USMLE Official 2019 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Man I been getting slapped around by UW today. I always start out the day thinking "wow I'm glad this question pointed out a weakness in my knowledge base!" then inevitably descend into rage as the day goes on.

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I am constantly saying angrily, “Man, that’s a good question. Dammit.”
 
The answer is always whatever makes you look like the biggest dbag. That’s my entire mindset for those
The answer is usually whatever choice would annoy the resident/attending physician the most

Or the most vague.

Personally I loved the person who couldn't read and somehow it is more offensive to gently assess their literacy than it is to sit down and pull out a book of pictures
 
May AT still be with you on Monday.

Are you just sitting through Pathoma? Thats like 5 hours right? I try every now and then but its sooo boring...
And also with you.

Yeah, but at double speed. Makes it a wee bit quicker and it’s fairly passive which is what I need at that point. Just want to be fed the high yield facts one more time.
 
Hey everyone need some advice on how to attack reviewing. I’ve only done Pathoma, Sketchy Micro and sketchy Pharm for content review. The remainder I’ve just done UWorld and USMLERx.

UW1 - 251 (6 weeks out)
NBME21 - 232 (6 weeks out)
NBME20 - 238 (5 weeks out)

So I have 5 weeks of dedicated and I’m wondering what would be in my best interest for continued review. I have about 40% remaining in UWorld with a 73% average. I have 75% USMLERx remaining at 73% average. I have the entire Kaplan Q Bank.

I guess I’m not sure how I should do content review. I have all those resources plus B+B. Any thoughts?

My goal score range is 235-245.
 
Hey everyone need some advice on how to attack reviewing. I’ve only done Pathoma, Sketchy Micro and sketchy Pharm for content review. The remainder I’ve just done UWorld and USMLERx.

UW1 - 251 (6 weeks out)
NBME21 - 232 (6 weeks out)
NBME20 - 238 (5 weeks out)

So I have 5 weeks of dedicated and I’m wondering what would be in my best interest for continued review. I have about 40% remaining in UWorld with a 73% average. I have 75% USMLERx remaining at 73% average. I have the entire Kaplan Q Bank.

I guess I’m not sure how I should do content review. I have all those resources plus B+B. Any thoughts?

My goal score range is 235-245.

You have plenty of time and should be well within your goal score.. I would focus on systematically going through FA sections with BnB as a supplement.. Once you get closer to the date, you can start focusing on weaker areas that come up from UW/studies (keep a running list)

I would also focus on completing/mastering UWorld. The other Qbanks can be used as a supplement, but I would not dedicate too much time to them
 
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How many days do you guys have between your Step 1 exam and UW2/free 120? My test is on a monday and I am taking UW2 the monday prior and free 120 on wednesday. I am debating on moving my exam up a couple of days if I am happy with my scores, and the only available date is that Friday. Would taking UW2 monday, Free 120 Wednesday, and Step 1 Friday be doable, or should I just keep it on that Monday?

My only concern is I won't have enough time to go over UW2/the free 120 and focus on any weak areas. I am getting a little stir crazy though and want to get this thing over with
 
How many days do you guys have between your Step 1 exam and UW2/free 120? My test is on a monday and I am taking UW2 the monday prior and free 120 on wednesday. I am debating on moving my exam up a couple of days if I am happy with my scores, and the only available date is that Friday. Would taking UW2 monday, Free 120 Wednesday, and Step 1 Friday be doable, or should I just keep it on that Monday?

My only concern is I won't have enough time to go over UW2/the free 120 and focus on any weak areas. I am getting a little stir crazy though and want to get this thing over with

I have my free 120 scheduled for 3 days prior, and the UWSA 2 scheduled for 3 days before that (so 6 days prior to the real thing).
 
My only concern is I won't have enough time to go over UW2/the free 120 and focus on any weak areas. I am getting a little stir crazy though and want to get this thing over with

Honestly, my opinion on this is that you probably won't really affect your score much in that last week. So I don't think it matters whether or not you get to go through weak areas from those tests, but that's just my opinion so take it as you will.
 
How many days do you guys have between your Step 1 exam and UW2/free 120? My test is on a monday and I am taking UW2 the monday prior and free 120 on wednesday. I am debating on moving my exam up a couple of days if I am happy with my scores, and the only available date is that Friday. Would taking UW2 monday, Free 120 Wednesday, and Step 1 Friday be doable, or should I just keep it on that Monday?

My only concern is I won't have enough time to go over UW2/the free 120 and focus on any weak areas. I am getting a little stir crazy though and want to get this thing over with
Took UWSA2 on Sunday, Free 120 on Thursday, taking the real thing on Monday. I felt good about it, gave plenty of time to go over both (which honestly had marginal utility, the stuff I got wrong are things I already knew I was weak on).
 
Just finished 18. Got a 220 (I’ll never be in the level of you superhumans). Definitely had some dumb mistakes but have 16 days till the big day. Still have to take UW2 but I’m aiming for 230+ but will be happy with 225. Think I’m in a good spot?

The reddit predictor has me at 230 (CI 210-245)
 
Just finished 18. Got a 220 (I’ll never be in the level of you superhumans). Definitely had some dumb mistakes but have 16 days till the big day. Still have to take UW2 but I’m aiming for 230+ but will be happy with 225. Think I’m in a good spot?

The reddit predictor has me at 230 (CI 210-245)

You are indeed on the right track! Congrats! You can probably climb higher than your goal, depending on how much you want to invest!
 
Took the test 2 days ago.

I think I did well enough to reach my goal but didn't reach my max potential.

I'll say upfront that a solid 10% of the test was the dreaded wtf everyone was talking about. Half of that was totally unfamiliar concepts not mentioned in any standard resource, the other half was extremely twisted familiar concepts or aspects of those that again are not covered in the standard resources.

I had quite a few unlucky guesses on those, meaning I changed a correct to an incorrect answer. Unlike most people, this tactic actually worked for me during my prep and Uworld stats confirm this (70 incorrects to corrects vs 26 for the opposite) so I guess it just wasn't my day.

Regarding topic trends, my exam experience was nothing like what has recently been mentioned from other test takers. With no intention of fearmongering, my exam was very biostats heavy with almost all of biostats questions being under the WTF category. As of right now, no single resource can even come close to adequately preparing students for this, so don't stress when there's not much you can do about it, most people are gonna miss these anyways.

Of all the exam experiences I 've read, I can not remember a single one mentioning anything other than psych being a walk in the park, yet mine was VERY twisted. Ethics was also tricky but that was expected I suppose.

The meat and potatoes of the exam was general pathology, immunology and physiology. I dare say 90% if not 100% of the exam is about CONCEPTS. No obscure factoids were actually tested. Aside from the wtf stuff I mentioned above, all the rest was about very classic stuff that you 've read about a 1000 times already. But what they actually ask you isn't really a piece of info straight out of FA but rather some conclusion you can logically arrive to using info you already know.

The stems are long, often up to 10 lines of pure text. The style is mostly Uworld-like with an NBME feeling here and there. The whole thing is really grueling, as breaks are just enough to grab a snack and visit the bathroom due to the check in and out procedures.

Other than the 10% wtf, a good 20-25% is extremely easy and the rest is hard but doable.

For all those still fighting, just know there IS light at the end of the tunnel, whether your prep lasts 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. It was a fun ride y'all, now it's time for a much-needed break. See you on July 10th!
 
As of right now, no single resource can even come close to adequately preparing students for this, so don't stress when there's not much you can do about it, most people are gonna miss these anyways.

I keep having to tell myself this. If we have put in as much effort as we have to know this stuff and we are sitting there going, "WTF" then that means that pretty much everyone else is in the same boat. I'm sure you murdered the thing, now go take a well deserved relaxing break from all this.
 
Took the test 2 days ago.

I think I did well enough to reach my goal but didn't reach my max potential.

I'll say upfront that a solid 10% of the test was the dreaded wtf everyone was talking about. Half of that was totally unfamiliar concepts not mentioned in any standard resource, the other half was extremely twisted familiar concepts or aspects of those that again are not covered in the standard resources.

I had quite a few unlucky guesses on those, meaning I changed a correct to an incorrect answer. Unlike most people, this tactic actually worked for me during my prep and Uworld stats confirm this (70 incorrects to corrects vs 26 for the opposite) so I guess it just wasn't my day.

Regarding topic trends, my exam experience was nothing like what has recently been mentioned from other test takers. With no intention of fearmongering, my exam was very biostats heavy with almost all of biostats questions being under the WTF category. As of right now, no single resource can even come close to adequately preparing students for this, so don't stress when there's not much you can do about it, most people are gonna miss these anyways.

Of all the exam experiences I 've read, I can not remember a single one mentioning anything other than psych being a walk in the park, yet mine was VERY twisted. Ethics was also tricky but that was expected I suppose.

The meat and potatoes of the exam was general pathology, immunology and physiology. I dare say 90% if not 100% of the exam is about CONCEPTS. No obscure factoids were actually tested. Aside from the wtf stuff I mentioned above, all the rest was about very classic stuff that you 've read about a 1000 times already. But what they actually ask you isn't really a piece of info straight out of FA but rather some conclusion you can logically arrive to using info you already know.

The stems are long, often up to 10 lines of pure text. The style is mostly Uworld-like with an NBME feeling here and there. The whole thing is really grueling, as breaks are just enough to grab a snack and visit the bathroom due to the check in and out procedures.

Other than the 10% wtf, a good 20-25% is extremely easy and the rest is hard but doable.

For all those still fighting, just know there IS light at the end of the tunnel, whether your prep lasts 1 week, 1 month or 1 year. It was a fun ride y'all, now it's time for a much-needed break. See you on July 10th!
The fact that you got a very hard test and could appreciate its difficulty shows that you probably did very well, and I think it means that your score will be even higher than you expect...
Since this exam is graded on a curve, those questions were just as hard for everybody else, and most people probably couldn't even appreciate where the question was leading them.

If you had an easy exam, I'd say your potential couldn't be tapped into, because it didn't challenge you, and wouldn't challenge others similarly.

Given your experience, I'd place you in the 270s, with potential to be the first on this to actually hit a 280
 
what are peoples thoughts on doing uwsa2+free120 on the same day? its 160+120 = 280 questions so equal to a full length right? are most people just doing uw blocks after each to simulate full lengths?
Yeah after NBME's I would do 1 block of U world and then after my UW2 I did free 120
 
The fact that you got a very hard test and could appreciate its difficulty shows that you probably did very well, and I think it means that your score will be even higher than you expect...
Since this exam is graded on a curve, those questions were just as hard for everybody else, and most people probably couldn't even appreciate where the question was leading them.

If you had an easy exam, I'd say your potential couldn't be tapped into, because it didn't challenge you, and wouldn't challenge others similarly.

Given your experience, I'd place you in the 270s, with potential to be the first on this to actually hit a 280

I wonder if scores on NBME and UW are severely inflated in this regard, because of Zanki and similar resources. So often I'll get a "WTF" question on UW, and see that 70% of people somehow knew this painfully obscure factoid.

We get used to everybody knowing everything even on the difficult questions - maybe it's not because everyone has memorized every biochem pathway in detail, but because they knew the Zanki card well enough to pull it out of their butt when a question about that specific enzyme or whatever came up.
 
what are peoples thoughts on doing uwsa2+free120 on the same day? its 160+120 = 280 questions so equal to a full length right? are most people just doing uw blocks after each to simulate full lengths?
My friend did this last year 2 days out from his test-- apparently didn't hurt him either because he got >270
 
Is it normal to feel like I'm still learning things even though I'm 90% done with UW? I'm getting worried because I keep finding all these things I don't know even though my scores are okay.
Im 85% done and i still mark 15 or so per block of questions where I didn’t know everything/every answer choice. And this is with scoring decently well. The information stream never ends
 
When people say the permit disappears, does it mean you can no longer see the button in the NBME website that says "Print Permit" under the schedule tab? I still have that, but when I click it, it says "permit not available." Should I expect a score this week?
 
When people say the permit disappears, does it mean you can no longer see the button in the NBME website that says "Print Permit" under the schedule tab? I still have that, but when I click it, it says "permit not available." Should I expect a score this week?

thats my understanding, unless your eligiblity window conincidentally ended in May
 
Just finished NBME 20 and got a 223. Huge upgrade from my previous NBMEs (averaged around 200-209).

Had a pretty interesting week and was probably right around the lowest I've ever felt during this board prep nonsense. I was so depressed that I pushed my test back 1 week because i couldn't see myself handling an 8 hour test.

I'm starting to realize the biggest factor in my test score is probably going to be mentality on test date.
 
Just finished NBME 20 and got a 223. Huge upgrade from my previous NBMEs (averaged around 200-209).

Had a pretty interesting week and was probably right around the lowest I've ever felt during this board prep nonsense. I was so depressed that I pushed my test back 1 week because i couldn't see myself handling an 8 hour test.

I'm starting to realize the biggest factor in my test score is probably going to be mentality on test date.
Bro, I know you have been working hard this whole last year. Don't go into that test with a defeatist attitude. Go in there and punch that ****er in the mouth. Don't let it beat you before you even start the exam. You can do it!
 
Bro, I know you have been working hard this whole last year. Don't go into that test with a defeatist attitude. Go in there and punch that ****er in the mouth. Don't let it beat you before you even start the exam. You can do it!

Thanks for the pep talk. Our trash school kinda beat it out of me. So i'm kinda in a slump to be honest trying to get that confidence back.
 
Took nbme 24, got a 250. Happy with this but was definitely lacking focus and confidence today, if this thing was the real thing i'd be sitting in agony for the next couple weeks because I felt like i had no idea what I was doing.

Can't wait for this to be over with, I've kinda let my personal life fall apart while studying for this and it's definitely no beuno 1/10 would not recommend.
 
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Took nbme 24, got a 250. Happy with this but was definitely lacking focus and confidence today, if this thing was the real thing i'd be sitting in agony for the next couple weeks because I felt like i had no idea what I was doing.

Can't wait for this to be over with, I've kinda let my personal life fall apart while studying for this and it's definitely no beuno 11/10 would not recommend.

Same... my SO just asked me to netflix and chill, and I said no because I still have more work to do tonight and I'm taking a practice exam tomorrow.. I know i'd just be anxious the entire time and miserable to be around if I had to hangout with anyone knowing I still have 600+ anki reviews to do lol

This sucks
 
Same... my SO just asked me to netflix and chill, and I said no because I still have more work to do tonight and I'm taking a practice exam tomorrow.. I know i'd just be anxious the entire time and miserable to be around if I had to hangout with anyone knowing I still have 600+ anki reviews to do lol

This sucks


Next time don't! Anki can wait. Anything can wait when your support system beckons!

I finished Uworld second pass today and didn't feel good. Lots of reading mistakes and UGH moments. Tomorrow is just gonna lay back and chill! Prometric called today asked whether I wanted to come earlier and it was the first "uuuh its happening" moment!
 
Took nbme 24, got a 250. Happy with this but was definitely lacking focus and confidence today, if this thing was the real thing i'd be sitting in agony for the next couple weeks because I felt like i had no idea what I was doing.

Can't wait for this to be over with, I've kinda let my personal life fall apart while studying for this and it's definitely no beuno 1/10 would not recommend.

Awesome job man! You're ready!
 
Well I took the real exam. Can't talk about it obviously, but I advise everyone to get your GI system working well beforehand (if possible). Definitely had a lot of people annihilating the toilet on their breaks. Did not envy them.

Good job on being done.
IDK what to do about the GI stuff. I have about 3 BM per practice test. NBME induced IBS...
 
Good job on being done.
IDK what to do about the GI stuff. I have about 3 BM per practice test. NBME induced IBS...

You aren't drinking strong enough coffee beforehand my friend! If you're a coffee drinker.

If you drink a strong coffee 1.5 hours or so before you start your exam on an empty stomach your bowels will spew everything/anything within them within like 30 mins. It's glorious. You'll probably have to urinate more often... but it takes a lot less time than dropping a deuce.
 
You aren't drinking strong enough coffee beforehand my friend! If you're a coffee drinker.

If you drink a strong coffee 1.5 hours or so before you start your exam on an empty stomach your bowels will spew everything/anything within them within like 30 mins. It's glorious. You'll probably have to urinate more often... but it takes a lot less time than dropping a deuce.

I get one good BM 20 min after the coffee. However, 50 min after coffee my ileum is like: "wait, theres more" and squeezes a little bit more out. Then 90 min after that, something happens that I can only describe as AT still magically releasing my parasympathetics, and thats one major straining pityful bowel movement. Happens only in exams though. Ever since undergrad. The proctors smile when I limp to the break sign out sheet in med school exams, they know whats coming.
 
Taking NBME 20 today, 21 Wednesday, 18 Friday, UWSA2/120 Sunday, real thing next Wednesday.


I have listened to The Final Countdown 3 or 4 times this morning already

I think this schedule is what I'll do my last week or so too. Will be watching to see if you feel burnt out by the end, or if you feel like it helped build your stamina. Good luck!

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So all my last second plans have failed lol. The only thing I was motivated to do the last few days was UW questions so I reset the bank and am just hitting topics I feel that could trip me up tomorrow, like biochem, etc. All I'm doing today is glancing through the public health section of FA again. Planning what equations to write down on my scratch paper, cram moding the Rapid Review Anki deck, and one more UW block to purely to keep up the question answering comfort fresh and not for content. Should be done by 2, gonna go hit the gym and get way tired, go get a haircut and then play with my kids until bed time. Once that alarm goes off tomorrow, IT'S GO TIME.

 
I can't seem to get the 217 I got on NBME 20 last friday out of my head, down from a 264 on UW1 a week before. It's really haunting me. I am getting ~85% correct on UW with about 50% done. Idk why I do so much better with UW than NBMEs. After reviewing NBME 20, I made so many dumb mistakes, I think it's the nerves. For some reason, I am always concerned that I am going to run out of time even though I finish every block with around 20 minutes remaining. I have been prioritizing my mental state on the past few UW blocks and have seen an improvement. Anyone have any advice with this kind of testing anxiety?

Hopefully I can do better on NBME 22 on Thursday.
 
I can't seem to get the 217 I got on NBME 20 last friday out of my head, down from a 264 on UW1 a week before. It's really haunting me. I am getting ~85% correct on UW with about 50% done. Idk why I do so much better with UW than NBMEs. After reviewing NBME 20, I made so many dumb mistakes, I think it's the nerves. For some reason, I am always concerned that I am going to run out of time even though I finish every block with around 20 minutes remaining. I have been prioritizing my mental state on the past few UW blocks and have seen an improvement. Anyone have any advice with this kind of testing anxiety?

Hopefully I can do better on NBME 22 on Thursday.

Sometimes when I get to a question and I don't instantly know the answer I freak out like that too, so what I started doing is simply flagging it right away and moving on. After like 3-4 more questions I'll come back to it and if I still don't know then I go right back and keep going and then come back to it at the end. I've noticed that there have been multiple questions on each test where at first I freak out but when I come back to it later I'm like, "oh right that's actually pretty straightforward."
 
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