(Q Bank + First Aid) X 7 days = 215

[Plead the Fifth]

First off, I took Step I in June of last year. I know I was here, lurking, looking for any excuse not to sit down and study.

Anyway, I know for many of you lurkers and non-lurkers that it can be intimidating at times to look on here and see the 269's and 240+'s from the collective geniuses on here (props to them, by the way), especially when many of us are just average medical students. Well, at least it was intimidating for me.

But I'll just let you know, I was and am a completely average medical student. I don't rock out honors in every course and I certainly didn't slave away hours upon hours in an attempt to do so. I am married, and try to have more of a balance in my life, and keep my priorities right.

So to the Step I story. About 7-8 days prior to the big day, I decided it was time to get serious. I had dabbled on Q Bank, read some in First Aid, but overall I was pretty much useless. So I buckled down that last week, made it through First Aid, and finished about 75% of Q Bank. I walked out with a 215. Great? By no means. But certainly not terrible.

So it's doable. I don't really advise doing what I did... and in retrospect, I could have and should have done better. But I don't want all of you to think you have to study for 14 hours a day for 8 weeks to pass the thing.

By the way, third year sucks time-wise, but it is so much better and more interesting than studying endlessly.

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[chocolate-e]

You are my hero.

 

[cubsrule4e]

Thats definitely reassuring with 10 days to go before my test and i feel the burnout coming on. IVe gone through most all of First Aid, and on some subjects ive looked at it a couple of times. I started out chugging through QBank, then moved to USMLERx and finished about 25% of that before switching to World. Ive mainly got a bunch of path and phys left there, which is what im devoting next week to. I may just have to take this weekend off and then as you said, buckle down for the last week and just get it done. At least i can be comforted in knowing i should at the very least not fail the thing with what i already know up to this point.

 

[mudphudwannabe]

This is very encouraging for me -- I only had 3 weeks total to study, and the test is now 1 week from today. I've been doing 50 questions/day in UW and going through a section of FA plus the corresponding stuff in BRS Path and Phys each day (well, I spent two days on some of the bigger topics). I'm not quite through yet, but I should be done and ready to start reviewing on Monday. My UW scores have been kind of inconsistent (mostly 60's, but some 50's), but hopefully I can pull through in the last week like you did, Plead the Fifth! Good luck, my fellow average students!

 

[71263]

Amen. Exactly one week from today, I will be in the middle of enduring the drudgery known as step 1 Boards. Im getting to the point where i just want it to end...

 

[Old_Mil]

3 weeks to go, and you've made my day.

 

[Bandit]

i would kiss the earth for a 215!!!!

 

[GOGETA]

i would kiss the earth for a 215!!!!

Thats 15 points more than what Im amimg for.

At the end of July I willl tell you how \close i was from that grade

 

[jocg27]

First off, I took Step I in June of last year. I know I was here, lurking, looking for any excuse not to sit down and study.

Anyway, I know for many of you lurkers and non-lurkers that it can be intimidating at times to look on here and see the 269's and 240+'s from the collective geniuses on here (props to them, by the way), especially when many of us are just average medical students. Well, at least it was intimidating for me.

But I'll just let you know, I was and am a completely average medical student. I don't rock out honors in every course and I certainly didn't slave away hours upon hours in an attempt to do so. I am married, and try to have more of a balance in my life, and keep my priorities right.

So to the Step I story. About 7-8 days prior to the big day, I decided it was time to get serious. I had dabbled on Q Bank, read some in First Aid, but overall I was pretty much useless. So I buckled down that last week, made it through First Aid, and finished about 75% of Q Bank. I walked out with a 215. Great? By no means. But certainly not terrible.

So it's doable. I don't really advise doing what I did... and in retrospect, I could have and should have done better. But I don't want all of you to think you have to study for 14 hours a day for 8 weeks to pass the thing.

By the way, third year sucks time-wise, but it is so much better and more interesting than studying endlessly.

That is pretty comforting, since I'm two weeks away now and have slipped from hoping to do really well to hoping to do all right to hoping to pass...Mind if I ask ~ how well you were doing on qbank questions?

 

[Biscuit799]

Thank you, can I give you a kidney?

 

[Plead the Fifth]

That is pretty comforting, since I'm two weeks away now and have slipped from hoping to do really well to hoping to do all right to hoping to pass...Mind if I ask ~ how well you were doing on qbank questions?

I honestly don't remember. I think I ultimately finished somewhere around a 60-70% correct average, with about 75% complete. Oh, and I also took one of the NBME online practice exams with about 4 days to go and got around a 207 (maybe 206?) equivalent score. I think that is actually pretty indicative of how the actual exam is.

 

[Plead the Fifth]

Thanks for the replies. Again, my purpose wasn't to say, "Hey do it my way and you're guaranteed a 215" because I honestly don't know if I just guessed correctly or what. I just think that if you are a reasonably motivated medical student with even just average grades, you can do ok on Step 1. A lot of the regulars on here are the upper echelon (God bless them) and I know it gets intimidating for some when you see posts about how they get upset about getting a 245 instead of a 260. The SDN forums are a scary place to be for average med students like myself.

By the way, I was a regular on here since I started med school in 04. I just took a long hiatus and forgot my username/password so I'm starting all over.

 

[blz]

whats the point of just passing? do you guys all wanna go into family practice/psychiatry?

 

[doctorp82]

whats the point of just passing? do you guys all wanna go into family practice/psychiatry?

There's also those with the 240+ who choose those fields as well.

 

[blz]

There's also those with the 240+ who choose those fields as well.

yea but those guys atleast didn't rule themselves out of every other field.

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

whats the point of just passing? do you guys all wanna go into family practice/psychiatry?

215 isn't "just passing"; it's the AVERAGE score. Yes, we'd all love to get a score that's above average, but by definition this is an impossible feat.

 

[blz]

215 isn't "just passing"; it's the AVERAGE score. Yes, we'd all love to get a score that's above average, but by definition this is an impossible feat.

yea that's true. i guess i was too used to everyone talking about getting 250s and crap on this site.

 

[Plead the Fifth]

whats the point of just passing? do you guys all wanna go into family practice/psychiatry?

There is so much wrong with your questions that I don't know where to begin. On your performance evaluation that is sent out to prospective residency programs your first two years get reduced to one or two sentences: "Plead the Fifth successfully completed the first two years of the curriculum." And there is much more to achieving a competitive residency position than a Step 1 score. I know students that have rocked Step 1 only to fail a 3rd year rotation because they've lacked a team-player mentality, had issues with professionalism, etc. Step 1 is nothing more than a rudimentary external measure to compare academic all-Americans to academic all-Americans. The emphasis on scores is unfortunate, and I would be saying this even had I scored a 260. It has nothing to do with your development in becoming a good physician.

And your assumption that low board scores equate a career choice in family medicine/psychiatry is ridiculous. Educate yourself more before stating a comment like that. Of those matching into relatively competitive residencies such as Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine, the match rate is quite high. For example, in 2005, 573 US Seniors applying for Anesthesiology positions scored at or above a 210 on the USMLE Step 1. Of those, only 21 went unmatched, 3 of whom scored at or above a 240. The mean match Step 1 score? 216.

Even Dermatology, one of the most competitive residencies isn't as ominous for a student who didn't crush Step 1. While the mean was high for US Seniors at 233, 26 of the 239 who matched scored at or below a 220, and 58 of the 239 who matched scored at or below a 230. That's a quarter of all who matched in Derm who scored 230 or less on Step 1. (check out the statistics here: http://www.nrmp.org/matchoutcomes.pdf)

It's even interesting at my school, where they release statistics regarding the match. Range of scores for derm matchees? 197 (yes, 197) - 255 with a mean of 226. Rads? 203-266 with a mean of 234. Neurosurgery? 215-246 with a mean of 230. Ophtho? 196-246 with a mean of 218. Orthopedic surgery? 207-263 with a mean of 231.

So Step 1, while important, is hardly the lone measure of how your career in medicine will pan out.

EDIT: I do not attend a prestigious school. Probably like 50-75 on a ranked list of the top allopathic schools.

 

[blz]

There is so much wrong with your questions that I don't know where to begin. On your performance evaluation that is sent out to prospective residency programs your first two years get reduced to one or two sentences: "Plead the Fifth successfully completed the first two years of the curriculum." And there is much more to achieving a competitive residency position than a Step 1 score. I know students that have rocked Step 1 only to fail a 3rd year rotation because they've lacked a team-player mentality, had issues with professionalism, etc. Step 1 is nothing more than a rudimentary external measure to compare academic all-Americans to academic all-Americans. The emphasis on scores is unfortunate, and I would be saying this even had I scored a 260. It has nothing to do with your development in becoming a good physician.

And your assumption that low board scores equate a career choice in family medicine/psychiatry is ridiculous. Educate yourself more before stating a comment like that. Of those matching into relatively competitive residencies such as Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine, the match rate is quite high. For example, in 2005, 573 US Seniors applying for Anesthesiology positions scored at or above a 210 on the USMLE Step 1. Of those, only 21 went unmatched, 3 of whom scored at or above a 240. The mean match Step 1 score? 216.

Even Dermatology, one of the most competitive residencies isn't as ominous for a student who didn't crush Step 1. While the mean was high for US Seniors at 233, 26 of the 239 who matched scored at or below a 220, and 58 of the 239 who matched scored at or below a 230. That's a quarter of all who matched in Derm who scored 230 or less on Step 1. (check out the statistics here: http://www.nrmp.org/matchoutcomes.pdf)

It's even interesting at my school, where they release statistics regarding the match. Range of scores for derm matchees? 197 (yes, 197) - 255 with a mean of 226. Rads? 203-266 with a mean of 234. Neurosurgery? 215-246 with a mean of 230. Ophtho? 196-246 with a mean of 218. Orthopedic surgery? 207-263 with a mean of 231.

So Step 1, while important, is hardly the lone measure of how your career in medicine will pan out.

EDIT: I do not attend a prestigious school. Probably like 50-75 on a ranked list of the top allopathic schools.

I know all of this already. i'm just wondering why you would intentionally put yourself at a disadvantage by only studying a week. you could have done much better. i never said you couldn't get into a top speciality with a 215, but you would have to be stupid to think you're not fighting an uphill battle.

 

[Plead the Fifth]

I know all of this already. i'm just wondering why you would intentionally put yourself at a disadvantage by only studying a week. you could have done much better. i never said you couldn't get into a top speciality with a 215, but you would have to be stupid to think you're not fighting an uphill battle.

You knew all of that yet still stated: "whats the point of just passing? do you guys all wanna go into family practice/psychiatry?" That's quite strange, then.

And who said I intentionally did anything? The reasons for my studying one week prior to the exam are known only to me, so don't assume things. And I didn't post this to start a discussion about the competitiveness of my Step 1 score in regards to residency positions, I posted it as an example to others that achieving an average score is possible with even one week of study. That doesn't mean I advocate studying one week. I even stated in my original post that I DON'T advocate the practice. Who knows, maybe I was just lucky. Regardless, my intention was that the post would serve as solace for others who may be in similar circumstances I was last year.

We can discuss myths and misconceptions about Step 1 scores and residencies all you want, but that wasn't my initial intention.

 

[Mistress S]

Plead the fifth, thanks for posting this. I am also a very average med student and taking the boards in a couple weeks, and scared as hell. I have been reading these boards and it does get very intimidating to see all the people aiming for 240+ and freaking out if their q-bank averages are less than 80%, when I'm thrilled if I do better than 60% on a qbank test. I will have had 4 weeks total to study, and I would be very happy to just be at or above the mean. Honestly as long as I break 200 I'll be happy. It's not that I don't care about step 1, but realistically we can't all get over 240 (as another poster pointed out, it is statistically impossible), and I'm just trying to study hard, be realistic, and hope for the best. Your story gives me hope, which is refreshing on a forum that, while offering some good advice, often makes me freak out even more than I already am.

 

[Bandit]

in my opinion---the q banks are bullsh&^.

i averaged 83 (actually 88 at the end) on the kaplan comlex and did failr well on the comlex.

i averaged about 60% on the usmle q bank and got doored on the usmle.

the qbanks were much easier than the tests

Im gonna be nausious until I get these scores back

 

[esposo]

whats the point of just passing? do you guys all wanna go into family practice/psychiatry?

Many people want to do internal medicine or pediatrics and a score of 200 can get you into most of those programs. Sure, it will rule you out of the most prestigious ones but there are many reputable communitiy and university programs that have a competitive fellowships. Once you are in residency, most fellowships could care less about your step 1 score.