USMLE Official 2018 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Your scores are looking great, time to take the real deal!

Just gotta get through four more days of studying. Lol it's amazing that this is the most important test I'll ever take...and I only have to work hard for four more days...and I still want to sit around and do nothing.
 
Thanks! I think I'll definitely be doing this more now that we've all brought it to light. I just wasn't sure if the test was going to be more like "Here's a patient with aortic dissection, do you remember what layer is dissected?" or more like "Here's a patient with HTN, Diabetes, and Aortic Dissection, now can you answer this question on it based off the stem [and then gives you a question not in UFAPs but you would have to answer it with what you know about those conditions and how they interact etc]." That kinda make sense? That's where my thought process has been recently. Anyone able to shed some light to this
I had questions of both styles, but more like the second type. Although there wasn't a lot that wasn't in ufap. There were thought processes and connections you had to go through that weren't made explicit in those resources but if you think about things that you're learning you should be fine. My test felt very similar to uworld. Others thought it was harder than uworld. There's probably a lot of variability so don't try to game the test too much.

I had similar experiences to the last two posters.
I found my exam to be frankly underwhelming but also disconcerting given how many absolute gimmes i saw.
It felt like 70% of all the questions were stuff that everybody knew, and while I felt like I knew most of them, im worried about the unforgiving curve to come.
The hard questions I encountered where mostly asking about an obvious disease process but wanting either some factoid that the typical student doesn't learn to link to the disease, or they wanted you to explain the mechanism of disease by linking it to another physiologic concept that you don't usually consider as linked. For these 'hard' questions I felt like it took mostly test-taking skills + critical thinking to figure out.
I did UWorld once, pathoma maybe 1.5x, sketchy micro but not pharm, most of BB and a small amount of Zanki.
I didn't read First Aid and given that I already knew the gimmes, giving it a full read wouldn't have significantly affected my score.
(the most challenging section for me was actually the behavioral stuff, which showed up more often than anyone would have thought - FA wouldn't have really helped for this either - the scenarios in FA are all too obvious)

Overall I felt that the exam was definitely fair if unfortunately too 'easy' in that there were too much gimmes a la old NMBEs.
I also recognized at least 2 questions and a couple of images.

My practice scores towards the end were around the low 250s, 90% on Free120

I don't think I would have done anything differently looking back. The exam felt like a combo of NBME and UWorld, with a couple of super vague/difficult questions per block. I flagged about 9-10 per block and the break times were more than plenty.

I don't regret not doing SketchyPharm and not reading FA.
I thought the exam was much more like uworld than nbme. Recognized at least 3 questions from uwsa 1 and 2. Lots of questions seemed like the type that get 50-70% right on uworld. Cell bio and biochem seemed to have more hard questions than other disciplines but I'm bad at estimating how well people do on those. Things that seemed like gimmes on uworld are usually 70-80%. I wonder if you're giving the average test taker too much credit or if we just had really different exams.

People earlier in the thread said there were a lot of questions where you had you read the examiner's mind. I didn't get that vibe at all.
 
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Dumb question but when we finish a block and go for a break or whatever, do we have to bring our laminated note thing with us to have a fresh one when we come back or does it stay at our station the whole time?

I'm wondering if I can memory dump equations at the tutorial because my brain likes to shutdown when I have to calculate in the moment.

Also related, are we allowed to write notes during the tutorial?
 
Dumb question but when we finish a block and go for a break or whatever, do we have to bring our laminated note thing with us to have a fresh one when we come back or does it stay at our station the whole time?

I'm wondering if I can memory dump equations at the tutorial because my brain likes to shutdown when I have to calculate in the moment.

Also related, are we allowed to write notes during the tutorial?

The scratch paper stays at your station. Not sure if you can write during the tutorial but it takes two minutes to complete.
 
The scratch paper stays at your station. Not sure if you can write during the tutorial but it takes two minutes to complete.

I was just reading through the rules yesterday and I think you can start writing once you put in your CIN number to start the exam. So writing during the tutorial should be fine!
 
Looking up answers for NBMEs is such a PITA. Like I really appreciate that people take the time to type out all the questions and answers on forums, but then people come in and start insisting that they chose something else for a question and got it right, and YOU KNOW that they're wrong. Why can't NBME just let us see all the questions when we review the exam?
 
Just finished NBME 19. I kind of misinterpreted the reason that everyone scores so low on 19, I thought it was because the test was so hard. Turns out it's just an easier NBME and therefore has a tough curve.
So now that I'm done with all my practice tests, my final scores are:
NBME 13: 234
CBSE: 248
UWSA1: 258
UWSA2: 256
NBME 15: 263
NBME 16: 261
NBME 17: 257
NBME 18: 255
NBME 19: 255

I'm pretty happy with that. Just a little confused though because it seems like on SDN everyone's NBME 19 score seems to way under-predict, but when I look at the self assessment/step 1 correlation thing on Reddit, a 255 on NBME 19 pretty much correlates to a 255 on the real thing. I guess 19 gets more predictive with higher scores?

I think once you start getting up into the super high (or low) scores those correlation charts start to break down.

At 255 it’s clear you’ve mastered the content and now it’s just a matter of other little factors adding/taking points on the margin
 
Looking up answers for NBMEs is such a PITA. Like I really appreciate that people take the time to type out all the questions and answers on forums, but then people come in and start insisting that they chose something else for a question and got it right, and YOU KNOW that they're wrong. Why can't NBME just let us see all the questions when we review the exam?
can you tell how many mistakes for a 255 in NBME 19??
 
Uworld qbank first pass: 81% (untimed tutor mode, random)
Kaplan qbank first pass: 87% (this was late in dedicated, so i was peaking)
CBSE in January: 225 (scaled score of 80)
CBSE in March: 260+ (scaled score of 96)
Kaplan sim 1: 83%
Kaplan sim 2: 84%
UWSA 1: 262
UWSA 2: 264
Free 120: 92%
Real deal step 1: 261 (may 4th)

Most valued resources:
Boards and Beyond (before dedicated, as you learn. except biostats section, which I watched twice during dedicated)
Sketchy Micro and Pharm (fill out workbooks, this is low-hanging fruit on test day)
Pathoma
First Aid (boxed everything that was unique or hard to remember, and reviewed what I had boxed in the last two weeks)
UWorld (did a first pass, worked incorrects, reset and worked about half on second pass)
Kaplan qbank (some lower yield and badly written questions, but a fresh perspective and helpful after uworld)
I did not work any NBMEs due to them not providing answer explanations, and I viewed them as a wasted day of dedicated and better off studying instead; although I did have friends who had images from NBMEs that showed up on test day

Side note:
I scored a 28 on the ACT and a 507 on the MCAT
The Step 1 is a different exam, it is not passage based and excellent reading comprehension and vocabulary will not carry your score
You have to know your content and be able to reason scientifically. I have always underperformed on standardized exams due to classical literature passages, etc. but the medical licensing exam is about the science and medicine and if you study smart and early, you can crush this test.
 
Also curious what y'all think I should do about NBMEs

Ive got time left to take one more, I can do 17 or 19

On one hand I don't wanna wreck my confidence with 19, but on the other hand Ive heard its the most similar to the real thing so may be more worth doing.
 
Looking up answers for NBMEs is such a PITA. Like I really appreciate that people take the time to type out all the questions and answers on forums, but then people come in and start insisting that they chose something else for a question and got it right, and YOU KNOW that they're wrong. Why can't NBME just let us see all the questions when we review the exam?
Do they only let you see the questions you get wrong? Or is it that they only let you see the answers you get wrong, and let you see all the questions? If so for how long can you review the questions after taking the exam? For the AAMC MCAT practice exams, I believe you could review them many times.
 
Also curious what y'all think I should do about NBMEs

Ive got time left to take one more, I can do 17 or 19

On one hand I don't wanna wreck my confidence with 19, but on the other hand Ive heard its the most similar to the real thing so may be more worth doing.

I would say that 17 ruined my confidence more than 19! 17 was significantly harder than 19 imo.
 
Do they only let you see the questions you get wrong? Or is it that they only let you see the answers you get wrong, and let you see all the questions? If so for how long can you review the questions after taking the exam? For the AAMC MCAT practice exams, I believe you could review them many times.

You can only see the questions you got wrong. They now highlight the correct answer, too. But you never get to see the ones you got correct.

I wanna say you can review them for up to two weeks? That's definitely the case for the UWSAs at least.
 
Do they only let you see the questions you get wrong? Or is it that they only let you see the answers you get wrong, and let you see all the questions? If so for how long can you review the questions after taking the exam? For the AAMC MCAT practice exams, I believe you could review them many times.

IDK if theres a time limit but I took NBME 13 back in early March and I can still review it (not that I ever plan to revisit that train wreck)
 
What do you guys think is the better predictor NBME average or UWSA1/2 average?

I feel like it varies for everyone. General consensus SEEMS to be that UWSA 2 is a pretty close predictor for a lot of people, NBME 19 tends to underpredict due to a harsh curve, and UWSA1 tends to overpredict. But it'll all depend on when you take the exams relative to your test, the types of mistakes you're making, how fresh/alert you are while taking exams, etc.
 
You can only see the questions you got wrong. They now highlight the correct answer, too. But you never get to see the ones you got correct.

I wanna say you can review them for up to two weeks? That's definitely the case for the UWSAs at least.

I kind of gave up on reviewing the NBMEs. I didn't even review the NBME 13 (I probably should have considering I got 25+ wrong but I'm too lazy to do it right now, 11 days out lol). I've just gone through and made Anki cards on stuff I've gotten wrong, but only if it was a tangible principle or concept that made sense to turn into a flash card. I feel like it's sort of a waste of time to look through the discussion threads online because it would take forever to find the questions that you need help on and on top of that, some questions don't even get discussed.

Also, have any of you guys come across those weird USMLE forums with the pink/orange color in the background that people discuss NBME exams on? There have been SO many wrong answers given on those forums 😕
 
I kind of gave up on reviewing the NBMEs. I didn't even review the NBME 13 (I probably should have considering I got 25+ wrong but I'm too lazy to do it right now, 11 days out lol). I've just gone through and made Anki cards on stuff I've gotten wrong, but only if it was a tangible principle or concept that made sense to turn into a flash card. I feel like it's sort of a waste of time to look through the discussion threads online because it would take forever to find the questions that you need help on and on top of that, some questions don't even get discussed.

Also, have any of you guys come across those weird USMLE forums with the pink/orange color in the background that people discuss NBME exams on? There have been SO many wrong answers given on those forums 😕

Haha yep I know the website! I prefer that pirate website, whatever it's called. I just spend an hour reading through all of the questions, it's too frustrating to try to only look for the ones you got wrong.
 
What would #wrong on nbme 19 be for a 240ish score then? I'm actually about to do it right now so I'm hoping it'll turn out well.
 
What's up with the free 117, it felt so different to the NBMEs/UWSAs? 85%, which is predicting a ~244, way under what my other practice exams are saying. Is the real thing supposed to have questions like these?
 
What's up with the free 117, it felt so different to the NBMEs/UWSAs? 85%, which is predicting a ~244, way under what my other practice exams are saying. Is the real thing supposed to have questions like these?

Curious what you mean by "different"?
 
anyone have any idea on how experimentals are treated in the May-July block? My guess is they have the delay in scoring because they want enough stats on these "experiementals" to see which ones to count in the score, but I may be wrong.
 
Curious what you mean by "different"?
Some Qs, I felt like all the answers were wrong, OR there were multiple answers that are part of the pathogenesis. I had to play the game where the answers I pick are the "best" answer, or the least wrong.
For me, this was unlike NBMEs. On those, I feel like some questions/answers are poorly worded, so there's trickiness in the interpretation of what the answers mean. Sure there are a lot of vague stems/answer choices on both, but having done 4/6 of the available NBMEs, I thought the 120 would be easier or more straightforward.
When people talk about step having questions where they have no idea what's going on, there were a couple. Definitely felt like taking the 120 lined up with what people have been saying about the real deal
 
Some Qs, I felt like all the answers were wrong, OR there were multiple answers that are part of the pathogenesis. I had to play the game where the answers I pick are the "best" answer, or the least wrong.
For me, this was unlike NBMEs. On those, I feel like some questions/answers are poorly worded, so there's trickiness in the interpretation of what the answers mean. Sure there are a lot of vague stems/answer choices on both, but having done 4/6 of the available NBMEs, I thought the 120 would be easier or more straightforward.
When people talk about step having questions where they have no idea what's going on, there were a couple. Definitely felt like taking the 120 lined up with what people have been saying about the real deal

Hmm yeah that sounds consistent with what I've heard about the real thing! I kind of felt like NBME 17 and 18 were similar to what you described, too.
 
Hmm yeah that sounds consistent with what I've heard about the real thing! I kind of felt like NBME 17 and 18 were similar to what you described, too.

Oh those are the last 2 NBMEs I have yet to do. Finished everything else, including the UWSAs, and they're putting me in 250-255ish range? I feel like I've been stressing about score correlations for the past 3 weeks and it's driving me nuts..
 
Oh those are the last 2 NBMEs I have yet to do. Finished everything else, including the UWSAs, and they're putting me in 250-255ish range? I feel like I've been stressing about score correlations for the past 3 weeks and it's driving me nuts..

Dude same, it's so unhealthy, I need to stop. Today I found out that even if I score a 256 I'll still be within one standard deviation of the mean compared to other students at my school, and it made me really depressed.
 
Progress so far... you guys think I can hit 250 comfortably by end of next week (exam date)?

Order of exams:
NBME 16: 207
UWSA 2: 235 (beginning of dedicated)
NBME 15: 232
UWSA 1: 254
NBME 13: 242
NBME 19 (today, 2 weeks from test): 248
Uworld first pass: 71%; Uworld second pass: 89%;
Kaplan QBank (~800 questions): 80%
 
Progress so far... you guys think I can hit 250 comfortably by end of next week (exam date)?

Order of exams:
NBME 16: 207
UWSA 2: 235 (beginning of dedicated)
NBME 15: 232
UWSA 1: 254
NBME 13: 242
NBME 19 (today, 2 weeks from test): 248
Uworld first pass: 71%; Uworld second pass: 89%;
Kaplan QBank (~800 questions): 80%

I sure hope so. I feel like I'm in roughly the same range as you, but my improvement has plateaued/stagnated for the past 2 weeks. Should prob take 17/18 since most people say those are most realistic (along with UW2) both in question types and scoring to the real deal. I myself am going to do both by the end of the week
 
I sure hope so. I feel like I'm in roughly the same range as you, but my improvement has plateaued/stagnated for the past 2 weeks. Should prob take 17/18 since most people say those are most realistic (along with UW2) both in question types and scoring to the real deal. I myself am going to do both by the end of the week

Good luck friend 😀
 
didn't you say you were only looking for a 240+ sometime ago? How is a 256 now depressing

Haha no my point is that I would be so happy with a 256! But it still wouldn't put me even close to the top of my class.

Edit: not that there's anything wrong with not being at the top of the class. Don't mean to come off as obnoxious, sorry. I would still honestly be really happy with my score if I got a 240.
 
Haha no my point is that I would be so happy with a 256! But it still wouldn't put me even close to the top of my class.

Edit: not that there's anything wrong with not being at the top of the class. Don't mean to come off as obnoxious, sorry. I would still honestly be really happy with my score if I got a 240.

SDN problems.
 
Dude same, it's so unhealthy, I need to stop. Today I found out that even if I score a 256 I'll still be within one standard deviation of the mean compared to other students at my school, and it made me really depressed.
Haha no my point is that I would be so happy with a 256! But it still wouldn't put me even close to the top of my class.

Edit: not that there's anything wrong with not being at the top of the class. Don't mean to come off as obnoxious, sorry. I would still honestly be really happy with my score if I got a 240.

I'm guessing you go to a school with high Step 1 medians that also has internal rankings. That's a pretty unfortunate scenario, but I wouldn't worry too much about ranks and just focus on doing well on Step 1.
 
I'm guessing you go to a school with high Step 1 medians that also has internal rankings. That's a pretty unfortunate scenario, but I wouldn't worry too much about ranks and just focus on doing well on Step 1.

Yeah that's exactly my situation. At least my classmates are all wonderful, hard-working people who deserve to do well. There's no group of people that I'd rather be average compared to! 😛
 
Progress so far... you guys think I can hit 250 comfortably by end of next week (exam date)?

Order of exams:
NBME 16: 207
UWSA 2: 235 (beginning of dedicated)
NBME 15: 232
UWSA 1: 254
NBME 13: 242
NBME 19 (today, 2 weeks from test): 248
Uworld first pass: 71%; Uworld second pass: 89%;
Kaplan QBank (~800 questions): 80%
Abosultely, a 248 on 19 is really encouraging. I predict that you'll score 250+ on 17, 18 and the real thing.
 
Uworld qbank first pass: 81% (untimed tutor mode, random)
Kaplan qbank first pass: 87% (this was late in dedicated, so i was peaking)
CBSE in January: 225 (scaled score of 80)
CBSE in March: 260+ (scaled score of 96)
Kaplan sim 1: 83%
Kaplan sim 2: 84%
UWSA 1: 262
UWSA 2: 264
Free 120: 92%
Real deal step 1: 261 (may 4th)

Most valued resources:
Boards and Beyond (before dedicated, as you learn. except biostats section, which I watched twice during dedicated)
Sketchy Micro and Pharm (fill out workbooks, this is low-hanging fruit on test day)
Pathoma
First Aid (boxed everything that was unique or hard to remember, and reviewed what I had boxed in the last two weeks)
UWorld (did a first pass, worked incorrects, reset and worked about half on second pass)
Kaplan qbank (some lower yield and badly written questions, but a fresh perspective and helpful after uworld)
I did not work any NBMEs due to them not providing answer explanations, and I viewed them as a wasted day of dedicated and better off studying instead; although I did have friends who had images from NBMEs that showed up on test day

Side note:
I scored a 28 on the ACT and a 507 on the MCAT
The Step 1 is a different exam, it is not passage based and excellent reading comprehension and vocabulary will not carry your score
You have to know your content and be able to reason scientifically. I have always underperformed on standardized exams due to classical literature passages, etc. but the medical licensing exam is about the science and medicine and if you study smart and early, you can crush this test.

Congratulations on the excellent score!

Did your exam have any concepts from the Kaplan simulated assessments? I am trying to decide if I should do them. I'm running low on time.
 
Ouch. Just finished nbme 19. Spent the whole day yesterday and today on stats and probably got another 2 questions right on it sigh. Genetics is also kicking my ass.

UWSA 1: 251
UWSA 2: 232
Free 120: 75%
nbme 13: 209
nbme 15: 236
nbme 16: 223
nbme 17: 230
nbme 18: 230
nbme 19: 223

So what do you guys think? Test on Friday, what am I likely to get? Is breaking a 245 feasible?
 
Ouch. Just finished nbme 19. Spent the whole day yesterday and today on stats and probably got another 2 questions right on it sigh. Genetics is also kicking my ass.

UWSA 1: 251
UWSA 2: 232
Free 120: 75%
nbme 13: 209
nbme 15: 236
nbme 16: 223
nbme 17: 230
nbme 18: 230
nbme 19: 223

So what do you guys think? Test on Friday, what am I likely to get? Is breaking a 245 feasible?
nbme 19 is hopeful! that's a possible 240+ on game day good job, what percentage was that 223?
 
Congratulations on the excellent score!

Did your exam have any concepts from the Kaplan simulated assessments? I am trying to decide if I should do them. I'm running low on time.
Kaplan was good for getting my break time and test day experience worked out. many concepts are high yield and some aren't. the fact that they provide answer explanations makes them more valuable than NBMEs for reviewing what you missed. So if you are low on time either just keep studying with your time or if you are set on taking another practice test, take the Kaplan sim and not NBMEs because you will not get explanations.
 
What do you guys think my score will be, exam is next Friday, starting to burn out.

Order of exams:
CBSE: 225
NBME 17: 236
UWSA 1: 256
NBME 18: 244
Uworld first pass: 74%; Uworld second pass: 90%;

Still have to take UWSA2, is it worth it to pay money to do the free 120?
 
What do you guys think my score will be, exam is next Friday, starting to burn out.

Order of exams:
CBSE: 225
NBME 17: 236
UWSA 1: 256
NBME 18: 244
Uworld first pass: 74%; Uworld second pass: 90%;

Still have to take UWSA2, is it worth it to pay money to do the free 120?
I'd guess around 245, the average of your final 3 practice exams. NBME 18 is usually pretty accurate.

Ouch. Just finished nbme 19. Spent the whole day yesterday and today on stats and probably got another 2 questions right on it sigh. Genetics is also kicking my ass.

UWSA 1: 251
UWSA 2: 232
Free 120: 75%
nbme 13: 209
nbme 15: 236
nbme 16: 223
nbme 17: 230
nbme 18: 230
nbme 19: 223

So what do you guys think? Test on Friday, what am I likely to get? Is breaking a 245 feasible?
I'd guess 235, though some people do outperform their practice scores by quite a bit. I think a 245 is still doable.
 
Question about inheritance of CYP450 2D6*4 alleles. You just assume that the inheritance is autosomal recessive and therefore most likely the parents are heterozygous carriers and neither are actually affected? This was my line of reasoning but wanted to be sure there isn't a reason you could rule out one parent being carrier and one being homozygous (so 50% chance instead of 25%)
 
What do you guys think my score will be, exam is next Friday, starting to burn out.

Order of exams:
CBSE: 225
NBME 17: 236
UWSA 1: 256
NBME 18: 244
Uworld first pass: 74%; Uworld second pass: 90%;

Still have to take UWSA2, is it worth it to pay money to do the free 120?

I’m personally of the opinion that a dry run at the testing center is worth the $75 considering this is the most important test of your life.

But it depends what kind of funds you’ve got at your disposal. If money is tight and the choices is between prometric practice test or an extra NBME or something, I’d say do the NBME
 
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