Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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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.

:luck: Cheers to 2013 :luck:
 
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Random thought: I just realized that July 10th will be the busiest day of this Step 1 forum for the year.

Can't wait. 😀
 
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amconteh said:
Yay I am done!!

Entire test made me nervous. The questions were way easier than I thought it would be. Its definitely very doable. 95% of my questions were in FA. One question was something I only learned from first year(mechanism behind progeria). Lots of gimmie questions, some thinking questions. Only one obscure anatomy question. Also behavioral science had some crazy answer choices.

I used alot of resources: FA(heavily annotated using tablet with Onenote), All kaplan lecture notes + 2010 videos(for reference), Kaplan High Yield, some of DIT, Pathoma, Goljan audio and Book, A document I made with all the Uworld educational objectives, High Yield Anatomy, Draw it to know it, Deja review, USMLE STEP 1 secrets, UWorld qbank-2x, Kaplan Qbank, Usmle weapon(has really easy 1 step questions to build route memorization). Also Pholston's PPT were awesome for Microbiology!!!

If I could go back 2 months in the Past I would:
Do all the above qbanks plus USMLE RX Qbank and videos
Read FA once. Then use the RX videos to go through FA 7x after that. The RX videos total about 28hours on normal speed. At 4 hours a Day you could go through FA in a week.
RX + helped me go through FA again in the last 5 days before my exam. Its just easier to follow along as they read it and show pages on screen.
Do USMLE RX Q bank ----> Kaplan ---> Uworld ----> NBME 1-7 ---->Uworld incorrects and NBME 11,12,13,15.

Treat the NBME 1-7 like they are qbank questions. Use a screenshot software or offline nbme. After you finish each NBME go through every question and option and try to come up with explanations for wrong options and right option(like you were a writer for uworld or something).

Also do the Kaplan Sim exams. They give you extra questions and build endurance.
Click to expand...

Congrats on being done man! What about your NBMEs results? Your target score?
 
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amconteh said:
Yay I am done!!

Entire test made me nervous. The questions were way easier than I thought it would be. Its definitely very doable. 95% of my questions were in FA. One question was something I only learned from first year(mechanism behind progeria). Lots of gimmie questions, some thinking questions. Only one obscure anatomy question. Also behavioral science had some crazy answer choices.

I used alot of resources: FA(heavily annotated using tablet with Onenote), All kaplan lecture notes + 2010 videos(for reference), Kaplan High Yield, some of DIT, Pathoma, Goljan audio and Book, A document I made with all the Uworld educational objectives, High Yield Anatomy, Draw it to know it, Deja review, USMLE STEP 1 secrets, UWorld qbank-2x, Kaplan Qbank, Usmle weapon(has really easy 1 step questions to build route memorization). Also Pholston's PPT were awesome for Microbiology!!!

If I could go back 2 months in the Past I would:
Do all the above qbanks plus USMLE RX Qbank and videos
Read FA once. Then use the RX videos to go through FA 7x after that. The RX videos total about 28hours on normal speed. At 4 hours a Day you could go through FA in a week.
RX + helped me go through FA again in the last 5 days before my exam. Its just easier to follow along as they read it and show pages on screen.
Do USMLE RX Q bank ----> Kaplan ---> Uworld ----> NBME 1-7 ---->Uworld incorrects and NBME 11,12,13,15.

Treat the NBME 1-7 like they are qbank questions. Use a screenshot software or offline nbme. After you finish each NBME go through every question and option and try to come up with explanations for wrong options and right option(like you were a writer for uworld or something).

Also do the Kaplan Sim exams. They give you extra questions and build endurance.
Click to expand...

Congratulations on being done amconteh! Thank you so much for your summary. Could you tell us a bit about your background, are you an AMG/ student? Could you please go into detail about all the resources you used. You wrote what you would have done if you would have gone back 2 months in time and how you would have done FA+ RX videos and then qbanks and NBMEs but you didn't mention the other resources (pathoma, kaplan notes+videos, Kaplan High Yield, DIT, Goljan audio and Book, High Yield Anatomy, Draw it to know it, Deja review, USMLE STEP 1 secrets, Usmle weapon)

What are your thoughts about these resources, would you have used them again? The entire resources or just parts of them? For example kaplan notes/videos, were any sections better than others? In what order would you have used them?

Thank you very much, and again, congratulations!
 
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did you have a lot of questions from genetics and biostats? These are two subjects which i just cant put in my head. 😕
 
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this might sound like a dumb question to a lot of you but I'm trying to go over an NBME that i took today and ended up blowing badly even though I had this false sense of being 'in control' while I was taking the test. I'm trying to go over my answers now and was wondering if buying the extended feedback option would show me which ones I got wrong (I know they don't provide explanations, I just wanna see if the problem is with misreading, foreign material I have yet to be exposed to or just pure DUMBNESS).
Thanks
 
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Zuhal said:
this might sound like a dumb question to a lot of you but I'm trying to go over an NBME that i took today and ended up blowing badly even though I had this false sense of being 'in control' while I was taking the test. I'm trying to go over my answers now and was wondering if buying the extended feedback option would show me which ones I got wrong (I know they don't provide explanations, I just wanna see if the problem is with misreading, foreign material I have yet to be exposed to or just pure DUMBNESS).
Thanks
Click to expand...

Seriously don't understand how people think step 1 is where they should be pinching pennies. Pay the 10 bucks or get the answers elsewhere.....how else are you supposed to learn?
 
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hardee17 said:
Seriously don't understand how people think step 1 is where they should be pinching pennies. Pay the 10 bucks or get the answers elsewhere.....how else are you supposed to learn?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I didn't even know there was an "extended feedback" option until I read about it in the 'nbme discussion' thread. I have already taken it so I'm not sure if it will let me buy the extended feedback only....
 
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Zuhal said:
this might sound like a dumb question to a lot of you but I'm trying to go over an NBME that i took today and ended up blowing badly even though I had this false sense of being 'in control' while I was taking the test. I'm trying to go over my answers now and was wondering if buying the extended feedback option would show me which ones I got wrong (I know they don't provide explanations, I just wanna see if the problem is with misreading, foreign material I have yet to be exposed to or just pure DUMBNESS).
Thanks
Click to expand...

Yup, it'll tell you which questions you get wrong. When you finish, it'll let you go back to the main screen, and at the top it'll show you the number of incorrect questions in blue color. Click on it, and it'll let you see all your incorrect answers. GL!
 
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Btw, when looking for answers to NBMEs that I had done, this showed up in the Google search engine. Not a bad way to go through the answers/explanation for you visual learners. Sometimes her explanations are long and tedious, but I'm sure it'll help a few members.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOA8b0Ti1IM
 
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Zuhal said:
Unfortunately, I didn't even know there was an "extended feedback" option until I read about it in the 'nbme discussion' thread. I have already taken it so I'm not sure if it will let me buy the extended feedback only....
Click to expand...

You can't get extended feedback after you finish the regular test. I made the same mistake on my first NBME as well. Just get it for the next one and try to go over the current one using an offline copy.
 
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NBME told him that most likely date is July 12th. Hopefully that is a conservative estimate and they will be out sooner (although the difference from between the 10th and 12th is not that huge when we are talking some test takers having waited 7 weeks).
 
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Bruinmarcher said:
NBME told him that most likely date is July 12th. Hopefully that is a conservative estimate and they will be out sooner (although the difference from between the 10th and 12th is not that huge when we are talking some test takers having waited 7 weeks).
Click to expand...

Meh, I think I know your source, and I really don't exactly believe what they said. I vote for the 10th, coming out when NBME has said it would, just like it did last year.
 
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anbuitachi said:
How are we supposed to prep for these? I dont remember seeing these ever in FA or uworld... or pathoma,.. how did you get these right?!
Click to expand...

Vit E decreases Vit K-dep coagulation factors - RR Goljan
Hyperthyroidism increases cholesterol synthesis - FA
Resorption atelectasis - RR Goljan
U-shaped scar on kidney surface - RR Goljan
Cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage other than berry aneurysm? FA

anbuitachi said:
Are we just supposed to be able to tell this alone from the path?! Is this common on step 1..? Cause i looked on wiki, and they said chronic prostatits is characterized by pain. So the case definite sounds like BPH, and may even 'rule out' chronic prostatitis. I know you should go with the image.. but just wondering how often something liek this occurs.. cause I don't even know how to prep for this [unless the other answer choices had nothin to do with prostate, which i doubt. ]
Click to expand...

I don't have FA on me but it's either in there, or I annotated it in, that chronic prostatitis can actually be painless. If I annotated it, it was from pathoma or RR Goljan.

hardee17 said:
The cholesterol one is wrong if you're talking about total cholesterol levels, hypothyroid reduces number of LDL receptors
Click to expand...

As far as I know, thyroxine increases cholesterol synthesis, not sure how this translates to hyperthyroidism though. You're probably right but I don't know.
 
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incubusfanclm said:
Vit E decreases Vit K-dep coagulation factors - RR Goljan
Hyperthyroidism increases cholesterol synthesis - FA
Resorption atelectasis - RR Goljan
U-shaped scar on kidney surface - RR Goljan
Cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage other than berry aneurysm? FA
Click to expand...

Sorry for the question. Are you sure that hyperthyroidism increases cholesterol? I have read many papers that hypOthryroidism, not hypER, increases cholesterol! May you elaborate? Moreover, I did not find anything related in FA, so I wonder what was your resource.

As of Resorption atelectasis. Is there a good resource to understand it? Is there a difference between resorption Vs. absorption atelectasis? I found a resource that explains it as of nitrogen is washed out when giving high O2 concentration, while other resource explains it as plug/obstruction proximal to the region that will eventually collapse!
 
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Hyperthyroidism INCREASES the synthesis of LDL receptors. The LDL receptor gene contains a T3 response element. This leads to DECREASED SERUM cholesterol levels of LDL and you'll get arguments about the other types. Now, what does this mean? Now, the INTRACELLULAR CHOLESTEROL level increases. This cholesterol will be excreted in Bile. However, Thyroid hormone also activates HMG-COA reductase. Consequently, you will get INCREASED cholesterol synthesis. So, both sides are right, you just have to be careful as to which part of the body you're referring too. HTH.

http://www.hormones.gr/31/article/article.html
 
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amconteh said:
Yay I am done!!

Entire test made me nervous. The questions were way easier than I thought it would be. Its definitely very doable. 95% of my questions were in FA. One question was something I only learned from first year(mechanism behind progeria). Lots of gimmie questions, some thinking questions. Only one obscure anatomy question. Also behavioral science had some crazy answer choices.

I used alot of resources: FA(heavily annotated using tablet with Onenote), All kaplan lecture notes + 2010 videos(for reference), Kaplan High Yield, some of DIT, Pathoma, Goljan audio and Book, A document I made with all the Uworld educational objectives, High Yield Anatomy, Draw it to know it, Deja review, USMLE STEP 1 secrets, UWorld qbank-2x, Kaplan Qbank, Usmle weapon(has really easy 1 step questions to build route memorization). Also Pholston's PPT were awesome for Microbiology!!!

If I could go back 2 months in the Past I would:
Do all the above qbanks plus USMLE RX Qbank and videos
Read FA once. Then use the RX videos to go through FA 7x after that. The RX videos total about 28hours on normal speed. At 4 hours a Day you could go through FA in a week.
RX + helped me go through FA again in the last 5 days before my exam. Its just easier to follow along as they read it and show pages on screen.
Do USMLE RX Q bank ----> Kaplan ---> Uworld ----> NBME 1-7 ---->Uworld incorrects and NBME 11,12,13,15.

Treat the NBME 1-7 like they are qbank questions. Use a screenshot software or offline nbme. After you finish each NBME go through every question and option and try to come up with explanations for wrong options and right option(like you were a writer for uworld or something).

Also do the Kaplan Sim exams. They give you extra questions and build endurance.
Click to expand...

Really! How can you go through FA in a week?
 
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Zareh Ali said:
Well if it was a porcentage exam maybe i would agree but i havent seen anyone that says they didnt fell like they screwed up, and or that the exam was easy 😀 so we will all probably fall pretty close to our nbme's hehe well that at least what im hoping 🙂 cause i felt the same way with an nbme of 240 mean
Click to expand...

orchitits in a kid isnt a complication of mumps? For some reason, i highlighted this in my notes but again, it is not unilateral so, mumps is obviously ruled out.
 
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Hoping to get some advice from all the smart people that frequent the forum: I want to take an NBME on Friday and I have already done 6, 7, and 11. I read somewhere that 7 and 11 should be left for last so I just want to do the remaining ones in the most recommended order. Secondly I find the NBMEs to be very tricky, not hard but tricky, I have done Uworld twice, Kaplan and Rx once and I still get tripped up sometimes. Should I just keep doing more questions (maybe try weapon) for practice or keep reading my heavily notated First Aid (very exhausting considering it has notes from 3 qbanks) Thank you in advance for your help.
 
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Mine too! Eek. Does that mean we should look for it next wednesday or do you think it'll come out sooner? I heard that permits were usually taken down Monday before a wednesday release date...
 
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amconteh said:
Yay I am done!!

Entire test made me nervous. The questions were way easier than I thought it would be. Its definitely very doable. 95% of my questions were in FA. One question was something I only learned from first year(mechanism behind progeria). Lots of gimmie questions, some thinking questions. Only one obscure anatomy question. Also behavioral science had some crazy answer choices.

I used alot of resources: FA(heavily annotated using tablet with Onenote), All kaplan lecture notes + 2010 videos(for reference), Kaplan High Yield, some of DIT, Pathoma, Goljan audio and Book, A document I made with all the Uworld educational objectives, High Yield Anatomy, Draw it to know it, Deja review, USMLE STEP 1 secrets, UWorld qbank-2x, Kaplan Qbank, Usmle weapon(has really easy 1 step questions to build route memorization). Also Pholston's PPT were awesome for Microbiology!!!

If I could go back 2 months in the Past I would:
Do all the above qbanks plus USMLE RX Qbank and videos
Read FA once. Then use the RX videos to go through FA 7x after that. The RX videos total about 28hours on normal speed. At 4 hours a Day you could go through FA in a week.
RX + helped me go through FA again in the last 5 days before my exam. Its just easier to follow along as they read it and show pages on screen.
Do USMLE RX Q bank ----> Kaplan ---> Uworld ----> NBME 1-7 ---->Uworld incorrects and NBME 11,12,13,15.

Treat the NBME 1-7 like they are qbank questions. Use a screenshot software or offline nbme. After you finish each NBME go through every question and option and try to come up with explanations for wrong options and right option(like you were a writer for uworld or something).

Also do the Kaplan Sim exams. They give you extra questions and build endurance.
Click to expand...

👍 Well done and Cheers!
 
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seliac said:
do they go through whole FA in one week ??
Click to expand...

You can get through it quicker than one week. I used to listen to it at night time before going to bed, or when I got tired of studying. It's ok, they skip a lot of stuff when going through the book. It's similar to DIT, but the videos don't have quizzes and warm-ups like DIT does. You can get through it easily within 3-4 days playing it at 1.5x.

Playing it at normal speed puts me into delta sleep.
 
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Just a question, how do you guys study from NBMEs?

I was going to do the ppt thing for my wrong answers... jic the same question SOMEHOW comes up.

But I find it to be such a waste of time to try and go through each question and find answers online, etc. I'd rather just do UW questions. What do you guys think? Is it really worth the extra energy? If so, how do you go about studying off the NBME questions (other than studying the two-three weakest subjects).
 
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Mine is just waiting for the exam report date. It;s 3:20 PM on the east coast so I am going to go with the report being released next Wednesday.
 
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Cool thanks... that's what I thought also... took mine at the end of June. Thanks and Goodluck next week.
 
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CDI said:
That's cause you were reading for sh*ts n giggles, and banging out 260s in your sleep.
Click to expand...

lmao I didn't mean it as the popular expression like it was easy as **** for me. But seriously I got so bored on the practice exams, sometimes I'd really start dozing off after the first 2 blocks. I'm happy that didn't happen on the real deal. I still worked hard, but sometimes reading other people on here makes it seem like I somehow wasted a bunch of time.

Although I think if I read FA again I might've thrown up
 
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.
stronghold said:
As of Resorption atelectasis. Is there a good resource to understand it? Is there a difference between resorption Vs. absorption atelectasis? I found a resource that explains it as of nitrogen is washed out when giving high O2 concentration, while other resource explains it as plug/obstruction proximal to the region that will eventually collapse!
Click to expand...

RR Goljan explains it pretty well. The question I had was referring to the most common cause of fever 24-72 hours post-op, or something similar.
 
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CDI said:
:laugh: You got a Step 2 question on your exam, probably experimental.
Click to expand...

I hope so, b/c after looking at Surgery clerkship books, I randomly remembered & saw the answer to one of my Step 1 questions.... and realized I got it wrong 🙁
 
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g8orlife said:
Can't Hear The Heart Sound, But That's What IWould CHoose, Assuming ASD.



:laugh:
Click to expand...

😳
Um, help

Why is that vignette ASD?

Maybe I'm thrown off by it saying that inspiration leads to S2 split increases during inspiration... I thought S2 in ASD is fixed split?

Could it be S3 or something? But the answer I would have picked still would have been for reassurance, since it's normal in a child.

.............. idk.
 
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I have Step in a few days i was wondering if anyone had any last minute advice on what to do in the last few days. Also was Goljan high yield review (37 pages) helpful for anyone who has taken step?
 
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loveoforganic2 said:
I thought it had become established that atelectasis doesn't cause fever?
Click to expand...

Transposony said:
It does.
Click to expand...

Based on what?

http://journal.publications.chestnet.org/article.aspx?articleid=1088071&frame=sidebar

http://journal.publications.chestnet.org/article.aspx?articleid=1149040&issueno=1&rss=1&ssource=mfr

Although there are only a limited number of studies specifically addressing the association between atelectasis and postoperative fever, those data that do exist overwhelmingly demonstrate no association. Further, nearly all published studies uniformly recommend that the inclusion of atelectasis as a cause of postoperative fever be discarded as historical conjecture and unsupported dogma. Mavros and colleagues1 conclude that there is a need for additional large studies to precisely evaluate whether there is an association that the prior studies have not detected. We respectfully disagree, given the findings of our most recent study. From our perspective, based on our large cohort of patients and the outcome of our study, rather than performing additional studies, it would seem more prudent and appropriate to simply discard old dogma.
Click to expand...
 
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Atelectasis/ pneumonia is classical cause of post-op fever day 1. Period.
No need to look on articles or over-analyze it. You will learn it when you do surgery rotation.

I just wanna the resource of hyperthyroidism and hypercholesterolemia, and vit E def depletes vit K coaug factors
 
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Is there any consensus on when the permit usually disappears? 3 days before? 1 day? I know the site says "late june". I took my exam 6/24 and am hopeful to get my score this wed, however unlikely that may be. My permit is still there.
 
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