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I've always wanted to start one of these...So here we go! ![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
My stats:
M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270
My stats:
M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270
Last edited:
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...
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.
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 youHey 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:
I'm really hoping for 240+, but I've to say, I'm not too confident about myself after taking practice exams -
- 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.
Any advice would be appreciated - sorry for the long post,
Congrats man!
Did the stars align during your test or were you expecting >250?
You should really take an NBME to get a baseline (NBME 15 is a good one for that)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...
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!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.
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.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!!
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
Absolutely.
And the plague should always be on your differential, even if it's 2018 and you're in Indiana.
Hi everyone. Figured I join this thread for some fellow support and hopefully return the favor soon after.
I'm CardiBa 2nd year med student taking Step 1 in May
Best of Luck!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! <3Well, 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.
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.
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.
Nice! Any "wtf" questions?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?
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.
Yes it does give you a breakdown, and I've heard is quite accurate in terms of assessing your strengths/weaknesses.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 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.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.
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?
You're right it's A! THank youI 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.
How was timing for you?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?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
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.
“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.
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.
Answer is A. The picture looks like a herpetic whitlowFrom 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.
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.
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.
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.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.
i checked this question. It is not HSV but hand foot mouth disease.