USMLE Official 2020 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

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oh4sure said:
Comlex tomorrow...scared like crazy about passing lol Anyone else feel that way prior even if they did decently on comsae? Idk what got into my head this weekend but I'm scared I'm gonna get a form that just emphasizes all my weaknesses
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I was pretty numb about COMLEX since I had already taken Step, had taken some time off between the two and my exam was two days before my Step score was going to be released. I didn't really have any feelings about COMLEX one way or another until after I had gotten my Step score but I'm legit concerned about how I did considering I was kind of yolo-ing it. I don't think I failed but I really can't say that with any certainty. I feel like if you've gotten 500+ on any of the new COMSAEs you shouldn't be worried about not passing but COMLEX has a way of making you feel like crap no matter how much you've prepared. All the post-COMLEX posts on this thread have said pretty much the same thing so you're definitely not alone if you feel bad during and/or after the exam. We're all in the same boat!
 
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oh4sure said:
Comlex tomorrow...scared like crazy about passing lol Anyone else feel that way prior even if they did decently on comsae? Idk what got into my head this weekend but I'm scared I'm gonna get a form that just emphasizes all my weaknesses
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I felt the same as @GoCards05 I had pretty quality COMSAE and Combank scores, and thats even before adding 50-100 to my comsae, had gotten like 80th percentile on the 800 true learn questions I did and I was freaking the F out the night before hand. Not trying to brag just showing that objectively I was "prepared".

Went to bed at 10 and woke up around 4 and couldn't sleep so I just kept studying and freaking out lol. By the time I actually sat down for the exam all the stress in my body was spent and I was just on autopilot the whole exam. It isnt that scary when you are actually taking it, but something just feels "off" the whole time idk. I felt alright at lunch but once I was driving home I felt ****ty, but was also just still so numb that I was not sure WHAT I was feeling.

The feeling has gotten worse these past few days as my step studying brings out all the questions I know I got wrong FML. Just go in knowing you have put in the work, and that the pass rate is a 93%. Idk about other posters, but one thing I realized during the exam that even if I did have to retake it, It was just so obvious afterwards what I would need to study, and that made me feel better for some reason?

Review your VS, maybe take a look at Lumbar counterstrain and you got this! you've put in the work.
 
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GoCards05 said:
I feel the same score anxiety again since Level 1 D-day is sometime between Thursday and Monday. I think I might be more anxious for this one than Step.
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We get to be comlex score buddies! I’m assuming I’m getting my score that Monday since I took it two days before the end of the block, but we’ll see. It would be pretty epic to get it Thursday, though - step score Wednesday and comlex score Thursday would be really ripping the band aid off.

...You guys. I’m trying to figure out what to do with my time right now. I have five days left on my UWorld subscription and 1247 unseen questions. I’m idly perusing the step 2 forums and they say there’s a lot of content overlap between step 1 and step 2 - worth it to go through as many of the remaining UWorld step 1 questions as I can hit and take notes, or just let them go?
 
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oh4sure said:
Comlex tomorrow...scared like crazy about passing lol Anyone else feel that way prior even if they did decently on comsae? Idk what got into my head this weekend but I'm scared I'm gonna get a form that just emphasizes all my weaknesses
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yup, thats me right now, too. with no real reason not to be confident. scared im gonna get foot muscle anatomy for 30 questions.
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
Thought 1 was crazy hard. Was the opposite
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Thats wild lol I thought overall the test was very well balanced and fair. Hope test day feels that way. The curve on 18 is NUTS. These kids getting 260s are missing like 5-10 questions on the whole dang test-absolute savages
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Thats wild lol I thought overall the test was very well balanced and fair. Hope test day feels that way. The curve on 18 is NUTS. These kids getting 260s are missing like 5-10 questions on the whole dang test-absolute savages
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I know! On 18 I missed like like 15 and that was a 25. The eaiser parts of my exam felt like 18
 
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Thesimplelifeofamyloid said:
I know! On 18 I missed like like 15 and that was a 25. The eaiser parts of my exam felt like 18
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I missed a question literally because i didnt know what the word preclude meant smh. I thought it meant “to come before” when it means to prevent. Would have gotten that question right-it was about ARDS and knocking out cells in the alveolus (trying not to spoil for those reading this lol)
 
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Finally updating my laptop and I had to uninstall Anki since it was the old version that isn't compatible with the new update. Even though I'm done with all of my cards it was a little scary. Is this what true freedom is?? What do I do with it lol
 
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oh4sure said:
Comlex tomorrow...scared like crazy about passing lol Anyone else feel that way prior even if they did decently on comsae? Idk what got into my head this weekend but I'm scared I'm gonna get a form that just emphasizes all my weaknesses
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I had 560+ on 105b (said to underpredict by 50-150 points) and COMBANK assessment predicted at ~670 and I took it a few days ago and still partially feel like I failed lol. It's just such a crap exam. I'm trying to put it past me but at least once a day I have the thought "oh f***, I failed".
 
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1593999603187.png


These are COMLEX 1 score release dates. Anyone know how we'll know what day they're released on and at what time scores are typically released at? I'm in the July 9-13 cohort.
 
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Cath Up said:
View attachment 311949

These are COMLEX 1 score release dates. Anyone know how we'll know what day they're released on and at what time scores are typically released at? I'm in the July 9-13 cohort.
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Same here. Based on last year's thread when each release was two days each, I think people were getting them around 3pm on the second day. I'm definitely not expecting it on Thursday since that overlaps with the first half so maybe Friday at the earliest? And why does over a month's worth of scores get two days while two weeks gets five? Ugh.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Finally updating my laptop and I had to uninstall Anki since it was the old version that isn't compatible with the new update. Even though I'm done with all of my cards it was a little scary. Is this what true freedom is?? What do I do with it lol
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Time to download anking Step 2 😉 it’s a monster but I’ve only heard good things about the decks it’s incorporated. Definitely hard to get back into it though, I had like 90 reviews today and was like bruhhh. Don’t know how I managed 1300 cards daily during dedicated haha
 
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Just finished block 1. Damn this is tough, feels harder than the other NBMEs I have taken

EDIT: Just did block 2: felt a lot better than block one but still had some tricky parts. Going a lot slower than usual but thats fine, I still usually end with 15-20 min to spare.

Edit: block 3 not feeling half bad. Gotta say that some of these pictures of the brain SUCK
 
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Damnit.

214. an improvement I guess, but only by 3 points so I doubt that really counts, and down from 232 on UWSA1. 70% correct which I guess isnt bad. I seem to always get 70% correct but get wildly different scores. idk what is up with that.

made 10 mistakes where I got it down between 2 and picked the wrong one or did not read the question right.

Going to do a deep dive later to see what subjects I need to focus on, but I am thinking right now that a lot of it was anatomy stuff. Def should go over some gross neuro anatomy.

Any advice welcome as always.

I still do low on the "apply foundational concepts" section. I am not sure how to improve on this or what this even covers. Ugh. Exam is in a week and a half so hopefully I can figure this out. when is the last day I can cancel step?

EDIT: When you decided to do NBME 24 before doing your zanki for the day and two questions you got wrong were in your reviews. are you kidding me.....
 
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ohmanwaddup said:
Damnit.

214. an improvement I guess, but only by 3 points so I doubt that really counts, and down from 232 on UWSA1. 70% correct which I guess isnt bad. I seem to always get 70% correct but get wildly different scores. idk what is up with that.

made 10 mistakes where I got it down between 2 and picked the wrong one or did not read the question right.

Going to do a deep dive later to see what subjects I need to focus on, but I am thinking right now that a lot of it was anatomy stuff. Def should go over some gross neuro anatomy.

Any advice welcome as always.

I still do low on the "apply foundational concepts" section. I am not sure how to improve on this or what this even covers. Ugh. Exam is in a week and a half so hopefully I can figure this out. when is the last day I can cancel step?
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From what I've seen, I'd say you're in a good spot to hit 230. Work hard on your weak spots!

Although not always the case, write-ups like these are really uplifting:
 
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ohmanwaddup said:
Damnit.

214. an improvement I guess, but only by 3 points so I doubt that really counts, and down from 232 on UWSA1. 70% correct which I guess isnt bad. I seem to always get 70% correct but get wildly different scores. idk what is up with that.

made 10 mistakes where I got it down between 2 and picked the wrong one or did not read the question right.

Going to do a deep dive later to see what subjects I need to focus on, but I am thinking right now that a lot of it was anatomy stuff. Def should go over some gross neuro anatomy.

Any advice welcome as always.

I still do low on the "apply foundational concepts" section. I am not sure how to improve on this or what this even covers. Ugh. Exam is in a week and a half so hopefully I can figure this out. when is the last day I can cancel step?

EDIT: When you decided to do NBME 24 before doing your zanki for the day and two questions you got wrong were in your reviews. are you kidding me.....
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Hammer weaknesses! And good luck. I think that's in line with some improvement since UWSA1.

I disagree that you are in a good spot to hit 230. You could, but 232 UWSA1 and 214 NBME 24 is lower than most 230s I've seen. That's just my opinion. I'm all for being optimistic but I don't think >230 is the most likely outcome right now, though hopefully things can come together in the next week and a half.

(And not hitting a 230 is nothing catastrophic. I'm certainly not sure I will).
 
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oh4sure said:
uhhhh that comlex was.....not fun lol suuuuper repetitive about a few topics and like barely anything on the rest. I'm so frustrated. I feel like a solid amount was just straight recall but Of course I DIDN'T RECALL LOL
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I had the same experience. Seems like everyone else on this thread did too.
 
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Cath Up said:
Hammer weaknesses! And good luck. I think that's in line with some improvement since UWSA1.

I disagree that you are in a good spot to hit 230. You could, but 232 UWSA1 and 214 NBME 24 is lower than most 230s I've seen. That's just my opinion. I'm all for being optimistic but I don't think >230 is the most likely outcome right now, though hopefully things can come together in the next week and a half.

(And not hitting a 230 is nothing catastrophic. I'm certainly not sure I will).
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I would def lean more to what you are saying tbh. The predictor has me at a 233 and 238 date adjusted, but considering I've never hit either one of those scores I am more than a little doubtful.
 
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ohmanwaddup said:
I would def lean more to what you are saying tbh. The predictor has me at a 233 and 238 date adjusted, but considering I've never hit either one of those scores I am more than a little doubtful.
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Because the predictions have been so whacky these year Im going into it knowing I put my heart and soul into this test and thats all I can do. Let the cards play as they may and walk in attacking the living tits out of this exam like you are about to go to war with it. All you can do is work your very hardest. That way at the end of the day it just reinforces the reason why adcoms selected you to be a physician something most people will never get to experience because of your relentless work ethic. Its the resident/doctor that is eager to up all night working on a case while everyone else is sleeping that saves someones life because you had that extra grit that really makes rhe difference not some 270 step 1 scorer that remembered some trivial mutation on a random chromosome. Grit/perseverance is what can make a phenomenal doctor not a test score given on one day in your 2nd/3rd year of med school. Good luck my friend. go wreck that test
 
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Rozana said:
Hey new member
What was your dedicated schedule like ??
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A mess! I made a lot of mistakes.

Take home from me is focus on your weaknesses and not a thorough review. I did an structured program that would have been great, except I didn’t finish it and plenty of stuff I didn’t know well was at the end (which I never saw). Only do a structured program if you’re 100% sure you have the willpower to complete it. Hint: if you’re a chronic procrastinator like me, it’s probably not a good idea.

ohmanwaddup said:
I would def lean more to what you are saying tbh. The predictor has me at a 233 and 238 date adjusted, but considering I've never hit either one of those scores I am more than a little doubtful.
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I’m pretty doubtful of the predictor this year, too. Most people are scoring within their confidence interval, though, including at the very bottom value... so I’d take a long hard look at the low end of your 95% interval and use that as a judge of readiness. If you’d be okay with something near that score, roll with it, and use it as motivation to keep grinding otherwise.

And for the record, you can cancel up to the day before. I gave myself an extra day less than 48 hours out from my date.
 
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calivianya said:
A mess! I made a lot of mistakes.

Take home from me is focus on your weaknesses and not a thorough review. I did an structured program that would have been great, except I didn’t finish it and plenty of stuff I didn’t know well was at the end (which I never saw). Only do a structured program if you’re 100% sure you have the willpower to complete it. Hint: if you’re a chronic procrastinator like me, it’s probably not a good idea.



I’m pretty doubtful of the predictor this year, too. Most people are scoring within their confidence interval, though, including at the very bottom value... so I’d take a long hard look at the low end of your 95% interval and use that as a judge of readiness. If you’d be okay with something near that score, roll with it, and use it as motivation to keep grinding otherwise.

And for the record, you can cancel up to the day before. I gave myself an extra day less than 48 hours out from my date.
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My low end is a 222 and honestly I would be more than ok with that at this point. Super disappointing to do zanki and end up with that score, but according to charting outcomes I could still probably match into what I think I want to do.
 
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Alright I took a deeper dive into NBME 214. 10% of my mistakes were neuro specifically gross anatomy and Blood supply so thats where I am going to focus on today. I need to start to THINK when I don't know a question. There were 5 mistakes where I had no idea what the answer was, but I logically should have been able to pick the right answer. Im going to do the rest of the practice exams and UW with a piece of paper next to me that says "THINK IT THROUGH WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER". Maybe this will help a bit. Also hoping that test day adrenaline helps me make more educated guesses.

A ton of my mistakes were just bogus. Kicking myself in the head right now over half of these stupid mistakes I made. GAH

NBME 18 on Thursday. Hoping to hit 220, then hoping for a 235+ on UWSA2. I would be fine with a 70% on free 120 but I'll consider 75+ a win.
 
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Thanks ,appreciate it

calivianya said:
A mess! I made a lot of mistakes.

Take home from me is focus on your weaknesses and not a thorough review. I did an structured program that would have been great, except I didn’t finish it and plenty of stuff I didn’t know well was at the end (which I never saw). Only do a structured program if you’re 100% sure you have the willpower to complete it. Hint: if you’re a chronic procrastinator like me, it’s probably not a good idea.



I’m pretty doubtful of the predictor this year, too. Most people are scoring within their confidence interval, though, including at the very bottom value... so I’d take a long hard look at the low end of your 95% interval and use that as a judge of readiness. If you’d be okay with something near that score, roll with it, and use it as motivation to keep grinding otherwise

And for the record, you can cancel up to the day before. I gave myself an extra day less than 48 hours out from my date.
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Thinking of jumping ship from Dorian to Tzanki for next year since our rotations are only 4 weeks. I feel like I will preserve my sanity al lot better lol.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Thinking of jumping ship from Dorian to Tzanki for next year since our rotations are only 4 weeks. I feel like I will preserve my sanity al lot better lol.
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I’m trying to figure this stuff out, too. It just doesn’t seem as straightforward to figure out what to do as it was for step 1. I downloaded AnKing and made filtered decks for each clerkship, minus the UWorld cards (suspended) since I didn’t want to spoil anything, and IM is still 3400 cards. It just seems like a lot to get through, especially since I know I failed at Zanki and had to give it up.

I get eight weeks of peds, IM, surgery, and FM, but they’re not consecutive (one of each in the fall and spring semesters) so I’m still trying to figure out how to keep up with my reviews, constantly switch focus but still remember everything, etc. Idk what to do.

How long is Tzanki?
 
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calivianya said:
I’m trying to figure this stuff out, too. It just doesn’t seem as straightforward to figure out what to do as it was for step 1. I downloaded AnKing and made filtered decks for each clerkship, minus the UWorld cards (suspended) since I didn’t want to spoil anything, and IM is still 3400 cards. It just seems like a lot to get through, especially since I know I failed at Zanki and had to give it up.

I get eight weeks of peds, IM, surgery, and FM, but they’re not consecutive (one of each in the fall and spring semesters) so I’m still trying to figure out how to keep up with my reviews, constantly switch focus but still remember everything, etc. Idk what to do.

How long is Tzanki?
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Tzanki is ~7000 cards. Cheesy Dorian is ~11,000 I think? I didn't even bother with AnkiKing cause I knew there were just too many cards. We have 4 weeks for everything except IM and surgery. I happen to have my surgery rotations back to back, but not sure about IM yet. I just honestly don't care to honor every single rotation because I'm not gunning for a competitive specialty, and I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice my quality of life again. I really don't ever wanna do the level of cards I was doing for Step 1 ever again, so I really think I'm just gonna go all in on Tzanki and not look back. People seem to do well with both and I think it's probably more about committing to it than anything else.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Tzanki is ~7000 cards. Cheesy Dorian is ~11,000 I think? I didn't even bother with AnkiKing cause I knew there were just too many cards. We have 4 weeks for everything except IM and surgery. I happen to have my surgery rotations back to back, but not sure about IM yet. I just honestly don't care to honor every single rotation because I'm not gunning for a competitive specialty, and I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice my quality of life again. I really don't ever wanna do the level of cards I was doing for Step 1 ever again, so I really think I'm just gonna go all in on Tzanki and not look back. People seem to do well with both and I think it's probably more about committing to it than anything else.
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I agree that quality of life is super important - I don’t want to burn out that hard again. I like that card count on Tzanki - I’m going to download it and take a look. TY for the recommendation!
 
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Longtime lurker here. Anyone here have advice on whether I should move up my exam? Goal is 250+. Currently scheduled for first week of August about a week before I start rotations. I started dedicated in April but then covid happened and was able to start some virtual clerkship stuff and have been in dedicated part 2 for about 2 weeks. In April I took UWSA1 - 266, NBME 20 - 244, and NBME 21 - 245 (in order, all about a week apart). Just took NBME 23 last week (first exam of dedicated round 2) and scored 250. Will be done first pass of UWorld this week; am currently at 81%. Predictor has me at ~257.

I am so worried about more covid-related cancellations and having to quarantine before starting clerkships (currently planning to take step in a different state than my school) that I feel like I should move it up and get it over with asap, but I don't want to do it without being ready for the exam and end up kicking myself for not being 100% ready. Also worried about giving up the spot I have now. Thinking maybe I should reschedule to about 2-3 weeks from now instead of my current ~4. Advice? Honestly all the stress about this is making it harder to study properly lol.

Also has anyone heard anything more about the event-based testing USMLE was talking about? First date is supposed to be July 30th but haven't heard much about it, unless I missed something.
 
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mangoangel said:
Longtime lurker here. Anyone here have advice on whether I should move up my exam? Goal is 250+. Currently scheduled for first week of August about a week before I start rotations. I started dedicated in April but then covid happened and was able to start some virtual clerkship stuff and have been in dedicated part 2 for about 2 weeks. In April I took UWSA1 - 266, NBME 20 - 244, and NBME 21 - 245 (in order, all about a week apart). Just took NBME 23 last week (first exam of dedicated round 2) and scored 250. Will be done first pass of UWorld this week; am currently at 81%. Predictor has me at ~257.

I am so worried about more covid-related cancellations and having to quarantine before starting clerkships (currently planning to take step in a different state than my school) that I feel like I should move it up and get it over with asap, but I don't want to do it without being ready for the exam and end up kicking myself for not being 100% ready. Also worried about giving up the spot I have now. Thinking maybe I should reschedule to about 2-3 weeks from now instead of my current ~4. Advice? Honestly all the stress about this is making it harder to study properly lol.

Also has anyone heard anything more about the event-based testing USMLE was talking about? First date is supposed to be July 30th but haven't heard much about it, unless I missed something.
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In your shoes I would move it up to maybe 2 weeks. Sounds like you’re at your goal.
 
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fldoctorgirl said:
Literally got none of my top 3 ranked electives, so that's fun lol. Got one that was 2nd to last.
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Oh I have not even been allowed to choose electives yet. Not that it matters since my site basically has none. Probs wont matter since I plan on repeating 2nd year once I get my comlex score :vomit:
 
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Step 1 done. That was the worst test of my life. It did not feel like uworld at all to me. The stems were SO LONG with so many distractors in them. I'm normally a fast test taker - I finished every block in uworld sim 1 and 2, two NBMES, and the free 120 with 15-20 minutes to spare every single time. I had 0-2 minutes left on 3 or 4 of the blocks on my real test. My strategy has always been going quickly through the block once and then returning to see if my gut was wrong the first time, and I generally fix a lot of mistakes doing this. I wasn't able to do much of that on the real thing and I'm sure that is going to hurt me a lot. I had a goal of 240+ in the beginning, but now I'll be happy with a >220. Can comlex be worse? Probably.
 
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Hippocrates II said:
Step 1 done. That was the worst test of my life. It did not feel like uworld at all to me. The stems were SO LONG with so many distractors in them. I'm normally a fast test taker - I finished every block in uworld sim 1 and 2, two NBMES, and the free 120 with 15-20 minutes to spare every single time. I had 0-2 minutes left on 3 or 4 of the blocks on my real test. My strategy has always been going quickly through the block once and then returning to see if my gut was wrong the first time, and I generally fix a lot of mistakes doing this. I wasn't able to do much of that on the real thing and I'm sure that is going to hurt me a lot. I had a goal of 240+ in the beginning, but now I'll be happy with a >220. Can comlex be worse? Probably.
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You’d be surprised. I was out within 10 minutes of my step end time for comlex... except comlex started half an hour later, so I just realized I actually finished comlex 20 minutes faster than step because I started both pretty close to the actual start time listed.

I feel like there are *some* complicated thought-requiring questions on comlex, but there’s a whole slew of first order identification questions. So comlex is awful because it tests on stupid stuff that you didn’t study (IMO), but there are a lot more questions that you can just burn through quickly as opposed to step.

I took my time and went over everything on step twice... I didn’t give the comlex questions a second glance. I just finished and moved on because I was mad at the stupidity.
 
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