USMLE Official 2017 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

WeedForLunch

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2015
Messages
51
Reaction score
25
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.. 🙂
 
We have similar scores as well.
NBME 16 225, NBME 17 223, NBME 18 221 and I took my Step on Monday... I thought I had a chance of >220 but after all the mistakes I keep remembering I'm hoping for a pass. 🙁 My advice is that no matter how much you think you know something anything can happen on test day... I was able to recite many things like it was my name and I messed up on those easy recall questions because I went through the questions too quickly... it's like I got too excited or something idk. Ugh.. trying to move on and hoping for the best when scores come out. I screwed up so bad 🙁

well apparently that's how 90% of the people on this thread felt after the exam and I saw that at the end almost everyone was pleasantly surprised by his final score. Chances are that you'll be more than fine. Just relax in these days
 
If you don't mind, please tell me what is your overall knowledge base. Can you state that you overall knowledge is beyond the ufap (I mean ufap by cold, word by word, everything). Do you think that you go beyond this? Trying to asses if ufap by cold and understanding everything in ufap is enough for 250 + ... Because I am not sure about using goljan audio which is 40+ hours, somewhere in the depth of my mind I think that ufap is enough even for 260 with a normal real deal form, but I am not sure ... what can you state? Is ufap enough to break 250?

UFAP cold can get you a 250+ for sure.

The thing is though, you could know it word for word, and not score a 250+. Because the other side of the coin is test-taking skills. Timing #1, eliminating answers, reasoning through multiple levels, learning to pick the best answer, and trusting yourself are all key.

I never thought I was missing anything by not doing Goljan. I scored my highest in pathology, pharmacology and physiology.

Also scored really high in micro/immuno, without Sketchy, fwiw.
 
UFAP cold can get you a 250+ for sure.

The thing is though, you could know it word for word, and not score a 250+. Because the other side of the coin is test-taking skills. Timing #1, eliminating answers, reasoning through multiple levels, learning to pick the best answer, and trusting yourself are all key.

I never thought I was missing anything by not doing Goljan. I scored my highest in pathology, pharmacology and physiology.

Also scored really high in micro/immuno, without Sketchy, fwiw.

I'm so happy for you, I think all of us who posted here these past few weeks feel the same. It's like we've made our own little support group here. I'm so happy to see your amazing scores, you guys really deserve it. It's really true, every little factor needs to be perfect during the exam to have high test day performance.
 
UFAP cold can get you a 250+ for sure.

The thing is though, you could know it word for word, and not score a 250+. Because the other side of the coin is test-taking skills. Timing #1, eliminating answers, reasoning through multiple levels, learning to pick the best answer, and trusting yourself are all key.

I never thought I was missing anything by not doing Goljan. I scored my highest in pathology, pharmacology and physiology.

Also scored really high in micro/immuno, without Sketchy, fwiw.

thank you very much for a thorough explanation. wish you a good luck on ck! Thank you
 
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.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
i would also like to know thte correlation of bros with step 1 : S
 
I'm so happy for you, I think all of us who posted here these past few weeks feel the same. It's like we've made our own little support group here. I'm so happy to see your amazing scores, you guys really deserve it. It's really true, every little factor needs to be perfect during the exam to have high test day performance.

Thank you so much. I'm definitely around as questions arise. I wanna see all you guys do your best on test day!
 
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.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

I didn't personally use it, but many people here and at my school like it. Provides the same sort of spaced repetition as Firecracker.
 
Congrats to those who got their scores yesterday!

I had my exam yesterday. Currently, having mixed feelings and post-test anxiety i guess..about the questions i wasn't sure of or easy questions i marked incorrect. There were many questions where the stem was straightforward but the options were weird or vice versa. Some of the questions didn't give many clues. I found micro, pharm, neuro and rest of the path easiest. There were too many experimental questions that I literally had no idea about! I think i bombed behavioral (dunno how they create such questions) I did ok in it in nbmes and stuff but the questions on the real deal were so vague..And physio questions were also quite challenging.

I'm not sure how i did or what my score will be..My nbmes 16/18/19 were 255/259/261. I keep getting flashbacks of probable questions i might have marked wrong. On top of that my parents keep on asking was it 100%? (gosh! it's not a highschool exam) what scores do u think u'll get? etc..

Any tips on how to peacefully get through these 3 weeks?
 
Right? 15 pt increase out of nowhere doesn't come without the Grace of God
Congrats to those who got their scores yesterday!

I had my exam yesterday. Currently, having mixed feelings and post-test anxiety i guess..about the questions i wasn't sure of or easy questions i marked incorrect. There were many questions where the stem was straightforward but the options were weird or vice versa. Some of the questions didn't give many clues. I found micro, pharm, neuro and rest of the path easiest. There were too many experimental questions that I literally had no idea about! I think i bombed behavioral (dunno how they create such questions) I did ok in it in nbmes and stuff but the questions on the real deal were so vague..And physio questions were also quite challenging.

I'm not sure how i did or what my score will be..My nbmes 16/18/19 were 255/259/261. I keep getting flashbacks of probable questions i might have marked wrong. On top of that my parents keep on asking was it 100%? (gosh! it's not a highschool exam) what scores do u think u'll get? etc..

Any tips on how to peacefully get through these 3 weeks?
put away everything medically related, dont bother trying to study for step 2 because its just going to remind you of questions and you wont be able to focus ( I tried). Do not look up questions. Just keep your self very busy with hobbies, friends and family. the last 5 days is the worst!
 
Ho much questions +- we can miss on the step 1 in order to get 230-235? I hope around 50 questions, around 7 per block?
 
Ho much questions +- we can miss on the step 1 in order to get 230-235? I hope around 50 questions, around 7 per block?
I feel like it's tough to say for sure -- there's gotta be a range depending on the difficulty of exams leading to different distributions of scores + depending on how the examinees you're "pitted" against perform at that time.
 
Thank you for your responses, I am aiming for 250 and I have plenty of time for that, but internal anxiety doesn't let me relax that's why I asses how much can I fail. Actually it helps because I know that having 250 will open more doors for me, but at 230 I also have doors open. So decreasing the expectations In my understanding wanes away anxiety. And having less anxiety can give me a chance to touch the 250 ...
 
Thank you for your responses, I am aiming for 250 and I have plenty of time for that, but internal anxiety doesn't let me relax that's why I asses how much can I fail. Actually it helps because I know that having 250 will open more doors for me, but at 230 I also have doors open. So decreasing the expectations In my understanding wanes away anxiety. And having less anxiety can give me a chance to touch the 250 ...
propranolol

screw 230, get the score you want and are willing to work for. Put fear and anxiety away, just prepare and then be confident in that preparation. If your ready your ready, dont let anxiety get the best of you. you can defeat it. Use NBME's to stress yourself out and defeat through prep and practice. exam day will just seem like another block.

take nbmes as if this is gonna be your score, put pressure on yourself dont sit comfortable. then gameday will be nothing new, your focus will be to just kill each question and forget its step 1
 
Do you know anyone that got around your score using Bros?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Got the same score as PD1. I thought Anki was really helpful. Definitely didn't work for me as a major resource but was fantastic for walking around, waiting in lines, and lighter studying. It really helps you nail down all the minute details in FA that you might not see questions on. I thought it was particularly useful for Pharm & Biochem.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Got the same score as PD1. I thought Anki was really helpful. Definitely didn't work for me as a major resource but was fantastic for walking around, waiting in lines, and lighter studying. It really helps you nail down all the minute details in FA that you might not see questions on. I thought it was particularly useful for Pharm & Biochem.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Well bros has been my primary source of spaced Rep info. That and sketchy and pathoma... I guess we'll see if it pays dividends when I start my first pass of UW this month.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Got the same score as PD1. I thought Anki was really helpful. Definitely didn't work for me as a major resource but was fantastic for walking around, waiting in lines, and lighter studying. It really helps you nail down all the minute details in FA that you might not see questions on. I thought it was particularly useful for Pharm & Biochem.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Hi there, you used bros ankis deck or another?
 
hey all, first off, congrats on some really great scores and for spreading some positivity on this forum for a change haha. This is a thread i don't mind joining!

I'm a current M2 at a US MD school who has done well the first two years, and I have about a month of classes left before my 5 week dedicated period. I initially planned to finish UWorld this semester, but my neuroticism to master class material has made that seem like an impossibility at this point, so I am here for advice. I'm about a quarter through it.

I take path and pharm NBME exams in 4 weeks, so my plan is to master Pathoma via another pass of it and Sketchy pharm/First Aid pharm before then. I also used Pathoma and sketchy micro throughout classes, so I'm comfortable with them.

What should I do these next 4 weeks? Try to do as much of UWorld as possible while doing my content review even though I know I likely can't finish it at this point? Pull 12 hour days to get through as much as possible? Scrap UWorld at this point and focus on doing as much of FA, pathoma, and sketchy as possible to solidify content, then hit UWorld hard in dedicated? Any tips? Thanks a lot!

For reference, I'm really gunning for 245+ given my class grades, though I know that's a tough goal given I've never even taken a practice exam lol. Thanks again.
 
hey all, first off, congrats on some really great scores and for spreading some positivity on this forum for a change haha. This is a thread i don't mind joining!

I'm a current M2 at a US MD school who has done well the first two years, and I have about a month of classes left before my 5 week dedicated period. I initially planned to finish UWorld this semester, but my neuroticism to master class material has made that seem like an impossibility at this point, so I am here for advice. I'm about a quarter through it.

I take path and pharm NBME exams in 4 weeks, so my plan is to master Pathoma via another pass of it and Sketchy pharm/First Aid pharm before then. I also used Pathoma and sketchy micro throughout classes, so I'm comfortable with them.

What should I do these next 4 weeks? Try to do as much of UWorld as possible while doing my content review even though I know I likely can't finish it at this point? Pull 12 hour days to get through as much as possible? Scrap UWorld at this point and focus on doing as much of FA, pathoma, and sketchy as possible to solidify content, then hit UWorld hard in dedicated? Any tips? Thanks a lot!

For reference, I'm really gunning for 245+ given my class grades, though I know that's a tough goal given I've never even taken a practice exam lol. Thanks again.
In order to get through UW in 5 weeks, given that you havent even started UW will require around 72 questions/day with no breaks. If you have everything else mastered, go for holding off, but I would suggest doing questions now to make yourself familiar. You can be the brightest student ever but do horrible on Step1 because you didnt do enough questions.
 
In order to get through UW in 5 weeks, given that you havent even started UW will require around 72 questions/day with no breaks. If you have everything else mastered, go for holding off, but I would suggest doing questions now to make yourself familiar. You can be the brightest student ever but do horrible on Step1 because you didnt do enough questions.

I've started it. I'm a quarter through it at 72% correct. My question is if I should keep shotgunning as much of it as possible before I reset it for dedicated basically.
 
Hi everybody,

I have been reading this thread for the last few days in order to fight the anxiety about the exam and I thought it was time to join in the discussion.

I'm an european medical student (not yet graduated) and I'll take step 1 in 2 weeks. During med school I was pretty average with some highs and some lows (Unfortunately I'm quite on the lazy side).

My goal is 230+ but I would be fine with anything above 220. My NBME weren't that encouraging:

NBME 15 (5 weeks ago, after 3 months of studying, 4-5h/day) =194, 56 mistakes (at least 20 were super basic stuff that I hadn't reviewed yet)
NBME 13 (4 weeks ago)= 200, 47 mistakes
NBME 16 (2 weeks ago)= 211, 46 mistakes (I was really distracted during this simulation, I've made 2 mathematical errors and I got wrong 4-5 things that I knew because I answered too quickly)
NBME 17 (1 week ago)= 209, 41 mistakes (really disappointed as this time I was super concentrated). The new curve on NBME 17 seems very harsh since 2 years ago many people commenting on this forum got much higher grades with more mistakes than me and this really scared me (is the step 1 getting tougher? why do they have to change the curve?).

In any case I think I still have some areas to improve and I'm finishing to read FA for the first time in this week, making flashcards for everything I didn't know. I've done Uworld 4-5 months ago (avg 47%), kaplan 2-3 months ago (average 63%) and now I'm doing uworld for the second time (avg. 74%, 2nd pass).

I'll be taking NBME 18 and 19 soon and I'll let you know about my progresses. Good luck to everybody who has to take the exam in this weeks and thanks to everyone who took the time to share his experience on this forum, I found them very interesting and useful

So, I've taken NBME 19 and I got 217 (33 mistakes). Not too unhappy about it since I knew that the curve is quite tough and also it means that I'm not so far from reaching my minimum goal---> 220

Some comments on the simulation: I didn't like it at all, 50% of the questions were ridicously easy, some were vague and tricky and in order to get a decent score you can't make more than 6 mistakes per block. Now I have a little bit more than 10 days to try to get to my maximum score.

By the way, I really don't understand why I got some question wrong, if someone has already taken the simulation and wants to review his mistakes with me just PM me, maybe we can compare our mistakes and find the solutions to the questions we got wrong
 
So, I've taken NBME 19 and I got 217 (33 mistakes). Not too unhappy about it since I knew that the curve is quite tough and also it means that I'm not so far from reaching my minimum goal---> 220

Some comments on the simulation: I didn't like it at all, 50% of the questions were ridicously easy, some were vague and tricky and in order to get a decent score you can't make more than 6 mistakes per block. Now I have a little bit more than 10 days to try to get to my maximum score.

By the way, I really don't understand why I got some question wrong, if someone has already taken the simulation and wants to review his mistakes with me just PM me, maybe we can compare our mistakes and find the solutions to the questions we got wrong


seems to be crazy steep curve ... with 8 mistakes per blook 217 ... I hope the real deal will be way more adequate
 
So, I've taken NBME 19 and I got 217 (33 mistakes). Not too unhappy about it since I knew that the curve is quite tough and also it means that I'm not so far from reaching my minimum goal---> 220

Some comments on the simulation: I didn't like it at all, 50% of the questions were ridicously easy, some were vague and tricky and in order to get a decent score you can't make more than 6 mistakes per block. Now I have a little bit more than 10 days to try to get to my maximum score.

By the way, I really don't understand why I got some question wrong, if someone has already taken the simulation and wants to review his mistakes with me just PM me, maybe we can compare our mistakes and find the solutions to the questions we got wrong
there is a thread that has a lot of nbme 19 questions explained.

Also real exam is same way. half easy etc..
 
seems to be crazy steep curve ... with 8 mistakes per blook 217 ... I hope the real deal will be way more adequate
To be fair there are lot of questions that are so easy that you stare at the questions and you think "where's the trick?" because the answer is just so straightforward that you start suspecting that is wrong... I would say that first aid covers 85-90% of the questions and then there are 20-30 questions which are very vague and tricky but not impossible.

Next week I'll take NBME 18 and I hope to score higher, we'll see
 
To be fair there are lot of questions that are so easy that you stare at the questions and you think "where's the trick?" because the answer is just so straightforward that you start suspecting that is wrong... I would say that first aid covers 85-90% of the questions and then there are 20-30 questions which are very vague and tricky but not impossible.

Next week I'll take NBME 18 and I hope to score higher, we'll see

So not knowing the factoids from FA caused your score to be 217? If yes it's good I think because you can just remember that factoids and do well. I think it's easier to remember factoid then go through multi step thinking process
 
To be fair there are lot of questions that are so easy that you stare at the questions and you think "where's the trick?" because the answer is just so straightforward that you start suspecting that is wrong... I would say that first aid covers 85-90% of the questions and then there are 20-30 questions which are very vague and tricky but not impossible.

Next week I'll take NBME 18 and I hope to score higher, we'll see

After taking the exam a few days ago I can honestly say the same thing. As I mentioned previously, I made silly mistakes on so many straightforward questions. Part of the reason why was because I was rushing through questions to finish with time left-over, and that didn't really help because in the end I spent 1-2 minutes extra staring at the questions that I had absolutely no idea about. I never had time to truly go over all of my answers to double-check for any careless errors. Stupid, I know... learn from my mistakes people. I thought I was calm but clearly my mind was somewhere else.
 
So not knowing the factoids from FA caused your score to be 217? If yes it's good I think because you can just remember that factoids and do well. I think it's easier to remember factoid then go through multi step thinking process
I would say that 4-5 mistakes are stupid mistakes that I should have avoided, 10 mistakes were from some details that I studied and I didn't recall and the other mistakes were about some things for which First aid/uworld are completely useless. In any case if you take the simulation let me know how it goes for you
 
To be honest I don't get the idea of marking the questions that you really have no idea about. If you don't know the answer, how would you know it after 50 minutes for example? The other side is when you know that you KNOW, but you can't remind it, and maybe after stopping thinking about that factoid you will remind it later. But if you don't know - you don't know.
 
After taking the exam a few days ago I can honestly say the same thing. As I mentioned previously, I made silly mistakes on so many straightforward questions. Part of the reason why was because I was rushing through questions to finish with time left-over, and that didn't really help because in the end I spent 1-2 minutes extra staring at the questions that I had absolutely no idea about. I never had time to truly go over all of my answers to double-check for any careless errors. Stupid, I know... learn from my mistakes people. I thought I was calm but clearly my mind was somewhere else.

Counted 20 errors on the real thing (so far), most were careless. It happens, especially towards the end. I really hope I ended up doing okay but there's no way to know for sure. Time will tell...
 
I would say that 4-5 mistakes are stupid mistakes that I should have avoided, 10 mistakes were from some details that I studied and I didn't recall and the other mistakes were about some things for which First aid/uworld are completely useless. In any case if you take the simulation let me know how it goes for you

People have been posting that making 33 mistakes on nbme 18 form gives you 230 score. So doing 7-8 mistakes in a block is +- 230. I think form 19 is super easy and that's why the curve is steep, hence nbme 18 is harder and that's why 33 mistakes in nbme 18 is equal to 230? I don't know )
 
Counted 20 errors on the real thing (so far), most were careless. It happens, especially towards the end. I really hope I ended up doing okay but there's no way to know for sure. Time will tell...

careless because of tiredness ? What was the problem of doing careless mistakes?
 
People have been posting that making 33 mistakes on nbme 18 form gives you 230 score. So doing 7-8 mistakes in a block is +- 230. I think form 19 is super easy and that's why the curve is steep, hence nbme 18 is harder and that's why 33 mistakes in nbme 18 is equal to 230? I don't know )

I haven't taken NBME 18 yet but yes, I can tell you that NBME 19 was definitely the easiest I've ever taken. Nbme 17 is considered easy and it also has a super steep curve (I've scored 209 with 41 mistakes) but I found it much more challenging than NBME 19
 
I haven't taken NBME 18 yet but yes, I can tell you that NBME 19 was definitely the easiest I've ever taken. Nbme 17 is considered easy and it also has a super steep curve (I've scored 209 with 41 mistakes) but I found it much more challenging than NBME 19

I think nbme 18 will give you best prediction, this is what people do say, they state that nbme 18 is most predictive. Tell us then when you will write nbme 18. Hope you will do great!
 
To be honest I don't get the idea of marking the questions that you really have no idea about. If you don't know the answer, how would you know it after 50 minutes for example? The other side is when you know that you KNOW, but you can't remind it, and maybe after stopping thinking about that factoid you will remind it later. But if you don't know - you don't know.
because once you read the question your brain is still processing it as you move on and another question might help you remeber, happens to me all the time
 
I haven't taken NBME 18 yet but yes, I can tell you that NBME 19 was definitely the easiest I've ever taken. Nbme 17 is considered easy and it also has a super steep curve (I've scored 209 with 41 mistakes) but I found it much more challenging than NBME 19
dont sweat your nbme scores, just go hard on the weaknesses it shows. I never hit 220 on an nbme, but nbme 18 i had 6 days left in which i first focused on my weaknesses and read FA, score went up 17 points.

i would take nbme 18 at least 4-5 days before real exam so you can work on weaknesses and then do before do free120 to be confident
 
Sounds great, how much question you marked on average on real deal?
I marked 8-12 questions a block for first 6 blocks and for the last block i marked 15. around 75 on whole exam

i changed 2 right answers to incorrect
I completely guessed 1 because of time
1 left unmarked-first time ever
5 i had read question and marked but didnt have time so just marked anything I could with 15 secs left (bad idea cause screen lags and you get screwed) so always mark an answer before moving on. never made that mistake again after that block.

so i would say didnt have time for 7 questions on whole exam and 2 stupid mistakes, probabaly cost me a good 5-10 points

im ok with it, its not gonna matter if i have a 232 or a 238
 
Last edited:
Top