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. 👍

 

[holyhekshler]

This post actually made me feel much better. I took mine yesterday and had a similar experience. 3 blocks of pure difficulty and 4 blocks of what I expected. I left the testing center feeling pretty discouraged. In truth I really don't remember most of the test, just the feelings I had during it. For the most part the questions felt too easy or too hard, not really much in between. Like others have mentioned lots of physiology up and down arrows that were for the most part pretty easy. I had more anatomy than I expected, nothing out of first aid. I had almost no embryo and biochem was almost non-existent. Unfortunately, I had several difficult to impossible micro questions as this was one of my stronger subjects. The rest of the system based questions were fair. I really struggled with some of the behavioral science questions, but I expected that since that is one of my weaker areas. Also there is lots of graph/chart interpretation.
Practice tests:
Uworld: 79% first pass timed random
cbssa: 255, 5 weeks out
NBME 7: 254, 3.5 weeks out
UWSA1: 264, 2.5 weeks out
NBME 12 259, 1.5 weeks out
I started with a goal of 240+, however, after leaving the testing center I think I would be happy with anything of 235. I used FA, Uworld and pathoma. I had an hour commute to and from school so I listened to Goljian audio probably about 7 times completely through. It is going to be a long month and a half.

I'm glad it makes you feel better : ) I'm sure you did in line with your practice tests and much better than you feel it went! I have never seen anyone post who got less than ~10 points below their worst practice (and most people do in line with practice tests and many even better) so even if you have your most awful performance to date you can expect to score a 240+, easy. Try to forget about it until your scores come back, worrying doesn't help.

After my exam I was reading other posters' experiences on this thread and kind of feeling like **** about how hard I thought it was because so many people were saying it wasn't so bad. I think it really comes down to the fact that everyone's test it different. With a month to sit on this and after getting my scores back I really don't think I was exaggerating about the level of difficulty of the form I got. I also think that the curve on this form was kind to me because of the level of difficulty. I knew based on my grades on our shelf exams throughout the year that I was always in the top %25 of my class at a good state school and there was no way that if I had no idea on a lot of the questions I got that anyone except the very best students would have had any more insight into those questions than I had. Nevertheless, I also felt like I could have done horribly on the real thing...my gut told me that I had done well but I really had no idea. I think you just need to trust your gut when you are answering questions and use your process of elimination skills. And know that a lot of people come out feeling horrible and still do well 😛

Holy Heck, awesome score holyhek!!

Thanks!!

 

[DrBO]

Let me start by saying thanks for the great info everyone! I plan on posting after I take my test later this June.

My question is about lab values. First, how similar is the lab value drop down bar on the real test in comparison to UWORLD exams? Sometimes looking for a normal values can be tedious/stressful under time constraints. Second, should I just bite the bullet and memorize normals or would it be a waste of time?

 

[ijn]

Supposedly UWorld is almost identical to the real exam, so I presume that includes the calculator and lab values.

I wouldn't bother memorizing normal. I mean, at this point maybe you should have a rough idea of calcium, potassium, and sodium normals since those kinds of renal questions are so pervasive. I don't think those few seconds you spend trying to see if a PT of 19 is high or normal is going to make or break a score.

 

[JRjcu08]

Let me start by saying thanks for the great info everyone! I plan on posting after I take my test later this June.

My question is about lab values. First, how similar is the lab value drop down bar on the real test in comparison to UWORLD exams? Sometimes looking for a normal values can be tedious/stressful under time constraints. Second, should I just bite the bullet and memorize normals or would it be a waste of time?

It is identical to uworld. It would be a much better use of your time to study anything other than memorizing the values. Sometimes they will even put the normals in parentheses in the question stem and you don't even need to look them up. (I think this is more true when the case is about a child... And my test had a lot of "7 year old male presents 2 weeks after a cold" kinda questions)

 

[holyhekshler]

Let me start by saying thanks for the great info everyone! I plan on posting after I take my test later this June.

My question is about lab values. First, how similar is the lab value drop down bar on the real test in comparison to UWORLD exams? Sometimes looking for a normal values can be tedious/stressful under time constraints. Second, should I just bite the bullet and memorize normals or would it be a waste of time?

I am 95% sure that on the real thing the lab values had a search function. It is good to be familiar but no need to memorize. Until you get to 3rd year, then they will pimp your ass on lab values

 

[JackShephard MD]

thanks, i hope so. but if my score comes back a 175 i'll just lie and say its a 275, then leave the country.

for brs phys: only if you feel like you need it. some of the charts in there are real good (e.g. the CO/venous return graph, or the PTH tables). i hadn't seen a lot of the phys since the fall, so I chose to go back through brs phys. read a section carefully in about 2-3 hours as I went through the corresponding section in FA and just made a note of things that were new to me. i memorized the crap out of guyton in the fall, and I found stuff I still didnt know. Honestly in two weeks, if you don't have any other subjects that desperately need to be hit hard, you can fit that reading in.

one thing that esp helped was to map out on my whiteboard the different parameters that change w/ each of the diseases. like for instance all of the sex hormone disorders (LH, FSH, testosterone, estrogen, inhibin - if it was a male obv- etc.) or the conditions that affect the bone (i.e. ca levels, phosphate, alk phos, vitamin D, urine levels of substances, basically any parameter or condition I felt they could test me on - I even put Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy in there - which is actually laid out in BRS pretty well) as well as the anemias (i.e. ferritin, TIBC, % sat, etc. -- RR path has a good chart). for the last few days just erase and redo, erase and redo like 3-4 times. FA has decent charts, but they're not complete. For instance, in the repro section, the chart with the LH/testosterone levels, I made a chart w/ all the aforementioned parameters and listed any condition I could think of within which those parameters would change (i.e. including PCOS, menopause, 5-a reductase deficiency, Turner's, etc.) I even wrote out a chart for GFR, RPF, and FF w/ all the different parameters that could be changed and worked through that several times. Oh, and even all the hormones of metabolism too (insulin, glucagon, cortisol, GH, thyroid -- and their effects on glucose levels, lipid metbaolism, protein).

Having all that info consolidated into one chart for each of those topics was super helpful. drilling it several times gave me confidence in my knowledge of how things change in different situations. Helped me to truly understand the relationships between the different parameters. And being able to work through them all those charts on a whim, almost instinctively, helped me for my exam. Because as I said before, they won't always present the parameters and their respective arrows the way you're used to seeing them. But if you really understand the dynamics of the disease process and how each parameter relates to one another, you can at least pick out the best of the bad answer choices, haha.

Maybe it'll help you.

Dman, been on here for like an horu and a half. I've paid my dues. Haha.

Thanks for sharing, interesting strategy.

 

[zebalong]

Took it yesterday too, wasn't bad. Wouldn't say it was easy, but nothing "unfair". The pictures were all high yield except one and I had one completely out of left field question, but i expected that after reading other people's experience - still can't figure out what the right answer was even after looking it up - then i just gave up and had a great day in the city.

Physio questions had arrows but none of them were completely weird. I did all the qbanks and I felt that helped me the most along with GT. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[dr seuss]

Took it yesterday too, wasn't bad. Wouldn't say it was easy, but nothing "unfair". The pictures were all high yield except one and I had one completely out of left field question, but i expected that after reading other people's experience - still can't figure out what the right answer was even after looking it up - then i just gave up and had a great day in the city.

Physio questions had arrows but none of them were completely weird. I did all the qbanks and I felt that helped me the most along with GT. Keeping my fingers crossed.

It shouldn't be bad if you do GT and all the qbanks.

 

[kdhmed]

.

 

[rocketbooster]

A kid in my class took the test today. He wrote a detailed summary but to sum it up: 70% integrated path, no pure physiology (physio was only tied in with other stuff) and not nearly as hard as UWorld. He said UWorld was great practice BUT a horrible predictor of Step 1-like questions. He said Step 1 questions are just like the NBME #3 (Yes #3, not 13 - our school makes us take #3 1-week before our test. He probably didn't take any other NBMEs.)

He said everything you need to know is in First Aid. And that Pathoma will get 60% of the questions, then you just need to supplement stats/psych/behavioral science/anatomy/msk/neuro for the last 40%.

Oh and I would probably consider this guy to be one of the main gunners of the class haha.

 

[zebalong]

It shouldn't be bad if you do GT and all the qbanks.

Yea but I would emphasize that by doing the qbanks, while you do solidifying knowledge, most importantly you become a better guesser/improves your test taking skills. I like USMLE weapon a lot but only finished about 80%, Rx was good with kaplan over the year to cram first aid in and World of course was great but its a small qbank. If you are a great test taker already then you might not need the practice, but in order for me to hit my goal range in my practice exams i did. I didn't get any repeats from any nbme (did 5, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 13) or uworld questions but a lot of the topics of course were repeated in wierd cryptic ways. Doing the qbanks just helped me break down some of the more complicated questions - not everyone probably needs all the practice though.

As other people have mentioned before, I felt like I left the test with probably most of the basic recall questions correct (except for a few, but i accepted i might make a couple of mistake on test day), but a large majority -15% or so, i felt i made really good guesses and probably got the answer correct but had no way to know for sure.

 

[holyhekshler]

A kid in my class took the test today. He wrote a detailed summary but to sum it up: 70% integrated path, no pure physiology (physio was only tied in with other stuff) and not nearly as hard as UWorld. He said UWorld was great practice BUT a horrible predictor of Step 1-like questions. He said Step 1 questions are just like the NBME #3 (Yes #3, not 13 - our school makes us take #3 1-week before our test. He probably didn't take any other NBMEs.)

He said everything you need to know is in First Aid. And that Pathoma will get 60% of the questions, then you just need to supplement stats/psych/behavioral science/anatomy/msk/neuro for the last 40%.

Oh and I would probably consider this guy to be one of the main gunners of the class haha.

1 - I would NOT bank on this, he may have gotten lucky. There are a bunch of gimme questions for sure, but those are not the majority of the questions. I found the test to be quite similar to UWorld with gimme questions mixed in here and there (which you don't really get with World) and then on mine >30% weird ass **** that was not covered in UWorld or FA. I think that the general consensus among most folks who have taken the real thing is that it is pretty similar to World in terms of difficulty with more 1 step reasoning questions than World has (some easy but also often on some weird facts that you might not know).

2. No way. He probably does not realize how much he knows that is not covered in FA. If I were a betting woman, I would guess that best case scenario 90% of the test will be stuff covered in FA. For most people it is probably somewhere around 75%-80% covered by FA *on some level* (ie - maybe covered in FA but then the q they ask you about that topic might not be in there because they are a** holes)

3. Yeah, that 😛

I'm really not trying to scare people but just know that you might walk into a test that is not so bad or you might walk into a cluster f*ck or something in between- you just gotta be ready to roll whichever way it goes.

 

[FSAP]

I have about ten days left and I am worried about forgetting stuff. I took NBME 11 yesterday and got 242. I still have six pathoma lectures I gotta finish since those are high yield and 200 usmle world q's. Should I focus more on those two or keep the first aid as what I spend most of my day on?

 

[rocketbooster]

1 - I would NOT bank on this, he may have gotten lucky. There are a bunch of gimme questions for sure, but those are not the majority of the questions. I found the test to be quite similar to UWorld with gimme questions mixed in here and there (which you don't really get with World) and then on mine >30% weird ass **** that was not covered in UWorld or FA. I think that the general consensus among most folks who have taken the real thing is that it is pretty similar to World in terms of difficulty with more 1 step reasoning questions than World has (some easy but also often on some weird facts that you might not know).

2. No way. He probably does not realize how much he knows that is not covered in FA. If I were a betting woman, I would guess that best case scenario 90% of the test will be stuff covered in FA. For most people it is probably somewhere around 75%-80% covered by FA *on some level* (ie - maybe covered in FA but then the q they ask you about that topic might not be in there because they are a** holes)

3. Yeah, that 😛

I'm really not trying to scare people but just know that you might walk into a test that is not so bad or you might walk into a cluster f*ck or something in between- you just gotta be ready to roll whichever way it goes.

I'm gonna go with what that guy said...at least consider his advice more than yours haha. Obviously your advice is not accurate considering you said you thought you did terrible and then got a 251. 😉 Some ppl just worry a bit too much...haha

 

[nopo18]

...I like USMLE weapon a lot...

 

[Muscledoc]

I'm gonna go with what that guy said...at least consider his advice more than yours haha. Obviously your advice is not accurate considering you said you thought you did terrible and then got a 251. 😉 Some ppl just worry a bit too much...haha

there's nothing wrong w/ worrying, haha. my problem in the past is that I didn't worry enough - and my undergrad transcripts are solid proof of that. worrying is definitely what kept me motivated these past 6 months.

i had a buddy who took his exam 1 week before mine tell me that his exam was easier than the nbme's, and that I shouldn't worry - in fact, that I should take a couple of days off and relax because I was more than prepared. I believed him that his was easier, but I forced myself to continue studying -- and I'm glad that I did. Had i settled for what I knew then, what my "solid" nbme/uwsa scores supposedly indicated that I knew, i wouldn't have netted the ~20 questions i got by studying that last week before my exam.

I can agree that in terms of my exam, that most of the answers could be deduced from what was in FA/Pathoma/Uworld in some way, shape, or form. But I agree w/ the miss, in the sense that, you shouldn't take one person's experience as the standard.

Best thing you can do is to be prepared for the worst. According to you, your buddy only took one NBME, so he only had one NBME to base his experience off of. The consensus is that from most peoples' experience, the newer NBME's are closer to the real deal.

Don't get me wrong, I don't discount what he says. definitely take his experience into consideration, and make it a part of your study tactics, if thats what you want. But be careful to not at least make note of what others have said, otherwise you might end up hurting yourself. Not everybody's exam is the same and I don't think that anybody who's reported their experience on here is trying to convince anybody that their experience is going to be exactly like what you experience on your usmle.

I'm glad I frequented student doctor (and scared myself on occasion by reading some of the ridiculous things people wrote -- got my as- in gear, haha) and spoke w/ multiple people about their exam experiences, otherwise I may just have become complacent after my buddy's experience last week. Where would that have put me after my exam? I would've been pissed that I didn't keep studying. Another thing, several people had recommended webpath for images, so the past couple of weeks I started using webpath -- lo and behold, 2 images from there showed up on my exam. Go figure.

Just my two cents. Just trying to help. 🙂

 

[Muscledoc]

Do you have a camera / scanner? Could you upload the chart you came up with (unless it was originally on a whiteboard, then obviously that wouldn't be possible)?

lol i've since then erased them. but go check out the heme section in RR path, that should get you started on the type of thing I put together for heme. All I did was I add hemachromatosis & pregnancy to that chart.

Also check out the PTH section in BRS, that'll give you an idea of the parameters I used for all of the bone stuff.

FA in the repro section - the LH/Testosterone parameters. I basically jsut expanded upon that and added FSH, estrogen, GnRH, and inhibin. Anything that was not a factor in a particular disease I just inputted a "-" for. E.g. for osteoporosis (i.e. endocrine) - all parameters (PTH, alk phos, Ca, phosphate, 1,25 vitamin D, etc) were marked as "-". Beneath that, Paget's dz, everything "-" except alk phos (arrow up, of course). And so on and so forth.

Oh, I forgot to say that I used most of DIT as well - and their workbook had a good expanded version of the GFR / RPF / FF section that you see in the renal section of FA. I.e. how things would change w/ NSAIDs, ACE-I. Easy concepts for the most part, but knowing how things changed w/o even have to blink an eye saved me a lot of time. Especially on some of those endocrine/repro questions.

Hope that clears that up a bit for you.

 

[rocketbooster]

there's nothing wrong w/ worrying, haha. my problem in the past is that I didn't worry enough - and my undergrad transcripts are solid proof of that. worrying is definitely what kept me motivated these past 6 months.

i had a buddy who took his exam 1 week before mine tell me that his exam was easier than the nbme's, and that I shouldn't worry - in fact, that I should take a couple of days off and relax because I was more than prepared. I believed him that his was easier, but I forced myself to continue studying -- and I'm glad that I did. Had i settled for what I knew then, what my "solid" nbme/uwsa scores supposedly indicated that I knew, i wouldn't have netted the ~20 questions i got by studying that last week before my exam.

I can agree that in terms of my exam, that most of the answers could be deduced from what was in FA/Pathoma/Uworld in some way, shape, or form. But I agree w/ the miss, in the sense that, you shouldn't take one person's experience as the standard.

Best thing you can do is to be prepared for the worst. According to you, your buddy only took one NBME, so he only had one NBME to base his experience off of. The consensus is that from most peoples' experience, the newer NBME's are closer to the real deal.

Don't get me wrong, I don't discount what he says. definitely take his experience into consideration, and make it a part of your study tactics, if thats what you want. But be careful to not at least make note of what others have said, otherwise you might end up hurting yourself. Not everybody's exam is the same and I don't think that anybody who's reported their experience on here is trying to convince anybody that their experience is going to be exactly like what you experience on your usmle.

I'm glad I frequented student doctor (and scared myself on occasion by reading some of the ridiculous things people wrote -- got my as- in gear, haha) and spoke w/ multiple people about their exam experiences, otherwise I may just have become complacent after my buddy's experience last week. Where would that have put me after my exam? I would've been pissed that I didn't keep studying. Another thing, several people had recommended webpath for images, so the past couple of weeks I started using webpath -- lo and behold, 2 images from there showed up on my exam. Go figure.

Just my two cents. Just trying to help. 🙂

Oh I agree 100% and am still studying my ass off because I want 10 pts higher on my score. I have 1 week left. Based on NBMEs, last weekend I was at 220, now I'm at 230. Went up 10 pts in one week before, now gotta do it again! Goal from the beginning was 240.

 

[Phloston]

lol i've since then erased them. but go check out the heme section in RR path, that should get you started on the type of thing I put together for heme. All I did was I add hemachromatosis & pregnancy to that chart.

Also check out the PTH section in BRS, that'll give you an idea of the parameters I used for all of the bone stuff.

FA in the repro section - the LH/Testosterone parameters. I basically jsut expanded upon that and added FSH, estrogen, GnRH, and inhibin. Anything that was not a factor in a particular disease I just inputted a "-" for. E.g. for osteoporosis (i.e. endocrine) - all parameters (PTH, alk phos, Ca, phosphate, 1,25 vitamin D, etc) were marked as "-". Beneath that, Paget's dz, everything "-" except alk phos (arrow up, of course). And so on and so forth.

Oh, I forgot to say that I used most of DIT as well - and their workbook had a good expanded version of the GFR / RPF / FF section that you see in the renal section of FA. I.e. how things would change w/ NSAIDs, ACE-I. Easy concepts for the most part, but knowing how things changed w/o even have to blink an eye saved me a lot of time. Especially on some of those endocrine/repro questions.

Hope that clears that up a bit for you.

Physio has never been one of those areas that I've particularly had any issues with, but you seem to have had a fairly bright idea as far as having made a hormone/electrolyte-changes chart is concerned.

I've just purchased the 4th edition of BRS Physiology off Amazon for $4.50. I don't plan on perusing it, but I will spend a couple of hours wrenching out some of the lab values/charts for use with the haeme section in Goljan RR.

Thanks again for your posts.

 

[zebalong]

You can check my post history, im definitely not trolling. For me personally U weapon really was a decent qbank or at least it felt like the real exam. I did DIT and had finished world/rx/kaplan, so there was nothing else to do. I was suprised by weapon, at first i thought it was a little all over the place but actually i felt i learned to do better guessing with their questions and felt the real thing was close enough to their questions that it made it worth it. I also got a random gene that i wouldn't have known unless i had done the question r/t a certain cancer.

I'm not saying anyone needs to do u weapon but i think that it is a decent option for those who have already done uworld/rx.. i would probably put it ahead of kaplan in terms of the real thing. I like RX like others have said to really hammer FA into my brain (of course along with GT) - without a strong base with FA i don't think i would have gotten as much out of DIT as i did just because of the way the course is set up.

 

[loveoforganic]

Even with GT, you preferred Rx over Qbank?

 

[Untraditional]

I just took NBME 13 and got a pathetic score. Do people really think this reflects the actual test? I thought it was way easier than UWorld.

That said, I'm facing sub 220 but I won't give up. 250 was the goal and I've finally figured out what works for me to study for this. I'm envious of the kids with study skills who know how to absorb lots of info quickly.

I have 10 days to boost my scores. "Fortunately" it seems like I'm missing on lots of the gimme stuff that can be memorized. Heavy pharm, micro biochem and genetics this next week.

 

[nopo18]

You can check my post history, im definitely not trolling. For me personally U weapon really was a decent qbank or at least it felt like the real exam. I did DIT and had finished world/rx/kaplan, so there was nothing else to do. I was suprised by weapon, at first i thought it was a little all over the place but actually i felt i learned to do better guessing with their questions and felt the real thing was close enough to their questions that it made it worth it. I also got a random gene that i wouldn't have known unless i had done the question r/t a certain cancer.

I'm not saying anyone needs to do u weapon but i think that it is a decent option for those who have already done uworld/rx.. i would probably put it ahead of kaplan in terms of the real thing. I like RX like others have said to really hammer FA into my brain (of course along with GT) - without a strong base with FA i don't think i would have gotten as much out of DIT as i did just because of the way the course is set up.

I figured you weren't trolling based on your post count 🙂

Interesting though, I've heard nothing but negative things about UWeapon so far, so it's interesting to hear something positive about it. Also am interested in hearing why you feel Rx is superior to Qbank... I've tried both Qbank and Rx.. and found Rx a bit easier, but Qbank had much more detailed/multi-step questionsm (Haven't finished either yet though). Where do you think UWeap falls? Did you find many errors/poor questions while going through it?

 

[MrBeauregard]

I just took NBME 13 and got a pathetic score. Do people really think this reflects the actual test? I thought it was way easier than UWorld.

That said, I'm facing sub 220 but I won't give up. 250 was the goal and I've finally figured out what works for me to study for this. I'm envious of the kids with study skills who know how to absorb lots of info quickly.

I have 10 days to boost my scores. "Fortunately" it seems like I'm missing on lots of the gimme stuff that can be memorized. Heavy pharm, micro biochem and genetics this next week.

How much of UWorld have you completed and have you taken UWSA 1 or 2? I just took form 1 and thought it was pretty stinkin' hard. It was much harder than NBME 11 (but I actually got a little bit higher score). I'm planning on taking either NBME 12 or 13 next, but just can't decide on what the best predictor is. I have ~2 weeks left.

 

[thinkenergy]

Posted this in a different thread, but thought I might get answers here faster.

There is an official STEP 1 practice exam (3 sections of 46 questions each) on USMLE website for 2012:

http://www.usmle.org/pdfs/step-1/2012content_step1.pdf

Recent test takers, can you comment on the similarity/difference/difficulty of this exam to the actual exam?

Thanks,

 

[Untraditional]

.

 

[generalsurg]

Hey guys, I have my exam at the end of June and need some help. Here's my progress (all online):

NBME 12: 238 (6 weeks ago)
NBME 6: 245 (5 weeks ago)
NBME 3: 242 (4 weeks ago)
UWSA 1: 258 (3 weeks ago)
UWSA 2: 262 (2 weeks ago)
NBME 11: 254 (this week).

I've finished USMLE World with 78% (scoring high 80's at the end). Now I know my scores look pretty good, but I don't feel close to ready... I do well on these exams, but i feel as though i still dont have it down at all. If you asked me an anatomy question, all I know is the axillary nerve injury or the common fibular nerve injury. Is this a normal feeling about this exam, because of the sheer amount of material to be learned? Did you all feel like this going into it? I feel probably weakest in Anatomy, some Physiology and Ethics.

I still have about 3.5 weeks and I am starting Pathoma tomorrow as well as redoing UWORLD (4 blocks a day.. won't be annotating FA this time though).. My goal is to also read FA 2 more times (read it twice). Would you recommend going through Anatomy thoroughly, or is it really that low yield.. Any advice would be helpful, I feel a little lost and worried about not remembering a lot of little details. 😀

 

[Untraditional]

How much of UWorld have you completed and have you taken UWSA 1 or 2? I just took form 1 and thought it was pretty stinkin' hard. It was much harder than NBME 11 (but I actually got a little bit higher score). I'm planning on taking either NBME 12 or 13 next, but just can't decide on what the best predictor is. I have ~2 weeks left.

I ran all of UWorld by systems in tutor mode through finals and at the start of my dedicated 4 weeks. A huge mistake, but that's another post.

On the UWorld assessments did #1 three weeks out improved on #2 two weeks out. Today's NBME 13 that I thought felt much easier than UWorld resulted in a lower score. I'll probably run NBME 11 or 12 next Sunday since many people here seem to do those.

There are plenty of posts in this thread with scores for comparison. Everyone here will probably be going into Orthodermatoradiologic surgery, though, so try not to get psyched out.

 

[WonderBoy]

I ran all of UWorld by systems in tutor mode through finals and at the start of my dedicated 4 weeks. A huge mistake, but that's another post.

On the UWorld assessments I got 200 on #1 three weeks out and 220 on #2 two weeks out. Today's NBME 13 that I thought felt much easier than UWorld resulted in a lower score. I'll probably run NBME 11 or 12 next Sunday since many people here seem to do those.

Why was it such a big mistake to do tutor mode? Having trouble with timing?

I have been doing it tutor timed, not spending more than 30secs. Hope to finish it once by mid June and do it over again random timed mode before step 1. Appreciate any insight, good luck!

 

[MrBeauregard]

I ran all of UWorld by systems in tutor mode through finals and at the start of my dedicated 4 weeks. A huge mistake, but that's another post.

Yeah why was this such a mistake? I've been doing the entire thing on untimed/tutor by system as well, but it seems to have worked out pretty well for me.

 

[villsingh]

Dear Fellow Test Takers,
I just joined SDN forum today. Its a great learning experience.
I need some guidance about my test.
I am planning to take testing first week of August. I have read Kaplan notes and have done FA once and have done UW with about average score of 64%.
What will be the best strategy and will two months will be enough to prepare me for exam.
Feedback will be highly appreciated.
Thanks a lot.

 

[Untraditional]

Yeah why was this such a mistake? I've been doing the entire thing on untimed/tutor by system as well, but it seems to have worked out pretty well for me.

In my case I spent too much time on problems and not enough time reading and reviewing so my knowledge of topic areas I was weak in has turned out to be pretty spotty. If I could do it over I would save UWorld for a few weeks and really hit my weak points hard beforehand. The UWorld questions would have had more benefit that way.

 

[Azipropofol]

In my case I spent too much time on problems and not enough time reading and reviewing so my knowledge of topic areas I was weak in has turned out to be pretty spotty. If I could do it over I would save UWorld for a few weeks and really hit my weak points hard beforehand. The UWorld questions would have had more benefit that way.

Untraditional, do you mean you spent too much time doing uworld questions early on and wish you would have done them later on in your study period?

 

[Untraditional]

Untraditional, do you mean you spent too much time doing uworld questions early on and wish you would have done them later on in your study period?

Yes.

 

[Aclamity]

People are saying that the question stems are a lot longer on the real deal. How are they compared to nbme 7? I thought those were decently long (i.e. 3-4 sentences with lots of lab values)

 

[red10]

How much of UWorld have you completed and have you taken UWSA 1 or 2? I just took form 1 and thought it was pretty stinkin' hard. It was much harder than NBME 11 (but I actually got a little bit higher score). I'm planning on taking either NBME 12 or 13 next, but just can't decide on what the best predictor is. I have ~2 weeks left.

I did UWSA and thought it was challenging. After hearing my classmates say 13 was super hard, I thought it was ok but my score did go down 10 pts from UWSA1 even with a week of studying between them.

I'll prob take UWSA 2 this weekend (3 days before my test). Debating if I wanna buy NBME 11 or 12 to take in a day or 2....

 

[metallica81788]

I have 9 days left and finished Uworld yesterday. Taken NBMEs 13, 7, 12. I was thinking about running through my incorrect Uworld questions (timed, with intense review only of stuff I still suck at) and hopefully trying to get through all of FA once more and the parts of it I suck at twice more. Does this sound like a decent plan?

Btw, I've already bought NBME 11 and plan to take it Friday as my last practice (test is next Thursday).

 

[shan564]

People are saying that the question stems are a lot longer on the real deal. How are they compared to nbme 7? I thought those were decently long (i.e. 3-4 sentences with lots of lab values)

I don't remember NBME 7 specifically, but the question stems on the real thing were pretty similar to UW.

 

[zebalong]

Even with GT, you preferred Rx over Qbank?

Its hard to say if anything was "too much" ... They did overlap a lot, but i think i learned a lot from overlapping sources. They each did have discrete info that i learned - RX has some random diseases - and one of them did actually turn up on my test, the disease is so random that i was thinking it might have been an experimental one. But is it worth doing something like 3400 questions for possibly just one question on the step? well.. its up to you, but it did make me feel more comfortable on the real thing. It also allowed me to really focus on world when i started it - i didnt have to "learn" as much material on world vs. actually just learning how to answer usmle-like questions. When i get more score back, if I'm content with it, ill post more on my prep experience.

 

[zebalong]

I figured you weren't trolling based on your post count 🙂

Interesting though, I've heard nothing but negative things about UWeapon so far, so it's interesting to hear something positive about it. Also am interested in hearing why you feel Rx is superior to Qbank... I've tried both Qbank and Rx.. and found Rx a bit easier, but Qbank had much more detailed/multi-step questionsm (Haven't finished either yet though). Where do you think UWeap falls? Did you find many errors/poor questions while going through it?

I like RX for hammering in FA not actually for replicating the test experience. Qbank was great during the year to get me to understand physio, and their arrow questions (physio values + hormones) are actually like the real thing imo. I like UWeapon, i don't want to really endorse it though until i have more score back... so ill post more about why i liked it in July . Suffice to say there aren't many errors (one or two grammar issues in the question stems maybe- annoying but not a deal breaker). The questions usually test understanding better then RX and kaplan which ask for more basic recall. for example - they'll describe the disease - but in the answer choice instead of the disease they give you histo descriptions instead of just asking for a name - i felt that is what the real step was like. Some the diseases are RANDOM (but like <5%) but those questions you can get by process of elimination if you really do know your stuff, and on the step I had to use the process of elimination quite a bit so I was happy that they had me do that. UWeapons strongest area is biostats - a lot of biostats questions which is kind of annoying, but it was a weaker section for me in the beginning and during the real thing i flew through all those questions and was lucky that my test was a felt biostats heavy. I also did uweapon on blocks of 50 and found my timing/question was exactly the same as the real deal since uweapons question length is VERY similair to the real thing, even more so then usmle world. There is nothing that i felt that was magical about weapon but I did feel it was solid. one bad thing isthat they don't have near enough brainstem slides but i find that no qbank does. My test had heavy imaging all of which was basic so it wasn't too bad and i felt like i probably got them right, but it would have been nice to have some more practice on doing them in the qbanks. I had so much energy on the real deal woke up at 4am and couldn't go back to bed, got to the testing center at 7am and waited outside - they actually opened the door at 725 and I started my test by 730 since I was the first one there, I finished by 1230pm with only a 3 very short bathroom and water breaks. did 3 blocks, then 2 blocks then 2 blocks - I couldnt believe how fast it went. didn't eat because i normally have a jacked up eating schedule and only eat one huge dinner... I am kicking myself for missing one simple definitions question so if you have time just make sure you know definitions for behavioral science, genetics, and micro - but i got lucky with a few guesses so I probably evened myself out and I knew I would probably make a dumb mistake on the real thing.

 

[meerkatmd]

Hey all. Quick question, for those of you who took it, what did you think of the free 150 question exam from usmle? How similar is it to the real deal? Thanks in advance.

 

[VisionaryTics]

Took it this morning. No idea what people are talking about with gigantic question stems and multiple pages of images/graphs and physio questions with answers from A to ZZ and 30% stuff not being in First Aid.

Mine seemed just like 7 blocks of UWorld with some gimme questions sprinkled in. Nothing too crazy, 98% of the stuff was in FA in some form or fashion.

I may do a full write-up when I get my score back, but for people freaking out about the exam, it's not different from UWorld/NBMEs.

 

[metallica81788]

Took it this morning. No idea what people are talking about with gigantic question stems and multiple pages of images/graphs and physio questions with answers from A to ZZ and 30% stuff not being in First Aid.

Mine seemed just like 7 blocks of UWorld with some gimme questions sprinkled in. Nothing too crazy, 98% of the stuff was in FA in some form or fashion.

I may do a full write-up when I get my score back, but for people freaking out about the exam, it's not different from UWorld/NBMEs.

Thank you for the confidence boost!

I wonder if the people that freak out on here are the ones going for 260+ and are just freaked out when they see something they don't know immediately or have to think about for longer than 3 seconds.

 

[michfiji09]

Took it this morning. No idea what people are talking about with gigantic question stems and multiple pages of images/graphs and physio questions with answers from A to ZZ and 30% stuff not being in First Aid.

Mine seemed just like 7 blocks of UWorld with some gimme questions sprinkled in. Nothing too crazy, 98% of the stuff was in FA in some form or fashion.

I may do a full write-up when I get my score back, but for people freaking out about the exam, it's not different from UWorld/NBMEs.

I am taking it tomorrow and this has calmed my nerves so much! I hope I have the same experience. 👍👍

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

I am taking it tomorrow and this has calmed my nerves so much! I hope I have the same experience. 👍👍

Best of luck! Yea... some of the above posts are nerve wrecking

 

[lrkoehle]

Took it this morning. No idea what people are talking about with gigantic question stems and multiple pages of images/graphs and physio questions with answers from A to ZZ and 30% stuff not being in First Aid.

Mine seemed just like 7 blocks of UWorld with some gimme questions sprinkled in. Nothing too crazy, 98% of the stuff was in FA in some form or fashion.

I may do a full write-up when I get my score back, but for people freaking out about the exam, it's not different from UWorld/NBMEs.

I love reading this. I had some friends take it on Friday, and they said essentially the same thing when I asked them about it. I didn't know if they were just trying to not freak me out or something, but I wasn't entirely sure if I believed them based on what I kept reading on here. I hope to have a similar experience to them and you, VisTics...8 more days of studying...

 

[deano5709]

Took it this morning. No idea what people are talking about with gigantic question stems and multiple pages of images/graphs and physio questions with answers from A to ZZ and 30% stuff not being in First Aid.

Mine seemed just like 7 blocks of UWorld with some gimme questions sprinkled in. Nothing too crazy, 98% of the stuff was in FA in some form or fashion.

I may do a full write-up when I get my score back, but for people freaking out about the exam, it's not different from UWorld/NBMEs.

Also took it today and this is exactly how I felt too. I actually told my wife when I got done that by the second block I felt like I was sitting at home doing Uworld. I think some of the folks from last year and a few months ago in this thread were spot on when they said that the real thing is between the NBMEs and Uworld. There are definitely some softball questions you would never seen in Uworld (e.g. here is the most classic presentation ever with all the buzzwords, give the disease), but there are also more difficult multistep questions than on the NBMEs. Overall i felt more prepared than I ever thought I would for the real thing. I'll post a longer write-up in a day or two when I decompress, but those of you taking it soon who have prepared well and done some Uworld will do just fine come test day (also I'm not the typical SDN super gunner going for a 270 whose "preparing well" includes robbins, harrisons, a review book for every subject, and 10,000 questions).

 

[rocketbooster]

1 - I would NOT bank on this, he may have gotten lucky. There are a bunch of gimme questions for sure, but those are not the majority of the questions. I found the test to be quite similar to UWorld with gimme questions mixed in here and there (which you don't really get with World) and then on mine >30% weird ass **** that was not covered in UWorld or FA. I think that the general consensus among most folks who have taken the real thing is that it is pretty similar to World in terms of difficulty with more 1 step reasoning questions than World has (some easy but also often on some weird facts that you might not know).

2. No way. He probably does not realize how much he knows that is not covered in FA. If I were a betting woman, I would guess that best case scenario 90% of the test will be stuff covered in FA. For most people it is probably somewhere around 75%-80% covered by FA *on some level* (ie - maybe covered in FA but then the q they ask you about that topic might not be in there because they are a** holes)

3. Yeah, that 😛

I'm really not trying to scare people but just know that you might walk into a test that is not so bad or you might walk into a cluster f*ck or something in between- you just gotta be ready to roll whichever way it goes.

Hey look, several more ppl who just took it said the samething that kid in my class said. Interesting. Guess YOU'RE the wrong one 😉. Or rather probably just uptight a bit 😉

 

[asiddiqi]

Its like vanilla cake with sprinkles fellas, stop stressing, half the people on here pose to be super gunners to psych others out, be confident in what you learned, take a deep breath and treat it like all the uworld questions you've been doing. everyone has the ability to do 250+ if you just learn to control nerves and learn to follow your gut. all the information is literally in the question stem.

 

[Radonkulous]

I wanted to gauge people's thoughts on the accuracy of NBME 11, 12, 13 in predicting real score. In other words, which is the best and if I happen to do better on one (say 11) compared to 13, which would be more likely barring any knowledge gaps.