USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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iforget2 said:
Found this comment from 4 years ago regarding the increasingly harsh curve on NBME 18 that I found interesting.

"Reason the curve has gotten steeper is bc literally tens of thousands of people look up these answers on SDN, and the older forms have been out longer, First Aid puts all of these NBME form Q's in the new editions, and I can guarantee a fair amount people are looking up some answers while taking it. Source: i have done this for a couple questions lol. So, the scores are skewed. Ironically the UWorld assesments give you the answers, so of course no one talks about those online, and those percent scores are more realistic IMO. Many people who have taken NBME 19 recently are scoring between 5-20 points higher on real thing."
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this actually makes a lot of sense.
 
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iforget2 said:
Found this comment from 4 years ago regarding the increasingly harsh curve on NBME 18 that I found interesting.

"Reason the curve has gotten steeper is bc literally tens of thousands of people look up these answers on SDN, and the older forms have been out longer, First Aid puts all of these NBME form Q's in the new editions, and I can guarantee a fair amount people are looking up some answers while taking it. Source: i have done this for a couple questions lol. So, the scores are skewed. Ironically the UWorld assesments give you the answers, so of course no one talks about those online, and those percent scores are more realistic IMO. Many people who have taken NBME 19 recently are scoring between 5-20 points higher on real thing."
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Wow, never even thought of this but this is probably true
 
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iforget2 said:
Found this comment from 4 years ago regarding the increasingly harsh curve on NBME 18 that I found interesting.

"Reason the curve has gotten steeper is bc literally tens of thousands of people look up these answers on SDN, and the older forms have been out longer, First Aid puts all of these NBME form Q's in the new editions, and I can guarantee a fair amount people are looking up some answers while taking it. Source: i have done this for a couple questions lol. So, the scores are skewed. Ironically the UWorld assesments give you the answers, so of course no one talks about those online, and those percent scores are more realistic IMO. Many people who have taken NBME 19 recently are scoring between 5-20 points higher on real thing."
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Thanks for posting this. makes a lot more sense that this could be the reason and I dont doubt it at all
 
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iforget2 said:
Found this comment from 4 years ago regarding the increasingly harsh curve on NBME 18 that I found interesting.

"Reason the curve has gotten steeper is bc literally tens of thousands of people look up these answers on SDN, and the older forms have been out longer, First Aid puts all of these NBME form Q's in the new editions, and I can guarantee a fair amount people are looking up some answers while taking it. Source: i have done this for a couple questions lol. So, the scores are skewed. Ironically the UWorld assesments give you the answers, so of course no one talks about those online, and those percent scores are more realistic IMO. Many people who have taken NBME 19 recently are scoring between 5-20 points higher on real thing."
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This makes sense. I think the thing thats frustrating, at least for me, is my percentages have been the same but the score curve is so different. I consistently get between 60-65% on uworlds, which is average, and did the same on nbmes. But somehow ended up with a 30 point score difference haha I got 75% on free 120 and so i literally dont know how to judge where im at with this difference in scoring.
 
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Cranjis McBasketball said:
This makes sense. I think the thing thats frustrating, at least for me, is my percentages have been the same but the score curve is so different. I consistently get between 60-65% on uworlds, which is average, and did the same on nbmes. But somehow ended up with a 30 point score difference haha I got 75% on free 120 and so i literally dont know how to judge where im at with this difference in scoring.
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65% first pass uworld and 75% on free 120 is pretty good man. With those 2 stats alone I wouldn't worry about your nbme sub-200 score. Id imagine a 75% on the real thing puts you in the 230s
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Any tips on what you would've studied more or anything? Congrats on being done bro
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Overall I felt well prepared. Its just so variable what you'll get that's it's hard to pick anything as more important. Immuno was really stressed on mine, had to really know the various cells, signaling, ect

I didn't actually get a single repro tumor and I spent 2 of my last days nailing them down lol there's just so much crap you have to know
 
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Type2Fiber said:
Overall I felt well prepared. Its just so variable what you'll get that's it's hard to pick anything as more important. Immuno was really stressed on mine, had to really know the various cells, signaling, ect

I didn't actually get a single repro tumor and I spent 2 of my last days nailing them down lol there's just so much crap you have to know
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Yeah ive seen other people on reddit say theirs was immunology heavy. You think knowing the FA section + path ch 1-3 covered most of it?
 
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Type2Fiber said:
Overall I felt well prepared. Its just so variable what you'll get that's it's hard to pick anything as more important. Immuno was really stressed on mine, had to really know the various cells, signaling, ect

I didn't actually get a single repro tumor and I spent 2 of my last days nailing them down lol there's just so much crap you have to know
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Random question but did you use a mouse? I've been on my laptop this whole time but If Prometric uses a mouse I guess I should start using one to practice.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
awesome bc 3 is the worst lol curious is that based on what you got on your exam or based on data you saw?
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oh my step isnt til 2 wks lol im just speaking from doing practice exams plus i feel like u have an innate sense of what's important vs not after doing a **** ton of questions.
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Yeah ive seen other people on reddit say theirs was immunology heavy. You think knowing the FA section + path ch 1-3 covered most of it?
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Yeah that'd be enough for most of it. You just gotta know it cold. Got a good bit of questions where all the answer choices were similar, hard to eliminate anything you didn't know well

Be prepared for the out of left field questions. I got a few that I still don't know the answer to after looking it up. Most important thing is to scoop up all the easy questions in a block before letting them bog you down with some obscure question you'll end up just guessing on anyway
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Am I the only one who gets pissed off at the fictional people in uworld questions who want to not give their kid with meningitis treatment
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The only thing worse is a COMBANK question where you read it and you're like "Okay. Nuchal rigidity. Rash. Its Neisseiria. I got this!" And then they ask how to do cranial on him....
 
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iforget2 said:
229 on NBME 22 today. That was definitely harder than 21 and 24, and it felt like I was just choosing an answer that made sense but I had no idea if they were actually correct. Just so many questions where even if I had zanki pulled up I would have had a hard time getting them right.
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~230 on an nbme is pretty good!!!
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
I think it’s 12 days from now. I’ve lost so much motivation though, so hard to focus lately. Made a bunch of dumb mistakes on UWSA2. Things I should have seen but couldn’t put together. I just want to break 240.
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Yeah I feel you man. Im 20 days out rn and am trying to decide when I should take UWSA2. I originally had in my schedule like 4 days before
 
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Took mine two weeks before my original date. Predictive score doesn't matter if you can't make a real plan based on your weaknesses.

I still have yet to take NBME18. Mine is in a week but it feels too late. Can't really learn much from the wrong answers without a major time sink
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Yeah I feel you man. Im 20 days out rn and am trying to decide when I should take UWSA2. I originally had in my schedule like 4 days before
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My test is in 13 days and I'm doing NBME 18 on Monday and then UWSA 2 and Free 120 back to back next Sunday which will be 5 days out. Figured that'll give me enough time to go over both and do some final content review. I will finish UWorld next Saturday.
 
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GoCards05 said:
My test is in 13 days and I'm doing NBME 18 on Monday and then UWSA 2 and Free 120 back to back next Sunday which will be 5 days out. Figured that'll give me enough time to go over both and do some final content review. I will finish UWorld next Saturday.
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Yeah I think im gonna re-work my calendar and plan to take it a little earlier so I can review it solidly. I think the free 120 is going to be the last "test" I take though before the real thing, like 4 days out
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
I think it’s 12 days from now. I’ve lost so much motivation though, so hard to focus lately. Made a bunch of dumb mistakes on UWSA2. Things I should have seen but couldn’t put together. I just want to break 240.
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I have faith in you brother. No doubt youll break 240+
 
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Scouring the internet for how people do on the new NBMEs vs. the real deal. Almost seems like a 50/50 mix of NBME averages either predicting their scores or being ~10 points off. Probably should stop looking at these for my well-being lol
 
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iforget2 said:
Scouring the internet for how people do on the new NBMEs vs. the real deal. Almost seems like a 50/50 mix of NBME averages either predicting their scores or being ~10 points off. Probably should stop looking at these for my well-being lol
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this is scary lol nbmes are too hard
 
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Deecee2DO said:
this is scary lol nbmes are too hard
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I think the biggest thing to remember during the actual test if your particular exam is like nbme style and not uworld, is that everyone who's taking that same exam probably feels the same way, so you'd probably have a good curve
 
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iforget2 said:
229 on NBME 22 today. That was definitely harder than 21 and 24, and it felt like I was just choosing an answer that made sense but I had no idea if they were actually correct. Just so many questions where even if I had zanki pulled up I would have had a hard time getting them right.
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Hi test twin! I just finished 22, and scored pretty dang close to you at 231. It was only a 1 point increase from my NBME two weeks ago, which makes me nervous. So much wtf happening. So many things that I absolutely 100% knew what the disease was and could have answered any other aspect of the disease and treatment than the aspect they were actually asking.

Those are the most frustrating. It’s like you thought you knew the disease and treatment absolutely cold, but they ask you this one stupid minuscule detail that it’s nearly impossible to even google and find out afterwards...
 
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iforget2 said:
Scouring the internet for how people do on the new NBMEs vs. the real deal. Almost seems like a 50/50 mix of NBME averages either predicting their scores or being ~10 points off. Probably should stop looking at these for my well-being lol
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These seriously stress me out but I also can't stop looking at them for some reason lol. I just don't see how they can be accurate unless maybe you're crushing them? It seems like they're less predictive when you're scoring in the 220s on them, and maybe more predictive for people hitting 240s+ on them.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
These seriously stress me out but I also can't stop looking at them for some reason lol. I just don't see how they can be accurate unless maybe you're crushing them? It seems like they're less predictive when you're scoring in the 220s on them, and maybe more predictive for people hitting 240s+ on them.
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I'm wondering if it could be the scale? With UWorld questions I'm usually fairly sure on my answers, but yesterday on 22 it just felt like I was throwing darts randomly at answers, and I'm sure that's the experience for many people as well. Still finished with a 76%, but it easily could have been much much worse.
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Block 1 today - 87%
Block 2 today - 67%

:bang::help:
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I feel this in my soul.
iforget2 said:
I'm wondering if it could be the scale? With UWorld questions I'm usually fairly sure on my answers, but yesterday on 22 it just felt like I was throwing darts randomly at answers, and I'm sure that's the experience for many people as well. Still finished with a 76%, but it easily could have been much much worse.
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I honestly don't know, and I feel like there's no way to know? Overall my impression is still that the NBMEs are bad predictors overall, especially for those of us who seem to be crushing UWorld but not doing too hot on the NBMEs. The disparity just doesn't make sense to me.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I feel this in my soul.

I honestly don't know, and I feel like there's no way to know? Overall my impression is still that the NBMEs are bad predictors overall, especially for those of us who seem to be crushing UWorld but not doing too hot on the NBMEs. The disparity just doesn't make sense to me.
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Lol its gonna be a 250 or a 220 for me (score predictor says 225-265 Lol)
 
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My friend is scoring 75% on UWorld and got a 200 on NBME 20 this past week. The only sure thing about the NBMEs seems to be that if you're getting 240s/250s on those you can feel pretty comfortable you're going to or are at least capable of scoring really high on the real deal. Any other score seems to have no rhyme or reason to it and if anything underpredicts your real score.
 
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GoCards05 said:
My friend is scoring 75% on UWorld and got a 200 on NBME 20 this past week. The only sure thing about the NBMEs seems to be that if you're getting 240s/250s on those you can feel pretty comfortable you're going to or are at least capable of scoring really high on the real deal. Any other score seems to have no rhyme or reason to it and if anything underpredicts your real score.
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Thats wild lol maybe it wasnt his first pass timed random that could inflate the score. Pretty sure if youre 75% UW I would think youd get at least 215+. 20 is a hard one though
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Thats wild lol maybe it wasnt his first pass timed random that could inflate the score. Pretty sure if youre 75% UW I would think youd get at least 215+. 20 is a hard one though
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Yeah 20 is absolutely brutal. It is her first pass of UWorld (she didn't start until dedicated) and it was her first practice test but that disparity is still huge. I scored 219 on 20 in March while sitting right around 70 or so in UWorld at the time so maybe it was just a bad testing day for her. Just another data point in the WTF-ness of the new NBMEs I guess.
 
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Are USWA 2, NBME 18 and 19 still the most predictive? I take Step 1 Friday and did UWSA 2 yesterday and 19 this morning
 
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dj-Roomba said:
Are USWA 2, NBME 18 and 19 still the most predictive? I take Step 1 Friday and did UWSA 2 yesterday and 19 this morning
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I think (and based on looking at scores on Reddit) that UWSA2 is still pretty predictive. Not sure about 18 anymore as it seems the curve has become pretty harsh recently. I always heard 19 had a really harsh curve so not sure about that one either.
 
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