Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[amavir281]

---

Members do not 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. 👍

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

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.

nice job. I cant imagine taking step 1 in a different language and doing as well as you did. 👍

 

[Boardz]

well... hard to say how it went. missed a couple questions for sure. The exam overall was 70% easy to ridiculously easy. but, if the curves are what they are for the nbme's I'm probably screwed. I don't remember any WTF q's. I was expecting a few to a lot. Probably got maybe 1 per block maximum.

What I mean to say is, if a 90% on the NBME is a 90% on the real step- scorewise... i'm screwed.

Also, I don't feel like I failed coming out of the exam. This honestly worries me because I thought it was normal to feel like crap coming out.

Looking at 4.5 pages of questions i wrote down. I got about 6 wrong or so. Probably because i can only remember the easy ones. I did get lucky on some questions.

Sincerely, and honestly, I have no idea how I did. I was soooo focused on the exam while taking it, I spent very little energy (as little as I possibly could anyway) taking stock of how I was doing and how many questions i had to guess on, how many questions i think i got right, comparing questions to qbanks, thinking of past questions on the previous passage, etc. etc.

I can't offer much in terms of advice because I wanna wait until my score comes back- then I'll give my nbme scores, dates, etc. I did uworld 2 times. then the third time i did them all minus 360 questions or so. I did 80% of rx. First pass UW 76% random timed blocks. Pathoma = $. I promise to be more comprehensive because I used SDN a lot during my prep once I get my score.

Oh, and I did get repeats on my exam like belleza was saying so it might not be a bad idea to look stuff up during breaks if you want.

now onto uworld for step 2 😀

 

[Aclamity]

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!

Doing UW more than once is a worthless waste of time. Honestly I feel like people do it for the sake of doing it. If you completed UW in the span of 1-2 months you're going to remember a boatload of questions and it's not going to be useful. Sure, you might be able to pick up a few more tidbits on the 2nd pass, but is it really worth investing all those extra hours that could be better spent memorizing FA or doing another qbank (or NBMEs)? I'll answer that: no. Best to get everything you can out of the first pass, annotate properly, and not be anal-retentive

 

[alternatego]

Doing UW more than once is a worthless waste of time. Honestly I feel like people do it for the sake of doing it. If you completed UW in the span of 1-2 months you're going to remember a boatload of questions and it's not going to be useful. Sure, you might be able to pick up a few more tidbits on the 2nd pass, but is it really worth investing all those extra hours that could be better spent memorizing FA or doing another qbank (or NBMEs)? I'll answer that: no. Best to get everything you can out of the first pass, annotate properly, and not be anal-retentive

Yep, I think so too. I heavily annotated my FA + took pictures of whatever diagram I thought useful in UW and printed it so I could paste it into its corresponding section. I'm spending these last 3 weeks hammering FA, maybe doing some of Qbank (I left it at 68%), and definitely going over some NBMEs I acquired.

I might go over UW incorrects, though, if I finish everything earlier than expected.

 

[Zona Pellucida]

Doing UW more than once is a worthless waste of time. Honestly I feel like people do it for the sake of doing it. If you completed UW in the span of 1-2 months you're going to remember a boatload of questions and it's not going to be useful. Sure, you might be able to pick up a few more tidbits on the 2nd pass, but is it really worth investing all those extra hours that could be better spent memorizing FA or doing another qbank (or NBMEs)? I'll answer that: no. Best to get everything you can out of the first pass, annotate properly, and not be anal-retentive

Agree, although I thought going through incorrect/marked was helpful.

Full Random Timed Blocks --> Marked and Incorrect ---> Marked and Incorrect Round II ---> Stop.

 

[Member00123]

I actually thought going through it in tutor mode by systems worked well. Then I reset it and did timed random for the 2nd pass the whole way through and repeated missed and marked after that. Really helped me prepare for the real thing.

Also, has anyone had the same experience as me and actually score better on an NBME than UWSA days from their actual exam? I got 4 points higher on NBME 11 than on UWSA 2 and I don't know why.

 

[Cmaster]

Ok so I took step 1 yesterday and feel completely and utterly destroyed…

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 – scored 228 (84 %)
Took NBME 11 (2/52 out) after rereading most of FA and ME and doing ~1/3 of UW – 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 🙁

You probably did better than you think. 👍

 

[OberynMartell]

For those who have taken, does it suffice to use just UWorld as a Qbank? I am debating on whether or not to do Kaplan Qbank for the first semester and get familiar with questions, and then hit UWorld as many times as possible second semester/dedicated study time. Does getting both sound like a good idea or would it be better to get just UWorld and go over it all year until the exam? Thanks.

 

[Dallas]

For those who have taken, does it suffice to use just UWorld as a Qbank? I am debating on whether or not to do Kaplan Qbank for the first semester and get familiar with questions, and then hit UWorld as many times as possible second semester/dedicated study time. Does getting both sound like a good idea or would it be better to get just UWorld and go over it all year until the exam? Thanks.

for the love of god stay away from kaplan, if you want to do a qbank other than uworld early do rx , use it with first aid and you should get a good background on FA and then u can move on to uworld

 

[alternatego]

for the love of god stay away from kaplan, if you want to do a qbank other than uworld early do rx , use it with first aid and you should get a good background on FA and then u can move on to uworld

I liked Qbank. It is not as good as UW, but if anyone has the time to do it, more questions won't hurt.

 

[StayHumble]

Hey all, 1st time poster, long time lurker. Felt it necessary to:

1) Thank all the posters on SDN. Special thank you to ijn; I know you don't know who the heck I am, but you're answers on NBME threads are very clear and helpful, and you did so w/o being a complete D-bag. You're awesome 👍
2) Share my experience, since I read tons of other accounts to comfort myself; also, I feel there a lot more NORMAL people like myself out there that don't post, which is why all the scores on here seem to be phenomenal

So here goes:

(3 months to go) USWA1: 204 - was utterly lost taking this exam before studying 😕
(1.5 month to go) USWA2: 220 - w/e, aware about UW exams being overestimators
(18 days to go) NBME13: 219 - felt mostly neutral, improving + still time to work hard
(03 days to go) NBME12: 221 - WTF? very discouraged by lack of progress. Plateau?

Real Deal: 232 - 🙂 I know this isn't much for a lot of people on SDN (seen people crying about how they did bad w/ scores like this actually), but I couldn't be happier; worked hard, did far better than ANY practice (11 pts higher than a couple days before!)

Have faith, work hard, stay humble; you'll get where you want to go

 

[EaglesAllDay]

Hey all, 1st time poster, long time lurker. Felt it necessary to:

1) Thank all the posters on SDN. Special thank you to ijn; I know you don't know who the heck I am, but you're answers on NBME threads are very clear and helpful, and you did so w/o being a complete D-bag. You're awesome 👍
2) Share my experience, since I read tons of other accounts to comfort myself; also, I feel there a lot more NORMAL people like myself out there that don't post, which is why all the scores on here seem to be phenomenal

So here goes:

(3 months to go) USWA1: 204 - was utterly lost taking this exam before studying 😕
(1.5 month to go) USWA2: 220 - w/e, aware about UW exams being overestimators
(18 days to go) NBME13: 219 - felt mostly neutral, improving + still time to work hard
(03 days to go) NBME12: 221 - WTF? very discouraged by lack of progress. Plateau?

Real Deal: 232 - 🙂 I know this isn't much for a lot of people on SDN (seen people crying about how they did bad w/ scores like this actually), but I couldn't be happier; worked hard, did far better than ANY practice (11 pts higher than a couple days before!)

Have faith, work hard, stay humble; you'll get where you want to go

👍 good job, t minus 24 days for me with similar stats, hope to around the same score, congrats!

 

[FSgolfer]

Awesome post Eagles, and congratulations. I took my exam August 9th, and your practice exam scores are pretty close to mine.

NBME 11(7 weeks out): 205
NBME 12(5 weeks out): 219
UWSA2 (3 weeks out): 224
NBME 13 (1 week out): 226

Was very happy i got a good night sleep the night before the exam and woke up feeling great. Taking the day before the exam off was the best decision I've made. Played 5 pickup basketball games that day and by 930 at night i was so exhausted that i slept like a baby. The exam was hard and Im nervous about my score and trying not to think about it. I would love to get a score around what you got, but i guess only time will tell.

 

[Fall1]

've been reading SDN for years, and I wanted to give back a bit...

Background

I'll skip most of that d/t irrelevance, but I wasn't the "perfect" student

Study Materials

Mostly FA and Qbank. I didn't find out about pathoma until ~1 month before the test but I used it for topics which I found myself weak in. If I have any advice at all.....USE PATHOMA. Not because the videos/book will give you secret insight into STEP 1, but Dr.Sattar is an amazing instructor who uses his knowledge to make you not only understand "what", but "how and why". Rapid Review (goljan) is a great text, but overwhelming for short term-step preparation. Qbank is very good at making sure you understand the information and can apply it to a clinical scenario (which in many cases is a "scenario" we will never see ).

Test

Can't say many good thing about it, except that I farted with my headphones on which honestly didnt register until the girl in the cubicle next to leaned over and glared as if she was going to beat the **** out of me. Overall, I feel everyone remembers what they didn't know, but there wasn't much micro on mine (weird). Several neuro questions with a couple gross images and of CTs. Sex hormones and syndromes were heavily tested. The questions integrated concepts, so while you're studying make sure that if for example something mentions ALP (I picked this randomly), think back about other systems and syndromes associated with this value. Step 1 will always find ways to truly test your understanding of something you thought you knew like the back of your hand (AKA "minding f*cking"). It's not an impossible. but what test is med school has l ever made you feel good about yourself?

We are all here bc we found what worked for us. First and foremost, stick to whatever strategy works for you. My practice score were:
NBME 12: 212 (2 weaks out)
UWORLD 1: 247 (dreamesr can be dreamers for a bit)
NBME7: 238


Good luck to everyone!

 

[StayHumble]

Thanks guys! If your NBMEs are around the same, you guys have a great shot at hitting that 230+ too. Good luck

One thing I just want to mention (that people don't realize it seems) everyone is different. For example, the day before the exam, I told myself I'd relax by noon too, since everyone told me its necessary...

Wrong. I'm one of those people who only become more anxious if I'm not doing something. Day before the exam, from 5AM until about 7PM I did a final rapid run-through of FA. I marked any crammable pages (i.e. pharm, anatomy diagrams, embryo) and quickly went over that stuff for 1.5 hrs before my 8AM exam. And I have to say, that final quick runthrough was phenomenal in condensing/refreshing everything.

I did, however, make sure to relax while doing this final runthrough. If anything was bogging me down, I just skipped it; at that point you have to trust that you've studied it, and you can answer a MCQ about it w/o worrying about the details you are sweating (and it's most likely true).

I also did make sure to relax after dinner time as well, and I got a good nights sleep (this part is almost certainly necessary for everyone, 8 hr test is draining).

 

[happyfeet123]

FA, RR Goljan, Goljan Audio, DIT, Pathoma, BRS phys, HY Behav sci-All very thoroughly, except pathoma which i tried week before exam. Tried my best to mimic the superstars on this site. Couldn't fathom a score below 230.
UWorld: 65% 1x
NBME by school before time off : 190
UW1= 232
NBME7=240
NBME13=245

Real thing: 210 =(
6 Months. Did everything I was supposed to do. Real score fell back to nearly where I started. Felt most of exam was good except ~10q/block. I suppose I guessed all those wrong. Wanted to be a hi-fi surgeon all my life. all the sacrifice...all down the drain. embarrassing really.

I feel nothing. maybe still in shock. Nothing matters now. Wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy lol. Better luck to the rest of you.

 

[RedSoxSuck]

Hey all, 1st time poster, long time lurker. Felt it necessary to:

1) Thank all the posters on SDN. Special thank you to ijn; I know you don't know who the heck I am, but you're answers on NBME threads are very clear and helpful, and you did so w/o being a complete D-bag. You're awesome 👍
2) Share my experience, since I read tons of other accounts to comfort myself; also, I feel there a lot more NORMAL people like myself out there that don't post, which is why all the scores on here seem to be phenomenal

So here goes:

(3 months to go) USWA1: 204 - was utterly lost taking this exam before studying 😕
(1.5 month to go) USWA2: 220 - w/e, aware about UW exams being overestimators
(18 days to go) NBME13: 219 - felt mostly neutral, improving + still time to work hard
(03 days to go) NBME12: 221 - WTF? very discouraged by lack of progress. Plateau?

Real Deal: 232 - 🙂 I know this isn't much for a lot of people on SDN (seen people crying about how they did bad w/ scores like this actually), but I couldn't be happier; worked hard, did far better than ANY practice (11 pts higher than a couple days before!)

Have faith, work hard, stay humble; you'll get where you want to go

Awesome. So what did you do between 18 days to go and before the real deal? What do you think you should have done instead? Thanks

 

[StayHumble]

Awesome. So what did you do between 18 days to go and before the real deal? What do you think you should have done instead? Thanks

Honestly, those 18 days of prep were fantastic. I truly feel NBME12 was just an outlier for me. Most of the Qs I got wrong on it were just worded funny rather than knowledge gaps.

I pretty much stuck to FA and practice Qs for the final few weeks ending it all w/ a glorious final run through of Pathoma/FA in the final 3 days...

If I could do one thing differently, it would have been to squeeze in more NBMEs. By the end, you know most of the material and the only way they stump you is wording/descriptions. The more NBMEs you do, the more exposure to tricks you have = less ways they can trick you on the actual exam.

Also, I really wish I hadn't done UWorld so early in my prep. Feel like my retention of it would have been better had I finished it closer to my test date (finished it at least a month ahead of time).

 

[glykon]

Samething happened on MCAT. Dropped 11 points on test day back to a diagnostic score. Thought I could change things. I'd say i'm an extreme outlier on the imaginary number axis. Wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy lol. Better luck to the rest of you.

I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe u should try to find what happened to u on those 2 test days and get it treated, so it doesn't happen again. I'm saying this because it's not the end of ur dream for General Surgery, I think u could still have a shot if u get very good CK score (surgeons care about it more than Step1)+publications,research,presentations,etc.
Good luck and don't give up!

 

[Belleza156]

FA, RR Goljan, Goljan Audio, DIT, Pathoma, BRS phys, HY Behav sci-All very thoroughly, except pathoma which i tried week before exam. Tried my best to mimic the superstars on this site. Couldn't fathom a score below 230.
UWorld: 65% 1x
NBME by school before time off : 190
UW1= 232
NBME7=240
NBME13=245

Real thing: 210 =(
6 Months. Did everything I was supposed to do. Real score fell back to nearly where I started. Felt most of exam was good except ~10q/block. I suppose I guessed all those wrong. Wanted to be a hi-fi surgeon all my life. all the sacrifice to get deep involvement in dept. and several pubs. all down the drain. embarrassing really.

I feel nothing. maybe still in shock. Nothing matters now.

Samething happened on MCAT. Dropped 11 points on test day back to a diagnostic score. Thought I could change things. I'd say i'm an extreme outlier on the imaginary number axis. Wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy lol. Better luck to the rest of you.

Who says you can't do surgery? Go look at the NRMP data for neuro surgery and even they took ppl who got 200-210 on their USMLE Step 1. You can most certainly still get into surgery, you will just need to find out what happened to you so you do not repeat it. One thing is certain, you will need to score above 230 on step 2 to show progress on your scores, but a 230 is not impossible.

You can start by taking your nbme printouts and compare them to step 1 printout....are the lines about the same in them? Did u take ur NBMEs in similar conditions. That's a pretty big drop, maybe you should ask them to recalculate your score.

I know I have a friend who received the wrong score for the PCAT, and he asked them to re-evaluate it and it definitely came to be much higher. I don't say this to give you false hope, but errors to occur. If your nbme printouts don't compare at all w the usmle print out I would investigate further.

Sent from my PC36100 using SDN Mobile

 

[chalo]

For those who took step 1 on a Thursday did you get back your scores on the third or fourth Wednesday after your test.
Also for those who checked to see if their permit links disappeared before their score release do you remember if the link disappeared a week, 3 days, 2 days, etc before you got your scores.
Thanks

 

[mgmtfan]

Ok. Just thought I'd reach out to anybody who is a DO. I don't know if I used the best strategy for both tests as I haven't gotten my COMLEX back yet, but here was my prep.

I started studying on and off in late February. Our school got us a kaplan subscription so I had no choice to use it. I used some of the high yield videos and started doing the question banks. I tried studying during the week as much as I could, but as classes continued to ramp up, the studying dwindled. In April, Kaplan started their live online videos which were a pain to do, but they helped for certain subjects. School ended in late May, and from there I started Goljan recordings and eventually bought the book, which I thought helped immensely. I bought Uworld in the middle of june and finished it along with redoing incorrects. Did the same for Kaplan. I ran through first aid twice and would do questions for the subject i studied that day. The 2nd time through I supplemented with the Goljan book, too. I also did his questions online which I would really recommend. They are pretty easy, but i did a question the day before that showed up twice on my test.

I took NBME 13 (I think) 2 weeks before my exam. It was the one that let's you review your wrong answers which I thought was beneficial. My score was a 251 on that

Real deal was july 10. I scored a 261. Overall thought the test was fair, especially after I received my score. My COMLEX was on the 17th, which I basically read all of the Savarese green book, did his practice tests, and finished up COMBANK with the inbetween time. I'm so glad I decided to buy the green book as I swear half of my COMLEX was musculoskeletal/OMM.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have changed too much. I hadn't even heard of Pathoma until it was too late. Goljan was key. Helps you understand concepts. First Aid has limited use in my opinion. You get to a point where you have a pretty good understanding of everything where you don't need to keep seeing it in bulleted form. It's rare questions get that specific. If you are to use it, wait til you've studied all the information and use it as a quick review. There's SO much testable information that's not in there.

Not quite sure why people are taking 5 total NBME's. That's overkill especially considering they don't give you the questions to review afterwards. That's a whole day without learning any new information. I took the Kaplan assessments along with the first UWorld assessment. UWorld was great, but don't get caught up in doing it multiple times. If there's some random fact they are testing on that you've never heard of, isn't in First Aid or Goljan, then it probably won't be on your test.

The COMLEX went pretty well. It was such a random test, though, it was hard to judge. Seriously, half OMM. I had a hard time understanding how my performance on it could possibly predict if I would be a good physician. I'm sure I didn't score as statistically well on it as I did the USMLE. My best advice is to AVOID Combank. I heard Comquest is better. Combank is all 1st order questions. Only use was the OMM questions. Kaplan's COMLEX qbank was a nightmare. Again, only use was OMT. On my exam was random anatomy questions I never would've remembered. Don't forget about anatomy. And jump on this board and see what people are saying. Trends seemed to be similar.

 

[Katabama21]

Hi, I thought my post might fit better under this thread so here it is:

Hi folks, this is my first post on here. I took the comlex and scored a 533 and also decided to take the USMLE step 1, and scored a 189...which is PASSING, but the lowest possible passing score. I am interested in family medicine, pediatrics, or internal medicine.

I am afraid I have ruined my chances at both a Allopathic or Osteopathic residency. I feel the allopathic residency will dislike my low score and the osteopathic residencies use my comlex score, but think twice because I took the USMLE.

Anyone else in same situation? Were any of you able to match into a residency with a situation like mine, and if so, please share advice. Thanks!

 

[chudat]

might be a noob question, but when did you take the exam and when did you receive your score?

 

[Katabama21]

might be a noob question, but when did you take the exam and when did you receive your score?

Took the exam week of july 22nd and got my score last week.

 

[Ilovewater]

Hi, I thought my post might fit better under this thread so here it is:

Hi folks, this is my first post on here. I took the comlex and scored a 533 and also decided to take the USMLE step 1, and scored a 189...which is PASSING, but the lowest possible passing score. I am interested in family medicine, pediatrics, or internal medicine.

I am afraid I have ruined my chances at both a Allopathic or Osteopathic residency. I feel the allopathic residency will dislike my low score and the osteopathic residencies use my comlex score, but think twice because I took the USMLE.

Anyone else in same situation? Were any of you able to match into a residency with a situation like mine, and if so, please share advice. Thanks!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you are only required to report your USMLE score if you're applying to allopathic programs, and that you don't need to report it for osteopathic residency programs. If that's correct, you should be OK for osteopathic residency.

 

[Katabama21]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you are only required to report your USMLE score if you're applying to allopathic programs, and that you don't need to report it for osteopathic residency programs. If that's correct, you should be OK for osteopathic residency.

Thanks for your response Ilovewater. I agree, there is a bit of ambiguity around the score reporting which is why I wanted to see what others have experienced. I am wondering if whether the osteopathic schools still see you took the USMLE, even if you elect not to show the numerical score. If that is the case, I hope they don't look at the score and think I was not interested in osteopathic programs.

 

[MonsterAddict]

I looked at this board when I was studying and it helped me so I decided to do my part.

March Nbme 11: 242
April Nbme 7: 247
Late April Nbme 6: 247
May Nbme 12 : 254
June Nbme 13: 259

Real deal: 258

Pathoma, Uworld q bank (85% avg), Kaplan q bank and read first aid multiple times.

PM me if you have any specific questions and I will try and answer.

 

[Belleza156]

I looked at this board when I was studying and it helped me so I decided to do my part.

March Nbme 11: 242
April Nbme 7: 247
Late April Nbme 6: 247
May Nbme 12 : 254
June Nbme 13: 259

Real deal: 258

Pathoma, Uworld q bank (85% avg), Kaplan q bank and read first aid multiple times.

PM me if you have any specific questions and I will try and answer.

Wow you were exactly 1 point away from your NBMEs. How much lag time was there between NBME 13 and Step 1?

 

[sharklasers]

For those that used Pathoma, if you used it during the school year, how did you incorporate it with your class lecture notes??

 

[Belleza156]

For those that used Pathoma, if you used it during the school year, how did you incorporate it with your class lecture notes??

If ur school goes by systems, u just do the videos are ur covering the topics in robbins. Or whatever book you choose to (or not to) read.

Sent from my PC36100 using SDN Mobile

 

[eplato]

Long time lurker who made an account just to post my experience, as I found this thread to be useful during my studying (although it was more often than not a source of anxiety).

Got 6 month UWorld subscription, started doing organ system specific questions as a way to study systems courses (school is P/F and not known for a high Step 1 average, but I still aimed to learn the material and do well on each exam). Read through FA once before the end of the year. Finished UWorld (low 60s %) once by the end of finals, and really LEARNED from it - took notes.

During 1 month of dedicated studying, reset QBank and went through FA again section by section, annotating with relevant UWorld systems questions along the way. During last week of studying, went through annotated FA one last time and finished remaining 2nd pass UWorld questions.

UWorld SAs 250+. 1st NBME 23-, 2nd 24- (don't remember specific scores).

Exam itself was tough - I felt like I had a lot of nit picky anatomy that was not in FA, but there were a fair amount of gimmies as well. I can't recall many specifics, but I approached it the same as I did the practice tests (same speed, etc).

Real deal: 248.

Advice - learn from UWorld and get used to the standardized question format. Also, flash cards to memorize the rote stuff (eg, drug reactions) in FA, and know them all cold by the time you take the test.

 

[DoctorSaab222]

hey guys id like to take this opportunity to tell you about my experience. I was always a bright student but i bombed my mcat forcing me to go to a carribean med school. When i got there people started scaring me about how the school does not prepare you well for the step which got me really depressed. I stuck it out got studied every day, did not waste my time and did well in med school. I trusted the professors of our school and just studied the material that they gave us. i got my white coat and finished basic sciences with a gpa of 3.89. Next came the step. I figured the reason why i didnt do well on my mcat was not because i didnt know my information but because i wasnt a great standardized test taker, which made me even more nervous about this step 1. I did DIT which i thought was kinda a waste of time cuz he just read right out of FA and i felt i cud do that on my own. i finished it however and did the practice questions which were good. I memorized the hell outta FA and did plenty of practice questions. i did Uworld once, then kaplan and then uworld again. and took my test. thank god i got a 238. i just wanted to tell those that are studying that the test is very much doo-able. All the information you need is in FA and uworld. as you do Uworld annotate your FA and when you go into the test there will be very few questions that will stump you. For those that dread standardized tests like me, this one wasnt bad at all because the information you memorized is the information your tested on, unlike the mcat where you would sometimes get random passages on whatever. my exam was easier than uworld. During my test, i stopped a few times to actually ask my self if i was taking the right test. i hear that once in a while they throw a test that is harder than uworld. just pray that you dont get it i guess (not even sure if that is true). if you guys have any questions lemme know.

 

[fmorenoa]

hi everybody. I am a spanish student interested in this exam
I have been looking around, but I couldn't find a place where I can buy the Kaplan lectures and the rest of the materials...
Does anyone know where I can look for them or give me some information? I will appreciate it. Thanks

 

[chudat]

asdf

 

[FSgolfer]

Waiting for the score is so annoying. Everyday i think of another question i prob got wrong, and feel that the ones i got correct were simple gimmes that anyone could have gotten. Wanted a 240+, now I'm just hoping i passed the damn thing. Sorry for venting, but the waiting is killing me. 1 more week to go.

 

[Boardz]

241/85 usmle on 7/30

Uworld questions 60%
Kaplan 58%
Nbme 11=217

pathoma, road map neuro, first aid

wow- what a great draw of questions! may allah guide your arrow. fantastic store! congrats. Blew all your other indicators' predictions out of the water. I'll drink to that.

 

[Boardz]

For those that used Pathoma, if you used it during the school year, how did you incorporate it with your class lecture notes??

i would take a couple pages from pathoma covering stuff we learned in school that day and incorporate it into my dinner for that night.

Example: We were learning anemias so I would take a couple pages from the anemia section and carefully tear them into little pieces and add it to this delicious curry dish I make every now and then when I get enough time to go to the spice store.

I always follow these study sessions up with a rigorous game of basketball or diablo 3 for a couple hours.

YMMV

 

[fmorenoa]

Hi guys. Im interested in doing the step 1 but I don't even have the materials yet
does anybody have kaplan lectures 2012 available, physically or in pdf format?
I have been looking around and I can't find them anywhere. If somebody could help me with that it would be great. Or telling me where I can download them or something helpful.
thankss and good luck with the test results!

 

[chudat]

Dont let people with 75+% on Uworld or 250s on NBMEs intimidate you

Pathoma will get you 70% of the questions, seriously.

 

[zainperfect]

hi there my scores r not improving the scores for nbme 6 and 7 were 190/ 370
want to improve exam in oct
helppp plz
how to improve musculoskeletal section and behavioural science setion and also anatomy and embryology section

 

[RedSoxSuck]

hi there my scores r not improving the scores for nbme 6 and 7 were 190/ 370
want to improve exam in oct
helppp plz
how to improve musculoskeletal section and behavioural science setion and also anatomy and embryology section

I am not an expert but for behavioral sciences i used BRS (chapter 21, 23 and then last 2 bio stat chapters) along with FA. Questions at the end of BRS chapters helped quite a bit. Also uworld has good bio stat questions. Kaplan video's are good for behavioral and biostat (there are 1 or 2 videos).

Embryo is all FA

MSK. Probably FA and know all the upper extremities and lower extremities lesions/nerves.

 

[panicattackmode]

Okay. I studied for about 6 weeks. I used:
First Aid
UWorld 1x and then redid all the questions I got wrong.
Pathoma

2 weeks before my actual test, did NBME7, got 214 or something like that.

Panic mode. Considered delaying my exam . Went ahead with the original test date anyway.

Got a 241 on the real thing

 

[panicattackmode]

I looked at this board when I was studying and it helped me so I decided to do my part.

March Nbme 11: 242
April Nbme 7: 247
Late April Nbme 6: 247
May Nbme 12 : 254
June Nbme 13: 259

Real deal: 258

Pathoma, Uworld q bank (85% avg), Kaplan q bank and read first aid multiple times.

PM me if you have any specific questions and I will try and answer.

how were you scoring so high all the way back in March?

 

[Belleza156]

Okay. I studied for about 6 weeks. I used:
First Aid
UWorld 1x and then redid all the questions I got wrong.
Pathoma

2 weeks before my actual test, did NBME7, got 214 or something like that.

Panic mode. Considered delaying my exam . Went ahead with the original test date anyway.

Got a 241 on the real thing

Wow good job!! Bet that was a sigh of relief--> jumping for joy 🙂

 

[MonsterAddict]

Hopefully I used these quotes right:

how were you scoring so high all the way back in March?

I used first aid during the first 2 years for my other classes. I think that helped me. Also Second year I bought a year long subscription to Uworld and took them concurrently with classes.

Wow you were exactly 1 point away from your NBMEs. How much lag time was there between NBME 13 and Step 1?

Lag time was less than a week. Maybe 5 days or so. I just focused on one more pass through first aid between nbme 13 and the test.

 

[HTwrestler112]

- Studied hard for my classes and didn't sacrifice them to study for step 1 like a lot of my friends (made all honors in MS2 classes)
- Starting at Christmas break, started doing a 10-20 UWorld questions and making a flashcard testing the reason I missed each missed question.
- At spring break, started reading First Aid (hadn't used First Aid up to that point) and watching/reading Pathoma. After going over a chapter in First Aid or Pathoma, I would quiz with my study partner, and anything that we consistently missed, I would make a note of to review again later.
- Basically continued this going through First Aid about 2.5 times and Pathoma twice, plus finished UWorld with about 1 flashcard per question that I missed (average on UWorld was about 81%). Then did half of Kaplan Step 1 Qbank.

Results:
NBME practice test (can't remember which one) that I took shortly after Xmas: 221
Comprehensive Basic Science Exam Predicted Score (took this at the end of classes and then studied 4 more weeks for the real test): 265+
Real deal: 257

Just a caveat...I know that I knew more when I sat down to take the real test than when I took the comprehensive basic sciences exam, I just think I had a bad combination of luck (meaning which exam I happened to take and how well it aligned with my knowledge) and no really performing up to par on test day.

 

[Phloston]

- Studied hard for my classes and didn't sacrifice them to study for step 1 like a lot of my friends (made all honors in MS2 classes)
- Starting at Christmas break, started doing a 10-20 UWorld questions and making a flashcard testing the reason I missed each missed question.
- At spring break, started reading First Aid (hadn't used First Aid up to that point) and watching/reading Pathoma. After going over a chapter in First Aid or Pathoma, I would quiz with my study partner, and anything that we consistently missed, I would make a note of to review again later.
- Basically continued this going through First Aid about 2.5 times and Pathoma twice, plus finished UWorld with about 1 flashcard per question that I missed (average on UWorld was about 81%). Then did half of Kaplan Step 1 Qbank.

Results:
NBME practice test (can't remember which one) that I took shortly after Xmas: 221
Comprehensive Basic Science Exam Predicted Score (took this at the end of classes and then studied 4 more weeks for the real test): 265+
Real deal: 257

Just a caveat...I know that I knew more when I sat down to take the real test than when I took the comprehensive basic sciences exam, I just think I had a bad combination of luck (meaning which exam I happened to take and how well it aligned with my knowledge) and no really performing up to par on test day.

Could you please elaborate on the bold?

Solid performance nevertheless. Nice job.

 

[dragon529]

@HTwrestler112, great job! It's nice to see someone who uses UWorld like 6 months prior to test date instead of the standard 1.5-2 months. Did you think this was a good idea or would you have started some other time? Did you go through UWorld a 2nd time or just concentrate on your flash cards based on missed Qs?

 

[USMLE12DOC]

Hello all, saw some interesting information so i thought Id share my score/experience:
Timeline: February-April Kaplan on 1.5x + Kap Qbank/Physio bank - 67% (final),
NBME exit exam- projected 225 3 digit Step 1 score
April-June- Pathoma, DIT 2011, FA Step 2 CK Qbook (figured Id buy it anyways, prof recommended)
- I only did 300-400 questions while i was reviewing those 2 courses, then focused exclusively on Qs
June-July 3 (test day)- Uworld Sim exam #1 238 estimated, U world sim exam #2 250 extimated, Uworld Q bank --> 73% completed --> projected 253+/- 13
- Read firstaid front to back again 4 days before the exam, did Uworld sim 2# 1 week before final.. no Qs for 4 Days during FA
- final score: 248 - feel confident about the score, im an IMG from Canada so will have to apply for semi-competitive IM programs... read NRMP.org 2011 match report it puts things into perspective
the exam: i wrote in july so sort of hazy but lots of tough behavioral questions, also thought micro had some tough pictures so review images/stains. Thanks for all the support! it was a grind but anyone can get there