Official 2014 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[900829]

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Too early? Pff nah it's not.
It's our time to shine bright like a diamond!
It's our time to make step 1 our Goliath.

. . . and may the odds be ever in your favor.
WE GOT THIS!

 

[Staph A]

IMG here, took Step 1 yesterday and got rocked.

It was by far the toughest exam I’ve ever taken regarding the basic sciences. The NBMES don’t even compare. I’d say about ten percent of the questions were give-aways but another ten percent covered material I had never seen before, the so-called “WTF” questions. They popped up at random points in every block and were constantly interrupting my momentum. The other 80% of the exam was just plain weird. Topics I thought I knew cold were quizzed In ways I wasn’t prepared for. It wasn’t enough to just know the material or even understand it, you had to know and understand the material so deeply that you could rapidly tease out subtle differences between few clues to answer confusing questions against a ticking clock.

I kept waiting for that “easy block” that never came. Each one pushed me around and mockingly asked “so you want to be a doctor?”

I had three questions on urinary incontinence (which I barely reviewed) and none on leukemias/lymphomas (which I knew cold). The toughest questions were the integrative conceptual ones. And the worst part about them was that they were often asked about topics I thought I had mastered. Ex: Acyclovir is a classic drug; everyone knows it. It shouldn’t take any one more than 10 seconds to answer a question regarding it, but it took me over a minute to settle on a choice because it was asked about in a way that I had never considered before. Often times I would get a question about something disguised as something else. Ex: A micro question testing your understanding of path or a biochem question presenting itself in the context of pharm. There were tons of lab values, many of which were useless. Pictures were everywhere. Different names were used (ex if you don’t know Buerger’s is also known as thromboangiitis obliterans, good luck!).

I never had problems with time at school. I was always one of the first to leave an exam room with loads to spare. Not so for Step 1. The questions were too weird. Every time I would re-read them it's like they were asking something different so I kept hesitating before settling on an answer.

People keep mentioning obscure anatomy questions and I definitely had my share. But there was also a couple of generic give-aways as well. Biostats was also very high yield, as was micro and path. Breast and ovarian/testicular tumors questions were practically non-existent. There were a couple of EKG graphs that FA did not prepare me for, and two heart sound questions presented with little to no context. Buzzwords didn’t help because there were barely any. But there were tons of pictures. Many of them showed a diseased tissue and asked what the disease was. Straight forward, yes, but only if you knew exactly what histological features to look for which I can't say with certainty that I did.

Bottom line is it wasn’t enough to memorize first aid and spit out info. Every question had to be carefully read and re-read; every answer choice had to be considered.

I walked in there pretty confident and came out a broken man. This was an exam that not only tested my knowledge but also practical intelligence, abstract thinking, clinical reasoning, and above all else, grit.

I scored 200, 210, 220, 220, 230 in my NBMEs in that order. The last and highest score was around three weeks ago. I had been working very hard since then to fill out the remaining gaps in my preparation and thought to myself that with a little bit of luck I could snag myself a 250+, but at this point I will be surprised with anything above 200.

I’m not trying to discourage anyone. If you’ve established a rhythm for yourself and are making progress than continue doing what you’re doing. I relied most heavily on Kaplan, Pathoma, First Aid, and Uworld. Just don’t think you know everything about classic diseases like Turner’s or Cystic Fibrosis because you can recite verbatim whatever streamlined info FA provided.

Do your best to get a good night sleep before the big day. Try to visit the test center before hand if possible. Take your breaks as needed and keep an eye on that clock. Try not to second guess yourself too much but avoid knee-jerk reactions as well. Most importantly, stay calm.

Fellow Step-1 warriors, I wish you all a victorious battle.

 

[Psai]

Oh yeah, I agree with the whole ekgs in first aid aren't enough, I got one out of left field and I only knew it cause we had a great pair of cardio professors. My heart sounds were also a little out of the way, it wasn't like 65 year old man with a crescendo-decrescendo in the right sternal border or whatever that would make it super obvious. Also I had a few questions where the right answer wasn't even in the answer choices. There was a psych question where the person was exhibiting a mature response, no question about it, and the answer choices were all immature responses. So I went with the "best answer", knowing full well that it wasn't correct.

 

[SBAKSHI]

Since it says all test through late June you'll likely be included in the July 9th release. Lucky for you.... it sucks for those who took it May and will be waiting ~7w🤔

Thanks! Yeah, i cant imagine waiting 7 weeks for this!

Currently a rising second year which is terrifying. Having been seeing students in the library killing themselves, and the fact that the first year of med school went by so fast is even more terrifying. Which means that before you know it, people in my year will be up to bat soon...

Dont be terrified, man! You should not at all think about step 1 at this point. Just enjoy your time off, do research, work out, do shadowing, travel the world. Things will definitely fall into place once second year begins, I promise!

 

[cage92]

guys whats is pregnancy and childbirth and puerperium question in exams?those are in step1 booklet and all are talking about

 

[Coffee Machine]

I took it yesterday.

How I studied:
I started in January by reading Pathoma, FA, and Goljan once, concurrently by subject. Also listened to Goljan lectures whenever I drove anywhere. Started doing Rx after my first pass of reading, averaging mid fifties. After getting about halfway through I decided to take some more time for dedicated studying, especially for pharm. I used the Lange pharm cards, which I thought were excellent. By the end of the semester, my averages were in the seventies on Rx.

I had one month dedicated study time. I did two or three UWorld blocks per day and spent the rest of my time doing another pass of FA and Pathoma. I found picmonic to be really helpful not just for pharm and micro, but also biochem and lysosomal/glycogen diseases and the like.

Scores before the test:
School-administered CBSE in March: 205
NBME 11 (end of May): 232
UWSA 1 (one week out): 253
UWSA 2 (four days out): 253
Free 150 (two days before): 79%
UWorld cum avg: 67%

Day of exam:
I thought the test overall was fair, and about as difficult as the average UWorld block. I didn't feel too much in the way of test fatigue, as I was used to three blocks per day for the last month anyway, in addition to the adrenaline of test day.

I had a ton of immuno (~30 questions or so) and a lot of respiratory questions. Also a fair number of anatomy questions (~15) most of which were pretty easy. Around five questions that were wtf type questions that you can't really prepare for.

All in all, I feel fine about it. I could've done more in the way of prep. I especially wish I had been more disciplined during the spring semester and knocked out the Kaplan qbank and done more NBMEs. But I gave it a good effort and I learned a TON in studying for this test.

My goal is >240. My guess is that I scored somewhere between 235-250. I'll update when I get my score.

EDIT: Ended up with a 239.

 

[EazyE1907]

I took it yesterday.

How I studied:
I started in January by reading Pathoma, FA, and Goljan once, concurrently by subject. Also listened to Goljan lectures whenever I drove anywhere. Started doing Rx after my first pass of reading, averaging mid fifties. After getting about halfway through I decided to take some more time for dedicated studying, especially for pharm. I used the Lange pharm cards, which I thought were excellent. By the end of the semester, my averages were in the seventies on Rx.

I had one month dedicated study time. I did two or three UWorld blocks per day and spent the rest of my time doing another pass of FA and Pathoma. I found picmonic to be really helpful not just for pharm and micro, but also biochem and lysosomal/glycogen diseases and the like.

Scores before the test:
School-administered CBSE in March: 205
NBME 11 (end of May): 232
UWSA 1 (one week out): 253
UWSA 2 (four days out): 253
Free 150 (two days before): 79%
UWorld cum avg: 67%

Day of exam:
I thought the test overall was fair, and about as difficult as the average UWorld block. I didn't feel too much in the way of test fatigue, as I was used to three blocks per day for the last month anyway, in addition to the adrenaline of test day.

I had a ton of immuno (~30 questions or so) and a lot of respiratory questions. Also a fair number of anatomy questions (~15) most of which were pretty easy. Around five questions that were wtf type questions that you can't really prepare for.

All in all, I feel fine about it. I could've done more in the way of prep. I especially wish I had been more disciplined during the spring semester and knocked out the Kaplan qbank and done more NBMEs. But I gave it a good effort and I learned a TON in studying for this test.

My goal is >240. My guess is that I scored somewhere between 235-250. I'll update when I get my score.

Hey thanks for the update on the exam, I'm sure you did great!. I have 7 weeks till my exam. I have gone through all of first aid, pathoma,and Uworld (untimed tutor mode subject based = 74%) I am planning to do a second pass of world but this time random timed mode. I keep telling myself that i want/need to read RR path, but doing questions, FA and pathoma take up most of my day and i never seem to have time. Do you feel like reading goljan REALLY helped in your prep and paid off on exam day. OR was pathoma definitely enough. I feel like there are some golden HY info in goljan and now that i have a better understanding of the subject matter it wouldn't be too hard of a read. thanks!

 

[4thQTHailMary]

I did the Goljan high yield but I don't feel that it paid off on test day. Plus, most of it is regurg from his lectures. Everyone is different though. Some people swore that they were good for 2-3 questions. I do feel like there were multiple questions on my school's administered CBSE and a couple of the NBMEs that I could hear him in my head.

 

[Coffee Machine]

Hey thanks for the update on the exam, I'm sure you did great!. I have 7 weeks till my exam. I have gone through all of first aid, pathoma,and Uworld (untimed tutor mode subject based = 74%) I am planning to do a second pass of world but this time random timed mode. I keep telling myself that i want/need to read RR path, but doing questions, FA and pathoma take up most of my day and i never seem to have time. Do you feel like reading goljan REALLY helped in your prep and paid off on exam day. OR was pathoma definitely enough. I feel like there are some golden HY info in goljan and now that i have a better understanding of the subject matter it wouldn't be too hard of a read. thanks!

I don't think it would be very high yield to read the whole book at this point in your prep. If your UW average is 74% then I think you're doing just fine with whatever your strategy has been so far.

If you're still interested in RR, I'd recommend just going over the blue text in the margins and the blue tables. Doesn't take but ten minutes a chapter at most.

 

[EazyE1907]

I don't think it would be very high yield to read the whole book at this point in your prep. If your UW average is 74% then I think you're doing just fine with whatever your strategy has been so far.

If you're still interested in RR, I'd recommend just going over the blue text in the margins and the blue tables. Doesn't take but ten minutes a chapter at most.

I did the Goljan high yield but I don't feel that it paid off on test day. Plus, most of it is regurg from his lectures. Everyone is different though. Some people swore that they were good for 2-3 questions. I do feel like there were multiple questions on my school's administered CBSE and a couple of the NBMEs that I could hear him in my head.

thanks for the advice guys! good luck!

 

[wonderbread12]

I'm not too great with endocrine loops and hormones going up & down ...with all the talk of arrows and endocrine pathways does anyone know where one could get some added practice aside from UWorld questions?

Thanks!

 

[guitarguy23]

I take it Friday, here are my numbers:

Did ~60% of USMLERX, I think the % was roughly mid 60s.

UWorld 74% (upper 60's starting, last third of it I averaged ~80%, Finished a few weeks ago)
^Incorrects ~90%
CBSE 250 (1 month out)
NBME 12 247 (5/22)
NBME 13 251 (5/29)
UWSA 1 265 (6/5)
NBME 7 260 (6/9)
NBME 11 251 (6/11)
UWSA 2 265 (6/13)
NBME 15 254 (6/15)
NBME 16 249 (6/17)

I used FA/Uworld/Pathoma for 95% of my prep. Read FA 3x, starting with ~10-20 pages each day back in January, with random Rx questions every other day or so. Last pass did 45 pages a day. Used Pathoma during coursework religiously, probably have gone through each chapter 3-4x, some sections more. Started UWorld in April, annotated everything I thought mattered into FA-->read FA for the 3rd time. I kept a log of my missed questions written as one-liners from each missed UWorld question and each missed NBME question and reviewed these a little each day.

The other 5% was with pharmcards and microcards, which I do think helped if only for the breaking up the monotony of reading FA. I would just grab a random card from a huge mixed pile I had and read about a bug/drug. My scores in these two areas remained high throughout, so I do feel like this has helped my retain the "crammable" info.

My goal is >250, hopefully my test won't by Behavioral heavy 🙂 I will post soon after with my experience.

This thread has been extremely helpful for me while studying. The advice and motivation have been great. I'll do my best to offer up any helpful advice in return. Good luck!

 

[Arg10Messi]

Just took mine. Um, so, yeah that was the worst test of my life. Straight guessed on 40-50%. The material was ridiculous. I was shooting for a 235-240, but I'd be lucky if I just passed. That was the lamest experience ever.

Is it normal to feel like **** hit the fan?

 

[Dave89]

Just took mine. Um, so, yeah that was the worst test of my life. Straight guessed on 40-50%. The material was ridiculous. I was shooting for a 235-240, but I'd be lucky if I just passed. That was the lamest experience ever.

Is it normal to feel like **** hit the fan?

Seems to be the more common feeling after the test.

What was different for me was that I noticed ~5 questions in that the exam was a completely different animal from the NBMEs and UW. That's why I'm mentally preparing myself for the very likely possibility that I scored ~20 points below my average.

 

[Arg10Messi]

Seems to be the more common feeling after the test.

What was different for me was that I noticed ~5 questions in that the exam was a completely different animal from the NBMEs and UW. That's why I'm mentally preparing myself for the very likely possibility that I scored ~20 points below my average.

Same here man. I know for sure I'm nowhere near my NBME scores or my projections. It was insane. Totally effing insane.

 

[gasknight]

Just took mine. Um, so, yeah that was the worst test of my life. Straight guessed on 40-50%. The material was ridiculous. I was shooting for a 235-240, but I'd be lucky if I just passed. That was the lamest experience ever.

Is it normal to feel like **** hit the fan?

Not to discredit your experience, but judging from past test experiences on this thread, you'll likely score around your NBME average. You may have felt like you were straight guessing, but the test writers are good at making you feel uneasy about your selections. Though, they are informed selections - not a complete guess.

Try not to dwell on it, grats on being done. I'm sure you scored close to your NBME average.

 

[masterwolfie]

Just took mine. Um, so, yeah that was the worst test of my life. Straight guessed on 40-50%. The material was ridiculous. I was shooting for a 235-240, but I'd be lucky if I just passed. That was the lamest experience ever.

Is it normal to feel like **** hit the fan?

Ugh I feel this way, too...and I know that's supposed to be a common feeling, but when I took the NBMEs, I didn't go back to fiddle with answers...whereas, on the real thing, my brain decided it was a GOOD idea to go back and change right answers to wrong answers 🙁

 

[Arg10Messi]

Not to discredit your experience, but judging from past test experiences on this thread, you'll likely score around your NBME average. You may have felt like you were straight guessing, but the test writers are good at making you feel uneasy about your selections. Though, they are informed selections - not a complete guess.

Try not to dwell on it, grats on being done. I'm sure you scored close to your NBME average.

Cheers. I appreciate the positive vibes and the insight. I'm ready to move on, lose all this M2 weight, and straight pimp rotations.

 

[Arg10Messi]

Ugh I feel this way, too...and I know that's supposed to be a common feeling, but when I took the NBMEs, I didn't go back to fiddle with answers...whereas, on the real thing, my brain decided it was a GOOD idea to go back and change right answers to wrong answers 🙁

I had a few of those too. It was tough. But I'm proud of you. It was hard, but you did it.

 

[arda]

question to the ones who have taken the exam, is congenital immune deficiencies high yield ? like bruton,chediak higashi or wiskott aldrich ? have any of had a question from this topic ? if so how was it ,was it hard ? thanks

 

[jazzyazza]

I'm not too great with endocrine loops and hormones going up & down ...with all the talk of arrows and endocrine pathways does anyone know where one could get some added practice aside from UWorld questions?

Thanks!

BRS Physio and Pathoma are pretty good with explaining the concepts behind the changes in variables (lots of hidden gold in Uworld as well)

What I've been doing and have found ENORMOUSLY helpful is create a document compiling any table you come across with "arrow stuff" (eg Calcium physiology, renal electrolyte physiology, lab changes in the different types of anemia, labs for the coagulopathies, cardiac and vascular function, reproductive physiology, etc etc). Obviously the most important thing is to understand the concept behind the changes in parameters (as opposed to memorization). Whenever Ive had enough of First Aid (which happens frequently enough), I copy a table from the "arrow stuff" document, erase out all the arrows, attempt to fill them in and then compare to see if I filled it out correctly. The document is still a work in progress, but will share it once I'm done (to those interested).

Keep up the grind.

 

[masterwolfie]

I had a few of those too. It was tough. But I'm proud of you. It was hard, but you did it.

Aww, thanks You, too! Congrats on being done!

 

[Arg10Messi]

question to the ones who have taken the exam, is congenital immune deficiencies high yield ? like bruton,chediak higashi or wiskott aldrich ? have any of had a question from this topic ? if so how was it ,was it hard ? thanks

Know them. And they're not going to give it to you straight up. Like 75% of the exam it will be totally twisted upside down. They are familiar with Uworld. They're going to go out of their way that it's not the same exact question as Uworld. Concepts are similar, but the real deal is much more difficult.

 

[Laplace]

Does anyone who has taken it and gotten their score back have a feeling for what the curve is like on the real STEP vs. NBMEs? Is a 90% still only a 250 or is it more like 80%?

 

[4thQTHailMary]

This is something that I too would like to know.

 

[Ismet]

Just took mine. Um, so, yeah that was the worst test of my life. Straight guessed on 40-50%. The material was ridiculous. I was shooting for a 235-240, but I'd be lucky if I just passed. That was the lamest experience ever.

Is it normal to feel like **** hit the fan?

I took it today too. I know everyone says they feel like crap after the exam, but oh god that was BAD. Based on my NBMEs/UWSAs/UWorld % I should be around a 230-240 but I must have marked more than half of the questions in each block and didn't have enough time to review them all. Most of the marked ones I was able to narrow down to two choices, but felt like I was taking a stab in the dark or falling for a detractor or changing my mind. Grrrrrr. Hopefully I don't have to go through that again...

Also, I'm sure it's been said a lot already (and it was said to me, I just didn't realize the extent) but signing in and out of the testing room takes a REALLY long time, especially if you're in a city with a large Prometric center and 20+ people taking a test at the same time.

 

[J ROD]

Yeah, this makes me feel good about how things might go................lol

 

[ATPase8]

Found this thread helpful thought id pitch in, took it today:

Surprisingly straightforward, 70% was in Uworld/Pathoma/FA , other 30% random things you might pick up in class or trivia you just have to guess. Actually saw some straight questions from UWORLD...makes you wonder how they make their bank. I had a very renal heavy test second surprisingly to Psych, very little cardio. Felt like an NBME and much easier then UWORLD, and good mix of big picture questions that test your knowledge of mechanisms and straight recall. Lots of CT/ MRI thats fair game so be comfortable looking at them! Anatomy well represented, all clinically related stuff that we all learned 1st year at some time. There was a good amount of MCAT bio type questions so be ready to reason through things. Its a very broad test so just be sure you cover all your bases, if you worked hard your first two years you'll do well. Best of luck!

 

[Ismet]

Found this thread helpful thought id pitch in, took it today:

Surprisingly straightforward, 70% was in Uworld/Pathoma/FA , other 30% random things you might pick up in class or trivia you just have to guess. Actually saw some straight questions from UWORLD...makes you wonder how they make their bank. I had a very renal heavy test second surprisingly to Psych, very little cardio. Felt like an NBME and much easier then UWORLD, and good mix of big picture questions that test your knowledge of mechanisms and straight recall. Lots of CT/ MRI thats fair game so be comfortable looking at them! Anatomy well represented, all clinically related stuff that we all learned 1st year at some time. There was a good amount of MCAT bio type questions so be ready to reason through things. Its a very broad test so just be sure you cover all your bases, if you worked hard your first two years you'll do well. Best of luck!

We had vastly different tests haha. I would have killed for renal/psych heavy. I had lots of cardio and quite a bit of biostat/experiment type questions. I think I only had one or two CT/MRI images, a couple CXRs. Pretty much zero derm, which is one of my best sections, and minimal heme/onc, which is another one of my strong areas. Quite a bit of pharm on mine too, a lot of them nitty gritty questions that were lost on me. Womp womp.

 

[EazyE1907]

We had vastly different tests haha. I would have killed for renal/psych heavy. I had lots of cardio and quite a bit of biostat/experiment type questions. I think I only had one or two CT/MRI images, a couple CXRs. Pretty much zero derm, which is one of my best sections, and minimal heme/onc, which is another one of my strong areas. Quite a bit of pharm on mine too, a lot of them nitty gritty questions that were lost on me. Womp womp.

well at least you are taking it well. I would have been furious, but i guess there's nothing you can do. I'm sure you did fine.

 

[Ismet]

well at least you are taking it well. I would have been furious, but i guess there's nothing you can do. I'm sure you did fine.

Immediately after the test I was almost in tears actually, but then I realized there's nothing I can do about it, better just enjoy the next 3-4 weeks and see what happens. I would hope I at least passed it, kinda doubt I hit 230, but we'll see.

 

[J ROD]

That kind of random is ridiculous.......

 

[notbobtrustme]

That kind of random is ridiculous.......

yea, apparently someone had like a few neuro questions while I probably had 50+ easily.

 

[Ismet]

That kind of random is ridiculous.......

Tell me about it. My school gives us a list of tested topics based on surveys from the year above us, and for biochem, pretty much everyone said there were a lot of vitamin questions, make sure you know the vitamins, etc. So I made sure I knew the vitamins/toxicities/deficiencies cold. I had ONE vitamin question. 😡

My test really liked cystic fibrosis though, had at least one question per block pertaining to CF. Also lots and lots of graphs, mainly pertaining to hormones.

 

[FutureMD23]

Took it today. It honestly seemed fairly brutal in many ways. I do not know if it is just the fact that it was the real thing or if it really was terrible. I would prefer to wait until scores come out before doing my full write up on it. Do not want to psych anyone out. All I can say is that EVERYTHING is fair game and there is no point in studying any one thing people post on here. That being said, mine was VERY respiratory, micro, cardio heavy. Quite a few behavioral and anatomy questions that were hard too. Good luck to everyone!

Is the general rule for scores 3 weeks from when you take it. Since I took it today, does that mean July 9?

 

[Chemdude]

I took the exam yesterday. Here are my thoughts:

1. Trust yourself. I probably got 30-35 questions wrong. I know I got ~10 questions wrong due to stupid mistakes and indecisiveness.
2. I spent a lot of time reviewing anatomy during the last few days before my exam. I feel like the time I spent studying anatomy didn't really help. Most of the questions weren't on high yield topics (e.g. brachial plexus lesions). I got a lot of questions on female reproductive anatomy and abdominal anatomy (e.g. SMA branches). Not much neuroanatomy...
3. I had very few biochem questions; maybe 4 metabolism questions and 5 genetics/molecular bio. The questions were really easy and straight forward.
4. Pharm was right out of FA (e.g. aminoglycosides can cause ototoxicity). I spent the last day doing a cursory review of all of the pharm sections of FA. It paid off.
5. Pathology was very doable. Questions were right out of FA/Pathoma.
6. People said that they had a lot of CTs show up on their exam. I only had about 3 CTs and a similar amount of xrays.
7. 2 ECGs, 4 heart sounds. Not very difficult.
8. The hardest section on the exam for me was physiology/pathophysiology. A lot of up/down arrow and association questions.
9. My exam was very heavy on immuno/micro. A lot of the questions were straight forward, but there were a couple of really weird ones. Overall, I'm glad that my exam was immuno/micro heavy; I spent a whole day going through all of the usmle rx micro questions (280 questions) 2 days before the exam.
10. I got a couple of really weird questions on insurance, public health and research. There is nothing I could have done to prepare for those questions.
11. The test isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. ~70% of the questions are straight forward recall questions. I would say only 10% of questions are WTF questions, and I was usually able narrow down answer choices for those questions.
12. I wish I would have taken the exam a week earlier. 6 weeks of dedicated study time is too much. I spent the last week dicking around, and I didn't learn much during the last week. I was pretty burned out after I finished uworld at the end of week 4.

I'll post my score when I get it back on June 9th. Good luck to all of those taking it soon!

 

[masterwolfie]

We had vastly different tests haha. I would have killed for renal/psych heavy. I had lots of cardio and quite a bit of biostat/experiment type questions. I think I only had one or two CT/MRI images, a couple CXRs. Pretty much zero derm, which is one of my best sections, and minimal heme/onc, which is another one of my strong areas. Quite a bit of pharm on mine too, a lot of them nitty gritty questions that were lost on me. Womp womp.

I think we had similar/the same test...

 

[Chemdude]

question to the ones who have taken the exam, is congenital immune deficiencies high yield ? like bruton,chediak higashi or wiskott aldrich ? have any of had a question from this topic ? if so how was it ,was it hard ? thanks

I got a question about one of those diseases. I was really excited because I thought it would be a gimme...then I looked at the last line of the question...which mutation would you see in this disease? lol

 

[EazyE1907]

I got a question about one of those diseases. I was really excited because I thought it would be a gimme...then I looked at the last line of the question...which mutation would you see in this disease? lol

that actually sounds like a gimme. bruton = btk. wiskott= WAS gene (lol). chediak higashi = LYST gene microtubule trafficking gene mutation. i mean its all there in FA. unless you're talking about what TYPE of mutation. like point or silent or some **** then yeah thats not cool.

and Arda, everything in FA is fair game and high yield for this exam. i have not taken the exam yet, but just look at what other peoples exam experiences have been like. Some get 2 questions on immuno others get 35. better to just know everything as best as you can.

 

[Arg10Messi]

I was AMAZED as to how certain systems were COMPLETELY absent from my exam. Cardio, neuro, renal, msk. None of them. Not 1 question on marfans, turner, erlohs danlos, biochem, parkinsons. alzheimers, MS.

Un-effing believable. If you would have told me these topics were never touched on once in my entire 8 hour exam, I would have told you to share the Afghani kush and white diamond full melt hash that you're smoking.

 

[honeyyygirl]

I took it yesterday. ugh.. i thought it was not too bad. definitely made some stupid mistakes / changed answers from wrong to right... but I'm really upset because I ran out of time on almost every single block. there were definitely a few blocks that where I couldn't answer #46 because of time crunches =____________________= Hope it all works out and that I can stay where my last nbme/ UWSA score were!!!!!!!!

Good luck everyone.

 

[MrWhatupDoc]

Took it and my experience was.....very fair and reasonable. I had a panic attack the night before the exam and was seriously considering just not showing up (Don't know what the ramifications would have been). I took a walk, cleared my mind and just went to sleep. In the morning, I was in a good place where I just said to myself, "you worked hard, what ever happens happens." That mindset was KEY. The format of the exam is just like UWorld which I was surprised of. I thought it would be more like the practice NBMEs for some reason. As a matter of fact, the whole test was like UWorld. Some short vignettes some longer ones (with a whole bunch of fluff in them). I think taking a look at the answer choices first and then reading the vignette was key. Time and fatigue actually wasn't a factor for me. I usually get done with the block with 10-15 mins to spare on practice exams and UWorld... on the real thing it was more like 6-10 mins. It's been stated before and I will state it again. Going with your "gut" is crucial. They were a couple of questions, especially anatomy, where I just felt I had seen this somewhere in my first two years and just went with my gut....and it turned out to be right! Trust yourself and your knowledge base and usually if an answer choice sticks out to you its for a good reason. I don't feel I got TOO many wtf questions but there were definitely some. Don't spend too much time on them, read the vignette, read the choices and go with the one that makes sense to you. Leaves you more time for the gimme's and reasonable questions. Also, be prepared for some ridiculously easy questions. No the NBME is not trying to trick or deceive you. I swear I spent more time on easy questions just because I was paranoid that I missed something in the vignette that would steer me to something else.

Finally, to the people that still have time to study, Knowing FA-Pathoma-UWorld like the back of your hand and you'll probably kill Step. I regretted not going through FA word for word one last time. I just didn't have it in me in those final days. Also, I would suggest to master biochem, Pharm, micro/immuno, and Behavioral Science/Biostats. I know a lot of it is just memorization and it sucks but these questions on the test are pretty simple if you master them and are easy way to rack up points. Anyway, good luck guys. Don't psych yourselves out and crush this exam!!

 

[MrWhatupDoc]

Oh yeah, I agree with the whole ekgs in first aid aren't enough, I got one out of left field and I only knew it cause we had a great pair of cardio professors. My heart sounds were also a little out of the way, it wasn't like 65 year old man with a crescendo-decrescendo in the right sternal border or whatever that would make it super obvious. Also I had a few questions where the right answer wasn't even in the answer choices. There was a psych question where the person was exhibiting a mature response, no question about it, and the answer choices were all immature responses. So I went with the "best answer", knowing full well that it wasn't correct.

Haha, I think I got the same psych question and thought the same thing.

 

[Staph A]

The more I think of the exam the more realize I'm probably over exaggerating how strange it was. Yes there were a lot of tough questions but there were also a lot of easy ones too and most of the ones in between required just a little thought to at least considerably narrow down the most likely options. We spend more time thinking about the tough questions during the exam and therefore are probably more likely to remember them as we walk out the test-center which can skew our perception of how well we actually did.

Like so many others have said, the way you feel immediately after taking the Step is often a poor indicator of your actual performance.

 

[Dave89]

The more I think of the exam the more realize I'm probably over exaggerating how strange it was. Yes there were a lot of tough questions but there were also a lot of easy ones too and most of the ones in between required just a little thought to at least considerably narrow down the most likely options. We spend more time thinking about the tough questions during the exam and therefore are probably more likely to remember them as we walk out the test-center which can skew our perception of how well we actually did.

Like so many others have said, the way you feel immediately after taking the Step is often a poor indicator of your actual performance.

One could just as persuasively argue that the most accurate assessment of the experience is that done during or immediately after the exam.

I think that both approaches have merit - depending on the person.

 

[g2daizh]

I took it today too. I know everyone says they feel like crap after the exam, but oh god that was BAD. Based on my NBMEs/UWSAs/UWorld % I should be around a 230-240 but I must have marked more than half of the questions in each block and didn't have enough time to review them all. Most of the marked ones I was able to narrow down to two choices, but felt like I was taking a stab in the dark or falling for a detractor or changing my mind. Grrrrrr. Hopefully I don't have to go through that again...

I feel the same way. I was averaging ~65-70% Uworld, and scoring between 220-240 on NBMEs. Walked out of the test just hoping I passed. Really ****ty feeling, but nothing I can do now.

 

[Slack3r]

Took it today, and I thought it was incredibly difficult. Easily marked >20 questions per block.

I felt like I spent the entire exam reading a vignette, thinking"oh this is X", and then the answers had NOTHING to do with what I expected the right answer to be. I was "confident" on maybe 10 questions per block, and felt like I was constantly picking between 3 esoteric answer choices. A lot of really obscure anatomy, drugs not in FA, and a TON of arrow questions with really weird variables (nothing like I'd seen in Uworld). Had a lot of questions on mitochondrial diseases, and biochem disorders. On a positive note, I had literally 5 questions on PJP and at least 3-4 on trigeminal neuralgia. Also had a TON of really weird ethics scenarios with equally weird answer choices.

Incredibly demoralizing, with a lot of questions I can't even seem to find a correct answer to with some Googling. Oh well, here's to waiting it out...

 

[hitachi47]

Took the test today. I had probably around 40 anatomy questions, and close to 30 CTs or CXRs. Most of them were pretty straight forward, others were difficult (ie they would have been hard to answer even if I had just finished the unit of anatomy during 1st year, so I don't think studying for anatomy is really worth it ). I had some pretty tough behavioral science questions also that were 50/50 after narrowing it down. I also had about 5 childhood developmental questions, and it had me answer if the childs development was normal, abnormal, etc. Those were iffy as well. Hoping I hit my goal score, but not sure at this point. Other then that, I thought the rest of the test felt like NBME 15 or 16. Definitely doable.

 

[J ROD]

I need to get the hell off of here and quit reading this "Step 1 was from hell stuff". Killing my vibe! lol

 

[Psai]

I need to get the hell off of here and quit reading this "Step 1 was from hell stuff". Killing my vibe! lol

I know what you mean, I couldn't stop reading this thread the few days leading up to step 1 and it was awful for my self confidence

 

[Double A]

I know what you mean, I couldn't stop reading this thread the few days leading up to step 1 and it was awful for my self confidence

Same. I took it today and I'm impressed that you guys remember the questions so well because I don't. Most things were represented with an emphasis on micro, gross path, good amount of imaging, lots of endocrine and cardio.

I psyched myself out pretty good reading the negative experiences and I'm glad to say that it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. I'm not sure what that's worth given the variability in experiences even among ppl scoring 250+ on practice exams. I would definitely think of rest as a part of your final studying to be refreshed for test day. Doubling up on ear plugs/head phones was crucial for me. There was a girl next to me taking some sort of music exam and you could hear the music through her headphones without doubling up. Good luck guys.