I've been reading and following this thread and last years so I just wanted to add my humble opinion. Also, to add some statistics similar to what many of the MD students with the Step 1 thread do each year and possibly shine a little light about my experience for the DO's embarking on this journey into the great dark abyss we know as Level 1.
Began questions with Combank back in January, finished around a week out from my exam with an overall average ~70%. (Started low in the 50's, gradually and quickly rose however into the 70's and 80's).
Uworld Average: 65% (Same pattern as Combank essentially in terms of scoring).
I also did some Kaplan questions and FA questions on my phone, never finished either of these banks but averages were ~60%.
FA: Did 1 full pass before dedicated period and then referred back to the text religiously while going through UWorld and annotating (as I'm sure most people are finding out, no FA does not contain EVERYTHING, but it does a very nice job providing a brief clinical picture or description).
Pathoma: I personally thought by far that this was the best source for Pathology. The first few chapters were incredibly helpful in regards to bringing everything together and having a relatively good understanding of the foundation of Pathological processes.
UWorld: I mean come on, we all know it's importance by this point.
Combank: Ehh, thought the OMM questions were helpful, but if I could do it over again I would have only used it for this portion.
Kaplan: Similar to UWorld in terms of question difficulty. I rather enjoyed it and wish I could have completed more of it.
Stats:
Top 25-50% of class (assumption based on test averages first 2 years of school)
NBME 16: 200 (Taken 4/7, a little scared about that score but this was the first one and used as a base for Step prep, checked other forums and I believe overall correct was somewhere around 70-74% correct but don't quote me on that).
UWorld Form 1: 230 (Taken 3 weeks later, late April. Liked the questions and felt better about this exam. Had really started to get in a rhythm of studying at this point, knew what I knew and knew topics I didn't know).
Comsae D: 642 (Taken 2 weeks prior COMLEX, school mandated. Honestly felt as though this exam was fake because it felt almost too easy compared to the Uworld questions I had been doing).
NMBE 17: 215 (Taken 5/18, a little under 2 weeks out from Step 1, just glad to see improvement from previous NBME. Keep in mind NBME classically under-predicts and UWorld will over-predict or provide a closer assessment).
Comsae ASA101: 589 (Taken 3 days prior to my exam, wasn't excited to see this score but from what I had read in regards to the new scoring felt it was acceptable. Still would have felt more confident to have see something similar to Comsae D, especially so close to my exam).
Comsae 18/ UWorld Form 2: To be taken this week
Free 120: To be taken next weekend
COMLEX LEVEL 1: Taken 5/23.
USMLE STEP 1: Scheduled 6/3.
LEVEL 1 Thoughts: It's a beast. It is a very long and taxing exam I felt. I was losing ~5 minutes/block for the first two blocks to go back and recheck questions I had flagged. Unless you are a very fast test taker, rechecking questions and staying on time is very very difficult to do. I essentially stopped flagging to recheck after the 2nd block and only flagged in order to see how many questions I wasn't sure on at the end of each block. Many of the questions felt familiar but also vague, always leaving some feeling of uneasiness when moving on to the next one. There are no q-banks, practice exams, or the like which compare to this exam. The questions may feel familiar but will test you on your understanding of the process at hand, which many of these exams are meant to do. Now this isn't going to be every single question, but those will be the ones that you leave remembering. The user interface as stated in previous posts is sluggish, slow, and time will continue to run as the screen freezes if you scroll. I was scrolling at one point to view previous questions and lost somewhere around 8 seconds. To go from question 50 back to question 1 could take this long. In the afternoon this was really beginning to frustrate me so I stopped looking back. The videos aren't terribly long and you can read the questions stem as they play, or can stop the video when you know what they are showing, which I thought was a bonus. Going into this exam I felt good, had adequate sleep (surprisingly) and felt prepared. Leaving this exam, I felt like absolute trash, as in Dear Baby Jesus, I just hoped I passed at this point. There were maybe 5-10 questions that I can recall which I should have known stone cold and when I reviewed later that night had missed. I didn't feel that any one topic or subject was more difficult than the other, but you will run across a few questions that you may have never seen in your life, I know I did. But, many of them are actually workable to some extent, they just take time if you have it to spare. Answer confidently, exclude wrong answers and know why you've excluded it and just move on. Use your time for the more difficult questions, or for reviewing flags. I was hoping for somewhere north of 600 on this exam and I will keep you updated when scores are released.
STEP 1: Currently re-reviewing UWorld, another pass of pathoma and skimming FA. Exam in a little over a week.
Good luck to everyone going into LEVEL 1. Go in confident and don't be afraid or upset if you come out feeling terrible. Most people that have taken it that I have talked to and are in the top of the class have felt the same way.
