anyone who took the test this weekend have that question about that nurse coming in with a lesion because she poked herself with a needle that her Alzheimer's patient with cold sores had used? then it showed you a picture of her finger with blisters? what was the name of the blister? I've been thinking about that question for a while now.

Herpetic Whitlow via HSV-1 from his cold sore?

http://www.viralinhibitor.com/images/VIColdSoresFinger.jpg

 

[MossPoh]

Hating on the holy grail of UW/FA/RR? Blasphemy

I will say Goljan's format isn't for everyone but it sure helped me out

Biggest piece of advice for the test is stay calm and confident. My 1st block was by far my hardest of the day and halfway into it I had already lost hope of reaching my practice scores. I recovered to finish the block decently and then took a nice 10 min break to get my head back into the game and calm down.

I took breaks after every block to get the blood flowing and get some fresh air. I also never wanted the feeling of having to pee right after starting a block. FWIW I practiced this method of taking a break every block the Sunday before my exam when I did 8 blocks of NBME and UWSA

For the love of God please simulate a real exam (at least 7 blocks, I did 8 so I would get 2 scores) before taking the real one. Several of my classmates did not do this and said they burned out at the end. I was able to keep on trucking which was essential because my last two blocks were relative cake and I would have submarined my score by making a bunch of dumb mistakes on easy q's.

It is funny how we all view things differently. I don't feel the two exams really made any difference. I knew I'd be tired after all those questions and sure enough, I was tired. That was about all I got from it. 😛

 

[blizzazeo]

did anyone who took the test this weekend have that question about that nurse coming in with a lesion because she poked herself with a needle that her Alzheimer's patient with cold sores had used? then it showed you a picture of her finger with blisters? what was the name of the blister? I've been thinking about that question for a while now.

It was Herpatic Whitlow f' real 😉

 

[2012mdc]

It is funny how we all view things differently. I don't feel the two exams really made any difference. I knew I'd be tired after all those questions and sure enough, I was tired. That was about all I got from it. 😛

I figured out how I needed to formulate my break schedule to deal with the unavoidable fatigue. Also by doing 8 blocks 7 felt easier and I was more tired during the practice exam than the real thing.

Considering it's the biggest test of our lives I think it's a mistake to go into it without ever taking a practice test that really simulates how the real thing is.

 

[Sheldor]

I figured out how I needed to formulate my break schedule to deal with the unavoidable fatigue. Also by doing 8 blocks 7 felt easier and I was more tired during the practice exam than the real thing.

Considering it's the biggest test of our lives I think it's a mistake to go into it without ever taking a practice test that really simulates how the real thing is.

I just want to second this, doing two NBME's back to back was invaluable leading up to the real deal. Having thought that hard for longer than the real thing, made the test seem more doable.

I'd recommend it!

(I viewed it like training for a marathon. Those two NBME's were my final long run before tapering the week leading up to the test. Haven't gotten my score, but in terms of energy it really did help)

 

[MossPoh]

Yea, my thing was that I already studied 12+ hours a day. Usually that was in hour intervals. I'm focusing just as hard during that as I am during any questions I answer.

It didn't change my break schedules at all because the setup was completely different. It was much easier during the practice exams to keep to the accurate timing. I don't have to sign sheets or go into a locker during the practice NBMEs. I also didn't have the same adrenaline rush.

I think it also depends on your school and how they do tests. We routinely had block exams with all 6 classes on the same day and more questions per block.

It is obviously person dependent. All it did was kill any drive I had left and when done I just looked at the score and said, "Ok" but didn't try to better myself. I just didn't care anymore afterwards. I also never really take big breaks, so the whole mapping that out didn't matter. I didn't know when I'd need to pee. I didn't know if I'd feel hungry. I didn't even know if I'd have a rough block that'd take the wind out of me when I least expected it. I also had several days where I answered 7 or 8 blocks and one day where I did 10 blocks on uworld and I just realized that there is a point where it stops mattering to me. I get in my groove and I answer. By the end I don't feel like I'm thinking, yet my percentages didn't change much and sometimes increased. (My 2 NBME day, my first NBME was more than 10 points lower than my second)

To me, there are so many variables that it didn't matter how I mapped out the breaks. It wasn't any different than my regular studying with time allocation. In fact, parts of it probably took less processing than regular studying because it was just keyword, click, move.

 

[endofevangelion]

🙁

 

[Step1Hash]

.

 

[2012mdc]

Yea, my thing was that I already studied 12+ hours a day. Usually that was in hour intervals. I'm focusing just as hard during that as I am during any questions I answer.

It didn't change my break schedules at all because the setup was completely different. It was much easier during the practice exams to keep to the accurate timing. I don't have to sign sheets or go into a locker during the practice NBMEs. I also didn't have the same adrenaline rush.

I think it also depends on your school and how they do tests. We routinely had block exams with all 6 classes on the same day and more questions per block.

It is obviously person dependent. All it did was kill any drive I had left and when done I just looked at the score and said, "Ok" but didn't try to better myself. I just didn't care anymore afterwards. I also never really take big breaks, so the whole mapping that out didn't matter. I didn't know when I'd need to pee. I didn't know if I'd feel hungry. I didn't even know if I'd have a rough block that'd take the wind out of me when I least expected it. I also had several days where I answered 7 or 8 blocks and one day where I did 10 blocks on uworld and I just realized that there is a point where it stops mattering to me. I get in my groove and I answer. By the end I don't feel like I'm thinking, yet my percentages didn't change much and sometimes increased. (My 2 NBME day, my first NBME was more than 10 points lower than my second)

To me, there are so many variables that it didn't matter how I mapped out the breaks. It wasn't any different than my regular studying with time allocation. In fact, parts of it probably took less processing than regular studying because it was just keyword, click, move.

Yeah your method of studying was preparation for it.

My studying method involved longer blocks and longer breaks and my focus was pretty high but not test taking high. I felt like the 8 block test was necessary because I was only doing 100 UW a day and then previous practice tests of 200.

I'm talking about folks who at most did 4 or 5 blocks in one day. They were unprepared for the grind of the real exam and admitted it.

\

 

[endofevangelion]

🙁

 

[dude1344]

I don't think you should be posting questions and answer choices in a public forum, for your own sake...

 

[Step1Hash]

I don't think you should be posting questions and answer choices in a public forum, for your own sake...

This is probably smart advice to take.

 

[bbydoc]

I don't think you should be posting questions and answer choices in a public forum, for your own sake...

dito.

 

[splik]

Did step 1 today

UWSA 1 214
usmle free questions 83%
UW cumulative (did about 50%) 54%
I am a UK grad currently doing internship, did step 2 ck last week, and step 2 cs the week before that - it has been a high pressure month with very little time to breath and I haven't worked hard enough for this exam. It is 6-7 years since I learnt most of this basic science stuff.

It was I felt a reasonable exam on the one hand, but just horrible on the other. Reasonable in that it was relatively balanced and I think with a bit more prep I would have been able to easily answer more questions. Horrible, because I hadn't prepared enough, was tired, and the endless questions on inborn errors of metabolism provoked my ire!

Anatomy: actually very little, most of it was clinically related, had some images (CTs, contrast plain films, MRI); neuroanatomy was stroke syndromes
Behavioural sciences: not very much, very easy marks
Biochem: thankfully no horrible questions on metabolic pathways. virtually all questions were on inborn errors of metabolism e.g. Gaucher's, McArdle's, Cori, San filipo - there were some which i was not sure of/had not heard of
Biostats: easy marks- some of the questions seemed to be repetition but subtly different. One or two I wasn't quite sure what they were asking
Immunology: not very much, quite a few questions about hypersensitivity reactions, questions of transplant rejection a few autoimmune type questions
Micro: mostly bacteriology, 1 fungal q i remember, a few basic virology, and a couple of parasitology ones - very straightforward FA stuff, the odd question on antibiotics. most questions were name that bug rather than the more horrible intricacies
Pathology: the vast majority was pathology which was thankful as it the only subject I know! i didn't think anything was particularly overrepresented
Pharmacology: most questions were 'what drug to use?' 'mechanism of action?' or 'side effect?' but there was 1 lineweaver-burke plot, a couple of drug x graphs, and 1 on intracellular mechanisms - was pleased with pharm
Physiology: one of my worst subjects - could have been a lot worse; a few cardiac catheterisation questions, and then acid-base type qs or renal excretion graphs. cant really remember any lung physiology

Im not going to comment on systems except to say nothing seemed to be overrepresented and I wish I'd had more neuro!

There were some very very easy questions but many just had me stumped.

I thought it was a fair exam compared to what it could have been, I have only let myself down. Was aiming for 220+ but I think now I will just be glad if I get over 200!

now time to get drunk!

 

[Sapientia]

After reading tons of strategies on the forum I took what I thought was the best of all of them and used it. Not saying it is for everyone but it worked well for me and I was pleased for the amount of time I had studying it was the most efficient way to study for this test in my opinion.


My "overall" strategy: Do well the first 2 years, a month of studying does not make up for 2 years of slack. This month (or however long you committ) should be for review. That being said part 2 of my strategy was to do as many questions as possible before the exam.

Question Banks:

UsmleWorld: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
Kaplan: 70-75% Average, 100% completed
USMLErx: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
USMLEconsult: This one sucks, I started it then stopped it very quickly after

I was doing 500-700 questions per day for a while, its doable if you have a solid work ethic and discipline. I wrote one line down for each question I missed (basically the fact that I did not know). I would review these each night. At the end I had about 50 pages of facts that were super high yield for me. Rather than redoing 10K questions + I would re-read these every single night.


Review courses:

DIT: There are a lot of haters out there for this, and I was one of them. However even though they mostly read through first aid they do it in a fashion that lets you catch the fine details in the book and make it maneagable to digest. After this course I had FA completely memorized. I would recommend it if you don't have FA memorized yet, also using it conjunction with Rx early is a good idea since Rx references FA for all the questions.


Kaplan Vid's: I used these throughout second year. Very helpful for material that my professors and school was often lacking in. I used this to fill in any holes in my education throughout the year. It is simply too much to do it all at the end, if you don't start these early you will not benefit from them.


Books:


Goljan: Used it in 2nd year, it helped to REVIEW material since glancing over things I had already seeen helped me remember stuff quicker than reading a brand new review book.

BRS Phys: Over rated imo (I did it like 5x throughout 2nd year) you can do it an afternoon.

FA: A must, I am against making it a mad scientists notebook though. Many of my colleagues would write as many text books as they could possibly fit in FA in hopes that it would bring them success. That time could have much been better spent doing q's and writing down only the points you miss in FA (that is true annotating). FA is meant to be a review book, writing other books into is imo a waste of time.

Biochem Lange flash cards: Not bad for a few quick runs through, some of this material was on my test.

BRS Path: Quick review only.

Practice Tests:

NBME 1-4: 240-250's
NBME 5-7: 260's, high 260's on 6 and 7 (last ones I took)
NBME 11/12: 260's
UWSA1/2: 265+

I took NBME 1-4 earlier on in my studying.


USMLE:

I had very few questions that I had not seen before. I had seen most everything before by doing 10,000+ questions and all the practice tests out there. NBME 11/12 had some direct questions (identical) on my exam so I would definitely take those. Murmurs were not bad and radiology was not bad, usually they had clues that helped you even if you did not know the sound or picture. I would recommend UCLA's auscultation assistant for help with heart sounds.

Take a break after each block, wash your face. Don't let things carry over. I saw lots of students pushing through the whole exam with hardly any breaks. That is not a good strategy, just treat each block like a new test--mentally reset and you will benefit from that.


Good luck and hope this helps!

 

[bbydoc]

Good luck and hope this helps!

nice1!
thanks for posting your score sheet btw.

 

[Tig2575]

Hey guys, took my test yesterday, here's a quick writeup out of my step 1 experience.

Little background:

CBSSE (2 weeks before finishing school) - 235
Started studying May 16
UWSA 1 (4 weeks in) - 265/800
NBME 12 (5 weeks in) - 257/650
UWSA 2 (Little after 5 weeks in) - 265/800
Free 150 - 95%
Uworld full pass - 86% correct
Real deal (6/27) - ?

I kept a log of hours I spent in the library over the course of my 6 week study period, and ended up with a touch over 560 hours overall. I found it helpful to keep such a log, because it kept me focused on maximizing my effort - there was no point where I thought "aww I've spent so much time in the library today, lemme just go home and relax," because I knew I was keeping track of every minute I wasted.

I originally had my test scheduled for 6/30 at 12:00 in the testing center in the city where I live, but I decided right after I started studying to bump it up 3 days. The only time available then was 8:00am, which I wasn't going to take, so I had it changed to a testing center in a nearby town, which had a spot available for 1:00. I'd HIGHLY recommend taking it in the afternoon - I had plenty of time to sleep in, get a shower, grab a nice lunch, and watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being filmed right outside of my house (more on that later). Additionally, the testing center I went to was much smaller than the one in the city, which meant fewer delays, fewer distractions, less noise, etc.

The test:

I'm really not sure if I just got an unbelievably lucky draw of questions or what, because I thought the test was really easy - far easier than the free 150 questions or the NBME11/12 exams, and definitely way easier than Uworld. The questions weren't all that long, and there didn't seem to be a lot of "tertiary" questions at all (like on Uworld where you have to figure out the diagnosis, decide what the correct treatment is, and then answer a question about a side effect of the treatment). In fact, there were a lot of questions that were so basic (2 sentences testing a BASIC fact, like what the diagnosis is for a pt with B symptoms and acid fast bacilli on sputum) where I just tilted my head and said "wait, really???"

That actually concerns me, because a friend of mine took the test recently and got SLAMMED with embryology / anatomy - she said it was incredibly hard. My brother took the test 3 years ago and walked out feeling like he completely screwed up on the questions, and ended up getting a 260+. I would not be surprised at all if you're graded based on the difficulty and statistical analysis of the questions you took, which means if my test was full of cake walk questions, it's going to be a lot harder for me to clear the 260 level. But, who knows. We'll find out in 3 weeks - I know for sure that I'm going to get a score high enough to get me into the specialty I want to go into, I just want to get a score that'll make the *******s at the NBME sputter their coffee when it pops up on the discharge screen


I had maybe 4 or 5 embryo questions, and probably 9 or 10 anatomy questions, although they were all very, very reasonable. The CT scans are HIGH quality (not the copyright(c) 1993 scans you get from Uworld), and for the most part they were all fairly reasonable questions (as reasonable as USMLE-style anatomy questions can be).

Immuno was not hard at all - there were definitely a lot of immuno-related vignettes, but the final question asked was not always immuno related. When it was, it was a reasonable concept that you should have learned during your MSII classes.

I had a surprisingly large amount of microbiology, which I'm normally very strong in, however there was (as far as I can remember) 1 question that had me caught in between two answers. I'm refusing to look up any of the questions I wasn't sure about.

People talk about pathophysiology and describe ridiculous arrow questions with values that they had never even thought to consider, but all those questions are perfectly workable - you just need to take a step back and think about the physiology a bit holistically - skip the question and come back to it later if you're getting a bit tunnelvisioned.

As for Uworld / Fist Aid - I highly suggest you do all the questions you'd marked in Uworld the day before the exam (preferably in the morning and taking the afternoon off). I had 2 or 3 concepts that I had marked on Uworld that I had just reviewed the day before, that showed up on my exam. A lot of the info was of course in First Aid, but it's somewhat of a moot point, because you can only get the most out of First Aid if you already understand the material to a degree that you wouldn't really have needed to memorize the book in the first place. They're testing questions more than facts - First Aid is amazing for studying and consolidating your info, but I think you have to have the background knowledge first before relying on it.

Before I forget, here's my study materials:

Pathology during the school year - both Goljan Path and BRS Path
Pathology during board studying - BRS Path
Physiology - BRS Physio
Neuroanatomy - HY Neuro
Anatomy - Mainly First Aid (not enough, but you can figure out a lot of the questions if you remember a few things from your MSI class)
Immuno / Microbio: CMMRS supplemented with the Kaplan notes
Pharm: Pharm Cards + BRS flash cards
Behavioral - BRS
Embryology - First Aid (again, 2 out of the 5 weren't in FA, but you can figure them out if you remember anything from your MSI class)
Biochemistry - Pelley / Goljan's Rapid Review (highly recommended. Biochem was by far my weakest subject in MSI, and after spending 4 days with RR biochem, it was by far one of my strongest going into the test)




Oh, so, It's Always Sunny: I left the house to go grab some lunch before driving to the testing center, and made it about a block before the street was closed off. Turns out they were filming an episode of Always Sunny right there, so I had to circumvent the block they were using in order to get to the Wawa. On the way back, though, I stopped by the film site and managed to snap some pictures of the crew + Mac, Dee and Charlie:

Mac is fat
More Mac
Charlie doing the Charlie face
Dee on the left
Another of Dee

 

[indsha008]

Above is my score report, I changed my username for anonymity but promised myself that I would post here once I was done and had time since these forums have helped me out in school and for the USMLE. I wanted to post the screen shot so that users know this is for real and the following method can work (I combed the forums during my studying looking for credible study methods use). After reading tons of strategies on the forum I took what I thought was the best of all of them and used it. Not saying it is for everyone but it worked well for me and I was pleased for the amount of time I had studying it was the most efficient way to study for this test in my opinion.


My "overall" strategy: Do well the first 2 years, a month of studying does not make up for 2 years of slack. This month (or however long you committ) should be for review. That being said part 2 of my strategy was to do as many questions as possible before the exam.

Question Banks:

UsmleWorld: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
Kaplan: 70-75% Average, 100% completed
USMLErx: 80-85% Average, 100% completed
USMLEconsult: This one sucks, I started it then stopped it very quickly after

I was doing 500-700 questions per day for a while, its doable if you have a solid work ethic and discipline. I wrote one line down for each question I missed (basically the fact that I did not know). I would review these each night. At the end I had about 50 pages of facts that were super high yield for me. Rather than redoing 10K questions + I would re-read these every single night.


Review courses:

DIT: There are a lot of haters out there for this, and I was one of them. However even though they mostly read through first aid they do it in a fashion that lets you catch the fine details in the book and make it maneagable to digest. After this course I had FA completely memorized. I would recommend it if you don't have FA memorized yet, also using it conjunction with Rx early is a good idea since Rx references FA for all the questions.


Kaplan Vid's: I used these throughout second year. Very helpful for material that my professors and school was often lacking in. I used this to fill in any holes in my education throughout the year. It is simply too much to do it all at the end, if you don't start these early you will not benefit from them.


Books:


Goljan: Used it in 2nd year, it helped to REVIEW material since glancing over things I had already seeen helped me remember stuff quicker than reading a brand new review book.

BRS Phys: Over rated imo (I did it like 5x throughout 2nd year) you can do it an afternoon.

FA: A must, I am against making it a mad scientists notebook though. Many of my colleagues would write as many text books as they could possibly fit in FA in hopes that it would bring them success. That time could have much been better spent doing q's and writing down only the points you miss in FA (that is true annotating). FA is meant to be a review book, writing other books into is imo a waste of time.

Biochem Lange flash cards: Not bad for a few quick runs through, some of this material was on my test.

BRS Path: Quick review only.

Practice Tests:

NBME 1-4: 240-250's
NBME 5-7: 260's, high 260's on 6 and 7 (last ones I took)
NBME 11/12: 260's
UWSA1/2: 265+

I took NBME 1-4 earlier on in my studying.


USMLE:

I had very few questions that I had not seen before. I had seen most everything before by doing 10,000+ questions and all the practice tests out there. NBME 11/12 had some direct questions (identical) on my exam so I would definitely take those. Murmurs were not bad and radiology was not bad, usually they had clues that helped you even if you did not know the sound or picture. I would recommend UCLA's auscultation assistant for help with heart sounds.

Take a break after each block, wash your face. Don't let things carry over. I saw lots of students pushing through the whole exam with hardly any breaks. That is not a good strategy, just treat each block like a new test--mentally reset and you will benefit from that.


Good luck and hope this helps!

Hi ... First of all, congrats for your score. Your disciplined approach really paid off amazingly well ...

I still have about 2 months left for my exam (taking it late august). Done with 60% of UW with cumulative of 70% correct. I take tremendous amount of time reviewing the questions after completing a block of 46. It usually takes aorund 4 hrs for me to review one block. 🙁 I use notes function of UW and write down what i dont remember from that explanation.

What can I do to increase my speed so that I can also do all question banks (Kaplan, Rx, all NBMEs)???

I havent yet taken any NBMEs. Which NBME I should give first?

Unfortunately, I have rotations for the month of July. So for that month, I wont get more than 4-5 hrs per day of study.

 

[bowlofmushypeas]

I started typing out info I didn't know into a word document that I had opened simultaneously with W and that moved things along significantly compared to handwriting answers. I also only thoroughly read the wrong explanations to questions I didn't feel comfortable with or got wrong.

Hi ... First of all, congrats for your score. Your disciplined approach really paid off amazingly well ...

I still have about 2 months left for my exam (taking it late august). Done with 60% of UW with cumulative of 70% correct. I take tremendous amount of time reviewing the questions after completing a block of 46. It usually takes aorund 4 hrs for me to review one block. 🙁 I use notes function of UW and write down what i dont remember from that explanation.

What can I do to increase my speed so that I can also do all question banks (Kaplan, Rx, all NBMEs)???

I havent yet taken any NBMEs. Which NBME I should give first?

Unfortunately, I have rotations for the month of July. So for that month, I wont get more than 4-5 hrs per day of study.

 

[1badvette]

I just want to get a score that'll make the *******s at the NBME sputter their coffee when it pops up on the discharge screen

hahaha ... i just did reading this , lol u the man brother . Goodluck

 

[combat]

Did step 1 today

UWSA 1 214
usmle free questions 83%
UW cumulative (did about 50%) 54%
I am a UK grad currently doing internship, did step 2 ck last week, and step 2 cs the week before that - it has been a high pressure month with very little time to breath and I haven't worked hard enough for this exam. It is 6-7 years since I learnt most of this basic science stuff.

It was I felt a reasonable exam on the one hand, but just horrible on the other. Reasonable in that it was relatively balanced and I think with a bit more prep I would have been able to easily answer more questions. Horrible, because I hadn't prepared enough, was tired, and the endless questions on inborn errors of metabolism provoked my ire!

Anatomy: actually very little, most of it was clinically related, had some images (CTs, contrast plain films, MRI); neuroanatomy was stroke syndromes
Behavioural sciences: not very much, very easy marks
Biochem: thankfully no horrible questions on metabolic pathways. virtually all questions were on inborn errors of metabolism e.g. Gaucher's, McArdle's, Cori, San filipo - there were some which i was not sure of/had not heard of
Biostats: easy marks- some of the questions seemed to be repetition but subtly different. One or two I wasn't quite sure what they were asking
Immunology: not very much, quite a few questions about hypersensitivity reactions, questions of transplant rejection a few autoimmune type questions
Micro: mostly bacteriology, 1 fungal q i remember, a few basic virology, and a couple of parasitology ones - very straightforward FA stuff, the odd question on antibiotics. most questions were name that bug rather than the more horrible intricacies
Pathology: the vast majority was pathology which was thankful as it the only subject I know! i didn't think anything was particularly overrepresented
Pharmacology: most questions were 'what drug to use?' 'mechanism of action?' or 'side effect?' but there was 1 lineweaver-burke plot, a couple of drug x graphs, and 1 on intracellular mechanisms - was pleased with pharm
Physiology: one of my worst subjects - could have been a lot worse; a few cardiac catheterisation questions, and then acid-base type qs or renal excretion graphs. cant really remember any lung physiology

Im not going to comment on systems except to say nothing seemed to be overrepresented and I wish I'd had more neuro!

There were some very very easy questions but many just had me stumped.

I thought it was a fair exam compared to what it could have been, I have only let myself down. Was aiming for 220+ but I think now I will just be glad if I get over 200!

now time to get drunk!

Thanks for great experience, it actually calmed my nerves 😀, congrats and good luck i am sure you will be fine mate my exam is on july 7th

 

[kstreet]

Took the test a week ago, so with some time to digest what happend:

The greatest tool for me was definitely gunner training. I did not use it as extensively as I should have during the year and if I had another month I would have attempted to hit completion for the mastery portion. There are parts that are definitely overkill in terms of exam material, but seeing it every day repeatedly helps the concepts stick in your head. Again for those that prefer the flashcard model, this is definitely a system that works.

After that, it has to be First Aid, Goljan, and UWorld. I used Goljan extensively throughout the year while studying for Path and concepts that he taught repeatedly came up on the real thing. Listen to his audio as many times as necessary for your studies.

Know First Aid front to back. Even one word in first aid can alter the answer you put down and I know that a couple times I would remember the page the answer was on but just couldn't bring out the specific memory I needed.

UWorld is awesome for both learning and getting used to the format of the test. It really represents a cross-section of the type of questions you may see, although it does tend to be a bit more knitpicky than the real thing.

Other than that, I used various review books here and there but it really comes down to how well you laid the foundation during the first two years because it is pretty difficult to squeeze in all the random anatomy and extraneous bits of info that you may come across during those 6 weeks.

Practice tests, roughly chronological
NBME6 - 235
NBME7, 11, 12 - 240s
UWSA 1,2 - 250s 260s
free 150 - 92%
real thing - ?

And finally, please get a good night's sleep the night before. I didn't and I probably ended up with at least another 5, 6 questions incorrect because I was simply dead beat after not getting enough rest. If I could change one thing about how I studied, getting sleep would be at the top of the list.

Good luck to everybody who has taken and will be taking the test. Now for the waiting game.

 

[bruinhd]

Above is my score report, I changed my username for anonymity but promised myself that I would post here once I was done and had time since these forums have helped me out in school and for the USMLE. I wanted to post the screen shot so that users know this is for real and the following method can work (I combed the forums during my studying looking for credible study methods use). After reading tons of strategies on the forum I took what I thought was the best of all of them and used it. Not saying it is for everyone but it worked well for me and I was pleased for the amount of time I had studying it was the most efficient way to study for this test in my opinion....

Congratulations man. This is a major accomplishment.

 

[fuzzywuz]

I should contribute some test experience. Had mine earlier in the week.

Let me just go through the concrete stuff first:

Anatomy: Landmark questions, classic presentation of injuries (where the damage was..). For me.. the hardest was the pelvic anatomy. Though I only had 1 question on that.

Biochemistry: They asked stuff that was easier than expected. HOWEVER, I had an extremely hard time with anything that pertains to glycolysis and aerobic metabolism. Had a few of those questions. On the very last Q of my exam, I was asked to ID a particular amino acid. In front of me were 5 AA structures. I left the test with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Pathology: Nothing much to report. There were comments that NBME is more straightforward than USMLEWORLD... Not in my case. A lot of questions didn't give much classic presentation. Most of the time, they gave you one or two symptoms. The rest, they just threw a bunch of lab test and describe the age, sex, race of pt. Lotta red herrings. Lastly, there were quite a few things that I was asked that weren't really covered in FA. For instance, I had a question about some eye pathology that was NOT in FA.

Pharmacology: Again, straightforward stuff. FA would suffice.

Micro: I had a lot more parasites than I wanted. I was hoping for more bacteria and viruses... but I had at least 3 bug/worm questions. Had no clue. Had to guess. Knowing the stains are important, but I encountered one stain that wasn't even in FA. I can't remember it anymore.

Psychiatry: The usual. Not much to say. FA is good.

Biostats: See FA.

Ethics: I never really liked this.. I would say I'm an ethical person, but I still had a hard time since I can always narrow it down to 2 - 3 choices. However, it's pretty much inline with NBME.

Embryo: Had like 1 question on it. Had NO clue what they were asking for. They asked me to ID what an arrow was pointing to in the U/S. All of the choices were something I had not seen before..

Immuno: Don't recall seeing much, saw like a few. FA is good.

Neuro: FA. I was lucky to get some classic cases/presents and easy to ID landmarks. (Picture quality was crappy though.. hope I picked the right nerve because it was so bad.)
----

Concluding remarks:
I don't know what to make of the test. I am usually able to get through a block of question w/ 7-10 minutes to spare on UW. I'm a slow worker and I usually don't go back and check my answers. However, for blocks 1-4... I had a hard time pacing myself. I took a 10 min break after my first block because I was pretty shell-shocked and my nerves were kicking in over drive. I started to settle down by block 5. Despite settling in, I found that I wasn't able to work at my usual UW pace.

I walked out of the test feeling like I guess through half of it. Part of me also said that this should have been a doable test. I had a lot of questions where I went "Oh Damn... I READ THIS IN FA... I should know the answer to this Q..." I honestly can't say whether my form was hard or easy... If it was considered "easy," then I really hope the curve won't kill me.

Study method: FA, UW, Kaplan Qbank (only did like 25% of it), RR, other gold standard stuff (think of the book list from Tao)

That's all I can think of now... As I was leaving from Prometric, I wasn't able to get through the turnstile because my subway pass was expired. Missed my train. Had to walk across the street to a booth to get a new one.. On the back, it said "OPTIMISM" in caps. That's the way I'll live for the next few weeks.

 

[septoplasty]

That's all I can think of now... As I was leaving from Prometric, I wasn't able to get through the turnstile because my subway pass was expired. Missed my train. Had to walk across the street to a booth to get a new one.. On the back, it said "OPTIMISM" in caps. That's the way I'll live for the next few weeks.

That's just awesome.

 

[bbydoc]

I should contribute some test experience. Had mine earlier in the week.

Biochemistry: They asked stuff that was easier than expected. HOWEVER, I had an extremely hard time with anything that pertains to glycolysis and aerobic metabolism. Had a few of those questions. On the very last Q of my exam, I was asked to ID a particular amino acid. In front of me were 5 AA structures. I left the test with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Thanks for the write-up.
and regarding AA structures, I wouldn't be surprised if that was purely experimental a la "let's see how students do on this one, whether they still know stuff like this". like they mix in step1 material in a step2 exam just to see how much basic science you know a year after step1, or MCAT into step1, it is official that they do have experimental questions.

 

[homedum]

so you averaged over 13 hours a day every single day for 6 weeks straight? u sir are far more motivated than myself, or completely insane, either way, have you considered neurosurgery, probably feel like a walk in the park after such prep. also, im completely jealous of ur photos, you could prob sell that one of mac to the tabloids, looks like a few too many trips to the snack table for that guy

Hey guys, took my test yesterday, here's a quick writeup out of my step 1 experience.

Little background:

CBSSE (2 weeks before finishing school) - 235
Started studying May 16
UWSA 1 (4 weeks in) - 265/800
NBME 12 (5 weeks in) - 257/650
UWSA 2 (Little after 5 weeks in) - 265/800
Free 150 - 95%
Uworld full pass - 86% correct
Real deal (6/27) - ?

I kept a log of hours I spent in the library over the course of my 6 week study period, and ended up with a touch over 560 hours overall. I found it helpful to keep such a log, because it kept me focused on maximizing my effort - there was no point where I thought "aww I've spent so much time in the library today, lemme just go home and relax," because I knew I was keeping track of every minute I wasted.

I originally had my test scheduled for 6/30 at 12:00 in the testing center in the city where I live, but I decided right after I started studying to bump it up 3 days. The only time available then was 8:00am, which I wasn't going to take, so I had it changed to a testing center in a nearby town, which had a spot available for 1:00. I'd HIGHLY recommend taking it in the afternoon - I had plenty of time to sleep in, get a shower, grab a nice lunch, and watch an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia being filmed right outside of my house (more on that later). Additionally, the testing center I went to was much smaller than the one in the city, which meant fewer delays, fewer distractions, less noise, etc.

The test:

I'm really not sure if I just got an unbelievably lucky draw of questions or what, because I thought the test was really easy - far easier than the free 150 questions or the NBME11/12 exams, and definitely way easier than Uworld. The questions weren't all that long, and there didn't seem to be a lot of "tertiary" questions at all (like on Uworld where you have to figure out the diagnosis, decide what the correct treatment is, and then answer a question about a side effect of the treatment). In fact, there were a lot of questions that were so basic (2 sentences testing a BASIC fact, like what the diagnosis is for a pt with B symptoms and acid fast bacilli on sputum) where I just tilted my head and said "wait, really???"

That actually concerns me, because a friend of mine took the test recently and got SLAMMED with embryology / anatomy - she said it was incredibly hard. My brother took the test 3 years ago and walked out feeling like he completely screwed up on the questions, and ended up getting a 260+. I would not be surprised at all if you're graded based on the difficulty and statistical analysis of the questions you took, which means if my test was full of cake walk questions, it's going to be a lot harder for me to clear the 260 level. But, who knows. We'll find out in 3 weeks - I know for sure that I'm going to get a score high enough to get me into the specialty I want to go into, I just want to get a score that'll make the *******s at the NBME sputter their coffee when it pops up on the discharge screen


I had maybe 4 or 5 embryo questions, and probably 9 or 10 anatomy questions, although they were all very, very reasonable. The CT scans are HIGH quality (not the copyright(c) 1993 scans you get from Uworld), and for the most part they were all fairly reasonable questions (as reasonable as USMLE-style anatomy questions can be).

Immuno was not hard at all - there were definitely a lot of immuno-related vignettes, but the final question asked was not always immuno related. When it was, it was a reasonable concept that you should have learned during your MSII classes.

I had a surprisingly large amount of microbiology, which I'm normally very strong in, however there was (as far as I can remember) 1 question that had me caught in between two answers. I'm refusing to look up any of the questions I wasn't sure about.

People talk about pathophysiology and describe ridiculous arrow questions with values that they had never even thought to consider, but all those questions are perfectly workable - you just need to take a step back and think about the physiology a bit holistically - skip the question and come back to it later if you're getting a bit tunnelvisioned.

As for Uworld / Fist Aid - I highly suggest you do all the questions you'd marked in Uworld the day before the exam (preferably in the morning and taking the afternoon off). I had 2 or 3 concepts that I had marked on Uworld that I had just reviewed the day before, that showed up on my exam. A lot of the info was of course in First Aid, but it's somewhat of a moot point, because you can only get the most out of First Aid if you already understand the material to a degree that you wouldn't really have needed to memorize the book in the first place. They're testing questions more than facts - First Aid is amazing for studying and consolidating your info, but I think you have to have the background knowledge first before relying on it.

Before I forget, here's my study materials:

Pathology during the school year - both Goljan Path and BRS Path
Pathology during board studying - BRS Path
Physiology - BRS Physio
Neuroanatomy - HY Neuro
Anatomy - Mainly First Aid (not enough, but you can figure out a lot of the questions if you remember a few things from your MSI class)
Immuno / Microbio: CMMRS supplemented with the Kaplan notes
Pharm: Pharm Cards + BRS flash cards
Behavioral - BRS
Embryology - First Aid (again, 2 out of the 5 weren't in FA, but you can figure them out if you remember anything from your MSI class)
Biochemistry - Pelley / Goljan's Rapid Review (highly recommended. Biochem was by far my weakest subject in MSI, and after spending 4 days with RR biochem, it was by far one of my strongest going into the test)




Oh, so, It's Always Sunny: I left the house to go grab some lunch before driving to the testing center, and made it about a block before the street was closed off. Turns out they were filming an episode of Always Sunny right there, so I had to circumvent the block they were using in order to get to the Wawa. On the way back, though, I stopped by the film site and managed to snap some pictures of the crew + Mac, Dee and Charlie:

Mac is fat
More Mac
Charlie doing the Charlie face
Dee on the left
Another of Dee

 

[McPoyle]

Took mine yesterday....

Finished Uworld ~63% correct.
NBME 12: 228
UWSA1: 232
NBME 11: 245
UWSA2: 234

I had a **** ton of experimental questions it seemed like, not something I was expecting. Also had at least 3-4 behavioral/ethical questions on each block which was rad.

Other than that, I didn't feel that my test was particularly heavy in any specific organ system or basic science category. It was pretty evenly spread. Pharm questions were pretty straight forward, nothing too tricky.

However, a fair number of questions had words/drugs I swear I have never in my life seen before which made me a little uncomfortable.

I dunno what else to say, it was long, challenging, and very random.

Oh, and as compared to UWorld or NBME.... My test was much more ambiguous in its wording... I felt a number of questions were asking me to play "Guess what I'm thinking!"

WTF ever, its done. Have no fear of failing, just nervous I won't make my goal.

 

[Tig2575]

so you averaged over 13 hours a day every single day for 6 weeks straight? u sir are far more motivated than myself, or completely insane, either way, have you considered neurosurgery, probably feel like a walk in the park after such prep. also, im completely jealous of ur photos, you could prob sell that one of mac to the tabloids, looks like a few too many trips to the snack table for that guy

You're too kind 🙂 I'm interested in interventional radiology - I actually always have had a fond streak for neuro, but the market for neuro-IR is a bit shaky and probably will be for a while now. Regardless, that's years and years ahead, so I've got plenty of time to worry about the details

I did take three "relax and review" days throughout my study schedule where I slept in an extra hour and spent the morning at home reviewing material from the previous two weeks. My original plan was to take some serious time off on those days, but I found myself getting antsy at sitting around and ended up back in the library in the afternoon on all three occasions. I found that it was more stressful for me to be sitting there doing nothing and knowing the test date was approaching, than it was to just get back to the books.

 

[Step1Hash]

You're too kind 🙂 I'm interested in interventional radiology - I actually always have had a fond streak for neuro, but the market for neuro-IR is a bit shaky and probably will be for a while now. Regardless, that's years and years ahead, so I've got plenty of time to worry about the details

I did take three "relax and review" days throughout my study schedule where I slept in an extra hour and spent the morning at home reviewing material from the previous two weeks. My original plan was to take some serious time off on those days, but I found myself getting antsy at sitting around and ended up back in the library in the afternoon on all three occasions. I found that it was more stressful for me to be sitting there doing nothing and knowing the test date was approaching, than it was to just get back to the books.

👍

 

[375RGRRGT]

I did step 1 today.......i think

I did UW with 71% overall once through.
qbank was through the year but about the same.
Did DIT as well.......but there wasn't a thing they discussed that was on my exam so I guess a paid 700 some odd bucks to aid in excluding a few answer choices.
UWSA2 = 254
NBME 7, 11, 12 = all between 245-255

Im not sure where my Step 1 questions came from or what they were even asking.

I must have drawn an erratic or odd set of questions. Pretty much an even 3 way split between micro, immunology, and anatomy. Other than those topics, I had about 1-2 questions from the other basic/organ subject areas.

I marked the questions that were topics I had no clue what an answer might be.....I marked a low of 11 in one section and a high of 21 in another. On the NBME SA's I usually marked 2-4 per section. Usually marked 3-4 in my random UW 46 question blocks as well.

Feel pretty indifferent about it, hoping that I just drew a hard set of questions......but its over and cant do anything about it now anyway🙂

Best of luck to all those of you who take it in the future.

 

[Sapientia]

Hi ... First of all, congrats for your score. Your disciplined approach really paid off amazingly well ...

I still have about 2 months left for my exam (taking it late august). Done with 60% of UW with cumulative of 70% correct. I take tremendous amount of time reviewing the questions after completing a block of 46. It usually takes aorund 4 hrs for me to review one block. 🙁 I use notes function of UW and write down what i dont remember from that explanation.

What can I do to increase my speed so that I can also do all question banks (Kaplan, Rx, all NBMEs)???

I havent yet taken any NBMEs. Which NBME I should give first?

Unfortunately, I have rotations for the month of July. So for that month, I wont get more than 4-5 hrs per day of study.

I made a seperate document for each qbank, typed one liner factoids into it. You need to be more efficient at finding what is the reason why you missed the questinon and not getting bogged down reading every word of the explanation unless you really don't know whats going on. 4 hours is long for one block, as you progress your timing should improve.

 

[cyberer]

Your experience sounds just like mine- I marked 10+ per section as having no freaking clue what they were asking. I'm venting about it here

It seemed like 10-15 images per block as well.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=834932

I did step 1 today.......i think

I did UW with 71% overall once through.
qbank was through the year but about the same.
Did DIT as well.......but there wasn't a thing they discussed that was on my exam so I guess a paid 700 some odd bucks to aid in excluding a few answer choices.
UWSA2 = 254
NBME 7, 11, 12 = all between 245-255

Im not sure where my Step 1 questions came from or what they were even asking.

I must have drawn an erratic or odd set of questions. Pretty much an even 3 way split between micro, immunology, and anatomy. Other than those topics, I had about 1-2 questions from the other basic/organ subject areas.

I marked the questions that were topics I had no clue what an answer might be.....I marked a low of 11 in one section and a high of 21 in another. On the NBME SA's I usually marked 2-4 per section. Usually marked 3-4 in my random UW 46 question blocks as well.

Feel pretty indifferent about it, hoping that I just drew a hard set of questions......but its over and cant do anything about it now anyway🙂

Best of luck to all those of you who take it in the future.

 

[375RGRRGT]

....yeah sounds strangely similar, female repro and some male too.

 

[sgod34]

Just got done. Feel like I crap, but figured I would give my feedback before I break out the booze. Honestly, I feel like the test was really difficult but I think almost everyone feels that way and sits there pondering on the ones they missed. IMO, a lot of the exam is based completely on your luck that day and whether the test Gods bless you by testing you on subjects that are you are stronger on. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky.

Since most of these write-ups are very similar, I'll only post what was unique to my exam. I was "fortunate" enough to get a dozen or so pelvic anatomy questions, with 75% of them being ridiculous. I also got a bunch of extremity related anatomy, but it wasn't bad at all. Apparently knowing EVERYTHING about Langerhans cells is very important, because I got like 6 questions on them. The micro wasn't bad at all, but for some reason I got at least 7 questions on ABX mechanisms. They aren't that hard, but truthfully I just didn't study them very much because I haven't heard of anyone getting more than 3 of these. Also make sure you know how the unique/rare bugs present, because FA doesn't go into a lot of them. Also, like some others the last few days have posted, my test was very Repro and Immuno heavy. Some hard, some not too bad. A lot of the Repro stuff was not in FA nor on UW, and I thought was a but too clinical for Step 1. What pisses me of the most, some questions were just very poorly presented. For example, I had a bacterial genetics questions that was literally one sentence long and asked what the drawing above showed. I swear, I think a 2 year old drew it. I have no idea what anything was nor the process that was going on, and it was really small. It also only had 3 answer choices which was a bit odd. Guess it could have been a trial question. Also, I guess they except us to be very familiar with radiology. I had a question with a very obvious presentation of COPD and they wanted you to pick the x-ray that should match it. However, every freaking x-ray looked identical. Wide chest, vertical heart, hyperlucent lungs, flatted diaphragm, etc.

Ok, hope this helps. If I remember anything else relevant, I'll come back and post it later this week. Keep your fingers crossed for me please. Good luck to you all! 👍