YO. long time reader, first time poster..
Typically, i don't take anything i read on sdn at face value (yall be cray), it's just interesting sometimes to see what people are saying about things i'm worried about. whatever.
So my test experience (took step1 on 6/7/12) was awful- an actual power outage mid-second section where we had to leave the room for 30mins, plus I totally blanked on super easy questions, etc etc. I almost walked out after the second section, thinking i would just explain this by saying, "blah blah, you know, there was a lot of noise in the test center, then there was the power outage, etc etc." But i decided to hang in there and get destroyed by another 5 sections. Left the exam not knowing what hit me- totally thought i failed (not failed failed, but was pretty confident i didn't get above a 220- which to me was completely demoralizing). I had taken one formal NBME- i think it was 7- and got a 242 (i took this with 2 weeks to go, thinking i didn't wanna take another one closer to the exam, since if i did well i would be cocky going in and if i did poorly i would just be pissed, so i spent my last 2 weeks cramming and doing like 10% of UW for a second time).
Then i got my score back yesterday, and for some crazy reason it was 252/86, which was needless to say far above my radar screen post-test. Scoring above a 250 was my original goal going in to studying like 6 months ago... funny how ish turned out.
So, basically, to all those people who took it and thought they failed it miserably, maybe you didn't! the main reason i'm writing this is because i felt awful after taking my test and was searching for some post like this one for reassurance, but never found one haha. i guess its all good in the end.
all the best to those waiting on scores and waiting to take the step... SLAP THAT PIG!!
(i imagine some people may want to know what i did to prepare- so ill just write that down now:
first aid 3X, UW once thru like 70ish% avg, and then i did 10% of UW a second time, with an avg score of 94%(i remembered the answers... prob didnt help me that much), then with 3.5 weeks to go i did DIT straight through, finished with like 5 days before the exam.. didnt even get to review most of the quiz answers and dit notes i slaved through. and that was about it. also i did one bootleg practice exam like 3 weeks pre-test- NBME#2-->85% correct. and then i did NBME #7 2 weeks pre-test online and got 242. That's it. )