My exam was also fair, I didn't get many questions on obscure worms or random behavioral science questions. Got one about medicare which was in first aid but that was about it. I had about three or four questions in every block where I just didn't know the answer and could only narrow it down to two or three and took my best guess. Ended up marking about 10 per section. I got very tired during the fourth block and I barely made my way through it but I took a relatively long break to eat lunch and I was fine. First aid/uworld/pathoma are the best resources and you must get them. The real exam felt like uworld and not much like the nbmes. On the nbmes, I knew what they were asking for right away which made it easy to answer the questions but on step 1, it was harder to see what they were getting at. I listened to most of Goljan and if his information is solid, I got at least four questions right that I wouldn't have gotten without him. It's good for listening to in the car and for putting the picture together towards the end of your study but not necessary if you listen to pathoma, especially if you have a solid foundation in pathology.
I had a good amount of biochem on my test and immunology was rather overrepresented. My test was also very heavy on hem/onc, repro and renal. Had some respiratory, msk/derm and neuro but not too many cross sections. I had a few heart sounds and almost no psych (I'm guessing that this is due to the recent change to the DSM V) although there were some psych/neuro pharm with an emphasis on side effects which was expected. I wish I spent more time on pharm, the main side effects and mechanisms were important. Low amounts of cardio and GI especially compared to how much time my school spent on it. I also got a few questions on parasites and viruses but I didn't spend any time memorizing the whole enveloped vs not or the HHHHAPPYYY garbage first aid tries to make you learn. Good riddance.
I took seven weeks to study. Spent the first four weeks reading Kaplan Biochem, CMMRS, Kaplan Immuno, HY Embryo and BRS Physiology. I also read how the immune system works during winter break which I thought was hugely helpful. I think kaplan biochem was great and so was kaplan immuno. CMMRS was largely a waste of time although some of the memory aids helped. HY Embryo was a huge waste of time, I wish I read BRS anatomy instead but I didn't have time to get through it. All of the relevant embryology was in first aid but there were a few anatomy questions that I had to try to remember from class. They weren't in first aid or uworld although they helped you reason out which answers were incorrect. BRS Physiology was excellent, I highly recommend it. I read the relevant first aid chapters after I read these books. I also reread the biochem, pharm and micro sections of first aid the last few days before the test. I think if you have a lot of time to read books, they give you a solid background but otherwise just stick to first aid/uworld/pathoma. The last two weeks I spent going through a few NBMEs, reading first aid and trying to get through u world. I think I was ready by the 6th week, my uworld percentages stayed level and I was pretty tired of studying. I guess this is what people call the plateau. I felt like I was treading water in the last week, trying to keep things in my head without adding new information. 5 weeks is a little too short, 7 weeks is too long, 6 would have been perfect.
I was scoring between 40-60% on uworld in tutor mode while I was reading these books in the first month. After I watched pathoma in the 5th week and read the first aid pharm section, I was scoring in the 70s-80s range consistently in the second half of uworld in timed mode. Ended up finishing 92% of it with 67% correct overall. I don't feel bad about not finishing it but I do wish that I had more time to read through first aid. I started out trying to do 46 question blocks when I didn't know anything so I did poorly and spent a lot of time reading explanations. I think it's better to just study up early and start uworld slow just to get the feel of the questions.
school administered nbme exam 190 - 2 months out
uwsa 1 - 228 (540) - 21 days out
uwsa 2 - 250 (660) - 13 days out
nbme 7 - 242 (610) - 10 days out
nbm 15 - 249 nbme 11 - 244 - 6 days out
free 138 pdf april 2014 - 90% - 3 days out
http://www.scribd.com/doc/52845176/NBME-USMLE-SCORE-TABLE I used this chart to score my nbmes, not sure how accurate it is.
On the real exam, I skipped the tutorial and got 15 extra minutes of break for an hour. Ended up using most of it, took short breaks between most blocks and had a little lunch. When I was finishing the first block, I was freaking out because I looked up and saw that I was on block 2 of 8. I sat there for literally 5 minutes thinking about how I screwed over my entire future by somehow passing over an entire block before I realized that there are only 7 blocks on step 1. Anyway, I hope this helps you guys. I was going to wait until I got my score back to post this so it would be more useful but most people will be done by then so I'm posting it now. Will update with my score later.
I forgot to mention that I did about 1/3 of USMLERX throughout the year with my classes for our exams, organ based. I ended up listening to about 2/3 of goljan in my car during the year as we went through the organs.
