Worried about step 1

[groovin123]

I am a second year American medical student. I took Step 1 a few days ago, and I haven't been able to sleep or eat anything since it happened. I am not a typical SDNer - I failed the very first NBME given at the beginning of dedicated (164) and got a 194 on NBME 15 two weeks later. I had talked to my advisor and my Step 1 tutor about my performance and had considered delaying, and given that I still had three weeks left when I got the 194 they told me to keep going and that certainly I would pass, if not do even better (I was hoping to hit at least 210-220 - planning to do FM or IM). Part of the reason that they advised me to go forward was that most of my poor performance seemed to be due to test anxiety; I have done well (but not spectacular) in my pre-clinical courses (we are pass/fail but still get numerical exam grades) but was just really, really nervous about Step 1. I was feeling a lot better in the three weeks leading up to the test and was studying 10-12 hours/day, and averaging 60-65% on UWorld by the end (I was in the middle of my second pass but didn't get through the whole thing a second time - I had started doing questions during second semester of second year. Besides UWorld, I was also using FA, Pathoma, and occasionally Goljan). They advised me not to take an NBME again and just to focus on my weak areas, but in retrospect, I wish I had taken them anyway.

Anyway, on test day, I felt like I hadn't studied for the test - AT ALL. I marked over half of the questions. While I didn't take all of the NBMEs, the questions felt a lot more esoteric than those on the NBMEs I did take and were much more focused on biochem (which I had studied every day during dedicated to try to make sure I had it down, but I definitely missed some).

I know that I don't have my score yet, but I am so worried about my future. Like all of us, I worked really hard to get into medical school, I have a scholarship (that I worry is now in jeopardy), and I think that I have been a reasonably good student. I studied a ton for this exam, and have had no red flags up until this point.

Has anyone else been in this boat? If I failed the first time, are my chances at having a good residency completely shot? I feel terrible because I have been absolutely miserable to be around - I don't want to see or talk to my family, SO or friends because I am so disappointed in myself.

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[Psai]

It's a very tough test. I remember looking at the first block and it said section 2 out of 8 and I was like oh **** I skipped over an entire section, there's no way I'm gonna do well there goes my future. Literally a 5 minute meltdown sitting in my chair while the seconds on the timer ticked away as I contemplated alternatives to medicine. I decided to power through and the test sucked. I eventually figured out that the first section was the intro that explains how to use the interface but still came out of the test thinking I failed. I marked like half the questions and felt like I was guessing for most of those. Really guys, you have the entirety of medical knowledge at your fingertips and you've been asking third order questions all day but now I'm supposed to know the muscles used for kegels? The day that the results came out was very nerve wracking. Ended up doing fine.


Really there's nothing you can do but wait and do well on your clerkships. Relax and enjoy what free time you have left

 

[cbrons]

Its very natural to feel like you did terrible on the exam. As far as marking questions, I mark 80% of them because Im so adhd i end up reading the question 3 times before. If i get up to 4 i just come back to it. Also if you took a practice NBME (comprehensive basic sciences) a few days before, these are pretty accurate in predicting your score.

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[hallowmann]

194 with 3 weeks of dedicated study left? Very unlikely you failed. I'm sure you did fine. Everyone feels like they failed leaving that exam. >95% of US MDs pass. You'll be fine.

Good news is that even if you failed, you could still land an FM and maybe even community IM residency provided you did well on the retake.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

i feel for you. med school brings out test taking anxiety in the best of us especially for test like step 1. you likely passed though with a 190 something 3 weeks out.

 

[groovin123]

Thanks everyone. Am going to do my best to try not to worry until the results come out.

 

[W19]

I have not taken that beast yet, but from what I have seen here, everyone (or most) feel terrible after taking the real deal even if they were scoring 240+ on practice exams... Relax and enjoy the rest of your summer!