Official 2011 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Hello everyone. I am a second year who will write the exam in June 2011. Meanwhile let this be a good thread where everyone share their study progress and recent trend of the exam.
 
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speedyk said:
It was a nightmare. I am not as smart as the people who post here, I am just a below average student so take what I say with that in mind.

There was 1 block that was almost all "easy" like the free 150. There were 3 blocks where I literally guessed on more than half of them. There were like 4 stains I never heard of and a bunch of detailed anatomy that I forgot. Blah It's all a blur in my mind. I don't even know how I would prepare for it differently if/when I have to retake it? The only positive is that most of the Behavioral sciences questions were easy. I want to cry now.

I had like 30 embryology questions no joke.
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I felt the same way after my exam but at least for me they were either experimental questions or a really steep curve. I know I got a ton of those questions wrong but somehow I ended up with the stars saying it was beyond the scale (in a good way). I'm not quite sure how it happened but relax, you could be in the same situation!
 
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dally1025 said:
I felt the same way after my exam but at least for me they were either experimental questions or a really steep curve. I know I got a ton of those questions wrong but somehow I ended up with the stars saying it was beyond the scale (in a good way). I'm not quite sure how it happened but relax, you could be in the same situation!
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👍 This is good stuff
 
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I will echo the fact that 99% of the questions I had were taught to me in FA & UWorld. I had I think only one question that was verbatim in UWorld, but the majority of the questions over the span of the entire test were concepts and thought processes taught in UWorld, combined with rote memorization of facts in First Aid.

Rote memory of facts in FA will net you the biochem, embryo, and organ segment questions. Going through UWorld will give you the thought processes necessary for the physio, immuno and path questions. Nothing will prepare you for approx 3-5 questions per block that involve concepts that apparently fell from the sky. But for every nutty question like that there is a beyond easy, beyond even gimme question.
 
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ATrim7 said:
Geez....I wish my test was tomorrow and not this coming Saturday. I'm tired of spending my days fearful.
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All you can do is put in your best effort and then go from there. I got mine this saturday too, good luck ATrim! Stay positive man! 👍
 
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winkleweizen said:
Nice....so were the questions similar to UWorld or NBME? I guess im curious whether the curve will lean more towards uworldish or Nbmeish haha


Grats on finishing!! im sooo close
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I think I got 85-95% of them correct, but we'll see how that goes. There are a lot of questions on there that you have to apply knowledge to figure out, which is what makes it as hard as it is. Also, the anatomy on there has a few hard questions, and this is coming from the guy who has taught anatomy to the medical students/PA students/dental students for the last year. I managed to get them right, but it wasn't b/c I had seen it before.

I believe that I've seen 99% of the material of the test before at some point in time, although I didn't know 99% of the test. Even if I did, I couldn't apply it the way they wanted me to...

I think Uworld and FA cover at least 95% of all the material. I'm talking every single question and answer option.
 
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fahimaz7 said:
I think I got 85-95% of them correct, but we'll see how that goes. There are a lot of questions on there that you have to apply knowledge to figure out, which is what makes it as hard as it is. Also, the anatomy on there has a few hard questions, and this is coming from the guy who has taught anatomy to the medical students/PA students/dental students for the last year. I managed to get them right, but it wasn't b/c I had seen it before.

I believe that I've seen 99% of the material of the test before at some point in time, although I didn't know 99% of the test. Even if I did, I couldn't apply it the way they wanted me to...

I think Uworld and FA cover at least 95% of all the material. I'm talking every single question and answer option.
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Nice breakdown. Makes me feel a little bit more comfortable.
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Nice breakdown. Makes me feel a little bit more comfortable.
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Just remember that every form is different. I am convinced that they have many more questions in their bank than we think. While this was true for his test, this was not true for my test form. Not mean to freak you out, but the opposite. If you feel like only 75% were in Uworld and First Aid you aren't crazy, perhaps its just the mix of questions you got!
 
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fahimaz7 said:
I think I got 85-95% of them correct, but we'll see how that goes. There are a lot of questions on there that you have to apply knowledge to figure out, which is what makes it as hard as it is. Also, the anatomy on there has a few hard questions, and this is coming from the guy who has taught anatomy to the medical students/PA students/dental students for the last year. I managed to get them right, but it wasn't b/c I had seen it before.

I believe that I've seen 99% of the material of the test before at some point in time, although I didn't know 99% of the test. Even if I did, I couldn't apply it the way they wanted me to...

I think Uworld and FA cover at least 95% of all the material. I'm talking every single question and answer option.
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Good work Fahi!! Hopefully that percentage correct corresponds to a similar scaled score as in NBME 11 and 12!
 
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Sheldor said:
Just remember that every form is different. I am convinced that they have many more questions in their bank than we think. While this was true for his test, this was not true for my test form. Not mean to freak you out, but the opposite. If you feel like only 75% were in Uworld and First Aid you aren't crazy, perhaps its just the mix of questions you got!
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I really doubt that you saw 75 truly unique topics or questions on your form. Is that what you're really saying?
 
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Sheldor said:
Just remember that every form is different. I am convinced that they have many more questions in their bank than we think. While this was true for his test, this was not true for my test form. Not mean to freak you out, but the opposite. If you feel like only 75% were in Uworld and First Aid you aren't crazy, perhaps its just the mix of questions you got!
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I hope my mental muscle memory will come back. I have used FA + UW + BRS + RR + NY HY and then throughout the year I've been reviewing all this crap. The only thing that keeps me going is that out of 100 people in my class 94 will make it to 3rd year and the other three didn't make it because they have to remediate. Statistically I"m good...I hope lol. Now all I want is a 220. I don't care for anything else. If I get a 220 I would be happy to take you all out to a virtual dinner.
 
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Hate to keep buggin about this but what's this curve or steep curve that you guys are referring to? So the tests are curved based on how hard the questions were for individual forms?

Bryan
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
I hope my mental muscle memory will come back. I have used FA + UW + BRS + RR + NY HY and then throughout the year I've been reviewing all this crap. The only thing that keeps me going is that out of 100 people in my class 94 will make it to 3rd year and the other three didn't make it because they have to remediate. Statistically I"m good...I hope lol. Now all I want is a 220. I don't care for anything else. If I get a 220 I would be happy to take you all out to a virtual dinner.
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I'll have my steak medium rare 👍
 
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haven't posted in forever but thought i'd chime in.

took my exam on sat, felt it was pretty heavy on endo/heme. kinda panicked and ended up flagging more than 50% of the questions but eventually realized it was just nerves so stopped. definitely ran into some wtf questions in biochem and in neuro so that wasn't fun.

as far as studying, did 2 full passes of uworld and half of kaplan qbank and used the obligatory FA/goljan combo.

i took nbme 6/7 along with UWSA 1. scores were all in the upper 230's, hopefully i can inch up into the 240's on the real deal. im not a standout genius like many of you on here so i get a 240+ ill be stoked
 
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toayoztan said:
Hate to keep buggin about this but what's this curve or steep curve that you guys are referring to? So the tests are curved based on how hard the questions were for individual forms?

Bryan
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Easier tests are going to have worse curves obvi. A 90% on a certain set of questions may net you the same score as your neighbors 75%. This is all speculation, but im sure there has to be some variation in a 240 on this persons test and a 240 on this persons.
 
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fahimaz7 said:
I really doubt that you saw 75 truly unique topics or questions on your form. Is that what you're really saying?
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Nope, but I'd say that 30 questions required knowledge beyond what was in FA, but that is required to understand what is in FA. If you paid attention during the firs two years you'd be fine, but if you'd just read FA you may not have it.

I'd say another 30 were thought type questions that required a background of information but were primarily testing your ability to reason.

Then I'd say 10 to 15 were not in Uworld or FA.

So I think saying FA and Uworld is enough isn't really fair because that assumes a certain amount of retention from the first two years and a certain skill set in taking tests both of which sometimes aren't there. Just my opinion though. Also only applies to my form of the test. I've yet to see a write up here or talk to one of my classmates who had a similar question set, as always ymmv.
 
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Sheldor said:
Nope, but I'd say that 30 questions required knowledge beyond what was in FA, but that is required to understand what is in FA. If you paid attention during the firs two years you'd be fine, but if you'd just read FA you may not have it.

I'd say another 30 were thought type questions that required a background of information but were primarily testing your ability to reason.

Then I'd say 10 to 15 were not in Uworld or FA.

So I think saying FA and Uworld is enough isn't really fair because that assumes a certain amount of retention from the first two years and a certain skill set in taking tests both of which sometimes aren't there. Just my opinion though. Also only applies to my form of the test. I've yet to see a write up here or talk to one of my classmates who had a similar question set, as always ymmv.
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Of course that is the case. If you only memorize first aid you are going to do really poorly on the test. The test, at least for me, was filled of problems that required you to apply knowledge that you had gained over the previous 20 months of education, to new problems that you hadn't even even thought of. While this wasn't the majority by any means, it is most likely what is responsible for seperating the 220's from the 250s on the test.

10/300=3% of the test that isn't in UW or FA. Add another 30/322 for the "critical thinking" questions and that's still 85%+ of the test that is almost straight knowledge from first aid or uworld.

I'm not here to argue, but I think that SDN tries to over estimate the importance of additional sources vs putting an emphasis on being a "good" student. If you are a 3.5+ student then FA and Uworld are a golden ticket to success.

If you're a 2.5 student then you will be struggling, regardless of whether or not you read Goljan, Robbins, and 10 high yield books.

Just my 2-cents.
 
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ATrim7 said:
Geez....I wish my test was tomorrow and not this coming Saturday. I'm tired of spending my days fearful.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I agree with this. And then I realize that if I didn't spend all this time preparing, I would probably die come test day.
 
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just took mine last afternoon. it started off very encouraging with 2 blocks that were kinda easy. i started to get really excited when i finished with marking only like 7 for each block. but then the next 5 were all WTF hard. i marked about 50% of each section. and even many of the ones i didnt mark i just didnt really know I just felt too bad marking everything. the worst thing was i didnt even have time to go back to the ones i marked! i would have maybe 5 minutes left to go back and would only get to like maybe the first 4 marked qs...

everything seemed so vague to me. i felt like i studied a lot but compared to other people i was less than 1/2 ready for this test. barely finished UW once. listened to goljan audio once over the course of 5 months. and fully finished first aid ONCE over the course of the year. my entire last week was spent trying to super cram a 2nd run through FA but only got through ~3/4 of it. i walked into my test not knowing anything about repro, renal, or psych.

i just have that horrible feeling in my gut that i did terrible. i just needed more time...
 
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azof02 said:
Sometimes I agree with this. And then I realize that if I didn't spend all this time preparing, I would probably die come test day.
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Step 1 studying: Proving that the "worst headache of my life" is not necessarily always a subarachnoid hemorrhage.:laugh:
 
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Took my test on Saturday. I have absolutely no idea how I did, although I have to say that I felt exactly this unsure when I took nbme 7, uwsa 1 and uwsa 2, so I'm hoping my performance was consistent and I scored at least around the same range, though I was really hoping I'd feel better about the real exam. I freaked out a little in my last block because I finished with a little bit more time than other blocks, was looking at my marked questions and changing my answers a lot, and then worrying that I was changing them arbitrarily and screwing myself over.

A few easy questions felt kind of like a Captcha "Are you a human or a spambot?" questions, lots of "Huh, I know what you're talking about but I'm not 100% sure how to answer this" and only a very small handful of "Woah! I have absolutely no idea how to answer this or I really just don't have this crucial fact memorized."

Other people have given better write ups on content. Only other thing I wanted to add about the whole experience was that they did take my phone away from me. 🙁 Which I really wish they hadn't because I had a few unknown answer choices that I saw in one block that I wanted to look up during break, that then came up in the next block. And I hadn't brought my copy of First Aid with me. Ah well.

I definitely got at least one question right because someone had mentioned a drug in a topic on SDN and I looked it up, so thanks guys! 😀 I really wish I'd bought UWorld earlier and done it twice (or that my school had given me more time to study; I used 4 weeks of my available 5). I got quite a few questions right using knowledge I'd learned from the qbank, and even from the self assessments.

Anyway, good luck to those who haven't taken it yet! :luck: And to those who have, damn this is going to be a long wait for our scores, but at least we're free!
 
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lavodnas said:
Took my test on the 17th of May, anyone think there is any chance we might get the scores tomorrow ?
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Unfortunately, there is not a chance. The NBME announced that: "The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing from May 17 through late June will be Wednesday, July 13, 2011."
 
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lavodnas said:
I agree the key word "MOST" throws me off a little. I am almost tempted to call and ask if they are releasing any scores before then.
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What a great idea. You would be doing a lot people, including myself, a huge favor 🙂 🙂

-Filla
 
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medgirl13 said:
You know what? I just want to apologize for my prior posts about FA and state that I agree with fahimaz 100%. After giving it MUCH thought over the weekend, I want to retract my statements. I think FA is a GREAT resource for this exam. After giving it some thought and flipping through FA for some of the questions I know I missed on my exam, I realized that almost EVERYTHING is in FA. After looking these few items up, I totally realized that probably 90-95% of everything is cram-packed into FA in some shape or form..lol. It's funny, I just realized every little nit-picky detail I must have skimmed over was in there! I guess I just skimmed over those small details 🙁 Now I'm kinda wishing I stuck to FA and just went through it 2 more times...maybe those details would've stuck better. Crap, oh well.

Ok, folks. I probably screwed up like an idiot on my test, so don't listen to anything I said before. Plus, I think it was my post-exam nerves getting to me and making me feel less confident about FA. But the truth is, I don't think I studied FA ENOUGH! So go get your FA and memorize the HECK out of it. I'm sure you'll do really well if you just stick with that one resource, which really DOES seem to be the best resource for this exam. I blew it...oh well, what can I do now. Good luck everyone!
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That's noble of you to apologize. It's okay. We still love you. The boards make everyone a little loco.
 
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Guillemot said:
I never really have too high of expectations as far as post quality goes for anyone who has the word "girl" in their name. Not trying to pick on med girl here, but just saying that in general the statement above is a good rule to follow. :meanie:
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Haha...good thing I have a good sense of humor or I'd have to beat your butt for that one! Lol...like a "girl" too 🙂

Too bad I'm really a 30 year old WOMAN! Guess the name choice was really just wishful thinking 😉
 
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fahimaz7 said:
Of course that is the case. If you only memorize first aid you are going to do really poorly on the test. The test, at least for me, was filled of problems that required you to apply knowledge that you had gained over the previous 20 months of education, to new problems that you hadn't even even thought of. While this wasn't the majority by any means, it is most likely what is responsible for seperating the 220's from the 250s on the test.

10/300=3% of the test that isn't in UW or FA. Add another 30/322 for the "critical thinking" questions and that's still 85%+ of the test that is almost straight knowledge from first aid or uworld.

I'm not here to argue, but I think that SDN tries to over estimate the importance of additional sources vs putting an emphasis on being a "good" student. If you are a 3.5+ student then FA and Uworld are a golden ticket to success.

If you're a 2.5 student then you will be struggling, regardless of whether or not you read Goljan, Robbins, and 10 high yield books.

Just my 2-cents.
Click to expand...

Agree x 1000.
 
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medgirl13 said:
You know what? I just want to apologize for my prior posts about FA and state that I agree with fahimaz 100%. After giving it MUCH thought over the weekend, I want to retract my statements. I think FA is a GREAT resource for this exam. After giving it some thought and flipping through FA for some of the questions I know I missed on my exam, I realized that almost EVERYTHING is in FA. After looking these few items up, I totally realized that probably 90-95% of everything is cram-packed into FA in some shape or form..lol. It's funny, I just realized every little nit-picky detail I must have skimmed over was in there! I guess I just skimmed over those small details 🙁 Now I'm kinda wishing I stuck to FA and just went through it 2 more times...maybe those details would've stuck better. Crap, oh well.

Ok, folks. I probably screwed up like an idiot on my test, so don't listen to anything I said before. Plus, I think it was my post-exam nerves getting to me and making me feel less confident about FA. But the truth is, I don't think I studied FA ENOUGH! So go get your FA and memorize the HECK out of it. I'm sure you'll do really well if you just stick with that one resource, which really DOES seem to be the best resource for this exam. I blew it...oh well, what can I do now. Good luck everyone!
Click to expand...
I think its pretty normal for people to feel that way. Dont worry about it. Its not about memorizing first aid, but rather understanding everything in there..crazy. Im sure you did better then you thought!
 
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medgirl13 said:
You know what? I just want to apologize for my prior posts about FA and state that I agree with fahimaz 100%. After giving it MUCH thought over the weekend, I want to retract my statements. I think FA is a GREAT resource for this exam. After giving it some thought and flipping through FA for some of the questions I know I missed on my exam, I realized that almost EVERYTHING is in FA. After looking these few items up, I totally realized that probably 90-95% of everything is cram-packed into FA in some shape or form..lol. It's funny, I just realized every little nit-picky detail I must have skimmed over was in there! I guess I just skimmed over those small details 🙁 Now I'm kinda wishing I stuck to FA and just went through it 2 more times...maybe those details would've stuck better. Crap, oh well.

Ok, folks. I probably screwed up like an idiot on my test, so don't listen to anything I said before. Plus, I think it was my post-exam nerves getting to me and making me feel less confident about FA. But the truth is, I don't think I studied FA ENOUGH! So go get your FA and memorize the HECK out of it. I'm sure you'll do really well if you just stick with that one resource, which really DOES seem to be the best resource for this exam. I blew it...oh well, what can I do now. Good luck everyone!
Click to expand...


wow. based on your previous 10 posts and then this one -- would you like valproate, lithium, or carbamazepine for that? srsly...
 
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Malpractice said:
wow. based on your previous 10 posts and then this one -- would you like valproate, lithium, or carbamazepine for that? srsly...
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Well, if I had just studied FA enough, I would've known what those big words are at the end of your post. I'm sorry, I just don't get it 🙁 Please explain.
 
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I took it yesterday, and it sucked thoroughly. I've never done that much guesswork on an exam, ever. All of my predicted exams were above 250, but none of them even came close to the level of difficulty of the real test, so I'm thinking those predictions go right out the window.

On virtually every question I could rule out 2 answers as being ridiculous, 1 answer would be possibly decent, and 2 answers would both seem correct. So unless my guessing was hot, I'm in big trouble. Even on the stems that gave extremely classical presentations, they would ask questions requiring extrapolation and synthesis of details that I'd never even considered. So unless you thoroughly and completely understand the disease/process at hand, you can't possibly know the answer cold, and you have to guess.

The upside for those of you still studying is that there's really no point in stressing out or trying to cram in extra info the last few days before your test. Most of the more difficult questions that I was able to answer I knew based on flashbacks I had to sitting in lecture over the last 2 years.

Good luck
 
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RollTideChem said:
I took it yesterday, and it sucked thoroughly. I've never done that much guesswork on an exam, ever. All of my predicted exams were above 250, but none of them even came close to the level of difficulty of the real test, so I'm thinking those predictions go right out the window.

On virtually every question I could rule out 2 answers as being ridiculous, 1 answer would be possibly decent, and 2 answers would both seem correct. So unless my guessing was hot, I'm in big trouble. Even on the stems that gave extremely classical presentations, they would ask questions requiring extrapolation and synthesis of details that I'd never even considered. So unless you thoroughly and completely understand the disease/process at hand, you can't possibly know the answer cold, and you have to guess.

The upside for those of you still studying is that there's really no point in stressing out or trying to cram in extra info the last few days before your test. Most of the more difficult questions that I was able to answer I knew based on flashbacks I had to sitting in lecture over the last 2 years.

Good luck
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How many per block would you say were like this?
 
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So from what I've been reading everyone who took the test last week or this past week have gotten crazy hard versions of the test with 2 or 3 answer choices seeming correct for a vast majority of questions. Good to know that I'm not alone in thinking this. They have to factor this into consideration when scoring the test right? THEY MUST! lol

Edit: I honestly think that if I was given 10 more minutes for some blocks, I would have been able to reason out some questions that seemed like there were no answer choices or seemed like there were 2 correct choices. But what can you do now?
 
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RollTideChem said:
I took it yesterday, and it sucked thoroughly. I've never done that much guesswork on an exam, ever. All of my predicted exams were above 250, but none of them even came close to the level of difficulty of the real test, so I'm thinking those predictions go right out the window.

On virtually every question I could rule out 2 answers as being ridiculous, 1 answer would be possibly decent, and 2 answers would both seem correct. So unless my guessing was hot, I'm in big trouble. Even on the stems that gave extremely classical presentations, they would ask questions requiring extrapolation and synthesis of details that I'd never even considered. So unless you thoroughly and completely understand the disease/process at hand, you can't possibly know the answer cold, and you have to guess.

The upside for those of you still studying is that there's really no point in stressing out or trying to cram in extra info the last few days before your test. Most of the more difficult questions that I was able to answer I knew based on flashbacks I had to sitting in lecture over the last 2 years.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Feels good to hear this in a way. I remember around when I took it, 1-2 people other than myself had similar experiences. I took it right after the "new questions" were supposed to come out. But for the next few weeks, almost everyone who took it kept saying it was a very fair test... some even called it easy. That did freak me out a lil but I do feel better now.

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke.
 
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hyrule said:
Feels good to hear this in a way. I remember around when I took it, 1-2 people other than myself had similar experiences. I took it right after the "new questions" were supposed to come out. But for the next few weeks, almost everyone who took it kept saying it was a very fair test... some even called it easy. That did freak me out a lil but I do feel better now.

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke.
Click to expand...
Seems like that has been the consensus for the past week, hard tests.

'Oh Africa Brave Africa'. It was... a laugh riot.
 
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