REAL DEAL on July 20: 250s (1 point higher than UWSA2)
It’s awesome to FINALLY get to write up my LONG Step 1 experience (and I would rather do this than study for psychiatry shelf). My goal score was 250s.
For anyone who saw my posts last year, I am a D.O. student who took COMLEX 1 last year in July (mid 600s), but ended up canceling my STEP 1 due to…well…being a little… nevermind. Anyways, this write up will cover what I did last year (COMLEX) and then mostly this year (STEP)
Last year, I planned on taking both exams within a week of each other. I used some USMLERx questions (about half) during school and then completed UWorld before taking my COMLEX 1.
Practice tests: I don’t remember the exact dates, but I remember taking a test about every week leading up to the exam with NBME 18 two days before.
NBME 16: 236
NBME 17: 240
UWSA 1: 258
NBME 19: 245
UWSA 2: between 240-245 (can’t remember)
NBME 18: 236
USMLERx: completed 50% at a score in low 70’s.
UW: completed at 77% average. Started around 68%, ended in the 80s nearly every block.
After seeing my scores increase every week, I was feeling good till I scored 236 on NBME 18. It freaked me out and I decided to cancel Step 1 knowing that I had an entire Kaplan and USMLERx qbank to complete. I felt like I would be leaving points on the table. I took COMLEX and scored mid 600s last year.
After COMLEX last year, I had a unique opportunity to take a year to complete a research/teaching fellowship at my school in between 2nd/3rd year, so I was able to start studying for Step 1 little by little starting in late February 2018.
My Qbank/practice exam scores in the order I took them:
USMLERx (only med/hard questions): ~80%
Kaplan: ~78%
UW (again): ~86% (all scores for the entire bank were between 80-95%)
UWSA2: 251 (three days before)
Free 150 (85%)—I took this at the testing center two days before and HIGHLY suggest it. It made the actual test day feel so much smoother and I even took the real exam at the same computer.
Since I had already wasted all my NBME exams from last year, I only took UWSA2 this time around.
I really think it’s imperative to do AT LEAST two full Qbanks. IMO, if you are going to choose two, I would do RX and UW. I completed Kaplan as well, but I felt like it had so many questions on details that were a little too far in the weeds and I was forgetting basic things because I was so focused on details that would never be tested on (IMO). I do think Kaplan is a good bank to do, but it I could go back, I would do Kaplan first, then Rx, then UW (RX questions are actually really good now and they grill you on First Aid stuff). The reason I think you need to do at least two banks is because they each ask questions from a slightly different perspective. They can be the same concept, but when you see it asked a certain way in different banks, it is more likely to stick. Plus, repetition.
For content review, I used Boards and Beyond and swear by it. I know everyone on here says to read First Aid 10x and memorize it, but I really don’t think that’s the best use of your time and you absolutely don’t need to memorize FA to do well. FA is made up of facts (which is important), but you need to be able to tie these things together for boards. That’s where Boards and Beyond was irreplaceable for me. There are 120 hours of videos and I watched each video at least 2x (between this year and last), and then watched trouble areas (biochem/stats/ethics) 3-4x each. This is a much better use of your time (IMO) because Dr. Ryan ties all the info together and shows you why it’s clinically relevant, which is how you are going to be tested. For example, for biochemistry he explains the pathways, but then integrates diseases, drugs and presentation so you get a snapshot of everything you need to know about a certain concept. I never directly read First Aid. Not even a page. I would reference FA when watching B and B to make sure I was covering everything though.
I also used Sketchy pharm/micro during the school year and memorized them, so I didn’t really have to re-watch any of them during dedicated (except some of the pharm). Sketchypharm is absolute MONEY. I would have never been able to straight memorize all those drugs.
Pathoma I used during school as well, but didn’t touch during dedicated (I used Boards and Beyond).
For select concepts (lysosomal storage, glycogen storage, certain cancers, genetic diseases) I loved Picmonic. Definitely hard to remember some of the pictures, but these were money for some hard-to-remember concepts.
Test day:
Block 1 felt super easy to me and then every block got tougher and tougher. The 3/4th blocks I felt like I guessed on like 30% of the questions and marked probably 15 questions. Blocks 5/6 were intermediate difficulty and then 7 was really tough. Didn’t have much trouble with timing.
After leaving, I felt like I could have scored anywhere from 220-245, but had no idea. Really didn’t feel great. I have always told people they are going to feel like crap after, but then it’s really hard to take my own medicine, especially when you start counting up questions you got wrong.
It feels so good to be done with this thing and I am glad the decision to postpone a year paid off. Good luck to the next group of test takers and thank you so much for all the help over the last two years y'all.
