Step I Official 2021 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

Started by slowthai
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slowthai

slowthai

holding a barbell.
10+ Year Member
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Goal weight: 250+ lbs
I've been eating a lot everyday so I think I have a chance

On a serious note, we just might be the last ones to take it pre-P/F. Let's rock.

Edit: As of today, we ARE the last ones to take it pre-P/F.
 
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Those of you that finished AMBOSS or did a decent portion of it, what % did your scores hover around? My scores have been fluctuating anywhere from 50 to 70% and I'm around 66% with around 300's Q done so far. Not sure whats considered a good range to be at. I ideally want to finish this and start UW asap.
 
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4thtimeretaker said:
Those of you that finished AMBOSS or did a decent portion of it, what % did your scores hover around? My scores have been fluctuating anywhere from 50 to 70% and I'm around 66% with around 300's Q done so far. Not sure whats considered a good range to be at. I ideally want to finish this and start UW asap.
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Amboss gives you a percentile compared to compare yourself to everyone else that did those same questions
 
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4thtimeretaker said:
Those of you that finished AMBOSS or did a decent portion of it, what % did your scores hover around? My scores have been fluctuating anywhere from 50 to 70% and I'm around 66% with around 300's Q done so far. Not sure whats considered a good range to be at. I ideally want to finish this and start UW asap.
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I wouldn't worry too much about AMBOSS percentages. I have 400 questions remaining and am around where you are at percentage wise. That correlates to 78th-80th percentile range.
 
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I'm a couple of hundred questions into Amboss and I'm at right on 50% correct lmao

Any ideas on how to improve y'all? If it means anything, I've matured 50% of Anking and I have a late may test date
 
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cptsam said:
I'm a couple of hundred questions into Amboss and I'm at right on 50% correct lmao

Any ideas on how to improve y'all? If it means anything, I've matured 50% of Anking and I have a late may test date
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are you reviewing your questions when you finish or are you just doing the questions and not looking back?
 
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cptsam said:
I'm reviewing questions for sure and trying to go through each answer choice to see why it was wrong

Takes hella time though ngl
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Have you been doing all random all timed for all subjects or just ones you've covered in school? Amboss is fairly difficult but pretty on par with UWorld. If you're primarily missing questions on content you haven't seen yet then I wouldn't worry about it. If it's content you've covered, then I would do a deeper dive into why you're missing questions and either unlock cards based on those topics or make your own. I did like 75% of Amboss over the summer but was only working on research so I was able to make cards on things I missed. But if you still have quite a bit of Anking to get through then prioritize those cards. Just like all qbanks, use it as a learning resource not so much a testing resource.
 
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georgia_boy1 said:
Have you been doing all random all timed for all subjects or just ones you've covered in school? Amboss is fairly difficult but pretty on par with UWorld. If you're primarily missing questions on content you haven't seen yet then I wouldn't worry about it. If it's content you've covered, then I would do a deeper dive into why you're missing questions and either unlock cards based on those topics or make your own. I did like 75% of Amboss over the summer but was only working on research so I was able to make cards on things I missed. But if you still have quite a bit of Anking to get through then prioritize those cards. Just like all qbanks, use it as a learning resource not so much a testing resource.
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Random all timed

there's definitely stuff I miss because I haven't seen it before and I simply just unsuspend those cards from the deck, I've got 4 months so I'm really hoping Amboss+Uworld+Anking can get me where I need to go
 
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ILikeChocolateMilk said:
uworld. I looked at it. It's been almost a month since my average has reached 50%. At least I'm pretty consistent and I know that I will pass step but I want to do better. It's frustrating.
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do you understand why you're getting questions wrong after going through it? Depending on how much you've looked at it you may already have weak points and strengths highlighted right?
 
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Captain_Falcon said:
do you understand why you're getting questions wrong after going through it? Depending on how much you've looked at it you may already have weak points and strengths highlighted right?
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Yes. I've been making sure to read the explanations and make notes on the things that I get wrong, even on the things I get right that I don't understand so well.

Biostats for me is abysmal but my school did a HORRIBLE job teaching it. Cardio and pulm started improving.

One thing that I started doing this week that I have not been doing is watching boards and beyond, sketchy, and pathoma videos on a certain topic if there is something I am not super clear on. I feel like it's been a good way to back up what's written in the answer explanations.

Hopefully that's enough to start seeing a difference in my scores. What do you think?
 
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ILikeChocolateMilk said:
Yes. I've been making sure to read the explanations and make notes on the things that I get wrong, even on the things I get right that I don't understand so well.

Biostats for me is abysmal but my school did a HORRIBLE job teaching it. Cardio and pulm started improving.

One thing that I started doing this week that I have not been doing is watching boards and beyond, sketchy, and pathoma videos on a certain topic if there is something I am not super clear on. I feel like it's been a good way to back up what's written in the answer explanations.

Hopefully that's enough to start seeing a difference in my scores. What do you think?
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UWorld is tough - I definitely had a few rough blocks this week. Just need to focus on mistakes and learn from them. I think that's the most important thing. I'm finding that a lot of the information in UWorld is in the Anking deck. I sometimes come up short applying the flash-card knowledge to the questions.

I think watching the videos is an excellent idea! Maybe review your mistakes from Q-banks once or twice a week. I've started doing that and have noticed improvement. Good luck!
 
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Do you all typically do any "content review" outside of the question blocks reviews? I do Anking but I dont really consider that content review where I can grasp big picture overview of a topic. I was thinking of maybe trying to add it into my schedule, but since school is in full swing it gets very difficult to freshen up on topics you learned a long time ago.
 
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4thtimeretaker said:
Do you all typically do any "content review" outside of the question blocks reviews? I do Anking but I dont really consider that content review where I can grasp big picture overview of a topic. I was thinking of maybe trying to add it into my schedule, but since school is in full swing it gets very difficult to freshen up on topics you learned a long time ago.
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I'm personally in the same boat, so any "content review" i.e. B&B, Pathoma, Sketchy will be touched upon once dedicated hits (and after UWorld shows me what some of my weaknesses are)
 
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Captain_Falcon said:
I'm personally in the same boat, so any "content review" i.e. B&B, Pathoma, Sketchy will be touched upon once dedicated hits (and after UWorld shows me what some of my weaknesses are)
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Okay yeah, seems like that'll be my only option also, had some insanely detailed/left field Amboss questions this week that annoyed me and was thinking to myself that I should prolly fresh up on some systems.
 
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4thtimeretaker said:
Okay yeah, seems like that'll be my only option also, had some insanely detailed/left field Amboss questions this week that annoyed me and was thinking to myself that I should prolly fresh up on some systems.
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If they were 5 hammer questions, I was told to not really worry about those if that helps at all

Legit had one where only 15% of people got it right...
 
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cptsam said:
Have a test coming up and I haven't even looked at class material lmao

How are some of you guys balancing all this stuff? feels overwhelming at times lmao
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Definitely feel you on this, busy week for me with 2 exams and some clinical stuff. Things I've recently discovered to lessen my burden is: reposition my Anki cards to the day of exam (just knock out the mature cards >21 day interval after the exam) or like spread it out over couple days and do the learning <21 day interval cards, so I can cram school stuff before the exam. For questions, I'll start a block of 40 Q in the morning and try do 5 Q every hour or couple hours while doing doing lectures in between.
 
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cptsam said:
Have a test coming up and I haven't even looked at class material lmao

How are some of you guys balancing all this stuff? feels overwhelming at times lmao
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Just wait until you're 3 weeks out and your UW1 score drops below your most recent NBME. Talk about stress.
 
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cptsam said:
Have a test coming up and I haven't even looked at class material lmao

How are some of you guys balancing all this stuff? feels overwhelming at times lmao
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No idea. Goal is to just pass, even if it’s barely passing. I’m just clinging to dear life.
 
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Can someone explain why when I put in my UWSA 1 score, the deviation based on previous year predictions is only off by maybe 1 point? I was under the impression that UW1 overpredicts by like 10 points.
 
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Just wanted to reply because i posted earlier about a schedule with doing many question banks very fast. i dont think its a great strategy, i got a 205. Sorry forgot to reply earlier. But that is a decent improvement over my mcat, so not 100% sure. i think its much better if you have that kind of time to do uworld AND amboss twice. i thought amboss was really great. my form felt harder than then qbanks or nbmes, except for lots of easy behavioral science type questions, which i guess is where the change is. But this is coming from a 205 scorer, so obviously take that with a grain of salt.

My main take away was to not waste time on the weakest qbanks like pastest, they do not help your score! Even with rx, just do it and move on if you absolutely have to do it. i did it twice, which was probably a mistake instead of doing amboss twice. Kaplan is pretty good, though. i attended most class lectures and didnt find that helpful at all on any of the questions, so would advise against that if you are trying to score high. Stick to high yield resources, especially, especially amboss and uworld. Multiple passes of those if you have time are not a bad thing. Last thing, on the real test, have a way of centering yourself before every question, like a deep breath, short prayer, etc. so you are completely focused on every question. And don't folllow advice from someone who scored a 205, lol. Good luck and thanks for the help everyone!
 
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Medical_studies said:
Just wanted to reply because i posted earlier about a schedule with doing many question banks very fast. i dont think its a great strategy, i got a 205. Sorry forgot to reply earlier. But that is a decent improvement over my mcat, so not 100% sure. i think its much better if you have that kind of time to do uworld AND amboss twice. i thought amboss was really great. my form felt harder than then qbanks or nbmes, except for lots of easy behavioral science type questions, which i guess is where the change is. But this is coming from a 205 scorer, so obviously take that with a grain of salt.

My main take away was to not waste time on the weakest qbanks like pastest, they do not help your score! Even with rx, just do it and move on if you absolutely have to do it. i did it twice, which was probably a mistake instead of doing amboss twice. Kaplan is pretty good, though. i attended most class lectures and didnt find that helpful at all on any of the questions, so would advise against that if you are trying to score high. Stick to high yield resources, especially, especially amboss and uworld. Multiple passes of those if you have time are not a bad thing. Last thing, on the real test, have a way of centering yourself before every question, like a deep breath, short prayer, etc. so you are completely focused on every question. And don't folllow advice from someone who scored a 205, lol. Good luck and thanks for the help everyone!
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hey, you passed! thanks for your transparency about your score and sharing your experience--it's a valid and valuable data point for us starting the journey.
 
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For those of you all that are doing AMBOSS, which subjects did you find to be most difficult? Cardiology seems to be my lowest scoring by a huge percentage, hoping UW isn't this hard.
 
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Hi all in need of guidance on a few points (My exam date is end of May if that helps):

- How many practice exams/which practice exams?
- Currently, I start dedicated March 1st. Is it realistic to have 1 content/catch up day per week and 1 day off per week? Day off meaning only doing Anki cards due that day
- I see people saying they study 2 blocks per day. Can someone tell me exactly what this looks like? (Ex: Cardio physiology in the morning, repro pharm in afternoon or something?


Thanks for everyone's advice/comments so far- I've read all the posts thus far and have taken advice to heart. 🙂
 
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sparkysparkyboomman said:
Hi all in need of guidance on a few points (My exam date is end of May if that helps):

- How many practice exams/which practice exams?
- Currently, I start dedicated March 1st. Is it realistic to have 1 content/catch up day per week and 1 day off per week? Day off meaning only doing Anki cards due that day
- I see people saying they study 2 blocks per day. Can someone tell me exactly what this looks like? (Ex: Cardio physiology in the morning, repro pharm in afternoon or something?
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Since you have a good amount of time until your exam, you should try to do as many practice exams as possible. Do the UWorld self assessment exams and as many NBME exams as you can, especially the newer ones. You can space these out over your prep period.

Yes, you can have 1 catch up day and 1 "day off."

In terms of blocks or questions or pages per day, you should just look at how many questions you need to do before the exam and divide by your time left until the test leaving a little wiggle room toward the end. For example, if you have 3000 questions you need to finish and 3 months to do it, you know you need to do about 1000 questions a month or about 35 questions a day.
 
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Should I be worried about my last couple test scores dropping? I took NBME 18 3 weeks ago and scored a 252 and then I took UW1 a couple weeks ago (4 weeks out from test day) and scored a 247 and my most recent NBME which was a 246. Really wanna hit the mid 250s if possible.
 
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Future_HeartMD said:
Should I be worried about my last couple test scores dropping? I took NBME 18 3 weeks ago and scored a 252 and then I took UW1 a couple weeks ago (4 weeks out from test day) and scored a 247 and my most recent NBME which was a 246. Really wanna hit the mid 250s if possible.
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I'm sure more experienced folks will comment, but I *think* you shouldn't worry about a ~5 point drop especially with 4 weeks to go. depending on your other practice scores you look to be on track to hit your target.
 
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deleted600623 said:
What shocks me is how accurate the UWorld qbank percentage prediction is compared to NBME scores. I’ve stayed in the mid 70s so far and my NBMEs so far have been consistently in the 240s which is what it predicts. It’s insane.
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240s on NBMEs is excellent-like 250s on the real deal excellent. NBMEs have a fairly good track record of underpredicting
 
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CJhooper123 said:
Awesome, thanks for the response. That's currently what I'm doing - writing down mistakes and reviewing them periodically. Will probably hold off on making Anki decks. Had a question pop-up on delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction and didn't recall it from Anking or lecture.

Started strong w/ UWorld in the low 80's but have slipped into the mid-to-high 70's range. I'm happy UWorld is exposing my weaknesses, but definitely want to be efficient in trying to learn.
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If youre starting UW first pass timed random in the 80s youre headed for 260s my dude. Starting in the 80s is absolute GOAT status
 
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Deecee2DO said:
79% first pass on Rx before starting UW is very very good. I was at 74% and scored mid 250s on real deal
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Thats good to hear. Best part of it is I was actually doing over half of those as timed on random mode

Deecee2DO said:
If youre starting UW first pass timed random in the 80s youre headed for 260s my dude. Starting in the 80s is absolute GOAT status
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Ill have to come back and post when I actually start UWORLD myself. But I'm wondering how much harder UWORLD is compared to Rx and Amboss?
 
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Deecee2DO said:
Amboss is harder because of the 5 hammer questions. Dont do 5 hammer it will train you to overthink-they are unnecessarily hard and counterproductive
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But when I get those 5 hammer questions right, it is sweeeeeeet lemonade my man.

In all honesty, I've actually had pretty good success with the 5 hammer questions from memory. Idk if there's a way to see a breakdown by # of hammers, but i imagine I've gotten around 50% correct with the correct reasoning so I don't think all of them are purposely counterproductive (definitely true for some of those though no doubt)
 
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Captain_Falcon said:
But when I get those 5 hammer questions right, it is sweeeeeeet lemonade my man.

In all honesty, I've actually had pretty good success with the 5 hammer questions from memory. Idk if there's a way to see a breakdown by # of hammers, but i imagine I've gotten around 50% correct with the correct reasoning so I don't think all of them are purposely counterproductive (definitely true for some of those though no doubt)
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just be careful with 5 hammers you dont want to get to NBMEs and the real deal overthink and have a big drop. NBMEs dont reward overthinking
 
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