USMLE Official 2019 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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medicineman1234 said:
Have you used the uw biostats package or is that not worth
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I haven't. Just based on what people have said on this thread periodically though it doesn't sound worth it. Someone recommended this video to me that I'm going through now:



Apparently there is a pt. II too that is pretty good.
 
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kb1900 said:
Not sure how it works on the real deal but on the practice NBMEs I’m pretty sure the scores are pretty much just dependent on % correct overall so if there is a lot of biostats and you bomb it then it can be more determiental to your score.


I’d definitely review the randy videos on YouTube and get to the point where you know how to do all thoze questions. That’s for calculations. For conceptual stuff I’d honestly just memorize definitions at this point. Aka putting PPV into your own words or onto a flash card. Same thing with types of experimental designs where the question is “is this a cross over study or cross sectional or case control or case series etc”

Biostats is free points imo and you’re looking at like a 10 point improvement right there if you go from bombing it to acing it.
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This is the first piece of advice a good buddy of mine gave me this morning when I texted him, literally just posted them above lol. Glad you are double-confirming this.

And thanks for the advice 🙂
 
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Gurby said:
Why did I bother memorizing that Niacin raises HDL when actually it has no survival benefit and we just put everyone with atherosclerosis on statins anyways even if they have low LDL? Only 30 questions done today and already need to take a break.

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I got burned on a question like that, and the proceeded to get burned again when they asked the same question differently.
 
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libertyyne said:
I got burned on a question like that, and the proceeded to get burned again when they asked the same question differently.
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just a fun fact, there's a ton of niacin in energy drinks and especially 5-hour energy. On the label it even describes the "niacin flush" symptoms that you get from it.

266616
 
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Alright finished up UW2. 234 with some dumb mistakes for sure. Paired with my 220 on 18, I definitely haven’t plateaued yet which is good. Been an incremental increase of 10 ish points a week as I plug holes but doubt I’m getting that much gain now.

530 on comsae 103 (53rd percentile) in the middle of 17/UW2 if that means anything. Still have the 120 to take

Test on the 17th. Think 230-235 is doable? I’m happy with 225, goal is 230ish, and I’m buying a round for the whole forum if I snag 240 haha
 
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libertyyne said:
I got burned on a question like that, and the proceeded to get burned again when they asked the same question differently.
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The comlex is far worse about this, but I really hate that it is allowed to essentially ask the same topic/concept multiple times. What is the point in that? I hope you are chilling on a beach right now btw.
 
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Chibucks15 said:
Alright finished up UW2. 234 with some dumb mistakes for sure. Paired with my 220 on 18, I definitely haven’t plateaued yet which is good. Been an incremental increase of 10 ish points a week as I plug holes but doubt I’m getting that much gain now.

530 on comsae 103 (53rd percentile) in the middle of 17/UW2 if that means anything. Still have the 120 to take

Test on the 17th. Think 230-235 is doable? I’m happy with 225, goal is 230ish, and I’m buying a round for the whole forum if I snag 240 haha
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Absolutely doable. You have time. Hammer those weak points.
 
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Gurby said:
Why did I bother memorizing that Niacin raises HDL when actually it has no survival benefit and we just put everyone with atherosclerosis on statins anyways even if they have low LDL? Only 30 questions done today and already need to take a break.

giphy.gif
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That gif needs to be your new avatar, haha
 
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Neopolymath said:
The comlex is far worse about this, but I really hate that it is allowed to essentially ask the same topic/concept multiple times. What is the point in that? I hope you are chilling on a beach right now btw.
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i wish, i had a weekend and then straight into rotations. I am hoping i dont get screwed on evals because I am still in step 1 mode in my head.
 
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man I've got like 4-5 weeks before rotations start, and I've already had about two weeks off. I took my exam relatively early for my school, but damn you guys are making me feel like a prince over here. I've got research to wrap up but it's ****in cake compared to pre-step. Now I'm worried I wont remember anything on the wards haha.
 
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Xena23 said:
If an adult starts smoking at age 40 and develops emphysema and liver disturbances within 5 years, is he a PiMZ heterozygote or a PiZZ homozygtoe? His brother died at age 10 due to liver and lung failure.
Is the question trying to indicate that the brother had a full-blown PiZZ mutation and the adult has smth less severe, which only became evil once he started smoking, and which now of course wud mean a PiMZ heterozygote in this case?
Several sources say though that PiMZ carriers are largely asymptomatic and might at their worst get emphysema only, and not necessarily accompanying liver failure. This pt has both. So what do you think ?
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PiMZ because it only showed up after he started smoking. There is a Zanki card on that somewhere, that says heterozygotes that start smoking are at an increased risk of developing rapid symptomatology.
libertyyne said:
I got burned on a question like that, and the proceeded to get burned again when they asked the same question differently.
Click to expand...

Same. I know for a fact I got at least 2 questions right on my real thing because I'd missed that question, or some variant of it, about 5 times in the past lol
 
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TheVagooseIsLoose said:
man I've got like 4-5 weeks before rotations start, and I've already had about two weeks off. I took my exam relatively early for my school, but damn you guys are making me feel like a prince over here. I've got research to wrap up but it's ****in cake compared to pre-step. Now I'm worried I wont remember anything on the wards haha.
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Yeah, I think I speak on behalf of most DO students in that our schedules are always royally f***ed. At least I will get 5 days off : )
 
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Just Finished 21. Got a 217. About a 4 point drop from my previous exam that I took about a week ago.

I'm 7 days out from my test and feeling pretty bleh about it. At this point as long as I pass I'm gonna be ecstatic.

Plan is probably hammer out the my weaknesses. Looks like Cardiovascular, Repro, Endo and then just call it a day. Probably redo the Uworld questions for these sections and complete the Uworld Biostats extra session.
 
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Gurby said:
Another day in the books... I miss those simpler times when I just did Anki and played the banjo and didn't have so much existential angst.
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Haha dude, niccce! Play that banjo a little bit here and there. I can't wait to play music again once this is over.
 
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getfat said:
Just Finished 21. Got a 217. About a 4 point drop from my previous exam that I took about a week ago.

I'm 7 days out from my test and feeling pretty bleh about it. At this point as long as I pass I'm gonna be ecstatic.

Plan is probably hammer out the my weaknesses. Looks like Cardiovascular, Repro, Endo and then just call it a day. Probably redo the Uworld questions for these sections and complete the Uworld Biostats extra session.
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Hang in there, friend. The NBMEs have a lower curve for sure. I went from 217 on 18 to 241 on UWSA2 in 5 days (UWorld assessments seem to over-predict though, and I doubt I'll hit that on the real deal). You are probably just making a ton of stupid mistakes. I am the king of that. You tried any other question banks?
 
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Gurby said:
Getting a 40% on a 10-question block when you're 2000 questions deep in UW.

317.gif
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Lol I'd bet actual money you break 250 with a thicc margin based on your posts so no sweat.

Also in other news I got an 82 and 87 today if this continues I'll be ecstatic. Couldn't take nbme since family home this weekend but will do it Monday. Will be happy with a 233-236 since I know zanki gives uworld an inflation and want to stay grounded. Below 230 I need to think of what's the problem since I feel like 70+ should be somewhat a strong foundation uw wise.

Any of you having trouble grinding more than 10 hrs a day? I've been hitting like 9 and I'm disappointed with my lack of discipline.
 
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medicineman1234 said:
Any of you having trouble grinding more than 10 hrs a day? I've been hitting like 9 and I'm disappointed with my lack of discipline.
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I made a point of only studying for 7-8 hours a day so I could relax, work out, see people, and get enough sleep. You don’t want to burn out in dedicated.

While I probably wasn’t as productive as my classmates, I also felt great and probably did well on UWorld and practice exams because I always felt fresh.

If you can tolerate working more and feel fine, do it. But don’t lose your stamina and long term productivity to scrape out an extra hour. Penny wise, pound foolish
 
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medicineman1234 said:
Lol I'd bet actual money you break 250 with a thicc margin based on your posts so no sweat.

Also in other news I got an 82 and 87 today if this continues I'll be ecstatic. Couldn't take nbme since family home this weekend but will do it Monday. Will be happy with a 233-236 since I know zanki gives uworld an inflation and want to stay grounded. Below 230 I need to think of what's the problem since I feel like 70+ should be somewhat a strong foundation uw wise.

Any of you having trouble grinding more than 10 hrs a day? I've been hitting like 9 and I'm disappointed with my lack of discipline.
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I call it by 6pm everyday. When I’ve pushed past my limits, I know that time was wasted and just made the next day that much less productive
 
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Ho0v-man said:
I call it by 6pm everyday. When I’ve pushed past my limits, I know that time was wasted and just made the next day that much less productive
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Yup. I’ve only gone past 7 during dedicated twice. Most times the best you can really do after 6-8 hours of high intensity studying (anki or questions) is just passive videos or something. Even then I barely get anything out of it once zombie mode kicks in.

Taking 3pm onwards off the day before practice exams is super underrated. I saw a massive decrease in the number of “I knew that but didn’t make the connection” errors.
 
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TheaterOfTheme said:
Hang in there, friend. The NBMEs have a lower curve for sure. I went from 217 on 18 to 241 on UWSA2 in 5 days (UWorld assessments seem to over-predict though, and I doubt I'll hit that on the real deal). You are probably just making a ton of stupid mistakes. I am the king of that. You tried any other question banks?
Click to expand...

Yeah its a frequent trend of, "duh i knew that" after seeing the answer. Or i just didn't read the question properly.

Ill maybe get stumped by about 10 questions per NBME. Mostly because the vagueness of the question but there hasn't been profound knowledge deficits (so far). By stumped I mean, "I have no clue what this is or what they are asking". Those have been mostly biochem questions.

I did about 50% of Rx a couple months ago gave up about 2 months ago. It just felt like blunt repetition of FA which I could get much more effectively with anki cards.

Some days i'll do AMBOSS questions of subjects I'm focused on that day while running on the treadmill, ellipitical, stationary bike.
 
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Xena23 said:
If an adult starts smoking at age 40 and develops emphysema and liver disturbances within 5 years, is he a PiMZ heterozygote or a PiZZ homozygtoe? His brother died at age 10 due to liver and lung failure.
Is the question trying to indicate that the brother had a full-blown PiZZ mutation and the adult has smth less severe, which only became evil once he started smoking, and which now of course wud mean a PiMZ heterozygote in this case?
Several sources say though that PiMZ carriers are largely asymptomatic and might at their worst get emphysema only, and not necessarily accompanying liver failure. This pt has both. So what do you think ?
Click to expand...

I would think homozygous with variable expressivity, just had to look at UpToDate to present this on rounds. I remember Sattar saying that cirrhosis is more restricted to homozygotes as well
 
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I have 2.5 weeks left and I am not sure how to approach practice tests in this time. I will do Free 120 2 days before, UW2 5 days before, and NBME 18 8 days before. I was planning on taking NBME 23 and 24 this week (13 and 17 days before, respectively) but I have been pretty disillusioned with the NBME practice tests. I also have NBME 17 but I don't have it in my schedule. Any recommendations for how to proceed? I personally like the idea of taking more practice exams than less due to many of my issues stemming from test anxiety but I'm not sure if the time would be better spent reviewing.

This is where I'm at
NBME 16 (8 weeks out) - 215
NBME 21 (6 weeks out) - 234
UW 1 (5 weeks out) - 264
NBME 20 (4 weeks out) - 217
NBME 21 (3 weeks out) - 238
UWorld 1st pass - 70%
UWorld 2nd pass ~60% through at 81% correct

Goal of 240. I don't really care to do much better than this. I just want to get as close to a guaranteed 240 as possible.

Just been doing UWorld and Zanki. I haven't seen everything before Step and I won't at this rate, that's a tough pill to swallow.

Any advice/words of wisdom would be appreciated.
 
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Gurby said:
You guys, I discovered this thing that grows in the ear, seems to be made of keratin. Since it has literally nothing at all to do with bile or fat, I thought I'd call it a cholesteatoma. Brilliant right?
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Probably the same guy that decided to name every enzyme and substrate in the heme pathway super similar. Just to keep it interesting
 
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Ho0v-man said:
When lives are on the line and every second counts, you need to remember...





Most RNA is synthesized in the nucleus, but most rRNA is synthesized in the nucleolus.


Saving lives over here.
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That’s a problem I have with this damn thing. Test on pathology and things like that not something that really only matters to researchers and PhDs. Sure teach it to us, but don’t make it on step
 
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Chibucks15 said:
That’s a problem I have with this damn thing. Test on pathology and things like that not something that really only matters to researchers and PhDs. Sure teach it to us, but don’t make it on step
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Yep. Everytime I miss a really dumb cell bio question or something like that I think back to my mentor yelling about not doing things that don't change the management of the patient etc etc. There is plenty of material so I think it shouldn't be allowed to ask a question as mentioned about about the nucleoli vs nucleus. It doesn't ****ing matter at all.
 
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Neopolymath said:
Yep. Everytime I miss a really dumb cell bio question or something like that I think back to my mentor yelling about not doing things that don't change the management of the patient etc etc. There is plenty of material so I think it shouldn't be allowed to ask a question as mentioned about about the nucleoli vs nucleus. It doesn't ****ing matter at all.
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That’s the majority of the stuff I get wrong, and UW2 was full of it. Like there’s more info coming out by the day, why do I really need to know what class of virus this stupid thing is if it doesn’t change management?
 
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Frogger27 said:
What’s the best way to study all this cell bio/general principles and experimental stuff that seems to be running rampant on some of these exams?
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My plan is to Ch 1-3 pathoma while I'm driving home tomorrow, I literally just read and tried to memorize the biochem section of FA today by talking to myself, and B&B/youtube to plug the holes. Its like trying to fix the titanic right now though so well see.

EDIT: If anybody has tips lemme know. Most of my confidence bars on UWSA2 were pretty damn wide so I don't have major weaknesses, just not big strengths haha
 
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This is my status so far:
UW 78% correct 1st and only pass just completed today.
NBME 16. 248 (7weeks out)
NBME 20. 228 (6weeks out)
NBME 21. 234 (5weeks out)
NBME 22. 236 (4weeks out)
UWSA 1. 260 (3 weeks out)
NMBE 18. 250 (2 weeks out today)
Planning to take UWSA 2 (1 week out)
Free 120 (5 days out at the Prometric)
Exam is on 6/22.......should I take NBME 23 and 24 also?
Looking to break 250. What should be my game plan for the last 2 weeks?
 
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Gurby said:
I knew the answer thanks to Zanki, and insta-picked the correct response... Then after reading the other choices, I wasn't confident enough in the Zanki knowledge and I talked myself out of it :scared:
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Going into step I had a rule that if I had to rationalize for more than 30s to override my intuition then I wouldn't change the answer.

I still did and got them wrong lol, but I tried not to

I think about those chipshots daily. Don't be like me, kids.
 
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TheVagooseIsLoose said:
Going into step I had a rule that if I had to rationalize for more than 30s to override my intuition then I wouldn't change the answer.

I still did and got them wrong lol, but I tried not to

I think about those chipshots daily. Don't be like me, kids.
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Same. I'm up to at least 6 chipshots that I missed, and 2 of them I changed from right to wrong because I overthought it. I came out of it feeling super great, now I'm worried I dropped a 220. I'm trying not to let myself think about it.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
Same. I'm up to at least 6 chipshots that I missed, and 2 of them I changed from right to wrong because I overthought it. I came out of it feeling super great, now I'm worried I dropped a 220. I'm trying not to let myself think about it.
Click to expand...

If I pretend I'm destined for a 200 then I can only be thrilled come July.

266859
 
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Taking UWSA2 today. You guys are scaring me a little bit!! Just going to run through the 4 blocks as fast as possible only and skip the breaks. I wanna spend most of today just relaxing and reviewing notes/focusing on relieving anxiety

Was planning on the free 120 today as well but pushingit to the day before the real deal instead.

it was really hard coming to terms with not finishing 300 q on UWSA1 by step but at this point there is no chance in hell im delaying my exam. Just booked a flight outta this country the same day
 
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@kb1900 Taking UWSA2 this morning as well. Good luck. I wish I had the balls to move it up lol. I can move to Friday which is still a possibility... I have no idea how people take a dedicated longer than 6 weeks. 5 is the sweet spot if you are decently prepared beforehand
 
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Frogger27 said:
@kb1900 Taking UWSA2 this morning as well. Good luck. I wish I had the balls to move it up lol. I can move to Friday which is still a possibility... I have no idea how people take a dedicated longer than 6 weeks. 5 is the sweet spot if you are decently prepared beforehand
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Totally agree. We got this. The longer dedicated goes on the more information is simply replaced with continued learning it feels like.

Good luck on UWSA2!! I shouldn’t be checking my performance between blocks but I can’t help it. Did well on block 1 and now razeldazzled post-block 2 lol
 
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kb1900 said:
Totally agree. We got this. The longer dedicated goes on the more information is simply replaced with continued learning it feels like.

Good luck on UWSA2!! I shouldn’t be checking my performance between blocks but I can’t help it. Did well on block 1 and now razeldazzled post-block 2 lol
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Haha i'm holding off to the end to see, but block 2 was definitely tougher. I absolutely hate all the basic science/experiments on these tests. We spent two years studying clinical medicine and then get hit with all this stuff. so annoying
 
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Frogger27 said:
Haha i'm holding off to the end to see, but block 2 was definitely tougher. I absolutely hate all the basic science/experiments on these tests. We spent two years studying clinical medicine and then get hit with all this stuff. so annoying
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Just finished. Block 2 killed me. I almost ran out of time. My HR was peaking.
 
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