USMLE Official 2018 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Foot Fetish]

I've always wanted to start one of these...So here we go!

My stats:

M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270

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[Foot Fetish]

I recently took a couple full length simulations with my remaining unseen RX questions (280 questions/ 7 hours each), and I scored 93% and 87% on them. My biggest takeaway from that is that 7 hour tests are freakin' exhausting! I am 3 months out at this point...

 

[Lannister]

I recently took a couple full length simulations with my remaining unseen RX questions (280 questions/ 7 hours each), and I scored 93% and 87% on them. My biggest takeaway from that is that 7 hour tests are freakin' exhausting! I am 3 months out at this point...

If I were you I would just take the test now and take 3 months of vacation

 

[javksmith93]

Finally got scores back, thought I would share since this thread was helpful during studying
Uworld: 83%, Kaplan: 86%, Rx: 88%
Uworld SA 1 (~6 weeks out): 273, SA 2 (4 weeks out): 266
Nbme 13: 259
Nbme 15: 275
Nbme 16: 261
Nbme 17: 267
Nbme 18: 269
Nbme 19: 250 (Idk what happened here)

Step 1: 266

Scored exactly the same as SA2, single best predictor. Also wound up close to my average on the nbmes excluding 19. Don't stress like me if you score lower on 19, sounds like many ppl do much better on the real deal.

Hey man mind posting more about what you did to study, my Nbme 19 score and Uworld percentages are around yours so appreciate your input. I just finished my first pass of Uworld and have roughly 3 weeks left was thinking about reading only objectives on the second pass (and explanation if I forgot something/got it wrong) and reading first aid once in 2 weeks and then another time the week before the test.

 

[afib123]

Hey guys, I'm in desperate need of advice !

NBME 15 - 220 (early February; took it after completing Rx).
Free 120 - 84% (mid-February)
UWSA 2 - 240 (early March)

So far, I'm about ~70% into UWorld (still have about 700 questions left). Read First Aid about ~ 3 times so far. Watched Pathoma inattentively (...)
My goal for next couple weeks is to finish UWorld and Pathoma.

I'll then get ~ 7 weeks for dedicated (exam in beginning of June), and I was thinking:

• Repeat Uworld for first 4~5 weeks + Do NBMEs (16,17,18,19) for last 2~3 weeks.
• Try to make 2 passes through 1st aid/Pathoma.

I'm really hoping for 240+, but I've to say, I'm not too confident about myself after taking practice exams -

Any advice would be appreciated - sorry for the long post,

Your uwsa 2 before even starting dedicated is a 240 and with 7 weeks to go , not exactly sure why you are not feeling confident. I think 240+ is a given for you

 

[Sterling_Archer]

Congrats man!

Did the stars align during your test or were you expecting >250?

Thanks!

I was not expecting to get >250. I was honestly just hoping to get a 230. I didn't want my nbme (18) and uworld percent to get my hopes up, but they ended up being fairly good predictors. nbme 18 tends to under predict according to some people I've talked to, which held up for me.

Good luck on your exam!

 

[Elessar]

I recently took a couple full length simulations with my remaining unseen RX questions (280 questions/ 7 hours each), and I scored 93% and 87% on them. My biggest takeaway from that is that 7 hour tests are freakin' exhausting! I am 3 months out at this point...

You should really take an NBME to get a baseline (NBME 15 is a good one for that)

 

[pharmagesic]

Solid work!!! I was wondering if you could share some of your other NBME results and dates (approximate)? I'm interested in seeing the progression of scores up to #18 and 17.

So I took a free test from my school like most of us do and got a 219 in December some time. Then after a review I did a 240 on nbme 15. Then I did 16 or some random one and got a 235. I about died and really kicked it into gear!

 

[niku9]

HOLY SHIZ! That's amazing dude!! Congrats!! Mind writing a short post on how you prepped before and during dedicated? What resources you used? Would be a big help to many of us! Congrats again!!

I had about 8 weeks for dedicated although that was probably more than I really needed. As far studying, I used all 3 qbanks (uworld,kaplan,rx), FA and pathoma. For the first couple weeks I would read a different system in FA each day and then do about 4-5 sets of 40 Uworld questions on that system (tutor mode). Doing this I finished uworld in about 2 weeks and took UWSA1 and 2. After that started Rx and then Kaplan, both random timed. Around this time I stopped reading FA, except as a reference and ended up doing mostly question all day. These qbank questions are not as taxing as uworld so only took like 1.5 weeks to finish each. Doing all 3 qbanks was probably the most helpful thing for me since I find it easier to learn from doing questions rather than reading. Biggest advice when doing questions is to take short notes on every question, especially the ones you get wrong. It helped me to periodically go over my notes and reinforce the information. Also would recommend doing as many NBMEs as you can since I felt it was the most representative type of question on the real thing. Listened to about half of pathoma but got bored and ended up just reading the rest once.

As far as the actual test went, definitely had a handful of weird esoteric questions that no amount of studying would have prepared me for anyways. Overall though felt like another nbme. I would say just do all the nbme and uworld SA and you should end up doing close to your average.

 

[Lannister]

Lol some of these questions...

Question: Kid has a sore throat, fever, and isn't eating. What's wrong with him?

Me: Probs just strep throat, he'll be fine.

Answer: This patient has rabies.

Me: ...oh.

 

[Ttubule]

Lol some of these questions...

Question: Kid has a sore throat, fever, and isn't eating. What's wrong with him?

Me: Probs just strep throat, he'll be fine.

Answer: This patient has rabies.

Me: ...oh.

Important to remember for real practice that it’s USUALLY rabies

 

[Lannister]

Important to remember for real practice that it’s USUALLY rabies

Absolutely.
And the plague should always be on your differential, even if it's 2018 and you're in Indiana.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Anyone think the average of “everyone else” on RX is low? Mine is saying the average is like 58%.

 

[Ttubule]

Absolutely.
And the plague should always be on your differential, even if it's 2018 and you're in Indiana.

My dad told me about some article he’d read while I was in the middle of dedicated about how they may have just treated the last polio case in the world..

I swear the next day I had two practice questions on polio.

::SIGH::............. lol

 

[CardiB]

Hi everyone. Figured I join this thread for some fellow support and hopefully return the favor soon after.
I'm CardiB a 2nd year med student taking Step 1 in May

 

[QueenJames]

Hi everyone. Figured I join this thread for some fellow support and hopefully return the favor soon after.
I'm CardiB a 2nd year med student taking Step 1 in May

Everybody has a little ratchet in them now and then.

I like you.

 

[The.Supinator]

Well, tomorrow is D-Day. I'm so physically and mentally exhausted and drained and I'm so ready for it to just be over with. I know at this point I have put everything I have into it and I plan on going in tomorrow and giving it my 100%. Some last minute sympathy/empathy/prayers to the step gods would be beyond appreciated. I wonder what they would accept as an acceptable offer/sacrifice.

Best of Luck!

 

[CardiB]

Well, tomorrow is D-Day. I'm so physically and mentally exhausted and drained and I'm so ready for it to just be over with. I know at this point I have put everything I have into it and I plan on going in tomorrow and giving it my 100%. Some last minute sympathy/empathy/prayers to the step gods would be beyond appreciated. I wonder what they would accept as an acceptable offer/sacrifice.

Good luck! <3

 

[Lannister]

Can someone explain to me what the deal is with this CBSE thing?
My understanding is that it's supposed to give you an idea of your weaknesses before starting dedicated. We take ours in the first week of multi-systems, so we won't have learned a few important things (malaria, vasculitides, scleroderma, etc.). We also won't have learned cancer drugs AT ALL by that point, like literally we have never learned the treatment for any cancer except for the "cut it out" ones. I've started teaching myself some of that from practice questions and first aid, but it just seems weird that we're taking CBSE before learning that stuff, like obviously we're all going to do poorly on the oncology section? Is it worth it to put more effort into learning the stuff we won't have covered yet?

 

[Ttubule]

Well, tomorrow is D-Day. I'm so physically and mentally exhausted and drained and I'm so ready for it to just be over with. I know at this point I have put everything I have into it and I plan on going in tomorrow and giving it my 100%. Some last minute sympathy/empathy/prayers to the step gods would be beyond appreciated. I wonder what they would accept as an acceptable offer/sacrifice.

Best of luck!! See you on the other side!

 

[BurnedOut]

I had about 8 weeks for dedicated although that was probably more than I really needed. As far studying, I used all 3 qbanks (uworld,kaplan,rx), FA and pathoma. For the first couple weeks I would read a different system in FA each day and then do about 4-5 sets of 40 Uworld questions on that system (tutor mode). Doing this I finished uworld in about 2 weeks and took UWSA1 and 2. After that started Rx and then Kaplan, both random timed. Around this time I stopped reading FA, except as a reference and ended up doing mostly question all day. These qbank questions are not as taxing as uworld so only took like 1.5 weeks to finish each. Doing all 3 qbanks was probably the most helpful thing for me since I find it easier to learn from doing questions rather than reading. Biggest advice when doing questions is to take short notes on every question, especially the ones you get wrong. It helped me to periodically go over my notes and reinforce the information. Also would recommend doing as many NBMEs as you can since I felt it was the most representative type of question on the real thing. Listened to about half of pathoma but got bored and ended up just reading the rest once.

As far as the actual test went, definitely had a handful of weird esoteric questions that no amount of studying would have prepared me for anyways. Overall though felt like another nbme. I would say just do all the nbme and uworld SA and you should end up doing close to your average.

hey niku, great job!

why did you use uworld before the other 2 banks?
also, you didnt use it random. what are the pros(/cons) retrospectively? most other high scorers stridently recommend that especially the uw be used random only!

finally, what materials did you go through before the 8wk dedicated time period.

thanks.

 

[intubesteak]

Took the beast yesterday. To me it felt just like NBME19..overall very doable and nothing too crazy! Good luck to everyone still in dedicated, I will post back when I get my score.

 

[Foot Fetish]

Took the beast yesterday. To me it felt just like NBME19..overall very doable and nothing too crazy! Good luck to everyone still in dedicated, I will post back when I get my score.

Nice! Any "wtf" questions?

 

[intubesteak]

Nice! Any "wtf" questions?

Not really. I mean there were a few things I hadn't seen or thought of before, but I felt like you could reason through them and definitely eliminate most answer choices. Which honestly worries me slightly because I don't want the curve to be too harsh! Would rather have a harder form but it did make test day less stressful because everything was familiar for the most part.

 

[intubesteak]

I will say this now because I don't wanna forget...the real deal (and some NBMEs) have some of those questions where the stem is really vague and its hard to figure out the diagnosis because they don't give you those classical symptoms or lab findings. And the answer choices don't help all that much either. Uworld/Rx does not prepare you for those questions IMO (its usually easy to make the diagnosis on Uworld but hard to come up with the correct answer choice, at least for me). That is probably the hardest part of the test. As you're taking NBMEs try to identify if those kinds of questions if you can and maybe figure out a strategy for them? I feel like those questions would make/break scores at the top end.

 

[sharkbyte]

Can someone explain to me what the deal is with this CBSE thing?
My understanding is that it's supposed to give you an idea of your weaknesses before starting dedicated. We take ours in the first week of multi-systems, so we won't have learned a few important things (malaria, vasculitides, scleroderma, etc.). We also won't have learned cancer drugs AT ALL by that point, like literally we have never learned the treatment for any cancer except for the "cut it out" ones. I've started teaching myself some of that from practice questions and first aid, but it just seems weird that we're taking CBSE before learning that stuff, like obviously we're all going to do poorly on the oncology section? Is it worth it to put more effort into learning the stuff we won't have covered yet?

I might be wrong but I thought the role of the CBSE is to give you a rough diagnostic baseline score of where you stand before you've started full-time prep and to assess how well the school's curriculum prepares you for the test. We're taking ours in early April after our last block (Psych) and before we start a one-month "review" block on signs/symptoms. From what I've heard most people get pretty low scores on the CBSE since they haven't really started doing much studying yet but some people who have been hitting Qbanks/content review pretty hard do pretty well on it.

 

[Lannister]

I might be wrong but I thought the role of the CBSE is to give you a rough diagnostic baseline score of where you stand before you've started full-time prep and to assess how well the school's curriculum prepares you for the test. We're taking ours in early April after our last block (Psych) and before we start a one-month "review" block on signs/symptoms. From what I've heard most people get pretty low scores on the CBSE since they haven't really started doing much studying yet but some people who have been hitting Qbanks/content review pretty hard do pretty well on it.

Ah okay thanks, good to know it's pretty normal to do poorly.
Do you happen to know if it gives you a breakdown of which sections you did well on and which you did poorly on?

 

[GoljansRightBicep]

Ah okay thanks, good to know it's pretty normal to do poorly.
Do you happen to know if it gives you a breakdown of which sections you did well on and which you did poorly on?

Yes it does give you a breakdown, and I've heard is quite accurate in terms of assessing your strengths/weaknesses.

Also, FWIW there were more than a few students in the year above me who scored below a 200 (projected) on the CBSE and then hit it hard during dedicated and landed in the 240s on the real deal.

Sent from my SM-G935U using SDN mobile

 

[dubnation]

From the new Free 120 that was released a few days ago, no explanations yet online. Can someone help?

I thought this was cellulitis so I put C.

 

[coldcase331]

From the new Free 120 that was released a few days ago, no explanations yet online. Can someone help?

View attachment 230586

I thought this was cellulitis so I put C.

I would put A, thinking it's HSV. In terms of what I was taught, I was told that dentists get finger lesions because they stick their fingers in peoples mouths all day, so it wouldn't be too far off to think this was a kid sucking his thumb. Combine that with the fact they mentioned oral vessicle.

 

[Ttubule]

Ah okay thanks, good to know it's pretty normal to do poorly.
Do you happen to know if it gives you a breakdown of which sections you did well on and which you did poorly on?

I’d take it with a bit of a grain of salt. If you do well I think it’s a good indicator but if you haven’t studied much yet or you’ve just done a little here and there I wouldn’t put much into your CBSE score. It may be good st giving you an idea of where you’re weak but if you’re taking it before dedicated your plan should pretty much be to start with hitting everything anyway so I’m not even sure how useful it is for that.

I know soooo many people who have done terrible on the CBSE And gotten 240+. Don’t have my score yet but my CBSE was like 196ish and I got a 259 on my last NBME 7 weeks later.
Mostly the CBSE was good for putting the fear of God into me about how hard I should study lol.

 

[dubnation]

I would put A, thinking it's HSV. In terms of what I was taught, I was told that dentists get finger lesions because they stick their fingers in peoples mouths all day, so it wouldn't be too far off to think this was a kid sucking his thumb. Combine that with the fact they mentioned oral vessicle.

You're right it's A! THank you

 

[smylee05]

Very worried about my practice test scores and looking for some advice/feedback. My scores have been decreasing over dedicated and I'm not sure what to make of it. Was previously hoping for 250 but not sure what to expect now. Have about 3.5 weeks of dedicated left.

NBME 13: 186 (Nov 22, 2017)
CBSE given by school: 235 (Jan 17)
UWSA 1: 243 (Feb 10)
NBME 19: 240 (3/1)
NBME 15: 232 (3/6)
NBME 16: 225 (3/14)

I completed Kaplan prior to dedicated with ~62% average, most of Rx with a ~72%, and almost half way through UWorld with a 70% average. My plan for the rest of dedicated is to finish UWorld, B&B for weak subjects, Pathoma, and some Sketchy. Any other suggestions/feedback? I really have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

 

[dubnation]

Well. I did it. And I didn’t even die.

I had a few spiritual moments during the exam where I heard someone talking to me, and I thought maybe Jesus was speaking to me or had come down to take my life (or whatever he does) but it ended up just being Dr. Goljan yelling at me about “if the serum sodium is 165 it’s SIADH stupid.”

Haha, but really.

I actually felt less horrible about myself than I did during and be a NBME 19. I mean don’t get me wrong, I also know I didn’t get a 270 or something earlier, but their abuse was definitely less painful than some of the uworld or NBME crap. I didn’t get much physiology which I was pretty stoked about, but I did get a lot of weird public health and ethics questions. Not as many “why” questions as there were “whats” (so suck it Goljan, jk his lectures saved me over and over today, you’re bae).

Idk, I brought a ton of fun snacks and drinks for breaks and ended up doing a few laps around outside to get the O2 back to my brain. So yeah. Guess we will see in three weeks

How was timing for you?

 

[coldcase331]

Well. I did it. And I didn’t even die.

I had a few spiritual moments during the exam where I heard someone talking to me, and I thought maybe Jesus was speaking to me or had come down to take my life (or whatever he does) but it ended up just being Dr. Goljan yelling at me about “if the serum sodium is 165 it’s SIADH stupid.”

Haha, but really.

I actually felt less horrible about myself than I did during and be a NBME 19. I mean don’t get me wrong, I also know I didn’t get a 270 or something earlier, but their abuse was definitely less painful than some of the uworld or NBME crap. I didn’t get much physiology which I was pretty stoked about, but I did get a lot of weird public health and ethics questions. Not as many “why” questions as there were “whats” (so suck it Goljan, jk his lectures saved me over and over today, you’re bae).

Idk, I brought a ton of fun snacks and drinks for breaks and ended up doing a few laps around outside to get the O2 back to my brain. So yeah. Guess we will see in three weeks

Congrats on conquering the beast! But question on the sweet nothings Dr. Goljan whipsered in your ear, wouldn't SIADH lead to low serum sodium levels?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

From the new Free 120 that was released a few days ago, no explanations yet online. Can someone help?

View attachment 230586

I thought this was cellulitis so I put C.

HSV.

Kid sucks fingers and has herpetic whitlow. Cellulitis doesn't explain the oral vesicles.

 

[IslandStyle808]

“Do they have trouble concentrating or diluting their urine? CONCENTRATING *chants everyone in the room* cool and what does ADH do to your CD? AQUAPORINS, FREE WATER! *chant* good, ok so do you think they’re going to have a higher urine osmolarity or plasma osmolarity? PLASMA *chant* and if you give them desmopressin is that going to fix their problem? NO! *chant*”


yeah.. let’s just not talk about pigeons.

Does he have one for primary polydipsia versus SIADH?

 

[Lannister]

I'm so confused...SIADH causes concentrated urine and hyponatremia...right? I've had about a hundred questions on this and gotten them all correct...unless I'm misunderstanding something?

 

[Lannister]

I'm with you, man. I think this dude is a gunner (like an actual one). Part of the treatment of SIADH is increasing the serum sodium concentration, in that titration is important because too fast of an infusion can cause central pontine myelinolysis. Literally no clue what this dude is smoking.

Hahah okay good, we are definitely correct about this. Never trusting anything I read on the step 1 forums again.

 

[IslandStyle808]

LOL SDNers like to call troll or gunner when something they say bugs them. If you think its wrong, its up to you fact check it and make sure its correct. The person may have remembered it wrong.

 

[bananafish94]

Finished UWorld today with a 62% overall, which according to that chart correlates to a 232 (no idea where those data are coming from or how accurate it is). It's been trending up over the past few weeks though, I've recently been getting into the 70s or 80s more frequently. Of course, I would be absolutely thrilled with a 232.

We are now more or less on dedicated. Taking an NMBE in a couple days as a class to see where I am and I'm pretty nervous for it because I'd really like to see improvement.

The past 1-2 weeks have been relentlessly brutal with school exams and end-of-M2-year potpourri which threw off my schedule quite a bit but I've more or less been able to get back on track in the past few days. Now the real fun can begin!

 

[raizen91]

IMG from Canada who took step a few weeks ago, thought overall it was harder than uworld or nbme exams but overall wasn't too bad but hard to gauge how the exam went because a lot of the questions you have to go with your gut feeling. Marked around 4-10 questions per block. Looked up what I could remember and guessed a decent amount of it correct but still forgot the majority of the questions after a day or so. Should receive the score within the coming weeks.

UW 1st pass: 80%
UW 2nd pass: 94%
NBME 13: 261
NBME 15: 245
NBME 16: 255
NBME 18: 252
UWSA 1: 269
UWSA 2: 259

 

[TheForce]

From the new Free 120 that was released a few days ago, no explanations yet online. Can someone help?

View attachment 230586

I thought this was cellulitis so I put C.

Answer is A. The picture looks like a herpetic whitlow

 

[sahell]

From the new Free 120 that was released a few days ago, no explanations yet online. Can someone help?

View attachment 230586

I thought this was cellulitis so I put C.

Whitelow is mostly seen in dentists and I doubt the 2yo has been doing any root canals recently. I would have thought cocksackie A causing hand, foot and mouth disease.

 

[cron7]

Whitelow is mostly seen in dentists and I doubt the 2yo has been doing any root canals recently. I would have thought cocksackie A causing hand, foot and mouth disease.

Herpetic Whitlow is mostly seen in dentists because they put their hands/instruments in people's mouths, which is where HSV is found. 2 yr old kid -> likes to suck thumb -> transfer of HSV from mouth to thumb.

Source: A dentist.

 

[sahell]

Herpetic Whitlow is mostly seen in dentists because they put their hands/instruments in people's mouths, which is where HSV is found. 2 yr old kid -> likes to suck thumb -> transfer of HSV from mouth to thumb.

Source: A dentist.

I agree but I feel Hand foot ad mouth would still be more common. I'm pretty sure the free 120 provides a key so ignore me if I'm wrong.

 

[BlueArc]

I agree but I feel Hand foot ad mouth would still be more common. I'm pretty sure the free 120 provides a key so ignore me if I'm wrong.

i checked this question. It is not HSV but hand foot mouth disease.

 

[Ttubule]

Permit link is gone

Winter, er I mean ** Wednesday ** is coming.....

 

[The.Supinator]

I agree but I feel Hand foot ad mouth would still be more common. I'm pretty sure the free 120 provides a key so ignore me if I'm wrong.

its classic location of herpetic whitlow, tips of fingers, source: dermatologist. most kids with family members with hsv, get exposed to it at a young age.

 

[Ttubule]

its classic location of herpetic whitlow, tips of fingers, source: dermatologist. most kids with family members with hsv, get exposed to it at a young age.

Plus, google herpetic whitlow. This is like a textbook presentation. The lesions in HFM disease look pretty different and are more localized to palms and soles specifically (not sure about in clinical practice but on basically every step questions).

 

[TheForce]

i checked this question. It is not HSV but hand foot mouth disease.

No really. Answer is HSV, dna virus
Source: free 120 answer key