USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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EMDoc22

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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!

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Thanks for the reply
goal is 240. yes memory mistakes mostly.
That was me as well. A lot of people told me to do uworld and forget First aid. But take that with a grain of salt. YOU know what your true weaknesses are. It sounds like you had the same issue as me, it came down to just a cold hard fact. So what I did In a day was 60% UW and it’s explanations and 40% of content review in FA. I can truly say during the exam I was getting the stuff I was missing only because I did review my weaknesses on FA, cold. So with 3 weeks left, try dividing your day like that.

Also when did you take these NBMEs? I’m not a big fan of NBMEs. They’ve always been lower than my UWSAs. But I’d say if you can try doing NBME 17 (got a couple questions verbatim from there), NBME 18, and Free 120.. That would be solid. My exam and a lot of other people’s exam felt like UW and free 120. I don’t know if it’s possible but the new NBMEs are highly recommended too. I just didn’t have the time to take them.

I think if your UWSA2 comes back as 240+, your next NBMEs are around 230+, and Free 120 is 80%+, you are in a good spot to set yourself up for a 240 if exam day goes well for you.
 
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That was me as well. A lot of people told me to do uworld and forget First aid. But take that with a grain of salt. YOU know what your true weaknesses are. It sounds like you had the same issue as me, it came down to just a cold hard fact. So what I did In a day was 60% UW and it’s explanations and 40% of content review in FA. I can truly say during the exam I was getting the stuff I was missing only because I did review my weaknesses on FA, cold. So with 3 weeks left, try dividing your day like that.

Also when did you take these NBMEs? I’m not a big fan of NBMEs. They’ve always been lower than my UWSAs. But I’d say if you can try doing NBME 17 (got a couple questions verbatim from there), NBME 18, and Free 120.. That would be solid. My exam and a lot of other people’s exam felt like UW and free 120. I don’t know if it’s possible but the new NBMEs are highly recommended too. I just didn’t have the time to take them.

I think if your UWSA2 comes back as 240+, your next NBMEs are around 230+, and Free 120 is 80%+, you are in a good spot to set yourself up for a 240 if exam day goes well for you.
Thank you so much will try to do nbme 18 uwsa2 and free 120 each week and cover fa on daily basis.
my previous nbmes are while doing uworld and not completing even once. Completed uworld and took uwsa1. now doing 3 blocks of uworld with explanations daily.
 
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If I take step 1 oct 6th will I have the score back by the 14th? Because of the two wed thing ?

i think itll be the following week. i think you can count 2 wed's if later in the week...3 wed's later if early in the week (basically the testing week releases at the same point)
 
If I take step 1 oct 6th will I have the score back by the 14th? Because of the two wed thing ?
No. I posted this in the step 2 thread.

and this is only applicable if you are a US student taking in the US at a regular prometric. Otherwise it was a variable/can be longer.
 

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Yallll. I got my score back! I waited till I got home to check. I was dying of anxiety all day and watched 11am come and go, but I’m on an audition rotation in the ICU and didn’t want to risk falling apart if I failed.

Tested 8/22. Feel horrible about it. A lot of 50/50 questions and really specific answer choices. Felt way harder than any practice blocks or tests.

8/2 NBME 24: 219

8/9 UWSA 1: 239

8/19 Free120: 83%

UWorld timed, random, 1st pass only (and didn’t finish....): 63%


Below average DO student taking after M3

Predictor: 240 +/- 7

Goal: 220 ..... but it was a literal nightmare so just hoping to pass at this point.

8/22 STEP 1: I got a 223!!! Yes it’s below the predictor but it’s above my goal!!! And I felt that wasn’t real anyway. Plus my test definitely did not play to my strengths. I am crying HAPPY tears!!!!
 
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Hello fellow medical students! i am very new on this forum but i am about 5 days away from exam time. I would love to hear some feedback on my progress, anything would help!

BASELINE NBME 21: 199 (took on aug 23)
UWSA2: 217 (took on sept 10)
NBME 18: 217 (took on sept 10)
UWSA1: 232 (took sept 14)
NBME 22: 205 (took sept 17, huge bummer but my mistakes were careless and trivial plus i heard the curve on this one was brutal so i wasn't completely discouraged so to speak)
USMLERx cumulative analysis: range of 220-260 with 240 predicted. 73% correct with some questions left but not a lot.
Finished Uworld twice this year (75% correct) with exposure to uworld since the last year or so. started exposing myself super early but results were sort of negligible, used it more as a learning tool rather than self assessing.

FREE 120 TODAY: 77% (92/120) correct

Even though my scores aren't crazy high i do not think i need to push if i just use this last few days to solidify some facts. if i am careful on test day to not make the dumb mistakes i feel like i can get that 230-240+ because i have a really good foundation. Thoughts?
 
Hello fellow medical students! i am very new on this forum but i am about 5 days away from exam time. I would love to hear some feedback on my progress, anything would help!

BASELINE NBME 21: 199 (took on aug 23)
UWSA2: 217 (took on sept 10)
NBME 18: 217 (took on sept 10)
UWSA1: 232 (took sept 14)
NBME 22: 205 (took sept 17, huge bummer but my mistakes were careless and trivial plus i heard the curve on this one was brutal so i wasn't completely discouraged so to speak)
USMLERx cumulative analysis: range of 220-260 with 240 predicted. 73% correct with some questions left but not a lot.
Finished Uworld twice this year (75% correct) with exposure to uworld since the last year or so. started exposing myself super early but results were sort of negligible, used it more as a learning tool rather than self assessing.

FREE 120 TODAY: 77% (92/120) correct

Even though my scores aren't crazy high i do not think i need to push if i just use this last few days to solidify some facts. if i am careful on test day to not make the dumb mistakes i feel like i can get that 230-240+ because i have a really good foundation. Thoughts?
Hey. I’ll be honest with you. My UWSA 2 predicted me within 5 and also my study buddy. I highly think 240 is difficult given you’re 5 days away but 230 might be if all goes well on exam day. Put your scores in the bigdaddyaorta predictor on reddit and see. I And many scored in our confidence intervals. My friend who got a 241 had 235+ on NBMEs and 240-245’s on UWSAs. USMLE RX predictor is useless. That’s way too big of a confidence interval to even act as an accurate predictor.

Edit: I’m predicting you in the 220’s range if I had to say. Bc of the UWSA2 and NBME18 you took recently. I know you assume you have a really good foundation but if those are your scores a week or two out, I’m sorry you aren’t showing the foundation you think your have for the 240 and 240+ Then. I’m not trying to be rude but I don’t want you to have an unrealistic prospect and bank on it.
 
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Hey. I’ll be honest with you. My UWSA 2 predicted me within 5 and also my study buddy. I highly think 240 is difficult given you’re 5 days away but 230 might be if all goes well on exam day. Put your scores in the bigdaddyaorta predictor on reddit and see. I And many scored in our confidence intervals. My friend who got a 241 had 235+ on NBMEs and 240-245’s on UWSAs. USMLE RX predictor is useless. That’s way too big of a confidence interval to even act as an accurate predictor.

Edit: I’m predicting you in the 220’s range if I had to say. Bc of the UWSA2 and NBME18 you took recently
thanks so much for your insight! i am definitely going to try that predictor and weigh my options in terms of what score i am willing to settle with. Since my mistakes mainly boil down to trivial facts I am going tackle those hard this weekend. Concept understanding wise i am fairly confident in.
 
Hey. I’ll be honest with you. My UWSA 2 predicted me within 5 and also my study buddy. I don’t think 240 is possible given you’re 5 days away but 230 might be if all goes well on exam day. Put your scores in the bigdaddyaorta predictor on reddit and see. I And many scored in our confidence intervals. My friend who got a 241 had 235+ on NBMEs and 240-245’s on UWSAs
thanks so much for your insight! i am definitely going to try that predictor and weigh my options in terms of what score i am willing to settle with. Since my mistakes mainly boil down to trivial facts I am going tackle those hard this weekend. Concept understanding wise i am fairly confident in.
That was me and my study buddy. But honestly with 217s it might not be just the trivial facts. Those trivial facts might be standing out to you more than usual but I just wanted to give you an accurate expectation for what you seem to be heading to the exam with. Of course you can see if you wanna delay if you aren’t happy with these predictors or your performances on a personal level.
 
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Hey. I’ll be honest with you. My UWSA 2 predicted me within 5 and also my study buddy. I highly think 240 is difficult given you’re 5 days away but 230 might be if all goes well on exam day. Put your scores in the bigdaddyaorta predictor on reddit and see. I And many scored in our confidence intervals. My friend who got a 241 had 235+ on NBMEs and 240-245’s on UWSAs. USMLE RX predictor is useless. That’s way too big of a confidence interval to even act as an accurate predictor.

Edit: I’m predicting you in the 220’s range if I had to say. Bc of the UWSA2 and NBME18 you took recently. I know you assume you have a really good foundation but if those are your scores a week or two out, I’m sorry you aren’t showing the foundation you think your have for the 240 and 240+ Then. I’m not trying to be rude but I don’t want you to have an unrealistic prospect and bank on it.
yes 100% agree. i am just so sick of delaying. i keep second guessing myself, this is truly my downfall. i will literally change answers to ones that make no sense after having fully explained it correctly in my head.
 
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yes 100% agree. i am just so sick of delaying. i keep second guessing myself, this is truly my downfall. i will literally change answers to ones that make no sense after having fully explained it correctly in my head.
You sound sooo much like me lol. I feel you man. You’ll never be ready 100%. Take it when you peak in studying. Cause it’s worse to keep delaying *hoping* the scores increase. I feel you. The test was definitely the easiest and most fairest one I’ve taken. Pray you make it happen! Best of luck.
 
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doclevi maybe glance at the uworld spreadsheet/journal by reddit user absalvtion. It really helped me on my cbse, it had almost everything that was tested. its in the latest post on his profile page. That is an incredibly high yield journal, with spaced repitition built in because he writes things multiple times in the spreadsheet.
 
Hello fellow medical students! i am very new on this forum but i am about 5 days away from exam time. I would love to hear some feedback on my progress, anything would help!

BASELINE NBME 21: 199 (took on aug 23)
UWSA2: 217 (took on sept 10)
NBME 18: 217 (took on sept 10)
UWSA1: 232 (took sept 14)
NBME 22: 205 (took sept 17, huge bummer but my mistakes were careless and trivial plus i heard the curve on this one was brutal so i wasn't completely discouraged so to speak)
USMLERx cumulative analysis: range of 220-260 with 240 predicted. 73% correct with some questions left but not a lot.
Finished Uworld twice this year (75% correct) with exposure to uworld since the last year or so. started exposing myself super early but results were sort of negligible, used it more as a learning tool rather than self assessing.

FREE 120 TODAY: 77% (92/120) correct

Even though my scores aren't crazy high i do not think i need to push if i just use this last few days to solidify some facts. if i am careful on test day to not make the dumb mistakes i feel like i can get that 230-240+ because i have a really good foundation. Thoughts?
Yeah I agree with the above reply, you’re looking like you’re around the 220s on the real deal. Your UWSA2 is what worries me, it predicted me within 1 point and not hitting 230 on that indicates either big knowledge gaps or big test taking issues but before you write it off as test taking issues look at your Uworld breakdown % in each category, are there some that really low (20-30%)? focus on those areas. Did you make a spread sheet of your incorrects? You need to hammer those.
And whatever your first answer is and I mean the very first one that pops out to you as correct, absolutely do not change it unless you know for a fact 100% that it’s wrong.
 
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Can anyone on here tell me how long it usually takes for them to release Step 1 scores? I'm a fourth year that decided to take it late and plan to take it Sep 26th. It was scheduled earlier but my exam has been getting cancelled/postponed. Is this test even worth taking now even though the October 21st deadline to submit ERAS is coming up?
 
Can anyone on here tell me how long it usually takes for them to release Step 1 scores? I'm a fourth year that decided to take it late and plan to take it Sep 26th. It was scheduled earlier but my exam has been getting cancelled/postponed. Is this test even worth taking now even though the October 21st deadline to submit ERAS is coming up?
It's been taking 2-3 Wednesdays, with Friday seeming to be the cutoff. So for September 26th, you're looking at getting your score October 14th probably.
 
Hello fellow medical students! i am very new on this forum but i am about 5 days away from exam time. I would love to hear some feedback on my progress, anything would help!

BASELINE NBME 21: 199 (took on aug 23)
UWSA2: 217 (took on sept 10)
NBME 18: 217 (took on sept 10)
UWSA1: 232 (took sept 14)
NBME 22: 205 (took sept 17, huge bummer but my mistakes were careless and trivial plus i heard the curve on this one was brutal so i wasn't completely discouraged so to speak)
USMLERx cumulative analysis: range of 220-260 with 240 predicted. 73% correct with some questions left but not a lot.
Finished Uworld twice this year (75% correct) with exposure to uworld since the last year or so. started exposing myself super early but results were sort of negligible, used it more as a learning tool rather than self assessing.

FREE 120 TODAY: 77% (92/120) correct

Even though my scores aren't crazy high i do not think i need to push if i just use this last few days to solidify some facts. if i am careful on test day to not make the dumb mistakes i feel like i can get that 230-240+ because i have a really good foundation. Thoughts?
Realistically I would put you on 220-225 range

My scores where 237 on NBME 18, 245 on UWSA1 and 240 on UWSA2 and I got a 232. I hope you get to score over 230 though! Good luck!
 
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Yeah I agree with the above reply, you’re looking like you’re around the 220s on the real deal. Your UWSA2 is what worries me, it predicted me within 1 point and not hitting 230 on that indicates either big knowledge gaps or big test taking issues but before you write it off as test taking issues look at your Uworld breakdown % in each category, are there some that really low (20-30%)? focus on those areas. Did you make a spread sheet of your incorrects? You need to hammer those.
And whatever your first answer is and I mean the very first one that pops out to you as correct, absolutely do not change it unless you know for a fact 100% that it’s wrong.
I second this entire post. Why? Changed 5 corrects to incorrects on the real deal
 
How about never change your answer?

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Well if a question ask what is 33+77 and you quickly answer 100, and then you come back to your senses and realize it's actually 110, Why would you leave 100 as the answer? That's why they say you have to be absolutely sure that the answer you're changing it to is the correct one.
 
hey guys! just wanted to give some inspo to anyone who may be taking the test soon and lurks this thread.
My bf was getting 210 on NBMEs and 220 on BOTH UWSAs. He got a 245.
He did: NBME 15,16,18, UWSA1, UWSA2!

i wanted to say: use that bigdaddyaorta predictor on Reddit! it predicts most people (except him lol)

edit: i know he's not the typical case, but we can all use some hope during this time and that practice tests are just practice at the end of the day. :)
 
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hey guys! just wanted to give some inspo to anyone who may be taking the test soon and lurks this thread.
My bf was getting 210 on NBMEs and 220 on BOTH UWSAs. He got a 245.
He did: NBME 15,16,18, UWSA1, UWSA2!

i wanted to say: use that bigdaddyaorta predictor on Reddit! it predicts most people (except him lol)

edit: i know he's not the typical case, but we can all use some hope during this time and that practice tests are just practice at the end of the day. :)
It’s actually so funny that I’m just now seeing this because I took the exam this morning and decided to log on. These were my NBME scores too. I actually felt SO good about the exam. The questions were so straight forward to me and I was able to recognize a lot of conditions thanks to uworld. The NBME questions are SO F***IN VAGUE. These step 1 questions had like sooooo many hints besides a handful total. There were only a few questions I flagged each block. Pathoma 1-3 the day before 100000% helped. There was like a solid 10-15 questions or so on inflammation, immunodeficiency etc. my foundation helped a lot for sure. Lots of renal physio for sure and your run of the mill micro(opportunistic infxns,etc). I made sure I hammered my weak anatomy points and was able to get a few rotator cuff qs right DEFF HIGH YIELD. Maybe cus Orthos make like $188181981818 a year. Anyways, Lambert Eaton, G6PD, a couple GIT malignancies. I truly think I did great but I’ll be happy with 220-230.
 
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Also made sure I hammered the **** out of bio stats which I was like soooo bad in. I had no trouble in the epi qs, it was basic p-value/statistical significance theory. Got the one on ROC curve. Had one basic pharm calculation on loading dose. I know this isn’t like crazy helpful but just trying to give everyone an idea that the bulk of the questions are wayyyy less vague than the NBMEs, more like uworld for sure, no wonder why it’s so freakin expensive. I BUILT MY FOUNDATION AND ALL OF PATHOPHYSIOLOGY FROM UWORLD. I had so much in my long term memory from hammering concepts and explanations from uworld. Connecting dots etc.
 
Also made sure I hammered the **** out of bio stats which I was like soooo bad in. I had no trouble in the epi qs, it was basic p-value/statistical significance theory. Got the one on ROC curve. Had one basic pharm calculation on loading dose. I know this isn’t like crazy helpful but just trying to give everyone an idea that the bulk of the questions are wayyyy less vague than the NBMEs, more like uworld for sure, no wonder why it’s so freakin expensive. I BUILT MY FOUNDATION AND ALL OF PATHOPHYSIOLOGY FROM UWORLD. I had so much in my long term memory from hammering concepts and explanations from uworld. Connecting dots etc.
The bottom line I would say is make sure you are always integrating your knowledge among different topics. Always think systemically! IMO.
 
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