Official 2014 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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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.
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Hey guys .. any advice on how to mug up the anticonvulsants mechanisms of action... cant find any way to swallow them .
 
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R94 said:
So I just took Step 1 today. I will be honest, I feel like crap. It seems like I went the wrong way on every single 50/50 question I had. Feels like I failed. My last 3-4 self assessments were 220+ plus.
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This is natural, and chances are your score will be within the 220's range or higher depending on the difficulty level of your test
 
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Thanks for the reassurance. Now that I have had a day to think and go through all of the questions I remember in my mind. I remember about 150-160 of my questions. Of those I am pretty sure I got 120 or so right. 20 of them I know I got wrong (a few of them I psyched myself out). The rest I just can't remember. I felt OK leaving the pro-metric center, after I started remembering my mistakes is when the doubt set in.
 
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My exam is in 2 days,any suggestions for last days ?

I was thinking about uworld and fa review but open to any suggestions
 
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My exam is tomorrow and i am freaking out! Feel like i dont remember anything :(
 
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i just took my exam today.. and it was HORRIBLE. at first.. i didnt think it was that bad... i thought to myself.. these questions are not that long... ppl must be exaggerating... cuz i got a lot of short questions in the first block and i probably only guessed on one or two questions at the end (i always had trouble w/ timing)... then after 2nd block... OMG...majority of the questions were at least a paragraph with 4-5 lines long... I had to blindly guess on like.. 5-6 questions for every block afterwards...

UW avg: 60%
NBME 13: 198 (4 months out)
NBME 7: 198 (4 months out)
UWA1/ UWA2 back to back: 236, 238
NBME 11: 217 (3 weeks out)... kinda freaking out at this point..
NBME 16: 230 (2 days out).

I don't even know what to think anymore... felt like i blindly guessed on so many questions at the end of each block on top of the questions i'm already guessing throughout the whole exam. I just wanna pass at this point... i'm still gonna pray for a 240 though... hopefully god will grant me some miracle.
 
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amberphana said:
i just took my exam today.. and it was HORRIBLE. at first.. i didnt think it was that bad... i thought to myself.. these questions are not that long... ppl must be exaggerating... cuz i got a lot of short questions in the first block and i probably only guessed on one or two questions at the end (i always had trouble w/ timing)... then after 2nd block... OMG...majority of the questions were at least a paragraph with 4-5 lines long... I had to blindly guess on like.. 5-6 questions for every block afterwards...

UW avg: 60%
NBME 13: 198 (4 months out)
NBME 7: 198 (4 months out)
UWA1/ UWA2 back to back: 236, 238
NBME 11: 217 (3 weeks out)... kinda freaking out at this point..
NBME 16: 230 (2 days out).

I don't even know what to think anymore... felt like i blindly guessed on so many questions at the end of each block on top of the questions i'm already guessing throughout the whole exam. I just wanna pass at this point... i'm still gonna pray for a 240 though... hopefully god will grant me some miracle.
Click to expand...
amberphana said:
i just took my exam today.. and it was HORRIBLE. at first.. i didnt think it was that bad... i thought to myself.. these questions are not that long... ppl must be exaggerating... cuz i got a lot of short questions in the first block and i probably only guessed on one or two questions at the end (i always had trouble w/ timing)... then after 2nd block... OMG...majority of the questions were at least a paragraph with 4-5 lines long... I had to blindly guess on like.. 5-6 questions for every block afterwards...

UW avg: 60%
NBME 13: 198 (4 months out)
NBME 7: 198 (4 months out)
UWA1/ UWA2 back to back: 236, 238
NBME 11: 217 (3 weeks out)... kinda freaking out at this point..
NBME 16: 230 (2 days out).

I don't even know what to think anymore... felt like i blindly guessed on so many questions at the end of each block on top of the questions i'm already guessing throughout the whole exam. I just wanna pass at this point... i'm still gonna pray for a 240 though... hopefully god will grant me some miracle.
Click to expand...
i pretty much had the same experience although time wasnt that big an issue. It didnt seem so hard at first but then i started guessing alot and marking question after question. Made alot of silly mistakes. :( lets hope we get that miracle. I started with a target of 250 but now even a 230 seems doubtful :/
 
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amberphana said:
i just took my exam today.. and it was HORRIBLE. at first.. i didnt think it was that bad... i thought to myself.. these questions are not that long... ppl must be exaggerating... cuz i got a lot of short questions in the first block and i probably only guessed on one or two questions at the end (i always had trouble w/ timing)... then after 2nd block... OMG...majority of the questions were at least a paragraph with 4-5 lines long... I had to blindly guess on like.. 5-6 questions for every block afterwards...

UW avg: 60%
NBME 13: 198 (4 months out)
NBME 7: 198 (4 months out)
UWA1/ UWA2 back to back: 236, 238
NBME 11: 217 (3 weeks out)... kinda freaking out at this point..
NBME 16: 230 (2 days out).

I don't even know what to think anymore... felt like i blindly guessed on so many questions at the end of each block on top of the questions i'm already guessing throughout the whole exam. I just wanna pass at this point... i'm still gonna pray for a 240 though... hopefully god will grant me some miracle.
Click to expand...
hey.. congrats on getting done with the exam and i hope you score 240+ .

Can you shed some light on the exam content .. like how was the anatomy part ? FA + UW enough ? Any other thoughts on why the exam was difficult ?
 
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npktun said:
hey.. congrats on getting done with the exam and i hope you score 240+ .

Can you shed some light on the exam content .. like how was the anatomy part ? FA + UW enough ? Any other thoughts on why the exam was difficult ?
Click to expand...

Hey... thanks!! I hope I score 240 as well if not...I hope I get at least close to the score I got on form 16.

The set up of the questions were very similar to UW. To be honest... i can't remember if it was heavy on certain subjects vs others. I think it was mainly a balance but I got a lot of questions on cardiopulmonary.. and there were quite a few questions on upper limb... things that are not in first aid. There are a lot of questions with content that I have never seen or maybe said in class by a prof once and never again. I think mainly why the exam was difficult was because the questions were longer and there were content that was asked that wasn't in First aid.

I only did kaplan videos once btw in 5th semester and never touched it again... i made jot notes into my first aid for certain subjects from the videos. Just studying UW and FA is not enough in my opinion... if i had time i would read some of my anatomy notes or BRS. I've done pathoma in 5th semester but i didn't really use it for this study period .. and i would say.. it isn't completely useless if u don't know your concepts..but i don't think it would've helped much if i were to reread all my pathoma notes again. The key is to do questions and try to conceptualize everything which UW is good for.

Some of the questions were repeated questions from the forums... like the breast mammograms in older vs younger women.. i saw that question in the forums one time and it was the exact question on my test.... I got a lot of easy pharm questions as well... mainly application questions. The stats questions were not too bad.. had a couple of EKGs and a couple of audio heart sounds.. the rest is a blur.
 
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amberphana said:
i just took my exam today.. and it was HORRIBLE. at first.. i didnt think it was that bad... i thought to myself.. these questions are not that long... ppl must be exaggerating... cuz i got a lot of short questions in the first block and i probably only guessed on one or two questions at the end (i always had trouble w/ timing)... then after 2nd block... OMG...majority of the questions were at least a paragraph with 4-5 lines long... I had to blindly guess on like.. 5-6 questions for every block afterwards...

UW avg: 60%
NBME 13: 198 (4 months out)
NBME 7: 198 (4 months out)
UWA1/ UWA2 back to back: 236, 238
NBME 11: 217 (3 weeks out)... kinda freaking out at this point..
NBME 16: 230 (2 days out).

I don't even know what to think anymore... felt like i blindly guessed on so many questions at the end of each block on top of the questions i'm already guessing throughout the whole exam. I just wanna pass at this point... i'm still gonna pray for a 240 though... hopefully god will grant me some miracle.
Click to expand...

which system was vast majority of your test?
 
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amberphana said:
Hey... thanks!! I hope I score 240 as well if not...I hope I get at least close to the score I got on form 16.

The set up of the questions were very similar to UW. To be honest... i can't remember if it was heavy on certain subjects vs others. I think it was mainly a balance but I got a lot of questions on cardiopulmonary.. and there were quite a few questions on upper limb... things that are not in first aid. There are a lot of questions with content that I have never seen or maybe said in class by a prof once and never again. I think mainly why the exam was difficult was because the questions were longer and there were content that was asked that wasn't in First aid.

I only did kaplan videos once btw in 5th semester and never touched it again... i made jot notes into my first aid for certain subjects from the videos. Just studying UW and FA is not enough in my opinion... if i had time i would read some of my anatomy notes or BRS. I've done pathoma in 5th semester but i didn't really use it for this study period .. and i would say.. it isn't completely useless if u don't know your concepts..but i don't think it would've helped much if i were to reread all my pathoma notes again. The key is to do questions and try to conceptualize everything which UW is good for.

Some of the questions were repeated questions from the forums... like the breast mammograms in older vs younger women.. i saw that question in the forums one time and it was the exact question on my test.... I got a lot of easy pharm questions as well... mainly application questions. The stats questions were not too bad.. had a couple of EKGs and a couple of audio heart sounds.. the rest is a blur.
Click to expand...

If you could prepare for Step I again what would you do ?
 
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well like i said... i don't remember what was the vast ... the test is such a blurr but as i had said in my previous post.. i would say it was a mix of every system with high emphasis on cardiopulmonary for me. i don't think i got too many questions on GI...

and as for your other question... if i would change one thing about my prep would be to read more anatomy and do more anatomy questions... and probably more nbme tests!! The questions were a combo of UW and NBME for sure.
 
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Cyal said:
Average for 2014 is a 228, up 1 point from last year's 227. I took Step 1 this year.
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You are a year off. 2012 average was 227, 2013 average was 228. This year is 230. The ones in your score report were old results.

They only release the averages in october each year.
 
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faisal 2000 said:
which system was vast majority of your test?
Click to expand...

It changes with every exam. Mine was heavy on cards (or pulm, can't remember now and can't be arsed to dig up my reflections post) and general pathology; others report lots of renal/pulm/endocrine, etc etc. That's what makes the exam challenging, you have to be prepared for whatever they throw at you.
 
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Some may be tested heavily on cardio, pulmo and others in renal, cardio and some in repro/endo...so on.......It all depends on random form allotted during exam by computer.....I think best strategy is study well and clear all concepts across all topics irrespective of subject/organ system using standard resources and q banks....
 
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The average is 230 now, damn that's high.
But is that 230 the average of American medical students only and 228 is the average of all test takers, i.e. American and international ?!
 
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milomohamed said:
The average is 230 now, damn that's high.
But is that 230 the average of American medical students only and 228 is the average of all test takers, i.e. American and international ?!
Click to expand...

Yeah, all test takers includes internationals. I'd be interested to see the averages of US MD schools based on curriculum type (PBL, traditional, systems) and length (2 yr vs 1.5 yr). I think the DO COMLEX/USMLE score correlation would be interesting to see as well (i.e. Do DO students who take both exams score in a similar percentile on both?)
 
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Hey everyone I'd really appreciate your opinions. I took UWSA 2 today and got a 240 then took NBME 13 right after and scored 254. I'm really confused because I thought UWSA 2 was supposed to overpredict? I took NBME 16 last weekend and got 234. It just feels like my scores are all over the place and I don't know what to believe. I dont want to think Im doing well, like getting 240+ and then end up with a 210 or something. Dont want my expectations to be crushed! Any ideas? Thanks in advance :)
 
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Hawked said:
You are a year off. 2012 average was 227, 2013 average was 228. This year is 230. The ones in your score report were old results.

They only release the averages in october each year.
Click to expand...

I took the exam mid-December 2012. Score report said: "For recent administrations, the mean and standard deviation for first-time examinees from US and Canadian medical schools are approximately 224 and 22, respectively, with most scores falling between 140 and 260."

The average has gone up by roughly 5 points in two years. In late 2016, the average will likely be about 233.
 
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The step 1 average of year 2014 was released on 9th july 2014 after they delayed the results of exams, which were conducted in may and june; and it is 228 with SD 21. Before that the average was 227 with SD of 22. The averages are released in july every year after the results get delayed.
 
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International medical student, US citizen
Sat my exam on the 30th of October. Study time took most of my third year of medical school (give or take a few months since i had to study for other courses during the year). I can't study for long hours on a single day, so on a good day i would study around 4-5 hours... most of the time it was 3-4 hours.

References:
Started with pathoma (did it before starting first aid, only once)
First aid (obviously)
UWorld Qbank: average 70% first pass
UWorld SA1: 248
nbme 15: 232 (did a few stupid mistakes like calculating ejection fraction)

Actual exam.
The exam was pretty anatomy heavy....which i was dreading.....and there were some "what would be the best answer to this patient's concern" behavioral science type questions (kept guessing between 2 different possible answers). And there were A LOT of wtf questions, more than i expected. I marked around 10-15 questions per block.

I walked out of the exam super angry. I was convinced i would score <225.

Score report for the actual exam was today: 240.
I know it doesn't compare to most of the scores on this forum, but i'm pretty happy with it after walking out of he **** storm i was in 3 weeks ago.
 
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what is the best website or source to study images (radiologic) or (microbiology organism) that might come on the exam from.. is there any particular website or source they take their images from??
 
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cooldoc89 said:
what is the best website or source to study images (radiologic) or (microbiology organism) that might come on the exam from.. is there any particular website or source they take their images from??
Click to expand...

The NBMEs (particularly the latter ones) will give you the gist of what the real exam is like. I had a few ******edly low-yield images on my exam that I couldn't have prepared for had I had an additional two years to review.

We're not allowed to discuss specific questions/answers from the exam, but know what a scolex looks like microscopically in order to pick the organism.

Know what scabies looks like on presentation. Know how to treat it and how not to treat it.

And know the images in FA. I had two images that were straight from FA. One was a HY organism showed in a very unusual way, but FA does show it (i.e., when you look at the pictures of organisms, do not disregard the multiple appearances one organism can have). The other was a HY organism in terms of what we hear/know about it, but I don't think most students would bother committing the image to memory.

Know what the pulmonary-diaphragmatic interface and lesser sac look like on lateral X-ray.
 
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Hey everyone,

I got my results today. I have to say I am pleased. Here is a summary of my prep.

I am an IMG, I finished school in 2010.

Here are the resources I used:
Kaplan Lectures (2010 Version): Great for people who were away from basic sciences for a while or do not have an excellent base.
Goljan Audio
DIT-I used it during the last few weeks of prep. It was a good final review.
UWorld- (One Pass 66% average, then reviewed all of the questions I got wrong)
First AID 2014

Practice Test Scores
NBME 12-215
NBME 15-207
NBME 13-215
NBME 11-222
NBME 16-226
UWSA 1-236
UWSA 2-230


Step 1: To be honest, the exam itself was easier than everyone makes it out to be. It was a very fair exam. In every block you had 30 relatively simple questions, 10 difficult questions and about 5 head scratchers. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me. I will say this, trust your practice scores. The day after the exam I felt horrible. I ended up improving on my NBME scores.


STEP 1: 232
 
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Good score!!, but honestly it is predictable because your Final score is very close to your NBME 16. My question is how could you make that jump from NBME15 to NBME16. was that weeks apart? or different approach.
 
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It was actually months apart. I had family visiting the week before I took NBME 15, so my studying became hectic.That being said i found NBME 15 to be the most difficult of the NBMEs. I also had just begun UWorld and hadn't watched the DIT videos when I took NBME 15.
 
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for people that took the exam recently, how many murmurs with audio did you have to identify, and could you guess by the scenario or have to memorize the audio clip...

also can someone list all the murmurs that are important so i don't have to memorize low yield audios like PULMONARY REGURGE"
 
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Took the exam 12 days ago.
I've read before that the permit disappears before the result becomes online.
When should this happen exactly?1
 
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cooldoc89 said:
for people that took the exam recently, how many murmurs with audio did you have to identify, and could you guess by the scenario or have to memorize the audio clip...

also can someone list all the murmurs that are important so i don't have to memorize low yield audios like PULMONARY REGURGE"
Click to expand...

Took the exam two years ago. Had one on Marfan syndrome that required you to move the stethoscope to get it right. You'd expect either MVP or AR in this case. I suck at listening, but the audio was exceedingly obvious. I think the QBanks have a way of making it more complicated than it really is. Good luck,
 
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milomohamed said:
Took the exam 12 days ago.
I've read before that the permit disappears before the result becomes online.
When should this happen exactly?1
Click to expand...

I gave my exam on the 5th. This wednesday is the third wednesday and my permitt disappeared today. So i guess it disappears on the Monday of the week the result comes
 
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IMG from India, top 3 medical school, but never a diligent student. Graduated 2014. Gave Step 1 end-October.

I took about 5 months to prep, but was dilly-dallying early on (had about 5 different research projects on at the time) so I only took things seriously from mid-September. Did Kaplan early on, found them very useful to orient myself to the conceptual slant of Step 1, especially as I had never considered taking the USMLE when I was in medical school itself (our curriculum is geared very differently). Also used Goljan RR, FA2013 and UW (73% one pass, timed random). NBMEs went up by about 10 points each time I took them, from 211 in June (prior to starting) to 235 in August, 243 sometime in between and finally 251 on form 15, ten days out.

My exam felt like a mix of NBME and UW, but lots of weird ethics and biostats questions (what I'm weakest at; about 20% of my test)

I ended up with ~255. My advice is to make sure you know FA really well. Although I know that I must have missed loads of questions on ethics and weird out-of-the-world minutiae, I was pretty sure that I had not messed up anything that I had already read from FA or Goljan. Be ruthless when dealing with questions to which you know the answers; avoid human error. This is particularly important because the USMLE tests stamina as much as it does knowledge and common sense.

Good luck to the rest of you! Illegitimi non carborundum!
 
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