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!

 

[Polymyxin]

If I'm awake, I'm reading something.

lol, 👍

 

[Dr Dazzle]

Hi,
Where can I get the PowerPoints you were mentioning in your post? Thanks.

Links were posted earlier, but didn't work. If someone has access to Pholstons ppts and can send them, that would be awesome!

 

[Witobb]

About Pathoma. Do you just annotate was on the video to FA, or should I take the time to read the text as well?

 

[YeahNoMind]

About Pathoma. Do you just annotate was on the video to FA, or should I take the time to read the text as well?

The text is useless dude. I never use it. Just annotating extras into FA (there aren't many) is enough

 

[Smachadams]

Hey guys, Im a long time lurker just poking my head around seeing as I take my step July 5th

I got a 240 on the comprehensive given by my med school, did a pass of FA and Rx (Only medium and hard) and got a 260 on the NBME 12.
How do you guys stay motivated throughout this process? I wanna see if I can improve my score; and I know there's some things that I can
improve. I just wanna take this knowing that I gave my all, I just dont wanna screw up a good thing.

 

[1dayatatime]

can someone tell me the diff btwn Horner's and CN3 palsy? With horner's do you have to have the whole 3/triad in order for the answer to be "superior cervical ganglion"? I just took nbme 15 and missed both of those q's. they seemed like the same q's over and over again. and a **** ton on embryo. UGH. i hope that is not what is focused on the real exam.

 

[orchitisphlebitis]

Just took my last NBME (16). A question for those scoring in the higher ranges:

I felt like the first two blocks were reasonably easy, but felt terrible about the first half of the third block. Went through my incorrects... Nearly all of them were things I had no excuse to get wrong, and many of them occurred in the first block and most weren't ones I marked. Many of them were absolutely stupid mistakes or just not paying enough attention to the question. Even though I got in the low 260s, it's frustrating as it seems I'm leaving a lot of points on the table here.

I don't think my stupid mistakes will just magically disappear on test day. Any advice on how to approach this as to minimize my stupid mistakes? They've gotten less in number throughout this whole process but haven't gone away. Or is it just something bound to happen? My test is about a week out. Already decided I'm taking the last day off.

 

[gasknight]

can someone tell me the diff btwn Horner's and CN3 palsy? With horner's do you have to have the whole 3/triad in order for the answer to be "superior cervical ganglion"? I just took nbme 15 and missed both of those q's. they seemed like the same q's over and over again. and a **** ton on embryo. UGH. i hope that is not what is focused on the real exam.

Horner's Syndrome - sympathetic disruption to the face.

CN III palsy - disruption of motor fibers to inferior rectus, medial rectus, superior rectus, inferior oblique, and levator palp. mm. as well as disruption of the parasympathetic fibers that would normally cause pupillary construction and accommodation.

Basically with horner's, look for pupillary constriction, anhidrosis. With cn iii palsy, look for pupillary dilation and a down and out appearance.

Open to reproof. I think the above is correct.

 

[gasknight]

Just took my last NBME (16). A question for those scoring in the higher ranges:

I felt like the first two blocks were reasonably easy, but felt terrible about the first half of the third block. Went through my incorrects... Nearly all of them were things I had no excuse to get wrong, and many of them occurred in the first block and most weren't ones I marked. Many of them were absolutely stupid mistakes or just not paying enough attention to the question. Even though I got in the low 260s, it's frustrating as it seems I'm leaving a lot of points on the table here.

I don't think my stupid mistakes will just magically disappear on test day. Any advice on how to approach this as to minimize my stupid mistakes? They've gotten less in number throughout this whole process but haven't gone away. Or is it just something bound to happen? My test is about a week out. Already decided I'm taking the last day off.

I don't really have any suggestions. Just want to share that my experience has been very similar. When I go through my incorrects, I can't believe some of the ones I got wrong.

 

[Handinhand]

Horner's Syndrome - sympathetic disruption to the face.

CN III palsy - disruption of motor fibers to inferior rectus, medial rectus, superior rectus, inferior oblique, and levator palp. mm. as well as disruption of the parasympathetic fibers that would normally cause pupillary construction and accommodation.

Basically with horner's, look for pupillary constriction, anhidrosis. With cn iii palsy, look for pupillary dilation and a down and out appearance.

Open to reproof. I think the above is correct.

This is correct.

Horner's: Ptosis, Miosis, Anhydrosis -- on Step 1 this is probably going to be the result of a Pancoast tumor, so the deficit is on the ipsilateral side to the apical lung tumor.

CNIII: You only have function of your lateral rectus and and superior oblique so your eye is down and out. CN III also carries parasympathetic pre-ganglionic fibers, so if you lose this you get the same deficit you would with pharmacological antagonism (atropine) -- mydriasis.

 

[Bojack Horseman]

CN III palsy - disruption of motor fibers to inferior rectus, medial rectus, superior rectus, inferior oblique, and levator palp. mm. as well as disruption of the parasympathetic fibers that would normally cause pupillary construction and accommodation.

Basically with horner's, look for pupillary constriction, anhidrosis. With cn iii palsy, look for pupillary dilation and a down and out appearance.

Open to reproof. I think the above is correct.

I had a question on this today so it's worth noting: CNIII damage is different depending on whether the nerve is compressed or receiving inadequate blood supply (diabetes). Compression will give you the down and out eye with the blown pupil. The parasympathetic fibers run on the outside of the nerve so they are first affected in compression. With diabetic neuropathy of CNIII, you get the down and out eye without the blown pupil.

 

[Handinhand]

Yeah I've seen that UWorld question. I can't imagine it's that cut and dry but if I get it on boards I'll go with diabetic neuropathy -- I'm assuming it actually presents that way because the somatic fibers are more sensitive to the ischemia than the PNS fibers are, and they are damaged first. I have to believe that long standing neuropathy 2ndary to DM2 vasculopathy will also lead to deterioration of the PNS response as well.

 

[1dayatatime]

has anyone noticed how the picture for the rash of mycosis fungoides in FA 14 p. 392 looks exactly the same as the pic of seborrheic keratosis p. 432? what gives?

 

[1dayatatime]

which also looks like dysplastic nevus syndrome but i guess in DNS they're darker? argh.

 

[Handinhand]

I did wonder if they used the wrong image for sezary syndrome/mycosis fungoides when I looked at that image. Take a look at google images of it, looks nothing like the FA picture:

That's the image we were shown in class. Looks terrible -- for how uninteresting derm is to me I think a lot of the derm path would be some of the least wanted diseases I could think of. Pemphigus Vulgaris?

 

[1dayatatime]

yeah i thought it was "psoriasis like" too. odd.

 

[lockian]

I am considering taking a year off and studying just for Step 1. Would it be worth it, do you think? Right now I just feel like I know nothing at all and there are only 4.5 weeks left.

 

[Morzh]

Got my score today and wanted to update. Below is my post 3 weeks ago, right after I took the test.

249

I'm thrilled, especially given how I felt walking away from it! Between my experience and others' I've read here, it seems you will invariably feel beat-up after your exam but none-the-less your most recent NBME is likely a good predictor.

I haven't been too active on SDN since pre-med but I took step today and thought I'd share my experience.

CBSE (school-administered; 6 weeks before test): 210
UWSA-1 (two weeks before): 254
UWSA-2 (9 days before): 248
NBME-15 (8 days before): 234
NBME-13 (6 days before): 245
NBME-16 (4 days before): 248

Today: Freaking. Hard. Test. SO different from Uworld or the NBMEs. Some questions were quite similar, but a ton were way out of left field and aren't anywhere in FA/Pathoma. Fatigue definitely contributed to some stupid errors in the later blocks. If the percent-correct "curve" is anything like the NBMEs then I'm afraid I'll be 15 points lower than my practice test average.

Overall I walked out not feeling too great, but that's normal I suppose.

Definitely do the free 150... rumors are true.

 

[Morzh]

I am considering taking a year off and studying just for Step 1. Would it be worth it, do you think? Right now I just feel like I know nothing at all and there are only 4.5 weeks left.

If you're studying 8-12 hours a day (and doing so efficiently, i.e. sticking to a solid plan), 6 days a week, then 4.5 weeks is a ton of time. I studied 6 weeks and by week 4.5 I had plateaued. I didn't think I would/could plateau at the start of my studying because the test seemed insurmountable; I was wishing I had 10+ weeks! But once you've made you're first thorough pass through PA and pathoma and have done ~1/2 of your qbank things really start to congeal and make sense... and suddenly there's light at the end of the tunnel.

There's truly only so much you can do in your focused study time, whether it be 4, 8, or 12 weeks. Look at the nbme scores of those here who studied forever and you'll see that the first few had a sharp increase in score but then they'll have like 6 in a row that bounce around +/- 10 points at most. The difference is just their starting baseline, which is probably most dependent on how well they learned the material through MS1/2.

Taking a year of for this stupid test would be idiotic (and your school wouldn't allow it, anyway). You'd be sacrificing a year of future attending salary and accruing another year of debt interest for extremely diminished returns.

 

[Everyones_a_rat]

morzkh what resources did u use during those 6 weeks

 

[Bojack Horseman]

Got my score today and wanted to update. Below is my post 3 weeks ago, right after I took the test.

249

I'm thrilled, especially given how I felt walking away from it! Between my experience and others' I've read here, it seems you will invariably feel beat-up after your exam but none-the-less your most recent NBME is likely a good predictor.

Congrats, that's a great score.

 

[Everyones_a_rat]

If you're studying 8-12 hours a day (and doing so efficiently, i.e. sticking to a solid plan), 6 days a week, then 4.5 weeks is a ton of time. I studied 6 weeks and by week 4.5 I had plateaued. I didn't think I would/could plateau at the start of my studying because the test seemed insurmountable; I was wishing I had 10+ weeks! But once you've made you're first thorough pass through PA and pathoma and have done ~1/2 of your qbank things really start to congeal and make sense... and suddenly there's light at the end of the tunnel.

There's truly only so much you can do in your focused study time, whether it be 4, 8, or 12 weeks. Look at the nbme scores of those here who studied forever and you'll see that the first few had a sharp increase in score but then they'll have like 6 in a row that bounce around +/- 10 points at most. The difference is just their starting baseline, which is probably most dependent on how well they learned the material through MS1/2.

Taking a year of for this stupid test would be idiotic (and your school wouldn't allow it, anyway). You'd be sacrificing a year of future attending salary and accruing another year of debt interest for extremely diminished returns.

dude what resources u used during those 6 weeks and dont hide ur secrets.

 

[Everyones_a_rat]

how do u guys manage 12 hours a day?

 

[tartrate]

Just took my last NBME (16). A question for those scoring in the higher ranges:

I felt like the first two blocks were reasonably easy, but felt terrible about the first half of the third block. Went through my incorrects... Nearly all of them were things I had no excuse to get wrong, and many of them occurred in the first block and most weren't ones I marked. Many of them were absolutely stupid mistakes or just not paying enough attention to the question. Even though I got in the low 260s, it's frustrating as it seems I'm leaving a lot of points on the table here.

I don't think my stupid mistakes will just magically disappear on test day. Any advice on how to approach this as to minimize my stupid mistakes? They've gotten less in number throughout this whole process but haven't gone away. Or is it just something bound to happen? My test is about a week out. Already decided I'm taking the last day off.

I understand exactly the sentiment about the difference in feeling towards the later blocks on NBME 16. Except to be more precise for me it was more of being super tired starting late block 2/start of block 3. As if all my neurotransmitters and glucose stores in my brain ran out and I felt like I was running on autopilot. The first, and especially the first block did feel easy, and my respective block percentage reflects it too. To be fair, some of the ones I got wrong overall (later blocks) were not "silly" or "careless" mistakes at all but more of me not knowing what they were talking about or the question being about something I hadn't learned about before.

 

[DCBFan]

I am considering taking a year off and studying just for Step 1. Would it be worth it, do you think? Right now I just feel like I know nothing at all and there are only 4.5 weeks left.

A year? A year?? I think anything beyond 8 weeks of dedicated time is unnecessary. There would be barely any improvement after that, and after 3 months dedicated I honestly think your score would start dropping.

The exception would be maybe an FMG who had no basic science background, or a distant one.

 

[lockian]

I wouldn't be considering taking a year off if I hadn't heard from a classmate that a lot of people in California do it, because there apparently the average Step score is in the 240s. And I don't know why my school wouldn't let me do it. I could just say I have personal issues, tons of people have things come up. Considering that with a good step you can go anywhere and do anything while a mediocre pass stays on your record forever, maybe the additional debt accrued would be worth it.

 

[gingersnap231]

What did you guys eat/snack on during the breaks on the real deal to keep you going?

 

[Morzh]

morzkh what resources did u use during those 6 weeks

My original study plan was inspired by this reddit post, which is well-worth the read. It's very simple but powerful. I didn't end up sticking to it 100% because some of the suggested stuff took me a lot longer than the OP claims it took him/her. Here's what I did (the tl;dr is FA+pathoma+uworld!):

• During MS1/2 (before study time)
  • Watched Pathoma videos as we covered subjects in class and took copious notes. I would pause every time he drew a cartoon, told an analogy, etc. and copy it down. A 1 hour video took me 2-3 hours to go through, but since I was spreading them out I was able to handle it. By the end I had a very thoroughly annotated book and I actually never watched Pathoma videos during my study time... I would just carefully re-read (but reading for understanding!) the text + my notes. If you're already starting your dedicated study period having never gone through any of the videos then just do what others here suggest.. watch the videos, as discussed below, and mostly ignore the text.
  • I used HY neuroanatomy during our neuro block, which I feel helped me at the time, but I didn't touch it during my 6 weeks
  • In the last semester of MS-2 I read a few chapters of Clinical Micro made Simple on the weekends, and then reviewed the end-of-chapter tables a few more times, but none during my 6 weeks.
  • I got a subscription to Picmonic and gave it an honest try, but it just took too much time and I wasn't remembering like I'd hoped. A lot of the cards were just too detailed. Didn't touch it during my 6 weeks.
  • I listed to some of the Goljan audio as I went through my classes, but didn't listen during my 6 weeks. Preferred to spend that extra time reading pathoma or doing questions.
• Weeks 1/2
  • AM: Take all morning to slowly get through an entire FA chapter (make a schedule and most chapters can get their own day... a few shorter ones need to be doubled-up)
  • Early-PM until lunch (usually 1-2 pm): Make/find pharm flashcards in quizlet/anki for the system you just studied. Keep them shorter whenever possible (just MOA, major indications, and key adverse effects)
  • Lunch: take a real break for an hour and do something you enjoy, preferably away from your study station/computer
  • PM-middle (~2-5ish): Do 2 blocks of Uworld questions (tutor/untimed) for whatever you studied in the AM. Go through each answer explanation meticulously and annotate FA when necessary. This took me forever in weeks 1/2... I found it helped to often just write "see Q#123" in FA, and then when I re-read that FA section in later weeks I could quickly pull up that Uworld question and skim the explanation again.
  • PM-late (after dinner): Pathoma.. schedule it out to get through the whole book by the end of week 2.
• Weeks 3/4
  • Rinse and repeat. Get through FA and Pathoma AGAIN in their entirety
  • Keep doing at least 2 blocks of Q's each day, and continue to make notes. Maybe start doing them timed-all if you prefer.
  • Find time to go through your pharm flashcards every day! Once you've memorized your cards, pharm becomes your best friend rather than your enemy because the pharm questions are usually very straightforward.
• Weeks 5/6
  • AGAIN!!! Yes, this is your third thorough pass through FA/Pathoma. You can go a little bit quicker now, but make sure you're not glossing over stuff.
  • I finished Uworld and then did an NBME every 2nd or 3rd day up until 4 days before my test. On non-NBME days I did a couple blocks of missed Uworld questions. This is a different approach than the 1-a-week plan most people here do. YMMV.
  • Take the free 150 (or 138 or whatever) 2 days before you test. Not as good as NBMEs, but I had several verbatim repeats and it's nice on the real thing to just see the question and immediately remember and move on.
• Other stuff: I made flashcards of biochem, micro, immuno, and anatomy stuff (in addition to pharm), but I kept them limited. I wasn't trying to replace FA but just get the HY stuff that's just gotta be rote memorized: translocations, cell markers, random mnemonics for micro (e.g., "SHiNE SKiS"), etc. I found around 45 min/day to steadily work through these.
• I studied around 10-12 hours a day for 6 days a week. Day 7 was completely off--this is important! You need the recharge time.
• I ate something small every hour or so (vs. waiting for big meals). Before I started I'd have some oatmeal. After an hour I'd have a banana. 2 hours later I'd have a yogurt. Then later a good lunch. Then an apple an hour after that. Then a granola bar (I like the FiberOne chocolate bars), etc...

 

[Morzh]

What did you guys eat/snack on during the breaks on the real deal to keep you going?

Same exact stuff I ate every day for the preceding 6 weeks! (See the end of my post above). I took a break after EVERY SINGLE block. The first few breaks were only for 5 min max. Enough time to eat a banana or yogurt and take a deep breath. Then I took maybe 15 minutes after block 4, went out in the sun, ate some grape tomatoes and a baggie of turkey breast (no bread... didn't wanna get carb sleepy), closed my eyes, and took a caffeine pill. After blocks 5 and 6 I took half each of whatever time I had left after my lunch (block 4). At a cheese stick and a fiber one.

 

[Morzh]

how do u guys manage 12 hours a day?

I just accepted that this was a season of great sacrifice in my life. I had very little recreation during my study days. Maybe watched one episode of something on netflix at night before bed. I was constantly reminding myself that intensely hard work and drudgery now, for these short few weeks, would make the road ahead so much easier.

 

[Bancrofti]

Just took my last NBME (16). A question for those scoring in the higher ranges:

I felt like the first two blocks were reasonably easy, but felt terrible about the first half of the third block. Went through my incorrects... Nearly all of them were things I had no excuse to get wrong, and many of them occurred in the first block and most weren't ones I marked. Many of them were absolutely stupid mistakes or just not paying enough attention to the question. Even though I got in the low 260s, it's frustrating as it seems I'm leaving a lot of points on the table here.

I don't think my stupid mistakes will just magically disappear on test day. Any advice on how to approach this as to minimize my stupid mistakes? They've gotten less in number throughout this whole process but haven't gone away. Or is it just something bound to happen? My test is about a week out. Already decided I'm taking the last day off.

I'm in that range and find the same to be annoying. Before offering a suggestion, one thing I find solace in is the fact that you can take a look at all those dumb mistakes and kick yourself, but if you were to take a look at all those questions you just made educated guesses on or things that you were unsure of and thought you were going to get wrong, but ended up getting correct, typically it evens out.

I still have a while before test day, but my plan is to take notes on those simple things that I'm getting wrong while finishing uworld and track how many times it's happening. Typically it's the same dumb 2 or 3 mental errors that cause me to get a question wrong. So I'm just going to keep that list and make a concerted effort to look at it before I start every block on my next NBME. If I still make stupid mistakes after that, then I'm just going to chalk it up to the fact that mistakes are inevitable in this situation.

 

[dat240]

Hi all. Just wanted to throw some thoughts onto this thread. I spent about 6 weeks doing First Aid 2014/UWorld and supplementing with Pathoma when I couldn't remember certain topics. That's pretty much all I did. Some of my classmates spent a lot of time with more detailed subject review books, but I think this was probably a waste of time. Step 1 is mostly going to test you on First Aid material with a handful of wtf questions in every section that you have no chance of prepping for anyway. My recommendation is to focus on the core principles because they're all you really need to do well on the test. I'm not a great standardized test taker (33 on the MCAT), but I got a 255 on Step 1. Keep your study strategy simple and trust your intuition on the test. The questions are almost always looking for the highest yield / most straightforward answer. Good luck!

 

[Erek94]

Took the test yesterday.

Difficulty: Very similar to Uworld but not harder IMO. The NBMEs are similar but I think the current test is more difficult. The question stems are a bit longer but not to the point where I noticed it making an impact on my performance. There is a good mix of short questions stems as well.

Anatomy: Boy am I glad I was a summer anatomy TA btw 1st and second year at my Med school because I literally had 25+ str8 anatomy questions and according to many others who have been taking it, this seems to be a trend. Some of it was easy that you can get out of firstaid but the majority was very difficult and required some extra knowledge outside of the normal board resources. I still dont even know the answer to some of them after looking them up. I felt they focused on Head/Neck, pelvic & extremity for my exam.

Biochem: Joke. I dont have a strong biochem background in this and I felt like its was almost too easy the point that I was missing something but picmonic was great for biochem.

Micro- very straight forward.

Pharm- again not bad. But this has always been easy for me. As im sure memorizing is for most of us!!

Path- They did a good job of testing all the general principles, more so than specific systems. I barely had any hem/onc or CNS type stuff.

Physiology- This was IMO the hardest portion of the exam. They test easy concepts in ways I havent seen tested before and find a way to take you out of your comfort zone, I probably missed some easy points here but we will see. Firstaid and Uworld definitely isnt enough for the physio. BRS was helpfull, but when they have weirdly worded answer choices it coms down to how well do you know it.

Epidemiology/ behabioral - I was suprised to not see alot of calculations. It was way more conceptual. Definitely saw some stuff that ive never heard of before so Im sure I scored poorly in ths section. The psych however, was very easy.

Clinical management- This was a mix of dead easy & WTF type question..Like honestly those next step questions can go either way sometimes but there is obviously one right answer choice for a reason so Im not sure how this went. Definitely more of these than I was expecting though.

My prep/ scores:
UWORLD test 1- 257
Uworld Test 2- 267
NBME16- 251
NBME11- 258
NBME 15- 249
NBME 13- 256
** I used anki throughout second year but made my own master deck of pathoma, firstid, uworld, RX, BRS physio & robbins pathology along with some goljian stuff as well. Then also used picmonic for micro & biochem. Anki was a real lifesaver in terms of preventing the leaking of information towards the end. (spaced repitition is where its at man).
I will come back with a score update 1 month from now. Goal was a 250 but Id be very very happy with 240+. I feel like it may be a stretch though, based on the easy ones I know ive missed already.
Good luck everyone.

 

[gingersnap231]

Took the test yesterday.

Difficulty: Very similar to Uworld but not harder IMO. The NBMEs are similar but I think the current test is more difficult. The question stems are a bit longer but not to the point where I noticed it making an impact on my performance. There is a good mix of short questions stems as well.

Anatomy: Boy am I glad I was a summer anatomy TA btw 1st and second year at my Med school because I literally had 25+ str8 anatomy questions and according to many others who have been taking it, this seems to be a trend. Some of it was easy that you can get out of firstaid but the majority was very difficult and required some extra knowledge outside of the normal board resources. I still dont even know the answer to some of them after looking them up. I felt they focused on Head/Neck, pelvic & extremity for my exam.

Biochem: Joke. I dont have a strong biochem background in this and I felt like its was almost too easy the point that I was missing something but picmonic was great for biochem.

Micro- very straight forward.

Pharm- again not bad. But this has always been easy for me. As im sure memorizing is for most of us!!

Path- They did a good job of testing all the general principles, more so than specific systems. I barely had any hem/onc or CNS type stuff.

Physiology- This was IMO the hardest portion of the exam. They test easy concepts in ways I havent seen tested before and find a way to take you out of your comfort zone, I probably missed some easy points here but we will see. Firstaid and Uworld definitely isnt enough for the physio. BRS was helpfull, but when they have weirdly worded answer choices it coms down to how well do you know it.

Epidemiology/ behabioral - I was suprised to not see alot of calculations. It was way more conceptual. Definitely saw some stuff that ive never heard of before so Im sure I scored poorly in ths section. The psych however, was very easy.

Clinical management- This was a mix of dead easy & WTF type question..Like honestly those next step questions can go either way sometimes but there is obviously one right answer choice for a reason so Im not sure how this went. Definitely more of these than I was expecting though.

My prep/ scores:
UWORLD test 1- 257
Uworld Test 2- 267
NBME16- 251
NBME11- 258
NBME 15- 249
NBME 13- 256
** I used anki throughout second year but made my own master deck of pathoma, firstid, uworld, RX, BRS physio & robbins pathology along with some goljian stuff as well. Then also used picmonic for micro & biochem. Anki was a real lifesaver in terms of preventing the leaking of information towards the end. (spaced repitition is where its at man).
I will come back with a score update 1 month from now. Goal was a 250 but Id be very very happy with 240+. I feel like it may be a stretch though, based on the easy ones I know ive missed already.
Good luck everyone.

Were there any images/CT/MRI/histo? Could you figure out the answer from just the stem?

 

[Erek94]

Were there any images/CT/MRI/histo? Could you figure out the answer from just the stem?

There are alot of images.
The histo I felt the stem gave alot away although im sure I missed a specific question now because the stem lead me in the wrong direction based on a medication a patient was taking, So for some of them you absolutely need to know what youre looking at.
The radiology was very easy.
Gross specimens, had a handful of these and the quality was very bad for most. I think only like one of them you didnt need the image but the others hinged on you being able to identify what was going on.

 

[1dayatatime]

histo has always been low yield from what i've heard. wasn't planning on studying it.

for anatomy, was it mostly clinically based or was it more like insertion/action/nerve level? was there a lot of neuroanatomy too? i'm less than 2 wks away and i wasnt planning on studying anatomy at all.

 

[4thQTHailMary]

Ended up doing the UWSA1 this morning: 265. Not really sure what to take away from it, though. My percentage was significantly lower than NBME 15 (251), and I thought it was much more difficult than NBME15. At the least, I think I'm in the 255 range with 2 weeks to go so I guess I can't complain.

 

[madchemist89]

It sounds like there is a lot of anatomy not in FA on the exam. I am taking the exam on June 19th, and I am should be finished with U-World in a few days. Does anyone think that running through the FC anatomy questions would be beneficial?

 

[Ionian]

Uworld: 1st run (Random, timed) (7-3 weeks out): 77%
CBSE 1 (12 weeks out): 238
NBME 1 (offline) (11 weeks out): 223
NBME 2 (offline) (10 weeks out): 234
NBME 3 (offline) (9 weeks out): 242
NBME 4 (offline) (8 weeks out): 245
NBME 5 (offline) (7 weeks out): 242
NBME 6 (offline) (6 weeks out): 242
NBME 7 (5 weeks out): 245
NBME 11 (4 weeks out): 247
NBME 12 (3 weeks out): 260
NBME 13 (2 weeks out): 243
NBME 15 (1 1/2 weeks out): 247

I don't care anymore -.-

 

[periaqueductal]

Alright I'm 1 week out from step 1, 2 weeks out from comlex. Here's what I've got so far:
6mo out - NBME 6 - 217
2mo out - NBME 7 - 232
4 weeks out - NBME 11 - 239
4 weeks out - school CBSE - 250
2 weeks out - UWSA1 - 263 (lol)
1 week out - NBME 15 - 249

I'm done with UW (77% average) but I still need to review incorrect/marked questions. I'm starting to feel pretty burned out. With my remaining time, should I read FA or do Pathoma? I don't think I can emotionally deal with doing both.
As for a goal, I don't have one. Is it actually helpful to approach the exam(s) with a goal in mind?

I'm in a similar boat as you. Exam in a week, been doing pretty well on NBMEs. I'm doing about 4 marked/incorrect blocks in the morning. It sucks but I'm still learning from it so I'll push through. In the afternoon I read 1-2 sections of first aid and the corresponding pathoma. I'll just keep doing that until the day before my exam. Then in the evening I do pharm flash cards and moores blue boxes. Just gotta keep telling yourself there's only one more week and you can finish strong. Next week I plan on doing the Fredx software free 150 and then running through the years prior after I finish uworld incorrects. As long as I keep a schedule I stay pretty on task. You got this!

 

[periaqueductal]

Took UWSA1 last week and got 82% for 262.
Went with NBME 15 today and got 95% for 266. Finished up UWorld first pass, 80% random timed. I was blown away by my score on 15. I feel like it is a fluke. Any advice to stay focused the last couple weeks? Keep at 12-16 hours a day or back off?

NBME 13: 260 with 12 wrong.
Made a few stupid mistakes but that's how the game goes. 16 and free 150 in the next week before my exam. Ready to be done with this ****.
Anyone have any good resources for the stupid research study bias and patient/doctor relationship stuff (malefecence/informed consent)? I got killed on this stuff. Seriously more than half my q's wrong. Is BRS behavior good for this?

 

[notbobtrustme]

ugh, I'm all over the place, well, as much as you can be with high scores.

School CBSE -> >265 predicted score, which is weird because I felt like I missed way more questions than I normally do on NBMEs.
School Shelfs -> all >800 on path/pharm/micro shelfs.
NBMEs -> ~250s, usually between 90 and 92% right. I feel like I can hit 95% right if I stop making dumb mistakes and be as black/white as possible.
UWSA1 -> 260 with 82% correct
UWSA2 -> 265 with 87% correct.

I finished Uworld 3 months ago with 74% correct; spent my dedicated finishing up Rx, re-doing wrongs and working through RR Path. My goal is >260 but if NBMEs are predictive, I might have to settle for a 250 lol.

 

[guitarguy23]

So I'll throw some of my numbers up and ask a few questions:

CBSE 250 (8 weeks out)
NBME 12 247 (5 weeks out)
NBME 13 251 (4 weeks out)
UWorld timed random 46 74 % total (finished 4.5 weeks out)

FA 2x and Pathoma 2x about to "reset"

I would be extremely happy if I could get my numbers upwards of mid-250's, but it seems to be a hump for me. Does anyone with experience recommend a good way to move from ~250-->255ish? It seems like I've just hit a wall. Should I use my percentages/percentiles from UWorld to gauge what I should study more and work on that at this point, or just crush out another round of FA and pathoma? My numbers are consistent in each subject for the most part ( 80% of my subjects are in the 80th-88th percentile on uworld, the outliers are in the 70's and one or two in the 60's)

Good luck everyone on your upcoming exams! I wish I was your shoes, in a way 🙂

 

[Coffee Machine]

It sounds like there is a lot of anatomy not in FA on the exam. I am taking the exam on June 19th, and I am should be finished with U-World in a few days. Does anyone think that running through the FC anatomy questions would be beneficial?

Same here. Anyone else have recommendations on how to approach anatomy with three weeks to go?

 

[Handinhand]

Anybody have a rough score conversion for the free 150 questions?

Just did the 2013 ones (actually only 138 questions) and scored. 92.5% -- wondering what that correlates to roughly?

 

[001100010010011]

· USMLE Rx: 65% avg
· Kaplan qbank (random-timed): 66% avg
· Kaplan Simulated Exam 1 (3/10): 69%
· UWSA1 (4/13): 238
· Free 150 (4/18) : 87%
· NBME 13 (5/1): 245
· Finished UWorld (random-timed) (5/4/14): 73% avg
· UWSA2 (5/9): 252
· NBME 12 (5/11): 245
· NBME 11 (5/17): 247
· COMQUEST Qbank (5/19) (did this over 2 days on tutored-mode): 79%
· NBME 15 (5/22): 247
· Kaplan Simulated Exam 2 (5/23): 68%
· NBME 7 (5/24): 240
· NBME 16 (5/29): 243

I'm taking the exam early next week so this is probably my last post for a few days.

Took a stutter-step backwards in my prep over the last week--probably just fatigue. I went over all of my UWorld incorrects and a few marked questions that I had. NBME 16 was straightforward but tough--just made silly mistakes on it. It seems that everyone has said it's a good predictor so we'll see.

Good luck everyone, it's been real.

 

[MilkIsGood]

Anybody have a rough score conversion for the free 150 questions?

Just did the 2013 ones (actually only 138 questions) and scored. 92.5% -- wondering what that correlates to roughly?

I got 87% 2-3 days before my actual exam. Ended up with low 250s

 

[1dayatatime]

Diggidy search for medfriends calculator. That's what ppl use but I feel like it overestimates. That's a great score tho.

 

[tantacles]

Just took it. This is going to be a frenetic writeup because I didn't really get the big picture as I was taking the exam - I went question-by-question.

Based on what everyone was saying, I expected to get slammed with anatomy, and I definitely wasn't. The first block had quite a few anatomy questions, but after that it was probably one per section, and most were generous, with a CT scan or MRI and a lengthy prompt essentially giving you the answer.

Listening questions were all cake. Can you identify a systolic and diastolic murmur? Good.

There was a Hardy-Weinberg question, which I was fully expecting. Almost got it wrong before I realized I was an idiot.

The thyroid and parathyroid glands, for whatever reason, were extremely well-represented on my test, or at least it felt like it. I must have had 3 separate questions about cancer in that general area, and I had two thyroglossal duct cyst questions in the same section (with the exact same image, no less).

One interesting thing I noticed was that tumor suppressors and apoptosis were tested oddly. I can't remember the exact questions because 322, but cancer is big. Watch and rewatch the first few videos of Pathoma because of this. And ALSO because:

Immuno was well-represented. You need to know the important cytokines extremely well.

Micro? Not much. Pharm? Not much. Two questions on arrhythmics, though, which I was expecting. use the Double Quarter Pounder mnemonic; it's a wonderful thing.

Overall, I didn't feel too bad. I felt like I really got slammed on my first block and my fourth block, but on all of the other ones, it seemed like what I expected: Mostly bread and butter with some whacky ways of asking questions to throw you off and a few that I would never have gotten no matter how much I studied.

 

[Bojack Horseman]

There was a Hardy-Weinberg question, which I was fully expecting. Almost got it wrong before I realized I was an idiot

Hardy Weinberg will do that to you lol.