Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Phloston

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.

:luck: Cheers to 2013 :luck:
 
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Someone kindly throw some light on how step 1 is scored.. I did hear before that it isn't one mark per question.. any info will help.. this not knowing bit is killin me..
 
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Did anyone ever do somethin like this before and still get atleast an average score?? My NBMEs went okay.. these r my scores and the order in which i took them..
NBME-13: 226(5 weeks)
NBME-12: 235(3 weeks)
NBME-15: 235(10 days)
NBME-11: 252(5 days)

I did have a time management issue in all of them too.. but it was never these many questions..
 
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donaldduck said:
I took my test on July 2nd, I had it originally scheduled for June 27th but rescheduled it because I wasn't happy with my practice scores.

5/10 NBME 6 -228
5/19 NBME 7- 231
5/26 UWSA 1- 244
6/2- NBME 11- 231
6/9 NBME 12- 231
6/16 NBME 15- 235
6/26 UWSA 2- 256
6/29 NBME 13- 245

Actual Step 1 Score: 243

I'm a Caribbean med student attending a school in the big 4. Hopefully this score enough that ill get something when I graduate.
If you feel that you've hit a plateau there's still hope that you can break it if you work through it, i stayed at roughly the same score for the majority of my study period but eventually got it out of it so there's still hope!
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Congratulations!
 
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knowledgeispowr said:
like i said.. i dunno what came over me.. may be i left my common sense back home when i went to give my test.. cant change what i did now..
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If there is an emergency situation or if the mind just shuts down at the exam center, you can leave the exam without answering 'few blocks', which will leave the "Incomplete Exam" entry listed on the USMLE transcript. Which is better than low score. NBME doesn't score "Incomplete Exam", unless the student requests for.

Each PD will consider it however they choose. Some PDs don't care and some might ask an official letter form the NBME documenting the illness/cause as the reason for the "Incomplete Exam".

But don't worry too much. If you have answered the rest of the exam well (which I'm sure you did based on your NBMEs), 35 questions will not be catastrophic, if luck is in your favor, most of them could turn-out to be experimental ones. And you still have Step-2 CK to break-even.

Good luck!
 
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Whenever I'm reading, I think I should be doing practice questions, and whenever I'm doing practice questions, I think I should be reading. Does anybody else feel this way?
 
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KinasePro said:
Got my score back last week, finally getting around to posting.

NBME 11 (pre- 7 week study period): 207
NBME 12 & 13 (1 week out): 254 on both
Free 150 (1 week out): 94%
Step 1: 262

Study materials: Completed both Kaplan Q bank & Uworld one time each, FA 3x, Goljan RR (blue text and images + black text as needed), Goljan audio 2x, Microcards 2x (crucial). I tried gunner training during M1 and hated it, decided to focus on coursework instead.

The only real advice I can give is to take your coursework seriously, even if it seems ****ty and low yield. In my opinion, the difference between a 230 and 250+ on the NBME's depends almost exclusively on how well you know First Aid and Goljan (or Pathoma), but the real deal is significantly different. The difference between 230 and 250+ on the real deal is how deeply you understand the material from M1 & M2 and can apply that knowledge to new situations. This test will definitely push you out of your comfort zone, but try to trust your instincts.

I felt pretty terrible coming out of my exam, and would have been truly happy with anything above 230 -- so don't let the post-exam jitters get you down. Good luck, everyone!
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Which microcards did you use for step1? I found many many kinds of card in amazon.
 
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AD999 said:
Guys,

Greetings from Middle East

Looking for info on what to study for Step 1, I have completed my Step 2 CK with score of 233 In March. I had done my prep from Uworld, went through all questions twice and Kaplan Lecture notes, and not much else, as i didnt get time.

Going through the forum here i see that FA 2013, Pathoma / NBME / Uworld are very popular if i need to get scores 240+.
How should i prioritise them?

Is Kaplan lecture notes for step 1 a good prep for the exam?

Would appeciate any help/advice.
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There are a lot of posts on study strategies/schedules in this thread written by SDN members. You might want to go through them and adopt them into your own strategy/schedule.

Some of the best study strategies/schedules are custom made, we need to track changes and make adjustments all along.

If you need to brush-up the fundamentals and have a lot of time, Kaplan lecture notes are good, but there are better review books for some subjects, that's up to your discretion.
 
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donaldduck said:
I took my test on July 2nd, I had it originally scheduled for June 27th but rescheduled it because I wasn't happy with my practice scores.

5/10 NBME 6 -228
5/19 NBME 7- 231
5/26 UWSA 1- 244
6/2- NBME 11- 231
6/9 NBME 12- 231
6/16 NBME 15- 235
6/26 UWSA 2- 256
6/29 NBME 13- 245

Actual Step 1 Score: 243

I'm a Caribbean med student attending a school in the big 4. Hopefully this score enough that ill get something when I graduate.
If you feel that you've hit a plateau there's still hope that you can break it if you work through it, i stayed at roughly the same score for the majority of my study period but eventually got it out of it so there's still hope!
Click to expand...

WOW!!! we scored exact same thing.. what's even crazier is that our NBME/UWSAs match almost perfectly in terms of scores... I guess that's why they are highly predictive of your real score... that's an amazing correlation...or crazy coincidence.
 
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Does anyone have any super helpful (like 2 days before actual test helpful) neuro images and/or kidney biopsies/EM? I'm really weak on neuro images and I know they're gonna be all over the test.
 
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RandomHero117 said:
Do any of y'all use pharmcards for step studying? My school recommends that we use them
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Pharm:

1) Memorize the drugs in FA at the end of each chapter and in the pharm chapter itself.

2) Go through USMLE Rx (made by the authors of FA) to reinforce the drugs in FA.

3) Blast through Lange pharm cards. These were great.

After this, you know the pharm you need to know for Step1. Kaplan QBank and UWorld cover the same drugs in the above three (each QBank does cover a few drugs that the others don't, but Rx is the best for learning the ones in FA). UWorld should be for after you already do Rx (i.e. for reinforcement). Brenner cards were an okay top-up only after you already feel your pharm is A+ and just want to know a few lower-yield drugs (I wouldn't recommend them initially because the descriptions of the MOAs are extremely vague or non-specific). DejaReview Pharm was unnecessary and not very good.
 
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Good Mans Armor said:
If there is an emergency situation or if the mind just shuts down at the exam center, you can leave the exam without answering 'few blocks', which will leave the "Incomplete Exam" entry listed on the USMLE transcript. Which is better than low score. NBME doesn't score "Incomplete Exam", unless the student requests for.

Each PD will consider it however they choose. Some PDs don't care and some might ask an official letter form the NBME documenting the illness/cause as the reason for the "Incomplete Exam".

But don't worry too much. If you have answered the rest of the exam well (which I'm sure you did based on your NBMEs), 35 questions will not be catastrophic, if luck is in your favor, most of them could turn-out to be experimental ones. And you still have Step-2 CK to break-even.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
Thank you.. I really needed that.. I guess there's nothing more left to do than hope for the best.. Will post my score here when i get it..
 
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when you do your exam, are the majority of the questions topics/concepts you have seen before.

do you think to yourself (oh I saw this question/concept in FA/UWorld/NBME)
 
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Hey guys,

Took Step 1 on June 30th, received my score this past Wednesday.

Score: 261

I used this forum to help guide some of my studying and for the most part it just served to freak me out, so I thought I'd just report my experience. I think that people posting in this forum are using way too many resources. Sure, you can read all of Rapid Review Pathology, First Aid, do 13 q-banks, and read a subject specific review book for each topic on the exam, but if you're doing that much reading you likely aren't giving yourself much time to actually think about what you're reading. More importantly, there is no way you can digest that much material and actually remember it (or use it in a working form) in the constricted time frame of 6-7 weeks of dedicated studying. Obviously if you are someone who is taking months and months to study or if you have been out of school for years then that may be of benefit to you, but I think it is pointless for the typical US medical student. There is definitely a core base of knowledge that you need to have for Step 1, but I found that the most important aspect of my preparation was simply being a good student during the first couple years of med school. By 'good student' I don't mean 'memorized everything and got good scores as a result,' I mean being a thoughtful and probing student who constantly is asking 'why?' and attempting to understand everything on a deeper level.

For dedicated Step 1 studying, I used First Aid and USMLE World as my sole resources, even though I had purchased a ton of review books with the intent of using them. I probably only got in 4.5 weeks of honest studying with the hours varying from 6-12+ per day. I read through First Aid two times and did 75% of the q-bank. If I came across something that I didn't understand or was confused by while reading First Aid or doing questions, I made sure to look it up and read about it in an attempt to understand it as opposed to simply committing the words to memory. There are going to be questions on the exam that you will never have seen before. And they will test concepts differently than they were tested in the q-banks or discussed in your review books, so it helps to think critically during the study period and try to do as little rote memorization as possible (obviously you will have to for certain things, such as things like idiosyncratic adverse reactions and which antibody is associated with which disease, but save that for late in your studying or just chip away at it slowly). USMLE World really was a great resource as it helps to get you thinking critically. If you're pressed for time, I don't think you have to do every single question in the bank as they tend to repeat themselves (or the answer to one question was discussed in the question rationale of another). If I were to go back and change how I studied, I would have tried to get through all the questions once and worked on not rushing through them as I suspect it may have netted me a couple more correct answers as I didn't do a single genitourinary question from the bank and I'm pretty weak on some of that stuff, but even then that's just speculation. When you go through the questions, make sure you thoroughly read the explanations and understand why your answer was correct (even if you think you know why you got it right) and read why the other answers were incorrect and understand the explanation.

That's my general advice, my whole point of posting here was just to say that you can have a basic study plan and do well, without using ridiculously engineered study plans that some Student Doctor power user has spent the better part of his free time putting together simply because he got a score of 270+ (even if you use that plan you're not going to get a 270 unless you are just smart to begin with).
 
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Medical students are the most insecure ppl I have met. It wouldn't phase me at all that they would come on here and lie about their score. Even at school I subtract 15 points from any score I've heard. Med students lie all the time....I think it's to make themselves feel better since they are finally surrounded by ppl who are just as smart if not smarter than them.
 
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TheOcean said:
Medical students are the most insecure ppl I have met. It wouldn't phase me at all that they would come on here and lie about their score. Even at school I subtract 15 points from any score I've heard. Med students lie all the time....I think it's to make themselves feel better since they are finally surrounded by ppl who are just as smart if not smarter than them.
Click to expand...

It sounds like the performance of other students is making you feel insecure 😉

Edit: just since there haven't been many of them on this thread so far, my class had a student with a 273 this year
 
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Medicine is a field where the fundamental subject/information/mechanisms remains the same. Success/Satisfaction depends on knowing the facts well, applying them and being compassionate.

But a guy/girl at Intel laboratory just needs to be smart to develop the next generation of microprocessors.
 
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Who took it today (7/27) or anywhere recently?

Now I know that "damn, thought I was doing well on UW and NBMEs but actual test day felt crazy" feeling.

🙁

anyone? anyone?
 
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thawunandonly said:
Who took it today (7/27) or anywhere recently?

Now I know that "damn, thought I was doing well on UW and NBMEs but actual test day felt crazy" feeling.

🙁

anyone? anyone?
Click to expand...

took the beast today. it was an exhausting experience. i agree that there were lots of wtf out of the blue questions as well as several vague questions that could have multiple answers. **** it.

my uworld average was 60-65% . whihich is like 220-230 i think according to the conversion table, but i dont really know. i will be happy to just pass.
 
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MedicalBeast said:
took the beast today. it was an exhausting experience. i agree that there were lots of wtf out of the blue questions as well as several vague questions that could have multiple answers. **** it.

my uworld average was 60-65% . whihich is like 220-230 i think according to the conversion table, but i dont really know. i will be happy to just pass.
Click to expand...

I was averaging like 78-79% on UW, but I thought today...there were so many things I've never ever heard of, lol. I mean I could make educated guesses, but I don't like the feeling I get when I don't know an answer for sure.

See you in this thread in about 3 weeks I guess? Godspeed until then!:luck:
 
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Got my score back in june, but I skimmed this thread throughout my studying and it really helped. I studied for 5 weeks using FA, UW x 1, dabbled in Goljan.

CBSE at school = 220
UW = 82%
NBMEs (can't remember the numbers) = 234, 234, 238

Real Score: 254

Really happy with the score. Not sure what I want to do yet but at least this won't shut the door on anything. It might look like I had a huge jump from NBME to real deal, but I think I'm the kind of person who stresses out on practice tests to the point where it hurts my score. My UW% was probably more representative of my knowledge base. Luckily I relaxed on the real exam and pulled it off!
 
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TheOcean said:
Medical students are the most insecure ppl I have met. It wouldn't phase me at all that they would come on here and lie about their score. Even at school I subtract 15 points from any score I've heard. Med students lie all the time....I think it's to make themselves feel better since they are finally surrounded by ppl who are just as smart if not smarter than them.
Click to expand...

Replace "med students" in the above with "my colleagues and friends" and see if it sounds a little off to you.
 
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thawunandonly said:
I was averaging like 78-79% on UW, but I thought today...there were so many things I've never ever heard of, lol. I mean I could make educated guesses, but I don't like the feeling I get when I don't know an answer for sure.

See you in this thread in about 3 weeks I guess? Godspeed until then!:luck:
Click to expand...

i feel like there was so much that i studied that was not tested. i dont know, just feels like the test didn't represent so many high yeild topics and i didn't get to show what i learned... o well...

will post an update when i get my score. good luck to u as well.
 
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JP2740 said:
lol stop acting like a bitch. If you want to think I got a 245 instead of a 260, I couldn't care less if that's what it takes to stop your fragile ego from breaking.
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I would just ignore him. For some reason people equate their self worth with a multiple choice exam. Unfortunately this means those with higher scores make them feel unimportant, so calling them liars is much more palatable.
 
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TheOcean said:
Medical students are the most insecure ppl I have met. It wouldn't phase me at all that they would come on here and lie about their score. Even at school I subtract 15 points from any score I've heard. Med students lie all the time....I think it's to make themselves feel better since they are finally surrounded by ppl who are just as smart if not smarter than them.
Click to expand...

Haha looks like someone had some salt rubbed in their wounds.
 
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Kal EI said:
I would just ignore him. For some reason people equate their self worth with a multiple choice exam. Unfortunately this means those with higher scores make them feel unimportant, so calling them liars is much more palatable.
Click to expand...

Not agreeing with the guy, but I think there is a reason most people reporting scores did really well. It's called bragging. Do you think the same guy that got a 260 would post in this thread if he got a 220? If yes, then why have there been only a handful of scores under 240 in this thread.
Go ahead though, brag away, who cares.
 
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Atom bum said:
Not agreeing with the guy, but I think there is a reason most people reporting scores did really well. It's called bragging. Do you think the same guy that got a 260 would post in this thread if he got a 220? If yes, then why have there been only a handful of scores under 240 in this thread.
Go ahead though, brag away, who cares.
Click to expand...

It's not bragging. This thread is going to be useful for future test-takers. Someone who got a 220 and their experience in obtaining that score is not that useful vs. someone who scored higher. While we all have different test score goals, we all want to aim high or try to follow the advice of someone who have excelled on the test. I have a test goal of 240+ but I know that when I started, I read mostly the test experiences of people who scored higher than 260. I've read some test experiences of individuals who scored under 240 as well but quiet honestly, those posts are simply not that useful.
 
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Which is more accurate, NBME 6 or 11? I have just done 11 and got 235. I scored 212 in form 6 five days ago.

EDIT: MY EXAM IS AFTER A MONTH
 
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beatsbydre said:
It's not bragging. This thread is going to be useful for future test-takers. Someone who got a 220 and their experience in obtaining that score is not that useful vs. someone who scored higher. While we all have different test score goals, we all want to aim high or try to follow the advice of someone who have excelled on the test. I have a test goal of 240+ but I know that when I started, I read mostly the test experiences of people who scored higher than 260. I've read some test experiences of individuals who scored under 240 as well but quiet honestly, those posts are simply not that useful.
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What about the people that follow the 260 + study plans and still score 220? Where are those people.
I promise there are people with much better study plans than the 260 scorers who still scored sub 230. Some people are just going to do better. It's just like first and second year where you have people studying all the time that still make average.

There are so many study plans out there it is crazy, and many of them are very similar. This is just a pointless argument.

You can't honestly say there isn't bragging going on in this thread, that is practically it's main purpose. I hope you get a 260 so you can come brag too.
 
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SDN is an amazing online platform for the medical students to discuss, share, communicate and to even build a virtual team to work on common goals. Some people are too humble and some people are not, it's just one of the variables among the human community, if everyone is the same it wouldn't be much exciting.

Some people achieve or even exceed on what they have set out to do. Some people may not score too well for reasons within or beyond their control, but that doesn't make one any less human. For instance, I respect Phloston for his amazing score, but his personality is beyond numbers, it's priceless!! I respect him even more for his professionalism, dedication and passion, humble demeanor, expertise, team spirit and most importantly the willingness to help others even in the face of competition. That's exemplary leadership. Bows.

10 years down the lane people don't remember our scores or how long/short one has studied, one will be loved and respected for how good a human being he/she is.

Everyone can write their story, whether it is a 200 or 276. Members or guests will use their discretion before reading anyway. 🙂
 
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For those of us getting our scores this wednesday, has anyone's links disappeared yet? I read on another forum that links start disappearing on sunday/monday night...any feedback? I better be getting mine this week!
 
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HI ,
You guys will do great I just failed step 1 gave it in may 2013
Just so depressed.dont know how to study again and when to retake it
I did Kaplan but as alast resort used first aid alone
Didn't do questions much:-(
Any advice
 
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zainperfect said:
HI ,
You guys will do great I just failed step 1 gave it in may 2013
Just so depressed.dont know how to study again and when to retake it
I did Kaplan but as a last resort used first aid alone
Didn't do questions much:-(
Any advice
Click to expand...
The answer lies in your question.
Do lot of questions (UW and USMLERx and maybe Kaplan QBank) and know FA like back of your hand.
Take NBMEs every few weeks to find out your weak areas--work on your weaknesses by reading appropriate resources (Pathoma/Goljan for Path, MMRS/MicroCards for Micro etc)
You will bounce back for sure. Just use appropriate resources (There is tons of useful info in this thread about which resource to use for each subject OR just go through Pholston's posts 🙂 ).
 
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Atom bum said:
What about the people that follow the 260 + study plans and still score 220? Where are those people.
I promise there are people with much better study plans than the 260 scorers who still scored sub 230. Some people are just going to do better. It's just like first and second year where you have people studying all the time that still make average.

There are so many study plans out there it is crazy, and many of them are very similar. This is just a pointless argument.

You can't honestly say there isn't bragging going on in this thread, that is practically it's main purpose. I hope you get a 260 so you can come brag too.
Click to expand...

The experiences of people who scored sub 230 are just as important (at least to me). It's just as important to learn what not to do as it is to learn what to do.

You can't take any post at face value because of their inherent subjectivity, but if enough intelligent people are saying the same thing, it's worth your while to at least look into it.
 
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