USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

Your USMLE Scores Increased, Guaranteed!
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Deecee2DO said:
238 on NBME 24!!! pretty happy with it. Some of the questions were WTF for sure..first two blocks I was rockin then came the last two blocks which were insane. Some of the questions on the last two blocks were completely out of left field-like even if you had all your resources out and google open I don't think you could find the answer unless you googled the answer key straight up. Not sure how some people who pop 250s on the new NBMEs know the answers to those like what? lol
Click to expand...

I feel like elimination and lucky guessing play a big role in getting 250+
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
238 on NBME 24!!! pretty happy with it. Some of the questions were WTF for sure..first two blocks I was rockin then came the last two blocks which were insane. Some of the questions on the last two blocks were completely out of left field-like even if you had all your resources out and google open I don't think you could find the answer unless you googled the answer key straight up. Not sure how some people who pop 250s on the new NBMEs know the answers to those like what? lol
Click to expand...
Killed it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
238 on NBME 24!!! pretty happy with it. Some of the questions were WTF for sure..first two blocks I was rockin then came the last two blocks which were insane. Some of the questions on the last two blocks were completely out of left field-like even if you had all your resources out and google open I don't think you could find the answer unless you googled the answer key straight up. Not sure how some people who pop 250s on the new NBMEs know the answers to those like what? lol
Click to expand...
Had we waiting forever man. Strong work.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
80% correct on NBME 18, 224. Higher percent correct than any of my previous NBMEs yet a lower score. They weren't kidding when they said the curve is brutal. Changed my CI on the score predictor from 241-248 to 232-250.
Click to expand...
Dude are you serious? thats a WHACK curve wtf. So that means for a 240+ on 18 you basically need a 90+% lmao. Regardless 80%+ on any NBME is baller
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
Dude are you serious? thats a WHACK curve wtf. So that means for a 240+ on 18 you basically need a 90+% lmao. Regardless 80%+ on any NBME is baller
Click to expand...

Yeah I didn't believe it but I counted my incorrects and sure enough 160/200 equated to a 224. Someone on Reddit said an 85% or something like that was only 236 so the curve is literally insane. No way that 80%+ isn't in the 230s on the real deal.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
Yeah I didn't believe it but I counted my incorrects and sure enough 160/200 equated to a 224. Someone on Reddit said an 85% or something like that was only 236 so the curve is literally insane. No way that 80%+ isn't in the 230s on the real deal.
Click to expand...
Dude hahah there is no wayyy. 80%+ on anything (UW, Kaplan, Amboss, NBMEs, UWSA) is 240+ at the very least. Crazy ass curve NBME 18 is no longer predictive I guess just as @fldoctorgirl said
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
Y'all I'm soo tired of studying. The absolute suck of finally finishing the day's reviews and then waking up 8 hours later with 1200+ reviews staring you in the face is actual torture right now.
Click to expand...
Holy **** lmao 1200? i dont use anki but i have mad respect for yall that do. thats actually insanely impressive
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
Y'all I'm soo tired of studying. The absolute suck of finally finishing the day's reviews and then waking up 8 hours later with 1200+ reviews staring you in the face is actual torture right now.
Click to expand...

took my first night off in like 3 weeks tonight, felt absolutely burned out today. Respect for keeping up with that many cards, only ones I have time to do are micro, pharm and the uworld review ones I make
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
Honestly I have more respect for you and many others who are able to score so high without using anki haha. I'd probably be begging to pass without it.
Click to expand...
Yeah for real, my mind is blown by @Deecee2DO killing it without ever touching Anki. I know people do it but I'm just like....how lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
Honestly I have more respect for you and many others who are able to score so high without using anki haha. I'd probably be begging to pass without it.
Click to expand...
Respect to you all that use Anki. I tried using it first quarter first year and just could not get into it. I would rather take a 210 then do Anki
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
OT but I got my rotation schedule for third year today. The first half is going to be pretty chill with family medicine, internal medicine, sports medicine and psych but the second half is going to be rough with general surgery, OB, ER and critical care amongst several other electives. I'll have 6 weeks straight of surgery from early February to mid March.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
Y'all I'm soo tired of studying. The absolute suck of finally finishing the day's reviews and then waking up 8 hours later with 1200+ reviews staring you in the face is actual torture right now.
Click to expand...
Same, I've had 1500 plus for the past week and its killing me.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
Does anyone know the best way to differentiate between ARDS and amniotic fluid embolism? I got a question on them and its hard to differentiate their presentations
Click to expand...
Can ARDS come from pregnancy? the only P I can remember from the mnemonic is Pancreatitis.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
Does anyone know the best way to differentiate between ARDS and amniotic fluid embolism? I got a question on them and its hard to differentiate their presentations
Click to expand...
Like @ohmanwaddup mentioned, if it mentions pregnancy it's likely amniotic fluid embolism. ARDS would be most likely to arise in setting of sepsis or something like that. Also amniotic fluid embolism has DIC with it a lot of the time. ARDS will have crackles.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
OT but I got my rotation schedule for third year today. The first half is going to be pretty chill with family medicine, internal medicine, sports medicine and psych but the second half is going to be rough with general surgery, OB, ER and critical care amongst several other electives. I'll have 6 weeks straight of surgery from early February to mid March.
Click to expand...
I'm dying to have my schedule already so I can at least know what's awaiting me. First half definitely sounds chill.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Like @ohmanwaddup mentioned, if it mentions pregnancy it's likely amniotic fluid embolism. ARDS would be most likely to arise in setting of sepsis or something like that. Also amniotic fluid embolism has DIC with it a lot of the time. ARDS will have crackles.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree, I think they're likely to mention DIC if they are testing amniotic fluid emboli
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T-10 days and definitely starting to have some mild panic attacks about knowing absolutely nothing. My UWorld percentages and practice exam scores indicate I definitely know something but the anxiety is getting very real. I'm moving into a new apartment next week and have to travel about 2 hours to the testing site and spend the night before in a hotel which isn't awful but just adds to the stress a bit. I seriously cannot wait for all of this to be over, especially in the current circumstances.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
T-10 days and definitely starting to have some mild panic attacks about knowing absolutely nothing. My UWorld percentages and practice exam scores indicate I definitely know something but the anxiety is getting very real. I'm moving into a new apartment next week and have to travel about 2 hours to the testing site and spend the night before in a hotel which isn't awful but just adds to the stress a bit. I seriously cannot wait for all of this to be over, especially in the current circumstances.
Click to expand...

6 days left for me and I'm totally feeling the same. Taking Free 120 and UWSA2 tomorrow and the day after and worried if I don't do well it'll just destroy my confidence going into the real deal. Finally was able to buy a Nintendo Switch and will probably play that with my brother the night before the exam to relax. We're so close! We can do this!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
6 days left for me and I'm totally feeling the same. Taking Free 120 and UWSA2 tomorrow and the day after and worried if I don't do well it'll just destroy my confidence going into the real deal. Finally was able to buy a Nintendo Switch and will probably play that with my brother the night before the exam to relax. We're so close! We can do this!!
Click to expand...

Highly recommend Fire emblem. It is fantastic.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Deecee2DO said:
Does anyone know the best way to differentiate between ARDS and amniotic fluid embolism? I got a question on them and its hard to differentiate their presentations
Click to expand...
1591137124227.png

1591137216632.png

From my anki cards
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
6 days left for me and I'm totally feeling the same. Taking Free 120 and UWSA2 tomorrow and the day after and worried if I don't do well it'll just destroy my confidence going into the real deal. Finally was able to buy a Nintendo Switch and will probably play that with my brother the night before the exam to relax. We're so close! We can do this!!
Click to expand...

Yeah besides having to drive my plan is to relax as much as possible the day before. I'm taking UWSA2 and Free 120 on Sunday when I'm 5 days out so I'm hoping we both get a nice boost to send us into the real deal. I just keep focusing on how awesome it's going to feel when I'm done and what I'm going to do to celebrate. It's so close! I will have 10 days between Step and COMLEX so I will get a nice little 4-5 day break which I think will be much needed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Does anyone have an anki deck/know where to find an anki deck regarding histology for path/micro? like specifically a deck that is just a bunch of images with no history or context.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Went back to doing kaplan questions as it feels like a waste of Uworld questions to do them when I'm not ready. My god the UI is so much worse than Uworld lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Steve_Zissou said:
Bruh, all the social unrest and social media things are distracting me. Hard to stay focused with the world as it is.
Click to expand...

Same. It has been so bad; I was a full week behind with my crap in cramfighter. I’ve been following this one guy on facebook who has been doing continuous 8+ hour live streams of the protests in Minneapolis. Watching his feed over the weekend was just straight up like watching multiple 8 hour long versions of The Purge and I just couldn’t stop watching.

I finally just had cramfighter rebalance my schedule today because it was clear I was never gonna catch up, and my daily workload is at least 1.5x where it was. I have regrets.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anyone else just seem to shut down their brain during practice questions? During review the answer seems soooo obvious if I had just thought some more. Feel Like the one downside to zanki is that you get in a "flashcard" mentality of always knowing the recall right away, which isn't how you should answer practice questions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
Anyone else just seem to shut down their brain during practice questions? During review the answer seems soooo obvious if I had just thought some more. Feel Like the one downside to zanki is that you get in a "flashcard" mentality of always knowing the recall right away, which isn't how you should answer practice questions.
Click to expand...
yea agreed thats why ive just been prioritizing questions over cards at this point
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Question...I think I've made my disdain for NBMEs well known on here already lol. I keep pushing off taking them because they are so time consuming and I really don't feel like I learn anything from them. I had 22, 23, 24, and 18 scheduled for the rest of dedicated but fell behind a bit because I pushed off doing 22 and now I would have to do 22 and 23 close together if I want to do them both. I am wondering if I can cut one out, or whether I should power through and just do them all. I already did 21 and 16 and definitely want to do 24 and 18. "Get your sh** together and just do them" is totally an acceptable answer, I'd just like to hear honest thoughts from those who have done them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Question...I think I've made my disdain for NBMEs well known on here already lol. I keep pushing off taking them because they are so time consuming and I really don't feel like I learn anything from them. I had 22, 23, 24, and 18 scheduled for the rest of dedicated but fell behind a bit because I pushed off doing 22 and now I would have to do 22 and 23 close together if I want to do them both. I am wondering if I can cut one out, or whether I should power through and just do them all. I already did 21 and 16 and definitely want to do 24 and 18. "Get your sh** together and just do them" is totally an acceptable answer, I'd just like to hear honest thoughts from those who have done them.
Click to expand...

I took 23 and thought it was hard af with a bunch of random minutiae. I didn’t take 22 but I heard it’s pretty anatomy heavy. I think 24 is a good one to do but if you want to skip the other two I don’t think that’s going to hurt you at all. If you do 24 and 18 you’ll have done 4 NBMEs and combined with UWSA1, UWSA2 and Free 120, I think that’s plenty of practice exams. Especially since you’re already scoring where you want to be.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Question...I think I've made my disdain for NBMEs well known on here already lol. I keep pushing off taking them because they are so time consuming and I really don't feel like I learn anything from them. I had 22, 23, 24, and 18 scheduled for the rest of dedicated but fell behind a bit because I pushed off doing 22 and now I would have to do 22 and 23 close together if I want to do them both. I am wondering if I can cut one out, or whether I should power through and just do them all. I already did 21 and 16 and definitely want to do 24 and 18. "Get your sh** together and just do them" is totally an acceptable answer, I'd just like to hear honest thoughts from those who have done them.
Click to expand...

I did 18 and 24. Between those and doing the free 120 + UWSAs, I felt very comfortable with the question style on test day

If you don't feel like it helps, dont do it. You've done Zanki and thousands of questions at this point, trust your instincts on what to study
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Question...I think I've made my disdain for NBMEs well known on here already lol. I keep pushing off taking them because they are so time consuming and I really don't feel like I learn anything from them. I had 22, 23, 24, and 18 scheduled for the rest of dedicated but fell behind a bit because I pushed off doing 22 and now I would have to do 22 and 23 close together if I want to do them both. I am wondering if I can cut one out, or whether I should power through and just do them all. I already did 21 and 16 and definitely want to do 24 and 18. "Get your sh** together and just do them" is totally an acceptable answer, I'd just like to hear honest thoughts from those who have done them.
Click to expand...
Id honestly cut 18 lol the curve is insane. 24 was hard but it was less wtf than 21 and 20. My buddy recently took 22 and said it wasnt horrible either. 23 is like 24 and 22 so do it if you feel up to it. 18 doesnt deserve your time im boycotting it lmao. Regardless they all underpredict anyways. Good thing is if you score high on them youll destroy step but if you dont it means nothing-basically my opinion on them. They just help show you your progress. The thing that helped me this time around with NBMEs is do not overthink. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck its probably a duck (its not like UW)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Question...I think I've made my disdain for NBMEs well known on here already lol. I keep pushing off taking them because they are so time consuming and I really don't feel like I learn anything from them. I had 22, 23, 24, and 18 scheduled for the rest of dedicated but fell behind a bit because I pushed off doing 22 and now I would have to do 22 and 23 close together if I want to do them both. I am wondering if I can cut one out, or whether I should power through and just do them all. I already did 21 and 16 and definitely want to do 24 and 18. "Get your sh** together and just do them" is totally an acceptable answer, I'd just like to hear honest thoughts from those who have done them.
Click to expand...
Shiiiii... cut both of em
 
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
2K
chauhanjugalkishor
C
A
USMLE Step 1 resources for sale
Replies
0
Views
3K
accurate_branch20
A
G
  • Question Question
USMLE Out of time and not ready for Step 1. Have I screwed up?
Replies
0
Views
2K
genteel-mug-sting
G
Top