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.
 
Took the step 1 on 6/29, and my experience is that it was "Harder than UWorld" fo sho.
15% of this exam I have never seen before
30% of it was Difficult / Really Hard / Confusing
30% was fair
15% wasn't even a question - answer was so obvious

Block #5 was my "impossible" block - from the behav sci, to the obscure molecular cell - one question after another were things that I cannot recall any clear knowledge or memory of during my prep time.

My step 1 test prep experience:

UWorld - 2 passes, 65% correct 1st pass, 82% correct 2nd pass
Kaplan QBank - 1 pass, 72% correct
USMLE Rx - only did 1/4 of this qbank - 71% avg correct
DIT 2011 - finished 5 weeks out

-UWSA1 - 247 (taken 5 weeks out)
-UWSA2 - 247 (taken 4 weeks out) - i accidentally activated both at the same time, so had to do both of them quickly : (
-NBME 11 - 250 (taken 1 week out)

-First Aid 2011 - cover to cover 3 times
-RR Path
-RR Micro & Immuno
-RR Biochem
-MMMRS
-HY Neuro
-HY Biostats
-HY Embryo
-SS Patel Notes - Immuno

So I really thought this had prepared me "adequately" enough for this exam - being an A/B student that literally had to deprive myself of life, liberty, and happiness to get a 91% on an exam

Sadly - I don't believe it was enough.
10-15 questions per section were marked (meaning they were at best an educated guess) - and I didnt have a chance to go back to them.
Ran out of time during my "horror block #5" - C's from 42-46

So basically - my own experience was terrible, and "knowing" the 18 or so questions that i KNOW i got wrong just adds a lil NaCl to the erosion. :scared:
 
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Took the step 1 on 6/29, and my experience is that it was "Harder than UWorld" fo sho.
15% of this exam I have never seen before
30% of it was Difficult / Really Hard / Confusing
30% was fair
15% wasn't even a question - answer was so obvious

Block #5 was my "impossible" block - from the behav sci, to the obscure molecular cell - one question after another were things that I cannot recall any clear knowledge or memory of during my prep time.

My step 1 test prep experience:

UWorld - 2 passes, 70% correct 1st pass, 82% correct 2nd pass
Kaplan QBank - 1 pass, 72% correct
USMLE Rx - only did 1/4 of this qbank - 71% avg correct
DIT 2011 - finished 5 weeks out

-UWSA1 - 247 (taken 5 weeks out)
-UWSA2 - 247 (taken 4 weeks out) - i accidentally activated both at the same time, so had to do both of them quickly : (
-NBME 11 - 250 (taken 1 week out)

-First Aid 2011 - cover to cover 3 times
-RR Path
-RR Micro & Immuno
-RR Biochem
-MMMRS
-HY Neuro
-HY Biostats
-HY Embryo
-SS Patel Notes - Immuno

So I really thought this had prepared me "adequately" enough for this exam - being an A/B student that literally had to deprive myself of life, liberty, and happiness to get a 91% on an exam

Sadly - I don't believe it was enough.
10-15 questions per section were marked (meaning they were at best an educated guess) - and I didnt have a chance to go back to them.
Ran out of time during my "horror block #5" - C's from 42-46

So basically - my own experience was terrible, and "knowing" the 18 or so questions that i KNOW i got wrong just adds a lil NaCl to the erosion. :scared:

Stumbled upon your post - you summed up my experience taking USMLE 1 on 06/4 pretty nicely - your difficulty breakdown is on par with my experience. I hope that's a good sign for both of us. I was really disheartened leaving that exam - and I have to say in the first block I must have tagged 15-20 of the questions... but as you said, no time to review.
good luck to you.
 
Stumbled upon your post - you summed up my experience taking USMLE 1 on 06/4 pretty nicely - your difficulty breakdown is on par with my experience. I hope that's a good sign for both of us. I was really disheartened leaving that exam - and I have to say in the first block I must have tagged 15-20 of the questions... but as you said, no time to review.
good luck to you.

I wouldn't overly freak out - I've been finishing up UW and seeing that the new questions in it have 30-50% correct (vs 70-80% for old questions everyone's drilled). hard as fk = good for us (easy curve)

On the actual test, did anyone have wigger diagrams? I've noticed that the "normal" in UWorld is wrong - they show aortic pressure less than LV even at closure of the valve. Should I expect this incorrect portrayal of "normal" on the step? Or can I safely consider lower aortic pressure than LV pressure going up to the incisura/dichrotic notch to be pathologic (i.e. aortic stenosis)
 
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I wouldn't overly freak out - I've been finishing up UW and seeing that the new questions in it have 30-50% correct (vs 70-80% for old questions everyone's drilled). hard as fk = good for us (easy curve)

On the actual test, did anyone have wigger diagrams? I've noticed that the "normal" in UWorld is wrong - they show aortic pressure less than LV even at closure of the valve. Should I expect this incorrect portrayal of "normal" on the step? Or can I safely consider lower aortic pressure than LV pressure going up to the incisura/dichrotic notch to be pathologic (i.e. aortic stenosis)

I had a bunch of cardiac cath questions but no pressure tracing diagrams. I did however get gels and western blots on my exam (though they weren't very tough)
 
yo yo took that junt on 7/2

micro up the wazoo

little cardio

little neuro

**** ton of immuno

lots of bs cell bio that was basically GUESS HERE LOL
 
ok so my exam is on july 7th, and i read posts from students who recently gave exam and its freaking me out a little ( ok a lot ):bang: . Why Board people are asking something which was not taught in MS1 and 2, Like someone said on this thread there were lot of questions which were not covered by FA or Qbanks. is it just me who is freaking out because my exam is coming soon lol.
 
Took the test 6/27. Had a ton of micro, and then just a whole bunch of abstract stuff that I had trouble figuring out exactly what they were asking. I did all UW random timed 71% then redid 250 questions and bumped it to almost 73%. Anyway, I thought the test was considerably harder than UW and harder than the 8 practice tests I took. Seriously I thought it was on another level of difficulty.

My test had many drug questions to which I didn't know about and came home and researched them finding out they're in clinical trials right now. Lots of parasites that aren't in FA.

Nbme 5 203
Nbme 6 211
Nbme 11 238 then nbme 12 242
Free150 257 then uswa1 247
Nbme 7 240 then uswa2 265

I used UW FA goljan and RR. I am just hoping for something around my practice scores.
 
i took my exam on june 24th. i've been away from a computer since then, but i wanted to reply in this thread because i found it so helpful in my prep.

i used a lot of practice questions to prepare. i did all of uworld, usmleRX, and kaplan qbank one time through each. i also did about 500 of my missed questions in uworld again. i kept a notebook full of facts from qbank questions. some of them were from missed questions, other facts i recorded were things i'd seen in questions i got right that i was unfamiliar with. for example: i had an easy sjogren syndrome question in one of the qbanks. sjogren larsson syndrome was a wrong answer choice for that question, and i had not seen SL syndrome before, so i wrote a few sentences about it in my notebook. that particular example is pretty low yield, but that method of keeping a notebook helped me learn a lot.

i found RR Path to be very helpful throughout second year, and I re-read all but the last three chapters in the first two weeks of my dedicated prep time.

i didn't actually read first aid until the last two weeks of my prep. by then, i had finished one pass of all three major question banks, and so going through first aid was pretty easy. i only focused on things that i had not seen much of in qbanks, which wasn't much. in total, i only did one pass of first aid.

i had about six weeks of dedicated study time after 2nd year ended. my practice test score progression was:
school cbse: 205
nbme 11 (after two weeks of dedicated study): 226
nbme 6 (four days later): 205 (this was after a LOOONG day of studying)
nbme 5 (two days after nbme6): 233
nbme12 (one week later): 235
uworldSA1 (two days before step1): 261
uworldSA2 (day before step 1): 259

i thought that my step 1 exam was VERY similar in content and difficulty to the uworldSA's i had done. i had one hard set on uworldSA1 in which i got 69% correct. i felt that my first set on the real step 1 was very similar (i flagged about 19 q's in my first set on the real thing and only finished with four minutes to review them). i had about 5-6 repeats from uworldSA's on my step 1 that were almost word-for-word from uworldSA's. the main difference in content between step 1 and uworldSA's would probably be: (1) questions requiring interpretation of obscure experiments and (2) crazy anatomy questions about innervation of parts that you'd never really expected to be asked about. i don't know how i would prepare for the crazy anatomy stuff. i think the best way to prepare for the questions about obscure experiments is to know that they are probably asking about something you've seen before in a really strange and bizarre way. just try to have confidence in what you've learned and try to see through the smoke and mirrors. even then, you just have to answer as best as you can.

after that first (really hard) set on my step 1 exam, the rest seemed very similar to a typical uworld/uworldSA block. on those last 6 sets, i flagged about 6-12 questions each and finished with about 10 minutes that i then used to review flagged questions. i know of at least 4 "gimme" questions that i definitely missed. what's worse is that i flagged them while i was doing them and knew at the time that they should have been easy. i just completely blanked on them. one was a basic antibiotic mechanism question, and i had the right answer but convinced myself that i should change it (to the wrong answer). i usually miss about 1-2 gimme questions per block in question banks and practice tests anyway, but it still sucks.

*edit - i also want to add that except for nbme6 in which i had already done and studied 4 blocks in kaplan qbank that day, i generally did three blocks in the morning and an nbme in the afternoon when i took nbme's. the reason is so i could simulate test-day fatigue. i did not do that with the uworldSA's though because i was more interested in building confidence and using those questions to study when i took those.
 
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Had a ton of micro, and then just a whole bunch of abstract stuff that I had trouble figuring out exactly what they were asking.

We had very similar experiences. I was so depressed when I walked out of the testing facility, convinced that I failed. Hopefully there is a curve and it's generous!
 
We had very similar experiences. I was so depressed when I walked out of the testing facility, convinced that I failed. Hopefully there is a curve and it's generous!

stupid question, but when you say curve, what does it mean?
 
stupid question, but when you say curve, what does it mean?

What is a curve? It is an adjustment of scores based on how everyone did. Some people say there is one since the forms are of varying difficulty but the NBME is very vague about it.
 
It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

I am wondering the same thing. It freaks me out when i see posts saying that there are a lot of weird/difficult questions that are not in UW/FA. I am an average student so I will be happy if i pass or get above 200.
 
It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

at the end of the day, its still an exam testing concept comprehension - so if you're "sticking to the basics" and using uworld and FA, and slowing yourself down to see the information from different sides, I think you're absolutely doing the right thing. I and others are probably relaying the theme of out-of-nowhere questions bc those are the ones that stuck with us after we left the building and left us with the "What the hell just happened" feeling.

I think what really got me more than anything were the questions I should have gotten cold but didn't because in some cases I hadn't revisited that concept in many weeks since it was "so low yield" in my mind's eye.. OR because of time constraints, I didn't feel I had ample time to work things through as I could and should have. Every practice exam I took before USMLE I had many minutes left over, and come USMLE, 3-5 mins remained each and every block, and for one block I had 15 seconds remaining.
 
No review book can ever be as comprehensive to encompass everything you will see on a board exam. You just read and read and read and hope that most of the stuff you see is something you've studied. The majority of your test will be able to be figured out from FA and UW and the popular sources, but of course there will be questions that you've never read about. You can't think people at NBME just go through FA and write questions about material that's in there.

If you read the beginning few pages of FA they write themselves that FA is not to be used as the "sole study bible" for the boards. It's just something to guide the student. That being said, I think FA is still the most high yield out of anything you can read.
 
It is scary but I genuinely feel like this is what happened to me on my exam. For mine, it was very clearly the last 2 blocks that had quite a lot of questions (10-15) that I felt could NOT be inferred from FA or UW, both of which I completed thoroughly. Quite a number were anatomy questions and while I'm terrible at anatomy, I studied FA enough to know what I did and didn't know. There were also just a handful of random questions where I've thought about afterwards and can think of no place in FA/UW that would've helped. Haven't gotten my score yet but hoping for a nice curve.. And I also got a bunch of neuro questions that I'm pretty sure weren't even mentioned in my course at school, but not so many on classic pathway type neuro questions you typically see.


It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?
 
What is a curve? It is an adjustment of scores based on how everyone did. Some people say there is one since the forms are of varying difficulty but the NBME is very vague about it.

If the NBME tests estimate your score correctly, then the grading scale is definitely different, because there's no way I could have got the same percentage right on the test as I did on the practice test. If that's what people mean by a curve, then yes, that's what happens. On top of that, the NBME folks say they try to normalize scores, comparing all of us with people who've taken the test before us, to try to make sure that a 220 means the same no matter which year you take the test. I have no idea how they do that. A few pages back, someone whose parents work for a standardized testing company laid out some general principles on how they set up big standardized tests like this... if you're really curious about this stuff, I'd go find that post.

It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources.
[...]
What gives?

There are a few ways to look at this, but before I go further, I'd say your time is probably best spent doing what you're doing, and going through FA these last few days.

As far as the test... people focus on the WTF questions that they had, so bear that in mind. I had a question that mentioned a ridiculous detail, but the way the question was asked, I reasoned my way through to an answer. When I looked it up after my test, I was amazed by how obscure this gene was, but the point of the question was whether or not I could draw an analogy with another gene that I remembered (that was in FA).

Supposedly, NBME is trying to minimize the impact of the popular question banks and FA, but I don't think they're trying to do that by just asking totally random stuff. The way they seem to do it is figure you know what's in FA, and then ask you to use that information to answer a new question. There are still straightforward, "Remember this?" kind of questions, but the hard ones really try to make you work.

Back to the question I mentioned. The odds of me remembering this one random detail were basically zero. That's how random it was. It wasn't in FA, but what was in FA helped me reason my way to the answer. Does that mean FA is incomplete, or does it mean it's good enough? Depends on how you look at things, I guess.

Getting all the way through UW, and going through FA as many times as you have will help you. Just stick with it, and don't let our venting about stuff stress you out.
 
If the NBME tests estimate your score correctly, then the grading scale is definitely different, because there's no way I could have got the same percentage right on the test as I did on the practice test. If that's what people mean by a curve, then yes, that's what happens. On top of that, the NBME folks say they try to normalize scores, comparing all of us with people who've taken the test before us, to try to make sure that a 220 means the same no matter which year you take the test. I have no idea how they do that. A few pages back, someone whose parents work for a standardized testing company laid out some general principles on how they set up big standardized tests like this... if you're really curious about this stuff, I'd go find that post.



There are a few ways to look at this, but before I go further, I'd say your time is probably best spent doing what you're doing, and going through FA these last few days.

As far as the test... people focus on the WTF questions that they had, so bear that in mind. I had a question that mentioned a ridiculous detail, but the way the question was asked, I reasoned my way through to an answer. When I looked it up after my test, I was amazed by how obscure this gene was, but the point of the question was whether or not I could draw an analogy with another gene that I remembered (that was in FA).

Supposedly, NBME is trying to minimize the impact of the popular question banks and FA, but I don't think they're trying to do that by just asking totally random stuff. The way they seem to do it is figure you know what's in FA, and then ask you to use that information to answer a new question. There are still straightforward, "Remember this?" kind of questions, but the hard ones really try to make you work.

Back to the question I mentioned. The odds of me remembering this one random detail were basically zero. That's how random it was. It wasn't in FA, but what was in FA helped me reason my way to the answer. Does that mean FA is incomplete, or does it mean it's good enough? Depends on how you look at things, I guess.

Getting all the way through UW, and going through FA as many times as you have will help you. Just stick with it, and don't let our venting about stuff stress you out.

Great reply, thanks for calming my nerves :laugh: I am 3 days out, you think i should do incorrect questions as well or keep going over FA?
 
It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

Lol and i was thinking that its only me who is going crazy.Good luck with your exam my exam is 3 days out, i will write my experience before you lol
 
i had about six weeks of dedicated study time after 2nd year ended. my practice test score progression was:
school cbse: 205
nbme 11 (after two weeks of dedicated study): 226
nbme 6 (four days later): 205 (this was after a LOOONG day of studying)
nbme 5 (two days after nbme6): 233
nbme12 (one week later): 235
uworldSA1 (two days before step1): 261
uworldSA2 (day before step 1): 259

Took mine on June 20th and got the same nbme 12 score and uwsa2 score. I would be ecstatic with a score somewhere in the ballpark. Good luck!
 
Great reply, thanks for calming my nerves :laugh: I am 3 days out, you think i should do incorrect questions as well or keep going over FA?

Either one, really. If it were me, I'd do one until I got sick of it, then switch to the other; but it depends how much you feel like you're getting out of going over your incorrect q's. Good luck.
 
Took the test today. Going to make this quick since I can't remember specifics about particular sections...i'm really bad at remembering tests after they are done.

I found my test to be pretty fair and was very similar to the NBMEs (probably not as hard as 11 and 12 though). I would say 95% of it was from First Aid, but as many people have said you need a strong background in addition to knowing the facts to get the harder questions right. I did DIT and although I didn't get any questions on any of the extra material it presented, the random stuff that was in first aid that was emphasized (that I would have otherwise overlooked) came up on my test.

I think the hardest part of my exam was the fatigue at block 5-7. It is probably the MAIN reason why I would have missed questions on those blocks. If fatigue was not an issue and I had First aid down COLD and every word ingrained my head (which I did not - i probably knew 85-90% of it cold) I could see myself getting a 260+ on my exam. If I had to guess I probably got between 75-90% which I would think translates to between 230 and 260, depending on how many dumb mistakes I made/ how lucky I was.

In the end FA + uworld were all you needed. Uworld only helped with seeing how questions can be presented and training yourself on how to think through them. Content wise i'm not sure how much I got out of it that came up on my test.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to everyone who still has to take it! My advice is to work on your weaknesses (they WILL come up) and to stay confident. If you have been working hard you will be fine for this test. It was not as hard as I made it out to be in my head before going in.
 
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Took the test today. Going to make this quick since I can't remember specifics about particular sections...i'm really bad at remembering tests after they are done.

I found my test to be pretty fair and was very similar to the NBMEs (probably not as hard as 11 and 12 though). I would say 95% of it was from First Aid, but as many people have said you need a strong background in addition to knowing the facts to get the harder questions right. I did DIT and although I didn't get any questions on any of the extra material it presented, the random stuff that was in first aid that was emphasized (that I would have otherwise overlooked) came up on my test.

I think the hardest part of my exam was the fatigue at block 5-7. It is probably the MAIN reason why I would have missed questions on those blocks. If fatigue was not an issue and I had First aid down COLD and every word ingrained my head (which I did not - i probably knew 85-90% of it cold) I could see myself getting a 260+ on my exam. If I had to guess I probably got between 75-90% which I would think translates to between 230 and 260, depending on how many dumb mistakes I made/ how lucky I was.

In the end FA + uworld were all you needed. Uworld only helped with seeing how questions can be presented and training yourself on how to think through them. Content wise i'm not sure how much I got out of it that came up on my test.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to everyone who still has to take it! My advice is to work on your weaknesses (they WILL come up) and to stay confident. If you have been working hard you will be fine for this test. It was not as hard as I made it out to be in my head before going in.

Thanks for the write up man. I rescheduled my test because I freaked out! Taking it in a week. I was wondering if you thought the test compared to the Free 150?
 
Took the test today. Going to make this quick since I can't remember specifics about particular sections...i'm really bad at remembering tests after they are done.

I found my test to be pretty fair and was very similar to the NBMEs (probably not as hard as 11 and 12 though). I would say 95% of it was from First Aid, but as many people have said you need a strong background in addition to knowing the facts to get the harder questions right. I did DIT and although I didn't get any questions on any of the extra material it presented, the random stuff that was in first aid that was emphasized (that I would have otherwise overlooked) came up on my test.

I think the hardest part of my exam was the fatigue at block 5-7. It is probably the MAIN reason why I would have missed questions on those blocks. If fatigue was not an issue and I had First aid down COLD and every word ingrained my head (which I did not - i probably knew 85-90% of it cold) I could see myself getting a 260+ on my exam. If I had to guess I probably got between 75-90% which I would think translates to between 230 and 260, depending on how many dumb mistakes I made/ how lucky I was.

In the end FA + uworld were all you needed. Uworld only helped with seeing how questions can be presented and training yourself on how to think through them. Content wise i'm not sure how much I got out of it that came up on my test.

If you have any specific questions let me know and I'd be happy to answer. Good luck to everyone who still has to take it! My advice is to work on your weaknesses (they WILL come up) and to stay confident. If you have been working hard you will be fine for this test. It was not as hard as I made it out to be in my head before going in.


Thanks for the reassurance and post. I was starting to freak out a lot based on how much everyone said was 'random' and 20% of the test was stuff they had 'never seen before'. I think most of us on here understand that just memorizing and spitting out facts from first aid isn't going to be enough to nail a good score, but when it comes down to it, we expect most of the information tested on it to be relevant to FA, uworld, goljan, etc.

For what it's worth, most of my friends took the usmle this past week/weekend and when we got together last night they all agreed on one thing : there is definitely stuff on there you haven't seen before - it's not the content that is necessarily new, but the way they ask the question. all of them agreed ( based on what they got asked ) that between 80-90% of their test could have been answered or 'deduced' from first aid, and that 10-20% was going to be based on random knowledge from school or other sources, with a few questions per block that are out of the blue.

anyways, my test is thursday. wish me luck everyone. :xf:
 
It's slightly unnerving to read so much feedback from recent test takers which all seems to have a common theme: there's a bunch of stuff on the exam that isn't in FA, UW, or X number of other commonly used resources. I can understand that this may be the case for a handful of questions, but for those that have left feeling this way about the exam - have you actually scoured the resources you used (and others that you didn't, but that are commonly used) to confirm that so much info really wasn't available anywhere? I'm just finding it hard to believe that in the immense troves of information that are FA, and UW (and RR, for that matter), that so much info could be left out. I have high praise for anyone that actually knows, and can explain, every single factoid/concept in FA/UW - so if these individuals are struggling I feel as though I may at be at a severe disadvantage. But my test is in 5 days, I've finished UW and am redoing several hundred questions, and am revisiting FA (some sections in excruciating detail) for roughly the 4th time. What gives?

I did look through FA (I annotated EVERYTHING into it from UW and some RR and BRS Physio) and didn't find answers to about 20-25 questions that I remembered. However, that said, I think most of those are "experimental" questions because the only info I could find on them was in research articles or were an obscure disease that isn't in those resources.

That means that probable at least 270 of my questions were from UW or FA so I'd stick with that. I really think that I just got a tough test, at least that is what I am hoping. I'd stick to your plan, you'll do great.
 
I did look through FA (I annotated EVERYTHING into it from UW and some RR and BRS Physio) and didn't find answers to about 20-25 questions that I remembered. However, that said, I think most of those are "experimental" questions because the only info I could find on them was in research articles or were an obscure disease that isn't in those resources.

That means that probable at least 270 of my questions were from UW or FA so I'd stick with that. I really think that I just got a tough test, at least that is what I am hoping. I'd stick to your plan, you'll do great.

realistically, 10%-15% of the test is always anticipated to be random +/- expiremental stuff, so if 270/322 questions are covered or at least mentioned and made relevant in FA or Uworld i'd say that's pretty legit.
 
I dunno if i was lucky but I can only remember about 7-8 questions that werent in FA/UW and 2 of those were in RR. I wrote down pretty much everything in UW and that netted me anywhere to 20-30 questions that I def. would have gotten wrong.
 
i also found goljan audio useful. in fact, the morning of the exam when i was walking to the testing center, i was listening to one of the kidney lectures and i had 2 questions that i was able to get in the 1st block just bc i was listening to goljan.
 
Thanks for the write up man. I rescheduled my test because I freaked out! Taking it in a week. I was wondering if you thought the test compared to the Free 150?

I thought mine was similar to the prometric version of the free 150 plus a few more hard questions. The free 150 that you can download was easier than the one at the prometric imo.
 
If it is just like the prometric, I ll be in disbelief

If it is 95% from FA, I will donate a lot of things from my Apt to the shelter before I leave here 🙂
 
If it is just like the prometric, I ll be in disbelief

If it is 95% from FA, I will donate a lot of things from my Apt to the shelter before I leave here 🙂

Yea my form was pretty chill. I'd say 30?s in each block were at the prometric 150 level. And I definitely had heard of everything in every question...no WTFs (granted I studied all my class lecture notes as well)
 
I dunno if i was lucky but I can only remember about 7-8 questions that werent in FA/UW and 2 of those were in RR. I wrote down pretty much everything in UW and that netted me anywhere to 20-30 questions that I def. would have gotten wrong.

Similar experience last yr. Used FA/UW/RR. Maybe 5 questions that were completely foreign and had to make a completely uneducated guess
 
Similar experience last yr. Used FA/UW/RR. Maybe 5 questions that were completely foreign and had to make a completely uneducated guess

Not step 1 related at all. I just wanted to say, your 4th year schedule looks pretty friggin awesome.
 
Did anyone notice any changes to their page?

I think my Review Document Request History page changed.

At the top it says "Click a Reference ID below to view your original request, view additional processing details, and print the forms that may be required to fulfill your request."

Beneath that, it shows boxes with "Reference ID," "Submission Date," and "Status" and underneath those boxes it says "There is no history."

Has it always said that? b/c i don't remember it saying that and i've check fairly regularly...
 
Did anyone notice any changes to their page?

I think my Review Document Request History page changed.

At the top it says "Click a Reference ID below to view your original request, view additional processing details, and print the forms that may be required to fulfill your request."

Beneath that, it shows boxes with "Reference ID," "Submission Date," and "Status" and underneath those boxes it says "There is no history."

Has it always said that? b/c i don't remember it saying that and i've check fairly regularly...

Mine says the same as yours. I don't know if it is a change since I don't regularly look at that page. My request documents page is still the same though.

Anybody else have some insight?
 
should I be able to diff the types of malaria? I can't really tell some of the stages even looking at the pictures
 
should I be able to diff the types of malaria? I can't really tell some of the stages even looking at the pictures

I rarely if ever had a question where they had a picture and the question hinged on knowing what's on that picture.

However they may describe in words the different malarial forms. The easier thing is just epidemiology - falciparum in Africa, vivax in South America, etc.
 
should I be able to diff the types of malaria? I can't really tell some of the stages even looking at the pictures

Know what's in FA. I can recall 2 questions on mine about hypnozoites. How to treat them and which spp. are responsible.
 
what % of the q's had pics on the actual exam? 20-30ish like in world? or more

do abcde and the arrows work on the actual test? or is it mouse only
 
not from mars, just from the other side of the world. can someone please be kind enough to tell me what FA and NBSME (hope i got it right) mean. i already know about USMLE. i'm a 300 med student in nigeria who would love to continue studies in the states. thanks in advance
 
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