USMLE Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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I know this is quite early but most American Students have finished giving the test for this year.
I am an IMG and have been prepping for the steps since quite some time and have seen Phloston, Transposony's and others' threads for their respective years and how helpful they have been.

I intend on giving step in Jan.. let's share timetables, plans and other stuff on how everyone intends on taking on this beast.

P.S. : I think it is not that early.. the 2015/2016 threads were started in September/October.. but in true SDN gunner style..i wanna start it in August.. 🙂
 
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TheOther said:
I'm not sure how others feel about this, but as I'm about to finish up my first pass of UW, the questions are feeling more and more straight forward. Maybe it's just my brain getting used to figuring out what they're asking. My overall average is around 65% -- I started around the 50%s and have been averaging in the 75-80%s recently.
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Awesome progress, keep going! My scores were similar towards the end and my average went up to 69%. I was hitting 225 on NBMEs, UWSA1 was much higher but we all know how the predictive value of those self assessments are. They tended to over predict for many people in the past.
 
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blueforest said:
I hope I didn't give a wrong impression of the exam. By no means is it easy, I was just surprised by the number of questions that could have been answered from FA. For some reason I was always worried that all ~280 something questions on the exam will be extremely vague and will require multiple steps in thinking to reach an answer. It wasn't like that, there were many questions of moderate difficulty. In my opinion, if someone knew FA very very well then many questions were just gimmies. However, just make sure you realize that most people only remember a small amount of question from the entire exam. I can recall many mistakes and questions but that number is probably less than 30... what about the other ~250? I just can't remember, half of them were either difficult that I had to guess or I just pray I got the other half right because I was confident in my answer. Do you see where i'm going with this? We only remember a very small percentage of the exam which gives us our biased opinions.

Btw, I didn't get any repeats from the free 120. I was waiting for like 1 or 2 at least ...😛
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I agree with you, sorry you didnt get any repeats 🙁. Everyone also has to remember half the exam is easy but we have also prepared so much so some of the damn test better be lol. Do not be fooled, there is a huge difference between being prepared and confident and easy.
 
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USMLE Step 1: PASS with 269.
NBME 18: 189 2 days out
NMBE 19: 260 1 days out
Thank god. Didn't even need FA or Pathoma or Sketchy. 3 days of studying and getting 20% on Uworld paid off. Not bad.
This post was made on April 1st, 2017.
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Hello all. Got my score back from the early March exam, thought I'd share. My prep was similar to Anti-PD1's appraoch. Firecracker for ~1 year (flagged about 75% of topics), listened to Pathoma once with detailed notes and reviewed several times, Uworld in 30 days (one pass), Kaplan bank (~400 Qs) and FA prn. Took notes of all my errors throughout the Q banks. Dedicated study time was 8 weeks.

Uworld avg: 82%
UWSA 1: 258
NBME 18 (one week out): 236
NBME 17 (few days out): 232
Actual Exam: 254

I don't understand this discrepancy. You can imagine how anxious I felt after taking those NBME's, as they seem to be the best predictors for most. But Uworld was pretty accurate for me.
This is not an April fools joke, lol.
 
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Thank you very much for you kind words and detailed explanation with advises, I appreciate it very much. I hope you will do great on other steps and match into 1st choice specialty. I am happy for you, now you are so close to the finish!
 
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Major procrastinator said:
If it indeed is "more difficult" it will have a better curve, its all accounted for so that should not be a concern. You should be ready even if you get 280 micro questions, thats the point of studying weaknesses. When your NBME shows that nothing cross the borderline line you have no real weaknesses left so it does not matter what they throw at you, however lets say everything is strong and your cardio is lower performance and your don't want to study it, thats a huge risk your taking and can impact your score quite a bit! This is just my opinion, I worked on NBME weaknesses and on the real deal I had not one subject cross the borderline area, infact the lower performance on NBME had stars on real exam. I had never had an NBME graph like that but each time I took it I eliminated more and more weaknesses, so NBME 18 I only had two weak spots left which I turned into stars!

I'm telling you my story to give you hope and wipe away negativity.

I also believe people let fear and anxiety get the best of them during test day because they dont trust there prep, they did not stress themselves on NBME's instead they sit at home all comfortable and they dont have a game plan.
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Thank you very much for you kind words and detailed explanation with advises, I appreciate it very much. I hope you will do great on other steps and match into 1st choice specialty. I am happy for you, now you are so close to the finish!
 
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blueforest said:
I hope I didn't give a wrong impression of the exam. By no means is it easy, I was just surprised by the number of questions that could have been answered from FA. For some reason I was always worried that all ~280 something questions on the exam will be extremely vague and will require multiple steps in thinking to reach an answer. It wasn't like that, there were many questions of moderate difficulty. In my opinion, if someone knew FA very very well then many questions were just gimmies. However, just make sure you realize that most people only remember a small amount of questions from the entire exam. I can recall many mistakes and questions but that number is probably less than 30... what about the other ~250? I just can't remember, half of them were either difficult that I had to guess or I just pray I got the other half right because I was confident in my answer. Do you see where i'm going with this? We only remember a very small percentage of the exam which gives us our biased opinions.

Btw, I didn't get any repeats from the free 120. I was waiting for like 1 or 2 at least ...😛
Click to expand...

Thank you! I am making more and more accent on FA, doing anki cards FA 2016 deck. it takes time, but way more times efficient than reading. thanks god I have plenty of time ))
 
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Rhodes said:
Hello all. Got my score back from the early March exam, thought I'd share. My prep was similar to Anti-PD1's appraoch. Firecracker for ~1 year (flagged about 75% of topics), listened to Pathoma once with detailed notes and reviewed several times, Uworld in 30 days (one pass), Kaplan bank (~400 Qs) and FA prn. Took notes of all my errors throughout the Q banks. Dedicated study time was 8 weeks.

Uworld avg: 82%
UWSA 1: 258
NBME 18 (one week out): 236
NBME 17 (few days out): 232
Actual Exam: 254

I don't understand this discrepancy. You can imagine how anxious I felt after taking those NBME's, as they seem to be the best predictors for most. But Uworld was pretty accurate for me.
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Please tell me why you had lower scores on nbme compared to uworld? people getting 80+ uworld as I remember were getting way more high nbme scores. What was the problem?
 
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I have a general question about the time needed to finish 1 block of uworld in timed, random mode. I need 5 hours to finish 1 block, one hour for the block itself and 4 hours to go for all the answers, going in details with every wrong and right answer, why wrong is wrong and why right is right. overall it takes 10 hours for 2 blocks, 6 minutes per questions after doing the blocks itself. Is it considered normal 10 hours? It's my second run, first run was long 6 month of subjectwise uworld, now I am doing only UFAP. For the last 6-7 month I used kaplans and stuff with uworld (review books, Kaplan videos, pathoma videos, pathoma book). So now I am in style of dedicated period but I have way more time than people in actual dedicated. What's you average time folks about doing blocks?
 
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Surgeria said:
I have a general question about the time needed to finish 1 block of uworld in timed, random mode. I need 5 hours to finish 1 block, one hour for the block itself and 4 hours to go for all the answers, going in details with every wrong and right answer, why wrong is wrong and why right is right. overall it takes 10 hours for 2 blocks, 6 minutes per questions after doing the blocks itself. Is it considered normal 10 hours? It's my second run, first run was long 6 month of subjectwise uworld, not I am doing only UFAP. For the 6 month I used kaplans and stuff with uworld. So now I am in style of dedicated period but I have way more time than people in actual dedicated. What's you average time folks about doing blocks?
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My suggestion is to read them once and highlight, etc... then when you complete the entire bank, go through the incorrect answers. Only after you get those questions incorrect again should you spend that much time. I think it may be a waste of time right now since it's your first pass.


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Surgeria said:
I have a general question about the time needed to finish 1 block of uworld in timed, random mode. I need 5 hours to finish 1 block, one hour for the block itself and 4 hours to go for all the answers, going in details with every wrong and right answer, why wrong is wrong and why right is right. overall it takes 10 hours for 2 blocks, 6 minutes per questions after doing the blocks itself. Is it considered normal 10 hours? It's my second run, first run was long 6 month of subjectwise uworld, now I am doing only UFAP. For the last 6-7 month I used kaplans and stuff with uworld (review books, Kaplan videos, pathoma videos, pathoma book). So now I am in style of dedicated period but I have way more time than people in actual dedicated. What's you average time folks about doing blocks?
Click to expand...

I only did one pass, and I also spent about 5 hours for each block (1 hour for Qs, 4 hours review). Two blocks per day.
 
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Surgeria said:
Please tell me why you had lower scores on nbme compared to uworld? people getting 80+ uworld as I remember were getting way more high nbme scores. What was the problem?
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I suppose it was test taking strategy. Mostly silly errors, or overthinking the Qs. I was able to narrow it down to two answers for most.
 
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Surgeria said:
Thank you very much for you kind words and detailed explanation with advises, I appreciate it very much. I hope you will do great on other steps and match into 1st choice specialty. I am happy for you, now you are so close to the finish!
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Thank you for your kind words, I wish the same for you and everyone else. I just love hearing when everyone succeeds and supporting one another, after all isnt that what medicine is all about!

I'm going to slow my role and let the newer people and higher scorers take over, I also have to focus on CK now. If someone is in similar shoes to mine and wants my opinion or advice feel free to PM me anytime!

Wish everyone the best, I'll check back to join in on score celebrations!

other than that. Major P out!!
 
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567WingsO'Heaven said:
My suggestion is to read them once and highlight, etc... then when you complete the entire bank, go through the incorrect answers. Only after you get those questions incorrect again should you spend that much time. I think it may be a waste of time right now since it's your first pass.


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Click to expand...

When I said "incorects" I meant the incorrect choices in the multiple choice questions, so after giving a right answers, I also read all the incorrect probable answers, I takes time but I have a feeling that reading incorrect answers helps me to review that topics. Let's say the answer is median nerve, question stem also give a possible answer of radial nerve, after reading the explanation about median nerve I also read about the radial nerve, even though I will get another questions directly about the radial nerve I read it at that time. Kind of telling me why the radial wount be here the right answer.
 
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Rhodes said:
I only did one pass, and I also spent about 5 hours for each block (1 hour for Qs, 4 hours review). Two blocks per day.
Click to expand...

I thought I had that problem because of maybe language barrier, because English is not my main language. Thank you for a reply.
 
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Major procrastinator said:
Thank you for your kind words, I wish the same for you and everyone else. I just love hearing when everyone succeeds and supporting one another, after all isnt that what medicine is all about!

I'm going to slow my role and let the newer people and higher scorers take over, I also have to focus on CK now. If someone is in similar shoes to mine and wants my opinion or advice feel free to PM me anytime!

Wish everyone the best, I'll check back to join in on score celebrations!

other than that. Major P out!!
Click to expand...

I agree, when you give me an advise be sure that I will suggest it to other person/persons, that's a sequence. Being ignorant in this job is like a suicide because one day everyone needs an advise, and imagine if they will be ignorant and you will not get an answer when you will need it so hard. People on sdn are awesome and basically on most usmle forums )
 
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How did u guys feel like the same week of the exam? Im not feeling well at all... like I'm really emotional for some reason. I took NBME 15 today and got a 223 and NBME 19 yesterday was 209; before that I was getting 230+ so now Im like thinking it twice if I should take it. Like my school obligates me to take it but Im like thinking to change it anyways and ignore them. I don't feel mentally and emotionally well at all since yesterday. I hope this goes away or else it will affect my studying these last 3 days and performance. 🙁 Also, what ear plugs did u guys use? My testing centre is REALLY noisy which worries me because I have ADHD on high. So I get distracted with everything. I normally would do exams and study with brown noise or white noise on in my headphones.
 
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Did someone buy specific earplugs that are so good that block noise? in my testing centre people talk a lott.
 
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What is like the average of questions u can get wrong each block in the real deal to get like a 230-235? which is my goal.
 
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Willing to pay $40 to someone to take 4 hours of there time to clear up some stuff with me that is good in this stuff, that I need help with for the exam on Friday. My exam is this Friday so it would have to be any day this week. Im desperate right now. Thanks in advance.
 
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nanitch said:
Willing to pay $40 to someone to take 4 hours of there time to clear up some stuff with me that is good in this stuff, that I need help with for the exam on Friday. My exam is this Friday so it would have to be any day this week. Im desperate right now. Thanks in advance.
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I will help you for free if you would like my help, it sounds like your beating yourself up right now and you should not be. It is going to be okay.

I uses the green ear plugs from walmart.
 
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nanitch said:
Willing to pay $40 to someone to take 4 hours of there time to clear up some stuff with me that is good in this stuff, that I need help with for the exam on Friday. My exam is this Friday so it would have to be any day this week. Im desperate right now. Thanks in advance.
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I'll clear up whatever you want... I won't take money from you tho.


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Hey guys. Took Step 1 March 15 and hope to get the score on Wednesday. Felt really good about it, despite my NBME's not being stellar. Any other March 15'ers waiting for this Wednesday like me?
 
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Johnomalley92 said:
Hey guys. Took Step 1 March 15 and hope to get the score on Wednesday. Felt really good about it, despite my NBME's not being stellar. Any other March 15'ers waiting for this Wednesday like me?
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what do u mean expire you're NBMES? so u feel it was easier than NBMES? would u say first aid has a lot of it?
 
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@nanitch Actually yeah my test was both easier and better written than the past NBME's. But that could also be because I got really lucky and I got tested a lot on my strengths and materials I had recently studied.
 
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Maybe I'll go a little bit out of topic, but is there a correlation between the minimum score to match and the various states of the U.S.?
I'll explain me better: I know that the minimum score to match has to do with specialty choice and competitiveness of the program and a lot of other factors, but are there any states where it's particularly difficult to match?
I guess that in the big cities like new york/los angeles and so on you'll need a higher score in order to get accepted right?
Which is the state where is most difficult to match? California?

I know it sounds like a silly questions but I'm an international student and I also have to take into account this sort of things if I choose to continue my carreer in the U.S.

Most likely my score won't be stellar but hopefully close to the average range. Would I have some possibilities to enter in a non-competitive specialty in a big city on the east or west coast?
 
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567WingsO'Heaven said:
Did anyone use Bros deck?? I've been using Bros deck and have roughly 20% of the deck left. I've also been cross referencing 2017 FA with the subjects since it was written off of FA2015. I also replaced the path with my own pathoma deck and pharm/micro with my sketchy.


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hey just wondering is it really helping in uworld or kaplan? (bros) whats your % in either if you dont mind.
 
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chromuffin said:
How do you people manage to study anything else?!
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It certainly is crazy. You have to put 12 hours in a day at least. Those 5 hours are most likely used on reviewing UWorld questions and referencing FA and Pathoma. So you do hit each component of UFAP. Eventually, it takes less time to review a UWorld block as you see your scores increase.
 
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doc-Oc said:
hey just wondering is it really helping in uworld or kaplan? (bros) whats your % in either if you dont mind.
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I don't use Kaplan QBank, only UW. So I began getting roughly 50% before reviewing, having gone through 250/300 Qs total. I then decided I needed to finish my bros deck or make a solid dent before I initiate the questions again. I'm currently hitting 75-85% on individual blocks. Variable, however. I do timed, random 40 blocks consecutively (4/day)


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Anti-PD1 said:
It certainly is crazy. You have to put 12 hours in a day at least. Those 5 hours are most likely used on reviewing UWorld questions and referencing FA and Pathoma. So you do hit each component of UFAP. Eventually, it takes less time to review a UWorld block as you see your scores increase.
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Would you say this is necessary if you're predominantly using FA and seeing score improvement? Went from a 53% pre-study to a 65% average now that I'm studying.
 
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Hi guys I am so frustrated did nbme 16 2 weeks ago got a 240, did nbme 17 today still got 240. I don't know what to do. I'm so tired of studying. Exam in 17days. I want a 250+, looking to go into something competitive. How do I go from a 240 to a 250. My weakness are all over the place. But in general they are behavioral science, biostat/epi, nervous system, histology and cell biology, musculoskeletal and pharm.
 
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Skyrocket254 said:
Hi guys I am so frustrated did nbme 16 2 weeks ago got a 240, did nbme 17 today still got 240. I don't know what to do. I'm so tired of studying. Exam in 17days. I want a 250+, looking to go into something competitive. How do I go from a 240 to a 250. My weakness are all over the place. But in general they are behavioral science, biostat/epi, nervous system, histology and cell biology, musculoskeletal and pharm.
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At least you know your weaknesses, I would do sketchy for pharmacology for sure. And for nervous system that is very broad but I would recommend physeo if your struggling on the physiology part and lesions. . Biostats is a **** storm but uworld biostats I've heard is helpful.


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Dr.Jekyll75 said:
At least you know your weaknesses, I would do sketchy for pharmacology for sure. And for nervous system that is very broad but I would recommend physeo if your struggling on the physiology part and lesions. . Biostats is a **** storm but uworld biostats I've heard is helpful.


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That was what I did this past 2 weeks. I reread first aid neuro. Redid uworld biostat. I feel I don't have enough time to do physeo and sketchy because I still have pathoma and 188 uworld qs left. I'm so conflicted. What do you think I should do for the remaining 17days leading up to the D-day?
 
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Hey guys. Been an SDNer for about 10 years now, never thought I'd get here. I'll be starting my dedicated soon. DO. My plan is UFAP + Sketchy + B&B vs. Kaplan for weaknesses. My pre-dedicated COMLEX diagnostic put me at a 540ish. Is it worth it to waste an NBME right now to see where I'm at for Step?
 
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Rekt said:
Hey guys. Been an SDNer for about 10 years now, never thought I'd get here. I'll be starting my dedicated soon. DO. My plan is UFAP + Sketchy + B&B vs. Kaplan for weaknesses. My pre-dedicated COMLEX diagnostic put me at a 540ish. Is it worth it to waste an NBME right now to see where I'm at for Step?
Click to expand...

Good luck! Will be doing the same here soon as well. Is B&B like DIT???


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Skyrocket254 said:
That was what I did this past 2 weeks. I reread first aid neuro. Redid uworld biostat. I feel I don't have enough time to do physeo and sketchy because I still have pathoma and 188 uworld qs left. I'm so conflicted. What do you think I should do for the remaining 17days leading up to the D-day?
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personally id work on the weak spots if you feel solid on everything else, you can knock out those question pretty quickly. same thing with pathoma, it shouldnt take more than a week
 
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Rekt said:
Hey guys. Been an SDNer for about 10 years now, never thought I'd get here. I'll be starting my dedicated soon. DO. My plan is UFAP + Sketchy + B&B vs. Kaplan for weaknesses. My pre-dedicated COMLEX diagnostic put me at a 540ish. Is it worth it to waste an NBME right now to see where I'm at for Step?
Click to expand...
did you take a comsae ? and which one ?
 
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AlteredScale said:
Good luck! Will be doing the same here soon as well. Is B&B like DIT???


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I found B&B early this semester. It's amazing. It really is the Pathoma for *everything* else. I wish I had found B&B first year! I don't plan on using it during dedicated, myself. Unless I have a weakness in something specific, I will probably just stick to UFAP (though I'm using DIT for my first pass of FA).
 
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chromuffin said:
Would you say this is necessary if you're predominantly using FA and seeing score improvement? Went from a 53% pre-study to a 65% average now that I'm studying.
Click to expand...

I think UWorld deserves a thorough review. Just read all the explanations. Even for the questions you get right. It might take you less time than 5 hours.
 
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KnightofBaldMt said:
I found B&B early this semester. It's amazing. It really is the Pathoma for *everything* else. I wish I had found B&B first year! I don't plan on using it during dedicated, myself. Unless I have a weakness in something specific, I will probably just stick to UFAP (though I'm using DIT for my first pass of FA).
Click to expand...

What is B&B?
 
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Rekt said:
Hey guys. Been an SDNer for about 10 years now, never thought I'd get here. I'll be starting my dedicated soon. DO. My plan is UFAP + Sketchy + B&B vs. Kaplan for weaknesses. My pre-dedicated COMLEX diagnostic put me at a 540ish. Is it worth it to waste an NBME right now to see where I'm at for Step?
Click to expand...
COMSAE D? That's a very nice score being so far out. Congrats.

I'm also DO. Just took UWSA1. Saving my first NBME until about 5-6 weeks to go (today starts dedicated and I'm 9 weeks out). Did you purchase the UWSA's? It gives a pretty nice breakdown and could be useful for identifying your weaknesses.
 
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docbsb2015 said:
COMSAE D? That's a very nice score being so far out. Congrats.

I'm also DO. Just took UWSA1. Saving my first NBME until about 5-6 weeks to go (today starts dedicated and I'm 9 weeks out). Did you purchase the UWSA's? It gives a pretty nice breakdown and could be useful for identifying your weaknesses.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have both. I wasn't sure when to incorporate the UWSA as I've seen people take them closer to their test date as well.
 
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