Official 2016 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Transposony

Transposony

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Ophthoseidon said:
Even with 18 as hard as you said it is you'd still put it last?
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Yeah. My score dipped from my recent 2 NBMEs primarily because of my own mindset and not being on my A game. Some of the mistakes I made were laughable, and as I was supposed to take this test Saturday I definitely rushed into taking it today. I would still say it was the best NBME to take in terms of uniqueness of questions, in terms of content, and in terms of ambiguity as compared to recent reports of students who have taken the exam. It also seems like it will be the best predictor for most exam takers. Definitely take it closest to your exam.
 
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Tri723 said:
Did the scoring "account" for the level of difficulty?
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After looking into it, yes. I actually had a better percentage on NBME 11 than on NBME 18, but my 3-digit score on NBME 11 was 2 points lower than my 3-digit score on NBME 18. So the NBME 18 grading is slightly more lenient.
 
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plasmodium said:
Not sure how to answer this. It was incredibly hard and I did worse on this than my recent increases on 16/17.


Also don't know how to answer this. Very little overlap, many unique questions, and a lot of those clinical scenarios asking "what you would do next" that people keep mentioning have been introduced to the real exam.
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Thanks for your feedback on this. Is there anything you think would help prepare for this for people who still have 2+ months to prepare/study? Like I wonder if there's any additional resources that could help prepare for these kind of clinical scenario questions in addition to FA, Pathoma, and UWorld.
 
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smile8888 said:
Thanks for your feedback on this. Is there anything you think would help prepare for this for people who still have 2+ months to prepare/study? Like I wonder if there's any additional resources that could help prepare for these kind of clinical scenario questions in addition to FA, Pathoma, and UWorld.
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I got most of the obscure questions right based on reasoning through basic concepts. The mistakes that I made were on simpler questions and were due to a lack of concentration. I don't think extra resources would help, most of the random questions were unlikely to be found in step 1 review resources.
 
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tasar1898 said:
IMO you shouldnt do NBME's that close to the exam .. It just gets you freaked out even if you get a decent score .. ''OH MY GOD WHAT ABOUT THIS QUESTION , BETTER LOOK IT UP ... DAMN I DONT KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT HEREDITARY POLYNEUROPATHIES (or w/e obscure crap) , I WILL FAIL MISERABLY!! ''

I won't even go near the possibility of seeing a score drop like 2-3 days away from step 1 time... so just keep loving your FA and save the bucks for the post-step 1 party
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I couldn't agree with Tasar more. For EVERY ONE t - 10 days till test day, do not do nbme 18. Just finish revising your material and take day before off. This late in the game NBME 18 has no utility for you. If you have a bad day it will mess you up mentally. Plasmodium don't be harsh on yourself i got faith in you. Call it an off day and move on. Best wishes All.
 
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Hey everyone,

I am new to this website (wish I came on it earlier), but I am currently studying for my step exam. I am really struggling right now in terms of figuring out why I suck :/ I went through first aid once (reading it watching the express videos with the RX packet. I started doing uworld questions and so far on about 4-5 sets my average is at 50%. I was hoping I could get some feedback on what people that were struggling did to improve. I recently took a practice exam and got a 170 after going through first aid once and not really doing many questions. I thought first aid was not in depth and I didn't learn much (most likely I was just passively reading though). Advice on how you guys used FA because I would like to keep going through this since I am familiar with it. And anyone using DIT? or Becker?

Thanks!
 
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amyloid said:
Hey everyone,

I am new to this website (wish I came on it earlier), but I am currently studying for my step exam. I am really struggling right now in terms of figuring out why I suck :/ I went through first aid once (reading it watching the express videos with the RX packet. I started doing uworld questions and so far on about 4-5 sets my average is at 50%. I was hoping I could get some feedback on what people that were struggling did to improve. I recently took a practice exam and got a 170 after going through first aid once and not really doing many questions. I thought first aid was not in depth and I didn't learn much (most likely I was just passively reading though). Advice on how you guys used FA because I would like to keep going through this since I am familiar with it. And anyone using DIT? or Becker?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I used First Aid to brush up on concepts and factoids that I had already learned in detail in MS1/MS2. I used RapidReview to bring some of those concepts to light if I had forgotten them, or if they were not clearly presented in FA, and also to bring the big picture together even more than I had before. I used UWorld both as an assessment, and as a learning tool. I imagine it would be very difficult to learn from First Aid. I recommend, if you have some months to study, that you look into Kaplan as a review course so you can develop a stronger foundation. Sounds like that is what is lacking. Go through the course while paralleling what you learn with First Aid and use UWorld to develop better test-taking strategy.
 
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DoctorInTheMaking14 said:
My reaction exactly
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maxresdefault.jpg


That was my face when I read that. Literally JUST took it and wondered why the heck it was so long when practice tests are only around 200 questions.
 
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So they're basically giving more time per question?

I wonder why they decided to make this change. Are the question stems about the get even longer????????
 
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So those of you that's going to be taking the new test, are you going to decrease uworld question blocks to 40? I think I'll probably keep it at 44 for the endurance building.

4 questions doesn't really make a difference one way or another.
 
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plasmodium said:
What is the consensus on how to interpret the free 138 percentage?
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Correct me anyone if I am wrong:
I've read many step reviews. No one has ever come to a "consensus," but tend to agree that it is a rather straight forward assessment. but i would say
>/= 90 percent - 250+/-2
>/= 93 percent - 260+/-2
>/= 95 percent - 265+

Considering where you personally are, I'd say it's fair to shoot for 95 percent or better. Highest I've ever seen on SDN is 99% and I only saw it once. Without the big guys giving us a scale, I literally made my own in my head. Take it as you please.

You know how I'm doing and I did half of the free 132 and averaged 92-93
 
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Tri723 said:
Correct me anyone if I am wrong:
I've read many step reviews. No one has ever come to a "consensus," but tend to agree that it is a rather straight forward assessment. but i would say
>/= 90 percent - good
>/= 93 percent - great
>/= 95 percent - excellent (i.e "top" marks).

Considering where you personally are, I'd say it's fair to shoot for 95 percent or better. Highest I've ever seen on SDN is 99% and I only saw it once

You know how I'm doing and I did half of the free 132 and averaged 92-93
Click to expand...
Took it today and scored 97%.

Strange, though. I took the exam at the testing center for practice, and it was 3, 46-question blocks. I'm skimming the PDF of the free 132 (3, 44-question blocks) and there are some questions in this PDF that were not on my exam.
 
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plasmodium said:
Took it today and scored 97%.

Strange, though. I took the exam at the testing center for practice, and it was 3, 46-question blocks. I'm skimming the PDF of the free 132 (3, 44-question blocks) and there are some questions in this PDF that were not on my exam.
Click to expand...
I took the pdf one.
Don't know unfortunately... but, yeah the big day is tommorow.
 
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Tri723 said:
I took the pdf one.
Don't know unfortunately... but, yeah the big day is tommorow.
Click to expand...
You got this @Tri723. Rooting for you buddy!

EDIT: If anyone can shed light on why the PDF "free 132" is a 3 44-question block test, while the prometric practice test is a 3 46-question block test, I'd really appreciate it.
 
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plasmodium said:
You got this @Tri723. Rooting for you buddy!

EDIT: If anyone can shed light on why the PDF "free 132" is a 3 44-question block test, while the prometric practice test is a 3 46-question block test, I'd really appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Doesn't the Prometric test have heart sounds/media questions that can't be replicated on the PDF test? Not sure why the PDF test had questions not in the Prometric test though; maybe you're looking at one from a different year?

Good luck @Tri723!
 
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Blue Flame said:
Doesn't the Prometric test have heart sounds/media questions that can't be replicated on the PDF test? Not sure why the PDF test had questions not in the Prometric test though; maybe you're looking at one from a different year?

Good luck @Tri723!
Click to expand...
That is a good point. I believe I'm looking at the 2015 one, the (previously, until today) most recent one. It is mostly made up of the same questions, give or take a few.
 
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Tri723 said:
Correct me anyone if I am wrong:
I've read many step reviews. No one has ever come to a "consensus," but tend to agree that it is a rather straight forward assessment. but i would say
>/= 90 percent - 250+/-2
>/= 93 percent - 260+/-2
>/= 95 percent - 265+

Considering where you personally are, I'd say it's fair to shoot for 95 percent or better. Highest I've ever seen on SDN is 99% and I only saw it once. Without the big guys giving us a scale, I literally made my own in my head. Take it as you please.

You know how I'm doing and I did half of the free 132 and averaged 92-93
Click to expand...
free 150 questions have the poorest co-relation of all practice tests. my friends 88% and mine 95% fetched us similar scores in real deal-around 260). nothing can beat NBME is terms of prediction , we had similar NBME scores.
 
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thelastaid said:
free 150 questions have the poorest co-relation of all practice tests. my friends 88% and mine 95% fetched us similar scores in real deal-around 260). nothing can beat NBME is terms of prediction , we had similar NBME scores.
Click to expand...
I know lol. I just made it up to give me some kind of goal
 
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Ugh, with the new upcoming changes to step 1, it's going to take forever to get our scores. I thought 3-3.5 weeks was bad, but now to wait nearly 2 months???
 
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do you guys see any benefit of giving the exam before 9th of May, as I was planing to write it in the 1st/2nd week of May. or should i give it according to the new format? I'll really appreciate your valuable suggestions.
 
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Dr.serotonin said:
do you guys see any benefit of giving the exam before 9th of May, as I was planing to write it in the 1st/2nd week of May. or should i give it according to the new format? I'll really appreciate your valuable suggestions.
Click to expand...

Honestly I don't think it will matter. In theory it will still be based on how you do against everyone else that takes it and you will get a curve depending on that. Take it when you feel ready.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
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Hi everyone. Thanks for all the support. I've found this thread really useful.
I took the beast today. I'm tired haha, but I know some of you all have exams coming up and want to hear about it. Here we go:

My first block was insanely EASY (easier than any block ive seen on NBME 15, 16, 17, UWSA1 and 2). The block was basically regurgitation of HY first aid facts. I finished it in 35 mins, and I never finish early. I was beginning to wonder why people were posting horror stories
...
That was, until I reached the next three blocks. These were the HARDEST blocks I've ever encountered on any of the above exams. It was difficult for multiple reasons. First of all, there were a lot of random facts thrown in from diseases I've never studied, to drugs I've never heard of, to random biostats, and random anatomy. Some of this cannot be found in Golijian, FA, UW/Rx, NBME, sketchy, etc... i.e. any commonly used resource. It is almost as if they specifically went out of their way to bring in random material outside of these resources. Doing well in class comes in handy to have a wide net of knowledge. I even had a random ethics question that had me scratching my head.

The second and perhaps bigger problem with these blocks was the addition of clinical value based clinical questions. They may ask "what is the next best step? " They may ask " of the drugs which is the best to add?" They may ask, "which of the risk factors or predisposing conditions is the biggest contributor to a pathology." I definately guessed on these. I saw no pattern and have no idea how to prepare for it.

---
The last sections were toned down some bit and felt like UWSAs oddly enough. A mix of straight forward with a bizzare questions every so often. A lot of the application questions were here as folks have talked about. Sometimes, they may have a huge graph, chart, or a very long-looking question, but they are actually quite easy if you carefully read the question, so don't be intimidated by them!

I didn't have any issues with timing. I wouldn't have done anything differently in the last week ( i read FA)
 
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tvelocity514 said:
Honestly I don't think it will matter. In theory it will still be based on how you do against everyone else that takes it and you will get a curve depending on that. Take it when you feel ready.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
Click to expand...
ok thankyou. i'll try to finalize it before 9th May, as I cant wait 2 months for the result.
 
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Tri723 said:
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the support. I've found this thread really useful.
I took the beast today. I'm tired haha, but I know some of you all have exams coming up and want to hear about it. Here we go:

My first block was insanely EASY (easier than any block ive seen on NBME 15, 16, 17, UWSA1 and 2). The block was basically regurgitation of HY first aid facts. I finished it in 35 mins, and I never finish early. I was beginning to wonder why people were posting horror stories
...
That was, until I reached the next three blocks. These were the HARDEST blocks I've ever encountered on any of the above exams. It was difficult for multiple reasons. First of all, there were a lot of random facts thrown in from diseases I've never studied, to drugs I've never heard of, to random biostats, and random anatomy. Some of this cannot be found in Golijian, FA, UW/Rx, NBME, sketchy, etc... i.e. any commonly used resource. It is almost as if they specifically went out of their way to bring in random material outside of these resources. Doing well in class comes in handy to have a wide net of knowledge. I even had a random ethics question that had me scratching my head.

The second and perhaps bigger problem with these blocks was the addition of "value based" clinical questions, as I call them .They may ask "what is the next best step? " They may ask " of the drugs which is the best to add?" They may ask, "which of the risk factors or predisposing conditions is the biggest contributor to a pathology." I definately guessed on these. I saw no pattern and have no idea how to prepare for it.

---
The last sections were toned down some bit and felt like UWSAs oddly enough. A mix of straight forward with a bizzare questions every so often. A lot of the application questions were here as folks have talked about. Sometimes, they may have a huge graph, chart, or a very long-looking question, but they are actually quite easy if you carefully read the question, so don't be intimidated by them!

I didn't have any issues with timing. I wouldn't have done anything differently in the last week ( i read FA) becasue I still don't know how I would have prepared for those "clinical value" questions or pick up those random facts.
Click to expand...
Best of luck,
 
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Tri723 said:
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the support. I've found this thread really useful.
I took the beast today. I'm tired haha, but I know some of you all have exams coming up and want to hear about it. Here we go:

My first block was insanely EASY (easier than any block ive seen on NBME 15, 16, 17, UWSA1 and 2). The block was basically regurgitation of HY first aid facts. I finished it in 35 mins, and I never finish early. I was beginning to wonder why people were posting horror stories
...
That was, until I reached the next three blocks. These were the HARDEST blocks I've ever encountered on any of the above exams. It was difficult for multiple reasons. First of all, there were a lot of random facts thrown in from diseases I've never studied, to drugs I've never heard of, to random biostats, and random anatomy. Some of this cannot be found in Golijian, FA, UW/Rx, NBME, sketchy, etc... i.e. any commonly used resource. It is almost as if they specifically went out of their way to bring in random material outside of these resources. Doing well in class comes in handy to have a wide net of knowledge. I even had a random ethics question that had me scratching my head.

The second and perhaps bigger problem with these blocks was the addition of "value based" clinical questions, as I call them .They may ask "what is the next best step? " They may ask " of the drugs which is the best to add?" They may ask, "which of the risk factors or predisposing conditions is the biggest contributor to a pathology." I definately guessed on these. I saw no pattern and have no idea how to prepare for it.

---
The last sections were toned down some bit and felt like UWSAs oddly enough. A mix of straight forward with a bizzare questions every so often. A lot of the application questions were here as folks have talked about. Sometimes, they may have a huge graph, chart, or a very long-looking question, but they are actually quite easy if you carefully read the question, so don't be intimidated by them!

I didn't have any issues with timing. I wouldn't have done anything differently in the last week ( i read FA) becasue I still don't know how I would have prepared for those "clinical value" questions or pick up those random facts.
Click to expand...
You literally described my experience to a t
 
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Blue Flame said:
Wait, I thought you had seen everything on your exam previously either on a practice test or in UWorld? Were there also diseases and drugs you had never seen before on your exam?
Click to expand...

There were a few but it's mostly still I had seen. The NBME will have the rare bugs you won't see on uworld. But he mentioned the first block being easier and not really knowing what to think on the rest. That was my experience
 
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BamaNicole said:
There were a few but it's mostly still I had seen. The NBME will have the rare bugs you won't see on uworld. But he mentioned the first block being easier and not really knowing what to think on the rest. That was my experience
Click to expand...
Bugs, or drugs?
 
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Tri723 said:
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the support. I've found this thread really useful.
I took the beast today. I'm tired haha, but I know some of you all have exams coming up and want to hear about it. Here we go:

My first block was insanely EASY (easier than any block ive seen on NBME 15, 16, 17, UWSA1 and 2). The block was basically regurgitation of HY first aid facts. I finished it in 35 mins, and I never finish early. I was beginning to wonder why people were posting horror stories
...
That was, until I reached the next three blocks. These were the HARDEST blocks I've ever encountered on any of the above exams. It was difficult for multiple reasons. First of all, there were a lot of random facts thrown in from diseases I've never studied, to drugs I've never heard of, to random biostats, and random anatomy. Some of this cannot be found in Golijian, FA, UW/Rx, NBME, sketchy, etc... i.e. any commonly used resource. It is almost as if they specifically went out of their way to bring in random material outside of these resources. Doing well in class comes in handy to have a wide net of knowledge. I even had a random ethics question that had me scratching my head.

The second and perhaps bigger problem with these blocks was the addition of "value based" clinical questions, as I call them .They may ask "what is the next best step? " They may ask " of the drugs which is the best to add?" They may ask, "which of the risk factors or predisposing conditions is the biggest contributor to a pathology." I definately guessed on these. I saw no pattern and have no idea how to prepare for it.

---
The last sections were toned down some bit and felt like UWSAs oddly enough. A mix of straight forward with a bizzare questions every so often. A lot of the application questions were here as folks have talked about. Sometimes, they may have a huge graph, chart, or a very long-looking question, but they are actually quite easy if you carefully read the question, so don't be intimidated by them!

I didn't have any issues with timing. I wouldn't have done anything differently in the last week ( i read FA) becasue I still don't know how I would have prepared for those "clinical value" questions or pick up those random facts.
Click to expand...

Thanks for writing this!! What did you feel like were the highest yield topics on your exam?
 
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Any of you guys took the 132 practice test before the actual exam? My test is in a month.
I just took it and got 80%
 
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Hi
I took step 1 on 29th Feb, I felt like giving up after 5th block I felt like there's nothing from what I've read. Q's were very diff from nbme o uworld. 90% sure I'll fail :-(
 
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