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.

 

[kac714]

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???

according to the kaplan guy... yes- because if you don't believe it then what's the harm? they're just words if you don't believe it. He did say that if praying is in direct contradiction to your beliefs you don't have to.

 

[priam18]

If we're thinking of the same UWorld question, I believe the answer was 'I'll keep you in my prayers and thoughts' - which is actually not the same thing as agreeing to pray for the patient.

I sort of see 'I'll keep you in my prayers and thoughts' as an option even for doctors that are not religious because it does not place an obligation on the doctor to actually pray for the patient, but it does re-assure the patient at the same time.

 

[quepatho]

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!

I think what helped me most with behavioral science was (1) lots of practice questions (UWorld/Kaplan behavioral science tests/Rx questions) and (2) realizing that the principles behind answering these situational questions are primarily:

(1) ask open-ended questions. Always ask for more information (even if you think you know enough, you probably don't according to Step 1). For behavioral science questions always ask for more information - preferably with open-ended questions. Always, always ask about their concerns, their interests, why they think the way they do (even if you think you know).

(2) When asking is not an option, educate the patient as nicely as humanly possible.

(3) Never, ever, ever, ever, ever refer them to a specialist or let the nurse handle it or the genetic counselor or the social worker. Step 1 is not testing your referral skills, apparently 😎

That's all I got, I guess...sorry if it's not really helpful...I honestly think practice questions are really the only way to actually force yourself to figure out what's going on in the testmaker's brains. Find any and every practice question you can and just do it. They don't take that long.

Principles of behavioral science are great and all (the principles are common sense, usually) but putting them into PRACTICE is the hard part.

 

[quepatho]

according to the kaplan guy... yes- because if you don't believe it then what's the harm? they're just words if you don't believe it. He did say that if praying is in direct contradiction to your beliefs you don't have to.

Because I don't want to misrepresent my personal feelings about religion/prayer.

If we're thinking of the same UWorld question, I believe the answer was 'I'll keep you in my prayers and thoughts' - which is actually not the same thing as agreeing to pray for the patient.

I sort of see 'I'll keep you in my prayers and thoughts' as an option even for doctors that are not religious because it does not place an obligation on the doctor to actually pray for the patient, but it does re-assure the patient at the same time.

Yeah it's the same UWorld question. "I'll keep you in my prayers..." idk, that sounds like agreeing to pray for the patient to me. 😳

And then I'm semi-lying. They might be in my thoughts, but they will NOT be in my prayers. "Sure I'll pray for you..." I don't see why my lil atheist self should have to lie about it.

What if they wanted me to pray with them right there on the spot? Then what?

Just for context, based on where I live (which has a large religious community), I've had to pray with people just to make the social interaction go smoothly far too often in my life. Just for ONCE I would like to have some other option.

I actually had to pray with a patient/patient's family about two weeks ago because I was sitting down to dinner with them and it would have been rude not to. I mean there was no other way to make the social interaction work. BUT I DON'T LIKE IT. THERE NEEDS TO BE A BETTER WAY.

Sure it might seem harmless enough, but it's forcing me to represent my views as other than they are. What if they asked me to please be respectful and wear a burka in the presence of the patient? When is enough enough?

 

[MossPoh]

Is that in First Aid? epic.

In an old edition. You know how they like to take out all the things you like with newer versions.

I'm thinking it was in my 2008.



As far as the praying question, I missed that one the first time because it was before I understood the "never refer" thing. I thought, "Hey, why not get the religious person someone who is actually religious and can say the stuff with an honest and straight face." Wrong......

If it is one thing the USMLE has taught me, it is that I will NEVER EVER refer the patient to anyone else. It doesn't matter if they have a rare genetic disorder that necessitates the development of skills over years of disease specific research and management, you will do it.

You're a radiologist and a dude has problems peeing? Glove up. You're a dermatologist and a person has a ruptured AAA? Hope you're up to date on your vascular surgery techniques.

My friend and I have compiled the HY no-frills behavioral science reference over the past month. This is mostly because we feel very angry lately.

Here is another tip. If anyone ever comes into the emergency department and they are angry/combative, they've been doing angel dust. Whether 10 years old or 90, everybody does PCP. They will have herculean mongo hulk strength and come into the ER after the national guard used the outflow from the regional powerplant to tase him (or her).

Large bruise anywhere on the body and the patient is telling you how it happened? They were abused. Follow necessary algorithm.

If ever presented with a super crazy b!tc# that really just comes off as a needy spoiled brat chick at a state college on steroids, she is borderline.

 

[justdoit31]

Because I don't want to misrepresent my personal feelings about religion/prayer.



Yeah it's the same UWorld question. "I'll keep you in my prayers..." idk, that sounds like agreeing to pray for the patient to me. 😳

And then I'm semi-lying. They might be in my thoughts, but they will NOT be in my prayers. "Sure I'll pray for you..." I don't see why my lil atheist self should have to lie about it.

What if they wanted me to pray with them right there on the spot? Then what?

Just for context, based on where I live (which has a large religious community), I've had to pray with people just to make the social interaction go smoothly far too often in my life. Just for ONCE I would like to have some other option.

I actually had to pray with a patient/patient's family about two weeks ago because I was sitting down to dinner with them and it would have been rude not to. I mean there was no other way to make the social interaction work. BUT I DON'T LIKE IT. THERE NEEDS TO BE A BETTER WAY.

Sure it might seem harmless enough, but it's forcing me to represent my views as other than they are. What if they asked me to please be respectful and wear a burka in the presence of the patient? When is enough enough?

I think if you just say "thoughts and prayers" then it's easy to be at peace with it knowing you don't have to actually pray to the same god or gods the patient has- I've had patient encounters with other religious that wanted me to pray for them- I'll pray to my God and if I was an atheist then I would most likely just think about them but reassurance for the patient is nice.

The burka thing is a lil much for you as a physician in the US but even as a Christian myself I understand the importance of keeping my head covered when visiting a predominantly Muslim country or putting on a kippah when visiting Jewish sites, especially in Europe or Israel. That respect is the same reason you just close your eyes if someone is praying at their dinner table and let it be. It's sorta like that Coexist bumper sticker thing.

 

[AlexMorph]

In an old edition. You know how they like to take out all the things you like with newer versions.

I'm thinking it was in my 2008.



As far as the praying question, I missed that one the first time because it was before I understood the "never refer" thing. I thought, "Hey, why not get the religious person someone who is actually religious and can say the stuff with an honest and straight face." Wrong......

If it is one thing the USMLE has taught me, it is that I will NEVER EVER refer the patient to anyone else. It doesn't matter if they have a rare genetic disorder that necessitates the development of skills over years of disease specific research and management, you will do it.

You're a radiologist and a dude has problems peeing? Glove up. You're a dermatologist and a person has a ruptured AAA? Hope you're up to date on your vascular surgery techniques.

My friend and I have compiled the HY no-frills behavioral science reference over the past month. This is mostly because we feel very angry lately.

Here is another tip. If anyone ever comes into the emergency department and they are angry/combative, they've been doing angel dust. Whether 10 years old or 90, everybody does PCP. They will have herculean mongo hulk strength and come into the ER after the national guard used the outflow from the regional powerplant to tase him (or her).

Large bruise anywhere on the body and the patient is telling you how it happened? They were abused. Follow necessary algorithm.

If ever presented with a super crazy b!tc# that really just comes off as a needy spoiled brat chick at a state college on steroids, she is borderline.

Lol. I really hope you take your Step 1 soon. You are losing it, much like myself. Thankfully, I get this crap over with tomorrow.

 

[quepatho]

I think if you just say "thoughts and prayers" then it's easy to be at peace with it knowing you don't have to actually pray to the same god or gods the patient has- I've had patient encounters with other religious that wanted me to pray for them- I'll pray to my God and if I was an atheist then I would most likely just think about them but reassurance for the patient is nice.

The burka thing is a lil much for you as a physician in the US but even as a Christian myself I understand the importance of keeping my head covered when visiting a predominantly Muslim country or putting on a kippah when visiting Jewish sites, especially in Europe or Israel. That respect is the same reason you just close your eyes if someone is praying at their dinner table and let it be. It's sorta like that Coexist bumper sticker thing.

Heh, most of the people at my church have the coexist bumper sticker. (I go to an unusual church that doesn't necessitate the belief in a god or gods). 😀

I certainly take your point about going to another location - I would try to conform to the respectful customs necessary at that location. Be that a head covering or whatever else. I understand that's not my home or my practice or my tradition and I have the privilege of being allowed to see it/be there.

As an individual, though, it just seems so...wrong...to be ethically required to promise something I hold as dear to me as my freedom to not practice prayer. (No really, I've been socially forced into so many prayers in my life, I'm just DONE with it).

I mean, I do realize most people wouldn't necessarily agree with my point of view. I think one of the answers was to refer to a chaplain which, in REALITY, is the only thing I would feel comfortable doing. I would/could certainly promise to keep them in my thoughts (as I'm sure they would be, if they were truly ill and needed help) and hopefully I could do it as respectfully and caringly as possible.

But why make a mockery of everyone's religion by agreeing to support the rituals of someone else's religious practice? idk, I suppose it's mostly a matter of opinion anyway.

 

[ar2388]

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?

i thnk RR may be helpful but the helpfulness of FA and UWorld far outweigh that.. i think i may have done myelf a disservice by getting through so little of UWorld just so i can get through RR. on UWorld blocks i would see questions answerable if you read RR but i didnt have that experience on the actual exam. instead i had questions where i thought "damn if i read FA one more time, i wouldve remembered this detail".

 

[da8s0859q]

I take the exam in a couple of days. Anyone think I should take one more NBME as a confidence booster / last NBME, or should I just buckle down and make it through as much FA + UW incorrect as I can?

 

[silverpaw54]

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?

Thanks ar2388 for your reply.

Anyone else know if UW is more for content or to get your mind processing information? I've gone through UW x 1 and my incorrects. Not sure if I should start doing random blocks in my last two weeks.

 

[Day man]

I take the exam in a couple of days. Anyone think I should take one more NBME as a confidence booster / last NBME, or should I just buckle down and make it through as much FA + UW incorrect as I can?

I'm in my final 2 weeks, and when i was making my schedule i thought about this. i came to this: 1 nbme: ~5 hours time with review, you get to interact with nbme style questions, MAYBE you get like 1 repeat vs. UW incorrects/FA - you're revisiting questions...but it's the ones you thought were challenging and/or got wrong. I just started my doing my marked, but in 5 hours you could probably get through ~3 blocks so 138 questions. I don't think there's a "right" answer but I just decided to review my weak subjects + pharm/biostat formulas in those last 3 days...I just don't know how I would handle getting a really bad score or something because at that stage you know what you're going to know for the test. I just think there's more utility in reviewing your weak areas, vs exposure to nbme questions. Tough call though. Also good luck to everyone taking it soon. I both envy and fear your position haha.

 

[MossPoh]

Lol. I really hope you take your Step 1 soon. You are losing it, much like myself. Thankfully, I get this crap over with tomorrow.

June 15. Sadly, I'm almost always like this. I am hitting a little bit of a wall which I suspect I should shift over to more book work.

I did 85-90% of uworld (over a very long period of time) and then did 100% of Kaplan Qbank in about 9 weeks. I also did all of the pretest question book, about half of the NMS question book (which makes Kaplan questions seem like they lack detail) and even a few blocks from a step 2 block. Reset uworld and started going back at that, which I'm 60% through now and suprisingly, don't remember that much from it and the ones I DO remember, I play mind games with myself and miss.

Really, I'm staring down the barrel of the rote memorization that I'm avoiding at all costs, despite the knowledge I need to do it. (I'm looking at you biochem)

 

[da8s0859q]

I'm in my final 2 weeks, and when i was making my schedule i thought about this. i came to this: 1 nbme: ~5 hours time with review, you get to interact with nbme style questions, MAYBE you get like 1 repeat vs. UW incorrects/FA - you're revisiting questions...but it's the ones you thought were challenging and/or got wrong. I just started my doing my marked, but in 5 hours you could probably get through ~3 blocks so 138 questions. I don't think there's a "right" answer but I just decided to review my weak subjects + pharm/biostat formulas in those last 3 days...I just don't know how I would handle getting a really bad score or something because at that stage you know what you're going to know for the test. I just think there's more utility in reviewing your weak areas, vs exposure to nbme questions. Tough call though. Also good luck to everyone taking it soon. I both envy and fear your position haha.

Thanks bud. My only real interest in another NBME would be to get a score I'm more or less happy with right around the exam. My last NBME was about two weeks ago and was mid-230s -- just curious to see if that's changed appreciably.

 

[Bloor]

Just got my score, kinda distraught now...lower than any uwsa by over 25 points and even lower than my lowest nbme. 83- life is pale :cry:

Good luck to everyone else, I hope you do well.

 

[quepatho]

Thanks bud. My only real interest in another NBME would be to get a score I'm more or less happy with right around the exam. My last NBME was about two weeks ago and was mid-230s -- just curious to see if that's changed appreciably.

I'm finishing up with a UWSA (tomorrow, Thursday) a week before my test (next Thursday).

A lot of threads last year said UWSA#2 was a good predictor and it seems to be more forgiving than the NBMEs. If this is wrong, please don't tell me about it because I'm taking it tomorrow and hoping for good things. 😀

Good luck.

 

[ScubaStarved]

266-270 range. Super happy, super relieved. Got an email ~9:30 cst and the Print Score Report link appeared at 10:00am cst on the dot. No server lag or problems as reported in previous years. I think this may be the last score release until July, except for the May 16th test takers.

NBMEs taken after >1 week of study:
#6=258, #7=264, 3 weeks out #11=264, 1 week out #12=268

[Still hoping to put the final nail in the "which NBME is best" coffin. The most recent NBMEs are more like the actual exam. All of the exams are very good at predicting a score at a given level of knowledge. They're so good, in fact, that you're far better off spending your time studying, sleeping, or decompressing than reading/posting threads about which one is "best."]

Upon submitting the exam, I felt confident at having done well. That confidence dwindled somewhat as I'd look up crazy question after crazy question to find that I had guessed wrong after narrowing ALL of them to two answers. I remembered missing 5-7 total and estimate that I missed another 10-20 on top of that.

Huge thanks to all those contributing knowledge and experiences in this sub-forum. Good luck!

 

[quepatho]

Just got my score, kinda distraught now...lower than any uwsa by over 25 points and even lower than my lowest nbme. 83- life is pale :cry:

Good luck to everyone else, I hope you do well.

I'm sorry to hear that, Bloor. I am thinking good thoughts for you; just remember there are still many more important parts of medical school to get through besides Step 1 that will have a huge impact on residency. One score won't determine your whole life.

I know this is probably not a great time to ask this (and I apologize), but do you remember if UWSA#1 overpredicted more or less than UWSA#2?

I seriously think UWSA#1 overpredicted my performance by 20 points (assuming any validity whatsoever from NBMEs). But I'm hoping UWSA#2 will be a little closer without totally wrecking my confidence the week before the exam.

 

[fahimaz7]

I'm sorry to hear that, Bloor. I am thinking good thoughts for you; just remember there are still many more important parts of medical school to get through besides Step 1 that will have a huge impact on residency. One score won't determine your whole life.

I know this is probably not a great time to ask this (and I apologize), but do you remember if UWSA#1 overpredicted more or less than UWSA#2?

I seriously think UWSA#1 overpredicted my performance by 20 points (assuming any validity whatsoever from NBMEs). But I'm hoping UWSA#2 will be a little closer without totally wrecking my confidence the week before the exam.

04-26-2011, 06:19 AM #1878
Bloor
Junior Member
Awrite

uworld 1 234
nbme 11 207 (absence seizure??)
uworld 2 228

______________

Pulled that from earlier.

 

[pullandbear]

Just got my score, kinda distraught now...lower than any uwsa by over 25 points and even lower than my lowest nbme. 83- life is pale :cry:

Good luck to everyone else, I hope you do well.

Hang in there brother. I know you must feel horrible. But just remember that life really does go on. This test isn't 'everything'. In the end you'll be ok.

 

[lavodnas]

Just got my score, kinda distraught now...lower than any uwsa by over 25 points and even lower than my lowest nbme. 83- life is pale :cry:

Good luck to everyone else, I hope you do well.

Hang in there! Study really hard for step 2, you will be fine in the long run.

 

[quepatho]

(Thanks Fahimaz)

I'm glad I've been doing NBMEs regularly, then, I guess.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Finally took it today. FA is money. Wish I spent more time with it. I've never been a rote-memorizer and spent too much time trying to understand stuff conceptually during prep.

-I studied biochem like a crazy man and only had like 3 Q's. DAMN. 2 were homocysteine related. WTF. I knew my storage diseases so well. Not a single Q. Oh well.

-ZERO Mo Bio Q's. Duudeee!

-Let's play a game. It's called "is it x-linked?"

-Let's play another game, it's called "we made a cool rat in the lab"

-Let's take a piece of a brain and put it on a piece of CARPET and take a picture. WTF? carpet? you pathologists, you...

-Woa crap, there's a mutant baby picture. Thanks for the warning...

-Like a million psych questions that involved asking an open ended question or not being a complete a-hole in the response. Seriously, like 10 or 15 Q's.

-Know 'yer biostats. Kaplan >>> FA.

-Decent amount of nerve injuries and anatomy. Kaplan > FA but overkill with details. Most of my anatomy was conceptual and not "What spine level is the spleen" type stuff.

-Wish I had spent more time w/ Kaplan physio.

-The pharm Q's I had were basically extensions of path. Like there's be an infection and the answer choices would be a) an antibiotic, b) an anti-viral, c) and anti-fungal. I spent very little time on pharm and it was a good gamble.

-If you did well in micro during the year I think FA or RR is enough. RR is enough for biochem, genetics, a lot of micro, and a lot of physio.

-My friend said he had like 20 paraneoplastic Q's. I had 1.

This test is so much odder than I expected. There seems to be substantial variability between test takers in terms of the subject matter tested and Q's used. My friend asked me about a bunch of her Q's after the test and I didn't have any of the same ones.

Back in 2 weeks 🙂

Got my score this morning. 250's. Very happy 😀

Will write my study strategy below...

 

[winkleweizen]

Got my score this morning. 250's. Very happy 😀

Will write my study strategy below...

👍 nice....do tell how it correlated with your practice scores.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Got my score this morning. 250's. Very happy 😀

Will write my study strategy below...

So I had about 6.5 wks to study. Didn't do ANY prep before-hand. Took the pharm and physio shelfs right before studying started so that helped a little...

My major resources were FA and the Kaplan notes (full set, 2010). So, this advice is mostly tailored to those using the kaplan set, I guess.

First 2 wks: Got through the Kaplan books with lectures. Made an excel sheet with the times for all the lectures so I could know what I was getting in to.

For Kaplan vids: Pharm is a must and was great for the shelf. Didn't watch them again for Step 1 b/c it was all pretty fresh. Mostly used FA for pharm, didn't go back to the Kaplan book much. Biochem was also a must. Loved it. didn't get hit too hard with biochem on my test, but I would have been ready for anything. Behavioral vids are really good but low yield. He's also kind of long winded. You will get a whole behavioral course here. It paid off but you never know what you'll get asked for this stuff on step 1, so it's a gamble. Unlike the other vids I spread these out and listened to a few hours here and there while studying. I never went back to the book but I think they stuck. By far the highest yield behavioral was the ethics-type chapter and biostats. Biostats was very, very high yield. I watched path but it's low yield. Only took away a few new facts from it. Physio is annoying. Didn't like the super-caffeinated guy at all. Renal guy was the only one worth watching but he's got a super annoying voice. I had to adjust the pitch to give him some b@lls so I could get through it. Anatomy is kind of boring but quick and worth watching. Same with genetics. Neuro isn't really worth watching. Didn't do any histo. Micro seemed over-simplified but it probably helped. I didn't study much/any micro after the vids and did fine qith my Q's on the Step, but I did really well in my school's course so results might vary.

Kaplan books: Same as above, more or less. Pharm, Biochem, Anatomy, and Immuno are great. The physio book is also really, really good. It's got a lot of detail but it's without a doubt the best book out there. If I could go back in time I would have gunned physio a little more and I probably would have been in the 260's. Whatever. Micro is good if you're feeling weak. Neuro I loved and is really good, but I hardly had any neuro at all on my exam. It was super low yield...can't stress that enough: If you were at some point good with neuro, know your dermatomes and know how to identify basic things on a cross sections like the substantia nigra, hippocampus, basal ganglia, etc. That's all you really need. Behavioral is also overkill. I'd use it for biostats and the ethical stuff, especially for understanding formulas, and use FA for everything else.

After those first 2 weeks or so I went through some Goljan chapters and some of the FA path. This was my first time opening the FA book. For those of you with any anxiety about not having used FA over the years in your classes: You're fine. It's a nice book to know but you certainly don't need to know everything in there. I probably spent about 5 days reading through Goljan in little 1-2 day blocks here and there.

I spent weeks 3-4 making a second pass through the kaplan notes without the lectures and finished my goljan reading. I had read it over the year with path, and also before the shelf, so this was my 4th time or so getting through it. I also annotated B-chem and Immuno into FA. Not really worth the effort with my test, but gain, you never know what you'll get hit with on the test. I was prepared.

Week 5, I really started getting down with FA. I also started using U World a few hours a day. I was at about 75-80% on most blocks, and realized that most of the Q's I missed were either explicitly stated in FA or were one of Goljan's blue high yield notes. I dediced that UW was therefore only 20-25% yield and stopped doing it after that week. I instead decided to annotate most of the important Goljan chapters into my FA, and to focus more on rote memorizing factoids from FA.

Those last 2 weeks were basically FA. I spent a lot of time on biochem and path. I also went back through anatomy and neuro w/ kaplan. Anatomy was money. Neuro turned out to be low yield. I did a little bit of pharm every day but it didn't seem to stick much. I was not feeling good with pharm at all but I either did better than I expected or just didn't get hit hard with it. Same with micro. Spent a whole day on immuno and it was worth it...had a few genetic immuno diseases on my test.

~~~~

My test was heavy on biostats, anatomy, physio, and genetics. You didn't have to be a total path genious to destroy that test. Physio is the only thing I really would have rocked if I could do it again.

Regarding Q banks and practice tests: I want to use this post as a testiment to the fact that you do not need to do UWorld twice to do well on Step 1. I have never been huge on practice tests before shelf exams and ended up doing only 50% of UWorld and zero practice tests or self-assessments.

Regarding FA: Don't be overwhelmed by the details in there. FA is a great book, the highest yield source for step 1, but it also emphasizes rote details more than Step 1 does. Certainly don't sacrifice conceptual understanding for details, but you also do have to focus on memorizing the facts you think are highest yield. I don't think I had any HLA association Q's, for example. Finding that happy medium between concepts and facts is the trickiest thing about Step 1... I leaned more toward concepts than I should have...but I think you're ultimately safer doing that than leaning toward the rote side of things. Back to FA....Know it as well as you can, but don't feel defeated if you haven't memorized it. It's a great resource to guide your studying, though...that's it's best use IMHO.

Regarding Goljan: There's noting "Rapid" about "rapid review." It's a superb source, and has 95% of the little details tested by UWorld, plus way, way more, but you have to read it carefully to extract that stuff. It's an excellent source for reviewing mechanisms of disease, histology of tumors, risk factors, "most common causes," etc, but use FA to guide you through path/Goljan. You don't need Goljan to rock Step 1, but it can help if you're familiar with it and start early enough.

Good luck to all of you. It's really, truly, not as bad as you imagine. 👍

ps...sorry for the typos. I'm too lazy to edit.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

👍 nice....do tell how it correlated with your practice scores.

No practice tests 😱

Sorry 😎

My reasoning is complex and partially influenced by laziness. Also, personally, I don't think I learn best from tests. But my main reasons are:
1. They take time
2. They guide your studying...which can be good. But it can also trick you, subtly, in to thinking that certain topics are higher or lower yield than they really are. I do think, for example, that 80% of UWorld is simply an emphasis of the topics listed by FA as being high yield. There's just too much overlap to be coincidental, and FA IMHO is more high yield for UW than the real Step 1.
3. As an assessment, there's just too much variability with those tests. Everyone I talked to had pretty inconsistent assessment tests ranging anywhere from 10 to 20 points. The main advantage is knowing your not in the failing range. The main disadvantage from not doing any was having absolutely no idea what to expect for my real score 😛

 

[winkleweizen]

No practice tests 😱

Sorry 😎

you're a superstar. go raise your ggt levels

 

[hyrule]

No practice tests 😱

Sorry 😎

wow I think that's a first... congrats
I remember your pic from the MCAT forums.. did you do the same then too lol

 

[AggieDoc]

Hey everyone, I got my score two weeks ago(240's) but have been MIA since. I just wanted to thank everyone on this forum for the awesome advice and support. So here is how I approached the beast. First off, as everyone on here has recommended from the beginning--UWORLD!!!!--- do it constantly and try to get through it at least once completely and another run through for your incorrect questions. It will make you feel like crap for getting so many questions wrong, but the material you gain from going through answers is ridiculous.

As far as hitting the books, I set out an 10 week schedule that started off slow with Kaplan for Behavioral, some Anatomy for the first week. Biochem(1 full week). First Aid covered Micro and Immuno well enough for me so I just went through those chapters a couple of times for a week. So those topics were done in my first 3 weeks. Then I hit the big gun topics, Physio--kinda slacked off here a bit but did get through the main topics in Kaplan ie. Cardio, Resp, GI. Pharm--Kaplan Raymon all the way, just going along with First Aid! Path--Goljan takes care of business and helped recover the missing pieces of Physio as well( I listened to audio with the book once then I read over the chapters once myself). Goljan was a much easier and faster read this time around as it was my third go at it as I read it twice through in Pathology. So this stuff was another 2 and a half weeks. Now that I had about 5 weeks left I took a practice test to see where I was, NBME 5-225. Then I decided I needed something to boost my score so I decided to do DIT. About a week and a half after beginning, I decided to take NBME 6-231 (glad to see some improvement). So i continued with the course and schedule and completed it all. Once I was finished with the course I had two weeks remaining to take more exams and cram in as much of First Aid as I could. Those last two weeks I took USWA 1-258, USWA 2- 261, NBME 7-255. As you can imagine, I was finally seeing some insane results as expected here on SDN. I felt very confident going into the exam and just wanted to get it over with by the time it came up.

Exam Day: There will be lots of other people taking various exams at the Prometric centers, and a lot of them are very nervous, fidgety and an the verge of a massive panic attack. DO NOT let them get to you! Just keep reminding yourself that you have done the time, and done your best to tackle the beast, and now whatever is meant to happen will happen! Take some gatorade, water, and any food you may want to eat at the center and use all of your break time just to calm yourself down, because as far as the exam itself goes, it is TOUGH!! I felt like absolute crap coming out of the exam, realizing stupid mistakes I made one by one throughout the weeks after but I put my worries to the side and definitely made the most of the time off.

Anyways, just remember to make a plan and stick to it as that is sometimes even more important than the actual materials you may choose. Good luck to everyone that will be taking the exam soon and once again, thank you to everyone who has posted their own words of wisdom before me.

Gig 'em

 

[ej37]

266-270 range. Super happy, super relieved. Got an email ~9:30 cst and the Print Score Report link appeared at 10:00am cst on the dot. No server lag or problems as reported in previous years. I think this may be the last score release until July, except for the May 16th test takers.

And any idea when us may 16 testers will find out? part of me was hoping today...

 

[ScubaStarved]

16th should be available next Wednesday, the 8th. The way it works is that those testing in the same week will have their scores reported three Wednesdays after the end of that week. Thus Monday through Friday test takers get their scores on the same day.

 

[neulite30]

16th should be available next Wednesday, the 8th. The way it works is that those testing in the same week will have their scores reported three Wednesdays after the end of that week. Thus Monday through Friday test takers get their scores on the same day.

Unless you took it after May 17 🙂

...I'm a May 18th-er but judging by someone who sat earlier I seem to have a similar item pool...ergo, I'm hoping I squeezed into the former; plus I'm in Australia so maybe the new items haven't reached here yet.

(such an obvious defense (defence) mechanism going on here)

 

[raynor123456]

Well, that sucked. And, I'm typically a "good test taker". My exam was significantly more difficult than UWorld AND rather than being concept-heavy it was detail-oriented--pretty much EXACTLY the opposite of dogma I was brainwashed with.

...

FML

Update:

228/98

All things considered, I'm pretty darn happy. I felt like I failed, so I'm feeling almost as winning as Charlie Sheen after an 8 gram rock being 40pts above the fail mark.

Could it have been better? Sure... but, I guess it could have gone worse, too. 😀

Short analysis:
- A big WTF on behavioral sciences. That was one topic I routinely killed in UW, and it was probably my worst performance on the test. o_0 Kinda annoying. I've heard this same complaint several times, so while it may just be a coincidence, it may also be that UW behavioral sciences just plain sucks.
- For all of those interested, while I think my score came out a little over-predicted by UW (random, timed questions), its well within an acceptable range.

 

[winkleweizen]

Update:

228/98

All things considered, I'm pretty darn happy. I felt like I failed, so I'm feeling almost as winning as Charlie Sheen after an 8 gram rock being 40pts above the fail mark.

Could it have been better? Sure... but, I guess it could have gone worse, too. 😀

Short analysis:
- A big WTF on behavioral sciences. That was one topic I routinely killed in UW, and it was probably my worst performance on the test. o_0 Kinda annoying. I've heard this same complaint several times, so while it may just be a coincidence, it may also be that UW behavioral sciences just plain sucks.
- For all of those interested, while I think my score came out a little over-predicted by UW (random, timed questions), its well within an acceptable range.

Congrats! solid score. I know you are relieved after thinking you bombed it.

 

[pullandbear]

Update:

228/98

All things considered, I'm pretty darn happy. I felt like I failed, so I'm feeling almost as winning as Charlie Sheen after an 8 gram rock being 40pts above the fail mark.

Could it have been better? Sure... but, I guess it could have gone worse, too. 😀

Short analysis:
- A big WTF on behavioral sciences. That was one topic I routinely killed in UW, and it was probably my worst performance on the test. o_0 Kinda annoying. I've heard this same complaint several times, so while it may just be a coincidence, it may also be that UW behavioral sciences just plain sucks.
- For all of those interested, while I think my score came out a little over-predicted by UW (random, timed questions), its well within an acceptable range.

I'm happy you did well! I remember your post after you took it. Was the behavioral hard as far as ethics questions go or are you talking about bio stats? What was lacking in FA for this?

 

[raynor123456]

Congrats! solid score. I know you are relieved after thinking you bombed it.

thanks🙂

I'm happy you did well! I remember your post after you took it. Was the behavioral hard as far as ethics questions go or are you talking about bio stats? What was lacking in FA for this?

Honestly, I don't know what happened o_0 Perhaps it was biostats??? I didnt' put much effort at all into biostats because I was doing well on it.

 

[DoctorTinyCat]

I took my exam on May 28th. I fully went into it expecting to feel like I was getting my butt kicked after hearing people's comments on here about their recent exams. I got through the first block feeling great and thinking I must have just gotten lucky with an easy block. I started the next block... same thing. Block after block... it never got very difficult. I would say ~75% were incredibly easy, stereotypical boards questions. Another ~15% required some thought, but I think I got most of them (UW-style questions). That 90% was found in FA. The last 10% was random stuff that I had never seen or just very tricky behavioral questions. The question stems were longer than in UWorld, but 5/7 blocks I finished with ~10 minutes to spare because most questions were so obvious.

I did not feel like my test had a "theme". It seemed quite well-balanced, minus some repeats. For example, I was asked to calculate PPV twice.

If I had to do it all over again, I would study neuroanatomy more and behavioral science - those were "attainable" questions that I struggled with.

I studied for exactly 6 weeks, 8-12 hours per day (most days closer to 8). My plan:
Weeks one and two: quick pass through FA, all the Goljan lectures at 2x speed. Started UW doing 2 blocks pretty much every day (continued until the last week - got through the entire bank). Was very thorough with reading explanations and annotating into FA.
Week three: read through Costanzo physio only reading the things I needed to work on (I was weak on physio) and that I thought would be important for the boards. (That means a lot of that book was pretty much ignored.)
Week four: went through some review lectures that my school prepared for us. That was mostly a waste of my time.
Week five: wrapped up the Qbank, read through all of FA.
Week six: read through all of FA x 2, wrote a note sheet that I could use to cram the last couple days. I really didn't memorize a lot of the details until this week as I have an outstanding short-term memory.

Practice scores:
5/10 - The free 150 - 123/143 (86%) - one website estimated that at at 251, another at a 240
5/15 - UWSA 1 - 128/184 (69.6%) - 236 projected
5/22 - UWSA 2 - 141/184 (76.6%) - 253 projected
5/20 - finished UW with 65.5% overall. Using the formula I've seen (avg * 2.4) + 84, that projects 240. My scores started at about 50 and ended in the high 70s most of the time.

We'll see what my score is come July 13th, but I'm optimistic. My original goal was 240, which I REALLY hope I hit. I estimate it will be anywhere between 230 and 250.

 

[CardioGuy1]

Update:

228/98

Nice job!! You are giving me faith that I passed. Feel relieved??

 

[Sheldor]

thanks🙂


Honestly, I don't know what happened o_0 Perhaps it was biostats??? I didnt' put much effort at all into biostats because I was doing well on it.

I'm confused, how do you know you did poorly in Behavioral science? Do we get one of those bar graphs with our real score report?

 

[kstreet]

I took my exam on May 28th. I fully went into it expecting to feel like I was getting my butt kicked after hearing people's comments on here about their recent exams. I got through the first block feeling great and thinking I must have just gotten lucky with an easy block. I started the next block... same thing. Block after block... it never got very difficult. I would say ~75% were incredibly easy, stereotypical boards questions. Another ~15% required some thought, but I think I got most of them (UW-style questions). That 90% was found in FA. The last 10% was random stuff that I had never seen or just very tricky behavioral questions. The question stems were longer than in UWorld, but 5/7 blocks I finished with ~10 minutes to spare because most questions were so obvious.

I did not feel like my test had a "theme". It seemed quite well-balanced, minus some repeats. For example, I was asked to calculate PPV twice.

If I had to do it all over again, I would study neuroanatomy more and behavioral science - those were "attainable" questions that I struggled with.

I studied for exactly 6 weeks, 8-12 hours per day (most days closer to 8). My plan:
Weeks one and two: quick pass through FA, all the Goljan lectures at 2x speed. Started UW doing 2 blocks pretty much every day (continued until the last week - got through the entire bank). Was very thorough with reading explanations and annotating into FA.
Week three: read through Costanzo physio only reading the things I needed to work on (I was weak on physio) and that I thought would be important for the boards. (That means a lot of that book was pretty much ignored.)
Week four: went through some review lectures that my school prepared for us. That was mostly a waste of my time.
Week five: wrapped up the Qbank, read through all of FA.
Week six: read through all of FA x 2, wrote a note sheet that I could use to cram the last couple days. I really didn't memorize a lot of the details until this week as I have an outstanding short-term memory.

Practice scores:
5/10 - The free 150 - 123/143 (86%) - one website estimated that at at 251, another at a 240
5/15 - UWSA 1 - 128/184 (69.6%) - 236 projected
5/22 - UWSA 2 - 141/184 (76.6%) - 253 projected
5/20 - finished UW with 65.5% overall. Using the formula I've seen (avg * 2.4) + 84, that projects 240. My scores started at about 50 and ended in the high 70s most of the time.

We'll see what my score is come July 13th, but I'm optimistic. My original goal was 240, which I REALLY hope I hit. I estimate it will be anywhere between 230 and 250.

Thanks for your story. What do you feel was most important or helped the most overall?

 

[DoctorTinyCat]

Thanks for your story. What do you feel was most important or helped the most overall?

I'm very glad I made it through FA so many times as I really felt like I had the vast majority of it nailed. Writing my "cram sheet" was helpful - it reinforced the things that I still didn't have straight and I was able to review those things multiple times. (It was mostly enzymes, genetics, some embryo, etc.)

I think going through all of UWorld is indispensable. It made me very comfortable with the questions and helped to minimize mental fatigue.

I'm also glad that I did the assessments I did because it gave me a certain amount of confidence going into exam day that I was likely to do at least well enough. I was tempted to do the NBMEs, but I don't think it would have been worth the extra money.

 

[winkleweizen]

I'm confused, how do you know you did poorly in Behavioral science? Do we get one of those bar graphs with our real score report?

yup..or atleast they did last year.

 

[raynor123456]

Nice job!! You are giving me faith that I passed. Feel relieved??

Thanks 🙂 And, definitely!

I'm confused, how do you know you did poorly in Behavioral science? Do we get one of those bar graphs with our real score report?

Yep. Turns out my strengths are weaknesses and weaknesses strenghts 😕 (Well, not quite THAT far off 😛)

 

[pullandbear]

I'm very glad I made it through FA so many times as I really felt like I had the vast majority of it nailed. Writing my "cram sheet" was helpful - it reinforced the things that I still didn't have straight and I was able to review those things multiple times. (It was mostly enzymes, genetics, some embryo, etc.)

I think going through all of UWorld is indispensable. It made me very comfortable with the questions and helped to minimize mental fatigue.

I'm also glad that I did the assessments I did because it gave me a certain amount of confidence going into exam day that I was likely to do at least well enough. I was tempted to do the NBMEs, but I don't think it would have been worth the extra money.

How many times did you get thru first aid? Did you see a lot on ur test that was only in world but not in FA?

 

[silverpaw54]

For people who have taken the test, did you guys feel that UW helped you w/ some content that might have been lacking in FA or was UW better to teach you how to process the info you read in FA?

I'm debating doing random blocks. I've already 1x UW and my incorrects. I don't mind doing questions again, but I hate the thought of spending 3hrs to review my answers.

 

[engineeredout]

For people who have taken the test, did you guys feel that UW helped you w/ some content that might have been lacking in FA or was UW better to teach you how to process the info you read in FA?

I'm debating doing random blocks. I've already 1x UW and my incorrects. I don't mind doing questions again, but I hate the thought of spending 3hrs to review my answers.

For some subjects it definitely taught me a lot that wasn't in FA. Especially biochem.




Took my exam last Tuesday. I don't want to wait for my scores anymoree. Whyyyy do they have to delay the scores even further during the time period when the most people are taking the damn thing?

 

[MossPoh]

For people who have taken the test, did you guys feel that UW helped you w/ some content that might have been lacking in FA or was UW better to teach you how to process the info you read in FA?

I'm debating doing random blocks. I've already 1x UW and my incorrects. I don't mind doing questions again, but I hate the thought of spending 3hrs to review my answers.

By that time through, it shouldn't take 3 hours to review. It should mostly be reviewing and refreshing memory with occasionally writing down something you don't know.

Everyone (including myself) seems to end up viewing the question blocks as almost a dead period where nothing is learned and the real junk goes on with the books. It FEELS that way because it is stuff spread all throughout first aid and other resources. It is a lot easier to get through 30 pages and think, "I read THIS much today. I know THIS much!", whereas doing random uworld questions is much more like reading a page from 30 different sections. It is much more difficult to put a quantitative value to what you covered. You always feel like you aren't learning stuff, but that is just because it is a slower rate over multiple areas at once as opposed to a faster rate over 1 section at a time.

The videogame geek in me thinks of it as leveling up my character by assigning points to more than one area at a time. Except with that, it can screw you over depending on how the difficulty is set up with leveling, which I suppose really isn't too much different than step 1.

 

[silverpaw54]

By that time through, it shouldn't take 3 hours to review. It should mostly be reviewing and refreshing memory with occasionally writing down something you don't know.

Everyone (including myself) seems to end up viewing the question blocks as almost a dead period where nothing is learned and the real junk goes on with the books. It FEELS that way because it is stuff spread all throughout first aid and other resources. It is a lot easier to get through 30 pages and think, "I read THIS much today. I know THIS much!", whereas doing random uworld questions is much more like reading a page from 30 different sections. It is much more difficult to put a quantitative value to what you covered. You always feel like you aren't learning stuff, but that is just because it is a slower rate over multiple areas at once as opposed to a faster rate over 1 section at a time.

The videogame geek in me thinks of it as leveling up my character by assigning points to more than one area at a time. Except with that, it can screw you over depending on how the difficulty is set up with leveling, which I suppose really isn't too much different than step 1.

Did you guys try doing a final pass of First Aid? I haven't looked at some sections of FA for at least a month. Some sections I haven't bothered b/c I thought I learned it well during M2 year.

 

[godchaser1016]

Quetsion for people who took step 1:

Just out of curiosity, how many simple, random, and maybe minute detail recall question did you miss from FA? I guess the better question would be.. how many many more questions would have gotten right if you had the "FA map" in your brain.

Talking to some people who read FA 3X times still said that they missed some stuff from FA.

 

[dude1344]

Talking to some people who read FA 3X times still said that they missed some stuff from FA.

That's because it's almost impossible to memorize EVERYTHING in FA.