USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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ohmanwaddup said:
These drugs are the bane of my existence. I can never keep them straight
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If it helps, there's a pixorize video for free about de novo synthesis which also shows where 6-MP and Azathioprine fit in (). It won't go into much detail about the drugs like sketchy pharm, but it may help you remember where these things fit into the pathway
 
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Is there anyone else who only went through their resources once? I feel like I'm in the minority by not doing a second pass of at least one of B&B, Pathoma and Sketchy. I plan to rewatch Pathoma CH 1-3 next week and I've been keeping up with the lolnotacop micro deck and Zanki pharm deck which is basically Sketchy but obviously it's too late to complete a second pass of an entire resource now. My UWorld percentage and practice scores are right where I want them to be but I guess I keep getting more paranoid as my exam gets closer lol.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Is there anyone else who only went through their resources once? I feel like I'm in the minority by not doing a second pass of at least one of B&B, Pathoma and Sketchy. I plan to rewatch Pathoma CH 1-3 next week and I've been keeping up with the lolnotacop micro deck and Zanki pharm deck which is basically Sketchy but obviously it's too late to complete a second pass of an entire resource now. My UWorld percentage and practice scores are right where I want them to be but I guess I keep getting more paranoid as my exam gets closer lol.
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I think you're fine. To be honest all along I planned on only using Zanki to review content and I just got freaked out yesterday because of the score reports so I'm doing more now. If you feel good with your study plan I think that's what counts, try to drown out the noise of what everyone else is doing even though it's hard.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Is there anyone else who only went through their resources once? I feel like I'm in the minority by not doing a second pass of at least one of B&B, Pathoma and Sketchy. I plan to rewatch Pathoma CH 1-3 next week and I've been keeping up with the lolnotacop micro deck and Zanki pharm deck which is basically Sketchy but obviously it's too late to complete a second pass of an entire resource now. My UWorld percentage and practice scores are right where I want them to be but I guess I keep getting more paranoid as my exam gets closer lol.
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I wouldnt worry about doing another pass on something unless its a weakness of yours. Firm believer in not looking at stuff you already know. Write down your weak topics and only watch those on BnB/Pathoma etc and forget the rest (you know it). For me I have a few topics on a word document that I never remember (dyslipidemias, RTAs etc)
 
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Deecee2DO said:
I wouldnt worry about doing another pass on something unless its a weakness of yours. Firm believer in not looking at stuff you already know. Write down your weak topics and only watch those on BnB/Pathoma etc and forget the rest (you know it). For me I have a few topics on a word document that I never remember (dyslipidemias, RTAs etc)
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Yeah this is what I plan on doing after I finish UWorld this weekend but those reports yesterday freaked me out and now I'm slightly panicked that I didn't do enough. I never felt like I needed a second pass but it seems like people that did a lot more than I did throughout dedicated still underperformed and while I know that doesn't mean the same thing will happen to me, it's now at the back of my mind. Nothing I can really do at this point though other than finish out what I'm doing and trust that it was enough for me.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I think you're fine. To be honest all along I planned on only using Zanki to review content and I just got freaked out yesterday because of the score reports so I'm doing more now. If you feel good with your study plan I think that's what counts, try to drown out the noise of what everyone else is doing even though it's hard.
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Yeah if I had more than I week I might try to do a second pass of Pathoma since yesterday freaked me out too. I really didn't start using these resources outside of Zanki until this past year so it took me the entire year and part of dedicated to get through all of them once. I keep telling myself that all I want is a 230 and my performance so far indicates I should be able to hit that so just gotta trust that I've put myself in a good position for that.
 
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GoCards05 said:
Yeah if I had more than I week I might try to do a second pass of Pathoma since yesterday freaked me out too. I really didn't start using these resources outside of Zanki until this past year so it took me the entire year and part of dedicated to get through all of them once. I keep telling myself that all I want is a 230 and my performance so far indicates I should be able to hit that so just gotta trust that I've put myself in a good position for that.
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You got this! At this point worrying is just going to make things worse and has the potential to actually affect your performance you know? Try not to psych yourself out and go forward feeling confident. Do as I say, not as I do I guess haha
 
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GoCards05 said:
Yeah this is what I plan on doing after I finish UWorld this weekend but those reports yesterday freaked me out and now I'm slightly panicked that I didn't do enough. I never felt like I needed a second pass but it seems like people that did a lot more than I did throughout dedicated still underperformed and while I know that doesn't mean the same thing will happen to me, it's now at the back of my mind. Nothing I can really do at this point though other than finish out what I'm doing and trust that it was enough for me.
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Only a few outliers underperformed so you cant say you will **** the bed. Odds are youll get your predicted score man so I wouldnt worry. If youve been doing a lot of practice questions and getting practice scores in your range then dont worry youll do great just like the majority do
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
You got this! At this point worrying is just going to make things worse and has the potential to actually affect your performance you know? Try not to psych yourself out and go forward feeling confident. Do as I say, not as I do I guess haha
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Thank you so much for the vote of confidence! I definitely didn't need to see that overprediction thread so close to my exam but just because it happened to those people doesn't mean it's going to happen to me or any of us. With all the normal mania surrounding Step 1 and then throw a pandemic and all the Prometric BS on top of it, I'm honestly more relieved that I'll be off of this crazy rollercoaster in just over a week.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Only a few outliers underperformed so you cant say you will **** the bed. Odds are youll get your predicted score man so I wouldnt worry. If youve been doing a lot of practice questions and getting practice scores in your range then dont worry youll do great just like the majority do
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I definitely could've done more practice questions but I just hated Kaplan so much and once I started UWorld, I decided to commit to it fully and forget about Kaplan. In hindsight, I wish I would've picked another pre-UWorld question bank but I'm hoping Zanki fills in that gap.
 
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ohmanwaddup said:
anyone else torn by a desire a protest and show solidarity, but also have an ungodly amount of anki reviews everyday?
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Right here! I’m more worried about getting arrested or something stupid like that even if I wasn’t doing anything but peacefully protesting. That’s been happening, and I’d be so mad if I got auto screened out on my residency apps because they just saw an arrest and didn’t even check to see what I got arrested for. I feel awful for thinking that way. Especially since people looking out for themselves and turning the other way to protect their own interests is how we got to this point in the first place. 🙁

GoCards05 said:
Is there anyone else who only went through their resources once? I feel like I'm in the minority by not doing a second pass of at least one of B&B, Pathoma and Sketchy. I plan to rewatch Pathoma CH 1-3 next week and I've been keeping up with the lolnotacop micro deck and Zanki pharm deck which is basically Sketchy but obviously it's too late to complete a second pass of an entire resource now. My UWorld percentage and practice scores are right where I want them to be but I guess I keep getting more paranoid as my exam gets closer lol.
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Yeah, everyone in my class is talking about rewatching/redoing stuff and I’ll be lucky if I even finish my first pass in UWorld and DIT both before my test with all the Anki reviews I have piling up on top of it. I’m definitely not going to be able to hit any of the other resources again. It’s scary. Never even finished any of the other resources - gave up on Zanki (only matured like 2k cards), never finished Pathoma, B&B, or anything else. Finished lolnotacop’s micro but that’s it.

I really wish I hadn’t slacked off so much during the school year.
 
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calivianya said:
Yeah, everyone in my class is talking about rewatching/redoing stuff and I’ll be lucky if I even finish my first pass in UWorld and DIT both before my test with all the Anki reviews I have piling up on top of it. I’m definitely not going to be able to hit any of the other resources again. It’s scary. Never even finished any of the other resources - gave up on Zanki (only matured like 2k cards), never finished Pathoma, B&B, or anything else. Finished lolnotacop’s micro but that’s it.

I really wish I hadn’t slacked off so much during the school year.
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A lot of people in my class have pushed back their exams even if they didn't get canceled because they don't feel ready. I fought tooth and nail to make sure I could still take my exam in mid-June as planned and now I feel like I'm the only one in my class doing so. I just really did not want to be dealing with Step 1 as third year stuff starts and since I'm not aiming for a super high score, I figured I might as well just get it done. I definitely get the push to finish everything though, it's so hard to block out what everyone else is doing and just focus on yourself.
 
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Big news

For event-based testing, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will not include unscored pretest items, resulting in a slightly shorter exam. The Step 1 event test examinations will consist of 200 items, and the Step 2 CK event test will consist of 240 items.

Unscored pretest items are commonly used in high-stakes examinations to obtain statistics on item performance before those items are included for actual scoring, and they are an important part of the exam development process. The exclusion of unscored pretest items for event-based testing is a temporary solution to make event-based testing at medical schools feasible. Exams administered by Prometric at Prometric test centers or regional testing centers (phase one) will continue to include unscored pretest items.

We greatly appreciate the collaboration with the medical schools involved in phase one and phase two of our plans. We will continue to provide details and frequent updates about our testing recovery efforts
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Big news

For event-based testing, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will not include unscored pretest items, resulting in a slightly shorter exam. The Step 1 event test examinations will consist of 200 items, and the Step 2 CK event test will consist of 240 items.

Unscored pretest items are commonly used in high-stakes examinations to obtain statistics on item performance before those items are included for actual scoring, and they are an important part of the exam development process. The exclusion of unscored pretest items for event-based testing is a temporary solution to make event-based testing at medical schools feasible. Exams administered by Prometric at Prometric test centers or regional testing centers (phase one) will continue to include unscored pretest items.

We greatly appreciate the collaboration with the medical schools involved in phase one and phase two of our plans. We will continue to provide details and frequent updates about our testing recovery efforts
Click to expand...

Seems like an extremely unfair disadvantage for those who already sat for a 280 question marathon of an exam.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Big news

For event-based testing, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will not include unscored pretest items, resulting in a slightly shorter exam. The Step 1 event test examinations will consist of 200 items, and the Step 2 CK event test will consist of 240 items.

Unscored pretest items are commonly used in high-stakes examinations to obtain statistics on item performance before those items are included for actual scoring, and they are an important part of the exam development process. The exclusion of unscored pretest items for event-based testing is a temporary solution to make event-based testing at medical schools feasible. Exams administered by Prometric at Prometric test centers or regional testing centers (phase one) will continue to include unscored pretest items.

We greatly appreciate the collaboration with the medical schools involved in phase one and phase two of our plans. We will continue to provide details and frequent updates about our testing recovery efforts
Click to expand...
This seems kind of unfair? It's not like the 80 questions are the last 80 questions of the exam, they're mixed in and those taking 280 are going to be way more burned out than those taking 200.
 
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stickgirl390 said:
I don’t understand your comment.
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Everyone walks out of the exam saying they got 40 wrong from memory, and many of them do incredibly well. Probably most those were experimental questions. Now what you get wrong is what you REALLY get wrong. I would think the NBMEs before significantly more predictive now.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Everyone walks out of the exam saying they got 40 wrong from memory, and many of them do incredibly well. Probably most those were experimental questions. Now what you get wrong is what you REALLY get wrong. I would think the NBMEs before significantly more predictive now.
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This is true, it'll be nice to walk out after my exam and just blame all the hard questions on them being experimental lol. I think I would be more stressed waiting for my score knowing every single question was legit. But, I think it kind of removes the standardization, unless the last 2 blocks are always 100% experimental (which I doubt). People always talk about how burned out they are by the last 2 blocks, so it seems unfair that people will be sitting for an exam without them if the experimental questions are sprinkled throughout all the blocks. Curious on thoughts @AnatomyGrey12 @efle
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
This is true, it'll be nice to walk out after my exam and just blame all the hard questions on them being experimental lol. I think I would be more stressed waiting for my score knowing every single question was legit. But, I think it kind of removes the standardization, unless the last 2 blocks are always 100% experimental (which I doubt). People always talk about how burned out they are by the last 2 blocks, so it seems unfair that people will be sitting for an exam without them if the experimental questions are sprinkled throughout all the blocks. Curious on thoughts @AnatomyGrey12 @efle
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The MCAT did something identical too.

The exam time will be reduced from a total “seated” time of 7 hours and 30 minutes to 5 hours and 45 minutes. Took out the experimental questions, so it's not unheard of.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
The MCAT did something identical too.

The exam time will be reduced from a total “seated” time of 7 hours and 30 minutes to 5 hours and 45 minutes. Took out the experimental questions, so it's not unheard of.
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Yeah, I get why they're doing it and don't really have a problem with that part. It just seems odd from a standardization point-- you're talking about 2 full blocks, not 20 or even 40 questions. Unless they overhaul the exam to make the last 2 blocks entirely experimental for those taking it at Prometric, there's no way it can be standardized as you're expected to perform at the same level throughout 2 more blocks, the ones which are historically the hardest for people to stay focused on.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Everyone walks out of the exam saying they got 40 wrong from memory, and many of them do incredibly well. Probably most those were experimental questions. Now what you get wrong is what you REALLY get wrong. I would think the NBMEs before significantly more predictive now.
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None of this matters. Everyone stresses out after taking Step trying to predict how they did, whether they took 10 or 200 or 280 questions.

As stated above in this thread, the issue is burning students out on a longer exam where “real” questions are still present by blocks 6 and 7.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Yeah, I get why they're doing it and don't really have a problem with that part. It just seems odd from a standardization point-- you're talking about 2 full blocks, not 20 or even 40 questions. Unless they overhaul the exam to make the last 2 blocks entirely experimental for those taking it at Prometric, there's no way it can be standardized as you're expected to perform at the same level throughout 2 more blocks, the ones which are historically the hardest for people to stay focused on.
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It seems unfair to me. They should shorten it for everyone from a certain test day forward if they’re going to administer a short version to some test takers. I think it’s funny that they consider 2 out of 7 blocks a “slightly shorter exam”.
 
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catlady87 said:
It seems unfair to me. They should shorten it for everyone from a certain test day forward if they’re going to administer a short version to some test takers. I think it’s funny that they consider 2 out of 7 blocks a “slightly shorter exam”.
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Yep, I agree. I get that they still need data on questions for future exams, but this should be either all or nothing. There are already so many variables affecting the standardization of the exam this year. That's why my only thought could be that maybe they will make the last 2 blocks fully experimental for everyone and just not say anything (otherwise you'd just click C for every answer and they wouldn't get accurate data), but I don't know if they care enough to think it out.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
There's still quite a bit of time before they implement this, so things could still change
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I'm not too concerned. At this point I'm just ready to get my exam over with one way or the other, whatever will be will be. It's more just that I find the policy interesting. All of this stuff is out of our hands.
 
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For the most part, I definitely am not a fan of those taking the exam at these event-based sessions (not the regional testing sites so I still get the full 280 experience) getting significantly less questions. But a small part of me says it is nice to kind of have a buffer in there with the experimental questions even though we don’t know which ones they are. With 200, every question you get counts and the torture of counting up those you missed for 3 weeks until the score release would not be fun knowing it’s for sure directly impacting your score.
 
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GoCards05 said:
For the most part, I definitely am not a fan of those taking the exam at these event-based sessions (not the regional testing sites so I still get the full 280 experience) getting significantly less questions. But a small part of me says it is nice to kind of have a buffer in there with the experimental questions even though we don’t know which ones they are. With 200, every question you get counts and the torture of counting up those you missed for 3 weeks until the score release would not be fun knowing it’s for sure directly impacting your score.
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Exactly my thinking. I really think what you get on the NBMEs is what you get on the real thing in this scenario.
 
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GoCards05 said:
For the most part, I definitely am not a fan of those taking the exam at these event-based sessions (not the regional testing sites so I still get the full 280 experience) getting significantly less questions. But a small part of me says it is nice to kind of have a buffer in there with the experimental questions even though we don’t know which ones they are. With 200, every question you get counts and the torture of counting up those you missed for 3 weeks until the score release would not be fun knowing it’s for sure directly impacting your score.
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It would definitely be psychological torture, but I think I would trade it to be more focused and fresh on the actual exam questions that count. I feel like the regular version might have me feel better after the exam (or at least give me the chance to rationalize feeling like crap) but the shortened version would have me actually perform better, which is more important.

Either way, Prometric willing, I’ll be taking it in less than 2 weeks, but I’m just surprised they think this policy is fair.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Big news

For event-based testing, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK will not include unscored pretest items, resulting in a slightly shorter exam. The Step 1 event test examinations will consist of 200 items, and the Step 2 CK event test will consist of 240 items.

Unscored pretest items are commonly used in high-stakes examinations to obtain statistics on item performance before those items are included for actual scoring, and they are an important part of the exam development process. The exclusion of unscored pretest items for event-based testing is a temporary solution to make event-based testing at medical schools feasible. Exams administered by Prometric at Prometric test centers or regional testing centers (phase one) will continue to include unscored pretest items.

We greatly appreciate the collaboration with the medical schools involved in phase one and phase two of our plans. We will continue to provide details and frequent updates about our testing recovery efforts
Click to expand...

I read the page, but did they state anywhere when the 200 question exam will start?
 
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Steve_Zissou said:
I read the page, but did they state anywhere when the 200 question exam will start?
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They sent that survey out last week or the week before about event-based testing starting in July so I believe that’s what they’re referring to here. The regional sites at medical schools already testing still get the full 280 questions.
 
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GoCards05 said:
They sent that survey out last week or the week before about event-based testing starting in July so I believe that’s what they’re referring to here. The regional sites at medical schools already testing still get the full 280 questions.
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Dope, guess I’m still taking 280. That’s kind of dumb that they would cut it back that much. I wonder how they thought cutting the exam back a couple of hours would help the current situation?
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
This is true, it'll be nice to walk out after my exam and just blame all the hard questions on them being experimental lol. I think I would be more stressed waiting for my score knowing every single question was legit. But, I think it kind of removes the standardization, unless the last 2 blocks are always 100% experimental (which I doubt). People always talk about how burned out they are by the last 2 blocks, so it seems unfair that people will be sitting for an exam without them if the experimental questions are sprinkled throughout all the blocks. Curious on thoughts @AnatomyGrey12 @efle
Click to expand...

Timing and burnout weren't really something that happened for me, so I'm not sure it will be that much of an effect. It is definitely interesting to learn that 80 questions are completely experimental lol. That's a **** ton of questions that don't count.
GoCards05 said:
For the most part, I definitely am not a fan of those taking the exam at these event-based sessions (not the regional testing sites so I still get the full 280 experience) getting significantly less questions. But a small part of me says it is nice to kind of have a buffer in there with the experimental questions even though we don’t know which ones they are. With 200, every question you get counts and the torture of counting up those you missed for 3 weeks until the score release would not be fun knowing it’s for sure directly impacting your score.
Click to expand...

This is basically my thinking. One of my personal strategies for keeping a sane head on test day is to convince myself the super hard question I'm struggling with actually doesn't matter because it's experimental, and then I just go with my gut and move on instead of agonizing over it. With all the experimental questions taken out you KNOW without a doubt that every single question matters. One hard question that you have no idea on and freak out about could have serious long term effects on you psychologically as you are taking the test.

I'm not really sure it's as much of an advantage as we would think to be taking a shorter test. Mainly I just think it's dumb because it's supposed to be a standardized exam, meaning everyone gets the same exam experience. This just adds variables into the equation and no one knows how they will impact scores overall.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
Timing and burnout weren't really something that happened for me, so I'm not sure it will be that much of an effect. It is definitely interesting to learn that 80 questions are completely experimental lol. That's a **** ton of questions that don't count.


This is basically my thinking. One of my personal strategies for keeping a sane head on test day is to convince myself the super hard question I'm struggling with actually doesn't matter because it's experimental, and then I just go with my gut and move on instead of agonizing over it. With all the experimental questions taken out you KNOW without a doubt that every single question matters. One hard question that you have no idea on and freak out about could have serious long term effects on you psychologically as you are taking the test.

I'm not really sure it's as much of an advantage as we would think to be taking a shorter test. Mainly I just think it's dumb because it's supposed to be a standardized exam, meaning everyone gets the same exam experience. This just adds variables into the equation and no one knows how they will impact scores overall.
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This is my exact thinking too, I think it makes it harder to be honest.
 
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AnatomyGrey12 said:
Timing and burnout weren't really something that happened for me, so I'm not sure it will be that much of an effect. It is definitely interesting to learn that 80 questions are completely experimental lol. That's a **** ton of questions that don't count.


This is basically my thinking. One of my personal strategies for keeping a sane head on test day is to convince myself the super hard question I'm struggling with actually doesn't matter because it's experimental, and then I just go with my gut and move on instead of agonizing over it. With all the experimental questions taken out you KNOW without a doubt that every single question matters. One hard question that you have no idea on and freak out about could have serious long term effects on you psychologically as you are taking the test.

I'm not really sure it's as much of an advantage as we would think to be taking a shorter test. Mainly I just think it's dumb because it's supposed to be a standardized exam, meaning everyone gets the same exam experience. This just adds variables into the equation and no one knows how they will impact scores overall.
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Agree 1000%. I would personally rather take the 280 question exam. This is actually great news though since now I know that 80 questions are experimental thats like a little more than 1/4 of the exam lol regardless ill still be stressed out af but like just a little less stressed out af
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Agree 1000%. I would personally rather take the 280 question exam. This is actually great news though since now I know that 80 questions are experimental thats like a little more than 1/4 of the exam lol regardless ill still be stressed out af but like just a little less stressed out af
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Yeah it's literally a testing strategy I picked up while prepping for the MCAT. Question is giving me a really hard time? Just tell myself it's experimental, click and move on and don't think about it further. I did the same thing with Step and it definitely helped me a lot on it as well.
 
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