Official 2016 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Transposony

Do or do not, There is no try
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Ophthoseidon said:
I just went with the flow on test day. I had a plan beforehand but throughout my practice tests I realized it was hard to predict when I got hungry or needed to use the restroom, so I took at least a short break every block to empty the bladder and grab a snack. I had 12-20 minutes left per block that I used to review my marks and re-read every question to make sure I answered the question they asked, which was a common theme for mistakes on my practice exams
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This is my undoing I swear to god. Luckily I'm a quick tester too so I should have similar time left at the end of each block like you did. at least I do on practice tests anyway but I guess we'll see.
 
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Recent test takers how much audio did you guys have to listen to? I find many of them to be low quality in uworld and was wondering what a 'normal' number of them would be on test day.
 
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TBV said:
Recent test takers how much audio did you guys have to listen to? I find many of them to be low quality in uworld and was wondering what a 'normal' number of them would be on test day.
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had a couple. I chose an answer before listening and didn't change it after I listened. don't really know what the hell I was listening for either though haha
 
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Are the old nbme's still indicative? I took nbme 13 today and got a 251 and was wondering if this was inflated. Its significantly higher. I took nmbe 15 two weeks ago and got a 228. I plan on taking nmbe 16 next weekend. Then doing 18 and 17 last week before my test.
 
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runnin72 said:
Are the old nbme's still indicative? I took nbme 13 today and got a 251 and was wondering if this was inflated. Its significantly higher. I took nmbe 15 two weeks ago and got a 228. I plan on taking nmbe 16 next weekend. Then doing 18 and 17 last week before my test.
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I took 11 (offline) two weeks ago and got 236. took 16 today and got 233. Your 251 maybe inflated but not by much.
 
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TBV said:
Recent test takers how much audio did you guys have to listen to? I find many of them to be low quality in uworld and was wondering what a 'normal' number of them would be on test day.
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The audio on the actual step 1 is quite good.
 
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Has anyone gotten less than the 40q/section max? Was your time still an hour or did they adjust it for less questions?
 
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This might be a bit neurotic lol, but I took the exam on Friday after rescheduling it and noticed that on the exam status on the NBME website it still has my old test date up and no indication that I took the exam on Friday. Does anyone know how often they update that thing? And if you took it recently does it confirm that?
 
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gleevec1945 said:
This might be a bit neurotic lol, but I took the exam on Friday after rescheduling it and noticed that on the exam status on the NBME website it still has my old test date up and no indication that I took the exam on Friday. Does anyone know how often they update that thing? And if you took it recently does it confirm that?
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you can try to reprint your permit. It should be:

"Application error: Permit is not available. The candidate may have sat for the exam or the registration is no longer active."
 
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How did y'all get through the 2 days leading up to score release? I'm already getting anxious haha. Of course I'm on outpatient aka a laid back week on the week I get them back. I wish I was so busy I didn't have to think about it lol. Will just try and do UWORLD 24/7 if possible for the shelf.
 
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For the heart sound questions, I have read that they give you some diagram to help with determining systolic/diastolic? Or is it just how it is on UW where they give you a little stem and the audio?
 
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nymeria321 said:
I have 4 days left + struggling w what to do. I have sort of the same dislike for FA as you. I write in it a lot but I just can't force my ADD to behave for long enough to actually read it straight through. So not sure what to do these last few days. Been painstakingly trying to go through FA today and suuffferring.
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Same here!! I annotated it but didn't really read it. Going back after everything and its taking me forever to read all my annotations, but at least I find it less dull now that I've strengthened my knowledge base.
 
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What's the consensus on how hard the NBMEs are? Took 18 recently and felt like I got absolutely rocked. Out of 15,16,17,18 which ones are the hardest/easiest and which is the best one to take a few days out from your exam?
 
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GVSULakers9456 said:
What's the consensus on how hard the NBMEs are? Took 18 recently and felt like I got absolutely rocked. Out of 15,16,17,18 which ones are the hardest/easiest and which is the best one to take a few days out from your exam?
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My scores on 13, 17, and 18 were very close to my actual score on the exam (which I took last month), and I did a bit worse on 15 and 16 - but maybe that was just me!
 
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GVSULakers9456 said:
What's the consensus on how hard the NBMEs are? Took 18 recently and felt like I got absolutely rocked. Out of 15,16,17,18 which ones are the hardest/easiest and which is the best one to take a few days out from your exam?
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I think NBME 18 was just released a few months ago, so that should be the most reflective of the real deal ...? I think ..
 
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I did 15 today and did worse than my uworld average would suggest and past NBMEs had me but not by much (5 points less). Thought it was fair just a little unlucky on the question draw I suppose.
 
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TBV said:
I did 15 today and did worse than my uworld average would suggest and past NBMEs had me but not by much (5 points less). Thought it was fair just a little unlucky on the question draw I suppose.
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I think UW average- score correlation theories needs to die. Whilst it is true -the higher your average, the better prepared you are, it also depends on how well you grasped the concepts for the questions you got wrong/guessed. That has been the case for me personally. If you took the extended feedback version, you should be able to pinpoint your mistakes. Trust me sometimes, its the easy/silly mistakes that get you. I had that problem when I took the free 150, but and NBME can be similar- for me I was just rushing through the question stem, double guessing, ignoring my gut. I did better once I focused on the question stem and took my time, stopped double guessing.

Bottom Line : Figure out what went wrong : Did you not understand the question/misunderstood it or was it a lack of knowledge/concepts?
 
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aeruginosa said:
I think UW average- score correlation theories needs to die. Whilst it is true the higher your average, the better prepared you are, but it also totally depends on how well you grasped the concepts for the questions you got wrong/guessed. That has been the case for me personally. If you took the extended feedback version, you should be able to pinpoint your mistakes. Trust me sometimes, its the easy/silly mistakes that get you. I had that problem when I took the free 150, but and NBME can be similar- for me I was just rushing through the question stem, double guessing, ignoring my gut. I did better once I focused on the question stem and took my time, stopped double guessing.

Bottom Line : Figure out what went wrong : Did you not understand the question/misunderstood it or was it a lack of knowledge/concepts?
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I think concepts. There was a fair amount of psych on there and I haven't been through that section of FA since class which I plan on doing at some point this week. Also I have intensive pharm plans upcoming blah blah I think it was details I just couldn't remember well enough but no worries, still have almost 3 weeks to go and I'm well within range of my goals
 
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TBV said:
I think concepts. There was a fair amount of psych on there and I haven't been through that section of FA since class which I plan on doing at some point this week. Also I have intensive pharm plans upcoming blah blah I think it was details I just couldn't remember well enough but no worries, still have almost 3 weeks to go and I'm well within range of my goals
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Psych is a lot of memorization. I hate all the Diagnostic Criteria, and durations of disorders. Good luck! You can totally do it.
 
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Took NBME13 and ended up getting a 258.

Does anyone who is scoring in the 250s/260s feel like they know nothing? I feel like I happen to 'guess' right a lot of the time.
 
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TBV said:
Recent test takers how much audio did you guys have to listen to? I find many of them to be low quality in uworld and was wondering what a 'normal' number of them would be on test day.
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I think I had 2, both heart sounds... the sound quality was excellent, like better than/similar to blaufuss website instead of uworld quality.

So the May 6-July 13 test takers.... are scores coming July 13? I'm pretty confused about this.
 
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orthogenes said:
I think I had 2, both heart sounds... the sound quality was excellent, like better than/similar to blaufuss website instead of uworld quality.

So the May 6-July 13 test takers.... are scores coming July 13? I'm pretty confused about this.
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I think may 9-june 4 get scores july 13. It says on their website
 
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midwestm2 said:
I think NBME 18 was just released a few months ago, so that should be the most reflective of the real deal ...? I think ..
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That's promising. I'm only hoping to hit around average and that's about what I scored on the NBME....but I was guessing so much that I feel like it was just a fluke....and I have so many weak spots that I could end up doing so much worse with 80 more questions for them to test me on! Exam is this Thursday, any last minute advice?
 
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Qester said:
Took NBME13 and ended up getting a 258.

Does anyone who is scoring in the 250s/260s feel like they know nothing? I feel like I happen to 'guess' right a lot of the time.
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Yes. You make an educated guess and hope for the best. I've taken 4 NBMEs both UWSAs, score range 262-269 . Surprised to see my score every time, haha.
 
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simbad8 said:
Congrats! Do you mind me asking what your practice scores were? I'm two weeks out so i've officially entered freak out mode haha
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NBMEs:
190
202
200

UWSA1: 209

then after alot of UW questions....

UWSA2: 230
NBME 15: 234

real thing: 229

If you've been studying consistently and doing UW questions I think you'll do fine!! Thought I might've failed right after taking the exam, so if you feel that way, know that that feeling is pretty common
 
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Hello I had a question on path. Can anyone tell me How should i strengthen my FA path section? UW is a must that i know. But should i take notes from pathoma as well? What do you advice?
 
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MCAT or bust said:
NBMEs:
190
202
200

UWSA1: 209

then after alot of UW questions....

UWSA2: 230
NBME 15: 234

real thing: 227

If you've been studying consistently and doing UW questions I think you'll do fine!! Thought I might've failed right after taking the exam, so if you feel that way, know that that feeling is pretty common
Click to expand...

How long did it take you to go from scoring in the 200s to get to a 230 on the next two exams?
 
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MCAT or bust said:
NBMEs:
190
202
200

UWSA1: 209

then after alot of UW questions....

UWSA2: 230
NBME 15: 234

real thing: 227

If you've been studying consistently and doing UW questions I think you'll do fine!! Thought I might've failed right after taking the exam, so if you feel that way, know that that feeling is pretty common
Click to expand...

strawberryswing said:
How long did it take you to go from scoring in the 200s to get to a 230 on the next two exams?
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I'd like to know the same.
Also, when you were at 200, had you already completed another qbank (eg. RX) by that time or none at all?
 
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Diphyllobothrium_latum said:
May 9th, old form, under normal scoring time, tmr or next week?
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Per NBME site, "
The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing the week of May 9 through late June will be Wednesday, July 13, 2016. For examinees whose circumstances require that they receive Step 1 scores before July 13, it is recommended that they take Step 1 no later than May 7."
 
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Took step 1 on 5/23 (2 days ago) and must have lucked out on the form I got because I did not come out feeling destroyed. There were minimal "wtf" type questions, but I'd say it was harder than UWorld and on par with NBME18. My initial goal was to get as high of a score as possible of course (dream score was 250), but realistically I was aiming for above 240 since I'm pretty dedicated to doing IM and then a subspecialty.
UWSA#1: 190 - 3.5 months out - was sort of a stupid idea to take an assessment this early I realize, but I desperately wanted an idea of where I was at
UWSA#2: 228 - 2 months out - Knew a lot more compared to #1 but still had not learned derm or psych
NBME12: 220 - 4/9 - A bit disappointed that I dropped almost ten points in my score but expected it as I had heard the UWSA overpredicted
NBME15: 237 - 4/17 - big increase in my score due to having a bit more time in my schedule to boards prep (up until this point, our school basically had us learn a lot of clinical stuff that was not step 1 relevant at all)
NBME16: 232 - 4/23 - slight dip in my scores again due to all the end-of-semester tests and activities I'm guessing
NBME17: 239 - 5/5 - getting close to my target score. At this point I was doing 12 hour days mostly doing brosencephalon decks and Uworld
COMSAE D: 675 - 5/6 - was surprised by the score. This was a required test that our school made us take
COMBANK assessment 2: 83% - 5/6 - Required test that we did right after our COMSAE D
NBME18: 251 - 5/16 - as I was doing 18, it seemed like I was making educated guesses on probably every third question. I was totally expecting to drop down to 230 or so, so I was very pleasantly surprised at the end.
NBME13: 249 - 5/21 - I was a bit relieved that I got close to my previous score as I was 2 days out at this point.

Resources I used were: Uworld 1.5x , sketchy micro + pharm, pathoma (did everything but 2 chapters), BRS physio, brosencephalon decks, FA (only used as a reference, never studied out of it like most people do), and rapid review path by goljan (not really used during dedicated)
Our school only gave us about 10 days for dedicated study time. Some people had even less because they had to move for rotations.

Felt decent coming out of step 1 and really don't know what to expect at this point. Unfortunately our cohort might have to wait until mid July to hear back on the scores.
I'd be pretty happy with anything above 245 at this point. Will update in a few weeks!

Update: Got a 242. Needless to say I'm a bit bummed since I dropped about 8 points from my last two NBMEs, but for the purposes of trying to match into a decent IM program, I think I got the score I needed so I'm not whining too much.
 
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metview said:
Got scores back today

NBME 17 - 252 (5 wks out)
UWSA1 - 263 (4 wks out)
NBME 18 - 250 (3 wks out)
UWSA 2 - 260 (2 wks out)
NBME 16 - 257 (1 wk out)

Real - 256
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Congratulations on a great score! I'm curious what your study method was...it's odd to see scores stay fairly stagnant over 5 weeks of prep like that.
 
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Test is on 06/07, have been going through NBMEs. I've been pleasantly surprised with the variation in vignette lengths. Obviously, I prefer shorter questions with less ambiguous and irrelevant information, but I was wondering what everyone's experiences have been on their exams. I've heard that the vignettes have been getting longer since they are giving us more time. Can anyone testify to this?
 
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smokn said:
Congratulations on a great score! I'm curious what your study method was...it's odd to see scores stay fairly stagnant over 5 weeks of prep like that.
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I just edited my post. I forgot to mention that I scored a 230 on NBME 12 during the school year 2.5 months before test date.

My study plan involved going ahead of class material by doing pathoma and kaplan/usmle rx qbank during the school year. About 1 month before the dedicated period I started uworld (around 1 block of questions per day). When I got to the dedicated period I finished uworld and did it again one more time, read pathoma 2x, and FA 2x. I think I peaked early because I went ahead of schedule and did uworld early.
 
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