Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[amavir281]

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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. 👍

 

[Boardz]

First off, I have a 2.98 GPA. So I figured I would be screwed. This is for my B/C student homies.

Took CBSE through school administration in March and got the equivalent of a 208. I was so happy I was already in passing range. Didn't think I would already be there with my poor coursework performance.

I had UWorld for the whole MS2 year, since I knew my GPA was terrible after MS1 year. I did questions by system for each coarsework test we had. So by the time Step came, I had gotten through the whole bank twice and many questions I kept getting wrong several times over. I started off getting raped, but worked my way up before step to getting 75-80% correct on an average 46 block. I recommend this if you're not confident after MS1 year. It pays off in the end. Ignore getting 45% correct your first few months of MS2 year.

I started BRS Pathology in January and also worked through that along with course work pathology. It was pretty good.

After school ended, I hardcore white-boarded First Aid the whole way through for my first two weeks. Then did 19 day DIT. I did about 1-2 46 blocks of UWorld during this that matched up with what I was working on. For my last 8-9 days after that, I did practice exams and skimmed First Aid again. I watched my team in the NBA playoffs as evening breaks every now and then to break up the time and motivate me to work hard in between games. I also had a beer every night at 830 or 900. It's the little things in life.

School administered CBSE 3.5 months away: 207
Benchmark UW SA 1 when school ended: 214
DIT end of course exam converted using chart found on this forum: 239.5 (took the rest of the day off)
UW SA 2 two days later: 242 (confidence building)
Free 150 with downloaded FRED software: 245
NBME CBSE 12: 228 (cried like a little bitch. Not because of the score, but because I dropped 20 points four days before my real exam)
NBME CBSE 13: 230 (same as above)

Actual exam: 241. Had spontaneous solo dance party and scared MS4 roommate studying for Step 2.

Morals of story: A B/C student can do quite well. NBME 12 is an *******. Find something that you like to maintain throughout studying so you don't go insane. Don't deprive yourself of everything you like. Study hard. There are a non-representative amount of 240s, 250s, and 260s posting on this thread.


Good Luck class of 2015

mmmm delicious, delicious hope 3 days before the exam. 😛

 

[Belleza156]

First off, I have a 2.98 GPA. So I figured I would be screwed. This is for my B/C student homies.

Took CBSE through school administration in March and got the equivalent of a 208. I was so happy I was already in passing range. Didn't think I would already be there with my poor coursework performance.

I had UWorld for the whole MS2 year, since I knew my GPA was terrible after MS1 year. I did questions by system for each coursework test we had. So by the time Step came, I had gotten through the whole bank twice and many questions I kept getting wrong several times over. I started off getting raped, but worked my way up before step to getting 75-80% correct on an average 46 block. I recommend this if you're not confident after MS1 year. It pays off in the end. Ignore getting 45% correct your first few months of MS2 year.

I started BRS Pathology in January and also worked through that along with course work pathology. It was pretty good.

After school ended, I hardcore white-boarded First Aid the whole way through for my first two weeks. Then did 19 day DIT. I did about 1-2 46 blocks of UWorld during this that matched up with what I was working on. For my last 8-9 days after that, I did practice exams and skimmed First Aid again. I watched my team in the NBA playoffs as evening breaks every now and then to break up the time and motivate me to work hard in between games. I also had a beer every night at 830 or 900. It's the little things in life.

School administered CBSE 3.5 months away: 207
Benchmark UW SA 1 when school ended: 214
DIT end of course exam converted using chart found on this forum: 239.5 (took the rest of the day off)
UW SA 2 two days later: 242 (confidence building)
Free 150 with downloaded FRED software: 245
NBME CBSE 12: 228 (cried like a little bitch. Not because of the score, but because I dropped 20 points four days before my real exam)
NBME CBSE 13: 230 (same as above)

Actual exam: 241. Had spontaneous solo dance party and scared MS4 roommate studying for Step 2.

Morals of story: A B/C student can do quite well. NBME 12 is an *******. Find something that you like to maintain throughout studying so you don't go insane. Don't deprive yourself of everything you like. Study hard. There are a non-representative amount of 240s, 250s, and 260s posting on this thread.


Good Luck class of 2015

I second that! I have my exam on Thursday! Hope is good 🙂

 

[Phloston]

Actual exam: 241. Had spontaneous solo dance party and scared MS4 roommate studying for Step 2.

👍

 

[bms12]

hey severus snape, I answered you in PM 🙂

 

[bms12]

First off, I have a 2.98 GPA. So I figured I would be screwed. This is for my B/C student homies.

Took CBSE through school administration in March and got the equivalent of a 208. I was so happy I was already in passing range. Didn't think I would already be there with my poor coursework performance.

I had UWorld for the whole MS2 year, since I knew my GPA was terrible after MS1 year. I did questions by system for each coursework test we had. So by the time Step came, I had gotten through the whole bank twice and many questions I kept getting wrong several times over. I started off getting raped, but worked my way up before step to getting 75-80% correct on an average 46 block. I recommend this if you're not confident after MS1 year. It pays off in the end. Ignore getting 45% correct your first few months of MS2 year.

I started BRS Pathology in January and also worked through that along with course work pathology. It was pretty good.

After school ended, I hardcore white-boarded First Aid the whole way through for my first two weeks. Then did 19 day DIT. I did about 1-2 46 blocks of UWorld during this that matched up with what I was working on. For my last 8-9 days after that, I did practice exams and skimmed First Aid again. I watched my team in the NBA playoffs as evening breaks every now and then to break up the time and motivate me to work hard in between games. I also had a beer every night at 830 or 900. It's the little things in life.

School administered CBSE 3.5 months away: 207
Benchmark UW SA 1 when school ended: 214
DIT end of course exam converted using chart found on this forum: 239.5 (took the rest of the day off)
UW SA 2 two days later: 242 (confidence building)
Free 150 with downloaded FRED software: 245
NBME CBSE 12: 228 (cried like a little bitch. Not because of the score, but because I dropped 20 points four days before my real exam)
NBME CBSE 13: 230 (same as above)

Actual exam: 241. Had spontaneous solo dance party and scared MS4 roommate studying for Step 2.

Morals of story: A B/C student can do quite well. NBME 12 is an *******. Find something that you like to maintain throughout studying so you don't go insane. Don't deprive yourself of everything you like. Study hard. There are a non-representative amount of 240s, 250s, and 260s posting on this thread.


Good Luck class of 2015

your story is so inspiring!!! I hope that I can have just as good news in 3 weeks 🙂 I am very happy for you, congrats

 

[Boardz]

how did the question length compare to uw questions? Im more comfortable with longer ones. Also, How valuable were the last couple of days going through First Aid? It's difficult for me to just go through it and I prefer questions.

 

[Phloston]

how did the question length compare to uw questions? Im more comfortable with longer ones. Also, How valuable were the last couple of days going through First Aid? It's difficult for me to just go through it and I prefer questions.

Are you serious? I hate long question stems (ADHD). I feel like if the whole exam were 1-2-sentence questions, that would be an absolute blessing.

 

[thecalccobra]

Are you serious? I hate long question stems (ADHD). I feel like if the whole exam were 1-2-sentence questions, that would be an absolute blessing.

It's hard to test concepts with 1-2 sentence questions.

 

[Dallas]

how did the question length compare to uw questions? Im more comfortable with longer ones. Also, How valuable were the last couple of days going through First Aid? It's difficult for me to just go through it and I prefer questions.

Questions less than 3 lines = <10 in total on my exam.

Most questions were thick paragraphs. But its ok, you are psyched,amped, you recognize a buzzword here or there and just skim through all the unnecessary bull****. Seriosly, alot of it is just them describing a normal person to you but rather than saying his physical exam was unremarkable they say HR 73 BP 125/75 RR 13 Normal skin color, turgor etc etc

they basically say normal physical findings but use 3 lines doing so and sometimes they throw in a pathological finding or lab in there in accordance with the buzzword.

or they list alot of normal stuff just to make you exclude certain answer choices

Like patient does not smoke, drink EtOH , use drugs etc etc for whatever lung CA, pancreatitis, bacterial endocarditis, so u can rule those out

as you become familiar with lab values you can just skim these lines and get to the meat of the question

 

[eastcoastdr]

Well just took Step 1. It was hard...I was expecting more straightforward questions. I don't really know what else to say about it, lol. There were definitely a handful of super easy questions, a handful of WTF questions and the majority was just kinda hard. I also I had a decent amount of images, no video clips, and 2 heart sounds. In every section, I had about 10-15 marked questions..and I probably straight up guessed on 2-3 questions each section. So yeah I thought it was pretty difficult.

I'll post my practice tests scores before I forget about them.
NBME at end of MS2 (late April) - 189
NBME 6 at 4 weeks out - 221
Practice test at Prometrics 2.5 weeks out - 247 according to medfriends
NBME 11 at 2 weeks out - 238
NBME 12 at 1 week out - 226
USWA 3 days out - 238
Uworld average - 70%

As for how I studied - I took a live prep Kaplan course that was offered on my school campus. It was SUPER comprehensive and thorough, almost to the point where i felt like they were essentially reteaching MS1 and MS2. The books are so dense and heavy - halfway through the course I stopped using them and brought FA to lecture instead and annotated it with anything important they said. The professors were WONDERFUL with the exception of the biochem prof. We had White for anatomy, Daugherty for behavioral sciences, Reubush for Micro/Immuno, Raymon for Pharm, Kudrath for Physio, Barone for path, Hansen for micro, and then Raymon again for review cases. The only thing that was weird was that you had to adjust to each professor's teaching style. Some professors ONLY talked about HY stuff, and some literally retaught the whole course from beginning to end. Dr. John Barone for Pathology was very entertaining and had lots of great mnemonics. He seriously made lecture fun. His EKG dance and "Pathology of the stars" - absolutely brilliant. But if you are easily offended by sex jokes and the like, then Barone's class not for you, LOL!

The course itself was super tiring though. It was from 8-5 and I was usually so burnt out in the afternoon that I really couldn't start studying/doing questions until later in the evening. The reason I took a live prep course was because I'm a Caribbean student and I was unsure about whether our basic sciences classes adequately taught us the material for Step 1. Actually it turns our education WAS adequate. There was nothing in Kaplan (with the exception of a few random factoids here and there) that hadn't been taught to us. I liked the live course because it forced me to stay on track with the material. There's a lot more I could say about the live prep course but I'm too lazy to type more so please PM me or reply here if you want to know something specific about it. I'll make sure to update you guys after I get my score back.

We'll see how I do. Hopefully I did okay and this insane Kaplan course paid off......super nervous but I'm gonna try and forget about all this for now and enjoy my weekend.

good luck to future test takers.

email arrived at 9:17, I thought it wasn't supposed to arrive until 11? Which ironically, I would have been right in the middle of a doctor's appointment. I'm glad it got here earlier.

real deal: 232

I'm happy. Mostly I'm happy that I don't have to retake the exam lol

 

[Ricky Bubbles]

^When did you take your exam? I took mine the 21st and thought I might get my score back today, but still haven't received an email.

 

[Dallas]

Thanks for the post. Good job on the exam.



I hadn't realized that 1/4 of AMGs in plastic surgery scored above 259. That just reinforces the fact that PDs at big name schools care a lot about 260+.

I'm looking to do gen surg. I'm a bit surprised that only 1/4 of AMGs in this category scored 240+. I would think the competition would be stronger than that (or perhaps the programs are just much more numerous). I guess this demonstrates that higher scores for PS are more about getting into that specialty, period, whereas higher ones for GS are likely to be much more predictive of residency location.

G. Surg are not exactly known as the stereotypical 'know-it-all' autistic medstudent type.
Its more jocks, smart jocks, but jocks none the less.

Makes sense, if youre going into a hands on procedural specialty you dont want cerebral types, you want more hands-on types.
Thus, a supremely high Step 1 might be weighed in your disadvantage (but in pathology where u have to know-it-all , or IM or neuro the cerebral specialties it will be highly valued). I remember a Neuro PD from NY once told me that step 1 scores will get you a foot in the door, but then it loses its value completely in selecting for applicants. Once you have your foot in the door and are interviewed everything else except step 1 is what determines if you get in or not. He also explicitly said that at that point his job basically is just screening for personality/mental disorders in applicants (he recounted a horror story of having a bipolar resident and vowed to never let a person like that in again no matter how shiny they looked on paper).

So you know Phloston, take step 1 serious but dont lose perspective, the bigger picture or the proportions of everything needed to get you into G. Surg.

 

[ijn]

Yeah, general surgery isn't a very competitive field because there are so many spots and it's so self selecting for certain personalities. Although if you have your heart set on a very specific, highly prestigious general surgery residency then I doubt a 260+ would ever be weighed in your disadvantage like Dallas says since all of the candidates for that program are probably in that range. Like at the top end academic radiology residency programs the average is 265. I wouldn't be surprised if it's similar at the top end general surgery programs.

 

[George Harrison]

Hey everyone,

Scores
Diagnostic NBME - 210
UWSA 1/2 way early on - 244/256
NBME 11 (28 days out) - 239
NBME 6 (21 days out) - 235
NBME 12 (13 days out) -261
Actual USMLE - 246

I feel my scores are pretty scattered here, but I guess I got a score that kinda fits in with the others. I am pretty good guesser but blew it on the actual exam. With that being said I am relieved I got a pretty good score.

Preparation
The best way to prepare is to ace your basic science classes which I did not do. So the 2 months prior to the USMLE were real trying.

I took 2 months to prepare and really submerged myself in it - 12 or more hours a day of studying. I was going crazy after the first month so on the weekends of the second I'd spend a night or two hanging out with friends (a beer or two - nothing crazy). The first month I read FA on my own by section and did the corresponding sections in UWorld and read all the explanations for right and wrong answers. The point was to solidify what I had learned and annotate FA.
The second month I did DIT which took me 3 weeks to complete. The last week i reviewed FA on my own. At this point I was so sick of doing questions. Did some anyway.

DIT - I thought it was pretty good. Took me 6 days a week for 3 weeks to complete. Don't be fooled - videos maybe seem short but the quizzes, annotations, "wait what did he say - rewind" etc takes a long time. Spent 9 hours a day on DIT. The workbook is pretty solid and the quizes forced repetition. Kaplan/Falcon are too much in my opinion. If I could do it again I'd do DIT.

FA - Must have.

Pathoma - I urge you guys to use Pathoma and learn it inside out. It is a brilliant resource. Watch the videos several times. He's so good at explaining things and sometimes diagrams them for you from scratch. On my score report I ended up getting a star in pathology. Dr. Sattar is my hero.

UWorld - I did it once through, reading the explanations for right and wrong answers. I did this within the first month. Went through 70% the second time only reading the explanations for wrong answers. The actual USMLE format looks almost exactly like UWorld which made me very comfortable. The questions are simliar but different....if that makes any sense at all. You will see very similar concepts but different questions.

FA + UWorld + Pathoma are all necessary. DIT was good.

Day before exam
This is the worst day. You are nervous, on occasion you see things you knew then forgot, etc. Don't look over new things. Look over some high yield charts and relax. Drive over to the testing center so you know how to get there.

Day of exam
The exam really flys by. You'll be done before you know it. Bring a lunchbox/cooler. I packed breath mints, chocolate, 1 gatorade, 1 water, 2 PBJs, and a banana. Better to bring more food then less.

Bring ear plugs. I forgot them and regretted it. The ladies that worked there were mad annoying. Even though you sometimes need headphones just leave em in until then. Put them back in afterwards. The headphones they provide you were alright but kinda uncomfortable.

But its done before you know it. You'll be relieved, pissed, and nervous all at the same time when you finish - kinda anticlimactic to be honest. You'll think you did worse than you think. I thought I got something like 230 or a 240 at most.

Hope that helps. For those who haven't taken it yet....have fun suckers!!!!

 

[Dallas]

Yeah, general surgery isn't a very competitive field because there are so many spots and it's so self selecting for certain personalities. Although if you have your heart set on a very specific, highly prestigious general surgery residency then I doubt a 260+ would ever be weighed in your disadvantage like Dallas says since all of the candidates for that program are probably in that range. Like at the top end academic radiology residency programs the average is 265. I wouldn't be surprised if it's similar at the top end general surgery programs.

True but there seems to be an inverse relationship between scores above 250 and social skills/tact. Of course there are people with high scores who are fully normal and functional socially, those tend to be picked over the asperger types in that score range.

My point with this is saying that a superhigh score is not the end all be all, even at the prestigious institutions. If they have you at 270 and you are clearly socially handicapped and they have another candidate at 265 who is seemingly normal, guess who they gonna pick?

Even if you have a high score you gotta bring the whole package for those top programs.

 

[ijn]

Do you personally know anyone with a 270+? They're pretty cool/normal people at my school. Just because someone does well at standardized tests (and got lucky on test questions for a given day) doesn't mean they're socially ******ed.

I know a lot of the socially ******ed people at my school who scored in the 240-250 range, though. I know another one of them failed. But I don't think you can draw any conclusions about a person's behavior based on a single test score.

 

[MrBeauregard]

Do you personally know anyone with a 270+? They're pretty cool/normal people at my school.

There are multiple 270+ at your school? That's ridiculous.

 

[Dallas]

Do you personally know anyone with a 270+? They're pretty cool/normal people at my school. Just because someone does well at standardized tests (and got lucky on test questions for a given day) doesn't mean they're socially ******ed.

I know a lot of the socially ******ed people at my school who scored in the 240-250 range, though. I know another one of them failed. But I don't think you can draw any conclusions about a person's behavior based on a single test score.

Well this is coming from listening to program directors and residents talk about the interview, the match so this is their opinions that there seems to be that inverse relationship that I described. Does that mean that its scientifically valid and proven? No, its heresay at best, but why would someone talking off the record lie about something like that?

Perhaps theyre jealous they didnt get as good score, or perhaps there really is a correlation between extreme scores and low social function (ala aspergers).

 

[ijn]

There are multiple 270+ at your school? That's ridiculous.

Well by multiple I mean two. Most US schools probably have one and top tiers might have quite a few more. My guess is there are probably 120-150 people scoring 270 or higher a year based on the 2011 NRMP data. Although these days that might be an underestimate.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

Well by multiple I mean two. Most US schools probably have one and top tiers might have quite a few more. My guess is there are probably 120-150 people scoring 270 or higher a year based on the 2011 NRMP data. Although these days that might be an underestimate.

My school had 4 last year. Not sure about this year. I go to a mid-tier state school

 

[ijn]

My school had 4 last year. Not sure about this year. I go to a mid-tier state school

Wow 4! I'm at a bottom-tier state school with 2.

I guess I'm really underestimating the number of 270s by using the 2011 NRMP data. Or maybe there are a lot of schools that have zero people score in that range. Or people lie... haha.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

that is what the dean told me.

 

[Phloston]

G. Surg are not exactly known as the stereotypical 'know-it-all' autistic medstudent type.
Its more jocks, smart jocks, but jocks none the less.

What is this, Scrubs? Just saw my first episode the other day. That old, curmudgeon of a doctor (or whoever he is) asked that younger, curly haired bloke for 4 causes of ST-elevation. I got really excited.

Nevertheless, there should be some more scores coming through soon. I'm looking forward to hearing the latest string of advice/input about the exam.

 

[eastcoastdr]

I remember a Neuro PD from NY once told me that step 1 scores will get you a foot in the door, but then it loses its value completely in selecting for applicants. Once you have your foot in the door and are interviewed everything else except step 1 is what determines if you get in or not. He also explicitly said that at that point his job basically is just screening for personality/mental disorders in applicants (he recounted a horror story of having a bipolar resident and vowed to never let a person like that in again no matter how shiny they looked on paper).

I've heard this same sentiment plenty of times too.

I heard a story of a guy who got 270+ and was rejected from nearly every Rad program he applied to because the PDs were worried that he was just a weirdo. They were worried he wasn't well-rounded enough. If anyone cares, it was a former student of Dr. Kudrath's (Kaplan Physio) from Texas, and he recounted the story to us during class. Apparently, the NBME sent this student a letter after his score was released saying they were investigating him bc they thought he might have been cheating. After about a year they finally said that his score was rightfully his. He ended up matching into Mayo Clinic rad onc, but the point is that having a super high score may make people suspicious of you.

 

[Dallas]

What is this, Scrubs? Just saw my first episode the other day. That old, curmudgeon of a doctor (or whoever he is) asked that younger, curly haired bloke for 4 causes of ST-elevation. I got really excited.

Nevertheless, there should be some more scores coming through soon. I'm looking forward to hearing the latest string of advice/input about the exam.

You know that the scrubs script was written based on real experiences of drs right?
Its also voted by medical professionals as the most accurate depiction of the training process and the internal dialogue of a trainee. Despite its obvious caricature presentation.

 

[defcon8]

Ok so I took step 1 yesterday and feel completely and utterly destroyed&#8230;

Background: IMG, did step 2 ~4/12 ago (Scored 251)
Step 1 Prep time ~12wks with the last week dedicated prep time
I read RR, FA, Medessentials, BRS phys and Microcards
Took my first NBME 7 (6/52 out) after almost finishing my first read &#8211; scored 228 (84 %)
Took NBME 11 (2/52 out) after rereading most of FA and ME and doing ~1/3 of UW &#8211; scored 238 (86%)
Did ~400qs from Kaplan Qbank (81% avg but did by subject so nothing special)
Only did 40% of UW (unfortunately) but got ~80% avg on my last 6 random timed blocks (2/52 out)
Spent the second to last week fixing my weak areas from my NBME and UW assessments
Spent the last week reviewing FA and Kaplan ME

Exam experience:
5 of my 7 blocks were ridiculously difficult. Definitely harder than UW with 1 block on NBME level and another a bit easier. They tested obscure topics over and over and tested obscure facts about topics that you would normally feel very comfortable with. FA will always make you pass if you are comfortable with most of the material, but they tested ALOT of facts not in FA. Asked specifically about interleukins not mentioned there and details on vitamins not covered there.. Even basic topics like CGD, your answer would depend solely on recognition of an obscure test for it that I had only come across in a pediatrics book. Several molecular bio and immuno questions starting off with someone doing a study on rats or some other sort of experiment or to interpret some strange table.
Block 1: WTF.. Extremely difficult.. marked ~18 questions.. Figured everyone has a hard block
Block 2: Still WTF but not as bad as block 1.. Marked ~15qs
Block 3: Worse than block 1.. marked ~20 questions and made a lot more random guesses.. Starting to despair
Block 4: OMG.. did I offend NBME?? Another WTF block.. marked ~16qs
Block 5: Very easy block.. easier than NBME.. was unsure of less than 5qs
Block 6: WTF once again.. marked 19qs
Block 7: Not bad.. NBME level difficulty.. tested fundamentals. Marked ~7qs
Overall the stems were not unreasonably long. There were actually several stems with 2-3 lines.. over 100, but they tested very obscure facts. My friend took the exam with me and had the complete opposite experience.
Had no sequential questions, had 2 audio, less than 15 pharm questions and less than 5 biostats qs.
Was aiming for >240, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if i got 220 or less 🙁

 

[defcon8]

.

 

[Phloston]

Ok so I took step 1 yesterday and feel completely and utterly destroyed&#8230;

Background: IMG, did step 2 ~4/12 ago (Scored 251)
Step 1 Prep time ~12wks with the last week dedicated prep time
I read RR, FA, Medessentials, BRS phys and Microcards
Took my first NBME 7 (6/52 out) after almost finishing my first read &#8211; scored 228 (84 %)
Took NBME 11 (2/52 out) after rereading most of FA and ME and doing ~1/3 of UW &#8211; scored 238 (86%)
Did ~400qs from Kaplan Qbank (81% avg but did by subject so nothing special)
Only did 40% of UW (unfortunately) but got ~80% avg on my last 6 random timed blocks (2/52 out)
Spent the second to last week fixing my weak areas from my NBME and UW assessments
Spent the last week reviewing FA and Kaplan ME

Exam experience:
5 of my 7 blocks were ridiculously difficult. Definitely harder than UW with 1 block on NBME level and another a bit easier. They tested obscure topics over and over and tested obscure facts about topics that you would normally feel very comfortable with. FA will always make you pass if you are comfortable with most of the material, but they tested ALOT of facts not in FA. Asked specifically about interleukins not mentioned there and details on vitamins not covered there.. Even basic topics like CGD, your answer would depend solely on recognition of an obscure test for it that I had only come across in a pediatrics book. Several molecular bio and immuno questions starting off with someone doing a study on rats or some other sort of experiment or to interpret some strange table.
Block 1: WTF.. Extremely difficult.. marked ~18 questions.. Figured everyone has a hard block
Block 2: Still WTF but not as bad as block 1.. Marked ~15qs
Block 3: Worse than block 1.. marked ~20 questions and made a lot more random guesses.. Starting to despair
Block 4: OMG.. did I offend NBME?? Another WTF block.. marked ~16qs
Block 5: Very easy block.. easier than NBME.. was unsure of less than 5qs
Block 6: WTF once again.. marked 19qs
Block 7: Not bad.. NBME level difficulty.. tested fundamentals. Marked ~7qs
Overall the stems were not unreasonably long. There were actually several stems with 2-3 lines.. over 100, but they tested very obscure facts. My friend took the exam with me and had the complete opposite experience.
Had no sequential questions, had 2 audio, less than 15 pharm questions and less than 5 biostats qs.
Was aiming for >240, but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if i got 220 or less 🙁

Two things:

1) I've read many posts over the past several months where people in your exact same position get higher scores than they had anticipated. There was some bloke on here a few months ago who pretty much said the identical words as you (i.e. wanted 240 and then was just hoping for 220 after the exam; he ended up getting 251).

2) I've done around 10,000 questions so far, and I can say that I've had blocks that I've thought had gone so bad that I wouldn't even want to look at the computer screen afterward. Then I'd look and sometimes do much better than on blocks that I had thought were easy!

Bottom line: go grab a tequila (with some lime and salt) and be cool. Things will go well.

 

[defcon8]

Two things:

1) I've read many posts over the past several months where people in your exact same position get higher scores than they had anticipated. There was some bloke on here a few months ago who pretty much said the identical words as you (i.e. wanted 240 and then was just hoping for 220 after the exam; he ended up getting 251).

2) I've done around 10,000 questions so far, and I can say that I've had blocks that I've thought had gone so bad that I wouldn't even want to look at the computer screen afterward. Then I'd look and do sometimes much better than on blocks that I had thought were easy!

Bottom line: go grab a tequila (with some lime and salt) and be cool. Things will go well.

Thanks for the reassurance.. very disconcerting getting such an unusually difficult exam though. Can go either way, but hoping for the best 🙂

 

[Boardz]

Thanks for the reassurance.. very disconcerting getting such an unusually difficult exam though. Can go either way, but hoping for the best 🙂

I swear, from what I can gather- some exams are ludicrously fair if not offensively easy. Others...

I have my exam in a couple days so I'll let ya'll know if anyone loves me upstairs.

 

[defcon8]

I swear, from what I can gather- some exams are ludicrously fair if not offensively easy. Others...

I have my exam in a couple days so I'll let ya'll know if anyone loves me upstairs.

Good luck

 

[Belleza156]

Taking my exam tomorrow......also hoping I'm one of the lucky ones who gets a manageable exam.

Almost seems like a crapshoot. I've heard stories of insanely difficult exams and then again other ppl say "it was just like Uworld"......I'm crossing my fingers!

Sent from my PC36100 using SDN Mobile

 

[pizdun]

long time lurker. probably first time poster. this thread and its equal of years past has been a gold mine of info so time to give back..

nbme 7-220 6 weeks out
nbme11-235 3 weeks out
nbme12-230 2 weeks out
Step1- 243

u need 4 things to dominate
1. pathoma - not using this book is betting against yourself. period. know it inside out.
2. uworld - i cannot even begin to tell you how many insta click answers i had because of uworld. at least 20+
3. FA - for things not covered by pathoma/ uworld. i only read biochem/genetics, ANS pharm, and biostats. thats..it
4. a little bit of luck -



Prep
im an img. during my last 3 months of school i got uworld and took notes on EVERY SINGLE question. overkill perhaps. helped me LOADS. ended up with my own 200pg book of uworld high yield.

after school ended i took 2 months to study. basicly only did uworld questions, read my uworld notes, and read pathoma.

did uworld by SYSTEMS. so much eaesier to understand and make connections that way. doing random blocks of random questions will teach you squat.

in the last week i read pathoma again, my uworld notes and behavioral science of FA

Test

had 15 minutes left in each block, with the exception being the first block in wich i took full time. i attribute that to being asleep

soooo many basic questions on basic concepts that uwold and pathoma hammered into my brain. soooo many insta clicks.
- had 1 question with a heart sound that i had to move the steth around. but it was given away in the stem.
- lots of pics[especially neuro][ brainstem, gross brain, cranial nerves]
- like 5 upper limb questions.
- no joke 6/7 questions on phospholipase C[ ranging from what is the second msnger/what is ip3, dag/ what kind of receptor it is/ what hormones use it]
- probably like 3-5 what will u say next type questions per block
- had a stats questions with a square that i just could not figure out. never seen anything like it.

questions were the length of uworld on avrg. some super long. some 1 liners. 1 liners were usually more difficult because they required some fact recall which i suck at

basically i treated it like any other test - i did a quick first pass. ussually answered the easy ones right away. that left me with about 10-15 that i had to choose between 2 answers and about 5 that i almost blindly selected an answer. cant sweat those

walked out knowing i passed. had no idea what the score was thoe

Advice

do all the questions you know first. dont stress on the weird stuff u have never seen before. that wierd genetics question is with 9 graphs and enzymes you have never heard of before is likely to stump almost everyone

timing is so important - during my frnds test someone broke down in the bathroom - he blindly guessed the last 10 questions on 2 blocks because he had 30 seconds on the clock

use the highlighter- read the question. highlight the important. so that if you have to reread you only read the important stuff and not the whole block

get a good night sleep - 3 benadryls did the trick.

use the bathroom before u start - no joke u don't want a nervous bowel creeping up on u when you are concentrating.

my only complaint was that the test center had crappy 17 inch monitors. made the text a little fuzzy.

really hope someone takes something away from this. good luck

 

[6achill]

Thanks for posting Pizdun.
I think I felt the same way walking out of my Step 1. Still awaiting my score, but after reading your post gives me some hope.

 

[busy08]

defcon 8 do they test uw concepts in experim qs

 

[shenanigi]

defcon 8 do they test uw concepts in experim qs

wtf

edit: oh defcon 8 is a person

 

[RedSoxSuck]

long time lurker. probably first time poster. this thread and its equal of years past has been a gold mine of info so time to give back..

nbme 7-220 6 weeks out
nbme11-235 3 weeks out
nbme12-230 2 weeks out
Step1- 243

u need 4 things to dominate
1. pathoma - not using this book is betting against yourself. period. know it inside out.
2. uworld - i cannot even begin to tell you how many insta click answers i had because of uworld. at least 20+
3. FA - for things not covered by pathoma/ uworld. i only read biochem/genetics, ANS pharm, and biostats. thats..it
4. a little bit of luck -



Prep
im an img. during my last 3 months of school i got uworld and took notes on EVERY SINGLE question. overkill perhaps. helped me LOADS. ended up with my own 200pg book of uworld high yield.

after school ended i took 2 months to study. basicly only did uworld questions, read my uworld notes, and read pathoma.

did uworld by SYSTEMS. so much eaesier to understand and make connections that way. doing random blocks of random questions will teach you squat.

in the last week i read pathoma again, my uworld notes and behavioral science of FA

Test

had 15 minutes left in each block, with the exception being the first block in wich i took full time. i attribute that to being asleep

soooo many basic questions on basic concepts that uwold and pathoma hammered into my brain. soooo many insta clicks.
- had 1 question with a heart sound that i had to move the steth around. but it was given away in the stem.
- lots of pics[especially neuro][ brainstem, gross brain, cranial nerves]
- like 5 upper limb questions.
- no joke 6/7 questions on phospholipase C[ ranging from what is the second msnger/what is ip3, dag/ what kind of receptor it is/ what hormones use it]
- probably like 3-5 what will u say next type questions per block
- had a stats questions with a square that i just could not figure out. never seen anything like it.

questions were the length of uworld on avrg. some super long. some 1 liners. 1 liners were usually more difficult because they required some fact recall which i suck at

basically i treated it like any other test - i did a quick first pass. ussually answered the easy ones right away. that left me with about 10-15 that i had to choose between 2 answers and about 5 that i almost blindly selected an answer. cant sweat those

walked out knowing i passed. had no idea what the score was thoe

Advice

do all the questions you know first. dont stress on the weird stuff u have never seen before. that wierd genetics question is with 9 graphs and enzymes you have never heard of before is likely to stump almost everyone

timing is so important - during my frnds test someone broke down in the bathroom - he blindly guessed the last 10 questions on 2 blocks because he had 30 seconds on the clock

use the highlighter- read the question. highlight the important. so that if you have to reread you only read the important stuff and not the whole block

get a good night sleep - 3 benadryls did the trick.

use the bathroom before u start - no joke u don't want a nervous bowel creeping up on u when you are concentrating.

my only complaint was that the test center had crappy 17 inch monitors. made the text a little fuzzy.

really hope someone takes something away from this. good luck

Thanks!

I usually skip few questions that I feel like will take me little too long to answer and come back to them. It's easy to keep track of skipped questions in uworld but not in nbme. Is step 1 test interface similar to uworld? I also hate the font size on nbme's.

 

[Ilovewater]

Thanks!

I usually skip few questions that I feel like will take me little too long to answer and come back to them. It's easy to keep track of skipped questions in uworld but not in nbme. Is step 1 test interface similar to uworld? I also hate the font size on nbme's.

It's exactly like UWorld.

 

[pizdun]

Thanks!

I usually skip few questions that I feel like will take me little too long to answer and come back to them. It's easy to keep track of skipped questions in uworld but not in nbme. Is step 1 test interface similar to uworld? I also hate the font size on nbme's.

exactly like u world except for the page were you see all the questions and whether they are marked or incomplete

 

[m090426]

This is my first and probably only post to SDN, but I wanted to pass along my study plan and step 1 experience. Despite my referring to this online community as "student doctor crazy network" due to particular breed of medical student that seems to live here, I have benefited from advice and experiences on this site.

Long Version

Med school background (in the interest of full disclosure):
Scored a 33 on MCAT. Pass/fail preclinical program. I mostly scored middle of the road, nearly failed one or two exams, and scored near the top on one or two as well. Took school adminitered preclinical assesment test (kind of like a 200 question step 1)and scored the equivalent of about 220. Our medical school has a slightly accelerated program allowing for about half the students to take step 1 imediately following preclinicals, and half to do a rotation before they study for an take step 1. I got assigned to do medicine despite my submitted preferences for OB/Gyn or surgery. However, doing medcine first ended up being a great way to learn a ton of medicine prior to the boards (shockingly). I studied for the shelf exam almost exclusively with UWorld Step 2 internal medicine questions (about 1500 of them mostly on timed tutor). I scored an 84 on the exam and got honors on the rotation. Having done medicine first made reading clinical vignettes very straight forward for step 1.

Dedicated(ish) Step 1 Prep:
I had 8 weeks off this summer, but only 6 weeks to study. My wife had a two week immovable vacation scheduled for the middle of this study time, so I studied for 3 weeks, went with her abroad for vacation for 2 weeks (during which time I studied minimally - maybe 46 questions a day), and then studied for 3 weeks before taking the exam. During the first 2 weeks I finished my first pass of all the UWorld questions all on timed tutor. I scored somewhere in the 60s for my overall average. Then I took UWSA #1 and scored 235. Then I really started in on first aid. For the next two weeks of studying (leaving out the vacation time), I studied first aid for half the day, and did incorrect UWorld questions for half the day. At the end of week 4, after my first pass of first aid, and my revision of incorrect UWorld questions, I took UWSA #2 and got a 247. I spent the final 2 weeks trying to redo all the UWorld questions. This is difficult because you can't reset your questions to "unused." Instead, I went through each subject and selected a subdivision so that I would be assured that I wasn't repeating questions or missing others. In some cases the subdivision of a subject had more than 46 questions (the maximum you can put on a test) so I missed a few here and there. Also in these last two weeks I went through first aid again. The first time through took me a bit more than two weeks. The second time through took me a week. I went through a third time kind of skimming it in ~3 days during the last week. My normal study day usually lasted 9 hours.

Final thoughts:
Unsurprisingly, doing lots of practice questions makes you really good at questions. I didn't use any other study guides or text books beyond First Aid and UWorld. Having done the medicine clerkship prior to step 1 was a a big advantage and taught me how to study just using question banks prior to boards studying. The vacation I went on in the middle of my study time was a lot of fun and it didn't stress me out that I wasn't studying all day because I still had three weeks to study when I got back. Place your faith in Tao Le and the makers of UWorld. They didn't fail me.

Ultimately I really enjoyed studying for this test. The schedule was completely flexible (perhaps one of the few flexible blocks of time we have in this portion of med school) and you learn the most interesting things about the human body and disease in the process.

High Yield

school administered preclinical test - 220 equivalent
completed medicine clerkship before step 1 studying - 84 on shelf
UWSA #1 (4 weeks of studying left) - 235
UWSA #2 (2 weeks of studying left) - 247
Official Step 1 - 252
I did all of UWorld questions twice (on timed tutor mostly), and did all my incorrects separately each time.
I read through first aid twice closely and skimmed it a third time.

 

[Belleza156]

I took my exam yesterday so i dont have the whole score breakdown from beginning to end of step prep. But i definitely have some words of advice.

I choose a center that was far from the ones where most people take usmle step 1, plus i took my exam 2 weeks late because i had an accident......this helped because i was pretty much the only person in the prometric center taking usmle step exam so i never had to wait to get in and out for breaks. The other side of the prometric center was for the people not taking an exam that required fingerprinting. That being said it still took 5 min to fingerprint to leave, fingerprint to enter and then enter the log in information again.

I had read a lot of peoples advice on this thread to enjoy your break and use the time to relax, but that's not my style. Im usually the person studying notes until the min they would put down the scantron sheet at school. And this exam was no exception. And im glad i did it too because in my first two blocks i second guessed what i knew and i was completely sure that i had memorized the receptors for everything..but then i started forgetting during the exam! Yeah, i had another 5-6 questions on receptors that was answered with that page in the endocrine chapter in FA. Good thing i took a 25 min break to go review FA over anything i felt unsure about when answering. And the receptors wasnt the only time it happened, i. Ust have had over 15 questions that were just repeats worded slightly differently.

I didnt do the tutorial, but i tested my headphonex (had two media questions if anyone is wondering) and then i took a 25 min break after two blocks, a 20 min break after the next two blocks, and a 10-15 break after the 6th block. Each break i used to look over FA while stuffing my face with some food and water. I practically took a minifridge with me 🙂 the lunchbox,coolers dont need to fit in the teeny tiny lockers, you can just leave them next to the lockers.

Overall i found it really useful to back and look over FA. It paid off in every block to have assured myself of knowing the answer, lots of questions repeat. The myth that there are so many questions available that you wont see the same question is simply not true.

I went thru my FA and could count at least 30 behavioral/ethics questiions i got. It seemed like i had 5 at least in every block (thats lucky for me since i scored over 700 in the behavioral science shelf exam, i wanted to make sure I got the gimme points so i could miss more of the harder questions so i studied my ***** off for that shelf, and everyone made fun of me for doing so). And i had one of every kind of statistics question. Calculate sensitivity,specificity,PPV, NNT, NNH, absolute risk, attributable risk. And besides one loading dose question for pharmaco those were the only equation questions i got.

Still dont know how to feel about this exam, walked out feeling i could have gotten a 200 as likely as i could have gotten 240. Ill have to wait and see. Its just so hard to be sure of a score when you have no idea how its graded.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

I took my exam yesterday so i dont have the whole score breakdown from beginning to end of step prep. But i definitely have some words of advice.

I choose a center that was far from the ones where most people take usmle step 1, plus i took my exam 2 weeks late because i had an accident......this helped because i was pretty much the only person in the prometric center taking usmle step exam so i never had to wait to get in and out for breaks. The other side of the prometric center was for the people not taking an exam that required fingerprinting. That being said it still took 5 min to fingerprint to leave, fingerprint to enter and then enter the log in information again.

I had read a lot of peoples advice on this thread to enjoy your break and use the time to relax, but that's not my style. Im usually the person studying notes until the min they would put down the scantron sheet at school. And this exam was no exception. And im glad i did it too because in my first two blocks i second guessed what i knew and i was completely sure that i had memorized the receptors for everything..but then i started forgetting during the exam! Yeah, i had another 5-6 questions on receptors that was answered with that page in the endocrine chapter in FA. Good thing i took a 25 min break to go review FA over anything i felt unsure about when answering. And the receptors wasnt the only time it happened, i. Ust have had over 15 questions that were just repeats worded slightly differently.

I didnt do the tutorial, but i tested my headphonex (had two media questions if anyone is wondering) and then i took a 25 min break after two blocks, a 20 min break after the next two blocks, and a 10-15 break after the 6th block. Each break i used to look over FA while stuffing my face with some food and water. I practically took a minifridge with me 🙂 the lunchbox,coolers dont need to fit in the teeny tiny lockers, you can just leave them next to the lockers.

Overall i found it really useful to back and look over FA. It paid off in every block to have assured myself of knowing the answer, lots of questions repeat. The myth that there are so many questions available that you wont see the same question is simply not true.

I went thru my FA and could count at least 30 behavioral/ethics questiions i got. It seemed like i had 5 at least in every block (thats lucky for me since i scored over 700 in the behavioral science shelf exam, i wanted to make sure I got the gimme points so i could miss more of the harder questions so i studied my ***** off for that shelf, and everyone made fun of me for doing so). And i had one of every kind of statistics question. Calculate sensitivity,specificity,PPV, NNT, NNH, absolute risk, attributable risk. And besides one loading dose question for pharmaco those were the only equation questions i got.

Still dont know how to feel about this exam, walked out feeling i could have gotten a 200 as likely as i could have gotten 240. Ill have to wait and see. Its just so hard to be sure of a score when you have no idea how its graded.

I agree with behavioral aspect. Those are gimme points and should not be missed. Anyway, congrats on being done. Did you use pathoma at all?

 

[glory7pr]

The SDN has helped me a lot to prepare for Step 1, so I wanna give my $0.02.

Preparation Time: 2 months + 2 weeks
Most helpful tools: FA, Uworld, Pathoma, DIT, some Pass Program material.

The most helpful method for me was to do 100 Uworld questions in the morning and review them by making notes. Then watch DIT videos and at night watch Pathoma or read FA. I know that RR Pathology is a great book, but for Step 1 Pathoma is gold! The last 2 weeks before my test I was exhausted, so I just reviewed FA and finished Uworld a 2nd time.

Did 3 NBMEs:
May 23/ NBME 7 - 207
June 13/ NBME 12 - 226
July 2/ NBME 11 - 242
Real Deal - 240

-The last NBME was very predictive, and I think it is important to do and pass at least 3 NBMEs before the test.

Test experience:
It was and extremely difficult test. I recommend to review X-Rays and CT's because there will be always 1 or 2 questions about that. A lot of gross Neuroanatomy, so High Yield book should help. Immuno was another topic that I found heavy on my test, but DIT was good for this. The Micro and Biochem questions were fair, FA is enough. I found the first 4 blocks difficult and the last 3 more friendly. Just took 1 big break for lunch. The questions looked like a mix between Uworld and NBMEs, but harder because they are going to ask you from a different angle you've never seen before.

*My recommendation for people that speak in Spanish but have to take the test in English, like myself is to practice as many questions as they can, cause I got confused in 2 questions because of the wording. Also heard that Uworld is better for this than Kaplan Qbank.

It is absolutely normal when finishing the test to feel that you have failed. I felt really bad for 3 weeks doubting myself, but was so happy to see my score!!!

Hope this helps and the best of luck for those who are taking the test soon or are waiting the score.

 

[Phloston]

Test experience:
It was and extremely difficult test. I recommend to review X-Rays and CT's because there will be always 1 or 2 questions about that. A lot of gross Neuroanatomy...

Could please you be more specific here?

Good job, btw.

 

[Dallas]

Could please you be more specific here?

Good job, btw.

I had at least 2 gross inferior / anterior views on the brainstem and brain showing all the cranial nerves, marking them and asking which cranial nerve, either from description of a CN deficiency or the other way around asking if this nerve was lesioned what CN deficit would there be.

Was pretty lucky tho, both were medial ones (3x6=12) so pretty easy to recognize and all. But I would assume you already know this pretty cold phloston, just a heads up that this needs to be known.

The other neuro stuff was related to ocular muscle deficiencies and CNs, homunculus, HTN hemorrhagic stroke, partial seizure, eye field deficits and some huntingtons ahlzeimers dementia vs delirium, pretty straightforward neuro questions straight outta FA

 

[rocketbooster]

Could please you be more specific here?

Good job, btw.

Ahhh Phloston, why are you still asking these questions? Lol, test takers have been posting the same things for the past 6 months. Review neuroanatomy with radiology over and over for brainstem/spinal chord slices and sections of the brain. In fact, I bet you asked this question multiple times yourself. Go take your test and move on with your life. I can't believe you still have 4 months until your test haha. You probably peaked a while ago and now are just making yourself suffer for months since you start to forget things and have to review them.

Bump that test up to mid-September at least. Go go go!

 

[Phloston]

Ahhh Phloston, why are you still asking these questions? Lol, test takers have been posting the same things for the past 6 months. Review neuroanatomy with radiology over and over for brainstem/spinal chord slices and sections of the brain. In fact, I bet you asked this question multiple times yourself. Go take your test and move on with your life. I can't believe you still have 4 months until your test haha. You probably peaked a while ago and now are just making yourself suffer for months since you start to forget things and have to review them.

Bump that test up to mid-September at least. Go go go!

Rocketbooster, a bit cheeky, ay?

I appreciate it if you think I'm ready at this point, but I'm still fairly far from it. I still need to finish Kaplan, do UWorld, then go back through USMLE Rx, Kaplan and UWorld all for a second time, plus give FA another read, among other things. That's not to mention that I've got PhD crap I have to deal with. So yeah, December 14th is the date (I moved it up from the 21st if that makes you feel better).

 

[alternatego]

Rocketbooster, a bit cheeky, ay?

I appreciate it if you think I'm ready at this point, but I'm still fairly far from it. I still need to finish Kaplan, do UWorld, then go back through USMLE Rx, Kaplan and UWorld all for a second time, plus give FA another read, among other things. That's not to mention that I've got PhD crap I have to deal with. So yeah, December 14th is the date (I moved it up from the 21st if that makes you feel better).

I admire your patience. I will finish UW today and I've hated every second of it, I cannot imagine myself doing the whole bank a 2nd time. Incorrect, maybe, but the entire UW again? No way!

 

[Dallas]

I admire your patience. I will finish UW today and I've hated every second of it, I cannot imagine myself doing the whole bank a 2nd time. Incorrect, maybe, but the entire UW again? No way!

I wished I had done uworld 2 or even 3 times when I sat there on exam day.
But yes, it was torturous.

 

[pizdun]

Rocketbooster, a bit cheeky, ay?

I appreciate it if you think I'm ready at this point, but I'm still fairly far from it. I still need to finish Kaplan, do UWorld, then go back through USMLE Rx, Kaplan and UWorld all for a second time, plus give FA another read, among other things. That's not to mention that I've got PhD crap I have to deal with. So yeah, December 14th is the date (I moved it up from the 21st if that makes you feel better).

redoing kaplan and Rx is a giant waste of time and money
you are better of doing uworld 100x