Official 2014 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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orchitisphlebitis said:
Good luck guys; thanks alot to those who have shared their experiences.

Question - Anybody who recently took it read High Yield Neuro? Considering running through it quickly in a few weeks (will be done with UW). It'll help on finals, and I feel somewhat weak in Neuro (although I've only been through Pathoma/FA section once). I did fine in Neuro classes, but they were so long ago.
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It has good neuroanatomy and cross-sections. Note: Haven't taken the Step yet.
 
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Any thoughts on doing select topics like molecular bio from Kaplan qbank for dedicated study period? I haven't touched Kaplan for questions.been mostly grinding through uworld and rx. (both 70% done) Real deal is in the last week of June
 
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Matteo said:
I would treat the UWSA as 8 more sets of UWorld questions - and not read too much into your score.

Then do 5 NBMEs as assessments, they've clearly proven themselves to be the best predictors.
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Thanks Matteo! Any 5 in particular?
 
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penguinism said:
It's hard to say! My guess is that perhaps you're not making the connections yet with the material that you do know? The test really asks you to link concepts and dig deep to reason through questions. Have you gone through the NBME exams to see which questions you got wrong and then figure out why you got them wrong? Sometimes I found that I knew the info but was not applying it in the correct sense.

Good luck!
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Took NBME this morning and got a 223 - quite a big jump! Going to keep working at it (Test next Thursday) and pray to pull off a 230+.
 
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I've been following this thread for a few months now and take my test in 2 days. I've pretty much reached my peak as of 2 weeks and my only goal right now is to prevent from hemorrhaging more information. My practice tests:

CBSSE (school administered at start of study period): 240
Uworld: 88%
NBME 12: 264 (2 weeks from test)
NBME 13: 264 (1 week from test)
NBME 15: 262 (last Saturday)
Uworld 1, Uworld 2 (back-to-back, last Sunday): 265+

At this point, I'm going to trust my NBME scores no matter how crappy I feel after the test. I'll follow up with my thoughts and impressions of the test. I'll be happy with anything over 250, and would be really happy if I can somehow match my practice NBMEs. Good luck everyone!
 
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Phew! It is finally over! I took the exam on 1 hour of sleep and a body full of adrenaline! I got to the testing center early before all of my classmates and was actually allowed to start the exam 30 minutes before my start time before everyone else. As I sat down on the chair,I began having a small panic attack because I couldn't believe it was really happening. I skip the tutorial and start the exam. Reading the first question only made my heart go in even deeper frenzy that I wasted a good 5 minutes on the block just freaking out. Eventually I tried pushing through it, and the more questions I answered, the better I felt. By the end of the first block I was more calm, but knew I had gotten a lot of early questions wrong because of the panic attack. There was nothing I could do so I just tried brushing off and tried making up for it in the following blocks. Thankfully, as the blocks went on, I felt more and more comfortable that by the 4th block the WTF questions did not phase me as much.

Everyone has a different opinion but I actually found the exam to be a mix between USWA 1 and UWSA 2. As I was taking UWSA 1, I remember a lot of questions where I was going "WTF!" UWSA 2 balanced this by having a larger amount of easier questions on it (imo). My test had a good amount of straight up recall questions, which really surprised me. Sadly, these really easy questions were balanced by weird questions, full of answer choices with weird/complex wording and/or topics not even covered in first aid or uworld lol. I laughed at these questions and just guessed. In the end, the exam was a mix of answering questions you knew or bsing your way with best guesses to weird questions. I didn't leave the testing center thinking I failed. Even with the horrible first block, I left feeling like I passed. However, I don't know how well I did compared to my practice exams. My fate is up to the USMLE gods.

To those still yet to take the exam, my honest advice is to not let the exam psych you out. And get some zolpidem if you are having trouble sleeping. That's my biggest regret. I feel like I would've done better if I hadn't been so against taking sleeping pills and had slept better.
 
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1dayatatime said:
congrats flamen! sit back and relax! good effort 🙂

what can we do to prepare for the wtf q's?
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There's nothing I felt I could've done to prepare for it. I guess just learning to trust your gut feeling instead of over thinking things and choosing the wrong answer.
 
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pandoraone said:
Took NBME this morning and got a 223 - quite a big jump! Going to keep working at it (Test next Thursday) and pray to pull off a 230+.
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NBMEs are considered realistic predictors of test performance right? My other NBMEs were much lower (try 25 points lower) but I changed my approach on this one and the studying behind it. Hopefully it is what will get me where I need to be!
 
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EazyE1907 said:
Would you say mostly IM/pediatric clinical stuff like treatments and vaccines or what?
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More like treatments... given a clinical scenario, what test should I order next, or what drugs should I provide to cover the most likely case yet not cause harm if I am wrong.

I might be able to reason this stuff out, but it would take me too much time during the exam. I never really saw practice questions in this style (I finished RX and uWorld). I just felt like after some experience in the wards and exposure to these scenarios, I would be able to answer them quickly.

And to the other poster, good lord no I never went anywhere near step 2CK. My career goals are modest and if I get the national average I will be satisfied. Y'all are a bunch of geniuses in here and listening to my advice / experiences would probably only lower your stratospheric scores.
 
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sazerac said:
More like treatments... given a clinical scenario, what test should I order next, or what drugs should I provide to cover the most likely case yet not cause harm if I am wrong.

I might be able to reason this stuff out, but it would take me too much time during the exam. I never really saw practice questions in this style (I finished RX and uWorld). I just felt like after some experience in the wards and exposure to these scenarios, I would be able to answer them quickly.

And to the other poster, good lord no I never went anywhere near step 2CK. My career goals are modest and if I get the national average I will be satisfied. Y'all are a bunch of geniuses in here and listening to my advice / experiences would probably only lower your stratospheric scores.
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Thanks for the input man! I'm sure you did well. best of luck!
 
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UWSA 1 - 230 (7 weeks ago)
NBME 13 - 245 (4 weeks ago)
NBME 11 - 251 (3 weeks ago)
NBME 12- 262 (2 weeks ago)
NBME 7- 264 (1 week ago)
Free 150 - 91% (this week)
NBME 16 - 254

kind of disappointing. I found NBME 16 much harder than my earlier tests. t-minus 1 week till the exam, hopefully things don't get worse!
 
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Matteo said:
UWSA 1 - 230 (7 weeks ago)
NBME 13 - 245 (4 weeks ago)
NBME 11 - 251 (3 weeks ago)
NBME 12- 262 (2 weeks ago)
NBME 7- 264 (1 week ago)
Free 150 - 91% (this week)
NBME 16 - 254

kind of disappointing. I found NBME 16 much harder than my earlier tests. t-minus 1 week till the exam, hopefully things don't get worse!
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Relax. Easier said than done, I know, and I'm still 6 weeks out haha. You're gonna kill this thing.
 
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Matteo said:
UWSA 1 - 230 (7 weeks ago)
NBME 13 - 245 (4 weeks ago)
NBME 11 - 251 (3 weeks ago)
NBME 12- 262 (2 weeks ago)
NBME 7- 264 (1 week ago)
Free 150 - 91% (this week)
NBME 16 - 254

kind of disappointing. I found NBME 16 much harder than my earlier tests. t-minus 1 week till the exam, hopefully things don't get worse!
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Don't psych yourself out, you'll be fine.

What'd you think was tougher about 16? Were the passages just much longer?
 
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orchitisphlebitis said:
Relax. Easier said than done, I know, and I'm still 6 weeks out haha. You're gonna kill this thing.
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Thanks, just hoping I didn't peak too early. I'd be happy with a 250+ on the real thing.

Bancrofti said:
Don't psych yourself out, you'll be fine.

What'd you think was tougher about 16? Were the passages just much longer?
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I felt the passages were somewhat longer, and there seemed to be more WTF-type questions.
 
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Matteo said:
Thanks, just hoping I didn't peak too early. I'd be happy with a 250+ on the real thing.

I felt the passages were somewhat longer, and there seemed to be more WTF-type questions.
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Expect that on the real test but don't let it psych you out. The first 2 blocks were the worst for me because questions came out of left field, but then I settled down and got into a better rhythm. You're not going to know the answer to every question, but your track record suggests that you'll score at least 250.
 
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GernomRune said:
Don't worry; you got this.
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penguinism said:
Expect that on the real test but don't let it psych you out. The first 2 blocks were the worst for me because questions came out of left field, but then I settled down and got into a better rhythm. You're not going to know the answer to every question, but your track record suggests that you'll score at least 250.
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Thanks all - I definitely did let my neuroticism get the best of me. Buckling down and getting ready to take the test!
 
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Taking both USMLE and COMLEX in the last week of May. I've gone through UWorld and atm I'm trying to get through COMBANK. Here's what I got so far:
UWorld (100% completed): 80%
COMBANK (20% done): 85% so far
NBME form 7 (8.5 weeks out): 540 raw (237 step 1 score equivalent)-->still hadn't reviewed first year stuff at this point and I was completely garbage at behavioral science/psych
UWSA1 (6.5 weeks out): 247- around 75% correct (don't remember exactly cuz it expired)
NBME form 11 (4.5 weeks out): 660 raw (262 step 1 equivalent)
 
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Matteo said:
took the free 150 this morning - 91%. Fairly disappointed and not sure how to interpret it. Oh well, NBME 16 in 2 days!
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Same here

NBME 11 - 256 (2 weeks ago)

Free 150 - 88%

Still have a month and a half to go and it's not even my dedicated study time yet... Really wanted a 91-93 on Free 150. Oh well.
 
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Took NBME 16 today and got a 226 - same as my NBME 11 score! Test is on Thursday - ideally I will break 230 on that. Final push time!

Since my study period started i have jumped from 170 to 226 - a 66 point jump. Not as impressive as you SDNers who get 250s but for us real, human folk...
 
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Delacroix22 said:
Same here

NBME 11 - 256 (2 weeks ago)

Free 150 - 88%

Still have a month and a half to go and it's not even my dedicated study time yet... Really wanted a 91-93 on Free 150. Oh well.
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So you are scoring 250 plus ,haven't even started your dedicated period and you are disappointed ... Seriously bro.
 
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dyspareunia said:
Is there a microbiology cheat sheet floating around somewhere? Micro in FA isn't organized that well imo.
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Not that it is incredibly different, but Medessentials micro section is a little more organized. For the topics that I struggled with in FA, I would reference and/or add those pages to my FA binder. The material is virtually the same but for some topics like micro and neuro I did supplement FA some.
 
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dyspareunia said:
Is there a microbiology cheat sheet floating around somewhere? Micro in FA isn't organized that well imo.
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Hi, I found this when i was taking micro and it helps group the DNA/RNA virus characteristics...although there is one little mistake on it where it says the RNA viruses that are enveloped...it should say Hepevirus, NOT herpesvirus.

hope this helps!
 

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CBSE 1 (13 weeks out): 238
NBME 1 (offline) (12 weeks out): 223
NBME 2 (offline) (11 weeks out): 234
NBME 3 (offline) (10 weeks out): 242
NBME 4 (offline) (9 weeks out): 245
NBME 5 (offline) (8 weeks out): 242
NBME 6 (offline) (7 weeks out): 242

Finally starting "dedicated study", simply 2x uworld blocks mornings, FA reading in evening.

Hopefully I don't continue this plateau, I've never used Uworld before, so maybe 2,000 unseen questions will yield me at least a 10 point improvement...
 
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Ionian said:
CBSE 1 (13 weeks out): 238
NBME 1 (offline) (12 weeks out): 223
NBME 2 (offline) (11 weeks out): 234
NBME 3 (offline) (10 weeks out): 242
NBME 4 (offline) (9 weeks out): 245
NBME 5 (offline) (8 weeks out): 242
NBME 6 (offline) (7 weeks out): 242

Finally starting "dedicated study", simply 2x uworld blocks mornings, FA reading in evening.

Hopefully I don't continue this plateau, I've never used Uworld before, so maybe 2,000 unseen questions will yield me at least a 10 point improvement...
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You'll definitely break the 260 barrier lmao
 
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I've enjoyed perusing this thread during my step studying and I just thought I would share my experiences with the real thing that I took last Wednesday. Obviously at this point it has been resounded a million times that each exam has vastly different content so please take this with a grain of salt...

I studied almost 6 weeks exactly with some mandatory school exams and stuff thrown in there. I used only FA2014 UWorld, and Pathoma. I used FA and Pathoma extensively throughout 2nd year though so I was very familiar with its content.

Here was my progress:

NBME 7: 209 (used it as a diagnostic at the beginning)
School CBSE: 222 (took 1 week into studying)
NBME 12: 239 (took 12 days before exam)
NBME 16: 247 (Took 3 days before exam to identify weaknesses)
UWorld: 70% overall (Only finished 60% of the questions)

The exam itself was....hard but manageable. I found there to be many WTF questions on my exam and it was very comparable to UWorld. NBME 16 and the real thing both felt really hard in that I could always narrow half the questions down to two possible responses and then I had to determine which one was "more" right, which itself was really frustrating. I walked in there feeling like I was well prepared to beat my goal (which was 242) and walked out of there feeling like there's no way I could have beat that. I know this feeling is normal and I don't feel like I completely failed it but I do feel like I will be surprised, albeit pleasantly, if I do surpass my goal. My exam seem to have a lot of questions in my weakness areas, which were anatomy and neuro, and this was a new feeling for me as I usually felt that NBMEs etc... played to my strengths and there were usually few questions on the areas I struggled in the most.

As far as exam day goes, I went in there pretty nervous and my heart was racing pretty much from the second I stepped in the test center. It didn't help that I had to wait about 30 minutes before I went in. When I hit the first section I was super stressed but found that I calmed down and felt relaxed after about 5 minutes into the test. I took 1 15 min break and a lunch but felt that I had more than enough break time and ended with about 22 minutes of break time left. I know that it may not be the best idea to leave break time on the board but I felt near the end of the test things were flowing and I was ready to just roll through it and get out of there.

At this point it's terrible waiting for test scores. As I said I'm convinced that I couldn't have surpassed my goal of 242 but I just have to keep reminding myself to trust in my NBME scores and that I was as prepared as I could have been in that amount of time.

Good luck to all!!
 
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swoopyswoop said:
why did you only do 60% of uworld???
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I felt that I was netting better returns by spending more time with FA than finishing UWorld. Personal preference really...I learn better by reading than I do by going through questions. I don't regret it as there is simply too much information for me to know and it was either prioritize memorizing the facts that I didn't have down from FA/Pathoma OR prioritize the stuff I didn't know from UWorld. I feel that UWorld is a little LESS high yield than either FA or Pathoma.

The only other option was to add more hours to studying each day and I think I would have gone crazy at that point (I was doing 9-10 hours each day)
 
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JRG said:
I felt that I was netting better returns by spending more time with FA than finishing UWorld. Personal preference really...I learn better by reading than I do by going through questions. I don't regret it as there is simply too much information for me to know and it was either prioritize memorizing the facts that I didn't have down from FA/Pathoma OR prioritize the stuff I didn't know from UWorld. I feel that UWorld is a little LESS high yield than either FA or Pathoma.

The only other option was to add more hours to studying each day and I think I would have gone crazy at that point (I was doing 9-10 hours each day)
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That's crazy. You must have done obscene reps through FA + Pathoma combining your MS2 review of them with your dedicated study time. I'm thinking Pathoma x3 and FA x 6?
 
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