Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Phloston]

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I figure now is a good time to jump-start this thread.

Even though some of us who had taken the exam in late-2012 are still awaiting our scores (amid the holiday delays) and could technically still post within last year's thread, it is after all mid-January now, so it's probably apposite that we move forward and hope for a great year.

Cheers to 2013

 

[John Lannister]

Have a few questions / looking for advice

I have about two more weeks of class until I'll be in my dedicated study period. Over the past couple weeks, I made a pass of FA and the kaplan videos for pharm and behavioral. My original plan for dedicated time was more or less to do pathoma throughout, make a pass of FA right at the start, do UW in the middle, and make a final pass of FA at the end.

After the pass of FA I just made, I did my first three blocks of UW (timed tutor, random), and they went much better than I was expecting them to (86% overall, 91% => 80% => 85% for each block respectively). I'm wondering if doing another pass of FA in just a couple weeks would be kind of a waste of time if the memory is fresh enough that I'm doing that well, should I start with UW and have two condensed passes of FA toward the middle and end? Or maybe just a single pass of FA at the end?

Also, I'm having MAJOR trouble with getting through the UW blocks in a reasonable time frame... I don't have any issues answering the questions quickly (have been finishing w/20-30 min left), but with reviewing and annotating, each block has taken me like... 10 hours. Productive hours. And that's completely unrealistic for dedicated time. I'd greatly appreciate any tips that y'all have found helpful to pick up the pace reviewing and annotating without feeling too much like you're missing out on the content (everything just seems important to me, whether it's a new way they explain something, or something I haven't heard of before, etc.)

TYIA

I had read this post and had a few questions for others.

I noticed in the Taus method they recommended to do 4 blocks of Uworld (in the morning!) with an additional 6 hours of studying after you finished all 4 blocks.

The last 2 weeks

AM: 184 UW Questions, in random/timed blocks of 46, then go over all explanations in full

PM: 6 hours of studying per day, as divided below
- get through everything in 10 Days. Start with your weakest subjects, as shown by your last NBME
- final 3 day plan at the end

I'm just trying to reconcile this, as I'm taking a good amount of time to get through a block and others have mentioned this also. What is a good amount of time to finish a block of Uworld? How did they do 4 blocks and then do 6 more hours of studying after that? Did Uworld used to be shorter or something?😕

 

[Golden Boy]

I had read this post and had a few questions for others.

I noticed in the Taus method they recommended to do 4 blocks of Uworld (in the morning!) with an additional 6 hours of studying after you finished all 4 blocks.



I'm just trying to reconcile this, as I'm taking a good amount of time to get through a block and others have mentioned this also. What is a good amount of time to finish a block of Uworld? How did they do 4 blocks and then do 6 more hours of studying after that? Did Uworld used to be shorter or something?😕

4 blocks of UWorld (at any time of day) seems like overkill to me. My real exam taken this month was not similar to UWorld content and style-wise (the screen interface is 100% identical, though). I would recommend doing UWorld just for the practice of doing questions, and for learning/reviewing concepts and details that many times are not covered adequately in First Aid. For my study period, I studied FA during the morning and early afternoon hours, then I did 2 blocks of UWorld in the late afternoon. I easily spent about 1.5 hour reviewing each block, taking down brief notes in a Word document. I was able to get the most out of UWorld by doing it this way -- although it's probably different for others. For my real exam, it was very similar to the NBME's I took, and it had some questions that reminded me of UWorld, but certainly not the vast majority of them.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

I really think you'll spend most of your day doing 4 blocks of UWorld. At a minimum you're probably looking at 2 hours per block (I was always closer to 3 on timed tutor which includes time for answering and reviewing). If you're doing it first pass, you're looking at probably 10-12 hours a day of UWorld.

Especially when it says "go over all explanations in full"...I mean wtf unless you're some kind of super reading you're easily spending 3 hours a block reading every explanation and comprehending it.

 

[skyblue2000]

Having gone through FA once and rx before.... How long do you think it'd take to complete UW first pass?

 

[John Lannister]

I really think you'll spend most of your day doing 4 blocks of UWorld. At a minimum you're probably looking at 2 hours per block (I was always closer to 3 on timed tutor which includes time for answering and reviewing). If you're doing it first pass, you're looking at probably 10-12 hours a day of UWorld.

Especially when it says "go over all explanations in full"...I mean wtf unless you're some kind of super reading you're easily spending 3 hours a block reading every explanation and comprehending it.

Even when I going really fast, if I'm taking notes I'm 4+ hrs per block - I'm a slow reader though. Newer info I could easily hit 6 hrs. Maybe people just know the material already or just focus on the educational objective? The explanations are too long to knock out a block in 2 hrs though.

Even so, with 10 hrs to do 4 blocks THEN 6 hours of reading. Wow.

 

[withrye]

Even when I going really fast, if I'm taking notes I'm 4+ hrs per block - I'm a slow reader though. Newer info I could easily hit 6 hrs. Maybe people just know the material already or just focus on the educational objective? The explanations are too long to knock out a block in 2 hrs though.

Even so, with 10 hrs to do 4 blocks THEN 6 hours of reading. Wow.

I think UW penalizes people twice during the initial stages of review. When you first start UW, you're getting far more questions wrong than you will toward the end of the bank, so you have to do more in-depth review of more questions. As you get familiar and your percentage comes up, there are many more explanations that you simply have to read and do no annotating for. It's definitely possible to do a block in <2 hours provided you did well on the block (it also helps if you can do blocks in <40 minutes).

That being said, I think UW is more powerful if you space it out and give yourself a moderate amount of new material each day to review. I never understood the idea of doing 4+ blocks in a day and trying to remember everything you saw on such a heavy day.

 

[Gnocchi Monster]

Took the real exam yesterday and thought it was most similar to NBMEs 12, 15. I know the exams vary between person, but I had a TON of behavioral questions. Seemed like every 3rd or 4th, although it probably wasn't that often.. Drugs questions were also much easier than I expected.

 

[Geekchick921]

I think UW penalizes people twice during the initial stages of review. When you first start UW, you're getting far more questions wrong than you will toward the end of the bank, so you have to do more in-depth review of more questions. As you get familiar and your percentage comes up, there are many more explanations that you simply have to read and do no annotating for. It's definitely possible to do a block in <2 hours provided you did well on the block (it also helps if you can do blocks in <40 minutes).

That being said, I think UW is more powerful if you space it out and give yourself a moderate amount of new material each day to review. I never understood the idea of doing 4+ blocks in a day and trying to remember everything you saw on such a heavy day.

Ditto all of this. I personally don't see the point in rushing through reviewing UWorld, but it's also what I'm using AS review. Maybe if I'd shelled out the money for DIT or Kaplan, and went through it first, I'd feel differently.

 

[NickNaylor]

Having gone through FA once and rx before.... How long do you think it'd take to complete UW first pass?

Depends on how many questions you do. I'd say it's feasible to do 100-120 questions a day including reading the entirety of the explanations in an 8 hour day if you're really trying to learn the material. I rushed through UW during my last weak of it and powered through ~200 questions a day. It took me all day (8:30-5:00) and I only fully read maybe 10-20% of the explanations. Apart from that week, I got through 60-100 questions in 4-6 hours while reading most of the explanations.

So, it just depends on you. I'd say you could get through it in three weeks or less if that's all you did and you really burned through it. However I would go crazy if all I did was UW three weeks straight. It took me a total of ~4 weeks of regular UW work to get through it, but again, that was with powering through half of it in a week.

 

[Jonari]

Depends on how many questions you do. I'd say it's feasible to do 100-120 questions a day including reading the entirety of the explanations in an 8 hour day if you're really trying to learn the material. I rushed through UW during my last weak of it and powered through ~200 questions a day. It took me all day (8:30-5:00) and I only fully read maybe 10-20% of the explanations. Apart from that week, I got through 60-100 questions in 4-6 hours while reading most of the explanations.

So, it just depends on you. I'd say you could get through it in three weeks or less if that's all you did and you really burned through it. However I would go crazy if all I did was UW three weeks straight. It took me a total of ~4 weeks of regular UW work to get through it, but again, that was with powering through half of it in a week.

do you feel ready for Friday?

 

[John Lannister]

Having gone through FA once and rx before.... How long do you think it'd take to complete UW first pass?

Do the math yourself.

2200 questions.

46 questions is a block.

A fast pace is 2 hrs a block.
A slow pace is 8-10 hrs a block.

Average is probably somewhere around 4 hrs a block. It all depends on how well you know the material.

 

[Goober11]

What are some people's approaches (or planned) to doing UW a second time? First run through a block would take me 4hrs +/- .5 hrs to take and then review. Wondering if 7 hours is enough time to take and go through 3 blocks of UW. Hopefully it'll be shorter but I'd like to know other peoples' thoughts.

Thanks.

 

[suji0]

im planning on doin my second run through relatively quicky so yeah hopefully no more than 2 hrs/block (hopefully ive learned the material well enough by then haha)

concepts that i still need alot of work on will obviously slow me down, but some stuff like heart murmur questions, certain obvious drug/bugs, etc ill prolly skim over quickly simply for te repetition?

 

[NickNaylor]

do you feel ready for Friday?

Hah, no, but I have regained my confidence. Took a test today and got a 245, which I would be perfectly fine with for next week. Gonna just pump it out for the next week (though I took the afternoon off today ) and hope for the best. I'm pretty terrified that The Worst will happen, though.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I'm pretty terrified that The Worst will happen, though.

Pretty sure this is what motivates 90% of us med school students

 

[34522993]

Completely lost my motivation now...please you guys help me out of this dilemma....I need motivation 🙁

 

[Nottinghamlace]

Completely lost my motivation now...please you guys help me out of this dilemma....I need motivation 🙁

go look at your loans

 

[34522993]

go look at your loans

what i meant was monotony ..how can I combat that?

 

[Geekchick921]

Hah, no, but I have regained my confidence. Took a test today and got a 245, which I would be perfectly fine with for next week. Gonna just pump it out for the next week (though I took the afternoon off today ) and hope for the best. I'm pretty terrified that The Worst will happen, though.

Sent from my Nexus 7

Nicely done, Nick! Send some of that my way.

 

[Goober11]

Good luck Phloston, for tomorrow!

 

[CDI]

You as confused as I am?

 

[Golden Boy]

Took the real exam yesterday and thought it was most similar to NBMEs 12, 15. I know the exams vary between person, but I had a TON of behavioral questions. Seemed like every 3rd or 4th, although it probably wasn't that often.. Drugs questions were also much easier than I expected.

Totally agree with this!! I took the real exam this month and I felt that most of it was like the MBME's (especially 12 and 15). Just some of the questions reminded me a little of UWorld, but they weren't as detailed or as ridiculously long.

 

[Golden Boy]

What are some people's approaches (or planned) to doing UW a second time? First run through a block would take me 4hrs +/- .5 hrs to take and then review. Wondering if 7 hours is enough time to take and go through 3 blocks of UW. Hopefully it'll be shorter but I'd like to know other peoples' thoughts.

Thanks.

Yeah, you can definitely do this. Sounds like a good plan. In the first 3 weeks of my study period, I was taking about 2 hours to review and take notes on each block of 46 of UWorld. In the last week and a half, it just seemed like I could review each block in about 1.5 hours. The more UWorld you do, the more you'll see some of the same concepts, so it takes a little less time to review each block and take quick notes. Also, having taking my exam this month, I can say that it would have been totally fine with just focusing on the "learning objectives" of almost all UWorld questions. But if you really want to review some of the concepts in more detail, reading through the explanation is worth it. The real exam, however, did not seem to be as detailed or as nitpicky as UWorld -- just a few of the questions on the actual exam reminded me of the UWorld style of questions. I feel that most of the questions on the real exam were more similar to the NBME's.

 

[Jonari]

I feel that most of the questions on the real exam were more similar to the NBME's.

crap...i did much better on uworld compared to the nbmes...i hope the test isnt going to be as bad as my nbme exams...

 

[jekyllish]

Hah, no, but I have regained my confidence. Took a test today and got a 245, which I would be perfectly fine with for next week. Gonna just pump it out for the next week (though I took the afternoon off today ) and hope for the best. I'm pretty terrified that The Worst will happen, though.

Sent from my Nexus 7

Life is good

 

[Jonari]

Hah, no, but I have regained my confidence. Took a test today and got a 245, which I would be perfectly fine with for next week. Gonna just pump it out for the next week (though I took the afternoon off today ) and hope for the best. I'm pretty terrified that The Worst will happen, though.

Sent from my Nexus 7

i feel you man...i think the only way it can go bad is getting a test that is predominantly my weak areas...going to be going over those topics this weekend...

6:26am est...sigh just a few more days

going to take an exam wednesday....if i do bad, ill push the exam back, but trying to keep that elevated stress up to keep me in the zone

 

[NickNaylor]

i feel you man...i think the only way it can go bad is getting a test that is predominantly my weak areas...going to be going over those topics this weekend...

6:26am est...sigh just a few more days

going to take an exam wednesday....if i do bad, ill push the exam back, but trying to keep that elevated stress up to keep me in the zone

FWIW, my study buddy and I were talking to a third year about step 1 and he said that he had a friend that took a NBME a couple of days before his exam and ended up scoring 35 points lower than what he actually scored. Obviously you should delay if you feel unprepared, but NBMEs aren't the end all be all for how you're doing even though most people say they're pretty predictive.

Sent from my Nexus 7

 

[JP2740]

FWIW, my study buddy and I were talking to a third year about step 1 and he said that he had a friend that took a NBME a couple of days before his exam and ended up scoring 35 points lower than what he actually scored. Obviously you should delay if you feel unprepared, but NBMEs aren't the end all be all for how you're doing even though most people say they're pretty predictive.

Sent from my Nexus 7

That's pretty close to the exam to take an NBME without some rest

 

[Golden Boy]

crap...i did much better on uworld compared to the nbmes...i hope the test isnt going to be as bad as my nbme exams...

My sense about it is that you probably shouldn't worry if you're doing better with UWorld. In fact, I think it's great in the sense that UWorld is more detailed and more indepth than the NBME's on a lot of topics, so I think you'll be well prepared. You'll see that the real exam overall is fair, and having done UWorld and having read the explanations should give you excellent practice. It's just that the actual exam seemed to be very similar to the last few NBME's released -- a good number of quick recognition questions (if you've read FA to death you'll get these fast and save time), many medium difficulty questions that are totally doable but require a bit of thinking, and then some odd/strange questions that for all I know could have been experimental. My NBME scores varied a bit, and the first 2 NBME's I took were actually my highest scores, so I took the average of all of them (I ended up taking 11, 12, 13, and 15). I'm still waiting for my score, so I'd be happy to post which practice test(s) or qbank were more predictive (I did both Kaplan and UWorld qbanks).

Keep the faith and your motivation up, think of the happy place(s) you'll go after the exam, and remember that the actual exam is as much a test of your knowledge and ability to make informed guesses as it is of sheer endurance. 🙂

 

[Jonari]

thanks GB...

any of you guys do the pre-test series books for extra practice? what do you guys think about these questions...?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

That's pretty close to the exam to take an NBME without some rest

Eh my exam is on Wed and I took NBME 13 today...probably the last one I'll take though.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

thanks GB...

any of you guys do the pre-test series books for extra practice? what do you guys think about these questions...?

I have a couple of them (got them for free) but only did a few questions a while ago. I probably wouldn't bother with them this close to the test.

 

[Jonari]

I have a couple of them (got them for free) but only did a few questions a while ago. I probably wouldn't bother with them this close to the test.

i still have some time from my exam...probably going to push it back...but still not sure yet...was thinking of doing them just for extra practice and stamina...

however, i'm sure the questions on the step aren't of the same caliber, correct?

 

[blaqmamba]

Eh my exam is on Wed and I took NBME 13 today...probably the last one I'll take though.

How'd it go?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

How'd it go?

610- 247
I'm happy with it. My NBMEs have been around there this whole time.
Other ones were NBME 11: 240, 12: 247 and 15: 252.
This is my last one though I'll just go over my wrong questions from the other NBMEs and do micro/pharm (which I always randomly forgetting stuff from) till Wednesday.

The NBMEs have been really weird for me. I thought I totally bombed 15 and ended up getting my best score on that one then took 11 after that and dropped twelve points.

 

[drhjpatel21]

610- 247
I'm happy with it. My NBMEs have been around there this whole time.
Other ones were NBME 11: 240, 12: 247 and 15: 252.
This is my last one though I'll just go over my wrong questions from the other NBMEs and do micro/pharm (which I always randomly forgetting stuff from) till Wednesday.

The NBMEs have been really weird for me. I thought I totally bombed 15 and ended up getting my best score on that one then took 11 after that and dropped twelve points.

help please - i failed the step 2, twice, this is the my last chance. last nbme form 7 i scored 580 but i have used form 7 previously. on form 15 i got 440 how accurate is this and/or usmle world assessment? i saw you have trouble with micro and pharm? for micro i used the kaplan flow charts. for pharm i used kisspharm(kisspharm.com). pharm was my weakest but my nbme showed improvement. my micro is borderline. any tips?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

help please - i failed the step 2, twice, this is the my last chance. last nbme form 7 i scored 580 but i have used form 7 previously. on form 15 i got 440 how accurate is this and/or usmle world assessment? i saw you have trouble with micro and pharm? for micro i used the kaplan flow charts. for pharm i used kisspharm(kisspharm.com). pharm was my weakest but my nbme showed improvement. my micro is borderline. any tips?

If you're asking about step 2 advice this is a step 1 thread.

There are probably hundreds of threads about study strategies in this forum and at least a few in this thread alone. I'd suggest reading through this thread first and looking through the old threads in the step 1 forum for advice as they probably have better advice than I do right now, especially the people who have taken the test and gotten their scores back.

 

[FIREitUP]

FWIW, my study buddy and I were talking to a third year about step 1 and he said that he had a friend that took a NBME a couple of days before his exam and ended up scoring 35 points lower than what he actually scored. Obviously you should delay if you feel unprepared, but NBMEs aren't the end all be all for how you're doing even though most people say they're pretty predictive.

Sent from my Nexus 7

that's so lame that he would even mention that to you. that stuff will invariably happen to some poor soul, but if you keep your head on straight and don't freak out theres no reason you shouldn't score roughly what you have been averaging on your nbme's

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

that's so lame that he would even mention that to you. that stuff will invariably happen to some poor soul, but if you keep your head on straight and don't freak out theres no reason you shouldn't score roughly what you have been averaging on your nbme's

I think what he was saying was that they guy scored 35 points higher on the real deal than on the NBMEs....

 

[NickNaylor]

that's so lame that he would even mention that to you. that stuff will invariably happen to some poor soul, but if you keep your head on straight and don't freak out theres no reason you shouldn't score roughly what you have been averaging on your nbme's

I think what he was saying was that they guy scored 35 points higher on the real deal than on the NBMEs....

^ Yup.

 

[Jonari]

610- 247
I'm happy with it. My NBMEs have been around there this whole time.
Other ones were NBME 11: 240, 12: 247 and 15: 252.
This is my last one though I'll just go over my wrong questions from the other NBMEs and do micro/pharm (which I always randomly forgetting stuff from) till Wednesday.

The NBMEs have been really weird for me. I thought I totally bombed 15 and ended up getting my best score on that one then took 11 after that and dropped twelve points.

nice dude...happy for you...how long did you study...iirc, not long right? 👍

 

[FIREitUP]

^ Yup.

oh, that was really confusing haha (or probably just my haphazard reading). That's definitely better than what I thought it meant

anyways, just wanted to say that i'm pulling for you guys!

 

[usmlefighter]

i still have some time from my exam...probably going to push it back...but still not sure yet...was thinking of doing them just for extra practice and stamina...

however, i'm sure the questions on the step aren't of the same caliber, correct?

Jonari....Can you or anyone provide me outline about 6 Months step 1 study plan. I have UW & Kaplan online Q bank along with kaplan Lecture videos ,HY videos & Lecture Notes. Next i have FA 2013, HY NA,GA and BRS Physiology and some usmle rx offline

After step 1 cs exam and next ck and step-3. Is it possible to do all steps exam by August 2014.

Thanks

 

[CDI]

Jonari....Can you or anyone provide me outline about 6 Months step 1 study plan. I have UW & Kaplan online Q bank along with kaplan Lecture videos ,HY videos & Lecture Notes. Next i have FA 2013, HY NA,GA and BRS Physiology and some usmle rx offline

After step 1 cs exam and next ck and step-3. Is it possible to do all steps exam by August 2014.

Thanks

Read the thread.

 

[John Lannister]

Read the thread.

Lol.

There are so many - "can you make a personalized Step 1 plan for me?" threads popping up right now. Plenty of great advice on this thread but I guess those people want personalized service.

 

[CDI]

Lol.

There are so many - "can you make a personalized Step 1 plan for me?" threads popping up right now. Plenty of great advice on this thread but I guess those people want personalized service.

It's one thing to ask for help on how to tailor ones prep after having at least tried something (UW, NBMEs, etc)

It's another thing to ask someone to devise an entire prep plan tailored to someone simply based on the books they've got on hand.

To these people I'm more likely to troll and tell them they need to read Grays Anatomy and Harrison's or they don't stand a chance.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

610- 247
I'm happy with it. My NBMEs have been around there this whole time.
Other ones were NBME 11: 240, 12: 247 and 15: 252.
This is my last one though I'll just go over my wrong questions from the other NBMEs and do micro/pharm (which I always randomly forgetting stuff from) till Wednesday.

The NBMEs have been really weird for me. I thought I totally bombed 15 and ended up getting my best score on that one then took 11 after that and dropped twelve points.

Excellent scores, I'm sure you'll kill it this week

 

[Jamiu22]

610- 247
I'm happy with it. My NBMEs have been around there this whole time.
Other ones were NBME 11: 240, 12: 247 and 15: 252.
This is my last one though I'll just go over my wrong questions from the other NBMEs and do micro/pharm (which I always randomly forgetting stuff from) till Wednesday.

The NBMEs have been really weird for me. I thought I totally bombed 15 and ended up getting my best score on that one then took 11 after that and dropped twelve points.

Excellent scores dude/dudette!!!

I can certainly only dream/hope to be on this level someday, lol

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

nice dude...happy for you...how long did you study...iirc, not long right? 👍

Yeah I'll be extremely happy with anything in that range, just hoping the NBME predictions hold out. I've had about the same amount of dedicated study time as NickNaylor (we're in the same class).

 

[tiedyeddog]

Yeah I'll be extremely happy with anything in that range, just hoping the NBME predictions hold out. I've had about the same amount of dedicated study time as NickNaylor (we're in the same class).

You guys are in the same class?!?! Never knew that.