Official 2011 USMLE Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[ProtossCarrier]

Hello everyone. I am a second year who will write the exam in June 2011. Meanwhile let this be a good thread where everyone share their study progress and recent trend of the exam.

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[HotLikeSauce]

So I got a LOT out of this forum when preparing myself, and I figured I would add in my advice:

Real thing (6/27): 258/99
UWSA 1 (5 weeks out): 247
UWSA 2 (4 weeks out): 260
NBME 5, 6 (3 weeks out): 249, 252
Practice at Prometric: 89% (I think this was a 257 or a 262, I can't remember)
NBME 11 (2 weeks out): 252
NBME 7, 12 (1 week out): 257, 245

I did UW 1x and then went over all my incorrects and marked ones. My UW % was about 74% timed, 46 q per block. I also did about 85% of Kaplan and was probably at the same %. With each question I missed or guessed lucky on or whatever, I would go to that page in FA and re-read that section and annotate in a line about whatever point I had missed, and I think this was one of the best things I could have ever done. I ended up getting my FA unbound and 3 hole punched and put it in a binder. I'd just get a sheet of notebook paper then and jot down whatever notes I felt like I needed to. My friends thought this was crazy, but it paid off I think, because I really didn't need to go back and redo a lot of questions because as I'd read over FA, I'd see the one-liner I had written and remember it immediately.

I probably read FA 5-6 times and did this almost exclusively the week before my test (I am a fast reader and got through it 2x in 1 week). Overall, I am happy I did this.

Other books I used in addition were: RR path (great, would def use again), Goljan audio, then HY behavioral sci, HY gross anatomy, HY cell bio, BRS physio, HY embryo, CMMRS, and HY immuno. I also had the Kaplan books and videos, of which I used biology (GREAT book and GREAT vids, because I was horrendous in biochem before), physio, immuno (pretty good I thought, but I also never really learned immuno the first time around), and GA/embryo.

To be honest, and I know others will disagree with me, I think a large part of my success was using a lot of different resources. You have to be careful, as you can easily overextend yourself, but I would read other books, figure out where FA was lacking, then photocopy pages from that and hole punch them into my FA. I know, I know. This sounds crazy. And it probably is. But it's really my honest opinion that what separates those who make 235-240 and below and those who really kill it (>250) is being able to make up points that everyone else who is JUST using FA will miss. FA is a great book, but it is definitely not totally comprehensive. Each of the HY books are not that long and can probably be skimmed in an afternoon (4 hrs or so), and I think it was well worth it.

Overall, I am really happy with my score, but what came to bite me in the butt was the fact that I didn't study nearly as hard first year as I did 2nd year, and I ended up having to spend a lot of time learning stuff from first year. I'd hope that not many first years are reading this, but if you ARE, then please don't blow off first year, especially if you go to a P/F school like mine.

I worked my butt off for 6 weeks, and I'm proud of how things turned out. If I had to give any pieces of advice it would be:
-DEFINITELY do some sort of "practice run" before your test. Once a week for 2 weeks before my test, I did 2 NBMEs back to back to simulate what it would be like. This is intense, but on the real test day, fatigue was not an issue at all for me, and I think it's probably because I was so used to having done 8 blocks in one day lol. It sucks, but it is worth it. You already have enough things to worry about that day. This is one thing that you can control/plan for, and it's a great way to create fewer issues for yourself
-START EARLY if you can. I think part of the reason that I was able to do well is not bc I'm some genius but because I started doing a little bit at least each weekend for about 2 months before my dedicated study time. I think the Kaplan videos were great, for example, but I would have never had the time to get around to them if I hadn't done them before my 6 weeks. To be honest, they were worth it and really helped, but probably not something that I would have had the foresight to prioritize once my study period started and I had qbanks to do
-Make your weaknesses your strengths!! I know this sounds stupid, but it's true. I firmly believe that regardless of what your test is like, you will always feel like you got a [blank] heavy test if you have one subject that you are really weak on. For me, that was anatomy. I went from doing truly horribly on anatomy questions to it being one of my highest scores (based on my score report). It did take some time, but because I had been organized and started reviewing things earlier, I wasn't in so much of a time crunch, and I had some days where I could spend on it. You will always feel like you got slaughtered by your weak subject. Really try to attack it, because those can turn into easy points with just a little more work.
-Do NOT try to play the score game too much. I did this, and it almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown lol. I want to go into a competitive field, so I was really aiming for >240 or >245 going into this. Sometimes I would become obsessive about trying to figure out what my score estimate would be. I nearly had one major meltdown after taking NBME 12 and going down about 10 points from where I was performing, even though I knew 12 was tough and had underestimated scores, etc.. You don't want to be TOO lax about it and not know if you are really in a situation where you should push back your test, for example, but TRY not to freak out about numbers. You will either feel like crap and really kill your confidence OR, if you have great practice scores, you can get cocky and mess yourself up.
-I know everyone here rags on Kaplan, but I would seriously do as many questions as you can and would go back and do Kaplan again in a heartbeat. Between all the practice tests and qbanks I had done, I had done over 5,000 questions. Yes, that is a lot, and it sucked while I was doing it. However, save for some experimental Q or totally oddball ones that you would guess on anyway, there are only so many ways you can ask a question about a topic, and it is in your best interest to try to see as many of those as you can. Leaving my test, I felt like there was really nothing I hadn't seen before. I honestly couldn't even pick out a single "experimental" question, and I really believe this is because I had simply seen SO much. I didn't necessarily walk out feeling like "Oh, I'm gonna get a 280!" (LOL), but I had a fairly ok feeling about it. Maybe it was just my form, but still...
-Don't be afraid to change your schedule, abandon your schedule, or turn things around. If you realize that what you're doing just really ISN'T working, don't stick to that plan and waste time! I made a "schedule" at the beginning, and I totally abandoned it. It was totally unrealistic, and even though I felt guilty about that, I'm glad that I didn't try to stick to it, because it just would not have worked for me.

I hope this helps some people out there. Overall, just work hard, try to keep a positive attitude, and don't be afraid to come on here and ask for advice. Don't talk to people that will stress you out. Boards studying sucks--no doubt about it--but now that it's all over, I'm SO happy I worked my butt off. It makes things a lot less horrible 3rd year if you aren't trying to impress people AND make up for a less-than-stellar board score. Some of my classmates didn't take it as seriously as they should have, and they're now paying the price for it unfortunately. You will only do this once (hopefully!), so keep your chin up and just keep chugging. I PROMISE all your hard work will be worth it in the end and you'll be glad you put in this much effort.

 

[neuromaniac]

Ok so here is my advice for step: My usmle score was 269/99. Main advice is DO MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF QUESTIONS!! Not once did I read/study goljan rapid review, goljan audio or BRS physiology. I spent the vast majority of my time doing questions. I know its hard to tell on forums which people are just geniuses but let me tell you I am NOT one of those people. In terms of intrinsic IQ/memorization skills I am very average for a medical student. I have to study much harder to get the same grades as those “genius” people in my med school class.'​

Refer to my previous posts for what I was scoring on NBME's, uworld percentage etc. ​

More Hx-I have had about a year of clinical experience before taking the step.Yes it helped a little bit. When I first started clinics I studied my ass off
but still performed very average on shelf exams (70’s range). But my last clinic (medicine) I switched to a new system where I only did questions to study and I did NO reading whatsoever-only questions. My shelf score for medicine=99. So, I continued this method for step and as you can see it paid off immensely.

No only do questions, but whenever you miss a question or learn something from a question write it down on a separate sheet of paper. This is SO important and valuable and high yield-because later on you can read over these notes (write maybe a sentence max for each question short notes-they add up quickly) and remember what you learned from a question a month or two ago.


Now yes you should still go through first aid because this is the most high yield of any source. But go through it fast-limit yourself to ONE WEEK going through first aid. No you are not going to learn even 50% of it in that week but you will learn a little bit and reinforce and learn more by doing questions. I used goljan/brs only to look up things I was unsure about from questions I did-I repeat-use these only as a reference! Question banks (except for uworld) are notorious for having errors so if you aren’t sure about something yes look it up in goljan/first aid/brs or Wikipedia (my personal favorite).
After the first week of going through first aid my advice is the following: do 200 questions a day. This is very doable and you will still have time to write
short notes for the questions you do. I would do the following question banks in this order


1st: UsmleRx-an easier question bank, has some errors but relatively fewish compared to other qbanks. In the explanation for the question it has the first aid page image to view. Good for learning more from first aid


2nd: Kaplan. Also fewish errors compared to other banks. Questions more picky but overall a good qbank.


3rd: robbins rapid review qbank. Would recommend purchasing online subscription so you can go back and do the questions you missed. DON’T purchase subscription to usmleconsult. This qbank is SO INCREDIBLY ERROR FILLED. I started doing this qbank and got frustrated after 1 day because of the incorrect questions and massive amounts of errors. I don’t care that goljan approved it, he has obviously never done a single question from this bank. It is a horrible question bank I repeat don’t waste your money. If anything your score will decrease by doing these questions because the answers are incorrect and the explanations are WRONG.


4th: Uworld. Do this one last so it is fresh. MARK the questions you got right but only because you guessed or weren’t really sure about the answer. Go back and do these in addition to the ones you missed.


While doing qbanks do ALL of the nbme’s, the free 150 as well as the two uworld assessments. In the beginning I did these tests every two weeks. Towards the end I did a couple of week including two full length test simulations


Ok that is my advice. Not saying this will work for everyone, but for me as a student who has a hard time memorizing information this is finally the system that worked for me. As you can tell I’m not one of those superstars that has always done amazing on shelf exams etc that test knowledge. (if anyone wants to know my MCAT score was 34). After doing average on shelf exams I took a risk and changed the way I study and it has paid off. Please let me know if you have any questions about this method-but I think many people would benefit from studying this way.


Seriously almost every question I had on my actual exam I felt like I had encountered a question testing similar concepts before. I had very few WTF questions but had I not done so many questions I would have had many many more WTF questions. A theme I saw on usmle forums is people who
were scoring around 270ish all did at least 3 or 4 question banks-not just
uworld.


Good luck to everyone!

when did you start the qbanks?

 

[BlondDoctor]

First I couldn't stop thinking about the exam because I was studying for the stupid exam, now that I have taken it I still can't stop thinking about it! I swear I'm just going to drive myself nuts.
I keep going over all the mistakes I made in my head, totally forgotten what I answered on some of these mistakes, which adds another fun dimension. I have completely convinced myself that this was an extremely easy form (not for me mind you) and that I bombed it.

 

[impersonator]

I promised myself that if I did well, I would post here. Long-time lurker.

Couple of tips.
1. Remember: this test is a marathon, not a race. The goal of your studying should be to orchestrate it in such a way that you memorize as much as you can for test day. If you forget tons of stuff the day after the test, you succeeded. I forgot tons of things studied the first couple weeks until I went through First Aid again, and again. It is a marathon, not a race!
2. There is no need to study 1st year stuff (biochem, anatomy, etc) during 2nd year, except physio since that can help with pathophys. You will simply forget all the things you relearned by the time you start your dedicated studying (and will spend time again relearning it). Focus on understanding 2nd year content, so by the time you hit up First Aid, you will not need to look up basic concepts in another book.
3. Do not use too many resources! There is a reason 95% of the people on this board recommend FA + UWorld + (maybe) Goljan book/audio. This is because 95% of the people learned enough during 2nd year to prepare them for the rote memorization of dedicated studying time (which First Aid and UWorld have plenty of).
4. Do not do questions with First Aid in front of you! There is no point in testing how well you can look up things in First Aid. I incorrectly felt justified when I did this with USMLERx, since "I can memorize it later," but this is simply a waste of time. I will say that I got really good at doing questions, but it did not help me learn the material. All in all, I did about 7500 questions from various sources. That's a high number to hit, but it helps!
5. Take a vacation after the exam! This was something I kept looking forward to during my studying, and my month off recharged my batteries well enough for the grind of rotations now.
6. For scheduling, do the three P's first (Physiology, Pathology, Pharm) because these are the most important and most challenging (50% of the test). Do the hardest subjects first when you are not exhausted, because you will hit the wall later. I believe I was very motivated during my 7 weeks of studying, because I promised myself I will never study this hard again in my life. I still hit the wall here and there. Leave the last two weeks or so to cover First Aid again (and hopefully a third time in maybe 2-3 days).
7. Buy the Kaplan qBank BOOK. This book has 850 questions that are also found online. The book is cheap (like $40), and you don't have to worry about your time expiring. I got really frustrated about the nit-picky questions, but it helped solidify the stuff I just learned in First Aid. The USMLERx book is also good for the same reason, but these questions were a regurgitation of First Aid.
8. Everyone has learned how they study best during med school. For me, I studied best away from home. I found a city library close by that had individual rooms where I could crank out 6-8 hours, taking only 5 min breaks. This helped me go through First Aid, which I found really hard to concentrate on. Questions were much easier for me to complete and review, so I tended to do these at home.
9. Exercise. Exercise. Exercise! Find what relieves the stress (as there is plenty of stress), and exercising REALLY helps relieve the stress. If I didn't run or play soccer for more than 2 days, the stress really got to me. I was in the best shape of my life during studying, seriously!!!
10. Day before the test: I finished studying at noon, and spent the rest of the day with my girlfriend (biking, eating dinner, watching a movie). I completely forgot about the exam during this time and relaxed, which was simply amazing. But I am a pretty chill guy compared to my peers, so YMMV.
11. Test day: I got a 30 minute jog and hot tub time in the morning before getting ready. I felt this really relaxed me. Maybe it relaxed me too much, because I had some trouble concentrating on the first block (which I found to be the hardest for me). But my stamina was really good through the day (maybe due to the running and hot tub), munching on some snacks and drinking some gatorade between blocks. I was used to 7 blocks in one day, because I had two opportunities to practice that many blocks in one day during my preparation. A lot of people take 2-3 blocks at a time, but I think this is wrong. You need to rest your mind every hour and reduce the anxiety, and I had more than 15 minutes extra of break time at the end. Don't eat a big lunch! Your mind will shut down for the next couple blocks afterward. It is a marathon, not a race!
12. You will wake up one morning with a question on your mind that you had during the exam. I had trouble sleeping past 8AM after the test. This sucked, but keep your mind off the exam! Do some fun stuff, like going to an amusement park, going on vacation, stealing some cars, breaking into a bank, cheating on your gf, etc. It will definitely keep your mind off the exam.


Pre-studying school administered exam: 195 (this was the most pointless test, because it is a really old test. It simply tested rote-memorization rather than connecting concepts together, which is the beauty of the boards today. So take it with grains and grains of salt!)


4/25 - UWSA1 225 (Pretty excited since my initial goal was a 230+. I still got half the questions wrong, so I felt like an idiot)


5/2 - NBME7 235 (Pumped. Improved, and got lots of questions right. Lots of people say NBME7 is close to the real exam)


5/9 - UWSA2 230 (Boo. Still getting lots of questions wrong)


5/16 - NBME12 247 (Woah. I was completely shocked, and I did not believe this score. I adjusted my goal score to be 240+ and my dream score to be 250)


5/23 - NBME11 238 (This was a downer. I did this test 1.5 weeks before the test, so that I had time to improve, but yet did not want to freak myself out from a bad score. I'm going to tell you, getting this score was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was super dedicated to improving the score and studied like I never studied before, like 12-14 hours a day. Also, I got 87% correct!! WTF?).


6/4 - Real Thing 248


As for the subjects on the test, it covers everything and everyone will get a different test. Of course I had questions from left field (partial pressure of nitrogen anyone?), but you have to just answer it and move on. Save the time for questions that you really need to think about.

Recap:
1. UWorld + First Aid + maybe Goljan = success (no other resources needed)
2. You will be plenty motivated to study, but you will be super stressed. Find ways to relieve stress every other day (exercise!!)
3. Take NBMEs and UW-SAs, but at least a week between each. Take the last one 10-15 days before the real test to give you time to really improve.
4. Study the hardest subjects first (3 P's) while you have energy and not burned out.
5. Set a date to start stressing about the exam (for me was 4 months before), and start preparing then.

 

[PinguPinktu]

First I couldn't stop thinking about the exam because I was studying for the stupid exam, now that I have taken it I still can't stop thinking about it! I swear I'm just going to drive myself nuts.
I keep going over all the mistakes I made in my head, totally forgotten what I answered on some of these mistakes, which adds another fun dimension. I have completely convinced myself that this was an extremely easy form (not for me mind you) and that I bombed it.

I concur.... I am on the same boat with ya. Stupid mistakes coupled with not remembering exactly how some others go = recipe for sleepless nights and sudden thought halt in the middle of the day!

 

[indsha008]

I promised myself that if I did well, I would post here. Long-time lurker.

Couple of tips.
1. Remember: this test is a marathon, not a race. The goal of your studying should be to orchestrate it in such a way that you memorize as much as you can for test day. If you forget tons of stuff the day after the test, you succeeded. I forgot tons of things studied the first couple weeks until I went through First Aid again, and again. It is a marathon, not a race!
2. There is no need to study 1st year stuff (biochem, anatomy, etc) during 2nd year, except physio since that can help with pathophys. You will simply forget all the things you relearned by the time you start your dedicated studying (and will spend time again relearning it). Focus on understanding 2nd year content, so by the time you hit up First Aid, you will not need to look up basic concepts in another book.
3. Do not use too many resources! There is a reason 95% of the people on this board recommend FA + UWorld + (maybe) Goljan book/audio. This is because 95% of the people learned enough during 2nd year to prepare them for the rote memorization of dedicated studying time (which First Aid and UWorld have plenty of).
4. Do not do questions with First Aid in front of you! There is no point in testing how well you can look up things in First Aid. I incorrectly felt justified when I did this with USMLERx, since "I can memorize it later," but this is simply a waste of time. I will say that I got really good at doing questions, but it did not help me learn the material. All in all, I did about 7500 questions from various sources. That's a high number to hit, but it helps!
5. Take a vacation after the exam! This was something I kept looking forward to during my studying, and my month off recharged my batteries well enough for the grind of rotations now.
6. For scheduling, do the three P's first (Physiology, Pathology, Pharm) because these are the most important and most challenging (50% of the test). Do the hardest subjects first when you are not exhausted, because you will hit the wall later. I believe I was very motivated during my 7 weeks of studying, because I promised myself I will never study this hard again in my life. I still hit the wall here and there. Leave the last two weeks or so to cover First Aid again (and hopefully a third time in maybe 2-3 days).
7. Buy the Kaplan qBank BOOK. This book has 850 questions that are also found online. The book is cheap (like $40), and you don't have to worry about your time expiring. I got really frustrated about the nit-picky questions, but it helped solidify the stuff I just learned in First Aid. The USMLERx book is also good for the same reason, but these questions were a regurgitation of First Aid.
8. Everyone has learned how they study best during med school. For me, I studied best away from home. I found a city library close by that had individual rooms where I could crank out 6-8 hours, taking only 5 min breaks. This helped me go through First Aid, which I found really hard to concentrate on. Questions were much easier for me to complete and review, so I tended to do these at home.
9. Exercise. Exercise. Exercise! Find what relieves the stress (as there is plenty of stress), and exercising REALLY helps relieve the stress. If I didn't run or play soccer for more than 2 days, the stress really got to me. I was in the best shape of my life during studying, seriously!!!
10. Day before the test: I finished studying at noon, and spent the rest of the day with my girlfriend (biking, eating dinner, watching a movie). I completely forgot about the exam during this time and relaxed, which was simply amazing. But I am a pretty chill guy compared to my peers, so YMMV.
11. Test day: I got a 30 minute jog and hot tub time in the morning before getting ready. I felt this really relaxed me. Maybe it relaxed me too much, because I had some trouble concentrating on the first block (which I found to be the hardest for me). But my stamina was really good through the day (maybe due to the running and hot tub), munching on some snacks and drinking some gatorade between blocks. I was used to 7 blocks in one day, because I had two opportunities to practice that many blocks in one day during my preparation. A lot of people take 2-3 blocks at a time, but I think this is wrong. You need to rest your mind every hour and reduce the anxiety, and I had more than 15 minutes extra of break time at the end. Don't eat a big lunch! Your mind will shut down for the next couple blocks afterward. It is a marathon, not a race!
12. You will wake up one morning with a question on your mind that you had during the exam. I had trouble sleeping past 8AM after the test. This sucked, but keep your mind off the exam! Do some fun stuff, like going to an amusement park, going on vacation, stealing some cars, breaking into a bank, cheating on your gf, etc. It will definitely keep your mind off the exam.


Pre-studying school administered exam: 195 (this was the most pointless test, because it is a really old test. It simply tested rote-memorization rather than connecting concepts together, which is the beauty of the boards today. So take it with grains and grains of salt!)


4/25 - UWSA1 225 (Pretty excited since my initial goal was a 230+. I still got half the questions wrong, so I felt like an idiot)


5/2 - NBME7 235 (Pumped. Improved, and got lots of questions right. Lots of people say NBME7 is close to the real exam)


5/9 - UWSA2 230 (Boo. Still getting lots of questions wrong)


5/16 - NBME12 247 (Woah. I was completely shocked, and I did not believe this score. I adjusted my goal score to be 240+ and my dream score to be 250)


5/23 - NBME11 238 (This was a downer. I did this test 1.5 weeks before the test, so that I had time to improve, but yet did not want to freak myself out from a bad score. I'm going to tell you, getting this score was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was super dedicated to improving the score and studied like I never studied before, like 12-14 hours a day. Also, I got 87% correct!! WTF?).


6/4 - Real Thing 252 (Jaw dropping. I was in an interview with a patient at the time I got my score haha. I truly believe that walking into the test with as little stress as possible will help. Go on a run and hit the hot tub that morning. I started a little slow, but I was so stress-free I could not believe I was flying through the test. I kept thinking I was going to get a bad score like everyone else thinks, because I felt so care-free during the day, like I was doing something way wrong. You will think you failed, whether you did bad or good, guaranteed!)


As for the subjects on the test, it covers everything and everyone will get a different test. Of course I had questions from left field (partial pressure of nitrogen anyone?), but you have to just answer it and move on. Save the time for questions that you really need to think about.

Recap:
1. UWorld + First Aid + maybe Goljan = success (no other resources needed)
2. You will be plenty motivated to study, but you will be super stressed. Find ways to relieve stress every other day (exercise!!)
3. Take NBMEs and UW-SAs, but at least a week between each. Take the last one 10-15 days before the real test to give you time to really improve.
4. Study the hardest subjects first (3 P's) while you have energy and not burned out.
5. Set a date to start stressing about the exam (for me was 4 months before), and start preparing then.

Thanks for sharing and congrats. One quick question.. Did you review only incorrect questions of UWorld or the whole thing?

 

[the_samrat]

IMG - just received my score today 222/95. hopefully can get some kind of IM or FM residency.

 

[ThereHeIs]

Canadian that went to SGU (Grenada) .. 248/99!!!

 

[thierryhenry]

SGU representin'
what it isssssssss

 

[ThereHeIs]

SGU representin'
what it isssssssss

 

[ravgot]

been lurking around for sometime now.

Scores mid-230's on NBMEs 7,11,12. Got my score back today.

low 230s/99. a little bit disappointed but thats what it is. hopefully enough for IM or FM.

An FMG btw

 

[AhoyMateys]

DO student here, got a 240/99. I was hoping for anything above a 230, so I'm happy.

Used First Aid, Goljan, and UWorld.

If I were to do it all over again, I would've skipped class a lot more and started studying about a month earlier (I have a terrible memory and 1.5 months of dedicated study time didn't feel like enough time to relearn all the stuff I'd forgotten plus learn all the stuff I never learned in the first place...).

Hope the rest of you got the scores you wanted!

 

[dangit]

when were ya'll test date?

 

[littlefred]

I took it on July 9 and the results got back today, also July 11th testers got their score today.

 

[mrcmedman]

Just wrote it yesterday. I found it very challenging to say the least. I felt it was much harder than Uworld and the NBME's that I wrote (6 & 7). And the question stems were just sooo long. It seemed like there were like 5 questions per block that were your typical 3 liners, and then the rest of the questions were like a paragraph. I was left with like 8 minutes only to come back and re-check answers and do unanswered questions during most of the blocks. Very few questions seemed like they were straight forward. I know for sure that I got 23 questions wrong - a couple of which were because of stupid overthinking but most of which were just plain hard or out of left field.....So, I'm not really sure how I did to tell you the truth.....

And there seemed to be quite a bit of anatomy that's for sure (and I'm not talking about basic the upper and lower limb anatomy covered by First Aid)..... I felt to be prepared for that, one needed to review their entire BRS or Hight Yield anatomy books. Do you guys know by any chance how many anatomy questions are typically the norm?

There was very little Psych, biochem, and maybe just a tad bit more embryo. Though there was a decent amount of neuroanatomy and micro. Everything else (pharm, path, physio) seemed to be in the usual proportions.

 

[drosteopath]

I benefited a lot from this thread and decided to post my experience after the test.
I am a DO student.

USMLE step 1 = 274/99

I am an international student and rely heavily on private loans. I am very broke so I could not afford any Q Banks or any review materials except some free kaplan books my school gave to me and a 2008 copy of the first AID. I relied mostly on text books from my school library. It was very tough using these text books. I put in a lot of work, realising that i was at a disadvantage. The Kaplan books combined with FA worked miracles for me. I also used a internal medicine book used by students preparing for the step 2 that helped me a lot as far as diagnosis and treatment goes.

my advice is this,
1. know your intracellular signaling pathways.
2. immunology
3 molecular biology.
4. pathology.

These accounted for 94% of all my questions.

 

[indsha008]

I benefited a lot from this thread and decided to post my experience after the test.
I am a DO student.

USMLE step 1 = 274/99

I am an international student and rely heavily on private loans. I am very broke so I could not afford any Q Banks or any review materials except some free kaplan books my school gave to me and a 2008 copy of the first AID. I relied mostly on text books from my school library. It was very tough using these text books. I put in a lot of work, realising that i was at a disadvantage. The Kaplan books combined with FA worked miracles for me. I also used a internal medicine book used by students preparing for the step 2 that helped me a lot as far as diagnosis and treatment goes.

my advice is this,
1. know your intracellular signaling pathways.
2. immunology
3 molecular biology.
4. pathology.

These accounted for 94% of all my questions.

Seems fake.

 

[235009]

Seems fake.

definitely ...unless this person was already a practicing physician in his home country...but even then it's still unbelievable

 

[sylvanthus]

International DO student, thats a first.

 

[randommember]

I'm a Canadian student studying @ SGU.

Took my test July 14th, got my score back pretty much exactly 3 weeks later.

My score was pretty much around where my predicted score said I would get.

USWA ~250, NBME assessment all around that as well. Got a final score of 256/99

I studied pretty hard for 8 weeks, but I tend to procrastinate, so with various days off I given myself, it was really more like 6 weeks. I used UWorld and Kaplan Q bank. I would do 46 to 92 questions a day for the entire 6 weeks, depending on my mood. I actually signed up for the qbanks quite early, and started to do like 10 questions a day during my last semester, just to get used to the format of the questions.

Other sources used: FA, of course. Doctors In Training, and RR path for references.

Test day was pretty good. The format is exactly as uworld. Difficulty...was varying. I thought most of my blocks were pretty straight forward, except for a couple after my lunch break, which I felt was a bit shaky. Missed a few gimmes too, eck.

That's about it for my experiences! I think the most important advice I might have, is to read about other people's experiences, but plan a study schedule around your own habits.

 

[drosteopath]

DO student here, got a 240/99. I was hoping for anything above a 230, so I'm happy.

Used First Aid, Goljan, and UWorld.

If I were to do it all over again, I would've skipped class a lot more and started studying about a month earlier (I have a terrible memory and 1.5 months of dedicated study time didn't feel like enough time to relearn all the stuff I'd forgotten plus learn all the stuff I never learned in the first place...).

Hope the rest of you got the scores you wanted!

Good Job!!!

 

[drosteopath]

definitely ...unless this person was already a practicing physician in his home country...but even then it's still unbelievable

Sorry guys, I dont think you got my point. I am an international student currently enrolled @ Des Moines university, a DO school in the US.

 

[235009]

Sorry guys, I dont think you got my point. I am an international student currently enrolled @ Des Moines university, a DO school in the US.

FA 2008 + 0 QBank questions -> 274

doesn't make sense at all

 

[richse]

Sorry guys, I dont think you got my point. I am an international student currently enrolled @ Des Moines university, a DO school in the US.

Are there a lot of bridges in Des Moines for you to live under?

 

[NdFrSpd]

Kind of sad..why is there so much hostility towards this DO student anyways? Perhaps he did get the score he did and he clearly seems to have put in a lot of extra effort to obtain relevant tested information. Its not unfathomable to learn the basics principles of medicine and understand them inside out and be able to figure out whats being tested in a question even if you haven't had access to q-banks or 2011 FA. Granted it makes it a lot easier but its not impossible. If this person really did do it then they deserve credit for putting in all the legwork themselves. With that said, I just recently took my step and I can see that FA was helpful, but I can also fully see how I could have studied independently of FA using it simply as a guideline and do all the legwork myself and make all the connections myself. I could have pulled off an equal performance.

...end rant/

just because you feel something is hard doesn't mean its not possible by someone else. Don't be so quick to judge and dismiss people. Besides, what difference does it make that some guy has that high score?

 

[chiz2kul]

Kind of sad..why is there so much hostility towards this DO student anyways? Perhaps he did get the score he did and he clearly seems to have put in a lot of extra effort to obtain relevant tested information. Its not unfathomable to learn the basics principles of medicine and understand them inside out and be able to figure out whats being tested in a question even if you haven't had access to q-banks or 2011 FA. Granted it makes it a lot easier but its not impossible. If this person really did do it then they deserve credit for putting in all the legwork themselves. With that said, I just recently took my step and I can see that FA was helpful, but I can also fully see how I could have studied independently of FA using it simply as a guideline and do all the legwork myself and make all the connections myself. I could have pulled off an equal performance.

...end rant/

just because you feel something is hard doesn't mean its not possible by someone else. Don't be so quick to judge and dismiss people. Besides, what difference does it make that some guy has that high score?

thank you.

 

[Syncity]

Kind of sad..why is there so much hostility towards this DO student anyways? Perhaps he did get the score he did and he clearly seems to have put in a lot of extra effort to obtain relevant tested information. Its not unfathomable to learn the basics principles of medicine and understand them inside out and be able to figure out whats being tested in a question even if you haven't had access to q-banks or 2011 FA. Granted it makes it a lot easier but its not impossible. If this person really did do it then they deserve credit for putting in all the legwork themselves. With that said, I just recently took my step and I can see that FA was helpful, but I can also fully see how I could have studied independently of FA using it simply as a guideline and do all the legwork myself and make all the connections myself. I could have pulled off an equal performance.

...end rant/

just because you feel something is hard doesn't mean its not possible by someone else. Don't be so quick to judge and dismiss people. Besides, what difference does it make that some guy has that high score?

Oh please.

I heard he also walked out of the exam after 6 blocks. And still got 274..... And then a bomb exploded. The noise bothered him very much so he sat down at a local cafe and drank a cup of green tea. Three weeks later he got his score - delivered to him by a phone call from Hugh Laurie who confirmed that, if the fictitious character Dr House had sat the exam, he wouldn't not have scored anywhere close to a 274.

 

[mrcmedman]

I really did. Was gonna write up my prep and yada yada post my exam, but felt that there was no one wld want to listen to how a loser prepped haha. Or maybe they wld - to know how NOT to prep?
I really did feel like I failed. 8 brutal hours. Was pretty much depressed that night. Looked up some questions (which I NEVER do) after the exam - and I had missed some gimmes. Even more depressed.
My test was HARD. Def harder than uworld or the practice nbme's. Much much harder. I felt like I could have spent another 2+ wks on FA/Uworld and still wouldn't be enough prep. Yea, it was that bad. Soo depressing.
I was like 'the hell', 'what in the world', 'how am i supposed to know that', 'no way' etc etc throughout my ENTIRE test. lol during uworld practice, I usually marked like 10 or so...but always had at least 10-15 mins to go over each section. The real deal? Marked at least 20-30 (no joke), skipped at least 5-6 per section, and had just <5 mins to go over stuff at the end. So basically, I had zero time to go over my answers...something that I always did in med school. SUCKED. Stems were LONG, confusing (random hint - I dont even bother looking at all the lab values, 70% of them were useless detractors) and tiring. And the cute prometric chic that was hitting on me kept on coming into the room - extra distraction. Argh!

Anyways..
My uworld average was somewhere in the late 60's/early 70's. I cant say exactly cos I kept changing my wrong answers to the right ones when I started doing my prep lol I didnt want to see those depressing 40%. So I actually dropped from 90's at the beginning (LOL) to 60/70's when I decided I knew enough to not feel bad about my score.

Anyways, i'm pretty much an average (+/-) student in class - struggled to make the mean in 1st year exams...things got a bit better 2nd year and honored 3 or so classes, nothing really spectacular.

Boards prep - Total of 6-7 wks prep - about 8 hours a day (on a good day really)...I don't know how all ya'll do 12 hour days. Guess that why you guys all score in the 260's?
Used primarily FA (went over it 2ce) and uworld (1ce)...and wiki. Had an extra neuro resource here and barely touched brs path (but was a bit handy). Thats about it. Prayed a LOT before and after my exam lol definitely needed that and I believe it played a HUGE part in me passing.

I'm beginning to wonder though - is it better to get a harder test? Cos I mean, almost everyone is gonna bomb the harder test, so the curve is a bit better? Cos I promise you - I felt like I failed the thing. Was ridic hard. Maybe all my sections were experimental? No joke. I just wanted to pass at the end - got really really sad during my last block...
So yea - easier test = harder curve? idk..

Anyways, I scored in the mid 230's. Good enough for me really as I'm not going for anything super competitive and I really really did think I failed it...or at best didnt reach the 200 cut off.

Advice - work hard 2nd year. Start board prep early (only if you can and if it doesnt interfere with you learning 2nd year stuff!). I planned on starting early, bout my uworld qbank in January, all pumped and ready to go.
Didnt happen haha. Started using it in May or so. I personally didnt start early cos it was just a bit too much for me to do with all the learning 2nd year, but if you can, more power to you...def wldn't hurt. At least at least try to read a couple pages of FA or something. Wldn't hurt one bit.
FA and Uworld is really all you need. If you know those COLD, and then brush up on your weak areas with other resources, you're good to go.
Lastly, do you. Be honest with yourself about your strengths/weaknesses, and don't compare yourself with ANYONE in med school. Just do you and be the BEST you can be. Thats good enough.

Good luck ya'll.

I kind of felt the same way about the level of difficulty. It was really challenging. The 20-25 anatomy questions that ended up on my test certainly didn't help either. I'm guessing that I only got half of those anatomy questions right. I was also hoping for more behavioral and psych but there was barely any. And the question stems were just soooo long.

Now after a couple of days, I'm wondering if I passed it. I've been pretty neurotic about it - I've been trying to remember questions and looking into the answers. And I've realized that I got a bunch probably wrong (29) with another 4 or so where I made what you can call "educated" guesses. I don't know if it's just my being able to remember only the questions that I struggled answering - that's making me feel like I tanked this thing.

 

[NdFrSpd]

Oh please.

I heard he also walked out of the exam after 6 blocks. And still got 274..... And then a bomb exploded. The noise bothered him very much so he sat down at a local cafe and drank a cup of green tea. Three weeks later he got his score - delivered to him by a phone call from Hugh Laurie who confirmed that, if the fictitious character Dr House had sat the exam, he wouldn't not have scored anywhere close to a 274.

i'm glad you can come up with more imaginary crazy situations to so perfectly prove your point...good job you win at the internet...i get we have to be skeptical of such ridiculously high scores especially with the anonymity of the internet, but don't assume its not possible to prepare for the step in the circumstances mentioned by the DO student and do as well as he claims.

 

[ArcGurren]

Oh please.

I heard he also walked out of the exam after 6 blocks. And still got 274..... And then a bomb exploded. The noise bothered him very much so he sat down at a local cafe and drank a cup of green tea. Three weeks later he got his score - delivered to him by a phone call from Hugh Laurie who confirmed that, if the fictitious character Dr House had sat the exam, he wouldn't not have scored anywhere close to a 274.

He's not the first person I know to have done well without any Qbanks whatsoever... just b/c he's a DO student does not make him less likely. I know someone who had a 244 baseline prior to taking the exam... didn't use first aid, studied entirely from Physio BRS, Robbins, CMMRS, and a few other review books, did no questions except for one NBME exam, and he ended up with a 270. Few people are as brilliant as this guy is so obviously it's not feasible for most people, but you get the point.

Great job drosteopath.

 

[Tig2575]

Why does it matter so much to you if he's lying or telling the truth? Just take what he says with a few grains of salt, if you're suspicious that he's full of it.

 

[235009]

Why does it matter so much to you if he's lying or telling the truth? Just take what he says with a few grains of salt, if you're suspicious that he's full of it.

don't want some dumb extremely cheap med student to see that post and think that he doesn't have to spend any money preparing for step 1 and that he can just pick an old copy of FA and some old kaplan books from a trash can, use harrison's online version and score a 274. not going to happen.

 

[Tig2575]

Oh, okay

 

[EZG]

Hey what are the NBME Practice tests that you took and where did you purchase them?

Thanks!

 

[EZG]

Hey what are the NBME Practice tests that you took and where did you purchase them?

Thanks!

 

[Tig2575]

Hey what are the NBME Practice tests that you took and where did you purchase them?

Thanks!

https://nsas.nbme.org/nsasweb/servlet/mesa_main

NBME practice tests are 4-block tests that predict the score you would have gotten had you taken Step 1 at the moment you took the test. They are quite well correlated with reality (most people's step 1 score is very close to the NBME score they get in the last week of studying), though there are some exceptions. There are multiple forms, forms 1-7, 11, and 12. 7 Has long been regarded as one of the best predictors of accuracy, and 11 and 12 are considered a bit harder than normal. Because forms 7, 11, and 12 are the most recent to be produced by the NBME, they correlate the best with your score (compared to form 1, which is like, from the early 90's)

 

[Aclamity]

don't want some dumb extremely cheap med student to see that post and think that he doesn't have to spend any money preparing for step 1 and that he can just pick an old copy of FA and some old kaplan books from a trash can, use harrison's online version and score a 274. not going to happen.

I would hope that any reasonable med student would realize that once you get to the 270 level it has nothing to do with what materials you studied and more to do with natural talent. That being said, if this guy is for real then he's a smart dude. If you all think he's trolling, then why you feeding him homies?

 

[Tig2575]

I would hope that any reasonable med student would realize that once you get to the 270 level it has nothing to do with what materials you studied and more to do with natural talent.

I highly disagree

 

[PinguPinktu]

Does this topic even deserve such lengthy exchanges? I meant good for him to get a 270+ and spend the time to share his experience. I hope this isn't another DO vs MD kind of sentiment in disguise.

 

[hrandani]

I would hope that any reasonable med student would realize that once you get to the 270 level it has nothing to do with what materials you studied and more to do with natural talent. That being said, if this guy is for real then he's a smart dude. If you all think he's trolling, then why you feeding him homies?

Natural talent? What are you...I don't even...

If you ask me, anything past 250, the biggest factor is what form you got. In other words, luck.

 

[Tig2575]

Natural talent? What are you...I don't even...

If you ask me, anything past 250, the biggest factor is what form you got. In other words, luck.

The NBME begs to diffir

Scores on tests with relatively difficult items are adjusted up and those achieved on relatively easy items are adjusted down. These adjustments ensure that the scores that are awarded are comparable regardless of the particular combination of items on any examinee's test form and ensures fairness for all test takers.

 

[WashMe]

Natural talent? What are you...I don't even...

If you ask me, anything past 250, the biggest factor is what form you got. In other words, luck.

I'd say that once you hit 250+, then +/- 5-10 points is luck. There is a real difference between a 250 and a 270 though IMO... and tig makes sure we all know it lol

The NBME begs to diffir

A guy who got a 270 should be smart enough to know that people find different subjects to be more difficult. If I'm great at topic "x" even though people score poorly on that topic on average, my score will be inflated and I was "lucky" I saw those questions. If I suck at a topic but most other people understand it well, I'll get screwed if I get a bunch of those questions because not only will I miss them, but I'll be scaled down since they are "easy" (even though I would have crushed a much more difficult set of questions on my best topic).

Ultimately, every person has relatively weaker and stronger areas, and it works out best for you if (a) you get a majority of questions in your strong areas, and (b) your strong areas correlate to others' weak areas, thus scaling up your score.

 

[Tig2575]

If I'm great at topic "x" even though people score poorly on that topic on average, my score will be inflated and I was "lucky" I saw those questions. If I suck at a topic but most other people understand it well, I'll get screwed if I get a bunch of those questions because not only will I miss them, but I'll be scaled down since they are "easy"

According to the link I posted, they do not curve based on a student's performance on individual questions - they only adjust the score based on the final result of your performance on the entire form. If two people take the exact same test, one gets 20 challenging questions wrong, and the other gets 20 easy questions wrong, they both get the exact same score. (Which may be the same score as someone who gets 25 questions wrong on a slightly harder test.)

 

[WashMe]

According to the link I posted, they do not curve based on a student's performance on individual questions - they only adjust the score based on the final result of your performance on the entire form. If two people take the exact same test, one gets 20 challenging questions wrong, and the other gets 20 easy questions wrong, they both get the exact same score. (Which may be the same score as someone who gets 25 questions wrong on a slightly harder test.)

missing the point. the recipe for success involves:
(1) being lucky enough to have a hard test, so you'll get scaled up. This necessarily implies that other students in the past have gotten the particular questions wrong, allowing for assignment of difficulty.
(2) being lucky enough to have a knowledge base covering the random information on your test, even if you know nothing else a out medicine.

here's an example... say we take a bunch of the hardest questions nbme has to offer and we put them on one test. whoever takes this test will thus have a crazy scaling factor. now, say we take a person who knows nothing about medicine and give them a specific 20 page outline of all the material that will be on this particular test. when they take the test and get a 280, nobody would be surprised because they just read all the answers.

now, consider that every medical student has different interests and has been exposed to different information. some students will be lucky enough to walk into Step 1 and see only the things that they know about; the icing on the cake is when the nbme thinks the questions are difficult, but for the lucky med student they are gimmes. for them, it randomly becomes one of the best days of their lives. I call these people the "<400 out of 27000 who score >260 each year".

 

[Tig2575]

I think you have a very unrealistic view of the test in general. The NBME's standard error (usually +/- 2 points) specificallyaccounts for that factor of luck. In a 300+ question test, the statistical probability (that the majority of your questions will be in subjects you happen to know exceptionally well) is absolutely miniscule.

I don't mean to come off as arrogant, but it really sounds like you're just trying to make excuses..

 

[eeeeeek]

I think you have a very unrealistic view of the test in general. The NBME's standard error (usually +/- 2 points) specificallyaccounts for that factor of luck. In a 300+ question test, the statistical probability (that the majority of your questions will be in subjects you happen to know exceptionally well) is absolutely miniscule.

I don't mean to come off as arrogant, but it really sounds like you're just trying to make excuses..

Score report says standard error of measurement is +/- 6 pts; they TRY their best to have the test predict ur true ability but with any test there's variability to accuracy reflection and where's the +/- 6 pts coming from? luck is definitely a factor n some other factors; to me 6 pts is a big difference... I agree with WashMe. 6 pts is 6 questions maybe when the score is very high? maybe fewer questions on the lower end of scores? anyways....

Luck plays a factor in any test; if the questions you missed happened to be all experimental? if all the experimental questions you got right n the ones you missed none of them were experimental, doesn't look like it's in ur favor, i think this makes a big difference dont you? the questions my friends missed i knew answers to all of them, what if i got those on my test, the questions i missed were mostly 50/50? ppl change answers, what if i didnt change any of the right ones to the wrong ones which i did for at least 3 of them. i think there are many factors hence why u dont see ppl's nbme to be 270 270 270 270 270; i mean there's a range for a purpose and even they say that there's an standard deviation of some number w/ there's i dont remember what it is; i hear nbme 11 and 12 have hard anatomy n harder questions, the curve scale for that one i hear is also barely better than the other nbmes, what if the anatomy questions u just dont know on those nbme 11 n 12 but u knew the other ones.

question are pulled from a bank of questions so i'm sure there's an algorithm that tries to make all tests with similar subjects; the subjects are so broad themselves that u can get things u arent as familiar with or weak on as WashMe suggested, the randomization for questions i'm sure it does not take that into account; the test doesnt have things like for GI, he needs to have 1 GERD, 1 diverticulosis, etc, i'm sure it just pulls 20-30 questions for GI, X questions for cardio, etc and even then it is NOT exactly the same, not every test gets 20 anatomy questions and it must be an internal calculation of an acceptable percentage of question that they need to have for a specific subject n bc of that u might get more questions in another area that u might be weak on. n bc within each subjects it's also random, u can get questions u're good at n questions u're not

the day u feel on the test means a lot too, i know ppl scored 20 pts below their nbme? why? lots of factors... environment, stress, luck, etc

i know ppl who got repeated question (EXACT SAME QUESTIONS) WHAT?!?! ... that happens... yes bc it's RANDOMIZE, i got 2 questions on late complement deficiency, 2 questions on gluteal nerves... what happens if someone didnt know 1 of them... he gets 2 questions wrong... so I agree with WashMe, and i'm sure most ppl on this forum does too, luck is part of almost everything in life, even standardized tests

i'm not sayin that if u get a high score it's luck but i do believe that luck within a score range 240-250, 250-260 can play a significant difference

also some ppl know a lot of random knowledge that can play to their advantage, n ppl who have done rotations i believe are actualli at an advantage, i know i would've gotten 2-3 questions right bc of my 1st rotation.

the form of ur test does have to do w/ how well u'll do bc each form is randomized and when there's a randomized set of questions there's always an error, there's an error in ANY assessment u do, idk p-values exists for a reason... stats exists for a reason, anything with a statistics and randomization is never absolute; the error is not the difference say from 250 -> 270 but can range from 5-10 pts IMO. a hard test can be hard for one person but not realli for another person, everyone is good at different things like WashMe says, some ppl r good at physio cuz they were engineers, some ppl r good at anatomy cuz they were phy sci

nbme does their best job to minimize the randomness and luck but it is always there or else why would they provide SEM.

 

[Tig2575]

Is it really +/- 6? Color me surprised - that's a lot larger than I expected. Still not nearly enough (by threefold) to account for WashMe's claims, but I was definitely underestimating

the randomization for questions i'm sure it does not take that into account; the test doesnt have things like for GI, he needs to have 1 GERD, 1 diverticulosis, etc, i'm sure it just pulls 20-30 questions for GI

You're expected to have a solid understanding of all of those basic disease processes. If you're lacking in one, its to your detriment. You seem to think the standard baseline expectation is a potluck and people either get extra lucky or not. The test material isn't designed that way.

 

[eeeeeek]

Is it really +/- 6? Color me surprised - that's a lot larger than I expected. Still not nearly enough (by threefold) to account for WashMe's claims, but I was definitely underestimating


You're expected to have a solid understanding of all of those basic disease processes. If you're lacking in one, its to your detriment. You seem to think the standard baseline expectation is a potluck and people either get extra lucky or not. The test material isn't designed that way.

I did say luck plays a role, i didn't say it was like a pot luck people get EXTRA lucky or not, didnt say the test is designed like that and yes, ppl are supposed to know things n it is to their detriment if they dont, my pt is that luck PLAYS A ROLE, i didnt say A LOT. plz read carefully, i just pointed out instances where luck can play a role bc you made it sound like it plays NO ROLE (someone of ur intelligence based on ur score should know that is not true). i didnt use the word EXTRA lucky or nething (which is why i said IMO 5-10 pts and even NBME says 6 points), i didnt get a crazy score like u but got a score somewhere in the 90s percentile so i'm not arguing for a low score and that ppl who score high are just lucky because it is not like that, just sayin that there's a luck factor to it; i mean how come u didnt get a 280 (i'm sure you don't think you're not good enough to get that score, bc i know you are good enough to get that score so what happened)? made some mistakes i m sure n maybe there were questions u were unsure about (very few i know maybe even none) what if they were some other questions u knew instead of the ones u didnt know or made a mistake or had to 50/50?? maybe it happened to ask u something u knew but just couldnt recall taht day? that's very unlucky... you could've gotten a 275? no one is sayin the test is luck, just sayin that luck is part of the thing hence why a lot of ppl say 240-250, 250-260, 260-270 and within those it doesn't matter THAT much.

plz dont nit pick at one sentence i said, i was just trying to make a pt, dont need to dig n find some mistake n pt it out, no reason to do that, i was illustrating a big picture idea that luck plays a role and to some ppl 5 pts, 6 pts, w/e it is, it's a big deal to them

 

[eeeeeek]

Is it really +/- 6? Color me surprised - that's a lot larger than I expected. Still not nearly enough (by threefold) to account for WashMe's claims, but I was definitely underestimating
.

'd say that once you hit 250+, then +/- 5-10 points is luck. There is a real difference between a 250 and a 270 though IMO... and tig makes sure we all know it lol

Just pointing out that WashMe said 5-10 pt possible difference like me, don't know where you got the "Still not nearly enough (by threefold) to account for WashMe's claims, but I was definitely underestimating"

he did say that from 250 to 270, there is a DIFFERENCE, no one is sayin ur score is lucky

 

[WashMe]

Is it really +/- 6? Color me surprised - that's a lot larger than I expected. Still not nearly enough (by threefold) to account for WashMe's claims, but I was definitely underestimating


You're expected to have a solid understanding of all of those basic disease processes. If you're lacking in one, its to your detriment. You seem to think the standard baseline expectation is a potluck and people either get extra lucky or not. The test material isn't designed that way.

yeah dude but just think... if the SEM is 6 (which is pretty large), then your 95% CI on a retest (z-score 1.96) is basically +/- 12... so as a "for instance" a person who is really at a "258 level" knowledge-wise could have scored anywhere from 246-270 at the p=0.05 level. Maybe that's what happened to you and you landed at 270. Maybe I had the same ability and I landed at 252. It's impossible to say, really.