Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[amavir281]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I saw that there was a similar thread for 2011 that had plenty of useful info so I figured its best to start one for 2012. 👍

 

[Chaoticsheath]

scores up, but website is super backed up

 

[BSMAMD]

6/28! I am really thankful for this forum; you guys have kept me sane in the last week of waiting.

 

[Boardz]

ooh more scores released = more advice from you guys. 😀

i have my test in about 9 days so lemme know what you guys think helped in the last week or so.

thanks in advance.

 

[MDKY]

Did you get the score? I did not receive my score yet.

 

[T12]

Haven't logged in to SDN since undergrad.

Stopping in to celebrate anonymously because it's douchey to do it publicly.

257 and I'm smiling ear to ear. Scores are up today.

 

[welcometo]

Books: First aid mostly. A little Goljan's, Constanzo Phys, Microbio Ridiculously simple, HY Behavioral science, tiny bit HY Embryo.

Rx 80%
Kaplan 70%
UWorld 80%
Might be inflated because I did them in timed tutor format. This stops the timer when you're reviewing each question, chance to breathe.

Kaplan Simulation 1 80%
Kaplan Simulation 2 75+%
UWorld Self Assessment 1 Forgot score, probably nothing special

Final score: 257 (2 digit score was in the 80s)

Total study: 2 months give or take

Coming out of the test, I didn't get the usual sense of relief you get after a major test. I was finally done, but the monkey refused to get off my back. I don't have a good memory (I'll probably forget all this step1 stuff in 1 month tops) so as I was walking out of the testing center I couldn't identify any problems that gave me trouble, even though during the test there were tons of them.

Waiting period wasn't that bad. I was immersed in rotations. Every time I was reminded of Step 1 I just hoped other people thought it was as difficult as I did.

The advice: The test was difficult for me, so take this with a grain of salt. If you're still early in med school, the cliche holds true - learn the material the first time around! If you're getting ready for boards and there's no time for that, try to be constantly studying. Realize FA isn't going to cover everything, look stuff up preferably in lecture notes, if you don't remember which lecture (like I never did) then try Wikipedia and/or UpToDate. This becomes especially important in your weaker subjects. By no means did I ace the exam, so do MORE than what I did. Everything I did can be done in 2 months. So maybe add an extra month beforehand to review everything you've done in second year.

Overall I think I'm a good example of muddling through the test but still doing better than most peers. Hopefully this will keep you optimistic enough. Personally I was intimidated from the SDN high score after high score posts. If you consider my score a high score, sorry for contributing to this. I felt that if you are reading this thread already you're probably feeling frightened already, so I might as well post some advice that may help you.

 

[bomgd3]

I had 4.5 weeks of prep time. I was above the class average on tests, but usually only by a few percent. I organize topics into mental frameworks and retain only the key details. Then I fill in my knowledge with supplemental materials.

The numbers, in order of tests taken:
UWSA 1: 256
NBME 13: 240
NBME 7 offline: 182/200
NBME 6 offline: 184/200
NBME 12: 249
NBME 11: 266

Final score: 257/88

Resources: I purchased UWorld in the winter and slowly did 50% up until spring break in 46-section blocks. My scores hovered around 60% and didn't improve much during this time. After spring break, I would take 2-3 hours to read a section of FA, then do relevant UW questions, then read again, then do more questions, rinse and repeat until done with all of the available questions. My scores went up rapidly, and my final average was around 75% (I forget the actual number).

I used First Aid extensively, both as a big-picture overview for class and as a framework for UW as described above. I read it once during class, once at the beginning of my prep in combination with supplemental materials. Two weeks before my test I read the whole thing one final time, re-doing all of the UW questions I missed.

Excellent supplemental materials, in order of good-ness:
-Big Robbins - I read a LOT throughout MS2 and prep time, probably well over half of this book . There is no substitute for putting in the hours with this book IMO. Not only are the first 400 pages crucial, but the systemic path chapters are also fantastic. The figures, legends, and verbal histopath descriptions are key. I cringe when I hear people advocate only listening to Pathoma. Pathoma is like learning the blue bullet points in Goljan--it is not enough.
-Dr. Raymond's pharm lectures - Particularly autonomic and CNS pharm, which are the trickiest.
-Lippincott Biochemistry - Read it all the way through, it totally demystified biochem in combination with First Aid.
-Lippincott Pharmacology - Excellent quick read, great to flip into if a question like "what are the side effects of tricyclics" pops up in your head. You flip to the page, read the short chapter on tricyclics, and boom, you just learned like three new things.
-Robbins Review of Path - The questions in here are high-quality. After reviewing a system, I would do these questions along with UW and FA Q&A.
-Goljan Rapid Review Path - Takes almost as long to read as Robbins, so I kept it more as a reference.
-WebPath - Great website for browsing images for 1 hour after finishing a system, prior to doing questions.
-Goljan lectures - Listened 1.5 times throughout the entire year. Heme/onc was especially good.
-FA Q&A - Only used at the beginning, when I had time to kill. Pretty good book to solidify what you just read in FA, but questions not representative of the real test.
-1.7x run-through of Pathoma during the last 3 days before the test for relaxation and review.

Good supplemental materials: Underground Clinical Vignettes Anatomy, HY Microbio (read quickly over 2 days), Team Rads website for radiology tutorials, the Kaplan anatomy guy.

Not-so-great materials: USMLE Step 1 secrets was not detailed, nor did it provide a good broad framework. It seemed to cherry-pick a few topics, then give you a smattering of related facts. Chung & Chung Anatomy was far too detailed, and the pink clinical boxes are largely covered by FA+UW.

Most important thing I learned:
ALWAYS know where you stand, score-wise. You have to face your fears, sit down, and take NBMEs OFTEN in order to gauge your progress. Drill down into your results and identify key learning issues. Jot down learning issues while you're taking the test. Always, always, always have learning issues on your mind. If something pops up while you're driving, write it down and read about it later. The first two times you look something up, you'll forget most of it later. The third time (or fourth, or whatever) it will stick with you forever.

tl;dr: Constantly evaluate your progress, and proactively pursue learning issues by reading, reading, and more reading.

Good luck to everyone who still needs to take it, and congrats to all of those who are finished and moving on!

 

[Anonymous222]

.

 

[doopdidoop]

thought i would post my numbers to give some people some more to add to the pile!

nbme 6 - 4 weeks before - 207
uwsa 1 - 3 weeks before - 228
nbme 12 - 3 weeks before - 215
uwsa 2 - 2 weeks before - 235
nbme 11 - 2 weeks before - 238
nbme 7 - 4 days before - 231
uworld percentage: 64% first pass, 69% "second" pass

actual 240/85. i'm pretty happy! i'll post details of how i prepared later, but i really only had ~5-6 weeks to prepare so considering everything + my goals, i am pretty satisfied 🙂

 

[GTP]

Took test on June 27th (see below), got score today.

Background + Prep:
I spent the first year and a bit of med school whacking off with regards to boards. My med school doesn't really teach to the boards / frowns upon studying for (ie our director tells us "you shouldn't even think of studying until March", a TA / older student told us in December that he would "slap us in the face" if any of us had started studying).

In October, I stumbled upon USMLERx site and took a gander at their 15 question sample quiz. I think I got like 5/15 of those questions and freaked the f*ck out. There was lot that I just hadn't learned or heard of from medical curriculum. For example, even though I got honors in resp/renal/neuro, I had never heard of some things like bronchiectasis, craniopharyngioma, or polycystic kidney disease.

I looked at many sources and decided that gunner training was the best route to take. I was diagnosed with "ADD" as a child and can't read more than a page at a time. I need active learning.

I started at the beginning of November (~8 months out):
November + Half of December
Added about 8-10 cards a day. I did them by subject. While adding cards of a specific subject, I'd also use a review book to consolidate the knowledge. I mostly looked at the pictures and did practice questions in the books. I didn't actually read them.
For the daily reviews, I was doing them fast: I was doing them at a rate of 5/minute. I didn't dwell, I didn't spend too much time reading answers / other things. If you read the theory of Mnemosyne (the algorithm GT is built on, this is the most efficient way to do it if you're trying to learn as fast as possible)

Biochem - Lippincott's review book. Great for carbohydrate metabolism - the lipid / nutrient stuff is a bit weak.
Embryo - Langman's. This is a textbook, not a review book. Nevertheless, it is concise. It explains well and the pictures are insightful. I highly recommend.
Anatomy - GT was enough. For pictures / another view, I very lightly skimmed Moore - don't know if that helped.
Immuno - only GT. My immuno class taught the basics really well, but did not mention most of the diseases (Jobs, Wiscott-Aldrich etc.). The notes from GT were perfect because I needed to learn the disease details to memorize, not the immuno concepts.
Micro - only GT. I started to go over CMMRS, but thought it sucked. Micro is more about memorizing than concepts, so GT was key.
Path - only GT.
GI - our GI final was right before winter break. Unlike most of our classes, this was boards relevant, so I added GT cards through the months as things were covered in class.
Repro - skimmed robbins for pictures - this was before GT had as pictures. My repro class physiology was well taught so I knew that. We had a "take home = google answers" exam in the class, so GT was clutch for memorizing things that I hadn't bothered looking at before (like tumors etc).

I had added somewhere about 50% of GT before winter break. My daily reviews were ~300-400. I did these during lecture, so I wasn't really spending much / any time outside of class studying (we had ~25 hours of lecture a week - I had broken and taken a "f*ck class" mentality as this point since our honors are internal only).
Time commitment: 2 hours GT in class everyday. ~1 hour reading / skimming book resource outside of class.

I took two weeks off for winter break. Did not do daily reviews or anything.

Mid January - March
I spent the first week of January catching up on GT reviews (up to 1000/day). This took ~3 hours because I was doing them in blitz speed (5-6/minute).

I added the rest of GT in these two months by the second week of March (~60 days). I added about 8 cards a day for the first six weeks. For the last ten days I added ~15 day. My daily reviews went from ~300 (January after catching up) to peaking at ~1000 in second weeks of March. The last two weeks of march, I had reduced my daily load of GT ~600/day.

I used other resources to reinforce / look at pictures / do review questions:
Costanza Physiology - I found I had a free online subscription through school's library to this textbook. Very good. A must read in my opinion. I knew most of the physiology, but this did a good job of reinforcing, reminding, showing me what level is necessary for boards.

Katzung and Trevor Pharmacology - I started to skim this and did some of the review questions. Too much detail - boards pharmacology is not in depth. I don't recommend it and stopped using it.

WebPath - as I'd add a category, I did the set of questions. I think this is a great resource / free qbank. THe pictures are great. This was great for reinforcing concepts.

Robbins QBook - Has ~1000 questions. I did these as I'd add the topic in GT.

Goljan - used as a reference for pictures and some tables. Way too in depth.

USMLERx - I'd do quasi-random blocks (only topics I had added in GT) in class when I was done with GT load for the day. I got through about ~700 questions by mid February. At that point my GT load was catching up and I stopped using USMLERx. Overall, I think it's a good Qbank, its just that I wanted to systematically finish GT, WebPath, Robbins Qbook.

Time commitment: ~4 hours in class everyday on GT/USMLERx. ~10 hours/week outside of lecture reading costanza, or doing webpath, robbins Qbook.

April = Kaplan, wasting time
I spent April doing Kaplan's QBank. I was doing timed blocks of 46 questions. I started the month doing about 2 blocks a day. I did not review the blocks in depth, instead I just looked at questions I got wrong / marked questions and determined why I got them wrong (only 15 min review/block). I finished the Kaplan Qbank at ~79%.
I think this qbank sucked. Looking back after taking the test and NBMEs, I regret using it. Rx is better. Kaplan tests too many details that are NOT relevant. I assumed it was better because of their brand name (with other test prep) and their info session at my school. I'm angry I wasted my time on this qbank.

I also did USMLERx flash fact cards when I had time / felt like it. I did them in random blocks of 100. Blitz speed (~400/hour). If I didn't know it, I read it and just kept going.
My daily GT load went from ~600/day ~400/day.

April time commitment: ~2 hours everyday in class doing GT (I slowed down my pace as my daily load decreased so that I'd still spend up to 2 hours a day on it). ~15 hours/week Qbank and reviewing. ~5 hours/week Flash Facting (did about 5000 over the month). I made sure I took one day off from Qbanking every weekend.

End of April, 8 weeks out, NBME 3: 240
I freaked out a little bit after this NBME. I had been aiming for a 250. I had studied a lot (done ~4000 QBank type questions + added all of GT, 5000 flash fact cards, skimmed a few books). I was afraid that I wasn't going to improve because I had already studied so much.

May = Pathoma Vids, Goljan's Book = KNOWING ALL MECHANISMS
I decided to stop Qbanking for a month because I didn't think it had helped me.
I used Pathoma. Every day I'd watch a pathoma video(s) on 1.7X. I was using a friend's account for Pathoma and did not have access to the book. The following day, I'd go over the corresponding Goljan chapter. I didn't memorize Goljan, but instead used it to reinforce and remind myself of the previeous day's lectures.
As I said before, I have an attention issue and NEED to do active learning, so while watching the video / going over Goljan, I used Anki (freeware that uses the Mnemosyne algorithm) to make my own flashcards on anything I didn't know / was not in GT (as this point I knew the GT question set very well). I ended up making a Anki question set ~4000 cards.
I also continued and finished my first pass through Flash facts on random sets (~4000 cards).

Time commitment: ~5 hours/day Pathoma+Goljan+Flash Facts. ~
2 hours/day GT - I switched to doing GT outside of lecture and slowed down my pace (~300 reviews/day, 150/hour). Instead of focusing on going quickly, I slowed down and read the answers / made sure I knew what was on the card outside of just the red highlights.
1-3 hours/day (during lecture) Anki - blitz speed. I made these cards, so I made sure they were bare and quick to move through.
At this point, I had ~30 hours/week of class. So the hours/day are averages including weekends. I stopped taking the one day off each week and now resigned myself to going out only one night every weekend 🙁

End of May, NBME 11 (4 weeks out): 249

2-4 weeks out = UWorld, getting used to doing questions
I spent the first two weeks of my dedicated time doing UWorld. I would do 3-5 timed sets/day and review in detail (~40 min reviewing/set). I think UWorld is gold for reasons everyone says. I ended up marking ~750 questions that were good concepts, nuances I feared I would forget or got incorrect.
UWorld First Pass Average: 89%
At the same time, I kept up with GT (~200/day = 2 hours). I did GT at a snail's pace now, really absorbing and making sure I KNEW each and every fact on each card.
I continued doing my Anki Reviews for the sets I made from Goljan / Pathoma.

Time Commitment: No more class. ~8 hours a day UWorld, 2 hours/day GT, 2 hours/day Anki. I buckled down and pulled 12 hour days for these two weeks.

NBME 12 (2 weeks out): 261

Last two weeks = stamina building, memorizing ALL the details
Reading these forums, a major concern was that I'd get tired out with the test and perform less than my optimal setting due to fatigue. I kept a daily schedule that was pretty consistent:

T13-T4
8 AM: Wake up, get ready.
8 AM - 2 PM: Full length test. And yes, full length means 7-8 sections. One day I'd put together two NBMEs (of course... only legally available and purchased ones). I also went back to USMLERx and generated random full length exams of unused questions (averaged ~90% on USMLERx tests). Since I wanted to build speed, I only gave myself 45 minutes/section for each of these. For the full length tests, I only reviewed marked / incorrect questions.
The goal here was to be accustomed to doing 8 hour blocks of questions. I took Kaplan. In fact, Rx > Robbins QBook > WebPath (which is free) > Kaplan. It tests you on minor details that are again, not worth your time to memorize. Don't get suckered by their brand name / fancy presentations.
3. Pathoma, Costanza are great for learning why, knowing the mechanisms.
4. Gunnertraining is the best. My only regret is that I didn't start it earlier. But, you have to keep with it daily. From mid-January till my test day, I only missed my daily review for a total of 9 days. For 7 of these, I was on vacation.
5. I wish I had done UWorld earlier (2 months out, spent 4 weeks on it). That way I would have had a more genuine first pass.
6. There is no substitue from learning the physiology. As much as I curse my curriculum for not teaching many of the details and diseases, they taught the physio / pathophys concepts extremely well. The details I could memorize on my own - I guess that's why they do that.
7. This is a marathon of a test. You need stamina. I think that the full length stamina building bought me the difference between 261 (NBME 12 score 2 weeks out) and 274. Compared to the stamina building I had done, my experience was a cake walk.
8. The difference between a 250 and a 270 can only be ~15 questions on the real test. I was aiming for +250 because beyond this, not a single f*ck is given by residency directors. At the end of the day this is a single test and a lot is dependent on luck. Had I known I was going to reliably do above 250 after stamina building, I would have taken the exam much earlier.

You are an absolute beast. This is the best post I've seen on sdn. Huge huge congratulations!!!! Phloson, looks like you've got some competition 😉

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

248. happy that I can now move on!

 

[iCY]

mid 250s/88

Time to move on! Good luck to future test takers!

 

[Chirurg]

Last two weeks = stamina building, memorizing ALL the details
Reading these forums, a major concern was that I'd get tired out with the test and perform less than my optimal setting due to fatigue. I kept a daily schedule that was pretty consistent:

T13-T4
8 AM: Wake up, get ready.
8 AM - 2 PM: Full length test. And yes, full length means 7-8 sections. One day I'd put together two NBMEs (of course... only legally available and purchased ones). I also went back to USMLERx and generated random full length exams of unused questions (averaged ~90% on USMLERx tests). Since I wanted to build speed, I only gave myself 45 minutes/section for each of these. For the full length tests, I only reviewed marked / incorrect questions.
The goal here was to be accustomed to doing 8 hour blocks of questions. I took <5 minutes break every other section. This was brutal but ultimately worth it. On exam day, I took 15 minute breaks every other section. I was very relaxed and calm because I was conditioned to more hectic testing of 45 minute sections and 5 minute breaks.
I also did UWSA1 and UWSA2. Each of these got their own day because I spent ~3 hours reviewing each. One day instead of doing a test, I went through BRS Behavioral Sciences. I skimmed the chapters and did every question in the book. I did not read each chapter in detail - I don't think this is worth the time. With the BRS day and half-tests of UWSAs, I was able to organize it so that I never did 3 full-length tests in a row.
2-3 PM: Lifting, lunch.
3-4 PM: Review incorrects from full length.
4-7 PM: Gunner training. Instead of doing my daily reviews I decided this time would be better spent doing the entire Gunner Training stock (~9000 cards) in one go. I was able to these at a fast pace without feeling rushed (900 in 3 hours) because many of these were basic facts that I already knew. Conversely, the daily reviews tend to be skewed towards questions you get wrong. I just wanted to make sure I saw everything one last time. The ones I did not know (~15%, I spent time on and memorized).
7-8 PM: Cardio, dinner break
8-10:30 PM: Flash facts and First AID. I hadn't really gone through First Aid or even touched it yet (I don't learn out of books, especially one like First Aid that lists facts). I did First Flash by category. Everytime I got a question wrong, I'd take a red pen and underline the information. I did about 800 flash facts each night.
10:30-11 PM: UWorld 2nd pass. I did the questions I had marked by subject. I could do and review about 50 questions in 30 minutes because I remembered a lot of these from my first pass.

philosoton now knows what to do.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

Took test on June 27th (see below), got score today.

Background + Prep:
I spent the first year and a bit of med school whacking off with regards to boards. My med school doesn't really teach to the boards / frowns upon studying for (ie our director tells us "you shouldn't even think of studying until March", a TA / older student told us in December that he would "slap us in the face" if any of us had started studying).

In October, I stumbled upon USMLERx site and took a gander at their 15 question sample quiz. I think I got like 5/15 of those questions and freaked the f*ck out. There was lot that I just hadn't learned or heard of from medical curriculum. For example, even though I got honors in resp/renal/neuro, I had never heard of some things like bronchiectasis, craniopharyngioma, or polycystic kidney disease.

I looked at many sources and decided that gunner training was the best route to take. I was diagnosed with "ADD" as a child and can't read more than a page at a time. I need active learning.

I started at the beginning of November (~8 months out):
November + Half of December
Added about 8-10 cards a day. I did them by subject. While adding cards of a specific subject, I'd also use a review book to consolidate the knowledge. I mostly looked at the pictures and did practice questions in the books. I didn't actually read them.
For the daily reviews, I was doing them fast: I was doing them at a rate of 5/minute. I didn't dwell, I didn't spend too much time reading answers / other things. If you read the theory of Mnemosyne (the algorithm GT is built on, this is the most efficient way to do it if you're trying to learn as fast as possible)

Biochem - Lippincott's review book. Great for carbohydrate metabolism - the lipid / nutrient stuff is a bit weak.
Embryo - Langman's. This is a textbook, not a review book. Nevertheless, it is concise. It explains well and the pictures are insightful. I highly recommend.
Anatomy - GT was enough. For pictures / another view, I very lightly skimmed Moore - don't know if that helped.
Immuno - only GT. My immuno class taught the basics really well, but did not mention most of the diseases (Jobs, Wiscott-Aldrich etc.). The notes from GT were perfect because I needed to learn the disease details to memorize, not the immuno concepts.
Micro - only GT. I started to go over CMMRS, but thought it sucked. Micro is more about memorizing than concepts, so GT was key.
Path - only GT.
GI - our GI final was right before winter break. Unlike most of our classes, this was boards relevant, so I added GT cards through the months as things were covered in class.
Repro - skimmed robbins for pictures - this was before GT had as pictures. My repro class physiology was well taught so I knew that. We had a "take home = google answers" exam in the class, so GT was clutch for memorizing things that I hadn't bothered looking at before (like tumors etc).

I had added somewhere about 50% of GT before winter break. My daily reviews were ~300-400. I did these during lecture, so I wasn't really spending much / any time outside of class studying (we had ~25 hours of lecture a week - I had broken and taken a "f*ck class" mentality as this point since our honors are internal only).
Time commitment: 2 hours GT in class everyday. ~1 hour reading / skimming book resource outside of class.

I took two weeks off for winter break. Did not do daily reviews or anything.

Mid January - March
I spent the first week of January catching up on GT reviews (up to 1000/day). This took ~3 hours because I was doing them in blitz speed (5-6/minute).

I added the rest of GT in these two months by the second week of March (~60 days). I added about 8 cards a day for the first six weeks. For the last ten days I added ~15 day. My daily reviews went from ~300 (January after catching up) to peaking at ~1000 in second weeks of March. The last two weeks of march, I had reduced my daily load of GT ~600/day.

I used other resources to reinforce / look at pictures / do review questions:
Costanza Physiology - I found I had a free online subscription through school's library to this textbook. Very good. A must read in my opinion. I knew most of the physiology, but this did a good job of reinforcing, reminding, showing me what level is necessary for boards.

Katzung and Trevor Pharmacology - I started to skim this and did some of the review questions. Too much detail - boards pharmacology is not in depth. I don't recommend it and stopped using it.

WebPath - as I'd add a category, I did the set of questions. I think this is a great resource / free qbank. THe pictures are great. This was great for reinforcing concepts.

Robbins QBook - Has ~1000 questions. I did these as I'd add the topic in GT.

Goljan - used as a reference for pictures and some tables. Way too in depth.

USMLERx - I'd do quasi-random blocks (only topics I had added in GT) in class when I was done with GT load for the day. I got through about ~700 questions by mid February. At that point my GT load was catching up and I stopped using USMLERx. Overall, I think it's a good Qbank, its just that I wanted to systematically finish GT, WebPath, Robbins Qbook.

Time commitment: ~4 hours in class everyday on GT/USMLERx. ~10 hours/week outside of lecture reading costanza, or doing webpath, robbins Qbook.

April = Kaplan, wasting time
I spent April doing Kaplan's QBank. I was doing timed blocks of 46 questions. I started the month doing about 2 blocks a day. I did not review the blocks in depth, instead I just looked at questions I got wrong / marked questions and determined why I got them wrong (only 15 min review/block). I finished the Kaplan Qbank at ~79%.
I think this qbank sucked. Looking back after taking the test and NBMEs, I regret using it. Rx is better. Kaplan tests too many details that are NOT relevant. I assumed it was better because of their brand name (with other test prep) and their info session at my school. I'm angry I wasted my time on this qbank.

I also did USMLERx flash fact cards when I had time / felt like it. I did them in random blocks of 100. Blitz speed (~400/hour). If I didn't know it, I read it and just kept going.
My daily GT load went from ~600/day ~400/day.

April time commitment: ~2 hours everyday in class doing GT (I slowed down my pace as my daily load decreased so that I'd still spend up to 2 hours a day on it). ~15 hours/week Qbank and reviewing. ~5 hours/week Flash Facting (did about 5000 over the month). I made sure I took one day off from Qbanking every weekend.

End of April, 8 weeks out, NBME 3: 240
I freaked out a little bit after this NBME. I had been aiming for a 250. I had studied a lot (done ~4000 QBank type questions + added all of GT, 5000 flash fact cards, skimmed a few books). I was afraid that I wasn't going to improve because I had already studied so much.

May = Pathoma Vids, Goljan's Book = KNOWING ALL MECHANISMS
I decided to stop Qbanking for a month because I didn't think it had helped me.
I used Pathoma. Every day I'd watch a pathoma video(s) on 1.7X. I was using a friend's account for Pathoma and did not have access to the book. The following day, I'd go over the corresponding Goljan chapter. I didn't memorize Goljan, but instead used it to reinforce and remind myself of the previeous day's lectures.
As I said before, I have an attention issue and NEED to do active learning, so while watching the video / going over Goljan, I used Anki (freeware that uses the Mnemosyne algorithm) to make my own flashcards on anything I didn't know / was not in GT (as this point I knew the GT question set very well). I ended up making a Anki question set ~4000 cards.
I also continued and finished my first pass through Flash facts on random sets (~4000 cards).

Time commitment: ~5 hours/day Pathoma+Goljan+Flash Facts. ~
2 hours/day GT - I switched to doing GT outside of lecture and slowed down my pace (~300 reviews/day, 150/hour). Instead of focusing on going quickly, I slowed down and read the answers / made sure I knew what was on the card outside of just the red highlights.
1-3 hours/day (during lecture) Anki - blitz speed. I made these cards, so I made sure they were bare and quick to move through.
At this point, I had ~30 hours/week of class. So the hours/day are averages including weekends. I stopped taking the one day off each week and now resigned myself to going out only one night every weekend 🙁

End of May, NBME 11 (4 weeks out): 249

2-4 weeks out = UWorld, getting used to doing questions
I spent the first two weeks of my dedicated time doing UWorld. I would do 3-5 timed sets/day and review in detail (~40 min reviewing/set). I think UWorld is gold for reasons everyone says. I ended up marking ~750 questions that were good concepts, nuances I feared I would forget or got incorrect.
UWorld First Pass Average: 89%
At the same time, I kept up with GT (~200/day = 2 hours). I did GT at a snail's pace now, really absorbing and making sure I KNEW each and every fact on each card.
I continued doing my Anki Reviews for the sets I made from Goljan / Pathoma.

Time Commitment: No more class. ~8 hours a day UWorld, 2 hours/day GT, 2 hours/day Anki. I buckled down and pulled 12 hour days for these two weeks.

NBME 12 (2 weeks out): 261

Last two weeks = stamina building, memorizing ALL the details
Reading these forums, a major concern was that I'd get tired out with the test and perform less than my optimal setting due to fatigue. I kept a daily schedule that was pretty consistent:

T13-T4
8 AM: Wake up, get ready.
8 AM - 2 PM: Full length test. And yes, full length means 7-8 sections. One day I'd put together two NBMEs (of course... only legally available and purchased ones). I also went back to USMLERx and generated random full length exams of unused questions (averaged ~90% on USMLERx tests). Since I wanted to build speed, I only gave myself 45 minutes/section for each of these. For the full length tests, I only reviewed marked / incorrect questions.
The goal here was to be accustomed to doing 8 hour blocks of questions. I took <5 minutes break every other section. This was brutal but ultimately worth it. On exam day, I took 15 minute breaks every other section. I was very relaxed and calm because I was conditioned to more hectic testing of 45 minute sections and 5 minute breaks.
I also did UWSA1 and UWSA2. Each of these got their own day because I spent ~3 hours reviewing each. One day instead of doing a test, I went through BRS Behavioral Sciences. I skimmed the chapters and did every question in the book. I did not read each chapter in detail - I don't think this is worth the time. With the BRS day and half-tests of UWSAs, I was able to organize it so that I never did 3 full-length tests in a row.
2-3 PM: Lifting, lunch.
3-4 PM: Review incorrects from full length.
4-7 PM: Gunner training. Instead of doing my daily reviews I decided this time would be better spent doing the entire Gunner Training stock (~9000 cards) in one go. I was able to these at a fast pace without feeling rushed (900 in 3 hours) because many of these were basic facts that I already knew. Conversely, the daily reviews tend to be skewed towards questions you get wrong. I just wanted to make sure I saw everything one last time. The ones I did not know (~15%, I spent time on and memorized).
7-8 PM: Cardio, dinner break
8-10:30 PM: Flash facts and First AID. I hadn't really gone through First Aid or even touched it yet (I don't learn out of books, especially one like First Aid that lists facts). I did First Flash by category. Everytime I got a question wrong, I'd take a red pen and underline the information. I did about 800 flash facts each night.
10:30-11 PM: UWorld 2nd pass. I did the questions I had marked by subject. I could do and review about 50 questions in 30 minutes because I remembered a lot of these from my first pass.

Scores:
10 Days out UWSA1: 89%
5 Days out NBME6: 252
5 Days out NBME7: 264
I had originally planned to do NBME6 and NBME7 on two separate days. But after doing NBME 6, I freaked out, got angry and did NBME 7 without a break. I felt better after that one (closer to my score on NBME 12).
4 Days out UWSA2: 90%
3 Days out NBME13: 273


2nd Day out - did random GT incorrect (things I had gotten wrong were next on my review). Looked at all the red underlined things in some First Aid sections.
Last day - relaxed.

See below for my testing experience:



Interestingly, my score report profile told me that I did relatively worse in renal, heme, genetics (things I thought I killed, if you read above). I thought I did poorly in Neuro, but my score report said I did well.

Real Deal: 274

Some general notes:
1. First AID is a compilation of random facts people have seen on their exam. It has a lot of random, useless ****. I didn't touch it until 2 weeks out. It is the most high yield complication of facts, but most facts are individually super low yield. Memorizing first aid line by line, section by section, is not worth your time. That time is better spent watching pathoma or doing GT, which explain "why" and give a much better story. It may be also better spent reading NEJM. To understand those articles you need to know the mechanisms.
2. Kaplan sucks. If you have time do it, but I'd say Rx > Kaplan. In fact, Rx > Robbins QBook > WebPath (which is free) > Kaplan. It tests you on minor details that are again, not worth your time to memorize. Don't get suckered by their brand name / fancy presentations.
3. Pathoma, Costanza are great for learning why, knowing the mechanisms.
4. Gunnertraining is the best. My only regret is that I didn't start it earlier. But, you have to keep with it daily. From mid-January till my test day, I only missed my daily review for a total of 9 days. For 7 of these, I was on vacation.
5. I wish I had done UWorld earlier (2 months out, spent 4 weeks on it). That way I would have had a more genuine first pass.
6. There is no substitue from learning the physiology. As much as I curse my curriculum for not teaching many of the details and diseases, they taught the physio / pathophys concepts extremely well. The details I could memorize on my own - I guess that's why they do that.
7. This is a marathon of a test. You need stamina. I think that the full length stamina building bought me the difference between 261 (NBME 12 score 2 weeks out) and 274. Compared to the stamina building I had done, my experience was a cake walk.
8. The difference between a 250 and a 270 can only be ~15 questions on the real test. I was aiming for +250 because beyond this, not a single f*ck is given by residency directors. At the end of the day this is a single test and a lot is dependent on luck. Had I known I was going to reliably do above 250 after stamina building, I would have taken the exam much earlier.

Wow, used every source available and did 30+ hrs of board material a week during M2. Any sources with that much consistent effort would snag a 250+, old sport. Even just FA + UW.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

You are an absolute beast. This is the best post I've seen on sdn. Huge huge congratulations!!!! Phloson, looks like you've got some competition 😉

Good post, but I'm much more impressed with this one, old sport.

Felt like crap after finishing the test but turned out fine after all.
Used FA, UWorld Rx, and NBME tests
NBME 11 -255
NBME12- 260
NBME -13- 259
The real thing - 261/90

 

[dragon529]

It's interesting how some people advocate for the kaplan qbank and some just despise it... it's confusing the $hit out of me as to what to get for 2nd yr!!

 

[VisionaryTics]

It's official: 270+ is the new 250.

 

[MrBeauregard]

It's official: 270+ is the new 250.

Interesting that most of them have used GT, especially the most recent post above.

 

[lixxx669]

Took it 6/27/12

NBME 5 - 450/210 (3 month out)
NBME 7 - 560/235 (1 month out, FA first pass)
Free 150 question practice session in test site - 93% (2 week out)
NBME 11 - 640/254 (1 week out, finish DIT)
Kaplan Stimulated Exam 1 - 80% (2 day out)

UWorld Q bank - 78% (all random time tutor mode)
Kaplan Q bank - 69% (subject specific time tutor mode)

Real deal: 256/88

Done! Moving on~

 

[Ilovewater]

Took my exam on the 25th and got my score today. I figured I'll post what I did in terms of preparation, since this SDN helped me out a lot.

I didn't prepare for boards until dedicated boards study time, which was 6 weeks. The only resources I used were FA, UWorld, and Pathoma. I also didn't use other resources during the school year, so I wasn't familiar with any of these materials. If you did well your first two years and have a solid foundation, these 3 resources are probably more than you need to do well on Step 1. I did FA x 2.5, UW x 1 (74% average on random timed blocks), and Pathoma x 3.

Walking out of the exam, I felt destroyed. My exam was heavy in GI, which I suck at. There was also a lot more radiology than I expected...probably 2-3 CT/MRIs almost every section. Anatomy was really random (not in FA or UW), but there were only 2-3 questions the entire exam. Everything else was on par with UW questions in terms of difficulty. I usually finished UW question blocks with 15-20 minutes left over, but on the real exam, I had <10 minutes left for each section. I was probably just more nervous since the question stems were about the same length as UW.

As for practice exams:
NBME exam administered by school: 210 (2 months before boards studying)
NBME 11: 238 (4 weeks out)
NBME 12: 228 (3 weeks out) - This really freaked me out that my score dropped by 10 points with an additional week of studying.
NBME 13: 247 (2 weeks out)
Real deal: 256/88

Before the exam, I was aiming for 240+ but wasn't sure I would be able to break 230 let alone 240 because of the wide range in practice exam scores. After the exam, I was afraid I wouldn't even get above 220. So, I couldn't be happier!

 

[ijn]

It's official: 270+ is the new 250.

I mean there's going to be ~125 kids with 270+ a year out of 27000 test takers. It shouldn't be surprising that like 5-6 of those 125 post in this thread to flex their e-peen.

 

[VisionaryTics]

I mean there's going to be ~125 kids with 270+ a year out of 27000 test takers. It shouldn't be surprising that like 5-6 of those 125 post in this thread to flex their e-peen.

Silence, sub-270 peasant!

 

[LeverArm]

I'm going to post for the below average peeps out there 🙂

I'm super lazy compared to most med students. I went to med school because my parents wanted me to. I don't have a passion for medicine but I don't mind it either. Went through first 2 years just wanting to pass. For Step 1 I used FA (3x) and UWorld only but I didn't even get through all of UWorld. I didn't do any practice tests. Got a 208. Just happy I didn't fail.

Reading this post made me sad but not because of your score....

 

[eastcoastdr]

wow congrats everyone. Amazing scores 🙂

So it seems that most people have scored consistently on a handful of NBMEs, took the real deal and felt like it was difficult, only to come out with a score higher than their practice exams. That's good news lol.

Navi86 - I appreciate your honesty. Hope in 3rd year you begin to enjoy medicine a little bit more 🙂

 

[Jay Gatsby]

Interesting that most of them have used GT, especially the most recent post above.

Lol, that and 30 other resources alongside living boards for 6-12 months. I'd use correlation before causation there, old sport. Stockbrokers use cocaine but it doesn't make you rich.

 

[MrBeauregard]

Lol, that and 30 other resources alongside living boards for 6-12 months. I'd use correlation before causation there, old sport. Stockbrokers use cocaine but it doesn't make you rich.

Just pointing out a trend I've noticed over the past two years, old sport. Nice attempt at an analogy there, too, old sport. How about find a new line, eh, old sport?

 

[Brotato]

Just pointing out a trend I've noticed over the past two years, old sport. Nice attempt at an analogy there, too, old sport. How about find a new line, eh, old sport?

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

its probably the type of people who use GT. It takes a great deal of discipline to sit there and go through cards day after day on top of classes. I didnt even look at FA (wish I had) before the dedicated board studying time. Best of luck to all future test takers! and a huge shout out to all the regular posters on sdn answering my many sometimes stupid questions. Time to get pimped to hell in medicine!

 

[iCY]

Lol, that and 30 other resources alongside living boards for 6-12 months. I'd use correlation before causation there, old sport. Stockbrokers use cocaine but it doesn't make you rich.

love it. please add some comments to the GT thread, they need to hear this from someone other than me

 

[iCY]

Just pointing out a trend I've noticed over the past two years, old sport. Nice attempt at an analogy there, too, old sport. How about find a new line, eh, old sport?

please see the other trend i pointed out in the GT thread. people who sit for 3 hours/day doing GT for months at a time probably also masturbate daily, probably multiple times a day. Therefore the trend also shows a positive correlation with daily masturbation and step 1 scores

 

[Jay Gatsby]

Just pointing out a trend I've noticed over the past two years, old sport. Nice attempt at an analogy there, too, old sport. How about find a new line, eh, old sport?

Relax, old sport. No one likes a rec from a person who has never used a product. Let's reserve recs for the users.😛

That's the spirit.

 

[MrBeauregard]

Relax, old sport. No one likes a rec from a person who has never used a product. Let's reserve recs for the users.😛

I'll give ya that one. Now I'm done hijacking the thread for the sake of a useless argument. I don't have to worry about this biatch anymore anyways!

 

[Phloston]

Books: First aid mostly. A little Goljan's, Constanzo Phys, Microbio Ridiculously simple, HY Behavioral science, tiny bit HY Embryo.

Rx 80%
Kaplan 70%
UWorld 80%
Might be inflated because I did them in timed tutor format. This stops the timer when you're reviewing each question, chance to breathe.

Kaplan Simulation 1 80%
Kaplan Simulation 2 75+%
UWorld Self Assessment 1 Forgot score, probably nothing special

Final score: 257 (2 digit score was in the 80s)

Total study: 2 months give or take

Coming out of the test, I didn't get the usual sense of relief you get after a major test. I was finally done, but the monkey refused to get off my back. I don't have a good memory (I'll probably forget all this step1 stuff in 1 month tops) so as I was walking out of the testing center I couldn't identify any problems that gave me trouble, even though during the test there were tons of them.

Waiting period wasn't that bad. I was immersed in rotations. Every time I was reminded of Step 1 I just hoped other people thought it was as difficult as I did.

The advice: The test was difficult for me, so take this with a grain of salt. If you're still early in med school, the cliche holds true - learn the material the first time around! If you're getting ready for boards and there's no time for that, try to be constantly studying. Realize FA isn't going to cover everything, look stuff up preferably in lecture notes, if you don't remember which lecture (like I never did) then try Wikipedia and/or UpToDate. This becomes especially important in your weaker subjects. By no means did I ace the exam, so do MORE than what I did. Everything I did can be done in 2 months. So maybe add an extra month beforehand to review everything you've done in second year.

Overall I think I'm a good example of muddling through the test but still doing better than most peers. Hopefully this will keep you optimistic enough. Personally I was intimidated from the SDN high score after high score posts. If you consider my score a high score, sorry for contributing to this. I felt that if you are reading this thread already you're probably feeling frightened already, so I might as well post some advice that may help you.

The USMLE Rx score predictor formula is: USMLERx(%)*2.64 + 47. For you, ~80% = ~258. Right on the money.

Also, Rx + Kaplan + UW is very good prep, so your score is well-earned. Congrats.

 

[Phloston]

Most important thing I learned:
ALWAYS know where you stand, score-wise. You have to face your fears, sit down, and take NBMEs OFTEN in order to gauge your progress. Drill down into your results and identify key learning issues. Jot down learning issues while you're taking the test. Always, always, always have learning issues on your mind. If something pops up while you're driving, write it down and read about it later. The first two times you look something up, you'll forget most of it later. The third time (or fourth, or whatever) it will stick with you forever.

tl;dr: Constantly evaluate your progress, and proactively pursue learning issues by reading, reading, and more reading.

Good call. Thanks for posting your experience. Very helpful.

 

[katarina90]

Thanks for posting your exp.

Which edition of HY cell did you use? I have the old one (1999ed) n don't know whether I shud get the latest one....

I used the 2007 one, only because it was the only one I could find (found for 3.95 at Better world books). There was a lot of superfluous information in it, but you definitely want to pay attention to the genetic stuff and sequencing techniques.

 

[Cmaster]

it's interesting how some people advocate for the kaplan qbank and some just despise it... It's confusing the $hit out of me as to what to get for 2nd yr!!

+1

 

[Phloston]

Real Deal: 274

The difference between a 250 and a 270 can only be ~15 questions on the real test. I was aiming for +250 because beyond this, not a single f*ck is given by residency directors. At the end of the day this is a single test and a lot is dependent on luck. Had I known I was going to reliably do above 250 after stamina building, I would have taken the exam much earlier.

Lol. These residency directors will very much give a f*ck. So you've done well for yourself.

Thanks for posting extensively. That helps a lot.

I was planning on spending this whole next month assiduously delving into the intricacies of Kaplan. Now I feel as though I should more or less just "blast" through it, focus on incorrects, and do GT during down-time. I get all uneasy inside whenever I hear someone having sworn by or benefited so much from GT. I've tried using their flashcard system and actually get more ADD resurfacing using that versus just reading FA. I've noticed that GT, upon entering a flashcard quiz, essentially "locks" you into it until you finish. I'm not a fan of that because I'd rather just jump around at my leisure. In the end, people's strengths and weaknesses differ, but are there particular topics in GT that you would say are more "golden" over others?

Congrats on the score and for having jumped so much in the final week. I'm going to be sitting NBME3 within the next ten days. I can see you only got a 240 on that 2-months-out. What in the world is that about? Do you feel it under-estimated, or would you say it literally had come down to the sole review in the final weeks?

Cheers,

 

[Phloston]

It's official: 270+ is the new 250.

I mean there's going to be ~125 kids with 270+ a year out of 27000 test takers. It shouldn't be surprising that like 5-6 of those 125 post in this thread to flex their e-peen.

Silence, sub-270 peasant!

Quite entertaining.

Apparently, ijn, with his 269, will have to make up for the terrible score with a better one on 2CK.

Ijn, btw, your idea about having put all of your incorrect NBME Qs into a PP was great advice. I had been curious as to how I'd deal with / review those exams, so that has helped out a lot. I've also thought about how you had translated every factoid from FA into some sort of "question." I almost wonder if I should be doing that just based on some of the things from FA that I've read and have likely forgotten.

 

[Phloston]

mid 250s/88

Time to move on! Good luck to future test takers!

iCY, even though we probably don't see eye-to-eye as AMG-IMG, good job on the score and for making the 250-club. Best of luck for the future.

 

[iCY]

iCY, even though we probably don't see eye-to-eye as AMG-IMG, good job on the score and for making the 250-club. Best of luck for the future.

👍 phobston you have to PM me your score when you finally get around to taking your step 1 since I won't be checking here

 

[morte7]

Took it yesterday (finally) after moving my date back twice. Spoiler: glad I did. Disclaimer: I am likely forgetting a ton of what showed up on my test.

Overall: Biggest shock to my system was the sheer volume of questions that I could not have answered had FA been sitting there and with unlimited time. Luckily I remembered quite a few from class the first two years, but others I was like "mmm maybe could have answered that the day of my Embryo final, but not today." Made me glad I didn't delay 3rd year for another month to study, as I wouldn't have done any better, and maybe even worse. Fatigue wasn't an issue surprisingly, as it just felt like one of those lazy Saturdays doing a ton of UW blocks one after another. The break time was sufficient. No testing center/protocol complaints.

Anatomy: not bad, though they certainly like the CTs. Not sure how to get ready for those other than a decent amount of non-FA practice. No weird foot anatomy or pelvic anatomy. Surprised at the number of angiograms.

Behavioral: Pretty easy; don't remember anything from outside of FA. No weird biostats either. There was one graph where none of the 4 answer choices were very good, so I just picked the least bad one. Must have re-read that one 5 times.

Biochem: Same, with one tricky glycogen storage question. Also an amino acids question that surprised me. Nutrition showed up 2-3 times.

Embryo - there wasn't a ton of this, but there certainly was a high percentage of left-field considering the few questions they DID do. I'm not supposed to get specific, and I don't know how traceable these accounts on here are, but I remember at least 2 that weren't in FA and that I wouldn't have thought to learn. I was expecting at least one cardio embryology question, but I never saw any. No congenital cardiac defects, no shunts, etc. Would have liked those. One gene question that I knew didn't come from FA, so I just picked one I didn't recognize.

Micro - mostly easy; surprised to only see 1 virology question that was technical (i.e. the replication, family, structure stuff). Also not much by way of protozoans/helminths. One or two very basic ones. There was at least 1 not from FA, and I looked up the answer afterwards and I am hoping I didn't change it, but I think I did. I remember staring at it as my block wound down and having an internal struggle. There may have been more weird ones too, but none that I can remember.

Immuno - hardly any on my test at all; I think only 1 disorder, and the most well-known one at that. Take that back, there were a handful of transplant rejection questions.

Path - of course lots of disease presentations, many of which I found to be moderately atypical. This is a subject where they can throw in many gimme questions, and they do, but they can also give very incomplete presentations, or presentations that closely mimic another. I must have had to choose between Goodpasture's and Wegener's 4 times yesterday. Only one had the IF image.

Pharm - after the first 10 questions of the day (I literallty had the phrase, "Is this the Pharm shelf?" go through my head at that point), there was not much, and very basic. I was glad to see I didn't have to pick from a list of 5 drugs which had "hepatotoxicity" or "GI distress" or any of those vague and common side effects. Aside from the first 10 questions, the pharm was very basic. Only exception: I was surprised to see a few questions on which anti-arrhythmic to use. I didn't think that would happen since there's so much overlap and discretion allowed for those. So in summary, the Pharm was a LITTLE harder than I expected, but certainly could have been MUCH worse.

CV - pretty straightforward - only 2 murmurs and they were pretty easy. I was expecting more arteritis disorders.

Endocrine - Not hard. This was a section that was represented enough that I can say with confidence was significantly easier than UW. Not much physiology either.

GI - again, not bad. They could have thrown some weird curveballs here if they wanted, but I don't remember any.

Hem/Onc - all basic. Not as many leukemias as I was expecting.

MSK/CT - except for a few wonky lupus things and one CT thing that was not in FA, this wasn't bad. Could have been much harder as well.

Neuro - Got 2 brainstem slices, which is of course not in FA for some reason, but I predicted this. Neither was a gimme, so both were educated guesses. Couple of locate-the-lesions, one of which was also not answerable from FA. I had FA nearly memorized, so I am confident in saying this.

Psych - easy

Renal - nothing hard here, except for a weird multi-system integration one about a random transporter.

Repro - all very easy.

Resp - also pretty easy. No weird graphics, etc.

What I did:

Summer after 1st-year: reviewed micro when I could, because I felt like I didn't learn anything from Micro during the year. I crammed for every test, and it felt like learning a new language b/c I never had it in college like most of my classmates. It wasn't very efficient, but I'm glad I used my down-time to address my weaknesses.

Fall of 2nd year: school and research took all my time and I didn't get any study time in with FA, though I meant to. I listened to Goljan along with where we were in Path.

Spring 2nd year: again, almost nothing by way of FA studying, as our class scheule was overwhelming and lasted until mid-May. Still went through Goljan with Path class.

After finals: The above explains why I pushed my test back until late June; I felt like I couldn't start in earnest until finals were over. If any of you feel like you need more time, trust your instincts. You know whether you've mastered certain material or not; don't let other people tell you that you're ready to take it. Nothing has ever made less sense to me conceptually than telling someone else that they're ready to take a test. That being said, if you find yourself struggling to find new things to learn as you study, then that's probably a good sign that you're ready.
Anyway, I started putting in 12-14 hour days, with a reasonable mix of FA study time, making flashcards from FA, and doing UW questions. This probably went for 7 weeks, and I took Sundays off. There were long stretches where I felt like the questions were a waste of my time before I got a better handle on FA, so I would stop and just do FA all day. This worked out well for me. I listened to Goljan while commuting each day, while running in the morning, and while eating lunch or sitting on the commode. My wife and my dog didn't see me much during this time, and if I felt the need, I would eat my lunch outside and spend 20min or so in the sun. I figured every point was worth it, since I will never take a test that matters more to my future. It was a crazy time, but I'm glad I put in the effort that I did. While out to dinner with my family last night, I told my Dad that I could honestly say more study time would not have helped me, which was a huge success for me, a slow and methodical studier. The worst is knowing you could have done better, which I am grateful does not apply to me regarding this particular test.

CBSE in March (after zero studying): 190
NBME7 (4 1/2 weeks out): 200 (freaking out)
UW1 (3 1/2 weeks out): 236
NBME13 (2 1/2 weeks out): 221 (at this point I came on SDN searching for explanations for the discrepancies between the scoring of UW v. NBME)
At this point I decided to stop taking tests and do more studying of my weak areas.
DAY BEFORE: I put in a full day, again contrary to popular practice. Even got up at 4am the morning of to go over a few more weaker areas. I got 4-5 questions from the stuff I hit the morning of, including waiting in my car for the center to open and standing in line to get registered. Truly a blessing.

I would recommend FA, UW, NBMEs, and Goljan, probably in that order. Everything on my test that came from OUTSIDE these sources I never would have come across anyway had I added 15 more sources. I can't comment on DIT, since I didn't take it. Maybe they know a few "secrets" like they claim, but not likely.

I'm only a little worried that I got a random grab-bag of a seemingly-high proportion of non-FA questions. I worry that my score goes on the same curve as those who got different forms and come on here and say that 98% of their test came from FA. Anyone know how that grading mechanism works?

Real Deal: 223. Tempting to not post a disappointing score, but I'd rather do my part to fight the selection bias of SDN even in a small way 🙂. Definitely disappointed that my trend didn't follow my practice tests, since I studied my butt off those last 2 1/2 weeks and should have added more than 2 points to my best NBME, so I figure I missed a disproportionate number of my "probably" answers. Life never was fair. The good thing is this score will not hurt me w/ regard to what I want to do eventually, but it won't help me either, which is what I was banking on. Congrats to all who got great scores today, and thanks to SDN for helping me focus my efforts. I will definitely be using this site again for Step 2 and maybe others. Much love!

 

[futuredoctor10]

I know this is nothing new (people have talked about this on here in the past), but they definitely test Step 2 / Clerkship information on the Step 1 exam.

There are already 2 questions from my exam which I discovered (after the fact) in studying for my clerkship shelf. I was unsure about both of these questions on my Step 1, and although some choices sounded familiar (I had heard of but was unsure of the answer). They were definitely not in any Step 1 material prep that I had used.

Not to freak anyone out... they may have been experimental... just FYI. All this being said, I do not think it is high yield to go learning Step 2 information...

 

[ijn]

I'd say a quick flip through of the pediatrics section of First Aid for STEP 2 CK would be helpful on some people's exams. I don't really know what from the internal medicine section would be helpful but I'm sure if I had that as my first clerkship I'd recognize high yield things from there as well. I'd definitely focus on common pathology that is considered STEP 2 CK level but not spoken of in any STEP 1 resource. For example something like transient synovitis, transient tachypnea of the newborn, or the difference in presentation between physiological jaundice vs pathological jaundice. I didn't have any of those specific topics on my exam, but I definitely had extremely common peds presentations found in that chapter which I hadn't heard of before.

 

[Phloston]

I know this is nothing new (people have talked about this on here in the past), but they definitely test Step 2 / Clerkship information on the Step 1 exam.

There are already 2 questions from my exam which I discovered (after the fact) in studying for my clerkship shelf. I was unsure about both of these questions on my Step 1, and although some choices sounded familiar (I had heard of but was unsure of the answer). They were definitely not in any Step 1 material prep that I had used.

Not to freak anyone out... they may have been experimental... just FYI. All this being said, I do not think it is high yield to go learning Step 2 information...

I'd say a quick flip through of the pediatrics section of First Aid for STEP 2 CK would be helpful on some people's exams. I don't really know what from the internal medicine section would be helpful but I'm sure if I had that as my first clerkship I'd recognize high yield things from there as well. I'd definitely focus on common pathology that is considered STEP 2 CK level but not spoken of in any STEP 1 resource. For example something like transient synovitis, transient tachypnea of the newborn, or the difference in presentation between physiological jaundice vs pathological jaundice. I didn't have any of those specific topics on my exam, but I definitely had extremely common peds presentations found in that chapter which I hadn't heard of before.

I had actually been meaning to ask about this a while ago. Ijn got a 269, so it's not like he doesn't know what he's doing, but I would also think that 2CK review of any kind would obviously be low-yield.

Ijn, I know you've listed off a few conditions, but those didn't even show up on your exam. If I spend even a little time looking at 2CK info, as you've recommended, could you be as specific as possible as to what exactly you think should be studied (i.e. be more specific than just "paeds section")?

 

[GTP]

its probably the type of people who use GT. It takes a great deal of discipline to sit there and go through cards day after day on top of classes. I didnt even look at FA (wish I had) before the dedicated board studying time. Best of luck to all future test takers! and a huge shout out to all the regular posters on sdn answering my many sometimes stupid questions. Time to get pimped to hell in medicine!

this 👍👍. people who score 250+ with GT would have probably done so without it. it takes a special kind of beast to endure the daily q's/banking gt demands. they would have put the same kind of effort into whatever other source they chose to use. this is probably not the case for me. im only doing gt because ive heard too many good things about it to justify ignoring it. if i perform subpar, i would never know if it was because i didnt do gt.

congrats on your score by the way man.

 

[MrBeauregard]

I had actually been meaning to ask about this a while ago. Ijn got a 269, so it's not like he doesn't know what he's doing, but I would also think that 2CK review of any kind would obviously be low-yield.

Ijn, I know you've listed off a few conditions, but those didn't even show up on your exam. If I spend even a little time looking at 2CK info, as you've recommended, could you be as specific as possible as to what exactly you think should be studied (i.e. be more specific than just "paeds section")?

That's the problem. I didn't beast it like ijn (I got 255), but I didn't have a single pediatrics question that wasn't covered by my school. I read a lot of Nelson's for those blocks in school and maybe I picked up a little bit of Step 2 material during that time without realizing it; however, on the whole, I don't remember questions that went above and beyond what a MS-2 should know.

The questions I had that came closest to Step 2 material were the ones in which I had to take into consideration the history, physical exam findings, and the entire clinical picture in order to figure out what was going on and then decide the next most appropriate step. I was asked 2 or 3 questions like this (on my entire exam). I was never asked for a diagnosis, but was instead asked about the next step that would aid in making the correct diagnosis. Some of them were strange and I really couldn't have prepared for them at this point, as I don't even know what source to have studied.

You'll do incredibly well without opening a single Step 2 resource. I promise.

 

[Phloston]

this 👍👍. people who score 250+ with GT would have probably done so without it. it takes a special kind of beast to endure the daily q's/banking gt demands. they would have put the same kind of effort into whatever other source they chose to use. this is probably not the case for me. im only doing gt because ive heard too many good things about it to justify ignoring it. if i perform subpar, i would never know if it was because i didnt do gt.

congrats on your score by the way man.

Well GT is in your name, so you were meant to use it whether you realize it or not.

 

[Chaoticsheath]

OK i figure I should contribute since this forum has been my off and on emotional outlet for the past 3 months. hope this helps. Let it be known that I'm not at the top of my class or anything, I'm at a top 20 med school.

6.5 weeks of dedicated study time.
FA: Read it 2.5 times. 1st time in a very cursory way, not trying to memorize anything. did this before dedicated study time started. 2nd time tried to memorize hard core. Then reread half of the book one more time....only the part that I still felt weak on or needed to memorize. Kept a list of things that I didn't want to memorize COLD COLD until the end like lysosomal storage diseases and heme synthesis pathway. Had about 15 topics on this list that I dedicated two 1/2 days to a few days before the test (not last day). Kept an enormous list of Micro mnemonics (100 ish items) that I wrote out on a white board in school the morning of the last day before the test (went to gym and watched movie after this)

Kaplan Qbank: 50% completed, 64% avg did 1000 of these questions before dedicated study time between Feb and May at a rate of about 12 or so questions a day. Tried to focus on about 3 topics that I anticipated I would be weak on (so i did all of the micro, GI, and endocrine questions, along with a bit of other topics as well). After reading other forums, i wonder if RX would have been better, but it doesn't matter because this qbank was just a warm up.

Uworld: 99% completed, 71% culm avg. Somehow never got to the last 15 questions but this Qbank is as good as everyone says iIF YOU USE IT RIGHT. That means giving yourself lots of time to spread this Qbank out so that you can learn from it properly. Started out with about a block of 46 questions a day and eventually moved up to sometimes 2 blocks a day. Read wrong explanations in detail, taking notes from it as needed. Read correct answers in a very cursory, 6 second fashion just to make sure I got the question right for the right reasons. Towards the last two weeks of study i started to feel weak on pharm, so i REDID all of the pharm questions. This REALLY helped. Redo the parts of Uworld that you feel weak on.

Best thing anyone ever said to me about Uworld though: I asked, "should I do Uworld 2x?" Reply: "what?? no! When will you have time to study?" If you have only 6.5 weeks like me, you NEED to focus a lot on first aid. Of course get through UWORLD 1x for SURE, but with the time constraints, reading first aid more is still more important than a 2nd pass of Uworld. (with that said, i did redo about 300 question on Uworld). Save the 2x-3x game for ppl that have 9 months to study ie. ppl that go to that caribbean-US med school

BRS: read at least half of this. So much stuff physio from Uworld and the real exam is from this source and is NOT in FA. Don't commit more than 4 hrs per chapter. Seriously time urself to make sure. DON"T take too many notes either. just read some of this 2 weeks before the exam. A good bit will stick. make sure you've gotten through first aid at least once, preferable twice before starting this because FA is still WAY more important.

Goljan: only read 1 or 2 chapters that you feel weak on. This book is over kill but you'll feel better about the kidneys if your felt that you were sucking at kidney path originally. DONT WASTE MORE THAN a day in TOTAL on goljan.

nbme= pieces of crap. don't look anything like the exam in its new form. UWORLD IS THE MOST EXAM LIKE RESOURCE. UWSAs are pieces of crap too though.

UWSA1 (6.5 weeks out): 221
Nbme 11 (3.5 weeks out): 214 MAJOR TURNING POINT(went into depression for a half day...watched kung fu panda some movie that i can't remember because i was too depressed to pay attention to the movie, then hit FA really really hard the next morning in the sections I was weak on or had not seen a 2nd time yet, also dedicated 30 min to pharm every night starting at this point)

UWSA2 (2weeks out): 253 (didn't trust this so then did nbme 12 soon after)
Nbme 12 (2 weeks out): 245
Nbme 13 (1 week out): 236
Nbme 7 (4 days out): 240

Real score: 252

That's right. Two, mother effing, fifty two. THANK GOD. Oh yeah. don't forget to pray a whole bunch. And ask everyone that loves you to pray for you. Even if you have a conflicted relationship with God, now is the time to try it. Work like you don't pray and pray as if you don't plan on studying at all.

Moral of the story, **** the predictors. Major change is possible in the course of a WEEK if you just take a couple hours to STOP, regroup, figure out what subject you are screwing up on and why, and then focus like a LASER on those things.

Also fyi, i know a bunch of you are worried about the changes in the 2 digit score. But it doesn't matter because A: it is not a percentile. It is an arbitrary number just like the 3 digit score. And B: it does NOT get reported to schools you are applying to. Therefore it is irrelevant.

 

[dosaq]

Here's my experience of step 1.

Total prep time = 5.5 wks

1. I studied by reading first aid and solving Uworld Q banks corresponding to the section that I read.
2. In the last week, I read Goljan Pathology audio transcript, just the subjects that I was weak on.
3. Also in the last week, (after solving all Q bank Q's and reading first aid) I solved 2 random sets of incorrect questions per day.
4. On last 2 days, I just crammed first aid. (I made many side notes on the first aid book, stuff I obtained from Uworld explanations)

My assessment scores were
214 (UWSA1, 5 weeks out),
200 (NBME 6, 3.5 weeks out),
234 (UWSA2, 1 week out),
221 (NBME 13, 4 days out, and this really freaked me out).

REAL: 243

Overall, I think FA+Uworld worked out really well. Most questions were straight out from the First Aid + Uworld combo, but some questions were not covered by those two resources but was covered during the school lectures.

 

[Phloston]

Best thing anyone ever said to me about Uworld though: I asked, "should I do Uworld 2x?" Reply: "what?? no! When will you have time to study?" If you have only 6.5 weeks like me, you NEED to focus a lot on first aid. Of course get through UWORLD 1x for SURE, but with the time constraints, reading first aid more is still more important than a 2nd pass of Uworld. (with that said, i did redo about 300 question on Uworld). Save the 2x-3x game for ppl that have 9 months to study ie. ppl that go to that caribbean-US med school

Could you please be more specific as to what you're implying about FA? Are you saying that you had a ton of details on the test that were pure memorization out of there? What happened?

BRS: read at least half of this. So much stuff physio from Uworld and the real exam is from this source and is NOT in FA. Don't commit more than 4 hrs per chapter. Seriously time urself to make sure. DON"T take too many notes either. just read some of this 2 weeks before the exam. A good bit will stick. make sure you've gotten through first aid at least once, preferable twice before starting this because FA is still WAY more important.

Glad you actually make this point. I've gone through some of BRS Physio and have realized that it's a bit overly detailed but was curious as to how much time others [who have sworn by it] have/had spent on it. Cheers for the input. And congrats on your mother-effing, fifty-two. I always appreciate a humorous post, particularly when I wish I were more humorous myself.