Failed Step 1 score

[anvaqaz]

Hi everyone

I took my exam in Dec and I only received my score report yesterday. It was very painful to see that I failed the exam. Report delay they were saying it was because they were contacting my medical school for verification of the student data that means I am still a student in my medical school. My school they emailed first and then ecfmg send another verification by Mail,my medical school responded to that. The mail was delivered early march when I called ecfmg they said result will be published in 10 days after the verification. I patiently waited till end of March. I am IMG and a hard time getting in touch with ecfmg, and also because of the covid crisis. Finally I got my result and came to know that I have failed. I consistently scored 245 above all the time and my last nbme and Uworld scores were 248 and 252, 250s. My final usmle score is 160 and I failed. It is so painful and hard to believe this. If someone can tell me what to do I am desperate. I don't know if anyone had a similar unfortunate experience. Thanks in advance.

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[anvaqaz]

I am posting to know your feedback for one of my friend. We would like to get your valuable opinion. thankyou again

 

[libertyyne]

Hey, I am sorry you failed the exam. It is a difficult exam. The best option would be to take some time and figure out what went wrong.
Did you have excessive exam taking anxiety?
did you have problems with timing of the real exam ?
did you feel like you knew nothing ?
were to overconfident or underconfident?
did you change your answers?
Under what settings were the practice tests taken? Were you using some sort of anki deck that already incorporated the answers to those practice tests in them?
Do you go to a Caribbean school? if so reach out to your school and see what they usually do to help students who have failed step 1.

First figure out what went wrong, and then go about fixing it. Good Luck.

 

[hungrydoc710]

Someone who scored what you claim to have scored on practice exams, would not have failed.
In fact, they would have crushed.

 

[Spectreman]

To go from 250’s to 160 means you either did not actually take these exams in a simulated experience at all (like, at all... even cheating on NBMEs and Uworld blocks it’s hard to hit those numbers without basic understanding), or there was an actual error on your exam day. I’m not certain, but a 160 could very well mean you got ZEROS on entire blocks. I think there is a very real chance you did not understand the breaks or other details of the real exam and ended up missing entire blocks. I suspect they must have seen something like this which is why they wanted to verify you were an actual medical student after the fact. I would call the NBME people and get help figuring out if you had entire blocks unanswered or something of that nature. I would also seriously consider the fact that if you continue forward your only options are going to be something like FM. I only bring this up because I have had FMG friends go through this entire ordeal stunned to find out they can’t go into surgery or cardiology or whatever high-paying field they planned on when making all of these sacrifices. With a board failure you may end up just shooting for somewhere in Europe or India, unless US medicine is something you absolutely want even if it’s not your first choice field.

Best of luck to you, I think the Covid stuff is going to severely slow you down for a bit, but keep trying to get answers.

 

[Splenda88]

That makes no sense OP... You should contact the NBME.

 

[anvaqaz]

To go from 250’s to 160 means you either did not actually take these exams in a simulated experience at all (like, at all... even cheating on NBMEs and Uworld blocks it’s hard to hit those numbers without basic understanding), or there was an actual error on your exam day. I’m not certain, but a 160 could very well mean you got ZEROS on entire blocks. I think there is a very real chance you did not understand the breaks or other details of the real exam and ended up missing entire blocks. I suspect they must have seen something like this which is why they wanted to verify you were an actual medical student after the fact. I would call the NBME people and get help figuring out if you had entire blocks unanswered or something of that nature. I would also seriously consider the fact that if you continue forward your only options are going to be something like FM. I only bring this up because I have had FMG friends go through this entire ordeal stunned to find out they can’t go into surgery or cardiology or whatever high-paying field they planned on when making all of these sacrifices. With a board failure you may end up just shooting for somewhere in Europe or India, unless US medicine is something you absolutely want even if it’s not your first choice field.

Best of luck to you, I think the Covid stuff is going to severely slow you down for a bit, but keep trying to get answers.

Thank you for the response. I really appreciate it. my friend contacted ecfmg and they told that the mock exam is just to get experience it is nothing like a real exam. scores in nbme and even u wolrd dont guarantee anything. he is really down and don't know what to do. Thank you fort aking the time to give me a response.

 

[anvaqaz]

That makes no sense OP... You should contact the NBME.

thank you for the response. We called ecfmg but they response was discouraging.

 

[anvaqaz]

That makes no sense OP... You should contact the NBME.

do you know which number we should contact/is there any link or contact information specifically assigned to contact for step1 score report issues?.I could not find when we looked for it .

 

[V5RED]

Hi everyone

I took my exam in Dec and I only received my score report yesterday. It was very painful to see that I failed the exam. Report delay they were saying it was because they were contacting my medical school for verification of the student data that means I am still a student in my medical school. My school they emailed first and then ecfmg send another verification by Mail,my medical school responded to that. The mail was delivered early march when I called ecfmg they said result will be published in 10 days after the verification. I patiently waited till end of March. I am IMG and a hard time getting in touch with ecfmg, and also because of the covid crisis. Finally I got my result and came to know that I have failed. I consistently scored 245 above all the time and my last nbme and Uworld scores were 248 and 252, 250s. My final usmle score is 160 and I failed. It is so painful and hard to believe this. If someone can tell me what to do I am desperate. I don't know if anyone had a similar unfortunate experience. Thanks in advance.

For clarity, when you say you scored "245 above all the time", was this timed? Was it all questions you had never seen before? Was it closed book?

 

[JibsGuy52]

I mean no disrespect when I say this, but I do not believe OP was getting 245’s on practice tests. You could get a 160 without even studying for this test and by random clicking.

 

[Splenda88]

I mean no disrespect when I say this, but I do not believe OP was getting 245’s on practice tests. You could get a 160 without even studying for this test and by random clicking.

That is what make it even stranger... Even if OP was scoring 200 in practice exam, there is no way he would get 160. I think there was some technology glitches in which the computer did not register a lot (I mean a lot) OP's answers...

 

[Splenda88]

do you know which number we should contact/is there any link or contact information specifically assigned to contact for step1 score report issues?.I could not find when we looked for it .

I think you should try this. But with the COVID-19 issues right now, not sure how far you gonna get.

Contact Us | USMLE

Contact Information USMLE Secretariat 3750 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3102 Telephone: (215) 590-9700 Fax: (215) 590-9460 E-mail: [email protected] NBME Customer Services and Resource Center 3750 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3102 Telephone: (215) 590-9700 Fax: (215) 590-9460...

www.usmle.org

 

[anvaqaz]

For clarity, when you say you scored "245 above all the time", was this timed? Was it all questions you had never seen before? Was it closed book?

yes, absolutely timed and doing for the first time.

 

[anvaqaz]

I think you should try this. But with the COVID-19 issues right now, not sure how far you gonna get.

Contact Us | USMLE

Contact Information USMLE Secretariat 3750 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3102 Telephone: (215) 590-9700 Fax: (215) 590-9460 E-mail: [email protected] NBME Customer Services and Resource Center 3750 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3102 Telephone: (215) 590-9700 Fax: (215) 590-9460...

www.usmle.org

yes, We were really shocked after seeing the results after the long wait. But feels really helpless bcz there is no way we can cross-check. I heard about there an 80$ thing. One of his sp who reevaluated his exam for this 80$ his experience was terrible. he told us that they will remove the score report and then ideally they should upload the score in 4-6 weeks but he got the same score report after calling and contacting ecfmg multiple times by email and calling them after 6 months. The only thing is you will lose 80$ more and your time. It feels very helpless with this situation, my hards works did not pay off. I tried my best to put all my effort and time

 

[JustAnotherNonTrad]

This seems like a fabricated situation. There is NO way (unless you simply fell asleep during the exam or skipped entire sections) that you performed so far below your practice exams. I'm not sure why OP would make this up, but I don't believe it. At all. With your practice scores, you'd have been able to get a passing score by just showing up.

 

[anvaqaz]

This seems like a fabricated situation. There is NO way (unless you simply fell asleep during the exam or skipped entire sections) that you performed so far below your practice exams. I'm not sure why OP would make this up, but I don't believe it. At all. With your practice scores, you'd have been able to get a passing score by just showing up.

hi, thank you for the reply. But this is not making up. This is true. I posted this for my friend to get ideas and feedback from you people. We have sent an email toNBME reporting this based on the feedback from the group. hopefully, they will reply soon.

 

[deleted731525]

https://www.usmle.org/pdfs/transcripts/USMLE_Step_Examination_Score_Interpretation_Guidelines.pdf

Based on that it seems like its almost impossible to get a score that low. If this is true it sounds very likely to me that either the test taker somehow didn't submit entire blocks or that there was a glitch in the software.

 

[JustAnotherNonTrad]

hi, thank you for the reply. But this is not making up. This is true. I posted this for my friend to get ideas and feedback from you people. We have sent an email toNBME reporting this based on the feedback from the group. hopefully, they will reply soon.

Posting for your friend? I'm sorry, I really am, but I just cannot bring myself to believe this is a real scenario. Your friend went from testing in super-competitive speciality range to not even passing the exam? Nope.

 

[anvaqaz]

Posting for your friend? I'm sorry, I really am, but I just cannot bring myself to believe this is a real scenario. Your friend went from testing in super-competitive specialty range to not even passing the exam? Nope.

yes bcz he is in India and the network there is really bad sir especially bcz of lockdown and everyone is working from home. I am doing this bcz I am helping and supporting him for the exams. He does not have an account here. I am currently doing my residency here In the US. There is no need to make this story and post it here, We are not gaining anything by doing that. I did the USMLE exams my self and currently a PGY2. My scores were in 240s and I scored in 240s and high 240s in step2CK did my step 3 before applying and I matched. Although my scores were less than the NBMES and UWSA its was less than 10 points sir/Mam. I did not have any experience like this and we were not expecting this. Actually his assessment scores were better than me. HIs UWSA 1 was 248 and UWSA2 was 252 and NBMES in the same range. We are also thinking about something that happened during the exam. He completed the block and did the survey so did do all the block. I don't know it was a test center issue. Now I have to think like that.