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.

 

[quepatho]

why dont you call up the prometric center you are going to. Im sure they could find some way to accomodate you.

Good idea, I will do that. Thank you winkle 🙂

 

[winkleweizen]

Good idea, I will do that. Thank you winkle 🙂

no prob..get those eyes fixed haha

 

[hyrule]

For anyone who has taken the actual test - do you know if you can make the font bigger? I am seriously a little worried I'm losing my vision (or my mind, maybe)...I keep having to squint to see the questions and I'm making strange mistakes that I've never made before (e.g. I knew rhinovirus was the answer, I looked for it among the answer choices, thought it wasn't there & picked something else...and then when I checked it over again, rhinovirus WAS there...and it was the right answer).

Font is HUGE. And just to add, the real deal's format is EXACTLY like Kaplan's Qbank down to a t. The interface, the colors, the font size, the tables.

 

[Day man]

ok party people, for those who have already done the final 2 week sprint: (and yes I know there's threads about this, where nothing was really said) I have ~1000 marked UW questions to go through. I did most (~70% RX) during school, not using that again but I have Kaplan Qbank.

How long does a second complete run through of FA take? Is a week doable if I'm doing 1-2 UW marked and maybe some Kaplan in my weak areas? I'm just so neurotic about this whole final time table its absurd. 17 more days of this crap, ugh!

 

[Yoaleca]

Can I ask you what you did to prepare? Specially during the last week?

Thanks!

 

[Yoaleca]

CONGRATS!!!! Can I ask what you did during your last week of studying?

 

[MossPoh]

Font is HUGE. And just to add, the real deal's format is EXACTLY like Kaplan's Qbank down to a t. The interface, the colors, the font size, the tables.

So, it crashes every few questions?

 

[dude1344]

Can anyone who's taken it recently chime in on how the questions were on the real thing? Did they require the type of thinking required on UW questions or are they simpler two-step recall like questions?

I ask because I remember taking the CBSSA admined by schools and I thought the thinking required for that was SO basic, it was almost laughable. The real thing isn't like that right?

 

[Cochan]

Can anyone who's taken it recently chime in on how the questions were on the real thing? Did they require the type of thinking required on UW questions or are they simpler two-step recall like questions?

I ask because I remember taking the CBSSA admined by schools and I thought the thinking required for that was SO basic, it was almost laughable. The real thing isn't like that right?

I'd say the easy-medium range level of difficulty questions were comparable to CBSSA and the harder questions were comparable to Uworld.

 

[waiting08]

To future posters (and anyone who posted earlier and remembers):
Did you notice any particular areas with a ton of q's or very few q's? Lets say 30 and 15 as the cutoffs:

Were there any subject areas where you had 15 questions or fewer (i've heard resp)? Were there any areas with 30 or more questions (of the total 322 - I've heard micro from most people)

Also, I know there's micro on the test that isn't in first aid, but do people think that it's all covered in UWorld and in CMMRS?

 

[Nellyakgo]

To future posters (and anyone who posted earlier and remembers):
Did you notice any particular areas with a ton of q's or very few q's? Lets say 30 and 15 as the cutoffs:

Were there any subject areas where you had 15 questions or fewer (i've heard resp)? Were there any areas with 30 or more questions (of the total 322 - I've heard micro from most people)

Also, I know there's micro on the test that isn't in first aid, but do people think that it's all covered in UWorld and in CMMRS?

From reading this thread, I understood that the question subject distribution varies widely from test to test. One person gets very few questions on subject x and another gets lots of them. So if that is true, the answer to above question is that "it varies". And also, that would make sense on the side of the test administrator, to make sure students don't get an unfair advantage and that they test their knowledge over a widely distributed subject area.

 

[MossPoh]

To future posters (and anyone who posted earlier and remembers):
Did you notice any particular areas with a ton of q's or very few q's? Lets say 30 and 15 as the cutoffs:

Were there any subject areas where you had 15 questions or fewer (i've heard resp)? Were there any areas with 30 or more questions (of the total 322 - I've heard micro from most people)

Also, I know there's micro on the test that isn't in first aid, but do people think that it's all covered in UWorld and in CMMRS?

I'd know everything in first aid with any additions from uworld first. If you really have the time to go into detail, then MRS. If you get a question outside of those things, the 90 extra hours of studying to increase your chance of remembering that one obscure fact is probably better spend elsewhere. I actually like microcards a lot. I take a few home every night and while I sit there watching Hulu or whatever, I kind of passively read them and go over the little vignettes. I wouldn't call it "studying" but I do seem to get a little benefit out of it. Excluding the rote memorization questions, microbiology is fairly consistently one of my better performing subject areas.

 

[leedsunited]

Took it today.. feeling pretty lousy now. Probably the hardest test I've taken. About on par with UW in terms of difficulty and harder than NBME 7,11,12. Long question stems with more irrelevant info / distractors than UW or NBME. I had trouble with timing on the 1st block from trying to read the stems too carefully. By the 2nd block I was reading the last line first and then skimming for necessary info. Don't get bogged down by going over the lab values too closely - it's usually obvious when you need to go over them carefully and when they're just there to distract you.

UW > FA for me. During the test I kept thinking I got so many points because of UW. I only had 3 weeks to study so I had to pick between FA or UW.. ended up focusing on FA and only getting through 60% of UW. Also spent about 2 days doing NBME and 2 days listening to Goljan. If I had to do it over I would do UW twice and speed read through FA the last 3 or so days. I do think FA would have been more helpful if I had used it along with classes instead of picking it up for the first time 19 days before the exam.

Lots of anatomy -> 20 to 25 q's. Maybe half of it was in FA. Only one pelvic question that was a giveaway. As everyone says know your CTs. Had 4 or 5 muscle/tendon attachment questions at a level of detail beyond what we had to know for class.

What distinguishes the different types of MRI?

Biochem was all enzymes. There was a question that tested whether you could pick out what PRPP synthase actually stands for amongst close-sounding dopplegangers.

Mol bio was about taking really simple concepts and disguising them in complicated experiments with confusing graphs with reversed axis. Don't get discouraged - no matter how unfamiliar the terminology the core of the question is testing something you probably knew in 10th grade.

Knowing what is dominant/recessive/x-linked is HY.

Lots of immuno. If you have time or are a gunner it's not a bad idea to know all the CD markers under 30. List of CDs in FA was useless. Also had a question with only non-FA interleukins as answer choices. Rest of immuno chapter was pretty HY though.

Pharm was easy. You don't really need to memorize every clinical use and toxicity for every drug - know the ones emphasized in UW. MOAs are crucial though.

FA micro is spot on but make sure you know what stuff looks like - the pictures in the back were not useful. A trend on my test was that when there was a picture, it was necessary to answer the question (you couldn't just figure it out from the stem).

I had two heart sounds one easy the other I had no clue. The stem doesn't give the answer away.

Expect a wacky MCAT physics question or two. Maybe involving balloons.

UW is all you need for physio and pathophys. Carefully going through the explanations for incorrect answer choices in UW "arrow" questions is money.

I thought the histopath was impossible but that is my achilles.

What the hell is ST14?

I actually got the FOXO3 question LOL. Thanks to SDN I will probably get a 203 instead of a 202.

I picked refer to another physician for one question and am 99% sure it was correct. If it's not the NBME folks are on PCP.

ZERO heme/onc.

Maybe 1 GI question - and it was really embryo.

ONE ANS drug question. I spent an entire precious day on that.. what a waste.

No exact repeats from NBME's but saw 3 of the same pictures.

Know everything there is to know about diabetes, alcoholism, athlerosclerosis,

Yes, marijuana causes gynecomastia.

Just because you are from Puerto Rico doesn't mean you have S. mansoni.

Know p236 of FA COLD.

What is the very last drug in FA? You just might need to know some details about it.

Hope that the person in the next cubicle isn't shaking their leg to the resonance frequency of your monitor stand.

Now I will imbibe.

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

Took it today.. feeling pretty lousy now. Probably the hardest test I've taken. About on par with UW in terms of difficulty and harder than NBME 7,11,12. Long question stems with more irrelevant info / distractors than UW or NBME. I had trouble with timing on the 1st block from trying to read the stems too carefully. By the 2nd block I was reading the last line first and then skimming for necessary info. Don't get bogged down by going over the lab values too closely - it's usually obvious when you need to go over them carefully and when they're just there to distract you.

UW > FA for me. During the test I kept thinking I got so many points because of UW. I only had 3 weeks to study so I had to pick between FA or UW.. ended up focusing on FA and only getting through 60% of UW. Also spent about 2 days doing NBME and 2 days listening to Goljan. If I had to do it over I would do UW twice and speed read through FA the last 3 or so days. I do think FA would have been more helpful if I had used it along with classes instead of picking it up for the first time 19 days before the exam.

Lots of anatomy -> 20 to 25 q's. Maybe half of it was in FA. Only one pelvic question that was a giveaway. As everyone says know your CTs. Had 4 or 5 muscle/tendon attachment questions at a level of detail beyond what we had to know for class.

What distinguishes the different types of MRI?

Biochem was all enzymes. There was a question that tested whether you could pick out what PRPP synthase actually stands for amongst close-sounding dopplegangers.

Mol bio was about taking really simple concepts and disguising them in complicated experiments with confusing graphs with reversed axis. Don't get discouraged - no matter how unfamiliar the terminology the core of the question is testing something you probably knew in 10th grade.

Knowing what is dominant/recessive/x-linked is HY.

Lots of immuno. If you have time or are a gunner it's not a bad idea to know all the CD markers under 30. List of CDs in FA was useless. Also had a question with only non-FA interleukins as answer choices. Rest of immuno chapter was pretty HY though.

Pharm was easy. You don't really need to memorize every clinical use and toxicity for every drug - know the ones emphasized in UW. MOAs are crucial though.

FA micro is spot on but make sure you know what stuff looks like - the pictures in the back were not useful. A trend on my test was that when there was a picture, it was necessary to answer the question (you couldn't just figure it out from the stem).

I had two heart sounds one easy the other I had no clue. The stem doesn't give the answer away.

Expect a wacky MCAT physics question or two. Maybe involving balloons.

UW is all you need for physio and pathophys. Carefully going through the explanations for incorrect answer choices in UW "arrow" questions is money.

I thought the histopath was impossible but that is my achilles.

What the hell is ST14?

I actually got the FOXO3 question LOL. Thanks to SDN I will probably get a 203 instead of a 202.

I picked refer to another physician for one question and am 99% sure it was correct. If it's not the NBME folks are on PCP.

ZERO heme/onc.

Maybe 1 GI question - and it was really embryo.

ONE ANS drug question. I spent an entire precious day on that.. what a waste.

No exact repeats from NBME's but saw 3 of the same pictures.

Know everything there is to know about diabetes, alcoholism, athlerosclerosis,

Yes, marijuana causes gynecomastia.

Just because you are from Puerto Rico doesn't mean you have S. mansoni.

Know p236 of FA COLD.

What is the very last drug in FA? You just might need to know some details about it.

Hope that the person in the next cubicle isn't shaking their leg to the resonance frequency of your monitor stand.

Now I will imbibe.

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like it was a beast.

 

[NoGutsNoGlory]

Took it today.. feeling pretty lousy now. Probably the hardest test I've taken. About on par with UW in terms of difficulty and harder than NBME 7,11,12. Long question stems with more irrelevant info / distractors than UW or NBME. I had trouble with timing on the 1st block from trying to read the stems too carefully. By the 2nd block I was reading the last line first and then skimming for necessary info. Don't get bogged down by going over the lab values too closely - it's usually obvious when you need to go over them carefully and when they're just there to distract you.

UW > FA for me. During the test I kept thinking I got so many points because of UW. I only had 3 weeks to study so I had to pick between FA or UW.. ended up focusing on FA and only getting through 60% of UW. Also spent about 2 days doing NBME and 2 days listening to Goljan. If I had to do it over I would do UW twice and speed read through FA the last 3 or so days. I do think FA would have been more helpful if I had used it along with classes instead of picking it up for the first time 19 days before the exam.

Lots of anatomy -> 20 to 25 q's. Maybe half of it was in FA. Only one pelvic question that was a giveaway. As everyone says know your CTs. Had 4 or 5 muscle/tendon attachment questions at a level of detail beyond what we had to know for class.

What distinguishes the different types of MRI?

Biochem was all enzymes. There was a question that tested whether you could pick out what PRPP synthase actually stands for amongst close-sounding dopplegangers.

Mol bio was about taking really simple concepts and disguising them in complicated experiments with confusing graphs with reversed axis. Don't get discouraged - no matter how unfamiliar the terminology the core of the question is testing something you probably knew in 10th grade.

Knowing what is dominant/recessive/x-linked is HY.

Lots of immuno. If you have time or are a gunner it's not a bad idea to know all the CD markers under 30. List of CDs in FA was useless. Also had a question with only non-FA interleukins as answer choices. Rest of immuno chapter was pretty HY though.

Pharm was easy. You don't really need to memorize every clinical use and toxicity for every drug - know the ones emphasized in UW. MOAs are crucial though.

FA micro is spot on but make sure you know what stuff looks like - the pictures in the back were not useful. A trend on my test was that when there was a picture, it was necessary to answer the question (you couldn't just figure it out from the stem).

I had two heart sounds one easy the other I had no clue. The stem doesn't give the answer away.

Expect a wacky MCAT physics question or two. Maybe involving balloons.

UW is all you need for physio and pathophys. Carefully going through the explanations for incorrect answer choices in UW "arrow" questions is money.

I thought the histopath was impossible but that is my achilles.

What the hell is ST14?

I actually got the FOXO3 question LOL. Thanks to SDN I will probably get a 203 instead of a 202.

I picked refer to another physician for one question and am 99% sure it was correct. If it's not the NBME folks are on PCP.

ZERO heme/onc.

Maybe 1 GI question - and it was really embryo.

ONE ANS drug question. I spent an entire precious day on that.. what a waste.

No exact repeats from NBME's but saw 3 of the same pictures.

Know everything there is to know about diabetes, alcoholism, athlerosclerosis,

Yes, marijuana causes gynecomastia.

Just because you are from Puerto Rico doesn't mean you have S. mansoni.

Know p236 of FA COLD.

What is the very last drug in FA? You just might need to know some details about it.

Hope that the person in the next cubicle isn't shaking their leg to the resonance frequency of your monitor stand.

Now I will imbibe.

Congrats, at least you are done with it! Probably rocked the **** out of it.

 

[Day man]

Took it today.. feeling pretty lousy now. Probably the hardest test I've taken. About on par with UW in terms of difficulty and harder than NBME 7,11,12. Long question stems with more irrelevant info / distractors than UW or NBME. I had trouble with timing on the 1st block from trying to read the stems too carefully. By the 2nd block I was reading the last line first and then skimming for necessary info. Don't get bogged down by going over the lab values too closely - it's usually obvious when you need to go over them carefully and when they're just there to distract you.

UW > FA for me. During the test I kept thinking I got so many points because of UW. I only had 3 weeks to study so I had to pick between FA or UW.. ended up focusing on FA and only getting through 60% of UW. Also spent about 2 days doing NBME and 2 days listening to Goljan. If I had to do it over I would do UW twice and speed read through FA the last 3 or so days. I do think FA would have been more helpful if I had used it along with classes instead of picking it up for the first time 19 days before the exam.

Lots of anatomy -> 20 to 25 q's. Maybe half of it was in FA. Only one pelvic question that was a giveaway. As everyone says know your CTs. Had 4 or 5 muscle/tendon attachment questions at a level of detail beyond what we had to know for class.

What distinguishes the different types of MRI?

Biochem was all enzymes. There was a question that tested whether you could pick out what PRPP synthase actually stands for amongst close-sounding dopplegangers.

Mol bio was about taking really simple concepts and disguising them in complicated experiments with confusing graphs with reversed axis. Don't get discouraged - no matter how unfamiliar the terminology the core of the question is testing something you probably knew in 10th grade.

Knowing what is dominant/recessive/x-linked is HY.

Lots of immuno. If you have time or are a gunner it's not a bad idea to know all the CD markers under 30. List of CDs in FA was useless. Also had a question with only non-FA interleukins as answer choices. Rest of immuno chapter was pretty HY though.

Pharm was easy. You don't really need to memorize every clinical use and toxicity for every drug - know the ones emphasized in UW. MOAs are crucial though.

FA micro is spot on but make sure you know what stuff looks like - the pictures in the back were not useful. A trend on my test was that when there was a picture, it was necessary to answer the question (you couldn't just figure it out from the stem).

I had two heart sounds one easy the other I had no clue. The stem doesn't give the answer away.

Expect a wacky MCAT physics question or two. Maybe involving balloons.

UW is all you need for physio and pathophys. Carefully going through the explanations for incorrect answer choices in UW "arrow" questions is money.

I thought the histopath was impossible but that is my achilles.

What the hell is ST14?

I actually got the FOXO3 question LOL. Thanks to SDN I will probably get a 203 instead of a 202.

I picked refer to another physician for one question and am 99% sure it was correct. If it's not the NBME folks are on PCP.

ZERO heme/onc.

Maybe 1 GI question - and it was really embryo.

ONE ANS drug question. I spent an entire precious day on that.. what a waste.

No exact repeats from NBME's but saw 3 of the same pictures.

Know everything there is to know about diabetes, alcoholism, athlerosclerosis,

Yes, marijuana causes gynecomastia.

Just because you are from Puerto Rico doesn't mean you have S. mansoni.

Know p236 of FA COLD.

What is the very last drug in FA? You just might need to know some details about it.

Hope that the person in the next cubicle isn't shaking their leg to the resonance frequency of your monitor stand.

Now I will imbibe.

what an epic write up. it had everything. good looks! imbibe away

 

[dude1344]

The discrepancy between people who say their test was awesome and that FA covered 90% of their test and the people who said FA was useless for their test really scares me...

 

[kac714]

Took it today.. feeling pretty lousy now. Probably the hardest test I've taken. About on par with UW in terms of difficulty and harder than NBME 7,11,12. Long question stems with more irrelevant info / distractors than UW or NBME. I had trouble with timing on the 1st block from trying to read the stems too carefully. By the 2nd block I was reading the last line first and then skimming for necessary info. Don't get bogged down by going over the lab values too closely - it's usually obvious when you need to go over them carefully and when they're just there to distract you.

UW > FA for me. During the test I kept thinking I got so many points because of UW. I only had 3 weeks to study so I had to pick between FA or UW.. ended up focusing on FA and only getting through 60% of UW. Also spent about 2 days doing NBME and 2 days listening to Goljan. If I had to do it over I would do UW twice and speed read through FA the last 3 or so days. I do think FA would have been more helpful if I had used it along with classes instead of picking it up for the first time 19 days before the exam.

Lots of anatomy -> 20 to 25 q's. Maybe half of it was in FA. Only one pelvic question that was a giveaway. As everyone says know your CTs. Had 4 or 5 muscle/tendon attachment questions at a level of detail beyond what we had to know for class.

What distinguishes the different types of MRI?

Biochem was all enzymes. There was a question that tested whether you could pick out what PRPP synthase actually stands for amongst close-sounding dopplegangers.

Mol bio was about taking really simple concepts and disguising them in complicated experiments with confusing graphs with reversed axis. Don't get discouraged - no matter how unfamiliar the terminology the core of the question is testing something you probably knew in 10th grade.

Knowing what is dominant/recessive/x-linked is HY.

Lots of immuno. If you have time or are a gunner it's not a bad idea to know all the CD markers under 30. List of CDs in FA was useless. Also had a question with only non-FA interleukins as answer choices. Rest of immuno chapter was pretty HY though.

Pharm was easy. You don't really need to memorize every clinical use and toxicity for every drug - know the ones emphasized in UW. MOAs are crucial though.

FA micro is spot on but make sure you know what stuff looks like - the pictures in the back were not useful. A trend on my test was that when there was a picture, it was necessary to answer the question (you couldn't just figure it out from the stem).

I had two heart sounds one easy the other I had no clue. The stem doesn't give the answer away.

Expect a wacky MCAT physics question or two. Maybe involving balloons.

UW is all you need for physio and pathophys. Carefully going through the explanations for incorrect answer choices in UW "arrow" questions is money.

I thought the histopath was impossible but that is my achilles.

What the hell is ST14?

I actually got the FOXO3 question LOL. Thanks to SDN I will probably get a 203 instead of a 202.

I picked refer to another physician for one question and am 99% sure it was correct. If it's not the NBME folks are on PCP.

ZERO heme/onc.

Maybe 1 GI question - and it was really embryo.

ONE ANS drug question. I spent an entire precious day on that.. what a waste.

No exact repeats from NBME's but saw 3 of the same pictures.

Know everything there is to know about diabetes, alcoholism, athlerosclerosis,

Yes, marijuana causes gynecomastia.

Just because you are from Puerto Rico doesn't mean you have S. mansoni.

Know p236 of FA COLD.

What is the very last drug in FA? You just might need to know some details about it.

Hope that the person in the next cubicle isn't shaking their leg to the resonance frequency of your monitor stand.

Now I will imbibe.

Congrats on being done and thanks for your re-cap! I can't believe they asked about ST14... I just googled it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST14

 

[pullandbear]

The discrepancy between people who say their test was awesome and that FA covered 90% of their test and the people who said FA was useless for their test really scares me...

Yeah. Im basically taking a huge gamble by just using Fa (3-4x) and Uw. I hope im not making a huge mistake.

Congrats on being done and thanks for your re-cap! I can't believe they asked about ST14... I just googled it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST14

I dont even know what to take from that. It's a serine protease on epithelial cells involved in colon cancer? And what do we need to know about foxo3? That was a great write up. But it scared me like no other!

 

[kac714]

Yeah. Im basically taking a huge gamble by just using Fa (3-4x) and Uw. I hope im not making a huge mistake.

I dont even know what to take from that. It's a serine protease on epithelial cells involved in colon cancer? And what do we need to know about foxo3? That was a great write up. But it scared me like no other!

I googled FOXO3 too- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOXO3

I thought the apoptosis thing could be important

 

[Malpractice]

how do we know these esoteric questions aren't just part of the "experimental" questions??

im gonna assume that's the case even if it's not true.

and i'm also just gonna assume this post-may 17th "doomsday examinations" fiasco is all just placebo effect.

and i'm also gonna assume it's okay to just know FA and World inside out with a sprinkle of goljan on top.

 

[Nellyakgo]

Yeah, but sometimes those questions that involve a marker you don't know about are actually asking about some other concept that can be answered without knowing anything about said marker. Not saying LeedsUnited's questions were so, but there is a distinct possibility that this was the case, and the mention of an unknown marker threw him off.

LeedsUnited, great write-up by the way. Don't get too imbibed 🙂))

 

[sincity college]

Anyone know/heard of how many experimental questions they have per exam? ST-14 is absurd. Maybe a related question to elastase, trypsin, or chymotrypsin?

 

[raynor123456]

...I actually got the FOXO3 question LOL. Thanks to SDN I will probably get a 203 instead of a 202...

Ha, ha. 👍

 

[step1saga]

Yes, marijuana causes gynecomastia.

That is the nitpickittiest nitpicky detail from FA 2010 492, is that a word?
Thanks for the epic review. As for your score, more like 203+50

 

[Jake2013MD]

I took my test on May 6th and have a very similar experience. I went into the exam feeling very prepared and left absolutely devastated. I thought the test was so much more difficult than expected (not to mention there was a fire drill in the middle of my second block).

Got my score last Wednesday and ended up with a 249/99. I was in utter disbelief. Regardless of how difficult my exam was, my practice tests (both a USMLE World exam and an NBME exam) proved to be fairly accurate predictors.

Good luck to all of you guys!

Test was insane. I got destroyed. Way harder than UW or the NBMEs. I went in there feeling pretty good since I was doing well on the last few NBMEs, and I had heard 11 and 12 were a good representation. Man, I was wrong: the real deal made NBME 12 look like a joke. I would mark 6-7 questions per block on the NBMEs.

On the real deal: For 5 out of the 7 blocks, I marked 18-22 questions, basically half the block :/ Block 1 was the worst for me. I ended up marking questions 1-10 consecutively. Very very demoralizing. I was surprised by the lack of giveaways. There were maybe 2 questions/block that were considered "easy." No giveaways, no high yield topics. Question stems were twice as long. The answer choices were very very close. I think this was what stood out the most. With the NBMEs, very few questions had close answer choices. There were so many Qs where I had to narrow down the answer from 3 choices.. never had this happened before.

Content wise: good stuff first: barely any anatomy, easy embryo,easy pharm

Bad: Surprisingly, the hardest was Microbio on my test. The most random bugs: the little random details you wouldn't expect anyone to ask... bugs I'd never encountered on any other practice question. Lots of biochem: some was fine, some were tricky.There wasn't that much Immuno, but damn it was ridiculous. Random cytokines/Interleukins that were not in FA. The biggest problem I had with the test was that you couldn't get that far with "reasoning" ... you either knew it or you didn't. I got unlucky in some areas. For ex, endocrinology is probably my strongest subject. So I didn't spend much time studying random details that simply never really appeared on practice questions. I ended up having 5-6 questions on IGF-1, something I glanced at maybe once in my studying.

Overall hardest test I've ever taken. If I absolutely had to pick one source that was similar, I guess it'd have to be UWorld. Practice NBMEs were not very helpful for preparation for the test. The test was all details... the more you know, the longer you studied, the better you'd do I guess. You've gotta know everything. Score prediction: 20 points lower than practice tests.

 

[dude1344]

I took my test on May 6th and have a very similar experience. I went into the exam feeling very prepared and left absolutely devastated. I thought the test was so much more difficult than expected (not to mention there was a fire drill in the middle of my second block).

Got my score last Wednesday and ended up with a 249/99. I was in utter disbelief. Regardless of how difficult my exam was, my practice tests (both a USMLE World exam and an NBME exam) proved to be fairly accurate predictors.

Good luck to all of you guys!

Great to hear! Congrats on your score. I hope my predictors are just as accurate.

 

[Vulcan]

I took my test on May 6th and have a very similar experience. I went into the exam feeling very prepared and left absolutely devastated. I thought the test was so much more difficult than expected (not to mention there was a fire drill in the middle of my second block).

Got my score last Wednesday and ended up with a 249/99. I was in utter disbelief. Regardless of how difficult my exam was, my practice tests (both a USMLE World exam and an NBME exam) proved to be fairly accurate predictors.

Good luck to all of you guys!

Well that's wonderful news! Congrats!

More evidence that you do well while still feeling like the exam was a monster...that's good to hear.

 

[raynor123456]

Yeah. Im basically taking a huge gamble by just using Fa (3-4x) and Uw. I hope im not making a huge mistake.

No you're not. You're doing everything that you need to and more times than most people would have.

There WILL be things that FA etc didn't cover. But, it still covers pretty much everything you can imagine. Whether or not YOU can connect the dots is a different story, and UW will help you both connect the dots and fill in at least some of the very few blanks left in FA.

The -ONLY- thing I've seen people repeatedly say was a bit too skimpy in FA is anatomy, and even then its not horrible.

 

[ar2388]

Test was insane. I got destroyed. Way harder than UW or the NBMEs. I went in there feeling pretty good since I was doing well on the last few NBMEs, and I had heard 11 and 12 were a good representation. Man, I was wrong: the real deal made NBME 12 look like a joke. I would mark 6-7 questions per block on the NBMEs.

On the real deal: For 5 out of the 7 blocks, I marked 18-22 questions, basically half the block :/ Block 1 was the worst for me. I ended up marking questions 1-10 consecutively. Very very demoralizing. I was surprised by the lack of giveaways. There were maybe 2 questions/block that were considered "easy." No giveaways, no high yield topics. Question stems were twice as long. The answer choices were very very close. I think this was what stood out the most. With the NBMEs, very few questions had close answer choices. There were so many Qs where I had to narrow down the answer from 3 choices.. never had this happened before.

Content wise: good stuff first: barely any anatomy, easy embryo,easy pharm

Bad: Surprisingly, the hardest was Microbio on my test. The most random bugs: the little random details you wouldn't expect anyone to ask... bugs I'd never encountered on any other practice question. Lots of biochem: some was fine, some were tricky.There wasn't that much Immuno, but damn it was ridiculous. Random cytokines/Interleukins that were not in FA. The biggest problem I had with the test was that you couldn't get that far with "reasoning" ... you either knew it or you didn't. I got unlucky in some areas. For ex, endocrinology is probably my strongest subject. So I didn't spend much time studying random details that simply never really appeared on practice questions. I ended up having 5-6 questions on IGF-1, something I glanced at maybe once in my studying.

Overall hardest test I've ever taken. If I absolutely had to pick one source that was similar, I guess it'd have to be UWorld. Practice NBMEs were not very helpful for preparation for the test. The test was all details... the more you know, the longer you studied, the better you'd do I guess. You've gotta know everything. Score prediction: 20 points lower than practice tests.

this was pretty much my experience. i keep thinking that i made the mistake of reading RR path instead of doing more UWorld. sigh. oh well.. i can just sit adn wait to find out what i got.

 

[ar2388]

I 'highly' doubt I got anywhere near that score. I left there thinking to myself: "I can't believe anybody who went through 2yrs of medical school could have done so poorly."



Just focus on the nerves, vasculature, and lymph nodes. That should be enoguh.

haha. thats EXACTLY! what i thought and expressed to my boyfriend.

 

[DrRoast]

I took my test on May 6th and have a very similar experience. I went into the exam feeling very prepared and left absolutely devastated. I thought the test was so much more difficult than expected (not to mention there was a fire drill in the middle of my second block).

Got my score last Wednesday and ended up with a 249/99. I was in utter disbelief. Regardless of how difficult my exam was, my practice tests (both a USMLE World exam and an NBME exam) proved to be fairly accurate predictors.

Good luck to all of you guys!

Which NBME's predicted your score if you don't mind my asking?

 

[SeekerOfTheTree]

this was pretty much my experience. i keep thinking that i made the mistake of reading RR path instead of doing more UWorld. sigh. oh well.. i can just sit adn wait to find out what i got.

Would you say RR was kind of useless and FA covered the stuff that was important? For doing more UW questions do you think they help content wise or is it more of helping you think more conceptually?

 

[pullandbear]

Would you say RR was kind of useless and FA covered the stuff that was important? For doing more UW questions do you think they help content wise or is it more of helping you think more conceptually?

x2

 

[bobsagat]

Brian Jenkins said that from surveys, most students wish they'd spent more time on three subjects - neuro, behavioral and cell bio. Those that have taken it, do you find this to be true for you?

 

[ej37]

I took the exam May 16th- anyone know when I can expect my score? Any chance it is tomorrow? Good luck to everyone who is waiting for scores tomorrow.

 

[Jake2013MD]

I took USMLE World Form 1 (got a 254 2 1/2 weeks out) and NBME 12 (got a 238 about a week out).

Which NBME's predicted your score if you don't mind my asking?

 

[winkleweizen]

Brian Jenkins said that from surveys, most students wish they'd spent more time on three subjects - neuro, behavioral and cell bio. Those that have taken it, do you find this to be true for you?

Ontop of this, is it really not important to know the chromosomes associated with different diseases like ADPKD on 16 and FAP on chrom 5?

 

[raynor123456]

haha. thats EXACTLY! what i thought and expressed to my boyfriend.

LOL. Glad I'm not alone on that one.

And, I'd like to second the question, "can we be expecting scores tomorrow?" anybody know?

 

[feeco5226]

I took the exam last week and although I haven't posted much, I did read this thread before the big day, so I thought I'd add my experience to give back a little. I don't know how much the curves vary, but I thought my exam was easier than most of the NBMEs and a little easier than UWorld, but pretty similar in terms of the types of questions and the material.

As others have mentioned, it seems as though each exam has a "theme" or at least different areas that are disproportionately represented. For example, I was very surprised that I had so few cardio and GI questions and an absurd number of renal questions. I also had a lot of embryology and it probably would have been a pretty sad day if I didn't know my biostats well.

I was worried about biochem, but all of the questions I got except one were straightforward and either in FA or UW. Mostly questions about enzyme deficiencies and vitamins. Also, I felt like some of the experimental questions were tricky just because of the complex way in which they described the experiment, but once you figured out what they were doing, the questions weren't hard.

I used mostly FA, UWorld, and Goljan audio and consulted a few other books for reference. Almost every question I saw was either in FA or UWorld to the extent that I would have been sad if I had spent a lot of other time on lower yield resources. I had 4 weeks and if I had had any additional time, the best way to spend it would have been to read through my annotated FA over and over and over again. There were questions that I knew I had seen in UWorld or that I knew which page they were on in FA and I just couldn't remember the details...yeah, details. They ask a lot of questions about the little details.

Someone else mentioned distractors in questions - beware of the distractors! The stems are longer than UWorld, but you don't always need all of the information. I had questions that listed lab values that I didn't really need to look at. I also had questions that had so much going on that you could easily forget what they were asking for. Pay attention to the question. There were some that I marked, went back to, and only realized on the third read through what the question was really about.

While there were some tricky questions similar to UWorld, there were also a fair number of very easy questions and a handful of random questions, but I feel like you either know it or you don't for the latter.

Lastly, if you're weak in Behavioral Sciences, pick up the BRS book even if it's just for the extra "what would you say" question practice. Behavioral Science is one of my strong areas and I did really well on that shelf, but some of the "what would you say" questions on the real thing were very ambiguous. I could usually narrow it down to two, but it was tough. I often didn't miss any of those on NBMEs or in UWorld, so I would not shrug these off and leave it up to chance because some of it was hard even though I thought I knew it well.

 

[da8s0859q]

I took the exam last week and although I haven't posted much, I did read this thread before the big day, so I thought I'd add my experience to give back a little.

Thanks for posting that. Hope you do well. 👍

 

[quepatho]

From up to date:
-------

The routine use of nebulized ribavirin in infants and children with RSV LRTI is not recommended. The efficacy of ribavirin in this population has not been clearly proven. In addition, ribavirin is expensive and must be given early in the course to be effective, and there are concerns regarding occupational exposure.

​

A systematic review of randomized trials comparing ribavirin with placebo in infants and children with RSV infection and LRTI found that trials of ribavirin lack sufficient power to provide reliable estimates of the effects. ​

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against the routine use of ribavirin

​

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has published recommendations to reduce the ambient air concentrations of ribavirin and limit occupational exposure to hospital personnel ​

----

Basically, ribavirin has not been proven to work and there is sufficient concern that it is a teratogen that they don't want health care workers exposed to the aerosolized version of it anymore. Its not a good idea to be around this stuff if you are or plan on getting pregnant within 6 months.

​

I'm quoting this post from a billion years ago (ok maybe just a month ago). Just got a UWorld question that said ribavirin is used for RSV. Probably not updated yet, but you know...idk why I thought I'd put that out there. (Not questioning the accuracy of rapplix's statement).

 

[Step1Hash]

I'm quoting this post from a billion years ago (ok maybe just a month ago). Just got a UWorld question that said ribavirin is used for RSV. Probably not updated yet, but you know...idk why I thought I'd put that out there. (Not questioning the accuracy of rapplix's statement).

yea someone brought that question up in another thread. I think the consensus was if you see Ribavirin as a answer choice and Pallivizumab isn't then pick ribavirin... but if Palivizumab is an option go with that.

 

[pezzang]

feeco5226,

Wow, thanks a lot for sharing your experience. It's really helpful!

 

[MossPoh]

My general strategy for the "What would you say?" questions is to pick whatever is the greatest inconvenience for you and your life that is as close to giving a hug to cure cancer as you can get. If a patient is abrasive or wrong in any way, it is your fault. Don't pick anything involving being helpful to a family member unless it says in big red letters that the patient gave permission.

No no no, don't have the nurse call up and talk to him about his medications. Drive out to his house and hand write a 14 page step by step guide in calligraphy with a true quill feather for a pen. Laminate that step-by-step guide, place it in his hand and elaborate sticking points in English, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Russian and Chinese. THEN, take him by his hand and wheel him to the pharmacy where you hand the new prescription TO the pharmacist, a valuable and irreplaceable resource. Once that is done, warm up 90 gallons of milk mixed virgin's blood to give the patient a bath before tucking him into YOUR bed with your significant other. You then go and pull out one of those really uncomfortable beds from a couch with that spring that digs in your side to go to sleep for the night, happy that you did the right thing for your patient.

Oooo, sorry. Still got it wrong, you spoke the wrong dialect of Chinese.

The sad part is that I literally say, "What is most difficult for ME?" whenever I am staring at one of those questions. It has worked out well. I scored about 1.3 SD above the national mean on the subject behavioral science exam...and I am obviously a very sensitive and caring person.

 

[DreamingTheLive]

My general strategy for the "What would you say?" questions is to pick whatever is the greatest inconvenience for you and your life that is as close to giving a hug to cure cancer as you can get. If a patient is abrasive or wrong in any way, it is your fault. Don't pick anything involving being helpful to a family member unless it says in big red letters that the patient gave permission.

No no no, don't have the nurse call up and talk to him about his medications. Drive out to his house and hand write a 14 page step by step guide in calligraphy with a true quill feather for a pen. Laminate that step-by-step guide, place it in his hand and elaborate sticking points in English, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Russian and Chinese. THEN, take him by his hand and wheel him to the pharmacy where you hand the new prescription TO the pharmacist, a valuable and irreplaceable resource. Once that is done, warm up 90 gallons of milk mixed virgin's blood to give the patient a bath before tucking him into YOUR bed with your significant other. You then go and pull out one of those really uncomfortable beds from a couch with that spring that digs in your side to go to sleep for the night, happy that you did the right thing for your patient.

Oooo, sorry. Still got it wrong, you spoke the wrong dialect of Chinese.

Is that in First Aid? epic.

 

[WashMe]

My general strategy for the "What would you say?" questions is to pick whatever is the greatest inconvenience for you and your life that is as close to giving a hug to cure cancer as you can get. If a patient is abrasive or wrong in any way, it is your fault. Don't pick anything involving being helpful to a family member unless it says in big red letters that the patient gave permission.

No no no, don't have the nurse call up and talk to him about his medications. Drive out to his house and hand write a 14 page step by step guide in calligraphy with a true quill feather for a pen. Laminate that step-by-step guide, place it in his hand and elaborate sticking points in English, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Russian and Chinese. THEN, take him by his hand and wheel him to the pharmacy where you hand the new prescription TO the pharmacist, a valuable and irreplaceable resource. Once that is done, warm up 90 gallons of milk mixed virgin's blood to give the patient a bath before tucking him into YOUR bed with your significant other. You then go and pull out one of those really uncomfortable beds from a couch with that spring that digs in your side to go to sleep for the night, happy that you did the right thing for your patient.

Oooo, sorry. Still got it wrong, you spoke the wrong dialect of Chinese.

👍

 

[quepatho]

My general strategy for the "What would you say?" questions is to pick whatever is the greatest inconvenience for you and your life that is as close to giving a hug to cure cancer as you can get. If a patient is abrasive or wrong in any way, it is your fault. Don't pick anything involving being helpful to a family member unless it says in big red letters that the patient gave permission.

No no no, don't have the nurse call up and talk to him about his medications. Drive out to his house and hand write a 14 page step by step guide in calligraphy with a true quill feather for a pen. Laminate that step-by-step guide, place it in his hand and elaborate sticking points in English, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Russian and Chinese. THEN, take him by his hand and wheel him to the pharmacy where you hand the new prescription TO the pharmacist, a valuable and irreplaceable resource. Once that is done, warm up 90 gallons of milk mixed virgin's blood to give the patient a bath before tucking him into YOUR bed with your significant other. You then go and pull out one of those really uncomfortable beds from a couch with that spring that digs in your side to go to sleep for the night, happy that you did the right thing for your patient.

Oooo, sorry. Still got it wrong, you spoke the wrong dialect of Chinese.

The sad part is that I literally say, "What is most difficult for ME?" whenever I am staring at one of those questions. It has worked out well. I scored about 1.3 SD above the national mean on the subject behavioral science exam...and I am obviously a very sensitive and caring person.

Heh, I'm loving it. There are definitely some UWorld behavioral science questions where all the answers sound absolutely awful. And I haven't missed any behavioral science questions on the last two NBMEs I took.

I think the UWorld question that surprised me the most was the one where the patient asks the doctor to pray for them. What do you do? According to UWorld the correct answer is to tell them you will pray for them...I mean, that's all well and good if you are a religious person, but do the non-prayers among us not still have the right to say something polite but noncommittal???

 

[quepatho]

Also, I'm taking my test in one weeeeek!! ahhhhh!!! I'll come back and share my experiences like everyone else did. I'm halfway between excited, nervous, and just at peace, internally.

Mostly I'm just excited. This nightmare will be over really soon. Even if I do terribly, even if I make a 189, I am just going to be so proud I sat through the whole thing and didn't die on the spot (assuming that's what actually happens).

 

[skk3]

Also, I'm taking my test in one weeeeek!! ahhhhh!!! I'll come back and share my experiences like everyone else did. I'm halfway between excited, nervous, and just at peace, internally.

Mostly I'm just excited. This nightmare will be over really soon. Even if I do terribly, even if I make a 189, I am just going to be so proud I sat through the whole thing and didn't die on the spot (assuming that's what actually happens).

Hey Quepatho,

BS happens to be one of my weakest areas. Any tips for me? I started watching Kaplan BS videos because someone said they were good. I also have HY BS which I've taken a brief look at. Any advice would be appreciated!