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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[sharkbyte]

I wonder if schools get evaluated on the CBSE somehow. Ours didn’t make a huge deal about prepping for it but they threatened to write professionalism letters in our file if we finished too quickly. Just seems like there’s more to it than it being for our benefit.

That makes sense, because in the email that my school sent out to us about the CBSE, they said that it's primarily intended to assess how well the school's curriculum prepares the students for Step 1, since they have us take it right after we finish organ systems in a couple weeks. Although to be honest, I'm pretty sure most people don't get high scores on it anyway since no one has started dedicated yet, so I have no idea how it's assessed

 

[sharkbyte]

For those of you who are working through Rx and/or have already completed most or all of Rx, did you find that doing those 2000+ questions helped when doing UWorld? I know that Uworld is harder, but still wanted to see if it proved helpful in any way.

 

[Ttubule]

For those of you who are working through Rx and/or have already completed most or all of Rx, did you find that doing those 2000+ questions helped when doing UWorld? I know that Uworld is harder, but still wanted to see if it proved helpful in any way.

Definitely helped me. UWorld is better than Rx but tbh I don’t think it’s the content that’s better it’s the question quality. UWorld is just SO much like step, so I think it makes sense to know as much content as you can first so that UWorld is just putting it all together and filling in the gaps

 

[DancingEyesDancingFeet]

can any recent test takers comment on how they felt the timing of the real deal compares with NBMEs or doing a timed random u world block ? i've read most people say they feel much more pressured for time than on the NBME practice tests, and for some reason that scares me more than the prospect of a test with a higher difficulty of question. i've wondered if that's partly due to test anxiety/not thinking as clearly and calmly or that there are just a higher number of longer stems and more higher order processing questions.

 

[grapples43]

can any recent test takers comment on how they felt the timing of the real deal compares with NBMEs or doing a timed random u world block ? i've read most people say they feel much more pressured for time than on the NBME practice tests, and for some reason that scares me more than the prospect of a test with a higher difficulty of question. i've wondered if that's partly due to test anxiety/not thinking as clearly and calmly or that there are just a higher number of longer stems and more higher order processing questions.

I always felt like I had more than enough time on UWorld blocks and frequently took little breaks mid block. I felt like I had a little less time on NBMEs, but still had plenty of time to finish confidently. On the real deal, I had no time to spare.

I suspect this is different for every individual though.

 

[sharkbyte]

Definitely helped me. UWorld is better than Rx but tbh I don’t think it’s the content that’s better it’s the question quality. UWorld is just SO much like step, so I think it makes sense to know as much content as you can first so that UWorld is just putting it all together and filling in the gaps

Good to hear, thanks! I am going to try to work through all of Rx over the next few weeks before getting deeper into UWorld. I'm at a 60% right now overall, but I've been trending upward (scoring in the 70s-75s pretty consistently now) and I also have it set to just Medium/Hard questions and not Easy.

 

[Ttubule]

Good to hear, thanks! I am going to try to work through all of Rx over the next few weeks before getting deeper into UWorld. I'm at a 60% right now overall, but I've been trending upward (scoring in the 70s-75s pretty consistently now) and I also have it set to just Medium/Hard questions and not Easy.

I wouldn’t trip about your percentile too much. I finished Rx with like a 67% or so doing it by systems and got a good step score. Maybe I’m an outlier but I actually thought Rx was really hard lol. I did way better on UWorld timed random (though not because it was easier- I just do better with conceptual stuff)

 

[Ttubule]

can any recent test takers comment on how they felt the timing of the real deal compares with NBMEs or doing a timed random u world block ? i've read most people say they feel much more pressured for time than on the NBME practice tests, and for some reason that scares me more than the prospect of a test with a higher difficulty of question. i've wondered if that's partly due to test anxiety/not thinking as clearly and calmly or that there are just a higher number of longer stems and more higher order processing questions.

I think it’s mostly anxiety but I also felt a little more pressed for time on the real thing, although even at home on UWorld I rarely had more than 10min at the end.

My question strategy is different than most though. I give myself 3min max a question then select something, flag and move on. So I rarely go back to questions, I like to really feel like I either know it or I don’t by the time move to the next one and I think that makes me take a little longer.
It’s definitely worth coming up with some sort of strategy if you don’t have one though, I know a few people who ran out of time almost on blocks and I didn’t (I had one where I only had a minute for the last question but that’s it).

 

[dubnation]

Spoke to a few friends who took it yesterday and they said they had a lot of WTF questions. Stuff along the lines of "what is this medical vocabulary word you've never heard of before?" Not many super weird ethics questions or too much anatomy, although everyone's test is definitely different.

 

[QueenJames]

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.

Wrong.

hand foot mouth syndrome.

Rna virus.

Orange skies ---> + sense

Goddamn you sketchy!

 

[intubesteak]

For those of you who are working through Rx and/or have already completed most or all of Rx, did you find that doing those 2000+ questions helped when doing UWorld? I know that Uworld is harder, but still wanted to see if it proved helpful in any way.

On my test there were a ton of easy, buzz word questions that were more similar to Rx than anything else. I remember do some Rx questions and thinking there is no way they will use all 5 applicable buzzwords on the real deal like this...but they did lol. Rx is really good for your bread-n-butter type questions, which for me were the majority of the test. Obviously Uworld is great and forces you to learn stuff well, but I also think Rx is an excellent Qbank.

 

[dubnation]

Wrong.

hand foot mouth syndrome.

Rna virus.

Orange skies ---> + sense

Goddamn you sketchy!

Answer was HSV. See above.

 

[sovereign0]

Going to throw my hat in the ring here.

Test date is the last week of April. Just started UWorld recently, I'm 10% of the way through and averaging 67% or so right now.

Goal score is 250+.

 

[QueenJames]

Answer was HSV. See above.

my answer key for my NBME literally says it was that!

WTF lololol

I guess it's better to use the UWSAs then.

 

[sharkbyte]

On my test there were a ton of easy, buzz word questions that were more similar to Rx than anything else. I remember do some Rx questions and thinking there is no way they will use all 5 applicable buzzwords on the real deal like this...but they did lol. Rx is really good for your bread-n-butter type questions, which for me were the majority of the test. Obviously Uworld is great and forces you to learn stuff well, but I also think Rx is an excellent Qbank.

Wow, for real? That's super nice to hear. When I'm doing Rx questions and the question stem is like, a dead ringer for pheochromocytoma or something like Guillain-barre caused by Campylobacter I get a little like, disheartened because I'm so conditioned to think now that actual Step 1 is not going to be like that at all and is instead filled with super vague question stems and 5-order thinking lol. I'm sure there are some questions like that, but as long as it's not the majority of the test...

Whenever I see people post about their test, the one constant I've seen is that they say there were quite a few "WTF" questions where they were asked stuff they "hadn't seen before" and things along those lines. Did you have that experience in any way for some of the questions?

 

[Ttubule]

Wow, for real? That's super nice to hear. When I'm doing Rx questions and the question stem is like, a dead ringer for pheochromocytoma or something like Guillain-barre caused by Campylobacter I get a little like, disheartened because I'm so conditioned to think now that actual Step 1 is not going to be like that at all and is instead filled with super vague question stems and 5-order thinking lol. I'm sure there are some questions like that, but as long as it's not the majority of the test...

Whenever I see people post about their test, the one constant I've seen is that they say there were quite a few "WTF" questions where they were asked stuff they "hadn't seen before" and things along those lines. Did you have that experience in any way for some of the questions?

Ah dude don’t think like that, lol. I’m SUPER happy with my score so who cares now but I genuinely think what kept it from being a 260 was missing tons of those buzzword loaded gimme questions because I couldn’t shake the thinking that everything was 3rd order tricky BS when literally they just wanted to know that you know histones are the protein methylated in Hererochromatin lol. I kept second guessing.
There’s WTF questions for sure but there’s a lot more gimmes.

 

[intubesteak]

Wow, for real? That's super nice to hear. When I'm doing Rx questions and the question stem is like, a dead ringer for pheochromocytoma or something like Guillain-barre caused by Campylobacter I get a little like, disheartened because I'm so conditioned to think now that actual Step 1 is not going to be like that at all and is instead filled with super vague question stems and 5-order thinking lol. I'm sure there are some questions like that, but as long as it's not the majority of the test...

Whenever I see people post about their test, the one constant I've seen is that they say there were quite a few "WTF" questions where they were asked stuff they "hadn't seen before" and things along those lines. Did you have that experience in any way for some of the questions?

Maybe mine was a weird form...but yeah. Of course there were some more difficult questions where you are going with your best guess or gut. I think people tend to fixate and remember those ones rather than all the easy ones that took them 15 seconds to answer. I had almost no WTF questions and guessed on zero? Who knows what score ill get though...I felt super confident going into the test and pumped myself up during breaks so maybe I was overconfident! Definitely looked up some I got wrong, some I got right. Either way I think it was a very fair test.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I wouldn’t trip about your percentile too much. I finished Rx with like a 67% or so doing it by systems and got a good step score. Maybe I’m an outlier but I actually thought Rx was really hard lol. I did way better on UWorld timed random (though not because it was easier- I just do better with conceptual stuff)

I actually feel the exact same way lol. The difficulty in Rx is based in raw detail memory, while UWorld's difficulty seems much more in the "problem solving" domain.

 

[Fission Chips]

Just as a heads up, I took the free 120 at the Prometric center today. I thought it was really useful, though the first block was quite tough which was a bit demoralizing. I came home to check my answers and it looks like the test they administer at the centers is somewhat different from the one you can access online. I counted 46 different questions in all.

Some of them are completely new, others are expansions on some of the questions currently posted. For example, a question in the online 120 might ask: what is the Absolute Risk Reduction of blah blah blah... while the one at the Prometric center (same prompt) was: what is the annual cost of treatment in order for one person to benefit assuming a cost of $$$ per dose.... which would have you calculate the ARR, then NNT, then do a little math. I'm not sure if this trend holds true for all the questions that were different, just a few that I remembered wanting to review.

Overall I got an 88%, which hopefully has me scraping around the 250 marker. I made a few dumb mistakes, but there is some basic stuff I can improve on. Frustratingly though, I can't find the answer to 6 of the questions I missed because they aren't on the online version.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Just as a heads up, I took the free 120 at the Prometric center today. I thought it was really useful, though the first block was quite tough which was a bit demoralizing. I came home to check my answers and it looks like the test they administer at the centers is somewhat different from the one you can access online. I counted 46 different questions in all.

Some of them are completely new, others are expansions on some of the questions currently posted. For example, a question in the online 120 might ask: what is the Absolute Risk Reduction of blah blah blah... while the one at the Prometric center (same prompt) was: what is the annual cost of treatment in order for one person to benefit assuming a cost of $$$ per dose.... which would have you calculate the ARR, then NNT, then do a little math. I'm not sure if this trend holds true for all the questions that were different, just a few that I remembered wanting to review.

Overall I got an 88%, which hopefully has me scraping around the 250 marker. I made a few dumb mistakes, but there is some basic stuff I can improve on. Frustratingly though, I can't find the answer to 6 of the questions I missed because they aren't on the online version.

Speaking of all that stuff...does anyone know a good resource for basic bio-stats/epi?

Due to a comedy of errors my school basically didn't have a bio stats module our year.

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[Fission Chips]

Speaking of all that stuff...does anyone know a good resource for basic bio-stats/epi?

Due to a comedy of errors my school basically didn't have a bio stats module our year.

I used USMLEsimple, it's basically like Pathoma or Boards and Beyond for biostats, and its super cheap.

 

[idkididk]

Speaking of all that stuff...does anyone know a good resource for basic bio-stats/epi?

Due to a comedy of errors my school basically didn't have a bio stats module our year.

I heard Randy Neil for biostat on youtube but I haven't personally used it yet, on my to-do list lol

 

[dubnation]

Just as a heads up, I took the free 120 at the Prometric center today. I thought it was really useful, though the first block was quite tough which was a bit demoralizing. I came home to check my answers and it looks like the test they administer at the centers is somewhat different from the one you can access online. I counted 46 different questions in all.

Some of them are completely new, others are expansions on some of the questions currently posted. For example, a question in the online 120 might ask: what is the Absolute Risk Reduction of blah blah blah... while the one at the Prometric center (same prompt) was: what is the annual cost of treatment in order for one person to benefit assuming a cost of $$$ per dose.... which would have you calculate the ARR, then NNT, then do a little math. I'm not sure if this trend holds true for all the questions that were different, just a few that I remembered wanting to review.

Overall I got an 88%, which hopefully has me scraping around the 250 marker. I made a few dumb mistakes, but there is some basic stuff I can improve on. Frustratingly though, I can't find the answer to 6 of the questions I missed because they aren't on the online version.

How did you set that up? Is it free?

 

[njtrimed]

Random question, but on both my school-administered CBSE and the first NBME I took, I got a score, along with a table that allows you to correlated the score to a Step 1 score that was rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 (ex: 190, 225, 240). Where is everyone getting these exact scores that nail it down to say 221 or 243?

 

[Fission Chips]

How did you set that up? Is it free?

It is actually really expensive in my opinion ($75). However, I found the act of going to the actual test center and using their interface, headphones, figuring out how breaks work, and going through the security/fingerprinting was absolutely worth it. I perform better when I am comfortable/familiar with my surroundings, not everyone will agree here. I also found out there is a sweet ping-pong table built from granite and fire pit outside the prometric center. Definitely bringing some balls and paddles for lunch time.

You can sign up at:
https://apps.nbme.org/CBTPSRegistrationWeb/jsp/usmle_CBTPS_registration.jsp

You need your scheduling # and CIN.

 

[Fission Chips]

Random question, but on both my school-administered CBSE and the first NBME I took, I got a score, along with a table that allows you to correlated the score to a Step 1 score that was rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 (ex: 190, 225, 240). Where is everyone getting these exact scores that nail it down to say 221 or 243?

Which NBME did you take? I didn't take the CBSE so I don't know what that looks like. The NBME's report in 2's (500 = 228, 510 = 230, 520 = 232, etc.) as far as I know. I haven't done 18 yet but for 13, 15, 16, 17, and 19, that's how it was reported for me.

 

[njtrimed]

Which NBME did you take? I didn't take the CBSE so I don't know what that looks like. The NBME's report in 2's (500 = 228, 510 = 230, 520 = 232, etc.) as far as I know. I haven't done 18 yet but for 13, 15, 16, 17, and 19, that's how it was reported for me.

My mistake! I didn't look at the table carefully; my score just happened to round off to a multiple of 5 (I took NBME #17). For the CBSE, they do only round to the nearest multiple of 5, though.

 

[ckauf]

Just as a heads up, I took the free 120 at the Prometric center today. I thought it was really useful, though the first block was quite tough which was a bit demoralizing. I came home to check my answers and it looks like the test they administer at the centers is somewhat different from the one you can access online. I counted 46 different questions in all.

Some of them are completely new, others are expansions on some of the questions currently posted. For example, a question in the online 120 might ask: what is the Absolute Risk Reduction of blah blah blah... while the one at the Prometric center (same prompt) was: what is the annual cost of treatment in order for one person to benefit assuming a cost of $$$ per dose.... which would have you calculate the ARR, then NNT, then do a little math. I'm not sure if this trend holds true for all the questions that were different, just a few that I remembered wanting to review.

Overall I got an 88%, which hopefully has me scraping around the 250 marker. I made a few dumb mistakes, but there is some basic stuff I can improve on. Frustratingly though, I can't find the answer to 6 of the questions I missed because they aren't on the online version.

Do they let you review your answers or incorrects? Or were you just counting the 46 from memory...

Also, how far out from the exam are you? When do you recommend doing this? I'm starting dedicated next week.

 

[Fission Chips]

Do they let you review your answers or incorrects? Or were you just counting the 46 from memory...

Also, how far out from the exam are you? When do you recommend doing this? I'm starting dedicated next week.

No, they just give you a print-out of the number of questions you got wrong. I counted the 46 from memory, but i'd say it is accurate +/- a few (I went straight home and compared... Definitely recognized the online questions i'd never seen before.)

I'm 1.5 weeks out. I'd recommend doing this VERY close to your exam date, as it is more about the experience and being familiar with the process than it is about the questions themselves. Hopefully I have a few less butterflies in the stomach for the real deal.

 

[Lannister]

No, they just give you a print-out of the number of questions you got wrong. I counted the 46 from memory, but i'd say it is accurate +/- a few (I went straight home and compared... Definitely recognized the online questions i'd never seen before.)

I'm 1.5 weeks out. I'd recommend doing this VERY close to your exam date, as it is more about the experience and being familiar with the process than it is about the questions themselves. Hopefully I have a few less butterflies in the stomach for the real deal.

Thanks for posting this, I keep meaning to look more into this and then forgetting about it. How did you sign up? And how far in advance did you sign up?

 

[Greyhame]

IMG here. Gave my exam this past Friday. Honestly don't know what to make of it. Thought it was harder than any NBME I'd given. Had a handful of Wtf questions you never see anywhere. Honestly having difficulty imagining getting a score anywhere close to what those practice tests predicted.

 

[anonymoosepremed]

Hey guys,

I need some advuce here. I’m 2.5 weeks away from my step date and BOMBED NBME 17 (370/200) which is the lowest score I have gotten since my baseline about a month ago (180 on 13).

I had been doing better since that test. Got a 205 on 15 a week later, then 228 on UWSA1, then 225 on CBSE and 221 on NBME 16.

Almost everything I missed on 17 was either a content gap or something I couldn’t reason through properly because I didn’t recognize the process that was going on. It was all stuff I hadn’t really seen come up in a qbank yet (these have been my primary resources). I had seen all of it at som point though.

Would you guys move it if you were me? I was hoping to hit 240 would be able to push it 2 weeks.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

Hey guys,

I need some advuce here. I’m 2.5 weeks away from my step date and BOMBED NBME 17 (370/200) which is the lowest score I have gotten since my baseline about a month ago (180 on 13).

I had been doing better since that test. Got a 205 on 15 a week later, then 228 on UWSA1, then 225 on CBSE and 221 on NBME 16.

Almost everything I missed on 17 was either a content gap or something I couldn’t reason through properly because I didn’t recognize the process that was going on. It was all stuff I hadn’t really seen come up in a qbank yet (these have been my primary resources). I had seen all of it at som point though.

Would you guys move it if you were me? I was hoping to hit 240 would be able to push it 2 weeks.

If you're not getting the scores you want, why not push it back? You won't be interfering with clinicals right?

 

[anonymoosepremed]

If you're not getting the scores you want, why not push it up? You won't be interfering with clinicals right?

Thanks guys,

Yeah I do have the time to push it, which is good. My main concern is burnout though, and I was really hitting the wall hard last week. I felt fresh for the exam today tho. I’ve been studying full time since the middle of February, but I don’t feel confident in myself that I can really handle another month of this or that I can be ready for clinicals without the break I built in after step.

Am I just being dumb at this point?

 

[afib123]

Thanks guys,

Yeah I do have the time to push it, which is good. My main concern is burnout though, and I was really hitting the wall hard last week. I felt fresh for the exam today tho. I’ve been studying full time since the middle of February, but I don’t feel confident in myself that I can really handle another month of this or that I can be ready for clinicals without the break I built in after step.

Am I just being dumb at this point?

I think you have to pick one. Either a possible higher score or vacation . I guess depends on how much you want that higher score and the speciality you are going for

 

[anonymoosepremed]

Thanks guys. Time to make that switch!

 

[Fission Chips]

Thanks for posting this, I keep meaning to look more into this and then forgetting about it. How did you sign up? And how far in advance did you sign up?

I just signed up on line. You need to have your Step 1 permit though. It probably depends on what city you live in, but their schedule was wide open. I could have gone in the next day if I wanted.

 

[CardiB]

Just talked to a few friends who took the beast today. WOW.
a lot of them reported a ton of WTF questions, and I'm supposed to be taking it in a few weeks. I started feeling that it doesn't matter if I study or not bc I'm screwed either way. Any input from others, esp. those who have taken taken Step 1 would be appreciated!

 

[Ttubule]

Just talked to a few friends who took the beast today. WOW.
a lot of them reported a ton of WTF questions, and I'm supposed to be taking it in a few weeks. I started feeling that it doesn't matter if I study or not bc I'm screwed either way. Any input from others, esp. those who have taken taken Step 1 would be appreciated!

Get out of your own head.

Weird as this sounds the worst people to ask are the ones who just took it. Pretty much all I could remember immediately after were the WTF’s. When I was taking the test I remember thinking “man I wasted the last 2mo because this feels worse than the CBSE I took before dedicated.” It wasn’t. I felt TERRIBLE during and after the exam right up until the second I checked my score and saw that sweet sweet 250+.

If you’re a few weeks out I’m guessing you haven’t gotten through even close to the bulk of your study plan yet. Nothing matters until you’ve finished that. Once you do, you’ll take an NBME and you’ll know that either you’ve prepared well and now you just need to refine, or you’ll know what needs a bit of extra work. It’s too early to start giving up yet.
For reference, 2 weeks out I got a 225. 2 weeks before that, I also got a 225. 1 week out I got a 259 and it’s because I finished my plan.
Don’t get discouraged yet! You’ve got this. I haven’t talked to one person yet who broke 250 without sacrificing a lot of time and energy but haven’t talked to one of them who regretted it either so snap out of it, get off SDN, stop talking to anyone in your class, put your head down and do work until you beast this MF’er.

 

[Lannister]

Does anyone know how many questions Rx has? I have no idea how many I actually have left, as it gives you different numbers on different pages and they're all totally different so idk which one to trust. Really annoying, since I don't know when I'm going to finish if I don't know how many questions I have left.

 

[Ttubule]

Does anyone know how many questions Rx has? I have no idea how many I actually have left, as it gives you different numbers on different pages and they're all totally different so idk which one to trust. Really annoying, since I don't know when I'm going to finish if I don't know how many questions I have left.

? I feel like when I went to create a new test it just said how many I had left there... (I wanna say it was like 2450ish total)

 

[Lannister]

? I feel like when I went to create a new test it just said how many I had left there... (I wanna say it was like 2450ish total)

Create a test: 790 left
Overall question usage: 790 left
Unanswered: 896
Unseen: 815

I don't understand why there are so many different numbers. I get that unseen and unanswered are different because sometimes I get questions that I know I'll be learning in multi-systems so I don't answer them. But I don't understand why the number of questions available when I go to make a test is equal to neither the number unanswered or number unseen.

 

[Ttubule]

Create a test: 790 left
Overall question usage: 790 left
Unanswered: 896
Unseen: 815

I don't understand why there are so many different numbers. I get that unseen and unanswered are different because sometimes I get questions that I know I'll be learning in multi-systems so I don't answer them. But I don't understand why the number of questions available when I go to make a test is equal to neither the number unanswered or number unseen.

Dude that’s bizarre... what are your settings?
If you have all systems selected and all difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard) then your unanswered and overall should be the same. I guess just keep doing them and you’ll know you’re done when you’re done haha. Seems like things got a little whacky when they upgraded their platform in December

 

[Lannister]

Dude that’s bizarre... what are your settings?
If you have all systems selected and all difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard) then your unanswered and overall should be the same. I guess just keep doing them and you’ll know you’re done when you’re done haha. Seems like things got a little whacky when they upgraded their platform in December

So I do have all difficulty levels turned on, but until recently I wasn't selecting every system (was excluding endo and repro since we hadn't learned those yet). Maybe that has something to do with it?

Haha it's not a huge deal cuz an extra 100 questions is really only gonna be an extra 2-3 days and probably wouldn't make any real difference, but I kinda wanted to finish before CBSE.

Edit: to clarify, I see 790 available when I have every system selected on the "make a test" page!

 

[Rahas]

Can I ask what the CBSE is? I used to assume it another name for the NBME exams, but I guess not?

 

[Reperfused]

When scheduling the free 120 practice exam at the Prometric, there are two options: Step 1 Practice exam and Step 1 Practice exam - C.
I’m guessing the C is for Comlex?
So for usmle step 1, I must choose the option Step 1 Practice exam?

Sorry dumb question

 

[Ttubule]

Can I ask what the CBSE is? I used to assume it another name for the NBME exams, but I guess not?

It’s basically an NBME that medical schools administer. I don’t think it’s availible to purchase (you also don’t get to see which ones you got wrong). It’s pretty much useless imo.

 

[Rahas]

Guys how necessary is it to rote memorize the microbial spectra for antimicrobials in FA? A friend of mine is having major problems with it. I personally haven't come across a question where I specifically needed to tap into this information, but I'm not comfortable asking him to skip it. I've solved treatment questions by making a list of diseases with their specific treatments, and I'm wondering if he should stick to only that.

 

[CardiB]

Get out of your own head.

Weird as this sounds the worst people to ask are the ones who just took it. Pretty much all I could remember immediately after were the WTF’s. When I was taking the test I remember thinking “man I wasted the last 2mo because this feels worse than the CBSE I took before dedicated.” It wasn’t. I felt TERRIBLE during and after the exam right up until the second I checked my score and saw that sweet sweet 250+.

If you’re a few weeks out I’m guessing you haven’t gotten through even close to the bulk of your study plan yet. Nothing matters until you’ve finished that. Once you do, you’ll take an NBME and you’ll know that either you’ve prepared well and now you just need to refine, or you’ll know what needs a bit of extra work. It’s too early to start giving up yet.
For reference, 2 weeks out I got a 225. 2 weeks before that, I also got a 225. 1 week out I got a 259 and it’s because I finished my plan.
Don’t get discouraged yet! You’ve got this. I haven’t talked to one person yet who broke 250 without sacrificing a lot of time and energy but haven’t talked to one of them who regretted it either so snap out of it, get off SDN, stop talking to anyone in your class, put your head down and do work until you beast this MF’er.

Thanks! I really needed to hear this. I will stop talking to others in my class and get in the zone. Step 1 is a test of mental stability and endurance tbh.