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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SeekerOfTheTree said:
How many per block would you say were like this?
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On my first pass, I skip anything that I think would take me more than 30 seconds to answer. So that means behavioral science, anything with a long stem, and anything with a chart/graph. I do that because UW tells me that I don't usually miss questions that take me less than 30s. I also flag any question where I'm not sure of my answer or if I think they're tricking me.

Most blocks I would get to #46 with 15 questions unanswered. Then, after answering those and reviewing my flagged answers, I would end the block. Most of the time when I ended a block, I would have ~23 +/- 2 flagged. Of the flagged ones, I'll say I was maybe being overcautious on a half of them. Of the remaining ~12, you can count on 3 or 4 per block being experimental/not-graded.

So...7 or 8 per section maybe? Which makes for a hell of a lot of guessing, considering the stakes. But if you have a solid background and understanding of the material and are a good test taker, your guessing skills/medical intuition are probably pretty solid.
 
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Took it yesterday. It was completely awful. I feel terrible about it and like most people who have taken it recently I felt like I was guessing my way through most of the exam. I honestly felt like I hadn't studied at all. I mean seriously, how could I have worked so hard and known so little??

Sorry, but I don't have too much to add as far as specifics of my exam. It's sorta a blur to me now. Of course I've been able to remember two easy questions that I over thought on and went back and changed my answers from right to wrong. ugh. I had a lot of physio arrow questions. I HATE those damn things. I had a lot of questions with long stems followed by a ton of lab values. I would say on about a third of those that you didn't need the lab values to answer the question. I do remember that my third block was prostate gland themed. haha. Seriously though I had like three or four questions pertaining to it just in that one block. Those were probably the most straight forward q's I got the entire day.

I was hoping for around a 240 based on practice tests and qbank performance. I seriously feel like I failed it or just barely passed which would be about as sucky since I really want to go into Rads. I don't think there's anything I would have done differently as far as studying goes. I worked really hard. I guess I would have maybe spent more time on my school work and not just settled for being a just (barely) above average student. I focused on board study at the expense of class work the last semester and I think maybe that hurt me a bit on this exam. As has been mentioned most of the questions are just a step of reasoning beyond first aid. I think excelling in class work is what will get you to that level of understanding. I dunno. Honestly I'm exhausted and a little let down right now. I feel like I worked my butt off for no reason. Oh well. I just gotta wait it out now and hope for the mythical/magical curve to work it's magic in my favor! haha. ugh.
 
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RollTideChem said:
On my first pass, I skip anything that I think would take me more than 30 seconds to answer. So that means behavioral science, anything with a long stem, and anything with a chart/graph. I do that because UW tells me that I don't usually miss questions that take me less than 30s. I also flag any question where I'm not sure of my answer or if I think they're tricking me.

Most blocks I would get to #46 with 15 questions unanswered. Then, after answering those and reviewing my flagged answers, I would end the block. Most of the time when I ended a block, I would have ~23 +/- 2 flagged. Of the flagged ones, I'll say I was maybe being overcautious on a half of them. Of the remaining ~12, you can count on 3 or 4 per block being experimental/not-graded.

So...7 or 8 per section maybe? Which makes for a hell of a lot of guessing, considering the stakes. But if you have a solid background and understanding of the material and are a good test taker, your guessing skills/medical intuition are probably pretty solid.
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Thanks for sharing. I am pretty sure you rocked it. Now it is time to kick back.
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Does it seem like they are changing the version week by week?
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I took mine on the 17th and I thought mine was about what I expected. Not easy, but not insanely hard (i am not implying how I did, because honestly I have no idea). I would stick with comparison that it is like uworld difficulty with a question style like nbme.I think someone said they got like 30 embryo questions, to me that is ridiculous. So yes to me it seems that every week,from what people are posting is that it is getting harder or at least the experimental questions are newer/harder/more in #. I am glad it is over, keeping my fingers crossed, that maybe they will be nice and end my suffering and give me my score tomorrow.
 
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FauxGEEK said:
Took it yesterday. It was completely awful. I feel terrible about it and like most people who have taken it recently I felt like I was guessing my way through most of the exam. I honestly felt like I hadn't studied at all. I mean seriously, how could I have worked so hard and known so little??

Honestly I'm exhausted and a little let down right now. I feel like I worked my butt off for no reason. Oh well. I just gotta wait it out now and hope for the mythical/magical curve to work it's magic in my favor! haha. ugh.
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Just know your not alone...I feel the same way! All we can do is pray for the best.
 
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FauxGEEK said:
Took it yesterday. It was completely awful. I feel terrible about it and like most people who have taken it recently I felt like I was guessing my way through most of the exam. I honestly felt like I hadn't studied at all. I mean seriously, how could I have worked so hard and known so little??

Sorry, but I don't have too much to add as far as specifics of my exam. It's sorta a blur to me now. Of course I've been able to remember two easy questions that I over thought on and went back and changed my answers from right to wrong. ugh. I had a lot of physio arrow questions. I HATE those damn things. I had a lot of questions with long stems followed by a ton of lab values. I would say on about a third of those that you didn't need the lab values to answer the question. I do remember that my third block was prostate gland themed. haha. Seriously though I had like three or four questions pertaining to it just in that one block. Those were probably the most straight forward q's I got the entire day.

I was hoping for around a 240 based on practice tests and qbank performance. I seriously feel like I failed it or just barely passed which would be about as sucky since I really want to go into Rads. I don't think there's anything I would have done differently as far as studying goes. I worked really hard. I guess I would have maybe spent more time on my school work and not just settled for being a just (barely) above average student. I focused on board study at the expense of class work the last semester and I think maybe that hurt me a bit on this exam. As has been mentioned most of the questions are just a step of reasoning beyond first aid. I think excelling in class work is what will get you to that level of understanding. I dunno. Honestly I'm exhausted and a little let down right now. I feel like I worked my butt off for no reason. Oh well. I just gotta wait it out now and hope for the mythical/magical curve to work it's magic in my favor! haha. ugh.
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Yep, you aren't alone, a lot of us feel this way. I also feel like my studying didn't mean much, and I studied pretty hard.

I also ran out of time on half the blocks and had to take educated guesses on the last 2-3 questions...this has never ever happened on UWorld for me on running out of time. I also had a bunch of the questions like you with long stems, tons of lab values for a good handful of the questions that took up my time.

At this point, I'm not sure what's going to happen either...I'm also interested in Rads, and am wondering about that future road too lol.

It's a waiting game from here on out...there's literally nothing you can do to change the outcome of your test, so try to relax, and get out and do something, take a mini vacation!

Bryan
 
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FauxGEEK said:
Took it yesterday. It was completely awful. I feel terrible about it and like most people who have taken it recently I felt like I was guessing my way through most of the exam. I honestly felt like I hadn't studied at all. I mean seriously, how could I have worked so hard and known so little??

Sorry, but I don't have too much to add as far as specifics of my exam. It's sorta a blur to me now. Of course I've been able to remember two easy questions that I over thought on and went back and changed my answers from right to wrong. ugh. I had a lot of physio arrow questions. I HATE those damn things. I had a lot of questions with long stems followed by a ton of lab values. I would say on about a third of those that you didn't need the lab values to answer the question. I do remember that my third block was prostate gland themed. haha. Seriously though I had like three or four questions pertaining to it just in that one block. Those were probably the most straight forward q's I got the entire day.

I was hoping for around a 240 based on practice tests and qbank performance. I seriously feel like I failed it or just barely passed which would be about as sucky since I really want to go into Rads. I don't think there's anything I would have done differently as far as studying goes. I worked really hard. I guess I would have maybe spent more time on my school work and not just settled for being a just (barely) above average student. I focused on board study at the expense of class work the last semester and I think maybe that hurt me a bit on this exam. As has been mentioned most of the questions are just a step of reasoning beyond first aid. I think excelling in class work is what will get you to that level of understanding. I dunno. Honestly I'm exhausted and a little let down right now. I feel like I worked my butt off for no reason. Oh well. I just gotta wait it out now and hope for the mythical/magical curve to work it's magic in my favor! haha. ugh.
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Whenever I took an exam in my first two years that I thought for whatever reason was extraordinarily hard...I almost always scored the same in relation to my class as I usually did (alot of times even higher). I have a feeling these hard tests will turn out the same for you guys.

Go celebrate
 
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Hi

Long time lurker, first time poster. I just took my exam last week, so I thought I'd add to the collection. I think I did really well. To be honest, all I did was FA. So I can be your guinea pig for using FA only to prepare for this new exam content. I went through it 3 times prior to the test and that was enough for me. Basically, I used no other review books or QBanks besides UW. Here are my scores:

UW: 100% complete (one pass only), 90%
NBME 7: 710/271
NBME 11: 710/271
NBME 12: 720/273

I can't even believe I did so well using only FA, and I don't think my exam was any easier than the next guy. So all that talk about FA not being enough is horsesh*t in my opinion.

Also, I got a 30 on the MCAT and was not the top student of my class, so let that be a testament that this method can work for anyone.

Anyway, my advice: Do your FA run-throughs first, then do UW, then finish your study period by doing NBMEs. Go back and brush up on your weaknesses right before the test. You'll be fine if you use this method. The key is here to stick to only one book, and that book is FA. Its a solid book. Go through it 3x before doing UW. Seriously, I don't think anything else would have added to my ability to do well that day. So don't let the other posters freak you out. You'll do fine with the 'new' exam content, even with the fail-safe method of using FA. Just my $0.02.
 
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neuroleptic said:
Hi

Long time lurker, first time poster. I just took my exam last week, so I thought I'd add to the collection. I think I did really well. To be honest, all I did was FA. So I can be your guinea pig for using FA only to prepare for this new exam content. I went through it 3 times prior to the test and that was enough for me. Basically, I used no other review books or QBanks besides UW. Here are my scores:

UW: 100% complete (one pass only), 90%
NBME 7: 710/271
NBME 11: 710/271
NBME 12: 720/273

I can't even believe I did so well using only FA, and I don't think my exam was any easier than the next guy. So all that talk about FA not being enough is horsesh*t in my opinion.

Also, I got a 30 on the MCAT and was not the top student of my class, so let that be a testament that this method can work for anyone.

Anyway, my advice: Do your FA run-throughs first, then do UW, then finish your study period by doing NBMEs. Go back and brush up on your weaknesses right before the test. You'll be fine if you use this method. The key is here to stick to only one book, and that book is FA. Its a solid book. Go through it 3x before doing UW. Seriously, I don't think anything else would have added to my ability to do well that day. So don't let the other posters freak you out. You'll do fine with the 'new' exam content, even with the fail-safe method of using FA. Just my $0.02.
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nice work!
 
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I just took my test, and if you want a tip:

Go read up on the anatomical disorders. I won't go into specifics. Somethings that may *seem* like it was designed for Step 2 Surgery, think again....
 
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SlaveOfTCMC said:
I just took my test, and if you want a tip:

Go read up on the anatomical disorders. I won't go into specifics. Somethings that may *seem* like it was designed for Step 2 Surgery, think again....
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How was the test? How did you feel?

What source would you recommend for these disorders? Seems a little vague.
 
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USMLE is in a month (July 14th), haven't started watching DIT yet, think I can still hit 250+?

CBSSA (school admin) 10 weeks ago: 210
1.5 weeks of studying NBME 3: 215
4 weeks of studying NBME Free 150: 240
4 weeks of studying UWORLD assessment #1: 235

Damn that UWORLD assessment #1 should have been 240+ but I am progressively forgetting more and more of biochemistry from a month ago...plus I need to do 3 more systems.


By the way, last night I decided to take a few people's advice and read through Robbins first chapters (a chapter a night, not all at once lol). Since I already read through robbins 1-2 times already, it took me about 30-40 minutes to quickly run through the first chapter and highlight the main points. You will not believe how many UWORLD questions and assessment q's I would have missed if I hadn't read those chapters. Pretty high yield!
 
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My vote is FA all the way! and review your incorrects on UWORLD but your go to source should primarily be FA. I felt that 95% of the exam was material I've seen in some way shape or form, either in First Aid or UWORLD. I think the most difficult questions were the ethics questions and path images. I was able to narrow it down to two and just choose what I thought was either most common or more likely. I don't think I could've prepared for these questions because these questions seemed way too left field. I had a fair mix of topics, very heavy on micro/behav sci/genetics/anatomy. I had exactly 1 embryo question. I think everyone's exam is very different and random so my post will probably not be very useful.

G'luck to everyone!👍
 
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SlaveOfTCMC said:
Well I dont want to get into trouble but...

There were a fair number of anatomical questions that framed it all around an anatomical condition with a name:

Ex. (this example was not on my exam)

Volkmann's ischemic contracture... this name is never used, but it is described and an association is asked.


Btw, does anyone know what C5-C9 deficiency leads to? (Besides the obvious Neisseria bacteremia?) I only ask, because..... it is an interesting medical topic that deserves more attention....
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Wow, they asked something like that. That just seems really specific for anatomy. And to think I thought I had a good grasp on anatomy. Thanks for sharing. How was your timing per block. Did you finish with enough time?
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Wow, they asked something like that. That just seems really specific for anatomy. And to think I thought I had a good grasp on anatomy. Thanks for sharing. How was your timing per block. Did you finish with enough time?
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I just blasted through each vignette as fast as possible. I finished the first go around with about 30 minutes to spare.

(My idea is to mark down the longer ones that require thinking and separate them from the "chippies.")

Then in that remaining half an hour, I would very carefully go through the marked ones. There are many "gamesmanship" tricks within the longer vignettes. A number of times, I realized most of what they were giving was useless to answering the specific question at hand. (Look very closely at what each long vignette is actually asking)

Moreover, if you see something that is bewilderingly foreign, work from the answer choices. You may be able to eliminate answers solely based on logic itself!
 
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SlaveOfTCMC said:
I just blasted through each vignette as fast as possible. I finished the first go around with about 30 minutes to spare.

(My idea is to mark down the longer ones that require thinking and separate them from the "chippies.")

Then in that remaining half an hour, I would very carefully go through the marked ones. There are many "gamesmanship" tricks within the longer vignettes. A number of times, I realized most of what they were giving was useless to answering the specific question at hand. (Look very closely at what each long vignette is actually asking)

Moreover, if you see something that is bewilderingly foreign, work from the answer choices. You may be able to eliminate answers solely based on logic itself!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the posts man. Sounds like you were able to navigate the test well. I look forward to handling it similarly.
 
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SlaveOfTCMC said:
I just blasted through each vignette as fast as possible. I finished the first go around with about 30 minutes to spare.

(My idea is to mark down the longer ones that require thinking and separate them from the "chippies.")

Then in that remaining half an hour, I would very carefully go through the marked ones. There are many "gamesmanship" tricks within the longer vignettes. A number of times, I realized most of what they were giving was useless to answering the specific question at hand. (Look very closely at what each long vignette is actually asking)

Moreover, if you see something that is bewilderingly foreign, work from the answer choices. You may be able to eliminate answers solely based on logic itself!
Click to expand...

Nice approach to the test. I think I will try the same thing.
 
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Btw, this is an embarassing question, but where do I go to check my score? (on July 13th of course)

I'm not sure which portal to use and what link...
 
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Hi All, took my exam on Monday. I felt the exam was pretty fair, yet challenging. I am a non-traditional student (probably middle of my class) and have a weak science background so I made an effort to focus on my basic science early on. During the last 2 months of school I spent 10-12 hours a week reviewing microbio and pharm (mostly microbio pharm) and listening to Goljian casually while I drived.. I used the flashcards and would practice typing up the info on the cards from memory in an MS word doc mixed with Qbank questions for these 2 subjects. I took the mock practice exam at my school in early April and was pleasantly surprised to have "passed" it and scored in the top 15% of my class. It was at that point when I decided I was capable of doing well on the exam and I changed my aim from a score in the low 220s to a high 230s/low 240s.

For the 7 weeks after school ended I studied 10-12/day 7x week. I used a combination of Kaplan vidos, Goljian, and First Aid. I also had a few other rapid review and organ system books that I would reference when i wanted more detail on a subject. I used Uworld, Kaplan, and USMLErx Qbanks and ended up doing close to 7k questions (did everything except a few hundred Uworld and Kaplan). My average for these Qbanks was betweek 65-70% I took two practice Uworld exams, one about 4 weeks into studying and the other at 6.5 weeks. On the Uworld exams I hit my target score both times and so even though I know Uworld likely over-predicts one score, I felt ready to take the exam.

I studied up until Sunday mid-afternoon before my exam. I spent the rest of that evening getting a massage, going for a long walk, and watching bad-ass girl movies like Thelma and Louise to get pumped. I was concerned about being able to fall asleep because I tend to stay up until 2-3am, however a few hours of candlelight, yoga stretches, and melatonin pills had me sleeping like a baby by 12:30. I woke up at 8:30 to take my noon exam. I went for a swim in the morning, did more yoga stretches, and talked with friends and loved ones on the phone. Arrived at the test center 30 minutes early and was able to start right away.

The first 2 passages flew by easily, I felt giddy about how much I knew. During the 3rd block I started to sow down and my 4th block was definitely a low. It was by far the hardest out of the 7 (more info below). I had been taking 5 minute breaks between sections up until this point but decided to take a full 20 minute break to walk around and find my mojo. 5th and 6th were better again. 7th block my brain was jello and I was starting to blank out on easy questions, IE what is the mechanism for a (top 10 drugs to know) micro drug and I was like uhhh.. dna or rna... I ended up marking about 15 questions for this section (compared to 5-7) for previous blocks. Because I had 15 min leftover at the end of block 7, I went through the entire question set again and was able reassure myself that most of what I had originally put was correct.

Biochem: straight forward, but beyond the level of know this key rate limiting enzyme. We needed to know particular substrates/products of various pathways. Several biochem disease questions came up. Think Lesch-Nyhan syndrome (although this one didn't actually appear on my exam, but similar type of diseases where you needed to know the biochem mechanism behind the disease)
Micro: I wished I had more questions because this was my best subject. The questions were straight forward and had key buzzwards to help. Know your HIV!
Immuno: This was ridiculously hard. I hope some of what I had were experimental questions because I had a lof of weird cancer protein questions and really detailed questions.. 2 of them I didn't recognize a single item in the question or question stem. Almost none of my 8-10 immuno questions were covered by any of the material I had reviewed with.
Psych/Behav Sci: super easly. I enjoy the ethical questions. No developmental milestones or sleep questions.
Phys- straight forward
Path: definitely had some obscure diseases here, I guess I was a little lucky because one of the diseases I had looked up the night before because First Aid only has a tiny blip about it and the question required more knowledge. Another question was about a rare disease that somebody in my med school hometown had discovered so it was like a Slumdog millionaire moment because I just happened to know that one too. Lots of path histo images/gross/MRIs/xrays etc. None of these images were in First Aid and so I'd recommend looking at online path resources and make sure you know what different cancers look like histologically. "keratin pearls, psammoma bodies, etc" (as examples, not saying that these were on the test) Also, i didn't know at the time that the stethoscope for heart sounds could be moved around. I had 2 questions with this, the first one the stethoscope was likely in the right place, the 2nd one I'm not sure because I couldn't detect any irregularity, fortunately the question stem allows you to narrow down the choices to like 2 even before hearing the murmur.
Renal/Pulm: Lots of thinking questions here that required more than just regurg. Uworld was a good prep for this. I was a little uncomfortable with renal.
Cardio/Gi less questions, pretty straight forward
neuro: one of the last modules I took in school. The questions were much easier than my school work. Also, don't just memorize bitemporal hemianopia, homonymous hemianopia etc because you may need to actually draw it out to figure out where the lesion is.
Anatomy:some easies, like upper/lower limb deficits, ID the nerve/artery/ anatomical position. Know retroperitoneal. Know the general course of major nerves/blood vessels. I had one major WTF question that was something I had never seen covered anywhere.
All other systems: fair. some of the general organ principle questions you just can't study for.. you might be asked for the recommendation for managing a current big disease or about some cancer hot topic.

After I finished the exam at 8pm I came home to relax because I was going into surgery the next morning (today). I had nothing better to do so I flipped through first aid and jotted down notes on a sticky of questions that I knew I had gotten wrong or was doubtful about. I was disheartened because I had 20-25 questions on my list of things I likely missed and I spent much of last night reading SDN forums where people talk about what it feels like to feel like you missed a lot on the exam. I think what happens to people is that they tend to focus on what they missed.. 324 questions is massive and missing like 50-60 questions is actually quite good even though it may fee like a lot. When I would do practice exams I would never flag anything, fly through the answers in like 40 minutes and not obsess over what I didnt' know. This time around I was hyper-aware of when I wasn't 100% about an answer and so it felt like I missed a lot more than i did in practice exams. I think this is why a lot of people feel down on their performance afterwards.

Overall I felt like my performance was okay. I had a few fleeting moments of freak out "OMG, what if I fAILED?" but i believe that barring emotional distress/illness the day of the exam, we will mostly continue to follow our same score trends. My score prediction is that whatever score I get, I can work with it. I'm ready to breathe a sigh of relief for being done (ouch, breathing still hurts from surgery=) and good luck to all of you out there.
 
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thanks for the write-up, wendster! sounds like the hard work you put in will pay off. hope the surgery went well and get better soon!
 
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I took the exam today. Such a beast. So glad to get this over with. Here are some random thoughts I had on the exam:

- It is definitely true that some people can get exams with a "focus." I had a disproportionate amount of renal questions (at least that is what it felt like). I also had a lot of anatomy, but little biochem.

- I think I had about 15 "lol what?" anatomy questions. Seriously, I don't know how you were supposed to prepare for these. Either you knew them or you didn't. They all focused on some sort description about a clinical injury, followed by a question about what was injured, what was near what was injured, or what innervated what was injured. They were not in UWorld and they were not in FA. I did well in my undergrad anatomy course, and I had no idea on these. I don't think there was anything you could do to reasonably prepare for these.

- I got a Foxo1 question, lol. You didn't need to konw anything about the gene to answer the question, though. The question could easily have been about "gene x."

- UWorld is definitely the best prep for the exam.

- Know the classic presentations of diseases (i.e. what's in FA). There were a ton of softball questions that described the stereotypical disease and just flat out asked "what is this?/what is the mutation?/inheritance?/etc."

- There are a lot of questions that are just plain not in FA or Uworld. Don't freak out, just answer them as best you can, I guess. No one can know everything.

- Kid falls out of a tree and lands on a fence, crotch first. Ouch.

- A lot of people have harped on pelvic anatomy. I had a few, but they all focused about injuries and I don't think you could reasonably prepare for them.

- I went through UWorld and did FA at least 3 times (probably 3.5). I felt that, while FA was very useful, that there was still a good portion of the test not covered by FA. Probably 20-30% of my exam. At first this bugged me, and then I realized that there was nothing to be done about it. I only had 4 weeks to study (what most people have) and I didn't have time for anything else. If you have time to go through all of Kaplan 3x/whatever else (and actually learn it) I guess that's great but there just isn't time to review that much.

- There were a decent number of questions that I remember seeing/learning about during undergrad/other parts of my education and I remember thinking, "Wow, who would actually remember/know this?"

- I had a question that straight up asked "What is the chemical structure of amino acid X?" Then then had 5 chemical structures for answer choices. Lol, what a joke.

Overall, I think I did the best I could. I have no idea how I did. I could get a 240. I could get a 180. I honestly have no idea.

Edit: as for endurance, I was completely fine. I ended with 1h 40min of break time. I took a break after the first block to pee and then did 2 blocks in a row three times. I didn't feel tired at all during the exam, presumably because of adrenaline. I think this really differs between people, though. You know yourself and no one better knows how to pace yourself though you.
 
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Mace1370 said:
I took the exam today. Such a beast. So glad to get this over with. Here are some random thoughts I had on the exam:

- It is definitely true that some people can get exams with a "focus." I had a disproportionate amount of renal questions (at least that is what it felt like). I also had a lot of anatomy, but little biochem.

- I think I had about 15 "lol what?" anatomy questions. Seriously, I don't know how you were supposed to prepare for these. Either you knew them or you didn't. They all focused on some sort description about a clinical injury, followed by a question about what was injured, what was near what was injured, or what innervated what was injured. They were not in UWorld and they were not in FA. I did well in my undergrad anatomy course, and I had no idea on these. I don't think there was anything you could do to reasonably prepare for these.

- I got a Foxo1 question, lol. You didn't need to konw anything about the gene to answer the question, though. The question could easily have been about "gene x."

- UWorld is definitely the best prep for the exam.

- Know the classic presentations of diseases (i.e. what's in FA). There were a ton of softball questions that described the stereotypical disease and just flat out asked "what is this?/what is the mutation?/inheritance?/etc."

- There are a lot of questions that are just plain not in FA or Uworld. Don't freak out, just answer them as best you can, I guess. No one can know everything.

- Kid falls out of a tree and lands on a fence, crotch first. Ouch.

- A lot of people have harped on pelvic anatomy. I had a few, but they all focused about injuries and I don't think you could reasonably prepare for them.

- I went through UWorld and did FA at least 3 times (probably 3.5). I felt that, while FA was very useful, that there was still a good portion of the test not covered by FA. Probably 20-30% of my exam. At first this bugged me, and then I realized that there was nothing to be done about it. I only had 4 weeks to study (what most people have) and I didn't have time for anything else. If you have time to go through all of Kaplan 3x/whatever else (and actually learn it) I guess that's great but there just isn't time to review that much.

- There were a decent number of questions that I remember seeing/learning about during undergrad/other parts of my education and I remember thinking, "Wow, who would actually remember/know this?"

- I had a question that straight up asked "What is the chemical structure of amino acid X?" Then then had 5 chemical structures for answer choices. Lol, what a joke.

Overall, I think I did the best I could. I have no idea how I did. I could get a 240. I could get a 180. I honestly have no idea.

Edit: as for endurance, I was completely fine. I ended with 1h 40min of break time. I took a break after the first block to pee and then did 2 blocks in a row three times. I didn't feel tired at all during the exam, presumably because of adrenaline. I think this really differs between people, though. You know yourself and no one better knows how to pace yourself though you.
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Congrats on being done. How many Qs per block would you say you marked?
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Congrats on being done. How many Qs per block would you say you marked?
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1 or 2 at most. I think this also depends on what type of test taker you are. I tend to not go back and look at or change my answers. I only mark a question if I think it will take me a significant amount of time to figure out (and much more time than I have already given it). In other words, I will only mark a question that I don't want to answer immediately/think about until have answered everything else. On the other hand, I have a friend who reviews nearly every answer on every block. To each his own.

well done....i can't believe they showed structures for AA.
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Me either. I mostly just put that there fore the truly neurotic who want to memorize them. That way they have some justification for doing so, haha.
 
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Mace1370 said:
1 or 2 at most. I think this also depends on what type of test taker you are. I tend to not go back and look at or change my answers. I only mark a question if I think it will take me a significant amount of time to figure out (and much more time than I have already given it). In other words, I will only mark a question that I don't want to answer immediately/think about until have answered everything else. On the other hand, I have a friend who reviews nearly every answer on every block. To each his own.

Me either. I mostly just put that there fore the truly neurotic who want to memorize them. That way they have some justification for doing so, haha.
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Was the anatomy that bad? You are the second person today to say that? I even got lipincotts Q book just to review my anatomy for this. 15 Qs!! Seems crazy for anatomy.
 
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SlaveOfTCMC said:
Moreover, I received a few lower yield anatomy questions.

It's all inside an anatomy atlas... but seriously now..... some of these things are just so picky.....

but to be fair, I did learn about it during my gross anatomy lab days.... but who really took the time to learn every single small little orifice or structure?
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That's just nuts. How are you even supposed to remember some of those things unless you have a masters in anatomy.
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Was the anatomy that bad? You are the second person today to say that? I even got lipincotts Q book just to review my anatomy for this. 15 Qs!! Seems crazy for anatomy.
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I honestly don't know where you are at in your prep or what level of knowledge you are at, but please please do not stress over what I said regarding anatomy. This **** is so low yield. You can almost certainly be spending your time better somewhere else. This was stuff I never learned in first year. It was nothing I saw in the textbooks. I have no doubt it was in there somewhere, but these books are 1500+ pages. Please.

Perhaps I overemphasized how bad anatomy was. Yes, there was about 15+ questions on it. But out of that 15 most were what I would term fair (i.e. in first aid). Those two tables in the MSK chapter (upper and lower limb innervations) are pure money. About 5 were unfair.
 
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Mace1370 said:
I honestly don't know where you are at in your prep or what level of knowledge you are at, but please please do not stress over what I said regarding anatomy. This **** is so low yield. You can almost certainly be spending your time better somewhere else. This was stuff I never learned in first year. It was nothing I saw in the textbooks. I have no doubt it was in there somewhere, but these books are 1500+ pages. Please.

Perhaps I overemphasized how bad anatomy was. Yes, there was about 15+ questions on it. But out of that 15 most were what I would term fair (i.e. in first aid). Those two tables in the MSK chapter (upper and lower limb innervations) are pure money. About 5 were unfair.
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Thanks Mace. That makes me feel better. I thought there were 15 not in first aid. You just saved me a ton of review time. I had cracked open my HY Anatomy bc of what you said. I got one more week of review. Already did Uworld twice. 3rd pass through FA. Have RR down tight. I just want a 220 to go into IM that's it, I don't even want to be a subspecialist!
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Thanks Mace. That makes me feel better. I thought there were 15 not in first aid. You just saved me a ton of review time. I had cracked open my HY Anatomy bc of what you said. I got one more week of review. Already did Uworld twice. 3rd pass through FA. Have RR down tight. I just want a 220 to go into IM that's it, I don't even want to be a subspecialist!
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Haha, I understand. I was becoming more and more neurotic towards the end. You'll do great!
 
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Vulcan said:
Hey Mace, how'd the exam feel compared to UW or NBME's?

Congrats on finishing!
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Very similar to both. Perhaps a little more similar to NBMEs, but definitely similar to both. Uworld absolutely nails the "difficult thinking" questions that show up on the exam (ex: stereotypical pathophys up/down arrow questions. I had about 20 of these).
 
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So I guess you have curly hair?


Anyway, im just trying to say reading First Aid Family medicine and Internal Medicine helped quite a bit on the clinical and pathophysiology of Step 1.

When I say clinical, I mean the "what do you do next?" questions that are at least based on the H&P

(as opposed to a behavioral science "what do you do next?")
 
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SlaveOfTCMC said:
So I guess you have curly hair?


Anyway, im just trying to say reading First Aid Family medicine and Internal Medicine helped quite a bit on the clinical and pathophysiology of Step 1.

When I say clinical, I mean the "what do you do next?" questions that are at least based on the H&P

(as opposed to a behavioral science "what do you do next?")
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Thanks for the example. This helps clarify what everyone meant by one step beyond. I wasn't really getting what they meant. This actually is a good example. Thanks man.
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Thanks for the example. This helps clarify what everyone meant by one step beyond. I wasn't really getting what they meant. This actually is a good example. Thanks man.
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So do people generally mean that they would give H&P findings for a disease and ask treatments we don't know?...or would they ask treatments we know, but have to put together from what we know since FA doesn't explicitly say to "treat with X"
 
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