Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[amavir281]

---

Members don't see this ad.

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

 

[GTP]

I'm aware that different people tend to cycle through this forum fairly quickly, so it's possible that you haven't read one of my previous posts where I had already mentioned that I hadn't seen FA until just this February, nor had I ever thought about sitting the USMLE until already close to the end of MS2 (the Australian academic year is the same as the calendar one, so I finished MS2 this past November). I'm not "spending a year" studying for this exam the same way you do during your designated prep period. You knew from the beginning you'd have to sit the USMLE at some point such that much of what you've touched upon during the final weeks is review. My school doesn't hit a lot of the same material. They tend to focus more on EBM and 2CK stuff during MS1/2. There are several Americans at University of Queensland enrolled in what's called the joint UQ-Ochsner program, where they do MS1/2 here and then go back to the States to do MS3/4 in New Orleans. Their cohort is entirely distinct from the 4-year UQ-Australia program (which is what I'm doing), with a completely different application process and enrollment cycle. I am one of two Americans in the 4-year UQ program. I believe there are 37 Americans in the UQ-Ochsner program. During MS1/2, I was aware that these students had had their own private tutorials and free resources given to them by the school, but I was never in their phalanx or study groups because I'm not in their program. The only reason I "know" so much about the Step1 is because I had heard that a couple of these students had been feeding off an upperclassman's SDN post (i.e. Pollux's). So I gave it a first-read during Sem2-MS2. I thought it was interesting because when I had first arrived in Australia as an MS1 in January of 2010, an MS2 had told me a rumor that someone from our program, a year earlier, had essentially gone into lock-down for a year and came out with the world's highest USMLE score. I remember thinking at the time that that was a bit overkill and that he must have cared a lot for whatever reason. Well I coincidentally found out a year and a half later that that was Jason Chang (Pollux) that he had been referring to. Apparently Jason had had a flatmate who had been studying just as hard, but eventually bailed on the plan because he couldn't handle it anymore.



You're right. I'm juggling a PhD right now. Fortunately, I had spent much of MS2 and all of December doing considerable work so that I can "coast" a little through this year while doing USMLE prep. And by coast I mean not needing to do 12-hr literature review days. Quite honestly, I actually feel a bit behind because I still haven't hit Kaplan or UWorld QBanks yet. Until I get through those two, I would not consider sitting the exam.

Pollux did all that work for a path residency? No offense...is it at Hopkins or something?

 

[Phloston]

Pollux did all that work for a path residency? No offense...is it at Hopkins or something?

It's just not about doing it for the residency. It's doing it for your own confidence in your knowledge-base.

I believe he was keen on Duke for one reason or another.

 

[GTP]

It's just not about doing it for the residency. It's doing it for your own confidence in your knowledge-base.

I believe he was keen on Duke for one reason or another.

I'm not sure I believe I will remember most of the Usmle content when I'm actually a practicing physician. I haven't started Pathoma and Goljan rr yet but I plan to use them. Perhaps the explanations and big concepts covered with these resources will stick with me, but I don't know if I will remember il6's implication in anemia of chronic disease. But to each their own 😀

 

[Phloston]

I'm not sure I believe I will remember most of the Usmle content when I'm actually a practicing physician. I haven't started Pathoma and Goljan rr yet but I plan to use them. Perhaps the explanations and big concepts covered with these resources will stick with me, but I don't know if I will remember il6's implication in anemia of chronic disease. But to each their own 😀

You probably will remember IL-6's role believe it or not. Lol.

I don't think the factoids will fade as much as I think the minute details of the biochemical pathways or DNA replication-type stuff will. IOW, we'll all remember Lesch-Nyhan and its clinical picture, but we might not be as crisp on the image of the diagram in FA.

 

[HalladayWeekend]

I'm aware that different people tend to cycle through this forum fairly quickly, so it's possible that you haven't read one of my previous posts where I had already mentioned that I hadn't seen FA until just this February, nor had I ever thought about sitting the USMLE until already close to the end of MS2 (the Australian academic year is the same as the calendar one, so I finished MS2 this past November). I'm not "spending a year" studying for this exam the same way you do during your designated prep period. You knew from the beginning you'd have to sit the USMLE at some point such that much of what you've touched upon during the final weeks is review. My school doesn't hit a lot of the same material. They tend to focus more on EBM and 2CK stuff during MS1/2. There are several Americans at University of Queensland enrolled in what's called the joint UQ-Ochsner program, where they do MS1/2 here and then go back to the States to do MS3/4 in New Orleans. Their cohort is entirely distinct from the 4-year UQ-Australia program (which is what I'm doing), with a completely different application process and enrollment cycle. I am one of two Americans in the 4-year UQ program. I believe there are 37 Americans in the UQ-Ochsner program. During MS1/2, I was aware that these students had had their own private tutorials and free resources given to them by the school, but I was never in their phalanx or study groups because I'm not in their program. The only reason I "know" so much about the Step1 is because I had heard that a couple of these students had been feeding off an upperclassman's SDN post (i.e. Pollux's). So I gave it a first-read during Sem2-MS2. I thought it was interesting because when I had first arrived in Australia as an MS1 in January of 2010, an MS2 had told me a rumor that someone from our program, a year earlier, had essentially gone into lock-down for a year and came out with the world's highest USMLE score. I remember thinking at the time that that was a bit overkill and that he must have cared a lot for whatever reason. Well I coincidentally found out a year and a half later that that was Jason Chang (Pollux) that he had been referring to. Apparently Jason had had a flatmate who had been studying just as hard, but eventually bailed on the plan because he couldn't handle it anymore.



You're right. I'm juggling a PhD right now. Fortunately, I had spent much of MS2 and all of December doing considerable work so that I can "coast" a little through this year while doing USMLE prep. And by coast I mean not needing to do 12-hr literature review days. Quite honestly, I actually feel a bit behind because I still haven't hit Kaplan or UWorld QBanks yet. Until I get through those two, I would not consider sitting the exam.

My post wasn't directed against you. I think there is a proportionate increase in scores that one will receive on this test (up to a certain point-this may differ somewhat amongst people). I believe that if you put in all this hard work, you deserve to get an amazing score. There is little evidence, however, to suggest that USMLE scores correlate with resident performance. This is why basing absolute scores on resident selection seems silly (I do think it serves a purpose as a cut-off).

 

[NeuroAP86]

well you did do better than your nbmes and 225 is a good score. best of luck to you too on rotations and stuff

Your definitely right and I don't really care to do anything too competitive anyways so I think I am good. Thank you!

congrats on the good score...what did you do in that one month to increase your score so much?

It was actually a combination of finishing the rest of Uworld 1st pass(had about 200 questions left) and going through DIT in a little over 2 weeks which was the primary reason my score went up so much in the last couple of weeks. I also did second pass Uworld with DIT. Hope that helps!

 

[RedSoxSuck]

exactly what i'm doing. oh, p.s. i've incorporated a explanation or two from you into some of my incorrects.

How are you guys able to screen shot? Mine shuts down.

 

[Boardz]

How are you guys able to screen shot? Mine shuts down.

skitch. boom.

 

[house4]

Step 1-252

Advice:
1) Take all NBMEs with extended feedback and make sure you review all the questions and use the forums to identify the correct answers. There were def a few repeats of similar question concepts/pictures on the actual exam. Also, it is def the best predictor of your actual score and should give you confidence if you are doing well.
2) FA-Obviously the best...need to understand everything in it and make sure to remember seemingly randomly facts throughout book as some will def show up on ur exam
3) UWorld-Best Qbank by far...annotate ONLY this into first aid,Go through the bank 2x (spend the majority of first time understanding it and 2nd time focus on all missed/marked questions first then review the rest to pick any details in incorrect answer choices that you might have missed), Use it as a learning tool (Do it untimed, tutor instead of timed, random), Use the practice exams as assessments like nbme to get used to the format of the exam as it is exactly the same. Take one NBME and one Uworld a week before to get used to the format of exam.
4) Goljan RR/Goljan Audio-Excellent for pathology, book is prolly overkill but def make sure to look at mechanisms and definitely look over all the pictures esp a few days before the exam; Heard pathoma is great as well and will probably get you to the same score

Other resources I'd recommend: Kaplan Biochem/Pharm Videos w/ Lecture Notes, Annotate into the book as you watch the videos. Anatomy/Neuroanatomy videos are good as well and I'd recommend watching them if you are weak in those areas. Def do this before your dedicated study period as going through videos/lectures notes takes a lot of time.

Used Kaplan Qbank didn't think it was that great probably don't need it. I'd just recommend doing Uworld a second time over Kaplan.

Def take your own notes on concepts/questions/whatever mechanisms you have learned, do this from the beginning of your dedicated study period and dedicate one day a week to just reviewing these notes w/ annotated first aid/uworld with no new material that day to prevent forgetting what you learned early on

 

[adaptation1]

failed the cbse. 170. studied for three weeks using only uworld. didn't touch first aid or take any nbmes. got a 225.

i wish i had simple studied more during m2. that would have made life a lot easier. i also wish i knew how to use first aid and didn't dismiss it. perhaps people without a robust background simply can't use first aid?

 

[Phloston]

Step 1-252

Advice:
1) Take all NBMEs with extended feedback and make sure you review all the questions and use the forums to identify the correct answers. There were def a few repeats of similar question concepts/pictures on the actual exam. Also, it is def the best predictor of your actual score and should give you confidence if you are doing well.
2) FA-Obviously the best...need to understand everything in it and make sure to remember seemingly randomly facts throughout book as some will def show up on ur exam
3) UWorld-Best Qbank by far...annotate ONLY this into first aid,Go through the bank 2x (spend the majority of first time understanding it and 2nd time focus on all missed/marked questions first then review the rest to pick any details in incorrect answer choices that you might have missed), Use it as a learning tool (Do it untimed, tutor instead of timed, random), Use the practice exams as assessments like nbme to get used to the format of the exam as it is exactly the same. Take one NBME and one Uworld a week before to get used to the format of exam.

Very helpful points. Thanks for posting. However, could you please elaborate on why you feel only UWorld should be annotated into FA? I can infer that you must think it was highest yield, but can you please be as specific as possible, particularly with relation to your thoughts on Kaplan? Cheers,

 

[weightlifter911]

failed the cbse. 170. studied for three weeks using only uworld. didn't touch first aid or take any nbmes. got a 225.

i wish i had simple studied more during m2. that would have made life a lot easier. i also wish i knew how to use first aid and didn't dismiss it. perhaps people without a robust background simply can't use first aid?

That is ballsy but awesome you were capable to have that type of increase in score. Congrats man

 

[Kaputt]

It's just not about doing it for the residency. It's doing it for your own confidence in your knowledge-base.

I believe he was keen on Duke for one reason or another.

Oh come on, you're putting Step 1 on such a high pedestal. Step 1 doesn't correlate at all to clinical performance, and one could easily argue that it tests many things that will have zero impact on your future clinical reasoning (especially with the stuff I've seen you post about here). Step 2 CK is probably the test that should be heavily emphasized, because at least owning that material is far more practical.

Also -- I don't get why you hide behind the "I never opened First Aid until February!" thing. I didn't open First Aid until January and I took the exam in April, so what's your point? Everyone knows the best prep for Step 1 is doing well in the preclinical years, not the amount of time you've had a copy of First Aid on hand. Plus, the difference in education between Australian and American schools probably plays more into your favor. American schools focus heavily on the low-yield research interests of its professors, while by your own admission Australian schools focus on Step 2 CK-esque knowledge (which is more applicable to the increasingly-clinical Step 1 than slides full of primary data from some researcher who thinks their research is the most important aspect of biomedical science).

You want a high score because you want a high score, and coming from a foreign medical school you need a high score. But playing it off like it's this grand intellectual exercise is kinda silly. I hope you do incredibly well -- largely for your peace of mind. You've invested heavily in this already. I can't imagine the pressure you'll continue to be under by the time you get to December.

 

[Macron]

Hi guys!

Exam Yesterday. Studied like 8 weeks.

NBME 12 - 500/221 5 weeks before
NBME 13 - 540/231 4 weeks before
NBME 06 - 500/221 (too much Biochem/Genetics) 3 weeks before
NBME 07 - 570/238 1week before
Free 150 - 83% 4 days before
UWorld tutor - 73% Only One time.

I found the exam very difficult, first 3 blocks easy, 4th block medium, las 3 blocks WTF!!! Was very confident before the test, expecting 240+, but I was destroyed during the exam.

Exam was Anatomy Heavy. Nerves and Inervation. Too little biochem and some weird genetics. Only about 5% of the questions has patient Race or ethnicity. Exam was heavy on neuro also. I was asked the same question 2times in different blocks (about 3q)

Time wasn't a problem for me, always finished a block with at least 5mins left (worst think, I changed some correct answers for the wrong one - this is destroying me right now).

Finally - I just walked out feeling the world was falling in front of me. Worst experience ever. I feel like I missed more than 15q per block (last 4 especially). There are like 5 easy q I missed during the exam for sure. Feeling I didn't pass the exam because I was guessing a lot and know I did some stupid errors. I can't stop thinking about the exam and the shame of failing.

Please study hard, score 10+ point over your expected score on NBMEs.

 

[Boardz]

Hi guys!

Exam Yesterday. Studied like 8 weeks.

NBME 12 - 500/221 5 weeks before
NBME 13 - 540/231 4 weeks before
NBME 06 - 500/221 (too much Biochem/Genetics) 3 weeks before
NBME 07 - 570/238 1week before
Free 150 - 83% 4 days before
UWorld tutor - 73% Only One time.

I found the exam very difficult, first 3 blocks easy, 4th block medium, las 3 blocks WTF!!! Was very confident before the test, expecting 240+, but I was destroyed during the exam.

Exam was Anatomy Heavy. Nerves and Inervation. Too little biochem and some weird genetics. Only about 5% of the questions has patient Race or ethnicity. Exam was heavy on neuro also. I was asked the same question 2times in different blocks (about 3q)

Time wasn't a problem for me, always finished a block with at least 5mins left (worst think, I changed some correct answers for the wrong one - this is destroying me right now).

Finally - I just walked out feeling the world was falling in front of me. Worst experience ever. I feel like I missed more than 15q per block (last 4 especially). There are like 5 easy q I missed during the exam for sure. Feeling I didn't pass the exam because I was guessing a lot and know I did some stupid errors. I can't stop thinking about the exam and the shame of failing.

Please study hard, score 10+ point over your expected score on NBMEs.

the last post i read the dude felt horrible about his exam and scored 250s. If I feel like I did well on the exam afterwards, I think I would start worrying.

Hope for the best and if you put the time (which it looks like you did) in I bet you'll be fine.

 

[thatsmate]

Chin up, Macron. Try not to think about it and just relax for the next three weeks. As you know, many people come out thinking they did poorly. It sounds like it was a tough exam, so I'm sure many people struggled. You'll be fine.

 

[greatwall11]

I feel the exact same way, Macron. I'm hoping that other people also feel similarly because here it seems like everyone walked out feeling like a million bucks!

 

[Bmw325]

Hi guys!

Exam Yesterday. Studied like 8 weeks.

NBME 12 - 500/221 5 weeks before
NBME 13 - 540/231 4 weeks before
NBME 06 - 500/221 (too much Biochem/Genetics) 3 weeks before
NBME 07 - 570/238 1week before
Free 150 - 83% 4 days before
UWorld tutor - 73% Only One time.

I found the exam very difficult, first 3 blocks easy, 4th block medium, las 3 blocks WTF!!! Was very confident before the test, expecting 240+, but I was destroyed during the exam.

Exam was Anatomy Heavy. Nerves and Inervation. Too little biochem and some weird genetics. Only about 5% of the questions has patient Race or ethnicity. Exam was heavy on neuro also. I was asked the same question 2times in different blocks (about 3q)

Time wasn't a problem for me, always finished a block with at least 5mins left (worst think, I changed some correct answers for the wrong one - this is destroying me right now).

Finally - I just walked out feeling the world was falling in front of me. Worst experience ever. I feel like I missed more than 15q per block (last 4 especially). There are like 5 easy q I missed during the exam for sure. Feeling I didn't pass the exam because I was guessing a lot and know I did some stupid errors. I can't stop thinking about the exam and the shame of failing.

Please study hard, score 10+ point over your expected score on NBMEs.

Macron took mine 6/28 and i felt the exact way you felt!!! I was scoring in the 240s for practice nbme but i felt that the real thing went much worse and right now im hoping just for a 220!! but i get my score tomo so ill let you know if our worries are unfounded lol

 

[LeverArm]

I was debating whether to put up my score because it doesn't meet SDN criteria of worthiness but for anyone out there that struggled at any point during medical school (i.e. failing or coming close to it for a class or more) here is some hope:

I am by no means a gunner. In fact, I failed anatomy early on and ended my first year in the lower half of my class and ended the second half in the upper 1/3. I started doing anything for Step when the new edition for FA came out in Jan. At that point, I would study my class notes, while listening to Goljan and just following along in RR as he spoke. The day or 2 before an exam I listened and followed along in Pathoma (it was good review). Immediately after an exam, I spent about 2 days carefully annotating the relevant material in FA (clarify points that I thought later would make FA more fluid and understandable).

I studied for 5 weeks, where my ONLY material was FA (which had all the systems annotated by this point) x 3 + UW (just 1 time, making sure I understood the answer discussions).

My USMLE score was 233

This was even after not getting more than 5 hours of sleep the night before and having issues at the test center. 5 questions immediately after the test was over I recalled I got wrong on my drive back home from the test center. Other questions that I got wrong were simply because I forgot what was written in FA.

My advice for people like me is KNOW FA! I never once during the test thought "oh I wish I did more pathoma or RR". It was like "Oh, I remember reading that in FA and I could almost picture the page but I can't remember exactly what it said!"

Hope this helps for the non-gunner lurkers who are ashamed to post but that would be happy with a score in the 230s!

 

[trep14]

To the people who walked out of the exam thinking they did terrible: Its a perfectly normal feeling to walk out of the exam and think you bombed it and got 20 points below your practice scores but the reality is you probably did right around what you averaged on the practice tests, so don't stress, you did fine. I walked out of that test honestly thinking I scored around a 210 and was so scared to open my score report and found that I got a 235, which was right around my practice test scores of 228 and 231 on NBME's.

 

[Boardz]

I was debating whether to put up my score because it doesn't meet SDN criteria of worthiness but for anyone out there that struggled at any point during medical school (i.e. failing or coming close to it for a class or more) here is some hope:

I am by no means a gunner. In fact, I failed anatomy early on and ended my first year in the lower half of my class and ended the second half in the upper 1/3. I started doing anything for Step when the new edition for FA came out in Jan. At that point, I would study my class notes, while listening to Goljan and just following along in RR as he spoke. The day or 2 before an exam I listened and followed along in Pathoma (it was good review). Immediately after an exam, I spent about 2 days carefully annotating the relevant material in FA (clarify points that I thought later would make FA more fluid and understandable).

I studied for 5 weeks, where my ONLY material was FA (which had all the systems annotated by this point) x 3 + UW (just 1 time, making sure I understood the answer discussions).

My USMLE score was 233

This was even after not getting more than 5 hours of sleep the night before and having issues at the test center. 5 questions immediately after the test was over I recalled I got wrong on my drive back home from the test center. Other questions that I got wrong were simply because I forgot what was written in FA.

My advice for people like me is KNOW FA! I never once during the test thought "oh I wish I did more pathoma or RR". It was like "Oh, I remember reading that in FA and I could almost picture the page but I can't remember exactly what it said!"

Hope this helps for the non-gunner lurkers who are ashamed to post but that would be happy with a score in the 230s!

hmm, thanks for posting this. I have a little over a week and I'm spending it doing:

pathoma (2nd time) + FA + UW incorrects + usmleRX + 36 page goljan + NBMEs I can squeeze in.

I also plan on doing UW again a couple days before the exam.

(context: 76% UW cumulative, 226 nbme 12, 242ish nbme 13 a couple days ago)

do you guys think it's too much?

RX is really good at letting me know I don't know every word in first aid. maybe it's a little too good at this. 😕

 

[Tomodachi123]

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

 

[LeverArm]

hmm, thanks for posting this. I have a little over a week and I'm spending it doing:

pathoma (2nd time) + FA + UW incorrects + usmleRX + 36 page goljan + NBMEs I can squeeze in.

I also plan on doing UW again a couple days before the exam.

(context: 76% UW cumulative, 226 nbme 12, 242ish nbme 13 a couple days ago)

do you guys think it's too much?

RX is really good at letting me know I don't know every word in first aid. maybe it's a little too good at this. 😕

1 week is perfect to reread all of FA and doing maybe 1-2 sets a day of qs you got wrong on UW. Trust me, virtually everything on the actual test is in FA and every line you can recall from the book will be a potential point or two. I read about half of the 36 page Goljan thing 2 days before my test and I felt my time would have been way better spent skimming FA. I wish I had known just how high yield it could potentially be beforehand.

 

[Phloston]

My advice for people like me is KNOW FA! I never once during the test thought "oh I wish I did more pathoma or RR". It was like "Oh, I remember reading that in FA and I could almost picture the page but I can't remember exactly what it said!"

That's very helpful. Thanks. Sounds almost obvious, but I've been tempted to stray to some other adjunct resources, so that's good (and probably necessary) to hear.

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

When did you sit those NBME exams?

1 week is perfect to reread all of FA and doing maybe 1-2 sets a day of qs you got wrong on UW. Trust me, virtually everything on the actual test is in FA and every line you can recall from the book will be a potential point or two. I read about half of the 36 page Goljan thing 2 days before my test and I felt my time would have been way better spent skimming FA. I wish I had known just how high yield it could potentially be beforehand.

Once again, glad to hear the value of FA.

Oh come on, you're putting Step 1 on such a high pedestal. Step 1 doesn't correlate at all to clinical performance, and one could easily argue that it tests many things that will have zero impact on your future clinical reasoning (especially with the stuff I've seen you post about here). Step 2 CK is probably the test that should be heavily emphasized, because at least owning that material is far more practical.

Also -- I don't get why you hide behind the "I never opened First Aid until February!" thing. I didn't open First Aid until January and I took the exam in April, so what's your point? Everyone knows the best prep for Step 1 is doing well in the preclinical years, not the amount of time you've had a copy of First Aid on hand. Plus, the difference in education between Australian and American schools probably plays more into your favor. American schools focus heavily on the low-yield research interests of its professors, while by your own admission Australian schools focus on Step 2 CK-esque knowledge (which is more applicable to the increasingly-clinical Step 1 than slides full of primary data from some researcher who thinks their research is the most important aspect of biomedical science).

You want a high score because you want a high score, and coming from a foreign medical school you need a high score. But playing it off like it's this grand intellectual exercise is kinda silly. I hope you do incredibly well -- largely for your peace of mind. You've invested heavily in this already. I can't imagine the pressure you'll continue to be under by the time you get to December.

I didn't say Step1 correlates with clinical performance. I said the prep can reinforce your confidence in your own knowledge-base.

I agree that December will be a tight-junction for sure. Based on having read some of these posts, the only thing that might be even minimally appeasing at that point is if I've done some recent NBMEs and they've turned out okay. Then I'd know there's no reason to panic.

I'll be sitting NBME3 some time over the next 12 days (given that they're retiring it on July 30th), so I'll post that score for the time-being. I'm not expecting much beyond a decent performance at the moment, but yet again, crunch time before the real USMLE, not the NBMEs, would be dedicated to the HY points.

 

[AngryBird69]

Hello everyone, just wanted to report back: 241. Fell waaay short of my last nbme of 258 and although I'm not ecstatic im not unhappy with my score. I'm still up in the air on whether I want to do derm or neurology so only time will tell. Congrats to everyone on here with the awesome scores!! Thank you once again to SDN for all the help during this insane ordeal.

 

[GTP]

That's very helpful. Thanks. Sounds almost obvious, but I've been tempted to stray to some other adjunct resources, so that's good (and probably necessary) to hear.



When did you sit those NBME exams?



Once again, glad to hear the value of FA.



I didn't say Step1 correlates with clinical performance. I said the prep can reinforce your confidence in your own knowledge-base.

I agree that December will be a tight-junction for sure. Based on having read some of these posts, the only thing that might be even minimally appeasing at that point is if I've done some recent NBMEs and they've turned out okay. Then I'd know there's no reason to panic.

I'll be sitting NBME3 some time over the next 12 days (given that they're retiring it on July 30th), so I'll post that score for the time-being. I'm not expecting much beyond a decent performance at the moment, but yet again, crunch time before the real USMLE, not the NBMEs, would be dedicated to the HY points.

What do you mean they are retiring it? U keep saying this lol...pls clarify

 

[Aconitase]

Hello everyone, just wanted to report back: 241. Fell waaay short of my last nbme of 258 and although I'm not ecstatic im not unhappy with my score. I'm still up in the air on whether I want to do derm or neurology so only time will tell. Congrats to everyone on here with the awesome scores!! Thank you once again to SDN for all the help during this insane ordeal.

Well done, AngryBird!

 

[house4]

Very helpful points. Thanks for posting. However, could you please elaborate on why you feel only UWorld should be annotated into FA? I can infer that you must think it was highest yield, but can you please be as specific as possible, particularly with relation to your thoughts on Kaplan? Cheers,

UWorld is by far the 2nd most high-yield resource after FA. If you start annotating too many other sources, you lose focus on the basic concepts that are far more likely to be tested than specific details of mechanisms

Kaplan Qbank often goes into too much detail, I'm sure there a few questions that you may get right because of it on the actual exam but I don't specifically remember any question in the Qbank that helped me get a correct answer on the actual exam.

Nevertheless, Kaplan resources (lectures notes+Qbank) are great for reinforcing your weaknesses.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

im so nervous i feel like I can't keep my food down. Stress of rotations / stress of score release tomorrow. hating life atm. damn i feel like end of second year to start of 3rd year is a constant daily beating of people pushing crap down on us -_-

 

[eastcoastdr]

Just got my prometrics email reminder for my exam on Friday. As if I would forget when one of the most important exams of my schooling is! LOL

Took a UWSA today, got a 238. I'm so burnt out and I just want this exam to be over yet I feel like there's so much left I could review. Dear god, please please please let all my NBMEs/UWSAs be a good predictor! I'm confident that I can do well and score >220 but a tiny part of me is afraid I'll totally blank out & fail, even though I've had solid scores on my practice tests.

 

[Phloston]

What do you mean they are retiring it? U keep saying this lol...pls clarify

It is no longer available for purchase after July 30th. If you want to sit NBME3 as a practice exam, buy it before then.

UWorld is by far the 2nd most high-yield resource after FA. If you start annotating too many other sources, you lose focus on the basic concepts that are far more likely to be tested than specific details of mechanisms

Kaplan Qbank often goes into too much detail, I'm sure there a few questions that you may get right because of it on the actual exam but I don't specifically remember any question in the Qbank that helped me get a correct answer on the actual exam.

Nevertheless, Kaplan resources (lectures notes+Qbank) are great for reinforcing your weaknesses.

Thanks for the insight. That's very helpful.

 

[Tiburon]

Congratulations all!

Just a note to everybody, be sure to print off your score reports and performance profiles and save them as PDFs. They disappear after a while and NBME charges an arm and a leg for additional copies, which do not include the performance profile (just the score).

 

[g8orlife]

So my study plan was pretty longitudinal. My resources were BRS Physiology, Pathoma, First Aid, RR Biochem, High-Yield Cell and Molecular bio, and Robbins Review of pathology. I used Kaplan Q bank throughout the school year and was done with about 3/4 of it before I took the year-end CBSE at which point I switched over to UWorld for my dedicated study time.

Basically during my pathology course, for each organ system I would spend a few days mastering the physiology content for the organ system we were covering, and I would do the questions at the end of the BRS chapter to assess my mastery. Then I would move on to the Pathoma section for the organ system and make sure I really mastered that and understood it on a conceptual level (which was pretty easy because Dr. Sattar is truly gifted in this department). I would then try to integrate the physiology and pathology by giving the FA section for the organ system a read and annotating relevant pathology into the physiology section, and relevant physiology into the pathology section. This integration step is so crucial. Honestly my copy of FA looks like it belongs to a madman because if something reminded me of a concept I would write it there and then, and I think this made a huge difference for me. Once I had done that, I would go and do the questions that pertained to the organ system in Robbins Review of Path, and read the answers to ALL questions at the end of the chapter. This took a lot of time away from studying my school specific material, and my grades went down significantly from first year to second, but after doing everything I outlined above I felt fine going into my school's exams and would end up doing slightly better than average (I was basically giving up stupid factoids like memorizing the LD50 of lidocaine and nailing all of the high-yeild points on each exam).

Along with all of this, I would do a random block of 46 Kaplan Q bank questions per night, and afterwards I reviewed the answer to EVERY question. Obviously it's going to be slow at first, and you're going to get a lot wrong because there are topics you have yet to cover. I reviewed each block with my FA open in front of me, and Kaplan is great for this because they give the relevant FA page for each question. So I was able to read their detailed explanation, annotate into FA right there and then, and also read the section in FA if I felt weak there. I NEVER read FA cover-to-cover like I hear so many people doing here, but if you were to look at my annotations, you'd be convinced I had done so 5 times. If you go through FA with your Q bank, you will cover the material. Again, it is crucial to integrate here where you can. I remember I had a question about de novo pyrimidine synthesis which was a topic I hadn't seen in over a year, so I spent some time with the Kaplan explanation, FA, and would reference RR Biochem here and there, and I learned it. Later on I got a question about the urea cycle, which again I hadn't seen in a while so I studied it as above, and light bulb went off when I read "carbamoyl phosphate". I knew I had seen it before, but I wasn't sure where, so I flipped through the FA biochem section, and sure enough there it was in de novo pyrimidine synth, so I CONNECTED them. Now every time I saw a urea cycle question it reinforced de novo pyrimidine synth, and vice-versa. This part is SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOO crucial. Without this, FA is a collection of random facts. If you connect the different boxes, it becomes a confluent picture that makes sense.

SO I did Kaplan until my dedicated study period and got through the majority of it (had about 600 or so questions left) before switching over to UWorld. I basically used UWorld in the same way that I used Kaplan. I did two random blocks of 46 in the AM and reviewed ALL of the questions in the afternoon. At this point I knew what some of my weak points were and focused on them. I still had some holes in biochem so I went and read High-Yield Cell and Molecular as well as RR Biochem after I'd get done studying for the day. I was also somewhat weak in pharm, but honestly FA + the Q banks were money for this. At this point in my studying I had pathology and physio down pat because of all of the work I had put in before, and any time these questions would come up I would try to find novel ways to integrate subjects (i.e. I would try to integrate across topics; ex: A question comes up about the pathology of alcoholic liver disease, I connect that to the biochemical degradation of alcohol and branch from that into other systems, and from there I might branch off into acid-base physiology, effects on the TCA cycle, etc.).

I did so many practice exams because when studying for the MCAT I found that if I got on a schedule of doing practice exams at regular intervals (weekly, and then every-other-day in the last week) the real thing would just feel routine.

That's about it though. I let the Q banks handle random topics like anatomy that wasn't covered in FA, and I thought the Q banks + FA were great for micro. I think the key to using the Q banks is to really read the explanation for EVERY question (right or wrong) and EVERY answer possibility. Where you can, use the explanation to quiz yourself too. For example, if you get one of those physiology questions with the arrows, try and reason out what the other answer choices would correspond to before going and reading the explanation. I found it was exceptionally rare that an answer offered by UWorld or Kaplan was total non-sense (I can think of maybe 2 times where an explanation was offered as "This is not a physiologic profile we would ever expect to see."). So with that said, every question and every possible answer offers a learning experience.

TL;DR: I studied with my classes and think integrating topics is very important. If you have any questions lemme know (I felt like I was rambling a bit, so sorry in advance if anything is unclear!).

Spyderracing, did you base your study plan off of Tau's method? The books look similar.
Also, (if you don't mind sharing) did you perform similar to your practice scores using this study plan?

 

[g8orlife]

Hello everyone, just wanted to report back: 241. Fell waaay short of my last nbme of 258 and although I'm not ecstatic im not unhappy with my score. I'm still up in the air on whether I want to do derm or neurology so only time will tell. Congrats to everyone on here with the awesome scores!! Thank you once again to SDN for all the help during this insane ordeal.

Still a great score! Good job!

 

[Aclamity]

Congratulations all!

Just a note to everybody, be sure to print off your score reports and performance profiles and save them as PDFs. They disappear after a while and NBME charges an arm and a leg for additional copies, which do not include the performance profile (just the score).

Thanks for the tip. Just curious, is there any reason we would need our score report in the future?

 

[Tiburon]

Thanks for the tip. Just curious, is there any reason we would need our score report in the future?

Some residencies ask for the performance profiles (at least in Ophtho). If you don't have it, it's probably fine. But saving the report will save you some headache later.

 

[katarina90]

Got my score back last weds (Jul 11) and was debating whether or not to post (I wasn't one of those super-high scores) but I did well enough and beat my goal of 230 by quite a few points (I'm obv not anonymous here given that my real name is my handle, so I'm not going to post exact score publicly).

score prediction: First I wanted to say that of all the predictors on USMLE score, the one that came closest was the UWorld percentage formula (2.4 x % correct +84) which was within 1 point of my actual score. NBMEs were all 10-15 points underpredicting, and both UWSAs overpredicted by 5-10 points (which I expected). For me UWSAs overpredicted but not by the 15+ points that some people had experienced.

question difficulty: Thought that question difficulty was somewhere between UW and NBME. More details than were given in the NBME practice exams, so stems were less vague.

I did so many resources during studying that I don't want to post the whole list, especially since some of it, quite honestly wasn't that helpful except for to quell my neuroticism. I didn't take any extra time off to study except for the 5 weeks allotted by my school, and I can say I'm glad I took both COMLEX and USMLE before starting rotations, I'm on rotation now and can't imagine studying for it concurrently.

Resources that did help: FA 2011 and 2012 (read each three times), Uworld, Goljan's pathology book, HY Cell and Molecular, experience tutoring neuro for the past year (lots of neuro on my test, and they weren't gimmes and weren't in FA--needed to know pictures/cross sections fairly well), RR pharmacology.

I also did Kaplan but I think the main point of that was to get me studying early on (had 1 year of access so I bought it in October). For the price, it is a decent organization tool to keep you focused but don't expect the content to be earth-shattering or anything new because mostly it reiterates FA. The question bank is OK, not as efficient as UW, but still relatively similar to the actual test.

What i wish i'd done: I'd have sacrificed # of questions (I did over 8000) to spend more time reading FA and brushing up on physio. More time on HY Cell and Molecular which would have gained me some points probably. Would have gone through Rapid Review Gross Anatomy during the final week to brush up on high yield anatomical relationships.

Anyways, hope this helps a little. Feel free to PM me. I don't want to say any more about the actual test, but I'd be happy to share my study plan if anyone is curious. I started studying in late September and have no regrets over starting early...if anything the last month was the easiest because I did the same thing I had been doing, but had no school obligations to worry about.

 

[JustWannaBeAnMD]

thanks your score prediction part really helps ..... I'm still waiting...... I found my NBMEs and UWORLDSAs 20 points apart.... this helps me narrow my range of scores! Thanks a lot! So nervous!

 

[MoistHands]

Got my score back last weds (Jul 11) and was debating whether or not to post (I wasn't one of those super-high scores) but I did well enough and beat my goal of 230 by quite a few points (I'm obv not anonymous here given that my real name is my handle, so I'm not going to post exact score publicly).

score prediction: First I wanted to say that of all the predictors on USMLE score, the one that came closest was the UWorld percentage formula (2.4 x % correct +84) which was within 1 point of my actual score. NBMEs were all 10-15 points underpredicting, and both UWSAs overpredicted by 5-10 points (which I expected). For me UWSAs overpredicted but not by the 15+ points that some people had experienced.

question difficulty: Thought that question difficulty was somewhere between UW and NBME. More details than were given in the NBME practice exams, so stems were less vague.

I did so many resources during studying that I don't want to post the whole list, especially since some of it, quite honestly wasn't that helpful except for to quell my neuroticism. I didn't take any extra time off to study except for the 5 weeks allotted by my school, and I can say I'm glad I took both COMLEX and USMLE before starting rotations, I'm on rotation now and can't imagine studying for it concurrently.

Resources that did help: FA 2011 and 2012 (read each three times), Uworld, Goljan's pathology book, HY Cell and Molecular, experience tutoring neuro for the past year (lots of neuro on my test, and they weren't gimmes and weren't in FA--needed to know pictures/cross sections fairly well), RR pharmacology.

I also did Kaplan but I think the main point of that was to get me studying early on (had 1 year of access so I bought it in October). For the price, it is a decent organization tool to keep you focused but don't expect the content to be earth-shattering or anything new because mostly it reiterates FA. The question bank is OK, not as efficient as UW, but still relatively similar to the actual test.

What i wish i'd done: I'd have sacrificed # of questions (I did over 8000) to spend more time reading FA and brushing up on physio. More time on HY Cell and Molecular which would have gained me some points probably. Would have gone through Rapid Review Gross Anatomy during the final week to brush up on high yield anatomical relationships.

Anyways, hope this helps a little. Feel free to PM me. I don't want to say any more about the actual test, but I'd be happy to share my study plan if anyone is curious. I started studying in late September and have no regrets over starting early...if anything the last month was the easiest because I did the same thing I had been doing, but had no school obligations to worry about.

Thanks for posting your exp.

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

 

[dragon529]

Is the Mol Cell in FA not enough?

 

[Bmw325]

Has anyonne recieved their score tday yet?

 

[FutureDoc1125]

Nope, took mine on 06/23 and still waiting....

 

[B52]

Took mine the 26th and haven't received anything yet. My print permit link disappeared on Monday

 

[lonelyT]

.

 

[Chaoticsheath]

No score yet for me

 

[BSMAMD]

Scores will be up at 11 am EST. We all just got an email.

 

[peace zealot]

IMG here, permit was gone on Monday, no score yet.

 

[B52]

i didn't receive that email

 

[BSMAMD]

Oh! I assumed they sent it to everyone who would get their scores today. I could be wrong! Here's what mine said:

Your USMLE Step 1 SCORE REPORT will be available later this morning on the NBME Licensing Examination Services (NLES) website. The release of scores is typically scheduled around 11:00 am Eastern Time, but it may be necessary, on occasion, to depart from this schedule due to larger-than-normal examinee volume, technical problems, or other circumstances. Please note that depending upon the level of server traffic on reporting day, you may experience a delay in accessing your results.

 

[B52]

BSMAMD thanks for showing the email. when did you take your test?