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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MossPoh said:
My biggest weapon against test fatigue were those stupid 5 hour energy type things. They are about 1 cup of coffee worth of caffeine in them, but it limited my fluid intake so I didn't have to pee really bad during a block.

Using one's break periods to their fullest extent is also useful. I put eye drops in, listened to a few minutes of music and recharged in the sun, as well as did some pushups and consumed more caffeine.

The 2nd half of my 5th block was where I started to feel that wall. Luckily, I got an extra surge that really pushed me through till the end...mostly because of the energy drink, protein bar and a megadose of caffeine.
Click to expand...
is it really the equivalent of one cup? i've been drinking these rockstars recently which have 240 mg of caffeine...but they make you need to use the restroom a lot. i probably should switch over to the 5 hr thing.
 
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iA-MD2013 said:
is it really the equivalent of one cup? i've been drinking these rockstars recently which have 240 mg of caffeine...but they make you need to use the restroom a lot. i probably should switch over to the 5 hr thing.
Click to expand...

Some of my friends get headaches from the 5 hr drinks so definately take a trial run with those and then keep some tylenol handy.
 
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SeekerOfTheTree said:
Some of my friends get headaches from the 5 hr drinks so definately take a trial run with those and then keep some tylenol handy.
Click to expand...

I was going to try one later and see... though I might just stick with redbull.

Metfan - totally worth getting if you're into basketball at all. 👍
 
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damn I don't usually drink coffee/energy drinks... i'm doin a 8 hr practice run this weekend. If I can't keep my stamina should I try out 5 hr energy? Iv'e always been hesitant on trying it.
 
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Step1Hash said:
damn I don't usually drink coffee/energy drinks... i'm doin a 8 hr practice run this weekend. If I can't keep my stamina should I try out 5 hr energy? Iv'e always been hesitant on trying it.
Click to expand...

Maybe you should try something with lower caffeine like redbull so you're not all jittery. Give both a try...
 
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Whew...Officially calling it quits with studying. Think I have done everything possible, now its time to just rest up for tomorrow. Thanks for all the advice everyone!!🙂
 
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I'm also pretty much done studying at this point, time for some gym, R&R, maybe a movie or two and then sleep!
 
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Good luck everybody. Expect some tough questions but stay focused and don't freak out. I'm gonna listen to some heart sounds and call it quits.

See you on the other side 😀
 
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Step1Hash said:
damn I don't usually drink coffee/energy drinks... i'm doin a 8 hr practice run this weekend. If I can't keep my stamina should I try out 5 hr energy? Iv'e always been hesitant on trying it.
Click to expand...


Do a trial run first if you can. I'm very sensitive to caffeine's effects, so take this for what it's worth, but I took one of those before taking the MCAT the first time and got so jittery that I damn near had a panic attack and had to void my test. Retook it later sans caffeine and did much better handling my nerves. I kinda think the 5 hr energy drink must've potentiated my anxiety level and I wasn't prepared to handle it's effects. Unless you know you can handle a huge amount of caffeine in your system at one time, then I think doing a trial run would be good first.
 
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icaruswalks said:
Maybe you should try something with lower caffeine like redbull so you're not all jittery. Give both a try...
Click to expand...

medgirl13 said:
Do a trial run first if you can. I'm very sensitive to caffeine's effects, so take this for what it's worth, but I took one of those before taking the MCAT the first time and got so jittery that I damn near had a panic attack and had to void my test. Retook it later sans caffeine and did much better handling my nerves. I kinda think the 5 hr energy drink must've potentiated my anxiety level and I wasn't prepared to handle it's effects. Unless you know you can handle a huge amount of caffeine in your system at one time, then I think doing a trial run would be good first.
Click to expand...

Yea I guess ill see if I get tired in my practice tests this weekend first and then try it out if I need to. Thanks!
 
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iA-MD2013 said:
is it really the equivalent of one cup? i've been drinking these rockstars recently which have 240 mg of caffeine...but they make you need to use the restroom a lot. i probably should switch over to the 5 hr thing.
Click to expand...

Yea, it is only around 100 mg of caffeine. There is nothing in them that isn't really in every other energy drink on the planet. My preferred regular energy drink is "Spike" which is sugar free, multiple flavors and in a can about the size of a small red bull....with three times the caffeine.

I made the mistake of slamming one two when I didn't pay attention. I could have probably ran to any location faster than driving at that point. I think doing meth might have been a downer in comparison.

Keep in mind that I am a very big guy with diagnosed ADHD. I consume a ton of coffee normally because it is my version of self-medication. For most people, 50 mg at the start of feeling low is enough to keep that mental edge.
 
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Sheldor said:
NOTHING goes into the test room, including drinks. So just during breaks 🙂
Click to expand...

The woman that had us pull out our pockets and do finger prints said she worked in a prison before she had this job. I commented on the remarkable parallels between the two jobs.
 
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MossPoh said:
The woman that had us pull out our pockets and do finger prints said she worked in a prison before she had this job. I commented on the remarkable parallels between the two jobs.
Click to expand...

As long as she didn't get in the zone, snap on a rubber glove and ask you to bend over. 🙂

After all, in my experience they save that for inside the testing room.
 
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Took mine today. After walking out of the exam, from my experience I'd say that FA and UW were by far my best sources. I read RR twice and felt it netted me a couple of questions but probably was overkill and wasnt at user friendly as FA.

For the love of God, make notes on all of the UW questions you get wrong or have issues in understanding. Write down charts or unique drug side effects it has in the explanations. Did this in a notebook, took up roughly 60 pages and honestly I wouldntve gotten these questions without it.

Ultimately I probably went through FA 4-5 times, RR twice and 100% UW and those notes twice. In a path heavy test, I felt that i had only 5 questions on diseases or situations that I had truly never seen before which I find to be pretty solid.
 
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Test in 1 day and I'm getting nervous! I got 230+ on the last 3 practice tests... I hope I'm ready!
 
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for all those considering 5hr energy, i wanted to share my story:

i have never tried it before. i always stuck to coffee or sugarfree red bull when things got really bad. but i noticed while studying that i had to pee all the freaking time with red bull so i finally decided to try 5 hr energy bc there is no way i wanted to worry about having to pee during the exam. i really like 5 hr energy now. i was always kinda scared of it, but it doesnt taste bad, its an ok taste, and i did not feel jittery at all. after a few minutes i just realized that i wasnt tired and my eyes werent closing bc i wanted to sleep.
during the actual exam i took 5 hr energy with me in case i was getting tired. i ended up drinking it (its really 2 big sips) after block 3 i believe. i didnt think about hwo tired i was or anything.. but i did think about how dehumanizing that exam was haha
 
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Zback said:
For the people that did DIT and have now taken the step, do you feel it was beneficial?
Click to expand...

I kind of did it. I think it probably was useful. That being said, I had a LOT of questions that were the "Don't worry about it! 2 stars!" type questions. I'm lucky like that.
 
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it's a total lie.. 5 hours my butt.. more like 7-10!!!!!!!!!!
for those who haven't tried, you are missing out.. these things are amazing.. you don't feel jittery at all and you get super focused.. i highly highly recommend for this exam.. i took one about 15 min before starting the test and didn't get tired or lost any focus for the whole exam
 
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bjb305 said:
it's a total lie.. 5 hours my butt.. more like 7-10!!!!!!!!!!
for those who haven't tried, you are missing out.. these things are amazing.. you don't feel jittery at all and you get super focused.. i highly highly recommend for this exam.. i took one about 15 min before starting the test and didn't get tired or lost any focus for the whole exam
Click to expand...

Did you drink one right now by anychance?
 
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bjb305 said:
it's a total lie.. 5 hours my butt.. more like 7-10!!!!!!!!!!
for those who haven't tried, you are missing out.. these things are amazing.. you don't feel jittery at all and you get super focused.. i highly highly recommend for this exam.. i took one about 15 min before starting the test and didn't get tired or lost any focus for the whole exam
Click to expand...

i tried it a few weeks ago, it didn't really have that good of an effect on me! it maybe lasted 2-3 hours, then i was tired again lol
 
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Hey Vagus,

It's high yield in a certain respect. It's very nitpicky and alone the bank would be insufficient but matched with FA its a really good combo. There are alot of things in that bank that I didn't see. However, I would say that it's high yield in that it'll help you get harder questions that can tweak a simple concept that'd be easy to gloss over in FA (chronic hypercapnic patient going into respiratory arrest after recieving 100% O2). It'll also give you presentations of diseases that are somewhat rare as well (had a question on fanconi's anemia and fanconi's syndrome). Id say around 75% of questions on the test were out of FA and things you couldnt miss. Probably the next 20% was in UW. The last 5% is just random and somewhat impossible to prepare for.

I read RR twice and the only question I can say definitively I got right from that was that you can diagnose CF with serum Trypsinogen.

TL;DR Know FA and UW inside and out and you'll crush this thing
 
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Took it today, not gonna do a full write up because what hasn't been already by all these other posts?

Just wanted to say thanks to sdn and everyone who has posted before me, this thread definitely helped me get educated about how to tackle boards well and by the time it came around to the test it really wasn't that bad 😀

A couple things to add:

1. If it doesn't freak you out/drain you; look stuff up in between blocks. I got a question on a drug asking for the HLA type that gives a predisposition to a certain side effect. Not in uworld or first aid...looked it up on my phone and got another question on it 3 blocks later.

2. I used uworld, first aid and www.pathoma.com. I can not say enough good things about Dr. Satar, he really helped solidify my knowledge. Goljan audio and RR gives you everything you need for step 1 but way more as well. I thought pathoma was very high yield and succinct enough to fully absorb. Ended up using it in lieu of goljan.

3. The world and step 1 is a random place. I received my amazon order order for obgyn case files (my first rotation) yesterday. Quickly glanced over the first case...literally 30 seconds of reading. Got a question on it today that I would most likely not have gotten otherwise. I guess...keep your mind open to knowledge from random places...

4. Take the time to drop the kids off at the pool before your test...8 hrs is a long time😉
 
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lackli said:
Took it today, not gonna do a full write up because what hasn't been already by all these other posts?

Just wanted to say thanks to sdn and everyone who has posted before me, this thread definitely helped me get educated about how to tackle boards well and by the time it came around to the test it really wasn't that bad 😀

A couple things to add:

1. If it doesn't freak you out/drain you; look stuff up in between blocks. I got a question on a drug asking for the HLA type that gives a predisposition to a certain side effect. Not in uworld or first aid...looked it up on my phone and got another question on it 3 blocks later.

2. I used uworld, first aid and www.pathoma.com. I can not say enough good things about Dr. Satar, he really helped solidify my knowledge. Goljan audio and RR gives you everything you need for step 1 but way more as well. I thought pathoma was very high yield and succinct enough to fully absorb. Ended up using it in lieu of goljan.

3. The world and step 1 is a random place. I received my amazon order order for obgyn case files (my first rotation) yesterday. Quickly glanced over the first case...literally 30 seconds of reading. Got a question on it today that I would most likely not have gotten otherwise. I guess...keep your mind open to knowledge from random places...

4. Take the time to drop the kids off at the pool before your test...8 hrs is a long time😉
Click to expand...

lol I don't think you're supposed to be looking at your phone during breaks and many testing centers have cameras in the locker area.. you must've had a lax testing center.. but congrats on being done.

Wouldn't recommend anyone doing this (atleast with the phone).. not worth the risk.
 
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hyrule said:
lol I don't think you're supposed to be looking at your phone during breaks and many testing centers have cameras in the locker area.. you must've had a lax testing center.. but congrats on being done.

Wouldn't recommend anyone doing this (atleast with the phone).. not worth the risk.
Click to expand...

Lol, I was thinking the same thing. Just be careful and don't risk it.
 
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Since we're talking about phones, would it be all right if I bring my ipod touch and listen to music during breaks? I'm just afraid they might mistake my ipod for a phone and confiscate it or something...
 
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Woo!! Took the test today.

I'm a little tired right now, clearly, so I'm not gonna do a whole write up about it. I will maybe tomorrow or the next day, but rest assured it wasn't THAT bad. I feel like there's a larger spectrum of difficulty of questions than UWorld (easy questions were easier, hard questions were harder).

And man...you hear about it, you read about it, and you even practice it, but until you actually do it you don't realize how really long and tiring this test really is. Boy, by the 7th block i was EXHAUSTED. Endurance is definitely the most important and key thing to getting a high score.

Ok, off to drink!!!
 
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Hey guys, just finished my test. SDN = best and therefore I will do my part and contribute.

In terms of studying, I subscribed to the "do a lot questions" method. I ended up finishing RX, Kaplan, 1/2 of Lippincott pathology, and UW. I was planning on finishing Lippincott pathology and doing Robbin's pathology but I ran out of time. Btw, in the first couple weeks of my study period, I did random timed UW and got scores like 40-60% and got really discouraged. I decided that reading FA and doing UW would not be sufficient for someone like me who 1) reads slowly 2) understands slowly 3) gets distracted easily.

Btw, I just want to state out-right that "doing a lot of questions" method and the "read FA 5x" method are the same thing. For people that can extract the information effectively from FA, reading 1 hour of FA is far more effective way to learn material than doing 1 hour worth of questions. With that being said, for those people who are slow learners like me, doing questions keeps me engaged and I tend to memorize the material easier by getting lots of questions wrong, oddly. At the end of the day, both students are learning the same material, but in different fashion. There is no "right" way.

As for the test, it was more like NBME than UW. What I mean by that is there were a lot of questions that had buzzwords and the diagnosis was made right off the bat. The answer choices were different enough that a basic understanding of the disease process would help you immediately pick the correct answer. Now, with that being said, there were plenty of questions where you knew it or didn't. This is the disadvantage of "NBME-style" questions. UW tends to allow you to figure things out, but sometimes NBME is brutal in that there are 1 liners that tested if you memorized a random detail.

Difficulty: Ok, in terms of difficulty, it was definitely a mixed bag. Small amount of easy, lots of medium, and small amount of hard (as I'm sure you guys could have guessed). I had a few questions where throughout the question stem I was like "Yeah, I know what is going on here" and then when I saw the choices, I did not recognize a SINGLE word. It was like a completely new language. There were random procedures and just words/diagnoses that I had NEVER seen or even remotely heard before. Kind of weird. These questions were mostly the OB/GYN type questions about procedures/techniques that you would do to pregnant women. However, I felt the VAST majority of the info was found in FA... I mean 90+%. I was nervous from the recent talk about how FA was not enough, but it definitely was for me. Oh and I did 30 min. worth of studying for dental questions and quickly looked at the molecular structures of AA but did not questions on either.

Question length: I thought it was "normal" in the sense that none were brutally long. They seemed exactly like an NBME. Maybe I got a different test from people, but I felt like the length was exactly what I expected.

Timing: Definitely marked a lot more liberally, but I definitely had enough time to go through my marked. My brain was on SUPERSPEED and I was surprised how much time I had at the end of the block even after I marked liberally. Really nice feeling being able to mull over answers. (I hope I didn't make too many careless errors... but I digress). I want to say that if you are doing well in terms of finishing questions on NBMEs, don't be too worried about timing. Just take the real exam like you're taking a practice test.

Random topics:

Let me say that embryology was tough! I never really had an issue with embryology but I was a bit surprised that I was not confident in a few of my answers. I think this may be the one section that I felt supplementation would have been helpful.

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of people are curious about anatomy. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Nothing crazy unusual. However, word of advice, if you have HY gross anatomy, I would look over clinical procedures *BIG HINT*. An upperclassmen told me this exactly advice and I listened...and I'm glad...big time.

Biochemistry was nothing unusual. Vitamin deficiencies + things like glycogen stg diseases + gluconeogenesis/glycolysis. Pretty basic stuff.

Immunology was basic stuff. I was kind of nervous about this but FA is plenty good.

I studied biostats REALLy hard and I STILL had 1 question I couldn't answer. Very frustrating. Study biostats hard if you want to get easy points! Behavioral science was nothing unusual. Had a couple where I wasn't completely sure, but BS was never my strong suit so.. not sure how I did here.

I had 2 heart sounds. Nothing hard. I had 2 EKG rhythm strips. Nothing hard here either. I had 1 linked question. Micro was not bad. Definitely learn classic presentations.

Oh, and in terms of pictures, this was a bit iffy for me. There were definitely a few questions that you needed to be able to identify the picture, which I don't know if I did correctly or not. I really can't give you much advice about this because I really don't think it's worth flipping through all of Goljan RR to look at pictures.

Oh, and I was nervous about the whole "I got 1000 arrow questions!!!!" but honestly I got like 5-7 which really isn't a lot for a 300 question test. Also, NBME weren't jerks about the number of columns. (I was nervous about 10 column questions). I got an average of 3-4 columns which is not surprising.

Ok, thank you all for your help!!! I learned so much from you guys. I hope my post will be beneficial for some of you.
 
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Just finished. Wow. I'm exhausted, but it really wasn't all that bad. Seriously. Just wanted to throw that out there, it's definitely a doable exam. Will update later. I need a nap.
 
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skk3 said:
Hey guys, just finished my test. SDN = best and therefore I will do my part and contribute.

In terms of studying, I subscribed to the "do a lot questions" method. I ended up finishing RX, Kaplan, 1/2 of Lippincott pathology, and UW. I was planning on finishing Lippincott pathology and doing Robbin's pathology but I ran out of time. Btw, in the first couple weeks of my study period, I did random timed UW and got scores like 40-60% and got really discouraged. I decided that reading FA and doing UW would not be sufficient for someone like me who 1) reads slowly 2) understands slowly 3) gets distracted easily.

Btw, I just want to state out-right that "doing a lot of questions" method and the "read FA 5x" method are the same thing. For people that can extract the information effectively from FA, reading 1 hour of FA is far more effective way to learn material than doing 1 hour worth of questions. With that being said, for those people who are slow learners like me, doing questions keeps me engaged and I tend to memorize the material easier by getting lots of questions wrong, oddly. At the end of the day, both students are learning the same material, but in different fashion. There is no "right" way.

As for the test, it was more like NBME than UW. What I mean by that is there were a lot of questions that had buzzwords and the diagnosis was made right off the bat. The answer choices were different enough that a basic understanding of the disease process would help you immediately pick the correct answer. Now, with that being said, there were plenty of questions where you knew it or didn't. This is the disadvantage of "NBME-style" questions. UW tends to allow you to figure things out, but sometimes NBME is brutal in that there are 1 liners that tested if you memorized a random detail.

Difficulty: Ok, in terms of difficulty, it was definitely a mixed bag. Small amount of easy, lots of medium, and small amount of hard (as I'm sure you guys could have guessed). I had a few questions where throughout the question stem I was like "Yeah, I know what is going on here" and then when I saw the choices, I did not recognize a SINGLE word. It was like a completely new language. There were random procedures and just words/diagnoses that I had NEVER seen or even remotely heard before. Kind of weird. These questions were mostly the OB/GYN type questions about procedures/techniques that you would do to pregnant women. However, I felt the VAST majority of the info was found in FA... I mean 90+%. I was nervous from the recent talk about how FA was not enough, but it definitely was for me. Oh and I did 30 min. worth of studying for dental questions and quickly looked at the molecular structures of AA but did not questions on either.

Question length: I thought it was "normal" in the sense that none were brutally long. They seemed exactly like an NBME. Maybe I got a different test from people, but I felt like the length was exactly what I expected.

Timing: Definitely marked a lot more liberally, but I definitely had enough time to go through my marked. My brain was on SUPERSPEED and I was surprised how much time I had at the end of the block even after I marked liberally. Really nice feeling being able to mull over answers. (I hope I didn't make too many careless errors... but I digress). I want to say that if you are doing well in terms of finishing questions on NBMEs, don't be too worried about timing. Just take the real exam like you're taking a practice test.

Random topics:

Let me say that embryology was tough! I never really had an issue with embryology but I was a bit surprised that I was not confident in a few of my answers. I think this may be the one section that I felt supplementation would have been helpful.

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of people are curious about anatomy. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Nothing crazy unusual. However, word of advice, if you have HY gross anatomy, I would look over clinical procedures *BIG HINT*. An upperclassmen told me this exactly advice and I listened...and I'm glad...big time.

Biochemistry was nothing unusual. Vitamin deficiencies + things like glycogen stg diseases + gluconeogenesis/glycolysis. Pretty basic stuff.

Immunology was basic stuff. I was kind of nervous about this but FA is plenty good.

I studied biostats REALLy hard and I STILL had 1 question I couldn't answer. Very frustrating. Study biostats hard if you want to get easy points! Behavioral science was nothing unusual. Had a couple where I wasn't completely sure, but BS was never my strong suit so.. not sure how I did here.

I had 2 heart sounds. Nothing hard. I had 2 EKG rhythm strips. Nothing hard here either. I had 1 linked question. Micro was not bad. Definitely learn classic presentations.

Oh, and in terms of pictures, this was a bit iffy for me. There were definitely a few questions that you needed to be able to identify the picture, which I don't know if I did correctly or not. I really can't give you much advice about this because I really don't think it's worth flipping through all of Goljan RR to look at pictures.

Oh, and I was nervous about the whole "I got 1000 arrow questions!!!!" but honestly I got like 5-7 which really isn't a lot for a 300 question test. Also, NBME weren't jerks about the number of columns. (I was nervous about 10 column questions). I got an average of 3-4 columns which is not surprising.

Ok, thank you all for your help!!! I learned so much from you guys. I hope my post will be beneficial for some of you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great write up! I am feeling good about this test again.
 
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skk3 said:
Hey guys, just finished my test. SDN = best and therefore I will do my part and contribute.

In terms of studying, I subscribed to the "do a lot questions" method. I ended up finishing RX, Kaplan, 1/2 of Lippincott pathology, and UW. I was planning on finishing Lippincott pathology and doing Robbin's pathology but I ran out of time. Btw, in the first couple weeks of my study period, I did random timed UW and got scores like 40-60% and got really discouraged. I decided that reading FA and doing UW would not be sufficient for someone like me who 1) reads slowly 2) understands slowly 3) gets distracted easily.

Btw, I just want to state out-right that "doing a lot of questions" method and the "read FA 5x" method are the same thing. For people that can extract the information effectively from FA, reading 1 hour of FA is far more effective way to learn material than doing 1 hour worth of questions. With that being said, for those people who are slow learners like me, doing questions keeps me engaged and I tend to memorize the material easier by getting lots of questions wrong, oddly. At the end of the day, both students are learning the same material, but in different fashion. There is no "right" way.

As for the test, it was more like NBME than UW. What I mean by that is there were a lot of questions that had buzzwords and the diagnosis was made right off the bat. The answer choices were different enough that a basic understanding of the disease process would help you immediately pick the correct answer. Now, with that being said, there were plenty of questions where you knew it or didn't. This is the disadvantage of "NBME-style" questions. UW tends to allow you to figure things out, but sometimes NBME is brutal in that there are 1 liners that tested if you memorized a random detail.

Difficulty: Ok, in terms of difficulty, it was definitely a mixed bag. Small amount of easy, lots of medium, and small amount of hard (as I'm sure you guys could have guessed). I had a few questions where throughout the question stem I was like "Yeah, I know what is going on here" and then when I saw the choices, I did not recognize a SINGLE word. It was like a completely new language. There were random procedures and just words/diagnoses that I had NEVER seen or even remotely heard before. Kind of weird. These questions were mostly the OB/GYN type questions about procedures/techniques that you would do to pregnant women. However, I felt the VAST majority of the info was found in FA... I mean 90+%. I was nervous from the recent talk about how FA was not enough, but it definitely was for me. Oh and I did 30 min. worth of studying for dental questions and quickly looked at the molecular structures of AA but did not questions on either.

Question length: I thought it was "normal" in the sense that none were brutally long. They seemed exactly like an NBME. Maybe I got a different test from people, but I felt like the length was exactly what I expected.

Timing: Definitely marked a lot more liberally, but I definitely had enough time to go through my marked. My brain was on SUPERSPEED and I was surprised how much time I had at the end of the block even after I marked liberally. Really nice feeling being able to mull over answers. (I hope I didn't make too many careless errors... but I digress). I want to say that if you are doing well in terms of finishing questions on NBMEs, don't be too worried about timing. Just take the real exam like you're taking a practice test.

Random topics:

Let me say that embryology was tough! I never really had an issue with embryology but I was a bit surprised that I was not confident in a few of my answers. I think this may be the one section that I felt supplementation would have been helpful.

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of people are curious about anatomy. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Nothing crazy unusual. However, word of advice, if you have HY gross anatomy, I would look over clinical procedures *BIG HINT*. An upperclassmen told me this exactly advice and I listened...and I'm glad...big time.

Biochemistry was nothing unusual. Vitamin deficiencies + things like glycogen stg diseases + gluconeogenesis/glycolysis. Pretty basic stuff.

Immunology was basic stuff. I was kind of nervous about this but FA is plenty good.

I studied biostats REALLy hard and I STILL had 1 question I couldn't answer. Very frustrating. Study biostats hard if you want to get easy points! Behavioral science was nothing unusual. Had a couple where I wasn't completely sure, but BS was never my strong suit so.. not sure how I did here.

I had 2 heart sounds. Nothing hard. I had 2 EKG rhythm strips. Nothing hard here either. I had 1 linked question. Micro was not bad. Definitely learn classic presentations.

Oh, and in terms of pictures, this was a bit iffy for me. There were definitely a few questions that you needed to be able to identify the picture, which I don't know if I did correctly or not. I really can't give you much advice about this because I really don't think it's worth flipping through all of Goljan RR to look at pictures.

Oh, and I was nervous about the whole "I got 1000 arrow questions!!!!" but honestly I got like 5-7 which really isn't a lot for a 300 question test. Also, NBME weren't jerks about the number of columns. (I was nervous about 10 column questions). I got an average of 3-4 columns which is not surprising.

Ok, thank you all for your help!!! I learned so much from you guys. I hope my post will be beneficial for some of you.
Click to expand...

Great write-up.. thanks!
 
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congrats to anyone who just finished! Did any of you use DIT and if so...how helpful did u find it? I'm contemplating how much time to put into memorizing the handbook or not.
 
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skk3 said:
Hey guys, just finished my test. SDN = best and therefore I will do my part and contribute.

In terms of studying, I subscribed to the "do a lot questions" method. I ended up finishing RX, Kaplan, 1/2 of Lippincott pathology, and UW. I was planning on finishing Lippincott pathology and doing Robbin's pathology but I ran out of time. Btw, in the first couple weeks of my study period, I did random timed UW and got scores like 40-60% and got really discouraged. I decided that reading FA and doing UW would not be sufficient for someone like me who 1) reads slowly 2) understands slowly 3) gets distracted easily.

Btw, I just want to state out-right that "doing a lot of questions" method and the "read FA 5x" method are the same thing. For people that can extract the information effectively from FA, reading 1 hour of FA is far more effective way to learn material than doing 1 hour worth of questions. With that being said, for those people who are slow learners like me, doing questions keeps me engaged and I tend to memorize the material easier by getting lots of questions wrong, oddly. At the end of the day, both students are learning the same material, but in different fashion. There is no "right" way.

As for the test, it was more like NBME than UW. What I mean by that is there were a lot of questions that had buzzwords and the diagnosis was made right off the bat. The answer choices were different enough that a basic understanding of the disease process would help you immediately pick the correct answer. Now, with that being said, there were plenty of questions where you knew it or didn't. This is the disadvantage of "NBME-style" questions. UW tends to allow you to figure things out, but sometimes NBME is brutal in that there are 1 liners that tested if you memorized a random detail.

Difficulty: Ok, in terms of difficulty, it was definitely a mixed bag. Small amount of easy, lots of medium, and small amount of hard (as I'm sure you guys could have guessed). I had a few questions where throughout the question stem I was like "Yeah, I know what is going on here" and then when I saw the choices, I did not recognize a SINGLE word. It was like a completely new language. There were random procedures and just words/diagnoses that I had NEVER seen or even remotely heard before. Kind of weird. These questions were mostly the OB/GYN type questions about procedures/techniques that you would do to pregnant women. However, I felt the VAST majority of the info was found in FA... I mean 90+%. I was nervous from the recent talk about how FA was not enough, but it definitely was for me. Oh and I did 30 min. worth of studying for dental questions and quickly looked at the molecular structures of AA but did not questions on either.

Question length: I thought it was "normal" in the sense that none were brutally long. They seemed exactly like an NBME. Maybe I got a different test from people, but I felt like the length was exactly what I expected.

Timing: Definitely marked a lot more liberally, but I definitely had enough time to go through my marked. My brain was on SUPERSPEED and I was surprised how much time I had at the end of the block even after I marked liberally. Really nice feeling being able to mull over answers. (I hope I didn't make too many careless errors... but I digress). I want to say that if you are doing well in terms of finishing questions on NBMEs, don't be too worried about timing. Just take the real exam like you're taking a practice test.

Random topics:

Let me say that embryology was tough! I never really had an issue with embryology but I was a bit surprised that I was not confident in a few of my answers. I think this may be the one section that I felt supplementation would have been helpful.

Oh, and I'm sure a lot of people are curious about anatomy. Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Nothing crazy unusual. However, word of advice, if you have HY gross anatomy, I would look over clinical procedures *BIG HINT*. An upperclassmen told me this exactly advice and I listened...and I'm glad...big time.

Biochemistry was nothing unusual. Vitamin deficiencies + things like glycogen stg diseases + gluconeogenesis/glycolysis. Pretty basic stuff.

Immunology was basic stuff. I was kind of nervous about this but FA is plenty good.

I studied biostats REALLy hard and I STILL had 1 question I couldn't answer. Very frustrating. Study biostats hard if you want to get easy points! Behavioral science was nothing unusual. Had a couple where I wasn't completely sure, but BS was never my strong suit so.. not sure how I did here.

I had 2 heart sounds. Nothing hard. I had 2 EKG rhythm strips. Nothing hard here either. I had 1 linked question. Micro was not bad. Definitely learn classic presentations.

Oh, and in terms of pictures, this was a bit iffy for me. There were definitely a few questions that you needed to be able to identify the picture, which I don't know if I did correctly or not. I really can't give you much advice about this because I really don't think it's worth flipping through all of Goljan RR to look at pictures.

Oh, and I was nervous about the whole "I got 1000 arrow questions!!!!" but honestly I got like 5-7 which really isn't a lot for a 300 question test. Also, NBME weren't jerks about the number of columns. (I was nervous about 10 column questions). I got an average of 3-4 columns which is not surprising.

Ok, thank you all for your help!!! I learned so much from you guys. I hope my post will be beneficial for some of you.
Click to expand...

What's a 10 column question mean? And thanks for the write-up.
 
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Took it yesterday. My body is so F'd from all I've put it through that it's 630 am EST on the day after Step 1 and I can't sleep, blah!

I don't think I really posted my scores anywhere, but I'm writing this in hopes that it helps someone. I am a super average student and I scored a 214 on NBME 11 and 7 three and two weeks ago respectively. Maybe I should've deferred the start of my third year, pushed my exam out or something, but like I said, given that I'm an average student who just tends to suck at standardized testing, I felt I was peaking and REALLY wanted the test done with.

My study method: FA 2.5x+ UW 1.5x + Goljan Audio 2x + sprinkling of BRS

The test: I kept waiting for it to go really bad. I expected to have a panic attack, mark 50% of my block, have NO idea what questions were talking about, and to cry at least once. The first block felt just like UW... and the second... and the third... the "really bad" never came.

I don't think that my test had a theme. Nice balance of renal, GI, repro... had a lot of diabetes and a lot of smokers. Pictures were straightforward. Also had a bit too much of Musculoskel for my liking, since I can never seem to keep all the syndromes straight.

I was super worried about biochem, pharm, and neuro. These subjects were definitely the minority on my test, amazingly. I don't think the neuro was tricky, I just didn't know it all. Biochem was pretty classical presentations. Pharm was pretty straightforward too, although like with neuro there were some that I just couldn't sort through and not for lack of it being in FA.

I didn't have a hard time with the time. I moved at a slow-ish pace through everything, used almost all my time, and usually had 10 minutes at the end of each block to review my answers. The one thing that frustrated me about the test is that I didn't see a "Review Marked" option like there was on the NBMEs... maybe it was there and I was too scared to poke around, but I had to go through all my answers when reviewing. It does look JUST like UW which really helped my anxiety.

There was very little that I didn't recognize. For one question, I did put a bug down that I hadn't heard of before because I didn't like the other answer choices that were there and looking it up after revealed that it was the right choice.

I also didn't have to do a single calculation, except sensitivity. So that was pretty awesome. I felt that behavioral/ethical was straightforward- there was a lot of it, but I tend to do okay on those questions.

All in in all, I think I got a test suited to my strengths which I feel so grateful about. I'm not expecting anything magnificent or surprising since my NBMEs weren't great, but I will be happy with anything > 200 and ecstatic if I get close to 220.

If I were to do it again, I'd subscribe to another question bank. Not sure which one, but I definitely learn best from questions as I totally space out and lose focus with FA so it takes me MUCH longer to get through than it should.

Feels FANTASTIC to be on the other side. Now to address the disaster that has been my apartment 😛

-BP
 
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