Official 2016 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Transposony

Transposony

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Yeah , I just wanted to say it 😛 . Remember the given SD (20) and Mean (230) are ''estimated'' , the final ones are in the yearly guide on '' How to interpret Step 1 scores'' or somethin' like that
 
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plasmodium said:
For those of you who have taken your exam and received your results, some have said that the "average" given is 230 with a standard deviation of 20. This would mean that >270 is now >97.5th percentile, rather than a score of >267 being >99th percentile. Is this correct?
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You're assuming Step 1 scores follow a normal curve. They do not. Rather, they have a strong negative skew. I'm not sure what the exact percentile for 270 will be this year, but I find it hard to believe it will be anything less than 99th percentile anytime in the near future.
 
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Blue Flame said:
You're assuming Step 1 scores follow a normal curve. They do not. Rather, they have a strong negative skew. I'm not sure what the exact percentile for 270 will be this year, but I find it hard to believe it will be anything less than 99th percentile anytime in the near future.
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A superb example of my inadequacy in biostatistics.

Thanks btw, insightful and interesting response.
 
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plasmodium said:
A superb example of my inadequacy in biostatistics.

Thanks btw, insightful and interesting response.
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No problem. Just in case you were curious, scores in 2014 had a mean of 229 and an SD of 20, which is almost identical to this year, and did not see a significant change in the percentiles. I think it's hard enough to get a 270 without worrying that it's not the 99th percentile on top of it. 🙂
 
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plasmodium said:
For those of you who have taken your exam and received your results, some have said that the "average" given is 230 with a standard deviation of 20. This would mean that >270 is now >97.5th percentile, rather than a score of >267 being >99th percentile. Is this correct?
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if this is a normal distribution and not a skewed one. However the central limit theorem is applicable as the sample size is clearly massive.. So even if it is a skewed distribution , it might tend to normal. A realistic way of finding out would be to count the number of 260+ scores in NRMP charting outcomes and see what %ile that is . And compare it with the percentile expected if it was a normal distribution curve with the median and SD score given by nbme on the score report..it would be a futile exercise without any practical application of course..
 
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Keep in mind it's not perfectly distributed. Not that many people are getting >270. I'd say it's probably still >99%ile. The average is being brought up by more people going up on the lower range, not the 265ers going to 270.
 
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out of the 50k people who give the test , barely 50o would get 265+ .. 270 is mentioned as 100%ile...so it is likely that barely 50 would real there...even if the number doubles to 100 , it still is 99.8%ile...so number of people scoring > 270 does not seem the affect the median...remember that central limit theorem is a good approximation for values around the median...it will not be accurate for values at extreme unless we were actually dealing with a true normal distribution.
 
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cabergoline2 said:
out of the 50k people who give the test , barely 50o would get 265+ .. 270 is mentioned as 100%ile...so it is likely that barely 50 would real there
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I'm pretty surprised to see this. 500/50,000? Out of sheer curiosity, are there any sources that can confirm this?
 
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plasmodium said:
I'm pretty surprised to see this. 500/50,000? Out of sheer curiosity, are there any sources that can confirm this?
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Look at the score interpretation guidelines link in the post masaraksh above mine. N is 65000...265 is 99 percentile....so out of 65000 people who gave the test in 3 years only 650 scored > 265...270 is listed as 100%... if they are rounding it would at least be 99.5%ile...though most likely around 99.9%ile as the curve tends to be extremely steep at that point....so in 3 years only 65 US/canadian grads may have scored 270+...and at most 325...though it is likely to be closer to 65 than 325....if it is indeed 65 , than doubling the number to 130 does not affect the curve in any significant manner..So the scores at the extreme fringe are not relevant to the curve.
 
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cabergoline2 said:
Look at the score interpretation guidelines link in the post masaraksh above mine. N is 65000...265 is 99 percentile....so out of 65000 people who gave the test in 3 years only 650 scored > 265...270 is listed as 100%... if they are rounding it would at least be 99.5%ile...though most likely around 99.9%ile as the curve tends to be extremely steep at that point....so in 3 years only 65 US/canadian grads may have scored 270+...and at most 325...though it is likely to be closer to 65 than 325....if it is indeed 65 , than doubling the number to 130 does not affect the curve in any significant manner..So the scores at the extreme fringe are not relevant to the curve.
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Current and Future 260+ fellas, who gives a ****??? Y'alll define excellence man, dont need a percentile to exemplify that
 
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NBME 13 : 254
NBME 15 : 251
UWSA1 : 250

My goal on the exam is 250 +/- 10 . Is it reasonable to assume I'm relatively safe and just need to maintain speed and go slay the beast?

taking 16, 17 and UWSA 2 in the coming week/10days.. hope these NBME's are predictive!
finishing second run of Uworld (20% remaining) and slamming through FA.
 
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MemphisBlues said:
Actual score: 260

Study plan consisted of...

Resources: First Aid, UWorld Q-Bank, USMLE Rx Q-Bank, Goljan Pathology, High Yield Anatomy, Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple; Deja Review Pharmacology; Lippincott's Microcards

Plan:
(1) Read through relevant chapter of First Aid x 1 after finishing the module in medical school
(2) Did USMLE Rx x 1 [started lightly ~ 2.5 months before exam day and more intensively ~ 1.5 months before exam day]
(3) Did UWorld Q-Bank x 1 [as with USMLE Rx, the first time through, I annotated First Aid when I got something wrong or blatantly misunderstood something]
(4) Started doing practice exams within one month of Test Day (UWorld x 2 & NBME x 6)
(5) In remaining time --> I went over "wrong" and "marked" in both USMLE Rx and UWorld again.

Practice Results:
USMLE Rx (first pass): ~82%
UWorld Q Bank (first-pass): 82.4%
UWorld 1: 259 (83.52%); 730 (program score)
UWorld 2: 265 (89.77%); 800 (program score)
NBME 11: 260 (93.50%); 650 (program score)
NBME 12: 264 (95.50%); 670 (program score)
NBME 13: 264 (94.50%); 670 (program score)
NBME 15: 262 (93.50%); 660 (program score)
NBME 16: 277 (98.00%); 730 (program score)
NBME 17: 266 (95.50%); 680 (program score)

Predicted score (using Clinical Review Calculator): 264 +/- 9 (not sure how legit this website is, but it claims a fairly large sample size)

Exam Experience: About what I expected from my study period (ie, UWorld + NBMEs), but I believed the exam was a little bit more difficult than the NBMEs.

Actual score: 260

Concluding statement: I'm just slightly disappointed (260 was in the lower range of my practice scores). I felt I was trending up at the end of my study period and had a good shot at doing at least 5 points better. On the other hand, I don't know what I would have done differently, per se, and I think I'll have a pretty competitive application with a 260.

Recommendations: UWorld is great. USMLE Rx is not as bad as people seem to think it is, in my view. USMLE Rx is a very reasonable resource, especially if you get through questions quickly (as I did -- I did more than 100 questions per day regularly with extensive review of the blocks). I ended up not really reading through Goljan, instead using it solely as a resource (who has time to read through Goljan's? -- some people claim to!) I recommend Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple but not Lippincott's Microcards. Deja Review Pharm came in handy but is not super high yield, but it suited me (ie, lots of content review without too much detail a la Lippincott's Microcards).
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how long would 100 questions on Rx take you?
 
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drimo786 said:
NBME 13 : 254
NBME 15 : 251
UWSA1 : 250

My goal on the exam is 250 +/- 10 . Is it reasonable to assume I'm relatively safe and just need to maintain speed and go slay the beast?

taking 16, 17 and UWSA 2 in the coming week/10days.. hope these NBME's are predictive!
finishing second run of Uworld (20% remaining) and slamming through FA.
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When is your exam again?
With 3 exams >250 (assuming appropriate practice conditions like closed-book, etc), I'd say you are right on track.

I'm within a 1.5 weeks of my exam and I'm focusing on crushing whatever's left of FA, along with NBME 17
 
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Tri723 said:
When is your exam again?
With 3 exams >250 (assuming appropriate practice conditions like closed-book, etc), I'd say you are right on track.

I'm within a 1.5 weeks of my exam and I'm focusing on crushing whatever's left of FA, along with NBME 17
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yup, exam-like conditions,closed book. Thanks, some people say NBME's are good predictors, others have had 10+ point drops from their NBME's.. wanted some reassurance.

1.5 weeks for me as well.
 
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drimo786 said:
yup, exam-like conditions,closed book. Thanks, some people say NBME's are good predictors, others have had 10+ point drops from their NBME's.. wanted some reassurance.

1.5 weeks for me as well.
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I think you're in good shape. I completely understand your feelings right now though; no matter how well we do on these NBMEs there is too much uncertainty to feel a sense of security in pre-exam mode lol
 
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Okay .. so this is my first post here .. I found this thread helpful during the excruciating waiting-for-the-results period
here is my experience.. total prep period is 5 months
USMLE RX (80 % correct) + FA for the first time = 1 month
Kaplan Qbank (70 % correct)= 1 month
Consult (83 % correct)+ Robbin's path & Pathoma = 1 month
Uworld (82 % correct)= 2 months
I didn't take any NBMEs
UWSA 1 = 260 .. 50 days before the exam
UWSA 2 = 263 .. 3 days before the exam
I should also mention that i took USMLE CK exam in August 2014 and got a score 252
Step 1 exam score = 246
It's not a stellar score but I'm very satisfied by it as i did all my preparation while doing my obligatory army conscription .. I didn't have any dedicated study period at all .. only got 2 days leave before the exam
So all in all focus on solving as much questions as u can and try to have a good base knowledge and don't waste ur time by going after minutia information .. I felt my exam was an IQ test rather than just regurgitating facts.
Hope u all the best.
 
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A.Morshid said:
Okay .. so this is my first post here .. I found this thread helpful during the excruciating waiting-for-the-results period
here is my experience.. total prep period is 5 months
USMLE RX (80 % correct) + FA for the first time = 1 month
Kaplan Qbank (70 % correct)= 1 month
Consult (83 % correct)+ Robbin's path & Pathoma = 1 month
Uworld (82 % correct)= 2 months
I didn't take any NBMEs
UWSA 1 = 260 .. 50 days before the exam
UWSA 2 = 263 .. 3 days before the exam
I should also mention that i took USMLE CK exam in August 2014 and got a score 252
Step 1 exam score = 246
It's not a stellar score but I'm very satisfied by it as i did all my preparation while doing my obligatory army conscription .. I didn't have any dedicated study period at all .. only got 2 days leave before the exam
So all in all focus on solving as much questions as u can and try to have a good base knowledge and don't waste ur time by going after minutia information .. I felt my exam was an IQ test rather than just regurgitating facts.
Hope u all the best.
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What, besides the lack of time for dedicated study, do you think contributed negatively to your lower than predicted score?
 
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VenuSN said:
What, besides the lack of time for dedicated study, do you think contributed negatively to your lower than predicted score?
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well .. it's a good question ... as u might have understood I already graduated from med school 3 years ago and i'm a bit rusty on basic sciences also i didn't do any comprehensive books during my preparation .. I only relied on review books aka FA which is okay for someone still in med school.
so there u have it if u r an IMG and u r starting step 1 a bit late then brush up ur knowledge with a comprehensive book.
 
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A.Morshid said:
Okay .. so this is my first post here .. I found this thread helpful during the excruciating waiting-for-the-results period
here is my experience.. total prep period is 5 months
USMLE RX (80 % correct) + FA for the first time = 1 month
Kaplan Qbank (70 % correct)= 1 month
Consult (83 % correct)+ Robbin's path & Pathoma = 1 month
Uworld (82 % correct)= 2 months
I didn't take any NBMEs
UWSA 1 = 260 .. 50 days before the exam
UWSA 2 = 263 .. 3 days before the exam
I should also mention that i took USMLE CK exam in August 2014 and got a score 252
Step 1 exam score = 246
It's not a stellar score but I'm very satisfied by it as i did all my preparation while doing my obligatory army conscription .. I didn't have any dedicated study period at all .. only got 2 days leave before the exam
So all in all focus on solving as much questions as u can and try to have a good base knowledge and don't waste ur time by going after minutia information .. I felt my exam was an IQ test rather than just regurgitating facts.
Hope u all the best.
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How do you think of the Usmle consult Qbank compare to the other banks? Thanks
 
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Just took the exam yesterday. I'll post my general study plan and test impressions.

US MD student, true P/F preclinical curriculum

- Firecracker since the beginning of MS1
- Sketchy Micro
- 7-8 months out - RX Qbank
- 4 months out - Kaplan, ~68-70%
- 3 months out - Uworld - 1st pass 73%
- Dedicated time - 4.5 weeks - redid 60% of Uworld doing 1 block/day, read FA through this time

Practice tests:
- 8 weeks out - NBME 11 - 230
- 5 weeks out - NBME 16 - 232
- 4 weeks out - NBME 15 - 247
- 1 week out - UWorld 1 - 252, UWorld 2 - 250
- 3 days before - NBME 16 - 256

Test day - The exam felt very similar to NBMEs, possibly a little harder. The style was more in line with NBME questions and there were no questions that took wild turns in the last 1-2 sentences. There were some really long question stems and experimental questions but on average the questions were shorter than Uworld. I had a handful of "what is the next best step" clinical-type questions, 1 common-sense type safety science question, mostly intuitive ethics questions, some fairly simple biostatistics questions, one neuroanatomy question, some simple anatomy questions and one ridiculous anatomy question about facial structures, but an overall fairly even distribution of topics. I finished each block with 15-20 minutes to review marked answers, right in line with my pace during practice tests, and I am traditionally not a very fast test taker. Interestingly, I had about 5 questions that required knowledge of something that was added into the FA2016 edition, so I was glad to have compared chapters to the 2015 edition as I read through during dedicated.

Overall, I have no idea how I did. I can think of a handful of questions I definitely missed. With 308 questions spread out across 7 hours, it is really impossible to know. There are a lot of questions that I could get it down to two on and just had to take my best guess. However, I did not feel as bad as some people claim to feel afterwards. I'll update in 3-4 weeks when I get my actual score.
 
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HereWeGo21 said:
Kaplan: 77% (5 weeks out)
NBME 16: 266 (2 weeks out)
UWorld: 85% (4 days out)

Real deal: 270
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When you say UWorld and Kaplan, you mean final QBank percentages?

What did you do in the weeks leading up to your exam?

Which practice exams did you feel were most correlative or representative of the real deal?

Superb score! Congratulations!
 
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plasmodium said:
When you say UWorld and Kaplan, you mean final QBank percentages?

What did you do in the weeks leading up to your exam?

Which practice exams did you feel were most correlative or representative of the real deal?

Superb score! Congratulations!
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Thank you!
Yes, these were the final qbank percentages. I only did each Qbank once.

All I did in the weeks leading up was Qbanks. Up until t-4 days, I was doing only Uworld. I finished UWorld 4 days out.

For those final 4 days, I read first aid. This was really the only serious time I spent with first aid. Before that, I had learned exclusively from Qbanks.

NBME16 was the only NBME I did. I thought that this was significantly easier than the real exam, though I might have just been panicked during the exam. When you think twice as hard, every question seems hard. But I'm fairly certain that it was harder than NBME. The questions were very thinking-based, and much less recall-based, than either NBME or UWorld. This is why I would discourage people from focusing on first aid. It will teach you to recall, but it won't teach you how to think. I think that focusing on QBanks, and thinking very hard about each question, especially the ones you got wrong, is the only thing that can teach you the critical thinking skills necessary for the exam.

In fact, I wrote typed notes for nearly every UWorld and Kaplan question. This helped me iron out my ideas, and it was nice being able to search past notes.
 
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HereWeGo21 said:
Thank you!
Yes, these were the final qbank percentages. I only did each Qbank once.

All I did in the weeks leading up was Qbanks. Up until t-4 days, I was doing only Uworld. I finished UWorld 4 days out.

For those final 4 days, I read first aid. This was really the only serious time I spent with first aid. Before that, I had learned exclusively from Qbanks.

NBME16 was the only NBME I did. I thought that this was significantly easier than the real exam, though I might have just been panicked during the exam. When you think twice as hard, every question seems hard. But I'm fairly certain that it was harder than NBME. The questions were very thinking-based, and much less recall-based, than either NBME or UWorld. This is why I would discourage people from focusing on first aid. It will teach you to recall, but it won't teach you how to think. I think that focusing on QBanks, and thinking very hard about each question, especially the ones you got wrong, is the only thing that can teach you the critical thinking skills necessary for the exam.

In fact, I wrote typed notes for nearly every UWorld and Kaplan question. This helped me iron out my ideas, and it was nice being able to search past notes.
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Very thorough thank you for this! 🙂 I will be finishing UWorld a few days out from the exam as well.
 
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Interesting person above thought nbme 16 was significantly easier but scored higher on the real deal. I'm thinking the grading scale used on the real deal is gentler than on the nbmes, not to mention the whole thinking/thought process question style everyone is claiming to be different
 
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HereWeGo21 said:
Thank you!
Yes, these were the final qbank percentages. I only did each Qbank once.

All I did in the weeks leading up was Qbanks. Up until t-4 days, I was doing only Uworld. I finished UWorld 4 days out.

For those final 4 days, I read first aid. This was really the only serious time I spent with first aid. Before that, I had learned exclusively from Qbanks.

NBME16 was the only NBME I did. I thought that this was significantly easier than the real exam, though I might have just been panicked during the exam. When you think twice as hard, every question seems hard. But I'm fairly certain that it was harder than NBME. The questions were very thinking-based, and much less recall-based, than either NBME or UWorld. This is why I would discourage people from focusing on first aid. It will teach you to recall, but it won't teach you how to think. I think that focusing on QBanks, and thinking very hard about each question, especially the ones you got wrong, is the only thing that can teach you the critical thinking skills necessary for the exam.

In fact, I wrote typed notes for nearly every UWorld and Kaplan question. This helped me iron out my ideas, and it was nice being able to search past notes.
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Did you feel that UWorld or Kaplan compared in difficulty to the real deal? Did you take any of the UWSAs?
 
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plasmodium said:
Did you feel that UWorld or Kaplan compared in difficulty to the real deal? Did you take any of the UWSAs?
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I would echo what some other said, which was that the test felt about as hard as UWorld or Kaplan, aka hard. But it was hard more because of the thinking required, as opposed to the obscurity of the subject matter. UWorld achieves some difficulty by asking about obscure stuff, but this wasn't as true of the real test.

Edit: didn't take any UWSAs
 
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Tri723 said:
The above statement is so incredibly true. Whenever I'm getting Uworld wrong is because they bring in some random crap into the question.
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Yeah, totally. I would just take those in stride, and not get too worked up, because it's probably too obscure to matter, but just take it as an opportunity to learn an obscure fact, which might (very low chance) be on the real exam
 
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Long time lurker with first post out of sheer anxiety and disappointment:

Took Step 1 a week ago or so and feeling like I was really prepared but totally blew it. Background info:

NBME 16: ~244 (something like that, I can't remember if it was an even or odd number)
NBME 12: ~ 240
UWorld Self Assessment: ~245

UWorld first pass: 75%

Somehow on test day I felt like I totally forgot a ton of the basics that I had previously known so well. Probably from trying to learn to many crazy details in the last week or so before the test.

Anyone have a similar experience? Honestly I can't imagine that the real thing went as well as my practice tests, and those were decent but I don't want to get much lower than those...
 
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Gotta ask some of ya'll..how much micro did you find on your exams?
I dont mind micro at all, it just blew my mind when some ppl reported taking the step 1 and thought it was predominantly micro
 
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Tri723 said:
Gotta ask some of ya'll..how much micro did you find on your exams?
I dont mind micro at all, it just blew my mind when some ppl reported taking the step 1 and thought it was predominantly micro
Click to expand...

I've heard a lot of different things. I have one friend who said she had a ton of micro and another who said he had very little. I personally had what I felt like was a normal amount. Sketchy micro was pretty much sufficient for me.
 
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finally three miserably LONG weeks later, guess its my turn to contribute ladies and gentlemen. this forum has been the best thing that's happened to me since I started studying for step 1 in September and I hope I can give even a fraction back of what its given me. I apologize in advance for the long post but it has been an incredibly emotional and exhilarating journey that I do need to share with everyone.


Background and Study History: IMG here, couple of years since I studied basic sciences and I was in the 2nd quartile of my class throughout med school. Having never worked hard for anything, step 1 was the first time I really worked towards something with serious dedication. I chose not to use the traditional kaplan LNs method that most IMGs follow (which is undoubtedly very effective if done properly) and instead rocked the American way, I UFAP-ED ALL THE WAY BABY (yeah I'm not too sure if thats a word but whatever). Started with reading FA cover to cover. In retrospect this was really dumb because reading FA is like reading a book in french, if you don't know the french alphabet, it'll just be a bunch of nonsensical gibberish just like reading FA, if you don't know your basic concepts, FA will be a bunch of gibberish and you will not grasp the zillion brilliant concepts packed into a 600ish page review book. So after this first read I had memorized some random stuff but I didn't truly understand anything so I bought RX and started solving the bank. This is where I made another mistake. What I should have done was used RX to engrain FA into my brain, however I straight up just solved RX qbank without referring to FA once (yeah I know what all of you are thinking, unbelievably stupid move, but I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn't join this wonderful forum till after finishing RX and as I'll explain later on, it was a game changer for me). RX helped me learn the material in FA better and I grasped some concepts here. I would type up well explained physiology concepts that I felt was important onto a word document and referred to it periodically. After finishing RX, I then purchased UW and started solving it. This time while solving questions I would have FA open, and I completed 70% of UW in Random/Tutor. Again I would type up notes into a word document or annotate notes into FA. I took my time reading all the explanations, it would take me approximately 5 hours to solve and review a block simultaneously. UW is an absolute golden qbank and everyone here already knows that. Around the same time I started UW, I discovered SDN. This forum is amazing man, an absolute gem. I spent a full day reading the 2015 step 1 experiences and scores thread and only then did I realize the importance of concepts, step 1 is all about concepts man. I started Googling anything I wanted to learn more about out of pure curiosity, SDN ignited the curiosity in me. I spent a lot of time on Google, on Wikipedia straight reading to enhance my depth of understanding.

At this point it was December and I was about 8 weeks out from my test date. The last 8 weeks I divided my time reading FA a third, final and comprehensive time, I did various NBMEs, I did UWSA1, and I spent an incredible amount of time on this forum. I was like a damn parasite man trying to extract all the knowledge I could from any post I deemed interesting. I was also sick for about two weeks which kinda messed up my studying for a period of time but in retrospect because I studied much less during this period, I was able to grind out the last 2-3 weeks.

When I first started studying in September, all I knew about step 1 was from a few friends of mine/ peers who had written it. They had told me 240 was the benchmark score, so arbitrarily I decided that my goal was a 240 or better. After 3 months of studying, when I started taking NBMEs and UWSA1, I started off eclipsing 240s and I realized that maybe, just maybe I could possibly do better than 240s. This was incredibly exciting because with each passing day, I felt that I could "erase" and forget about my years of mediocrity in medical school by achieving something spectacular on the step 1.

Materials Used: UFAP + Google/Wikipedia
FA (3x) Pathoma (2x)
Qbanks used: RX (79% 1x, random/tutor)
UW (76% 1x, 70% random/tutor, 30% random/timed)
Assessments: UWSA1 248 (~8 weeks out)
NBME 13 254 (~6 weeks out)
NBME 15 249 (~4 weeks out)
NBME 16 260 (~2 weeks out)
NBME 17 262 (~10 days out)
Free 137 94% (there's 137 qs people)
NBME Avg: 256

Exam Experience: my short term memory is terrible. now this is advantageous when taking an exam like step 1 since like me you can rapidly forget about the previous block and then focus in on the next one which is very important folks, never let the previous blocks experience linger since you have 300 + questions to get through and you need to maintain a high level of focus throughout. However having a short term memory is terrible when you really want to be able to tell people what topics showed up but honestly can't remember (sorry folks). I just remember thinking each block I was marking more and more questions. I had a lot of ethics and biostatistics type questions which unfortunately was one of my main weaknesses. I probably had 3-4 questions per block. In my score report I was borderline for biostatistics/population health which disappoints me a little because had I answered a few more in this category, I probably would of hit 260.

Take Away: newsflash, step 1 is a thinking exam (you already knew that). the amount of recall questions probably varies per form or simply on your luck but I personally had very little. In other words, once or twice a block I confidently knew the answer because the question was testing a factoid, you either knew it or you didnt. UFAP is absolute gold. Understand every word of everything you encounter in these materials and I am confident all of you will be more than okay. Be curious folks, if you don't understand something, dont be frustrated but rather take it as a fun opportunity to explore something which you didnt know 5 minutes ago but now do. Im certain we would all rather screw up a question on a qbank than on test day and everything you read may be assessed in one way or another so dont lose focus while studying. No matter what your background, whether IMG or US Med student, all of you can do well on this exam with dedication, discipline, and curiosity. With honest time and effort, after completing step 1 you will inevitably have enhanced yourself as an individual. You are already on the path to a wonderful medical career and one way or another you will be a better you, I certainly feel that way. I will conclude this post by saying thank you to everyone on this step 1 forum, everyone who Ive messaged and took the time to reply back to me. Shout out to @tasar1898 for being one of the most helpful and active members of this thread and personally teaching me a crap ton, you a sensei to us all bro!

edit: your preparation and practice tests (NBMEs, UWSAs) give you a pretty good ballpark range of scores you will likely fall within, however it is what you bring on test day that will truly decide the final score.

Real Deal: >255 😉
 
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walakin25 said:
finally three miserably LONG weeks later, guess its my turn to contribute ladies and gentlemen. this forum has been the best thing that's happened to me since I started studying for step 1 in September and I hope I can give even a fraction back of what its given me. I apologize in advance for the long post but it has been an incredibly emotional and exhilarating journey that I do need to share with everyone.


Background and Study History: IMG here, couple of years since I studied basic sciences and I was in the 2nd quartile of my class throughout med school. Having never worked hard for anything, step 1 was the first time I really worked towards something with serious dedication. I choose not to use the traditional kaplan LNs method that most IMGs follow (which is undoubtedly very effective if done properly) and instead rocked the American way, I UFAP-ED ALL THE WAY BABY (yeah I'm not too sure if thats a word but whatever). Started with reading FA cover to cover. In retrospect this was really dumb because reading FA is like reading a book in French, if you don't know the french alphabet, it'll just be a bunch of nonsensical gibberish just like with FA, if you don't know your basic concepts, FA will be a bunch of gibberish and you will not grasp the zillion brilliant concepts packed into a 600ish page review book. So after this first read I had memorized some random stuff and didn't truly understand anything so I bought RX and started solving the bank. This is where I made another mistake. What I should have done was used RX to engrain FA into my brain, however I straight up just solved RX qbank without referring to FA once (yeah I know what all of you are thinking, unbelievably stupid move, but I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn't join this wonderful forumtill after finishing RX and as I'll explain later on, it was a game changer for me). RX helped me learn the material in FA better and I grasped some concepts here, I would type up things that explained the physiology better onto a word document and refer to it periodically. After finishing RX, I then purchased UW and started solving it. This time while solving questions I would have FA open, and I completed 70% of UW in Random/Tutor. Again I would type up notes into a word document or annotate notes into FA. I took my time reading all the explanations, it would take me approximately 5 hours to solve and review a block simultaneously. UW is an absolute golden qbank and everyone here already knows that. Around the same time I started UW, I discovered SDN. This forum is amazing man, an absolute gem. I spent a full day reading the 2015 step 1 experiences and scores thread and only then did I realize the importance of concepts, step 1 is all about concepts man. I started Googling anything I wanted to learn more about out of pure curiosity, SDN ignited the curiosity in me. I spent a lot of time on Google, on Wikipedia just reading to enhance my depth of understanding.

At this point it was December and I was about 8 weeks out from my test date. The last 8 weeks I divided my time reading FA a third, final and comprehensive time, I did various NBMEs, I did UWSA1, and I spent an incredible amount of time on this forum. I was like a damn parasite man trying to extract all the knowledge I could from any post I deemed interesting. I was also sick for about two weeks which kinda messed up my studying for a period of time but in retrospect because I studied much less during this period, I was able to grind out the last 2-3 weeks.

When I first started studying in September, all I knew about step 1 was from a few friends of mine/ peers who had written it. They had told me 240 was the benchmark score, so arbitrarily I decided that my goal was a 240 or better. After 3 months of studying, when I started taking NBMEs and UWSA1, I started off eclipsing 240s and I realized that maybe, just maybe I could possibly do better than 240s. This was incredibly exciting because with each passing day, I felt that I could "erase" and forget about my years of mediocrity in medical school by achieving something spectacular on the step 1.

Materials Used: UFAP + Google/Wikipedia
FA (3x) Pathoma (2x)
Qbanks used: RX (79% 1x, random/tutor)
UW (76% 1x, 70% random/tutor, 30% random/timed)
Assessments: UWSA1 248 (~8 weeks out)
NBME 13 254 (~6 weeks out)
NBME 15 249 (~4 weeks out)
NBME 16 260 (~2 weeks out)
NBME 17 262 (~10 days out)
Free 137 94% (there's 137 qs people)

Exam Experience: my short term memory is terrible. now this is advantageous when taking an exam like step 1 since you rapidly forget about the previous block and can focus in on the next one which is very important folks, never let the previous blocks experience linger since you have 300 + questions to get through and you need to maintain high level of focus throughout. However having a short term memory is terrible when you really want to be able to tell people what topics showed up but honestly cannot remember for the life of you (sorry folks). I just remember thinking each block I was marking more and more questions. I had a lot of ethics and biostatistics type questions which unfortunately was one of my main weaknesses. I probably had 3-4 questions per block. In my score report I was borderline for biostatistics/population health which disappoints me a little because had I answered a few more hear, I probably would of hit 260.

Take Away: newsflash, step 1 is a thinking exam (you already knew that). the amount of recall questions probably varies per form or simply on your luck but I personally had very little. In other words, once or twice a block I confidently knew the answer because the question was testing a factoid, you either knew it or you didnt. UFAP is absolute gold. Understand every word of everything you encounter in these materials and I am confident all of you will be more than okay. Be curious folks, if you don't understand something, dont be frustrated but rather take it as a fun opportunity to explore something which you didnt know 5 minutes ago but now you know. Im certain we would all rather screw up a question on a bank than on test day and everything you read may be assessed in one way or another so dont lose focus while studying. No matter what your background, whether IMG or US Med student, all of you can do well on this exam with dedication, discipline, and curiosity. With honest time and effort, after completing step 1 you will have enhanced yourself as a human being, you will already be on the path to a wonderful medical career, one way or another you will be a better you, I certainly feel that way.

Real Deal: >255 😉
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You did it! Congratulations man!!
 
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wooohooooooooooooo @walakin25 Cheers for you dudeeeee , best of luck to whatever you try next!! Just remember that the hard part comes now.. competition looks fierce for IMG's
 
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walakin25 said:
I started Googling anything I wanted to learn more about out of pure curiosity, SDN ignited the curiosity in me. I spent a lot of time on Google, on Wikipedia just reading to enhance my depth of understanding.
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This is everything right here man. I think this is the key to a great score, and also to a positive studying experience. Overall, this is a great write-up.

walakin25 said:
Amazing score buddy! Congratulations!
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Thank you! Congrats to you too! I think we've earned a few drinks tonight
 
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HereWeGo21 said:
This is everything right here man. I think this is the key to a great score, and also to a positive studying experience. Overall, this is a great write-up.


Thank you! Congrats to you too! I think we've earned a few drinks tonight
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couldnt agree more chief
 
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