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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[Krabbeman]

This is a great idea. Can't look up questions afterwards if you don't remember anything because you blacked out!

my wife will not approve of this unfortunately.

I told her I wanted to celebrate after I take the exam and she asked me "like what do you wanna do, walk around the mall or something?"

can't make this stuff up

gotta love her

 

[coldcase331]

This is a great idea. Can't look up questions afterwards if you don't remember anything because you blacked out!

*Jots down notes*

 

[coldcase331]

Also finally have some data to contribute in terms of progress. Still have 2 weeks of class.
Uworld: 71%
Kaplan: 70%
NBME 13 (7 weeks out): 238

Not sure about the rest of you guys, but the NBME seems much different from the Uworld questions. The NBME questions seemed to give you a lot less info to get you to a diagnosis, but the answer choices seemed a little more straight forward once you had the diagnosis. Can anyone comment on which type of question the real deal is like?

 

[Foramenlacerum]

Okay now that I've calmed down some and rested up...the exam was a wild ride. These are the types of questions that stood out the most:

1). Direct factual recall questions. Great if you happen to remember the fact, bad if it's not something you stumbled upon in your studies, and THE WORST when it's right on the tip of your brain and you know you should know it but you don't and then google it after the exam and realize you got it wrong.

2). Super vague questions Type A

Along the lines of "A 40-year-old brunnette goes to the salon. Her favorite color is blue. She's going to get her hair and nails done. Her husband has always preferred blondes, but she's always wanted to see what she'd look like as a redhead. What color does she pick?"

A). Blonde
B). Red
C). Pink
D). Blue

Are they asking about hair or nails? How would you know? You wouldn't, unless you wrote the exam so you flip flop between two answer choices until the last second and let fate decide which one was clicked when the timer ran out.

3). Super vague questions Type B

Another made-up example: Parents bring in a child for a 2-year-old well check visit. Child will not stop crying. Everything is normal on physical exam. Which of the following test findings would you expect?

A). Low testosterone
B). High FSH
C). High ALP
D). Cranial mass
E). Elevated PTT

....how deeply am I supposed to read into this question?

4). Questions that required you to actually be able to interpret images with no context

5). Weird epidemeology type questions I NEVER came across anywhere else. Not hard, just very unexpected.

All in all, I don't think there's anything I could/would have done to prepare differently than I did with the time scale I had decided upon. Falling asleep earlier the night before the exam would've been helpful. If I had taken more time to study, I don't think doing 20,000 flash cards to remember maybe 3 more facts (because 2 of the 5 I for sure missed didn't appear in first aid) would have been a great ROI. So, we'll see what happens in 3-4 weeks!

This is so accurate it’s not even funny. Actually it’s kind of funny because those WTF questions even made me LOL during the test. Especially the ones that felt like you just had to guess which answer they wanted because you didn’t know what they wanted you to focus on.

 

[Foramenlacerum]

Uworld is by far the stupidest goddamn qbank in the effing world.

Who the eff pays these are-***** to write such ******* questions with answers that support the first answer choice but it is STILL wrong.

ARE YOU KIDDNG ME?

GTFOH.

My stupid percentages are stuck at 63-64% and it's pissing me off because most of my mistakes are coming from dumb little details that I have NEVER come across in my 3 passes of first aid!!!

JESUS FRICKIN' CHRIST.

I guess I gotta continue reading this ******* book 5 more times.

Wanna be over with this Sh it already!

if you feel this way about Uworld you are going to flip a lid at the real thing. UW is way more straightforward than the real thing. Just look at starlites post. That’s reality man. I had probably 10-15 questions that were just like the hair and nails scenario she gave.

 

[KH7780]

NBME 19 is known to underpredict by a large margin, and it is recommended to not take it last. Did you take either of the Uworld exams? Doing well on one may boost your confidence going into test day. Doing poorly may encourage you to post-pone.

Thank you man!

 

[KH7780]

I have quite a few friends it has actually overpredicted for.

Recommended by who? Aren't you a pre-med? Not sure why you are inundating our thread.

Thank you so much

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

I was scoring anywhere from 77-90% consistently on Uworld blocks and never broke 250 on the NBMEs. I thought my exam was incredibly difficult. Like amazingly difficult. I thought Uworld was pretty easy especially compared to my real test. Bracing myself to have to choose a different career path which is going to be seriously disappointing. The variability of the real deal is astounding. My classmates who had struggled throughout first and second year felt pretty good about their tests, where as I, who had not really struggled, felt like I tanked so badly after the real deal. We all joked that they got ahold of our practice tests and that’s how they allocated the real test. Oh boy that’s going to start some wicked rumor and the USMLE Gods are going to come after me.

This is the scariest thing I've read all day. Let me know how you end up doing. I'm taking mine in a few weeks, scoring ~250s on NBMEs. Breaking 260 on NBMEs seems next to impossible now. I got a 94% on 17 and it was a 255, and I felt as though I really got lucky with a few questions. The more I hear from people, the more I think this thing is a massive toss up. I've talked to people who never broke 230 on NBMEs who cracked 250 on the real thing and I've talked to people who got 250+ on every NBME and ended up in the upper 230s or lower 240s. After hearing all this, I'd honestly like an actual statistical breakdown from NBME on how they score the test and come up with forms. It's already crazy enough that some people take this after 1.5 years and others take it after a full year of clinicals, but with so much variance in forms and what appears to be almost random questions... you'd think they'd have a statistician over there setting them straight.

 

[KH7780]

As someone who has recently been there, I would strongly advise you not to postpone the test. I took the test slightly later than originally planned to "get through FA one last time" and it turned out to be a BAD idea. At least for me, it felt like I started forgetting far more than I was actually learning, especially by just going through FA. If you feel confident in UW material, I think you are ready for the test. My score on NBME 19 was also by 20 or so lower than on the rest of the tests.
I think the question style was the most "realistic" compared to the rest of the NBMEs but I sincerely hope the actual scoring is much more generous on the real test (as after having taken it - I don't see a way for pretty much anyone anyone to get like 95% correct on the real test). The graph from last year looks encouraging!

I was preparing for the test since 2014 in the school and tried to engage the materials into our curriculum slowly it was really tough. I don't want to lose all these years because I take the test while I am not ready. I feel I am ready but NBME 19, the bastard, wasn't encouraging.

 

[sharkbyte]

Took a full-length Kaplan practice test today administered by my school and got a 78% on it. I’m about 7 weeks out from my exam. Do you guys think I’m in decent shape? Don’t know what a 78% on a Kaplan test really means. Am aiming for 240+ (245+ would be a bonus) on my real test.

 

[Nephronlearner]

I was preparing for the test since 2014 in the school and tried to engage the materials into our curriculum slowly it was really tough. I don't want to lose all these years because I take the test while I am not ready. I feel I am ready but NBME 19, the bastard, wasn't encouraging.

I definitely do understand the feeling as I have gone through it myself. This is just my personal opinion. The way things felt for me may be very different from how they feel for anyone else. I just felt that there was a point when my performance and memory started declining and I started making more and more "stupid mistakes" by not reading questions properly, etc. (possibly exhaustion-related)
I also think it's very difficult to really judge when you are truly ready as the exam may be quite different from our pre-exam expectations. At least it differed significantly from mine.
Either way, best of luck with the test - whenever you take it!

 

[KH7780]

I definitely do understand the feeling as I have gone through it myself. This is just my personal opinion. The way things felt for me may be very different from how they feel for anyone else. I just felt that there was a point when my performance and memory started declining and I started making more and more "stupid mistakes" by not reading questions properly, etc. (possibly exhaustion-related)
I also think it's very difficult to really judge when you are truly ready as the exam may be quite different from our pre-exam expectations. At least it differed significantly from mine.
Either way, best of luck with the test - whenever you take it!

Thanks a lot man! That gave me a true picture of what may happen later. Burnout is a late-stage cancer once it occurs it's too late to do anything.

 

[pbrocks15]

Following this thread is seriously an emotional rollercoaster.

2 Weeks until my dedicated period and not feeling so hot. I'm at about 62% for UWorld, but I've been redoing a bunch so my first pass almost seems like I'm honestly at like 55% or so, which seems seriously horrendous compared everyone.

Any advice on entering dedicated? I'm making anki cards of my wrongs and going through them daily, and I'm planning on taking a test a week during dedicated.

Thoughts?

 

[Krabbeman]

welp. 2 weeks until my exam and just got distracted for 2 hours watching youtube videos.

 

[bananafish94]

These reports from people who just took the real thing are scaring the bejesus out of me lol The news from the people I know personally that have taken it is grim. Everyone, including some of the smartest people I know says a good portion was random nonsense. Then again, that's apparently how everyone feels coming out of it.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Yeah that's very impressive! But I wonder how much of his test he remembered. A buddy of mine got drunk right after his test and doesn't really remember anything lmao- not sure what his score will be.

This is a great idea. Can't look up questions afterwards if you don't remember anything because you blacked out!

This is my plan exactly. I’m going straight from the testing center to the airport and flying to a 3 day music festival in Tennessee.

If all goes well I should be able to drink myself into retrograde amnesia.

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

I can add some more data points for the thread... I did nothing but practice questions (UWorld, Kaplan) and Anki/Zanki cards for 7 weeks. Reading textbooks does nothing for me. I also made flashcards for every single missed UWorld question and some flashcards for ones that had info I didn't know on the first pass. I have no real good explanation for the huge jump from baseline to NBME 13 though. I did well in M1/M2 classes, so maybe most of that info came back Post-exam, I counted at least 12 I knew I missed and maybe 6-8 more that I likely missed. I felt cautiously optimistic but not super confident either.

CBSE (baseline; promptly freaked out) = 196
UWSA 1st Pass percent correct = 79%

NBME 13 (4 wks out) = 252
NBME 15 (3 wks out) = 252
NBME 19 (2 wks out) = 248
NBME 17 (1 wk out) = 261
UWSA1 (1 wk out) = 269
NBME 18 (5 days) = 252
UWSA 2 (2 days) = 260
Free 120 (2 days) = 89%

Real Deal = 257

 

[bananafish94]

This is my plan exactly. I’m going straight from the testing center to the airport and flying to a 3 day music festival in Tennessee.

If all goes well I should be able to drink myself into retrograde amnesia.

So when I took the MCAT it was one of the last dates they had for the "old" version and there were no locations in my college town - hence, I had to go to random testing center in the middle of nowhere. Then when I got back I had to cram for an exam I had the next day, so I never really got a proper celebration. In a twist of fate, there were no locations where I currently live for the date I want, but there was one in my college town. So after this nightmare is over I'm partying like it's 2014.

 

[pbrocks15]

I can add some more data points for the thread... I did nothing but practice questions (UWorld, Kaplan) and Anki/Zanki cards for 7 weeks. Reading textbooks does nothing for me. I also made flashcards for every single missed UWorld question and some flashcards for ones that had info I didn't know on the first pass. I have no real good explanation for the huge jump from baseline to NBME 13 though. I did well in M1/M2 classes, so maybe most of that info came back Post-exam, I counted at least 12 I knew I missed and maybe 6-8 more that I likely missed. I felt cautiously optimistic but not super confident either.

CBSE (baseline; promptly freaked out) = 196
UWSA 1st Pass percent correct = 79%

NBME 13 (4 wks out) = 252
NBME 15 (3 wks out) = 252
NBME 19 (2 wks out) = 248
NBME 17 (1 wk out) = 261
UWSA1 (1 wk out) = 269
NBME 18 (5 days) = 252
UWSA 2 (2 days) = 260
Free 120 (2 days) = 89%

Real Deal = 257

Congrats on your score!! I have 2 questions for you if you can help out.
1. How did you use Zanki during dedicated?
2. Did you feel like doing Kaplan questions were useful? Or you would have rather spent the time on UWorld?

 

[coldcase331]

This is my plan exactly. I’m going straight from the testing center to the airport and flying to a 3 day music festival in Tennessee.

If all goes well I should be able to drink myself into retrograde amnesia.

Isn't that the whole point of bonnaroo?

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

Congrats on your score!! I have 2 questions for you if you can help out.
1. How did you use Zanki during dedicated?
2. Did you feel like doing Kaplan questions were useful? Or you would have rather spent the time on UWorld?

I knew coming in that notecards would be my best approach, so I pretty much studied as many cards as I could every day in addition to 2 blocks of UWorld and 1-2 blocks of Kaplan. There were days where the anki app said I studied almost 3500 cards (average was 2800 - 3000). This included new and review cards and repeats to learn cards (e.g. if I missed a card twice, and then got it right twice to clear it, that's 4 cards total). My original goal was to try and mature all the cards, but towards the end I focused on weak subjects instead of rehashing learned cards from areas that I was confident about from NBME/UWorld scores.

And I don't regret doing Kaplan, because it was still good practice and exposed me to some material that UWorld might not have addressed. I had gotten all the way through UWorld anyway, and I found that I remembered the missed questions I was doing the second time around. I think if you're pressed for time, do UWorld over Kaplan, but since I had the time to do both, I think it was worth it

 

[Lannister]

These reports from people who just took the real thing are scaring the bejesus out of me lol The news from the people I know personally that have taken it is grim. Everyone, including some of the smartest people I know says a good portion was random nonsense. Then again, that's apparently how everyone feels coming out of it.

Haha this is why I'm glad that my test date is earlier than most people at my school. I don't wanna hear about how awful the test was. I usually just skip over the posts here that describe how the test was. It just makes me anxious, doesn't do any good.

This is my plan exactly. I’m going straight from the testing center to the airport and flying to a 3 day music festival in Tennessee.

If all goes well I should be able to drink myself into retrograde amnesia.

Sounds awesome. I don't think I'd enjoy being hungover on my 10 hour flight the next day. But I am going to be stuck at the airport for a few hours so I'm going to splurge on a massage and a mani/pedi. I've never been so excited to go to an airport spa lol.

 

[pbrocks15]

I knew coming in that notecards would be my best approach, so I pretty much studied as many cards as I could every day in addition to 2 blocks of UWorld and 1-2 blocks of Kaplan. There were days where the anki app said I studied almost 3500 cards (average was 2800 - 3000). This included new and review cards and repeats to learn cards (e.g. if I missed a card twice, and then got it right twice to clear it, that's 4 cards total). My original goal was to try and mature all the cards, but towards the end I focused on weak subjects instead of rehashing learned cards from areas that I was confident about from NBME/UWorld scores.

And I don't regret doing Kaplan, because it was still good practice and exposed me to some material that UWorld might not have addressed. I had gotten all the way through UWorld anyway, and I found that I remembered the missed questions I was doing the second time around. I think if you're pressed for time, do UWorld over Kaplan, but since I had the time to do both, I think it was worth it

Gessh, how long did that take you on average to get through all those cards in a day? And how long on average did it take you to get through a block of UWorld or Kaplan?

Im trying to schedule my dedicated period and you and I are very similar. I love Zanki and have been doing it for my classes and Anki on the side for UWorld Specific material. I'm planning on doing the Anki for sketchy too, I started it and am working on it slowly until dedicated.

What'd you think?

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

Gessh, how long did that take you on average to get through all those cards in a day? And how long on average did it take you to get through a block of UWorld or Kaplan?

Im trying to schedule my dedicated period and you and I are very similar. I love Zanki and have been doing it for my classes and Anki on the side for UWorld Specific material. I'm planning on doing the Anki for sketchy too, I started it and am working on it slowly until dedicated.

What'd you think?

I think I spent like 8-9 hours each day on notecards, which obviously sucked lol. Each block for either UWorld or Kaplan was timed random, so that was typically an hour each.

And I know some people say that they can't grasp large concepts through notecards, but for some reason I can, and if that works for you as well, I wouldn't change your approach. Honestly I found that I could make connections between different areas of material better when I knew all the specific details first.

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

What were your Kaplan/U-World averages? How many questions did you have on content that you had never seen before?

79% for UWorld, and probably around 78% for Kaplan. But Kaplan probably could have been a bit higher because I always did a block of Kaplan before going to bed at night as a weird way of testing how I was doing when I was tired and ready to sleep lol

 

[pbrocks15]

I think I spent like 8-9 hours each day on notecards, which obviously sucked lol. Each block for either UWorld or Kaplan was timed random, so that was typically an hour each.

And I know some people say that they can't grasp large concepts through notecards, but for some reason I can, and if that works for you as well, I wouldn't change your approach. Honestly I found that I could make connections between different areas of material better when I knew all the specific details first.

79% for UWorld, and probably around 78% for Kaplan. But Kaplan probably could have been a bit higher because I always did a block of Kaplan before going to bed at night as a weird way of testing how I was doing when I was tired and ready to sleep lol

I feel like I'm very similar to you, but I'm afraid with 6 weeks I won't be able to get through as much anki as I would like. I'm not sure how you did that many cards but that is seriously impressive. Did you just go through the same deck everyday or were you switching between decks? (ie. did you just have one massive Zanki deck or did you do a little from each block/deck?)

When would you review the blocks of either UWorld of Kaplan? Right after you take them? It seems like you can whiz through things that would take an average person (ie. ME) much longer to go through lol

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

I'm terrified that this is the year that NBME is saying **** You to UFAP. Quite frankly it's far to easy to UFAP your way into an excellent score especially with these new resources like Sketchy, Zanki, BB, etc.

3 years ago, people had it rough and it was actually hard to understand everything in FA. Now I feel like everyone is mastering the same resources and it's harder to differentiate scores which is why they're throwing in what seems to be more minutia and obscurity.

Genuinely horrified at the prospect that board review resources may not be the automatic 250+ that they used to be.

What's frustrating is that they seem to be going laterally rather than deeper into these subjects. They could tell me flat out, "half your test is gonna be acid-base, cardio, and renal physiology," and still write a test that would twist my mind into a knot 10 times over, even when I know exactly what to study. That would be awful, but at least there would be some validity to it. These tests, from what people say, seem to be more along the lines of, "hey what's this thing?" or, "have you studied this obscure bug?" Honestly, if that's really what's happening, it's lazy. There are 1000s of ways to test UFAP material in difficult ways that challenge your understanding. There's already no possible way to truly understand all the material they've given us. If step 1 was essay questions instead of multiple choice, even the best of us would struggle to know the answer to 40% of UWorld questions. Why encourage us to be even more like useless human encyclopedias? Doctors are already notorious as a profession for memorizing without deep critical thinking, and having spent some real time immersed in it now, it's not too far off from the truth.

Or maybe it's just that we're all going nuts after the exam and focusing on 5% of it that stuck out to us because it was obscure or odd. Either way, I think there shouldn't be any questions that 90% of medical students wouldn't have at least stumbled upon at some point. Otherwise you're literally just testing luck. Make the test hard, not obscure.

 

[ERDOC555]

What's frustrating is that they seem to be going laterally rather than deeper into these subjects. They could tell me flat out, "half your test is gonna be acid-base, cardio, and renal physiology," and still write a test that would twist my mind into a knot 10 times over, even when I know exactly what to study. That would be awful, but at least there would be some validity to it. These tests, from what people say, seem to be more along the lines of, "hey what's this thing?" or, "have you studied this obscure bug?" Honestly, if that's really what's happening, it's lazy. There are 1000s of ways to test UFAP material in difficult ways that challenge your understanding. There's already no possible way to truly understand all the material they've given us. If step 1 was essay questions instead of multiple choice, even the best of us would struggle to know the answer to 40% of UWorld questions. Why encourage us to be even more like useless human encyclopedias? Doctors are already notorious as a profession for memorizing without deep critical thinking, and having spent some real time immersed in it now, it's not too far off from the truth.

Or maybe it's just that we're all going nuts after the exam and focusing on 5% of it that stuck out to us because it was obscure or odd. Either way, I think there shouldn't be any questions that 90% of medical students wouldn't have at least stumbled upon at some point. Otherwise you're literally just testing luck. Make the test hard, not obscure.

Agree 100%

I'd rather have super hard questions over basic science material than have 90% freebee and 10% WTF. In the end the curves come out the same, but with the disparity between giveaway questions that anyone with a pulse can answer and then random ones that no one can study for, I personally think it adds far too much variability to scores.

That being said I haven't taken step yet, and one persons "impossible wtf question" could be due to them simply missing the one word in the stem that gave it away between 2 or 3 plausible diagnoses. But I have also heard of super hard left field questions that no amount of studying review resources could get you.

 

[bananafish94]

I'm terrified that this is the year that NBME is saying "**** you" to UFAP. Quite frankly it's far too easy to UFAP your way into an excellent score especially with these new resources like Sketchy, Zanki, BB, etc, which make it far less challenging.

3-4 years ago, people had it rough and it was actually hard to understand everything in FA. Now I feel like everyone is mastering the same resources and it's harder to differentiate scores which is why they're throwing in what appears to be more minutia and obscurity.

Genuinely horrified at the prospect that board review resources may not be the automatic 250+ that they used to be.

Well I certainly hope that's not the case. I don't really see the merit in making the test harder because more people are doing well...if more people are doing well then that should just be the end of it. That being said, I definitely think that part of their M.O. is trying to confuse you and make you think on your feet to a certain extent. They also put weird experimental questions into the test so that they can judge their efficacy for future tests. At the end of the day, nobody can read their mind. If you do your due diligence and memorize the review books and do UWorld, I really don't think there's anything else you can do. The rest of it will come down to natural intelligence, luck, and exam-taking ability. I'm hoping that on the big day cortisol and epinephrine will unlock all sorts of pathways in my brain that allow me to reason through some of the more insane things they throw at me.

 

[Barry'sAneurysm]

What's frustrating is that they seem to be going laterally rather than deeper into these subjects. They could tell me flat out, "half your test is gonna be acid-base, cardio, and renal physiology," and still write a test that would twist my mind into a knot 10 times over, even when I know exactly what to study. That would be awful, but at least there would be some validity to it. These tests, from what people say, seem to be more along the lines of, "hey what's this thing?" or, "have you studied this obscure bug?" Honestly, if that's really what's happening, it's lazy. There are 1000s of ways to test UFAP material in difficult ways that challenge your understanding. There's already no possible way to truly understand all the material they've given us. If step 1 was essay questions instead of multiple choice, even the best of us would struggle to know the answer to 40% of UWorld questions. Why encourage us to be even more like useless human encyclopedias? Doctors are already notorious as a profession for memorizing without deep critical thinking, and having spent some real time immersed in it now, it's not too far off from the truth.

Or maybe it's just that we're all going nuts after the exam and focusing on 5% of it that stuck out to us because it was obscure or odd. Either way, I think there shouldn't be any questions that 90% of medical students wouldn't have at least stumbled upon at some point. Otherwise you're literally just testing luck. Make the test hard, not obscure.

For me the test had wayyy more thinking involved than any of the practice materials did (UW, Kaplan, Rx), it felt like the MCAT all over again with some stuff, which I liked actually vs. regurgitating things.

 

[ERDOC555]

For me the test had wayyy more thinking involved than any of the practice materials did (UW, Kaplan, Rx), it felt like the MCAT all over again with some stuff, which I liked actually vs. regurgitating things.

Interesting... I'm all for thinking questions as long as it's over material that we've been exposed to. I would love to see Step 1 focus more on conceptual understanding rather than majority factoid memorization.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

I can add some more data points for the thread... I did nothing but practice questions (UWorld, Kaplan) and Anki/Zanki cards for 7 weeks. Reading textbooks does nothing for me. I also made flashcards for every single missed UWorld question and some flashcards for ones that had info I didn't know on the first pass. I have no real good explanation for the huge jump from baseline to NBME 13 though. I did well in M1/M2 classes, so maybe most of that info came back Post-exam, I counted at least 12 I knew I missed and maybe 6-8 more that I likely missed. I felt cautiously optimistic but not super confident either.

CBSE (baseline; promptly freaked out) = 196
UWSA 1st Pass percent correct = 79%

NBME 13 (4 wks out) = 252
NBME 15 (3 wks out) = 252
NBME 19 (2 wks out) = 248
NBME 17 (1 wk out) = 261
UWSA1 (1 wk out) = 269
NBME 18 (5 days) = 252
UWSA 2 (2 days) = 260
Free 120 (2 days) = 89%

Real Deal = 257

Did you any other resources, such as pathoma, sketchy or boards and beyond?

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

I feel like I'm very similar to you, but I'm afraid with 6 weeks I won't be able to get through as much anki as I would like. I'm not sure how you did that many cards but that is seriously impressive. Did you just go through the same deck everyday or were you switching between decks? (ie. did you just have one massive Zanki deck or did you do a little from each block/deck?)

When would you review the blocks of either UWorld of Kaplan? Right after you take them? It seems like you can whiz through things that would take an average person (ie. ME) much longer to go through lol

Yeah I had taken the big Zanki deck and renamed each subsection so that I could do multiple areas every day. I think I set it up to do 100 new/100 review for each section. And then I would jump around to an extent but I always had a few pharm decks going, a few physio decks going, and a few Path decks going simultaneously.

I always did question review at night by reading over the explanations and making notecards for what I didn’t know or didn’t recognize. I saved this till last because it took slightly less brain power so I could do it when I was worn out


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Okazaki Frag Grenade]

Did you any other resources, such as pathoma, sketchy or boards and beyond?

So the Zanki deck incorporates multiple test materials including pathoma, FA, BRS physio, and sketchy. But outside of rare occasions, I never went to these sources directly. I did watch the sketchy micro (not viruses) videos once on 2x in the first week of dedicated but that was it


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[pbrocks15]

Yeah I had taken the big Zanki deck and renamed each subsection so that I could do multiple areas every day. I think I set it up to do 100 new/100 review for each section. And then I would jump around to an extent but I always had a few pharm decks going, a few physio decks going, and a few Path decks going simultaneously.

I always did question review at night by reading over the explanations and making notecards for what I didn’t know or didn’t recognize. I saved this till last because it took slightly less brain power so I could do it when I was worn out


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Did you start Zanki during dedicated? I feel like most people who do/did zanki during dedicated had already matured most of the cards anyways. I've done pretty much the entire deck (minus micro and biochem and some other things ~ a few thousand cards) but I never keep up with a deck after my exam ends.

My thought process here is to see if it is worth doing the path and physio decks during dedicated. Pharm and Micro I'm doing sketchy for.

 

[MD2BE92]

For me the test had wayyy more thinking involved than any of the practice materials did (UW, Kaplan, Rx), it felt like the MCAT all over again with some stuff, which I liked actually vs. regurgitating things.

I’ve followed a few of your posts, sounds like we had very similar experiences on the same test day. Although, I didn’t have very many conceptual/thinking questions, which I loathed...definitely prepared most for these. I had at least 10% WTF questions maybe even 20% when you consider the super sub specialty etiology type factoids. But here’s to hoping you and I get the news we want this Wednesday!

 

[Foramenlacerum]

This is the scariest thing I've read all day. Let me know how you end up doing. I'm taking mine in a few weeks, scoring ~250s on NBMEs. Breaking 260 on NBMEs seems next to impossible now. I got a 94% on 17 and it was a 255, and I felt as though I really got lucky with a few questions. The more I hear from people, the more I think this thing is a massive toss up. I've talked to people who never broke 230 on NBMEs who cracked 250 on the real thing and I've talked to people who got 250+ on every NBME and ended up in the upper 230s or lower 240s. After hearing all this, I'd honestly like an actual statistical breakdown from NBME on how they score the test and come up with forms. It's already crazy enough that some people take this after 1.5 years and others take it after a full year of clinicals, but with so much variance in forms and what appears to be almost random questions... you'd think they'd have a statistician over there setting them straight.

Don't let this scare you. You are already performing WAY better than I was on the NBMEs. From what I have seen people scoring in the 250-260 range on NBMEs tend to end up high 240s-260s. It is the middle of the pack where I have seen the most variability in scores, which applies to the majority of people. I have yet to see someone who was scoring 250s-260s get a 220 on the real deal, with the exception of the person who was studying quizlet decks made from the NBMEs right before taking them. Obviously that doesn't count. I feel like the most variability I have seen is in the 230-240 range. This is where it can go either way. I would not worry so much about breaking scores on the NBMEs. a 94% on form 17 means you are prepared. I was consistently in the 89%-92% range on NBMEs and that was never high enough to break 250. If you are getting a 94% on the real deal, you're going to be one of the highest scores. On one of the first forms I took I only missed 20 questions and that didn't even break 240. You want to talk about terrifying. I mean come on, there is NO WAY a 90% on the real thing is a 238. There's just absolutely no way. The way I look at it, you will probably end up where you have ended up relative to your medical school class so far. There are some people who really break through, but I think for the majority, if you were scoring above average in your class, you will probably score above average on Step 1

 

[Krabbeman]

Don't let this scare you. You are already performing WAY better than I was on the NBMEs. From what I have seen people scoring in the 250-260 range on NBMEs tend to end up high 240s-260s. It is the middle of the pack where I have seen the most variability in scores, which applies to the majority of people. I have yet to see someone who was scoring 250s-260s get a 220 on the real deal, with the exception of the person who was studying quizlet decks made from the NBMEs right before taking them. Obviously that doesn't count. I feel like the most variability I have seen is in the 230-240 range. This is where it can go either way. I would not worry so much about breaking scores on the NBMEs. a 94% on form 17 means you are prepared. I was consistently in the 89%-92% range on NBMEs and that was never high enough to break 250. If you are getting a 94% on the real deal, you're going to be one of the highest scores. On one of the first forms I took I only missed 20 questions and that didn't even break 240. You want to talk about terrifying. I mean come on, there is NO WAY a 90% on the real thing is a 238. There's just absolutely no way. The way I look at it, you will probably end up where you have ended up relative to your medical school class so far. There are some people who really break through, but I think for the majority, if you were scoring above average in your class, you will probably score above average on Step 1

My schools average is around a 244 each year, but the curve is bi modal, so there’s actually a group that do like 250+s and a group that does like 230s. Our lowest score was (I think) last year was around a 220 and highest was a 265. Even within my own school-there is a split kind of

I’m interested in the bimodal thing. Because it seems like around here many people can go both ways. Like my baseline nbme 13 was a 232, and I must’ve read every person with a baseline 232, 5weeks out, and their scores are either around 240, or 260, but rarely 250. Even on the Reddit graph it shows a cluster around 260 for a 232 on 13 and a mother cluster around 240s, but only like 1dot around 250.

I really believe there is this “middle ground split” phenomenon. Where if you get above a certain point (230s- 250 on nbmes, 75-85% on q banks) your floor is like low 240, but you could get up to like high 250s. The people below (<225 nbmes, <70 q banks) this always seem to do about where theyre predicted and above this (250+, 85+on Qbank) always seem to destroy the exam very consistently, like 260+ real deal.

I agree it’s the “middle upper quarter”, that seems to have variability. So I think if you’re getting in that zone you’re goal should obvi be to get into that upper zone lol but I also say, take heart. You’ll probably do 240+ which for an American US allo senior will get you into almost anything.

Maybe I’m completely wrong and someone will destroy and tear apart this post, but after spending hours searching thru everything, this is what I’ve seen

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Isn't that the whole point of bonnaroo?

I’m glad someone knows what I’m talkin’ ‘bout

 

[sharkbyte]

380 questions into UW, psych is my worst organ system. Never would have thought. I think I'm overthinking a lot of the questions. Person comes in with intense mood swings, suicidal ideations, unstable relationships, clear ringer for borderline personality disorder but I read too much into her depression following a breakup and thought it was bipolar II. Woman comes in on a fad diet, living alone, few friends, thinking that she has a 6th sense that allows her to detect people she can't trust, clear ringer for schizotypal but I read too much into the mistrust and put paranoid.

I feel like in some ways psych can be gimme points because there's no in-depth scientific/medical conceptual thinking you need to do to get the questions right, but maybe that's why it's hard, because you have to understand the nuances and time progressions to be able to distinguish certain disorders.

 

[idkididk]

My schools average is around a 244 each year, but the curve is bi modal, so there’s actually a group that do like 250+s and a group that does like 230s. Our lowest score was (I think) last year was around a 220 and highest was a 265. Even within my own school-there is a split kind of

I’m interested in the bimodal thing. Because it seems like around here many people can go both ways. Like my baseline nbme 13 was a 232, and I must’ve read every person with a baseline 232, 5weeks out, and their scores are either around 240, or 260, but rarely 250. Even on the Reddit graph it shows a cluster around 260 for a 232 on 13 and a mother cluster around 240s, but only like 1dot around 250.

I really believe there is this “middle ground split” phenomenon. Where if you get above a certain point (230s- 250 on nbmes, 75-85% on q banks) your floor is like low 240, but you could get up to like high 250s. The people below (<225 nbmes, <70 q banks) this always seem to do about where theyre predicted and above this (250+, 85+on Qbank) always seem to destroy the exam very consistently, like 260+ real deal.

I agree it’s the “middle upper quarter”, that seems to have variability. So I think if you’re getting in that zone you’re goal should obvi be to get into that upper zone lol but I also say, take heart. You’ll probably do 240+ which for an American US allo senior will get you into almost anything.

Maybe I’m completely wrong and someone will destroy and tear apart this post, but after spending hours searching thru everything, this is what I’ve seen

****, this is me and my fear right now. Really shooting for a 250 for my desired specialty. Started with 232 on NBME 13, been putting in 10-12 hrs a day depending if I'm at the gym or not, and improvements have been slow to see. My main issue is that I'm a poor test taker.. Taking NBME 17 tomorrow at 2 weeks out, wish me luck

 

[Krabbeman]

****, this is me and my fear right now. Really shooting for a 250 for my desired specialty. Started with 232 on NBME 13, been putting in 10-12 hrs a day depending if I'm at the gym or not, and improvements have been slow to see. My main issue is that I'm a poor test taker.. Taking NBME 17 tomorrow at 2 weeks out, wish me luck

I took nbme 13 a week into dedicated, it was my first exam. So I guess I did a little studying before it, but I'm taking it as my baseline.

Since then I've done UWorld (avg 84%, random mixed but not timed) and am now doing my wrongs in UWorld.

I take the exam in 2 weeks...My plan is to take all the nbmes and treat them like Q banks. Hear me out on this... everytime I switch Qbanks, it takes like several hundred to 1000 Qs to really get into the swing of the new style. it happened to me with Rx, kaplan, and uworld. NBMEs are old step questions right? So I wanna save them for the week or week and a half before my exam since they're literally old questions I think, and must be the closest thing I got to the real deal in style. I have 5 left, plus the free 120... so thats gonna be a quick 1120 question Q bank that I'm gonna complete in the next 1.5-2 weeks, doing and reviewing 100/day.

Gonna also take UWorld SA 1 and 2. Its nerve wracking cause I had like kaplan 83%, Rx at 81% before the NBME so I was excepting to crush it cause most people I see on here with Qbank scores like that destroy the NBMEs. But I got a freakin 232 lmao. Hoping Uworld over the last 3 weeks helped a lot and these UWorld assesments go up! I'mma take them on monday, string em together to simulate the full length of the exam. Today I'm finishing up my wrong on uworld.

wish me luck guys.... its coming down to it. just under 2 weeks for me left!!!

 

[pbrocks15]

I took nbme 13 a week into dedicated, it was my first exam. So I guess I did a little studying before it, but I'm taking it as my baseline.

Since then I've done UWorld (avg 84%, random mixed but not timed) and am now doing my wrongs in UWorld.

I take the exam in 2 weeks...My plan is to take all the nbmes and treat them like Q banks. Hear me out on this... everytime I switch Qbanks, it takes like several hundred to 1000 Qs to really get into the swing of the new style. it happened to me with Rx, kaplan, and uworld. NBMEs are old step questions right? So I wanna save them for the week or week and a half before my exam since they're literally old questions I think, and must be the closest thing I got to the real deal in style. I have 5 left, plus the free 120... so thats gonna be a quick 1120 question Q bank that I'm gonna complete in the next 1.5-2 weeks, doing and reviewing 100/day.

Gonna also take UWorld SA 1 and 2. Its nerve wracking cause I had like kaplan 83%, Rx at 81% before the NBME so I was excepting to crush it cause most people I see on here with Qbank scores like that destroy the NBMEs. But I got a freakin 232 lmao. Hoping Uworld over the last 3 weeks helped a lot and these UWorld assesments go up! I'mma take them on monday, string em together to simulate the full length of the exam. Today I'm finishing up my wrong on uworld.

wish me luck guys.... its coming down to it. just under 2 weeks for me left!!!

Are you planning on taking the ones before 13 like any of the 1-7?

 

[Krabbeman]

Are you planning on taking the ones before 13 like any of the 1-7?

No way I'll have time lol

 

[pbrocks15]

No way I'll have time lol

I figured but just thought I'd ask lol

 

[Foramenlacerum]

No way I'll have time lol

Not worth it anyway. I would spend as much time with UW. The NBMEs are not representative at all. I wish someone would have told me that. I gained literally zero points from doing the NBMEs. They just tell you if you are prepared and a range +/- 10 points that you can expect if you are consistent. I actually think that spending as much time as I did on the NBMEs hurt me big time.

 

[Krabbeman]

Not worth it anyway. I would spend as much time with UW. The NBMEs are not representative at all. I wish someone would have told me that. I gained literally zero points from doing the NBMEs. They just tell you if you are prepared and a range +/- 10 points that you can expect if you are consistent. I actually think that spending as much time as I did on the NBMEs hurt me big time.

See, I keep hearing this... wth. aren't they old questions? Now idk what to do again for the next 2 weeks.

People who've taken the exam. would you suggest I do the NBMEs or Uworld a second pass? anybody. somebody. help

 

[pbrocks15]

Not worth it anyway. I would spend as much time with UW. The NBMEs are not representative at all. I wish someone would have told me that. I gained literally zero points from doing the NBMEs. They just tell you if you are prepared and a range +/- 10 points that you can expect if you are consistent. I actually think that spending as much time as I did on the NBMEs hurt me big time.

Was your exam that similar to Uworld?? Or why do you recommend UWorld so strongly?

 

[CAN007]

for people who did zanki during classes (before dedicated), did you continue doing reviews during dedicated? Anki helps me but I don't feel like I can make proper connections and comparisons so I get the card right but I don't realize why that card was important anymore. It was super helpful while in class so I'm really not sure if I should continue during dedicated. any tips/advice on this?

 

[sovereign0]

for people who did zanki during classes (before dedicated), did you continue doing reviews during dedicated? Anki helps me but I don't feel like I can make proper connections and comparisons so I get the card right but I don't realize why that card was important anymore. It was super helpful while in class so I'm really not sure if I should continue during dedicated. any tips/advice on this?

IMO, Zanki is too low yield for dedicated. The fact that you did it beforehand should've given you a good enough foundation to jump into QBanks and NBMEs. You will end up spending time reviewing things you already know when you should be focusing on things you don't. I personally have made Anki cards for my weak points as established by UWorld and have kept reviewing those cards throughout.