USMLE Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[WeedForLunch]

---

Members do not see this ad.

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.. 🙂

 

[maryjane25]

"WHY" does staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome occur in patients with Renal failure?

Healthy kidneys are able to excrete the exfoliative toxin, whereas babies and people with immunodeficiencies/renal failure have lower renal clearance of toxins

 

[LAK84]

Took my test on the 30th, needed a few days to cool down and think about my test before I posted. I really don't have many specifics to say but if you are taking it soon and would like to PM me then feel free to.
So I don't feel too good about my exam. And when I say I don't feel too good, I'm being honest and not saying that I'm a honors student who is upset I didn't get a 250+. I did okay on practice exams and uworld. For those of you that are great students and have very high goals, I commend you and wish you well, and I'm sure you'll obviously do very well. I truly believe I'd be hard pressed to score over a 220...more realistically less than that like 210.

So much of my exam I felt like I was guessing...and it's truly frustrating. I feel like I knew ~20 or more questions per section or at least felt semi-confident on them. There were about 10 questions that were difficult and I took my best guess on them after narrowing down choices. And there were 5 questions I had no clue on. And 5 very difficult ones I thought I could of answered based off the question stem but the answer choices didn't make sense to me.

When ppl say that NBMEs are predictive of their exam, I'm pretty sure the curve/"scaling" is bigger on the real thing than the practice exams. The practice exams are easier than the real thing. But that's a diff story/argument of course that can be hammered to death and argued upon.

- My exam was hard...very hard. It was harder than any of the NBMEs, and it was similar to UW sometimes but other times it was def more difficult (whether it was a WTF question or if it was a vague question). I obviously did have a few "gimmes" per section as well. Had a lot of long questions, which hurt me with timing because I did struggle with time on a couple of sections...definitely no time to go back on any section and check my answer/review the marked. I had the 7 sections with 40 questions per section (nothing less than 40 ever).

- I felt like I had a lot of WTF questions...where they would ask something and I had NO idea about the answer choices because it wasn't in UW, FA, Pathoma. It's not right for me to assume that all of these questions are experimental...some may of been but some may not of been. Who knows!

- I did not have many questions on pharm and micro...which was very frustrating. There were a good number of very vague questions (per section) because they had such little info/details that I could of picked 2 or maybe even 3 answers. Or some of them I had no clue on.

Btw, some of you who posted about the anatomy on here were right. There's a few questions that you'll know for sure, and there's a few that are so far out there that you just click a guess and move on. This was true of Immuno as well, and also of biochemistry.

One recommendation I'd make, make sure to go over general path, it's important. I had like 5 questions on it. This is from FA and from pathoma.

I also hit a bit of a brain block during the exam. It's irritating because I'm looking back at some topics I had questions on and I'm confused as to why I may of missed it :/ So my mood is undulating from day to day. I even got confused with the toxicities between Methimazole and PTU...and so I refuse to look at the FA book for it because tbh both answers seemed right to me.

I don't know how posters have felt about the exam when the questioners changed up the questions/added new questions to the testing pool every year at this point in time. I'm in no mood to go back and read any posters thoughts about it. I felt like the exam was very tough but that's MY opinion and the form that I got. Maybe some posters think it got easier? Maybe some posters complained (like me) about the difficulty?

If you have any questions/comments/ please feel free to PM me and I will try to help in any way possible!

 

[sss2g2]

Took my test on the 30th, needed a few days to cool down and think about my test before I posted. I really don't have many specifics to say but if you are taking it soon and would like to PM me then feel free to.
So I don't feel too good about my exam. And when I say I don't feel too good, I'm being honest and not saying that I'm a honors student who is upset I didn't get a 250+. I did okay on practice exams and uworld. For those of you that are great students and have very high goals, I commend you and wish you well, and I'm sure you'll obviously do very well. I truly believe I'd be hard pressed to score over a 220...more realistically less than that like 210.

So much of my exam I felt like I was guessing...and it's truly frustrating. I feel like I knew ~20 or more questions per section or at least felt semi-confident on them. There were about 10 questions that were difficult and I took my best guess on them after narrowing down choices. And there were 5 questions I had no clue on. And 5 very difficult ones I thought I could of answered based off the question stem but the answer choices didn't make sense to me.

When ppl say that NBMEs are predictive of their exam, I'm pretty sure the curve/"scaling" is bigger on the real thing than the practice exams. The practice exams are easier than the real thing. But that's a diff story/argument of course that can be hammered to death and argued upon.

- My exam was hard...very hard. It was harder than any of the NBMEs, and it was similar to UW sometimes but other times it was def more difficult (whether it was a WTF question or if it was a vague question). I obviously did have a few "gimmes" per section as well. Had a lot of long questions, which hurt me with timing because I did struggle with time on a couple of sections...definitely no time to go back on any section and check my answer/review the marked. I had the 7 sections with 40 questions per section (nothing less than 40 ever).

- I felt like I had a lot of WTF questions...where they would ask something and I had NO idea about the answer choices because it wasn't in UW, FA, Pathoma. It's not right for me to assume that all of these questions are experimental...some may of been but some may not of been. Who knows!

- I did not have many questions on pharm and micro...which was very frustrating. There were a good number of very vague questions (per section) because they had such little info/details that I could of picked 2 or maybe even 3 answers. Or some of them I had no clue on.

Btw, some of you who posted about the anatomy on here were right. There's a few questions that you'll know for sure, and there's a few that are so far out there that you just click a guess and move on. This was true of Immuno as well, and also of biochemistry.

One recommendation I'd make, make sure to go over general path, it's important. I had like 5 questions on it. This is from FA and from pathoma.

I also hit a bit of a brain block during the exam. It's irritating because I'm looking back at some topics I had questions on and I'm confused as to why I may of missed it :/ So my mood is undulating from day to day. I even got confused with the toxicities between Methimazole and PTU...and so I refuse to look at the FA book for it because tbh both answers seemed right to me.

I don't know how posters have felt about the exam when the questioners changed up the questions/added new questions to the testing pool every year at this point in time. I'm in no mood to go back and read any posters thoughts about it. I felt like the exam was very tough but that's MY opinion and the form that I got. Maybe some posters think it got easier? Maybe some posters complained (like me) about the difficulty?

If you have any questions/comments/ please feel free to PM me and I will try to help in any way possible!

Care to share your NBMEs?

 

[ridethecliche]

Well, T-minus 2 hours until showtime. So weird to think that I'm about to take the exam that's been looming for 2 years.

You alive brah.

School Exam (NBME 17) 6 weeks out: 172
UWSA 1 4 weeks out: 201
NBME 18 3 weeks out: 220
UWSA 2 2 weeks out: 246
NBME 19 1 week out: 238
UWorld First Pass (Random 40s Timed): 68-78%
Free 120, 2 days out: 88%
Burned Princess Shireen, 1 day out
Actual Step 1: 239

Felt strong after the test, a bit disappointed, remembered 16 questions I got wrong that I checked afterward, nothing to cry about.

Really regret burning Princess Shireen for this.

Well done man. I'm starting with a similar baseline as you. Hoping to follow in your steps!

 

[quincyfuturemd]

Took my test on the 30th, needed a few days to cool down and think about my test before I posted. I really don't have many specifics to say but if you are taking it soon and would like to PM me then feel free to.
So I don't feel too good about my exam. And when I say I don't feel too good, I'm being honest and not saying that I'm a honors student who is upset I didn't get a 250+. I did okay on practice exams and uworld. For those of you that are great students and have very high goals, I commend you and wish you well, and I'm sure you'll obviously do very well. I truly believe I'd be hard pressed to score over a 220...more realistically less than that like 210.

So much of my exam I felt like I was guessing...and it's truly frustrating. I feel like I knew ~20 or more questions per section or at least felt semi-confident on them. There were about 10 questions that were difficult and I took my best guess on them after narrowing down choices. And there were 5 questions I had no clue on. And 5 very difficult ones I thought I could of answered based off the question stem but the answer choices didn't make sense to me.

When ppl say that NBMEs are predictive of their exam, I'm pretty sure the curve/"scaling" is bigger on the real thing than the practice exams. The practice exams are easier than the real thing. But that's a diff story/argument of course that can be hammered to death and argued upon.

- My exam was hard...very hard. It was harder than any of the NBMEs, and it was similar to UW sometimes but other times it was def more difficult (whether it was a WTF question or if it was a vague question). I obviously did have a few "gimmes" per section as well. Had a lot of long questions, which hurt me with timing because I did struggle with time on a couple of sections...definitely no time to go back on any section and check my answer/review the marked. I had the 7 sections with 40 questions per section (nothing less than 40 ever).

- I felt like I had a lot of WTF questions...where they would ask something and I had NO idea about the answer choices because it wasn't in UW, FA, Pathoma. It's not right for me to assume that all of these questions are experimental...some may of been but some may not of been. Who knows!

- I did not have many questions on pharm and micro...which was very frustrating. There were a good number of very vague questions (per section) because they had such little info/details that I could of picked 2 or maybe even 3 answers. Or some of them I had no clue on.

Btw, some of you who posted about the anatomy on here were right. There's a few questions that you'll know for sure, and there's a few that are so far out there that you just click a guess and move on. This was true of Immuno as well, and also of biochemistry.

One recommendation I'd make, make sure to go over general path, it's important. I had like 5 questions on it. This is from FA and from pathoma.

I also hit a bit of a brain block during the exam. It's irritating because I'm looking back at some topics I had questions on and I'm confused as to why I may of missed it :/ So my mood is undulating from day to day. I even got confused with the toxicities between Methimazole and PTU...and so I refuse to look at the FA book for it because tbh both answers seemed right to me.

I don't know how posters have felt about the exam when the questioners changed up the questions/added new questions to the testing pool every year at this point in time. I'm in no mood to go back and read any posters thoughts about it. I felt like the exam was very tough but that's MY opinion and the form that I got. Maybe some posters think it got easier? Maybe some posters complained (like me) about the difficulty?

If you have any questions/comments/ please feel free to PM me and I will try to help in any way possible!

I felt the exact same way after I took it a couple weeks ago so I wouldn't worry about the question update or anything. Hang in there!

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

You alive brah.

I'm alive, enjoying a corona or 4

 

[Reperfused]

Healthy kidneys are able to excrete the exfoliative toxin, whereas babies and people with immunodeficiencies/renal failure have lower renal clearance of toxins

Thanks a billion!!

 

[TheOther]

Took my test on the 30th, needed a few days to cool down and think about my test before I posted. I really don't have many specifics to say but if you are taking it soon and would like to PM me then feel free to.
So I don't feel too good about my exam. And when I say I don't feel too good, I'm being honest and not saying that I'm a honors student who is upset I didn't get a 250+. I did okay on practice exams and uworld. For those of you that are great students and have very high goals, I commend you and wish you well, and I'm sure you'll obviously do very well. I truly believe I'd be hard pressed to score over a 220...more realistically less than that like 210.

So much of my exam I felt like I was guessing...and it's truly frustrating. I feel like I knew ~20 or more questions per section or at least felt semi-confident on them. There were about 10 questions that were difficult and I took my best guess on them after narrowing down choices. And there were 5 questions I had no clue on. And 5 very difficult ones I thought I could of answered based off the question stem but the answer choices didn't make sense to me.

When ppl say that NBMEs are predictive of their exam, I'm pretty sure the curve/"scaling" is bigger on the real thing than the practice exams. The practice exams are easier than the real thing. But that's a diff story/argument of course that can be hammered to death and argued upon.

- My exam was hard...very hard. It was harder than any of the NBMEs, and it was similar to UW sometimes but other times it was def more difficult (whether it was a WTF question or if it was a vague question). I obviously did have a few "gimmes" per section as well. Had a lot of long questions, which hurt me with timing because I did struggle with time on a couple of sections...definitely no time to go back on any section and check my answer/review the marked. I had the 7 sections with 40 questions per section (nothing less than 40 ever).

- I felt like I had a lot of WTF questions...where they would ask something and I had NO idea about the answer choices because it wasn't in UW, FA, Pathoma. It's not right for me to assume that all of these questions are experimental...some may of been but some may not of been. Who knows!

- I did not have many questions on pharm and micro...which was very frustrating. There were a good number of very vague questions (per section) because they had such little info/details that I could of picked 2 or maybe even 3 answers. Or some of them I had no clue on.

Btw, some of you who posted about the anatomy on here were right. There's a few questions that you'll know for sure, and there's a few that are so far out there that you just click a guess and move on. This was true of Immuno as well, and also of biochemistry.

One recommendation I'd make, make sure to go over general path, it's important. I had like 5 questions on it. This is from FA and from pathoma.

I also hit a bit of a brain block during the exam. It's irritating because I'm looking back at some topics I had questions on and I'm confused as to why I may of missed it :/ So my mood is undulating from day to day. I even got confused with the toxicities between Methimazole and PTU...and so I refuse to look at the FA book for it because tbh both answers seemed right to me.

I don't know how posters have felt about the exam when the questioners changed up the questions/added new questions to the testing pool every year at this point in time. I'm in no mood to go back and read any posters thoughts about it. I felt like the exam was very tough but that's MY opinion and the form that I got. Maybe some posters think it got easier? Maybe some posters complained (like me) about the difficulty?

If you have any questions/comments/ please feel free to PM me and I will try to help in any way possible!

Congrats on being done! I'm trying to PM you but can't seem to be able to..

 

[Reperfused]

Took my test on the 30th, needed a few days to cool down and think about my test before I posted. I really don't have many specifics to say but if you are taking it soon and would like to PM me then feel free to.
So I don't feel too good about my exam. And when I say I don't feel too good, I'm being honest and not saying that I'm a honors student who is upset I didn't get a 250+. I did okay on practice exams and uworld. For those of you that are great students and have very high goals, I commend you and wish you well, and I'm sure you'll obviously do very well. I truly believe I'd be hard pressed to score over a 220...more realistically less than that like 210.

So much of my exam I felt like I was guessing...and it's truly frustrating. I feel like I knew ~20 or more questions per section or at least felt semi-confident on them. There were about 10 questions that were difficult and I took my best guess on them after narrowing down choices. And there were 5 questions I had no clue on. And 5 very difficult ones I thought I could of answered based off the question stem but the answer choices didn't make sense to me.

When ppl say that NBMEs are predictive of their exam, I'm pretty sure the curve/"scaling" is bigger on the real thing than the practice exams. The practice exams are easier than the real thing. But that's a diff story/argument of course that can be hammered to death and argued upon.

- My exam was hard...very hard. It was harder than any of the NBMEs, and it was similar to UW sometimes but other times it was def more difficult (whether it was a WTF question or if it was a vague question). I obviously did have a few "gimmes" per section as well. Had a lot of long questions, which hurt me with timing because I did struggle with time on a couple of sections...definitely no time to go back on any section and check my answer/review the marked. I had the 7 sections with 40 questions per section (nothing less than 40 ever).

- I felt like I had a lot of WTF questions...where they would ask something and I had NO idea about the answer choices because it wasn't in UW, FA, Pathoma. It's not right for me to assume that all of these questions are experimental...some may of been but some may not of been. Who knows!

- I did not have many questions on pharm and micro...which was very frustrating. There were a good number of very vague questions (per section) because they had such little info/details that I could of picked 2 or maybe even 3 answers. Or some of them I had no clue on.

Btw, some of you who posted about the anatomy on here were right. There's a few questions that you'll know for sure, and there's a few that are so far out there that you just click a guess and move on. This was true of Immuno as well, and also of biochemistry.

One recommendation I'd make, make sure to go over general path, it's important. I had like 5 questions on it. This is from FA and from pathoma.

I also hit a bit of a brain block during the exam. It's irritating because I'm looking back at some topics I had questions on and I'm confused as to why I may of missed it :/ So my mood is undulating from day to day. I even got confused with the toxicities between Methimazole and PTU...and so I refuse to look at the FA book for it because tbh both answers seemed right to me.

I don't know how posters have felt about the exam when the questioners changed up the questions/added new questions to the testing pool every year at this point in time. I'm in no mood to go back and read any posters thoughts about it. I felt like the exam was very tough but that's MY opinion and the form that I got. Maybe some posters think it got easier? Maybe some posters complained (like me) about the difficulty?

If you have any questions/comments/ please feel free to PM me and I will try to help in any way possible!

Hey, I am sure you did well. Everyone feels like that after the exam but pretty much all of them get scores close to their NBMEs.

Btw, do you mind sharing which toxicity are you talking about?

Thanks & Good luck for your result!

 

[ridethecliche]

I'm alive, enjoying a corona or 4

Remember that time we went out for drinks before our jefferson interview and I bummed wings off a cute girl we met at the bar?
What a ridiculous night that was.

I hope your current evening is half as good as that one hahahha.

 

[chromuffin]

Hey, I am sure you did well. Everyone feels like that after the exam but pretty much all of them get scores close to their NBMEs.

Btw, do you mind sharing which toxicity are you talking about?

Thanks & Good luck for your result!

Probably about how PTU is used for Pregnancy because methimazole is teratogenic.

 

[goal270]

Score came back faster than expected, in less than 3 weeks.
Test day: Much harder than both NBMEs I took and both UWSAs. Walked out feeling I did significantly worse than I expected to do. Obviously, that did not line up with reality — my guess is that many "stumper" questions were experimental or just washed out with the curve. The curve must have been far, far more generous than that of the NBMEs.

Timing... there was plenty of time to finish each section. I generally finished with 10+ minutes to spare, and ended the day with 90 minutes of break time remaining (I didn't use much either because after eating, I just wanted to get back to the exam and get it over with...).

Question stems were generally fairly brief, more akin to NBME than UWorld. Some questions were off the wall and I had never heard of the topic before; that occurred particularly with respect to musculoskeletal and dermatology material. Others were prosaic topics asked about in a strange way that confused me utterly. Pictures were generally good quality. Lots of radiology (more than I expected, by far). Quite a bit of genetics. Multiple ethics questions that I could narrow down to 2 choices but could not differentiate after that. Couple of heart sound questions with the interactive interface; sound quality was great and those questions were not difficult.

Lesson learned is that Step 1 will crush your soul and make you feel you did horrible even if you did well.

Step 1: 259
Baseline/pre-dedicated study NBME (17), ~1.5 months out: 244 (580)
Second NBME (19), ~3 weeks out: 252 (620)
UWSA 1, 1 week out: 277 (730)
UWSA 2, day before exam: 262 (forgot to note assessment score)
UWorld cumulative %: 84.2% (96th percentile)

Amazingly the average of the 4 practice tests is 258.75. How crazy is that.

Resources used:
First Aid: Nothing to say here, everyone knows First Aid. Lots of stuff in the book that is actually quite low-yield. You can't learn everything, the volume is too great. Make sure you know the stuff that comes up more than once. Anything that doesn't, maybe don't go crazy trying to memorize (e.g. pharmacology section's endless pages of random side effects).
Pathoma: Awesome. Pay a lot of attention to the first few (fundamentals) chapters. These are free points if you have the facts down pat. I missed a point on an easy question straight out of the inflammation chapter and kicked myself for it later. This book is slim and easy to review once you've read through it once. Rinse and repeat.
UWorld: Nothing to say here. Interface is a carbon copy of the actual step 1 interface. Questions are great. Do timed and random, and suppress your rage at the endless number of arcane questions in the bank. You can't know everything, but you can learn all the random stuff you do happen to come across...
USMLERx Qbank: I highly recommend doing USMLERx during M2 because it basically serves as a pass through First Aid in a more digestible format. I did ~90% of the question bank. Used during organ system courses midway through M2. Medium and hard questions only, timed. Did easy questions when I'd cleared a subject, just to complete them and see 0 questions remaining on the tally.
Rapid Review Pathology: Read some chapters. Not really necessary but if you have time sure why not. Goljan writes well and the chapters are fast reads.
SketchyMicro: Watched virus, parasite, and fungi videos only. SketchyMicro is amazing and I suggest using it early and often. I should have used it for the bacteria but by the time I started using it in general, I had already studied the bacteria extensively anyway.
MicroCards: Pretty good, more useful in microbiology course than for Step review in my experience.
PharmCards: Not very useful in my opinion... too dense and too many cards.

I did only one pass of UWorld because I ran out of time and motivation to go back through or even review my missed questions. However, I did review a Word doc I made with "pearls" from each question I missed throughout my dedicated study period. Were I to re-do this process (not in a million years!), I would take the time to do a second pass of UWorld and also do more NBMEs, and maybe re-review the first few chapters of Pathoma (very high yield!).

YMMV

Are you even for real?!
90 minutes left of break time!
Congratulations on the amazing score

 

[MDID]

Score came back faster than expected, in less than 3 weeks.
Test day: Much harder than both NBMEs I took and both UWSAs. Walked out feeling I did significantly worse than I expected to do. Obviously, that did not line up with reality — my guess is that many "stumper" questions were experimental or just washed out with the curve. The curve must have been far, far more generous than that of the NBMEs.

Timing... there was plenty of time to finish each section. I generally finished with 10+ minutes to spare, and ended the day with 90 minutes of break time remaining (I didn't use much either because after eating, I just wanted to get back to the exam and get it over with...).

Question stems were generally fairly brief, more akin to NBME than UWorld. Some questions were off the wall and I had never heard of the topic before; that occurred particularly with respect to musculoskeletal and dermatology material. Others were prosaic topics asked about in a strange way that confused me utterly. Pictures were generally good quality. Lots of radiology (more than I expected, by far). Quite a bit of genetics. Multiple ethics questions that I could narrow down to 2 choices but could not differentiate after that. Couple of heart sound questions with the interactive interface; sound quality was great and those questions were not difficult.

Lesson learned is that Step 1 will crush your soul and make you feel you did horrible even if you did well.

Step 1: 259
Baseline/pre-dedicated study NBME (17), ~1.5 months out: 244 (580)
Second NBME (19), ~3 weeks out: 252 (620)
UWSA 1, 1 week out: 277 (730)
UWSA 2, day before exam: 262 (forgot to note assessment score)
UWorld cumulative %: 84.2% (96th percentile)

Amazingly the average of the 4 practice tests is 258.75. How crazy is that.

Resources used:
First Aid: Nothing to say here, everyone knows First Aid. Lots of stuff in the book that is actually quite low-yield. You can't learn everything, the volume is too great. Make sure you know the stuff that comes up more than once. Anything that doesn't, maybe don't go crazy trying to memorize (e.g. pharmacology section's endless pages of random side effects).
Pathoma: Awesome. Pay a lot of attention to the first few (fundamentals) chapters. These are free points if you have the facts down pat. I missed a point on an easy question straight out of the inflammation chapter and kicked myself for it later. This book is slim and easy to review once you've read through it once. Rinse and repeat.
UWorld: Nothing to say here. Interface is a carbon copy of the actual step 1 interface. Questions are great. Do timed and random, and suppress your rage at the endless number of arcane questions in the bank. You can't know everything, but you can learn all the random stuff you do happen to come across...
USMLERx Qbank: I highly recommend doing USMLERx during M2 because it basically serves as a pass through First Aid in a more digestible format. I did ~90% of the question bank. Used during organ system courses midway through M2. Medium and hard questions only, timed. Did easy questions when I'd cleared a subject, just to complete them and see 0 questions remaining on the tally.
Rapid Review Pathology: Read some chapters. Not really necessary but if you have time sure why not. Goljan writes well and the chapters are fast reads.
SketchyMicro: Watched virus, parasite, and fungi videos only. SketchyMicro is amazing and I suggest using it early and often. I should have used it for the bacteria but by the time I started using it in general, I had already studied the bacteria extensively anyway.
MicroCards: Pretty good, more useful in microbiology course than for Step review in my experience.
PharmCards: Not very useful in my opinion... too dense and too many cards.

I did only one pass of UWorld because I ran out of time and motivation to go back through or even review my missed questions. However, I did review a Word doc I made with "pearls" from each question I missed throughout my dedicated study period. Were I to re-do this process (not in a million years!), I would take the time to do a second pass of UWorld and also do more NBMEs, and maybe re-review the first few chapters of Pathoma (very high yield!).

YMMV

Congrats on your score.
May I ask how many questions did you have in your exam (the last block), and how many wrong ones did you remember (if you did) afterwards.

 

[Osteoth]

School Exam (NBME 17) 6 weeks out: 172
UWSA 1 4 weeks out: 201
NBME 18 3 weeks out: 220
UWSA 2 2 weeks out: 246
NBME 19 1 week out: 238
UWorld First Pass (Random 40s Timed): 68-78%
Free 120, 2 days out: 88%
Burned Princess Shireen, 1 day out
Actual Step 1: 239

Felt strong after the test, a bit disappointed, remembered 16 questions I got wrong that I checked afterward, nothing to cry about.

Really regret burning Princess Shireen for this.

Damn, congrats on the rapid improvement. Any pointers?

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Remember that time we went out for drinks before our jefferson interview and I bummed wings off a cute girl we met at the bar?
What a ridiculous night that was.

I hope your current evening is half as good as that one hahahha.

Haha of course I remember! 'Twas definitely a good night. Sometimes I question our decision making though haha

 

[ridethecliche]

Haha of course I remember! 'Twas definitely a good night. Sometimes I question our decision making though haha

Didn't we both get in tho?

Edit: The guy interviewing me seemed to have had a rougher night than I did. He was a surgeon that had probably been on call all night. He dozed off a few times during my interview lol.

 

[Reperfused]

Probably about how PTU is used for Pregnancy because methimazole is teratogenic.

That's what I thought. Teratogenicity is more specific for Methimazole whereas, hepatotoxicity is more specific for PTU (that's why you give PTU in the first trimester and switch to methimazole in the 2nd/3rd trimester).

If it was one of the above then it's fair. But if it was about some other third toxicity difference then I'd be worried.

 

[Reperfused]

Just took NBME 13 yesterday for a baseline and got 81% which translated to a 215 🙁 test is in 2 months and dedicated study starts in 1 month, hoping for a 250+ not sure if that's realistically possible...

Hey can you comment on if NBME 13 is particularly heavy on certain systems/subjects?

Anyone else who took NBME 13 recently?

Thanks

 

[quincyfuturemd]

Hey can you comment on if NBME 13 is particularly heavy on certain systems/subjects?

Anyone else who took NBME 13 recently?

Thanks

I don't remember it being too different from the other nbmes or lopsided in anyway. The only thing is the curve is pretty harsh for some reason. I took it right before some of the newer nbmes too but I didn't notice a real difference other then the curve.

 

[Reperfused]

I don't remember it being too different from the other nbmes or lopsided in anyway. The only thing is the curve is pretty harsh for some reason. I took it right before some of the newer nbmes too but I didn't notice a real difference other then the curve.

Thanks for the reply.
The reason I ask is because I'm gonna take it soon. It will be my first online NBME. Haven't finished all of UWorld yet, but I just wanna know whether I'm going in the right direction or not. Will be done with Biochem, Immuno/micro, BS, Anatomy, general path, general pharm, CVS, psych, MSK & Repro by the time I take NBME 13. GIT, Heme/onc, Resp, Renal, Endo, Neuro will be left. Once I finish all of those then I'll take NBME 15 and so on...
So just wanted to know if any of my remaining systems imp for 13 then I'll cover it before taking 13. I've heard it has become a pretty harsh curve so don't really wanna see a super bad score to begin with.

 

[quincyfuturemd]

Thanks for the reply.
The reason I ask is because I'm gonna take it soon. It will be my first online NBME. Haven't finished all of UWorld yet, but I just wanna know whether I'm going in the right direction or not. Will be done with Biochem, Immuno/micro, BS, Anatomy, general path, general pharm, CVS, psych, MSK & Repro by the time I take NBME 13. GIT, Heme/onc, Resp, Renal, Endo, Neuro will be left. Once I finish all of those then I'll take NBME 15 and so on...
So just wanted to know if any of my remaining systems imp for 13 then I'll cover it before taking 13. I've heard it has become a pretty harsh curve so don't really wanna see a super bad score to begin with.

I think you should be fine regardless but what you could do just as an option is take 15 before 13. That's what I did because I was scared of the curve lol. It's one idea if you think you would benefit from practicing with a less harsh curve nbme first. I found the tougher curves easier to deal with once I had some nbme experience and my score did go up from 15 to 13 but some people do say take the nbmes in order so it's just one option. I would definitely leave the newer ones 17 and 18 until the end. Obviously there are mixed feelings about 19 (I dropped hard on that one) so I can't say for sure do it last. I did 19 before 17 and 18.

One more thing because I saw you hadn't done neuro yet: look over neuroanatomy brain images before you do an online nbme. Even just the basic structure or where things are (broca,werkickies, ect). It's usually easy points.

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

Hey can you comment on if NBME 13 is particularly heavy on certain systems/subjects?

Anyone else who took NBME 13 recently?

Thanks

did you take it online or off line ?

 

[sulfonate]

Hey guys,
currently studying for my exam and taking it in 12 days! wanted some advice on how to improve/what to expect. Here are my practice test scores:
UWSA1: 241
UWSA2: 249
NBME 19: 230 (taken ~2 weeks ago)
NBME 17: 238 (today)
I've gone through UWorld and right now my average is 77% (75% finished) and I've been hitting low-mid 80s these past couple blocks. I've read first aid 3x and went through pathoma twice. I'm planning on finishing UWorld and going through First Aid one last time before the exam. I really want optimize my score and also have an idea of what score range I can expect to have with the time remaining?

 

[Ace Khalifa]

Hey y'all, I'd like some advice if you don't mind.

I've been doing 3 blocks of 40 UW Qs every day, which takes 7-7.5 hours to do with all the review. I'm trying to make Anki cards for all my incorrect so that I can be better prepared for the 2nd pass of UW. But I've had like almost no energy to do anything else (Pathoma and B&B mostly). Is it absolutely necessary to get thru UW twice? I only have 5 more weeks until my exam, I've done 21% of UW so far, average is 61% correct so far. Doing 3 UW blocks every day would take 21 days to get thru it once. Should I just drop it down to 2 blocks/day and really focus on the review aspect and going thru my other resources? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, and passively reading FA does nothing for me. I only refer to it when I miss a UW question or when I take notes on whatever B&B video I watch. I've gone thru all of FA once during the course of last semester and all of Pathoma once during all of M2.

EDIT: My baseline was 205 when I took CBSE at school 2 weeks ago. I'd like to get 250+ on step 1.

 

[Reperfused]

I think you should be fine regardless but what you could do just as an option is take 15 before 13. That's what I did because I was scared of the curve lol. It's one idea if you think you would benefit from practicing with a less harsh curve nbme first. I found the tougher curves easier to deal with once I had some nbme experience and my score did go up from 15 to 13 but some people do say take the nbmes in order so it's just one option. I would definitely leave the newer ones 17 and 18 until the end. Obviously there are mixed feelings about 19 (I dropped hard on that one) so I can't say for sure do it last. I did 19 before 17 and 18.

One more thing because I saw you hadn't done neuro yet: look over neuroanatomy brain images before you do an online nbme. Even just the basic structure or where things are (broca,werkickies, ect). It's usually easy points.

Will definitely do the neuroanatomy thing. Gold advice. Thanks a billion
Good luck with your result!

 

[Reperfused]

did you take it online or off line ?

Haven't taken it yet. Will take it online soon

 

[Frogger27]

Hey Everyone,

I have looked a lot of these over the year, so I thought I would include my thoughts on the exam.

Uworld Average 1st pass: 74%
School Exam 6 months out: 217
NBME 17 start of dedicated: 232
UWSA 1 4 weeks out: 247
NBME 19 3 weeks out: 250
NBME 18 2 weeks out: 250
UWSA 2 1 week out: 254
Step 1: 252

What I did: I started studying halfway through year 1 using firecracker, FA, and Pathoma. At the start of year 2, I started using the Bros deck as opposed to firecracker. I also did the Kaplan Q bank and most of the USMLERx Q bank during school. During dedicated I did a pretty typical study plan. I went through all of FA once, Pathoma once, and Uworld once. Let me know if you guys have any questions.

Congrats on a great score! Can you talk a little about firecracker vs bros? Why did you switch to bros and what advice do you have with using it?

 

[Desmin]

Score came back faster than expected, in less than 3 weeks.
Test day: Much harder than both NBMEs I took and both UWSAs. Walked out feeling I did significantly worse than I expected to do. Obviously, that did not line up with reality — my guess is that many "stumper" questions were experimental or just washed out with the curve. The curve must have been far, far more generous than that of the NBMEs.

Timing... there was plenty of time to finish each section. I generally finished with 10+ minutes to spare, and ended the day with 90 minutes of break time remaining (I didn't use much either because after eating, I just wanted to get back to the exam and get it over with...).

Question stems were generally fairly brief, more akin to NBME than UWorld. Some questions were off the wall and I had never heard of the topic before; that occurred particularly with respect to musculoskeletal and dermatology material. Others were prosaic topics asked about in a strange way that confused me utterly. Pictures were generally good quality. Lots of radiology (more than I expected, by far). Quite a bit of genetics. Multiple ethics questions that I could narrow down to 2 choices but could not differentiate after that. Couple of heart sound questions with the interactive interface; sound quality was great and those questions were not difficult.

Lesson learned is that Step 1 will crush your soul and make you feel you did horrible even if you did well.

Step 1: 259
Baseline/pre-dedicated study NBME (17), ~1.5 months out: 244 (580)
Second NBME (19), ~3 weeks out: 252 (620)
UWSA 1, 1 week out: 277 (730)
UWSA 2, day before exam: 262 (forgot to note assessment score)
UWorld cumulative %: 84.2% (96th percentile)

Amazingly the average of the 4 practice tests is 258.75. How crazy is that.

Resources used:
First Aid: Nothing to say here, everyone knows First Aid. Lots of stuff in the book that is actually quite low-yield. You can't learn everything, the volume is too great. Make sure you know the stuff that comes up more than once. Anything that doesn't, maybe don't go crazy trying to memorize (e.g. pharmacology section's endless pages of random side effects).
Pathoma: Awesome. Pay a lot of attention to the first few (fundamentals) chapters. These are free points if you have the facts down pat. I missed a point on an easy question straight out of the inflammation chapter and kicked myself for it later. This book is slim and easy to review once you've read through it once. Rinse and repeat.
UWorld: Nothing to say here. Interface is a carbon copy of the actual step 1 interface. Questions are great. Do timed and random, and suppress your rage at the endless number of arcane questions in the bank. You can't know everything, but you can learn all the random stuff you do happen to come across...
USMLERx Qbank: I highly recommend doing USMLERx during M2 because it basically serves as a pass through First Aid in a more digestible format. I did ~90% of the question bank. Used during organ system courses midway through M2. Medium and hard questions only, timed. Did easy questions when I'd cleared a subject, just to complete them and see 0 questions remaining on the tally.
Rapid Review Pathology: Read some chapters. Not really necessary but if you have time sure why not. Goljan writes well and the chapters are fast reads.
SketchyMicro: Watched virus, parasite, and fungi videos only. SketchyMicro is amazing and I suggest using it early and often. I should have used it for the bacteria but by the time I started using it in general, I had already studied the bacteria extensively anyway.
MicroCards: Pretty good, more useful in microbiology course than for Step review in my experience.
PharmCards: Not very useful in my opinion... too dense and too many cards.

I did only one pass of UWorld because I ran out of time and motivation to go back through or even review my missed questions. However, I did review a Word doc I made with "pearls" from each question I missed throughout my dedicated study period. Were I to re-do this process (not in a million years!), I would take the time to do a second pass of UWorld and also do more NBMEs, and maybe re-review the first few chapters of Pathoma (very high yield!).

YMMV

Congrats for this awesome score.!
Can you please tell me, when did you sit for your exam.?

 

[quincyfuturemd]

Will definitely do the neuroanatomy thing. Gold advice. Thanks a billion
Good luck with your result!

No prob. Thanks so much!

 

[Storph]

Congrats on a great score! Can you talk a little about firecracker vs bros? Why did you switch to bros and what advice do you have with using it?

Thank you!

There are things I like about both, and things I don't like about both. I think for learning material, FK is a little better than anki because they give you the background a little better. I think that Anki is a better system for reviews though. It just seemed very inefficient to review like 300 FK cards a day, and I was having a tough time getting through it. I also think Anki has a better spaced repetition system in that I see material I am failing at more frequently than I would using FK. That being said, my roommate and I both score around the same score on Step 1, and he used FK the entire time.

 

[Dr.Jekyll75]

Haven't taken it yet. Will take it online soon

ya take it online, the curve has changed, its a bit more steep now

 

[Frogger27]

Thank you!

There are things I like about both, and things I don't like about both. I think for learning material, FK is a little better than anki because they give you the background a little better. I think that Anki is a better system for reviews though. It just seemed very inefficient to review like 300 FK cards a day, and I was having a tough time getting through it. I also think Anki has a better spaced repetition system in that I see material I am failing at more frequently than I would using FK. That being said, my roommate and I both score around the same score on Step 1, and he used FK the entire time.

Thanks for the feedback! If you were starting over from M1, which would you use??

 

[Storph]

Thanks for the feedback! If you were starting over from M1, which would you use??

If price/time wasn't an issue, I would probly use both. I would use FK to learn the material the first time, then I would do the anki cards for my spaced repetition. Since price and time are an issue, I would start using the Bros deck from M1. It's just much easier to manage if you start earlier.

 

[attar1990]

Hi all! Taking the exam Monday and am reaching out to individuals who have already taken the beast! I just took the Free120 and want to know if you all found close similarities with your 120 score and the real deal? My scores:
all NBME avg: 248
UWSA1: 254
UWSA2: 251
Free120: 92%

 

[BillrothI]

Would anyone briefly explain how breaks work during the exam? Are we permitted to take a break between each section? If so, do we just hit a 'Pause' button between sections?

Thanks!

-Bill

 

[chumpchange123]

.

 

[Desmin]

Would anyone briefly explain how breaks work during the exam? Are we permitted to take a break between each section? If so, do we just hit a 'Pause' button between sections?

Thanks!

-Bill

You are given total 45 min of break time at the beginning of your exam. Add 13 minutes of tutorial time using 2 minutes for headphone checking. After that after you complete each block you will be asked if you want a break or not. You can use your break time as per your convenience. For eg if you want to spend all 45 minutes after first block you can, although doing so is not advised. Lol. Also if you finish a block in 50 mins then remaining 10 minutes will be added to your break time so you can increase your breaktime. I was done with last block with over an hour of break time remaining. Finished few blocks with 15 mins left and did not use much break time. If your Prometric centre is not that busy and if proctors are supportive checkin and check out is pretty quick.. Go through tutorial on usmle's website. Shall help a lot. Feel free to ask any questions if you still have doubts. Good luck..

 

[BillrothI]

You are given total 45 min of break time at the beginning of your exam. Add 13 minutes of tutorial time using 2 minutes for headphone checking. After that after you complete each block you will be asked if you want a break or not. You can use your break time as per your convenience. For eg if you want to spend all 45 minutes after first block you can, although doing so is not advised. Lol. Also if you finish a block in 50 mins then remaining 10 minutes will be added to your break time so you can increase your breaktime. I was done with last block with over an hour of break time remaining. Finished few blocks with 15 mins left and did not use much break time. If your Prometric centre is not that busy and if proctors are supportive checkin and check out is pretty quick.. Go through tutorial on usmle's website. Shall help a lot. Feel free to ask any questions if you still have doubts. Good luck..

Thanks very much! Really appreciate the explanation. Will check out the tutorial on the USMLE website before test day.

-Bill

 

[sss2g2]

Hey y'all, I'd like some advice if you don't mind.

I've been doing 3 blocks of 40 UW Qs every day, which takes 7-7.5 hours to do with all the review. I'm trying to make Anki cards for all my incorrect so that I can be better prepared for the 2nd pass of UW. But I've had like almost no energy to do anything else (Pathoma and B&B mostly). Is it absolutely necessary to get thru UW twice? I only have 5 more weeks until my exam, I've done 21% of UW so far, average is 61% correct so far. Doing 3 UW blocks every day would take 21 days to get thru it once. Should I just drop it down to 2 blocks/day and really focus on the review aspect and going thru my other resources? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, and passively reading FA does nothing for me. I only refer to it when I miss a UW question or when I take notes on whatever B&B video I watch. I've gone thru all of FA once during the course of last semester and all of Pathoma once during all of M2.

EDIT: My baseline was 205 when I took CBSE at school 2 weeks ago. I'd like to get 250+ on step 1.

I'm pretty much right around where you are. I got around the same baseline but decided to spend 8-12 doing B&B/FA, followed by an hour lunch break and then 1pm-8pm I do Uworld. I only do around 75 questions per day though, but make sure to read everything carefully and thoroughly as I only have about 4 weeks left. I would suggest you do something between 8-12 and then 1-8 do your Uworld. You're already completing 3 blocks in about the same time time it takes me to do only 75 questions so I'd say you're in a good position already.

 

[:)c.md]

Thank you for your experience and congratulations! Do you have any more advice on particular study habits and how to stay calm during the test etc? Thanks.

What helped me most the day of was taking break after each section (so most were around 7-ish minutes and then 15 minutes for lunch) - you'll hear different advice from different students (most choose to power through at least the first 2 blocks before taking a break). My advice would be to take breaks during your practice test like you plan to do on the real thing and see how it works for you. Taking frequent breaks helped me just because it gave me a chance to step away and breath for a second.

Study recommendations differ based on where you are at in your study plan - some general advice though would be not to get overwhelmed with resources. I would say most of what you need you can get out of Uworld, FA, and Pathoma. Definitely try to get through all of Uworld and then at least do your in-corrects again. Between Uworld and practice NBMEs I had atleast 5 repeat questions (probably more like 10) and one even used the same picture!! I know 10 questions is a drop in the bucket on this exam, but it does wonders for your confidence to see a question you 100% know you got right.

Another recommendation that I wish I would have realized sooner - I did only randoms for Uworld based on general recommendations and it took me FOREVER to get through them. I eventually started to do 1-2 sets that were systems based during the day and then one set random. When you do systems based you will get similar comparisons/answer choices and it goes so much faster. Just a tip for anyone who is finding their entire day consumed with trying to get through 2 sets of Uworld questions.

 

[:)c.md]

Congratulations on being done, and exceeding your NBME scores! Do you mind sharing how long after NBME18 you took step 1?

It was only like 6 days before. I had already taken 18 early on to gauge where I was at, but I didn't actually have time to review it initially and wanted a confidence booster/proof that I had gotten better during my study period. I took my first practice test about 3 weeks in and then took around 1 per week leading up to the exam.

 

[sss2g2]

What helped me most the day of was taking break after each section (so most were around 7-ish minutes and then 15 minutes for lunch) - you'll hear different advice from different students (most choose to power through at least the first 2 blocks before taking a break). My advice would be to take breaks during your practice test like you plan to do on the real thing and see how it works for you. Taking frequent breaks helped me just because it gave me a chance to step away and breath for a second.

Study recommendations differ based on where you are at in your study plan - some general advice though would be not to get overwhelmed with resources. I would say most of what you need you can get out of Uworld, FA, and Pathoma. Definitely try to get through all of Uworld and then at least do your in-corrects again. Between Uworld and practice NBMEs I had atleast 5 repeat questions (probably more like 10) and one even used the same picture!! I know 10 questions is a drop in the bucket on this exam, but it does wonders for your confidence to see a question you 100% know you got right.

Another recommendation that I wish I would have realized sooner - I did only randoms for Uworld based on general recommendations and it took me FOREVER to get through them. I eventually started to do 1-2 sets that were systems based during the day and then one set random. When you do systems based you will get similar comparisons/answer choices and it goes so much faster. Just a tip for anyone who is finding their entire day consumed with trying to get through 2 sets of Uworld questions.

Did you take all of the NBMEs? Also how did you review them to find the correct answers. Did you buy the extended feedback or get the offline ones to review. Thanks again and congrats once again.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

I'm pretty much right around where you are. I got around the same baseline but decided to spend 8-12 doing B&B/FA, followed by an hour lunch break and then 1pm-8pm I do Uworld. I only do around 75 questions per day though, but make sure to read everything carefully and thoroughly as I only have about 4 weeks left. I would suggest you do something between 8-12 and then 1-8 do your Uworld. You're already completing 3 blocks in about the same time time it takes me to do only 75 questions so I'd say you're in a good position already.

Thanks for the advice! I do UW in the morning because that's when I'm most focused, and it's also the same time I would be doing the real exam questions anyway. I tried to do a UW block late at night but I was too tired. Watching B&B and reading FA along with it is much better for me in the evenings.

 

[lucky01]

All the best to everyone else preparing for this beast.

 

[Gorne]

I took NBME 13 before classes ended and got a 215. Took NBME 15 now 5 weeks out and got a 225. I spent this past week going over the M1 material and have yet to really dive into the year 2 material.

Is it possible to get a 240+ with 5 weeks or should I push back? I've been a 1SD above the average test taker throughout pre-clinicals.

edit: I guess more information is needed
I've been through FA and pathoma with classes and I'm about 55% done with uworld with a 67% average but my blocks (I do them 20 at a time random, tutor mode) float around 70-90%

 

[pre med 2014]

When do we get our results if we took the test on a Wednesday? Is it 3 weeks exactly that 3rd Wednesday or 4 weeks?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[TheOther]

I took NBME 13 before classes ended and got a 215. Took NBME 15 now 5 weeks out and got a 225. I spent this past week going over the M1 material and have yet to really dive into the year 2 material.

Is it possible to get a 240+ with 5 weeks or should I push back? I've been a 1SD above the average test taker throughout pre-clinicals.

edit: I guess more information is needed
I've been through FA and pathoma with classes and I'm about 55% done with uworld with a 67% average but my blocks (I do them 20 at a time random, tutor mode) float around 70-90%

You can def hit 240+ with 5 weeks left! Keep it up.

When do we get our results if we took the test on a Wednesday? Is it 3 weeks exactly that 3rd Wednesday or 4 weeks?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

It's usually 3 weeks, I believe. Unless you took it after April 24th...yayyy....

 

[ridethecliche]

@Ace Khalifa Can you do a more active review of material in the afternoon evening? I think we've talked about this before about just reading FA not quite working for us, ya know?

 

[Gorne]

You can def hit 240+ with 5 weeks left! Keep it up.


It's usually 3 weeks, I believe. Unless you took it after April 24th...yayyy....

Thanks for the encouragement! I just see that people take the average of their NBME's to predict and putting 215 and 225 into an average makes it real hard to round out to a 240+.

I'm hoping to just continue to improve 5 points a week. I know for a fact that my weakness at the moment is fact memorization, so the name of the game is multiple passes for me. I'm a concept guy so we'll see how this goes.

 

[spaceballs23]

Getting results next week. Did anyone make some ******* mistakes on your test and still do well? Can count up to 10-12 questions I'm sure I missed that weren't too hard but just pressure of exam day maybe I goofed up.

My test was very fair, kind of a mix of UW and NBMEs...not as hard as everyone else's was and don't think I had many experimental questions. Anyone else feel this way and still do well? Goal is 250+...but honestly have no idea what to expect.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile