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

 

[Zuhal]

Hi guys I took my test on July/9th should I be expecting the results next week?

 

[stronghold]

Good luck everybody!
@Zuhal: I guess you will get it on 31th.

 

[silverwyvern4]

I just got the email saying scores are available after 11am. I took it on 6/23

 

[chutzpah]

Got average, way below my nbmes. Still somewhat reeling from it.

 

[armydocUM]

248!! Very pleased. Took the exam on June 28th. Started picking through first aid in February, but didn't start hardcore studying until 5 weeks before the exam. Focussed mainly on school until then. Used pathoma, first aid, and uworld. The exam is doable with a decent work ethic. I might add that the MCAT is a very weak predictor of USMLE scores and nearly kept me out of medical school because of an abysmal 7 in verbal. Not a fast reader. Just relieved to be done now!

 

[tripwm]

Low 250s. I came from a back of the back state school, and I didn't use the 12-14 study days for 6 weeks. You can do it form 830 to 5, but make sure you don't forgo classwork during M2 year. Trust your knowledge, and don't overload yourself thinking you need to go over 2 years of material multiple times.

 

[basketball3312]

Just took it.

NBME15: 226 (2 wks out)
NBME7: 250 (10 days out)
NBME13: 240 (1 wk out)
Uworld First Pass: 66%
(timed random blocks only)
My 2nd pass of incorrects only I averaged between 75-80%

Resources in my Dedicated Month:
* BRS Phys
* First Aid
* Pathoma (videos & book)
* Uworld
I also used Kaplan qbank throughout the year. Not sure how much that helped.

I have to agree with everything said previously.. What helped me the most was learning the material well through my first two years of med school. First Aid definitely got me a lot of points, but many questions just go a lot deeper than what's in there. Pathoma was a great addition too, especially the earlier chapters. Reading the Uworld explanations really helped too! I had many questions that were similar to Uworld & the NBMEs I took.

I have no idea how I actually did on the exam though, total mixed feelings.. I didn't feel like it was totally impossible, but I was pretty pressed on time which was never an issue for me with NBMEs/Uworld. I had a few really long stems but for the most part they were about the same as the longer Uworld questions. I had a lot of neuro and micro on my test, hardly any biochem...but they're all different so I guess that doesn't matter.

There were a decent amount of questions on things I had literally never seen before, and couldn't find the answers anywhere online either. It's not that they were hard concepts, just straight up facts that I've never seen.

Right now there's nothing drastic I would have done to prepare differently, but we'll see if that'll change in 3 weeks =/

Final score- 252!

I'm actually really surprised with my score, considering my NBMEs. In the last week of my prep, I went through First Aid in 5 days and all of my incorrects on Uworld. Clearly that helped a lot. I know this write-up is really brief so feel free to DM me if you have any questions regarding my prep.

 

[pylon1]

.

 

[SloeDOwn]

248!! Very pleased. Took the exam on June 28th. Started picking through first aid in February, but didn't start hardcore studying until 5 weeks before the exam. Focussed mainly on school until then. Used pathoma, first aid, and uworld. The exam is doable with a decent work ethic. I might add that the MCAT is a very weak predictor of USMLE scores and nearly kept me out of medical school because of an abysmal 7 in verbal. Not a fast reader. Just relieved to be done now!

What was the average for this testing period??

 

[basketball3312]

the average was 227

 

[Stingarov]

Looks like no score report for 6-29. AWFUL

 

[armydocUM]

What was the average for this testing period??

Avg is still a 227 with a SD of 22

 

[Hemichordate]

Final score- 252!

I'm actually really surprised with my score, considering my NBMEs. In the last week of my prep, I went through First Aid in 5 days and all of my incorrects on Uworld. Clearly that helped a lot. I know this write-up is really brief so feel free to DM me if you have any questions regarding my prep.

How did your practice score jump 24 points in 4 days?

 

[Kalyx]

My permit is completely gone. .. nothing to click on. So u probably have another week to go. Goodluck fellas! !

Thanks! Yup I got nothing today, *sigh*. Wednesday is now my least favorite day of the week!

 

[BadHorse]

hi all,

so the scores are finally in-

UWORLD first run around 81%
Don't remember specifics but I took one NBME and both UWORLD assessments and got in the 260s on all of them.

Real deal: 253.

I'm pretty damn happy, my score fell a bit from practices but I only did three practice tests and a wobble of 15 points is to be expected, plus I felt terrible after the exam, I was expecting around a 240 something.

all in all, I wanna go into peds, so getting higher than the average derm applicant is pretty nice 🙂

Good luck to all of you! This is over now, freedom!

 

[basketball3312]

How did your practice score jump 24 points in 4 days?

Good question... I think I was just not in the right mindset for that first NBME. Since it was my first one, I was freaking out a bit and rushed through it.

I just stuck with my normal study schedule in those 4 days between them, didn't do anything differently.

 

[SloeDOwn]

I tried to post this last week, don't know what happened. ..anyhow, for the normal students:
Baseline NBME 11(3 months out) - 200
UWSA1 (2 months out) - 230
School COMSAE (7 weeks out) - 607
NBME 15 (5weeks out) - 221
UWSA2 (4 weeks out) - 242
NBME 12 (3 weeks out) - 224
NBME 13 (2 weeks out) - 233
COMLEX (1 week out) - 634
Free 150 (3 days out) - 85%

USMLE - 232

I wasn't super excited, but I got a 22 on the MCAT so...
I used Pathoma through the year and FA. I supplemented FA with BRS phys and I made my own drug flashcards. I used COMBANK, World and Rx during dedicated study. However, the two things that stifled my improvement were that I started World 1st year and I was doing too many questions (180-230) during my dedicated study.

Best wishes to all who are still waiting for scores or test.

 

[USMLECorelation]

Thank you everyone for submitting to this form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wbojdSMWcxGCZ5Y3D2BjNQDF3dHGKd7-in0C9buFZHo/viewform

Here is the Updated Corellation So far 🙂

Thanks,

Sam

 

[A Nu Start]

uworld: 65% completed, cumulative score 58% (done during 5-week dedicated study)
kaplan: 24% completed, cumulative score 49% (done on the phone while taking dumps during second half of second year)
first aid once through during dedicated study
~10 ben and jerry's 'half-baked' pints during dedicated study
black ops 2 prestiged once during dedicated study
pathoma once through during dedicated study
new arrested development once through during dedicated study
microcards and lange pharmcards, especially at end of dedicated study

never took an nbme assessment, but took one of the kaplan stimulated exams 1 week out and got 65% correct

the big dog: 247

 

[Stingarov]

Leave it to the NBME to decide that June 29th is now part of the first week of July's score dump. Can't help but lol at that luck.

 

[hardee17]

Got average, way below my nbmes. Still somewhat reeling from it.

Shoot man, that sucks. Pretty sure ill be your boat pretty soon. Just be glad you never have to take it again, and move forward towards step 2

 

[cmage]

took my test 6/26 but no scores yet. anyone know whats going on?

 

[thedoctor8706]

took my test 6/26 but no scores yet. anyone know whats going on?

It can take up to 4 weeks usually, so give it one more and good luck!!

 

[arconis]

So I took it yesterday, figured I would add my experience as another data point since lurking here helped me so much.

NBME 6 – 228 (9 weeks before)
NBME 13 – 247 (1 month before)
NBME 12 – 250 (3 weeks before)
NBME 11 – 238 (2 weeks before)
NBME 15 – 259 (1 week before)

Cumulative World – 76%

Prep: First Aid x3, Uworld x1 + about half of my incorrects (went over all the answer choices extensively and reviewed flashcards w/ relevant concepts), ½ of USMLE Rx

Test:
Overall: The difficulty, content, length of stems, and length of blocks were all comparable to Uworld. There were a fair amount of questions that were straight out of First Aid. Definitely some questions I had no idea on (about four questions where I hadn't even seen the answer choices before) and a bunch of questions that you had to make an educated guess on since there was no way you had ever seen that tidbit in any review source. Often they took it just one level beyond First Aid, but you could reason from First Aid's foundation. One thing I did notice was that they asked about the same information contained in first aid, but the correct answer was another name for what was given in First Aid. This happened at least 3 times that I can think of.

Anatomy: Upper limb, lower limb, abdominal/thoracic vasculature. The high yields were high yield.

Embryo: I was close to skipping this for some reason but I'm really glad I didn't. I had 2 questions straight off the pharyngeal cleft/arch/pouch tables.

Micro: Tons and tons. I would say 40 questions at least. Every part of micro was covered extensively. Several nit-picky antiviral side effect questions (but were in first aid).

Pharm: Know Uworld. I had at least 2 questions on drugs that were in Uworld but not in first aid.

If anyone has any questions, just let me know!

Real deal: 260

So glad it's over, couldn't focus during rounds today because this was hanging over my head.

 

[Jamiu22]

I went in to slay the beast today.. but unfortunately.. it may have slayed me! my exam seemed to have focused on Neuro, Micro, Biochem, Immunology and Gen path... it seemed like everything else was sparingly represented.

there was definitely a lot 's a lot more Neuro (lucky for me I love neuro)... no lie, I had at least 30 question on this subject... and at most 10 cardio question (2 were listening to heart sounds)... I also had a lot of obscure physio on things were rarely covered (like turbulence in blood vessels with arrows)...

Even though, I loved micro.. the ones on there today where a little more difficult than I anticipated.

I felt like my first 4 blocks were experimental... while the last 3 were more like NBMEs...

I'm just glad to be done!!!!

A lil background... Undergrad GPA sucked for me since I had no interest in medicine... got a sub 3.0 UG coming into medical school, but 3.5 in grad school (Engineering).... MCAT was not that much better either (slightly below that for accepted students).... applied to over 40 schools... and I was graced with 1 acceptance by an HBCU program.

MS1 was tough, I couldn't hang with the young guns in terms of their ability to get the material in little time....also had to move my family (3kids and a wife) from a comfortable living and a nice house to a smaller house in another state). By the end of MS1, I realized I could hang.... and MS2 was sweet - loved it and did well on my exams. I came into MS2 gunning for 260... After a sample test, I learned real quick that that was probably just a fantasy of mine... so I just said as long as I get a 230... I would be happy... then I upped that to 240 when I realized that I could actually get that score if I was focused enough.

190 - CBSE 1 (6months out )
230 - CBSE 2 (8wks out)
235 - NBME 1 (7wks out)
218 - NBME 12 (6wks out) - kinda got freaked.
235 - NBME 3 (3wks out)
235 - NBME 5 (3wks out)
239 - NBME 7 (3wks out)
231 - NBME 11 (2wks out)
241 - NBME 13 (1wks out)
247 - USWA 1 (1wks out)
235 - NBME 15 (1wks out)
254 - USWA 2 (1wks out)
93% - Free 143 questions (266? yeah right)!!

Coming out of the exam, i thought I must have failed... but I could only remember about 3 questions... the rest were a blur.... I was unsure about a whole lot of questions - probably like 40% of the exam. Like I said, my exam didn't feel like an NBME or Uworld... I got a lot of weird gen path, biochem, neuro.. and micro.... I was not sure about almost any of my ethics question - felt strange since ethics was usually my savior; good thing there was only like 5 ethics questions the whole exam. The length of the questions where absolutely atrocious. I couldn't finish any of the 1st 4 blocks... I straight guessed on like 2-3 questions in the those blocks due to running out of time. (I read questions top to bottom, I wished I learned how to look at the questions first - this would have helped me on my time.) I didn't have time to review marked questions, some of which I just straight guessed. The last 3 blocks were a cake, felt like NBMEs... and I finished those with 10-15 mins left.

Step 1 score: 243 (not super, but good enough imho).

Text 1: First Aid;
Text 1: First Aid Organ system; First Aid;
Resource: Goljan Audio (like 5 times during Fall semester of MS2, along with classes).
Qbank1: usmle_rx (75%);
Qbank2: uworld (73%)

 

[Zuhal]

Step 1 score: 243 (not super, but good enough imho).

Congrats, thats an awesome score!

 

[aimen88]

Hi guys,
This is my first post on this forum. I am a Caribbean medical student. Having not gone to a very reputable score, I wanted to cross the 230-point in my step scores to possibly secure an internal medicine residency in the future.

My Prep:
- Kaplan Videos and Exam Bank
- Pathoma
- First Aid
- UWORLD

To establish a baseline I attempted my first nbme after finishing all kaplan videos but before even touching my First Aid: NBME 7 (7 months prior to my test): scored 179, I knew there were a lot of gaps in my knowledge so at that point I started UWORLD and 2 weeks later struggled through another nbme: NBME 12 and scored 198. At that point, I finally started reading my First Aid; after going through it once I attempted at another nbme: NBME 5 (2.5 months prior to my test) and to my dismay scored the exact same disappointing score of 198.
At this point my school had started putting pressure on me to book a date, so I reluctantly booked a date for 29th May even though I was no where close to my goal mark. I apprehended that just doing First Aid and UWORLD was not sufficient, and I needed some sort of extra help. I was studying a lot, but not at the ideal pace, and I was not very disciplined, so I started DIT; took almost a month to finish and went to do the 150 sample questions at the exam center right after and scored 83%. I was very happy that at least something was working.
I attempted NBME 6 (1 month prior) and scored a 226. I was content with my progress and started doing round 2 of DIT. In the meanwhile I had finished my UWORLD exam bank once with an 81%. 3 weeks before my exam I attempted UWORLD Self Assessment 2 and scored a 248, then 2 weeks before my exam, I scored a 238 in NBME 11. That was a HUGE confidence boost for me.
I still had 2 weeks left, so I continued going through the high yield topics, and reviewing concepts that I was weak in. I took it easy 2 days before the test so I was well rested and relaxed.

I had plenty of sleep, enough coffee, and I wrote my exam comfortably till the last 2 blocks. Everything was fairly easy as compared to UWORLD and the NBMEs but I was lacking in endurance, as I had never attempted at any practice test longer than 4 blocks. Now looking back I feel that maybe I rushed through my last 2 blocks, and maybe don’t perform as well as I could have towards the end of my exam.

Regardless, I was very certain that I would score at least a 230, but my result came in on the 10th of July, and I scored right at the US Average: 227. I am confused angry, and very upset.

I went to a very small no-name Caribbean school, am a Canadian, and scored 227. Do I stand a chance to get into a competitive residency?

I wont be able to apply for 2015 match, so in my year off I am planning to get involved with some sort of research at either NIH or Johns Hopkins. In short I pretty much feel like a sore loser. I feel like all of my effort went to waste, and I probably wont be able to secure a good residency.

I don’t know where to go about with my situation from here. I have no guidance from my school what so ever. Any advice would be immensely appreciated.

😕

 

[hownowmauvecow]

Got my score back today: 238. Pretty damn happy especially considering some of my practice NBMEs leading up to the test and I think I should be decently competitive for anything but plastics and derm (and I was not even interested in those two fields before so...)


School CBSE (March): 172
NBME 15 (1.5 weeks out): 205
NBME 13 (~1 week out, 3 days after taking 15): 224.

I finished about 75% of UWorld with a 65%. I think finishing UWorld could have definitely helped. But I do also think I had a pretty easy form, IMO, although with the way they curve that might have actually hurt me I suppose.

If anyone has any particular questions about my study strategy feel free to PM me. But overall I think jumping from a 205 1.5 weeks out to a 238 is pretty damn good/I am happy with it. 🙂

 

[g8orlife]

Hi guys,
This is my first post on this forum. I am a Caribbean medical student. Having not gone to a very reputable score, I wanted to cross the 230-point in my step scores to possibly secure an internal medicine residency in the future.

My Prep:
- Kaplan Videos and Exam Bank
- Pathoma
- First Aid
- UWORLD

To establish a baseline I attempted my first nbme after finishing all kaplan videos but before even touching my First Aid: NBME 7 (7 months prior to my test): scored 179, I knew there were a lot of gaps in my knowledge so at that point I started UWORLD and 2 weeks later struggled through another nbme: NBME 12 and scored 198. At that point, I finally started reading my First Aid; after going through it once I attempted at another nbme: NBME 5 (2.5 months prior to my test) and to my dismay scored the exact same disappointing score of 198.
At this point my school had started putting pressure on me to book a date, so I reluctantly booked a date for 29th May even though I was no where close to my goal mark. I apprehended that just doing First Aid and UWORLD was not sufficient, and I needed some sort of extra help. I was studying a lot, but not at the ideal pace, and I was not very disciplined, so I started DIT; took almost a month to finish and went to do the 150 sample questions at the exam center right after and scored 83%. I was very happy that at least something was working.
I attempted NBME 6 (1 month prior) and scored a 226. I was content with my progress and started doing round 2 of DIT. In the meanwhile I had finished my UWORLD exam bank once with an 81%. 3 weeks before my exam I attempted UWORLD Self Assessment 2 and scored a 248, then 2 weeks before my exam, I scored a 238 in NBME 11. That was a HUGE confidence boost for me.
I still had 2 weeks left, so I continued going through the high yield topics, and reviewing concepts that I was weak in. I took it easy 2 days before the test so I was well rested and relaxed.

I had plenty of sleep, enough coffee, and I wrote my exam comfortably till the last 2 blocks. Everything was fairly easy as compared to UWORLD and the NBMEs but I was lacking in endurance, as I had never attempted at any practice test longer than 4 blocks. Now looking back I feel that maybe I rushed through my last 2 blocks, and maybe don’t perform as well as I could have towards the end of my exam.

Regardless, I was very certain that I would score at least a 230, but my result came in on the 10th of July, and I scored right at the US Average: 227. I am confused angry, and very upset.

I went to a very small no-name Caribbean school, am a Canadian, and scored 227. Do I stand a chance to get into a competitive residency?

I wont be able to apply for 2015 match, so in my year off I am planning to get involved with some sort of research at either NIH or Johns Hopkins. In short I pretty much feel like a sore loser. I feel like all of my effort went to waste, and I probably wont be able to secure a good residency.

I don’t know where to go about with my situation from here. I have no guidance from my school what so ever. Any advice would be immensely appreciated.

😕

http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2011.pdf

Check out the charting outcomes pdf ^^

Also, my attachment shows that you're above the average for both Step 1 & Step 2 IMG applicants who matched. Soooo, Don't worry about it ... unless you're aiming for a competitive specialty (which you say you are); then, you'd have to kill Step 2 & make sure the rest of your application stands out.

 

[g8orlife]

Got my score back today: 238. Pretty damn happy especially considering some of my practice NBMEs leading up to the test and I think I should be decently competitive for anything but plastics and derm (and I was not even interested in those two fields before so...)


School CBSE (March): 172
NBME 15 (1.5 weeks out): 205
NBME 13 (~1 week out, 3 days after taking 15): 224.

I finished about 75% of UWorld with a 65%. I think finishing UWorld could have definitely helped. But I do also think I had a pretty easy form, IMO, although with the way they curve that might have actually hurt me I suppose.

If anyone has any particular questions about my study strategy feel free to PM me. But overall I think jumping from a 205 1.5 weeks out to a 238 is pretty damn good/I am happy with it. 🙂

Dang! I don't think I've seen that much of a jump in such a short period of time. Nice

 

[Jamiu22]

Congrats, thats an awesome score!

Thanks Zuhal... appreciate it. I still remember those days with the USMLE images when we were throwing questions around. It actually helped. so thanks... Good luck on your wait! I'm rooting for ya!

 

[g8orlife]

Thank you everyone for submitting to this form

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wbojdSMWcxGCZ5Y3D2BjNQDF3dHGKd7-in0C9buFZHo/viewform

Here is the Updated Corellation So far 🙂

Thanks,

Sam

This is cool! You can add me: UW 67% (1st pass), 248 (real deal)

 

[deleted366342]

UWorld (cumulative score, first run, unused/timed/test mode)- 59%
UWorld Assessment 1 (5wks out)- 214
NBME 7 (3wks out)- 210

Real Deal: 230

 

[aimen88]

http://www.nrmp.org/data/chartingoutcomes2011.pdf

Check out the charting outcomes pdf ^^

Also, my attachment shows that you're above the average for both Step 1 & Step 2 IMG applicants who matched. Soooo, Don't worry about it ... unless you're aiming for a competitive specialty (which you say you are); then, you'd have to kill Step 2 & make sure the rest of your application stands out.

Thank you very much. That made me feel much better.

 

[stovetop]

NBMEs are way more valuable than UWorld. Take as many NBMEs as you can, for god sake they write the damn test, not some greedy company like UWorld where they have a bunch of spelling and grammatical errors in their explanations. So greedy they wont let you print their cool charts.

Studied for 6 weeks, nothing during school except doing well in classes and learning it the right way the first time.

Text used:
FA

Bank used:
UWorld (Only completed 70%) - 71% on random
- Didn't complete it cause I was kinda tired of their absurdly unhelpful questions.

Assessments used:
NBME 15 (after 3 weeks of studying) - 252
NBME 12 (2 weeks out) - 238
NBME 11 (1 week out) - 242
NBME 13 (5 days out) - 252
NBME 7 (3 days out) - 247

Real deal: 250

If I could redo:
I would do ALL of the NBMEs and learn from them by looking up the screen captured compilations from others posted online; I would have used more days before D-day re-reading FA and hitting NBMEs

Best of luck to everyone out there who still has to take it.

 

[marty mcfly]

Took test on June 12.

Mostly Bs during M1, All As during M2.
Started reading FA in summer before M2. Good to review M1 material. The material that is covered in M2 was probably worthless to look at. Reviewed M2 topics during holidays in FA. Mostly just focused on classes during the year. In March, I switched to 75/25 class/step 1 studying. April was 50/50. May was 25/75. I crushed all the shelf exams at the end of M2: behavioral, path, pharm, micro/immuno. They are great preparation.

Books Used:
FA= not even sure how many times i went through it. my theory is that if can count the number of times, then you havent gone through it enough.

BRS phys= gently read through. didnt get bogged done with the details, but used it to review my weak areas, which turned into strengths.

BRS behavioral=used for the shelf. combo with FA and uworld and kaplan qbank behavior questions=800. def overkill for step 1. dont need to know all the developmental milestones for example.

High Yield Neuroanatomy=i kinda want to be a neurosurgeon so i may have overachieved in this area. I would say this book is great for imaging and most of it should be easy review if you already have a good grasp of neuro. Dont get overwhelmed by random details that dont remind you of anything you learned in class.

Kaplan Vids: I signed up for a couple seminars kaplan was hosting so I got all their videos for the micro and pharm series. I went through all the vids in preparation for the shelfs. Watch a vid then review in relevant FA section. Worked well. Micro vids include a lot of super low yield info but they generally say when something is low yield (just turn off your ears for a second). quizzes are overkill but could help in weak areas if needed. pharm was also decent. they take a long time to go through but for me, the vids broke up my reading so they almost felt like a break.

DIT: did all the part 1 questions starting in January. I thought they were very beneficial. Got me thinking and integrating information. Thinking more systematically. Prob helped with retention too.
Part 2 as soon as school ended mid May. did 15 vids a day. I first read the relevant FA section, then watched the video, then reviewed the FA section again after viewing. Def not hard to do this method as far as time. (adding in 200 Uworld questions a day made things pretty exhausting, pretty much studied 14 hours a day for about 15 days during DIT). Overall, I think DIT can get any student a 230 as long as you have reviewed FA a few times before taking the course and did at least B in your classes. DIT does not get all the details but they do hit on some strange topics that might be mid yield that i didnt see in other books. They do not rely solely on FA so it adds some new review topics. Learning style seemed solid, just make sure to use FA alongside the vids. Also, be aware that after 15 days of intense studying, you may be a bit exhausted so make sure to take a day off or 2 to avoid burnout.

Pathoma: read most of pathoma alongside path during M2. not sure that helped much. Watched all the vids/ read book again in the 5 days before the shelf. Its a solid foundation. I dont think that it is the perfect program that people make it out to be. For the shelf, it was not detailed enough. For the step 1, it was probably 90% there.

Uworld questions: I started questions in april. My avg started in 50s then ended in mid 70s. I wouldnt worry too much about the average, just use them to learn. One thing that may have set me apart from other test takers was that I probably saw each question 4 or 5 times. I used them alot for shelf exams and then did 200-300 a day during dedicated time.

Kaplan qbank: too detailed. However, if you have a weak area, these questions will find it. You can learn a lot from their questions. Use this qbank as a supplemental source but not ure primary (uworld should be primary).

All that said, the exam is much more of a thinking exam than i had realized even after taking the practice tests. Seemed like recall*2 plus integration for most questions. the classic physio arrows type question is a good example of what kind of questions to expect. I think all the books got me to about 240 (just a guess). using my critical thinking skills pushed me the rest of the way.

Things I wish I did different: prob take NBME 7 and 8. there were some questions on the real exam that reminded me of other nbmes so i may have benefited from more practice exams. Felt some burnout in the week before. I didnt think that would happen, so it was a surprise. Maybe I should have taken the DIT vids a little easier.

(MMRS is a horrible book btw)

NBME 13 (2 weeks out) - 247
NBME 12 (2 weeks out) - 247
UWSA 1 (1 week out)-258
UWSA 2 (1 week out)-265
NBME 15 (1 weeks out) - 252

Step 1- 253. happy.

 

[survivingusmle]

NBME 5 – 188 (before preparation – major freak out)
NBME 11 – 219 (8 weeks out)
NBME 3 – 224 (5 weeks out – did offline)
NBME 5 – 226 (5 weeks out)
NBME 6 – 224 (3 weeks out)
NBME 12 – 225 (3 weeks out)
NBME 7 – 228 (2.5 weeks out)
NBME 13 – 226 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 1 – 238 (2 weeks out)
UWSA 2 – 258 (1 week out)
Free 150q – 89% ~ 257 (5 days out)


The NBME’s were a train wreck for me. I would get 83-88% correct on those exams, but the score report was not at all indicative of my performances. I thought that they were too stingy with their points. My advisor told us that some questions are worth more than others on the online NBME’s. So if I were to miss 4-5 questions that counted towards two subjects (e.g. cardio and pharm), then I would get -2 instead of -1… I’m not sure she’s right, but that is just my experience with the NBME’s.

That being said, I got like 6-7 questions DIRECTLY from the NBME’s. So it is extremely important to do your NBME’s!!

Materials that I used:
1. FA 4x
2. UWorld Q bank 2x
3. Kaplan Q bank (half)
4. Pathoma 2x
5. BRS Phys 1x

I studied for about 3 months and the last month being super intense (17 hour studying days).
I spent the last 5 days rereading all of FA. The day before the test I actually studied from 8am to 8pm going over the topics that I felt weakest in. I am one of those people that relax best by studying the day before… it’s a little weird. I ended up sleeping for like 3-4 hours MAX. Be sure you get PLENTY of sleep the nights leading up to the test.

Test day:
I did the first 5 blocks consecutively without a single break. My adrenaline was pumping and I just cruised through it.

That test was probably harder than any of the exams I’ve taken before. It was harder than the NBME’s, UWSA’s, or any of the Q banks. There were a bunch of obscure anatomy questions, and A LOT of brainstem questions. Neuro is one of my strong subjects so I did okay with those. Pharm and micro was so easy that I almost felt stupid going over them in FA so many times. I had two heart sound questions and a bunch of weird cardio questions.

After I was finished with my exam, I still had like 55 minutes of my break time left. I felt super uneasy inside like I made a big mistake by not using more of my breaks. But honestly, I wasn’t tired at all. I felt like I could have done 4-5 more blocks if I had to. I knew I passed, but felt like my score could have ranged from 210 to 240.

My actual score (end of June) ended up being a 241!

Hope this helps those taking the beast in the future!

 

[sharklasers]

wow we had 9 260+ scores just at my school.

 

[ThrusH]

SDN was very helpful for me before and during my study time, so it's time to contribute to the thread.

NBME 6: 238 (65 days out)
CBSE: 238 (33 days out) - Beginning of dedicated study time
NBME 11: 254 (24 days out)
UWSA 2: 265+ (17 days out)
NBME 13: 259 (11 days out)
Free 150: 93% (7 days out)
NBME 15: 254 (5 days out)
UWSA 1: 265+ (4 days out)
NBME 12: 259 (3 days out)

Real thing: 264 (Early June)

I approached Step 1 as a marathon with a final sprint. I used GT/Firecracker from the end of first year and throughout second year to help build my base, and retain information for the long term. Alongside each course, I relearned the anatomy and physiology before starting to touch on the pathology. I also did as many questions as I could possibly get my hands on.

I watched the Kaplan videos once and watched Pathoma a couple of times with each unit. I listened to Goljan in my car, and occasionally when I'd go to the gym. I didn't really use Goljan as a study resource - it was more of something to listen to in the background. I banked every card on GT/Firecracker alongside my school's system-based curriculum. All of the above spoon-fed me the material necessary to build a strong foundation and gave me the knowledge necessary to approach questions.

I began using Kaplan around September/October, and finished it in April. I used the bank to help learn information, rather than assess what I know. With that said, I did blocks of 10-20 in tutor mode. I read the explanation to every answer, and all of the incorrects. I would reference wiki whenever something didn't make sense. I very rarely annotated anything from Kaplan into FA.

I finished banking everything from GT/Firecracker around April, and decided to stop using the program because it took too much time with their algorithm changes being implemented at the time. Firecracker is a great program, and really helped me retain information.

Once I called it quits with GT, I did ~1,500 Rx questions over the course of 2 weeks hoping to fill in gaps in my knowledge. I think Rx would have been a great tool if I began using it earlier to help cover FA. I personally thought Rx is a great bank, but has a lot of low-yield crap shoved in there.

My intense study period was dedicated to UWorld, and the practice tests. I started by doing 1 block/day, and gradually stepped it up to 2 blocks/day. UWorld truly is as good as everyone says it is. The questions and explanations, including the images, visual aids, charts, etc, were all fantastic. I began to question whether I should have started earlier to learn more from the question bank.

My final piece of advice to this test would be twofold.
1) Approach studying with the intent of understanding, and conceptualizing things rather than memorizing. Outside of memorizing certain pathologies, knowing the physiology will help you reason things out when doing questions/taking the test.
2) Sleep. What made the difference for me between my practice scores and the real test was that I did next to nothing the day before my test. During the last few 3-4 days I made sure to get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.

Good luck!

 

[startswithb]

Happy with my score. 6 points over my NBME average of 6 exams taken over 6 weeks before my exam. I am not a gifted standardized test taker, so it's not a superstar score, but I worked my ass off and am competitive for my dream surgical subspecialties. Remember that the score is but a small piece of the puzzle. No one chooses their physician because, "well, they had really high scores!"

 

[paul411]

wow we had 9 260+ scores just at my school.

Damn, where do you go to school?

 

[Phloston]

wow we had 9 260+ scores just at my school.

Your school must be doing something right.

What is your class's Step1 average?

 

[Stingarov]

People actually tell one another their Step scores in real life? At my school that information is kept close to the vest for whatever reason. Asking one another's step score is worse than saying Voldemort.

 

[sharklasers]

Damn, where do you go to school?

definitely not a school you would think of as being a "good" med school, although it is pretty highly regarded by locals (this obviously doesn't mean much though)

Your school must be doing something right.

What is your class's Step1 average?

dont know, but it was under national average last year. this year it will probably average out too, even though we had a high number of 250+ scores, we also had like 35 students delay rotations because they needed extra time to study (presumabley bc they weren't scoring well enough on practice tests)

People actually tell one another their Step scores in real life? At my school that information is kept close to the vest for whatever reason. Asking one another's step score is worse than saying Voldemort.

just whispers going around, a classmate says this knowledge comes from the deans office though

 

[imperturbable]

People actually tell one another their Step scores in real life? At my school that information is kept close to the vest for whatever reason. Asking one another's step score is worse than saying Voldemort.

My friends and I shared our scores with each other. Many high fives were had, and word does get around to the rest of the class but none of us really care. I don't see how it has any impact on you or your future if people know your score, but I guess it's never been about that.

 

[Leonidis I]

definitely not a school you would think of as being a "good" med school, although it is pretty highly regarded by locals (this obviously doesn't mean much though)



dont know, but it was under national average last year. this year it will probably average out too, even though we had a high number of 250+ scores, we also had like 35 students delay rotations because they needed extra time to study (presumabley bc they weren't scoring well enough on practice tests)



just whispers going around, a classmate says this knowledge comes from the deans office though

sounds like a carib school

 

[Phloston]

People actually tell one another their Step scores in real life? At my school that information is kept close to the vest for whatever reason. Asking one another's step score is worse than saying Voldemort.

It's been to my observation that those least in need of validation don't discuss their scores in person. To be humble is to be very intelligent.

If someone asks you what you got, the best thing you can do is to say things went fine, and then change the focus back onto him or her.

This forum is the exception because it's purposely constructed to discuss these things (and we're not in person).

 

[coreytayloris]

I'm in an Irish school and not everybody takes step one, a handful of Irish students and most NAs.

There is a few people in the class who have never taken step 1, never will, but are still consumed by step 1 scores. (basically they get to make an appraisal of a student by judging them on exam that they themselves will never dream of studying for)

One student recently asked me what percentages I was hitting in my uworld and what that translated to in step scores.

I know inevitably after I take the exam the same people will be asking me what I got.

I will be politely telling them to PFO whether I get a 200 or a 250. Or as Pholston says, I'll tell them it went fine. 😉

 

[sjm5104]

MS1 and MS2 I worked my tail off and id guess i finished in the top 30-50% of my class. Ive never been an inherently "smart kid" and when I do well its usually just because I outworked people. From day 1 of med school I was always nervous about step 1 because my forte has never been retention of information. I am fine at learning something and regurgitating it for an exam, but once we move on to the next topic, ITS GONE....like....totally gone. If you are also one of these people, fear not, it is possible to still do well on the step.

6 weeks of prep time I did do the 14-15 hr days, usually 7am till 11pm with an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. I move slowly through material, so I only got through FA and Pathoma 1.5 times each. That being said, I spent a good chunk of time each day on questions. I finished Finished UW with 73% (avg timed random). I started of high forties low 50s and ended with high 70s to mid 80s. I also started taking NBME's after the second week and took one each week after that.

NBME 7 226
NBME 11 235
NBME 13 247
NBME 15 252 (4 days before test)

I ended up with a 251 which I am extremely pleased with. I knew I was capable of it after NBME 15 but felt unsure (at best) walking out of the testing center. I then subsequently felt crummier everyday that passed.

My advice in hindsight is to buy pathoma and USMLERX and do them diligently as you go through MS2. Occasionally sprinkle in some First aid so you can get the lay of the land. Then once it comes time for dedicated board study time, crush through your uworld and Fa while doing pathoma of the sections currently being covered. DO AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE! At the end of the day, this test is not so much about how much nitty nitty gritty details you can remember but largely learning how to take the test itself. The best way to prepare for that is to just utterly crush through questions and put in the hours. This test, more then anything else ive ever experienced, really is something where you will get in what you put out. So bite the bullet, work your ass off, and you will be rewarded.

If anyone has any questions about the plan I used or anything else, feel free to message me. To those currently prepping or prepping soon, God speed, you will all get through it, and it feels so much better on the other side. 👍

 

[sharklasers]

sounds like a carib school

Yeah you're right it's actually odd, but it's from a US med school