Official 2015 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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M2 here. Starting today, I am just going to be reviewing for Step 1 which I am taking next May, and nothing else. Here is my plan:

Oct 23-Dec 31: Memorize FA2014, Watch all of Pathoma
Jan 1-Jan 31: FA2015, Pathoma (pass 2), Kaplan QBank
Feb 1-Feb 28: FA2015 (pass 2), Pathoma (pass 3), USMLERX
March 1- March 31: FA2015 (pass 3), Pathoma (pass 4): UWorld
April 1- Mid May: FA2015 (pass 4), Pathoma (selective topics), UWorld (pass 2), all practice tests

Goal: High number
 
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determined1. said:
Do we get 2 marker boards or 1? And does any anyone know the size of the board? What type of marker do we get?
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I believe it's a laminated piece of 8.5/11 paper. You can write on both sides, but can't erase. You can get a second sheet anytime you want, but you have to give up your first one. It really shouldn't be a problem.. I doubt anyone will get more than a few biostats questions per block (at the very most) and besides biostats what are we going to be jotting down?
 
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At my prometric center , they gave me two A4 size laminated sheets and two markers with erasers.
They will provide you more sheets and markers if asked.
HTH
 
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Can anyone tell me how many questions are in USMLERx? Is it worth knocking out during dedicated time??
 
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addy said:
Can anyone tell me how many questions are in USMLERx? Is it worth knocking out during dedicated time??
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I believe there is about 2200 questions in Rx. Most people usually use Rx before their dedicated time. Im currently using it along with Kaplan
 
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addy said:
Can anyone tell me how many questions are in USMLERx? Is it worth knocking out during dedicated time??
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How long is your dedicated time? As TheBunkMD suggested, do it BEFORE dedicated time unless you have like 3 months of dedicated time. The most important thing is, at minimum, get through UWorld once and redo all the questions you got wrong which for most people is somewhere between roughly 900 questions (60% correct UW) and 550 (75% correct UW). This also doesn't include flagged questions. I personally flagged all questions I got correct for the wrong reasons or by fluke. This will add a lot more to redo too if you take this approach.
 
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NoLollipops4U said:
How long is your dedicated time? As TheBunkMD suggested, do it BEFORE dedicated time unless you have like 3 months of dedicated time. The most important thing is, at minimum, get through UWorld once and redo all the questions you got wrong which for most people is somewhere between roughly 900 questions (60% correct UW) and 550 (75% correct UW). This also doesn't include flagged questions. I personally flagged all questions I got correct for the wrong reasons or by fluke. This will add a lot more to redo too if you take this approach.
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I have 6 weeks. Already did 1 pass of UWorld during the school year and am wrapping up my first pass of FA. Dedicated starts on Monday.

Plan was to do RX really fast, as I understand its limitations. Reset and do UWorld. Find out which subjects I'm weakest in based on NBME and UWorld at that stage. Hit up Kaplan Qbank for additional question in said areas. Then go back to and do the 'wrongs' in UWorld at the end. It'll be a hectic 6 weeks but has anyone done this before?
 
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If I've already done one pass of UWorld, how many blocks per day can I realisitically expect to do in one day? Right now I need 5 blocks/day to be able to finish all the qbank stuff I want to do come dedicated time. Is that too ambitious?
 
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addy said:
If I've already done one pass of UWorld, how many blocks per day can I realisitically expect to do in one day? Right now I need 5 blocks/day to be able to finish all the qbank stuff I want to do come dedicated time. Is that too ambitious?
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it will be much faster than you think , 4 per day will be the average , but that if you have done it perfectly the first time
 
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i read some of 2014 experiences and i feel like anatomy is the big guy now in the exam , minor complains about pathology though !! should we stress more on anatomy instead of pathology ? CTs and MRIs now are dominant in the exam and i am afraid they will cause some troubles !!
 
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razazz said:
i read some of 2014 experiences and i feel like anatomy is the big guy now in the exam , minor complains about pathology though !! should we stress more on anatomy instead of pathology ? CTs and MRIs now are dominant in the exam and i am afraid they will cause some troubles !!
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It's observer/reporting bias.
People do not prepare for anatomy well (?low yield) but are faced with questions they could not answer/difficulty answering on the test, they tend to report that.
 
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razazz said:
it will be much faster than you think , 4 per day will be the average , but that if you have done it perfectly the first time
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What?! You guys are hammering out 4 blocks per day? Thats intense. I do 2/day and it takes about 2.5-3 hours per block in order to properly review each question. I only do 2 so I have a few hours to review Pathoma or FA after. Are your entire days only UW?

Edit: Im doing UW on timed tutor and studying 10am to 5-7PM since i have 2 months to go
 
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NoLollipops4U said:
What?! You guys are hammering out 4 blocks per day? Thats intense. I do 2/day and it takes about 2.5-3 hours per block in order to properly review each question. I only do 2 so I have a few hours to review Pathoma or FA after. Are your entire days only UW?

Edit: Im doing UW on timed tutor and studying 10am to 5-7PM since i have 2 months to go
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no man 🙂 absolutely not , we are talking about the second time u do uworld after a after you take it perfectly first . i didn`t do uworld twice in first place but i did some subjects for a second time and my memory was fair enough and i finished like 30 qs in an hour , it is more or less an estimate and you will feel what i am talking about if u go through uworld once again , i am in my last 10 days , doing uworld again will be like suicide to me:smack:
 
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NoLollipops4U said:
What?! You guys are hammering out 4 blocks per day? Thats intense. I do 2/day and it takes about 2.5-3 hours per block in order to properly review each question. I only do 2 so I have a few hours to review Pathoma or FA after. Are your entire days only UW?

Edit: Im doing UW on timed tutor and studying 10am to 5-7PM since i have 2 months to go
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Are you already in dedicated prep time too? Or are you doing 2 blocks per day while in school?
 
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haha ok your UW pace makes more sense now. Razazz, you are so lucky to almost be done this torture period of our lives!

I'm in dedicated study time for 7 weeks
 
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DIT seems like a complete waste to me. From what I've heard it's essentially someone reading FA to you. I can't think of an easier way to waste my time personally
 
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PL198 said:
DIT seems like a complete waste to me. From what I've heard it's essentially someone reading FA to you. I can't think of an easier way to waste my time personally
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Yes and no. I'm doing it right now for a quick pass of FA. It is indeed based off the exact same content as FA, so in that sense it is like someone reading FA. But then again, there are some aspects of it that are integrative, and the style of the program is such that it forces you to recall things to reinforce it.

They do explain the material and make an attempt to integrate when it's applicable. The constant reinforcement of topics makes it worth while for the right person, and it makes you get through FA quickly, which is good for people like me that find themselves reading a little slower than I'd like at times.

Still, you have to do what works best for you. If DIT is a waste of time for you, then so be it. Different strokes.
 
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I tried watching a DIT video, and I wanted to shoot the guy in the face for making endless amounts of bad jokes. No thanks.
 
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PL198 said:
DIT seems like a complete waste to me. From what I've heard it's essentially someone reading FA to you. I can't think of an easier way to waste my time personally
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It depends. Do you have time to spare to do it? They will do a better job walking you through things and quicker than if you tried to cold read FA. They also have some catchy pneumonics that to this day I still remember (even though I did DIT in Oct/Nov). However, this is the big thing. If anyone plans to do DIT, actually pause the videos and do the questions. I did not do this and regret it so much. I passively did the questions as the video went along but didn't write them out.

It's good for a first run of FA. Beyond that, it's not worth it. Oh and I say this as someone who downloaded DIT. I couldn't imagine paying $700 for it. If a person only had say 6-8 weeks to study for step 1, DIT would take up way too much time. And omg, I do not miss the jokes
 
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NoLollipops4U said:
It depends. Do you have time to spare to do it? They will do a better job walking you through things and quicker than if you tried to cold read FA. They also have some catchy pneumonics that to this day I still remember (even though I did DIT in Oct/Nov). However, this is the big thing. If anyone plans to do DIT, actually pause the videos and do the questions. I did not do this and regret it so much. I passively did the questions as the video went along but didn't write them out.

It's good for a first run of FA. Beyond that, it's not worth it. Oh and I say this as someone who downloaded DIT. I couldn't imagine paying $700 for it. If a person only had say 6-8 weeks to study for step 1, DIT would take up way too much time. And omg, I do not miss the jokes
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Another reason why you shouldn't do DIT since you might catch pneumonia.......................or maybe it's the downloaded version which might be infected with the virus.:laugh:
 
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Update to progress: Pretty much at the 50% completion of UW. I've been doing them on random, timed tutor.....and my cumulative % is 71, which i'm pretty happy with. However, here's my problem......my % has been pretty much constant the entire question bank since I started (lowest block was 62, highest 89 but most blocks I get around 70). My average hasn't increased at all. I feel like that isn't normal?

I have already done Pathoma (plan to do it again once or twice more) and I will be doing a few more NBMES on top of redoing my incorrect UW (plus a 2nd round of all UW). Anyone had similar experiences with plateau results on UW?
 
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i have done NBME 13 3 weeks ago and it was 228 , now i am doing old NBMEs and i am really scoring bad , LIKE 30 qs wrong , i am taking them as a practice and learning tool (i am in my last 10 days ) but i can`t help feeling depressed < should i be worried or my scores can go up ?
 
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Can someone post a link to the correlation/prediction for NBMEs? I always see people referencing it but I can't find it.
 
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razazz said:
i have done NBME 13 3 weeks ago and it was 228 , now i am doing old NBMEs and i am really scoring bad , LIKE 30 qs wrong , i am taking them as a practice and learning tool (i am in my last 10 days ) but i can`t help feeling depressed < should i be worried or my scores can go up ?
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Well the older NBMEs are less accurate as what they test has changed a lot since the early 2000s (when a lot of those exams were made). So that's some good news, I guess.

You say you got 30 questions wrong? Do you mean in the whole NBME? If so, thats 170/200......and they say you take your # correct and multiply it by 1.4 to get a ballpark....so thats a 238? Did you do NBME 13 online? That was also your NBME 3 weeks ago. Depending on how confident you are, maybe do another NBME today or tomorrow but make sure its NBME 15/16.

Focus only on your weaknesses. You have have some. Is it something you can cram for a few days like pharm/micro/biochem?
 
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seminoma said:
Can someone post a link to the correlation/prediction for NBMEs? I always see people referencing it but I can't find it.
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If you mean the score it gives you, they are pretty accurate. If you mean how to calculate your predicted score from an offline exam, I believe you take your # correct (out of 200. 4 blocks of 50 NBME questions) and multiply it by 1.4.....at least thats what I did. I read online theres another way, and the other way actually gave me a higher score if I remember correctly.....so maybe stick with the 1.4. Better to under predict than over predict
 
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Hi! As promised, here is my post.
IT REALLY WASN'T ALL THAT BAD!!! AT ALL! which kind of worries me that i left feeling rather calm since everyone that does 240+ leave the exam center so worried and sure they did horribly. lol

I didn't have any weird left field questions. everything was familiar. there were questions that i knew with my eyes closed and also some that i wasn't so sure.

To me, they were NBME styled. straight forward and to the point.

Now to wait the dreaded 3 weeks. . if you have any questions let me know!
 
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AnesthesiaHopeful said:
Hi! As promised, here is my post.
IT REALLY WASN'T ALL THAT BAD!!! AT ALL! which kind of worries me that i left feeling rather calm since everyone that does 240+ leave the exam center so worried and sure they did horribly. lol

I didn't have any weird left field questions. everything was familiar. there were questions that i knew with my eyes closed and also some that i wasn't so sure.

To me, they were NBME styled. straight forward and to the point.

Now to wait the dreaded 3 weeks. . if you have any questions let me know!
Click to expand...

I know this varies significantly by test, but out of curiosity how much anatomy did you have? Was this in first aid? Or more similar to UW (goes beyond FA)?
 
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NoLollipops4U said:
If you mean the score it gives you, they are pretty accurate. If you mean how to calculate your predicted score from an offline exam, I believe you take your # correct (out of 200. 4 blocks of 50 NBME questions) and multiply it by 1.4.....at least thats what I did. I read online theres another way, and the other way actually gave me a higher score if I remember correctly.....so maybe stick with the 1.4. Better to under predict than over predict
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool, thanks! So 84% correct comes out to around a 235...


AnesthesiaHopeful said:
Hi! As promised, here is my post.
IT REALLY WASN'T ALL THAT BAD!!! AT ALL! which kind of worries me that i left feeling rather calm since everyone that does 240+ leave the exam center so worried and sure they did horribly. lol

I didn't have any weird left field questions. everything was familiar. there were questions that i knew with my eyes closed and also some that i wasn't so sure.

To me, they were NBME styled. straight forward and to the point.

Now to wait the dreaded 3 weeks. . if you have any questions let me know!
Click to expand...
Congrats on being done!
 
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NoLollipops4U said:
I know this varies significantly by test, but out of curiosity how much anatomy did you have? Was this in first aid? Or more similar to UW (goes beyond FA)?
Click to expand...

Hi!!! wasn't really all that heavy on anat. some lower extremity nerves. oh and some pelvis too.tly. it was high yield though, so if you do uworld or DIT you should be fine. FA anatomy sucks!
 
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Hey, I have my test in 25 days now.
I am an IMG, and have been following SDN for years now & would appreciate some help!

I have been watching bits of Kaplan, Pathoma while exercising two times. Did Rx once. (sort of "before dedicated time")

I have done UW once with 60% cumulative unused, then I did wrong only once (so everytime I get it wrong again, I see it again, so multiple wrongs- multiple views). Annotated literally most of UW in my FA. So not much work to do now, just reading and reading explanations.. (though not diligently I think..)

I did NBME 1,2 with score of 208 two weeks ago.

But then.. UW 3rd pass, I see a huge increase in score (around 83% right)..

I feel like I memorized the answers. I do know "vaguely" why other answers are wrong, but I think I have only superficial knowledge!

With the UW score I have now, I should be scoring around 230s in NBME, so I will see tomorrow with NBME7 if I have increased score.

I go through 3 sets of UW per day, so in around 10 days I will be finished with third pass of UW- which leaves me about 15 days till test day.
By the way, do you read all the explanations and why other answers are wrong (whether you got it right or not?)

Do you have any suggestions on what I should do?

With 15 days left, I planned on doing UWSA 1,2, newer NBMES 12, 13, 15, 16, Free 150 from USMLE.org along with READING FA.

I realize that FA is the key, so people suggested going over and over FA. Should I go with this schedule?

My goal is get over 240, but with the NBME score (realistic estimator of test) doesn't match with the UW score I have now, I am sort of unnerved....

Any input would be greatly appreciated & I will channel those help to those who need help after my exam. Thanks to you all!
 
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