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saltwire

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On the USMLE site it says that score reporting for tests taken mid-May into June won't be back until July 11th (approximately) instead of the normal 3-4 weeks. Does anyone know what dates exactly one has up until to take the test to get the scores back in the normal time frame? And what does this actually mean for people taking the test during that time period
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I think it's kind of clear what it means. They're adding new test items in mid-May and they won't have sufficient data to weight the questions appropriately until a large enough sample size has been accumulated. So First Aid, Kaplan, and other resources will be slightly less helpful than historically because they won't have been updated with leaked feedback from the newly tested items.
 
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ijn said:
I think it's kind of clear what it means. They're adding new test items in mid-May and they won't have sufficient data to weight the questions appropriately until a large enough sample size has been accumulated. So First Aid, Kaplan, and other resources will be slightly less helpful than historically because they won't have been updated with leaked feedback from the newly tested items.
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does that mean that curve may change?
 
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ijn said:
I think it's kind of clear what it means. They're adding new test items in mid-May and they won't have sufficient data to weight the questions appropriately until a large enough sample size has been accumulated. So First Aid, Kaplan, and other resources will be slightly less helpful than historically because they won't have been updated with leaked feedback from the newly tested items.
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This isn't true at all. FA and world etc test the same concepts. There is only so many ways you can test a person about Cushing's, etc...so FA and World, etc..give you what you need to decipher the question. It's not like theyre going to test some new disease that isn't in FA. Just a different way of asking the question. Or they might be taking out bad questions too.
 
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chiefMD said:
This isn't true at all. FA and world etc test the same concepts. There is only so many ways you can test a person about Cushing's, etc...so FA and World, etc..give you what you need to decipher the question. It's not like theyre going to test some new disease that isn't in FA. Just a different way of asking the question. Or they might be taking out bad questions too.
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You must not watch many Kaplan videos. Raymond in particular will say "this new drug that hasn't even been out a year was just added to the exam and based on feedback you need to know X, Y, and Z." Or "We didn't think this aspect of a drug is important, but now we're hearing this is how they test on it." I bet something like the new protease inhibitors for Hepatitis C might show up now, which are still not mentioned at all in First Aid so 75% of medical students probably don't remember them well at all.

Things are added and taken out of First Aid because of feedback of their absence and presence in exams. Things added in First Aid 2013 will be in there because of this stuff that will be added in mid-May. Kids after the release of First Aid 2013 will do better on those questions. Kids taking the exam before that date will do worse.
 
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ijn said:
You must not watch many Kaplan videos. Raymond in particular will say "this new drug that hasn't even been out a year was just added to the exam and based on feedback you need to know X, Y, and Z." Or "We didn't think this aspect of a drug is important, but now we're hearing this is how they test on it." I bet something like the new protease inhibitors for Hepatitis C might show up now, which are still not mentioned at all in First Aid so 75% of medical students probably don't remember them well at all.

Things are added and taken out of First Aid because of feedback of their absence and presence in exams. Things added in First Aid 2013 will be in there because of this stuff that will be added in mid-May. Kids after the release of First Aid 2013 will do better on those questions. Kids taking the exam before that date will do worse.
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I hate hearing crap like this. We're not ****ing fellows, we're second year medical students. Sorry if I'm not following the latest NDAs.
 
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ijn said:
You must not watch many Kaplan videos. Raymond in particular will say "this new drug that hasn't even been out a year was just added to the exam and based on feedback you need to know X, Y, and Z." Or "We didn't think this aspect of a drug is important, but now we're hearing this is how they test on it." I bet something like the new protease inhibitors for Hepatitis C might show up now, which are still not mentioned at all in First Aid so 75% of medical students probably don't remember them well at all.

Things are added and taken out of First Aid because of feedback of their absence and presence in exams. Things added in First Aid 2013 will be in there because of this stuff that will be added in mid-May. Kids after the release of First Aid 2013 will do better on those questions. Kids taking the exam before that date will do worse.
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So that means that everyone who's taking the exam now before the new FA comes out will automatically score lower than people who take it later?
 
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johndoe3344 said:
So that means that everyone who's taking the exam now before the new FA comes out will automatically score lower than people who take it later?
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I don't really know how the NBME works. I'd presume the curve would be easier early on, but who knows how frequently the NBME adjusts the weight value of questions based on their statistical difficulty. If a question has been around for a 3 years, more people are going to get it right than if it's 3 days old.

I don't think you'd automatically score lower if you are well prepared, it's just that it's easier to do better on random ass questions because the fact that they were tested upon has become common knowledge in the test-prep world (Kaplan, First Aid).
 
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How often do they renew question pool? Every year?

Because if last changes were for example 3 years ago then it might be a good chance that some new pharm would be in these coming tests
 
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Convalaria said:
How often do they renew question pool? Every year?

Because if last changes were for example 3 years ago then it might be a good chance that some new pharm would be in these coming tests
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...Great. There goes any chance I have of getting a 240+.

Honestly, I feel like any changes like this just punishes the people who focus on FA/UW and benefits the people that have insanely good memory and remember things from their first 2 years of class...
 
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johndoe3344 said:
...Great. There goes any chance I have of getting a 240+.

Honestly, I feel like any changes like this just punishes the people who focus on FA/UW and benefits the people that have insanely good memory and remember things from their first 2 years of class...
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who's to say you actually learned more info in the 1st two years? i find that first aid usually has more info than they teach in class
 
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JasonE said:
who's to say you actually learned more info in the 1st two years? i find that first aid usually has more info than they teach in class
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FA has a lot more board-relevant material. Class definitely has much more information than FA+UW combined.... think about it... if you can go through all of FA+UW in a few months... yet you spent 2 years in medical school in class....
 
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JasonE said:
who's to say you actually learned more info in the 1st two years? i find that first aid usually has more info than they teach in class
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First aid DEFINITELY does not have more info than you learned in class... it lacks so many things that are essential for the understanding of the material.
 
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You know what, guys, I was thinking, it shouldn't be so bad anyway..we're not the first who encountered this question pool updating or whatever. What's about previous years?

Yes, sure medicine is that kind of science that is always changing: new drugs, new approaches, but human being is still human being with 2 legs, 2 arms and 1 head, basic concepts are still all the same.

I believe that all this test system is very objective, it's not a lottery or fate, either you know it or you don't.

So be confident, be strong, tell yourself that "I'm smart, I'll do my best, and I know I will succeed because I worked damn hard and I deserve it". Seriously!

Let's make just all that depends on us, know what you should know cold and be optimistic!
 
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I'm more annoyed by the score reporting delay than I am by the change in question types.
 
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weightlifter911 said:
First aid DEFINITELY does not have more info than you learned in class... it lacks so many things that are essential for the understanding of the material.
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lol where I go to school, with the terrible teaching they brought in, there was much more info in the review books than they taught. they literally blabbered...
 
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saltwire said:
On the USMLE site it says that score reporting for tests taken mid-May into June won't be back until July 11th (approximately) instead of the normal 3-4 weeks. Does anyone know what dates exactly one has up until to take the test to get the scores back in the normal time frame? And what does this actually mean for people taking the test during that time period
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I thought this happened in 2011... people said there was some message that score reports would be delayed due to the increased number of students taking Step 1 in the May/June time period.

So, one reason those scores are delayed until July 11th could perhaps be due to the increased amount of test-takers and not necessarily due to new questions in the pool...

Where are people getting ideas about new questions? (I saw another thread on this too)
 
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Oh it was just a guess. I know that if you take shelf exams at certain times of the year the NBME forces you to wait longer in order for statistics to be accumulated so they get a big enough sample size to see how students performed on those questions before releasing scores. Maybe they don't do that with STEP 1.

For what it's worth, a very similar message was posted last year as well. I guess it's just routine, but they sure make it sound pretty ominous.

"Most score reporting of Step 1 results occurs within four weeks of testing. However, because of necessary modifications to the test item pool, there will be a delay in reporting for some examinees testing beginning in mid-May 2011. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing from May 17 through late June will be Wednesday, July 13, 2011."
 
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ijn said:
Oh it was just a guess. I know that if you take shelf exams at certain times of the year the NBME forces you to wait longer in order for statistics to be accumulated so they get a big enough sample size to see how students performed on those questions before releasing scores. Maybe they don't do that with STEP 1.

For what it's worth, a very similar message was posted last year as well. I guess it's just routine, but they sure make it sound pretty ominous.

"Most score reporting of Step 1 results occurs within four weeks of testing. However, because of necessary modifications to the test item pool, there will be a delay in reporting for some examinees testing beginning in mid-May 2011. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing from May 17 through late June will be Wednesday, July 13, 2011."
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Oh I see.... you are right the "necessary modifications to the test item pool" sounds a little strange...
 
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Delay in USMLE Step 1 Score Reporting

Posted: March 26, 2012
Most score reporting of Step 1 results occurs within four weeks of testing. However, because of necessary modifications to the test item pool, there will be a delay in reporting for some examinees testing beginning in mid-May 2012. The target date for reporting Step 1 scores for most examinees testing from mid-May through late June will be Wednesday, July 11, 2012.

http://www.usmle.org/announcements/default.aspx?ContentId=92
 
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