USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Idk if its because It is hard to believe that part of board exams is finally here, but I'm just in a daze. I keep forgetting that I have comlex tmr. Really having a hart time staying motivated. worried I wont have any drive during the exam tmr
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hey guys rising M2 here so will be joining in on this grind soon

Just a quick question over something I've noticed though...

Do y'all believe Anki is causing predicted scores to be higher than they should be?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anki will overpredict your UWscore and percentage - Might be a good/bad thing. Overhaul, it's very dangerous because the real deal looks very different from UW or NBME (old). The format is the same but the devil is in the details.

Starting your NBME from the first form to the last, will also over predict your score - lots of repeats.
Online videos - Dirty USMLE/ Antiono Rusivo aka Cognitionis might also over-predict your score. Heck, I have watched one of those videos after taking UWSA2, and I kid you not, dude covered 98% of the questions I missed.

This exam is like the MCAT. So, it pays to know why you are getting questions wrong, especially on NBMEs! Unlike NBMEs, whcih have a bunch of traps, Uword is straight forward.
cptsam said:
hey guys rising M2 here so will be joining in on this grind soon

Just a quick question over something I've noticed though...

Do y'all believe Anki is causing predicted scores to be higher than they should be?
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cptsam said:
hey guys rising M2 here so will be joining in on this grind soon

Just a quick question over something I've noticed though...

Do y'all believe Anki is causing predicted scores to be higher than they should be?
Click to expand...
Scores are being over predicted for high scorers. on a block. 2 questions wrong is 5%. that is all it takes. Two mistakes per block and you drop from 75%-70%. Its important to note that on UWorld Qbank, 54th percentile is is like a 64%. 60th is 67%. All it takes is 2 questions more wrong than the other guys and you drop significantly at high scores.

This is just my personal hunch though
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Just finished. I have no words. Step was a beautiful exam and the questions were all good. When I didn't know something, it was on me. This??? I have no idea what just happened. I don't know how I'm gonna keep it together for 5+ weeks waiting for my score, I actually feel like I failed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Just finished. I have no words. Step was a beautiful exam and the questions were all good. When I didn't know something, it was on me. This??? I have no idea what just happened. I don't know how I'm gonna keep it together for 5+ weeks waiting for my score, I actually feel like I failed.
Click to expand...

Same.

I guess we've just gotta trust that our preparation helped us guess the right things. COMLEX is definitely an inferior exam.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Just finished. I have no words. Step was a beautiful exam and the questions were all good. When I didn't know something, it was on me. This??? I have no idea what just happened. I don't know how I'm gonna keep it together for 5+ weeks waiting for my score, I actually feel like I failed.
Click to expand...
llol cant wait to go through this tmr. any tips?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
llol cant wait to go through this tmr. any tips?
Click to expand...
Honestly? No, just be prepared to feel like crap. I think knowing that most people feel this way helped me stay calm because otherwise I would've freaked out. Only other thing I can suggest is dermatomes like others mentioned. Everything else is so random, and they focus on weird crap like I had 10 questions on the same thing. Didn't feel it was an accurate assessment of my knowledge at all.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Honestly? No, just be prepared to feel like crap. I think knowing that most people feel this way helped me stay calm because otherwise I would've freaked out. Only other thing I can suggest is dermatomes like others mentioned. Everything else is so random, and they focus on weird crap like I had 10 questions on the same thing. Didn't feel it was an accurate assessment of my knowledge at all.
Click to expand...
Lol cant wait to get 10 questions on a topic i am weak on.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
So what happens if you do well on step 1 but fail COMLEX?? Asking for a friend.
Click to expand...

I can’t tell you how many times I have asked myself this question over the past week and a half. One part of me says there’s no way I failed COMLEX given my Step score but the other part is like lol but seriously what if you did? Like I will legit cry tears of joy if I get a 400 at this point because I just want to pass and move on. I think I blocked out COMLEX because I was about to get my Step score at the time but thinking back on it now I feel awful about it. I think I marked 25 in one block and at like 10-15 in most of the others.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So if y'all go back a few weeks I wrote a post about my score; predicted was 257 real score was 253. I'm starting to study FM/IM Decks and realized in retrospect my weakest point on the exam was clinical management questions (there were questions on my step 1 straight from the dorian deck). No surprise, considering my school is a 2 yr preclinical. I think most people scoring above their predicted probably have 3 yr/2yr accelerated clinicals (or IMG tbh) and people scoring below their predicted probably have had no exposure to clinicals.

In retrospect, I wish I had done the FM/IM dorian deck (~5000 cards) would've easily gotten me 3-5 questions right probs would bumped me to the 255-260 range easily.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
If it makes you feel better, our school has a 98.1% pass rate for level one, 5% higher than the national average
Click to expand...
It slightly does lol. It's just painful how bad that exam was and how long I have to wait. I know I was legit telling @GoCards05 yesterday how everyone feels like crap, but now I feel like crap lol and it's harder to convince myself I passed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
If it makes you feel better, our school has a 98.1% pass rate for level one, 5% higher than the national average
Click to expand...

My school's level 1 pass rate last year was 90% (oof) compared to the 93% national pass rate and I'm wondering how I didn't know about that until like 10 minutes ago. I know board scores are really based on the individual but that's not a good stat for my school which is very established and has extensive GME. And it does nothing to soothe my score purgatory freak out either lol.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How the hell does my brain decided to freak the **** out and now im hardcore cramming at 5pm. I was so fried the last day and a half but now Im remembering I havent touched murmurs in forever and still dont know all the biostats equations. jesus
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
My school's level 1 pass rate last year was 90% (oof) compared to the 93% national pass rate and I'm wondering how I didn't know about that until like 10 minutes ago. I know board scores are really based on the individual but that's not a good stat for my school which is very established and has extensive GME. And it does nothing to soothe my score purgatory freak out either lol.
Click to expand...

Holy cow, 1 in 10 not passing is no bueno. I don’t remember my schools stats but I know they’re not great either
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
cptsam said:
hey guys rising M2 here so will be joining in on this grind soon

Just a quick question over something I've noticed though...

Do y'all believe Anki is causing predicted scores to be higher than they should be?
Click to expand...

yes. I was 260+ on UW1/2, 250 actual and I'm pretty sure this is why. Of course 250 was within my predicted range and im fine with it but the 10 point overshot still sucks

If I could go back I would avoid any deck with Uworld cards in it. Content is content but learning Uworld stuff by missing a question sticks better than any other way
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
Do I need anything tmr besides my food and ID? dO they give paper and pen?
Click to expand...

Nope, no permit for COMLEX so just have your ID. Also bring First Aid because COMLEX tends to repeat itself so if there's something you don't know in one block, take a look at that during a break because it'll likely show up again. They do give paper and pens before you start.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Steve_Zissou said:
Holy cow, 1 in 10 not passing is no bueno. I don’t remember my schools stats but I know they’re not great either
Click to expand...

Yeah that's pretty bad. I know there were some issues since the admin were preparing a new curriculum for my class but 10% not passing on the first try is inexcusable. Hopefully things go better for my class.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
calivianya said:
Just remember the exam is scaled. If the person who did the best only got 200/400 questions right, that crap’s gonna be 800 ish. I only know one person who thought comlex went better than step and she’s gunning for orthopedic surgery and has been studying up on MSK hard and doing ortho shadowing/research/whatever.




LOL I have literally thought about this a bunch over the past month. With COVID and the outrageous travel nursing pay for people with strong critical care/ICU experience, I could even pay off my current $200k+ probably with a year and then just pretend all of this never happened. ”You heard someone went to med school that works here? Nope, wasn’t me.“ :laugh:
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm trying to focus on that. Just concerned as I felt like crap about a majority of it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
YOU GUYS. I'm on my lunch break for COMLEX right now. What in the actual f*** is this exam, I feel so much worse than when I was taking Step. I have no idea what they're asking like 95% of the time, I feel Iike I'm failing wtf is happening
Click to expand...
fldoctorgirl said:
Just finished. I have no words. Step was a beautiful exam and the questions were all good. When I didn't know something, it was on me. This??? I have no idea what just happened. I don't know how I'm gonna keep it together for 5+ weeks waiting for my score, I actually feel like I failed.
Click to expand...

Well you got Gimpel'd lol.

Trust me, you'll end up just fine. Probably more than fine honestly.

Overall though yes, COMLEX is a complete crapshoot exam. The same person could get a 500 one day and the next roll a 700 simply because the form is different. Step is just such a better exam.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Type2Fiber said:
yes. I was 260+ on UW1/2, 250 actual and I'm pretty sure this is why. Of course 250 was within my predicted range and im fine with it but the 10 point overshot still sucks

If I could go back I would avoid any deck with Uworld cards in it. Content is content but learning Uworld stuff by missing a question sticks better than any other way
Click to expand...
Im seeing a lot of people who are in 260s on their practice tests that are hitting dead-on 250 or low 250s. Is it safe to say unless youre kicking 260s on practice tests its unlikely to hit 250 on test day? Im just seeing so many people underperform on test day compared to practice scores. The overprediction is real this year. Im high 230s on the new NBMEs but UWSA 250s and im just preparing for the 240s club just so I dont get disappointed. Still have to take NBME 18 so ill see how that goes
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
Comlex people, what was the biostats like? how heavy was it? I thought I had it undercontrol but apparently not.
Click to expand...
Varies. Some people said they had a lot but I'm not sure what their definition of a lot is? I probably had like ~5 straight math questions but I didn't feel they were too bad. Except for one that I had no clue about lol and just guessed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Well you got Gimpel'd lol.

Trust me, you'll end up just fine. Probably more than fine honestly.

Overall though yes, COMLEX is a complete crapshoot exam. The same person could get a 500 one day and the next roll a 700 simply because the form is different. Step is just such a better exam.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the encouragement. I just wanna pass at this point lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Seeing this overpredicting happening with people who used decks with uworld cards in it has me a little hopeful my prediction was on the money. I gave up on all premade decks and hadn’t done much for Zanki anyway before I gave it up (2k cards matured), and literally spent all of dedicated on decks I was making myself during dedicated.

Trying not to let it get my hopes up though. 235 is the bottom end of my confidence interval and I’ve decided that’s what I’ll be happy with if that’s what I get! I will have a full-on meltdown if my score is below that, though. Not even gonna lie.


ohmanwaddup said:
Comlex people, what was the biostats like? how heavy was it? I thought I had it undercontrol but apparently not.
Click to expand...

Mine was brutal. I felt pretty prepared, but there was a crap ton of stuff I’d never seen on there. And for reference, I’m in my school’s MPH program and took a biostats class fall 2019 as a required class. Not saying I remember all of it, but I’m saying mine was rough. I wanna say, if you include study designs and whatnot as biostats, I averaged 5-10 biostats questions per block and around 3 biostats math questions per block. Worst block I had six math questions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
calivianya said:
Seeing this overpredicting happening with people who used decks with uworld cards in it has me a little hopeful my prediction was on the money. I gave up on all premade decks and hadn’t done much for Zanki anyway before I gave it up (2k cards matured), and literally spent all of dedicated on decks I was making myself during dedicated.

Trying not to let it get my hopes up though. 235 is the bottom end of my confidence interval and I’ve decided that’s what I’ll be happy with if that’s what I get! I will have a full-on meltdown if my score is below that, though. Not even gonna lie.




Mine was brutal. I felt pretty prepared, but there was a crap ton of stuff I’d never seen on there. And for reference, I’m in my school’s MPH program and took a biostats class fall 2019 as a required class. Not saying I remember all of it, but I’m saying mine was rough. I wanna say, if you include study designs and whatnot as biostats, I averaged 5-10 biostats questions per block and around 3 biostats math questions per block. Worst block I had six math questions.
Click to expand...
Jesus christ. I think that might mean the end for me lol. the fact that there was only like 2-5 biostats on my comsase and combank practice exam artifically elevated my scrore
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
Jesus christ. I think that might mean the end for me lol. the fact that there was only like 2-5 biostats on my comsase and combank practice exam artifically elevated my scrore
Click to expand...

Some of that crap I think no one’s gonna know, but just review calculations for sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, odds ratio, relative risk, absolute risk reduction, number needed to treat, and number needed to harm. I feel like between all of those that will get 90% of the math questions. I want to say I had more than one number needed to treat, of course, because it’s one of the more complicated ones to do the math on.

Edit to add: and for the love of god make sure you check your equations vs what they are asking for in the stem. I caught myself on one question (was solving for relative risk or something when they had asked me something else), and the answer I got was one of the answer options. I.e. the distractors on the biostats questions are often the RIGHT way to do a different equation, so if you accidentally pick the wrong equation but do the math right, that’s going to be an answer option for you.

And also be mindful that when they give you a 2x2 table, some of them are flipped -> test on top and condition on the left. Redraw the 2x2 table on your paper so you don’t accidentally do the math based on what they give you. Step does this also but I didn’t think it was as bad.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
So what's the deal with people saying COMSAEs underpredict, like 105b by up to 100?? The COMSAE felt so much easier, I had a 566 on it so I thought I was solid but this just felt so much harder. But yet people say it majorly underpredicts?? Same with COMBANK, was predicted at like 680. I don't get the scoring?? Any thoughts @AnatomyGrey12
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
So what's the deal with people saying COMSAEs underpredict, like 105b by up to 100?? The COMSAE felt so much easier, I had a 566 on it so I thought I was solid but this just felt so much harder. But yet people say it majorly underpredicts?? Same with COMBANK, was predicted at like 680. I don't get the scoring?? Any thoughts @AnatomyGrey12
Click to expand...
It just seems like the forms are so random. For example: I am a below average student, so much so that I didnt even end up taking step because my test scores weren't where I wanted them to be. And I felt like my COMLEX was basically the COMBANK self assessment. It felt incredibly easy. After halfway through I thought it was a joke how buzz word heavy and first order heavy it was. I had questions that used buzz words basically work for word from sketchy. A couple of my friends had similar versions and others had versions that they said were the hardest exams they had ever taken before in their life. Its just so random. SO I am convinced I received their easiest COMLEX version they give haha
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Yeah I'm trying to focus on that. Just concerned as I felt like crap about a majority of it.
Click to expand...

You put in the work, I'm sure you did great, even if it doesn't feel like it right now. If you felt this way after taking the test, imagine how the average person who doesn't put in the same level of work zanki requires must feel after it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
In regards to doing UWorld incorrects for people that do them am I supposed to be getting 90%+ on them since I already did them once? Somehow I am actually getting 10% lower than my normal UWorld blocks. Is this bad? Seems like I must not be learning from my mistakes or maybe because i am getting further into the bank that my current incorrect questions are actually much harder questions since I am much further along in my prep. The national average on some of my incorrect blocks are like 50%
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was so confident this morning and now I am wigging the F out. All the empircal evidence says Ill be fine but Im convinced i am only going to get questions on my weak spots and Ill just implode. If I could move Comlex back 2 weeks right now I'd do it in a heart beat
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
But I also just did a 15 Q block on what I am most scared about (MSK and Neuro) on true learn. 80% correct. Jesus Christ I hate how nervous I am
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
In regards to doing UWorld incorrects for people that do them am I supposed to be getting 90%+ on them since I already did them once? Somehow I am actually getting 10% lower than my normal UWorld blocks. Is this bad? Seems like I must not be learning from my mistakes or maybe because i am getting further into the bank that my current incorrect questions are actually much harder questions since I am much further along in my prep. The national average on some of my incorrect blocks are like 50%
Click to expand...

I'm doing a little worse on them as well. I figure I scored a collective 0% on them the first time, so anything is an improvement at this point lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
No cranial wow thats a blessing lol
Click to expand...

I think I had one cranial question on mine (that I got wrong of course). I also only had a couple Chapman's, a couple counterstrain and a couple sacrum/pelvis. If they hadn't beaten me over the head with radiculopathies and obscure MSK anatomy, I would probably feel a lot better about my exam than I do lol.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
I think I had one cranial question on mine (that I got wrong of course). I also only had a couple Chapman's, a couple counterstrain and a couple sacrum/pelvis. If they hadn't beaten me over the head with radiculopathies and obscure MSK anatomy, I would probably feel a lot better about my exam than I do lol.
Click to expand...
I had like zero Chapman's and a crap ton of CS. I suck are CS no matter how many flashcards I've done on it and I already know I got like 50% of those wrong. They were asking me nitty gritty details about where specific points were located too. My exam felt very OMM heavy but they kept testing the same stuff over and over. I only had one sacrum which sucked because I'm actually good at sacrum lol.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
I had like zero Chapman's and a crap ton of CS. I suck are CS no matter how many flashcards I've done on it and I already know I got like 50% of those wrong. They were asking me nitty gritty details about where specific points were located too. My exam felt very OMM heavy but they kept testing the same stuff over and over. I only had one sacrum which sucked because I'm actually good at sacrum lol.
Click to expand...

Ugh I hate counterstrain, that sounds awful. Mine was heavy in viscerosomatics and set ups in terms of OMM so I guess I kinda lucked out there. And that’s the worst part about the exam is when they keep hitting a weakness and it just deflates your confidence. I must’ve had at least 50 MSK anatomy related questions and I’ll be lucky if I got half of them right.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
Ugh I hate counterstrain, that sounds awful. Mine was heavy in viscerosomatics and set ups in terms of OMM so I guess I kinda lucked out there. And that’s the worst part about the exam is when they keep hitting a weakness and it just deflates your confidence. I must’ve had at least 50 MSK anatomy related questions and I’ll be lucky if I got half of them right.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what sucked, I felt like most of the OMM I got was stuff I sucked at. Hoping it's just recall bias and I'm focusing on the stuff I missed. Gonna be a long 5 weeks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Yeah that's what sucked, I felt like most of the OMM I got was stuff I sucked at. Hoping it's just recall bias and I'm focusing on the stuff I missed. Gonna be a long 5 weeks.
Click to expand...

It really is cruel that you have to wait that long. I feel bad getting scores at the same time as people who tested in early May (nearly 2 months ago!) when I’ll have tested just two and a half weeks ago and that feels like a long time to wait. It should be no more than a month at the absolute maximum for everyone. At least you get your Step score next week which I’m sure will be fantastic and then just try to forget about this dumb exam until your score release.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
It really is cruel that you have to wait that long. I feel bad getting scores at the same time as people who tested in early May (nearly 2 months ago!) when I’ll have tested just two and a half weeks ago and that feels like a long time to wait. It should be no more than a month at the absolute maximum for everyone. At least you get your Step score next week which I’m sure will be fantastic and then just try to forget about this dumb exam until your score release.
Click to expand...
I'm trying my hardest. I keep looking up stuff and getting more and more wrong so I'm trying to stop....definitely sucks how long the wait is. Funny part is I think they changed the timeline, because I remember looking a bit after I scheduled my test and seeing that I would only have to wait like a week and being happy. I guess things got shifted by like a week due to the delays. I honestly just want to pass, give me a solid 400 and I'm happy.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
Cyrus you still killed it bud! Youll be good for a lot of rads programs with a 239 as an MD. How close to test day did you take those UWSAs and did you feel the real deal felt like them?
Click to expand...

I put the dates next to each test I took in that spreadsheet and my test day was 6/14. Honestly I thought it felt more like NBME questions with some Worlds mixed in. I think the reason a lot of people say it felt exactly like UWorld is because the screen is identical to uworld. But, there's probably a ton of different forms, and maybe mine was different, idk
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Transposony
Official 2024 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread
Replies
0
Views
2K
Transposony
Transposony
D
Step 1 and Level 1
Replies
1
Views
3K
DOcSto
D
C
Step 1 tutor available!
Replies
0
Views
962
chauhanjugalkishor
C
A
USMLE Step 1 resources for sale
Replies
0
Views
2K
accurate_branch20
A
G
  • Question Question
USMLE Out of time and not ready for Step 1. Have I screwed up?
Replies
0
Views
469
genteel-mug-sting
G
Top