USMLE Official 2018 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[Foot Fetish]

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

My stats:

M2
Test time: June 2018
Goal score: 270

 

[James Bottomtooth III]

What was your daily schedule like on a typical day of dedicated?

Keep in mind that I was starting from a very low baseline (197), so my schedule was designed with learning in mind rather than perfecting.

For the first month, here is an average week:
M-F: (I varied the timing and order of these a good bit, but stuck with the time allocations pretty tightly. this is just what was in my excel sheet)
6AM-7AM: biochem in FA
7AM- 12:30PM: ~ 21 pages in FA on a subject (# of pages covered in a day varied with my comfort per subject)
12:30PM-2PM: exercise/ lunch
2PM-3PM: Sketchy micro or pharm
3PM-6PM: 1 block of U world/ review
6PM-7PM: sketchy micro or pharm
7PM-8:30PM: pathoma
8:30PM dinner then sleep

Sat
6AM-8PM: (lunch/ exercise still at noon) back through all of the FA I had gone through during the week (really miserable haha)

Sun
6AM- whenever I felt like stopping (usually around 3 or 4PM: finish FA review then do 2 blocks of UW and review. Also review of my missed anki deck


The second month was the same general structure, except I started hitting my anki from my U world every morning instead of only weekends, and there was no second pass of FA on Saturday (I just did one extra "normal" M-F day as described above). During this time, I went back through FA one more time (spent only 2 hours per ~21 pages this time), as well as most of pathoma. And in the afternoon I switched to doing 2 blocks of U world per day instead of one (roughly 2.5 hours per block). The flu kind of screwed up the second half of my schedule, but I managed to get through almost everything I wanted. I took my NBMEs on Sundays and would take the day off after reviewing them.

If I could change it, I would have probably spent less time on biochem, micro, and pharm, and more time on pathology. But overall I feel most things I probably missed were a result of my medical education and could only have been corrected by going to a school with a different curriculum. I owe wikipedia and osmosis (used a good bit of the youtube videos) some serious donations.

 

[bananafish94]

I hear so much conflicting advice about this and I'm kind of torn! Like obviously practice exams are great for getting a feel for the test but at the same time, if you can't review them, how much content can you really learn from them and therefore how much time should you really spend on them? At least now they tell you the correct answer, I guess in the past they didn't even do that.

They hardly even do that. They tell you the correct answer for only the ones you missed, which really bothers me. I guess I feel that the NBMEs are the only way to get inside of the examiners' heads and get a feel for the real thing even if you can't review it like a UWorld test.

 

[Lannister]

Nvm.

 

[Drkr91]

Hey, I also took it Friday. 50 wrong is not failing- and chances are you didn't get all those 50 wrong, so that's good. But I totally get how you are feeling. It's really hard to gauge how we did. This test is really weird. I'm going to assume that even though I feel like I went on autopilot, wasn't thinking, and made many stupid mistakes, that I will end up doing near my NBME average. On the practice NBMEs around 85% right was a 230. I think on the actual step, 85% will be higher than 230, but even if it isn't, 85% is 42 wrong. We have to distract ourselves until the results come out

It's so hard...I don't feel like getting out of bed...I wrote only 50 questions that I can remember but I'm sure there's alot more that I don't even remember...are the results coming in 3 wednesdays or 4?

 

[orangetea]

I don't know if anybody else feels the same way, but after three NBMEs I have to say that a lot of these questions are kind of...not great. As in, mostly very straightforward first-order questions or weird questions with (what I would consider to be) semi-ambiguous answers. Maybe I'm just spoiled by how much UWorld makes questions into an art form.

THIS RIGHT HERE. I completely agree.. IDK why but I feel like the NBME (earlier ones 13/15 ) since those are the ones I have taken so far don't really test the broad amount of knowledge that I feel like I have.. I do pretty well on UWOLRD nothing extraordinary but the questions on the NBME really catch me off guard.. I hope UWORLD assessments are better.

 

[Reperfused]

THIS RIGHT HERE. I completely agree.. IDK why but I feel like the NBME (earlier ones 13/15 ) since those are the ones I have taken so far don't really test the broad amount of knowledge that I feel like I have.. I do pretty well on UWOLRD nothing extraordinary but the questions on the NBME really catch me off guard.. I hope UWORLD assessments are better.

Please add 16 to the list. I have taken 13, 15, 16 so far and they all are similar in quality in my opinion. Infact I would say, not much different from NBME 1 (the oldest one) either.

 

[raizen91]

Canadian IMG
Resources: FA, UW, Pathoma
UW pass 1: 80%
UW pass 2: 97%
NMBES 13,15,16,18: 261, 250, 255, 252
UW1: 269
UW2: 259
Step 1: 265

Thinking off offering tutoring services for Step 1 during my 3rd year of clinicals starting in a couple months. PM for details

 

[sharkbyte]

Damn. You IMGs are lights out

 

[CardiB]

how do you guys study 8+ hours a day?
i feel like i cant study more than 4-6. idk if this is burnout or what, but yesterday i literally studied for an hour and i called it. i do take a day off per week, but i feel like its too much 🙁

 

[Fission Chips]

Canadian IMG
Resources: FA, UW, Pathoma
UW pass 1: 80%
UW pass 2: 97%
NMBES 13,15,16,18: 261, 250, 255, 252
UW1: 269
UW2: 259
Step 1: 265

Thinking off offering tutoring services for Step 1 during my 3rd year of clinicals starting in a couple months. PM for details

Can you post a little bit about what you thought of the exam? Did you find it more similar to the NBMEs or UW? How far out did you take UW2?

Congrats on the score!

 

[Ttubule]

how do you guys study 8+ hours a day?
i feel like i cant study more than 4-6. idk if this is burnout or what, but yesterday i literally studied for an hour and i called it. i do take a day off per week, but i feel like its too much 🙁

So my last month I was putting in around 16hrs a day which wasn’t sustainable but for me it was all about very short term goal setting.

In the morning while I made breakfast and showered and drove to the library I listened to Goljan (closely though, not just background noise), and at about 1.5x I’d usually get through about 2 lectures so I felt super accomplished at getting through that. Then I’d do Anki cards for about an hour or a little more but with the goal of getting 150 down really really solidly. So right there I was like sweet, 1 more box checked off for the day.

Then it was UWorld time. I’d do 40, then correct them. Mentally I broke that down as two mini ‘goals’ right there so by doing both of those things I felt really accomplished every 3-4 hours or so. Then I’d do that 2 more times (120q a day total on average) so I had 4 more goals done for the day I could feel good about. When I just couldn’t stare at questions anymore I’d let myself spend a few minutes exploring a topic on YouTube (I became a heart murmur maneuvers God this way lol).

I think it’s REALLY hard to stay motivated 16hrs a day if your goal is a 250 on step and that’s what’s on your mind, but if you switch gears and start thinking “ok my goal is to get this question set done and corrected and that’s all I care about” and once you finish that you just keep setting that goal again, and again several times every day you’ll find the time flies by. I used to be very competitive athlete and when I was training for competitions I always did my best when I stopped thinking about the competition and started thinking about smashing all my goals for the next day or even next 3hrs, so I just adopted this same mentality. My 16 hr days sucked for sure but NEVER felt like 16hr days once I started thinking this way.

Also, what helped a lot is that studying for step was the most interesting thing I had to do those days. I locked myself in a tiny little study room where I could barely fit me and my back pack all day, deleted all my social media, kept my phone on do not disturb and never let myself screw around online. Literally the most exciting part of my days started being getting up and going to the bathroom and I’d genuinely look forward to it lol.

That spartan mentality was super crucial for me though.

 

[Foot Fetish]

So my last month I was putting in around 16hrs a day which wasn’t sustainable but for me it was all about very short term goal setting.

In the morning while I made breakfast and showered and drove to the library I listened to Goljan (closely though, not just background noise), and at about 1.5x I’d usually get through about 2 lectures so I felt super accomplished at getting through that. Then I’d do Anki cards for about an hour or a little more but with the goal of getting 150 down really really solidly. So right there I was like sweet, 1 more box checked off for the day.

Then it was UWorld time. I’d do 40, then correct them. Mentally I broke that down as two mini ‘goals’ right there so by doing both of those things I felt really accomplished every 3-4 hours or so. Then I’d do that 2 more times (120q a day total on average) so I had 4 more goals done for the day I could feel good about. When I just couldn’t stare at questions anymore I’d let myself spend a few minutes exploring a topic on YouTube (I became a heart murmur maneuvers God this way lol).

I think it’s REALLY hard to stay motivated 16hrs a day if your goal is a 250 on step and that’s what’s on your mind, but if you switch gears and start thinking “ok my goal is to get this question set done and corrected and that’s all I care about” and once you finish that you just keep setting that goal again, and again several times every day you’ll find the time flies by. I used to be very competitive athlete and when I was training for competitions I always did my best when I stopped thinking about the competition and started thinking about smashing all my goals for the next day or even next 3hrs, so I just adopted this same mentality. My 16 hr days sucked for sure but NEVER felt like 16hr days once I started thinking this way.

Also, what helped a lot is that studying for step was the most interesting thing I had to do those days. I locked myself in a tiny little study room where I could barely fit me and my back pack all day, deleted all my social media, kept my phone on do not disturb and never let myself screw around online. Literally the most exciting part of my days started being getting up and going to the bathroom and I’d genuinely look forward to it lol.

That spartan mentality was super crucial for me though.

Nice. Ive been on a similar routine. I've studied for boards for 8 to 12 hours per day everyday for the past 12 months. My exam is 2 months away, and I'm losing a bit of steam unfortunately...This last batch of school finals really took a toll on me as I got very little sleep (4 hours/night average) and put off my Anki cards for a week so that I could cram for my classes...Now I have 3000 reviews that have built up...I will be able to clear them out this week, but it's gonna be brutal. And on top of all that, I am getting bogged down with a lot of different research projects. I'm thankful for them and don't regret taking them on, but it's all just so tiresome. I am beginning to burn out a little bit and get too distractable...I think I need to do some mental "Spring cleaning" and reset my mentality...I need to rediscover that hunger that drove me to study so aggressively in the first 8 months. Overall, I'm not too concerned because my scores have been good (90% average in Rx most recently), but I need to push through to the next level. I'm worried that I have settled into this attitude of "resting on my laurels" a bit, which is dangerous. Stagnation is ruination. Any advice for how to reignite my motivation?

 

[Ttubule]

Nice. Ive been on a similar routine. I've studied for boards for 8 to 12 hours per day everyday for the past 12 months. My exam is 2 months away, and I'm losing a bit of steam unfortunately...This last batch of school finals really took a toll on me as I got very little sleep (4 hours/night average) and put off my Anki cards for a week so that I could cram for my classes...Now I have 3000 reviews that have built up...I will be able to clear them out this week, but it's gonna be brutal. And on top of all that, I am getting bogged down with a lot of different research projects. I'm thankful for them and don't regret taking them on, but it's all just so tiresome. I am beginning to burn out a little bit and get too distractable...I think I need to do some mental "Spring cleaning" and reset my mentality...I need to rediscover that hunger that drove me to study so aggressively in the first 8 months. Overall, I'm not too concerned because my scores have been good (90% average in Rx most recently), but I need to push through to the next level. I'm worried that I have settled into this attitude of "resting on my laurels" a bit, which is dangerous. Stagnation is ruination. Any advice for how to reignite my motivation?

First I’ll just say that I’m in awe of your ability to handle all of that while your aren’t even in dedicated, lol. Kiddos man, I think you’re poised to end up with a killer score.

So that being said, you definitely might be in burnout territory and you’ve gotta watch that. I did the 4hrs a night thing and at a certain point it’s just counter productive because you’d get more out of 6hrs and 4 hrs less studying per day since your ability to consolidate info really takes a **** when you’re sleep deprived (and I say this as someone who functions awesome on 6hrs and almost can’t sleep 8).
If I were in your shoes I’d just simply back off a little for a week or 10 days. A lot of people are gonna say “go on vacation don’t look at anything” but you sound like me and I’d be more stressed if I did that lol. Maybe take yourself down to like 15RX q a day for the next 7-10 days, and then use that time to catch up on Anki in a more relaxed way. Pace yourself however you need to get caught up on Anki but if you can get down to like 6hrs a day split up into 3 2hr chunks and take some time to chill in between I think you’ll find you’re anxious to tear back into it aggressively in a week. That’s how I’d approach it anyway. Like I said I think you’re in a spot to kill it either way, but I’d hate to see a potential 265+ turn into a 245 because you’re just totally fried in a month.
It’s a little bit like sprinting a marathon, but it’s still more of a marathon than a spring.

Good luck dude!

 

[Foot Fetish]

First I’ll just say that I’m in awe of your ability to handle all of that while your aren’t even in dedicated, lol. Kiddos man, I think you’re poised to end up with a killer score.

So that being said, you definitely might be in burnout territory and you’ve gotta watch that. I did the 4hrs a night thing and at a certain point it’s just counter productive because you’d get more out of 6hrs and 4 hrs less studying per day since your ability to consolidate info really takes a **** when you’re sleep deprived (and I say this as someone who functions awesome on 6hrs and almost can’t sleep 8).
If I were in your shoes I’d just simply back off a little for a week or 10 days. A lot of people are gonna say “go on vacation don’t look at anything” but you sound like me and I’d be more stressed if I did that lol. Maybe take yourself down to like 15RX q a day for the next 7-10 days, and then use that time to catch up on Anki in a more relaxed way. Pace yourself however you need to get caught up on Anki but if you can get down to like 6hrs a day split up into 3 2hr chunks and take some time to chill in between I think you’ll find you’re anxious to tear back into it aggressively in a week. That’s how I’d approach it anyway. Like I said I think you’re in a spot to kill it either way, but I’d hate to see a potential 265+ turn into a 245 because you’re just totally fried in a month.
It’s a little bit like sprinting a marathon, but it’s still more of a marathon than a spring.

Good luck dude!

Thank you for the advice and motivation , brotha

 

[pbrocks15]

My dedicated schedule thus far has been to do another complete pass through First Aid and another complete pass through UWorld, with practice tests interspersed every 5-6 days. So that generally shakes out to about 90 UWorld questions per day, 15-20 pages of reading First Aid in excruciating detail and trying to correlate each part to my general knowledge base, and some Anki.


I second Cram Fighter! It's a great resource; you just put in everything that you want to do and you can sort it by subject so that it correlates it for you. For my "Phase 1" studying (i.e. doing a first pass of everything while class was still in session) I put in First Aid, Pathoma text, Pathoma videos, and UWorld with catch-up days. I currently have it set only for First Aid and UWorld.

Thanks for the input! I'm looking into doing something similar, pretty much just UFAPS. How long is your dedicated period?

I come to question though how useful my FA reading is going to be because sometimes I feel like I read too passively. This generally is why I think Anki works well for me because it is a little more active.

I'm going to get cram fighter for sure and I wish I really got it earlier and did it as you had just mentioned, throughout the blocks and allowing it to monitor my progress.

 

[pbrocks15]

Does anyone know if there is any good in taking any of the first few NBMEs (1-7)? I always hear that doing more questions is better and so I want to plan on squeezing a good amount into my dedicated period. I don't know if its best that I do too much Kaplan (many have told me to stop Kaplan once dedicated comes) so I want to see what else I can do that's representative of the exam and can help with stamina.

 

[pbrocks15]

I would save them. Questions are only useful if you can apply your knowledge to novel situstions...don’t risk it. Maybe plan to wrap them up a few days early and review your wrongs during the last few days of dedicated?

Thanks for the input! I have unfortunately about 800 questions still left to go regardless, so I think getting to my wrongs might not be as good of an idea so I don't rush through these questions.

With 4 weeks left before dedicated, I hope I can finish these 800.

 

[bananafish94]

I come to question though how useful my FA reading is going to be because sometimes I feel like I read too passively. This generally is why I think Anki works well for me because it is a little more active.

I agree. I try to minimize reading FA as much as possible because it isn't active learning. I still do it because I feel like I want to ensure that I see everything at least once more before I take the test but Anki is definitely superior.

 

[pbrocks15]

I agree. I try to minimize reading FA as much as possible because it isn't active learning. I still do it because I feel like I want to ensure that I see everything at least once more before I take the test but Anki is definitely superior.

Agreed and I think I'm going to do the same honestly. How long is your dedicated? Also, how long does it take you to do those 15-20 pages? Trying to gauge how I should plan things.

 

[MrTaco92]

Is everyone noticing a slow or a rapid increase in uworld score? I'm almost halfway through and while my score increased by about 5% over the course of the first 800 questions or so, it feels like I've plateaued over the last couple hundred questions I've done.

 

[EmilyCharles]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this site...just took Step 1 Friday and feel like I completely bombed it. Walked out of the test and marked almost 50 questions I may have gotten wrong but know that I got 15-20 for sure out of those. Can't even remember majority of the test but feeling so hopeless right now...I've read of so many people feeling the same way and walking away with 230+ but I'm really feeling like theres so way I passed...been dx w/GAD and completely blanked test day...took all practice NBME's and scored an average of 235...scored 243 on UWSA2 1.5 weeks before...but I feel like my mind just completely turned off and I missed upwards of 100 questions...just need some feedback please!

I took the test on Thursday and I completely understand you , I felt horrible after the test like literally cried there were some questions that I Just didn’t even know what they were asking, made some pretty stupid mistakes too but also I think what really got to me was the time ! I was always running out of time and only had 2-3 minutes on each block to “check” the questions I had doubts on ... just awful , I hope what they say about getting a good score at the end is true and end up with a 240+

 

[raizen91]

Can you post a little bit about what you thought of the exam? Did you find it more similar to the NBMEs or UW? How far out did you take UW2?

Congrats on the score!

I found it to be a mix of UW and NBME style questions, overall was more difficult than either of those practice exams. I took all my practice exams within 1 month of the real step. I read first aid 8 times, listened to pathoma twice and did uw questions 1.5x.

 

[pbrocks15]

I found it to be a mix of UW and NBME style questions, overall was more difficult than either of those practice exams. I took all my practice exams within 1 month of the real step. I read first aid 8 times, listened to pathoma twice and did uw questions 1.5x.

Read FA x8?? In what amount of time did you do that?

 

[sharkbyte]

Sorry for the dumb question - how do we purchase the NBMEs?

 

[raizen91]

Read FA x8?? In what amount of time did you do that?

About 2.5 months...memorizing all the small details in FA through repetition and then being able to apply the main concepts in literally everything on step1 in my personal opinion

 

[Drkr91]

I took the test on Thursday and I completely understand you , I felt horrible after the test like literally cried there were some questions that I Just didn’t even know what they were asking, made some pretty stupid mistakes too but also I think what really got to me was the time ! I was always running out of time and only had 2-3 minutes on each block to “check” the questions I had doubts on ... just awful , I hope what they say about getting a good score at the end is true and end up with a 240+

Yea I ran out of time pretty much every block too...I hear about so many people doing well on their practice tests, then feeling horrible about the Step but ending up with an average of their NBMEs...I was scoring around 235 on my practice tests but I don't think I even passed! Feel so horrible right now and the wait is driving me crazy!

 

[EmilyCharles]

Yea I ran out of time pretty much every block too...I hear about so many people doing well on their practice tests, then feeling horrible about the Step but ending up with an average of their NBMEs...I was scoring around 235 on my practice tests but I don't think I even passed! Feel so horrible right now and the wait is driving me crazy!

Yes Seriously I feel like I’m not even going to pass either , it’s frustrating putting so much time and hard work into memorizing things they didn’t even ask and the wait it’s driving me crazy too. I guess we have no other option but to wait. Hope we did well and we are just freaking out over nothing . Good luck!

 

[Drkr91]

Yes Seriously I feel like I’m not even going to pass either , it’s frustrating putting so much time and hard work into memorizing things they didn’t even ask and the wait it’s driving me crazy too. I guess we have no other option but to wait. Hope we did well and we are just freaking out over nothing . Good luck!

Yea I hope so too! Good luck to you as well! Let me know how it goes!

 

[sovereign0]

Sorry for the dumb question - how do we purchase the NBMEs?

https://nsas.nbme.org/home

 

[goldclip]

Hello guys, I know I was obsessively reading these posts during my waiting period. I just wanted to let you know you are not alone in feeling the anxiety and dread for score release. But trust your nbme averages, it's true things will be +/-10 from that. I know it's hard to actually do that while in the waiting period. I don't know what kind of statistical magic they do to get this done, but if you've put in the work, it will show!

 

[orangetea]

Yes Seriously I feel like I’m not even going to pass either , it’s frustrating putting so much time and hard work into memorizing things they didn’t even ask and the wait it’s driving me crazy too. I guess we have no other option but to wait. Hope we did well and we are just freaking out over nothing . Good luck!

Hey!! I haven't taken the exam but I can only imagine how difficult the waiting game must be.. I was wondering now that you have taken it.. would you have done anything differently as far as studying? I know a lot of ppl say that they got random questions that they weren't expecting but do you think UFAP is enough to get through the majority of the exam?

Thanks and best of luck to you!!

 

[EmilyCharles]

Hey!! I haven't taken the exam but I can only imagine how difficult the waiting game must be.. I was wondering now that you have taken it.. would you have done anything differently as far as studying? I know a lot of ppl say that they got random questions that they weren't expecting but do you think UFAP is enough to get through the majority of the exam?

Thanks and best of luck to you!!

Honestly I l would have done more nbme I only did one. Do pathoma twice and Uworld re view the questions you got wrong along with all the explanations of the wrong answers I think there's not anything new I can tell you just don't over stress avoid burnout make sure you get a good night sleep the night before your test I only slept 4 hours due to anxiety so if you think you will be nervous prepare for that x10 lol.

 

[EmilyCharles]

Honestly I l would have done more nbme I only did one. Do pathoma twice and Uworld re view the questions you got wrong along with all the explanations of the wrong answers I think there's not anything new I can tell you just don't over stress avoid burnout make sure you get a good night sleep the night before your test I only slept 4 hours due to anxiety so if you think you will be nervous prepare for that x10 lol.

And yes do expect random questions and stuff you just haven't read but try to stay calm , choose as best as you can and move on.

 

[pbrocks15]

Does anyone recommend or have a say on doing the earlier NBMEs (1-7?)?

 

[Drkr91]

Hello guys, I know I was obsessively read these posts during my waiting period. I just wanted to let you know you are not alone in feeling the anxiety and dread for score release. But trust your nbme averages, it's true things will be +/-10 from that. I know it's hard to actually do that while in the waiting period. I don't know what kind of statistical magic they do to get this done, but if you've put in the work, it will show!

Thanks for posting that! It's kind of reassuring...all of my friends keep telling me to trust and just wait but I feel like I missed so many questions that there's no way I even passed...I pray that's not the case! Did you have similar feelings after your exam?

 

[sahell]

I'm using usmlerx qbank, only with about 400 questions done so far. Under the "cumulative analysis" tab it says that the overall average is 58%, and my average is 70%, however it gives me a predicted score of 229. Does anyone know why they have the "predicted score" set to show me at an average usmle score, yet i'm above average on the questions that i've completed?? Is the "predicted score" feature just total garbage?

The score prediction is based of the scores of 26 people. Pretty inaccurate algorithm. The predicted varies. Mine was 293 after I finished the qbank and a week or so later it was 298 without doing any new questions. NBME average and UWSA 2 is what you should be looking at.

Can somebody who has received their score report comment on the average step 1 score for the 2017 calendar year with the standard deviation. I believe in 2016 average was 228 with standard deviation of 21

I don't think they've got that data yet.

Yes, I feel exactly the same.
Would be nice if any recent test taker comment on this.
Also, what would be more high yield during the last 2 weeks before the exam, the NBMEs or UW?

There's a lot of NBME style questions on it but a large chunk are higher order with a little more thinking involved. UW is the king because those are the best explanations out there but NBMEs are useful to learn the language of the test imo.

I've heard on the streets that UW2 is a relatively good predictor of your actual score and NBME 19 has an insane curve that wrecks your confidence. I haven't taken either yet so I can't comment on that, but I think everyone should take as many practice tests as possible!

19 overestimated my score unfortunately...

It's so hard...I don't feel like getting out of bed...I wrote only 50 questions that I can remember but I'm sure there's alot more that I don't even remember...are the results coming in 3 wednesdays or 4?

Usually 3. You're scheduling permit will disappear the week it comes out.

Yep, it completely sucks. To know we put in all this work and then made stupid mistakes is discouraging. You just have to believe that it will work out for the best. I don't know when we get the results. I asked earlier in this thread, so we'll see if someone knows.

Usually 3. You're scheduling permit will disappear the week it comes out.

Is everyone noticing a slow or a rapid increase in uworld score? I'm almost halfway through and while my score increased by about 5% over the course of the first 800 questions or so, it feels like I've plateaued over the last couple hundred questions I've done.

That happened to me with all 3 question banks I did. You start getting familiar with the language.

Does anyone recommend or have a say on doing the earlier NBMEs (1-7?)?

I would recommend it. Sometimes people get repeated questions and there may be certain concepts you may see again. It takes a fair amount of time going through the answers because most keys have quite a few mistakes.

 

[pbrocks15]

I would recommend it. Sometimes people get repeated questions and there may be certain concepts you may see again. It takes a fair amount of time going through the answers because most keys have quite a few mistakes.

Not sure how much time I have but with 6 weeks of dedicated what exams in total do you think are worth taking from those or in total?

 

[bananafish94]

19 overestimated my score unfortunately...

Damn. The curve on these things is pretty intense. I got like 85% on NBME 17 - if I got that on a class exam I would be thrilled, but for these tests it doesn't translate to a very high score.

 

[jt21]

Hi!

Long time lurker but wanted to share my Step 1 experience with you all.

US citizen, attending a Caribbean school. I scored below average on the MCAT and spent 2 years applying to US programs.

Dedicated study time: 8 weeks, 8-10 hours per day, with a few "light" study days
Resources used: First Aid (2x during dedicated, probably twice more during my time at school), UWorld (1.5x), Pathoma (2x during dedicated, but several times before dedicated), DIT (once during dedicated)

CBSE (taken at school before dedicated): ~225

NBMEs (in order)
13: 228
16: 232
18: 219 (discouraged at this point but motivated me to work even harder)
17: 246
15: 240
UWSA 2: 251
UWSA 1: 256

NBME average ~230s

Real thing (3/12/18): 252 (UW2 clearly the most predictive for me, 1 point away from my score)

Test day: Felt relieved after it was done but at the same time pretty unsure of my performance. There were some really weird questions but overall the exam was manageable. My first 2 blocks were the most difficult. I have never had an issue with time on exams but this monster took every second on every block.

Final thoughts: If you are still studying, keep grinding. Your hard work will pay off. Be calm and confident on test day. I am by no means an expert but if there's anything I can answer I'd be happy to.

Thanks for reading and best of luck to all!

 

[sahell]

Not sure how much time I have but with 6 weeks of dedicated what exams in total do you think are worth taking from those or in total?

I would prioritise the ones that had expanded feedback, at least you don't have to wonder what the right answer was. I don't remember which one that starts with. If you do the older ones, there's an answer key by 'Sarim' floating around. I found it to be the most accurate. I used the old NBMEs like a qbank. It took me about a day for the test and review, with a little time spent on brushing up on other stuff.

Damn. The curve on these things is pretty intense. I got like 85% on NBME 17 - if I got that on a class exam I would be thrilled, but for these tests it doesn't translate to a very high score.

I recognised a lot of the questions on 19 from Rx, which may have inflated my score. The STEP has a gentler curve imo. I got way more wrong on it than any other practise test. I may have just been lucky and ones I got wrong were the experimental questions.

 

[pbrocks15]

Hi!

Long time lurker but wanted to share my Step 1 experience with you all.

US citizen, attending a Caribbean school. I scored below average on the MCAT and spent 2 years applying to US programs.

Dedicated study time: 8 weeks, 8-10 hours per day, with a few "light" study days
Resources used: First Aid (2x during dedicated, probably twice more during my time at school), UWorld (1.5x), Pathoma (2x during dedicated, but several times before dedicated), DIT (once during dedicated)

CBSE (taken at school before dedicated): ~225

NBMEs (in order)
13: 228
16: 232
18: 219 (discouraged at this point but motivated me to work even harder)
17: 246
15: 240
UWSA 2: 251
UWSA 1: 256

NBME average ~230s

Real thing (3/12/18): 252 (UW2 clearly the most predictive for me, 1 point away from my score)

Test day: Felt relieved after it was done but at the same time pretty unsure of my performance. There were some really weird questions but overall the exam was manageable. My first 2 blocks were the most difficult. I have never had an issue with time on exams but this monster took every second on every block.

Final thoughts: If you are still studying, keep grinding. Your hard work will pay off. Be calm and confident on test day. I am by no means an expert but if there's anything I can answer I'd be happy to.

Thanks for reading and best of luck to all!

What was a daily schedule like for you? and Congrats on the amazing score!

 

[pbrocks15]

I would prioritise the ones that had expanded feedback, at least you don't have to wonder what the right answer was. I don't remember which one that starts with. If you do the older ones, there's an answer key by 'Sarim' floating around. I found it to be the most accurate. I used the old NBMEs like a qbank. It took me about a day for the test and review, with a little time spent on brushing up on other stuff.

Do you think it would be useful to do them timed then, or just run through them as a qbank like you did? Would doing a block of one of those a day be helpful?
Edit: just looked at the answer keys I have and its only the answers which is annoying. I'll take a look and see if I can find explanations from 'Sarim'

 

[cool93]

Got the step 1 result today.
244
Thank you every one for your valuable advises which I was following for the past three months silently ...

 

[pbrocks15]

Got the step 1 result today.
244
Thank you every one for your valuable advises which I was following for the past three months silently ...

Great job!!! Congrats on the great score!

 

[cool93]

Great job!!! Congrats on the great score!

thank you very much

 

[pbrocks15]

thank you very much

Can you tell us a little more about how your test experience was and how you prepared?

 

[ERPremed]

Guessing March 17th (Saturday) test doesn't get scores today? It has been three Wednesdays?

 

[cool93]

Can you tell us a little more about how your test experience was and how you prepared?

I am an IMG from India.YOG 2017.After my graduation I joined in one of the tertiary hospital in South India(kerala) as a junior resident .I worked thr till Dec 15.I hardly get time to study in those days. somehow I almost finished my kaplan videos before Dec18.I flew to Abudhabi on Dec18.
My dedicated study started from dec 20 onward.
My resources - FA,Pathoma & u world subscription for two months & kaplan videos
did NBME 13,15,16,17 & 19-offline - average score 235 (every alternate days starting from 2/20)
3/2 uwsa1- 251
3/5 nbme18 online- 234
3/7 uwsa2- 249
3/8 120 sample questions-80%
u world 1st pass 75%
3/12 the real exam at Dubai--- 244 (thank God)
I got a great support from my parents.I don't think I could achieve this without their support.My father spent all his evenings with me to discus the questions of NBMEs.(he is a specialist physician)My mother made my favorite foods.She downloaded all the offline NBMEs for me.She is a keen reader of all the usmle forums.
Thank you Pappa & Mom....
Now back in India.Want to work for another three months. intend to take step 2 in Nov 1st wk.

 

[jt21]

What was a daily schedule like for you? and Congrats on the amazing score!

Thank you!

The only constant in my schedule was the time I would start studying. I tried to make an hour by hour schedule of what I wanted to cover but it didn't quite work for me so I ended up using Cramfighter (which is awesome, by the way). I would wake up at around 7AM, check what I needed to cover for the day on Cramfighter, and do as many tasks as possible. Anything that I didn't finish (usually 2-3 tasks) would be bumped to the next day. I was always able to take a few hours to relax and watch Netflix everyday which is important while studying for this exam.

This might sound weird but I feel that my scores improved the most in the last week of studying. I also woke up an hour or so earlier during the last week to get my body ready for the early start time of my exam.

Good luck!

 

[Najla]

I am an IMG student, my aim is 260
my plan to study for step 1 is:

2month:
Kaplan videos
kaplan lecture note
kaplan Q banks
pathoma
and writing my note on FA

1 month:
FA + UW

1month:
repeat FA & UW
kaplan high yield video


is it a reasonable or I need more time to cover these references?
and if you have any advice?