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.

 

[qmcat]

Haha....sometimes I wake up, look at my calendar, and go back to bed...

lol, i envy you.

Universally, you will have the full range of replies. Of course there are going to be random factoid questions, but I felt that if you truly are strong at applying concepts and integration, then you are far better off.

Many people say they understand the concepts and they got pimped on random questions, but oftentimes they are lying to themselves. Even on the questions I was completely clueless about, I was able to calm myself down and narrow my choices by looking at the answer choices, word derivations, etc.

Thanks. I'm banking on my test taking skills and reasoning to get me through this rather than pure memorization of FA. I'm generally really bad at memorizing stuff, but better at figuring things out (was a physics/math person in undergrad fwiw). I just hope that I'm not shooting myself in the foot by not doing more passes of FA. It's just really hard to sit and read, since most of the time my mind starts wandering.

 

[ArcGurren]

lol, i envy you.



Thanks. I'm banking on my test taking skills and reasoning to get me through this rather than pure memorization of FA. I'm generally really bad at memorizing stuff, but better at figuring things out (was a physics/math person in undergrad fwiw). I just hope that I'm not shooting myself in the foot by not doing more passes of FA. It's just really hard to sit and read, since most of the time my mind starts wandering.

Integration and reasoning of concepts will get you the majority of the way through the test in my opinion; and it will also help

However for a lot of the questions as well, it's just straightforward memorize-regurgitate. Not super intuitive unfortunately. I recall having a question (relatively easy but still) which asked about what the second messengers were for a dopamine-1 receptor (got this right but I can't remember what it actually is lol) - this is something which I got just from straight up memorizing FA.

 

[DreamingTheLive]

The Calm before the STORM. . . .

 

[wannabedocta]

July 16-17: carmaggedon?

July 13: nbme-aggedon.

Start stocking up on water bottles and dry goods this week. This week may get messy.

 

[combat]

so i was going over FA ck, and i saw a picture in Derm section, which was on step1 exam, and i got that wrong, i had it right but i changed it to wrong answer. I took mine on 7th july i marked atleast 11-14 questions which i was not sure about 3-5-7 blocks. I feel like peucking every time i look at calender

 

[da8s0859q]

So, I fled the anticipatory 7/13 thread to try and dodge some of the neuroticism, but I figured I'd say good luck to everyone "expecting" tomorrow.

I will be checking my score as soon as I can. After rounds I guess. Will try and add to the "here's what I did" posts in this thread if my results make that useful.

 

[combat]

So, I fled the anticipatory 7/13 thread to try and dodge some of the neuroticism, but I figured I'd say good luck to everyone "expecting" tomorrow.

I will be checking my score as soon as I can. After rounds I guess. Will try and add to the "here's what I did" posts in this thread if my results make that useful.

Good luck, you will be fine...and let us know

 

[RapplixGmed]

Looks like they may not start releasing scores until noon tomorrow.

This was sent by the nbme to our school:

The scores for the majority of examinees who took Step 1 starting in mid-May through late June will be released Wednesday, July 13. Email notifications of score availability will be sent to these students STARTING AT 12:00 PM, but it may take several hours to send all emails. Although the NBME has increased server capacity, note that over 13,000 students are likely to access the NBME Licensing Examination Services website to retrieve their score reports. The following paragraph has been added to the standard email notification that you will receive on Wednesday, July 13:

Your USMLE Step 1 SCORE REPORT is available on the NBME Licensing Examination Services (NLES) website. Due to a larger-than-normal score release today (Wednesday, July 13), examinees may experience some delays in accessing their results, depending upon the level of server traffic on reporting day. If you encounter a delay or an error message, please close the window and try again later today or tonight.

 

[Bleurberry]

Thanks for the post Rapplix

 

[waterlilly]

Hey guys! Took the beast today and it went ok. I counted ~25 that I missed but there were probably more. At this point, I'm just hoping some of it won't count...lol

I got saddled with a ton of pelvic anatomy and repro. Like the poster above said....every other lady was pregnant haha. The good news is...I only memorized 25% of the drugs in first aid and thankfully, only got one drug I didn't know.

The bummer was, I had like 5 biochem questions at most and biochem is my strong suit but perhaps I'm just remembering my faults...here's the breakdown:

Behavioral: some really easy PPV and prevalence crap but one hard one on calculating r coefficient using a graph
Biochem: ~5....all really easy. First aid was definitely enough.
Pharm: know the pharm section well...it will literally get you the majority of pharm questions. I did have one where it asked how to make MPTP...I had no clue so guessed
Micro: wish I learned the DNA circular/noncircular/+/- crap but all well...was burning out at the end so didn't bother reviewing it. Other then that, I only had one bug I really didn't know but guessed correctly
Immuno: I only got like 3 questions here...too bad because I like immuno. First aid seemed to be enough

Organ systems: Like I said, I ended up with a lot of repro but Pathoma prepared me well. I also got a lot of derm questions surprisingly which Pathoma also prepared me for. Other then that...a one heart sound (easy), a couple of lung patho questions, and really nitpicky questions about gastric enzymes....which I only got right because I read BRS physio 2 days before taking the test.

Overall, I'd say First aid and pathoma were the way to go. If I had to do it all over again...I'd just focus on First aid, Pathoma, and BRS physio. I ended up only studying for 3 weeks...wish I had more time but duty calls. Here are my stats:

April: NBME 3- 183.....I took it because my school offered it for free and I just wanted to see where I was at
June: NBME 5- 193....I took this right before studying
2 weeks later- Pometric Practice test: 85%, NBME 7: 231

That's all I did lol. At this point, I'm just hoping to pass. Good luck everyone! I'm glad I can now move to another trend but pm me if you have questions. To those who came before me...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE HELP!

 

[lavodnas]

test day may 17th
238/99

The whole wait I thought I did terrible.
Good luck to everyone today !

 

[neulite30]

244/99

I'm happy, for sure. 🙂

 

[ThereHeIs]

Took mine this past monday july 11.

I had about 5-10 exact NBME repeats from 6-12. Overall, the exam went well. Here's a breakdown:

Behavior - basic calculations, but mainly "quote" questions

Biochem - very basic and not too specific, or difficult

Embryo - FA was enough

Micro - classic presentations, identify bug. no virus structure at all (thank god)

Immuno - more like immuno path, interpret some graphs, mainly application q's

General Path - FA was fine

Pharm - much easier than basic science pharm. classic stuff, AE

Cardio - 2 murmurs, one i knew based on the vignette, 2 equations, a graph and a very hard ekg lol had noo idea .. cardiopath q's were HY stuff

Endocrine - FA was enough

GIT - some CTs that seemed difficult, but once u knew what they wanted and also figured out what side the arrow was on, and where you were in the abdomen (i had a pelvis CT), you could make a good guess. other than that, FA GIT was enough. phys was basic hormone stuff, a graph

Heme/Onc - no auer rods (wtf!), classic stuff.

MSK - rotator cuff, some nerve lesions, HY diseases etc.

Neuro - where is the lesion type deal, mainly imaged, spinal cord x-section .. not bad if you know your neuro

Psych - basic presentations, choose problem

Renal - mainly phys, HY stuff (i.e. efferent/afferent and how that changes things if u dilate/constrict), path was HY stuff

Cell Bio - some stuff not in FA but gained from UW and from ugrad knowledge

The questions where you had to read a graph were not bad. Find out what they want, read the axes and go for it. I don't think I had 'experimental' questions? I think these are the questions that ppl call "wtf questions" lol. Everything on my test seemed like I saw it somewhere once before either in basic science or in ugrad with the exception of a few diseases.

After basic science, I was strict FA, DIT and UWx1. Also used HYN and HYA. Good luck to people who still have to take it. The best thing you can do for yourself is be confident and don't let the nerves get to you! It's only a test, not someone with a gun in your face. You got thisssssss.

 

[BeatrixIsBackDO]

So no scores til noon??

 

[ArcGurren]

Sweet flying space monkeys I'm finally done with that. Off for some sun soon!

Quick brief recap (I may post a bigger one later)

Exam was overall pretty fair. It was about UW difficulty, with a few easier questions, a few harder questions, mostly in the middle. My preparation definitely helped me for most of them and even the ones which I wasn't entirely sure about, I managed to make educated guesses on. Until I know how the curve is however I absolutely refuse to speculate on the score.

By subject:

Embryo - pretty simple, often very straightforward. There was only one embryo question which took me a minute and then I smacked myself in the head. Overall not that many, maybe 1-2 per section.

Anatomy - straightforward anatomy was fairly low yield, but I had something like 3 or 4 questions on the prostate/pelvis, which has always been tough for me. However I think I managed to approximate a good answer for many of them and that's really all I can ask for. There were a couple of ridiculously easy ones too though to even it out (including a common peroneal nerve fracture at the fibular neck).

Path/Pathophys/Phys - by far the biggest component of the exam. There were a few up/down arrows per section which weren't too bad, and only one of them really stumped me for a bit, but I think I figured it out. Also I really wish they didn't use "+" signs as it confuses me which answers I crossed out and which ones I didn't sometimes as a result. Overall this is fairly high yield stuff, and ranges from very straightforward to somewhat tough.

Pharm - surprisingly, this was one of the simplest. Most of the questions were straightforward mechanisms of action or side effects. A few required some thinking but otherwise it was fairly good. Only one of the questions really confused me and I think I made a good educated guess nonetheless.

Biochemistry - also surprisingly, not that hard. A few questions were on lipid metabolism, a few were glycogen storage diseases, and a few were lysosomal storage diseases as well. This was probably the biggest surprise for me since I had spent a lot of time expecting very very tough vignettes on these, and I came out feeling pretty good about it.

Molecular bio/Genetics - also not that bad, fair mix of easy and hard questions. There was one random question about "hydropathicity" for which I had no effing clue what they were talking about but otherwise it was pretty straightforward. A lot of them involved lab techniques and interpreting them, and there were a few pedigrees. There were also 2 or 3 questions amazingly which involved hardy weinberg stuff, so I'm glad that I paid attention to this.

Immunology/Micro - there's been speculation on whether this was super high yield since they're "shaking it up" a bit and adding new questions... and to be honest I don't know. Most of the immuno questions were very simple and straightforward, or required a little understanding of maturation processes (which you should be able to dredge up from your immuno courses if you were taught it well). I had only one vaccine question, and it was the expected "which of these has the most immunogenicity" one. There were a couple micro diseases I was unsure of but I managed to narrow it down and guess for one, and the other was some random disease "from Minnesota" and asked for what two other diseases were carried by the same vector. Not too bad.

Behavioral - ooo this got a little tricky at times. The ethics questions/"situation" questions could get a little rough and there was one situation I had never come across on a practice question but I think I guessed it correctly. The psych was for the most part simple and straightforward. Amazingly I had a grand total of ONE psych drugs question, and it was a mechanism of action question... definitely overstudied those, but better safe than sorry.

Neuro - THANK GOD, no brainstem pictures. There were a few side views/gross views of the brain talking about different lesions and such, but they were either obvious or they required a small bit of thinking to figure out (aphasias, middle cerebral artery strokes, etc). Had some extraocular muscle questions and a spinal cord cross section question which were easily discernible. I had only 2 or 3 drug questions on neuro and they were all very straightforward.

Biostats - I'm very thankful I looked at the equations and definitions last night. I had at least 3 or 4 questions on study designs and a couple questions on math stuff. These are very easy points to get and you can do yourself a favor by not skimping on the biostats!

What I did, and also what I shouldn't have done:

- Raymon's pharm lectures were CLUTCH for this exam, and I am so glad I did them.
- UW and FA are golden. There were a few details from FA that I got as questions on the exam which people sometimes skim over. DON'T.
- Kaplan qbank was definitely waaaaaaay harder and more nitpicky, but it provided good practice. Also, the font used by them is the same as the one on the real interface, which was nice.
- Goljan was... sort of helpful in the end. He helped me learn some of the concepts but not that many of his "high yield" things came up on the exam, and most of them were in FA already anyway. It was definitely absolutely worth it to go through though.
- I would have spent more time on Behavioral Ethics in retrospect.
- You're going to come out of some sections feeling like crap. Don't worry about it. You probably did fine.
- I doubt an extra week would have helped me get a higher grade and I think the time I spent was sufficient.

All in all, glad I'm done, and glad that's over. Peace out!

Final score: 251/99

Prior practice tests:

USMLERx Exam 1: 238
USMLERx Exam 2: 240
NBME 11: 240
NBME 7: 250
NBME 12: 238
UWSA1: 265/800
UWSA2: 265/800
Final UW Average, second pass: 80% (timed blocks), First pass: 70% (tutored)
Final Kaplan Average: 74%

So it looks like in the end, my score was closest to my NBME 7 score, so I guess there's *some* validity to that argument that it's the closest approximation? haha.

Overall, no complaints.

 

[talooklatrek]

1

 

[WashMe]

252/99

Not impressive by SDN standards, but I'm happy!
Practice scores were, in order:
nbme5: 220 (baseline)
uw1: 252 one week in
uw2: 244 2 weeks in
nbme11: 243 2.5 weeks in
nbme12: 247 3.5 weeks in

 

[Altruist]

Just got my score: 249. Very happy! I took the exam on 5/27 and my score report was available at about 11 am, for those who are interested.

Score estimates:
Medfriends.org: 247 from the QBank, 262 from Free 150 Q's, 241 from NBME, 253 from MCAT

Kaplan Diagnostic Exam: 62% - end of 3rd semester
Kaplan USMLE Practice exam: 65% - 1 month before
UWSA 2: 242 / 610 - 2 1/2 weeks out
NBME #12: 242 / 590 - 1 week out
UWSA 1: 250 / 660 - 2 days prior
Uworld Overall: 71%
Kaplan Qbank: 64% overall, 73% last 400 q
Actual USMLE Step 1: 249/99
COMBANK: 79%
COMLEX Level 1 - 601/89, 3 days after (not my best performance--I was pretty burnt out by this point)

I spent the bulk of my time in the last couple of weeks going through UWorld as thoroughly as I could, and got through it all the way once. I went back through some missed questions, but I was scoring so highly on those I'm pretty sure I'd just memorized the questions. I switched to going through FA after I finished UW, though I didn't spend as much time on FA as I could have. Anyway, it worked for me. Oddly enough, I left the USMLE feeling like I'd done ok, but figured more in the 230-240 range. COMLEX, I left thinking, "Wtf was that?" and REAAAALLY wasn't sure how I'd done. Thankfully, both turned out fine.

 

[Maalik Ashtaar]

So I got my score I got a 225/97 and I know that's terrible by SDN standards but I'm happy with it
I started off doing an NBME and got a 177 or so so I made like a 50 point jump in 4 weeks
My score report was kind of surprising though I was borderline in Behavior even though I scored like 80-90% on my uworld and thought that'd be my strong suit.
Anyway good luck to all of the people who still have to take it I wish you all the best

 

[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.

252. The adrenalin probably kicked in by the time my test started...anyways wouldnt recommend that route bc I would be kicking myself if I had not done as well over something as silly as not sleeping..

To reiterate: gunnertraining, Goljan, FA, Uworld. Add in other stuff as needed, but the above is a solid combo. Foremost was GT bc I am certain on a great number of questions it allowed me to rely on fact recall that had become automatic.

 

[hyrule]

real deal: 228, had an insane test.

So disappointed. Its as if I would have gotten a much better score if I took it on a different day.
Ortho/Rads might be out of the question now 🙁


nbme 12: 245
nbme 11: 247
uwsa2: 248

MCAT:37

 

[Mace1370]

229! So happy to be over with.

 

[p30doc]

4/24 NBME 6 165
5/1 UWSA 1 186
5/8 NBME 11 193
5/15 UWSA 2 206
5/30 NBME 12 210
6/6 DIT predictive 231
6/6 NBME 7 224

6/15 real deal 229/99

Man what a ride, I'm very happy with my score. Of course it pales in comparison to all the sdn superstars. I never would have thought I would improve 64 points from my baseline. DIT was a gem for me. With that I focused on FA and UW. My UW percentage ended up around 53% so the magic formula didn't apply to me(thankfully) but that could be because I had such a big progression over my study period.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Posting from a Blackberry, so I'll elaborate more on strategy/tips later (I can't even really find my old post-exam post on this thread).

237/99

A bit disappointed since I studied my brains out for this test and really wanted to at least break 240. I had also scored >250 on some nbmes, so this really feels like a slide downwards from what I was expecting.

MCAT - 31
Kaplan COMLEX diag - 61%
Final qbank avg (2 months out) - 67%
Final Uconsult avg - 71%
". UW avg - 74%

Have to look up NBME scores later.

 

[fizzle]

Just took it today, and I will just say that the real exam was helluva lot harder than the NBME exams and much more random than the UWorld QBank. It wasn't even in the "If I'd spent a bit more time reviewing this material or thought smarter, I'd have known this" category but rather the "I know this disease/anatomy but WTF I've never heard of the obscure detail this question is asking for" category. Lame. At this point, all I can do is rely on the curve. Frankly, I thought UWorld was easier than the real exam. Pretty much most of UWorld can be answered using the information from FA, but I'd say only about 70% of the material on the real exam covered details I had seen in FA.

Not to mention, many of the questions had long and extensive clinical vignettes...I finished each block in time, but I was sometimes cutting it close there and seldom had much time to review (as opposed to the NBME exams, where I had around 15 minutes left after my initial run).

Edit: Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from: Got 245 on the last 3 NBME exams I took (11, 7, and 6).

So I just got back my score, and I ended up scoring higher than I'd ever gotten on any of my practice exams (>245). Huh. I guess test impressions have little bearing on actual scores; considering that my exam included a whole bunch of WTF questions, I was expecting anywhere from a 220 to a 240 based on my mood after the exam.

As for my study habits if anyone is interested:

I just used First Aid, USMLEWorld, and the NBME exams for a period of 6 weeks. No other books. Read through FA once, completed the USMLEWorld QBank, then read through FA again. For USMLEWorld, I went through the whole QBank once in untimed tutor mode and made sure to read all the answer explanations, both correct and incorrect.

Lesson of the day: Don't get bugged out when you find the exam difficult yet hear everyone saying his/her exam was easy/doable/etc. The curve will correct for this.

 

[Mandy22]

If I took the test on june30th when can I expect my scores? Thanks.

 

[ArcGurren]

If I took the test on june30th when can I expect my scores? Thanks.

3 wednesdays after the week of your exam. congrats on finishing!

 

[ChelseaFC]

Mcat: 22, 29
UW2: 214
UW1: 234 (1 month before my exam)
NBME7: 240 (T-3wks)
NBME12: 228 (T-2 weeks)
NBME11: 228 (T-1 week)
NBME6: 221 (T-2 days) Freak out mode activated!
UW average: 1st run through 57% (with second year courses)
Kaplan Qbank: 67% (finished 2 weeks before my exam)
UW average 2nd run through 76% (only got through 1200 questions after reset.)

I did DIT, 3xFA, 55%Gunner Training banked. I maxed out on all the resources I could get my hands on because I knew I wasnt at the top of my class by any means, and if this exam means as much as people say it does, I have to do the best I could. I did the best I could and I am happy with the score I got.

I came out of the exam feeling cautiously optimistic, even after an abysmal practice test score 2 days earlier. I think I might have psyched myself out during the last couple of weeks. I studied for 6.5 weeks in total, after 2nd year.

I guess this goes to say that an average medical student can get a very good USMLE step 1 score. I've always wanted to match into a competitive specialty, so I guess that is still possible.

Thats my spiel. Good luck to you all.

M-mutha-effing-3!!!

 

[chad5871]

Congrats you guys! Everyone did a great job!

Anyone else taking the beast tomorrow?

 

[RapplixGmed]

266/99

Congrats to everybody getting their scores to day.

Will post more on study methods when I get the chance later. =)

 

[ArcGurren]

266/99

Congrats to everybody getting their scores to day.

Will post more on study methods when I get the chance later. =)

Holy wow, congratulations! I think you're leading the pack right now lolz

 

[leedsunited]

232/99

My NBMEs went 163 > 193 > 217 so I'm pretty happy. GL everyone

 

[chad5871]

266/99

Congrats to everybody getting their scores to day.

Will post more on study methods when I get the chance later. =)

Geez, congrats man!

 

[scudrunner]

DO student here...

Had about 3 weeks of dedicated study time and 3 weeks of part-time study while we wrapped up our last systems course.

Used UWorld during some some of our courses during second-year, which was nice.

Finished first pass with ~70% correct in tutor mode.

Second pass, ended up with ~80% correct doing 4 blocks of 46 random questions per day in tutor mode.

Annotated FA as I went. Did 2 full FA reviews in total. FA was an integral part of my daily routine, in conjunction with UWorld. I'll echo what many before me have stated, UWorld + FA = Gold.

Lastly, went through the incorrect and marked questions.

During the last week I took some practice exams:

Free 150- 87% -->253 according to medfriends
UWSA1- 245
UWSA2- 245

Real deal on 6/22 --> 244/99

Not astronomical, but I'm pretty happy!

 

[Lizloveslilies]

Finally got the link to work on my NBME page! I was getting pretty anxious waiting for the score! yikes...

Thought I should post my experience since I've gotten so much help from this forum.

My score = 262/99

I took my exam 6/15, but I was initially planning on taking it some time before that day. I had to postpone my test day because of a family emergency. I started my dedicated studying in mid-March. I split study time with classes until the start of April, at which time classes ended. Before April, I spent 2 hours per day going through my study materials. After mid-April I spent 8-10 hours per day of studying. As far as taking questions (see details below), I did 2 timed, random, unused blocks per day and took meticulous notes on all my questions and explanations. By Step 1 time, I had a binder of ~ 150 pages of notes on ~5000 questions that I found very helpful. Practice makes perfect!

The materials that I used for my preparation were:

- First Aid 2011 - about 6 full thorough passes
- Goljan Rapid Review Pathology, 3rd edition - read once during my pathology course work and once while reviewing organ systems. Referred to this book constantly.
- BRS Physiology and BRS Physiology cases
- BRS Anatomy - once
- Lippincott Anatomy and Embryology Q&A - Good compliment to the Question banks as far as anatomy and embryology go
- Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple - Read it once during the class, once during review for Step 1 and referred to the tables as needed. Very good compliment to FA micro!
- Lippincott Illustrated Pharmacology - Read it once during the class, once during review for Step 1. I found that this book was very detailed in some aspects and not so detailed in others. But that's why you gotta pay attention in Pharm class right? (haha)
- Lange Pharmacology Flash cards - To get that nit-picky stuff down
- BRS Neuroanatomy - read this once during the class and referred to it as needed. Knowing blood supply, surface anatomy, tracts and decussations will take you a long way as far as neuroanatomy goes. This book is great for a neuro course, but is horribly detailed for the actual Step 1
- Note that I didn't use a book for biochemistry for the Step 1. I used BRS Biochemistry (older edition) for my biochemistry class, but I found this book to be too detailed for the actual Step 1. FA biochemistry + question bank questions for biochemistry was a great way to get this subject down for me.

Question sources: all new questions were done timed, random, unused, and 2 blocks per day

- USMLEWorld - my favorite question bank. Very well written questions and explanations. Actual exam was closer to UW in nature than other question banks
- Kaplan Q-bank - a notch below UW. Has links to FA and Medessentials, but a little too much random factoid stuff in this source
- Robbins review book (review of pathology) - I bought this book for the course. Had several questions that seemed to be straight out of this book on my exam. I thought the book had either easy questions or extremely hard questions...overall, I don't regret using it. Good source and good explanations.
USMLErx - Started this question bank only because I had bought it with a friend of mine. Did about 250 or so questions and didn't do any more. I didn't like the questions, the user interface was a bit clunky, froze up my computer, ...

Question bank averages: (first pass, random, timed)

- UW - 85%
- Kaplan - 84%
- Robbins Review - 87%
- USMLErx - 89%

Other tests:

- School offered a CBSE in 5 weeks into my studying in which my scaled score corresponded to a 260+.
- Otherwise, I did not take any NBME practice exams. I also did not do the DIT or Kaplan courses.

Exam day:

Got to the testing center early. I was fortunate that I got 2 really great nights of sleep before the test. Walked to the testing center from my house. In my backpack, I had my lunch (PBJ and some diet coke = meals of champions), First Aid and my question bank notes. Each block took me about the same amount of time (45 minutes to complete all questions, 10 minutes or so to look over everything and scrutinize answers). I marked on average 6 questions per block (42 total to my recollection) and thought I missed an average of 4 questions per block (28 to my recollection) --> as per one of my earlier posts.

Took a break between each block. I really needed to do this. My experience in taking 2 question blocks without a break during my studying was that my performance was always better on the 2nd block (on average) if I had taken a break vs. if I had not. Taking breaks also kept me fresh for blocks 4, 5, and 6 where the usual fatigue sets in (or so I heard).

Left the testing center and I felt pretty good. Wrote down how many I marked and thought I missed on a piece of paper (28 missed v. 42 marked) and then that's that. I tried to look up some answers that night, but I was exhausted. Waiting for the test results was seriously harder than test day itself 😀

Some advice:

- Do well in your 2nd year! Seriously, this cannot be overstated. You cannot expect to magically step up your game when it is crunch time if you haven't been putting in good time throughout your 2nd year (or even the first 2 years!).
- Know which resources you want to use and stick to them. You should get a gauge for this when you are in your coursework years and NOT when you are preparing for step 1. If you are taking anatomy, buy an anatomy review book, and use it to supplement your studying. Have the bigger picture in mind when you are slogging through your coursework. It will definitely make studying for Step 1 a lot easier.
- Don't use too many resources!
- Know what works for you. You know how to study! You've done it for 2 years! So get with the program and do what you've done well for the first 2 years. It takes a lot of discipline to study for this test, but it is by no means impossible.
- Do lots of questions and take notes on them. When you are done with those questions, re-do those questions on the "incorrect" or "marked" modes of your question banks!
- Aim high! Don't study just to pass, or just to hit the average. Why not go the extra-mile?

Good luck to everyone who is going to take this exam in the future. I am seeing a lot of great scores on this thread! If you have questions please post them in this thread or PM me!

PS: Please do not quote my entire post or even parts of this post...just to spare the readers from excessive lengthening of this thread 🙂

 

[Pedi FTW]

I made the mistake of using a pulldown computer to look at my score- my resident had to catch me as I started to pass out (so embarrassing!). Utter shock and amazement, I am a good student but this caught me by total surprise!

NBME form 6, 4 weeks out- 250
NBME form 11, 3 weeks out- 247
NBME form 7, 2 weeks out-264
Kaplan- 67%
UWorld-73%

Study EARLY!!!! I started with 46 questions Kaplan per day over Christmas break. Three months out I did 96 questions per day. Flesh out your First Aid with class info throughout second year.

FINISH both Qbanks, this is critical! If you finish them early, start them over. A significant portion of this test is learning how to tell what the question is asking.

I used First Aid, Pharm cards, Micro cards, BRS path (but only to reference things I was fuzzy on), and the pictures in RR path. I did not read the entire book, way too long, but the pictures were high yield.

 

[ArcGurren]

Final score: 251/99

Prior practice tests:

USMLERx Exam 1: 238
USMLERx Exam 2: 240
NBME 11: 240
NBME 7: 250
NBME 12: 238
UWSA1: 265/800
UWSA2: 265/800
Final UW Average, second pass: 80% (timed blocks), First pass: 70% (tutored)
Final Kaplan Average: 74%

So it looks like in the end, my score was closest to my NBME 7 score, so I guess there's *some* validity to that argument that it's the closest approximation? haha.

Overall, no complaints.

Gonna briefly detail my study plan, PM for more details.

1. Used UW during the year to study along with path, pharm, and micro. It helped my grade in those classes AND also built up my knowledge base for the Step 1.

2. Annotated UW questions on my first pass during second year into FA.

3. During my dedicated study time, reset UW and bought Kaplan Qbank to use along with my studying for practice. This isn't always necessary but it provided me with a bunch of questions to do when I was bored of studying, and it would occasionally provide me with details that I may have glossed over in First Aid.

I also bought Rx to be able to do designed practice exams although I don't much like the actual format or Qs of Rx.

4. Followed a modified version of the Taus method for most of my 6 weeks of dedicated study time. In addition I watched Kaplan videos for some of the subjects which it was helpful for (Raymon's pharm, for example).

5. Following up to the test I did NBME 7, 11, and 12, and UWSA 1 and 2 a few days prior. Took the day off prior to my exam, and it felt good.

 

[HalladayWeekend]

Got my score back today...246/99. I'm really unsure of what field I want to go into and my goal going into the test was to be able to do anything. I certainly think that I have achieved that. I used FA (2X), UW- 68% all random, timed, unused (went through the 125 or so anatomy qs 2 nights before so I saw these twice), and Goljan audio (1X). Didn't do any board studying whatsoever until the dedicated 5.5 weeks after 2nd year. After seeing some students in my class religiously carrying around FA, I began to think that I was doing something wrong. Don't let such people freak you out! Study hard during 2nd year (and first year for that matter) and everything will come back quickly. I honored all of my 2nd year exams and it certainly made a difference come Step 1 time.

 

[12six]

studied 5.5 wks. mostly FA (2 times through) and UWorld. Saw LOADS of questions... wherever I could find questions, I did them. Probably saw a total of 3500-4000 Q's before the actual exam, and that was extremely helpful.


NBME 7 - 185 (6 weeks from test - before starting to study - mistake, i know, since it's a good predictor, wasted it early - oh well)
NBME 11 -221 (4 weeks from test day)
UWSA 2 - 242 (3 weeks from test day)
"Free 150" - 80% 2.5 weeks from test day)
NBME 12 - 226 (2 weeks from test day) this was discouraging but moved along
UWSA 1 - 247 (1 week from test day) (also did three random timed UW blocks after that SA to mimic the real thing... LONG day but I planned by breaks well because of that experience - I took a break after every section.)
final UW percentage on random timed blocks - 70%

Was "shooting for" a 240+ and after the test felt pretty good about that.

Ended up scoring a 246!

😀

Party time!

 

[winkleweizen]

Took it yesterday:
Scores:
NBME 7: start of study period: 220 I think
UW1: 1.5 weeks in: 254
NBME 12: 2.5 weeks in: 240
NBME 11: 3.5 weeks in: 242
UW2: 4.5 weeks in: 248
DIT: 4.5 weeks in: 246
NBME 6: 2 days before: 245 or something around there.

Overall: Not too bad. With the exception of not starting the test till almost two hours after i got there, it went pretty smoothly. The exam felt pretty doable..knock on wood.

Anatomy/Neuroanatomy: I was scared by all these horror stories, but overall this was one of the easier parts of my test. There was alot of arm/leg nerve pathology that was simple. The strokes were pretty simple. No brain stems, but did have a spinal cord that was pretty easy. There was one that I didn't know, but I feel like those better in anatomy may have been able to get it based on the level of the CT, but I pretty much was only able to narrow it down to 3.

Pharm: Overall was not bad, not a single SHIPP question. I think I only had one cancer drug. There were a decent amount of GI drugs and a decent number of P450 interactions (like 3). A few pharmocokinetics (pretty sure I brain farted on one of them..im kicking myself, but I cant remember what i put.)This was also a very doable section of the test.

Micro: Alot of HIV/AIDS path and related diseases, but I think only two pharm questions. Most of it was really straight forward. YOU DO have to know Virus structures and stuff. I had one question that basically required you to know which was encapsulated, one where you had to know which one was segmented (and no it wasnt the flu), and one you needed to know which virus was SS +/- RNA.

Immuno: While my test had a lot of immuno, I thought it was all pretty easy. A few immunodeficiencies, alot of Interleukin/TNF/stuff questions. I think all of it was in first aid, maybe some I knew from Uworld, but not sure.

Biochem: Easier then Uworld. Two questions on interactions with isoniazid (basically the same question twice). Some vitamin deficiencies and toxicities. One question, I felt was unfair and actually had two answers. It was a really simple concept, but just stupid. I did refer a patient in this section, not sure if its the correct answer but I felt it made sense. Otherwise, not too bad.

Embryo: I dont have much recollection of it, I dont think it was too high yield on my test. I did have one tough quesiton saying that an ultrasound of this baby shows___, what serum markers are you most likely to see. They then listed like 6 up/down/normal arrows. 2 of the things I had never heard of, but I think i narrowed it down to two.

Behavioral Science: This is high yield. Know how to calculate the specificity, PPV, NPV, NNT, etc. Alot of ethics questions (idk maybe 15?). I usually do really well on this section on my practice tests, but two of the ethics questions I wasnt sure of, and one It was literally just a blind guess.

Cell Bio/Histo/Inflammation/tissue repair stuff: This was a pretty high yield section, and first aid might not have been enough. I would recommend probably consulting another source for this, but I think I knew most of them, but if I could go back I would have probably spent an extra half day on this.

SYSTEMS:
CARDIO: This felt heavily heavily tested in my test, I even had two questions that were nearly the same in the same section! Thankfully I knew it. This was also the section that I had my two part question in. I had two heart sounds, and while the stem didnt give it either away, im 90% sure I got them both right. Not much pharm in this section, but alot of path.

RENAL: I also had a lot of questions on this, and going into the test was most worried about this section (beside Anatomy). Most were ok, but there was one that I think I may have gotten right, but the only reason why I knew anything about the disease was from the free 150. Alot of arrow questions on this section.

PULM: the next heavily tested system. They werent too bad, but this also had alot of arrows that I hope I got right.

PSYCH: Nothing really stands out in this section. I had some questions but they were ok.

REPRO: Nothing really much to say about this section either. Know whats in First aid, fo sho.

HEME/ONC: A decent amount. One question about Hodgkins that I had no clue about. I literally was only able to eliminate one answer.

ENDOCRINE: Pretty high yield. Be able to interpret Arrows.

MSK/DERM: I had 4 questions that I never saw anywhere in First aid or uworld. One I remembered from DIT, one from Class..one I think I made a pretty good guess on but not sure if it was right, and one I still have no clue on.

EXTRA TIDBITS: Be able to interpret graphs, there are a decent amount of them. I also had a few quesitons that really didnt seem to test much beside high school/college algebra math ( I feel most of you guys would be able to figure them out). I had one extremely LEFT FIELD QUESTION THAT WAS ACTUALLY BORDERLINE SEXUALLY INAPPROPRIATE. I had a good laugh, but it was pretty out there.

OVERALL: long long Day. I marked between 4 and 9 questions a block. (Im sure I made some stupid mistakes or missed some that I didnt mark though)
I usualy finish blocks of questions with like 20 minutes left on UWORLD, after quickly reviewing my answers, and while I never ran out of time on any blocks and had to randomly bubble in answers there were two sections that I would have liked a couple extra minutes to figure a couple questions out. I highly recommend reading the question first if the question is longer then a few sentences..that way you can gloss over the irrelevant info, of which there is much. Also knowing key lab values will help.

Also, make sure you really really read carefully. I had a few questions were the entire stem I was thinking one thing, but then i read one small word or phrase and it changed my answer to something different. READ CAREFULLY.

The test felt in between the difficulty of NBMEs and Uworld with a little more randomness.

I didnt notice any repeats of NBMEs or UWORLD, but similar concepts tested, obviously

Glad its done. Hope I did somewhere around my test scores (of course higher would be great! ha). Good luck yall. Hopefully this is helpful to some. Ill answer some questions till i go on vacation!

Will add study plan, when I get my score

Real deal-244/99...Im happy with that....that makes me competitive for anything right? I really have no clue what i want to do.


Study Plan: I started in January with the DIT 20 week plan. That pretty much entailed me doing their questions and reading a bit (probably like 20 mins per day). I had a little less then 5 weeks to prepare. I started out for the first 5 days hitting weak spots with bootleg kaplan videos and i felt like that helped alot.

After that, I started doing DIT...5 days on, 2 days off...on the first day off I would do a Practice test and review it and start reviewing the previous week's lectures and on the second day off I would finish reviewing. When I did that for 3 weeks I had 9 days for my test, I finished off UW and redid all my marked and missed ones (like 700 -800 questions). That entailed about 100 a day, and I also read on my weak subjects like anatomy and renal. The last 5 days I kept doing the UW questions and I did a blitz final run of First Aid. The last day I stopped about 5 pm and just chilled, but unfortunately I couldnt sleep worth ****.


Resources-DIT, FA, Goljan (only used during the year...its too damn big...maybe should have done BRS path) and UW UW UW UW (71% average after my first run through). I pretty much did a block a day, and reviewed alll of the answers of every question. (this is where the money is).

What i would have done dif? Not ****ed around during the first two years, gotten some sleep the night before the test, not blanked out ( I missed two super easy questions cause of a ******* brain fart), and not changed my answers....I literally changed 3 answers from correct to incorrect at the very last second, right before the block ran out.

Overall, Im happy with the score....hopefully its enough to get me into what I decide on and where I want to go..

 

[winkleweizen]

Gonna briefly detail my study plan, PM for more details.

1. Used UW during the year to study along with path, pharm, and micro. It helped my grade in those classes AND also built up my knowledge base for the Step 1.

2. Annotated UW questions on my first pass during second year into FA.

3. During my dedicated study time, reset UW and bought Kaplan Qbank to use along with my studying for practice. This isn't always necessary but it provided me with a bunch of questions to do when I was bored of studying, and it would occasionally provide me with details that I may have glossed over in First Aid.

I also bought Rx to be able to do designed practice exams although I don't much like the actual format or Qs of Rx.

4. Followed a modified version of the Taus method for most of my 6 weeks of dedicated study time. In addition I watched Kaplan videos for some of the subjects which it was helpful for (Raymon's pharm, for example).

5. Following up to the test I did NBME 7, 11, and 12, and UWSA 1 and 2 a few days prior. Took the day off prior to my exam, and it felt good.

Grats dude...i was following you closely.

 

[kissmyasthma99]

I'm a fourth year, but I'd thought I'd drop by and put my girlfriend's stuff up here, because she just got her scores back today (and she isn't on SDN). I am so proud of her!!! She worked really hard. I don't know her exact percentages of things. I know she used DIT and UWorld. She wants to do family medicine, and her goal was a 230+.

She scored a 231!!! I am so happy for her. She's a DO student. They give us like 4 weeks to study, and you have to spend a week of that studying a whole other stupid subject that isn't on the USMLE, lol. Anyway, I'm proud of her and congratulations to all of you guys for your amazing scores and good luck on rotations this year!!!

 

[Stixman28]

nbme's were not very predictive for me at all

5 weeks out nbme 1: 192
3 weeks out nbme 12: 217
2 weeks out nbme 6: 218 (frustrating to study and make no improvement)

real thing: 230/99

the last 2 weeks I went over everything again, and quit a couple days in at doing 2nd pass at uworld. The review of my notes was higher yield I think than doing the same questions again. It totally paid off. Was aiming for 218, never even dreamed of breaking 230.

 

[iceman87]

271/99

-UWSA1- 3 months out - 245
-"Free 150" at pro-metric test center - 91% at 1.5 months out
-NBME 11 - 4 weeks out - 259
-UWSA2- 3 weeks out - 265
-NBME Comprehensive Basic Science Examination through my school 2 weeks out - 99 - (chart included with score report said anything >94 was equal to >260 on step one)
-Uworld first pass - 80% finished it about 3 wks before exam. last 1000 q's were done as random 46's and I was averaging 82-92% on those.
-Kaplan Qbank - Don't remember exactly. Did about half of it during the last month and was somewhere in the mid 80's
-We also took most of the NBME subject shelf exams for the second year courses about 3 weeks out. I was in the high 800s to 900s on those.

 

[Decicco]

Was doing pelvic exams all day so I couldn't check more score. Got home today: 244/99!

My tips: Try to memorize FA (you won't be able to). Do UWorld. Have RR Path on hand to clarify FA and listen to Goljan while you work out (ie, during times when you can't study FA). Do NOT try to study RR Path or other resources besides FA. This will spread your time too thin and you won't be able to drive home the important points. The day you take your test, you STILL won't know everything in FA, so there is no need for additional study material. The most accurate NBME is the one you take closest to your exam.

SO HAPPY!!

Some stats:
First MCAT: 26 (retook because I wanted US-MD)
2nd MCAT: 35
5 weeks total studying time.
3.7 weeks out: NBME 6 - 226
2 weeks out: NBME 11 - 245
6 days out: NBME 12 - 242
Last few UWorld blocks about 72%
Grades mostly honors and near-honors

 

[winkleweizen]

Was doing pelvic exams all day so I couldn't check more score. Got home today: 244/99!

My tips: Try to memorize FA (you won't be able to). Do UWorld. Have RR Path on hand to clarify FA and listen to Goljan while you work out (ie, during times when you can't study FA). Do NOT try to study RR Path or other resources besides FA. This will spread your time too thin and you won't be able to drive home the important points. The day you take your test, you STILL won't know everything in FA, so there is no need for additional study material. SO HAPPY!!

supppp score twin

 

[HouseTroyhybrid]

USMLE Step 1 exam June 14, 2011
MCAT 27-2005
MCAT 30-2007 (9 verbal, 10 phys science, 11 Bio)
Kaplan Diagnostic pre-study 69%
Kaplan Qbank prior to World 74%
*USMLE World, done over 2 weeks preceding test 76%
NBME 11, 2 weeks out prior to World 240
NBME 6, 5 days prior to test 254
USMLE World SA Form 1 2 weeks before test: 256
USMLE World SA Form 2, ~6 days before test 265

*Rapid Review Path by Goljan- Main source in conjunction with Qbanks including questions offered using code on inside cover
Rapid Review Biochem- Minor source, 3 hours total
First AID- Very minor source, 3 hours total browsing
*USMLE Secrets by Brown and Brown - A main source used over span of year 2 and used less so in month preceding exam (Great!)
*BRS Behavioral Science by Fadem: Crucial (for me)

Real Deal: 265, 99 Score posted online 2 hours prior to email (11 am EST)on July 13, 2011

Addendum: Pharm was way easier than expected, Lots of Micro, Lots of Biostats (relatively speaking)

This score wouldn't have been possible without help from up above. Thank you flying spaghetti monster, without your ever presence, I couldn't have strained to attain such a score. The man made of meatballs is truely watching!!!!! It couldn't have been my intelligence and study habits alone! God bless.

 

[lavodnas]

test day may 17th
238/99

The whole wait I thought I did terrible.
Good luck to everyone today !

OK my brief journey

NBME# 1 212 (pre study)
NBME# 11 212 (freaked out)
NBME# 7 226 (still freaked out)
USWA #1 246
Kap 7 hr 70%
Kap qbank timed random >70%
Uworld qbank times random >70% 1st pass 2nd pass dont remember (tutor mode both passes)

Nothing really made me feel like I was going to get the score I got. But I felt ready I studied a lot. So looking back, I wouldn't freak out about practice tests going your way. Nothing replaces hard work. Congrats everyone! Good luck to future test takers and the next batch of people to get scores.

 

[2012mdc]

271/99

-UWSA1- 3 months out - 245
-"Free 150" at pro-metric test center - 91% at 1.5 months out
-NBME 11 - 4 weeks out - 259
-UWSA2- 3 weeks out - 265
-NBME Comprehensive Basic Science Examination through my school 2 weeks out - 99 - (chart included with score report said anything >94 was equal to >260 on step one)
-Uworld first pass - 80% finished it about 3 wks before exam. last 1000 q's were done as random 46's and I was averaging 82-92% on those.
-Kaplan Qbank - Don't remember exactly. Did about half of it during the last month and was somewhere in the mid 80's
-We also took most of the NBME subject shelf exams for the second year courses about 3 weeks out. I was in the high 800s to 900s on those.

damn son, you are a monster. Never even knew the shelf scores went that high. After shelf scores like that your Step 1 score is pretty much expected haha. Congrats

 

[Lindindite]

nbme's were not very predictive for me at all

5 weeks out nbme 1: 192
3 weeks out nbme 12: 217
2 weeks out nbme 6: 218 (frustrating to study and make no improvement)

real thing: 230/99

the last 2 weeks I went over everything again, and quit a couple days in at doing 2nd pass at uworld. The review of my notes was higher yield I think than doing the same questions again. It totally paid off. Was aiming for 218, never even dreamed of breaking 230.

Ditto. NBMEs weren't predictive for me either. just demoralizing.

4 weeks out nbme 1: 192
3 weeks out nbme 5: 196
UWorld qbank final avg: 59%
UWorld qbank avg in the last 1-2 weeks: 63%

Real thing: 232/99 at 31 weeks pregnant

Studied 5-6 weeks. Didn't do First Aid at all before this. Did a 3-6 of questions from Kaplan's minibook of questions before going to sleep a couple times a week.
Did all of UWorld once, then all but ~300 incorrects.
Did First Aid (plus all my notes written directly into First Aid from UWorld) twice.
In last two days, reread bits from First Aid and did a couple incorrect blocks on UWorld just to keep in practice of doing questions.

If you're pregnant like me, bring way more snacks/food/water than you think you'll need, and don't run out of time to eat!