Official 2016 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Transposony]

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Let's continue the tradition for a very useful thread which has helped many.
Title says it all.
Good luck !

Must read thread:

Just took Step 1! It was a tornado of integration!!

My USMLE Step1 Thoughts and Experience, by Phloston

Official 2015 Step 1 Planning and Strategy Thread

 

[zhopv10]

Question for Recent test takers:
Have you encountered many questions on Patient safety on the test? Are they doable with info in FA?
Thanks

Trying to remember if there were any on mine and nothing comes to mind... Maybe there were one or two. I imagine they were answerable with UW/FA since none of them have stayed in my mind/stood out as a "wtf" question.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[Bobcat18]

I didn't have any on my exam but I imagine they could be answered with FA and Uworld. UW specifically had a number of patient safety questions with good explanations.

Question for Recent test takers:
Have you encountered many questions on Patient safety on the test? Are they doable with info in FA?
Thanks

 

[AshNiffler]

Question for Recent test takers:
Have you encountered many questions on Patient safety on the test? Are they doable with info in FA?
Thanks

Nope.

 

[akaMondo]

Question for Recent test takers:
Have you encountered many questions on Patient safety on the test? Are they doable with info in FA?
Thanks

I can't remember a single question on patient safety on my exam. Ethics, experimental design, biostats, that was it. FA was more than enough for me for experiments/biostats, and I recommend UWorld for ethics.

But no, no patient safety.

 

[VT5592]

thanks but how should i do pathoma ? like i should read it all and then read FA or do subject by subject ? cardio patho pathoma then cardio patho FA ?

I did it by subject especially in the beginning when I was trying to really learn. For me personally it was a lot easier to learn it by subject before integrating. of course everyone is different, but in my opinion it's much more efficient to get each subject down before you can make the connections needed for a higher score. I watched all the pathoma videos in about 7-8 days I think. It really doesn't take very long. And I know people always suggest to do blocks mixed, but I actually did them on Rx by subject to make sure I really understood what I learned in pathoma. UWorld I did all mixed though. Hope that helps!

 

[VT5592]

Just wanted to put it out there that I took my exam June 30, and my permit link disappeared today! anyone else??

 

[yoyohomieg5432]

what else besides step score do i need to focus on from this point? if i scored 260+ what else is important if i am looking to get into derm or another really competitive specialty?

for sake of some anonymity i got 260-263. it seems like i'm the only person that ive read that didn't focus on classes. I'd say by the the 2nd month of M2 i was kind of on the schedule I kept throughout the whole M2 year. whatever we were discussing in class, i'd watch the lecture for the day, then watch relevant pathoma videos and read that section in first aid. I am also a huge advocate of anki, and have my own personal anki FA deck. every topic in first aid and pathoma was turned into an Anki card. so Anki became part of my daily routine. as the year progressed the deck got bigger and bigger and eventually encompassed the entirety of FA, and every morning i would do my anki cards for the day which always helped keep things i learned even months ago fresh in my head. i didn't start to focus on class material until a few days before class exams. post exam, back to pathoma, FA. Also, the microbio section of FA is an absolute beast. i had a motto where it was "a bug a day", so every day i would watch one sketchy video throughout the school year and by march I'd say i was totally done with sketchy, each bug was an anki card, and by that point i had reviewed the other bacteria and thing s through anki so many times it was essentially 2nd nature. i think getting that section down well before even approaching dedicated time made my life a lot easier.
by the timei got to dedicated i would do 2 blocks of UW (1 morning 1 eveneing) and spend the rest of the day reading pathoma, 1-2 FA chapters/day and reviewing a few different chapters of pharm at the end each chapter.

so my basic timeline and resources:
-Anki: I used this the entire year. everything in FA became an anki card.. also used during M1 (but for M1 material, not FA)
-FA: read this as much as you can. whatever organ you cover in class, you need to read the relevant sections. eg.. cardio in class, know cardio FA like the back of your hand
-pathoma: also read the relevant sections throughout the year as you cover them in class
-Kaplan Qbank: our tuition had this built in. i used it throughout the year with each organ system. so at the end of the block just before the final exam in class i'd spend a day or 2 and hammer out the entire section of relevant organ system questions.. it was good for class and also good for prepping your mind for board style questions months and months before the test
-USMLE Rx. i started using this in march after i burned through all of kaplan and wanted extra practice, but didn't want to waste uworld. I did 1 - 2 blocks per day and always did full 1 hour blocks to get your mind used to the length of a block
-UW: i started UW in mid april, a few weeks before M2 ended. I did 2 blocks/day with the intention of finishing UW first pass a week and a half before my test roughly (early june) and have enough time to do a pass through and do the ones i got wrong/marked
-Sketchy: sketchy is fantastic. start it early and don't overload yourself with so many images in your mind because you won't be able to keep them straight. so that's why i did one per day.

 

[qtpai]

Just wanted to put it out there that I took my exam June 30, and my permit link disappeared today! anyone else??

Yep. I think we're getting our scores tomorrow.

 

[ninjaman22]

First of all, congrats to everyone! Got my USMLE score last week and just got my COMLEX score today, and I was waiting for both score before posting anything. Thank you everyone here for all your help!

Scores

COMLEX (6/16) – 695
USMLE (6/10) – 251

COMSAE C (January) – 549
COMSAE E (March) – 591
COMSAE D (April) – 651


NBME 11 (3/6) – 235
NBME 12 (4/16) – 242
NBME 13 (4/23) – 245
NBME 15 (4/30) – 251
UWorld Assessment 1 (5/7) – 251
UWorld Assessment 2 (5/12) – 254
NBME 16 (5/21) – 251
NBME 18 (5/28) – 254
Free 150 at Prometric (5/31) – 88%
NBME 17 (6/4) – 249

COMBANK average - 82%
UWorld average - 79%

Studying Method

I basically started studying for the boards from the first day of medical school. For me, I wanted to do really well and get A’s in every single class. Therefore, I studied very hard almost every day. I had really good grades and right now I am in the top 5% of my class in terms of class rank. I would say doing well in classes is the single most important advice anyone can give you here. Doing well in classes and understanding concepts just builds the foundation for everything. This makes studying during dedicated so much easier. You can basically focus on your weaknesses and keep practicing questions during dedicated if you have a good foundation. During the summer after my first year, I read through FA, did Pathoma, and COMBANK questions of everything we covered during the first year. I am not really sure how much this helped but I wouldn’t recommend doing much during the summer and instead just relax.

During the second year, I started doing questions from COMBANK + Kaplan, reading FA, doing Pathoma corresponding to whatever was being covered in classes. I would try to do at least 15 – 20 questions per night. This would get pretty difficult before a quiz or exam. I started doing UWorld from late December. At first, I would do maybe 15 – 20 questions from sections we have already covered in school. Reading the explanations and carefully understanding and annotating the mistakes into FA was one of the most important things I did. I would basically do the 15 – 20 UWorld questions before going to classes and then review them after coming back from school. In addition, I started doing DIT from March. I would watch maybe 3 – 4 videos per day and take notes. DIT is a good resource if you have the time. At the end of school year, I had already done at least 1 pass of Pathoma and FA.

I basically started my dedicated in mid April right after school ended. For the first month, I finished up DIT, did 1 block of remaining UWorld questions/day, and did 1 pass of FA. During the second month (more like 3 weeks), I did 2nd pass of Pathoma, 2nd pass of UWorld (3 blocks/day), and 2nd pass of FA. During my 2nd pass of UWorld, all the questions I missed, I would basically type out a short explanation. I reviewed these explanations at least once or twice a week. In the last week before the USMLE, I did one final pass of FA to keep everything fresh in my head. I didn’t do any questions but I reviewed my mistake notes from 2nd pass of UWorld.

After the USMLE, I took a day off. Read Saverese for 2 days. Along with Saverese, I also did all the OMM COMBANK questions to get in the mode of COMLEX style questions. Reviewing the stupid Chapman’s points and viscerosomatic reflexes are the most important around this time.

 

[FistLength]

People should quote their end of world, fire and brimstone post after they took their USMLE when they are reporting their 240+ scores. Very happy so many of SDNers are doing well, but it got ridiculous. Maybe it is a tradition at this point...

 

[Mad Jack]

Yep. I think we're getting our scores tomorrow.

Hopefully they come in around 11 like usual. My adrenals, they can't take anymore of this!

 

[TheShaker]

Hopefully they come in around 11 like usual. My adrenals, they can't take anymore of this!

From 0 to pheochromocytoma, how pumped are they right now?

 

[Mad Jack]

From 0 to pheochromocytoma, how pumped are they right now?

I'm totally bilaterally pheo'd rn

 

[PinkPuff_BlueBloat]

I took Uworld1 on 6/13, got a 258. I hope to get my score back this morning. Is there any recommended calculation for UWSA1 correction for score prediction? I've been hearing UWSA1 minus 15.


Edit:
real score: 251

 

[Transposony]

Hopefully they come in around 11 like usual. My adrenals, they can't take anymore of this!

It shouldn't bother you being a "Competitive Antagonist" 🙂

 

[AnalisCanalis]

I took Uworld1 on 6/13, got a 258. I hope to get my score back this morning. Is there any recommended calculation for UWSA1 correction for score prediction? I've been hearing UWSA1 minus 15.

It's supposedly more predictive now that they recalibrated the scoring. In any case, it's difficult to draw conclusions from a single score.

 

[Mad Jack]

It's supposedly more predictive now that they recalibrated the scoring. In any case, it's difficult to draw conclusions from a single score.

UWSA 1, pre-calibration: 251
UWSA 2, post-calibration: 222
NBME 12, 8 weeks out: 213
NBME 13, 1 week out: 241
NBME 18, 3 days out: 230
UW First Pass: 64%
Kaplan First Pass: 60%

Real Deal: 226

I had a really rough test day, and as you can see based on my self-assessments, my performance was all over the place. I have some really strong areas and some really weak areas, but I really got hurt by not going back and looking at some of the MS1 stuff in First Aid. Had I given that a pass, probably would have walked out with a 230+, but hey, I'm thrilled to be where I'm at, since a 230 was my goal all along and bulk memorization has always been a weak point of mine. This test really challenged me, and I walked away feeling like I'd failed, so I guess that's totally normal. So glad to be done

 

[Postictal Raiden]

UWSA 1, pre-calibration: 251
UWSA 2, post-calibration: 222
NBME 12, 8 weeks out: 213
NBME 13, 1 week out: 241
NBME 18, 3 days out: 230
UW First Pass: 64%
Kaplan First Pass: 60%

Real Deal: 226

I had a really rough test day, and as you can see based on my self-assessments, my performance was all over the place. I have some really strong areas and some really weak areas, but I really got hurt by not going back and looking at some of the MS1 stuff in First Aid. Had I given that a pass, probably would have walked out with a 230+, but hey, I'm thrilled to be where I'm at, since a 230 was my goal all along and bulk memorization has always been a weak point of mine. This test really challenged me, and I walked away feeling like I'd failed, so I guess that's totally normal. So glad to be done

Congrats. With your USMLE&COMLEX you should have a solid shot at your specialties of interest.

 

[Batphysician]

USMLE experience


UWSA 1: 245
USWA2: 245 (1 week before test)
NBME 17: 222
UWORLD Qbank: 67%
Real Deal: Didn't get a wink of sleep the night before because of nerves. Test felt to me exactly like UWORLD.
but the adrenaline kept me going and pacing decently
Real Deal Score: mid 220s

Did other COMLEX related studying too (Combank, Savarese etc) took COMLEX and happy with that score as well in 560-570s

Overall happy with my score I guess the NBME was most accurate predictor. UWORLD self assessment definitely overestimated. I probably would've scored a little better if I slept properly but alls well that ends well. I'm happy with my score and ready to move on with my life. After The test I had NO idea how I did. I felt okay from the question content but I felt I could've ranged from 200-250 for my score especially without the sleep. So its pretty impossible to predict your score based on how you felt post test. So when the next group of test takers take their exam. Trust your assessments and your studying. You will feel pretty crappy no matter how you did. 🙂 Congrats to everyone!

 

[Mad Jack]

Congrats. With your USMLE&COMLEX you should have a solid shot at your specialties of interest.

Pretty much. I mean, psych, IM, FM, anesthesia, and neurology have always been my go-to specialties. Hoping to figure out which one of them fits best in MS3, but I'm on solid ground for all of the residencies in my state I'm interested in that take DOs. Just gotta sort out what I want and it's pretty much mine.

 

[Mad Jack]

USMLE experience


UWSA 1: 245
USWA2: 245 (1 week before test)
NBME 17: 222
UWORLD Qbank: 67%
Real Deal: Didn't get a wink of sleep the night before because of nerves. Test felt to me exactly like UWORLD.
but the adrenaline kept me going and pacing decently
Real Deal Score: mid 220s

Did other COMLEX related studying too (Combank, Savarese etc) took COMLEX and happy with that score as well in 560-570s

Overall happy with my score I guess the NBME was most accurate predictor. UWORLD self assessment definitely overestimated. I probably would've scored a little better if I slept properly but alls well that ends well. I'm happy with my score and ready to move on with my life. After The test I had NO idea how I did. I felt okay from the question content but I felt I could've ranged from 200-250 for my score especially without the sleep. So its pretty impossible to predict your score based on how you felt post test. So when the next group of test takers take their exam. Trust your assessments and your studying. You will feel pretty crappy no matter how you did. 🙂 Congrats to everyone!

Your scores are VERY similar to mine, which really makes me think there's a stronger correlation between the COMLEX and USMLE than in past years. I know it's just N=2, but we're within 5 points of each other on the USMLE and 15 points of each other on the COMLEX. I almost want to gather data for a new score conversion algorithm.

 

[W19]

UWSA 1, pre-calibration: 251
UWSA 2, post-calibration: 222
NBME 12, 8 weeks out: 213
NBME 13, 1 week out: 241
NBME 18, 3 days out: 230
UW First Pass: 64%
Kaplan First Pass: 60%

Real Deal: 226

I had a really rough test day, and as you can see based on my self-assessments, my performance was all over the place. I have some really strong areas and some really weak areas, but I really got hurt by not going back and looking at some of the MS1 stuff in First Aid. Had I given that a pass, probably would have walked out with a 230+, but hey, I'm thrilled to be where I'm at, since a 230 was my goal all along and bulk memorization has always been a weak point of mine. This test really challenged me, and I walked away feeling like I'd failed, so I guess that's totally normal. So glad to be done

So glad you got a decent score...👍

 

[Mad Jack]

So glad you got a decent score...👍

Thanks man. It's funny, I feel like everyone on SDN has like, a 240+, leaving us mere mortals feeling inadequate, but hell, I'm proud of my score. Put in a lot of hard work and was within three points of the average on one of the most difficult tests in the world, with some of the smartest people on this planet as my competition. I'll take within spitting difference of average against that crowd.

How'd you end up doing btw? Or are you still waiting for the numbers?

 

[Central_SOULcus]

Passed!!!!!! Scored right around my NBME average, but lower than my highest one. I knew I made some dumb mistakes on test day, but as everyone else has said, trust your NBME scores!

I don't have anything new to add, especially because I'm not in the 240+ crew, but I'm happy enough with my score. Just like everyone else, I did UFAP during dedicated. Now I officially feel like an M3!

 

[W19]

Thanks man. It's funny, I feel like everyone on SDN has like, a 240+, leaving us mere mortals feeling inadequate, but hell, I'm proud of my score. Put in a lot of hard work and was within three points of the average on one of the most difficult tests in the world, with some of the smartest people on this planet as my competition. I'll take within spitting difference of average against that crowd.

How'd you end up doing btw? Or are you still waiting for the numbers?

The average is still 229! You are right in that it's a difficult exam and it does not help when the average IQ of the people who are taking it is 130 according the U of Wisconsin😛


I had some personal issues that came up, so I had to push my test date. My last NBME was in the low 200s. Needless to say that I am not ready yet.

 

[Mad Jack]

The average is still 229! You are right in that it's a difficult exam and it does not help when the average IQ of the people who are taking it is 130 according the U of Wisconsin😛


I had some personal issues that came up, so I had to push my test date. My last NBME was in the low 200s. Needless to say that I am not ready yet.

Good luck when you get around to it, you're gonna make it!

 

[Batphysician]

Your scores are VERY similar to mine, which really makes me think there's a stronger correlation between the COMLEX and USMLE than in past years. I know it's just N=2, but we're within 5 points of each other on the USMLE and 15 points of each other on the COMLEX. I almost want to gather data for a new score conversion algorithm.

hmm that is weird. Lets see if theres others

 

[josh999]

Hey guys...im suppose to take my exam 16th of August,2016. I have been fluctuating a lot on my nbme...nbmes range from 211 - 230, Uworld Assess 1 is 234 and my goal is 230. I know for sure that i wont be able to jump to a 250 in 3 weeks or so...but can you give me an idea of what you guys did over the last couple of weeks? OR what you think i should do over the next weeks to boost my nbme score.

Last nbme was 17 - dropped to 211 from 220
since then i have done 3 weeks of - questions from uworld, pathoma 1, read FA, and STEP 1 anki cards
I will be doing an nbme tomorrow...but following this nbme what should be my aim for the 3 weeks before my exam.

 

[ortnakas]

Thanks man. It's funny, I feel like everyone on SDN has like, a 240+, leaving us mere mortals feeling inadequate, but hell, I'm proud of my score. Put in a lot of hard work and was within three points of the average on one of the most difficult tests in the world, with some of the smartest people on this planet as my competition. I'll take within spitting difference of average against that crowd.

How'd you end up doing btw? Or are you still waiting for the numbers?

That's how I feel, too. My 220s score isn't impressive by SDN standards, but I'm okay with it, and my COMLEX score somehow turned out great (580s). Congrats on being done and ready to move on!

 

[OncologyDOhopeful]

So I got my USMLE back today and COMLEX back yesterday. Yeah 2 scary moments when you read "Scores posted" lol. Unfortunately both were only slightly above average (550 comlex, 233 step 1) so its probably among the lower tier of SDN people.

I have mixed emotions about these scores. I know I worked by tail off (15000+ practice questions for both- UWorld 1.7 times, FA 4 times). So I can't say its without giving it my all. I guess my mistake was not being organized enough. I should have done less questions and perhaps spent more time on explanations. But at the same time, I guess I'm proud of my efforts and how far I have come since a super low MCAT score history(average was in the low 20's).

Maybe this is a stepping stone to succeed on Step 2, COMLEX 2. I guess I have to work more efficently next time.

 

[TheBDP]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thanks for all of your great advice on how to study and what to expect for the USMLE.

UWorld 1st Pass: 75%
Uworld 2nd Pass: 94%
UWSA1 (3/05/16) 238
UWSA2 (04/10/16) 245
NBME 15 (04/22) 251
NBME 13 (05/01) 258
NBME 16 (05/11) 271, really lucky
NBME 17 (05/18) 260, luck again
Free 117 (05/21) 95%, made some stupid mistakes
NBME 18 (05/22) 258
Real Thing: 260-270 range

COMSAE D (04/25): 615
COMLEX: 720-730 range


To study I did the typical UFAP + Sketchy and Anki
3x pathoma (annotate FA first go)
4x FA (legitimate run-throughs with conceptualization... lost track of how many times I skimmed)
2x BRS physio
2x UWorld (random timed, annotate FA first go; put incorrects into Anki)
2x SketchyMicro (annotate FA)

After the exam I actually felt really good. I know it may be an N=1, but it felt just like a ton of UWorld blocks to me. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to pay it forward!

 

[Adjet]

Scores came back for late June today so thought I'd chime in. My dedicated study period was 7 weeks.

Unlike everyone else here I only took two simulated practice exams (sorry about the lack of data points). Though I did look through the Qs/As for NBME 16 & 18 the week before my exam.

UWorld: Started in the 50s-60s at the beginning, mostly 70s midway through, and low 80s (average) by the very end.
NBME 17: 249 (4 weeks out, after one pass through FA & Pathoma + >50% of Uworld)
'Free 120': 92% (4 days before the exam)

Based on previous students' experiences, it seems like people plateau after the initial learning period, so I didn't feel the need to gauge my progress in a simulated setting again.

Real Deal: 256

I believe I had a fairly easy form, because I felt pretty good walking out of the test (marked <10 on most sections) except for one extremely difficult section where I felt like I was guessing on a bunch of them, even running out of time going through my marked questions. For my mental well-being, I'm really glad I got an easier form. My strategy was to spend about ~1 min/question initially so I had 20 minutes left. In this time I went through every question at least once (tried to justify the answer I chose), and then tackled the marked questions. Doing this, I caught ~2-3 silly mistakes or reasoning errors per section, which was crucial. There's something about seeing a question again after being away for a bit that makes things click sometimes - so if you get stuck, move on and come back to it.

Everyone else has touched on the key points, the most important of which is to get the material down cold when you first learn it in class. The foundation makes it so much easier during the dedicated period. Also, there were 2 questions I distinctly remember from my exam that weren't in UFAP that I only knew the answer to because I paid attention in class. These are the points that matter once you hit 240+.

Besides that, if my 'improvement' from NBME 17 cannot be explained by random variation alone I would have to credit a 2nd pass through FA, and Kaplan Q bank after finishing Uworld (ripped through medium + hard questions in tutor for ~1.5 weeks). Kaplan, while annoying, got me at least a couple questions on concepts that weren't as emphasized or mentioned in UFAP. IMO it's more worthwhile than a 2nd pass of Uworld, assuming one only started using Uworld during the dedicated study period. In addition to the resources I've mentioned, I like to shout out to 'high-yield gross anatomy' which was a fairly readable one stop shop to master a majority of step 1 anatomy. Felt so much better about anatomy after flipping through this.

Best of luck to the next batch of students

 

[jnmdz]

Scores came back for late June today so thought I'd chime in. My dedicated study period was 7 weeks.

Unlike everyone else here I only took two simulated practice exams (sorry about the lack of data points). Though I did look through the Qs/As for NBME 16 & 18 the week before my exam.

UWorld: Started in the 50s-60s at the beginning, mostly 70s midway through, and low 80s (average) by the very end.
NBME 17: 249 (4 weeks out, after one pass through FA & Pathoma + >50% of Uworld)
'Free 120': 92% (4 days before the exam)

Based on previous students' experiences, it seems like people plateau after the initial learning period, so I didn't feel the need to gauge my progress in a simulated setting again.

Real Deal: 256

I believe I had a fairly easy form, because I felt pretty good walking out of the test (marked <10 on most sections) except for one extremely difficult section where I felt like I was guessing on a bunch of them, even running out of time going through my marked questions. For my mental well-being, I'm really glad I got an easier form. My strategy was to spend about ~1 min/question initially so I had 20 minutes left. In this time I went through every question at least once (tried to justify the answer I chose), and then tackled the marked questions. Doing this, I caught ~2-3 silly mistakes or reasoning errors per section, which was crucial. There's something about seeing a question again after being away for a bit that makes things click sometimes - so if you get stuck, move on and come back to it.

Everyone else has touched on the key points, the most important of which is to get the material down cold when you first learn it in class. The foundation makes it so much easier during the dedicated period. Also, there were 2 questions I distinctly remember from my exam that weren't in UFAP that I only knew the answer to because I paid attention in class. These are the points that matter once you hit 240+.

Besides that, if my 'improvement' from NBME 17 cannot be explained by random variation alone I would have to credit a 2nd pass through FA, and Kaplan Q bank after finishing Uworld (ripped through medium + hard questions in tutor for ~1.5 weeks). Kaplan, while annoying, got me at least a couple questions on concepts that weren't as emphasized or mentioned in UFAP. IMO it's more worthwhile than a 2nd pass of Uworld, assuming one only started using Uworld during the dedicated study period. In addition to the resources I've mentioned, I like to shout out to 'high-yield gross anatomy' which was a fairly readable one stop shop to master a majority of step 1 anatomy. Felt so much better about anatomy after flipping through this.

Best of luck to the next batch of students

I used the same strategy during the test. I marked ~15 questions per section so that I could return to double check math, re-read the stem if the question seemed too straightforward, or tackle a difficult question.

Unlike most people I felt pretty good after my test. I didn't think it required the higher level reasoning that most people talk about, and I expected a more difficult exam than I had. It's possible that my perception is skewed because I took COMLEX a few days before Step 1.

 

[jqueb29]

UWSA 1, pre-calibration: 251
UWSA 2, post-calibration: 222
NBME 12, 8 weeks out: 213
NBME 13, 1 week out: 241
NBME 18, 3 days out: 230
UW First Pass: 64%
Kaplan First Pass: 60%

Real Deal: 226

I had a really rough test day, and as you can see based on my self-assessments, my performance was all over the place. I have some really strong areas and some really weak areas, but I really got hurt by not going back and looking at some of the MS1 stuff in First Aid. Had I given that a pass, probably would have walked out with a 230+, but hey, I'm thrilled to be where I'm at, since a 230 was my goal all along and bulk memorization has always been a weak point of mine. This test really challenged me, and I walked away feeling like I'd failed, so I guess that's totally normal. So glad to be done

Congrats man! It's an indescribable relief to be done with that and able to move on to worrying about other obstacles now lol

 

[Brorthopedic]

It's obvious to me that, for the high scorers at least, their scores hardly go up during their entire dedicated study period. Those hitting 250/260s were hitting 230/240s in the beginning of their dedicated period... I guess it's time to buckle down hard and learn this **** well from the get-go.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

It's obvious to me that, for the high scorers at least, their scores hardly go up during their entire dedicated study period. Those hitting 250/260s were hitting 230/240s in the beginning of their dedicated period... I guess it's time to buckle down hard and learn this **** well from the get-go.

Very true. It's highly unlikely to go from a non passing score to 250+ during dedicated alone. For that reason, you should aim that your "baseline" score be where you want your score to be in the worst case scenario.

 

[StrongIslandDoc]

How do we find out what date we will get our scores?

 

[aeruginosa]

I'm in a time crunch- How many NBMEs should one take (ideally would be as many as possible but I don't think I can take more) and when? I'm thinking of taking one mid Uworld, and one after completing Uworld, which is 4-5 days before the real deal.

Suggestions anyone?

 

[TBV]

I'm in a time crunch- How many NBMEs should one take (ideally would be as many as possible but I don't think I can take more) and when? I'm thinking of taking one mid Uworld, and one after completing Uworld, which is 4-5 days before the real deal.

Suggestions anyone?

My advice would be don't take one within a week of the real deal unless you really need to have one more data point in order to decide to move the test or not. If you aren't going to move it, don't shake your confidence. I would take one weekly throughout dedicated. It worked for me and guided my studies.

 

[Central_SOULcus]

I'm in a time crunch- How many NBMEs should one take (ideally would be as many as possible but I don't think I can take more) and when? I'm thinking of taking one mid Uworld, and one after completing Uworld, which is 4-5 days before the real deal.

Suggestions anyone?

Everyone is different, but I personally did 3 NBMEs (16, 17, and 18) plus the "free 120." I took form 18 ten days before my actual exam, and the free 120 eight days before. I agree with not taking an NBME within a week of your exam...I heard from friends who took Step before I did that form 18 was the most difficult. I purposely left it for the tail end of my dedicated so I would be appropriately prepared for it, but I also made sure to do it ten days before the real deal so I would have time to collect myself in case my score dropped. (Looking back, this was the right move for me, because my score dropped 10 points on 18 and I panicked, right on schedule!) The "free 120" was essential because I not only did better on it than on 18, but I also got to practice using the FRED software to simulate test day.

Take my advice with a grain of salt though...I don't know what score you're aiming for. Though I'm personally satisfied with my score, I'm not part of the 240+ crew! Also, I realize that aside from UFAP, everyone really is different. For instance, a friend of mine did only 1 NBME and instead focused on multiple Q banks. He scored just above the current average...Another friend of mine did 4 NBMEs and scored a 210. The examples are endless, so I don't think there's really a single one-size-fits-all approach. Good luck!!

 

[Vans42]

It's obvious to me that, for the high scorers at least, their scores hardly go up during their entire dedicated study period. Those hitting 250/260s were hitting 230/240s in the beginning of their dedicated period... I guess it's time to buckle down hard and learn this **** well from the get-go.

This is more for future students taking this test, but I got a 250-255 and I had a 78 point jump from my pre-study NBME exam. My baseline was good but had forgotten a lot of details until I went through FA for the first time (I didn't really go through it until my dedicated study time). During the year I only did Sketchy for my infectious disease class (except for viruses) and Pathoma (mostly the book and not the videos, and I used this to study for Path instead of my course syllabus). It IS possible to jump IF you had a good base but are like me and didn't remember a lot of the details. I did FA 3x and Uworld ~160% (including doing the questions that I got wrong the first time around) and that's it. Also, oddly enough my Uworld practice tests were closer to my real score than the NBME practice tests, BUT my average for all tests (except for the first one) was only about 4 points lower than my real score. Nothing makes up for a bad baseline, but it is possible to have big jumps if you go ham during dedicated study time and you learned the material well the first time around.

 

[jpwsurf21]

I'm in a time crunch- How many NBMEs should one take (ideally would be as many as possible but I don't think I can take more) and when? I'm thinking of taking one mid Uworld, and one after completing Uworld, which is 4-5 days before the real deal.

Suggestions anyone?

I would do 15, 16, 17, and 18 if you could and I wouldn't do one within the last week because of the reasons listed above me. I did 3 in my last week and it was a mistake spending so much time on them when I should have just been reading and reviewing with the time I had left.

I would suggest running through a Full Length simulation at some point, whether that be an NBME and then 3 UWorld blocks or an NBME + UWSA. It's not to build endurance - just to get a sense of what you need to eat on exam day? do you need a redbull? is a powerbar by itself enough? you get the idea.

 

[canary90]

Did anyone do a practice test at Prometric? Was the practice test the same as Free 120?

 

[MelMcT2009]

Were the last round of scores from tests taken 3 weeks ago? Took mine 7/7 and am wondering if I should expect them this week or the next

 

[gruemd]

Just wanted to post a little something for all of those truly average students out there stressing about this test.

I just barely got into ONE mid-tier allopathic school, with an MCAT of 29 and a gpa/sgpa of not quite 3.2, so please believe me when I tell you that I'm not the regular SDN poster who freaks when they get a 95% on something instead of the usual 99%.

In our school's basic science nbme test thing, I scored the equivalent of 160s-170s (about 2 or 2.5 months out)
NBME 13 beginning of dedicated (which was 5 weeks): 196. Passing, but just barely.
NBME 15 (three weeks out): 216
NBME 16 (two weeks out): 224
NBME 18 (one week out): 241
Real deal: High 240s

As you can see I came from humble beginnings instead of being someone worried that they only started dedicated with a 235. UWorld, FA, Pathoma, Sketchy (micro and pharm), and flashcards over every question I missed while doing Uworld. That's all I did. Got through FA almost 2x, but not quite. Wrote out/drew concepts and cycles that I couldn't remember very well. Felt like I knew nothing the night before the test and almost postponed.

You can totally do this, and you can even do well. But you gotta want it, hard. Probably in the top 1/3 of my class, which is close to 200 people, but not by much. Honored a few classes, but the majority were just passes.I took a lot of nights off M1/M2 and didn't study a ton on weekends, but for your dedicated period, you have to REALLY be dedicated. I studied from 8 am to 11 pm and sometimes later almost every day, took maybe one and a half days off total. I almost went insane, but the results are so worth it. My scores improved almost perfectly linearly, and if I can do that, so can you. I'm here for pep talks or advice or questions or whatever.

 

[canary90]

Just wanted to post a little something for all of those truly average students out there stressing about this test.

I just barely got into ONE mid-tier allopathic school, with an MCAT of 29 and a gpa/sgpa of not quite 3.2, so please believe me when I tell you that I'm not the regular SDN poster who freaks when they get a 95% on something instead of the usual 99%.

In our school's basic science nbme test thing, I scored the equivalent of 160s-170s (about 2 or 2.5 months out)
NBME 13 beginning of dedicated (which was 5 weeks): 196. Passing, but just barely.
NBME 15 (three weeks out): 216
NBME 16 (two weeks out): 224
NBME 18 (one week out): 241
Real deal: 248

As you can see I came from humble beginnings instead of being someone worried that they only started dedicated with a 235. UWorld, FA, Pathoma, Sketchy (micro and pharm), and flashcards over every question I missed while doing Uworld. That's all I did. Got through FA almost 2x, but not quite. Wrote out/drew concepts and cycles that I couldn't remember very well. Felt like I knew nothing the night before the test and almost postponed.

You can totally do this, and you can even do well. But you gotta want it, hard. Probably in the top 1/3 of my class, which is close to 200 people, but not by much. Honored a few classes, but the majority were just passes.I took a lot of nights off M1/M2 and didn't study a ton on weekends, but for your dedicated period, you have to REALLY be dedicated. I studied from 8 am to 11 pm and sometimes later almost every day, took maybe one and a half days off total. I almost went insane, but the results are so worth it. My scores improved almost perfectly linearly, and if I can do that, so can you. I'm here for pep talks or advice or questions or whatever.

Congrats on your awesome results! And thanks for sharing your experience!
What do you think helped you to improve your score from 224 to 241 in a week? Was it getting used to the NBME style of questioning? Or solving more of Uworld blocks in that week? Or working on weak areas? Another question if I may please ask, what resources did you use for Biostats? How did you find biostats questions on NBMEs in comparison to Uworld and Real exam?

Thanks in advance!! 🙂

 

[gruemd]

Congrats on your awesome results! And thanks for sharing your experience!
What do you think helped you to improve your score from 224 to 241 in a week? Was it getting used to the NBME style of questioning? Or solving more of Uworld blocks in that week? Or working on weak areas? Another question if I may please ask, what resources did you use for Biostats? How did you find biostats questions on NBMEs in comparison to Uworld and Real exam?

Thanks in advance!! 🙂

Thanks! Yeah, during that week I finally started in on my weak areas (OB and Heme/onc...I have such a hard time keeping ovarian/blood cancers straight in my mind). I also hit weak pharm hard. And yeah, I think a good amount of it was having a couple NBMEs under my belt, but then again, 18 was a son of a gun. Oh, I also stopped studying as much with other people during that week, though I'm in the minority that thinks this can actually be helpful sometimes, if you're with the right people. So it's hard to say exactly what the change was!

I got lucky in that I had maybe 3 biostats questions on my whole form, and they were all easily doable with what I learned in Uworld. I probably got lucky overall as I had what felt like a very easy test, so that probably contributed as well, though you'd hope they've got the whole curve down by this point. Who knows, the whole thing feels so luck of the draw. I also had VERY little neuro, which is good for me because it's one of my weaker areas. So maybe my experience is just a big fluke overall!

 

[PowerDan]

Did anyone do a practice test at Prometric? Was the practice test the same as Free 120?

Most of them were the same as Free 120. As far as I recall, I did get some different ones as well, but not too many.

I took the practice test at Prometric mostly to familiarize myself with the testing environment there, not to assess myself or for the questions.

 

[jw3600]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thanks for all of your great advice on how to study and what to expect for the USMLE.

UWorld 1st Pass: 75%
Uworld 2nd Pass: 94%
UWSA1 (3/05/16) 238
UWSA2 (04/10/16) 245
NBME 15 (04/22) 251
NBME 13 (05/01) 258
NBME 16 (05/11) 271, really lucky
NBME 17 (05/18) 260, luck again
Free 117 (05/21) 95%, made some stupid mistakes
NBME 18 (05/22) 258
Real Thing: 260-270 range

COMSAE D (04/25): 615
COMLEX: 720-730 range


To study I did the typical UFAP + Sketchy and Anki
3x pathoma (annotate FA first go)
4x FA (legitimate run-throughs with conceptualization... lost track of how many times I skimmed)
2x BRS physio
2x UWorld (random timed, annotate FA first go; put incorrects into Anki)
2x SketchyMicro (annotate FA)

After the exam I actually felt really good. I know it may be an N=1, but it felt just like a ton of UWorld blocks to me. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to pay it forward!

Very impressive. What kind of hours did you need for this comprehensive plan. Was like like 10 hours a day for 8 straight weeks type of deal?

After taking the test and seeing how my classmates did it really comes down to brute hours out in. The 250+ scorers really impressed me with their multiple passes through everything. I had to admit they just wanted it more than me. I didn't have the willpower. Congrats on a successful boards season.

 

[soop]

Feel like I should chime in since I got my score back.

CBSE: 97
NBME 12: 262 (4/30)
UWSA1: 263 (5/1)
UWSA 2: 265+ (5/7)
NBME 13: 269 (5/16)
NBME 18: 262 (5/21)
NBME 15: 266 (5/23)
NBME 16: 262 (5/27)
NBME 17: 260 (5/30)

Real deal: 265 (6/1)

I had two weeks dedicated that started on 5/16. My opinion is that if you want a high score beyond 240, you will have to memorize exponentially more details.

I used Firecracker consistently during first two years. Sketchy, UFAP, BRS Physio, Kaplan Physio videos, Kaplan Qbank, BRS Behavioral Science.

I did UWorld during MS-2 in untimed, tutor, system mode. Then did Kaplan Qbank in random, timed, mode (89%). Didn't make a second pass through UWorld except for the biostats questions. USMLERx feels like a waste of time if you have been using Firecracker consistently so I gave my USMLERx account away to a friend.