USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[EMDoc22]

Since one hasn't been started, figured I'd start this for all us M2s and M3s taking Step this coming year.

DO student interested in EM. Estimated test date is mid June.

Goal is 230+ but I'd be happy with 225+.

Good luck everyone!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[cooldown]

hi guys - US student here. Will be here to join community. Absolutely dismayl school too with peers and .school "advisors" giving terrible info on board prep. Peers and seniors who gave terrible advice that 6 week dedicated was enough time. WRONG.
So I am here studying for step after ms-2 to study hardcore full time.

It has been hard to pull long days, and keep focus. I decided to study at home at a dedicated desk/room.
Moved back home from Medschool dorm with parental home.
Doing the usual meal prep ,etc.
My biggest issue si getting up early in the morning. Anyone interested in accountability/get up early tod o questions/anki etc? Hit me up.

I am afraid that I wouldn'tn have enough time for everything (need to study/learn again neuro, mss, anatomy, all the other jazz) but keeping at it one day a time.


Want to surround myself with a supportive likeminded community like all of YOU here. all (although i have completed the curriculum , uworld 1 pass etc) many of you are almost there too now!!! Let's go get this bread.

 

[cooldown]

Wow this is happening!

Goal: 230+ and will more than gladly take anything above it. Chugging through Zanki right now and I've matured 18k, hoping to finish the deck before dedicated and mature as many cards as I can during dedicated. Interested in IM or Peds, but hoping a high score would be help me be more flexible with location and staying near family. Looking forward to this wild ride with y'all!

18k mature? isnt' ankikingZanki like 16k-17k total + micro cards?

 

[Chelsea FC]

18k mature? isnt' ankikingZanki like 16k-17k total + micro cards?

My zanki + lolnotacop is around 29K

 

[iforget2]

18k mature? isnt' ankikingZanki like 16k-17k total + micro cards?

I’m doing the bluegalaxies Expansion plus micro cards and some of an OMM deck which is about 30k total

 

[cooldown]

yes Anking is 26K . Thanks.

I will be posting some daily thoughts for motivation, support, time-management, and because I think it's important. YMMV so take it and trust your own self.

***
1. Be careful whose advice you buy. Several seniors from my school (Y3s) said dedicated was fine to review all. They were dead wrong (for me anyways).

2. If you are not at such a competitive school, many of your peers may be chilling now, some of them might say 'take winter break competetly off" "you will burn out" <--this was the worst advice i got in MS2 for my situation. Don't worry about them, they are in their own boat.

3. For most of MS2 I followed "bad advice from school" that said that I am not geared to do well b.c I didn't do well on their @#$@ school exams. Wrong. Dont make your school "advisors" make you feel bad because of that. I am also part of a minority group in my school so i wonder if that is just bias in their own heads. Just because you don't look like Tom from your school who is always in lib or Jeff who is so sharply dressed all the time ---doens't mean that you are out of the running. MS2 some of your peers when you see in class will suddently start acting "professional etc" . Great, good for them.

But for me, going to lib and seeing these people around make me doubt myself and made me feel like i coudn't do it. Wrong. Relax. Study away from others. Focus on the material adn dont worry about the rest.

4 HABITS HABITS HABITS. Our time is limited so figure how to meal prep 1x a week, get quality sleep, foucs and dance with your books. Don't thinnk of it as a chores but rather a opportunity to learn, flex muscle. That mindset is more rewarding, more condusive to learning and memory
***
Till next time!

 

[EMDoc22]

Officially registered for June 15th. Planning to take COMLEX 4 days later on the 19th. Likely going to take a practice NBME over winter break to get a baseline and plan to really hammer micro and finish up B&B/Pathoma/Sketchy/Zanki/Kaplan throughout next semester then start UWorld. Ish is getting real!

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Officially registered for June 15th. Planning to take COMLEX 4 days later on the 19th. Likely going to take a practice NBME over winter break to get a baseline and plan to really hammer micro and finish up B&B/Pathoma/Sketchy/Zanki/Kaplan throughout next semester then start UWorld. Ish is getting real!

Is registration already open?

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Is registration already open?

Dates are opened 6 months in advance I think.

Sent from my SM-G973U using SDN mobile

 

[cooldown]

**daily Dose***
Hello Peeps, How is your hussle going today?
Today could be a day you feel like doing nothing. Remember if you want for motivation before beginning, you could be waiting for ever. So take a deep breath, find a task and get to it. It may be small or large, but do you best today and be done with it. Mindfulness is important - stay in today not X or Y days from now which can create excessive anxiety. Do all you can today, knowing that all of it is helping you retain info, and apply it. onwards and until tomorrow.
~~~

 

[EMDoc22]

Is registration already open?

Yeah I believe it's 6 months out so June dates should be available now for registration. At least at my school, it's a bit of a process to sign up for USMLE so I wanted to get it done early to make sure I could get the date I wanted.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Yeah I believe it's 6 months out so June dates should be available now for registration. At least at my school, it's a bit of a process to sign up for USMLE so I wanted to get it done early to make sure I could get the date I wanted.

Nice, I'm still waiting on them to send me my scheduling permit. Started the process over 2 weeks ago but with the holiday break and stuff I guess it took longer. Hoping to get the date I want!

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Nice, I'm still waiting on them to send me my scheduling permit. Started the process over 2 weeks ago but with the holiday break and stuff I guess it took longer. Hoping to get the date I want!

My school released us all at once since October. How does it so long to get permission from your school? That’s odd.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

My school released us all at once since October. How does it so long to get permission from your school? That’s odd.

For Step 1, we had to print out the application and whatever and bring it to our school and then they sent it out for us. My application is complete, I just got an email saying it'll take a couple of days for them to get me my scheduling permit. Anyways, they don't send them out till your eligibility period is within the next 6 months, so the earliest I could've gotten it would've been Dec 1.

 

[Hippocrates II]

DO student, currently wanting FM or maybe IM/OB.

Goal is 240+ because I want out of Kansas City, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at a 225+.

I'm currently just blowing in the wind with no real plan. Tried keeping up with zanki but I found this impossible with our curriculum and wanting to do well enough for our honors track. Now after learning about the honors track and how seemingly little it does for you, I'm thinking this was a terrible plan on my part lol. Feels too late at this point to catch up on the ~20k cards I'm probably behind, so I'll need to figure something else out.

 

[JDDrCOX]

Anyone have any thoughts on doing goljan audio for certain sections are reproductive and Skin, followed by reading those chapters in the book.

 

[EMDoc22]

Semester is over and COMLEX is booked for June 22nd so that'll give me a week between the two to cram some OMM. Taking today and tomorrow off then making my 6 month plan over the weekend to start early next week. I want to have all my content done by the time we take our COMSAE in March and really focus in on just Qbanks/Zanki after that up and through dedicated. Trying to get at least 5k questions in between UWorld and Kaplan and all the practice exams. Let's do this y'all!!

 

[Type2Fiber]

The end of Anki is in sight. ~5k more new cards, finish Rx, do UWorld, then decide which island I'm headed to after step. Also, just realized I'll need to take Step before I'm halfway through dedicated if I don't want to get a test with the new communication questions. Absurd that such an important exam gets these ridiculous questions

 

[EMDoc22]

What practice NBMEs are you all doing? I'm planning to take one over spring break to get my baseline (will be about 3 months out) and will definitely do UWSA1, UWSA2 and the free 120 during dedicated. I'm trying to figure out which one I should take as my baseline and then which ones I should throughout dedicated as I'd like to do 4-5 of them.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

What practice NBMEs are you all doing? I'm planning to take one over spring break to get my baseline (will be about 3 months out) and will definitely do UWSA1, UWSA2 and the free 120 during dedicated. I'm trying to figure out which one I should take as my baseline and then which ones I should throughout dedicated as I'd like to do 4-5 of them.

Do one of the old ones like the 17 or 18 for baseline. Their pdfs/ppts are floating around somewhere on the internet with info on how to score them. I plan to do all the new ones and the free 120 during dedicated one every week, and I'm taking UWSA 2 last because apparently it is a very good predictor of your score.

 

[Deecee2DO]

US DO student shooting for 250+. Mid tier university IM is the goal-interested in GI or Allergy. Using UFAPS and Rx. Not using Zanki sorry SDN lmao. Test date: Mid-june 2020. Skooo M2s lets get it!!!

 

[Deecee2DO]

The end of Anki is in sight. ~5k more new cards, finish Rx, do UWorld, then decide which island I'm headed to after step. Also, just realized I'll need to take Step before I'm halfway through dedicated if I don't want to get a test with the new communication questions. Absurd that such an important exam gets these ridiculous questions

I am wondering how these new questions will affect us being that we are the guinea pigs. I felt like with the new MCAT they didnt really know how to interpret the scores for the first year after adding psych and stuff. Anyones thoughts?

 

[Type2Fiber]

I am wondering how these new questions will affect us being that we are the guinea pigs. I felt like with the new MCAT they didnt really know how to interpret the scores for the first year after adding psych and stuff. Anyones thoughts?

Don't know what to expect. Step scores aren't changing for now so I assume they'll be interpreted the same

Anyone going all in on board prep and skipping class info completely this last semester? Trying to decide if just bnb is good enough for my last block and going all in for step at this point

 

[Deecee2DO]

Don't know what to expect. Step scores aren't changing for now so I assume they'll be interpreted the same

Anyone going all in on board prep and skipping class info completely this last semester? Trying to decide if just bnb is good enough for my last block and going all in for step at this point

Well that blows lol there isn't even anything out there board resources wise that is up to date with these changes.

I've been doing that since October and plan to continue to completely disregard class stuff. Straight UFAPS until M3 for me lol

 

[Steve_Zissou]

Well that blows lol there isn't even anything out there board resources wise that is up to date with these changes.

I've been doing that since October and plan to continue to completely disregard class stuff. Straight UFAPS until M3 for me lol

Same. I’m at a school that’s P/F which makes it a little easier to focus solely on board prep.

How many questions are you guys doingper day at this point?

 

[Deecee2DO]

Same. I’m at a school that’s P/F which makes it a little easier to focus solely on board prep.

How many questions are you guys doingper day at this point?

In the fall i did 15 Robbins/Cotran and 5-10 Rx questions per day so nothing crazy. Starting Jan i am gonna be ripping like 30-45 Rx per day as I wanna finish all of Rx by mid March and then switch to UWorld since my exam is mid June

 

[EMDoc22]

In the fall i did 15 Robbins/Cotran and 5-10 Rx questions per day so nothing crazy. Starting Jan i am gonna be ripping like 30-45 Rx per day as I wanna finish all of Rx by mid March and then switch to UWorld since my exam is mid June

I did the same except I used Kaplan instead of Rx. Currently on track to finish Kaplan in early March then will be doing one block of UWorld per day through the end of the semester and will bump it up to two blocks per day during dedicated. Should be through my first pass by mid-late May and will have a couple weeks to go through incorrects before testing in mid June.

 

[bluelamin]

sup guys, longtime lurker of these threads but finally the time has come lol.
my exam is in mid may. done zanki here and there (4-5k cards i think nothing serious).
saying screw it to my curriculum cuz step1>>>school exams and i dont have time to waste tbh
qbank wise the plan is to finish rx by feb, kaplan by march, and uworld by april - all the while covering content from FA and pathoma.
good luck to you guys

 

[ExplodingUlcers]

Just curious but is anyone here going against the grain and using UWORLD as a learning tool rather than an assessment tool? Or rather, as a Qbank to follow-up the completion of a system?

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile

 

[slowthai]

Just curious but is anyone here going against the grain and using UWORLD as a learning tool rather than an assessment tool? Or rather, as a Qbank to follow-up the completion of a system?

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile

A 260+ scorer that did UWorld alongside classes just started an AMA in this step 1 forum.

 

[PortlandOregon]

Just curious but is anyone here going against the grain and using UWORLD as a learning tool rather than an assessment tool? Or rather, as a Qbank to follow-up the completion of a system?

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile

Step 1 score 263 - AMA

These threads helped me and so i thought I would share my experience, contribute my data, and try to answer any questions. I'm a 3rd-year at a top/middle tier US med school and went to an ivy league school for undergrad. UWA1: 256 CBSE paid for by school: 245 NBME 21: 240 (1 month out) NBME...

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[HopeImakeit]

Don't know what to expect. Step scores aren't changing for now so I assume they'll be interpreted the same

Anyone going all in on board prep and skipping class info completely this last semester? Trying to decide if just bnb is good enough for my last block and going all in for step at this point

The official NBME article states that there will be an additional number of questions assessing the communication skills part. I believe that they are just gonna increase the number of questions that assess that part compared to previous tests (replacing basic science/biochem q's maybe?). Take that into consideration and act accordingly regarding when you're gonna take the test.

That said im an Medical Student (equivelent MS2) from Greece shooting for 240+
Prob I'll be taking the test mid July.
First pass of FA and Sketchy Micro was done in equivelent MS1.
January - May I'll be going through Kaplan, Pathoma, BRS physio, Sketchy Micro and Pharm and for qbanks --> 1st pass of UW and supplementing that with as many RX q's I can
Dedicated starts mid May for 8 weeks.

 

[HopeImakeit]

Zanki vs RX qbank?

Unfortunately in my 4 month pre-dedicated I don't have time for both Zanki and RX and I gotta choose one or the other.
Any tips?

 

[Type2Fiber]

Zanki vs RX qbank?

Unfortunately in my 4 month pre-dedicated I don't have time for both Zanki and RX and I gotta choose one or the other.
Any tips?

Zanki is too long but you could do one of the other decks. I think Bros is significantly less. Or just do Lolnotacop pharm/micro and pathoma + questions

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Zanki vs RX qbank?

Unfortunately in my 4 month pre-dedicated I don't have time for both Zanki and RX and I gotta choose one or the other.
Any tips?

You can't really compare the two, they're entirely different resources. That being said, I agree that Zanki is a waste of time at this point. Would definitely do the lolnotacop micro deck and maybe Zanki pharm alongside Rx.

 

[EMDoc22]

DO students: are you planning on using any COMLEX-specific question banks? My plan is to complete Kaplan and UWorld so I am leaning towards not using COMBANK or COMQUEST as other students have said knowing UWorld cold will be more than enough for COMLEX. What are your thoughts?

 

[DrStephenStrange]

DO students: are you planning on using any COMLEX-specific question banks? My plan is to complete Kaplan and UWorld so I am leaning towards not using COMBANK or COMQUEST as other students have said knowing UWorld cold will be more than enough for COMLEX. What are your thoughts?

I plan on finishing Rx, Amboss and Uworld. Maybe I'll think about COMBANK later just for the sake of getting OMM specific Qs, but I'm probably not gonna finish it.

Sent from my SM-G973U using SDN mobile

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

DO students: are you planning on using any COMLEX-specific question banks? My plan is to complete Kaplan and UWorld so I am leaning towards not using COMBANK or COMQUEST as other students have said knowing UWorld cold will be more than enough for COMLEX. What are your thoughts?

Besides Uworld and the Turn up deck, Ill probably just do the savarese questions in the few days between my Step and comlex

 

[fldoctorgirl]

DO students: are you planning on using any COMLEX-specific question banks? My plan is to complete Kaplan and UWorld so I am leaning towards not using COMBANK or COMQUEST as other students have said knowing UWorld cold will be more than enough for COMLEX. What are your thoughts?

May flip through some COMBANK questions in between Step and COMLEX since my school gave it to us for free. Otherwise, just TurnUp2OMT.

 

[EMDoc22]

May flip through some COMBANK questions in between Step and COMLEX since my school gave it to us for free. Otherwise, just TurnUp2OMT.

My school did not provide us with any Qbanks so I am leaning towards not spending the money on COMLEX banks. Figured I'd just spend the week between Step and COMLEX reading through Savarese and doing those questions.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

My school did not provide us with any Qbanks so I am leaning towards not spending the money on COMLEX banks. Figured I'd just spend the week between Step and COMLEX reading through Savarese and doing those questions.

I definitely wouldn't spend money on them. Your plan sounds good.

 

[The.Supinator]

I can't believe I would ever be posting in step 1 thread again, but here it goes....so the new nbme forms will give you an actual predicted step 1/2 score and in the "example" forms it says USMLE step 1 average is now a 231?! is that true? I ask because I am applying for residency and I feel like that makes my score less impressive with the new averages out, but then again the people I am applying with would technically have the old step 1 average of 228, anybody can confirm this? I barely broke 230 (cough cough 232 lmao) it just sounds better then your in 230s and average is 220s hahaha, and yes I am bored and procrastinating step 2 studying!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I can't believe I would ever be posting in step 1 thread again, but here it goes....so the new nbme forms will give you an actual predicted step 1/2 score and in the "example" forms it says USMLE step 1 average is now a 231?! is that true? I ask because I am applying for residency and I feel like that makes my score less impressive with the new averages out, but then again the people I am applying with would technically have the old step 1 average of 228, anybody can confirm this? I barely broke 230 (cough cough 232 lmao) it just sounds better then your in 230s and average is 220s hahaha, and yes I am bored and procrastinating step 2 studying!

Yes, average is around a 230-231 last I heard.

 

[Hippocrates II]

I can't believe I would ever be posting in step 1 thread again, but here it goes....so the new nbme forms will give you an actual predicted step 1/2 score and in the "example" forms it says USMLE step 1 average is now a 231?! is that true? I ask because I am applying for residency and I feel like that makes my score less impressive with the new averages out, but then again the people I am applying with would technically have the old step 1 average of 228, anybody can confirm this? I barely broke 230 (cough cough 232 lmao) it just sounds better then your in 230s and average is 220s hahaha, and yes I am bored and procrastinating step 2 studying!

Med school has basically turned into a competition of who can memorize zanki the best. I look around campus and everyone (myself included) is just mindlessly memorizing that deck. The average will just continue to creep up as people become more and more efficient with resources, ignore class material more and more, etc. I hate that our education is distilled down to memorizing a bunch of buzz words and facts from this deck, but it's a product of the way medical education is viewed and rewarded in this country.

 

[Type2Fiber]

Med school has basically turned into a competition of who can memorize zanki the best. I look around campus and everyone (myself included) is just mindlessly memorizing that deck. The average will just continue to creep up as people become more and more efficient with resources, ignore class material more and more, etc. I hate that our education is distilled down to memorizing a bunch of buzz words and facts from this deck, but it's a product of the way medical education is viewed and rewarded in this country.

As opposed to what? If your idea of a good education is listening to a lecture in class, I'll take a hard pass on that

People do Zanki & outside resources because they're higher quality and more efficient. We're getting a higher quality education and learning more information using these methods

 

[Hippocrates II]

As opposed to what? If your idea of a good education is listening to a lecture in class, I'll take a hard pass on that

People do Zanki & outside resources because they're higher quality and more efficient. We're getting a higher quality education and learning more information using these methods

I never proposed an alternative because I don't pretend to have one. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that memorizing a 30k card deck on esoteric facts so that I can spot the answer on a MCQ test that determines my future is somehow the mark of a quality medical education, though.

 

[Type2Fiber]

I never proposed an alternative because I don't pretend to have one. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that memorizing a 30k card deck on esoteric facts so that I can spot the answer on a MCQ test that determines my future is somehow the mark of a quality medical education, though.

Most of Zanki is not esoteric facts. Its reasonable to question if step should be so important, but flashcards and qbanks are an efficient and straightforward way for the majority of students to learn information, much better than traditional lectures

 

[Hippocrates II]

Most of Zanki is not esoteric facts. Its reasonable to question if step should be so important, but flashcards and qbanks are an efficient and straightforward way for the majority of students to learn information, much better than traditional lectures

I'm not arguing against the efficiency and efficacy of it. That's why I use zanki as well. What I am disagreeing with you on is whether or not it's necessary for me to know every fact presented in zanki to be a good clinician. Personally, I do not, and I think step 1 has gone from being a test of competency to a test of who memorized the most facts, many of which will be forgotten over the years. But, to each their own, just my opinion on the topic.

 

[ExplodingUlcers]

I'm not arguing against the efficiency and efficacy of it. That's why I use zanki as well. What I am disagreeing with you on is whether or not it's necessary for me to know every fact presented in zanki to be a good clinician. Personally, I do not, and I think step 1 has gone from being a test of competency to a test of who memorized the most facts, many of which will be forgotten over the years. But, to each their own, just my opinion on the topic.

I agree and I think that a huge portion of it stems from the fact that we really have no other way to assess candidates for residency selection so for the time being we just have to play the game.

Only time will tell if it makes us better doctors though. I would love to hear from current 3rd and 4th years who matured Zanki during preclinical whether or not it was beneficial for them on rotations.

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile

 

[FindersFee5]

I agree and I think that a huge portion of it stems from the fact that we really have no other way to assess candidates for residency selection so for the time being we just have to play the game.

Only time will tell if it makes us better doctors though. I would love to hear from current 3rd and 4th years who matured Zanki during preclinical whether or not it was beneficial for them on rotations.

Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile

For sure beneficial on rotations, although I think the biggest benefit was actually on shelf exams. I've been able to get away with maybe half the outside studying of most of my classmates and still got honors on everything so far. There's also a trickle down effect - because I'm less anxious about studying for the shelf, I'm happier to stay later, in a better mood when I am in the hospital, and able to read and learn more about my patients which has a very direct impact on how attendings assess me.

 

[vin5cent0]

For people who kept up with zanki, how are you guys doing on practice q's? I'm kind of mortified how badly I'm doing once I set q banks to random despite having ~70% of zanki done. I miss questions that should be so obvious after doing the cards, like syphilis -> aortic issues despite having done those cards hundreds of times.