Official 2009 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[VFib911]

Two days premature, but I thought I would get it started anyway as I just took the exam this morning!!!!!

Overall impressions:
- Path, path, path - been said before and I'll say it again "know it Goljan style"
- Don't forget the biostats. I prob had 10-13 questions here.
- UW is gold... both for content and material presentation. Get comfortable with the interface and it will help you test day as it is very similar.
- FA was very helpful, but I used it for review rather than primary study source.

Today:
- In at 8:30, out at 2:30.Finished each block with 10-15 minutes left.
- Three breaks, one quick trip to the BR, one 10 minute Red bull/ powerbar refresher, and one 20 minute monster/ MetRx "lunch" and walk.
- I didn't find a large difference in content difficulty between the different module. The second-to-last was my most difficult and I was have ing a little difficulty concentrating, but I think my brain was pre-toast.

I'm feeling pretty relieved at the moment as it was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be. In NO WAY was it easy, but certainly doable. I had planned on taking this in July after the COMLEX, but I convinced myself I was not ready for it. Retrospectively, I feel I still would have done well after my COMLEX prep, but the last 6 months has filled in a lot of gaps.

Pre-COMLEX:
- Goljan mp3's 1st and 2nd years commuting to-from school. I did a ton of commuting. Highly valuable.
- Kaplan Biochem DVD(felt it was my weakest) and Micro DVD(lots of content).
- MedEssentials and FA for system-based content review. Big Robbins for reference only.
- CMMRS, know the virus charts, staph and strep algorithms, systemic mycoses, immunocompromised opportunistics.
- Costanza text for physio. Tried to review BRS physio (also Costanza), but I am strong in physio and I felt I was wasting my time.
- Lippincott pharm. Cover-to-cover, but overkill. Easy read though if you know your pharm.
- Kaplan and FA for biostats.
- Flash cards from eBay, both electronic and paper. Great way to review - at least for me - but be aware there are occasional errors. Prob went through 5-7000, really.
- BRS flash cards - Micro, Pharm, Biochem.
- (Savarese for any DO's - know the green book and you are golden.)

COMLEX - 06/08.

Post- COMLEX

UWorld - Thank god I did this. Wish I had done this before the COMLEX. Did tutor mode, took notes, looked each unknown up. I ended up with about 40 pages of topics with key notes written next to each topic. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
HY Histo, Cell Bio, Immuno. By this time it was mostly review, but they all helped tie things together and are quick reads.

One week before test:

Goljan cover-to-cover. Goes quick when it is review.
HY Neuroanat - overkill for my exam. Still good topics if you have the time.
FA cover-to-cover.
Reviewed UW notes/ answers.

UW - 100% completed, overall 68%. Last 450 questions mid 70's. Tutor, random, unused.


That's it. I have been meaning to post this for a while after my COMLEX grade posting, but never got around to doing it... been too damn busy reading. I'll update when result is in.

BTW - anyone know if it takes longer to receive your grade this time of year since fewer people are taking the exam?

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[Gute]

In the 270s

I was shocked at my score.

If you study your butt off during 2nd year, and selectively hard during 1st year e.g. physio over anatomy, then you will get at least a 240 on this test. No question.

As goljan says, the more you read the better your score. I don't know what some people do with themselves, but they don't study nearly enough during 2nd year and then they are screwed once boards studying starts. After I heard about how some of my friends did, I can tell you its very true. Those of us who studies our butts off during the year did well, and those who slacked off and didn't do as well. The correlation was pretty astounding. This is less about intelligence then about hard work.

Goljan says, its all about concepts and he's spot on. You need the time that the basic science years afford to learn concepts. Good luck trying to learn concepts such as renal physiology well for the first time during board studying, you won't master it under the stress of the limited time.

Your time should be focused on doing questions. Supplemental reading of FA and other select resources is very important as well but it needs to be targeted at weak spots, rather than trying to spread yourself too thin trying to read so much everyday. Best question sources: uworld, uworld assessments, nbmes. You should do all 3 of these sources of questions. If you need more you can always defer to rx or kaplan, but neither of these are ideal.

Kaplan Qbank predicted that I would only get a 255. Kaplan Qbank was so bad. You have to be ******ed to use this over Uworld. I don't feel bad for people who don't listen to almost universal advice that world is better than kaplan, but then still use kaplan. You could use kaplan and possibly do well since this test is more about how hard you studied through med school, but the quality of these qbanks is so astoundingly different. I wish I would've had more trust in my past studying and spent more time going through world at a slower pace.

UW 82%

UWSA 1/2 : 265/265. The score limit was not helpful for score prediction

NBME range: 251-273

The "free 150": 95%

The test was long and maintaining focus was difficult at the end. I never had any trouble with the time limit on each section, but I could see if you weren't very comfortable with the material how the time limit could screw you over. The lesson here is to know the material and concepts so well that answering questions becomes second nature. I can't think of any topic that was over-represented on the test. You have to know pretty much everything, but I will echo the sentiment that anatomy is a lower yield subject although it was probably my weakest subject I did.

 

[incubate6times]

Actual Step 1 Score: 248

MCAT: 36
CBSE: 227 2 months before
NBME 5: 236 3 weeks before
FRED 144 questions: 38 43 45 (87%) 2 weeks before (244 according to wikitestprep)
NBME 6: 247 1 week before

USMLE World 67%, 100% complete

Study plan: First Aid, Goljan Audio, UW - most of the time did random unused blocks, for micro and biochem did some blocks focusing only on them, annotated wrong answers into FA.

During the year I looked at RR Path and FA and listened to Goljan Audio corresponding to what we were studying. I was always around the average on exams during first and second year. I did the majority of the Robbins Review questions during the corresponding system second year. I think this + Goljan helped me with the path, when reviewing for Step 1 I usually flew through the Path sections in FA, whereas the physiology and anatomy took me much longer to review. In January I started doing wikitestprep questions, and in March I started usmleworld. I finished UW about a week before the exam then I redid about half of the wrong questions.

I liked USMLE World, but I do think it should be emphasized to use as a learning tool and not to worry too much if you get questions wrong, because it’s much more difficult than what they are looking for, especially for biochem and micro. I wish someone would have told that to me because I really busted my ass on those and plateaued.

Test day was not bad. Most of the questions were straight forward (~80%), 10% could be narrowed down, and about 10% were out of left field.

 

[PBandJ]

This is less about intelligence then about hard work.

Goljan says, its all about concepts and he's spot on. You need the time that the basic science years afford to learn concepts. Good luck trying to learn concepts such as renal physiology well for the first time during board studying, you won't master it under the stress of the limited time.

The lesson here is to know the material and concepts so well that answering questions becomes second nature.

this post sums up almost exactly what i feel regarding this test. step 1 really is all about the hard work you put in, not just during your ~6 weeks of studying (or however long you take), but more importantly what you do with the first 2 years of med school. concepts and integrations are key, and it's really hard to get that during review if you didn't learn it the first time around.

oh and congrats to gute on your amazing score!

 

[beezel]

Hey everyone, I took my exam yesterday and wanted to share some of the details, so you can all do amazingly well. My first question was on Maple-syrup urine disease and what amino acid would be elevated in the serum, so needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. About 75% of the exam was expected topics and questions: multiple myeloma, hemophilia A, alzheimers, etc. I was surprised by how many questions were almost word-for-word from UWorld. I had 3 murmurs that had an audio and 2 that described the murmur. The stems for the audio questions didn't have much in the stem, but the audio changed so obviously when you moved to different auscultation areas, it wasn't hard to figure out which valve was the problem. I had a ton of radiographic anatomy, at least 3 sagittal brain MRIs, a bunch of CXR and abdomen CTs. All of the micro had the "buzzwords" in the stem, like "hot tub folliculitis" for pseudomonas. Pharm was pretty basic, a few mechanisms of drug resistance. I was pleasantly surprised to find a calculator tool, since I'm not a fan of math, so that made calculations easy, though I only had about 3 questions that required calculation. 98% of the exam is in First Aid, so look over it again in the few days before the test. Most of the exam was straightforward and expected, that being said, expect to see a few zebras.

I spent 6 weeks preparing. I had First Aid unbound, hole-punched and put into 2 binders. I added my notes from Robbins Path and other good class notes I had made into the appropriate sections. I watched a few Kaplan lectures, but not many, I'm a book person. Listened to Goljan and read RR Path and biochem (both by him). I used HY Embryo and Neuroanatomy, Katzung Pharm. BRS cell bio and histo and the Imaging Atlas of Human Anatomy. I did all of UWorld qbank and made notes on it. I did an NBME every week my scores were: 530/229, 550/234, 580/240, 590/242, 620/249, 660/258. I also did the 2 UWSA last week and got a 262 and 264.

All in all it was a fair exam, I think I prepared for it very well given what I was asked. I did the first 2 blocks then took a break after every block thereafter. It was definitely a good strategy, you get more tired than you think and it helps to walk around for a bit to get the blood moving.

Got my score on Wednesday the 22: 244/99, I am very happy. Good luck to everyone!

 

[bluntdissector]

Took it today. I'm not going to post my 'stats' as I don't see the point if I don't have a score to add. But if, for some reason it does add something, just post and I’ll provide!

Arrived at the test centre an hour early, but sat in my car and pumped some music to get in the mood, then checked in 30 min early. I was very calm, as I knew I had prepared well and was going to give it my all, lol.

But, I think my test was pretty hard. I'll try and give some sort of a breakdown, but so many questions were mixed:
Behavioral science: Only one where you had to actually calculate something, then a few graphs you have to interpret using primary school maths and common sense. Then A LOT of 'what should the doctor do' vibe, and some were pretty damn hard. I thought World and the NBME's would prepare me well enough for these ridiculous Q's, but about 40% of the time I was left with what seemed like two perfectly good options. And I had to guess.
Biochem: I'm pissed about this. My course spends like no time on this, so I spent a lot of time trying to educate myself, but then I started doing NBME's and World and they asked very clinical Q's, whilst I had ignored FA and tried to memorize pathways. So then I shifted to a heavy clinical biochem approach during the month before the test. I had no Q's on PKU or Maple Syrup or Homocystinuria or glycogen storage Dz's or Lysosomal Dz's. Instead I had a bunch of straight recall biochem Q's on enzymes activated by this or that, some amino acids (basic or glucogenic or present in this or that) and then some metabolic pathways with Q's and options from A-M. For the amount of time I ended up devoting to biochem I don’t think I'll do very well.
Molec/Cell/Genet: Hard. But not that many Molec/Cell Q's. But they were hard - the receptor pathways were only in FA about 50% of the time and there were some pretty unknown transcription factors and stuff. But thankfully there weren't that many. I had too many molecular technique Q's though. It seemed that about 3 Q's per block started with 'A researcher is studying the effect of...' and then there are strange graphs or f*cked up looking electrophoresis-vibe things. As for genetics, some were SO easy, and some were strange. But the worst were the 'terminology' Q's. That list in FA with Imprinting and Heteroplasy etc etc did not suffice. But I hate Molec/Genet/Cell, so I might be giving the wrong impression.
Micro: Very few - too bad. Mostly these were super easy, with lots of buzzwords. Maybe one that FA didn't cover, but the rest all had the classic stuff. Only one toxin Q. Only two (I think) Q's on antibiotics, which sucks, I knew those really well!
Immuno: Strange. Some things were super easy, classic, straight from world/FA. But about 30% of them had things that were def not in FA, although I think I got some of them from doing Crash Course. And then there had to be some experimentals, cuz there were CD's and IL's and drugs that I was like
Pharm (in general): These were mostly easy. Mostly SE's, but classic stuff. Having said that, there were quite a few drugs I didn't recognize, although they were usually just a distraction. Probably 5% of these were really strange, so not bad.
Anatomy (in general): WAY too much anatomy, and stuff that wasn't in FA. I don't want to say too much (someone warn me if I do) but there were damn hard resp and gastro anatomy with clinical twists (where would cancer spread, which structure must the surgeon, where will blood collect, ect ect) and these things were not in FA and I had to guess. Prob 50:50, These easy 50 are gimme's and the other 50% is like OMG can't you test this in a more practical way??
Phys (in general): Quite little. Some diagrams that seemed straight from world/BRS, and then some up/down arrow Q's that got quite tricky for repro/endo.
Pathology (in general) : Not many straight 'patient presents with these Sx...whats the Dx' Q's. I was hoping for like a LOT of these, as I cane these and they got me my 80% world avg I rate. There were some Q's where you had to be able to see wtf was going on histologically or with gross path. More cause of death/complications/whats next test Q's than the NBME's, but for the most part these were fine, except for the f*ckooad of pregnant women and old peeps. I swear half of the patient wre either pregnant or bloody old. I had to really dig deep with the preg Q's, since FA doesn't have that much and neither does BRS path. I didn't know the pathophys of all the Cx od preg and risk factors and stuff as well as they wanted me to. Too bad.
Repro: The most represented. And my weakest of the lot. Nice. As I said, way to many pregnant women.
Endo: Second most I think. The Tx and Dx were easy, but some of the up/down arrows were just strange (again A- M)
Musculo/Gastro: Next. Musculo was, just like world, mostly recall. Muscles, nerves, anti-bodies. Either know it or you don't. Gastro were pretty much only cancers or alcohol related things. Don't remember a single IBD Q. And the gastro in pregnant women were hard.
Cardio: Would have liked more of this.One of my strengths. I thought they were super easy, except when they were linked with acid-base or repro Q's. Yes they found a way to ruin cardio by linking it to pregnant women. Bastards.
Resp: Basic stuff, except for some difficult acid-base linked stuff and some hard alveolar PaO2 etc up/down arrows.
Haem/Onco: Haems was super easy, all the classic stuff. Onco had some stupidly easy drug S/E's and then some strange receptors that lymphomas/leukemias might or might not express. I'll never know!
Renal: Drugs and acid base. The acid base Q's are hard, and I'm normally good with these. But thankfully I didn't get Q's on the histology of all the nephritic/nephrotic Sd's. I just couldn't get that down!!
Neuro: Damn pissed as this was prob my least represented subject, and the field I want to specialize in. I got world Q's right that only 15% of people got, from reading journal articles and the Bradley's, then they gave me some silly cord lesions, a brainstem and a few degenerative conditions. I think I got all of them right, but they were few and far between.
Audio questions: 3 Murmers, but 2 of them were the same one with similar patient history, and easy to diagnose without listening to it. The other one gave a huge clue by stating it is a congenital dz.
Sequential questions: Don't see the point of these (I had one) but they might as well have been completely separate.
General comment: I felt that many Q's were very different from the NBME's and World. They seemed to mix the things up a lot more, there were more Q's that had 'normal' as an option and more options to choose from in general. Some things that I felt sure they'd ask just didn't feature - like head injury CT's or vasculitis Q's or at least one asbestos/etc question or PKU. But I honestly don't think I could have prepared much better, except for maybe going to med-school in the states - perhaps those behav Q's are better then!

My initial goal was 250+ so I could compete for top/near top Neuro programs, but I'd be surprised if I get that. Again though, I don't feel bad cuz I finished each block with 7-10min left which I could spend on the 10-13 flagged Q's and decide whether I want to change my hunch/guess. Lol. I was very calm - when I did the NBME's I got pissed when I saw what concept they were testing and I knew that I did review it but just couldn't remember/etc. But here I think there were quite a lot of Q's i was like 'that's okay, I've never known that and I didn't review it, so don't sweat it.' Furthermore, the world blocks had questions that made me 'stress' since I have to really think and figure it out whilst time keeps running out, but here I could stay calm cuz it wuz like 'Okay thats A...that's B...never heard of that...wtf is that...I dunno what marker that is...okay that’s G...that’s F...God knows wtf that is referring to....B again...' etc, not that many 'difficult to figure out Q's' in my opinion. I might as well have been

ANYWAY, I might just be bleak cuz I felt confident that I'll get my 250+ and now I am hoping for 240. It felt harder that NBME 5/6 and World SA 1/2. But please ask, maybe I'm just focusing on the negative things! I still think, judging from what others have said, that I got a 'hard' form, even if that was only because it happened to nail me on my weaknesses more than I expected!

Lol, good luck to everyone writing in the near future! I am SO grateful for everyone’s help on this forum, and I will stick around to try and help others, although I might move to Step 2 in the near future. Also, I’d prefer to get my score before I offer too much!

PS - my 'completed' screen said the score will take 6w, wtf, I thought it was like 3-4w?

Got my score today! Very thankful that these things are standardized, *sigh*...

Date: 08 July 2009
Report date: 29 July 2009 (E-mail from ECFMG at 09:14 Eastern Time)

World 79% cumulative, 81% last 600
NBME 3 (+/-2m) 218 (I think)
NBME 5 (3w) 247
UWSA 1 (2w) 265 / 86%
NBME 6 (1w) 258
UWSA 2 (4d) 265 / 85%
Free 144 (2d) 94% (Medfriends said 268, wikitestprep said 258)
Clinical Review 261 (Based on 660 for NBME 6, 81% World and 265 UWSA)
Actual Score 261/99

So clinicalreview was spot on...

Resources:
FA, World, HY Molec and BRS Path (Most used)
CMMRS, BRS Phys, Crash Course Immun, HY Neuro, Road map anatomy (Read once and annotated)
HY Embryo, HY Behav (A waste, but just to clarify some FA stuff)

Also did some Q's from First Aid Q&A and listened to Goljan once.

Obviously I am stoked, can't believe it...

 

[Deferoxamine]

Way to go, blunt d!

 

[gmsquid]

255/99

70% on about half of Uworld.

 

[bluntdissector]

Way to go, blunt d!

Thanks, I am forever grateful to the people on this forum, I definitely wouldn't have made it without you guys/girls! Especially since I only had 2w of holiday before the test, so had to work for 3-4m beforehand after class/hospital AND try and honor all my tests/OSCE's/presentations I wrote/had for my course so as to keep my bursary and pay for my studies...but thanks to you lot I stayed motivated and came out of it all alive!

 

[NYCGurl]

Took my exam this friday and wanted to give my 2 cents about the experience to people waiting to take the exam. I don't know how much "help" it really is seeing how everyone's test is so different but I know I couldn't help but read this thread anyway when I was preparing for the test.

My average was high 60s in USMLE World with 100% complete, with my scores mainly being in the 70s in the last week but fluctuated a little.

USMLE Form 5 227 2 weeks into studying
Form 3 237 week and a half after that
Free 150 87% 1 week before the exam

Let me start off by saying that free 150 is a total joke. The real test is more like USMLE World than that free test, I have no idea why they even use it as a sample, maybe to make you feel better? Anyway, for someone who has not been scoring extraodinarily high on the practice exams like some of the other SDN posters, I still thought the real exam was pretty do-able. It was challenging yes, but there were also quite a number of questions that were straightforward, if not actual buzzword containing then very typical vignettes with straightforward answers.

I had a good number of pharm questions, all except for one of them were drugs that can be found in FA. I really feel this area you can get points in easily if you can memorize as the questions really aren't tricky, more like prototypical side effects, which drugs are teratogens, etc.

There were also quite a few of behavioral science questions as others have already mentioned, not so much epi/stats type although there were a few of them, but what should you say next type of questions. I was worried there would be a lot of epi calculations like NNH type in USMLE World but I didn't get anything like that. Believe it or not I got a couple of questions testing the concept of median, yes, median. So make sure you know that.

Pictures - I got a couple of brain sections, a couple of x-rays, no CTs that I can remember of.

The test was pretty spread out throughout the systems but I didn't get a lot of embryo questions, maybe 2 or 3. Biochem was pretty high yield though for me, I got a whole bunch of errors of metabolism questions, vitamin deficiencies.

Overall, I would say doing questions helped me the most. I mostly followed the Taus schedule but adapted it to my own needs, and got through all of the World questions. Some of the exam questions were exactly like what I had already seen in world so the more questions you do, the better you'll feel when you see the real exam. I didn't have time to do more of the CBSSA forms, for some reason whenever I tried to do them it would stress me out unnecessarily so I wasn't too keen on spending huge chunks of time doing them, especially without having any explanations. Also, timing wise, I always had extra time left in doing USMLE World, and for most of the blocks it wasn't an issue, but my last block I had an audio question as one of my first questions and spent an inordinate amount of time listening to it so I had to catch up the rest of the time. Just be careful and make sure you're keeping an eye on the clock, but in general, there really isn't too much time to mull over things.

Good luck to everyone!

Just got my score today, 246/99. Overall I'd have to say I'm very happy!

 

[bluntdissector]

Just got my score today, 246/99. Overall I'd have to say I'm very happy!

Congrats. I also thought the free 144 was a joke, but if you use wikitestprep, you'll see that for ~87% (I guessed you got 125?) it predicts 242...for 126 it says 244. It also predicted mine within 3 points. Not a bad predictor after all!

 

[mq123]

Thanks, I am forever grateful to the people on this forum, I definitely wouldn't have made it without you guys/girls! Especially since I only had 2w of holiday before the test, so had to work for 3-4m beforehand after class/hospital AND try and honor all my tests/OSCE's/presentations I wrote/had for my course so as to keep my bursary and pay for my studies...but thanks to you lot I stayed motivated and came out of it all alive!

Wow...sounds like you didn't have much time before the test, and still got a stellar score.
We have so many random writeups/presentations/OSCEs etc like you mentioned at the end of 2nd year, and I probably wouldn't be able to concentrate that well on board studying. Thankfully, my school provides almost 7 weeks from end of finals to start of 3rd year, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Kudos on the great score

 

[EMT2DO]

Got my score today while at the hospital, but first my stats:
MCAT 31
NBME6= 530/229 (before studying hardcore)
NBME5= 550/234
NBME2= 580/240
Free 150= 87%
Kaplan Qbank (sucks by the way)= 70% random untimed finished over 1 year
USMLEWorld (awesome!) = 64% random timed 100% complete
COMLEX Level 1= 655 (hell yeah!)

For prep, I read the standard stuff, First Aid, MMRS, High Yield Immuno, Cell/Micro, Anatomy, Behavorial, Embryo; Goljan RRPath (of course w/ audio), Lippincott's Illustrated Pharm review (good resource and easy read IMO). In retrospect wish I would have studied more biochem but just ran out of time and stuck to FA and RRPath at the end. Glad I didn't waste a lot of time on physio, pretty low yield on my exam, no formulas that I remember except one Fick Equation. Also can't stress USMLEWorld enough, started out in the mid 50%'s and by the end was scoring 70%'s and even got an 86% because it teaches you how to think about questions and reason your way to what they are asking instead of trying to provoke a knee-jerk "you know it or you don't" reaction to a question. The actual test was easier than USMLEworld and I felt prepared primarily because of it. And now the score...

USMLE Step 1: 239/99
not a monster 260+ like some other SDN'ers but I'm pretty proud of it cause I'm part of a new school that is still getting the hang of being a new program. Thanks to all the previous posters and your help in preparing for this exam, best of luck to all who have yet to face the beast.

 

[TheJiggler]

Did any July 11 test takers get their score back today? I'm July 18 and was curious if I would get my score next Wed

 

[docbill]

Did any July 11 test takers get their score back today? I'm July 18 and was curious if I would get my score next Wed

Since that was a Saturday, it should be released next Wednesday. Hopefully mine will be there too.

 

[spursss]

Did any July 11 test takers get their score back today? I'm July 18 and was curious if I would get my score next Wed

Yeah, I took my exam on July 11th and was hoping to see my score today; however, it looks like I will have to wait another week. So if you took your exam on the 18th, I would think you may have to wait 2 more weeks for your score, but I may be wrong.

 

[omarm]

Got my score today! Very thankful that these things are standardized, *sigh*...

Date: 08 July 2009
Report date: 29 July 2009 (E-mail from ECFMG at 09:14 Eastern Time)

World 79% cumulative, 81% last 600
NBME 3 (+/-2m) 218 (I think)
NBME 5 (3w) 247
UWSA 1 (2w) 265 / 86%
NBME 6 (1w) 258
UWSA 2 (4d) 265 / 85%
Free 144 (2d) 94% (Medfriends said 268, wikitestprep said 258)
Clinical Review 261 (Based on 660 for NBME 6, 81% World and 265 UWSA)
Actual Score 261/99

So clinicalreview was spot on...

Resources:
FA, World, HY Molec and BRS Path (Most used)
CMMRS, BRS Phys, Crash Course Immun, HY Neuro, Road map anatomy (Read once and annotated)
HY Embryo, HY Behav (A waste, but just to clarify some FA stuff)

Also did some Q's from First Aid Q&A and listened to Goljan once.

Obviously I am stoked, can't believe it...

Congratulations... well done
Can you please tell me how did you get the wikitestprep (wikitestprep said 258) score prediciton??? is there an equation that convert the percentage of wikitestprep??? how can i relate it to the expected score??
Thanks

 

[bluntdissector]

Congratulations... well done
Can you please tell me how did you get the wikitestprep (wikitestprep said 258) score prediciton??? is there an equation that convert the percentage of wikitestprep??? how can i relate it to the expected score??
Thanks

Sure! At the bottom of the page with the answers to the '2009 NBME Practise Questions' page, or in the thread discussing the Free 150 and predictive value or here:

# Correct Score
144 269 123 240 102 210
143 268 122 238 101 209
142 266 121 237 100 207
141 265 120 235 99 206
140 263 119 234 98 204
139 262 118 232 97 203
138 261 117 231 96 202
137 259 116 230 95 200
136 258 115 228 94 199
135 256 114 227 93 197
134 255 113 225 92 196
133 254 112 224 91 194
132 252 111 223 90 193
131 251 110 221 89 192
130 249 109 220 88 190
129 248 108 218 87 189
128 247 107 217 86 187
127 245 106 216 85 186
126 244 105 214 84 185
125 242 104 213 83 183
124 241 103 211 82 182

 

[omarm]

Sure! At the bottom of the page with the answers to the '2009 NBME Practise Questions' page, or in the thread discussing the Free 150 and predictive value or here:

# Correct Score
144 269 123 240 102 210
143 268 122 238 101 209
142 266 121 237 100 207
141 265 120 235 99 206
140 263 119 234 98 204
139 262 118 232 97 203
138 261 117 231 96 202
137 259 116 230 95 200
136 258 115 228 94 199
135 256 114 227 93 197
134 255 113 225 92 196
133 254 112 224 91 194
132 252 111 223 90 193
131 251 110 221 89 192
130 249 109 220 88 190
129 248 108 218 87 189
128 247 107 217 86 187
127 245 106 216 85 186
126 244 105 214 84 185
125 242 104 213 83 183
124 241 103 211 82 182

Thanks man.. i really appreciate it
Can you please tell me if there is any relation between the WIKITESTPREP score itself (the percentage u get when doing the wikitestprep questions) and the real step 1 score??
thanks in advance...

 

[pm1986]

congrats blunt. I noticed you got an email from ECFMG, so assume you must be a IMG. could you share your preparation timeline please. Thanks

 

[tpw2k]

IMG from carib school, ECFMG gives your score on the third wednesday after writing exam at around 9:14AM

first UW assessment = 236
2nd UW assessment = 263
UW Q bank = 74%
NBME's all averaged in the 240's.

got grade wednesday : 245/99.
May have expected higher but am very pleased with this result

Main books used were FA 2008, RR Goljan, BRS physio, and some kaplan books (biochem, behavioral)

Best prep is to do lots of questions and annotate everything into FA and then study FA for last 2 weeks thoroughly. I would say 85% of the exam is from FA and the rest should be stuff you've learned in med school. The Q's that are just ridiculous, dont really worry too much bout them..chances are they are experimental.

Best of luck to anyone still writing.

 

[PBandJ]

Thanks, I am forever grateful to the people on this forum, I definitely wouldn't have made it without you guys/girls! Especially since I only had 2w of holiday before the test, so had to work for 3-4m beforehand after class/hospital AND try and honor all my tests/OSCE's/presentations I wrote/had for my course so as to keep my bursary and pay for my studies...but thanks to you lot I stayed motivated and came out of it all alive!

excellent work!

 

[biggejac]

I have always been an average student. I got a 30 (3 10's) on my MCAT and was lucky to get into a 2nd tier school in the Northeast. My school is pass/fail, so I attended as few classes as I could through my first two years, and just barely passed a few of my courses.


My study resources:
1. First Aid: I only read it once over Christmas break, but referenced it and wrote in it a lot.
2. Goljian: listened to the lectures early and often. I recommend the pdf's of his notes (as opposed to the RR text), especially for highly conceptual and dense material like Heme and Neuro.
3. Kaplan notes: I read Immunology and Biochemistry over the summer b/w 1st, 2nd year, and read them again a couple months before the test. There were quite a few questions about cytokines (especially TNF-alpha, for whatever reason) on the test, not a lot of straight Biochem. (maybe half a dozen) but a fair amount of questions on Metabolism on my test.
4. Step-Up: I went through this very readable text twice, once over the course of the semester, and then again about 3 weeks before boards. I basically used this text to "center" my system-based review which I started about 2 and half a weeks before the test.
5. Microbiology Made Ridic. Simple and Microcards: there isn't a lot of Micro. on the test, but enough to warrant reading these two books. Don't bother learning all the rare **** (eg. Eastern Equine fever), and don't bother learning details like helical vs. isocahedral.
6. Anatomy: Road Map to Anatomy and Hi-yield embryology and Hi Yield Neuroanatomy: I recommend studying these in the last month before the test as you go through a systems-based review. Road Map covers the blood and nerve supply to the arm and leg extensively, as well as the defecits experienced with injuries at given spinal cord levels. I did not have any questions asking about injury to the spinal cord, but I did have a few questions regarding injuries to the arms and legs (eg. an X-ray of the arm broken about 2/3 distal, asking what nerve was injured (I said median, could be radial?), and a question asking what nerve is injured in a "spiral fracture"? I guessed axillary?), so learn that if you can. I had atleast a half-dozen questions on neuroanatomy, ("label the MRI" eg. internal capsule/putamen/caudate etc... or name the cranial nerve exiting the brainstem).
7. Q-banks: make a point of starting USMLE World early, and finishing it by 2-3 months out. Some people do World twice but I wrote out the tougher questions in a notebook, and reviewed them in the days before the test. I recommend starting a second Q-bank, and I spent much of my time between 2 and 1 month out doing USMLE Rx. The cool thing about Rx is they scanned First-Aid and show you the page the question relates too, along with an explanation of the answer, so if you are attention-deficit like me this will make up for not being able to plow through First Aid 3-4 times. I also strongly recommend doing the USMLE World Self-Assessments, as these were the closest to the real thing in my opinion.
8. Pharm: this subject is too broad for a systematic review, but I do recommend reading through a set of flash cards. I used Lippincott, which were OK, but I've also heard good things about Kaplan's flash cards. I worried a lot about Pharm but wasn't questioned much on it. The majority of the pharm questions relate to acetylcholine/epinephrine, as opposed to anti-arrythmics/anti-epileptics (I didn't have any questions on either of these subjects).
Things I would have done differently: I and everyone I talked to had about a half-dozen questions on heart murmurs. Learning how a heart murmur is DESCRIBED is not enough; the boards want you to be able to identify the heart murmur based on the sound ALONE.


NBME#2 (2/20) 201
#3 (3/01) 238
#6 (5/11) 225
#5 (5/22) 234
#4 (5/25) 240
World #2(5/20) 244
USMLE Step 1 244


This site is a great resource for strategizing how to study. It was of great help to me so I would love to return the favor and answer any questions you guys may have.


Best of luck!

 

[Whats_up_doc]

First of all I want to thank all those who have helped me one way or another to prepare for this exam.

General Advice:

The best single piece of advice is to DO WELL DURING 2nd YEAR. This means that 5,6,7, or 8 weeks of preparation will not substitute for your first 2 years of Medicine. My first year I honored most of my courses with a B on here and there. Second year, I tried to honor most of my courses and put more effort into it, since this was the year about the "diseases" and things were more important than knowing anatomy factoids (IMO). During my second year, I did Robbin's Review of Pathology Questions along my Pathology Course. I read the relevant sections of the Rubin's pathology book (Yes, I actually read the book) for my pathology coursework. I tried to participate as much as I could of the pathology small group discussions because it helped me solidify concepts. I believe that it is really important that we learn to think rather than memorizing stuff (anyone can do that). This book (Robbin's Question book) is great for laying down a foundation for concepts. It is very challenging but it is worth it. I would not recommend it for Boards Prep (there is Uworld for that). I also did questions from the Rubin's Lippincot Path book and the Pre-Test series for all courses (since we have a systems based approach in 2nd year) but I wouldn't recommend pre-test that much, even though doing more questions for practice won't hurt.

-Study to Understand. It will make review easier.

-Listen Goljan Audio along your courses and again during board prep, if time permits..
-Use RR path or BRS path ALONG your courses. I used BRS path and added RR path notes to the BRS. Then, I used this during board prep. It made the Path path smoother…
-I wish I had read FA more intensely along my courses but couldn't.

-Set up a Plan and stick to it. This has been said many times in this forum but it is important to be focused. Friends will try to advice you about X or Y review book that is "really" good. Explore it, but if it doesn't fit your plan, dismiss it. I ended up buying USMLE Step 1 Secrets and read a couple of pages and that's it. Hopefully, I can sell it to somebody else.

Schedule:

Studied for approximately 7.5 weeks averaging 8 hours per day (range 6-10).

Style : Started with 1 week of pure physio (BRS) and anatomy (FA). Then did general path , micro, general pharm, embryo principles.From there on, I switched to a systems-based approach. I did blocks of 48 timed, unused, non-random (topic that I studied) of USMLE World, which I found very helpful. I did this for the first 65% or so of the questions. On the last weeks, I switched to random mode of all Q's.

Sources:

FA 2009 (be sure to check errors on Firstaidteam.com)
BRS Phys
BRS Path (annotated with RR path during 2nd year)
USMLE World (100% used, averaged 68%).Keep in mind first 65% was topic based and last 35% was random. All were timed. Never used tutor mode. Be sure to read ALL explanations unless you are really cool with the concept being asked. I read those I got right too.
Goljan Audio- For people who want to understand…
Underground Clinical Vignettes – Good book for classic presentations. It is not a high yield source, it just helps you put things in a clinical scenario with a couple of buzzwords. However, the NBME are not using that many "buzzwords" on the exam. You have to know the description. NOT actual Q  they will not say "pearly papule", they will say something like " elevated lesion with dilated blood vessels"
HY Neuro (skimmed through it) Watched Kaplan Vids. This subject was weakly taught at my school so I had to put extra effort.
Kaplan Biochem (really good book) – not represented in my test at all. 10 Q's at most.
Micro -CMMRS – during 2nd year. Mostly used as reference or for cool associations. FA is enough.
Behavioral- FA and HY was more than enough.
Pharm – FA was enough.
Immunology- HY and FA.


Assesments (from what I remember now&#8230

Goal: 230 +. 220: OK. 230: Happy , 240: Unbelievable!!. I want Internal Medicine for now, so let's see.
CBSA: equivalent of 200 , Begginning of studying.
NBME 6: 530 equivalent to (229), 1 week out.
Free 150: Skimmed through it but didn't do it like a "test" because I was burnt.
Test: July 24, 2009.
Score: TBA


Test Day:

Materials:

- Puerto Rican Coffee
- Granola Bars with Almond
- Ham and Cheese Sandwich
- 2 green apples
- Bottle of Water, Gatorade
- ID and Permit
- Imodium (loperamide) , Acetaminophen
- Prayers (not only on test day, always)


Woke up at 5 30 am, listened to "eye of the tiger" while waking up and started jumping. 2 minutes later I started to get ready, did prayers and got ready. Arrived early to test site where everything went pretty smooth although the guy in charge at Prometric had a paranoic attitude.

Test:

I was a little nervous at the beginning of my first block and was in a time constraint at the end. Try to stay as calmed as possible because it may cost you easy points. I marked 15 on my first block and then 8-10 on the others. I felt the first block was the hardest because of my nervousness rather than not knowing the concept. TIME YOURSELF!!

I would say 2 blocks were "easy", 4 were intermediate and 1 was hard (the first one).

Ethics questions are interesting (sometimes you believe 2 answers look good). Mark the one you think is correct and move on.

Unfortunately, Neuro was overrepresented on my test so I don't know how it will affect me. There were bunch of experiments where a concept was trying to be applied so I don't know if those were experimental or not. For some reason, I think I got a "hard" version of the test. I also had 2 angiograms which I tried to answer from the stem of Q.

Anatomy: One of my weak spots, surprisingly wasn't that bad. I had a question that I remembered as an obscure detail of my anatomy course. I got lucky here. Also I was tested not an insertion question but on a TENDON question. Yep. I was surprised too.

Immuno: FA enough.

Behavioral: Classic Presentations.

Public Health : Easy calculations.

Path: MUY IMPORTANTE (that is, VERY IMPORTANT). This is integrated with Micro and physiology. I had a lot of questions (see "intermediate difficulty) blocks that presented a clinical vignette, paragraph and all answer choices were long sentences. Be prepared to analize as you go through sentences. You need to train your mind to do this because it can be time consuming. Know your mechanisms well! Goljan does a good job at this. On the other hand, you might have an exam full of pictures or full of descriptions. Be prepared for anything. Ask yourself : What do these guys want me to know in this Question? Look for the classic stuff.

Pharm : Straightforward.FA is enough. Couple of experiments that you have to apply your knowledge on autonomic system.

Embryo: Probably 2 Q's. FA enough.

Micro: Classic Presentations. Mostly bacterias. I think 1 or 2 viruses. Couple of fungi. 2 parasites. No random RNA +,- sense twisted encapsulated viruses, thank God.

Phys: Mostly integrated with Path. Couple of arrows here and there.

Multimedia : 2/3 answerable from stem. 1/3 had to actually listen and didn't have a clue!

Biochem: 10 Q's at most. Doable from Kaplan, FA and U world.

2 blocks – break – 1 block- break – 1 blocks – food – 1 block – break – 1 block – break – 1 block-- FREE


After test: I felt "weird" after the test. I really don't know how I did but since that is a general feeling among SDN'ers, I felt ok. I was very tired. Actually be sure to get appropriate breaks because you will get exhausted at some point (it happened to me at Q 28 of block 6, hehe), you have to motivate yourself! Keep focused!

Please pardon my grammar errors. I will be very happy to answer any messages via PM. I wish everybody the best of luck and thank all fellow SDN'ers who have helped me get through this process.

GO JULY GO!!!!

 

[JPort]

hey, question for you guys who did the free 150, was it an EXACT replica of what the software looks like when you're actually taking the test or does it look different and does the USMLE world look similar to it or different ? thanks for the updates ! really helpful stuff !

 

[Vee]

hey, question for you guys who did the free 150, was it an EXACT replica of what the software looks like when you're actually taking the test or does it look different and does the USMLE world look similar to it or different ? thanks for the updates ! really helpful stuff !

uworld is the exact software except that on the real test you can cross out arrow answer choices too.

 

[Philoso]

uworld is the exact software except that on the real test you can cross out arrow answer choices too.

UWorld also allows crossing out answer choices with a right to left mouse selection on the choice.

 

[bluntdissector]

congrats blunt. I noticed you got an email from ECFMG, so assume you must be a IMG. could you share your preparation timeline please. Thanks

Sorry, your post almost got lost among the LONG posts!

I will tell you what I told some people in PM's - it's a rough timeline of my life leading up to Step 1, feel free to ask if you need more info or send me a PM...

Just my plan briefly – I am on a block system, in a 6 year course without pre-med, with the clinical blocks alternating with class blocks from 3rd year onwards. I am fourth year now (i.e. 22y/o). Almost no Biochem/Molec/Genetics in my course, and very little basic Micro/Embryo. Leading up to my test, I had the following blocks (Months correspond more or less):

January – 4w Gynae clinical rotation in hospital with OSCE
February – 4w Musculo/Rheuma class block with test
March – 2w Forensic and 2w Derma clinical rotations with tests/OSCE’s
April –2w Hema block and 3w Infect Dz’s block with tests
May – 2w away rural rotation for FamMed, 2w Pathology/Imaging rotation with tests
June – 2w Dermz and 2w Forensics class blocks with tests, 1w holiday
July – 1w holiday and then test on the 8th…

So I started reading through stuff in February, but often had to take a whole week off to study for my course or prepare for an OSCE. For example, in May I went to a rural site for 2w to work there and didn’t touch my review books…This meant that I had to work whenever I got a chance, so I was consumed by medical things from 08:00 to 23:00 almost every day from Feb, be it call or studying for an OSCE or write-ups or USMLE related things. I had to honor all my course subjects too for a bursary, as my student loan isn't quite enough…I worked through the following from Feb to April, annotating to FA:
CMMRS
HY Embryo
HY Neuro
HY Behav
CC Immuno
Road map anatomy
Lippincott's Biochem (Only explaining the things in FA, which were Greek to me at the start...)

And read through
BRS path (and listened to Goljan audio once)
BRS phys
HY Molec
FA obviously

From mid May to mid/early June, I went through FA, BRS path, BRS phys and HY molec again, doing Q’s from FA-Q&A after each section.

From mid/early June I bought a 1 month uWorld subscription. During this time I did all of World and read through all the explanations in full. I also worked through FA and HY Molec again, and took NBME 5 and 6 and UWSA 1 and 2. Again though, there were some interruptions (tests for Dermz and Forensics). I marked the World Q's I wanted to look at again a few days before my test...

The only time I could honestly ONLY focus on Step 1 was the 2w holiday leading up to my tests, where I put in about 15hours a day to finish World and FA (as mentioned above).

My first NBME (Form 3) that I took whilst going through everything for the first time was 220eesh (about 3/4 months out), so that was basically my baseline.

BUT if I had a holiday of about a month or more I wouldn’t have started so early, I had to sacrifice a lot! And since that 2w holoday was the only holiday we have from first week on Jan to en of exams at the end of October, before a 5w elective, I am getting pretty tired now…worth it though…



Most important things IMO - work hard throughout med school, reading broadly and studying with the end goal (i.e. being an amazing doctor) as oppose to a short time goal (passing the next test). Furthermore, this forum(and reading many people's experiences especially!), FA and uWorld were very VERY important...

Good luck!

 

[omarm]

Can anybody tell us if there is any relation between the WIKITESTPREP score (the percentage u get when doing the wikitestprep questions) and the real step 1 score??
is it predictive or just for practice??
thanks in advance...

 

[a winner is you]

Can anybody tell us if there is any relation between the WIKITESTPREP score (the percentage u get when doing the wikitestprep questions) and the real step 1 score??
is it predictive or just for practice??
thanks in advance...

The questions are easier than the real thing, if that's what you mean.

 

[AllUpOnYoMama]

Whats up. Just got out of my exam. I had about 4 easy blocks straight from FA. One block that was similar in difficulty to WORLD and two WTF blocks. Block 7 came out of left field and really ruined my day... I had to guess on the last 4 questions due to timing. Like everyone has said before... the exam was a mix of NBME and world questions. The hardest part was trying to stay focused for 8 hours. Exam mostly consisted of path, phys, and immuno. I had maybe 5-10 embryo questions and 20 or so pharm questions. Im too tired to get up and get my NBME scores... I think I started off around 208 and ended with a 232 or something like that for the free 150 one week prior. I feel like I bombed the exam though I know thats a very common feeling. I also had trouble with timing. Finished every block with a minute to go... used to finish WORLD blocks in 40 minutes. thought the questin stems were longer than world. Anyone have any idea how many experimental questions are on the exam? Cool, good luck to those still studying

 

[HamburgerHelper]

Whats up. Just got out of my exam. I had about 4 easy blocks straight from FA. One block that was similar in difficulty to WORLD and two WTF blocks. Block 7 came out of left field and really ruined my day... I had to guess on the last 4 questions due to timing. Like everyone has said before... the exam was a mix of NBME and world questions. The hardest part was trying to stay focused for 8 hours. Exam mostly consisted of path, phys, and immuno. I had maybe 5-10 embryo questions and 20 or so pharm questions. Im too tired to get up and get my NBME scores... I think I started off around 208 and ended with a 232 or something like that for the free 150 one week prior. I feel like I bombed the exam though I know thats a very common feeling. I also had trouble with timing. Finished every block with a minute to go... used to finish WORLD blocks in 40 minutes. thought the questin stems were longer than world. Anyone have any idea how many experimental questions are on the exam? Cool, good luck to those still studying

I also took the beast today and feel similarly. I consistently had 15 questions marked on each section and did not feel confident about many answers. I already know about some questions I made mistakes on. Ugh, I feel stupid. I'll post my study routine when I get my scores back, unless it's absolutely horrible.

 

[vero ad]

Hi Im taking my STEP 1 on Sept 18th did all my study and want to answer a lot of questions during this time. I have tought on purchasing:
- UW Q BANK for 30 days + 2 assesment exams

and on doing the questions on a KAPLAN QBANK book that I've already bought.

What other practice test can I take, and when to take it? Any tips for this last 6 weeks?

What's the minimum 3 digit score to pass? 182 or 200? and 2 digit? 75?

THANKS

 

[Yakko]

I also took the beast today and feel similarly. I consistently had 15 questions marked on each section and did not feel confident about many answers. I already know about some questions I made mistakes on. Ugh, I feel stupid. I'll post my study routine when I get my scores back, unless it's absolutely horrible.

I took the test a few weeks ago, and your experience is the exact same as mine. I can probably count on one hand how many questions per block I answered with any sort of confidence. Too many guesses compared to the number of times I'd guess on UWorld or NBME.

After I finished the exam, I was so relieved I almost didn't care what my grade would be, I just didn't want to do any of it again.

I got my results back, and got a 99. It wasn't an SDN-like highest of 99s, but I was pleasantly surprised since it was higher than my practice tests. So to those, like me, who felt they'd probably gotten a 190, it might not be as bad as you think.

For when you're in the room, and taking the actual exam I would advise you to not dwell on questions. THIS IS PARAMOUNT. -More than strategies for taking the 4 audio questions on a 336-question exam. My first block was an absolute **** show. It basically had all of my weakest subjects lined up and ready to obliterate any modicum of self-confidence I walked in with. But I just guessed on them, berated myself for not studying enough, and just moved on. That's the most important thing, I felt like I had my ass kicked on like every question on each block, but you just gotta move on and give yourself the chance to answer that [perhaps not so obvious] freebie question at the end of the block. That exact goal is what drove me to just put a best-guess answer after spending 120 seconds trying to figure out a question.

I flagged a bunch. Like maybe 10-20 per block. I was able to go back to at most 5, each time. Even on those I rarely changed the answer; simply because I didn't get any smarter since the last time I saw the question and there just weren't enough minutes in the block to sit and stare blankly at the screen and hope the right answer wiggles a little bit. And I take exams quickly! (Not always all correct, but quickly nonetheless) I'd get through practice and self assessments in at most 40 min per block, but I literally had just seconds at the end of a few blocks on the real deal. And once I finished with 2:30 left. I was elated with my small accomplishment. I just wished it was tacked onto proceeding blocks.

I know myself and can say with confidence that I would not start studying sooner. I'm a very lazy person, and need immediate pressure hanging over me. (Yeah I know Step 1 is big, but this is a testament to how bad my discipline is). I would have focused more on the topics that were most difficult for me, like Pharm. I hate it, and simply did not want to study it. I feel like had I been as comfortable with Pharm as I was with Physio, I would have gotten a higher grade. But what can ya do.


My advice: Spend more time studying topics you don't like, because they're gonna seem like every other question. And be ravenous, almost focus more on doing each question than necessarily getting each one right. That isn't to say just put a pretty answer, but don't think too long because that clock is always counting down. ...Kinda like life.

 

[sebsvenmdc]

I took the test a few weeks ago, and your experience is the exact same as mine. I can probably count on one hand how many questions per block I answered with any sort of confidence. Too many guesses compared to the number of times I'd guess on UWorld or NBME.

After I finished the exam, I was so relieved I almost didn't care what my grade would be, I just didn't want to do any of it again.

I got my results back, and got a 99. It wasn't an SDN-like highest of 99s, but I was pleasantly surprised since it was higher than my practice tests. So to those, like me, who felt they'd probably gotten a 190, it might not be as bad as you think.

For when you're in the room, and taking the actual exam I would advise you to not dwell on questions. THIS IS PARAMOUNT. -More than strategies for taking the 4 audio questions on a 336-question exam. My first block was an absolute **** show. It basically had all of my weakest subjects lined up and ready to obliterate any modicum of self-confidence I walked in with. But I just guessed on them, berated myself for not studying enough, and just moved on. That's the most important thing, I felt like I had my ass kicked on like every question on each block, but you just gotta move on and give yourself the chance to answer that [perhaps not so obvious] freebie question at the end of the block. That exact goal is what drove me to just put a best-guess answer after spending 120 seconds trying to figure out a question.

I flagged a bunch. Like maybe 10-20 per block. I was able to go back to at most 5, each time. Even on those I rarely changed the answer; simply because I didn't get any smarter since the last time I saw the question and there just weren't enough minutes in the block to sit and stare blankly at the screen and hope the right answer wiggles a little bit. And I take exams quickly! (Not always all correct, but quickly nonetheless) I'd get through practice and self assessments in at most 40 min per block, but I literally had just seconds at the end of a few blocks on the real deal. And once I finished with 2:30 left. I was elated with my small accomplishment. I just wished it was tacked onto proceeding blocks.

I know myself and can say with confidence that I would not start studying sooner. I'm a very lazy person, and need immediate pressure hanging over me. (Yeah I know Step 1 is big, but this is a testament to how bad my discipline is). I would have focused more on the topics that were most difficult for me, like Pharm. I hate it, and simply did not want to study it. I feel like had I been as comfortable with Pharm as I was with Physio, I would have gotten a higher grade. But what can ya do.


My advice: Spend more time studying topics you don't like, because they're gonna seem like every other question. And be ravenous, almost focus more on doing each question than necessarily getting each one right. That isn't to say just put a pretty answer, but don't think too long because that clock is always counting down. ...Kinda like life.

99 means anything above like 237...kind of a general range, dude.

 

[ChimpanzeeMinky]

99 means anything above like 237...kind of a general range, dude.

So you know he got above a 237. Your point?

 

[Weenus]

I just wanted to dispel the notion that one's Step 1 score correlates with one's MCAT score (Verbal reasoning section, or whatever).

I received a very "mediocre" 27O on the MCAT, but I got my Step 1 score back a couple of weeks ago and I was in shock when I saw that I had scored a 262/99!! That was 15 points HIGHER than my highest NBME practice exam (NBME #4: 610/247 or something).

My whole point is that Step 1 is a very fair exam. If you put forth the hard work and effort you will do well. I am married and recently had a our first baby boy, but I was able to negotiate with my wife that if I could dedicate a few months to the boards that I would be able to take care of her and my kid(s) for the rest of their lives. The exam is VERY doable. Sure, there's plenty of questions that you will never be able to answer but who cares? Don't waste time on those questions and move on to the ones you can get.

Good luck to all those who are preparing to take Step 1, retake it, and to all those who have taken it and are deciding what area of medicine to go into. At this point, I have NO idea what I want to do...

 

[pseudoknot]

I just wanted to dispel the notion that one's Step 1 score correlates with one's MCAT score (Verbal reasoning section, or whatever).

Uh, congratulations, but you cannot "dispel" statistics with a single data point.

 

[Weenus]

Uh, congratulations, but you cannot "dispel" statistics with a single data point.

If I can give at least one single person hope from my "single data point" that they can still rock the boards despite what statistics tells them, then I accomplished what I came here for. Can't you tell, seeing this is only my 3rd post?

Btw, thanks for the congrats.

 

[biotsrama]

Well according to Wikipedia, the BS section of the MCAT has the highest correlation with Step I score, and VR has the lowest. I point this out because I often hear people saying VR correlates most with Step I score, but the published data seem to say the opposite. "The Biological Sciences section most directly correlates to success on the USMLE Step 1 exam, with a correlation coefficient of .553 vs .491 for Physical Sciences and .397 for Verbal Reasoning." It references an article from Acad. Medicine in 2002, though I am unable to access it.

 

[vero ad]

Hi Im taking my STEP 1 on Sept 18th did all my study and want to answer a lot of questions during this time. I have tought on purchasing:
- UW Q BANK for 30 days + 2 assesment exams

and on doing the questions on a KAPLAN QBANK book that I've already bought.

What other practice test can I take, and when to take it? (NBME for example? etc...) Any tips for this last 6 weeks?

What's the minimum 3 digit score to pass? 182 or 200? and 2 digit? 75?

THANKS

 

[sebsvenmdc]

So you know he got above a 237. Your point?

I don't have to make any points more clear to you. Kiss my rear, buddy.

 

[docbill]

That is just not necessary.

 

[ChimpanzeeMinky]

I don't have to make any points more clear to you. Kiss my rear, buddy.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I'd respond to you if I were Yakko.

 

[babycapybara]

My score is here..but I'm too scared to open the report.

 

[JPort]

My score is here..but I'm too scared to open the report.

how long ago did you take your test ?

 

[smiley737]

I've been a silent beneficiary of SDN since the MCAT, so here's my experience in case it can help anyone.

Background: I struggled in my first two years of med school, barely going to classes at all, watching lectures almost exclusively online at 2x speed, and only getting "pass" in all my classes. I had some episodes of depression and found it very hard to get motivated. I failed biochem, almost failed anatomy and neuroscience, was in danger of dropping out of med school during first year, and was forced to go to academic counseling. But when it came time to study for the boards, I took 10 weeks total to study: 4 weeks of books, then 6 weeks of practice questions straight.

Books:
First Aid 2009
FA Q&A for the USMLE Step 1
HY Behavioral Science
RR Biochemistry
RR Microbiology and Immunology
HY Neuroanatomy
RR Pathology (Goljan)
BRS Physiology

Question Banks (chronological order):
USMLERx (71%, estimated 238)
USMLEWorld (67%, estimated 242)
UWSA 1 253
UWSA 2 247
NBME 3 236
NBME 5 255
NBME 6 244

Real Thing (score received 8/5/09):
251/99

Lessons learned:
-Give yourself adequate time to study specifically for the step 1. It's a very large volume of info to comprehend; don't sell yourself short by rushing through it
-Become comfortable with the uncertainty of educated guessing during practice tests - eliminate unlikely choices, make a decision, and move on to keep pace. There's almost no way you can memorize everything they might throw at you, but you can often deduce your way to the right answer.
-Don't worry if your first two years of med school were poor. I agree that a solid effort for those years will probably help your score. But it's not over until it's over; don't limit yourself.

I am now in my clinical rotations, enjoying myself, and doing a lot better overall.

Good luck to all who are studying!

 

[mTOR]

That is just not necessary.

 

[Elixir86]

Real Thing (score received 8/5/09):
251/99

Wow, that's really awesome! Congrats! Did you have 10 weeks of uninterrupted studying or were you still in class during part of that time?

 

[xd2005]

Before I graduate from this forum I'd like to thank everyone for their help and encouragement! Here are the nuts and bolts of my experience.

Prep:
7 weeks (Really about 6 due to distractions and slight bit of burnout)
Resources:
RR Path
Goljan Audio
FA
BRS Path, Physio, Pharm (for reference only)

Practice
UWorld 64% cumulative/timed/random (100% complete)
Kaplan QBank 71% (83% Complete)
UWSA 1 (5 wks out): 232
UWSA 2 (3 wks out): 242
NBME 5 (2 wks out): 240
NBME 6 (1 wk out): 240

Test Day 7/14
Process was very smooth as there was prolly only one other step taker so there sign in/out happened quickly. Exam was weird in that there were so many questions that I thought were too straightforward and seemed too good to be true, some ones that I would say were easier than the free 144, so I walked out of the test really confused on whether I made some really easy mistakes or not, since I had a good 10 minutes left to go over my questions at the end of each block. There were of course the hard wtf ones, and a handful of ones that I should have known, (eg. BRCA1 vs BRCA2). I was relieved that it really didn't take as much mental stress as I had anticipated before the test.

Breaks: ~10min after block 2, ~30 min lunch after block 4 (really should not have done another 2 in a row here, midway into block 4 i had to take a breather and regroup (during block time) and up to this point thought it was very very doable. Took 5 after block 5, another 5 after block 6. Finished at about 345pm

Score Report 8/5: 251/99. Of course a great pleasant surprise!

 

[Instatewaiter]

Hi Im taking my STEP 1 on Sept 16th did all my study and want to answer a lot of questions during this time. I have tought on purchasing:
- UW Q BANK for 30 days + 2 assesment exams

and on doing the questions on a KAPLAN QBANK book that I've already bought.

What other practice test can I take, and when to take it? (NBME for example? etc...) Any tips for this last 6 weeks?

What's the minimum 3 digit score to pass? 182 or 200? and 2 digit? 75?

THANKS

Get UW. It is worth it. For self assessments buy the NBME practice exams (they are $45). These are more accurate. There are also 150 questons from the NBME that are free (referred to as the free 150). These have very good predictive value.


Passing score is 186 which correlates to a 75 on 2 digit score. The 2 digit score is NOT a percentile.

Free 150: http://www.usmle.org/Orientation/2008/menu.html