USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Steve_Zissou said:
Have you taken 17 or 19 yet?
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I haven't done any of the old NBMEs and probably won't do any of them. I've only done NBME 20 and 21 as well as UWSA1 and will likely do 22-24, 18 and then UWSA2 and the free 120. I've heard the newer NBMEs are more similar/predictive than the old ones to the real deal so while I hate spending money on them, I'm going to do all of them and hope to be pleasantly surprised if the real thing is more UWorld-like.
 
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What are ya’lls thoughts on the free NBME’s (13-19) in terms of scoring vs the actual test? I recently did some and they were very demotivating 🙁
 
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Is it a bad idea to not do any COMLEX-specific banks? I've heard neither COMBANK nor ComQuest are all that great and since I have 10 days between my exams, I was just going to use Savarese and maybe an OMM anki deck to review. I'd rather not spend the money on them if it's not absolutely necessary.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Is it a bad idea to not do any COMLEX-specific banks? I've heard neither COMBANK nor ComQuest are all that great and since I have 10 days between my exams, I was just going to use Savarese and maybe an OMM anki deck to review. I'd rather not spend the money on them if it's not absolutely necessary.
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I have heard this too, but I think the reason why people should do them is precisely because they aren't super great. For example, after doing about 50-80 uworld questions, I will go do about 20 COMQUEST questions and the sheer difference between structure and wording is wild. Supposedly, COMLEX is a trash exam filled with vague question stems and odd answer choices. The COMLEX specific banks I feel try to mimic that, so on that merit alone, I think its worthwhile because it trains you for the COMLEX.

That said, learning material from uworld is still the best.
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
I have heard this too, but I think the reason why people should do them is precisely because they aren't super great. For example, after doing about 50-80 uworld questions, I will go do about 20 COMQUEST questions and the sheer difference between structure and wording is wild. Supposedly, COMLEX is a trash exam filled with vague question stems and odd answer choices. The COMLEX specific banks I feel try to mimic that, so on that merit alone, I think its worthwhile because it trains you for the COMLEX.

That said, learning material from uworld is still the best.
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I agree with this. The questions are wildly different from Uworld and the wording can be really weird. Do questions to prep, trust me.
 
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Maybe I'll just get a month long subscription to one of the COMLEX banks to use between Step and COMLEX. Do you guys recommend ComQuest or COMBANK?
 
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bluelamin said:
advice needed. ive finished uworld and would like to go over FA weak areas. but is it better to do rx questions or just brute force through the FA chapter?
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id hit amboss or kaplan my dude (preferrably amboss kaplan really kinda blows but its much better than Rx this point in the game). More questions the better. You dont wanna stop thinking like the exam. Keep your critical thinking sharp (Rx Anki and FA wont do that imo)
 
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GoCards05 said:
Is it a bad idea to not do any COMLEX-specific banks? I've heard neither COMBANK nor ComQuest are all that great and since I have 10 days between my exams, I was just going to use Savarese and maybe an OMM anki deck to review. I'd rather not spend the money on them if it's not absolutely necessary.
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Same here. I wouldnt touching any non-USMLE banks with a 10 foot pole. Gonna rip OMM the day before and thats prolly it
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I've been putting ~2 hours into Anki per day and have thought about limiting it but I just feel too nervous like you mentioned. I still find myself missing cards that were already mature so limiting myself makes me worried. I also want to start hitting that anatomy deck someone posted a bit back in the thread, but I'm dreading having to re-start with new cards after finally being done so I keep pushing it off. Trying to figure out the best way to incorporate content review too lol, fun times.
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What ive been doing to stay fresh and hit content but still stay in critical thinking mode is finding my lowest percentile subjects on UW and spending one day per week doing only those questions on tutor mode from another bank other than UW so you can save those (UW) for timed random and use it to test yourself as you continue to review your weaknesses from the other banks. Its helped me immensely. I only do like 1 block on fridays on tutor from Amboss or Kaplan and go through them carefully and slowly spending time youtubing topics or looking up stuff that confuses me as I review
 
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Deecee2DO said:
What ive been doing to stay fresh and hit content but still stay in critical thinking mode is finding my lowest percentile subjects on UW and spending one day per week doing only those questions on tutor mode from another bank other than UW so you can save those (UW) for timed random and use it to test yourself as you continue to review your weaknesses from the other banks. Its helped me immensely. I only do like 1 block on fridays on tutor from Amboss or Kaplan and go through them carefully and slowly spending time youtubing topics or looking up stuff that confuses me as I review
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Yea I was debating which one to get but I guess I’ll just stick with amboss.
 
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bluelamin said:
Yea I was debating which one to get but I guess I’ll just stick with amboss.
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I'd second having amboss since after you're done with Step 1, you can start using their Step 2 material which I've heard is incredibly helpful. It's basically 2 subscriptions in 1
 
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NotSoObvious said:
256 on USWA1 today. Not really sure if that shows progress from 241 on NBME24 from last Monday because of how disparate the two are. Thoughts?
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Dude youre at 250+ on real deal if you took it tomorrow lol youre golden even if UWSA 1 overpredicts a new NBME in the 240s is a 250+ on real deal
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Question for yall. Best way to distinguish inflammatory carcinoma of the breast acute mastitis of the breast and pagets breast? Dont they all look similar with a rash?
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I think inflammatory carcinoma has that "orange peel" look while Paget's is more like eczema. Mastitis is usually associated with lactation and would improve with antibiotics. On histology Paget's is more distinct.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Is it a bad idea to not do any COMLEX-specific banks? I've heard neither COMBANK nor ComQuest are all that great and since I have 10 days between my exams, I was just going to use Savarese and maybe an OMM anki deck to review. I'd rather not spend the money on them if it's not absolutely necessary.
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I asked a couple of people this in the 2019 thread and most people said not to touch anything OMM related. My school gave us COMBANK so I may skim through a few of them in the days between Step and COMLEX but otherwise I'm not touching any COMLEX-specific resources.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Question for yall. Best way to distinguish inflammatory carcinoma of the breast acute mastitis of the breast and pagets breast? Dont they all look similar with a rash?
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Acute mastitis will usually be presented with a breastfeeding mother and a purulent milk discharge.

A lot of times, inflammatory carcinoma will be found because it was initially thought to be mastitis but it doesn’t respond to antibiotics. Looking for these two things and the “orange peel” description seem to be the best way for me.
 
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Ganon said:
Last week.
I know everyone’s test is different, so I won’t give any impressions or feelings from test day, but I will relate that it feels amazing to be done.

I have SO MUCH TIME FOR ACTIVITIES
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Yay that's great! I can't wait until I'm done next month. Like there are so many activities I want to do, but I know I'll wake up not knowing what to do with myself. I'll have to relearn how to live life without the constant stress of finishing that day's 1000+ reviews
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
Acute mastitis will usually be presented with a breastfeeding mother and a purulent milk discharge.

A lot of times, inflammatory carcinoma will be found because it was initially thought to be mastitis but it doesn’t respond to antibiotics. Looking for these two things and the “orange peel” description seem to be the best way for me.
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This is pretty spot on. Also histologically, Paget will be described as having atypical epithelial cells.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Question for yall. Best way to distinguish inflammatory carcinoma of the breast acute mastitis of the breast and pagets breast? Dont they all look similar with a rash?
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Pagets looks different from acute mastitis. It is centered on the nipple & areola, and the rash is often crusting & ulcerating. There may be a bloody nipple discharge.
Acute mastitis tends to occur in lactating women, generally involves a quadrant or more of the breast. There are systemic symptoms (eg fever), a purulant nipple discharge, and it responds to antibiotics. If an abscess develops, there will be a fluctuant mass.
Inflammatory cancer tends to occur in older non-lactating women. It can look similar to acute mastitis, but peau d'orange is specific. No discrete mass, no fever, and it wont respond to antibiotics.
 
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Screen Shot 2020-05-12 at 12.13.53 PM.png
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I am perpetually stuck at 72% on UWorld. Literally I've had almost half my blocks at exactly the same %. I just felt like I completely bombed a block....still 72%. UWorld is so weird.
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The good news for me is that on my bad days I get 70%. The bad news for me is that on my good days I get 70%.

I’ve legit gotten 70% the past 7 days on every block.
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
The good news for me is that on my bad days I get 70%. The bad news for me is that on my good days I get 70%.

I’ve legit gotten 70% the past 7 days on every block.
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im at 72% correct and I keep bouncing around. like one block il get 80%, next one il go get 65, next one will be 75. Probably better to be consistent like you guys
 
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Mr.IceHockey said:
And here I am perpetually stuck at 55/60% correct feeling good about myself :'(
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Thats gotta be at 50th percentile over even higher. I believe the average step 1 score last year was in the 230s, so if youre getting near the average on your practice questions, that probably means youre on pace to do better than average
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Isn't every exam different, like the MCAT? I try not to get hung up on what people say and especially the score converters
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I think every exams % of a certain topic is pretty different, but I think the style of questions is probably pretty consistent. Hopefully they're right and the questions are in fact more like uworld
 
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