2007 USMLE Step I Experiences

[missmod]

I think I'll start the thread, since I just finished Step I today! Boy does it feel good to have it over with. In case you guys are wondering, my med school is on a different schedule, so we do basic sciences in 1.5 years, do one year of clerkships, and then take the boards.

So I started a 6 week study schedule (started after new years). The first five weeks, I studied for about 9-10 hours with a lot of breaks and took weekends off to either have fun or catch up/review. The last week I saved just for review and as many questions as I could fit into my 10 hour day. I have to say, this last week was the worst. Not in the no-sleep-cram-for-a-test kind of way, but in the huge-weight-on-your-shoulders kind of way.

Now for a breakdown of the subjects...

Biochem: There was not a lot of biochem on my exam. A few key enzyme deficiency ones (Lesch Nyhan, Maple Syrup Disease) but all of the questions were very obvious and did not require you to put much thought into it. Don't blow off porphyria and lead poisoning-- for some reason I got so many questions on that!

Molecular Bio: This was a big one! I think the NBME is moving away from the biochem towards questions on molecular bio. Many questions about DNA regulation, transcription, translation, bacterial plasmids, etc. Sometimes these questions look very scary -- they are always so long and use long names for molecules or restriction enzymes that you have never heard of. You need to get used to the question style and realize that what they are asking is very simple. The NBME forms have questions very similar to the molecular bio ones I saw on the exam.

Pharm: Another one I thought would be difficult but not. Big drugs you should know a lot about (like antihypertensives, drugs for hyperlipidemias, cardic drugs, etc.) However, I wouldn't worry too much about the side effects for every tiny drug -- especially the chemo and immunosupressant drugs that kept on tripping me up so much.

Micro/Immuno: I had not a single question on parasites! That huge chart of worms and helminths in First Aid had me worried for a while, but it was not a big part of my exam. If anything, just know the key phrases because if they do test you on it, it would be a really obvious scenario. Mostly bacterial processes and what you would use to treat them... or what was their mechanism of disease (i.e. endotoxn, exotoxin, etc.) Know immunology and cytokines well, as well as the functions of all the cells. Different immune deficiencies were all asked on my exam (there is one page in First Aid that sums them up very well).

Anatomy/Neuroanatomy: Always combined with a pathology question or an imagine. I had a few branchial plexus/lumbar plexus questions. Many questions would give you a clinical scenario, then ask you to identiy the artery/nerve/organ on a CT scan/MRI/angiogram/brain cross section. Again, I think Qbank does not help you much at all because there aren't that many images. All i can say is look through some atlases quickly as you are studying anatomy -- not Netters bc that won't help much, but books that will give you real radiographic images.

Physio: This was almost always combined with Pathology--they would ask the physiology behind some path process. I had so many questions where the question asked "what would be the levels of x, y, and z enzymes/hormones?", answer choices being "increased, decreased, etc"

Pathology: Not as detailed orientated as Kaplan. Very little histology related pathology -- most of the questions though, required you to make a diagnosis and then know something about the pathophys of the disease or the treatment of the disease. There were also a lot of images -- MANY more than Qbank's representation.

All in all, I think the test more manageable than Kaplan's Qbank. Don't let Qbank discourage you -- ! Doing the questions help you to learn, so if you were getting them all right then the questions are too easy and not really helping you much. I do remember many questions that I knew only because I got the question wrong on Kaplan's Qbank. Also, the NBME tests are VERY good and very representative of the real thing. They also help you get used to the wording of the Q's, which can be a LITTLE different from what Qbank is like. I did forms 2, 3, and 4 and I thought 2 and 3 were the best. A few images on those practice exams were repeated on my actual exam.

Goljan's book and lectures were great. He pointed out lots of things that wound up being on the exam and presents them in a way that really sticks. Also, his images are a great resource.

I've been lurking for a while and haven't really posted since applying to med school, but I have to say you guys have really helped me out during my boards studying. Good luck to everyone else getting ready to take this monster.

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[Sureshot83]

Just took the beast today. More than anything else, I'm just glad that the boring, "books and lectures" part of med school is OVER!

Here's what I had going in to the test:
MCAT - 36

NBME 1 - 221 (took it right after 2nd year finals, with no actual boards studying)
NBME 2 - 240 (4 weeks before test)
NBME 3 - 252 (3 weeks before test)
NBME 4 - 252 (1 week before test.....I have no idea how I did not manage to improve at all over the preceding two weeks.)

Kaplan Qbank - 82% (I did it early in the process - mostly weeks 1-3.)
UW - bought it after finishing Kaplan, so I only made it through half the questions. Overall average was 76%, but at the end I was consistently above 80%.

Prep:
I took 5 weeks. When I say 5 weeks, I mean 5 hardcore weeks. I don't think I took a single day off, and I put in about 12-15 hours each day. I used two main sources: FA and Goljan. For Goljan, I had listened to all the audio lectures and annotated them into his book in my studying for the pathology shelf exam. For FA, I annotated it with basically every single useful fact from Kaplan Qbank.

My schedule was to go through FA once over the first two weeks. In weeks 3/4 I read FA again, and supplemented it with all of Goljan. In week 5 I just focused on learning anything in FA that I didn't already know. I tried to do 2 blocks of Qs per day. I was pretty good about that at the beginning, but that kind of tapered at the end. I think the questions (especially UW) are good to help you learn how to think through things and apply info, but later in the game I was at the point where I simply needed to cram as much info into my head as possible, so the Qs took a hit. If I had to do it over again, the one and only thing I might change was to find a way to get through all of UW.

The test:
I feel like the Qs were actually a little easier than those on the NBMEs. This might have been because I had the crash course in FA over the last week after I took my final NBME. (I do feel that I got a lot out of that final review, so that may have been what made me think the real test was easier.) On the NBME 4, I always had to mark close to 20 questions in each section. On the real test, my hardest section had 14 marks. The others were like in the 10-11 range, except for my final block in which I am fairly sure I got >90%.

I am actually quite good at anatomy, but I thought the anatomy was hard. There were some anatomy questions that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to answer even back in first year when we learned it in depth. The micro was also hard. There were quite a few that asked for specific details about the bugs. Other than that, I didn't really feel like any subjects were particularly difficult. Of course, there will always be the ones that you have no idea on - I'm pretty sure one of the questions I had could not be answered until you've completed your 3rd year surgery rotation (and no, it wasn't an anatomy Q disguised as a surgery Q). There are also some blatantly experimental questions that only serve to frazzle you. (I'm not going to post any details since it's illegal, but there was one question that made absolutely no sense.)

I'm not going to venture a guess as to what score I got because I have no idea how they scale the test. However, I do feel pretty good about how I did.

I do think FA is enough for almost everything but definitely not for path, especially if you're gunning for 240+. (Yes, even for physio and pharm.) Every "straight physio" question I had was really easy. Physio starts to get a little trickier when they make questions tying path and physio together. That said, if you use FA as the primary resource, I would strongly recommend adding in Goljan RR Pathology, as it fills in a lot of the gaps not only for pathology, but also micro, biochem, physio, and immuno. I think if someone had a very basic knowledge of years 1-2, and could take step 1 with FA open book, you could probably get a 200. However, if you have all the knowledge of FA and also have the ability to think through things and apply the FA knowledge in unconventional and not-obvious ways, you can probably get up to 230. Goljan is money and he'll add on a bunch of extra points.


Anyway, that's my take on it. Keep in mind that this is the advice of one person only, so you should just take it into consideration and see what might work for you. If you have questions feel free to PM, but I might not answer for a while since I'm taking a much-needed vacation!

 

[nne97080]

Well, I took the big test today. I took 5 weeks to study, used Goljan RR, FA, Micro and Immuno RR, HY Biochem, HY Cell and molecular, BRS Phys, and dabbled in a couple other things. Listened 2 goljan audio throughout the year to complement path class. Finished 25% of Kaplan Qbank and 90% of UWorld. I ended with 75% on Uworld, and only used kaplan qbank for systems based stuff. Took NBME 2 (2 weeks before) and scored 240. Shooting for a 240+ this time around.

I felt that the test was fair, and honestly I believe I overestimated the difficulty of the test. After doing almost all of Uworld, I felt like there was nothing on the test today that I hadn't seen, with the exception of a few strange (2-3) questions.

The test seemed fairly balanced by subject and system overall. I didn't feel a heavy emphasis on anything in terms of path and phys. There were about 2 biostats, 2 "what should you say next", 2 anatomy, 2 behavioral questions per block (I guess that's my rule of 2's). Nah it varied a little but most of the test was path, pathophys, pharm, and micro. I was surprised that there was just as much, if not a little more micro than pharm. Mostly bacterial. Micro is the one subject where I still think that they use buzzwords, because there's no other way of describing it. I only had 2 parasite questions (easy - diarrhea). No viruses. Only 7-8 of pure neuro questions. Even fewer embryo.

Overall, everything I saw today was on par with what people are saying in this thread. The test is doable. There won't be that many that are brainbusters. There are a few "knee jerk" questions sprinkled in here and there. UWorld's FRED format is exactly the same as the real thing, and their questions are only slightly harder than the real thing. I thought NBME form 2 was very representative of the real thing. Doing UWorld made this test seem easy, I dare say it felt like it has given us the upper hand, just as the goljan boom did a few years ago.

Good luck to all. Don't stress too much your last week. It's the hardest one. Just go over your weaknesses, and then relax. You may look at first aid and feel like you haven't read it or could memorize more, but trust me, you know it.

ditto to this. mine was exactly like form 2. I am thinking our exams were very similar. yeah got the micro buzz words like tumbling motility etc. not bad all in all.

 

[domer621]

Weeeeeee!!!!!!!! Just got done and I had to put in my 2 cents:

- FA is gold
- UWorld is gold. I chuckled when I opened up the test because the format is EXACTLY the same. On top of that, there were 5 questions that were almost word for word from UW. UW is awesome... they know what concepts to teach. My final average was a 64%.
- Goljan is gold
- The test isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's like taking a UW test, only there are a LOT more 1st order questions.
- Stop obsessing over weird molecular crap. It was low-yield on my test. Every molecular question stemmed from your knowledge of the BASICS of DNA/RNA/protein synthesis.
- I did 30% of Kaplan QBank and it honestly was worthless. I can't imagine going into the real test after only had Kaplan... minutiae questions were scarce on my test.
- My test was fairly even in terms of distribution. Path/phys/pharm comprised of the majority of my questions. Path and phys weren't bad, but there were some tough pharmacodynamic q's. I thought the anatomy questions were the toughest... thank goodness I only had 2-3 per block. There were a good amount of micro questions, but they were classic questions. Not very much pure biochem at all. Some embryology that was pretty tough. The "What would you say next?" q's were pretty tough, and there were maybe 2 per block. Biostats was VERY straightforward. You don't need to know anything outside of what's in FA.

Good luck to everyone! I'll post more once I get my score back (but only if it's >220 ).

 

[GOGETA]

Weeeeeee!!!!!!!! Just got done and I had to put in my 2 cents:

- FA is gold
- UWorld is gold. I chuckled when I opened up the test because the format is EXACTLY the same. On top of that, there were 5 questions that were almost word for word from UW. UW is awesome... they know what concepts to teach. My final average was a 64%.
- Goljan is gold
- The test isn't as bad as people make it out to be. It's like taking a UW test, only there are a LOT more 1st order questions.
- Stop obsessing over weird molecular crap. It was low-yield on my test. Every molecular question stemmed from your knowledge of the BASICS of DNA/RNA/protein synthesis.
- I did 30% of Kaplan QBank and it honestly was worthless. I can't imagine going into the real test after only had Kaplan... minutiae questions were scarce on my test.
- My test was fairly even in terms of distribution. Path/phys/pharm comprised of the majority of my questions. Path and phys weren't bad, but there were some tough pharmacodynamic q's. I thought the anatomy questions were the toughest... thank goodness I only had 2-3 per block. There were a good amount of micro questions, but they were classic questions. Not very much pure biochem at all. Some embryology that was pretty tough. The "What would you say next?" q's were pretty tough, and there were maybe 2 per block. Biostats was VERY straightforward. You don't need to know anything outside of what's in FA.

Good luck to everyone! I'll post more once I get my score back (but only if it's >220 ).

I only understood half of what you said , but based on your experience you are at risk you scoring a 230, good luck.

 

[hyperorchidism]

My Step 1 Experience:

It's a long and difficult test. For the sake of brevity I will write down three things I was well prepared for and three things I should have studied more.

The Good:

1) Neuro - First Aid + HY Neuro helped me get a couple tough ones, but mostly these were easy. I had a lateral medullary syndrome question and a couple of brainstem cross sections.
2) Biochemistry - I think all you need is First Aid. I thought the true pathway-type questions weren't bad at all.
3) Pharm - Only a couple tough pharm questions, and most of these were related to receptors or the ANS.

The Bad:

1) GI - The hepatobiliary questions in particular were tough! I wish I had learned it better.
2) Genetics - A few really tough ones and I never made it to this part of Kaplan Biochem. They seemed to be particularly interested in tRNA.
3) Renal Phys - Seemed like they wanted to know every receptor and what it was doing in each part of the nephron. It would have been worth it to memorize that page in First Aid, if only so I wouldn't have had to think so hard.

Scores:

NBME1 - 230 (3 weeks)
NBME2 - 240 (2 weeks)
Prac150 - 247 (1 week)
Step 1 - 239/99 very satisfied

 

[Shades McCool]

Well I took the test today.

I studied for 31 days straight with no break. These are the materials that I used:

Anatomy: FA
Biochemistry: FA and Kaplan
Embryology: FA
Immunology: FA and Kaplan
Microbiology: FA and MMRS
Physiology: BRS and FA
Pathology: Goljan and FA
Pharmacology: FA
Behavior & Biostats: BRS and FA

Q-Bank: 80% completed @ 78% correct
USMLE World: 700 questions @ 80% correct

Now to the actual exam...

Anatomy: Good number of images but they were very straight forward. I don't think anyone should devote any significant amount of time to this subject.

Biochem: A few inborn errors of metabolism and a few molecular biology.

Immunology: Just a few basic questions.

Pharm: Integrated with physiology. FA was plenty.

Pathology: Straight forward and just about always integrated with physiology.

Genetics: Easy, just know the presentations.

Mirco: FA is plenty.

Overall the test was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was easier than Kaplan's Q-Bank. I did two blocks at a time and then would take a five minute break and also took thirty minutes for lunch.

Know FA like it is your name and you should be fine. Hopefully I'll do ok, all I want is a 230+.

 

[domer621]

I only understood half of what you said , but based on your experience you are at risk you scoring a 230, good luck.

What did you say?
You too, dude.

 

[cubsrule4e]

I just noticed that my experience post was #243. Here's hoping thats what my score ends up being!

 

[MikeyK]

Alright, I've only posted a few times but I've been getting some advice off here for the last few weeks so I'll contribute for once.

Stats:
4 1/2 weeks total studying, 10 hrs/day
QBank 100% complete, 75% correct (80% on the last 350)
Free 150- 88% took 5 days before exam

To put it bluntly, this test was way harder than I could have imagined. There was a lot of question phrasing/wording that I had never encountered. I had a few questions that were obvious screw ups, but there were some presentaions that just made no sense to me. I dunno, I'm pretty pessimistic following all of my exams, but I definitely did not leave feeling great about the exam. I was shooting for a 240, will be happy with anything above a 220 now.

The Easy:
Biochem
Pharm
Embryo

I stressed about all three of these subjects, but they turned out to be the most straightforward. Even the dreaded Porphyria question (which I refused to learn prior to the test) was so obvious it was ridiculous. Time could have been spent more wisely elsewhere, but time only moves forward.

The Impossible:
Ethics
Molecular Biology

I have a pretty strong molecular background yet I found myself staring blankly at the screen on more than a few occasions. I hate those ethics questions and don't think I could really have prepared anymore than I did, but I still had quite a few, probably 1-2/section... hope I guessed correctly.

The Mildly difficult:
Anatomy
Path
Neuroanatomy (Really pretty easy)

I had one section that was extremely easy, with only 1 question I marked for review. The other 6 were comparable in difficulty, with 9-12 questions that were really up in the air. I used FA as core text, and there was nothing on the exam that I thought "damn, I wish I would have studied that more from First Aid". In fact, it seems like none of the areas I stressed about came up. For instance, I would have loved some calculations seeing as I memorized a bunch of equations, but I got one really ******ed question about burning calories instead.

If I could do it over, and god forbid I'm required to, I would have listened to Goljan and probably bought USMLEWorld. Also taken the NBME, as I didn't take any. I supplemented heavily and still felt there were a lot of questions I wasn't prepared for, only few that I knew but just flat blanked on. Wish I felt better about my performance, but I'll just have to put faith in my power of deduction and all the questions I missed being experimental.

 

[lil pook]

got my results last week.

MCAT 28

didn't take any NBME forms, just sort of went in thinking "well, if i'm not ready now, i'll never be ready."

studied for 6 weeks 8 hours a day. took 3 days off total. listened to goljan, did USMLEWorld, and read every single HY for every single subject, using FA as my outline as to what to study (except of course the cursed Cell Bio, which i studied and still couldn't remember jack)

anyway, Step 1 score was 240. I am very happy with my score.

i felt the test was fair. i remember seeing a lot of questions and thinking "did i ever learn this crap?" and so i just moved on without dwelling on them too much. i think in the end, this attitude saved my a$$ because it gave me more time to do the questions that seemed more fair.

oh and my first 2 years in school weren't stellar by far....i would say my class rank is somewhere in the middle

 

[joe6102]

I took the bastard today, and here's my 2 cents:

The first block kicked my ass. Several of my friends said the same thing so be prepared. The Prometric center was great. I took a break after every 2 blocks, and the last block was the easiest.

It was harder than any of the NBME's. Yeah, there are easy questions, but the hard questions are harder than anything I saw on forms 1, 3, or 4. I'll break it down by subject:

Anatomy: difficult, but not very many questions
Behavioral/Psych: I thought these were easy and straightforward. Not much studying is necessary.
Biochem: easy...much easier than I expected
Embryo: only a couple of questions...very low yield despite what FA says
Micro:More bacteria than viruses or parasites. LOTS of fungus, but that's good because I was prepared. Only 1 parasite pharm question.
Neuro: hard - I only used FA and Qbank and I was not prepared. Lots of brain slices and arteriograms.
Pharm and Path: relatively easy
Phys: surprisingly hard. BRS phys was not enough for a couple of my phys questions.


NBME's:
Form 1: 540 = 228, 2 months out
Form 3: 560 = 232, 3 weeks out
Form 4: 630 = 245, 1 week out

Free 150: 91%, 2 days out

Goal: 240
Actual: I'd guess 235-245. Going in, I though I had a chance at 250. Now I'll be absolutely thrilled with 240. We'll find out in a month.

 

[Rodeo]

Does anyone else think FA is really over rated?!?! I took the exam yesterday and found that 99% of my memorized facts from FA were totally useless. I thought the test required a lot more reasoning and knowing the "why" not just the "what." What bothered me most about the exam was that for so many path questions i felt like 2 answers could work whereas the qbank questions point you in just one direction. Good luck everyone!

 

[lfesiam]

Does anyone else think FA is really over rated?!?! I took the exam yesterday and found that 99% of my memorized facts from FA were totally useless. I thought the test required a lot more reasoning and knowing the "why" not just the "what." What bothered me most about the exam was that for so many path questions i felt like 2 answers could work whereas the qbank questions point you in just one direction. Good luck everyone!

Kaplan = too much info.
FA = basic info you NEED to know.
UWorld = How you apply the info, they really teach you how to think and connecting the dots. the "why" instead of "what".

 

[beastmaster]

Has anyone else been tormented by careless mistakes?

I feel like all the effort I've put in, on studying the hard topics, to reach that high score, is being offset by some brain farts.

My "wtf was I thinking" count is at around 11. Even more freightening is what potentially escapes my memory.

 

[Dr.Phenomena]

Has anyone else been tormented by careless mistakes?

I feel like all the effort I've put in, on studying the hard topics, to reach that high score, is being offset by some brain farts.

My "wtf was I thinking" count is at around 11. Even more freightening is what potentially escapes my memory.

I had the same feeling this morning doing a block of questions. I keep making annotations to myself to stop making stupid mistakes and read the question more thorougly. Hope that works.

 

[beastmaster]

I'm talking about the actual exam, folks..

 

[lord_jeebus]

Has anyone else been tormented by careless mistakes?

I feel like all the effort I've put in, on studying the hard topics, to reach that high score, is being offset by some brain farts.

My "wtf was I thinking" count is at around 11. Even more freightening is what potentially escapes my memory.

For 9 days after I took Step I, I had a sudden realization each day in which I remembered a question and figured out how I had gotten it wrong.

Don't worry about it.

 

[DoctorFunk]

For 9 days after I took Step I, I had a sudden realization each day in which I remembered a question and figured out how I had gotten it wrong.

Don't worry about it.

I swear I was having 'Nam flashbacks while I was sleeping last night reliving all of the Pharm questions on my exam (which I felt good about after I took it yesterday). Somehow my subconscious had the idea that I probably screwed up a good 90% of them. Beautiful how medical education can find new ways every day to diminish the confidence of some of the most confident people you can find.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I swear I was having 'Nam flashbacks while I was sleeping last night reliving all of the Pharm questions on my exam (which I felt good about after I took it yesterday). Somehow my subconscious had the idea that I probably screwed up a good 90% of them. Beautiful how medical education can find new ways every day to diminish the confidence of some of the most confident people you can find.

I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one to have post-step I dreams/nightmares...

It took me nearly two weeks to get Step I off the brain. Unfortunately I wasn't able to recall even the most obvious things when I started on the wards for some reason...

 

[71263]

I'm happy to hear I'm not the only one to have post-step I dreams/nightmares...

It took me nearly two weeks to get Step I off the brain. Unfortunately I wasn't able to recall even the most obvious things when I started on the wards for some reason...

Man, that sounds like me in about 2 more weeks when I start the rotations...

Knowing me, Im surprised I havent gotten score anxiety. Im gonna be a mess 5 weeks from now...

 

[nne97080]

I'm talking about the actual exam, folks..

Yeah i know what you mean. N glycosylation and I clicked lysosome how dumb . once i got in my car after the beast I was like wtf. yeah btw people do not forget to read over the easy stuff freal u could lose some gimme points from those

 

[Rodeo]

Yea lfesiam, that was probably my mistake, i didnt do Uworld...

I also keep having stupid mistakes pop into my head, i think I subconsciously new i was putting the wrong answer at the time, very frustrating, its like my brain was foggy and in panic mode the whole day. Just hope i passed!

 

[hyperorchidism]

Haha, i couldn't keep straight which organ between liver and kidney made 1,25 Vit D or 25 Vit D. Man I was so pissed off, the question was literally "Which organ converts 25 Vit D to it's active form" and I second guessed myself for about 10 mintues then put liver cause I remembered it being lower down on some schematic I had.

I also put arginine as the primary nitrogen donor in synthetic reactions even though I was pretty sure it was glutamine. I really can't figure out why. Oh well...

(punches self in face violently)

 

[Friendly]

So...I took Step 1 this week. Here's what I had going into the exam:

Kaplan Qbank 80% Complete - 62% average (always mixed, timed, and includes pre-study score; last 6 blocks were 70% average).

USMLEWORLD 90% complete - 62% average (always mixed, timed, and includes pre-study score; last 6 blocks were 64% average).

Free 150 questions two weeks before exam: 78%

NMBE form 2 two weeks before exam: 219 (500)

I seriously feel liked I was schooled today. The first two blocks went well. Block 3 was a nightmare and I feel liked I guessed on 50% of the questions. Blocks 4-6 were a mixed bag and block 7 was reasonable. Overall, I really feel like I had to guess and think less than I would have liked. I just hope that my selections were not the more obvious ones. I resisted the urge to over-think.

The hardest questions for me were behavioral science, where the selections often had salient details and many similarities. My test had a lot of pharmacology (no cancer drugs, thankfully) and a TON of the "up/down" tables for physiology and acid/base balance. Also, know all the cross sections of the brain and spinal cord. I probably had around 15 of those on my exam. I also had a TON of pregnant women questions: inborn errors of metabolism in mom/baby, low birth weight, mom is diabetic, baby has this disorder, baby's heart rate is doing this etc.....

The exam format resembles USMLEWORLD more than Kaplan, with the odd 'gimme' question added in, and with less ambiguity than USMLEWORLD.

My target score was 230. I would be satisfied with a pass.

 

[akpete]

So, took the test Tuesday, but haven't been able to bring myself to visit the Step 1 forum until today.

That was by far the hardest test I've ever taken, and hopefully will never have to do that again. So many reviews on here were saying, "oh, it wasn't that bad." Well, for me, it was. I'm about average to above average in classes. After getting my butt kicked Tuesday, I'm hoping to get an average score.

My advice for future test-takers. Do a lot of UW. A lot. I didn't manage to get in as many questions as I originally planned, kept thinking that I should read more first, then ran outta time for questions. I think that hurt me because there were several questions in which I had to first just figure out what the heck they were asking for. I feel that UW is much more like the real thing then the 2 NBMEs I took (forms 3 and 4).

My other piece of advice: If you're not a morning person, don't think that you'll all of a sudden become one for step 1 studying. It just doesn't work.

I thought FA was a piece of crap, but that's just me. I listened to Goljan over and over and over again, and thought the audio and RR path were probably the best part of my test prep other than UW. I also used:

BRS path, BRS phys, BRS behavioral sciences
HY neuroanatomy, HY cell and molecular, HY immuno, HY embryology

I had HY histology, but didn't have time to use it. Other than FA, I was happy with all my books.

UW: 50s and 60s
NBME 4 on Jun 8: 470
NBME 3 on Jun 10: 510

I really have no idea what my score will be. Anywhere from 200 - 230 I'm guessing. I originally came to med school for ortho, but it's not gonna happen with those scores. Oh well. Hoping for a 220 at least.

Don't mean for this post to be such a downer, but I thought I should post my honest experience with the exam. In the end, I think I would've been more confident with another week or two of studying.

Good luck everyone!

 

[blz]

I guess it's my turn. Just took the bad boy today. Here's my take on the subjects:

Anatomy: These were the tougher questions for me because I wasn't a 100% sure of the answer choices I was putting down. I really only knew what was in FA but I had a lot of anatomy questions on topics not in FA that I had to recall from what I remembered 2 years ago. In my opinion, the hours of reviewing necessary to answer all the anatomy questions correctly would not be worth it. There weren't too many anatomy questions though so don't stress too much over it.

Behavioral/Psych: A lot of basic questions here and nothing too crazy. Simple calculations and psychiatric disorders. HOWEVER, the hardest questions on my test I feel were the patient-doctor reponse questions. I had most of them down to 50/50 and went with my gut. Really, there's no way to prepare for these questions because none of the sources were adequate for it (USMLEWorld questions were way too easy on the doctor-pt questions and kaplan was too obscure)


Biochem/Genetics: Not too bad. Most of mine was vitamin related and few enzyme deficiencies that I never heard of but was able to derive from symptoms and findings. The genetics on my test was very straight forward. I had one difficult question involving a lot of experimental genetics that took up like the whole page. Easily one of the more harder questions. I was a genetics major in college so I'm used to these kind of questions. It was doable once you got through all the jargon and fancy graphs/figures/gene maps.

Embryo: I had a few and they were usually intertwined in path questions. Pretty easy if you know your stuff. One difficult question on molecular embryology.

Micro: I knew my micro pretty well and they were pretty easy on the test. It got to the point where I would get happy to see a micro question because it was like a mental break. Make sure you know your characteristics of different bugs (gram +/-, anaerobe, spore former, growth requirements). I didn't have a single question on the structure of some obscure virus (or the stucture of any virus). Virus questions were probably the most basic questions. I had one really tough virus/genetics question that I only got right because I remembered it from when we covered it in school. I had one worm pharm question that was easy.

Neuro: Standard stuff here, very classic presentations. Know the functions of different parts of the brain and crossectional anatomy. Standard brachial plexus questions.


Path/Phys: These are easily my two strongest subjects going into the exam. They were very straight forward and the questions practically gave you the diagnosis (they even used buzzwords like "starry sky", etc.). I almost feel like I got cheated by knowing the material at the depth I did. Phys questions were your standard "arrow" questions and I had a lot of renal/endocrine questions. They seemed to like one particular hormone a lot. I had like 4 phys questions that were dependent on knowing what it did. A few of the picture questions that came up on my exam I've seen exactly from some question banks out there. It's not like it really helped though, they were very basic and classic conditions. The hard pictures were obscure ones I've never seen before, but the question usually gave away the answer. Oh yea, NO CALCULATIONS at all.

Pharm: I stressed about pharm as I got closer to the exam because I kept putting off just sitting down and memorizing all the drugs. So the last three days I buckled down and just memorized the lippincott flashcards. In the end, I easily turned pharm into one of my stronger subjects and the questions on the test were pretty basic. Hard questions were related more to pharmacology and involved a crapload of graphs. No calculations.

Overall, I thought the test was very doable. I am pleased that I was able to answer every question that I was prepared for. I feel like the only questions I got wrong were ones that I would have never prepared for even given a year to study. I was aiming for a 245+ but I don't think I scored that high. I feel like a lot of my score is dependent on the random variation in the hard questions I had to make an educated guess on.

Some info on various banks:

finished 70% of kaplan QBank: 74% - I stopped this a while ago 3/4s through my studying to switch over to USMLEWorld

finished 75% of USMLEWorld: 78% - 83% on my last 300

I only took one NBME halfway through my studying before I started any question bank and got a 235. I definitely have progressed a lot more since that day so I hope I atleast do better than that. I thought about taking more, but I saw no use in taking them so close to the exam. I studied about 7 weeks straight with only three days off for family issues. It feels great to finally be done!

 

[drguy22]

I guess it's my turn. Just took the bad boy today. Here's my take on the subjects:

Anatomy: These were the tougher questions for me because I wasn't a 100% sure of the answer choices I was putting down. I really only knew what was in FA but I had a lot of anatomy questions on topics not in FA that I had to recall from what I remembered 2 years ago. In my opinion, the hours of reviewing necessary to answer all the anatomy questions correctly would not be worth it. There weren't too many anatomy questions though so don't stress too much over it.

Behavioral/Psych: A lot of basic questions here and nothing too crazy. Simple calculations and psychiatric disorders. HOWEVER, the hardest questions on my test I feel were the patient-doctor reponse questions. I had most of them down to 50/50 and went with my gut. Really, there's no way to prepare for these questions because none of the sources were adequate for it (USMLEWorld questions were way too easy on the doctor-pt questions and kaplan was too obscure)


Biochem/Genetics: Not too bad. Most of mine was vitamin related and few enzyme deficiencies that I never heard of but was able to derive from symptoms and findings. The genetics on my test was very straight forward. I had one difficult question involving a lot of experimental genetics that took up like the whole page. Easily one of the more harder questions. I was a genetics major in college so I'm used to these kind of questions. It was doable once you got through all the jargon and fancy graphs/figures/gene maps.

Embryo: I had a few and they were usually intertwined in path questions. Pretty easy if you know your stuff. One difficult question on molecular embryology.

Micro: I knew my micro pretty well and they were pretty easy on the test. It got to the point where I would get happy to see a micro question because it was like a mental break. Make sure you know your characteristics of different bugs (gram +/-, anaerobe, spore former, growth requirements). I didn't have a single question on the structure of some obscure virus (or the stucture of any virus). Virus questions were probably the most basic questions. I had one really tough virus/genetics question that I only got right because I remembered it from when we covered it in school. I had one worm pharm question that was easy.

Neuro: Standard stuff here, very classic presentations. Know the functions of different parts of the brain and crossectional anatomy. Standard brachial plexus questions.


Path/Phys: These are easily my two strongest subjects going into the exam. They were very straight forward and the questions practically gave you the diagnosis (they even used buzzwords like "starry sky", etc.). I almost feel like I got cheated by knowing the material at the depth I did. Phys questions were your standard "arrow" questions and I had a lot of renal/endocrine questions. They seemed to like one particular hormone a lot. I had like 4 phys questions that were dependent on knowing what it did. A few of the picture questions that came up on my exam I've seen exactly from some question banks out there. It's not like it really helped though, they were very basic and classic conditions. The hard pictures were obscure ones I've never seen before, but the question usually gave away the answer. Oh yea, NO CALCULATIONS at all.

Pharm: I stressed about pharm as I got closer to the exam because I kept putting off just sitting down and memorizing all the drugs. So the last three days I buckled down and just memorized the lippincott flashcards. In the end, I easily turned pharm into one of my stronger subjects and the questions on the test were pretty basic. Hard questions were related more to pharmacology and involved a crapload of graphs. No calculations.

Overall, I thought the test was very doable. I am pleased that I was able to answer every question that I was prepared for. I feel like the only questions I got wrong were ones that I would have never prepared for even given a year to study. I was aiming for a 245+ but I don't think I scored that high. I feel like a lot of my score is dependent on the random variation in the hard questions I had to make an educated guess on.

Some info on various banks:

finished 70% of kaplan QBank: 74% - I stopped this a while ago 3/4s through my studying to switch over to USMLEWorld

finished 75% of USMLEWorld: 78% - 83% on my last 300

I only took one NBME halfway through my studying before I started any question bank and got a 235. I definitely have progressed a lot more since that day so I hope I atleast do better than that. I thought about taking more, but I saw no use in taking them so close to the exam. I studied about 7 weeks straight with only three days off for family issues. It feels great to finally be done!

congrats!! i smell a 260++

 

[ForbiddenComma]

Well got through it, somehow...

I did the worst at the beginning and end sections. The beginning because I was like, "OMG I'm actually sitting for the REAL step 1!!" and the end because I was simply exhausted and couldn't think straight. I think they put so many sections in the exam intentionally to make it a test of endurance. But I feel I did ok in the middle once I hit my stride, I think. (still made some idiot mistakes... totally blanked on the mechanism of colchicine, grr)

Most of the anatomy was extremity anatomy, especially brachial plexus and leg compartment. The perineal spaces came up once or twice, though.

I was the only one taking USMLE in the room. Everyone else was taking COMLEX, which seems to be a much shorter test... but at least we don't have to give our thumbprints every time we enter the room!

Be sure you pack some food of some sort. And caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine.

As far as difficulty, I'd say it was harder than the official practice USMLE questions but easier than Qbank. Qbank has a lot of useless trivia that is not tested in the real thing...

... however, they did love anything involving enzymes. Know your enzymes front and back! And not just the obvious ones either. If nothing else, know the glycolysis pathway and the folate-B12-methotrexate-related pathway (can't even remember what the whole thing is called, lol). The biochemistry quota of the test is met via enzyme questions.

For ethics questions, the answer is always the most mushy, politically correct, empathetic answer on the list. You must understand their feelings!

Non-ethics psych questions were rare on my test. Review your personality disorders and you should be set.

Parasites only showed up a couple times, but there were a lot more viral questions than I would have preferred.

Signature toxicities of cancer drugs was another favorite.

Well good luck all...

(copied from another thread)

 

[joe6102]

can we sticky this again please?

 

[PhatGtDmB]

I guess it's my turn. Just took the bad boy today. Here's my take on the subjects:

Anatomy: These were the tougher questions for me because I wasn't a 100% sure of the answer choices I was putting down. I really only knew what was in FA but I had a lot of anatomy questions on topics not in FA that I had to recall from what I remembered 2 years ago. In my opinion, the hours of reviewing necessary to answer all the anatomy questions correctly would not be worth it. There weren't too many anatomy questions though so don't stress too much over it.

Behavioral/Psych: A lot of basic questions here and nothing too crazy. Simple calculations and psychiatric disorders. HOWEVER, the hardest questions on my test I feel were the patient-doctor reponse questions. I had most of them down to 50/50 and went with my gut. Really, there's no way to prepare for these questions because none of the sources were adequate for it (USMLEWorld questions were way too easy on the doctor-pt questions and kaplan was too obscure)


Biochem/Genetics: Not too bad. Most of mine was vitamin related and few enzyme deficiencies that I never heard of but was able to derive from symptoms and findings. The genetics on my test was very straight forward. I had one difficult question involving a lot of experimental genetics that took up like the whole page. Easily one of the more harder questions. I was a genetics major in college so I'm used to these kind of questions. It was doable once you got through all the jargon and fancy graphs/figures/gene maps.

Embryo: I had a few and they were usually intertwined in path questions. Pretty easy if you know your stuff. One difficult question on molecular embryology.

Micro: I knew my micro pretty well and they were pretty easy on the test. It got to the point where I would get happy to see a micro question because it was like a mental break. Make sure you know your characteristics of different bugs (gram +/-, anaerobe, spore former, growth requirements). I didn't have a single question on the structure of some obscure virus (or the stucture of any virus). Virus questions were probably the most basic questions. I had one really tough virus/genetics question that I only got right because I remembered it from when we covered it in school. I had one worm pharm question that was easy.

Neuro: Standard stuff here, very classic presentations. Know the functions of different parts of the brain and crossectional anatomy. Standard brachial plexus questions.


Path/Phys: These are easily my two strongest subjects going into the exam. They were very straight forward and the questions practically gave you the diagnosis (they even used buzzwords like "starry sky", etc.). I almost feel like I got cheated by knowing the material at the depth I did. Phys questions were your standard "arrow" questions and I had a lot of renal/endocrine questions. They seemed to like one particular hormone a lot. I had like 4 phys questions that were dependent on knowing what it did. A few of the picture questions that came up on my exam I've seen exactly from some question banks out there. It's not like it really helped though, they were very basic and classic conditions. The hard pictures were obscure ones I've never seen before, but the question usually gave away the answer. Oh yea, NO CALCULATIONS at all.

Pharm: I stressed about pharm as I got closer to the exam because I kept putting off just sitting down and memorizing all the drugs. So the last three days I buckled down and just memorized the lippincott flashcards. In the end, I easily turned pharm into one of my stronger subjects and the questions on the test were pretty basic. Hard questions were related more to pharmacology and involved a crapload of graphs. No calculations.

Overall, I thought the test was very doable. I am pleased that I was able to answer every question that I was prepared for. I feel like the only questions I got wrong were ones that I would have never prepared for even given a year to study. I was aiming for a 245+ but I don't think I scored that high. I feel like a lot of my score is dependent on the random variation in the hard questions I had to make an educated guess on.

Some info on various banks:

finished 70% of kaplan QBank: 74% - I stopped this a while ago 3/4s through my studying to switch over to USMLEWorld

finished 75% of USMLEWorld: 78% - 83% on my last 300

I only took one NBME halfway through my studying before I started any question bank and got a 235. I definitely have progressed a lot more since that day so I hope I atleast do better than that. I thought about taking more, but I saw no use in taking them so close to the exam. I studied about 7 weeks straight with only three days off for family issues. It feels great to finally be done!

i was waiting for this....thanks for your input and good luck 13 more days....

 

[virtuoso]

Hello.
Totally new here.

Can someone explain how to take different forms of NBME (1,2,3,etc)? I know that they have practice item release (150Q in 3 blocks), which is used for practice exam. Are they different?

 

[dianamd]

Does anyone else think FA is really over rated?!?! I took the exam yesterday and found that 99% of my memorized facts from FA were totally useless. I thought the test required a lot more reasoning and knowing the "why" not just the "what." What bothered me most about the exam was that for so many path questions i felt like 2 answers could work whereas the qbank questions point you in just one direction. Good luck everyone!

It's true, Rodeo -- I haven't taken the test yet, but from the NBME tests I did, the question style is pretty different -- so simple, and yet so hard. They are a lot more things that you have to reason through, and even having an open book (or google) would not give you the answer!

And then, you do First Aid and Qbank, and the emphasis is on knowing the random specific facts (which you didn't learn 2nd year, aren't in FA, and aren't in BRS Path). I don't really know how to prepare for the "how" questions, other than I did some extra questions (in Robbins) on general pathology.

Still, I do think that knowing a lot of details can only help you on the test or in your job as a doctor.

Good luck third year!

 

[domer621]

Does anyone else think FA is really over rated?!?!

I thought FA was the single most important source I used. FA's job is to be a skeleton... you need to figure out/annotate the "why" for all of FA's "whats". You definitely need to know more detail and mechanisms than what's presented in FA in terms of path, but it really does a great job pointing out what topics are high-yield.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Why does this thread keeping coming unstuck.

 

[Teejay]

Well, i took my exam yesterday. It was a long day for me. I can't write a lot now because i have to go somewhere in a couple of minutes. Overall it was a fair exam. But unfortunately, mine had so much physiology and graphs(especially respiratory physiology which kinda sucks) and behavioral science. When i say behavioral science(ethical and doctor replies) i mean>>>> 50questions. Its weird and unusual but its the truth. Had >> 6 each section and those questions were between 5-8 line questions with confusing answers. Thank God my school did a good job teaching us this part of the exam cuz i''ll have been screwed. I wish i had many knee jerk questions like most people here allude to having. I had maybe 2-3 one line questions in every block , 5-6 two-three liners and the rest were >4 liners. But suprisingly(i least espected this) 60% of my exam were 6liners excluding the tables, graphs or lab values. It was suprising because i hear people say you actually get to have lots of knee jerk questions but my test was nothing like that.
I did UW(100%) and kaplan(20%: waste of money). UW was was pretty manageable and more representative of the real thing. Most importantly, it had the same interface which made it easier. I started up in the 50's and ended in upper seventies. People say UW is harder than the actual test. Maybe their test but mine was>>>> harder than UW. Maybe its because i had lots of 6-5 liners, experiments, graphs and lots of long physiology and behavioral(doctors reply and best cause of action question type) and molecular biology questions. I had a Hand full of pure pathology questions; most were pathophys. Micro was no where to be found maybe 15questions(I wish i had more of this). My pharmacology had lots of graphs and drug interactions kind of question. No side effects or mechasim of action kind of question(weird too). Any time i got a micro question, though 5-lines long, it turned out to be the easiest. I had 3 pure calculation questions in the whole exam in a single block but guess what: the ******* marker i was given refused to write. I was so frustrated. I ended writing in the air(funny cuz i looked stupid) to do those calculations.
Overall, it was a fair exam and i feel good about it but not as ecstatic as most people. I personally feel that the one i had was one of the hardest in there bank. The NBME'S were a joke compared to my exam. I wish i had those NBME type of questions.
My advice is: know your concepts and mechanisms. If i did'nt undestand concepts, this test would have been a nightmare considering the type of question i got. They went as far as asking me the cellular mechanism of how the resistance of coagulase negative organism to novobiocin works(very weird concepts which you never imagine will show up).FA should be a guide and buffer but never your major source of concepts. Make as many notes as you can because its gonna worth it in your final week review. I went through it twice and one more time in my last five days. It did help in so many questions (knee jerk and easier ones) but overall, the knowledge i applied was from my last two years. I hope nobody gets discouraged with all my ranting but its good to hear a different side once in a while. if I could do it again, i would go over Goljan cds all over again in my last 5 days because it would have helped more than first aid. But since i did it twice, i remembered lots of concepts which helped me anwser lots of questions.
When you see those graphs, don't freak out. Most times, because the questions are long and with graphs, they test basic concepts. The questions that had graphs were easier for me because i just needed to understand the graph to figure out the anwsers. When you make your answer choice, make sure you are comfortable with your anwser choice becaue you may never get to review them again. I had 15-20mins to spare after UW. I barely had 6min on the real thing because of those long questions. If you can't decide on an answer after 1min, skip and mark that question because they could be easier questions waiting for you to destroy down the road.
Again, this exam is doable but its not a bed of roses. Don't ever think you''ll get a subject you are good at because you could be very disappionted. I love concepts and physiology and thats why i can say i'm satisfied with the outcome. Study everything and never leave any stone unturn. Spend equal amounts of time approximately studying everything because you never can tell. I spent lots of time in biochem and statistics because i never did those in college. By the end of last week, i was a biochem wizard but it was very low yield in my test. The questions i had came in pathology forms. I had to recognise 3 structures i have never seen i my life. I just made educated guesses after reading the questions and reviewing the structures critically.
I wasn't going to write this much but i can't get myself to stop since my experience is a little different from what i have read here so far. Maybe i'm still suffering from post exam shock but i''ll write the materials i used to study if i have time the next time around.
Finally, go in with confidence knowing that you've worked so hard. Sleep early. I only two hours of sleep but it never affected me because i'm used to not getting sleeps but still keep alert. I went to a british boarding school for high school, so i'm used to it. But maybe it would have helped, who knows, if i got 9hrs of sleep. I should have taken some sleep aid. I studied 12hrs the day before just to make sure i finished the rest of first aid. Bad idea, did'nt help me, and probably kept me awake. I started going through first aid together with my courses throughout my second year. But my school only gave us six weeks to study. Try to read and understand FA conceptually. Memorization can get you some where but never at the top unless you have lots of knee jerk-regurgitation type questions.
I feel good and happy that its over. Now i can get my REM sleep rebounds. I probabaly made lots of typo mistakes and gramatical errors in this thread because i'm running out of time and just can't read it over. Just bear with me.
Its a fair and doable exam But never espect it to be "The play-boy mansion"

 

[jewiam]

I took my test on Monday and it was literally 70% anatomy and neuroanatomy and 20% behavioral science. I had no more than 15-20 micro and pharm question on my entire exam. 30 questions on each block were XR's, MRI's, angiograms, CT's, anatomy questions...and most were really doable and easy if just knew where the structure was. Almost everything else was a behavior science quote question or something on personality disorders.

Not one EKG. Not one heart murmur. No heme/onc. No parasites. A little renal, a little pulm, a little endocrine.

Anybody have a test like this? It seems most people have exams that are heavy on the molecular biology side of things.

 

[cdql]

I took my test on Monday and it was literally 70% anatomy and neuroanatomy and 20% behavioral science. I had no more than 15-20 micro and pharm question on my entire exam. 30 questions on each block were XR's, MRI's, angiograms, CT's, anatomy questions...and most were really doable and easy if just knew where the structure was. Almost everything else was a behavior science quote question or something on personality disorders.

Not one EKG. Not one heart murmur. No heme/onc. No parasites. A little renal, a little pulm, a little endocrine.

Anybody have a test like this? It seems most people have exams that are heavy on the molecular biology side of things.

Are you sure the exam you were taking was USMLE Step 1?

 

[jewiam]

It was weird. The questions that I had that weren't anatomy were either ridiculously easy or very obscure. It just shows how random this entire thing is - every test definitely seems to have it's particular slant (sometimes a very strong slant) towards one subject or another.

Do you know how we find out our scores? Are they posted on the website or do we get them in the mail?

 

[fakin' the funk]

Hello.
Totally new here.

Can someone explain how to take different forms of NBME (1,2,3,etc)? I know that they have practice item release (150Q in 3 blocks), which is used for practice exam. Are they different?

Not the place to ask, there are other threads about this topic.

 

[fakin' the funk]

Why does this thread keeping coming unstuck.

Good question, maybe it keeps the first-timers with 2 posts from asking questions unrelated to the thread title/purpose.

 

[SquishyMD]

...and although there were a number of fair questions, there were also the share of difficult and very difficult ones, and of course the easier recall questions that I made stupid, careless mistakes on and chose the wrong answer even though I knew in my gut that it was wrong and the other was right. Any others that have felt the same way and still come out okay? (Because I'm counting at least ten here; so if I can remember those, who knows how many more I got wrong?!)

So I just honestly don't know how I did. The content of the exam was skewed heavily in biochemistry, molecular biology, neurology, and musculoskeletal systems for me. Oh, and a lot of ethics questions that weren't exactly cake.

I prepared for about five weeks using mostly questions from QBank, USMLEWorld, and USMLERx with First Aid and Kaplan books to look up things that I needed to. I also took two NBMEs, and my scores were NBME 3: 670 and NBME 4: 710. They were certainly easier than the real exam. My intial goal was to score >240 but now...getting the average would be nice!

The best of luck to anyone out there still waiting to take the test! I'm relieved it's over, but now stressed until the scores come out! *sigh* It's going to be long, long six weeks!

~SquishyMD

 

[feliz48]

when people talk about their scores they got on the NBME exam of 650 500 whatever, what percentage of questions correct do you feel this refers too.

For example, say a great score of 700 on an nbme exam. or even 650 do you think this corresponds to like 80 percentage of questions correct or more.. i've always been curious about this and nobody seems to know. I thought i'd at least gague some ballpark figures from people on this thread.

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

when people talk about their scores they got on the NBME exam of 650 500 whatever, what percentage of questions correct do you feel this refers too.

For example, say a great score of 700 on an nbme exam. or even 650 do you think this corresponds to like 80 percentage of questions correct or more.. i've always been curious about this and nobody seems to know. I thought i'd at least gague some ballpark figures from people on this thread.

Well, according to the usmle.org website, a 185 on the USMLE (which would be a 375 on the NBME) corresponds to 60-70% correct (excluding the experimental questions, I assume). As far as I know, that's the only reliable correlation that is out there between percent correct and score.

 

[pratik7]

Don't mean for this post to be such a downer, but I thought I should post my honest experience with the exam. In the end, I think I would've been more confident with another week or two of studying.

Good luck everyone!

I know this guy who knows this other dude who knows that the son of his landlord had similar scores and did awesomeeeeeeeeeeeee


I had my exam on the 14th. There were a lot of wtf questions but most you could get by thinking through and guessing(i hope). I had a ton of cell/molecular bio and questions that integrated renal/CV/resp. Know the pathophys of the big diseases like copd, heart/renal failure ect. First aid was pretty good for all of the first year courses, micro, and pharm

 

[automan2]

Well, according to the usmle.org website, a 185 on the USMLE (which would be a 375 on the NBME) corresponds to 60-70% correct (excluding the experimental questions, I assume). As far as I know, that's the only reliable correlation that is out there between percent correct and score.

According to the floating answers that are out there, I did NBME2, and I got a 610. This worked out to be 85%

Take that with a grain of salt, as it seems some people get easy exams, and some people get hard exams, so it probably varies.

 

[jewiam]

Dude- I have the same feeling and can't stop thinking about the ones I missed - good thing you can get a large number of questions wrong and still do well. I just want that score so I can stop thinking about this damn test already. I have dreams about my proctor's lazy eye. sexy.

 

[feliz48]

According to the floating answers that are out there, I did NBME2, and I got a 610. This worked out to be 85%

Take that with a grain of salt, as it seems some people get easy exams, and some people get hard exams, so it probably varies.

thanks, that is helpful. yea cuz you hear about those people who get like 700 or something.. In my head at first i thought about doing like a ratio of 700/800 of like 87.5% correct. Which does seem quite good. But i guess that inflates the average, especially when looking at your score.
I guess i was hoping to break 240, but then I should be trying to get at least 85% of the questions on NBME exams correct based on the answers that are out there.

 

[bigdan]

Hey guys-

Just took the test.

Don't even know what to say that hasn't been said. I wish I knew more about micro and biochem, but it is what it is. TONS of WTFs, but also a bunch of "Acyclovir (as an example) works by:...". Some arrows up/arrows down questions. Not even sure I got an experimental section, but I have a list of questions that I hope/wished were samples.

So the path of Medical School Life is as follows:
-MCAT: 29
-Shelf exams: all over 500, except biochem
-150 free q's: 78%
-CBSSA's 1: 216, 2: 204, 3: 221, 4: 219
-UWorld: 60% after 2000 questions, Kaplan: 58% after 1900+ q's

I'll let you know how the real deal went, unless I fail. In that case, you'll never hear from me again....

Dr Guy: wanna send me some of that "CBSSA-point-jump" mojo you have? I'd love a 230!

Advice? Gotta do what works for you. But I would really dig into that UWorld thing. IDENTICAL format, if you think that matters. I really do think that have gotten it straight when they say it is the prep to do. BUT - Kaplan is also great at driving home facts. I hated Kaplan, but there is a functional element to that too.

Now - my main squeeze has a different perspective. She's a test-crusher. It's just what she does.

She did USMLERx q's: 80%; Kaplan: 72% out of all the questions. Her stats are out of this world - and that a huge reason why we may couples match...
- MCAT: 36
- NBME Free Q: 91%
- CBSSA's 1: 234; 2: 250, 3: 259; 4: 259

She's a big fan of Kaplan, and did not like USMLERx. She thought 8 of 10 q's were a bit too straight forward, 1 was really good, and that the other 1 question was simply wrong. Big Kaplan fan, in terms of sheer amount of knowledge that they force you to learn to do well on their q-bank. She bummed a set or two of UW off of me, and liked those too.

Okay. I'm drinking and my beer is warm.

Final: long test, do-able, know your micro cold, and know your lysosomal and glycogen storage diseases.

Holla.

dc

 

[drguy22]

Dr Guy: wanna send me some of that "CBSSA-point-jump" mojo you have? I'd love a 230!

comin rite up... actually its 230+ haha

im sure u did fine...

haha..u know, i thought i had a pretty good score until all of my friends scores started to come in...now i feel dumb...lol

 

[Termwean]

Here's my experience...........that test SUCKS!