Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Phloston

Phloston

Osaka, Japan
Removed
Lifetime Donor
Verified Member
10+ Year Member
Physician
Gold Donor
Joined
Jan 18, 2012
Messages
3,880
Reaction score
1,676
Members do not see this ad.
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:
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
cpufreak3 said:
I took the exam on the 15th, my thoughts:

First off, my resources: FA, Uworld, and Lange pharm cards. Pathoma and BRS physio during the school year (things stuck so I didn't look at them again). Took NBME 11 and 12.

The exam had some gimme questions, and some questions, no matter how long you studied, were out of no where.

Difficulty of questions: Uworld > step 1 > NBME. Only reason why I say UW was more difficult was because the questions on the boards give you more info to narrow choices, or the answer choices won't be as tricky.

There were a few questions where I thought 2 answers were practically equivalent.

Heart sounds - I had 2. They were hard. Muffled and not clear at all.

I hate pharm and I think there was only one question that I wasn't sure of - good sign. Some were a single sentence, ie Drug X acts like penicillin, what is the mech. of Drug X?

I had some fungi questions that weren't in FA. Didn't feel like micro was representative of how well I knew it.

I had a lot of neuro questions (anat [radiology and gross] and path). This is one of my strengths, so it wasn't too bad.

The behav sci questions had ethics answer choices that I couldn't narrow down. Calculations were fine however.

Honestly, anat (except neuro) and embryo had very few questions but I basically had to guess. Little from FA/UW.

I had some questions that were practically identical to the NBMEs I took... I wonder how many other questions I would have got right if I did all the other NBMEs, but no one has the time or money for that.

Bottom line - I'm sure the curve isn't as difficult as the NBME. I wouldn't change how I studied or the resources I used. Hard to gauge how I did but I felt prepared overall.
Click to expand...

Got a 249 on the real thing. Pretty happy with that.

Finished uworld with a 75% (one pass, timed, random)

Got a 242 on NBME 11 and 12
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stronghold said:
Congrats to you all. It's really weird that many scores are 263! Looks like it's the new highest score after pool changes
Click to expand...

CassieBagley said:
Scored 268. Within the range of all my practice NBMEs, which were in the 260s except 1. Low tier US med school. Best advice: study hard the first two years of medical school. When I was studying during my dedicated period (~ 6 wks), I only learned a handful of new things. Everything else was an abbreviation of things I had read in more depth during my previous years as a med student. NBMEs are a good score predictor. NBME 15 was closest to my actual score. Used UWorld, Pathoma and First Aid and select chapters in Goljan RR.
Click to expand...

:naughty:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just wanted to share my experience since I found this thread helpful. I had 5 weeks to study. Used mainly FA + UW and a little bit of BRS physio.

UW avg (first pass/timed/random): 72%
NBME 15 (3 weeks out): 240
UWSA 1 (2 weeks out): 252
NBME 13 (1 week out): 245
Real deal: 242

I know everyone is different but the NBME's really are the closest predictors to the actual exam even though I found the real test much more difficult. I felt like I guessed on half of the questions but the curve is generous. Congrats to everyone! There are some really great scores posted on here 🙂
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MLT2MT2DO said:
Quick synopsis, I've posted quite a bit on the Step 1 forums so I'll follow this up with a better write up after I come back down from cloud nine:

At one point I was aiming for >230.
NBMEs close to the exam 231-242
Came out of the test feeling like I scored in the mid 230s

Comlex Score: 617 (this is a piss poor test, imo. With my USMLE I could give a crap about this now)
USMLE Score: 253
Click to expand...

Well done! Bet that was a nice surprise to open up
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MLT2MT2DO said:
Quick synopsis, I've posted quite a bit on the Step 1 forums so I'll follow this up with a better write up after I come back down from cloud nine:

At one point I was aiming for >230.
NBMEs close to the exam 231-242
Came out of the test feeling like I scored in the mid 230s

Comlex Score: 617 (this is a piss poor test, imo. With my USMLE I could give a crap about this now)
USMLE Score: 253
Click to expand...

Congrats! Happy to see you over-perform.

I'll write up at some point. DIT for first pass. UW x1 over about 3 weeks, averaged 70-75% from start to finish. FA x a few passes. NBME's 210-233-242-252-257 taken over about 3 weeks (except the 210 which was my school's freebie before dedicated study.

Real deal = 249

Mine was the "easy" form, thought I was ~260 walking out.
Lots of people who took the "hard" form seem to have overshot on real deal. The curves matter, it seams.

Happy to be done. Will write up the long form version another day.

Congrats to all.

Jonari?????
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tayberry said:
I'm a lurker here but since I got almost the exact score (206) I thought I would comment. My downfall was probably that I didn't take any practice tests in the duration of my study except NBME 15 seven days and UWSA 1 four days before my exam (since I had the mentality that I should get through all of UW first and then start focusing on weaknesses). I scored 203 on NBME 15, got a 224 on UWSA1, and then did a focused run through FA + some questions for the last 3.5 days.

I finished UW with an average of 51%, which predicted me at 200ish. I was hoping/praying that UWSA would be more accurate on the actual thing, since I've heard good things about taking UWSA1 right before the exam, but it was hard because I had so few data points to go off on. Maybe the fact that UWSA overpredicts by 20 points is actually true... And NBME was almost spot on.

I attend a Top 15 med school too, so this kind of score is embarrassing compared to how well my classmates do. I must admit that I really did coast through the first two years and ended up passing in the lower half for pretty much all of the courses. When I started UW on random timed, I literally was scoring ~35 percent per section, and then I gradually brought that up to about 63-67% per section at the very end. In retrospect, I felt I came pretty far, but I probably was just learning what I should have learned in the last two years during the exam prep period.

If I could give advice (if I'm even in a position to, lol!) is that don't undervalue your physical classes during the first two years. I felt going through FA helped me a lot (I could "see" pages in my mind when I took the exam), but as a whole I felt too shaky about my ability to "integrate" different facts into the clinical vignette at the end and I'm sure this is what really hurt me. This is something that one can learn during the designated exam prep period if one is dedicated, but it was something practically given out for free during the classes in the first two years. You probably wonder why I didn't take NBMEs but a lot of my classmates really just took 3 weeks, went through UW and FA, went and took the test, and got 230+. I gave myself 6 weeks and I thought I could do the same (I'd be ecstatic with a 230 since I only want to do IM), but I probably at too weak of a starting point to begin with, unfortunately. The exam is really not a big memorization exam - the ability to reason and not be misled by the distractors is far more of an asset than a simple strong memory/ability to regurgitate facts.

Also, I must say that the stems on the actual exam now are REALLY LONG. I usually finish UW timed sections with 10-15 minutes to spare (same for the UWSA), but I was rushing on almost every single section of the exam, with barely 3-4 minutes in most sections, which I spent going over the ones that I was just purely guessing on/choosing between 3+ choices. I'm sure this hurt my confidence/accuracy significantly, and something I could have prevented if I took NBMEs earlier/more frequently.

Ah well, typing this up was somewhat cathartic, determined to do well now on clerkships and spend this year seriously studying for CK. I *think* I have what it takes, I really just need to come to terms with my weaknesses, and buckle down and do it. And this is a perfect (negative) case of how MCAT doesn't correlate with your Boards score - I got 36+ :laugh:
Click to expand...

I would agree with most of your sentiments. I think the biggest difference in my classmates and myself during the first two years was that they were trying very hard and I was coasting. I applied late to med school and was accepted into the only school in which I applied. It is a lower tier medical school but boasts an impressive resume of turning the average to below average medical student into a competitive product. I scored a 32 MCAT after studying for 3 weeks (which was higher than anyone else in my class as far as I know). I think this was my undoing. It served notice that I could cram and pass almost anything. I never studied in undergrad, save for a few OChem tests.

I got to medical school and was blown away with the amount of material they threw at us. Our school was all self-directed learning (PBL) where its really up to the student to determine how much they learn. I eventually got the hang of things and was well on my way to passing tests with far less studying than my classmates. I could not believe how they could study all day everyday when I was studying 3 hours a day, maybe 3 times a week, except the week of the test where I really earned my grades. I never scored the highest grades, but I was certainly above average and I was okay with what I made. I still maintained a great social life and found it to be a nice trade off.

Unfortunately, I began to notice that after a phase was over I would know next to nothing about those sections compared to my classmates. They could recall things from year one that I had forgotten about months ago. I knew it once for a test but then it was gone. When it came time for board study I thought 5 weeks would be adequate and honestly felt rather prepared going into the exam. I felt there was nothing I could have done to prepare more during those 5 weeks.

All the review books in the world cannot replace true understanding gained from investing in a deeper understanding your first 2 years. In hindsight, I could have gotten away with it, as my practice scores show. I had it in me to do well. But at the end of the day, it was too big of a risk to take, and I blew it. If I could do it all over differently I would. Its not about being smart, its about the work you put into it. I deserve what I got, and I hate that more than anything right now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm seeing so many ridiculously high scores, so for your consideration, here's a story from a more "average" experience. There was a lot I wish I could have done differently, but looking back I have no regrets and feel that I balanced having a life with passing classes and studying for Step I as best I could. I used Pathoma (watched all the videos), completed DIT 2013 pt 2 (didn't do pt 1 or their self assessment), 2 passes of FA 2013, and I finished about half of Uworld at 54% correct. I was given only 3 blank weeks between finishing second year and taking the real deal.

UWSA 1 (March 22, spring break, just to assess): 195
CBSSA (May 10, 2 1/2 weeks out): 208
NBME 11 (May 19, 10 days out): 226
NBME 15 (May 26, 3 days out): 221

They day before, I did little to no actual studying, only running through flashcards made from the rapid review stuff found at the end of first aid. At about 7 PM, I went and got an hour long massage at a nearby chiropractor clinic. Those things put me to sleep like a baby. My wife made me a light dinner, then I was off to bed by 10 PM!

May 29: Test day was obviously very stressful, but I made it through. I woke up at 6:00 AM so I had plenty of time to make a good (but not heavy) breakfast. The testing site was 30 mins away, and I arrived about 15 mins before my appointment time. There were 15 other kids from my class at the same center, and they pretty much all arrived before me, so I was one of the last to start. Despite my 8 AM appointment, I didn't start my first block until 9 AM! The first three blocks were really hard, and I screwed up my timing on two of those blocks, having to rush through 6-7 questions in 5 minutes. Fortunately, I feel like the last 4 blocks went really well. In the middle of the test, there was a guy behind me chewing Nicorette gum; he refused to give it up when asked. This was obviously super distracting! The testing center still let him chew since he needed it for the duration of his exam (which was < 1 hr). I tried using the provided noise ear muff things, but they were too small and very uncomfortable. I should have remembered my own ear plugs!

After the exam, I walked out thinking I passed, but not by much, maybe sub 200's or even worse, in the 190's. Regardless, I immediately went out and celebrated with the biggest steak I could buy!

Real Deal: 227

I'm very satisfied with this score. (BTW, if you are looking for a correlation, my MCAT score was 29.) I would have liked to beat the mean and get in the 230's, but I'm sitting at the exact mean and that's ok with me. I'm an AMG not gunning for plastics or derm; I'm pretty sure this will leave me options in my desired specialties of EM, internal medicine, or peds, whichever I decide on. I probably could have scored higher had I finished UWorld or maybe done another pass at pathoma or FA, but I can't be upset in the end. No it's not a 240 or 250 like I see so much of on here, but I'm happy and know this will get me to where I want to be! 🙂
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
261 on USMLE Step 1.

Took 2 NBME's- 254 and 264.
Final UW average was around 85%.

Pretty content with this.

I felt I used a much more laid back strategy than most who scored> 260.

Message me if you want any input.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Choo said:
235. I think that is practically failing for SDN. I used FA, half of UWorld, and DIT (which was a waste of time). I only did NBME 15. I think if I didn't waste time on DIT and finished UWorld and did more NBME's, and maybe pathoma - it would have been a better use of time.
Click to expand...

That assumes SDN'ers are telling the truth, which I frequently doubt based on the number of actually test takers with scores in the 260+ range and those on here who claim they made scores of that level. Most of my classmates don't post here and I am in a program that is known for its ability to excel on Step I.

Remember, it is the internet.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
UW avg (first pass/timed/random): 85%
Kaplan Qbank (Average) : 82% ( only completed high yield 35% total questions)
NBME 15 (3 days out): 261
UWSA 1/2(2 weeks out): 265+
NBME 13 (3 week out): 261
NBME 12 (6 weeks out) 247
Gunner Training : 95.7% Mastery of 100% Material, completed over entire second year up to day before real deal :laugh:
First Aid 13' Read and annotated 3 full times

total cram time 7 Weeks, but did Gunner Training for all of second year

Real deal: 261

The real test was almost IDENTICAL to the NBMEs in terms of question difficulty except I had more experiment like questions and many more pictures, if i had to select the most important part of my training regimen it was Gunner Training/Firecracker, if you can commit to it and put the time in, there is no better way to study for Step 1 in my opinion, multiple readings of first aid will help you answer the easy questions fast, UWORLD is also invaluable overall but the Kaplan Qbank had some questions on certain physiological concepts that I never had though about before , GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
FIREitUP said:
255, i know it sounds lame but i was hoping for 260+. at least i'll be competitive for almost everything (hoping to match into uro)
Click to expand...

255 is plenty competitive for uro. Last years unofficial average was 241 w/ std of 12. Nice work, mang.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Preparation:

I took the test on June 13th. I had 5 weeks to study for step 1. I used and completed DIT, after which I reviewed much of my finely notated DIT study guide. I also used USMLE World which I made my way through once + 350 questions on a second run. First time through timed random cumulative was a 62% although my last 10 or so blocks I was averaging about 75%. I also used Pathoma (which is awesome IMO) and managed to make through about 3/4 of it. I put in a solid 10-12 hrs every day. I referenced FA once in a while which amounted to about 1/4 of it. My lack of usage with FA was due to a lack of time. Once finished with my daily DIT videos, 2 U World blocks and some Pathoma I had very little time left for anything else. I do wish I would have made time for more FA reading. I didn't do any practice assessments (NBME, UWSA) due to my own ignorance. I attend an osteopathic institution where the importance of doing many practice assessments was not emphasized much and I failed to read SDN enough to realize what great value they would have been.

Test day:

I felt that my test was very difficult. My nerves really got to me during the first block but I managed to calm down. I marked plenty of questions for review in each block. My stamina began to fade at the end of my 5th block and by the end of the test I had absolutely had it. I walked out feeling extremely depressed as I felt as though I would not even break 220 (my goal was >240). I called my wife and told her how terrible the exam experience was and that I was extremely worried that I had bombed.

The waiting game:

Since the exam I partially succeeded in alleviating a portion of my fear by telling myself to trust in my preparations and the hard work I had put in over the past 2 years. The past 3 weeks or so have been excruciatingly long. Even knowing that today would be the release day for my score I found myself checking for my score multiple times a day for the past 2 weeks. I awoke at 4:30 am unable to sleep and kept checking for my score report and refreshing this page for updates. And finally the score report arrived...

The unveiling:

I saw the link for my score report and literally began to have palpitations as imagined how heart broken I would be if things were to go poorly. I clicked the link and walked away from my computer before it could download in order to get myself prepared for what I was to behold.

I ended up with a 248. I am so happy and relieved. What a ride this one has been. Congratulations to everyone who feels that congratulations are in order!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Goober11 said:
Took my exam on the 14th. For reference I am a US MD student who had 5.5 weeks of dedicated study time. I score slightly average to above average on school exams and I wouldn't even have a chance at a 240+ without this forum, so thank you all very much.


Test day:
I think I had one of the more "fair" exams. Much of it was out of FA/UW, I'd say probably 80% was covered in those resources. I relied on my undergrad knowledge for biochem and genetics more than I thought I would and anatomy was everywhere. In my opinion, if you are not supplementing FA/UW with an anatomy resource you are costing yourself points on the exam. I didn't get tired during the exam which I think had a lot to do with my doing 3 7-block simulations before the exam. Pharm was very straightforward with all but one drug being covered in FA/UW.


Resources:

Gunner Training: I was about 40% banked with 30% mastered. I worked through all of anatomy, physio, some pharm, some neuro. I quit GT December 2012 to start doing Rx and GT was causing me an incredible amount of stress because the system was really buggy all the time. With the site always crashing I my daily reviews piled up so I stuck it to the man and quit and picked up USMLERx--best decision ever. I'll get there. I will say though, that my test had a stupid amount of anatomy and autonomics that I was well prepared for because of GT that I stopped doing 6 months ago. So I guess it works, it's just a pain in the ass.

First Aid: Read throughout the year, great resource I would say my exam was still 60-70% out of FA.

Pathoma: Sattar is my guy. I listened to whatever subject we were covereing in school at the time, however, second semester I stopped listening to class lecture entirely and Sattar taught me everything I need to know. What a boss. I noticed a plateauing in my NBMEs so I went through the audio again my last 1.5 weeks before my exam. EXCELLENT DECISION.

Rx: Other than UW, I would say Rx was my most important resource. It's a well known fact that FA is daunting and it is hard to just sit down and read--that's why people inexplicably subject themselves to DIT (sorry, ha).

DIT: Watched two lectures, gouged my eyes/ears out and moved on with my life. I know I didn't give the program a full shake but I just couldn't do it. Rx is the ACTIVE LEARNING alternative to DIT and is less than a quarter of the price, no brainer for me.

Khan's cases: Went through twice and felt VERY prepared for the ethics questions I saw on test day. Great, underutilized resource.

HY Neuro: Went through once during my neuro class. Revisited the images the morning before my exam and I was rewarded for my effort.

Kaplan: During my first 1.5 weeks of dedicated study period I completed probably 800 questions in some of my weaker area. SO CLUTCH. I went through all of the anatomy, micro, embryo, biochem and molecular/cellular biology. While I was going through Kaplan I constantly wondered whether or not I was wasting my time. However, on the 14th I counted 7 times where I shook my head and smiled, knowing that Kaplan had lead me to the correct answer. For those looking for an additional anatomy source since I know that is a hot topic at the moment, Kaplan is a great place to look.

UW: Gold standard, duh. 7-8 repeats on the real deal. I went through like 1.8 times. Went through random timed the last 6 weeks of school and redid most of it during the school year. 69% the first time through 87% the second.

Anatomy resources: Flipped through HY anatomy---meh not so great. Not enough pictures and nothing is bolded so it is difficult to know where to focus your attention during dedicated study period. Used BRS Anatomy during my M1 class and this turned out to be the best additional anatomy resource outside of the Qbanks. I felt very prepared for all the images I saw on the exam because of this book. Each chapter has great pics that I encourage everyone to get through at least the pics. I didn't start looking thru BRS anatomy until the week before my exam, wish I started earlier.

Practice assessments.
6 weeks out 7 block USMLERx assessment: 248
5.5 weeks out UWSA 1: 245
4.5 weeks NBME 11: 252
4 weeks UWSA 2: 256
3 weeks NBME 12: 247
2.5 weeks NBME 7: 250 (started flat lining here and started pathoma again)
2 weeks NBME 13: 257 (did after 3 blocks of UW)
1 week Free 150: 93%
1 week NBME15: 245 (did after free 150) AHHHH, I was PISSED. I will say I was really tired when I took it but still a disappointing result given my NBME 13. I am glad I had a week to redouble my efforts after this result)

Average NBME score over my dedicated study period--250. I would be ELATED with a score anywhere near that. My goal going into dedicated was a 240+, leaving the testing center I think I have a solid chance of getting within 10 points of my average. Who knows if I will be embarrassed by saying this on July 10th when I get my score, but I think it is important for others to know how I felt leaving the exam.

I am open to questions and clarifications! Thank you all again 👍.
Click to expand...

Real Deal: 261 👍

Thank you again SDN. Scoring well on standardized tests isn't usually my thing but thanks to all your input it was possible THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Got my score back today (took it on 6/11). Below is what I posted after the exam.

Prep:
BRS physio, Pathoma, Goljan, FA, UW

Practice test scores
NBME Form 5 (8 weeks from test) - 250
NBME Form 6 (6 weeks) - 245
NBME Form 7 (4 weeks) - 252
USWA 1 (3 weeks) - 263
NBME Form 11 (2.5 weeks) - 264
USWA 2 (2 weeks) - 265
NBME Form 12 (1.5 weeks) - 254
NBME Form 13 (1 week) - 261
NBME Form 15 (0.5 weeks) - 266

Test:
Overall: Definitely harder than the NBME practice tests. On par with UW, with the hard difficulty questions maybe being a little more challenging. There were a decent number of auto-clicks, an emphasis on understanding the physio/path, and a good amount of random stuff I've never seen.

Behavioral Science - Fairly straightforward. Had a few challenging ones. Biostats were fairly simple.
Biochem - Straightfoward, with approximately half of the questions dealing with responses to hormones/metabolic states
Microbio - Not too bad. No random bugs but had a few challenging presentations with a couple asking for treatments which were not first-line in my mind
Immunology - Straightforward. Not too much on my exam
Pathology - Obviously heavily emphasized, with more questions requiring a good understanding of the pathophys compared to practice tests.
Pharm - Not too bad. Know the micro drugs and side effects especially well
Cardiac - A good amount - murmurs, CHF, HCM etc. Know why something happens and the systemic effects
Endocrine - Not much, fairly straightforward
GI - mainly tested using CTs. Maybe a few path questions
HemOnc - Cancers and maybe one blood bleeding disorder
MSK - Straightforward path
Neurology - a few tricky ones about things I had never seen before. One question which required PhD-level neurophysiology knowledge.
Psychiatry - Very little and straightforward
Renal - a fair amount on responses to different stimuli
Reproductive - a fair amount. A couple of obscure questions on physiology things I hadn't thought about.
Respiratory - a good amount on the full spectrum of path

Unfortunately I have to mimic what has been said before recently and say that many of the challenging questions could not be studied for before hand. Perhaps a deeper understanding would help for a few questions but not sure the vast majority of us have the time to go deep into absolutely everything. I would still recommend to focus on FA/UW/Pathoma so that you know the basics and a little beyond well. Also like people have said before, it really depends on your luck and what sort of exam you get. Ill perhaps give a little more detail on prep etc. after I get my score back. Right now perhaps expecting high 240s considering the number of questions I was unsure about. Goodluck to the rest of you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Real Deal: 262

Im pretty happy with my score. I really felt like I did horribly. As soon as I got home I reviewed all of FA to remember my test questions and recalled ~15-20 questions that I definitely got wrong, quite a few of which were stupid mistakes. My advice after receiving my score is that you should relax and trust in your prep - most likely your score will be close to later practice test scores. Goodluck to all of you.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Got 247!

In comparison: NBME 13: 242, ~2 weeks out
NBME 15: 254, ~ 1 week out
UWSA 2: 262, ~1.5 weeks out (?)
MCAT: 34

3 weeks dedicated study w/all the usual sources. Did pretty well in all 1st-2nd year classes. In retrospect, maybe I could've tried to do even better? Or done more NBME's... It fell from my last couple practice tests, but is still much higher than what I felt I scored on test day; I could have easily failed with how many panicked guesses I was putting down! No judgement on anyone that did fail.

Anyway, I'm thankful that I can move on with 3rd year now... On to Step 2!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
All those, who passed today, Congrats!
I am sure all are relishing the proud moments of glory!🙂

6 days left for my exam.
Can you suggest how to optimally utilise last few days?
Thanks!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dreamz49 said:
All those, who passed today, Congrats!
I am sure all are relishing the proud moments of glory!🙂

6 days left for my exam.
Can you suggest how to optimally utilise last few days?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Keep your mind engaged by doing practice exams, brushing up on few loose concepts, and take AT LEAST 1 day off before the exam.

I think the last few days were not very helpful once I got to the exam. Save your energy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
240!

Pretty pumped with this since I was in the low 230s on all my NBMEs. As a DO student, this will def help me land a good residency so I'm happy with it.

As an aside, my MCAT was 23...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Took 5 NBMEs and UWSA1+2

Scores ranged from mid 240s to mid 250s, UWSA 1 256 and 2 248

Coming out of the exam I knew I screwed up, counted way too many easy questions that I got wrong.

Real deal: 232

Pretty much everyone I see post on here are people who score higher than averages, but I am proof that the reverse happens.

And no, I didn't have an anxiety attack or anything that caused me to mess up the day of, I just tend to over think way too much, and when you do things like choose to give an Osteoporotic 78 year old woman a SERM instead of Bisphosphonates you can't expect to score around your NBME average.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hardee17 said:
Taking this thing in the next few days, but signing off until afterwards. Here's my prep:

School sponsored CBSE during spring semester: 99 (doubt accuracy on this)

Dedicated prep (5 weeks):

Uworld 2x, first pass 78%, 2nd 95%
Usmlerx: 86%
Kaplan: 85%

UWSA1: 265+
UWSA2: 265+

Nbme 6: 250+
Nbme 7,11,12: 260+
Nbme 13, 15: 270+

Nbme free 150: 97%

I also did all old nbmes, ungraded and just for extra questions.

Hoping for a 265 or higher, but we'll see. I certainly don't feel ready, but I don't know what else I can do. I feel like I do better on "harder" questions with a more generous curve than easier simple recall type ones. Will update after with thoughts on my exam.
Click to expand...

Update: I bombed 🙁
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CBSE (March): ~208
NBME 6 (May 5): 205
NBME 11 (May 23): 242
NBME 15 (May 30): 245

Real deal (June 10): 249

Did DIT
Read First Aid twice
Completed ~3/4 of uworld with an average of 73%

Thats pretty much it. I don't think there is any secret weapon to your prep during dedicated study time. So my advice goes to rising 2nd years: Learn the stuff right the first time! I didn't use first aid all year, I just spent a lot of time learning everything we did in path/phys/pharm during second year and THAT was the bulk of the test.

When I started really reading first aid in May most of the stuff came back pretty quickly because I never crammed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
NBME Form 12: 165 (6 months out)
NBME Form 13: 205 (2 months out)
NBME Form 15: 226 (3.5 weeks out)
NBME Form 7: 231 (1 week out)
UWorld Percentage: 64% (1 pass only)
MCAT: 30

I was freaking out around the week before... couldn't believe that I had been studying non-stop fo 2.5 weeks and only improved my NBME by 5 points. Also, my Uworld performance was progressively getting worse (managed a 35% on a 46 question block a week before the test... talk about discouraging).

Real Deal: 242

Absolutely surprised and thrilled. NBME 7 under predicted by 11 points. Came out of the test knowing of at least 10-15 easy questions that I should have known, but missed (confirmed by looking them up).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CassieBagley said:
I can see 275 being possible for someone scoring 260-265 on the practice NBMEs, but it would mostly be dependent on luck: did he luckily get tested on topics he happened to know pretty well, did we guess right, etc. There is a statistically unlikely, albeit existent, probability that someone already scoring high on the practice NBMEs will jump up into the 275 range based on random luck alone. Or maybe he just had a great memory and grasp of the material...
Click to expand...

Although a rare feat to cherish about .... yeah you are right ...it mostly depends on the luck
infact i feel 95 % touch 270 due to luck(though 99 % don't who are calibrated to get 260s) ....as in being tested the stuff you know pretty well or making the right guess whatsoever or handling the test anxiety well.... but whatever the reason it's actually cool to stand above the line and say hey i actually did that knowing he only had one shot at it ....
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CassieBagley said:
I can see 275 being possible for someone scoring 260-265 on the practice NBMEs, but it would mostly be dependent on luck: did he luckily get tested on topics he happened to know pretty well, did we guess right, etc. There is a statistically unlikely, albeit existent, probability that someone already scoring high on the practice NBMEs will jump up into the 275 range based on random luck alone. Or maybe he just had a great memory and grasp of the material...
Click to expand...

Didn't you get a 268? That's like a 3-5 question difference tops :laugh:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
mythic said:
So anyone not get their score today? Should we just expect it next week then? I took it on 6/25
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's usually the third-fourth Wednesday after you take the exam (fourth Wednesday if you took it before the Wednesday of the week you took the test). July 10th was just special for a multitude of scores because they were postponed I think since early June due to changing testing standards or what not.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dreamz49 said:
Can you suggest how to optimally utilise last few days?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Try reading Pathoma and as much FA as you can (it'll be annoying to read it the last week), do UWorld missed/marked Q's, review a list of notes you keep containing things you find hard to remember
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
lol, I see why my classmates, who got a 251, said it was a mistake to look at this thread - suddenly my 247 isn't looking so hot 😛. Anyways, I'll just echo everyone who has said that how you feel is irrelevant, as I was legitimately worried that I could have failed, and was hoping for a 220. Also, the only practice exam I took was required by my school (didn't receive my score), I did only a few token questions on UWORLD, and felt that firstaid gave me no useful information during the exam outside the biostatistics of all things. I had a bit of an odd exam which may be why I feel this way (I had little-no micro, and yet lots of parasites and fungi - again, fu first aid), but honestly, I think that I made the right decision studying what my school handed out, which is what every person I knew who did well in the years above me had told me. Actually, I'll give a shout out to Falcon's anatomy, which I spent one day on, and was full of pure gold in terms of material - single most helpful single day of studying for me. Anyways, there's no magic formula here for anyone viewing this thread for advice - know your sht and you'll be fine.

Oh, and to people who didn't do as well as they'd hoped, most residency directors know step1 is spitting out fun facts in rapid fire, and would prefer people who they believe will make great colleagues to numbers. I've met residents with mediocre scores and no research, in competitive programs, who are great clinicians, and were chosen because of exactly this. it's about as stupid to give up trying because of a low score as it is to think a high score will gaurantee you a good residency.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kaplan - 51% (Finished in January)
Rx - 59% (Finished April.)
U World Random 1st pass - 69% (Finished 31 May)
UW Assess 1 - 245 (Early May)
UW Assess 2 -244 (Mid May)
Kaplan full Sim - 70% (Mid May)
NBME 15 - 231 (Late May)
NBME 12 - 238 (Late May)
NBME 13 - 242 (2 June)
Step 1 - 248!!! - (4 June)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Got my scores back today, quite pleased especially because I had pushed my date back because I didn't feel ready.

1st half of DIT in 1 week
NBME 13 ~4 weeks prior to original date: 214
last half of DIT in 1.5 weeks with a few UW blocks
pushed hard through UW to finish in about 2 weeks - finished around 70% with last 10 blocks ~80%
UWSA1 4 days out: 224.

This was nowhere near where I wanted to be so I pushed my test date back 10 days. I reviewed FA over and over during those 10 days, and redid about 5 blocks of UW wrong answers/did NBME 5/6 offline. I was still putting in 10-14 hour days most days then.

UWSA2 3 days out: 253
Free 150 offline 2 days out: 90%

I walked out of the test feeling like I could have been anywhere between average and the UWSA2 - most blocks I marked 5-10 with 1-2 blocks marking 10-15. About 50% of my marks were things I was mostly sure of and just wanted to review if I had time left, while the rest were things I narrowed down to 2-3 and was still stymied by.

Real deal: 250

I probably didn't use UW well - didn't spend as much time reviewing, annotating and consolidating as I should have. I would have started doing questions earlier and blown off DIT when I felt like it wasn't helping that much early in the course. The only good things about DIT for me were getting a full pass through FA and reinforcing questions - but I probably could have done that on my own with more qbanks. It didn't feel efficient. I kind of wish I'd used Pathoma, I liked the lectures that I did watch during the year. Pick the resources that work for you and stick with them. It was very tempting to get overwhelmed with resources.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Score: 269
Walked out of the testing center thinking it was by far the hardest test of my life, much harder than UWorld and NBME 15, but I didn't think I failed or anything dramatic. Finished each block with only 5-6 mins to spare and 5-9 marked questions. I didn’t think about the exam much afterward, as I could only remember a few questions, but the five or so I looked up I got right.

Studied ~12 hrs/day for 6 weeks. Read First Aid x 1 and most of HY Embryology. Made tables of drugs, bugs, and histopathology. Watched most of the Pathoma lectures. Used UWorld x 1, timed, with very careful review of correct AND incorrect questions. Saved enough qbank questions to take as 2 full-length simulated exams. Cumulative UWorld percentage was about 85%, which didn’t improve at all over the 6 weeks I studied. (I guess there was just constantly 15% of the material that I didn’t learn well in med school.) I thought the most useful study tool I used was UWorld, by far.

Also, during the first 2 years of med school, I read most of the Katzung Pharmacology book and the microbio chapters of Levinson’s Review of Microbio and Immunology. On test day, I felt that microbio, immuno, and pharm were my strengths, and anatomy and heart murmurs were my weaknesses. I have poor hearing and had trouble with the murmurs no matter how many times I listened to them on repeat. :scared:

Took NBME 15 only and scored in the 250s. Was hoping for 250+ and am pleasantly surprised with result. I am interested mostly in medicine or neuro, so the stakes aren’t as high, but I didn’t want to close any doors yet. Good luck!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wanted to give a quick review for all the advice and help I got from this forum.

NBME 5: 221 (first day of board study, baseline, about 5 weeks out)
NBME 11: 240 (4 weeks out)
NBME 12: 247 (2.5 weeks out)
NBME 13: 252 (4 days out)
NBME 15: 247 (2 days out)

Preparation materials
UWORLD: First pass, random, timed 80%
USMLE RX: did throughout 2nd year, usually just questions on respective core subject
First AID: read 3x total, 4x for microbio, immunology, pharm, embryo (HY/easy points) and skimmed once throughout year as a general overview during core.
Pathoma: read 3x, watched some lectures and took decent notes throughout year, did a more thorough lecture pass during dedicated study period.
BRS Physio: skimmed once throughout dedicated study period, helped in weak areas.

Typical day - 2 blocks + review of UWorld in the morning, lunch, read FA the rest of the day.

My plan from the very beginning was to keep it as simple as possible. I gave myself just under 5 weeks of study time and kept materials to a bare minimum. I know a lot of other people bought HY books, cases, vignettes, etc., but I know myself and know I'd have just gotten overwhelmed by so many sources. I knew it was possible to do well with the essentials and stuck to that game plan.

In hindsight, I think a solid foundation during 2nd year especially is of the utmost importance. I didn't do very much prep during the year other than read Pathoma (which was awesome for getting an overall perspective during cores) and do some RX questions. A solid foundation is extremely important, and may be the most underrated factor for doing well in my opinion. For those of you who didn't do much preparation during the year for boards, you will do just fine.

Another thing I tried doing was mental networking, meaning that any time I'd read about a certain subject, I'd try to mentally go over HY related points I knew. For instance, if I read drug A caused a lupus-like syndrome, I'd mentally think of any other drugs I could that also caused lupus-like syndrome. Then I'd think of symptoms of lupus, and maybe what else had similar symptoms, and so on. If you know something else is related and can't think of it, look it up. Doing this repeatedly with various subjects really helps to tie things together and is something I'd encourage.

The test experience: an absolute cock to the face.
I finally fell asleep at 11 p.m the night before, woke up at 2:55 a.m or something, and didn't fall back asleep. For those that are blessed to fall asleep easily and stay asleep, this is one of the worst, most sinking feelings possible. I was terrified going into the test because I am someone who really needs sleep and believe in its importance for doing well on tests.

The test itself sucked. Only one block did I think I did well on, and that was 2 or 3, and I thought that the worst was behind me. Wrong. The other blocks were hard, with difficult, long passages and no clear answer. I marked at least 15-20 per block and finished with 2-4 min to spare. On UWorld, I was used to at least 10 minutes to spare, giving me time to review and often change many answers to the correct one. The test was a blur overall, and mine was high in anatomy and behavioral sciences, two of my worst subjects. In short, I felt like **** leaving and worried for the next month until today.

Real Deal: 252

In summary - I'd advise a simple plan, trust your practice scores, and sum up all the courage and faith you can muster. If you don't sleep well, don't worry, you really will go into auto-pilot. It is normal to feel like **** coming out, just trust you did what you needed to. Stay as busy as possible till you get your scores back, it helps.

Best of luck to everyone, and thanks to all of you who gave advice and support throughout the last two months. This board has great people who are willing to help and share, and those are the exact kinds of people it takes to make good doctors, regardless of board scores.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Senlin said:
Cumulative UWorld percentage was about 85%, which didn’t improve at all over the 6 weeks I studied. (I guess there was just constantly 15% of the material that I didn’t learn well in med school.)
Click to expand...

I had almost the exact same experience. Here's hoping I can also come close to mimicking your score. Congrats
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
6 weeks dedicated study
-NBME six weeks out = 186
-NBME two and a half weeks out = 205
-NBME one week out = 220
-UWorld: 58% all random timed (last 10 = 65%)
-KaplanQ: did about 300 questions, mostly subject specific when I was bored
-Pathoma: used during the school year; read once during dedicated study
-FA: read about 60% during school year; three passes during dedicated (looked at certain subjects more: Pharm, Lysosomal storage diseases, etc)

6/12/13: 232

I wasn't as dedicated or organized as most people on this thread, but I did achieve my goal of 230. Honestly think confidence and determination on exam day had a lot to do with it. The test was REALLY HARD! Looking back I think this test was as much about battling through doubt and fatigue as answering questions. I felt like I didn't miss many stupid questions - got the ones I knew, lots of 50/50s, and plenty of educated guesses.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Transposony
Official 2024 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
Replies
0
Views
2K
Transposony
Transposony
D
Step 1 and Level 1
Replies
1
Views
3K
DOcSto
D
C
Step 1 tutor available!
Replies
0
Views
2K
chauhanjugalkishor
C
A
USMLE Step 1 resources for sale
Replies
0
Views
3K
accurate_branch20
A
G
  • Question Question
USMLE Out of time and not ready for Step 1. Have I screwed up?
Replies
0
Views
2K
genteel-mug-sting
G
Top