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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Hi,

I noticed on the NBME website that there will be 'necessary modifications to the test item pool' (see below) with a significant delay in score reporting.

Does anyone know if it's a gradual shift in test questions over a few weeks or a bomb will just be dropped on one day?

Currently I have my exam scheduled for 4/24; just wondering if it would be a better idea for me to move the test date slightly ahead because the new test items might be more clinical? Our med school takes step 1 after M2, not M3, so I'm thinking that the M3ers have a large advantage if this happens.

Or does this happen every year and makes no difference? Thanks in advance!

However, because of necessary modifications to the test item pool, there will be a delay in reporting for some examinees who test beginning the week of April 24, 2017. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing the week of April 24 through late May will be Wednesday, June 28, 2017.
 
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Daitong said:
Hi,

I noticed on the NBME website that there will be 'necessary modifications to the test item pool' (see below) with a significant delay in score reporting.

Does anyone know if it's a gradual shift in test questions over a few weeks or a bomb will just be dropped on one day?

Currently I have my exam scheduled for 4/24; just wondering if it would be a better idea for me to move the test date slightly ahead because the new test items might be more clinical? Our med school takes step 1 after M2, not M3, so I'm thinking that the M3ers have a large advantage if this happens.

Or does this happen every year and makes no difference? Thanks in advance!

However, because of necessary modifications to the test item pool, there will be a delay in reporting for some examinees who test beginning the week of April 24, 2017. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing the week of April 24 through late May will be Wednesday, June 28, 2017.
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i would take it before changes occur, people are always complaining after a change. not to mention 8 weeks for your score will drive you nuts! just take it 22nd or 23rd


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Surgeria said:
Thank you. What do you think about other stated subjects? I will explain my situation. I am finishing uworld 1st run subjectwise, tutor, untimed. I have done all the kaplan review books except pathology and physio for which of course I used brs and pathoma. I also did kaplan videos all of them except micro/imunno/pathology, I also did pathoma videos. I am finishing 300 RX cases that are in the end of the book Q&A book. I was also doing anki cards and I have done 2/3 of 2016 deck. I will sat nbme in one week. 6 month ago my first resul was 160 score in nbme but i gave nbme 1, but i think if I sat nbme 12 isntead of 1'st one, result would be the same. I will check my 6 month progress in a while. But I am in front of a dilemma, go for kaplan bank (full or subjectwise) or go for uworld for next 8 month. I have plenty of time, and I am ready to study non stop 11-13 hours per day, I don't burn out, I get used but it's another story. The idea is that I want to pull all my natural resource, I have time and I think normal base at the moment (will check it by nbme 11-12-13 next week). What's your advise folks? I heared so many times that kaplan is not high yield, I am affraid to waste time on it ... Maybe some of you can give me an advise

my variants:

1) Go for kaplan subjectvise (after researching which subjects are the best) and after go for uworld for next 6 month with enormous repetition of weak subjects and topics from nbme assesments using UFAP

2) Do all the stated above just without kaplan, just master ufap for next 8 month. Know every damn word, every concept, every silly side effect e.t.c
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If you have that much time, you can do all of Kaplan. I know people don't recommend it, and it can have diminishing returns, but those crazy details can net you more than a handful of points on the real deal.

Doing UWorld many times is good, but that can also have diminishing returns. Half the time, you'll remember what the answer was because you remember that was the answer, not why that was the answer.

Again, if you have that much time, it might be worthwhile to do all of Kaplan, and then do UWorld. And everything else you mentioned of course.
 
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Anti-PD1 said:
If you have that much time, you can do all of Kaplan. I know people don't recommend it, and it can have diminishing returns, but those crazy details can net you more than a handful of points on the real deal.

Doing UWorld many times is good, but that can also have diminishing returns. Half the time, you'll remember what the answer was because you remember that was the answer, not why that was the answer.

Again, if you have that much time, it might be worthwhile to do all of Kaplan, and then do UWorld. And everything else you mentioned of course.
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Thank you for an answer.
 
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mymembernames said:
For people who went from Kaplan to Uworld, did you find Uworld more or less challenging than Kaplan overall?
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kaplan is more challenging in the sense of remembering small details

uworld is challenging in sense of applying concepts and some trickery

uworld is what step 1 is all about

kaplan is make sure your basics are down


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TheOther said:
General trend? Just doesn't make much sense to me...isn't that what Step 2 is for? Lol.
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Yes you're right, but over the years NBME has tried to make questions more "clinical" in the sense that basic science is still tested, but it'll be in more clinical contexts. This is pretty obvious on NBMEs, the early NBMEs will say something like a patient can't do respiratory burst, what enzyme is deficient vs in later ones (and a lot of UWorld) they'll give clinical signs and symptoms, maybe a microbio correlate, etc to get you to think more clinically about what's going on, but then ask you the same question. Basically that's why I believe is meant by more "clinical", so you've def already been exposed to it
 
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A$AP said:
Yes you're right, but over the years NBME has tried to make questions more "clinical" in the sense that basic science is still tested, but it'll be in more clinical contexts. This is pretty obvious on NBMEs, the early NBMEs will say something like a patient can't do respiratory burst, what enzyme is deficient vs in later ones (and a lot of UWorld) they'll give clinical signs and symptoms, maybe a microbio correlate, etc to get you to think more clinically about what's going on, but then ask you the same question. Basically that's why I believe is meant by more "clinical", so you've def already been exposed to it
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Ah I see, thanks for the clarification. That makes sense.
I've only taken the earlier NBMEs and am through most of UWorld so I can definitely see the difference in "clinical" questions that you're describing.
 
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A$AP said:
Yes you're right, but over the years NBME has tried to make questions more "clinical" in the sense that basic science is still tested, but it'll be in more clinical contexts. This is pretty obvious on NBMEs, the early NBMEs will say something like a patient can't do respiratory burst, what enzyme is deficient vs in later ones (and a lot of UWorld) they'll give clinical signs and symptoms, maybe a microbio correlate, etc to get you to think more clinically about what's going on, but then ask you the same question. Basically that's why I believe is meant by more "clinical", so you've def already been exposed to it
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you definitely need to be able to come up with a diagnosis fast, and what the treatment would be.'

after that its just breaking it down to mechanisms and concepts for step 1 and best next step for STEP 2.

earlier nbmes were a lot simplier in terms of needing to know the dx first
 
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I can defiantly say Kaplan is small details, and useless details to be honest but to get the exposure and doing more questions always help. If I had a rate most useful in learning and description of question and answers I will give it to uworld. The way they word the answers always makes me feel uncomfortable because it's not Word for Word and first aid like Kaplan and Rx


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567WingsO'Heaven said:
Nice, great stats! So you didn't find it necessary to use the older nbmes?


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In terms of simulating the real exam I would say 17/18 (don't know about 19) were pretty realistic - People I talked to who took the older ones said they weren't super helpful unless you want to get used to the format/timing early on. The older ones I've heard tend to be more basic science recall based while more recently I think there's been a transition to more "clinical" vignettes. I thought reviewing my notes for 3 more days would be more beneficial than taking 3 more tests.

I had 1 repeat and people who took all of them had maybe 5 but they tend to be the easy ones you'll know anyways.

That said I left it feeling like I failed it but I think that's just experimental questions + test anxiety.
 
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LuciusVorenus said:
In terms of simulating the real exam I would say 17/18 (don't know about 19) were pretty realistic - People I talked to who took the older ones said they weren't super helpful unless you want to get used to the format/timing early on. The older ones I've heard tend to be more basic science recall based while more recently I think there's been a transition to more "clinical" vignettes. I thought reviewing my notes for 3 more days would be more beneficial than taking 3 more tests.

I had 1 repeat and people who took all of them had maybe 5 but they tend to be the easy ones you'll know anyways.

That said I left it feeling like I failed it but I think that's just experimental questions + test anxiety.
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your 75% correlated exactly with the chart, thats crazy. i swear its way off for me


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LuciusVorenus said:
Got my score back from mid-february

UW Average: 75%
UWSA1: 262 (2 weeks out)
UWSA2: 258 (2 weeks out)
NBME 17: 251 (1 week out)
NBME 18: 255 (3 days out)
Real Thing: 253

Just did UFAP over 6 weeks
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Out of curiosity how many times did you go through UFAP? I've noticed everybody does uworld twice but they never mention their run through with pathoma and fa


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Dr.Jekyll75 said:
Out of curiosity how many times did you go through UFAP? I've noticed everybody does uworld twice but they never mention their run through with pathoma and fa


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Click to expand...

I went through everything only once but I made very detailed notecards combining everything from all 3. I spent the last 2.5 weeks just memorizing my 2000 brainscape cards haha. So I guess I TECHNICALLY went over everything twice.

My study method was different though because my school does step 1 after rotations so I had already taken all the shelfs.
 
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LuciusVorenus said:
I went through everything only once but I made very detailed notecards combining everything from all 3. I spent the last 2.5 weeks just memorizing my 2000 brainscape cards haha. So I guess I TECHNICALLY went over everything twice.

My study method was different though because my school does step 1 after rotations so I had already taken all the shelfs.
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Congrats! Seems like students taking step 1 after clerkships are killing it!
 
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mymembernames said:
Congrats! Seems like students taking step 1 after clerkships are killing it!
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From what I've been told, the last few years everything is more clinically orientated not just straight up memorization off first aid so these students have a one up on everybody else because they are in the clinics and they see the pathologies and that actually stick with them


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mymembernames said:
Congrats! Seems like students taking step 1 after clerkships are killing it!
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I definitely think it helped in that I knew/had seen 90% of the pathology before and was very familiar with nbme. On the other hand biochem and some of the other basic sciences were a struggle because it's not something you really encounter after preclinicals. Same problem with head and neck anatomy since you rarely see it on surgery.
 
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LuciusVorenus said:
I went through everything only once but I made very detailed notecards combining everything from all 3. I spent the last 2.5 weeks just memorizing my 2000 brainscape cards haha. So I guess I TECHNICALLY went over everything twice.

My study method was different though because my school does step 1 after rotations so I had already taken all the shelfs.
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Can I ask how long it took you to make all of your notecards? And could you provide an example of a card? I'm curious how you got down a book full of facts down to 2000 cards haha.

And congrats on the great score!
 
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TheOther said:
Can I ask how long it took you to make all of your notecards? And could you provide an example of a card? I'm curious how you got down a book full of facts down to 2000 cards haha.

And congrats on the great score!
Click to expand...

Depends on the subject for example for pharm I would do name of drug on one side and mechanism/side effect on the other:

EfaVIRenz
NeVIRapine
DelaVIRdine

//

Bind at different site than NRTIs - do not require phosphorylation

May cause...
SJS-TEN
Hepatotoxicity
Vivid dreams (Efavirenz)
Teratogen (Efavirenz, Delavirdine)

For most of the cards (pathology) I would do symptoms/lab results on one side with pathophysiology and treatment/complications on the other:

Intra- and extrahepatic ducts with...
Onion-skin bile duct fibrosis
Alternating strictures and dilation (beading)
Elevated IgM
p-ANCA+

//

PRIMARY SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS

Can lead to secondary biliary cirrhosis - increased risk of cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer

Associated with IBD

Note - Causes of secondary biliary cirrhosis include extrahepatic gallstones and pancreatic carcinoma

So my notecards were pretty long. They're public if you want to look at them but honestly I really doubt it'll help you because I would not include things I felt comfortable knowing so there are definitely some gaps. I also just updated my shelf note cards for a lot of them so there's some unnecessary information.
 
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LuciusVorenus said:
Depends on the subject for example for pharm I would do name of drug on one side and mechanism/side effect on the other:

EfaVIRenz
NeVIRapine
DelaVIRdine

//

Bind at different site than NRTIs - do not require phosphorylation

May cause...
SJS-TEN
Hepatotoxicity
Vivid dreams (Efavirenz)
Teratogen (Efavirenz, Delavirdine)

For most of the cards (pathology) I would do symptoms/lab results on one side with pathophysiology and treatment/complications on the other:

Intra- and extrahepatic ducts with...
Onion-skin bile duct fibrosis
Alternating strictures and dilation (beading)
Elevated IgM
p-ANCA+

//

PRIMARY SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS

Can lead to secondary biliary cirrhosis - increased risk of cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder cancer

Associated with IBD

Note - Causes of secondary biliary cirrhosis include extrahepatic gallstones and pancreatic carcinoma

So my notecards were pretty long. They're public if you want to look at them but honestly I really doubt it'll help you because I would not include things I felt comfortable knowing so there are definitely some gaps. I also just updated my shelf note cards for a lot of them so there's some unnecessary information.
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Got it, thanks!

Yeah, I've been using Bro's for a while but I've switched over to trying do more compacted passes through First Aid via reading so I've been considering making my own cards. I appreciate your insight -- I definitely prefer to make my own cards. How long did it take you to make all of yours with that first pass of FA?
 
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TheOther said:
Got it, thanks!

Yeah, I've been using Bro's for a while but I've switched over to trying do more compacted passes through First Aid via reading so I've been considering making my own cards. I appreciate your insight -- I definitely prefer to make my own cards. How long did it take you to make all of yours with that first pass of FA?
Click to expand...

I think it took me around 3.5 weeks to go through FA while making the notecards. I didn't take any days off though because I developed anxiety about getting a 180 and getting kicked out of med school :/
 
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LuciusVorenus said:
I think it took me around 3.5 weeks to go through FA while making the notecards. I didn't take any days off though because I developed anxiety about getting a 180 and getting kicked out of med school :/
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Oh man that's brutal. At least it went the other way and you ended up hitting Step 1 outa the park haha.

So you went about 2.5 days/organ system? Or did you also make cards for all of the general chapters of FA also?
 
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TheOther said:
Oh man that's brutal. At least it went the other way and you ended up hitting Step 1 outa the park haha.

So you went about 2.5 days/organ system? Or did you also make cards for all of the general chapters of FA also?
Click to expand...

Generally 2/day but sometimes I would do 3 (e.g. biochem, microbio) and sometimes 1 (e.g. pulm, path)
 
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TheOther said:
Got it, thanks!

Yeah, I've been using Bro's for a while but I've switched over to trying do more compacted passes through First Aid via reading so I've been considering making my own cards. I appreciate your insight -- I definitely prefer to make my own cards. How long did it take you to make all of yours with that first pass of FA?
Click to expand...

what made you drop Bro's?
 
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wedoitlike123 said:
what made you drop Bro's?
Click to expand...
I'm a firm believer in Bro's -- but with the amount of cards there are, it's best to be spaced out through all of MS2. I did about half of it last semester, stopped it for a few months, reset it, then did good chunk this semester. But in order to finish it before my dedicated period, I've been going at 300 new cards/day. It's a huge time sink at this point and it's exhausting. I only have roughly 2 months until my exam so I took a couple days changing up my strategy.

I'm sticking with Bro's for the general chapters (biochem, immuno, pharm) but the rest of my day is spent watching a Pathoma chapter then reading through the FA chapter -- surprisingly reading FA is more palatable than when I tried it before. I attribute it to having become familiar to FA via Bro's + Pathoma (been through it several times now). Plus I like reading about all of the relevant facts of the disease at once rather than seeing scattered snippets. My new plan is to do ~4 passes of FA doing a chapter a day, but I might make it 3 passes and make my own cards the first time around. We'll see how it goes.
 
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Major procrastinator said:
https://medicalopedia.org/4030/nbme-kaplan-qbank-and-usmleworld-qbank-score-2013-correlation-table/


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Click to expand...

Now how do I interpret this when my NBME of 490=225 (NBME 16) which equals a 210 (490=210 on this chart), yet my 68% uworld average is 240? 😱


Also, are you able to cross-out answer choices on the exam? Some past NBME shelf exams offered at my school had that wonderful option. I don't see this on practice NBMEs or Uworld.
 
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blueforest said:
Now how do I interpret this when my NBME of 490=225 (NBME 16) which equals a 210 (490=210 on this chart), yet my 68% uworld average is 240? 😱


Also, are you able to cross-out answer choices on the exam? Some past NBME shelf exams offered at my school had that wonderful option. I don't see this on practice NBMEs or Uworld.
Click to expand...

If you are doing online NBME's, uworld, any qbank really, real exam you can always cross out answer choices. I've never experienced a set of questions you can't do that on. Sometimes you have to right click, sometimes you have to select the answer choice as if your highlighting it, sometimes you have to click on a choice.

I'm sorry I can't answer about the correlation because I am in the same boat as you.

I would ignore the NBME interpretation and just look at uworld. The NBME scoring on there is outdated.

However I see what you mean...you got a 225 yet the correlation with your uworld percent makes you think you should be around 240, what gives?

if i went by my first pass uworld percent I should have been 235+, I never got close to that on nbme's
 
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blueforest said:
Now how do I interpret this when my NBME of 490=225 (NBME 16) which equals a 210 (490=210 on this chart), yet my 68% uworld average is 240? 😱


Also, are you able to cross-out answer choices on the exam? Some past NBME shelf exams offered at my school had that wonderful option. I don't see this on practice NBMEs or Uworld.
Click to expand...

I have no idea on this, but my though is that your UWorld percent tells you your knowledge level. NBME tells you how you apply that knowledge. Several people's UWorld % accurately predict. My guess is that you'll get there eventually after figuring out how to approach the exam. Again, I could be wrong. This is just the only logical explanation I could think of.
 
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one thing those charts fail to differentiate is thorough review of qbank vs just doing uworld and knowing answer and main concept


the correlation must be for people who review each question all the way through


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It's funny how back when I was starting my 2nd year I searched around for advice about qbanks, specifically kaplan vs usmle-rx, that a lot of people would say kaplan is "low yield" etc etc... Now that I am starting Uworld, the notion that kaplan is "low yield" is complete nonsense. In my first few days of starting uworld I came across questions that test on content that barely exists in FA. The truth is no one knows the curveballs we will be tested on the real deal and seeing as much content as we can is only beneficial.
 
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wallaby524 said:
It's funny how back when I was starting my 2nd year I searched around for advice about qbanks, specifically kaplan vs usmle-rx, that a lot of people would say kaplan is "low yield" etc etc... Now that I am starting Uworld, the notion that kaplan is "low yield" is complete nonsense. In my first few days of starting uworld I came across questions that test on content that barely exists in FA. The truth is no one knows the curveballs we will be tested on the real deal and seeing as much content as we can is only beneficial.
Click to expand...

I do not think anyone said kaplan is not good, we just say its detailed and lower yield. The reason FA is so good is because its HY meaning a lot of what it says will be tested, it doesnt mean it has all the info you need (it's also a review book not a learning book).

So Uworld is HY in the way you have do multiple steps and helps you understand concepts better.

RX is HY in the sense that it covers FA, its usually a lot easier but its good to see if you can remember what you reviewed in FA

Kaplan is good when you first start out to see if you can remember details about pathways and concepts. Just because something is low yield doesnt mean you should not learn everything properly the first time-it's geared more towards IMG's that didnt have curriculum set towards USMLE exams.

curve balls as you said will always be there, and doing all the questions you can possibly find is the best way to prep rather than doing uworld 3 times.

but curve balls is what is considered Low yield

the fact is that if you can remember the HY stuff in FA+master test taking skills and timing with UWORLD and such. you will score the average or above. For those who want to get 250s and 260s the low yield matters as well
 
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I want to know my score now lol!

I am starting MS4 soon, want to know if I should take Step 2 now or later. I kind of want to take it soon because why waste all this knowledge.
 
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Anti-PD1 said:
I want to know my score now lol!

I am starting MS4 soon, want to know if I should take Step 2 now or later. I kind of want to take it soon because why waste all this knowledge.
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haha dude I've been dying waiting for my score. I get mine in 4 days, I'm so nervous.

I've started step 2 studying and having step 1 info fresh in your mind makes it so much easier, I would take a couple weeks off and go for it.
 
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