USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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Deecee2DO said:
lol literally the new NBMEs were made to keep us humble. Thats their primary function
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Very true. I legit felt like I was going to see a 200 pop up on my screen for all of them except maybe 24. Not sure if it’s a good thing or bad thing that I scored higher on 3/4 new NBMEs than NBME 18. Hoping my real score is more in line with UWorld than any of my NBMEs.
 
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I just took NBME 23 today after taking 24 on Saturday night, late, right before I went to sleep (dumb, I know, but I had put it off all day and just wanted to get it done). I was exhausted during 24 so figured I could do better today, fully awake, taking twice as long and really paying attention. Was hoping for a good at least 5 points better.

So the scores go NBME 24 236, NBME 23... 235. :laugh:

I definitely agree that the NBMEs are for keeping us humble.
 
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calivianya said:
I just took NBME 23 today after taking 24 on Saturday night, late, right before I went to sleep (dumb, I know, but I had put it off all day and just wanted to get it done). I was exhausted during 24 so figured I could do better today, fully awake, taking twice as long and really paying attention. Was hoping for a good at least 5 points better.

So the scores go NBME 24 236, NBME 23... 235. :laugh:

I definitely agree that the NBMEs are for keeping us humble.
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High 230s is solid. If you dont mind me asking what are you predicted at?/Have you taken any other NBMEs? We are around the same as far as 24 goes (got a 238)
 
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Damn , Uworld biochem questions truly are a sink or swim kind of deal. Out of a 20 question block, got every questions right, except for 4/6 metabolism questions lol
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Well, now I'm afraid of taking it lol. Especially since people say its biochem and cell bio heavy, which are probably my 2 worst areas.

This brings up an interesting topic of discussion, though: what do we trust more, the overall predictor on the spreadsheet or UWSA2 in and of itself? Like, let's say you get a 210 on UWSA2 or something, but your overall prediction stays at 235 and your goal is 230. Do you postpone, or chug on?
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calivianya said:
I just took NBME 23 today after taking 24 on Saturday night, late, right before I went to sleep (dumb, I know, but I had put it off all day and just wanted to get it done). I was exhausted during 24 so figured I could do better today, fully awake, taking twice as long and really paying attention. Was hoping for a good at least 5 points better.

So the scores go NBME 24 236, NBME 23... 235. :laugh:

I definitely agree that the NBMEs are for keeping us humble.
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I really think the NBMEs are luck to some degree. I got a 238 on 23, 238 on 22, 239 on 24 and 21 and a 243 on 20. Felt the same about 22, 23 and 20 while taking them. I would just try to learn from them.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
I really think the NBMEs are luck to some degree. I got a 238 on 23, 238 on 22, 239 on 24 and 21 and a 243 on 20. Felt the same about 22, 23 and 20 while taking them. I would just try to learn from them.
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Absolutely. And the curve varies on each one and we have no idea which one is most similar to the real deal, if any. I think the best rule of thumb these days is the average between UWorld and NBMEs yields the best prediction with UWorld slightly overpredicting and NBMEs slightly underpredicting.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
I really think the NBMEs are luck to some degree. I got a 238 on 23, 238 on 22, 239 on 24 and 21 and a 243 on 20. Felt the same about 22, 23 and 20 while taking them. I would just try to learn from them.
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Thats actually really encouraging and i agree. I know you have baller scores on pretty much everything and we got the same score on 24 but i ended up getting a 228 on 22 a week later. Then add in my UW and the 228 just doesnt make sense if im scoring 80%+ on most every block with 81st %ile overall. New NBMEs are nuts
 
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GoCards05 said:
Absolutely. And the curve varies on each one and we have no idea which one is most similar to the real deal, if any. I think the best rule of thumb these days is the average between UWorld and NBMEs yields the best prediction with UWorld slightly overpredicting and NBMEs slightly underpredicting.
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Also I think the curve does change every year. I think the scaling got more harsh this year. Because last year, a lot of people did the old one too when these new ones came out, so looking back previously at all the 250 scores, I think there's some inflation.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Also I think the curve does change every year. I think the scaling got more harsh this year. Because last year, a lot of people did the old one too when these new ones came out, so looking back previously at all the 250 scores, I think there's some inflation.
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Yeah the curve has definitely gotten more harsh, especially on the old ones. No way is 80% is under 230 (probably not even under 240) and no way 90% is under 260, let alone 250. I would put way more stock in percent correct rather than 3 digit score on both UWorld and the NBMEs since neither one seems to be absolutely predictive. I have a hunch that the curves on both aren’t representative of the real deal and that it falls somewhere in between.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Thats actually really encouraging and i agree. I know you have baller scores on pretty much everything and we got the same score on 24 but i ended up getting a 228 on 22 a week later. Then add in my UW and the 228 just doesnt make sense if im scoring 80%+ on most every block with 81st %ile overall. New NBMEs are nuts
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If I had a suggestion, I guess I would practice building a clinical depiction of each disease in your mind, especially for your weak areas. If an attending said, tell me about Menetrier's disease, what would you tell them? Ideally, if one was given a word, they should have 3-4 things that come to the top of their head. If not, might be a good area to review.
 
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Took her yesterday. My opinion it felt like a mix between Uworld and NBME questions, not 100% uworld but not 100% NBME. Agree with what others have said that some of the questions are ridiculously long. Mine was pretty metabolism-specific light, thank god. Definitely a few wtf questions where you kind of just laugh. Biggest piece of advice I can give is when you get to a question that you have absolutely no clue and aren't going to figure out, is just pick an answer and move on, don't let it rattle you for the rest of the block. Test center itself was easy going, no complaints there. Had more heart sounds questions than I was expecting. Agree that going through Pathoma 1-3 is beneficial. Pharm and micro were decently straight forward, think I had like 1 or 2 micro that were a little tricky. Anyone has any questions feel free to ask! keep grinding guys, it will feel good when you're done to know you put in as much work as you could and not have any regrets.

Also does anyone know when I should expect a score if I took it yesterday?
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Took her yesterday. My opinion it felt like a mix between Uworld and NBME questions, not 100% uworld but not 100% NBME. Agree with what others have said that some of the questions are ridiculously long. Mine was pretty metabolism-specific light, thank god. Definitely a few wtf questions where you kind of just laugh. Biggest piece of advice I can give is when you get to a question that you have absolutely no clue and aren't going to figure out, is just pick an answer and move on, don't let it rattle you for the rest of the block. Test center itself was easy going, no complaints there. Had more heart sounds questions than I was expecting. Agree that going through Pathoma 1-3 is beneficial. Pharm and micro were decently straight forward, think I had like 1 or 2 micro that were a little tricky. Anyone has any questions feel free to ask! keep grinding guys, it will feel good when you're done to know you put in as much work as you could and not have any regrets.

Also does anyone know when I should expect a score if I took it yesterday?
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Current trend is looking like 2 weeks! So, maybe July 1?
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Took her yesterday. My opinion it felt like a mix between Uworld and NBME questions, not 100% uworld but not 100% NBME. Agree with what others have said that some of the questions are ridiculously long. Mine was pretty metabolism-specific light, thank god. Definitely a few wtf questions where you kind of just laugh. Biggest piece of advice I can give is when you get to a question that you have absolutely no clue and aren't going to figure out, is just pick an answer and move on, don't let it rattle you for the rest of the block. Test center itself was easy going, no complaints there. Had more heart sounds questions than I was expecting. Agree that going through Pathoma 1-3 is beneficial. Pharm and micro were decently straight forward, think I had like 1 or 2 micro that were a little tricky. Anyone has any questions feel free to ask! keep grinding guys, it will feel good when you're done to know you put in as much work as you could and not have any regrets.

Also does anyone know when I should expect a score if I took it yesterday?
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Yay congrats on being done!!!! I'd say July 1st is when you should expect a score if the current trend holds. Always on a Wednesday around 11 ET
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Current trend is looking like 2 weeks! So, maybe July 1?
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So when people say "permit disappears" they mean that link that says "print permit" ?

Screen Shot 2020-06-17 at 11.43.23 AM.png
 
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Alright y'all, your neurotic pal fldoctorgirl is keeping tabs on today's score release thread to report any trends. So far, predictor seems to be holding up well. I've only seen 2 reports of massive underperformance (predicted 236 and 237, scores 211 and 212...kinda eerie how those are like a point off both ways so who knows). Still unsure where I stand on UWSA2...for most people, scores seem to be +/-5. Have seen a few -10 though, and one -15. Stay tuned.
 
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Casually browsing through the 6/17 score release thread on reddit and seems like UWSA2 overpredicted by 5-10 points for a majority of people, which I'm not surprised about. Came across 2 nightmare situations where the reddit predictor overpredicted by 20+ points, but the rest seemed to be within their confidence interval.

So scared for next week 🤢
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
So when people say "permit disappears" they mean that link that says "print permit" ?

View attachment 310193
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yea the link itself will disappear. i clicked on it and it said permit not available but i think that just happens to everyone after you've taken the exam. also man i think we'll both hear july 1st. was being optimistic about next week but i think that only applies to students who took it a few days before us.
 
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bluelamin said:
yea the link itself will disappear. i clicked on it and it said permit not available but i think that just happens to everyone after you've taken the exam. also man i think we'll both hear july 1st. was being optimistic about next week but i think that only applies to students who took it a few days before us.
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yea 2 weeks sounds about right
 
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CyrusHabs7695 said:
Took her yesterday. My opinion it felt like a mix between Uworld and NBME questions, not 100% uworld but not 100% NBME. Agree with what others have said that some of the questions are ridiculously long. Mine was pretty metabolism-specific light, thank god. Definitely a few wtf questions where you kind of just laugh. Biggest piece of advice I can give is when you get to a question that you have absolutely no clue and aren't going to figure out, is just pick an answer and move on, don't let it rattle you for the rest of the block. Test center itself was easy going, no complaints there. Had more heart sounds questions than I was expecting. Agree that going through Pathoma 1-3 is beneficial. Pharm and micro were decently straight forward, think I had like 1 or 2 micro that were a little tricky. Anyone has any questions feel free to ask! keep grinding guys, it will feel good when you're done to know you put in as much work as you could and not have any regrets.

Also does anyone know when I should expect a score if I took it yesterday?
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1) Did you end up taking it at a random test center, or did you snag a spot at your original location?
2) Do you feel like going through some of the finer points that were present in professor slides would be worthwhile?
3) Were you given any context for heart sounds?
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Alright y'all, your neurotic pal fldoctorgirl is keeping tabs on today's score release thread to report any trends. So far, predictor seems to be holding up well. I've only seen 2 reports of massive underperformance (predicted 236 and 237, scores 211 and 212...kinda eerie how those are like a point off both ways so who knows). Still unsure where I stand on UWSA2...for most people, scores seem to be +/-5. Have seen a few -10 though, and one -15. Stay tuned.
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Been doing this all morning
 
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Praise be to the UWorld gods!

UWSA1 (5/2) - 226
NBME 17 (5/9) - 225
NBME 23 (5/9) - 222
NBME 22 (5/16) - 226
NBME 23 (5/17) - 231
NBME 20 (5/23) - 236
NBME 21 (5/24) - 226
UWSA2 (5/30) - 245
NBME 19 (5/31) - 248
NBME 18 (6/1) - 238
Free 120 (6/3) - 85%
UWorld % - 79%

Predicted score - 245 (CI: 230-260)

Actual score - 246!

I learn best through practice exams/questions, never really got into Anki. Hence why I took so many NBMEs. Completed UWorld twice and did a few hundred incorrects. Watched Sketchy Micro 2x, most of Pathoma, really hammered BnB biochem in the last couple of weeks leading up to Step 1.
 
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Wanted to share this here for those who don't go on Reddit, if you guys want to help out with data for a new score predictor! I know we all rely on it a lot so I think it will be cool to help with the next one 🙂

 
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dj-Roomba said:
Praise be to the UWorld gods!

UWSA1 (5/2) - 226
NBME 17 (5/9) - 225
NBME 23 (5/9) - 222
NBME 22 (5/16) - 226
NBME 23 (5/17) - 231
NBME 20 (5/23) - 236
NBME 21 (5/24) - 226
UWSA2 (5/30) - 245
NBME 19 (5/31) - 248
NBME 18 (6/1) - 238
Free 120 (6/3) - 85%
UWorld % - 79%

Predicted score - 245 (CI: 230-260)

Actual score - 246!

I learn best through practice exams/questions, never really got into Anki. Hence why I took so many NBMEs. Completed UWorld twice and did a few hundred incorrects. Watched Sketchy Micro 2x, most of Pathoma, really hammered BnB biochem in the last couple of weeks leading up to Step 1.
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Killer. Crazy how much UWSA2 seems to be variable these days in terms of predictability.
 
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dj-Roomba said:
Praise be to the UWorld gods!

UWSA1 (5/2) - 226
NBME 17 (5/9) - 225
NBME 23 (5/9) - 222
NBME 22 (5/16) - 226
NBME 23 (5/17) - 231
NBME 20 (5/23) - 236
NBME 21 (5/24) - 226
UWSA2 (5/30) - 245
NBME 19 (5/31) - 248
NBME 18 (6/1) - 238
Free 120 (6/3) - 85%
UWorld % - 79%

Predicted score - 245 (CI: 230-260)

Actual score - 246!

I learn best through practice exams/questions, never really got into Anki. Hence why I took so many NBMEs. Completed UWorld twice and did a few hundred incorrects. Watched Sketchy Micro 2x, most of Pathoma, really hammered BnB biochem in the last couple of weeks leading up to Step 1.
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Congrats! Killer score! Was that 79% UWorld pass 100% timed random first pass? Or second pass included/systems/tutor mode etc included
 
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iforget2 said:
Casually browsing through the 6/17 score release thread on reddit and seems like UWSA2 overpredicted by 5-10 points for a majority of people, which I'm not surprised about. Came across 2 nightmare situations where the reddit predictor overpredicted by 20+ points, but the rest seemed to be within their confidence interval.

So scared for next week 🤢
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My UWSA2 was my highest practice score by a significant margin so I would still be ecstatic even if it overpredicts me by 5-10. That would still put me far above my goal score. Hopefully the predictor itself doesn’t overshoot me by more than 10 though. I’m legit terrified for next week.
 
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dj-Roomba said:
Praise be to the UWorld gods!

UWSA1 (5/2) - 226
NBME 17 (5/9) - 225
NBME 23 (5/9) - 222
NBME 22 (5/16) - 226
NBME 23 (5/17) - 231
NBME 20 (5/23) - 236
NBME 21 (5/24) - 226
UWSA2 (5/30) - 245
NBME 19 (5/31) - 248
NBME 18 (6/1) - 238
Free 120 (6/3) - 85%
UWorld % - 79%

Predicted score - 245 (CI: 230-260)

Actual score - 246!

I learn best through practice exams/questions, never really got into Anki. Hence why I took so many NBMEs. Completed UWorld twice and did a few hundred incorrects. Watched Sketchy Micro 2x, most of Pathoma, really hammered BnB biochem in the last couple of weeks leading up to Step 1.
Click to expand...

We have pretty similar practice scores so I am hoping I get to write a post just like this next week. Congrats!!
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Congrats! Killer score! Was that 79% UWorld pass 100% timed random first pass? Or second pass included/systems/tutor mode etc included
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First pass was tutor mode 100% random, started the day after winter break started. Obviously I started out low like 50% but I was using it to learn and also get better with test taking strategy. I think the overall % was around 60-65 but was hitting high 70's/low 80's at the end.

Second pass was timed, random over a 30 day dedicated. I did remember some questions that I had seen towards the end of the first pass but the majority felt new again.
 
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dj-Roomba said:
First pass was tutor mode 100% random, started the day after winter break started. Obviously I started out low like 50% but I was using it to learn and also get better with test taking strategy. I think the overall % was around 60-65 but was hitting high 70's/low 80's at the end.

Second pass was timed, random over a 30 day dedicated. I did remember some questions that I had seen towards the end of the first pass but the majority felt new again.
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Congrats!! 246 is a killer score!! Did you use the % of your second pass for the predictor?
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
I live for the posts where people beat the predictor by like 10+. I will selectively choose to focus on those instead of the other way around #valid
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For mental health and well-being over the next week, I think I'm going to follow this strategy as well. Can't know that the predictor massively overshoots some people if you ignore those posts entirely *insert meme with guy tapping his head knowingly here*
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
1) Did you end up taking it at a random test center, or did you snag a spot at your original location?
2) Do you feel like going through some of the finer points that were present in professor slides would be worthwhile?
3) Were you given any context for heart sounds?
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1. random
2. I mean, if youre all set on everything else I don't think it would hurt, but not sure if it would be beneficial. Theres just an infinite amount of things they could ask in regards to like anatomy, so youre inevitably going to get a question you have no idea on. But, most other people probably don't either
3. Yeah, 1 of them I didn't even have to listen to, other 2 not so much, had to figure it out by sound.
 
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Deecee2DO said:
High 230s is solid. If you dont mind me asking what are you predicted at?/Have you taken any other NBMEs? We are around the same as far as 24 goes (got a 238)
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I don’t mind one bit! Here’s what I look like so far:

Tests:
NBME 13: 207 (4/3)
NBME 15: 230 (5/16)
NBME 22: 231 (5/30)
UWSA 1: 254 (6/6)
NBME 24: 236 (6/13)
NBME 23: 235 (6/16)
Uworld %: 65 (started it when learning, before I knew things, still have ~1K questions left)

Predictor:
244.58 (232.37-256.79)


Had a practice comsae and a school comsae closer to the beginning of May, hence the blank spot for more than a month. Hard to tell what’s even weighted strongly. Taking NBME 13 out raises my predicted score by 2 points and taking UWSA 1 out lowers my predicted score by 2 points, but neither really changes my confidence interval at all. I have no idea how I’m going to do. :laugh:
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Alright y'all, your neurotic pal fldoctorgirl is keeping tabs on today's score release thread to report any trends. So far, predictor seems to be holding up well. I've only seen 2 reports of massive underperformance (predicted 236 and 237, scores 211 and 212...kinda eerie how those are like a point off both ways so who knows). Still unsure where I stand on UWSA2...for most people, scores seem to be +/-5. Have seen a few -10 though, and one -15. Stay tuned.
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For your data: my UWSA2 over-predicted by 5, my highest NBME (form 18) under-predicted by 17
 
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All right fam, time to descend back into the dedicated suck fest for COMLEX. Decided I'm not going to do UWorld but go through Sketchy again over the next 4-5 days (since it seems like COMLEX loves micro and pharm), read some Pathoma, do Zanki and work through Savarese and OnlineMedEd OMM videos. Pray for me as I go through the self-induced torture of remembering missed questions on Step as I go through my resources again. One more week!
 
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