USMLE Official 2019 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Sort by date Sort by votes
delimitedtab said:
Which are the 5 new ones?

I took 15-19 for my exam in 2017. If you want to think of "useful" in terms of smallest difference between NBME score and real score, 16 and 18 were very close to my real score and felt more like the exam in terms of difficulty (irrespective of score at the end, because 19 felt easy but my score was >10 below my actual).
Click to expand...

Just what I wanted to hear. Thanks fam.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Does anyone know if we're allowed to request a seat farther away from the door at prometric during testing? During the 120 practice today I was seated closest to the door and even with earplugs and headphones I could hear them laughing and talking loudly and I'm sure those around me heard too...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sunshine02 said:
Does anyone know if we're allowed to request a seat farther away from the door at prometric during testing? During the 120 practice today I was seated closest to the door and even with earplugs and headphones I could hear them laughing and talking loudly and I'm sure those around me heard too...
Click to expand...
worst nightmare lol. for what it's worth, for my MCAT i asked if I could sit far from the door but they said no, they only placed me in the farthest computer that wasn't already occupied. so best chance at sitting farthest from the door is probably to get there first?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sunshine02 said:
Does anyone know if we're allowed to request a seat farther away from the door at prometric during testing? During the 120 practice today I was seated closest to the door and even with earplugs and headphones I could hear them laughing and talking loudly and I'm sure those around me heard too...
Click to expand...

Omg you are me!!! I can’t stand noise and get easily distracted during exams. I have literal nightmares that I am taking an exam and people won’t stop just having a casual conversation next to me and I run out of time. And just today I was at the library studying in the “silent” part but I could hear— people outside the building carrying on loudly, the lecture of the person a table away bleeding through their headphones, someone’s pen scraping their paper, the “whoooosh” of the stool that adjusts to pressure as the person at the high table leaned forward and then back down, people talking as they walked through the door from the talking part to the silent part, etc. It fills me with rage! (No exaggeration). So yeah anyway hope and pray I’m not near the door.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sunshinefl said:
Omg you are me!!! I can’t stand noise and get easily distracted during exams. I have literal nightmares that I am taking an exam and people won’t stop just having a casual conversation next to me and I run out of time. And just today I was at the library studying in the “silent” part but I could hear— people outside the building carrying on loudly, the lecture of the person a table away bleeding through their headphones, someone’s pen scraping their paper, the “whoooosh” of the stool that adjusts to pressure as the person at the high table leaned forward and then back down, people talking as they walked through the door from the talking part to the silent part, etc. It fills me with rage! (No exaggeration). So yeah anyway hope and pray I’m not near the door.
Click to expand...

Maybe you should try spending some time studying in a noisy/distracting place to build up a tolerance to it?

I find that I actually do better with a small amount of background commotion, because it forces me to actively focus more on what I'm doing to drown it out.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Gurby said:
Maybe you should try spending some time studying in a noisy/distracting place to build up a tolerance to it?

I find that I actually do better with a small amount of background commotion, because it forces me to actively focus more on what I'm doing to drown it out.
Click to expand...
i need my raas firing when i study. Busy places work for me as well.

Also i try to test in different and difficult situations to build up tolerance for test day shenanigans.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
camng11 said:
20 had so many repeats from earlier nbmes. Not only that, the curve is very forgiving. 70% is a 220 something whereas old nbmes its failing
Click to expand...
Might have been helpful if I had taken them but thats not the case for me. Plenty of people posting huge drops, so I’m not too worried about. I’ll average it was UW1 and call it good
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
TL;DR: B&B is the best thing that ever happened to me, do well in school, buy a second monitor for dedicated, & it's ok if you hate flashcards too.

I am a student who struggled to find my footing in M1 year. Got straight B's (anatomy is, and will always be, the bane of my existence). Started M2 determined to hit the ground running. One of the best things I ever did was buying Boards & Beyond. I truly feel like I owe most of my success during M2 and on Step to Dr. Ryan. Before B&B, I struggled to tie concepts together. I highly recommend it to anyone who feels like they are missing the big picture at times. /end quick plug for the most valuable resource there is, IMO

You'll find a lot of opinions on SDN, but I am a big believer that doing well in class---> doing well on Step 1. My primary focus during M2 was to do well in my classes and learn the material as well as possible. I bought USMLE Rx in August and tried to complete 10-20 questions every day, but didn't devote more than that towards Step prep until 3 months out from my test date. For whatever we were doing in school, I followed along in First Aid and read the associated Pathoma chapters. I did Sketchy Pharm and Micro along with classes. Didn't touch UWorld until about 3 months out. Only did ~200 before dedicated in order to get used to the question style and didn't finish the qbank until two days before my exam.

Things I would do again:
- Keep track of your UWorld progress in an Excel document (HIGHLY recommend a second monitor so you can see UW as you are taking notes). When I got a question wrong/didn't understand why I got it right, I made notes in Excel and made sure to include the question # in case I wanted to look it up later. At the end of each week I sorted the notes by organ system and printed them out. I went system by system, highlighting and taking additional notes on the paper/going back to the associated pages in FA as needed. This helped me to solidify concepts because I felt like I had seen the questions a second time, without actually having to do the Qbank over again.

- ALWAYS do your questions timed. During my last week of dedicated, I also practiced finishing UW blocks with 15-20 mins to spare. I highly recommend doing this, since I felt pressed for time on the real deal.

- Book a vacation so you aren't tempted to move your test date back. You will never feel ready. Unless you are legitimately in danger of failing, don't even give yourself the option.

Things I wouldn't do again:
- During the first few weeks I was determined to stay off social media, not talk to my friends, and only watch Netflix on off days. THIS WAS STUPID. Give yourself breaks, and don't deprive yourself of things you enjoy doing. I spent at least 30 mins a day on Instagram and watched TV whenever I wanted. This helped me stay sane and focused.

- I waited until M2 to get FA. As someone who struggled to understand the "clinically relevant" aspects of M1 year, I wish that I had followed along in FA from the beginning. At least some of those concepts would have been familiar to me come dedicated.

Something you'll find missing from my study plan is Zanki. On SDN, it can sometimes feel like everyone and their mother swears that anki is the best thing since sliced bread. I have always hated flashcards, but drank the koolaid at first. I downloaded the deck, tried it for a week or so, and promptly deleted it. Moral of the story: trust what works for you. I have multiple friends with 250+ scores who never touched a flashcard either.

CBSE (14 weeks out): 205
NBME 16: 219
NBME 19: 211
NBME 17: 242
NBME 18: 250
UW2: 247
UW% (1st and only pass): 70

STEP 1: 245
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dr_Curry said:
You're killin it man! Why do you think your score dropped from your previous exams?
Click to expand...
Thanks man! 20 was by far the toughest exam I’ve taken. Going back through it, it’s just a bunch of atypical presentations/descriptions from how other qbanks/zanki hit on things mixed with super straightforward questions. I made a few dumb mistakes, but I really just had no clue on a good amount of what I missed. My friend had a 15+ point jump today from 20 to 21 and took them 2 days apart. Just gonna grind this week out and try to get back on track with 21 next week!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Taking a break from my SDN hiatus and might as well post an update! Finished the semester today and starting dedicated on Monday. Test is June 4th. Hitting UW hard right now. I do everything random/tutor and go through the FA sections of that topic when reviewing a question. I simply don't get as much going over my questions when I do them timed and tutor forces me to study the material from each question in the moment. I haven't had a problem with timing on any practice test I've taken (1 NBME and a handful of COMSAE's) so decided tutor was a better move for me. I like it and feel like I'm learning a crap ton of info. UW really is pure gold. Took a break from Zanki (blasphemy I know) but decided I needed even more integration so have been going through FA while watching BnB as I think Dr. Ryan does an excellent job of pointing relationships out and how things tie together. BnB and UW is the foundation of my dedicated plan. I will be doing the Zanki sections during dedicated for the stuff I'm weaker in or stuff that is straight memorization like pharm.

Here is where I am sitting currently:
NBME 16: 230 *took this over spring break for a baseline, so like 12 weeks out from test day.
UW: halfway through at 74%. Random/Tutor

I'm taking UWSA-1 on Monday morning to kick off dedicated, and will be taking NBME's 17-22 spread out through dedicated. Will take UWSA-2 one week out and the free 120 about 4 days before.

Good luck guys! We are so close to being able to move on to the next phase, so stoked.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Taking a break from my SDN hiatus and might as well post an update! Finished the semester today and starting dedicated on Monday. Test is June 4th. Hitting UW hard right now. I do everything random/tutor and go through the FA sections of that topic when reviewing a question. I simply don't get as much going over my questions when I do them timed and tutor forces me to study the material from each question in the moment. I haven't had a problem with timing on any practice test I've taken (1 NBME and a handful of COMSAE's) so decided tutor was a better move for me. I like it and feel like I'm learning a crap ton of info. UW really is pure gold. Took a break from Zanki (blasphemy I know) but decided I needed even more integration so have been going through FA while watching BnB as I think Dr. Ryan does an excellent job of pointing relationships out and how things tie together. BnB and UW is the foundation of my dedicated plan. I will be doing the Zanki sections during dedicated for the stuff I'm weaker in or stuff that is straight memorization like pharm.

Here is where I am sitting currently:
NBME 16: 230 *took this over spring break for a baseline, so like 12 weeks out from test day.
UW: halfway through at 74%. Random/Tutor

I'm taking UWSA-1 on Monday morning to kick off dedicated, and will be taking NBME's 17-22 spread out through dedicated. Will take UWSA-2 one week out and the free 120 about 4 days before.

Good luck guys! We are so close to being able to move on to the next phase, so stoked.
Click to expand...
I was wondering what happened to you lol. Hoping you kill it!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Taking a break from my SDN hiatus and might as well post an update! Finished the semester today and starting dedicated on Monday. Test is June 4th. Hitting UW hard right now. I do everything random/tutor and go through the FA sections of that topic when reviewing a question. I simply don't get as much going over my questions when I do them timed and tutor forces me to study the material from each question in the moment. I haven't had a problem with timing on any practice test I've taken (1 NBME and a handful of COMSAE's) so decided tutor was a better move for me. I like it and feel like I'm learning a crap ton of info. UW really is pure gold. Took a break from Zanki (blasphemy I know) but decided I needed even more integration so have been going through FA while watching BnB as I think Dr. Ryan does an excellent job of pointing relationships out and how things tie together. BnB and UW is the foundation of my dedicated plan. I will be doing the Zanki sections during dedicated for the stuff I'm weaker in or stuff that is straight memorization like pharm.

Here is where I am sitting currently:
NBME 16: 230 *took this over spring break for a baseline, so like 12 weeks out from test day.
UW: halfway through at 74%. Random/Tutor

I'm taking UWSA-1 on Monday morning to kick off dedicated, and will be taking NBME's 17-22 spread out through dedicated. Will take UWSA-2 one week out and the free 120 about 4 days before.

Good luck guys! We are so close to being able to move on to the next phase, so stoked.
Click to expand...
Good luck! I will be joining you next week in the dedicated hustle. I plan to also do random tutor for my first 3-4 days before taking a baseline nbme on Friday.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Taking a break from my SDN hiatus and might as well post an update! Finished the semester today and starting dedicated on Monday. Test is June 4th. Hitting UW hard right now. I do everything random/tutor and go through the FA sections of that topic when reviewing a question. I simply don't get as much going over my questions when I do them timed and tutor forces me to study the material from each question in the moment. I haven't had a problem with timing on any practice test I've taken (1 NBME and a handful of COMSAE's) so decided tutor was a better move for me. I like it and feel like I'm learning a crap ton of info. UW really is pure gold. Took a break from Zanki (blasphemy I know) but decided I needed even more integration so have been going through FA while watching BnB as I think Dr. Ryan does an excellent job of pointing relationships out and how things tie together. BnB and UW is the foundation of my dedicated plan. I will be doing the Zanki sections during dedicated for the stuff I'm weaker in or stuff that is straight memorization like pharm.

Here is where I am sitting currently:
NBME 16: 230 *took this over spring break for a baseline, so like 12 weeks out from test day.
UW: halfway through at 74%. Random/Tutor

I'm taking UWSA-1 on Monday morning to kick off dedicated, and will be taking NBME's 17-22 spread out through dedicated. Will take UWSA-2 one week out and the free 120 about 4 days before.

Good luck guys! We are so close to being able to move on to the next phase, so stoked.
Click to expand...

There he is! Glad to hear it’s going well, keep up the good work homie!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What’s a reasonable jump from CBSE until the real thing? Got a 215 on school CBSE... possible to get a 240 with 8 weeks before my test date?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Frogger27 said:
What’s a reasonable jump from CBSE until the real thing? Got a 215 on school CBSE... possible to get a 240 with 8 weeks before my test date?
Click to expand...
just keep putting in the work. it is not unheard of to jump 30 points. My school average was 30 point difference.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
so i took NBME 19 7 weeks out - 211
4 weeks out-CBSA - 230
4 days later NBME 13- 242

1/3 done in uworld with ~80% at random tutor
Its weird, i feel like i dont know enough, but it doesnt feel like my learning is effectual or adequate. ~500 anki cards a day and 100 uworld questions. But my NBME scores are improving so there is that. On track to finish uworld, and all the forms before the test.
Anyone else go through something similar? I am not doing structured review , just hitting the cards that I feel are my weakness. and going through uworld.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
libertyyne said:
so i took NBME 19 7 weeks out - 211
4 weeks out-CBSA - 230
4 days later NBME 13- 242

1/3 done in uworld with ~80% at random tutor
Its weird, i feel like i dont know enough, but it doesnt feel like my learning is effectual or adequate. ~500 anki cards a day and 100 uworld questions. But my NBME scores are improving so there is that. On track to finish uworld, and all the forms before the test.
Anyone else go through something similar? I am not doing structured review , just hitting the cards that I feel are my weakness. and going through uworld.
Click to expand...
That is a lot of work and a good % correct. That with your score improvement on tests is promising. Sounds like you're on the right track!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
libertyyne said:
so i took NBME 19 7 weeks out - 211
4 weeks out-CBSA - 230
4 days later NBME 13- 242

1/3 done in uworld with ~80% at random tutor
Its weird, i feel like i dont know enough, but it doesnt feel like my learning is effectual or adequate. ~500 anki cards a day and 100 uworld questions. But my NBME scores are improving so there is that. On track to finish uworld, and all the forms before the test.
Anyone else go through something similar? I am not doing structured review , just hitting the cards that I feel are my weakness. and going through uworld.
Click to expand...

80% random correct on UWorld is awesome, actually surprised your 13 score wasn't higher! Something I've found with the NBMEs: a lot of the time (more than UWorld), I'll talk myself out of the right answer because "there's no way it's that simple." What's helped me is that every time I feel myself making this argument I stop, read the question again, and if it really doesn't feel right I'll think about it some more, but otherwise I just go with the simple answer. I've gotten a lot right with that, and only a few wrong.

I've definitely hit a plateau on UWorld the last couple weeks and have also stopped doing structured review. What I'm doing now is mostly internal checks? Like, I'll start to think about something, and then realize I don't really understand how it works, and then spend a few minutes googling it until it makes sense. Realized for instance I didn't really understand physiology/anatomy/signaling mechanisms of urination today while I was taking a piss so I went back and relearned all that. Or I'll be reading a UWorld question, get the answer, but not know what 1-2 of the other choices is, so I'll look those up and relearn about them. Just trying to patch holes now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
50 days out from taking step 1. 60 days until Level 1. My school doesn't really have a dedicated so I have to do everything over a longer period of time.


Took NBME 15 and got a predicted 207. Big improvement from NBME 13 (187) but i'm still pretty nervous.

Should I be pushing this back?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
getfat said:
50 days out from taking step 1. 60 days until Level 1. My school doesn't really have a dedicated so I have to do everything over a longer period of time.


Took NBME 15 and got a predicted 207. Big improvement from NBME 13 (187) but i'm still pretty nervous.

Should I be pushing this back?
Click to expand...

Nah. Everyone I know that got a score like that 2 months out all were at or above 230 on the real thing. Just keep at it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
NecFasc92 said:
You have almost 2 months to go and you got a 207, why would you want to push back? I know countless people in my class who got a similar score 2-3 weeks out and got around national average.
Click to expand...

its barely passing. If i hadn't already done a full pass of everything except Qbanks I could see your argument. The problem is personally I don't see myself improving much more. I'm and about half way through uworld and have already utilized a ton of the golden texts throughout the term.

So this gives me the impression if i get a bad test then I get to explain a failed step 1 during fourth year.

Glad to know @NecFasc92 and @AnatomyGrey12 had a ton of classmates in a similar boat as me.

Most of the people i talk to in my class are averaging 230s on the old NBMEs. So yeah it will give me anxiety lol.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
getfat said:
its barely passing. If i hadn't already done a full pass of everything except Qbanks I could see your argument. The problem is personally I don't see myself improving much more. I'm and about half way through uworld and have already utilized a ton of the golden texts throughout the term.

So this gives me the impression if i get a bad test then I get to explain a failed step 1 during fourth year.

Glad to know @NecFasc92 and @AnatomyGrey12 had a ton of classmates in a similar boat as me.

Most of the people i talk to in my class are averaging 230s on the old NBMEs. So yeah it will give me anxiety lol.
Click to expand...
What's your UW percentage?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
getfat said:
60%. I'm at the halfway point but I don't see it really going up. Just not a great test taker.
Click to expand...
That's about the median man, it means you're on the right track. Remember that repetition is key. Do an analysis for what your biggest weaknesses are and hit them over and over, every so often still reviewing the things you are strong in so that they remain strengths. So I'm calling BS on the whole "just not a great test taker" thing. That sounds like an excuse, I'm also sensing some self defeatist notions. Don't let it be an excuse. You will only go as far as you believe you can go. Keep studying every day and trying to improve, who knows what will happen with 1.5 months of that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just took NBME 16 for the heck of it late tonight and actually went down from NBME 19 last week 240->236, that one was definitely a reality check. Questions were harder on average than NBME 19, though I assume the curve was more generous. Took the past two days off for holidays and am now regretting it lol, gonna hopefully hit the ground running again tomorrow.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Scrubs101 said:
Just took NBME 16 for the heck of it late tonight and actually went down from NBME 19 last week 240->236, that one was definitely a reality check. Questions were harder on average than NBME 19, though I assume the curve was more generous. Took the past two days off for holidays and am now regretting it lol, gonna hopefully hit the ground running again tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Yeah I felt like 16 had a weird mix of super easy questions and then some completely random WTF ones.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How should I be going through my second pass of UW? I was pretty fastidious the first time through with going through the explanations, taking some notes, making cards of incorrects and weird things I didn't know from Qs I got right. I was thinking about trying to do more per day (e.g. 100-120) and only really dive down on the ones that I get incorrect or mark or think there was something I didn't quite get, rather than 80/day and spend 4 hours reviewing from that. The idea being I would then have more time to do content review in the late morning/PM.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
sunshine02 said:
Does anyone know what the length of the bars in the NBME score breakdown mean?
Click to expand...

Agree with youngdoc. I also think the width of the bar may be indicative of how many questions you had on that subject. For example, if you had a biochem heavy exam and you nailed those questions, your bar would be to the far right with a narrow width. If there weren't many biochem questions but you still nailed them, it would be to the far right with a greater width. This is just my theory though.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
People starting dedicated soon... What is going to be the order you take the new NBMEs/UWorld exams?

I was thinking 20, 21, 22, UWSA1, 23, 24, UWSA2
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Frogger27 said:
People starting dedicated soon... What is going to be the order you take the new NBMEs/UWorld exams?

I was thinking 20, 21, 22, UWSA1, 23, 24, UWSA2
Click to expand...
I'm considering the same, no real reason besides saving UWSA2 and free 120 till last. USWA 1 a little earlier than that. I may even save 18 till later as well but i havent come to a decision on that yet!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm interested to see how similar nbme 23 and 24 are in terms of question style to the actual exam. If they are very similar, I can see those being taken closest to the actual. Guess we shall see.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Dr_Curry said:
I'm interested to see how similar nbme 23 and 24 are in terms of question style to the actual exam. If they are very similar, I can see those being taken closest to the actual. Guess we shall see.
Click to expand...
You would think something that was just created would be representative of the exam but apparently it's a real struggle.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Frogger27 said:
Curious on your rationale for that specific order? Are you pushing 18 back since there is more data on it to better track your progress?
Click to expand...

There honestly wasn't too much thought put into it, I'm sure any order will yield good results as long as you use them effectively. I wanted to do an older exam as the baseline so I chose 16. I wanted UWSA1 early since it inflates scores and 18 towards the middle of dedicated after my first pass since its got good data behind it. I wanted UWSA2 last since it seems to be the most predictive. Then the new NBMEs interspersed between all these, taking into account the fact that 23 and 24 will be released after the others so I will take them after the others.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CharlieBillings said:
Well they come free with the Kaplan Q bank. My plan was 2nd pass uWorld -> Kaplan questions (unless I should do a different 2nd Qbank??). At that point is there a reason to avoid these Kaplan tests?
Click to expand...

I mean, it's just time. So if you want to take them then go for it. One thing is the Kaplan tests don't give you a score, just a raw percentage, and I just never really saw the benefit of doing them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Transposony
Official 2024 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
Replies
0
Views
2K
Transposony
Transposony
A
USMLE Step 1 resources for sale
Replies
0
Views
2K
accurate_branch20
A
C
USMLE Understanding Public Health in STEP 1?
Replies
0
Views
1K
Cheerios5789
C
G
  • Question Question
USMLE Out of time and not ready for Step 1. Have I screwed up?
Replies
0
Views
406
genteel-mug-sting
G
D
Step 1 and Level 1
Replies
1
Views
2K
DOcSto
D
Top