USMLE Official 2019 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Would all you guys recommend the Lolnotacop micro deck? You think if you know that deck like the back of your hand you should be good for micro?
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Yes. If you know that deck you will ace micro on the real thing. Honestly even just knowing Sketchy cold will get you 90% of the way there. I'm actually not sure there was anything on my test that wasn't in Sketchy in some form or another.
wanderingorion said:
Btw, WTF if the BMI cutoff for Anorexia/Bulimia? Of course FA doesn't mention it, and I'm not sure if it's 17.5 or 18.5
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18.5
 
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Crap UW day. Yall feel me?

giphy.gif
 
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Neopolymath said:
The reason it sucks so bad is because you know it means reviewing for hours. Good blocks take no time at all. I get furious when I see that 75% pop up because I know it just made my day longer.
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I was with you until the 75% lol. That’s a GOOD day.
 
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Neopolymath said:
The reason it sucks so bad is because you know it means reviewing for hours. Good blocks take no time at all. I get furious when I see that 75% pop up because I know it just made my day longer.
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I got a 75% on a second pass block today... talk about disheartening lol I’ve been pissed off all day
 
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Neopolymath said:
Congrats on finishing. I'm sure you did better than you think. Can you compare the exam to NBME question style and UW questions style? Was it mostly you know it or you don't? Was the question style like UW with a ton of distractors and 1 line that unlocked the answer or like NBME with a bunch of confusing general terms that try to hide an actual simple situation? What about the free 120? Or is the challenge that most of the vignettes are simple but the answer choices are tougher to understand?

Thanks.
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style is Uworld for most but if it's tricky its a slightly different tricky. I would say they clearly show one diagnosis (your mind says it's X) but then exclude it with one word or a quick sentence that's easy to miss. IF you read sloppily, you lose that point. Some questions were straight up bad as in I have no clue what you're asking me. These were only a handful, maybe one on each block if that. Some questions were just ridiculously easy and then a few were it was "rule out everything that doesn't make sense". I would say Uworld with a little bit of NBME/ Free 120 peppered in describes it well. Overall not hard if one can keep the focus up.
 
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wonko said:
style is Uworld for most but if it's tricky its a slightly different tricky. I would say they clearly show one diagnosis (your mind says it's X) but then exclude it with one word or a quick sentence that's easy to miss. IF you read sloppily, you lose that point. Some questions were straight up bad as in I have no clue what you're asking me. These were only a handful, maybe one on each block if that. Some questions were just ridiculously easy and then a few were it was "rule out everything that doesn't make sense". I would say Uworld with a little bit of NBME/ Free 120 peppered in describes it well. Overall not hard if one can keep the focus up.
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Thank you. Getting into the mind of the test writers is big for me. It allowed me to be successful during class exams and the MCAT so I'm hoping it will translate to the real thing. For me, the worst questions on UW are the ones that I can't even figure out the concept being asked versus actual knowledge retrieval so I have been really trying to work on my gestalts.
 
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wonko said:
style is Uworld for most but if it's tricky its a slightly different tricky. I would say they clearly show one diagnosis (your mind says it's X) but then exclude it with one word or a quick sentence that's easy to miss. IF you read sloppily, you lose that point. Some questions were straight up bad as in I have no clue what you're asking me. These were only a handful, maybe one on each block if that. Some questions were just ridiculously easy and then a few were it was "rule out everything that doesn't make sense". I would say Uworld with a little bit of NBME/ Free 120 peppered in describes it well. Overall not hard if one can keep the focus up.
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was the 100 Anatomy concepts pdf/anki enough for anatomy?

And crap, sloppy reading is how I miss most of my questions. I really need to tighten this up in the next week
 
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Frogger27 said:
was the 100 Anatomy concepts pdf/anki enough for anatomy?

And crap, sloppy reading is how I miss most of my questions. I really need to tighten this up in the next week
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Honestly the anatomy was kinda weird. That deck was great, but only like 1 or 2 of the anatomy questions I had were actually in the deck. Lots of anatomy similar to stuff in the deck. There were a few questions I still have no idea if what I put is right, even after trying to remember the question and look it up. I think the NBME is moving towards imaging based anatomy questions, which would make sense with how it has become so central to diagnosis these days.
 
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Thought people might think my most recent dumb mistake on UWorld kinda funny.

UWorld: "Yo dude, which answer down below is STILL EFFECTIVE when a bacteria has a beta-lactamase?"

Me, a seasoned USMLE intellectual: HA. Get this pre-school s*** out of my face UWorld.

I looked at the answer choices & my first thought was "Piperacillin IS NOT coupled with a beta-lactamase inhibitor, I'll cross that out IMMEDIATELY. Dang I'm smart! Only a veteran like myself would realize piperacillin needs a beta-lactamase inhibitor to be effective vs. a bacteria w/ a beta-lactamase, which it is clearly NOT coupled with. CHILD'S PLAY, UWORLD."

I was literally too lazy to read the second word in the answer choice.

These are the mistakes I make when I do UWorld past 7pm.
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NecrotizingFasciitis said:
Thought people might think my most recent dumb mistake on UWorld kinda funny.

UWorld: "Yo dude, which answer down below is STILL EFFECTIVE when a bacteria has a beta-lactamase?"

Me, a seasoned USMLE intellectual: HA. Get this pre-school s*** out of my face UWorld.

I looked at the answer choices & my first thought was "Piperacillin IS NOT coupled with a beta-lactamase inhibitor, I'll cross that out IMMEDIATELY. Dang I'm smart! Only a veteran like myself would realize piperacillin needs a beta-lactamase inhibitor to be effective vs. a bacteria w/ a beta-lactamase, which it is clearly NOT coupled with. CHILD'S PLAY, UWORLD."

I was literally too lazy to read the second word in the answer choice.

These are the mistakes I make when I do UWorld past 7pm.
View attachment 266217
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LOOOOL crossing out only one choice and having it be the right answer, even if misread, is still the biggest strike to ones ego during this whole experience
 
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NecrotizingFasciitis said:
Thought people might think my most recent dumb mistake on UWorld kinda funny.

UWorld: "Yo dude, which answer down below is STILL EFFECTIVE when a bacteria has a beta-lactamase?"

Me, a seasoned USMLE intellectual: HA. Get this pre-school s*** out of my face UWorld.

I looked at the answer choices & my first thought was "Piperacillin IS NOT coupled with a beta-lactamase inhibitor, I'll cross that out IMMEDIATELY. Dang I'm smart! Only a veteran like myself would realize piperacillin needs a beta-lactamase inhibitor to be effective vs. a bacteria w/ a beta-lactamase, which it is clearly NOT coupled with. CHILD'S PLAY, UWORLD."

I was literally too lazy to read the second word in the answer choice.

These are the mistakes I make when I do UWorld past 7pm.
View attachment 266217
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Okay so, I’ve been having a bad day. This truly gave me joy. Thanks for sharing lol
 
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My permit disappeared 😵

@AnatomyGrey12, did yours peace out too?


NecrotizingFasciitis said:
Thought people might think my most recent dumb mistake on UWorld kinda funny.

UWorld: "Yo dude, which answer down below is STILL EFFECTIVE when a bacteria has a beta-lactamase?"

Me, a seasoned USMLE intellectual: HA. Get this pre-school s*** out of my face UWorld.

I looked at the answer choices & my first thought was "Piperacillin IS NOT coupled with a beta-lactamase inhibitor, I'll cross that out IMMEDIATELY. Dang I'm smart! Only a veteran like myself would realize piperacillin needs a beta-lactamase inhibitor to be effective vs. a bacteria w/ a beta-lactamase, which it is clearly NOT coupled with. CHILD'S PLAY, UWORLD."

I was literally too lazy to read the second word in the answer choice.

These are the mistakes I make when I do UWorld past 7pm.
View attachment 266217
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I had a similar moment of bewildering. I was reading a question and it was clearly showing the symptoms of ethylene glycol poisoning, asking for MOA of the drug of choice. I am thinking, sure, Fomepizole, easy. Read through the answer choices and one of them is:

"slowing of the conversion rate of poison". My foggy mind reads: "slowing the conversion of RAT poison". So now I am thinking this foil is clearly hinting at vitamin K used for warfarin/rat poison overdose. And instead of rereading, I reason myself into that the guy actually took rat poison and then chose something completely different. Took me a good 2 minutes to understand what was going on after reading the Uworld explanations. Never felt that confused before. Called it a day afterwards and went to the pool.
 
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NecrotizingFasciitis said:
Thought people might think my most recent dumb mistake on UWorld kinda funny.

UWorld: "Yo dude, which answer down below is STILL EFFECTIVE when a bacteria has a beta-lactamase?"

Me, a seasoned USMLE intellectual: HA. Get this pre-school s*** out of my face UWorld.

I looked at the answer choices & my first thought was "Piperacillin IS NOT coupled with a beta-lactamase inhibitor, I'll cross that out IMMEDIATELY. Dang I'm smart! Only a veteran like myself would realize piperacillin needs a beta-lactamase inhibitor to be effective vs. a bacteria w/ a beta-lactamase, which it is clearly NOT coupled with. CHILD'S PLAY, UWORLD."

I was literally too lazy to read the second word in the answer choice.

These are the mistakes I make when I do UWorld past 7pm.
View attachment 266217
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Yeah that's why I do Uworld in the mornings lol
 
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What do you guys think of my master plan?
120 UW q + review for the next 9 days gets me through the QBank with 7 full days left before step:
UWSA1 -> review day -> NBME 18 -> review day -> UWSA2 -> review day -> free 120 -> step.

Will plan to spend those review days mainly doing anki cards based on my UW wrongs that I'm making now but not getting a chance to review, catching up on some old Zanki cards I've been neglecting, and targeting specific weaknesses.

Recipe for burnout? Should I push hard to get through UW 1 day earlier so I can have a day off before step? (or just leave 120 UW questions not done)
 
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Gurby said:
What do you guys think of my master plan?
120 UW q + review for the next 9 days gets me through the QBank with 7 full days left before step:
UWSA1 -> review day -> NBME 18 -> review day -> UWSA2 -> review day -> free 120 -> step.

Will plan to spend those review days mainly doing anki cards based on my UW wrongs that I'm making now but not getting a chance to review, catching up on some old Zanki cards I've been neglecting, and targeting specific weaknesses.

Recipe for burnout? Should I push hard to get through UW 1 day earlier so I can have a day off before step?
Click to expand...

Definitely take the last day off. I would advocate for even more days off. Maybe dump UWSA1 or 18, they're kind of silly.
 
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wonko said:
Definitely take the last day off. I would advocate for even more days off. Maybe dump UWSA1 or 18, they're kind of silly.
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I haven't done any practice tests yet so I feel like I should do more than just UWSA2 + free 120.

I feel like maybe leave the last 200 UW questions not finished is a better solution, since at this point the UW questions I have left are skewed and not representative (I haven't seen a biostats question in like a month).

But there sure is still a lot I don't know that's contained in these questions, it seems :scared: :scared:
 
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Gurby said:
What do you guys think of my master plan?
120 UW q + review for the next 9 days gets me through the QBank with 7 full days left before step:
UWSA1 -> review day -> NBME 18 -> review day -> UWSA2 -> review day -> free 120 -> step.

Will plan to spend those review days mainly doing anki cards based on my UW wrongs that I'm making now but not getting a chance to review, catching up on some old Zanki cards I've been neglecting, and targeting specific weaknesses.

Recipe for burnout? Should I push hard to get through UW 1 day earlier so I can have a day off before step? (or just leave 120 UW questions not done)
Click to expand...
I did/am doing this but with a few days off here and there and days of 160-200 questions. I have 300 or so q in UW left for the next 6 days. 18 tomorrow, combined UWSA2/120 on Sunday.

Honestly I have not thoroughly reviewed a single NBME. Im spending most of those review days just running through all of sketchy and my pathoma weaknesses and anki. I might do it for 18 but most of the times it’s just like “oh this subject was rusty, I’ll reset that zanki section”
 
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wonko said:
Definitely take the last day off. I would advocate for even more days off. Maybe dump UWSA1 or 18, they're kind of silly.
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How many days off would you say you would have taken before the exam? I've seen posts where people study a few thing the day or two before their test and it needs them a decent amount of qs.
 
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Hey y'all, just posted my way-too-detailed guide to my step prep. Would love to hear critiques and comments from everybody who has been through this process with me!

forums.studentdoctor.net

An excessively exhaustive guide to Step 1 preparation from a 268 scorer

Introduction: About me: M.D. student at top 20 school. Around top 1/3 of class, though definitely not a tip top student. My MCAT was decent but not remarkable. Scores: Rx – 84% Kaplan – 89% UWorld 1stpass – 91% NBME 15 – 257, 9 weeks out NBME 18 – 255, 6 weeks out NBME 20 – 252, 5 weeks out...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
 
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Gurby said:
What do you guys think of my master plan?
120 UW q + review for the next 9 days gets me through the QBank with 7 full days left before step:
UWSA1 -> review day -> NBME 18 -> review day -> UWSA2 -> review day -> free 120 -> step.

Will plan to spend those review days mainly doing anki cards based on my UW wrongs that I'm making now but not getting a chance to review, catching up on some old Zanki cards I've been neglecting, and targeting specific weaknesses.

Recipe for burnout? Should I push hard to get through UW 1 day earlier so I can have a day off before step? (or just leave 120 UW questions not done)
Click to expand...

I think this sounds like a great plan. The one thing I'd say is that you can probably do NBME 18 review the same day you do NBME 18, so that way you can move UWSA2 up one day, free 120 up one day, and then take day off before Step.
 
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Just took NBME 24 and got a 234, which was about a 10 point drop from 23 and UWSA1... obviously sucks but trying not to put too much stake into it. I flew through that NBME and finished test with about 30 mins left in every block and didn't review anything besides marked, so maybe that had something to do with it lol. My level of F given was definitely minimal.

Goal: 240
NBME 17 (12 weeks out): 196
CBSE (10 weeks out): 215
NBME 18 (8 weeks out): 207
NBME 20 (7 weeks out): 225
NBME 21 (5 weeks out) 225
NBME 22 (4 weeks out) 234
NBME 23 (3 weeks out) 246
UWSA1 (2 weeks out) 247
NBME 24 (10 days out) 234

Hoping I can finish strong the next 10 days and get that 240+... really don't even know what to do though lol. Anki away I guess and looking forward to taking UWSA2 on monday
 
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Frogger27 said:
Just took NBME 24 and got a 234, which was about a 10 point drop from 23 and UWSA1... obviously sucks but trying not to put too much stake into it. I flew through that NBME and finished test with about 30 mins left in every block and didn't review anything besides marked, so maybe that had something to do with it lol. My level of F given was definitely minimal.

Goal: 240
NBME 17 (12 weeks out): 196
CBSE (10 weeks out): 215
NBME 18 (8 weeks out): 207
NBME 20 (7 weeks out): 225
NBME 21 (5 weeks out) 225
NBME 22 (4 weeks out) 234
NBME 23 (3 weeks out) 246
UWSA1 (2 weeks out) 247
NBME 24 (10 days out) 234

Hoping I can finish strong the next 10 days and get that 240+... really don't even know what to do though lol. Anki away I guess and looking forward to taking UWSA2 on monday
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Your scores have been going up. Just keep doing what you've been doing from the start. You'll get there. Make sure you're well rested and in a good mindset on test day. Just managing to get a normal night's sleep will give you an advantage over most people taking the exam haha
 
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@TheVagooseIsLoose Thanks man.. I'm trying to keep my cool but definitely starting to feel the stress a little bit as my scores put me right on the cusp of my goal score. I feel like it's 50/50 i'll get there.. Trying to focus on what I can control and that is busting it the next 10 days and hoping for the best
 
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wonko said:
My permit disappeared 😵

@AnatomyGrey12, did yours peace out too?
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Yeah mine peaced out too. Don't know what to make of that since I thought it didn't disappear until right before you got your score....
Gurby said:
What do you guys think of my master plan?
120 UW q + review for the next 9 days gets me through the QBank with 7 full days left before step:
UWSA1 -> review day -> NBME 18 -> review day -> UWSA2 -> review day -> free 120 -> step.

Will plan to spend those review days mainly doing anki cards based on my UW wrongs that I'm making now but not getting a chance to review, catching up on some old Zanki cards I've been neglecting, and targeting specific weaknesses.

Recipe for burnout? Should I push hard to get through UW 1 day earlier so I can have a day off before step? (or just leave 120 UW questions not done)
Click to expand...

I think that looks good. I agree moving NBME 18 review up a day is probably a better plan. I should add that my glancing through a weaker topic's pages in FA the night before my test got me at least 2 questions that I know of. I also know I missed 2 stupid ones so.... 😕

TheVagooseIsLoose said:
Fam I'm not going to make it to July 10th. This wait is brutal.
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Same. I felt so good coming out of it and I can't stop thinking about the 2 easier questions I missed that I shouldn't have and I'm slowly drifting to that dark place where you convince yourself that you failed.
 
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FindersFee5 said:
Hey y'all, just posted my way-too-detailed guide to my step prep. Would love to hear critiques and comments from everybody who has been through this process with me!

forums.studentdoctor.net

An excessively exhaustive guide to Step 1 preparation from a 268 scorer

Introduction: About me: M.D. student at top 20 school. Around top 1/3 of class, though definitely not a tip top student. My MCAT was decent but not remarkable. Scores: Rx – 84% Kaplan – 89% UWorld 1stpass – 91% NBME 15 – 257, 9 weeks out NBME 18 – 255, 6 weeks out NBME 20 – 252, 5 weeks out...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
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91% UW first pass, you are a god. Really wish I would have done more QBank and less Zanki over the course of M2 - having done 7000 questions already by the time you hit UW must have put you in a nice spot.

I really liked your comment about "if learning feels easy, then you aren't pushing yourself enough".
 
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FindersFee5 said:
Hey y'all, just posted my way-too-detailed guide to my step prep. Would love to hear critiques and comments from everybody who has been through this process with me!

forums.studentdoctor.net

An excessively exhaustive guide to Step 1 preparation from a 268 scorer

Introduction: About me: M.D. student at top 20 school. Around top 1/3 of class, though definitely not a tip top student. My MCAT was decent but not remarkable. Scores: Rx – 84% Kaplan – 89% UWorld 1stpass – 91% NBME 15 – 257, 9 weeks out NBME 18 – 255, 6 weeks out NBME 20 – 252, 5 weeks out...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
Click to expand...
hardcore agree with your comment on peaking. I think a second pass of UW doesnt make sense unless you have loads of excess time. its frustrating that im 90% through UW and still getting the same % correct of 80-90 but i prefer to feel slightly flustered every block (still marking 15 qs) i take rather than overconfident/unchallenged. If you are truly learning a lot of NEW info daily, you should feel mentally exhausted by the end of the day 100%. if you are just reviewing/solidifying stuff youve seen before, you avoid fatigue but also don't really simulate the discomfort of game-day.

I think the analogy to competing at a high level in sports is there. Professionals don't just stop training at high intensity for 2+ weeks before their tournaments/games. They continue to practice, condition, lift until literally the day off - at the very least they never go a day without breaking a sweat.

when you stop learning/being presented with new info, you stop sweating
 
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FindersFee5 said:
Hey y'all, just posted my way-too-detailed guide to my step prep. Would love to hear critiques and comments from everybody who has been through this process with me!

forums.studentdoctor.net

An excessively exhaustive guide to Step 1 preparation from a 268 scorer

Introduction: About me: M.D. student at top 20 school. Around top 1/3 of class, though definitely not a tip top student. My MCAT was decent but not remarkable. Scores: Rx – 84% Kaplan – 89% UWorld 1stpass – 91% NBME 15 – 257, 9 weeks out NBME 18 – 255, 6 weeks out NBME 20 – 252, 5 weeks out...
forums.studentdoctor.net forums.studentdoctor.net
Click to expand...
Also 100% agree on anki reviews and the importance of sleep. I also read why we sleep during winter break this past year and it completely changed how i anki. Always, every single day, reviews in the morning. I have pulled 2 all-nighters in my life - both as a naive freshman in college. Since then I can count on two hands the amount of times ive gotten less than 7-8 hours of sleep. I attribute so much of my learning ability to it and its the first thing I used to bring up when i worked in tutoring.
 
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kb1900 said:
hardcore agree with your comment on peaking. I think a second pass of UW doesnt make sense unless you have loads of excess time. its frustrating that im 90% through UW and still getting the same % correct of 80-90 but i prefer to feel slightly flustered every block (still marking 15 qs) i take rather than overconfident/unchallenged. If you are truly learning a lot of NEW info daily, you should feel mentally exhausted by the end of the day 100%. if you are just reviewing/solidifying stuff youve seen before, you avoid fatigue but also don't really simulate the discomfort of game-day.

I think the analogy to competing at a high level in sports is there. Professionals don't just stop training at high intensity for 2+ weeks before their tournaments/games. They continue to practice, condition, lift until literally the day off - at the very least they never go a day without breaking a sweat.

when you stop learning/being presented with new info, you stop sweating
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I don't believe your percentage should really rise (much) while doing UW in dedicated. First, the timed, random blocks should be about equal in difficulty throughout and have a great variety in question subject and system. That's inherent to UW being a great product. Second, if it goes up a lot that means you had a big content blindspot or something that you had to fix. Sure it might slowly trend upward, but if you miss 3 PKU questions in the first 500 questions and then know it cold, well, it doesn't matter for UW because there aren't any more PKU questions haha. Each block should have new stuff. That's why it's awesome.
 
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kb1900 said:
hardcore agree with your comment on peaking. I think a second pass of UW doesnt make sense unless you have loads of excess time. its frustrating that im 90% through UW and still getting the same % correct of 80-90 but i prefer to feel slightly flustered every block (still marking 15 qs) i take rather than overconfident/unchallenged. If you are truly learning a lot of NEW info daily, you should feel mentally exhausted by the end of the day 100%. if you are just reviewing/solidifying stuff youve seen before, you avoid fatigue but also don't really simulate the discomfort of game-day.

I think the analogy to competing at a high level in sports is there. Professionals don't just stop training at high intensity for 2+ weeks before their tournaments/games. They continue to practice, condition, lift until literally the day off - at the very least they never go a day without breaking a sweat.

when you stop learning/being presented with new info, you stop sweating
Click to expand...

Love that. If it feels too easy, it probably is. Might edit to include some of those quotes from you later!

kb1900 said:
Also 100% agree on anki reviews and the importance of sleep. I also read why we sleep during winter break this past year and it completely changed how i anki. Always, every single day, reviews in the morning. I have pulled 2 all-nighters in my life - both as a naive freshman in college. Since then I can count on two hands the amount of times ive gotten less than 7-8 hours of sleep. I attribute so much of my learning ability to it and its the first thing I used to bring up when i worked in tutoring.
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Sleep is definitely one of the simplest things to fix for many people. There's a reason we spend a third of our lives doing it!
 
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Neopolymath said:
I don't believe your percentage should really rise (much) while doing UW in dedicated. First, the timed, random blocks should be about equal in difficulty throughout and have a great variety in question subject and system. That's inherent to UW being a great product. Second, if it goes up a lot that means you had a big content blindspot or something that you had to fix. Sure it might slowly trend upward, but if you miss 3 PKU questions in the first 500 questions and then know it cold, well, it doesn't matter for UW because there aren't any more PKU questions haha. Each block should have new stuff. That's why it's awesome.
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I agree to a degree, but not completely. I had a 5-10% increase the first 2 weeks of dedicated and have largely plateaued the last week and a half or so. The way I saw it was this: Week 1 I got a PKU question wrong and a OTC deficiency question wrong in my very first block of UW. I basically realized that if someone asked me to teach them any of the topics, I would suck at it and only be able to tell them that "musty body odor" = PKU. I only did 1 block that day and memorized all those stupid biochem genetic disorders; Everything from PKU, alkaptonuria, CBS, lysozomal dz, glycogen dz, familial dyslipidemias etc. I think I have missed at most 2 of those questions ever again.

That kind of learning can only happen early in dedicated when you have large holes in knowledge. 4 weeks later, I dont really have any massive gaps like that (except anatomy i keep procrastinating) so my knowledge is mostly restricted to small subjects in which i have to review more stuff to identify new stuff to learn. E.g. now I need to memorize for the umpteenth time the histology questions of each thyroid cancer just because i missed a convoluted description of orphan annie nuclei - its way lower yield for time input.
 
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Neopolymath said:
I don't believe your percentage should really rise (much) while doing UW in dedicated. First, the timed, random blocks should be about equal in difficulty throughout and have a great variety in question subject and system. That's inherent to UW being a great product. Second, if it goes up a lot that means you had a big content blindspot or something that you had to fix. Sure it might slowly trend upward, but if you miss 3 PKU questions in the first 500 questions and then know it cold, well, it doesn't matter for UW because there aren't any more PKU questions haha. Each block should have new stuff. That's why it's awesome.
Click to expand...

After nearly 2000 questions I still haven't seen pheochromocytoma a single time. It's always panic disorder. But when it does appear, I'll be ready....
 
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Gurby said:
After nearly 2000 questions I still haven't seen pheochromocytoma a single time. It's always panic disorder. But when it does appear, I'll be ready....
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i forget where i saw it, could have been an nbme or kalplan, but there was a phenomenal question on pheochromocytoma in which you basically had to realize its a intermittent/episodic disorder compared to almost every other cause of htn other than drugs. only really realized that after i eliminated all 6+ other answer choices
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
If you see it there is a 90% chance it's MEN.
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you would think every person with a pheo has men after doing usmle practice qs. Also every athlete is abusing some sort of performance enhancing drug, always. Every homeless person is an alcoholic. Also every female healthcare worker has factitious disorder
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
Lol I think Goljan has a rant about this, how they love their stereotypes.
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I think I have basically become goljan in the past few months, ive been listening to it so much it wouldnt surprise me. But it makes sense most of the time (UW is the exception to this, some qs like to try and throw you off) every little detail they give usually has some importance in answering a q whether it be to be able to cross something out or to get to the answer (except those long winded stems that just give you the drug name at the end and ask MOA). Theres a couple NBME questions where they dont even give the age/gender and ive definitely noticed how much it effects my ability to answer the q. Or that one male sarcoid q in UW, sure they gave enough other info in the stem/pic to get to sarcoid but seeing that it wasnt an AA female totally throws me off.

Pattern recognition is key to these exams, especially when they love the "most likely" questions you totally have to start taking demographics and social history into account and start stereotyping lol. This is also why if I'm getting tired/lazy and dont take into account every word in the stem I start missing easy lay ups lol, like yeah he went to arizona last week and has a cough but he had the cough before going to arizona oops
 
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Gurby said:
I'm still salty about a question where they give you a negative test result to trick you into ruling something out, and then the answer key is like "lol got u, this test has a high false negative rate"

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That is the literal worst. At least UW won't give you another answer that is on the differential. One of the DO question banks literally had a negative heterophile test and they still said the patient had EBV and not CMV.. which was also an answer choice.. "because these tests can be wrong." SO STUPID. I know that question cost me a point on a practice test because I kept going, "what about that one question I had, maybe they have EBV because the test is wrong so I shouldn't pick CMV even though that's the logical answer." I missed it.
 
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Frogger27 said:
Just took NBME 24 and got a 234, which was about a 10 point drop from 23 and UWSA1... obviously sucks but trying not to put too much stake into it. I flew through that NBME and finished test with about 30 mins left in every block and didn't review anything besides marked, so maybe that had something to do with it lol. My level of F given was definitely minimal.

Goal: 240
NBME 17 (12 weeks out): 196
CBSE (10 weeks out): 215
NBME 18 (8 weeks out): 207
NBME 20 (7 weeks out): 225
NBME 21 (5 weeks out) 225
NBME 22 (4 weeks out) 234
NBME 23 (3 weeks out) 246
UWSA1 (2 weeks out) 247
NBME 24 (10 days out) 234

Hoping I can finish strong the next 10 days and get that 240+... really don't even know what to do though lol. Anki away I guess and looking forward to taking UWSA2 on monday
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How TF do you finish with thirty minutes less per block?!? If you don't get a 240 I'll be enjoying my 2 digit score. I knew I should have participated in those library reading clubs when I was a kid so it wouldn't take me so long per q lol
 
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