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

 

[MissKitty2868]

thank you for your post!! Did you feel like the exam was similar to UWSA and uworld?

Not gonna lie. I did not think it was like them. There were some questions that were similar but more not similar questions that required more fourth step thinking and many less gimme questions.

But remember that all tests are different. I’m hoping I got a test that was full of a lot of those experimental questions because yeah... I honestly felt like even if I took more time to study for the exam, it would not have helped.

I marked very little on UWSA and UWorld but I feel like I marked like 15 on each block from really not knowing what was being asked or what I was doing. Then on my last two blocks I kinda gave up and didn’t care anymore and just went with it. I ended up browsing through to do the shorter vignettes first and skipped around and Maybe my anxiety just took over. Haha. Who knows. Definitely harder than any of the prep tests I had taken.

Real truth? No one is ever going to feel prepared, and although there are people on here who might say they felt great after their exam, that’s like the 1% and I’m pretty sure that movement was totally never really a thing. Just do your best. Study. And it will all be alright (maybe, idk. This is what I’ve been telling myself for the last two weeks).

 

[MissKitty2868]

Looking back, do you guys suggest maybe then to do more questions than just sheer memorization of FA?

Omg yes. Memorization is wonderful but gets you nowhere if you can’t apply it.

 

[pbrocks15]

Omg yes. Memorization is wonderful but gets you nowhere if you can’t apply it.

Haha very much agree. I have about three weeks left and I don't know what other questions to do though. I'm 50% done with my UWorld Second pass (sitting at about 87%) and not where what other questions to do. Any suggestions?

 

[MissKitty2868]

Haha very much agree. I have about three weeks left and I don't know what other questions to do though. I'm 50% done with my UWorld Second pass (sitting at about 87%) and not where what other questions to do. Any suggestions?

Pastest has a bank that I think is still free. Try that. They are good questions and have an app, too. So you know... you can cry yourself to sleep doing questions in bed because step lyfe. Haha. Jk. But seriously. Pastest usmle. Look it up. 🙂

 

[strugglebus9118]

Confirmed. Friends who took it May 10 and 12 received theirs today.

Took mine May 10th and did not get my score today

 

[MissKitty2868]

Took mine May 10th and did not get my score today

It might be due to the turnover of testing centers so DO NOT FREAK OUT. WE WILL ALL BE OK!

 

[Pityriasis Rosea]

6 weeks dedicated using UWORLD and FA only.

Pre-dedicated CBSE: 205
NBME 17 (5 weeks out): 238
NBME 18 (3 weeks out): 248
NBME UWSA2 (1 week out): 262
NBME 19 (few days out): 26-
Free120 (few days out): 88%
UWorld Tutor-mode by subject: 79%
Real Deal: 253

Exam day was a disaster. I left the test center thinking I did very poorly. I only remembered like 15 questions and I got all of them wrong. These past few weeks have been very stressful. I ended up scoring lowest in my best subject. While it would have been nice to score another 10 points, I know things could have ended much worse. I feel relieved.

Boards and Beyond carried me through the first two years and I have seen every video at least twice at normal speed but didn't have time to rewatch during dedicated. Sketchy never helped me and I didn't end up using it. I don't have the attention span for Anki.

Ask any questions you'd like.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

6 weeks dedicated using UWORLD and FA only.

Pre-dedicated CBSE: 205
NBME 17 (5 weeks out): 238
NBME 18 (3 weeks out): 248
NBME UWSA2 (1 week out): 262
NBME 19 (few days out): 26-
Free120 (few days out): 88%
UWorld Tutor-mode by subject: 79%
Real Deal: 253

Exam day was a disaster. I left the test center thinking I did very poorly. I only remembered like 15 questions and I got all of them wrong. These past few weeks have been very stressful. I ended up scoring lowest in my best subject. While it would have been nice to score another 10 points, I know things could have ended much worse. I feel relieved.

Boards and Beyond carried me through the first two years and I have seen every video at least twice at normal speed but didn't have time to rewatch during dedicated. Sketchy never helped me and I didn't end up using it. I don't have the attention span for Anki.

Ask any questions you'd like.

What percentage of questions, roughly, were not covered in UFAP?

 

[strugglebus9118]

6 weeks dedicated using UWORLD and FA only.

Pre-dedicated CBSE: 205
NBME 17 (5 weeks out): 238
NBME 18 (3 weeks out): 248
NBME UWSA2 (1 week out): 262
NBME 19 (few days out): 26-
Free120 (few days out): 88%
UWorld Tutor-mode by subject: 79%
Real Deal: 253

Exam day was a disaster. I left the test center thinking I did very poorly. I only remembered like 15 questions and I got all of them wrong. These past few weeks have been very stressful. I ended up scoring lowest in my best subject. While it would have been nice to score another 10 points, I know things could have ended much worse. I feel relieved.

Boards and Beyond carried me through the first two years and I have seen every video at least twice at normal speed but didn't have time to rewatch during dedicated. Sketchy never helped me and I didn't end up using it. I don't have the attention span for Anki.

Ask any questions you'd like.

what date did you take urs?

 

[Pityriasis Rosea]

What percentage of questions, roughly, were not covered in UFAP?

I'd say close to 0 percent. By the time you understand everything in UFAP, nearly all questions you'd get wrong would be because of mistakes with test taking skills not lack of information. For example, if you know all of the diuretics, you may be able to figure out how they would interact... in utero... in a mouse... hypothetically...

what date did you take urs?

05/07/2018

 

[pbrocks15]

6 weeks dedicated using UWORLD and FA only.

Pre-dedicated CBSE: 205
NBME 17 (5 weeks out): 238
NBME 18 (3 weeks out): 248
NBME UWSA2 (1 week out): 262
NBME 19 (few days out): 26-
Free120 (few days out): 88%
UWorld Tutor-mode by subject: 79%
Real Deal: 253

Exam day was a disaster. I left the test center thinking I did very poorly. I only remembered like 15 questions and I got all of them wrong. These past few weeks have been very stressful. I ended up scoring lowest in my best subject. While it would have been nice to score another 10 points, I know things could have ended much worse. I feel relieved.

Boards and Beyond carried me through the first two years and I have seen every video at least twice at normal speed but didn't have time to rewatch during dedicated. Sketchy never helped me and I didn't end up using it. I don't have the attention span for Anki.

Ask any questions you'd like.

Congrats!! Awesome work.

How did you go about dedicated? What was the breakdown of your day?

Also, do you feel that you had memorized everything or had a better overall understanding of the concepts, disease etc (I know they go hand and hand but curious your thoughts)?

Lastly - did you feel the exam was asking more minutiae or asking you more to apply what you know?

 

[sharkbyte]

NBME 18: 246!!!

That was a hard test! 9 days out, feeling a bit more confident now. Got ~300 UW questions left which I'll hammer out over the next few days, gonna take UWSA2 Saturday, NBME 19 probably Tuesday and then content review mixed in.

Also,

Spoiler: NBME 18 SPOILER

I found it hilarious that "support group" was the answer for one question but the wrong answer for another one

 

[EbolaOnMyMind]

NBME 18: 246!!!

That was a hard test! 9 days out, feeling a bit more confident now. Got ~300 UW questions left which I'll hammer out over the next few days, gonna take UWSA2 Saturday, NBME 19 probably Tuesday and then content review mixed in.

Also,

Spoiler: NBME 18 SPOILER

I found it hilarious that "support group" was the answer for one question but the wrong answer for another one

Don’t be surprised if your score goes down for 19. I don’t know anyone who didn’t go down on 19

 

[Pityriasis Rosea]

Congrats!! Awesome work.

How did you go about dedicated? What was the breakdown of your day?

Also, do you feel that you had memorized everything or had a better overall understanding of the concepts, disease etc (I know they go hand and hand but curious your thoughts)?

Lastly - did you feel the exam was asking more minutiae or asking you more to apply what you know?

I did 6 days the first two weeks then 7 after that. Didn't touch UWORLD till dedicated.
8AM-12PM 50 questions
12PM-1PM Lunch/Hearthstone
1PM-5PM 50 more questions
5PM-7PM Gym (probably the best thing I did)
7PM-9PM Finishing questions, reading FA, consulting Dr. Wikipedia.
9PM-11PM Reddit and video games
Before 11PM I was asleep

After I finished UWORLD I did all of my marked questions again very rapidly using the same schedule (over 1000 in 6 days).

Memorizing details will net you a few extra points but the vast majority of the test is recognizing which concepts they are trying to get at and knowing how to apply them. As long as you know the high yield details (yes this includes parasites and biochemistry) you should be golden. The only details I didn't know were super simple public health things which I don't even think belonged on the test. Most of the questions I got wrong were too easy and my memorized information messed me up.

 

[Lannister]

Anyone who took the test recently have advice on what to do on the last day of studying? Right now I'm just planning on doing FA Rapid Review and going through my flashcards one last time (I have about 1000 so it'll only take a few hours).

I have never wanted to be done with something so badly in my life. I wish I could just be sedated until Saturday morning. 😛

 

[pbrocks15]

I did 6 days the first two weeks then 7 after that. Didn't touch UWORLD till dedicated.
8AM-12PM 50 questions
12PM-1PM Lunch/Hearthstone
1PM-5PM 50 more questions
5PM-7PM Gym (probably the best thing I did)
7PM-9PM Finishing questions, reading FA, consulting Dr. Wikipedia.
9PM-11PM Reddit and video games
Before 11PM I was asleep

After I finished UWORLD I did all of my marked questions again very rapidly using the same schedule (over 1000 in 6 days).

Memorizing details will net you a few extra points but the vast majority of the test is recognizing which concepts they are trying to get at and knowing how to apply them. As long as you know the high yield details (yes this includes parasites and biochemistry) you should be golden. The only details I didn't know were super simple public health things which I don't even think belonged on the test. Most of the questions I got wrong were too easy and my memorized information messed me up.

Did you feel everything was in UWorld? It seems like that was your main form of studying. You must have had a solid foundation walking into dedicated.

 

[Pityriasis Rosea]

Did you feel everything was in UWorld? It seems like that was your main form of studying. You must have had a solid foundation walking into dedicated.

Other than what I mentioned in my previous post, yes.

 

[pbrocks15]

Need some help deciding on the order of my next few practice tests.

I'm three weeks out. Thinking of taking USWA1 on Friday and then starting with the NBME's 15 on Monday and then 16 the following Friday (2 weeks out). Any thoughts on if this is a good idea?

Edit: Maybe take NBME 15 Friday and then USWA1 on Monday? Then assess where I'm at?

 

[pbrocks15]

Other than what I mentioned in my previous post, yes.

Good to know. Thank you! I'm on my second pass of UW, do you think I should focus on the main picture for now and then spend the night reading FA, or take my time a little more with it and really dissect the answer choices?

 

[HybridEarth]

Hi all, for anyone who has taken the exam, how do breaks work exactly? Is it anything like the online NBMEs? For example, if I finish a block in 55 minutes, can I just walk up out of the room and return in 5 minutes and the new block begins automatically?

Also, what is the usual strategy people use for using their 1 hour total of "break" time?

 

[Jzen12]

What is everyone’s thoughts on Kaplan Qbank for physiology questions? I’ve heard good things about it, or is it better just to power thru the uworld physiology an extra time?

 

[sharkbyte]

Don’t be surprised if your score goes down for 19. I don’t know anyone who didn’t go down on 19

Oh yeah for sure. I'm not going to worry about my score on that test. Just hoping it's line with the other ones or better in terms of # incorrect.

 

[sharkbyte]

Does anyone have a definitive answer for the question on NBME 19 with a picture of the underside of a brain and the answers A -> J as options? It was about someone with inappropriate outbursts and inappropriateness.

I've seen different answers online and am not sure what it is. I put "B" which was the underside of the frontal lobe. I think this is right because of disinhibition, but I've seen some other funky answers.

Also I just got <5 wrong on NBME 19 and really want to move up my test date, but I still have so much I can do. I also got incredibly lucky on a lot of my unsure questions on 19, so I think this is an overestimate and I don't want to let it get to my head. I'm about 3 weeks out right now

Impressive! Was it a mostly straightforward test in your view?

 

[HybridEarth]

Does anyone have a definitive answer for the question on NBME 19 with a picture of the underside of a brain and the answers A -> J as options? It was about someone with inappropriate outbursts and inappropriateness.

I've seen different answers online and am not sure what it is. I put "B" which was the underside of the frontal lobe. I think this is right because of disinhibition, but I've seen some other funky answers.

Also I just got <5 wrong on NBME 19 and really want to move up my test date, but I still have so much I can do. I also got incredibly lucky on a lot of my unsure questions on 19, so I think this is an overestimate and I don't want to let it get to my head. I'm about 3 weeks out right now

If I recall correctly, that had to do with Kluver Bucy syndrome, and the correct answer was showing the medial temporal lobe which is often affected. Memory is fuzzy on that so don't quote me on it!

 

[frenchyn]

I am running out of time, and have to decide whether I want to run through first aid really quick (only went through it once) or take more practice questions either NBME or Kaplan. Which bullet should I bite aka more beneficial? First aid or practice questions? THANKS

 

[sharkbyte]

Yes and no,

For the most part I would say it was pretty straightforward and basic stuff mixed with several very poorly worded questions and some obscure stuff: (NBME 19 PRACTICE TEST DISCUSSION FOLLOWS, READ AT OWN RISK)
-Tumor Suppressor Gene vs Oncogene (simplest concept, horrific phrasing)
-Coronary Artery Stent on circumflex (super simple, misinterpreted due to weird wording, but still my fault)
-Dysplastic Nevus Syndrome (I love dermatology and I missed this question. Highly doubt many MS2s are familiar with Dysplastic Nevus Syndrome)
-Chorionic Villi Sampling vs Amniocentesis (I guessed right, but thought this was a dumb question. Super obvious if you happened to study it but definitely belonged on an OBGYN Shelf and not Step 1 Practice Test)
-Erectile Dysfunction after stroke (trick question, it's depression)

Then there were just weird concepts that kind of made sense and you could kind of reason through.
-Cardiac Index (no idea what that technically is, but I assumed it went down in any sort of heart issue)
-Conductance (I assumed this was just another word for blood flow and I got it right)
-Weird lung arrows when not sure what the exact pathology was (maybe broken rib poking into lungs, but not puncturing)
-Uterus size and HCG levels (assumed they were high, otherwise why else would they have mentioned them, but still no chart to compare them to. wtf does uterus size at umbilicus mean)

I really got super lucky on a lot like those where I made assumptions based on what I hoped they were getting at and I got pretty much every single one of those right. Usually I'm closer to 50/50 on those.

To summarize, I'd say there were maybe 2-3 completely out of scope, 2-3 horribly worded, and ~5 where you had to make some assumptions that I wasn't completely comfortable making. All the rest felt like freebies. Certainly the least WTF content questions that no one can prepare for out of the NBMEs I've taken so far.

EDIT: Also there were ~3 annoying ones with 2 seemingly reasonable answers but you had to pick the better one. For example, PPI vs H2 Antagonists (obviously pick PPI, but still hate questions like this). H Pylori most associated with (GERD vs PUD). Nausea (pick the right anti-emetic). I really don't like these questions.

Ah I see. Thanks for taking the time out to give a detailed answer, I appreciate it.

 

[Lannister]

Hi all, for anyone who has taken the exam, how do breaks work exactly? Is it anything like the online NBMEs? For example, if I finish a block in 55 minutes, can I just walk up out of the room and return in 5 minutes and the new block begins automatically?

Also, what is the usual strategy people use for using their 1 hour total of "break" time?

When you get to the end of a block, you have thirty seconds to decide if you'd like to take a break or not. You can either select a button saying "take a break" or "continue to next block". If you choose take a break, a screen pops up that says "authorized break" and it shows a clock with the total break time you have left. So for example if you finished block 1 with no time left and then took a break the timer would say 45 minutes remaining (assuming you didn't skip the tutorial).

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Question for those that have recently taken the real deal who have also taken the practice 120 at Prometric:

Are the breaks set up exactly how the actual Step 1 is? What is different in terms of the layout/timing/software/breaks/tutorial? In other words, when you take the practice 120 at Prometric, is everything on the computer set up exactly how it is on the real test? I'm taking it soon and I want to know if what I see on the 120 is what I should expect on the actual step 1 or if they are slightly different (in terms of design and timing) .

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

Tried messaging you but it won't let me. My step experience felt exactly the same. Can you let me know when you get your score back and how that turns out? I fell in that pooling period so I might not get mine back for over 6 weeks. Trying to trust my NBME and Uworld scores but at least with those, I felt the questions were fair and representative.

Decided to avoid coming back on here for a while for my own sake. I haven't gotten my score back, but yes the entire thing felt vague. UWorld felt solid. I felt like I was given enough time to think and enough information to give a good educated guess. The real deal felt unstable, like I was guessing and there was nothing I could really do (and not enough time) to really dig into the why.

A friend of mine got his back yesterday, had this same sort of feeling, and ended up, not kidding, 50+ points below his last NBME. He was devastated, and he deserved so much better than that. I didn't think that was even possible, but I think there are some super weird forms sitting out there right now, because another friend of mine got 20 points below practice.

I personally think they need to do a better job with this test. It's too important for the sort of stuff I saw them pull on my exam. Some really tricky, mean stuff, and huge variability among my friends in length of questions.

 

[Lannister]

A friend of mine got his back yesterday, had this same sort of feeling, and ended up, not kidding, 50+ points below his last NBME.

God, that poor guy. I can't even imagine the disappointment he must feel.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

Took it today, I guess this is the "new" Step 1. To sum: It was horrible. Wall of text/rant incoming. I'm going to refrain from saying anything specific of course and stick to generalities.

I'd say about 50% of it was roughly, kinda straightforward, as long as you had studied. There were a few give-me's here and there but those were in the minority. Often times, the freebies were preceded by extraordinarily long question stems, so you paid the price of time in exchange for an easy question. There were very, very few buzzwords, but I expected that much going in. Oh, I remember chuckling because they actually used the words "malar rash" for SLE. Yeah, I think that was it. Also, from talking to my dad (who is a physician as well), one of the questions described a disease that apparently has a super classic demographic that I've never heard of in my life. The disease is in FA and I knew it, but this classic demographic isn't in it or any of the review sources, and the actual patient's presentation was pretty different.

A few times every block, I would come across a question where I'd think, "Alright here we go, EZ mode", where I thought I knew almost every detail of the disease from studying Zanki/FA/UWorld/Pathoma/Sketchy obsessively throughout the year. Then I'd find that they wanted me to answer some random aspect of the disease that you wouldn't find in any of the main review sources, or was a tiny detail that was (in one example) literally one word from FA. It's absolutely crushing to come across questions like this; they feel like points slipping right through your fingers.

Then of course there was stuff that no reasonable MS2 would expect to know. I actually thought that people were exaggerating when they said stuff like that; surely we'd be at least roughly familiar with it. Nope. No matter how much you've studied there will be something you would never in a million years get without guessing. Half the time you can't even PoE it because there's still like 6 choices.

Other times they actually deliberately mislead you. Not only did it seem like every question stem was exquisitely long, but many times, the patient had symptoms that clearly included another disease in the differential, and was distinguished by a very small detail. Or they included details in the stem that truly had nothing to do with what they were asking you for, and only served to distract your thoughts. Sometimes there just didn't seem like there really was a good answer at all.

I think the worst part was how much anatomy I had on mine. It was the one topic I was dreading, because our MS1 anatomy course is agreed to be the weakest part of our curriculum at my school. I'd say 4-5 questions per block were anatomy for me; some were easy, some were obscure. I learned all the anatomy from FA and UWorld, and only half of it showed up.

My practice scores were pretty good, and around what I wanted.
UWorld average: 87% first pass
NBME 16 (taken 1 week from exam): 255
NBME 18 (taken Wednesday): 257
NBME free 120: 93% (took right after NBME 18 to simulate a full test day)
UWSA 2 (taken yesterday): 266

But I've walked out of it feeling like I barely scraped 220. I don't think I've ever felt this disappointed in myself. I second guessed myself a lot of times, and changed answers that turned out to be right the first time. I've counted like ~8-10 questions already that I know I got wrong. I'm trying to resist thinking of more and looking them up, too. And the worst thing is I don't get my score for 2 months, so there's nothing to do but mope around for a few days and then start preparing for third year.

Anyway. Just wanted to get that off my chest/give some more insight into this horrible process that is Step 1.

This description is the closest thing to my experience so far. Mine was nothing like NBMEs, and even the UFAP stuff required you to know stuff outside of UFAP. The gimmes had mad distractors, and the questions were long and vague. Got some really dicey ethics too, and I don't know how you'd prep for that honestly.

If it's any consolation, I had similar practice tests (NBME 18: 261; UWSA2: 263; free 120: 92%) within one week of the exam and I felt the same way. Also counted ~10 that are for sure wrong. I left with a horrible feeling. I was feeling okay about it until my friends' scored came back and ended up all over the place, including one guy going 50 points below NBME 18.

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

God, that poor guy. I can't even imagine the disappointment he must feel.

It goes far beyond that. He's got family issues, geographical restrictions, and was shooting for a surgical sub. Step 1 basically ruined his life. I honestly want to punch whatever statistician allowed this to happen. He's a genuinely good, good person with phenomenal clinical skills and he's basically on suicide watch right now. I'm officially done with this exam. Totally unacceptable in my opinion. 20 points is statistical variance and bad luck. 50 points is what happens when the practice materials look like NBMEs and the real exam looks like the steaming pile of garbage that was presented to me (and him) on test day. Even if I get a 270, I'll know it's because they seriously messed something up, not because I had a phenomenal day.

Of my 4 friends who just got scores back from the 7th, only 1 was within +/- 5 of their last few NBMEs. The 2 others varied by 10 and 20 points from the last NBMEs.

 

[Lannister]

It goes far beyond that. He's got family issues, geographical restrictions, and was shooting for a surgical sub. Step 1 basically ruined his life. I honestly want to punch whatever statistician allowed this to happen. He's a genuinely good, good person with phenomenal clinical skills and he's basically on suicide watch right now. I'm officially done with this exam. Totally unacceptable in my opinion. 20 points is statistical variance and bad luck. 50 points is what happens when the practice materials look like NBMEs and the real exam looks like the steaming pile of garbage that was presented to me (and him) on test day. Even if I get a 270, I'll know it's because they seriously messed something up, not because I had a phenomenal day.

Of my 4 friends who just got scores back from the 7th, only 1 was within +/- 5 of their last few NBMEs.

It is really sad that one test has the power to determine your future career.
I know we don't know for sure how step 1 is scored, but would it be incorrect to assume that you are compared to people who were given the same questions as you? Or are you just compared to people who took the test that day and sucks for you if you got harder questions than everyone else?

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

It is really sad that one test has the power to determine your future career.
I know we don't know for sure how step 1 is scored, but would it be incorrect to assume that you are compared to people who were given the same questions as you? Or are you just compared to people who took the test that day and sucks for you if you got harder questions than everyone else?

It's got to be questions, not test day. Even NBME couldn't mess up that bad. I do wonder if they used old scoring metrics on old test items regardless of the new ones. My test was atrociously long. He had the same experience. You've got to wonder if the newer, longer questions are messing people up even on the easier, older questions just because time is suddenly a massive issue.

As for career, honestly I'm almost okay with that. Thing is though, he scored so badly he could have issues with staying in his current location at all. No one should have to leave their family because of this nonsense. I hope he finds a way to push through and get around the system.

 

[Traumahawk]

I can definitely sympathize with you and your friend, as something very similar happened to me. (I’m still not over it.)

UWSA 1 and 2, NBME 17, 18 and 19, and all three of the CBSE exams my school requires had me in the 240-260 bracket, and I had a 74% first pass on UWorld. I sat on May 4 and actually scored 224. Test anxiety was not a factor.

The only thing I can think of is that the power went out at the Prometric center for approx. 3 minutes 2/3 of the way through my exam - room dark, all computers off, etc. When the power came back, it restarted me at the beginning of the block I was working - all my previous answers were gone. I’m aware that the regrade option is a waste of money, but I can’t help but wonder what might have been.

All in all, I suppose I’m a bit more fortunate than most. One, my score is still respectable for my planned residency. Two, I’m a HPSP scholarship recipient, and the mil match puts hardly any weight on Step versus clinical performance (which has always been my strength) and LORs. I know I’ll still match. However, it still hurts something awful, and I have absolutely no idea how to improve. It would be so much easier if I could say “harder than anticipated, didn’t study enough, studied wrong things, etc etc” and take steps to fix those points. Here, I’m absolutely at a loss, and that galls me worst of all.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[ChordaEpiphany]

I can definitely sympathize with your friend, as something very similar happened to me. (I’m still not over it.)

UWSA 1 and 2, NBME 17, 18 and 19, and all three of the CBSE exams my school requires had me in the 240-260 bracket, and I had a 74% first pass on UWorld. I sat on May 4 and actually scored 224. Test anxiety was not a factor.

The only thing I can think of is that the power went out at the Prometric center for approx. 3 minutes 2/3 of the way through my exam - room dark, all computers off, etc. When the power came back, it restarted me at the beginning of the block I was working - all my previous answers were gone. I’m aware that the regrade option is a waste of money, but I can’t help but wonder what might have been.

All in all, I suppose I’m a bit more fortunate than most. One, my score is still respectable for my planned residency. Two, I’m a HPSP scholarship recipient, and the mil match puts hardly any weight on Step versus clinical performance (which has always been my strength) and LORs. I know I’ll still match. However, it still hurts something awful, and I have absolutely no idea how to improve. It would be so much easier if I could say “harder than anticipated, didn’t study enough, studied wrong things, etc etc” and take steps to fix those points. Here, I’m absolutely at a loss, and that galls me worst of all.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

That's awful, and I'm sorry to hear it. Maybe it is worth a regrade, or some sort of appeal at least. That's really not an acceptable testing experience in my opinion, and while it probably didn't impact your score much, if there was ever going to be an issue with submitting answers correctly, that'd probably be it.

Like you said, you're still good to go, and you're right that the military match is a different ball game. My friend scored < 200 after scoring 250+ on NBME 18, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if I had a similar experience to you (let's pray I'm spared at least my friend's experience). I left the exam thinking, "Why did I even do dedicated?" I don't think anything I studied helped all that much, it was more just generally having some vague notions of medical concepts that got me (very shakily) through most of the questions.

 

[Lannister]

I can definitely sympathize with you and your friend, as something very similar happened to me. (I’m still not over it.)

UWSA 1 and 2, NBME 17, 18 and 19, and all three of the CBSE exams my school requires had me in the 240-260 bracket, and I had a 74% first pass on UWorld. I sat on May 4 and actually scored 224. Test anxiety was not a factor.

The only thing I can think of is that the power went out at the Prometric center for approx. 3 minutes 2/3 of the way through my exam - room dark, all computers off, etc. When the power came back, it restarted me at the beginning of the block I was working - all my previous answers were gone. I’m aware that the regrade option is a waste of money, but I can’t help but wonder what might have been.

All in all, I suppose I’m a bit more fortunate than most. One, my score is still respectable for my planned residency. Two, I’m a HPSP scholarship recipient, and the mil match puts hardly any weight on Step versus clinical performance (which has always been my strength) and LORs. I know I’ll still match. However, it still hurts something awful, and I have absolutely no idea how to improve. It would be so much easier if I could say “harder than anticipated, didn’t study enough, studied wrong things, etc etc” and take steps to fix those points. Here, I’m absolutely at a loss, and that galls me worst of all.


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Really sorry the power outage thing happened. I feel like that could really throw you off, like even if you had enough time to go back and select answers for all the questions that got messed up, it would probably affect you mentally for the rest of the exam.

 

[Integral]

Decided to avoid coming back on here for a while for my own sake. I haven't gotten my score back, but yes the entire thing felt vague. UWorld felt solid. I felt like I was given enough time to think and enough information to give a good educated guess. The real deal felt unstable, like I was guessing and there was nothing I could really do (and not enough time) to really dig into the why.

A friend of mine got his back yesterday, had this same sort of feeling, and ended up, not kidding, 50+ points below his last NBME. He was devastated, and he deserved so much better than that. I didn't think that was even possible, but I think there are some super weird forms sitting out there right now, because another friend of mine got 20 points below practice.

I personally think they need to do a better job with this test. It's too important for the sort of stuff I saw them pull on my exam. Some really tricky, mean stuff, and huge variability among my friends in length of questions.

You have to chill with these posts. I understand that you're stressed and venting, but there are hundreds of people reading these threads, a lot of whom are currently in dedicated that are looking for motivation, confidence, and a clear mind. Your posts are doing nothing to help the users who are about to sit for their exam, or the users waiting to get their scores back. I have read through hundreds of pages of posts from step threads over the past few years, and I have never read a report of a person even coming close to dropping 50 points from their NBME average. Your friend's experience is an unbelievably rare incident.

I guarantee that you will score within a few points of your NBME average and UWSA2 score, just as the other 99.9% of posters who feel that they bombed the exam do.

I agree with Huggy, you're needlessly placing thousands of students into a panic right now. Your explanation is vague and without detail and borders on being a potential troll post. Could you explain, with sufficient detail (other than vignette length), why you and your friends felt the exam was so drastically different?

 

[Elessar]

.

 

[Traumahawk]

I appreciate your concerns, and it was not my intent to panic anyone, nor do I think any of the previous posters had that intention. While I agree that in the past those prep scores were a very good indicator of eventual Step performance, this year’s block seems to be quite outside the norms in both directions, in contradiction to your assertion that 99.9% of takers land within a few points of their preps. In my perusal of this page relative to other years’ Step pages, I’m seeing a lot more “OMG all my prep tests said I was going to get a 220 and I scored 252!!!!!” or similar, and I suspect that given the reporting bias common to SDN and other sites of its ilk, there might be a similar number of people whose scores went in the opposite direction and aren’t reporting it.

We’re always told that each year’s Step will be different from the previous. It seems that something may well have changed here. I think it’s worthwhile to try and ascertain just how those differences exist, and how to position everyone for success. If future examinees can take something useful from the group’s experience, whether that experience is positive or negative, then I count that as worthwhile.

In any case, it’s one multiple choice, opaquely scored exam, and while it’s very important, it should not singlehandedly destroy a career or reduce anyone to suicidality. That, far more than anyone’s posting on a message board, needs to be addressed, and that type of fear-mongering - from students and faculty alike - is what needs to be eliminated.

TLDR: Most everybody does just fine, even the “bad” scores are still good, and no matter how you score, you’ll be OK in the end.


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[The Knife & Gun Club]

Came right off a bad block and read this last page. Jesus @ChordaEpiphany are you guys trying to give me a heart attack?

 

[073116]

What's the point of suicide only because you got bad step 1 score? Is it because you won't be able to match to your #1 prestige residency? People like that made wrong decisions in the first place if they are for location and ranks in medicine. On the other hand if you are in medicine because you love what you do - then it shouldn't matter if you match at highly reputable top 3 residencies or just a regular low tier residency - as long as both of them will get you to be an attending. A lot of gunners and people with ego size of Oklahoma state tasting the real world and thinking of suicide. SMH

 

[Lannister]

Came right off a bad block and read this last page. Jesus @ChordaEpiphany are you guys trying to give me a heart attack?

A few weeks ago I probably would have been freaking tf out reading these posts. But now I feel like I've become numb to all these horror stories, they don't even affect me anymore.

And whenever I feel myself getting nervous, I go read some motivational or uplifting quotes.

"My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice" seems particularly relevant right now haha.

Another good quote (because I love sharing quotes): "I know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are."

 

[Kaladin25]

What's the point of suicide only because you got bad step 1 score? Is it because you won't be able to match to your #1 prestige residency? People like that made wrong decisions in the first place if they are for location and ranks in medicine. On the other hand if you are in medicine because you love what you do - then it shouldn't matter if you match at highly reputable top 3 residencies or just a regular low tier residency - as long as both of them will get you to be an attending. A lot of gunners and people with ego size of Oklahoma state tasting the real world and thinking of suicide. SMH

sensing some immature ego defenses here.... is it displacement or projection? or is it a possible reaction formation? idk psych is hard

 

[orangetea]

Does this resemble some of the questions on the exam that's freaking everyone out

 

[Lannister]

Does this resemble some of the questions on the exam that's freaking everyone out

Freaking basal ganglia

 

[ERDOC555]

You have to chill with these posts. I understand that you're stressed and venting, but there are hundreds of people reading these threads, a lot of whom are currently in dedicated that are looking for motivation, confidence, and a clear mind. Your posts are doing nothing to help the users who are about to sit for their exam, or the users waiting to get their scores back. I have read through hundreds of pages of posts from step threads over the past few years, and I have never read a report of a person even coming close to dropping 50 points from their NBME average. Your friend's experience is an unbelievably rare incident.

I guarantee that you will score within a few points of your NBME average and UWSA2 score, just as the other 99.9% of posters who feel that they bombed the exam do.

Agreed.

Also anyone who scores 50 points lower on exam day had some serious issues on that test day that aren't related to content knowledge or new questions. No one goes from top 10% on practice exams to bottom 5% in real life. That's just not possible.

I'm sure several people under/overperform by 10 or even 20 points, but it's ridiculous and fearmongering to imply that practice scores are now meaningless and everyone is just getting getting a random score based on some dice roll of an algorithm. I agree with Huggy and everyone else who commented before about these "anecdotes"

 

[pbrocks15]

Now that we're on the question of practice tests, can someone recommend me what test to take tomorrow?

I took NBME 13 at the start and got a 209. Now I'm three weeks out. Should I take USWA1 tomorrow and then maybe NBME 15 on Monday?

EDIT: Also just had an MI reading the past few posts, but thanks to everyone definitely feel better 🙂 Good group here.

 

[Lannister]

Now that we're on the question of practice tests, can someone recommend me what test to take tomorrow?

I took NBME 13 at the start and got a 209. Now I'm three weeks out. Should I take USWA1 tomorrow and then maybe NBME 15 on Monday?

EDIT: Also just had an MI reading the past few posts, but thanks to everyone definitely feel better 🙂 Good group here.

I think that's a good plan. To me it makes more sense to take the UWSAs earlier, as you get answer explanations. So you can learn a lot more content from them versus NBMEs.

 

[Azete]

While I’ve never heard of 50+ points, many of my classmates (including several top students) did severely underperform last year. In my experience these people fell into two categories: 1) They pushed their exam out too far (such as taking their exam 6 weeks after finishing UWorld), or 2) crippling test anxiety.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never seen somebody move up their exam and underperform; and almost everybody I know that pushed it back ended up regretting it.