Official 2016 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Transposony

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Congrats on the great score! What did you do to study biostats and behavioral. I feel like its one of my weaker areas as well and I have the exam coming up in little less than a week. I am especially weak in behavioral
i studied kaplan for behavior and purchased UW biostats in last week. it really helped me.
 
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i studied kaplan for behavior and purchased UW biostats in last week. it really helped me.

I was planning on doing Uworld biostats. Were you able to get through all of kaplan behavioral in a week. I found it online and it seems to be close to 200pgs. I don't know if my time is better spent trying to read that or just reviewing pathoma, pharm, micro. Do you know of any other behavioral resources
 
How did people feel the couple days before the exam? I'm getting some really intense anxiety right now and I'm getting the butterflies feeling almost constantly. I keep finding things that I've forgotten or didn't get around to learning the first time around and every single one of them can be a question.
 
I was planning on doing Uworld biostats. Were you able to get through all of kaplan behavioral in a week. I found it online and it seems to be close to 200pgs. I don't know if my time is better spent trying to read that or just reviewing pathoma, pharm, micro. Do you know of any other behavioral resources
dont read every bit of kaplan behavior, just the DSM chapter , defense mechanisms , substance abuse , child development and the ethics chapter (still you wont get it from here unless you do many Qs of ethics)
for biostat UW (the one sold separately) is more than enough to build a good foundation
 
How did people feel the couple days before the exam? I'm getting some really intense anxiety right now and I'm getting the butterflies feeling almost constantly. I keep finding things that I've forgotten or didn't get around to learning the first time around and every single one of them can be a question.
that is normal. relax and try not to study new material. last 10 to 12 pages of FA (quick summaries) really helps in such situation.
 
dont read every bit of kaplan behavior, just the DSM chapter , defense mechanisms , substance abuse , child development and the ethics chapter (still you wont get it from here unless you do many Qs of ethics)
for biostat UW (the one sold separately) is more than enough to build a good foundation

How long did it take to go through the Uworld Biostats review?
 
Would you all recommend I take my last NBME this week? I have my exam Friday. I took 18 a week ago on Saturday and got a 256 (really really surprised). I took 16 before that and scored a 251 (also really surprising since my previous exams were in the low 240s). Now all I'm doing is focusing on FA and I plan on doing the UW biostats review since I also suck at biostats. However, FA is taking longer than expected and I'm not sure if taking 17 is a good idea. If I don't take it though, it'll have been about 2 weeks since my last practice test and the real deal and that kind of scares me. I just want to get this over with. I haven't even been able to focus these past few days (sorry for the rant). I guess part of me feels I really didn't deserve those scores on the last nbmes and now I just hope I'm not dropping.
 
Would you all recommend I take my last NBME this week? I have my exam Friday. I took 18 a week ago on Saturday and got a 256 (really really surprised). I took 16 before that and scored a 251 (also really surprising since my previous exams were in the low 240s). Now all I'm doing is focusing on FA and I plan on doing the UW biostats review since I also suck at biostats. However, FA is taking longer than expected and I'm not sure if taking 17 is a good idea. If I don't take it though, it'll have been about 2 weeks since my last practice test and the real deal and that kind of scares me. I just want to get this over with. I haven't even been able to focus these past few days (sorry for the rant). I guess part of me feels I really didn't deserve those scores on the last nbmes and now I just hope I'm not dropping.

I am taking the test Friday and took my last NBME (17) today. I would recommend going ahead and taking it before Monday or Tuesday. I wouldn't wait until like Thursday to take it. I think practicing questions that were written by the actual test writers is the best possible resource out there. Why not use it? Just my opinion though!
 
Would you all recommend I take my last NBME this week? I have my exam Friday. I took 18 a week ago on Saturday and got a 256 (really really surprised). I took 16 before that and scored a 251 (also really surprising since my previous exams were in the low 240s). Now all I'm doing is focusing on FA and I plan on doing the UW biostats review since I also suck at biostats. However, FA is taking longer than expected and I'm not sure if taking 17 is a good idea. If I don't take it though, it'll have been about 2 weeks since my last practice test and the real deal and that kind of scares me. I just want to get this over with. I haven't even been able to focus these past few days (sorry for the rant). I guess part of me feels I really didn't deserve those scores on the last nbmes and now I just hope I'm not dropping.

I'd say that you're probably going to get the same-ish score and waste 4 hours at this point. Might be better off just pounding weak areas.
 
Would you all recommend I take my last NBME this week? I have my exam Friday. I took 18 a week ago on Saturday and got a 256 (really really surprised). I took 16 before that and scored a 251 (also really surprising since my previous exams were in the low 240s). Now all I'm doing is focusing on FA and I plan on doing the UW biostats review since I also suck at biostats. However, FA is taking longer than expected and I'm not sure if taking 17 is a good idea. If I don't take it though, it'll have been about 2 weeks since my last practice test and the real deal and that kind of scares me. I just want to get this over with. I haven't even been able to focus these past few days (sorry for the rant). I guess part of me feels I really didn't deserve those scores on the last nbmes and now I just hope I'm not dropping.

If you have the extra money+a new exam does NOT give your panic attack = why not. but you are in a good shape, so not doing it is completely fine. If you don't choose to do it, just focus on your FA. Things will be fine.
 
Wanted an advice. Would you say to read High yield Neuroanatomy if one has gone through the Kaplan neuroanatomy? Is it really necessary?
 
In my pre-dedicated period now:
tackling Rx and Becker's bank Organ-wise (have a friend doing the course, I didn't join him d/t $$$, so I just got a month of the bank)
Just wanted to share:
Finished GIT just now, and feeling good about it. What I did was alternated blocks (Rx GIT block, review, then Becker GIT block)
I did this back and forth over a week (~500q's, ~11 blocks) and watched my scores climb from the 30%s --> 50s --> ended with a few around ~70%
I figured: Info. overlaps a lot (q's reviewed in one bank still yet to be seen in other bank--> breeds info. familiarity)
Annotated GIT FA with info I found relevant (I rewrote FA my way, and I reviewed my condensed GIT notes 3x before starting any block, and still started in the ~30%s haha)
-My notes now look super crazy haha (all annotations in light pencil, surrounding the green ink-FA text I wrote as my base info)
 
When people say this, are they talking about the style of the question or the difficulty?

I took the test yesterday and felt the it was pretty much the same as uworld in terms of style and difficulty. It pretty much felt like i was at home doing uworld blocks.


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I thought it was easier than UW. Def an NBME/UW hybrid baby.

Yea, I felt it was a tad bit easier than Uworld. It didn't feel like there were a lot of questions where they were trying to trick you or make you second guess yourself (or maybe I'm just dumb and fell for the traps and didn't even realize it).
 
Warning: Neurotic

Okay, so this is going to sound real stupid but I need people with experience telling me if I'm okay. I've spent the last 3 days reading FA and not doing UW or any kind of questions. My test is in 2 days and I'm worried that my question answering skills have atrophied over these last few days. Is this something to be worried about?
 
Warning: Neurotic

Okay, so this is going to sound real stupid but I need people with experience telling me if I'm okay. I've spent the last 3 days reading FA and not doing UW or any kind of questions. My test is in 2 days and I'm worried that my question answering skills have atrophied over these last few days. Is this something to be worried about?

Not gonna lie but I started winding down unintentionally the last 3-4 days. By the last 2 days before test I had practically no will power to study or do anything related to school. The day before the test I opened first aid and closed it 5 minutes in and just relaxed. I didn't feel like it affected my performance at all, but then again I haven't seen my score yet 🙁 If you've been studying hard, I don't think the last few days will not make or break your score.
 
The burnout is so real right now. For sure wish I could move up my test, but they're booked. I have two NBMEs at 256 which I would be so happy with and have two weeks till the real deal.
 
The burnout is so real right now. For sure wish I could move up my test, but they're booked. I have two NBMEs at 256 which I would be so happy with and have two weeks till the real deal.
You should keep looking, the spots literally open and close all the time. I speak from personal experience making a last minute change.
 
Warning: Neurotic

Okay, so this is going to sound real stupid but I need people with experience telling me if I'm okay. I've spent the last 3 days reading FA and not doing UW or any kind of questions. My test is in 2 days and I'm worried that my question answering skills have atrophied over these last few days. Is this something to be worried about?

I think neh, you will be fine. Otherwise, you need to talk to a pathologist about that atrophy.
 
So how do I know when my score will be released? I wrote the exam on 5/16 so will it take 3-4 wks? Or longer than that?

I just checked my nbme website and under score report date, it's just blank. Does anyone have the same?

Any idea?
 
I thought it was easier than UW. Def an NBME/UW hybrid baby.

I sat for it today and felt that it was pretty similar to UW (maybe slightly harder, but I think that's just because it's an 8 hr exam, and 8 hrs of anything will make you feel dead inside). I felt that I had more time left over on each block (~5-8 minutes) than I normally did with UW, but I think that was mostly because of the intense fear of dying that kept pushing me along. I felt ok until about the 6th block which seemed bloated with wtf-type-questions. I felt that it was harder than NBMEs (similar to 18), but I think it's just easier to say that since I didn't get immediate feedback. The micro and pharm were mellow, definitely nothing out of left field. Very straight-forward. Overall, the exam was testing your upper-level reasoning and thought process more than anything else. Relax for the couple of days before the exam, don't burn yourself out and concentrate on the question you're answering, not the 10 previous that you're convinced you missed..
 
I sat for it today and felt that it was pretty similar to UW (maybe slightly harder, but I think that's just because it's an 8 hr exam, and 8 hrs of anything will make you feel dead inside). I felt that I had more time left over on each block (~5-8 minutes) than I normally did with UW, but I think that was mostly because of the intense fear of dying that kept pushing me along. I felt ok until about the 6th block which seemed bloated with wtf-type-questions. I felt that it was harder than NBMEs (similar to 18), but I think it's just easier to say that since I didn't get immediate feedback. The micro and pharm were mellow, definitely nothing out of left field. Very straight-forward. Overall, the exam was testing your upper-level reasoning and thought process more than anything else. Relax for the couple of days before the exam, don't burn yourself out and concentrate on the question you're answering, not the 10 previous that you're convinced you missed..

I had a very similar experience as you. I wrote about it a few posts up but forgot to talk about timing. I was routinely finishing uworld blocks with about 3-5 minutes left but on the real thing i ended with 10-12 minutes every block.


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Exam in 6 days...idk whether to chill or panic.

Progress so far:

RX bank: 90%
UW First pass: 76%
Kaplan 150 question assessment: 76%
COMSAE D: 642

NBME 12: 249: Pretty well paced, felt appropriately challenged. Some questions seemed a little outdated.

NBME 13: 258: First two blocks I got felt easy, had 10-15 minutes left to spare. Last 2 blocks seemed harder than NBME 12.

NBME 15: 249: Thought this was a lot tougher than 12/13 for me. Utterly thought I got like a 220. The vast majority of questions I thought I bombed I got right. The mistakes I made made me yell out of surprise, they were equivalent to misspelling my name. Like a damn truck driver getting a PE - how the F* I missed that I have no idea. Enraging. Timing was like 5-10 minutes left per block.

UWSA1: 258: I thought this was a bit easy, kinda cruised through it without really paying much attention...one of those days. Had 27 minutes left in the last block, and somewhere between 10-25 in the rest. A few curve balls, this doesn't feel very predictive at all.

UWSA 2 tomorrow, free 150 at pro-metric wednesday, and NBME 16/17/18 with one day to relax....

I'm like 300 questions into the kaplan qbank, just don't have any time. Only read like 200 pages of FA. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
 
Exam in 6 days...idk whether to chill or panic.

Progress so far:

RX bank: 90%
UW First pass: 76%
Kaplan 150 question assessment: 76%
COMSAE D: 642

NBME 12: 249: Pretty well paced, felt appropriately challenged. Some questions seemed a little outdated.

NBME 13: 258: First two blocks I got felt easy, had 10-15 minutes left to spare. Last 2 blocks seemed harder than NBME 12.

NBME 15: 249: Thought this was a lot tougher than 12/13 for me. Utterly thought I got like a 220. The vast majority of questions I thought I bombed I got right. The mistakes I made made me yell out of surprise, they were equivalent to misspelling my name. Like a damn truck driver getting a PE - how the F* I missed that I have no idea. Enraging. Timing was like 5-10 minutes left per block.

UWSA1: 258: I thought this was a bit easy, kinda cruised through it without really paying much attention...one of those days. Had 27 minutes left in the last block, and somewhere between 10-25 in the rest. A few curve balls, this doesn't feel very predictive at all.

UWSA 2 tomorrow, free 150 at pro-metric wednesday, and NBME 16/17/18 with one day to relax....

I'm like 300 questions into the kaplan qbank, just don't have any time. Only read like 200 pages of FA. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Sticking to higher yield stuff 6 days out seems like a better idea, so just try and blast through FA. You could try going through Rapid Review, or go through volatile topics ( milestones, and alveolar equation formulas, CYP enzyme inducers/inhibitors etc )
 
Exam in 6 days...idk whether to chill or panic.

Progress so far:

RX bank: 90%
UW First pass: 76%
Kaplan 150 question assessment: 76%
COMSAE D: 642

NBME 12: 249: Pretty well paced, felt appropriately challenged. Some questions seemed a little outdated.

NBME 13: 258: First two blocks I got felt easy, had 10-15 minutes left to spare. Last 2 blocks seemed harder than NBME 12.

NBME 15: 249: Thought this was a lot tougher than 12/13 for me. Utterly thought I got like a 220. The vast majority of questions I thought I bombed I got right. The mistakes I made made me yell out of surprise, they were equivalent to misspelling my name. Like a damn truck driver getting a PE - how the F* I missed that I have no idea. Enraging. Timing was like 5-10 minutes left per block.

UWSA1: 258: I thought this was a bit easy, kinda cruised through it without really paying much attention...one of those days. Had 27 minutes left in the last block, and somewhere between 10-25 in the rest. A few curve balls, this doesn't feel very predictive at all.

UWSA 2 tomorrow, free 150 at pro-metric wednesday, and NBME 16/17/18 with one day to relax....

I'm like 300 questions into the kaplan qbank, just don't have any time. Only read like 200 pages of FA. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

I would not do Kaplan Qbank this late in the game. Just stick to high yield stuff. Definitely finish FA. Have you done Pathoma? If not, you could watch the videos in 1.7x speed.
 
I've watched pathoma in spurts, mostly in areas I felt weak in. Felt like he repeated a lot of stuff I was already familiar with. I suppose I'll finish FA. Thanks.
 
Exam near the end of July

Rx- 81%
nbme 12- 247
nbme 13- 258
nbme 15- 247

Recently took nbme 15 and was disheartened to see my score drop by 11 points.

Just did my first uWorld questions today, manage to get 75% on the first block...it took me 4 full hours to review the entire thing though, does anyone have experience with speeding up the review process without sacraficing knowledge? Currently I am taking hand written notes on the question explanations and I cna already tell it is useful...just time consuming
 
Exam near the end of July

Rx- 81%
nbme 12- 247
nbme 13- 258
nbme 15- 247

Recently took nbme 15 and was disheartened to see my score drop by 11 points.

Just did my first uWorld questions today, manage to get 75% on the first block...it took me 4 full hours to review the entire thing though, does anyone have experience with speeding up the review process without sacraficing knowledge? Currently I am taking hand written notes on the question explanations and I cna already tell it is useful...just time consuming

It took me a really long time to get through the blocks initially, but since I've gotten through FA/Pathoma and am more familiar with the content it's been a lot quicker (also partly because I've been getting lazier about it though)

Pro tip: organize notes from uworld in an excel spreadsheet (one column for subject, one for qID, and one for learning points). Makes it easier to go back and review everything
 
For those of you who did do the free 150, did you find it helpful? My test is Friday and I'm still debating on doing them tomorrow. It's either that or finish up FA.
 
Exam near the end of July

Rx- 81%
nbme 12- 247
nbme 13- 258
nbme 15- 247

Recently took nbme 15 and was disheartened to see my score drop by 11 points.

Just did my first uWorld questions today, manage to get 75% on the first block...it took me 4 full hours to review the entire thing though, does anyone have experience with speeding up the review process without sacraficing knowledge? Currently I am taking hand written notes on the question explanations and I cna already tell it is useful...just time consuming

I started off writing in a notebook but it took way too long. Instead I just jotted important info on stick notes and put them in FA.
 
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Ok I took UWSA 2 just now, this test was much harder for me than UWSA 1.

I'm stuck in a loop here

12: 249; 13: 258; 15:249; UWSA1: 258 and now UWSA2: 249 again...

Anyone else think UWSA2 was a much harder test than UWSA1?
 
Just took my step today, and it really isn't all that surprising. The format is the same as UW, complete with lab values + search options, calculator, color inverter, the whole shabang. As for the content, I'm surprised at how little memorizing random FA facts helped me. I mean, maybe I just didn't remember them enough to be able to apply them. But, overall I would describe the exam (at least for me) as more of a higher level, conceptual, apply-what-you-know-to-reason-a-sensible-answer type of exam. I actually found myself learning things from doing the questions. There were a couple of WTF questions that everyone hears about - don't sweat them. Chances are they're experimental. Just move onto the next question and forget about it. I had a LOT of behavioral. I think I had 4 or 5 questions just on coping mechanisms (eg splitting, suppression, etc). Which was very nice .

Disclaimer: I mark any question I'm not 100% certain on. Having said that, I marked about 10-15 questions per block. I normally finished with about 10 minutes remaining to go over my marked questions.

Here's my progression:
January baseline from school exam - 192
February NBME 13 - 222
March NBME 13 (again because my school is unreasonable) - 232
May NBME 15 - 256 (this exam hit all my strong areas)
May NBME 16 - 245
May NBME 17 - 245
June NBME 18 - 245 (hopefully this pattern continues )

Anyway, I'll repost when my scores are out. I hope this eases any anxiety of the unknown for any other neurotics like me (who am I kidding, most med students are).
 
Just took my step today, and it really isn't all that surprising. The format is the same as UW, complete with lab values + search options, calculator, color inverter, the whole shabang. As for the content, I'm surprised at how little memorizing random FA facts helped me. I mean, maybe I just didn't remember them enough to be able to apply them. But, overall I would describe the exam (at least for me) as more of a higher level, conceptual, apply-what-you-know-to-reason-a-sensible-answer type of exam. I actually found myself learning things from doing the questions. There were a couple of WTF questions that everyone hears about - don't sweat them. Chances are they're experimental. Just move onto the next question and forget about it. I had a LOT of behavioral. I think I had 4 or 5 questions just on coping mechanisms (eg splitting, suppression, etc). Which was very nice .

Disclaimer: I mark any question I'm not 100% certain on. Having said that, I marked about 10-15 questions per block. I normally finished with about 10 minutes remaining to go over my marked questions.

Here's my progression:
January baseline from school exam - 192
February NBME 13 - 222
March NBME 13 (again because my school is unreasonable) - 232
May NBME 15 - 256 (this exam hit all my strong areas)
May NBME 16 - 245
May NBME 17 - 245
June NBME 18 - 245 (hopefully this pattern continues )

Anyway, I'll repost when my scores are out. I hope this eases any anxiety of the unknown for any other neurotics like me (who am I kidding, most med students are).
Congrats on being done! I take mine this Friday. Right now I'm still going through FA but it's taking forever. I was thinking of doing the free 150 tomorrow but that probably means I won't finish my last pass of FA. Did you do the free 150 and if so, would you recommend it over studying FA?
 
Congrats on being done! I take mine this Friday. Right now I'm still going through FA but it's taking forever. I was thinking of doing the free 150 tomorrow but that probably means I won't finish my last pass of FA. Did you do the free 150 and if so, would you recommend it over studying FA?

I did not do the free 150, but I also did not read FA cover to cover. I only covered the sections I was weak on, and supplemented them with pathoma/DIT.

With just Wednesday as your last study day, which I highly recommend because it definitely got me to relax by test day, I personally would not be doing more questions. You'll do enough on Friday to make yourself go cross-eyed. What I did on my last day was go through the "rapid review" at the back of FA, and memorized anything I couldn't answer correctly with their classical description. Doing this actually helped me get at least one question right that I otherwise may not have.
 
Exam near the end of July

Rx- 81%
nbme 12- 247
nbme 13- 258
nbme 15- 247

Recently took nbme 15 and was disheartened to see my score drop by 11 points.

Just did my first uWorld questions today, manage to get 75% on the first block...it took me 4 full hours to review the entire thing though, does anyone have experience with speeding up the review process without sacraficing knowledge? Currently I am taking hand written notes on the question explanations and I cna already tell it is useful...just time consuming

Have my exam in Mid-August too, so i guess were on a similar timeline.
Im 40% done with UWorld, and i felt that being patient is the much better in the long run. I keep a World journal, with notes from each block organised. And i keep going through the notes from older blocks. It helps hammer down points, and especially helps in learning those points which were there in the explanations but not really tested in the question. People tend to read over these lightly, but you never know when it helps you get an extra mark in the real deal.
 
Hey does anyone know how long, roughly, it takes to get the scheduling permit once you've received the confirmation email of receipt of the certification of identification from the ECFMG? 10 days? 20? Am I going to be able to sit for the step this month lol...
 
Ok I took UWSA 2 just now, this test was much harder for me than UWSA 1.

I'm stuck in a loop here

12: 249; 13: 258; 15:249; UWSA1: 258 and now UWSA2: 249 again...

Anyone else think UWSA2 was a much harder test than UWSA1?
I thought it was harder, but not much harder. I also don't think you're stuck in a loop really. You do realize the difference between a 249 and 258 is like, 5 questions right?
 
Just took my step today, and it really isn't all that surprising. The format is the same as UW, complete with lab values + search options, calculator, color inverter, the whole shabang. As for the content, I'm surprised at how little memorizing random FA facts helped me. I mean, maybe I just didn't remember them enough to be able to apply them. But, overall I would describe the exam (at least for me) as more of a higher level, conceptual, apply-what-you-know-to-reason-a-sensible-answer type of exam. I actually found myself learning things from doing the questions. There were a couple of WTF questions that everyone hears about - don't sweat them. Chances are they're experimental. Just move onto the next question and forget about it. I had a LOT of behavioral. I think I had 4 or 5 questions just on coping mechanisms (eg splitting, suppression, etc). Which was very nice .

Disclaimer: I mark any question I'm not 100% certain on. Having said that, I marked about 10-15 questions per block. I normally finished with about 10 minutes remaining to go over my marked questions.

Here's my progression:
January baseline from school exam - 192
February NBME 13 - 222
March NBME 13 (again because my school is unreasonable) - 232
May NBME 15 - 256 (this exam hit all my strong areas)
May NBME 16 - 245
May NBME 17 - 245
June NBME 18 - 245 (hopefully this pattern continues )

Anyway, I'll repost when my scores are out. I hope this eases any anxiety of the unknown for any other neurotics like me (who am I kidding, most med students are).

Thanks for the very insightful post! I know it's probably difficult to judge, but would you say that the questions, on average, involved higher order thinking than typical UWorld questions?
 
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