USMLE Official 2019 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[libertyyne]

Lets get this started.
M2. Mid Tier everything.
Entertaining some surgical sub-specialties.

Goal 270
Happy with 245

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[TheVagüs]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

that felt bad. Thanks for the love, fam. It was a fair test. Only a few wild questions. Feeling very neutral about it. Very glad it's over. I'll pour one out tonight for all the folks still grindin'.

Edit: Also, do your UWorld and read it all. I had a couple questions that were based entirely deep cut fact in Uworld that weren't in zanki. I think I actually said "are you ****ing kidding me?" out loud when I read them. Don't make cards for everything- that's inefficient, but read it all and if something really stands out to you write it down. It will pay off (hopefully).

Second edit: It was like 7 blocks of Uworld only not as hard and with some NBME style ambiguity peppered in. However, the answer choices were less tricky, and the question stems were often long af. Make sure you are focusing on time in your practice. I had 10+ minutes most Uworld blocks but was at it to the last minute for 5 blocks of the real deal.

Edit three: Someone on the forums said a while back that we all whiff stuff we know cold a few times on step. I didn’t believe it until I second guessed myself on a (very) simple hardy Weinberg question on the first block and got it wrong. Womp womp

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Seriously though.

 

[Frogger27]

is the FA rapid review deck that has been mentioned the one with 456 cards?

 

[CharlieBillings]

.

 

[kb1900]

is the FA rapid review deck that has been mentioned the one with 456 cards?

i think so theres a few versions around

 

[kb1900]

Bah back down to a 230 on NBME 24. Did not like this one for sure. Felt like very little thinking and mostly memorization questions, and a handful of questions that were worded pretty poorly.

taking it tomorrow and loathing it for these exact reasons. cant wait to drop 40 points from uwsa1

 

[Epicurusall]

taking it tomorrow and loathing it for these exact reasons. cant wait to drop 40 points from uwsa1

I actually had the opposite experience-- My NBMEs 23 and 24 were the highest I've scored on all my previous NBMEs (16, 17, 20, 21, 22) and I found them to be much bigger thinkers than the previous versions... I thought the others required much more minutiae based knowledge and these you either had to know pathophys in depth or you could reason things out and cross out all the answers to get to the right one.

Granted, I wasn't 100% sure of these answers, but upon reviewing the tests, I found that you really couldn't pick the wrong ones, and it just requires a calm and collected mind to answer.

Taking 18 and 20 this next week, expecting to get wrecked by 20 and hoping for the best on 18

 

[Ho0v-man]

Anybody else notice that if they try less they do better in uworld? Seriously. I go hard AF on the first half of first block and eff it up royally. See a lot more green check marks when I start giving up.

I really think I’ve been overthinking a lot of this stuff.

 

[Gurby]

Anybody else notice that if they try less they do better in uworld? Seriously. I go hard AF on the first half of first block and eff it up royally. See a lot more green check marks when I start giving up.

I really think I’ve been overthinking a lot of this stuff.

It's a well-described phenomenon. For optimal performance, you have to kinda not care a little bit, to reach that flow state where your brain works best.

 

[Ho0v-man]

It's a well-described phenomenon. For optimal performance, you have to kinda not care a little bit, to reach that flow state where your brain works best.

Yeah I was definitely on the right side of that curve on my first practice test lol.

Glad to know that secret to success all along was not trying. And that it’s such common knowledge people are freakin’ charting it.

 

[neurodjent]

Anybody else notice that if they try less they do better in uworld? Seriously. I go hard AF on the first half of first block and eff it up royally. See a lot more green check marks when I start giving up.

I really think I’ve been overthinking a lot of this stuff.

I definitely do this. 75% of my mistakes are within the first 10-15 questions. For whatever reason I always freak out about the time even though I normally finish each block with 20 minutes left and I have never even come close to not finishing any exam throughout med school.

 

[sunshinefl]

is the FA rapid review deck that has been mentioned the one with 456 cards?

That’s the one I have. I don’t know if there’s a “better” one.

 

[Gurby]

Yeah I was definitely on the right side of that curve on my first practice test lol.

Glad to know that secret to success all along was not trying. And that it’s such common knowledge people are freakin’ charting it.

There's a really famous book about this that's good reading and applicable to all sorts of things in life called "The Inner Game of Tennis". Nice 2x-able 10-minute synopsis here:



"Conscious trying, directed by the conscious mind, often produces negative results. You know this instinctively by the fact that when you're playing at your best, you are not thinking in technical way about your shots. You are a fluid unity of mind, body, court and racket. You are in a state of flow."

Quiet the mind.

Through not being attached to the fruits of victory, you paradoxically become free to play the game for itself in a more relaxed and powerful state of mind. Through non-attachment, getting a 260 is more likely.

 

[sunshinefl]

There's a really famous book about this that's good reading and applicable to all sorts of things in life called "The Inner Game of Tennis". Nice 2x-able 10-minute synopsis here:



"Conscious trying, directed by the conscious mind, often produces negative results. You know this instinctively by the fact that when you're playing at your best, you are not thinking in technical way about your shots. You are a fluid unity of mind, body, court and racket. You are in a state of flow."

Quiet the mind.

Through not being attached to the fruits of victory, you paradoxically become free to play the game for itself in a more relaxed and powerful state of mind. Through non-attachment, getting a 260 is more likely.

I know this by the fact that I can’t look while the nail people slip my flip flop on after my pedicure, or I will have an awkward muscle twitch and smear the nail polish.

 

[medicineman1234]

Yep my first sections always worst. Also how do you guys card uworld? I'm carding a lot bc I read everything in it is high yield, but idk how sustainable it is especially with few full days off a week. Zanki reviews still at 1000-1100 a day. I can't stop them though because I have to retain it for the next three months which is frustrating so I'm racking my brain trying to think how I can finish all this.

Also to the user with the tips yesterday for careless mistakes thanks. It definitely helped and had one section above 10% vs yesterday. Still having timing issues and missing things I've matured in zanki which is sad but oh well

 

[wonko]

There's a really famous book about this that's good reading and applicable to all sorts of things in life called "The Inner Game of Tennis". Nice 2x-able 10-minute synopsis here:



"Conscious trying, directed by the conscious mind, often produces negative results. You know this instinctively by the fact that when you're playing at your best, you are not thinking in technical way about your shots. You are a fluid unity of mind, body, court and racket. You are in a state of flow."

Quiet the mind.

Through not being attached to the fruits of victory, you paradoxically become free to play the game for itself in a more relaxed and powerful state of mind. Through non-attachment, getting a 260 is more likely.

non-attachment. As someone highly interested in buddhism, I am loving this. And very true. I always tell myself before a block or a practice test, I am not trying to fight or crush the exam, I am trying to become it's friend and flow with it. Sounds super whacky, but my mindset and approach to the questions changes a lot.

 

[kb1900]

Alright mr. nbme 24, let’s do this dance...hopefully I won’t be whining on here like last time about your friend nbme 22

 

[libertyyne]

well, that happened. only slept 3 hours and had to take a benydryl at 2 to accomplish even that.
Not sure how the exam went. I will be lucky if I get a 230,lol.
The stems are very long, and I was always pressed for time.
Know for sure I got many questions wrong .

I gave it my best @230k anki reviews in m2. 70%zanki matured.
8k questions completed.

Good Luck everyone prepping, it is definately better on the other side.

 

[Frogger27]

well, that happened. only slept 3 hours and had to take a benydryl at 2 to accomplish even that.
Not sure how the exam went. I will be lucky if I get a 230,lol.
The stems are very long, and I was always pressed for time.
Know for sure I got many questions wrong .

I gave it my best @230k anki reviews in m2. 70%zanki matured.
8k questions completed.

Good Luck everyone prepping, it is definately better on the other side.

Sorry to hear that man.. From everything I've heard, you're not alone in feeling the way you do after the test.. It is very common. Hopefully you'll be surprised with the end result

Any advice for us with still a couple of weeks left?

 

[wonko]

well, that happened. only slept 3 hours and had to take a benydryl at 2 to accomplish even that.
Not sure how the exam went. I will be lucky if I get a 230,lol.
The stems are very long, and I was always pressed for time.
Know for sure I got many questions wrong .

I gave it my best @230k anki reviews in m2. 70%zanki matured.
8k questions completed.

Good Luck everyone prepping, it is definately better on the other side.

Don't go down that road! Everyone was stressed, most slept bad, all got more wrong than they wanted. I'm sure you did great. Enjoy the life after the USMLE

 

[kb1900]

well, that happened. only slept 3 hours and had to take a benydryl at 2 to accomplish even that.
Not sure how the exam went. I will be lucky if I get a 230,lol.
The stems are very long, and I was always pressed for time.
Know for sure I got many questions wrong .

I gave it my best @230k anki reviews in m2. 70%zanki matured.
8k questions completed.

Good Luck everyone prepping, it is definately better on the other side.

Congrats! Your progress in dedicated has been serious motivation for me

You put in the work. So many questions completed- You can look back on dedicated and m2 with zero regrets and that’s worth just as much piece of mind as whatever score you end up with (which will be most likely within the prediction of your practice exams regardless!)

 

[TheVagüs]

well, that happened. only slept 3 hours and had to take a benydryl at 2 to accomplish even that.
Not sure how the exam went. I will be lucky if I get a 230,lol.
The stems are very long, and I was always pressed for time.
Know for sure I got many questions wrong .

I gave it my best @230k anki reviews in m2. 70%zanki matured.
8k questions completed.

Good Luck everyone prepping, it is definately better on the other side.

Trust the prep. I'd put money on you doing well given your prep and practice scores. Also trust that everyone else also slept like **** and felt terrible.

 

[TheVagüs]

Sorry to hear that man.. From everything I've heard, you're not alone in feeling the way you do after the test.. It is very common. Hopefully you'll be surprised with the end result

Any advice for us with still a couple of weeks left?

I'll toss something in for the moment.

Regret hurts worse than the discomfort of being disciplined. Do what libertyyyne did where you go as ham as you can in your prep. That way you never doubt that you made your best effort. Even if you don't do as well as you wanted, you can look back and be proud of your choices.

I know it's just a test, but that's one of those things I tell myself when I'm having a bad day. Having been on the regret end plenty of times helps to hammer the point home.

 

[CharlieBillings]

.

 

[Chibucks15]

What NBME should I take tomorrow? Exam is June 17th. Taken 13,15,17,19,UW1. Still have UW2 but gonna save that one.

Was debating 18 or a new one but maybe wanna save 18 and UW 2 for last because predictive value.

Which of the newest NBMEs is best to take 3 weeks out? Thanks

 

[kb1900]

Going through NBME 24 it seems like worlds of difference compared to the free 117. The 117 seems to exclusively focus on high yield material whereas 24 includes a lot of one-off memorization type questions. I hope the real thing is more like the free 117 lol. I'll take UWSA2 tomorrow and see how that is....

Half way through the thing my thoughts so far
Block 1: not so bad. Maybe I have actually been doing something right for the last 2 weeks
Block 2: I must be an idiot because I don’t know what half the answer choices mean on my marked questions

 

[wonko]

Half way through the thing my thoughts so far
Block 1: not so bad. Maybe I have actually been doing something right for the last 2 weeks
Block 2: I must be an idiot because I don’t know what half the answer choices mean on my marked questions

I know the questions are shuffled, but for me one block had legitimately 20% less correct than the other three. Did not feel good man.

 

[Diphyllobothrium latum]

What NBME should I take tomorrow? Exam is June 17th. Taken 13,15,17,19,UW1. Still have UW2 but gonna save that one.

Was debating 18 or a new one but maybe wanna save 18 and UW 2 for last because predictive value.

Which of the newest NBMEs is best to take 3 weeks out? Thanks

Take 23 and expect it to be a tough battle compared to what you 've done so far but a fair one, in terms of curve harshness/scoring.

Also, glad that most people agree with my initial thoughts on 24.

 

[neurodjent]

264 on UW1. I actually started laughing pretty hard when I saw this cuz even with its tendency to overpredict, this is definitely overshooting by far.

I seem to be much more comfortable with UWorld style questions and not with NBME style.

I'm glad I took that, I needed a confidence booster right about now.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Anybody else notice that if they try less they do better in uworld? Seriously. I go hard AF on the first half of first block and eff it up royally. See a lot more green check marks when I start giving up.

I really think I’ve been overthinking a lot of this stuff.

Same man. I started doing timed UW blocks instead of tutor because I realized I was WAY overanalyzing each question knowing I was about to see the answer. With timed I just click the one I feel is right and move on thinking it was an easy question. I've started nailing most of the harder questions and the ones I miss are usually simple slip ups with test taking or stuff that I just blanked on and forgot.

 

[kb1900]

just finished nbme 24 - that was a doozy....can't wait to see all the mistakes i made just from being frazzled

nbme 22 - 225 (2 weeks ago)
uwsa1 - 264 (1 week ago)
nbme 24 - 238

not sure where to go from here, was kinda hoping to break 240 on this but also knew it was a longshot after block 2. little over 2 weeks out from my exam with about 1k uw and uwsa2/120/nbme18/20/21/23 to still get through...yikes. i want this to be over so bad

edit:
Lol of 38 mistakes, 10 of them were straight avoidable. can't believe i mixed up left and right (and medial vs lateral) 3 times. on the other hand, the rest of them i have no clue whats going on

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Anyone have any advice on trial design and bias info? That crap gets me every time, even after I hammer that part of FA beforehand. Bias is a bit better for me but trial design questions are almost an automatic L.... it's super annoying.

 

[watermelon master]

Anyone have any advice on trial design and bias info? That crap gets me every time, even after I hammer that part of FA beforehand. Bias is a bit better for me but trial design questions are almost an automatic L.... it's super annoying.

when in doubt choose intention to treat analysis in that it's basically --> keep all of the patients in the study no matter what happened to them after randomization lol

 

[cjcarter]

Just got done! Wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. It was nothing like the NBMEs. Like not even close. In order of similarity: UWSA2/UW > free 120 > UWSA1 >>>> nbmes.

Good luck to all taking it soon! You’re gonna kill it.

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

32 days from step & just got wrecked by another NBME. Ugh. Was really hoping for a bigger jump.

NBME 15 (a little over a weeks ago): 209
NBME 20 (today): 213

I did a pretty in depth content review for biochemistry, & then did some review infectious disease, & repro since NBME 15, and those categories did significantly improve, so that's good I guess. Hoping now that the beast of biochemistry is out of the way I can start getting through content review at a quicker pace. Took biochemistry nice & slow cause I suck at it.

Going to start attacking my weaknesses on NBME 20 this afternoon, starting 2nd pass of UWorld tomorrow, & probably going to take another NBME Wednesday I think.

Meh.

EDIT: Just finished reviewing the answers. Made a total of 13 DUMB mistakes where the knowledge to answer the question was there, but I read the question too fast & missed important details. Moving forward I'm going to need to work on that. & Maybe not take my NBMEs in a busy Starbucks lol. Made me feel at least a little bit better knowing the potential for solid improvement was there today; just gotta work taking my time & really focusing on the questions.

 

[Scrubs101]

Just took NBME 22 got a 248, 11 point drop my 21 last week. I felt like I was missing a decent amount of easy points, been pretty lazy the last week so hopefully this will put a fire back under my butt!

 

[Scrubs101]

32 days from step & just got wrecked by another NBME. Ugh. Was really hoping for a bigger jump.

NBME 15 (a little over a weeks ago): 209
NBME 20 (today): 213

I did a pretty in depth content review for biochemistry, & then did some review infectious disease, & repro since NBME 15, and those categories did significantly improve, so that's good I guess. Hoping now that the beast of biochemistry is out of the way I can start getting through content review at a quicker pace. Took biochemistry nice & slow cause I suck at it.

Going to start attacking my weaknesses on NBME 20 this afternoon, starting 2nd pass of UWorld tomorrow, & probably going to take another NBME Wednesday I think.

Meh.

20 felt way harder than the old NBMEs i took, i'd say that jump in score is much larger than it appears! Keep it up homie you got this!

 

[kb1900]

doing 2 blocks of uworld after an nbme is like going from a standard definition cartoon from 1995 to watching avatar in imax 3d.

 

[medicineman1234]

doing 2 blocks of uworld after an nbme is like going from a standard definition cartoon from 1995 to watching avatar in imax 3d.

Is it because it's more vague?

 

[kb1900]

Is it because it's more vague?

for a few reasons but primarily excess of clues and clarity in uw stems = a lot easier to score in the 80s and 90s, where as i seem to struggle getting above 80% in nbmes. also the nbme pictures are so low quality. maybe its my monitor scaling or i have opportunistic color blindness

also explanations and actually being able to see what you got wrong/marked on a single screen instead of clicking through the exam 200 times

 

[medicineman1234]

for a few reasons but primarily excess of clues and clarity in uw stems = a lot easier to score in the 80s and 90s, where as i seem to struggle getting above 80% in nbmes. also the nbme pictures are so low quality. maybe its my monitor scaling or i have opportunistic color blindness

also explanations and actually being able to see what you got wrong/marked on a single screen instead of clicking through the exam 200 times

Jeez 80/90s lmao you are on another plane of existence from me.
When doing incorrects do you memorize everything even outside of the educational objectives/bolded?

 

[CharlieBillings]

.

 

[Epicurusall]

for a few reasons but primarily excess of clues and clarity in uw stems = a lot easier to score in the 80s and 90s, where as i seem to struggle getting above 80% in nbmes. also the nbme pictures are so low quality. maybe its my monitor scaling or i have opportunistic color blindness

also explanations and actually being able to see what you got wrong/marked on a single screen instead of clicking through the exam 200 times

THIS. Can anyone comment on the quality of the photos from the real exam?

 

[libertyyne]

THIS. Can anyone comment on the quality of the photos from the real exam?

the images are excellent, you can click on them to make them full screen. They will be obvious unless they are intentionally trying to obfuscate the point.

 

[TheVagüs]

the images are excellent, you can click on them to make them full screen. They will be obvious unless they are intentionally trying to obfuscate the point.

I second this

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

doing 2 blocks of uworld after an nbme is like going from a standard definition cartoon from 1995 to watching avatar in imax 3d.

Oh my god this is so true. Minecraft-lookin' a** erythrocytes. smfh.

 

[Espressso]

Oh my. Had the absolute craziest test day experience. Exam got cancelled the morning of on Friday, and I had to take it today in a completely different city about 4 hours away. It was a nightmare. I wouldn't wish this experience for anyone.

I personally thought the exam was tough. It was on par with UW in my opinion. Long stems, tricky experiments, and some wtf questions. I'll be lucky with a 220 even. That test was hard.

 

[TheVagüs]

Oh my. Had the absolute craziest test day experience. Exam got cancelled the morning of on Friday, and I had to take it today in a completely different city about 4 hours away. It was a nightmare. I wouldn't wish this experience for anyone.

I personally thought the exam was tough. It was on par with UW in my opinion. Long stems, tricky experiments, and some wtf questions. I'll be lucky with a 220 even. That test was hard.

I just need a one-click stamp for the forum that says ‘trust your prep’

Edit: that said I can definitely relate to the doubt. the exam is a real mind****

 

[js007]

Which NBME should I take tomorrow (4 wks out): 22, 23 or 24?

NBME 15 (8 wks out) 223 Baseline..........taken offline
NBME 16 (7 wks out) 248
NBME 20 (6 wks out) 228 (ouch!)
NBME 21 (5 wks out) 234
Still have 1060 UW Qs to attept. (76% correct and I am on 83rd percentile).

Planning to take UWSA 1 (3 wks out), NBME 18 (2 wks out) and UWSA 2 (1wk out)
Anatomy, Biochem and Infectious Diseases are weaker areas............(62-65% correct on UW)
I hope, I do well on tomorrow's NBME and keep improving in the next 4 weeks to Reach my Target score 240-250.
Any suggestions/guidance is welcome!!!!

 

[kb1900]

Jeez 80/90s lmao you are on another plane of existence from me.
When doing incorrects do you memorize everything even outside of the educational objectives/bolded?

Ah i started out in the high 60s low 70s, just been going up 3-5% per week (was doing 80q/day early on now up to 120) and i just make anki cards of what i get wrong at this point and do a bit of tutor subject specific kaplan. Early on though i did really thorough review of subjects i was getting wrong almost as if it was my first pass. I basically did the entire zanki biochem deck and cardio path deck through at that time because i wanted to turn those sections into strengths. didn't really work out but at least im not below 50% on those subjects lol

im jealous of all the people who can redo incorrects; ill be lucky if i finish my first pass before the exam and regret saving UW for 4.5 weeks of dedicated. im hoping i can cram all my incorrects in anatomy and biochem and cardio the few days before