Official 2011 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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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.
 
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Rollo said:
Umm...what? Were you on clinical rotations already by this point?
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I had a rotation in internal medicine that's why I read the first aid for medicine clerkship book.

I decided to read through the Step 2 MRS because I thought that it might help since its a little more clinical in nature and it seems like Step 1 has been moving more in that direction over the years? Plus it seemed like the easiest step 2 book to read though. I do think it helped-it put the path and pharm in a more clinical perspective which was a nice way to review it. Sometimes it talked about 'which test to order next or whatever' and I just skipped it since I knew it wouldn't be on step 1, and I really didn't understand that stuff anyways...

I think the 2011 first aid for step 1 mentions in the front somewhere that it might be a good idea to have one resource that is more step 2 like in content. If I were to pick one it would be step 2 MRS since its the fastest one to get through.
 
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anybody know of a good online resource for CT/MRI images? I couldnt tell you your liver from your esophagus on those things.
 
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RySerr21 said:
anybody know of a good online resource for CT/MRI images? I couldnt tell you your liver from your esophagus on those things.
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The esophagus is the collapsed thing behind the black hole. The liver is the blob on the right. 😀
 
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Just wondering, for those you that did DIT, did you do both Part I (the biweekly emails) and Part II or just Part II with the lectures? I've been getting some varying opinions over the usefulness of the email questions.
 
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marble30 said:
Just wondering, for those you that did DIT, did you do both Part I (the biweekly emails) and Part II or just Part II with the lectures? I've been getting some varying opinions over the usefulness of the email questions.
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So, I was on mu surgery rotation right before I took time off, so I just had them send me all the e-mail Q's in a lump that last week, and I spent a little while each night answering Q's, and then took the first weekend of my step studying to finish all 511 Q's. While it wasn't nearly as high yield as the lectures & quizzes, I do feel like it cemented things I had forgotten, and gave me a bit of preparation to learn a lot of the rest of the high-yield info. Then I went through FA once fairly carefully (trying to understand, but not memorize everything) before starting part II. I think if I had started the lectures w/o answering the Q's, I would have felt a lot more overwhelmed.
 
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IMnotgivingup!! said:
yes, just got mines 10 minutes ago. I was checking this forum too to see if anyone had gotten the email. You should be getting it soon too if you're expecting it today.

Results: 246/99! I'm pretty happy with it. Will post more about my experience later.
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Finally got around to write my Step 1 experience. First, here are my stats:
UWorld: 75%, 100% done
Rx: 78%, about 75% done
i took the "offline" version of NBME 4,5 since I didnt want to spend too much money.
NBME 4: 88% right (prolly 620ish and 245-250).
NBME 5: 86% right (~600; 240-242ish).

I bought NBME 6, 7 and UWorld SA 1,2.
UW SA 1: 256
NBME 6: 570; 238.
UW SA2: 257, 710
NBME 7: 255, 650

Step 1 on March 22nd: 246/99

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my score, though kind of was wishing to break the 250 mark especially after my nbme 7 score. But I’m hoping there isn’t much of a difference between 246 and 250. So definitely happy with it.
After finishing the exam, I had mixed feelings. There were 3 blocks, which I thought were hard and few that I thought were easy. But I think that’s how it is for every exam depending on people’s strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I thought the exam was well represented in terms of content. For example, I didn’t feel like there were more micro questions than physio or vice versa. As everyone says, there were questions that I had no idea about but that’s normal for every test. I would say about 60% of the questions are “straightforward” and the rest a little more complicated though definitely doable (this is just my opinion). I think the biggest thing is to be calm during test day. I was freaking out a little bit in the beginning and, who knows, that might have cost me a few questions. But I got calmer as the test went on. I utilized all my break time (in fact I added a few mins as I finished the first 3 blocks with some time left). I took a break after each block to mentally refresh myself and ate some snack during each break. Bottom line: utilize the break time to your advantage and don’t try to rush through the exam.

Preparation: after going through this, I feel like the best preparation for this exam is the first 2 years of med school. And I’m not talking about grades. I felt like I understood the material when I was learning it in the first 2 years. And that made studying for step 1 a lot easier. I wasn’t trying to understand the material while I was studying for boards and that saved me a lot of time and I could focus on memorizing. And to be able to memorize stuff for the exam, you have to understand it first. So I would recommend doing that first rather than trying to memorize it right away.

Resources: my main resources were FA and UWorld/Rx questions. I saw the Kaplan videos for Micro, Behavioral, Anatomy. But honestly, I don’t think that helped me at all. In the end, on exam day I was trying to remember stuff from FA only. In fact, FA covered almost all of the content on my exam. The one thing it was lacking on was anatomy, but I feel like that topic is kind of hit or miss. If you’re unlucky, you might get couple of questions that ask detailed anatomy but overall there wasn’t much anatomy on there.
I had read Goljan while I was doing Path in med school and I read it once again as I was going through FA during board preparation. I tried to annotate important stuff into FA from Goljan but try not to write every thing in there. As for UWorld I had created a separate document for UWorld notes. After doing a block of 46 questions, I would review and simultaneously type any notes from there in my document (btw, you can alt-tab to get out of Uworld window, which is what I did while reviewing UW questions). And I reviewed this document two times before my exam.
In a nutshell, I would say that FA would prepare you for knowing the content on the exam and UWorld will prepare you for doing questions on the exam. Most of the questions on the exam are 2nd, 3rd order questions and that’s how the questions are in UWorld. So it gets you in that mindset while doing questions.
NBME practice tests are a useful tool to assess where you are in your studying. Though I would recommend doing your last NBME about 10 days before the exam and not after that. If you do it close to your exam you won’t have a chance to improve your score. It just tells you where you are and can screw you up a little. I did my NBME 7 about 6 days before my exam and I think I got a little overconfident after that score. But that’s just my opinion.

That’s kind of my summary of my experience. I would be happy to answer any specific questions. And thanks to everyone here for posting their experiences and opinions. It helped me tremendously and also gave me some encouragement. Good luck to everyone else who have their exam coming up!
 
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Great score Imnotgivingup!! and congratulations on crossing this hurdle.

Anyone have ideas on how to use the nbme performance evals to focus on specific weaknesses close to D-day?
 
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Azadre said:
This says I am going to get a 245 based on the free 150. That's awesome.
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I don't know if I would rely on that for score prediction.. looking through some of the older threads... there were people who got 80 something% right and ended up with <200.. and some who got in the 80s and got 250+
 
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Congrats on a great score!

Question for you: did you think that the questions represented on UWorld were representative of the real exam? What I mean is that certain topics are covered quite frequently on Uworld while others are not. And these less frequently covered topics are found in FA AND there are some topics on FA that I've never seen in Uworld (I'm about 65% done with Uworld).

IMnotgivingup!! said:
Finally got around to write my Step 1 experience. First, here are my stats:
UWorld: 75%, 100% done
Rx: 78%, about 75% done
i took the "offline" version of NBME 4,5 since I didnt want to spend too much money.
NBME 4: 88% right (prolly 620ish and 245-250).
NBME 5: 86% right (~600; 240-242ish).

I bought NBME 6, 7 and UWorld SA 1,2.
UW SA 1: 256
NBME 6: 570; 238.
UW SA2: 257, 710
NBME 7: 255, 650

Step 1 on March 22nd: 246/99

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my score, though kind of was wishing to break the 250 mark especially after my nbme 7 score. But I’m hoping there isn’t much of a difference between 246 and 250. So definitely happy with it.
After finishing the exam, I had mixed feelings. There were 3 blocks, which I thought were hard and few that I thought were easy. But I think that’s how it is for every exam depending on people’s strengths and weaknesses. Overall, I thought the exam was well represented in terms of content. For example, I didn’t feel like there were more micro questions than physio or vice versa. As everyone says, there were questions that I had no idea about but that’s normal for every test. I would say about 60% of the questions are “straightforward” and the rest a little more complicated though definitely doable (this is just my opinion). I think the biggest thing is to be calm during test day. I was freaking out a little bit in the beginning and, who knows, that might have cost me a few questions. But I got calmer as the test went on. I utilized all my break time (in fact I added a few mins as I finished the first 3 blocks with some time left). I took a break after each block to mentally refresh myself and ate some snack during each break. Bottom line: utilize the break time to your advantage and don’t try to rush through the exam.

Preparation: after going through this, I feel like the best preparation for this exam is the first 2 years of med school. And I’m not talking about grades. I felt like I understood the material when I was learning it in the first 2 years. And that made studying for step 1 a lot easier. I wasn’t trying to understand the material while I was studying for boards and that saved me a lot of time and I could focus on memorizing. And to be able to memorize stuff for the exam, you have to understand it first. So I would recommend doing that first rather than trying to memorize it right away.

Resources: my main resources were FA and UWorld/Rx questions. I saw the Kaplan videos for Micro, Behavioral, Anatomy. But honestly, I don’t think that helped me at all. In the end, on exam day I was trying to remember stuff from FA only. In fact, FA covered almost all of the content on my exam. The one thing it was lacking on was anatomy, but I feel like that topic is kind of hit or miss. If you’re unlucky, you might get couple of questions that ask detailed anatomy but overall there wasn’t much anatomy on there.
I had read Goljan while I was doing Path in med school and I read it once again as I was going through FA during board preparation. I tried to annotate important stuff into FA from Goljan but try not to write every thing in there. As for UWorld I had created a separate document for UWorld notes. After doing a block of 46 questions, I would review and simultaneously type any notes from there in my document (btw, you can alt-tab to get out of Uworld window, which is what I did while reviewing UW questions). And I reviewed this document two times before my exam.
In a nutshell, I would say that FA would prepare you for knowing the content on the exam and UWorld will prepare you for doing questions on the exam. Most of the questions on the exam are 2nd, 3rd order questions and that’s how the questions are in UWorld. So it gets you in that mindset while doing questions.
NBME practice tests are a useful tool to assess where you are in your studying. Though I would recommend doing your last NBME about 10 days before the exam and not after that. If you do it close to your exam you won’t have a chance to improve your score. It just tells you where you are and can screw you up a little. I did my NBME 7 about 6 days before my exam and I think I got a little overconfident after that score. But that’s just my opinion.

That’s kind of my summary of my experience. I would be happy to answer any specific questions. And thanks to everyone here for posting their experiences and opinions. It helped me tremendously and also gave me some encouragement. Good luck to everyone else who have their exam coming up!
Click to expand...
 
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Simple question: Prometric's document says it could take up to 8 weeks to get your scores. When do people usually get them?
 
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Bloor said:
Great score Imnotgivingup!! and congratulations on crossing this hurdle.

Anyone have ideas on how to use the nbme performance evals to focus on specific weaknesses close to D-day?
Click to expand...

Thanks Bloor!
As for NBMEs I think if you have feedback from 2 or more nbme's, then it'll give you more of an accurate evaluation of your weaknesses and strengths. In fact, if you take it online, then it'll let you evaluate your performance with all of your nbme evaluation side by side. And obviously, if the band is wide, then its not as accurate as a narrow band. But its still a good tool to see where you stand in your preparation.
 
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Rollo said:
Congrats on a great score!

Question for you: did you think that the questions represented on UWorld were representative of the real exam? What I mean is that certain topics are covered quite frequently on Uworld while others are not. And these less frequently covered topics are found in FA AND there are some topics on FA that I've never seen in Uworld (I'm about 65% done with Uworld).
Click to expand...

Thanks Rollo!
I thought UWorld was fairly accurate in terms of difficulty. Uworld might be a little more hard than actual exam, but thats just my opinion. In terms of content, there are some UWorld questions that test ridiculous details and, as you said, it also goes the other way around where content from FA is not represented in UWorld. My recommendation would be that you should know the content in FA first. As everyone has said and from my viewpoint also, most of the exam comes from whats in FA. So I would know that first for sure. And then if you could remember some of the extra material from UWorld, then its an added bonus and could get you extra points.
But I thought UWorld was most helpful in preparing me to answer the TYPE of questions I saw on the actual exam. Most of the quesitons are 2/3rd order questions, which is what most of UWorld is. So after doing all the UW questions, you get in that mode of thinking and it helps a lot on exam day. Bottom line, keep doing questions and I would recommend finishing all of UW if
you can.
 
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Just got done. Had to mark 10-15 questions per section. some sections I finished with 15 mins left, others i had to rush just to put an answer done. Have no idea how i did and have no idea what I would do differently. In terms of NBMEs, only 6 and 7 felt similar. PM me if you got questions. Also, what date should I expect my score? good luck
 
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drosenb3 said:
Just got done. Had to mark 10-15 questions per section. some sections I finished with 15 mins left, others i had to rush just to put an answer done. Have no idea how i did and have no idea what I would do differently. In terms of NBMEs, only 6 and 7 felt similar. PM me if you got questions. Also, what date should I expect my score? good luck
Click to expand...

Congrats! From what I hear, marking that many is completely normal. I know you say that NBME 6 and 7 are most similar, but did you do NBME 11 and 12? Also, do you have any advice on certain things to hit, that may otherwise be overlooked? Thanks!
 
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drosenb3 said:
Just got done. Had to mark 10-15 questions per section. some sections I finished with 15 mins left, others i had to rush just to put an answer done. Have no idea how i did and have no idea what I would do differently. In terms of NBMEs, only 6 and 7 felt similar. PM me if you got questions. Also, what date should I expect my score? good luck
Click to expand...

what about UW qs and exams?
 
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IMnotgivingup!! said:
Finally got around to write my Step 1 experience. First, here are my stats:
UWorld: 75%, 100% done
Rx: 78%, about 75% done
i took the "offline" version of NBME 4,5 since I didnt want to spend too much money.
NBME 4: 88% right (prolly 620ish and 245-250).
NBME 5: 86% right (~600; 240-242ish).

I bought NBME 6, 7 and UWorld SA 1,2.
UW SA 1: 256
NBME 6: 570; 238.
UW SA2: 257, 710
NBME 7: 255, 650

Step 1 on March 22nd: 246/99

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my score, though kind of was wishing to break the 250 mark especially after my nbme 7 score. But I’m hoping there isn’t much of a difference between 246 and 250. So definitely happy with it.


Resources: my main resources were FA and UWorld/Rx questions. I saw the Kaplan videos for Micro, Behavioral, Anatomy. But honestly, I don’t think that helped me at all. In the end, on exam day I was trying to remember stuff from FA only. In fact, FA covered almost all of the content on my exam. The one thing it was lacking on was anatomy, but I feel like that topic is kind of hit or miss. If you’re unlucky, you might get couple of questions that ask detailed anatomy but overall there wasn’t much anatomy on there.
I had read Goljan while I was doing Path in med school and I read it once again as I was going through FA during board preparation. I tried to annotate important stuff into FA from Goljan but try not to write every thing in there. As for UWorld I had created a separate document for UWorld notes. After doing a block of 46 questions, I would review and simultaneously type any notes from there in my document (btw, you can alt-tab to get out of Uworld window, which is what I did while reviewing UW questions). And I reviewed this document two times before my exam.
In a nutshell, I would say that FA would prepare you for knowing the content on the exam and UWorld will prepare you for doing questions on the exam. Most of the questions on the exam are 2nd, 3rd order questions and that’s how the questions are in UWorld. So it gets you in that mindset while doing questions.


That’s kind of my summary of my experience. I would be happy to answer any specific questions. And thanks to everyone here for posting their experiences and opinions. It helped me tremendously and also gave me some encouragement. Good luck to everyone else who have their exam coming up!
Click to expand...

Congradulations on your great score.
I was told that the standard deviation for 08 and 09 was 20. Assuming it's still 20ish now in 2011, then your 249 means you could have scored as high as 269.

Question to you: Could the preparation have been done without FA?
 
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Nellyakgo said:
Congradulations on your great score.
I was told that the standard deviation for 08 and 09 was 20. Assuming it's still 20ish now in 2011, then your 249 means you could have scored as high as 269.

Question to you: Could the preparation have been done without FA?
Click to expand...

Somebody needs to study some biostats
 
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Azadre said:
If you are taking it after May 18th (around then) your score won't come out until mid July. They're rolling out their new questions.
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Oops!
Are you saying the new questions are being rolled out after May 18th or mid July?

And does this mean that for test takers after this date, existing Q banks will no longer have prepared us as well as before?
 
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Nellyakgo said:
Congradulations on your great score.
I was told that the standard deviation for 08 and 09 was 20. Assuming it's still 20ish now in 2011, then your 249 means you could have scored as high as 269.

Question to you: Could the preparation have been done without FA?
Click to expand...

Thanks Nellyakgo. I would def recommend going through FA because it covers most of the content thats on the exam and almost all of whats in there is high yield. Obviously, if you go through a source that covers whats in FA, then studying can be done without FA. But those sources (eg. Kaplan) covers more than what you need to know and might miss out on the high yield points. Thats not to say Kaplan is not good. There's certainly nothing wrong in knowing more. However, so far I dont think I have come across anyone who hasn't used FA to study.
 
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dangit said:
thanks. so this is due to the change in exam content.... does nbme 11 and 12 reflect this change? how do we prepare for these changes?
Click to expand...

Problem is, you can't prepare except to do what you've been doing since you have no idea what will be asked.

As I mentioned in another post, there is a tendency in review material to weigh more heavily what WAS on the exam rather than what IS on the exam. I have heard that the step 1 will also occasionally pull in stuff from current developments in medicine as well as things that are typically tested on step 2. The only way around this is to read more widely but this is only advisable after you have already mastered everything that is in FA.

Possible strategies to read more widely include:
Reading NEJM and JAMA
Doing MKSAP
Reading big Robbins
Reading Harrison's
Studying your class notes

But honestly, doing these things is extraordinarily low yield and if you haven't been at it for the last 2 years, starting now will not do much good.
 
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RapplixGmed said:
Problem is, you can't prepare except to do what you've been doing since you have no idea what will be asked.

As I mentioned in another post, there is a tendency in review material to weigh more heavily what WAS on the exam rather than what IS on the exam. I have heard that the step 1 will also occasionally pull in stuff from current developments in medicine as well as things that are typically tested on step 2. The only way around this is to read more widely but this is only advisable after you have already mastered everything that is in FA.

Possible strategies to read more widely include:
Reading NEJM and JAMA
Doing MKSAP
Reading big Robbins
Reading Harrison's
Studying your class notes

But honestly, doing these things is extraordinarily low yield and if you haven't been at it for the last 2 years, starting now will not do much good.
Click to expand...


i DLed the medscsape app on my phone and it has 'medical education' and 'medical news' sections. Whether or not it is helpful for the exam, they have some pretty good articles on new advancements, studies, drugs, etc. And who knows, maybe itll get you a point or two when they ask about a recent change in treatment, procedure, etc.
 
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Hey everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. Took my exam on March 31st, 2011 and received my score on the third wednesday (TODAY!) just like anticipated. 254/99!! Very, very happy with the score. I studied for 3 months from beginning of January to end of March and my main sources were First Aid and USMLE world. I also used goljan audio, as well as pictures from goljan rapid review. I dont really have too much advice ... there is definitely a lot of that to go around in this forum already, but the one thing i do want to say is that its very important to work as hard as possible during the last two weeks before your test. I took nbme 7 online 2 weeks before my exam and scored a 231. During the last 2 weeks I used ONLY first aid and reviewed whatever sections i felt weak at. It definitely was a game changer. Feel free to ask any questions.
 
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Don't give rosiglitazone to patients at increased risk for stroke.
Click to expand...

Some other current events related things I would know is:

Why Ribavirin is NOT used for RSV
Why Vioxx was withdrawn
Why potassium iodine protects against nuclear meltdowns

Any other stuff that people can think of?
 
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RySerr21 said:
i DLed the medscsape app on my phone and it has 'medical education' and 'medical news' sections. Whether or not it is helpful for the exam, they have some pretty good articles on new advancements, studies, drugs, etc. And who knows, maybe itll get you a point or two when they ask about a recent change in treatment, procedure, etc.
Click to expand...

I like that app because I'm a geek and actually read that stuff for fun...
 
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MossPoh said:
I like that app because I'm a geek and actually read that stuff for fun...
Click to expand...


yea thats originally why i got it haha, then realized later that it may be useful for this exam. They have some pretty good articles.
 
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RapplixGmed said:
Some other current events related things I would know is:

Why Ribavirin is NOT used for RSV
Why Vioxx was withdrawn
Why potassium iodine protects against nuclear meltdowns

Any other stuff that people can think of?
Click to expand...


i have no idea how high yield this is, but i thought it was interesting nonetheless.

You shouldn't give benzocaine to patients under two years old (i guess it was previously used for teething pain), it has been shown to cause methemoglobinemia. It has happened a few times in adult pts as well, but i guess the risk is significnatly higher for toddlers.
 
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baller189 said:
Hey everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. Took my exam on March 31st, 2011 and received my score on the third wednesday (TODAY!) just like anticipated. 254/99!! Very, very happy with the score. I studied for 3 months from beginning of January to end of March and my main sources were First Aid and USMLE world. I also used goljan audio, as well as pictures from goljan rapid review. I dont really have too much advice ... there is definitely a lot of that to go around in this forum already, but the one thing i do want to say is that its very important to work as hard as possible during the last two weeks before your test. I took nbme 7 online 2 weeks before my exam and scored a 231. During the last 2 weeks I used ONLY first aid and reviewed whatever sections i felt weak at. It definitely was a game changer. Feel free to ask any questions.
Click to expand...

Congrats on your score baller! I'm getting a lot out of goljan so far too. Its good to see that it worked out for you.
 
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im almost tempted to move my test date up from may 19 to may 16 to avoid the changes but that is 3 days less and i already only have 4 weeks.... 🙁
 
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baller189 said:
Hey everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. Took my exam on March 31st, 2011 and received my score on the third wednesday (TODAY!) just like anticipated. 254/99!! Very, very happy with the score. I studied for 3 months from beginning of January to end of March and my main sources were First Aid and USMLE world. I also used goljan audio, as well as pictures from goljan rapid review. I dont really have too much advice ... there is definitely a lot of that to go around in this forum already, but the one thing i do want to say is that its very important to work as hard as possible during the last two weeks before your test. I took nbme 7 online 2 weeks before my exam and scored a 231. During the last 2 weeks I used ONLY first aid and reviewed whatever sections i felt weak at. It definitely was a game changer. Feel free to ask any questions.
Click to expand...

congrats! how were you scoring on UW?
 
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Illusive Man said:
Longtime lurker. I promised myself that I would post if I scored well.

I used a modified Taus strategy for my exam prep.

Practice CBSE taken at school: 220

Studied for 8 weeks total. Took one day off per week. Studied about 8 hours per day during my first pass.

First 5 weeks, I did a slow, comprehensive run through my resources.

I spent first two weeks using a subject based approach. I annotated everything except RR Path into FA.

Biochemistry: 6 days (FA and Kaplan Biochemistry, HY Cell 1st Edition, RR Path Nutrition and Genetics chapters)
Microbiology: 3 days (FA and CMMRS)
Immunology: 2 days (FA, Levinson final 100 pages, RR Immunopath)
Spent a day reviewing FA Path, and another day FA Pharm intro & BRS Phys Ch. 1 and 2

USMLE World Self Assessment 1 (5 weeks before test): 252/670

Spent the next 3 weeks using an organ system based approach. My core resources were BRS Phys (essential), RR Path (excellent for integration, excessive details), Kaplan Pharmacology (quickly skimmed and answered questoins), HY Neuroanatomy (overkill), HY Behavioral Science (highly recommended). I used Road Map Gross Anatomy for MSK, CV/Lung/Abdomen (overly detailed but margin notes high yield)

Cardiology: 3 days
Endocrine: 2 days
GI: 2 days
Heme/Onc: 2 days
MSK: 2 days
Neuro: 4 days
Behavioral Science: 2 days
Renal: 2 days
Reproductive: 2 days
Respiratory: 2 days

USMLE World Self Assessment 2 (2.5 weeks before test): 263/770
Free 150 Taken at Prometric Center (2 weeks before test): 91% (Medfriends predicted 262)
NBME 6 Extended Feedback (2 weeks before test taken directly after free 150): 255/650 (16 wrong)

I had started doing 50 USMLE World questions per day during my organ system based review in the AM. Annotating initially was painful taking 2.5 hours per block. After my initial run through all my materials, I had 2.5 weeks left. I spent 2 weeks only focused on USMLE World and FA. Did 200qs per day from 8 am in morning to 12pm to build up stamina and annotated carefully into first aid (using different colored pen) from 1pm-8 pm. Spent 8pm-10pm reviewing FA.

USMLE World Scores were in the high 70% when starting and mid to high 80% ending (highest single block 93%) for an average of 83%

NBME 7 Extended Feedback (1 week before test): 262/680 (12 wrong)

Spent final 4 days on a final run through First Aid. I felt really rushed for time and had a tough time navigating through my notes. A day prior to the test, I started panicking. I went through the high yield appendix and equations and then took the rest of the day off.

On the day of the exam, I felt nauseated and couldn't keep in breakfast. I took a couple of smoothies and a pb&j sandwich to the test center. Once I was in the test center, I felt calmer. I spent first 5 minutes of tutorial writing down the FA equations including sensitivity, specificity, PPV, etc onto laminated card. First couple of blocks then took a 10 minute break. Then took blocks 3 and 4 and took 25 minute lunch break. Then took blocks 5 and 6. Took a 10 minute break. Finished block 7 by about 3:30.

I marked about 8 questions per block. There were probably 4 questions per block I had no clue and could not even eliminate an answer. The other 4 I took an educated guess on. I felt that I did fairly well but was expecting a 250ish based on that fact that I got at least 25-30 questions wrong.

Vast majority of questions were directly from FA with a smattering of USMLE World questions. Test felt heavy on anatomy and pathophysiology. Moderate amount of biochem and microbiology. Very little neuro. Question stems were not as long as I expected.

Lessons learned:
I would have spent less time on my first run through which took me 5 weeks. I felt rushed for time during my final review of FA. The only necessary resources are FA, USMLE World, and BRS Physiology. RR Path was great for integration. HY CMMRS and HY Neuro was overkill.

In the end my score surpassed my expectations: 262/99🙂
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Congrats on the score! Can you clarify what specifically you annotated into FA? Also, what is your opinion on BRS vs. Road Map for anatomy? Is FA enough for the rest of anatomy you didn't mention? This is my biggest concern. Thanks.
 
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Does anyone have NBME 7, so after i take it i can look at the correct answers?
Im pressed for time and wont have time to look them up on my own.
Thanks!
PM me if you have it and ill give you my email.
 
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Illusive Man said:
I pretty much annotated all my resources except RR Path into First Aid. Any concepts that I felt were not covered in FA or I was unsure about I would annotate into FA. The downside is that this process is time consuming. However cutting down on excessive resources like CMMRS would save time (FA more than sufficient). Unfortunately in my final run through, I ran out of time and had to skip a lot of my annotation. IMHO, it is critical to annotate USMLE World into FA, rest is optional.

I had a total of about 15 anatomy questions. Around 8 were covered in FA. Another couple that I had to recall from basic sciences. Another 5 were covered in Road Map Gross Anatomy (of which I missed a couple because I skipped the spine, pelvis, HEENT chapters). Road Map Gross Anatomy while overly detailed in certain sections filled in gaps in FA anatomy. The margin notes are very high yield.
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excellent score!
congratulations! you mentioned the questions where you had no idea, on which subject were they based? neuro, biochem, pharm?
 
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