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

 

[tasar1898]

@Maltoma
Only you know your weaknesses man , I guess wrap up Uworld and focus on FA(stuff you feel weak at ) and NBME's only

@Transposony @nds86 Didnt do Rx so cant tell which one is better Kaplan vs Rx , I feel Kaplan helped me by asking WTF questions that you just had to make educated guesses , this helps on the test..

 

[greatsurg]

took the exam on the 19th, the exam was difficult in my opinion, i really don't know what to expect i was marking up to 8 questions per block, i felt confident going into the exam, i had no issues with time, cos the length of the questions were Ok, the long ones were mainly due to lab values and there was a fair mix of easy questions which made things faster. at this point i can only pray and hope.

scores
school CBSSE 220 6 months out
NBME 12 210 5 months out
UWSA1 245 4 months out
NBME 11 180/200 offline
NBME 15 232
UWSA 2 253 4 weeks out
NBME 13 181/200 offline
NBME 17 249 3 weeks
NBME 16 254 1 week out

Free 132 86% 3 days out

score received 245

 

[greatsurg]

You will be fine. Keep going 🙂

you should continue, just woke on the other STEPs and you will be fine

 

[tasar1898]

@greatsurg Seems like UWSA -1 predicted most accurately for both of us

 

[Coach90]

Hello ! I had my steps on Dec 21st 2015 and got my score today ! Feeling so relieved and happy after these months
Step 1 score : 259

 

[plasmodium]

Hello ! I had my steps on Dec 21st 2015 and got my score today ! Feeling so relieved and happy after these months
Step 1 score : 259

Congratulations! Great score. What were your statistics on NBMEs/QBanks if you don't mind my asking?

 

[Coach90]

Congratulations! Great score. What were your statistics on NBMEs/QBanks if you don't mind my asking?

Uworld : 80% 1st time, 92% 2nd time
NBME 17: 257 5 weeks out
Uworld 1: 252 3 weeks out
Uworld 2: 265+ 4 days out
I did nbme 13 and almost half of kaplan qbank but didnt grade myself while doing them.
The exam is a bit different from the assessments tests and I would pretty much agree with the content of the real exam explained by @tasar1898 earlier !

 

[plasmodium]

Uworld : 80% 1st time, 92% 2nd time
NBME 17: 257 5 weeks out
Uworld 1: 252 3 weeks out
Uworld 2: 265+ 4 days out
I did nbme 13 and almost half of kaplan qbank but didnt grade myself while doing them.
The exam is a bit different from the assessments tests and I would pretty much agree with the content of the real exam explained by @tasar1898 earlier !

Nice stats, thank you!

 

[greatsurg]

@greatsurg Seems like UWSA -1 predicted most accurately for both of us

yes its really close

 

[thelastaid]

i just found out mine has disappeared too,super excited and super nervous.best of luck for all those waiting for their scores tomorrow

score:259. was too unsober to post anything yesterday🙂. more happy to score 9 points above my lower limit than being sad of falling 1 point short of my upper limit expectation , my nbme average being 253

 

[usmleraptor]

Please help

I have exact 2 months left for my exam. I have gone through UW once at a slow pace going through explanations thoroughly and haven't given an NBME(giving one on 31st). I know this has been discussed a few times before but I'm confused whether I should go through UW once more or buy a new subscription of Rx to hammer in FA. My basic aim is to keep practicing more questions and having gone through NBME 11,12 for practice sakes, I'm not sure if UW questions with their stellar quality actually come at level with the real exam (presuming that NBME 16,17 must be having a propped up level). Kindly give your valuable suggestions. Please !

 

[cabergoline2]

wow...88% on Uworld. Well, i guess superhumans exist.
What all are you guys scoring on uWorld? what would be a good percentage overall for random/timed?

I saw some charts online, but they were a bit sketch...

when I began I was at 75% random , timed tutor.. towards to end it was 90%+ in most blocks...my overall score at the end of first pass was 88%...anecdotally , I find that > 85% score at the end of first pass in mainly random uworld blocks is associated to test scores of > 250...

 

[plasmodium]

when I began I was at 75% random , timed tutor.. towards to end it was 90%+ in most blocks...my overall score at the end of first pass was 88%...anecdotally , I find that > 85% score at the end of first pass in mainly random uworld blocks is associated to test scores of > 250...

Thank you for sharing. What do you think most facilitated your jump from mid-70s to high-80s?

 

[plasmodium]

score:259. was too unsober to post anything yesterday🙂. more happy to score 9 points above my lower limit than being sad of falling 1 point short of my upper limit expectation , my nbme average being 253

Congratulations on a great score! Would you mind sharing your pre-real deal statistics?

 

[cabergoline2]

Thank you for sharing. What do you think most facilitated your jump from mid-70s to high-80s?

thinking in the manner they want me to think...uworld is a good product for this reason..the effect is carried forward to step2 ck qbank as i have started the ck qbank with early 80...u ll truly appreciate the need for learning basic medical sciences at the end of qbank...it ll connect all the dots...basically don't think of it as practice questions for a test...think of it as a learning tool for basic medical science that ll help u understand the basis of medical practice...and that will help u get a better score too...

 

[cabergoline2]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone used/heard about private tutoring for Step 1 at all and if they have any recommendations? It's a lot of money to invest so I want to pick the right company to work with. I am set on doing private tutoring, I just want to know your experiences! I would appreciate it if I didn't get bombarded with advertisements from companies, I just want some thoughts from students. Thanks!

don't use any...study on your own...most of it is a money making business...u are not a school kid to require tutoring...after my step1 i tried to tutor a friend of mine who was an img from europe .i did not take any money from her.just wanted to help her as she was going through a rough patch..It did not work out well..i realized the limitations of skype based tutoring...it cannot possibly help...i tried explaining concepts with power point presentations etc...it helped in some cases...but i realized that a lot better stuff was already available free of cost on youtube and elsewhere..

 

[thelastaid]

score:259. was too unsober to post anything yesterday🙂. more happy to score 9 points above my lower limit than being sad of falling 1 point short of my upper limit expectation , my nbme average being 253

i did all nbmes offline so my scores are only appromixations, although exact score has no added value as nbme are there to roughly estimate your level of preparation.
nbme 7:244(2 and half months back)
nbme 11:250(1 and half months back)
nbme 12:253(1 month back)
nbme 15: 263(2 wks back)
nbme 16: 244 ( 1 month back took it back to back with nbme 12 to get a feel of full length exam condition )
nbme 17:261(1 wk back)
nbme practice questions(fred):95%
didnt take any UWSA
used kaplan videos ,did Uworld subjectwise ,used usmle rx . did not use goljan(pathoma instead)
Exam experience: you have to remain calm in the exam, you have to practice to stay focused and get over mental fatigue.its easy to get many questions wrong which you know very well and otherwise have gotten right in practice test; this is the biggest preparation you can do in weeks leading to exam.dont try to overanalyse the questions, the chance that they are asking something simple far outweighs the chance they are asking something complicated.

 

[CyberMaxx]

So I'm looking for some advice for how to do questions early on (6 months out). I'm working through USMLERx right now and I'm going pretty slowly. I've found that if I take my time answering questions I end up scoring passably on my questions sets (~ 70%) but it takes me a long time (longer that I would be allowed to spend on a question during the actual test).

Do you guys feel like its good to work through it like I currently am (and I do feel like I'm getting a lot out of doing it this way) or to try and force myself to get through questions faster? FYI at this point I'm doing a block of 44 every few days.

@Phloston and all recent test takers especially

 

[plasmodium]

So I'm looking for some advice for how to do questions early on (6 months out). I'm working through USMLERx right now and I'm going pretty slowly. I've found that if I take my time answering questions I end up scoring passably on my questions sets (~ 70%) but it takes me a long time (longer that I would be allowed to spend on a question during the actual test).

Do you guys feel like its good to work through it like I currently am (and I do feel like I'm getting a lot out of doing it this way) or to try and force myself to get through questions faster?

@Phloston and all recent test takers especially

Start doing questions timed.

 

[allojay]

Start doing questions timed.

What's the purpose of doing them timed, if you're still learning content?

Shouldn't timing be something that should be focused in during dedicated? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just want to see your logic bc I'm an M2 myself and I'm doing my Qbanks untimed bc I'm still learning content.

 

[tasar1898]

@allojay @CyberMaxx You should do them timed. There is no point getting a question right if you spend 5 mins on it , almost anyone could do that .. You gotta train your brain to read fast and think fast , and that aint something you can do in 2 wks or something .. Its easier to learn something from the start than undoing the ''lazy'' pattern and then going the faster way

You can spend all the time in the world in each q after ,when you review the block. Teach your brain to look for the ''keywords'' the question writers put in to guide you to the correct answer

 

[allojay]

@allojay @CyberMaxx You should do them timed. There is no point getting a question right if you spend 5 mins on it , almost anyone could do that .. You gotta train your brain to read fast and think fast , and that aint something you can do in 2 wks or something .. Its easier to learn something from the start than undoing the ''lazy'' pattern and then going the faster way

Good point. Appreciate the advice! I'll start doing that.

 

[plasmodium]

What's the purpose of doing them timed, if you're still learning content?

Shouldn't timing be something that should be focused in during dedicated? I'm not saying you're wrong, I just want to see your logic bc I'm an M2 myself and I'm doing my Qbanks untimed bc I'm still learning content.

For me, it has always been content over questions in terms of how I allocated my study time. What's the purpose of doing questions at all if you haven't even learned the content? The student who asked the question is concerned about time management, so he should practice under testing conditions that will strap him for time; that way he can learn to adapt.

Doing questions untimed in preparation for the USMLE is like giving soldiers a forcefield for bullets during their training, and then removing the forcefield in combat.

 

[tasar1898]

e.g. in this q

"A 12 year old girl is brought to the physician because of a red target-like rash on her left buttock for the past 2 days. The rash developed after the family returned from a 2 week long early summer vacation in Maine. Vital signs normal. The patients infection is taxonmically and morphologically most similar to the infectious agent of which of the following conditions?"
Bacilliary angiomatosis
Chancroid
Leptospirosis
Lymphogranuloma vereneum
Q fever

''target-like rash'' ''2wk summer vacation'' ''Maine'' = Lyme Disease = spirochete = leptospirosis

There are questions like that on the test and this shouldnt take more than 15 sec...

 

[Transposony]

e.g. in this q

"A 12 year old girl is brought to the physician because of a red target-like rash on her left buttock for the past 2 days. The rash developed after the family returned from a 2 week long early summer vacation in Maine. Vital signs normal. The patients infection is taxonmically and morphologically most similar to the infectious agent of which of the following conditions?"
Bacilliary angiomatosis
Chancroid
Leptospirosis
Lymphogranuloma vereneum
Q fever

''target-like rash'' ''2wk summer vacation'' ''Maine'' = Lyme Disease = spirochete = leptospirosis

There are questions like that on the test and this shouldnt take more than 15 sec...

There are a bunch of questions like these on Kaplan Q Bank and quite a few Up/Down arrow questions.

 

[thelastaid]

Doing questions timed or untimed depends on what question banks you are doing. I did UWorld 1st time mostly untimed mostly because i was trying to get the grasp of usmle like questions and learning to analyse questions than using it as assesment . on 2nd pass i did it untimed. Usmle rx questions are short and mostly memory based(mostly moderately easy and some insanely hard) , if you cannot think instantly of answer, its better to look at the answer itself.i did Rx late in course of my study NBMEs are your assesment tool and should always be done Timed(common sense).after you have covered enough content and questions, you will develop your pattern recognition to think of the most likely answer and rule out other similar options simultaneously, but like everything else, it takes time and practice.And make sure you have covered your contents before moving on to questions, studying FA makes it quite easy to deal with Rx questions

So I'm looking for some advice for how to do questions early on (6 months out). I'm working through USMLERx right now and I'm going pretty slowly. I've found that if I take my time answering questions I end up scoring passably on my questions sets (~ 70%) but it takes me a long time (longer that I would be allowed to spend on a question during the actual test).

Do you guys feel like its good to work through it like I currently am (and I do feel like I'm getting a lot out of doing it this way) or to try and force myself to get through questions faster? FYI at this point I'm doing a block of 44 every few days.

@Phloston and all recent test takers especially

 

[worldbeater]

don't use any...study on your own...most of it is a money making business...u are not a school kid to require tutoring...after my step1 i tried to tutor a friend of mine who was an img from europe .i did not take any money from her.just wanted to help her as she was going through a rough patch..It did not work out well..i realized the limitations of skype based tutoring...it cannot possibly help...i tried explaining concepts with power point presentations etc...it helped in some cases...but i realized that a lot better stuff was already available free of cost on youtube and elsewhere..

I 100% disagree if your doing abysmal on an NBME (like double digits) and not making any progress. If you find a really good tutor, they can help efficiently guide you to understand the content needed for the exam. Then you gain the ability to understand the explanations on practice questions; at this point you can do it independently and just keep doing practice questions until you get to the score that you desire.

If your already passing NBMEs, yeah it makes sense just to it yourself because you have already gained the ability to go through a question bank in an efficient manner.

 

[ATypicalLymphocyte]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

 

[plasmodium]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

Stellar score. I was going to ask you what you scored on assessments/QBanks pre-real deal, but that's about all! Eagerly awaiting the writeup. Congratulations.

 

[CyberMaxx]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

Whoa, congrats on the great score!! I know you said you used firecracker, I would be interested in how you incorporated it into your prep and how much of a help you thought it was.

 

[plasmodium]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

Actually I do have a question: of the question banks/NBMEs/UWSAs, which do you think was most representative of questions on the real thing?

 

[Phloston]

Congrats. Thanks for the tag although the only person who did the studying was you. I'm sure people on this forum will value your write-up and the insights you can provide into the new format of the exam and unexpected info that surfaced, now that step 2-like questions have been surfacing. Needless to say have a few beers.

 

[Blue Flame]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

Congrats! What strategy did you use to answer the questions on your real deal? Did you use ChessMaster3000 and kirbymiester's strategy of reading the question first and then skimming the passage, ultimately going through all the questions 2-3 times? Did you use a different strategy? Also, what were the questions like on your exam and how did you feel walking out? How much of your exam would you say was covered by UFAP? Thanks!

 

[cabergoline2]

I 100% disagree if your doing abysmal on an NBME (like double digits) and not making any progress. If you find a really good tutor, they can help efficiently guide you to understand the content needed for the exam. Then you gain the ability to understand the explanations on practice questions; at this point you can do it independently and just keep doing practice questions until you get to the score that you desire.

If your already passing NBMEs, yeah it makes sense just to it yourself because you have already gained the ability to go through a question bank in an efficient manner.

If a person is doing that badly in NBME ,than he has serious lapses in fundamental knowledge . I am not sure how a single tutor can fill gaps in 2 years worth of medical training. The person I tried to tutor was getting 200s in nbme 1 month before her test. Her aim was 230...I solved her incorect NBMEs on skype and also helped her with several concepts she could not get....she got around 220 in the real deal. In retrospect , the only thing she benefited from me was emotional and moral support . If I was a professional tutor , I would have probably billed her like 2000-3000 bucks. (Judging by the hourly rates)...Would that have been worth it ? certainly not ....Even in many of the concepts i taught her , i found her giving youtube links to pre-existing lectures she could have searched herself. She does give me credit for improving her score by 20 points. But I differ..

 

[tvelocity514]

@thelastaid @tasar1898 would you say Kaplan lecture videos are the best for handling the super hard physiology questions? (Eg multiple arrows etc). I've noticed them in the qbank.

 

[Apoplexy__]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

You're the man. Really happy to hear I can still be of help so far removed from my test date. Kudos to paying it forward!

 

[tasar1898]

@tvelocity514 kaplan vids, google, wikipedia , youtube ... Anything that clarifies how this stuff works for you. There aint a single best source. What works for me may suck for you . For the record , I used kaplan book and vids + googled hard concepts

 

[thelastaid]

@thelastaid @tasar1898 would you say Kaplan lecture videos are the best for handling the super hard physiology questions? (Eg multiple arrows etc). I've noticed them in the qbank.

physiology is a like a glue that attaches other disciplines, physio proper questions are rare in exam. having said that, kaplan physiology videos are one of the best in kaplan series in my opinion and i did find it very helpful in dealing questions in general. after using them but the book itself in not that good.using BRS physiology with kaplan videos is the best,although somewhat taxing

 

[skarabrae]

Hey guys,

I got my score back (>270) and I'm currently doing a write-up. I haven't been able to post it because work has been hectic lately. If anyone has any questions aside from the usual (resources used, NBME/UW scores) feel free to post them and I'll try to add the information to the write-up.

I'd also like to thank everyone that has been of help here; reading the experiences really helped throughout the grind. Special thanks to @Phloston @kirbymiester @mcloaf and others whose advice was golden.

Congrats on the ridiculous score.
How did you use FC during dedicated time and if you could go back, would you have changed your approach?

 

[Blue Flame]

Another question: would you say using FC was vital to you scoring as high as you did (270+) or do you simply believe it helped you master the basics (that would probably get you to the 230-240 range)? What would you recommend to someone who did not use FC his or her first two years (and does not plan on starting now) in regards to breaking 270?

 

[Ophthoseidon]

Congrats on the ridiculous score.
How did you use FC during dedicated time and if you could go back, would you have changed your approach?

I'm not trying to make a joke out of this but if I scored >270 I wouldn't change a damn thing lol

 

[Oyehello23]

Dec 23rd Step 1 score : 240+

US IMG, studied 5 months. Now about to start rotations so stress level rising again after relaxing for the last few weeks lol.

Kaplan : 68% (random)
USMLErx: 81% (subject based)
Uworld : 71% (random)
NBME 11 : 222
NBME 12 : 230
NBME 15: 241
NBME 16 : 251

Used First Aid, Pathoma, and Goljan RR. 95% of the exam is in those sources, just work hard and put in the hours.

 

[tvelocity514]

Dec 23rd Step 1 score : 240+

IMG, studied 5 months. Now about to start rotations so stress level rising again after relaxing for the last few weeks lol.

Kaplan : 68% (random)
USMLErx: 81% (subject based)
Uworld : 71% (random)
NBME 11 : 222
NBME 12 : 230
NBME 15: 241
NBME 16 : 251

Used First Aid, Pathoma, and Goljan RR. 95% of the exam is in those sources, just work hard and put in the hours.

What was the time difference between taking your nbmes? Nice score!

 

[Oyehello23]

What was the time difference between taking your nbmes? Nice score!

NBME 11 --> 3 months out
NBME 12 --> 6 weeks out
NBME 15 --> 1 week out
NBME 16 --> 2 days out

 

[nds86]

Dec 23rd Step 1 score : 240+

IMG, studied 5 months. Now about to start rotations so stress level rising again after relaxing for the last few weeks lol.

Kaplan : 68% (random)
USMLErx: 81% (subject based)
Uworld : 71% (random)
NBME 11 : 222
NBME 12 : 230
NBME 15: 241
NBME 16 : 251

Used First Aid, Pathoma, and Goljan RR. 95% of the exam is in those sources, just work hard and put in the hours.

Nice score. Congratulations!!
Would you recommend using Rx subject based along with 2nd year coursework? And, how did you incorporate both pathoma/Goljan RR. Thanks!

 

[PhillyMed777]

Dec 23rd Step 1 score : 240+

IMG, studied 5 months. Now about to start rotations so stress level rising again after relaxing for the last few weeks lol.

Kaplan : 68% (random)
USMLErx: 81% (subject based)
Uworld : 71% (random)
NBME 11 : 222
NBME 12 : 230
NBME 15: 241
NBME 16 : 251

Used First Aid, Pathoma, and Goljan RR. 95% of the exam is in those sources, just work hard and put in the hours.

Sorry for the obnoxious question, but have to ask, did you break 245?

 

[Oyehello23]

Nice score. Congratulations!!
Would you recommend using Rx subject based along with 2nd year coursework? And, how did you incorporate both pathoma/Goljan RR. Thanks!

Yea, USMLE rx is great for helping memorize first aid, the questions are too easy but more questions are always better. I liked Goljan so I read it during 2nd year a couple of times, and would read it after going over the first aid path during the day to reinforce it. Goljan is a bit of overkill and Pathoma can be used instead, I just liked Goljan. Pathoma I'd watch the videos while running at the gym or at nights to make sure I knew my path well.
Questions are the key, I spent 3-4 hours going over a block of Uworld. That's when I saw my biggest jump in scores.

 

[Daitong]

Another question: would you say using FC was vital to you scoring as high as you did (270+) or do you simply believe it helped you master the basics (that would probably get you to the 230-240 range)? What would you recommend to someone who did not use FC his or her first two years (and does not plan on starting now) in regards to breaking 270?

Similarly, for someone that started M1 using FC, what advice can you give?

 

[tasar1898]

Sorry if this sounds dumb but curiosity is killing me... Why do people report scores like >240 , >230 , etc etc.. and not the exact score?? Arent Americans allowed to post exact score online??

 

[AnalisCanalis]

Sorry if this sounds dumb but curiosity is killing me... Why do people report scores like >240 , >230 , etc etc.. and not the exact score?? Arent Americans allowed to post exact score online??

Anonymity