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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How well do we have to do just to pass this exam?

Took an nbme today and got a 202...:/ Missed alottt of questions so i'm trying to correlate how well i honestly have to do on the exam just to pass it (or break 200.)
 
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syoung said:
i mean w/ the structural parts of neuro, you should be comfortable w/ lesions, eyes, (had no ears, but that's just me), structures in the brain and what they control (thalamus, striatum, basal ganglia, cerebellum), and obviously the pathologies (alzheimers, parkinson, huntington, etc and their corresponding parts of the brain). i had maybe 1 spinal cord ?, but not much else. embryo for the brain was bad for me, i cannot remember those names at all, and so i took that hit. it's a matter of balance, be strong in other areas to balance out the weaker ones.
embryo in general is high yield in the sense that they can ask you anything from origin of this cancer's cells to origin of this cell from which germ layer. i mean def know FA's embryo, but it would be a good idea to read up other ?s on embryo so that you have a broad spectrum of ?s under your belt if you have the time. it doesn't have to be a priority though.
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a lot of ground to cover. thanks mate. time to get cracking!
 
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Aizee said:
I definately regret writing that. sorry guys!!! didn't mean to upset you guys. I'll just slowly walk away from this thread now. and never return. 🤔:bag::bag:
*aah so embarrassed*
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Don't worry about it.

I for one would like to see how you ended up - my experience was fairly similar, though not quite so high an nbme. Somehow I didn't get any sleep before the exam either.

Let us know how you did.
 
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DrTejIndia said:
Through your experience.. would u say doing HY embryo may be fruitful ?
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i mean it's HY in that if you know it it's easy points; i don't think there were any critical thinking ?s on embryo... so if you got time, do a few questions of embryo from each organ system so that they're fresh. i would not do an entire book's worth unless you had waaaaay more time on your hands and you hated the beer and life and sun and friends and etc.
 
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So I have my exam in a week and idk what to expect. I took NBME 13 a few days ago and got a 232. I took UWSA 2 two days ago and got a 260 and took NBME 15 yesterday and got a 258. I am going to take 16 and maybe 17 before my exam. Should I expect a score closer to 15/16? I would be extremely happy with anything over 240.
 
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Aizee said:
hey guys. I need help. I am kind of freaking out. I took my exam about 2 weeks ago and 1 week is left for the result to come out. I'm just dying in self doubt. I have to study for CK but I can't concentrate because I'm so worried.
Here's my breakdown
I studied kaplan with FA and uworld. Didn't use any other q bank.
1st round uworld was around 82%. it was timed and subject wise.
I didn't really do a 2nd round. just a few blocks.
I took my first nbme offline. nbme 12. that was 4 weeks out and got 242.
then I took nbme 15 offline and got around 244.
next I took nbme 16 offline 2 weeks before while I wasn't in the mood to take it and I didn't even pay any attention to it. ended up with a 238.
lastly 1 week before my exam I took the only nbme online which was nbme 17. I got a 266 on it.
now I want what my last nbme predicted or atleast close to it.
on the exam day, I slept around 2-3 hours. too much stress. but I pulled myself together and I think I was focused during most of the exam except for 1 block. I marked around 15-20 questions in every block.
After the exam I felt ok because I already convinced myself that one feels really bad after the exam no matter how good or bad it is. but now I have flashbacks every now and then about the wrong answers. I know I've made stupid mistakes too. 🙁
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The stupid mistakes eat away at you. I have somewhere between 5-10 stupid mistakes which kills me. Overall, I know I missed about 20 so far (minus all the other 300 ish questions I can't remember lol).
 
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Guys I'm starting to freak out about my exam. Took an nbme and barely broke 200 :/ I'm not sure why I regressed so much (maybe it was a bad day idk). Made alot of dumb mistakes.

Question is: How does this compare to the actual exam...meaning - how well do we have to do to just break 200 (I've never been a good test taker so that's why im asking). I'm guessing probably ~60 percent??

My pharm is killing me...so weak.
 
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LAK84 said:
Guys I'm starting to freak out about my exam. Took an nbme and barely broke 200 :/ I'm not sure why I regressed so much (maybe it was a bad day idk). Made alot of dumb mistakes.

Question is: How does this compare to the actual exam...meaning - how well do we have to do to just break 200 (I've never been a good test taker so that's why im asking). I'm guessing probably ~60 percent??

My pharm is killing me...so weak.
Click to expand...

i think ~60% is above 220. ~50-55% would be around 200?
 
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Just got back from taking it.

What people say is true about it feeling harder...but I guess it's probably mostly attributable to test day stress and those random mixed in questions that won't actually count towards the score. Trying to take solace in NBME predictions and hope for the best.

Will try to post a write up of my prep when I get my score back, assuming I didn't bomb too hard. Good luck studying folks, keep fighting the good fight.
 
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Yeah so I just came back from taking it. There definitely were some very weird questions in there that were never taught to us neither in medical school, nor in FA/Goljan/Pathoma etc. It feels hard, especially at the end when you are tired. But then again I can't say much about how it went until I get my scores back in 4 weeks. Good luck to everyone!
 
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Congrats to those who are done! Just got done taking NBME 15 after having taken NBME 11 at the beginning of the home-stretch about two weeks ago. Unfortunately my test isn't until late May, so just trying to maintain a solid level of productivity. We've got this everyone!
 
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mcloaf said:
Just got back from taking it.

What people say is true about it feeling harder...but I guess it's probably mostly attributable to test day stress and those random mixed in questions that won't actually count towards the score. Trying to take solace in NBME predictions and hope for the best.

Will try to post a write up of my prep when I get my score back, assuming I didn't bomb too hard. Good luck studying folks, keep fighting the good fight.
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I'm looking forward to your write up. I'm just about to start dedicated soon and quickly feeling overwhelmed at how much god damn information I've forgotten. Blocks are also now taking me twice as long now that I've been doing random/timed/all for finals.

That being said, I'm way happier now than I ever was learning fresh material endlessly. Would rather consolidate what I've already done.
 
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Colombiano123 said:
Yeah so I just came back from taking it. There definitely were some very weird questions in there that were never taught to us neither in medical school, nor in FA/Goljan/Pathoma etc. It feels hard, especially at the end when you are tired. But then again I can't say much about how it went until I get my scores back in 4 weeks. Good luck to everyone!
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Trust y
mcloaf said:
Just got back from taking it.

What people say is true about it feeling harder...but I guess it's probably mostly attributable to test day stress and those random mixed in questions that won't actually count towards the score. Trying to take solace in NBME predictions and hope for the best.

Will try to post a write up of my prep when I get my score back, assuming I didn't bomb too hard. Good luck studying folks, keep fighting the good fight.
Click to expand...
Trust your NBME scores. I had no idea what my score would be until I actually got it back Wednesday. It was within 5 points of my last 2 NBME scores
 
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I heard UWSA#2 overpredicts by at least 10-15 points but that UWSA#1 doesn't over predict by that much (if any)...I've heard of many people scoring very similar on the exam to UWSA#1
 
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dfib slim said:
Is it the consensus that both UWSAs over predict?
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I've also heard that if you score roughly average, it doesn't overpredict much. If you score 240+, it tends to over predict by 10-20. But I've seen others say it's perfectly accurate.

I'd say use UWSAs as extra UW questions, and use NBMEs for score prediction.
 
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Is it realistic to do microcards, pharmcards, goljan audio, and UFAP in 6 weeks? (2 passes of FA, 1-2 passes of pathoma, 1 pass of UW + incorrects)?

I wasn't planning to do microcards, but I'm flipping through them right now and there's a decent amount of info that isn't in FA.
 
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seminoma said:
Is it realistic to do microcards, pharmcards, goljan audio, and UFAP in 6 weeks? (2 passes of FA, 1-2 passes of pathoma, 1 pass of UW + incorrects)?

I wasn't planning to do microcards, but I'm flipping through them right now and there's a decent amount of info that isn't in FA.
Click to expand...

I might just be N=1 but for me I don't think that they would have been that useful (my exam is in a month). I've taken 2 NBMEs and am about 2/3 of the way through uworld and I feel that first aid is more than enough in the micro department; if anything you'll get questions wrong because the information is there but they (NBME/uworld) call it by a different name or use a slightly different descriptor.

But, like I said, I'm n=1. If you can find a way to incorporate them without going crazy (I think the micro section is pretty monstrous by itself) then I salute you. Pharmcards I would also be a bit iffy but that's mostly because a few months ago I took all of 2015 First Aid pharm and put it into powerpoint form--> review one section a night for like an hour. I do know people in my class that are using them to study and like them though.
 
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seminoma said:
Is it realistic to do microcards, pharmcards, goljan audio, and UFAP in 6 weeks? (2 passes of FA, 1-2 passes of pathoma, 1 pass of UW + incorrects)?

I wasn't planning to do microcards, but I'm flipping through them right now and there's a decent amount of info that isn't in FA.
Click to expand...

My plan was to make Anki cards for that stuff. You can add the small details from UW to them with the idea of memorizing UW legitimately. Anki makes it doable.
 
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I've heard people say that doing too many NBMEs is a waste of time because you could of spent it studying and doing UW. My plan was to do 9 total NBMEs (11-17 + UWSA1 and 2 + school mandated CBSE). Is it worth it or should I cut back on it?
 
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When people say they've been getting a few pelvic anatomy questions, are they talking about Female reproductive ligaments, GI ligaments, etc...? I'm mostly just reading FA for those (there's a chart in both chapters about ligaments, blood supply, etc...). Wasn't sure if there was something else
 
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blueshockey said:
I might just be N=1 but for me I don't think that they would have been that useful (my exam is in a month). I've taken 2 NBMEs and am about 2/3 of the way through uworld and I feel that first aid is more than enough in the micro department; if anything you'll get questions wrong because the information is there but they (NBME/uworld) call it by a different name or use a slightly different descriptor.

But, like I said, I'm n=1. If you can find a way to incorporate them without going crazy (I think the micro section is pretty monstrous by itself) then I salute you. Pharmcards I would also be a bit iffy but that's mostly because a few months ago I took all of 2015 First Aid pharm and put it into powerpoint form--> review one section a night for like an hour. I do know people in my class that are using them to study and like them though.
Click to expand...


Nice thanks.

Need a win on the ice tonight!
 
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LAK84 said:
When people say they've been getting a few pelvic anatomy questions, are they talking about Female reproductive ligaments, GI ligaments, etc...? I'm mostly just reading FA for those (there's a chart in both chapters about ligaments, blood supply, etc...). Wasn't sure if there was something else
Click to expand...

Also, innervation was pretty high yield on my test.
 
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Took my test Friday. It was a lot harder than anything I had seen in UWSA or the NBMEs. Some of the topics I just hadn't seen before (crazy specific details covered in none of the review books or class lectures). At this point I really regret studying for this test as much as I did. I don't think anything could have prepared me for that.

UWSA1: 250. UWSA: 255.
NBME avg: 249.
Free 138: 89%. 2 days before

I would be willing to bet I scored 20 points below my average. Pretty disappointed.

Edit: good luck to everyone else taking the test.
 
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stepone2015 said:
I've heard people say that doing too many NBMEs is a waste of time because you could of spent it studying and doing UW. My plan was to do 9 total NBMEs (11-17 + UWSA1 and 2 + school mandated CBSE). Is it worth it or should I cut back on it?
Click to expand...
Maybe cut one of the earlier NBMEs? It's nice to be able to track your progress but I probably would have been better off trying to memorize minutiae for some of the 4 hours it took on each NBME
 
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Dires said:
Took my test Friday. It was a lot harder than anything I had seen in UWSA or the NBMEs. Some of the topics I just hadn't seen before (crazy specific details covered in none of the review books or class lectures). At this point I really regret studying for this test as much as I did. I don't think anything could have prepared me for that.

UWSA1: 250. UWSA: 255.
NBME avg: 249.
Free 138: 89%. 2 days before

I would be willing to bet I scored 20 points below my average. Pretty disappointed.

Edit: good luck to everyone else taking the test.
Click to expand...
You will be fine they throw in a lot of unknowns just to confuse you.Questions that probably don't count. I felt the same way and scored a 250, You're score will be around your NBME averages.
 
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Dires said:
Took my test Friday. It was a lot harder than anything I had seen in UWSA or the NBMEs. Some of the topics I just hadn't seen before (crazy specific details covered in none of the review books or class lectures). At this point I really regret studying for this test as much as I did. I don't think anything could have prepared me for that.

UWSA1: 250. UWSA: 255.
NBME avg: 249.
Free 138: 89%. 2 days before

I would be willing to bet I scored 20 points below my average. Pretty disappointed.

Edit: good luck to everyone else taking the test.
Click to expand...

i am taking it next week. yikes! i have been hearing crazy stories from my friends. did u get insane about of pelvic anatomy too? anything else worth spending time on that showed up?
 
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Krasmyc said:
i am taking it next week. yikes! i have been hearing crazy stories from my friends. did u get insane about of pelvic anatomy too? anything else worth spending time on that showed up?
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Not sure I would recommend spending too much time on pelvic anatomy. That region is really confusing they end up asking you the one aspect you don't review.

@laricb thanks for the encouragement. Was much needed.
 
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I know laricb already said this to you but I also hear this same stuff from so many test takers who were scoring very high like you were on your practice exams. Those "unknown" questions are probably thrown out or experimental anyways. I'm pretty sure you're going to be scoring ~250s.
 
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In response to some of the above posts, any medical ethics that shows up on the exam, apart from abortion, ventilator care and advanced directive/power of attorney, will be nothing you can ever prepare for. You'll find these types of questions on your exam are pretty much entirely intuition-based. I'm not rejecting the idea that learning medical ethics by reading a separate book on it couldn't help you as a human being / future doctor, but for the Step 1, any and all "additional" time you have should be used to do more questions and read FA. Seriously.
 
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BoneDoc91 said:
So I have my exam in a week and idk what to expect. I took NBME 13 a few days ago and got a 232. I took UWSA 2 two days ago and got a 260 and took NBME 15 yesterday and got a 258. I am going to take 16 and maybe 17 before my exam. Should I expect a score closer to 15/16? I would be extremely happy with anything over 240.
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How does one jump 25 points on an NBME in a few days. You should sell your secrets ;-)
 
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Dires said:
Not sure I would recommend spending too much time on pelvic anatomy. That region is really confusing they end up asking you the one aspect you don't review.

@laricb thanks for the encouragement. Was much needed.
Click to expand...

well anatomy is bane of my existence, i even got anatomy questions on nbme wrong. fml
 
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IceCastle said:
Why is that a big deal? Are you expecting to get every anatomy question on NBMEs correct?
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well if you get 4 anatomy Q straight up wrong it hurts, cuz with rest of the Q i got wrong i was totally clueless about but anatomy is a straight recall thing!. well its just me i guess
 
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Phloston said:
How does one jump 25 points on an NBME in a few days. You should sell your secrets ;-)
Click to expand...
I made a lot of careless mistakes on NBME13 and felt I knew more than the score showed, definitely didn't learn 25pts worth of material in a week lol.
 
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Dires said:
Took my test Friday. It was a lot harder than anything I had seen in UWSA or the NBMEs. Some of the topics I just hadn't seen before (crazy specific details covered in none of the review books or class lectures). At this point I really regret studying for this test as much as I did. I don't think anything could have prepared me for that.

UWSA1: 250. UWSA: 255.
NBME avg: 249.
Free 138: 89%. 2 days before

I would be willing to bet I scored 20 points below my average. Pretty disappointed.

Edit: good luck to everyone else taking the test.
Click to expand...

I took it the same day as you and I felt the exact same way. I guess we just have to hope that they curve the real exam much easier than the NBMEs. Hope we get our scores sooner rather than later (I've heard the exam is changing format around May 11th, and I wonder how that will impact score release for us).
 
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Hey everyone took the test last Thursday and thought I should add my own experience.

In response to the discussions on pelvic anatomy, definitely know the uterine/ovarian ligaments (esp suspensory), lymphatic drainage and nerves. Also, I overall felt that reproductive and GU were a huge proportion of the exam.

Had 3 Q's in relation to I cell disease and M6P tagging. Probably just luck of the draw but worth taking a glance at if not too familiar.

Overall >95% of material was covered in FA and most questions were similar in style to UW.
 
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So I took my deathly exam on April 10.. It seems like my permit has disappeared (I can't find it on the NBME website). Tomorrow is going to be 3 Wednesdays from my test date. Does this mean that I'm getting my score back tomorrow?? :nailbiting:
 
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hybridpotato said:
So I took my deathly exam on April 10.. It seems like my permit has disappeared (I can't find it on the NBME website). Tomorrow is going to be 3 Wednesdays from my test date. Does this mean that I'm getting my score back tomorrow?? :nailbiting:
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you may or may not, i learnt it takes atleast 21 days
 
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took my exam like 2 weeks ago , was really difficult than i expected with crazy mistakes i made and questions i had no idea what its talking about, the waiting is driving me crazy, i could barely sleep or concentrate doing anything, any advice on how to pass through the remaining 1-2 weeks of the waiting process
 
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