Step 1 experience from hell!!!

[acpce1]

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I took my test on June 8th, and I don't have time right now to go into particulars about my exam, but I was wondering if anyone else has ever had such a problem as mine...

I and 7 other people from my school (U. of Missouri-Columbia) traveled 30 minutes to the prometric center and arrived at about 7:30am. Nobody was there... 8:00am..... Nobody.... 8:30.... Nobody... We're just sitting outside of the prometric building wondering what the hell to do. At 8:45, some lady comes and opens up the building, but she said that she doesn't work for prometric; she was just a tenant in the same building.

I called the NBME, and they didn't know what to do. 9:00, 9:30, 10:00....

Finally at 10:15, a 20-something year old guy walks in and we are all glaring at him. All he says is "sorry, guys". No explanation, no nothing. He acted like it wasn't a big deal. After all, it was only the most important test OF OUR LIVES! He offered us a chance to reschedule for free, but none of us were able to--we started our 3rd year of Med School the following Monday!

So, at 10:45, we finally began our test. Needless to say, we were all a bit frazzled and pissed. It was hard to regain composure and focus on the task at hand, so we'll see how the score turns out. I was getting mid 80's on Kaplan and I got a 240 on some 150 question NBME test our school administered, so I was hoping for at least that. But now, I kind of doubt it. I don't like to make excuses for things like this, but it really sucked.

I was just wondering if anyone ever has had this problem, or have heard of someone else who this has happened to. Thanks for listening to me vent.

 

[MissMedicine]

if you were really concerned, you should have just rescheduled and asked for your first day of rotation off. i am sure they would have excused you guys for a day.

oh well. i am sure things turned out fine regardless.

 

[Jalby]

I would call prometric and demand your money back. That is absolutely rediculous. And be sure you file a formal complain with NBME.

 

[Stinger86]

I would call prometric and demand your money back. That is absolutely rediculous. And be sure you file a formal complain with NBME.

Absolutely. How about that for an "irregularity"

 

[tega]

sorry pa....and u were so ready for this .....i would ve postponed it tho...

actually postponed mine when i couldnt get any sleep....

 

[LovelyRita]

I would call prometric and demand your money back. That is absolutely rediculous. And be sure you file a formal complain with NBME.

I agree. F*** them! 👎

 

[Cpt.Hook Hamate]

Now that sux!



I had something similar happen to me. I was so pumped on the original day of my test. I drove about half an hour to the Prometric center only to find out that the bottom of my orange slip with my computer code was missing! It was never attached when it was mailed to me and on examination of the orange letter it had a "Return To Sender" sign on it. So my suspicion is that the orange slip must have traveled back and forth in the mail to the NBME and got tampered with before it finally reached me.

Anyway, I was on my cell phone for the next few hours trying to take my test right then and there while I was pumped to take it. I called my school, they told me to call NBME. NBME would tell me that I had to set it straight with Prometric. Then Prometric would go "US? No! No! go back west, young man!"
I got bounced around like this for hours before I got to take the exam the next day.

It came right up to Fed Ex delivering my AIR-mailed orange slip to my house at 1:20pm and me having to make that half an hour drive back out to the testing center to take my 2:00pm scheduled exam. By the time I finally took that exam, I was so mentally exhausted that my mind wondered constantly during the exam. Talk about pain----

 

[Dukes]

Wow those are miserable experiences! Here's another one,
A friend of mine's classmate was about to finish Step II when the power went out. Apparently there is supposed be some sort of back up system that saves your test as you do it but it wasn't working and his whole test was lost. He's wasn't able to reschedule for another month after that.

 

[acpce1]

Thank you guys for your empathy and advice. Tonight I emailed Prometric and NBME describing the problem in detail. I asked for a refund, so we'll see what happens. Also, I asked for a 1 standard deviation increase in my score for the inconvenience (J/K ) .

 

[LovelyRita]

Thank you guys for your empathy and advice. Tonight I emailed Prometric and NBME describing the problem in detail. I asked for a refund, so we'll see what happens. Also, I asked for a 1 standard deviation increase in my score for the inconvenience (J/K ) .

Good deal. If you don't hear from either of them by the end of next week, send a paper letter to each.

I hope you get your money back. 👍

 

[bigfrank]

acpce1,

Will you be sure to let us know how you did! Some of us are curious if that practice test you took correlates w/ the real thing. Good luck!

 

[DrIng]

As long as we're sharing. I had to fly interstate to sit my exams. Tthe day before I'm due to fly out I call them to ask about hotels nearby and they say, 'oh sorry, didn't anyone call you, your test has been cancelled because our computers are down!' Not happy! Sso I managed to reshedule for a few weeks ;ater and had to arrange time off work again etc. Bbe prepared disaster can strike.

 

[inositide]

If you have a lawyer friend who would make some pro bono calls and send off a few letters on your behalf, go for it. Otherwise try to find some interested senior law students or law professors and ask them to help you. It is simply not fair that the employee showed up 3 hours late when you guys were there to take the Step 1! Probably the most rigorous and important test for a medical student. When I read the post it almost sounded like you'd been punk'd or something. Unreal.

 

[Smurfette]

acpce,

The same thing happened to some of my classmates last year. They showed up on time, and the prometric person didn't show up until after 10 am. They got a sheepish "sorry" from the employee and an offer to reschedule. Seems to me all but one took it that day (afterall, you get to the point where you just want it over with....). And then since they take everyone back individually, some people didn't start until well after 11 am. Plus, since 150 of us were scheduled over the next couple weeks, the odds of rescheduling before rotations started were slim to begin with.

This kind of thing happens every once in a while, though it shouldn't. Since you actually took the test, I highly doubt you'll get any type of refund. 🙁 Good luck though!