USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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You ever have one of those blocks where you just completely glaze over most of the info on the prompt? Literally yesterday had my best Rx block to date, today dropped by 16% from that one (still above the average for the block, which I guess is what counts?). I literally answered a question, got it wrong, looked at the info, and then was like "huh, didn't even see that". Happened multiple times lol. Getting stir crazy I guess.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
You ever have one of those blocks where you just completely glaze over most of the info on the prompt? Literally yesterday had my best Rx block to date, today dropped by 16% from that one (still above the average for the block, which I guess is what counts?). I literally answered a question, got it wrong, looked at the info, and then was like "huh, didn't even see that". Happened multiple times lol. Getting stir crazy I guess.
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Same. Got ~75% on a Uworld block and felt like I was on top of the world. Went down to 60% on the next block due to dumb mistakes and zoning out. The burnout throughout the week definitely doesn’t help.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Unfortunately, I'm not taking and NBME, I'm taking a school mandated practice exam. It's dumb too because their only goal is to get us to pass and I've shown that I can more than pass the COMLEX already so they should just let me forego their 400 question COMLEX practice exams and do my own.
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Yeah we had a practice COMLEX assessment exam that we had to take but it didnt count which was weird. I walked in put B for everything and left lmao such a waste of my time. The one that matters for us is the one we take in April and if we don't pass that with a certain score they force us to take a review course
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
You ever have one of those blocks where you just completely glaze over most of the info on the prompt? Literally yesterday had my best Rx block to date, today dropped by 16% from that one (still above the average for the block, which I guess is what counts?). I literally answered a question, got it wrong, looked at the info, and then was like "huh, didn't even see that". Happened multiple times lol. Getting stir crazy I guess.
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Happens to me all the time. I get so burned out at the end of the day that I speed read question stems so fast I don't even read them and then wonder why I get those questions wrong when I knew the info. Combination of my dumb mistakes and being tired for things I know I should have gotten right. Just two days ago I destroyed a block of 35 highest ever percentage for me and then next day got wrecked but then when I saw the avg i was just around it so it also depends on the difficulty of the questions that end up in the block it could be littered with hard questions
 
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Took last few days off, registered the exam for April 23. Gonna save UWSA 2 till April 14. Pray for me. I will go easy today and study central dogma and microbio. Will start serious studying from tomorrow morning with a detailed 4 week schedule. I just want 230-240. Good luck guys study hard, will update you guys later.
 
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For those of you that take a day or two off AND are doing anki, do you still do your anki cards for that day or do you just play catch up on the days after? Or have you guys stopped doing them at this point?
 
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Cranjis McBasketball said:
For those of you that take a day or two off AND are doing anki, do you still do your anki cards for that day or do you just play catch up on the days after? Or have you guys stopped doing them at this point?
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I don't have days off yet, but my plan for dedicated is to take a day off a week. For me that'll mean doing my Anki cards but not doing anything else. I would like to keep doing Anki up until a few days before my test.
 
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Cranjis McBasketball said:
For those of you that take a day or two off AND are doing anki, do you still do your anki cards for that day or do you just play catch up on the days after? Or have you guys stopped doing them at this point?
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Wish there were a way to completely pause Anki for a day to take it off. I still do all my Anki cards on off days, even if I’m kind of rushing through them.
 
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Is anyone making adjustments with the fact that your test dates might be cancelled?? Thinking I might slow down NBME test and keep hamming UWORLD .
 
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Chelsea FC said:
Is anyone making adjustments with the fact that your test dates might be cancelled?? Thinking I might slow down NBME test and keep hamming UWORLD .
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Recently incorporated amboss after calculating I can probably finish Kaplan by mid-April. I'll do 40 Kaplan questions and however many Amboss questions I have time for. If all goes as scheduled, I'll have Kaplan and uworld finished, with maybe ~1000 Amboss questions done. If we get pushed back I can at least finish Amboss as well. The only thing that really sucks is keeping up with cards if our exam gets pushed back. I'm ready to take Step and be done with that deck forever lol.
 
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Anyone school has given them any update on the situation? The latest we can take it is until mid may.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Preach. I don't know how much longer I can do the Anki grind, it's getting soul crushing waking up every day knowing 1000+ cards await me lol
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It's ****ing awful, but keep that light at the end of the tunnel in sight. A few more months stand between you and being finished with Zanki. A few more months stand between you and an exceptional board score. Keep fighting the good fight.

At least, that's what I tell myself every morning.
 
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Guys stupid Q, but in pathoma it says Pneumonia leads to decrease breath sounds and dullness to percussion. However, Uworld says Increase breadth sounds. I will immensely appreciate the help.
 
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JDDrCOX said:
Guys stupid Q, but in pathoma it says Pneumonia leads to decrease breath sounds and dullness to percussion. However, Uworld says Increase breadth sounds. I will immensely appreciate the help.
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Can you reference the question ID? I think Uw is in the wrong here if it says increased breath sounds. I would go with pathoma and first aid (page 680-2020 edition)
 
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Doesn't the FA says that in Pneumonia there r breadth sounds, it doesn't have an Up or down arrow. Also the reasoning in Uworld is bacterial pneumonia will cause alveolar exudate which is liquid rather than air, hence, increase breadth sounds and Bronchophony.
 
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JDDrCOX said:
Doesn't the FA says that in Pneumonia there r breadth sounds, it doesn't have an Up or down arrow. Also the reasoning in Uworld is bacterial pneumonia will cause alveolar exudate which is liquid rather than air, hence, increase breadth sounds and Bronchophony.
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Bacterial Pneumonia: Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology

Pneumonia can be generally defined as an infection of the lung parenchyma, in which consolidation of the affected part and a filling of the alveolar air spaces with exudate, inflammatory cells, and fibrin is characteristic. Infection by bacteria or viruses is the most common cause, although...
emedicine.medscape.com emedicine.medscape.com

Physical findings may include the following:

  • Adventitious breath sounds, such as rales/crackles, rhonchi, or wheezes



  • Decreased intensity of breath sounds
 
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JDDrCOX said:
Guys stupid Q, but in pathoma it says Pneumonia leads to decrease breath sounds and dullness to percussion. However, Uworld says Increase breadth sounds. I will immensely appreciate the help.
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I have never heard of pneumonia having increased breath sounds on Pathoma, Zanki, or any Rx question I've done. Probably an error.
 
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Glad to hear I'm not the only one having trouble keeping up with Zanki. Debating if I should drop it and do questions only with <3 months left, but it really helps keep some facts straight. With 1000+ cards daily I keep having to postpone though, it's just too much. Good news is I have about 1600 cards remaining.
 
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JDDrCOX said:
i will get will 4-5 67-78% range and then boom all of a sudden a block of 55%. But again i learn from my mistakes and not repeat them, still ****ing silly mistakes i make drops me from getting 33-34q/block right to 26-29!
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I think one of the most helpful things I did during my test preparation was keeping a spreadsheet of all my missed questions and thinking critically about why I missed them. Then I could look over that and figure out how to adapt my test taking style to best minimize true mistakes (vs knowledge gaps).
 
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FindersFee5 said:
I think one of the most helpful things I did during my test preparation was keeping a spreadsheet of all my missed questions and thinking critically about why I missed them. Then I could look over that and figure out how to adapt my test taking style to best minimize true mistakes (vs knowledge gaps).
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Yes me too!
 
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HopeImakeit said:

Bacterial Pneumonia: Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology

Pneumonia can be generally defined as an infection of the lung parenchyma, in which consolidation of the affected part and a filling of the alveolar air spaces with exudate, inflammatory cells, and fibrin is characteristic. Infection by bacteria or viruses is the most common cause, although...
emedicine.medscape.com emedicine.medscape.com

Physical findings may include the following:

  • Adventitious breath sounds, such as rales/crackles, rhonchi, or wheezes



  • Decreased intensity of breath sounds
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I think for bacterial pneumonia you just have to think whispered pectoriloquy, egophany, bronchial breath sounds, end inspiratory crackles rather than increased or decreased breath sounds per se its more of what kind of things you hear. At least that is what I have gathered since pretty much nothing else has those present
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Ok so did 2 blocks of 40 timed UW for the first time today after finishing Rx last weekend. Am I the only person that thinks UW is actually easier? My scores went way up compared to Rx. The questions are written so much better
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I thought the same.Uworld is pretty unambiguous, always leading you to a correct answer even if the physiology they’re testing is super hard sometimes.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Ok so did 2 blocks of 40 timed UW for the first time today after finishing Rx last weekend. Am I the only person that thinks UW is actually easier? My scores went way up compared to Rx. The questions are written so much better
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Pretty much everyone on the 2019 thread agreed with this, because the Rx questions are just written by students and are super nitpicky. My favorites are the ones where < 20% of people answered correctly and they don't even attach a FA reference page because the factoid they're testing isn't even in there lol
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Pretty much everyone on the 2019 thread agreed with this, because the Rx questions are just written by students and are super nitpicky. My favorites are the ones where < 20% of people answered correctly and they don't even attach a FA reference page because the factoid they're testing isn't even in there lol
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Lowest I saw was 11% once on Rx-like seriously get the heck out of here with that garbage lmao. I can completely understand what they meant on that thread now lol and now I remember you did mention that previously in this thread thanks for reminding me
 
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Deecee2DO said:
I heard Amboss is the king of difficult. Harder than UW and Rx and Kaplan but the explanations are really good apparently. Kind of like training for a marathon in big ass Timberlands
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I did some questions along with my buddy. Some of them were ridiculous to the point of being nonsensical and focused on some super (impressively) low-yield info. I was not a fan.
 
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Chelsea FC said:
I honestly feel 2nd run through UWORLD is better than most of these other Q-banks.
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UW is just so good. The questions are fair for the most part and the questions themselves are probably most representative of the actual exam so I've heard/read. imo Rx is good as a pre-UW bank to learn FA but doing Rx during dedicated weeks up until the exam as a primary bank is probably not the best idea yet i don't think many people do this anways. Kaplan is also good but it can get nitpicky with low-yield stuff as well but overall would say its the second best bank as far as closest to UW
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
I did some questions along with my buddy. Some of them were ridiculous to the point of being nonsensical and focused on some super (impressively) low-yield info. I was not a fan.
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Completely agree. I think it can train your mind to overthink things a little which could complicate stuff
 
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What are people's thoughts on Prometric....think we'll actually be able to test on our original dates (mine's end of June)?
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
In other news:
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7D5C2BC7-B42A-4165-9DE6-DB4818CBCE84.gif
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
What are people's thoughts on Prometric....think we'll actually be able to test on our original dates (mine's end of June)?
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I’m mid-June so I’m in the same limbo as you right now. I have to imagine at some point life will have to continue, and I can’t imagine that point being more than two months away.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
I’m mid-June so I’m in the same limbo as you right now. I have to imagine at some point life will have to continue, and I can’t imagine that point being more than two months away.
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Probably also a regional issue. If you're in NYC its not looking so good. But my guess is that in most areas of the country, the prometric centers will be open at that point
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
In other news:
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I figured they wouldn’t change it and I’m glad they didn’t. My test date is also mid-June and while it’s a possibility we’ll also be affected since the peak of this thing isn’t expected until May/June, I’m hoping we won’t! Still a lot of time between now and then.
 
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