Official 2012 Step 1 Experiences and Scores Thread

[amavir281]

I saw that there was a similar thread for 2011 that had plenty of useful info so I figured its best to start one for 2012.

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[Junkie]

Guys ... I have a question ...if you get a diagnosis of malignant trophoblastic neoplasm occuring in a H. mole and they ask you "the basic pathology lies in the defect of development of which of the following??

Embryo vs Fetal part of placenta.... What would be the best answer ....

Please reply .....

 

[jpudge12]

Embryo=trophoblast....? I would go w that

 

[Phloston]

Guys ... I have a question ...if you get a diagnosis of malignant trophoblastic neoplasm occuring in a H. mole and they ask you "the basic pathology lies in the defect of development of which of the following??

Embryo vs Fetal part of placenta.... What would be the best answer ....

Please reply .....

I would actually go with "fetal part of placenta" because the trophoblast is not part of the embryo itself; it's part of the placenta.

The blastocyst, upon implantation, has its inner cell mass (epiblast + hypoblast), which becomes the embryo, and an outer layer of cells that becomes the trophoblast of the placenta.


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There should probably be a separate thread for this question btw. I'm not sure why you've posted it in here.

 

[LaCasta]

I took my exam on Wed 10/24, so counting 3 wednesdays from then should I expect to get my score back tomorrow?

Thanks

 

[Phloston]

I took my exam on Wed 10/24, so counting 3 wednesdays from then should I expect to get my score back tomorrow?

Thanks

Yes.

(i've got my fingers crossed for you)

 

[LaCasta]

Yes.

(i've got my fingers crossed for you)

Thanks bro

 

[Nesir]

I took the exam yesterday, here are some thoughts:

1) A lot of the questions appear very difficult on the surface (I was asked why heparin is used when starting warfarin - but none of the answers were "because protein C has a short half life" but indirectly it was in one of the answers), but the concept is tied up in the one of the answers. I promise!

2) The anatomy is tricky. I think I had a total of about 15-20 anatomy questions total ranging from which lymph nodes does this cancer go to? To here is an MRI of a leg - identify this muscle. Know your brachial plexus, 3 of my questions were directly from lesions to the arm.

3) There was a lot of Pharm on my test - I would guess 10 per section. A lot of it was straight forward. Which is this drug? Some of it more difficult - here is a micro question what is the MOA of the drug used to treat it?

4) My microbiology was very interesting. I would say there were about 2 "what is its envelope / DNA structure type questions" a lot of them were "What is this?" Some of them were quite difficult and were not the traditional appearance but they always gave you enough information that if you understood the characteristics about the bug then you could determine the cause (only 2-3 really tricky ones total).

5) Physiology - you better know this inside and out. This, in my opinion, was where they really challenged you. They will give you a syndrome and ask what will happen to 3 of the variables (such as LH, FSH, Est for a woman) - and they will give you all 8 possibilities as answers. You really just need to know the answer can't really use process of elimination to help yourself there.

6) Heme / Onc REALLY STRAIGHT FORWARD everything was 100% text book case and they would ask "which chromosome" or for a renal cell CA I was asked "which Gene?"

7) Images - I think there were only 1/2 where I had to really look at the image to see what was happening. Most of the time the images were not necessary. For instance, a woman with heavy menstrual bleeding would have a picture of hypochromic anemia ----duuuuuuh. Or post transplant pneumonia....

8) Heart sounds - Absolutely cool. It was nice that they showed the carotid arteries move on every pulse (ie. systole no guessing which one is S1 or S2). I ended up taking this test at the end of my 3rd year and I can tell you - it was way easier on this test than in real life. 2nd - I had 3 and my friend had 4 and in the n=7 population, neither one of us needed the image. We had a diagnosis straight from the question stem.

9) When given a weird experiment that some scientist did make sure you take a second and ask yourself "what the eff are the asking?" Don't just jump straight to the data. I had 1/2 where the first time I read it I was thinking...the heck?!?!? But if you take an extra minute and really figure out what the test is looking at the answer just jumps out at you. Dont worry you will have time at the end to finish questions.

10) There will be questions that when you look at them you will think to yourself - yup no idea. There were some on my test that asked "which p450 isoenzyme is used for this" and the answers were "2d6,2d9,3a4, etc." Or here is a disease that I'm sure you have never seen before but none of the other ones make sense so I'm going to guess that. In the end, I really doubt those count significantly towards your score so dont freak out when you dont know the weird hormone elevation when a person has a strange disease.

Overall I think the HARDEST part of the test was endurance. Its an 8 hour test and there towards the end I could definitely feel my brain starting to rot. Make sure you save some break time for the end. And relax, the test is a lot easier than you think it is - most of the questions have simple answers written in strange ways. Don't freak out when the text book answer isn't there.

NBME 11: 6 weeks out 255
NBME 13: 4 weeks out 263

I took the test my school offered pre-studying 4 months out - and got a 186. I only studied for this test for dedicated full time for 7 weeks. I felt that was more than enough - way more than enough.
I'll post my score when I get it back. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Just an update, REAL EXAM: 269/91

Pretty happy right now.

 

[usmleq]

It's well-known that they throw ungraded Step1 questions on the 2CK exam to see which subjects students flake on over time (I've read an article online that specifically talks about this). .

Can you link us to this article

 

[islandAddy1881]

Another long time creeper posting for the first time

So I took the exam on 10/25 and was super confident walking out, but like so many before me as time passes my confidence is deteriorating so I will come here to have some one pat my back and tell me things will be Ok. I am really worried because my actual test felt so easy it is disconcerting.

BACKGROUND:

Exam prep: the usual suspects (FA, Pathoma, Kaplan videos, UW and Kaplan Qbank, homemade flash cards from basic science classes)

Pre-Test numbers:
UWQB- 64% overall (with a 70% last few weeks), all unused, random, timed
KaplanQB- 63% overall (with a 76% average in the last few weeks, but I finished this Qbank about a month before I finished UW, also random and timed)
NBME basic science exam given by school: 240
NBME 7 (2 months out)- 230
NBME 12 (2 1/2 weeks out)- 222 (yes, I cried)
NBME 11 (4 days out) 240
Kaplan full length practice (1 1/2 weeks out) 64% (supposed 238) ***one VERY important thing I learned from this full length that no one seems to talk about is break pacing and eating plan. Seems stupid, but it showed me that while my average was high for the first 6 blocks (60's and 70's), my block 7 average was 51%. I remember during block 7 going cross eyed trying to read the questions not because they were hard but because my brain was running on empty. I didn't take in anything with calories after my break after block 4. On the actual day of Step1 I made sure I had multiple vitamin waters, candy, and sugar free red bull. I had a little of each on all my breaks and it made a HUGE difference. I felt sharp all the way through block 7. Also had a solid breakfast day of. Something to consider.......

Anyways, Actual Step 1 exam:
I was shocked. It felt so freakin' easy. WAY easier than any UW exam or NBME. It was very straight forward with lots of buzz words. Micro was almost a joke it was so easy. My exam was heavy on Path and Anatomy (good for me, both are my strong points), pharm was almost word for word out of FA, and the was next to no physio on my exam. The only section that was tricky was Behavioral Science (especially the ethics questions, I felt like there were no right answers) but I maybe had 10 behavioral questions total? And I only really had 3 WTF questions on the whole test. I also had a fair number of questions that required in depth knowledge of laboratory techniques likes PCR, blotting, creating c-DNA libraries, and a couple recombinant genetics monsters (again, not a problem, I learned most of this doing undergrad research, but heads up for anyone else who is not super familiar with how these work)

My strategy has always been to flag any question I am not 100% sure about in each section, count them up at the end of a section and assume I got all flags wrong. This gives me a rough idea of what my lowest possible score should be. I left the test with 43 flags out of 322. So I should be about 85% correct right?

I don't know what to think. There is no way that test should have been so easy. Now I am worried it is going to get wicked curved and I will end up sub 220.

Anyone else who has taken Step 1 have a similar experience? If so how did it turn out for you?

I'll report back in 3 Wednesdays

Got my score yesterday 237/84

A little disappointed. I was hoping to break 240. Oh well, the 237 should get me into emergency so overall I am pleased

 

[Phloston]

IslandAddy and Nesir, great job, guys.

Can you link us to this article

From: https://www.usmleworld.com/Step1/step1_facts.aspx


"How much basic science material from USMLE Step 1 will I end up remembering in the long term?

The retention and relevance of basic science material learned during medical school has long been a concern. This is part of the reason there has been a shift in medical education towards including more clinically relevant material during the first two years of medical school. There has also been a shift towards more patient cases being included in USMLE Step 1; previously only 30% of cases used a patient-based format, whereas now roughly 70% of cases do.

A 2008 study examined the results of including unscored Step 1 questions on the Step 2 CK exam. Students answering the questions as a component of the Step 2 CK exam, i.e. later in their medical training, performed approximately 6-7% poorer than students answering the questions as a component of the Step 1 exam. This decline was greater for questions that were presented in a style other than a patient vignette. The question category with the largest drop in performance was biochemistry, followed by microbiology and pharmacology. The drops were less dramatic for physiology, anatomy, and pathology. Performance actually increased for human behavior related questions. Changes in performance likely reflect emphasis placed during clinical clerkships, where biochemical principles are rarely discussed but aspects of human behavior such as communication and mental disorders are frequently discussed.

Similar studies have been conducted over the past three decades. Interestingly, the results of the most recent study were similar to those of earlier studies despite the changes made to medical education. In fact, the magnitude of decline was actually worse on the more recent study than those from years prior to changes in medical school curricula. Some of this may be secondary to fourth year medical students taking Step 2 later in the year, therefore increasing the interval since Step 1 and decreasing retention of the material."

 

[iliketurt1es]

Congrats to you guys on your great scores and hard work. Does anyone here have advice on what kind of diagnostic test to use, before studying? Should it be as long as the real test? Should it be an NBME? Thanks everyone.

 

[tuxa]

Hi there... i am new in this forum..i am getting scared ..i took step 1 in october 29. Oasis just says i didn't schedule/ take any exam yet....

Is this normal? should i just think they will email me next week? should i call ECFMG?

please...somebody..tell me this happens ..i don't remember what i did with the prometric paper that says i went and took the exam..

Thanks in advance....

 

[tuxa]

Well..the prometric paper was buried in first aid among other random papers i was reading right before the exam

Still...somebody...should i call ECFMG? Did it say you did not schedule/take any exam in oasis website right before delivering your score?

 

[gravitywave]

I'll explain myself better because I don't want to freak people out. The exam was similar to the MCAT in respect that you needed to know the bare minimum knowledge and apply it in unusual situations to figure out the answer. I was able to get a lot of my answers correct because i thought, choices A-C doesnt make sense and E has to be the answer because why else would they had that information. I had NO idea that E causes the disease and its beyond the scope of step 1 to know that but it is in the scope of step 1 to know what answer choice E is and its not hard to reason it out with your limited knowledge.

Having random knowledge of a lot of stuff did help me but only very very little. Like knowing what Bechet's disease was on the answer choices allowed me to cross it out right away or because they are talking about a super rare congenital dermatological disorder I knew I was able to answer what protein was missing. Would it be possible to answer it without knowing that super rare disease? Yes, but what's the point of studying? You only needed very little medical knowledge, understand a few concepts were essential the most important part of the test.

I think FA is a good way to organize your thoughts and jot down your notes, but I think what helped me the most was understand symptoms (e.g. sharp pain = inflammation) and not just appendicitis = sharp pain.

Btw I had a good number of straight histopathology with very little clinical information, 7 murmurs (none of the usual ones), 6 EKG readings (FA was ok for this), and 2 listening to heart sounds.

I lost a TON of my questions from ANATOMY. Fortunately it wasnt a huge part of my test, but again <20% can be found in FA.

I suspect you did quite well.

 

[sephonly]

3 days till exam time.. guys getting really nervous and forgot something quite simple!

In between blocks can we look at our notes? I mean I'm assuming they give us a locker where we can keep our lunch and things... can we keep notes there so that we can look at them between blocks? (would be extremely useful for me for things like translocations, which hormones use which pathways etc.). Although if I need it it's probably too late and I've missed a Q, but could potentially get it right if it came again.

Can we?

 

[wonkytonks]

Why is DIT a waste of time?? Just wondering

What's DIT? I'm a 2nd year medical student and i am planning to give step 1 in june2013

 

[wonkytonks]

- NBME 7 2.5months out 82% ~ 510/224
- UWSA 2 1.5 months out 82% ~ 770263
- NBME 13 2 weeks out 92.5% ~ 650/257
- NBME 2, 4, 5, 6 (offline) in the following days ~ between 90-95%. I couldn't replicate strict test conditions for various reaons.
- NBME 11 9 days out 98% ~ 720/273
- NBME 3 8 days out 92.5%. Again, couldn't replicate testing conditions.
- NBME 12 and UWSA1 5 days out 97.5% ~ 710/271 and 86% ~ 800/265+ (was quite burnt out)
- Free150 1 day out 94% ~ 268 (couldn't give it very serious attention, being just 1 day out)

Score: 259/89. So much for score prediction. That's why I'm pretty bummed I only got 259 even though I got a 259. I'm happy I broke 250. Sure, I wish I'd done much better but it is what it is, and it is still a good score.

Funny part is I didn't think the test was hard at all, and had no mistakes on any questions I could remember. If the scores really are adjusted, I guess getting an easy test is a double edged sword, you can score high but you can't score high

Thank you for all the help and advice floating around on this forum. Sorry to let you down Phloston, I guess I'm not 260+/270 material haha.

what's this NBME and the UWSA ? I am an Indian IMG. Which forum or thread should i follow i am planning to give step 1 in june /july next year?

 

[thatsmate]

3 days till exam time.. guys getting really nervous and forgot something quite simple!

In between blocks can we look at our notes? I mean I'm assuming they give us a locker where we can keep our lunch and things... can we keep notes there so that we can look at them between blocks? (would be extremely useful for me for things like translocations, which hormones use which pathways etc.). Although if I need it it's probably too late and I've missed a Q, but could potentially get it right if it came again.

Can we?

Yes, this is permitted. Our school intro to step 1 lecture covered this. But I'd advise just relaxing over that time, it's a long hard test. But I haven't taken it yet, so maybe some others will have more insight.

Edit: damn you autocorrect.

 

[thinker]

sat for step1 yesterday. I thought it was well balanced. quite a bit of MI and diabetes. not much biochem. a couple of very messed up questions on anatomy and HLA genetics and which mouse would accept a graft or reject it etc.. overall I think I did okay but I had some moments of panic when I had tough questions.

uwsa1 254
nbme 13 offline approx. 256

I thought the exam was harder than uworld and definitely harder than the nbmes but my view could be skewed since I tend to focus on the tough questions

 

[exudate]

229/83! Nothing compared to the standards here, but it's a relief that I passed!

 

[favored]

Hi,

Can someone PLEEEEEASE help me...I took my test November 9th, 2012...Do I get my score on the 28th or Dec. 5th?

 

[Phloston]

Hi,

Can someone PLEEEEEASE help me...I took my test November 9th, 2012...Do I get my score on the 28th or Dec. 5th?

28th.

 

[Phloston]

229/83! Nothing compared to the standards here, but it's a relief that I passed!

Nice job, man. My exam's in 3.5 weeks. It must feel nice that you have everything over and done with.

 

[favored]

Thanks!!

 

[Bancrofti]

Did any of you (or would you if you could go back in time) spend breaks you had preparing for step 1 during first year? I was thinking of going through the Biochem section and the gross Anatomy parts to first aid in the 3-4 weeks I have off after finals in between terms. I was going to attempt to read through BRS Anatomy and Biochem during that time also. Of the classes I have this term, those are the only ones that are relevant to the step.

Good idea or waste of time?

 

[thatsmate]

Did any of you (or would you if you could go back in time) spend breaks you had preparing for step 1 during first year? I was thinking of going through the Biochem section and the gross Anatomy parts to first aid in the 3-4 weeks I have off after finals in between terms. I was going to attempt to read through BRS Anatomy and Biochem during that time also. Of the classes I have this term, those are the only ones that are relevant to the step.

Good idea or waste of time?

Waste of time.

Asked and answered.

 

[Jonari]

How does the scoring for the exam work? I can't recall if I read it on this forum, but somebody posted that the harder questions that you get right the more points you get, whereas the easy/straight forward questions = you get lower points. What happens when you get a question wrong...how many points are deducted?

Experimental only help your score, but don't hurt it, correct?

 

[hippopolice]

Did any of you (or would you if you could go back in time) spend breaks you had preparing for step 1 during first year? I was thinking of going through the Biochem section and the gross Anatomy parts to first aid in the 3-4 weeks I have off after finals in between terms. I was going to attempt to read through BRS Anatomy and Biochem during that time also. Of the classes I have this term, those are the only ones that are relevant to the step.

Good idea or waste of time?

Could be a waste of time, but it could be worthwhile to you. Personally tons of repetition in the short and long term is really valuable to my ability to remember things. If you feel like it, go ahead a browse though first aid for those subjects, to refresh your memory and more importantly just to see what will be emphasized.

Don't spend your whole break studying things that you're going to have to relearn in a year, but if you feel like it why not spend a day or two reviewing?

 

[Docta Yang]

Great idea. Took mine a year ago and got a 250 (I'm definitely not the smartest kid in the class but I started early and totally worth it). Annotate in First Aid and try to get very familiar with biochem early on. I would not worry about BRS as much as focusing on FA.

 

[Ilovewater]

Did any of you (or would you if you could go back in time) spend breaks you had preparing for step 1 during first year? I was thinking of going through the Biochem section and the gross Anatomy parts to first aid in the 3-4 weeks I have off after finals in between terms. I was going to attempt to read through BRS Anatomy and Biochem during that time also. Of the classes I have this term, those are the only ones that are relevant to the step.

Good idea or waste of time?

Big waste of time.

 

[Kaputt]

Did any of you (or would you if you could go back in time) spend breaks you had preparing for step 1 during first year? I was thinking of going through the Biochem section and the gross Anatomy parts to first aid in the 3-4 weeks I have off after finals in between terms. I was going to attempt to read through BRS Anatomy and Biochem during that time also. Of the classes I have this term, those are the only ones that are relevant to the step.

Good idea or waste of time?

 

[ijn]

Seconded. Enjoy your break. You're not going to get another one that long for a very long time.

 

[Phloston]

Seconded. Enjoy your break. You're not going to get another one that long for a very long time.

"Thirded."

I sit my exam in three weeks, but have been prepping for it pretty much all year. I'll always remember 2012 as when I sold my soul to the devil. Enjoy your vacations. Go scuba diving. Go surfing. Have a tequila (or several).

 

[Bancrofti]

Haha, seems like the consensus is that it's a waste of time. Thanks for the answers everyone. I'm going to teach a review class next term anyway, so hopefully that helps as a review so that I don't have to completely relearn M1 info when I start the official step 1 prep. Good luck you guys, for those who haven't taken it yet.

 

[USMLE12DOC]

As the year winds down I was wondering if anyone had come across the distribution of scores in 2012.. I scored a 248 this summer and with the inflated reports coming in on this thread it seems that this score isnt as competitive as it once might have been. Please post a reply if any of you have a distribution link. Thanks and happy thanksgiving!

Doc12

 

[thatsmate]

If Phloston is telling you it would be excessive, you know you're going off the deep end.

USMLE12DOC: this is SDN. Of course the scores are inflated. No, the overall grades aren't increased. Congrats on getting a 248 without understanding sampling bias.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I'll explain myself better because I don't want to freak people out. The exam was similar to the MCAT in respect that you needed to know the bare minimum knowledge and apply it in unusual situations to figure out the answer. I was able to get a lot of my answers correct because i thought, choices A-C doesnt make sense and E has to be the answer because why else would they had that information. I had NO idea that E causes the disease and its beyond the scope of step 1 to know that but it is in the scope of step 1 to know what answer choice E is and its not hard to reason it out with your limited knowledge.

Having random knowledge of a lot of stuff did help me but only very very little. Like knowing what Bechet's disease was on the answer choices allowed me to cross it out right away or because they are talking about a super rare congenital dermatological disorder I knew I was able to answer what protein was missing. Would it be possible to answer it without knowing that super rare disease? Yes, but what's the point of studying? You only needed very little medical knowledge, understand a few concepts were essential the most important part of the test.

I think FA is a good way to organize your thoughts and jot down your notes, but I think what helped me the most was understand symptoms (e.g. sharp pain = inflammation) and not just appendicitis = sharp pain.

Btw I had a good number of straight histopathology with very little clinical information, 7 murmurs (none of the usual ones), 6 EKG readings (FA was ok for this), and 2 listening to heart sounds.

I lost a TON of my questions from ANATOMY. Fortunately it wasnt a huge part of my test, but again <20% can be found in FA.

Don't mean to derail the thread, but is there a resource that goes over things like this? For some reason, I never really thought about "sharp pain = inflammation" or things like that. So, is there a resource you (or anyone else) recommend for better understanding the basic science behind symptoms? I realize that for a lot of symptoms, the differential is pretty big, but am looking for something sort of simplified (for a conceptual understanding) -- ex. colicky pain = think peristalsis, etc. Thanks!

 

[glykon]

Don't mean to derail the thread, but is there a resource that goes over things like this? For some reason, I never really thought about "sharp pain = inflammation" or things like that. So, is there a resource you (or anyone else) recommend for better understanding the basic science behind symptoms? I realize that for a lot of symptoms, the differential is pretty big, but am looking for something sort of simplified (for a conceptual understanding) -- ex. colicky pain = think peristalsis, etc. Thanks!

I guess it comes down to the classic signs of inflamation: tumor, rubor, dolor, calor and functio lessa.
Sharp pain can be present in order diseases that don't involve inflammation- dissecting AAA comes to mind where you have sharp pain radiating to the back+ the other classic signs and symptoms.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I guess it comes down to the classic signs of inflamation: tumor, rubor, dolor, calor and functio lessa.
Sharp pain can be present in order diseases that don't involve inflammation- dissecting AAA comes to mind where you have sharp pain radiating to the back+ the other classic signs and symptoms.

Thanks. I guess I'll just try to make a more conscious effort to keep track of the mechanism behind clinical symptoms as we learn them.

 

[Asklepian]

Did any of you (or would you if you could go back in time) spend breaks you had preparing for step 1 during first year? I was thinking of going through the Biochem section and the gross Anatomy parts to first aid in the 3-4 weeks I have off after finals in between terms. I was going to attempt to read through BRS Anatomy and Biochem during that time also. Of the classes I have this term, those are the only ones that are relevant to the step.

Good idea or waste of time?

I'm just going to say that I'm an M2 and I plan to fully utilize Christmas Break this year to do a run-through of material from years 1 & 2. I'm an MD/PhD going to an atypical lab, though, so I know that after boards my life is going to be a lot more manageable, and I don't mind killing myself for the next 7 months if life will be sweet thereafter. I also will be having a ton of fun during the break. I'm only planning on a maximum of 7 hours a day, 5-6 days a week during break, which will allow me plenty of time to go out and enjoy myself.

I didn't study during the summer after M1 at all, but one of my best friends went through every BRS book twice, and ran through some Path to prep for year 2. He's top of our class consistently, and I plan on him scoring over 260 on Step I. I guarantee he will be studying on breaks. It just depends on you, your goals, and your proclivities.

Finally, when Spring Break hits, I don't plan on doing much except maybe a brief review an hour or two a day, just so that I have a break prior to the final charge, which will allow me to recollect and focus. Best of luck!

 

[Jonari]

How does the scoring for the exam work? I can't recall if I read it on this forum, but somebody posted that the harder questions that you get right the more points you get, whereas the easy/straight forward questions = you get lower points. What happens when you get a question wrong...how many points are deducted?

Experimental only help your score, but don't hurt it, correct?

re-quoted to get an answer.

 

[Bancrofti]

I'm just going to say that I'm an M2 and I plan to fully utilize Christmas Break this year to do a run-through of material from years 1 & 2. I'm an MD/PhD going to an atypical lab, though, so I know that after boards my life is going to be a lot more manageable, and I don't mind killing myself for the next 7 months if life will be sweet thereafter. I also will be having a ton of fun during the break. I'm only planning on a maximum of 7 hours a day, 5-6 days a week during break, which will allow me plenty of time to go out and enjoy myself.

I didn't study during the summer after M1 at all, but one of my best friends went through every BRS book twice, and ran through some Path to prep for year 2. He's top of our class consistently, and I plan on him scoring over 260 on Step I. I guarantee he will be studying on breaks. It just depends on you, your goals, and your proclivities.

Finally, when Spring Break hits, I don't plan on doing much except maybe a brief review an hour or two a day, just so that I have a break prior to the final charge, which will allow me to recollect and focus. Best of luck!

Didn't want to leave you hanging without saying thanks for the reply. I definitely get what you're saying and that's the sentiment I had. I think there's enough information out there for the average student to score at least a 230 with a condensed prep time. However, I have read multiple times that it's also very feasible to score 250~, it's just a matter of time/effort and becomes exponentially more time consuming for the top % scores. Then again, I probably read that on SDN... so 250 being very feasible with time and effort may be a little bit of a stretch.

 

[Phloston]

Didn't want to leave you hanging without saying thanks for the reply. I definitely get what you're saying and that's the sentiment I had. I think there's enough information out there for the average student to score at least a 230 with a condensed prep time. However, I have read multiple times that it's also very feasible to score 250~, it's just a matter of time/effort and becomes exponentially more time consuming for the top % scores. Then again, I probably read that on SDN... so 250 being very feasible with time and effort may be a little bit of a stretch.

In response to that, what I can say is that I've been prepping for this exam pretty much all year, but now that I'm <3wks-out, I realize that the vast vast VAST majority of the prep has been stuff that either my school didn't teach or I merely just hadn't studied well enough during MS1/2.

The point I'm making is that anyone who scores high can say that he or she "only studied 6 weeks," but the truth is, that person had put in long, rough hours during MS1/2 but just won't say it and/or just doesn't think of it that way. This is not an exam anyone can cram for. Even if a person scores 270 and insists that says he or she crammed: he or she didn't really. If someone's scores jump 40-50 points in 6 weeks, it's because he or she already had very good background / knowledge-base and just needed to learn how to apply the info through questions. If the background isn't there, it doesn't matter how gifted you are; this isn't an exam you can cram for.

 

[glykon]

In response to that, what I can say is that I've been prepping for this exam pretty much all year, but now that I'm <3wks-out, I realize that the vast vast VAST majority of the prep has been stuff that either my school didn't teach or I merely just hadn't studied well enough during MS1/2.

The point I'm making is that anyone who scores high can say that he or she "only studied 6 weeks," but the truth is, that person had put in long, rough hours during MS1/2 but just won't say it and/or just doesn't think of it that way. This is not an exam anyone can cram for. Even if a person scores 270 and insists that says he or she crammed: he or she didn't really. If someone's scores jump 40-50 points in 6 weeks, it's because he or she already had very good background / knowledge-base and just needed to learn how to apply the info through questions. If the background isn't there, it doesn't matter how gifted you are; this isn't an exam you can cram for.

Couldn't agree with you more.

 

[Old Style Nanny]

In response to that, what I can say is that I've been prepping for this exam pretty much all year, but now that I'm <3wks-out, I realize that the vast vast VAST majority of the prep has been stuff that either my school didn't teach or I merely just hadn't studied well enough during MS1/2.

The point I'm making is that anyone who scores high can say that he or she "only studied 6 weeks," but the truth is, that person had put in long, rough hours during MS1/2 but just won't say it and/or just doesn't think of it that way. This is not an exam anyone can cram for. Even if a person scores 270 and insists that says he or she crammed: he or she didn't really. If someone's scores jump 40-50 points in 6 weeks, it's because he or she already had very good background / knowledge-base and just needed to learn how to apply the info through questions. If the background isn't there, it doesn't matter how gifted you are; this isn't an exam you can cram for.

Challenge accepted.

 

[Leon22]

In response to that, what I can say is that I've been prepping for this exam pretty much all year, but now that I'm <3wks-out, I realize that the vast vast VAST majority of the prep has been stuff that either my school didn't teach or I merely just hadn't studied well enough during MS1/2.

The point I'm making is that anyone who scores high can say that he or she "only studied 6 weeks," but the truth is, that person had put in long, rough hours during MS1/2 but just won't say it and/or just doesn't think of it that way. This is not an exam anyone can cram for. Even if a person scores 270 and insists that says he or she crammed: he or she didn't really. If someone's scores jump 40-50 points in 6 weeks, it's because he or she already had very good background / knowledge-base and just needed to learn how to apply the info through questions. If the background isn't there, it doesn't matter how gifted you are; this isn't an exam you can cram for.

well said, men.wish u all the best!!

how's ur progression? mind sharing ur nbme score?

 

[Phloston]

well said, men.wish u all the best!!

how's ur progression? mind sharing ur nbme score?

Just for the record: the Aussie academic year is the same as the calendar year, so I finished MS2 in November of last year.

Based on my poor performance on 100 questions I had done of USMLE Rx back in late-January of this year (i.e. before I had even purchased or laid eyes on FA), I was probably sitting around a 190-200 at the time. By the end of July, I sat NBME3 online, before it expired, and scored 250. I had studied assiduously Feb-July and pretty much only had a background in biochem/path. Our curriculum just didn't focus on any USMLE-related material. I had to build my other subjects from dust, and that took the bulk of my time.

By mid-October, after I had finished UWorld, I got 257 on NBME5 online. I have not yet taken NBMEs 6, 7, 11-13. I'm saving these for the final two weeks in order to give myself an accurate predictor as to the real deal.

What I can say though is that I had finished my first pass of FA and USMLE Rx approaching the end of April, and I believe I was probably sitting around a high-230, or just nicking 240, at that point (USMLE Rx predicted 275+, which was obviously full of crap, and I knew that).

That means I rose ~40-50 points in <12 weeks, but only gained an additional 17 points in the subsequent 5.5 months. That's why I've said many times before that all of the additional studying / prep-time is mainly to build potential energy rather than kinetic: it's more just to ensure a minimal score (safety net) if our question-allotment is unfavorable rather than guaranteeing necessarily a stellar score. We all know that one person getting a 262 and another getting a 269 is just luck of the draw (i.e. probably 4-5 questions at most). By all means, we're all responsible for mastering every subject area, so there are no excuses, but I'm aware that if I were to get an anatomy/behavioral-heavy test, for instance, versus a biochem/micro-heavy one, the swing could literally be 10 points. So yeah, we'll see how it goes.

 

[gravitywave]

How does the scoring for the exam work? I can't recall if I read it on this forum, but somebody posted that the harder questions that you get right the more points you get, whereas the easy/straight forward questions = you get lower points. What happens when you get a question wrong...how many points are deducted?

Experimental only help your score, but don't hurt it, correct?

pretty sure experimental questions just get dropped ie your score is based on (real questions correct/real questions present)

your overall score is weighted for difficulty of the questions on your particular exam, but harder questions aren't "worth more" than less difficult ones http://www.nbme.org/students/Urban-Legends/index.html

 

[phd89]

how is the curve on the real exam what will a 85-90% ( 5-7 wrong per block get you)

 

[Phloston]

how is the curve on the real exam what will a 85-90% ( 5-7 wrong per block get you)

No one can really answer that question because none of us truly know how the scoring system works. Plus, supposedly each exam is scaled slightly differently.

My guess, however, is that if any of us were to get a UWorld-level difficulty exam and get ~5 wrong per block, that would probably come out to around a 260.

If the exam turns out to be as easy as NBME5, any of us could probably get no more than 3 wrong per block and maybe get a 260 if we were lucky.

The best case scenario, I believe (ironically enough), is to actually get a difficult exam that you walk out of feeling like you still knew most of the answers. In other words, you should encounter questions that you feel like are probably difficult to other people but that you know you're getting right. If, on the other hand, every question is like, "which of the following is a macrolide?" Then, yeah, you'll walk out feeling like you did well, but one could also worry about whether the easy scaling would screw him or her over. So hope for a combination of high difficulty + still knowing what you're doing.