USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Sort by date Sort by votes
slowthai said:
But the NBME is completely separate from the ACGME and the AOA. The NBME has their reasons for making it p/f. It's not for student wellne$$, I can tell you that for free. But it has nothing to do with what the GME accreditation boards are doing. I believe the ACGME strong armed the AOA into joining up so that they could have more spots overall, but no one was specifically looking to block the success of DOs in the match.
Click to expand...

I certainly hope so! Sometimes I just feel more pessimistic than the others. All this studying is wearing me down.

iforget2 said:
What’s the verdict on how much comlex matters if you have a decent step score? Just bombed comsae 105b yesterday haha. OMM is not my friend
Click to expand...

Do not worry about 105b regardless. We took that monster to qualify to sign up for COMLEX and pretty much everyone is scoring 100+ points higher on all of the other COMSAEs. Found a reddit thread a while back that estimates it may underpredict by as much as 130 points.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
What’s the verdict on how much comlex matters if you have a decent step score? Just bombed comsae 105b yesterday haha. OMM is not my friend
Click to expand...

If youre military/HPSP they do not care unless you want ortho or neurosurg and maybe gen surg. If youre a regular med student, as long as you have a good step score youre fine. Just get through comlex
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
Planning on taking NBME 19 between today and Friday, and then take the first Uworld assessment next week. Anyone have a reason I should skip 19 and buy one of the 20s exams?
Click to expand...
Planning on doing the exact same thing! I will take NBME 19 (curve is really harsh with an 88% correct you'd get about 235) in the place of 20, but will for sure also take 22,23,24 and 18
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anyone else having trouble trusting the process with Anki?

My step is 13 days out and my COMLEX 16. There’s cards I would have had no problem clicking ”good” on if I had more time, but if the “good“ interval is >12 days, I’m completely overthinking it.

”But WHAT IF I forget it in the next 13 days and never see that card again and it’s on my test?!”
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
calivianya said:
Anyone else having trouble trusting the process with Anki?

My step is 13 days out and my COMLEX 16. There’s cards I would have had no problem clicking ”good” on if I had more time, but if the “good“ interval is >12 days, I’m completely overthinking it.

”But WHAT IF I forget it in the next 13 days and never see that card again and it’s on my test?!”
Click to expand...
Let it go. You know it at this point. I've had this thought while doing cards, like "damn this is the last time I'm going to see this card, I've probably seen in hundreds of times over the last 2 years". I hit 'good' and move on. There are always going to be things you thought you knew that you randomly forget on test day, it happens.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
c'est la vie

STEP1: 250

NBME 16 -250
NBME 18- 252
NBME 24- 251
Free 120 - 87%
Uworld - 85%
UWSA 1 - 265
UWSA 2 - 259

My thoughts: I won't write up much about how to study - @FindersFee5 has the best write-up I've seen so I would utilize that. Reddit predictor had me from 245-264 and I landed well within that

The NBMEs were obviously highly predictive for me. I thought the exam was fairly straightforward and I did well but honestly expected higher walking out. In terms of predicting your scores, I would rely more on historical data from your school than anything else - my school prediction was closer than the reddit predictor

What I would do differently: Not much honestly. I could've done more questions and less Anki - I did >300k cards over 2 years - but I did what I needed to do to be competitive for any specialty. If I did it over again, I would've skipped class lectures entirely starting second year and replaced those with more practice questions, but I have no way of knowing if that would've increased my score

Read this to keep yourself grounded as you study. even for the most competitive specialties, a 260 gives you about a 10-15% increased chance to match over a 240. step 1 is a means to the end of matching your desired specialty, dont let it become more than that. its a long grind but the feeling of being done with a competitive score is worth the hundreds of morning of Anki. Good luck to all of you still grinding
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Type2Fiber said:
c'est la vie

STEP1: 250

NBME 16 -250
NBME 18- 252
NBME 24- 251
Free 120 - 87%
Uworld - 85%
UWSA 1 - 265
UWSA 2 - 259

My thoughts: I won't write up much about how to study - @FindersFee5 has the best write-up I've seen so I would utilize that. Reddit predictor had me from 245-264 and I landed well within that

The NBMEs were obviously highly predictive for me. I thought the exam was fairly straightforward and I did well but honestly expected higher walking out. In terms of predicting your scores, I would rely more on historical data from your school than anything else - my school prediction was closer than the reddit predictor

What I would do differently: Not much honestly. I could've done more questions and less Anki - I did >300k cards over 2 years - but I did what I needed to do to be competitive for any specialty. If I did it over again, I would've skipped class lectures entirely starting second year and replaced those with more practice questions, but I have no way of knowing if that would've increased my score

Read this to keep yourself grounded as you study. even for the most competitive specialties, a 260 gives you about a 10-15% increased chance to match over a 240. step 1 is a means to the end of matching your desired specialty, dont let it become more than that. its a long grind but the feeling of being done with a competitive score is worth the hundreds of morning of Anki. Good luck to all of you still grinding
Click to expand...

Good sh** man, congrats :zip:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Type2Fiber said:
c'est la vie

STEP1: 250

NBME 16 -250
NBME 18- 252
NBME 24- 251
Free 120 - 87%
Uworld - 85%
UWSA 1 - 265
UWSA 2 - 259

My thoughts: I won't write up much about how to study - @FindersFee5 has the best write-up I've seen so I would utilize that. Reddit predictor had me from 245-264 and I landed well within that

The NBMEs were obviously highly predictive for me. I thought the exam was fairly straightforward and I did well but honestly expected higher walking out. In terms of predicting your scores, I would rely more on historical data from your school than anything else - my school prediction was closer than the reddit predictor

What I would do differently: Not much honestly. I could've done more questions and less Anki - I did >300k cards over 2 years - but I did what I needed to do to be competitive for any specialty. If I did it over again, I would've skipped class lectures entirely starting second year and replaced those with more practice questions, but I have no way of knowing if that would've increased my score

Read this to keep yourself grounded as you study. even for the most competitive specialties, a 260 gives you about a 10-15% increased chance to match over a 240. step 1 is a means to the end of matching your desired specialty, dont let it become more than that. its a long grind but the feeling of being done with a competitive score is worth the hundreds of morning of Anki. Good luck to all of you still grinding
Click to expand...
Congrats!! Awesome score.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Type2Fiber said:
c'est la vie

STEP1: 250

NBME 16 -250
NBME 18- 252
NBME 24- 251
Free 120 - 87%
Uworld - 85%
UWSA 1 - 265
UWSA 2 - 259

My thoughts: I won't write up much about how to study - @FindersFee5 has the best write-up I've seen so I would utilize that. Reddit predictor had me from 245-264 and I landed well within that

The NBMEs were obviously highly predictive for me. I thought the exam was fairly straightforward and I did well but honestly expected higher walking out. In terms of predicting your scores, I would rely more on historical data from your school than anything else - my school prediction was closer than the reddit predictor

What I would do differently: Not much honestly. I could've done more questions and less Anki - I did >300k cards over 2 years - but I did what I needed to do to be competitive for any specialty. If I did it over again, I would've skipped class lectures entirely starting second year and replaced those with more practice questions, but I have no way of knowing if that would've increased my score

Read this to keep yourself grounded as you study. even for the most competitive specialties, a 260 gives you about a 10-15% increased chance to match over a 240. step 1 is a means to the end of matching your desired specialty, dont let it become more than that. its a long grind but the feeling of being done with a competitive score is worth the hundreds of morning of Anki. Good luck to all of you still grinding
Click to expand...

Killed it!!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
Having taken 4/5 of the new NBMEs, I’d say 21 and 24 are the best. 20 is really hard, I heard 22 has a lot of anatomy and 23 has a lot of random minutiae. Those would be the two I would do if you don’t want to do all of them.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this. I need to do one more (have done 24 and 20) and assumed 23 would be the one to do. But I think I'll do 21.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Today's scores are out. All over the place

Predicted 239 -> 231 real
Predicted 255 -> 245 real
Predicted 258 -> 244 real
Predicted 240 -> 236 real
Predicted 258 -> 267 real
Predicted 264 - > 265 real
Predicted 248 -> 247 real
Predicted 253 -> 261 real
Click to expand...

Were all of these still within the confidence intervals?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
iforget2 said:
Were all of these still within the confidence intervals?
Click to expand...
Not everyone specifies. I'm seeing most people either around their prediction or above, though. UW2 still looking like a pretty good predictor. There are always outliers like someone with a 64.4% UWorld and predicted 244 getting a 252, and then someone predicted a 251 getting a 239. I think like people mentioned last time, there are always going to be outliers that either perform really well when it counts and then those who underperform or get hit with a tough curve or something. I am not seeing ridiculous score discrepancies this time though (so far).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm kinda scared of doing a UWorld block when it's being so glitchy.....may use this as an excuse to take the day off of UWorld lol
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I know I have a month left, but I'm just dismayed. got a 211 on NBME 21 with basically no improvement according to the score report, and in comparison to everyone else did not get a single above average category, and did below average on the biggest portion of the test, applying foundational science concepts, which is just great for my confidence lol. My percentage correct also went down. I got 75% correct on NBME 16 but only 67% on this one but scored 10 points higher? I'm not sure if I can put that in the win column. I also don't even know how accurate the score is, partly due to all the repeats, and because I worked through all the biostats math problems with first aid open because thats the best way for me to learn them, especially when there are no explanations. For my sanity sake I'll assume it did not affect much.

I don't trust the score predictor. I cannot logically believe that I will have a 95% chance of getting between a 222 and a 241 when I get nowhere near a 220 on these practice exams. I am honestly not even all that confident I will pass the exam once nerves come into play. I've done tons of practice questions, I have 300 Zanki cards left, nothing seems to work. I rarely answer a questions with confidence on these practice exams.

IDK what my issue is but I better figure it out fast.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
I know I have a month left, but I'm just dismayed. got a 211 on NBME 21 with basically no improvement according to the score report, and in comparison to everyone else did not get a single above average category, and did below average on the biggest portion of the test, applying foundational science concepts, which is just great for my confidence lol. My percentage correct also went down. I got 75% correct on NBME 16 but only 67% on this one but scored 10 points higher? I'm not sure if I can put that in the win column. I also don't even know how accurate the score is, partly due to all the repeats, and because I worked through all the biostats math problems with first aid open because thats the best way for me to learn them, especially when there are no explanations. For my sanity sake I'll assume it did not affect much.

I don't trust the score predictor. I cannot logically believe that I will have a 95% chance of getting between a 222 and a 241 when I get nowhere near a 220 on these practice exams. I am honestly not even all that confident I will pass the exam once nerves come into play. I've done tons of practice questions, I have 300 Zanki cards left, nothing seems to work. I rarely answer a questions with confidence on these practice exams.

IDK what my issue is but I better figure it out fast.
Click to expand...

Have you taken any of the UWSA and what is your uworld q bank % at?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
I know I have a month left, but I'm just dismayed. got a 211 on NBME 21 with basically no improvement according to the score report, and in comparison to everyone else did not get a single above average category, and did below average on the biggest portion of the test, applying foundational science concepts, which is just great for my confidence lol. My percentage correct also went down. I got 75% correct on NBME 16 but only 67% on this one but scored 10 points higher? I'm not sure if I can put that in the win column. I also don't even know how accurate the score is, partly due to all the repeats, and because I worked through all the biostats math problems with first aid open because thats the best way for me to learn them, especially when there are no explanations. For my sanity sake I'll assume it did not affect much.

I don't trust the score predictor. I cannot logically believe that I will have a 95% chance of getting between a 222 and a 241 when I get nowhere near a 220 on these practice exams. I am honestly not even all that confident I will pass the exam once nerves come into play. I've done tons of practice questions, I have 300 Zanki cards left, nothing seems to work. I rarely answer a questions with confidence on these practice exams.

IDK what my issue is but I better figure it out fast.
Click to expand...
have u seen the mistakes you are making? questions tend to be repeat concepts and may ask diff questions regarding the same concept. this might sound dumb but there is only 1 right answer to each question so if u can use POE and have solid reasoning behind why u chose 1 answer and not the others then i think it might help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CyrusHabs7695 said:
Have you taken any of the UWSA and what is your uworld q bank % at?
Click to expand...
I haven't taken any yet because I'm scared to do **** on them lol, My plan is to take the first one next week. Im at a 67% right now with 800 questions left, but that was not done as totally random blocks. I started uworld back in February once I had completed half of zanki and then added in more modules as completed the corresponding zanki deck. so idk how accurate that percentage is either

bluelamin said:
have u seen the mistakes you are making? questions tend to be repeat concepts and may ask diff questions regarding the same concept. this might sound dumb but there is only 1 right answer to each question so if u can use POE and have solid reasoning behind why u chose 1 answer and not the others then i think it might help.
Click to expand...

I have not done a deep dive yet, but from cursory glance it seems like bone pathology was a big weak spot. I seemed to not do too hot on anatomy either which surprises me, as its usually one of my best, but that may be due to a lot of it being HEENT. I don't tend to get concepts wrong, I tend to get certain physical areas of the body wrong, if that makes sense. Like for MKS im good at muscles, nerves, Blood supply, but not so much at bone stuff
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
I haven't taken any yet because I'm scared to do **** on them lol, My plan is to take the first one next week. Im at a 67% right now with 800 questions left, but that was not done as totally random blocks. I started uworld back in February once I had completed half of zanki and then added in more modules as completed the corresponding zanki deck. so idk how accurate that percentage is either



I have not done a deep dive yet, but from cursory glance it seems like bone pathology was a big weak spot. I seemed to not do too hot on anatomy either which surprises me, as its usually one of my best, but that may be due to a lot of it being HEENT. I don't tend to get concepts wrong, I tend to get certain physical areas of the body wrong, if that makes sense. Like for MKS im good at muscles, nerves, Blood supply, but not so much at bone stuff
Click to expand...

I would take uwsa1 soon to gage where youre really at. The NBMEs have a brutal curve, so your 211 might equate to a 75% or something actually pretty good but you don't realize it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CyrusHabs7695 said:
I would take uwsa1 soon to gage where youre really at. The NBMEs have a brutal curve, so your 211 might equate to a 75% or something actually pretty good but you don't realize it
Click to expand...
I did the math and got 67% right which is down 8% from my last NBME. I wish there was a document that listed percent right and NBME score. would be super helpful. I just need to suck it up and take UW1 and see where the cards lie before its too late.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
I know I have a month left, but I'm just dismayed. got a 211 on NBME 21 with basically no improvement according to the score report, and in comparison to everyone else did not get a single above average category, and did below average on the biggest portion of the test, applying foundational science concepts, which is just great for my confidence lol. My percentage correct also went down. I got 75% correct on NBME 16 but only 67% on this one but scored 10 points higher? I'm not sure if I can put that in the win column. I also don't even know how accurate the score is, partly due to all the repeats, and because I worked through all the biostats math problems with first aid open because thats the best way for me to learn them, especially when there are no explanations. For my sanity sake I'll assume it did not affect much.

I don't trust the score predictor. I cannot logically believe that I will have a 95% chance of getting between a 222 and a 241 when I get nowhere near a 220 on these practice exams. I am honestly not even all that confident I will pass the exam once nerves come into play. I've done tons of practice questions, I have 300 Zanki cards left, nothing seems to work. I rarely answer a questions with confidence on these practice exams.

IDK what my issue is but I better figure it out fast.
Click to expand...
What worked for me and I was able to go from 213 on NBME 17 (baseline) to 227 (NBME 21) in 6 days of dedicated was to look at the score report, find out what my weakest areas were (gross anatomy/ embryo & nervous system/beh for me) and hit them hard in the following week (BnB, FA etc). I also missed a lot of questions because of wrong reasoning so I hit 160 q's/day to improve my "test-taking ability"

Moral of the story: cover your weak areas, whatever they are
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
ohmanwaddup said:
I wish there was a document that listed percent right and NBME score.
Click to expand...
So I got a 224, and I think it was 73.5% correct. It was a higher score than my baseline NBME, but % correct was lower (first NBME was 80% correct). I thought it was a weird exam in that the questions were worded really weird, and when I went back over my incorrects there were a lot of things that I knew but just couldn't figure out what they were asking because the question style is so different than UWorld. Like others said, I would just go through it and work through any glaring deficiencies content wise, but just take the plunge and take UWSA1.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
So I got a 224, and I think it was 73.5% correct. It was a higher score than my baseline NBME, but % correct was lower (first NBME was 80% correct). I thought it was a weird exam in that the questions were worded really weird, and when I went back over my incorrects there were a lot of things that I knew but just couldn't figure out what they were asking because the question style is so different than UWorld. Like others said, I would just go through it and work through any glaring deficiencies content wise, but just take the plunge and take UWSA1.
Click to expand...
exactly that! Also my scores for reference, 150/200 @ NBME 21 = 227 & 161/200 @ NBME 17 = 213
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
According to the Step thread from last year, someone said that one of their admins is pretty in with the higher ups at the NBME and they were told around 70% correct on the real deal is a 230. These NBMEs can have crazy curves as I scored anywhere from 70-78% on the new NBMEs and my scores fluctuated between 219 and 232. I got the same number correct on 23 and 24 yet my scores were 232 and 229 respectively. I got 80% correct on 18 and that was a 224 while 83% correct was 251 on UWSA2. I think the curve on the real deal is a little more generous than the NBMEs but not quite as generous as UWorld.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
This makes the most sense to me. Some people on Reddit claim 60-70% is just passing, there is no way lol
Click to expand...

There's a chart out there listing the percentiles that each Step 1 score falls into and in regards to UWSA2, people have said to compare your percentile rather than your 3 digit score to that. So I got 251 on UWSA2 which was 76th percentile and 76th percentile on Step 1 is a 245 according to that chart. So that might be why UWSA2 is overpredicting for some people and maybe going by percentile is a bit more accurate? Also a 200 on Step is in in 8th percentile and I doubt that 92% of all med students are getting at least a 70% on Step so the passing percentage has to be lower. I'd say 55-60% is more accurate for the passing line.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
There's a chart out there listing the percentiles that each Step 1 score falls into and in regards to UWSA2, people have said to compare your percentile rather than your 3 digit score to that. So I got 251 on UWSA2 which was 76th percentile and 76th percentile on Step 1 is a 245 according to that chart. So that might be why UWSA2 is overpredicting for some people and maybe going by percentile is a bit more accurate? Also a 200 on Step is in in 8th percentile and I doubt that 92% of all med students are getting at least a 70% on Step so the passing percentage has to be lower. I'd say 55-60% is more accurate for the passing line.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting idea!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
UW question ID 15566

1591831932355.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CyrusHabs7695 said:
UW question ID 15566

View attachment 309601
Click to expand...

When my mom was getting chemo, the hospital taught a whole class about makeup to help the cancer ladies feel pretty (it was cute and sweet), and the #1 tenet of the whole thing was everything had to be disposable and to never touch any cosmetics directly to your skin. They needed disposable mascara brushes (if they had eyelashes left), disposable makeup sponges, and to put lipstick on with a Q tip, because of how dangerous their *own personal skin flora* was. It was like the #1 focus of the whole class.

I missed that question anyway.

You all ever feel like there’s stuff you would have gotten right before med school, but you’re missing now because you’re getting too technical in your thought processes and so you skip over the right answer?
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Guys I have a question: Uw says that morphine is metabolized by the liver to M3G and M6G with M6G being metabolically active. Also Opioids are metabolized by CYP. Does that mean that CYP inducers will increase the active metabolite leading to possible intoxication?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
HopeImakeit said:
Guys I have a question: Uw says that morphine is metabolized by the liver to M3G and M6G with M6G being metabolically active. Also Opioids are metabolized by CYP. Does that mean that CYP inducers will increase the active metabolite leading to possible intoxication?
Click to expand...

If CYP enzymes are induced, even though M6G is active, it’s going to be very quickly degraded just like the initial morphine and all of the other morphine metabolites, leading to a lower risk of intoxication. If you inhibit CYP, it may take longer to make M6G, but it will stick around longer once it’s made.

That’s my understanding anyway.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
So after taking a day to chill I feel much more calm. I also made a mistake when I got my score report. I though on NBME 16 I had gotten a 210. I got a 200. So taking NBME 21 a week later I was able to improve my score by 10 points. Is it the score I want? no, but I've made a 10 point increase with each exam I've taken and thats kinda nice. by that logic maybe Ill get a 220 on NBME 24 lol. My biggest mistake for the MCAT is that I did not target my review areas to what i was bad at. I have a month left and I am not going to make that mistake again with this. My drive is strong after a day off and I'm ready to just buckle up and skrt skrt to a 230.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
Wish I was taking my test next week instead of in 2. So over it at this point.
Click to expand...

I was reviewing the second part of UWSA2 yesterday and that literally took me the entire afternoon because I could not stay focused. I eventually just left to go get a drink because I couldn’t stand looking at my computer screen any longer. I’m debating if I want to do Zanki today or not because I’m so over it and am honestly more relieved than anxious for tomorrow at this point.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
GoCards05 said:
I was reviewing the second part of UWSA2 yesterday and that literally took me the entire afternoon because I could not stay focused. I eventually just left to go get a drink because I couldn’t stand looking at my computer screen any longer. I’m debating if I want to do Zanki today or not because I’m so over it and am honestly more relieved than anxious for tomorrow at this point.
Click to expand...
I'm personally planning on taking the day off before my exam. I think you should relax! Put yourself in a good headspace.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
fldoctorgirl said:
I'm personally planning on taking the day off before my exam. I think you should relax! Put yourself in a good headspace.
Click to expand...

I have to drive to my testing site in a few hours so I’m thinking of doing Zanki until I leave and then once I get there just skimming over Pathoma 1-3, FA rapid review and the HY anatomy pretty casually tonight. I feel like that shouldn’t take me too long and will allow me to relax for the most part.
 
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
1K
chauhanjugalkishor
C
A
USMLE Step 1 resources for sale
Replies
0
Views
2K
accurate_branch20
A
G
  • Question Question
USMLE Out of time and not ready for Step 1. Have I screwed up?
Replies
0
Views
539
genteel-mug-sting
G
Top