Official 2015 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[KushWeedNuggetsStankyLeg]

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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

 

[Focused1]

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.

Wow...95% + from FA ... what were your NBME scores ?

 

[seminoma]

General consensus thus far that UW+FA+Pathoma still cover the vast majority of stuff tested?

 

[Focused1]

General consensus thus far that UW+FA+Pathoma still cover the vast majority of stuff tested?

UFAP for the kill..

 

[mcloaf]

General consensus thus far that UW+FA+Pathoma still cover the vast majority of stuff tested?

In my case I would say definitely. I saw a few pathologies that weren't in FA but nothing that I'd go out of my way to learn. I was worried about random pharm but I had few pharm questions that I thought were difficult. What killed me was weird images of infectious diseases and left field behavioral questions.

 

[Amine]

I took my exam yesterday and I feel horrible about it. for some reasons I was supper nervous specially after reading the first couple questions. I ended up short on time and did not get to read the last 3 questions on the first 5 blocks ( Thats 15 question total 🙁 ) It is weird because I didn't run out of time during practice test. Anyone had the same experience with timing ? do I still have a chance to pass ? Thanks

 

[Transposony]

I took my exam yesterday and I feel horrible about it. for some reasons I was supper nervous specially after reading the first couple questions. I ended up short on time and did not get to read the last 3 questions on the first 5 blocks ( Thats 15 question total 🙁 ) It is weird because I didn't run out of time during practice test. Anyone had the same experience with timing ? do I still have a chance to pass ? Thanks

AFAIK People have passed after missing Qs like you as long as you did rest of them fine.

 

[ALUCSD18]

Was there a medical breakthrough or innovation I don't know about regarding the pelvis? Is that why there are so many questions recently about it? In regards to UFAP, a lot of my friends who recently took it, say that some questions they couldn't find in UFAP or other resources, so they don't feel it's worth it to go crazy on the resources because it might not be worth it. YMMV. Good luck to all those tomorrow and those in dedicated period.

 

[LAK84]

Anyone know how the pharm is on the exam? Is FA good enough?

I made flashcards of First Aid pharm (yeah I'm weird)..and so I'm just reviewing those for these last couple days before my exam (i review them all for about 2 hours before bed).

 

[LAK84]

AFAIK People have passed after missing Qs like you as long as you did rest of them fine.

Pass?

Lol, it's 15 questions out of 322...if you need 280 questions to pass then i'm pretty sure the failure rate would be enormously high.

You did absolutely fine. I know those questions will bother you but as long as you studied and felt decent about the ones you did do, you'll be aiite. Your score may be a little bit lower than your NBME/Free 150 predictions b/c of the fact that you didn't answer those but i don't anticipate it being much lower (ex: not 15 points lower).

 

[Transposony]

Pass?

Lol, it's 15 questions out of 322...if you need 280 questions to pass then i'm pretty sure the failure rate would be enormously high.

You did absolutely fine. I know those questions will bother you but as long as you studied and felt decent about the ones you did do, you'll be aiite. Your score may be a little bit lower than your NBME/Free 150 predictions b/c of the fact that you didn't answer those but i don't anticipate it being much lower (ex: not 15 points lower).

I answered his question which was "do I still have a chance to pass ? "

BTW How do you know that he did absolutely fine?

 

[LAK84]

I answered his question which was "do I still have a chance to pass ? "

BTW How do you know that he did absolutely fine?

I said he/she did absolutely fine but should of been more specific in the fact that alot of people feel crappy after the exam but as long as they studied hard they did absolutely fine.

Was giving them some reassurance that it's a normal feeling to feel crappy.

 

[LAK84]

I answered his question which was "do I still have a chance to pass ? "

BTW How do you know that he did absolutely fine?

I wasn't being condescending to your post about answering his/her question...I didn't even read it until you just quoted me lol sorry to step on your toes

 

[BoneDoc91]

I'm taking this monster tomorrow. Anyone have any advice about test day.

 

[Aizee]

Hey. So I'm the one who wrote that long post about being scared about result and 266 on last nbme
got my result. 239. Disappointed in myself of course because thanks to nbme I was expecting much higher score. Anyways that's life. Nbme tells you between 244 and 266... and you end up with a 239!

 

[Krasmyc]

hey guys! so i just took NBME 15 and it right in the ball park of what i am aiming for. 254. so anything above 250 i am happy with.
How accurate is NBME 15?
My NBME 12, 13 were 245, 246

i still have NBME 16 and 17 to go.

How to best utilize next 7 days? i will be taking last day off as everyone says.

Any resource for quick review of embryo ( initial weeks? been a while and i feel like i was just guessing on some questions)

Also for pelvic anatomy i spent solid 4 hours just looking at atlas and i got 3 Q on it right 😀 so thats might be the best resource for anatomy.

 

[tarheel1408]

Got my score back today after taking exam on April 8th.

March 13th - NBME 16 -> 234
March 21st - UWSA1 -> 247
March 28th - UWSA2 -> 265
April 8th - The Beast -> 258

Pleased with my score. I'm very glad the UWSA didn't over predict by much

 

[Aizee]

Got my score back today after taking exam on April 8th.

March 13th - NBME 16 -> 234
March 21st - UWSA1 -> 247
March 28th - UWSA2 -> 265
April 8th - The Beast -> 258

Pleased with my score. I'm very glad the UWSA didn't over predict by much

Well congrats. I got ****ed. Big time.
nbme 17-- 266
The beast-- 239
I wish there was a button to flip this!

 

[Troll-Like-Receptor]

Well congrats. I got ****ed. Big time.
nbme 17-- 266
The beast-- 239
I wish there was a button to flip this!

Is 240+ some sort of special score area?

 

[blueshockey]

Got my score back today after taking exam on April 8th.

March 13th - NBME 16 -> 234
March 21st - UWSA1 -> 247
March 28th - UWSA2 -> 265
April 8th - The Beast -> 258

Pleased with my score. I'm very glad the UWSA didn't over predict by much

Congratulations, that's a fantastic score!!

 

[MD22412]

Hello friends.

I am heartbroken I missed several easy questions on micro that were picture pathognomonic. These easy qs have been haunting me b/c the stem hinted at something else and I fell for the traps. There were tons of other qs that were SO HARD. Was pressed for time every block. Hardly a minute per question by q#23 too consistently. Had to skim qs. Every single combo of answers that a q could have, the q made sure to have it to really see if you knew your stuff. Scared as hell of how I did.

Didn't have too much time to really fully memorize FA/pathoma. Last week still had half the UW qbank to do and just did that and hardly finished the UW on time. Here are my numbers:
CBSSE 2mo prior -- 228
NBME one month prior-- 241 (3/23)
UWSA1 1.5wk prior -- 265
No time for any other nbme/uwsa 🙁
Finished UW the day before. Overall w/84%. I think this score may be higher simply b/c I couldnt get myself to do it until I knew more biochem (had to read many ch of lippincott w/FA since I slacked biochem in undergrad)

Any predictive values in these? I am incredibly nervous I bombed many more qs. Don't remember too much else except I am sure I missed a lot. There was a lot I didn't know and guessed on. There were qs I was like WTF. Biggest scare was time pressure. I can't stop thinking about how easy those qs were I missed had I just looked at the picture and picked the answer, but don't know why I fell for the tricks in the paragraph. So many tricky qs!
I am praying hard to break 260.

Anyone w/similar experience? these 4 wks to come are gonna be horrible :'(

 

[animando]

Ok just got out. Had a computer problem at the end, hope it won't mess up with everything I am still freaking out a bit. If I'm lucky enough to get a score, I'll share it.

My exam was "classical", really felt like doing a Qbank (I used UW and URx). I expected 99% of the questions.

Behavioural, biochemistry and immuno were easy. Biostats VERY easy. Anatomy, biochemistry, genetics fair. Patho/physio/microbio/pharmaco also ok. Embryo had some weird questions (spotted many "experimental questions" ^^). Astonishingly not so many 2nd/3dr order question, most of them were: "most probable dx?". Pelvis showed up a lot (seriously, like one or two q per block), mushrooms also. In all fairness looked more like URx than UW even so UW helped me a lot.

I don't know whether it was asked in this thread or another but imo FAPU still covers 95% of the content. I read big Robbins and it helped me more for my school exams than for the step. So keep re-reading your FA

 

[Silo004]

I actually agree with a lot of what Animando has to say.

Took the exam earlier this week. Thought it was a bit straight forward. Some weird questions on the epidemiology of a disease that hasn't been seen in the US for a few generations. A couple on patient safety. The micro and pharm were pretty straightforward. Some entertaining vignettes w/ behavioral science. But nothing like UW -- no back flips to get to answers. I actually think Rx was more representative than UW -- I recognized an image from the former. Didn't feel too different from the later NBME's, had one or two repeats.

UWORLD %: all timed random ~ 65%
4/5 NBME 11: 217
4/13 NBME 12: 220
4/16 NBME 13: 228
4/17 UWAS 1: 234
4/19 NBME 15: 239
4/21 UWAS 2: 238
4/22 NBME 16: 241
4/23 Free 150: 122/143 --> 85%
4/25-6 NBME 17: 228 😵(I was really tired when I took this one -- burn out is very real. Took it two days before the real deal, quit b/c of fatigue and then finished it the day before.)
4/27 THE REAL DEAL??????

I don't want to jinx myself and predict a score, but I felt very good while taking the exam -- that said, I felt good after UW sets and would end up with a 68%. FAP is the way to go, UW is cool but I think it's a bit overrated.

I would recommend doing ALL the NBME's and the free 150. That 217 in the beginning was largely a f(x) of me overthinking questions. Over thought 1-2 on the real deal -- I sincerely believe that UW reinforces bad test-taking habits, though a few of the concepts they emphasized were present on the exam.

 

[deleted564496]

Congrats to those who are done and those who did well! I have a bit of a silly question, but it's been bothering me, so I figured I'd get some opinions. How many of you guys did a baseline NBME? I'm really worried about even doing one because I'm pretty sure I'll do terrible. I've done really well throughout school (all honors + high pass), but I feel like I've forgotten all of it (seriously...). I'm pretty sure I would be saying "I use to know this, but now I have no clue" a lot if I do a baseline... I'm worried I'm going to start freaking out if I don't pass it... Any thoughts on this? Is there that much value other than figuring out your weaknesses? I don't think it's going to change the way I prep, even if I know said "weaknesses".... Instead I was thinking of waiting to do an NBME until 2-3 weeks in my prep and then do one weekly. Thanks.

 

[Silo004]

Congrats to those who are done and those who did well! I have a bit of a silly question, but it's been bothering me, so I figured I'd get some opinions. How many of you guys did a baseline NBME? I'm really worried about even doing one because I'm pretty sure I'll do terrible. I've done really well throughout school (all honors + high pass), but I feel like I've forgotten all of it (seriously...). I'm pretty sure I would be saying "I use to know this, but now I have no clue" a lot if I do a baseline... I'm worried I'm going to start freaking out if I don't pass it... Any thoughts on this? Is there that much value other than figuring out your weaknesses? I don't think it's going to change the way I prep, even if I know said "weaknesses".... Instead I was thinking of waiting to do an NBME until 2-3 weeks in my prep and then do one weekly. Thanks.

Read FA, read pathoma if you have already watched it and just pound questions. You can hack this exam -- by that I mean if you do enough questions and understand what's behind them you can do well.

You can do a baseline NBME, but I would save them for the last 2 weeks/10 days. Knock them all out to get used to the question style. Pay the extra 10 dollars and go over your incorrects w/ a friend.

 

[synecdoche]

Congrats to those who are done and those who did well! I have a bit of a silly question, but it's been bothering me, so I figured I'd get some opinions. How many of you guys did a baseline NBME? I'm really worried about even doing one because I'm pretty sure I'll do terrible. I've done really well throughout school (all honors + high pass), but I feel like I've forgotten all of it (seriously...). I'm pretty sure I would be saying "I use to know this, but now I have no clue" a lot if I do a baseline... I'm worried I'm going to start freaking out if I don't pass it... Any thoughts on this? Is there that much value other than figuring out your weaknesses? I don't think it's going to change the way I prep, even if I know said "weaknesses".... Instead I was thinking of waiting to do an NBME until 2-3 weeks in my prep and then do one weekly. Thanks.

I did a baseline, and it wasn't a great score but I found it reassuring that I would (theoretically) pass if I had to take the real thing the next day. Also, a low baseline score shouldn't freak you out because you'll improve a lot at the very beginning of dedicated, with just a little bit of studying. It's all the points after that initial big jump that are harder to tack on.

 

[Aizee]

Is 240+ some sort of special score area?

I wouldn't know. haven't been there -_-

 

[Frazier]

For people that took the exam:

If you want to take a 3-5 minute break between sections and click "break" are you required to get up and leave the testing area (sign in, sign out, all that stuff)... or can you just sit there at your station and resume when ready?

 

[Kentric]

Took the exam in early April, received my score today (high 240s)
NBME 16 (~6 weeks before exam): 213 (our school made us take this before our dedicated study period)
NBME 17 (~2 weeks before exam): 243
NBME 15 (4 days before exam): 249
UWorld random timed 1st pass: ~74% (average of last 10 blocks)

Most people I know ended up scoring within 5 points or so of their NBME average near the end of the dedicated study period (with some rare exceptions) so I think for the most part, the NBME practice exams are still probably the best predictors of what you'll end up getting (even though the questions themselves are arguably easier than those on the real thing).

Also this has been mentioned before but I feel like I should stress this again: if you choose an answer but you're not sure about it, for the love of God do not change it unless you have a very good reason to (e.g. you misread the question or you figured out exactly why the alternative answer is better). Your first instinct is usually more likely to be right. I told myself this before I went into the test and I still ended up changing around 15 questions in total. I think I ended up changing from the right to the wrong answer for about ~70% of them.

 

[theTruth_97]

so we recently got our school administered NBME results back and I scored a 195 on it. It was my first practice test. Now I will have 5 weeks of dedicated studying time. Is it even remotely possible to score 230 or have I dug too deep a hole for myself?

also so far I've done ~50% of Uworld and annotated all of pathoma with its respective videos and I've been studying "lightly" for the past 2-3 weeks as school was wrapping up

 

[Transposony]

so we recently got our school administered NBME results back and I scored a 195 on it. It was my first practice test. Now I will have 5 weeks of dedicated studying time. Is it even remotely possible to score 230 or have I dug too deep a hole for myself?

also so far I've done ~50% of Uworld and annotated all of pathoma with its respective videos and I've been studying "lightly" for the past 2-3 weeks as school was wrapping up

Depend how badly you want that 230.
It's entirely possible to get that 230 with 5 weeks of dedicated.
Suggest doing FA with USMLERx followed by a NBME.

 

[guspilgrim]

For people that took the exam:

If you want to take a 3-5 minute break between sections and click "break" are you required to get up and leave the testing area (sign in, sign out, all that stuff)... or can you just sit there at your station and resume when ready?

At my center you were not required to leave if you took a break. I took a 2-3 min between several of the blocks without getting up. Shouldn't be a problem

 

[synecdoche]

For people that took the exam:

If you want to take a 3-5 minute break between sections and click "break" are you required to get up and leave the testing area (sign in, sign out, all that stuff)... or can you just sit there at your station and resume when ready?

I asked the testing center people this exact question at my practice test! They said it's completely fine to stay seated.

 

[guspilgrim]

Hey. So I'm the one who wrote that long post about being scared about result and 266 on last nbme
got my result. 239. Disappointed in myself of course because thanks to nbme I was expecting much higher score. Anyways that's life. Nbme tells you between 244 and 266... and you end up with a 239!

Thanks very much for sharing. I'm sorry the score didn't end up where you wanted. 239 is still a very good score and you worked hard to get there.

Good luck with 3rd year

 

[Aizee]

Thanks very much for sharing. I'm sorry the score didn't end up where you wanted. 239 is still a very good score and you worked hard to get there.

Good luck with 3rd year

Thank you 🙂 it's not a bad score. So I can live with it and hopefully match!

 

[blueshockey]

Does anyone have advice regarding the ethics questions? I tend to do very well on uworld but the ethics questions are the bane of my existence; are there any other good sources of questions for those topics? I don't usually have any problems with ethical questions on the nbmes but for some reason just suck at the ones on uworld...hopefully My actual test questions are more in line with nbmes, can anyone who has taken it recently help a brotha out?

 

[Transposony]

Does anyone have advice regarding the ethics questions?

Just go with the gut feeling.

 

[blueshockey]

Just go with the gut feeling.

I need to get better gut feelings then

 

[Transposony]

I need to get better gut feelings then

No gut, no glory...........

 

[theTruth_97]

Depend how badly you want that 230.
It's entirely possible to get that 230 with 5 weeks of dedicated.
Suggest doing FA with USMLERx followed by a NBME.

I've been doing FA for a few weeks now. It seems like from the score report that I was weakest in neuro, resp, renal, and behavioral- sections that I have not studied at all (except for behavioral which I thought I knew but I guess I must have mixed up my formulas or something because when I was taking it I thought that I had those behavioral questions out of the park).

I've also started sketchy micro as a review for the microbio (which actually was one of my stronger subjects according to the nbme).

 

[Tots]

Just took my exam today and man....what a doozy. Anyways it's over, done! Woohoo! Just wanted to stop by and say good luck to everyone who is still studying. You can do it!

 

[Transposony]

I've been doing FA for a few weeks now. It seems like from the score report that I was weakest in neuro, resp, renal, and behavioral- sections that I have not studied at all (except for behavioral which I thought I knew but I guess I must have mixed up my formulas or something because when I was taking it I thought that I had those behavioral questions out of the park).

I've also started sketchy micro as a review for the microbio (which actually was one of my stronger subjects according to the nbme).

You are on the right track.
First step is to know your weaknesses.
Second, work on those weaknesses.
Third, take NBMEs to find out where you stand.

 

[seminoma]

Just took my exam today and man....what a doozy. Anyways it's over, done! Woohoo! Just wanted to stop by and say good luck to everyone who is still studying. You can do it!

Feel like I haven't seen you since the MCAT forum. Congrats on being done!

 

[BoneDoc91]

Just took it today... All I can say is good luck. My exam was nothing like the nbmes. Don't know why I even wasted my time doing them.

 

[Frazier]

Just took it today... All I can say is good luck. My exam was nothing like the nbmes. Don't know why I even wasted my time doing them.

Same here. I was going to say this earlier, but figured maybe it was just me...

The questions had a different look and feel that any of the nbme's that I took.

People that have it coming up -- keep fighting the good fight -- and hammer that FA.

 

[Doct2be]

Just took it today... All I can say is good luck. My exam was nothing like the nbmes. Don't know why I even wasted my time doing them.

Took mine today as well. I felt like I was getting hammered on the last 3 blocks but overall felt the exam tested the most random things they could find. I honestly have no clue how I did.

 

[Frazier]

Took mine today as well. I felt like I was getting hammered on the last 3 blocks but overall felt the exam tested the most random things they could find. I honestly have no clue how I did.

Right?

After the first block I felt the test was avoiding the high yield/popular material.

Halt the score creep?

Also I had a number of super long questions... Like "two paragraphs + data table + stem" kind of long.

 

[medcyclothymia]

I took mine today too. It was bad lol I think I marked 20-25 qs at least each block. I'm so scared to see my score in few wks. Pelvis, LL and UL were huge.. plus the random stuff that cannot be found in FA or pathoma.

 

[BoneDoc91]

Right?

After the first block I felt they were going out of their way to avoid the high yield/popular material.

They must be trying to halt the score creep.

Also I had a number of super long questions... Like "two paragraphs + data table + stem" kind of long.

It's so frustrating. I know everyone feels bad after the exam but there were so many questions I felt like I was guessing on, and the amount of random material was absurd.

 

[Doct2be]

Right?

After the first block I felt they were going out of their way to avoid the high yield/popular material.

They must be trying to halt the score creep.

Also I had a number of super long questions... Like "two paragraphs + data table + stem" kind of long.

Yup, I had the EXACT same thing. The paragraphs became loaded with information that I lost track, at times, what it was that I needed to look for. I also had long paragraphs with an associated picture and the answer choices were all SH**. They definitely went out of their way to make this test difficult.

 

[Doct2be]

I took mine today too. It was bad lol I think I marked 20-25 qs at least each block. I'm so scared to see my score in few wks. Pelvis, LL and UL were huge.. plus the random stuff that cannot be found in FA or pathoma.

I definitely agree. I counted 10 questions alone about pelvic anatomy that dealt with the type of incontinence and nerve damaged. I has a somewhat difficult time narrowing down some of the answer choices for a lot of the questions because they made them so obscure. At this point, I just hope I passed.