USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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251 on UWSA2 today (83% correct). I got a 243 on UWSA1 at the beginning of dedicated so obviously hoping UWSA2 is more accurate. I thought there was a lot of random cell bio so I was not expecting that score. I was going to do Free 120 today as well but I have to move into my new apartment tomorrow a couple of hours away so I will be doing Free 120 on Tuesday so I can pack today. Game day on Friday.
Letttssss gooo bro! Love to see it
 
FInished studying for Step 1. There are still some Pathoma/Sketchy videos I would have loved to re-watch, but I'm just gonna spend the rest of the night relaxing and playing COD with my brother. It's been real, fam - see y'all on the other side!
yessss!! Go destroy it
 


So now we're going to make this argument for P/F??? Come on...

Edit: I suddenly can't find the NBME's FAQ response to P/F on their website...


Every petition and cry for P/F has been met with a resounding no throughout all this chaos so I don't see them changing course. And they've already come out with multiple statements that it's not happening despite COVID so they probably didn't feel the need to add it again.

And as someone on Reddit pointed out, asking to change the way the exam is graded because of the protests when schools have already made accommodations to testing deadlines and rescheduling/postponing is completely free of charge for the rest of year means this request might ring a little hollow.
 
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FInished studying for Step 1. There are still some Pathoma/Sketchy videos I would have loved to re-watch, but I'm just gonna spend the rest of the night relaxing and playing COD with my brother. It's been real, fam - see y'all on the other side!
My dude!! Good luck on the exam youre gonna kill it. Were cheering you on! #crewlife
 
Every petition and cry for P/F has been met with a resounding no throughout all this chaos so I don't see them changing course. And they've already come out with multiple statements that it's not happening despite COVID so they probably didn't feel the need to add it again.

And as someone on Reddit pointed out, asking to change the way the exam is graded because of the protests when schools have already made accommodations to testing deadlines and rescheduling/postponing is completely free of charge for the rest of year means this request might ring a little hollow.
My concern is that this is a different argument than just blaming COVID, and with everything going on it's plausible this would be acknowledged. Especially if the voices of all who disagree are only present on SDN/Reddit.
 
My concern is that this is a different argument than just blaming COVID, and with everything going on it's plausible this would be acknowledged. Especially if the voices of all who disagree are only present on SDN/Reddit.

I totally get the concern but it is so easy to reschedule right now so the NBME would likely look at this and just encourage those who don't feel comfortable testing to postpone. My school sent out an email last week in response to all of this basically saying take COMLEX whenever you're ready so they're being pretty lax about the deadlines. If COVID/Prometric wasn't enough of a reason to change it when literally everyone was being Thanos snapped left and right and unwillingly postponed for months at a time, I don't see them budging on this either if for no other reason than this just isn't a change that can be made on a whim no matter the outside circumstances.
 
Every time UWorld tries to disguise a hyperthyroidism case as anxiety/panic attacks I want to throw my laptop out the window. "Anxiety related to an underlying medical condition" ahhhh, must remember to consider hyperthyroidism when I see these questions and not fall into a bias trap

I make flashcards with stuff like this all the time. Like “Anxiety might be (insert cloze here)” and then put STOP MISSING THESE QUESTIONS, IDIOT in the extra field.

Don’t know if it works at this point - have yet to get stuff on the shame cards I’ve made in new questions - but I feel like regularly smack talking myself by seeing the card every now and then might make me consider it next time it comes up.

Definitely have a shame card for secondary syphilis. I can see why they call it ”the great imitator” because I’ve for real missed three or four questions where that was the answer because something else seemed more likely.
 
I can't bring myself to believe any reason provided for an immediate switch to P/F is genuine. All these people started med school with the understanding the USMLE was a scored exam, and I have trouble believing many people who have worked their butt off during the last two years would support an immediate switch to P/F. Its an easy way out for people who haven't been disciplined during med school and who have trouble studying at home. Honestly, there arent many things easier than studying at home. It just feels like incredible laziness to me and I get so annoyed sometimes 🙁.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen. My understanding is that the NBME tends not to enforce sudden changes, though. Any time they've wanted to change something, they let us know well in advance. So hopefully even if a switch to P/F does come about 2022, I hope we have at least a few months of warning to get through the exam. Although the trend so far has been to delay scheduled changes (like the Step 1 content change, match date etc).
 
Every time UWorld tries to disguise a hyperthyroidism case as anxiety/panic attacks I want to throw my laptop out the window. "Anxiety related to an underlying medical condition" ahhhh, must remember to consider hyperthyroidism when I see these questions and not fall into a bias trap

General rule is psychological disorders are a diagnosis of exclusion. If you're stuck between a medical condition and a psychological disorder because symptoms seem to fit both, pick the medical condition, or an option that helps you diagnose it (eg TSH levels).
 
I make flashcards with stuff like this all the time. Like “Anxiety might be (insert cloze here)” and then put STOP MISSING THESE QUESTIONS, IDIOT in the extra field.

Don’t know if it works at this point - have yet to get stuff on the shame cards I’ve made in new questions - but I feel like regularly smack talking myself by seeing the card every now and then might make me consider it next time it comes up.

Definitely have a shame card for secondary syphilis. I can see why they call it ”the great imitator” because I’ve for real missed three or four questions where that was the answer because something else seemed more likely.
oh god this is so relatable! my language is way worse on my cards lmao the worse the insult = the better i remember
 
Anxiety masquerading disease conditions: hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia, pheochromocytoma, hypercortisolism, cardiac arrhythmias
Drugs: overdose of sympathomimetics/stimulants, withdrawal of depressants
 
I can't bring myself to believe any reason provided for an immediate switch to P/F is genuine. All these people started med school with the understanding the USMLE was a scored exam, and I have trouble believing many people who have worked their butt off during the last two years would support an immediate switch to P/F. Its an easy way out for people who haven't been disciplined during med school and who have trouble studying at home. Honestly, there arent many things easier than studying at home. It just feels like incredible laziness to me and I get so annoyed sometimes 🙁.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen. My understanding is that the NBME tends not to enforce sudden changes, though. Any time they've wanted to change something, they let us know well in advance. So hopefully even if a switch to P/F does come about 2022, I hope we have at least a few months of warning to get through the exam. Although the trend so far has been to delay scheduled changes (like the Step 1 content change, match date etc).
couldn't agree more bro it does sound like laziness
 
I can't bring myself to believe any reason provided for an immediate switch to P/F is genuine. All these people started med school with the understanding the USMLE was a scored exam, and I have trouble believing many people who have worked their butt off during the last two years would support an immediate switch to P/F. Its an easy way out for people who haven't been disciplined during med school and who have trouble studying at home. Honestly, there arent many things easier than studying at home. It just feels like incredible laziness to me and I get so annoyed sometimes 🙁.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen. My understanding is that the NBME tends not to enforce sudden changes, though. Any time they've wanted to change something, they let us know well in advance. So hopefully even if a switch to P/F does come about 2022, I hope we have at least a few months of warning to get through the exam. Although the trend so far has been to delay scheduled changes (like the Step 1 content change, match date etc).

The worst thing that could’ve happened was the NBME announcing this before s**t hit the fan with COVID and now this. Obviously they couldn’t have known at the time but with everything that’s happened people have gotten pretty fixated on making that change now. I completely agree though that we came into school knowing we would have a score and I feel like most of us still want a score no matter the outside circumstances.
 
I can't bring myself to believe any reason provided for an immediate switch to P/F is genuine. All these people started med school with the understanding the USMLE was a scored exam, and I have trouble believing many people who have worked their butt off during the last two years would support an immediate switch to P/F. Its an easy way out for people who haven't been disciplined during med school and who have trouble studying at home. Honestly, there arent many things easier than studying at home. It just feels like incredible laziness to me and I get so annoyed sometimes 🙁.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen. My understanding is that the NBME tends not to enforce sudden changes, though. Any time they've wanted to change something, they let us know well in advance. So hopefully even if a switch to P/F does come about 2022, I hope we have at least a few months of warning to get through the exam. Although the trend so far has been to delay scheduled changes (like the Step 1 content change, match date etc).
The problem is that the select few are always the ones that are the loudest. There have been multiple petitions for P/F Step due to COVID and what not, but I've never seen a petition going in the other direction. However, blaming COVID is different than using racism as the reason. With everything going on, if this is the loudest voice heard, NBME might be under intense pressure to fold or risk looking racist and being blown up in the media etc for this. For weeks they had a section in their FAQ addressing people demanding P/F. Now, that section is gone and I can't find a statement from them against it anywhere.

These people should be petitioning their schools for extensions on their Step deadline if they feel unable to sit for the exam right now, not pushing for it to be P/F. I don't understand the all-or-nothing argument. Additionally, I feel that as a minority in medicine, POC would actually probably be negatively affected by a P/F Step. Just like DOs or those from low-tier MD schools, the score is an opportunity to rise above the white guy from Harvard. To make the assumption that all POC would benefit from P/F, as the letter seems to state, is kind of unfair to many of those students who have been working hard for the last 2 years to make sure they can overcome bias.
 
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The problem is that the select few are always the ones that are the loudest. There have been multiple petitions for P/F Step due to COVID and what not, but I've never seen a petition going in the other direction. However, blaming COVID is different than using racism as the reason. With everything going on, if this is the loudest voice heard, NBME might be under intense pressure to fold or risk looking racist and being blown up in the media etc for this. For weeks they had a section in their FAQ addressing people demanding P/F. Now, that section is gone and I can't find a statement from them against it anywhere.

These people should be petitioning their schools for extensions on their Step deadline if they feel unable to sit for the exam right now, not pushing for it to be P/F. I don't understand the all-or-nothing argument. Additionally, I feel that as a minority in medicine, POC would actually probably be negatively affected by a P/F Step. Just like DOs or those from low-tier MD schools, the score is an opportunity to rise above the white guy from Harvard. To make the assumption that all POC would benefit from P/F, as the letter seems to state, is kind of unfair to many of those students who have been working hard for the last 2 years to make sure they can overcome bias.

There is still a statement about it on their Twitter page right around when all the shut downs started. I don’t have a lot of faith in the NBME but I wouldn’t take that not being in the FAQs as a sign of anything. They likely feel like they’ve already addressed that issue and are moving forward. I really don’t think they could change it even if they wanted to as they’ve said themselves many times that the logistics are impossible at this time. They were feeling a lot of pressure from deans around the time of the Prometric Thanos snapping to change the scoring now and apparently told them that it’s not something that can be flipped like a switch and implemented immediately. I don’t see how this would be different.
 
There is still a statement about it on their Twitter page right around when all the shut downs started. I don’t have a lot of faith in the NBME but I wouldn’t take that not being in the FAQs as a sign of anything. They likely feel like they’ve already addressed that issue and are moving forward. I really don’t think they could change it even if they wanted to as they’ve said themselves many times that the logistics are impossible at this time. They were feeling a lot of pressure from deans around the time of the Prometric Thanos snapping to change the scoring now and apparently told them that it’s not something that can be flipped like a switch and implemented immediately. I don’t see how this would be different.
I'd like to 100% agree with you, and I do see your points. If this was another petition because of COVID, I wouldn't be concerned. The only way I see this being different is that there can be serious fear of backlash and being painted in the media as not being supportive of POC students. I guess we will just have to wait and see, like everything else with this roller coaster of the last few months.
 
Embarrassing question - is there a resource for learning how to answer the “human” questions?

I swear I’m not one of those robot people who’s lived in a basement forever - I have a bunch of letters from patients in my closet saying I’m nice and compassionate and whatever. However, it’s 50/50 at best whether I can get the “what do you say next?” questions right. I usually miss them because absolutely none of the answers are things I would say, and honestly, I’d laugh if I overhead people saying some of those “right” answers to a patient in the real world because they’re so over the top.

Please tell me there’s a resource to learn how to be “human” for the purposes of this exam. :laugh:
 
The problem is that the select few are always the ones that are the loudest. There have been multiple petitions for P/F Step due to COVID and what not, but I've never seen a petition going in the other direction. However, blaming COVID is different than using racism as the reason. With everything going on, if this is the loudest voice heard, NBME might be under intense pressure to fold or risk looking racist and being blown up in the media etc for this. For weeks they had a section in their FAQ addressing people demanding P/F. Now, that section is gone and I can't find a statement from them against it anywhere.

These people should be petitioning their schools for extensions on their Step deadline if they feel unable to sit for the exam right now, not pushing for it to be P/F. I don't understand the all-or-nothing argument. Additionally, I feel that as a minority in medicine, POC would actually probably be negatively affected by a P/F Step. Just like DOs or those from low-tier MD schools, the score is an opportunity to rise above the white guy from Harvard. To make the assumption that all POC would benefit from P/F, as the letter seems to state, is kind of unfair to many of those students who have been working hard for the last 2 years to make sure they can overcome bias.
as someone from a mid-tier MD (like in the 40s-50s rank) i agree. step 1 is like the 1 shot to do what u wanna do and ur ridding people of essentially upward mobility.
 
I'd like to 100% agree with you, and I do see your points. If this was another petition because of COVID, I wouldn't be concerned. The only way I see this being different is that there can be serious fear of backlash and being painted in the media as not being supportive of POC students. I guess we will just have to wait and see, like everything else with this roller coaster of the last few months.

Oh I agree completely. And while I am sympathetic to what has and is happening, I still see a lot of flaws in their argument and I have to imagine the NBME will as well. Especially when a lot of people in the class of 2022 have already taken it and received a score and I think there could be legal ramifications if they were to try to retroactively change numerical scores when they’ve said multiple times that they wouldn’t do so for our class.
 
Embarrassing question - is there a resource for learning how to answer the “human” questions?

I swear I’m not one of those robot people who’s lived in a basement forever - I have a bunch of letters from patients in my closet saying I’m nice and compassionate and whatever. However, it’s 50/50 at best whether I can get the “what do you say next?” questions right. I usually miss them because absolutely none of the answers are things I would say, and honestly, I’d laugh if I overhead people saying some of those “right” answers to a patient in the real world because they’re so over the top.

Please tell me there’s a resource to learn how to be “human” for the purposes of this exam. :laugh:
I don't know if there's any one resource. The thing that helped me most was just doing questions over and over and eventually you start to see a pattern for what they want no matter how stupid it actually sounds? When in doubt, pick the answer that puts the least blame on the patient and is the most open-ended. Non-judgmental. Acknowledge their struggles. Don't make any assumptions on what they're feeling in your response. I don't know if this helps at all but that has been my strategy.
 
I don't know if there's any one resource. The thing that helped me most was just doing questions over and over and eventually you start to see a pattern for what they want no matter how stupid it actually sounds? When in doubt, pick the answer that puts the least blame on the patient and is the most open-ended. Non-judgmental. Acknowledge their struggles. Don't make any assumptions on what they're feeling in your response. I don't know if this helps at all but that has been my strategy.

It’s definitely helpful. I’ve gotten a lot of the ones that are “find out what the patient understands” and that’s usually a right answer, but not always, so between that and the open ended statement it might just be enough.
 
I can't bring myself to believe any reason provided for an immediate switch to P/F is genuine. All these people started med school with the understanding the USMLE was a scored exam, and I have trouble believing many people who have worked their butt off during the last two years would support an immediate switch to P/F. Its an easy way out for people who haven't been disciplined during med school and who have trouble studying at home. Honestly, there arent many things easier than studying at home. It just feels like incredible laziness to me and I get so annoyed sometimes 🙁.

I sincerely hope this doesn't happen. My understanding is that the NBME tends not to enforce sudden changes, though. Any time they've wanted to change something, they let us know well in advance. So hopefully even if a switch to P/F does come about 2022, I hope we have at least a few months of warning to get through the exam. Although the trend so far has been to delay scheduled changes (like the Step 1 content change, match date etc).

Here are some of the things going on:

20200608_101503.jpg
 
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Here are some of the things going on:

View attachment 309344
People have family members die, get broken up with, get sick, etc in this process. I don’t have any sympathy for this argument.
 
Here are some of the things going on:

View attachment 309344
The person who wrote the letter responded to a reddit post. They basically said “to those that disagree you either didn’t read this critically or don’t stand with black people.” I’m paraphrasing here but that’s what I got from it. Unfortunate that the current trend is black and white thinking with no grey middle. Can’t you stand with black people on the majority of issues but disagree that step needs to go P/F?

I don’t want to get into a political discussion here, it’s just disappointing to see how everyone is becoming so radical right now and using the political climate as leverage for something like this.
 
The person who wrote the letter responded to a reddit post. They basically said “to those that disagree you either didn’t read this critically or don’t stand with black people.” I’m paraphrasing here but that’s what I got from it. Unfortunate that the current trend is black and white thinking with no grey middle. Can’t you stand with black people on the majority of issues but disagree that step needs to go P/F?

I don’t want to get into a political discussion here, it’s just disappointing to see how everyone is becoming so radical right now and using the political climate as leverage for something like this.
I'm black and I agree with you.
 
if people used the time to study instead of writing these stupid letters they would probably actually do decent on the test. Also willing to guarantee if the people who write these letters pull a solid score out (240+), you won't hear from them again on changing it to P/F
 
if people used the time to study instead of writing these stupid letters they would probably actually do decent on the test. Also willing to guarantee if the people who write these letters pull a solid score out (240+), you won't hear from them again on changing it to P/F
thats probs the harsh reality. side note: i also wouldnt be surprised if overall med school matriculation declines over the next few years because of this p/f change. imo p/f change was probs a deliberate move to increase # of pcps in this country but i could be totally wrong.
 
Embarrassing question - is there a resource for learning how to answer the “human” questions?

I swear I’m not one of those robot people who’s lived in a basement forever - I have a bunch of letters from patients in my closet saying I’m nice and compassionate and whatever. However, it’s 50/50 at best whether I can get the “what do you say next?” questions right. I usually miss them because absolutely none of the answers are things I would say, and honestly, I’d laugh if I overhead people saying some of those “right” answers to a patient in the real world because they’re so over the top.

Please tell me there’s a resource to learn how to be “human” for the purposes of this exam. :laugh:
Idk if this is the stuff you are referring to but I struggle with the same thing. This video really helped me
 
thats probs the harsh reality. side note: i also wouldnt be surprised if overall med school matriculation declines over the next few years because of this p/f change. imo p/f change was probs a deliberate move to increase # of pcps in this country but i could be totally wrong.
idk how P/F will increase PCPs. There are still going to be the same number of specialty spots, and hospitals will still want that cheap labor. If anything it will lead to less people applying PC since the biggest weed out factor, a low step 1 score, will be gone. Sure PDs will probably switch to Step 2 score but you can now study for step 2 for three years instead of just 1 if you really wanted to be a gunner.
 
idk how P/F will increase PCPs. There are still going to be the same number of specialty spots, and hospitals will still want that cheap labor. If anything it will lead to less people applying PC since the biggest weed out factor, a low step 1 score, will be gone. Sure PDs will probably switch to Step 2 score but you can now study for step 2 for three years instead of just 1 if you really wanted to be a gunner.

It will probably further push DO schools to pumping out solely PCPs.
 
It will probably further push DO schools to pumping out solely PCPs.

Yeah I agree. I think it also hurts the state MD schools and non top40 students from getting into the competitive fields too. Having a good step score was one of the only things that could separate a mid-tier state school student from a Hopkins student
 
The person who wrote the letter responded to a reddit post. They basically said “to those that disagree you either didn’t read this critically or don’t stand with black people.” I’m paraphrasing here but that’s what I got from it. Unfortunate that the current trend is black and white thinking with no grey middle. Can’t you stand with black people on the majority of issues but disagree that step needs to go P/F?

I don’t want to get into a political discussion here, it’s just disappointing to see how everyone is becoming so radical right now and using the political climate as leverage for something like this.

As a rule I never argue with people like this because its pointless. I'm sure there are many African American physicians working just as diligently as always even in the chaos engulfing the USA. She can forward the cause better by taking the exam instead of asking for a handout. She wants to fight for justice, and on the way commit an injustice to all those who've worked their skin off for the past 2 years. She wants to be heard, but in the process she's unwilling to hear dissenting opinions. I'm not American and I could never understand or feel whats happening like most of you, but this particular person just seems exploitative to me.
 
How will this be the case if there are still the same amount of specialty spots, and Step 2 is still scored?

The thinking is that as things are right now, its harder for a DO to get into a competitive specialty (which is not new news), but if a DO student can score really well on step 1 then they can increase their chances. If you take away this metric, its now even harder for them to get into these specialties. Some people think Step 2 remaining scored will prevent this, others think step 2 won't carry as much weight as step 1 did, who knows.
 
How will this be the case if there are still the same amount of specialty spots, and Step 2 is still scored?
Also, it's kind of hard to commit to a competitive specialty if you're not going to find out whether or not you actually stand a chance until summer before applying to residency when Step 2 scores come out. I'm interested in IM or FM so it doesn't matter for me, but I'm not sure if I would choose DO if I was a current incoming MS-1 interested in anything more competitive. Too much uncertainty.
 
slowing seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with zanki as my daily review number goes down. I'll be done with the whole thing including pharm and pepper micro this Thursday. I separated out the cards I have left into their own deck, it does wonders to see 900 reviews do for the path and phys cards every morning instead of 1200 lol. Looking forward to have an extra 1-2 hours a day to do more practice questions. Wish I had started it 1st year, all of zanki in 10ish months has not been fun lol

Of course I'll start with the Dorian deck like 2 weeks after step, FML
 
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