Official 2013 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Phloston]

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

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

Cheers to 2013

 

[CDI]

I second doing NBME 15. It was pretty similar to the test and I even had at least 1 question that I got wrong on NBME 15 and the real deal. Although I don't know if 3 points is worth $50?😕

Its absolutely worth it. Every point counts.

I've been saying this for a while now that NBME 15 should be studied, not just taken for a score. NBME 15 came out just a week or so before my exam. I didn't bother looking at it (lack of confidence). My real score turned out to be 3 points away from a strict "cut-off" filter to certain programs.

 

[JP2740]

By study you just mean basically look at your extended feedback Q you get wrong, right

 

[sleepisoptional]

Congrats on being done 🙂


What was ur Rx % by the end (if you don't mind me asking) in relation to the tests you did.

Thanks man! My Rx avg % was 80%. I only did the medium and hard q's though. To be honest I have no idea how Rx classifies their Qs.

 

[sleepisoptional]

Well guys i made my test on may28th...
Horrified by the real test... came out thinking i was gonna fail for sure... i probably marked close to 20-25 questions per block... had only 1 easy block, 3 average and 3 very hard blocks... felt like they looked for the most obscure facts about some diseases that are as rare as they get... really felt bad on my exam my NBME's are as follows:
NBME:7 237
NBME:12: 242
NBME 15:247

and some others that i dont remember my mean UW score was 75%...

so as you can imagine i was only marking 5-10 questions pero block and went to the exam expecting something like nbme or easier than UWORLD.... guess i was wrong...:/ im at a point that i dont know if ill pass....

How does everyone feel about this new item pool....:S did anyone have an experience like this??? and do we have to wait untill july 10th???:S saw some guys thatalready recieved ther score

I took it today and I feel pretty similar but I think the thought of being done + residual coffee is still got me high. Congrats on finishing! The lady at the testing center said 3-4 weeks which would put us close to July 10th but I don't think that date is absolute but rather for them not to get a million emails from people wanting to know their score.

 

[CDI]

By study you just mean basically look at your extended feedback Q you get wrong, right

Those are obviously of more concern since intuition, logic and knowledge failed would have failed you in that moment. I assume everyone does that already though and studies their incorrects.

In addition, I think the answer choices should be studied for other questions as well. (i.e. With what question stem could the other answers be correct?)

 

[D elegans]

Took it today. Wow.

Much more difficult than I was expecting. That's what everyone's been saying lately but you want to believe that you'll be different.

I can't do a subject-by-subject breakdown at this point because I'm effing spent but here are my random thoughts:

*The biggest frustration I have is that I felt like I didn't get to demonstrate all of my preparation. A huge chunk of the test felt like things I couldn't have prepared for. A lot of it is reasoning, elimination of choices, and educated guessing (at least for me). I thought that UWorld sometimes had too much ambiguity. Step 1 is much more ambiguous. Sometimes this would be a grammatical/syntactic issue in which I was between two choices based upon what I thought the sentence they wrote was trying to ask. This is obviously very annoying.

*My test felt very heavy on micro (my favorite subject, though they asked really hard questions), anatomy (way more than I expected, major bummer), genetics, and neuro (several questions with images of the brainstem, brain, etc). Lots of behavioral sci/what's the next thing to say but I think they were pretty straightforward. Lightly covered topics were biochem (all disease-related and easier than I expected) and embryology (the couple questions I did have I am pretty certain were not covered in FA or UWorld as they didn't look familiar at all). Overall though, I would say it was fairly comprehensive.

*Pathology --> all upcoming takers should memorize Pathoma and even then you're going to get questions asking for info you haven't seen before. I was prepared to crush path due to it always being one of my stronger points and it definitely was hard as ****. Answer choices with lots of detailed, histology-specific terms you have to distinguish among. Know this very well.

My goal was > 240. Feels like that would be hard to hit coming out of it, but I also recognize lots of smart people on here and at my school have been remarking on its difficulty, so I have to imagine it will work out at least ok. I would say only about 1/3 of the questions was I absolutely certain on.

Studied in varying intensities since the first of the year, really heavily after about mid-March. Kaplan Qbank (not to completion), UWorld (About 1.5x), Pathoma, FA, some random other things.

3/25 NBME 15: 219
5/18 NBME 13: 231
6/24 NBME 12: 247
6/7: Step 1 (likely <247)

 

[sharklasers]

Thanks for the write up elegans!

If I have been doing well in path on the NBMEs (probably 80+% of the questions I miss are NOT in path), do you still recommend I go through Pathoma? I have 9 days left but would rather do a solid pass of first aid instead of pathoma. Thanks!!

 

[DeucesHigh3]

Hey guys, so here's another eye-rolling type-A-gunner post, I'm sure, but bear with me. I'm taking the test on Thursday, and I'm wondering how to best spend the rest of my time.

TL,DR: what to cram? should I buy extended feedback for 15?

NBME 13 - 231 (T-5wks) **before dedicated study-period**
UWSA 1 - 242 (T-3.5wks)
NBME 11 - 257 (T-3wks)
NBME 12 - 261 (T-2wks)
NBME 15 - ??? (T-0.5wks) **taking it on Sunday**
Finished UWorld with 71% cum. today, 74.5% in the last 15 blocks.

As it stands, I don't have many clear strengths or weaknesses -- embryo, anatomy, and repro are at the bottom (which has always been the case), but I don't really know a way to beef up the former two without spending some serious time with BRS: Gross Anatomy. Which I might do... at least the head/neck chapter.

Right now, I plan to use the last 5 days before the test to go over 5 blocks/day of my marked UWorld questions (~1200), which shouldn't take more than a couple hours per day, as well as the four blocks of the UWSA #2 spread across 4 days (less for the predictive ability than to just get more random questions). Other than that... what? I should probably plan to hammer some of the high-yield crammable stuff in FA (micro, pharm, biochem), but what else? Would it be worth doing a 2nd pass through all of First Aid (I've only done 1x pass since classes/finals ended), even though it'll consume a *lot* of hours of my final days? Should I buzz back through Pathoma? Micro flashcards? Find High Yield Neuro at the school library and look through the slices? I guess it's finally seeming real, now that I'm actually going up against the beast in less than a week, and all my planning and studying seems inadequate... that plateau between NBME 11 and 12 is concerning me. I feel like half the NBME/UWorld questions I miss are because I could visualize the page in FA but didn't have it memorized, and the other 1/2 are questions that I really don't know but I take an educated stab at (and end up being right a fair amount of the time, but might not happen on Step 1).

Last thing. My school gave us a voucher for NBME 15 (and 13), but not with the extended feedback. I'm... not sure if I should just try to buy 15 *with* the extended feedback, and plead ignorance when they don't get their score-report. It's technically mandatory: "Every student must take the*second online NBME Assessment*prior to sitting for USMLE Step 1. The Deans will automatically be able to view your scores so that they can provide counseling to students", but all of the advice I see on this thread is to try to learn from your missed questions on 15. Hmm.

 

[Zareh Ali]

Took it today. Wow.

Much more difficult than I was expecting. That's what everyone's been saying lately but you want to believe that you'll be different.

I can't do a subject-by-subject breakdown at this point because I'm effing spent but here are my random thoughts:

*The biggest frustration I have is that I felt like I didn't get to demonstrate all of my preparation. A huge chunk of the test felt like things I couldn't have prepared for. A lot of it is reasoning, elimination of choices, and educated guessing (at least for me). I thought that UWorld sometimes had too much ambiguity. Step 1 is much more ambiguous. Sometimes this would be a grammatical/syntactic issue in which I was between two choices based upon what I thought the sentence they wrote was trying to ask. This is obviously very annoying.

*My test felt very heavy on micro (my favorite subject, though they asked really hard questions), anatomy (way more than I expected, major bummer), genetics, and neuro (several questions with images of the brainstem, brain, etc). Lots of behavioral sci/what's the next thing to say but I think they were pretty straightforward. Lightly covered topics were biochem (all disease-related and easier than I expected) and embryology (the couple questions I did have I am pretty certain were not covered in FA or UWorld as they didn't look familiar at all). Overall though, I would say it was fairly comprehensive.

*Pathology --> all upcoming takers should memorize Pathoma and even then you're going to get questions asking for info you haven't seen before. I was prepared to crush path due to it always being one of my stronger points and it definitely was hard as ****. Answer choices with lots of detailed, histology-specific terms you have to distinguish among. Know this very well.

My goal was > 240. Feels like that would be hard to hit coming out of it, but I also recognize lots of smart people on here and at my school have been remarking on its difficulty, so I have to imagine it will work out at least ok. I would say only about 1/3 of the questions was I absolutely certain on.

Studied in varying intensities since the first of the year, really heavily after about mid-March. Kaplan Qbank (not to completion), UWorld (About 1.5x), Pathoma, FA, some random other things.

3/25 NBME 15: 219
5/18 NBME 13: 231
6/24 NBME 12: 247
6/7: Step 1 (likely <247)

As you may see in my post i have exactly the same feeling as you... I looked up about half of the exam and ended up with 80% aprox correct awnsers.... Does anyone know aprox how many correct to get over 240???

 

[D elegans]

Thanks for the write up elegans!

If I have been doing well in path on the NBMEs (probably 80+% of the questions I miss are NOT in path), do you still recommend I go through Pathoma? I have 9 days left but would rather do a solid pass of first aid instead of pathoma. Thanks!!

It's hard to say man. I will say that I think the most useful resource I had was Pathoma (other than Uworld). I don't know what I would have done differently. I think toward the end you should just keep your mind engaged (probably by just continuing to do questions).

 

[D elegans]

As you may see in my post i have exactly the same feeling as you... I looked up about half of the exam and ended up with 80% aprox correct awnsers.... Does anyone know aprox how many correct to get over 240???

It's so much of a jumble in my head I wouldn't even know what to look up. I don't know about percentages, but I think 80% has to translate into a pretty solid score.

 

[Zareh Ali]

It's so much of a jumble in my head I wouldn't even know what to look up. I don't know about percentages, but I think 80% has to translate into a pretty solid score.

One can only hope what sucks is waiting untill july 10th...

 

[DrDrummer]

Does anyone know if you can use keyboard shortcuts during the actual test, like you can on Kaplan and Rx's QBanks?

 

[pvtbacon]

Also finished this beast today. Thought it was a pretty fair test overall although there were around 10-15 questions that no test prep book could've prepared me for.

Biostats made up a hefty chunk of mine, though I do know that subject representation has been highly variable from individual to individual. UWorld prep was more than sufficient for biostats. Had some calculations to do but only wound up using one side of the dry erase sheet for the whole exam.

Cardio, Neuro and endocrine were emphasized heavily. Would definitely advise everyone to review neuro slices in HY neuro and blood supply lesions the day before the exam. Know your arrows and feedback loops like the back of your hand because I had maybe 13 of those.Take some time to review EKGs, Had about 3 media questions on heart sounds but they clearly show you where the stethoscope is.

Genetics: review those weird terms like pleiotropy, heteroplasmy etc the day before the test and make sure you know them well. Inheritance patterns/Pedigree was heavy.

Renal/Pulm. Again know your acid base and arrows.

Pharm: know your Km/Vmax curves, comp/noncomp inhibition. Had some crazy drug interactions questions. Antimicrobials was heavy.

Behav science. Some questions were weirdly worded which presented a surprising challenge since this was my strongest subject. Most were fine with one clear answer though.

Other quirks to note.

Unlike the NBME practice exams,a built in calculator is available. Also, there is no option for you to "Review Marked" so pay attention to the marked questions when you review them at the end. It can be hard to keep track if you marked too many.

Also, some of the vignettes were really long and drawn out. I never struggled with time before on Uworld or the NBMEs but I wound up using the full amount. You'll pick up the rhythm near the end though. Wound up with 10 minutes leftover for last two blocks.

My Prep. 5 weeks.

Took baseline NBME
Biochem (2 days): First Aid only
Immunology (1 day): HY Immunology + FA
Embryology (1 day): HY embryology. Didn't get a whole lot of questions on this subject
Anatomy (1 day): Underground clinical vignettes (golden even if presented in strange way. Would definitely supplement with an atlas)
Neuroanatomy (1 day): HY neuro
Physiology (2 days): BRS physio + youtube videos
Microbio (2 days): CMMRS in one day, FA the next
Pharmacology (1 day): FA with some Kaplan videos by Dr. Raymon <3
Pathology (5 days): Watched all of Pathoma at 2x in 3 days. 1.5 days FA and skimmed through Goljan RR for pictures. Never got around to listening to audio.
Behav Science: FA and first and last few chapters of BRS Behav. Didn't get any questions on child development!!! and I even spent a great deal of time memorizing number of blocks stacked/social smile, etc. Wouldn't waste my time on this.

Took another NBME
Two passes through Uworld. First pass 73%, Second pass 90%
UWSA1, UWSA2, NBME,

Protip: Do not order chinese takeout two days before your exam. I took a chance and paid for it. Was miserable throughout the whole exam

 

[pvtbacon]

Does anyone know if you can use keyboard shortcuts during the actual test, like you can on Kaplan and Rx's QBanks?

I've always been wary about using shortcuts. Didn't try it this time because I was busy enough highlighting and clicking around. Was somewhat laggy at times so I wouldn't even take the risk of messing something up with two input devices.

 

[sharklasers]

http://www.reddit.com/r/medicalscho...t_scored_a_259_on_step_1_happy_to_answer_any/

for those worrying about their perfomance, here is another example of someone who came out of step 1 feeling like they bombed it, ended up doing slightly better than his nbme 15 score.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Also finished this beast today. Thought it was a pretty fair test overall although there were around 10-15 questions that no test prep book could've prepared me for.

Protip: Do not order chinese takeout two days before your exam. I took a chance and paid for it. Was miserable throughout the whole exam

Interesting. Assumed that all same day would be same, but I don't think we took the same test. I also thought it was fair, that I prepped well enough, and that some questions were un-prepare-for-able. Just didn't have some of the things you emphasize. Didn't seem any harder than 13 or 15. We'll see on July 10 🙂 Will write up a complete thing then. No time for that today.

 

[JP2740]

Could those posting their experiences emphasize what they would do differently or what resource that's a wild card (i.e. not 1st aid or uworld) helped them out on some Q?

 

[RIPSanto]

No way to review your marks? That seems terrible. So if you keep note of what questions you marked you have to click through the section until you get to the one you want?

 

[pvtbacon]

No way to review your marks? That seems terrible. So if you keep note of what questions you marked you have to click through the section until you get to the one you want?

Basically I had to go down the left column and click through the ones I had marked. There's still a notation by the question number and It's completely doable, but I guess I preferred the NBME version where they would color code marked questions with a summary page.

 

[pvtbacon]

Could those posting their experiences emphasize what they would do differently or what resource that's a wild card (i.e. not 1st aid or uworld) helped them out on some Q?

I don't think there is anything I would've done differently, except maybe the chinese takeout part. Montezuma's revenge doesn't help much with concentration. My school doesn't provide me with a lot of dedicated study time, so that's something I can't change. I didn't open first aid until dedicated prep but I suppose it would've helped if I had used it earlier throughout the year. Second pass through UWorld took up five days of time that could've probably been better used elsewhere. It was a good review, but mentally exhausting.

Believe it or not, the complicated concepts thread in SDN proved to be useful today because one of the questions I helped answer appeared on my exam and I knew exactly what it was. I didn't use any wild card resources. Used the same stuff everyone else uses but was very cheap about it.

 

[thaverford]

What I would've done differently: more Pathoma

 

[JP2740]

Why more pathoma? Over first aid for example

 

[madchemist89]

Is anyone using Goljan these days?

 

[coolforschool]

.

 

[JP2740]

Thanks so much, any recommendations besides FA+uworld+pathoma?

And do you recommend actually memorizing from pathoma or getting the ideas down?

 

[coolforschool]

.

 

[FIREitUP]

Thanks so much, any recommendations besides FA+uworld+pathoma?

And do you recommend actually memorizing from pathoma or getting the ideas down?

dude it's all luck at this point. when you hit 260 you just gotta be on your game and hope that the cards are in your favor. since your exam is in a couple weeks you definitely should go over the material again; especially the stuff that is rote memorization. and honestly, the difference between scores when you hit a certain number is negligible; just do your best.

 

[sharklasers]

BRO. You're at a 265+ level haha. I can't help you, tbh. Seek to understand everything. They will test your understanding of a lot of things, man, a lot of things. You think you know something well, but they find a way to make you question or doubt yourself. I can't go into specifics, but very few things were things that I hadn't ever seen before - it was just the way that they asked about it that was different. FA + UW + Pathoma was gold for where I wanted to be. Past a 240-250 I can't really say or even want to know.

Would you mind also commenting on a question I had earlier?

I have like 9 days left. I am at a range similar to where you seem to have been.

I have been doing pretty well on the path sections of each NBME I have taken.. do you still recommend I go through Pathoma once (i haven't at all, except for renal/repro - my weaknesses), or would a solid run through of FA be more worthwhile.

Kind of a similar question to JP.... except I am in a range where it actually matters still lol.

 

[addy]

Took the beast today. I am contributing to this stupid thread because I used it a lot, and it helped me tremendously. Shoutout to those who took it today and to ijn and Phloston who got me a few points on the exam. Definitely do as many NBMEs as you can afford to because the concepts do repeat, if not the actual questions.

....

GT/Firecracker: used it in the first semester of second year and quit. Too much straight memorization with no context since you haven't truly learned any of the material. Would probably be effective if you zoomed through Pathoma first.

So you were banking concepts that you hadn't learned/covered fully? Why?

 

[skyblue2000]

Is anyone using Goljan these days?

Pretty much against everyones advice, I kinda am..but focusing more on pathoma notes that I made into goljan during the term.

But I am hoping that based on everyones review of the exam these past two weeks, doing Goljan will prove to be an asset.

 

[sharklasers]

The thing is, I know it might sound lame but I don't feel like a 260. I mean I'm pretty confident on my questions, but there are definitely things that I'm not 100% on, and I'm trying to figure out what to do in the next couple weeks. Should I review anatomy/neuroanatomy? Should I make sure I finish pathoma? Should I finish uworld qbank with 30% left? Should I do all the nbmes with extended feeds? Do I somehow hit first aid all over again (don't think i can mentally do this even)?

i agree with you. i'm around ~255 or so, but have gotten that on NBME 7, 11, and 12... and every time I feel like I don't know the material well enough to justify that score.

I think we do though man, just take more NBMEs and if your scores say you are in that range, no one here can tell you anything else because you really are in that range haha.

 

[coolforschool]

Would you mind also commenting on a question I had earlier?

I have like 9 days left. I am at a range similar to where you seem to have been.

I have been doing pretty well on the path sections of each NBME I have taken.. do you still recommend I go through Pathoma once (i haven't at all, except for renal/repro - my weaknesses), or would a solid run through of FA be more worthwhile.

Kind of a similar question to JP.... except I am in a range where it actually matters still lol.

Yo, you seem to have learned enough path to get by and then some, but Dr. Sattar, man. He set the framework for how I organized things in my mind. You probably already did that with your own learning. I actually took a few days off from UW just to go over Pathoma in full, and it boosted my block averages significantly. It was powerful, but maybe it won't be as effective for you since you're already at a pretty high level.

So you were banking concepts that you hadn't learned/covered fully? Why?

Because I was dumb. That's all. My grades suffered too. I retained nothing, but I have no doubt that program works if you tailor it to your way of learning things. I can't learn by flashcards, so I was already at a disadvantage when I tried to bruteforce it into my head. I think going through Pathoma (setting the foundation), and then using UW to learn and FA to re-learn is pretty strong stuff.

 

[dragon529]

5 wks of dedicated time
Rx - 70% random, timed. Started 3 months prior to dedicated just to brush up on past materials.
UW - 68% random, timed. Started 1 month before my dedicated.

FA
Pathoma - I'm a sattar lover 😍
Khan's cases medical ethics - this is really a sweet short read and I learned all the ethics I didn't learn in school
HY neuro + kaplan anatomy for neuro slices

nbme6 (18 days out) - 210
nbme7 (15 days out) - 235
uwsa1 (14 days out) - 245
nbme13 (12 days out) - 235
nbme15 (10 days out) - 245
nbme12 (8 days out) - 252
nbme11 (7 days out) - 233
uwsa2 (5 days out) - 256
free150 @ prometric (3 days out) - 91%
real deal - ??? 😕

I'm not giving a subject breakdown of the exam because it's pointless with every exam being different. With that said, I felt all the subjects were represented fairly today. I had about 1-2 heart sounds per block. Histo and gross images about 5 per block. Many arrow questions like about 6 per block.

I took a ~8min break in between each block and I had 3 mins break time remaining at the end. I felt that I needed the time to walk out, take a leak and replenish myself before moving onto my next block. I didn't feel the fatigue too much at the end and I had ~6hrs of sleep.

All in all, it is a hard exam (but who doesn't know that!?). I marked about 10-15 Qs per block. I walked out of there really not knowing how I did or what I got but that is the nature of this. I guess we'll see in 3 weeks.

 

[pvtbacon]

It all comes down to doing questions and reviewing mistakes. Even after going through first aid and the other review books, I still wasn't within my goal. One pass through uworld and a few nbmes helped me improve my score by 20 points

 

[normtheniner]

Just curious because I've heard about the tons of path/pharm on the real thing...

My uworld avg for the path breakdown is 74%, I'm trying to brush up some more on it, but would 74% be considered "weak" in path as far as uworld goes? I'm just trying to figure out what to focus on in my remaining days before the test. I really don't want to screw the path part up.

I think for pharm I'm decent with 79%....

 

[coolforschool]

.

 

[Phange]

I had a ton of path on my test but not as much pharm as most people seem to have experienced. My test was almost all path, with quite a lot of microbiology and unusually specific and detailed cell biology.

EDIT - One thing I will say, though, is that even though the USMLE was much harder than Uworld, the answers were far more right/wrong. There weren't a lot of questions where I knew the answer and then had to decide between two answers that both "sounded good" as is common on Uworld. Sometimes they throw you for a loop by not having the answer you expect at all, but if you know enough about the subject you should still get it right.

 

[normtheniner]

I had a ton of path on my test but not as much pharm as most people seem to have experienced. My test was almost all path, with quite a lot of microbiology and unusually specific and detailed cell biology.

EDIT - One thing I will say, though, is that even though the USMLE was much harder than Uworld, the answers were far more right/wrong. There weren't a lot of questions where I knew the answer and then had to decide between two answers that both "sounded good" as is common on Uworld. Sometimes they throw you for a loop by not having the answer you expect at all, but if you know enough about the subject you should still get it right.

Thats comforting to hear. Tomorrow is my last full day of studying and I hope to use it to look over some last minute anatomy/heart murmur/biostats stuff. Sunday I want to do a quick read of the biochem stuff and call it at that point....

I'm sort of having a minor freak out because I feel like I know nothing that will be on the test.

 

[TrueAntagonist]

Took it today. Havent posted much but figured since this thread has offered me some reassurance/help/advice in the past, I'd share my experience.

Prep:
USMLE Rx (used alongside FA)
FA (3x)
Pathoma
UWorld
GT from beginning of July 2012 - March 2013 (I loved it but I'm sure you can find a dozen others that hated it)

(in order)
NBME 7: 247
NBME 15: 252
NBME 13: 257
NBME 12: 257

UWorld average: 82%

Biostats: straightforward and easy.
Bioethics: straightforward. MUCH easier than what I saw on NBMEs. I was worried about this.
Embryo: I almost want to say I had NONE, but I'm sure they were there but easy enough that I clearly don't remember anymore.
Biochem: One of my strongest subjects (majored in it) and the least representative on my test. Kind of a bummer but I'm sure this is good news for most.
Micro: Fair amount; good mix of easy, mid-difficulty, and crazy hard. I think one of the hardest questions I can think of was a Micro/biochem combo question. Weird.
Immuno: Not too bad; there were some gimme's; know your HSRs and all the different component involved in each. Also, know the presentations of the immunodeficiencies
Patholgy: As expected, this was the bulk of my test and I have two words for you: Husain Sattar. But seriously, he's a guru. I know he says "THIS IS HIGH YIELD" every third sentence, but you damn well better listen to him.
Pharm: I drilled and drilled and drilled all the side effects into my head. This was BY FAR my strongest subject. And I had maybe 10 questions total. And all the drugs were SUPER high-yield.
Cardio: They have interactive auscultations where you can move the steth around and the murmur gets louder or quieter. It was actually kinda fun. And there's no static. Thank god. You can actually distinguish S1 and S2. With that said, this had some of the hardest questions in my block. They required a lot of problem-solving and underground knowledge (ie nothing you could have prepared for).
Endocrine: The usual up/down arrow questions.
GI: Fair amount but nothing too crazy
HemOnc: cancers and cancers and cancers and I think more cancers. And then DIC. And then cancer + DIC. Think that sums it up.
Musculoskeletal: Worst subject for me. Got lucky and didnt have too many.
Neuro: I was holding my breath with each block, expecting a TON of neuro/neuroanatomy. I had a few but nothing too crazy. FA did a good job with em.
Psych: Know your time-frames for when the names of disorders change (for example: schizophreniform to schizophrenia at 6 months)
Renal: Lots of fun pictures. Fair but definitely required a good understanding of the physio.
Respiratory: Some tough ones but most were manageable.
Repro: I had a TON of these. Again, good mix of easy, mid, hard.

Post-test advice: Pathoma is by far the best resource of pathology.
Post-test advice for the day of: there will be questions where you realize you're going in circles. Hit skip and come back to it. Don't waste a whole of time on these. They're confidence downers and they'll affect the rest of your block if you let em.

When you start up your first block, don't spend more than two minutes per question. Come back later to them if you need to but keep a steady pace. I say this because your heart's going to be racing and your mind wont be as nimble as it will be later in the block. Get a good groove going.

There WILL be questions you simply don't know. Dont let em get you down. Prepare yourself for them and when they do appear, giggle at the ridiculousness of what they're asking, guess, and keep going without looking back.
I had one of these where I literally stared at the answer choices and just snickered. (they were all drugs in the same class).
Another one was asking for a muscle insertion of a muscle I haven't seen since M1 anatomy. I forget it even existed until the question popped up.

Point being, shrug these off.

Whew. That was mildly cathartic. Good luck everyone. And thank you to all those who shared their experiences in the past few weeks. They certainly helped me prepare for what was to come.

 

[JP2740]

Another one was asking for a muscle insertion of a muscle I haven't seen since M1 anatomy. .

 

[D elegans]

I'm going to emphasize again what everyone else is saying: Pathoma. It's not going to get you every path question, but you'll be much better off with it than without. The path questions I didn't know I couldn't have known to prepare for.

 

[sharklasers]

I'm going to emphasize again what everyone else is saying: Pathoma. It's not going to get you every path question, but you'll be much better off with it than without. The path questions I didn't know I couldn't have known to prepare for.

do you have any recommendations on what pathoma subjects are best?

 

[jekyllish]

do you have any recommendations on what pathoma subjects are best?

I think the 2 Heme Onc chapters are a step above the rest. Sattar explains it well. Apart from that, I think the rest are comparably good and depends on your weaknesses.

 

[Manu9]

Took it today. Havent posted much but figured since this thread has offered me some reassurance/help/advice in the past, I'd share my experience.

Prep:
USMLE Rx (used alongside FA)
FA (3x)
Pathoma
UWorld
GT from beginning of July 2012 - March 2013 (I loved it but I'm sure you can find a dozen others that hated it)

(in order)
NBME 7: 247
NBME 15: 252
NBME 13: 257
NBME 12: 257

UWorld average: 82%

Biostats: straightforward and easy.
Bioethics: straightforward. MUCH easier than what I saw on NBMEs. I was worried about this.
Embryo: I almost want to say I had NONE, but I'm sure they were there but easy enough that I clearly don't remember anymore.
Biochem: One of my strongest subjects (majored in it) and the least representative on my test. Kind of a bummer but I'm sure this is good news for most.
Micro: Fair amount; good mix of easy, mid-difficulty, and crazy hard. I think one of the hardest questions I can think of was a Micro/biochem combo question. Weird.
Immuno: Not too bad; there were some gimme's; know your HSRs and all the different component involved in each. Also, know the presentations of the immunodeficiencies
Patholgy: As expected, this was the bulk of my test and I have two words for you: Husain Sattar. But seriously, he's a guru. I know he says "THIS IS HIGH YIELD" every third sentence, but you damn well better listen to him.
Pharm: I drilled and drilled and drilled all the side effects into my head. This was BY FAR my strongest subject. And I had maybe 10 questions total. And all the drugs were SUPER high-yield.
Cardio: They have interactive auscultations where you can move the steth around and the murmur gets louder or quieter. It was actually kinda fun. And there's no static. Thank god. You can actually distinguish S1 and S2. With that said, this had some of the hardest questions in my block. They required a lot of problem-solving and underground knowledge (ie nothing you could have prepared for).
Endocrine: The usual up/down arrow questions.
GI: Fair amount but nothing too crazy
HemOnc: cancers and cancers and cancers and I think more cancers. And then DIC. And then cancer + DIC. Think that sums it up.
Musculoskeletal: Worst subject for me. Got lucky and didnt have too many.
Neuro: I was holding my breath with each block, expecting a TON of neuro/neuroanatomy. I had a few but nothing too crazy. FA did a good job with em.
Psych: Know your time-frames for when the names of disorders change (for example: schizophreniform to schizophrenia at 6 months)
Renal: Lots of fun pictures. Fair but definitely required a good understanding of the physio.
Respiratory: Some tough ones but most were manageable.
Repro: I had a TON of these. Again, good mix of easy, mid, hard.

Post-test advice: Pathoma is by far the best resource of pathology.
Post-test advice for the day of: there will be questions where you realize you're going in circles. Hit skip and come back to it. Don't waste a whole of time on these. They're confidence downers and they'll affect the rest of your block if you let em.

When you start up your first block, don't spend more than two minutes per question. Come back later to them if you need to but keep a steady pace. I say this because your heart's going to be racing and your mind wont be as nimble as it will be later in the block. Get a good groove going.

There WILL be questions you simply don't know. Dont let em get you down. Prepare yourself for them and when they do appear, giggle at the ridiculousness of what they're asking, guess, and keep going without looking back.
I had one of these where I literally stared at the answer choices and just snickered. (they were all drugs in the same class).
Another one was asking for a muscle insertion of a muscle I haven't seen since M1 anatomy. I forget it even existed until the question popped up.

Point being, shrug these off.

Whew. That was mildly cathartic. Good luck everyone. And thank you to all those who shared their experiences in the past few weeks. They certainly helped me prepare for what was to come.

Appreciate this.. thank you! I always knew i really had to work on my cancers

 

[coagulase]

Looking for the advice of all the Step 1 wizards out there. I have about 50 or so days until I take my test. I have averaged right around 65% on my last 5 UWorld blocks. Should I take 4 or 5 days and go through FA and Pathoma (putting UWorld on hold during this time)? Once I finish that, I'd probably do 4 or so days of pure UWorld. Has anyone had a similar experience where they just sort of hit a wall with their current knowledge set? I hesitate to take time away from doing questions because the mantra at my school is 100% questions. I would appreciate any guidance! Thanks!

 

[bagelbird]

HemOnc: cancers and cancers and cancers and I think more cancers. And then DIC. And then cancer + DIC. Think that sums it up.

Thank you so much for your very helpful write-up. Hope you are getting some solid relaxation time in now.

For you or for anyone else who has recently taken the test, should we bother memorizing the indications for the various chemotherapy agents (other than the obvious ones like rituximab, imatinib, etc)?

 

[OberynMartell]

So I'm gathering that this year it's a lot more similar to UWorld than an NBME? Is that about right?

Or should I say UWorld plus a whole lot more minutiae and ambiguity?

 

[Phange]

So I'm gathering that this year it's a lot more similar to UWorld than an NBME? Is that about right?

Or should I say UWorld plus a whole lot more minutiae and ambiguity?

The questions were much more similar to Uworld than the NBME practice tests.

 

[USCTrojan11]

Is there a reason why everyone was stressing Pathoma a couple days ago? I love Dr. Sattar and the style but it seemed kind of superficial. Was his "this is high yield for purposes of board examinations" really high yield?

Ex: I remember how he stresses the unilateral enlarging parotid in Sjogren's but I've never seen that anywhere in Uworld or NBME.