USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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GoCards05 said:
I have heard this happening to other people as well. I rescheduled my canceled appointment and it reflects my rescheduled date now, have you been able to reschedule yet?
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Im not going to reschedule until I know for certain my original date has been canceled. But the website still saying its valid even though I got a cancelled email on Monday.
 
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Chelsea FC said:
Im not going to reschedule until I know for certain my original date has been canceled. But the website still saying its valid even though I got a cancelled email on Monday.
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I think the general consensus is to go with the cancellation email. That's what the NBME has been telling people who either haven't had their date updated in the system or got that wacky confirmation email for a previously canceled appointment. I saw a lucky soul who got through to Prometric was also told that as well. There seems to be a lot of glitches in their site right now.
 
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JDDrCOX said:
Just like that Biostat video, do u have any other recommended video for communication and behavior science.
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Not a video but my approach to these questions is to either choose the response that asks for more information from the patient (patient who hasn’t been sticking to their meds, ask “what do you know about your medical regimen” or something similar) or the most absolute overly saccharine response you can (guy shouts at you telling you to eat **** you respond “I’m so so sorry this is so hard for you, how can I help make things better?”). These approaches have gotten me pretty much every single one of those right.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Does anyone have good resources for biochem? I can’t seem to keep all my enzyme names straight and all my random enzyme diseases straight at all.
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B&B is always good for biochem. Honestly don't think its very high yield/worth the time/energy to study all the Krebs cycle type enzymes if thats what you're referring to
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
B&B is always good for biochem. Honestly don't think its very high yield/worth the time/energy to study all the Krebs cycle type enzymes if thats what you're referring to
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I’m just having a hard time remembering what enzyme is wrong in gaucher vs hurler vs hunter vs Ray Sachs etc, what builds up, etc.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
I’m just having a hard time remembering what enzyme is wrong in gaucher vs hurler vs hunter vs Ray Sachs etc, what builds up, etc.
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oh yeah I feel you. The only way I got those to stick was by literally writing them down on my whiteboard like 5 times and making sure to do those flash cards everyday. those are ones are annoying to try and remember
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
oh yeah I feel you. The only way I got those to stick was by literally writing them down on my whiteboard like 5 times and making sure to do those flash cards everyday. those are ones are annoying to try and remember
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Seems like that’s what I’ll have to do, unfortunately. Lots of disease processes in Biochem that I just do not have down. Next couple of weeks will be trying to fix that + get through pharm. Immunology has been weak for me too, but that shouldn’t be too tough.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Unwilling July gang checking in! Do you have COMLEX first now?
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Yeah man and I don't know how I feel about that. Thinking about just moving comlex to like october I don't really care about that test. Ive heard that the exam you take first you always do better on but that is anecdotal information lol. I still have my COMLEX date as of now for June 12th but I think I am going to move it
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Seems like that’s what I’ll have to do, unfortunately. Lots of disease processes in Biochem that I just do not have down. Next couple of weeks will be trying to fix that + get through pharm. Immunology has been weak for me too, but that shouldn’t be too tough.
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Just look at it this way. You have these knowledge gaps and u still killing it. A few weeks to patch that up and yall be bossing even more.
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
B&B is always good for biochem. Honestly don't think its very high yield/worth the time/energy to study all the Krebs cycle type enzymes if thats what you're referring to
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I love BnB but I think one thing that held me back during pre-dedicated was trying to write down and memorize everything Dr. Ryan says. He goes in way too much detail a lot of the time and it can get confusing. If you can pick out the HY stuff hes great and I think by now most of us know what is HY and what isn't with all the questions weve been doing
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
LOLOLOLOL great minds...... hopefully pass boards
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@Mr.IceHockey @Deecee2DO

1588353047434.png
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Yeah man and I don't know how I feel about that. Thinking about just moving comlex to like october I don't really care about that test. Ive heard that the exam you take first you always do better on but that is anecdotal information lol. I still have my COMLEX date as of now for June 12th but I think I am going to move it
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Yeah right now I have June 22 Level 1 and July 20 Step 1 (provided no more cancellations). I have thought about moving Level 1 but since mine are only a month apart I might just bite the bullet and get it over with. I changed my study schedule around and will basically go through dedicated like I'm preparing for Step, cram some OMM a week before and take Level 1 then keep up with UWorld and Anki in between the two. At least that way I'll be done with OMM BS. A lot of my classmates now either have a June Step 1 and August/September Level 1 or they just rescheduled both for August/September so they don't have to go through two dedicated periods. I feel like there's really no right answer and just do what you feel is best. It's a sucky situation for everyone.
 
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JDDrCOX said:
Just like that Biostat video, do u have any other recommended video for communication and behavior science.
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I do not have a video, but I've heard the BnB ones are good? Like @Steve_Zissou said, just pick the answer that's the least judgmental/confrontational etc. Also, the one that's the most like an open-ended question and/or sympathizes with the patient. So like if the question stem talks about
a patient who doesn't take their meds for HTN, the response is "it must be hard to take so many medications for a condition that causes no symptoms"
because that shows empathy and also is open-ended so the patient can respond with how they are truly feeling or some crap like that.
 
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Do we know for sure if these new "communication" questions being added to Step 1 in June are lengthening the exam beyond 280 questions or just composing a larger portion of it?
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I do not have a video, but I've heard the BnB ones are good? Like @Steve_Zissou said, just pick the answer that's the least judgmental/confrontational etc. Also, the one that's the most like an open-ended question and/or sympathizes with the patient. So like if the question stem talks about
a patient who doesn't take their meds for HTN, the response is "it must be hard to take so many medications for a condition that causes no symptoms"
because that shows empathy and also is open-ended so the patient can respond with how they are truly feeling or some crap like that.
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I legit got this question a couple of days ago and slightly eye rolled. I get the general idea/approach but the phrasing is just so damn cringey.
 
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Lol so a bunch of spots opened in May and June across the country on Prometric tonight so I went ahead and took my original Step date back. No idea if they're real or not but it felt like the right decision to make. I know a lot of other people in my class and on Reddit did the same thing.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Lol so a bunch of spots opened in May and June across the country on Prometric tonight so I went ahead and took my original Step date back. No idea if they're real or not but it felt like the right decision to make. I know a lot of other people in my class and on Reddit did the same thing.
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Who knows at this point. I went ahead and rescheduled my June 10th date for June 12th at a more convenient location. If they cancel it and force me into July, they were going to do it regardless so whatever.
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
Who knows at this point. I went ahead and rescheduled my June 10th date for June 12th at a more convenient location. If they cancel it and force me into July, they were going to do it regardless so whatever.
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That is very true. There was no certainty I'd get to keep my July date and if these spots end up being legit, I'd be kicking myself for not jumping on my old date. I feel like Prometric can't afford to make an error of that capacity after everything this week but we will see. It felt like the right decision.
 
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Last night I started to hit my Uworld grind, was in the middle of a block when I got an email from move my exam. Rushed over and was able to get a much better Step date (taking it in the summer instead of the middle of my first rotation) and forgot that I had selected the block for timed instead of tutor. Proceed to get a 20%. Erased all my forward progress from the day lol. At this point idk if I'll ever break 70% correct
 
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ohmanwaddup said:
Last night I started to hit my Uworld grind, was in the middle of a block when I got an email from move my exam. Rushed over and was able to get a much better Step date (taking it in the summer instead of the middle of my first rotation) and forgot that I had selected the block for timed instead of tutor. Proceed to get a 20%. Erased all my forward progress from the day lol. At this point idk if I'll ever break 70% correct
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My dude, if I am chillin at 50% on my first pass with 67% completed and I feel very okay with that lol I am not going to break 70% correct on my first pass either.
Damn should I be concerned??
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
My dude, if I am chillin at 50% on my first pass with 67% completed and I feel very okay with that lol I am not going to break 70% correct on my first pass either.
Damn should I be concerned??
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Yall should keep track of the percentiles i think since its hard to move overall percent once youve done a lot of questions. thats what Ive experienced. Youll climb as you do more questions def dont freak out. How many questions overall have you done you think like all Qbanks included
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Yall should keep track of the percentiles i think since its hard to move overall percent once youve done a lot of questions. thats what Ive experienced. Youll climb as you do more questions def dont freak out. How many questions overall have you done you think like all Qbanks included
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Lets see.... in total I have done 1995 questions, and in the last week my average score is 53% correct, up from an average of 47% the week before.
Yay progress?
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
Lets see.... in total I have done 1995 questions, and in the last week my average score is 53% correct, up from an average of 47% the week before.
Yay progress?
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Dude thats great progress. Keep trucking. 1995 isnt that many questions i didnt hit 70+% on UW until i hit like 3000 questions overall. If you had done like a bajilion questions and still at 53% thatd be a different story. Youre at where you should be. Youll get there
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
Lets see.... in total I have done 1995 questions, and in the last week my average score is 53% correct, up from an average of 47% the week before.
Yay progress?
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That's great.

I saw a significant improvement (10%) between my % correct between USMLERx and UWorld. AKA you can continue to see improvement as you do questions too. Learning from every single question is key. I usually spend 2-3 hours reviewing 40 questions.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Dude thats great progress. Keep trucking. 1995 isnt that many questions i didnt hit 70+% on UW until i hit like 3000 questions overall. If you had done like a bajilion questions and still at 53% thatd be a different story. Youre at where you should be. Youll get there
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Thanks man. I also have to remember to move back to do more COMLEX style questions because there is such a difference, but uWorld is so nice for helping me learn and navigate through material.
 
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Cath Up said:
That's great.

I saw a significant improvement (10%) between my % correct between USMLERx and UWorld. AKA you can continue to see improvement as you do questions too. Learning from every single question is key. I usually spend 2-3 hours reviewing 40 questions.
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Yeah reviewing the questions takes a huge chunk of my day. For example, right now I am taking a break after review the last 20 questions I did. I started that task about an hour and a half ago.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Did my first set of ComQuest questions yesterday and it predicted me at 91st percentile. I’m sure it doesn’t mean jack but still a nice little ego booster.
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Take it and run!!! Mine has me at 60th% but that was mostly from well before dedicated with only about 600 questions done. Ya boi just wants a 530 plus on COMLEX. I am a simple man.

**Edit: I am not at 60th percentile, I am at 60% correct. Typo above will not be removed or deleted for continuity sake given clarification I provided below.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Is that ComQuest or Combank? 60th percentile is a great place to be if you did most of it before dedicated!
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COMQUEST. I don't care for combank too much. I still use it though, but COMQUEST is much better and imo actually mimics the COMSAE a bit more than combank, and supposedly COMQUEST is more like the comlex so I tend to stick to that one.
My average is awful in combank because my school made us do these assessments on it starting in September for stuff we hadn't covered yet so I have like 1000 questions done on it where I am sitting at the 40th percentile.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Did my first set of ComQuest questions yesterday and it predicted me at 91st percentile. I’m sure it doesn’t mean jack but still a nice little ego booster.
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It honestly probs means a lot if youre sitting at 70s or 80s on UW rocking comquest sounds about right since its comlex style which is typically easier
 
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